Journal Article

Mechanisms of baryon loss for dark satellites in cosmological smoothed particle hydrodynamics simulations

S. Nickerson, G. Stinson, H. M. P. Couchman, J. Bailin and J. Wadsley

in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

Published on behalf of The Royal Astronomical Society

Volume 415, issue 1, pages 257-270
Published in print July 2011 | ISSN: 0035-8711

Show Summary Details

We present a study of satellites in orbit around a high-resolution, smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) galaxy simulated in a cosmological context. The simulated galaxy is approximately of the same mass as the Milky Way. The cumulative number of luminous satellites at z= 0 is similar to the observed system of satellites orbiting the Milky Way although an analysis of the satellite mass function reveals an order of magnitude more dark satellites than luminous satellites. Some of the dark subhaloes are more massive than some of the luminous subhaloes at z= 0. What separates luminous and dark subhaloes is not their mass at z= 0, but the maximum mass the subhaloes ever achieve. We study the effect of four mass-loss mechanisms on the subhaloes: ultraviolet (UV) ionizing radiation, ram-pressure stripping, tidal stripping and stellar feedback, and compare the impact of each of these four mechanisms on the satellites. In the lowest mass subhaloes, UV is responsible for the majority of the baryonic mass-loss. Ram-pressure stripping removes whatever mass remains from the low-mass satellites. More massive subhaloes have deeper potential wells and retain more mass during reionization. However, as satellites pass near the centre of the main halo, tidal forces cause significant mass-loss from satellites of all masses. Satellites that are tidally stripped from the outside can account for the luminous satellites that are of lower mass than some of the dark satellites. Stellar feedback has the greatest impact on medium-mass satellites that had formed stars, but lost all their gas by z= 0. Our results demonstrate that the missing-satellite problem is not an intractable issue with the cold dark matter cosmology, but is rather a manifestation of baryonic processes.

Keywords: methods: numerical; galaxies: dwarf; galaxies: evolution; cosmology: theory

Journal Article.  11737 words.  Illustrated.

Subjects: Astronomy and Astrophysics

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Zaz: a treasure beneath the surface

Je veux, written and performed by up-and-coming chanteuse Zaz was declared "song of the summer" in France last year. The song, some sort of manifesto dedicated to the real pleasures in life, brought out many of the charms of its auteur: irreverence, authenticity and a delightful sense of liberté. Summer songs tend to be underestimated because they use to be just catchy and shallow, but when you listen to the rest of the songs included in Zaz (2010), you'll be able to find more than a few wonders. Her music is accessible indeed, but it's also profound in many ways. Her shaky, strong voice gets support from an ensemble of musiciens de rue (acoustic bass and guitar players) you could encounter on any street of Montmartre -an urban trait that might be the most alluring and enjoyable feature of the album. Lots of fans and critics have called Zaz "La petite Edith Piaff" because of the similarity in her voice, but I'd dare to say that there it has also some resemblance to Piaff's tough character. Comparisons aside, Zaz remains as an astonishing emerging artist who is already revitalizing la chanson francaise.

This is the video for La fée

Entradas populares


My name is Alex Govier, a professional musician on accordion, piano and organ for over 50 years.

On this website I am sharing stuff to

  • Improve your technique
  • Help you get to know your instrument better
  • Play more easily and more confidently
  • Try new accordion bass methods
  • Integrate bass and treble sounds in different ways
  • Learn how to make better music
  • Gain popularity with general music listeners and not just fellow accordionists.

Simply because I would like more general appreciation of this wonderful instrument.

Because by playing a little more thoughtfully we can reach new audiences and get more recognition.

Find when there is new stuff on this website by joining our new Facebook Community

Here you can also

  • interact with this website on Facebook
  • Ask questions
  • Request more detail on an accordion subject
  • Suggest a new subject
  • Tell us your own ideas and more.

The Accordionwise Friends link

You can find my personal playing sites on

More Chords You Can Play On Accordion - The Invisible Chords and Beautiful Possibilities!

Your accordion has only rows for notes, counterbass (a major third up from the key note), and major, minor, seventh and diminished chords so that would seem to limit your options.

Find out here how to easily bypass those perceived restrictions and play, not only those apparently unavailable minor seventh chords, sixths, but augmented chords, suspended chords and exciting big 9ths, 11ths and more of differing types.

There is even an exciting easy to play version of your seventh chord that you can use any time to spice up your normal harmony. And an alternative version of the normal seventh chord which sounds subtly different if you have a six row bass accordion.

And great news for owners of accordions with only five rows of bass buttons who thought they were not able to play diminished chords in the bass. It is actually very very easy to find them on an 60 or 80 bass accordion.

Good News for Playing Complex Chords

Naturally occuring chord variations

Sometimes you play more complicated chords with no effort at all. If you have a C6 chord you may already playing the sixth if the extra note is in the right hand tune. Or the same for other chords which contain a number higher than 7 in their job description.

You can play a Cm7 chord by just adding the 7th Bb in the right hand to a C minor chord. Possibly even more effective for a better blend of notes if you play several notes of the Minor 7th in the right hand.

What is a 7th though?

The easy way to remember what the seventh is rather than counting seven notes up is to simply look back at the note below.

Seven notes up in music is the same as a second below, so you can think of it as one note back (remembering to make sure the distance is a whole tone, not a semitone)

So examples of the distance of a seventh.

C to Bb - D to C - A to G - Ab to Gb - F to Eb - F# to E - Bb to Ab

Easy isnt it? Of course you will also be likely to be putting your added seventh note up higher at the top of the chord if playing the whole chord in the right hand.

Although if you do put it somewhere else it is still correct, just a different inversion of the chord.

You can also play major or minor 6th chords.

For example play a C major chord with an A in the right hand (C-D-E-F-G-A = 1-2-3-4-5-6) and the total result is an C6 chord (or an A minor 7th if you add an A bass note).

How do you add the interval of the 6th?

Almost as easy as the 7th. This time if you know what the normal top note of the basic root position chord is, it will be one full tone higher.

D6=D F# A with B - Em6=E G B plus C# - so for F6 add D, for G6 add E, for Bb6 add G etc.

We will extend this idea later to even greater effect.

A simpler way of writing out the less usual chords

Building a new chord with bass note and bass chord.

red accordionSometimes arrangers may print the music like Dm/C the C after referring to the extra bass note to be played with it. So you can play it that way but what is it?

A quick recount will show you this is an inversion of Dm7 or even of F6. Perhaps a better way of getting Dm7 is D bass with F major chord. You could also spell out the chord in the right hand instead of playing the bass chord.

Another good one is Gm/C, the ear having made the reasonable assumption that the third of the chord is going to be a major third and the fifth as almost always a perfect fifth this will make a nice C9, readable in half the time it takes to work out just what note is the 9th.

This could be expressed completely of course with C major and G minor held together, but to my mind sounds too gruff, and not nicely voiced because every note is produced inside the same octave with the accordion stradella system. A bit like sitting on the keyboard!

There are innumerable possibilities for combining bass note and and different bass chords like this. And even more that seem like a good idea till you try them and find the finger positions impossible!

Unless you really enjoy risking your future playing capacity by tying your fingers into knots, your rule will be for the bass note to be lower down on the buttons than the chord part. And not too far apart of course.

The Suspended 4th and Augmented Fourth

The suspended fourth is a distorted regular chord usually a major or minor one)is really just a passing note waiting to go onto a standard chord, most often a major one. A fourth up is found by counting 4 up from the lower note to the higher note 1-2-3-4 = A-B-C-D for example.

Therefore an A6sus4 consists of an A chord which includes a 4th but no 3rd as yet, obviously a situation which needs to change soon going to a standard A or Am. So it has A D and E going to A C# E the major chord most often. It also, like all chords can be expressed as inversions with the notes in a different order upwards.

For maximum effect the rather dissonant sounding suspended fourth is likely to occur on a strong beat and quickly be "pulled" to the major chord on a weaker beat.

This fits in perfectly with the most basic standard accordion accompaniment system, So a bass note by itself on the first beat alongside the interval of the fourth. When a major chord arrives that would have clashed with it the fourth is already gone and the crisis is over!

What is a Passing note?

Passing Notes are included in music to add a bit of tension until the perfect harmony arrives). Often they are followed by a major or minor chord on the following beat.

Passing notes can also be faster notes flowing through the melody in between major beats that do not seem to require full harmonisation.

Without an element of dissonance music becomes very dull

For a perfect axample that shows what I mean play the opening of Bernstein's song Maria from West Side Story C F# G with C chord arriving on the G.

Augmented chord in a "Special 7th"

Everyone knows you cannot get Augmented chords in the bass chord buttons, there are only major, minor, sevenths and diminished right?

But you can usually get a chord which contains an augmented chord by playing any seventh chord in the left hand and an augmented chord, or a couple of notes of it in the right.

For example play C7 chord in the left hand and C augmented  E G# C in the right, sounds great as an interestingly strident version of C7.

Substitute it for normal G7 wherever you like but it is especially effective as a "suspense chord" on a pause, and with the bass note played simultaneously.

SPECIAL TIP Specially strong as a holding chord in combination with the major third, eg bass E in counterbass, C7 and E G# C in treble

How On Earth Does THAT Work?

You would imagine that in that example you had a C7 chord which contained both a G and G# so was very nasty indeed, but that (at least on most accordions) is not the case.

Every chord on the accordion contains just three different notes, including the 7ths chords which would normally have four. So they usually leave out the interval of the 5th.

Hence there is NO G natural OR G# till you add it in the right hand to your C7.

Purists who want the fullest version of C7 sometimes even play both C and C7 together to get all the notes!

Find Diminished 7ths chords for 80 bass also minor 7ths

Remember that the diminished chords are also 7ths with the 5th interval removed. They are almost the same as standard 7ths, but with a minor 3rd, so C7dim has C Eb A.

Add an F# and you have your promised Cdim7 but add an F natural instead and you have an F7 chord!

You can of course also get an Fm7 with Fm and the Eb  in the right hand. IT is also effective to add more than just the note you need in the right hand

But it gets even better for five row bass players. To get a Cdim7 chord or one which is compatible play F7 instead.

You obviously cannot move ACROSS to a 6th row on a 5 row bass instrument to get a diminished so simply move DOWN one instead! Very easy. For C dim use F7.

If your 80 or 60 bass fifth row is diminished move UP one in that row to find the relevant seventh chord. For F7 use C dim

These tips work even if you do not understand the technical explanation!

Different inversions of seventh chords

By the same principle we can find standard 7th chords which sound subtly different, in fact I think often more mellow sounding voicings of the same chord.

Let us take G7 as an example which is voiced as G B (d) F. Now take Ddim7 voiced on the accordion as D F (Ab) B.

This is the G7 without the G instead of without the D in the original version.

It is a very nice, more mellow to my ears, voicing of the chord.

Additionally by going from one to the other the bottom note of the chord moves from G to D.

For a more buoyant waltz pattern with moving chords substitute G note G7 Ddim7 for G note Gchord G chord.

Because of the way accordion bass notes are allocated this will not work the same in all keys.

EXPERIMENT ONE Augmented chords

Play C7 chord and hold it. Add E and G sharp in the right hand.

You now have an augmented C chord with a normal 7th on top

Now holding chord and the lower right hand note change the G sharp to G natural. Only now do you have the normal C7 that you expected.

Some other examples in other keys

G7 chord with treble B and D sharp, change D sharp to D natural

D7 chord with treble F sharp and A sharp , change A sharp to A natural

A7 chord with treble C sharp and E sharp (F), change E sharp (F) to E natural

E7 chord with treble G sharp and B sharp (C), change B sharp (C) to B natural

F7 chord with treble A and C sharp, change C sharp to C natural

Bb7 chord with treble D and F sharp, change F sharp to F natural

Eb7 chord with treble G and B natural, change B natural to Bb

Ab7 chord with treble A and E natural, change  E natural to Eb

Db7 chord with treble F and A natural, change A natural to Ab

EXPERIMENT TWO Different Standard F7 chords

Play C7 then overlapping slightly play G diminished one row up.

G7 and D diminished 7

D7 and A diminished 7

A7 and E diminished 7

E7 and B dimished 7

Db7 and Ab diminished 7

Ab7 and Eb diminished 7

Eb7 and Bb diminished 7

Bb7 and F diminished 7

F7 and C diminished 7

Purpose of knowing this.

You may find the alternative version sounds sweeter on occasion, also if going straight from chord to chord the shifts in position of the individual notes will be different.

If you have time in slow tempos try substituting seventh chords with the diminished chord above, you will probably find it sounds sweeter, due to wider spacing at the bottom, eg instead of G B (D) F you will have D F (Ab) B

  • For Eb7 play Bbdim7
  • For Bb7 play F dim7
  • For F7 play C dim7
  • For C7 play G dim7
  • For G7 play D dim7
  • For D7 play A dim7
  • For A7 play E dim7

Beware that getting back to the key below will be more difficult though!

For diminished chords instead play the seventh chord one button BELOW

  • For Ebdim7 play Ab7
  • For Bbdim7 play Eb7
  • For Fdim7 play Bb7
  • For Cdim7 play F7
  • For Gdim7 play C7
  • For Ddim7 play G7
  • For Adim7 play E7

Looks complicated till you try it. Then it feels obvious.

Play any chord with a right hand chord and bass note

Add the chord to your right hand tune and just play with it on the bass notes, ignoring the chords buttons. You can thus play any chord within the stretch of your right hand.

In  some areas this used to be the standard way to be able to play the jazz chords, giving great freedom of choice.

Now some jazz accordionists add chords together (eg C and Gm make C9) but notes become unpleasantly squashed together where the pleasure is hearing them in different octaves (in my humble unfortunately non jazz accordionist view) and lose their nicely spread out relationship to one another.

I think it is the wonderful things they do with the right hand improvisations that distracts from this.

Bass note and chord with treble chord

However, by adding a bass chord to a played right hand chord the possivilites are practically limitless to produce a really interesting sound.

The chords can blend or be a discord leading to an obvious resolution. If the resolutiong is not obvious (as when a C11 for example comes down to a C7) there may be extra moves of the chord till it finds its ideal resting point.

This is a very small section to mention it here but actually has a huge effect and can produce a wonderful sound, particularly if the right hand chord is in a higher octave than the left hand chord.

If the chords have many notes in common there will be a simple resolution, otherwise there is the interesting process of finding one, possibly by several chord changes in the right hand.

The possibilities are almost endless.

An easy one for you for those who have difficulty with the concept of how wonderful it can sound when you play the "wrong chords together".

And we start out with ones that are as theoretically discordant as we can imagine.

Try this straight away.Hold a major or minor chord in the bass. YES HOLD IT DON'T JUST PROD IT!

In the treble play the chord one semitone below it before sliding up to play the "correct" chord.

Example: Hold G chord on bass buttons with the F# chord going to the G chord on the right hand on the next beat. Play C# F# A# sliding up to D G B and hear the extra musical expression you get

You are supposed to hold the discord long enough to really hear it by the way, not be afraid of it.

Also of course you can use other inversions in the right hand equally effectively.

Just play the thirds from the chord in the right hand.

Then add a Held G bass button chord with F# A# going to G B in right hand.

Still sounds very special

Just alter the top note but play the other notes of the chord or third the same.

G chord bass with D G A# to full chord D G B

G A# to G B

With the small version and the root position right hand single note alteration you can play a suspended diminished 4th.

You can match it even more accurately by playing the seventh chord in the bass instead NB G7 in bass (which plays G B F with B and D# going on to B and D

Finding your chords in the right hand. What notes are in the chords?

Not all accordionists may already know what notes make up the chords that are played automatically for them by the bass chord selections of course. You can play very convincingly with just single note melody or adding separate notes in thirds under the tune so this is understandable.

green accordionIn case you are a bit hazy on the subject here is a brief check-list for the main root position chords. More work will be required to change the note position for the other inversions possible of course and it is quite fun to move the bottom note to the top one at a time to find the other inversions

NB Number1 is the name of the chord and the first note counted

MAJOR CHORD 1 - 5 - 8

MAJOR 6th Chord 1 - 5 - 8 - 10

AUGMENTED 1 - 5 - 9

SEVENTH 1- 5 - 8 - 11

MINOR 1- 4 -8

MINOR 6th 1 - 4 - 8 -10

MINOR 7th 1 - 4 - 8 - 11

DIMINISHED 7th 1 - 4 - 7 - 10

SUSPENDED 4th 1 - 6 - 8

If you get confused when adding the seventh and finding a flat that does not belong to the key of the key note or a sharp missing, there is an explanation. The standard 7th chords actually belong to the key one button and one flat below and that is why they have that form of the seventh which is associated with them.

In fact they like to resolve to the subdominant major chord one flat down. C7 wants to go to F, Bb7 to Eb, A7 to D and so on.

Too many notes to play?

You may not need to define the 5th by playing it. It is taken for granted that it will be a perfect fifth, so unless it is a strange one like a diminsihed or augmented that is OK.

One of the notes is in your bass remember? So bass C and treble E G Bb is fine. OR even a stripped down version without the (assumed to be!) perfect 5th in this case, C in the bass E and Bb in treble.


Thought of the Day - Mastering Office Coffee

75802-532260-thumbnail.jpgIt's almost a universal truth that office coffee is something that should be licensed as a hazardous liquid and no human should ever come in contact with it.

I've been working someplace that just got a Flavia machine (a product of Mars BTW).  It makes an almost drinkable cup of coffee.

After eating at a Lebanese restaurant and having a nice coffee there I had an idea.  Cardamom!  Picked up a jar of cardamom pods...dropped a few of those into an "espresso" made on the Flavia (Sumatra makes better shots than the Espresso pouches) and BINGO!  Drinkable.

Flavia - sounds like some romance novel character.


ICT Security Officer (ICTSO)

NAME : Tn. Hj. Matriffin bin Md Amin

Position : Information Technology Manager

The roles and responsibilities of ICTSO are as follows:

  1. Manage the overall security programme of KEJORA ICT;
  2. Enforcing the KEJORA ICT Security Policy;
  3. Provide information and disclosure of KEJORA ICT’s Security Policy to all users;
  4. Establish guidelines, procedures and forms in line with the KEJORA ICT Security Policy requirements;
  5. Conduct risk management;
  6. Conducting audits, reviewing, formulating agency management responses based on findings and providing reports on them;
  7. To warn against the potential of harmful threats such as viruses and to advise and provide appropriate protection measures;
  8. Reporting the ICT security incident to MAMPU’s ICT Security Incident Response Team (GCERT) and informing it to CIO and CERT KKLW;
  9. Collaborate with all relevant parties in identifying the source of threats or ICT security incidents and recommending prompt recovery measures;
  10. Recognize the disciplinary action process for users who violate the KEJORA ICT Security Policy; and
  11. Provide and implement awareness programs in ICT security


Home > Kidney Condition > Kidney Failure > Kidney Failure Treatment >

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Is It Possible to Reverse Renal Atrophy

2016-05-29 07:35

Is It Possible to Reverse Renal AtrophyWith renal disease going, you may find that your kidneys become small gradually due to ischemia and anoxia. Is it possible to reverse renal atrophy? Yes, but you should take treatment as early as possible. As long as your kidneys become fibrosis or scarred, no treatment can survive them.

How to reverse renal atrophy?

Renal atrophy usually results from ischemia and anoxia. And ischemia and anoxia is usually caused by kidney inflammation, while kidney inflammation is usually associated with the deposition of immune complexes in the kidneys. Therefore, to reverse renal atrophy, we should take treatment in the following aspects:

-To improve ischemia and anoxia in the kidneys

-To eliminate renal inflammation

-To clear the deposited immune complexes away from kidneys

In Shijiazhuang Kidney Disease Hospital, Chinese medicine is often adopted to help you reverse renal atrophy.

In Chinese medicine, there are a series of therapies, such as Micro-Chinese Medicine Osmotherapy, Medicated Foot Bath, Mai Kang Mixture, Moxibustion, Enema Therapy, Acupuncture, Circle Therapy, etc.

They can dilate blood vessels and remove stasis to increase blood flow into kidneys. In that case, oxygen can be transported into kidneys with blood to improve ischemia and anoxia, and active ingredients of medicine can also be carried into kidneys to help them repair. Chinese medicine can also decompose the deposited immune complexes and remove them out of the kidneys to reduce kidney inflammation. Besides, they can help body expel waste products from body to reduce their damage to your body. And they can strengthen your immunity to help fight against the disease. After about one week’s treatment, your symptoms such as swelling, high blood pressure, fatigue, proteinuria and so on will become eased. After about one month’s treatment, your kidney function will improve gradually and your atrophic kidneys may resume.

Is it possible to reverse renal atrophy? Yes, it is possible, but the precondition is that your kidneys are not that severely damaged. If you want to know whether your renal atrophy can be reversed or not, you can talk with our online doctor or leave a message below. Our nephrologist can help you analyze your case and give you personalized guidance on treatment.

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Really?  The cross-cultural Bible?  Cultural diversity and cross-cultural understanding are important themes for society in the 21st Century. Turn on the news, or watch a movie, and the issue of cultural understanding is likely to be brought up somewhere along the line. But, how we are supposed to actually become cross-cultural people? Should we move to a neighborhood that is multi-cultural? Should we listen to the music and read books by people who are not like us culturally? Should we feel ashamed of our own cultural backgrounds?  Many people are left feeling confused and angry.

The Value of Cross-Cultural Understanding

My point is not to debate whether cross-cultural understanding is important. Obviously the ability to understand something about other cultures has many positive outcomes. Few people would disagree that mutual cultural understanding would produce greater harmony among in our divided society.   The Bible itself looks forward to the day when people from every nation, tribe and language are united in the worship of their Creator (Revelation 7:9).

But how can we develop a cross-cultural outlook when it seems that forces are working to divide people into isolated, antagonistic groups? One way is to rediscover a cross-cultural resource that has always been available to us: the Bible.  A moment’s thought will show that studying the Bible is a rich cross-cultural experience in itself.

Cross-Cultural Bible: The Old Testament

Moses and Pharaoh in Exodus

Moses and Pharaoh

For example, reading Genesis requires us to accompany Abraham out of ancient Iraq and Syria into the land of Canaan. The study of Exodus involves the reader in a second-hand experience of Israel’s oppression in ancient Egypt, and the drama of their escape and freedom.   The later portions of the Old Testament bring us in contact with the cultures of ancient Israel, Babylon, and Persia.

Cross-Cultural Bible: The New Testament

ancient woman

Greco-Roman Woman

The New Testament also opens up cross-cultural experiences to the reader.  In the pages of the Gospels, we visit the world of First Century Judaism as we walk with Jesus through the villages of Galilee.  In the New Testament letters, we travel through time into Greco-Roman culture as we grapple with the problems of Christians in the early churches.  It may be possible to read the Bible and ignore the cultural features, but to do so is to miss some of its most important teachings.  In fact, we must understand at least some basic elements of the cultures of the Bible in order to correctly apply their lessons to our own times and our own lives.

A few examples will show what I mean. In the Old Testament book of Ruth, Naomi and Ruth, find themselves in a dangerous society.  They appeal to Boaz for protection.  Boaz then acts to provide protection and to bring them into a family unit.  People who fail to understand the culture of ancient Israel might jump to the conclusion that this story is an example of ancient sexism.  But understood in light of the times and the culture, it should be seen as a brave and generous act of compassion.  Likewise, the provision for slavery in the Old Testament might be seen an oppressive practice, unless the reader remembers that ancient societies had no welfare system. When people fell into hard times and family could not assist, the way to avoid complete ruin and starvation was to enter into a limited period of servitude. Once the period ended, the person could make a fresh start.

In Luke chapter 1, Mary’s acceptance of the word of the announcement that she should conceive the Messiah —before her marriage to Joseph— is nothing short of heroic. That Mary and Joseph would go on to raise Jesus in a disapproving and gossipy village environment, so common in all times and cultures, should cause us to marvel at their faith and endurance.  In the book of 1 Corinthians, chapter 11, the command for women to cover their heads in public worship might be seen as insensitive in our own self-absorbed culture. But when the reader understands that the point of the command is the issue of public respectability.  Head covering for women demonstrated respectability in that culture.  Once the principle is grasped, appropriate application can be made for our own times.

True—people have often applied things taught in the Bible inappropriately.  But that fact is not an argument against the Bible itself–only against failing to understand the cultures of the Bible and how its truths can be applied across cultures to our own situation. The point is that, among all of the other amazing things about the Bible, it is also a deeply cross-cultural experience. Time spent in its pages can cause a kind of cultural sensitivity desperately needed in our diverse and troubled times.


christian fiction

Book Review: The Awakened

I have a rule of thumb that I always review a book within a few days of reading it. It keeps me accountable to not be late and the story is freshest in my mind.

That said- it has been much longer than a few days since I had the opportunity to read The Awakened. Which means it already feels like it has been forever that I have been waiting for the second book and why is it not here now.

I had serious doubts about this book. End times fiction? Flashbacks that are essentially Biblical fiction? The author having Christ as a character in the story and having fictional scenarios? Why don’t we just throw in an adultery plotline and we can have all my least favorite things. The cynicism was high people. I am making such a big deal about this because I was less than 10 pages in when I had to stop and marvel at the grace and skill that the story in front of me was being handled. I got a lot of joy out of when my sister was reading it and she’d periodically text me and go “you’re right. This is amazing.”

The concept is: what if Lazarus didn’t die again. And what if there are a chosen few believers throughout history who were raised from the dead to stand against evil until Christ comes again. The story is told both through flashbacks to Bible times and modern day.

Confession time: the concept of writing historical fiction featuring people who actually lived terrifies me. This is because I know how hard I am on the genre. History isn’t just a playground for us to take pieces and put them together as a puzzle for our amusement. These are actual lives of people who once lived, just as you or I. And my personal conviction is the standard is even higher when your playground is events from Scripture. The respect Richard Spillman clearly has for Scripture is some of the best in fiction I’ve ever read. I’m still not entirely sure how he did it.

That alone would be enough for me to give this book high praise. But everything, the characters, the scenarios, the author is clearly well researched and gives humanity to situations that would be very easy to just slap on in the background. I kept getting blown away with how well done everything in this book was.

Count your blessings, you can go buy this today and you will have less a wait for the second book than I have had to wait thus far. If you like good, well researched, grace filled fiction that is going to make you pause and be like I didn’t know you could do that and it work, read this book.

Book Review: Porch Swing Girl

Olive Galloway’s life has been turned upside down and she has been dumped at her Gramma’s house in Hawaii, along with her little sister. Her mother just lost her fight with cancer and her dad has deposited them with their grandmother so he can go deal with things at home in Boston. “Deal with things” being something which has Olive in a complete panic that her dad will deconstruct what is left of her world by getting rid of her mothers things and selling their house.

Full disclosure- Olive annoyed the ever living daylights out of me for the beginning of the book. Her behavior toward her sister, her gramma, her dad, the people who were trying to be her friends was so petty that any sympathy I would have had for her plight never had time to take root. She is dead set on getting back to Boston to make sure her dad doesn’t do something she would regret. And she will let everyone know who will listen.

But the book doesn’t end there, and neither does this review. Taylor Bennett shows the skills of a true storyteller and if this is the talent she is showing in her first book and as a teenager? I look forward to seeing what comes from her in the years to come. It is revealed that Olive’s new friend Jazz is also going through a severe trial, and we see that intensity that Olive portrayed at the beginning of the book being all about her redirected into her new friend. Olive has to process the death of her mother, and shows that she is a true friend by giving up what she wanted most for her new friend.

There is clear growth from the characters and showing how home can mean more than one place and mean people more than a place.


Influential Prose

Kevin McLeod's Portfolio

Posts Tagged ‘non-fiction

Physics for Curious Teenagers

Particle Physics

Physics of Motion

Physics of Relativity

Written by Influential Prose

June 26, 2015 at 3:24 am

Cultural Differences in Moral Reasoning

Cultural differences in moral reasoning are driven by various influences — history, leadership, religious belief, experiences with peace and warfare, available resources and the strategies for extracting and distributing those resources. These cultural differences are not limited to the scale of nations. There can also be differences in the culture and moral reasoning between schools, communities, companies, even families. Moral reasoning has a way of adapting to or being shaped by people’s needs and perceptions.

Absolutes vs. Relativism
There’s an ongoing, cross-cultural debate on whether moral values are absolute or relative. Are there universal morals that apply to all regardless of culture, or are moral values a negotiation between the environment, natural selection and social conditions? It’s a hotly debated topic, but clearly moral reasoning diverges among cultures. In some areas, gay marriage is accepted and not in others. Some countries permit personal firearm ownership, in others you can be jailed. The same is true for possession of certain plants.

National Differences
Overpopulation has led China to impose some restrictions on family size. Today it has over 1.35 billion people and most Chinese live with an average density of 326 people per square mile. People living at that density calls for, and perhaps requires, a moral system that emphasizes cooperation and harmony — exactly what Confucianism teaches. In China, conditions and moral reasoning lead to limits on family size.

In Russia, conditions and moral reasoning lead to an opposite conclusion. Russia’s population density is slightly below 14 people per square mile, with about 143 million total population. Government policy encourages families to have as many children as they can (which also requires cooperation and harmony).

Japan’s situation is complex. They face a rapidly aging population and steep decline in fertility, in part because strong Confucian values demand marriage before children, but marriage rates are dismally low. Japan is caught between cultural values and an inevitable economic decline unless fertility and immigration increase; thus Japanese moral reasoning is now forced to resolve this conflict to maintain national prosperity.

Economic Differences
Consider a simplified example of conflicting interests between a factory owner and a farmer. To remain in business, the factory owner must balance costs and expenses. This may mean discharging pollutants in the atmosphere because it is the lowest-cost way to eliminate wastes. If costs are not well-controlled, the factory could fail and people would lose jobs. From this perspective, cost control is a moral good.

From a farmer’s perspective, if crops are contaminated by mercury particulates from the factory, the moral good of cost control becomes the evil of food poisoning. Similarly, an agricultural society will have a different moral perspective on some issues than an industrial society. Cultural values — morals — tend to dovetail with practical needs.

On the issue of global warming, there’s a clear clash between the view in academic culture, which is driven by several lines of evidence pointing toward anthropogenic climate change, and the views of fossil fuel and other industries, a culture that tends to combat any conclusion that will affect profits. When scientific facts and self-interest diverge, the effect on moral reasoning is illuminating.

Humanitarian Differences
Cultures vary in how they value others in their midst. Slavery is a stark example, and had its advocates. It is now widely condemned, yet persists in the form of human trafficking, or sex slavery. Sexual slavery victims tend to flow from economically insecure areas to regions of relative stability. When times are hard, the young women who comprise the majority of victims can be manipulated and entrapped with promises of phony jobs. Some locales, most famously Bangkok and Amsterdam, tolerate the sex trade by reasoning that it’s a matter between consenting adults. This blurs the line between consent and coercion and complicates enforcement against human trafficking.

Social Stratification
Other forms of devaluation persist, cutting across lines of ethnicity, gender, age and disability, resulting in societies stratified by economic class (U.S.), social castes (India, Pakistan) and ethnicity (U.S, Japan). Social stratification is inherently hierarchical, a pre-rational behavioral pattern, and proactive moral reasoning is working to reduce it through affirmative action programs in the U.S. and India.

Moral reasoning varies by culture in accordance with what the culture values. As noted American author Robert A. Heinlein pointed out, “Man is not a rational animal. He is a rationalizing animal.” It’s clear that moral values are relative in practice. If there are also absolute universal moral values, no clear consensus has yet emerged that identifies them.

Written by Influential Prose

June 26, 2015 at 3:20 am

Legal Exceptions

American Academy of Pediatrics: Religious Objections to Medical Care
American Academy of Pediatrics: Recognizing and Responding to Medical Neglect

Written by Influential Prose

June 26, 2015 at 3:11 am

High School Swimming Lessons

In school districts with sufficient budgets and facilities, high school students can choose from beginning, intermediate and advanced swimming courses, often modeled on the American Red Cross’s Learn-to-Swim program. Some schools also offer competitive swimming. Knowing how to swim well is a valuable skill, for both safety and physical fitness. Regular swimming can yield lifelong benefits as a low-impact activity that can continue as one grows older. For students who desire additional challenges, swim programs also often offer diving lessons and lifeguard training. CPR training is another possible pursuit.

Beginning Lessons
Early lessons stress water safety and comfort. Safety training begins with a review of pool rules, including how to use a life jacket, how to recognize another swimmer in distress and how to get help in an emergency. Then, beginning in shallow water and working progressively deeper, the goal is to become familiar with various positions and movement while supported in the water. Learning how to tread water, swim unassisted for short distances on the front, back and side, change directions and roll over are skills needed to move on to the next level.

Intermediate Lessons
At this level, your teen will be relaxed and comfortable in water and ready to build on and refine existing skills. This begins with learning strokes that aid efficient swimming by conserving energy and extending range. Strokes include front glide, front crawl, back crawl and butterfly kick, plus demonstration of longer float times and specific float positions, including the HELP and Huddle strategies for conserving heat in cold water, and how to do a survival float. At this point, the swimmer should be able to dive and retrieve objects from chest-deep water.

Advanced Lessons
Skills introduced at this level include swimming underwater, specific dive types, several specific strokes for treading water, open turns for lane swimming and several safety techniques. Rules for safe diving, how to do a compact jump from a height while wearing a life jacket, how to conduct a throwing assist and how to care for a conscious choking victim are all reviewed. Swimmers demonstrate a back and survival float in deep water for a minute and the ability to swim using back crawl, butterfly, breaststroke and elementary back stroke between 15 and 25 yards.

Fitness and Lifeguard Readiness
Swim distances are lengthened, additional equipment such as pull buoys, fins, pace clocks and paddles are introduced. Training techniques, understanding target heart rates and principles of swimming programs and water exercise are reviewed. In preparation for competitive swimming, a variety of of open turns as they vary by stroke are practiced. Lifeguard readiness trainings build endurance in swimming and treading water, develop diving and submerged swimming proficiency, practice an assortment of rescue techniques, and demonstrate the ability to swim 500 yards — 10 lengths of an Olympic-sized pool — using six different strokes.

Written by Influential Prose

June 26, 2015 at 3:06 am

Child Behavior Checklist Items

As children develop, parents like to see them hitting normal developmental milestones. When it appears something is not quite right, a screening behavioral review is an early step. The widely accepted Achenbach System of Empirically Based Assessment offers two screens, one for children ages 18 months to 5 years, another for children 6 to 18. The preschool list has 100 questions, while the school-age list has 113. Some areas examined include anxiety, depression, aggression, attention, language and sleep.

Checklist Structure

Items on the child behavior checklists are graded by a short scale:

0 = Not True (as far as you know)
1 = Somewhat or Sometimes True
2 = Very True or Often True

The scale allows for a measure of intensity. Teenagers can be moody; some more or less so than others. Scale provides a sense of frequency and extent of the behavior. Some screens come with an additional component, such as the Language Development survey, which measures vocabulary. There are also multicultural supplements that adjust behavior scores as appropriate for cultural context.

Aggression is sometimes related to lack of empathy. This shows up in two items from the preschooler screening: “cruel to animals” and “hurts animals or other people without meaning to.” Actually aggressive behavior is signaled by several other items: “destroys his/her own things,” “destroys things belonging to his/her family or other children” and “physically attacks people.” Items asked of the K-12 set include these and some additions: “cruelty, bullying or meanness to others” and self-aggression — “deliberately harms self or attempts suicide.”

Items indicative of anxiety among preschoolers include “afraid to try new things,” “clings to adults or too dependent,” “doesn’t want to sleep alone,” “gets upset when separated from parents.” Among young children and adolescents, some additional markers are “feels he/she has to be perfect,” “feels or complains that no one loves him or her,” “feels worthless or inferior.”
Everyone experiences anxiety at some time; intensity is a key diagnostic element in assessment. Excessive anxiety can be alleviated with treatment.

Some items can apply to multiple syndromes. For example, “avoids looking others in the eye” could be a sign of inattention, anxiety, depression or anger, depending on context. Having multiple items related to single syndromes helps triangulate the source of the behavior to discern which syndromes are applicable. Attention-related items for preschoolers are “can’t concentrate, can’t pay attention for long,” “can’t sit still, restless or hyperactive,” “can’t stand waiting, wants everything now,” and “demands must be met now.” From 6 to 18, additional items are “fails to finish things he/she starts,” “daydreams or gets lost in his/her thoughts,” “impulsive or acts without thinking,” and “inattentive or easily distracted.”

Written by Influential Prose

June 26, 2015 at 3:02 am

Effective Programs to Help at-Risk Teenagers Stay in School

Keeping at-risk teens in school entails a variety of strategies. It begins by identifying who is mostly likely to drop out and the influences that compel them to do so; these can include bullying, homelessness, financial insecurity, poor nutrition, substance abuse, early pregnancy and abuse at home. Solutions can be targeted individually or schoolwide, but whatever the approach, these problems are difficult, widespread and not always responsive to generalized programs. Although, effective programs do exist.

Check and Connect
Developed at the University of Minnesota’s Institute on Community Integration, Check and Connect has 20 years of documentation to demonstrate program effectiveness and is highly rated by the National Dropout Prevention Center/Network. It is a relatively low-cost program that trains mentors to check on at-risk students’ attendance, behavior and grades while connecting with them personally to provide coordinated support with school staff, families and community providers. The goal of the program is to build academic and social competence on the path to graduation.

Positive Action
Rated by the U.S. Department of Education’s What Works Clearinghouse as a top program, Positive Action’s approach is summarized by its logo, which features three arrows representing thoughts, action and feelings revolving around a plus sign for positivity in a virtuous circle. As the program states, “Positive Action is the philosophy that you feel good about yourself when you think and do positive actions, and there is always a positive way to do everything.” If it sounds like a feel-good program, it is, but it also lowers truancy and increases attendance. Success is compelling.

Ripple Effects
Ripple Effects recognizes the varied influences on dropouts and addresses them by sorting students by risk level, identifying specific behaviors and targeting them with specific, useful interventions. Academic performance is deeply influenced by social and emotional needs. Ripple Effects provides responsive support, aiding students who need to believe in themselves when family, peers or community leads them to doubt. Suspension alternatives are part of the program, steering students toward assessments that also watch for structural unfairness and unconscious bias by school administrations.

Success Highways
This program begins with a comprehensive early warning assessment that not only identifies at-risk students, but determines the reasons underlying their risks and can be reviewed at the district, school, classroom and individual levels. Intervention focuses on six resiliency skills, teaching the essential lesson that failure is occasionally inevitable, but that persistence pays off. Specific skills taught include stress management, intrinsic motivation, academic confidence, balanced well-being, connectedness to others and connecting educational relevance to achievement of life goals.

Written by Influential Prose

June 26, 2015 at 2:57 am

Evangelism in the Early Seventeenth & Eighteenth Centuries

The roots of American evangelism go back to 16th century Europe, when Anabaptists began suggesting that church should be separate from the state. This view did not find favor among governments closely aligned with the Catholic church, and consequently Anabaptism was brutally suppressed. The means, as the Global Mennonite Encyclopedia starkly describes it, was often “the scaffold and the stake.” By the end of the 16th century, most European Anabaptist leaders were dead. Some of the survivors fled to America, where evangelism would later resume, but the Amish, Mennonites and Hutterites who were descended from the original Anabaptists abandoned evangelism in the United States.

Evangelism, Not Evangelicalism
The most common personal experience with evangelism and apologetics in America today is with Jehovah’s Witnesses, who go door to door to advance their faith. Evangelists are the local equivalent of missionaries who go abroad to spread the word. Evangelism is not the same thing as evangelicalism. Evangelism is a practice, a way of sharing belief. Evangelicalism is a dogma and a trend that led to American political activism and megachurches in large U.S. cities.

Early American Settlers
The early 17th century in North America was marked by the establishment of colonies, including Jamestown, Plymouth and Boston. Some settlers came to escape religious persecution; others came to make money. It was a brutal time: many colonists failed to survive the deep winters, and native Indians were a danger as well. Although there was ample religious fervor among the colonists, there was little energy or enthusiasm for evangelism. Simple survival was the priority.

The Great Awakening
After a period of relative quiet in the religious sphere, like the calm before the storm, evangelism suddenly caught fire again in American culture during the Great Awakening. A charismatic preaching style modeled on the fiery, emotional sermons of George Whitefield, paired with dramatic “religious revival” events, drew increasingly larger crowds to Protestant churches in the late 1730s. Beginning in New England over six years, then spreading to the South, revivals were aimed at the faithful whose convictions were weakened by doubt and the unchurched who had little contact or experience with organized religion.

George Whitefield
Whitefield was a central figure in establishing American evangelism, but according to some, he may have also been a factor in sparking the American Revolution. Before Whitefield, sermons were top-down affairs — the pastor preached, the congregation listened. Using the call and response technique, Whitefield established congregational participation and encouraged emotional expression. This exciting new dialogue, together with a generally defiant attitude toward authority, stirred what Nancy Ruttenburg calls the “democratic personality.” The Great Awakening unleashed more than a religious revival; it reinforced a fierce sense of independence. This eventually led to the separation of church and state that Anabaptists had advocated.

Written by Influential Prose

June 26, 2015 at 2:53 am


Process Integration in Model Kraft Pulp Mills. Technical, Economic and Environmental Implications
Doktorsavhandling, 2003

The technical and economic conditions for reducing the energy consumption cost-efficiently and thereby releasing a surplus of biomass fuel in the pulp and paper industry are changing. For example, new environmental restrictions increase the need for closed water loops and other system modifications, which can lead to increased opportunities for energy savings. Closing the water loops can however require that new processes be developed to remove non-process elements, and those processes are likely to increase the energy consumption. There has also been a deregulation of the power market, which creates new incentives and opportunities for cogeneration of electric power in the pulp and paper industry. Finally, energy policy instruments such as CO2 taxes, CO2 trading and long-term agreements between government and industry are intended to increase the incentive for industry to invest in energy saving projects. As a result of these new conditions, the degree of energy efficiency is likely to become a more strategic issue in the future for pulp mill operations. In order to achieve optimal cost-competitive operation, there is a need for a systematic approach to the system consequences when making the above-mentioned changes, also taking into account external factors, such as cost of fuel, power, etc. Given this background, the objective of this thesis has been to perform overall energy system analysis for several green field mills and scenarios. The emphasis has been on understanding how the energy saving potential changes under different circumstances in the mill, i.e. the amount of warm and hot water produced, type of digester, etc. The results show that there is between 1.0 and 2.2 GJ/air-dried metric tonne (GJ/t) of excess heat available in the model mills evaluated. Depending on the mill configuration, different amounts of live steam saving can be achieved, varying between 12 and 21% of the total live steam demand.

pinch technology

system consequences

pulp and paper

excess heat

process integration

Ulrika Wising

Chalmers, Institutionen för kemiteknik och miljövetenskap, Värmeteknik och maskinlära

Doktorsavhandlingar vid Chalmers tekniska högskola. Ny serie: 2019

Publication - Department of Heat & Power Technology, Chalmers University of Technology: 2003:8

Mer information


Mass Shootings and Mental Illness: How Can the Media Avoid Fanning the Flames of Stigma?

Speculation can have serious consequences. How can journalists cover the mental health angle of these incidents in a responsible and ethical way?

Newtown, Connecticut. Las Vegas. Parkland, Florida. Annapolis, Maryland. And just two days ago, Jacksonville, Florida, where the details are still coming in. With each ghastly mass shooting in a school, workplace, or other public location, journalists scramble to piece together what happened, and speculation runs high as to whether the gunman had mental illness. But critics say the media coverage perpetuates deep-seated, stigmatizing attitudes about diagnoses such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. What can journalists do to cover the mental health connection in these mass murders in a responsible way?

Of science, ethics, and us.

“Journalism is far too quick to try to guess at the ‘why’ behind these sorts of things, but speculation can have serious consequences.”

Earlier this month, police investigators released a final report on the massacre at a Las Vegas concert last October, the deadliest shooting in modern American history. The motives of the 64-year-old gunman — a wealthy high-stakes gambler — remain unclear, they conceded, but he had burned through much of his fortune and shown potential signs of a troubled mind. While some news outlets made only brief reference to suspicions that the shooter may have had mental illness, others blared it.

It’s a familiar theme. In recent years, the national conversation about gun violence has boiled down to a narrative — amplified by the media — that essentially blames mental illness as a prominent cause of these cold-blooded public mass shootings. Mental illness has become highly politicized in the gun-control debate, yet the link between psychiatric problems and violence isn’t so straightforward. And mental health advocates say the over-simplistic narrative unfairly labels millions of Americans who have a psychiatric diagnosis with the false stereotype of being dangerous.

All of this makes the harrowing task of covering mass shootings even more challenging for journalists, particularly in the U.S., which has a unique gun violence problem. It seemed worth taking the time to unpack some of the issues around violence and stigma, so I reached out to a few experts.

“Journalism is far too quick to try to guess at the ‘why’ behind these sorts of things,” said Kathleen Culver, director of the Center for Journalism Ethics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. We may never come to know the answer, but “speculation can have serious consequences.”

Reporters aren’t trying to be sensationalistic, of course. Answering the basics of who, what, when, where, how — and yes, why — is part of the DNA of journalism, Culver noted. “But sometimes our standard practices can just get on a roll,” she added. “They become this snowball rolling downhill, and we always have to stop and think about what we’re rolling over.”

Patrick Corrigan, a psychologist at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, agreed that it’s natural for journalists — and for their readers — to ask “why?” We have a fundamental need to explain why bad things happen, he noted. Societies used to look to the religious concept of evil to understand terrible crimes of violence, but in modern times, perhaps the easiest alternative explanation is that the killer “must’ve been mentally ill,” he said.

It’s an assumption most people readily leap to. After all, why would anyone of sound mind indiscriminately slaughter strangers and children?

There is indeed some truth to such thinking: In certain high-profile public mass shootings — as in Tucson, Arizona, and Aurora, Colorado — it’s clear that psychotic symptoms, such as delusions or hallucinations from schizophrenia, drove the killer’s actions, said E. Beth McGinty, a mental health policy researcher at Johns Hopkins University. But the problem is that people then incorrectly overgeneralize that the same is true for all mass shootings.

Furthermore, intensive news coverage of mass shootings typically includes discussions that equate violent and dangerous behavior with mental illness, Corrigan said. “The equation’s incorrect,” he told me. “If anything, it tends to fan the flames of stigma.” People with mental illness are more likely to be victims of crime than the aggressors, after all — and the majority of them don’t engage in violence. (More on this later.)

Corrigan is principal investigator of the National Consortium on Stigma and Empowerment, a group that studies the effects of negative attitudes toward mental health conditions. Sadly, even though societal awareness about the biological roots of psychiatric disorders has grown since the 1950s, prejudice remains high against serious mental illnesses such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and major depression. Stigma against schizophrenia has even worsened over time, Corrigan said: One meta-analysis found a decrease from 1990 to 2006 in public willingness to accept someone with that diagnosis as a neighbor or co-worker. In a more recent survey from 2013, 71 percent of people said they would be unwilling to work closely with a person with serious mental illness, and 46 percent viewed such individuals as far more dangerous than the general public.

Fewer than 5 percent of the 120,000 gun-related killings in the U.S. from 2001 to 2010 were committed by people diagnosed with mental illness.

As with racism, people with serious mental illness face discrimination that hurts their ability to find a place to rent, advance in their careers, and get proper health care when they see a primary care doctor, Corrigan said. Many also struggle with feelings of internalized self-stigma. “People won’t go seek out treatment from a psychiatrist or psychologist, so they don’t get labeled as being ‘crazy,’” he added. Which means they don’t get the help they need.

Research suggests that the media feeds this stigma when its coverage of people with mental health conditions is disproportionately focused on violent behavior. In a 2016 study from Johns Hopkins, McGinty and colleagues found that 38 percent of major news stories about people with mental illness mentioned violence against others, while 29 percent mentioned suicide. And in an online experiment published in 2013, McGinty’s team asked participants to read a news brief about a mass shooting by a man with serious mental illness. Responding to a survey immediately afterward, they indicated less willingness to live near or work closely with individuals with a serious mental disorder, compared with other study participants who didn’t see the news piece.

So what do the numbers actually tell us about the relationship between gun violence and psychiatric illness? It’s complicated, and a bit of a mixed bag. Compared to people without mental health issues, for example, individuals with serious mental disorders have been found to be 3.6 times more likely to engage in violent behavior, according to the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions. Yet, only a small minority, just 2.9 percent, actually do so in any given year, so the overall risk is quite low in contrast to public misconceptions about mental illness and dangerousness. What’s more: Fewer than 5 percent of the 120,000 gun-related killings in the U.S. from 2001 to 2010 were committed by people diagnosed with mental illness, according to the National Center for Health Statistics database.

Meanwhile, however, in other research reviewing police reports and media stories relating specifically to mass shootings, criminologists Grant Duwe of the Minnesota Department of Corrections and Michael Rocque of Bates College in Maine found a high prevalence of mental illness: Around 60 percent of perpetrators of 185 public mass shootings had either been diagnosed with, or exhibited symptoms of, serious mental illness — typically, paranoid schizophrenia, or depression (including the depression of bipolar disorder). (Duwe and Rocque narrowly define public mass shootings as incidents in which four or more people are killed in a public location in a 24-hour period, not including situations related to other criminal or military activity.)

McGinty and other researchers have expressed skepticism regarding these sorts of estimates, because accurate diagnosis would require expert medical assessments of each perpetrator close to the time of the shooting. That’s just not possible, since many of these murderers commit suicide after their rampage, or are killed by police. And other factors are generally much more strongly implicated in fueling violence, McGinty noted, including alcohol or substance use problems, a history of abuse or trauma, and anger and impulsivity. These things often co-occur with mental illness.

Still, Duwe argues that downplaying the role of mental illness in public mass shootings is also a mistake. For one thing, such incidents as defined by Duwe and Rocque’s criteria are exceedingly rare, and account for less than 1 percent of deaths from all U.S. homicides each year. The pattern of risk factors for these extreme cases may not be the same as for violence in general, and Duwe thinks it’s misleading to conflate the two. He also says he’s not arguing that 60 percent of these cases were directly caused by mental illness — but it is a risk factor, he said, “that we should be considering.”

Whatever the different factors were that were actually in play, that notion of cause-and-effect is an important thing to keep in mind, and it’s a point on which both McGinty and Duwe apparently agree. If a mass shooter did have a mental illness, “that’s a correlation, not causation,” McGinty said.

“Just because someone had a diagnosis does not mean that it’s the symptoms of that mental illness that caused the violence,” she said.

Given all the above, what’s a well-meaning journalist to do when covering mass shootings? After all, while the Society of Professional Journalists’ Code of Ethics calls for the media to seek and report the truth, it also advises minimizing harm and being accountable. “What harms are we doing,” asked UW-Madison’s Culver, “if we report too quickly, if we report incompletely, if we report something incorrectly?”

We can reduce those harms, for starters, by avoiding speculation. Don’t leap to the conclusion that a killer or suspect must have had a psychiatric problem if that isn’t known to be true, said Eve Byrd, director of the mental health program at the nonprofit Carter Center in Atlanta. Verify that any information about a diagnosis comes from a reliable source. “I would even question if [the information came from] a friend or neighbor,” Byrd said.

If a diagnosis of mental illness is solidly documented, it’s important to find out whether the gunman had access to and received treatment for it — and experts also recommend that journalists provide some of the counterbalancing context about mental illness and violence that we just walked through.

Another piece of advice: When we describe a person’s diagnosis, “the language that’s used is extraordinarily important,” Byrd added. A guide developed by the Carter Center on covering behavioral health issues urges reporters to avoid derogatory terms such as “crazy,” “lunatic,” or “psycho.” (The Associated Press Stylebook echoes this advice.) Such language can interfere with a person’s willingness to seek help for a mental health condition, Byrd said.

Several other organizations offer additional advice on how to report on mass shootings. These include recommendations put forth last year by the Suicide Awareness Voices of Education, the Poynter Institute, and other partners.

Culver, meanwhile, simply calls on the press to be more methodical. “It would be fairly easy for any individual journalist or news organization to simply resolve, ‘We’re not going to speculate on any reason or cause until we have some sort of confirmation of a reason or cause,’” she said.

To minimize harm, she added: “Put down the brakes a little bit.”

Top visual: Mark Lewis/Getty
See What Others Are Saying

5 comments / Join the Discussion

    This is a valuable article, but I am concerned about Professor Corrigan’s comments. Yes, people with mental illnesses are more likely to be the victims of crime than the aggressors but, as the article goes on to demonstrate, research lets us know that people with mental illnesses are also more likely to be perpetrators. The key issue is that these perpetrators generally have untreated or inadequately treated illnesses.

    It’s also very troubling that Professor Corrigan overemphasizes stigma as a cause for unwillingness to seek treatment. As the mother of a daughter living with schizophrenia and as someone immersed in the community of families living with these disorders, I believe that this narrative misrepresents the reality of people living with psychotic illnesses. Most people in the depths of psychosis have anosognosia, a brain based inability to understand that they are ill; thus, there is no reason for them to seek treatment. People in positions of power like Professor Corrigan are doing a disservice to people with these disorders when they avoid informing the public about this condition. Here is a link to extensive research about anosognosia:

    Faulty narratives about stigma actually harm people with severe psychotic disorders. I discuss some of these issues in this article:

    The problem with violence by those who suffer from delusions is that, unlike violence rising from interactions with others, you cannot by engaging in appropriate interactions generally avoid it. I remember a case in Denver where a man, refused treatment at Denver General Hospital, ended up at the airport where he stabbed a perfect stranger because he was wearing a blue jacket. The reason given was that the believed the victim was posing as his social worker. From the victim’s perspective, he was subject to a sudden random attack with a knife.

    I disagree with the jist of this article. The anti-stigma/consumer movement has held court for way too long. The human brain’s semblance of mind is created by a synchronicity of neural functionalities that allow human beings to behave in socially acceptable ways when it is functioning normally. To the contrary, we (and the criminal justice system most importantly) should not be operating on a presumption of sanity in cases of mass shootings and inexplicable acts of violence. We should, to the contrary, jump to the suspicion that someone has a serious brain health issue in these cases.

    If journalist keep listening to the anti-stigma propagandists, we will never be able to snap out of the dysfunctional mindsets and public policies that are leading to these incidents. The anti-stigma brigade likes to blur the distinction between mental health (which applies to all of us), mental illness (which pertain to all of the 300-plus diagnoses in the DSM, and serious neuropsychiatric illnesses that involve psychosis – a potentially deadly neuropsychiatric state. Some advocates in my network will would like for them to have the mental illness terminology to themselves and we won’t even use that term. Neuropsychiatric illness with psychosis is potentially much too deadly to be worried about being considered a social lesser. Enough with their nonsense and proselytizing. Who should stigmatize mental illness that is not serious enough to cause violent symptomatic behavior.

    Since there is a knee-jerk reaction to all shootings that the solution is to ban all firearms (an exaggeration, but not far from the truth.), there is an opposite reaction calling to ban all those with mental issues. So to take it to its extreme, all those with mental issues should be prohibited from access to firearms or anything else capable of inflicting harm: automobiles, crossbows, knives, caustic chemicals, pressure-cookers, sharp pencils, etc.
    As a trained causal-factor analyst, I’m not satisfied that an exhaustive root-cause analysis has been performed to determine the underlying cause of the violence that’s become prevalent in the U.S. The answer won’t be simple, and I don’t believe we will find a single root cause. But I also believe that once we find our answers, the U.S. won’t like it. I suspect it will require changing of attitudes and some loss of freedoms, be it freedom of speech, freedom to bear arms, or some other

    —-Mass Shootings and Mental Illness: How Can the Media Avoid Fanning the Flames of Stigma?

    For a start, change your vocabulary:

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Massachusetts court strikes down ban on stun guns

BOSTON (AP) – The state’s highest court has struck down a Massachusetts law that bans the civilian possession of stun guns.

The Supreme Judicial Court said in Tuesday’s ruling that prohibiting ownership of the weapons violates the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

The decision marks a reversal for the court, which reached an opposite conclusion in a separate 2015 case. The U.S. Supreme Court, however, set aside that ruling, saying the Massachusetts court failed to properly explain its ruling.

The court stayed Tuesday’s ruling for 60 days to give the Legislature time to rewrite the law to regulate the ownership of stun guns without banning them entirely.

The current law allows police to use stun guns.


Lose Weight like an Athlete

The average fitness participant generally avoids sport-specific training programs because many people are intimidated by the exercises or feel the exercises aren¡¯t suitable for their goals. The sport-specific training terms maximum strength, power, speed or endurance seem to have no relevance in the average person¡¯s life.

This mentality is ironic, since developing these abilities unknowingly allows many of us to perform our daily activities with less effort and a reduced risk of injury. Think of the strength and muscular endurance a mother needs to lift and carry her child for several minutes at a time or the power your body requires to jump out of the way of a moving object or to quickly spring up onto a step or curb. Although these actions may not occur all the time, it is important that your body has the ability when the time comes.

Training for maximum strength, power, speed and muscular endurance also brings many of the positive physiological adaptations required to achieve many of our fitness and health goals. Whether it¡¯s looking good in a bathing suit or improving your cholesterol levels, intense sport-specific training is a great way to get you there.

Weight Loss with Sports Training

Losing weight boils down to burning more calories than you consume and having a higher proportion of lean muscle mass on your body. Sport-specific training exercises generally challenge your body to a higher degree. This not only forces your body to adapt to the stimulus by getting stronger, but also burns more calories in the process. If you wish to have the physique of a professional athlete, doesn¡¯t it make sense to train like one?

It is the intensity of the exercise that dictates the body¡¯s response, not the individual¡¯s technical ability. Therefore, intensity is a relative term and sport-specific exercises that involve coordination, agility and flexibility can be used for anyone, regardless of age, gender or fitness level.

Obviously, certain precautions must be taken into account prior to starting an intense program:

1. Ease into the program: Too much too soon is a recipe for disaster. Many injuries occur as a result of training at a high intensity without the proper foundation. A general strength and aerobic training routine should be completed for at least six to eight weeks prior to trying out any sport-specific training program.

2. Monitor your heart rate throughout the workout: Many sport-specific exercises challenge the body to levels far greater than the typical workout. Therefore, managing your heart rate response is an important safety tip. If your heart rate rises quickly to levels exceeding 85% of your maximum, take a break and make sure you allow your heart rate to go back down to approximately 60% before continuing with the workout. To learn how to measure your pulse, click here.

3. Listen to your body: If your body hurts or takes too long to recover between sets, you are probably not ready for this type of training. Change the exercise, select a simpler version of the exercise, increase the rest interval or decrease the number of repetitions until your body feels comfortable with the entire workout.

4. Keep a mental log: Take note of how your body feels several hours after the workout or even the next day. If your muscles and joints feel stiff, then you pushed yourself too much. If you feel energized and strong, then continue with the workout and gradually raise the intensity.

5. Use common sense: If you¡¯re working out for the first time, do not try this type of program. Intense sport-specific training exercises are an excellent alternative for weight-loss participants who need to shake up their routine or get past the typical speed bump on the road to weight-loss.

We have attached a sport-specific program that will help you tone up and trim down. If you have never done this type of a workout, we suggest you rest for 48 hours between workouts. Keep in mind that you should warm up and cool down before and after all weight training days. For a detailed warm-up, stretch and cool-down program, complete the Truestar Exercise profile.


Over the last fifteen years a new disease spread by a family of viruses, HIV, has spread globally. HIV stands for Human lmmuno-deficiency Virus. Due to Sharing of SyringesHIV has been given this name because its long-term effect is to attack the immune system of the body, making it weak and deficient. We live virtually in a sea of microorganisms and at every moment an enormous number of them are entering our body. It is the immune system that normally fights off these microorganisms and keeps us healthy. Any compromise with the working of the immune system has profound effect on our body.

After about 5 to 10 years of contracting the HIV infection, the virus has weakened the immune system of the patients so much that they develop a number of different illnesses such as tuberculosis, pneumonia, persistent diarrhea, fever and skin infections. This condition is called AIDS Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome.

Signs and Symptoms of HIV/AIDS

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) says the following signs and symptoms may be warning signs of late-stage HIV infection:

rapid weight loss

dry cough

recurring fever or profuse night sweats

profound and unexplained fatigue

swollen lymph glands in the armpits, groin, or neck

diarrhea lasting more than a week

white spots or unusual blemishes on the tongue, in the mouth, or in the throat

red, brown, pink, or purplish blotches on or under the skin or inside the mouth, nose, or eyelids

memory loss, depression, and other neurological disorders

Causes of Aids:

The cause of AIDS (Autoimmune Deficiency Syndrome) is the Human Immunodeficiency Virus, HIV. HIV is most frequently spread through contact with an infected individual's body fluids. These fluids include semen, vaginal secretions, rectal secretions, or blood. It is not transmissable through tears, sweat, or saliva. HIV can be contracted from a bad blood transfusion, but this is vanishingly rare (1 per every 2 million transfusions in the USA).

The core effect of the HIV virus is to annihilate a group of the body's immune cellsknown as the CD4+ T-Helper Cells. These cells are a key component in your body's immune response to bacterial infections. Initial infection with HIV usually occurs when the virus enters a different class of immune cells, known as macrophages. The virus then spreads from the macrophage population to the CD4+ T-Helper cell population.

The effect of the virus on macrophages is minimal, but the effect on CD4+ T-Helper cells is devastating. A single infected T-Helper cell can traverse the body many times per hour through the bloodstream, binding to other CD4+ T-Helper cells and inducing them to self-destruct, a process known as apoptosis. As this population of cells wanes, your body becomes less able to fight off bacterial infections - this is the time period that physicians call "AIDS." So - first you get HIV, then years later as your body loses its immune cells, it transforms into AIDS.

AIDS Treatment:

At this time, there is no cure for AIDS, but medications are effective in fighting HIV and its complications. Treatments are designed to reduce HIV in your body, keep your immune system as healthy as possible and decrease the complications you may develop.

You and your doctor will work together to develop a treatment plan that best meets your needs. Three main factors will be considered when designing your treatment plan:

Find powerful herbal remedies Herbal Digestive Aids

Your willingness and readiness to begin therapy

The stage of your disease

Other health problems

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a number of drugs for treating HIV and AIDS. It's important that you take your medications exactly as prescribed. This is a crucial part of your treatment success. Our program offers pharmacy services to help you maintain your drug regimen and to answer any questions you may have.

Most medications have side effects, which your doctor will discuss with you. Individuals respond differently to medications and side effects may vary. Our doctors, nurses and pharmacists can help you manage these side effects.

Also read about AIDS Symptoms

Home Remedies for Liver Care or read more on swamiramdevmedicines.com


MGMT 590 Strategy & Competitive Advantage

Prerequisites: All other core courses This capstone course integrates the concept of competitive advantage and the functional disciplines of businesses using cases, seminar-presentations and a comprehensive strategic management project. It emphasizes the importance of maintaining strategic fit in changing macro industry, and global environments. Students are challenged to solve comprehensive management problems at the strategic level of the organization.

Both Semesters


The Unanticipated Added benefits of Crafting

Knitting, quilting, stitching, along with other crafts could appear like almost nothing much more than pleasant hobbies, but there is far more to those functions than fulfills the eye. Research demonstrates that regularly participating in crafts may have tangible wellbeing gains. Here’s what receiving crafty may possibly do for you personally.
Minimize stress

The rhythmic, repetitive movements and focused notice demanded of specified crafts appear to develop a relaxing result akin to meditation. Within an on the internet study that surveyed more than three,five hundred knitters, posted while in the British Journal of Occupational Remedy, respondents felt there was a relationship amongst knitting frequency and feeling tranquil. They noted that knitting was “soothing,” “restful,” and experienced meditative or zen-like traits. The bulk stated it served them minimize stress and unwind from your pressures of labor. Also, people with anxiety conditions reported that knitting assisted them deal with stress filled situations.
Enhance temper
Within the exact British analyze, respondents were requested to indicate over a 7-point scale starting from “very sad” to “very happy” what their mood was normally like before they engaged in knitting. About one-third of them reported sensation some evaluate of “happy”; the remainder noted possibly neutral or unfortunate moods. Soon after knitting, however, virtually all the respondents rated by themselves as at least “a small pleased,” even though much less than 1 percent said they remained unhappy. Knitting with other individuals appeared to confer a further advantage, specifically for individuals who had depression. They tended to report that collaborating within a knitting team elevated their pleasure and self-esteem. (Take note that knitting or other crafts need to not substitute for skilled remedy when you are frustrated or pretty nervous. But they’re surely worthy of trying as add-ons.)
Not surprisingly, there is also the long lasting pleasure that comes from accomplishing a undertaking and experiencing the completed item-or, probably much more pleasing, supplying it to someone else.
Head off cognitive decrease
Within a analyze released within the Journal of Neuropsychiatry & Clinical Neurosciences, researchers looked at 1,321 adults, ages 70 to 89, of whom 197 experienced mild cognitive impairment (a possible precursor to dementia). All in the participants were being surveyed about their actions inside the previous year. Those people who engaged in crafts such as knitting or quilting experienced a lower risk of mild cognitive impairment, on par with the reduction seen in men and women who spent time reading books, working on computers, or playing cognitive games. The results insert to the evidence that mentally partaking activities-including crafting-may help protect selected neurological pathways during the brain.
Empower women with eating problems
A small Canadian study from the journal Eating and Weight Problems included 38 women undergoing inpatient treatment for anorexia nervosa. The women ended up given knitting lessons and free access to supplies, and requested to report how the knitting affected their psychological state. About three-quarters in the participants mentioned that knitting lessened the intensity of their fears and preoccupation with their eating disorder. A similar number mentioned it had a chilled and therapeutic effect, and 53 percent mentioned it provided satisfaction, pride, and a sense of accomplishment. The examine had no control group, nonetheless, so it’s possible that other, non-craft actions may have conferred the exact same profit.
Help men and women address chronic pain
Living with chronic pain is a challenge not just physically but psychologically, predisposing sufferers to melancholy, social isolation, and a perceived loss of control and identity. Within a small research presented at a meeting of the British Pain Society, researchers at the Royal United Hospital in Bath, England, conducted an online survey of 60 people with chronic pain who knit. They also observed a 15-person face-to-face knitting group held weekly at a pain management unit. The on-line survey revealed that knitters felt a sense of amplified purpose, meaning, and control as a result of their hobby; they also documented that knitting distracted them from their pain. And these who
belonged to the knitting group reported they felt much less isolated and enjoyed a sense of belonging. As with the other studies, there was no control group, so it’s possible that other engaging hobbies or social routines would have been equally helpful.
How to get started:
Check with a local crafts or knitting store to find classes and workshops in your area for beginners on up. There are also numerous meet-up groups for knitting, crocheting, together with other crafts nationwide (check for options in your area). Many cities or states have their own knitters’ guilds, which you can typically find by typing your city or state name plus “knitters’ guild” or “knitting guild” into a search engine.

Get extra information about crafts about the site


Fraud auditing and different type of fraud

Fraud defined and explained with examples fraud occurs when a person deliberately practices deception in order to gain something unlawfully or internet frauds are becoming more prevalent since the world relies heavily on technology this type of fraud involves selling fake or counterfeit items, or. Thus, a fraud audit is a type of financial audit reasonsindividuals or companies may voluntarily undertake financial auditing to double-check work auditing and assurance are demanding occupations offering lucrative salaries and promising professional development while there's a lot of. Types of fraud fraudulent financial reporting misappropriation of assets the fraud triangle incentives/pressures opportunities responding to the risk of fraud change the overall conduct of the audit to respond to identified fraud risks design and perform audit procedures to address. What is the difference between fraud and forgery - fraud refers to any form of deception of an individual or organization for monetary gain identity theft, tax fraud, bank fraud, legal fraud, election fraud, collateral fraud, intrinsic and extrinsic fraud are some forms of fraud. Fraud auditing and different type of fraud introduction over the years, the role of auditors become increasingly important especially in a capitalist economy as the process of wealth creation and political stability depends heavily upon confidence in processes of accountability and how well the.

A fraud audit is a thorough investigation by certified fraud examiners into the financial records of a business to highlight instances of fraud (and thereby confirm or disprove auditors may also look for unusual transactions, ie transactions that are different than a company's normal financial operations. As an auditor, finding fraud is part of your professional responsibility auditing for internal fraud will help you develop and sharpen your existing skills and teach you in this session, you will learn about different types of data analysis techniques and how to apply them to uncover the red flags of fraud. Fraud auditing and different type of fraud introduction over the years, the role of auditors become increasingly important especially in a a fraud audit is a meticulous review of financial documents, while one searches for the point where the numbers and/or financial statements do not mesh. Cpas responsibilities to detect fraud in audits, required approaches, types of financial statement frauds and specific case examples of different types of fina auditing for financial statement fraud january 25, 2005 dr raymond s kulzick, cpa, cfe [email_address.

Essentially, the fraud audit approach requires auditors to answer these questions: who commits fraud, and how what type of fraud are we internal auditors usually have more diversified and detailed knowledge of operations in different parts of the organization than the investigating agency. Internal fraud is usually found by internal auditors in the statement of auditing standards 99, it's defines fraud as an intentional act that results in a material misstatement in financial statements there are two types of fraud considered: misstatements arising from fraudulent financial reporting (eg. 26 auditing for fraud executive finance загрузка in this lesson we learn how the external audit incorporates fraud detection techniquies into the audit basic types of audits - продолжительность: 5:02 roger cpa review 78 389 просмотров.

Consider fraud in an audit of financial statements: describes the two types of fraud that are relevant to the auditor, that is, misstatements resulting from employee fraud comes in many shapes and sizes it goes by several different names, including internal fraud, occupational fraud, or employee. The auditor and fraud sas no 82 clarifies the auditors responsibilities by jane mancino statement on auditing standards no 82, consideration of fraud in a financial statement sas no 82 describes two types of fraud that may result in financial statement misstatements. Fraud is a legal concept, and auditors do not have the professional expertise to make such a legal determination specific examples of fraud risk factors for fraudulent financial reporting and misappropriation of assets are identified by au 31685 (appendix: examples of fraud risk factors.

Electronic fraud introduction there are many different types of electronic fraud with which companies today must familiarize themselves it is no longer sufficient to simply warn employees about clicking on suspect sites or to limit access to the company network hackers have become far more sophisticated. What is the auditor's responsibility once fraud is detected session 02: overall audit plan and audit program session objectives after completing this session, you should be able to answer the following questions: what are the four different types of audit tests which type of test is a dual-purpose test. Investment fraud comes in many forms whether you are a first-time investor or have been investing for many years, here are some basic facts you should know about different types of fraud. Here you can download our different types of corporate fraud explained booklet an example of the useful information you can find in the booklet is featured this type of fraud involves falsely creating or diverting payments examples include creating fake records and bank accounts which enable the. A fraud audit is a detailed examination of the financial records of a business, with the intent of finding instances of fraud this procedure is more detailed than a normal audit, since some types of fraud involve such small amounts of money and other assets that they might fall below the standard m.

Fraud auditing and different type of fraud

Types of frauds there are many types of frauds that have identified by the banks to ease the efforts of fighting fraud, they are classified into various categories by their natures 1 counterfeit cards counterfeit credit card transactions are one of the biggest fraud reasons in the industry. What are the types of fraud fraudulent financial reporting and misappropriation of assets which type of inquiry is used when the auditor seeks responses from the interviewee about his or her how are fraudulent financial reporting and misappropriation of assets different and similar. Two types of audit fraud fraudulent financial reporting misappropriation of assets fraud isn't just about catching unusual transactions and relationships in the numbers in the books but also about examining the general behavioral patterns of employees and any hardships, financial or otherwise.

  • Key differences between auditors and fraud examiners the fraud audit is not a defined term or defined professional service what is likely meant by fraud examiners have a different relationship to stakeholders they are engaged by the defrauded organization, and that organization sets the extent.
  • Auditing and types of audits: types of audits: in order to counteract financial fraud and limit the likelihood of a business to engage in fraudulent financial reporting an the different types of audits investigative audit: an investigative audit generally will take place as the result of a.

The difference between auditing and fraud examination is that withauditing they are simply checking to make sure all of the numberson the accounting fraud is a particular type of crime and can be committed against anyone, business or individual whereas, the term 'commercial crime' is a general. Frauds, insurance frauds, different manufacturing industries frauds, and retail frauds it should be noted that there is another type of audit called auditing they include: 1) main difference between fraud audit and financial statements audit is more related to thinking way and view than to procedures. Fraud occurs when someone purposefully produces deceptive data you need to be on the lookout for two types of fraud another example is taking company computers home to use personally your authoritative source on fraud is statement on auditing standards (sas) no 99, which gives plenty of.

Fraud auditing and different type of fraud
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PAL & NTSC regions

PAL is the screen resolution used in a particular country.

There are 2 other systems SECAM and NTSC

SECAM areas can play PAL.

NTSC areas may have poblems unless you have a very modern TV and DVD player that can cope with all systems.

Region Free – means if you are playng on a TV/DVD that can play PAL then our DVD’s will play anywhere in the world.

Consult your manufacturers booklet for futher details. Any queries please contact

The following countries use PAL:

SECAM Regions of the World
(These countries will also play PAL):

Afghanistan, Andorra, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Benin, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Corsica, Czech Republic, Djibouti, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Estonia, France, Gabon, Georgia, Greece, Guadeloupe, Guyana (French), Hungary, Iran, Iraq, Ivory Coast, Kampuchea, Kazakhastan, Korea North, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Libya, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Mali, Martinique, Mauritania, Mauritius, Monaco, Mongolia, Morocco, New Caledonia, Niger, Polynesia, Reunion, Romania, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia, Slovak Republic, St. Pierre, Syria, Tahiti, Tajikistan, Togo, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Wallis Island, Zaire.

NTSC Regions of the World
(check your manufacturers details to see if they will cope with PAL disks that are region free):

Alaska, American Samoa, Antigua, Antilles (Dutch), Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Barbuda, Belize, Bermuda, Bolivia, British Virgin Islands, Burma, Canada, Chile, Columbia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Curacao, Diego Garcia, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Fiji, Grenada, Guam, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Hawaii, Honduras, Jamaica, Japan, Johnston Islands, Korea South, Leeward Islands, Mariana Islands, Marshall Islands, Mexico, Micronesia, Midway Islands, Montserrat, Myanmar, Nicaragua, Okinawa, Palau, Panama, Peru, Philippines, Puerto Rico, Samoa, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent, Surinam, Taiwan, Trinidad and Tobago, United States of America, Venezuela, Vietnam, and Virgin Islands.