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Table of contentsNo headers Toposurface subregions are areas that you sketch inside existing toposurfaces. For example, you can use subregions to draw parking lots on a graded surface, roads, or islands. Creating a subregion does not result in separate surfaces. It merely defines an area of the surface where you can apply a different set of properties, such as material. To create a subregion - Open a site plan that displays a toposurface. - Click Site tabModel Site panel (Subregion). Revit LT enters sketch mode. - Click (Pick Lines) or use other sketch tools to create a subregion on the toposurface. To modify subregion boundaries - Select the subregion. - Click Modify | Topography tab Subregion panel (Edit Boundary). - Click (Pick Lines) or use other sketch tools to modify the subregion on the toposurface. The following image shows a toposurface that has a subregion, shown in gray.

In the conceptual design environment, you can label dimensions by assigning parameters to them, and then use direct manipulation to explore design variations. As a labeled dimension is manipulated, all its related geometry adjusts, and the dimension labels change to reflect their new values. The dimension labels change dynamically as they are manipulated in the drawing area. For example, drag a labeled dimension to a new position. All the lines that are associated by formulas move with respect to their parameter settings. For example if parameter B = A/2, the value of B is always half of the value of parameter A. If the value of B changes to 8, the value of A changes to 16. You can see the parameter values change in the drawing area when you directly manipulate these lines. The formulas assigned to a parameter display in the Label drop-down list on the Options Bar. These can be selected and applied to the labeled dimensions. When applied to a dimension, the formula displays as the new label in the drawing area.

Fri November 9, 2012 Bioengineering Beer Foam Originally published on Fri November 9, 2012 12:03 pm FLORA LICHTMAN, HOST: And one last salute to science before the weekend. Here are some news you can raise the glass to. Microbiologist Tomas Villa and colleagues report that they may be able to bioengineer better beer foam. That's right. TOMAS G. VILLA: Beer foam. Foam is what you like the most in a beer. And a beer drinker wants foam to stay longer, right? LICHTMAN: Of course. And the secret to long-lasting froth, proteins, produced by barley and yeast during fermentation. VILLA: The hydroforming portion of the protein sticks inside the bubble and the hydrophilic bubbles of protein sticks out of the bubble. LICHTMAN: The protein coat stabilizes the bubble, leading to a longer lifespan. Villa and colleagues identified the gene in a lager yeast strain that codes for this protein. And they say they can insert it into other brewer's yeast, producing beer with foamy heads that can last for hours. Cheers. You can learn more about Dr. Tomas Gonzales Villa's research on our website, along with everything else on our website, including a video tour of Dr. Oliver Sacks' desk. I don't think you want to miss that. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright National Public Radio.

Try creating an outline, and then using that as a reference to write the story. One of the first books I wrote as a teenager, I actually did this. I just wrote down an outline first; pencil on paper. Not chapter by chapter, but event by event. When a major event came to mind, I would use the top-level outline numbering and indent level, and then drill down into what would transpire. It was a great exercise to help train my mind how to write books. As I wrote the story, perhaps a year later, I remember finding it easier to write about one event at a time. It was more like writing a series of short stories. Of course, I changed things at whim. Through several rounds of rewrites, the book did eventually come together. I hate to say it, but if you're writing a story, don't be afraid to just outright use a formula. I don't do this any more, but have certainly used it as a mechanism to help get ideas out when I was younger. Just think about how you think the basic story should flow, and then fill in the blanks with passes of ever-increasing detail, sketchy outline, detailed outline, rough draft of events, piece together into short stories, and then craft a draft novel (or series, depending on the amount of stuff you're covering). - Opening scene - Plot development 1 - Plot development 2 - Ending climax Looking back, this may not have been the easiest way to create a book, but it was a way that worked for me, given being wont to overfocus on details and then actually lose focus on the story as a whole. I'd say that anything you do that helps you get out the stories you have inside is a good practice. Your talents will develop better as you write than if you're thinking about writing, but not actually doing it :)

The performance of a section of concrete pavement built with 30 percent Ground Granulated Blast Furnace Slag (GGBFS) is compared to a control section of concrete pavement built with 25 percent GGBFS to determine if the higher slag content pavement is more resistant to wear from studded tires. This report details the construction of the pavement, construction quality control tests, and initial base line wear, friction, and smoothness results. August 12, 2009 Keith W. Anderson, Jeff S. Uhlmeyer, Kurt Williams, Mark Russell, Jim Weston. Washington (State). Dept. of Transportation. Materials Laboratory - # of Pages: 36 p., 1.34 MB (PDF) - Subject: Concrete pavements, Concrete construction, Paving, Granulated slag, Slag, Pavement performance, Studded tires, Durability, Quality control, Base lines, Alternatives analysis. - Keywords: Ground Granulated Blast Furnace Slag, GGBFS, concrete performance, studded tires. - Related Publications: This abstract was last modified January 22, 2013

World looks to ICCAT to overcome more than four decades of failure to save tuna A WWF analysis of ICCAT's record, updated for the Paris meeting, has found parallels between the collapse of the Western Atlantic bluefin tuna fishery under ICCAT's supervision in the 1990s and the current looming collapse of the remaining Eastern Atlantic (Mediterranean) bluefin tuna fishery. These parallels include periods of reduced catch limits when frustration with ICCAT led to proposals for trade restrictions under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) - followed by a return to inflated catches and negligent management when the danger of international intervention had passed. The WWF analysis clearly identifies the key issue as ICCAT's woeful adherence to its original charter of managing fisheries in accordance with scientific advice. At last year's meeting, ICCAT’s own scientists established that Atlantic bluefin tuna fitted the criteria for the highest level of trade restrictions, as did a subsequent analysis of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation - but a Monaco proposal to list bluefin tuna was voted down with no debate at the March 2010 meeting of parties to CITES in Doha, Qatar. Lobbying by the principal bluefin market, Japan, played a key role in this decision, which was however followed by the most significant players on both the catch and trade sides of the bluefin tuna equation – Japan, the EU, the U.S., Norway and Canada – also committing themselves to the adoption of sustainable, science-based fisheries management measures by ICCAT. The Paris test will be whether ICCAT parties remain true to their “Doha Commitments” or agree only a marginal reduction in quotas and persist with a management regime full of loopholes.

According to the Detroit Area Study (DAS) (R. Marans, see this link for a sample), public transportation use in the Detroit area has been declining. DAS data from 2001 shows that only 8.3 percent of commuters choose bus as their travel mode whereas 69.1 percent of people are driving single occupant cars. Furthermore, 63.1 percent of respondents to the DAS answered that they never use the bus. Frequent users, including daily users and people taking a bus at least once a week, composed about ten percent of the sample. Previous studies indicate that there are relationships among environmental factors, psychological factors, and transportation use (Bamberg, Sebastian and Peter Schmidt, "The impact of general attitude on decisions" Rationality and Society, Thousand Oaks, Feb 1999). GIS data collected in 2000 by SEMCOG (Southeast Michigan Council of Governments) enable one to gauge the condition of bus stops in Detroit. Bus stop condition will be considered one of indicators that represents the environmental condition of public transportation. Also, 2001 DAS shows specific preferences and attitudes toward transportation among Detroiters. Bus stop condition will be examined using GIS. The results are presented, in this paper, as a single interactive, internet map. DDOT (Detroit Department of Transportation) and SMART (Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation) operate buses in the City of Detroit. There are a total of 5618 bus stops located along the routes (Hamtramck and Highland Park are excluded). Field evidence, including overall condition of bus stops, was observed and photographed for selected stops. Five indicators, stop sign, light, shelter, bench, and sidewalk, are used to evaluate the condition of bus stops. These indicators were then used to formulate an index of bus stop condition, scored as 1 to 5, from poor to good, respectively. The accompanying internet map shows Detroit bus routes and bus stops. The stops that scored 1 or 2 on the index are colored red. Click on a stop to get data concerning that stop; click on a route to look at the database accompanying the mapped route. The map showing bus stop condition alone, has also been combined by the author with results about bus users from the DAS (for internal DAS use only). Hence, the title of this article. This interactive internet map is used to capture numerous variables in a single image that can be used interactively without owning any software other than a browser. Thus, some of the power of GIS analysis is transferred to members of the public, allowing them to query records that might not otherwise be readily available to them. Link to Interactive Internet Map, made in ArcView 3.2 using ImageMapper from Alta 4, www.alta4.com.--access to the full map, for qualified viewers, available by contacting IMaGe. Click here to see a link to a partial, but very useful, interactive map showing all bus stops, routes, and bus stop conditions (shelter availability and so forth).

Smack, H, junk...whatever you call it, heroin is addicting! Heroin is an opiate drug which is semi-synthetic. That means it's part man-made-derived from the drug morphine-and part natural-morphine comes from the poppy flower. Heroin is a powder that can be "cooked" into a liquid and delivered via injection. It can also be sniffed or smoked. It takes ten seconds to feel the impact of injected heroine, while other methods take minutes. After taking heroin, you'll feel a rush of well-being, followed by a blissful, euphoric state. Because it's derived from morphine, heroin also provides pain relief and slowed breathing. The intense ecstasy of heroin lasts a few hours, and when it wears off, cravings often occur. Long-term heroin users often suffer from weakened immune systems and malnourishment. Even death can result. Because the drug is injected intravenously, heroin users have an increased risk of contracting HIV and hepatitis. Remember: Heroin is very addicting and is illegal. When the Want Becomes a Need Energy Drinks May be Risky More Rural Teens Look to 'Mother's Little Helpers' Mixed Report Card on Teen Substance Use Last Updated:December 20, 2012

WASHINGTON (AP) — An Education Department commission is recommending pre-kindergarten programs for every poor student within 10 years. The recommendation, released Tuesday, adds a timeframe to President Barack Obama's similar call to help the least advantaged arrive for their first day of classes as prepared as their counterparts from more affluent homes. Education Secretary Arne Duncan says too many children "who need the most help get the least." The report's recommendations aren't binding but offer hints for how Obama might want to implement his plan to expand early childhood education. The administration has been short on details for the program he first introduced during his State of the Union. The commission's main charge is to address how to remove inequality in schools, and officials says pre-kindergarten programs are a smart start.

Survival fight after KI shipwreck Thousands visit Kangaroo Island for adventure but its rugged coastline also harbours a very dark side. "We call this the killer coast of Kangaroo Island because it's tough on shipwrecks but even tougher on survivors," said maritime archaeologist Amer Khan. The rugged west coast claimed the Loch Sloy in the early hours of April 24 back in 1899. Heavy seas lashed the ship as 34 passengers and crew clung to the rigging. There were only four survivors from the disaster, but Mr Khan said it was their tale of survival that would go on to become legendary. "They actually survived out here for over two weeks and it's such an exposed coastline," he explained. "The Loch Sloy really is a story about survival [and] it's a story about the Kangaroo Island community coming together." The survivors were washed onto rocks and then climbed a steep cliff to reach some higher ground. Gordon May's grandfather Charles May lived in the area at the time of the Loch Sloy sinking and helped rescue the survivors and bury those who perished in the disaster. "How they managed to scramble up that cliff no-one will ever know," he said. "Present-day people would never attempt it, they'd just get drowned (sic)." Fifteen days after the sinking, one of the survivors, Duncan McMillan, stumbled into Charles May's backyard at the Rocky River homestead. "The dog started barking and McMillan appeared out of the scrub," Gordon May explained. "His tongue was all swollen up and anyway they administered some tender loving care to him and later he told them about the wreck." A search party was launched and two days later John Simpson and William Mitchell were found by a lighthouse keeper. "He found the two sailors chewing on a penguin. Anyway he bandaged their feet, just imagine how the fellas had walked that far in bare feet - it's unbelievable," Mr May said. A fourth man, David Kilpatrick, survived the shipwreck, but did not survive the island's isolation. His body was found almost a month after the disaster and later buried by the search team. His grave remains a memorial to the lives lost in shipwrecks along the rugged western coastline of Kangaroo Island. The burial sites for many from the Loch Sloy recently attracted a group of researchers to the island, from South Australia's Department of Environment and Natural Resources and Flinders University. The modern-day team trekked for hours up hills, into ravines, through soft sand and salt bush, at times battling strong winds, the baking sun or rain. Amer Khan said it gave him a sense of what the survivors had coped with. "It's clearly a very treacherous part of the state, we've got the blisters to prove it. It's a really tough place to make it out [of] alive," he said. The team spent five days checking for signs of the burial sites and the area of cliffs where the drama unfolded more than a century before, to help decide if any grave sites need protection. "There's collapsing cliff, it's a very high energy zone for waves crashing into the island and so there's a very good chance many of those graves have already been destroyed by natural forces," Mr Khan said. A potential grave was identified, but a careful examination found no traces of bones. A magnetometer on board a boat also surveyed the waters around Maupertius Bay in search of the wreck itself. "The Loch Sloy was a 1,200-tonne iron ship and there would be even today large portions today of that iron on the sea floor," Mr Khan explained. "You can actually detect large metal anomalies [and] you're looking for variations in the earth's magnetic field." A possible site of the wreck was found and will be the focus of future expeditions. Others say they located the wreck years ago. Roger Williams, Gifford Chapman and Alan Roberts dived on what they believed was the Loch Sloy in the 1970s. Mr Williams is not claiming they were the first to discover the wreck but said he is pretty sure which vessel it was. "We discovered what we thought looked like the stern piece of a large sailing-type vessel and ... it was right up against the edge of the cliff," he said. "I personally have never seen the ribs but I know of other divers who have seen them, they are there and not a long way from where we discovered the stern post." Four shipwrecks along Kangaroo Island's western coastline helped prompt improved safety measures. "It was the loss of that much life on this coast that eventually convinced enough people in Adelaide to take the measures required to set up the Cape du Couedic lighthouse and the Neptune light," Mr Khan said.

Stem Cell Research Science journalist Liz Finkel talks to Professor Catherine Verfaillie, Director of the University of Minnesota's Stem Cell Institute, about her research. Norman Swan: Welcome to the program. Well the debate in Canberra rages about whether and how to allow embryonic stem cell research. It hasn't been helped by questions over material supplied to parliamentarians. But before I go on, it's probably worth pointing out that one of the problems here is the way words are being used. Stem cells is probably not a useful phrase because what we're really talking about here are better called progenitor cells. These are cells which can be the raw material for all sorts of organs and tissues, from the pancreas to nerve cells, or neurones in the brain, to heart cells. And progenitor cells come in various flavours. There are embryonic and germ cell progenitors which have the potential to become almost anything, germ cells being the ones which produce sperm or eggs; you have foetal progenitor cells which are usually more specific to certain tissues; and then there are adult progenitor cells or mature ones which are embedded in the tissues of the body and are either programmed to become blood, liver or nerves or, according to recent results, perhaps have nearly as much potential as embryonic progenitor cells. And that's what the opponents of embryonic stem cell research have pounced upon. They say that remarkable findings on adult stem cells from the United States make embryonic work unnecessary. The research they're usually quoting is that of Professor Catherine Verfaillie, Director of the University of Minnesota's Stem Cell Institute. But she claims that embryonic stem cell critics are wrong to use her work in this way because that research is still needed. She's been studying progenitors in the bone marrow called mesenchymal stem cells and found that in the right circumstances with the right cocktail of growth factor chemicals, they have an extraordinary ability to transform themselves. But it's not every mesenchymal stem cell. Professor Verfaillie found that it's only about one in a thousand of them. She spoke to Liz Finkel for The Health Report, and Liz wondered how on earth Catherine Verfaillie could tell which were the ones with the greater potential. Catherine Verfaillie: Well the first difference we noticed was that in contrast to mesenchymal stem cells that can be passaged for maybe a few weeks, but at that time the cells start ageing, which is a classical characteristic of any adult cell, in contrast our cells, even though they kind of seem to slow down in their growth pattern, even after a few weeks they continue to grow or proliferate, and they have been induced to proliferate now for close to 89 day cell doublings in humans, and more than 150 in mice or rats, which is way beyond what a classical adult cell can actually do before it undergoes an ageing process and actually stops growing. Liz Finkel: So once you'd found these very exciting cells with such great potential, what did you do next? Catherine Verfaillie: Well the first thing we did was trying to make bone and cartilage and muscle and things like that, and we used exactly what investigators in the field of mesenchymal stem cells have been using, and we could coax the cells indeed to switch from their stem cell phenotype to bone tissue or cartilage tissue or muscle tissue. We had noticed that the cells actually expressed the receptor for a growth factor that is important to make endothelial cells grow and endothelial cells are the cells that line blood vessels. And so a simple experiment that we did was actually add the growth factor that binds to this particular receptor, and ask whether maybe these cells could be switched around to become these endothelial cells, and they could indeed do that. And so that was the second hint that these cells were actually different when classic mesenchymal stem cells. We then went on and tried to make blood cells from these mesenchymal stem cells and you would say that that's maybe logical because they both come from bone marrow. However, the blood cells are actually from a different origin than the mesenchymal stem cell. And we've not been very successful at doing so, even though my lab has been working on blood stem cells for the last ten years. However while we were doing this, every single time we tried, cells grew out that had a very funny shape and almost looked like neurones. Initially we poo-pooed it away and said, Well this is just an artefact of the culture, but we could repeat this many, many times over, and it really made no sense at that time, because we were trying to make blood, and it appeared that we were making brain. So we went back to the literature and then found out that by accident we had put in the mixture of growth factors that is actually important for brain stem cells to grow. And once we figured this out, we went back and very specifically added growth factors that people have identified to be important for brain stem cells to grow and differentiate, and have since been able to under very specific methods, show that the cells can differentiate between neurones, as well as the supporting cells in the brain. And within the neurones we can make cells that are missing in patients with Parkinson's disease which are called dopamine neurones, and these cells appear at least in a culture dish, to really work like the neurones that you would need to repair the brain. And then the last thing we tried was to create liver cells from these same cells in the culture dish and we were indeed able to induce the cells to become cells that looked like liver and appeared to function like liver in a culture dish. Liz Finkel: The experiment I think that really caught the excitement was when you transplanted some of these cells into a very early mouse embryo; can you describe what you saw there? Catherine Verfaillie: Once we saw that the cells had the ability of making all these things in culture dishes, we wanted to go beyond that and ask whether they were truly more potent than we had previously thought it could be. And the experiment we did is what investigators that use embryonic stem cells do all the time, which is actually proving that if you take the cell and put it in a very early developing mouse embryo asking whether this mixed mouse embryo would give rise to animals that are mixed which we call chimaeric mice. And when we did this experiment we were indeed able to show that even if you put a single cell from these mouse cultures into this very early mouse embryo that about 30% to 40% of the animals that are born from this mix, which we call blastocyst, were actually mixed, and if you looked in the brain, eyes, lungs, heart, liver, anywhere we looked, we could actually find some of the donor cells contributing to most organs of the mouse that was born. Liz Finkel: They tend not to form heart tissue. Catherine Verfaillie: Correct. So when we tried in the culture dish there are several tissues that we have not been very successful in creating. Heart muscle is one of the very important ones that we haven't been able to create. Liz Finkel: And that's not true for embryonic stem cells? Catherine Verfaillie: It's interesting, because embryonic stem cells it appears that the fault pathway, if you sort of forget about the culture in the incubator, the cells spontaneously make beating heart muscle cells and it is definitely not the case for these adult cells that we have been working with. That's one very strong indication that there is actually differences between the embryonic stem cell and the adult cell that we have found. Liz Finkel: Well Cathleen, you've almost convinced me that we don't need embryonic stem cells; how do you answer that argument? Catherine Verfaillie: Well I've been actually pretty vocal on the fact that we do need to continue work on the embryonic stem cells. Heart disease is the No.1 killer of humans in the developed world, and we have been quite unsuccessful of creating heart tissue in a culture dish. Maybe we're just not smart enough how to do this, but it's been worked on very hard for three years straight, and we haven't been able to really successfully do this. So there might be something inherently difficult between the embryonic stem cells and adult stem cells such that if one were to think five, ten years from now what we would do for patients with heart failure, it might well be necessary to use an embryonic stem cell source where it's very easy to make heart muscle, whereas it might be very, very difficult to do this with adult stem cells. So I think to recite that since the cells that we identified seem to have greater potency than we previously thought, that therefore embryonic stem cells shouldn't be used, I think is incorrect just because we know so little about it. The second reason I think is that the cocktails of growth factors that we put in the culture systems that we have, we really didn't invent these ourselves, we went back to the literature and looked what investigators had used for embryonic stem cells, and sort of modelled our culture systems based on the embryonic stem cell culture system. So I would think that if both fields go forward side by side, there will be an enormous amount of what I would like to call cross-fertilisation between the two areas of research, such that we make much quicker progress than if we took one path at a time. Ultimately science will need to tell us which cell will work for which tissue that we try to repair. Liz Finkel: What do you think the first diseases will be that will benefit from this? Catherine Verfaillie: Most investigators in this field think that diseases where you have to repair one cell in one location makes the most sense. And so if you think about brain diseases, on top of the list is not Alzheimer's because it's a disease throughout the brain, but we're thinking more about Parkinson's disease, where you need to bring in one cell in one location of the brain, namely a cell that produces dopamine. A second disease would be insulin-dependent diabetes, type 1 diabetes that is seen in younger individuals, where again the insulin-producing cells in the body are destroyed, and currently already islets, which is the little group of cells from the pancreas where these insulin-producing cells are in, are being used for transplantation, and so if you can make these cells to become islets then it would be relatively straightforward to test whether this would help patients with type 1 diabetes. And a third disease probably would be heart disease, where again, it's one organ one cell type, even though there you would have to assure that the new tissue you implant into the heart aligns itself with the rest of the heart and actually is electrically coupled to the rest of the heart, so the heart beats in unison and the only cell that can be used for that is an embryonic stem cell. Liz Finkel: What do you think will be the ramifications for Australian research if the Bill doesn't go ahead? Catherine Verfaillie: Several groups here in Australia are very far advanced in the fields of embryonic stem cell research. If that would be curtailed here in Australia, I would think that would make the progress being made in this field worldwide actually go slower. You know, if you take two or three teams from the ten or twelve teams that are around the world working on this, away, it just slows down the research and actually would be a significant setback for research worldwide. Norman Swan: Professor Catherine Verfaillie is Director of the University of Minnesota's Stem Cell Institute and she was talking to Liz Finkel. - Professor Catherine Verfaillie University of Minnesota Stem Cell Institute, - Liz Finkel - Science Journalist - Dr Norman Swan - Brigitte Seega

CIA to capture iris recognition at a distance The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency is developing technology that will be able to identify people from their iris - even while they are moving at a distance. Andrew Kirby, senior physical scientist at CIA's Intelligence Technology and Innovation Centre told a Centre for Strategic and International Studies forum on biometrics, held in Washington D.C. this week, that the Agency was also trying to improve facial recognition technology which can be notoriously inaccurate. Differences in simple factors like lighting and expression can impede identification of someone using current facial recognition technology, said Kirby. "Those differences are so significant that my own picture taken in two different places at two different times is actually more difficult to match than it would be to match me with someone in this audience," he told the forum. Kirby said his program, which was created two years ago, has set a goal of improving face recognition technology "by a factor of 10". Currently iris recognition technology is more reliable than face recognition technology but its limitation is that it requires a co-operative subject who will stand in front of the scanner and line up the eye properly, he said. We're looking at remote iris recognition," Kirby said, adding that it would be more valuable if the iris could be captured by a camera while the person was in motion at a distance to make the identification. "One of the main thrusts of our program is in fact to make this possible." The U.S. Army is using biometrics, which also includes the more commonly used identification tool of fingerprints, to build identity records for detainees at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Kirby said, adding the records could be used to identify detainees in the future. John Woodward, director of the Pentagon's biometrics management office told the forum using biometrics could be important for counterterrorism and counterinsurgency efforts. For example, with a large number of foreign locals working on military installations overseas, if that person is fired for some reason and goes to another base to get hired under a different identity, biometrics could help identify that person. It could also be used to identify people who try to give false intelligence at one U.S. location and then try it again under a different identity at another, he said. The goal for the future is to combine different biometrics "to give us the ability to make identification from a distance to a very accurate level," said Kirby. In 10 years, there will be handheld devices that "track the person's presence like a bloodhound," Tony Frudakis, chief scientific officer and founder of DNAPrint Genomics, said. Barry Hodge, president of AcSys Biometrics Corp., said according to a recent study, the facial recognition biometric market worldwide is a US$21.5 million business and is forecast to grow to $791.6 million by 2009. "That's a huge growth rate, so obviously people are expecting a lot of excitement and things to be happening around the facial recognition marketplace," he said. Hodge said it was a difficult task to get computers to recognise people in the same way that humans did: "You recognise them from the back, you recognise them from the side, in varying lighting conditions. When you see people you know, you just know them. And teaching a computer to do that is an amazingly difficult task," Hodge said.

ETA: S&F for a well put together thread edit on 9-2-2013 by thesmokingman because: (no reason given) Contrary to the conventional wisdom of the day, the real danger facing humanity is not global warming, but more likely the coming of a new Ice Age.What we live in now is known as an interglacial, a relatively brief period between long ice ages. Unfortunately for us, most interglacial periods last only about ten thousand years, and that is how long it has been since the last Ice Age ended.How much longer do we have before the ice begins to spread across the Earth's surface? Less than a hundred years or several hundred? We simply don't know Even if all the temperature increase over the last century is attributable to human activities, the rise has been relatively modest one of a little over one degree Fahrenheit — an increase well within natural variations over the last few thousand years. While an enduring temperature rise of the same size over the next century would cause humanity to make some changes, it would undoubtedly be within our ability to adapt.Entering a new ice age, however, would be catastrophic for the continuation of modern civilization. New York (CNN) -- A massive blizzard that dumped as much as 3 feet of snow in parts of the Northeast is heading out to sea, as workers across New York and New England struggle to get airports, trains and highways back online. The snowstorm, a product of two converging weather systems, knocked out power for more than 635,000 customers and prompted the U.S. Postal Service to suspend deliveries in seven states. About 4,800 flights were canceled as of Saturday, and at least four people died in traffic accidents related to the storm in New York, Connecticut and southern Ontario The last glaciation centered on the huge ice sheets of North America and Eurasia. Considerable areas in the Alps, the Himalaya and the Andes were ice-covered, and Antarctica remained glaciated. Canada was nearly completely covered by ice, as well as the northern part of the USA, both blanketed by the huge Laurentide ice sheet. Alaska remained mostly ice free due to arid climate conditions. Local glaciations existed in the Rocky Mountains and the Cordilleran ice sheet and as ice fields and ice caps in the Sierra Nevada in northern California. In Britain, mainland Europe, and northwestern Asia, the Scandinavian ice sheet once again reached the northern parts of the British Isles, Germany, Poland, and Russia, extending as far east as the Taimyr Peninsula in western Siberia. The maximum extent of western Siberian glaciation was reached approximately 18,000 to 17,000 BP and thus later than in Europe (22,000–18,000 BP). Northeastern Siberia was not covered by a continental-scale ice sheet. Instead, large, but restricted, icefield complexes covered mountain ranges within northeast Siberia, including the Kamchatka-Koryak Mountains An artist's impression of the last glacial period at glacial maximum. Based on: Crowley, Thomas J. (1995). Originally posted by Painterz Global Warming for the UK for example means it will get generally a lot colder here, and a whole lot wetter. Which is exactly what is happening. Seriously - global warming will cause a lot of the planet to cool down?Is a lot of the planet seeing record low temperatures? Can you provide some statistics on that? Originally posted by Ben81 This winter have been one of the worst in term of precipitation and very cold temperature many in the north hemisphere will agree with me on that

ACT Reports That Significant Gaps Persist Between Career Interests of 2010 High School Graduates and Job Projections IOWA CITY, Iowa—ACT has released national and state-specific data for all 50 states that helps answer the question: Are students prepared for college and career? The analysis reveals likely shortfalls in high-growth career fields as well as inadequate preparation to succeed in coursework required for these fields. The analysis compares data from two sources for the nation and for each of the 50 states: long-term occupational projections and results contained in ACT’s recently released The Condition of College & Career Readiness 2010 reports. A state’s occupational projections are based on job growth and job replacement forecasts for the decade ending 2016 to 2018. ACT is an international not-for-profit organization experienced in educational and workplace skills assessment and research. The ACT report reveals career interests and achievement results for the 2010 ACT-tested high school graduates. The analysis in bar chart form shows the five highest-growth career fields in each state requiring a two-year college degree or higher; the percentage of 2010 ACT-tested graduates in the state expressing interest in those five career fields; and the percentage of students meeting ACT’s recommended College Readiness Benchmarks in each of four subject areas (English, reading, mathematics and science) who expressed interest in each of the high-growth career fields One analysis reveals the gaps between projected job openings and student career interests. A second analysis indicates the college and career readiness of ACT-tested graduates interested in the five high-growth career fields. These data may have implications for economic development nationally and in each state. The nation’s five fastest-growing career fields requiring at least a two-year degree, based on 2008-2018 annual projected job openings from the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, are depicted below. These five career fields account for 53 percent of the demand for jobs. However, for all five career fields, the percentage of the nation’s 2010 ACT-tested high school graduates expressing an interest in those fields falls short of projected openings. The most significant gaps are for Computer/Information Specialties (9 percentage points) and Education (7 percentage points). Far too few students who expressed interest in the five high-growth career fields have attained the level of knowledge to be ready for college-entry coursework in English, reading, mathematics and science as measured by ACT’s College Readiness Benchmarks. The ACT College Readiness Benchmarks, which are based on the actual grades earned by students in college, give ACT the unique ability to define college and career readiness and report student performance results relative to that goal. The benchmarks specify the minimum scores needed on each ACT subject-area test to indicate that a student has a 50 percent chance of earning a grade of B or higher or about a 75 percent chance of earning a C or higher in a typical credit-bearing first-year college course in that subject area (English composition, college algebra, introductory social science and biology). Years of empirical ACT data indicate that students who meet or surpass the College Readiness Benchmarks are more likely to go to college, stay in school and graduate with a college degree. “Students interested in these careers mostly met the College Readiness Benchmarks in English and reading,” said ACT chief executive officer Jon Whitmore. However, only about a quarter of the students met all four College Readiness Benchmarks within each of the five career fields.” Whitmore added, “ACT research indicates that given these results, many students are not on the right path to take advantage of career opportunities in these high-growth fields requiring a two-year degree or more. Fortunately, given that the occupational projections extend through 2018, there is time for middle and high school students to consider, plan, and prepare for careers in the fields where openings are projected to be the highest.” Example occupations for the five highest-growth career fields are as follows: - Education: such as secondary school teachers, secondary school administrators - Computer/Information Specialties: such as computer programmers, database administrators - Management: such as hotel/restaurant managers, convention planners - Community Services: such as social workers, school counselors - Marketing/Sales: such as insurance agents, buyers For more information, see the complete College and Career Readiness Report for the nation and for each state. Workforce data appears on page 17 of the national report and on page 10 of each state report.

Victory in Chile! Coastal Road Rerouted! Press release from January 23, 2003 regarding the rerouting of a road that was to threaten the Valdivian rainforest of southern Chile. January 23, 2003 Good news for the temperate Valdivian rainforest of southern Chile: on 11 January, the government of Chile signed an agreement to redefine the routing of the Coastal Range Road and establish mechanisms for the creation of protected areas along the country's Coastal Range - home to the oldest and most diverse rainforest remaining in southern South America. The agreement was signed with the Coastal Range Coalition, an NGO group spearheaded by WWF that includes more than 12 institutions, ranging from indigenous groups to leading scientists, interested in the conservation of the remaining temperate rainforest of the Coastal Range. The Minister of Public Works, the Intendente of Region X (State Governor), and the Directors of CONAMA (National Environmental Commission) and CONAF (National Forestry Agency) signed the agreement on behalf of the Government of Chile, and Francisco Solís signed on behalf of the Coastal Range Coalition. The Coastal Range Road was initiated to connect the cities of Valdivia and Puerto Montt by way of the Pacific Coast. The planned route passed along the western flanks of the Coastal Range, which contains the oldest and most diverse rainforest remaining in southern South America. One of only five temperate rainforests in the world, the Valdivian rainforest is one of WWF's Global 200 ecosystems. The road would have further fragmented this ancient rainforest and facilitated its conversion to eucalypt and pine plantations. The agreement represents an outstanding conservation result. Twenty percent of the 200-km road that is already under construction will be changed from a logging penetration road (speed limit of 70 km/h) to a minimal environmental impact road (speed limit of 40 km/h). Additionally, the remaining 80 percent of the road, currently under study, will be routed outside forested areas (east of the range) and use existing minor roads. Significantly, each segment will be subject to a full environmental assessment, which is not required by law. Finally, the plan also considers the establishment of protected areas, since less than five percent of the Coastal Range is currently under protection. This agreement with the government of Chile is unprecedented: only two years ago the project was moving at full speed and no communication channels existed between the environmental community and the regional or national governments. At the event, the Chilean government recognized that the Coastal Range Coalition was a legitimate, scientifically and technically sound NGO, capable of engaging in this and other important environmental issues in the ecoregion. The Coastal Range Coalition and WWF's Valdivian Temperate Rainforest Ecoregional Programme will now work to implement the agreement and ensure long lasting conservation results in this rare and special ecoregion. Information aquired from Rainforest Action Network

Hyperemesis gravidarum is the term used for persistent nausea and vomiting during pregnancy. While over half of all pregnant women experience some form of morning sickness, only 1.5% to 2% suffer from hyperemesis gravidarum, a much more serious condition. Often leading to dehydration and malnutrition, hyperemesis gravidarum sends more than 50,000 pregnant women to the hospital each year. While more common in the first trimester, it often continues throughout the entire pregnancy. Fortunately, if diagnosed in time and treated properly, it presents little risk to you or your baby. The exact cause of hyperemesis gravidarum is unknown, but some factors may include: - High levels of hCG (human chorionic gonadotropin). Levels of this pregnancy hormone rise quickly during the early stages of pregnancy and may trigger the part of the brain that controls nausea and vomiting. - Increased estrogen levels. This hormone also affects the part of the brain that controls nausea and vomiting. - Gastrointestinal changes. During your entire pregnancy the digestive organs displace to make room for the growing fetus. This may result in acid reflux and the stomach emptying more slowly, which can cause nausea and vomiting. - Psychological factors. Stress can often make you physically ill. The anxiety that can accompany a pregnancy may trigger acute morning sickness. - High-fat diet. Recent research shows that women with a high-fat diet are at a much greater risk for developing hyperemesis gravidarum. Their risk increases five times for every additional 15 grams of saturated fat (such as a quarter-pound cheeseburger) they eat each day. - Helicobacter pylori. A research study in Obstetrics &Gynecology reported that 90% of pregnant women with hyperemesis gravidarum are also infected with this bacterium, which may sometimes cause stomach ulcers. Women at increased risk for hyperemesis include those in their first pregnancy, carrying more than one baby, under the age of 24, or carrying a female fetus. Women with a prior history of nausea in pregnancy and those who are obese are also at increased risk. How Do I Know Have It? The symptoms are unmistakable and sometimes even crippling, including: - Severe nausea. - Persistent, excessive vomiting or the urge to vomit. Vomiting is considered excessive if it occurs more than three or four times per day and prevents you from keeping down any food or fluids for a period of 24 hours. - Weight loss of 5 or more pounds over a 1-2 week period. * - Lightheadedness or fainting. * - Infrequent urination. * - Pale skin. - Jaundice. * - Dehydration. * *(These symptoms result from malnutrition and dehydration brought on by excessive vomiting.) Your health care provider may perform several tests to rule out other possible causes, including: - Gastrointestinal problems. - Thyroid problems and other metabolic disorders. - Liver problems. - Neurological disorders. - Molar pregnancy. - HELLP syndrome, in cases where the condition appears later in the pregnancy. Your health care provider may also check for signs of dehydration with urine tests and blood tests. How Can I Treat It? It is important to contact your health care provider if you are experiencing severe nausea and vomiting. If properly treated, there should be no serious complications for you or your baby. Your health care provider can tell you whether your case is mild or severe. If it's mild, you should change your diet by eating more protein and complex carbohydrates, such as nuts, cheese and crackers, and milk. It's best to eat these foods in small portions, several times throughout the day. You should also avoid eating fatty foods, drink plenty of water, and get as much rest as possible. (For more suggestions, see our morning sickness article). Your doctor may also recommend taking antacids and an antiemetic (anti-vomiting) medication. Medications your doctor may prescribe for severe cases include: - Antihistamines, which help ease nausea and motion sickness. - Vitamin B6, which helps ease nausea (if you're unable to take it orally your doctor can give you an injection). - Phenothiazine, which helps ease nausea and vomiting. - Metoclopramide, which helps increase the rate that the stomach moves food into the intestines. - Antacids, which can absorb stomach acid and help prevent acid reflux. Severe cases of hyperemesis gravidarum require hospitalization. Once at the hospital, you may receive intravenous fluids, glucose, electrolytes, and, occasionally, vitamins and other nutritional supplements. Your vitamin levels may also be monitored since women suffering from hyperemesis gravidarum are often deficient in thiamine, riboflavin, vitamin B6, vitamin A, and retinol-binding proteins. Remember, pregnant women need to maintain a much higher level of calories, protein, iron, and folate than nonpregnant women. Your health care provider will talk to you about the sufficient levels and how to maintain them. Anti-nausea drugs and sedatives may be given, and you will be encouraged to rest. After receiving intravenous (IV) fluids for 24 to 48 hours, you may be ready to eat a clear liquid diet and then move on to eating several small meals a day. You will be monitored by your health care provider after you leave the hospital, and be readmitted if problems continue or recur. Women with hyperemesis gravidarum are often encouraged to work with a counselor since emotional problems may not only contribute to this condition, but may result from it as well. Frequently Asked Questions Q: Can I take steps to prevent this from happening to me? A: Women who start taking prenatal vitamins early in pregnancy seem to be at lower risk of hyperemesis. Once symptoms start, it’s important to get care as soon as possible, so that the problem doesn’t progress. Q: I am suffering from a mild case of hyperemesis gravidarum. Am I going to be sick like this my whole pregnancy? A: For most women, nausea and vomiting are worse between six and 12 weeks gestation, and will subside and even vanish by the second half of pregnancy. Q: Are there any serious complications with hyperemesis gravidarum? A: Complications are extremely rare, but do happen. Mallory-Weiss tears (tears to the cardiac part of the stomach from excessive vomiting) and Wernicke's encephalopathy (a syndrome related to thiamin deficiency that may cause disorientation, confusion, and coma) have been reported in some rare cases. Miscarriage is extremely rare. In fact, women with bad nausea and vomiting have lower rates of miscarriage than those who breeze through early pregnancy. Irina Burd, MD, PhD, Maternal Fetal Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD. Review provided by VeriMed Healthcare Network. The information provided herein should not be used during any medical emergency or for the diagnosis or treatment of any medical condition. A licensed medical professional should be consulted for diagnosis and treatment of any and all medical conditions. Call 911 for all medical emergencies. Links to other sites are provided for information only -- they do not constitute endorsements of those other sites. © 1997- A.D.A.M., Inc. Any duplication or distribution of the information contained herein is strictly prohibited.

Mark Perry has posted some interesting comparison of how prices have plummeted between 1958 and 2012 when measured in terms of the hours of work required to purchase items. He concludes that today's consumer working at the average wage of $19.19 would only have to work 26.6 hours (a little more than three days) to earn enough income ($511) to purchase a toaster, TV and iPod. The equivalent products (in terms of their basic function, not their quality) would have required 4.64 weeks of work in 1958. In short, the "time cost" of these items has massively declined by 86% in less than 5 decades. Similarly, Perry calculates that measured in the amount of time working at the average hourly wage to earn enough income to purchase a washer-dryer combination, the "time cost" of those two appliances together has fallen by 83%, from 181.8 hours in 1959 to only 31 hours today. What if we applied this kind of analysis to health care? The results are quite interesting. In 1958, per capita health expenditures were $134. This may seem astonishingly small, but it actually includes everything, inclusive of care paid for by government or private health insurers. A worker earning the average wage in 1958 ($1.98) would have had to work 118 hours-nearly 15 days-to cover this expense. By 2012, per capita health spending had climbed to $8,953. At the average wage, a typical worker would have to work 467 hours-about 58 days. In short, while time prices for other goods and services had shrunk to less than one quarter of their 1958 levels, time prices for health care had more than quadrupled! Of course, health care in 2012 is vastly different and greatly improved compared to what was available in 1958. But the same can be said of other goods and services (Perry, for example, is comparing the cost of an iPod to 4-speed automatic record player). This simple comparison reminds us of three basic truths. In general, private markets tend to produce steadily lower prices in real terms (e.g., in worker time costs) and steadily rising quality. This is exactly what we observe for goods such as toasters, TVs, iPods, washers and dryers. In contrast, while the quality of health care unequivocably has risen since 1958, real spending on health care has climbed dramatically. This isn't an apples-to-apples comparison insofar as the bundle of goods and services that constitute health care is also much larger today than in 1958. In contrast, even though the quality may be better, a washing machine in 2012 is still a washing machine. If we were willing to rely more on markets in medicine, we might be able to harness the superior ability of Americans to find good value for the money to produce results more similar to other goods. Second, over time, we as a nation have been able to afford more health care precisely because the time cost of other goods and services has declined. For the same number of hours worked, workers can enjoy the same standard of living even as they allocate more of their working time to purchasing health care. There is nothing wrong with this. The only issue is whether we are getting good value for the money when we buy health care. With only 11 cents of every health dollar paid directly out-of-pocket, I think most of us can honestly say "no." Anyone who is skeptical on this point should do the following mental experiment: if I promised to pay 89 percent of the cost of your groceries, would what you buy be different? Most students I ask freely concede that they would buy things they would not otherwise buy and might well pay higher prices even for things they would have bought anyway. The difference between the cost of your weekly groceries when you buy them with your own money (say, $100) and what you spend when someone else is paying most of the bill (say, $150) is not pure waste. There is some added value to you from those extra groceries. But that value cannot exceed the added cost else you would have bought them on your own in the first place. The difference between that added cost and your own estimate of the added value is what an economist would call waste. According to the Institute of Medicine, we wasted about $765 billion in health care in 2009-about 30 percent of all spending. Finally, this rate of increase is not sustainable. The time price of health spending cannot quadruple again over the next half century, else the average worker is likely to experience a decline in his or her real standard of living (i.e., what can be afforded after paying for health care). To paraphrase the former president of AEI, "we cannot make health care affordable by picking each other's pockets." The sooner policymakers recognize this basic truth, the sooner we can get on a path towards sustainable growth in health care expenditures. As well, one could argue that the average worker does not purchase the average per capita amount of health care since there are all sorts of cross-subsidies created by private and public insurance as well as U.S. tax policy. But at the end of the day, today's health spending is financed by today's workers, so if anything, the very rough picture I've provided is overly optimistic. On a per worker basis, total U.S. health spending this year will amount to $21,280, which would require an average-paid worker 1,108 hours of work to finance (and even more when taxes are taken into account). In reality, there are few U.S. workers who have to devote more than half a year to bankrolling their health care. The average hourly earnings figure I am using is only for production and nonsupervisory employees in manufacturing. Many other workers, including those in management and entrepreneurs, do not earn an hourly wage. And the costs of government-financed health care-which now accounts for more than 60 percent of health spending-tends to be borne more by those with the highest incomes. In fairness, when health economists have tried to measure the real prices of health treatments such as for heart attacks, they sometimes have found these have declined, though not nearly as rapidly as the decline in prices for goods and services analyzed by Perry. The original quote, from Christopher DeMuth, was "we cannot all grow wealthier by picking each other's pockets."

|Temperatures Geranium sanguineum continental : We suggest to place The Geranium sanguineum where it is exposed to direct sunlight. alpine : Place The Geranium sanguineum in a location exposed to direct sunlight. mediterranean : These plants need to be exposed to direct sunlight; in summer they can be exposed to a slight shadow without any problem. Feed Geranium sanguineum : From March to October fertilize using a fertilizer to be added to normal waterings, every 15-20 days; for your convenience it is also possible to use a slow-release granular fertilizer, to be placed around the plant every 3-4 months.Irrigation Geranium sanguineum continental : Give very regular waterings; all year long the soil shall be kept humid, however avoiding dangerous stagnations. Increase waterings in summer and decrease them when autumn starts. alpine : We suggest frequent and generous waterings, so that the soil remains mostly humid all year long. It is possible to decrease waterings in winter. mediterranean : It is advisable to give regular waterings, specially during spring and summer; before giving again water make sure the soil is dry. Adversity Geranium sanguineum : Apply a precautionary treatment against fungal diseases at the end of winter; later on treatments will be applied only in case parasites are on the plant, trying to use specific products and not broad-spectrum ones. In any case avoid treatments during bloom for not injuring the pollinating insects.

Daniel Kahneman earned the Nobel Prize in economics for the years of work he did with Amos Tversky (who died before the prize was given). Over years, sustained by curiosity and Tversky’s humor, these two and others investigated that age old economics question, what do people want? That old operating assumption, people as rational actors, hasn’t ever been confirmed. System 1 vs System 2 System 1 thinking operates automatically and quickly with little or no effort and no sense of voluntary control. System 2 allocates attention to the effortful mental activities that demand it, including complex computations. The operations of System 2 are often associated with the subjective experience of agency, choice, and concentration. Given this image even when we know that both segments are the same length, our intuitive self, System 1 still sees the bottom line as longer. Given the math problem, A bat and ball cost $1.10. The bat costs one dollar more than the ball. How much does the ball cost? System 1, our intuitive thinking, produces a cost of 10 cents. How often does our System 2 thinking, which does the checking, get called into play? It only takes a few seconds in this example. More than half of students at Harvard, MIT, and Princeton failed to check their System 1 response. At less selective colleges, failure to check exceeded 80%. It really doesn’t matter to us much how much the bat costs. But how much effort do most people allocate to issues we do care about, such as the financial integrity of our nation, or climate change? Answering the wrong question Often people answer irrelevant questions, or questions very different from what was asked. For example, years ago a chief investment officer of a large financial firm invested tens of millions of dollars in Ford. The question for stock investment is this: is the stock underpriced? The question he answered was this: do I like the product? And what do you think? I will prepare a few blogs as I make my way through the book. There are still a few more hundred pages.

Science Fair Project Encyclopedia Grayson was settled in the year 988 P.D. (Post Diaspora; equivalent to 3091 on present-day calendar) by the Reverend Austin Grayson and his followers, all members of the Church of Humanity (Unchained) . The settlers' intention was to start a new life totally free of technology and live the way the Bible said people should live. This dream was foiled before their ship even landed because Grayson has an unusually high concentration of heavy metals in its soil which made anything indigenous poisonous. As a result technology was necessary just to survive. After the Rev. Grayson's death his doctrine about life totally without technology was abandoned. Adopted in its place was the view that technology in and of itself was not un-Godly, but the way it had consumed Man's life on Earth was. Not all Graysons could accept this reinterpretation, and over the course of several hundred years a political rift developed between the Moderates (those willing to employ technology to a limited extent), and the Faithful (those who wanted nothing to do with technology). War eventually broke out between the two groups. The Moderates won the most battles, but the Faithful had a doomsday weapon, which was intended to blow the planet up. This might have actually happened had Barbara Bancroft , wife of one of the Faithful's leaders, not fled to the Moderates and disclosed the existance of the doomsday weapon. For her bravery, Barbara Bancroft is known as the Mother of Grayson. Having learned about the doomsday weapon the Moderates realized that the time had come to strike a truce with the Faithful. Under the treaty that was signed, the Moderates would provision the Faithful as lavishly as they could, and send the Faithful to the planet Masada in the nearby Endicott system. In the six hundred years since the Faithful's exile, there have been several interplanetary wars between Grayson and Masada. The Masadans have promised to exterminate the Graysons in the name of God. The Church of Humanity practiced polygamy even before they came to Grayson. For this reason women outnumbered men on Grayson 4:1. The planet's environment is so dangerous that the orginal colonists required genetic engineering to survive. However, the genetic alterations unintentionally resulted in a sex-linked genetic defect that killed many males before birth. (This defect was forgotten by the Graysons for centuries, until Allison Chou Harrington rediscovered it.) Live female births outnumbered male births 3:1. So the practice of polygamy continued. Under Grayson's constitution women have no political or legal rights. They cannot vote, sit on juries, own land, or hold a title. Women are loved and respected, but are believed to be inferior to men. This changed after a security camera captured Honor Harrington defending the life of Grayson's Protector, Benjamin Mayhew IX . The resulting footage was shown all over Grayson forcing many men to reevaluate their opinion of the opposite sex. The planet is ruled by a council headed up by a Protector. Since the Rev. Grayson's death, this Protector has been a member of the Mayhew family. For the past five generations, the Council has worked to reduce amount of autonomous power welded by the Mayhew clan. In this they were very successful. Prior to the Grayson-Manticore alliance the Protectorate had become a largely ceremonial (if influential) position. - Benjamin Mayhew IX --Protector of Grayson - Michael Mayhew --heir to the Protectorate - Bernard Yanakov --Admiral of the Grayson Navy - Howard Clinkscales --Head of Grayson Security. The contents of this article is licensed from www.wikipedia.org under the GNU Free Documentation License. Click here to see the transparent copy and copyright details

Blue Crab Information Blue crab have long been a delicacy around the world. Thanks to their scavanging ability and will to survive, this crab has withstood the test of time, even though it is avidly hunted world wide. The Blue Crab belongs to the crustacean order of Decapoda, and consists of several species which are prized as delicacies worldwide. This crab lives along the eastern coasts of North and South America. It prefers waters known as "brackish," a mixture of fresh and salt water, sea grasses and weeds. Like most large crustaceans, the blue crab has a hard shell. The shell ranges in color from olive, brown or red to varying shades of blue. The shell of this crab is made of chitin and hardened with calcium. The blue crab's pinchers or "chelae" are large and very unequal in size. The crab has both pinchers and legs and is one of the few crustaceans who are capable of swimming. The eyes of the blue crab rest on short stalks, and are like those of insects, allowing the crab to see even the smallest movement in almost any direction. The blue crab has five pairs of legs, like other crabs. The male carries blue legs and the females are reddish-orange in color. The first pair of legs holds the sharp claws of the Blue crab, which are used to capture and hold food. They can also be used as a protective measure, holding predators in a painful grip. Often times, when threatened, the crab can allow these claws to break or drop off. Through the process of molting, the crab is able to regrow its claws. The Blue crab also has "paddles," which are formed at the tail end of its body. These long, flattened legs enable the crab to swim, a skill not found in many crabs. The Blue crab's other three pair of legs are used solely for walking. During molting, the hard outer shell of the crab is discarded. A new, softer shell, which has already formed under the old shell, swells and begins to harden in the seawater. Molting begins as a break in the outer shell. Just below the crab's eyes and on either side of its mouth, the shell cracks open, so that the crab is able to back out. Male crabs molt through out their lifetime to accomodate their large bodies. Female crabs molt before breeding or when injured. Young crabs molt almost continiously during their early development. GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT Mating of the blue crab occurs between June and October. The male crab dances and waves at the female during courtship, using his swimming paddles to attract the female's attention. A mature female blue crab is 1-1/2 years old and prepares for mating by losing her shell or "molting." A few days before shedding her hard shell, the male grasps on to the female and holds her tightly beneath his own shell. A few days later, the female is released to complete the process of molting. Mating occurs once the female has released her old shell. Because the female is extremely vulnerable while growing her new outer coating, the mating male will often protect the female during this time. After several days, as the female's shell hardens, she separates herself from the male, and travels closer to the water's edge, where she burrows in the mud for the winter. The female crab carries fertilized eggs in her abdomen in an area referred to as the "apron," on the underside of her body. The eggs undergo larval development inside the female. Once summer arrives, eggs are brooded, at which time they then develop into larvae. Of the many eggs that hatch, as few as two may live to reproduce. With an average size of .1 inches, the larvae spend the first days of their lives drifting between plants and plankton. Every three to five days, small crab larvae molts to accommodate their growing body. Young crabs molt many times and eventually, grow to 7 inches in length in about 200 days. The blue crab are considered scavengers, often feeding on the bodies of dead animals at the bottom of the ocean. It is because of this that the blue crab has survived as a population. Today, blue crab is considered a delicacy in much of the world. Favored for their soft, sweet meat, blue crab is actively hunted.

Most studies predict the cost of wind energy will continue to fall through at least 2030, said national laboratory staffers in a new report. The report, "The Past and Future Cost of Wind Energy," released June 6, is a collaboration among workers from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, with assistance from European researchers. The crux of the report is that while future trends, drivers and constraints are difficult to predict, the cost of wind-generated electricity will probably continue to decrease in the coming decades. Onshore wind's levelized cost of energy, or LCOE, fell by a factor of more than three between 1980 and 2000, the researchers said. "However, beginning in about 2003 and continuing through the latter half of the past decade, wind power capital costs increased — driven by rising commodity and raw materials prices, increased labor costs, improved manufacturer profitability, and turbine upscaling — thus pushing wind's LCOE upward in spite of continued performance improvements," they said. Trojanís Industrial Line of deep-cycle batteries is the newest addition to Trojanís lineage of high-quality flooded batteries for renewable energy and backup power applications. Designed to support large daily loads where the batteries are cycled regularly, Trojanís Industrial Line batteries are ideal solutions for a wide range of photovoltaic (PV) systems including large off-grid PV systems, off-grid hybrid PV systems, grid-tied PV systems with battery backup, smart grid peak shifting systems and a variety of other applications. Tested to meet both IEC and BCI standards, the Industrial Line features advanced battery technologies that deliver reliable power and is housed in a dual container construction for enhanced battery protection. Engineered for high-energy requirements, the Industrial line delivers 1,500 cycles at 80 percent depth-of-discharge and features advanced battery technologies that provide high performance.

Developing coping strategies Taking care of yourself "I always used to lay the table at mealtimes but I started to get mixed up with the cutlery. So now I clear the table after the meal instead. I think it helps a bit." (Hector) "My friends say that I have developed a very philosophical attitude towards life. I think that it was necessary for me in order to cope." (Janice) Once people with dementia and carers have got over the initial shock of learning the diagnosis and started to organise help, they will probably find that they have already started to develop coping strategies. People use a variety of strategies, but as different things work for different people, it is up to each person to find out what works best for them. On the whole, worrying or blaming yourself doesn’t help as much as confronting the problem or seeking information and social support Some strategies involve trying to manipulate the situation in order to reduce the problem or prevent it from happening in the first place. This might include organising practical help, rearranging the home, creating routines or changing the way you do things. If this involves leaving notes all over the house or making other visible changes, try not to be too house proud. Above all, it is important to set yourself realistic targets, acknowledge what you have achieved and try different solutions until you find one that works. As the disease progresses, carers will gradually learn how to handle different situations, sometimes by trial and error. This may involve changing or adapting their technique. Another coping strategy is to change how you think about yourself and others, the problem and the consequences it has on you. Making a conscious decision to see something in a particular way can really help e.g. trying to see the funny side of a situation or looking for something positive in the situation. Some people tell themselves that there is always someone worse off than themselves. People with philosophical or religious beliefs may find some support in their religion or philosophy of life. Basically, you should try to find out what works best for you and then take one day at a time. For the person with dementia Adopt a positive attitude and approach - Keep a sense of humour. - Try to make the best of things and get on with your life. - Maintain contact with people. - Accept practical and emotional support from others. - Think about joining a support group. - Try something new. - If you can, find a good book or watch something interesting on television. - Be prepared for changes to occur over time. When this happens, try to adapt to the new situation/state of affairs. - Try to adapt your targets and standards of achievement to your current abilities. If necessary, lower your expectations a little. - Remember that dementia is a disease. It is the effects of the disease which interfere with your ability to do things not your intelligence or skills. Devise a coping strategy - “Use it or lose it” i.e. exercise your brain with reading, puzzles or crosswords etc. - Decide what you can still do safely. - If necessary, ask someone to do a risk assessment on what you can safely do. - If you cannot do something you used to be able to do, don’t despair. You may find that there are other things or parts of tasks that you can manage. - Give yourself more time. - Take things in stages. - Develop a routine in your life. - Take frequent breaks as you may have to concentrate hard to do something and this can be tiring. - Make use of calendars, lists, notes, labels, “post-it” stickers, colour codes, alarms and images etc. if you need to. For the carer Devise a problem solving strategy: - Define the problem, explore possible causes and think about ways to overcome/deal with it. - Use your own knowledge/experience and ask other people for advice. - Collect as much information as you can and then set realistic goals. - Try different solutions in order to find the one that works best for you. - Try to prevent the problem from occurring by planning ahead. - Do a risk assessment on what the person with dementia can safely do (if necessary consult someone qualified). - Try to adapt to the changing needs of the person with dementia. - Assist when needed and discuss things together if you can. - Be calm and patient when handling problems. - Stimulate and encourage the person with dementia to remain active. - Take them out for a drive or encourage them to accompany you to different places e.g. a walk, a visit to the gym or the local library. Develop a positive outlook: - Avoid catastrophic thinking (e.g. I lost my wife in the supermarket for five minutes so I am totally useless or I should never take her out of the house again). - Remember the good times you had together. - Remember that the disease is the problem and not the person with dementia. - Remind yourself of things you do well (particularly when something goes wrong!). - Remember that nobody is perfect and don’t be too hard on yourself. Last Updated: vendredi 11 septembre 2009

Legislation relating to the provision of home care services The new Health Insurance Act which came into force on 1 January 2006 abolished the former distinction between private and public health insurance. The act made it compulsory for every person residing or paying tax in the Netherlands to take out a health insurance. Every healthcare insurance company in the Netherlands, having agreed to provide services under the new Act, is obliged to accept any person who applies for insurance. People pay a nominal premium directly to the health insurer as well as an income-related contribution. The latter is levied by the Inland Revenue Service. Under the Health Care Insurance Act, which also came into force on 1 January 2006, people may receive an allowance if the nominal premium is particularly high in relation to their income. The Exceptional Medical Expenses Act of 14 December 1967 (implemented on 1 January 1968) – AWBZ – covers costs for the care of long-term chronic illness that are not covered by the Health Insurance Act. A basic principle of the AWBZ is that people should be helped to live at home for as long as possible. The AWBZ originally covered costly long term institutional care but the scope of the act was extended to cover other services such as home nursing in 1980 and home help in 1989. Health insurance companies are designated by the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport to implement the AWBZ. Organisation and financing of home care services Care provided under the Health Insurance Act and the AWBZ is divided into “products”. Home care and residential/nursing care for people with physical and/or mental disabilities are considered Medical Expenses Act products. A product consists of one or more functionally defined categories of care. There are seven broadly-defined categories of care: - Domestic help - Personal care - Supportive guidance (e.g. help organising one’s daily life, day care etc.) - Activating guidance (helping the person to adapt their behaviour or learn new skills) - Treatment (care linked to a health condition e.g. rehabilitation after a stroke) - Accommodation (e.g. sheltered housing, constant supervision, institutionalisation) AWBZ is funded through a compulsory premium, a co-payment and general taxation. The compulsory premium is integrated into the income tax structure but it is the employer who pays the largest share. The amount of the co-payment depends on the type of service, the income of the person who needs it, whether they are over 65, whether they live at home or in an institution and whether they live alone or cohabit. There is, however, a maximum weekly co-payment for all forms of home care. To be considered eligible for care, it is necessary to be assessed by an organisation called CIZ (Centrum indicatiestelling zorg). CIZ determines how much and what kind of care a person is entitled to receive. Once a person’s entitlement has been established, the person is free to choose care in kind, a personal care budget or a combination of the two. Care in kind means care services provided directly by a health care provider. This is arranged in consultation with the client who can use one or more care providers. A personal care budget is an amount of money granted to the client to purchase care independently. The client is free to purchase the care services from a health care provider but also from any person willing to provide the service e.g. a friend, relative or neighbour etc. Clients receiving a personal care budget are obliged to provide regular justification of their expenditure. The personal care budget is quite popular. The number of people with a personal care budget increased from 5,400 in 1996 to 65,000 in 2003 (Beukeman quoted in van Vliet and Oudenampsen, 2004). For care in kind, people may receive a bill or have the co-payment deducted from other state allowances. Co-payments for people receiving a personal care budget are deducted from the total amount that the person would otherwise receive. Kinds of home care services available Home care services are organised around the afore-mentioned categories of care. Examples include: home nursing (e.g. giving advice on how to cope with an illness, dressing wounds, administering medication), personal care (e.g. assistance with dressing, bathing, personal hygiene, eating and drinking), home help and housekeeping (e.g. cleaning, tidying and preparing meals), day care, respite care, night care and assistive devices. A special service called “Alpha Care” consists of home care that is provided by housewives. It is less expensive but limited to 16 hours per week. Nursing care is limited to 3 hours per day except in exceptional circumstances (Brodsky et al. 2000). Possible future developments A Social Support Act is currently being debated. If passed, it is likely to absorb cover for domestic help, supportive care and activating care, currently provided under the AWBZ, as well as certain grant schemes under the AWBZ concerning support to elderly people requiring assistance from relatives and friends outside the professional setting. According to van Vliet and Oudenampsen (2004), the consequences of the possible future transfer of cover for certain services to the Social Support Act is that these services will become the responsibility of the local government and will no longer be part of the services that budget-holders can purchase themselves. - Brodsky, J., Habib, J. and Mizrahi, I. (2000), A review of long-term care laws in five developed countries, http://www.wu-wien.ac.at/wwwu/institute/Sozialpolitik/LTC.pdf#search='A%20review%20of%20longterm%20care%20laws - Ministry for Health, Welfare and Sport (2005), Health insurance in the Netherlands; the new health insurance system from 2006: http://www.minvws.nl/images/health-insurance-in-nl_tcm11-74566.pdf - Van Vliet, K. and Oudenampsen, D. (2004), Integrated care in the Netherlands, http://www.verwey-jonker.nl/images/dynamisch/D3551878.pdf - Visser-Jansen, G. and Knipscheer, C.P.M. (2004), National Background Report for the Netherlands, EUROFAMCARE: http://www.uke.uni-hamburg.de/extern/eurofamcare/documents/nabare_netherlands_rc1_a4.pdf Last Updated: mercredi 15 juillet 2009

This book is intended to provide a working knowledge of those parts of exterior differential forms, differential geometry, algebraic and differential topology, Lie groups, vector bundles and Chern forms that are essential for a deeper understanding of both classical and modern physics and engineering. Included are discussions of analytical and fluid dynamics, electromagnetism, thermodynamics, the deformation tensors of elasticity, soap films, special and general relativity, the Dirac operator and spinors, and gauge fields, including Yang-Mills, the Aharonov-Bohm effect, Berry phase, and instanton winding numbers. Before discussing abstract notions of differential geometry, geometric intuition is developed through a rather extensive introduction to the study of surfaces in ordinary space; consequently, the book should also be of interest to mathematics students. This book will be useful to graduate and advanced undergraduate students of physics, engineering and mathematics. It can be used as a course text or for self study.

- Historic Sites Osceola Fights to Save the Seminole In Florida during the 1830s a young Indian warrior led a bold and bloody campaign against the government's plan to relocate his people west of the Mississippi River Summer 2012 | Volume 62, Issue 2 The story of Osceola and the Great Seminole War in Florida seems so fantastic at times that it is hard to believe it is all true. One warrior with courage, cunning, and audacity unsurpassed by any Native American leader masterminded battle tactics that frustrated and embarrassed a succession of U.S. Army generals. Osceola initiated and orchestrated the longest, most expensive, and deadliest war ever fought by Native Americans. He embarked on this quixotic struggle not for glory or out of hatred for the white man, but simply because he believed his people were being treated unjustly. Osceola had not always been a member of the Seminole tribe, nor had he always lived in Florida. He was born Billy Powell around 1804 in the Creek town of Tallassee, near present-day Tuskegee, Alabama. Like many Creeks of his generation he was of mixed parentage—a Scottish-English father and a Creek mother. Between 1812 and 1814, the Creeks living along the Tallapoosa River, which included the Powell family, rose to defend their land against encroaching white settlers. The U.S. government, already involved in the War of 1812, mustered a militia under the command of Gen. Andrew Jackson to come to the aid of the settlers. Jackson and his men laid waste to the territory, attacking and destroying Creek towns. The Powell family and their neighbors were forced to flee. Impoverished and desperate, they drifted south, living off the land. In time, these Creek refugees arrived in Spanish Florida and settled near present-day Tallahassee. The area was inhabited by the Seminoles, whose culture resembled their own in most respects. The Seminole Nation was not a distinct tribe with a long heritage but instead had been formed from various Native American tribes that had migrated down from the north and banded together. They also invited runaway slaves to join them. The Creek newcomers felt heartily welcomed and enjoyed a period of peace and prosperity. The tribe owned herds of livestock, the luxuriant Florida climate produced an abundance of food, and goods from British and Spanish traders were readily available. For years, however, the Seminoles had been raiding white American settlements along the Georgia and Alabama borders. Once again the government called on Andrew Jackson, who led a large force into Florida and eventually marched on the village where Billy Powell and his mother lived and burned it to the ground. Billy, now 14 years old, got a firsthand taste of U.S. military power when he was captured and held briefly before being released unharmed. Jackson’s invasion ended the prosperity of these Seminoles, and Billy and his mother uprooted once more and moved to the Tampa Bay area. There, Billy officially passed into manhood at the Seminoles’ Green Corn Dance, a ceremony of purification, forgiveness, and thanksgiving held every summer. During the event, men consumed an herbal tea known as the black drink. Billy shed his childhood name and took the name of the wordless song that accompanied the serving of this drink. He became Asi Yaholo—Osceola—“Black Drink Singer.” In 1819 Spain turned Florida over to the United States. Native Americans who had fled south were once again living in U.S. territory. The government began openly discussing a plan to move the Seminoles from Florida to an area west of the Mississippi River. The threat of relocation caused Chief Micanopy to seek a compromise. In 1823 the Seminoles grudgingly agreed to the Treaty of Moultrie Creek, under which they would remain in Florida but give up 28 million acres of traditional homeland in return for about 4 million acres in the marshy Florida interior, land difficult to farm and short of animals to hunt. By this time Osceola was a highly respected tustenugge, or policeman, of his band. He had established a cordial relationship with white authorities with whom he came in contact. In 1826 the 22-year-old became enamored of a young woman named Che-cho-ter, or Morning Dew. Accounts suggest that she was at least part black, either a former slave or a descendant of a runaway. The couple, alas, was not to live happily ever after. In 1828 Andrew Jackson was elected president. He viewed the Seminoles as an obstruction to progress and pushed his Indian Removal Bill through Congress to relocate Eastern tribes west of the Mississippi River once and for all. The government met with a delegation of Seminoles at Payne’s Landing on the Ocklawaha River to negotiate a treaty for the removal. Details of the meeting are sketchy, but the Seminole tribe apparently agreed to move from Florida. Up to that point Osceola had shown little interest in the politics that had affected his nation, but what transpired at Payne’s Landing in 1832 deeply affected him. When Seminole chiefs acquiesced to the removal, the young tustenugge began rallying his fellow Seminoles to the cause of resistance. He believed the treaty would lead to the annihilation of their nation. With Morning Dew no doubt in mind, he stressed a provision in the treaty that black Seminoles would be seized and returned to slavery. The chiefs finally agreed with Osceola and vowed to fight rather than allow the people to be removed from their homeland. At the same time, Indian agent Wiley Thompson, the government’s chief representative, summoned Seminole leaders, including Osceola, to Fort King to sign a contract reaffirming their acceptance of the Payne’s Landing treaty. To Osceola’s consternation, 16 chiefs, ignoring their pledge to him to fight, signed the contract, agreeing to deliver their people to Tampa Bay for removal. Outraged, Osceola rose to his feet and strode forward, thrusting his knife into the treaty paper. He loudly vowed, “This is the only treaty I will make with the whites!”

Microscopically small and usually just a single cell, protists are complex, varied organisms that represent more than 30 different phyla (the bulk of eukaryotic diversity on Earth). Some are photosynthetic, some are important pathogens, and their modes of locomotion vary. These glass models allow the naked eye to see the complex protists. Herman O. Mueller, a Museum preparator whose family had worked as glass blowers in Germany for generations, spent 40 years working on the models. He completed them in 1943. Hall of Biodiversity

Hall of Ornithischian Dinosaurs One of two halls in the David H. Koch Dinosaur Wing, the Hall of Ornithischian Dinosaurs features fossils from one of the two major groups of dinosaurs. The ornithischians are characterized by a backward-pointing extension of the pubis bone, which is thought to have helped to support the enormous stomachs that these dinosaurs needed to digest the masses of tough vegetation they ate. Within the Hall of Ornithischian Dinosaurs, exhibits explore two evolutionary branches within this group: the genasaurs, which are defined by the development of inset tooth rows that form cheeks, and the cerapods, identified by an uneven covering of tooth enamel. These traits may have made holding and chewing food easier. Together, the two halls of the Koch Dinosaur Wing feature about 100 specimens, 85 percent of them fossils, rather than casts. These 100 specimens are just a small fraction of the Museum’s collection of dinosaur fossils, which is among the largest and most scientifically important of such collections in the world. Corythosaurus is a member of the group of duck-billed dinosaurs called hadrosaurs, which walked and ran on their two hind legs. The species’ strange skull is capped by a crescent-shaped helmet that contains extended tubes, which formed elaborate nasal passages. The Museum’s dinosaur mummy is a fossilized imprint of the carcass of a duck-billed dinosaur. One of the most complete pieces of Mesozoic dinosaur remains ever found, this fossil represents one of the greatest discoveries in the history of paleontology. Anatotitan was a duck-billed dinosaur, one of the most widespread dinosaur groups. About 70 million years ago, duck-billed dinosaurs lived in the Americas, Europe, and Asia. Their habitats varied from forests in river valleys to swamps in coastal floodplains. At 4 feet long and 2 feet tall, Psittacosaurus (pronounced sih-TACK-oh-sore-us) lived some 100 million years ago. Despite the fact that it didn't have any horns, Psittacosaurus was a member of the same group as Triceratops. At one time, some scientists thought Stegosaurus had a second brain since the one in its head seemed so small. Stegosaurus did, however, manage with one small brain. This 65-million-year-old Triceratops has a large frill on the back of its skull, two large horns over its eyes, and a smaller horn on its nose. On the side of the skull on display is a partially healed injury, perhaps caused by a conflict with another Triceratops.

An eSpring® Water Purifier ensures your drinking water is as clean, great tasting, and clear as possible. No other system is documented to effectively reduce as wide a range of contaminants as eSpring. If your tap water is treated at a local or regional water treatment facility, a disinfecting agent (typically chlorine or chloramines) is used. During the disinfection process, low levels of disinfection by-products can form when the disinfectant reacts with naturally occurring organic matter in the water. Some of these compounds are suspected carcinogens, and regulatory agencies are trying to reduce the levels. The pressed carbon block in the eSpring® System is very effective at reducing disinfectant by-products. During tests by NSF International, the eSpring System met or exceeded the reduction standards for disinfection by-products such as THMs (trihalomethanes), including chloroform, bromoform, bromodichloromethane, and chlorodibromomethane. Pesticides and Pesticide By-Products Pesticide contamination of groundwater and surface water is an increasing concern, particularly in agricultural areas. Although pesticide contamination of drinking water does not appear to be widespread, water quality surveys have shown it does occur. The extent of drinking water contamination and the health effects of consuming low levels of pesticides are not yet known. Tests conducted by NSF International have resulted in certification of the eSpring Water Purifier for the effective reduction of a number of different pesticides and pesticide by-products. Radionuclides are radioactive health-effect contaminants. The eSpring® Water Purifier is the first NSF certified system to reduce radon and radon decay products in drinking water. Radon is a naturally occurring radioactive gas that has no taste, odor, or color. Radon is produced by the natural decay of uranium found in soil and rocks containing uranium ores, granite, shale, phosphate, and pitchblende. Most radon rises out of rock and is harmlessly dissipated in the atmosphere. However, radon gas can accumulate and dissolve in underground water sources such as wells. Particulates are tiny solids suspended in water. They can be visible or invisible specks of dirt, rust, or other materials. Particulates can affect the taste, odor, and clarity of your water. The spaces between the carbon molecules in the carbon block filter of the eSpring® Water Purifier are extremely small, enabling the filter to remove particles as small as 0.2 microns. That’s 300 percent smaller than the width of a human hair. This includes tiny particles such of asbestos, sediment, dirt, and scale. Contaminants come in many different forms. As described above, they can range from naturally-occurring microorganisms and minerals, to industrial and agricultural pollutants, and even to chemicals that have been inadvertently introduced by the very processes used by cities and towns to treat drinking public drinking water. Contamination can affect the taste, odor, and purity of water. The eSpring® System effectively removes lead, mercury, and asbestos. Even at low levels, lead poisoning may cause IQ deficiencies, reading and learning disabilities, impaired hearing, reduced attention spans, hyperactivity, and other behavior problems. Lead can exist in different forms in water, depending on the pH or acidity of the water. The eSpring System was tested at two different pHs to accurately determine that it is effective at reducing lead. Mercury gets into water from erosion of natural mineral deposits, discharge from refineries and factories, and runoff from landfills and farms. Asbestos sources include decay of asbestos cement in water mains, runoff from glass and electronics plant wastes and wear/breakdown of asbestos-containing materials. The eSpring system effectively reduces both mercury and asbestos. Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) VOCs are a group of organic chemicals that may leach into ground water or be discharged into lakes and streams in wastewater coming from chemical, plastic, petroleum plants, landfills, dry cleaners, or gasoline storage tanks. Vinyl chloride is a gas used to make polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a plastic material often used for drinking water pipes. Prior to the mid-1970s, PVC pipe often contained high levels of residual vinyl chloride, which could contaminate drinking water. While the methods of manufacturing PVC pipes have changed to significantly reduce any residual vinyl chloride, many older PVC pipes are still in use, and vinyl chloride contamination of drinking water still occurs. The eSpring® Carbon Water Treatment System has an activated pressed carbon-block filter. This patented, multistage carbon-block technology effectively reduces more than 140 potential health-effect contaminants that may be present in your drinking water. But it allows beneficial minerals like calcium, magnesium, and fluoride to pass through. Copyright © 2012 Amway

In music, the introduction is a passage or section which opens a movement or a separate piece. In popular music this is often called an intro. The introduction establishes melodic, harmonic, and/or rhythmic material related to the main body of a piece. Introductions may be an ostinato that is used in the following music, an important chord or progression that establishes the tonality and groove for the following music, important but disguised or out of context motivic or thematic material. As such the introduction may be the first statement of primary or other important material, may be related to but different from the primary or other important material, or may bear little relation to any other material. (Courtesy of Wikipedia) Introductions or Intros, which occur at the beginning of a song, are short (usually only several bars) and are used to establish a songs mood, tempo, and key. If a song's initial chord progression starts with the "I" chord (as most songs do), you can use any Turnaround to create an Introduction.

USDA ditches food pyramid for a dinner plate in latest guidelines The Daily Ardmoreite Posted Jan. 25, 2013 @ 9:00 am Posted Jan. 25, 2013 @ 9:00 am » Social News The government is ditching the famous food pyramid for a dinner plate as part of the latest changes to USDA dietary guidelines. Everydayhealth.com offers the new rules: New Food Rule 1: Eat the Most Nutrient-Dense Foods Why change: Americans consume far too many "empty calories" - those that lack good-for-you nutrients like whole grains, lean protein, vitamins, and minerals. "About 260 calories in a 2,000-calorie daily diet could be from indulgences like cookies or soda. But the typical American eats closer to 600 to 800 empty calories a day. Nutrient-dense foods are described as "foods that in their prepared state have significantly more nutrients per calorie. For example, for the same amount of calories as soda, fat-free or low-fat milk offers calcium, vitamins, minerals, and protein, where soda has none. Fill half your plate at any given meal with vegetables, fruits, and whole grains, which are naturally nutrient dense. Skip add-ons like batters, breading, and butter, and choose sauces and dressings wisely, like vinaigrettes made with healthy olive oil instead of full-fat dressings. Opt for a baked potato instead of French fries, grilled chicken instead of fried, brown rice instead of white rice, and low-fat milk instead of whole milk or soda. But remember that nutrient-dense doesn't always mean low-calorie. The key is displacing empty calories with nutritious, filling calories. New Food Rule 2: Eat Fewer Solid Fats and Added Sugars Why the change: Solid fats and added sugars have no. Solid fats include butter, stick margarine, and meat fats. Added sugars are commonly found in packaged goods such as grain-based snacks and desserts, soda, energy drinks, and juice "drinks." What you can do: Trim fat from meat, remove skin from poultry, and use less table sugar. Watch for sneaky sugar in food, like ketchup. Read ingredient lists of packaged foods for tip-off words like corn syrup, sucrose, sugar, honey, syrup, and dextrose. If you spot them in the first few ingredients, avoid the food or eat it less frequently. Treat desserts, sugar-sweetened sodas, and candy as treats - not as everyday foods. Or rethink your definition of dessert: Try a bowl of fruit with an ice cream topping, rather than a bowl of ice cream with fruit topping. New Food Rule 3: Eat More Seafood Why change: Seafood is rich in heart- and brain-healthy omega-3 fatty acids, which the typical American diet sorely lacks. The new food guidelines recommend consuming at least 8 ounces of fish, shellfish, and other types of seafood every week (the 2005 guidelines did not recommend a specific amount of fish). What you can do: Swap out your usual meat or poultry dinner twice a week for seafood. A 4-ounce serving of fish is smaller than you might think - it looks like a deck of cards. Pick fish that's high in omega-3s but low in mercury, such as salmon, trout, or herring. Pregnant women should eat fish too, but it's especially important to pick low-mercury varieties (in large amounts the heavy metal has been linked to health problems). If you're pregnant or breastfeeding, limit your intake of white tuna (albacore) to 6 ounces per week, and and don't eat tilefish, shark, swordfish, or king mackerel, which can be high in mercury. If you're concerned about the mercury content in tuna, use canned salmon instead for your sandwiches or casseroles. How to get your kids to eat it? Grill salmon burgers instead of hamburgers or toss teriyaki tuna strips onto a salad. New Food Rule 4: Show Red Veggies Some Love Why change: The previous food guidelines mentioned orange, but not red, vegetables. Now the two have been combined into one veggie sub-group. The guidelines recommend eating more of this group, along with dark-green veggies and beans and peas. Remember red vegetables include tomatoes and red peppers, both great sources of vitamin C, lycopene ,other antioxidants, and other nutrients. What you can do: Most people should eat five-and-a-half cups cups of red and orange vegetables each week. To get the most nutritional bang for your buck, keep in mind that your body is better able to absorb lycopene, the fat-soluble antioxidant in red peppers and tomatoes, in the presence of oil. Lycopene is important because it may improve heart health and lower the risk of cancers like breast and prostate cancer. Keep a supply of jarred red peppers in oil and add them to sandwiches, salads, stir-fries, and omelets for a flavorful nutrient boost. Tomato sauce is another easy way to boost your red veggie intake, but the ready-made stuff can be loaded with added salt. Look for jars with 300 or fewer milligrams of salt per serving. Some stores even carry no-salt-added versions. And think beyond the usual suspects to red varieties of vegetables such as red cabbage, beans, and Swiss chard. Red cabbage and beans contain anthocyanins, plant chemicals that show promise in preventing heart disease and cancer and protecting brain health. Red beans are the most fiber-rich vegetable in the world, Grotto says. New Food Rule 5: Eat More Fruit Every Day Why change: Here's why, only 42 percent of Americans eat the two cups of fruit per day that are recommended for someone on a 2,000-calorie diet. Choosing fruit over less-healthy snacks will automatically make your diet more nutrient-dense and lower in calories. All fruits are healthy, but berries are among the best – gram for gram, they're jam-packed with nutrients for very few calories. One cup of whole strawberries has about 50 calories and contains elagic acid that may help the lining of your arteries become more pliable, which could help prevent atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries. What you can do: The best way to work more fruits into your diet is to have them ready to go: peeled, cut up, and mixed together in individual serving containers in your fridge. At least half of your fruit should be in whole fruit form - fresh, frozen, or canned if it's packed in 100 percent fruit juice - because whole fruit contains fiber that juice doesn't. You can get the rest of your fruit from 100 percent fruit juices, such as orange juice. Eat fruit for snacks or dessert, add it to salads, and use it in place of sugar, syrups, and other sweet toppings for cereal and pancakes. New Food Rule 6: Vegetarianism and Veganism Can Be Healthy Why change: For the first time, the dietary guidelines include a model for healthy vegetarian and vegan eating. With proper planning, you can get enough protein from dairy, eggs, beans and peas, soy products, and nuts and seeds, and other nutrients from vegetables, fruits, and whole grains. What you can do: Not surprisingly, the biggest concern with meat-free diets is getting enough protein. You'll need to replace meat with other foods that qualify as complete proteins - which means they contain all of the essential amino acids. Complete proteins include dairy, eggs, soy (such as tofu and edamame), and certain grains, such as amaranth and quinoa. Watch out for the salt: Veggie burgers and other frozen meat substitutes can be packed with sodium. Vegans, and vegetarians who don't get enough dairy and eggs, may also be deficient in certain nutrients, namely vitamins B12 and D, calcium, and iron, so it's a good idea to talk to a registered dietitian, who may recommend that you take supplements or make other changes to your diet.

Image Number K7252-47 Apples are an all-American success story-each of us eats more than 19 pounds of them annually. Thanks to fruit-breeding research, we're able to enjoy more productive, healthy, and flavorful new varieties every year. And we're collecting and preserving the world's bounty of apple genestock, so that the apples of tomorrow may be even sweeter crunchier, and better than ever. Think about the quality of the apples you buy at the supermarket: They may have been stored for as long as 9 months but you can bet they'll remain crisp, thanks to controlled-atmosphere-storage methods devised by ARS. Never before have growers had a better chance against pests and diseases in the apple orchard, thanks to new, nonchemical biocontrols. ARS scientists have toiled to harness naturally occurring yeasts and bacteria and turn them against apples' We've even worked on bashless bagging-packaging systems that are used by wholesalers to bring you apples without bruises. Photo by Scott Bauer. 640 pixels wide: (k7252-47.jpg) Please visit our Image Gallery

The soap makes her vision blurry as she flows down a hollow rusty pipe collecting particles contradicting her purity and making her heavy. She feels the texture of millions like her, gushing through the coarse metal and out into a deep dark pit. A hoard of small stones and fine particles of sand meet her course. Her pace slowed, her flow determined, she makes her way through the crevices and drops into a free fall. She smiles. For now, she can see, her vision is no more blurry, the heaviness gone, she's pure again. Soon enough, she feels a vacuum pulling her up through a cold steel pipe and she gushes out into a glass. The touch of fresh air feels good. Moments later she sees the face of a little boy smiling as he raises the glass to his lips, and she gladly surrenders to his need, and trickles down his throat, accompanied by a fulfilling sigh. Quenching the boy's thirst, she is indeed, life! Water is life. In India, which is surrounded by water on the three sides, millions do not have access to clean water. On the other hand, there is so much wastage of water, unmindful of the lives that it costs. The residents of Lakshmipura, a village in Karnataka, have a story to tell. The village has been subject to years of water scarcity, and drought during summers as a consequence of wastage of water - but not anymore. The water conservation project initiated by The Art of Living in the village and in different parts of Karnataka is bearing refreshing results. The drains have been made free of waste water, and are now used to collect rainwater, further purifying it with the help of natural filters. During monsoon, the water gushing through these drains is collected in small tanks, which after being filtered is left to bigger tanks. It is further made to flow down a channel to the bore-wells in the villages, giving the villagers access to clean drinking water. The simple motto "Waste no water!" is the mantra of the villagers. They have been educated, and are aware of the importance of water conservation. The villagers have also pledged not to use the clean water to wash vehicles, clothes and bathe cattle. It is encouraging to see that people are aware, and are taking steps to conserve water. To know that every drop is precious and conducive to life is a reason enough to be grateful for every sip. The gratefulness that the little boy, his family, and the rest of the villagers of Lakshmipura are feeling, with every gulp of clean water they take is a joy worth sharing. Why did it take them so long to do this? This is where spiritual practices help. Spirituality nourishes team work, a sense of responsibility and belongingness. It brings greater sensitivity towards nature and each other and promotes caring and sharing. Just a few sessions of group meditations and Satsang is enough to spark the community spirit and harmony that is required to implement sustainable solutions for the challenges we face. This has been seen time and again, village after village, challenge after challenge, and has resulted in success after success. To be part of our efforts to transform rural India, please do write in to [email protected] Writer: Eben Felix, Graphics: Niladri Dutta

The Battle of Leyte Gulf The largest and greatest naval battle ever fought! A milestone in naval and military history! Read about the World War II Pacific commanders on both sides: The Americans: Nimitz, Halsey, Sprague, MacArthur, Kinkaid, The Japanese: Kurita, Ozawa, Nishimura, and an American President: Franklin D. Roosevelt Learn about the strategic considerations both sides had to assess as they prepared to fight this historic World War II Pacific conflict, where it happened, when it happened, and the resulting aftermath. Click here to read more. I hope you find this web site enjoyable, educational, and entertaining. If you wish to let me know your thoughts about this web site, please click here take a survey. Whatever your feelings are, please go to the E-mail Me page to send an E-mail to me to ask any question or make any comments you may have about the battle or this web site. Written by: Kenneth I. Friedman, Ph.D

Not technically seeds, these are the split halves of the dried fruits of a plant that are used as a spice. They grow in East and South East Europe, the Netherlands, North Africa and the USA. They are brown, long, narrow, slightly curved, ridged, and pointed at both ends. They are aromatic and have a distinctive bitter, sharp, nutty taste, with warm, sweet undertones. Buy from supermarkets, delis or speciality spice shops. Store in a cool, dry place, and use within six months. Caraway seeds are widely used in Central and Eastern Europe to flavour rye breads, biscuits, cakes, stews, meat dishes, cheeses, sauerkraut and pickles; they are also often combined with potatoes and apples. They can be used in English comfits and seed cakes, the Arabic spice mixture tabil, North African harissa paste, and north Indian curries. Liqueurs such as kummel, schnapps and aquavit are all flavoured with caraway. Article by Sejal Sukhadwala Type the ingredients you want to use, then click Go. For better results you can use quotation marks around phrases (e.g. "chicken breast"). Alternatively you can search by chef, programme, cuisine, diet, or dish (e.g. Lasagne). This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets (CSS) enabled. While you will be able to view the content of this page in your current browser, you will not be able to get the full visual experience. Please consider upgrading your browser software or enabling style sheets (CSS) if you are able to do so.

Cancer oregonensis (Pygmy rock crab) 2005 Mary Jo Adams small crab has a carapace width of less than 2 inches. The rounded carapace is widest at the 7 th or 8 th lateral tooth and unlike other cancer crabs, the carapace lacks angular corners. The carapace is usually red-brown but color varies; the tips of the claws look like they were dipped in black ink. Its legs are quite hairy. Look for this crab low in the intertidal under rocks, hiding in crevices, or tucked away in the otherwise empty shell of a giant barnacle ( Balanus nubilus ). It is found subtidally to a depth of 1400 feet. pygmy rock crab accesses the small barnacles that it preys on by crushing their shells with powerful claws. Other common names for this crab are hairy cancer crab and Oregon cancer crab most likely to be confused with this species is Lophopanopeus bellus bellus (the black clawed crab) as both are small and have black tipped claws. To distinguish between the two, look for the 3 lateral teeth along the edge of the carapace of the black-clawed crab. The pygmy rock crab carapace is more rounded, has more numerous teeth, and has very hairy legs. This page was created by Mary Jo Adams on 12/5/05.

"How to Identify Prehistoric Projectile Points" From site: News & Events Date: Monday, January 14th, 2013 Time: 7:00 pm Duration: 2 hours Location: Basement Laboratory, Logan Museum of Anthropology Sponsored by: Three Rivers Archaeological Society and Logan Museum of Anthropology Contact: , Contact: Bill Green 363-2119 Please join the Three Rivers Archaeology Society and the Logan Museum of Art for a hands-on workshop on projectile point identification using the Logan Museum of Anthropology’s education collection. Professional archaeologists will help with identifications and show you how to identify prehistoric points and other stone tools. We will sort and identify the approximately 200 artifacts using guidebooks, comparative material, and local experts. No prior experience is necessary. This exercise will help you become familiar with projectile point guidebooks and other resources you can use on your own. We will work in the Logan Museum’s basement laboratory, so plan on getting to the meeting by 7:00 p.m. This event is free and open to the campus and community.

To their surprise, UC San Francisco researchers have discovered a new type of cell in women's breast tissue that might one day be used to heal a variety of wounds and damaged organs, without having to destroy embryos to acquire stem cells. The newly discovered cells act similarly to embryonic stem cells in that they can be placed in mice or in a Petri dish and "instructed" to produce many different cell types. That raises hope that the cells might someday be used as a sort of personalized "patch kit," without the controversy that has surrounded stem cells taken from human embryos. "When we saw that they could make cartilage, bone, gut, brain, pancreas cells -- even beating heart tissue -- we were excited and intrigued," said senior study author Thea Tlsty, a UCSF professor of pathology. "We were not looking for this," she said. "This was unexpected." The study was published Monday in the online early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Scientists had previously believed that so-called pluripotent cells, which can transform into most cell types, did not exist in the body beyond the embryonic stage of development. The new cells may have some advantages over a 2007 scientific breakthrough that revolutionized the field of regenerative medicine -- the discovery that adult skin cells could be reprogrammed or reverse-engineered to act like embryonic stem cells and transform into a variety of cell Researchers dubbed these reprogrammed cells induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPS. Such cells are made without destroying embryos, and hundreds of scientists around the world are researching them, but some have wondered whether these cells might form cancerous tumors when introduced into a human body. Tlsty noted that the newly discovered cells are more genetically stable than the iPS cells and are limited in how often they can reproduce, making them less likely to form cancers. "They have great potential," Tlsty said. "If this develops the way we think it's going to develop, it really could be a significant step forward for regenerative medicine." A leading California stem cell researcher who was not involved with the study called the results "really interesting and intriguing" but said more research is needed. "Any unusual finding awaits independent replication and further exploration," said Larry Goldstein, director of the UC San Diego stem cell research program. "Time will tell as investigators try to replicate the finding. Is it a mirage, a blind alley, or a path to a valley full of riches?" he said. The cells were first discovered in healthy breast tissue from women who were undergoing breast reductions. Researchers have since looked at tissue from more than 60 women. All had some of the cells, although it isn't yet known whether they exist in older women and young girls. "We anticipate that we'll be able to get them from other tissues, and that's some of the research that we're doing now," Tlsty said. She added that researchers believe the cells will be found in both men and women. They are calling the newly identified cells endogenous pluripotent somatic cells, or ePS. "Pretty much everything we've asked them to make, they've made," Tlsty said. "These cells have responded beautifully." Sandy Kleffman covers health. Contact her at 510-293-2478. Follow her at Twitter.com/skleffman.

SAVING THE SAND MOUNTAIN BLUE BUTTERFLY Sand Mountain blue butterflies live in only one place on Earth — within and near the dunes of “Singing” Sand Mountain in Nevada. But over the past three decades, extensive off-road vehicle use on these public lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management has destroyed more than 50 percent of the rare butterfly’s habitat and main food source, leaving the species perched on the edge of extinction. The Sand Mountain blue butterfly is closely linked to Kearney buckwheat; larvae feed exclusively on the plant, and adult butterflies rely on its nectar as a primary food source. Unfortunately, the Bureau of Land Management has allowed off-road vehicle use to destroy much of the Kearney buckwheat that once thrived on the dunes at Sand Mountain. To ensure that the Sand Mountain blue butterfly will have adequate habitat and protection, the Center submitted a petition to list this rare species as federally endangered in 2004. In 2006, after the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service failed to respond to our initial petition, the Center filed another suit against the Service to compel a response. In 2007, the Service denied our petition to list the species despite continued threats from increasing off-road vehicle use at the dunes. The Service is staking the continued existence of the species on a new Conservation Plan that relies on largely voluntary measures to stem the tide of habitat destruction from off-road vehicle use. The Center will continue to advocate for mandatory legal protections for the butterfly and its habitat under the Endangered Species Act. Contact: Lisa Belenky |Photo courtesy of Carson City BLM Field Office||HOME / DONATE NOW / SIGN UP FOR E-NETWORK / CONTACT US / PHOTO USE /|

The Sutra of Filial Piety Shelfmark: Oriental MS 74.B.3 Korean woodblock book, printed on brown paper during the 16th century. The text is assumed to have been written in China since the earliest known version of this sutra was discovered at Dunhuang. Though Buddhist, it incorporates the Confucian ethic of repaying the kindness and devotion of one's parents through acts of self-abasement. Find out more about this manuscript and other sacred texts in Expressions of Faith.

of their expenses such as a financial reward or a day off from chores. Showing them the importance of budgeting for items they need versus spending extravagantly is critical. “Children must realize that there is an inflow and an outflow of money and you don’t want the outflow to be greater than the inflow or else we become financially over extended,” says Gwendolyn Kirkland, a certified financial planner at Kirkland, Turnbo & Associates, in Chicago. “A budget establishes financial boundaries. So when they’re asking for different things, parents can say they either budgeted or they didn’t budget for it.” Encourage children under the age of 8 to divide money into different categories. Perhaps they should have one piggy bank for saving and another piggy bank for spending. By the time your child turns 9, talk to him or her about creating a small budget to keep track of income and expenses. Teenagers, should already understand the basics of personal finance and budgeting and be allowed to make their own financial decisions, with your guidance. By then, budgets should be a cornerstone of their money management. Plant the seeds of entrepreneurship. Not all children receive weekly allowances. When Angelina and Marvin Lipford, of Hampton, Virginia, were married 20 years ago, they entered into their marriage carting around $15,000 to $20,000 worth of credit card and student loan debt. They spent the first five years of their marriage paying off the debt along with the accompanying high interest rates. The couple was determined to keep their three children from falling into the same trap. Knowing the financial sacrifices they had to make early in their marriage, the Lipfords are making sure their three children keep a tight rein on their finances and avoid the same pitfalls. They have an 18-year-old daughter, Jasmine, who is attending Howard University on a basketball scholarship; a 15-year-old son, Marvin Jr., who is a sophomore in high school; and a 9-year-old, Nehemiah. A natural progression in teaching their children the building blocks of finances was to encourage their children to either work, as Jasmine had done before going to college, or to start their own business. Instead of giving their children allowances, the Lipfords encourage them to earn their own money by doing chores around the house. It was on a pay-per-work arrangement. And if the children asked their parents for additional money, they were required to pay their parents back with interest. This arrangement encouraged Marvin Jr. to earn money on his own. In 2002, he took the financial and entrepreneurial lessons he learned from attending a weeklong financial camp to cut grass during the summer months using his father’s lawn mower. This past summer, he charged $20 a yard and earned $1,000, which he put into his savings account. Show children how to pay bills. With so many people paying bills online, this is an opportunity to get children involved. Show them how money is deposited into an account, and how you’re subtracting from those dollars to pay your obligations

Dear Dr. Levister: I live in a low-income neighborhood where my two sons are exposed to a lot of violence. Both boys have nightmares. One wets the bed. Can children suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder? Y.S. Dear Y.S.: Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a condition in which a person has long-lasting psychological symptoms after experiencing an extremely stressful event(s). About 30 percent of men and women who have spent time in war zones experience what we now call PTSD. In years past, a number of names were given to the emotional problems some soldiers had after returning from war, including: shell shock and combat fatigue. Children and teenagers can show signs of PTSD too. The loss of a friend or loved one, a violent experience, or exposure to a horrifying event may cause a child to develop post-traumatic stress disorder. Researchers have found that the disorder is extremely common in young people who experience such violence as seeing a parent murdered or raped, witnessing a school shooting, or being the victim of sexual abuse. It is also very common in young people who are exposed to a lot of violence in their community. Young children with PTSD may experience less specific fears, such as being afraid of strangers. They may have sleep problems, and they may lose previously learned skills, such as toilet training. In addition, they may act out parts of the distressing event in their play or daily interactions. Older children also may reenact parts of stressful events in play or drawings. Most people who have been through a very frightening event will have a noticeable reaction in the days and weeks just afterward. The diagnosis of PTSD is considered only if the symptoms last more than a month. The course of the disorder varies. Some people with PTSD recover within months, while others have symptoms that last much longer. Occasionally, the onset of symptoms can be delayed and may not show up until years after the stressful event. While it is unclear why PTSD develops in some people but not in others, at least two factors, early counseling and a high degree of family support, lowers the risk of PTSD in young people. |< Prev||Next >|

PARI displays items from NASA's space shuttle program Published: Saturday, November 17, 2012 at 4:30 a.m. Last Modified: Friday, November 16, 2012 at 6:37 p.m. ROSMAN — Space shuttle parts that have been to space and back are now on display to the public at Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute in Rosman. The Exhibit Gallery holds an orbiter wing leading edge and a tire used in the landing of Shuttle Discovery, along with an antenna assembly and other items gifted by NASA. Established in September 1998, PARI is a not-for-profit foundation that provides hands-on educational and research opportunities in science, technology, engineering and math. The Exhibit Gallery is located on the 200-acre campus where scientific research is conducted using equipment including two 85-foot radio telescopes. Education Director Christi Whitworth said staff and volunteers at the observation center were ecstatic when the space shuttle items arrived last month. "It was very exciting NASA finally released these because we have been waiting for a long while," Whitworth said about the items, valued at about $1 million. It took about three years for the items to arrive at PARI on Oct. 12 from the Kennedy Space Center. Scientists, volunteers and educators unpacked the wing segment immediately and started snapping photos of the parts that once left the earth's atmosphere to explore the vast realm of space. "There was a lot of geeking out going on," Whitworth said Wednesday in the Exhibit Gallery, where many more artifacts from the space shuttle program, as well as meteorites dating back as far as 1492, are on display. The wing panel on display is constructed from reinforced carbon material that provides protection for re-entry into the atmosphere, where temperatures on the surface of the shuttle exceed 3,000 degrees. The panel is similar to the one damaged in the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster in 2003. Gallery visitors get a better idea of what failed during that mission after seeing the wing segment, Whitworth said. Nearby, a Space Shuttle Discovery tire stands more than 3-and-a-half feet tall and is visibly worn down. "You know that this is the tire when you watch the Discovery touchdown," Whitworth said about the Kennedy Space Center landing on July 17, 2006, following a 5.3 million-mile journey. Children tend to gravitate to the tire, she said. "The kids are just as tall as the tire and they can get an idea on how big the shuttle actually is," Whitworth said. The Exhibit Gallery is open to the public and Whitworth said visitors enjoy seeing the space equipment and learning it was used. "People get a sense of size and scale," Whitworth said. She is impressed with the new additions to the Exhibit Gallery and encourages people to visit the PARI campus, which is open on weekdays and for special occasions. "I never thought I would be standing next to a (shuttle) tire and wing segment," Whitworth said. The PARI site was initially developed by NASA in 1962 as the East Coast facility to track satellites and monitor manned space flights. The best known PARI radio telescope is the 15-foot antenna, nicknamed "Smiley" because a smiley face was painted on the dish as a friendly wave to Soviet satellites during the Cold War era, according to the PARI website. The Exhibit Gallery is open to the public from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday and by appointment. For more information, visit www.pari.edu. Reach Schulman at 828-694-7890 or [email protected]. All rights reserved. This copyrighted material may not be re-published without permission. Links are encouraged.

A dead finback whale more than 50 feet in length was found floating in Boston Harbor early Sunday morning — a rarity for the area, officials said. Tony LaCasse, a spokesman for the New England Aquarium, which sent officials to examine the whale, said how the massive mammal died remained a mystery. “We don’t know,” he said. “We’ve only been able to look at a small portion of the body so far.” LaCasse said the animal probably died of natural causes, disease, or a unique medical problem, such as being struck by a vessel or becoming entangled in netting. He said a large amount of blood in the water surrounding the whale and marks on its body may indicate trauma. But he added that it is unclear whether the possible trauma took place before or after the animal died. Authorities did not know how old the whale was, but were conducting tests on samples taken from the animal, and planned to perform a necropsy. Although the finback whale is common in this area, it is endangered in the United States, said LaCasse. About 10,000 remain in US waters, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. LaCasse said adult finback whales weigh on average between 70,000 and 90,000 pounds. The species can grow to an average length of between 45 and 70 feet, according to the Whale Center of New England. “It’s not rare to see a whale in the Boston Harbor, but it’s rare to see a dead whale in the Boston Harbor,” said Brian Fleming, command duty officer at the US Coast Guard Base Boston. “The majority of these cases happen out to sea.” Massachusetts State Police marine officials spotted the whale around 3 a.m. near the Black Falcon Cruise Terminal, and the Coast Guard transported New England Aquarium rescue team members to examine it. LaCasse said the whale floated to within “a couple hundred yards” of the shore of Long Island in Boston Harbor at about 3:30 p.m. Sunday, but the tide carried it back into the harbor. Authorities will wait for the carcass to wash up so they can examine it and then dispose of it. Fleming said that about three or four live whales are sighted in Boston Harbor per year. Matt Rocheleau can be reached at [email protected].

In 1899, a contingent of nuns journeyed into the malarial forests of southern Africa to set up missionary schools. They mastered the clicking language of the Ndebele tribe, baked communion bread in brick ovens they built themselves, and steered clear of the subject of monogamy so as not to enrage the polygamous local chief. In 1911, another group of sister-pioneers set sail for the islands of Fiji to run a clinic for lepers. In 1929, nuns in black habits rode a steamship up the Yangtze River into the heart of China, braving insufferable heat, flying termites, and warring generals. Without the resourcefulness and courage of these extraordinary women, the Catholic Church would never have been able to spread its teachings around the globe or staff its unwieldy empire of schools, churches, and hospitals. So it is odd to hear the Vatican denouncing the largest group of nuns in America for promoting “radical feminist” ideas. The statement is shockingly out of touch with the modern world. But it is also willfully blind to important parts of the church’s own history. A profound faith in women’s capabilities — in the world, in the classroom, and in God’s eyes — lies at the core of what nuns have always been. Long before Betty Friedan kicked off the modern feminist movement in the 1960s, nuns were earning medical degrees and running complex institutions, often without financial support from Rome. Just look at the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, founded in 1804 to educate impoverished girls. When a bishop forbade them to expand their work, they refused to obey him and were kicked out of France. They relocated to Namur, Belgium, and went on to build schools in 17 countries — including Trinity College in Washington, D.C., which educated Nancy Pelosi and Kathleen Sebelius. It’s not surprising that religious orders attracted such tenacious women. For centuries, the convent was the only respectable place for girls who aspired to travel and make a difference in the world, not simply get married and bear children. Eventually, the women’s-rights movement gave young women the chance to work in social justice outside of the church. That’s one reason the number of American nuns plummeted from a peak of 180,000 in 1965 to fewer than 60,000 today. But the lack of respect for nuns in an all-male church hierarchy also played a role. In the early 1960s, Vatican II gave nuns wide latitude to go out into the world and perform good works. Some joined the civil rights movement. Others protested the Vietnam War. But skittish men simultaneously reined them in. The archbishop of Washington refused to allow nuns in his diocese to attend Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream” speech, even though priests were encouraged to go. The archbishop of Los Angeles insisted on dictating nuns’ bedtimes and prayer hours, and even which books they could read, leading to an infamous standoff in 1970 that prompted more than 300 Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary to break with the church. If the Vatican insists on punishing the largest group of American nuns — the recent reprimand accuses them for focusing too much on poverty, and not enough on the church’s teachings on homosexuality — we could see a similar showdown. The Leadership Conference of Women Religious could take the dramatic step of removing themselves from the official church hierarchy. Maybe the powerful men of the Vatican would say “good riddance.” Maybe they prefer a smaller, “purer” church reminiscent of the Middle Ages. But what kind of message does this war with nuns send to everybody else? Are we really supposed to believe that nuns on whose backs the church system was built are “radical” for seeking a greater voice in it? That strong-willed nuns are more dangerous to Catholicism than child-molesting priests? That crusades against masturbation and gay marriage are more important than helping the poor? It’s hard to imagine that Jesus would agree. The Vatican has been on the wrong side of history before. Luckily, the church’s vibrant community has a way of self-correcting with time. Two hundred years ago, Julie Billiart, foundress of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, was a persona non grata in France. Today, she is a saint. Follow her on Twitter @fstockman.

Alaska Marine Highway Simply begin typing or use the editing tools above to add to this article. Once you are finished and click submit, your modifications will be sent to our editors for review. importance to Alaska ...Prudhoe Bay. Anchorage is Alaska’s major port for imports, while petroleum is exported from Kenai and Valdez, and fish are exported from southeast port cities, particularly Kodiak and Unalaska. The Alaska Marine Highway (1963) is a ferry system with passenger and vehicle service that runs from Bellingham, Wash., or Prince Rupert, B.C., northward across the Gulf of Alaska, into Prince William... What made you want to look up "Alaska Marine Highway"? Please share what surprised you most...

Charles BabbageArticle Free Pass Charles Babbage, (born December 26, 1791, London, England—died October 18, 1871, London), English mathematician and inventor who is credited with having conceived the first automatic digital computer. In 1812 Babbage helped found the Analytical Society, whose object was to introduce developments from the European continent into English mathematics. In 1816 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of London. He was instrumental in founding the Royal Astronomical (1820) and Statistical (1834) societies. The idea of mechanically calculating mathematical tables first came to Babbage in 1812 or 1813. Later he made a small calculator that could perform certain mathematical computations to eight decimals. Then in 1823 he obtained government support for the design of a projected machine with a 20-decimal capacity. Its construction required the development of mechanical engineering techniques, to which Babbage of necessity devoted himself. In the meantime (1828–39) he served as Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge. During the mid-1830s Babbage developed plans for the Analytical Engine, the forerunner of the modern digital computer. In this device he envisioned the capability of performing any arithmetical operation on the basis of instructions from punched cards, a memory unit in which to store numbers, sequential control, and most of the other basic elements of the present-day computer. The Analytical Engine, however, was never completed. Babbage’s design was forgotten until his unpublished notebooks were discovered in 1937. In 1991 British scientists built Difference Engine No. 2—accurate to 31 digits—to Babbage’s specifications. Babbage made notable contributions in other areas as well. He assisted in establishing the modern postal system in England and compiled the first reliable actuarial tables. He also invented a type of speedometer and the locomotive cowcatcher. What made you want to look up "Charles Babbage"? Please share what surprised you most...

salivaArticle Free Pass saliva, a thick, colourless, opalescent fluid that is constantly present in the mouth of humans and other vertebrates. It is composed of water, mucus, proteins, mineral salts, and amylase. As saliva circulates in the mouth cavity it picks up food debris, bacterial cells, and white blood cells. One to two litres of fluid are excreted daily into the human mouth. Three major pairs of salivary glands and many smaller glands scattered in the surface tissue of the cheeks, lips, tongue, and palate contribute to the total amount of saliva. Small amounts of saliva are continually being secreted into the mouth, but the presence of food, or even the mere smell or thought of it, will rapidly increase saliva flow. The functions of saliva are numerous. Primarily, it lubricates and moistens the inside of the mouth to help with speech and to change food into a liquid or semisolid mass that can be tasted and swallowed more easily. Saliva helps to control the body’s water balance; if water is lacking, the salivary glands become dehydrated, leaving the mouth dry, which causes a sensation of thirst and stimulates the need to drink. Saliva reduces tooth decay and infection by removing food debris, dead cells, bacteria, and white blood cells. It also contains small amounts of the digestive enzyme amylase, which chemically breaks down carbohydrates into simpler compounds. What made you want to look up "saliva"? Please share what surprised you most...

In Atrial Septal Defects (ASD), the blood tends to flow from the right atrium to the left atrium due to the relatively high pressure exerted by the blood returning to the heart from the body circulation. This phenomenon prevents blood in the heart from being pushed into the lungs leading to poor oxygenation of blood cells and consequently a decrease in the circulating oxygen in the body. Depending on the size and location of the hole in the cardiac muscle wall, minor defects may not result in any visible signs while larger defects often result in an imbalance in blood pressure within the heart. Most Bulldogs diagnosed with the condition usually live normal lives but those with severe forms die from secondary defects of the heart. A veterinarian can diagnose ASD in a Bulldog upon detecting a significant heart murmur while doing a thorough physical examination. Bulldogs suffering from the condition may show evidence of heart problems as shown by poor exercise tolerance and/or mucus membranes or tongue with a bluish tinge. Other signs include swelling of the abdomen, breathing difficulties, collapse or even death. ASD may also incidentally show up on routine x-rays. Chest x-rays will demonstrate a right-side heart enlargement while an echocardiography (ultrasound of the heart) can reveal the abnormal physical changes in the dimensions of the heart and the blood flowing though from the heart to the lungs. The treatment regimen for ASD depends on the size of the defect and the existence of other heart abnormalities. Although a Bulldog may already be diagnosed with the condition at an early age, no treatment is indicated until clinical signs are manifested. In moderate to severely affected dogs, heart medications may be given to maintain normal functioning of the heart and for the relief of respiratory congestion. Most veterinarians prescribe a special heart-friendly diet and tell the dog owner to restrict the dog’s activity. Surgery has been done in some cases where an affected suffers from multiple heart problems but results were not as promising. Thus, most veterinarians believe that the condition is best left managed with drugs. Since it is a hereditary condition, screening of dogs which are predisposed to the disease as well as those whose littermates have been diagnosed with the disease should be done before breeding to prevent affected animals from passing on the defect to its offspring.

BACN is technological “gateway” system that, acting as a sort-of middleware, interconnects different radio systems and datalinks and makes them able to transfer information and communicate. The WB-57 bridges the gap between different kinetic platforms, such as U.S. Navy F/A-18s and USAF B-52 or B-1 bombers that are equipped with incompatible systems. Needless to say, its capability to link ground patrols, Forward Air Controllers (FACs)/Joint Terminal Attack Controllers and planes providing Close Air Support, is particularly important in Afghanistan, a theater where Line Of Sight communication can not always be established among the interested parties. Consequently, WB-57s are frequently deployed in Asia. One of them, NASA 928, flew there via Bermuda, Lajes and RAF Mildenhall last week. Its ferry flight could be easily tracked on Flight Aware, as the following screenshot shows. The following picture show the WB-57 conducting final preps prior to the Afghan deployment. The ball turret system mounted on the nose houses houses an optical bench, providing installation of both HDTV and infrared cameras. According to the NASA website, optics consist of an 11-inch-diameter, 4.2 meter fixed-focal-length lens. The system can be operated in both auto track and manual modes. A 32-inch-ball turret system was part of the WB-57 Ascent Video Experiment (WAVE) that enabled better observation of the Space Shuttle on days of heavier cloud cover.

The East has longer American history. The West has more palm trees. The East has rolling deciduous forests. The West has towering evergreens and Rocky mountains. Homeowners from coast to coast take pride in their design, their cities, and their environment. Yet at the same time, a home in Boston is likely designed much different from a home in Los Angeles. How and why are East and West Coast housing different? What, if anything, makes one better or more attractive than the other? In this post we’ll attempt to explore the markets, architecture, and environment on both sides of the Mississippi River. Up until a few years ago, East and West both enjoyed an unprecedented housing boom. Unfortunately, both are now deep in the throes of a rapid economic downturn, resulting largely from a sudden crash in the housing market. It’s hard to say if East or West has it any better than the other. After all, Florida and California, the two states taking the hardest hit, are geographical opposites. In terms of housing permits, declines were seen across the nation from 2005-2007, although southern California and western Arizona had the most widespread decline. Palm Coast, Florida had the largest decrease in permits issued at 86 percent. There were pockets of increases as well, although few and far between. Most growth in the West was limited to central Washington and the small region in and around Missoula, Montana. There were several more localized increases east of the Mississippi, but they do not represent the overall trend and have most likely reversed direction since these figures were released a year ago. There’s just no point in trying to separate east from west in market terms. The overall downward trend in the national housing market screams for unity, not division. East Coast versus West Coast architecture is like old versus new. Eastern metropoles have centuries of design behind them, while many western cities may have but 50 years. The difference is palpable. The old brownstones of Chicago and New York clash loudly with Spanish-influenced, mission-style stucco peppering Los Angeles neighborhoods. Or contrast the long history of Connecticut colonials and Atlanta’s sprawling porches with the mid-century modern architecture so prevalent in Hollywood’s golden years. One would have to fly to San Francisco to find much architecture that reflects eastern origins. Yet each region has its own style, and it’s up to homeowners to decide which better suits their preferences, whether it be the cooler colors of the arid-to-temperate west or the intricacy and age of America’s early years. The future of American architecture will be influenced mostly by one key factor… I am by no means an architect or an expert in building design trends, but I feel confident in saying that environment will drive and inspire the architects of the future; for many it already does. Just like the housing market is slumping across the country, so green building is increasing from sea to shining sea. According to a report from the American Institute of Architects (via sourcecorp.com), the Pacific region is moving toward green building at a much faster rate than other regions, mainly due to progressive state and local governments and public support. East and West both have their advantages, but the differences are moot. It is easy to fall in love with eastern architecture, but times are changing, and presently. The rapid move to green, energy efficient building will change the face of American (and global) architecture. Now the great architects will trade in large mega mansions of brick, stone, and wood for sandbags, straw bales, and solar panels. Housing in the 21st Century will not be inhibited by the Mississippi River.

10,000 homes to be demolished in the U.K. Monday, June 27, 2005 John Prescott, Deputy Prime Minister, told the House of Commons that 10,000 homes would be demolished in a $2 billion program to create "sustainable communities." This massive "Pathfinder" program has been adopted to transform the nation into sustainable communities, a major step toward compliance with goal seven of the U.N.s Millennium Development Goals, and further implementation of the U.N.s Agenda 21. A similar program is underway in the United States, but proponents are careful to deny that the U.N. has any influence or involvement. The facts tell a different story. In 1976, the United Nations Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat I), was held in Vancouver, British Columbia. Among the recommendations endorsed by the U.S., and adopted, are these: A(1)(b) All countries should establish as a matter of urgency a national policy on human settlements, embodying the distribution of population...over the national territory. (c)(v) Such a policy should be devised to facilitate population redistribution to accord with the availability of resources. D(1)(a) Public ownership or effective control of land in the public interest is the single most important means of...achieving a more equitable distribution of the benefits of development whilst assuring that environmental impacts are considered. (b) Land is a scarce resource whose management should be subject to public surveillance or control in the interest of the nation. (d) Governments must maintain full jurisdiction and exercise complete sovereignty over such land with a view to freely planning development of human settlements.... In 1992, the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development adopted Agenda 21, also endorsed by the U.S. Chapter seven, on Human settlements, says: 7.4. The overall human settlement objective is to improve the social, economic and environmental quality of human settlements and the living and working environments of all people, in particular the urban and rural poor. These approaches should form the core principles of national settlement strategies. What could possibly be wrong with this objective? It requires government to make all the decisions about where and how people must live, rather than a free market. The promotional literature in England blames "market failures" for slums and degraded housing, that the government must now step in to improve. Actually, slums and degraded housing are not market failures, they are simply the evolving market at work. As people enter the work force, often, they can only afford slum or degraded housing. But as they climb the economic ladder, they move to better housing, fueling the real estate and construction industries. When the slum area becomes so bad that no one wants to live there, the price of the property becomes very attractive to developers, who buy up the slums, and replace them with properties that the developers hope to sell to new buyers. Thats the way the market worked - until the latter part of the 20th century. After the 1976 U.N. meeting in Vancouver, governments began to take a more active role in community development. The 1981 "Poletown" decision, in Michigan, allowed a city to take the homes of 4,200 people. Since then, governments, at every level, have created dozens of ways to gain "Public ownership or effective control of land in the public interest," as recommended in the 1976 U.N. document. Now, under the guise of improving the lives of everyone, and protecting the environment, government, in England and in the United States, is taking control over the housing decisions of everyone. The fine print in the housing section of virtually every "comprehensive plan" proposed or adopted in recent years, contains language that gives government the authority to dictate minute details, often including colors that may be used, and the type of vegetation that must be used in landscaping. In King County, Washington, 65% of a private owners land must be unused, and left in natural condition. Whether it is the result of an outright purchase by government, an eminent domain acquisition, a heritage area, a battlefield, a scenic highway designation, a wildlife refuge, a wetland, a critical habitat, a green-belt, or any one of dozens of other excuses, government is increasingly restricting where and how private citizens can live. The goal in the U.S., and in the U.K., is to create the "sustainable communities" as envisioned by a handful of people who reject free markets, and are transforming the world into a managed global society. Sustainable communities is only one part of the sustainable development agenda. Sustainable agriculture, medicine, transportation, education, and trade, all have programs underway, to give government ultimate control over every facet of human life. The entire program is detailed in Agenda 21, which has never been debated or adopted by any legislative body. It is simply being implemented administratively, with assistance from legislators who see only small bits and pieces, that are sold as progress. Henry Lamb is the executive vice president of the Environmental Conservation Organization (ECO), and chairman of Sovereignty International. Henry Lamb can be reached at: [email protected] Recent articles by Henry Lamb

Posted: May 16th, 2013 | Author: M.Aaron Silverman | Filed under: Applied Science, Genetics | Tags: Gene Therapy, Genetic Engineering, Stem Cells, Therapeutic Cloning | No Comments » Scientists have made a long-awaited breakthrough in human cloning, by using human skin cells to create early-stage embryos. The breakthrough marks the first time human stem cells have been produced via nuclear transfer and follows several unsuccessful attempts by research groups worldwide In what is being described as a “significant milestone” for medicine, the team from Oregon Health and Science University successfully used a technique which utilised a human skin cell and a woman’s egg to produce an embryo which was a genetic copy of the original skin cell. The resulting embryos were then used as a source of stem cells, which can be used to create specialised tissue cells for transplant operations. However scientists say they do not think the technique could be used to clone humans for reproductive purposes :: Read the full article »»»» Posted: May 12th, 2013 | Author: Michael Courtenay | Filed under: Applied Science | Tags: 3D Printed Gun, 3D Printed Gun Schematics, 3D Printed Human Organs, 3D Printing, Organ Regeneration, Pirate Bay | No Comments » It’s proof perhaps that we live in an ironic world, Australian researchers are on the cusp of creating new human organs via 3D-printing. While a US student fires the first bullet from a home-made 3D Printed polymer gun. On the up-side, Australian scientists say they have found a way to grow human body parts using 3D printing technology. The technology isn’t the only cleverness here, 3D printers are now so portable that they might be installed in hospitals. The University of Wollongong’s Centre for Electromaterials Science is opening a research unit at Melbourne’s St Vincent’s Hospital where 3D printing will be used to reproduce tissue material :: Read the full article »»»» Posted: May 6th, 2013 | Author: Verity Penfold | Filed under: Applied Science, Physics | Tags: Atomic Movie, Guinness World Records, IBM, IBM Research, Stop-Motion-Film | No Comments » Researchers from tech-behemoth IBM have unveiled – confirmed by Guinness World Records – the world’s smallest movie, made with atoms. Named A Boy And His Atom, the movie used thousands of precisely placed atoms to create nearly 250 frames of stop-motion action. The movie depicts a character named Atom who befriends a single atom and goes on a journey that includes dancing, playing catch and bouncing on a trampoline. Set to a playful musical track, the movie represents a unique way to convey science outside the research community. It takes around 1 million atoms to store a single bit of data on a computer, a bit being the basic unit of information in computing. Recently, IBM Research announced it can store that same bit of information in just 12 atoms. In order to make the movie atoms were moved with a scanning tunnelling microscope. The microscope weighs two tonnes, operates at minus 268 degrees Celsius and magnifies the atomic surface more than 100 million times :: Read the full article »»»» Posted: May 2nd, 2013 | Author: Marcus Dangerfield | Filed under: Engineered Life, Favorite New Thought | Tags: Adelaide University, Australian Landmark, Barley, Barley Genome, Beer, Grains Research and Development Corporation, New Long Life Beer, research | No Comments » Australian beer drinkers will soon have the option of buying a beer with a much longer shelf life, a new type of malt barley, developed by Adelaide researchers and a Japanese brewer, can curb beers propensity of tasting stale when left on the shelf. The new barley variety ‘SouthernStar’ is the results of collaboration between the University of Adelaide and Sapporo Breweries. Importantly this new barley is not genetically modified, it’s been produced using conventional – albeit high tech – breeding techniques, utilising data from the recently completed Barley Genome Project . South Australian farmers are to begin commercial production of the barley this year. Commercial crops grown in 2013 will be harvested in November/December, processed into malt in the first half of 2014 and used for commercial beer production in the later part of 2014 :: Read the full article »»»» Posted: April 22nd, 2013 | Author: M.Aaron Silverman | Filed under: Medicated | Tags: Cancer Survival, Cancer Treatment, Lung Cancer Treatment, PET-CT Scan, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Peter MacCallum Cancer Institute, Positron emission tomography - computed tomography, Survival Rates | No Comments » Researchers in Melbourne have used a new targeted treatment technique to achieve the highest-ever long-term survival rates for patients with some forms of lung cancer. The team from Peter MacCallum Cancer Institute used PET/CT - Positron Emission Tomography / Computed Tomography - scans to determine the location and stage of tumours in 76 patients with locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer. The patients were treated with a combination of radical radiation therapy and chemotherapy, leading to a four year survival rate of 32 per cent, the highest ever published. Research team leader, Associate Professor Michael MacManus, says that is dramatically higher than the historic average of between 10 and 20 per cent. PET/CT scanning uses a device which combines both PET and an x-ray Computed Tomography, so that the produced images – taken by both devices sequentially – combine into a single superposed image, a 3D map. The image shows the spatial distribution of metabolic activity in the body can be more precisely :: Read the full article »»»» Posted: April 19th, 2013 | Author: Marcus Dangerfield | Filed under: Astronomy, NASA | Tags: Kepler, Kepler Orrery, Kepler-10c, Kepler-37 Kepler-48 - 60 Kepler-47 Kepler-36b & 36c Kepler-34b & 35b Kepler-22b Kepler-20b Kepler-18 Kepler-16b Kepler-11 Kepler-10b, NASA, NASA MISSION | No Comments » Astronomers using a potent NASA space telescope to search for life say they have found planets which are the most Earth-like candidates yet. Two of the five planets orbiting a Sun-like star called Kepler-62 are squarely in the habitable zone – not too hot, not too cold, possibly bearing water – NASA scientists report in the journal Science :: Read the full article »»»» Posted: April 15th, 2013 | Author: Verity Penfold | Filed under: Medicated | Tags: Australian Medical Association, Dr Google, Healthy Communities, Immunisation, Inoculation, National Health Performance Authority, Vaccinatiom | No Comments » Research from the National Health Performance Authority has found 77,000 Australian children are not fully immunised. The study – Healthy Communities: Immunisation rates for children in 2011-12 – measures the percentage of children who were considered fully immunised at one, two, three and five years of age. It found 32 areas where the percentage of children fully immunised was 85 per cent or lower for at least one age group. The Australian Medical Association says anything below 93 per cent is unsafe. The success of immunisation programs depends on public support. A lack of public support for these programs can contribute to a significant increase in preventable diseases, and can be directly linked to the resurgence of once common illnesses like measles and pertussis – whooping cough – of which we’ve recently seen outbreaks of in Australia. Scientific evidence for the effectiveness of large-scale immunisation is well published, in the US full-vaccination from birth save an estimated 35,000 lives annually and prevents an estimated 14 million infections. Some opponents of vaccination argue that the reduction in infectious disease are a result of improved sanitation and hygiene – rather than vaccination – or that the diseases were already in decline before the introduction of vaccination, unlike medicine however, they don’t process any evidence for these anecdotes. Repating sometimes is the only way of getting a point across; for vaccination programs to work, 93 per cent of people need to be immunised, any number below this presents a danger for communities. In Australia there are pockets with rates of immunisation as low as 85 per cent. More concerning however is that there are communities relying on Dr Google for medical information, forming what the perceive as informed decisions and lowering immunisation rates in the process. Affluent Eastern Sydney for example has an immunisation rate of 89 per cent, this well educated region is choosing to place it’s children in danger of serious infection due to misguided information? :: Read the full article »»»»

Probably the most frustrating thing about caring for a new baby is the fact that your baby canít communicate verbally and you arenít a mind reader. When it comes to illnesses, many new parents often overreact and call the doctor every single time they think something is wrong. This can be frustrating both for the parents as well as the doctor. It helps to know what signs you should look for and when it really is the right time to make that phone call. Babies get sick. Some worse than others. The problem is that many times the symptoms or type of illness is hard to distinguish from typical to serious. It can be difficult to read your babyís body language or tell a sick cry from a normal ďfeed meĒ or ďchange meĒ cry. However, there are some key behavioral and physical changes you can detect in your infant that will help you make the decision as to whether you should call your doctor or not. Small signs you donít have to worry about include the typical cough, sneeze or runny nose. Infants catch the common cold just like adults so donít feel the need to jump the gun. However, fevers are one of the conditions you need to look at closely. Usually a mild fever isnít a sign of a more serious condition but if your baby starts to experience a fever and has a rectal temperature of 100 degrees or more or an oral/ear temperature of 102 degrees or higher, youíll want to call your doctor. This type of high fever should be a big concern to parents if your infant is less than two months of age. If your baby stops eating, repeatedly refuses feedings or eats very poorly, call your doctor. The same goes if your infant has diarrhea or vomiting. More serious signs of a very sick baby include any changes in skin color (yellow or blue around the lips or nails), oozing or bleeding around the navel and/or genital area, discharge from the eye area, ear pain (your baby will signal this by pulling excessively on the affected ear or if you see drainage), constipation, rashes, dehydration, or changes in mood such as lethargy. Of course there may be times when a call isnít necessary and you need to rush your baby to the emergency room immediately. Such conditions include injury/trauma, extremely high fever, trouble breathing, bleeding or discharge that wonít stop, seizures, choking, unresponsiveness, and sudden lethargy or the inability to move. When you take your baby to the doctor, be sure you have all his/her medical history and information on hand. Be prepared to answer questions and describe in detail to the doctor how your infant was behaving prior to falling ill. |Honey, Your Baby & Infant Botulism| Honey may seem harmless, especially when it comes to your baby but not knowing that this sweet treat can potentially be fatal to your infant can be dangerous. Learn what you need to know about honey, infant botulism, your baby and why this common element of Mother Nature shouldnít be anywhere |Natural Health Remedies for Your Sick Baby| Seeing your baby sick can be heartbreaking for any parent. No one wants to see their child uncomfortable or in any pain. With the FDAís warning to avoid using cough and cold medication on younger children, many parents are wondering what to do the next time their baby gets sick. For parents who

Hackers and new computer viruses seem to be in the news more frequently, along with regular warnings to update your virus protection and protect your privacy. The task of keeping your computer safe can seem overwhelming. So, what can you do to safeguard access to your computer and to protect yourself and your family from cyber intrusion? Know the terminology The first step is to recognize the risks and become familiar with some terminology. Hackers, attackers or intruders are terms applied to the people who seek to exploit weaknesses in software and computer systems for their own gain. Their actions can range from mischief (creating a virus with no intentionally negative impact) to malicious (stealing or altering information). Malicious code includes code such as viruses, worms and Trojan horses. Although some people use these terms interchangeably, they have unique characteristics: - Viruses — This type of malicious code requires you to actually do something before it infects your computer. This action could be opening an e-mail attachment or going to a particular Web page. - Worms — Worms propagate without you doing anything. They typically start by exploiting a software vulnerability (a flaw that allows the software's intended security policy to be violated). Then once the victim computer has been infected, the worm will attempt to find and infect other computers. Similar to viruses, worms can propagate via e-mail, websites or network-based software. The automated self-propagation of worms distinguishes them from viruses. - Trojan horses — A Trojan horse program is software that claims to do one thing while, in fact, doing something different behind the scenes. For example, a program that claims it will speed up your computer may actually be sending your confidential information to an intruder. - Spyware — This sneaky software rides its way onto computers when you download screensavers, games, music and other applications. Spyware sends information about what you're doing on the Internet to a third-party, usually to target you with pop-up ads. Minimize access to your information As long as you have a computer and connect it to a network or the Internet, you are vulnerable to someone or something else remotely accessing or corrupting your information. Here are some tips to make it more difficult for someone to do this: - Lock or log-off your computer when you are away from it. This prevents another person from then sitting down at your computer and accessing all of your information. - To be really secure, disconnect your computer from the Internet when you aren't using it. The likelihood that attackers or viruses scanning the network for available computers will target your computer becomes much higher if your computer is always connected. - Evaluate your security settings. Many, but not all Internet providers offer free security software. If you don't receive free software, you should consider buying a commercial product that includes virus scan, firewall and pop-up blockers. You should also be aware of your Internet cookies setting. Cookies are short pieces of data used by Web servers to identify users. Some cookies are useful for storing images and data from websites that you frequent, but others are malicious and collect information about you. You'll have to decide how much risk from cookies you can accept. - Browsers enable you to block pop-up ads. You can also install anti-spyware to block them. - Look for signals that you are using a secure web page. A secure site encrypts or scrambles personal information so it cannot be easily intercepted. Signals include a screen notice that says you are on a secure site, a closed lock or unbroken key in the bottom corner of your screen, or having the first letters of the Internet address you are viewing change from "http" to "https."

From the Latin eboreus, ivory is a phosphatic secretion that forms the tusks of elephants and certain other animals, and which has been sculpted into decorative objects since the Paleolithic era. The Ancient Egyptians, Greeks, Etruscans and Romans were all skilled ivory carvers, as were the Japanese, Chinese and Indians. The town of Dieppe was for many years France’s most important ivory-carving center. Today elephants are a protected species and consequently all ivory on the market should come from existing stocks. It is fashioned mainly into ornamental objects, necklaces and bracelets. Ivory has only rarely been used by Cartier as the main inspiration for an object, with remarkable results: in 1919 the jeweler created its so-called “Sudanese bracelets”, a series of astonishing African-inspired bracelets in ivory, decorated with enameled gold, coral or onyx and diamonds. Examples of more classic creations are the precious shafts of pen-holders and the handles of paper-knives, sometimes enhanced with enamel, which the jeweler made in the early years of the century. Hardness: 2 to 3. Africa.

Irenaeus (c 130-203) was the first Father of the Church to confront the threat presented to Christianity by the Gnostics. Gnosticism flourished before the birth of Christ, and in some aspects persists today. The phenomenon, however, has always been so diffuse that it is difficult to define. The essential proposition is that this world is too fundamentally flawed to be the creation of a perfect God. Rather, the Gnostics decided, it was the work of the Demiurge, a partially corrupted emanation of the supreme deity. The ultimate divinity remains hidden from mankind. Even so, buried deep within us, there are inklings of its existence, which may be discerned by those inherently gifted in spiritual affairs, or possessed of the correct cabbalistic formulae. For the Gnostics, then, religious knowledge was the province of the superior intellect. Far from there being any absolute truths or moralities, there were merely intuitions available to the few. As for Christ, he might be a valued teacher; he could never, though, be God. Irenaeus perfectly captured the smugness that Gnosticism imbued. “As soon as a man has been won over to their way of salvation, he becomes so puffed up with conceit and self-importance that he imagines himself to be no longer in heaven or on earth, but to have already passed into the fullness of God’s powers. “With the majestic air of a cock he goes strutting about – as if he had already embraced his angel.” Indeed, modern times have also demonstrated that, when a man is judge in his own cause, he becomes intolerable. Irenaeus, in fact, was associated with the very roots of Christianity. Born apparently in the eastern Mediterranean, he had been taught by a disciple of St John, Polycarp of Smyrna, who relayed to him the Apostle’s accounts of conversations with Jesus. Somehow Irenaeus became a priest in Lyons. Perhaps he earned his irenical, “peace-giving”, nomenclature in 177 when he was dispatched to Rome to urge Pope Eleutherius to adopt a more lenient policy towards an over-enthusiastic sect of Montanists in Phrygia. On his return to Lyons, he was appointed bishop in place of St Pothinus, who had been martyred at the age of 90. In combating the Gnostics, Irenaeus was particularly concerned by the followers of Simon Magus, the sorcerer who gave his name to the sin of simony, and had been roundly rebuked by St Peter (Acts 8:20-23). Although some Gnostics gained a reputation for asceticism, Irenaeus railed against their sexual licence. What, after all, could be expected of men who considered that “conduct is only good or evil in the eyes of man”? In his view Christian practice and morality should be guided by Apostolic tradition. No wonder his tomb in Lyons was destroyed by the Calvinists in 1562.

Many of the machine-dependent audiovisual collections held by our cultural institutions are in peril. Therefore, it is crucial to have knowledge about the life expectancy and unique needs of our legacy media in order to make good preservation decisions. From wax cylinders, 78s, motion picture film, magnetic wire, and magnetic audiotapes, to LPs & 45s, audiocassettes, videotapes, and videocassettes, each format has a critical point at which information will begin to be lost. The challenge of long-term preservation for these formats is that they often require intervention, including cleaning and reformatting. To maximize the life of these materials, one must understand the nature of the media, causes of deterioration, storage and handling practices, and the various types of playback equipment. In response to an increasing need, the Conservation Center for Art & Historic Artifacts (CCAHA) traveled to 8 U.S. cities over the course of several years presenting the program entitled A Race Against Time: Preserving Our Audiovisual Media. This series of videos was developed based on the content from those programs. This online tutorial was developed for curators, librarians, archivists, collections managers and other staff who are involved in managing machine-based media collections in cultural institutions. Viewers will learn basic principles and concepts for managing audiovisual collections and will be provided with information and strategies for preservation, contracting for reformatting, and finding funding opportunities. We would like to thank the experts that appear in these videos, Alan Lewis, George Blood and Sarah Stauderman for their commitment to this project and for generously sharing their time and expertise. Special thanks to Colorlab Corp, Safe Sound Archive, and The Smithsonian Institution for making their facilities available during filming. Finally, this project would not have been possible without the generous support of The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, the Institute of Museum and Library Services and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. We are most grateful to them for their funding and assistance. Length: 3 minutes, 4 seconds Ingrid Bogel, Executive Director of CCAHA, provides an introduction to the series of videos and explains the ever-growing need for cultural institutions to properly preserve their audiovisual media. This glossary includes definitions of the terminology that is used throughout the series of videos. Length: 8 minutes, 11 seconds Ingrid Bogel, Executive Director of CCAHA, discusses the challenges of preserving audiovisual media, the many facets of long-term care, the definitions of audiovisual preservation terminology, and the multiple copies associated with audiovisual media archives. Alan Lewis, Audiovisual Archivist & Consultant, discusses some fundamental principles common to the care of audiovisual collections. He describes the archival set, which includes a preservation copy, a reference copy, an intermediate copy and a replacement preservation copy. Mr. Lewis also explains what an institution should consider before accepting audiovisual media into their collections. Considerations for reformatting and reformatting priorities are also discussed. In 2005, Columbia University Libraries was given a grant to develop and test a survey instrument to inventory and assess the physical condition and intellectual control of audio and moving image materials. The survey instrument and instruction manual are available for free download at the above website. Alan Lewis, Audiovisual Archivist & Consultant, provides an in-depth discussion of his “19 Conservation Concerns” for audiovisual media, which range from physical security and cleanliness to item identification and inventory control. In 2006 New York University Libraries embarked on a three-year grant funded project to develop a rationale for and strategic approach to operational library preservation services for moving image and audio materials, and to devise methodologies for assessing the condition of archival magnetic media in order to prioritize the need of preservation. The website offers a free downloadable database to serve as a comprehensive archival audiovisual inventory, assessment, and preservation priority tool. The National Archives has compiled an instructional manual which provides basic guidelines for the creation, maintenance, preservation, and use of audiovisual records. The guide also contains appendix materials pertinent to audiovisual media which include an inventory form, a self-evaluation checklist, a records schedule, and a code of regulations. Length: 20 minutes, 30 seconds George Blood, President of Safe Sound Archive, discusses the basics of audio preservation, including reformatting options for small and large collections, playback options, and the recovery of machine-based sound recordings. Mr. Blood also explains the different types of analog sound recordings and shows examples of each type. The ways to properly clean and store sound recordings are also discussed. Hannah Frost, Media Preservation Librarian, discusses the planning and design that is involved in surveying audio collections. She explains why it is important to conduct surveys, how audio surveys are different, what type of information to collect, and how to take action based on survey results. The appendix, which is available in a Portable Document Format (PDF) at the end of the article, provides a list of Survey Data Elements for Sound Recordings. The Library of Congress outlines the proper handling, storage, cleaning, packaging, and playback equipment maintenance for audio recordings. There is also a detailed bibliography and list of suppliers provided. This website includes a wide range of audio preservation resources, including how to conduct collection assessments; the history and formats of sound recording; standards, guidelines and best practices, bibliographic resources; as well as digital audio guides, formats, books and articles, projects and standards, organizations concerned with audio preservation. Length: 10 minutes, 14 seconds Sarah Stauderman, Preservation Manager at The Smithsonian Institution Archives, discusses preservation and reformatting options for videotapes. Ms. Stauderman comments on the history of video recordings, the different videotape formats, the life expectancy of videotape, the obsolescence ratings for videotape formats, and the different pigment components of videotapes. Compression, storage standards, and cleaning of videotapes are also discussed. Paul Messier and Timothy Vitale provide an identification guide for approximately 50 different formats which are represented chronologically from the year 1956 to 1995. Each format is accompanied with a thumbnail image, a descriptive essay, and an obsolescence rating. Glenn Pearson and Michael Gill evaluate Motion JPEG 2000 as a potential format for long-term video preservation. They discuss all the implementations for this software, as well as practical limitations. Sarah Stauderman, Preservation Manager at the Smithsonian Institution Archives, provides notes best practices for videotape preservation. Topics include storage, deterioration, reformatting and preservation management. In this handbook, Jim Wheeler covers a wide variety of videotape preservation topics, including the appropriate storage environment, cleaning and handling techniques, risk management, reformatting, and emergency preparedness. Wheeler also includes a brief history of videotape recording, videotape formats and tape types. This website discusses the three main video standards used in the world: PAL, SECAM and NTSC. There is a color-coded map and a listing of which countries use which format. Length: 12 minutes Alan Lewis, Audiovisual Archivist & Consultant, and Russ Suniewick, President of Colorlab Corp, discuss intervention of films as they come into the laboratory, treatment of distressed film, and maintaining a film collection. Components of film, film gauges, determining the age of film stock, and ways to slow deterioration are also addressed. This handout contains information ,compiled by AMIA’s Nitrate Film Interest Group, on ways to identify nitrate film, the possible hazards of nitrate film, and how to house nitrate film. The Library of Congress outlines the proper storage conditions and handling procedures for several types of motion picture film, including nitrate, acetate, and polyester. Catherine Nicholson and Elissa O’Loughlin, conservators at the National Archives and Records Administration in Washington, D.C., conduct research using acid detector strips and provide information on the general results of the tests. Robin Williams, of the East Anglian Film Archive, has compiled a table of manufacturer symbols to determine the age of film stock. Length: 12 minutes, 34 seconds Alan Lewis, Audiovisual Archivist & Consultant, and Julia Nicoll, Head of the Optical Department at Colorlab, discuss preservation options for film. Film-to-film preservation using an optical printer is shown in great detail. Ways to record film sound are also discussed. Length: 9 minutes, 34 seconds Alan Lewis, Audiovisual Archivist & Consultant, and George Blood, President of Safe Sound Archive, discuss contracting for reformatting from the perspective of the institution, as well as the perspective of the vendor. Mr. Lewis and Mr. Blood provide tips on the institutional process, how an institution can approach vendors, and what needs to be included in a statement of work. George Blood, President of Safe Sound Archive and Alan Lewis, Audiovisual Archivist & Consultant, provide a step-by-step process of contracting for reformatting services, including the procurement process, writing a statement of work, and selecting a vendor. Alan Lewis, Audiovisual Archivist & Consultant, compiled a list of contact information for companies that provide equipment and/or supplies for audiovisual and archival media. Sarah Stauderman, Preservation Manager at the Smithsonian Institution Archives, created a worksheet in order to assess the preservation priorities for videotape collections. Institute of Museum and Library Services National Endowment for the Humanities National Endowment for the Arts In addition to making the series available free on our website, CCAHA is offering a DVD of the complete, seven-segment A Race Against Time: Preserving Our Audiovisual Media video series for $25, including shipping and handling. Contact Preservation Services Assistant Kimberly Magyar at to purchase the DVD for your institution.

Progress Toward Global Eradication of Poliomyelitis, January 2003--April 2004 In 1988, the World Health Assembly (WHA) resolved to eradicate poliomyelitis globally (1). Since then, implementation of the eradication strategies reduced the number of countries with endemic polio from 125 in 1988 to six in 2003 (2). However, in 2003, an unprecedented 10 countries reported poliovirus importations, including eight in West and Central Africa (3), one in Southern Africa (Botswana), and one in the Middle East (Lebanon). This report describes progress made toward global polio eradication during January 2003--April 2004, outlines remaining challenges, and underscores the need for decisive action to interrupt transmission by the end of 2004 or early 2005. Worldwide, routine vaccination coverage among infants with 3 doses of oral poliovirus vaccine (OPV3) was estimated at 75% in 2002, compared with 75% in 2001 and 82% in 2000. Coverage varied among World Health Organization (WHO) regions, from 56% in the African Region to 93% in the European Region, with a range in country-level estimates from 25% to 99%. In countries with endemic polio, estimated OPV3 coverage in 2002 was as follows: Egypt, 97%; India, 70%; Pakistan, 63%; Afghanistan, 48%; Niger, 25%; and Nigeria, 25% (4). Supplementary Immunization Activities (SIAs) In 2003, increased SIAs reached 415 million children aged <5 years during 157 SIA rounds conducted in 55 countries. Countries with endemic polio conducted an increased number of national immunization days (NIDs)* and subnational immunization days (SNIDs) during 2003: four NIDs and two SNIDs in India, four NIDs and four SNIDs in Pakistan, three NIDs and three SNIDs in Afghanistan, four NIDs and three SNIDs in Egypt, and three NIDs and two SNIDs in Niger. In Nigeria, SIAs were conducted in most states; however, SIAs were suspended in certain northern states (e.g., Kano) after March 2003 because of unfounded concerns about OPV safety. Synchronized NIDs were conducted in late 2003 in eight West and Central African countries affected by poliovirus importations, targeting approximately 25 million children aged <5 years. Acute Flaccid Paralysis (AFP) Surveillance AFP surveillance is established in all countries presently and previously endemic for polio. Two key performance indicators are monitored: 1) the rate of nonpolio AFP cases (target: one or more cases per 100,000 persons aged <15 years); and 2) the proportion of persons with AFP with adequate stool specimens (target: >80%). Globally, the nonpolio AFP rate was 1.9 in 2003 (range by WHO region: 1.2--2.6). The annualized nonpolio AFP rate through April 2004 was 1.5 (range by WHO region: 0.8--2.7). The proportion of persons with adequate specimens for laboratory testing increased from 84% in 2002, to 86% in 2003, and 87% during January--April 2004 (Table). All countries with endemic polio achieved or maintained surveillance quality standards; however, analyses at the subnational level indicate gaps in surveillance. A global network of 145 specialized laboratories supports surveillance activities by testing stool samples for the presence of poliovirus, determining whether the viruses are vaccine-related or wild, and conducting genomic sequencing. Approximately 70,000 stool samples were processed during 2003 in these WHO-accredited, national, regional, and global laboratories. Wild Poliovirus (WPV) Incidence The number of polio cases decreased from 1,918 in 2002, to 784 in 2003, and to 185 during January--April 2004§ (Figure). In 2002, a total of 1,600 cases (83% of all global cases) were detected in India; of these, 59% were in children from Muslim communities, which represent approximately 20% of the total population of India. In response to the 2002 epidemic, India intensified SIAs in 2003 and enhanced social mobilization activities to increase acceptance of OPV in all socioeconomic groups. The proportion of Muslim children receiving >3 doses of OPV, as assessed by surveillance data¶, increased from 61% to 85% during 2002--2003. Cases of polio in India decreased from 1,600 in 2002, to 225 cases in 2003, to eight cases during January--April 2004; a total of 77 cases were reported during January--April 2003. In Pakistan, reported cases increased from 90 in 2002 to 103 in 2003. However, transmission during the peak season in the second half of 2003 was lower than in any previous year. Pakistan reported 12 cases during January--April 2004, compared with 23 during the same period in 2003. Afghanistan, which shares a cross-border reservoir of ongoing transmission with Pakistan, reported 10 cases in 2002, eight cases in 2003, and two cases in 2004. Egypt intensified SIAs and increased the proportion of children receiving >5 doses of OPV from 74% to 89% during 2002--2003. One polio case was reported in 2003, compared with seven cases in 2002; the proportion of environmental samples positive for WPV declined from 57% in 2001 to 4% in 2003. No polio cases were reported during January--April 2004. The number of reported cases increased substantially in Nigeria, from 202 in 2002, to 355 in 2003, to 133 in January--April 2004; a total of 32 cases were reported for the same period in 2003. In 2003, Nigeria reported the largest number of cases globally (5). Inadequate SIA coverage and suspension of SIAs in some northern states resulted in intense poliovirus transmission in these areas. This led to the reemergence of polio in previously polio-free areas within Nigeria, and exportation of virus to eight previously polio-free countries in West and Central Africa. The number of reported cases in Niger, which borders Nigeria, increased from three in 2002 to 40 in 2003. During January--April 2004, a total of 12 cases were reported, compared with one for the same period in 2003. Surveillance data indicate that <20% of target age children have received >3 doses of OPV, indicating poor quality of SIAs. In 2003, a total of 51 cases of polio were reported from eight previously polio-free countries in West and Central Africa (Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Ghana, Ivory Coast, and Togo) (3). In 2004, a total of 17 cases have been reported from six of these countries and one in Southern Africa (Botswana). Reported by: Vaccines and Biologicals Dept, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland. Div of Viral and Rickettsial Diseases, National Center for Infectious Diseases; Global Immunization Div, National Immunization Program, CDC. Substantial progress toward polio eradication was made in 2003, particularly in the Asian and Northern African countries with endemic polio. Only six countries in the world had endemic polio in 2003, the lowest total ever, compared with seven in 2002. Somalia is no longer considered endemic after >1 year without detection of WPV. Egypt, India, and Pakistan recorded their lowest-ever levels of transmission during the second half of 2003, the peak season for poliovirus transmission; levels for January--April 2004 also were record lows. The eradication initiative faced multiple unprecedented obstacles. In Nigeria, several states postponed or canceled SIAs beginning in mid-2003 because of rumors about the safety of OPV. The intense transmission in Nigeria jeopardizes the goal of interruption of poliovirus transmission globally by the end of 2004. For the first time ever, the number (10) of countries reporting poliovirus importations was greater than the number of countries (six) with endemic transmission. The additional control activities in countries with importations resulted in $25 million (U.S.) in unbudgeted costs in 2003. An emergency meeting on polio eradication was convened in January 2004 in Geneva, Switzerland, to develop consensus on increased efforts toward interrupting WPV transmission. On behalf of their nations, health ministers from the affected countries and their polio eradication partners signed the Geneva Declaration to express renewed national and international commitment toward the eradication goal. To interrupt WPV transmission as quickly as possible, countries with endemic polio must intensify polio immunization campaigns throughout 2004, and surveillance standards must be achieved or maintained to ensure rapid detection and response to any importation of polio. On May 17, 2004, at the World Health Assembly, representatives of Afghanistan, Egypt, India, and Pakistan announced accelerated plans to respond to every new case with immediate and widespread vaccination campaigns. Emergency response campaigns in countries of West and Central Africa affected by importations should be extended throughout 2004 and 2005. At their May 2004 meeting, African Union health ministers decided that 22 West and Central African countries should launch emergency synchronized SIAs, targeting 74 million children. These activities will cost an additional $100 million (U.S.) during 2004--2005. The world is almost polio-free. Substantial progress has been made in the majority of countries that remain endemic for polio, increasingly restricting WPV transmission. Governments, health-care workers, volunteers, and international polio partners in all countries where poliovirus is detected must continue to work together to achieve global polio eradication. * National or subnational mass campaigns during a limited number of days in which 2 doses of OPV are administered to all children (usually aged <5 years), regardless of previous vaccination history, with an interval of 4--6 weeks between doses Campaigns similar to NIDs but confined to certain parts of the country. § As of May 18, 2004. ¶ National polio eradication programs analyze the OPV vaccination status (routine and supplemental doses) of children aged <5 years with nonpolio AFP as a proxy for OPV coverage in the general population. Return to top. Return to top. Disclaimer All MMWR HTML versions of articles are electronic conversions from ASCII text into HTML. This conversion may have resulted in character translation or format errors in the HTML version. Users should not rely on this HTML document, but are referred to the electronic PDF version and/or the original MMWR paper copy for the official text, figures, and tables. An original paper copy of this issue can be obtained from the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO), Washington, DC 20402-9371; telephone: (202) 512-1800. Contact GPO for current prices. **Questions or messages regarding errors in formatting should be addressed to [email protected]. Page converted: 6/23/2004 This page last reviewed 6/23/2004

Foundations (5th ed.) of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism Colin Baker - Hardback - 512 pages - 18 Feb 2011 - Multilingual Matters - 246 x 178 Basket: 0 item(s) Total: £0.00 The fifth edition of this bestselling book provides a comprehensive introduction to bilingualism and bilingual education. In a compact and clear style, its 19 chapters cover all the crucial issues in bilingualism at individual, group and national levels. These include: defining who is bilingual and multilingual testing language abilities and language use languages in communities and minority groups endangered languages language planning, language revival the development of bilingualism in infancy and childhood bilingualism in the family age and language learning adult language learning bilinguals' thinking skills bilingualism and the brain theories of bilingualism types of bilingual education heritage language education evaluations of bilingual education minority language literacy biliteracy and multiliteracies effective teaching and learning methods in bilingual classrooms the effectiveness of bilingual education in the United States the history of bilingual education in the United States language minority underachievement bilingual special education the assessment of language minority children Deaf bilinguals the spread of English as a global language learning English as a second or third language language identity and multiple identities the politics surrounding language minorities and bilingual education assimilation and pluralism bilingualism and employment bilingualism and the internet I remain awed by Baker's ability to represent all positions and include all viewpoints, while remaining simple and straightforward. It is its scholarly exhaustiveness and complexity, coupled with a simplicity of style, that makes this text invaluable for students and scholars alike. Ofelia Garcia, Teachers College, Colombia University Professor Colin Baker is Pro Vice Chancellor at Bangor University and holds a Personal Chair of the University of Wales. He is the author of a wide range of books with Multilingual Matters, including a companion volume to this book entitled Bilingual Education: an Introductory Reader co-edited with Ofelia Garcνa. His research specific interests are in language planning and bilingual education. The previous editions of this book have sold over 70,000 copies with translations into Japanese, Korean, Spanish, Latvian, Georgian, Greek, Vietnamese and Mandarin. He edits/co-edits three Multilingual Matters Book Series and is Editor of the International Journal of Bilingualism and Bilingual Education.

Colombian Mushrooms is a beautifully illustrated, bi-lingual Spanish/English children's book that uses Gunter Pauli's ZERI* Education model to teach children science. The book includes a teachers and parents guide and hands on activities that help children apply what they have learned. Gunter Pauli's ZERI* Education model proposes that children, adolescents and young adults learn science in a way that gives them a more profound academic understanding at the same time that it helps develop their emotional intelligence, eco-literacy, and artistic/creative capacities. If children are to learn how to think, design, create, and dream in systems, then they must be exposed to systems thinking at an early age. Critical concepts become part of the child's long-term memory and the student gains an intuitive grasp of the big picture. Then the learning of the specific tools, concepts, and principles involved become far more appealing. When students start with a story that integrates ethics, economics, biology, and mathematics, they will be drawn to studying those disciplines later on. Pauli's work in sustainable manufacturing and agricultural became the catalyst for a major educational reform in Colombia. The strife and violence that exists in this country spawned an urgent desire on the part of college students to rebuild their society. The professors and engineering students at University EAFIT in Medellin, Colombia, eagerly embraced an integrated educational approach, including a compulsory course in biology for engineering majors. As the concept spread to other universities, the need to mold the earlier educational tracks in this new direction became apparent; first in a High School in Manizales where ZERI's coffee and bamboo projects have taken off, and then in elementary schools which asked for a version of this program adapted to their level, comparable to the Garden School projects of the Center for Ecoliteracy.

The University of Ulm is chronologically the ninth in Baden-Wuerttemberg. The first ideas of founding a university in Ulm go back to the 50's. In 1959, the research group "University of Ulm" was formed, which produced a memorandum on founding a university in March of 1961. Due to competition between the cities of Constance and Ulm in the early stages, the idea of establishing a university in each of the two cities gained popularity. A critical factor leading to this decision was the fact that Constance is situated near a federal border. The opportunities for employment in the field of medicine would not be sufficient due to the lack of a patient catchment area at the border. The idea of founding a university in Ulm therefore became more concrete - it would be a university shaped by medicine and natural sciences.

May 10, 2010 May 10, 2010 By analyzing the genomes of patients with schizophrenia, genetics researchers have discovered numerous copy number variations—deletions or duplications of DNA sequences—that increase the risk of developing schizophrenia. Significantly, many of these variations occur in genes that affect signaling among brain cells. “When we compared the genomes of patients with schizophrenia to those of healthy subjects, we found variations in genes that regulate brain functions, several of which are already known to be perturbed in patients with this disorder,” said study leader Hakon Hakonarson, MD, PhD, director of the Center for Applied Genomics at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. “Although much research remains to be done, detecting genes on specific pathways is a first step to identifying more specific targets for improved drug treatments.” The research appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, published online this week. A devastating psychiatric disorder that affects an estimated 1.5 percent of the population, or millions of Americans, schizophrenia may include hallucinations, disorganized speech, abnormal thought processes and other symptoms. It typically becomes apparent in late adolescence or early adulthood. Patients often have a family history of schizophrenia, and scientists believe the disorder results from an interaction of genetic predisposition and environmental effects. Hakonarson and colleagues compared DNA samples from a total of 1,735 adult patients with schizophrenia to DNA from 3,485 healthy adult subjects, using highly automated genotyping tools. They used a whole-genome approach, covering the full set of genetic material from each individual, following their first analysis with a replication study. The study team found copy number variations (CNVs) in or near genes that play important roles in the brain. Among those genes were CACNA1B and DOC2A, both of which carry the codes for proteins that use calcium signals to help control how neurotransmitters are released in the brain. Two other genes, RET and RIT2, are members of another signaling gene family known to be involved in brain development. The researchers found that the genes and signaling systems linked to schizophrenia had some overlap with those for autism and for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. In fact, the current study found deletions in the same region of chromosome 16 as that found in a CNV study of autism spectrum disorders that Hakonarson led in 2009. “Although different brain regions may be affected in these different neuropsychiatric disorders, these overlaps suggest that there may be common features in their underlying pathogenesis,” said Hakonarson. “These genes affect synaptic function, so deletions or duplications in those genes may alter how brain circuits are formed.” Hakonarson said future studies will investigate how these CNVs and other CNVs yet to be discovered may alter brain function. Ultimately, he added, better understanding of signaling pathways in the brain may enable researchers to devise better drugs for schizophrenia, drugs that can selectively act on those biological pathways, with better efficacy and fewer side effects for patients. The National Institutes of Health provided funding support for this study, along with the Cotswold Foundation, and an Institutional Development Award to the Center for Applied Genomics from The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Hakonarson’s co-authors were from The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine; Mount Sinai School of Medicine; Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, Israel; and King’s College, London, UK. “Strong synaptic transmission impact by copy number variations in schizophrenia,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, published online the week of May 10-14, 2010. http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1000274107

The Government of Canada introduced Securing an Open Society: Canada’s National Security Policy (NSP), in April 2004. All levels of government must work together to prevent and respond to the threat of terrorism. The National Security Policy included measures to address terrorist threats. One such measure was the creation of the Integrated Threat Assessment Centre (ITAC), which entered into operation on October 15, 2004. In June 2011, ITAC was renamed the Integrated Terrorism Assessment Centre in order to renew its focus on the terrorist threats to Canadians and Canadian interests.

By Denise Calaman, Contributing Writer Most children view the Christmas holiday as a needed break from the rigors of school but many parents find this to be a really stressful time. Some parents, who work, often find themselves wondering what their children are doing at home unsupervised. Parents who are on vacation from work and are at home with their children often find themselves wondering what they can do to keep their children entertained. Indiana University South Bend education professor J. Vincent Peterson says, "In our materialistic society, parents or whoever is working in the family work harder and maybe longer to buy what everyone wants. Communications, which may not have been great before, can be even more difficult. School is out and the kids are often home alone with a lot of free time. The very resources and facilities usually available to parents for activities for their children are closed." Peterson offers this advice to parents who are looking to keep their children busy over the holiday break: "Remember that what your family and your children really want most is to spend time with you." Following Peterson's advice there are many things that parents can do with their children during Christmas holiday that will help strengthen the bond between parent and child. It is important for children to engage in daily physical activities during holiday break. "Young children especially need to get out of the house or apartment for regular full-body exercise to work off stress," says Jeanette Shaw, colleague of Peterson and also an Indiana University South Bend education professor. In warmer climates parents can engage in outdoor activities along with their children. Bike riding, picnicking, and nature walks are terrific ways for children to get the physical exercise that they need. In colder climates parents can also spend time with their children outdoors. Building a snowman or having a snowball fight fulfill the need for physical exercise while allowing both parents and children to get their aggressions out and unwind. When the weather proves to be too inclement to go outdoors for physical exercise there are many indoor activities that will keep children busy and cognitively focused. There is no doubt that there will be countless photographs that were taken at Christmas. Why not let children put together a scrapbook of the family's most recent Christmas? Scrapbooking is a great way for children to be creative. Most children thoroughly enjoy being creative and putting their own personalized touch on artwork. Scrapbooking stimulates a child's mind creatively and cutting and pasting, drawing and writing fine tune motor skills. Create a craft station in your home and stock it with markers, pens, paper and other decorative material. If space at home is limited many libraries have craft time for younger children free of charge. The library is a great place for children to learn. Although children are on vacation from school doesn't mean that parents shouldn't take the opportunity to encourage learning. Field trips are a great way to take a break from being at home. Children's museums are entertaining for young children and are a great way for children to learn about the world around them. Older children will enjoy taking field trips to historic places. Another great way to keep children busy and entertained is by taking factory tours. The Crayola factory in Easton, Pennsylvania and Ben & Jerry's ice cream factory in Burlington, Vermont are just two examples of the many factories that offer family friendly tours and activities. Gift certificates make excellent Christmas gifts. Parents may choose to buy their children gift certificates that allow children to participate in their favorite activities over holiday break. Movie certificates, tickets to sporting events, or other activities will be appreciated by both younger and older children. By attending these events together it offers a great opportunity for parents and children to spend quality time together. By allowing children to participate in a variety of activities parents will ensure continued healthy emotional and physical development. Parents who are looking for a way to keep their children entertained through the long Christmas break should challenge their children with the activities they choose for them.

Filed under: Brain & Nervous System Spina bifida is part of a group of birth defects called neural tube defects. The neural tube is the embryonic structure that eventually develops into the baby's brain and spinal cord and the tissues that enclose them. Normally, the neural tube forms early in the pregnancy and closes by the 28th day after conception. In babies with spina bifida, a portion of the neural tube fails to develop or close properly, causing defects in the spinal cord and in the bones of the backbone. Spina bifida occurs in various forms of severity. When treatment for spina bifida is necessary, it's done through surgery, although such treatment doesn't always completely resolve the problem. |Most Viewed||Most Emailed||Top Searches|

www.netsmartz.org - Internet safety for all ages – awesome activities to do with your child - Instant messengers and internet filter/blocker reviews plain language explanations of software – Internet safety for k-6 OnGuard Online provides practical tips from the federal government and the technology community to help you guard against internet fraud, secure your computers, and protect www.webwisekids.org - Kids, parents, teachers and law enforcement discover innovative Internet safety education programs to protect today’s youth from online dangers. Common Sense Media.org – Excellent site for parents and educators. Parents can find reviews of movies, video games, kid-friendly apps, and great advice for talking to your kids about all things digital. Educators can download the Digital Citizenship Curriculum for k-12 – free!!!! Net Family News – Great newsletter for parents and educators regarding kids’ use of up with emerging trends in technology and Internet Safety Information for parents and teens on using technology provides a great guide for how to set the recommended privacy settings for facebook. Cyberbullyhelp.org – Educate yourself regarding cyberbullying on this site. It also provides quick links to report abuse on facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. ABCs of Cyberbullying for Cyberbullying Quick Reference Guide for Parents Help Tips for Reporting Offensive Profiles To Social Networking Sites here for adobe pdf of this section) Compiled by Patti Agatston, Ph.D. MySpace provides a link in their help center to report offensive profiles. You can also enter this url to get to the help page that has a link to report harassment or threats: Educators can report an “imposter profile” that targets them on MySpace. This is also under the help center and frequently asked questions. The link for educators to report fake profiles targeting faculty members is: can request that their child’s profile be removed. The link to make that request is on the parent safety tips page. Here is the url: Anyone can report inappropriate content. This information is also on the help page. The link is: Abuse can be reported by e-mailing Facebook directly at [email protected]. There is also a link provided under the security page of Facebook. The security page link is: Scroll down to the security section and click on the link to report abuse. 2. If someone is harassing/libeling you, Facebook gives the following suggest that you block the person by listing his or her name in the "Blocking People" box at the bottom of the My Privacy page. If this does not resolve the problem, please write an email to [email protected] from your login email address. We will need to know your name, login email address, and school. Also, please provide the name and school of the person who is harassing you along with a description of the situation.” 3. Use the e-mail [email protected] to report any other information that you think should not 1. Schools and parents can contact Xanga for help at the following url: 2. Xanga also provides a link to wiredsafety’s cyber abuse hotline for severe cases of cyber bullying or other abuses such as cyberstalking, identity theft and child exploitation. The link to wired safety’s cyberabuse hotline is: The guidelines for uploading appropriate videos are posted on Youtube’s community guidelines. Here is the link: Anyone can flag a video as inappropriate. If Youtube reviews the video and finds it to be inappropriate, the video is shut down. If they decide to terminate the user’s account the user is prohibited from ever having another account on Youtube. Check your zip code for Pedophiles How to check where they surfed the history, if the history is blank then ask why they cleared it. the Temporary internet files. Click on tools/internet options/settings/view file. will give you a list of all of the graphics and cookies downloaded onto Click on a couple and see if they are appropriate. Run a Spyware blocking program My House Rules feel threatened, come get the parent to help save the conversation (if you get mad and exit, all the data is gone). talk about other people, our feelings, or personal information on-line – ever, end of story. - Other kids can sign on with other people’s accounts and pretend to be someone different – be aware of out of the ordinary questions. Articles and fact sheets about youth culture Send questions or comments to Jeff Page last updated on

C2006/F2402 -- 2008 --Outline of Lecture #14– Electrical Communication #2 Version A -- includes more space for taking notes (c) Stuart Firestein, Columbia University, New York, NY. Last update 03/31/2005 04:46 PM . Notes by Chris Kelly Click here for a shorter version without the spaces. Some links to animations and additional information on neuroscience are on the study guides for lectures 16 & 18 from 2004. See lecture 16 & 17 and lecture 18. If you need a back up text for the material that isn't in Becker, you might want to try Kimball's on line text. I. Action Potential - Brief Review - Action potentials are invariant and rapid changes in membrane potential used for signaling. - Depolarization (initial) - Stimulus causes the ligand-gated sodium channels to open, causing a passive spread of depolarization inside - Rising phase - If that depolarization is sufficient (10 to 15 mV more positive), voltage-gated sodium channels at the axon hillock suddenly open, causing an enormous influx of sodium and the rapid - This is essentially a positive-feedback cycle: sodium entering the cell causes it to depolarize. These depolarized conditions cause more sodium to enter the cell (because voltage-gated channels open). This depolarizes the cell even more, making more sodium channels open, and so on. - Falling Phase - Two factors contribute to the cell then racing back down toward negative potential: - 1) Voltage-gated sodium channels inactivate after being open for a certain time. So, those channels that opened, permitting the depolarization, slam shut and cannot be opened again until the cell has “reset” itself back to RMP. - 2) Voltage-gated potassium channels, which were tripped during the depolarization (around –20 mV), begin to open. Why did they not open as soon as the voltage hit –20 mV? They are slow to undergo the proper conformational changes. - The net effect is that the permeability to potassium once again far outweighs that to sodium, so the cell - The potassium permeability is so high, in fact, that the cell goes closer to EK than during RMP – it hyperpolarizes. This brief hyperpolarization can be divided into - Absolute refractory period (negative - Voltage-gated sodium channels are still inactivated, and thus cannot be opened by anything. Since action potentials depend on these channels, no action potential is possible. Also, even if such an Na influx were possible, the K current is too high to be overcome. - Relative refractory period (positive - Voltage-gated sodium channels begin to be released from inactivation, making action potential possible again, though more stimulus than usual is required since the cell is farther from threshold than usual. - Recall that there are no appreciable changes in concentration at any point in this action potential. All that has changed are the relative permeabilties of potassium and sodium. - In fact, were you to poison the Na/K pump, eliminating the cell’s ability to restore those ions to the correct side of the membrane, the neuron could still fire another 150,000 action potentials before the concentrations started to become insufficient. - Notice that there is little room for variety in this process, which is why action potentials are (1) invariant, and (2) all-or-nothing. You cannot have half of an action potential. To review the action potential, try problem 8-2, A-C, & 8-3 to 8-4. - So what is the use of all this? An action potential is worthless if it does not travel somewhere. - Action potentials are designed for long-distance signaling, unlike graded changes in potential (i.e. depolarizations that do not reach threshold and do vary in amplitude, unlike action - The action potential is propagated along the axon. - Think of the axon like a fuse: when you light a fuse, the end heats up the next segment, which flares up and heats up the following segment, which then flares up. Unlike a piece of string, a fuse carries the flame all the way down to the other end. - Where does the action potential begin? - At the beginning of the axon, where it first leaves the soma, there is a concentration of voltage-gated sodium channels. This area is called the initial segment, or axon hillock. The propagation down the axon begins with these channels opening. - When these channels open, positive charge enters the cell and spreads passively down the axon. This positive charge trips the next voltage-gated sodium channels on the axon, causing a sodium influx there, which then causes the next channels to open, and so on. - Why doesn’t the signal go backward? - Remember the absolute refractory period. The positive charge will, in fact, passively spread in both directions in the axon. When it reaches the segment that just fired, however, those voltage-gated sodium channels will still be inactivated, and thus unable to fire an AP. - How can one ensure that the propagation will make - Axons can be leaky, and concentration of voltage-gated sodium channels can vary. A situation could arise in which the positive charge that enters the axon is not able to trip the next channel in the series. This is overcome in two ways. - In invertebrates, the axons are wider, and thus the conductance is greater. So charge is more easily able to spread, and propagation is ensured. - In vertebrates, many axons are myelinated. Myelin is a fatty substance produced by glial cells that can wrap itself around the axon membrane. This produces an insulating effect, allowing charge to travel more easily in the axon. - In the first case, you have reduced the cable resistance. In the second case, you have increased the membrane resistance (and thus reduced “leakiness”). Both result in more conductance down the axon. - The myelin “sheath” is useless, however, unless it has gaps. - Ions clearly cannot pass through myelin. So having a myelin sheath around the axon would prevent signaling unless there are gaps in the myelin dotted along the axon. These are known as the nodes of Ranvier. - At each node, there is a high concentration of sodium and potassium channels. So when the positive charge reaches the node, the series of electrical events described by the action potential will occur there. The signal is regenerated. This kind of signaling is called saltatory conduction, since it appears the action potential is “jumping” from one node to the next. - Since action potentials take some time, having the myelin sheath accelerates the signaling process by reducing the number of action potential events along the axon. So signaling in myelinated axons is faster than in unmyelinated axons. - Conduction velocity can be up to 10 m/s. - There are several demyelinating diseases in the nervous system. Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a famous one, in which an inappropriate autoimmune response results in the destruction of myelin, thereby interrupting signaling in nerves. One can see these diseases in images of the nervous system because the characteristic white color of the myelin is missing in certain - Note on terminology: even though the cell is firing action potentials all along its axon, we say that it has fired a single action potential and simply propagated it. To review propagation, try problem 8-2 D-E - So the action potential travels down the axon –– - The end of the axon is a specialized area with characteristic proteins and biochemical processes. It is essentially independent from the soma, even though it gets its material from there. - This terminal area links one neuron to another, enabling intercellular communication. These areas of contact are called synapses, and you have about 1014 of them in your brain –– three orders of magnitude more than neurons. - What is the nature of the synapse? - The big question is whether the link is an electrical or chemical one. - Otto Loewi showed that these links are primarily chemical by placing two frog hearts in bath solution, innervating only one of them, and then observing that both hearts are affected. In that particular case, the chemical was acetylcholine, and it was causing the hearts to slow down their beating. There was no electrical connection between the hearts, just a chemical one (the solution in which they were - There are some electrical synapses in the body; they are created by gap junctions. The myocytes in the heart, for example, are connected by electrical synapses so that they can depolarize as a unit, giving a unified heartbeat. - What is the structure of the synapse? - The presynaptic neuron is that which fired the action potential along its axon, to the axonal terminal. The postsynaptic neuron is the one that its axon contacts. - There is a space between the two cells known as the synaptic cleft. It is typically very narrow –– 20 to 40 nm –– but a - The major players: - Presynaptic side: calcium and vesicles full of - Postsynaptic side: neurotransmitter receptors - The process: - The action potential races down the axon and depolarizes the terminal. This causes voltage-gated Ca++ channels at the terminal to open. Since the calcium concentration is 5 mM outside the cell and 0.1 µM inside, calcium rushes in. (FYI: lots of calcium inside the cell is a bad thing. That’s why the concentrations are the way they are.) - Calcium influx causes the vesicles full of neurotransmitter to dock with the presynaptic membrane and then fuse with it, causing exocytosis of neurotransmitter into the synaptic - The NT’s diffuse cross the synaptic cleft and contact receptors on the postsynaptic side. - What are the kinds of neurotransmitters? - Many are amino acids: glutamate, GABA (g-amino butyric acid), glycine are examples. - There are also amino acid derivatives: serotonin, dopamine, epinephrine, etc. - Acetylcholine (ACh) is another. - What are their overall effects? - Neurotransmitters are considered excitatory or inhibitory, based on whether they produce a depolarization or hyperpolarization (respectively) in the postsynaptic neuron. - Glutamate is the main excitatory NT in the CNS; glycine and GABA are the main inhibitory ones in the CNS. ACh is the primary NT in the PNS. - How are these electrical effects produced? - When NT’s cross the cleft, they bind to receptors. These receptors are of two kinds: - Ionotropic: these receptors are also ion channels. When ligand binds, conformational changes in the channel subunits are induced, resulting in the opening or closing of the pore. This is a one-to-one effect: the ligand affects only one - Metabotropic: the receptors are coupled to G-Proteins, and the cascade is initiated by the binding of ligand. The produced cascade usually results in the opening/closing of channels via second messangers. One ligand can thus affect many channels in this case. - In both cases, the opening of channels causes the flow of ions, which has an electrical effect. - If the net electrical effect is a hyperpolarization, than the NT has produced an IPSP (inhibitory post-synaptic potential). Depolarization -> EPSP (excitatory …). - There are also gaseous neurotransmitters. - Nitric oxide, NO, is one example. Unlike solid neurotransmitters, these can freely diffuse from one cell to another. - NO initiates a cascade that results in guanalyl cyclase (GC) producing cGMP, whose net effect is vasodilation in many cases. Viagra inhibits PDE-3 from breaking down cGMP, thereby maintaining vasodilation and, hence, an erection. - GC and cGMP are analogous to AC and cAMP, which we have already studied. The essential difference is just the nucleotide To review synapses etc., try problems 8-8 A-G & 8-9. (8-10 & 8-11 are also about synapses.)

|Described as a ‘barren rock’ some 150 years ago, Hong Kong is today a world-class financial, trading and business centre and, indeed, a great world city. A premier tourist destination, Hong Kong is a unique blend of East and West, featuring Chinese traditions, British colonial heritage, high-tech modernity and Cantonese gusto. Hong Kong offers a diverse and exciting travel experience — great shopping, dining, theme parks, countryside pursuits, arts, culture and sports events. It also has many heritage attractions in the form of temples, monasteries, walled villages, clan halls and colonial structures. At the south-eastern tip of China, Hong Kong covers Hong Kong Island, Lantau Island, the Kowloon Peninsula and the New Territories, including 262 outlying islands. Hong Kong’s population was slightly over 7 million in mid-2010, including a large foreign contingent of more than half a million. Hong Kong is a Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China. Following British rule from 1842 to 1997, China assumed sovereignty under the 'one country, two systems' principle. Discover a diverse modern and captivating city of Hong Kong with us!

A sexually transmitted disease—past or present—can affect your fertility. But being honest with your doctor can help detect problems early, and put you on the right path to getting pregnant. Health experts have new reason to bring sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) “out of the closet,” so to speak: These illnesses—including chlamydia, gonorrhea, herpes, syphilis and others—are responsible for roughly one-fourth of infertility cases. And they are anything but rare. While doctors report 20 million cases each year, the actual numbers are thought to be much higher, since so many go undiagnosed and untreated because they cause no symptoms at all—so-called “silent” cases. In fact, difficulty getting pregnant may be the first warning sign that something is wrong. Embarrassment may previously have kept some patients—and doctors—from bringing up the subject, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently recommended that every woman planning to get pregnant be tested for chlamydia and gonorrhea—the biggest fertility threats—at her preconception checkup, and that physicians order other tests depending on a couple’s sexual history. Another sign of the medical profession’s new attitude: Health professionals are being urged to substitute the initials STI, for sexually transmitted infections, for the old acronym STD, in the hope that the word infection will sound less scary than the word disease. If numbers tell a story, the time for being coy about the subject is long past: “Fifty percent of the population will acquire an STD by age 35,” says Spencer Richlin, MD, reproductive endocrinologist with Reproductive Medicine Associates of Connecticut. Not all STDs directly affect the ability to get pregnant. While chlamydia and gonorrhea are of great concern when it comes to fertility and conception, experts agree that other sexually transmitted infections—herpes, human papilloma virus (HPV or genital warts), hepatitis B, syphilis, trichomonas vaginalis (a parasite), crabs (pubic lice), and HIV—do not directly affect fertility, although advanced infections and side effects from treatments may cause problems. For instance, if HPV progresses to cancerous lesions on the cervix, “the treatment, particularly cone biopsies, can sometimes damage the cervical mucus glands,” leading to infertility, says Dr. Potter (although these pre-cancerous changes on their own do not have an impact on fertility). If you or your current partner has been diagnosed with any STD in the past, you should discuss it openly with your physicians—gynecologist, endocrinologist, or urologist—so the doctor can assess any effect on fertility. Having contracted one STD increases your risk of being vulnerable to another, so your doctor may want to do tests to be sure before you try to get pregnant. How Trouble Spreads Usually, it is not the STD itself that causes infertility, but the spread of inflammation resulting from the original infection. Women under age 24 are at the highest risk of contracting STDs, since the cervix is not fully matured and infections are more easily passed through; this is also the age at which multiple partners are most common. The so-called “silent” cases—those that go unnoticed and untreated—are the biggest fertility threats, since the damage they cause can go unchecked. In women, this damage is often pelvic inflammatory disease (PID), an infection of the uterus, fallopian tubes, or other reproductive organs that can develop as a result of chlamydia or gonorrhea—the two most common bacterial STDs and those most likely to be silent. PID can result in scarring of the fallopian tubes, making it difficult or impossible for eggs to move through them and resulting in an inability to conceive. According to the CDC, more than 1 million women each year contract PID, and 100,000 of those women become infertile because of it. The American Social Health Association reports that 15 percent of women who are infertile can attribute it to tubal damage caused by pelvic inflammatory disease from an untreated STD. The more PID episodes a woman has had, the greater her risk of infertility. Robert Straub, MD, of Reproductive Biology Associates in Atlanta, says, “It has been estimated that PID causes tubal disease leading to infertility at the following rates: one episode: 15 percent, two episodes: 35 percent, and three episodes: 75 percent.” Ectopic pregnancy, a potentially life-threatening situation in which the egg implants in the fallopian tube instead of in the uterus, is another concern; nine percent of women who have PID caused by chlamydia will experience ectopic pregnancy.

The United Nations established its Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) Task Force (TF) to accelerate growth, eradicate poverty and promote national action to overcome regional disempowerment. The TF established Regional Networks to implement its Plan of Action. Through the Asian Regional Network, the UN aims to promote the use of ICT as a tool for the region's development. The network will function as a think-tank and consulting body for policy-making and assist in the evaluation and dissemination of ICT. In March 2001, the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) requested the Secretary General, Kofi Annan, to establish an Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) Task Force, an initiative intended to lend a global dimension to the multitude of efforts to bridge the digital divide and to give the United Nations a pivotal role by providing support, a wide-ranging vision and viable strategies. This new UN mechanism is an innovative instrument, with a balanced representation of governments, UN agencies, civil society and private sector. A number of relevant elements are behind the conception of the ICT Task Force: the fact that in a fast-changing economic environment, as the one we are living in, the international community has to respond with an all-inclusive approach able to give fast and flexible answers to the developing world; the need for the mobilization of adequate resources and for a long-term, sustained effort; the recognition that ICT is not an end but rather a tool to attain broader development, an instrument to accelerate growth and eradicate poverty; and the necessity to promote and develop national-level actions in order to overcome regional, historical, disabilities and disempowerment. The " regional component" maintained a central relevance in Task Force discussions and led to the establishment of a number of Regional Networks that were meant to help locally in the advancement of the internationally agreed development goals and were open for full participation by both members and non-members of the Task Force. In fact, at the inaugural meeting of the United Nations ICT Task Force, in November 2001, members agreed to establish Regional Networks to serve as a mechanism for implementation of action points of the Plan of Action. The approach outlined reflected the basic principles of the Task Force modus operandi and encompassed decentralization of activities, an open and inclusive approach, and reliance, as much as possible, on existing mechanisms. Five networks (Africa, Arab States, Asia, Europe and Central Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean) have already been launched in consultations with all parties concerned in these regions. The Asian Regional Network The Asia and Pacific region has been the fastest growing ICT market in the past few years, but the rapid spread of ICT capacities and applications did not reach the whole of the Asian populations and "knowledge disparities" deepened and amplified the social and economic gaps already existing in those societies. As in other regions of the developing world, in Asia the "digital marginalization" has become alarming. An important and urgent task for the UN ICT Task Force is to create public understanding and awareness of the crucial role that the new information technologies will play in the economic development of the region. In this light, the Asian Regional Network established three nodes in order to implement its works in the region: 1) The Government of China will lead the intergovernmental work with the City Government of Shanghai, taking the responsibility for hosting the node; 2) The Government of India, together with MIT Media Lab Asia, will deal with private sector and academic institution related issues; 3) The Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) will coordinate the activities of the multilateral institutions and development banks in the region. Within this framework, a Preparatory Meeting of the Shanghai Node of the Asian Regional Network has been sponsored and organized by the UN ICT Task Force secretariat and the Ministry of Science and Technology of China. The meeting, , was held in March, 2002 in Shanghai, China. Representatives from Bangladesh, China, India, Malaysia, Mongolia, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Vietnam, representatives of the Arab Regional Network of the UN ICT Task Force, as well as representatives of the UN ICT Task Force secretariat and ESCAP attended the meeting. The private sector and academic institutions, such as Legend Group, Sun Wah Group, Pacific Century CyberWorks, Inventec Group, Institute of Automation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and M.I.T. Media Lab Asia were also present at the meeting. The meeting was held in response to the UN ICT Task Force mandate create an Asian Regional Network. The meeting aimed to establish a Preparatory Committee for the inauguration, and further development, of the Asian Regional Network. Follow-up action by the Preparatory Committee was discussed, including the work methods proposed for use by the Regional Network for Asia and the Pacific Islands, implementation of the UN ICT Task Force's Plan of Action in the region, the objectives of the Regional Network, its follow-up proposals and communications with other regional networks. Dr. MA Songde, Vice Minister of Science and Technology (MOST) of China, chaired the conference which the created the Regional Committee, to be located in Shanghai, and charged with monitoring forthcoming developments of the Regional Network and Task Force. The Committee, composed of 3 co-chairs, China, India, and ESCAP, and members from Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Mongolia, Singapore, and Vietnam, will draft specific proposals for the establishment of a Regional Network for Asia and the Pacific Islands. It will also draft an Implementation Plan that will cover the various organizational, structural, geographical, and financial aspects. The recommendations of the committee will be presented to a Regional meeting to be convened by China in Shanghai in June 2002. The Shanghai meeting was an important occasion for sharing with the region a number of initiatives, ideas and proposals. It gave participants the opportunity to start responding to the many needs and challenges the region is facing. It gave a forceful stimulus to regional cooperation and demonstrated how regional cooperation can complement national efforts. Without wishing to anticipate on the work of the Asian Regional Network, it is important to delineate some points that are worthy of note and that are keys to the competitiveness of the region. It is imperative: - to bring to the countries in the region mass education programs targeted at schools, enterprises and workers and with local, national and regional content; - to help them build adequate infrastructure for enhanced connectivity; - to promote and encourage improved regulatory systems - to call attention to the least developed economies in the region (such as some of the Pacific Islands), so that they can also benefit from the regional cooperation. - Conclusion - Through the work of the Asian Regional Network the United Nations aims to implement a well coordinated, forward-looking, strategic programme for the use of ICT as a tool for regional development. The asian Regional Network will make sure that strategic ICT investments are made, are conducted transparently with the participation of all regional stakeholders, and that opportunities for growth are given serious financial support. - In pursuit of its mission, the Regional Network shall seek to develop an information clearinghouse on ICT for Development for the Asian Region. This will include the development of indicators to support benchmarking, planning and management. The network should function as a think-tank and a consulting body for policy-making, propose and assist in the incubation, evaluation and dissemination of ICT projects and best practices. - We expect the Asian Regional Network to be a source of support, assistance and improvement, and we look forward to assisting the region in devising suitable policies, building services, and moving forward in the path towards development.

Poverty affects families in so many profound ways. Solutions have been proposed, such as redrawing school districts to mix poor and wealthy students. People at the top of the educational food chain are starting to grasp this, as noted in an item by David Savage ofthe Chicago Tribune'sWashington Bureau. His story is about the pending Supreme Court hearing on affirmative action in universities, but his sources touch on the biggest problem in educating kids: Some argue the top universities should pick up on Obama's theme and give an edge to high school students who come up from low-income families, regardless of their race or ethnic heritage. "These campuses pride themselves on being liberal and racially diverse, but there are huge class inequalities," said Richard Kahlenberg, a scholar at the Century Foundation in Washington. "They should redirect their [affirmative action] efforts to focus on economically disadvantaged students of all races." For Obama, such a policy "would fit perfectly with his message that he is on the side of working-class and middle-class Americans of all races," he added. Texas opted for just such an approach in 1997 after a federal court struck down its race-based affirmative action policy. The state adopted a "top 10" policy that said high school seniors in the top 10 ((%)) percent of their classes would be admitted to the University of Texas in Austin. The goal was to maintain racial and ethnic diversity without using race as a factor in the admissions process. White students from lower-income neighborhoods benefited as well.

EDUCATION is about equipping a growing generation with the necessary skills to take on life's challenges - through the sciences, the arts, mathematics; even staying fit and healthy comes to mind. Education about money and how it works does not seem to be an obvious addition to the list, but it should and must be, says Diana Crossan, retirement commissioner of New Zealand's Commission for Financial Literacy & Retirement Income. "If we go back a little while, we didn't have health education. And we struggled with health issues. But now we have health education, we look after children's health and the parents learn that way as well," she said at the launch of Singapore's first financial literacy programme for young adults at the Singapore Management University (SMU) last Monday. Her concern that the current generation is already paying the price for low financial literacy is echoed by Arnoud De Meyer, president of the Singapore Management University, as he referred to the US subprime crisis at the event's opening speech. "It is heart wrenching to read about individuals losing their financial independence due to the lack of understanding of basic financial products and money management," he said. In Singapore, young adults between the ages of 18 to 29 scored the third lowest in financial literacy out of eight population segments, according to the most recent National Financial Literacy Survey prepared for the MoneySENSE Financial Education Steering Committee. The two segments that fared worst were unemployed persons and retirees. Ms Crossan says that the reason as to why the lack of financial literacy is so widespread among young adults is that the rate of education and curriculum development has not been able to keep up with the breakneck speed of economic and financial progress. "The world has changed so fast and (progressed) so far that we've left people behind. (Financial literacy) hasn't been taught in schools, the teachers in New Zealand and America and other places didn't have their own training, so in a way it leaves a generation quite exposed," Ms Crossan said. The Citi-SMU Financial Literacy Programme for Young Adults will seek to reach out, through peer-to-peer sharing, to the group most in need of financial knowledge - young adults between 17 and 30. "These are the years when you're starting to earn money. These are the years that perhaps the demands on your financial resources are greater than your income," said Michael Zink, head of Asean, Citi country officer, Singapore. While those in the target age group are among the most vulnerable, they are also perhaps the toughest to appeal to, said Jeremy Goh, associate professor of finance at SMU's Lee Kong Chian School of Business. "When a grey-haired person tells a dark-haired person, they're not going to listen. So maybe we'll try something else. Let the young talk to the young," he said. Other financial literacy experts on the panel discussing how to leverage on partnerships to achieve financial literacy for Singaporeans also stressed that the onus of becoming financially literate is on the individual. The individual should not "outsource" this by depending on a financial adviser. "At the end of the day, I am talking to the adviser. It is my money. I understand my circumstances best. I understand my risk profile best ... I would know if I understand how a product works," said Christina Tan, head, MoneySENSE secretariat. While becoming financially literate may appear daunting, it is not necessary to understand "the rocket science of products". Maintaining a healthy scepticism and being willing to ask probing questions to increase understanding is what is important, Ms Tan added. To break it down to its basics, financial literacy is simply about understanding choice and opportunity costs, said Koh Noi Keng, chair, Citi-NIE financial literacy hub for teachers. Seen that way, financial education can start as early as the age of three. "If we can start (the youth) with certain financial habits from young, we'd be able to see them asking more questions and once we've developed that attitude towards asking questions, they will carry that habit into their working lives," Dr Koh added. While financial education is being ramped up across all ages, young adults are showing signs of interest in becoming financially savvy. Securities Investors Association (Singapore) investment education trainer Sam Goh, 24, said that of the young adults that he has given talks to about wealth management and financial literacy, about half are proactively seeking to learn more. However, he also said that the other half has little to no interest in financial matters and do not acknowledge the need to save or create wealth. Undoubtedly, the road ahead is long for those in the business of raising public financial literacy but Ms Crossan is optimistic about progress. She hopes that in several years' time, there will not be a need for this catch-up. It will be a part of the everyday curriculum of most of the developed and developing world.

- Our Story - In Memory A Vaccine for Alzheimer's Disease? A brief summary of important potential treatments and CAF’s related research. There has been a lot of attention over the last several years about vaccines and Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The buildup of a protein in the brain, that our body normally produces, called “amyloid-beta” plays an important role in AD. The accumulation of amyloid-beta in the brain leads to ongoing nerve cell injury and this ultimately contributes to the cognitive decline we see in patients. It has been theorized that if one could prevent the buildup in the brain of amyloid-beta or could clear away what does build up, this could serve a treatment. In 1999, it was shown that if mice that develop amyloid buildup in the brain were actively immunized with the amyloid-beta protein itself (amyloid-beta was injected under the skin of mice), they developed antibodies against amyloid-beta and had much less buildup in their brain. It was later shown, that if one directly infused antibodies against amyloid beta (called passive immunization) into mice, this would also decrease the buildup of amyloid-beta and in some cases, improve the cognitive deficits seen in the animals. Because of these exciting findings, many research groups began studies to better understand how active and passive immunization work and some companies moved ahead with clinical trials to see if these approaches might be useful to people. Vaccine Trials in Humans Soon after the realization of the potential therapeutic potential of active or passive immunization, Elan and Wyeth pharmaceuticals together began a trial in which amyloid-beta was directly administered to humans subcutaneously (active immunization). Over 300 patients were entered into these trials in the US and Europe. It was noted that ~ 6% of the patients developed a potentially serious complication called acute encephalitis (confusion with variable neurological deficits associated with inflammation in the brain). This trial was then halted. Interestingly, the complication did not seem to be due to antibodies generated against amyloid-beta, but another type of inflammation induced by the treatment. Several of the patients from this trial have died for other reasons and interestingly, most have evidence that a large amount of amyloid was cleared from the brain. Further, while the trial was aborted, there is also evidence that memory has not worsened as much in those people that developed antibodies to amyloid-beta. The field continues to move forward in this area. Because passive immunization (direct administration of anti-amyloid antibodies) should not, in theory, have the same complications as active immunization, companies such as Elan/Wyeth, Lilly, and others have started human trials to see if infusion of these type of antibodies can have beneficial effects. Results from these trials should emerge in the next 2 years. In addition, some companies are also starting active immunization trials again with modified versions of amyloid-beta that they believe will not have the same side effects. How is Cure Alzheimer’s Fund Involved? There are at 3 researchers funded by CAF that are collaborating on work related to immunization and AD. Drs. Virginia Lee, Charles Glabe, and David Holtzman are all exploring the detailed role of specific forms of the amyloid-beta protein called oligomers. They are looking at whether particular antibodies targeting amyloid-beta can tell us more about the cause of AD and new ways for treatment. Coupling findings from this new research, with new discoveries from the laboratory of Dr. Rudy Tanzi on genetic risk factors for AD, should allow us to begin treatment for AD much earlier than is currently possible. The bottom line is that there is good reason to believe these approaches have significant potential as treatments in the future. However, it’s critical for future studies to figure out how to best clear amyloid from the brain without inducing serious side effects. David Holtzman, MD Professor and Chair of Neurology

The image above shows the nucleus of Halley's Comet --an orbiting iceberg visible from Earth every 75 years. Stephen Hawking believes that one of the major factors in the possible scarcity of intelligent life in our galaxy is the high probability of an asteroid or comet colliding with inhabited planets. Through Earth's history such collisions occur, on the average every one million years. If this figure is correct, it would mean that intelligent life on Earth has developed only because of the lucky chance that there have been no major collisions in the last 70 million years. Other planets in the galaxy, Hawking believes, on which life has developed, may not have had a long enough collision free period to evolve intelligent beings. We have observed, Hawking points out in Life in the Universe, the collision of a comet, Schumacher-Levi, with Jupiter, which produced a series of enormous fireballs, plumes many thousands of kilometers high, hot "bubbles" of gas in the atmosphere, and large dark "scars" on the atmosphere which had lifetimes on the order of weeks. It is thought the collision of a rather smaller body with the Earth, about 70 million years ago, was responsible for the extinction of the dinosaurs. A few small early mammals survived, but anything as large as a human, would have almost certainly been wiped out. “The threat of the Earth being hit by an asteroid is increasingly being accepted as the single greatest natural disaster hazard faced by humanity,” according to Nick Bailey of the University of Southampton's School of Engineering Sciences team, who has developed a threat identifying program. The team used raw data from multiple impact simulations to rank each country based on the number of times and how severely they would be affected by each impact. The software, called NEOimpactor (from NASA's "NEO" or Near Earth Object program), has been specifically developed for measuring the impact of 'small' asteroids under one kilometer in diameter. Early results indicate that in terms of population lost, China, Indonesia, India, Japan and the United States face the greatest overall threat; while the United States, China, Sweden, Canada and Japan face the most severe economic effects due to the infrastructure destroyed. The top ten countries most at risk are China, Indonesia, India, Japan, the United States, the Philippines, Italy, the United Kingdom, Brazil and Nigeria. “The consequences for human populations and infrastructure as a result of an impact are enormous,” says Bailey. “Nearly one hundred years ago a remote region near the Tunguska River witnessed the largest asteroid impact event in living memory when a relatively small object (approximately 50 meters in diameter) exploded in mid-air. While it only flattened unpopulated forest, had it exploded over London it could have devastated everything within the M25. Our results highlight those countries that face the greatest risk from this most global of natural hazards and thus indicate which nations need to be involved in mitigating the threat.” What would happen to the human species and life on Earth in general if an asteroid the size of the one that created the famous K/T Event of 65 million years ago at the end of the Mesozoic Era that resulted in the extinction of the dinosaurs impacted our planet. As Stephen Hawking says, the general consensus is that any comet or asteroid greater than 20 kilometers in diameter that strikes the Earth will result in the complete annihilation of complex life - animals and higher plants. (The asteroid Vesta, for example, one of the destinations of the Dawn Mission, is the size of Arizona). How many times in our galaxy alone has life finally evolved to the equivalent of our planets and animals on some far distant planet, only to be utterly destroyed by an impact? Galactic history suggests it might be a common occurrence. The first thing to understand about the KT event is that it was absolutely enormous: an asteroid (or comet) six to 10 miles in diameter streaked through the Earth's atmosphere at 25,000 miles an hour and struck the Yucatan region of Mexico with the force of 100 megatons -the equivalent of one Hiroshima bomb for every person alive on Earth today. Not a pretty scenario! Recent calculations show that our planet would go into another "Snowball Earth" event like the one that occurred 600 million years ago, when it is believed the oceans froze over (although some scientists dispute this hypothesis -see link below). While microbial bacteria might readily survive such calamitous impacts, our new understanding from the record of the Earth's mass extinctions clearly shows that plants and animals are very susceptible to extinction in the wake of an impact. Impact rates depend on how many comets and asteroids exist in a particular planetary system. In general there is one major impact every million years -a mere blink of the eye in geological time. It also depends on how often those objects are perturbed from safe orbits that parallel the Earth's orbit to new, Earth-crossing orbits that might, sooner or later, result in a catastrophic K/T or Permian-type mass extinction. The asteroid that hit Vredefort located in the Free State Province of South Africa is one of the largest to ever impact Earth, estimated at over 10 km (6 miles) wide, although it is believed by many that the original size of the impact structure could have been 250 km in diameter, or possibly larger(though the Wilkes Land crater in Antarctica, if confirmed to have been the result of an impact event, is even larger at 500 kilometers across). The town of Vredefort is situated in the crater (image). Dating back 2,023 million years, it is the oldest astrobleme found on earth so far, with a radius of 190km, it is also the most deeply eroded. Vredefort Dome Vredefort bears witness to the world’s greatest known single energy release event, which caused devastating global change, including, according to many scientists, major evolutionary changes. What has kept the Earth "safe" at least the past 65 million years, other than blind luck is the massive gravitational field of Jupiter, our cosmic guardian, with its stable circular orbit far from the sun, which assures a low number of impacts resulting in mass extinctions by sweeping up and scatters away most of the dangerous Earth-orbit-crossing comets and asteroids. The Daily Galaxy via University of Southampton and rationalvedanta.net View Today's Hot Tech News Video from IDG -Publishers of PC World, MacWorld, and Computerworld--Top Right of Page To launch the video click on the Start Arrow. Our thanks for your support! It allows us to bring you the news daily about the discoveries, people and events changing our planet and our knowledge of the Universe. Image credit: Halley Multicolor Camera Team, Giotto Project, ESA

When someone tells that there was no successful French tank, especially in WWI - don't you believe him! The Renault FT or Automitrailleuse à chenilles Renault FT modèle 1917, inexactly known as the FT-17 or FT17, was a French light tank; it is among the most revolutionary and influential tank designs in history. The FT was the first operational tank with an armament in a fully rotating turret, and its configuration with the turret on top, engine in the back and the driver in front became the conventional one, repeated in most tanks until today; at the time it was a revolutionary innovation, causing armour historian Steven Zaloga to describe the type as "the world's first modern tank". Studies on the production of a new light tank were started in May 1916 by the famous car producer Louis Renault. The evidence strongly suggests that Renault himself drew up the preliminary design, being unconvinced that a sufficient power/weight ratio could be achieved for the medium tanks requested by the military. One of his most talented designers, Rodolphe Ernst-Metzmaier, prepared the final drawings. Though the project was far more advanced than the two first French tanks about to enter production, the Schneider CA1 and the heavy St. Chamond, Renault had at first great trouble getting it accepted. Even after the first British use of tanks, on 15 September 1916, when the French people called for the deployment of their own chars, the production of the light tank was almost cancelled in favour of that of a superheavy tank (the later Char 2C). However, with the unwavering support of Brigadier General Jean-Baptiste Eugène Estienne (1860–1936), the "Father of the Tanks", and the successive French Commanders in Chief, who saw light tanks as a more feasible and realistic option, Renault was at last able to proceed with the design. However, competition with the Char 2C was to last until the very end of the war. The prototype was slowly refined during the first half of 1917. Early production FTs were often plagued by radiator fan belt and cooling system problems, a characteristic that persisted throughout World War I. Only 84 were produced in 1917 but 2,697 were delivered before the end of the war. At least 3,177 were produced in total, perhaps more; some estimates go as high as 4,000 for all versions combined. However, 3,177 is the delivery total to the French Army; 514 were perhaps directly delivered to the U.S. Army and three to Italy - giving a probable total production number of 3,694. The tanks had at first a round cast turret; later either an octagonal turret or an even later rounded turret of bent steel plate (called Berliet turret after one of the many coproducing factories). The latter two could carry a Puteaux SA 18 gun, or a 7.92 mm Hotchkiss machine gun. In the U.S., this tank was built on a licence as the Six Ton Tank Model 1917 (950 built, 64 before the end of the war). There is a most persistent myth about the name of the tank: "FT" is often supposed to have meant Faible Tonnage, or, even more fanciful: Franchisseur de Tranchées (trench crosser). In reality, every Renault prototype was given a combination code; it just so happened it was the turn of "FT". Another mythical name is "FT-18" for the guntank. A 1918 maintenance manual describes the FT as the Char d'Assault 18HP, a reference to the horsepower of the engine. FTs captured and re-used by the Germans in World War II were re-designated Panzerkampfwagen FT 18. Either of these might have led to the confusion. Also in "FT 75 BS", the "BS" does not mean Batterie de Support but "Blockhaus Schneider", a reference to the short 75mm Schneider gun with which it was fitted. The FT was widely used by the French and the US in the later stages of World War I, after 31 May 1918. It was cheap and well-suited for mass production. It reflected an emphasis on quantity, both on a tactical level: Estienne proposed to overwhelm the enemy defences by a "swarm" of light tanks, and on a geostrategic level: the Entente was thought to be able to gain the upper hand by outproducing the Central Powers. A goal was set of 12,260 to be manufactured (4,440 of which in the USA) before the end of 1919. After the war, FTs were exported to many countries (Poland, Finland, Estonia, Lithuania, Romania, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Switzerland, Belgium, Netherlands, Spain, Brazil, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan and Japan). As a result, FT tanks were used by most nations having armoured forces, invariably as their first tank type, including the United States. They took part in many later conflicts, such as the Russian Civil War, Polish-Soviet War, Chinese Civil War, Rif War and Spanish Civil War. FT tanks were also used in the Second World War, among others in Poland, Finland, France and Kingdom of Yugoslavia, although they were completely obsolete by then. In 1940 the French army still had eight battalions equipped with 63 FTs each and three independent companies with ten each, for a total organic strength of 534, all with machine guns. Many smaller units, partially raised after the invasion, also used the tank. This has given rise to the popular myth that the French had no modern equipment at all; in fact they had more modern tanks than the Germans; the French suffered from tactical and strategic weaknesses rather than from equipment deficiencies. When the German drive to the Channel cut off the best French units, as an expediency measure the complete French materiel reserve was sent to the front; this included 575 FTs. Earlier 115 sections of FT had been formed for airbase-defence. The Wehrmacht captured 1,704 FTs. A hundred were again used for airfield defence, about 650 for patrolling occupied Europe. Some of the tanks were also used by the Germans in 1944 for street-fighting in Paris. By this time they were hopelessly out of date. The FT was the ancestor of a long line of French tanks: the FT Kégresse, the NC1, the NC2, the Char D1 and the Char D2. The Italians produced as their standard tank the FIAT 3000, a moderately close copy of the FT: The Soviet Red Army captured fourteen burnt-out Renaults from White Russian forces, and rebuilt them at the Krasnoye Sormovo Factory in 1920. The Soviets claimed to have originally manufactured these Russkiy Reno tanks, but they actually produced only one exact copy, named 'Freedom Fighter Comrade Lenin'. When Stalin began the arms race of the Thirties, the first completely Soviet-designed tank was the T-18, a derivation of the Renault with sprung suspension: In all, the FT was used by Afghanistan, Belgium, Brazil, the Republic of China, Czechoslovakia, Estonia, Finland, France, Nazi Germany, Iran, Japan, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, the Russian White movement, the Soviet Union, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Norway, the United Kingdom, the United States and the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Two interesting variants:

Greensboro, NC -- The week of March 3rd through March 9th has been declared North Carolina's Severe Weather Awareness week for 2013. The theme for the week is "Be a Force of Nature". The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and FEMA are highlighting the importance of planning and practicing how and where to take shelter before severe weather strikes. Being prepared to act quickly can be the difference between life and death.. NOAA says that being a force of nature goes beyond taking appropriate preparedness action. It's about inspiring others to do the same. They ask that people not only to be prepared, but also encourage their social network to act by texting, tweeting, or posting a Facebook status update. Each day this week will focus on a different topic relating to severe weather in North Carolina. - MONDAY: Know Your Risk - TUESDAY: Develop an Emergency Plan - WEDNESDAY: Build a Kit (Statewide Tornado Drill - 9:30 AM) - THURSDAY: Hear the Warning with NOAA Weather Radio - Get the Alert - FRIDAY: Be an Example - Get Involved - SATURDAY: North Carolina Severe Weather Threat A statewide tornado drill will be conducted by the National Weather Service in cooperation with local broadcasters on Wednesday, March 6th and 9:30. This drill will be in the form of a Required Monthly Test on all NOAA weather radios and public alert systems. The alarm test will activate the State Emergency Alert System and be carried by local radio broadcasters as well. This drill will allow schools, businesses, and residents the opportunity to practice their tornado action and safety plans. Continue to check in on digtriad.com and watch WFMY News 2 all week long to gain valuable severe weather information. Severe weather season in the Triad is from March-May, but severe weather can occur at any point throughout the entire year. WFMY News 2

become an editor the entire directory only in Neurobiology/Education Open Directory - Science: Biology: Neurobiology: Education - Freely available 3D animations of brain structure and neurons for use in projects, promotions, education and advertising. BLTC Research Library - A series of short tutorials and essays to help healthcare workers understand some complex neurological concepts they may not have met during their education. Brain Basics: Know Your Brain - A primer on the brain for non-scientists including its architecture, geography, structure and functions. - An online source of information about the brain for educators, parents, students and teachers. Modular Digital Course in Undergraduate Neuroscience Education - MDCUNE provides free, inquiry-based neurobiology modules that are completely digital so that only computers are required. These modules have been successfully taught in laboratory courses at UCLA. MyBrain International Limited - Supplies tools and materials to trainers and coaches. Provides information on the brain and provides an on-line Brain Dominance profiling tool. Neuroscience for Kids - Intended for elementary and secondary school students and teachers who are interested in learning more about the nervous system and brain. Hands on activities, experiments, information for all grade levels. - Scientific resources for the study of synapse structure and function, including tutorials on neurocytology, software, 3D data, and reconstructions from serial electron microscopy. The International Brain Bee - Neuroscience competition for high schools. Provides information for competitors, coordinators and sponsors. " search on: to edit this category. Copyright © 2013 Netscape Visit our sister sites Last update: Thursday, January 21, 2010 11:05:06 AM EST -

Challenge: Change Machine Write a class that simulates the functionality of a change machine. - A Constructor that accepts a list of coins. So you can setup the initial state of the machine. What denominations it accepts and initial quantities. etc. - A way to set the Unit Price. Edit: Unit Price -> The amount you have to pay, before goods are dispensed and change issued. - A way of inserting coins - A way to return the coins the user has inserted for the current transaction. - A way to dispense the change (once the unit price is met), made from the available coins in the machine. Excluding those the user has insert for the current transaction. After the transaction is completer those coins are available to be used for change. - Raise Events to reflect the internal state changes. Submissions (preferably vb.net) must follow the traditional challenge standing orders. This post has been edited by AdamSpeight2008: 02 October 2012 - 08:58 AM

The average driver is often mystified by the most basic traffic guidelines: painted pavement lines. Here are some basic rules and some not-so-well understood meanings of traffic-line law. White lines separate traffic travelling in the same direction. When the white line separating traffic lanes is solid, it is not legal to cross such a line to change lanes. These solid white lines often precede an intersection with a marked crosswalk. Vehicular traffic is forbidden to change lanes for the protection and safety of the pedestrians wishing to cross the street in the crosswalk. These solid lines also discourage lane-changing in an intersection, which is not technically illegal, but unsafe all the same. It is very important for vehicle drivers to stay in their lane when crossing an intersection. Visibility for left turners is often limited and vehicles that pass on the right side in particular are hidden from oncoming cars, bikes and pedestrians. Solid white lines are also painted on dramatic road curves to prevent blind-corner passes and lane changes. When a white solid line separates the through lane from the road shoulder, drivers are not permitted to pass other traffic on the right. Where no such white solid line exists, separating through traffic from the road shoulder, all traffic is legally permitted to pass on the right, if obstructed or delayed by a left turning vehicle, provided it does not leave the normal paved portion of the road. It is legal but unsafe, except at a greatly reduced speed. Drivers are not permitted by law to merge onto a highway by crossing a solid white line, or in other words merge earlier than coming to a broken or dashed white line. The same rule applies when leaving a freeway. Drivers are not permitted to exit the freeway until there is a broken line or there is a clearly visible exit lane. Drivers are also not legally able to infringe on a bike lane designated by parallel white solid lines except to enter or exit a parking space. They must wait until there is a dashed white line formation in order to turn or change lanes, enter or leave the road. Crosswalk lines are also white in colour. Solid crosswalk lines are placed at intersections where there is a stop sign or a red traffic light configuration. Intermittent (or commonly referred to as "zebra") white lines are painted on the road to designated those intersections at which pedestrians cross the street where no stop sign or red traffic light exits. Many municipalities, for whatever reasons of incompetence, are known to reverse this manner of painting crosswalk lines on the road. I know of one northern town which painted all the crosswalk lines improperly. Visitors to the village were consistently driving through stop signs, thinking that the "zebra" crossings were accurately reflecting the lack of the necessity of a complete stop at those intersections. Yellow lines separate the opposite flow of traffic. A yellow solid line means pass with extra caution. This is probably the most misunderstood driving rule. Only a solid yellow line accompanied by another parallel yellow centre line, broken or solid designates a no-passing situation. Vehicles with the dashed line on their side of the middle yellow lines may pass if safe to do so. A double-solid yellow-line formation means absolutely no passing. Many drivers think it is illegal to cross doublesolid yellow centre lines in order to make a left turn in or out of a residence or business. This is untrue. It is allowable. It is not legal to drive on yellow "zebra" median markers. These markers usually precede left-turn lanes. Painted pavement lines are meant to help us in our travels. Pay heed and proceed. Steve Wallace is the owner of Wallace Driving School on Vancouver Island and the Central Interior of B.C. He is a certified teacher and the former Canadian vice-president of the Driving Schools Association of the Americas. For some people, work begins before the sun comes up. Perhaps the mare is in labour or the fire is out of control or some other issue needs an immediate... It could have all gone so terribly pear-shaped. Me, the mondo rapid McLaren and Mosport — oops, I'd better remain politically correct just in case... The original Sprinter was the first vehicle my then-teenaged daughters would let me drop them off in the school's parking lot. Bentley? Nope, drop us ...

Defining Your Internal Factors Internal factors are reactions that you create inside yourself in response to the world. Even though they happen inside you, it's best to think about them as behaviors because they are actions that you choose. By choosing how to perceive yourself, you can either behave your way to success or behave your way to failure. For example, if you believe you are competent and special, you will live up to that truth. If you believe you are incompetent and worthless, you will live down to that truth. The powerful internal factors that shape your self-concept are: Internal Dialogue: This is the continuous conversation that you have with yourself about everything that happens to you. This dialogue is constant, happens in real time (at the same rate at which you would speak the words aloud), and provokes a physiological change (with each thought comes a physical reaction). Labeling: Humans tend to organize things into categories. We even categorize other humans by labeling them into groups, subgroups, classes and functions. But were you aware that we label ourselves? For better or worse, these labels have a powerful impact on our perception of self because we tend to "live" the categories we've attached to ourselves ("I'm a loser" or "I'm a winner.") Tapes: These are beliefs that have become so deeply ingrained that they "play" automatically in our heads and influence our behavior without our awareness. Unlike labels ("I never win"), tapes have context: "I won't get the promotion because I never win." Tapes are dangerous and potentially self-defeating because they have the power to set you up for a specific outcome. Fixed Beliefs / Limiting Beliefs: Fixed beliefs are the beliefs we hold about ourselves, others, and life's circumstances that have been repeated for so long they have become ingrained and are difficult to change. Limiting beliefs are the beliefs we have about ourselves that limit what we reach for and achieve. They also cause us to block any conflicting (positive) information while confirming any new negative information. Continue uncovering your authentic self with the complete exercises found in Self Matters.

Cliff Vancura/Durango Herald Cliff Vancura/Durango Herald Genetically modified organisms have come to the Four Corners area. GMO alfalfa seed and other crops have been planted in Montezuma County as well as the rest of the country. Not to worry though, advocates of GMO technology often compare GMO gene-changing processes with hybridization and cross-breeding, which have been going on for centuries. Unfortunately this could not be further from scientific fact. Genetic modification involves taking bacterial, animal or other foreign genes and shooting them into the genetic material of a plant or animal. GMOs have only been around since the mid 1990s when they entered the food chain untested and unlabeled. GMO manufacturers such as Dow, Bayer and Monsanto have received patents on GMO seeds, while at the same time claiming “substantial equivalence,” a term meaning GMO seeds are just like their non-GMO counterparts. The Food and Drug Administration has accepted this assertion of “substantial equivalence,” so GMO seeds are considered “generally recognized as safe” and are on the same list as products such as food coloring. They enter the marketplace without any human or animal safety testing. Companies such as Monsanto are legally allowed to introduce new GMO crops for sale without even notifying the FDA. It may be a little disconcerting to remember that Michael Taylor, President Obama’s food safety czar, was a former lobbyist for and vice president of public policy at Monsanto who supported introducing untested bovine growth hormone into U.S. milk supplies – a practice banned in dozens of countries. But back to the science: 80 percent of all GMO crops are herbicide tolerant, meaning they survive massive applications of herbicides that would otherwise kill them. GMO alfalfa is an herbicide-resistant crop. These crops can be grown with significantly increased applications of glyphosate-containing herbicides (like Roundup). The amount of herbicides used in the United States has increased substantially: 383 million additional pounds have been sprayed on these herbicide-tolerant crops just in the last 13 years alone. A huge portion of this – 46 percent – was applied in 2007-08 as a result of the herbicide resistance in weeds that grow in GMO crop fields. The safety of Roundup has been controversial – it has been shown to bioaccumulate in the soil, bind managanese (an important trace mineral) and make it unavailable for crops. Roundup is also a teratogen (causes birth defects) in amphibians and poultry. Unfortunately for all of us, herbicide resistance in the United States is also resulting in a sizable increase in the use of the toxic herbicide 2,4-D. It is acknowledged that this overuse of herbicides and planting of Bt-corn (a GMO crop that produces its own pesticide) is in part responsible for the rise of superweeds and invasive superbugs across the Midwest. In some fields, the superweeds have gotten so bad that weeds have to be cut by hand with machetes and are so thick, that along with the unusually strong and sharp cornstalks, farmers are having to buy Kevlar tires for their tractors. What about the animals and humans that eat GMO food? The biotech industry asserts that genetically modified material from soy or corn does not makes its way into the bloodstream or have any effect on human gut bacteria. Monsanto’s own feeding studies, however, showed that the genetic material in GMO corn that makes it pest-resistant was transferred to the beneficial bacteria in the intestinal tract of humans eating GMO corn. This potential for creating a pesticide factory in the human gut has gone untested. Recent research has shown that GMO corn insecticidal proteins are found in the blood of pregnant women and their fetuses. Animal research has shown intestinal, liver, kidney and reproductive toxicity from both GM corn and soy. This does not bode well for the assertion of “substantial equivalence.” The local planting of GMO alfalfa, corn and soy will add increasing amounts of Roundup in our soil, water and the crops themselves. The wind can also carry pollens from GMO crops many miles. Gene cross-pollination contamination occurs from birds and bees. Many thousands of acres of organic and non-GMO crops may be contaminated. One of the real worst-case scenarios is that non-GMO alfalfa gets contaminated by GMO alfalfa. Alfalfa is a food staple for livestock – this could be a real threat to the entire organic meat and dairy industry. Proposition 37, an initiative that would require labeling of GMOs the same way they’re already labeled in more than 60 countries, was recently put before voters in California, where Monsanto and friends ran a $50 million ad and spending campaign against he measure. There has been no victory yet for the big pro-GMO junk food and pesticide groups that created this blitz: 3.3 million ballots have yet to be counted and results will not be certified until Dec. 14. We’ll keep our fingers crossed. More than 90 percent of Americans are in favor of GMO labeling; we want and deserve to know what’s in our food. A 30-state coalition has already formed to get initiatives for GMO labeling going in every state. For information about how to help get GMO labeling started in Colorado, contact [email protected]. Lyn Patrick is a naturopathic doctor. Reach her at [email protected].

We took a look at the Quake Catcher Network back in its infancy and now it's making a real impact. QCN takes advantage of the accelerometers most modern laptops have built-in for protection, and puts them to use measuring seismic activity. The data is uploaded onto a central network for study, and tracked by way of a handy map. A single laptop's accelerometer can't match up to an industrial-strength seismic detector that's sensitive to earthquake activity for miles. In a network, however, QCN's laptop grid, 1,500-strong, forms a surprisingly sensitive web, and one that costs researchers virtually nothing. The cheap sensor net has already recorded quite a bit, from moderate shakes to a July quake in Los Angeles that rated 5.4 on the Richter scale. Still, the grid does have its shortcomings. The addition of GPS technology into laptops, for instance, would give QCN a lot more accuracy — but that seems right around the corner, anyway. It's a genius project that uses existing technology that'll only improve as consumer electronics do.

Critical Theory has a narrow and a broad meaning in philosophy and in the history of the social sciences. “Critical Theory” in the narrow sense designates several generations of German philosophers and social theorists in the Western European Marxist tradition known as the Frankfurt School. According to these theorists, a “critical” theory may be distinguished from a “traditional” theory according to a specific practical purpose : a theory is critical to the extent that it seeks human emancipation, “to liberate human beings from the circumstances that enslave them” (Horkheimer 1982, 244). Because such theories aim to explain and transform all the circumstances that enslave human beings, many “critical theories” in the broader sense have been developed. They have emerged in connection with the many social movements that identify varied dimensions of the domination of human beings in modern societies. In both the broad and the narrow senses, however, a critical theory provides the descriptive and normative bases for social inquiry aimed at decreasing domination and increasing freedom in all their forms. Critical Theory in the narrow sense has had many different aspects and quite distinct historical phases that cross several generations from the founding of the Institute for Social Research in 1929 to the present. Its distinctiveness as a philosophical approach that extends to ethics, political philosophy, and the philosophy of history is most apparent when considered in light of the history of the philosophy of the social sciences. Critical Theorists have long sought to distinguish their aims, methods, theories, and forms of explanation from standard understandings in both the natural and the social sciences. Instead, they have claimed that social inquiry ought to combine rather than separate the poles of philosophy and the social sciences : explanation and understanding, structure and agency, regularity and normativity. Such an approach, Critical Theorists argue, permits their enterprise to be practical in a distinctively moral (rather than instrumental) sense. They do not merely seek to provide the means to achieve some independent goal, but rather (as in Horkheimer’s famous definition mentioned above) seek “human emancipation” in circumstances of domination and oppression. This normative task cannot be accomplished apart from the interplay between philosophy and social science through interdisciplinary empirical social research (Horkheimer 1993). While Critical Theory is often thought of narrowly as referring to the Frankfurt School that begins with Horkheimer and Adorno and stretches to Marcuse and Habermas, any philosophical approach with similar practical aims could be called a “critical theory,” including feminism, critical race theory, and some forms of post-colonial criticism. In the following, Critical Theory when capitalized refers only to the Frankfurt School. All other uses of the term are meant in the broader sense and thus not capitalized. When used in the singular, “a critical theory” is not capitalized, even when the theory is developed by members of the Frankfurt School in the context of their overall project of Critical Theory. Horkheimer, M. 1982. Critical Theory. New York : Seabury Press. Horkheimer, M. 1993. Between Philosophy and Social Science. Cambridge : MIT Press. (Source – Stanford Encylopedia of Philosophy : http://plato.standford.edu/entries/critical-theory/)

The Systems Involved in the Earthship Evolution: At the point when all of the systems came together in a cohesive way to create a home we realized that they were more expensive than a conventional home. The people who would be interested in buying an Earthship over a conventional home were those who wanted the security of independent utilities no matter what the cost and those seeking an environmentally friendly living option. Most people, however, would be forced by economics to choose the cheaper, less secure, environmentally hazardous, conventional direction. Canon, an early experiement on the path to achieving the Earthship model. Right after we overcame the huge challenge of learning enough to make these “earth machines” work for people and the Earth, we had to simplify and streamline them into something that could compete economically with the price of conventional approaches to housing. No matter how significant the fact that these buildings put people and their relationship to the earth in a very secure situation for the future, most people would still choose a conventional home because it was still easier to obtain in terms of financial cost. We then spent another decade on this simplification and streamlining until finally in the early 2000’s, we arrived. We had developed a fully independent home that provided shelter, utilities and food, that could be built with recycled materials found anywhere in the world and costs much the same as a conventional home. We could then present our case: the Earthship costs next to nothing to operate while the conventional home for the same price costs a significant amount to operate, not to mention the questionable future availability and viability of the resources required to operate a conventional home. We had arrived! The satisfaction was unfortunately short lived. The economic housing crisis of 2007 hit and we realized a very significant fact: conventional housing itself was far too expensive all over the developed world for the majority of the population to afford. Many people in many countries lost their conventional homes and they were in crisis. During our developmental period we presented many models of Earthships for the various financial strata but we observed that the majority of the people of Earth could not afford any of the available housing. We had arrived only to find out that we needed to keep on going. We were faced with a new challenge. We needed to simplify even more and develop a sustainable home that was more affordable than conventional homes. We have to find secure sustenance for people that is not subject to the monster called the economy. We have to make this sustainable vessel, the Earthship, render the existing system insignificant. Earthship Malawi, Africa. Earthships on Democracy Now! "Earthship Biotecture": Renegade New Mexico Architect’s Radical Approach to Sustainable Living New Mexico residents are trying to a break free… Live free and comfortable in any climate in an Earthship By Todd Gunter | April 2012 - Vol 9, No 4 TAOS, New Mexico - Twenty three years ago, while… Heat your house with car tyres and earth Energy hungry America teaches the world how to build ecological houses. A dirt cheap and 100 percent ecological house that… Creating beauty and shelter from trash Innovative architects and companies are turning discarded items such as bottles, tires and jeans into earth-friendly building materials. And the… A peek into Earthship Biotecture by Jonah Reynolds | [email protected] Do you adapt a design to suit the location or suburb or is it purely… New Global Model at HQ Update New Zealand Earthship Update Earthship Malawi, Africa – Join Us! “Radically Sustainable” Earthships Architect Michael Reynolds in Los Angeles April 12-14

By the time the first simple electric motor controller products began to be used in manufacturing plants, electricians had been installing and serving motor controls and motor control centers for more than 50 years. Motor control (MC) technology has come a long way since then, and today’s motor control center (MCC) does much more than start and stop electric motors. It may include variable frequency drives, programmable controllers and metering capabilities. Roger Innis, an estimator/project manager with Baker Electric in Des Moines, Iowa, began his career as an electrician in 1978. “There were no process controls then. It was hard wiring relay logic,” Innis said. “There were some electronic motor controls, but they were either OEM type for specific equipment or were a part of very large system projects. The structure of the hardware and power and distribution components haven’t changed a lot, but the controls have changed 100 times over. “Today, 90 percent of motor control systems are process controlled with multiple individual controls with digital processor ‘brains’ that make them fully programmable for start and stop and give them the capability to monitor all conditions from whether they are on or off to how much voltage is being used. Most large systems have graphic software to visually show displays of system components with animation and real-time information about what the system is doing, including whether motors are on or off; instrument status, such as levels, pressures, flows; and other functions that are part of the process. The entire process can be viewed as a graphic depiction of the system or systems.” Basic controls are available that simply need to be positioned and connected, or MC components can be configured to meet a facility’s specific requirements with options including separate control transformers, control switches, pilot lamps, additional control terminal blocks, different types of bimetal and solid-state overload protection relays, and various classes of power fuses and circuit breakers. Options for contractors Many medium and large electrical contractors have experience servicing motor controls. Their involvement varies from installing systems of designs and components specified by others to involvement in major projects where they are one of the project’s integrators. Innis said the level of involvement that is right for an electrical contractor depends on many factors, including the size of the company, experience of its staff members, the geographic area where it works, the types of clients it serves, and the company’s goals. “The dilemma many contractors face is the decision whether to move from simply installing MCs to investing in project management and field technical staffs to participate in design and specifying components of a project,” Innis said. “Management has to weigh the costs of investing in personnel and advanced training, and to recover the investment that it requires means committing to pursuing motor control projects over the long haul. For example, it would not make sense for a medium-size contractor of our size based in Iowa to staff up for large industrial projects of multinational or international companies that are in distant locations.” From his early experience as a motor control specialist and managing MC projects for Baker Electric, Innis identified four basic levels of MC involvement for electrical contractors. Industrial and manufacturing facilities These are straightforward projects, often in large manufacturing facilities in which the owner simply needs the contractor to install the MCs. They may lead to the opportunity for other electrical work. Owners of these projects usually have proprietary equipment and in-house programming criteria that mandates they perform configuration and programming. Manufacturers of these controls usually have a corporate purchasing structure that allows the factory to purchase equipment direct. The cost of the controls and related equipment is taken out of electrical contractor’s portion of a project, so there is not a lot of cost associated with performing the control work from a technical or engineering standpoint. Electricians need to be trained for specific control-system installation, but the cost is minimal due to the facility support and normal training. Contractors who serve regular clients well and have long-term relationships will have the edge for getting MC work when it comes along. MCs are part of a complete package that includes industrial equipment, such as conveyors, sorters, palletizers, and metal shredders for recycling scrap metal. “These projects are usually done by a specialty contractor for a specific system, or the system supplier is a contractor working on a complete turnkey project,” Innis said. The contractor also may have an electrical staff that does the control work. Most of these projects have programmable logic controller-based (PLC) controls. An option here is to pursue relationships with system suppliers or contractors for the electrical work. This requires management training/expertise, and electricians have to be experienced with different types of control systems due to the variety of such. MC experience is necessary for these projects. Upgrading old MC systems There is a continuing need to upgrade old motor controls, which typically requires replacing hardwired controls with PLC-based components, replacing old PLC-based controls with newer ones, or replacing all existing controls. Most new systems are coming out with Ethernet communications ability, and many use Internet protocol-addressable devices that require replacement of front-end components. “Such projects provide the electrical contractor the opportunity to control all elements of a project,” Innis said. “When regular clients require MC system upgrades, most contractors will want to do the project. Large contractors likely can perform these projects without having to hire more staff. For smaller contractors, they can be a means to recover costs for training personnel in MC work, and [the work] permits the contractor to design the project. If no designer is on staff, a consultant can be hired. Again, establishing and maintaining good relationships are very important. Why allow a competitor to get a foot in the door?” MCs bid part of general electrical package Examples of such projects are a municipal water or wastewater treatment facility or pumping station in which the primary project contract is for earth work, a new structure and equipment, and MCs are included in the contract. “Most of these projects are bid as a prime contract for the entire project,” Innis said. “Usually the electrical contractor is asked to include the MCs in the electrical bid package for the power and distribution systems. Control equipment and installations are either in the electrical 16,000 divisions of specs or are in specialty sections by themselves, division 13,000, for example. The control specifications usually identify one to three different sources of equipment, but limit the suppliers to those that are familiar with customer requirements or have similar existing control systems that are operating at customers’ facilities.” For such projects, Innis said, the electrical contractor must decide whether to take the step up to being an integrator and hire additional staff and provide a different level of training. The goal would be to pursue approval as a MC vendor. Frequently, the MC package is larger than the general electrical package, and sometimes, some of the invited vendors do not bid. The electrical contractor then is placed at a disadvantage because he is completely reliant on vendors for a successful bid. Occasionally, the vendors are working with others on the MC install package. “If the decision is to proceed, the only way to achieve a return on the investment in people and training is by volume of work, and that must be built slowly. It may be difficult to get established as an integrator and that means newly trained personnel may not have full-time work,” Innis said. Manufacturers and suppliers MC components are available through several suppliers. Innis said brands often are strong in specific geographic areas. Peter Lugo, product line manager, Motor Control Centers, Eaton Corp., believes electrical contractors can do more to take advantage of the potential offered by the MC market. “The role for the electrical contractor today has changed from being an installer to that of a solutions provider where the contractor can be involved early in the design and application of the motor control projects,” Lugo said. “This applies primarily in design/build projects.” Factors driving the changing role for contractors include customers wanting a comprehensive design/build/maintain solution on their projects from engineers and contractors, he said. “Customers are increasingly expecting the contractor to be knowledgeable in the startup process of complex motor control products, such as adjustable frequency drives, reduced voltage starters and harmonic correction units,” Lugo said. “Contractors should avail of the training available on complex motor control products from the product manufacturers.” Lugo said changes in MC equipment include design for arc flash safety, predictive diagnostics, increase in data trending and communication capabilities, and ease of installation. Dave Turchick, Schneider Electric Square D business director for control products, said many electrical contractors specialize in installation but rely on others to specify pieces and parts of the application. “The loss or lack of specialization means that it’s critical for motor control systems to be intuitive, simple and provide just the right functionality for the application,” Turchick said. Some electrical contractors haven’t fully taken advantage of the MC market. Turchick compared advances in MC equipment to the way the digital age has moved from individual technologies, such as wireless telephones, MP3 players and GPS devices, to a consolidated, compact solution that houses all of those capabilities into one device. MC systems should be simple, open, robust and compact and can be programmed to a customer’s exact specifications with the push of a button. “Simplification in integration, installation and maintenance, and flexible use with connectivity and commissioning is a trend for the future,” Turchick said. GRIFFIN, a construction and tools writer from Oklahoma City, can be reached at [email protected].

Technical progress in the automobile industry is unbroken. But, the sector has still some hard nuts to crack: "Lead-free materials" is one of the challenges — hidden behind this challenge is a EU environmental directive which, based on a step-by-step plan, gradually bans all lead-containing materials and components from automotive vehicles — such as piezoelectric components. These elements are important for diesel engine injectors, for example, which control the supply of fuel to the combustion chamber. The problem: Up to now lead-zirconate-titanate (PZT) is the material of choice when fast switchable piezoelectric applications in cars are concerned. To find alternatives without containing the heavy metal of lead is not an easy task, however, because in raw condition all alternatively used materials still do not have the desired properties. A simulation approach which the researchers of Fraunhofer Institute for Mechanics of Materials IWM have developed gets the search going now: "We have to chemically and physically modify the potential candidates in such a way that in the end the replacement materials behave similarly well as the PZT", says Professor Dr. Christian Elsässer, group leader at the IWM. A candidate such as this is potassium-sodium-niobate (KNN). Like PZT it is a ferroelectric monocrystal, but as technical ceramics with uncontrolled atom vacancies and grain boundaries in the crystal lattice, KNN is initially useless as a material. "For this reason, we have to make a virtue of necessity and have to introduce the right doping, i.e. foreign atoms, in order to improve the properties of the ceramic KNN," says Christian Elsässer. Where and how these doping atoms have to be introduced is figured out by the researchers by means of computer simulation: Different ferroelectric properties are obtained depending at which position of the crystal lattice the foreign atoms — such as copper — are placed. "At one position, the copper donates electrons, at another position it prefers to accept them. Dipoles are formed or they are not formed depending on the lattice position," explains Christian Elsässer. These solid-state physical parameters and a number of others shall be determined in advance. Researchers do this with the help of "physics in the computer". This is by no means a trivial task because the quantum mechanical computations require complex atom model systems and big computer capacity. But on the other hand, a lot of time and money can be saved in the development of materials, because on the one hand fewer synthesis and analysis experiments in the laboratory are required. On the other hand computer simulation also produces important thermodynamic parameters for the sintering process, such as pressure and temperature ranges at which the components have to be manufactured. "The engineers receive synthesis instructions for the material at the same time," says the researcher. In this way, the automobile industry can achieve the lead-free target faster. But not only this sector profits from Fraunhofer technology. Lead-containing materials are also present in frequency filters of mobile phone or in mechanical sensors and actuators. Ferroelectric capacitor components are competitive in the race for records when it comes to saving ever bigger data volumes on the smallest of space.

Like most people, water conservation wasn’t on Mary Ann Dickinson’s radar 30 years ago. With her sights set on environmental protection, her career entailed issuing permits and governmental affairs. But after a state law in the late 1980s added water conservation to her list of responsibilities at a Connecticut water utility, it only took Dickinson a matter of months to discover something that still drives her today: Almost everyone—including the green community—takes water for granted. “I quickly figured out that it was a largely ignored topic area,” Dickinson remembers. “Everyone was consumed with energy. Nobody thought about water. Water was presumed to be abundant enough, and unless you were in India or Africa, water was not something that you cared about. As a result, it became sort of a motivated issue for me.” And now, 24 years later, Dickinson is what some might call one of the modern mothers of water conservation. As founder, president, and CEO of Chicago-based Alliance for Water Efficiency, Dickinson has been instrumental in advocating the need for water conservation in North America, as well as other parts of the world. In addition to creating the only national nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting water efficiency, Dickinson was also part of a group of advocates that pushed for water to have a seat at the USGBC. The Council now has a water-efficiency technical advisory group—a group chaired by one of the Alliance for Water Efficiency’s board members. Dickinson also advocated for a water label to be added to consumer products, which eventually led to the development of the WaterSense program. She was even part of a group dedicated to bringing tighter U.S. standards for toilets in the early 1990s. Those standards still exist today. Even with those major accomplishments under her belt, Dickinson will be the first to tell you water is still more of an afterthought—if not a nuisance—to most people, including the green building community. “One of the things that has already frustrated me about water efficiency is that somehow we are the stepchild in the green building process, even though a community can’t grow without adequate water supplies,” she says. “Planners and builders just always assume that it is the water utility’s job to get the water for them. It’s not their problem.” As you might have guessed, that’s not how Dickinson sees it. “I want green building professionals to realize that water is an important piece of that whole picture they design,” she says. “They need to be thinking about more sustainable ways to design their developments so that they are not always relying on somebody piping in the water and piping away the waste. That’s the traditional model that we’ve used for 100 years, but that’s a very consumptive model.” She says one of the problems is that there are many myths about water use. “I think there is a significant misunderstanding about what saves water, what doesn’t, what is cost effective, what isn’t, and what people should do that truly would save water,” Dickinson says. For instance, many building professionals and utilities assume that if they are creating a development for an additional 100,000 people, they need to come up with that much extra water to accommodate the new residents. “It’s not a straight line extrapolation,” Dickinson says. “Depending on how you design a development and how efficiently you design the water use, you can actually use far less water than what was originally envisioned. In fact, per-capita water use around this country is decreasing.” Another myth is that consumer behavior is one of the reasons water use is declining. Although education efforts are starting to reach the consumer, Dickinson says the real reason for the decrease is because of standards efforts. Today’s dishwashers and washing machines, for example, use 60% less water than they did 10 to 15 years ago—something the average consumer doesn’t even realize. Homeowners also think that they use the most water inside of their homes, but statistics show that 50% to 60% of their water is actually being applied outside—on their lawn. And furthermore, says Dickinson, homeowners generally don’t realize that they are irrigating with treated, drinking-quality water. “We are spending billions of dollars nationally in terms of water treatment just to throw it out on the lawn,” Dickinson says. “We need to have a better assessment of how much water we are going to be putting out there and what level of quality that water should be.” It’s also important to understand that it takes energy to treat and pump that water. In fact, Dickinson believes an understanding of the relationship between water and energy is the only way to be truly sustainable. “Just because something is energy efficient, it doesn’t mean it is automatically water efficient. You have to run the numbers and figure it out,” she says. Take green roofs as an example. If a builder based in Phoenix is irrigating a newly installed green roof with potable water, he is likely using more energy to pump that water than if he would have never put in the green roof at all. The same is true for many tankless water heaters, according to Dickinson. “Tankless water heaters clearly save energy,” she says. “But statistics all show that when presented with an unlimited hot water source, people often take longer showers.” The encouraging news it that water is starting to find its way on the green priority list. Energy Star now includes water consumption as part of its efficiency equations for appliances, and the government added water standards to its dishwasher requirements in 2010 and to clothes washer requirements in 2011. Competition among product manufacturers is also helping push water efficiency to the forefront. “For a while, some [water-efficient] products had performance issues, but now they are just spectacularly good,” Dickinson says. “That kind of competitiveness and new innovation is happening in water efficiency as it has been happening in energy. These are big changes that we didn’t see 10 years ago.” And if Dickinson has her way, the next 10 years will see even bigger changes. Although she admits that it is “tiresome” to constantly find water efficiency at the bottom of most builders’ check lists, Dickinson and her organization have no intention of slowing their efforts. “We want to encourage developers to think about how they would build a house that’s super water efficient and cost effective,” she says. “There is a lot that can be done that is very low tech, very affordable, and very beautiful.”

The UN says that the problem is 1 billion hungry people. Columbia University scholar Jeffrey Sachs explains that the solution is foreign aid that attacks the “poverty trap.” Then, markets can develop and people can become more productive. By contrast, NYU scholar William Easterly says that aid is actually the problem. With free markets and the right incentives, success comes when people figure out their own solutions. This Foreign Policy article on world hunger presents the debate and then the work of its authors, 2 scholars from MIT. Introducing people from Indonesia and India, they illustrate the complexities of world hunger. The discuss calories and productivity, the impact of pregnant women taking iodide pills and working men consuming iron supplements. They ask why people might choose tastier food rather than a healthier diet of eggs and bananas. The Economic Lesson How are world hunger and the British coastline similar? Mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot could tell us. Dr. Mandelbrot was the father of fractal geometry and the idea that the closer you look, the more you see. From a distance, the British coastline will appear straight. However, looking closer and closer increasingly reveals indents and zigzags. Consequently, Dr. Mandelbrot believed that it was actually much longer and even infinite. The significance? Something we might think is simple is really complex. An Economic Question: Pondering how to diminish world hunger, consider the following from Duke University behavioral economist Dan Ariely. “…So we either simplify the problem and offer a solution, or embrace the complexity and do nothing.”

What are biosimilars? Biosimilars are similar, but not identical, versions of approved biological medicines no longer protected by patents. How do biosimilars differ from “generic” pharmaceuticals? Generic pharmaceuticals are usually relatively simple, small-molecule drug products that can be manufactured via chemical synthesis to create an exact replica of the original product. By comparison, biosimilars are not required to be identical copies of the original products because most biological medicines are far more complex and it is therefore virtually impossible to create exact replicas. Although an exact copy of the original product is not required, it is essential to create a biosimilar that has no significant differences to the original product and is highly similar in terms of safety, purity and efficacy. How are biosimilars regulated? Many countries have established a legal framework to allow approval of biosimilars via an abbreviated registration process. As with all biological medicines, biosimilars are assessed prior to approval by regulatory authorities, for example the European Medicines Agency (EMA). A key component of the regulatory submission for biosimilars is the comparability data derived from thorough analysis of both the biosimilar and the original product to demonstrate that there are no significant differences. What products have been approved as biosimilars? Fourteen biosimilars have been approved so far in Europe within the product classes of human growth hormone, granulocyte stimulating factor and erythropoietin. Biosimilars have also been approved in Japan, Canada, Australia and numerous other countries throughout the world. Biosimilars are not marketed in the United States because until recently there was not a legal pathway that allowed their regulatory approval. The required legislation was enacted in March 2010 and FDA is currently writing the associated guidelines. How are biosimilars manufactured? Biosimilar and biological medicines are usually produced using living systems through recombinant DNA technology. Each company developing biosimilars typically develops and maintains its own proprietary cell line and manufacturing process, which often includes multiple stages to ensure that the target product is sufficiently separated from residual cell line contaminants. How do we ensure biosimilars are sufficiently similar to the original products? It is challenging to create biosimilars that have no significant differences to the original products because biological products are generally complex and require complicated manufacturing processes involving the use of living cells. Significant advances in process and analytical science, however, allow this goal to be achieved. At all stages during process development there are strategies that can be employed to help create a biosimilar product, from selecting the correct cell line to modifying a manufacturing process so that only the correct product is purified. Supporting this are current analytical methods that are extremely sensitive and precise and provide detailed evaluation of any differences between the original product and biosimilar. This process and analytical science is the foundation of creating biosimilars that have no significant differences to the original product. Testing in animals or humans may also be required to further investigate any differences; however, as it is unethical and unnecessary to perform these studies without reason, animal and human studies are only conducted after careful consideration. Are biosimilars of high quality? All biological medicines, including biosimilars, manufactured in Europe are made according to current Good Manufacturing Practice (cGMP), which dictates that they are produced consistently and to a high quality standard. Manufacturing facilities are subject to routine cGMP and Pre-Approval Inspections (PAI) for cGMP compliance, therefore ensuring that high standards are in place. As with all biological medicines, manufacturers of biosimilars must monitor the effects of their products once approved and supplied for medical use. This is known as “pharmacovigilance” and includes mechanisms to detect and assess any adverse reactions, any of which need to be appropriately communicated. Why are biosimilars important? Biological medicines are often more expensive than small molecule pharmaceuticals as they are difficult to develop and manufacture. Although many biological drugs are very important in the treatment of conditions such as cancer and diabetes, their expensive nature means that not all patients who could benefit from these medicines have the necessary access. Biosimilars represent one way in which patients can gain greater access to affordable, high quality medicines. When biological medicines are no longer protected by patents, they become available for development and commercialisation by other companies, which introduces competition in the market. Also, because the initial research is not required and development timelines are shortened, biosimilars cost less to develop than original products, ultimately resulting in price reductions for patients. Although this price decrease is generally less than that seen for small molecule generics even a 30 to 50% price reduction provides significant savings in overall healthcare costs.

Intersect Working Papers Provides Iowa-specific research on education issues published by the Iowa Department of Education. Gaps exist in the achievement of Iowa students. In 2010, the percent of all students in grade four enrolled for full academic year (FAY) scoring proficient, as measured by the Iowa Tests, was 78.5 percent. The percent of Black (54.5 percent), Hispanic (61.2 percent), free or reduced lunch eligible (66.6 percent), or English Language Learner (ELL) (51.3 percent) students was considerably less. Similarly, in eighth grade mathematics, the percent of all students enrolled for full academic year scoring proficient was 76.5 percent. Again, the percent of Black (45.9 percent), Hispanic (59.9 percent), free or reduced lunch eligible (62.1 percent), or ELL (41.5) students was significantly less. The achievement gap is defined as the observed difference on a number of educational measures between the performance of groups of students, especially groups classified by race/ethnicity, ability, and socioeconomic status. The achievement gap in Iowa can be observed on a variety of measures, including standardized test scores, grade point average, dropout rates, and college-enrollment rates. While most of the data presented in this article comes from Iowa, gaps exist for these groups throughout the United States. Context: • NCLB Growth: Are non-proficient students making progress toward proficiency? • What about the students who are already proficient? Does their growth continue? ABSTRACT—Student level data were used in this study to examine the relationship between student performance on ACT Mathematics and course-taking in mathematics. The purpose is to tease out earlier achievement, coursework and later achievement. In order to achieve the objective, students’ ninth grade ITED Mathematics results four years prior were used as a baseline measure to control for achievement levels and subsequent course-taking patterns were assessed to determine the impact on ACT scores. An effort was made to study the education opportunities and outcomes of students from different subgroups and schools in different sizes. The results support that higher level mathematics courses taken has a strong impact on ACT Mathematics scores for all students in study across all achievement levels. Purpose—Iowa has used a No Child Left Behind (NCLB) growth model since 2007. 2009 was the first time that growth data for three years have been included in making Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) decisions for schools and districts. The NCLB growth model project focuses only on students who are not proficient in a previous year, and remain non-proficient in a subsequent year. They are counted as meeting growth, and thus AYP, when they make significant progress toward becoming proficient. What remains is the lingering question of “What about the students who are already proficient?” As it is important to study the academic achievement gains of non-proficient students, to make sure they are on track to becoming proficient, it is equally important to study the academic achievement gains of students who are already proficient, to make sure they are improving in their own learning. Thus, this analysis is a study of the academic achievement improvement of students throughout the proficiency spectrum. Background—The Iowa Department of Education (IDE) has collected individual student level data since 2004-2005 through Project EASIER (Electronic Access System for Iowa Education Records). In the EASIER system, each student has an assigned unique state student identification number.

Fingerprint Fall Trees Yellow and red make orange! Mix up some fun fall colors, and watch as your child creates vibrant seasonal prints. A simple finger tip can be used to make an entire tree, complete with beautiful autumn leaves. This Fingerprint Fall Tree activity will encourage your child to learn about nature and her environment, while promoting aesthetic awareness and building important fine motor skills. Explore color, pattern, shape, and texture with your child as she learns about the fall season and grows her own imaginative forest full of fall foliage. What You Need: - Tempera paint

3 themes, 44 chapters, 2,066 exercises covering 5th Grade curriculum in Language Arts Students in fifth grade expand and deepen concepts, skills, and strategies learned at earlier grades. They make new connections as they experience more sophisticated ideas and begin to study subjects in more formal ways. They read and write a variety of texts with greater breadth and depth, critically analyzing and evaluating information and ideas. In iTooch Language Arts 5th Grade Language Arts, fifth graders revisit and refine concepts and their knowledge of ELA conventions as they become more sophisticated, independent learners. The student will use reading and writing to learn about and understand their world and other cultures, increase vocabulary knowledge through wide reading, word study, discussion, and content area study. This titles concentrates on the fundamentals of the reading and writing of English and covers the basics in grammar, verbs, vocabulary and spelling. It supplements and reinforces the work done in class by focusing on the basics every 5th Grader is expected to master. Loaded with thousands of questions, apps cover official educational curricula & comply with Common Core State Standards. This app creates great game dynamics and incentives, so that the user always wants to progress further in the application. Apps embed a blackboard and a calculator for students to write and calculate directly on the screen without having to leave the app. A lesson summary is attached to each chapter, to underline the core concepts students should know to answer questions. Move instantly from one screen to the next. Stop waiting for information to load from a server: bandwidth is no longer an issue. Apps automatically sync in the background in order to load new activities whenever an Internet connection is available. Are you a school representative who would like to buy iTooch 5th Grade Language Arts for your entire organization? Good news! iTooch 5th Grade Language Arts is eligible for the Apple Volume Purchase Program (VPP) for Educational Institutions. We will offer you special pricing for purchases of 20 apps or more. To take advantage of this offer, you can buy our iTooch 5th Grade app, instead of buying the content as an in-app purchase of our iTooch Elementary School app. For more information about the Volume Purchase Program, you can consult Apple’s website. Have questions in mind? Feel free to contact us. Language Arts Grade 5 author, Johanna Steinhaus, is an English language teacher and she is the founder of La Petite Génie, an English language learning consultancy practice. She has an MA in the History of the Decorative Arts. Before teaching English as a Foreign Language to adults in Paris, France, Johanna was a Grade 4 school teacher in Brooklyn, NY. As a business English language trainer, Johanna specializes in pronunciation and oral fluency, which are two areas which often challenge English language learners. Using techniques based on phonics and other pedagogical tools, she has developed a unique program which allows her students to understand the 44 basic sounds of English, to identify them in writing and to pronounce them correctly. Her students attain greater confidence in their expression and improve their ability to communicate while increasing their vocabulary and grammatical proficiency. Language Arts Grade 5 copy-editor, Jody Smith, is a 5th Grade teacher. She has a Master of Science in Elementary Education. Jody is a passionate school teacher with more than 12 years of experience. Before contributing to the iTooch project for eduPad, she has led and/or participated in numerous educational projects and mastered several innovative methods such as the Fountas & Pinnell Benchmark Assessment System and Smart Board technologies. Jody has worked with 3rd Grade children diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), and learning, physical and emotional disabilities.

Skip to main content More Search Options A member of our team will call you back within one business day. Urostomy is surgery that provides a new way for the body to get rid of urine (waste fluid). It is done when the bladder is diseased or damaged. During the surgery, the surgeon brings part of the urinary tract or some of the digestive tract through the abdominal wall. Urostomy can be done in any of the ways described below. In each case, a small opening (stoma) is made on the abdomen (belly). This allows urine and mucus to pass out of the body. This organ system rids the body of urine and is made up of many parts. They include two kidneys, two ureters, the bladder, and the urethra. An ileal conduit. This surgery makes a passage (conduit) from a segment of the ileum (last section of the small intestine). Urine leaves the body through this passage. One end of the conduit is sewn shut. The other end is brought through the abdominal wall to form a stoma. The ureters are detached from the bladder and connected to the conduit. Urine flows through the ureters and into the conduit. Urine then leaves the body through the stoma. This surgery does not change the way stool passes from the body. An ileal conduit is the most common type of urostomy. A colon conduit. This surgery is done much like an ileal conduit. But with a colon conduit the passage is made from a piece of the colon and not the ileum. The resulting stoma is bigger, as the colon is wider than the ileum. A ureterostomy. This surgery brings the ureters through the abdominal wall to form one or two stomas. In this case, the stoma or stomas are smaller. This is because the ureters are more slender than the ileum or the colon. The stoma is an opening on the abdomen through which urine and mucus can pass. It is made by bringing the end of the ileum, the colon, or one or both ureters through the abdominal wall. This end is then turned back on itself, like a cuff. The stoma is pink or red and moist. This is because the insides of the ileum, the colon, and the ureters are like the inside of the mouth. The stoma shrinks to its final size 6 to 8 weeks after surgery. Then it will be round or oval. The stoma will either be flat or it will sit 1/4" to 1/2" above the skin. With an ileal or a colon conduit, both urine and mucus pass through the stoma. After a ureterostomy, only urine comes out of the stoma. Urine draining from the stoma is typically collected into an attachable pouch. Urine can be drained from the pouch at your convenience or when the pouch is full.

| Biennale Venedig | Kulturveranstaltungen in Venedig | Kunst und Kultur in Venedig | Ausstellungen in Venedig Kunst und Kultur: detail 31 Dezember 2012 The Ancient Jewish Ghetto in Venice The Jewish Ghetto of Venice, the first ghetto in Europe, was established on 29th of March 1516 by the government of Venetian Serenissima Republic. It was an area where Jews were forced to live and which they could not leave from sunset to dawn. The isolation of the Jewish community in Venice lasted until 1797, the year the Republic felt to Napoleon who finally decreeed the end of the segregation and recognized equal rights to the Jews. The name Ghetto seems to derive from the iron foundries that were active in the that area of the city, where metal was cast (geto in Venetian) to make cannons; the name was later applied to neighborhoods in other cities where Jews were required to live. To get to the Ghetto, take vaporetto boat line 1 get off at the San Marcuola - Casinò stop; a short walk will then take you to the former gates of the ghetto. Once you are in the square of Campo del Ghetto Nuovo you can decide whether to continue your visit independently or with an authorized guid from the Jewish Museum. What sets the Ghetto apart from the rest of the city are some prevalently structural peculiarities that a careful visitor will notice at once. With the settlement of the new community, the layout of the area did not change much. However, the residential and functional buildings took on a new aspect: since the area could not expand horizontally, vertical additions were built to form tower houses - buildings with a number of stories that were most unusual for Venice, and rooms with very low ceilings (often less than 2 meters high). Venice conceded a particular role to the Ghetto and its inhabitants: Jews were the only ones allowed to operate as pawnbrokers and lend money. The presence of the Pawns Banks turned the area from a district with a purely local character into an important place of exchange between Jews and Gentiles, as the latter could not charge interest on money loans because of religious reasons. Between the 16th Century and the first half of the 17th, the various ethinc groups began building their synagogues (called Schools or Schole). A visit to the synagogues is the highlight of this tour. There are five in the Ghetto: The Schola Tedesca (German school), The Schola Canton (literally, the corner Synagogue, following the ashkenazim ritual like the German school), and the Schola Italiana all overlook the Campo dle Ghetto Nuovo, while Schola Levantina (levantine school) and Schola Spagnola (Spanish school) face the Campiello delle Scuole in the nearby Old Ghetto. The buildings themselves form an architectural complex of great interest. The Ghetto Museum, located in Campo del Ghetto Nuovo, houses objects and artfacts used during prayer or to decorate the synagogues. On the opposite side of the square, a sybolic strand of barbed wire by Lithuanian artis Arbit Blatas commemorates and reminds passer-by and visitors of the tragedy of the deportation of the Jews to the concentration camps. Next to the memorial is the Jewish Rest Home, founded in 1890 and still in use today, from where a sad procession of Venetian Jews left for the camps during the years of nazi-fascist persecution. In their memory, on the adjacent wall of the Ghetto, a new monument by Arbit blatas titled The Last Train (1979) record their names and ages. OPENING TIME AND ADMISSION From October untill May: 10am-5.30pm, Friday early closing possible From June untill September: 10am-7pm Closed on Saturdays and Jewish Holidays. Closed 25 December, 1 January and 1 May Admission: Euro 3 reduction Euro 2 Reduction for: Students and groups max 20 persons. Guided tours at synagogues every hour from 10.30am to 4.30pm (Italian-English). Guided tours in various languages by reservation. Admission with guided tour Euro 8.50, reduction Euro 7(students or groups max 20 persons); school Euro 4 Guided tours in Italian and/or English to the Ancient Jewish Cemetery (at the Lido of Venice) phone reservation reservation Admission to the cemetery with guided tour Euro 8.50, reduction Euro 7 (students or groups max 20 persons). Address: Cannaregio, 2902/b Ghetto Nuovo ZIP code 30121 - Venezia (VE) Phone: (+39)041715359 (+39)041723007 VISIT OUR SPECIAL OFFER Überprüfen Sie online die Preise und die Verfügbarkeit!

development of CO2 emissions Whilst Eastern Europe/Eurasia`s emissions of CO2 will increase by 43% between 2009 and 2050 under the Reference scenario, under the Energy [R]evolution scenario they will decrease from 2,483 million tonnes in 2009 to 243 million tonnes in 2050. Annual per capita emissions will drop from 7.3 tonnes to 0.7 tonne. In spite of the phasing out of nuclear energy and increasing demand, CO2 emissions will decrease in the electricity sector. In the long run efficiency gains and the increased use of renewable energy in vehicles will reduce emissions in the transport sector. With a share of 43% of CO2, the power sector will be the largest sources of emissions in 2050. By 2050, Eastern Europe/Eurasia’s CO2 emissions are 94% below 1990 levels.

Study Concludes 'Double Whammy' Harms Murrelet ASTORIA, Ore. To protect the marbled murrelet, logging stopped across wide swaths of coastal old-growth forests in Oregon. But a new study indicates the small seabird may have been forced into decline not just by logging, but also by overfishing. Fleets that hauled sardines from the West Coast may have forced the murrelet to rely on poorer quality food, undermining their breeding, scientists from the University of California at Berkeley say. If correct, the theory may explain the dwindling of other populations of coastal birds, a point the researchers are now beginning to examine. "It looks like a lot of the more energetically valuable prey are less available to those seabirds now," said Ben Decker, lead author of the murrelet study which is to be published this year in the scientific periodical, Conservation Biology. The study suggests that fishery management decisions need to consider the effects on other species, the scientists said. Since 1992, the murrelet has been designated a threatened species in Washington, California and Oregon, mainly because of declines blamed on logging. That protection, along with those for the northern spotted owl, brought logging to a halt on many federal lands in the Northwest. The study does not contradict the earlier assumption that logging has hurt the murrelet by eroding its habitat. Rather, the research shows that the seabird probably endured a "double whammy" from the slashing of its habitat and erosion of its prey, Steve Beissinger, a professor of conservation biology at University of California at Berkeley, told The Oregonian. The scientists reached their conclusion after examining the chemical makeup of feathers from 136 murrelets in museum collections dating from 1895 to 1911, before the arrival of large West Coast fisheries. They compared those feathers with the plumage from 201 modern birds. Source: Associated Press

Biological Control at National Entomology and Plant Pathology Meetings The following is a continuation of brief summaries of some presentations made at the joint Meeting of the Entomological Society of America and American Phytopathological Society in Las Vegas (see previous issue). 1. Biological control of plant frost injury and fire blight disease with a competitive bacterium: ecological principles and practice - S. Lindow, Univ. California The practical use of BlightBan--which outcompetes the bacterium that causes fire blight to prevent infection--involves making sprays at just the right time. Too early and the flowers that need protection won't be open; too late and the fire blight-causing bacteria are already there and can't be stopped. Recommendations are application at 20% bloom, again at full bloom and once more at 2 weeks past full bloom. 2. Preliminary evaluation of Beauveria bassiana for adult suppression of western corn rootworm - B. Mullock, USDA, Brookings, SD Twenty-one isolates of the fungus B. bassiana, originally isolated from field-collected Diabroticina and European corn borer, were screened in laboratory and greenhouse studies. The most aggressive isolate killed 30, 50 and 87% of adult western corn rootworm when applied on corn plants in greenhouses at rate equivalents of 5 x 1012, 5 x 1013 and 5 x 1013 conidia/ha, respectively. Mortality was reduced when rootworms were placed on plants 1 or 2 days after fungal application. 3. Integrated application of two biocontrol agents for the control of Rhizoctonia stem rot of poinsettia - J. Hwang, North Carolina State Univ. One strain of Burkholderia cepacia was effective in suppressing Rhizoctonia stem rot during the rooting cube phase, while other isolates were more effective in suppressing disease after transplanting. 4. Interactions between pecan aphids and their shared green lacewing predators - M. Petersen, Univ. Arizona Two species of pecan aphids often co-occur in S. Arizona pecan orchards. Conservation biocontrol is unlikey to be implemented if both species cannot be controlled by predators. The lacewing Chyrsoperla nigricornis did not show a preference for one aphid species over the other, so may be a suitable natural enemy for pecan aphids. 5. How acarodomatia benefit a beneficial mite: Defense from predation and enhanced microclimate - A. Norton, Cornell Univ. The mite Orthotydeus lambi is an important consumer of grape powdery mildew. This mite is much more abundant on plants that posses acarodomatia (small tufts of hair on the under-side of leaves; commercial grape varieties do not have acrodomatia). It appears that acrodomatia (on Vitis riparia) provide a refuge from predation rather that improved microclimate. 6. Suppression of soybean cyst nematode, Heterodera glycines, by chitin degrading bacteria with chitin substrate - H. Tian, Univ. Arkansas Adding chitin to soil stimulates populations of bacteria, actinomycetes and a limited number of fungi with chitinolytic properties. These specific groups can attack nematode eggs and egg sacs, but are not equally effective. The amount of chitin added to the soil influences the effects of the bacteria. 7. Developing strategies and organisms for biocontrol of head scab of wheat - N. Khan, Ohio State Univ. Several antagonists have consistently reduced severity of scab of wheat, also known as Fusarium head blight and pink mold, and/or increased yield over controls. The best performers will continue to be tested to determine their commercial development potential. 8. Compatibility of Biological Control Agents of Soilborne Plant Pathogens and Entomopathogenic Fungi - R. Pereira, Univ. Tennessee Bacterial biocontrol agents (BBAs) of plant pathogenic fungi may also have a negative impact on entomopathogenic fungi (EF). Results with Metarhizium anisopliae and Beauveria bassiana demonstrate the possiblity of selecting isolates minimally affected by BBAs. Compatible isolates of BBAs and EF could be used in integrated microbial control of diseases and insects on crops. 9. Suppression of pea root diseases by Pseudomonas corrugata - W. Chun, Univ. Idaho This bacterium can be formulated as a dry powder with talc as a carrier. It increased yield of peas and decreased root and crown disease incidence whether used alone or in combination with fungicides. 10. Pathogenicity of the fungus Furia crustosa to the forest tent caterpillar, Malacosoma disstria - M. Filatas, Cornell Univ. Infection and dispersal of the fungus Furia crustosa is greatest at cooler temperatures typical when its host, forest tent caterpillar, is active in the spring. Soil moisture was not important, but temperature significantly affected caterpillar mortality. At higher temperatures fewer infective conidia were produced and resting spore formation increased. 11. Comparative efficacy of Beauveria bassiana, Bacillus thuringiensis, and the [insecticide], temik, for control of Colorado potato beetle - L. Lacey, USDA, Wapato, WA The fungus B. bassiana requires high humidity for germination and infection. In irrigated desert potatoes conditions were not adequate, even with regular overhead irrigation, until row closure. This resulted in poor control of beetles until row closure, at which time fair to good control was achieved. Yield was 33 tons/ha. Low and high rates of Bt produced fair to excellent beetle control and yielded 33 and 40 tons/ha and good survival of non-targets. Temik provided the greatest beetle control and potato yields (45 tons/ha) but lowest biodiversity. Plots treated with bacteria and fungi had low numbers of overwintering adult beetles. 12. The effects of horticultural oils, imidacloprid, and acephate on distribution, survival and parasitism of Unaspis euonymi in Pachysandra terminalis plantings - D. Sclar, Purdue Univ. Petroleum oils are widely recommended to reduce scale problems while minimizing the impact on their natural enemies in the landscape. However, fewer parasitized euonymus scales were found after treatment with oils or chemicals on Japanese pachysandra. Most of the overwintering and parasitized scales were found in the middle or lower portions of the ground cover where oils do not penetrate as well, so these materials do disrupt the natural enemies by killing their hosts. 13. Control of Sclerotinia sclerotiorum in dry beans using Coniothyrium minitans - E. Bremer, Agri-Canada, Leth-bridge, Alberta The fungus C. minitans applied to bean flowers prevented or decreased infection, except when disease pressure was very high, although control was not as good as with fungicides. Addition of a nutrient malt extract did not appear to enchance efficacy. Selected strains or different formulations might provide better control. - to be continued in the next issue of MBCN - |Return to Contents Menu Vol. VI No. 3| Go To Index

Sharks roamed the oceans before dinosaurs walked the land. They even survived the Permian mass extinction 252 million years ago, when over 90% of all species died off. Today, however, these top predators are disappearing from our oceans. They are in trouble on the Great Barrier Reef, have almost been eliminated from the Atlantic Ocean, and are a regular on the endangered species list. This magnificent animal, which has been around for over 400 million years, is falling victim to overfishing. Sharks are being taken from the oceans before they can replenish their populations. Many people believe these creatures hold the secret to long life. Reports of sharks with abnormalities are so rare that it's commonly thought they do not get cancer. Sharks have cartilage instead of bones, and lack bone marrow where humans produce immune cells. Sharks produce their immune cells in the spleen, thymus, esophagus and in unique tissues associated with the gonads. Since these immune cells circulate in the bloodstream, they offer a more efficient immune response. In humans, on the other hand, there is a brief lag before immune cells are produced in the bone marrow and mobilized into the bloodstream to fight off invaders. When a top predator such as the shark disappears, the rest of the ecosystem often spirals out of control. With declining large shark populations, the smaller sharks, skates, and rays increase in numbers and their prey then plummets. Off the coast of South Africa, for example, bony fish are disappearing due to increased smaller inshore sharks. Similarly, off the North Carolina coast, rays are depleting the bay scallop populations. The collapse of the Caribbean coral-reef ecosystem may also have been triggered by the overfishing of sharks. Millions of sharks are killed each year to supply a growing demand for shark fin soup – one of the most expensive foods available. Shark fins are said to contain the essence of virility, wealth and power. In fact, shark fins may actually be harmful to eat since sharks are often high in mercury. Processing the fins also frequently involves soaking them in industrial grade hydrogen peroxide and ammonia to bleach out their color. The demand for shark fins is at an all-time high. Shark fin soup is popular at Chinese weddings, celebratory occasions and corporate functions. In China, the rapid rise of a middle-class population with disposable income means more people can afford the expensive soup. If the soup is not served, the host will look cheap and lose face. The fins can cost as much as $275 a kilogram, and millions of sharks are killed for their fins each year. The fish is caught live, the fins removed and the animal thrown back into the water. While those who consume shark fin soup are contributing to the shark's demise, they are not the only ones. Many people are taking supplements containing shark products in the hope that it will lead to healthier lives or cure their cancer. They often do this without exploring the science behind the myth. Sharks occasionally attack us, but this is extremely rare: they are actually positively elusive compared with other large animals which have been known to attack humans. Each year, sharks attack between 50 and 100 people, with fewer than 20 fatalities. Most attacks are “hit and run” attacks, where the shark makes a single bite and passes (humans are not an ideal food for a shark—not enough fat). These attacks are rarely life-threatening. Despite all this, shark attacks draw worldwide attention. Sharks should not be feared. But life without sharks is scary. If sharks continue their rapid decline, the only people who'll need to worry about a shark attack will be those working in zoos and aquariums.

This article is written at a definitional level only. Authors wishing to improve this entry are inivited to expand the present treatment, which additions will be peer reviewed prior to publication of any expansion. The Aland Sea and the Aland Archipelago, at the east of the sea, occupy a strategic position at the mouth of the Gulf of Bothnia; however, the Aland Archipelago is an autonomous demilitarised part of Finland. Earliest of evidence of human habitation on the perimeter of the Aland Sea was on the Aland islands, dated to approximately 6000 years before present. The Åland Archipelago comprises somewhat less than 300 habitable islands, of which only approximately 80 are actually inhabited; the remainder of the archipelago topographic features are around 6400 large rocks or skerries. The Aland Archipelago is approximately 38 to 40 kilometers from the Swedish mainland; thus that is the effective width of the Aland Sea. The Aland Islands of Orrdalsklint and Långbergen in Saltvik represent the highest topographic points in the Aland Archipelago, but these elements only began to emerge above the sea near the beginning of the Holocene. The earliest evidence of Homo sapiens on the archipelago is linked to the Comb-Ceramic Culture dating to an era of about 6000 years before present (BP). These dates are somewhat later than man was evident in mesolithic cultures on the island of Oland (notably at Alby on the east coast of Oland), somewhat further to the south in the Baltic Sea. Approximately 4500 years BP pitted ware artifacts started appearing in Åland. From around 3800 BP, elements of the Kiukainen culture become evident. - C.Michael Hogan. 2006. Prehistory of the Alby people, Oland, Sweden. Lumina Technologies. - Pauli Virrankoski. 2001. Suomen historia. Ensimmäinen osa. SKS. . - Marek Zvelebil. 2004. Pitted Ware and related cultures of Neolithic Northern Europe, in P. Bogucki and P.J. Crabtree (eds.), Ancient Europe 8000 BC–AD 1000: Encyclopaedia of the Barbarian World, Vol. I The Mesolithic to Copper Age (c. 8000-2000 B.C.)