Category Archives: 20th Century

James Vernon: Hunger A Modern History (2007)

Vernon concludes:

Andrew Benjamin – Art, Mimesis and the Avant-Garde (1991)

Benjamin uses art, mimesis and the avant-garde to reconceptualize the task of philosophy out of a ontology of “ontological difference,” which is a constituent component of “existence.” He transforms Heidegger’s division between Being and beings into a division or difference between various modes of being. “This shift has occurred because difference is henceforth differential rather simply marking a negation or non-relation” (3). Adorno lurks in the background. If the history of philosophy is of constantly falling prey to the trap of identification (between concepts and objects, Being and facts, etc.), then Benjamin wants to claim there is always already “plural ontologico-temporal” existing in the primacy of the already present. This temporally produced differential is crucial for Benjamin’s particular take on mimesis. For him, the artwork bears this internal temporal fracture and therefore participates, through its mimetic function, both in the “here and now” and in the past and future that exceed its context.

In chapter 9 “The Decline of Art: Benjamin’s Aura,” he uses Barthes’ theory of “significance” in “Le troisième sens” to explain his peculiar take on Benjamin’s aura. Significance refers to that which exceeds “pure information” and “symbolism.” The former is confined to the semiotics of the message, while the latter is more complex, but solely dependent on context–whose “temporality is therefore inscribed within its contextual existence.’ The third sense manifests itself in the moment that Barthes realizes, “I cannot detach myself from this image.” This “obtuse” meaning “sterilizes metalanuage (critique),” because it is indifferent to history and to the obvious meaning, and facilitates a distance from the referent” (145).  In A. Benjamin’s words, “Significance is a primordial presence occasioning, if not grounding, the possibility of the continuity of interpretation and hence of reinterpretation. Furthermore, it is a presence that can never be included within the temporality of he instance and therefore ontology of place, both of which involve the conceptions of time and being proper to context.” Therefore, “Significance is linked to survival and the capacity of the object of interpretation to live on” (146). Basically, this is what makes the photograph a work of art.

Benjamin’s reproducibility essay claims that experience is in a state of decay. He is ambiguous as to the loss of aura’s negative and positive effects. Importantly, it is not only our ability to experience, but the object of experience’s ability to “look back” that is decaying. A. Benjamin latches onto this intersubjective modality in order to claim that the primordial (which characterizes Barthes third sense) is “an otherness within presence which is part of presence itself” (149), thereby guaranteeing semiotic survival outside of the regimes of history and information.  He argues,

If the aura can be related to the primordial then the experience of aura needs to be understood beyond the melancholy interplay of nostalgia, loss and redemption. (151).

Yes! This adequately accounts for Benjamin’s point: “We define the aura of the latter [natural objects] as the unique phenomenon of distance however close it may be.” This “differential” marks the inherence of the primordial–the guarantee of semiotic survival: “The idea of life and after life in works of art should be regarded with an entirely unmetaphorical objectivity” (from Task of Translator). Which is to say, that metaphor no longer acts as the semiotic structure for understanding the enduring power of art (link to Levinas, de Man, et al). Thus the “truth content of the work of art…becomes its capacity to live on” (153). We need to better understand what this unmetaphorical living is….

Wyndham Lewis – The Credentials of the Painter

The English Review; Part 1, no. XXXIV (January 1922), 33-38; Part II, no XXXIV (Aprl 1922), 391-96. Reprinted in Creatures of Habit, Creatures of Change, 66-78.

Begins  by arguing that each artist correlates with a certain type of man. He contrasts the painter and the musician. The musician, however austere his music may be (Schoenberg), still cannot help but affect the body of the spectator; whereas the painter, especially the painter of abstract forms, can be completely cold and cut off. However, somewhat contradictorily, he also claims, “the fundamental and trump credential is…that he alones gives you the visual fact of our existence. All attachment to reality by means of the sense of sight is his province or preserve” (69). This mimetic function has he potential make the spectator participate in a certain type of life:

A portrait evidently ceases to be a portrait when it has that transporting effect that makes you feel, not only that you are sharing a moment of life removed by centuries from your own lifetime, but also that you are participating in a heightened life, that living of which only is an event as solitary and fixed as the thing at which you are gazing. (68-69)

Very curious why it must cease to be a portrait. Something here about mimetic comportment and the experience of history…relate to Pater’s fulness, perhaps. Lewis is frank about this contradiction: “that the painter participates more in life itself in one way than any other artist; but in another sense he is most removed from it” (71). NB: Hegel and Adorno will work through a similar contradiction in their aesthetic theories.

Part 2 broadens out the conversation to artists in general. He claims that there are no clear-cut laws that can be universally applied to artistic production. Neither are there universal, rational laws for deciding between good and bad art.

Argument and reflection are certainly very necessary, much as people dislike them, where the finer, or better the finest, art, in any kind, is concerned. But, in the interests of this dialectic, no laws can be adduced of universal application. The work of art, in the end, has to impose itself on men like a living individual. Instead of appealing to their intelligence only, supplying them with a mechanical formula of universal efficacy, it must appeal to their whole make-up, or to their taste. The taste is a sort of higher, more complex intelligence. Every faculty serves it, and is found represented in its composition. (73)

This, so far, is a very Schillerean notion of taste–not necessarily (only) a separate faculty, but the fruit of the development of a range of other faculties. For Lewis, taste serves as “a synthesis of the ego,” something which brings order to otherwise fragmented existence: “it is taste alone that can make him a dependable and ordered being” (73). This is meant as a corrective to metaphysicians who transform the “aesthetics” into an appendage of a philosophical system. He uses Hegel as an example. He also implicitly critiques Kant’s strict association between art and pleasure:

But is [pleasure] not also the object of any other activity higher than bread-winning? To make the majority of men feel comfortable and keep them quiet, the notion of the dignity of toil, in the sense of mechanical labor, was long ago invented. To unrivet the perception form the need, to disentangle art from the practical artifice of life, is the artist’s constant task in his work. (74)

He thus goes on to define his own concept of taste: “Taste, as I have described it, is what would occur of David Hume’s ‘argument and reflection’ became a habit, something that accompanied a man in whatever compartment of his existence he might be passing at the moment” (75).

He concludes by constructing two sides of a dialectic–that between a human world (civilization) and a material world (stones and matter):

If, however, without identifying ourselves with mater entirely, we yet evolved into a total material aceticism, how would it be with art then? One is bound to admit that art has so far been dependent on religion, a luxurious life, or superstitious fancy for its existence. But for any life that we could evolve into, short of identification with matter, or the other extreme of disassociation from it, there would be an art, or “expression.” It is a half-way house, the speech, life, and adornment of a half-way house. Or it is a coin that is used on a frontier, but in neither of the adjoining countries. As we know nothing about these or any other countries, it is impossible for us to say. Art is a coin, if you like, that has no aesthetic value, only an historic one. But it must be composed of a certain metal, and it must ring true. To recognize this ring you depend entirely on your ear. Your eyes, and even your teeth, ca also be brought into play, ANd you can speculate on the character of the stranger who is tendering you the coin. These, taken together, make up your “taste.” (76)

Lots to say about this: coin as medium (gold, exchange, etc.); taste as mediation between two “worlds” (relate to Hegel and art, but also transition to modernism; the way he keeps he make definite claims and then slightly shifting an qualifying them; the “teeth” as part of taste; identification with matter, but not entirely, etc.

Gerhard Richter – Afterness (2012)

Richter identifies his neologism afterness as a near universal trope in modern aesthetics and thought. The German word for after “Nach” gets at the dialectical nature of this temporal progression:

To live nach does not mean to emancipate oneself fully from ongoing proximity. O live nach does not mean to emancipate oneself fully from what went before but, on the contrary, to be subterraneously determined by it to a greater or lesser degree.  (10)

This afterness manifests itself in trauma, dreams, echoes and repetition. In this, way that which comes after, that which “ends” a certain moment, also acts a productive mechanism in the realms of thought and art. Quoting Hegel:

The question should rather be whether this end, incapable as it is of being an end, could possibly be the beginning of something.

Thus every discourse of “ends”–end of art, end of history, end of the human, end of taste–must always be conjoined with a discussion of the reorganization of conceptual paradigms within an emerging discourse. Using Dasein as an example, he notes how various tropes of withdraw simultaneously attempt to name the space that remains to be thought–so a leave-taking entails a conception of a future that has yet to be realized. Thus afterness, as Richter will repeat again and again, holds us in its grip. It materializes as something atemporal–as an experience that is lived.

Richter’s short chapters all take similar form. He clusters three or four thinkers around the relationship between Afterness and some other term: aesthetics, modernity, critique, etc. He uses afterness as a way to unlock the kernel of key theoretical texts, such as Negative Dialectics:

Afterness can be understood here as the affirmation of a dismantling that does not merely destroy its object, but liberates what previously had remained unthought within that object precisely through its dismantling. (52)

Adorno becomes a key figure for Richter, since Adorno so relentless theorizes the anxiety and stagnation produced by mere repetition–a sort of “bad,” ahistorical, reified afterness that is alien to all forms of authentic subjective experience. “Philosophy misses its purpose,” Adorno writes “when it already exists in the realm of repetition, of reproduction” (54). Adorno’s closing words in Mimima Moralia most famously lays out the importance of assuming a position of afterness (of redemption) in relation to the things of the world. Correct perspectives on the world can only be gained from “contact with the objects,” yes, but paired with a cognition that determined these objects as bearing the semblance of the already-redeemed. Here we begin to glimpse the elective affinities between art and thought–in Richter’s words, “the fragile promise of any negative dialectics” (69).

If this sounds like Benjamin, it’s because Richter’s Adorno is shot through not only with Benjamin’s influence, but also with the theological predilections of Heidegger, who is brought in (sometimes uncritically) as unproblematic interlocutor in almost every chapter. “Appearance” becomes a crucail phenomenological terrain for Richter’s arguemnt. Benjamin writes, “That of which one knows that one soon no longer will have it in front of one, that becomes image” (GR 143). [NB: could be linked to the genealogy of impressionism, but also to a description of life without material guarantees…where food becomes image the moment it is cognized. not sure…back to marx]. To solve the problem, Richter reads Heidegger-Deleuze to claim that the path thinking must take is one that is free of image all together–or, more precisely, an image of imageless thought, of image in perpetual withdraw. Adorno silently drops out in moments like this. Would have been nice if Richter had more clearly staged where Adorno would no longer agree with a tradition more comfortable with this passivity/fluidity/ontology/etc….

In perhaps the most compelling chapter, “Afterness and Experience (II): Crude Thinking Rethought,” Richter uses Brecht’s term “Plumpes Denken” to put forth a program for thought in the humanities today:

The task–an infinite task, to be sure–would be to engage in an articualtion of dialectical concepts and deconstructive moments of thought that would remain faithful to their radical singularity, autonomy, nd otherness and at the same time break with that fidelity to allow us to relate to the possible and nonnaive transformative reverberations of the material inscriptions that these thoughts and movements leave in the world. (174)

One feels the convergence of many realms of thought in this passage–deconstruction, marxist critique, phenomenology, psychoanalysis, Deleuzean mondaology–which is precisely what makes this book so compelling. Its lose paratactic form, familiar from Adorno’s “Essay as Form,” allows for maximum capaciousness. Derrida makes a late entrance that feels perfectly in line with the group of thinkers that current critical practice tends to pit against deconstruction. Derrida llows us to think memory as future-oriented–memory is always the memory of a future that is for us (yes, Kafka’s notion of hope is hovering here).

One also registers Adorno’s influence in the more or less paratactic, “constellated” style of Richter’s book.

Secondary Conrad

Form Harpham’s One of Us (1996)

Conrad’s oeuvre can be read as symptomatic of Modernism’ uneven development. Lumped together with Flaubert, James, and Joyce because of the defamiliarizing force of abstraction, we could also say that this is because (the English) language does in fact resist attempts to shape it into something perfectly referential…things take on associational force almost by accident rather that design. This is Conrad as the accidental modernist, that graduates into something more coherent with Nostromo in beyond, but then he is already explicit about referential relationships (however complicated) to politics and history.

Conrad’s work can be said to both disturb us and open us up to new horizons, argues Harpham. He does this 1) through the idea of the nation as a potentially unifying anecdote to trade, but nevertheless one that is porous and therefore laboriously constructed 2) through the idea of the sea that simultaneously symbolizes freedom and homelessness 3) through language itself, which becomes capacious grand at the same time that it fails to make a tight system of meaning, or even coherence of imagery.

Secondary Woolf

Abel on Woolf (1989)

“Narrative…getting on from lunch to dinner,” but in Woolf, characters do live in time, it’s just complicated.

The “tunneling process” as a way of achieving temporal depth–that is, offsetting narrative by means of incorporating the past vertically

On Dalloway

Bourton is a pastoral enclave that, within the countries of Clarissa’s psyche, excludes the courtship that would lead to marriage. And even Peter’s courting of her is filtered mostly though Peter’s consciousness and memory.

When Clarissa hears of Septimus’ death, she mourns her loss…this is emblematic of how various characters are used as structural devices for refracting the divided consciousness/history of Clarissa: Sally, Rezia, Septimus, etc.

Dalloway takes the form of a developmental narrative as a way out of mourning/melancholia. Clarissa learns to accept adulthood as a rough compromise with a pre-Oedipal fantasy that can never be inhabited again.

To the Lighthouse

To the Lighthouse widens out the scope, and replaces the developmental narrative with a family romance. So Lily, a surrogate daughter, can recover the image of Mrs. Ramsay, which James represses in his developmental accession to his father’s forms of rationality and which Cam can only access by telling a narrative that runs through the father, disclosing her enclosure within masculinist narratives. Also, the ambiguity of the central character…is it mister or Mrs. Ramsay?…opens up questions of definition and orientation.

Mr. Ramsay’s “speculative philosophy” depends upon the erasure of matter/mater, the purging of the signified that conditions the emergence of the pure, anorexic sign. James follows Mr. Ramsay into this linguistic terrain.

Liliy Briscoe marks out an alternative narrative of painting as process. Importantly, this not a static painting that emerges in a  moment of inspiration, eternal and changeless, but a canvas that bears the mark of its history. She forms a relationship  of intimacy with Ramsay that is silent: “Who knows what we are, what we feel?” We see her a curling into the self that refrains from a linguistic register. The painting also refuses the determinacy of an abstract realms of signification, as toggles between separation and synthesis…the activity of the vertical line is itself a knife edge marking out what is gained and lost in the process of memory formation.  Further, this intersects with the strange timing of her vision: “She had her vision” positions somehow in the past tense, presence removed, etc. This another way of describing a phenomenology of rupture, interruption, etc.

Between the Acts

Abel concludes with a very curious reading of Between the Acts and moses and Monotheism. The latter picks up the story of civilization’s emergence by complicating the strict paternal narrative of that early work. The worship of the mother enters between the death of the primal father and the worship of the mosaic God. Civilization emerges when intellectuality wins out over sensuality. [Talk about this in terms of the ban on touching as the conditioned for worshipping…denigration of the body of matter/mater, etc.]

Between the Acts represents a frayed social fabric [Isa saying that we are all dispersed, etc.] and morns the lack of a mothering culture that could act as an alternative: this gives way to a full on fear of paternalism in the shape of Nazism and Fascism [Giles seems eerily like the Nazis he condemns, etc.]

La Trobe tries to convey ten minus of “present time reality” whose absolute dryness is then “douched” by a supernatural rain that returns a (false) sense of collectivity to the crowd that just witnessed that radical fragmentation, etc. Abel argues that this fragmentation finds in answer in the heterosexual eroticism of the closing scene between Giles and Isa…it points forward to pro-creation as the dawn of a new era.

Joseph Conrad – Nostromo (1904)

If Lord Jim and Heart of Darkness dramatize the difficulty of narrating a life, confronting that difficulty by dramatizing the various subjective, generic, historical conditions that frame our experience of the world, then Nostromo ups the ante, expanding the palate of narrators (13 main characters) and opening the stage to the history of a continent and the circuits of global trade. Nostromo is “constructed” in ways similar to Jim, but this novel is not so much interested in characterization, as it is interested in how the past becomes present, and the present becomes future, and how all the various characters deal with these historical becomings.

Conrad employs a basic rectangle of characters:

Nostromo   –   Decoud (loves Antonia)

Mr. Gould   –   Monygham (loves Mrs. Gould)

On the top, two men that are killed by the silver. On the bottom, two men who are able to resist that death. On the left, two idealists. On the right, two pragmatists. Acting outside of these rectangle, are the two women, Antonia and Mrs. Gould.

Nostromo the character is a composite of what other characters believe him to be. We see him consistently fail to live up to the idea of the hero–he is literally a “man of the people” to the degree that he becomes subject to the same temptations of the silver.

When the old Garibaldi soldier kills Nostromo (not knowing that he does it), Conrad is showing who the older foams of heroic revolution are not tenable under the new regime of global capitalism.

Discuss the difference between catching a moment out of the stream of time and Mrs. Gould’s beliefe that we need to see the past, present and future within every moment….this is a different way of seeing the relationship between particular events and history in general.


Mintai Peter Hwang

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Release 47 of 1,072

NASA's Hubble Finds Universe Is Expanding Faster Than Expected

Release date: Jun 2, 2016 11:30 AM (EDT)
NASA's Hubble Finds Universe Is Expanding Faster Than Expected

When astronomer Edwin Hubble discovered nearly 100 years ago that the universe was uniformly expanding in all directions, the finding was a big surprise. Then, in the mid-1990s, another shocker occurred: astronomers found that the expansion rate was accelerating perhaps due to a repulsive property called "dark energy." Now, the latest measurements of our runaway universe suggest that it is expanding faster than astronomers thought. The consequences could be very significant for our understanding of the shadowy contents of our unruly universe. It may mean that dark energy is shoving galaxies away from each other with even greater – or growing – strength. Or, the early cosmos may contain a new type of subatomic particle referred to as "dark radiation." A third possibility is that "dark matter," an invisible form of matter that makes up the bulk of our universe, possesses some weird, unexpected characteristics. Finally, Einstein's theory of gravity may be incomplete.

These unnerving scenarios are based on the research of a team led by Nobel Laureate Adam Riess, who began a quest in 2005 to measure the universe's expansion rate to unprecedented accuracy with new, innovative observing techniques. The new measurement reduces the rate of expansion to an uncertainty of only 2.4 percent. That's the good news. The bad news is that it does not agree with expansion measurements derived from probing the fireball relic radiation from the big bang. So it seems like something's amiss – possibly sending cosmologists back to the drawing board.

The Full Story
Release date: Jun 2, 2016
NASA's Hubble Finds Universe Is Expanding Faster Than Expected

Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have discovered that the universe is expanding 5 percent to 9 percent faster than expected.

"This surprising finding may be an important clue to understanding those mysterious parts of the universe that make up 95 percent of everything and don't emit light, such as dark energy, dark matter, and dark radiation," said study leader and Nobel Laureate Adam Riess of the Space Telescope Science Institute and The Johns Hopkins University, both in Baltimore, Maryland.

There are a few possible explanations for the universe's excessive speed. One possibility is that dark energy, already known to be accelerating the universe, may be shoving galaxies away from each other with even greater – or growing – strength.

Another idea is that the cosmos contained a new subatomic particle in its early history that traveled close to the speed of light. Such speedy particles are collectively referred to as "dark radiation" and include previously known particles like neutrinos. More energy from additional dark radiation could be throwing off the best efforts to predict today's expansion rate from its post-big bang trajectory.

The boost in acceleration could also mean that dark matter possesses some weird, unknown characteristics. Dark matter is the backbone of the universe upon which galaxies built themselves up into the large-scale structures seen today.

And finally, the speedier universe may be telling astronomers that Einstein's theory of gravity is incomplete.

Riess' team made the discovery by refining the universe's current expansion rate to unprecedented accuracy, reducing the uncertainty to only 2.4 percent. The team made the refinements by developing innovative techniques that improved the precision of distance measurements to faraway galaxies.

These measurements are fundamental to making more precise calculations of how fast the universe expands with time, a value called the Hubble constant. The improved Hubble constant value is 73.2 kilometers per second per megaparsec. (A megaparsec equals 3.26 million light-years.) The new value means the distance between cosmic objects will double in another 9.8 billion years.

This refined calibration presents a puzzle, however, because it does not quite match the expansion rate predicted for the universe from its trajectory seen shortly after the big bang. Measurements of the afterglow from the big bang by NASA's Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) and the European Space Agency's Planck satellite mission yield predictions for the Hubble constant that are 5 percent and 9 percent smaller, respectively.

"We know so little about the dark parts of the universe, it's important to measure how they push and pull on space over cosmic history," said Lucas Macri of Texas A&M University in College Station, a key collaborator on the study.

Added Riess: "If we know the initial amounts of stuff in the universe, such as dark energy and dark matter, and we have the physics correct, then you can go from a measurement at the time shortly after the big bang and use that understanding to predict how fast the universe should be expanding today. However, if this discrepancy holds up, it appears we may not have the right understanding, and it changes how big the Hubble constant should be today."

Comparing the universe's expansion rate with WMAP, Planck, and the Hubble Space Telescope is like building a bridge, Riess explained. On the distant shore are the cosmic microwave background observations of the early universe. On the nearby shore are the measurements made by Riess' team using Hubble.

"You start at two ends, and you expect to meet in the middle if all of your drawings are right and your measurements are right," Riess said. "But now the ends are not quite meeting in the middle and we want to know why."

Riess' team made the improvements by streamlining and strengthening the construction of the cosmic distance ladder, which astronomers use to measure accurate distances to galaxies near and far from Earth. The team compared those distances with the expansion of space as measured by the stretching of light from receding galaxies. They used these two values to calculate the Hubble constant.

Among the most reliable of these cosmic yardsticks for relatively shorter distances are Cepheid variables, pulsating stars that dim and fade at rates that correspond to their true brightness. Their distances, therefore, can be inferred by comparing their true brightness with their apparent brightness as seen from Earth.

The researchers calibrated this stellar yardstick using a basic tool of geometry called parallax, the same technique that surveyors use to measure distances on Earth. With Hubble's sharp-eyed Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3), they extended the parallax measurements farther than previously possible, across the Milky Way galaxy, to reach distant Cepheids.

To calculate accurate distances to nearby galaxies, the team looked for galaxies containing both Cepheid stars and another reliable yardstick, Type Ia supernovae, exploding stars that flare with the same brightness and are brilliant enough to be seen from relatively longer distances. So far, Riess' team has measured about 2,400 Cepheid stars in 19 of these galaxies, representing the largest sample of such measurements outside the Milky Way. By comparing the observed brightness of both types of stars in those nearby galaxies, the astronomers could then accurately measure their true brightness and therefore calculate distances to roughly 300 Type Ia supernovae in far-flung galaxies.

Using one instrument, WFC3, to bridge the Cepheid rungs in the distance ladder, the researchers eliminated the systematic errors that are almost unavoidably introduced by comparing measurements from different telescopes. Measuring the Hubble constant with a single instrument is like measuring a hallway with a long tape measure instead of a single 12-inch ruler. By avoiding the need to pick up the ruler and lay it back down over and over again, you can prevent cumulative errors.

The SH0ES Team is still using Hubble to reduce the uncertainty in the Hubble constant even more, with a goal to reach an accuracy of 1 percent. Current telescopes such as the European Space Agency's Gaia satellite, and future telescopes such as the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), an infrared observatory, and the Wide Field Infrared Space Telescope (WFIRST), also could help astronomers make better measurements of the expansion rate.


Inspiration from speaker, Chad Pregracke

Chad was quick to give credit of the success of the non-profit’s clean-up efforts to the over 94,000 volunteers who have helped him since 1998, as well as individuals and corporations that have donated supplies he has used.   The perseverance and his ongoing passion to make a difference in the health of local waterways is commendable.  He overcame obstacles that made him at times question the value of his work.  Ultimately, he came to realize that even if his efforts have a seemingly small impact when looking at our country and even the world, it is still worth it.  To start somewhere and keep on going does make a difference.  One person’s passion can quickly spread and create a passion in others that will continue to have an impact.  He challenged the audience to support the efforts of groups such as BACT which, in essence, supports his efforts as well.  We are truly all connected.

Annual GatheringChadIf you were unable to attend the evening with Chad, his book, From the Bottom Up: One Man’s Crusade to Clean America’s Rivers, is available to purchase on his website.  LL&W has broadened its mission to include Adopt-A-River Mile Project and The Million Trees Project.

One attendee of the gathering stated, “He (Chad) is certainly an inspiration and a role model for all the people who would like to make a difference in this world.  I might add he was the perfect choice for the event.”

Thank you to our generous sponsors, Mr. James Bramsen, Angel Water, and ILM.


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The Climate Literacy Framework (below) summarizes the essential principles and fundamental concepts of climate literacy. It was developed during 2007 through a community-wide consensus-building process. Numerous US federal agency scientists, formal and informal educators, and representatives from non-governmental organizations and other institutions involved in climate research, education, and outreach worked to define the key concepts related to climate. The Framework builds on climate research and the science and technology benchmarks developed by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Project 2061.

Essential Principle 1 Sun, Energy, and Climate The Sun is the primary source of energy for Earth’s climate system

1d. Gradual changes in Earth’s rotation and orbit around the Sun change the intensity of sunlight received in our planet’s polar and equatorial regions. For at least the last 1 million years, these changes occurred in 100,000-year cycles that produced ice ages and the shorter warm periods between them.

1e. A significant increase or decrease in the Sun’s energy output would cause Earth to warm or cool. Satellite measurements taken over the past 30 years show that the Sun’s energy output has changed only slightly and in both directions. These changes in the Sun’s energy are thought to be too small to be the cause of the recent warming observed on Earth.

Essential Principle 2 Climate’s Complex Interactions Climate is regulated by complex interactions among components of the Earth system

2a. Earth’s climate is influenced by interactions involving the Sun, ocean, atmosphere, clouds, ice, land, and life. Climate varies by region as a result of local differences in these interactions.

2e. Airborne particulates, called "aerosols," have a complex effect on Earth’s energy balance: they can cause both cooling, by reflecting incoming sunlight back out to space, and warming, by absorbing and releasing heat energy in the atmosphere. Small solid and liquid particles can be lofted into the atmosphere through a variety of natural and man-made processes, including volcanic eruptions, sea spray, forest fires, and emissions generated through human activities.

Essential Principle 3 Life on Earth Life on Earth depends on, is shaped by, and affects climate.

3b. The presence of small amounts of heat-trapping greenhouse gases in the atmosphere warms Earth’s surface, resulting in a planet that sustains liquid water and life.

3d. A range of natural records shows that the last 10,000 years have been an unusually stable period in Earth’s climate history. Modern human societies developed during this time. The agricultural, economic, and transportation systems we rely upon are vulnerable if the climate changes significantly.

Essential Principle 4 Climate Variations Climate varies over space and time through both natural and man-made processes

Essential Principle 5 Climate Modeling Our understanding of the climate system is improved through observations, theoretical studies, and modeling

5a. The components and processes of Earth’s climate system are subject to the same physical laws as the rest of the Universe. Therefore, the behavior of the climate system can be understood and predicted through careful, systematic study.

5d. Our understanding of climate differs in important ways from our understanding of weather. Climate scientists’ ability to predict climate patterns months, years, or decades into the future is constrained by different limitations than those faced by meteorologists in forecasting weather days to weeks into the future.1

1 Based on "Climate Change: An Information Statement of the American Meteorological Society," 2007

Fundamental Principle 6 Climate and Human Activities Human activities are impacting the climate system

6a. The overwhelming consensus of scientific studies on climate indicates that most of the observed increase in global average temperatures since the latter part of the 20th century is very likely due to human activities, primarily from increases in greenhouse gas concentrations resulting from the burning of fossil fuels.2

6d. Growing evidence shows that changes in many physical and biological systems are linked to human-caused global warming.3 Some changes resulting from human activities have decreased the capacity of the environment to support various species and have substantially reduced ecosystem biodiversity and ecological resilience.

6e. Scientists and economists predict that there will be both positive and negative impacts from global climate change. If warming exceeds 2 to 3°C (3.6 to 5.4°F) over the next century, the consequences of the negative impacts are likely to be much greater than the consequences of the positive impacts.

2 Based on IPCC, 2007: The Physical Science Basis: Contribution of Working Group I
3 Based on IPCC, 2007: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. Contribution of Working Group II

Essential Principle 7 Climate and the Future Climate change will have consequences for the Earth system and human lives

7d. The chemistry of ocean water is changed by absorption of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Increasing carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere is causing ocean water to become more acidic, threatening the survival of shell-building marine species and the entire food web of which they are a part.

7f. Human health and mortality rates will be affected to different degrees in specific regions of the world as a result of climate change. Although cold-related deaths are predicted to decrease, other risks are predicted to rise. The incidence and geographical range of climate-sensitive infectious diseases—such as malaria, dengue fever, and tick-borne diseases—will increase. Drought-reduced crop yields, degraded air and water quality, and increased hazards in coastal and low-lying areas will contribute to unhealthy conditions, particularly for the most vulnerable populations.

ICSUSA Outreach

Educational Outreach is one of the best methods to achieve the goals of the Institute of Climate Studies.  Through our presentations and the sharing of information, the Institute is able to best continue its mission of presenting climate change in a manner which facilitates an understanding of the complicated issue to the general public.

Please contact us for further information about scheduling a presentation, talk, or forum.

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Fundamental Automotive Mechanic Tasks

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Basic Automotive Mechanic Endeavors

Most several women and guys are passionate about automobiles, which is why some decide to embark on a profession that entails repairing, overhauling and even altering specific or all automobile sort.

To be able to become an automotive mechanic but definitely, aside in the excitement, there are other requirements. First it would have been wise for anyone who aspires a livelihood on automotive repair to comprehend tasks and the duties of the craft. After which the mechanic do proper repair works according to the car model or make. In exact, here are the potential tasks an auto mechanic may perform:

Working on ignition engines that are internal and relating repair jobs for example valves grinding, piston and piston ring bushings, bearings and installments fittings, reassembling, parts dismantling and rod aligning.

Tuning up, altering mufflers, of wheel, oil and tire balancing and smog control apparatus scrutinizing and repairing

Proper usage of shop equipments like hand set grinders, hydraulic and drill presses, hydraulic lifts, engine analyzers, welding equipment, and electrical system testing gear.

Some welding identical tires on dual wheel vehicles, of electric and oxygen acetylene

Aside from Vehicle Electrics these, the auto mechanic could be the one to purchase the parts and supplies needed for the repair, keep inventories in certain projects, estimate prices and cost for the automotive repair, recommend other services supplied by other contractors when the automotive malfunction is out of his subject, along with other responsibilities assigned.

He or she should possess these qualities and knowledge to be able to perform nicely on the responsibilities mentioned for an automotive mechanic:

How version and a particular kind of an automotive works

Concepts and principles of Hydraulic, electrical and mechanical systems and power take-off accessory systems in gas and diesel internal combustion engines

Proper use along with care of equipments and tools in automotive machines

Safety measures, practices and precautions

Fundamental record-keeping procedures and computer skills

Different states have various regulations on how an aspirant may become a licensed and competent mechanic. As early as high school, there are some curriculum which provides vocational or early training elective classes including that of automobile repairing. Formal training and education may come from faculties and various technical schools.

He should also possess or have the essential tools like screwdrivers, wrenches, pliers and gauges.


BETHEL - Residents will vote Tuesday on a $55.3 million budget for the 2006-2007 fiscal year.

The referendum will be held in the town's five voting districts from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m.

If approved, the town's mill rate - also known as the tax rate - would increase 5 percent.

A homeowner with a house assessed at $200,000 would pay an additional $286 if the budget is approved.

This is the second referendum on the budget. It was defeated May 9 by 86 votes. The town's board of finance then trimmed the spending plan by about $170,000.

Visit for referendum results as soon as they come in.


From Ohio History Central

File:Adena House.jpg

Adena was the home of Thomas Worthington, one of Ohio's first two United States senators. Worthington also served as the sixth governor of the state.

Adena is a Hebrew word that means "delightful place." Worthington built his home on five thousand acres of land near Chillicothe. Benjamin Henry Latrobe, the architect who helped design the White House and the Capitol in Washington, DC, designed Adena.

The main house was completed in 1807. For the period, the house was impressive. It included large spaces for public events, such as entertaining Worthington's many guests. These rooms were decorated to exhibit the Worthington's wealth and influence. The private portions of the house were smaller and simpler, but for the time, they still exhibited the Worthington's more affluent lifestyle. Latrobe also included a kitchen, offices, and storage rooms in Adena, facilities usually found in outbuildings during this period. Worthington also planted extensive gardens around the home. Some people believe that the home's eastern view served as the model for Ohio's Great Seal, and while rumors to this effect have existed since the nineteenth century, many scholars disagree.

Because Worthington was one of Ohio's most important political leaders in the late 1700s and the early 1800s, important visitors often visited Adena. Among them were Tecumseh, William Henry Harrison, James Monroe, and Henry Clay. Adena was a luxurious home in rural Ohio in the early 1800s.

Adena is an Ohio Historical Society site and has been restored. Five other buildings on the estate have also been restored or reconstructed. [[Category:{$topic}]]


Balvinder Singh (Australia)

I started learning Indian Classical music at a young age, initially by my father. I learnt classical tabla for a number of years and then went on to learn Sitar from a variety of ustads overseas. What motivates me is to break down the boundaries between music. I believe it is universal and as a first generation Australian, when I heard the sounds of Indian classical music I cant help but fuse it the music I have grown up in. I also would really like my music to help people; and Sikh scriptures have a beautiful message that I am trying to get to a wider audience. I am also trying to elevate the standard and push the boundaries of traditional kirtan, taking it to new levels.

Gurbani Tags:

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Stubborn Belief

I awoke last Saturday morning - my birthday - with the phrase "stubborn belief" swirling around in my head.

I let it settle in a bit, curious about its presence, especially on such a special day.

Under periods of stress (such as during this #movetochange that I shared about last week), old beliefs about not being able to have what I really want/need start to rise to the surface more forcefully. It sounds like, "It can never be." These ideas that were formed so long ago can then come to dominate the other parts of me that aren't bought into this paradigm, the parts that trust in the goodness that is life and in the knowledge that all things are conspiring for my well-being and joy.

So here I was. Stubborn belief.

What it would it be like, I imagined, to stubbornly believe in what might be? To stubbornly believe in the big dreams I hold? To stubbornly believe in the inherent physical, emotional, psychic drive to wholeness? To stubbornly believe that God/Universe/Spirit is wanting good things for me?

In this phrase I could feel strength. Clarity. Calm. Ease, too.

And then some interesting things started happening.

To start with, some of my painful feelings about all of this intensified and I let them rise. I allowed myself to have deep, healing tears and received tremendous external support.

Then I read an article that spoke so deeply to me about my immediate need for radical self-care, for tapping into my wild feminine self to guide me in that.

Then I read some promising research about a supplement I was prescribed that left me feeling really at ease about some things happening in my body.

Then I read a blog post about our deep interconnectedness and how money is a part of that.

Then I received some beautiful gifts that spoke to deep, wild, connected parts of me.

In all of this, I could feel the belief that "it can never be" just starting to slip away, ease up, step off to the side.

I could feel a spaciousness emerge. And in that spaciousness, I could begin to feel my wildness. My deep, intuitive knowing.

My body began to ask for more movement. I wanted to play around. Challenge my muscles. Explore my ranges of motion.

My desires began to emerge more forcefully, and my boundaries, too. No, I don't want to take that course on NVC right now. No, I don't want to facilitate that gathering. Yes, I want to go play in the dirt. Yes, I want to slow down and really listen to my heart.

And my connection to others began to feel more grounded and true.

I didn't will any of this.

None of it was effortful.

I didn't try harder.

I just allowed for the flow.

All of this reminds me of one of the most powerful teachings about health that I've ever experienced.

In fact, my very first newsletter here was about it!

When we think about health in the body, we can think about flow of blood, lymph and electricity.  Since how we use our bodies EVERYDAY impacts how things are flowing, we can dramatically improve our health by exploring where flow gets interrupted (or becomes turbulent) and adjusting our movement patterns to address that.

When I first heard this definition from Katy Bowman, a whole lot of things clicked together for me about the body.

But not just in terms of mechanics.

I realized that flow is about so much more. There's flow of emotions. Thoughts. Seasons. Relationships. Chi. Spirit. Energy. Breath. Beliefs. It goes on an on....

And all of these things impact our health.

Our willingness to allow for this flow - a wild, wild act of stubborn belief in the goodness of life! - is what enables things to shift, open up, change, grow, heal.

It's what brings us health - health in our bodies, health in our relationships, health in our belief systems, health everywhere.

As I tap into this flow, I hear my inner wild telling me to slow down a bit. To eat more food. To play more with my family. To go into the woods alone. To get my hands into the dirt. To laugh and pray and to ask my womb for guidance.

And to do all of it in stubborn belief.


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1799 - 1802 Commander-in-Chief and Staff - All generals wear blue coat with buff turnback and facings, yellow buttons and tricorner cocked hats. Washington with glass wears 3 stars of Lt General and has slightly different and he has a white plume; Hamilton as senior major general wears 2 stars and has a black and white plume. Behind him is a brigadier general with one star and red and white plume. The fourth officer's shoulder board is not visible but he carries the hat with plume of black, red and white of the Inspector general and Adjutant general. The general officer to left rear has the black plume of the Quartermaster general.


My customized group class, Fit Flow Vinyasa, is yoga that integrates dynamic posture sequences with deliberate breath and mindful engagement. This style of yoga is geared toward people who enjoy a physical challenge, and like to explore the body’s capacity for strength. Classes progress through several standing and balancing series, and wind down through seated and reclined poses. Sequences are geared to achieve total balance, and options are provided for students to suit their level of ability. There is a strong emphasis on breathing and mental concentration. In this class, students are encouraged to advance their personal practice by exploring variations and testing their physical abilities. Upbeat playlists cover a variety of musical genres, and the room temperature hovers between 80 and 85 degrees.


Question special

Ashley asked some great questions earlier about the reasons that may be women underrepresented in medical leadership. Multiple people noted that promotion rates are much slower for women in the academic setting for a variety of reasons, including lack of time for research/publications or an inability to uproot their family for a promotion. Is the slower rate of promotion also common in clinical medicine? If so, why do you think that is the case? Is it due to reduced hours, women not frequently asking to be promoted, etc.?


Unending Benefits of Biomass Energy

Indefinitely Renewable

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Smaller Carbon Footprint

A quick glance at popular biomass resources

Societal Benefits

Denmark and Biomass Energy

A Glance at Drop-in Biofuels

drop-in-biofuelsBiofuel commercialization has proved to be costly and lingering than expected due to its high production cost and modification to flexibility in engines. Drop-in fuels are alternatives to existing liquid fuels without any significant modification in engines and infrastructures. According to IEA, “Drop-in biofuels are liquid bio-hydrocarbons that are functionally equivalent to petroleum fuels and are fully compatible with existing petroleum infrastructure”.

What are Drop-in Biofuels

Drop-in biofuels are can be produced from oilseeds via trans-esterification, lignocellulosic biomass via thermochemical process, sugars and alcohol via biochemical conversion or by hybrids of the above methods. Drop-in fuels encompass high hydrogen to carbon ratio with no/low sulfur and oxygen content, low water solubility and high carbon bond saturation. In short drop-in fuel is a modified fuel with close functional resemblance to fossil fuel.

Existing biofuels – bioethanol and biodiesel – have wide variation from fossil fuels in their blend wall properties – high oxygen content, hydrophilicity, energy density and mainly compatibility in existing engines and infrastructures. Oxygenated groups in biofuel have a domino effect such as reduction in the energy density, production of impurities which are highly undesirable to transportation components, instability during storage etc.

Major advantages of drop-in fuels over existing fuels are as follows:

  • Reduced sulphur oxide emissions by ultra low sulphur content.
  • Reduced ignition delay by high cetane value
  • Reduced hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides emissions
  • Low aromatic content
  • Low olefin content, presence of olefin compounds undergo auto-oxidation leading to surface depositions.
  • High saturates, therefore leaving minimum residues
  • Low particulate emissions
  • No oxygenates therefore has high stability.

Potential Biomass Feedstock

Drop-in biofuels can be produced from various biomass sources- lipids (vegetable oils, animal fats, greases, and algae) and cellulosic material (such as crop residues, woody biomass, and dedicated energy crops). The prominent technologies for biomass conversion to drop-in fuel are the thermochemical and the biochemical process.

The major factor playing role in selection of biomass for thermochemical methods is the energy content or heating value of the material, which is correlated with ash content. Wood, wood chips accounts for less than 1% ash content, which is favorable thermal processing than biochemical process, whereas straws, husks, and majority of the other biomass have ash content ranging up to 25% of dry mass.

Free sugar generating plants such as sugarcane and sweet sorghum, are desirable feedstock for Acetone-Butanol-Ethanol fermentation and have been widely implemented. Presently there is a focus to exploit lignocellulosic residues, rich in hydrocarbon, for fuel production. However, this biomass requires harsh pretreatment to remove lignin and to transform holocellulose (cellulose & hemicelluloses) into fermentable products.

The lignocellulose transformation technology must be circumspectly chosen by its life cycle assessment, as it resists any changes in their structural integrity owing to its complexity. Lignocellulosic biomass, when deoxygenated, has better flexibility to turn to drop-in fuels. This is because, in its native state of the feedstock, each oxygen atom consumes two hydrogen atoms during combustion which in turn reduces effective H: C ratio. Biomass feedstock is characterized with oxygen up to 40%, and higher the oxygen content higher it has to be deoxygenated.

Thermochemical Route

Thermochemical methods adopted for biomass are pyrolysis and gasification, on thermolysis of biomass produce intermediate gas (syngas) and liquid (bio crude) serving as precursors for drop-in fuel. Biomass when exposed to temperature of 500oC-600oC in absence of oxygen (pyrolysis) produce bio-oil, which constitutes a considerable percentage of oxygen. After down streaming by hydroprocessing (hydrotreating and hydrocracking) the rich hydrocarbon tar (bio-oil) can be converted to an efficient precursor for drop-in fuel.

At a higher temperature, above 700, under controlled oxygen, biomass can be converted to liquid fuel via gas phase by the process, gasification. Syngas produced is converted to liquid fuel by Fischer-Tropsch with the help of ‘water gas shift’ for hydroprocessing. Hydroprocessing after the thermochemical method is however costly and complex process in case of pyrolysis and inefficient biomass to fuel yield with gasification process.

Biochemical Pathway

The advanced biocatalytic processes can divert the conventional sugar-ethanol pathway and convert sugars to fatty acids. Modified microbial strain with engineered cellular machineries, can reroute the pathway to free fatty acid that can be transformed into butanol or drop-in fuel with necessary processing.

Schematic for the preparation of jet fuel from biomass

Schematic for the preparation of jet fuel from biomass

Biological processing requires operation under the stressful conditions on the organisms to reroute the pathways, in additional to lowering NADPH (hydrogen) consumption. Other value added products like carboxylic acid, polyols, and alcohol in the same biological routes with lower operational requirements have higher market demands and commercial success. Therefore little attention is given by chemical manufacturers to the biological pathways for drop-in fuel production.

The mechanisms of utilization of lignocellulosic biomass to fuel by biological pathway rely heavily on the availability of monomeric C5 and C6 sugars during fermentation. Ethanol is perhaps the best-known and commercially successful alcohol from ABE fermentation. However, butanol has various significant advantages over ethanol- in the perception of energy content, feasibility to existing infrastructures, zero blend wall, safety and clean aspects. Although butanol is a closer drop-in replacement, existing biofuel ethanol, is a major commercial competitor. Low yield from fermentation due to the toxicity of butanol and complexity in down streaming are the vital reasons that hamper successful large scale butanol production.

Challenges to Overcome

Zero oxygen and sulphur content mark major challenges for production of drop-in fuels from conventional biomass. This demands high hydrogen input on the conventional biomass, with H: C ratio below 0.5, like sugar, starch, cellulose, lignocellulose to meet the effective hydrogen to carbon ratio of 2 as in drop-in fuel. This characterizes most of the existing biomass feedstock as a low-quality input for drop-in fuels. However oleochemicals like fats, oils, and lipids have closer H: C ratio to diesel, gasoline and drop-in fuels, thus easier to conversion. Oleochemical feedstock has been commercially successful, but to prolong in the platform will be a major challenge. Lipid feedstock is generally availed from crop-based vegetable oil, which is used in food sectors. Therefore availability, food security concerns, and economics are the major constraints to sustaining the raw material. Consequently switching to lignocellulosic biomass feedstock for drop-in holds on.

Despite the hurdles on biomass characteristics and process technology for drop-in fuel, it is a vital requirement to switch to better replacement fuel for fossil fuel, considering environmental and economic benefits. Understanding its concepts and features, drop-in fuel, can solve existing greenhouse emission debate on current biofuels. Through crucial ambiguities existing on future of alternative fuels, drop-in fuel has a substantial potential to repute itself as an efficient sustainable eco-friendly fuel in the naear future.

  • Neal K Van Alfen: ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AGRICULTURE AND FOOD SYSTEMS, Elsevier, Academic Press.
  • Pablo Domínguez de María John: INDUSTRIAL BIORENEWABLES:A Practical Viewpoint: Wiley & Sons.
  • Ram Sarup Singh, Ashok Pandey, Edgard Gnansounou: BIOFUELS- PRODUCTION AND FUTURE PERSPECTIVES, CRC Press.
  • Satinder Kaur Brar, Saurabh Jyoti Sarma, Kannan Pakshirajan : PLATFORM CHEMICAL BIOREFINERY-FUTURE GREEN CHEMISTRY, Elsevier.
  • Sergios Karatzos, James D. McMillan, Jack N. Saddle: Summary of IEA BIOENERGY TASK 39 REPORT-THE POTENTIAL AND CHALLENGES OF DROP-IN BIOFUELS, IEA Bioenergy.
  • Vijai Kumar Gupta, Monika Schmoll, Minna Maki, Maria Tuohy, Marcio Antonio Mazutti: APPLICATIONS OF MICROBIAL ENGINEERING, CRC Press.

Bioethanol: Challenges in India

Sugarcane molasses is the most common feedstock for bioethanol production in India

Sugarcane molasses is the most common feedstock for bioethanol production in India

Regulatory and policy approaches on excise duty on storage and transportation of ethanol and pricing strategy of ethanol compared to crude oil are to be revised and implemented effectively. Diversifying the feedstocks and advanced technology for domestic ethanol production in blending sectors are to be fetched out from research laboratories to commercial scale. Above all the knowledge of economic and environmental benefits of biofuel like reduction in pollutants and import bills, need to be amplified for the common man.

Role of Biomass Energy in Rural Development

biomass-balesBiomass energy systems not only offer significant possibilities for clean energy production and agricultural waste management but also foster sustainable development in rural areas. The increased utilization of biomass wastes will be instrumental in safeguarding the environment, generation of new job opportunities, sustainable development and health improvements in rural areas.

Biomass energy has the potential to modernize the agricultural economy and catalyze rural development. The development of efficient biomass handling technology, improvement of agro-forestry systems and establishment of small, medium and large-scale biomass-based power plants can play a major role in rural development.

Planting of energy crops on abandoned agricultural lands will lead to an increase in species diversity. The creation of structurally and species diverse forests helps in reducing the impacts of insects, diseases and weeds. Similarly the artificial creation of diversity is essential when genetically modified or genetically identical species are being planted.

Improvements in agricultural practices promises to increased biomass yields, reductions in cultivation costs, and improved environmental quality. Extensive research in the fields of plant genetics, analytical techniques, remote sensing and geographic information systems (GIS) will immensely help in increasing the energy potential of biomass feedstock.

Rural areas are the preferred hunting ground for the development of biomass sector worldwide. By making use of various biological and thermal processes (anaerobic digestion, combustion, gasification, pyrolysis), agricultural wastes can be converted into biofuels, heat or electricity, and thus catalyzing sustainable development of rural areas economically, socially and environmentally.

Biomass energy can reduce 'fuel poverty' in remote and isolated communities

Biomass energy can reduce ‘fuel poverty’ in remote and isolated communities

A large amount of energy is utilized in the cultivation and processing of crops like sugarcane, wheat and rice which can met by utilizing energy-rich residues for electricity production. The integration of biomass-fueled gasifiers in coal-fired power stations would be advantageous in terms of improved flexibility in response to fluctuations in biomass availability and lower investment costs.

There are many areas in India where people still lack access to electricity and thus face enormous hardship in day-to-day lives. Biomass energy promises to reduce ‘fuel poverty’ commonly prevalent among remote and isolated communities.  Obviously, when a remote area is able to access reliable and cheap energy, it will lead to economic development and youth empowerment.

Resource Base for Second-Generation Biofuels

second-generation-biofuelsSecond-generation biofuels, also known as advanced biofuels, primarily includes cellulosic ethanol. The feedstocks used for the production of second-generation biofuel are non-edible lignocellulosic biomass resources (such as leaves, stem and husk) which do not compete with food resources. The resource base for second-generation biofuels production is broadly divided into three categories – agricultural residues, forestry wastes and energy crops.

Agricultural Residues

Forestry Biomass

Forest harvesting is a major source of biomass energy. Harvesting in forests may occur as thinning in young stands, or cutting in older stands for timber or pulp that also yields tops and branches usable for production of cellulosic ethanol. Harvesting operations usually remove only 25 to 50 percent of the volume, leaving the residues available as biomass for energy. Stands damaged by insects, disease or fire are additional sources of biomass. Forest residues normally have low density and fuel values that keep transport costs high, and so it is economical to reduce the biomass density in the forest itself.

Energy Crops

Energy crops are non-food crops which provide an additional potential source of feedstock for the production of second-generation biofuels. Corn and soybeans are considered as the first-generation energy crops as these crops can be also used as the food crops. Second-generation energy crops are grouped into grassy (herbaceous or forage) and woody (tree) energy crops.

Grassy energy crops or perennial forage crops mainly include switchgrass and miscanthus. Switchgrass is the most commonly used feedstock because it requires relatively low water and nutrients, and has positive environmental impact and adaptability to low-quality land. Miscanthus is a grass mainly found in Asia and is a popular feedstock for second-generation biofuel production in Europe. Woody energy crops mainly consists of fast-growing tree species like poplar, willow, and eucalyptus. The most important attributes of these class species are the low level of input required when compared with annual crops. In short, dedicated energy crops as feedstock are less demanding in terms of input, helpful in reducing soil erosion and useful in improving soil properties.

Biofuels from Lignocellulosic Biomass

Ethanol Production via Biochemical Route

Pretreated biomass can directly be converted to ethanol by using the process called simultaneous saccharification and cofermentation (SSCF). Pretreatment is a critical step which enhances the enzymatic hydrolysis of biomass. Basically, it alters the physical and chemical properties of biomass and improves the enzyme access and effectiveness which may also lead to a change in crystallinity and degree of polymerization of cellulose. The internal surface area and pore volume of pretreated biomass are increased which facilitates substantial improvement in accessibility of enzymes. The process also helps in enhancing the rate and yield of monomeric sugars during enzymatic hydrolysis steps.

Pretreatment methods can be broadly classified into four groups – physical, chemical, physio-chemical and biological. Physical pretreatment processes employ the mechanical comminution or irradiation processes to change only the physical characteristics of biomass. The physio-chemical process utilizes steam or steam and gases, like SO2 and CO2. The chemical processes employs acids (H2SO4, HCl, organic acids etc) or alkalis (NaOH, Na2CO3, Ca(OH)2, NH3 etc). The acid treatment typically shows the selectivity towards hydrolyzing the hemicelluloses components, whereas alkalis have better selectivity for the lignin. The fractionation of biomass components after such processes help in improving the enzymes accessibility which is also important to the efficient utilization of enzymes.

The pretreated biomass is subjected to enzymatic hydrolysis using cellulase enzymes to convert the cellulose to fermentable sugars. Cellulase refers to a class of enzymes produced chiefly by fungi and bacteria which catalyzes the hydrolysis of cellulose by attacking the glycosidic linkages. Cellulase is mixture of mainly three different functional protein groups: exo-glucanase (Exo-G), endo-glucanase(Endo-G) and ?-glucosidase (?-G). The functional proteins work synergistically in hydrolyzing the cellulose into the glucose. These sugars are further fermented using microorganism and are converted to ethanol. The microorganisms are selected based on their efficiency for ethanol productivity and higher product and inhibitors tolerance. Yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae is used commercially to produce the ethanol from starch and sucrose.

Escherichia coli strain has also been developed recently for ethanol production by the first successful application of metabolic engineering. E. coli can consume variety of sugars and does not require the complex growth media but has very narrow operable range of pH. E. coli has higher optimal temperature than other known strains of bacteria.

Lower GHG emissions and empowerment of rural economy are major benefits associated with bioethanol

The major cost components in bioethanol production from lignocellulosic biomass are the pretreatment and the enzymatic hydrolysis steps. In fact, these two process are someway interrelated too where an efficient pretreatment strategy can save substantial enzyme consumption. Pretreatment step can also affect the cost of other operations such as size reduction prior to pretreatment. Therefore, optimization of these two important steps, which collectively contributes about 70% of the total processing cost, are the major challenges in the commercialization of bioethanol from 2nd generation feedstock.

Enzyme cost is the prime concern in full scale commercialization. The trend in enzyme cost is encouraging because of enormous research focus in this area and the cost is expected to go downward in future, which will make bioethanol an attractive option considering the benefits derived its lower greenhouse gas emissions and the empowerment of rural economy.

The Promise of Algae

Leading international authority on algal biotechnology and head of the Culture Collection of Algae and Protozoa (www.CCAP.ac.uk), Dr John Day, thinks it’s a major step forward.  Dr Day has over 25 years’ experience in biotechnology and applied algal research and comments “Commercial confidence in the scalability of algal biofuel production is an exciting step forward in the journey towards sustainable, economic biofuel production using microalgae.

Algae Cultures at the Scottish Association for Marine Science

What is Algaculture

  • carbon capture from smokestacks to increase algae growth rates
  • processing of algae biomass through gasification to create syngas
  • growing carbohydrate rich algae strains for cellulosic ethanol
  • using waste streams from municipalities as water sources

A Primer on Biofuels


Innate Immunity and Viral Evasion

If a virus attacks us, our immune system registers this attack and starts a whole chain of reactions. Messengers initiate the release of cellular proteins, through which our cells prevent the spread of viruses – known as antiviral factors. However, some viruses have developed very effective strategies against these antiviral factors, so that the self-protection mechanism of the cells is ultimately insufficient to defend against the infection. Wanted: new antiviral factors which can fight off even these viruses – of which HIV is one.

Siddharta, A., Pfaender, S., Malassa, A., Doerrbecker, J., Anggakusuma, Engelmann, M., Nugraha, B., Steinmann, J., Todt, D., Vondran, F.W.R., Mateu-Gelabert, P., Goffinet, C., Steinmann, E., Inactivation of HCV and HIV by microwave: a novel approach for prevention of virus transmission among people who inject drugs. Scientific Reports, in press

Xu, S, Ducroux, A, Ponnurangam, A, Franz, S, Vieyres, G, Müsken, M, Zillinger, T, Malassa, A, Ewald, E, Hornung, V, Barchet, W, Häussler, S, Pietschmann, T, Goffinet, C, cGAS-mediated innate immunity spreads intercellularly through HIV-1 Env-induced membrane fusion sites. Cell Host & Microbe 20(4):443-457 (2016)

Goffinet C, Cellular Antiviral Factors that Target Particle Infectivity of HIV-1. Curr HIV Res 14(3):211 (2016)

Kusuma A, Romero-Brey I, Berger C, Colpitts CC, Boldanova T, Engelmann M, Todt D, Perin PM, Behrendt P, Vondran FW, Xu S, Goffinet C, Schang LM, Heim MH, Bartenschlager R, Pietschmann T, Steinmann E, Interferon-inducible cholesterol-25-hydroxylase restricts hepatitis C virus replication via blockage of membranous web formation. Hepatology 62(3):702-14 (2015)

Lodermeyer V, Suhr K, Schrott N, Kolbe C, Sturzel CM, Krnavek D, Munch J, Dietz C, Waldmann T, Kirchhoff F, Goffinet C, 90K, an interferon-stimulated gene product, reduces the infectivity of HIV-1. Retrovirology 10(1): 111 (2013)

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Figure 2: A metabolic cage system with fecal pellet or the urine to flow down into separate collection tubes (2a, right); An innovative design of our autonomic spinning collecting system for urine drop collection, at a speed of one circle per day (2b left). Thus, four urine tubes could be collected at about 6 hour-interval.


Breaking dormancy in Amorphophallus

Normally Amorphophallus has a dormancy period of 4-5 months. It can be reduced to 1.5 to 2 months by incubating the corms at 40 0 c for 6-9 hours per day for 6 weeks. At platforms of 1 metre height, keep the corms upside down after scooping out the top bud. Coconut husk or firewood can be used to produce the desired heat.

Exogenous application of thiourea(100 ppm), ethrel (1000ppm) and GA3(25ppm).


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Tuesday, April 30, 2013

datastage4you QAnT - April2013 - 1

ps -ef | grep 'DSD.RUN'

#4. Make use of Order By clause when a DB stage is being used in join. The intention is to make use of Database power for sorting instead of Data Stage resources. Keep the join partitioning as Auto. Indicate don’t sort option between DB stage and join stage using sort stage when using order by clause.

#5. What are different types of containers ?

#6. What is difference between Merge stage and Join stage?

#7. Can we use sequential file as reference for lookup stage ?

#8. How a server job can be converted to a parallel job?

#9. How do you find the number of rows in a sequential file in datastage ?

#10. Is it possible to run parallel jobs in server jobs?

#11. Can we take benefit of parallelism in Server job, Is YES, how ?

#12. DataStage Server – stopping the server
/opt/IBM/InformationServer/ASBNode/bin/NodeAgents.sh stop
b) Engine
/opt/IBM/InformationServer/Server/DSEngine/bin/uv -admin –stop
c) WAS Server
/opt/IBM/WebSphere/AppServer/bin/stopServer.sh server1 -user wasadmin -password PASSWORD
d) DB2
su - db2inst1 -c "db2stop"

#13. There are two types of variables - string and encrypted. If you create an encrypted environment variable it will appears as the string "*******" in the Administrator tool.

For more .. click on --> datastage4you QAnT - April2013 - 2


Monday, February 1, 2010

574-Project 1

Techonogy Requirements:
I have mentioned some of the technology I have used but I wanted to make sure I had a separate entry listing them so there was no confusion.

Note Taking:  I used NoteStar to collect notes about my subject.  This was an amazing new thing to learn and use.  I love it and plan on using it in the future to organize papers and projects...wish I had found this 2 years ago when I started my MLS.  (

Ask-an-expert:  I used for this section.  I have copied and pasted my question and the answer I received.
Wild Animals/Answered Question

Expert: Jonathan Wright

Subject: Elephants

Question: When elephants are housed in zoos, do they create a herd including the other elephants already placed at the zoo? Do African and Asian elephants combine to create one herd since they are at a zoo and not in the wild, or would they create two seperate herds? Are the two types of elephants even aware the other is different?

Answer: Dear Nichole

It was quite common for African and Asian elephants to be kept in the same enclosure and this still occurs today (see shows that an African/Asian hybrid is possible, although the calf only survived for two weeks. Please note that elephants will accept elephants of a different species (I have seen this in various zoos), but the small group dos not really constitute a herd. Some new elephants are not accepted in a group, but this is the case with various animals and zoos often send these animals to other zoos. As far as I know, zoos do not keep large groups of African and Asian elephants in the sam enclosure. In fact, many zoos have been criticised because their enclosures are too small and it would be difficult to work out the herd structure in a cramped enclosure. I can't prove that elephants recognise that different elephants belong to different species, but as they are one of the few types of animals that recognise themselvs in their reflections, I am pretty sure that they would identify differences between their species.

Now elephants are usually kept in herds of Asian or African elephants and not in mixed groups. The herd of females have access to a male when they are ready to mate and breeding success has increased.

All the bst

I think this was a great resource and I am thinking about having my students use this to teach them another way of aquiring information.

Productivity Tool:  I am going to use Power Point as a way to present the information I found about elephants.  I am planning on using Oncourse's My Workspace to upload it and will place the link on my blog.

Bibliography: I am going to compile the sources I used into a Bibliography page so that if others want to visit the websites they can.  When it is complete, I will post it.

1 comment:

  1. That is a really interesting question! You always wondering if animals notice differences when they are not in their normal environment. Like Dogs that will take other species of animals and treat them like their pups.


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Sunday, January 18, 2015

New Year - New Words. Happy New Year!

Well here we are, at the crossroads of an opportunity.
We typically associate the new year with new beginnings and this year is no different.
What is different however, is the change your can create this year.
Start with the end in mind and see yourself at the end of this calendar year. What are your goals and aspirations? Can you see yourself there? Typically I remind my clients to start a new Vision Board at the beginning of each year. What pictures, words and images would you choose for your board?
Below is some information that might help you get closer to your ultimate reality.

Now is the beginning of a ***new life for you! Stay tuned to find out why!

I would like to talk to you about Energy Medicine and specifically the kind that I work with, which are: Vibrational Healing, Reiki, Healing Touch, Color Therapy, Aromatherapy and Raindrop, Meditation, to name a few.
Do you know what energy medicine is?
Do you have any experience with the modalities I mentioned? Bear with me here...

Below are some words and they all have something in common. They are high vibration words. That means they make you feel good - they change your emotional chemistry.
Take a moment to go through them and pick the one that most resonates with you...

Joyful               Happy                       Peaceful

Rested               Relaxed                    Harmony

Flow                 Appreciation          Healthy

Forgiveness     Prosperity               Flexible

Glorious           Young                       Love

Creative           Healed                      Whole

Grateful           Rejoicing                 Successful

Divinely             Joyous                      Financially
Inspired              Experience              Free

Delighted         Respectful               Graceful

Happy               Excited                     Energetic

Free                   Admiration             Fabulous

Encourage        Loving                      Glorious

Grateful           Genuine                   Harmonious

Inspiring          Liberated                 Miraculous

 Energy Medicine is all about vibration. When our body resonates in higher vibrations we tend to feel healthier and when our vibration drops we open the door for dis-ease in our body.
Vibrational frequency is defined as "the rate at which the atoms and sub-particles of a being or object vibrate”.
Now stick with me for a moment…
The higher this vibrational frequency is, the closer it is to the frequency of Light."
Each word we speak and thought we think sends out a vibration that attracts to it an experience or a person of like vibration. If we send out fear, we attract fear. If we send out love we attract love.
What do we do every day and all day long? We THINK! And WHAT and HOW we think raises or lowers our vibrations accordingly. GUESS - How many thoughts a day???? 60,000!!

Now, there is a ***direct correlation to the way we think and how we feel!!

***Einstein said “The significant problems we are facing cannot be solved at the level of thinking of the problem”!!!  Do you realize that your life is on the line because of your thinking?
Every word that you saw above has a high frequency - the word Love having the highest vibration of 528 Hz.
***According to DR. Len Horowitz, a leading genetic biochemist, the frequency of 528 Hz is also the miraculous repair frequency for damaged DNA.
I want you to look at the word that you picked and NOTICE the way it makes you feel. Now, you will NOT find negative words in this box. Only positive.  Because my goal is to show you how to RAISE your vibration. From now on I invite you to make a conscious effort and think positive thoughts ALL THE TIME! Can you do that? Ok. Maybe not all the time, but try to catch yourself when you have a low vibration/negative thought and in your mind turn it around. You will get better with time. Practice makes perfect!

In Energy Medicine we recognize that all vibrations affect our body.
***The health of the human body relies on a continuous and unobstructed flow of energy present in the Human Energy System which scientists call the biofield. Or Aura. Our family, our work environment, and primarily our thoughts can be uplifting or detrimental to our health.  In the course of a day we come into contact with a number of people and their biofields (their thoughts), and they all either take some of our energy or we take some of theirs.  Learning how to hit our “reset” button at the end of the day is important in maintaining our well-being.
***Negative or low vibration emotions only become harmful when we base our words or actions upon them. So watch your thoughts!!
It is not our thinking that has the power to create our circumstances, but the ENERGY of the emotions that our thoughts bring about.
During a Vibrational Healing session, your physical, emotional, and mental body are assessed, any congestions/low vibrations that appear in your biofield and energy centers are located and then cleared which allows the natural flow of energy to resume. Sounds simple right? Years of training with different modalities have enabled me to become sensitive to the energies of the body and their different frequencies. My hands pick up the subtle differences in your body simply by lightly touching or hovering over the area.
***Dr. Oshman‘s (a leading scientist) research indicated that "The measurement of the practitioner's hand while doing the healing work was much, much higher than the measurement of the practitioner's hand in a passive mode. What this research proved was that the energy worker's hand produced a much larger bio-magnetic field (aura) when channeling healing energy. The Therapeutic Touch signal pulsed at a variable frequency, ranging from 0.3 to 30 Hz, with most of the activity in the range of 7 to 8 Hz." (Energy Medicine – The Scientific Basis) This is the same frequency that is emitted from machines such as lasers that are used in hospitals to promote nerve and tissue repair.
***Dr. Oschman : Healing Energy, whether produced by a medical device (Squid, Measures biofields) (PEMF – pulsed electromagnetic Field, used to jump start bone and soft tissue repair) or projected from the human body (practitioner) is energy of a particular frequency or set of frequencies that can stimulate the repair of one or more tissues.

***Dr. James Oschman, said „We now know that every part and process in the body produces a specific set of energy fields that travel through the tissues and that extend into the space around the body. When a nerve conducts, a muscle contracts, a gland secretes, the skin is touched or cut or compressed, or a cell changes its function, characteristic electric currents are produced. .... currents are also conducted a certain distance through the surrounding tissues. The current flows are not random, but follow specific pathways because certain tissue components are good conductors for electricity. And when bio-currents flow, bio-magnetic fields are created in the space around the body.“ In EM we learn how to access those bio-magnetic fields and adjust their flow thereby raising their frequency and allowing the body to do what it knows best: be balanced and healthy.
***With Healing Touch and Reiki, the body is better able to restore balance, maintain health and promote wellness
Each session is different for each person, but in general a feeling of extreme relaxation and well-being is present.
Vibrational Healing, Reiki and Healing Touch, can be used to relieve pain, to accelerate the body’s healing, to relieve stress and to help with side effects such as in the case of strong medications.

In an hour’s time while receiving Healing Touch or Reiki, the relaxation response is elicited and your body starts to come back into balance slowly releasing tension and anxiety. Of course, it is not a magic bullet and undoing years of wear and tear upon the physical and emotional body take time and commitment to your health.  But you will notice a distinct difference in the way your body feels in the very first session and for some time after that. Your body will start remembering what it is supposed to do. Wouldn’t you love to experience relaxation?, I invite you to take Your “word” tonight, write it down and put it somewhere where you can see it all the time (your wallet, your bathroom mirror, your car) and let it be your reminder to have happy thoughts!

Thoughts are like seeds. As soon as you plant them in the soil of your life, and water them they start growing. A seed does not know whether it is a flower or a weed; all it knows to do is grow. Like a good gardener you need to spend time each day and pull out your weeds (negative thoughts) and water your flowers (positive thoughts) therefore raising your vibration. You and I can form things in our thoughts and by impressing our thoughts upon the formless substance that we call life, we can cause the thing we think about to come about. Have you ever thought of someone and suddenly the phone rings? Have you ever really dreamed of something and then it came to be in your physical reality? Our intention and the energy we put into it can be very powerful.
So what is your longing?  What are you craving in life? Write down your own words and let those feelings guide you to your NEW LIFE!
Happy New Year and Welcome HOME!


Unit Test to the Rescue

I inherited a subsystem to maintain. Made some changes for the next major release. This code is a pain to test. You have to have very specific data to excite all the cases. At first I was manually updating data using SQL commands. However I found it way too tedious.

Luckily I decided to put a bunch of code into a database package that generates test data at will. I spent a lot of time creating that test data generation code. Then I had to debug the test generation code. However now I am benefiting big time.

I had to do a last minute move of some setup data from one script to another. Then I was able to generate unit test data with one call to a stored procedure. Check. Later I removed a bunch of debug code from the main database package. Does the code still work? I used the test generation code to set up some more test data in about a minute. We are good. Now before moving on to the next job, I am going to make this unit test generation program even more flexible. Good stuff.


STEM job opportunities often vacant for extended periods of time

One of the biggest misconceptions about the current job market is that there aren't enough opportunities for skilled workers. The real question is this: Where are all the employees with requisite talents in science, technology, engineering and math, better known as STEM fields? As the economy recovers from the Great Recession, there is an increasing number of positions that need to be filled. At the same time, there's renewed interest in bringing advanced manufacturing back to the U.S., which is putting greater pressure on business owners to find the most talented individuals to fill a variety of roles.

The waiting game
However, new data from the Brookings Institute suggests many employers continue to struggle when searching for new workers. One of the key findings of a recent study is the fact that it takes companies more time to find the ideal worker for STEM-related positions. These vacancies are characterized by needing a post-graduate or professional degree that has given the applicant relevant research experience or hands-on training. These roles are posted in job forums and opportunities sites for an average of 50 days, while roles unrelated to STEM are taken down within 33 days on average. More specifically, it took between two and four months for businesses to locate a suitable employee for 255 positions out of a total of 500 that place a premium on computer skills.

Where should tech companies look?
Geography can play a significant role in either easing or exacerbating the skills gap. In places like Silicon Valley and other tech hubs, there will obviously be a greater number of applicants with relevant skills, but other locations suffer a deficit in talent. John Sumser, principal analyst at California-based HRx Analysts said as much on HR Executive Online, explaining that schools, such as the University of California at Berkeley, Stanford and others, see a large number of students matriculate with an expressed interest in exploring the STEM fields. However, if a business wishes to set up operations in another location, such as Wyoming, it's likely going to need more time and effort in seeking out qualified job seekers.

Meanwhile, Mike Panigel, senior vice president and chief human resource officer for Siemens Corporate Human Resources in the U.S. and Americas, told HREOnline that the company continues to face challenges in sourcing talent. There are more than 3,000 open positions at Siemens' locations in the U.S. that will go unfilled with the current applicants.

As a result, many STEM-based companies seek out the services of engineering recruiters to help them find the most fitting employees for the business's specific needs.


AbstractsEducation Research & Administration

Teaching Under Pressure

by Laurie H. Sklar

Institution: Rhode Island College
Degree: MME
Year: 2014
Keywords: Music, Performing arts, Secondary education; Art Education; Education; secondary instrumental music education; National Standards of Music Education; jazz band; concert band;
Record ID: 2034031
Full text PDF: http://digitalcommons.ric.edu/etd/102

The purpose of this comparative case study was to investigate, explore, and describe the methods and practices of secondary instrumental music education in a public school setting. Two sites, a Rhode Island public school and a Rhode Island community music school, were chosen for observation. Two major ensembles, a jazz band and a concert band, were observed at each site on four different occasions. Observations were organized by the National Standards of Music Education, although the study did not focus on whether or not the programs “met” the standards. Data was also placed into the category of non-musical factors. Observations and analysis found that the non-musical factors, and themes that emerged from those factors, were the largest noticeable difference between the two sites. These factors also contributed to the disparity in the two sites abilities to address the standards. Non-musical factors such as scheduling and interruptions were the major issues facing the public school site, including split rehearsal times between ensembles and missed rehearsals due to assemblies. Both sites had significant gaps in their addressing of the standards, although the community music school met more of the standards. This may just be a result of the increase in time spent in rehearsal. This research opens the questions of whether or not the constraints facing public school music educators are hindering their ability to fully educate their students. Research can also be performed to gauge the perceptions that secondary instrumental music educators have on the standards.


Gimme That Real Old Time Religion: Re-embedding White Identities Through Ethnic Neo-Pagan Reconfigurations of European Heritage in Texas

by Brett H Furth

Institution: Texas A&M University
Year: 2015
Keywords: Whiteness; Neo-Paganism
Posted: 02/05/2017
Record ID: 2124022
Full text PDF: http://hdl.handle.net/1969.1/155763

According to social theorists, Westerners are increasingly inter-connected with other societies through the complex processes of modernity and globalization, thereby creating an increasingly multiethnic and religiously pluralistic world still dominated by the rationalism of modernity. Consequently, their world is disenchanted and their identities disembedded from traditional contexts, thus placing many individuals in a state of identity crisis. For working and middle-class white Americans, this problem is exacerbated by the unmarkedness of white racial identities, and the subsumption of ancestral ethnic European identities within this unmarked racial category. This dilemma has led some to question and challenge the authenticity and legitimacy of their religious identities and traditions, and to develop strategies to re-embed, revalorize, and refashion their racial and class identities. My research offers an investigation of one such strategy, specifically that employed by Neo-Pagans with an ethnic focus. I explore how recent traditions compose a new strategy that is attractive to white Americans seeking to re-root and give new meanings to their racial and religious identities. Furthermore, I suggest that a key reason some are drawn to and mark identification with ethnic Neo-Pagan traditions is a desire to refashion ethnoreligious identities to re-embed themselves in a re-enchanted physical and social world where ethnic ancestry and whiteness matter in new ways. This research is guided by the following questions: How might ethnic Neo-Pagan options mitigate the foregoing dilemma experienced by primarily white and working or middle-class adherents? What potential benefits come with identification with these traditions? Are ethnic Neo-Pagans concerned with legitimacy and authenticity as they reconstruct European folk traditions and histories, and how might those practices and narratives conflate European ethnicities into newly revalorized forms of whiteness? These questions are addressed through a combination of qualitative data-collection methods. Interview and participant observation data for this project were collected at diverse Neo-Pagan field sites in Texas. I identified and analyzed themes of ethnic heritage and ancestry that emerged from these data to determine how they bear on prominent race and class performance theories, particularly regarding questions about changing constructions of race, ethnicity, and religious identities in response to globalization. Advisors/Committee Members: Green, Thomas (advisor), Dannhaeuser, Norbert (committee member), Dickson, Donald B. (committee member), Del Negro, Giovanna (committee member).


Types of Hearing Loss

Conductive Hearing Loss

Any problem in the outer or middle ear that prevents sound from being conducted properly is known as a conductive hearing loss. Conductive hearing losses are usually mild or moderate in degree, ranging from 25 to 65 decibels.

In some cases, a conductive hearing loss can be temporary. Depending on the specific cause of the problem, medication or surgery can help. A conductive hearing loss may also be helped with hearing aids, a middle ear implant or a bone conduction implant.

Sensorineural Hearing Loss

Some individuals have a sensorineural hearing loss only in the high frequencies, also referred to as partial deafness. In these cases, only the hair cells at the base of the cochlea are damaged. In the inner part of the cochlea, the apex, the hair cells which are responsible for processing the low tones are still intact. Combined electric and acoustic stimulation, or EAS, was developed specifically for these cases.

Mixed Hearing Loss

A mixed hearing loss is a combination of a sensorineural and conductive hearing loss. It results from problems in both the inner and outer or middle ear. Treatment options may include medication, surgery, hearing aids, a middle ear hearing implant or a bone conduction implant.

Neural Hearing Loss

In many cases, an Auditory Brainstem Implant (ABI) may be a therapeutic option.

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