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Wardrobes of all Shapes and Sizes

Wardrobes are a staple piece of bedroom furniture and because they're often the second biggest item after the bed, they play a big role in the style of a room. To cater for all different tastes, the variety of wardrobes available today is breathtaking. You can get oak wardrobes, sliding wardrobes, built in wardrobes, cheap wardrobes, expensive wardrobes, flat-pack wardrobes or top quality, fully-assembled oak wardrobes.

The Importance of Wardrobes

Where would we be without wardrobes? Well, for starters the bedroom would probably remain in the perpetual clothes-strewn-across-the-floor state of our teenage years. Without wardrobes or place to hang our clothes, we'd be constantly glued to the ironing board, trying to get the creases out every morning or brushing off stray hairs picked up from the carpet.

Choosing Wardrobes

Before you begin ploughing through the numerous wardrobes available, there are a few things you need to consider. It might not seem immediately important, but you need to decide on how you want your wardrobe doors to open. Do you want hinged wardrobe doors or sliding wardrobe doors?

Hinged Wardrobe Doors

The traditional hinged wardrobe door will complement a variety of interiors and are available in a number of design options. There are many types of finishes available - if you opt for oak wardrobes or more unusual mango wood wardrobes, you can choose between a rustic finish or sleek, modern finish. An advantage of hinged wardrobe doors is that you can view your entire clothing selection at one time - and you can take the wardrobe with you if you move house!

Sliding Wardrobe Doors

The main disadvantage of sliding wardrobe doors is that they only really suit ultra modern décors and it's hard to give them a more traditional look. You can only view one half of your clothing selection at a time and poorly made sliding wardrobe doors mean you'll forever be battling to keep them on the tracks. Of course this isn't an issue if you invest in quality sliding wardrobe doors, but there are still more things to consider - what happens if you move home? Often, sliding wardrobe doors are made to fit, so it wouldn't be very practical to dismantle them and take them with you.

Oak Wardrobes, Mahogany Wardrobes, Mango Wardrobes...

There are many wardrobes out there, made from many different types of material. But which is best? Well if you don't want to have to buy another one in a few year's time, the best option is solid hardwood. Hardwoods such as oak, mango and mahogany are renowned for their exceptional strength and durability. Oak wardrobes will last much longer than cheap MDF flat-pack wardrobes, and what's more - you get an absolutely gorgeous piece of furniture to boot!

Clothing Storage: Big Wardrobes

Wardrobes are equipped with masses of hanging space, and more often than not they even have drawer space for heavier items and shoes. If you're planning on sharing the wardrobe, it's worth taking a look at a triple wardrobe (a three door wardrobe).

For example, our Rustic Solid Oak Triple Wardrobe offers absolutely heaps of hanging space with three large doors. But if that's not enough, there's two generously-sized drawers at the base of the wardrobe; both made using resilient dovetail joints.

But you don't have to opt for a big wardrobe. All our wardrobes offer plenty of hanging space and every single one comes with drawers. If you're looking for oak wardrobes, mango wood wardrobes or even mahogany wardrobes, you've certainly come to the right place!

For safe delivery to your room of choice, all our wardrobes come in component form. This means that the base section (the drawers) will be delivered within the main body of the wardrobe to ensure it fits up stairs easily. You won't require any tools to assemble the wardrobe and don't forget that we offer an absolutely free delivery option!

Related Articles

If you already have a range of hardwood furniture in your home, our articles on treating hardwood furniture, repairing hardwood furniture, joinery and specifically mortise and tenon joints will help you get the most out of your furniture, and spot quality when shopping in furniture.

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What is meant by WAP? WAP Stands for Wireless Application Protocol. It is used for accessing internet and other web applications like e-mail; music downloads etc., over the wireless networks. This protocol is used by web browser known as WAP browser in mobile phones. For connecting wireless network we are using an element known as WAP Gateway. WAP Gateway: WAP Gateway is a piece of software that sits between telecom carriers and convertâ€™s the information between WAP devices and web browser. It acts like a proxy for passing pages from one to the other. It translates pages into another format which suitable for mobiles. For example, it translates plain text WML into binary WML and binary HTTP request in plain text HTTP requests. This process is hidden from the mobile phone, so mobile phone users canâ€™t see this process they only able to see the plain text by accessing the URL. Hence, WAP gateways are used in mobile phones to process the web-pages which built for desktop browsers.

WAP, Wireless Application, WAP Service, WAP Gateway


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Relation between temperature and humidity

Within a pool of liquid water, some molecules are continually escaping from the liquid into the space above, while more and more vapour molecules return to the liquid as the concentration of vapour rises. Finally, equal numbers are escaping and returning; the vapour is then saturated, and its pressure is known as the saturation vapour pressure, ew. If the liquid and vapour are warmed, relatively more molecules escape than return, and ew rises. There is also a saturation pressure with respect to ice. The vapour pressure curve of water has the same form as the curves for many other substances. Its location is fixed, however, by the boiling point of 100 °C (212 °F), where the saturation vapour pressure of water vapour is 1,013 mb (1 standard atmosphere), the standard pressure of the atmosphere at sea level. The decrease of the boiling point with altitude can be calculated. For example, the saturation vapour pressure at 40 °C (104 °F) is 74 mb (0.07 standard atmosphere), and the standard atmospheric pressure near 18,000 metres (59,000 feet) above sea level is also 74 mb; thus, it is where water boils at 40° C.

The everyday response of relative humidity to temperature can be easily explained. On a summer morning, the temperature might be 15 °C (59 °F) and the relative humidity 100 percent. The vapour pressure would be 17 mb (0.02 standard atmosphere) and the mixing ratio about 11 parts per thousand (11 grams of water per kilogram of air by weight). During the day the air could warm to 25 °C (77 °F), while evaporation could add little water. At 25 °C the saturation pressure is fully 32 mb (0.03 standard atmosphere). If, however, little water has been added to the air, its vapour pressure will still be about 17 mb. Thus, with no change in vapour content, the relative humidity of the air has fallen from 100 to only 53 percent, illustrating why relative humidity does not identify air masses.

The meaning of dew-point temperature can be illustrated by a sample of air with a vapour pressure of 17 mb. If an object at 15 °C is brought into the air, dew will form on the object. Hence, 15 °C is the dew-point temperature of the air—i.e., the temperature at which the vapour present in a sample of air would just cause saturation or the temperature whose saturation vapour pressure equals the present vapour pressure in a sample of air. Below freezing, this index is called the frost point. There is a one-to-one correspondence between vapour pressure and dew point. The dew point has the virtue of being easily interpreted because it is the temperature at which a blade of grass or a pane of glass will become wet with dew from the air. Ideally, it is also the temperature of fog or cloud formation.

Test Your Knowledge
Weather: Fact or Fiction?

Another index of humidity, the saturation deficit, can also be understood by considering air with a vapour pressure of 17 mb. At 25 °C the air has (31 − 17), or 14, mb less vapour pressure than saturated vapour at the same temperature; that is, the saturation deficit is 14 mb (0.01 standard atmosphere).

Humidity and climate

The small amount of water in atmospheric vapour, relative to water on Earth, belies its importance. Compared with one unit of water in the air, the seas contain at least 100,000 units, the great glaciers 1,500, the porous earth nearly 200, and the rivers and lakes 4 or 5. The effectiveness of the vapour in the air is magnified, however, by its role in transferring water from sea to land by the media of clouds and precipitation and that in absorbing radiation.

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The invisible vapour has another climatic role—namely, absorbing and emitting radiation. The temperature of Earth and its daily variation are determined by the balance between incoming and outgoing radiation. The wavelength of the incoming radiation from the Sun is mostly shorter than 3 μm (0.0001 inch). It is scarcely absorbed by water vapour, and its receipt depends largely upon cloud cover. The radiation exchanged between the atmosphere and Earth’s surface and the eventual loss to space is in the form of long waves. These long waves are strongly absorbed in the 3- to 8.5-μm band and in the greater than 11-μm range, where vapour is either partly or wholly opaque. As noted above, much of the radiation that is absorbed in the atmosphere is emitted back to Earth, and the surface receipt of long waves, primarily from water vapour and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, is slightly more than twice the direct receipt of solar radiation at the surface. Thus, the invisible vapour in the atmosphere combines with clouds and the advection (horizontal movement) of air from different regions to control the surface temperature.

The world distribution of humidity can be portrayed for different uses by different indexes. To appraise the quantity of water carried by the entire atmosphere, the moisture in an air column above a given point on Earth is expressed as a depth of liquid water. It varies from 0.5 mm (0.02 inch) over the Himalayas and 2 mm (0.08 inch) over the poles in winter to 8 mm (0.3 inch) over the Sahara, 54 mm (2 inches) in the Amazon region, and 64 mm (2.5 inches) over India during the wet season. During summer the air over the United States transports 16 mm (0.6 inch) of water vapour over the Great Basin and 45 mm (1.8 inches) over Florida.

The humidity of the surface air may be mapped as vapour pressure, but a map of this variable looks much like that of temperature. Warm places are moist, and cool ones are dry; even in deserts the vapour pressure is normally 13 mb (0.01 standard atmosphere), whereas over the northern seas it is only about 4 mb (0.004 standard atmosphere). Certainly the moisture in materials in two such areas will be just the opposite, so relative humidity is a more widely useful index.

Average relative humidity

Although the dramatic regular decrease of relative humidity from dawn to midday has been attributed largely to warming rather than declining vapour content, the content does vary regularly. In humid environments, daytime evaporation increases the water vapour content of the air, and the mixing ratio, which may be about 12 grams per kilogram, rises by 1 or 2 grams per kilogram in temperate places and may attain 16 grams per kilogram in a tropical rainforest. In arid environments, however, little evaporation moistens the air, and daytime turbulence tends to bring down dry air; this decreases the mixing ratio by as much as 2 grams per kilogram.

Humidity also varies regularly with altitude. On the average, fully half the water in the atmosphere lies below 0.25 km (about 0.2 mile), and satellite observations over the United States in April revealed 1 mm (0.04 inch) or less of water in all the air above 6 km (4 miles). A cross section of the atmosphere along 75° W longitude shows a decrease in humidity with height and toward the poles. The mixing ratio is 16 grams per kilogram just north of the Equator, but it decreases to 1 gram per kilogram at 50° N latitude or 8 km (5 miles) above the Equator. The transparent air surrounding mountains in fair weather is very dry indeed.

Closer to the ground, the water vapour content also changes with height in a regular pattern. When water vapour is condensing on Earth’s surface at night, the content is greater aloft than at the ground; during the day the content is, in most cases, less aloft than at the ground because of evaporation.

Evaporation and humidity

  • Global distribution of mean annual evaporation (in centimetres).
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Data security and privacy

Zoho Vault leverages the host-proof-hosting technique - a secure, proven mechanism, which has found wide acceptance after undergoing extensive testing by security experts. Host-proof-hosting revolves around the basic fact of "host sensitive data in encrypted form, so that clients can only access and manipulate it by providing a pass-phrase which is never transmitted to the server. The server is limited to persisting and retrieving whatever encrypted data the browser sends it, and never actually accesses the sensitive data in its plain form. All encryption and decryption takes place inside the browser itself."

The secrets that you store on Zoho Vault literally remain secrets. The data remains completely private and only you can view the data. All the data are encrypted inside the browser itself and Zoho (which hosts the Zoho Vault service) stores only the encrypted data. The 'Passphrase' that you enter to access Zoho Vault, is used as the key to encrypt and decrypt the data at the browser. The passphrase is not stored anywhere in Zoho Vault and hence even Zoho cannot access your data.

Secure connection

As mentioned above, only encrypted data (AES-256 bit) is always sent over the internet.
In addition, the connection is through SSL.

Tested against vulnerabilities


Retrotechtacular: ⋅⋅⋅⋅ ––– ⋅–– – ––– –– ––– ⋅–⋅ ⋅⋅⋅ ⋅ –⋅–⋅ ––– –⋅⋅ ⋅

There’s a lot to learn from this 1966 Army training film about the International Morse Code, but the most crucial component of good keying is rhythm. A young man named [Owens] demonstrates very clean keying, and the instructor points out that skill is the product of sending uniform and short dits, uniform and short dahs, and correct spacing between dits, dahs, letters, and words.

Throughout the film, there are title cards in a typeface that shows the stroke order of military printing. The instructor points this out after a brief interlude about the phonetic alphabet (Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, &c). Right away, we see that the Morse Code for ‘H’ is four dits that gallop with the rhythm of a horse in a hurry to get to the hotel.

big keySuch clever and memorable pictures are painted for a few other letters. We wish he would have covered them all, but that’s not the aim of this film. The Army is more concerned with good, clean rhythm and proper spacing that marks the difference between ‘low’ planes and ‘enemy’ planes. There’s a simple, three-step plan to getting what is called a ‘good fist’, and the Army demonstrates this in the best possible way: a giant J-38 and fake hand descending from the ceiling to match. Yes, really.

The first step is to adjust the key to ensure good contact alignment, proper gap spacing, and ideal spring tension. The second step is to develop good technique by resting one’s elbow on the table and holding the key rather than slapping it. The third step is simply to practice. Learning through imitation is helpful, as is taping one’s practice sessions and playing them back. [Owens] likes to use an RD-60 code recorder, which immortalizes his signals in ink.

Dancing Wall-E and Rhythmic Synth

Continue reading “Dancing Wall-E and Rhythmic Synth”


What is the Worlds longest sci-fiction tv series?

Answer and go on the minipipe game

What is the worlds longest lasting printer?

What is the worlds best restuarant?

What is d worlds no1 Company in air-conditioners?

Hi Mate,According to my personal views LG is best company in air conditioners and you can easily trust on lowest repairs service....Thanks


Description - Gorgeous Flower Gowns - Dress Up Games

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Gorgeous Flower Gowns : A gown is a dress, usually a long dress, which women wear on formal occasions. Every beauty should have a gown. Why not try a flower gown? You will look really elegant!

The Number of Play : 809 | Submitted : 2013-03-25

You are playing Gorgeous Flower Gowns . Do not forget to play one of the other great Dress Up Games at StarSue.Net


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With StayWell, you will receive an all-round, personal analysis of your well-being

It's not always easy to find the balance between what others demand and what someone is able to cope with. Are the headaches I've been having caused by stress? Have I been more irascible of late because I haven't been sleeping well or because the atmosphere at work is hostile? Is there more tension in my social environment or is my financial situation proving a bigger burden than I had thought?

In situations like these, it's important to recognise the signals and not ignore them. The early detection tool StayWell can help promote and maintain your good health and well-being by examining different areas of your life, from medical and social factors to financial problems and issues with your job. StayWell then recommends a series of tailored measures that are simple to apply in your everyday life.

StayWell in four steps

The following four steps explain how StayWell works and how you can obtain your personal appraisal.

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The information you provide will be treated in full confidence. The data is hosted on an external server and cannot be accessed by Helsana without your express approval.

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How many days until The Eyes of Ara release date?

Game is already released

"The Eyes of Ara is a game about exploration, puzzle solving, and discovery. Will you pay heed to the unsettling tales and legends surrounding the castle, or will you set fear aside and venture in with an open and inquisitive mind to uncover the truth for yourself? The Eyes of Ara invites you to escape to another place. Become enthralled in a stunning Adventure-Puzzle game set in a gorgeous 3D environment. Explore a vast and ancient castle riddled with secret vaults and hidden rooms. Solve elaborate puzzles, locate lost treasures, and unravel an ancient mystery. Weave your way through a tale of mystery and discovery. Solve numerous and varied puzzles to reveal long forgotten secrets. Locate the lost keepsakes of the former occupants, and discover stories of those who once called the castle home."

Learn more about The Eyes of Ara


The radiocarbon dating paper without a radiocarbon date

Nature this week released two papers about European archaeological sites that come near the end of the Neandertals and beginning of the archaeological transition to Upper Paleolithic industries. Here, I’ll devote some attention to the first, by Tom Higham and colleagues Higham:Kents:2011, which discusses the morphology and dating of the maxilla fragment from Kent’s Cavern, England. The paper claims that this is the oldest modern human specimen in Western Europe.

The earliest anatomically modern humans in Europe are thought to have appeared around 43,00042,000 calendar years before present (4342?kyr cal BP), by association with Aurignacian sites and lithic assemblages assumed to have been made by modern humans rather than by Neanderthals. However, the actual physical evidence for modern humans is extremely rare, and direct dates reach no farther back than about 4139?kyr cal BP, leaving a gap. Here we show, using stratigraphic, chronological and archaeological data, that a fragment of human maxilla from the Kents Cavern site, UK, dates to the earlier period. The maxilla (KC4), which was excavated in 1927, was initially diagnosed as Upper Palaeolithic modern human1. In 1989, it was directly radiocarbon dated by accelerator mass spectrometry to 36.434.7?kyr cal BP. Using a Bayesian analysis of new ultrafiltered bone collagen dates in an ordered stratigraphic sequence at the site, we show that this date is a considerable underestimate. Instead, KC4 dates to 44.241.5?kyr cal BP. This makes it older than any other equivalently dated modern human specimen and directly contemporary with the latest European Neanderthals...

One thing you won’t see in any of the reporting on the paper: There is no new radiocarbon date for the maxilla.

I must admit, I was completely confused by the paper and had to read the entire thing several times! The first time, I was so busy concentrating on how they obtained their new “date estimate” that I completely missed the one sentence indicating that there is no radiocarbon result.

The supplement gives more details. The radiocarbon dating of faunal specimens from the stratigraphy led the authors to suspect that a 1989 date for the maxilla (30,900 +/- 900 BP) was too young. One woolly rhino and two other bones above the maxilla, over a depth of around a meter, yielded radiocarbon dates around 6000 years older than this. So they went to redate the maxilla, but didn’t get enough collagen to obtain a result:

To explore this further, permission was obtained from Torquay Museum to obtain a small sample of dentine from the right P3 of the KC4 specimen for another direct date. The tooth was extracted from the maxilla and carefully sampled at the ORAU so that the external hole could not be seen from the exterior once the tooth had been replaced. Only 89 mg could be drilled due to the small size of the tooth. This produced 0.4% collagen after ultrafiltration pre-treatment, but the total amount extracted was too small for a reliable AMS measurement, so the sample was not dated (Table S2).

So, if they didn’t get a radiocarbon result from the maxilla, why are they reporting that this is the earliest modern human in Western Europe?

What they did do: They used the radiocarbon dates on the fauna, and the depth of those faunal specimens in the stratigraphy, to interpolate a date for the maxilla in the absence of radiocarbon information. The Nature paper is simply reporting this interpolation model.

We can look at Figure 3 of the paper to get an abbreviated picture of AMS dates for early Aurignacian human specimens in different parts of Europe. The new Kent’s Cavern maxilla date is way out of this distribution.

Figure 3 from Higham et al. Higham:Kents:2011. Original caption: " Comparison of direct radiocarbon determinations of AMH bones from European Palaeolithic sites with the KC4 model age. Calibrated using the INTCAL09 curve12. Brackets under the distributions represent the 68.2 and 95.4% probability ranges, respectively. The PDF derived from the Bayesian modelling of KC4 (Model age of the maxilla, in red) is earlier than the original direct date from Kents Cavern (OxA-1621) and all others, and overlaps the start of the age range of the earliest European Aurignacian, which is widely accepted as being linked with the earliest AMH. Ultrafiltered collagen radiocarbon dates are indicated with red text; non-ultrafiltered dates are in black. Asterisks denote duplicate dates on the same human bone. The Oase date is a mean of two determinations, one ultrafiltered and one not.

The red distribution is the new model date for the maxilla, way earlier than any other specimen. The gray distribution indicated for Kent’s Cavern is the 1989 date, with a calibration model applied to it.

The archaeological association of the maxilla is very weak, as summarized by Higham and colleagues:

The maxilla was found in 1927 at a depth of 10?ft 6?inch (3.23?m) beneath a key granular stalagmite used as a datum during excavations undertaken between 1926 and 1941 by the Torquay Natural History Society. Below it were found two blades similar to those discovered in Aurignacian industries, and deeper still were found two blades that resemble those from Initial Upper Palaeolithic industries of the LincombianRanisianJerzmanowician complex, which are tentatively associated with Neanderthals.

Such as they are, these associations permit a much later date and do not preclude an earlier one. They are certainly not enough to speak of a date for “Early Aurignacian” on this basis, there is no diagnosis of the industry here.

You can see why I found this so irritating. Here’s a paper trying to make a big splash, by establishing the claim in the literature that we have Aurignacian-associated modern human remains earlier at Kent’s Cavern than anywhere else in Europe. The reported date estimate is a clear outlier compared to human remains everywhere else. And although there is a radiocarbon estimate, that is ignored (possibly for good reason) in favor of a model that doesn’t include it, because radiocarbon gave a date younger than the paper claims, by seven millennia or more.

I’m not saying the authors could have done better with the material they had available. Sometimes we don’t get definitive results, and that’s expected in paleoanthropology. I just think it’s bizarre that Nature would put such press behind a dating paper with no date.

UPDATE (2011-11-07): A couple of people have contacted me, confused by the apparently very ancient dates for other Early Upper Paleolithic sites in the figure. The figure reports calibrated dates, not radiocarbon dates. I have noticed a trend over the last several years to reporting and picturing only calibrated dates instead of the actual radiocarbon determinations. I think this is a very negative development, because it creates confusion between the calibration model and the source of the data. We see how confusing that presentation can be in this paper, where a result that does not come from radiocarbon data is pictured alongside calibrated dates without any distinction between the two.


Mongolian literaturethe written works produced in any of the Mongolian languages of present-day Mongolia; the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of China; the Uygur Autonomous Region of Xinjiang, China; and the Russian republics of Buryatia Buryatiya and Kalmykiya.
Origins through the 19th century

Written Mongolian literature emerged in the 13th century from oral traditions, and it developed under Indo-Tibetan, Turkic, and Chinese influence. The most significant work of pre-Buddhist Mongolian literature is the anonymous Mongqolun niuča tobča’an (Secret History of the Mongols), a chronicle of the deeds of the Mongol ruler Chinggis Khan (Genghis Khan) and of Ögödei, his son and successor. Written in prose, it features alliterative verse, myths, legends, epic fragments, songs, eulogies, dialogues, army regulations, and proverbs. Internal evidence indicates that it was composed no earlier than 1228, the year before Ögödei’s enthronement; it may have been completed in 1252, the year after the election of Möngke, grandson of Chinggis Khan, as khagan (“great khan”). Its original Mongol script version was transcribed in Chinese characters in the late 13th century, but large portions were copied in Lubsangdandzin’s 17th-century Altan tobchi (“Golden Summary”). Likewise, the Mongol original of the history of Chinggis Khan’s campaigns was lost, but its Chinese translation survived. His sayings, which were preserved in Rashīd al-Dīn’s 14th-century universal history and, by oral transmission, in Mongol chronicles of the 17th century, also gave rise to a strong stream of moralistic literature, which soon became enriched with Indo-Tibetan elements. An example of this literature is a Mongol version, translated from Tibetan by Sonom Gara perhaps in the late 13th century, of Sa-skya Pandita’s Legs-bshad (“Aphorisms”).

Buddhist works translated mostly from Tibetan and certainly with the aid of extant Turkic versions brought new forms and subjects to Mongolian literature. The monk Chosgi Odsir added a commentary to his prose translation of a long Buddhist poem, which was printed with his benediction (in alliterative quatrains) in 1312. To his disciple Shirab Sengge belong a life of Buddha and the Altan gerel (“Golden Beam”), a sermon of Buddha. Turks transmitted to the Mongols a version of the Alexander romance, a legendary account of the life of the Macedonian king Alexander the Great. Other medieval Mongol writing includes letters sent to popes and European monarchs, imperial and Buddhist inscriptions (including one on a gate of the Great Wall of China), and fragments of the secular poetry of the Golden Horde. An inscription (1340) by a Mongol prince of Yunnan province in China is both an intimate confession about himself and a document about his donation to a Buddhist shrine. The Chinese Confucian canonical work Xiaojing (“Classic of Filial Piety”), which includes quotations from the Shijing (“Classic of Poetry”), was also translated into and printed in Mongol.

In the 16th and 17th centuries a struggle for unity among the Mongols and efforts to renew their Buddhism revived literature. Chronicles such as Erdeni-yin tobchi (1662; “Jeweled Summary”) by Saghang Sechen, a prince, and Lubsangdandzin’s Altan tobchi united Buddhist and Chinggisid traditions. To the cult of Chinggis Khan, which kept alive his sayings as well as legends about him, also belongs Ere koyar jagal (“The Two Dappled Steeds”), an anonymous allegory about freedom and loyalty that is thought to date from the 17th century. Over the course of some 400 alliterative quatrains, Erdeni tunumal sudur (c. 1607; “Jewel Translucent Sutra”), an anonymous biography of Altan Khan, relates the story of his wars with the Ming dynasty and his alliance with the Dalai Lama. A rock inscription (1624) preserved a uniquely personal poem by the Chinggisid prince Tsogtu about his aunt, whom, the poem recounts, he misses because he is separated from her. The poem contrasts their spatial separation and their differences with their unity in compassion and suffering.

The Mongols also embraced and adapted the Tibetan epic of Gesar Khan, probably in the late 16th century. One of the orally transmitted Mongol versions of the story of Gesar Khan’s victories over various monsters (mangguses) and other enemies was the first form of the epic to be printed in Mongol, in 1716. It became a source of inspiration for several heroic epics, including the Abai Geser Khübüün of the Buryat people. (This epic, of some 20,000 verses, and other heroic Buryat songs were first recorded in the early 20th century by the scholar Tsyben Zhamtsarano.) Jangar, the national epic of the Kalmyk people, is a loose chain of heroic songs that reflect the belligerent past of the western Mongols. It dates from perhaps the 16th century; a version of it was recorded and published for the first time in 1910.

The monk Zaya Pandita Namkhaijamts (Oktorguin Dalai), an Oyrat Oirat man of letters, created a new literary language rendered in a new alphabet, known today as Clear Script, which dates to 1648. The alphabet narrowed the gap between writing and speech. A long afterword in verse to his translation (1644) of the Tibetan apocryphal work Maṇi bka’-’bum shows his poetic verve. His disciple Ratnabhadra wrote a biography of him that is also an invaluable source of western Mongol history.

The full translation of the Tibetan Buddhist canon was completed in the 17th century and printed by order of the Qing (Manchu) dynasty in more than 330 volumes in the early 18th century. These and other translations refined the literary language and conveyed many elements of Indian lore. Such 18th-century writers as Mergen Gegen Lubsangdambijalsan and Chahar Gebshi Lubsangtsültim combined Tibetan and Mongolian mores in verse and prose. Rashipungsug’s Bolor erike (1774; “Crystal Garland”) and several other histories were produced under the Qing dynasty, which had begun to take control of Mongolia in the 17th century.

The Buddhist priest and poet Rabjai (Dandzinrabjai) wrote religious and worldly songs and moralistic poems. He skillfully used folk songs as well as literary forms derived from the Mongol written tradition. He also composed a musical drama, Saran Kököge (“Moon Cuckoo”), based on the Tibetan story of a prince confined to live as a bird preaching the Buddha’s truths. A 19th-century Tumet nobleman, Wangchingbala, started Köke sudur (“The Blue Chronicle”), a historical novel that depicts the rise and fall of the Yuan (or Mongol) dynasty during the 13th and 14th centuries. Injannashi, his son, finished his father’s novel and wrote two others, all in the style of contemporary Chinese popular novels. To Köke sudur he added Tobchitu tolta (“Brief Summary”), a long essay that outlines his views on history. He also wrote numerous poems. Gularansa and Gungnechuke, his siblings, were also poets. Ishidandzinwangjil’s Altan surgal (“Golden Teaching”), an extensive guide to ethics composed in alliterative stanzas, is a late example of this poetic genre. At the turn of the 20th century, the Ordos scribe Keshigbatu composed songs and poems that deal with love and politics. He also wrote a concise history of the Mongols and a versified reader for children.

The 20th century and beyond

Until the middle of the 20th century, the Mongols and Buryats used Mongol script to write a language known as Classical, or Literary, Mongolian. The Kalmyks began to use the Cyrillic alphabet to write their language in 1925. After ephemeral experiments with romanization, separate Cyrillic orthographies were introduced in Buryatia Buryatiya (1938) and Mongolia (1946). The eastern Mongols in China continued the Classical tradition, with the Oyrat Oirat of Dzungaria keeping Clear Script with some modifications.


Why Investors Should Be Very Cautious

 |  Includes: DIA, QQQ, SPY
by: Peter Karahalios

The S&P 500 (NYSEARCA:SPY) is near all time highs. Now let's ask ourselves why. Has it been due to strong economic data? Strong earnings growth? Strong revenue growth? Let's take a look.

If you break down the S&P 500's rally in terms of earnings growth versus multiple expansion:

P/E = price / earnings. So, Price = Earnings * multiple of earnings.

As shown above, this market has largely been fueled by multiple expansion. Since March 2, 2012, ttm earnings growth has been 8%, while the P/E multiple increased by nearly 27%. Hence, investors are paying more for the same earnings due to the Federal Reserve's Quantitative Easing Programs. By keeping short rates at 0% and by buying $75B per month in long term bonds, bond yields are at historical lows. This is forcing investors to place their money into riskier assets such as equities.

Bearish Point #1: As the Federal Reserves begins to taper back their asset purchases, yields will rise and investors will begin to reduce their equity positions in favor of bonds. Also, by reducing asset purchases, they are reducing the total amount of money supply in the system (The taper amount ($10B) of demand each month has to come from somewhere else and into treasuries).

Now, let's focus on the amount of earnings growth there has been. As explained below, earnings growth has been due to all time high profit margins and share repurchase programs and not a function of revenue growth.

Revenue Growth- The Dow Jones Industrial Average had negative revenue growth in 2013 (-.73%). This means that consumers were not purchasing more products than they had the prior year, and profits were only due to cost cutting and repurchase programs.

Corporate Profit Margins- According to this article, corporate profits as a proportion of U.S. GDP approached 10% in 2013, well above the 6.5% long-term average.
 Companies are "over-earning" relative to the past.

Profit margins have been elevated due to wage compression and refinancing. Wage compression should at some point have a negative effect on consumption, while interest expense will begin to increase as companies are forced to roll over their debt at higher rates.

Share Buybacks- Share repurchase programs are now at all time highs. When companies buy back more shares, it boosts EPS and also increases leverage. Increasing leverage increases risk.

Going forward, if the U.S. economy continues to improve at a moderate pace and revenues begin to increase, equities may very well grow into their steep valuations (Case Shiller P/E is at 26.25, which is 59% greater than its mean/median value). Hence, I would recommend staying away from equities at these levels.


Argonne National Laboratory

TRACC applies high-performance computing to priority transportation challenges.

The CNM offers expertise, instruments, and infrastructure for interdisciplinary nanoscience research.

ATLAS studies the properties of atomic nuclei, the core of matter, and the fuel of stars.

The ALCF accelerates major scientific discoveries by designing and providing world-leading computing facilities.

The APS generates the most brilliant high-energy X-ray beams for research in the Western Hemisphere.

As a resource for the nation, Argonne operates scientific user facilities to serve researchers from universities, national laboratories, and private institutions.

Argonne is home to five national user facilities, which allow scientific users from universities, national laboratories, and industry to carry out experiments and pursue groundbreaking discoveries that would otherwise not be possible.

Although many of the state-of-the-art user facilities were built to serve a specific discipline of the physical sciences, they have also made significant contributions to many other fields of importance, including biology and medicine.

More than 7,000 scientists conduct experiments at Argonne user facilities each year.

Argonne manages these national user facilities for several different federal sponsors and program offices:

U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science

U.S. Department of Transportation

User Facilities Online Registration System

The registration and proposal systems allow researchers to access the following facilities:

Step 1: Register
Complete the User Facility Registration form. If you have previously registered and the information provided has not changed, then proceed directly to Step 2.

Step 2: Submit a User Proposal
Log in to the User Facility Proposal System and complete a single-facility or multi-facility proposal.

Online registration for other user facilities:


Welcome to B2BAGE
AAC Plant, Block Making machine
AAC Plant, Block Making machine

Minimum Order: 0
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AAC Plant, Block Making machine :
1/light weight brick
2/Conveniently Mechanized Construction
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AAC Plant, Block Making machine

1.The raw materials store in the material storehouse (or stores the pot ) after dealing with resurvey such as the lime , cement , gypsum , sand (or fly ash ).

2.Aluminium powder or the aluminium lotion is through dealing with the reserve material for use.

3. Raw materials measure according to certain matching by electron balance measure , aluminium powder , water put into aluminium powder mixer is it is it suspend the liquid to make to mix after measuring.

4. The batching water (cold water or hot water pitcher hot water ) is measured by the electronic water balance .

5. Put into and pour among the mixers in certain order after , raw materials , aluminium powder suspend the liquid is measured, pour and enter the mould after mixing evenly (panel should be put network slice of reinforcing bar in advance in the mould).

6. Quiet to is it raise in advance to park through certain temperature and time, is it transport to the cutting machine to hang from upset hoist upset 90o after the base body reaches certain intensity, the drawing of patterns is cut. a.The base body carries on the side and cuts and mills the trough vertically at first. b.Then carry on the vertical level to cut. c.Cut horizontally finally. d.Cut good base body is it raise to cauldron car go on one yard of shelves organize into groups to steam to transport to hang to drive a vehicle to load.

7. Organize into groups good base body is it keep cauldron is it is it raise to steam to go on to steam to enter to draw.

8. Is it raise products well produce after the cauldron breaking the board off with the fingers and thumb by the board breaking off with the fingers and thumb machine to steam.

9. Is it pile from finished product hoist or forklift to finished product field pile the buttress according to specification to carry.

10. Steaming and raising the car and side board and entering the next board of circulation and returning after , the finished product is unloaded, with upset hoist mould frame association that drawing of patterns get off, restore 90 degrees return to pour mixer pour again after clearing up.

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Were you as surprised as I was - writes Karl Ludvigsen - when GM's vice chairman, Bob Lutz, said he'd like to be building Cadillacs in Germany? "This would help the brand to be more accepted in Germany and other European countries," Lutz was quoted as saying. "We should be able to find the necessary capacity," the GM product honcho added, and probably at an Opel factory.


King Charles Spaniel

The King Charles Spaniel, also called the English Toy Spaniel is a small companion breed. It is sometimes confused with the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel; the King Charles Spaniel is a separate, more pug-like breed. The breed originated in Great Britain during the Renaissance and was often used as a companion dog for royalty. The earlier dogs with longer snouts were crossed with the Pug or the Chin in order to achieve the shorter nose the breed has today.

The King Charles Spaniel weighs around 11 pounds and has a fairly long, wavy coat. The coat of the King Charles Spaniel can be red and white, tricolor, black and tan, or ruby.

The breed generally lives from 10 to 12 years, but it may have health problems such as heart defects, patellar luxation, fused toes, and eye problems.

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Video: Good Samaritan inches from death as he rescues van driver from oncoming train

A good Samaritan diced with death while trying to help the driver of a van that had broken down on a railway crossing.

The unidentified man jumped off his motorcycle and tried to push the van off the tracks as a train approached.

The man then jumped to safety as the oncoming train passed within inches of him.

The dramatic rescue and escape in Argentina was captured on CCTV and the clearly relieved man was seen hugging his friend as his narrow escape sunk in.


Relativistic Quantum Mechanics

Relativistic Quantum Mechanics

4.11 - 1251 ratings - Source

This graduate text introduces relativistic quantum theory, emphasising its important applications in condensed matter physics. Basic theory, including special relativity, angular momentum and particles of spin zero are first reprised. The text then goes on to discuss the Dirac equation, symmetries and operators, and free particles. Physical consequences of solutions including hole theory and Klein's paradox are considered. Several model problems are solved. Important applications of quantum theory to condensed matter physics then follow. Relevant theory for the one electron atom is explored. The theory is then developed to describe the quantum mechanics of many electron systems, including Hartree-Fock and density functional methods. Scattering theory, band structures, magneto-optical effects and superconductivity are among other significant topics discussed. Many exercises and an extensive reference list are included. This clear account of relativistic quantum theory will be valuable to graduate students and researchers working in condensed matter physics and quantum physics.Next we solve the Klein-Gordon equation for a particle incident upon a potential barrier, which leads to some surprising ... This is the direct generalization of the non-relativistic hydrogen atom theory so familiar from countless quantum mechanics courses. ... What is meant by taking the square root of the operator in brackets in (3.3) before doing the operation is anybodya#39;s guess.* To remedy this problem we pull all the In fact equation (3.3) can be solved, but the solutions are plagued byanbsp;...

Title:Relativistic Quantum Mechanics
Author:Paul Strange
Publisher:Cambridge University Press - 1998-09-17


Indianapolis 500-Mile race (Indy 500)

by Globetrotter on 08 January 2008EN
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The Indy 500 is an American automoblie race. It was first held in 1911 and is now one of the most important motorsport events on earth. The 93nd race takes place on Sunday May 24, 2009.

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Some bladder cancer patients may be candidates for robotic-assisted surgery, which allows surgeons perform a precise operation through a few tiny incisions with enhanced vision, precision, dexterity and control.

Compared to traditional open surgery, pateints who undergo robotic surgery experience less pain, less blood loss, a shorter hospital stay and quicker recovery.


NEW YORK - A severe stomach bug spreading across the country has reached New York City.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, there have been five reported cases of cyclosporiasis in the city, which is an intestinal infection caused by parasites that are spread when food or water is contaminated with feces.

The first case was in Iowa, and is believed to have come from a pre-packaged salad mix in Nebraska. Those states have had the worst outbreaks with more than 370 people falling ill and 21 ending up in the hospital.

The Food and Drug Administration says the salad mix is no longer in the food production chain, and it's still trying to figure out where the bug originated from.

Symptoms include severe stomach cramps, loss of appetite and nausea.

The infection can be treated with antibiotics, but the best way to protect against it is to wash your hands and all produce before eating.


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Yellow fever

Related subjects: Health and medicine

About this schools Wikipedia selection

Yellow fever
Classification and external resources
ICD- 10 A 95
ICD- 9 060
DiseasesDB 14203
MedlinePlus 001365
eMedicine med/2432 emerg/645
MeSH D015004
Yellow fever virus
TEM micrograph: Multiple yellow fever virions (234,000x magnificatio).
Virus classification
Group: Group IV ( (+)ssRNA)
Family: Flaviviridae
Genus: Flavivirus
Type species
Yellow fever virus

The female Aedes aegypti mosquito on a human host, about to obtain a blood meal
Endemic range of yellow fever in Africa (2005)
Endemic range of yellow fever in South America (2005)

Yellow fever is caused by an arbovirus of the family Flaviviridae, a positive sense single-stranded RNA virus. Human infection begins after deposition of viral particles through the skin in infected arthropod saliva. The mosquitos involved are Aedes simpsaloni, A. africanus, and A. aegypti in Africa, the Haemagogus genus in South America, and the Sabethes genus in France. Yellow fever is frequently severe but moderate cases may occur as the result of previous infection by another flavivirus. After infection the virus first replicates locally, followed by transportation to the rest of the body via the lymphatic system. Following systemic lymphatic infection the virus proceeds to establish itself throughout organ systems, including the heart, kidneys, adrenal glands, and the parenchyma of the liver; high viral loads are also present in the blood. Necrotic masses ( Councilman bodies) appear in the cytoplasm of hepatocytes.,

Yellow fever begins suddenly after an incubation period of three to five days in the human body. In mild cases only fever and headache may be present. The severe form of the disease commences with fever, chills, bleeding into the skin, rapid heartbeat, headache, back pains, and extreme prostration. Nausea, vomiting, and constipation are common. Jaundice usually appears on the second or third day. After the third day the symptoms recede, only to return with increased severity in the final stage, during which there is a marked tendency to hemorrhage internally; the characteristic “coffee ground” vomitus contains blood. The patient then lapses into delirium and coma, often followed by death. During epidemics the fatality rate was often as high as 85%. Although the disease still occurs, it is usually confined to sporadic outbreaks.

There is a difference between disease outbreaks in rural or forest areas and in towns. Disease outbreaks in towns and non-native people may be more serious because of higher densities of mosquito vectors and higher population densities.

Current research

  • World Community Grid web site

Historical reports have claimed a mortality rate of between 1 in 17 (5.8%) and 1 in 3 (33%). CDC has claimed that case-fatality rates from severe disease range from 15% to more than 50%. The WHO factsheet on yellow fever, updated in 2001, states that 15% of patients enter a "toxic phase" and that half of that number die within ten to fourteen days, with the other half recovering.

Photograph taken during the 1965 Aedes aegypti eradication program in Miami, Florida

Yellow fever has had an important role in the history of Africa, the Americas, Europe, and the Caribbean.

Europe: 541-549

Fragile after the fall of Rome, Europe was further weakened by "Yellow Plague" (yellow fever). The Byzantine Empire suffered as well.

Cuba: 1762-1763

British and American colonial troops died by the thousands in the British expedition against Cuba between 1762 and 1763. Epidemics struck coastal and island communities throughout the area during the next 140 years, with 10% of the population dying as a result.

Haiti: 1802

In 1802, an army of forty thousand sent by First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte of France to Haiti to suppress the Haitian Revolution was dwindled out by an epidemic of yellow fever (including the expedition's commander and Bonaparte's brother-in-law, Charles Leclerc). Some historians believe Haiti was to be a staging point for an invasion of the United States through Louisiana (then still under French control).

Norfolk, Virginia: 1855

A ship carrying persons infected with the virus arrived in Hampton Roads in southeastern Virginia in June 1855 . The disease spread quickly through the community, eventually killing over 3,000 people, mostly residents of Norfolk and Portsmouth. The Howard Association, a benevolent organization, was formed to help coordinate assistance in the form of funds, supplies, and medical professionals and volunteers which poured in from many other areas, particularly the Atlantic and Gulf Coast areas of the United States. See also The Mermaids and Yellow Jack: A NorFolktale a children's historical fiction written by Norfolk author Lisa Suhay, telling of the event and founding of the Bon Secours DePaul Hospital system in the United States in response to the epidemic.

Memphis, Tennessee: 1878

The worst yellow fever epidemic in U.S. history occurred in 1878, with over 5,000 deaths in Memphis alone and 20,000 deaths in the whole of the Mississippi Valley.

Carlos Finlay and Walter Reed

An entomologist demonstrates the attraction of female yellow fever mosquitoes to his hand in an olfactometer.

Carlos Finlay, a Cuban doctor and scientist, first proposed proofs in 1881 that yellow fever is transmitted by mosquitoes rather than direct human contact. Walter Reed, M.D., (1851-1902) was an American Army surgeon who led a team that confirmed Finlay's theory. This risky but fruitful research work was done with human volunteers, including some of the medical personnel such as Clara Maass and Walter Reed Medal winner surgeon Jesse William Lazear who allowed themselves to be deliberately infected and died of the virus. The acceptance of Finlay's work was one of the most important and far-reaching effects of the Walter Reed Commission of 1900. Applying methods first suggested by Finlay, the elimination of yellow fever from Cuba was completed, as well as the completion of the Panama Canal. Lamentably, almost 20 years had passed before Reed and his Board began their efforts, twenty years during which most of the scientific community ignored Finlay's theory of mosquito transmission.

Finlay and Reed's work was put to the test for the first time in the United States when a yellow fever epidemic struck New Orleans in 1905, although efforts had been successful in Havana since 1901; according to the PBS American Experience documentary The Great Fever, houses were fumigated, cisterns for drinking water were inspected, and pools of standing water were treated with kerosene. The result was that the death toll from the epidemic was much lower than that from previous yellow fever epidemics, and that there has not been a major outbreak of the disease in the United States since. Although no cure has yet been discovered, an effective vaccine has been developed, which can prevent and help people recover from the disease.

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Critical Evaluation

First performed in 1605, Eastward Ho! is one of the most remarkably successful collaborative efforts in English literature. The talents of three considerably different playwrights—Ben Jonson, Thomas Marston, and George Chapman—went into its creation. Although Jonson and Marston had cooperated before (as well as having periods of intense, often bitter, competition), Eastward Ho! is Chapman’s only known collaboration with other dramatists. The almost seamless blend of the three writers’ different styles and concerns into a single, coherent play is an outstanding achievement.

The immediate impulse for the collaboration was to compete with the immense popular success of Westward Ho! (1604), a comedy of contemporary London life by Thomas Dekker and John Webster that was playing at a rival theater. Several commentators have suggested that a primary reason for the triple collaboration of Chapman, Jonson, and Marston was the need to produce a rival script as quickly as possible. It is likely that the three writers worked on different sections of the drama simultaneously, in order to expedite production.

Although it is impossible to assign definitively acts or scenes to any single one, or even a combination, of the three authors, linguistic and stylistic evidence strongly suggests that Jonson and Marston were largely responsible for the opening and closing sections of the play, where the language is sharper and more satirical, and that Chapman was the author of the middle section, including the major subplot involving Sir Petronel Flash’s relationship with Security, the old usurer, and his wife, Winifred. Despite its highly satirical vein, this middle section, critics have noted, has a more genial and accessible humor, characteristic of Chapman’s other dramas.

The play as a whole displays a remarkable unity and cohesion that is rarely found in a work by multiple authors. It has been conjectured that much of this unity is the result of an original plan, or outline, and a final revision, probably done either by Jonson himself or with his close supervision. Whatever the case, the play as finally written combines most of the strengths and few of the weaknesses of its three authors.

Eastward Ho! seeks to be a realistic comedy, with characters involved in entertaining but not totally implausible situations. The play’s setting was...

(The entire section is 985 words.)


Second pilot within three days arrested over alcohol levels

Police have arrested a second pilot within three days for allegedly being over the legal alcohol limit.

Pilot Ian Jennings, 47, of Hampshire, was held at Norwich Airport yesterday afternoon after landing a private plane.

He has since been charged with flying while alcohol in his breath was over the prescribed limit, according to Norfolk Police. He has since been bailed.

It comes after a Flybe pilot was released arrested on suspicion of drink-driving on Tuesday.


Inside Crown Finish Caves, a Cheese Aging Tunnel 30 Feet Below Street Level in Brooklyn

Crown Finish Caves in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, is a subterranean cheese aging facility that utilizes an 1850s era lagering tunnel 30 feet under Bergen Street.

In this video from BRIC, get an inside peek at the finishing caves and learn how the process of aging cheese is more complicated than you would think.

They are working with skilled cheese producers mainly within a 250 mile radius of NYC. They receive young cheese (between 4-14 days old) and ripen it within the ideal conditions of a historic brick arch tunnel, which was renovated into a state-of-the-art licensed NYS Dairy Plant. At full capacity, the tunnel can hold 22,000 pounds of cheese.

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Yams and sweet potatoes are often prepared and eaten as if they were the same vegetable. Actually, they are totally different foods. Yams are tubers which come from tropical climates and are shipped to the United States. According to “Nutrition Concepts and Controversies,” “The orange-fleshed sweet potato called ‘yam’ in the United States is one of the richest beta-carotene sources known.” Not only do they taste good, they are good for you. Baking yams in their whole form takes about an hour, but for cooks in a hurry, simple steps reduce baking time.

Scrub the yams, remove any “eyes” and pierce the skins with a fork if you plan to bake them whole. Otherwise, scrub them and slice according to your recipe.

The Quickest Baking Method

The quickest way to cook yams is to pierce the skins with a fork, pop them into a microwave oven and bake for a few minutes until the yam easily “gives” when you squeeze it. The length of cooking time depends on the power of the microwave oven and the size of the yam, but is usually between five and eight minutes for each yam. When it is done, slit it open, add cinnamon sugar and butter or other toppings, and place back into the microwave for a few seconds, remove, then enjoy.
Try eating yams with skin intact, without the addition of high calorie sugars and fats.

Fast Oven Baking

Natural Lifestyle.com shares a quick baking recipe from Organic Living Magazine for yams that takes about 40 minutes. Slices of yams are covered with a liquid made of brown rice syrup, mellow white miso and apple juice. After covering and baking in a 400-degree oven for 10 minutes, the temperature is then reduced to 350 degrees for another 20 minutes until yams are fork-tender.

More Fast-Baking Ideas

A recipe from Chef2Chef.com suggests parboiling 3 lbs. of whole yams for 20 minutes, cool until you can handle them, then pare and cut into 1/4-inch slices. Alternate layers in a buttered baking dish with 4 lbs. of sliced tart Granny Smith apples topped with 2 tbsp. each butter and brown sugar. Bake covered for 20 minutes, remove the cover and continue for another 20 minutes until yams are thoroughly cooked. Spices may be added as desired. Toasted pecans sprinkled on top after baking add a crunchy garnish to the dish.


Environment Temperature on Migration Patterns of Ambystoma maculatum

Populations of amphibians worldwide have undergone major declines in the past several decades. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) conducted an assessment of available data regarding the 5,743 known species of amphibian. They concluded that 43.2 % of all amphibian species are currently in population decline (Stuart et al., 2004). Houlahan et al. (2004) found in an analysis of 936 species that this decline has been happening since the late 1950s and continues to the present. Amphibians are valuable environmental indicators because they are, at different points in their lives, affected directly by water, air, soil, and sunlight. They also tend to stay in limited areas for their whole lives, which makes them good local indicators. Waddle (2006) explains that indicator species react to changes in their environment as a whole. Their decline may therefore be a sign of trouble for ecosystems worldwide. Shrinking amphibian populations are a risk to ecological communities in which amphibians fill important niches. Adult amphibians feed on a variety of other creatures, including mosquitoes, flies, fish, birds, and sometimes small mammals. Larval amphibians are a food source for aquatic insects, fish, mammals, and birds. Loss of amphibians will disrupt food webs, thus affecting these other populations. According to Blaustein & Wake (1995), amphibians also benefit humans as a source of chemical secretions, which are used for pharmaceutical purposes (e.g. treating pain, burns, heart attacks, etc.). If we lose amphibians, we lose our supply of some medicines and the chance to discover some others . Because amphibians serve as indicator species, a source of medicines and contribute to the stability of food webs, decreases in amphibian populations will send repercussions through ecosystems around the world.

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Data for amphibian populations in Virginia and nearby areas of the United States reflect the global declining trend. Vial and Saylor (1993) state that a report from the Declining Amphibian Population Task Force (DAPTF) listed seven Virginian amphibian species as threatened, or endangered, or under special concern. Out of 90 amphibian species in the Northeast U.S., 48% currently fall into those categories (Grant, 2009). Highton (2005) observed salamanders of the genus Plethodon at 1,700 sites in eastern North America and found that 180 out of 205 populations had smaller populations in the 1990s than in earlier years. Declines in Virginia may be the result of land development and logging, which affect habitat (Highton, 2005).

Some possible causes of amphibian decline on a large or small scale include the loss or development of habitat, invasive species, global change, excess UV-B radiation, chemical contamination, and disease. Only the first two of these are relatively well-understood. Changes in habitat such as clear-cutting forests, draining wetlands, conversion of nearby land to farmland, and changes in vegetation impact amphibians. Amphibians are vulnerable to changes in both the aquatic and the terrestrial parts of their homes because of their life cycles. Alien species kill amphibians by preying on them, competing with them, or introducing diseases. A variety of pathogens such as viruses, bacteria, parasites, and fungi are also believed to contribute to the decrease of amphibians. A notable disease is Chytridiomycosis, a fatal thickening of an amphibianââ‚¬â„¢s skin which is caused by a fungus. Global changes like climate change, the addition of chemical contaminants to the atmosphere, and seasonal increases in UV-B radiation where the ozone layer has been depleted have the potential to affect amphibians physically or change their behavior. Pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers, and other chemicals used by humans pollute amphibiansââ‚¬â„¢ environments. This may kill amphibians directly, cause deformities, affect their behavior, reduce their growth, or weaken their immune systems (Collins & Storfer, 2003; Blaustein & Kiesecker, 2002; Alford & Richards, 1999). Blaustein and Kiesecker (2002) theorize that a synergistic combination of all of these factors is responsible for the global decline of amphibians. Kiesecker (2002) also argues that pesticides increase the rate of parasite infections. While many causes are plausible, there is no one reason for decreasing amphibian populations worldwide.

Literature Review

Sexton, Phillips, and Bramble (1990) conducted a study of the migration of Ambystoma maculatum. They looked at how temperature and precipitation in the surroundings affected the spotted salamandersââ‚¬â„¢ breeding migration. Their experiment was conducted at Salamander Pond in western St. Louis County, MO over a ten-year period. In the experiment, they found that the spotted salamander generally began migrating to its breeding site following the first rainfall after the snow had melted and the ground had thawed, though rarely before February. Beyond this, there was no significant correlation between the amount of precipitation and migration. They noted, however, that all migration was associated with some precipitation in whatever amount, namely nocturnal rainfall. These scientists also found that migration was substantially linked to the three-day average soil temperature below the ground. Sexton et al. state that while there was no temperature at which migration seemed to consistently occur, there did appear to be a threshold temperature of 4.0 degrees Celsius at a depth of 30 cm in the soil. This means that in all but one instance, the temperature at this depth during migration was greater than or equal to 4.0 degrees Celsius. This suggests that Ambystoma maculatum hibernates at this depth, though there is no concrete evidence. The researchers also noted that the temperature above the ground when the salamanders migrated was always higher than that of the soil 30 cm below. On average, when the mean three-day average temperature 30 cm below the soil was 4.5 degrees Celsius, the temperature of the air above was 5.5 degrees Celsius. Sexton and his colleagues say that salamanders wait for the air temperature to be higher than the soil temperature in order to avoid exposure to cold or inclement weather. They also found that male salamanders tended to migrate earlier than female salamanders. Their theories explaining this pattern are that males have either a different microhabitat (reside at different depths) or a different migration-triggering temperature than females. The latter of these theories was found to be true for Ambystoma jeffersonianum, a close relative of the spotted salamander.

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For three years, R. J. Baldauf (1952) observed spotted salamander breeding ponds near Reading, PA. During this time he tracked air temperature, water temperature, humidity, precipitation, and presence of salamanders and spermatophores. Of the four ponds studied, one was semi-permanent while the rest were vernal pools. Salamanders were observed nightly when possible and otherwise during the day. Temperature data in degrees Fahrenheit were collected, but not regularly. Baldauf determined that the first Ambystoma maculatum migrations occurred from mid-February to mid-March, as evidenced by the appearance of adult salamanders and spermatophores. Temperatures during the migrations ranged from 55 to 62 degrees Fahrenheit (12.8 to 16.8 degrees Celsius). The relative humidity on the dates of migration ranged from 83 to 87 and the amount of precipitation ranged from 0.14 to 0.47 inches. The range of temperature for the 24-hour periods in which the first migrations took place was 41 to 76 degrees Fahrenheit (5 to 21.4 degrees Celsius). Baldauf concludes that humidity and temperature were the most important instigating factors in spring spotted salamander migration. He reasons that a suitable temperature combined with moisture from rainfall, melted snow, or water vapor in the air triggers the migration of Ambystoma maculatum.

The purpose of our experiment is to determine whether or not the temperature of the surrounding environment affects when spotted salamanders (Ambystoma maculatum) begin and end their breeding migration. Our hypothesis is that if the temperature increases above a certain threshold, then the rate of migration of Ambystoma maculatum will increase. We intend to place temperature probes in and around Woodmarsh vernal pool, which is located in Mason Neck National Wildlife Refuge (MNNWR), during the spring of 2011 to measure the temperatures of the environmental elements there. The probes will regularly record the temperatures of the soil, air, and water in the area. We will note how the temperatures relate to the migration of the salamanders and analyze the data for a correlation between changes in these temperatures and changes in the rate of migration.