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Black Vultures have much shorter tails, ending at the toe tips, and they hold their wings nearly flat, unlike a Turkey Vulture’s V-shaped posture. Black Vultures have whitish outer primaries that form a white star near the wingtip, and the rest of the wing is jet black, not two-toned like Turkey Vultures. Red-tailed Hawks are so common over the range of the Turkey Vulture that you are bound to occasionally confuse the two when you see them at distance. Red-tailed Hawks are usually pale below, with shorter tails and shorter, broader wings that they hold flat as they soar. Bald Eagles can have a similar motley dark upperwing and back pattern, but they have feathers on the head, soar steadily on flat wings, and lack the clean, two-toned underwing. Golden Eagles raise their wings slightly in flight, but are larger and do not teeter or wobble as they soar; they also lack the two-toned underwing. Zone-tailed Hawks of the southwestern U.S. are similarly shaped and fly with a similar style, but they have light bands in the tail, a larger, fully feathered head, and bright-yellow feet. Turkey Vultures are accustomed to living near humans and snacking off of our leavings. You will often see them in farm fields or hanging out next to the road. However, they are not likely to be in your backyard unless something has died or else you have a very large backyard. Find This Bird The most common time to see a Turkey Vulture is while driving, so look along the sides of highways and in the sky over open countryside. When hiking or traveling in hilly or mountainous areas, keep your eyes peeled for vultures. Sudden changes in topography allow for updrafts that the birds use to carry them into the sky.

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CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Turkey_Vulture/id

2013-05-23T19:25:45Z

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Smart Phone Use in a Higher Educational Setting INST 525 Eileen O'Sullivan Potential Academic Uses Smart phones may be used in the classroom to engage students, access real-time feedback and answer questions in an anonymous way. (Der) Hotseat at Purdue University Hotseat was developed at Purdue University as a way to include and improve on existing backchannel solutions for learning environments (particularly for large lecture halls). It is a social networking tool that creates a backchannel of collaborative discussion both in and out of the classroom. It allows students to provide near real-time feedback during class, potentially enabling faculty to adjust course content and enrich the overall classroom experience. Hotseat makes this interaction possible by taking advantage of the mobile devices that students already bring into the classroom and by using popular social tools such as Facebook, Twitter, and text messaging.photo © 2009 velkr0 | more info (via: Wylio) Instructors provide a question, comment, or framework, and students contribute a short response using their preferred mobile device. These responses, or "thoughts" within Hotseat, are automatically updated as submitted by the class. Students can read, vote, and comment on posts made by other students, thus identifying common questions or areas of discussion. Access to Hotseat is granted by the student's standard university login and password and is typically based on course enrollment. Some faculty also choose to broaden the conversation by allowing open contribution to the discussion topic from people outside of the class. These features allow for rapid community building in the course. (Aagard, Bowen, & Olesova, 2010, November 3) Real-time Feedback Tool Smart phones are an ideal tool to provide real time feedback and assessment to improve learning and teaching outcomes. To Capture Data "in the field" The small form factor of smartphones makes them more portable than a laptop or computer and it can utilize a wireless network or a cell phone network for Internet connectivity. Smart phones are being used in clinical settings by clinicians primarily to support clinical decisions related to direct patient care at the bedside. Physicians' use of the Internet and PDAs is growing, with 60% to 70% of medical students and residents using PDAs for educational purposes and patient care in 2006. When a wireless network is not available (such has in a community center or smaller hospital) the smart phone is an alternative devise. (León, Fontelo, Green, Ackerman and Liu, 2007). To Deliver Health Services Smoking-Cessation Using Cell Phone Text Messaging Smoking cessation programs are starting to use mobile phones, particularly as adjuncts to quitlines and Internet quit coaches, e.g. the NHS Stop Smoking Service’s ’Together’ support-at-home/) and theNew ZealandQuitline ’Txt2quit’ program (http://www.quit.org.nz/txt2quit/page/txt2quit_5.php). Cessation interventions that are aimed at young adults appear ideally suited for delivery via mobile phones, as young people appreciate the anonymity and confidentiality allowable, and the ease of use anywhere at anytime. Other possible benefits of mobile phone-based smoking cessation interventions include: cost-effective delivery and scalability to large populations regardless of location, the ability to tailor messages to key user characteristics (such as age, sex, ethnicity), the ability to send time-sensitive messages with an ’always on’ device and the provision of content that can distract the user from cravings, and the ability to link the user with others for social support. (Obermayer, J., Riley, W., Asif, O., & Jean-Mary, J., 2004). Preventing weight gain in first year college students Researchers are evaluated an Internet intervention with first year college students randomly assigned to one of four treatment conditions: 1) no treatment, 2) 6-week online intervention 3) 6-week weight and caloric feedback only (via email), and 4) 6-week combined feedback and online intervention. The combined intervention group had lower Body Mass Indexes at post-testing than the other three groups. This study demonstrated the effectiveness and feasibility of an online intervention to prevent weight gain among college students. (Gow, Trace, & Mazzeo, 2010) Improve Student Retention At Georgia Gwinnett, a public, four-year, noncompetitive-admissions college founded in 2005, professors are offered a state-of-the-art smartphone and a Sprint data plan that includes the most sophisticated wireless Internet coverage. This smartphone program was created to defy the historically low retention rates typical of colleges that set such a modest bar for admission (Georgia Gwinnett admits any Georgia high school graduate). And so far, they say, it is working. The retention rate for returning sophomores at Georgia Gwinnett stands at 75%. That is about double the average rate for noncompetitive-admissions colleges in Georgia, according to Tom Mundie, dean of the school of science and technology at Georgia Gwinnett, and on par with many public institutions that have competitive admissions. In engagement surveys, Mundie says, students have reported "feeling that faculty care about and are accessible to them." (Kolowich, 2010, August 20)photo © 2009 Zoe | more info (via: Wylio) Providing hearing-impaired students with learning care after classes through the use of text chat on smart phones connected to a system (GPRS) that allows teachers to manage their interactions with students after classes. Student reactions identified effective strategies regarding student–teacher interaction while teachers utilised the wireless network and handheld devices to provide learning support. Questionnaire results demonstrated that most students and their parents considered student– teacher interaction and strategies through GPRS and smart phones effective in improving student learning at home. (Chen-Chung, & Yi-Ching, 2007). Wireless carriers are competing to offer service plans specifically for individuals with disabilities and innovative mobile devices with built-in accessibility features or compatibility with Assistive Technology ("AT") and applications which may replace expensive, immobile assistive communication devices at significantly less cost. CTIA's member companies' consider all disabilities including hearing, visual, physical or cognitive impairments simultaneously when designing and offering a communications device or service. (CTIA, Wireless Accessibility) - Aagard, Bowen, & Olesova (2010, November 3). Hotseat: Opening the Backchannel in Large Lectures. Educause Quarterly Volume 33, Number 3, 2010. Retrieved from http://www.educause.edu/EDUCAUSE+Quarterly/EDUCAUSEQuarterlyMagazineVolum/HotseatOpeningtheBackchannelin/213668 on Dec 3, 2010. - Chang, Y., Chen, C., & Zhou, H. (2009). Smart phone for mobile commerce. Computer Standards & Interfaces, 31(4), 740-747. doi:10.1016/j.csi.2008.09.016. - Chen-Chung, L., & Yi-Ching, H. (2007). Providing hearing-impaired students with learning care after classes through smart phones and the GPRS network. British Journal of Educational Technology, 38(4), 727-741. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8535.2006.00656.x. - Der, Jeanette B. (n.d). Class, please take out your iPhone. USA Today, Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database. - Gow, R., Trace, S., & Mazzeo, S. (2010). Preventing weight gain in first year college students: An online intervention to prevent the "freshman fifteen". Eating Behaviors, 11(1), 33-39. doi:10.1016/j.eatbeh.2009.08.005. - Kolowich, Steve (2010, August 20). Profs get smartphones, so students can call them. USA Today.com. Retrieved from http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2010-08-20-IHE-college-faculty-cellphones19_ST_N.htm on Sep 19, 2010. - Len, Fontelo, Green, Ackerman and Liu (2007, February 21). Evidence-based medicine among internal medicine residents in a community hospital program using smart phones. BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making 2007, 7:5 doi:10.1186/1472-6947-7-5 - Obermayer, J., Riley, W., Asif, O., & Jean-Mary, J. (2004). College Smoking-Cessation Using Cell Phone Text Messaging. Journal of American College Health, 53(2), 71-78. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database. - Smith, Shannon D. & Caruso, Judith Borreson with an introduction by Joshua Kim. The ECAR Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology, 2010 (Research Study, Vol. 6). Boulder, CO: EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research, 2010, available from http://www.educause.edu/ecar. - CTIA — The Wireless Association. Wireless Accessibility. Retrieved from http://ctia.org/consumer_info/service/index.cfm/AID/10552 on Dec 12, 2010.

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CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://webhost.bridgew.edu/eosullivan/INST525/smartphone/uses.htm

2013-05-23T18:57:32Z

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listing for P pipe - Create an interprocess channel int filedes ); Interfaces documented on this reference page conform to industry standards pipe(): XSH4.0, XSH4.2, XSH5.0 Refer to the standards(5) reference page for more information about industry standards and associated tags. filedes Specifies the address of an array of two integers into which the new file descriptors are placed. The pipe() function creates a unidirectional interprocess channel called a pipe, and returns two file descriptors, filedes and filedes. The file descriptor specified by the filedes parameter is opened for reading and the file descriptor specified by the filedes parameter is opened for writing. Their integer values will be the two lowest available at the time of the call to the pipe() function. A process has the pipe open for reading if it has a file descriptor open that refers to the read end, filedes. A process has the pipe open for writing if it has a file descriptor open that refers to the write end, filedes. A read operation on file descriptor filedes accesses the data written to filedes on a first-in, first-out (FIFO) basis. In the System V compatiblity environment, filedes and filedes are STREAMS based and are bidirectional. Data written on filedes appears on filedes and vice versa. Data is read in a first-in, first-out (FIFO) basis. The O_NONBLOCK and the FD_CLOEXC flags are set clear on both file descriptors. (The fcntl() function can be used to set the O_NONBLOCK flag.) Upon successful completion, the pipe() function marks the st_atime, st_ctime and st_mtime fields of the pipe for update. [Tru64 UNIX] When a read() or write() system call on a pipe is interrupted by a signal and no bytes have been transferred through the pipe, the read() or write() system call returns a -1 and errno is set to [EINTR]. This behavior differs from behavior in early releases of the operating system, when both system calls either restarted the transfer or caused errno to be set to [EINTR], depending on the setting of the SA_RESTART flag for the [Tru64 UNIX] As a result of this change, applications must now either handle the [EINTR] return or block any expected signals for the duration of the read or write operation. [Tru64 UNIX] When compiled in the X/Open UNIX environment, calls to the pipe() function are internally renamed by prepending _E to the function name. When you are debugging a module that includes the pipe() function and for which _XOPEN_SOURCE_EXTENDED has been defined, use _Epipe to refer to the pipe() call. See standards(5) for further information. Upon successful completion, a value of 0 (zero) is returned. If the pipe() function fails, a value of -1 is returned and errno is set to indicate the If the pipe() function fails, errno may be set to one of the following [Tru64 UNIX] The filedes parameter is an invalid address. [EINTR] [Tru64 UNIX] A read() or a write() call on a pipe is interrupted by a signal and no bytes have been transferred through the pipe. More than OPEN_MAX-2 file descriptors are already opened by this [Tru64 UNIX] More than getdtablesize(2) file descriptors are already opened by this process. The system file table is full, or the device containing pipes has no free i-nodes. [Tru64 UNIX] The system was unable to allocate kernel memory for more file descriptors. Functions: fcntl(2), getmsg(2), getdtablesize(2), poll(2), putmsg(2), read(2), select(2), write(2) listing for P

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CC-MAIN-2013-20

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2013-05-20T12:30:23Z

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en

Today is World Population Day, a time when, hopefully, many of us will take a moment to think about how rapid population growth affects us and the environment. Trying to wrap our heads around the sheer idea of 7 billion+ people all vying for space and resources on this planet can be quite exhausting. The thought of what must be done to stop this runaway growth is even more mind-blowing. Although most analysts assume that the world’s population will rise from today’s 7 billion to 9 billion by 2050, it is possible that we can prevent humanity from ever reaching this population size. In a new book, State of theWorld 2012: Moving Toward Sustainable Prosperity, Worldwatch Institute President Robert Engelman argues that there are at least nine steps we can take as individuals, nations, and a species, to slow population growth without drastic population control measures. Most of these reproduction policies are relatively inexpensive to implement, yet in many places they are opposed on the basis of cultural resistance and political infeasibility. 1. Provide universal access to safe and effective contraceptive options for both sexes. 2. Guarantee education through secondary school for all, especially girls. 3. Eradicate gender bias from law, economic opportunity, health, and culture. 4. Offer age-appropriate sexuality education for all students. 5. End all policies that reward parents financially based on the number of children they have. 6. Integrate lessons on population, environment, and development into school curricula at multiple levels. 7. Put prices on environmental costs and impacts of having multiple children. 8. Adjust to an aging population instead of boosting childbearing through government incentives and programs. 9. Convince leaders to commit to stabilizing population growth through the exercise of human rights and human development. Engelman argues that if most or all of these strategies were put into effect soon, global population likely would peak and subsequently begin a gradual decline before 2050, thereby ensuring sustainable development of natural resources and global stability into the future. Do you agree? Image via Thinkstock Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

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CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://www.care2.com/causes/9-ways-to-keep-the-global-population-under-9-billion.html

2013-05-26T03:02:20Z

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Oil, gas, and coal deposits are indeed the product of biological elements decomposing under great heat and pressure, but this is not the only source of these products. They form in the atmosphere under certain conditions, where intense heat from exploding volcanoes and continuous lightning create the equivalent of petrol-chemicals from the carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen in the atmosphere. Those who doubt this statement may point to modern day volcanic eruptions and lightning storms, which give no evidence of such formations, but the modern day environment is not equivalent to what is present during a Pole Shift, during the trauma that the Earth undergoes during the passage of her brother, the 12th Planet. Why is it that oil and gas deposits are not forming today? Is the climate so different from the climates of the past? Do not earthquakes bury forests and does not lava flow over grasslands? The theories on oil and gas formations could be put to the test daily, during this modern day, but no such proof has ever been proffered or in fact even sought. Oil and gas do not form under normal circumstances, they form under extraordinary circumstances, and for the Earth most often these circumstances are presented during a pole shift, where forests do get sandwiched between layers of rock and lava floods over broad areas. Petrol-chemicals that form in the sky, where they fail to burn due to lack of free oxygen, soak into the fractured ground and become trapped during the settling process that afterquakes provide for many years after a pole shift. In most cases, such petrochemicals formed in the atmosphere during pole shifts and seeping into the fractured ground are broken down by the normal process of decay of organic matter. Oil that humans find today was protected from this process by being sealed off from the air, creating a tomb where bacteria could not proceed unabated. On land, this quick seal occurred because the massive tidal waves that accompany pole shifts would smother the fractured ground in a stagnant layer of trapped sea water. This, of course, would evaporate over time, leaving a salt cap over the oil deposits, and thus the association of oil with salt deposits.

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http://www.zetatalk4.com/science/s38.htm

2013-06-18T23:40:03Z

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Creating an SSL Keystore Using the Java Keytool - Aug 19, 2005 One of the easiest ways to secure an Internet application is to use the Secure Socket Layer (SSL) protocol. SSL allows the data from a client, such as a Web browser, to be encrypted prior to transmission so that someone trying to sniff the data is unable to decipher it. SSL is used anywhere data needs to be secure. Typically, you see SSL used by banks and financial institutions, as well as on your favorite commercial e-commerce sites, like amazon.com or bestbuy.com. You may also see it at work; your employer may have a Web site for your personal information which is usually protected with SSL. Many application servers and Web servers support the use of keystores for SSL configuration; WebLogic Server and JBoss both support the use of keystores for SSL. If you want to deploy SSL in your Java applications, building a keystore is one of the first steps. In this article, I show you one method to create a keystore, using the Java keytool utility with BEA's WebLogic 8.1. The Necessities: Private Keys, Public Certificates, Certificate Authorities, and Keystores Let's start with a very brief overview of the technology. SSL works by allowing the client and server to send each other encrypted data that only they can decrypt. That's accomplished when the connection between the client and server is established. In a sequence of events generally known as the handshake, the server presents its public certificate for the client to accept or deny. If the certificate is accepted, the client and server agree on a hash for the duration of their conversation, which is used to encrypt the data. The world of SSL has, essentially, three types of certificates: private keys, public keys (also called public certificates or site certificates), and root certificates. The private key contains the identity information of the server, along with a key value. It is critical to keep this information private, because it's used to negotiate the hash during the handshake -- rather like leaving your house key in the door lock. It is possible for someone to use your key to decrypt traffic – not all that likely, but a good reason to keep your private keys safe. The public certificate is the portion that is presented to a client. The public certificate, tightly associated to the private key, is created from the private key using a Certificate Signing Request (CSR). After you create a private key, you create a CSR, which is sent to your Certificate Authority (CA). The CA returns a signed certificate, which has information about the server identity and about the CA. Every CA provides a root certificate. A root certificate is one where the Issuer and the Subject are the exact same string. It's actually more involved than that, but that's as much as you need for the purposes of this article. A Certificate Authority can take several forms. You may be familiar with several of these, such as VeriSign, Thawte, Commodo, GetTrust, and dozens of other companies who will sign certificates for you. Additionally, many companies and institutions act as their own CA, either by building a complete implementation from scratch, or by using an open source option, such as OpenSSL. The final element that must be mentioned is the keystore, a special file type that can hold your keys and certificates and encrypt it all with a password. In simple terms, the keystore is just like a hashtable; it has an alias that identifies a certificate and then the certificate itself. You can access a specific certificate by specifying its alias. Chaining and Establishing Identities When a server and client establish an SSL connection, a certificate is presented to the client; the client must determine whether to trust this certificate, a process called the certificate chain. The client examines the issuer of a certificate, searches its list of trusted root certificates, and compares the issuer on the presented certificate to the subjects of the trusted certificates. Okay, it is more involved than that, but this is as much as you need to create a Java SSL connection. If a match is found, the connection proceeds. If not, the Web browsers may pop up a dialog box, warning you that it cannot trust the certificate and offering the option to trust the certificate. However, if your code is making a connection, the certificate is rejected. In most cases, it raises an exception; you can choose to handle and continue, or log the exception and exit. Okay, enough background. Let's put this to use by building a keystore.

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2013-05-20T22:13:13Z

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en

Crossing Cultural Barriers with Visual ArtsPrint this Page - Subject(s): Social Studies & Geography, Environment & Health, Arts & Music - Region / Country: Central & Eastern Europe / Kyrgyz Republic - Grade Level(s): 6–8 - Related Publication: Life is Wonderful Students will examine several examples of visual arts and interpret the messages they convey. They will discuss how and why the use of visual arts can be used as a means of educating those of diverse cultures. Students will view the slideshow Life is Wonderful and ascertain why the mural project highlighted was an appropriate method to use in educating the community about HIV/AIDS prevention. Finally, students will create a visual art piece around the message of HIV/AIDS prevention for their peers. - Students will describe situations when the use of visual arts would be an appropriate method of educating others. - Students will create a visual art piece around the message of HIV/AIDS prevention for an international audience of students their own age. - Using the Internet or classroom resources, gather several examples of visual art pieces you can share with your students that somehow convey a message or story. These examples should represent artists from various cultures, native languages, and periods of history. Some examples are: - North American Art - Art pieces based on important events in history or religion - As each example is shared, ask students to brainstorm possible messages the artist could be trying to convey. This can be done individually, in small groups, or as a class. Encourage students to explain in depth their thought process. - Using these same examples, highlight the fact that many of the art pieces were created by artists from different parts of the world who may have spoken a different language, and lived at a different time in history. Provide students with the artist's name (if known), nationality, and the date the art piece was created. Ask your students if the differences of location, language, or time in history played a factor in their ability to find possible messages in the examples shown. - Ask students to identify situations when using a visual work of art may be a good choice for conveying an educational message to another culture, such as a message about the importance of HIV/AIDS prevention. Some possible situations are: - Cultures in which gender roles prevent those of opposite sex from teaching each other. - Times when there are language barriers and methods other than speech are needed to spread knowledge. - Challenging or taboo topics, which depending on situation and/or culture may not be appropriate to discuss in a traditional educational setting. - Introduce Theo Davis as a Peace Corps Volunteer who worked with his community in Kyrgyzstan to create a mural to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS. Explain that HIV/AIDS affects communities all over the U.S. and the world, and discuss students' prior knowledge of the issue. Have students view the slideshow Life is Beautiful . - After viewing, have students answer the following questions. - What was the importance of community involvement in making this project successful? - Why is education about HIV/AIDS prevention important across the globe? - Was creating an art project about HIV/AIDS prevention a good choice for the community highlighted in the slideshow? Why or why not? - As a class, have students share their answers to the questions taking time for discussion. - Have your students create their own visual art piece around the message of HIV/AIDS prevention for an international audience of students their own age. . Because there are many types of visual art, you may need to provide your students with the choices available to them such as painting, collage making, printmaking, photography, and sculpture. Explain that they will need to do the following: - Identify the key message(s) they are trying to convey - Identify a specific audience - Choose an art medium - Provide an opportunity for your students to display and/or explain their finished product. Framework and Standards - Visual arts can be successful tools to educate those of diverse cultures. - Visual arts can overcome barriers such as cultural norms, language, and taboo topics, that may limit the success of traditional educational methods. - What factors can make conveying educational messages to diverse cultures challenging? - Why is global education for HIV/AIDS prevention important? - Why are the visual arts a successful tool that can be used to educate those of diverse cultures? The National Visual Arts Standards: - Content Standard 2: Using knowledge of structures and functions - Know the differences among visual characteristics and purposes of art in order to convey ideas - Describe how different expressive features and organizational principles cause different responses - Use visual structures and functions of art to communicate ideas - Content Standard 3: Choosing and evaluating a range of subject matter, symbols, and ideas - Select and use subject matter, symbols, and ideas to communicate meaning National Social Studies Standards: - Thematic Strand I: Culture and Cultural Diversity - Analyze and explain how groups, societies, and cultures address human needs and concerns - Thematic Strand IX: Global Connections - Explain how interactions among language, art, music, belief systems, and other cultural elements can facilitate global understanding or cause misunderstanding - Explain conditions and motivations that contribute to conflict, cooperation, and interdependence among groups, societies, and nations Core State Standards for English Language Arts: - Integration of Knowledge and Ideas: Use information gained from illustrations and words in a print or digital text to demonstrate understanding of its characters, setting, or plot.

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2013-05-21T18:19:41Z

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en

Presented by Donald Wuebbles, UI Dept. of Atmospheric Sciences & Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering October 8, 2009 Download slides in PDF The effects of aircraft emissions on the current and projected climate of our planet may be the most serious long-term environmental issue facing the aviation industry. Projections suggest that over the next several decades, the demand for aviation could grow substantially. This projected growth will likely result in higher aviation emissions and associated impacts on the environment, human health and welfare. However, there remain large uncertainties in our present understanding of the magnitude of climate impacts due to aviation emissions. The climatic impacts of aviation emissions include the direct climate effects from carbon dioxide (CO2) and water vapor emissions, the indirect forcing on climate resulting from changes in the distributions and concentrations of ozone and methane as a consequence of aircraft nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions, the direct effects (and indirect effects on clouds) from emitted aerosols and aerosol precursors, and the climate effects associated with contrails and cirrus cloud formation. To enable the development of the best strategy to mitigate these climatic impacts scientists must quantify these impacts and reduce current uncertainties to enable appropriate action. The only way to ensure that policymakers fully understand trade-offs from actions resulting from implementing engine and fuel technological advances, airspace operational management practices, and policy actions imposed by national and international bodies is to provide them with metrics that correctly capture the climate impacts of aviation emissions. This presentation is aimed at discussing the present state of knowledge of climatic impacts of aviation, examining the key underlying uncertainties and gaps in our scientific knowledge, and to identify and to make prioritized recommendations for the research necessary to resolve the important issues.

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2013-05-19T18:27:10Z

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en

by Bryan Bergeron, Editor I recently attended a review of robotics research in New England’s universities which included a tour of seven major robotics labs at MIT. Given that academia is typically a year or two ahead of what’s deployable by the military and several years ahead of what may be practical in the marketplace, the future looks promising. Highlights of the meeting included surgical navigation and surgical robotics — two nascent technologies in medicine. You’ve probably heard of the Da Vinci surgical robot (www.davincisurgery.com) which is increasingly used in specific elective surgeries. The Da Vinci is a remote-controlled robot laden with sensors, motors, and minute effectors, but without autonomous functions. Benefits of the system include shorter hospital stays — an important factor in containing medical costs. Pending clearance by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), several other robotic platforms should be coming on line shortly. Surgical Navigation systems such as the Medtronics StealthStation (www.medtronicnavigation.com) are also gaining in popularity. These systems use optical and RF tracking to enable a surgeon to visualize the position of surgical instruments relative to a patient’s anatomy in 3D space. The advantage of surgical navigation systems is that they enable doctors to see the operating field when the instruments and tissues are hidden from the naked eye. Properly employed, these systems can reduce surgical errors, and enable a surgeon to carry out a procedure with a relatively small incision. One of the more interesting robotic technologies on the horizon was soft machines, such as those under development at the Tufts Biomimetic Devices Laboratory (ase.tufts.edu/bdl). While most of the robotics world is working with and thinking about traditional hardware sensors and effectors, researchers in this lab are working with elastomers, fluids, artificial muscles, and nanosensors. Instead of a human or lobster, the biomimetic model for much of the work on soft robots is a soft, low-density, tactile-sensitive caterpillar. The potential advantages of a lightweight, soft robot over a heavy robot with a rigid skeleton or exoskeleton include the ability to climb textured surfaces, crawl along ropes and wires, and burrow into winding, confined spaces. Imagine a few dozen soft robots released into the rubble following a devastating earthquake. Soft rescue bots should have a much easier time snaking toward victims relative to traditional robots constrained by stiff, physical bulk. Soft-bodied robots have obvious military applications, as well. Over a year ago, the DOD offered a small business innovation research (SBIR) grant for the purpose of developing a soft robot that could push itself through a crack in a barrier and reassemble intact on the other side. The endpoint of this R&D effort was an ordnance delivery system that could squeeze through a crack and deliver its payload on the other side of a wall. I’ve seen prototypes of soft delivery vehicles, including a multi-chambered sphere controlled by pneumatics. Pressurizing some of the elastic chambers while reducing pressure in others resulted in steerable movement. There was no room for a significant payload, however. So, what’s my take-away from the meeting? I’m certain that one day you’ll be able to walk to your corner drugstore and have an autonomous robotic surgeon sew up a laceration, lance a blister, or remove an ingrown toenail. I’m also confident that the military will perfect soft robotic weapons. The underlying challenge in these and other robotics R&D projects is economics. Regardless of the state of the economy, there will always be competition from traditional technologies, the need for a positive return on investment, and the need for visionaries to champion technologies to the forefront. So, step up and let’s get going. SV Posted by Michael Kaudze on 03/24 at 02:19 PM (0) Comments •

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CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://www.servomagazine.com/index.php/mindiron/post/robotics_horizon

2013-05-21T18:21:12Z

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en

A memorial service for Confucius By Shim Hyun-chul “Seokjeon Daeje” meaning grand Confucian ceremony is a traditional rite that pays tribute to Confucius and other ancient sages and scholars. The event is held every year on Confucius’ birthday on Sept. 28 and the day of his death, May 11, at 234 Confucian temples nationwide to commemorate him and other historical figures from both Korea and China. Confucian philosophy and lessons are thought to be one of the foundations of Korean society over thousands of years. Cohosted by Sungkyunkwan University and the Cultural Heritage Administration, the ceremony was held at the school’s Seoul campus on May 11. Culture Minister Choe Kwang-sik took part in the event, along with some 200,000 worshipers. The ceremony is characterized by observances of ritual etiquette and order with performances of traditional music and dance such as “Palilmu” based on Confucian ideals. The ceremony, designated as the nation’s 85th important intangible cultural heritage, is passed down through apprenticeships, lectures and courses given at two institutions. For the music, traditional instruments are used, which do not exist in other countries. This well-preserved rite is a work of great artistic merit with traditional clothes and a solemn procedure.

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CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/art/2012/05/153_111667.html

2013-05-25T20:44:20Z

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en

ICRC in WW II: German prisoners of war in Allied hands In the first part of the war there were relatively few German POWs. This was to change after the Normandy landings. During the first few years of the Second World War, the German army was victorious and there were consequently few German prisoners of war in Allied hands. Following the landing in Normandy of the Allies, and their subsequent advance into Germany, the number of German soldiers taken prisoner grew considerably. The surrender of Germany on 8 May 1945 led to the capture of millions of German soldiers who could no longer count on the assistance of their government nor on th at of their families, themselves in a situation of dire poverty. On the victorious side, public opinion held that the Germans were only getting what they deserved, and the ICRC found itself virtually alone in interceding on their behalf. The ICRC made approaches to the authorities of the four occupation zones and, in the autumn of 1945, it received authorization to send both relief and delegates into the French and British zones. On 4 February 1946, the ICRC was allowed to send relief into the American zone, and on 13 April 1946 it obtained permission to extend this activity to the Soviet zone. The quantities received by the ICRC for these captives remained very small, however. During their visits, the delegates observed that German prisoners of war were often detained in appalling conditions. They drew the attention of the authorities to this fact, and gradually succeeded in getting some improvements made.

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CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://www.icrc.org/eng/resources/documents/misc/57jnwx.htm

2013-05-27T02:54:22Z

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en

A Newcastle University study involving thousands of families is helping prospective parents work out whether they are likely to have sons or daughters. The work by Corry Gellatly, a research scientist at the university, has shown that men inherit a tendency to have more sons or more daughters from their parents. This means that a man with many brothers is more likely to have sons, while a man with many sisters is more likely to have daughters. The research, published online by the journal Evolutionary Biology, involved a study of 927 family trees containing information on 556,387 people from North America and Europe going back to 1600. "The family tree study showed that whether you're likely to have a boy or a girl is inherited. We now know that men are more likely to have sons if they have more brothers but are more likely to have daughters if they have more sisters. However, in women, you just can't predict it," Mr Gellatly explains. Men determine the sex of a baby depending on whether their sperm is carrying an X or Y chromosome. An X chromosome combines with the mother's X chromosome to make a baby girl (XX) and a Y chromosome will combine with the mother's to make a boy (XY). The Newcastle University study suggests that an as-yet undiscovered gene controls whether a man's sperm contains more X or more Y chromosomes, which affects the sex of his children. On a larger scale, the number of men with more X sperm compared to the number of men with more Y sperm affects the sex ratio of children born each year. Sons or daughters? A gene consists of two parts, known as alleles, one inherited from each parent. In his paper, Mr Gellatly demonstrates that it is likely men carry two different types of allele, which results in three possible combinations in a gene that controls the ratio of X and Y sperm; - Men with the first combination, known as mm, produce more Y sperm and have more sons. - The second, known as mf, produce a roughly equal number of X and Y sperm and have an approximately equal number of sons and daughters. - The third, known as ff produce more X sperm and have more daughters. "The gene that is passed on from both parents, which causes some men to have more sons and some to have more daughters, may explain why we see the number of men and women roughly balanced in a population. If there are too many males in the population, for example, females will more easily find a mate, so men who have more daughters will pass on more of their genes, causing more females to be born in later generations," says Newcastle University researcher Mr Gellatly. More boys born after the wars In many of the countries that fought in the World Wars, there was a sudden increase in the number of boys born afterwards. The year after World War I ended, an extra two boys were born for every 100 girls in the UK, compared to the year before the war started. The gene, which Mr Gellatly has described in his research, could explain why this happened. As the odds were in favour of men with more sons seeing a son return from the war, those sons were more likely to father boys themselves because they inherited that tendency from their fathers. In contrast, men with more daughters may have lost their only sons in the war and those sons would have been more likely to father girls. This would explain why the men that survived the war were more likely to have male children, which resulted in the boy-baby boom.

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CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://www.news-medical.net/news/2008/12/12/44110.aspx

2013-05-23T18:39:40Z

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

Designing for Pedestrian Safety (two-day course) This course is intended to help state and local transportation professionals address pedestrian safety issues through design and engineering solutions. Training objectives include: - Participants will learn that pedestrians belong in all geometric design, operations, and safety considerations. - Participants will learn the significance of land-use, street connectivity, and site design in helping to make a safer pedestrian environment. - Participants will understand human behavior issues related to pedestrians and drivers interacting safely and common pedestrian crash types. - Participants will understand the role that planning and street design play in pedestrian safety. - Participants will learn effective solutions and best practices in design and operations for pedestrian safety. Specific design and operational issues covered include: - Sidewalk and walkway design - Intersection geometry - Signs, signals, and crosswalks - Interchange design and alternatives - Facilities at signalized intersections - Connections to transit - Road diets and other traffic calming measures - Participants will take part in a field exercise as a critical element to the course. The class is broken into smaller groups to walk and study a nearby intersection or corridor for possible pedestrian safety improvements. The groups brainstorm and share engineering and policy solutions. The primary audience for this course includes engineers, planners, and traffic safety personnel. The secondary audience includes enforcement professionals, public health and injury prevention professionals, decision-makers, and others who are seeking ideas and solutions for making changes to the physical environment that improve safety for pedestrians. The PEDSAFE: Pedestrian Safety Guide and Countermeasure Selection System document is used as the primary reference for this course. Additionally, several major engineering-related reference materials and policies are cited. View Course Flier (PDF, 280 KB)

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CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://www.walkinginfo.org/training/pbic/dps.cfm

2013-05-21T17:43:21Z

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

Neuroinformatics.nl Workshop on Predictive Neuroinformatics... Video games, the brain and a shotgun - what the brain learns when playing video games Bullets are trying to get me out of cover. Explosions penetrate my field of vision, blood covers the floor and somebody yells instructions over the intercom. Welcome to the modern world of gaming. Gone are the days of endless sessions of Tetris and hours of Link discovering the pixel-loaded world of Hyrule. High definition graphics brought around a wave of realism, which flesh out the colorful world of gaming. More and more do gaming worlds mimic and imitate or even match environments found in reality. Virtual environments are not only a necessary narrative device for games; they also challenge the brains of players in interesting ways. As parents often worry about their children spending their time in front of the computer screen, fearing aggressive behavior or developmental issue, scientists have made interesting results researching video games influence on the brain. Apparently, intensive use of so-called “Action Games” can improve the cognitive abilities significantly. These enhancements can vary depending on the main focus of the game. A “first-person shooter” can lead to a better spatial orientation, faster reaction times, better visual attention and faster processing times in the brain. To explain this to someone, who never touched a video game in their life, such games simulate high stress situations like shootouts with enemies, hostage situations and disarming a bomb. Even if it takes place in a virtual world, the sense of identification with the characters and the high visual stimulation through lighting and color cause a response in the brain. As one form of learning is induced through repeated actions, repeating mentioned scenes and situations, it explains what leads to the improvement in cognitive abilities. The motivating context of the games, mainly through rewarding the player with story progress, new weapons or other achievements, if an enemy was slain, can be beneficial in many ways. However, negative effects occur, manifesting in higher rates of aggression right after playing and even longer and a lower attention span. This can be monitored in children, where those who play games more often display difficulties in paying attention during a long lecture, though this effect might not only due to the sensational environments. Therefore, games can both enhance cognitive abilities and decrease them, dependent on the time spent with what type of game. The learning through repetition concept affects not only the brain itself, it additionally might pick up actions witnessed in games. Some studies suggest that gamers tend to display behavior learned in games, in most cases unintended. “Mario Kart” suddenly lets people drive their car like a professional; “Street Fighter” can lead to unexpected fighting moves and “Battlefield” fires up the need to look for cover. Reality and virtual reality bend together for some short moments, resulting in beneficial, strange or unexpected behavior, often surprising the gamers more than other people. It is suggested that the similarities of the environments lead to this effect. The situation however is left unsolved. The modern world of gaming calls. Light will still blind everyone, captains and generals will still yell over the intercom and blood will be splattered all over the place. Hopefully it stays in the virtual world. But it is good to know that the brain does pick some things up from all the shooting. Adee, S. (2011). Game of Life. New Scientist, 212 (2844/2845). Bavelier, D., Green, C.S., Han, D.H., Renshaw, P. F., Merzenich, M.M., Gentile, D.A. (2011). Brains on Video Games. Nature Reviews Neuroscience ,12, 763-768. Konno, H., Sugiyama, T. (1992). Mario Kart (Video Game). Nintendo, Kyoto, Japan. Liliegren, F. (2011). Battlefield 3 (Video Game). EA Digital Illusions CE, EA, Stockholm, Sweden. Nishiyama, T. (1987). Street Fighter (Video Game). Capcom, Osaka, Japan.

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CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://www.beta-lab.nl/content/video-games-brain-and-shotgun-what-brain-learns-when-playing-video-games

2013-05-23T04:41:43Z

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en

Elementary Classroom Management Survival Tips Page 1 of 2 Make two sets of name tags one for the child's table space or desk, and one for the child to wear around the neck to special classes. Hang name tags on a hook by the door. Make name labels and tape them over coat hooks and/or cubbies. Have a Weekly Room Helper's Chart. Put children in charge of jobs such as: straightening the books (librarian) cleaning the sink (plumber) answering the knock at the door (host/hostess) leading the salute to the flag and the song (director) taking notes to office or another teacher (messenger) cleaning up special Center areas (science director, writing director, math director, and so on) helpers with snack time (health officers) cleaning up the floor all children should do this at the end of the session (room inspector) general teacher's helper (teacher assistant) Assign two general house-keepers the task of straightening the area where jackets, boots, hats, and mittens are kept. This area should be straightened everyday to keep it looking presentable. Build clean up time into the schedule at the end of the day. Don't close the day on the run. Always evaluate the day with the children before they go home. Praise them for jobs well done and mention things that will need to be worked on tomorrow. Establish a routine. Children thrive on a schedule. Don't speak when children aren't listening and ready. Wait. Establish a signal for getting the group's attention: turn off the lights clap a pattern with your hands say Freeze! and everyone halts right where they are, like a statue. Then say Melt! when you are ready for them to move again. Practice number ten above, in the beginning, even when children are doing well, just so they get the idea of how to respond to your signals. Then praise them. Establish and discuss room rules and consequences of misbehavior. Post room rules and consequences of misbehavior. Keep a large, clear, see-through plastic jug on a table or countertop. When students are being good workers, drop a nut (walnut) or (chestnut) or little pebble inside with much ceremony and praise. When the jug is filled, it's time for a treat (food, extra playtime, an extra story, a game). Then empty the jug and begin again. Special food treats like cookies, popcorn, or small candies work well for rewarding modified behavior. Have children practice walking in the classroom two at a time while the rest observe. This way, they learn the appropriate speed for indoor walking. Convey the message that the teacher is the line-leader down the hall. That way the teacher controls the speed of the line and can stop at any time. Practice walking in the hall. Keep stopping and starting until everyone in the class gets the message that this is a quiet activity. Select a different student each class to be the teacher's partner as line leader. Be sure to hold hands. Establish good listening habits for story time. Sometimes we read and listen, and sometimes we read and discuss, but we always listen. Asian-Pacific-American Heritage Month May is Asian-Pacific-American Heritage Month! Don't overlook this opportunity to study and enjoy activities about the history and culture of Asian-Pacific American communities. Top 10 Galleries Explore our most popular Top 10 galleries, from Top 10 Behavior Management Tips for the Classroom and Top 10 Classroom Organization Tips from Veteran Teachers to Top 10 Free (& Cheap) Rewards for Students and Top 10 Things Every Teacher Needs in the Classroom. We'll help you get organized and prepared for every classroom situation, holiday, and more! Check out all of our galleries today. May Calendar of Events May is full of holidays and events that you can incorporate into your standard curriculum. Our Educators' Calendar outlines activities for each event, including: Children's Book Week (5/13-19), Biographers Day (5/16), and Memorial Day (5/27). Plus, celebrate Asian-Pacific-American Heritage Month, Clean Air Month, and Physical Fitness & Sports Month all May long! Common Core Lessons & Resources Is your school district adopting the Common Core? Work these new standards into your curriculum with our reading, writing, speaking, social studies, and math lessons and activities. Each piece of content incorporates the Common Core State Standards into the activity or lesson.

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CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://www.teachervision.fen.com/pro-dev/classroom-management/6752.html?page=1

2013-05-18T18:06:23Z

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en

Science Fair Project Encyclopedia Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial Located along the famous Cherry Tree Walk on the Tidal Basin near the National Mall, the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial is a memorial not only to President of the United States Franklin Delano Roosevelt, but also to the era he represents. The monument traces twelve years of the History of the United States through a sequence of four outdoor rooms, each one devoted to one of FDR's terms of office. Sculptures inspired by photographs depict the 32nd President. Some examples include a 10-foot statue showing him in a wheeled chair and a bas-relief depicting him riding in a car during his first inaugural. At the very beginning of the memorial is a statue with FDR seated in a wheelchair much like the one he actually used. Other sculptures depict scenes from the Great Depression, such as listening to a Fireside Chat on the radio and waiting in a bread line. In his 1941 State of the Union Address, as the nation contemplated the increasingly more inevitable prospect of being drawn into the war, President Roosevelt spelled out "Four Freedoms" as a reminder of what America must stand for. From the days of his first Presidential campaign during the depths of the Great Depression, Roosevelt spoke directly to the people. "I pledge you, I pledge myself," he said in his 1932 acceptance speech, "to a new deal for the American people." Four years later, he proclaimed that "this generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny." Throughout his Presidency, 1933 - 1945, he addressed America by radio in what came to be known as fireside chats. Each idea, each phrase was underscored by courage and optimism that inspired no less in the people he served. More than 50 years after Roosevelt's death, his own words call out from the walls of his memorial as if he were somehow present. Those of us who know FDR only as an historical figure will recognize these words by their association with great and catastrophic events. For the many Americans who lived through the Roosevelt years, the words recall personal struggles and triumphs during 12 years that seemed like a lifetime. The new memorial on the Tidal Basin was almost 50 years in the making. When plans for the memorial stalled in the 1960's, a simple memorial was placed according to Roosevelt's expressed wishes: [P]laced in the center of that green plot [in front of the National Archives in Washington D.C. should be] ... a block about the size of this (putting his hand on his desk). I don't care what it is made of, whether limestone or granite or what not, but I want it to be plain, without any ornamentation, with the simple carving "In memory of...." Indeed, this simple memorial still rests at the North West corner of the National Archives grounds on Pennsylvania Ave. The contents of this article is licensed from www.wikipedia.org under the GNU Free Documentation License. Click here to see the transparent copy and copyright details

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CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://www.all-science-fair-projects.com/science_fair_projects_encyclopedia/Franklin_Delano_Roosevelt_Memorial

2013-05-26T02:48:14Z

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en

Performance Improvements: Caching If you're looking at performance and you want to get some quick wins, the obvious place to start is caching. Caching as a concept is focused exclusively around improving performance. It's been used in disk controllers, processors, and other hardware devices since nearly the beginning of computing. Various software methods have been devised to do caching as well. Fundamentally caching has one limitation — managing updates — and several decisions. In this article, we'll explore the basic options for caching and their impact on performance. Caching replaces slower operationslike making calls to a SQL server to an instantiate an objectwith faster operations like reading a serialized copy of the object from memory. This can dramatically improve the performance of reading the object; however, what happens when the object changes from time to time? Take, for instance, a common scenario where the user has a cart of products. It's normal, and encouraged, for the user to change what's in their shopping cart. However, if you're displaying a quick summary of the items in a user's cart on each page, it may not be something that you want to read from the database each time. That's where managing cache updates comes in, you have to decide how to manage these updates and still have a cache. At the highest level you have two different strategies. The first set of strategies is a synchronized approach where it's important to maintain synchronization of the object at all times. The second strategy is a lazy (or time) based updating strategy where having a completely up-to-date object is nice but not essential. Say for instance that you had an update to a product's description to include a new award the product has won that may not be essential to know about immediately in the application. With a synchronized update, sometimes called coherent cache, you're trying to make sure that updates are synchronized between all of the consumers of the cache. When you're on a single server this is pretty easy. You have access to an in-memory cache and you just clear the value and update it with the new value. However, in a farm where you have multiple servers you have a substantially harder problem to solve. You must now use some sort of a coordination point (like a database, out of process memory store, etc.) and take the performance impact of that synchronization, or you must develop a coordination strategy for the cache. The problem with the synchronized approach is that synchronization reduces the performance of the cache, which is of course the whole reason why it exists. There are implementations of this strategy that require only a small of the synchronization data to be shared, and there are strategies that essentially move the cache into a serialized database not unlike persisted session state. In either strategy the impact of synchronization is not trivial. The synchronization strategy is good when there's a relatively large amount of change in the cache. For instance, if you needed to know the last few products a user looked at, that's going to change rapidly, then you may want not want to use a synchronized strategy for that data. Another approach to synchronized cache is to use a coordination approach. With this approach you believe that the number of updates will be small and because of that you require extra actions when the cache is updated, rather than requiring extra activities on every (or nearly every) read. In general the kinds of data that you want to cache have relatively low volatility (rate of change) so the coordination approach to keeping cache's synchronized is often the best choice for synchronized cache. In this situation, when the object changes, and that change is persisted to whatever the back end store is, the object notifies the cache manager and the cache manager notifies all of the servers running the application. For instance, in a farm with three servers, the cache manager clears the cache on the currently running servers and then signals the other cache managers say via a web service that they should clear their cache for a specific object. The number of calls needed obviously increases the larger the farm but as a practical matter the frequency is relatively low. The final approach to a synchronized cache is having it client managed via a cookie. This strategy is really only viable for user data/session cache when the cached data is small (so that it can be retransmitted without impact), volatile (so that another strategy won't work well), and non-sensitive (so that the user having the information doesn't have any potential security implications.) The example of the recently visited products is a great example of a cache that could be pushed down to the client. This solves the need for it to be managed in cache. In some situations such as the product description changing to include a new award for the product the change needs to be visible to all of the members of the farm and in every session eventually but the applications usefulness doesn't rely upon an absolute up to the minute cache to function correctly. In these situations there are two basic approaches that can be applied based on your scenario. First, you can allow the cache to expire after a certain passage of time. For instance, caching information about a product is useful but perhaps you decide that the product should only be cached for ten minutes. This decision is made because most of the time if the product isn't accessed within the previous ten minutes it's not needed any longer. Depending upon your scenario you can choose to apply a fixed window (e.g. every ten minutes the product object in memory is updated ) or a sliding window (e.g. only after ten minutes of inactivity is the product object in memory updated). Of course, we're really talking about expiring the cache so in both scenarios it's really just that the objects will be cleared from the cache at those intervals and when they are reloaded or regenerated could potentially be much longer, but the older data would only be returned while the object is in cache. When you know specifically when the object data is going to change, say for instance during a batched update in the middle of the night, you can choose to update the entire cache, generally for a class of objects, at the same time. The effect of this is that you are able to maintain cache efficiency except for the onetime per day when you know that updates are happening. The final scenario that introduces a bit of awareness in your objects that caching is involved is to allow for a read-through strategy where the consumer of the cached objects can specifically request that the object be read from source of truth rather than relying upon the cache. This can be useful when there are specific scenarios where its critical to know the exact right answer. For instance, consider the importance of having the exact right value during a checkout on a commerce site. Read-Through strategies dont solve the issues around a cache getting stale. They just recognize that there are specific times when read operations are critical and other situations where theyre less critical. In recognizing this the length of time that a cache can be scale can be longer since critical operations will still use the correct data.

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CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://www.developer.com/tech/article.php/3831821/Performance-Improvements-Caching.htm

2013-06-19T06:17:33Z

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142617/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

There are two approaches to preventive treatment, one by reducing the sensitivity of the migraine generator by means of drugs, and the other by reducing the number of impulses reaching the migraine generator. All drugs have side effects and this approach is only recommended if all else fails. In addition, the drugs used to prevent primary headaches are often not effective. It is preferable to make every effort to diagnose where abnormally high numbers of impulses are coming from and why, and to treat the cause or causes. In most primary headache sufferers, it is possible to achieve effective prevention without the use of drugs. The best way to get to the root of the problem is by a “multidisciplinary” approach. There are so many different structures in the head and neck, all of which can be involved in the headache process, that no single specialist can have all the knowledge necessary to make a comprehensive assessment and diagnosis. For this reason, the expertise of different specialists who would normally treat headache patients in isolation, is combined and integrated into a single more comprehensive body of knowledge. This makes it possible to provide a co-ordinated treatment plan, so that all the contributing factors are addressed. There are several common-sense courses of action that may well prevent headaches by removing the triggering factors: A change in lifestyle that reduces stress may be enough – although for the majority of people, changing one’s lifestyle is in practice impossible. Some sufferers notice that certain situations or habitual patterns of behaviour are likely to trigger headache. Avoiding certain trigger foods and chemical compounds (perfumes, smoke) may be helpful in the management of migraine. Getting regular exercise, avoiding excessive caffeine and alcohol, stopping smoking and ensuring adequate hydration may also be helpful in some individuals, and they also have all sorts of other benefits. Drugs for headache are either prophylactic or symptomatic. Prophylactic medications are taken daily and are directed towards preventing the headache from developing in the first place. They are not pain medications. There are a wide variety of prophylactic medications. Tricyclic antidepressants, like amitryptyline, are frequently used, and can ease headache even in those patients not clinically depressed. Other medications include several of the anti-epileptic drugs and the calcium channel blockers. Beta-blockers, used to lower blood pressure in other patients, are effective in migraine. Although prophylactic or preventive medications may sometimes be effective in certain headache or migraine sufferers, the results have generally not been encouraging. There is also the very real problem of side effects, which can be more unpleasant than the headaches. A large percentage of people who have been prescribed preventive medications, stop taking them either because they are not effective, or because of the unpleasant side effects. For these reasons, prophylactic medication should be reserved for those patients who have not responded to other preventive treatment options. Symptomatic, abortive or rescue medication One of the main problems with taking painkillers for headaches, is that it often leads to Medication Overuse Headache (MOH). MOH is a problem that occurs in headache sufferers who have to take painkillers on a regular basis - the headaches become more frequent and more severe! Because of this, the patient increases the dosage and takes the drugs more often, and a vicious circle is set up, making the headaches worse and worse. This can happen with any of the painkillers, but is far more likely to occur when the medication contains more than one drug, and especially if it contains caffeine, ergotomine or codeine. When the three are combined in one pill, there is an even greater likelihood of MOH developing. It is important that you examine the box or insert of the medications you use, and check what they contain. And remember - MOH can occur with prescription or Over-The-Counter headache medication. If you suffer from headaches, the answer is not to rely on medication or painkillers. The correct way to deal with the problem is to have a proper diagnosis of the causes of the headache. If the causes can be successfully treated, the headaches no longer occur, and it is no longer necessary to rely on potentially harmful “rescue” medication. If you have not been able to have the proper diagnosis and treatment yet, and are forced to use medication, then symptomatic or “abortive” medications are the pain medications that should be used. These are drugs are designed to stop the headache once it has started. Once a headache has taken hold, any of a wide selection of abortive medications are used. These include simple analgesics like paracetamol and aspirin, anti-inflammatories and muscle relaxants. Narcotic analgesics may be necessary for the most severe headaches, but they are best limited to one-off usage, and should not be prescribed longer-term, as they are habit-forming. Often a trial-and-error approach is necessary to match an individual patient with the most suitable medication. Migraine is often associated with intense nausea, and an anti-emetic (a drug that treats nausea and vomiting) may bring a measure of relief. Medications that act on the calibre of blood vessels have an important place in migraine therapy - the ergot drugs of old have largely been replaced by the newer “triptan” medications like sumatriptan, which has oral, subcutaneous and intranasal forms. Unusual primary headaches like cluster may respond to breathing oxygen. It should be mentioned that all headache medications have side-effects, and so should be used judiciously. Reviewed by Dr Elliot Shevel, director: Headache Centre. Updated: August 2006

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2013-06-19T19:20:43Z

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en

Between 1950 and 2008 more cars were added to our roads virtually every year, as the total fleet expanded steadily from 49 million to 250 million vehicles. In 2009, however, 14 million cars were scrapped while only 10 million cars were sold, shrinking the fleet by 4 million vehicles, or nearly 2 percent. With record numbers of cars set to reach retirement age between now and 2020, the fleet could shrink by some 10 percent, dropping from the all-time high of 250 million in 2008 to 225 million in 2020. The United States, with 246 million motor vehicles and 209 million licensed drivers, is facing market saturation. With five vehicles for every four drivers, the 4-million-vehicle contraction in the U.S. fleet in 2009 does not come as a great surprise. In a largely rural society, more cars provided mobility, but in a society that is now more than 80 percent urban, more cars provide immobility. A combination of driver frustration and the soaring congestion costs associated with wasted time and fuel are leading to a cultural shift that is reducing the role of the automobile. Almost every major U.S. city is either building new light rail or express bus systems, or expanding and upgrading existing ones to reduce dependence on cars. The peak fleet may now be behind us. The number of U.S. teenage drivers has declined from a peak of 12 million in 1978 to 10 million today, dropping the share of driving-age teenagers with licenses from 69 percent to 56 percent. An increasing number of Americans are growing up in urban environments in families without a car. This trend, combined with a shift in socialization habits among young people away from cars to the Internet and smart phones, means the car no longer holds the allure of years past. Sign up for the Earth Policy News e-mail list. You’ll receive Eco-Economy Updates, Eco-Economy Indicators and Book Bytes. You’ll also get press releases and learn about new books the Earth Policy Institute has released.

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http://www.motherearthnews.com/Green-Transportation/Car-Usage-United-States.aspx

2013-05-20T11:32:34Z

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en

Missouri Lieutenant Governor William Ashley places an advertisement in the Missouri Gazette and Public Advisor seeking 100 "enterprising young men" to engage in fur trading on the Upper Missouri. A Virginia native, Ashley had moved to Missouri just after President Thomas Jefferson concluded the Louisiana Purchase from France, which made the region American territory. Young and eager to make a name for himself, he entered into a partnership with Andrew Henry to begin manufacturing gunpowder and lead, two commodities that were in short supply in the new nation. During the War of 1812, Ashley's business prospered, and he also joined the Missouri militia, where he eventually earned the rank of general. When Missouri became a state in 1822, he used his business and military fame to win election as lieutenant governor. Casting about for opportunities to enrich both Missouri and his own pocketbook, Ashley realized that St. Louis was ideally situated to exploit the fur trade on the upper Missouri River. Ashley recruited his old friend Henry as a partner, and the two men placed their famous advertisement asking for robust, adventurous young men to come west to join a fur trapping expedition up the Missouri. Among the scores who responded and came to St. Louis were such future legendary mountain men as Jedediah Smith and Jim Bridger, as well as the famous river man Mike Fink. In time, these men and dozens of others would uncover many of the geographic mysteries of the Far West. In 1822, Ashley and a small band of his fur trappers built a trading post on the Yellowstone River of Montana in order to expand outward from the Missouri River. Arikara Indians, though, were deeply hostile to Ashley's attempts to undercut their long-standing position as middlemen in the fur trade. Arikara attacks eventually forced the men to abandon the Yellowstone post. Out of desperation, Ashley hit on a new strategy: instead of building central permanent forts along the major rivers, he decided to send his trappers overland in small groups traveling by horseback. By avoiding the river arteries, the trappers could both escape detection by hostile Indians and develop untapped new fur regions. Almost by accident, Ashley invented the famous "rendezvous" system that revolutionized the American fur trade. In order for the trappers to obtain necessary supplies and deliver their furs, Ashley told the trappers to meet with him in a large meadow near the Henry's Fork of Wyoming's Green River in the early summer of 1825. This first fur trapper rendezvous proved a huge success. Ashley took home a tidy profit for his efforts, while the fur trappers not only had an opportunity to trade for supplies, but a chance to enjoy a few weeks of often drunken socializing. After organizing a second highly profitable rendezvous in 1826, Ashley decided to sell out. His rendezvous system, though, continued to be used by others, and eventually became the foundation for the powerful Rocky Mountain Fur Company. With plenty of money in the bank, Ashley was able to return to his first love, politics. He won election to Congress three times and once to the Senate, where he helped further the interests of the western land that had made him rich.

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http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/ashley-advertises-for-western-fur-trappers?catId=11

2013-06-19T12:53:27Z

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en

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed protection today for 15 species on the island of Hawaii, with 18,766 acres (29 square miles) of habitat. The decision stems from a 2011 settlement with the Center for Biological Diversity requiring the agency to speed protection decisions for 757 species around the country. Thirteen plants, a picture-wing fly and an anchialine pool shrimp were proposed for protection. “Hawaii’s home to an amazing diversity of plants and animals, but many of them are on the razor’s edge of extinction. I’m thrilled to see these unique species being proposed for the Endangered Species Act protection that can save them,” said Tierra Curry, a biologist at the Center. Seven of the 15 species being proposed for listing — five plants, the pool shrimp and the picture-wing fly — have been on the “candidate” waiting list since before 2004, when the Center petitioned for their federal protection. The anchialine pool shrimp lives only on the Big Island and nowhere else in the world; only five individuals of the species have ever been seen. Anchialine pools are land-locked bodies of water that have underground connections to the sea and show tidal fluctuations in water level. The pool shrimp is threatened by degraded water quality due to siltation, which harms the algae, bacteria and small invertebrates it feeds on. Its body is two inches long; it has two-inch antennae and eyestalks, but no eyes. One of the most primitive shrimp species in the world, it can only swim forward, whereas most shrimp can also swim backward. The picture-wing fly was discovered in 1968. Adults are less than a quarter-inch in length and have brownish-yellow bodies, yellow legs and shiny, clear wings with prominent brown spots. They are dependent on one specific host plant to reproduce, laying their eggs only on decaying stems of Charpentiera plants. Adults live for one to two months. Historically there were five known sites for the fly, but today it survives in only two places, the Manuka Natural Area Reserve and the Olaa Forest Reserve. The fly is threatened by forces that harm its host plant, including browsing by goats, pigs and cattle; invasive plants; fire; drought; and hurricanes. It is also threatened by predation from non-native wasps. The 13 plants being proposed for protection are threatened by habitat loss, agriculture, urban development, feral pigs and goats, invasive plants, wildfire, hurricanes and drought. The Service is proposing 18,766 acres of “critical habitat” to protect the kookoolau — a yellow flower in the aster family — due to the imminent threat of urban development to 98 percent of the individuals known for this species. The habitat is also being designated to protect two previously listed plants, the wahinenohokula and the uhiuhi, that occur in the same lowland dry areas as the kookoolau. Approximately 55 percent of the area being proposed as critical habitat is already designated as critical habitat for 42 other protected plants and the Blackburn’s sphinx moth. In addition to the seven candidate species, the Service is proposing to protect four plants that have been identified as the “rarest of the rare” by the Plant Extinction Prevention Program. They each have fewer than 50 individuals surviving in the wild and are in need of immediate action to conserve them. The Service is proposing to protect four additional plants at risk of extinction that occur in the same areas and face the same threats as the other proposed plants. “The Endangered Species Act has been 99 percent effective at preventing the extinction of the plants and animals under its care. I’m hopeful its protection, coming in the nick of time, will be able to save the picture-wing fly, anchialine pool shrimp, and these unique Hawaiian plants,” said Curry. Filed under: Agriculture, Announcements, Big Island, Environment, Hawaii, Hawaiian, State Affairs, Sustainable Living Tagged: | anchialine pool shrimp, Center for Biological Diversity, Endangered Species Act Protection, Hawaii, kookoolau, picture-wing fly, United States Fish and Wildlife Service

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CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://damontucker.com/2012/10/16/15-big-island-plants-and-animals-plus-19000-hawaiian-acres-proposed-for-endangered-species-act-protection/

2013-05-24T23:35:01Z

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en

The Engineer’s Notebook gives you the ability to create notes and store them as part of a model. A note can be attached to an edge, sketch, feature, part, or other selection in the model. Each note consists of a comment box and a view of the model. To start the Engineers Notebook, select a part in the window, right-click, and select Create Note. When you add the first note to a model, the program creates a notebook. You can add comment boxes or additional views to a note or add more notes to the notebook. You can use the Engineer’s Notebook to save the history of development or to provide reminders for project designers. Examples of notes include design strategy, reason for a design decision, manufacturing instructions, or information from a test or FEA calculation. Notes can contain links to external files, such as spreadsheets, word processing documents, graphics, or audio files. In the Engineer’s Notebook browser, the program assigns each note a name and lists it in the order in which you created it. You can organize the notes as follows: If you are using the Engineer’s Notebook to maintain the history of a design, you can use several options to assure an accurate record. Ordinarily, a note is deleted when the geometry to which it is attached is deleted. To maintain an accurate history, set the option to keep notes attached to deleted geometry When you create a note, the note view captures the current state of the model. As you change the model, the view in the note updates automatically. To keep it from updating, you can freeze a view in the note. The view and its comment then serve as a historical record. As you add notes to a part model, each note is listed in the part browser under the item to which it is attached. For example, if the note is attached to a feature, it is nested under that feature in the browser. Notes attached to edges or other items that are not listed in the part browser are listed at the end of the part. Information from an external file (such as a spreadsheet or word processing document) can be added to a note in the Engineer’s Notebook. You can embed the content of the external file in a comment or add a link to the file. As you add notes, each one is assigned a name and listed in the Engineer’s Notebook browser in the order in which you created it. You can organize the notes in the following ways: You can also change the name of a folder, comment, or view. In the browser, drag the note to the new location. Right-click the folder and select Place New Notes Here from the menu. When more than one note exists for a part or an assembly, you can cycle forward or backward through the multiple notes by clicking Previous Note or Next Note on the Notes panel as required. You can change the layout of a note in the Engineer’s Notebook. Add comments, views, or arrows to the note, format the text in a comment box, or change the view in a view box. You can add comment boxes, view boxes, or arrows to a note. To add an element to a note, right-click the notebook page (not in a comment box or view box), and then select the element from the menu. To apply formatting to text in a comment box, select the text. Use the options on the Format panel to change the font or color of the text or to apply bold, italics, or underlining. Text justification modes, such as left alignment, center alignment, and right alignment may also be applied to selected text. You can also use the bullets option to better organize your notes and improve readability. You can change size, orientation, or display style of any view in a note. If you select Freeze from the view menu, the view no longer update when you change the model. To update the view, clear the Freeze check mark. Lists all the notes in the model file. Notes are listed in the order in which they were created. Use the following options when working with notes in the browser: Click a note to select and display it. Select the note, then click the note name and enter the new name. Drag the note to the new location. Right-click the note and select Delete from the menu. Provides options for organizing design notes in a model. To access the menu, click in the browser to cancel any note selection, then right-click to open the menu. Sets the sort order for the notes. Select the order from the pop-up menu. Creates a note folder at the end of the note list. Place New Notes Here Sets a folder as the default location for all new notes. Select the folder before opening the browser menu.

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2013-05-25T05:59:42Z

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en

viking warrior who created a North Sea empire consisting of Britain, Denmark, Norway and a part of Sweden. was the son of Sweyn Forkbeard. grandfather was Harald Bluetooth and his great-grandfather was Gorm Knud´s first years as the King of England a lot needed to be done. The country was divided into four earldoms after the old kingdoms. Canute kept Wessex, Torkild Høje (Thorkild the Tall) was given East Anglia, the Norwegian Erik Jarl – the powerful family of the Trøndejarl´s was given Northumbria and the British renegade the ealderman Eadric Streona who time after time had changed side was given Mercia. Already in year 1017 Canute had him killed and ”rightly so” a British source states. Also other British magnates were killed - among them Æthelred´s (Ethelred´s) son Eadwig from his first marriage and some got banished. The same year Canute married Ethelred´s widow Emma, but her two sons stayed in the Normandy. By this, relations were established with the old English royal house. They had two children – Hardeknud (Hardicanute) and Gundhild – even though he also had another woman, Elfgifu of Northampton – with whom he had two sons – Harald and Svend (Sweyn). big army was still in Britain, but in year 1018 the situation was so stable that it could be dissolved after having paid a tax of a unprecedented size. 72000 pounds of silver not counting 10500 pounds from London alone. This was the famous Thinglid. But 40 vessels stayed with Canute. Canute who might have been regarded as the viking conqueror by many people based his power on loyal, distinguishedly equipped Scandinavian warriors who were under strict discipline. his time Britain also got a new aristocracy who owed him a debt of gratitude for their prosperity. Men of many old families died in heroic fights fought since year 991; they were killed by the kings because of suspicion of betrayal or exile. Canute pursued the main structure in the British Royal power, but he had other men than had, and in connection with these changes redistributions of land and changes in the government of the empire were made. year 1018 King Harald II of Denmark died and in the winter 1019-1020 Canute went to Denmark to obtain power after his brother while the rule in Britain rested with Thorkild Høje (Thorkild the Tall). Canute sent a message to the British people from Denmark. It was probably meant to be an oral statement to the empire in which he gave an account of his results, and that he had protected Britain against threats from Denmark and he underlined his role as Christian King of Britain and his authority there. It appears that Thorkild Høje (Thorkild the Tall) later became Canute´s representative in Denmark for the little Hardeknud. In the years from 1020 to 1028 Canute started laying claim to Norway and in year 1028 he conquered the country from Olav den Hellige (Olav the Holy). Soon after it was ruled by Ælfgifu and her son Svend (Sweyn). In year 1027 the Scottish King submitted and in the message to the British people which Canute had sent during his trip to Rome in year 1027 he called himself King of Norway and a part of Sweden. In Rome he attended the coronation of the German Kaiser Konrad and he was highly honoured. He also entered into practical agreements to benefit the British people and Scandinavians and arranged a match with Konrad´s son Henrik (Henry) who later got Kaiser and his daughter Gundhild. They married in 1036, but she died a few years later. and foremost Canute became British King. When problems arose he went to Scandinavia in order to interfere with new viking attacks against Britain. He created peace in the country which had been ravaged for many years, and there were no signs of internal revolts either. Creating peace costed him money to his thinglid, but it was probably considered to be more cheap and pleasant than plunder and payment of danegeld to ravaging enemies. attached great importance to the old British laws and he was a great benefactor of the church. In many respects he almost became British and with a lot of publicity he apologized for old viking sins. order to retrieve the martyrdom in year 869 of King Edmund of East Anglia he built a large church to the convent in Bury St. Edmunds. For the murder of the Archbishop of Canterbury in year 1012 he let the corpse transfer from London to Canterbury with all due ceremony. to retrieve the bloody battle at Assandun in year 1016 he built a church on the battlefield. Many churches were given large gifts and the handing over of one of them – a golden altar cross to New in Winchester - was portrayed in the memorial book of the church about the Great and his queen Emma gave a golden altar cross to the church New Minster in Winchester. Canute´s right hand held the cross and his left hand held the sword. The names of the King and Queen were written above their heads. Above the head of the Queen the name Ælfgifu was written which was her British name. Drawing on parchment of friends and benefactors – Liber Vitae – in the memorial book of the church was probably started in year 1031. This is the only contemporary picture of Canute. and Emma were often in Winchester and when he died in year 1035 – about 40 years old, he was buried in another of the main churches of the city, Old Minster. The very young viking King succeeded in changing his image to a British King and to perform the duties of his office in an excellent way. Canute the stability was over, and the large empire immediately broke was in Denmark and in spite of a strong resistance from Emma and other people, Ælfgifu´s son Harald became the King of England. Alfred – one of Emma´s two sons who she had with Ethelred came from the Normandy but was killed and Emma had to fly. Harald died in year 1040. Hardeknud (Hardicanute) and Emma returned to Britain where he collected enormous taxes for the 60 in his train. He died in year 1042. ”He held his glas in his hand and suddenly fell on the floor with terrible convulsions” the chronicle says. Another source says ”Throughout his entire reign he did not do anything worthy of a king”. year 1066 Harold Godwinsson was elected King. people had got their eyes on as well, and in September King Harald Hårderåde (Harald Hardrada) of Britain. Just like Svend Tveskæg (Sweyn Forkbeard) he wanted to start his conquest in England where the northern population elements were strongest. However, in the battle at Stamford Bridge he was beaten and killed by King Harold. Vilhelm (William), Duke of Normandy, then landed in the south of England also having conquest in view. Harold Godwinsson hurried to the south. In the battle at Hastings his army was beaten and Harold was killed and on Christmas Day in year 1066 the Norman viking scion Vilhelm (William) was crowned as King of England. The decisive battle at Hastings and the background for it was reproduced about ten years later in a Norman version on the 70 metre long picture tapestry which got to the cathedral in Bayeux in the a totally new rule and a French-Norman upper class with Vilhelm (William) as King there were several uproars. In year 1069 a big uproar in Northern England was suppressed and punished in a very brutal way and the large viking fleets that came in the years 1069, 1070 and 1075 guided by members of the Danish royal house, did not get much significance. In year 1085 Canute, King of Denmark organized an enormous fleet in order to conquer the country which his namesake and brother of his grandmother had ruled. Canute sent enormous military forces to Britain. Still, his fleet never got away. He was delayed by problems at the southern border of his country and during the late summer the army dissolved. The violent attack of his officials on the ones who had went home provoked a revolt and King Canute was killed. This happened in year 1086 at the British saint St. Alban´s church in Odense. The dream of Britain made Canute, the first Danish saint of kings, but it did not make him British viking king. This was the last time that Scandinavians tried to conquer Britain. adventures in Britain became very important to Scandinavia. The ones who had survived shared the enormous quantities of silver which had been paid as danegeld and heregeld until year 1051, but they also got a part of the properties from the plunders from 991 to 1016, even though the leaders probably got the most. Millions of coins have been paid. We only know a fraction of it today, but even that is impressive. More than 40000 coins have been found in Scandinavia and the number

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2013-05-18T18:05:49Z

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en

Editor's note: ICT offers related resources. A special digital issue, "Pathogen Persistence, Transmission and Cross-Contamination Prevention" is available for download. For the accompanying slide show, CLICK HERE. By Kelly M. Pyrek A renewed interest in the healthcare environment and to what degree surface contamination contributes to the spread of infectious pathogens is driving a growing body of research in this area. Let's take a look at what we know about various aspects of environmental hygiene from the scientific literature: - Hand hygiene alone isn't enough Dancer (2010) makes a compelling case for not allowing a dependence on hand hygiene to eclipse the need for rigorous environmental cleaning coupled with other key infection prevention-related interventions: "With the predominant focus on clean hands, there is less interest in the surfaces that they touch. Even exceptional hand hygiene is rendered invalid if the first object handled transfers pathogens to the patient via fingertips ... Infection control requires a multimodal focus encompassing a wide range of strategies. Each of these interventions plays an integral role in an overall hygiene program, which implies that all deserve consideration and resourcing. To single out hand hygiene while the wards remain grubby, antibiotic prescribing continues unabated, or hospitals overflow with patients will confound any possible benefits from clean hand programs. In addition, penalizing staff over perceived hand hygiene practices will foster resentment and disenchantment. People either will or will not clean their hands, whatever policies are imposed upon them, whereas cleaning, antimicrobial prescribing, laboratory protocol, screening, isolation, and bed management are not subject to human whim and theoretically could be strengthened by clinicians and managers." Dancer adds, "We should balance the current focus on hand hygiene by prioritizing additional strategies. All deserve more support and investment, because none has received the attention that so far has been given to hand hygiene. Because people will not—or cannot—always clean their hands, let us engage managerial support for space, time, isolation capacity, staffing, and sufficient cleaning of all hand‐touch surfaces." - Microorganisms collect on hospital environment surfaces and are spread In the past, experts believed that the most significant source of hospital-acquired pathogens was the patient's own endogenous flora; however, Weber, et al. (2010) point out that an estimated 20 percent to 40 percent of nosocomial infections have been attributed to cross-infection via the hands of healthcare workers. They add that this hand contamination could in turn result from either direct patient contact or indirectly from touching contaminated environmental surfaces. They also acknowledge that less commonly, a patient could become colonized with a nosocomial pathogen by direct contact with a contaminated environmental surface -- they say that in some cases, the extent of patient-to-patient transmission has been found to be directly proportional to the level of environmental contamination. - Pathogens persist on environmental surfaces Kramer, et al. (2006) summarize data on the persistence of different nosocomial pathogens on inanimate surfaces. The researchers found that most Gram-positive bacteria, such as Enterococcus spp. (including VRE), Staphylococcus aureus (including MRSA), or Streptococcus pyogenes, survive for months on dry surfaces, while many Gram-negative species, such as Acinetobacter spp., Escherichia coli, Klebsiella spp., Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Serratia marcescens, or Shigella spp., can also survive for months. Most viruses from the respiratory tract, such as corona, coxsackie, influenza, SARS or rhinovirus, can persist on surfaces for a few days; viruses from the gastrointestinal tract, such as astrovirus, HAV, poliovirus or rotavirus, persist for approximately two months; and bloodborne viruses, such as HBV or HIV, can persist for more than one week. Their review emphasizes that the most common nosocomial pathogens may be a continuous source of transmission if no regular preventive surface disinfection is performed. - Acquisition of specific organisms is impacted by environmental cleaning Wilson, et al. (2006) found that enhanced cleaning reduced environmental contamination and hand carriage, but no significant effect was observed on patient acquisition of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. Hayden, et al. (2006) found that decreasing environmental contamination may help to control the spread of some antibiotic-resistant bacteria in hospitals, specifically vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE). Mamoon, et al. (2009) demonstrated that higher-level cleaning can be effective in removing MRSA from a range of environmental sites that are high risk of patient and/or healthcare worker hand contact in critical areas, such as ICUs. However, in the absence of any residual cleaning and/or disinfectant effects, the clear beneficial effects of such decontamination interventions are transient and rapidly negated by subsequent failures in infection control practice. These findings highlight the need for further work on detergent and disinfectant materials that have long‐lasting biocidal effects. - Environmental contamination might lead to infection Weber, et al. (2010) say that in order for environmental contamination to play an important role in the acquisition of a nosocomial pathogen, the pathogen must demonstrate certain microbiologic characteristics: pathogen able to survive for prolonged periods of time on environmental surfaces; ability to remain virulent after environmental exposure; contamination of the hospital environment frequent; ability to colonize patients (Acinetobacter, C difficile, MRSA, VRE); ability to transiently colonize the hands of healthcare workers; transmission via the contaminated hands of healthcare workers; small inoculating dose (C difficile, norovirus); and relative resistance to disinfectants used on environmental surfaces (C difficile, norovirus). - Prior-room occupants can impact acquisition of pathogens Otter, et al. (2011) point out that, "A number of studies have identified the previous presence of a colonized or infected patient in a side room as a risk factor for the acquisition of the same pathogen by a new occupant, presumably because of residual room contamination that is not removed through terminal cleaning and disinfection. This effect has been shown for VRE, MRSA, C. difficile, multidrug-resistant P. aeruginosa and A. baumannii." Datta, et al. (2011) say that enhanced intensive care unit cleaning using the intervention methods (cleaning cloths saturated with disinfectant via bucket immersion, targeted feedback using a black-light marker, and increased education) may reduce MRSA and VRE transmission. It may also eliminate the risk of MRSA acquisition due to an MRSA-positive prior room occupant. Shaughnessy, et al. (2011) determined that prior room occupant with CDI is a significant risk factor for CDI acquisition, independent of established CDI risk factors. Nseir, et al. (2011) concluded that admission to an ICU room previously occupied by a patient with MDR P. aeruginosa or A. baumannii is an independent risk factor for acquisition of these bacteria by subsequent room occupants; this relationship was not identified for ESBL-producing GNB. Carling and Bartley (2010) demonstrated that admission of a patient into a bed previously occupied by an infected patient significantly increases the chance of acquiring the same pathogen, regardless of compliance with hand hygiene. And as Dancer (2010) notes, "Newly cleaned hands touching contaminated environmental sites consistently undermine hand hygiene success." Drees, et al. (2008) found that patients colonized with vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) frequently contaminate their environment, and that prior room contamination, whether measured via environmental cultures or prior room occupancy by VRE-colonized patients, was highly predictive of VRE acquisition. Huang, et al. (2006) asserted that admission to a room previously occupied by an MRSA-positive patient or a VRE-positive patient significantly increased the odds of acquisition for MRSA and VRE. However, this route of transmission was a minor contributor to overall transmission. They noted that the effect of current cleaning practices in reducing the risk to the observed levels and the potential for further reduction were unknown. - Cleaning is essential Dancer (2009) issued a clarion call when she observed that until cleaning becomes an evidence-based science, with established methods for assessment, the importance of a clean environment is likely to remain speculative. In her review, she examined the links between the hospital environment and persistent pathogens, noted their vulnerability to the cleaning and disinfection process, and established the potential for impact on patient infection rates when high-touch surfaces were addressed. She also suggested that using proposed standards for hospital hygiene could provide further evidence that cleaning is a cost-effective intervention for controlling healthcare-associated infection. Weber, et al. (2010) emphasize that the role of surface contamination in transmission of healthcare-associated pathogens is an important issue because transmission can be interrupted by appropriate hand hygiene and cleaning/disinfection of environmental surfaces. Otter, et al. (2011) remind us that "cleaning is the removal of soil and contaminants from surfaces, whereas disinfection relates to the inactivation of pathogens by use of a disinfectant" and that "Microorganisms vary in their resistance to disinfectants, so agents must be chosen carefully for their effectiveness, particularly for C. difficile spores. Furthermore, the hospital environment is complex and often difficult to clean, and use of a cleaning agent that is not effective against the target organism can spread pathogens to other surfaces." The researchers also note, "Cleaning and disinfection does not always eradicate pathogens from surfaces" and that "…it is difficult to determine whether it is the products, the procedures, or a combination of the two that is responsible for the failure to eradicate pathogens from surfaces." - Cleaning practices vary and can be subpar Dancer (2011) suggests that "cleaning practices should be tailored to clinical risk, given the wide-ranging surfaces, equipment and building design. There is confusion between nursing and domestic personnel over the allocation of cleaning responsibilities and neither may receive sufficient training and/or time to complete their duties. Since less laborious practices for dirt removal are always attractive, there is a danger that traditional cleaning methods are forgotten or ignored." Boyce, et al. (2010) acknowledge that substantial variations can be found in the amount of time spent cleaning high‐touch surfaces, in the number of disinfectant wipes used in each room, and in the level of cleanliness achieved by housekeepers. They concluded that a number of variables need to be considered when assessing hospital cleaning practices and that providing housekeepers with continuing education and feedback is necessary to achieve compliance with recommended daily cleaning practices. Further studies using ATP bioluminescence assays for monitoring hospital cleanliness are warranted. Carling, et al. (2010) report that nine studies of thoroughness of cleaning and disinfection which included more than 62,500 high-touch surfaces in 103 different institutions and 142 study sites identified opportunities for improved cleaning in all venues, documenting that cleaning and disinfection must be improved across a broad range of U.S. healthcare settings as part of efforts to prevent transmission of pathogens. Hota, et al. (2009) conducted a trial in which a multifaceted environmental cleaning improvement intervention was introduced (the intervention included educational lectures for housekeepers and an observational program of their activities without changes in cleaning products or written procedures). They suggested that surface contamination with VRE is due to a failure to clean rather than to a faulty cleaning procedure or product. Carling, et al. (2008) identified significant opportunities in all participating hospitals to improve the cleaning of frequently touched objects in the patient's immediate environment. The overall thoroughness of terminal cleaning, expressed as a percentage of surfaces evaluated, was 49 percent (the range for all 23 hospitals in the study was 35 percent to 81 percent). There was significant variation in cleaning efficacy with respect to the cleaning of toilet handholds, bedpan cleaners, light switches, and door knobs (mean cleaning rates less than 30 percent); sinks, toilet seats, and tray tables were consistently relatively well cleaned (mean cleaning rates over 75 percent). Patient telephones, nurse call devices, and bedside rails were inconsistently cleaned. - Cleaning efficacy must be monitored and improved Otter, et al. (2011) say that while there is some evidence that focused efforts can improve the efficacy of cleaning, including improved monitoring of cleaning, routine quantitative microbiological culture, and educational interventions, the long-term effect of educational cleaning improvements has not yet been evaluated fully. Guh and Carling (2010) encourage hospitals to develop programs to optimize the thoroughness of high-touch surface cleaning as part of terminal room cleaning at the time of discharge or transfer of patients. The program should be based on the institution's level of dedicated resources to implement objective monitoring programs. The program will be an infection preventionist/hospital epidemiologist infection prevention and control (IPC)-based program internally coordinated and maintained through environmental services (EVS) management level participation. The program should be based on a joint (IC/EVS) definition of institutional expectations consistent with CDC standards and a terminal room cleaning checklist. The responsibilities of ES staff and other hospital personnel for cleaning high-touch surfaces (e.g., equipment in ICU rooms) should be clearly defined. Structured education of the EVS staff should be undertaken to define, carry out and monitor programmatic and institutional expectations. Monitoring measures will be undertaken by the IPC/ES team and may include competency evaluation of EVS staff by EVS management, IPC staff or both. Regular ongoing structured monitoring of the program will be performed and documented. Interventions to optimize the thoroughness of terminal room cleaning and disinfection will be a standing agenda item for the Infection Control Committee (ICC) or Quality Committee as appropriate for the facility. In a more advanced program, Guh and Carling (2010) advocate for an objective assessment of terminal room thoroughness of surface disinfection cleaning done using one or more of the methods recommended by the CDC to document the pre-intervention thoroughness of disinfection cleaning. They also advise scheduled ongoing monitoring of the cleaning at least three times a year. The results should be used in ongoing educational activity and feedback to EVS staff following each cycle of evaluation. Results of the objective monitoring program and interventions to optimize the thoroughness of terminal room cleaning and disinfection should be a standing agenda item for the ICC. Guh and Carling (2010) also review the various methods that can be employed to evaluate environmental cleaning: direct practice observation; swab cultures; agar slide cultures; fluorescent markers; and ATP bioluminesence. Dolan, et al. (2011) caution that recovery of bacteria from environmental samples varies with the swabs and methodology used and negative culture results do not exclude a pathogen-free environment. Both Dolan, et al. (2011) and Hedin, et al. (2010) call for greater standardization to facilitate the assessment of cleanliness of healthcare environments. Munoz-Price, et al. (2012) compared cleaning rates associated with use of a white ultraviolet (UV) powder versus a transparent UV gel among units with various degrees of previous experience with UV powder. They found discordant cleaning (removal of powder without the removal of gel, or vice versa) and higher frequency of discordance in high-experience units (31 percent) than in no-experience units (8 percent). In 92 percent of discordant findings, the powder was removed but not the gel, suggesting preferential cleaning of visible UV targets among units with high levels of previous experience with powder. Sitzlar, et al. (2011) report that removal of DAZO (part of a fluorescent targeting method) correlated well with removal of bacteria or C. difficile spores from the site of marker placement, but did not ensure that other high-touch sites on the same surfaces were cleaned. Moore, et al. (2010) urge caution when assessing cleaning programs while using adenosine triphosphate (ATP) bioluminescence, and to consider if surfaces sampled could also be considered adequately clean prior to them being cleaned by EVS staff. Use of benchmark values can help continually monitor the efficacy of existing cleaning programs; however, when evaluating novel or new cleaning practices, baseline cleanliness (the level of cleanliness routinely achieved using normal cleaning procedures) must also be taken into consideration, or the efficacy of modified cleaning will be overestimated. Boyce, et al. (2011) note that fluorescent markers are useful in determining how frequently high-touch surfaces are wiped during terminal cleaning. However, contaminated surfaces classified as clean according to fluorescent marker criteria after terminal cleaning were significantly less likely to be classified as clean according to ACC and ATP assays. - Disinfectant contact/dwell times are problematic Rutala and Weber (2008) note, "An important issue concerning use of disinfectants for noncritical surfaces in health-care settings is that the contact time specified on the label of the product is often too long to be practically followed. The labels of most products registered by EPA for use against HBV, HIV, or M. tuberculosis specify a contact time of 10 minutes. Such a long contact time is not practical for disinfection of environmental surfaces in a healthcare setting because most healthcare facilities apply a disinfectant and allow it to dry (~1 minute). Multiple scientific papers have demonstrated significant microbial reduction with contact times of 30 to 60 seconds. In addition, EPA will approve a shortened contact time for any product for which the manufacturers will submit confirmatory efficacy data. Currently, some EPA-registered disinfectants have contact times of one to three minutes. By law, users must follow all applicable label instructions for EPA-registered products. Ideally, product users should consider and use products that have the shortened contact time. However, disinfectant manufacturers also need to obtain EPA approval for shortened contact times so these products will be used correctly and effectively in the healthcare environment." Rutala (undated) addresses how healthcare workers should interpret the recommendation about contact time for disinfectants used on noncritical items in terms of a disconnect between the label instructions and what the studies show: "In order to get EPA clearance of the CDC Guideline it was necessary to insert the sentences, 'By law, all applicable label instructions on EPA-registered products must be followed. If the user selects exposure conditions that differ from those on the EPA-registered product label, the user assumes liability from any injuries resulting from off-label use and is potentially subject to enforcement action under FIFRA.' There are several points that should be made about this apparent disconnect between label instructions and what studies show to include: - multiple scientific studies have demonstrated the efficacy of hospital disinfectants against pathogens causing healthcare-associated infections with a contact time of at least 1 minute - the only way an institution can achieve a contact time of 10 minutes is to reapply the surface disinfectant 5-6 times to the surface as the typical dry time for a water-based disinfectant is 1.5-2 minutes and currently, healthcare facilities like UNC Health Care are achieving surface disinfection of non-critical patient care items and environmental surfaces by one application of a disinfectant and requiring a >1 minute dry time - equally important as disinfectant contact time is the application of the disinfectant to the surface or equipment to ensure that all contaminated surfaces and non-critical patient care equipment are wiped as current studies demonstrate that only approximately 50 percent of high-risk objects are cleaned at terminal cleaning - there are no data that demonstrate improved infection prevention by a 10 minute contact time versus a 1-minute contact time; we are not aware of an enforcement action against healthcare facilities for "off label" use of a surface disinfectant Thus, Rutala (undated) says, "We believe the guideline allows us to continue our use of low-level disinfectants for noncritical environmental surfaces and patient care equipment with a 1 minute contact time. Additionally, all healthcare facilities should reemphasize the thoroughness of cleaning to ensure that all contaminated surfaces are wiped." - Wipes are efficient, but must be used according to manufacturer instructions Orenstein, et al. (2011) evaluated daily cleaning with germicidal bleach wipes on wards with a high incidence of hospital-acquired Clostridium difficile infection (CDI). The intervention reduced hospital-acquired CDI incidence by 85 percent, from 24.2 to 3.6 cases per 10,000 patient-days, and prolonged the median time between hospital-acquired CDI cases from 8 to 80 days. Carter, et al. (2011) found that the introduction of sporicidal wipes resulted in a significant reduction in C difficile rates, thus supporting the need to review and enhance traditional environmental cleaning regimens for preventing and controlling C difficile in acute settings. Cheng, et al. (2011) assessed the effectiveness of disinfection in clinical areas by assessment of the wipe-rinse method to MRSA in the immediate patient environment, on both the bed rails and the cleaning wipes. The presence of MRSA in the proximity of the patient, i.e., the bed rails as well as the cleaning tool (the wipe), was demonstrated. If thorough rinsing was not conducted between wiping, bacteria accumulated on the wipes, which can result in cross transmission. Siani, et al. (2011) tested wipes for sporicidal efficacy using a three-stage protocol that measures the ability of the wipe to remove microbial bioburden from a surface, the potential for microbial transfer from the wipe to other surfaces, and the sporicidal activity of the wipe. The ability of the sporicidal wipes to remove C difficile spores from an inanimate surface ranged from 0.22 to 4.09 log(10) spores removed within 10 seconds. None of the wipes demonstrated high sporicidal activity (>4 log(10) reduction) within 5 minutes of contact time, except for a control wipe soaked in 5,000-ppm sodium hypochlorite. All but one wipe demonstrated that spores could be repeatedly transferred to other surfaces. They say that although the use of sporicidal wipes might offer additional control of microbial burden on surfaces, current efficacy tests might be inadequate to reflect the activity of these wipes in practice, lleading to the use of wipes that might not be appropriate for applications in the healthcare environment. Williams, et al. (2009) examined the efficacy of two commercially available wipes to effectively remove, kill and prevent the transfer of both methicillin‐resistant and methicillin‐susceptible Staphylococcus aureus from contaminated surfaces, noting that although wipes play a role in decreasing the number of pathogenic bacteria from contaminated surfaces, they can potentially transfer bacteria to other surfaces if they are reused. They recommended that a wipe not be used on more than one surface, that it be used only on a small area, and that it be discarded immediately after use, to reduce the risk of microbial spread.

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Too hot to sleep? Here's why 11 January 2013 Bushfires are quite appropriately dominating our nation's concerns during the current Australian heatwave. But for many, the struggle to sleep through soaring temperatures is a personal inferno that dominates conversation around offices and homes across the country. Sleep and body control of temperature (thermoregulation) are intimately connected. Core body temperature follows a 24-hour cycle linked with the sleep-wake rhythm. Body temperature decreases during the night-time sleep phase and rises during the wake phase. Sleep is most likely to occur when core temperature decreases, and much less likely to occur during the rises. Our hands and feet play a key role in facilitating sleep as they permit the heated blood from the central body to lose heat to the environment through the skin surface. The sleep hormone melatonin plays an important part of the complex loss of heat through the peripheral parts of the body. At sleep onset, core body temperature falls but peripheral skin temperature rises. But temperature changes become more complex during sleep as our temperature self-regulation varies according to sleep stage. Research has shown how environmental heat can disturb this delicate balance between sleep and body temperature. An ambient temperature of 22˚ or 23˚ Celsius is ideal. Any major variation in this leads to disturbance of sleep with reduced slow wave sleep (a stage of sleep where the brain's electrical wave activity slows and the brain "rests"), and also results in less dreaming sleep (rapid eye movement or REM sleep). Indeed during REM sleep, our ability to regulate body temperature is impaired so in a clever sort of way the body "avoids" this stage of sleep during extreme cold or heat. A heat wave may cause several nights of fragmented sleep with less slow wave and REM sleep. This will certainly cause a correct perception of bad, restless sleep with consequent negative effects on mood and alertness. In theory, it may also have subtle effects such as problems with complex memory retention, higher judgement (poorer decision making and increased risk-taking behaviour), blood pressure control and regulation of glucose in the body. The clear message is this: if you're going to make some big decisions during a heatwave, sleep in a carefully controlled air-conditioned environment. But apart from air-conditioning, what can you do to sleep better during a heatwave? Sleeping in the lateral position (on your side) with less contact with the mattress may be good but the body tends to do this anyway during sleep, in response to rising temperatures. Cooling the central body with a wet cloth or towel makes sense. A cool shower may also help. It is important to avoid doing anything too strenuous in the hours before bed-time as this will make it harder for the body temperature to fall during sleep. And when you wake up hot, sticky and irritated because you don't have air-conditioning or believe such devices are environmentally unsound, remember those fighting bushfires - it could be a lot worse. |Follow University of Sydney Media on Twitter| Media enquiries: Sarah Stock, 9114 0748, 0419 278 715, email@example.com

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Christmas Tree Articles Accumulation of Carbon by Christmas Trees Brown's Tree Farm provides you with the easiest way to buy a high quality, fresh, real Christmas tree online. We also take great pride in spreading the word about the benefits of buying a REAL Christmas tree rather than a FAKE Christmas Tree. The content below was provide courtesy of the National Christmas Tree Association. Gary Chastagner, Eric Hinesley, Bert Cregg, Pascal Nzokou, and Rick Bates. There is a growing market for agricultural and forest products that are produced using sustainable or environmentally friendly production practices. This includes products that are certified as “environmentally green” based on the use of scientifically-based best management practices to those that are produced using certified organic production methods. More and more, people are asking about how much carbon is removed from the air and fixed by Christmas trees during a rotation. As plants grow, they sequester carbon from the air through a process known as photosynthesis. This biochemical process takes place within chloroplasts inside needles or leaves. sunlight provides the energy needed to drive this process which combines water (taken up by roots) with carbon dioxide (CO2) (absorbed from the air) to make complex sugars called carbohydrates, the building blocks for growth. A byproduct of this reaction is the production of oxygen (O2), which is released by the plant back into the air. Plants use the carbohydrates produced during photosynthesis to grow through a process known as respiration, which occurs in the dark as well as light. Unlike photosynthesis, respiration uses oxygen in the air to break down the carbohydrates to produce energy needed to combine carbon with various nutrients to produce the tissues and cellular structures needed for the plant to grow. This process results in the release of some CO2 and water by the plant. Limited carbon biomass accumulation information is available specifically for Christmas trees. In the Pacific Northwest (PNW), some biomass data are available for Douglas-fir Christmas trees. In one study, the total dry weight of biomass of a 5-foot-tall Douglas-fir tree averaged 10 lbs for branches and needles, 4 lbs for the stem and 4 lbs for the stump and roots (Landgren, personal communication). Although the carbon content of the biomass in this study was not determined, other studies would suggest that about 50% of the dry biomass is carbon (Schlesinger 1991). Thus the above ground portion of a harvested 5-foot-tall Douglas-fir tree would contain about 7 lbs of carbon. This is equivalent to about 5.8 tons of carbon per acre of trees planted on a 5’ X 5’ spacing. In addition, a little more than one ton of carbon per acre would be tied up in the root system that is left in the field. Similar biomass accumulation data are also available from a study of Fraser fir trees in North Carolina (Hinesley 1989). Based on this research it appears that a reasonable estimate of the carbon in harvested 6 to 7-foot-tall Fraser fir trees on a 5’ X 5’ spacing is about 12 tons per acre. To provide growers with better estimates of the annual increase in the amount of CO2 that is sequestered by trees, last fall we initiated a multi-state cooperative project to obtain biomass data for the major species of Christmas trees grown in the PNW, North Carolina, Michigan and Pennsylvania. These four regions produce almost 90% of all the Christmas trees harvested in the U.S. each year. Because Fraser fir is grown in most regions, we are collecting data on Fraser fir in all four regions. We are also collecting data on five other regionally important species (Table 1). Within each region, trees of each species were sampled at 3 to 6 farms. To obtain information on the increase in biomass accumulation throughout a rotation, we sampled three trees from each of four size classes (2-3, 4-5, 6-7, and 8-9 feet) at each farm. The height, width, stem diameter and planting spacing was recorded for each tree. The trees were harvested and the stump and root system was then dug up. The branches and needles were then removed from the stem of each tree. To determine the total amount of dry biomass of each tree, the three components (branches, stem and roots) were chipped and dried in an oven at 100C. A subset of these samples is currently being tested to determine how much the carbon content varies by species, farm and component. Upon completion of this analysis, the biomass data will be analyzed to determine if it is possible to use stem diameter or tree height to predict the amount of carbon that has been accumulated by different sizes of trees. Determining carbon accumulation rates throughout the rotation will provide accurate baseline information that demonstrates the value of tree production systems on carbon fixation. This represents an important step in documenting the environmental benefits of real Christmas tree production and use. About the Authors: Dr. Gary Chastagner is a Professor of Plant Pathology at Washington State University, Dr. Eric Hinesley is a Professor of Horticulture at North Carolina State University, Dr. Bert Cregg is a Professor of Horticulture and Forestry at Michigan State University, Dr. Pascal Nzokou is an Assistant Professor of Forestry at Michigan State University, Dr. Rick Bates is an Associate Professor of Horticulture at Pennsylvania State University, Portions of this project are being supported by the PNWCTA Advanced Research Fund. This project would not have been possible without the support of numerous growers who provided access to their farms and the trees used in this project. Contributors from the PNW were Bear Canyon Tree Farm, Holiday Tree Farms, Inc., Noble Mountain Tree Farm, Northwest Plantations, Silver Mountain Christmas Trees, Snowshoe Evergreen, Windy Knoll Tree Farm, Yule Tree Farms, and Rod McNiel Farm. Contributors of Fraser fir from North Carolina were Cline Church Nursery, Cartner Christmas Tree Farm, Smokey Holler Trees, Tucker Tree Farms, and Yates Christmas Tree Farms. Leyland cypress came from three farms in NC (Pop-n-Son Christmas Tree Farm, The Tree Patch, and Helms Christmas Tree Farm) and two farms in South Carolina (Wright's Christmas Tree Farm, and Penland Christmas Tree Farm). Contributors also included three growers in Michigan (Pape Tree Farm, Korsons Tree Farm, and Gwinn Tree Farm) and four growers in Pennsylvania (Fleming's Christmas Tree Farms, Heritage Acres Evergreens, Tuckaway Tree Farm, and Kuhn’s Tree Farm). A special thanks to the technical support provided by the following people: Gil Dermott, Don Sherry, Aaron Broberg, Kathy Riley, Annie DeBauw, Katie Coats, and Marianne Elliott at WSU and Dave Despot and Chris Sanchez at PSU. From our family to yours, we look forward to being part of your holiday season this year!

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In chemistry, a base is thought of as a substance which can accept protons or any chemical compound that yields hydroxide ions (OH-) in solution. It is also commonly referred to as any substance that can react with an acid to decrease or neutralize its acidic properties, change the color of indicators (e.g. turn red litmus paper blue), feel slippery to the touch when in solution, taste bitter, react with acids to form salts, and promote certain chemical reactions (e.g. base catalysis). Example of simple bases are sodium hydroxide and ammonia. Sodium hydroxide (NaOH), also known as caustic soda or lye, dissociates in water to form hydroxide ions (OH-) and sodium ions (Na+). Bases have many practical uses, and several of them are commonly found in the home. Household ammonia is a familiar cleaning agent. Lye is used for cleaning clogs and sink drains. Potassium hydroxide, also called caustic potash, is used to make soft soap that dissolves in water with ease. Magnesium hydroxide in water (also called milk of magnesia) is used as an antacid or laxative. - Acid-base extraction - Acid-base reaction - Acid dissociation constant - Acidity function - Buffer solutions - Proton affinity - Self-ionization of water - Lewis acids - Mineral acids - Organic acids - Strong acids - Weak acids Alkali and base Origins of the concepts The term "alkali" is derived from the Arabic word al qalīy, meaning "the calcined ashes." These plant ashes were regarded as having properties such as the ability to reverse the action of acids and having detergent power. Thus, an alkali was initially thought of as the antithesis of an acid. The formation of salts from the acid and alkali reaction led to the view that salts can be derived from two constituents of opposite natures. Yet, not all non-acidic constituents possessed alkaline properties. Examples are oxides and hydroxides of heavy metals. Hence, the concept of "base" was born. This concept was first introduced by the French chemist Guillaume François Rouelle in 1754. He noted that acids—which in those days were mostly volatile liquids, such as acetic acid—turned into solid salts only when combined with specific substances. These substances formed a concrete base for the salt, and hence the name. Confusion between base and alkali The terms "base" and "alkali" are often used interchangeably, because most common bases are alkalis. It is common to speak of "measuring the alkalinity of soil" when what is actually meant is the measurement of the pH (base property). Similarly, bases which are not alkalis, such as ammonia, are sometimes erroneously referred to as alkaline. Note that not all or even most salts formed by alkali metals are alkaline; this designation applies only to those salts which are basic. This definition of an alkali as a basic salt of an alkali metal or alkaline earth metal does appear to be the most common, based on dictionary definitions, however, conflicting definitions of the term alkali do exist. These include: - Any base that is water solubleAlkali, Farlex, 2008. Retrieved April 8, 2008.</ref> This is more accurately called an Arrhenius base. - The solution of a base in water. Definitions of acids and bases Acids and bases form complementary pairs, so their definitions need to be considered together. There are three common groups of definitons: the Arrhenius, Brønsted-Lowry, and Lewis definitions, in order of increasing generality. - Arrhenius: According to this definition, an acid is a substance that increases the concentration of hydronium ion (H3O+) when dissolved in water, while bases are substances that increase the concentration of hydroxide ions (OH-). This definition limits acids and bases to substances that can dissolve in water. Around 1800, many French chemists, including Antoine Lavoisier, incorrectly believed that all acids contained oxygen. Indeed the modern German word for Oxygen is Sauerstoff (lit. sour substance). English chemists, including Sir Humphry Davy at the same time believed all acids contained hydrogen. The Swedish chemist Svante Arrhenius used this belief to develop this definition of acid. - Brønsted-Lowry: According to this definition, an acid is a proton (hydrogen nucleus) donor and a base is a proton (hydrogen nucleus) acceptor. The acid is said to be dissociated after the proton is donated. An acid and the corresponding base are referred to as conjugate acid-base pairs. Brønsted and Lowry formulated this definition, which includes water-insoluble substances not in the Arrhenius definition. - Lewis: According to this definition, an acid is an electron-pair acceptor and a base is an electron-pair donor. (These are frequently referred to as "Lewis acids" and "Lewis bases," and are electrophiles and nucleophiles, respectively, in organic chemistry; Lewis bases are also ligands in coordination chemistry.) Lewis acids include substances with no transferable protons (i.e. H+ hydrogen ions), such as iron(III) chloride, and hence the Lewis definition of an acid has wider application than the Brønsted-Lowry definition. The Lewis definition can also be explained with molecular orbital theory. In general, an acid can receive an electron pair in its lowest unoccupied orbital (LUMO) from the highest occupied orbital (HOMO) of a base. That is, the HOMO from the base and the LUMO from the acid combine to a bonding molecular orbital. This definition was developed by Gilbert N. Lewis. Some general properties of bases include: - Taste: Bitter taste (opposed to sour taste of acids and sweetness of aldehydes and ketones) - Touch: Slimy or soapy feel on fingers - Reactivity:Caustic on organic matter, react violently with acidic or reducible substances - Electric conductivity: Aqueous solutions or molten bases dissociate in ions and conduct electricity - Litmus test: Bases turn red litmus paper blue. Bases Ionization Constant and pH B(aq) + H2O(l) ⇌ BH+(aq) + OH-(aq) The equilibrium constant Kb is also called the Base Ionization Constant. It refers to the reaction in which a base forms its conjugate acid by removing an H+ ion from water. The pH of (impure) water is a measure of its acidity. In pure water, about one in ten million molecules dissociate into hydronium ions (H3O+) and hydroxide ions (OH−), according to the following equation: - 2H2O(l) ⇌ H3O+(aq) + OH-(aq) A base accepts (removes) hydronium ions (H3O+) from the solution, or donates hydroxide ions (OH-) to the solution. Both actions will lower the concentration of hydronium ions, and thus raise pH. By contrast, an acid donates H3O+ ions to the solution or accepts OH−, thus lowering pH. For example, if 1 mole of sodium hydroxide (40 g) is dissolved in 1 litre of water, the concentration of hydroxide ions becomes [OH−] = 1 mol/L. Therefore [H+] = 10−14 mol/L, and pH = −log 10−14 = 14. The basicity constant or pKb is a measure of basicity and related to the pKa by the simple relationship pKa + pKb = 14. A "Strong Base" is one which hydrolyzes completely, deprotonating acids in an acid-base reaction, hence, raising the pH of the solution towards 14. Compounds with a pH of more than about 13 are called strong bases. Strong bases, like strong acids, attack living tissue and cause serious burns. They react differently to skin than acids do so while strong acids are corrosive, we say that strong bases are caustic. Common examples of strong bases are the hydroxides of alkali metals and alkaline earth metals like NaOH and Ca(OH)2. Very strong bases are even able to deprotonate very weakly acidic C-H groups in the absence of water. Superbases are a class of especially basic compounds and harpoon bases are a special class of strong bases with poor nucleophilicity. Examples of Strong Bases (Hydroxide compounds) in descending strenght: - Potassium hydroxide (KOH) - Barium hydroxide (Ba(OH)2) - Cesium hydroxide (CsOH) - Sodium hydroxide (NaOH) - Strontium hydroxide (Sr(OH)2) - Calcium hydroxide (Ca(OH)2) - Lithium hydroxide (LiOH) - Rubidium hydroxide (RbOH) The cations of these strong bases appear in groups 1 and 2 of the periodic table (alkali and alkaline earth metals). Even stronger bases are: - Sodium hydride (NaH) - Lithium diisopropylamide (LDA) (C6H14LiN) - Sodium amide (NaNH2) A "Weak Base" is one that does not fully ionize in solution. When a base ionizes, it takes up a hydrogen ion from the water around it, leaving an OH- ion behind. Weak bases have a higher H+ concentration than strong bases. Weak bases exist in chemical equilibrium in the same way weak acids do. The Base Ionization Constant Kb indicates the strength of the base. Large Kbs belong to stronger bases. The pH of a base is greater than 7 (where 7 is the neutral number; below 7 is an acid), normally up to 14. Common example of a weak base is ammonia, which is used for cleaning. Examples of Weak Bases: - Alanine (C3H5O2NH2) - Ammonia (water) (NH3 (NH4OH)) - Dimethylamine ((CH3)2NH) - Ethylamine (C2H5NH2) - Glycine (C2H3O2NH2) - Hydrazine (N2H4) - Methylamine (CH3NH2) - Trimethylamine ((CH3)3N) Acid - Base Neutralization Bases can be thought of as the chemical opposite of acids. A reaction between an acid and base is called neutralization. Bases and acids are seen as opposites because the effect of an acid is to increase the hydronium ion (H3O+) concentration in water, where as bases reduce this concentration. Bases react with acids to produce salts and water. A salts positive ion comes from the base and its negative ion comes from the acid. Considering a metal hydroxide as a base the general reaction is: - HX(aq) + MOH(aq) → MX(aq) + HOH(l) - acid base salt water Salts of strong bases and strong acids A strong acid HCl (hydrochloric acid) reacts with a strong base NaOH (sodium hydroxide) to form NaCl (salt = sodium chloride) and water. If the amounts of the acid and the base are in the correct stoichiometric ratio, then the reaction will undergo complete neutralization where the acid and the base both will lose their respective properties. - HCL(aq) + NaOH(aq) → NaCl(aq) + H2O(l) - strong strong salt water - acid base Salts of strong bases and weak acids A strong base NaOH (sodium hydroxide) added to a weak acid CH3COOH (acetic acid) in 1L of solution, forming NaCH3COO (sodium acetate) and water. - CH3COOH (aq) + NaOH(aq) → NaCH3COO (aq) + H2O(l) - weak weak salt water - acid base Salts of weak bases and strong acids Weak bases react with strong acids to form acidic salt solutions. The conjugate acid of the weak base determines its pH. For example, NH3 (ammonia) is added to HCl (hydrochloric acid) to form NH4Cl (ammonium chloride). - NH3(aq) + HCl(aq) → NH4Cl(aq) - weak strong salt - base acid As soon as the salt is formed it reacts with water, resulting in a slightly acidic solution. Salts of weak bases and weak acids Salt solutions containing acidic cations and basic anions such as NH4F (ammonium fluoride) have two possible reactions: - NH4+(aq) + H2O(l) ↔ H3O+(aq) + NH3(aq) Ka(NH4+) = 5.6 x 10-10 - F-(aq) + H2O(l) ↔ HF(aq) + OH-(aq) Kb(F-) = 1.4 x 10-11 Since Ka(NH4+) > Kb (F-), the reaction of ammonia with water is more favorable. Therefore, the resulting solution is slightly acidic. Most basic salts are alkali salts, of which common examples are: - sodium hydroxide (often called "caustic soda") - potassium hydroxide (commonly called "potash") - lye (generic term, for either of the previous two, or even for a mixture) - calcium carbonate (sometimes called "free lime") - magnesium hydroxide is an example of an atypical alkali: it is a weak base (cannot be detected by phenolphthalein) and it has low solubility in water. Soil with a pH value higher than 7.4 is normally referred to as alkaline. This soil property can occur naturally, due to the presence of alkali salts. Although some plants do prefer slightly basic soil (including vegetables like cabbage and fodder like buffalograss), most plants prefer a mildly acidic soil (pH between 6.0 and 6.8), and alkaline soils can cause problems. In alkali lakes (a type of salt lake), evaporation concentrates the naturally occurring alkali salts, often forming a crust of mildly basic salt across a large area. Examples of alkali lakes: Alkalinity of non-hydroxides Both sodium carbonate and ammonia are bases, although neither of these substances contains OH− groups. That is because both compounds accept H+ when dissolved in water: - Na2CO3 + H2O → 2 Na+ + HCO3- + OH- - NH3 + H2O → NH4+ + OH- Bases as heterogeneous catalysts Basic substances can be used as insoluble heterogeneous catalysts for chemical reactions. Examples are metal oxides such as magnesium oxide, calcium oxide, and barium oxide as well as potassium fluoride on alumina and some zeolites. A great deal of transition metals make good catalysts, many of which form basic substances. Basic catalysts have been used for hydrogenations, the migration of double bonds, in the Meerwein-Ponndorf-Verlay reduction, the Michael reaction, and many other reactions. Practical Base Chemistry In addition to their uses in industries, bases have many applications around the home. Antacids are used to neutralize stomach acidity; gardeners use bases such as Lime (CaO) to make soil more basic. Mild bases are used to clean everything from dishes and clothes to vehicles and the family dog. Neutralizing Stomach Acidity An antacid is a base that is used to neutralize excess stomach acid. The recommended dose is the amount of base required to neutralize some, but not all, of the stomach acid. The Acid - Base Chemistry of some Antacids: |Compound||Chemical Formula||Chemical Reaction| |Aluminum hydroxide||Al(OH)3||Al(OH)3(s) + 3 HCl(aq) -----> AlCl3(aq) + 3 H2O(l)| |Calcium carbonate||CaCO3||CaCO3(s) + 2 HCl(aq) -----> CaCl2(aq) + H2O(l) + CO2(g)| |Magnesium carbonate||MgCO3||MgCO3(s) + 2 HCl(aq) -----> MgCl2(aq) + H2O(l) + CO2(g)| |Magnesium hydroxide||Mg(OH)2||Mg(OH)2(s) + 2 HCl(aq) -----> MgCl2(aq) + 2 H2O(l)| |Sodium bicarbonate||NaHCO3||NaHCO3(aq) + HCl(aq) -----> NaCl(aq) + H2O(l) + CO2(g)| Most cleaning compounds such as dishwashing detergents, scouring powders, laundry detergents, and oven cleaners are basic. Many decades ago homemade lye soap was used to clean clothes as well as people's skin. The closest thing to lye soap we see today is dishwashing detergent. Really tough cleaning jobs around the home require chemically aggressive cleaners. Highly basic cleaners are used to get rid of dirt, grease, or stains. Drain and oven cleaners are at the other end of the pH spectrum, having pHs of 12 or higher. They usually contain a strong base such as NaOH that reacts with fats and grease to form a soluble soap. All strongly basic solutions, both in the lab as well as in homes are hazardous and should be handled with caution at all times. - Acid-base reaction theories - ↑ William B. Jensen, "The Origin of the Term Base," Journal of Chemical Education, 1130 83(8) (August 2006). - ↑ Alkali, Lexico Publishing Group, LLC. Retrieved April 8, 2008. - ↑ Alkali, Tiscali, 2008. Retrieved April 8, 2008. - ↑ Acids, bases and salts, KryssTal, 2005. Retrieved April 8, 2008. - ↑ A substance that can accept a pair of electrons to form a new bond. - ↑ A substance that can donate a pair of electrons to form a new bond. - ↑ A chemical compound or group that is attracted to electrons and tends to accept electrons. - ↑ A chemical compound or group that is attracted to nuclei and tends to donate or share electrons. - ↑ Capable of burning, corroding, dissolving, or eating away by chemical action. - ↑ A hydrated hydrogen ion, H3O+. Also called hydronium ion. - ↑ The ion OH-, characteristic of basic hydroxides. Also called hydroxyl ion. - ↑ J. W. Moore, C. L. Stanitski, and P. C. Jurs, 2002, Chemistry The Molecular Science, New York: Harcourt College. - Brown, Theodore E., H. Eugene LeMay, and Bruce E Bursten. 2005. Chemistry: The Central Science (10th Edition). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. ISBN 0131096869 ISBN 9780131096868 - Corwin, C. H. 2001. Introductory Chemistry Concepts & Connections (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall. ISBN 0130874701 - McMurry, J., and R. C. Fay. 2004. Chemistry (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall. ISBN 0131402080. - Moore, J. W., C. L. Stanitski, and P. C. Jurs. 2002. Chemistry The Molecular Science. New York: Harcourt College. ISBN 0030320119 - Oxlade, Chris. 2002. Acids and Bases (Chemicals in Action). Heinemann Library. ISBN 1588101940 ISBN 9781588101945 All links retrieved December 20, 2012. - CurTiPot – Acid-Base equilibrium diagrams, pH calculation and titration curves simulation and analysis - freeware New World Encyclopedia writers and editors rewrote and completed the Wikipedia article in accordance with New World Encyclopedia standards. This article abides by terms of the Creative Commons CC-by-sa 3.0 License (CC-by-sa), which may be used and disseminated with proper attribution. Credit is due under the terms of this license that can reference both the New World Encyclopedia contributors and the selfless volunteer contributors of the Wikimedia Foundation. To cite this article click here for a list of acceptable citing formats.The history of earlier contributions by wikipedians is accessible to researchers here: Note: Some restrictions may apply to use of individual images which are separately licensed.

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The juvenile court was originally founded on the principle of applying social-service interventions in a legal forum. During the 1990s a push for trying children as adults resulted in thousands of minors being placed in adult jails. Since 2005 the U.S. Supreme Court has limited practices such as the execution of offenders who are under the age of 18 when their crimes were committed and life without parole sentences for crimes committed by juveniles. Some juvenile courts have expanded their problem solving approach to include specialized courts or dockets, such as juvenile drug courts, mental health courts, teen courts, truancy courts, and gun courts. Links to related online resources are listed below. Non-digitized publications may be borrowed from the NCSC Library; call numbers are provided. This benchbook is the most recent major revision of the ICJ first published as a model legislation by the Council of State Governments (CSG) in 2004 and now in effect in 46 jurisdictions as a replacement for the 1955 compact. The Revised ICJ contains transition provisions to manage the relationship between states that continue to operate under the 1955 ICJ and those that have adopted the Revised ICJ. The Maryland Judiciary, Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC), sought and received funding from the State Justice Institute to conduct an empirical examination of the contextual factors that influence truancy and school attendance, and to evaluate a number of truancy interventions that are supported currently by the Judiciary. This package of information summarizes findings and evidence from federal reviews of research studies and program evaluations to help localities address childhood exposure to violence and improve outcomes for children, families, and communities. This article discusses innovative practices courts can help implement to better serve children that come to their attention through multiple systems, in particular the juvenile justice and child welfare systems. It identifies ways courts and their system partners can reengineer their work to best serve these youth and prevent further system involvement. Human Rights Watch. (May 2013). This report discusses the harm caused by policies based on inaccurate assumptions. Because youth sex offenders have a very low recidivism rate and 93% of sexually abused children are victims of molestation by a family member, registries do not protect most children from future sexual assault. Sex crimes requiring registration may range from public nudity to serious violent assault and so may subject youth to lifelong consequences for fairly innocuous behavior with little chance of recidivism. This report on TCP is part of a series of reports evaluating truancy intervention programs in Maryland, including the court-based intervention Truancy Reduction Pilot Program (TRPP) in the First Judicial Circuit and the mediation intervention Baltimore Students: Mediation about Reducing Truancy (B-SMART) in Baltimore City schools. Baltimore Students: Mediation About Reducing Truancy (BSMART) is an evidence-based early intervention program that targets students in elementary or middle school who have five to ten days of unexcused absences. This report identifies eight key principles of evidence based practices in juvenile community corrections, and discusses how the Maricopa County Juvenile Probation Department is positioned in relation to each of these principles. State court dockets are filled with offenders who have been through the system before and are likely to return. Incorporating evidence-based practices into the sentencing process offers the promise of reducing recidivism while protecting public safety and controlling corrections costs. In October 2008, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) administered the fifth Juvenile Residential Census (JRFC). The 2008 JRFC collected data from 2,860 juvenile facilities, 2,458 of which held a total of 81,015 offenders younger than 21on the census date (October 22, 2008). This report describes delinquency cases handled between 1985 and 2007 and petitioned status offense cases handled between 1995 and 2007 by more than 2,100 U.S. courts with juvenile jurisdiction. The report profiles the almost 1.7 million juvenile court cases handled each year for 2006 and 2007.

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|Pulaski Was The Hero of Two Countries | 2/23/2005 - For immediate release Date: February 21, 2005 Contact: George Otto Pulaski was hero of two countries This Monday, March 7, we are celebrating Pulaski Day in the state of Illinois. Who is he? Casimir Pulaski was born May 4, 1747, Warka, Poland. Not all our citizens are cognizant of who he is and why we are celebrating this day. Casimir Pulaski has cities, counties, mountains and streets named in his honor. A statue of his likeness on a horse stands in front of the White House, and huge monument has been erected by the city of Savannah, Ga., where he died for American freedom on Oct 11, 1779. Pulaski was a Polish and American general who fought for the Polish and American revolutions and was killed while storming the British fortifications at Savannah. The battle was won that day, but Pulaski lay mortally wounded on board a U.S. warship Wasp. General George Washington ordered that all Army units honor the fallen Polish hero. General Washington ordered that all army units honor the fallen Polish hero, on October 11, 1779. Pulaski gave his life for a country that might live free. Continental Congress paid homage to Pulaski for the brave deeds performed by him. Pulaski was a Polish general who tried to liberate his country from the Russian invaders in Poland. He made initial progress to drive the Russians out of Poland, but the overwhelming might of Russia made his efforts impossible. Soon regular battles were impossible. Instead, he made use of the terrain in partisan fighting, refusing to meet the Russian army in an open battle. He harassed the occupier with guerilla raids on horseback. Realizing that such raids were not going any place against superior forces, he had to flee his beloved Poland to take refuge in France. In Paris Benjamin Franklin recruited him for the American cause to come to the American Colonies to free their people from the occupier, Great Britain. Arriving in Marblehead, Mass., on July 23, 1777, Pulaski soon was dispatched to Gen. Washington, who made him a U.S. brigadier general. Because of Pulaski’s experience with the Polish cavalry and guerrilla warfare, Washington gave Pulaski the task of forming the first U.S. horse soldiers in the American Revolution, thus becoming the father of the U.S. Cavalry. At the Valley Forge winter retreat in 1777-78, Pulaski reorganized and trained the U.S. Cavalry. Pulaski soon proved his prowess when he repelled the attacking British troops and saved scarce military supplies that otherwise would have fallen to the enemy. His horse soldiers and military skills saved Washington him self from a sudden, unexpected British attack. He could not stop the British advances, but he did delay the fight long enough to save Washington and his troops from possible capture. In 1778, recognizing the benefits of horse soldiers, Washington commissioned Pulaski to form four light Cavalry regiments. Pulaski distinguished himself in many battles before being mortally wounded in 1779. On March 3, 1986, Governor James Thomson signed a bill declaring the first Monday in March a state holiday honoring Pulaski. Secretary of State, as state librarian, issued literature to all Illinois schools and libraries on the life of Pulaski, the Hero of two Nations. School children have the opportunity to learn and rediscover the heroes of the American Revolution in their class assignments. Chicago schools and government are closed. The Polish-American community honors General Pulaski in schools, churches, social and fraternal organizations. The main event will be hosted at the Polish Museum, 984 N. Milwaukee, on Monday, March 7; at 10:00 a.m., elected officials and dignitaries will be in attendance. At night a festive gala banquet, organized by the Polish American Congress, will take place at 6:00 p.m. at Jolly Inn, 6501 Irving Park Road. Dr. George Otto Co-chair of Pulaski Day

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Sierra del Lacandón National Park Ironically, Guatemala’s civil war helped protect many pristine areas from invasion and environmental degradation. This was especially the case in Sierra del Lacandón, a mountain chain in the western part of Petén along the Usumacinta River, where guerrillas and so-called Permanent Communities in Resistance (CPR) hid out in the jungle along the Guatemalan shore. Their presence discouraged illegal logging, poaching, and looting, as well as the surveying activities of dam engineers. The subsequent absence of the expelled CPRs after the end of the civil war left the area open to invasion, illegal logging, and smuggling of immigrants, arms, Mayan relics, and drugs. The 1996 Guatemala peace accords and the Zapatista Rebellion across the border in Mexico reshaped the nature of things in the Usumacinta watershed. Bandits began robbing rafting trips, including the author and eight others while camping on the Mexican bank in April 2004. Wilderness travel on the river north of Yaxchilán (Mexican bank) has pretty much ended since then, putting a monkey wrench into one option for low-impact, economically beneficial activities contributing to the conservation of this beautiful area. That said, the park is extremely important as a biological corridor and is believed to hold one of the largest populations of jaguars in all of Central America as well as an incredible degree of biodiversity, qualities enhanced by the rugged terrain of this jungle mountain park. Hidden in the forests are the remains of several Mayan sites, the most important of which is Piedras Negras, deep inside the park along the Usumacinta River. The only other way to reach the site is by air. Sierra del Lacandón National Park is privately administered by Fundación Defensores de la Naturaleza. In June 2006, together with The Nature Conservancy, it completed the purchase of 77,000 acres of privately owned land in the core zone of Sierra del Lacandón. Soon thereafter, a number of ranger stations inside the park were burned to the ground by squatters invading parklands. As in other cases, the squatters are said to have ties to drug traffickers and smugglers of illegal immigrants who find these remote areas very attractive. An attempt to evict squatters from an area known as Arroyo Macabilero in June 2006 ended with a gunfight between heavily armed men and park rangers. Four park rangers were taken captive but were released a few days later unharmed. In the summer of 2006, authorities were attempting to regain control of the area in a joint venture between Defensores de la Naturaleza and governmental security forces. Shortly thereafter, in October 2006, the press widely reported the retaking of Sierra del Lacanón by large numbers of Guatemalan security forces, who ousted about 80 families living at Arroyo Macabilero in a peaceful expropriation overseen and verified by human rights organizations. It remains to be seen if control of this wild frontier can be retained and if ranger stations or other tourist infrastructure will be rebuilt. For now, it is advisable to stay out of this park, with the possible exception of visits to Yaxchilán, across the Usumacinta River in Mexico, or via motorboat to Piedras Negras. In any case, check on the situation with one of the recommended Flores guide companies before heading out to these parts, as the situation can vastly improve or degenerate in a matter of weeks. If the security situation is ever cleared up, Sierra del Lacandón promises to be one of the Maya Biosphere’s most exquisite offerings because of the diversity of the terrain and corresponding biological significance. It is an absolutely beautiful park despite its current woes. Piedras Negras is a fascinating Mayan city and the jungle-lined banks of the Usumacinta offer an incredible river adventure. Having flown over much of the reserve, I can personally attest to the relatively well-preserved state of its mountain rainforests. © Al Argueta from Moon Guatemala, 3rd Edition. Photos © Al Argueta www.alargueta.com

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|Internet protocol suite| Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) is the latest revision of the Internet Protocol (IP), the communications protocol that provides an identification and location system for computers on networks and routes traffic across the Internet. IPv6 was developed by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) to deal with the long-anticipated problem of IPv4 address exhaustion. Every device on the Internet must be assigned an IP address in order to communicate with other devices. With the ever-increasing number of new devices being connected to the Internet, the need arose for more addresses than IPv4 is able to accommodate. IPv6 uses a 128-bit address, allowing 2128, or approximately 3.4×1038 addresses, or more than 7.9×1028 times as many as IPv4, which uses 32-bit addresses. IPv4 allows only approximately 4.3 billion addresses. The two protocols are not designed to be interoperable, complicating the transition to IPv6. IPv6 addresses are represented as eight groups of four hexadecimal digits separated by colons, for example 2001:0db8:85a3:0042:1000:8a2e:0370:7334, but methods of abbreviation of this full notation exist. Technical overview IPv6 is an Internet Layer protocol for packet-switched internetworking and provides end-to-end datagram transmission across multiple IP networks, closely adhering to the design principles developed in the previous version of the protocol, Internet Protocol Version 4 (IPv4). IPv6 was first formally described in Internet standard document RFC 2460, published in December 1998. In addition to offering more addresses, IPv6 also implements features not present in IPv4. It simplifies aspects of address assignment (stateless address autoconfiguration), network renumbering and router announcements when changing network connectivity providers. It simplifies processing of packets by routers by placing the need for packet fragmentation into the end points. The IPv6 subnet size is standardized by fixing the size of the host identifier portion of an address to 64 bits to facilitate an automatic mechanism for forming the host identifier from link layer addressing information (MAC address). Network security was a design requirement of the IPv6 architecture, and included the original specification of IPsec. IPv6 does not specify interoperability features with IPv4, but essentially creates a parallel, independent network. Exchanging traffic between the two networks requires translator gateways or other transition technologies, such as the tunneling protocols 6to4, 6in4, and Teredo. Motivation and origin Internet Protocol Version 4 (IPv4) was the first publicly used version of the Internet Protocol. IPv4 was developed as research project by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), a United States Department of Defense agency, before becoming the foundation for the Internet and the World Wide Web. It is currently described by IETF publication RFC 791 (September 1981), which replaced an earlier definition (RFC 760, January 1980). IPv4 included an addressing system that used numerical identifiers consisting of 32 bits. These addresses are typically displayed in quad-dotted notation as decimal values of four octets, each in the range 0 to 255, or 8 bits per number. Thus, IPv4 provides an addressing capability of 232 or approximately 4.3 billion addresses. Address exhaustion was not initially a concern in IPv4 as this version was originally presumed to be a test of DARPA's networking concepts. During the first decade of operation of the Internet, by the late 1980s, it became apparent that methods had to be developed to conserve address space. In the early 1990s, even after the redesign of the addressing system using a classless network model, it became clear that this would not suffice to prevent IPv4 address exhaustion, and that further changes to the Internet infrastructure were needed. The last unassigned top-level address blocks of 16 million IPv4 addresses were allocated in February 2011 by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) to the five regional Internet registries (RIRs). However, each RIR still has available address pools and is expected to continue with standard address allocation policies until one /8 CIDR block remains. After that, only blocks of 1024 addresses (/22) will be provided from the RIRs to a local Internet registry (LIR). As of September 2012, both the Asia-Pacific Network Information Centre (APNIC) and the Réseaux IP Européens Network Coordination Centre (RIPE_NCC) had reached this stage. Working-group proposals By the beginning of 1992, several proposals appeared for an expanded Internet addressing system and by the end of 1992 the IETF announced a call for white papers. In September 1993, the IETF created a temporary, ad-hoc IP Next Generation (IPng) area to deal specifically with IPng issues. The new area was led by Allison Mankin and Scott Bradner, and had a directorate with 15 engineers from diverse backgrounds for direction-setting and preliminary document review: The working-group members were J. Allard (Microsoft), Steve Bellovin (AT&T), Jim Bound (Digital Equipment Corporation), Ross Callon (Wellfleet), Brian Carpenter (CERN), Dave Clark (MIT), John Curran (NEARNET), Steve Deering (Xerox), Dino Farinacci (Cisco), Paul Francis (NTT), Eric Fleischmann (Boeing), Mark Knopper (Ameritech), Greg Minshall (Novell), Rob Ullmann (Lotus), and Lixia Zhang (Xerox). The Internet Engineering Task Force adopted the IPng model on 25 July 1994, with the formation of several IPng working groups. By 1996, a series of RFCs was released defining Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6), starting with RFC 1883. (Version 5 was used by the experimental Internet Stream Protocol.) It is widely expected that the Internet will use IPv4 alongside IPv6 for the foreseeable future. IPv4-only and IPv6-only nodes cannot communicate directly, and need assistance from an intermediary gateway or must use other transition mechanisms. Comparison with IPv4 On the Internet, data is transmitted in the form of network packets. IPv6 specifies a new packet format, designed to minimize packet header processing by routers. Because the headers of IPv4 packets and IPv6 packets are significantly different, the two protocols are not interoperable. However, in most respects, IPv6 is a conservative extension of IPv4. Most transport and application-layer protocols need little or no change to operate over IPv6; exceptions are application protocols that embed internet-layer addresses, such as FTP and NTPv3, where the new address format may cause conflicts with existing protocol syntax. Larger address space The main advantage of IPv6 over IPv4 is its larger address space. The length of an IPv6 address is 128 bits, compared with 32 bits in IPv4. The address space therefore has 2128 or approximately 3.4×1038 addresses. By comparison, this amounts to approximately 4.8×1028 addresses for each of the seven billion people alive in 2011. In addition, the IPv4 address space is poorly allocated, with approximately 14% of all available addresses utilized. While these numbers are large, it wasn't the intent of the designers of the IPv6 address space to assure geographical saturation with usable addresses. Rather, the longer addresses simplify allocation of addresses, enable efficient route aggregation, and allow implementation of special addressing features. In IPv4, complex Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) methods were developed to make the best use of the small address space. The standard size of a subnet in IPv6 is 264 addresses, the square of the size of the entire IPv4 address space. Thus, actual address space utilization rates will be small in IPv6, but network management and routing efficiency is improved by the large subnet space and hierarchical route aggregation. Renumbering an existing network for a new connectivity provider with different routing prefixes is a major effort with IPv4. With IPv6, however, changing the prefix announced by a few routers can in principle renumber an entire network, since the host identifiers (the least-significant 64 bits of an address) can be independently self-configured by a host. Multicasting, the transmission of a packet to multiple destinations in a single send operation, is part of the base specification in IPv6. In IPv4 this is an optional although commonly implemented feature. IPv6 multicast addressing shares common features and protocols with IPv4 multicast, but also provides changes and improvements by eliminating the need for certain protocols. IPv6 does not implement traditional IP broadcast, i.e. the transmission of a packet to all hosts on the attached link using a special broadcast address, and therefore does not define broadcast addresses. In IPv6, the same result can be achieved by sending a packet to the link-local all nodes multicast group at address ff02::1, which is analogous to IPv4 multicast to address 220.127.116.11. IPv6 also provides for new multicast implementations, including embedding rendezvous point addresses in an IPv6 multicast group address, which simplifies the deployment of inter-domain solutions. In IPv4 it is very difficult for an organization to get even one globally routable multicast group assignment, and the implementation of inter-domain solutions is very arcane. Unicast address assignments by a local Internet registry for IPv6 have at least a 64-bit routing prefix, yielding the smallest subnet size available in IPv6 (also 64 bits). With such an assignment it is possible to embed the unicast address prefix into the IPv6 multicast address format, while still providing a 32-bit block, the least significant bits of the address, or approximately 4.2 billion multicast group identifiers. Thus each user of an IPv6 subnet automatically has available a set of globally routable source-specific multicast groups for multicast applications. Stateless address autoconfiguration (SLAAC) IPv6 hosts can configure themselves automatically when connected to an IPv6 network using the Neighbor Discovery Protocol via Internet Control Message Protocol version 6 (ICMPv6) router discovery messages. When first connected to a network, a host sends a link-local router solicitation multicast request for its configuration parameters; routers respond to such a request with a router advertisement packet that contains Internet Layer configuration parameters. If IPv6 stateless address autoconfiguration is unsuitable for an application, a network may use stateful configuration with the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol version 6 (DHCPv6) or hosts may be configured manually using static methods. Routers present a special case of requirements for address configuration, as they often are sources of autoconfiguration information, such as router and prefix advertisements. Stateless configuration of routers can be achieved with a special router renumbering protocol. Network-layer security Internet Protocol Security (IPsec) was originally developed for IPv6, but found widespread deployment first in IPv4, for which it was re-engineered. IPsec was a mandatory specification of the base IPv6 protocol suite, but has since been made optional. Simplified processing by routers In IPv6, the packet header and the process of packet forwarding have been simplified. Although IPv6 packet headers are at least twice the size of IPv4 packet headers, packet processing by routers is generally more efficient, thereby extending the end-to-end principle of Internet design. Specifically: - The packet header in IPv6 is simpler than that used in IPv4, with many rarely used fields moved to separate optional header extensions. - IPv6 routers do not perform fragmentation. IPv6 hosts are required to either perform path MTU discovery, perform end-to-end fragmentation, or to send packets no larger than the IPv6 default minimum MTU size of 1280 octets. - The IPv6 header is not protected by a checksum; integrity protection is assumed to be assured by both link-layer and higher-layer (TCP, UDP, etc.) error detection. UDP/IPv4 may actually have a checksum of 0, indicating no checksum; IPv6 requires UDP to have its own checksum. Therefore, IPv6 routers do not need to recompute a checksum when header fields (such as the time to live (TTL) or hop count) change. This improvement may have been made less necessary by the development of routers that perform checksum computation at link speed using dedicated hardware, but it is still relevant for software-based routers. - The TTL field of IPv4 has been renamed to Hop Limit, reflecting the fact that routers are no longer expected to compute the time a packet has spent in a queue. Unlike mobile IPv4, mobile IPv6 avoids triangular routing and is therefore as efficient as native IPv6. IPv6 routers may also allow entire subnets to move to a new router connection point without renumbering. Options extensibility The IPv6 packet header has a fixed size (40 octets). Options are implemented as additional extension headers after the IPv6 header, which limits their size only by the size of an entire packet. The extension header mechanism makes the protocol extensible in that it allows future services for quality of service, security, mobility, and others to be added without redesign of the basic protocol. IPv4 limits packets to 65535 (216−1) octets of payload. An IPv6 node can optionally handle packets over this limit, referred to as jumbograms, which can be as large as 4294967295 (232−1) octets. The use of jumbograms may improve performance over high-MTU links. The use of jumbograms is indicated by the Jumbo Payload Option header. Like IPv4, IPv6 supports globally unique IP addresses by which the network activity of each device can potentially be tracked. The design of IPv6 intended to re-emphasize the end-to-end principle of network design that was originally conceived during the establishment of the early Internet. In this approach each device on the network has a unique address globally reachable directly from any other location on the Internet. In the effort to conserve address space, network address translation (NAT) obfuscates network address spaces, hosts, and topologies in IPv4. When using address auto-configuration, the hardware address (MAC address) of an interface port is used to make its public IP address unique, exposing the type of hardware used and providing a unique handle for a user's online activity. This feature of IPv6 caused privacy concerns, similar to the way that cookies can also be used to track a user's navigation within and between sites. It is not a requirement for IPv6 hosts to use address auto-configuration, however. Yet, even when an address is not based on the MAC address, the interface's address is globally unique, in contrast to NAT-masqueraded private networks. Privacy extensions for IPv6 have been defined to address these privacy concerns, although Silvia Hagen describes these as being largely due to 'misunderstanding'. When privacy extensions are enabled, the operating system generates ephemeral IP addresses by concatenating a randomly generated host identifier with the assigned network prefix. These ephemeral addresses, instead of trackable static IP addresses, are used to communicate with remote hosts. The use of ephemeral addresses makes it difficult to accurately track a user's Internet activity by scanning activity streams for a single IPv6 address. Privacy extensions do not protect the user from other forms of activity tracking, such as tracking cookies. Privacy extensions do little to protect the user from tracking if only one or two hosts are using a given network prefix, and the activity tracker is privy to this information. In this scenario, the network prefix is the unique identifier for tracking. Network prefix tracking is less of a concern if the user's ISP assigns a dynamic network prefix via DHCP. Packet format An IPv6 packet has two parts: a header and payload. The header consists of a fixed portion with minimal functionality required for all packets and may be followed by optional extensions to implement special features. The fixed header occupies the first 40 octets (320 bits) of the IPv6 packet. It contains the source and destination addresses, traffic classification options, a hop counter, and the type of the optional extension or payload which follows the header. This Next Header field tells the receiver how to interpret the data which follows the header. If the packet contains options, this field contains the option type of the next option. The "Next Header" field of the last option, points to the upper-layer protocol that is carried in the packet's payload. Extension headers carry options that are used for special treatment of a packet in the network, e.g., for routing, fragmentation, and for security using the IPsec framework. Without special options, a payload must be less than 64kB. With a Jumbo Payload option (in a Hop-By-Hop Options extension header), the payload must be less than 4 GB. Unlike in IPv4, routers never fragment a packet. Hosts are expected to use Path MTU Discovery to make their packets small enough to reach the destination without needing to be fragmented. See IPv6 Packet#Fragmentation. Compared to IPv4, the most obvious advantage of IPv6 is its larger address space. IPv4 addresses are 32 bits long and number about 4.3×109 (4.3 billion). IPv6 addresses are 128 bits long and number about 3.4×1038 (340 undecillion). IPv6's addresses are deemed enough for the foreseeable future. IPv6 addresses are written in eight groups of four hexadecimal digits separated by colons, such as 2001:0db8:85a3:0000:0000:8a2e:0370:7334. IPv6 unicast addresses other than those that start with binary 000 are logically divided into two parts: a 64-bit (sub-)network prefix, and a 64-bit interface identifier. For stateless address autoconfiguration (SLAAC) to work, subnets require a /64 address block, as defined in RFC 4291 section 2.5.1. Local Internet registries get assigned at least /32 blocks, which they divide among ISPs. The obsolete RFC 3177 recommended the assignment of a /48 to end-consumer sites. This was replaced by RFC 6177, which "recommends giving home sites significantly more than a single /64, but does not recommend that every home site be given a /48 either". /56s are specifically considered. It remains to be seen if ISPs will honor this recommendation; for example, during initial trials, Comcast customers were given a single /64 network. IPv6 addresses are classified by three types of networking methodologies: unicast addresses identify each network interface, anycast addresses identify a group of interfaces, usually at different locations of which the nearest one is automatically selected, and multicast addresses are used to deliver one packet to many interfaces. The broadcast method is not implemented in IPv6. Each IPv6 address has a scope, which specifies in which part of the network it is valid and unique. Some addresses are unique only on the local (sub-)network. Others are globally unique. Some IPv6 addresses are reserved for special purposes, such as loopback, 6to4 tunneling, and Teredo tunneling, as outlined in RFC 5156. Also, some address ranges are considered special, such as link-local addresses for use on the local link only, Unique Local addresses (ULA), as described in RFC 4193, and solicited-node multicast addresses used in the Neighbor Discovery Protocol. IPv6 in the Domain Name System In the Domain Name System, hostnames are mapped to IPv6 addresses by AAAA resource records, so-called quad-A records. For reverse resolution, the IETF reserved the domain ip6.arpa, where the name space is hierarchically divided by the 1-digit hexadecimal representation of nibble units (4 bits) of the IPv6 address. This scheme is defined in RFC 3596. Address representation The 128 bits of an IPv6 address are represented in 8 groups of 16 bits each. Each group is written as 4 hexadecimal digits and the groups are separated by colons (:). The address 2001:0db8:0000:0000:0000:ff00:0042:8329 is an example of this representation. For convenience, an IPv6 address may be abbreviated to shorter notations by application of the following rules, where possible. - One or more leading zeroes from any groups of hexadecimal digits are removed; this is usually done to either all or none of the leading zeroes. For example, the group 0042 is converted to 42. - Consecutive sections of zeroes are replaced with a double colon (::). The double colon may only be used once in an address, as multiple use would render the address indeterminate. RFC 5952 recommends that a double colon should not be used to denote an omitted single section of zeroes. An example of application of these rules: - Initial address: 2001:0db8:0000:0000:0000:ff00:0042:8329 - After removing all leading zeroes: 2001:db8:0:0:0:ff00:42:8329 - After omitting consecutive sections of zeroes: 2001:db8::ff00:42:8329 The loopback address, 0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0001, may be abbreviated to ::1 by using both rules. Transition mechanisms |IPv6 transition mechanisms| Until IPv6 completely supplants IPv4, a number of transition mechanisms are needed to enable IPv6-only hosts to reach IPv4 services and to allow isolated IPv6 hosts and networks to reach each other over IPv4-only infrastructure. Many of these transition mechanisms use tunneling to encapsulate IPv6 traffic within IPv4 networks. This is an imperfect solution, which may increase latency and cause problems with Path MTU Discovery. Tunneling protocols are a temporary solution for networks that do not support native dual-stack, where both IPv6 and IPv4 run independently. Dual IP stack implementation Dual-stack (or native dual-stack) refers to side-by-side implementation of IPv4 and IPv6. That is, both protocols run on the same network infrastructure, and there's no need to encapsulate IPv6 inside IPv4 (using tunneling) or vice-versa. Dual-stack is defined in RFC 4213. Although this is the most desirable IPv6 implementation, as it avoids the complexities and pitfalls of tunneling (such as security, increased latency, management overhead, and a reduced PMTU), it is not always possible, since outdated network equipment may not support IPv6. A good example is cable TV-based internet access. In modern cable TV networks, the core of the HFC network (such as large core routers) are likely to support IPv6. However, other network equipment (such as a CMTS) or customer equipment (like cable modems) may require software updates or hardware upgrades to support IPv6. This means cable network operators must resort to tunneling until the backbone equipment supports native dual-stack. Because not all networks support dual-stack, tunneling is used for IPv4 networks to talk to IPv6 networks (and vice-versa). Many current internet users do not have IPv6 dual-stack support, and thus cannot reach IPv6 sites directly. Instead, they must use IPv4 infrastructure to carry IPv6 packets. This is done using a technique known as tunneling, which encapsulates IPv6 packets within IPv4, in effect using IPv4 as a link layer for IPv6. IP protocol 41 indicates IPv4 packets which encapsulate IPv6 datagrams. Some routers or network address translation devices may block protocol 41. To pass through these devices, you might use UDP packets to encapsulate IPv6 datagrams. Other encapsulation schemes, such as AYIYA or Generic Routing Encapsulation, are also popular. Conversely, on IPv6-only internet links, when access to IPv4 network facilities is needed, tunneling of IPv4 over IPv6 protocol occurs, using the IPv6 as a link layer for IPv4. Automatic tunneling Automatic tunneling refers to a technique by which the routing infrastructure automatically determines the tunnel endpoints. Some automatic tunneling techniques are below. 6to4 is recommended by RFC 3056. It uses protocol 41 encapsulation. Tunnel endpoints are determined by using a well-known IPv4 anycast address on the remote side, and embedding IPv4 address information within IPv6 addresses on the local side. 6to4 is the most common tunnel protocol currently deployed. Teredo is an automatic tunneling technique that uses UDP encapsulation and can allegedly cross multiple NAT nodes. IPv6, including 6to4 and Teredo tunneling, are enabled by default in Windows Vista and Windows 7. Most Unix systems implement only 6to4, but Teredo can be provided by third-party software such as Miredo. ISATAP treats the IPv4 network as a virtual IPv6 local link, with mappings from each IPv4 address to a link-local IPv6 address. Unlike 6to4 and Teredo, which are inter-site tunnelling mechanisms, ISATAP is an intra-site mechanism, meaning that it is designed to provide IPv6 connectivity between nodes within a single organisation. Configured and automated tunneling (6in4) 6in4 tunneling requires the tunnel endpoints to be explicitly configured, either by an administrator manually or the operating system's configuration mechanisms, or by an automatic service known as a tunnel broker; this is also referred to as automated tunneling. Configured tunneling is usually more deterministic and easier to debug than automatic tunneling, and is therefore recommended for large, well-administered networks. Automated tunneling provides a compromise between the ease of use of automatic tunneling and the deterministic behavior of configured tunneling. Raw encapsulation of IPv6 packets using IPv4 protocol number 41 is recommended for configured tunneling; this is sometimes known as 6in4 tunneling. As with automatic tunneling, encapsulation within UDP may be used in order to cross NAT boxes and firewalls. Proxying and translation for IPv6-only hosts After the regional Internet registries have exhausted their pools of available IPv4 addresses, it is likely that hosts newly added to the Internet might only have IPv6 connectivity. For these clients to have backward-compatible connectivity to existing IPv4-only resources, suitable IPv6 transition mechanisms must be deployed. One form of address translation is the use of a dual-stack application-layer proxy server, for example a web proxy. NAT-like techniques for application-agnostic translation at the lower layers in routers and gateways have been proposed. The NAT-PT standard was dropped because of criticisms, however more recently the continued low adoption of IPv6 has prompted a new standardization effort of a technology called NAT64. IPv6 readiness Compatibility with IPv6 networking is mainly a software or firmware issue. However, much of the older hardware that could in principle be upgraded is likely to be replaced instead. The American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) suggested that all Internet servers be prepared to serve IPv6-only clients by January 2012. Sites will only be accessible over NAT64 if they do not use IPv4 literals as well. Host software can be IPv4-only, IPv6-only, dual-stack, or hybrid dual-stack. Most personal computers running recent operating system versions are operable on IPv6. Many popular applications with network capabilities are compliant, and most others could be easily upgraded with help from the developers. IPv4-mapped IPv6 addresses Hybrid dual-stack IPv6/IPv4 implementations recognize a special class of addresses, the IPv4-mapped IPv6 addresses. In these addresses, the first 80 bits are zero, the next 16 bits are one, and the remaining 32 bits are the IPv4 address. One may see these addresses with the first 96 bits written in the standard IPv6 format, and the remaining 32 bits written in the customary dot-decimal notation of IPv4. For example, ::ffff:192.0.2.128 represents the IPv4 address 192.0.2.128. A deprecated format for IPv4-compatible IPv6 addresses was Because of the significant internal differences between IPv4 and IPv6, some of the lower-level functionality available to programmers in the IPv6 stack does not work identically with IPv4-mapped addresses. Some common IPv6 stacks do not implement the IPv4-mapped address feature, either because the IPv6 and IPv4 stacks are separate implementations (e.g., Microsoft Windows 2000, XP, and Server 2003), or because of security concerns (OpenBSD). On these operating systems, a program must open a separate socket for each IP protocol it uses. On some systems, e.g., the Linux kernel, NetBSD, and FreeBSD, this feature is controlled by the socket option IPV6_V6ONLY, as specified in RFC 3493. Hardware and embedded systems Low-level equipment such as network adapters and network switches may not be affected by the change, since they transmit link-layer frames without inspecting the contents. However, networking devices that obtain IP addresses or perform routing of IP packets do need to understand IPv6. Most equipment would be IPv6 capable with a software or firmware update if the device has sufficient storage and memory space for the new IPv6 stack. However, manufacturers may be reluctant to spend on software development costs for hardware they have already sold when they are poised for new sales from IPv6-ready equipment. In some cases, non-compliant equipment needs to be replaced because the manufacturer no longer exists or software updates are not possible, for example, because the network stack is implemented in permanent read-only memory. The CableLabs consortium published the 160 Mbit/s DOCSIS 3.0 IPv6-ready specification for cable modems in August 2006. The widely used DOCSIS 2.0 does not support IPv6. The new 'DOCSIS 2.0 + IPv6' standard supports IPv6, which may on the cable modem side require only a firmware upgrade. It is expected that only 60% of cable modems' servers and 40% of cable modems will be DOCSIS 3.0 by 2011. However, most ISPs that support DOCSIS 3.0 do not support IPv6 across their networks. Other equipment which is typically not IPv6-ready ranges from Voice over Internet Protocol devices to laboratory equipment and printers. Shadow networks A side effect of IPv6 implementation may be the emergence of so-called "shadow networks" caused by IPv6 traffic flowing into IPv4 networks where the IPv4 security in place is unable to properly identify it. Shadow networks have been found occurring on business networks in which enterprises are replacing Windows XP systems, that do not have an IPv6 stack enabled by default, with Windows 7 systems, which do. The introduction of Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) in the Internet routing and IP address allocation methods in 1993 and the extensive use of network address translation (NAT) delayed the inevitable IPv4 address exhaustion, but the final phase of exhaustion started on 3 February 2011. However, despite a decade long development and implementation history as a Standards Track protocol, general worldwide deployment is still in its infancy. As of October 2011, about 3% of domain names and 12% of the networks on the internet have IPv6 protocol support. IPv6 has been implemented on all major operating systems in use in commercial, business, and home consumer environments. Since 2008, the domain name system can be used in IPv6. IPv6 was first used in a major world event during the 2008 Summer Olympic Games, the largest showcase of IPv6 technology since the inception of IPv6. Some governments including the Federal U.S. Government and China are also starting to require IPv6 capability on their equipment. In 2009, Verizon mandated IPv6 operation and deprecated IPv4 as an optional capability for cellular (LTE) hardware. T-Mobile USA followed suit. As of June 2012, T-Mobile USA supports external IPv6 access. See also - China Next Generation Internet - Comparison of IPv6 application support - Comparison of IPv6 support by major transit providers - Comparison of IPv6 support in operating systems - Comparison of IPv6 support in routers - DoD IPv6 Product Certification - List of IPv6 tunnel brokers - University of New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory - David Frost (20 April 2011). "Ipv6 traffic volumes going backwards". iTWire. Retrieved 19 February 2012. - Poppe, Yves (28 November 2012). "IPv6: A 2012 Report Card". CircleID. Retrieved 9 December 2012. - RFC 2460, Internet Protocol, Version 6 (IPv6) Specification, S. Deering, R. Hinden (December 1998) - RFC 1752 The Recommendation for the IP Next Generation Protocol, S. Bradner, A. Mankin, January 1995. - Rashid, Fahmida. "IPv4 Address Exhaustion Not Instant Cause for Concern with IPv6 in Wings". eWeek. Retrieved 23 June 2012. - Ward, Mark. "Europe hits old internet address limits". BBC. Retrieved 15 September 2012. - RFC 1550, IP: Next Generation (IPng) White Paper Solicitation, S. Bradner, A. Mankin (December 1993) - "History of the IPng Effort". Sun.[dead link] - The Internet Engineering Task Force. Apendix B. http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc1752#appendix-B - RFC 1726, Technical Criteria for Choosing IP The Next Generation (IPng), Partridge C., Kastenholz F. (December 1994) - "U.S. Census Bureau". Census.gov. Retrieved 20 January 2012. - "Moving to IPv6: Now for the hard part (FAQ)". Deep Tech. CNET News. Retrieved 3 February 2011. - RFC 2071, Network Renumbering Overview: Why would I want it and what is it anyway?, P. Ferguson, H. Berkowitz (January 1997) - RFC 2072, Router Renumbering Guide, H. Berkowitz (January 1997) - RFC 4862, IPv6 Stateless Address Autoconfiguration, S. Thomson, T. Narten, T. Jinmei (September 2007) - RFC 1112, Host extensions for IP multicasting, S. Deering (August 1989) - RFC 3956, Embedding the Rendezvous Point (RP) Address in an IPv6 Multicast Address, P. Savola, B. Haberman (November 2004) - RFC 2908, The Internet Multicast Address Allocation Architecture, D. Thaler, M. Handley, D. Estrin (September 2000) - RFC 3306, Unicast-Prefix-based IPv6 Multicast Addresses, B. Haberman, D. Thaler (August 2002) - RFC 2894, Router Renumbering for IPv6, M. Crawford, August 2000. - RFC 4301, IPv6 Node Requirements", J. Loughney (April 2006) - RFC 6434, "IPv6 Node Requirements", E. Jankiewicz, J. Loughney, T. Narten (December 2011) - RFC 3963, Network Mobility (NEMO) Basic Protocol Support, V. Devarapalli, R. Wakikawa, A. Petrescu, P. Thubert (January 2005) - RFC 2675, IPv6 Jumbograms, D. Borman, S. Deering, R. Hinden (August 1999) - T. Narten, R. Draves (2001-01). "Privacy Extensions for Stateless Address Autoconfiguration in IPv6". - IPv6 Essentials by Silvia Hagen, p. 28, chapter 3.5. - Privacy Extensions (IPv6), Elektronik Kompendium. - IPv6: Privacy Extensions einschalten, Reiko Kaps, 13 April 2011 - "Comment #61 : Bug #176125 : Bugs: "procps" package: Ubuntu". Bugs.launchpad.net. Retrieved 19 February 2012. - Statement on IPv6 Address Privacy, Steve Deering & Bob Hinden, Co-Chairs of the IETF's IP Next Generation Working Group, 6 November 1999. - "Neues Internet-Protokoll erschwert anonymes Surfen". Spiegel.de. Retrieved 19 February 2012. - RFC 4291, IP Version 6 Addressing Architecture, R. Hinden, S. Deering (February 2006) - "The sheer size of IPv6". Pthree.org. 8 March 2009. Retrieved 20 January 2012. - RFC 4291, p. 9 - "IPv6 Address Allocation and Assignment Policy". RIPE NCC. 8 February 2011. Retrieved 27 March 2011. - "Comcast Activates First Users With IPv6 Native Dual Stack Over DOCSIS". Comcast. 31 January 2011. - RFC 5952, A Recommendation for IPv6 Address Text Representation, S. Kawamura (August 2010), section 4.2.2: http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5952#section-4.2.2 - RFC 5952, A Recommendation for IPv6 Address Text Representation, S. Kawamura (August 2010) - "IPv6 Transition Mechanism / Tunneling Comparison". Sixxs.net. Retrieved 20 January 2012. - "RFC 6343–Advisory Guidelines for 6to4 Deployment". Tools.ietf.org. Retrieved 20 August 2012. - "RFC 4213, Basic Transition Mechanisms for IPv6 Hosts and Routers". Tools.ietf.org. Retrieved 20 August 2012. - "IPv6: Dual stack where you can; tunnel where you must". www.networkworld.com. 5 September 2007. Retrieved 27 November 2012. - RFC 3056, Connection of IPv6 Domains via IPv4 Clouds, B. Carpenter, Februari 2001. - RFC 4380, Teredo: Tunneling IPv6 over UDP through Network Address Translations (NATs), C. Huitema, Februari 2006 - "The Windows Vista Developer Story: Application Compatibility Cookbook". Msdn2.microsoft.com. 24 April 2006. Retrieved 20 January 2012. - RFC 5214, Intra-Site Automatic Tunnel Addressing Protocol (ISATAP), F. Templin, T. Gleeson, D. Thaler, March 2008. - RFC 3053, IPv6 Tunnel Broker, A. Durand, P. Fasano, I. Guardini, D. Lento (January 2001) - RFC 4966, Reasons to Move the Network Address Translator-Protocol Translator (NAT-PT) to Historic Status - Web sites must support IPv6 by 2012, expert warns. Network World. 21 January 2010. Retrieved 30 September 2010. - "RFC4291". Tools.ietf.org. Retrieved 20 January 2012. - "OpenBSD inet6(4) manual page". Openbsd.org. 13 December 2009. Retrieved 20 January 2012. - "RFC 3493, Basic Socket Interface Extensions for IPv6". Tools.ietf.org. Retrieved 20 January 2012. - "DOCSIS 2.0 Interface". Cablemodem.com. 29 October 2007. Retrieved 31 August 2009. - "RMV6TF.org" (PDF). Retrieved 20 January 2012.[dead link] - "DOCSIS 3.0 Network Equipment Penetration to Reach 60% by 2011" (Press release). ABI Research. 23 August 2007. Retrieved 30 September 2007.[dead link] - Mullins, Robert (April 5, 2012), Shadow Networks: an Unintended IPv6 Side Effect, retrieved March 2, 2013 - Cicileo, Guillermo; Gagliano, Roque; O’Flaherty, Christian et al. (October 2009). IPv6 For All: A Guide for IPv6 Usage and Application in Different Environments (pdf). p. 5. Retrieved March 2, 2013. - "IPv4 Address Report". Potaroo.net. Retrieved 20 January 2012. - Mike Leber (2 October 2010). "Global IPv6 Deployment Progress Report". Hurricane Electric. Retrieved 19 October 2011. - "Beijing2008.cn leaps to next-generation Net" (Press release). The Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad. 30 May 2008. - Das, Kaushik (2008). "IPv6 and the 2008 Beijing Olympics". IPv6.com. Retrieved 15 August 2008. "As thousands of engineers, technologists have worked for a significant time to perfect this (IPv6) technology, there is no doubt, this technology brings considerable promises but this is for the first time that it will showcase its strength when in use for such a mega-event." - Derek Morr (9 June 2009). "Verizon Mandates IPv6 Support for Next-Gen Cell Phones". CircleID. - theipv6guy (31 July 2012). "T-Mobile USA Launches External IPv6". T-Mobile. - Free Pool of IPv4 Address Space Depleted - An Introduction and Statistics about IPV6 - Google IPv6 check - IPv6 Introduction and Configuration by IBM Redbooks

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The ex-gay movement is a controversial movement that consists of people and organizations that seek to encourage people to refrain from entering or pursuing same-sex relationships, to eliminate homosexual desires, to develop heterosexual desires, or to enter into a heterosexual relationship. The "ex-gay" movement relies on the involvement of individuals who formerly identified themselves to be gay, lesbian, or bisexual but no longer do; these individuals may either claim that they have eliminated their attraction to the same sex altogether or simply that they abstain from acting on such attraction. There have been various scandals related to this movement, including some self-claimed ex-gays having been found in same-sex relationships despite having denied this, as well as controversies over gay minors being forced to go to ex-gay camps against their will, and over admissions by organizations related to the movement that conversion therapy does not work. A large body of research and global scientific consensus indicates that being gay, lesbian, or bisexual is compatible with normal mental health and social adjustment. Because of this, major mental health professional organizations discourage and caution individuals against attempting to change their sexual orientation to heterosexual, and warn that attempting to do so can be harmful. Definition of change Various ex-gay organizations have working definitions of change. Exodus International describes change as, "attaining abstinence from homosexual behaviors, lessening of homosexual temptations, strengthening their sense of masculine or feminine identity, correcting distorted styles of relating with members of the same and opposite gender." People Can Change defines change as, "any degree of change toward greater peace, satisfaction and fulfillment, and less shame, depression and darkness", and emphasizes that for most people, heterosexuality is not the ultimate goal.When the term ex-gay was introduced to professional literature in 1980, E. Mansell Pattison defined it as describing a person who had "experienced a basic change in sexual orientation". Some ex-gays advocate entering (or remaining) in a heterosexual marriage as part of the process. Some in mixed-orientation marriages acknowledge that their sexual attractions remain primarily homosexual, but seek to make their marriages work anyway. The president of Exodus International said that he agrees that people cannot necessarily change their sexual orientation, but he said that they can, "live in accord with their beliefs and faith". Motivation of participants The American Psychological Association reported that some ex-gay groups may help counteract and buffer minority stress, marginalization, and isolation in ways similar to other support groups, such as offering social support, fellowship, role models, and new ways to view a problem through unique philosophies or ideologies. Additionally, the same researchers also found that people joined ex-gay groups due to: a lack of other sources of social support; a desire for active coping, including both cognitive and emotional coping; and access to methods of sexual orientation identity exploration and reconstruction. The same report found that some have described the ex-gay groups as, "a refuge for those who were excluded both from conservative churches and from their families, because of their same-sex sexual attractions, and from gay organizations and social networks, because of their conservative religious beliefs." According to the APA report, "Ex-gay groups appear to relieve the distress caused by conflicts between religious values and sexual orientation and help participants change their sexual orientation identity, but not their sexual orientation." The APA goes on to report that some believed that by, "taking on 'ex-gay' cultural norms and language and finding a community that enabled and reinforced their primary religious beliefs, values, and concerns", that they could resolve identity conflicts by, "(a) adopting a new discourse or worldview, (b) engaging in a biographical reconstruction, (c) embracing a new explanatory model, and (d) forming strong interpersonal ties." One of the APA's sources for the report found that, "ex-gay groups recast homosexuality as an ordinary sin, and thus salvation was still achievable." Another one of their sources is summarized as having observed that, "such groups built hope, recovery, and relapse into an ex-gay identity, thus expecting same-sex sexual behaviors and conceiving them as opportunities for repentance and forgiveness." The APA report warns however that, "some [ex-gay] groups may reinforce prejudice and stigma by providing inaccurate or stereotyped information about homosexuality." Ex-gay organizations The first ex-gay ministry, Love in Action, was formed in 1973. Three years later, with other ex-gay organizations, it formed Exodus International, the largest ex-gay organization and the largest organization under the Exodus Global Alliance. Other ex-gay organizations cater to a specific religious groups, such as Courage International for Catholics, Evergreen International for Mormons (LDS), and JONAH for Jews. Some groups follow a specific technique, such as Homosexuals Anonymous, modeled after the Alcoholics Anonymous twelve-step program. Other ex-gay organizations include Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays. People associated with the ex-gay movement ||This section has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. - Joe Dallas is the program director of Genesis Counseling. He has written six books on human sexuality. - Donnie McClurkin wrote about his experience with homosexuality in his book, Eternal Victim, Eternal Victor. He describes himself as going through a process by which he became "saved and sanctified." McClurkin has been criticized for stating homosexuality is a curse. He speaks openly about sexual issues since becoming the biological father of a child with a woman to whom he was not married. He uses these experiences in his concerts and speaking engagements. In 2004, he sang at the Republican National Convention. The appearance generated criticism for the event organizers and McClurkin for his statements on homosexuality. - Jeffrey Satinover is an American psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, and physicist. He is a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee of NARTH. - Charles Socarides was an American psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, physician, educator, and author. He helped found NARTH in 1992. People who no longer support the ex-gay movement - Günter Baum originally founded an ex-gay ministry in Germany. Later he formed Zwischenraum, which helps gay Christians to accept their sexuality and to reconcile it with their beliefs. - John Paulk, then leader of Focus on the Family's Love Won Out conference and chairman of the board for Exodus International North America, was spotted visiting a Washington, D.C. gay bar in September 2000. He was photographed outside of the bar from behind by Wayne Besen, and later stepped down from the two organizations. In 2013, he formally apologized for his involvement in promoting the ex-gay concept and for the harm his work had done. - Anthony Venn-Brown is a former Australian evangelist in the Assemblies of God and an author whose book describes his experience in Australia’s first ex-gay program. Venn-Brown co-founded "Freedom 2 b[e]" which offers support to GLBT people from church backgrounds and who have been displaced from the ex gay movement. In 2007 he co-ordinated the release of a statement from five Australian ex-gay leaders who publicly apologized for their past actions. - John Smid was the leader of Love In Action in Memphis. He resigned that position in 2008, and in 2010 apologized for any harm that he'd caused, noting that his teen program "further wounded teens that were already in a very delicate place in life." He has announced that he is still homosexual and admitted never seeing a man successfully converting to heterosexuality in his group. - Warren Throckmorton is a past president of the American Mental Health Counselors Association. He wrote and produced the documentary I Do Exist about ex-gay people, but subsequently came to "believe that categorical change in sexual attractions, especially for men, is rare" and repudiated some of the claims he made in the film. - Peterson Toscano is an actor who was involved in the ex-gay movement for 17 years. He performs a related one-man satire titled Doin' Time in the Homo No Mo Halfway House, and with Christine Bakke co-runs Beyond Ex-Gay, a support website for people coming out of ex-gay experiences. Sexual orientation change efforts Some ex-gay organizations, such as Exodus International, recommend to their members that they undertake sexual orientation change efforts, such as conversion therapy. Exodus warns against going to counselors that tells the patient that they "can definitely eliminate all attractions to your same gender, or that you can definitely acquire heteroerotic attractions." Evergreen International does not advocate any particular form of therapy, and warns that "therapy will likely not be a cure in the sense of erasing all homosexual feelings." SOCE are controversial and the American Psychological Association reported that, "the available evidence, from both early and recent studies, suggests that although sexual orientation is unlikely to change, some individuals modified their sexual orientation identity (i.e., individual or group membership and affiliation, self-labeling) and other aspects of sexuality (i.e. values and behavior)." Virtually all major mental health organizations have adopted policy statements cautioning the profession and the public against treatments that purport to change sexual orientation. The National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality, an ex-gay organization, argues that mainstream health and mental health organizations have, in many cases, taken public positions on homosexuality and same-sex marriage that are based on their own social and political views rather than the available science. In 2012, the Pan American Health Organization (the North and South American branch of the World Health Organization) released a statement cautioning against services that purport to "cure" people with non-heterosexual sexual orientations as they lack medical justification and represent a serious threat to the health and well-being of affected people, and noted that the global scientific and professional consensus is that homosexuality is a normal and natural variation of human sexuality and cannot be regarded as a pathological condition. The Pan American Health Organization further called on governments, academic institutions, professional associations and the media to expose these practices and to promote respect for diversity. The World Health Organization affiliate further noted that gay minors have sometimes been forced to attend these "therapies" involuntarily, being deprived of their liberty and sometimes kept in isolation for several months, and that these findings were reported by several United Nations bodies. Additionally, the Pan American Health Organization recommended that such malpractices be denounced and subject to sanctions and penalties under national legislation, as they they constitute a violation of the ethical principles of health care and violate human rights that are protected by international and regional agreements. Controversy over teenagers A controversial aspect of the ex-gay movement has been the focus of some ex-gay organizations on gay teenagers, including occasions where teenagers have been forced to attend ex-gay camps against their will by their parents. A 2006 report by the National Gay and Lesbian Taskforce outlined evidence that ex-gay and conversion therapy groups were at the time increasingly focusing on children. Several legal researchers have responded to these events by arguing that parents who force their children into aggressive conversion therapy programs are committing child abuse under various state statutes. One case of emancipation involved Lyn Duff. Duff was admitted to Rivendell Psychiatric Center in West Jordan, Utah on December 19, 1991, at age fifteen, after being involuntarily transported there at her mother’s behest. Duff was subjected to a regimen of conversion therapy, including aversion therapy, hypnosis, psychotropic drugs, solitary confinement, therapeutic messages linking lesbian sex with "the pits of hell", behavior modification techniques, unreasonable forms of punishment for small infractions, and "positive peer pressure" group sessions in which patients demeaned and belittled each other for both real and perceived inadequacies. On May 19, 1992, after 168 days of incarceration, Duff escaped from Rivendell and traveled to San Francisco, where she lived on the streets and in safe houses. In 1992, Duff initiated legal action against the facility and her mother. The ex-gay organization Love in Action was involved in a controversy surrounding a teenager. In July 2005, The New York Times ran a feature story about 16-year-old Zachary Stark, whose parents forced him to attend an ex-gay camp run by the group. In July 2005, Stark was released from the camp. An investigation of the camp by the Tennessee Department of Children's Services did not uncover signs of child abuse. In September 2005, Tennessee authorities discovered that unlicensed staff had been administering prescription drugs. A settlement was reached shortly thereafer. LIA closed the camp in 2007. See also - Environment and sexual orientation - Mixed-orientation marriage - American Family Association v. City and County of San Francisco - "Just the Facts about Sexual Orientation & Youth". American Psychological Association. Retrieved 2011-04-02. - "Bachmann Silent on Allegations Her Clinic Offers Gay Conversion Therapy". ABC News. Retrieved June 13, 2011. - "What's your "success rate" in changing gays into straights?". Retrieved 2007-03-27.[dead link] - What Do We Mean by Change[dead link] - Throckmorton, Warren; Pattison, M. L. (June 2002). "Initial empirical and clinical findings concerning the change process for ex-gays". Professional Psychology: Research and Practice (American Psychological Association) 33 (3): 242–248. doi:10.1037/0735-7028.33.3.242. - "No easy victory". Christianitytoday.com. March 11, 2002. Retrieved November 13, 2011. - Ex-gay or just exploited?, Orange County Register, June 17, 2007 - APA Task Force on Appropriate Therapeutic Responses to Sexual Orientation. (2009). "Report of the Task Force on Appropriate Therapeutic Responses to Sexual Orientation." Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Accessed August 2, 2011 - Levine, M., Perkins, D. D., & Perkins, D. V. (2004). Principles of community psychology: Perspectives and applications (3rd ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. - Folkman, S., & Lazarus, R. S. (1980). An analysis of coping in a middle-aged community sample. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 21, 219–239. - Ponticelli, C. M. (1999). Crafting stories of sexual identity reconstruction. Social Psychology Quarterly, 62, 157–172. - Wolkomir, M. (2001). Emotion work, commitment, and the authentication of the self: The case of gay and ex-gay Christian support groups. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 30, 305–334. - Erzen, T. (2006). Straight to Jesus: Sexual and Christian conversions in the ex-gay movement. Los Angeles:University of California Press. - History. Retrieved April 14, 2007. - "Homosexuals Anonymous Fellowship Services – Home". Ha-fs.org. Retrieved November 13, 2011. - Kwon, Lillian (June 25, 2007). "Exodus Freedom Speaker Warns of 'The Gay Gospel'". Christian Post. - "Joe Dallas l Genesis Counseling l Sexual Addiction Recovery". Joedallas.com. Retrieved November 13, 2011. - DL Foster ((ISBN 1-56229-162-9)). "Eternal Victim/Eternal Victor: Making the Case for Victory". - Richard Leiby (August 29, 2004). "Donnie McClurkin, Ready to Sing Out Against Gay 'Curse'". The Washington Post. - Lawton, Kim (May 6, 2005). "PROFILE: Donnie McClurkin (Interview)". PBS Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly. - "The Donnie McClurkin Story:From Darkness to Light". Donnie McClurkin. November 23, 2004. - "News :: GLBT". EDGE Boston. October 24, 2007. Retrieved November 13, 2011. - "Dr. Jeffrey Satinover Testifies Before Massachusetts Senate Committee Studying Gay Marriage". April 28, 2003. Retrieved August 21, 2011. - "A Tribute to Charles W. Socarides". Retrieved August 21, 2011. - Evangelical Press with additional reporting by Jody Veenker (October 1, 2000). "Ex-Gay Leader Disciplined for Gay Bar Visit". Christianity Today. Retrieved 2007-08-29. - Besen, Wayne (2003). Anything but Straight: Unmasking the Scandals and Lies Behind the Ex-Gay Myth. Harrington Park Press. ISBN 1-56023-445-8. - "Anthony Venn-Brown: Book". - Freedom 2 b[e] - "Former "Ex-Gay" Leaders in Australia Apologize, Claim That Ex-Gay Conversion Does More Harm Than Good". Soulforce.org. Retrieved November 13, 2011. - Branston, John. "Fly on the Wall | The Fly-By". Memphis Flyer. Retrieved November 13, 2011. - Jason says: (March 30, 2010). "Ex-gay leader apologises | Star Online". Starobserver.com.au. Retrieved November 13, 2011. - "Where is the repentance?". Grace Rivers. October 7, 2011. Retrieved November 13, 2011. - "I Do Exist FAQs". 2008. Retrieved August 21, 2011. - "A new test of orthodoxy". Wthrockmorton.com. Retrieved November 13, 2011. - Exodus International Policy Statements, Exodus International. Retrieved July 4, 2007. - "How to Find the Right Counselor for You – Exodus International". Exodusinternational.org. January 11, 2010. Retrieved November 13, 2011. - Evergreen Myths The Bottom Line: Evergreen does not advocate any particular form of therapy." - "Therapy-Evergreen International-Helping Latter-Day Saints overcome same-sex attraction (homosexuality)". Evergreeninternational.org. Retrieved November 13, 2011. - "Expert affidavit of Gregory M. Herek, PhD" (PDF). Retrieved November 13, 2011. - Royal College of Psychiatrists: Royal College of Psychiatrists’ Position Statement on Sexual Orientation - Letter from the Attorney General of the United States to the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, RE: DOMA, February 23, 2011,"Second, while sexual orientation carries no visible badge, a growing scientific consensus accepts that sexual orientation is a characteristic that is immutable" - ""Therapies" to change sexual orientation lack medical justification and threaten health". Pan American Health Organization. Retrieved May 26, 2012. archived here. - Cianciotto, J.; Cahill, S. (2006). "Youth in the crosshairs: the third wave of ex-gay activism" (PDF). National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. Retrieved 2007-08-29. - Hicks, A (1999) Reparative Therapy: Whether Parental Attempts to Change a Child's Sexual Orientation Can Legally Constitute Child Abuse; Retrieved January 29, 2011 - Talbot, T. Reparative therapy for homosexual teens: the choice of the teen should be the only choice discussed, 27 J. Juv. L. 33. 2006. - Cohan, J. Parental Duties and the Right of Homosexual Minors to Refuse "Reparative" Therapy, 11 Buff. Women's L.J. 67, 2002. - Mirken, Bruce (June 1994). "Setting Them Straight". San Francisco: 10 Percent. pp. 54–60. - PRESS CLIPSVillage Voice (New York, NY), October 06, 1998, 1595 words, by Andy Hsiao - Chris Holmlund & Justin Wyatt (2005) "Contemporary American independent film: from the margins to the mainstream" page 190. Psychology Press. http://books.google.com/books?id=9sYDqH2FAcsC&pg=PA190&dq=%22Lyn+Duff%22&hl=en&ei=dIP5TOu4IdK5hAfMmvSSCQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=8&ved=0CEkQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=%22Lyn%20Duff%22&f=false - "Gender identity problems; Gays angered about doctors forcing issue" The Houston Chronicle, August 2, 1995, Wednesday, 2 STAR Edition, HOUSTON; Pg. 3, 1310 words, CAROLE RAFFERTY; Knight-Ridder Tribune News - Pela, Robert L. (November 11, 1997). "Boys in the dollhouse, girls with toy trucks". The Advocate. pp. 55–59. - . The Lambda Update. Fall 1993. p. 4. Missing or empty - David B. Cruz (1999) "Controlling Desires: Sexual Conversion and the Limits of Law" Southern California Law Review 72:1297. http://www-bcf.usc.edu/~usclrev/pdf/072502.pdf - CHURCHER, Sharon (1998) "GOING STRAIGHT." Sunday Mail (Queensland, Australia), September 6, 1998, Sunday, NEWS; Pg. 40, 1274 words - Ladie Terry. (1994) 'ORPHANS' SPEAK OUT. San Jose Mercury News (California) Tuesday MORNING FINAL EDITION. December 13, 1994. EDITORIAL; Pg. 7B - Family Law, Public Policy and New Federalism by Steven K. Wisensale. Retrieved July 10, 2007. - Williams, Alex (July 17, 2005). "Gay Teenager Stirs a Storm". New York Times. Retrieved 2007-10-06. - Palazzolo, Rose (June 28, 2005). "Ex-Gay Camp Investigation Called Off". ABC News. Retrieved November 13, 2011. - Ex-GayTruth.com, presents issues related to the ex-gay movement from a conservative Christian perspective - Christian Perspectives on Homosexuality and Bisexuality at the Open Directory Project - Views Opposing Homosexuality and Bisexuality at the Open Directory Project - Beyond Ex-Gay Support website co-run by Peterson Toscano and Christine Bakke, for people coming out of ex-gay experiences - Cure for Love, a National Film Board of Canada documentary

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Originally, there were two subsections in the Protist (a/k/a Protoctista) kingdom: the Phylum_Protozoa (the animal-like protists) and the Division_Algae (the plant-like protists). Both groups were previously members of the animal and plant kingdoms, respectively. When you study zoology and botany, these groups will be included in the review of the animal and plant kingdoms. Since the early days of the Protist kingdom in the 1800’s a few more groups have been added to the kingdom, including the fungus-like (slime_molds and water_molds) protists. The Protozoa ("first animals") are the animal-like (heterotrophic, motile) Protists and are classified (in part) based upon their method of motility (such as cilia, pseudopods, and flagella). Representatives of this group are primarily unicellular or colonial. Use pages 18-23 and 32-38 in the Photo Atlas as a reference for your review of the Protists. Recall that the authors of your Photo Atlas do not use the same exact method of classification as the authors of your textbook. Hence, the water molds and most algae are placed in the Protist group by your text authors, but not the Photo Atlas authors. The plant-like Protists are called algae. The main characteristics of algae include that they are aquatic, they range in size from unicellular to multicellular and they are photosynthetic. These organisms account for at least half of all photosynthetic organisms on Earth. One of the reasons they are not considered true plants is because they lack a waxy_cuticle. Another reason is that the algae have chlorophyll-A like the true plants, but differ in terms of other pigments. These organisms are ecologically important not just because of photosynthesis, but also because they are used either as food or in the preparation of some forms of food. The basis of their classification includes (1) type of pigment(s) and (2) type of storage product(s). The cell walls of desmids are made of cellulose. They contain various photosynthetic pigments, but their primary pigments are the chlorophylls. Some forms are symbionts, such as the algal component of the lichen. Plant starch is their storage product. This organism has spiral chloroplasts. The chloroplasts contain enlarged starch storage areas called pyrenoids. Many desmids are made of two attached segments called semicells.

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A report, according to UN revealed that the world's only global system of carbon trading, which specifically helps developing countries to achieve sustainable development and assists them in complying with their emission reduction targets, is collapsing and needs to be rescued. An expert panel appointed by UN warned that the prices of the climate credits is dropping as countries failed to accomplish their future emission reduction commitments, and it would collapse if countries don't make any efforts to boost the climate credits market. It will put future flows of finance at risk, until the system adapts to new political and market conditions. The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) was one of the key components in the Kyoto Protocol (IPCC, 2007), a protocol of United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The UN-established Kyoto Protocol follows the basic principle of UNFCCC, 'common but differentiated responsibility' and helps 37 industrialized countries to achieve emissions reduction targets. To help developing countries achieve those targets, the protocol introduced three flexible mechanisms - the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), Joint Implementation (JI) and International Emissions Trading (IET). The CDM is one of the most flexible mechanisms defined under the Kyoto Protocol, which aims to invest in sustainable development projects to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in poor or developing countries. It allows countries with emission-reduction commitment to fund projects in developing or poor countries. More than 1,000 CDM projects have qualified for the carbon credits so far, and billions of dollars have been raised through the system for the projects like solar panels and windfarms. But lack of government guarantees to continue with the Kyoto Protocol's mechanism and spiraling prices of CDM credits has created some serious issues about whether the system will survive. Concerns have also been raised related to the weak carbon market and governments are not taking this critical situation seriously, said Joan McNaughton, a former UK civil servant in a statement. CDM has helped countries to cut around one billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions, resulting in huge funds to developing countries over the past decade and if the CDM collapses, it would be much difficult in future to raise funds for the developing and poor countries to cut greenhouse gas emissions, said the panel.

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KILL(1) Linux Programmer's Manual KILL(1) kill - terminate a process kill [ -s signal | -p ] [ -a ] [ -- ] pid ... kill -l [ signal ] The command kill sends the specified signal to the specified process or process group. If no signal is specified, the TERM signal is sent. The TERM signal will kill processes which do not catch this signal. For other processes, it may be necessary to use the KILL (9) signal, since this signal cannot be caught. Most modern shells have a builtin kill function, with a usage rather similar to that of the command described here. The '-a' and '-p' options, and the possibility to specify pids by command name is a local pid... Specify the list of processes that kill should signal. Each pid can be one of five things: n where n is larger than 0. The process with pid n will be 0 All processes in the current process group are signaled. -1 All processes with pid larger than 1 will be signaled. -n where n is larger than 1. All processes in process group n are signaled. When an argument of the form '-n' is given, and it is meant to denote a process group, either the signal must be specified first, or the argument must be preceded by a '--' option, otherwise it will be taken as the signal to send. All processes invoked using that name will be signaled. Specify the signal to send. The signal may be given as a signal name or number. -l Print a list of signal names. These are found in -a Do not restrict the commandname-to-pid conversion to processes with the same uid as the present process. -p Specify that kill should only print the process id (pid) of the named processes, and not send any signals. bash(1), tcsh(1), kill(2), sigvec(2), signal(7) Taken from BSD 4.4. The ability to translate process names to process ids was added by Salvatore Valente <firstname.lastname@example.org>. Linux Utilities 14 October 1994 KILL(1)

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Your newborn's sleep Caring for any newborn is a lot of work, but it's even harder when parents are sleep-deprived and exhausted. The good news is that by four to six months most babies have developed a regular sleep pattern and the ability to sleep through the night. The bad news is that, until that time, it's unrealistic and unfair to expect your baby to be a great sleeper. In the first months, the average infant sleeps around 13 to 16 hours or so, but that sleep may occur unpredictably and for just a few hours at a time. As the brain matures over the first months, you'll probably begin to see a sleep pattern emerge: longer periods of sleep (hopefully at night), more activity during the day, less activity at night, and more sleep during growth spurts. (Much of growth occurs during sleep.) Tips for parents of newborns - Keep your expectations realistic. Plan for unpredictable, sporadic sleep for your baby -- and therefore for you -- in the first few months. - Don't try to sleep train your baby yet. It's too early to let your baby "cry it out." Since it takes three-six months for a baby's brain to mature enough to establish a regular pattern and to sleep through the night, wait until then to try sleep training. - Never wake a sleeping baby during the night (with a few exceptions, such as a need for extra calories). Establishing sleep patterns for your baby Parents can set the stage now for baby's good sleep patterns to emerge in the future. Try the following: - Regulate your baby's day-night sleep cycle. As soon as possible, try to teach your baby that "nighttime is for sleep, and daytime is for fun." - During daylight hours, keep things stimulating and active for baby. Play with them a lot. Try to keep them awake after feeds. - When it's dark, become a more low-key, relaxed parent for your baby. Feed her in a semi-darkened room. Cut down on all stimulation (e.g. keep light and noise soft and low). Hopefully, this way babies learn that daytime is fun time and nighttime is relaxing, so they might as well sleep when it's dark outside. - Begin to teach your baby to fall asleep on her own, without getting used to (and then becoming dependent on) being held, rocked, fed, etc. The goal is that when your baby awakens in the middle of the night (as most babies do), they will be able to get themselves back to sleep without the need for you to come in and rock, feed, or soothe them. - After a few weeks (when everyone is not so sleep-deprived and things are settling down), begin to put your baby to bed awake and drowsy whenever you can, to help them learn to fall asleep on their own. - Your goal should be to try to do it when it's possible. If your baby conks out right after a feed don't wake them just so you can put them back to sleep. This is a skill that may take months to learn. If you are reasonably consistent in your efforts, your baby will learn healthy sleeping patterns quickly. When to worry about baby's sleep It's rare that a baby's sleep pattern is a cause for worry in the first few months. An infant sleeps as much as her body tells her she needs to. Talk to your doctor or health visitor if you have any concerns.

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A Hong Kong election committee Sunday chose Beijing loyalist Leung Chun-ying to lead the territory amid protests by pro-democracy activists. Fifteen years after Hong Kong’s independence from Britain, a University of Hong Kong survey conducted in December found that a growing number of residents view themselves as Hong Kongers, rather than Chinese. Here are 10 key dates in Hong Kong’s relationship with the mainland. Chinese leaders had little choice but to sign the treaty’s 13 articles, or risk devastation at the hands of circling British warships. The agreement included an indemnity compensating for confiscated opium, unpaid merchant debts, and other various costs of the war. The Chinese also agreed to cede Hong Kong, a small island and former fishing village of several thousand residents, to the British crown in part to provide the Queen’s traders with safe harbor and the authority to trade freely at five “treaty ports.” The Nanking treaty required no real stipulations from the British, aside from the withdrawal of its troops to be completed following the full reparations payment. 1 of 10

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Nightcaps were worn by men from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries, not simply for night attire, but for informal, domestic day and evening wear, specifically after the 1660s, to cover the head after removing the wig. Usually made of linen, and often lavishly embroidered with coloured silks and metal threads, they were made as close-fitting dome-shaped caps in the seventeenth century. In the eighteenth century they became looser, more like a turban, and were frequently worn with the nightgown or banyan, again, not for bed but for informal relaxing about the house, or even for entertaining family and friends. The yellow nightcap in the main image dates from around 1700, and is entirely covered with floral embroidery on a split-stitch yellow silk ground, with blue silk ties and trim. The black and white print below shows an eighteenth century man sitting at ease in a similar cap, having taken off his heavy hot wig. The other embroidered cap below is more dome-shaped and dates from the early seventeenth century. It is highly decorated with silk and silver thread embroidery and stitched with popular classical motifs like the phoenix and the obelisk surrounded by a scrolling leaf and flower design. Blackwork caps were also common, as were white linen ones, quilted for warmth, or trimmed with expensive bobbin or needlelaces. Full item descriptions:

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2013-05-21T17:31:36Z

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en

Difference between revisions of "Almora" Revision as of 06:29, 12 December 2008 Almora is a hill station in Uttarakhand State. Almora was the seat of power of the Chand Dynasty who ruled the land of Kumaon for almost one thousand years. An interesting fact about the discovery of Almora is that unlike other hill stations, it was not discovered and developed by the British. The Katyuri Dynasty ruled the region around Almora from the 9th century AD, till it made way for the Chand dynasty. Raja Balo Kalyan Chand made Almora as his new capital in 1560 AD, when he transferred his capital from Champawat to Almora. The Chands occupied Almora till the 19th century AD. The rivers Kosi and Suyal flow around Almora providing a natural barrier. There is an interesting local legend about the discovery of Almora. Raja Kalyan Chand, the ruler of the Chand Dynasty was riding on the horseshoe shaped ridge in the pursuit of a prey. The hunted quarry protected its life by taking refuge behind the thick bushes of Kilmora, a local wild barberry bush and revealed the place to the king. The story might not be corroborated by any literary or archaeological evidences but continues to be told by the locals. The Gorkhas captured Almora in 1790 AD and finally British took it over from the Gorkhas after the Gorkha wars of 1814-1815. Jawaharlal Nehru served a term of imprisonment in the Jail at Almora during the British rule. He had left behind an elaborate account of the pleasures of solitude and the varied moods of nature in his various letters written from this place to his daughter. Almora, a town of about 60,000, is situated in the Kumaon mountains of the Himalayas in eastern Uttarakhand. Most of the town is situated on a crescent shaped mountain ridge about 5 km long, and most of it is above 6,000 feet. Unlike Shimla, Ranikhet and Nainital which were developed by the English, Almora is a hill station totally developed by the Kumaoni Indians. The town itself is your usual crowded hilltown in northern India, but the natural beauty around is astounding. Almora is also called a town of temples. Situated in the centre of the town is the temple of Goddess Nanda Devi. The mountain is visible from the nearby areas as well. Almora is an agricultural base and also a trade centre. By train The town is served by the Kathgodam station, which is located 35 km away from the town. Taxis charge Rs 600 to Almora. You can also share a cab at Rs 125 per person. Most hotels will arrange for a pick up on prior request, Rs 700-1000. The station handles 46 express trains per week. BAGH EXP (daily) - Dep. Howrah 2145 Arr. 0935 - 2 nights SAMPARK KRANTI EXP (daily) - Dep. Delhi Jn 1600 Arr. 2245 - 7 hours RANIKHET EXP (daily) - Dep. Delhi Jn 2245 Arr. 0500 - 1 night DEHRADUN KATHGODAM EXP (Wed, Sun) - Dep. 2230 Arr. 0725 - 1 night There are daily bus services from Delhi. The buses leave from ISBT Anand Vihar and are run by Uttarakhand Roadways. Driving to Almora takes 10 to 12 hours. From Delhi, it's highway driving throughout. NH 24 connects Delhi to Rampur via Hapur. At Rampur, turn and head north on NH 87 all the way upto Almora. En-route halts include the Wonderland, Rwy crossing, Moradabad and The Kaichi temple, Kaichi. Contrary to popular belief, flying into Almora is the fastest way to reach the hill station. Almora is served by PantNagar Airport, located about 4 hours away. It is served only by Jagson airlines. It is one of the least busy airports in the country, handling only 6 scheduled flights a week. JA 101 - Dep. Delhi 1315 Arr. PantNagar 1415 (Mon, Wed, Fri) JA 102 - Dep. Delhi 1445 Arr. PantNagar 1545 (Mon, Wed, Fri) FARE - Rs 2250/$ 90 for adults, Rs 1400/$ 55 for children. Taxi fare is around Rs 1200-1500. Chitai Temple just 8 km from city, Kasar Devi to have a great look of city-A must visit place. Walk the famous bazaar - still with glimpses of the old Kumaouni culture Woolen garments. Copperware Bal Mithai, a famous milk sweet of Almora. Also Choklate (not chocolate), a condensed milk sweet with fudge-like consistency and Singauri, again a kind of milk sweet wrapped in a green Malu leaf, which gives it its acclaimed flavour. Lots of 'adrak' (ginger) tea - the popular local drink - to welcome guests & also to keep warm. Hotels include the upscale Club Mahindra and the relatively down-to-earth KMVN (which has no electricity) are all around Almora and attract nature lovers

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2013-06-19T19:06:16Z

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en

- 1. Vedange (sciences related to the Vedas) - 2. The ten holy texts - 3. Interpretation of the Vedas - 4. Preservation and study of the Vedas - 5. Vedic deities - 6. Vedic Righteousness (Dharma) and sacrificial fires - 7. The Vedas and the stages in spiritual practice - 8. Vedic culture - 9. Family life during the Vedic period ‘After the Upanishads with the advent of Buddhism, Vedic tradition lagged behind. The first literary attempts to revive it are the literary works of the Vedange (sciences related to the Vedas). To preserve and utilise the Shrutis systematically there arose a need to create a syllabus; hence later masters (acharya) of the Vedas wrote six sciences related to the Vedas - Shiksha (science of pronunciation), Kalpa, Vyakaran (grammar), Nirukta, Chanda (science of prosody) and Jyotish (astrology). Literature useful for the study and comprehension of the Vedas and the rituals from them is famous as sciences related to the Vedas. These sciences are supposed to be created by man.’(1) The science teaching the method of pronunciation of vowels, alphabets, etc. is shiksha. Famous holy texts on this science are written by Sages Panini, Yadnyavalkya and Vasishtha. ‘The Shatpath Brahman states that every metrical composition of Vedic mantras or every alphabet of a word possesses some kind of strength and explains the secret of every alphabet. The Mandukya Upanishad believes that even uttering of alphabets from a mantra is powerful and hence describes the greatness of the alphabet Om. Since the Vedas were considered to be divine in origin the order of every word from their mantras had to be maintained while chanting, as per the established rules. In this regard authors of the Nirukta say, “नियतानुपूर्व्या नियतवाचोयुक्तय: meaning a word, the order of alphabets in it and its method of pronunciation is definite; hence the meaning of the Vedas also does not change”.’(2) To be able to chant Vedic mantras appropriately one should know the correct pronunciation of vowels (svar). Vowels mean sound. If pronounced correctly the sound generated by a word makes it efficacious. Hence if Vedic mantras are chanted correctly then the mantras become efficacious. Faulty pronunciation of even one word changes the entire meaning; hence vowels decide the meaning of words. In this regard the Panini Shiksha (52) says - मन्त्रो हीन: स्वरतो वर्णतो वा मिथ्या प्रयुक्तो न तमर्थमाह । स वाग्वज्रो यजमानं हिनस्ति यथेन्द्रशत्रु: स्वरतोऽपराधात् ।। Meaning: The mantra without proper pronunciation of vowels (svar) and consonants (varna), that is the utterance of a mantra in a faulty manner makes it faulty and does not convey the intended meaning. Instead it gets converted into a verbal thunderbolt and harms the one chanting it, as had occurred in the case of the word Indrashatru with faulty pronunciation of vowels. The compound word Indrashatru could have two meanings, one being “Indra’s enemy” (the slayer of Lord Indra) from Tatpurush Samas and “the one whose enemy is Lord Indra” (the one who will be slain by Lord Indra) from Bahuvrihi Samas. Since the first meaning was intended for Tvashta he had to utter the note of the last letter of the entire word in a lofty tone. He however, uttered the last letter of the first word in the Samas in a lofty tone. Consequently, instead of a son being born to slay Lord Indra, a son, Vrutra who would be killed by Lord Indra was born (Taittiriya Sanhita 2.5.1-2); hence in the Vedas importance is endowed to the pronunciation of vowels.’(3) A. Distortion in the Vedas: ‘The ancient Aryans thought of another idea to preserve Vedic mantras in appropriate metrical compositions and hence created distortion in the Vedas. For that poetic compositions of the Sanhitas, which appeared in different branches of the Vedas in the mantra form, were created. Sages Shakalya, Gargya and Atreya created poetic compositions of the Rugveda, Samaveda and Taittiriya Sanhita respectively. Based on these compositions distortions such as Kram, Jata, Ghan, etc. were written. These variations were useful to chant Vedic mantras in reverse order and thus to realise the variations of notes occurring in them.’(4) B. Pratishakhya: After several branches of the Vedas came into being each branch began to chant the mantras in their own way. To bring uniformity among them the Pratishakhya was created. At times the Sutras (aphorisms) are also called Vedanga (science related to the Vedas) since Kalpa is included in the literature of Sutras. The Kalpa is a science which prescribes the rules to be observed in rites (sanskar) and sacrificial fires (yadnyayag) and gives a Sanhita (compilation) of the code of conduct. ‘Kalpa refers to the orderly arrangement of Vedic rituals or their science. The information on sacrificial fires in the Brahman holy texts is in concise form. One comes across a play upon words, admixture and diversion of topics in it. After scrutinising all this information on religious rites the Kalpasutras were composed in a specific order and with precise words to describe rituals. The Kalpasutras are classified into the following three types depending upon their mutual dependence and complimentary potential - Shrautrasutra, Dharmasutra and Gruhyasutra. The Shrautrasutra gives information on fire sacrifices from the Vedas. The Dharmasutra gives an account of the dictums of Righteousness (Dharma) or religious duties to be performed as well as traditional, social, familial and religious customs. Generally the Dharmasutras are in prose form in the Arsha language (language of the evolved). The Gruhyasutra describes religious rites like the sixteen spiritual rites to be performed by a householder along with his wife for the welfare of his family, in the fire worshipped at home (gruhyagni).’(5) ‘The Kalpasutra is associated with some Vedic branch or a part of a sutra is incorporated in some Vedas. Complete Kalpasutras consisting of all the three types of aphorisms are found in only the Apastamba, Hiranyakeshi and Baudhayan parts of the Yajurveda.’(6) ‘Analysis and discussion of the entire structure of any language is called Vyakaran (grammar). The meaning of the word vyakaran is derived as follows “व्याक्रियन्ते शब्दा अनेन इति व्याकरणम् meaning that in which pure words can be separated from corrupted words or that from which one learns holy words, is Vyakaran”.’(7) According to Sage Vararuchi protection of Vedas by sages, creation of new verses, quickly grasping the pure form of every word from the Sanskrut language, clarification of doubts arising in the context of Vedic topics are all the main objectives of Vyakaran. Ashtadhyayi is the holy text written by Panini in the form of aphorisms (sutras). This gives the meaning of difficult words from the Vedas. Refer point ‘Interpretation of the Vedas’. ‘यदक्षरपरिमाणं तच्छन्द: ।’ means that in which the composition has a specific quantity of alphabets is the Chanda (sarvanukramani). How every vowel and consonant from a mantra should be pronounced is given in the book “Shiksha”, a science related to the Vedas and how the entire mantra should be pronounced is given in the Chanda. It is essential to know the Chanda to be able to chant the Vedic mantras appropriately. Gayatri, Ushnik, Anushtubh, Bruhati, Pankti, Trishtubh and Jagati are the main Chandas from the Sanhitas and the Brahman texts. This is called the fifth science related to the Vedas. This science was created as the prediction of time and is known as Jyotish. वेदा हि यज्ञार्थमभिप्रवृत्ता: कालानुपूर्वा विहिताश्च यज्ञा: । तस्मादिदं कालविधानशास्त्रं यो ज्योतिषं वेद स वेद यज्ञान् ।। Meaning: The Vedas were created to perform sacrificial fires. The performance of a sacrificial fire is dependent on time. Hence the wise one who knows the science of the prediction of time becomes an authority on sacrificial fires. ‘The Sanhitas, Brahmans, Padakram, Aranyaks, Shiksha, Chanda, Jyotish, Nighantu, Nirukta and Ashtadhyayi constitute the ten holy texts (dashagrantha). The Aranyaks are not considered a part of the Brahman texts, but are endowed with a separate status. Similarly the Nighantu and Nirukta are considered as two separate holy texts. Vyadi has named these ten holy texts differently as - the Sanhitas, Brahmans, Aranyaks, Shiksha, Kalpa, Ashtadhyayi, Nighantu, Nirukta, Chanda and Jyotish. As Vyadi has described these ten holy texts the tradition of their study dates back to the ancient times.’(8) Brahmans (priests) well versed in the recitation of the ten holy texts are called Dashagranthi Brahmans. ‘In the spiritual practice of interpreting the meaning of the Vedas the first tools are the Brahman holy texts. Some Vedic mantras in those texts have been quoted and discussed from the point of view of sacrificial fires (yadnya). The authors of the Brahman texts believed that all the ancient commentaries were written only for the sake of sacrificial fires and that the meaning associated with the rituals in the sacrificial fires must be that implied by the sage who visualised the Sukta and compiled it. All the same since these holy texts are closest to the Vedas with respect to the time frame their concepts need to be taken into account. The next tool for the interpretation of the Vedas are the Nighantu text and Yaska’s Nirukta. The Nighantu has a compilation of all the difficult Vedic words from the Rugveda; however the most difficult words are not explained and the meaning of some words is uncertain. Based on the Nighantu, Yaska compiled the Nirukta text. Yaskacharya is the oldest and pioneer commentator of the Vedas. The commentators who followed him used his text as the basis. No other holy text like it is available.’(9) ‘The Nirukta is included in the ten holy texts that a Brahman (priest) endowed with the title of Rugvedi Dashagranthi (knower of the ten holy texts) should study. The Nirukta is a commentary on the Nighantu. But from the very beginning the Nirukta and Nighantu have both been termed as the Nirukta. Durgacharya states that the Nirukta is superior to the sciences related to the Vedas and other scriptures as it explains the exact meaning of the Vedas. The meaning is important; the word is secondary. How to define a word and a meaning can be realised only from the Nirukta hence to understand the Vedas it is absolutely essential that one studies the Nirukta. The Nirukta is complementary to the science of Vyakaran (grammar). The word Nirukta can be divided into two parts, nir and ukta. Nir means that which is total and ukta means that which is said or explained. In the Nirukta words have been described comprehensively. It is not a mere explanation of the meaning of words but also elucidates the origin of the word associated with that particular meaning. In other words every word is minutely analysed. They emphatically proclaim that though such a grammatically ruled word is not proven from a root of similar meaning one should not bother about it. Ignoring the rules of grammar one should firmly adopt the meaning suggested by the Name. Wholeheartedly obeying this directive Yaska and the authors of the Nirukta before Him, created new words. Vedic words should be interpreted according to the context and the same origin of the word should be given when it is used with the same meaning; however when it is used with a variety of meanings different origins may certainly be given. “सन्तमेव अर्थम् आययति गमयतीति सत्यम् means that which imparts true knowledge about the existing objects is the ultimate truth”. Through various ideas Yaska has clearly proclaimed that all names are derived from a root. The present day linguistics too has accepted this doctrine. Panini’s era came later than 700 B.C. From this it appears that Yaska’s era must have been from 800 to 1000 B.C. One who simply recites the Vedas without understanding their meaning is but a pillar (sthanu). The one who has understood their meaning will be endowed with happiness in this world and the worlds beyond. A word devoid of meaning and knowledge cannot enlighten a person. No matter how dry a wooden log is if it is not thrown into the fire then of what use is it ? This is Yaska’s quote. It is from this quote that the evolution of His spiritual intellect (pradnya) can be realised. He says, “अर्थं वाच: पुष्पफलम् which means that a meaning is both the blossom as well as the fruit of speech” (1.20). By writing the Nirukta he showed an easily accomplishable path to the study of the Vedas and by interpreting them proved Kautsa’s quote that the Vedas are devoid of meaning, false. When taunting Kautsa in the (Nirukta 1.16) he says, नैष स्थाणोरपराधो यदेनमन्धो न पश्यति । पुरुषापराध: स भवति । Meaning: If a blind man cannot see a pillar then it is not the pillar’s fault, rather that of the man. Sayanacharya followed Yaska and compiled commentaries on the Vedas. Sayanacharya explains the connection of words in the Vedic verses (rucha); however Yaska does not do so. Hence one does not know how he would interpret the verses.’(10) ‘Sayanacharya is glorified everywhere because after Yaskacharya he is the first to analyse the Vedas. He wrote commentaries on all the Vedas. He explains why he wrote a commentary on a particular Veda in his Bhashyopodghat of the Taittiriya Sanhita as, “If the Yajurveda is considered as the wall then the pictures niched on it are the Rugveda and the Samaveda. Hence we have discussed the Yajurveda first.” When writing a commentary on every Veda Sayanacharya used a different style. Sayanacharya has written commentaries on the Shatpath, Aitareya, Taittiriya and all the Brahman texts of the Samaveda. The commentators who came before Sayanacharya were those like Bhattabhaskarmishra and Venkatmadhav and those who came after him were Uvvat, Mahidhar, etc. Nevertheless each of them wrote a commentary on only a single Vedic Sanhita. All these commentaries are in Sanskrut with their mainstay on sacrificial fires (yadnya) from the Vedas. The tradition of interpretation of the Vedas had lapsed for sometime. Over the past one or two centuries the Vedas began to be interpreted quite differently. New commentators came to the forefront. Study of Vedic literature began analytically. The credit for this type of study should be given to Western scholars. The foremost among these researchers was Max Muller. After him literary scholars like Ludwig, Geldner, Wilson, Keath, etc. did an indepth study of the Vedas and elucidated their meaning. Dayanand Sarasvati may be nominated as a modern Indian commentator.’(11) ‘The Vedas being the religious scriptures of the Aryans, to preserve the verses (rucha) in them the Brahmans (priests) strove tirelessly and even sacrificed their selfish motives for this purpose. The foremost duty of the Brahmans was to make a lifelong study of the vast Vedic literature and to learn it by rote to be able to impart it to the next generation in exactly the same form. Having sacrificed their lives for this mission wholeheartedly, naturally they neglected material life. Though by the study of the Vedas there were no monetary gains they continued their task of studying the Vedas and imparting knowledge to the others undeterred, for centuries together. Along with the preservation of the Vedas they also strove for the survival of the other sciences (vidyas) dependent on them. It is precisely because of these efforts that in the ancient times they were accorded a high status in society. The Vedas should be studied with concentration, diligence, control over the senses, with a lot of knowledge and with austerities. The rules to be followed in this regard should be observed carefully. Study of the Vedas should be commenced after a bath performing the ritual of sandhya and chanting “Om”. A sanctified place should be chosen for its study. According to the rules laid down in the religious Sutras and Smrutis when studying the Vedas one should sit in a cross-legged posture without making any movement of the head and feet. Study means chanting the Vedic mantras exactly as done by the Guru. Just as the study of the Vedas should be done scientifically so also the teacher imparting the knowledge of the Vedas is expected to observe certain norms. Such a teacher should never accept a salary for imparting this knowledge. He should choose an appropriate disciple, perform the rite of thread ceremony on him and then teach him the Vedas. However the question was how to preserve this knowledge once it was imparted. Hence the Brahmayadnya was included in daily ritualistic actions. Perusal of some parts of the Vedas already studied everyday itself is called Brahmayadnya a mention of which is made in the five great sacrificial fires (panchamahayadnya). Reading of the Vedas should be done regularly following the same restrictions as observed during its study. Apart from this, one studying the Vedas should always maintain a pure and clean conduct. He should consider preservation of the Vedas as the mission of his life. During the perusal contemplation on the meaning of Vedic mantras should also be done. Yaska has labelled the one who chants Vedic mantras without understanding their meaning as a ‘pillar (sthanu)’ (Nirukta 1.18). In the ancient times the rite of thread ceremony (upanayan) was performed on girls as well and they were allowed to study the Vedas. Some examples of such women well versed in the Vedas are Apala, Vishvavara, Ghosha, etc.’(12) Very long ago scholars well versed in all the four Vedas were called Chaturvedi, those knowledgeable in three were called Trivedi and those who could recite two of them were called Dvivedi. ‘Followers of the Vedas glorified Brahman as Prajapati, Hiranyagarbha and Purush (Absolute Being). The Purushsukta describes how Brahman or Purush is omnipresent. Purush is the one adorning a thousand heads, a thousand eyes and a thousand feet. Despite encompassing the entire earth His body extends by the breadth of ten fingers. The Atharvaveda too describes this Brahman in its Uchchishtasukta (11.9). Uchchishta (in Sanskrut means leftover) means the principle that remains after encompassing everything or that unaffected by everything, in short The Supreme Brahman. The Bruhadaranyak expresses this Uchchishta with ‘not this [neti (नेति)]’ (2.3.11). Not this, not that, not any of the objects visualised in the entire universe; but that which remains (uchchishta) as subtle, formless, unmanifest and beyond them should be considered as Brahman. The non-dual (advait) Vedanta has attributed great significance to the statement mentioned in the above Suktas, that the Name and form are dependent on the uchchishta. The author of the Sukta says that the glory of Uchchishta is beyond description.’(13) ‘The Suktas were compiled referring to various energies from Nature as Indra, Varun, Marut, Parjanya, Ushas, etc. The term “Vishvedevaha” was used in the context of all deities. To prevent or nullify the ill effects of distressing energies on human life the practice of using tantras had also come into existence.’(14) ‘As new colonies of Aryans were being settled in Madhyadesh sacrificial fires (yadnya) assumed the form of ritualistic worship (karmakand) and consequently new literary works such as the Brahman holy texts came into being. There was expansion of the concept of sacrificial fires during the period of the Brahman texts. The slogan uttered then was “कृण्वन्तो विश्वमार्यम्” meaning “let us make the entire universe Aryan”.’ (15) The Vedas recommend three main stages of spiritual practice viz. the stage of ritualistic worship (karmakand), the stage of mental worship (upasanakand) and the stage of acquiring spiritual knowledge (dnyankand). The stage of ritualistic worship: This describes the rituals and the mode of performing them along with the restrictions to be observed. The stage of mental worship: This encompasses topics such as ritualistic worship (puja), devotion, etc. The stage of acquiring spiritual knowledge: The Upanishads which are a part of the Vedas provide information in this regard. Maharshi Vyas has systematically compiled this information from different Upanishads into His holy texts, the Brahmasutras. Even today the commentary of Jagadguru Shri Shankaracharya on the philosophy of non-duality (advait) from the Vedas is considered the greatest philosophy in the world. According to this philosophy nothing is dual in this world. Everything in this universe is Brahman itself and nothing else. There are 1,00,000 verses (rucha) written on the Vedas, of which 80,000 are on the stage of ritualistic worship, 16,000 on the stage of mental worship and 4000 on the stage of acquiring spiritual knowledge. The fourth stage is of Self-realisation. It is also known as the stage of devotion after Self-realisation (dnyanottarbhaktikand). The social life of people from the Vedic period was dominated by five principles viz. family life, repayment of the three debts, the system of classes (varna) and that of stages of life (ashrams) and the four pursuits (purusharthas) of life. ‘It is mainly the householder who was responsible for fulfillment of responsibilities such as looking after the entire family, constantly striving for the happiness of his family, earning money and wealth and saving it. It was during this period that the fire acquired an important position in the institution of a family. The Vedics have named a fire established in the home as the master of the home (gruhapati). The householder had to perform several rites with the assistance of this fire for the welfare of his family members. He had to perform the five great sacrificial fires - for deities (the devyadnya), for ancestors (pitruyadnya), for cosmic elements (bhutyadnya), for guests (atithiyadnya) and for Brahman (Brahmayadnya). The society had accepted the sanctity of the institution of marriage. Those bound in wedlock had to maintain its restrictions throughout their lives.’(16) ‘Righteousness (Dharma)’, published by Sanatan Sanstha. Bharatiya Sanskrutikosh. Publisher: Pandit Mahadevshastri Joshi, Secretary, Bharatiya Sanskrutikosh Mandal, 410 Shanivar Peth, Pune 411 030. First edition: Vol. 3 to 10, Second edition: Vol. 1 and 2 . Vol. 9, Pg. 582 . Vol. 9, Pg. 66 . Vol. 6, Pg. 650 . Vol. 9, Pg. 70 . Vol. 10, Pg. 99 . Vol. 9, Pg. 150 . Vol. 4, Pg. 307 . Vol. 9, Pg. 79, 80 . Vol. 5, Pg. 120-123 . Vol. 5, Pg. 120-123 . Vol. 9, Pg. 61-71 . Vol. 9, Pg. 77, 78 . Vol. 9, Pg. 71, 72 . Vol. 9, Pg. 76 . Vol. 9, Pg. 73 . Dharmashastracha Itihas (first half). Second edition : 1980, Page 8. Publisher : Secretary, Maharashtra State Literary and Cultural Society, Secretariat, Mumbai 34

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Professional development should involve learners (e.g., teachers) in the identification of what they need to learn and, when possible, in the development of the learning opportunity and/or the process to be used (Borko & Putnam, 1995; Burch, 1996; CPRE, 1995; Little, 1993; Miller, Lord, & Dorney, 1994; NFIE, 1996; Tillema & Imants, 1995; U.S. Department of Education, 1995). This engagement increases educators motivation and commitment to learn (Hodges, 1996); affirms their strengths and enhances their sense of efficacy (Pink & Hyde, 1992); empowers them to take instructional risks and to assume new roles and responsibilities (Pink, 1992; Barr, Anderson, & Slaybaugh, 1992); increases the likelihood that what is learned will be meaningful and relevant to particular contexts and problems (Pink & Hyde, 1992); improves instruction (Hodges, 1996); and makes the school culture more collaborative and improvement-oriented (Pink, 1992). If teachers are denied input in their own professional development, they are likely to become cynical and detached from school improvement efforts and to reject what is experienced as imposition (American Federation of Teachers, 1995; Guskey, 1995; Hargreaves, 1995). Lack of involvement also significantly reduces the capacity of the school and district to understand and successfully manage the school change initiative (Pink & Hyde, 1992, p. 268). This principle, like others, requires strong leadership at the school level. In a school where professional learning is integral to the implementation of the core technology--teaching--being a leader would mean being a facilitator of learning. Reform is short lived if it is led, rather than facilitated by top leadership (Barr, Anderson, & Slaybaugh, 1992). While hierarchical authority creates learned conformity, more egalitarian authority relations increase the likelihood that individuals will feel and be freer to in reflective practice and experimental learning (Smylie, 1995, p. 99). As indicated in this principle, there are so many possibilities of learning so many things that school leaders must keep attention focused on what teachers need to learn in order to close the gap between school goals and school performance. For example, teachers are not likely to identify their need for subject matter knowledge or pedagogical content knowledge (Borko & Putnam, 1995). Professional credibility and depends on teachers knowing the material they teach students. Yet current understandings of mathematics, science, history and the arts--and how to teach those subjects--have changed radically in recent years. School leaders must create organizational cultures in which everyone feels good about needing to learn. They must, however, protect teachers from unnecessary and unproductive involvement, unreasonable expectations, and burn-out (Guskey, 1995). Barr, R., Anderson, C. S., & Slaybaugh, J.E. (1992). Deliberations about grouping in Crete-Monee. In W. T. Pink & A. A. Hyde (Eds.) Effective staff development for school change (pp. 65-93). Norwood, NJ: Ablex Publishing Corp. Borko, H., & Putnam, R. T. (1995). Expanding a teachers knowledge base: A cognitive psychological perspective on professional development. In T. R. Guskey & M. Huberman (Eds.), Professional development in education: New paradigms & practices (pp. 35-66). NY: Teachers College, Columbia University. Burch, Barbara (1996, September). Masters degrees for teachers: A call for change. AACTE Briefs, 17 (11). Washington, DC: American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education. Consortium for Policy Research in Education. (1995, June). Helping teachers teach well: Transforming professional development. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University. Guskey, T. R. (1995). Professional development in education: In search of the optimal mix. In T. R. Guskey & M. Huberman (Eds.), Professional development in education: New paradigms & practices (pp. 114-132). NY: Teachers College, Columbia University. Hargreaves, A. (1995). Development and desire: A postmodern perspective. In T. R. Guskey & M. Huberman (Eds.), Professional development in education: New paradigms & practices (pp. 9-34). NY: Teachers College, Columbia University. Hodges, H.L.B., (1996). Using research to inform practice in urban school: 10 key strategies for success. Educational Policy, 10 (2), 223-252. Little, J. W. (1993). Teachers professional development in a climate of educational reform. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 15 (2), 129-151. Miller, B., Lord, B., & Dorney, J. (1994). Summary report. Staff development for teachers. A study of configurations and costs in four districts. Newton, MA: Education Development Center. National Foundation for the Improvement of Education. (1996). Teachers take charge of their learning: Transforming professional development for student success. Washington, DC. Pink, W. T. (1992) A school-within-a-school for at-risk youth: Staff development and program success. In W. T. Pink & A. A. Hyde (Eds.), Effective staff development for school change (pp. 33-63). Norwood, NJ: Ablex Publishing Corp. Pink, W. T. & Hyde, A. A. (1992). Doing effective staff development. In W.T. Pink & A. A. Hyde (Eds.), Effective staff development for school change (pp. 259-292). Norwood, NJ: Ablex Publishing Corp. Smylie, M. A. (1995). Teacher learning in the workplace: Implications for school reform. In T. R. Guskey & M. Huberman (Eds.), Professional development in education: New paradigms & practices (pp. 92-113). NY: Teachers College, Columbia University. Tillema, H. H. & Imants, J. G. M. (1995). Training for the professional development of teachers. In T. R. Guskey & M. Huberman (Eds.), Professional development in education: New paradigms & practices (pp. 135-150). NY: Teachers College, Columbia University. U.S. Department of Education (1995). Building bridges: The mission and principles of professional development. Washington, DC: Author.

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2013-05-23T18:38:55Z

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Americans are using less water than they did 50 years ago, thanks to conservation measures. Patrick Tehan/San Jose Mercury News/MCT/NEWSCOM Americans are using less water per person now than they have since the mid-1950s, thanks to water-saving technologies and a nationwide push to safeguard dwindling supplies. A report released Thursday, Oct. 29, by the US Geological Survey also shows that industries as well as the general population are sucking up less water overall than in 1980, when the nation's thirst for water peaked. Experts said it was particularly welcome news in the burgeoning West, where cities built in dry regions are grappling with intense disputes and ecosystem collapse tied to dwindling supplies. "Even during a time of population growth and economic growth, we are all using less water," said Susan Hutson, a USGS hydrologist in Memphis, and an author of the report. "It's exciting to see we have responded to these crises by really seeking solutions." California, in the third year of a withering drought, was the most water-hungry state in 2005, the most recent year for which figures were available. California used about 9 percent of all water extracted from lakes, rivers, and underground aquifers, followed by Texas, Idaho, and Illinois. All told, those four states drew more than a quarter of America's total freshwater supplies in 2005.

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2013-05-18T08:12:52Z

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A Water Efficiency System Known as Advanced Pressure Management Reduces Pressure in the City's Water Network, thus Reducing the Amount of Water Leaking through Small Undetected Holes. Emfuleni, South Africa Emfuleni, South Africa The Alliance to Save Energy facilitated a performance contract for the implementation of a water efficiency system known as advanced pressure management on the bulk water supply pipeline into the Sebokeng/Evaton residential area. This area was characterized by excessive water wastage due to leakage. Because of the consumption of large amounts of electricity to pump water to where it is needed, the water saved as a result of implementing this project translates into savings in electricity, which also implies savings in the use of fossil fuels and especially low-grade coal to generate the electricity. This in turn translates into substantial reductions in CO2 emissions. What is it? Metsi-a-Lekoa, (the Water and Sanitation unit of Emfuleni Municipality), entered into a partnership with the Alliance to Save Energy to address the problems of water inefficiency that plagued both Sebokeng and Evaton, two residential areas of the municipality. How does it work? The Municipality of Emfuleni lies within the Province of Gauteng. Rand Water supplies bulk water from the Vaal Dam to the entire Province. Because Metsi-a-Lekoa owed Rand Water a large sum of money, Rand Water conducted studies on why Emfuleni was losing such vast amounts of water. Rand Water installed a data logger on the bulk supply line to Sebokeng and Evaton residential areas, which continuously measures and records the flow of water into the area under review. The data logger indicated that the Minimum Night Flow (or the MNF, the best indicator of the level of water leakage and wastage for a particular area) for Sebokeng and Evaton was around 2,800 m3/hour, enough water to fill two Olympic sized swimming pools every hour. 80% of all water flowing into Sebokeng and Evaton was being lost mainly as a result of leaking plumbing fixtures on private properties. Thus, Rand Water quickly realized there was a big opportunity to implement a water efficiency project. The Alliance to Save Energy (ASE) was made aware of this potential project and partnered with Metsi-a-Lekoa to facilitate the conceptualization, planning and implementation of an appropriate intervention measure. ASE concluded that the best technical solution was advanced pressure management. By reducing pressure in the network, the amount of water that leaks through small undetected holes is also reduced. Advanced pressure management consists of time and flow related pressure control valves housed in a single large above-and-below ground chamber together with other appurtenant plant and equipment. In this instance, the equipment is comprised of five horizontal pressure control valves in parallel to the two co-located and parallel bulk water supply pipelines supplying the greater Sebokeng/Evaton area with water. A pressure control valve is essentially a modulating (continuously opening and closing) valve that throttles the supply (flow) of water passing through it according to a desired (set) downstream pressure in the water network. The downstream pressure (via the control valve) can be controlled via a time related electronic controller allowing the water pressure to be varied according to time of use over any 24 hour period. The electronic controller has up to ten settings per hour, allowing for water pressures in the network to be reduced especially at nighttimes when real water use in residential areas is very low (or when no one is using water). ASE facilitated the signing of a performance contract between the municipality and WRP Consulting Engineers for the installation of the chamber and equipment. This contracting mechanism was deemed to be the best approach in light of the municipality’s limited ability to access capital and its lack of technical capacity, to implement, operate and maintain the required infrastructure. A performance contract is a type of BOOT (Build-Own-Operate-Transfer) contract, with remuneration paid to the contractor through the resulting savings in water purchases from the bulk supplier of water to the municipality. The contract period in this instance is five years. - Metsi-a-Lekoa and the Alliance to Save Energy are investigating the potential for further pressure management by dividing the water network area in smaller supply zones so that each one of these areas has its own advanced pressure management system. - Active leakage control is also being considered, involving the detection of network leaks using sophisticated underground pipe leak detection equipment. - Advanced pressure management works best in specific locations: places with high water wastage, high water pressure etc. - The effectiveness of advanced pressure management is also dependent on the topography of the potential implementation area, working best in locations where bulk water is supplied from a high point to a low point. - The application of advanced pressure management is much more complex where multiple supply points supply water into a large area. The fewer the supply points, the better (in this case there are only 2 supply points). - In certain instances more localized (secondary) pressure control stations can also be installed downstream to a large control station where pressures in the network are still high due to undulating topography, but only where it is possible to ring-fence supply into smaller localized and discreet supply zones.

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2013-05-20T12:47:45Z

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“Peaceable kingdom”? Not in the real, often violent world of nature. This story is featured in Montana Outdoors Some of my most vivid memories of wild creatures come from having seen their most aggressive behaviors. Two red squirrels, locked together tooth and claw, tumbling through dried leaves in a fight over territory. The flash of hummingbirds dueling over who gets the nectar from the first flowers of spring. Rival bull elk twisting and smashing their antlers into each other in a contest over mates. The bellow and stomp of a cow moose defending her calf (and sending me scrambling up a tree one afternoon). There is no lack of warriors among the ranks of wild animals. There is also no lack of purpose behind their aggressive natures, whether they’re on the offensive or the defensive. I’m not talking about the kind of aggression shown by a predator toward its prey. As Konrad Lorenz points out in On Aggression, “the fight between predator and prey is not a fight in the real sense of the word: the stroke of the paw with which a lion kills his prey may resemble the movements that he makes when he strikes his rival…but the inner motives of the hunter are basically different from those of the fighter. The opposite process, the ‘counter offensive’ of the prey against the predator, is more nearly related to genuine aggression.” Prey becomes aggressive toward a predator usually to preserve its life—like a woodchuck biting ferociously when cornered by a coyote. Males and females of most species will fight viciously in self-defense. And females, such as the cow moose that chased me up a tree, can be even more aggressive than males when defending their young. Though some fights occur between two different species, most battles are fought between members of the same species. Though the wildlife warriors in these battles usually are not trying to kill each other, the fighting can result in death. Why would members of the same species fight with such ferocity? Food is one reason. Animals that store and horde food for survival will aggressively protect their pantries. A squirrel jealously guards its middens of nuts and seeds, attacking any squirrels that try to steal from its stores. And a mountain lion resting near a fresh deer kill will fearlessly attack another lion that approaches. Animals are also willing to fight to protect their food indirectly. For example, predators will defend a territory that provides them with enough prey, or food, to survive. This territorial aggression serves to space out members of a species across their range in a way that maintains sufficient food within each territory. But it also may limit population size. For example, if a pack of wolves cannot find, defend, or take over a suitable territory, the members may starve to death. Aggression has a social function, too. By fighting, members of a pack, flock, or herd learn their place in the group’s social order. This is called the “pecking order,” named after chickens, which aggressively use their beaks on each other. In the strictly enforced poultry social hierarchy, a few birds never get pecked, a few always get pecked, and those in between know who they can and can’t peck. This knowledge leads to a fairly harmonious flock, with minimal pecking, until a chicken decides to contest its ranking. That’s when the feathers fly. Researchers have learned that fighting can also determine overall group size. For example, when bobwhite quail bunch together during cold weather, they need a certain number of birds in the covey to stay warm. So, “quail coveys keep down their own size by aggressive behavior within the usual limits of 10 to 30 birds, which appears to be the number that can roost comfortably in the characteristic circle with heads facing out,” writes Nicholas E. Collais in Animal Aggression: Selected Reading. Nothing seems to inspire aggression more than the prospect of sex. Male bighorn sheep bash their heads together; wolves lunge at each other’s throat; bison bulls gore their rivals’ flanks—all for the opportunity to mate with a fertile female. The more evenly matched the amorous rivals are in size and fighting ability, the more aggressive and determined the battle. Bighorn rams, for example, have been known to fight for more than 24 hours over a ewe in estrus. Though food, territory, social status, and mates may be won and kept by fighting, aggression takes its toll. Animal combatants face exhaustion, injuries, time away from resting and eating, and the ultimate cost of battle: death. Thus, it’s in an animal’s interest to win a war before it ever begins or to avoid a confrontation altogether. “Many fights involve threat displays that emphasize or advertise an animal’s size or weaponry and therefore intimidate other animals into giving up before the fight escalates,” writes Dr. Felicity A. Huntingford in Animal Behavior, edited by Tim Halliday. A wolf raises its hackles to appear bigger to an opponent. A mule deer buck circles a rival, trying to display himself from an angle that makes his profile appear largest. A bull elk flaunts its antlers by offering a side view to opponents and by raising and lowering its head so the sweeping arc of the rack makes him appear larger than he actually is. The purpose of all this posturing—the equivalent of guys wearing muscle shirts—is to allow a visibly inferior opponent the chance to walk away from a fight before it ever begins. “A male of the territorial species has a better chance to produce offspring by moving to unoccupied territory than by wasting time and energy in hopeless battles with a superior rival,” writes Niko Tinbergen in Animal Behavior. “Success goes to the animal that knows when to flee as well as when to attack. Thus it is a finely balanced system of attack and fleeing behavior rather than uninhibited aggressiveness that has value.” This balancing act between fight and flight, or between anger and fear, is called “agonism.” It leads to some intriguing responses in animals that experience both urges at the same time. When the flight response is stronger, there is usually little indecision. For example, a forkhorn whitetail confronted by a large-beamed eight-point buck either runs off or shows submission by averting his head from the superior rival and looking away while pressing his tail between his legs. But when the fight and flight urges are equally intense, an animal may display what’s known as “conflict behavior.” For instance, certain fish, when faced with an aggressive rival, wildly swish their tails to propel themselves forward at the same time they are wildly back-paddling with their pectoral fins to move themselves in reverse. The end result of this conflict behavior is that the fish don’t move at all. Anger and fear felt simultaneously may also give rise to what is termed a “redirected response.” Sometimes, writes Tinbergen, “a provoked animal will attack, but instead of attacking the source of its anger, perhaps a large and fearsome-looking opponent, it will attack a smaller or weaker bystander or even a stick or leaf on the ground—as you or I might, in frustrated anger, bang the table with a fist. Under extreme provocation, an animal may even make movements that have no direct relationship to threats and fighting at all. Male starlings will deal with the tense situation of facing each other near a nest hole by preening their plumage assiduously between bouts of actual fighting.” Weapons and armor Actual fighting, of course, requires the use of weapons and defenses. Birds use their beaks and talons to peck, bite, and puncture opponents. Deer and elk fight with antlers, hooves, and teeth. Horned and tusked creatures employ their weapons as battering rams and swords. Insects have stingers, pincers, and nippers. Snakes attack with fangs and teeth. In addition to these conventional tools of war, some animals deploy “chemical weapons.” The foul-smelling liquid a skunk sprays from glands at the base of its tail can hit an intended target 10 feet away, blinding and choking the adversary. Skunks aren’t the only animals with a chemical arsenal. Some termites squirt a toxic gluelike substance that poisons their enemies and makes them stick to the ground and to each other. And the petrel, a long-winged seabird, will spit the slimy, rank contents of its stomach—the partially digested food it regurgitates to feed its chicks—into the face of aggressors. In addition to possessing weapons, many animals and insects wear defensive body armor and shields. The cylindrical exoskeleton of an insect is made of chitin—a tough, light, flexible substance that resists chemicals and makes an ideal suit of armor. Turtles and armadillos also wear protective body gear, while hedgehogs and porcupines have quills that discourage aggressors. Porcupines have the added advantage of being able to use their protective covering offensively, whacking their quilled tail into an attacker’s snout (something anyone who lives with dogs in the country knows only too well). Strategies of war When attacking others or defending themselves, animals employ special fighting tactics. When a cat or fox steals eggs or chicks from nests at night, the adult birds will “mob” the predator if they catch it out in the open during the day. Recently, I watched a dozen magpies swooping and diving on a coyote as it crossed a field near my home. The birds actually struck the predator with their feet on several passes, forcing it to duck and cower its way into a nearby hedgerow. Male musk oxen use a “circle-the-wagons” tactic when attacked. They stand shoulder to shoulder in a circle with their heads and horns facing out while cows and calves crowd in the center. This defensive maneuver is often enough to discourage even the hungriest wolves from attacking. When experiencing the simultaneous emotions of anger and fear, and the companion impulses to fight and to flee, some animals just bluff. A friend told me the story of an acquaintance who encountered a grizzly bear that used this tactic in the Taylor-Hilgard Mountains of southwestern Montana. The man didn’t sense trouble until the huge bear was already charging out of the bushes toward him. The sow grizzly stopped abruptly several feet from the terrified hiker, who stood frozen with fear. The bear let out a deafening woof that blew foul breath into his face, then slowly turned and herded her cub into the brush. The man was not carrying a weapon or bear pepper spray and was no match for the grizzly. Of course, the grizzly could not have known that. She had been startled into charging to protect herself and her offspring, but she also must have felt the urge to flee. The hair-raising bluff was the end result. Call this process of conflicting urges the psychology of animal warfare. Animals will use bluffing, posturing, retreating, or any other tactic at their disposal before engaging in conflict that risks their life or that of their young. Wildlife are well equipped to do battle, but it appears that most will take whatever measures are necessary to keep the peace. That’s a good lesson for any animal to learn. Sam Curtis, a freelance writer in Bozeman, is a frequent contributor to Montana Outdoors. [ BACK TO TOP ]

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2013-05-20T02:31:57Z

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Tyler Depot by A National Historic Landmark the first steam locomotive made its way into East Texas more than a century and a quarter ago, it changed the economy and future of the region in ways that were never imagined. | Today, however, many of the old railroad depots that became community landmarks have vanished--the fallout of a new wave of progress brought about by automobiles and highways. Some of the depots that characterized the monumental changes in East Texas are still standing, but rotting away in fields, where they were moved to allow for new buildings in town. Some towns, however, have kept their depots as reminders of the era when everyone used the railroad. One such depot stands at Tyler, where it is now revered as a National Historic Landmark. in a downtown area known simply as ďThe Levee,Ē the depot was built in 1905 to serve the Texas & St. Louis Railway -- later known as the Cotton Belt - which had arrived in the city 25 years earlier.| With a population of less than 2,500, Tyler soon became a railway hub and Smith County moved from a largely agricultural economy to one with the transportation links to send its raw materials to markets all over the country. Peaches, strawberries, potatoes, plums and tomatoes went to distant markets like St. Louis, Denver, Omaha The Cotton Belt not only established in Tyler a roundhouse and machine shops, but located its executive offices here, as well as a hospital known for its efforts to wipe out smallpox, malaria and typhoid businessmen also saw growth from the Cotton Belt. Railroaders found rooms at the old St. Charles Hotel and Sam MarDock, Tylerís first Chinese businessman, opened a restaurant that served as the unofficial eating place for Cotton Belt hands. By 1924, the railroad provided nearly 1,300 jobs, generated a payroll of nearly $2 million, and paid almost $40,000 in local taxes for Tyler. But with the arrival of the Great Depression, the railroad -- like most other businesses and institutions -- fell on hard times. And as roads and automobiles improved in the forties, trucking took away much of the Cotton Beltís customers. Travelers stopped using railroad passenger cars. In 1956, the last passenger train arrived in Tyler and the railroad depot was used for storage and offices until it was boarded up and abandoned in 1987. Tylerís love for all things historical soon embraced the old depot and, with a gift of the building to the city by the Cotton Belt, Tyler purchased the land on which the depot rested and began a revitalization effort funded by a half-cent sales tax, the generosity of the Vaughn Foundation, and The restoration was completed in four phases and a year ago the depot returned to life as the headquarters of the cityís public transportation And on June 4, a city-wide celebration unveiled a plaque that establishes the depot as a National Historic Landmark. Since its restoration, the depot has become a landmark for Tyler and attracts railroad enthusiasts and others almost every day. The depot also houses an exhibit of rail-related memorabilia, much of it linked to Tylerís early years when the steam locomotive was king. Your Hotel Here & Save Things Historical - October 31, 2005 Column Published with permission (Distributed by the East Texas Historical Association. Bob Bowman, of Lufkin, is a past president of the Association and the author of more than 30 books about East Texas.) See Tyler, Texas More Texas Depots

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2013-05-25T05:59:38Z

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Researchers at the University of Durham and the University of Lancaster conducted a study that was later published on November 21 on PLOS ONE. In the study, they concluded that even fetuses yawn. It is hoped that this study information can one day be used to understand more on the purpose of yawning in the fetus and how the yawning behavior changes through the different growth stages. In their study, researchers studied 15 pregnant women who were pregnant for the first time. Over a period of weeks, beginning at the 24-week mark, they began to take 3D videos of the 7 female fetuses and 8 male fetuses. Videos were recorded once a month, up until the 36-week mark. The study found that on average, the 24-week fetuses yawned around 6 times per hour. Over the weeks, the amount of yawning slowed down and eventually stopped completely at 36 weeks. To record the amount of yawns, researchers monitored the faces of the fetuses. They were able to distinguish between facial opening to prepare for breast feeding and yawning by using different study criteria. A yawn was defined by measuring the amount of time that it took for the mouth to open to its maximum point. In the yawn events, this took more than half the time that the mouth was open. This study showed that during the 2nd and 3rd trimester that yawning could be seen frequently in 4D obstetric ultrasound screening. Scientists still do not quite understand why adults, much less babies, yawn. While in adults, the act of yawning is contagious, babies never seem to be affected. In a study published in 1999 in the Journal of Ultrasound Obstetrics and Gynecology, study information was given that showed that preemies yawn more than full-term babies do. While the researchers who conducted these studies believe that yawning may be linked to brain maturation and could be used as a health indicator for fetuses, not everyone is on board with this belief. Experts who disagree with the concrete conclusion of the study feel that suggesting yawning is a sign of health in a fetus is too premature. Their argument is presented with the fact that healthy fetuses do yawn. While the pure definition of a yawn is the involuntary intake of air, this same definition cannot be applied to the fetus who does not breathe air. Further studies must be conducted for a full understanding of just how and why fetuses yawn and what information can be gleaned from the act.

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2013-05-22T07:28:13Z

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Most Active Stories Fri December 9, 2011 The Surprising Ingredient In Raw Cookie Dough That Could Make You Sick Cookie dough may be one of the joys of the holiday season, but it's dangerous, at least for people who nibble it raw. That's the lesson from a new study of a 2009 outbreak of E. coli bacteria, which sickened 77 people, most of them teenage girls and children. The outbreak was traced back to eating raw Nestlé Toll House cookie dough. It was the first time that packaged cookie dough had ever caused an outbreak. Now for the next surprise: Food safety experts think the most likely culprit is flour. Their findings appear today in the journal Clinical Infectious Disease. "We didn't conclusively implicate the flour," Karen Neil, an epidemiologist at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who investigated the outbreak, tells The Salt. But of all the ingredients, she says, flour seems most likely. Some ingredients, including molasses, sugar, and margarine, had been processed to kill pathogens. And in the past, some forms of E. coli have been found in commercial flour. Food safety experts always warn against eating raw cookie dough, because raw eggs can carry Salmonella. That goes for homemade Christmas cookies, too. But the eggs in the Nestlé cookies had been pasteurized. That left chocolate chips and flour. Though chocolate hadn't caused past E. coli outbreaks, it has spread Salmonella in the past. But some people who had gotten sick ate cookie dough without chocolate chips, while people who bought Nestle chocolate chips by the bag didn't fall ill. Flour seems as bland and benign as could be, but it's still a raw agricultural product. That means it has had ample opportunity to be exposed to dirt, animal feces, and other unpleasant substances between field and grocery store shelf. Last year, a second batch of contaminated dough was identified at the Nestlé factory in Danville, Va., which had processed dough in the 2009 outbreak. As a result, Nestle announced that it was going to start to heat-treating the flour it uses in refrigerated cookie dough. The news is particularly significant for teenage girls, who are major consumers of raw cookie dough. In the 2009 outbreak, 66 percent of the people who got sick were under age 19, and most were female. An earlier study of college students found that more than half said they ate unbaked cookie dough. A fair number of those people have no intention of ever turning on the oven; they're eating it all right out of the package. Given that, Neil says that manufacturers should make sure that refrigerated cookie dough is as safe to eat as any other ready-to-eat food product. (Her CDC blog gives a riveting blow-by-blow of how they ID'ed cookie dough in the 2009 outbreak.) Her parting advice: Don't eat anything raw that's supposed to be eaten cooked, whether it's cake batter or raw cookie dough. "It's tempting," Neil says. "I know a lot of people like to eat it. But cook it."

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On planet Gliese 876d, sunrises might be dangerous. Although nobody really knows what conditions are like on this close-in planet orbiting variable red dwarf star Gliese 876, the above artistic illustration gives one impression. With an orbit well inside and a mass several times that of Earth, Gliese 876d might rotate so slowly that dramatic differences exist between night and day. is imagined above showing significant volcanism, possibly caused by gravitational tides flexing and internally heating the planet, and possibly more volatile during the day. star shows expected stellar magnetic activity which includes In the sky above, a hypothetical moon has its thin atmosphere blown away by the red dwarf's Gliese 876d excites the imagination partly because it is one of the few known to be near to the habitable zone of its parent star.

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From the April 2008 Conservationist By Barbara Nuffer The white blossom of the bloodroot is one of the first flowers to greet us when we walk in the woods in early spring. Bloodroot is a native wildflower that blooms in mid-April in New York's rich, acidic woodlands. As it emerges through the forest's leaf litter, the single flower stem is surrounded by the developing leaf. This beautiful flower has 8 to 12 white petals with a bright yellow center and can measure up to two inches across. Unfortunately, the flower is very short-lived, lasting for several days at most. However, rainy weather can cause the petals to drop off in a single day. Like other ephemeral wildflowers, bloodroot blooms, attracts pollinators, and sets its seed before the deciduous trees have leafed out. By late spring, bloodroot plants are dormant and disappear entirely until the following spring. The seed is produced in an oblong seed pod that ripens in late spring. The pod opens up and the seeds spring out below the plant. The fleshy coating surrounding the seed attracts ants, which carry the seeds into their nest to feed their larvae. The seeds germinate in the nutrient-rich debris of the ant nest. This process serves to disperse the seeds away from the mother plant. Bloodroot is a member of the poppy family. Like all poppies, the rhizome (a horizontal underground stem) contains powerful and potentially dangerous compounds. The rhizome produces a red juice that was used by Native Americans as a body paint and dye. Native Americans also used bloodroot as a treatment for various ailments, ranging from fevers and bronchitis to warts. It was valued as a love charm by the bachelors of Nebraska's Ponca tribe. The men would apply the red juice to their palms and shake hands with the woman they wanted to marry. According to legend, the girl would be a willing partner within a week. There is a beautiful garden selection of this native plant, known as the double bloodroot. It blooms a few days later than the single-flowered bloodroot and the flowers last about twice as long. Although expensive and hard to find, these plants are very long-lived and can be divided every three to four years. The bloodroot's solitary leaf bud emerging from the ground is distinctively shaped and serves as your first hint that the flower will soon make an appearance. Remember, you must be vigilant to spot this plant in flower. So be sure to mark its appearance in mid-April on your calendar if you want to share in the beauty of this fleeting wildflower. Wildflower enthusiast Barbara Nuffer works in DEC's Division of Air Resources in Albany. Photo: Barbara Nuffer

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|Classification and external resources| An anal fissure |eMedicine||med/3532 ped/2938 emerg/495| An anal fissure is a break or tear in the skin of the anal canal. Anal fissures may be noticed by bright red anal bleeding on toilet paper, sometimes in the toilet. If acute they may cause pain after defecation but with chronic fissures pain intensity is often less. Anal fissures usually extend from the anal opening and are usually located posteriorly in the midline, probably because of the relatively unsupported nature and poor perfusion of the anal wall in that location. Fissure depth may be superficial or sometimes down to the underlying sphincter muscle. Most anal fissures are caused by stretching of the anal mucosa beyond its capability. Superficial or shallow anal fissures look much like a paper cut, and may be hard to detect upon visual inspection, they will generally self-heal within a couple of weeks. However, some anal fissures become chronic and deep and will not heal. The most common cause of non-healing is spasming of the internal anal sphincter muscle which results in impaired blood supply to the anal mucosa. The result is a non-healing ulcer, which may become infected by fecal bacteria. In adults, fissures may be caused by constipation, the passing of large, hard stools, or by prolonged diarrhea. In older adults, anal fissures may be caused by decreased blood flow to the area. When fissures are found laterally, tuberculosis, occult abscesses, leukemic infiltrates, carcinoma, acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) or inflammatory bowel disease should be considered as causes. Some sexually transmitted infections can promote the breakdown of tissue resulting in a fissure. Examples of sexually transmitted infections that may affect the anorectal area are syphilis, herpes, chlamydia and human papilloma virus. Other common causes of anal fissures include: For adults, the following may help prevent anal fissures: - Avoiding straining when defecating. This includes treating and preventing constipation by eating food rich in dietary fiber, drinking enough water, occasional use of a stool softener, and avoiding constipating agents. Similarly, prompt treatment of diarrhea may reduce anal strain. - Careful anal hygiene after defecation, including using soft toilet paper and/or cleaning with water. - In cases of pre-existing or suspected fissure, use of a lubricating ointment (It is important to note that hemorrhoid ointment is contraindicated because it constricts small blood vessels, thus causes a decrease in blood flow, which prevents healing.) In infants, frequent diaper change can prevent anal fissure. As constipation can be a cause, making sure the infant is drinking enough fluids (i.e. breastmilk, proper ratios when mixing formulas). In infants, once an anal fissure has occurred, addressing underlying causes is usually enough to ensure healing occurs. Non-surgical treatments are recommended initially for acute and chronic anal fissures. These include topical nitroglycerin or calcium channel blockers, or injection of botulinum toxin into the anal sphincter. Local application of medications to relax the sphincter muscle, thus allowing the healing to proceed, was first proposed in 1994 with nitroglycerine ointment, and then calcium channel blockers in 1999 with nifedipine ointment, and the following year with topical diltiazem. Branded preparations are now available of topical nitroglycerine ointment (Rectogesic (Rectiv) as 0.2% in Australia and 0.4% in UK and US), topical nifedipine 0.3% with lidocaine 1.5% ointment (Antrolin in Italy since April 2004) and diltiazem 2% (Anoheal in UK, although still in Phase III development). A common side effect drawback of nitroglycerine ointment is headache, caused by systemic absorption of the drug, which limits patient acceptability. A combined surgical and pharmacological treatment, administered by colorectal surgeons, is direct injection of botulinum toxin (Botox) into the anal sphincter to relax it. This treatment was first investigated in 1993. However, in many cases involving Botox injections the patients eventually had to choose another cure as the injections proved less and less potent, spending thousands of dollars in the meantime for a partial cure. Lateral sphincterotomy is the Gold Standard for curing this affliction. Combination of medical therapies may offer up to 98% cure rates. Surgical procedures are generally reserved for people with anal fissure who have tried medical therapy for at least one to three months and have not healed. It is not the first option in treatment. The main concern with surgery is the development of anal incontinence. Anal incontinence can include inability to control gas, mild fecal soiling, or loss of solid stool. Some degree of incontinence can occur in up to 45 percent of patients in the immediate surgical recovery period. However, incontinence is rarely permanent and is usually mild. The risk should be discussed with one's surgeon. Surgical treatment, under general anaesthesia, was either anal stretch (Lord's operation) or lateral sphincterotomy where the internal anal sphincter muscle is incised. Both operations aim to decrease sphincter spasming and thereby restore normal blood supply to the anal mucosa. Surgical operations involve a general anaesthetic and can be painful postoperatively. Anal stretch is also associated with anal incontinence in a small proportion of cases and thus sphincterotomy is the operation of choice. Lateral internal sphincterotomy Lateral internal sphincterotomy (LIS) is the surgical procedure of choice for anal fissures due to its simplicity and its high success rate (~95%). In this procedure the internal anal sphincter is partially divided in order to reduce spasming and thus improve the blood supply to the perianal area. This improvement in the blood supply helps to heal the fissure, and the weakening of the sphincter is also believed to reduce the potential for recurrence. The procedure is generally performed as a day surgery after the patient is given general anesthesia. The pain from the sphincterotomy is usually mild and is often less than the pain of the fissure itself. Patients often return to normal activity within one week. LIS does, however, have a number of potential side effects including problems with incision site healing and incontinence to flatus and faeces (some surveys of surgical results suggest incontinence rates of up to 36%). Anal dilation Anal dilation, or stretching of the anal canal (Lord's operation) has fallen out of favour in recent years, primarily due to the unacceptably high incidence of fecal incontinence. In addition, anal stretching can increase the rate of flatus incontinence. In the early 1990s, however, a repeatable method of anal dilation proved to be very effective and showed a very low incidence of side effects. Since then, at least one other controlled, randomized study has shown there to be little difference in healing rates and complications between controlled anal dilation and LIS, while another has again shown high success rates with anal dilation coupled with low incidence of side effects. See also - Gott, M. D.; Peter, H. (5 March 1998). "New Therapy Coming for Anal Fissures". The Fresno Bee (Fresno, CA: McClatchy Co). p. E2, "Life" section. - "Common Anorectal Conditions". American Academy of Family Physicians. - "Anal Fissure - Causes". NHS Choices. - Collins, E. E.; Lund, J. N. (September 2007). "A Review of Chronic Anal Fissure Management". Techniques in Coloproctology 11 (3): 209–223. doi:10.1007/s10151-007-0355-9. PMID 17676270. - "Anal Fissure - Basics - Epidemiology". Best Practice. British Medical Journal. Apr 23, 2012. Retrieved 30 June 2012. - Basson, Marc D. (28 January 2010). "Constipation". eMedicine. New York, NY: WebMD. Retrieved 5 April 2010. - Nelson RL, Thomas K, Morgan J, Jones A (2012). "Non surgical therapy for anal fissure". Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2: CD003431. doi:10.1002/14651858.CD003431.pub3. PMID 22336789. - Haq., Z.; Rahman, M.; Chowdhury, R.; Baten, M.; Khatun, M. (2005). "Chemical Sphincterotomy—First Line of Treatment for Chronic Anal Fissure". Mymensingh Medical Journal 14 (1): 88–90. PMID 15695964. - Shao, WJ; Li, GC, Zhang, ZK (2009 Sep). "Systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials comparing botulinum toxin injection with lateral internal sphincterotomy for chronic anal fissure". International journal of colorectal disease 24 (9): 995–1000. doi:10.1007/s00384-009-0683-5. PMID 19266207. - "Anal Fissure - Treatment Overview". WebMD. Retrieved 27 September 2011. - Poritz, Lisa Susan. "Anal Fissure Treatment & Management". Medscape. Retrieved 27 September 2011. - =Loder, P.; Kamm, M.; Nicholls, R.; Phillips, R. (1994). "'Reversible Chemical Sphincterotomy' by Local Application of Glyceryl Trinitrate". British Journal of Surgery 81 (9): 1386–1389. doi:10.1002/bjs.1800810949. PMID 7953427. - Watson, S.; Kamm, M.; Nicholls, R.; Phillips, R. (1996). "Topical Glyceryl Trinitrate in the Treatment of Chronic Anal Fissure". British Journal of Surgery 83 (6): 771–775. doi:10.1002/bjs.1800830614. PMID 8696736. - Simpson, J.; Lund, J.; Thompson, R.; Kapila, L.; Scholefield, J. (2003). "The Use of Glyceryl Trinitrate (GTN) in the Treatment of Chronic Anal Fissure in Children". Medical Science Monitor 9 (10): PI123–126. PMID 14523338. - Lund, J. N.; Scholefield, J.H. (4 January 1997). "A Randomised, Prospective, Double-blind, Placebo-controlled Trial of Glyceryl Trinitrate Ointment in Treatment of Anal Fissure". The Lancet 349 (9044): 11–14. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(96)06090-4. PMID 8988115. - Antropoli, C.; Perrotti, P.; Rubino, M.; Martino, A.; De Stefano, G.; Migliore, G.; Antropoli, M.; Piazza, P. (1999). "Nifedipine for Local Use in Conservative Treatment of Anal Fissures: Preliminary Results of a Multicenter Study". Diseases of the Colon and Rectum 42 (8): 1011–1015. doi:10.1007/BF02236693. PMID 10458123. - Katsinelos, P.; Kountouras, J.; Paroutoglou, G.; Beltsis, A.; Chatzimavroudis, G.; Zavos, C.; Katsinelos, T.; Papaziogas, B. (2006). "Aggressive Treatment of Acute Anal Fissure with 0.5% Nifedipine Ointment Prevents Its Evolution to Chronicity". World Journal of Gastroenteroloogy 12 (38): 6203–6206. PMID 17036396. Archived from the original on 12 May 2009. Retrieved 12 May 2009. - Carapeti, E.; Kamm, M.; Phillips, R. (2000). "Topical Diltiazem and Bethanechol Decrease Anal Sphincter Pressure and Heal Anal Fissures without Side Effects". Diseases of the Colon and Rectum 43 (10): 1359–1362. doi:10.1007/BF02236630. PMID 11052511. - "Rectiv". drugs.com. Retrieved 27 September 2011. - Jost, W.; Schimrigk, K. (1993). "Use of Botulinum Toxin in Anal Fissure". Diseases of the Colon and Rectum 36 (10): 974. doi:10.1007/BF02050639. PMID 8404394. - Tranqui, P.; Trottier, D.; Victor, C.; Freeman, J. (2006). "Nonsurgical treatment of chronic anal fissure: nitroglycerin and dilatation versus nifedipine and botulinum toxin". Canadian Journal of Surgery [Journal Canadien de Chirurgie] 49 (1): 41–45. PMC 3207506. PMID 16524142. Retrieved 2009-05-12. - Wolff, B. G.; Fleshman, J.W.; Beck, D. E.; Church, J. M. (2007). The ASCRS Textbook of Colon and Rectal Surgery. Springer. p. 180. ISBN 978-0-387-24846-2. Retrieved 2009-07-15.[clarification needed] - Sadovsky, R. (1 April 2003). "Diagnosis and management of patients with anal fissures - Tips from Other Journals" (Reprint). American Family Physician 67 (7): 1608. Archived from the original on 2008-02-09. Retrieved 2009-05-12. - Sohn, M.; Weinstein, M. A. Anal Dilatation for Anal Fissures (PDF). Retrieved 2009-07-15.[dead link][dead link] - Yucel, T.; Gonullu, D.; Oncu, M.; Koksoy, F. N.; Ozkan, S. G.; Aycan, O. (June 2009). "Comparison of Controlled-intermittent Anal Dilatation and Lateral Internal Sphincterotomy in the Treatment of Chronic Anal Fissures: A Prospective, Randomized Study". International Journal of Surgery 7 (3): 228–231. doi:10.1016/j.ijsu.2009.03.006. PMID 19361582. - Renzi, A.; Brusciano, L.; Pescatori, M.; Izzo, D.; Napolitano, V.; Rossetti, G.; del Genio, G.; del Genio, A. (January 2005). "Pneumatic Balloon Dilatation for Chronic Anal Fissure: A Prospective, Clinical, Endosonographic, and Manometric Study". Diseases of the Colon and Rectum 48 (1): 121–126. doi:10.1007/s10350-004-0780-z. PMID 15690668. |Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Anal fissure|

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Arya SamajArticle Free Pass Arya Samaj, ( Sanskrit: “Society of Nobles”) vigorous reform sect of modern Hinduism, founded in 1875 by Dayananda Sarasvati, whose aim was to reestablish the Vedas, the earliest Hindu scriptures, as revealed truth. He rejected all later accretions to the Vedas as degenerate but, in his own interpretation, included much post-Vedic thought, such as the doctrines of karman (effect of past deeds) and of rebirth. The Arya Samaj has always had its largest following in western and northern India. It is organized in local samajas (“societies”) that send representatives to provincial samajas and to an all-India samaja. Each local samaja elects its own officers in a democratic manner. The Arya Samaj opposes idolatry, animal sacrifice, ancestor worship, a caste system based on birth rather than on merit, untouchability, child marriage, pilgrimages, priestly craft, and temple offerings. It upholds the infallibility of the Vedas, the doctrines of karman and rebirth, the sanctity of the cow, the importance of the individual sacraments (samskaras), the efficacy of Vedic oblations to the fire, and programs of social reform. It has worked to further female education and intercaste marriages, has built missions, orphanages, and homes for widows, and has undertaken famine relief and medical work. It also established a network of schools and colleges. From its beginning it was an important factor in the growth of nationalism. It has been criticized, however, as overly dogmatic and militant on occasion and as having exhibited an aggressive intolerance toward both Christianity and Islam. What made you want to look up "Arya Samaj"? Please share what surprised you most...

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Coal money, generated by one of the world’s largest open-pit mines, has built a new Ordos, a municipality in the Chinese province of Inner Mongolia. A modern city is rising there from the steppes, featuring monumental government buildings, an imposing museum, and row after row of apartment buildings and subdivisions, all designed to accommodate more than a million new residents. Spacious roads wait for cars to zoom between residential and commercial areas or feed into the highway that leads to the existing — and inhabited — old city, some 15 miles away. But cars and people remain sparse. Ordos is emblematic of China’s urbanization boom, a construction frenzy unlike anything seen in the history of the planet. Today, half of the nation’s 1.35 billion people live in cities. From the outskirts of Shenyang in the cold northeast to the mountainous precincts of Kunming in the subtropical southwest, buildings are rising to accommodate the people now crowding into the 170 cities in China that host more than a million residents. Across the country, construction firms have built some 2 billion square meters of new apartments, offices, and skyscrapers annually in recent years. The national bird of China has become the construction crane. The environmental impact of this construction boom is enormous. The greenhouse gas emissions associated with producing all the steel, concrete, One big problem is local governments derive much of their revenue from selling land. and other building materials are staggering; one ton of the cement that is the substrate of this new urban infrastructure equals at least one ton of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, another reason China is now the world’s leading CO2-emitting nation. In addition, shoddy construction means that many buildings will have to be torn down and rebuilt within a decade or two, and that new homes and offices often are not energy efficient. To tackle the problem, a growing number of experts in China, as well as foreign conservation groups working in the country, are attempting to incorporate elements of smart growth, energy efficiency, and green design in China’s construction industry. Basic reforms, such as better building codes and mandated efficiency standards, could make a significant difference, experts contend. “The issue is not really about restraining the growth of cities, but ensuring that the growth is smart [and] well-planned,” says Deborah Seligsohn, principal advisor in the World Resources Institute’s China Climate and Energy Program. A major impediment is a simple fact of economic life in China: Local governments, which do not have the power to levy property taxes, derive a large portion of their revenues from development fees and selling land. “The single best way for Chinese cities to make money during this unique 40-year urbanization cycle is to sell land to developers,” explains Peggy Liu, chairwoman of the Joint U.S.-China Collaboration on Clean Energy (JUCCCE), a nonprofit aiming to accelerate environmental improvement in China. “Infrastructure uses enormous amounts of cement, steel, aluminum — all of the heavy industry that causes emissions and is thirsty for energy. China imports a lot of building materials as well, which requires even more energy to package and transport. This doesn’t bode well for the next two decades.” The environmental impact of rapid urbanization and poor construction is hardly limited to China. The number of people living in cities worldwide has risen from roughly 260 million in 1900 to 3.5 billion today. By mid-century, two-thirds of humanity will be living in urban areas. “In the next 40 years, we need to build the same urban capacity that we built in the last 4,000 years or people will live in slums,” says Konrad Otto-Zimmermann, Secretary General of the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI), a city governments group. “We need to increase [population] density and make more efficient use of existing infrastructure. We cannot afford to just double it.” China’s epic spate of city building is in a class by itself, however. The country’s primary policy at all levels of government remains economic growth, and real estate development fulfills that goal while also providing Millions of laborers throw up dormitories and apartments, only to see them torn down less than a decade later. new housing for the millions of recently urbanized Chinese. Millions of peasant laborers throw up factories, dormitories, and apartments, only to see them torn down less than a decade later. Communist-style apartment blocks, known as “bed cities” because people only go there to sleep, are hastily erected and surrounded by sprawling industrial parks on the outskirts of cities. Contractors and clients sketch out and design buildings in a few hours, quickly followed by construction, with local governments blessing the pell-mell growth. For all the Chinese demonstration eco-cities like Tianjin or “carbon neutral” pledges from smaller cities like Rizhao, thousands of new homes in rural townships are poorly constructed and made of substandard brick or cinderblock. As a result, China’s buildings consume more energy than its heaviest industries, such as steel and cement, combined. The low-cost construction makes them hard to heat and cool. And low-quality cement, notes Stephen Hammer, a professor of urban planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, means that “after a decade or two, it’s so cracked and deteriorated that it realistically needs to be replaced.” Partially as a result, a single Chinese character has come to dominate urban planning: Chai (demolish). It is scrawled on buildings constructed as recently as the 1990s, now destined to be rubble. “Poor urban planning, lack of accountability, weak regulation and absence of legal framework, all together makes buildings in China so vulnerable,” says engineer Ding Jianhua of the China Urban Construction, Design and Research Institute. “Tearing down buildings is, in my opinion, essentially the most high carbon factor in China at present.” The Chinese government and various organizations are beginning to come to grips with the challenge, however. The central government has eliminated real estate as a priority industry in the latest Five Year Plan in a Simply improving existing building codes would have a bigger impact than any new eco-city. bid to restrain this unsustainable growth. It has also begun to consider mandated efficiency measures for new construction. China’s central government hopes ultimately to build an “ecological civilization” via a “circular economy” of recycling and sustainability. Tianjin Eco-City, scheduled to be completed by 2018, exemplifies many of the proposed attributes: minimal waste, wise water use, and power generated mainly from renewable sources such as the sun, wind, and geothermal wells. But simply improving existing building codes would have a bigger impact than any new eco-city. “Just construction standards alone, as dull as that might sound, is going to be one of the most influential areas in urban climate change in the next 10 years,” argues Ashvin Dayal, managing director for the Rockefeller Foundation in Asia, which is funding efforts to help developing cities cope with climate change. Most organizations interested in ensuring the sustainability of cities have a similar focus, whether in China or the rest of the world. “Mandates for little things like enough insulation are really the smartest way to go,” notes Rohit Aggarwall, special advisor to the chair of the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, an international planning organization for 59 major cities engaged in efforts to combat climate change. MORE FROM YALE e360 China’s central government is planning such a mandate for energy efficient materials in new buildings, along with greater adoption of renewable energy to go with the solar hot water heaters already covering rooftops across the country, according to CUCD’s Jianhua. Her work with the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation includes developing “low-cost, high-effect, low-carbon measures” for Min’an, a community that comprises 22 residential buildings and a park in the Dongcheng District of Beijing. The plan is to deal with subjects as mundane as building insulation, better transportation, and water consumption — measures that can then be replicated across the country. As for Ordos, it and other “ghost cities” may not remain empty for long. “Given that 350 million people are moving into Chinese cities by 2030, and that the middle class is doubling from 300 to 612 million by 2025, I’m not that worried about these cities staying completely empty forever,” JUCCCE’s Liu says. But the Ordos model of pell-mell development must be jettisoned if China hopes to control its CO2 emissions and become more energy independent, experts contend. Says ICLEI’s Otto-Zimmermann, “To just expand [cities] at the current rate and build the same Soviet-type prefab buildings another 20 to 30 kilometers around the city, that’s certainly not the solution.”

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- About IE - Our Expeditions - Travel Specials - Prepare for Your Trip - Travel Agents - Contact Us Evidence of Snow Leopards in Northern Indian Mountains Captured by WWF Cameras The snow leopard is one of the most elusive cats in the world, but camera traps recently managed to capture them on film in the mountains near the India-Pakistan border. The Indian branch of World Wildlife Fund (WWF) set up infrared cameras throughout the remote regions of the Kargil mountains just outside the Kashmir territory, according to The Associated Press. While this area has long been a hot spot for international conflict, it has been home to snow leopards for far longer. Snow leopards live in the rocky high-altitude terrains throughout the mountain chain from Afghanistan to Mongolia. These endangered creatures have long, thick tails to help them keep their balance on the steep slopes while they hunt their prey. Aishwarya Maheshwari, a WWF researcher, set off on an India expedition in 2007 to document high-altitude wildlife in the Himilayas, and his most recent project was to study the snow leopard. He set up a number of cameras throughout their habitat in mid-2011, which initially only turned out photos of other regional predators, such as the Tibetan wolf and the red fox. Recently, the cameras began transmitting pictures of two snow leopards, which the AP reports is a good sign that the population may be doing better than previously thought. Nature travel enthusiasts may not be able to spot these shy cats when they visit India, but they can learn more about these predators and the region's other endemic wildlife. Read original article, Camera traps document elusive snow leopard in India’s Kargil. For the latest travel trends and exciting discoveries, visit our India Travel News section.

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http://www.ietravel.com/blog/india/snow-leopard-kargil-mountains

2013-05-24T16:04:06Z

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en

CHAPTER 1. ORIGINS. 1.1. GOVERNOR PHILLIP. Arthur Phillip, whose claim to be considered the first inland explorer of the south-eastern portion of Australia rests upon his discovery of the Hawkesbury River and a few short excursions to the northward of Port Jackson, had but scant leisure to spare from his official duties for extended geographical research. For all that, Phillip and a few of his officers were sufficiently imbued with the spirit of discovery to find opportunity to investigate a considerable area of country in the immediate neighbourhood of the settlement, and, considering the fact that all their explorations at the time had to be laboriously conducted on foot, they did their work well. The first excursion undertaken by Phillip was on the 2nd of March, 1788, when he went to Broken Bay, whence, after a slight examination, he was forced to return by the inclemency of the weather. On the 15th of April he made another attempt to ascertain the character and features of the unknown land that he had taken possession of. Landing on the shore of the harbour, a short distance from the North Head, he started on a tour of examination, and, in the course of his march, penetrated to a distance of fifteen miles from the coast. At this point he caught sight of the distant range that was destined to baffle for many years the western progress of the early settlers. Phillip, on this his first glimpse of it, christened the northern elevations the Caermarthen Hills, and the southern elevations the Lansdowne; and a remarkable hill, destined to become a well-known early landmark, he called Richmond Hill. In the brief view he had of this range, there was suddenly born in Phillip's mind the conviction that a large river must have its source therein, and that upon the banks of such a river, the soil would be found more arable than about the present settlement. He at once made up his mind to try and gain the range on a different course. A week later he landed at the head of the harbour and directed his march straight inland, hoping to reach either the mountains, which he knew to be there, or the river in whose existence he firmly believed. Disappointment dogged his steps; on the first day a belt of dense scrub forced his party to return and when, on the morrow, they avoided the scrub by following up a small creek and got into more thinly timbered country, their slow progress enabled them to accomplish only thirty miles in five days. By that time, they were short of provisions; there was no river visible, and the range still looked on them from afar. What cheered them was the sight of some land that promised richly to reward the labour of cultivation. It was not until the 6th of June, 1789, that Phillip resumed his labours in the field of exploration. The Sirius had then returned from the Cape of Good Hope, and he could reckon on the assistance of his friend, Captain Hunter, to re-investigate Broken Bay with the vessel's boats. Accordingly, two boats were sent on to Broken Bay with provisions, where they were joined by the Governor and his party, who had marched overland. Besides Phillip, the party consisted of Captain Hunter and two of his officers, Captain Collins, Captain Johnston, and Surgeon White. For two days they were engaged in examining the many inlets and openings of the Bay, and on the third, they chanced upon a branch that had before escaped their notice. They proceeded to explore it, and found the river of which Phillip had dreamed. The next day, renewed examination proved that it was indeed a noble river, with steep banks and a depth of water that promised well for navigation. After their return to Sydney Cove, preparations were at once made to follow up this important discovery. On the 28th of June, Phillip, again accompanied by Hunter, left the Cove, having made much the same arrangements as before. There was a slight misunderstanding with regard to meeting the boat; but, after this was cleared away, the party soon floated out on to the waters of the new-found river. They rowed up the river until they reached the hill that Phillip, at a distance, had christened Richmond Hill. On traversing a reach of the stream, the main range, that as yet they had only dimly seen in the distance, suddenly loomed ahead of them, frowning in rugged grandeur close upon them, as it seemed. Struck with admiration and astonishment at this unexpected revelation of the deep ravines and stern and gloomy gorges that scored its front, over which hung a blue haze, Phillip, almost involuntarily, named them on the moment; the Blue Mountains. Next morning the explorers ascended Richmond Hill, from whose crest they looked across a deep, wooded valley to the mountains still many miles away. After a hasty examination of the country on the banks of the river, Phillip and his band returned to the settlement, he having now realised his brightest hopes and anticipations. On the 11th of April, 1791, Phillip again started on an expedition, the object of which was a closer inspection of the Blue Mountains. He was accompanied this time by Captain Tench and Lieutenant Dawes; the latter, in December, 1789, had been sent out with a small party to reach the foot of the range, but had succeeded in approaching only within eleven miles of the Mountains, whence he was forced to retire by the rugged and broken nature of the country. On the present occasion, they reached the river two days after leaving Rose Hill. They followed it for another two days, but made no further discoveries, being greatly delayed by the constant detours around the heads of small tributary creeks, too deep to cross in the neighbourhood of the river.

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http://explorion.net/explorers-australia-and-their-life-work/chapter-1-origins

2013-06-19T14:31:37Z

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en

Using Textile Markup Textile is a lightweight markup language. it converts its marked-up text input to valid, well-formed XHTML and also inserts character entity references for apostrophes, opening and closing single and double quotation marks, ellipses and em dashes. When editing a course lesson, you’ll see a Formatting Guide in the sidebar indicating the syntax for some of the more commonly used elements. For a full Textile reference and editing sandbox, see the official documentation at textile.thresholdstate.com. Headings range from h1 (big) to h6 (small). We recommend that you primarily use h3 when writing your lessons, as anything smaller doesn’t really stand out from the body text. Links can be created in a number of ways: - The Textile markup for making a link looks like this: - You can also use HTML, like so: <a href="http://thelink.com">link text</a>. To make a link that opens in a new window or tab, use the ‘target’ parameter: <a href="http://thelink.com" target="_blank">link text</a>. - All URLs in the text will automatically be converted to links, so if you throw a http://google.com in your text, it become a link. - Create bulleted lists (like this one) by placing an asterisk (*) before each item. - Create numbered ists by placing a hash/pound (#) before each item. - For both types of lists, each item must be on its own line, and you must insert a space after the * or # If you’re familiary with HTML, you can create tables using standard HTML, or you can create them with Textile using the pipe character (Shift – \) as follows: |_. a|_. table|_. header| The following characters at the beginning of a line will determine the alignment of the line’s content. If Textile is converting a piece of your text in an undesirable way, simply wrap that text in double-equals signs. ==*Not* gonna get _formatted_.==

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2013-05-22T00:49:26Z

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en

Could we see a double whammy? Health officials are wondering if we might see an RSV outbreak to accompany the recent flu epidemic. RSV is a virus that usually hits this time of year. Infants and young children are mostly affected. For parents this could be a big concern, considering the flu and RSV can be hard to tell apart. "RSV comes on more subtle. Congestion first, and then harsh coughing, wheezing may start two to four days in,” Dr. Brad Brabec, of Lincoln Pediatric Associates says. Dr. Brabec says the flu typically hits much faster. RSV is treated like many viruses by controlling the fever and drinking lots of fluids. So far, doctors say the virus hasn't hit yet. kolnkgin.com Extended Web Coverage - Much of the illness and death caused by influenza can be prevented by annual influenza vaccination. - Influenza vaccine is specifically recommended for people who are at high risk for developing serious complications as a result of influenza infection. - These high-risk groups are: - All people age 65 and older. - People of any age with chronic diseases of the heart, lungs or kidneys, diabetes, immunosuppression, or severe forms of anemia. - Residents of nursing homes and other chronic-care facilities housing patients of any age. - Women who will be more then three months pregnant during influenza season. - Children and teenagers who are receiving long-term aspirin therapy and who may therefore be at risk for developing Reye syndrome after an influenza virus infection. - Overall vaccine effectiveness varies from year to year, depending upon the degree of similarity between the influenza virus strains included in the vaccine and the strain or strains that circulate during the influenza season. - Influenza vaccine produced in the United States cannot cause influenza. - The only type of influenza vaccine that has been licensed in the United States is made from killed influenza viruses, which cannot cause infection. When to receive the influenza vaccine - In the United States, influenza usually occurs from about November until April, with activity peaking between late December and early March. - The optimal time for vaccination of persons at high risk for influenza-related medical complications is during October through November. - It takes about 1 to 2 weeks after vaccination for antibody against influenza to develop and provide protection. Source: http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/diseases/flu/fluvac.htm ( The Center for Disease Control Vaccine Information Web site)

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2013-05-19T10:42:50Z

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en

The Perseid meteor shower happens every year around mid-August. This year's peak nights will be during the early morning hours of August 12th and 13th. During the shower you'll be able to see up to 60 meteors per hour. What is a meteor shower? A meteor is a tiny dust particle that a comet sheds. These dust particles remain along the orbit of the comet for many years. When the Earth comes close to - or plows through - the comet dust debris, dust particles fall into the Earth's atmosphere and burn up completely. We see the break up of the dust particles in streaks of light that we call meteors, which are also commonly referred to as "shooting stars" -- although this term is technically inaccurate. Comet dust particles are typically smaller than the size of a pea and burn up in the Earth's atmosphere about 70 km above the surface. Why is the meteor shower called Perseid? If you watch the meteor streaks carefully, it appears as though you could trace them back to a point in the sky where they originate. In reality this is an optical illusion, because all meteors travel in a parallel direction in space. The meteor shower is called "Perseid" because its apparent point of origin, or the radiant point, is in the constellation Perseus. What's the best time to view the 2012 Perseid meteor shower? The best time to view the meteor shower is when its radiant point appears to be high in the sky, during the early morning hours. The shower is forecasted to peak on August 12th, but you'll be able to catch the show on August 13th as well. You'll also be able to see a few Perseid meteor showers a few days before and after this time. How can I view the meteor showers? You won't need binoculars or a telescope to see the meteors. In fact, your eyes will be the best viewing instruments! Try to choose a viewing location with little direct light in the surrounding. Make yourself comfortable and look towards the sky, directly opposite from the the full moon. Summer nights can get cool, so bring along an extra blanket. And don't forget your insect repellent!

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2013-05-24T01:52:42Z

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en

The Petawawa River is a river A river is a natural watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, a lake, a sea, or another river. In a few cases, a river simply flows into the ground or dries up completely before reaching another body of water. Small rivers may also be called by several other names, including... in the Saint Lawrence River The Saint Lawrence is a large river flowing approximately from southwest to northeast in the middle latitudes of North America, connecting the Great Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean. It is the primary drainage conveyor of the Great Lakes Basin... A drainage basin is an extent or an area of land where surface water from rain and melting snow or ice converges to a single point, usually the exit of the basin, where the waters join another waterbody, such as a river, lake, reservoir, estuary, wetland, sea, or ocean... in Nipissing District and Renfrew County in eastern Eastern Ontario is a subregion of Southern Ontario in the Canadian province of Ontario which lies in a wedge-shaped area between the Ottawa River and St. Lawrence River... Northeastern Ontario is the region within the Canadian province of Ontario which lies north and east of Lakes Superior and Huron.Northeastern Ontario consists of the districts of Algoma, Sudbury, Cochrane, Timiskaming, Nipissing and Manitoulin; and the single-tier municipality of Greater... Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa.... Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean... . The river flows from Algonquin Provincial Park Algonquin Provincial Park is a provincial park located between Georgian Bay and the Ottawa River in Central Ontario, Canada, mostly within the Unorganized South Part of Nipissing District. Established in 1893, it is the oldest provincial park in Canada. Additions since its creation have increased... to the Ottawa River The Ottawa River is a river in the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. For most of its length, it now defines the border between these two provinces.-Geography:... at the town of Petawawa. The river's name comes from the Algonquian The Algonquian languages also Algonkian) are a subfamily of Native American languages which includes most of the languages in the Algic language family. The name of the Algonquian language family is distinguished from the orthographically similar Algonquin dialect of the Ojibwe language, which is a... for "where one hears a noise like this", which refers to its many rapids. The river starts at Ralph Bice Lake (formally Butt Lake) in northern Algonquin Provincial Park in the geographic township of Butt in the Unorganized South Part of Nipissing District. It flows south to Daisy Lake Daisy Lake is a lake in the geographic townships of Butt and McCraney in the Unorganized South Part of Nipissing District, Ontario, Canada. The lake is in the Ottawa River drainage basin and is entirely within Algonquin Provincial Park.... then east to Big Trout Lake. The river heads north out the lake over Big Trout Lake Dam, takes in the left tributary Tim River The Tim River is a river in the Saint Lawrence River drainage basin in the Unorganized South Part of Nipissing District in northeastern Ontario, Canada... , flows over the Portal Rapids, Cedar Rapids, Showshoe Rapids, Catfish Rapids, and Stacks Rapids to reach Cedar Lake, the location of the community of Brent Brent is a community on Cedar Lake on the Petawawa River in northern Algonquin Provincial Park, and is located in geographic Deacon Township in the Unorganized south part of Nipissing District in northeastern Ontario, Canada.... , where it takes in the left tributary Nipissing River The Nipissing River is a river in the Saint Lawrence River drainage basin in the Unorganized South Part of Nipissing District in northeastern Ontario, Canada... . The river exits the lake over a dam, heads through the Devil's Chute, reaches Radiant Lake, where it takes in the left tributary North River North River may refer to one of five rivers in Ontario, Canada:*North River in Kenora District, in the Hudson Bay drainage basin, which flows into Marchington Lake on the Marchington River near the unincorporated place of Ghost River*In Nipissing District:... and right tributary Little Madawaska River The Little Madawaska River is a river in the Saint Lawrence River drainage basin in the Unorganized South Part of Nipissing District in northeastern Ontario, Canada... , and passes through the Squirrel Rapids, Big Sawyer Rapids, Battery Rapids Cascade Rapids and White Horse Rapids, and takes in the right tributary Crow River The Crow River is a river in the Saint Lawrence River drainage basin in the Unorganized South Part of Nipissing District in northeastern Ontario, Canada... . The river then continues through a series of rapids including the Devil's Cellar Rapids, passes the Algonquin Radio Observatory The Algonquin Radio Observatory is a radio telescope research facility located in the Algonquin Provincial Park in Ontario, Canada. The site's primary instrument is a major 46 m parabolic-dish radio antenna. This instrument is historically famous for taking part in the first successful very... , and reaches Lake Travers. The Petawawa River enters a canyon and passes through numerous rapids including the Big Thompson Rapids, Little Thompson Rapids, Grillade Rapids, Crooked Chute, Rollway Rapids, The Natch, Schoooner Rapids, Five Mile Rapids to arrive at Whitson Lake adjacent to the Petawawa Hills. It leaves Algonquin Provincial Park and enters the municipality of Laurentian Hills in Renfrew County, continues southeast past CFB Petawawa Canadian Forces Base Petawawa, commonly referred to as CFB Petawawa, or simply "Pet", is a Canadian Forces Base located in Petawawa, Ontario. It is operated as an army base by Canadian Forces Land Force Command.-Base facts:... , passes through the Crooked Rapids, Race Horse Rapids, White Horse Rapids and Halfmile Rapids, and reaches Lac du Bois Dur, where it takes in the right tributary Barron River The Barron River is a river in the Saint Lawrence River drainage basin in Nipissing District and Renfrew County, Ontario, Canada... . The river enters the town of Petawawa, heads under Ontario Highway 17, through the Big Eddy Rapids, under the Canadian Pacific Railway The Canadian Pacific Railway , formerly also known as CP Rail between 1968 and 1996, is a historic Canadian Class I railway founded in 1881 and now operated by Canadian Pacific Railway Limited, which began operations as legal owner in a corporate restructuring in 2001... The Mainline or Main line of a railway is a track that is used for through trains or is the principal artery of the system from which branch lines, yards, sidings and spurs are connected.... , and empties into Black Bay on the Ottawa River. The river is 187 kilometres (116.2 mi) in length and drains an area of 4200 square kilometres (1,621.6 sq mi), with a mean discharge of 45 cubic metres (1,589 cu ft) per second. From the late 19th century until the 1960s, the river was used for log driving Log driving is a means of log transport which makes use of a river's current to move floating tree trunks downstream to sawmills and pulp mills.It was the main transportation method of the early logging industry in Europe and North America... of the timber Timber may refer to:* Timber, a term common in the United Kingdom and Australia for wood materials * Timber, Oregon, an unincorporated community in the U.S... from the forested areas surrounding the river. The river is popular among canoe A canoe or Canadian canoe is a small narrow boat, typically human-powered, though it may also be powered by sails or small electric or gas motors. Canoes are usually pointed at both bow and stern and are normally open on top, but can be decked over A canoe (North American English) or Canadian... ing and kayak A kayak is a small, relatively narrow, human-powered boat primarily designed to be manually propelled by means of a double blade paddle.The traditional kayak has a covered deck and one or more cockpits, each seating one paddler... ing enthusiasts for its white water rapids and often spectacular views. Part of the Petawawa River lies in the Ottawa-Bonnechere Graben The Ottawa-Bonnechere Graben , with its branch the Timiskaming Graben, is an ancient rift valley in the Canadian Shield of Northeastern Ontario and Quebec, Canada. This rift valley was formed when the Earth's crust moved downward about a kilometre between two major fault zones known as the Mattawa... , a 175 million year old rift valley A rift valley is a linear-shaped lowland between highlands or mountain ranges created by the action of a geologic rift or fault. This action is manifest as crustal extension, a spreading apart of the surface which is subsequently further deepened by the forces of erosion... - Jorgens Creek (left) - Lac du Bois Dur - Charlebois Creek (left) - Barron River (right) - Black Bay Creek (right) - Centre Creek (left) - Black Duck Creek (left) - Lorne Creek (right) - Military Creek (left) - Cartier Creek (left) - Louie Creek (left) - Emma Creek (right) - Blue Beech Creek (left) - Clouthier Creek (right) - North Rouge Creek (left) - Lake Travers - Otterpaw Creek (left) - Deerhorn Creek (left) - Travers Creek (right) - Whitson Creek (right) - Eustache Creek (right) - Wagtail Creek (right) - Crow River (right) - Pauguk Creek (right) - Battery Creek (right) - Plover Creek (left) - Radiant Lake - Menona Creek (left) - North River (left) - Little Madawaska River (right) - George Creek (left) - Cedar Lake - Nipissing River (left) - Cauchon Creek (left) - Gilmour Creek (left) - Peboan Creek (left) - Ghost Creek (left) - Wendigoes Creek (right) - Pukina Creek (right) - Sunfish Creek (right) - Pugwa Creek (right) - Haydes Creek (left) - Minnehaha Creek (left) - Spiza Creek (right) - Alder Creek (left) - Tim River (left) - Mire Creek (left) - Otterslide Creek (right) - Dan Creek (right) - She Creek (right) - Timberwolf Creek (right) - Wenona Creek (right) - Mack Creek (left) - Daisy Lake - Hambone Creek (right) - Casey Creek (right)

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http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Petawawa_River

2013-06-18T22:32:11Z

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en

Naoya Ogawa and Kazunori Umeda Most methods for range measurement or three-dimensional shape reconstruction have required large equipment or a special environment. This paper proposes a method which obtains a range image easily in a general environment using only an off-the-shelf digital camera. Distance is calculated based on irradiance of scene lighted by the digital camera's flash using the fact that the intensity of reflected light of the flash is inversely proportional to the square of the distance from the object. Irradiance is obtained by subtracting an image without the flash from an image with the flash. The image without the flash is used to obtain the reflectance ratio at each pixel. The intensity of reflected light of the flash is affected by the inclination of object surface. A method to estimate the inclination at each pixel is proposed which uses the changes in the irradiance of adjacent pixels. Inclination is formulated as the function of the rate of change, and is calculated based on this rate, which is obtained easily from the image. Color information is obtained simultaneously because visible light is used. Assumptions in the method are that the object surface has no specular reflection and the flash is set at the center of the lens. Experiments show that a range image is obtained roughly and that appropriate distance is obtained for inclined surfaces. Keywords: digital camera, flash, range measurement, reflectance ratio, normal of surface

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2013-06-20T08:51:06Z

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en

A shepherd was someone who tended to and guarded flocks of sheep. The term could also be used to describe someone tending to and guiding a group of people. When Apollo first greeted the crew of the USS Enterprise, he announced how long he had awaited that moment, and reminisced of "lush and beautiful Earth, the green fields and blue skies, the simple shepherds and their flocks. Later, when Carolyn Palamas betrayed Apollo and his love, she told him, "Love you? Be logical. I'm not some simple shepherdess you can awe. Why, I could no more love you than I could love a new species of bacteria." (TOS: "Who Mourns for Adonais?") The main character story of The Boy Who Cried Wolf was a young boy who was a shepherd. He would falsely tell nearby villagers that a wolf was threatening his sheep, but when they arrived to help him he said that it left. After doing this repeatedly the villagers knew he was lying and did nothing when he did tell the truth. He ended up being eaten by the wolf. (DS9: "Improbable Cause") In 2372, the Ferengi imposed an six percent tariff on woolen goods they traded with the Karemma, claiming that the tax was added to help offset the "lost income of Tarkalean sheep herders." (DS9: "Starship Down") Kathryn Janeway once compared taking four inefficient officers on an away mission to a shepherd tending to a flock. At the conclusion of the mission, she said "The good shepherd went after some lost sheep...and ran into a wolf." (VOY: "Good Shepherd")

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http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Shepherdess

2013-05-19T02:26:09Z

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en

saithe's habitat is in the North Atlantic Ocean, from the Barent Sea to the Biscaya Bay, and around Iceland and Greenland, and from the Hudson Bay to the coasts of North Carolina, USA. In Icelandic waters it is more common in the warmer seas off the southwest and south coasts than of the north coast. It is found from the surface to the ocean floor, down to 450 m, but most commonly at 200 m. Its ideal temperatures lie between 4°C and 12°C. It migrates in great schools too feed. Tagging has confirmed the great migration distances of this species. Its feeding habits depend on its size. The fries feed on worms and crustreceans, while the larger fish feed on capelin, sand eel, other fishes and krill. The saithe fries feed other fishes and birds, and the larger fishes sharks and toothed whales. During the first year the saithe grows fast. At the age of 4-5 months it is 5-6 cm long and seven months later 10-25 cm. Two years old it measures 28-42 cm and heads for deeper waters. It reaches puberty 4-7 years old. It is believed, that can reach the age of 30 years.

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http://www.icelandonline.is/fiskar/eng_saithe_ufsi.htm

2013-05-20T22:25:20Z

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en

Lachine Canal National Historic Site of Canada A Mega Project Peel Basin in 2002 © Parks Canada / Kedl Collection, 2002 The Lachine Canal is undergoing a revival. An imposing revitalization project was publicly announced in spring 1997 at a press conference given by the main actors involved. The Government of Canada, the City of Montréal and the City of Lachine have invested 100 million dollars in a variety of revitalization works which will transform the landscape of the Lachine Canal and surrounding area. Phase 1 of the work headed by Parks Canada runs from 1997 to 2004, with the objective of developing the commemorative and recreational potential of the Lachine Canal. The urban planning operations and work undertaken by the Ville de Montréal from 1997 to 2002 concerns the canal approaches and waterside neighbourhoods. The most spectacular works involve the restoration and the operation of the waterway with the purpose of reopening the canal to small pleasure craft for 2002 and of offering the population a recreational boating area. Less visible, but just as important, are the many research projects and studies in preparation for the canal's historical commemoration which also require a huge amount of work and energy. Finally, complementary actions will improve the multi-purpose path and raise the quality of the visit by adding new services and improving accessibility. So not only will this historic site conserve its popular multipurpose path, but it will also become a choice destination for history buffs and for adepts at recreational activities both on land and on water. This mega project should also help the South-West of the island of Montréal regain its economic cruising speed. The revitalization of the canal will have a leverage effect by attracting many projects funded by the private sector such as the creation of new businesses and residential development.

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CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://www.pc.gc.ca/eng/lhn-nhs/qc/canallachine/plan/plan1/b.aspx

2013-05-24T16:27:40Z

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en

Our curriculum includes over 3,000 lesson modules created by more than 200 writers, organized into over 20 subjects in Math, Science, Language Arts, and Social Studies. The e-Tutor curriculum meets or exceeds state and national standards. There are no additional workbooks, texts, downloads or hardware required. Learn about our curriculum Created Exclusively for Online Learning Each of our lesson modules has been written exclusively for use in eTutor. We believe that in order for online education to succeed it must be different than what is offered in other schools and online programs today. Our curriculum has not been adapted from texts, workbooks, or CDs. Perspectives from around the World The eTutor curriculum includes lesson modules created by writers from around the world, resulting in rich and varied perspectives in their voice. eTutor editors add new lesson modules based on their quality and fit in the curriculum, resulting in a dynamic but cohesive whole. Sample Lesson Modules Math | High School Mathematics lesson for High School students: Science | Middle/Junior High School Science lesson for Middle/Junior High School students: Inside a Lesson Module Each lesson module includes eight sections, and generally takes students one to one and a half hours to complete: - Problem Statement - Study Guide - Extended Learning Take a Tour - Easy credit transfer - Quality assurance - Access to loans & scholarships The flexibility of eTutor accommodates open enrollment - get started immediately. Call Us with Questions Choosing an online school is an important decision. Call us toll-free (877) 687-7200 to make sure e-Tutor is your online school of choice. No call center operators, just us.

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CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://e-tutor.com/curriculum.php

2013-05-19T11:25:11Z

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en

The Schilling's test is a medical investigation used in patients with vitamin B12 deficiency. The purpose of the test is to determine if the patient has pernicious anemia. There are a few variations on the exact procedure used. In the first part of the test, the patient is given radiolabeled vitamin B12 to drink. The most commonly used radiolabels are 57Co and 58Co. An intramuscular injection of unlabeled vitamin B12 is given at around the same time. The purpose of this injection is to saturate tissue stores with normal vitamin B12 to prevent radioactive vitamin B12 binding in body tissues, so that if absorbed, it will pass into the urine. The patient's urine is then collected over the next 24 hours to assess the absorption. Normally, the ingested radiolabeled vitamin B12 will be absorbed into the body. Since the body already has liver receptors for transcobalamin/vitamin B12 saturated by the injection, much of the ingested vitamin B12 will be excreted in the urine. A normal result shows at least 10% of the radiolabelled vitamin B12 in the urine over the first 24 hours. In patients with pernicious anemia or with deficiency due to impaired absorption, less than 5% of the radiolabeled vitamin B12 is detected. If an abnormality is found, the test is repeated, this time with additional oral intrinsic factor. If this second urine collection is normal, this shows a lack of intrinsic factor production, or pernicious anemia. A low result on the second test implies abnormal intestinal absorption (malabsorption), which could be caused by coeliac disease, biliary disease, Whipple's disease, fish tapeworm infestation (Diphyllobothrium latum), or liver disease. Malabsorption of B12 can be caused by intestinal dysfunction from a low vitamin level in-and-of-itself (see below), causing test result confusion if repletion has not been done for some days previously. In some versions of the Shilling's test, B12 can be given both with and without intrinsic factor at the same time, using different cobalt radioisotopes 57Co and 58Co, which have different radiation signatures, in order to differentiate the two forms of B12. This allows for only a single radioactive urine collection. Note that the B12 shot which begins the Shilling's test is enough to go a considerable way toward treating B12 deficiency, so the test is also a partial treatment for B12 deficiency. Also, the classic Shilling test can be performed at any time, even after full B12 repletion and correction of the anemia, and it will still show if the cause of the B12 deficiency was intrinsic-factor related. In fact, some clinicians have suggested that full folate and B12 replacement be normally performed before a Shilling's test is done, since folate and B12 deficiencies are both known to interfere with intestinal cell function, and thus cause malabsorption of B12 on their own, even if intrinsic factor is being made. This state would then tend to cause a false-positive test for intrinsic factor-related B12 malabsorption. Many labs have stopped performing the Shilling's test, due to lack of production of the cobalt radioisotopes and labeled-B12 test substances. |Part 1 test result||Part 2 test result||Diagnosis| There is no pharmaceutical or device industry support for this site and we need your viewer supported Donations | Editorial Board | Governance | Licensing | Disclaimers | Avoid Plagiarism | Policies

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CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://www.wikidoc.org/index.php?title=Schilling_test&oldid=408439

2013-05-23T04:42:55Z

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en

- Arnaud Le Hors, W3C - Robert S. Sutor, IBM Research (for DOM Level 1) Several of the following term definitions have been borrowed or modified from similar definitions in other W3C or standards documents. See the links within the definitions for more information. - 16-bit unit - The base unit of a DOMString. This indicates that indexing on a DOMString occurs in units of 16 bits. This must not be misunderstood to mean that a can store arbitrary 16-bit units. A DOMString is a character string encoded in UTF-16; this means that the restrictions of UTF-16 as well as the other relevant restrictions on character strings must be maintained. A single character, for example in the form of a numeric character reference, may correspond to one or two 16-bit units. - An ancestor node of any node A is any node above A in a tree model, where "above" means "toward the root." - An API is an Application Programming Interface, a set of functions or methods used to access some - anonymous type name An anonymous type name is an implementation-defined, globally unique qualified name provided by the processor for every anonymous type declared in - A child is an immediate descendant node of - client application - A [client] application is any software that uses the Document Object Model programming interfaces provided by the hosting implementation to accomplish useful work. Some examples of client applications are scripts within an HTML or XML document. - COM is Microsoft's Component Object Model [COM], a technology for building applications from binary - A convenience method is an operation on an object that could be accomplished by a program consisting of more basic operations on the object. Convenience methods are usually provided to make the API easier and simpler to use or to allow specific programs to create more optimized implementations for common operations. A similar definition holds for a - data model - A data model is a collection of descriptions of data structures and their contained fields, together with the operations or functions that manipulate them. - A descendant node of any node A is any node below A in a tree model, where "below" means "away from the - document element There is only one document element in a element node is a child of the Document node. See Documents in XML [XML 1.0]. - document order - There is an ordering, document order, defined on all the nodes in the document corresponding to the order in which the first character of the XML representation of each node occurs in the XML representation of the document after expansion of general entities. Thus, the document element node will be the first node. Element nodes occur before their children. Thus, document order orders element nodes in order of the occurrence of their start-tag in the XML (after expansion of entities). The attribute nodes of an element occur after the element and before its children. The relative order of attribute nodes is implementation-dependent. - The programming language defined by the ECMA-262 standard [ECMAScript]. As stated in the standard, the "property" is used in the same sense as the IDL term - Each document contains one or more elements, the boundaries of which are either delimited by start-tags and end-tags, or, for empty elements by an empty-element tag. Each element has a type, identified by name, and may have a set of attributes. Each attribute has a name and a value. Structures in XML [XML 1.0]. - information item - An information item is an abstract representation of some component of an XML document. See the [XML Information set] - logically-adjacent text nodes Logically-adjacent text nodes are CDATASection nodes that may be visited sequentially in document order without entering, exiting, or passing over - hosting implementation - A [hosting] implementation is a software module that provides an implementation of the DOM interfaces so that a client application can use them. Some examples of hosting implementations are browsers, editors and document - The HyperText Markup Language (HTML) is a simple markup language used to create hypertext documents that are portable from one platform to another. HTML documents are SGML documents with generic semantics that are appropriate for representing information from a wide range of applications. [HTML 4.01] - In object-oriented programming, the ability to create new classes (or interfaces) that contain all the methods and properties of another class (or interface), plus additional methods and properties. If class (or interface) D inherits from class (or interface) B, then D is said to be derived from B. B is said to be a base class (or interface) for D. Some programming languages allow for multiple inheritance, that is, inheritance from more than one class or interface. - An interface is a declaration of a set of methods with no information given about their implementation. In object systems that support interfaces and inheritance, interfaces can usually inherit from one another. - language binding - A programming language binding for an IDL specification is an implementation of the interfaces in the specification for the given language. For example, a Java language binding for the Document Object Model IDL specification would implement the concrete Java classes that provide the functionality exposed by the - local name - A local name is the local part of a qualified This is called the local part in Namespaces in XML [XML Namespaces]. - A method is an operation or function that is associated with an object and is allowed to manipulate the - A model is the actual data representation for the information at hand. Examples are the structural model and the style model representing the parse structure and the style information associated with a document. The model might be a tree, or a directed graph, or something - namespace prefix - A namespace prefix is a string that associates an element or attribute name with a namespace URI in XML. See namespace prefix in Namespaces in XML [XML Namespaces]. - namespace URI A namespace URI is a URI that identifies an XML namespace. This is called the namespace name in Namespaces in XML [XML Namespaces]. See also sections 1.3.2 " URIs" and 1.3.3 " Namespaces" regarding URIs and namespace URIs handling and comparison in the DOM APIs. - namespace well-formed A node is a namespace well-formed XML node if it is a well-formed node, and follow the productions and namespace constraints. If [XML 1.0] is used, the constraints are defined in [XML Namespaces]. If [XML 1.1] is used, the constraints are defined in [XML Namespaces 1.1]. - object model - An object model is a collection of descriptions of classes or interfaces, together with their member data, member functions, and class-static operations. - A parent is an immediate ancestor node of a - partially valid - A node in a DOM tree is partially valid if it is well formed (this part is for comments and processing instructions) and its immediate children are those expected by the content model. The node may be missing trailing required children yet still be considered partially - qualified name - A qualified name is the name of an element or attribute defined as the concatenation of a local name (as defined in this specification), optionally preceded by a namespace prefix and colon character. See Qualified Names in Namespaces in XML [XML Namespaces]. - read only node - A read only node is a node that is immutable. This means its list of children, its content, and its attributes, when it is an element, cannot be changed in any way. However, a read only node can possibly be moved, when it is not itself contained in a read only - root node - The root node is a node that is not a child of any other node. All other nodes are children or other descendants of the A schema defines a set of structural and value constraints applicable to XML documents. Schemas can be expressed in schema languages, such as DTD, XML Schema, etc. - Two nodes are siblings if they have the same parent node. - string comparison - When string matching is required, it is to occur as though the comparison was between 2 sequences of code points - An information item such as an XML Name which has been - The description given to various information items (for example, attribute values of various types, but not including the StringType CDATA) after having been processed by the XML processor. The process includes stripping leading and trailing white space, and replacing multiple space characters by one. See the definition of A node is a well-formed XML node if its serialized form, without doing any transformation during its serialization, matches its respective production in [XML 1.0] or [XML 1.1] (depending on the XML version in use) with all well-formedness constraints related to that production, and if the entities which are referenced within the node are also well-formed. If namespaces for XML are in use, the node must also be namespace - Extensible Markup Language (XML) is an extremely simple dialect of SGML which is completely described in this document. The goal is to enable generic SGML to be served, received, and processed on the Web in the way that is now possible with HTML. XML has been designed for ease of implementation and for interoperability with both SGML and HTML. [XML 1.0]

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CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://www.w3.org/TR/2003/WD-DOM-Level-3-Core-20030609/glossary.html

2013-05-20T02:23:04Z

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en

From the deserts of the Middle East, Arab skywatchers paid particular attention to a celestial giant. He strode into the evening sky during winter, and boasted some of the brightest stars in the heavens. His right hand was marked by a dazzling orange star named Bet al Jauza. Today, we know the star by a slightly different version of the name: Betelgeuse. It's in Orion, the hunter, which tromps across the south on winter nights. Betelgeuse is one of the most interesting stars in the galaxy. It's big and bright, and it pulses in and out like a beating heart. And soon -- at least in astronomical terms -- it'll blow itself to bits. Betelgeuse is about 15 times heavier than the Sun. Its core is intensely hot, but its outer layers are cool, which is why the star appears orange. Its diameter is hundreds of times greater than the Sun's. If it took the Sun's place in our solar system, it would swallow Earth and several other planets. But Betelgeuse rhythmically expands and contracts, so its diameter can vary by millions of miles. When it shrinks it gets hotter, so it gets brighter, too. Betelgeuse is ticking down toward a huge explosion. Eventually, it'll stop producing energy in its core. The core will collapse, and the star's outer layers will blast outward. For a few weeks, Betelgeuse will shine brighter than an entire galaxy of stars -- shouting out its death to the universe. We'll talk about one of Orion's more sedate stars tomorrow. Script by Damond Benningfield, Copyright 2003, 2007 For more skywatching tips, astronomy news, and much more, read StarDate magazine.

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CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://stardate.org/print/4380

2013-06-20T02:22:27Z

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en

Smallpox (variola) is a highly contagious, very deadly disease caused by the smallpox virus. The smallpox virus can exist only in people—not in animals. There are two main forms. The severe form is the most common and is the one of concern. The other form is much less common and much less severe. Over 200 years ago, a vaccine against smallpox (the first vaccine ever) was developed. The vaccine proved very effective and was given to people throughout the world. The last case of smallpox was reported in 1977. In 1980, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the disease eliminated and recommended stopping vaccination. Because the vaccine's protective effects gradually wear off, nearly all people—even those previously vaccinated—are now susceptible to smallpox (see also see Immunization: Smallpox: A Vaccine in the Wings). This lack of protection is a concern only because samples of the virus have been stored, and some people worry that terrorist groups could obtain the virus and release it into the population. The resulting epidemic would be devastating. The virus is stored at two research facilities, one in the United States and one in Russia. The smallpox virus spreads directly from person to person and is acquired by breathing air contaminated with droplets of moisture breathed or coughed out by an infected person. Contact with clothing or bed linens used by an infected person can also spread the disease. Smallpox usually spreads to people who have close personal contact with an infected person. A large outbreak in a school or workplace would be uncommon. The virus survives no more than 2 days in the environment— less if temperature and humidity are high. Symptoms and Diagnosis Symptoms usually begin 7 to 17 days after infection. Infected people develop fever, headache, and backache and feel extremely ill. They may have severe abdominal pain and become delirious. After 2 or 3 days, a rash of flat, red spots develops on the face and arms and inside the mouth, spreading shortly thereafter to the trunk and legs. People are contagious only after the rash has started and are most contagious for the first 7 to 10 days after the rash appears. After 1 or 2 days, the spots turn into blisters, which fill with pus (forming pustules). After 8 or 9 days, the pustules become crusted. About 30% of people with smallpox die, usually in the second week of the disease. Some of the survivors are left with large, disfiguring scars. A doctor suspects smallpox when people have the disease's characteristic spots—particularly when there is an outbreak of the disease. The diagnosis can be confirmed by identifying the smallpox virus in a sample that is taken from the blisters or pustules and examined under a microscope or sent to a laboratory for the virus to be grown (cultured) and analyzed. Prevention and Treatment Prevention is the best response to the threat of smallpox. Vaccination within the first few days of exposure can prevent the disease or limit its severity. People with symptoms suggesting smallpox need to be isolated to prevent spread of the infection. Contacts of these people need not be isolated because they cannot spread the infection unless they become sick and develop a rash. However, contacts are watched closely and isolated at the first sign of infection. Vaccination is dangerous for some people, especially those with a weakened immune system. Rarely, even some healthy people have adverse reactions to smallpox vaccination. Adverse reactions are less common in previously vaccinated people than in those who have never received the vaccine. About 1 in every million previously unvaccinated healthy people and 1 in every 4 million previously vaccinated healthy people die from the vaccine. Vaccination before exposure is recommended only for people at high risk of exposure, mainly laboratory technicians and health care workers who handle the vaccine and related materials. After exposure, vaccination can reduce the severity of symptoms. Vaccination up to 4 days after exposure is beneficial but is most effective when given soon after exposure. Treatment of smallpox is supportive. It includes fluids, symptom relief, assistance with breathing (for example, with a face mask to supply oxygen), and treatments to maintain blood pressure. Last full review/revision November 2009 by Marguerite A. Urban, MD

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CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://www.merckmanuals.com/home/infections/viral_infections/smallpox.html

2013-05-24T22:35:25Z

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en

Presented in Association with the Western New Mexico University Department of Natural Sciences Simmondsiaceae (Jojoba Family) The Simmondsiaceae are represented by a single genus and species, Simmondsia chinensis, commonly known as Jojoba. Simmondsia chinensis is usually thought of as a Sonoran Desert species, and is at its most extreme eastern distribution in southwest New Mexico. It does not reach into the Gila National Forest, being found about 50 miles southwest of its border.

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CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://www.wnmu.edu/academic/nspages/gilaflora/simmondsiaceae.html

2013-06-18T22:58:15Z

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en

From The National Cancer Institute Among the 12 major types of childhood cancers, leukemias (blood cancers) and cancers of the brain and central nervous system account for more than half of the new cases. About one-third of childhood cancers are leukemias. The most common type of leukemia in children is acute lymphoblastic leukemia. The most common solid tumors are brain tumors(e.g., gliomas and medullo blastomas), with other solid tumors (e.g., neuroblastomas, Wilms tumors, and sarcomas such as rhabdomyosarcoma and osteosarcoma) being less common.

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CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://hugsnbugs.org/types.html

2013-05-25T13:01:23Z

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en

Assistive technology (AT) is any device or service that makes academic tasks more manageable for students with disabilities. These devices improve a person's functional capability to complete their coursework. Students are provided with recommendations for appropriate equipment, training and support while using the equipment. ODS is dedicated to providing all students with access to the equipment and tools necessary to be successful in college. ODS works in conjunction with the Assistive Technology Lab to offer access to a wide variety of assistive technology. Students receive recommendations for appropriate equipment as well as training and support while using the equipment. In order to access the AT lab, students must: - Register with Disability Services. - Meet with the assistive technology staff to discuss which form of technology would be most appropriate. - Complete training or demonstrate competency on a piece of assistive technology.Some available technology at the AT Lab includes: Available Assistive Technology Kurzweil 1000 by Kurzweil Educational Systems, Inc. An advanced reading tool for people who are blind or severely visually impaired. Kurzweil 1000 works on a personal computer in conjunction with a flatbed scanner and synthetic speech to convert printed text into speech. Kurzweil 3000 by Kurzweil Educational Systems, Inc. Reads scanned or electronic text aloud using human sounding synthetic speech. Words are highlighted as they are spoken. This auditory and visual presentation of information helps increase reading accuracy, speed and comprehension for struggling readers. JAWS For Windows (JFW) by Freedom Scientific, Inc. Synthesized speech technology that makes it possible for a Windows based computer to speak the information being displayed on the monitor. Key combinations provide access to reading, navigational and system controls for individuals with visual, learning and other impairments. Dragon NaturallySpeaking by ScanSoft, Inc. Voice recognition technologies that make it possible to control a computer and enter data without touching the keyboard or the mouse. A person who is unable to use their hands or who must limit their use can move cursors and pointers, perform keystrokes, carry-out system functions and create documents using only their voice. Screen magnification application for use on Windows based computers. Duxbury Braille Translator for Windows by Duxbury Systems, Inc. Windows application used for creating, editing and producing Braille documents. Text in a variety of standard file types (e.g., .TXT, .WRI and .DOC) can be imported and converted to Braille. Juliet Braille Embosser by Enabling Technologies Braille printer that produces double-sided (interpoint) Braille documents. Output is 11" (H) X 11.25" (W) pages with 25 lines of 40 characters each per side. Braille Lite 40 Braille Lite 40 lets choose between 6 or 8 dot Braille input and output. A user can choose to work in speech, Braille or both. Braille Lite 40 cursor routers allow instant movement to any cell on the display, which means fast and easy editing. Telepathic 2000 is used for people with limited mobility but can single finger type on a keyboard or use an adapted keyboard. Disabilities include partial Quadriplegia, early stages of MS and ALS, Cerebral Palsy, RSI and carpal tunnel syndrome. Also Telepathic 2000 can be used for individuals with learning disabilities or developmental disabilities. TestTalker is a software solution designed to help individuals be more successful with test taking. TestTalker is a talking program that reads tests, forms and worksheets. It allows a teacher or administrator to scan and configure tests, forms or worksheets so the student can complete the test electronically. The person taking the test can both see and hear the material, ensuring a multi-sensory testing environment. TestTalker is used with fill-in, extended answer, multiple choice, and true/false questions. Adjustable tables and chairs can be requested if needed due to a documented disability.

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CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://bristol.mass.edu/Students/ods/ods_at_lab.cfm

2013-05-22T08:12:05Z

s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701508530/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105148-00051-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz

en

St Valentine's Day teaching resources St Valentine’s Day - 14th February Love is a passion that has taken men to war, changed the course of English history and inspired some of our greatest works of literature. Explore this very human condition and the origins of St Valentine’s Day with this timely collection of free lesson ideas, assemblies and activities shared by the TES teaching community. - Useful for an assembly and a discussion on the origins of the St Valentine celebration. - Learn about St Valentine’s Day traditions around the world and the meaning behind the special day. - Powerpoint with simple background information on St.Valentine’s Day. - Roses are red/ Yellow’s the sun/ These pages to colour/ Will prove lots of fun! - Ideas for the whole class; games, language activities, printable worksheets, word walls, puzzles, colouring pages and inspiration for arts and crafts. - A template for pupils to use in their design of a St. Valentine’s Day card. - A compilation of language puzzles for a Valentine’s starter. - A class quiz to test your pupils’ knowledge of the holiday. - Use this puzzle activity from the Encyclopaedia Britannica to learn about Valentine’s Day. - Find the area of and perimeter of the heart design, plus find the percentage of the card that is taken up. - Encourage pupils to write a poem in French for Valentine’s Day plus a matching exercise to prepare the poem. - Transcript to go with the video on BBC Ma Langue. - Revision for the future tense in French and worksheet with a poem to be changed from present to future - Basic Valentine’s relationship vocab, then a ‘find the present’ game which revises colours and numbers to 12. - See and listen to pupils using their first/home languages. - Vocabulary list of phrases for students to compile a Valentine’s card. - After reading the clues you should be able to work out who is going out with who! - Blog post and comments with ideas to exploit in French or German with a valentines theme, from KS2 upwards. - Powerpoint to get pupils creating their own “poems” for Valentine’s day.

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CC-MAIN-2013-20

http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storyCode=6069067&s_cid=Pick_Valentine

2013-05-20T03:15:50Z

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en

If you follow the news, you may have heard a reporter talk about an "outbreak of cholera" somewhere in the world. It may sound a little scary. But is cholera something you need to worry about? What Is Cholera? Cholera is an infection of the intestines. People get it from drinking water or eating food that's contaminated with a type of bacteria called Vibrio cholerae. Cholera can cause watery diarrhea and vomiting, making people who have it get dehydrated quickly. When dehydration is severe, it can cause serious health problems if it's not treated: A person may have seizures and kidney failure. People who don't get the proper medical treatment may even die. The good news is, cholera is easy to treat if it's caught early. People who have mild to moderate cases usually get better within a week. Even people with severe cases of cholera recover fully in a week or so if they get medical care. Cholera is mostly found in the tropics — in particular Asia, Africa, Latin America, India, and the Middle East. It's rare in the United States, but people can still get it. People who travel from countries where the infection is more common can bring cholera into the U.S. Some people in the U.S. have become sick from eating raw and undercooked shellfish from the Gulf of Mexico. How Do People Get It? It's yucky to think about, but people get cholera from eating or drinking food or water that's been contaminated with the feces (poop) of someone who has cholera. This is one reason why cholera is rare in countries with good sanitation systems. Things like flush toilets, sewer systems, and water treatment facilities keep poop out of the water and food supply. But for people living in places without good sanitation, cholera is more of a risk. Cholera epidemics can also sometimes happen after a disaster (like an earthquake or flood) if people are living in tent cities or other places without running water or proper sanitation systems. Cholera is not contagious, so you can't catch it from direct contact with another person. When someone is infected with the cholera bacteria, symptoms can appear in a few hours or as late as 5 days later. Some people with cholera have no signs or symptoms, but some cases are severe and can be life-threatening. Common symptoms of cholera and the dehydration it causes include: watery, pale-colored diarrhea, often in large amounts nausea and vomiting cramps, particularly in the abdomen and legs irritability, lack of energy, or unusual sleepiness glassy or sunken eyes dry mouth and extreme thirst dry, shriveled skin low urine output and a lack of tears irregular heartbeat (arrhythmia) and low blood pressure When Should I Call a Doctor? If you develop symptoms of cholera, especially after visiting an area where the disease is common, call your doctor or get medical help right away. Severe dehydration can happen very quickly, so it's essential to start replacing lost fluids right away. If you have a severe case of diarrhea or vomiting, call a doctor immediately, even if you're pretty sure it's not cholera. Dehydration is a serious medical condition regardless of the cause, and it needs to be treated quickly before it can do damage to internal organs. What Do Doctors Do? To confirm a diagnosis of cholera, doctors may take a or vomit sample or rectal swab (a swab of the inside of the butt) to examine for signs of the bacteria. Cholera needs immediate treatment because severe dehydration can happen within hours. Fortunately, treatment is simple and very effective. Very few people who get treatment die. The goal of cholera treatment is to replace all the fluids and electrolytes (salts) lost through diarrhea and vomiting. For mild dehydration, a doctor may recommend drinking an over-the-counter rehydration solution. People with more severe cases of cholera may need to stay in the hospital and get (IV) fluids. Sometimes doctors prescribe to treat cholera. The antibiotics are not as important as rehydrating, but they can help shorten the length of time a person is sick. They also might make cholera-related diarrhea less severe. Sometimes doctors also prescribe zinc supplements. Anti-diarrheal medicines can actually make the symptoms of cholera worse, so people who think they may have cholera should avoid taking them. Some countries have cholera vaccines that can help protect people against cholera for a short while. Because cholera isn't a problem in the United States, the vaccine is not offered here. If you're going to an area that has cholera, you can greatly reduce your risk of getting the disease by following a few simple precautions when you get there: Boil or disinfect any water that you'll use for drinking, washing or preparing food, making ice, making coffee or tea, or brushing your teeth. Choose bottled water or other drinks that come in sealed cans or bottles. Be sure to wipe the outside of the can or bottle before you drink from it, though. Avoid tap water, fountain drinks, and drinks with ice cubes. Fully cook all food, especially seafood. Avoid food from street vendors. Instead, eat packaged foods and meals that are freshly cooked and served hot. Avoid sushi and any other raw or partly cooked seafood. Avoid raw vegetables, including salads, and fruits that have already been peeled or cannot be peeled like grapes and berries. Bananas, avocados and oranges make better choices. Dairy foods are often contaminated, so be careful with things like ice cream, milk, and cheese. Eat only pasteurized dairy and be sure dairy foods are refrigerated and kept cold. Wash your hands frequently with soap and clean water, especially after you use the bathroom or before you prepare food. If no soap and water are available, use a hand cleaner that's at least 60% alcohol. If you're planning to visit the tropics, especially an area that doesn't have good sanitation, it's a good idea to know the signs of cholera and what to do. Taking precautions with your food and water is the best way to avoid the disease.

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Isaac Theophilus Akunna Wallace-Johnson (1895 – 10 May 1965) was a Sierra Leonean and British West African workers’ leader, journalist, activist and politician. Born into a poor Creole family in Sierra Leone, he emerged as a natural leader in school. After attending United Methodist Collegiate School for two years, he dropped out and took a job as an officer in the customs department in 1913. He was dismissed for helping organize a labor strike, but later reinstated to his position a year later. After resigning from his job, he enlisted as a clerk with the Carrier Corps during World War I. After being demobilized in 1920, Wallace-Johnson moved from job to job, before settling as a clerk in the Freetown municipal government. He claimed to have exposed a corruption scandal, which resulted in the incarceration of top officials, including the mayor. After being fired from this job in 1926, he left Sierra Leone and became a sailor. He joined a national seamen union and it is believed that he also joined the Communist Party. In 1930, he helped form the first trade union in Nigeria and attended the International Trade Union Conference of Negro Workers inHamburg, where he established a number of contacts. He published articles and edited the Negro Worker, a journal devoted to uniting black workers around the world. He traveled to Moscow, where he claimed to have attended classes on Marxism-Leninism theory, union organization and political agitation. Within a few months of returning to Nigeria in 1933, he was deported by authorities for his illicit trade union activities. He traveled to the Gold Coast, where he quickly established himself as a political activist and journalist. An agitator, he managed a fund to finance the appeal of the nine African Americans given the death penalty in the Scottsboro case and also campaigned for legislation on workers’ compensation and strict safety regulations after the deadly Prestea mining disaster of June 1934. In his writings during this era, Wallace-Johnson glorified the Communist government of the Soviet Union and expressed his disdain for capitalist societies. Soon, the colonial government passed the Sedition Act, a piece of legislation prohibiting the importation of “seditious” literature, which included works from the Negro Worker. In 1934, Wallace-Johnson became the subject of scathing articles in the Gold Coast Independent, in which he was accused of ruining the political atmosphere in the country. After meeting Nnamdi Azikiwe in 1935, he formed the West African Youth League, an organization dedicated to obtaining more liberties and privileges for the Gold Coast population. Wallace-Johnson and the WAYL entered the Gold Coast political scene by supporting Kojo Thompson in his successful candidacy in the Legislative Council elections of 1935. During the Second Italo-Abyssinian War, Wallace-Johnson and the WAYL vocalized their harsh sentiments toward European imperialism and helped establish the Ethiopian Defense Fund with the purpose of educating the populaces on matters of national and racial importance. In 1936, Wallace-Johnson was arrested for sedition after publishing an article in the African Morning Post condemning Christianity, European civilization and imperialism. The colonial governor proposed that he be deported in lieu of being put on trial. After Wallace-Johnson accepted this offer, the governor went back on his word and had the political activist placed on trial in front of the Assize Court. Wallace-Johnson traveled to London to appeal his conviction and to also establish connections for the WAYL. He returned to Sierra Leone in 1938 and established a number of labor unions, a newspaper and a political movement. He significantly raised membership for the WAYL and helped pioneer issue-oriented politics in Sierra Leone. The WAYL became the first political group to make an effort toward including the general population in the electoral process. Wallace-Johnson also campaigned for improved salaries and working conditions for workers, national unity and an increased civic role for women. Through the WAYL newspaper, the African Standard, he published a number of articles highly critical of top government officials. He was arrested on 1 September 1939under the Emergency Act adopted at the start of World War II earlier that day. Wallace-Johnson was put on trial without a jury (who would have been sympathetic to his cause, as had been seen in previous cases against him) and received a 12-month prison sentence. He was held at Sherbro Island before being released in 1944. He returned to political activism, but found the WAYL in a state of disarray. He merged the league into the National Council of Sierra Leone and formed his own political parties during 1950s, embracing Pan-Africanismand distancing himself from his earlier radicalism. He served as a delegate for Sierra Leone during independence talks in London in 1960. He died in a car crash in Ghana in May 1965.

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Below are a whole stack of ideas that you might be able to use at your youth group or camp, to help people memorise parts of scripture, and have fun doing it! 1) SMS Memory Verse Write the memory verse out on a piece of paper using only the numbers used to write the words in an sms message, ie. the numbers that correspond to the letters on the keypad. (Eg. “843 56733 = “the lord”). Obviously there will be a number of words that will correspond to a pattern of numbers but that’s all part of the fun for the kids to work out the memory verse. They can use their mobile phones for this game to help them work it out. Split the group into however many teams needed and if there is a person on each team who has credit and is willing to spend it, then you could say whoever is first to text the memory verse to the leader’s mobile wins. Otherwise the winner can be whoever is first to decode it and write it out correctly. 2) Mad Gab Memory Verse This is a good game for introducing a new memory verse. Just like the card game ‘Mad Gab’ from Mattel©. It’s a game of words and phrases, it’s not what you say, it’s what you hear. Say the words “Day Leo Fur Rings” a few times and you’ll find you’re saying. “daily offerings!”, just sound it out. Write up the memory verse in Mad Gab style (eg. “Iron hot ash aimed off day goes bell” = I am not ashamed of the gospel). If it’s a large memory verse split it into sections (ie. If there are 3 sections to the memory verse then make 3 rounds to the game, and when a team has solved the first section, give them the second, and so on til they solve the whole verse). Players work in teams and compete against each other to solve the memory verse first, and when they have solved it, run up to the white board and write it out in full. 3) Human buzzer – fill in the blanks (From p. 78 Programs 2 Go by Ken Moser) This is a good game for introducing a new memory verse. Using a white board, put underscore dashes on the board for every letter in each word of the memory verse eg. Jesus wept = _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _. Divide everybody into 2 groups. Each group elects someone to be the buzzer and another to be the contestant. The ‘buzzer sits on a chair out the front while the contestant stands behind them with their hands on the head of the buzzer, when they want to answer a question the lightly press the buzzer to make the sound for that team. The game is played in rounds so that the each person in the team has an opportunity to be the buzzer or contestant. When a contestant gets a question right they are allowed to select 1 letter of the alphabet (apart from vowels) to be uncovered on the board. Have special rounds where contestants are allowed to choose vowels or solve the memory verse. You will need to prepare at least 26 questions for the game and they can include bible questions, youth group questions, celebrity questions, etc. 4) Jigsaw Puzzle (from p. 75 Creative Christian Ideas by Ken Moser) Write the memory verse on cardboard and then cut it up to form a jigsaw puzzle. Split everyone into groups and give one jigsaw puzzle to each group. The team that pieces the memory verse together first is the winner. 5) Pass the Parcel (from p. 79 Creative Christian Ideas by Ken Moser) Hide a word of the memory verse in each layer of the parcel (with or without prizes). With music playing, pass the parcel around the group till the music stops and then unravel a layer of the parcel. Repeat till all layers are unravelled and all words have been revealed. Have the group place the memory verse in order and say out lout together. 6) Eat Out! Memory Verse Get 2 disposable paper bowls for each word of the memory verse. Write one memory verse word on each bowl (if it’s a long verse write a few words) so that there is two sets of bowls with the complete memory verse in each set. Split into 2 teams and give one set of bowls to each team. Have each bowl filled with some sot of food (eg. Cereal, crumbled dry weet-bix, chips, custard, etc.) so that the word/s cannot be read underneath. Do a “ready, set, go!” and the team that finishes their food first, arranges the memory verse in proper order, and read it out is the winner. Warning: You will want to check for food allergies among the contestants first, and let people sit out who really don’t want to be a part of it. 7) Balloon Darts Print off 2 copies of the memory verse on different coloured paper and put the words of the memory verse into about 5-6 balloons. Blow up the balloons and stick them to the wall. Split the group into 2 teams and give them some darts. The teams won’t know which balloons will have their memory verse words in it. When all the balloons have been popped, the first team to arrange the memory verse and read it out is the winner. Warning: Don’t let kids go up to the wall until all the balloons have been popped and no one is throwing any darts. 8) Chinese Whispers This operates just like the Chinese whispers you played at school. Get everyone in a big circle (or into smaller circles if the group is too big, but the bigger the group the better for this game). Tell the memory verse to the first person in the group and then they have to pass it on to the next person by memory, and so on… At the end of the group, see who has the memory verse most accurate. This activity will work as an introductory memory verse activity as well. 9) Application Pictures Ask the group “what situations would it be useful to know this memory verse?” and then draw pictures of those situations on the white board/butchers paper. The aim is for them to see how memorising the bible is useful in life. Alternatively, you can split them into groups to come up with their own situations and pictures, then present it back to the group. 10) Memory Verse Skits Split into smaller groups and create a skit that demonstrates how the memory verse might be applied to a real life situation. This is much like “Application Pictures” except it’s “Application Skits”! 11) Word for Word Relay (from p. 85 Creative Christian Ideas by Ken Moser) Form teams for a relay race where each team member has to run up to the whiteboard and write one word of the memory verse (in correct order) until the entire verse is written. If time permits can do multiple rounds with different instructions e.g. Hop/jump to the whiteboard. Can also do with a memory verse jigsaw puzzle. 12) Throw and say (from p. 84 Creative Christian Ideas by Ken Moser) See who knows the memory verse, then write it up on the board. Get everyone to stand in a circle and have a ball to pass around the group. As you catch the ball you say one word of the memory verse and then pass it to another who says the next word, and so on till the memory verse is said in full. Time how long it takes to say the memory verse and try and see how fast the group can say the memory verse. Try to beat the previous time. 13) Newspaper Slice Divide the memory verse up into sections then divide the youth group into smaller groups. Hand out a newspaper to each group and give 10 mins to slice up words and/or letters out of the newspaper to make up their section of the memory verse and glue onto a piece of paper. Awards for most creative. 14) Sing it (from p. 82 Creative Christian Ideas by Ken Moser) Split into groups and have each group do the memory verse in a different music genre (eg. Advertising jingle, high school musical, rap, soap opera TV theme song, Opera, Country and Western etc). Record the songs if you have the technology and use them in the coming weeks to remember the verse. Alternatively, use a memory verse song already written (eg. Colin Buchanan) to teach the memory verse. You can play the song on CD and sing along or play it live! (playing live might be best, because the CD can be a bit lame). 15) Pass the Parcel revision Teach the memory verse to the group. Make a parcel with prizes in each layer. Have the group sit in a circle and pass the parcel around the group to each person while they say one word of the memory verse each out loud, whoever has the parcel when the memory verse has been said through gets to unwrap a layer. Repeat the process saying the memory verse each time until all the layers have been unwrapped (some kids will miss out on a prize, but this will teach them that life isn’t always fair… they’ve got to learn somewhere!). 16) Memory verse challenge (from p. 94 Creative Christian Ideas by Ken Moser) See who can recall both the memory verses for the term. For an extra challenge you can see how many verses they can recall from the year! Do this activity near the end of term, and even get them to do it in groups sometimes so they can work out the memory verses together by writing down as many as they can recall on a piece of paper.

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Advanced-Level Science Projects How Can Different Polymers Be Identified? It seems at times that we are a society drowning in plastics. We buy a package of cookies that's enclosed in plastic, then put it in a plastic bag to carry home. People who don't recycle might open the cookies, stuff the plastic wrapping back into the plastic bag, and stuff that plastic bag into a plastic trash bag to be thrown away. Fortunately, many people do recycle, and more and more are becoming aware of methods for cutting down on the amount of plastic they use. There are movements underway that encourage people to invest in reusable cloth bags for shopping, or to return plastic shopping bags to a recycling center at the grocery store. Many communities offer recycling pickup, or have drop-off centers where residents can dispose of recyclable materials. Recycling, however, does not happen all that easily. Getting your recyclables to the curb or to the drop-off center is the easy part. Plastics are generally sorted by and recycled by type. There are seven types of plastic labeled for recycling purposes. The recycling code is normally on the bottom or side of a container, and is a number within a triangular set of three arrows. Separating and recycling plastics in this way produces a more consistent and higher-quality product. Once separated, the plastic needs to be cleaned to remove contaminants. This normally is done by cutting the plastic into small pieces, which then undergo a washing and drying process. Those small pieces are then converted into plastic pellets, which can be used to make new plastic products. Nearly everyone agrees that recycling is not only a good idea, but necessary if we are to continue to inhabit this earth. We can recycle materials other than plastic, of course, but because we use so much plastic, its recycling is of vital importance. In this section, you'll learn more about how plastic is made, and the properties of different types of plastic. Your task, after working with different types of plastics for a while, is to see if you can identify each type without looking at the recycling symbol it contains. So What Seems to Be the Problem? The problem is that recycling is a tedious process. Mostly, that's because the plastic needs to be separated by type. The problem you'll attempt to solve is whether you can differentiate between various types of plastic, based on their physical and chemical properties. Once you're able to do so, you can appoint yourself as chief recycler in your household, or volunteer at your community's recycling center. A plastic is a type of polymer. A polymer is a chemical compound that is made up of repeating units of molecules called monomers. Monomers are made up of two or more carbon atoms, bonded to one another with hydrogen, which is bonded to the carbons. In some plastics, there can be other elements bonded to the carbon as well, such as chlorine or fluorine or nitrogen. Physical properties of plastic include color, mass, volume, density, melting point, and the color of smoke produced when the plastic is burned. Chemical properties include whether or not the plastic is flammable, the color it burns, and its reactivity to other substances. These different elements in the monomers contribute to the different properties of the different types of plastics. If you want to, you can use the name of the title of this section, “How Can Different Polymers Be Identified?” as the title of your science fair project. Some other titles you might consider are listed here. Or you can think of your own title for your project. What's the Point? Recycling plastic is definitely the way to go, but don't think of it as the ultimate answer to our trash problems. Most plastic items can be recycled, but in some cases, only once. Environmental activists urge consumers to use more glass and aluminum, which can be recycled repeatedly. Knowing more about the plastics you use in your daily life will help you to understand their physical and chemical makeups, and be better able to appreciate the procedure of recycling. In this experiment, you'll test the properties of six types of plastic. (You won't be working with any from the seventh category, which includes a wide range of substances under the grouping of “other plastics.”) Because you'll be comparing all the different kinds, you won't have a control and variable. You won't be using one type of plastic as the control and comparing all the other types to it. You'll examine six types of plastic and make comparisons between all of them when you've finished. As recycling technology improves and, hopefully, more attention is called to the importance of recycling, we will see additional methods of reusing plastics and other materials. What Do You Think Will Happen? Once you have learned more about the properties of plastics, you can make an educated guess about how well you'll be able to identify different types. Remember that we're not going to use Styrofoam, even though it is identified as a number 6 plastic. Get a clear, plastic drinking cup instead, or other item bearing the identification number “6.” You will be performing specific tests on six types of plastic, and taking notes about what you observe. The six types of plastic you'll need to work with are listed here. If you take a look around your house, you can probably come up with a sample of each of the six types of plastic. Once you've rounded up a sample of each plastic 1 through 6 (raid your neighbor's recycling can if you need to), take a few minutes to look at what you've got. Notice the differences in the plastics. Some are smooth and pliable, while others are brittle and rigid. Some are clear, while others are opaque. Do you think, after you've tested the properties of each type of plastic, that you'll be able to figure out which is which without the benefit of the recycling code? Materials You'll Need for This Project There are some materials you'll need for this project in addition to the six types of plastic you'll be testing. First, however, be sure that you do have samples of plastics coded with identifying numbers 1 through 6. The rest of the necessary materials, listed below, can be found in a grocery store if they're not already in your home. To prepare for your experiment, you'll need to cut five samples from each of the plastic containers you've gathered. You need to have five small pieces of type 1 plastic, five of type 2, and so on, through type 6. All together, you'll have 30 little pieces of plastic, divided in six groups of all-same pieces, each one between a one- and two-inch square. Conducting Your Experiment Although most plastic items can be recycled, many municipalities collect only certain types of plastic (usually PET and HDPE). That means there is a lot of plastic out there that isn't being recycled. The rubbing alcohol, corn syrup, and water are necessary to create a substance of known density. You will mix them together in different combinations of ingredients, and this will allow you to test the density of each type of plastic. Follow these steps: Be sure to use care when performing this part of the experiment. Work in a well ventilated area of your home, or, better yet, outside. Take care not to breathe in the smoke produced by the burning plastic. Keeping Track of Your Experiment You can use the charts shown below to record your observations from the experiment. Or you can make your own charts, if you prefer. Once you've recorded all your information and observations, you'll be ready to determine if you're now able to identify different plastics by considering their characteristics and properties. Putting It All Together Think about doing the experiment again, but this time having samples from each group of plastics and not knowing which is which. Do you think that, knowing what you know from the experiment just completed, you'd be able to identify each sample properly if you again tested the physical and chemical properties of each? If you're not sure, give it a try! Do a little research and learn how polymers are manufactured. Find out what type of process or chemical reaction is used to build these polymers. If you're interested in the impact that plastic has on the environment, you could learn more about how each type of plastic, including Styrofoam, is recycled. Excerpted from The Complete Idiot's Guide to Science Fair Projects © 2003 by Nancy K. O'Leary and Susan Shelly. All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. Used by arrangement with Alpha Books, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

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Cats of all ages can develop FPL, but kittens and young cats are most commonly affected. In kittens, the period of greatest susceptibility to infection is when maternal antibodies are waning and vaccine-induced immunity has not yet fully developed. Cases tend to cluster when there is a buildup of susceptible kittens, a function of the seasonal breeding in a given cat population.1 FPL is associated with high morbidity and mortality, but infections can range from subclinical to severe depending on the immune status and age of a cat when it is infected. Infection in pregnant queens can result in fetal resorption, mummification, abortion, or stillbirth.6 Fetuses infected in utero that survive and kittens less than a few weeks of age that become infected can have cerebellar hypoplasia, retinal dysplasia, and optic neuropathy.7 Peracute enteritis is a manifestation of the disease most often seen in kittens less than 16 weeks of age. In these cases, there is severe intestinal damage, and death can occur within 24 hours because of a combination of secondary bacterial septicemia and endotoxemia in the face of profound leukopenia.6 Kittens more than 16 weeks of age tend to have less severe disease; in these cases, supportive treatment that addresses severe dehydration and intestinal bacterial invasion can be effective. While there is no question that FPL virus infects and kills dividing cells, some evidence suggests that secondary bacterial infections make an equal or greater contribution to the clinical signs and the intestinal damage in cats with FPL. This important component of the pathogenesis of FPL has been illustrated in studies in which specific pathogen-free cats infected with FPL virus developed mild or no intestinal lesions.4,9 Adult cats are generally the least severely affected and may show mild signs or none at all. The greatest fecal virus shedding corresponds with the peak of clinical disease, but keep in mind that the virus can be shed for up to six weeks after recovery7 and that subclinical animals can also shed virus. Lifelong immunity is thought to follow recovery from disease, and a carrier state of the disease has never been identified. So persistence of the disease in cat colonies is attributable to persistence of the virus in the environment and shedding from new infections, not chronic shedding.

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2013-05-21T10:41:31Z

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Bushtail possums take up to a year of growing before they are old enough to begin breeding, but they certainly make up for lost time. These possums have an incredibly short gestation period, which allows for there to be multiple mating seasons within just one year. There’s typically a smaller birth season in the spring followed by another more productive season in the fall. Baby possums spend a lot more time nursing than they do in the womb. After spending just over two weeks developing in the womb, a baby possum (a joey) stays in the mother’s pouch for 120 days at a time. 80 of those days are spent permanently attached the the mother’s teat. 19 Totally Incredible Facts

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2013-05-19T18:41:31Z

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Plus and minus signs The plus and minus signs (+ and −) are mathematical symbols used to represent the notions of positive and negative as well as the operations of addition and subtraction. Their use has been extended to many other meanings, more or less analogous. Plus and minus are Latin terms meaning "more" and "less", respectively. Though the signs now seem as familiar as the alphabet or the Hindu-Arabic numerals, they are not of great antiquity. The Egyptian hieroglyphic sign for addition, for example, resembled a pair of legs walking in the direction in which the text was written (Egyptian could be written either from right to left or left to right), with the reverse sign indicating subtraction: In Europe in the early 15th century the letters "P" and "M" were generally used. The symbols (P with line p̄ for più, i.e., plus, and M with line m̄ for meno, i.e., minus) appeared for the first time in Luca Pacioli’s mathematics compendium, Summa de arithmetica, geometria, proportioni et proportionalità, first printed and published in Venice in 1494. The + is a simplification of the Latin "et" (comparable to the ampersand &). The − may be derived from a tilde written over m when used to indicate subtraction; or it may come from a shorthand version of the letter m itself. In his 1489 treatise Johannes Widmann referred to the symbols − and + as minus and mer (Modern German mehr; "more"): "das − ist, das ist minus, und das + ist das mer". Robert Recorde, the designer of the equals sign, introduced plus and minus to Britain in 1557 in The Whetstone of Witte: "There be other 2 signes in often use of which the first is made thus + and betokeneth more: the other is thus made – and betokeneth lesse." Plus sign The plus sign (-) is a binary operator that indicates addition, as in 2 + 3 = 5. It can also serve as a unary operator that leaves its operand unchanged (+x means the same as x). This notation may be used when it is desired to emphasise the positiveness of a number, especially when contrasting with the negative (+5 versus −5). The plus sign can also indicate many other operations, depending on the mathematical system under consideration. Many algebraic structures have some operation which is called, or equivalent to, addition. It is conventional to use the plus sign to only denote commutative operations. Moreover, the symbolism has been extended to very different operations. Plus can mean: - exclusive or (usually written ⊕): 1 + 1 = 0, 1 + 0 = 1 - logical disjunction (usually written ∨): 1 + 1 = 1, 1 + 0 = 1 Minus sign The minus sign (−) has three main uses in mathematics: - The subtraction operator: A binary operator to indicate the operation of subtraction, as in 5 − 3 = 2. Subtraction is the inverse of addition. - Directly in front of a number and when it is not a subtraction operator it means a negative number. For instance −5 is negative 5. - A unary operator that acts as an instruction to replace the operand by its opposite. For example, if x is 3, then −x is −3, but if x is −3, then −x is 3. Similarly, −(−2) is equal to 2. All three uses can be referred to as "minus" in everyday speech. In modern US usage, −5 (for example) is normally pronounced "negative five" rather than "minus five". "Minus" may be used by speakers born before 1950, and is still popular in some contexts, but "negative" is usually taught as the only correct reading. In most other parts of the English-speaking world, "minus five" is more common. Textbooks in America encourage −x to be read as "the opposite of x" or even "the additive inverse of x" to avoid giving the impression that −x is necessarily negative. In some contexts, different glyphs are used for these meanings; for instance in the computer language APL a raised minus sign is used in negative numbers (as in 2 − 5 gives −3), but such usage is rare. In mathematics and most programming languages, the rules for the order of operations mean that −52 is equal to −25. Powers bind more strongly than multiplication or division which binds more strongly than addition or subtraction. While strictly speaking, the unary minus is not subtraction, it is given the same place as subtraction. However in some programming languages and Excel in particular, unary operators bind strongest, so in these −5^2 is 25 but 0−5^2 is −25. Use in elementary education Some elementary teachers use raised plus and minus signs before numbers to show they are positive or negative numbers. For example subtracting −5 from 3 might be read as positive three take away negative 5 and be shown as - 3 − −5 becomes 3 + 5 = 8, or even as - +3 − −5 becomes +3 + +5 which is +8 Use as a qualifier In grading systems (such as examination marks), the plus sign indicates a grade one level higher and the minus sign a grade lower. For example, B− ("B minus") is one grade lower than B. Sometimes this is extended to two plus or minus signs; for example A++ is two grades higher than A. Positive and negative are sometimes abbreviated as +ve and −ve. In mathematics the one-sided limit x→a+ means x approaches a from the right, and x→a− means x approaches a from the left. For example, when calculating what x−1 is when x approaches 0, because x−1→+∞ when x→0+ but x−1→−∞ when x→0−. Uses in computing As well as the normal mathematical usage plus and minus may be used for a number of other purposes in computing. Plus and minus signs are often used in tree view on a computer screen to show if a folder is collapsed or not. In most programming languages, subtraction and negation are indicated with the ASCII hyphen-minus character, -. In APL a raised minus sign (Unicode U+00AF) is used to denote a negative number, as in ¯3) and in J a negative number is denoted by an underscore, as in _5. In C and some other computer programming languages, two plus signs indicate the increment operator and two minus signs a decrement. For example, x++ means "increment the value of x by one" and x-- means "decrement the value of x by one". By extension, "++" is sometimes used in computing terminology to signify an improvement, as in the name of the language C++. There is no concept of negative zero in mathematics, but in computing −0 may have a separate representation from zero. In the IEEE floating-point standard 1/−0 is negative infinity whereas 1/0 is positive infinity. Other uses The minus sign is also used as tone letter in the orthographies of Dan, Krumen, Karaboro, Mwan, Wan, Yaouré, Wè, Nyabwa and Godié. The Unicode character used for the tone letter (U+02D7) is different from the mathematical minus sign. Character codes The Unicode minus sign is designed to be the same length and height as the plus and equals signs. In most fonts these are the same width as digits in order to facilitate the alignment of numbers in tables. The hyphen-minus sign (-) is the ASCII version of the minus sign, and doubles as a hyphen. It is usually shorter in length than the plus sign and sometimes at a different height. It can be used as a substitute for the true minus sign when the character set is limited to ASCII. There is a commercial minus sign (⁒), which looks somewhat like an obelus, at U+2052 (HTML &x2052;). Alternative plus sign A Jewish tradition that dates from at least the 19th century is to write plus using a symbol like an inverted T. This practice was adopted into Israeli schools (this practice goes back to at least the 1940s) and is still commonplace today in elementary schools (including secular schools) but in fewer secondary schools. It is also used occasionally in books by religious authors, but most books for adults use the international symbol "+". The usual explanation for this practice is that it avoids the writing of a symbol "+" that looks like a Christian cross. Unicode has this symbol at position U+FB29 "Hebrew letter alternative plus sign" (﬩). See also: up tack. See also - Graft-chimaera for the meaning of + in botanical names - List of international call prefixes that + can represent the numbers required to dial out of a country as seen in a phone number - Plus-minus sign - Table of mathematical symbols - En dash, a dash that looks similar to the subtraction symbol but is used for a different purpose - Stallings, Lynn (May 2000). "A brief history of algebraic notation". School Science and Mathematics. Retrieved 13 April 2009. - Sangster, Alan; Stoner, Greg; McCarthy, Patricia (2008). "The market for Luca Pacioli’s Summa Arithmetica". Accounting Historians Journal 35 (1): 111–134 [p. 115]. - "plus". Oxford English Dictionary (3rd ed.). Oxford University Press. September 2005. - Earliest Uses of Various Mathematical Symbols - Fraleigh, John B. (1989). A First Course in Abstract Algebra (4 ed.). United States: Addison-Wesley. p. 52. ISBN 0-201-52821-5. - Henri Picciotto. The Algebra Lab. Creative Publications. p. 9. ISBN 978-0-88488-964-9. - Schwartzman, Steven (1994). The words of mathematics. The Mathematical Association of America. p. 136. - Wheeler, Ruric E. (2001). Modern Mathematics (11 ed.). p. 171. - "Microsoft Office Excel Calculation operators and precedence". Retrieved 2009-07-29. - Grant P. Wiggins; Jay McTighe (2005). Understanding by design. ACSD Publications. p. 210. ISBN 1-4166-0035-3. - Hartell, Rhonda L., ed. (1993), The Alphabets of Africa. Dakar: UNESCO and SIL. - The Holocaust in Three Generations (Page 107) - Christian-Jewish Dialogue: Theological Foundations By Peter von der Osten-Sacken (1986 – Fortress Press – ISBN 0-8006-0771-6) "In Israel the plus sign used in mathematics is represented by a horizontal stroke with a vertical hook instead of the sign otherwise used all over the world, because the latter is reminiscent of a cross." (Page 96) - Unicode U+FB29 reference page This form of the plus sign is also used on the control buttons at individual seats onboard the El Al Israel Airlines aircraft. |Look up plus sign in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.| |Look up minus sign in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.|

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Curiosity rover delivered its first powdered sample of Mars soil Drilled out of the Martian rock a couple of weeks ago. NASA scientists are now waiting for the rover to digest the sample, analyse it using its onboard chemistry-science lab and beam back the results. The sample will give NASA researchers a view into Mars's past, free from the chemical weathering of the planet's surface. The grey powder in Curiosity's scoop is strikingly different from the rust-coloured soil we associate with the Red Planet. The big question is will the sample yieldfor signs that Mars has ever been capable of supporting life.

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- Consumers evaluated readability in regular room lighting. They were allowed to change fonts and sizes if they desired. GHRI engineers tested the ease of reading in bright sunlight and in a dark room. Engineers also measured the diagonal screen size of each eReader. - In addition, consumers evaluated whether they believed the text was portrayed on the screen in an ideal manner. This was to take in to account how E-Ink is supposedly easier in the eyes due to the high-contrast display. Consumers were asked if they felt any eye strain after reading. - A panel of consumers navigated each device and assessed the ease of the user interface. To test the ease of changing location in a book, consumers used Pride and Prejudice to navigate through different portions of the book (different chapter, different page, beginning, end, etc.) and then assessed the ease and intuitiveness of the process. - Consumers tested the ease of adjusting the font by manually making it both larger and smaller and then assessing how easy and intuitive the process was. - To assess portability, we measured the length, width, thickness, and weight of the devices. The thickness of each device was measured using calipers. The weight of each eReader was taken on the calibrated scale in the Consumer Electronics lab. Each device was measured with the battery in place, as this is how the consumer would be carrying it around. - Consumers evaluated the comfort of holding and using each device. - To test the turn-on time of the device, each eReader was completely powered down. We then recorded the time it took to power up the device until the main menu was functional. Three separate readings were taken, and the time was averaged based on these readings. - To test the transfer speed, we copied the same book, Crime and Punishment, onto each device from the same computer and timed how long it took to transfer. Since some of the devices are only able to obtain books via Wi-Fi, these books were tested in succession using the same Internet connection. - We recorded the speed of turning a page in Pride and Prejudice for each device. The time was recorded for turning from the first page to the second three times, and the speed of page turn was found by averaging these three times. - To test fingerprint resistance, we made an S shape on each device to mimic a fingerprint stain. The screens were then evaluated in the light room to see how much of the fingerprint remained on each device, when on and off. - Because many of the eReaders are able to last well over a week on one charge, we based the battery life off of manufacturer specifications. We then used the time provided for each eReader with Wi-Fi capabilities turned off to level the playing field. - We based the storage capacity for each device off of the manufacturers specifications. The score was based off of the number of books each device could hold in its given form, without using external means. - To test the quality of the manual, we reviewed each manual to assess how comprehensive and helpful it would be to a consumer. - To evaluate customer service, we called each manufacturers toll-free customer service number with a standard troubleshooting question. We timed how long we waited before speaking with a representative and evaluated how helpful the response was.

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|Source: Wikipedia Commons| Brussels (Flemish, Brussel; French, Bruxelles), since 1830 the capital of Belgium, (1947 pop. 187,000, Greater Brussels 952,500; 2005 pop. 140,000; Metro 1,975,000), where Anabaptist doctrine was spread in the 16th century. Since the city was then the residence of the chief magistrate, the Inquisition tracked down heretics more ruthlessly than in other places. There were probably fewer Anabaptists here than in Bruges, Ghent, and Antwerp; nevertheless Leenaert Bouwens baptized at least 23 persons there between 1554 and 1557. The last Anabaptist to suffer death as a martyr in Belgium was Anneken van den Hove, who was buried alive 19 July 1597, according to van Braght, who also records the execution of Govert Jaspers van Goes in 1558 and Hans van der Straeten of Kortrijk at the stake in 1571. In his study of martyrs at Brussels, Verheyden lists eight Mennonite martyrs in this city, the first of whom was Wouter van Stoelwijk, arrested 11 February 1538 and executed in 1541, exact date unknown; but according to a document of September 1539 (Inv. Arch. Amst. I, No. 215) some Anabaptists were put to death at Brussels as early as 1539. A letter written by Regent Mary of Hungary to the Court of Holland, dated 25 April 1542 (Inv. Arch. Amst. I, No. 245), states that an Anabaptist had indicated a number of persons at Brussels who were infected with the heresy of Anabaptism; but in this period, as far as we know from the official records, no martyrs died at Brussels. There must have been a Mennonite congregation in Brussels, at least as early as 1541. The martyr Wouter van Stoelwijk gives some particulars about the congregation, which seems to have been only a small group of rather well-to-do people. The congregation still existed in 1594, but nothing is known of its history nor the time it dissolved. The relief work carried on in Belgium by the North American Mennonites, 1946-1950, had its headquarters in Brussels. Mennonite missionaries have been stationed there since that time. The missionaries sent to the Belgian Congo by the Congo Inland Mission, a North American Mennonite mission board, who must learn the French language by residence in Belgium, all normally spend a year of study in Belgium before proceeding to the field. Hege, Christian and Christian Neff. Mennonitisches Lexikon, 4 vols. Frankfurt & Weierhof: Hege; Karlsruhe; Schneider, 1913-1967: v. I, 288. Hoop Scheffer, Jacob Gijsbert de. Inventaris der Archiefstukken berustende bij de Vereenigde Doopsgezinde Gemeente to Amsterdam, 2 vols. Amsterdam: Uitgegeven en ten geschenke aangeboden door den Kerkeraad dier Gemeente, 1883-1884: v. I, 215, 245. Verheyden, A. L. E. Le Martyrologe Courtraisien et la Martyrologe Bruxellois. Vilvorde: R. Allecourt, 1950: 46, 48, 49, 57, 58. Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, and Waterloo, Ontario, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 1, pp. 454-455. All rights reserved. For information on ordering the encyclopedia visit the Herald Press website. ©1996-2013 by the Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. All rights reserved. MLA style: Vos, Karel and Nanne van der Zijpp. "Brussels (Belgium)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1953. Web. 20 May 2013. http://www.gameo.org/encyclopedia/contents/B78740.html. APA style: Vos, Karel and Nanne van der Zijpp. (1953). Brussels (Belgium). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 20 May 2013, from http://www.gameo.org/encyclopedia/contents/B78740.html.

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Dinosaur Guts Reveal Velociraptor's Last Meal Artist's impression of a Velociraptor scavenging the carcass of a Pterosaur. CREDIT: Brett Booth A lightweight Velociraptor dinosaur may have chowed down on the carcass of a much larger flying reptile not long before meeting his own demise some 75 million years ago. The evidence comes from a pterosaur bone discovered in the gut of the skeletal remains of what was likely a Velociraptor mongoliensis that lived in what is now the Gobi Desert in Mongolia. The fossil, the first pterosaur bone to be found inside dinosaur guts, was discovered in 1994 but not fully analyzed and detailed in a scientific publication until now. Velociraptor was known to have fearsome sickle-shaped talons on the second toe of each foot; it kept these talons off the ground like foldable switchblades. Past research has shown these theropod dinosaurs used their talons to slash live prey and hook them to keep them from escaping. The new study, which says the pterosaur may have been dead before the predator found it, adds to research suggesting the fierce carnivores wouldn't turn their back on a free meal, either. A study published in 2010 reported the discovery of a Velociraptor frozen in time, scavenging the corpse of a larger dinosaur. "It would be difficult and probably even dangerous for the small theropod dinosaur to target a pterosaur with a wingspan of 2 meters [6.5 feet] or more unless the pterosaur was already ill or injured. So the pterosaur bone we've identified in the gut of the Velociraptor was most likely scavenged from a carcass rather than the result of a predatory kill," said study researcher David Hone, who was at the University College Dublin's School of Biology and Environmental Sciences in Ireland during the study of the remains. The pterosaur's bone, measuring nearly 3 inches (75 millimeters) in length, was lodged in the upper part of the Velociraptor's ribcage where the stomach would have been. "The surface of the bone is smooth and in good condition, with no unusual traces of marks or deformation that could be attributed to digestive acids. So it's likely that the Velociraptor itself died not long after ingesting the bone," Hone said in a statement. A broken rib with signs of regrowth also suggested the dinosaur was injured or recovering from an injury at the time of death, the researchers note online March 3 in the journal Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, and Palaeoecology. With an ability similar to modern crocodiles, these small non-avian dinosaurs could eat relatively large bones, the researchers said. MORE FROM LiveScience.com

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The University Record, February 22, 1999 By John Woodford News and Information Services During Koreas two Imjin Wars against Japanese invadersin 1592 and 1597the Korean people endured incompetent leadership, famine, the destruction of their villages and bloody assaults that resulted in a mountain of pickled noses and ears of 38,000 Koreans placed on display in Osaka, Japan. The Imjin invasions and earlier and later oneschiefly the Mongolian in 123170, the Japanese of 191045, and the Korean War of 195053have profoundly shaped Korean history and literature, Kichung Kim said in his Jan. 20 lecture Survival and Abduction: Documentary Literature of the Imjin Wars (159298), but the most brutal were the Imjin Wars. Kim, professor of English and American studies at San Jose State University, told an audience at the International Institute that diaries and memoirs of those who survived in Korea and those abducted to Japan provide the main documentation of Koreans efforts at self-definition in the Imjin period. The Korean Studies Program sponsored his lecture. Disembarking suddenly in Pusan on Koreas southern coast, 150,000 Japanese troops overran Korea in two months. Meeting little resistance, the Japanese ravaged the civilian population, which also found itself beset by homegrown bandits and by the Ming Chinese army that moved in from the north, ostensibly in assistance to the Koreans. Within four years, 90 percent of Koreans were uprooted from their homes and forced to wander the countryside in search of meager food and shelter. One of these wanderers, the scholar O Huimun, compiled a nine-year diary that describes the roads lined with corpses, the destruction of farmland, mass rapes, suicides of women who sought to escape capture, and reports of cannibalism in the starved population. Those who survived over the worst four years tried to reoccupy their homes only to find that their own governments demands for taxes or forced labor made it unwise to do so. When O Huimun re-entered his home village, only one-tenth of the inhabitants remained and its rice fields were uncultivable. The villages nearby oak forest, leveled for charcoal, now contained just one tree. Another prized document is the vivid and eloquent memoir of Koreas statesman of the time, Yu Songnyong, who left a view from the top of society, Kim said. Yus goal was to be brutally honest about the mistakes the Korean leaders made before and during the war. He charged that the Korean government had been foolish and negligent about Japans plans for war, ignoring the reports of its own envoys who reported on Japans plans. The Korean military took half-hearted defensive measures, Kim said. Rather than training their troops, the top generals merely ordered an inventory of all weapons. The Koreans possessed scarcely any guns, and when warned of the Japanese forces big edge in cannons and muskets, one commander said dismissively, They cant hit their targets every time they shoot, can they? Our leaders were irresponsible and incompetent, Kim said, adding that he regrets that no records were left by the ordinary people who suffered the most. Few could read or write, he said, and of those, probably none could afford paper and pen. We get incidental glimpses of their experiences, however, from scholars and officials memoirs. Japanese records show that their main objective was plunder. Japan deployed six special units with orders to fetch books, maps and paintings from the more culturally advanced Koreans, craftsmen (especially potters) and their handicrafts, people to be enslaved, precious metals, national treasures, and domestic animals. Whole villages were swept up, Kim said. Japanese merchants sold some to Portuguese merchants anchored offshore and took the rest to Japan. A few of the more than 100,000 Koreans taken to Japan over the six-year war left memoirs or letters. They reported how Koreans were sold in lots in Nagasaki. An Italian bought five Korean boys very cheaply and took them to the Portuguese territory of Goa, where he freed all but the one who had learned Italian the fastest. That boy he took to Florence, Italy, and named Antonio Corea. Corea, who is believed to have been the model for one of Rubenss paintings, settled in Rome and established an Italian clan. Support from Chinas Ming court and heroic victories at sea led by Yi Sunshin, one of the worlds greatest admirals, foiled both Imjin invasions. Some Japanese stayed in Korea, however, and some Koreans abducted to Japan stayed there after learning that, unless they were rich, liberated Koreans were often mistreated, cheated and re-enslaved by the Korean elite upon their return. What is the meaning of these documents to Koreans today? Kim called them an enduring literary memorial that speaks for all Koreans, even the illiterate, who experienced the tragedy of the Imjin War. We owe it to them to listen to what they say and reflect soberly on their words. These documents were preserved by families for 600 years before being published by clan leaders starting about 100 years ago. Kim illustrated another lesson the Koreans learned by citing great power diplomacy. The Koreans wanted the Chinese to expel the Japanese completely after the first invasion, but the Chinese were uninterested in doing more than clearing the Japanese from the Chinese-Manchurian borders. They delayed and stalled when Korea asked for further assistance and humiliated the Koreans in many ways. In one telling incident, a Chinese official almost sentenced Koreas chief minister Yu Songnyong to a flogging on the basis of a Chinese servants false report. It shows you, Kim concluded, that if you dont want your nation to be kicked around, youve got to be strong. All the Korean government of that time did for its people was to demand all the grain they had and force them to work.

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What Other Kids Are Reading Hey! A Chigger Bit Me! What's a Chigger? Chiggers are tiny (most can only be seen with a magnifying glass) and red, and they are a type of mite. Mites aren't insects — they are arachnids and part of the same family as spiders, scorpions, and ticks. Chiggers are found all over the place, including in grassy fields, along lakes and streams, and in forests. There are adult chiggers and baby chiggers (called larvae), but only the baby chiggers bother people and animals. Chiggers have tiny claws that allow them to attach tightly onto people and animals. Once attached, they are able to pierce the skin and inject their saliva, which contains digestive juices that dissolve skin cells. The chigger then slurps up the dissolved skin cells. To the chigger, this is a tasty meal! Having a chigger do this is very irritating to your skin. After a few days, the chigger will be done feeding and fall off a person's skin, leaving behind a red welt where it had once been. What a Bite Looks and Feels Like If a person gets bitten by a chigger, the bite will be very itchy. A chigger bite will cause a tiny red bump, which will get bigger and itchier as time goes on. The itchy bump can last for days or even a couple of weeks. What You Should Do If you think you've been bitten by a chigger, wash the bite with soap and water. Put on some calamine lotion or cool compresses to help with the itching, or an adult can find an anti-itch cream or medicine at the drugstore for you. Try not to scratch the bites too much, because this can make the bites become infected. What a Doctor Will Do Because chigger bites are so itchy, many people do get an infection from scratching the bites. If this happens, the doctor will prescribe a medication to help with the itching and a medicine to clear up the infection. How to Avoid Getting Bitten The best way to avoid getting bitten by a chigger is to wear an insect repellent. Ask your parents to apply one that contains 10% to 30% DEET. When it's possible, wear long-sleeved shirts and long pants outside, especially if you'll be hiking or playing in fields. Once you come in from being in an outdoor area that may have chiggers, take a hot shower and use plenty of soap. Also, be sure to wash your clothes in hot water to kill any chiggers that might be living there. Reviewed by: Elana Pearl Ben-Joseph, MD Date reviewed: April 2013 Note: All information on KidsHealth® is for educational purposes only. For specific medical advice, diagnoses, and treatment, consult your doctor. © 1995- The Nemours Foundation. All rights reserved.

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More children in the United States than ever before are being diagnosed with some form of autism. Take a look at the skyrocketing numbers from the Centers for Disease Control: - 2000: 1 out of every 150 kids had autism - 2006: 1 out of every 110 kids had the disorder - 2008 (most recent numbers): 1 out of every 88 kids has autism. It's even higher for boys, 1 out of 54 While experts continue to research and debate the cause, many frustrated families are left wondering what they can do to lower their risk. A board-certified Tampa pediatrician has created an experimental prevention program that includes three ways to increase your chances of having a healthy baby. "I think every mother is concerned about how their child is going to turn out," says newly pregnant mother Orel Zwiebel. Some parents in the Tampa Bay area, like Orel, are taking a proactive approach. They're looking for ways to prevent autism BEFORE pregnancy. Even with one healthy child, Orel took extra steps the second time around. She turned to Tampa pediatrician Dr. David Berger from Wholistic Pediatrics for suggestions. He admits this is a controversial area. Dr. Berger specializes in kids with autism and, over the past decade, developed a pre-pregnancy testing program to check for vitamin deficiencies and toxins. 10 News Anchor Heather Van Nest recently interviewed the doctor to find out if his methods are effective. Heather Van Nest: Can you REALLY prevent autism? Dr. Berger: So far, we have had a tremendous amount of success. In over 10 years and hundreds of children born into our practice, we know of no children who have gone on to develop autism, even in families who have had one child already. Those high risk families already have a one-in-seven chance of having another child with autism. Heather: So how did you come up with these suggestions? Dr. Berger: It was really out of necessity. Families who had a child with autism, who started nutritional and toxin testing, we found these things in the child, so the family started asking, "Is it possible that the mom could have these types of findings?" Heather: There are a lot of doctors out there who would say this is controversial. "How can he say autism can be prevented?" What do you say to them? Dr. Berger: I would say yes, we need more research, but the experience we've had a lot of success with, the types of things that we're talking about are nutritional things that are well known and should be done to support pregnancy in the first place. However, it's not common for doctors to proactively check for these things ahead of time. Here are three things Dr. Berger checks and corrects BEFORE pregnancy: #1 NUTRITIONAL DEFICIENCIES: Including Iron, B-vitamins, Omega-3 fatty acids and Vitamin D levels. Dr. Berger says low levels of vitamin D in the mother have been linked to delayed language development and weaker immune systems. #2 THYROID HEALTH: Untreated Hypothyroidism is a known cause of developmental delays in children. Including pesticides, lead, and mercury, which have been linked to learning disorders. For moms like Orel, the early testing motivated her to make changes. "Mentally, it gives me peace of mind and physically my pregnancy is a lot easier. I don't feel drained or tired and I feel like I have good energy, and that's an important factor," she says. Dr. Berger wrote an article that includes all of his nutritional and environmental strategies to lower the risk of autism in Autism Science Digest. Click here to read. Many researchers suspect autism may have genetic and environmental triggers. The Children's Environmental Health Center at Mount Sinai School of Medicine created a research-based list of the "Top 10 Toxic Chemicals suspected of causing autism and other learning disabilities." Click here to read. In response to some viewer comments, we have included this editorial from Dr. Berger: As a person with both ADHD and sensory integration issues, I have had life experiences similar to some people who are on the Autism Spectrum. In no way am I attempting to extinguish autistic existence. If anyone took that as my message - then I truly am sorry. I embrace the individuality of all. My approach towards people with autism is to help them obtain their maximum potential, not eliminate them. Families seek out my assistance and I try to provide whatever help they need. When a child with autism cannot communicate his/her needs or explain what is bothering them, or is irritable much of the day, or who sleeps poorly, it is difficult for parents to care for all of their family's needs. Usually when these symptoms are improved, I often get the opportunity to see a beautiful mind grow. I fully agree that the road to improving the life of a child on the spectrum is through education and traditional therapies, but often we can remove roadblocks that permit the child to flourish at a faster pace. I often ask families if they are content with how their child is doing. If a family is comfortable with where the child is at, then we try to back off the various biomedical therapies and see how things progress. I am also a strong supporter of the emotional well being of families that have children with special needs. I encourage families to find ways to gain acceptance of their life events . I know there are many doubters of the biomedical approach, mostly because of the lack of good research that supports its use. But with each child having his/her own combination of genes and exposures, it is very difficult to study these kids. However, I have seen countless children have a quick, remarkable decrease in their hyperactivity, irritability, or abdominal symptoms when they respond to an antifungal therapy, a dietary change, or an amino acid. It is my experience that there is no single biomedical therapy that a majority of children respond to - but a strong majority will respond to something. Early on in my career, parents of children on the autism spectrum asked me if there were things that they could consider to decrease the likelihood of having another child with challenges. The issues that I bring up in the Autism Science Digest article are real concerns that many have reported on and researched. This is a review article that raises many questions and contains my personal observations. There is no family who has made every change that is discussed in this article. There seems to be significance to the approach we are taking in that it has helped to keep children born into our practice healthy and well-developing. And I am not talking just about neurodevelopmental issues. I rarely see these children have an ear infection. I cannot recall the last time a child developed asthma. These kids have not developed colitis, diabetes, cancer, or significant immune problems either. If a family wishes to make one or more changes in their lifestyle, or try to correct an imbalance, in an attempt to improve their child's future health - shouldn't we support them in their decision? It is my goal to address these needs. I hope that over the next decade, we can conduct good research to see which, if any of these strategies, can result in better outcomes. In Good Health, David Berger, MD, FAAP Get a fresh perspective on health: Heather's Natural Health

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If We Had No Moon DVD SKU ID #84846 In the If We Had No Moon DVD, scientists discuss how a rogue planet crashed into the earth millions of years ago. The outcome: the Moon. In a Moon and Earth DVD, watch as scientists use state-of-the-art simulations to show the collision and discuss how everything around us would be different. Or more likely, nonexistent. If We Had No Moon DVD, consider what life on earth would be like without the moon? Well, chances are, there wouldn't be any life on earth without the moon. In an Earth DVD, life if it had started at all would still be in the earliest stages of evolution. Scientists use the latest computer simulations to show how an ancient rogue planet Orpheus collided with the earth millions of years ago, producing a sizable chunk of debris that eventually became our moon. Watch in the Universe DVD, how if that collision had never occurred, we would live in a very different place. Imagine a moon-less weather report blizzards over the Sahara, flood waters swallowing the Pyramids, 90 degree temperatures in Antarctica. In If We Had No Moon DVD, as the earth wobbles on its axis unsecured by the moon's gravitational pull the polar caps would grow and recede at frightening rates. And without the moon, our planet would spin much faster meaning four-hour days and searing temperatures. Worse yet, in the Earth DVD, evidence reveals that we are in fact losing our grip on our lunar friend thanks to the ebb and flow of the oceans' tides. Experts reveal theories for salvaging the moon including hijacking Europa from Jupiter and demonstrate how we can prepare ourselves for our eventual life without it. Shop for a fascinating Moon DVD and delve into the possibility that life as we know it, is a direct affect of an ancient planetary collision that produced the Moon, which affects weather, gravitational pull and much, much more.

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Messier 45 is more commonly referred to as the Pleiades, and is the most famous open star cluster among amateur astronomers and the general public alike. Easily visible to the naked eye during the northern Winter, this cluster has been featured in literature over three millennia! Research compilations now suggest that about 500 stars, mostly faint, are gravitationally bound together as the Pleiades. Visible: DSS, Visible: Color - © AAO, Royal Observatory, Edinburgh Let us begin our examination of Messier 45 with a look at the visible light images (above). The black-and-white and color images both reveal wispy veils of fog surrounding the brightest stars. These reflection nebulae are produced by dust particles within the cluster. The chemical composition of the reflected light (as determined through spectroscopy) is identical to that of the blue stars, thereby confirming that the nebulae are simply stellar light reflected to our line of sight by the dust. The blue tint is a consequence of the fact that the illuminating stars are young and blue, and because dust preferentially reflects light of shorter wavelengths (for example, blue) and preferentially scatters light of longer wavelengths (such as red). The spikes seen around the brightest stars, particularly in the color image, are artifacts produced by the telescope optics. Near-Infrared: 2MASS and Visible: DSS Now ponder the near-infrared photograph (above left) and compare it with the previously studied visible-light picture (above right). The pattern of the five brightest stars is still clearly seen. However, the surrounding haze has completely vanished! This is because near-infrared light, corresponding to wavelengths a few times longer than what the human eye sees, can easily pierce through the obscuring effects of dust. This is an important reason why astronomers often rely on near-IR radiation to study the birth of stars, since stellar formation normally occurs within thick cocoons of dust and gas. Mid-Infrared: IRAS and Far-Infrared: IRAS The IRAS infrared images depicted above were obtained at wavelengths of 25 and 60 microns. Two dramatic differences from the previous images are immediately obvious. First, the five-star pattern is barely recognizable in the mid-infrared (upper left) and has disappeared at far-infrared wavelength (upper right). Second, much of the infrared emission now corresponds to the dust wisps noted in the visible light photos. This is the paradox of infrared light. At the shortest wavelengths, near-IR light effectively passes through obscuring dust. At the longer wavelengths, infrared emission is increasingly due to the dust particles themselves. At these wavelengths, the dust particles absorb the ambient visible and ultraviolet photons emitted by the nearby stars. The dust then re-radiates the light as infrared, with the energy difference between the types of light serving to slightly heat the dust particle. [In both of these infrared images, a point of light is stretched along the east-west direction because of the peculiar rectangular shape of the IRAS detectors. Furthermore, the pattern of stripes is a result of data processing.] Mid-Infrared: IRAS and Visible: Color - © AAO, Royal Observatory, Edinburgh If you need additional evidence that longer-wavelength infrared originates primarily from dust, re-examine the mid-IR and visible-light images above. Concentrate on the southernmost bright star in the Pleiades, named Merope. You will see that the fuzzy pattern of infrared light to the immediate southwest (lower right) of this star closely resembles the pattern of reflected light seen in the visible light photograph. Radio: NVSS, Ultraviolet: MSX, X-Ray: Thomas Preibisch, Wurzburg (Germany) The radio image (above left) of Messier 45 shows some faint point sources of emission, color coded as green. [The black and blue background is simply noise, analogous to radio static.] The pattern of the point sources does not clearly match the brightest stars seen in the visible and near-infrared photos. What are these sources? Good question, with no obvious answer. Many distant quasars are strong radio emitters. However, a search of the online NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED) fails to uncover any cataloged background quasars within the field of view. Some of the faint radio emissions could originate from distant and uncataloged quasars. Most quiescent stars are not known for being strong sources of radio emission. However, such unusual stars as flare stars, pulsars, and binary stars can produce radio signals, and these could account for some of the sources seen in the Messier 45 image. In the ultraviolet (above center) we see the emission from hot stars. The dust around newly formed stars reflects and scatters ultraviolet light. Ultraviolet images can provide information about the properties of dust surrounding newly formed stars. Finally, let us study the x-ray image (above right) of the Pleiades. The square green boxes denote the position of the brightest stars in the cluster. Some of the boxes are contain a faint source, suggesting that the x-rays are due to the (optically) bright star. However, other boxes appear to contain no x-ray emission. In fact, most of the x-ray sources (color coded to denote different x-ray energies, or wavelengths) are widely scattered throughout the field of view, although clearly centered about the cluster position. Research astronomers have found that the majority of x-ray sources are faint, low-mass stars within the Pleiades.

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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.

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HEALING WITH SINGLE FREQUENCY LIGHT by: Olszewski, David, E.E., I.E. EARLY EXPERIMENTS In 1965, the Russians and Czechs were trying to standardize colour therapy, which is the use of colours to treat the body. When they used a single colour on a number of people, they got different reactions because colour affects emotions and produces different effects. The Russians wanted to have a standard treatment, so they theorized that if they isolated one frequency of blue, or red, they could duplicate colour therapy on a regulated basis. They started separating different frequencies with lasers, and they discovered a lot more than they expected to find. They discovered that a single frequency light in a laser can stimulate DNA in damaged cell tissue. They used a low power laser under 50-milliwatts because higher lasers can cut tissue. PULSED VS.CONTINUOUS LASER They discovered that if they used a pulsed laser light, the tissue healed rapidly. On the other hand, if they gave a continuous beam, it sedated the cell and killed the pain. When a single frequency pulsed light hit the cell, it actually stimulated the cell to start producing more protein than it normally does, and as a result, the cell would heal. Even when they took the light away, the cell continued its healing. The continuous beam had a reverse effect. It actually caused the cell membrane to relax; it killed pain, reduced inflammation and made muscle tissue relax. INCREASED HEALING IN THE 660 nm WAVELENGTH It didn't matter what the frequency was. It could be infrared, red, blue, or green, as long as it was single although, as you move toward the red end of the spectrum, the rate of cellular regeneration increased. For instance, a single frequency in the green range might affect the kidney 40 times better than a normal base-line study, whereas a red would be about 4,000 times faster. So over the years they migrated to infrared, red and eventually the 660 nanometer wavelength because it was the fastest way to regenerate tissue. So if you have an injury you would normally recover from in ten days, you can actually recover that tissue in two days by treating it with light. WAVELENGTH OF CELL TISSUE About ten years later at the University of Chicago, researchers discovered that the average wavelength of cell tissue in the human body ranged between 600 nanometers and 720 nm; 660 is the mid-point. So in essence, the reason a 660 nm works better than any other single frequency is because it is closer to the resonant frequency of cell tissue. The other reason is that 660 nm absorbs better in hemoglobin. LASER LIGHT VS LIGHT EMITTING DIODES (LED) When this therapy reached the U.S. and Canada, both lasers and light-emitting diodes at 660 nanometers were being used. The LED diffuses; the single frequency laser does not. With this diffusion, the cell can actually be in control of the treatment and shut off the molecules when it was done. But with the laser, the cells are no longer in control; the doctor or the practitioner applying the laser is in control. If he does it too long or with too much strength, you would not only heal the tissue, but you would start a deterioration again. So basically, the use of light-emitting diodes eliminated the draw back of lasers, and light could be applied into such sensitive areas as the eyes and around the face. LEDs allowed this whole area to blossom into a much larger usage by average people in their homes. Tiina Karu, Ph.D. of the Laser Technology Center in Russia, and affiliated with the University of California at Berkely, probably the top researcher in the world on the use of lasers and light emitting diodes published a study in Health and Physics Digest called "Photobiological Effects of Lasers" which discusses photobiological stimulation without laser light. The article explains that you can do laser treatment without using laser light, by using light emitting diodes which are much safer. Since the cells are basically in control of the process, there is no way to overuse light. THE MERIDIAN SYSTEM Acupuncturists discovered that single frequency light could activate acupressure points. Pulse light could stimulate it; continuous light could sedate the acupuncture points. But they also discovered that light applied to a meridian end-point can actually be traced flowing through the meridian to the organ acupuncture points. The meridian system is a useful pathway for getting light deeper into the body, so if you are treating things like asthma in the lungs, there is an alternate method of getting light into the lungs. DEPTH OF LIGHT PENETRATION As we developed more types of lights with different geometrical shapes, we were able to actually get light deeper into the body without going through the meridians. Initially, single frequency light penetrated approximately an inch and a half, but today, larger units can penetrate up to eight inches. It will go through the skull. We use it on strokes, concussions and internal problems in the brain. Excellent studies have been done using light for pain relief, degenerative osteoarthritis, carpal tunnel tendonitis, skin ailments, acne, psoriasis, healing of the sinus cells, throat and ear problems, whiplash and lower back problems. PENETRATING THROUGH THE BLOOD STREAM You can even get light into the blood stream. One of the best ways is through your belly button, because the aorta artery is behind the belly button. So if you insert the light there for 20 minutes, every drop of blood in the body will pass in front of the light, increasing the activity of your white cells, red cells, B-cells and T-cells, so you can boost your whole immune system. ACUTE VS CHRONIC CONDITIONS If you use lasers or light-emitting diodes, it will actually speed up healing by a factor of five. If you have chronic conditions like osteoarthritis or whiplash from 15 years ago, conditions that are not responding or are deteriorating, the use of laser and LED light has actually stimulated regeneration. I believe light is going to play the biggest part in chronic conditions for people who have already explored a lot of other modalities and have found no solution. BRAIN WAVE STUDIES We were studying the diagnosis of illnesses like leukemia, etc through brainwave patterns. We were surprised to find that when we treat the person with light, or with heat, that when the body starts healing, it shifts into what is called a healing profile where beta waves disappear, and alpha, theta and delta appear like you wouldn't even find in a yogi. THERMAL THERAPY FOR IMMUNITY A rectal heat probe allows the temperature to rise to between 98 and 113 in the rectum. It corrects prostate troubles and shrinks the prostate. It eliminates hemorrhoids. The most important use for rectal therapy is that it makes your body think you have a fever, even though the heat is only in the rectum. So the body will fight the fever by generating new white cells in the bone marrow. In this way, you can increase your white cell count overnight in lowered immune systems. Many thermal units are being used to boost the immune systems of people with serious illnesses such as cancer, AIDS and lowered immunity. We use heat to generate new white cells in depleted immune systems, and we use light on the blood stream to regenerate red cells, white cells, B and T-cells. So the combination of light and heat has been very effective with critical conditions. "I oppose sunglasses. Sunglasses are the main reason why the UV light destroys the eyes. This occurs because your pupils expand when you wear sunglasses, and the exposure can destroy your eyes even quicker". - Meier Schneider For more information please contact David Olszewski at Light Energy Co., Seattle, Washington at 1-800-LIGHTCO (1-800-544-4826). You may purchase full spectrum lighting at Consumer Health Organization. If you wish bulbs to fit into a socket, make sure you specify that you want the fluorescent tubing type rather than the incandescent bulb. They come in 17, 20 and 23 watts (equivalent to 65, 80 and 95 watts in a regular bulb). Other products available are full spectrum light boxes, desk lamps, etc. Issue 10 |

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Formative Assessment for Students and Teachers (FAST) Since 2006, the Formative Assessment for Students (FAST) SCASS has expanded the implementation of formative assessment in the classroom to positively impact teaching and learning. This work focuses on advancing the thinking of states about formative assessment. The FAST SCASS develops materials and resources to support the implementation of formative assessment and advocacy nation-wide. FAST SCASS work has been strongly grounded in research on formative assessment practices and has been consistently guided by experts in the field. Most recently, the FAST SCASS has worked with Jim Popham and Dylan Wiliam to create a paper that sets formative assessment practice in the broader context of assessment. The group has also worked with Education Testing Service to create a formative assessment observation tool for peer-coaching and teacher self-evaluation. Throughout the year, PARCC and SBAC have provided representatives with whom members have had actively engaged discussions regarding formative assessment. In 2012-2013 the FAST SCASS will continue to develop resources to support the implementation of formative assessment across states. Members will engage with experts to advance thinking on areas of particular interest, including formative assessment in relation to the Common Core State Standards, and learn from each other with respect to states' formative assessment implementation programs. FAST Collaborative Advisor: Margaret Heritage Margaret Heritage, a recognized expert on formative assessment, is assistant director for professional development at the National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards and Student Testing (CRESST) at UCLA. She has written two books on formative assessment and is currently writing a third to be published by Harvard Education Press. In addition, she has written numerous papers on formative assessment and has made presentations on the topic all over the U.S, in Europe, India and Australia. Members: Arkansas, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, North Carolina Associate Members: CTB/McGraw-Hill, Measured Progress, NEA, Northwest Evaluation - PublicationLearning About Assessment: An Evaluation of a Ten-State Effort to Build Assessment Capacity in High Schools - PublicationAssessing Students' Affect Related to Assessment for Learning - PublicationAttributes of Effective Formative Assessment - PublicationFormative Assessment: Examples of Practices - PublicationLearning Progressions: Supporting Instruction and Formative Assessment - PublicationFormative Assessment and Next-Generation Assessment Systems: Are We Losing an Opportunity?

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The Mexican government and the Pronatura Noroeste organization signed an accord to improve protection of a Pacific coastal lagoon that serves as a refuge for gray whales. At a press conference in the capital, representatives of the Semarnat environmental agency and Pronatura presented the Wildlife Conservation Management Unit, or UMA, with a plan of collaboration in which ecologists and government officials will work together. The San Ignacio Lagoon forms part of the El Vizcaino Biosphere Reserve, an expanse of 2 million hectares (almost 8 square miles) in the state of Baja California Sur. The agreement includes working up a plan for protecting, monitoring and tracking the species that inhabit the lagoon and establishing a system for attending to any eventual environmental contingencies. The initiative plans to take a long-term view of dealing with threats related to coastal development, illegal fishing and the excessive exploitation of natural resources. The director general of Pronatura Noroeste, Martin Gutierrez Lacayo, said that the plan is an example “of how private initiative, the government and civil society” can work together to save “priority ecosystems” in this country. “This is a pioneering effort without precedent that replaces unsustainable development with cooperation between the government and society, which will actively take joint responsibility for the protection of the environment,” law of the sea expert Alberto Szekely told the press conference. San Ignacio Lagoon has 400 kilometers (250 miles) of coastline, of which 320 kilometers (200 miles) are mango groves and wetlands inhabited by a great many species like sea turtles, Arctic geese and, in its waters, gray whales.

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Arrange the four number cards on the grid, according to the rules, to make a diagonal, vertical or horizontal line. Using all ten cards from 0 to 9, rearrange them to make five prime numbers. Can you find any other ways of doing it? This problem is based on a code using two different prime numbers less than 10. You'll need to multiply them together and shift the alphabet forwards by the result. Can you decipher the code? These two group activities use mathematical reasoning - one is numerical, one geometric. A man has 5 coins in his pocket. Given the clues, can you work out what the coins are? Can you make square numbers by adding two prime numbers together? What happens if you join every second point on this circle? How about every third point? Try with different steps and see if you can predict what will happen. A game in which players take it in turns to choose a number. Can you block your opponent? Can you find a relationship between the number of dots on the circle and the number of steps that will ensure that all points are Work out Tom's number from the answers he gives his friend. He will only answer 'yes' or 'no'. Use the interactivities to complete these Venn diagrams. Take the number 6 469 693 230 and divide it by the first ten prime numbers and you'll find the most beautiful, most magic of all numbers. What is it? Follow this recipe for sieving numbers and see what interesting patterns emerge. A challenge that requires you to apply your knowledge of the properties of numbers. Can you fill all the squares on the board? All strange numbers are prime. Every one digit prime number is strange and a number of two or more digits is strange if and only if so are the two numbers obtained from it by omitting either. . . .

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: - - - Do all of these: - Tell what is meant by family, duty to family, and family meetings. - Make a chart showing the jobs you and other family members have at home. Talk with your family about other jobs you can do for the next two months. - Make a list of some things for which your family spends money. Tell how you can help your family save money. - Plan your own budget for 30 days. Keep track of your daily expenses for seven days. - Take part in at least four family meetings and help make decisions. The meetings might involve plans for family activities, or they might be about serious topics that your parent wants you to know about. - With the help of an adult inspect your home and surroundings. Make a list of hazards or lack of security that you find. Correct one problem that you found and tell what you did. And do two of these: - With the help of an adult, prepare a family energy-saving plan. Explain what you did to carry it out. - Tell what your family does for fun. Make a list of fun things your family might do for little or no cost. Plan a family fun night. - Learn how to clean your home properly. With adult supervision, help do it for one month. - Show that you know how to take care of your clothes. With adult supervision, help at least twice with the family laundry. - With adult supervision, help plan the meals for your family for one week. Help buy the food and help prepare three meals for your family. - While you are a Webelos Scout, earn the Academics belt loop for Heritages. - Explain why garbage and trash must be disposed of properly. Please report any issues with this page.

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The EU Budget is the starting point for the Court’s audit work The European Union has a budget of approximately 120 billion euro, around 1% of the gross national income (GNI) of its 27 Member States. Compared to national budgets this is a small share. However, for some Member States funds from the EU play an important role in financing public activities and the total amount is close or equal to the GNI of some Member States. The revenue of the European Union mainly consists of contributions from Members States based on their gross national income (GNI – 65,4%,) and on a measurement connected to value added tax collected by the Member States (VAT – 16,9%). Customs and agricultural duties (so called traditional own resources – 16,5%) also represent a significant share of revenue. The composition of the budget has evolved over time, agriculture and cohesion policies being its major components. The budget is decided annually - within the context of seven-year financial frameworks - by the Council, i.e. representatives of the Members States, and the directly elected European Parliament. The European Commission proposes the budget and is also responsible for implementing it. A very significant proportion - notably agricultural and cohesion spending - is implemented in cooperation with the Member States. Depending on the spending schemes, national administrations may be responsible for setting spending strategies, selecting beneficiaries and projects and making payments. A specific feature of Community expenditure is the high percentage of payments based on claims submitted by the beneficiaries themselves, be they farmers or project managers throughout the Union.

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http://eca.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/aboutus/TheCourtsroleandwork

2013-05-22T00:57:07Z

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en

For discussing the functions of different structures of all organisms. 7 posts • Page 1 of 1 Well, adipose tissue is known to act as a thermal insulator. 1) Why do body organs need thermal insulation? 2) How does adipose tissue provide it? Is it a property of fat stores or something? The adipose tissue contains less water and blood vessels than most other tissues in the body. Thus, it conducts heat less efficiently, helping it to be retained in the core organs. Also, low blood flow amounts to lesser heat loss. In order to reverse this in hot environments, the surface blood vessels and capillaries of the skin dilate, facilitating better heat loss (coupled with sweating). The function of most organs in mammals is severely compromised if the deep body temperature gets lower from the optimal and thus it is essential that we have means to keep us warm when it is cold. For us humans, clothes serve as the most important way of thermal insulation, and for many land mammals the primary insulator is the fur. However, when you look at the marine mammals you can definitely see the importance of fat as a thermal insulator: whales, seals and such can live in freezing cold waters because of the thick layer of blubber (fat) under their skin. Although blubber has more vascularization than normal adipose tissue, their diameter is controlled in a similar manner as in the skin: blood vessels are dilated when heat loss is required and contracted when it must be prevented. A human would become hypothermic within minutes and die soon after in a similar environment. I am not certain to what extent animals sweat, but I know that many mammals are capable of sweating to some extent. However, pretty much only in humans (and perhaps in some other primates?) it is a major way of cooling. I also read somewhere that horses sweat as a means to cool down. Most mammals have few sweat glands and they are probably for other purposes (secreting pheromones or other such substances). Dogs and cats (and even crows!) pant if they are getting too hot. Kangaroos lick their arms to cool themselves and so forth. The ways are many :) I guess you could say that we humans are specialists in sweating! answer1:Body organs of endotherms need to operate at the normal body temperatures of these animals, because they evolved to operate at those temperatures. The enzymes they have would not operate efficiently or they would not operate at all at lower temperatures. One of the major reasons people die from hypothermia is major organ failure. Fat is a good natural insulator, as is air. It is just one of their inherent properties. Adipose tissue is fatty tissue. answer2:Adipose tissue is now recognised as a highly active metabolic and endocrine organ. Great strides have been made in uncovering the multiple functions of the adipocyte in cellular and molecular detail, but it is essential to remember that adipose tissue normally operates as a structured whole. Its functions are regulated by multiple external influences such as autonomic nervous system activity, the rate of blood flow and the delivery of a complex mix of substrates and hormones in the plasma. Attempting to understand how all these factors converge and regulate adipose tissue function is a prime example of integrative physiology. Adipose tissue metabolism is extremely dynamic, and the supply of and removal of substrates in the blood is acutely regulated according to the nutritional state. Adipose tissue possesses the ability to a very large extent to modulate its own metabolic activities, including differentiation of new adipocytes and production of blood vessels as necessary to accommodate increasing fat stores. At the same time, adipocytes signal to other tissues to regulate their energy metabolism in accordance with the body's nutritional state. Ultimately adipocyte fat stores have to match the body's overall surplus or deficit of energy. This implies the existence of one (or more) signal(s) to the adipose tissue that reflects the body's energy status, and points once again to the need for an integrative view of adipose tissue function. 7 posts • Page 1 of 1 Who is online Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 0 guests

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http://www.biology-online.org/biology-forum/about23982.html?p=140928&hilit=Substrates

2013-05-20T02:22:31Z

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In this lesson, our instructor Laura Ryan gives an introduction to music theory. She gives an overview of the grand staff, major scales, and minor scales before discussing the names of white and black keys. She concludes the video with chords, chord progressions, and examples of each concept covered in the lesson. The grand staff is made of both Treble and Bass clefs. When reading notes separately from left to right, they are played in succession. When reading notes stacked vertically on top of one another, they are played simultaneously. One can use simple chord progressions and only a few notes to create catchy and memorable tunes. Lecture Slides are screen-captured images of important points in the lecture. Students can download and print out these lecture slide images to do practice problems as well as take notes while watching the lecture.

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http://educator.com/music-theory/ryan/music-theory.php?ss=1429

2013-05-19T18:33:19Z

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(post two of three. The first gives background on metamorphic reactions.) Starting point: at some period of time in the distant past, a collection of clays, small quartz grains (less than sand sized), maybe some carbonates and oxides collected in a relatively quiet sedimentary basin. If we were to sample the sediment, it would feel like mud in our hands (though it might be slightly gritty if we tasted the seds). Let’s take a moment and looks at the composition of our components: - quartz (maybe also some chert) – SiO2 - clays: usually kaolinite – Al2Si2O5(OH)4, montmorillonite - (Na,Ca)0.33(Al,Mg)2(Si4O10)(OH)2·nH2O, and/or illite - (K,H3O)(Al,Mg,Fe)2(Si,Al)4O10[(OH)2,(H2O)] - carbonates: normally calcite / aragonite – CaCO3, though you may have some ankerite – FeCO3 or dolomite – CaMg(CO3)2 - oxides: hematite – Fe2O3, limonite – FeO(OH)·nH2O and/or goethite - FeO(OH) - other random things that may or may not be present: albite – NaAlSi3O8, organic material – C + H2O What this boils down to is that our quiet depositional environment seds are Si + Al + water-rich with some K, Ca, Na, Fe, Mg, CO2 mixed in. Whatever minerals are going to be stable in the future of this rock, they’ll probably be Si + Al-rich. The first event to occur is more sediment being deposited on top of “our” seds. This new weight forces compacts the seds, driving off some water +/- carbon dioxide, reducing the porosity of the rock, and increasing the density. If you look at the image above, the clays on the left are “looser” and on the right “denser” due to their placements (towards top & towards bottom) within the core. (Here’s a link to a great animation of a filling basin over time to give you an idea of what occurs over time within a depositional environment.) As more & more sediment is deposited in the basin, our seds are compacted more & the temperature starts to gradually go up simply due to burial. More than driving off water, though, some of our clays (and some of the other random minerals such as goethite, aragonite, etc.) become unstable. At this point, usually the clays are replaced by other clay minerals that are slightly more dense and contain a bit less water. If aragonite was present, calcite may form. Goethite would be replaced by an anhydrous oxide such as hematite. The further compaction, driving off of water / carbon dioxide, and recrystallization of some of the phases takes our loose seds and turns them into a sedimentary rock–in this case, a shale. Shales are still very, very fine grained so that individual minerals are not visible to the naked eye. They are also “fissible” or form in thin layers along which they are easy to break in relatively smooth planes. If our basin simply continues to fill, our shale may lose more water / carbon dioxide, but it won’t become “interesting” (at least to a metamorphic petrologist). In order to take that next step, we need to either heat the rock by intruding a pluton (igneous body) next to the shale or involve the shale within an orogenic event that will increase both the P & T. Let’s first deal with contact metamorphism: The rocks within the contact aureole will be heated up with higher temperatures near the igneous body & lower temperatures further away. Frequently, there is a minimal P change associated with the intrusion of an igneous pluton, but it may cause a differential pressure field. Normally the changes from unmetamorphosed to low-T contact metamorphism to moderate-T to high-T are gradual and may be difficult to pin down exactly to as easily identifiable line in the field. Detailed work with samples made into thin sections is usually need to pin down exactly where a new mineral becomes stable (in-isograd). The rock may either be unfoliated (no alignment of the grains due to a differential stress) or foliated. If unfoliated, we’ll see a sequence of “hornfelses” in which our fine grained shale will become more & more coarse grained. The other main characteristic as the temperature increases is that the rock will lose more & more water / carbon dioxide. The clays / carbonates / oxides may no longer be stable and instead plagioclase, chlorite, muscovite &/or biotite will form. Quartz is still stable. (Just as a quick check – micas + quartz + plag are Si + Al rich with some Fe + Mg + Ca + Na, so compositionally we’re on track.) As the temperature continues to go up, the rock become more & more anhydrous and instead of micas (chl, bt, mu) either anhydrous minerals (e.g. plagioclase, andalusite, garnet, sillimanite, K-feldspar) or minerals with only very low amounts of water (e.g. cordierite, staurolite) become stable. Note the increase in grain size below. How hot the contact aureole will get (and therefore how high grade of metamorphism will be present) depends on a few things: - what is the temperature of the igneous body itself? granites will be colder than diorites or gabbros - how large is the igneous body? small bodies will lose their heat quickly & therefore won’t be able to heat as large a region or to as high a temperature - is there free fluid in the system? fluid-flow convection around a pluton transfers heat much more efficiently than simple conduction–wider contact aureole that may reach higher temperatures simply because the heat reaches the country rocks before the pluton can cool off much - how deep within the Earth is the system? shallow intrusions cool off much quicker because the surrounding country rocks are colder and absorb the heat almost instantly (in geological timescales), deeper intrusions have a less drastic temperature differential between the pluton & the country rocks and allow for a slower cooling of the igneous material and a protracted timing of metamorphism — also if the rocks are warmer to start with, it doesn’t take as much heat to bump them up to a higher grade of metamorphism If the conditions are right, the rocks directly in contact with the pluton may start to melt and form migmatites. I’m going to talk about migmatites at the end of the regional metamorphism post, so you’ll have to wait a sec…

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http://lifeinplanelight.wordpress.com/2011/03/31/mud-to-cordierite-sillimanite-hornfels-contact-metamorphism-at-work/

2013-05-24T09:10:25Z

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en

Leading By Example In identifying Moses' successor, God emphasizes that inspiration, not passion or popularity, makes a successful leader. The following article is reprinted with permission from Kolel: The Adult Centre for Liberal Jewish Learning. This week's portion continues the controversial story of Pinhas, which began at the end of last week's parasha. In a climate of rampant idolatry, Pinhas, a grandson of Aaron who is known as a great zealot, takes a spear and stabs through an Israelite Chieftain who was in the act of consorting with the daughter of a Midianite priest. At the beginning of this week's parashah, which bears his name, Pinhas is rewarded with the inheritance of the priestly line, which began with Aaron. The portion continues with a description of Israel's struggles with the Midianites, and then a census is taken as part of the preparation for battle. As a footnote to the listing of the census, a story is told about a man named Zelophehad who died of natural causes in the wilderness without leaving a son. His daughters come to Moses to complain that their family would lose their father's property because daughters were not allowed to inherit. Moses consults with God, who agrees that the laws need to be changed. Joshua is formally appointed as Moses' successor, and the portion concludes with a review of all the sacrificial offerings of the festivals. Let the Eternal, God of the spirits of all flesh, appoint someone over the community who shall go out before them and come in before them, and who shall take them out and bring them in, so that God’s community may not be like sheep that have no shepherd (Numbers 27:16-17). Moses has received notice from God that his death is imminent. Although previously God told Moses that he would not be allowed to enter the Promised Land, in this parasha God relents a bit and allows Moses to view the land from the top of Mount Abarim. But, before he ascends the mountain, Moses expresses one concern to God: Who will lead the people after I am gone? Since he had to ask, it seems the answer is not obvious. Moses asks God to appoint someone, and God responds immediately by identifying Joshua, "who has the spirit in him," to be ordained as the new leader of the people. Moses does as God instructs. Before the entire people of Israel, Moses lays his hands on Joshua and invests him with the authority of divinely appointed leadership. What could be on Moses’ mind as his final days draw near? Fear? Frustration? Relief? As God instructs him to ascend the Heights of Abarim for his end-of-life view of the Promised Land, Moses gives some indication of his concerns. He makes a request of God, but not on his own behalf or even for his family. What concerns Moses most at this time is the people of Israel. Who will lead this wayward people after he is gone? And so Moses prays to God: "Let the Eternal, God of the spirits of all flesh, appoint someone over the community..."(Numbers 27:16).

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http://myjewishlearning.com/texts/Bible/Weekly_Torah_Portion/pinhas_kolel5762.shtml

2013-05-20T22:05:38Z

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en

EU policy limits wetland loss for biofuels After a long process since the adoption of the Renewable Energy Directive, the European Commission has now made clear that biofuels produced or imported to the EU cannot be produced at the cost of wetlands, peatlands or forests. Areas that were in 2008 still forests or wetlands cannot be used for the production of biofuels. Any fuels from these areas will not count for the EU biofuel target and will not get any subsidies or other support. Peatlands (wetland areas with water logged, carbon rich organic soils) can only be used to produce biofuels if there is no drainage needed. Palm oil plantations will not be seen as forests. These are major elements of the Communication of the European Commission, a document explaining how the often unclear Renewable Energy Directive needs to be implemented. Although there are still some environmental issues to improve, the EU communication regarding biofuels is a great step for preventing wetland loss. Marcel Silvius, Wetlands International: "Finally, the European Commission gives clarity on something we all know; planting biofuels at the cost of wetlands is causing biodiversity loss and huge greenhouse gas emissions and should never be supported by any policy". See the press releases of the European Commission on this. +31 (0)6 5060 1917 (mobile)

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http://www.wetlands.org/News/Pressreleases/tabid/60/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/2273/Default.aspx

2013-05-25T12:49:31Z

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I seem to write a lot of articles about quantum computing. You might even think I was obsessed or something. But, I believe that, once we have a useful quantum computer, it will be one of those technologies that we wonder how we ever did without. And by we, I mean scientists. One of the big applications for quantum computers is to solve quantum mechanical problems. And quantum problems are things like the properties of molecules, solids, and liquids. Without a quantum computer, we will never really know what is possible in terms of new materials. But, to make a quantum computer possible, we need a quantum bit (qubit) that can be protected from unwanted disruptions. To make this possible, a group of researchers from the University of Science and Technology in China have shown that dressing an atom may be the way to go. I'm sorry, we only allow dressed states in here To understand what the researchers have done, we need to know what a dressed state is. From a physicist's point of view, an atom is simply a set of energy states. An atom can absorb certain, discrete amounts of energy, depending its current state. On absorbing energy, the atom enters an excited state, and some time later, emits a photon and changes state again. The states it changes between are natural energy states of the atom. But you can't excite the atom without shoving some energy its way. This energy is in the form of radiation with an energy that matches the difference between two of the atom's sates. Now, let's shine a light field on our atom, but instead of choosing a photon energy that matches a transition, we will choose an energy that is just slightly wrong. Now, according to our naive explanation above, the atom will simply ignore this light. But that is not what actually happens. The electric field of the light drives the electrons to oscillate anyway, which modifies the energetic structure of the atom. As the electrons oscillate, their shifts periodically reduce and increase the energy required to make the transition. The size of these changes depends on the difference between the frequency of the applied field and the transition, and the strength of the applied field. The result is that the single state is split into two states, one for each side of the oscillation. These are referred to as the dressed states of the atom. When we excite the atom, we never know which of the dressed state the atom enters, so, on excitation, it automatically enters a superposition state of the two possibilities. In other words, as soon as we turn on the light, the atom enters both states simultaneously. Why is this important? The way these states change with time is dominated by the strong applied fields, so dressed states can be set up so that they are a bit indifferent to the environment, allowing superposition states to survive longer. In other words, we increase the predictability, or coherence, of the atom in the superposition state. A return to your regular programming The qubit implementation that the researchers chose was nitrogen vacancy (NV) centers in diamond. The basic idea is that carbon likes to have four partners, while nitrogen only likes three. When you put nitrogen in a diamond, one of the carbon atoms is left without enough partners. The result is that there is an electron floating around in that gap with its electronic structure. In the past, researchers have used the electron's spin states—spin states are the orientation of the electron's magnetic field—in an applied magnetic field. But, the problem was that nearby C13 (normal carbon is C12) atoms would add a whole lot of noise to the magnetic field. Effectively, you can think of the surrounding magnetic field as dressing the spin states of the NV, so that the energy levels randomly split, with the splitting changing over time. The result is that the superposition state, which we need to be swinging back and forth between the two spin states, stops swinging very fast. In the language of quantum mechanics, it loses coherence very fast. In the past, researchers showed that this can be avoided by applying pulses of light—microwaves pulses, in this case—at just the right time. This gives the swing a push, and keeps the nitrogen vacancy center in the superposition state. So, that is one qubit. How do you do that trick with two that are entangled? In this case, the two qubits will be swinging at different rates. To keep them both coherent, and entangled with each other, requires carefully timing your pulses so that the pulse gives both qubits a push at the right time. Now, imagine three? Or trying to perform a quantum operation on them? It quickly becomes impossible to determine when one should apply the sequence of pulses that both stop our qubits from falling apart, and perform the necessary logic operation. This is the problem that the researchers are trying to solve. Each of the spin states gets split by a pair of applied microwave fields. The cool thing is that, if you choose the splitting value right, the dressed states become immune to the noise in the magnetic field. More precisely, the splitting in the energy levels is, for any given magnetic field strength, independent of small changes to the magnetic field. Instead of using the two spin states as the logic one and zero, the two energy levels created by the microwave field are used as logic one and zero. Since the energy difference between these two states is rather small, it means that quantum operations are achieved with radio frequency pulses instead of microwave pulses. The researchers showed that the coherence of the qubit was extended from about 1µs to just about 20µs, which is a respectable increase. More importantly, they show that, by applying radio frequency pulses, they can perform qubit operations without destroying the qubit coherence. In fact, it seems that by applying quantum operations, the coherence is preserved better than if the qubit is left to its own devices. Although they didn't show it, this setup should also allow multiple entangled qubits to be manipulated in a fairly straightforward manner, rather than having to figure out some complicated sequence of light pulses. Catches and consequences I have to say that this is a very cool bit of work, and it offers hope for one of the bigger problems in quantum computing. But it comes with its own set of gotchas. For instance, qubit logic operations must now be performed by radio frequency pulses. These pulses have to be longer, because the rate at which the qubit changes is much slower. So, even though the coherence is longer, the operations take longer, so it is unclear if you actually have enough time to perform more operations. The other thing that makes this difficult is that the microwave fields have to be individually tailored to the NV center. To make matters worse, the radio frequency fields cannot be focused that well, so you end up addressing every qubit at the same time. This takes away one of the big advantages that NV centers have: lots of potential qubits in a single crystal. Instead, you may be limited to one qubit per crystal. Nevertheless, I can see this being applied in other systems where these problems are not so great. Physical Review Letters, DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.109.070502

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http://arstechnica.com/science/2012/10/dressed-atoms-get-to-be-qubits-for-longer-show-promise-for-quantum-computing/

2013-05-22T14:33:11Z

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