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Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2012 June 23 Explanation: As seen from Frösön island in northern Sweden the Sun did set a day after the summer solstice. From that location below the arctic circle it settled slowly behind the northern horizon. During the sunset's final minute, this remarkable sequence of 7 images follows the distorted edge of the solar disk as it just disappears against a distant tree line, capturing both a green and blue flash. Not a myth even in a land of runes, the colorful but elusive glints are caused by atmospheric refraction enhanced by long, low, sight lines and strong atmospheric temperature gradients. Authors & editors: Jerry Bonnell (UMCP) NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply. A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC & Michigan Tech. U.

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Do not imagine the Mona Lisa with a mustache! If you failed to carry out this instruction, it is because your power of visualization is so strong that it takes any suggestion, positive or negative, and turns it into an image. And as the maestro emphasized, “the thing imagined moves the sense.” If you think you cannot visualize. Chances are you answered these questions easily by drawing on your internal image data bank, the occipital lobe of your cerebral cortex. This data bank has the potential, in coordination with your frontal lobes, to store and create more images, both real and imaginary, than the entire world’s film and television production companies combined. From How to think like Leonardo da Vinci, by Michael J. Gelb, published by Delacorte Press, 1998.

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|Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary| 3:1-10 To expect unchanging happiness in a changing world, must end in disappointment. To bring ourselves to our state in life, is our duty and wisdom in this world. God's whole plan for the government of the world will be found altogether wise, just, and good. Then let us seize the favourable opportunity for every good purpose and work. The time to die is fast approaching. Thus labour and sorrow fill the world. This is given us, that we may always have something to do; none were sent into the world to be idle. Verse 8. - A time to love, and a time to hate. This reminds one of the gloss to which our Lord refers (Matthew 5:43), "Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy," the first member being found in the old Law (Leviticus 19:18), the second being a misconception of the spirit which made Israel God's executioner upon the condemned nations. It was the maxim of Bias, quoted by Aristotle, 'Rhet.,' 2:13, that we should love as if about some day to hate, and hate as if about to love. And Philo imparts a still more selfish tone to the gnome, when he pronounces ('De Carit.,' 21, p. 401, Mang.), "It was well said by them of old, that we ought to deal out friendship without absolutely renouncing enmity, and practice enmity as possibly to turn to friendship. A time of war, and a time of peace. In the previous couplets the infinitive mood of the verb has been used; in this last hemistich substantives are introduced, as being more concise and better fitted to emphasize the close of the catalogue. The first clause referred specially to the private feelings which one is constrained to entertain towards individuals. The second clause has to do with national concerns, and touches on the statesmanship which discovers the necessity or the opportuneness of war and peace, and acts accordingly. In this and in all the other examples adduced, the lesson intended is this - that man is not independent; that under all circumstances and relations he is in the hand of a power mightier than himself, which frames time and seasons according to its own good pleasure. God holds the threads of human life; in some mysterious way directs and controls events; success and failure are dependent upon his will. There are certain laws which, regulate the issues of actions and events, and man cannot alter these; his free-will can put them in motion, but they become irresistible when in operation. This is not fatalism; it is the mere statement of a fact in experience. Koheleth never denies man's liberty, though he is very earnest in asserting God's sovereignty. The reconciliation of the two is a problem unsolved by him. Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible A time to love, and a time to hate,.... For one to love his friend, and to hate a man, a sinner, as the Targum; to love a friend while he continues such, and hate him, or less love him, when he proves treacherous and unfaithful; an instance of a change of love into hatred may be seen in the case of Amnon, 2 Samuel 13:15. A time of unregeneracy is a time of loving worldly lusts and sinful pleasures, the company of wicked men, and all carnal delights and recreations; and a time of conversion is a time to hate what was before loved, sin, and the conversion of sinners, the garment spotted with the flesh, the principles and practices, though not the persons, of ungodly men; and even to hate, that is, less love, the dearest friends and relations, in comparison of, or when in competition with, Christ; a time of war, and a time of peace; for nations to be engaged in war with each other, or to be at peace, which are continually revolving; and there is a time when there will be no more war. In a spiritual sense, the present time, or state of things, is a time of war; the Christian's life is a warfare state, though it will be soon accomplished, in which he is engaging in fighting with spiritual enemies, sin, Satan, and the world: the time to come, or future state, is a time of peace, when saints shall enter into peace, and be no more disturbed by enemies from within or from without. In the Midrash, all the above times and seasons are interpreted of Israel, and applied to them. Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary 8. hate—for example, sin, lusts (Lu 14:26); that is, to love God so much more as to seem in comparison to hate "father or mother," when coming between us and God. a time of war … peace—(Lu 14:31). Ecclesiastes 3:8 Parallel Commentaries Ecclesiastes 3:8 NIV Ecclesiastes 3:8 NLT Ecclesiastes 3:8 ESV Ecclesiastes 3:8 NASB Ecclesiastes 3:8 KJV Bible Hub: Online Parallel Bible

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Click the Study Aids tab at the bottom of the book to access your Study Aids (usually practice quizzes and flash cards). Study Pass is our latest digital product that lets you take notes, highlight important sections of the text using different colors, create "tags" or labels to filter your notes and highlights, and print so you can study offline. Study Pass also includes interactive study aids, such as flash cards and quizzes. Highlighting and Taking Notes: If you've purchased the All Access Pass or Study Pass, in the online reader, click and drag your mouse to highlight text. When you do a small button appears – simply click on it! From there, you can select a highlight color, add notes, add tags, or any combination. If you've purchased the All Access Pass, you can print each chapter by clicking on the Downloads tab. If you have Study Pass, click on the print icon within Study View to print out your notes and highlighted sections. To search, use the text box at the bottom of the book. Click a search result to be taken to that chapter or section of the book (note you may need to scroll down to get to the result). View Full Student FAQs 16.4 Suggested Reading Axilrod, Stephen H. Inside the Fed: Monetary Policy and Its Management, Martin Through Greenspan to Bernanke. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2009. Hetzel, Robert L. The Monetary Policy of the Federal Reserve: A History. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008. Mishkin, Frederic S. Monetary Policy Strategy. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2007.

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|Main Entry:||happy as a clam| |Part of Speech:||adj| |Example:||Happy as a clam refers to its being dug from its bed of sand only at low tide; at high tide it is quite safe from molestation.| |Etymology:||1830+; orig. happy-as-a-clam-at-full-tide| |an extraordinary or unusual thing, person, or event; an exceptional example or instance.| |a gadget; dingus; thingumbob.| Dictionary.com presents 366 FAQs, incorporating some of the frequently asked questions from the past with newer queries.

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Click link below picture Vast numbers of cells that can attack cancer and HIV have been grown in the lab, and could potentially be used to fight disease. The cells naturally occur in small numbers, but it is hoped injecting huge quantities back into a patient could turbo-charge the immune system. The Japanese research is published in the journal Cell Stem Cell. Experts said the results had exciting potential, but any therapy would need to be shown to be safe. The researchers concentrated on a type of white blood cell known as a cytotoxic T-cell, which can recognise telltale markings of infection or cancer on the surfaces of cells. If a marking is recognised, it launches an attack. .Click link below for article:

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The pleura are two thin, moist membranes around the lungs. The inner layer is attached to the lungs. The outer layer is attached to the ribs. Pleural effusion is the buildup of excess fluid in the space between the pleura. The fluid can prevent the lungs from fully opening. This can make it difficult to catch your breath. Pleural effusion may be transudative or exudative based on the cause. Treatment of pleural effusion depends on the condition causing the effusion. Effusion is usually caused by disease or injury. Transudative effusion may be caused by: Exudative effusion may be caused by: Factors that increase your chance of getting pleural effusion include: - Having conditions or diseases listed above - Certain medications such as: - Nitrofurantoin (Macrodantin, Furadantin, Macrobid) - Methysergide (Sansert) - Bromocriptine (Parlodel) - Procarbazine (Matulane) - Amiodarone (Cordarone) - Chest injury or trauma - Radiation therapy Surgery, especially involving: - Organ transplantation Some types of pleural effusion do not cause symptoms. Others cause a variety of symptoms, including: - Shortness of breath - Chest pain - Stomach discomfort - Coughing up blood - Shallow breathing - Rapid pulse or breathing rate - Weight loss - Fever, chills, or sweating These symptoms may be caused by many other conditions. Let your doctor know if you have any of these symptoms. The doctor will ask about your symptoms and medical history. A physical exam will be done. This may include listening to or tapping on your chest. Lung function tests will test your ability to move air in and out of your lungs. Images of your lungs may be taken with: Your doctor may take samples of the fluid or pleura tissue for testing. This may be done with: Treatment is usually aimed at treating the underlying cause. This may include medications or surgery. Your doctor may take a "watchful waiting" approach if your symptoms are minor. You will be monitored until the effusion is gone. To Support Breathing If you are having trouble breathing, your doctor may recommend: - Breathing treatments—inhaling medication directly to lungs - Oxygen therapy Drain the Pleural Effusion The pleural effusion may be drained by: - Therapeutic thoracentesis —a needle is inserted into the area to withdraw excess fluid. - Tube thoracostomy—a tube is placed in the side of your chest to allow fluid to drain. It will be left in place for several days. Seal the Pleural Layers The doctor may recommend chemical pleurodesis. During this procedure, talc powder or an irritating chemical is injected into the pleural space. This will permanently seal the two layers of the pleura together. The seal may help prevent further fluid buildup. Radiation therapy may also be used to seal the pleura. In severe cases, surgery may be needed. Some of the pleura will be removed during surgery. Suregery options may include: - Thoracotomy—traditional, open chest procedure - Video-assisted thorascopic surgery (VATS)—minimally-invasive surgery that only requires small keyhole size incisions Prompt treatment for any condition that may lead to effusion is the best way to prevent pleural effusion. - Reviewer: Brian Randall, MD - Review Date: 02/2013 - - Update Date: 03/05/2013 -

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Osteoarthritis is usually diagnosed after your doctor has taken a careful history of your symptoms. A physical exam will be done. There are no definitive lab blood tests to make an absolute diagnosis of osteoarthritis. Certain tests, specifically x-rays of the joint, may confirm your doctor’s impression that you have developed osteoarthritis. X-ray examination of an affected joint —A joint with osteoarthritis will have lost some of the normal space that exists between the bones. This space is called the joint space. This joint space is made up of articular cartilage, which becomes thin. There may be tiny new bits of bone (bone spurs) visible at the end of the bones. Other signs of joint and bone deterioration may also be present. X-rays , however, may not show very much in the earlier stages of osteoarthritis, even when you are clearly experiencing symptoms. Arthrocentesis —Using a thin needle, your doctor may remove a small amount of joint fluid from an affected joint. The fluid can be examined in a lab to make sure that no other disorder is causing your symptoms (such as rheumatoid arthritis , gout , infection). Blood tests —Blood tests may be done to make sure that no other disorder is responsible for your symptoms (such as rheumatoid arthritis or other autoimmune diseases that include forms of arthritis). Researchers are also looking at whether the presence of certain substances in the blood might indicate osteoarthritis and help predict the severity of the condition. These substances include breakdown products of hyaluronic acid (a substance that lubricates joints) and a liver product called C-reactive protein. - Reviewer: Rosalyn Carson-DeWitt, MD - Review Date: 09/2011 - - Update Date: 09/01/2011 -

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Tiruvellore Thattai Krishnamachariar (1899–1974) was the Indian Finance Minister from 1956–1958 and from 1964-1966. Krishnamachariar, who was born into a Tamil Iyengar Brahmin family graduated from Madras Christian College (MCC) and was a visiting professor to the department of economics at MCC. He resigned from the position twice. He was popularly known as TTK.He was also a member of drafting committee,and entrepreneur and congress leader Krishnamachari was one among the founders of modern India. He was instrumental in building the basic economic and industrial infrastructure of the country and also left his mark on the Indian Constitution as a member of the Drafting Committee. Krishnamachari began his life as a businessman and went on to lay the foundation of the hugely successful firm TT Krishnamachari & Co. in 1928, in Chennai, which is now known as the TTK Group . By the mid-thirties, when the company was well established, Krishnamachari decided to turn his attention to politics. He was initially elected to the Madras Legislative Assembly as an independent member, and later joined the Congress. In 1946, he was made a member of the Constituent Assembly at the Centre. From 1952 to 1965, he served the country twice as a Central Minister. He was the first Minister for Commerce and Industry and then Finance Minister. He also remained in charge of the Steel Ministry for quite some time. He became Minister again in 1962, first without... Read More

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Ten thousand people were killed and 10 to 15 million left homeless when a cyclone slammed into India's eastern coastal state of Orissa in October 1999. In the aftermath, CARE and the Catholic Relief Society distributed a high-nutrition mixture of corn and soy meal provided by the U.S. Agency for International Development to thousands of hungry storm victims. Oddly, this humanitarian act elicited cries of outrage. "We call on the government of India and the state government of Orissa to immediately withdraw the corn-soya blend from distribution," said Vandana Shiva, director of the New Delhi-based Research Foundation for Science, Technology, and Ecology. "The U.S. has been using the Orissa victims as guinea pigs for GM [genetically modified] products which have been rejected by consumers in the North, especially Europe." Shiva's organization had sent a sample of the food to a lab in the U.S. for testing to see if it contained any of the genetically improved corn and soy bean varieties grown by tens of thousands of farmers in the United States. Not surprisingly, it did. "Vandana Shiva would rather have her people in India starve than eat bioengineered food," says C.S. Prakash, a professor of plant molecular genetics at Tuskegee University in Alabama. Per Pinstrup-Andersen, director general of the International Food Policy Research Institute, observes: "To accuse the U.S. of sending genetically modified food to Orissa in order to use the people there as guinea pigs is not only wrong; it is stupid. Worse than rhetoric, it's false. After all, the U.S. doesn't need to use Indians as guinea pigs, since millions of Americans have been eating genetically modified food for years now with no ill effects." Shiva not only opposes the food aid but is also against "golden rice," a crop that could prevent blindness in half a million to 3 million poor children a year and alleviate vitamin A deficiency in some 250 million people in the developing world. By inserting three genes, two from daffodils and one from a bacterium, scientists at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology created a variety of rice that produces the nutrient beta-carotene, the precursor to vitamin A. Agronomists at the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines plan to crossbreed the variety, called "golden rice" because of the color produced by the beta-carotene, with well-adapted local varieties and distribute the resulting plants to farmers all over the developing world. Last June, at a Capitol Hill seminar on biotechnology sponsored by the Congressional Hunger Center, Shiva airily dismissed golden rice by claiming that "just in the state of Bengal 150 greens which are rich in vitamin A are eaten and grown by the women." A visibly angry Martina McGloughlin, director of the biotechnology program at the University of California at Davis, said "Dr. Shiva's response reminds me of... Marie Antoinette, [who] suggested the peasants eat cake if they didn't have access to bread." Alexander Avery of the Hudson Institute's Center for Global Food Issues noted that nutritionists at UNICEF doubted it was physically possible to get enough vitamin A from the greens Shiva was recommending. Furthermore, it seems unlikely that poor women living in shanties in the heart of Calcutta could grow greens to feed their children. The apparent willingness of biotechnology's opponents to sacrifice people for their cause disturbs scientists who are trying to help the world's poor. At the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science last February, Ismail Serageldin, the director of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, posed a challenge: "I ask opponents of biotechnology, do you want 2 to 3 million children a year to go blind and 1 million to die of vitamin A deficiency, just because you object to the way golden rice was created?" Vandana Shiva is not alone in her disdain for biotechnology's potential to help the poor. Mae-Wan Ho, a reader in biology at London's Open University who advises another activist group, the Third World Network, also opposes golden rice. And according to a New York Times report on a biotechnology meeting held last March by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Benedikt Haerlin, head of Greenpeace's European anti-biotech campaign, "dismissed the importance of saving African and Asian lives at the risk of spreading a new science that he considered untested." Shiva, Ho, and Haerlin are leaders in a growing global war against crop biotechnology, sometimes called "green biotech" (to distinguish it from medical biotechnology, known as "red biotech"). Gangs of anti-biotech vandals with cute monikers such as Cropatistas and Seeds of Resistance have ripped up scores of research plots in Europe and the U.S. The so-called Earth Liberation Front burned down a crop biotech lab at Michigan State University on New Year's Eve in 1999, destroying years of work and causing $400,000 in property damage. (See "Crop Busters," January.) Anti-biotech lobbying groups have proliferated faster than bacteria in an agar-filled petri dish: In addition to Shiva's organization, the Third World Network, and Greenpeace, they include the Union of Concerned Scientists, the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, the Institute of Science in Society, the Rural Advancement Foundation International, the Ralph Nader-founded Public Citizen, the Council for Responsible Genetics, the Institute for Food and Development Policy, and that venerable fount of biotech misinformation, Jeremy Rifkin's Foundation on Economic Trends. The left hasn't been this energized since the Vietnam War. But if the anti-biotech movement is successful, its victims will include the downtrodden people on whose behalf it claims to speak. "We're in a war," said an activist at a protesters' gathering during the November 1999 World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle. "We're going to bury this first wave of biotech." He summed up the basic strategy pretty clearly: "The first battle is labeling. The second battle is banning it." Later that week, during a standing-room-only "biosafety seminar" in the basement of a Seattle Methodist church, the ubiquitous Mae-Wan Ho declared, "This warfare against nature must end once and for all." Michael Fox, a vegetarian "bioethicist" from the Humane Society of the United States, sneered: "We are very clever little simians, aren't we? Manipulating the bases of life and thinking we're little gods." He added, "The only acceptable application of genetic engineering is to develop a genetically engineered form of birth control for our own species." This creepy declaration garnered rapturous applause from the assembled activists. Despite its unattractive side, the global campaign against green biotech has had notable successes in recent years. Several leading food companies, including Gerber and Frito-Lay, have been cowed into declaring that they will not use genetically improved crops to make their products. Since 1997, the European Union has all but outlawed the growing and importing of biotech crops and food. Last May some 60 countries signed the Biosafety Protocol, which mandates special labels for biotech foods and requires strict notification, documentation, and risk assessment procedures for biotech crops. Activists have launched a "Five-Year Freeze" campaign that calls for a worldwide moratorium on planting genetically enhanced crops. For a while, it looked like the United States might resist the growing hysteria, but in December 1999 the Environmental Protection Agency announced that it was reviewing its approvals of biotech corn crops, implying that it might ban the crops in the future. Last May the Food and Drug Administration, which until now has evaluated biotech foods solely on their objective characteristics, not on the basis of how they were produced, said it would formulate special rules for reviewing and approving products with genetically modified ingredients. U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) has introduced a bill that would require warning labels on all biotech foods. In October, news that a genetically modified corn variety called StarLink that was approved only for animal feed had been inadvertently used in two brands of taco shells prompted recalls, front-page headlines, and anxious recriminations. Lost in the furor was the fact that there was little reason to believe the corn was unsafe for human consumption-only an implausible, unsubstantiated fear that it might cause allergic reactions. Even Aventis, the company which produced StarLink, agreed that it was a serious mistake to have accepted the EPA's approval for animal use only. Most proponents favor approving biotech crops only if they are determined to be safe for human consumption. To decide whether the uproar over green biotech is justified, you need to know a bit about how it works. Biologists and crop breeders can now select a specific useful gene from one species and splice it into an unrelated species. Previously plant breeders were limited to introducing new genes through the time-consuming and inexact art of crossbreeding species that were fairly close relatives. For each cross, thousands of unwanted genes would be introduced into a crop species. Years of "backcrossing"-breeding each new generation of hybrids with the original commercial variety over several generations-were needed to eliminate these unwanted genes so that only the useful genes and characteristics remained. The new methods are far more precise and efficient. The plants they produce are variously described as "transgenic," "genetically modified," or "genetically engineered." Plant breeders using biotechnology have accomplished a great deal in only a few years. For example, they have created a class of highly successful insect-resistant crops by incorporating toxin genes from the soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis. Farmers have sprayed B.t. spores on crops as an effective insecticide for decades. Now, thanks to some clever biotechnology, breeders have produced varieties of corn, cotton, and potatoes that make their own insecticide. B.t. is toxic largely to destructive caterpillars such as the European corn borer and the cotton bollworm; it is not harmful to birds, fish, mammals, or people.

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Student Learning Outcomes Students who complete the French Program will be able to: - Communicate in a meaningful context in French. - Analyze the nature of language through comparisons of the French language and their own. - Demonstrate knowledge of and sensitivity to aspects of behavior, attitudes, and customs of France and other French speaking countries. - Connect with the global community through study and acquisition of the French language.

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Published on Monday, April 09, 2012 02:34 Written by Los Angeles TravelingMom Fields of gold and orange poppies swaying in the breeze are a spectacular sight in spring when California’s landscape blooms with a mosaic of colorful wildflowers and shrubs. Winter rains determine the intensity and duration of wildflowers such as poppies, lupine, cream cups and towering ocotillos. Round up the kids, pack a picnic and bring your camera. Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve Masses of poppies grow in this western Mojave Desert 15 miles west of Lancaster, a stone’s throw from Los Angeles. Other wildflowers include owl’s clover, goldfields, and the scented grape soda lupine found along the Tehachapi Vista Trail. Singing meadow larks and hawks break the silence of the quiet countryside. During the wildflower season, the nearby Jane S. Pinheiro Interpretive Center shows a short video, and offers free guided tours. Shaded picnic tables available. Seven miles west of the Poppy Reserve is the Arthur B. Ripley Desert Woodland State Park, where a native Joshua Tree and Juniper Woodland are among the last standing in this habitat that once spread across the Antelope Valley. http://www.parks.ca.gov.Joshua Tree National Park A variety of flowers at different elevations brighten the park’s two deserts – the higher Mojave Desert and lower Colorado Desert. Wildflowers usually begin blooming in the lower elevations of the Pinto Basin and along the park’s south boundary around February, and at higher elevations in March and April. Where there are clusters of rocks, expect plenty of wildflowers. Seen throughout the park is the desert dandelion, a hearty flower that forms brilliant patches of gold across the landscape. The flowers are yellow and some have a red dot in the center. Look carefully, you may even see a desert tortoise snacking on one! For flower updates, call the Joshua Tree National Park 760-367-5500 or visit www.nps.gov/jotr .Anza-Borrego Desert State Park California’s largest state park, encompassing more than 600,000 acres, has one of the most spectacular wildflower displays in the west. Here you’ll find a kaleidoscope of flowers from tiny bursts of color and gold poppies to towering ocotillos sprouting fiery spines of scarlet blossoms. The canyons west of Borrego Springs usually have a pageant of wildflowers and colorful clumps of beavertail cactus that sprout hot pink flowers. At Desert Gardens, five miles north of the visitor center, park along the road and explore desert dandelion and desert pincushion blanketing the washes. For information, call the Wildflower Hotline at 760-767-4684 or visit http://www.parks.ca.gov. FYI: California Overland (www.californiaoverland.com) offers Wildflower Adventure Tours aboard open-air vehicles into Anza-Borrego Desert’s palm oases and canyons through early April.Santa Monica Mountains An easy jaunt from the city is Franklin Canyon Park, where peaceful trails meander through fields of blue and white flowers, poppies, sticky leaf monkey flowers, canyon sunflowers and purple nightshade. http://www.lamountains.com.Public gardens and nature centers For more travel stories, follow Mimi on Twitter @mimitravelz. - Situated on 22 acres, the Theodore Payne Foundation operates a California native plant nursery and offers classes but is also popular for its Wildflower Hill. A short walk leads to buckwheat, sage brush, white sage, sugarbrush, sticky monkey leaf flower, elegant clarkia, gilia and showy penstemon. For 30 years the nonprofit organization has provided a wildflower hotline for the latest flora blooms at 818-768-3533. The website’s Wildflower Hill link provides detailed monthly reports. Amenities: Picnic tables in the sycamore grove, restrooms. Located at 10459 Tuxford St. Sun Valley; www.theodorepayne.org. - Eaton Canyon Natural Area has trails brimming with black sage, honeysuckle and yellow pincushion. 1750 N. Altadena Drive, Pasadena; http://www.ecnca.org/. - Placerita Canyon Nature Center: There’s usually a good showing of elderberries, golden currant and large bush poppy on the two-mile (one way) Canyon Trail. 19152 Placerita Canyon Road, Newhall; www.placerita.org. - Among Descanso Gardens’ many themed areas is the eight-acre California Garden, featuring native plants and the showy matilija poppy. 1418 Descanso Drive, La Canada-Flintridge; www.descansogardens.org. - Los Angeles Arboretum & Botanic Garden: Free admission third Tuesday of the month; 302 North Baldwin Ave., Arcadia; www.arboretum.org. - The Huntington: Free the first Thursday of every month with advance tickets; 1151 Oxford Road, San Marino; www.huntington.org.

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Barbara Heath Land Race – 2012 By the time Barbara Heath visited Horsham, the town and the surrounding Wimmera District of Western Victoria were in the process of recovering from a decade-long drought. To inform her work, which was initially to address issues of drought, Heath held a number of planned and fortuitous conversations with the assistance of Horsham Regional Art Gallery staff, which came to focus on the changes in agricultural practices in the area. The list of people with whom Heath consulted is lengthy, but Dr Bob Redden, curator Australian Temperate Field Crops Collection of the Grains Innovation Park became her main contact. In an email of August 2011, Dr Redden wrote to Heath: ‘Now with unprecedented population levels and growth, there is a risk of disconnect and taking food supply for granted, even with climate change. Humans will need to change if they wish to continue their increasing diverse interests, but will need to prioritise agricultural research, better understanding our available genetic resources, plant growth and development, and imaginative paths to harnessing science and truly earn the title ‘Homo sapiens’. Land race is a direct response to the urgency of maintaining biodiversity. Agriculture today requires economies of scale that change the social landscape and limit population diversity. This results in the erasure of many small communities, loss of connection to the past and cultural loss. Dr Redden explained his department’s work to ensure plant gene diversity by sourcing and saving seed from land race crops. ‘Land race’ is the term used to describe heritage seed varieties now being displaced by International Seed Uniformity Standards. Heath’s Land Race series shows distinct levels, from biodiversity in the soils to the patterns of farming practices above. Each Land Race also features a remnant plant species that reaches up and through the tractor track patterns: briar, apple and aloe. There are numerous hero shots (one above) and details prepared (below), we will wait for the show to get under way and publicise a little later. The preliminary research is in an earlier blog post – click here. 2 Responses »

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MIT professor’s book digs into the eclectic, textually linked reading choices of people in medieval London. CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Following the 1997 creation of the first laser to emit pulsed beams of atoms, MIT researchers report in the May 16 online version of Science that they have now made a continuous source of coherent atoms. This work paves the way for a laser that emits a continuous stream of atoms. MIT physicists led by physics professor Wolfgang Ketterle (who shared the 2001 Nobel prize in physics) created the first atom laser. A long-sought goal in physics, the atom laser emitted atoms, similar in concept to the way an optical laser emits light. "I am amazed at the rapid progress in the field," Ketterle said. "A continuous source of Bose-Einstein condensate is just one of many recent advances." Because the atom laser operates in an ultra-high vacuum, it may never be as ubiquitous as optical lasers. But, like its predecessor, the pulsed atom laser, a continuous-stream atom laser may someday be used for a variety of applications in fundamental physics. It could be used to directly deposit atoms onto computer chips, and improve the precision and accuracy of atomic clocks and gyroscopes. It could aid in precision measurements of fundamental constants, atom optics and interferometry. A continuous stream laser could do all of these things better than a pulsed atomic laser, said co-author Ananth P. Chikkatur , a physics graduate student at MIT. "Similar to the optical laser revolution, a continuous stream atom laser might be useful for more things than a pulsed laser," he said. In addition to Ketterle and Chikkatur, authors include MIT graduate students Yong-Il Shin and Aaron E. Leanhardt; David F. Kielpinski, postdoctoral fellow in the MIT Research Laboratory of Electronics (RLE); physics senior Edem Tsikata; MIT affiliate Todd L. Gustavson; and David E. Pritchard, Cecil and Ida Green Professor of Physics and a member of the MIT-Harvard Center for Ultracold Atoms and the RLE. A NEW FORM OF MATTER An important step toward the first atom laser was the creation of a new form of matter - the Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC). BEC forms at temperatures around one millionth of a degree Kelvin, a million times colder than interstellar space. Ketterle's group had developed novel cooling techniques that were key to the observation of BEC in 1995, first by a group at the University of Colorado at Boulder, then a few months later by Ketterle at MIT. It was for this achievement that researchers from both institutions were honored with the Nobel prize last year. Ketterle and his research team managed to merge a bunch of atoms into what he calls a single matter-wave, and then used fluctuating magnetic fields to shape the matter-wave into a beam much like a laser. To test the coherence of a BEC, the researchers generated two separate matter-waves, made them overlap and photographed a so-called "interference pattern" that only can be created by coherent waves. The researchers then had proof that they had created the first atom laser. Since 1995, all atom lasers and BEC have been produced in a pulsed manner, emitting individual pulses of atoms several times per minute. Until now, little progress has been made toward a continuous BEC source. While it took about six months to create a continuous optical laser after the first pulsed optical laser was produced in 1960, the much more technically challenging continuous source of coherent atoms has taken seven years since Ketterle and colleagues first observed BEC in 1995. A NEW CHALLENGE Creating a continuous BEC source involved three steps: building a chamber where the condensate could be stored in an optical trap, moving the fresh condensate and merging the new condensate with the existing condensate stored in the optical trap. (The same researchers first developed an optical trap for BECs in 1998.) The researchers built an apparatus containing two vacuum chambers: a production chamber where the condensate is produced and a "science chamber" around 30 centimeters away, where the condensate is stored. The condensate in the science chamber had to be protected from laser light, which was necessary to produce a fresh condensate, and also from hot atoms. This required great precision, because a single laser-cooled atom has enough energy to knock thousands of atoms out of the condensate. In addition, they used an optical trap as the reservoir trap, which is insensitive to the magnetic fields used for cooling atoms into a BEC. The researchers also needed to figure out how to move the fresh condensate - chilled to astronomically low temperatures - from the production chamber to the science chamber without heating them up. This was accomplished using optical tweezers - a focused laser light beam that traps the condensate. Finally, to merge the new condensate with the existing condensate in the science chamber, they moved the new condensate in the tweezers into the science chamber by merging the condensates together. A BUCKET OF ATOMS If the pulsed atom laser is like a faucet that drips, Chikkatur says the new innovations create a sort of bucket that collects the drips without wasting or changing the condensate too dramatically by heating it. This way, a reservoir of condensate is always on hand to replenish an atom laser. The condensate pulses are like a dripping faucet, where the drops are analogous to the pulsed BEC production. "We have now implemented a bucket (our reservoir trap), where we collect these drips to have continuous source of water (BEC)," Chikkatur said. "Although we did not demonstrate this, if we poke a hole in this bucket, we will have a steady stream of water. This hole would be an outcoupling technique from which we can produce a continuous atom laser output. "The big achievement here is that we have invented the bucket, which can store atoms continuously and also makes sure that the drips of water do not cause a lot of splashing (heating of BECs)," he said. The next step would be to improve the number of atoms in the source, perhaps by implementing a large-volume optical trap. Another important step would be to demonstrate a phase-coherent condensate merger using a matter wave amplification technique pioneered by the MIT group and a group in Japan, he said. This work is funded by the National Science Foundation, the Office of Naval Research, the Army Research Office, the Packard Foundation and NASA.

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One of the most significant fault lines in Western culture opened up in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, when what we now know as the “modern” world separated itself from the classical and medieval world. The thinking of Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Kant, Newton, Jefferson, and many others represented a sea change in the way Western people looked at practically everything. In almost every telling of the story, this development is presented as an unmitigated good. I rather emphatically do not subscribe to this interpretation. It would be foolish indeed not to see that tremendous advances, especially in the arenas of science and politics, took place because of the modern turn, but it would be even more foolish to hold that modernity did not represent, in many other ways, a severe declension from what came before. This decline is particularly apparent in the areas of the arts and ethics, and I believe that there is an important similarity in the manner in which those two disciplines went bad in the modern period. In his classic text After Virtue , the philosopher Alisdair MacIntyre lamented, not so much the immorality that runs rampant in our contemporary society, but something more fundamental and in the long run more dangerous; namely, that we are no longer even capable of having a real argument about moral matters. The assumptions that once undergirded any coherent conversation about ethics, he said, are no longer taken for granted or universally shared. The result is that, in regard to questions of what is right and wrong, we simply talk past one another, or more often, scream at each other. In his masterpiece Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh implicitly lays out a program of evangelization that has particular relevance to our time. “Brideshead” refers, of course, to a great manor house owned by a fabulously wealthy Catholic family in the England of the 1920’s. In the complex semiotic schema of Waugh’s novel, the mansion functions as a symbol of the Catholic Church, which St. Paul had referred to as the “bride of Christ.” Just in advance of Christmas, the film version of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit appeared. As I and many other commentators have pointed out, Tolkien’s great story, like its more substantive successor The Lord of the Rings , is replete with Catholic themes. On Christmas day itself, another film adaptation of a well-known book debuted, namely Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables . Though Hugo had a less than perfectly benign view of the Catholic Church, his masterpiece is, from beginning to end, conditioned by a profoundly Christian worldview. It is most important that, amidst all of the “Les Miz” hoopla, the spiritual heart of Hugo’s narrative not be lost. Like Star Wars , The Divine Comedy , and Moby Dick , J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit is the story of a hero's journey. This helps to explain, of course, why, like those other narratives, it has proved so perennially compelling.

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Coming soon! Nanotech on your desktop Within 15 years, desktop nanofactories could pump out anything from a new car to a novel nanoweapon, says a technology commentator. And he warns that society needs to start preparing for this brave new world. Mike Treder from the Center for Responsible Nanotechnology (CRN) in New York says advanced nanotechnology, like these nanofactories, could help solve world poverty but it could also wreak economic and social chaos. "It's the biggest challenge we've ever faced as a species," says Treder, who has been addressing scientists in Australia this week. CRN is a non-profit organisation advised among others by the so-called father of nanotechnology, Dr Eric Drexler. The organisation says it aims to raise awareness about the benefits and dangers of molecular manufacturing, the precise assembly of products atom-by-atom. While molecular manufacturing is not yet a reality, Treder says researchers are already working on building molecular-scale machines that could eventually move atoms around to make products. And he says that in less than 15 years, nanoscale factories could be making consumer products from cups and chairs to cars and house bricks. Raw materials like carbon would be pumped into the nanofactory, where atoms would be rearranged to make products according to programs downloaded from the internet, says Treder. Treder says such desktop nanofactories could help reduce poverty and starvation in developing nations, and provide tremendous medical benefits. But society needs to guard against its potential risks. In particular, he says CRN is concerned that these desktop nanofactories would lead to a nano "arms race" in which hard-to-detect nanoweapons could be designed, manufactured and tested much quicker than they are today. "Imagine a suitcase filled with billions of toxin-carrying flying robots that could be released anywhere to target a population," he says. "You could make a suitcase full of these things overnight for a few dollars." The mass production of consumer goods by private desktop factories could also trigger social chaos due to economic disruption, says Treder. "If I can make my own car at home for a couple of hundred dollars with a design downloaded from the internet that means I'm not a customer of the auto dealer down the road." Waste from such easy manufacturing, or nanolitter, is another issue that needs to be thought about, he says. As is the prospect of nanospam. "If someone could send you a product online that you don't want but they just make it pump out of your nanofactory, how are we going to prevent that?" Experts are generally sceptical that desktop factories could exist so soon but welcome Treder's discussion of impacts of nanotechnology on society. Dr Peter Binks of Nanotechnology Victoria, a sponsor for Treder's tour, says his organisation does not "yet buy into the idea" of the desktop factory. "But we don't dismiss it either," he says. "We think there are a large number of technical hurdles to be overcome." William Price, professor of nanotechnology at the University of Western Sydney says desktop factories may be possible but technical issues will mean this will not be within 15 years. Professor Chennupati Jagadish of the Australian Research Council Nanotechnology Network, which is also a sponsor for the tour, thinks Treder's views are imaginative and futuristic. "Expecting those sorts of machines in 15 years is probably too optimistic," he says, estimating they would be more like 30 or 40 years away, if at all. And it's this challenge that makes Professor Ned Seeman, of New York University, who is involved in self-assembling arrays of DNA machines, sceptical of Treder's claims. "I think this suggestion is wildly optimistic," he says. "Most of the basic principles have not been demonstrated, much less in a 'desktop' context." But even he is not willing to rule the technology out completely. "One hundred years from now anything is possible."

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Ki Tisa(Exodus 30:11-34:35) Two Types of Religious Encounter Framing the epic events of this week's Torah portion are two objects - the two sets of tablets, the first given before, the second after, the sin of the Golden Calf. Of the first, we read: The tablets were the work of God; the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets. These were perhaps the holiest object in history: from beginning to end, the work of God. Yet within hours they lay shattered, broken by Moses when he saw the calf and the Israelites dancing around it. The second tablets, brought down by Moses on the tenth of Tishri, were the result of his prolonged plea to God to forgive the people. This is the historic event that lies behind Yom Kippur (tenth of Tishri), the day marked in perpetuity as a time of favour, forgiveness and reconciliation between God and the Jewish people. The second tablets were different in one respect. They were not wholly the work of God: Carve out two stone tablets like the first ones, and I will write on them the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke. Hence the paradox: the first tablets, made by God, did not remain intact. The second tablets, the joint work of God and Moses, did. Surely the opposite should have been true: the greater the holiness, the more eternal. Why was the more holy object broken while the less holy stayed whole? This is not, as it might seem, a question specific to the tablets. It is, in fact, a powerful example of a fundamental principle in Jewish spirituality. The Jewish mystics distinguished between two types of Divine-human encounter. They called them itaruta de-l'eylah and itaruta deletata, respectively "an awakening from above" and "an awakening from below." The first is initiated by God, the second by mankind. An "awakening from above" is spectacular, supernatural, an event that bursts through the chains of causality that at other times bind the natural world. An "awakening from below" has no such grandeur. It is a gesture that is human, all too human. Yet there is another difference between them, in the opposite direction. An "awakening from above" may change nature, but it does not, in and of itself, change human nature. In it, no human effort has been expended. Those to whom it happens are passive. While it lasts, it is overwhelming; but only while it lasts. Thereafter, people revert to what they were. An "awakening from below", by contrast, leaves a permanent mark. Because human beings have taken the initiative, something in them changes. Their horizons of possibility have been expanded. They now know they are capable of great things, and because they did so once, they are aware that they can do so again. An awakening from above temporarily transforms the external world; an awakening from below permanently transforms our internal world. The first changes the universe; the second changes us. Two Examples. The first: Before and after the division of the Red Sea, the Israelites were confronted by enemies: before, by the Egyptians, after by the Amalekites. The difference is total. Before the Red Sea, the Israelites were commanded to do nothing: Stand still and you will see the deliverance God will bring you today ... God will fight for you; you need only be still. (14:13-14). Facing the Amalekites, however, the Israelites themselves had to fight: Moses said to Joshua, 'Choose men and go out and fight the Amalekites (17:9). The first was an "awakening from above", the second an "awakening from below." The difference was palpable. Within three days after the division of the Sea, the greatest of all miracles, the Israelites began complaining again (no water, no food). But after the war against the Amalekites, the Israelites never again complained when facing conflict (the sole exception - when the spies returned and the people lost heart - was when they relied on hearsay testimony, not on the immediate prospect of battle itself). The battles fought for us do not change us; the battles we fight, do. The second example: Mount Sinai and the Tabernacle. The Torah speaks about these two revelations of "God's glory" in almost identical terms: The glory of God settled on Mount Sinai. For six days the cloud covered the mountain, and on the seventh day God called to Moses from within the cloud. Then the cloud covered the Tent of Meeting, and the glory of God filled the tabernacle. The difference between them was that the sanctity of Mount Sinai was momentary, while that of the tabernacle was permanent (at least, until the Temple was built, centuries later). The revelation at Sinai was an "awakening from above". It was initiated by God. So overwhelming was it that the people said to Moses, "Let God not speak to us any more, for if He does, we will die" (20:16). By contrast, the tabernacle involved human labour. The Israelites made it; they prepared the structured space the Divine presence would eventually fill. Forty days after the revelation at Sinai, the Israelites made a Golden Calf. But after constructing the sanctuary they made no more idols - at least until they entered the land. That is the difference between the things that are done for us and the things we have a share in doing ourselves. The former change us for a moment, the latter for a lifetime. There was one other difference between the first tablets and the second. According to tradition, when Moses was given the first tablets, he was given only Torah shebikhtav, the "written Torah". At the time of the second tablets, he was given Torah she-be'al peh, the Oral Torah as well: "R. Jochanan said: God made a covenant with Israel only for the sake of the Oral Law, as it says : "For by the mouth of these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel" (Ex. 34:27). The difference between the Written and Oral Torah is profound. The first is the word of God, with no human contribution. The second is a partnership - the word of God as interpreted by the mind of man. The following are two of several remarkable passages to this effect: R. Judah said in the name of Shmuel: Three thousand traditional laws were forgotten during the period of mourning for Moses. They said to Joshua: "Ask" (through ruach hakodesh, the holy spirit). Joshua replied, "It is not in heaven." They said to Samuel, "Ask." He replied, "These are the commandments - implying that no prophet has the right to introduce anything new." (B.T. Temurah 16a) "If a thousand prophets of the stature of Elijah and Elisha were to give one interpretation of a verse, and one thousand and one sages were to offer a different interpretation, we follow the majority: the law is in accordance with the thousand-and-one sages and not in accordance with the thousand prophets." (Maimonides, Commentary to the Mishneh, Introduction) Any attempt to reduce the Oral Torah to the Written - by relying on prophecy or Divine communication - mistakes its essential nature as the collaborative partnership between God and man, where revelation meets interpretation. Thus, the difference between the two precisely mirrors that between the first and second tablets. The first were Divine, the second the result of Divine-human collaboration. This helps us understand a glorious ambiguity. The Torah says that at Sinai the Israelites heard a "great voice velo yasaf" (Deut. 5:18). Two contradictory interpretations are given of this phrase. One reads it as "a great voice that was never heard again", the other as "a great voice that did not cease" - i.e. a voice that was always heard again. Both are true. The first refers to the Written Torah, given once and never to be repeated. The second applies to the Oral Torah, whose study has never ceased. It also helps us understand why it was only after the second tablets, not the first, that "When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of Testimony in his hands, he was unaware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with God" (34:29). Receiving the first tablets, Moses was passive. Therefore, nothing in him changed. For the second, he was active. He had a share in the making. He carved the stone on which the words were to be engraved. That is why he became a different person. His face shone. In Judaism, the natural is greater than the supernatural in the sense that an "awakening from below" is more powerful in transforming us, and longer-lasting in its effects, than is an "awakening from above." That was why the second tablets survived intact while the first did not. Divine intervention changes nature, but it is human initiative - our approach to God - that changes us.

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|Why are these strange little spheres on Mars? rover Opportunity chanced across these unusually shaped beads earlier this month while exploring a place named Kirkwood near the rim of Mars' The above image taken by Opportunity's Microscopic Imager shows that some ground near the rover is filled with these unusual spheres, each spanning only about 3 millimeters. At first glance, the sometimes-fractured balls appear similar to the small rocks dubbed blueberries seen by Opportunity eight years ago, but these spheres are densely compacted and have little iron content. Although it is thought that these orbs formed naturally, which natural processes formed them remain unknown. Opportunity, an older sibling to the recently deployed Curiosity rover, will continue to study these spheres with the hope that they will provide a new clue to the ancient history of the surface of the Mars Exploration Rover Mission,

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We are banishing darkness from the night. Electric lights have been shining over cities and towns around the world for a century. But, increasingly, even rural areas glimmer through the night, with mixed – and largely unstudied – impacts on wildlife. Understanding these impacts is a crucial conservation challenge and bats, as almost exclusively nocturnal animals, are ideal subjects for exploring the effects of light pollution. Previous studies have confirmed what many city dwellers have long noted: some bats enjoy a positive impact of illumination by learning to feed on insects attracted to streetlights. My research, however, demonstrates for the first time an important downside: artificial lighting can disrupt the commuting behavior of a threatened bat species. This project, using a novel experimental approach, was supported in part by BCI Student Research Scholarships. Artificial lighting is a global phenomenon and the amount of light pollution is growing rapidly, with a 24 percent increase in England between 1993 and 2000. Since then, cultural restoration projects have brought lighting to old docks and riversides, placing important river corridors used by bats and other wildlife at risk of disturbance. Studies of bats' foraging activity around streetlights find that these bats are usually fast-flying species that forage in open landscapes, typically species of Pipistrellus, Nyctalus, Vespertilio and Eptesicus. Such bats are better able than their slower cousins to evade hawks, owls and other birds of prey. For our study, we chose the lesser horseshoe bat (Rhinolophus hipposideros), a shy, slow-?ying bat that typically travels no more than about 1.2 miles (2 kilometers) from its roost to forage each night, often flying no more than 16 feet (5 meters) from the ground. The species is adapted for feeding in cluttered, woodland environments. Its global populations are reported decreasing and the species is endangered in many countries of central Europe. The United Kingdom provides a European stronghold for the lesser horseshoe bat, with an estimated population of around 50,000. These bats' slow flight leaves them especially vulnerable to birds of prey, so they leave their roosts only as the light fades and commute to foraging areas along linear features such as hedgerows. Hedgerows are densely wooded corridors of shrubs and small trees that typically separate fields from each other and from roadways. Such features are important commuting routes for many bat species, which use them for protection from predators and the elements. We suspected that lesser horseshoe bats would avoid illuminated areas, largely because of a heightened risk from raptors. We conducted arti?cial-lighting experiments along hedgerows in eight sites around southern Britain. We first surveyed light levels at currently illuminated hedgerows, then duplicated those levels at our experimental hedgerow sites, all of them normally unlighted. We installed two temporary, generator-powered lights – about 100 feet (30 meters) apart – that mimic the intensity and light spectra of streetlights. Each site was near a maternity colony and along confirmed commuting routes of lesser horseshoe bats. Bat activity at each site was monitored acoustically, with mounted bat detectors, during four specific treatments: control (with no lights); noise (generator on and lights installed but switched off); lit (full illumination all night for four consecutive nights); and another night of noise only. We identified horseshoe bat calls to species and measured relative activity by counting the number of bat passes per species each night. We found no significant difference in activity levels of lesser horseshoe bats between the control nights and either of the two noise nights, when the generators were running but the lights were off. The presence of the lighting units and the noise of the generators had no effect on bat activity. The negative impacts came when we turned on the lights. We documented dramatic reductions in activity of lesser horseshoe bats during all of the illuminated nights. In our study, 42 percent of commuting bats continued flying through the lights; 30 percent reversed direction and left before reaching the lights; 17 percent flew over the hedgerows; 9 percent flew through the thick hedgerow vegetation; and 2 percent circled high or wide to avoid the lights. We also recorded some strange behavior on one night when two bats flew over the hedge in a dark area between two lights, then flew up and down repeatedly, as though trapped between the lights. We examined the effects of light on the timing of bats' commuting activity. The bats began their commute, on average, 29.9 minutes after sunset on control nights, but 78.6 minutes after sunset when the lights were turned on. Light pollution significantly delayed the bats' commuting behavior. Interestingly, the activity began a few minutes earlier (23 minutes after sunset) on the first, but not the second, noise night. It is possible that some bats emerged early to investigate the generator noise. We clearly demonstrated how artificial lighting disrupts the behavior of lesser horseshoe bats. We found no evidence of habituation: at least on our timescale, the bats did not become accustomed to the illumination and begin returning to normal activity or timing. These results suggest that light pollution may fragment the network of commuting routes used by lesser horseshoe bats, causing them to seek alternate, and probably longer, paths between roosting and foraging habitats. For some bats, this increased flight time can increase energy costs and stress, with potential impacts on reproductive success. It is critical, therefore, that light pollution be considered in conservation efforts. Light pollution is an increasing global problem with negative impacts on such important animal behaviors as foraging, reproduction and communication. Yet lighting is rarely considered in habitat-management plans and streetlights are specifically excluded from light-pollution legislation in England and Wales. I plan to use these results as the basis for recommendations for changes in policy, conservation and management for bat habitat in areas that are subject to development. This knowledge is fundamental for understanding the factors that impact bat populations not only in the United Kingdom but around the world, and in developing effective bat-conservation actions. I hope these findings will also help guide further research. Scientists need to determine what levels of lighting particular bat species can tolerate, so we can take appropriate measures to limit the impact. These might include reducing illumination at commuting times, directing light away from commuting routes and constructing alternative flight routes. We sincerely hope this research and similar studies will cause both officials and the public to think more about the consequences of artificial lighting on bats and other wildlife. EMMA STONE is a Ph.D. student at the University of Bristol and a researcher at the university's School of Biological Sciences. This project earned her the national Vincent Weir Scientific Award from the Bat Conservation Trust of the United Kingdom. Visit her project website for more information: www.batsandlighting.co.uk. This research was originally published in the journal Current Biology, with co-authors Gareth Jones and Stephen Harris.

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Mexico scrambles to cope with egg shortage A city worker sells eggs at government subsidized prices as people line up outside the city truck in Mexico City, Friday, Aug. 24, 2012. The Mexican government is battling an egg shortage and hoarding that have caused prices to spike in a country with the highest per-capita egg consumption on earth. About 11 million chickens were slaughtered after a June outbreak of bird flu. / AP Photo/Alexandre Meneghini (AP) MEXICO CITY - The Mexican government is battling an egg shortage and hoarding that have caused prices to spike in a country with the highest per-capita egg consumption on Earth. A summer epidemic of bird flu in the heart of Mexico's egg industry has doubled the cost of a kilo (2.2 pounds), or about 13 eggs, to more than 40 pesos ($3), a major blow to working- and middle-class consumers in a country that consumes more than 350 eggs per person each year. That's 100 more eggs per person than in the United States. Egg prices have dominated the headlines here for a week, spurring Mexico City's mayor to ship tons of cheap eggs to poor neighborhoods and the federal government to announce emergency programs to get fresh chickens to farms hit by bird flu and to restock supermarket shelves with eggs imported from the U.S. and Central America. The national dismay over egg prices has revealed the unappreciated importance of a cheap, easy source of protein that's nearly as important to Mexican kitchens as tortillas, rice and beans. Added boiled to stewed chicken, raw to a fruit-juice hangover cure and in every other conceivable form to hundreds of other foods, the once-ubiquitous egg has disappeared from many street-side food stands and middle-class kitchens in recent days. "Eggs, as you know, are one of Mexicans' most important foods and make up a core part of their diet, especially in the poorest regions of the country," President Felipe Calderon said Friday as he announced about $227 million in emergency financing and commercial measures to restore production and replace about 11 million chickens slaughtered after the June outbreak of bird flu. Calderon said he was sending inspectors to stop speculation that he blamed for high egg prices, which have almost single-handedly driven up the national rate of inflation. He said that the government had already begun large-scale importation of eggs and that about 3 million hens were being sent to farms hit by the flu outbreak. The Mexico City government has sent a refrigerated trailer-truck of eggs into working-class neighborhoods over the last three days, selling kilo packets for less than half the current market price. Several thousand people lined up for about two hours Friday morning to buy eggs from the truck in southeastern Mexico City's Iztacalco neighborhood. Isidro Vasquez Gonzalez, an unemployed 43-year-old cook, waited with his niece and nephew to buy three kilos of eggs that they said they would eat almost immediately in a lunch of meatballs with chopped eggs. "You can make eggs with anything scrambled eggs, with pork rinds, eggs with beans, green chiles, poached eggs, green beans with eggs, eggs with tomato sauce, " Vazquez said, with a wistful look in his eyes. "People here eat a lot of eggs. They were the cheapest, but now they're the most expensive. They're more expensive than meat." The crisis began with the June detection of bird flu in the western state of Michoacan, which produces roughly half of Mexico's eggs. Some 11 million birds were killed to prevent the spread of the disease, sharply cutting into the national supply of more than 2 million tons of eggs a year. Government officials blame speculators in the wholesale egg business for driving up prices beyond the hike resulting from bird flu. After existing stocks of eggs ran out, prices rose sharply in August. "Eggs are what we eat the most these days," said Gertrudis Rodriguez, 68. But with the higher prices, she said, "if we eat beans, we don't eat eggs, or if we eat eggs, we don't eat beans with them." Mexico City's public Food Supply Center, which provides government-subsidized fresh food to low-income residents, dropped other ingredients from its truck this week in favor of eggs, and will distribute 18 tons by the time its current stocks run out Monday, director-general Raymundo Collins said. Calderon said more than 150 tons of eggs had already crossed the border from the U.S. and 100 trailers carrying 500 more tons would arrive in the country over the weekend. "The federal government will keep using every tool in its power to keep family's quality of life from being eroded by unfair increases in the price of eggs," the president said. Popular on CBSNews.com - U.K. official: London attack suspects probed before - Mexico's drug war 20 Photos - London soldier slaying homegrown Islamic extremism? - Man dead in "truly shocking" London attack 230 Comments - Graphic video: Man dead in "truly shocking" London attack Play Video - Who were the 4 U.S. citizens killed in drone strikes? 88 Comments - Mexican volcano on verge of eruption 15 Photos - Man, 80, becomes oldest to climb to top of Mount Everest

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Asthma is a lifelong disease that causes wheezing, breathlessness, chest tightness, and coughing. It can limit a person's quality of life. While we don't know why asthma rates are rising, we do know that most people with asthma can control their symptoms and prevent asthma attacks by avoiding asthma triggers and correctly using prescribed medicines, such as inhaled corticosteroids. The number of people diagnosed with asthma grew by 4.3 million from 2001 to 2009. From 2001 through 2009 asthma rates rose the most among black children, almost a 50% increase. Asthma was linked to 3,447 deaths (about 9 per day) in 2007. Asthma costs in the US grew from about $53 billion in 2002 to about $56 billion in 2007, about a 6% increase. Greater access to medical care is needed for the growing number of people with asthma. Asthma is increasing every year in the US. Too many people have asthma. - The number of people with asthma continues to grow. One in 12 people (about 25 million, or 8% of the population) had asthma in 2009, compared with 1 in 14 (about 20 million, or 7%) in 2001. - More than half (53%) of people with asthma had an asthma attack in 2008. More children (57%) than adults (51%) had an attack. - 185 children and 3,262 adults died from asthma in 2007. - About 1 in 10 children (10%) had asthma and 1 in 12 adults (8%) had asthma in 2009. Women were more likely than men and boys more likely than girls to have asthma. - About 1 in 9 (11%) non-Hispanic blacks of all ages and about 1 in 6 (17%) of non-Hispanic black children had asthma in 2009, the highest rate among racial/ethnic groups. - The greatest rise in asthma rates was among black children (almost a 50% increase) from 2001 through 2009. Asthma Action Plan Stages Green Zone: Doing Well No cough, wheeze, chest tightness, or shortness of breath; can do all usual activities. Take prescribed longterm control medicine such as inhaled corticosteroids. Yellow Zone: Getting Worse Cough, wheeze, chest tightness, or shortness of breath; waking at night; can do some, but not all, usual activities. Add quick-relief medicine. Red Zone: Medical Alert! Very short of breath; quick-relief medicines don't help; cannot do usual activities; symptoms no better after 24 hours in Yellow Zone. Get medical help NOW. Full Action Plan: http://www.cdc.gov/asthma/actionplan.html Asthma has a high cost for individuals and the nation. - Asthma cost the US about $3,300 per person with asthma each year from 2002 to 2007 in medical expenses. - Medical expenses associated with asthma increased from $48.6 billion in 2002 to $50.1 billion in 2007. About 2 in 5 (40%) uninsured people with asthma could not afford their prescription medicines and about 1 in 9 (11%) insured people with asthma could not afford their prescription medicines. - More than half (59%) of children and one-third (33%) of adults who had an asthma attack missed school or work because of asthma in 2008. On average, in 2008 children missed 4 days of school and adults missed 5 days of work because of asthma. Better asthma education is needed. - People with asthma can prevent asthma attacks if they are taught to use inhaled corticosteroids and other prescribed daily long-term control medicines correctly and to avoid asthma triggers. Triggers can include tobacco smoke, mold, outdoor air pollution, and colds and flu. - In 2008 less than half of people with asthma reported being taught how to avoid triggers. Almost half (48%) of adults who were taught how to avoid triggers did not follow most of this advice. - Doctors and patients can better manage asthma by creating a personal asthma action plan that the patient follows. Asthma by age and sex US, 2001-2009 Percentages are age-adjusted SOURCE: National Center for Health Statistics; 2010. Asthma self-management education by age, US, 2008 SOURCE: National Health Interview Survey, 2008, asthma supplement. Adults with asthma in the US, 2009 SOURCE: Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, 2009 Federal, state, and local health officials can: - Track asthma rates and the effectiveness of control measures so continuous improvements can be made in prevention efforts. - Promote influenza and pneumonia vaccination for people with asthma. - Promote improvements in indoor air quality for people with asthma through measures such as smoke-free air laws and policies, healthy schools and workplaces, and improvements in outdoor air quality. Health care providers can: - Determine the severity of asthma and monitor how much control the patient has over it. - Make an asthma action plan for patients. Use this to teach them how to use inhaled corticosteroids and other prescribed medicines correctly and how to avoid asthma triggers such as tobacco smoke, mold, pet dander, and outdoor air pollution. - Prescribe inhaled corticosteroids for all patients with persistent asthma. People with asthma and parents of children with asthma can: - Receive ongoing appropriate medical care. - Be empowered through education to manage their asthma and asthma attacks. - Avoid asthma triggers at school, work, home, and outdoors. Parents of children with asthma should not smoke, or if they do, smoke only outdoors and not in their cars. - Use inhaled corticosteroids and other prescribed medicines correctly. Schools and school nurses can: - Use student asthma action plans to guide use of inhaled corticosteroids and other prescribed asthma medicines correctly and to avoid asthma triggers. - Make students' quick-relief inhalers readily available for them to use at school as needed. - Take steps to fix indoor air quality problems like mold and outdoor air quality problems such as idling school buses. Employers and insurers can: - Promote healthy workplaces by reducing or eliminating known asthma triggers. - Promote measures that prevent asthma attacks such as eliminating co-payments for inhaled corticosteroids and other prescribed medicines. - Provide reimbursement for educational sessions conducted by clinicians, health educators, and other health professionals both within and outside of the clinical setting. - Provide reimbursement for long-term control medicines, education, and services to reduce asthma triggers that are often not covered by health insurers.

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Beginning with the establishment of a glass factory at Jamestown in 1608, manufacturing grew slowly during the colonial era to include flour mills and, by 1715, an iron foundry. During the 19th century, the shipbuilding industry flourished, and many cotton mills, tanneries, and ironworks were built; light industries producing a wide variety of consumer goods developed later. The strength of the Commonwealth's diversified manufacturing sector is shown in its 10.2% employment increase between 1970 and 1993. During this time period, national manufacturing employment declined by 8.3%. Richmond is a principal industrial area for tobacco processing, paper and printing, clothing, and food products; nearby Hopewell is a locus of the chemical industry. Newport News, Hampton, and Norfolk are centers for shipbuilding and the manufacture of other transportation equipment. In the western part of the state, Lynchburg is a center for electrical machinery, metals, clothing, and printing, and Roanoke for food, clothing, and textiles. In the south, Martinsville has a concentration of furniture and textile-manufacturing plants, and textiles are also dominant in Danville. The total value of manufacturing shipments in 1997 totaled $87 billion, or 15th in the nation. In 1997, Virginia was the headquarters for 16 Fortune 500 companies. Earnings of persons employed in Virginia increased from $129 billion in 1997 to $138.3 billion in 1998, an increase of 7.2%. The largest industries in 1998 were services, 29.6% of earnings; state and local government, 10.5%; and retail trade, 8.7%. Of the industries that accounted for at least 5% of earnings in 1998, the slowest growing from 1997 to 1998 was federal civilian government (7.0% of earnings in 1998), which increased 0.4%; the fastest was finance, insurance, and real estate (7.0% of earnings in 1998), which increased 9.9%.

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(CNN) -- Months after rescuers found them struggling and covered in oil, 33 endangered and threatened young sea turtles are finally going home to the Gulf of Mexico. Scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries and the Audubon Nature Institute freed the turtles Thursday in waters about 40 miles southwest of Grand Isle, Louisiana. This marked the latest mass release of turtles since about 500 were rescued in the weeks and months after the massive months-long oil spill. "We were able to release these turtles because they're now healthy, and we're seeing recovery in the surface habitats of the Gulf of Mexico," NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco said in a news release. The spill began after an April 20 explosion on the offshore drilling platform Deepwater Horizon that killed 11 men. Two days later, the platform sank and oil started gushing into the Gulf. In early August, owner BP used cement and mud to plug the damaged Gulf of Mexico well. Officials formally declared an end to the oil spill disaster on September 19, though considerable efforts remained to clean up area waters and revive wildlife affected by the spill. Earlier this month, NOAA reopened federal waters off the Louisiana coast to fishing. Thursday's release marked another milestone in the area's recovery, according to those involved. "Returning this group of sea turtles to their home waters is ... a sign that Louisiana is on the path towards recovery," said Randy Pausina, an assistant secretary for Louisiana's office of fisheries. The 33 turtles had been rescued more than three months ago by federal officials and state wildlife authorities from Louisiana, Florida and Georgia, as well as the Riverhead Foundation and the In-Water Research Group. They were rehabilitated at the Audubon Nature Institute in New Orleans. They included green, Kemp's ridley and hawksbill sea turtles, which are classified as endangered species. There also were loggerheads, which are a threatened species. With 270 turtles having been cleaned, nursed back to health and released, there are more than 200 still in rehabilitation sites around the area. Scientists did extensive aerial and shipboard tests earlier this week on the waters near the release point, making sure the sargassum algae was clean. Young turtles thrive in such areas, which provide protection from predators and ample food, including small crabs, snails and other creatures. "Six months ago, it was nearly impossible to imagine this day would ever come," said Ron Forman, the Audubon Nature Institute's CEO and president.

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In July 2004, the Cranfills Gap Independent School District (Cranfills Gap ISD), located in Hamilton County, Texas, was identified as one of 54 school districts in the state meeting the criteria that initiate an Appraisal Standards Review (ASR) of the county appraisal district that served them. In April 2005, the Comptroller's Property Tax Division (PTD) began an Appraisal Standards Review of the Hamilton County Appraisal District (Hamilton CAD). Appraisal Standards Reviews The 78th Legislature, Regular Session, directed the Comptroller's office to conduct appraisal standards reviews of county appraisal districts if the Comptroller's office finds in its annual Property Value Study (PVS) that the appraisal district has one or more "eligible" school districts. Eligible school districts are those that meet all of the following conditions: - the district's values are invalid in the most recent property value study; - the district's values were valid in the two studies preceding the most recent study; and - the district's local value is above 90 percent of the lower threshold of the margin of error. In Texas, public education is paid for by a combination of state and local funds. Local funding comes from local property taxes. The chief appraiser of each county appraisal district (CAD) determines local property values, and school districts set tax rates that determine the amount of local tax revenue. Appraisal districts, under most circumstances, are required by law to appraise property at or near market value. Market value, in simple terms, is the price for which a property would sell under normal conditions. State funding is based on the total taxable property value within each school district as determined by the PVS. The PVS independently estimates the taxable property value in each school district to ensure that state values reflect market value, which in turn ensures that school districts have approximately the same number of dollars to spend per student, regardless of the school district's property wealth or lack of property wealth. School districts with less taxable property value per student receive more state dollars for each pupil than districts with more value per student. The state's fair distribution of school funding depends largely on the Comptroller's taxable value findings. By conducting appraisal standards reviews, the Comptroller's office helps school districts to understand the reason for the invalid finding so they can effectively work with the appraisal district to correct the problems and achieve market values. ASRs identify problems and recommend changes in procedures or methods to improve appraisal accuracy. An ASR examines and evaluates a county appraisal district's appraisal practices, including appraisal planning, appraisal procedures and methodology, and application and adherence to appraisal standards. The Tax Code and Comptroller rules are the major criteria used to measure the appraisal district's performance. The evaluation of the appraisal district's appraisal methods are based on a comparison of local methods and procedures to those generally accepted by the mass appraisal industry in Texas. The Tax Code dictates certain appraisal procedures or standards such as the Uniform Standards for Professional Appraisal Practices (USPAP), specifically Standard 6: Mass Appraisal and Standard 7: Personal Property. Also the International Association of Assessing Officers Standards (IAAO) Standards on Assessment are used as guidelines on the operation of an assessment office. The two principal focuses of the review are to determine why a school district served by the CAD was deemed eligible and to make recommendations to improve appraisal practices so the school district's values can be determined valid in future studies. The review evaluates five broad functional areas of CAD operations: information processing systems, district staffing, property mapping and discovery, appraisals and appraisal standards. The review methodology includes a self-assessment completed by the CAD, staff interviews, reviews of written policies, procedures, plans, financial and management audits, and assessments of manual and automated records systems. As the result of the review process, the Comptroller's office is issuing this report of its findings that includes recommendations for change and commendations for exemplary district appraisal practices. The appraisal district is required by law to comply with the recommendations within one year of the release of this report. If the Comptroller determines that the appraisal district board of directors failed to take remedial action within one year after the issuance of the review, the Comptroller shall notify the district judges serving in the county, who shall appoint a five-member board of conservators to implement the recommendations. The board of conservators shall exercise supervision and control over the operations of the appraisal district until the Comptroller determines pursuant to the annual property value study, Section 403.302, Government Code, that in the same year the taxable value of each school district for which the appraisal district appraises property is the local value for the school district. The appraisal district shall bear the costs related to the supervision and control of the district by the board of conservators. While the review team found several commendable practices implemented by dedicated and hardworking district employees, Hamilton CAD is facing a number of challenges in achieving and maintaining consistent valid findings, including: - improving the management of office operations; - documenting procedures; and - enhancing reappraisal tools and appraisal methods. Key Findings and Recommendations Improve the Management Office Operations Expand the detail of the budget presented to the board of directors for adoption to include the benefits for each position and a detailed list of each proposed capital expenditure. The district's budget lacks the detail necessary to comply with Section 6.06 of the Tax Code. The budget does not outline each set of benefits associated with each employee position. With 60 percent of the CAD's budget going to salaries, it's important for taxing units to understand where the money is being spent and ensure the district hires sufficient staff to perform appraisal functions. Develop board procedures to evaluate the chief appraiser, insert a line for the chief appraiser's signature on the evaluation tool and use the newly developed tool to evaluate the chief appraiser annually. The board has not historically evaluated the chief appraiser in writing. After the onsite visit by the review team, the district developed an evaluation tool to allow the board to collectively evaluate the chief appraiser. The chief appraiser had not been evaluated with this tool. Setting annual expectations and evaluating the chief appraiser allows the board to communicate more effectively with the chief appraiser. The district should develop procedures to support the evaluation of the chief appraiser and begin annually assessing the chief appraiser's performance using the new tool. Develop a comprehensive written policy and procedures manual for district operations. Hamilton CAD lacks well-documented policies and procedures to guide the day-to-day operations of the district in areas such as payroll processing, accounting, purchasing and related functions. Written procedures help guarantee tasks are performed correctly and provide useful training tools for new employees. By having a written policy and procedures manual for district operations, the district ensures consistency in performing daily functions and the procedures act as an internal control mechanism. Continually update and review the personnel manual against current employment law. Hamilton CAD's personnel manual is currently being updated and is ready for the board of director's approval. The current manual is the board's by-laws and lacks information on the American with Disabilities Act and the Family Medical Leave Act, among more recent personnel law changes. An updated personnel manual protects management and staff from arbitrary employment practices and guarantees CAD employees are aware of their rights and responsibilities. Enhance Reappraisal Tools and Appraisal Methods Adopt and implement a detailed reappraisal plan. Hamilton CAD lacks a detailed reappraisal plan to ensure the execution of timely and accurate reappraisals. The CAD's reappraisal plan does not outline staffing requirements, a detailed work plan, a budget or how the district's ratio studies will be used in establishing reappraisals. A detailed plan assures management is aware of the process that the district will use in conducting reappraisals, ensures resources are available for conducting reappraisals and provides a roadmap for completing the reappraisals. Develop and implement effective appraisal maintenance programs based on ratio studies to identify and correct market value deviations. The 2003 PVS results indicate that Hamilton CAD's appraisal maintenance programs for at least one of its school districts did not achieve the desired result of identifying market areas whose values no longer reflect the market, so adjustments can be made. Cranfills Gap ISD's 2003 PVS eligibility was primarily attributed to under valuing rural residences while other property categories were inconsistently valued, or consistently over- or under-valued. Appraisal districts use ratio studies to plan appraisal maintenance programs. The ratio study results indicate those market areas in the appraisal district whose values no longer reflect the market. Frequent ratio studies and the appraisal maintenance that follows enable an appraisal district to keep its values at or near the market. The review team identified commendable practices in Hamilton CAD that other county appraisal districts may do well to review and implement where appropriate. Hamilton CAD backs up appraisal data and stores it in a secure location. The district has an established process for storing daily backed up appraisal data. In the event of a disaster, the district would be able to get back to work quickly because its records are stored offsite and only a small amount of data would be potentially lost.

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Doctors Urge Parents to Lower Volume Controls on Holiday Electronics MONDAY Dec. 21, 2009 -- If you're giving your teenager an iPod or other music player this holiday season, consider a bonus present to help their hearing: Preset the top volume level to one-half or two-thirds of the actual maximum. That's the advice from specialists at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. They warn that sound over 85 decibels -- well short of the volume limit some music players carry -- can cause hearing loss. People are also at risk when they listen to music for too long. "As parents, we can't hear how loud their music is when they have the earbuds in, so this is an important step," Dr. Ron Eavey, chair of the medical center's Department of Otolaryngology, said in a Vanderbilt news release. "I can tell you that if you hear the music coming from their headphones, it is too loud, but an easier way to know for sure is to preset the device. This will still allow them to listen to and enjoy their music but will safeguard against ear-damaging volume levels." Many music players can be programmed to not allow their volume to go beyond a specified level. Anne Marie Tharpe, professor and chair of hearing and speech sciences at Vanderbilt, said in the same release that hearing loss isn't always obvious, especially in kids. "The symptoms can initially be subtle and include difficulty hearing when there is background noise. Such losses can result in significant challenges for children in classroom settings." Learn more about hearing loss from MedlinePlus. Posted: December 2009

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Studies suggest that only 31% of Europe is thought to have a water supply that is either plentiful or sufficient to meet demands until 2015, and water stress indexes show a number of countries with traditionally wet climates such as Belgium and Bulgaria, under significant water stress. Therefore, there is both a desire and a need to reduce the consumption of water over much of Europe. For industry, often economics determine the viability of water recycling, which does not necessarily fall under the standards currently being set for the major water reuse schemes. While the additional annual recycling capacity in Western Europe is set to increase by 10%, much of the Global market is focussed on major reuse facilities based on the municipal sector. Within the industrial sector there are opportunities to achieve major changes in the water cycle which can have a significant impact on total water consumption. The impact on regional water consumption by industries efforts can be massive, as industry accounts for 50% of the water consumption in Western Europe. When benchmarked data across industry sectors is analysed, we find that industries ranging from paper mills, dairy, beverage, ceramic and electronics have opportunities to reduce their water consumption by around 50%. But what are the mechanisms that drive actions in the industry water cycle, and how great can the impact be? This paper explores industrial water costs across Europe, and the drivers leading to reduced water consumption. As operators of water and wastewater facilities for many industrial customers across Europe, Ondeo Industrial Solutions examine the raw water costs and the viability of recycle schemes. Economics is not the only driver towards the reduction in water consumption on industrial sites. There are political and legislative drivers that can often override the economics such as the European PPC (Pollution Prevention and Control) directive that can often lead to a programme of water consumption reductions. Water Science and Technology: Water Supply is published as an adjunct to Water Science and Technology, in 6 issues per year, covering new developments in water supply. Papers are selected by a rigorous peer review procedure and the journal publi » Read more

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Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt's record-setting performances have unleashed a wave of interest in the ultimate limits to human running speed. A new study published in the Journal of Applied Physiology offers intriguing insights into the biology and perhaps even the future of human running speed. The newly published evidence identifies the critical variable imposing the biological limit to running speed, and offers an enticing view of how the biological limits might be pushed back beyond the nearly 28 miles per hour speeds achieved by Bolt to speeds of perhaps 35 or even 40 miles per hour. The new paper, "The biological limits to running speed are imposed from the ground up," was authored by Peter Weyand of Southern Methodist University; Rosalind Sandell and Danille Prime, both formerly of Rice University; and Matthew Bundle of the University of Wyoming. "The prevailing view that speed is limited by the force with which the limbs can strike the running surface is an eminently reasonable one," said Weyand, associate professor of applied physiology and biomechanics at SMU in Dallas. "If one considers that elite sprinters can apply peak forces of 800 to 1,000 pounds with a single limb during each sprinting step, it's easy to believe that runners are probably operating at or near the force limits of their muscles and limbs," he said. "However, our new data clearly show that this is not the case. Despite how large the running forces can be, we found that the limbs are capable of applying much greater ground forces than those present during top-speed forward running." In contrast to a force limit, what the researchers found was that the critical biological limit is imposed by time -– specifically, the very brief periods of time available to apply force to the ground while sprinting. In elite sprinters, foot-ground contact times are less than one-tenth of one second, and peak ground forces occur within less than one-twentieth of one second of the first instant of foot-ground contact. The researchers took advantage of several experimental tools to arrive at the new conclusions. They used a high-speed treadmill capable of attaining speeds greater than 40 miles per hour and of acquiring precise measurements of the forces applied to the surface with each footfall. They also had subjects' perform at high speeds in different gaits. In addition to completing traditional top-speed forward running tests, subjects hopped on one leg and ran backward to their fastest possible speeds on the treadmill. The unconventional tests were strategically selected to test the prevailing beliefs about mechanical factors that limit human running speeds –- specifically, the idea that the speed limit is imposed by how forcefully a runner's limbs can strike the ground. However, the researchers found that the ground forces applied while hopping on one leg at top speed exceeded those applied during top-speed forward running by 30 percent or more, and that the forces generated by the active muscles within the limb were roughly 1.5 to 2 times greater in the one-legged hopping gait. The time limit conclusion was supported by the agreement of the minimum foot-ground contact times observed during top-speed backward and forward running. Although top backward vs. forward speeds were substantially slower, as expected, the minimum periods of foot-ground contact at top backward and forward speeds were essentially identical. According to Matthew Bundle, an assistant professor of biomechanics at the University of Wyoming, "The very close agreement in the briefest periods of foot-ground contact at top speed in these two very different gaits points to a biological limit on how quickly the active muscle fibers can generate the forces necessary to get the runner back up off the ground during each step." The researchers said the new work shows that running speed limits are set by the contractile speed limits of the muscle fibers themselves, with fiber contractile speeds setting the limit on how quickly the runner's limb can apply force to the running surface. "Our simple projections indicate that muscle contractile speeds that would allow for maximal or near-maximal forces would permit running speeds of 35 to 40 miles per hour and conceivably faster," Bundle said. Peter Weyand is an associate professor of applied physiology and biomechanics in SMU's Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education & Human Development. Matthew Bundle is an assistant professor of biomechanics in the College of Health Sciences at the University of Wyoming. AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

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9.0 SleepWatch ® ( Actigraphy) Measure of Sleep on Workdays and Non-Workdays It was hypothesized that deployment of a combination of four fatigue management technologies would result in increased sleep time (actigraph determined) under both Canadian hours-of-service (Study Phase 1) and U.S. hours-of-service (Study Phase 2). However, analyses of actigraphy data for sleep episodes in the NO FEEDBACK versus FEEDBACK conditions revealed no statistically significant differences in sleep duration in either the Canada study phase or the U.S. study phase (see "Prior Sleep" variable in Tables 13 and 24). "Prior Sleep" was defined by all the sleep time found in each 24-hour period (from noon to noon, across consecutive days in the 2-week period for each condition) using an actigraphic software program called "Action 4" (developed by Ambulatory Monitoring, Inc., Ardsley, NY), as well as software that could recognize and eliminate from consideration periods of time when the actigraph was not on the wrist of a driver. Although the overall comparisons of actigraphically-defined 24-hour cumulative sleep time (Prior Sleep) were not different between the FEEDBACK and NO FEEDBACK conditions, it was clear that the U.S. study phase drivers had an average of 50 minutes less sleep per day than their Canadian counterparts during the NO FEEDBACK condition, and 39 minutes less sleep per day than their Canadian counterparts during the FEEDBACK condition (compare "Prior Sleep" in Tables 13 and 24). The reduced daily sleep times in the U.S. drivers were consistent with the differences between study phases in the predominant time-of-day for driving-Canada drivers had approximately 75% of their driving in daylight (and therefore, slept mostly in the nighttime), while U.S. drivers had approximately 90% of their driving at night (and therefore slept more in the daytime). It has long been established that sleep duration is reduced when people work nights, owing to circadian biological forces and environmental factors, which alone or together can truncate daytime sleep durations. Analyses were performed to determine whether the actigraphically-defined sleep duration differences of 50 minutes (NO FEEDBACK difference between Canada and U.S.) and 39 minutes (FEEDBACK difference between Canada and U.S.) were statistically significantly different from each other. In addition, sleep durations would likely be affected by workdays and non-workdays, especially in the night driving U.S. subjects, such that non-workdays would likely involve significantly more sleep than workdays. As a result of these considerations, a series of analyses were conducted comparing actigraph-defined sleep obtained by Canada drivers and U.S. drivers on workdays and non-workdays, during the NO FEEDBACK 2-week period and the FEEDBACK 2-week period. These analyses yielded important new insights into the impact of FMT FEEDBACK on drivers' sleep durations. Tables 49 through 58, and Tables 7 through 9, display the results these analyses. 9.1 Sleep Durations on workdays and non-workdays Tables 51, 52, 53, and 54 reveal that drivers slept significantly more on non-workdays than on workdays. During the NO FEEDBACK 2-week period of the Canada study phase, drivers averaged 7 hours and 17 minutes sleep per 24 hour period on non-workdays compared to 6 hours and 15 minutes on workdays (p = 0.023), a mean difference of 1 hours and 2 minutes (Table 51). Similarly, during the FEEDBACK 2-week period of the Canada study phase, drivers averaged 7 hours and 31 minutes of sleep per 24 hours on non-workdays compared to 6 hours and 14 minutes on workdays (p = 0.0005), a mean difference of 1 hour and 17 minutes (Table 53). Comparable results were obtained in the U.S. study phase. During the NO FEEDBACK 2-week period of Study Phase 2, the U.S. drivers averaged 6 hours and 32 minutes of sleep per 24 hours on non-workdays compared to 5 hours and 14 minutes on workdays (p = 0.018), a mean difference of 1 hour and 18 minutes (Table 52). Similarly, during the FEEDBACK period, U.S. drivers averaged 7 hours and 32 minutes sleep compared to 5 hours and 1 minute on workdays (p = 0.0004), a mean difference of 2 hours and 31 minutes (Table 54). These are relatively large differences in 24-hour sleep durations, suggesting that drivers developed sleep debts across the workweek. Figure 7 graphically displays the workday versus non-workday sleep durations controlling for feedback condition. It reveals that the differences in mean daily sleep between workdays and non-workdays significantly differed between U.S. and Canada study phases (p = 0.028), which are referred to as "location" in Figure 7. Therefore, the NO FEEDBACK vs. FEEDBACK comparisons between U.S. and Canada were performed separately for workdays and non-workdays. Figure 8 reveals that during workdays, the NO FEEDBACK vs. FEEDBACK comparison did not significantly differ between U.S. and Canada study phases (p = 0.392) (Tables 55, 56, 57, 58). After removing the interaction, there was no main effect for feedback (p = 0.916), but mean sleep duration was significantly less for U.S. drivers compared to Canadian drivers (p = 0.011). Figure 9 shows that during non-workdays, the NO FEEDBACK vs. FEEDBACK comparison did not significantly differ between U.S. and Canada study phases (p = 0.506), and differences between U.S. and Canada were not significant during non-workdays (p = 0.460). Most importantly, in contrast to workdays, there was a significant increase in mean sleep duration during non-workdays in the FEEDBACK condition relative to the NO FEEDBACK condition (p = 0.046). In other words, FMT FEEDBACK resulted in drivers in both countries significantly increasing their non-workday daily sleep durations by an average of 45 minutes per day over what was the case in the NO FEEDBACK condition. This finding provides clear support for the hypothesis that a combination of four fatigue management technologies would result in more sleep (actigraph determined) under both Canadian hours-of-service (phase 1) and U.S. hours-of-service (phase 2). While it might have been expected that increased sleep time would also have occurred on workdays when FMT FEEDBACK was provided, this did not occur. It is possible that workday schedules prevent drivers from acting on information from FMT devices indicating they need more sleep. Barriers to obtaining sleep may be absent on non-workdays, allowing drivers to increase sleep time. It remains uncertain if this pattern of increased sleep on non-workdays would be sustained over months and years with FMT FEEDBACK. Much more needs to be understood about the factors that determine when and where drivers obtain sleep on workdays and non-workdays, on the barriers to obtaining adequate sleep on workdays, and on the factors that convince them to get more recovery sleep on non-workdays. An average of 45 minutes (both study phases) more sleep per non-workday was associated with FMT FEEDBACK. While this may seem modest, research suggests it is especially beneficial in promoting recovery from chronic sleep debt in persons sleeping less than 6.5 hours per day, which was the case for virtually all drivers participating in the study during workday period.

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Con Ed to Get the Lead Out The project will remove about 2,400 tons of underground lead sheathing through 2009 as part its membership in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's National Partnership for Environmental Priorities Program. The voluntary program aims to reduce or eliminate chemicals that can linger for decades when released into the environment. The private-public program has targeted 31 priority chemicals, such as lead and PCBs. Con Edison plans to replace 2,400 sections of underground lead-clad electric feeder cables this year with solid dielectric cables made of copper conductors encased in synthetic rubber. The new cables are easier to splice and better for electricity distribution. In 2009, the company will continue replacing an additional 2,400 sections, each of which is estimated to have about 1,000 pounds of encased lead sheathing that will be recycled nearby. Eventually the company wants to replace all lead-clad cables -- about 20 percent of the company's underground network -- by 2020, which could account for as much as 15,000 tons of reclaimed lead sheathing. Faced with a tide of post-consumer plastic trash, organizations are thinking up innovative ways to profitably harness this potentially vast revenue stream. Read more The sixth annual edition of research has been expanded to include data on 1,600 companies worldwide, as well as on the U.S.-based S&P 500. Find out where the world of sustainable business is headed -- and the leading indicators of future progress. Read the stories and download the report. Simran Sethi shares how our psychology and geography shape the ways we engage and share with each other. See our entire video collection

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- HHMI NEWS - SCIENTISTS & RESEARCH - JANELIA FARM - SCIENCE EDUCATION - RESOURCES & PUBLICATIONS BROWSE ALL RESOURCES BY TYPEAnimation (3) Book/Manual (4) CD (1) Classroom Activity (12) College Course (6) Curriculum (11) Game (1) Kit (1) Lab (9) Lesson Plan (5) Publication (23) Software (3) Tutorial (5) Video (24) Website (47) Wiki (2) BY TOPICBiochemistry (14) Biodiversity (3) Bioengineering (3) Bioethics (3) Bioinformatics (8) Biology (104) Biotechnology (9) Cell Biology (3) Chemistry (17) Earth Science (1) Ecology (9) Engineering (1) Evolution (10) General Science (15) Genetics (29) Genomics (13) Immunology (2) Infectious Diseases (1) Life Science (65) Mathematics (9) Medicine (6) Microarrays (5) Microbiology (3) Molecular biology (34) Neuroscience (7) Physics (5) Plants (2) Professional Development (35) Research methods (12) Science Communication (2) Systems Biology (1) BY GRADE LEVELK-16 (1) 4-8 (1) K-5 (6) Medical School (6) K-3 (2) K-8 (2) K-12 (9) 6-8 (18) 9-12 (52) College (101) Graduate (21) Folded-List Study Tool This article describes the Folded-List Study Technique, a method designed by Professor of Biology Paul Heideman at the College of William and Mary, to give students a fast and efficient way to learn, recall, and apply key science concepts. (It is designed to be used in conjunction with the “Minute Sketch” tool, which is available within this database.) This document explains the method: Using a blank piece of paper folded lengthwise into four sections, students create one column for words and one for sketches or images. In the words column, they write the term or phrase for the first key concept. In the next column, they create a simple sketch to represent the concept. They keep adding words and sketches until the page is filled (although, over time, they should be able to condense all the essential material from one entire lecture on the top half of one sheet). Next, students fold the earlier columns behind and engage in repeated sketching and writing of these concepts in columns three and four. The recopying and rethinking of these concepts engages a student’s motor memory and visual cortex. Dr. Heideman says that his method forces students to extract the essentials from a large amount of material and learn the key concepts as sequential events. It is an active-learning method that engages students’ attention and allows them to review material quickly and to assess how much they have accomplished within a given time. Dr. Heideman says the method can be applied to other study techniques, such as concept mapping. Program Director: Margaret Somosi Saha, Ph.D. Award Years: 1989, 1998, 2002, 2006 Summary: The College of William and Mary is a public research university in Williamsburg, Virginia. Its HHMI-funded educational initiatives emphasize the importance of interdisciplinary and integrative approaches to education and research. They include: - The development of a Biological Mathematics program (which includes substantial curricular changes and the addition of new faculty positions), the strengthening of the interdisciplinary Neuroscience major, and the establishment of a new undergraduate Applied Science minor. - The enhancement of both Introductory Biology and Chemistry and upper-level immunology, molecular genetics, physiology, and neurophysiology laboratories through new equipment and expanded laboratory exercises. - The HHMI Freshman Research Program in Biology and Chemistry and related sciences, which allows participating students to conduct independent research with a faculty mentor very early in their college careers—as freshmen. Many of these students have the opportunity to continue their research during the following summer and throughout the next three years. - Student participation in the National Genomics Research Initiative (NGRI), a national experiment in both research and education sponsored by HHMI’s Science Education Alliance. Through this initiative, groups of freshmen at selected colleges participate in an authentic research experience—integrated into an introductory laboratory course—on the genetics of phages or bacteriophages (viruses that infect bacteria). Freshmen in the College of William and Mary’s program discovered a new life form, a bacteriophage they named CrimD. - The expansion of a summer fellowship program to include students at Thomas Nelson Community College and three neighboring HBCU—Hampton University, Norfolk State University, and Virginia State University. Students in this program have the option of continuing their research project throughout the academic year and receive an hourly stipend and weekend transportation and carpooling. - Partnerships with Hampton University, Norfolk State University, and Virginia State University to enable faculty to work together with research students at both the home campus and the College of William and Mary. The objective and anticipated outcomes are to establish lasting collaborations that improve opportunities for publication and the development of ideas for competitive grant proposals, either independently or in collaboration with faculty from the College of William and Mary. - The Saturday and Summer Enrichment Programs, which allow young children with high abilities to explore specialized areas of science, mathematics, and the arts and humanities. - The Science Training and Research Program (STAR), a four-week residential summer enrichment program that serves high-school juniors from disadvantaged backgrounds. The program, which offers core science and mathematics courses and an opportunity to visit research centers and laboratories, is designed to introduce students to the world of science, research, and technology. - A series of “Update Courses” tailored to help middle and high-school teachers develop both a knowledge base and practical experience with topics—such as microbiology and molecular biotechnology—that are the stated components of the Standards of Learning for the Commonwealth of Virginia. Participants also help design Teaching Modules that help integrate the science topics into the classroom.

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Human expansion and interference have detrimental effects as civilizations continue to encroach on previously undisturbed habitats. As a result, many species of animals and plants must struggle to survive. Biodiversity reveals the important role each of these life forms plays in its ecosystem as well as the irreversible and extensive consequences that would result from a massive loss of biodiversity. It explores the ecological and evolutionary processes, how these processes depend on the cohabitation of a wide range of life forms within an ecosystem, and how the existence of these diverse organisms maintains a crucial stability in the natural world. Beginning with an introduction to biodiversity, this new volume discusses its importance and history, the difficulties in maintaining it, and past and current efforts to protect ecosystems from greater destruction. It examines five specific case studies, including the United States, Indonesia, New Zealand, Madagascar, and Costa Rica, describing the current status and history of biodiversity, obstacles, and conservation efforts in the country at hand. Maps. Index. Bibliography. Glossary. Chronology. Tables and graphs. About the Author(s) Natalie Goldstein is a freelance writer who has written numerous books for the educational market, including textbooks and teacher's guides for the middle school and encyclopedias for the high school. She also wrote Globalization and Free Trade and Global Warming in the Global Issues series. Foreword author Julie L. Lockwood is director of the graduate program in ecology and evolution and associate professor in the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Natural Resources at Rutgers University. She is the coauthor of Avian Invasions: The Ecology and Evolution of Exotic Birds and Invasion Ecology.

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Participatory Video created by members of various indigenous communities in Itogon, Philippines, tracking the impacts of large-scale mining and now climate change on their environment and culture. This film was created by members of various indigenous communities in the Cordillera region of the Philippines, during a Participatory Video project facilitated by InsightShare. The participants were taught to use video cameras during an intensive 9-day PV workshop in the barangay of Garrison, in Itogon, and created this 24-minute film to communicate the devastating impacts of large-scale mining wrought on their communities by various companies over the years, and now the increasingly alarming impacts of climate change. This project was part of Conversations with the Earth project. Launched in April 2009, Conversations with the Earth is a collective opportunity to build a global movement for an indigenous-controlled community media network. CWE works with a growing network of indigenous groups and communities living in critical ecosystems around the world, from the Atlantic Rainforest to Central Asia, from the Philippines to the Andes, from the Arctic to Ethiopia. Through CWE, these indigenous communities are able to share their story of climate change. Through the creation of sustainable autonomous indigenous media hubs in these regions, CWE fosters a long-term relationship with these communities, based on principles of local control and supporting indigenous media capacity.

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Last reviewed by Faculty of Harvard Medical School on January 24, 2013 By Harvey B. Simon, M.D. Harvard Medical School Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is the fourth leading cause of death in the United States. It's also the only disease among the top 10 killers that is seeing an increase in deaths each year. About 15 million Americans suffer from COPD. Men are affected about twice as often as women because male smokers have outnumbered female smokers. COPD is not curable, but it is treatable. Lifestyle changes and medication can help people cope with chronic lung disease and live longer, fuller lives. But as you'll see, most cases of COPD can be prevented. Back to top What Is COPD? COPD refers to chronic illnesses that block the flow of air and make breathing difficult. The two major forms of COPD are chronic bronchitis and emphysema. In both, narrowed air passages or bronchi make it hard to exhale. (Bronchi are wider during inhalation and narrow during exhalation.) Narrowed bronchi also cause asthma, but the narrowing is temporary and reversible. In COPD, it's permanent. In chronic bronchitis, the mucous glands in the air passages are enlarged and produce too much mucous, which narrows the bronchi. In emphysema, the narrowing of the bronchi is caused by damage to the lung tissue and is more severe than in chronic bronchitis. Most patients with COPD have a mixture of chronic bronchitis and emphysema. Inflammation triggered by irritants that are inhaled also contributes to COPD. White blood cells try to fight off the irritation, but instead of controlling the damage caused by the irritant, they release chemicals that damage and eventually destroy lung tissue. Smoking causes about 85% of COPD cases. Heavy smokers have the highest risk of developing COPD. Secondhand smoke and other inhaled toxins can cause COPD in some nonsmokers. In others, an inherited protein deficiency is to blame. But in some cases, no cause is apparent. Back to top What Are the Symptoms of COPD? COPD starts gradually and progresses slowly over time. That's why the number of cases of COPD continues to increase years after many American men quit smoking. At first, there are no symptoms. But little by little, symptoms appear, usually in middle age. A morning "smoker's cough" is often the first complaint. The cough gradually gets worse and occurs throughout the day. Next, shortness of breath develops. In the beginning, it only occurs during exercise, but as the disease progresses, breathing becomes a chore even at rest. Wheezing is another common symptom. Most patients also become tired and weak. Patients with chronic bronchitis have a recurrent cough that brings up large amounts of thick, discolored phlegm almost every day for three months or longer. Over time, the lung disease puts a strain on the heart and men may develop cor pulmonale, a form of congestive heart failure. As a result, they accumulate fluid and gain weight. Their lips and skin may eventually turn bluish due to low blood oxygen levels. Men with emphysema have a scant and dry cough, severe shortness of breath and they breathe faster than normal. Their skin stays pink and they dont retain fluid, but their appearance changes: they lose weight, their muscles tend to waste away, and they develop large, barrel-shaped chests. Most patients with COPD have symptoms of both chronic bronchitis and emphysema. In addition to daily symptoms, most patients have two to three exacerbations each year. These are abrupt flares that are often triggered by lung infections. Symptoms get much worse and aggressive treatment is needed. Back to top How Is COPD Diagnosed? The best way to diagnose COPD is with a simple, safe lung-function test, called the forced expiratory volume at one second (FEV1). It measures the amount of air you can breathe out with maximum effort in one second. Doctors can also use this test to check the results of treatment. X-rays, blood oxygen mearurements, and other tests may also help. Back to top People with COPD can take steps to control symptoms, and minimize complications and disability. The first rule is the most important: Avoid tobacco and secondhand smoke. This is a hard and fast rule. There are no exceptions. Good nutrition is also important. A diet high in fruits, vegetables, and fish may actually help the lungs. There is no evidence that vitamin supplements help. In fact beta-carotene actually increases a male smoker's risk of lung cancer. Patients with chronic bronchitis and heart strain must avoid sodium (salt). Men with severe emphysema may benefit from high-calorie nutritional supplements. Drinking plenty of fluids will help keep phlegm loose and make it easy to clear out by coughing. A program of low-to-moderate intensity exercise can help the muscles get the most from the oxygen that damaged lungs can deliver. Walking is best. Start with 5 just minutes of walking three to four times a day and build up to 45 minutes a day. Patients with severe COPD or heart disease may also need a structured pulmonary rehabilitation program, which can teach breathing exercises that strengthen chest muscles. Preventing infection is essential. Be sure your flu and pneumonia shots are up to date. Keep your distance from folks with respiratory infections. Wash your hands carefully with an alcohol-based hand rub. Back to top Medications for COPD Prescription medications can do a lot for patients with COPD. Your doctor will explain the benefits and possible side effects. Here is a summary of the major groups of medications. - Bronchodilators - These relax the muscles in the walls of the bronchi, widening the tubes and easing the passage of air. The most popular short-acting bronchodilator is albuterol (Proventil). It is inhaled through a metered-dose inhaler (MDI) up to four times a day for quick relief of wheezing, coughing, or shortness of breath. Patients with mild COPD may need only a short-acting bronchodilator, but patients with more advanced disease also benefit from a long-acting bronchodilator. They help prevent symptoms rather than provide immediate relief. Salmeterol (Serevent) or formoterol (Foradil) can be inhaled twice a day as a spray or from a dry powder inhaler (DPI). Patients taking salmeterol or formoteral should continue using their short-acting albuterol MDI for that purpose. - Anticholinergics - These are drugs that widen the bronchial tubes and reduce the amount of mucus without making it thick and difficult to bring up. They provide long-term control and are the most important medication for many men with COPD. The newer drug tiotropium (Spiriva) can be used just once a day, while ipratropium (Atrovent) requires more frequent use . Because anticholinergics and bronchodilators work in different ways, patients can benefit from using both types of drugs. - Corticosteroids ("steroids") - These medications reduce inflammation in the bronchial tubes. Inhaled steroids can help many, but not all, patients with moderate-to-severe COPD. They are most effective for patients who are also taking long-acting bronchodilators. A combination of a steroid (fluticasone ) and a long-acting bronchodilator (salmeterol) is available for twice-a-day dry powder inhalation. - Antibiotics - These can be critically important for flare-ups but are not helpful for maintenance therapy. Notify your doctor right away if your breathing becomes worse, if you develop a fever, or if your phlegm becomes thicker, discolored, or more plentiful. Back to top Does Oxygen Really Help? People with COPD who have low blood oxygen levels can benefit greatly from long-term, round-the-clock oxygen therapy. At home, oxygen can be stored in cylinders or generated by machines called oxygen concentrators. Portable tanks can provide several hours of oxygen away from home. Oxygen therapy needs careful supervision by a physician. Because oxygen can be a fire hazard, patients and household members need to follow certain safety precautions. Back to top The Bottom Line The average person will take some 600 million breaths during a lifetime. Most men can keep their lungs healthy simply by avoiding tobacco smoke and other harmful fumes. Early diagnosis and treatment can slow the damage, ward off complications, and improve the quality of life. New therapies are on the way, but simple prevention is the best treatment of all. And, after all, what's more important than preserving the breath of life? Harvey B. Simon, M.D. is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and a member of the Health Sciences Technology Faculty at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is the founding editor of the Harvard Men's Health Watch newsletter and author of six consumer health books, including The Harvard Medical School Guide to Men's Health (Simon and Schuster, 2002) and The No Sweat Exercise Plan, Lose Weight, Get Healthy and Live Longer (McGraw-Hill, 2006). Dr. Simon practices at the Massachusetts General Hospital; he received the London Prize for Excellence in Teaching from Harvard and MIT.

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IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Groundbreaking pollster George Gallup may be known for founding the survey organization that tracks people's opinions on the president, but he began his career with a more personal concern: getting his mother-in-law elected to statewide office. Ola Babcock Miller was a huge underdog in the 1932 race for Iowa Secretary of State. Gallup conducted an informal poll of voters for her and learned that highway safety was a top concern. Miller campaigned successfully on the issue and went on to found the Iowa State Patrol. That campaign is recounted in a collection of papers that Gallup's family recently donated to the University of Iowa documenting the life of the father of modern political polling. The papers are expected to be used by researchers studying early polling on elections and marketing.

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DefinitionBy Mayo Clinic staff CLICK TO ENLARGE |Visual acuity test| |Manual visual field testing| A complete eye exam involves a series of tests designed to evaluate your vision and check for eye diseases. Your eye doctor may use a variety of instruments, shine bright lights directly at your eyes and request that you look through an array of lenses. Each test during an eye exam evaluates a different aspect of your vision or eye health. - Pediatric eye evaluations. San Francisco, Calif.: American Academy of Ophthalmology. http://one.aao.org/printerfriendly.aspx?cid=2e30f625-1b04-45b9-9b7c-c06770d02fe5. Accessed Jan. 24, 2013. - Comprehensive eye and vision examination. American Optometric Association. http://www.aoa.org/eye-exams.xml. Accessed Jan. 24, 2013. - Clinical practice guidelines: Comprehensive adult eye and vision examination. St. Louis, Mo.: American Optometric Association. http://www.aoa.org/eye-exams.xml Accessed Jan. 24, 2013. - Riordan-Eva P, et al. Vaughan & Asbury's General Ophthalmology. 18th ed. New York, N.Y.: The McGraw-Hill Companies; 2011. http://www.accessmedicine.com/resourceTOC.aspx?resourceID=720. Accessed Jan. 24, 2013. - What is a doctor of optometry? American Optometric Association. http://www.aoa.org/x4891.xml. Accessed Jan. 24, 2013.

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Women with heart disease are at greater risk than other women when going through a pregnancy, but most still have positive outcomes, a registry showed. Compared with healthy pregnant women, those with structural or ischemic heart disease had higher rates of preterm birth (15% versus 8%), fetal death (1.7% versus 0.35%), and maternal mortality (1% versus 0.007%), but absolute rates remained relatively low, according to Jolien Roos-Hesselink, MD, of Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, and colleagues. The risks conferred by heart disease were magnified in women with cardiomyopathies and in those living in developing countries, the researchers reported online in the European Heart Journal. However, they wrote, "most patients with adequate counseling and optimal care should not be discouraged and can go safely through pregnancy." Because of a limited amount of data detailing the effects of heart disease on pregnancy outcomes, the European Society of Cardiology started the European Registry on Pregnancy and Heart Disease in 2007. The ongoing registry enrolls pregnant women who have valvular heart disease, congenital heart disease, ischemic heart disease, or cardiomyopathies. For the current analysis, the researchers looked at data on 1,321 pregnant women who were enrolled from 60 hospitals in 28 countries from 2007 to 2011. The median age was 30. Most of the patients (72%) were in New York Heart Association class I, and only 0.3% were in NYHA class IV. The most frequent diagnosis was congenital heart disease (66%), followed by valvular heart disease (25%), cardiomyopathy (7%), and ischemic heart disease (2%). The median duration of pregnancy was 38 weeks, and the median birth weight was 3,010 grams (6 pounds 10 ounces). Thirteen of the mothers died -- seven from cardiac causes, three from thromboembolic events, and three from sepsis. The highest mortality rate occurred in patients with cardiomyopathy, who also carried higher rates of heart failure and ventricular arrhythmias. "Cardiomyopathy is uncommon during pregnancy, but it is difficult to manage a pregnancy in the context of left ventricular dysfunction or peripartum cardiomyopathy with a high risk of an adverse outcome for both the mother and the baby," the authors noted. "Our study shows that more attention needs to be paid to this group." During pregnancy, 26% of the women were hospitalized, a much higher rate than seen in healthy pregnant women (2%). More than one-third of the admissions (39%) were for heart failure; 31% were for obstetric reasons, including pregnancy-induced hypertension, vaginal bleeding, pregnancy-induced diabetes, and abortion/missed abortion; 21% were for cardiac reasons other than heart failure; and 9% were for other reasons. The rate of cesarean delivery was significantly higher among the women with heart disease than has previously been seen in healthy pregnant women (41% versus 23%, P<0.001). Fetal mortality beyond 22 weeks of gestation or when the fetus was greater than 500 grams (1 pound 2 ounces) occurred at a higher rate in the women with heart disease. Most of those cases (62%) were listed as intrauterine fetal death without any further information, 21% were attributed definitely to the mother's condition, and 17% were related to structural fetal abnormalities. Neonatal mortality (within the first 30 days of life) occurred in 0.6%, a rate that was not significantly higher compared with historical controls (0.4%, P=0.27). Women living in developing countries (185 of the registry patients) carried greater risks of both maternal mortality (3.9% versus 0.6%, P<0.001) and fetal mortality (6.5% versus 0.9%, P<0.001). The authors noted that developed countries have much greater access than developing countries to optimal prenatal care and preconception counseling, even if it isn't used in all cases. "This is a very complex issue, but if achievable, pre-conception counseling focusing on the severity of the heart disease with a clear statement of the consequences of pregnancy may save lives," they wrote. The researchers acknowledged some limitations of the study, including the inability to perform extensive subgroup analyses because of small patient numbers, the fact that the input and quality of data was checked in only 5% to 10% of cases, and uncertainty about how representative the patient population is, considering the voluntary participation in the registry. From the American Heart Association: Primary source: European Heart Journal Roos-Hesselink J, et al "Outcome of pregnancy in patients with structural or ischemic heart disease: results of a registry of the European Society of Cardiology" Eur Heart J 2012; DOI: 10.1093/eurheartj/ehs270.

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Looking for a fun, kid-friendly activity to help your family appreciate the outdoors? Backyard birding is a great way to get the kids outside and learning more about the beautiful birds in your area. Here are a few helpful backyard birding tips to get started. Educate with games Start your birding adventures by learning which birds are native to your state. There are numerous online resources that include species listings, like the Bird Library from Perky-Pet. Once you have your list, make it a game. Print out the different types of birds and let your kids check them off as they see them. Whoever spots the most species could win a prize, like a birdfeeder. Making it a game will help motivate them to get outside and start bird watching. Nature is full of sounds and smells. While outside, have your kids close their eyes and sit quietly for a few moments. Discuss the sounds you hear and try to recreate bird sounds as you heard them. Since our feathered friends are attracted to flowers, seeds and berries, identify which plants will invite birds. Encourage your kids to research other plants that might attract new birds to your backyard. Backyard birding is a great tool to encourage responsibility. If your birdfeeders are not cleaned weekly it's possible for dangerous bacteria to grow. This can have a disastrous effect on a community of birds. Create a birdfeeder-cleaning calendar for your child and make note of days when the feeders should be refilled. Depending on weather and the time of the year, your feeders may need to be filled with fresh seed daily. Help with nesting Birds appreciate being able to keep clean as well as being provided with nesting materials. Help your kids collect lint or strips of fabric to set outside for birds to use when building their nests. As a family, set up a birdbath or bird waterer, like the new Perky-Pet Droplet Bird Waterer, and take turns keeping it cleaned and filled with fresh water. Attract new birds Have your kids select a new bird species they would like to see and learn how to attract them to your yard. One fun choice for young birders is the hummingbird. Hummingbird feeder kits, like the Perky-Pet Oasis Hummingbird Feeder Complete Set, include all the essentials for feeding these tiny birds and will help your child become familiar with this species. Have your child take notes on the hummingbird behavior they witness including the birds' swift movements, territorial nature and whether they eat while perched or while flying. Connecting kids with nature is always a good idea, and birding is a fun way to start. So now, equipped with these kid-friendly ideas, it's time to start your backyard birding adventure. It's the perfect way to get your kids outside and the birds will enjoy the extra attention as well.

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NetWellness is a global, community service providing quality, unbiased health information from our partner university faculty. NetWellness is commercial-free and does not accept advertising. Thursday, May 23, 2013 Injury Prevention and Safety which color bruise is considered to be the worst? Health professionals used to rely on bruise color to estimate how recently an injury occurred. However, it is well known now that bruise color is not at all a reliable measure of how bad a bruise is or when the injury occurred. Large bruises over the abdomen and pelvis that may signal that serious damage has been done to the organs underlying the bruise. The bruise itself is deceptive because you can't see the underlying damage that is far more serious than the visible discoloration. This can be deadly, especially if organs rich in blood supply such as the liver and spleen are damaged and the person bleeds to death internally. Of course, bruises over the bone can mean that a hemorrhage occurs under the bony covering called the periosteum and also may lead to a fracture of the bone underneath. These are certainly painful but do not lead to death very often. They can look worse because of the impact of the blood vessels onto the bone as compared to soft tissue bruising over the abdomen. Bruises around the eyes and ears can damage vision and hearing if the force of the injury was significant. The bottom line is that color is not what is so important. It is much more important what the force of the injury was and what parts of the body are underneath the force of the injury. I hope this answers your question. Mary M Gottesman, PhD, RN, CPNP, FAAN Professor of Clinical Nursing College of Nursing The Ohio State University

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help with a lesson plan by, 03-18-2008 at 04:44 PM (2410 Views) I'm currently planning a lesson to do with 4th-6th graders as part of a practicum in my Education program at university. I was hoping to select a poem that is very descritive to read to the kids as they draw what they see through the words. My initial idea was to use Coleridge's "Kubla Kahn," but I've since decided that this will probably be too difficult a poem for 4th-6th graders (based on experience I've had with 'em). I'm looking for something that won't be too easy, preferably something with metaphors so that I may seque to brief instruction on those. I want to make the activity somewhat challenging, and one of my ideas is to mandate that I will only read the poem perhaps three times and they must come to agreement on when those three repetitions can be used.

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PBS KIDS® HOSTS “SHARE THE EARTH” CELEBRATION IN HONOR OF EARTH DAY New eco-focused episodes and classic favorites airing April 18 – 22 Arlington, VA – March 16, 2011 – PBS KIDS will host its sixth annual PBS KIDS “Share the Earth” celebration in honor of Earth Day by featuring new and favorite episodes encouraging children to care for and respect the environment. From April 18 – 22, families can view brand new eco-friendly episodes on-air from SID THE SCIENCE KID, CURIOUS GEORGE®, MARTHA SPEAKS, WILD KRATTS, and ARTHUR, while learning about recycling, habitats, alternative energy and more. In addition, favorite Earth-focused episodes from SUPER WHY!, WORDGIRL®, and more will also be airing throughout the week. “As a leader in educational children’s media, PBS KIDS offers many resources to get kids excited about exploring science and the natural world around them,” said Lesli Rotenberg, senior vice president, Children’s Media, PBS. “This year, we’re celebrating Earth Day with content on-air, online, and beyond to help families discover that their next learning adventure could be as close as their own backyard.” The “Share the Earth” celebration continues online for both kids and parents. PBSPARENTS.org will feature a special “Simple Ways to Protect the Earth” page with new ideas for activities parents can do with their kids in celebration of Earth Day, such as gardening and craft ideas. An Earth Day channel on both PBSKIDS.org/video and PBSKIDSGO.org/video will feature Earth-themed episodes from favorite shows such as THE CAT IN THE HAT KNOWS A LOT ABOUT THAT! and WORDGIRL from April 15 through 22. In addition, a new web exclusive episode of DESIGN SQUAD NATION, “Sustainable South Bronx,” will run on PBSKIDSGO.org, along with accompanying eco activity ideas for kids. Following is a listing of the episodes airing the week of April 18 -22 (Check local listings for air dates and times). SID THE SCIENCE KID NEW “Where Did The Water Go?" ("What happens to water that goes down the drain?") While brushing his teeth, Sid wonders what happens to all the dirty water when it goes down the drain. At The Science Center, Sid and his friends explore how water travels in and out of our homes through pipes. And here's something Sid and his friends never realized: there's lots of water in the world, but you can't drink it all! We can only use fresh water, and there aren't a lot of fresh water sources in the world. That's why it's important not to waste water! NEW "Clean Air!" ("Why does Sid's Dad wear a mask when he paints?") Sid the roving reporter is investigating something strange in his backyard--his Dad is wearing a mask while painting. Sid discovers that his Dad is protecting his face so he doesn't breathe in the dirty fumes. At school, Sid and his friends discover that people and animals on Earth need to breathe clean air, and when we pollute the air around us, it affects the air that everyone breathes. The kids also discover that trees have a really important role in keeping our air clean! NEW “Reused Robot" ("Where does trash go when we throw it away?") Sid's toy robot is broken, so he wants to throw it "away." Sid's Mom tells him there is no such thing as "away," and when we put something in the trash, we are actually creating waste. Sid and his friends explore the idea that everything we throw away goes somewhere. This leads to an investigation of how to recycle and reuse items so that we make less trash. NEW “Save The Stump" ("Can an old stump be a home for tiny creatures?") Sid is super excited because his Dad is clearing out space in the yard for a basketball court! While Sid and Dad are surveying the land, Sid notices a big stump teeming with little creatures! During a special field trip to The Science Center, Sid and his friends discover that there are animal habitats all around us, even in old stumps, and if one habitat is destroyed, all of the other habitats and animals are affected. NEW “Wagstaff Races”/ “The Missing Metal Mystery” “Wagstaff Races” - Wagstaff City's environmental club is having a "Go Green Go-Cart Race," fueled by alternative energy. Using sun, wind, and pond scum, the gang gathers at the starting line. Who will win the trophy — and most importantly, how? “The Missing Metal Mystery” - Who’s been stealing things from the local junkyard? When Detective TD announces the identity of his main suspect, everyone is shocked. NEW ”Falcon City” The Kratt brothers are itching to fly with the world’s fastest animal, the Peregrine falcon, which can hit top speeds of 240 mph. But their efforts are side-tracked when the rest of the Wild Kratts team challenges them to find the falcon in the city instead of in the wild, and Chris’ Creature Power Suit is accidentally activated with Pigeon Powers! But then they discover that Zach is sending his Zachbots to clean off a building that has a peregrine falcon nests with chicks. Martin and Chris must activate their Peregrine falcons powers and harness the force of gravity to pull off a high flying creature rescue! NEW “The Blue and the Gray” Martin and Chris are absorbed in a hilarious competition to discover who is the best acorn planter, blue jays or gray squirrels, when a strange Creature Power Suit malfunction transforms Martin into an acorn and grows him into an Oak tree! Chris activates the squirrel powers of his Creature Power Suit, but gets waylaid by a bobcat and goshawk, and Aviva, Koki, and Jimmy can’t find them. It’ll take some animal-loving Wild Kratts kids to get them out of this mess NEW “Follow the Bouncing Ball”/ “Buster Baxter and the Letter from the Sea” “Follow the Bouncing Ball” - Alberto Molina’s beloved soccer ball, signed by his favorite Ecuadorian soccer star, El Boomerang, is lost! Is it the same soccer ball bouncing all over town, eluding potential captors?! This kicks off the first of 10 stories which follow the incredible journey of “El Boomerang” around the world! Come, follow the bouncing ball! “Buster Baxter and the Letter from the Sea” - While on vacation with the Read family, Buster discovers a message in a bottle on the shore. Could it be an urgent message from the people of the Lost City of Atlantis? Buster is determined to find out and sends them a message back…by throwing his own bottles in the ocean! Will he learn that keeping the beach and waters clean is the real message? “The Cherry Tree” Muffy will do anything to have a gigantic Dream Bouncy Castle at her party, or so she thinks. When her favorite cherry tree is cut down to make room for the castle in her yard, she starts to have regrets. Then to make matters worse, she learns that cutting down trees hurts the environment, too. What can Muffy do to fix the damage she’s done? NEW “Follow That Boat”/“Windmill Monkey” “Follow That Boat” – Steve needs an A to pass his history class and his model papyrus boat is sure to make the grade. George helps him test the boat in Endless Park’s pond, but a sudden rainstorm sweeps it down the sewer grate! While searching for the boat, Steve and George learn that debris from the street ends up in the ocean. Will they ever find Steve’s little boat in the big ocean or will he be taking history again next year? “Windmill Monkey” – George proudly finishes planting his rooftop garden when he turns around to find that Compass and his friends have eaten all the seeds. The scarecrow overlooking the garden didn’t scare them at all! While buying more seeds, George spots a windmill and learns how the wind can power just about anything. The inspired monkey sets out to create the world’s first wind powered scarecrow in hopes that will keep his seeds safe. But some things are more easily planned than done! “Tiddalick the Frog” Whyatt’s mom tells him that he’s wasting water. This is a really big problem and he's not sure how to fix it. So the Super Readers dash into the Australian folk tale of Tiddalick the Frog and make the acquaintance of a funny amphibian whose puddle jumping is using up all the water and leaving his neighbors in the dust – literally! As the Super Readers help Tiddalick and his dry friends, they learn how important water is to the planet, along with a valuable lesson about conservation. All is not well in Perfectamundo, a dome-enclosed cybersite, when orange spots are discovered building up on the dome’s interior surface, blocking the site’s precious sunlight. What source could be responsible for the spots multiplying so fast? Is it Hacker’s new factory that pours out orange clouds through smoky stacks? It can’t be that new Digifizz toy, with its tiny burst of colorful sparkles shooting into the air each time it gets used. With time running out, the CyberSquad must come to grips with the power of multiplication and use it to undo the site’s pollution problem. ANGELINA BALLERINA™ THE NEXT STEPS “Angelina and the Dance-a-thon” Angelina and her friends organize a dance marathon for the Chipping Cheddar Earth Club as part of their "Camembert Cares" school project. After Gracie accidentally recycles the pledge sheet, Angelina uses her ingenuity to save the day! “EARTH DAY GIRL” When the villainous (and very large) Birthday Girl learns that planet Earth is having a special celebration on the same day as her happy occasion, she decides to wreak environmental havoc, just to teach the Earth a lesson. Can WordGirl find a way to stop the Birthday Girl’s eco-rampage and save Earth Day? MAYA & MIGUEL™ “EVERY DAY IS EARTH DAY” For a school Earth Day project, the kids decide to clean up an old lot and plant a community garden. But as the deadline approaches, a rainstorm hits, turning the patch of dirt into a muddy mess. How will Maya get her friends out of the muck this time? THE ELECTRIC COMPANY “The Flube Whisperer” Keith sends away for a Skeleckian pet that lives in a biosphere. But when the biosphere malfunctions, will Manny save the day? CLIFFORD THE BIG RED DOG® It’s Keep Birdwell Beautiful month and the kids are doing their part by planting a flower garden. Seeing this, the dogs decide to create a doggie flower garden of their own. But when Cleo hears that almost anything grows in Birdwell Island soil, she decides she’d much rather grow a garden full of dog toys! She soon learns, however, that working alone for a selfish end is not nearly as rewarding as working together for the whole community. BARNEY & FRIENDS™ “Home Sweet Earth: The Rainforest” It’s Earth Day, a great time for everyone to learn how to help take care of our world, but Ben is wasting paper while BJ isn’t too concerned about cutting down a tree to make room for a new playground. After a trip to the rainforest and a meeting with Mother Nature, everyone learns the importance of taking care of our world. As Earth Day comes to an end, Barney reminds us all that taking good care of our Earth is the natural thing to do for the people we love. About PBS KIDS PBS KIDS, the number one educational media brand for kids, offers all children the opportunity to explore new ideas and new worlds through television, online and community-based programs. More than 21 million children watch PBS KIDS on TV, and more than 21 million engage with PBS KIDS online each quarter. For more information on specific PBS KIDS programs supporting literacy, science, math and more, visit PBS.org/pressroom, and follow PBS KIDS on Twitter and Facebook. Curious George is a production of Imagine, WGBH and Universal. Curious George and related characters, created by Margret and H.A. Rey, are copyrighted and trademarked by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company and used under license. Licensed by Universal Studios Licensing LLLP. Television Series: (c) 2011 Universal Studios. All Rights Reserved. # # #

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Ray Tracing and Gaming - Quake 4: Ray Traced Project Quake 4: Ray traced An algorithm was invented for this work that uses rays for collision detection (CD). A polygon-exact CD is quite easy for direct weapons. Only one ray is needed to determine the target. Shooting this ray works through the exact same mechanisms and data structures as shooting a ray to get a color value in rendering. (Polygon exact collision detection using ray tracing) For the player model a bounding sphere was approximated through many rays like in a radar system. (Bounding sphere approximated through rays) An interesting special effect which I want to present here in more detail is water. As we expect it from nature water should reflect the surrounding environment and it should be possible to look through the water with some refractions going on. Water in motion should not look flat; there should be some visible height differences in the waves. I want to present you some examples of water in games that we have seen the last years. Of course these 'optimizations' had to be done to make the game render fast enough, so this should not be a critic of the game or company itself. It should just show how water looks today in some games, what it lacks and how it could look in ray tracing games. ('Far Cry' (2004): The reflection in the water shows only the mountains, not the trees.) ('Far Cry': Taking a close look at the reflections you see that the resolution is lower then the rest of the world.) ('Gothic 3' from 2006: Quite unspectacular water without any reflections) The water in 'Quake 4: Ray traced' (http://www.q4rt.de/) uses an animation set of many normal maps to simulate the height differences from the waves. One ray is used for reflection on that normal maps, one ray is used to get the refraction through the water. The result is nice looking water. ('Quake 4: Ray traced': The water reflects the environment and the player) Samples from Q4RT in action can be seen in this video:

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Let's Talk About: Cosmic collisions Share with others: It has been almost 100 years since Edwin Hubble measured the universe beyond the Milky Way Galaxy. Today, astronomers believe that as many as 100 billion other galaxies are sharing the cosmos. Most of these cosmic islands are classified by shape as either spiral or elliptical, but stargazing scientists have discovered galaxies that don't quite fit these molds. Common to this "irregular" category are galaxies that interact with other galaxies. These gravitational interactions are often referred to as mergers, and their existence invites the question: Is the Milky Way collision-prone? To evaluate the probability, look to the Andromeda Galaxy. Located more than 2.5 million light-years away, Andromeda appears as a small fuzzy patch in the sky. However, there is nothing miniature about it. Similar to the shape (spiral), size and mass of the Milky Way, Andromeda is home to a trillion other stars. Astronomers have known for decades that our galactic neighbor is rapidly closing in on us -- at approximately 250,000 miles per hour. They know this because of blueshift, a measured decrease in electromagnetic wavelength caused by the motion of a light-emitting source, in this case Andromeda, as it moves closer to the observer. Recently, data collected from the Hubble Space Telescope has allowed astronomers to predict a merger with certainty, in 4 billion years. Our sun will still be shining, and Earth will most likely survive the impact. Reason being, galaxies, although single units of stars gravitationally tied together, are mostly gigantic voids. One can compare a galaxy-on-galaxy collision to the pouring of one glass of water into another. The end result is a larger collection of water, or in the case of a cosmic collision, a larger galaxy. Future Earth inhabitants, billions of years from now, could look up and observe only small portions of such an event because it will take 2 billion years for these cosmic islands to become one. First Published November 29, 2012 12:00 am

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Network With Us Join us on Facebook to get the latest news and updates. Lauren Boulden's Story Using Think-Alouds to Get Inside Langston Hughes' Head Over my past few years of teaching, there have been multiple occasions where I have been stumped on how to present a particular concept to my students. I've always been able to turn to ReadWriteThink.org for hands-on, engaging lessons. For example, I knew I wanted my students to develop their skills when it came to interacting with text, particularly with poetry. While searching through the myriad options on ReadWriteThink, I came upon "Building Reading Comprehension Through Think-Alouds." At first, I planned to use the lesson exactly as written: Read Langston Hughes's poem "Dream Variation" and model a think-aloud with students; then have the students try their hand at some think-alouds using other poetry. After working out all of the details, I realized I could develop some additional skills, which would fit perfectly into the scope and sequence of my class. After completing the think-aloud to "Dream Variation," I broke students into selected groups. Each group was given a different Langston Hughes poem and asked to complete a think-aloud. The next day, the students were put into a new jigsaw group where they were solely responsible for sharing what their Langston Hughes poem conveyed. Based on the meanings behind their group mates' poems, along with using the knowledge of both their poem and "Dream Variation," students were asked to figure out who Langston Hughes was as a man. What did he stand for? What were his beliefs? What did he want out of life? Students used clues from the various poems to fill in a head-shaped graphic organizer to depict their understanding of who Hughes could be. This simple lesson of working with poems and think-alouds turned into a few days of group communication, text deciphering, inferences, and even an author study! Without great lessons available on ReadWriteThink.org, such as "Building Reading Comprehension Through Think-Alouds," my students would never have been able to tackle so many key reading strategies in such a short amount of time. Grades 6 – 8 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson Students learn components of think-alouds and type-of-text interactions through teacher modeling. In the process, students develop the ability to use think-alouds to aid in reading comprehension tasks. Lauren describes how she used ReadWriteThink in her classroom. I have been teaching seventh- and eighth-grade language arts in Delaware for the past five years. I grew up in Long Island, New York, but have called Delaware my home since completing my undergraduate and master’s work at the University of Delaware. Teaching and learning have become my prime passions in life, which is why my days are spent teaching English, directing plays, organizing the school newspaper, and teaching yoga in the evenings.

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Adopting a New Flight Plan Whooping Crane Migration Route Shifted West into Safer Air Space By LEN WELLS Courier & Press correspondent (618) 842-2159 or firstname.lastname@example.org The route of the annual 1,250-mile migration of endangered whooping crane juveniles, led by an ultralight aircraft, has been shifted this fall to a more westerly route because of concerns about pilot and bird safety. The route, from the Necedah National Wildlife Refuge in central Wisconsin to a closed area of the Chassahowitzka National Wildlife Refuge on the west coast of Florida, will bring the birds through parts of the Tri-State. It will take the birds the entire length of Illinois and across Western Kentucky, with overnight stops in Wayne County, Ill., and Union County, Ky. “The route was shifted west because the easterly route was pretty scary,” said Liz Condie, director of communications for Operation Migration, the group that works to ensure the birds’ survival. “Going over the Cumberland Ridge, there was no place to set down to retrieve a bird if there had been a problem,” she said. Officials hope, too, for better weather along the westerly route by picking up more favorable winds. “For the safety of the birds, we cannot divulge the exact location of each stopover other than down to the county level,” Condie said. “At each stop, the birds will be housed overnight in portable pens to protect them from predators and to keep them far away from human contact.” While the stopover locations are kept secret, Operation Migration officials try to schedule gathering sites for local residents to catch a glimpse of the birds as they lift off to continue their southerly trek. “A few days before the scheduled stopover, we try to alert the local residents of where they can congregate to watch a flyover,” Condie said. Because of fluctuating weather conditions, those interested in tracking the birds should check Operation Migration’s Web site at www.operationmigration.org for a more specific date and time. The whooping crane chicks that take part in the reintroduction project are hatched at the U.S. Geological Survey’s Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Laurel, Md. There, imprinting begins with the chicks still inside their eggs being exposed to ultralight aircraft sounds. Once hatched, the young chicks are reared in total isolation from humans. To ensure the impressionable cranes remain wild, each handler and pilot wears a crane puppet on one arm that can dispense food, or by example, show the young chicks how to forage as would their real mother. At 45 days of age, the young birds are transported by air, in individual containers, to the reintroduction area at the Necedah National Wildlife Refuge in Wisconsin. Because of differing age ranges, the birds usually are moved in three shipments and housed at three separate locations within a closed area of the refuge. Over the summer, the Operation Rescue crew of pilots, biologists, veterinarians and interns conditions the birds to follow the aircraft, which, along with its pilot, has been accepted as a surrogate parent. Once the birds’ dominance structure has been established and their endurance is sufficient, the migration begins, typically in October. Using four ultralight aircraft, Operation Migration’s pilots, along with a ground crew consisting of biologists, handlers, veterinarians and drivers, cover up to 200 miles a day, depending on weather conditions. This year’s migration to Florida has been scheduled to begin Oct. 17. The shortest migration has taken 48 days to complete. The longest, 97 days, was recorded last year. Because of destruction of habitat and overhunting, whooping cranes were on the verge of extinction in the 1940s when their population was reduced to only 15 birds. Since falling under the protection of the Endangered Species Act of 1973, the only naturally occurring population of migrating whooping cranes has grown to more than 200 birds. Named for their loud and penetrating unison calls, whooping cranes live and breed in wetland areas where they feed on crabs, clams, frogs and aquatic plants. An adult whooping crane stands 5 feet tall, with a white body, black wing tips and a red crest on its head. Anyone encountering a whooping crane in the wild is asked to avoid approaching it, staying back at least 600 feet. In all cases, officials ask that people remain concealed and not speak loudly enough for the birds to hear them. Especially during the migration, residents are warned not to trespass on private property in an attempt to view the cranes. (c) 2008 Evansville Courier & Press. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All rights Reserved.

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King James II of England (who was also James VII of Scotland) inherited the throne in 1685 upon the death of his brother, Charles II. James II was unpopular because of his attempts to increase the power of the monarchy and restore the Catholic faith. Deposed in the "Glorious Revolution" of 1688-89, he fled to France. His daughter and son-in-law succeeded him as Queen Mary II and King William III. James II died in 1701. Unless otherwise noted, these books are for sale at Amazon.com. Your purchase through these links will help to support the continued operation and improvement of the Royalty.nu site. James II by John Miller. Biography from the Yale English Monarchs series. James II: The Triumph and the Tragedy by John Callow. Charts James' life using little-known material from the UK National Archives. Includes James' own description of the Battle of Edgehill, his reasons for his conversion to Catholicism, and his correspondence with William of Orange. A Court in Exile: The Stuarts in France, 1689-1718 by Edward Corp. After James II was deposed, he established his court in France. The book describes his court and the close relationships between the British and French royal families. King in Exile: James II: Warrior, King and Saint by John Callow. Reassesses James's strategy for dealing with his downfall and exile, presenting a portrait of a man who planned for great political rewards and popular acclaim. James II and the Trial of the Seven Bishops by William Gibson. The trial of seven bishops in 1688 was a prelude to the Glorious Revolution, as popular support for the bishops led to widespread welcome for William of Orange's invasion. The Making of King James II by John Callow is about the formative years of the fallen king. Out of print, but sometimes available from Alibris. The Countess and the King: A Novel of the Countess of Dorchester and King James II by Susan Holloway Scott. Novel about Katherine Sedley, a royal mistress forced to make the most perilous of choices: to remain loyal to the king, or to England. The Crown for a Lie by Jane Lane. Novel about how James II lost his throne. Out of print, but sometimes available from Alibris.

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RWJF Priority: Use pricing strategies—both incentives and disincentives—to promote the purchase of healthier foods Prices can significantly affect family food choices and are emerging as an important strategy in the movement to reverse the childhood obesity epidemic. For example, when healthy foods like fruits and vegetables are more affordable, children are less likely to gain excess weight. And leading health authorities, including the Institute of Medicine, recommend new policies to reduce overconsumption of sugar-sweetened beverages, which are one of the top sources of calories in the American diet. The resources below, from RWJF grantees and partners, explore the possible health and economic impacts of using pricing strategies to promote consumption of healthy foods and beverages and discourage consumption of unhealthy products.

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Standard DefinitionStandard-definition television (SDTV) is a television system that uses a resolution that is not considered to be either high-definition television (HDTV 720p and 1080p) or enhanced-definition television (EDTV 480p). The two common SDTV signal types are 576i, with 576 interlaced lines of resolution, derived from the European-developed PAL and SECAM systems; and 480i based on the American National Television System Committee NTSC system. High DefinitionHD video has higher resolution than SD video, which results in a sharper picture. Typical HD display resolution will be 1,280×720 pixels (720p) or 1,920×1,080 pixels (1080i/1080p). For our latest tips, offers and competitions join us on

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Indian removal had been taking place in the United States since the 18th Century as more Americans made the move westward. In the early 19th Century, Andrew Jackson and the majority of white Americans like him, wanted the Indians to move west of the Mississippi, out of the way from white expansion. Popular thought was that the Indians were savages who could not be civilized, and integration with the white culture was not a possibility. Through the next several years, Indian tribes all over the eastern front were forced to reservations of proportional inequality compared with land once owned. The United States bought the land from the Indians while using its brute power to force unruly tribes west. No matter how much they tried, the Indians were no match for the strength of the United States. Indians of the Sauk and Fox tribes tried to take back land that was ceded to the United States wrongfully. When they inhabited the vacant land, Americans saw them as a threat to the white settlements close-by. Illinois state militia was sent in to destroy the so-called "invaders." The Indians retreated back and the militia continued to attack until most had been killed. Were Americans justified in the mass movement of Indian tribes? I would have to say they were not. I cannot see the logic in their assumptions of the Indians. For the most part, little interaction took place with the Indians. Yet, Americans still believed they were uncivilized. Perhaps the problem was in terms of envy. Indians had been capable of adapting to land and using the land efficiently for years at a time. I think Americans saw how the Indians were able to do this, and became jealous of their superior farming abilities. Land was becoming useless in the east, and Indians had been able to use their land repeatedly. Americans saw this fertile land as rich in potential profit and were willing to go to any length in acquiring it. Evidence of the two cultures working together in a society was apparent in New Mexico, Texas, and California. If these people were able to survive and live off each other, I would have to assume that had the United States made an effort, they could have resolved this situation in an easier manner. Unless it was jealousy that was driving them to take the Indian land. Something tells me it was exactly that which caused such a debacle. Superior in farming techniques and land use, the Indians efficient ways were the downfall of their land availability.

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All Property Taxes Real, Public Utility and Tangible Personal Property Taxes Assessed Value and Taxes Levied for Taxes Payable in Calendar Year 1988, by County Table PD-30 shows total assessed value of, and taxes levied on, real, public utility personal, and tangible personal property for taxes payable in calendar year 1988. Taxes for real and public utility personal property were levied in tax year 1987, but payable in calendar year 1988. Special assessments were also levied in tax year 1987 and payable in calendar year 1988. In contrast, personal property taxes (excluding public utility personal property) are levied and payable in the same year - in this case 1988. Total taxes levied on the three categories of property were $6.6 billion on a total assessed value of $106.7 billion. Special assessments totalled $107.9 million. Total real property taxes levied were $5.0 billion, while public utility personal property and tangible personal property taxes totalled $613.4 million and $1.0 billion, The value of real property was $78.9 billion compared to $10.8 billion and $17.0 billion for public utility personal and tangible personal property, respectively. Real property taxes shown in the table are prior to application of "tax reduction factors" and are prior to subtracting the 10 percent property tax rollback for all real property, the 2.5 percent rollback for residential real property, and the homestead exemption deduction. Among all Ohio counties, Cuyahoga County had the highest property value ($14.8 billion of which real property accounted for $11.3 billion) and the highest amount of taxes levied ($929.5 million in real property taxes and $1.2 billion in total property taxes). Vinton County had the lowest value of real property ($57.4 million) and the lowest total property value ($99.1 million); Cuyahoga County also levied the lowest amount of taxes ($2.1 million in real property taxes and $3.6 million in total Lucas County led all Ohio counties in the amount of special assessments levied, with $21.8 million. Four counties - Adams, Morgan, Pike, and Vinton- recorded no special Data for this table were taken from abstracts filed by county auditors with the Ohio Department of Taxation.

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Does exercise help you detox? Explore This Story The word “detoxification” is flung around the fitness community as frequently as kettlebells. Yoga teachers regularly speak of detoxifying twists, aerobics instructors of detoxifying sweat, dieters of detoxifying fasts. But health professionals are skeptical. “If you start talking about exercising to detoxify, there’s no scientific data,” said Dr. Elizabeth Matzkin, chief of women’s sports medicine at Harvard Medical School. “The human body is designed to get rid of what we don’t need.” The same applies to fasting. “No good scientific data supports any of those cleanses, where you drink juice, or (only) water for a week,” she said. Exercise is important, Matzkin added, because it enables our body to do what it is made to do, but the kidneys and colon get rid of waste. The role of exercise in that process is unclear. “In general exercise helps our lungs; kidneys get rid of things that can cause us onset of disease,” she said. A healthy lifestyle — eating healthy, drinking plenty of water and exercising — is important to detoxifying because it enables our body to do what is intended to do. “As for specific yoga moves, I’m not so sure,” she said. Yoga instructor and fitness expert Shirley Archer, an author and spokeswoman for the American Council on Exercise (ACE) said the theory behind the effectiveness of detoxifying twists in yoga is that they squeeze the organs, which push the blood out so fresh blood can rush in. “Better circulation equals better health,” said Archer, who is based in Florida. “If detox means to eliminate from the body what it no longer needs, then certain yogic practices can help.” She said yogic deep breathing with strong exhalations can empty the lungs of unneeded carbon dioxide and allow for a fresh breath of more oxygenated air. “This nourishes all of our cells,” she said. “It is also a method of cleansing because better circulation equals better health.” Meditative movement practices, such as yoga and tai chi, she added, can detox your attitude because they require staying in the present moment and discourage dwelling on the past. Last summer, celebrity trainer Tracy Anderson began taking groups of 40-odd women on what she calls Detox Weeks, which involve at least three hours of workouts each day, as well as lectures on fitness and nutrition aimed mainly at encouraging lifestyle changes. Similar weeks in other cities are planned for 2013. “Women work out and think ‘Why can’t my love handles, muffin tops go away’?” said Anderson, creator of the Tracy Anderson Method and a co-owner, with actress Gwyneth Paltrow, of fitness centres in Los Angeles and New York. “The most important thing is if you can become a consistent exerciser.” “A good workout is not five to 10 yoga poses,” she explained. “You have to learn to scale up your endurance. If you can only jump for five minutes straight, we’ll go to 10 minutes, then 20 minutes.” Anderson said she uses the term detoxification broadly to include everything from working up a good sweat to clearing the mind of destructive thoughts. “Detoxification is a big topic,” she said. Nancy Clark, a registered dietitian in Boston, Massachusetts and a member of the American College of Sports Medicine, said the body generally does a fine job of detoxifying itself through the liver and kidneys. Sweating has nothing to do with it. “When you sweat you really don’t detoxify anything,” she explained. “If someone goes on a crash diet, then maybe toxins are released but then the body would take care of them. When you sweat you lose sodium.” - NEW RCMP probing Senate expense scandal, Senate speaker says - NEW Mayor Rob Ford fires chief of staff Mark Towhey - Toronto terror suspect asks for defence lawyer who is guided by ‘holy book’ - Updated London attack: Two more people arrested, police say - Tim Bosma homicide: Second suspect Mark Smich appears in court - Updated City councillor Paul Ainslie's licence suspended after roadside check - DiManno: No matter how it seems on Planet Ford, it’s over - Updated As world gawks at Rob Ford scandal, Toronto police wait and watch

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There are many techniques available to help students get started with a piece of writing. Getting started can be hard for all levels of writers. Freewriting is one great technique to build fluency. That was explored in an earlier lesson plan: http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/adulted/lessons/lesson18.html This unit offers some other techniques. These techniques may be especially helpful with students who prefer a style of learning or teaching that could be described as visual, spatial, or graphic. Sometimes those styles or overlooked in favor of approaches that are very linguistic or linear. The approaches here will attend to a broader range of learning styles as they add variety. - Writing: Writing Process, Pre-Writing, Autobiography, Exposition, Personal Narrative, Argumentation, Comparison and Contrast, Description. Students will be able to: - Write more fluently (writing more with greater ease) - Generate writing topics - Select topics that will yield strong pieces of writing - Connect personal experience, knowledge, and examples to an assigned - Produce better organized pieces of writing National Reporting System of Adult Education standards are applicable here. These are the standards required by the 1998 Workforce Investment Act. See Pencils, colored pencils, pens, markers, crayons, unlined paper, magazines and newspapers with pictures inside, glue or paste, and paper. Big paper or poster board can make the pre-writing exercises more eye-catching, more of a project, and better for display. Video and TV: Prep for Teachers Make sure you try each of the activities yourself before you ask students to do them. That will give you a better understanding of the activities and help you recognize any potential points that may be confusing or difficult. This also gives you a sample to show the students. Its much easier to create a diagram if you are shown an example of one. Here are some Web sites that give background and even more ideas about you pre-writing, diagrams, graphic organizers, and other ideas to get started with writing. There is some repetition here. You dont have to read them all. But check them out and see what you think.

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No one knows how the first organisms or even the first organic precursors formed on Earth, but one theory is that they didn't. Rather, they were imported from space. Scientists have been finding what looks like biological raw material in meteorites for years, but it's usually been shown to be ground contamination. This year, however, investigators studying a dozen meteorites that landed in Antarctica found traces of adenine and guanine two of the four nucleobases that make DNA. That's not a big surprise, since nucleobases have been found in meteorites before. But these were found in the company of other molecules that were similar in structure but not identical. Those had never been detected in previous meteorite samples and they were also not found on the ground where the space rocks landed. That rules out contamination and rules in space organics. A little adenine and guanine in the company of other mysterious stuff is a long, long way from something living but it's closer than we were before. Next Star Wars Gets Real

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Poor sanitary conditions lead to increase in skin disease in SyriaListen / There has been an increase in cases of leishmaniasis in Syria, according to Dr. Glen Thomas of the World Health Organization, (WHO). Leishmaniasis is a disease transmitted by the bite of the sand fly and characterized by skin sores. Dr. Thomas says the disease is spreading because of poor waste and hygiene management caused by the continuing conflict in the country. The form of the disease which affects the skin is not life-threatening and not a priority disease, says the doctor, but it is a concern. The symptoms are sores and scars on the body and they come into effect a couple of weeks after the sand flies have transmitted the disease. And we are now helping and trying to get deliveries of treatments to the affected areas. But obviously because of the situation, it is very difficult. Dr. Thomas says the Aleppo area is where the increase in leishmaniasis has been seen. Gerry Adams, United Nations

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New Class of Tuberculosis-Fighting Antibiotics Suggested By Biochemical-Pathway Study (Philadelphia, PA) - A worldwide health problem, tuberculosis kills more people than any other bacterial infection. The World Health Organization estimates that two billion people are infected with TB, and that two million people die each year from the disease. However, due to multi-drug resistance and a protracted medication regimen, it is extremely difficult to treat. Hence, there is still a great deal of interest in developing new anti-tubercular drugs. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have identified a biochemical target that could lead to a new class of antibiotics to fight TB. They report their findings in this week’s online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. In a proof-of-principle study, Harvey Rubin, MD, PhD, Professor of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, and colleagues were able to stop the bacteria from multiplying by inhibiting the first step in a common biochemical pathway. This pathway is responsible for making the energy molecules all cells need to survive. First author Edward Weinstein, an MD/PhD student, Rubin, and colleagues characterized the pathway and showed that an important enzyme in it is a key target for anti-TB agents. The pathway, explains Rubin, is like a series of links in a chain, with enzymes facilitating reactions along the way. “We discovered that if you inhibit the very first enzyme in the chain, you inhibit everything else downstream and eventually the bacteria die,” he explains. The research group tested phenothiazine, a drug used in the past to treat schizophrenia, in cultures of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacterium that causes TB. They found that phenothiazines killed the bacterium in culture and suppressed its growth in mice with acute TB infection. While the effect on the growth of TB in mice was small, it suggested that a valid target was identified. The research group went on to show that the enzyme disabled by the phenothiazines is called type II NADH dehydrogenase and is a unique and important antimicrobial target. “What we have now is a new target in TB,” says Rubin. “We’ve been able to find at least the beginnings of a class of compounds that we can start working with and that we know is biochemically active against the TB bacteria in culture and in small animals.” Is it a new drug for tuberculosis? Not yet, cautions Rubin. It’s premature to say that this class of drugs will cure TB, but it does represent the start of basic research towards that, he concludes. Next steps include more investigations on inhibitors of the NADH biochemical pathway in TB, and the development of high-throughput screens to find better and safer inhibitors of type II NADH dehydrogenase. This work was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health. Rubin and Weinstein’s coauthors are Takahiro Yano, Lin-Sheng Li, David Avarbock, Andrew Avarbock and Douglas Helm from Penn, and Andrew McColm, Ken Duncan, and John T. Lonsdale from GlaxoSmithKline (Collegeville, PA and Stevenage, UK). Animal studies were conducted at GlaxoSmithKline. Penn researchers report no conflicts of interest. PENN Medicine is a $2.7 billion enterprise dedicated to the related missions of medical education, biomedical research, and high-quality patient care. PENN Medicine consists of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine (founded in 1765 as the nation’s first medical school) and the University of Pennsylvania Health System (created in 1993 as the nation’s first integrated academic health Penn’s School of Medicine is ranked #3 in the nation for receipt of NIH research funds; and ranked #4 in the nation in U.S. News & World Report’s most recent ranking of top research-oriented medical schools. Supporting 1,400 fulltime faculty and 700 students, the School of Medicine is recognized worldwide for its superior education and training of the next generation of physician-scientists and leaders of academic Penn Health System is comprised of: its flagship hospital, the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, consistently rated one of the nation’s “Honor Roll” hospitals by U.S. News & World Report; Pennsylvania Hospital, the nation's first hospital; Presbyterian Medical Center; a faculty practice plan; a primary-care provider network; two multispecialty satellite facilities; and home health care and hospice.

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Search: Nuclear chemistry, Darmstadtium, Germany In honour of scientist and astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543), the discovering team around Professor Sigurd Hofmann suggested the name copernicium with the element symbol Cp for the new element 112, discovered at the GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung (Center for Heavy Ion Research) in Darmstadt. It was Copernicus who discovered that the Earth orbits the Sun, thus paving the way for our modern view of the world. Thirteen years ago, element 112 was discovered by an international team of scientists at the GSI accelerator facility. A few weeks ago, the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, IUPAC, officially confirmed their discovery. In around six months, IUPAC will officially endorse the new element's name. This period is set to allow the scientific community to discuss the suggested name copernicium before the IUPAC naming. "After IUPAC officially recognized our discovery, we – that is all scientists involved in the discovery – agreed on proposing the name copernicium for the new element 112. We would like to honor an outstanding scientist, who changed our view of the world", says Sigurd Hofmann, head of the discovering team. Copernicus was born 1473 in Torun; he died 1543 in Frombork, Poland. Working in the field of astronomy, he realized that the planets circle the Sun. His discovery refuted the then accepted belief that the Earth was the center of the universe. His finding was pivotal for the discovery of the gravitational force, which is responsible for the motion of the planets. It also led to the conclusion that the stars are incredibly far away and the universe inconceivably large, as the size and position of the stars does not change even though the Earth is moving. Furthermore, the new world view inspired by Copernicus had an impact on the human self-concept in theology and philosophy: humankind could no longer be seen as the center of the world. With its planets revolving around the Sun on different orbits, the solar system is also a model for other physical systems. The structure of an atom is like a microcosm: its electrons orbit the atomic nucleus like the planets orbit the Sun. Exactly 112 electrons circle the atomic nucleus in an atom of the new element "copernicium". Element 112 is the heaviest element in the periodic table, 277 times heavier than hydrogen. It is produced by a nuclear fusion, when bombarding zinc ions onto a lead target. As the element already decays after a split second, its existence can only be proved with the help of extremely fast and sensitive analysis methods. Twenty-one scientists from Germany, Finland, Russia and Slovakia have been involved in the experiments that led to the discovery of element 112. Since 1981, GSI accelerator experiments have yielded the discovery of six chemical elements, which carry the atomic numbers 107 to 112. The discovering teams at GSI already named five of them: element 107 is called bohrium, element 108 hassium, element 109 meitnerium, element 110 darmstadtium, and element 111 is named roentgenium. The new element 112 discovered by GSI has been officially recognized and will be named by the Darmstadt group in due course. Their suggestion should be made public over this summer. The element 112, discovered at the GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung (Centre for Heavy Ion Research) in Darmstadt, has been officially recognized as a new element by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC). IUPAC confirmed the recognition of element 112 in an official letter to the head of the discovering team, Professor Sigurd Hofmann. The letter furthermore asks the discoverers to propose a name for the new element. Their suggestion will be submitted within the next weeks. In about 6 months, after the proposed name has been thoroughly assessed by IUPAC, the element will receive its official name. The new element is approximately 277 times heavier than hydrogen, making it the heaviest element in the periodic table. “We are delighted that now the sixth element – and thus all of the elements discovered at GSI during the past 30 years – has been officially recognized. During the next few weeks, the scientists of the discovering team will deliberate on a name for the new element”, says Sigurd Hofmann. 21 scientists from Germany, Finland, Russia and Slovakia were involved in the experiments around the discovery of the new element 112. Since 1981, GSI accelerator experiments have yielded the discovery of six chemical elements, which carry the atomic numbers 107 to 112. GSI has already named their officially recognized elements 107 to 111: element 107 is called Bohrium, element 108 Hassium, element 109 Meitnerium, element 110 Darmstadtium, and element 111 is named Roentgenium. Recommendation for the Naming of Element of Atomic Number 110 Prepared for publication by J. Corish and G. M. Rosenblatt A joint IUPAC-IUPAP Working Party confirms the discovery of element number 110 and this by the collaboration of Hofmann et al. from the Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung mbH (GSI) in Darmstadt, Germany. In accord with IUPAC procedures, the discoverers have proposed a name and symbol for the element. The Inorganic Chemistry Division Committee now recommends this proposal for acceptance. The proposed name is darmstadtium with symbol Ds. This proposal lies within the long established tradition of naming an element after the place of its discovery.

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Member States were next asked a series of questions related to safety and herbal medicines. The first question asked countries to describe those regulatory requirements used for the safety assessment of herbal medicines. The following options were given: same requirements as for conventional pharmaceuticals, special requirements or no requirements. If Member States chose the option “special requirements”, they were further asked to choose all that applied from the following options: traditional use without demonstrated harmful effects, reference to documented scientific research on similar products, and other requirements. If other requirements were selected, the respondents were asked to describe the requirement. A total of 130 Member States responded to this question: however, as respondents were asked to choose all that applied, there are more responses than respondents for this question (Figure 30). Eighty two countries indicated that special regulatory requirements exist for herbal medicine. Of the remaining responses, 57 countries indicated that the same regulatory requirements for safety assessment apply to herbal medicines as to conventional pharmaceuticals. Finally, 28 countries indicated that no regulatory requirements for safety assessment exist in their country. Figure 30. Regulatory requirements for safety assessment of herbal medicines When selecting the category “special requirements”, countries were further asked to choose the relevant categories of special requirement, or to describe other special requirements. Sixty-six countries of the 82 that chose the category of special requirements indicated that their laws and regulations employ the regulatory requirement of traditional use without demonstrated harmful effects, while 53 countries indicated that they had a regulatory requirement for reference to documented scientific research (Figure 31). Please note that, as countries were able to choose all options that apply, the number of responses exceeds the number of responding countries. Figure 31. Special regulatory requirements for safety assessment of herbal medicines Twenty-one countries chose the option “other” and provided details on other regulatory requirements for safety assessment. These included the following: clinical studies, bibliographical documents, screening of herbs not suitable for food use, screening for toxic elements, radioactivity and heavy metals, well-established use, traditional literature documentation and toxicological studies. Finally, countries were asked whether control mechanisms exist for the regulatory requirements for safety assessment detailed above and, if so, a brief description was requested. Though 125 Member States responded, the figure below only includes 106 since it excludes those that did not respond to the previous question, or responded solely that that there are no requirements. Of the responding countries, 67%, or 71 countries, indicated that such control mechanisms exist (Figure 32). The control mechanisms were also specified in some cases, of which licensing and registration, laboratory testing and pharmacovigilance centres were among the most frequently cited. Figure 32. Existence of a control mechanism for safety requirements

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As the years tick by with most of the planet doing little in the way of reducing carbon emissions, researchers are getting increasingly serious about the possibility of carbon sequestration. If it looks like we're going to be burning coal for decades, carbon sequestration offers us the best chance of limiting its impact on climate change and ocean acidification. A paper that will appear in today's PNAS describes a fantastic resource for carbon sequestration that happens to be located right next to many of the US' major urban centers on the East Coast. Assuming that capturing the carbon dioxide is financially and energetically feasible, the big concern becomes where to put it so that it will stay out of the atmosphere for centuries. There appear to be two main schools of thought here. One is that areas that hold large deposits of natural gas should be able to trap other gasses for the long term. The one concern here is that, unlike natural gas, CO2 readily dissolves in water, and may escape via groundwater that flows through these features. The alternative approach turns that problem into a virtue: dissolved CO2 can react with minerals in rocks called basalts (the product of major volcanic activity), forming insoluble carbonate minerals. This should provide an irreversible chemical sequestration. The new paper helpfully points out that if we're looking for basalts, the East Coast of the US, home to many of its major urban centers and their associated carbon emissions, has an embarrassment of riches. The rifting that broke up the supercontinent called Pangea and formed the Atlantic Ocean's basin triggered some massive basalt flows at the time, which are now part of the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province, or CAMP. The authors estimate that prior to some erosion, CAMP had the equivalent of the largest basalt flows we're currently aware of, the Siberian and Deccan Traps. Some of this basalt is on land—anyone in northern Manhattan can look across the Hudson River and see it in the sheer cliffs of the Palisades. But much, much more of it is off the coast under the Atlantic Ocean. The authors provide some evidence in the form of drill cores and seismic readings that indicate there are large basalt deposits in basins offshore of New Jersey and New York, extending up to southern New England. These areas are now covered with millions of years of sediment, which should provide a largely impermeable barrier that will trap any gas injected into the basalt for many years. The deposits should also have reached equilibrium with the seawater above, which will provide the water necessary for the chemical reactions that precipitate out carbonate minerals. Using a drill core from an onshore deposit, the authors show that the basalt deposits are also composed of many distinct flows of material. Each of these flows would have undergone rapid cooling on both its upper and lower surface, which fragmented the rock. The core samples show porosity levels between 10 and 20 percent, which should allow any CO2 pumped into the deposits to spread widely. The authors estimate that New Jersey's Sandy Hook basin, a relatively small deposit, is sufficient to house 40 years' worth of emissions from coal plants that produce 4GW of electricity. And the Sandy Hook basin is dwarfed by one that lies off the Carolinas and Georgia. They estimate that the South Georgia Rift basin covers roughly 40,000 square kilometers. The authors argue that although laboratory simulations suggest the basic idea of using basalts for carbon sequestration is sound, the actual effectiveness in a given region can depend on local quirks of geology, so pilot tests in the field are absolutely essential for determining whether a given deposit is suitable. So far, only one small-scale test has been performed on any of the CAMP deposits. Given the area's proximity to significant sources of CO2 and the infrastructure that could be brought into play if full-scale sequestration is attempted, it seems like one of the most promising proposals to date. PNAS, 2010. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0913721107

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This section provides primary sources that document how Indian and European men and one English and one Indian woman have described the practice of sati, or the self-immolation of Hindu widows. Although they are all critical of self-immolation, Francois Bernier, Fanny Parks, Lord William Bentinck, and Rev. England present four different European perspectives on the practice of sati and what it represents about Indian culture in general, and the Hindu religion and Hindu women in particular. They also indicate increasing negativism in European attitudes toward India and the Hindu religion in general. It would be useful to compare the attitudes of Bentinck and England as representing the secular and sacred aspects of British criticism of sati. A comparison of Bentinck’s minute with the subsequent legislation also reveals differences in tone between private and public documents of colonial officials. Finally, a comparison between the Fanny Parks and the three men should raise discussion on whether or not the gender and social status of the writer made any difference in his or her appraisal of the practice of self-immolation. The three sources by Indian men and one by an Indian woman illustrate the diversity of their attitudes toward sati. The Marathi source illuminates the material concerns of relatives of the Hindu widow who is urged to adopt a son, so as to keep a potentially lucrative office within the extended family. These men are willing to undertake intense and delicate negotiations to secure a suitably related male child who could be adopted. This letter also documents that adoption was a legitimate practice among Hindus, and that Hindu women as well as men could adopt an heir. Ram Mohan Roy’s argument illustrates a rationalist effort to reform Hindu customs with the assistance of British legislation. Roy illustrates one of the many ways in which Indians collaborate with British political power in order to secure change within Indian society. He also enabled the British to counter the arguments of orthodox Hindus about the scriptural basis for the legitimacy of self-immolation of Hindu widows. The petition of the orthodox Hindu community in Calcutta, the capital of the Company’s territories in India, documents an early effort of Indians to keep the British colonial power from legislating on matters pertaining to the private sphere of Indian family life. Finally, Pandita Ramabai reflects the ways in which ancient Hindu scriptures and their interpretation continued to dominate debate. Students should consider how Ramabai’s effort to raise funds for her future work among child widows in India might have influenced her discussion of sati. Two key issues should be emphasized. First, both Indian supporters and European and Indian opponents of the practice of self-immolation argue their positions on the bodies of Hindu women, and all the men involved appeal to Hindu scriptures to legitimate their support or opposition. Second, the voices of Indian women were filtered through the sieve of Indian and European men and a very few British women until the late 19th century. - How do the written and visual sources portray the Hindu women who commit self-immolation? Possible aspects range from physical appearance and age, motivation, evidence of physical pain (that even the most devoted woman must suffer while burning to death), to any evidence of the agency or autonomy of the Hindu widow in deciding to commit sati. Are any differences discernible, and if so, do they seem related to gender or nationality of the observer or time period in which they were observed? - How are the brahman priests who preside at the self-immolation portrayed in Indian and European sources? What might account for any similarities and differences? - What reasons are used to deter Hindu widows from committing sati? What do these reasons reveal about the nature of family life in India and the relationships between men and women? - What do the reasons that orthodox Hindus provide to European observers and to Indian reformers reveal about the significance of sati for the practice of the Hindu religion? What do their arguments reveal about orthodox Hindu attitudes toward women and the family? - How are Hindu scriptures used in various ways in the debates before and after the prohibition of sati? - What is the tone of the petition from 800 Hindus to their British governor? Whom do they claim to represent? What is their justification for the ritual of self-immolation? What is their attitude toward the Mughal empire whose Muslim rulers had preceded the British? What is their characterization of the petitioners toward those Hindus who support the prohibition on sati? How do the petitioners envision the proper relationship between the state and the practice of religion among its subjects? - Who or what factors do European observers, British officials, and Indian opponents of sati hold to be responsible for the continuance of the practice of sati? - What were the reasons that widows gave for committing sati? Were they religious, social or material motives? What is the evidence that the widows were voluntarily committing sati before 1829? What reasons did the opponents of sati give for the decisions of widows to commit self-immolation? What reasons did opponents give for widows who tried to escape from their husbands’ pyres? - What are the reasons that Lord Bentinck and his Executive Council cite for their decision to declare the practice of sati illegal? Are the arguments similar to or different from his arguments in his minute a month earlier? What do these reasons reveal about British attitudes toward their role or mission in India? Do they use any of the arguments cited by Ram Mohan Roy or Pandita Ramabai? - What do these sources, both those who oppose sati and those who advocate it, reveal about their attitudes to the Hindu religion in particular and Indian culture in general?

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Bundelkhand’s ravine wastelands. Photo: Keya Acharya/IPS BUNDELKHAND, India – Narrow, cobblestoned lanes separate the rows of mud houses with cool interiors and mud-smoothened patios, some with goats tethered to the wooden posts. This is Tajpura village, deep in this water-stressed, drought-prone region of northern India. An area of stark beauty marked by deep ravines in central India, Bundelkhand spans the states of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. The ruins of stone fortresses dotting the landscape betray a history of constant warfare just as the remnants of water courses and irrigation systems speak of peaceable and prosperous times gone by. Bundelkhand suffers from manmade problems, starting with the government’s misplaced land and water policies that have worsened an already stressed climatic situation caused by prolonged droughts and erratic rainfall. Air dropping of ‘Prosopis juliflora’ seeds as a soil-conservation measure in the 1960s resulted in the plant becoming an invasive species that killed indigenous shrubs and trees, making the soft soils of the ravines leach water rapidly and turned vast areas into wastelands. Thoughtless promotion by the government of water-intensive crops like mentha (mint) encouraged richer farmers to dig deep tube wells while neglecting groundwater recharge, resulting in a disastrous lowering of the water table. Marginalised farmers, unable to afford expensive infrastructure and inputs, suffer as groundwater depletion adds to problems caused by the ancient rainwater storage and distribution systems going defunct. Drought is now a familiar spectre in this region and less than half of its one million hectare arable spread is now cultivable, causing distress to its mainly farming population of 50 million people. “What you have is very high water consumption in an area suffering from water crisis,” says Anil Singh, coordinator of Parmarth, an organisation working to revive traditional systems of water and cropping among marginalised communities that inhabit the ravines of Bundelkhand. In Tajpura village, as though in denial of Bundelkhand’s stark conditions, 36-year-old Mamtadevi, wife of Ajan Singh, serves up a meal of steaming hot chappatis (Indian flat bread) smeared with clarified butter, a cool, green salad and a dish of smoked brinjal, boiled potato, fresh tomato and green chilli. “That extra taste in the vegetables is because they are grown sustainably and without chemicals,” explains Mamtadevi. Ajan Singh and Mamtadevi were among the first to adopt Parmarth’s ‘low external input sustainable agriculture’ (LEISA) which is now standing them in good stead as rainfall becomes scantier and average temperatures rises. LEISA involves such practices as efficient recycling of nitrogen and other plant nutrients, managing pests through natural means, maintaining ideal soil conditions and ensuring that local farmers are aware of the environment and the value of preserving ecosystems. The soundness of this method shows in the freshness of Ajan Singh’s vegetable crops, in biodiversity conservation through the use of hardy indigenous seeds and avoiding chemicals for maintaining soil health. Ajan Singh is also able to beat the vagaries of the weather and this year’s drought, caused by failure of the monsoons, holds no great terror for him or for other farmers who follow LEISA. Bhartendu Prakash, steering committee member of the Organic Farmers Association of India (OFAI) and in-charge of its northern branch based in Bundelkhand, says the region was hit by frost last winter but organic farmlands using LEISA were the least affected. “I did not know this system previously. I would grow ‘gehu’ (wheat) and manage 200-300 kg on this same plot,” says Ajan Singh. Parmarth helped the community in contouring the lands for rainwater run-off and storage and constructed a well for irrigation. Its volunteers also taught farmers like Ajan Singh how to make vermicompost and set up pheromone traps to catch insects. Most farmers though, already had their own methods of making biopesticide – usually a mix of neem leaves and garlic soaked in buffalo buttermilk. “But before the pheromone traps were laid, the spraying had to be done once every three days, now once a week is enough,” says Mamtadevi. By 2009, the couple’s vegetables had such a reputation for quality that they sold at the local market 10 km away at higher than prevailing rates, earning them nearly 80,000 Indian rupees (then approximately 1,800 dollars) yearly. Three years later, Ajan Singh bought another ‘bigha’ (approximately 2.2 acres) of land. He now takes his produce to two markets and also sells milk from five buffaloes that he bought with his earnings. Fifteen more farmers from Tajpura are now following Ajan Singh’s methods. Along with this, the women of the community have banded together into self-help groups that maintain a savings and loan account to assist women find simple livelihood alternatives like livestock rearing. The women also run a grain bank that sells surplus grain in the open market and give grain free to distressed families in times of need. “We are now trying to link the community to government schemes wherever possible, such as obtaining sprinklers, and getting some benefit from the state-run Bundelkhand Relief Package which does help with drought-proofing,” says Anil Singh who works for Parmarth. Released in 2009 by the federal government, the package worth 1.5 billion dollars supports rainwater harvesting, proper utilisation of river systems, irrigation canals and water bodies over a three-year period. But Bundelkhand’s natural farming methods need to get more support as the funding period comes to an end. “Bundelkhand is too entrenched in northern Indian chemical farming methods,” says OFAI’s Prakash. In contrast, OFAI is deluged with requests for training in organic farming methods from farmers in Punjab and Haryana, the ‘mother zone’ of the so-called ‘green revolution’ that transformed agriculture in India after introduction in the 1960s. Rajesh Krishnan, campaigner for Greenpeace in India, is optimistic that the government will see the wisdom of promoting organic agriculture as a counter measure to the numerous fallouts of chemical agriculture that fuelled the green revolution. Krishnan is hopeful for the probable financing of sustainable agriculture in India’s 12th Five- Year Plan, due to be rolled out in November. Prakash is confident that sustainable agricultural farming will survive through a growing demand for organically-grown crops.

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Scientists have long projected that areas north and south of the tropics will grow drier in a warming world –- from the Middle East through the European Riviera to the American Southwest, from sub-Saharan Africa to parts of Australia. These regions are too far from the equator to benefit from the moist columns of heated air that result in steamy afternoon downpours. And the additional precipitation foreseen as more water evaporates from the seas is mostly expected to fall at higher latitudes. Essentially, a lot of climate scientists say, these regions may start to feel more like deserts under the influence of global warming. Now scientists have measured a rapid recent expansion of desert-like barrenness in the subtropical oceans –- in places where surface waters have also been steadily warming. There could be a link to human-driven climate change, but it’s too soon to tell, the scientists said. [UPDATED below, 3/6, 1 p..m] Read more…

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The white, mottled area in the right-center of this image from NASA’s Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) is Madrid, the capital of Spain. Located on the Meseta Central, a vast plateau covering about 40 percent of the country, this city of 3 million is very near the exact geographic center of the Iberian Peninsula. The Meseta is rimmed by mountains and slopes gently to the west and to the series of rivers that form the boundary with Portugal. The plateau is mostly covered with dry grasslands, olive groves and forested hills. Madrid is situated in the middle of the Meseta, and at an elevation of 646 meters (2,119 feet) above sea level is the highest capital city in Europe. To the northwest of Madrid, and visible in the upper left of the image, is the Sistema Central mountain chain that forms the “dorsal spine” of the Meseta and divides it into northern and southern subregions. Rising to about 2,500 meters (8,200 feet), these mountains display some glacial features and are snow-capped for most of the year. Offering almost year-round winter sports, the mountains are also important to the climate of Madrid. Three visualization methods were combined to produce this image: shading and color coding of topographic height and radar image intensity. The shade image was derived by computing topographic slope in the northwest-southeast direction. North-facing slopes appear bright and south-facing slopes appear dark. Color coding is directly related to topographic height, with green at the lower elevations, rising through yellow and brown to white at the highest elevations. The shade image was combined with the radar intensity image in the flat areas. Size: 172 by 138 kilometers (107 by 86 miles) Location: 40.43 degrees North latitude, 3.70 degrees West longitude Orientation: North toward the top Image Data: shaded and colored SRTM elevation model, with SRTM radar intensity added Original Data Resolution: SRTM 1 arcsecond (about 30 meters or 98 feet) Date Acquired: February 2000 Image Courtesy SRTM Team NASA/JPL/NIMA

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A crocodile large enough to swallow humans once lived in East Africa, according to a May 2012 paper in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. Paper author Christopher Brochu is an associate professor of geoscience at University of Iowa. He said: It’s the largest known true crocodile. It may have exceeded 27 feet in length. By comparison, the largest recorded Nile crocodile was less than 21 feet, and most are much smaller. The newly-discovered species lived between two and four million years ago in Kenya. It resembled its living cousin, the Nile crocodile, but was more massive. Brochu recognized the new species from fossils that he examined three years ago at the National Museum of Kenya in Nairobi. Some were found at sites known for important human fossil discoveries. Brochu said: It lived alongside our ancestors, and it probably ate them. He explains that although the fossils contain no evidence of human/reptile encounters, crocodiles generally eat whatever they can swallow, and humans of that time period would have stood no more than four feet tall. We don’t actually have fossil human remains with croc bites, but the crocs were bigger than today’s crocodiles, and we were smaller, so there probably wasn’t much biting involved. Brochu added that there likely would have been ample opportunity for humans to encounter crocs. That’s because early man, along with other animals, would have had to seek water at rivers and lakes where crocodiles lie in wait. The crocodile Crocodylus thorbjarnarsoni is named after John Thorbjarnarson, famed crocodile expert and Brochu’s colleague who died of malaria while in the field several years ago. Brochu says Crocodylus thorbjarnarsoni is not directly related to the present-day Nile crocodile. This suggests that the Nile crocodile is a fairly young species and not an ancient “living fossil,” as many people believe. Borchu said: We really don’t know where the Nile crocodile came from. But it only appears after some of these prehistoric giants died out. Bottom line: A paper in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology in May, 2012 reports the discovery of an ancient crocodile large enough to swallow humans that lived two to four million years ago in East Africa.

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The Seine, the scenic river running through Paris, has inspired artists, attracted tourists and served as the soul of the city, and now it will also be a source of renewable energy. Paris officials have announced a plan to place river turbines beneath four bridges on the Seine. The Pont du Garigliano, Pont de la Tournelle, Pont Marie and Pont au Change will each have two turbines installed underwater at their base. These bridges were chosen because the speed of the current accelerates in those locations. While river currents don't produce the kind of electricity that wave power can, the current-harvesting technology has come a long way and more devices are being introduced that can generate energy from even the slowest moving waters. City officials have put a call out to power companies to come up with the best plan for installing the turbines, with a winner being chosen in January and installations starting next spring. via The Guardian written by Quiet-Environmentalist, June 29, 2010 written by David Brockes, July 08, 2010 |< Prev||Next >|

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On 26 June 2012 it is the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking. This important day was created by the United Nations General Assembly to help create a society free of illegal drugs and drug abuse. The date raises awareness of two important world issues -World Drug Day and theBlue Heart Campaign against Human Trafficking.Established in 1987, the day is now in its 25th year and its pro-health campaign is stronger than ever. Each year the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) selects a theme for the day and this year it is Health. Events will be held all over the world, from Australia to Vietnam, to look at the effects of drugs in local communities and how we can stop them. From the dangerous effects of cannabis to the prevention of HIV/AIDS and needle sharing, there will be lots of information available to get educated and join the fight against drug abuse.

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Most Americans believe that the Declaration of Independence by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776 began American independence. While this date announced the formal break between the American colonists and the “mother country,” it did not guarantee independence. Not all Americans favored independence and most historical estimates place the number of Loyalist, or Tory, Americans near one-third of the population. Winning independence required an eight-year war that began in April, 1775 and ended with a peace treaty finalized on September 3, 1783. Unfortunately the infant nation found itself born in a world dominated by a superpower struggle between England and France. The more powerful European nations viewed the vulnerable United States, correctly, as weak and ripe for exploitation. Tragically, few Americans know of this period of crisis in our nation’s history because of the irresponsible neglect of the American education system. American independence marked the end of one chapter in American history and the beginning of another. As with all historical events this declaration continued the endless cycle of action and reaction, because nothing occurs in a vacuum. Tragically, most Americans’ historical perspective begins with their birth, rendering everything that previously occurred irrelevant. Furthermore, most educators conveniently “compartmentalize” their subjects and do not place them in the proper historical context. Since most Americans only remember the United States as a superpower they do not know of our previous struggles. Unfortunately our agenda driven education system also ignores this period and often portrays America in the most negative light. Without delving too deeply into the deteriorating relations between the American colonists and their “mother country,” declaring independence came slowly. None of the thirteen colonies trusted the other colonies and rarely acted in concert, even during times of crisis. Regional and cultural differences between New England, mid-Atlantic and the Southern colonies deeply divided the colonists. Even in these early days of America slavery proved a dividing issue, although few believed in racial equality. The “umbilical cord” with England provided the only unifying constant that bound them together culturally and politically. The colonies further possessed different forms of government as well, although they steadfastly expressed their liberties and “rights as Englishmen.” Some colonies existed as royal colonies, where the English monarch selected the governor. Proprietary colonies formed when merchant companies or individuals, called proprietors, received a royal grant and appointed the governor. Charter colonies received their charters much as proprietary colonies with individuals or merchants receiving royal charters and shareholders selected the governor. Each colony elected its own legislature and local communities made their laws mostly based on English common law. Any form of national, or “continental,” unity remained an illusion largely in the minds of the delegates of the First Continental Congress. The Second Continental Congress convened on May 10, 1775 because England ignored the grievances submitted by the First Continental Congress. Furthermore, open warfare erupted in Massachusetts between British troops and the colonial militia at Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775. Known today as Patriot’s Day few Americans outside of Massachusetts celebrate it, or even know of it. Setting forth their reasons for taking up arms against England, they established the Continental Army on June 14, 1775. For attempting a united front, they appointed George Washington, a Virginian, as commander-in-chief. On July 10, 1775, the Congress sent Parliament one last appeal for resolving their differences, which proved futile. While Congress determined the political future of the colonies fighting continued around Boston, beginning with the bloody battle on Breed’s Hill on June 17, 1775. Known as the Battle of Bunker Hill in our history the British victory cost over 1,000 British and over 400 American casualties. This battle encouraged the Americans because it proved the “colonials” capable of standing against British regulars. British forces withdrew from Boston in March, 1776 and awaited reinforcements from England as fighting erupted in other colonies. While Washington and the Continental Army watched the British in Boston, Congress authorized an expedition against Canada. They hoped for significant resentment of British rule by the majority of French inhabitants, something they misjudged. In September, 1775 the fledgling Continental Army launched an ambitious, but futile, two-pronged invasion of Canada. Launched late in the season, particularly for Canada, it nevertheless almost succeeded, capturing Montreal and moving on Quebec. It ended in a night attack in a snowstorm on December 31, 1775 when the commander fell dead and the second-in-command fell severely wounded. American forces did breach the city walls, however when the attack broke down these men became prisoners of war. For disrupting the flow of British supplies into America Congress organized the Continental Navy and Continental Marines on October 13, 1775 and November 10, 1775, respectively. Still, no demands for independence despite the creation of national armed forces, the invasion of a “foreign country” and all the trappings of a national government. The full title of the Declaration of Independence ends with “thirteen united States of America,” with united in lower case. I found no evidence that the Founding Fathers did this intentionally, or whether it merely reflected the writing style of the time. Despite everything mentioned previously regarding “continental” actions, the thirteen colonies jealously guarded their sovereignty. Although Congress declared independence England did not acknowledge the legality of this resolution and considered the colonies “in rebellion.” England assembled land and naval forces of over 40,000, including German mercenaries, for subduing the “insurrection.” This timeless lesson proves the uselessness of passing resolutions with no credible threat of force backing them up. Unfortunately our academic-dominated society today believes merely the passage of laws and international resolutions forces compliance. We hear much in the news today about “intelligence failures” regarding the war against terrorism. England definitely experienced an “intelligence failure” as it launched an expedition for “suppressing” this “insurrection” by a “few hotheads.” First, they under estimated the extent of dissatisfaction among the Americans, spurred into action by such “rabble rousers” as John Adams. They further under estimated the effectiveness of Washington and the Continental Army, particularly after the American victories at Trenton and Princeton. British officials further under estimated the number of Loyalists with the enthusiasm for taking up arms for the British. While Loyalist units fought well, particularly in the South and the New York frontier, they depended heavily on the support of British regulars. Once British forces withdrew, particularly in the South, the Loyalist forces either followed them or disappeared. A perennial lesson for military planners today, do not worry about your “footprint,” decisively defeat your enemy. This hardens the resolve of your supporters, influences the “neutrals” in your favor and reduces the favorability of your enemies. Regarding the “national defense” the Continental Congress and “states” did not fully cooperate against the superpower, England. The raising of the Continental Army fell on the individual colonies almost throughout the war with the Congress establishing quotas. Unfortunately, none of the colonies ever met their quota for Continental regiments, with the soldiers negotiating one-year enlistments. Continental Army recruiters often met with competition from the individual colonies, who preferred fielding their militias. The Congress offered bounties in the almost worthless “Continental Currency” and service far from home in the Continental Army. Colonial governments offered higher bounties in local currencies, or British pounds, and part-time service near home. Congress only possessed the authority for requesting troops and supplies from the colonial governors, who often did not comply. For most of the war the Continental Army remained under strength, poorly supplied, poorly armed and mostly unpaid. Volumes of history describe the harsh winters endured by the Continentals at Valley Forge and Morristown, New Jersey the following year. Colonial governments often refused supplies for troops from other colonies, even though those troops fought inside their borders. As inflation continued devaluing “Continental Currency” farmers and merchants preferred trading with British agents, who often paid in gold. This created strong resentment from the soldiers who suffered the hardships of war and the civilians who profited from this trade. In fairness, the staggering cost of financing the war severely taxed the colonial governments and local economies, forcing hard choices. Congress further declared independence as a cry for help from England’s superpower rival, France, and other nations jealous of England. Smarting from defeat in the Seven Years War (French and Indian War in America), and a significant reduction in its colonial empire, France burned for revenge. France’s ally, Spain, also suffered defeat and loss of territory during this war and sought advantage in the American war. However, France and Spain both needed American victories before they risked their troops and treasures. With vast colonial empires of their own they hesitated at supporting a colonial rebellion in America. As monarchies, France and Spain held no love of “republican ideals” or “liberties,” and mostly pursued independent strategies against England. Fortunately their focus at recouping their former possessions helped diminish the number of British forces facing the Americans. On the political front the Congress knew that the new nation needed some form of national government for its survival. Unfortunately the Congress fell short on this issue, enacting the weak Articles of Confederation on November 15, 1777. Delegates so feared the “tyranny” of a strong central government, as well as they feared their neighbors, that they rejected national authority. In effect, the congressional delegates created thirteen independent nations instead of one, and our nation suffered from it. Amending this confederation required the approval of all thirteen states, virtually paralyzing any national effort. This form of government lasted until the adoption of the US Constitution on September 17, 1787. Despite these weaknesses the fledgling “United States” survived and even achieved some success against British forces. Particularly early in the war, the British forces possessed several opportunities for destroying the Continental Army and ending the rebellion. Fortunately for us British commanders proved lethargic and complacent, believing the “colonial rabble” incapable of defeating them. Furthermore, as the Continental Army gained experience and training it grew more professional, standing toe-to-toe against the British. Since the US achieved superpower status it fell into the same trap, continuously underestimating less powerful enemies. The surrender of British forces at Yorktown, Virginia on October 19, 1781 changed British policy regarding its American colonies. British forces now controlled mainly three enclaves: New York City; Charleston, South Carolina and Savannah, Georgia. Loyalist forces, discouraged by British reverses, either retreated into these enclaves, departed America or surrendered. Waging a global war against France and Spain further reduced the number of troops available for the American theater. This serves another modern lesson for maintaining adequate forces for meeting not only your superpower responsibilities, but executing unforeseen contingencies. Ironically, the victory at Yorktown almost defeated the Americans as well, since the civil authorities almost stopped military recruitment. Washington struggled at maintaining significant forces for confronting the remaining British forces in their enclaves. An aggressive British commander may still score a strategic advantage by striking at demobilizing American forces. Fortunately, the British government lost heart for retaining America and announced the beginning of peace negotiations in August, 1782. The Treaty of Paris, signed on September 3, 1783 officially ended the American Revolution; however it did not end America’s struggles. American negotiators proved somewhat naïve in these negotiations against their more experienced European counterparts. Of importance, the British believed American independence a short-lived situation, given the disunity among Americans. Congress began discharging the Continental Army before the formal signing of the treaty, leaving less than one hundred on duty. Instead of a united “allied” front, America, France and Spain virtually negotiated separate treaties with England, delighting the British. They believed that by creating dissension among the wartime allies they furthered their position with their former colonies. If confronted with a new war with more powerful France and Spain, America might rejoin the British Empire. When England formally established the western boundary of the US at the Mississippi River it did not consult its Indian allies. These tribes did not see themselves as “defeated nations,” since they often defeated the Americans. Spanish forces captured several British posts in this territory and therefore claimed a significant part of the southeastern US. France, who practically bankrupted itself in financing the American cause and waging its own war against England, expected an American ally. Unfortunately, the US proved a liability and incapable of repaying France for the money loaned during the war. France soon faced domestic problems that resulted in the French Revolution in 1789. For several reasons England believed itself the winner of these negotiations, and in a more favorable situation, globally. England controlled Canada, from where it closely monitored the unfolding events in the US, and sowed mischief. It illegally occupied several military forts on American territory and incited the Indian tribes against the American frontier. By default, England controlled all of the American territory north of the Ohio River and west of the Appalachian Mountains. Economically, England still believed that the US needed them as its primary trading partner, whether independent or not. A strong pro-British faction in America called for closer economic ties with the former “mother country.” As England observed the chaos that gripped the US at this time, they felt that its collapse, and reconquest by England, only a matter of time. Most Americans today, knowing only the economic, industrial and military power of America cannot fathom the turmoil of this time. The weak central government and all the states accumulated a huge war debt, leaving them financially unstable. While the US possessed rich natural resources it lacked the industrial capabilities for developing them, without foreign investment. With no military forces, the nation lacked the ability of defending its sovereignty and its citizens. From all appearances our infant nation seemed stillborn, or as the vulnerable prey for the more powerful Europeans. As stated previously the Articles of Confederation actually created thirteen independent nations, with no national executive for enforcing the law. Therefore each state ignored the resolutions from Congress and served its own self-interest. Each state established its own rules for interstate commerce, printed its own money and even established treaties with foreign nations. No system existed for governing the interactions between the states, who often treated each other like hostile powers. The new nation did possess one thing in abundance, land; the vast wilderness between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River. Conceded by the British in the Treaty of Paris, the Americans looked at this as their economic solution. The nation owed the veterans of the Revolution a huge debt and paid them in the only currency available, land grants. Unfortunately, someone must inform the Indians living on this land and make treaties regarding land distribution. For the Americans this seemed simple, the Indians, as British allies, suffered defeat with the British and must pay the price. After all, under the rules of European “civilized” warfare, defeated nations surrendered territory and life went on. Unfortunately no one, neither American nor British, informed the Indians of these rules, because no one felt they deserved explanation. Besides, the British hoped that by inciting Indian troubles they might recoup their former colonies. With British arms and encouragement the tribes of the “Old Northwest” raided the western frontier with a vengeance. From western New York down through modern Kentucky these Indians kept up their war with the Americans. In Kentucky between 1783 and 1790 the various tribes killed an estimated 1,500 people, stole 20,000 horses and destroyed an unknown amount of property. Our former ally, Spain, controlled all of the territory west of the Mississippi River before the American Revolution. From here they launched expeditions that captured British posts at modern Vicksburg and Natchez, Mississippi, and the entire Gulf Coast. However, they claimed about two-thirds of the southeastern US based on this “conquest” including land far beyond the occupation of their troops. Like the British, they incited the Indians living in this region for keeping out American settlers. Spain also controlled the port of New Orleans and access into the Mississippi River. Americans living in Kentucky and other western settlements depended on the Mississippi River for their commerce. The national government seemed unable, or unwilling, at forcing concessions from Spain, and many westerners considered seceding from the Union. Known as the “Spanish Conspiracy” this plot included many influential Americans and only disappeared after the American victory at Fallen Timbers. While revisionist historians ignore the “Spanish Conspiracy” they illuminate land speculation by Americans in Spanish territory. Of course they conveniently ignore the duplicity of Spanish officials in these plots, and their acceptance of American money. In signing the Declaration of Independence the Founding Fathers pledged “their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor.” Many Continental Army officers bankrupted themselves when Congress and their states proved recalcitrant at reimbursing them for incurred expenses. These officers often personally financed their troops and their expeditions because victory required timely action. Of importance for the western region, George Rogers Clark used his personal credit for financing his campaigns, which secured America’s claim. It takes no “lettered” historian for determining that without Clark’s campaign that America’s western boundary ends with the Appalachian Mountains, instead of the Mississippi River. With the bankrupt Congress and Virginia treasuries not reimbursing him he fell into the South Carolina Yazoo Company. Clark’s brother-in-law, Dr. James O’Fallon, negotiated this deal for 3,000,000 acres of land in modern Mississippi. This negotiation involved the Spanish governor of Louisiana, Don Estavan Miro, a somewhat corrupt official. When the Spanish king negated the treaty, Clark, O’Fallon and the other investors lost their money and grew hateful of Spain. Another, lesser known, negotiation involved former Continental Army Colonel George Morgan and the Spanish ambassador, Don Diego de Gardoqui. Morgan received title for 15,000,000 acres near modern New Madrid, Missouri for establishing a colony. Ironically, an unscrupulous American, James Wilkinson, discussed later in the document, working in conjunction with Miro, negated this deal. Both of these land deals involved the establishment of American colonies in Spanish territory, with Americans declaring themselves Spanish subjects. Few Spaniards lived in the area west of the Mississippi River and saw the growing number of American settlers as a threat. However, if these Americans, already disgusted with their government, became Spanish subjects, they now became assets. If they cleared and farmed the land, they provided revenue that Spanish Louisiana desperately needed. Since many of these men previously served in the Revolution, they provided a ready militia for defending their property. This included defending it against their former country, the United States, with little authority west of the Appalachian Mountains. Internationally, the weak US became a tragic pawn in the continuing superpower struggle between England and France. With no naval forces for protection, American merchant mariners became victims of both nations on the high seas. British and French warships stopped American ships bound for their enemy, confiscating cargo and conscripting sailors into their navies. In the Mediterranean Sea, our ships became the targets of the Barbary Pirates, the ancestors of our enemies today. Helpless, our government paid ransoms for prisoners and tribute for safe passage until the Barbary Wars of the early 19th Century. Despite all of these problems most influential Americans still “looked inward,” and feared a strong central government more than foreign domination. When the cries of outrage came from the western frontiers regarding Indian depredations, our leaders still more feared a “standing army.” In the world of the Founding Fathers the tyranny of King George III’s central government created their problem. The king further used his “standing army” for oppressing the colonists and infringing on their liberties. Congress also possessed more recent examples of the problems with a “standing army” during the American Revolution. First came the mutiny of the Pennsylvania Line in January, 1781 for addressing their grievances. Since the beginning of the war, in 1775, the Continental soldiers endured almost insurmountable hardships, as explained previously. The soldiers rarely received pay, and then received the almost worthless “Continental Currency,” which inflation further devalued. This forced severe hardships also on the soldiers’ families, and many lost their homes and farms. The soldiers marched on the then-capital, Philadelphia, for seeking redress for these grievances. Forced into action, Congress addressed their problems with pay and the soldiers rejoined the Army. A second, though less well known, mutiny occurred with the New Jersey Line shortly thereafter with different results. For “nipping” a growing problem “in the bud,” Washington ordered courts-martial and the execution of the ring leaders. The last such trouble occurred in the final months of the war in the Continental Army camp at Newburgh, New York. Dissatisfied with congressional inaction on their long-overdue pay, many officers urged a march on Philadelphia. Fortunately, Washington defused this perceived threat against civil authority, and squashed the strong possibility of a military dictatorship. However, Congress realized that it needed some military force for defending the veterans settling on their land grants. The delegates authorized the First United States Regiment, consisting of 700 men drawn from four state militias for a one year period. I read countless sources describing the inadequacy of this force, highlighting congressional incompetence and non-compliance by the states. The unit never achieved its authorized strength, the primitive conditions on the frontier hindered its effectiveness and corrupt officials mismanaged supplies. Scattered in small garrisons throughout the western territories, it never proved a deterrent against the Indians. No incentives existed for enlisting in this regiment, and it attracted a minority of what we call today “quality people.” Again, confirming state dominance over the central government, this “army” came from a militia levy from four states, a draft. A tradition at the time provided for the paying of substitutes for the men conscripted during these militia levies. Sources reflect that most of these substitutes came from the lowest levels of society, including those escaping the law. From whatever source these men came, at least they served and mostly did their best under difficult circumstances. Routinely, once the soldiers assembled they must learn the skills needed for performing their duties. For defending the western settlements the small garrisons must reach their destination via river travel. Once at their destination they must often construct their new installations using the primitive tools and resources available. The primitive transportation system often delayed the arrival of the soldiers’ pay and supplies, forcing hardships on the troops. Few amenities existed at these frontier installations and the few settlements provided little entertainment for the troops. Unfortunately, once the soldiers achieved a level of professionalism, they reached the end of their enlistment. With few incentives for reenlistment, the process must begin again, with recruiting and training a new force. Fortunately many prominent Americans saw that the country needed a different form of government for ensuring its survival. Despite the best intentions and established rules, few people followed these rules or respected our intentions. The Constitutional Convention convened in Philadelphia in May, 1787 with George Washington unanimously elected as its president. As the delegates began the process of forming a “more perfect Union,” the old, traditional “colonial” rivalries influenced the process. While most Americans possess at least ancillary knowledge of the heated debates among the delegates, few know the conditions. Meeting throughout the hot summer, the delegates kept the windows of their meeting hall closed, preventing the “leaking” of information. We must remember that this occurred before electric-powered ventilation systems or air conditioning. They kept out the “media,” and none of the delegates spoke with “journalists,” again for maintaining secrecy. Modern Americans, often obsessed with media access, do not understand why the delegates kept their deliberations secret. Most of the delegates felt they possessed one chance for creating this new government and achieving the best possible needed their focus. “Media access” jeopardized this focus and “leaked” information, with potential interruptions, jeopardized their chance for success. We find this incomprehensible today, with politicians running toward television cameras, “leaking” information and disclosing national secrets. Unfortunately a “journalistic elite” exists today, misusing the First Amendment, with many “media moguls” believing themselves the “kingmakers” of favorite politicians. The delegates sought the best document for satisfying the needs of the most people, making “special interest groups” secondary. Creating a united nation proved more important than prioritizing regional and state desires. These delegates debated, and compromised, on various issues; many of which remain important today. They worried over the threat of dominance by large, well-populated states over smaller, less-populated states. Other issues concerned taxation, the issue that sparked the American Revolution, and import duties, which pitted manufacturing states against agricultural states. Disposition of the mostly unsettled western land, claimed by many states, proved a substantial problem for the delegates. The issue of slavery almost ended the convention and the delegates compromised, achieving the best agreement possible at the time. On September 17, 1787 the delegates adopted the US Constitution and submitted it for approval by the individual states. Again, merely passing laws and adopting resolutions does not immediately solve the problems, or change people’s attitudes. Ratification of the Constitution required the approval of nine states, (three-fourths) which occurred on June 21, 1788. However, two important large states, New York and Virginia, still debated ratification. Several signers of the Declaration of Independence, and delegates at the Constitutional Convention, urged the defeat of the Constitution. Fiery orator, Patrick Henry, of “Give me liberty, or give me death,” fame worked hard for defeating it in Virginia. Even the most optimistic supporters gave the Constitution, and the nation, only a marginal chance at survival.

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A young person named K. asks Yahoo, How do I go about writing a research paper on the JFK assassination? What would President John F. Kennedy have thought about the enigmatic circumstances of his murder? Fifty years later, I think we don’t ask this question often enough. Instead we argue about what Rachel Maddow and Bill O’Reilly think. Media criticism is important, but it is no substitute for historical analysis. There are certainly other ways to think about the story. Counterfactually, for example. Imagine JFK had survived the gunfire in Dealey Plaza. What would he have said about its causes? Kennedy, of course, did not have time to comment on the gunfire that claimed his life, other than to say, after a bullet struck him in the back, “My God, I’m hit.” But that exclamation illuminated his instantaneous awareness of a lethal situation. JFK had been a soldier/sailor in World War II. Twenty years before he had faced gunfire. He had seen men die from it. He knew that he had been shot. Before he could say anything more another bullet struck him in the head, fatally wounding him. That was not inevitable. Earlier this month Rachel Maddow told the little-known story of how Senator John F. Kennedy introduced legislation to ban the importation of weapons produced for foreign armies, only to be thwarted by pro-gun legislators. Then, on November 22, 1963, Maddow said, Lee Oswald used an Italian-made military rifle to shoot and kill President Kennedy. For the popular MSNBC anchor, this story illuminates the enduring and pernicious effects of the gun lobby from Dallas to Newtown. As a contemporary polemic, this novel interpretation of JFK’s assassination — the Gun Lobby Did It — is strong. As history it is weak. It’s hard not to agree with Maddow’s broad point: the gun manufacturers and gun violence have had a pernicious effect on American life for a long time. She is correct that an Italian-made rifle, cheap and easily obtained under permissive U.S. gun laws, played a central role in the JFK assassination story. But her implication that the gun lobby, as a power sector in American politics, was an important causal factor in enabling JFK’s assassination is not founded in historical fact. Read more A lot of people at the scene of the crime thought so. But don’t take my word for it. In the latest installment of Len Osanic’s “50 Reasons for 50 Years” video series, JFK photo expert Robert Groden compiles photographic imagery from the first few minutes after the assassination of President Kennedy. View the pictures and decide for yourself. The Pittsburgh Tribune Review recently asked Dr. Cyril Wecht of Duquesne University a question: The ONI, according to researacher Bill Kelly, is withholding records of its own internal investigations of Oswald after he defected to the Soviet Union in 1959 and after JFK was killed in 1963. The latter reports would be explosive if they showed that U.S. Marine Corps investigators doubted that Oswald acted alone in killing Kennedy. ONI representatives assert that America’s oldest intelligence service doesn’t have any such records. That claim is dubious, for a number of reasons. No. Read this unpersuasive (some would say nutty) article and you will find proof that even the piously Paulite advocates of this theory have no actual evidence for it. Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s comments that his father did not believe that a “lone-gunman” killed his uncle, President John F. Kennedy, have now been covered by all four television networks (CBS, NBC, Fox, and ABC), and gone viral on the internet. The remarks marked the first time a Kennedy family member has publicly questioned the official theory that JFK was killed by a lone gunman. Were RFK Jr.’s remarks factually accurate? Read more Yes. The tape was probably destroyed in January 1986. This question, prompted by a comment from reader JSA, is a natural follow up to yesterday’s question, “Did the CIA track Oswald before JFK was killed?” And there is a lot of evidence to support our answer. Read more Yes, closely and constantly. This is one of the biggest JFK revelations of the past 20 years, and one that we need talk up in social and news media the 50th anniversary of JFK’s assassination. While the CIA assured Congress in the 1970s that its interest in Lee Harvey Oswald before JFK was killed was “routine,” the newest documents tell a very different story: Oswald was monitored closely and constantly by an supersecret office within the CIA’s Counterintelligence Staff from 1959 to 1963, known as the Special Investigations Group. Somebody did talk. His name was John Martino. In 1963 he was an anti-Castro militant who mixed with organized crime figures and CIA officers. His story is one of the clearest indicators that opponents of JFK’s Cuba policy had foreknowledge that President Kennedy might be assassinated in Dallas. To put it another way, those who doubt there was a conspiracy, need to address John Martino’s story. It is corroborated in multiple ways. Martino, a native of New Jersey, was a petty racketeer as a young man with arrests for gambling and loan sharking. In the 1950s, he developed an expertise in electronic equipment related to gambling. He gravitated to south Florida and then to Havana where his skills won him a security job at the casino in the new Deauville Hotel in the Cuban capital. Havana was then dominated by organized crime syndicates who reaped big profits from gambling and related tourist attractions. In this balanced, if breathless, 1998 History Channel video entitled “Missing Files,” we learn what the government sought to hide from public view. The approach is skeptical without crazy conspiracy mongering. Operation Northwoods was a Pentagon plan to provoke a U.S. invasion of Cuba in 1963 through the use of deception operations. First disclosed by the Assassination Records Review Board in 1997, the Northwoods plans are among the most significant new JFK documents to emerge since Oliver Stone’s “JFK” movie. Operation Northwoods envisioned U.S. intelligence operatives staging violent attacks on U.S. targets and arranging for the blame for the mayhem to fall on Fidel Castro and his communist government. The idea, wrote one planner, was to creates a “justification for U.S. intervention in Cuba,” by orchestrating a crime that placed the U.S. government “in the apparent position of suffering defensible grievances from a rash and irresponsible government” in Cuba. These plans included the use of violence on American soil against American citizens. The question is still “hotly debated” says the JFK Library and Museum, not the least because the question has become part of the debate over the causes of JFK’s assassination. What does the record show about Kennedy’s thinking and actions on Vietnam? Read more

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What Is Tetanus? Tetanus is a bacterial infection that attacks the nervous system. Tetanus may result in severe muscle spasms, and this can lead to a condition known as lockjaw, which prevents the mouth from opening and closing. Tetanus can be fatal. Tetanus is caused when the bacterium, Clostridium tetani , enters the body through a break in the skin. The bacterium can come from soil, dust, or manure. It produces a toxin that causes the illness. In the United States and other countries with tetanus vaccination programs, the condition is rare. What Is the Tetanus Vaccine? The tetanus vaccine is an inactivated toxoid (a substance that can create an antitoxin). There are different types of the vaccines to prevent tetanus, including: Who Should Get Vaccinated and When? The DTaP vaccine is generally required before starting school. The regular immunization schedule is to give the vaccine at: - 2 months - 4 months - 6 months - 15-18 months - 4-6 years Tdap is routinely recommended for children aged 11-12 years who have completed the DTaP series. Tdap can also be given to: - Children aged 7-10 years who have not been fully vaccinated - Children and teens aged 13-18 years who did not get the Tdap when they were 11-12 years old - Adults under 65 years who have never received Tdap - Pregnant women after 20 weeks gestation who have not previously received Tdap - Adults who have not been previously vaccinated and who have contact with babies aged 12 months or younger - Healthcare providers who have not previously received Tdap Td is given as a booster shot every 10 years. The vaccine may also be given if you have a severe cut or burn. If you or your child has not been fully vaccinated against tetanus, talk to the doctor. What Are the Risks Associated With the Tetanus Vaccine? Most people tolerate the tetanus-containing vaccines without any trouble. The most common side effects are pain, redness, or swelling at the injection site, mild fever, headache, tiredness, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea , or stomachache. Rarely, a fever of more than 102ºF, severe gastrointestinal problems, or severe headache may occur. Nervous system problems and severe allergic reactions are extremely rare. Localized allergic reactions (redness and swelling) at the injection site may occur, while anaphylaxis (life-threatening, widespread allergic reaction) is extremely rare. Acetaminophen (eg, Tylenol) is sometimes given to reduce pain and fever that may occur after getting a vaccine. In infants, the medicine may weaken the vaccine's effectiveness. However, in children at risk for siezures, a fever lowering medicine may be important to take. Discuss the risks and benefits of taking acetaminophen with the doctor. Who Should Not Get Vaccinated? The vast majority of people should receive their tetanus-containing vaccinations on schedule. However, individuals in whom the risks of vaccination outweigh the benefits include those who: - Have had a life-threatening allergic reaction to DTP, DTap, DT, Tdap, or Td vaccine - Have had a severe allergy to any component of the vaccine to be given - Have gone into a coma or long seizure within seven days after a dose of DTP or DTaP Talk with your doctor before getting the vaccine if you have: - Allergy to latex - Epilepsy or other nervous system problem - Severe swelling or severe pain after a previous dose of any component of the vaccination to be given - Guillain-Barre syndrome Wait until you recover to get the vaccine if you have moderate or severe illness on the day your shot is scheduled. What Other Ways Can Tetanus Be Prevented Besides Vaccination? Caring properly for wounds, including promptly cleaning them and seeing a doctor for medical care, can prevent a tetanus infection. - Reviewer: Lawrence Frisch, MD, MPH - Review Date: 06/2012 - - Update Date: 00/61/2012 -

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Kawasaki disease is an illness that involves the skin, mouth, and lymph nodes, and most often affects kids under age 5. The cause is unknown, but if the symptoms are recognized early, kids with Kawasaki disease can fully recover within a few days. Untreated, it can lead to serious complications that can affect the heart. Kawasaki disease occurs in 19 out of every 100,000 kids in the United States. It is most common among children of Japanese and Korean descent, but can affect all ethnic groups. Signs and Symptoms Kawasaki disease can't be prevented, but usually has telltale symptoms and signs that appear in phases. The first phase, which can last for up to 2 weeks, usually involves a persistent fever higher than 104°F (39°C) and lasts for at least 5 days. Other symptoms that typically develop include: severe redness in the eyes a rash on the stomach, chest, and genitals red, dry, cracked lips swollen tongue with a white coating and big red bumps sore, irritated throat swollen palms of the hands and soles of the feet with a purple-red color swollen lymph nodes During the second phase, which usually begins within 2 weeks of when the fever started, the skin on the hands and feet may begin to peel in large pieces. The child also may experience joint pain, diarrhea, vomiting, or abdominal pain. If your child shows any of these symptoms, call your doctor. Doctors can manage the symptoms of Kawasaki disease if they catch it early. Symptoms often disappear within just 2 days of the start of treatment. If Kawasaki disease is treated within 10 days of the onset of symptoms, heart problems usually do not develop. Cases that go untreated can lead to more serious complications, such as vasculitis, an inflammation of the blood vessels. This can be particularly dangerous because it can affect the coronary arteries, which supply blood to the heart. In addition to the coronary arteries, the heart muscle, lining, valves, and the outer membrane that surrounds the heart can become inflamed. Arrhythmias (changes in the normal pattern of the heartbeat) or abnormal functioning of some heart valves also can occur. No single test can detect Kawasaki disease, so doctors usually diagnose it by evaluating the symptoms and ruling out other conditions. Most kids diagnosed with Kawasaki disease will have a fever lasting 5 or more days and at least four of these symptoms: redness in both eyes changes around the lips, tongue, or mouth changes in the fingers and toes, such as swelling, discoloration, or peeling Treatment should begin as soon as possible, ideally within 10 days of when the fever begins. Usually, a child is treated with intravenous doses of gamma globulin (purified antibodies), an ingredient of blood that helps the body fight infection. The child also might be given a high dose of aspirin to reduce the risk of heart problems.

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At a Glance Why Get Tested? To screen for or diagnose a chlamydia infection When to Get Tested? For screening: may be recommended if you are sexually active, pregnant or considering pregnancy, or at increased risk for this sexually transmitted disease (STD) For diagnosis: when you have symptoms of this STD, such as such as vaginal discharge and abdominal pain (for women) or unusual discharge from the penis or pain on urination (for men); when a newborn has conjunctivitis A swab or brush of cells or secretion from the infected area or a first-catch urine sample Test Preparation Needed? Tell your doctor about use of antibiotics or, for women, douches or vaginal creams within 24 hours before testing vaginal samples, as they may affect test results. You may be instructed to wait one to two hours after you last urinated before collecting a urine sample. Follow any instructions you are given. The Test Sample What is being tested? This test is looking for evidence of infection by the bacterium Chlamydia trachomatis. Chlamydia is the most common bacterial sexually transmitted disease (STD) in the United States and is especially common among people 15 to 25 years of age. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that 2.8 million Americans are infected with chlamydia each year and notes that women are frequently re-infected if their partners don't get treatment. Actual incidence may be higher since many people do not experience any symptoms and their cases go undiagnosed and unreported. Still, over one million new cases are reported each year. Diagnosing and treating chlamydia is very important to prevent long-term complications and spread of the infection to others. Chlamydia is generally transmitted through sexual contact (oral, vaginal, or anal) with an infected partner. Risk factors include having multiple sex partners, coinfection or previous infection with another STD, and not using barrier contraception consistently. An infected mother can pass the infection to her baby during childbirth. These babies are in danger of developing conjunctivitis, an inflammation that can threaten eyesight, and pneumonia. About 75% of infected women and 50% of infected men have no symptoms; some may experience only mild symptoms. For women, symptoms, if they occur, include bleeding between menstrual periods and after sexual intercourse, abdominal pain, painful intercourse, and an abnormal vaginal discharge. For men, symptoms include pus or milky discharge from the penis and inflammation of the prostate (prostatitis) or of the rectal area (proctitis). Both sexes can experience painful or frequent urination. Chlamydia is easily treated with a course of antibiotics, but if left untreated, it can cause severe reproductive and other health problems. If left untreated, women may develop pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) from infections that start on the cervix but that can spread to the fallopian tubes and ovaries. This can cause infertility and increase the risk of tubal (ectopic) pregnancy, which is often fatal. Women who are infected and pregnant may experience heavy bleeding before delivery and premature rupture of the membranes. Men may become sterile. Both sexes may develop rectal itching and red, swollen, itchy eyes. How is the sample collected for testing? Many different kinds of samples may be used for testing, but not all laboratories can test every kind of sample. A doctor may use a swab or brush to collect a sample of cells or secretion from the infected area, such as the urethra, penis, anus, throat, cervix or vagina. Sometimes a vaginal sample may be collected with a swab by the woman who is undergoing testing (self-collection). A first-catch urine sample may be collected in a container provided by the doctor or laboratory. NOTE: If undergoing medical tests makes you or someone you care for anxious, embarrassed, or even difficult to manage, you might consider reading one or more of the following articles: Coping with Test Pain, Discomfort, and Anxiety, Tips on Blood Testing, Tips to Help Children through Their Medical Tests, and Tips to Help the Elderly through Their Medical Tests. Another article, Follow That Sample, provides a glimpse at the collection and processing of a blood sample and throat culture. Is any test preparation needed to ensure the quality of the sample? Tell your doctor about use of antibiotics or, if you are a woman, douches or vaginal creams within 24 hours before testing vaginal samples, as they may affect test results. You may be instructed to wait one to two hours after you last urinated before collecting a urine sample. Follow any instructions you are given. Ask a Laboratory Scientist This form enables you to ask specific questions about your tests. Your questions will be answered by a laboratory scientist as part of a voluntary service provided by one of our partners, American Society for Clinical Laboratory Science. If your questions are not related to your lab tests, please submit them via our Contact Us form. Thank you. * indicates a required field NOTE: This article is based on research that utilizes the sources cited here as well as the collective experience of the Lab Tests Online Editorial Review Board. This article is periodically reviewed by the Editorial Board and may be updated as a result of the review. Any new sources cited will be added to the list and distinguished from the original sources used. Sources Used in Current Review Kimberly A. Workowski and Stuart Berman. Sexually Transmitted Diseases Guidelines, 2010. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. PDF available for download at http://www.cdc.gov/std/treatment/2010/STD-Treatment-2010-RR5912.pdf through http://www.cdc.gov. Published December 27, 2010. Accessed July 2, 2012. United States Preventive Service Task Force. USPSTF Recommendations for STI Screening. Available online at http://www.uspreventiveservicestaskforce.org/uspstf08/methods/stinfections.htm through http://www.uspreventiveservicestaskforce.org. Last updated March 2008. Accessed July 2, 2012. Laboratory Procedure Manual. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. PDF available for download at http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhanes/nhanes_05_06/chlmda_d_met_chlamydia.pdf through http://www.cdc.gov. Published October 2007. Accessed July 2, 2012. Sexual Conditions Health Center: Chlamydia Tests. Medscape. Available online at http://www.webmd.com/sexual-conditions/chlamydia-tests?page=3 through http://www.webmd.com. Last Updated: December 15, 2010. Accessed Jul 2, 2012. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Chlamydia - CDC Fact Sheet. Available online at http://www.cdc.gov/std/chlamydia/stdfact-chlamydia.htm through http://www.cdc.gov. Last updated February 8, 2012. Accessed July 2, 2012. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Chlamydia and Gonorrhea — Two Most Commonly Reported Infectious Diseases in the United States. Available online at http://www.cdc.gov/Features/dsSTDData/ through http://www.cdc.gov. Last updated April 22, 2011. Accessed July 2, 2012. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 2010 Treatment Guidelines, Special Populations. Available online at http://www.cdc.gov/std/treatment/2010/specialpops.htm#msm through http://www.cdc.gov. Accessed September 2012. (January 13, 2009) Association for Public Health Laboratories. Expert Consultation Meeting Summary Report, Laboratory Diagnostic Testing for Chlamydia trachomatis and Neisseria gonorrhoeae. PDF available for download at http://www.aphl.org/aphlprograms/infectious/std/Documents/CTGCLabGuidelinesMeetingReport.pdf through http://www.aphl.org. Accessed Sept 2012. Sources Used in Previous Reviews Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Chlamydia Fact Sheet. Available online at http://www.cdc.gov/std/Chlamydia/STDFact-Chlamydia.htm through http://www.cdc.gov. Arnot Ogden Medical Center. Chlamydia. Available online at http://www.aomc.org/chlamydia.html through http://www.aomc.org. American Social Health Association. Learn Chlamydia Facts. Available online at http://www.ashastd.org/learn/learn_chlamydia_facts.cfm through http://www.ashastd.org. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Sexually transitted diseases treatment guidelines 2002. MMWR 2002;51 (No. RR-6) [32-41]. Planned Parenthood. Chlamydia. Available online at http://www.plannedparenthood.org/health-topics/stds-hiv-safer-sex/chlamydia-4266.htm through http://www.plannedparenthood.org. Accessed February 2009. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Chlamydia - CDC Fact Sheet. Available online at http://www.cdc.gov/std/Chlamydia/STDFact-Chlamydia.htm through http://www.cdc.gov. Accessed February 2009. TeensHealth. Chlamydia. Available online at http://kidshealth.org/teen/sexual_health/stds/std_chlamydia.html through http://kidshealth.org. Accessed February 2009. ARUP Consult. Sexually Transmitted Infections, Bacteria. Available online at http://www.arupconsult.com/Topics/InfectiousDz/Bacteria/STIs.html# through http://www.arupconsult.com. Accessed February 2009. WebMD. Chlamydia Tests. Available online at http://www.webmd.com/sexual-conditions/chlamydia-tests through http://www.webmd.com. Accessed February 2009.

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Sketch the graph of the following. Any help would be appreciated! You know that there are two vertical asymptotes at x = 5 and x = -3, then the graph also tends to the line y = x as x becomes large. Since there are two asymptotes, the graph is in three parts and as similar graphs, the central part is fairly similar to the numerator, that is a cubic. Now what you can do is try out what is the value of y slightly to the left and slightly to the right of the asymptotes to know the shape of the graph, whether it's ascending or descending.

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Hepatitis A is an infection of the liver. It can be passed easily from contaminated food, water, or close contact with an infected person.. Hepatitis A is caused by a specific virus. It may be spread by: - Drinking water contaminated by raw sewage - Eating food contaminated by the hepatitis A virus, especially if it has not been properly cooked - Eating raw or partially cooked shellfish contaminated by raw sewage - Sexual contact with a partner infected with the hepatitis A virus, especially as oral-anal contact Hepatitis A is present in stool of people with the infection. They can spread the infection if they do not wash their hands after using the bathroom and touch other objects or food. Factors that increase your chance of a hepatitis A infection include: - Having close contact with an infected person—although the virus is generally not spread by casual contact - Using household items that were used by an infected person and not properly cleaned - Having oral-anal sexual contact with an infected person - Traveling to or spending long periods of time in a country where hepatitis A is common or where sanitation is poor - Working as a childcare worker, changing diapers or toilet training children - Being in daycare centers - Being institutionalized - Injecting drugs—especially if you share needles - Receiving plasma products, common in conditions like hemophilia Hepatitis A does not always cause symptoms. Adults are more likely to have them than children. - Loss of appetite - Nausea and vomiting - Abdominal pain or discomfort - Yellowing of the eyes and skin - Darker colored urine - Light or chalky colored stools The doctor will ask about your symptoms and medical history. A physical exam will be done. Tests may include: - Blood test—to look for signs of hepatitis A - Liver function studies Hepatitis A usually goes away on its own within two months. There are no lasting effects in most once the infection passes. The goals of hepatitis A treatments are to: - Help you stay as comfortable as possible - Prevent the infection from being passed to others - Prevent stress on the liver while it's healing. Mainly done by avoiding certain substances like specific medications or alcohol You will be immune to the virus once you are well. In rare cases, the infection is very severe. A liver transplant may be needed in these cases if the liver is severely damaged. To decrease your chance of hepatitis A: - Wash your hands often with soap and water. - Wash your hands before eating or preparing food. - Avoid using household utensils that a person with hepatitis A may touch. Make sure all household utensils are carefully cleaned. - Avoid sexual contact with a person with hepatitis A. - Avoid injected drug use. If you do, do not share needles. If you travel to a high risk region, take the following precautions: - Drink bottled water - Avoid ice chips - Wash fruits well - Eat well-cooked food Medical treatments that may help prevent infection include: - Immune (Gamma) Globulin—temporary protection from hepatitis A. It can last about 3-6 months. It must be given before exposure to the virus or within two weeks after exposure. Hepatitis A Vaccine—highly effective in preventing infection. It provides full protection four weeks after the first injection. A second injection provides long-term protection. The vaccine should be considered for: - All children aged 12-23 months - Children aged 24 months or older who are at high risk and have not been previously vaccinated - People traveling to areas where hepatitis A is prevalent (The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Traveler's Health website shows which areas have a high prevalence of hepatitis A.) - Men who have sex with men - Injection drug users - People who are at risk because of their job, such as lab workers - People with chronic liver disease - People with blood-clotting disorders, such as hemophilia - People who will have close contact with an adopted child from a medium- or high-risk area - People who desire immunity to hepatitis A Check with your doctor to see if you should receive the vaccine. - Reviewer: Brian Randall, MD - Review Date: 02/2013 - - Update Date: 02/20/2013 -

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A Reference Resource Cyrus Vance (1977–1980): Secretary of State Cyrus Roberts Vance was born in Clarksburg, Virginia, in 1917 and earned both his B.A. (1939) and LL.B. (1942) from Yale University. During World War II, he fought in the U.S. Navy; he then went on to practice law. Vance became secretary of the army in the Kennedy administration (1961-1962), deputy secretary of defense (1964-1967), and U.S. negotiator to the Paris Peace Conference on the Vietnam War (1968-1969). He was also special envoy to Cyprus (1967) and then to Korea (1968). Vance served as secretary of state in the Carter administration from 1977 to 1980, resigning in April 1980 over the armed attempt to extricate American hostages from Iran. After a stint as chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (1988-1990), he headed the U.N. mission to negotiate an end to the violence that erupted after the dissolution of Yugoslavia (1991-1992). Cyrus Vance died on January 12, 2002.

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The EDX examination is a test that measures the electrical activity in your nerves and muscles. It consists of two parts: - Nerve conduction studies that measure the ability of specific nerves to transmit electrical impulses, or messages, to muscles. - Needle electrode examinations that measure the electrical activity in muscles along nerves.. Measuring the electrical activity in nerves and muscles helps detect the presence, location and extent of nerve and muscle disorders. Muscle weakness, nerve pains, and numbness may be due to a problem in the brain, spinal cord, the nerve supplying the muscle, the junction between the nerve and muscle (called the neuromuscular junction) and muscle. The EDX examination can help physicians distinguish where the problem lies. You will be asked to lie on an examination table. The technician will tape several small, flat metal discs, called electrodes, on your skin. Repeated brief electrical stimuli are administered to the nerve. Electrical waveforms are recorded from muscles or from nerves and measured. You will feel a tingling sensation and twitching in your muscle each time the electrical stimulus is applied. Once the testing has been completed, the skin electrodes are removed. The nerve conduction studies are then followed by the needle examination by the physician. A small thin needle (about the size of a straight pin) attached by wires to a recording machine will be inserted in the specific muscles being examined. No electrical stimuli or injections are passed through this needle; they simply record your muscle activity. You will be asked to relax and contract the muscles that are being examined. The electrical activity of the muscle will be displayed as electrical waves on a screen that the physician will view. The more relaxed you are, the easier the tests will be. The physician and technician will try to make you as comfortable as possible. Before the EDX Examination This test should not be performed until at least three weeks (21 days) have passed since the onset of your symptoms. If it has been less than that, please notify the EMG lab at 216.444.5544, or toll free 1.800.CCF.CARE ext.45544. You may be asked to reschedule at a later date. - Take medications as prescribed, including any for pain. - If you are taking anticoagulant medications (coumadin, heparin, lovenox, or crystalline warfarin) or medication for myasthenia gravis (mestinon or pyridostigmine bromide) and have not received instructions from your physician to discontinue your medications for the EDX examination, please call 216.444.5544 or toll free 1.800.223.2273 ext.45544. You may be asked to discontinue these medications for several days before the test. However, DO NOT discontinue medications without first consulting your physician. - The EDX examination cannot be performed on patients with a bleeding disorder or lymphedema. - Nerve conduction studies cannot be performed on patients with internal defibrillators. If you have an internal defibrillator and have been scheduled for this test, please call 216.444.5544 or toll free 1.800.223.2273 ext.45544. It will be necessary to assess whether the device can be turned off prior to undergoing this test. - Patients with internal nerve stimulators must be able to turn them off before nerve conduction studies can be performed If you have an internal nerve stimulator and have been scheduled for this test, please call 216.444.5544. On the Day of the Test Eat a normal breakfast and/or lunch. Do not apply any lotions or oils to the skin; it could hinder the electrode connection to the skin. After the Test The Neuromuscular Staff evaluates the data collected and the final report is sent to the doctor who referred you for the test (usually between 1-2 working days). Your doctor will provide you with the results. Neurology appointment office 216.636.5860, or toll free 1.800.CCF.CARE ext.65860. Desk S90, Ninth floor of the “S” building. Please call the EDX Laboratory if you have any concerns or questions or wish to speak to a technician: 216.444.5544, or toll free 1.800.CCF.CARE ext.45544.

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No doubt Native Americans took advantage of the natural bounty of the Suwannee and the neighboring forest. By around 7500 BC the Native American population increased, and people began to settle, at least for a time, along rivers and lakes. They fished, gathered freshwater snails, and hunted deer. Within Andrews on the bluff above the Suwannee are the remains of an ancient hunting and fishing camp. When Spanish explorer Narvarez crossed the Suwannee thousands of years later, his men called it "River of the Deer." Later, Indians escaping to Florida from other parts of the Southeast named it "Suwani," meaning "echo river" in Creek. Sound echoes from the river's limestone bluffs, especially when the water is low. Postcard, 1936 - Florida Photo Archives Ferry on the Suwannee ca 1882 - Florida Photo Archives By the 1830s the tranquil, tree-lined Suwannee became an important navigation route. Steamboats carried lumber to Cedar Key for transport by steamship to Europe and the Northeast. Much of the virgin cypress in the Suwannee floodplain was harvested in the early 1900s. Furrows created by "snaking" huge cypress logs are still visible along the banks of the Suwannee. In the early part of the 1900s what was later to become Andrews was subject to a wide range of uncontrolled uses, including open range livestock grazing. Range hogs readily adapted to the habitat and are still present on Andrews today as hunters rediscover each fall. In 1945 the Andrews family purchased the area. They managed the land for outdoor recreation and were careful to protect natural resources. Limited weekend hunts were held for deer, turkey, and squirrel, and no mining or significant timber harvest occurred. The Andrews family created four, five-acre clearings in the upland hardwoods and scattered roadside openings. In the late 1970s the deer density approached one deer per ten acres, which resulted in severe over-browsing of understory vegetation and a decline in the physical condition of the deer. Doe harvest was initiated in the early 1980s to reduce the population and to achieve a more balanced sex ratio. The state purchased the land in 1985 through the Save Our Rivers and Conservation and Recreation Lands programs.

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Theophany (from Greek theophania, meaning "appearance of God") is one of the Great Feasts of the Orthodox Church, celebrated on January 6. It is the feast which reveals the Most Holy Trinity to the world through the Baptism of the Lord (Mt.3:13-17; Mark 1:9-11; Luke 3:21-22). Baptism of Christ This observance commemorates Christ's baptism by John the Forerunner in the River Jordan, and the beginning of Christ's earthly ministry. The Feast of Theophany is the culmination of the Christmas Season, which starts on December 25 and ends on January 6. In mystic commemoration of this event, the Great Blessing of Water is performed on this day, and the holy water so blessed is used by the local priest to bless the homes of the faithful. The feast is called Theophany because at the baptism of Christ the Holy Trinity appeared clearly to mankind for the first time -- the Father's voice is heard from Heaven, the Son of God is incarnate and standing physically in the Jordan, and the Holy Spirit descends on Him in the form of a dove. This feast is also sometimes referred to as Epiphany by English-speaking Orthodox Christians, but that name more properly refers to the Western Christian feast falling on that same day and commemorating the visit of the Magi to the child Jesus. The term "Epiphany" does appear in the services for this feast, however. Originally, there was just one Christian feast of the shining forth of God to the world in the human form of Jesus of Nazareth. It included the celebration of Christ's birth, the adoration of the Wisemen, and all of the childhood events of Christ such as his circumcision and presentation to the temple as well as his baptism by John in the Jordan. There seems to be little doubt that this feast, like Easter and Pentecost, was understood as the fulfillment of a previous Jewish festival, in this case the Feast of Lights. Celebration of the feast The services of Theophany are set up exactly as those of the Nativity. Historically the Christmas services were established later. - For as many as been baptized into Christ, - have put on Christ The gospel readings of all the services tell of the Lord's baptism by John in the Jordan River. The epistle reading of the Divine Liturgy tells of the consequences of the Lord's appearing which is the divine epiphany. Since the main feature of the feast is the blessing of water. It is prescribed to follow both the Divine Liturgy of the eve of the feast and the Divine Liturgy of the day itself. But most local parishes do it only once when most of the parishioners can be present. The blessing verifies that mankind, and all of creation, were created to be filled with the sanctifying presence of God. - When You, O Lord were baptized in the Jordan - The worship of the Trinity was made manifest - For the voice of the Father bore witness to You - And called You His beloved Son. - And the Spirit, in the form of a dove, - Confirmed the truthfulness of His word. - O Christ, our God, You have revealed Yourself - And have enlightened the world, glory to You! Kontakion (Tone 4) - Today You have shown forth to the world, O Lord, - and the light of Your countenance has been marked on us. - Knowing You, we sing Your praises. - You have come and revealed Yourself, - O unapproachable Light. Troparion (Tone 4) - Today the Lord enters the Jordan and cries out to John: - "Do not be afraid to baptize me. - For I have come to save Adam, the first-formed man." Kontakion (Tone 4) - Prepare, O Zebulon, - And adorn yourself, O Naphtali; - River Jordan, cease flowing - And receive with joy the Master coming to be baptized. - Adam, rejoice with our First Mother - And do not hide yourself as you did of old in Paradise; - For having seen you naked, - He has appeared to clothe you with the first garment. - Christ has appeared to renew all creation. Eve and Afterfeast hymn Troparion (Tone 4) - Of old, the river Jordan - Turned back before Elisha's mantle at Elijah's ascension. - The waters were parted in two - And the waterway became a dry path. - This is truly a symbol of baptism - By which we pass through this mortal life. - Christ has appeared in the Jordan to sanctify the waters! - Discourse On the Day of the Baptism of Christ Saint John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople - Epiphany The Orthodox Faith by Fr. Thomas Hopko - Feast of the Theophany of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ - OCA website - The Baptism of Christ - Uncovering Bethany beyond the Jordan - 47 min Documentary - Icons of Theophany

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Ariel Schalit / AP Locusts land on a sand dune in Negev Desert, southern Israel, near the border with Egypt, March 5. A swarm of locusts crossed into Israel from neighboring Egypt Monday, raising fears that Israel could be hit with a biblical plague ahead of the Passover holiday. Israel sent out planes to spray pesticides over agricultural fields to prevent damage by the small swarm of about 2,000 locusts, said Dafna Yurista, a spokeswoman for the Agriculture Ministry. The ministry also set up an emergency hotline and asked Israelis to be vigilant in reporting locust sightings. Scientists can learn a lot about the locusts swarming over Egypt and Israel just by looking at the pictures. Keith Cressman, senior locust forecasting officer for the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, is based hundreds of miles away in Rome — but he can tell that these particular bugs may be on their last legs. "The few good pics I have seen of the locusts show that they are a brick red rather than pinkish," Cressman told NBC News in an email. "Both colors indicate they are immature adults, but the dark color suggests they are old and tired rather than young and hungry. Hence, the infestations arriving in northeast Egypt and Israel will probably come to nothing." That's the good news. The bad news is that other locust swarms could pose a more serious threat to the region's agriculture later this year. To get the details, check out the full story in Cosmic Log. Ibraheem Abu Mustafa / Reuters A Palestinian farmer displays locusts at a farm in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, March 5. Palestinian officials said locusts had not hit Gaza in several decades and numbers of locusts that reached Gaza on Tuesday were small but the Agriculture Ministry said they have taken all necessary steps to fight it if larger numbers hit the Gaza Strip. Amir Cohen / Reuters A swarm of locusts fly near Kmehin in Israel's Negev desert. Ariel Schalit / AP A locust on a sand dune in Negev Desert, southern Israel. Experts estimate that a swarm of 30 million locusts in Egypt will cause severe crop damage. The correlation to the plague of locusts in the Bible has the Internet buzzing. More about locusts: - Locusts hit Egypt and Israel before Passover - Gaddafi's fall leads to desert locusts' rise - Locusts illustrate the science of swarming Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. To keep up with Cosmic Log as well as NBCNews.com's other stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.

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What is API? API is an interface that allows software programs to interact with each other. It defines a set of rules that should be followed by the programs to communicate with each other. APIs generally specify how the routines, data structures, etc. should be defined in order for two applications to communicate. APIs differ in the functionality provided by them. There are general APIs that provide library functionalities of a programming language such as the Java API. There are also APIs that provides specific functionalities such as the Google Maps API. There are also language dependent APIs, which could only be used by a specific programming language. Furthermore, there are language independent APIs that could be used with several programming languages. APIs needs to be implemented very carefully by exposing only the required functionality or data to the outside, while keeping the other parts of the application inaccessible. Usage of APIs has become very popular in the internet. It has become very common to allow some of the functionality and data through an API to the outside on the Web. This functionality can be combined to offer an improved functionality to the users. What is SDK? SDK is a set of tools that can be used to develop software applications targeting a specific platform. SDKs include tools, libraries, documentation and sample code that would help a programmer to develop an application. Most of the SDKs could be downloaded from the internet and many of the SDKs are provided free to encourage the programmers to use the SDK‘s programming language. Some widely used SDKs are Java SDK (JDK) that includes all the libraries, debugging utilities, etc., which would make writing programs much easier in Java. SDKs make the life of a software developer easy, since there is no need to look for components/ tools that are compatible with each other and all of them are integrated in to a single package that is easy to install. What is the difference between API and SDK? API is an interface that allows software programs to interact with each other, whereas a SDK is a set of tools that can be used to develop software applications targeting a specific platform. The simplest version of a SDK could be an API that contains some files required to interact with a specific programming language. So an API can be seen as a simple SDK without all the debugging support, etc.

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Fled from Syria with 300 Catholic companions to Italy due to Monophysite persecution of Severus in 514. Ordained in Rome, Italy. Preacher in Umbria, Italy. Founded a monastery at Spoleto, Italy. Bishop of Spoleto for 20 years. When he arrived to assume his see, the people rejected him as a foreigner, but the city gates miraculously opened on their own to let him in, and the people realized that God wanted him there. He later resigned to found the abbey of Farfa in the Sabine hills near Rome. A renowned peacemaker, Lawrence had the gift of healing blindness, both physical and spiritual, which led to the title Illuminator. - “Saint Lawrence the Illuminator”. Saints.SQPN.com. 2 February 2010. Web. 26 May 2013. <http://saints.sqpn.com/saint-lawrence-the-illuminator/>

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Light glowing from a "super-Earth" planet beyond our solar system has been detected by Nasa’s Spitzer Telescope. Until now, scientists have never been able to detect infrared light emanating from 55 Cancri E, a super-hot extrasolar planet twice the size and eight times the mass of our own. 55 Cancri E is one of five exoplanets orbiting a bright star named 55 Cancri in a solar system lying in the constellation of Cancer (The Crab). Previously, Spitzer and other telescopes were able to study the planet by observing how the light from 55 Cancri changed as the planet passed in front of the star. In the new study, Spitzer instead measured how much infrared light came from the planet itself – revealing some of the planet’s major features. At 41-light years from Earth, the giant planet is considered uninhabitable. The giant planet is tidally locked, so one side always faces the star. The telescope found that the sun-facing side is extremely hot, indicating the planet probably does not have a substantial atmosphere to carry the sun's heat to the unlit side. [Related content: Amazing Nasa footage shows how the Earth looks from space] On its sun-facing side, the surface has a temperature of 1,727 Celsius – or 3,140 degrees Fahrenheit – That’s hot enough to melt silver or aluminium. The new findings are consistent with a previous theory that 55 Cancri E is a water world: A rocky core surrounded by a layer of water in a "supercritical" state where it is both liquid and gas, and topped by a blanket of steam. Bill Danchi, Spitzer programme scientist at NASA, said: “Spitzer has amazed us yet again. The spacecraft is pioneering the study of atmospheres of distant planets and paving the way for NASA's upcoming James Webb Space Telescope to apply a similar technique on potentially habitable planets.” Michael Werner, who also works on the Spitzer project, added: “When we conceived of Spitzer more than 40 years ago, exoplanets hadn't even been discovered. Because Spitzer was built very well, it's been able to adapt to this new field and make historic advances such as this.” The planet was first discovered in 2004 and the new findings are published in the current issue of Astrophysical Journal Letters.

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Alternate Names : Sexual Abuse, Sexual Assault Rape is the physical act of attacking another person and forcing that person to have sex. It is the illegal sexual penetration of any body opening. Rape can happen to men, women, and children. It is often violent, although sometimes the threat is only implied. Rape can also occur without the victim knowing about it. This can happen if the victim is unconscious, intoxicated, or high on drugs. Male rapists usually have an extreme hatred for women. They may feel inadequate and have problems with sexual performance. At least half the time, the rapist knows the victim and works or lives near the victim. Most rapes are planned ahead of time by the attacker. More than half of sexual assaults involve a weapon. What is the information for this topic? Following are some safety measures to help prevent rape when you are at home or in your car: Don't let a stranger into the house without proper identification. Don't list a first name on a mailbox or in a phone book. Have the key ready before reaching the door of a car or house. Keep a light on at all entrances. Keep doors and windows locked. Look in the car before entering. Make arrangements with a neighbor for assistance in emergency situations. Set the house lights to go on and off with a timer. Other safety measures you can take to help prevent rape are as follows: Appear strong and confident. Avoid isolated and secluded areas. Don't walk or jog alone at night. Look for unusual behavior in those around you. Scream loudly if attacked. Sit in lighted areas and near other people such as the driver when using public transportation. When someone has been raped, the rape should immediately be reported to the police. The victim should be taken to a medical facility and examined. The person should not bathe before this examination, as evidence might be destroyed. Additionally, clothing or samples of clothing might be collected by the police as evidence. During this exam, a healthcare provider will take the following steps: check for bruises, bite marks, and other trauma remove pubic hair samples take swabs from the anus and mouth take swabs from the vaginal area if the victim is a female test for pregnancy if the victim is a female, and provide emergency contraception as needed test for sexually transmitted diseases and provide treatment as needed The provider will treat all cuts and wounds. But often the emotional wounds are more severe than the physical wounds. It is very important that the victim get counseling and therapy. A local rape crisis center can help the victim through this trauma. Recovery from rape varies from person to person. Usually the physical wounds heal quickly. Mental wounds can last for many years after the attack. A rape victim may be viewed as suffering a posttraumatic stress disorder. This usually has an acute phase, lasting a few days to a few weeks, which is followed by a long-term process of recovery. Many rape victims suffer from the following: If the person doesn't receive effective treatment, he or she may experience these difficulties: inability to establish long-term relationships problems with sex Rape victims can go on to lead normal lives. But it's very important to their mental health that they get proper counseling. Healthcare providers can help the victim work through many of the problems that result from rape. They help monitor the victim's healing, both physically and mentally.

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by Jos Van der Poel Down’s syndrome is a genetic disorder (in stead of two these persons have three chromosomes 21) that besides a number of physical characteristics leads to intellectual impairment. It occurs in one out of every 1.000 births. Life expectancy of people with Down’s syndrome has increased substantially over the last century: about 50 % of them will reach the age of 60. Because of the trisomie 21 people with Down’s syndrome have an overexpression of the amyloid precursor protein. Amyloid is the main ingredient of the plaques, which are found in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s disease. Symptoms and course Not all persons with Down’s syndrome show evidence of cognitive deterioration or other clinical evidence of dementia even after extended periods of observation. Clinical symptoms at first are increasing depression, indifference and a decline in social communication. Later symptoms are: seizures in previously unaffected persons, changes in personality, loss of memory and general functions, long periods of inactivity or apathy, hyperactive reflexes, loss of activity of daily skills, visual retention deficits, loss of speech, disorientation, increase in stereotyped behaviour and abnormal neurological signs. Especially for brothers and sisters who are confronted with the responsibility for (the care of) their sibling with Down’s syndrome when their parents have died. It is distressing when this person develops Alzheimer’s disease at a relatively young age. Not only are they loosing the person they (often) love very much, but the burden of care gets heavier. Causes and risk factors In Down’s syndrome the development of Alzheimer’s disease seems to be linked directly to the overexposure to APP. The ApoE2 gene seems to have a protective effect in Down’s syndrome too, but whether ApoE4 increases the risk of Alzheimer’s disease in Down’s syndrome is not clear yet. Men and women seem to be equally susceptible. Down’s syndrome originates in an extra copy of chromosome 21. At least 36 % of the people with Down’s syndrome aged 50 – 59 years and 65 % aged 60 and older are affected by dementia. Brain changes associated with Alzheimer’s disease are found in 96 % of all adults with Down’s syndrome. Diagnosing dementia in people with Down’s syndrome is very difficult, as the dementia symptoms are often masked by the existing intellectual impairment. Several screening and evaluation procedures have been developed. These evaluations must be performed at select intervals, thus comparing with the person’s previous score. Definitive diagnosis is only available after death. Care and treatment Because of limited personel in small scale living settings for people with an intellectual impairment, persons with dementia often have to move (back) to an institution for mentally retarded people. Research has shown that donepezil (Aricept®) has a positive though not significant effect. Ongoing research/Clinical trials Erasmus University Rotterdam (Evenhuis HM) - Beer EFG de; De effecten van donepezil bij Downsyndroom; Down + Up 2003; 62 - Lott IT, Head E; Down syndrome and Alzheimer’s disease: a link between development and aging; Ment Ret Dev Dis 2001; 7 - Visser FE; Down en Alzheimer in perspectief; dissertation 1996 - Down’s Syndrome and Alzheimer’s Disease; Briefing North West Training & Development Team (1995) - Dementia an Intellectual Disabilities; Fact sheet Alzheimer’s Disease International (s.a.) Last Updated: vendredi 09 octobre 2009

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Every generation has to reinvent the practice of computer programming. In the 1950s the key innovations were programming languages such as Fortran and Lisp. The 1960s and '70s saw a crusade to root out "spaghetti code" and replace it with "structured programming." Since the 1980s software development has been dominated by a methodology known as object-oriented programming, or OOP. Now there are signs that OOP may be running out of oomph, and discontented programmers are once again casting about for the next big idea. It's time to look at what might await us in the post-OOP era (apart from an unfortunate acronym). The Tar Pit The architects of the earliest computer systems gave little thought to software. (The very word was still a decade in the future.) Building the machine itself was the serious intellectual challenge; converting mathematical formulas into program statements looked like a routine clerical task. The awful truth came out soon enough. Maurice V. Wilkes, who wrote what may have been the first working computer program, had his personal epiphany in 1949, when "the realization came over me with full force that a good part of the remainder of my life was going to be spent in finding errors in my own programs." Half a century later, we're still debugging. The very first programs were written in pure binary notation: Both data and instructions had to be encoded in long, featureless strings of 1s and 0s. Moreover, it was up to the programmer to keep track of where everything was stored in the machine's memory. Before you could call a subroutine, you had to calculate its address. The technology that lifted these burdens from the programmer was assembly language, in which raw binary codes were replaced by symbols such as load, store, add, sub. The symbols were translated into binary by a program called an assembler, which also calculated addresses. This was the first of many instances in which the computer was recruited to help with its own programming. Assembly language was a crucial early advance, but still the programmer had to keep in mind all the minutiae in the instruction set of a specific computer. Evaluating a short mathematical expression such as x2+y2 might require dozens of assembly-language instructions. Higher-level languages freed the programmer to think in terms of variables and equations rather than registers and addresses. In Fortran, for example, x2+y2 would be written simply as X**2+Y**2. Expressions of this kind are translated into binary form by a program called a compiler. With Fortran and the languages that followed, programmers finally had the tools they needed to get into really serious trouble. By the 1960s large software projects were notorious for being late, overbudget and buggy; soon came the appalling news that the cost of software was overtaking that of hardware. Frederick P. Brooks, Jr., who managed the OS/360 software program at IBM, called large-system programming a "tar pit" and remarked, "Everyone seems to have been surprised by the stickiness of the problem." One response to this crisis was structured programming, a reform movement whose manifesto was Edsger W. Dijkstra's brief letter to the editor titled "Go to statement considered harmful." Structured programs were to be built out of subunits that have a single entrance point and a single exit (eschewing the goto command, which allows jumps into or out of the middle of a routine). Three such constructs were recommended: sequencing (do A, then B, then C), alternation (either do A or do B) and iteration (repeat A until some condition is satisfied). Corrado Böhm and Giuseppe Jacopini proved that these three idioms are sufficient to express essentially all programs. Structured programming came packaged with a number of related principles and imperatives. Top-down design and stepwise refinement urged the programmer to set forth the broad outlines of a procedure first and only later fill in the details. Modularity called for self-contained units with simple interfaces between them. Encapsulation, or data hiding, required that the internal workings of a module be kept private, so that later changes to the module would not affect other areas of the program. All of these ideas have proved their worth and remain a part of software practice today. But they did not rescue programmers from the tar pit. Nouns and Verbs The true history of software development is not a straight line but a meandering river with dozens of branches. Some of the tributaries—functional programming, declarative programming, methods based on formal proofs of correctness—are no less interesting than the mainstream, but here I have room to explore only one channel: object- Consider a program for manipulating simple geometric figures. In a non-OOP environment, you might begin by writing a series of procedures with names such as rotate, scale, reflect, calculate-area, calculate-perimeter. Each of these verblike procedures could be applied to triangles, squares, circles and many other shapes; the figures themselves are nounlike entities embodied in data structures separate from the procedures. For example, a triangle might by represented by an array of three vertices, where each vertex is a pair of x and y coordinates. Applying the rotate procedure to this data structure would alter the coordinates and thereby turn the triangle. What's the matter with this scheme? One likely source of trouble is that the procedures and the data structures are separate but interdependent. If you change your mind about the implementation of triangles—perhaps using a linked list of points instead of an array—you must remember to change all the procedures that might ever be applied to a triangle. Also, choosing different representations for some of the figures becomes awkward. If you describe a circle in terms of a center and a radius rather than a set of vertices, all the procedures have to treat circles as a special case. Yet another pitfall is that the data structures are public property, and the procedures that share them may not always play nicely together. A figure altered by one procedure might no longer be valid input for another. Object-oriented programming addresses these issues by packing both data and procedures—both nouns and verbs—into a single object. An object named triangle would have inside it some data structure representing a three-sided shape, but it would also include the procedures (called methods in this context) for acting on the data. To rotate a triangle, you send a message to the triangle object, telling it to rotate itself. Sending and receiving messages is the only way objects communicate with one another; outsiders are not allowed direct access to the data. Because only the object's own methods know about the internal data structures, it's easier to keep them in sync. This scheme would not have much appeal if every time you wanted to create a triangle, you had to write out all the necessary data structures and methods—but that's not how it works. You define the class triangle just once; individual triangles are created as instances of the class. A mechanism called inheritance takes this idea a step further. You might define a more-general class polygon, which would have triangle as a subclass, along with other subclasses such as quadrilateral, pentagon and hexagon. Some methods would be common to all polygons; one example is the calculation of perimeter, which can be done by adding the lengths of the sides, no matter how many sides there are. If you define the method calculate-perimeter in the class polygon, all the subclasses inherit this code. Object-oriented programming traces its heritage back to simula, a programming language devised in the 1960s by Ole-Johan Dahl and Kristen Nygaard. Some object-oriented ideas were also anticipated by David L. Parnas. And the Sketchpad system of Ivan Sutherland was yet another source of inspiration. The various threads came together when Alan Kay and his colleagues created the Smalltalk language at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center in the 1970s. Within a decade several more object-oriented languages were in use, most notably Bjarne Stroustrup's C++, and later Java. Object-oriented features have also been retrofitted onto older languages, such as Lisp. As OOP has transformed the way programs are written, there has also been a major shift in the nature of the programs themselves. In the software-engineering literature of the 1960s and '70s, example programs tend to have a sausage-grinder structure: Inputs enter at one end, and outputs emerge at the other. An example is a compiler, which transforms source code into machine code. Programs written in this style have not disappeared, but they are no longer the center of attention. The emphasis now is on interactive software with a graphical user interface. Programming manuals for object-oriented languages are all about windows and menus and mouse clicks. In other words, OOP is not just a different solution; it also solves a different problem. Aspects and Objects Most of the post-OOP initiatives do not aim to supplant object-oriented programming; they seek to refine or improve or reinvigorate it. A case in point is aspect-oriented programming, or AOP. The classic challenge in writing object-oriented programs is finding the right decomposition into classes and objects. Returning to the example of a program for playing with geometric figures, a typical instance of the class pentagon might look like this: . But this object is also a pentagon: . And so is this: . To accommodate the differences between these figures, you could introduce subclasses of pentagon—perhaps named convex-pentagon, non-convex-pentagon and five-pointed-star. But then you would have to do the same thing for hexagons, heptagons and so forth, which soon becomes tedious. Moreover, this classification would give you no way to write methods that apply, say, to all convex polygons but to no others. An alternative decomposition would divide the polygon class into convex-polygon and non-convex-polygon, then subdivide the latter class into simple-polygon and self-intersecting-polygon. With this choice, however, you lose the ability to address all five-sided figures as a group. One solution to this quandary is multiple inheritance—allowing a class to have more than one parent. Thus a five-pointed star could be a subclass both of pentagon and of self-intersecting-polygon and could inherit methods from both. The wisdom of this arrangement is a matter of eternal controversy in the OOP community. Aspect-oriented programming takes another approach to dealing with "crosscutting" issues that cannot easily be arranged in a treelike hierarchy. An example in the geometry program might be the need to update a display window every time a figure is moved or modified. The straightforward OOP solution is to have each method that changes the appearance of a figure (such as rotate or scale) send a message to a display-manager object, telling the display what needs to be redrawn. But hundreds of methods could send such messages. Even apart from the boredom of writing the same code over and over, there is the worry that the interface to the display manager might change someday, requiring many methods to be revised. The AOP answer is to isolate the display-update "aspect" of the program in a module of its own. The programmer writes one instance of the code that calls for a display update, along with a specification of all the occasions on which that code is to be invoked—for example, whenever a rotate method is executed. Then even though the text of the rotate method does not mention display updating, the appropriate message is sent at the appropriate time. An AOP system called AspectJ, developed by Gregor Kiczales and a group of colleagues at Xerox PARC, works as an extension of the Java language. AOP is particularly attractive for implementing ubiquitous tasks such as error-handling, the logging of events, and synchronizing multiple threads of execution, which might otherwise be scattered throughout a program. But there are dissenting views. Jörg Kienzle and Rachid Guerraoui report on an attempt to build a transaction- processing system with AspectJ, where the key requirement is that transactions be executed completely or not at all (so that the system cannot debit one account without crediting another). They found it difficult to cleanly isolate this property as an aspect. Surely the most obvious place to look for help with programming a computer is the computer itself. If Fortran can be compiled into machine code, then why not transform some higher-level description or specification directly into a ready-to-run program? This is an old dream. It lives on under names such as generative programming, metaprogramming and intentional programming. In general, fully automatic programming remains beyond our reach, but there is one area where the idea has solid theoretical underpinnings as well as a record of practical success: in the building of compilers. Instead of hand-crafting a compiler for a specific programming language, the common practice is to write a grammar for the language and then generate the compiler with a program called a compiler compiler. (The best-known of these programs is Yacc, which stands for "yet another compiler compiler.") Generative programming would adapt this model to other domains. For example, a program generator for the kind of software that controls printers and other peripheral devices would accept a grammar-like description of the device and produce an appropriately specialized program. Another kind of generator might assemble "protocol stacks" for computer networking. Krzysztof Czarnecki and Ulrich W. Eisenecker compare a generative-programming system to a factory for manufacturing automobiles. Building the factory is more work than building a single car by hand, but the factory can produce thousands of cars. Moreover, if the factory is designed well, it can turn out many different models just by changing the specifications. Likewise generative programming would create families of programs tailored to diverse circumstances but all assembled from similar components. The Quality Without a Name Another new programming methodology draws its inspiration from an unexpected quarter. Although the term "computer architecture" goes back to the dawn of the industry, it was nonetheless a surprise when a band of software designers became disciples of a bricks-and-steel architect, Christopher Alexander. Even Alexander was surprised. Alexander is known for the enigmatic thesis that well-designed buildings and towns must have "the quality without a name." He explains: "The fact that this quality cannot be named does not mean that it is vague or imprecise. It is impossible to name because it is unerringly precise." Does that answer your question? Even if the quality had a name, it's not clear how one would turn it into a prescription for building good houses—or good software. Fortunately, Alexander is more explicit elsewhere in his writings. He urges architects to exploit recurrent patterns observed in both problems and solutions. For the pattern of events labeled "watching the world go by," a good solution is probably going to look something like a front porch. Taken over into the world of software, this approach leads to a catalogue of design patterns for solving specific, recurring problems in object-oriented programming. For example, a pattern named Bridge deals with the problem of setting up communications between two objects that may not know of each other's existence at the time a program is written. A pattern named Composite handles the situation where a single object and a collection of multiple objects have to be given the same status, as is often the case with files and directories of files. Over the past 10 years a sizable community has grown up around the pattern idea. There are dozens of books, web sites and an annual conference called Pattern Languages of Programming, or PLoP. Compared with earlier reform movements in computing, the pattern community sounds a little unfocused and New Age. Whereas structured programming was founded on a proof that three specific structures suffice to express all algorithms, there is nothing resembling such a proof to justify the selection of ideas included in catalogues of design patterns. As a matter of fact, the whole idea of proofs seems to be out of favor in the pattern community. Software Jeremiahs usually preach that programming should be an engineering profession, guided by standards analogous to building codes, or else it should be a branch of applied mathematics, with programs constructed like mathematical proofs. The pattern movement rejects both of these ideals and suggests instead that programmers are like carpenters or stonemasons—stewards of a body of knowledge gained by experience and passed along by tradition and apprenticeship. This is a movement of practitioners, not academics. Pattern advocates express particular contempt for the notion that programming might someday be taken over entirely by the computer. Automating a craft, they argue, is not only infeasible but also undesirable. The rhetoric of the pattern movement may sound like the ranting of a fringe group, but pattern methods have been adopted in several large organizations producing large—and successful—software systems. (When you make a phone call, you may well be relying on the work of programmers seeking out the quality without a name.) Moreover, beyond the rhetoric, the writings of the software-patterns community can be quite down-to-earth and pragmatic. If the pattern community is on the radical fringe, how far out is extreme programming (or, as it is sometimes spelled, eXtreme programming)? For the leaders of this movement, the issue is not so much the nature of the software itself but the way programming projects are organized and managed. They want to peel away layers of bureaucracy and jettison most of the stages of analysis, planning, testing, review and documentation that slow down software development. Just let programmers program! The recommended protocol is to work in pairs, two programmers huddling over a single keyboard, checking their own work as they go along. Is it a fad? A cult? Although the name may evoke a culture of body piercing and bungee jumping, extreme programming seems to have gained a foothold among the pinstriped suits. The first major project completed under the method was a payroll system for a transnational automobile manufacturer. Ask Me About My OOP Diet Frederick Brooks, who wrote of the tar pit in the 1960s, followed up in 1987 with an essay on the futility of seeking a "silver bullet," a single magical remedy for all of software's ills. Techniques such as object-oriented programming might alleviate "accidental difficulties" of software development, he said, but the essential complexity cannot be wished away. This pronouncement that the disease is incurable made everyone feel better. But it deterred no one from proposing remedies. After several weeks' immersion in the how-to-program literature, I am reminded of the shelves upon shelves of diet books in the self-help department of my local bookstore. In saying this I mean no disrespect to either genre. Most diet books, somewhere deep inside, offer sound advice: Eat less, exercise more. Most programming manuals also give wise counsel: Modularize, encapsulate. But surveying the hundreds of titles in both categories leaves me with a nagging doubt: The very multiplicity of answers undermines them all. Isn't it likely that we'd all be thinner, and we'd all have better software, if there were just one true diet, and one true programming methodology? Maybe that day will come. In the meantime, I'm going on a spaghetti-code diet. © Brian Hayes

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Overspending can be very stressful when it comes time to pay your credit card bill. However, it's the added interest that makes overspending just that much more expensive. Spending your future income One survey of 21- to 35-year-old college graduates found that this group owes an average of $30,000 in student loans. The several hundred dollars these graduates pay each month to pay off the loan is money that can't be saved or invested for the future. It can't be spent on other necessities, such as emergency car repairs or household expenses either. It's money that's tied up until the debt is repaid. While debt for education is considered "good" debt because it's an investment in your future, all debt obligates your future income because of the payments that must be made. So make sure you use debt wisely-eliminate "bad" debt (debt for depreciating assets, such as car loans and credit card debt) and limit the "good" debt to reasonable amounts. Paying the price of debt Interest payments on debt work against you. New college graduates carry an average credit card balance of $3,000. Let's say you're lucky—or better yet, careful—and you accumulate only $2,200 in credit card debt. Your interest rate is 18% and you pay the minimum amount each month on your card ($40) without any further purchases on your card. How long will it take to pay off your balance? Did you guess five years? Try 10. It will take almost 10 years to pay off the debt. Your total cost will be $4,680 (original balance of $2,200 plus $2,480 in interest). Getting into debt is easy It's easy to run up a credit card. How many times have you gone to dinner, put the whole bill on your credit card, collected money from friends for their portion of the bill, and then found that money gone by the time the bill arrives in the mail? How easy is it to buy another sweater on sale, not so much because you need it but because it was a good bargain? Pretty soon you've built up a large balance on your credit card. You could easily charge $2,200 on your credit card in two months, but it will take 10 years to pay it off if you only pay the minimum balance each month. Two months versus 10 years. Now that's downright scary!

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What is skin testing for allergies? The most common way to test for allergies is on the skin, usually the forearm or the back. In a typical skin test, a doctor or nurse will place a tiny bit of an allergen (such as pollen or food) on the skin, then make a small scratch or prick on the skin. The allergist may repeat this, testing for several allergens in one visit. This can be a little uncomfortable, but not painful. If your child reacts to one of the allergens, the skin will swell a little in that area. The doctor will be able to see if a reaction occurs within about 15 minutes. The swelling usually goes down within about 30 minutes to a few hours. Other types of skin testing include injecting allergens into the skin or taping allergens to the skin for 48 hours. With a skin test, an allergist can check for these kinds of allergies: - environmental, such as mold, pet dander, or tree pollen - food, such as peanuts or eggs - medications, such as penicillin Some medications (such as antihistamines) can interfere with skin testing, so check with the doctor to see if your child's medications need to be stopped before the test is done. While skin testing is useful and helpful, sometimes additional tests (like blood tests or food challenges) also must be done to see if a child is truly allergic to something. While skin tests are usually well tolerated, in rare instances they can cause a more serious allergic reaction. This is why skin testing must always be done in an allergist's office, where the doctor is prepared to handle a reaction. Reviewed by: Larissa Hirsch, MD Date reviewed: May 2012

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Some of our most interesting prints were once given away in a magazine. Today they comprise an important social history resource for the nineteenth century, illustrating spectacles and other visual devices in use by some of the most significant people of the day. Vanity Fair was a Victorian magazine, founded in 1868 and aimed at the middle and upper sections of society. From the very beginning its illustrations included a distinctive satirical portraiture of a type which was new to English journalism. These portraits were designed to be collectible and many households or clubs enjoyed gathering their own gallery of the most distinguished politicians, clergymen and lawyers of the day. The artists became well-known by their pseudonyms such as 'Spy' and indeed their works are often known by the shorthand label 'Spy cartoons'. The caricatures were reproduced by the relatively new colour printing process of chromolithography. Many of the Vanity Fair portraits include spectacles, monocles or pince-nez, often with a neck cord attached. In some cases the depiction is indistinct; the artist, usually working in watercolour, was interested only in providing an impression of the device. In other portraits however, the optical device is very clearly shown or else exaggerated such that it becomes a defining motif for the person concerned. An example would be the huge monocle filling the socket of Mr Maguire, the campaigner for Irish Home Rule. The portraits are a useful source for studying the spectacle fashions of the second half of the nineteenth century and the Edwardian period. The manner in which a frame is worn, held or suspended is often clearly shown. This may be from a cord, or a coat button. The spectacles may be flourished in the hand or parked out of the way on the forehead. In one instance, the son of the novelist Charles Dickens is illustrated actually cleaning his spectacle lenses with a cloth. Educated Victorian readers held contemporary scientists in a level of esteem that would be unfamiliar today. In consequence, certain distinguished names in the fields of optics and ophthalmology are to be found amongst the Vanity Fair portraits. This includes Mr Frank Crisp, the well-known collector of microscopes, Sir George Airy, reputedly the first to use a cylindrical lens for his own correction, Sir William Crookes the Chemist (a former Superintendent of the Radcliffe Observatory) and R Brudenell Carter who found fame through his operations on corneal staphyloma. There are so many relevant Vanity Fair portraits (the BOA Museum has 68 for example) that a comprehensive listing would seem superfluous. Below is attached a list of some of the best that an enthusiast might consider including in his collection. It should be noted that many of these prints are available quite cheaply as modern reproductions. Wearing Pince-Nez or Nose spectacles Wearing a monocle Other optical devices The MusEYEum Guide to the pseudonyms of Vanity Fair cartoonists: |Ao||= L’Estrange. Floruit 1903-7.| |APE||= Carlo Pellegrini (1839-1889). Born Capua. Came to England 1864. Adopted name ‘APE’ from 1869.| |F.C.G.||= Sir Francis Carruthers Gould (1844-1925).| |F.T.D.||= F.T. Dalton. Floruit 1890.| |GUTH||= Jean Baptiste Guth. Floruit 1883-1921.| |Hay||= Floruit 1888-1893.| |Lib||= Liberio Prosperi. Floruit 1886-1903.| |PAL||= Jean de Paleogu. Born 1855.| |SPY||= Sir Leslie Ward (1851-1922). Adopted name ‘SPY’ from 1873, working 36 years for Vanity Fair. Knighted 1918.| |STUFF||= Possibly H.C. Sepping Wright (i.e. his name becomes the ‘wright stuff’). Floruit 1894-1900.| |T||= Theobald Chartran (1849-1907).| |w.a.g.||= A.G. Witherby. Floruit 1894-1901.|

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At the University of Dubuque, students learn Environmental Science by getting wet, getting muddy, and getting their hands on fish, birds, soil, prairie plants, and rocks. We believe that field-oriented, hands-on courses prepare students for jobs following graduation, while providing real life experiences that lead to internships and undergraduate research projects. Students are exposed to the latest technologies, such as water quality analysis, toxicological assays, and radio telemetry. Our fleet of field boats provides an excellent opportunity to explore the Mississippi River ecosystem, and yearly field trips to the Audubon Center of the North Woods, Boundary Waters -- and other fun spots, as well as study trips to interantional locations, provide an opportunity to learn about other habitats. Through integrated classroom work and hands-on research, students are prepared to be leaders in the environmental science field after graduation. We also love field trips. See some of our photos at http://www.geocities.com/daleeasley/FieldTrips/Page.html

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Image: Walter Tape Colourful light pillars often appear in winter when snow or ice crystals reflect light from a strong source like the sun or moon. Aided by extreme cold, light pillars appear when light bounces off the surface of flat ice crystals floating relatively close to the ground. The pillars look like feathers of light that extend vertically either above or below the light source, or both. Diagrams showing the formation of light pillars from street lamps (left) and the reflection of light rays from plate ice crystal surfaces (right): Images: Keith C. Heidorn Light pillars also form from strong artificial light sources like street lamps, car headlights or the strong light sources of an ice-skating rink as in the picture above of Fairbanks, Alaska. Though they are local phenomena, light pillars can look distant like an aurora. The closer an observer is to the source of the light pillar, the larger it seems. National Geographic has more pictures of recent light pillars in Idaho, California, Belgium, Latvia and Canada. You can also view another Environmental Graffiti article on more incredible light phenomena here.

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The involvement of family members in a student’s educational journey plays a crucial part in that student’s success. This page will lead you to a number of resources that can help you shepherd your student through this important step in his or her life. Our FAQ section may answer many of the questions you may have, but also try our A-Z index (on the tab above) for quick access to many topics. Valuable tips in how you can assist your student, as well as contact information can be found in the links provided. We hope you and your student have a wonderful FSU experience. The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), also known as the “Buckley Amendment,” is designed to protect the confidentiality of educational records and give students access to their own information. This access to information does not include parents, unless the student expressly gives you permission each year. More information about FERPA can be found here. How FERPA affects grading policies is addressed online and in the Parents Handbook.

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Types of Explosions Any explosion that is the direct result of using a weapon; such as a sword laden with explosive magics, or a gun that's been given explosive bullets. The most obvious example is a grenade or a block of TNT. Most guns can be put into this category, given the common firearm mechanism of propelling a bullet out of the gun's barrel through an explosion in the chamber. A larger scale example would be the atomic bomb that a player can detonate on the town of Megaton in Fallout 3. Think Final Fantasy or Dragon Warrior for magic-based explosions in games. Spells such as "Flare" in Final Fantasy and "Explodet" in Dragon Warrior are good examples. In other games, a character may motion with their hand to create a fireball or a beam of powerful light, which will explode upon impact. In Oblivion, the magic-wielding player motions forward with his/her arm and points to create a fireball, which then hurdles through the air, exploding upon any solid surface. Magical "summonings" also create magical explosions, such as Bahamut's attack in most Final Fantasy games. These explosions emanate from the world around the player. They can activate on their own, or be triggered by the player's actions. Classics, such as the exploding barrel and fuel tank are often large and loud explosions - and in some environments, they can connect with other exploding objects to create a chain-reaction. This also contains objects such as vehicles, booby traps, and mines. This type of explosion can be very important to some games, as explosive environmental objects are often part of objectives or checkpoints in a game. These explosions are the result of any living thing that is able to explode. A simple example of this would be any kamikaze enemy in a game that's willing to run up to a player and detonate themselves.

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Grape mealybug—Pseudococcus maritimus Grape mealybugs are soft, oval, flattened insects. Their bodies are distinctly segmented; divisions among the head, thorax, and abdomen are not distinct. The adult female is about 5 mm long and appears smoothly dusted with a white, mealy, wax secretion. Long caudal filaments along the lateral margin of the body become progressively shorter toward the A new vine mealybug has recently invaded California vineyards. This species has shorter filaments than the grape mealybug. Mealybugs excrete large quantities of sticky honeydew, which drips onto fruit clusters and later turns black from sooty mold. Some berries may crack. Mealybugs do not injure vines. Remove loose bark in winter; young mealybugs and eggs are concealed in such places until spring. High temperatures in June kill much of the most damaging brood. Control of ants (which interfere with natural enemies) is important. Oils applied during dormancy can reduce numbers somewhat.

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The next day we learned that frogs come from eggs. Frog eggs look a little different from the eggs of other animals and it took a little convincing to persuade them that they were actually eggs. We talked about the life cycle of frogs. After that we made frogs, complete with long, curly tongues and wrote about them. Here is how they turned out... |I just love these little guys!| After frogs & turtles, we talked about snakes! I am not a fan of snakes, but my students ALWAYS love to learn about them! This year my class is heavy on boys (12 out of 17) and this unit keeps them so engaged! I LOVE teaching through themes. I know that the theme keeps them so engaged that I can slip in writing, reading & math skills without them even realizing it! :) I do not have pictures of our snakes because I couldn't get them to turn out. We colored 2 sides of a paper plate and then cut them in a swirl so that they looked like curly snakes. Then, I hung them from the ceiling. They would twirl when the air kicked in and the kids loved it! All in all, this was a great unit. My kids stayed engaged and excited the entire week. I was able to teach them valuable math, reading, writing, & science skills...what more could I have asked for? :)

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March 30, 2012 CDC Releases New Report on Autism Prevalence in U.S. Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health contributed to a new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report that estimates the prevalence of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) as affecting 1 in 88 U.S. children overall, and 1 in 54 boys. This is the third such report by the CDC’s Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network (ADDM), which has used the same surveillance methods for more than a decade. Previous ADDM reports estimated the rate of ASDs at 1 in 110 children in the 2009 report that looked at data from 2006, and 1 in 150 children in the 2007 report, which covered data from 2002. The current prevalence estimate, which analyzed data from 2008, represents a 78 percent increase since 2002, and a 23 percent increase since 2006. ASDs include diagnoses of autistic disorder, Asperger disorder, and Pervasive Developmental Disorder-Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS). ASDs encompass a wide spectrum of conditions, all of which affect communication, social and behavioral skills. The causes of these developmental disorders are not completely understood, although studies show that both environment and genetics play an important and complex role. There is no known cure for ASDs, but studies have shown that behavioral interventions, particularly those begun early in a child’s life, can greatly improve learning and skills. The latest CDC report, “Prevalence of Autism Spectrum Disorders – Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network, 14 Sites, United States, 2008,” provides autism prevalence estimates from different areas of the United States, including Maryland. The purpose of the report is to provide high-quality data on the extent and distribution of ASDs in the U.S. population, to promote better planning for health and educational services, and to inform the further development of research on the causes, progression, and treatments. “We continue observing increases in prevalence since the inception of the project in 2000,” said Li-Ching Lee, PhD, a psychiatric epidemiologist with the Bloomberg School"s Departments of Epidemiology and Mental Health and the principal investigator for the prevalence project’s Maryland site. “In Maryland, we found 27 percent of children with ASDs were never diagnosed by professionals. So, we know there are more children out there and we may see the increase continue in coming years.” The new report, which focuses on 8-year-olds because that is an age where most children with ASD have been identified, shows that the number of those affected varies widely among the 14 participating states, with Utah having the the highest overall rate (1 in 47) and Alabama the lowest (1 in 210). Across all sites, nearly five times as many boys as girls are affected. Additionally, growing numbers of minority children are being diagnosed, with a 91 percent increase among black non-Hispanic children and a 110 percent increase for Hispanic children. Researchers say better screening and diagnosis may contribute to those increases among minority children. The overall rate in Maryland is 1 in 80 children; 1 in 49 boys and 1 in 256 girls. In Maryland, the prevalence has increased 85 percent from 2002 to 2008. The increase was 41 percent between 2004 and 2008, and 35 percent between 2006 and 2008. The data were gathered through collaboration with the Maryland State Department of Education and participating schools in Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Carroll, Cecil, Harford and Howard counties, as well as clinical sources such as Kennedy Krieger Institute, Mt. Washington Pediatric Hospital, and University of Maryland Medical System. While the report focuses on the numbers, its authors acknowledge that the reasons for the increase are not completely understood and that more research is needed. They note that the increase is likely due in part to a broadened definition of ASDs, greater awareness among the public and professionals, and the way children receive services in their local communities. “It’s very difficult, if not impossible, to tease these factors apart to quantify how much each of these factors contributed to the increase,” Dr. Lee said. But whatever the cause, “This report paints a picture of the magnitude of the condition across our country and helps us understand how communities identify children with autism. One thing the data tell us with certainty – there are more children and families that need help,” said CDC Director Thomas Frieden, MD, MPH. Researchers also identified the median age of ASD diagnosis, documented in records. In Maryland, that age was 5 years and 6 months, compared with 4 years, 6 months nationally. Across all sites, children who have autistic disorder tend to be identified earlier, while those with Asperger Disorder tend to be diagnosed later. Given the importance of early intervention, ADDM researchers carefully track at what age children receive an ASD diagnosis. “Unfortunately, most children still are not diagnosed until after they reach age 4. We’ve heard from too many parents that they were concerned long before their child was diagnosed. We are working hard to change that,” said Coleen Boyle, PhD, MSHyg, director of CDC’s National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities. To see the full report: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/ss6103a1.htm?s_cid=ss6103a1_w To the Community Report with state statistics: http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/autism/documents/ADDM-2012-Community-Report.pdf Media contact for Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health: Natalie Wood-Wright at 410-614-6029 or email@example.com

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|Origin:||, past participle of consolidare, from com- ( COM-) + solidus 'solid'| con‧sol‧i‧date [intransitive and transitive] to strengthen the position of power or success that you have, so that it becomes more effective or continues for longer: The company has consolidated its position as the country's leading gas supplier. The team consolidated their lead with a third goal. to combine things in order to make them more effective or easier to deal with: We consolidate information from a wide range of sources. They took out a loan to consolidate their debts. The company is planning to consolidate its business activities at a new site in Arizona. —consolidation noun [uncountable and countable] the consolidation of political power

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- Nietzsche on Tragedy by M.S. Silk and J.P. Stern Cambridge, 441 pp, £27.50, March 1981, ISBN 0 521 23262 7 - Nietzsche: A Critical Life by Ronald Hayman Weidenfeld, 424 pp, £18.50, March 1980, ISBN 0 297 77636 3 - Nietzsche. Vol. 1: The Will to Power as Art by Martin Heidegger, translated by David Farrell Krell Routledge, 263 pp, £11.50, March 1981, ISBN 0 7100 0744 2 Nietzsche’s first book, The Birth of Tragedy, was published in 1872, when he was 27, and while he was a Professor of Classics at Basel. It had the unusual effect, for him, of attracting some attention at the time of its appearance: after that, Nietzsche’s writings virtually ceased to be noticed until the 1890s, by which time he was, for the last 11 years of his life, insane, virtually without speech, and out of touch with the world. Nietzsche said to his sister that this book was a ‘centaur’, a description which emphasises its oddness, underestimates its beauty, and misleads about the number of its components, since it is a blend not only of scholarship and literary prose, but of philosophy and assertive aesthetic judgment. It makes some historical claims in answer to an old question, the origin of tragedy among the Greeks; more importantly, it tries to characterise the nature of the Greek view of the world, how that is expressed in Greek tragedy, and what significance both that view and those plays can now have. According to Nietzsche, two contrasting spirits stand over Greek, and over all genuine, art – Apollo and Dionysus. Apollo represents order, civilisation and the determinate image; Dionysus represents nature, fertility, rapture, and the dissolution of individuation into collective expression. Greek tragedy was a highly stylised and formal art which arose nevertheless from the cult of Dionysus, and at its highest, in Nietzsche’s view, it represents a peculiar moment at which the forces of Apollo and Dionysus were balanced – a balance which expresses a heroic understanding and acceptance of the destructive horror of things, a ‘pessimism of strength’. These elements, the Dionysiac and the Apollonian (a term surely preferable to Silk and Stern’s ‘Apolline’), by no means merely represent, as they are often taken to do, a dichotomy of passion and reason, or of emotion and form. The basic element of the Dionysiac is indeed Rausch – ‘rapture’ in Krell’s translation of Heidegger, ‘ecstasy’ in Silk and Stern – but the corresponding idea of the Apollonian is dream, and the order which Classical art can set upon things itself has roots in a realm of illusion. The balance between these forces, and the consciousness which the tragic outlook involves, of the unity of destructive and creative forces, was embodied only in the earlier period of the Greek Classical Age – above all, in the tragedians Aeschylus and Sophocles. Of these, Nietzsche tends to emphasise Aeschylus, who was indeed the earlier, but (as Silk and Stern point out) it is certainly Sophocles who most clearly and unpityingly embodies what Nietzsche had in mind. The third great tragedian, Euripides, destroyed tragedy, according to Nietzsche, or rather helped it to destroy itself, in association with the spirit of Socrates, that spirit of ‘Alexandrian optimism’ which trusted in reason to make the most basic questions of living into matters of discursive knowledge. That same rationalistic optimism led inevitably to a depreciation of art, including Plato’s celebrated rejection of it. The Platonic consciousness, and the later forms of moralism which in various ways Nietzsche assimilated to it, could not stand the power of tragedy, nor the metaphysical conclusion which, in The Birth of Tragedy, Nietzsche saw as implicit in tragedy: that ‘only as an aesthetic phenomenon can existence and the world be eternally justified.’

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Adam Health Illustrated Encyclopedia Multimedia - TestSearch Health Information Creatine phosphokinase test Creatine phosphokinase (CPK) is an enzyme found mainly in the heart, brain, and skeletal muscle. This article discusses the test to measure the amount of CPK in the blood. CPK test; Creatine kinase; CK test How the test is performed A blood sample is needed. This may be taken from a vein. The procedure is called a venipuncture. This test may be repeated over 2 or 3 days for if you are a patient in the hospital. How to prepare for the test Usually, no special preparation is necessary. Tell your doctor about any medications you are taking. Drugs that can increase CPK measurements include amphotericin B, certain anesthetics, statins, fibrates, dexamethasone, alcohol, and cocaine. How the test will feel When the needle is inserted to draw blood, you may feel moderate pain, or only a prick or stinging sensation. Afterward, there may be some throbbing. Why the test is performed When the total CPK level is very high, it usually means there has been injury or stress to muscle tissue, the heart, or the brain. Muscle tissue injury is most likely. When a muscle is damaged, CPK leaks into the bloodstream. Determining which specific form of CPK is high helps doctors determine which tissue has been damaged. This test may be used to: - Diagnose heart attack - Evaluate cause of chest pain - Determine if or how badly a muscle is damaged - Detect dermatomyositis, polymyositis, and other muscle diseases - Tell the difference between malignant hyperthermia and postoperative infection The pattern and timing of a rise or fall in CPK levels can be diagnostically significant, particularly if a heart attack is suspected. Except in unusual cases, other tests are used to diagnose a heart attack. Total CPK normal values: - 10 - 120 micrograms per liter (mcg/L) Normal value ranges may vary slightly among different laboratories. Some labs use different measurements or test different samples. Talk to your doctor about the meaning of your specific test results. What abnormal results mean High CPK levels may be seen in patients who have: - Brain injury or stroke - Delirium tremens - Dermatomyositis or polymyositis - Electric shock - Heart attack - Inflammation of the heart muscle (myocarditis) - Lung tissue death (pulmonary infarction) - Muscular dystrophies Additional conditions may give positive test results: What the risks are There is very little risk involved with having your blood taken. Veins and arteries vary in size from one patient to another and from one side of the body to the other. Taking blood from some people may be more difficult than from others. Other risks associated with having blood drawn are slight but may include: - Excessive bleeding - Fainting or feeling light-headed - Hematoma (blood accumulating under the skin) - Infection (a slight risk any time the skin is broken) Other tests should be done to determine the exact location of muscle damage. Factors that may affect test results include cardiac catheterization, intramuscular injections, trauma to muscles, recent surgery, and heavy exercise. Anderson JL. ST segment elevation acute myocardial infarction and complications of myocardial infarction. In: Goldman L, Schafer AI, eds. Cecil Medicine. 24th ed. Philadelphia, Pa: Saunders Elsevier; 2011:chap 73. Chinnery PF. Muscle diseases. In: Goldman L, Schafer AI, eds. Cecil Medicine. 24th ed. Philadelphia, Pa: Saunders Elsevier; 2011:chap 429. Reviewed By: David C. Dugdale, III, MD, Professor of Medicine, Division of General Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Washington School of Medicine. Also reviewed by A.D.A.M. Health Solutions, Ebix, Inc., Editorial Team: David Zieve, MD, MHA, David R. Eltz, Stephanie Slon, and Nissi Wang.

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Watch a video to find out. Stay logged in Go to Navigation Go to Content Go to Search Back to browse highlights Doorway from Abbey of Notre-Dame at Nevers Seated Virgin and Child Browse current and upcoming exhibitions and events. This artwork is currently on display in Gallery 001 According to tradition, the monastery of Moutiers-Saint-Jean was founded by the first Christian kings of France, Clovis I and his son Clothar I. They are almost certainly depicted in the standing figures presenting their charters, now installed in the embrasures on either side of the portal. The small seated figures in the flanking niches represent biblical personages believed to prefigure or foretell Christ's Crucifixion. The tympanum above the doorway depicts Christ crowning the Virgin as the Queen of Heaven. This portal, probably from the north aisle of the cloister, would have led from the monastic precinct into the abbey church. The portal suffered severe damage during the sixteenth-century Wars of Religion; the heads of the two kings may have been repaired in the seventeenth century. From the abbey of Moutiers-Saint-Jean, near Dijon, FranceMlle. Cambillarc , Moutiers-St.-Jean, France ; Jean Peslier , Vézelay, France ; [ Brummer Gallery , Paris and New York (sold 1932)] © 2000–2013 The Metropolitan Museum of Art. All rights reserved.

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Since the 1960s, Washington has clamped a strict trade embargo on Cuba in the expectation that economic distress would oust Castro or at least moderate his behavior. Since 1996 the U.S. embargo has been embodied in law (heretofore it was an executive order). Here’s what Uncle Sam says the embargo, enacted on February 3, 1962, by President Kennedy, is about: The fundamental goal of U.S. policy toward Cuba is to promote a peaceful transition to a stable, democratic form of government and respect for human rights. Our policy has two fundamental components: maintaining pressure on the Cuban Government for change through the embargo and the Libertad Act while providing humanitarian assistance to the Cuban people, and working to aid the development of civil society in the country. Critics call it a violation of international law that injures and threatens the welfare of Cuban people. The United Nations General Assembly routinely votes to condemn it (the 2009 vote was 187-3, with only Palau and Israel—which trades with Cuba—joining the United States in voting against the resolution). Uncle Sam even fines foreign companies doing business with Cuba. Talk about shooting oneself in the foot! For example, when Hilton and Sheraton hotels worldwide were banned from accepting Cuban trade delegations, European unions and parliamentarians initiated a boycott of the hotel chains, while the Mexican government even fined Sheraton US$100,000 for expelling Cuban guests in violation of international law. Meanwhile, the ultimate irony and hypocrisy is that although no Cuban goods can be sold to the United States, the U.S. does permit sales of “agricultural” and certain other goods to Cuba under a waiver that runs from daiquiri mix to rolls of newsprint (even the Communist rag, Granma, is printed on paper from Alabama), to the tune of US$718 million in 2008! The effects of the embargo (which Castro calls el bloqueo, or blockade) are much debated. In 1999, Cuba filed a claim for US$181 billion in reparations. However, in 2000, the International Trade Commission (ITC) determined that the embargo has had a minimal impact on the Cuban economy, citing domestic policies as the main cause of Cuba’s economic woes (for three decades, the effects of the embargo were almost entirely offset by massive subsidies from the Soviet Union). As President Carter noted during his visit to Havana in May 2002: “These restraints are not the source of Cuba’s economic problems. Cuba can trade with more than 100 countries, and buy medicines, for example, more cheaply in Mexico than in the United States.” The paradox is that the policy achieves the opposite effect to its stated goals: It provides a wonderful excuse for the Communist system’s economic failings, and a rationale to suppress dissidents and civil liberties under the aegis of national security for an island under siege. It also permits Fidel Castro to perform the role of Cuba’s anti-imperialistic savior that he has cast for himself. Although State Department officials privately admit that the embargo is the fundamental source of Fidel’s hold on power, U.S. presidents are wed to what Ann Louise Bardach calls a “transparently disastrous policy, trading off sensible and enduring solutions for short-term electoral gains [in Florida]” in response to fanatically anti-Castroite Cuban-American interests. U.S. citizens who oppose the embargo and restrictions on U.S. citizens’ constitutional right to travel can make their views known to representatives in Washington. Contact Your Senator or Representative in Congress (U.S. Congress, Washington, DC 20510, tel. 202/224-3121 or 800/839-5276, www.house.gov and www.senate.gov ). Write a simple, moderate, straightforward letter to your representative that makes the argument for ending the travel ban and embargo and requests he/she cosponsor a bill to that effect. Write or Call the President (The President, The White House, Washington, DC 20500, tel. 202/456-1414, president [at] whitehouse [dot] gov). Also call or fax the White House Comment Line (202/456-1111, fax 202/456-2461, www.whitehouse.gov ) and the Secretary of State (202/647-4000, www.state.gov/secretary ). Publicize Your Concern. Write a simple, moderate, straightforward letter to the editor of your local newspaper as well as any national newspapers or magazines and make the argument for ending the embargo. Support the Freedom to Travel Campaign. Contact the Latin America Working Group (424 C St. NE, Washington, DC 20002, tel. 202/546-7010, www.lawg.org ), which campaigns to lift the travel restrictions and U.S. embargo, monitors legislators, and can advise on how representatives have voted on Cuba-related issues; and sign the Orbitz Open Cuba (www.opencuba.org ) petition.

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Spider silk can be scary enough to insects to act as a pest repellant, researchers say. These findings could lead to a new way to naturally help protect crops, scientists added. Spiders are among the most common predators on land. Although not all spiders weave webs, they all spin silk that may serve other purposes. For instance, many tiny spiders use silk balloons to travel by air. Science news from NBCNews.com Researchers suspected that insects and other regular prey of spiders might associate silk with the risk of getting eaten. As such, they reasoned silk might scare insects off. The scientists experimented with Japanese beetles (Popillia japonica) and Mexican bean beetles (Epilachna varivestis). These plant-munching pests have spread across eastern North America within the past half-century. [ Ewww! Nature's Biggest Pests ] The beetles were analyzed near green bean plants (Phaseolus vulgaris) in both the lab and a tilled field outdoors. The investigators applied two kinds of silk on the plants — one from silkworms (Bombyx mori) and another from a long-jawed spider (Tetragnatha elongata), a species common in riverbank forests but not in the region the researchers studied. Both spider and silkworm silk reduced insect plant-chewing significantly. In the lab, both eliminated insect damage entirely, while in the field, spider silk had a greater effect — plants enclosed with beetles and spider silk experienced about 50 percent less damage than leaves without spider silk, while silkworm silk only led to about a 10 to 20 percent reduction. Experiments with other fibers revealed that only silk had this protective effect. "This work suggests that silk alone is a signal to potential prey that danger is near," researcher Ann Rypstra, an evolutionary ecologist at Miami University in Ohio, told LiveScience. Rypstra was most surprised that the effect occurred even though the species involved do not share any evolutionary history together as predator and prey. This suggests "herbivores are using the silk as some sort of general signal that a spider — any ol' spider — is around and responding by reducing their activity or leaving the area," she said. While more work will need to be done before this research might find applied use, the fact that the presence of silk alone reduced damage caused by two economically important pest insects "suggests that there could be applications in agricultural pest management and biological control," Rypstra said. Rypstra is also interested in the chain reaction of events that silk might trigger in an ecosystem. "For example, if an herbivore encounters a strand of silk and alters its behavior in a particular manner, does that make it more susceptible to predation by a non-spider?" Rypstra asked. "Do spiders that leave lots of silk behind have a larger impact in the food web, and how does it vary from habitat to habitat? These are just a couple of questions that we might be exploring in the near future." Rypstra and her colleagues detailed their findings online Wednesday in the journal Biology Letters. - Gallery: Spooky Spiders - What Really Scares People: Top 10 Phobias - Gallery: Dazzling Photos of Dew-Covered Insects © 2012 LiveScience.com. All rights reserved.

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NetWellness is a global, community service providing quality, unbiased health information from our partner university faculty. NetWellness is commercial-free and does not accept advertising. Saturday, May 25, 2013 Crackles in Inhaling what is the cause of crackles? What can be done ? "Crackles" refers to a non-specific, subjective description of an abnormal sound which is heard when someone listens to the lung. The list of problems which can cause crackles is quite long and varies. If indeed crackles are present, then some investigation to understand what might be causing this abnormal sound is important. This will likely be some picture of the lung. In general, abnormal findings should be investigated until a satisfactory explanation is obtained for the abnormal finding. Once a cause is identified, one can then define an appropriate course of action. Robert Schilz, DO, PhD Associate Professor of Medicine School of Medicine Case Western Reserve University

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Liquid armor has been shown to stop bullets more effectively than plain Kevlar, according to British firm BAE Systems. The material could be used to make thinner, lighter armor for military personnel and police officers, the BBC reports. Materials scientists combined a shear-thickening liquid with traditional Kevlar to make a bulletproof material that absorbs the force of a bullet strike by becoming thicker and stickier. Its molecules lock together more tightly when it is struck, the scientists explained -- they described it as "bulletproof custard," the BBC reports.Shear-thickening liquids are composed of hard nanoparticles suspended in a liquid, which turns rigid after being struck with a bullet or shrapnel. BAE says their tests provide the first clear evidence that it can actually protect people. In the tests, BAE scientists used a gas gun to fire ball-bearing bullets at nearly 1,000 feet per second at two test materials -- 31 layers of regular Kevlar and 10 layers of Kevlar combined with the shear-thickening liquid. The shear-thickening liquid stopped the bullets more quickly and prevented them from penetrating as deeply, the BBC says. British media got a preview of the materials at a BAE facility in Bristol, England. The U.S. Army Research Laboratory has studied using liquid armor to replace traditional Kevlar armor, which is heavy and bulky. Five amazing, clean technologies that will set us free, in this month's energy-focused issue. Also: how to build a better bomb detector, the robotic toys that are raising your children, a human catapult, the world's smallest arcade, and much more.

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