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White Noise
I can’t listen to music or podcasts while I do anything that requires my brain, but I still like to have some consistent white noise in the background. Here are a few things for that I’m using lately:
Coffitivity sounds like a coffee shop. Bven better than a real coffee shop does.
Rainy Mood sounds like it’s raining. I like to put this on when it’s raining outside but I can’t hear it.
Nature Sounds sounds like whatever part of being outside I want it to sound like.
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July 31, 2014
NTSB: Latest safety recommendations
WASHINGTON – The National Transportation Safety Board has updated its “Most Wanted” transportation safety improvements. Included are recommendations for improved bus, rail and aviation safety.
Following are the NTSB’s comments of interest to UTU members:
Airplanes, buses and trains are complex machines that require the full attention of the operator, maintenance person and other individuals performing safety-critical functions.
Human fatigue is subtle; at any given point, the traveling public could be at risk because those operating airplanes, buses or trains, or the individuals responsible for maintaining vehicles, do not realize until it is too late that they cannot safely complete their duties because of fatigue.
To make matters worse, people frequently are not aware of, or may deny, ability impairments caused by fatigue. Just because an operator or mechanic is not yawning or falling asleep does not necessarily mean that he or she is not fatigued.
What can be done: Continued research on the manifestations of fatigue will help in further identifying mechanisms that can counter, and ultimately eliminate, fatigue.
Such research needs to recognize the unique aspects of fatigue associated with each mode of transportation, such as the effect of crossing multiple time zones or being required to work during periods of the day when circadian rhythms increase the risk of fatigue.
Employers should also establish science-based fatigue management systems that involve all parties (employees, management, interest groups) in developing environments to help identify the factors that cause fatigue; and monitor operations to detect the presence of fatigue before it becomes a problem.
Bus Safety
Motorcoaches are among the safest vehicles on the road. They are rarely involved in highway accidents.
However, motorcoaches transport 750 million passengers annually, with each bus carrying a substantial number of people. Therefore, when something does go wrong, more people are at risk of death or injury. As in any traffic crash, an occupant’s chance of surviving and avoiding injury increases when the person is retained in the vehicle, and particularly in his or her seating position.
Without standards for roof strength, window glazing, and a protected seating area, motor coach accidents can be catastrophic. Even when the motorcoach remains relatively intact during an accident, passengers lacking a protective seating environment can be thrown from their seating area and killed or injured.
What can be done: Adequate standards for roof strength, window glazing, and occupant protection must be developed and implemented. These standards must ensure that the vehicles maintain survivable space for occupants during all types of crashes with significant crash forces, including rollovers.
Manufacturers are moving ahead with various seating area safety options, such as seat belts, but the development and implementation of government standards is needed to ensure a consistent level of safety across the fleet. Motorcoach interiors should be more occupant friendly in order to prevent injury in the event of a crash.
In addition, after a crash, occupants need to be able to identify exits and quickly leave the vehicle.
Commercial Aviation
Crew resource management (CRM) training is designed to improve crew coordination, resource allocation and error management in the cockpit. CRM training augments technical training, enhances pilots’ performance and encourages all flight crew members to identify and assertively announce potential problems by focusing on situational awareness, communications skills, teamwork, task allocation, and decision-making within a comprehensive framework of standard operating procedures.
Takeoffs and landings, in which the risk of a catastrophic accident is particularly high, are considered the most critical phases of flight.
Unlike the airspace above the United States, which spans millions of square miles, the runway environment is a far more limited area, often with a steady stream of aircraft taking off and landing on intersecting runways, sometimes in poor weather and with limited visibility.
What can be done: Reducing the likelihood of runway collisions is dependent on the situational awareness of the pilots and time available to take action — often a matter of just a few seconds. A direct in-cockpit warning of a probable collision or of a takeoff attempt on the wrong runway can give pilots advance notice of these dangers.
Requiring specific air traffic control clearance for each runway crossing would reduce the chances that an airplane will inadvertently taxi onto an active runway on which another aircraft is landing or taking off.
Situational awareness is also important in addressing runway excursions. Pilots need accurate information on runway conditions. Equipment should be properly set for takeoff or landing and function properly.
Pilot training and procedures should emphasize conducting distance assessments for all landings, especially on contaminated runways; training on maximum performance stopping on a slippery runway; and identifying the appropriate runway for their aircraft.
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The Cell Hunter
Longtime OU professor, Dr. Richard Broyles, is a hunter. One of the world’s deadliest scourges, sickle cell anemia, sits squarely in his sights. He recently founded EpimedX, an Oklahoma City company that will enable him to pull the trigger. After 20 years in the blind, the geneticist and his colleagues are roughly 10 years away from firing the magic bullet that will put sickle cell anemia down once and for all.
Taking down sickle cell anemia is a lofty goal. Broyles’ goals for his cure are equally lofty and go beyond saving lives. “This will change the lives of individuals with sickle cell disease in third world countries. Children born in those countries with sickle cell anemia almost always die before they turn 5,” he says, “It’s a life or death thing for those people. In the U.S., where every baby born is tested for the disease, we’re able to identify them early. They don’t die as young, but they’ll still have serious health issues and painful lives. They’re always in crisis, in and out of emergency rooms. It’s hard for a person in that situation to get an education, much less hold a job. It’s not just a health issue.”
Broyles and his peers developed a new approach to the cure for sickle cell disease, a genetic process known as gene regulation therapy. Sickle cell anemia develops in humans with two key mutations in the genes of red blood cells. Previous attempts to cure the disease focused on changing these genes. A unique and fortuitous discovery inspired Broyles’ new technique.
In 1975, researchers discovered that certain people in Saudi Arabia had both gene mutations required for sickle cell anemia, but this population was perfectly normal. When these people were examined, researchers noticed they were still producing fetal red blood cells, the result of a second mutation in their red blood cells. Typically, as the body develops, fetal red blood cells diminish almost entirely. These people were walking around with their bloodstreams holding 35 to 45 percent of these, yet no sickle cell anemia.
It was obvious that with that many fetal red blood cells in the body, sickle cell anemia wouldn’t develop.
“That was a gold mine for scientists. We knew then that we might be able to cure sickle cell anemia without having to change its two genes. Instead, we started looking at ways to turn the genes responsible for (increased fetal blood cells) on and off and mimic nature. It turned out to be very hard to do,” he says.
Broyles and his partners are completely confident about their work, but they’re also quick to note that it will be some time before it hits the market. They still have a few hoops to jump through. Current animal trials won’t be completed for a couple of years. At the same time, they’ll be filing with the FDA for permission to begin the first human trials. That, they guess, is probably five years away. They feel good about the likely results of the human trials and expect to have their cure available within ten years.
By the time it’s implemented, Broyles’ cure for sickle cell disease will have been 30 years in the making. Twenty years ago, he and his colleagues started chasing the cure with excitement. They never lost their enthusiasm for the project.
“A lot of native curiosity helped,” he says. “It started with wondering how these genes are turned on and off in a frog and went from there. The clinical performance helped drive it even more. It’s good to have a lot of patience. In the beginning we thought this work might be useful and now there’s a high likelihood it’ll be very useful. The momentum built as we made more and more discoveries.”
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China's official news agency, Xinhua, reported late Saturday that a Chinese ship that is part of the multinational search effort detected a "pulse" signal in southern Indian Ocean waters. The report said it was not determined whether the signal was related to the missing jet.
A black box detector deployed by the vessel, Haixun 01, picked up a signal at 37.5Hz per second at around 25 degrees south latitude and 101 degrees east longitude, Xinhua said.
The Australian government agency coordinating the search would not immediately comment on the report. After weeks of fruitless looking, officials face the daunting prospect that sound-emitting beacons in the flight and voice recorders will soon fall silent as their batteries die after sounding electronic "pings" for a month.
Malaysia vowed Saturday that it would not give up on trying to find the missing jetliner and announced details of a multinational investigation team to solve the aviation mystery, as the search for the plane entered its fifth week.
At the media briefing, Hishammuddin announced that an independent investigator would be appointed and three main areas of inquiry would be pursued. One team will look at airworthiness, including maintenance, structures and systems; another will examine operations, such as flight recorders and meteorology; and a third will consider medical and human factors.
The overall investigation team will include officials and experts from Australia — which as the nearest country to the search zone is currently heading the hunt, with other nations' help — as well as China, the United States, Britain and France, Hishammuddin said.
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It's all too tempting to hit the snooze button when the alarm goes off in the morning. Don't do it: You might think the extra few minutes will give you time to wake up, but it does more harm than good. This video explains why.
The folks at ASAP Science explain that while you might think that hitting snooze will give you a chance to finish your natural sleep cycle and wake up feeling rested, that's not what happens. After you hit snooze and drift off, your brain starts its sleep cycle all over again. When the alarm goes off a second time, you're likely at an even deeper, earlier part of your sleep cycle, which results in you feeling even worse than you did the first time.
If you regularly wake up feeling groggy, they explain the trouble may be that your alarm is going off at the wrong part of your sleep cycle. Try setting your alarm a few minutes later (or getting up a little earlier) and sticking to a regular sleep schedule to get a nice rhythm going. For more tips, check out our guide to getting a better night's sleep and rebooting your sleep schedule.
Should You Use the SNOOZE Button? | ASAP Science (YouTube)
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• RNA-Seq;
• meiocyte;
• Arabidopsis;
• transposons;
• conserved genes
Meiosis is essential for eukaryotic sexual reproduction, with two consecutive rounds of nuclear divisions, allowing production of haploid gametes. Information regarding the meiotic transcriptome should provide valuable clues about global expression patterns and detailed gene activities. Here we used RNA sequencing to explore the transcriptome of a single plant cell type, the Arabidopsis male meiocyte, detecting the expression of approximately 20 000 genes. Transcription of introns of >400 genes was observed, suggesting previously unannotated exons. More than 800 genes may be preferentially expressed in meiocytes, including known meiotic genes. Of the 3378 Pfam gene families in the Arabidopsis genome, 3265 matched meiocyte-expressed genes, and 18 gene families were over-represented in male meiocytes, including transcription factor and other regulatory gene families. Expression was detected for many genes thought to encode meiosis-related proteins, including MutS homologs (MSHs), kinesins and ATPases. We identified more than 1000 orthologous gene clusters that are also expressed in meiotic cells of mouse and fission yeast, including 503 single-copy genes across the three organisms, with a greater number of gene clusters shared between Arabidopsis and mouse than either share with yeast. Interestingly, approximately 5% transposable element genes were apparently transcribed in male meiocytes, with a positive correlation to the transcription of neighboring genes. In summary, our RNA-Seq transcriptome data provide an overview of gene expression in male meiocytes and invaluable information for future functional studies.
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Dr Johnson listening to heart
Early detection is key to preventing aortic emergencies.
Much of the work within the Center for Aortic Disease is focused on preventive care and early detection, as well as management of patients with known aortic conditions. With the increased use of CT scans, more aortic disease is found now than in the past. If it is detected early, most aortic conditions are treatable.
Hypertension is one of the leading causes of aortic conditions. Roughly 1 in 3 adults in the U.S. has hypertension, according to the CDC. Watch Dr. Wallace Johnson, medical director of the Center for Aortic Disease, as he discusses the effects of hypertension on aortic conditions.
Patients are encouraged to get regular blood pressure screenings at their doctor's office and invest in a digital blood pressure cuff to be used at home. Having more information is helpful in talking with physicians and determining patterns and causes of high blood pressure.
Physicians can help patients determine whether their hypertension is primary or secondary, meaning it is caused by an underlying condition like kidney disease. Secondary hypertension has a higher risk of emergent events.
Patients can help their doctors collect valuable information by following these recommendations for at-home blood pressure testing:
1. Check the blood pressure in both arms around the bicep, not the wrist.
2. Take a blood pressure reading three times a day:
• First thing in the morning before getting out of bed and taking medications. This reading tells doctors what the blood pressure is when medication levels are at lowest in the body.
• Take a second blood pressure reading after work in the evening.
• Take a third reading right before bed.
If a patient is diagnosed with high blood pressure and aortic disease, doctors may recommend lifestyle changes. These changes may include low sodium diets, lower levels of physical exertion, and stress reduction.
A patient's medical history is extremely important in helping doctors diagnose aortic conditions. In addition to sharing any symptoms like chest pain, weakness or numbness, fainting, patients should disclose thri family medical history to identify any possible genetic conditions.
Additional testing may be required to assist in the diagnosis, including:
To schedule an appointment at the Center for Aortic Disease, please call 410-328-4771.
Average rating (0)
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NY Post's Epic Fail on Stop and Frisk
The paper's attempt to link a rise in gun violence to the ban on the tactic is horribly flawed.
(Continued from Page 1)
The New York Post continues the article by railing against the judge who repealed stop and frisk, using more appeals to emotions (perps aren't scared anymore, and police are more fearful of lawsuits than of gun-toting perps so they are not attempting stop and frisk anymore), which leads me to my conclusions about this piece by a couple of "journalists" using very bad logic in the stop-and-frisk debate. The article, with its catchy and sensational headline, does nothing to elevate or ratify stop-and-frisk proponents' side of the argument and does more of a disservice to the important debate about the societal impacts of stop and frisk. In the final analysis of the New York Post's piece and its flawed assertions, all I could do was sigh and say, "So what?"
Janks Morton is a groundbreaking, award-winning filmmaker, author, activist and researcher. You can follow him at Twitter and Facebook or check out his website, www.whatblackmenthink.com.
Like The Root on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter.
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Three's company: Wall Street, Capitol Hill, and K Street
Deniz Igan, Prachi Mishra 11 August 2011
At the end of 2007as markets grappled with early stages of what would become the worst financial crisis in the post-WWII era and a severe recession seized the US economythe Wall Street Journal reported that two of the largest mortgage lenders in the US spent millions of dollars in political donations, campaign contributions, and lobbying activities from 2002 through 2006 (Simpson 2007).
Ameriquest Mortgage and Countrywide Financial fought anti-predatory lending legislation in Georgia and New Jersey and fended off similar laws in other states and at the federal level, according to the newspaper.
In other words, the financial industry fought, and defeated, measures that might have allowed for a timely regulatory response to some of the reckless lending practices and the consequent rise in delinquencies and foreclosures that most think played a pivotal role in igniting the crisis. In 2009 the Centre for Public Integrity, a nonprofit, Washington-based investigative reporting organisation, linked subprime originatorsmost of whom are now bankruptto lobbying efforts to prevent tighter regulation of the mortgage market (Centre for Public Integrity 2009).
In fact, banks continued to lobby intensively against tighter regulation and financial regulatory reform even as the industry struggled financially and suffered from negative publicity regarding its role in the economic crisis (Labaton 2009).
As these anecdotes suggest, regulatory failure, in which the political influence of the financial industry played a part, may have contributed to the 2007 meltdown in the US mortgage market, which, by the fall of 2008, had escalated from a localised US crisis to become the worst spell of global financial instability since the Great Depression of the 1930s.
New research on contributions and regulation
To go beyond anecdotes and systematically study how much lobbying and campaign contributions affected US financial legislation in the years preceding the crisis, we develop a new dataset on the politically-targeted activities of US financial companies from 1999 to 2006 (Igan and Mishra forthcoming). We find that:
• Lobbying expenditures by the US financial industry were directly associated with how legislators voted on key bills in the years before the crisis;
• Bills advocating regulations the industry considered unfavourable were far less likely to pass than were industry-supported bills promoting financial deregulation.
We focus on the US—not because lobbying does not exist in other nations—but because US transparency laws provide the level of detail on political spending and lobbying needed to do such an analysis.
Lobbying and legislation: Background
The role regulations and other government activity play in financial crises is not a new issue. From a theoretical point of view, government actions to regulate the financial sector are well-justified to respond to market failures that may stem from moral hazard, asymmetric information, and systemic risk (Goodhart et al 1998). Yet in practice, many argue, these government actions contribute to, rather than mitigate, financial instability episodes. That is because politics and political pressures often interfere with the process of designing and implementing specific regulations, leading to unintended results (Johnson 2009, Calomiris 2009). In other words, private agents can alter the course of government action and manipulate the policymakers to obtain unjustified profits and tailor the financial regulatory landscape to fit their own needs.
But studying these outside pressureswithin a formal framework using a broad sample of financial crisesis often constrained by the lack of detailed information on the political activities of the financial sector. As a result there has been little formal study of the relationship between the political economy and the alleged regulatory failures that may have contributed to financial crises. The recent global financial crisis presents a good opportunity to get a closer look into the issue because such detailed information can be obtained for the US, the epicentre of the crisis this time.
In our recent study, we look at the association between lobbying activities and risk taking by financial institutions in the run-up to the crisis. We find that lenders that undertook a heavy lobbying effort between 2000 and 2006 tended to engage more than other institutions in risky lending practices over the same period and suffered from worse outcomes during the crisis.
In a 2010 study, Mian et al (2010a) focus on the Congressional voting behaviour on two key pieces of legislation that shaped the regulatory response after the crisis. They also studied six bills before the crisis and found that aggregate campaign contributions from the financial industry play a significant role in explaining the voting patterns on these bills (Mian et al 2010b).
Lobbying and legislation: Evidence from a novel dataset
We compile a comprehensive dataset on the politically-targeted activities of financial companies during 2000-06. Specifically, we ask the following question: Did lobbying activity by the finance, insurance, and real estate industries have a direct impact on the voting behaviour of politicians, and hence, the passage of bills on financial regulation? In other words, did the politically-targeted activities of these industries help them obtain the desired outcome on the proposed bills, and hence, bring about the alleged regulatory failure? In addition, did politicians’ connections with the financial industry, which we dub Wall Street, and lobbyists, which we call K Street (where many lobbyists have offices), alter their voting behaviour?
We collect the following pieces of information:
• Firm-level data on the lobbying expenditures, targeted toward specific bills and particular government entities (such as the House of Representatives, the Senate, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development).
• Detailed information on 51 bills related to financial regulation, including whether they were passed by the House, the Senate, or both, whether they were enacted into law, and whether the targeted legislators voted in favour or against.
• Information on professional backgrounds of legislators and lobbyists, to pin down their network connections established through, among other things, employment histories and schools attended.
First we examine whether the probability that a bill is ultimately signed into law depends on how favourable or unfavourable it is to the financial industry. We study the bills in detail, and classify each bill as “lax” or promoting deregulation, or “tight” or being less favourable to the financial industry. During 2000-06 a bill advocating regulations and rules less favourable to the financial industry was 3 times less likely to be enacted than a bill promoting deregulation (Figure 1). Importantly, two key pieces of legislation that promoted lax lending in mortgage marketsthe American Homeownership and Economic Opportunity Act of 2000, and American Dream Downpayment Act of 2003were signed into law during the period.
Figure 1. Passage of bills
Next we explore whether the vote of an individual legislator on a particular bill is linked to the lobbying expenditures by firms affected by the bill and to the network connections he or she shares with the lobbyists and the financial industry. Three main findings emerge from the empirical analysis (Figure 2).
• First, lobbying expenditures by the affected financial firms were significantly associated with how politicians voted on the key bills that were considered before the crisis. The more intense the lobbying was on a bill the more likely it was that a legislator politician would vote in favour of deregulation. Moreover, lobbying was more effective in moving votes towards deregulation if the politician was connected to the financial industry and if the politician was more conservative.
• Second, network connections between politicians and lobbyists who worked on a specific bill also have an influence on the voting patterns. Whether a lobbyist worked for a legislator in the past strongly sways the legislator’s vote on that bill in favour of lax regulation.
• Third, interestingly, the amount of money spent lobbying a legislator who already has strong connections to K Street does not seem to have much effect on the likelihood that the politician will vote in favour of deregulation. That is, spending an extra dollar on lobbying is less effective if the lobbyist is already connected to the politician. This suggests that, in the marginal sense, spending more on lobbying does not provide much help to firms that have hired connected lobbyists.
Figure 2. Increase in probability of vote favourable to financial industry position, %, 2000-2006
Policy lessons
These findings support the notion that lobbying and network connections played an important role in shaping the financial regulatory landscape. Therefore, financial reform proposals should not be considered in isolation from these political factors. The precise policy response would depend on the true motivation for lobbying.
Economic theory suggests that lobbying could be driven by rent-seeking motives or a desire to reveal information. But, based on our findings, it is hard to distinguish what exactly drove lobbying by the financial industry. Specialised rent-seeking, eg in order to receive preferential treatment would require curtailing lobbying as a socially non-optimal outcome. If, however, lenders lobbied mainly to inform the policymaker and promote innovation, lobbying would remain a socially beneficial channel to facilitate informed decision making.
Calomiris, Charles (2009), “The Subprime Turmoil: What’s Old, What’s New, and What’s Next”, Journal of Structured Finance, 15(1):6-52.
Centre for Public Integrity (2009), “Who’s Behind the Financial Meltdown?”.
Goodhart, Charles, Philipp Hartmann, David Llewellyn, Liliana Rojas-Suarez, and Steven Weisbrod (1998), “Financial Regulation: Why, How, and Where Now?”, Routledge.
Igan, Deniz, Prachi Mishra, and Thierry Tressel (forthcoming), “A Fistful of Dollars: Lobbying and the Financial Crisis”, NBER Macroeconomics Annual (Cambridge, Massachusetts: National Bureau of Economic Research).
Igan, Deniz, and Prachi Mishra (forthcoming), “Three’s Company: Wall Street, Capitol Hill and K Street”, IMF working paper.
Johnson, Simon (2009), “The Quiet Coup”, The Atlantic, May.
Labaton, Stephen (2009), “Ailing, Banks Still Field Strong Lobby at Capitol”, The New York Times, 4 June.
Mian, Atif, Amir Sufi, and Francesco Trebbi (2010a), “The Political Economy of the US Mortgage Default Crisis”, The American Economic Review, 100(5):196-198.
Mian, Atif, Amir Sufi, and Francesco Trebbi (2010b), “The Political Economy of the Subprime Mortgage Credit Expansion”, NBER Working Paper 16107.
Simpson, Glenn (2007), “Lender Lobbying Blitz Abetted Mortgage Mess”, The Wall Street Journal, 31 December.
Topics: Global crisis Politics and economics
Tags: US, Corruption, subprime crisis, financial regulation, lobbying, global crisis
Deniz Igan
Economist, Macro-Financial Linkages Unit, Research Department, IMF
Prachi Mishra
Senior Economist in the Research Department at the IMF
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The bolts are from an old farm in the heart of a the area Bergsladen in Sweden. I found them in a barn. They had been lying there for a long time and they might well have continued to lie there until they had rusted away and returned to their original mineral form.
The bolts reminded me of human forms, and I felt they had something to tell. I heated them, forged, bent and twisted. I tried to create relations, meetings and situations and suddenly stories emerged about sorrow, joy, pain, warmth and humour. A kind of poetry was created, hence the title.
All sculptures are without title, it is up to the viewer to create his or her own. The bolt people are few in numbers, and maybe these are the last ones, but those that exist will remain to tell their stories.
Tobbe Malm: behance / website / facebook
Via: thisiscolossal.com
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What was the first question asked that still exists on Stack Overflow?
I am just curious.
stackoverflow.com/questions/1/…, but you cannot see it with < 10k reputation. – Martijn Pieters Jul 20 '14 at 17:54
That makes When setting a form's opacity should I use a decimal or double? the first still visible question. – Martijn Pieters Jul 20 '14 at 17:55
meta dup: meta.stackexchange.com/questions/3991/… – Matt Johnson Jul 20 '14 at 17:58
Tut. I was expecting it'd be a question by Jon Skeet, posted before StackOverflow was created, and of course answered by himself – Luis Mendo Jul 21 '14 at 13:46
@LuisMendo True. You are referring to stackoverflow.com/questions/-1 . That question existed before SO was created, but it is only visible to Jon Skeet. – GolezTrol Jul 21 '14 at 13:57
Was the site sponsored financially when developing it in the beginning to get the first questions and answers out? – lpapp Jul 21 '14 at 17:13
@Tut Jon Skeet existed before the universe was created. – javadba Jul 23 '14 at 0:06
@javadba: Then Jon Skeet is the new chuck norris – v.oddou Jul 23 '14 at 2:05
"This is the closed beta - NO DATA FOR YOU!" -- huh, I guess the Soup Nazis were there from Day 1. – Jason S Jul 10 at 1:24
1 Answer 1
up vote 112 down vote accepted
Since all posts are numbered sequentially, you just go to http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1; that post was a test question and has been deleted. It had 2 answers (post ids #2 and #3) so the first one still visible is:
which is post #4 on the site.
A screenshot of the now-deleted first post:
enter image description here
See What was "the Joel Data"? as to what that post was about.
The post was deleted shortly after being created; Jarred Dixon asked it, Jeff Atwood didn't 'approve' and removed it again. Question #4 was created by a test account, posts #6, #8, #9, #11, #13, #16 and #17 are all 'seed' content created by Jeff Atwood, Geoff Dalgas and Kevin Dente, with another question #14 being a seed question using a test account; these were posted before the first outside beta testers were given access.
So you could also say that What is the fastest way to get the value of π? is the very first, it is the first question that is not test or seed content.
Wow that question (#4) is a mess. – kapa Jul 21 '14 at 13:24
FYI #4 also seem to be a test question. The original OP description: stackoverflow.com/users/8/eggs-mclaren – AaronLS Jul 21 '14 at 14:57
@AaronLS: before August 1st there were only the developers and maybe 2 outside users registered, next to test accounts. With the public beta starting on August 1st, anything posted before that are either tests or seed content. The first 'outside' question is number 19, I'd say. – Martijn Pieters Jul 21 '14 at 15:20
Is there no snapshot of when it wasn't deleted? – 0x499602D2 Jul 21 '14 at 19:20
@0x499602D2: probably not, as it was deleted within hours of posting. – Martijn Pieters Jul 21 '14 at 19:21
"Last Edited 12 hours ago" (post #4) – justcool393 Jul 22 '14 at 1:02
@justcool393: a rollback on a useless edit made in January. The post is community wiki. – Martijn Pieters Jul 22 '14 at 7:19
winforms!! heh ... – Joe Blow Jul 22 '14 at 14:22
@MartijnPieters: I realized that you are correct. So as not to confuse future historians, I deleted my erroneous comment. Or maybe that will confuse future historians. – fearless_fool Jul 23 '14 at 5:23
Yes you have @fearless_fool, yes you have... – WebWanderer Jul 23 '14 at 17:35
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Michael Reagan
This week I was saddened to learn that conservative stronghold Robert Novak was lost to his long battle with brain cancer. While his life was long and full, his loss will be keenly felt.
Bob was one of the old guard who defied easy description and refused to let anyone, Republican or Democrat, settle too quickly. Bob never let political leaders get away with the easy route, even when he was their ideological match. He admired toughness and strength, because that was what he himself exhibited.
Culture of Corruption by Michelle Malkin FREE
Bob was born in Illinois and began his journalistic career early, before even graduating high school. Then, still a young man, he served his country as a lieutenant in the Army during the Korean War. He found his calling, though, in serving the country through his writing, and over the past several decades became a versatile commentator and the writer of the longest-running syndicated column.
During my father's era, his column, co-written with Rowland Evans, was known as the "bulletin board of the Reagan administration," not because he was a Reagan apologist, but because he had the connections and the determination to keep the stories coming. Love him or hate him (and there were plenty of people on both sides), you can be sure that no one could avoid him.
And he did more than just report. Before and through my father's run for the presidency, Novak spearheaded a major push for fundamental tax reform, one which grew into a legacy. In the time of the highest taxes this country has seen, he fought for ideas and solutions, not just the status quo.
Bob was a mentor in his field and an inspiration beyond. His column not only served to provide honest, provocative commentary from a conservative perspective, but in it he also demonstrated his formidable investigative skills. Novak conducted his investigations with diligence and care, working to avoid the increasing pressure for speed over accuracy, one aspect of his integrity which will be missed by this entire community.
CNN put him on the air in their first week, and for years he co-hosted "Crossfire," sparring with all his considerable insight and determination. His deep understanding of all things "Washington" allowed him to shine a light on these workings and put them on display before the American people with his unique skill.
Michael Reagan
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During preparation for a presentation on agile and agile implementation, I started to think about what to do when you cannot implement a full agile system up front. I decided I would go for retrospectives, simply because they represent the core idea of agile: to improve the way we work. Therefore, retrospectives will drive the process in the right direction, even without Scrum, kanban, Extreme Programming, or any other fancy agile process.
Improvement requires that you know what to change, and retrospectives can help you identify just that. When you know what to change and why you want to change it, you can look into Scrum, kanban, or lean and get inspired by the practices in order to find something you can experiment with for a while.
In order to get retrospectives to work, you must do them properly and regularly. You and the group you work with should identify one or two problems with the way you work. You all have to agree about why these problems are important to solve. The next step is to choose one of the problems and define a hypothetical solution. The solution is hypothetical because you do not know if it is the right solution. You have to define how to identify that it actually solves the problem, i.e., how you will measure that the change you introduced works and removes or at least relieves the problem.
Retrospectives should be performed at regular time intervals of at least every four weeks. There are two reasons for this. Firstly, it means you must keep the changes small. If the change seems big, break it down. A consequence may be that you are not able to fully solve the problem, but it is far better to make a small change and solve some part of the problem than to try to make a big change and fail. Secondly, it allows for agility in how you change your processes. When you change in one direction, new problems may arise, and you can take them up in due time. If the time span between retrospectives becomes too long it, is my experience that the effectiveness of the retrospectives decreases. I believe the main reason is the lack of focus on the improvements, which causes team members to return to previous bad practices and habits.
The single largest risk in performing retrospectives is that you could identify the problem and describe the hypothetical solution and related measurements, then just go back to your daily work without any of the changes being implemented, and the solution slowly disappears in the mist of daily tasks. To avoid this, you need two things: a solution champion and a visual representation of the measurements.
The solution champion is someone who takes ownership of implementing the hypothetical solution and following up on it. Consequently, the solution champion cannot do as much "normal" work because he or she now has this important improvement task. This may sound obvious, but in my experience, this is the main reason for not following through on improvements—no one actually was assigned the responsibility or time allocation to do it. A visual representation of the measurements is needed to provide clear feedback to all involved on the progress of the hypothetical solution. This enables people to act or comment on the progress.
The benefit of starting an agile or lean transformation simply with retrospectives is that the transformation will focus on the right problems, and you can avoid introducing new ones. If you implement a whole agile process framework (e.g., Scrum), the retrospectives often end up focusing solely on the newly introduced process and not the underlying problems. By starting with retrospectives, the practices you introduce are chosen because they solve a problem you all have agreed upon, not just because they are part of a process framework. This makes the practices more relevant, and the mere fact that you are trying the practices as a solution to a specific problem may make it easier to introduce the process and get working.
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1 comment
Ben Linders's picture
I agree that retrospectives are an important practice in agile as they help you to change and adopt better ways of working. Investing an hour every 1-2 weeks will certainly pay back by improving team work and morale, making it possible for teams to better satisfy the needs of their customers.
There are several benefits for doing agile retrospectives. They help teams to come up with improvement actions that can do themselves, give power to the team by supporting them to self-organize and find better ways of working and enable teams to make changes that stick in the organization, leading to sustainable improvement.
Thanks for mentioning our book on Valuable Agile Retrospectives Sune, glad you like it!
August 29, 2014 - 4:09am
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Lower-cost high-brightness LEDs possible with ‘wonder material’ perovskite
August 11, 2014
LEDs made from perovskite (credit: Zhi-Kuang Tan)
Researchers from the University of Cambridge, University of Oxford, and Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich have demonstrated a new hybrid form of perovskite* materials, using them to make high-brightness LEDs that the researchers say will be cheaper and easier to manufacture in the future.
The materials could also be used in flexible color displays.
The results are published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.
The perovskite LEDs are made using a simple scalable process in which a perovskite solution is prepared and spin-coated onto the substrate. The process does not require high temperature heating steps, a high vacuum, and complex purification procedures, so LEDs will be cheap to manufacture on a large scale, according to Tan.
The first commercially-available LEDs based on perovskite could be available within five years, the researchers say.
Abstract of Nature Nanotechnology paper
Solid-state light-emitting devices based on direct-bandgap semiconductors have, over the past two decades, been utilized as energy-efficient sources of lighting. However, fabrication of these devices typically relies on expensive high-temperature and high-vacuum processes, rendering them uneconomical for use in large-area displays. Here, we report high-brightness light-emitting diodes based on solution-processed organometal halide perovskites. We demonstrate electroluminescence in the near-infrared, green and red by tuning the halide compositions in the perovskite. In our infrared device, a thin 15 nm layer of CH3NH3PbI3–xClx perovskite emitter is sandwiched between larger-bandgap titanium dioxide (TiO2) and poly(9,9′-dioctylfluorene) (F8) layers, effectively confining electrons and holes in the perovskite layer for radiative recombination. We report an infrared radiance of 13.2 W sr−1 m−2 at a current density of 363 mA cm−2, with highest external and internal quantum efficiencies of 0.76% and 3.4%, respectively. In our green light-emitting device with an ITO/PEDOT:PSS/CH3NH3PbBr3/F8/Ca/Ag structure, we achieved a luminance of 364 cd m−2 at a current density of 123 mA cm−2, giving external and internal quantum efficiencies of 0.1% and 0.4%, respectively. We show, using photoluminescence studies, that radiative bimolecular recombination is dominant at higher excitation densities. Hence, the quantum efficiencies of the perovskite light-emitting diodes increase at higher current densities. This demonstration of effective perovskite electroluminescence offers scope for developing this unique class of materials into efficient and colour-tunable light emitters for low-cost display, lighting and optical communication applications.
“Perovskite” is a general term used to describe a group of materials that have a distinctive crystal structure of cuboid and diamond shapes. Their efficiency at converting light into electrical energy has opened up a wide range of potential applications. The perovskites that were used to make the LEDs are known as organometal halide perovskites, and contain a mixture of lead, carbon-based ions, and halogen ions known as halides. These materials dissolve well in common solvents, and assemble to form perovskite crystals when dried, making them cheap and simple to make.
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The attacks took place in the Parana River in Rosario some 300 kilometers (186 miles) northeast of Buenos Aires. Seventy people who were cooling off from high temperatures were also injured there in late December by the same piranha-like fish. They included seven children who lost parts of their fingers or toes.
The latest attack by the "palometas" was confirmed Saturday. They've been described by the local director of lifeguards as "a type of piranha, big, voracious and with sharp teeth that can really bite."
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Quasar Unveils Innovative Sensors for Detecting Subsea Oil and Gas Deposits
In its quest to discover new offshore oil and gas deposits, the petroleum industry has achieved some extraordinary technology innovations. Seismic surveys, which collect data about subsea rock formations by bouncing sound waves off the ocean bottom, have become increasingly sophisticated. With advances in sensors, software algorithms, and high-performance computer processing, such surveys have enabled offshore exploration companies to identify oil fields in ever-deeper waters.
Nevertheless, conducting such a survey and drilling an exploratory well in deep water (defined as more than 1,000 feet) to prove the existence of an oil field can cost as much as $200 million, according to George Eiskamp, CEO of San Diego’s Quasar Geophysical Technologies. For all its technological prowess, the industry’s success rate ranges from just 10 percent to 40 percent.
As a result, Eiskamp anticipates widespread interest in advances that Quasar has made recently in a different type of sensing technology. The company’s innovation is intended both to supplement seismic surveys and to improve the overall chances for a successful oilfield strike.
Quasar's ocean-bottom sensors
Quasar’s technology relies on advanced electromagnetic sensors that are sensitive enough to detect seemingly infinitesimal electrical currents flowing through subsea rock—and variations in the conductivity among different types of geological formations. Eiskamp explains that rock permeated with saltwater is conductive, but oil-bearing rock is not—and Quasar’s technology is sensitive enough to tell the difference. In recent months, Quasar has conducted field tests of its technology off the San Diego coast and elsewhere in the Pacific Ocean.
Eiskamp says Quasar’s innovations have succeeded in increasing the sensor’s signal-to-noise ratio, which has enhanced its sensitivity. As a result, the company can install its electronics in a relatively compact container that weighs about 330 pounds and is about 36 inches tall and 36 inches in diameter. The electromagnetic sensors are designed to be deployed on the ocean bottom, as deep as 2.5 miles below the surface, for weeks at a time.
Amazingly, the electromagnetic currents that Quasar’s technology is detecting in deep-ocean bedrock originate in the Earth’s uppermost atmosphere. Using a technique known as “marine magnetotellurics,” Quasar’s sensors are tuned to extremely low-frequency currents in subsea rock that are generated by solar wind striking the ionosphere, a region of the atmosphere that extends from 34 to 190 miles above sea level. Quasar also uses another technique known …Next Page
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iOS Developer Library
iOS Human Interface Guidelines
Beautiful, subtle animation pervades the iOS UI and makes the app experience more engaging and dynamic. Appropriate animation can:
• Communicate status and provide feedback
• Enhance the sense of direct manipulation
• Help people visualize the results of their actions
Add animation cautiously, especially in apps that don’t provide an immersive experience. Animation that seems excessive or gratuitous can obstruct app flow, decrease performance, and distract users from their task.
In particular, use motion effects and UIKit dynamic behaviors with purpose and restraint, and be sure to test the results. Used appropriately, these effects can increase users’ understanding and enjoyment; overusing them can make an app seem disorienting and difficult to control.
When appropriate, make custom animation consistent with built-in animation. People are accustomed to the subtle animation used in the built-in iOS apps. In fact, people tend to regard the smooth transitions between views, the fluid response to changes in device orientation, and the physics-based scrolling as an expected part of the iOS experience. Unless you’re creating an app that enables an immersive experience—such as a game—custom animation should be comparable to the built-in animations.
Use animation consistently throughout your app. As with other types of customization, it’s important to use custom animation consistently so that users can build on the experience they gain as they use your app.
In general, strive for realism and credibility in custom animation. People tend to be willing to accept artistic license in appearance, but they can feel disoriented when they experience movement that doesn’t make sense or appears to defy physical laws. For example, if you reveal a view by sliding it down from the top of the screen, you should dismiss it by sliding it back up because doing so helps users remember where the view comes from. If you dismiss the same view by sliding it down beyond the bottom of the screen, you break the user’s mental model of a view that’s available above the top of the screen.
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what went wrong blog
Rags to rags: Economic mobility hard to come by
Tuesday, July 10th, 2012
Are you better off than your parents? You might not think so, but new data from the Pew Center on the States suggests that for most people, the answer is yes. But the report also shows if your parents were poor, you are likely to be poor, as well, and if they were well off, so are you.
In other words, it is both hard to climb the economic ladder, and to fall off it. The findings somewhat call into question the historical Horatio Alger rags-to-riches American mythology.
“The data showed that parental background had a strong input on where people end up,” said Erin Currier, manager of the Pew Center's Economic Mobility project.
Data collected from 1968-2009 compared economic situations of one generation to the next at similar ages, based on quintiles of income and wealth. A majority of Americans, 84 percent, were able to achieve higher incomes than their parents, regardless of where they started. An even greater proportion of those born the poorest, 93 percent, were able to surpass their parent’s income as adults.
But increases in income are the result of “broad-based economic growth” Currier said, and thus there remains a “stickiness at the ends” as opposed to movement from one income quintile to the next. Of those born to families with the lowest incomes, 70 percent never saw the middle class. The same was true for nearly two-thirds of those born to families with the highest incomes.
“Their income gains simply aren’t as large as the income gains of their peers, prohibiting them from moving up the rungs,” Currier said.
While income inequality has dominated the headlines, the accumulation of generational wealth provides a more nuanced picture of American economic mobility. While half of Americans are able to do better than their parents in family wealth, their positions remain mostly static. A sizable majority, two-thirds, of those raised in the top two rungs of the wealth ladder maintained their place while the same percentage stayed in two bottom rungs.
Even more troubling, wealth actually declined from one generation to the next for all but the most wealthy to start, with the least wealthy bearing the brunt of decline. The data reported a staggering 63 percent drop in wealth from one generation to the next for those children born into families who had the least.
Monday’s report from Pew is the first including post-Recession data. The Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances, released last month, revealed a 39 percent drop in family wealth between 2007 and 2010, reducing median household net worth to the same point as 1992. For most Americans, home equity, devastated by the housing bust, served as a primary source of wealth—even more so the lower down the wealth ladder.
“The less wealth you had going into the Great Recession the greater your wealth loss in the end,” said Reid Cramer, director of the Asset Building Program at the New America Foundation. The program advocates for policies that help to increase economic security through asset ownership, including savings. Pew data showed children born to low-income parents who had higher savings were more likely to see upward mobility later in life. A college degree was also a key driver of upward mobility, making movement from the bottom to the top 4 times as likely.
But there are those who are still trying to create their own American Dream. Two-thirds of blacks raised in the middle actually fell below it as adults, compared to only a third of whites. Neighborhood poverty was a key indicator of downward mobility, according to Pew. Well over half of blacks were in the bottom quintiles of both income and wealth. Census data shows a significant widening of the persistent racial wealth gap. In 2010, median white household net worth was 22 times higher than that of their black counterparts, up from 12 times in 2005.
“When we took away legal discrimination it opened room for some families to move up. We still had a very large problem with people born in the lower rungs,” Cramer said.
What Went Wrong
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A review of Aesthetics and Nature by Glenn Parsons. Here are sample chapters from The Princeton Guide to Ecology. A review of Terra: Tales of the Earth — Four Events that Changed the World by Richard Hamblyn. A review of Nature's Ghosts: Confronting Extinction from the Age of Jefferson to the Age of Ecology by Mark Barrow (and an excerpt). With climate change and population growth threatening the viability of traditional farming, the time is right for the world to build the first vertical farm in an urban center. How are urbanization and other human influences affecting the biodiversity and health of ecosystems? From TNR, what happens when there's nowhere left for trash? Is greywater (the water that comes from bathtubs, showers, wash basins and clothes washers) use a boon or an environmental disaster? The age of breathing underwater: Environmentalists have long struggled to save Nature from humanity’s negligence; but how can we learn to thrive in the climate we’ve created? The answer begins beneath the sea. A review of Jacques Cousteau: The Sea King by Brad Matsen (and more). How green is your sushi? Natasha Loder takes a marine biologist to lunch to find out. Don’t blubber, it’s biology: Everyone should watch a whale being dissected — it teaches us about life. A look at how the loss of top predators is causing a surge in smaller predators and ecosystem collapse. For insight into fabulously complex ecological dynamics, Aaron Ellison peers into the cupped leaves of carnivorous pitcher plants. What ever happened to the Amazon Rain Forest — did we save it or what?
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Tuesday, January 26, 2010
The Greeks and their Foolish Attack of Syracuse
The Athenian Empire came to an end when they were defeated by the Spartans in the Peloponnesian War, which lasted from 431-404 B.C. Below is a timeline of that war.
1st Stage of the Peloponnesian War from 431-421
Athens (under Pericles and then Nicias) successful until 424. Athens makes attacks the Peloponnese by sea and Sparta destroys areas in the countryside of Attica. Athens makes a disastrous expedition into Boeotia. They try to recover Amphipolis (422), unsuccessfully. Athens fears more of her allies would desert, so she signs a treaty (Peace of Nicias) that allows her to keep face, basically setting things back to how they were before the war except for Plataea and Thracian towns.
431 - Peloponnesian War begins. Siege of Potidaea.
430 - Plague in Athens.
429 - Pericles dies. Siege of Plataea.
428 - Revolt of Mitylene.
427 - Athenian Expedition to Sicily.
421 - Peace of Nicias.
2nd Stage of the Peloponnesian War from 421-413
Corinth forms coalitions against Athens. Alcibiades stirs up trouble and is exiled. Betrays Athens to Sparta. Both sides seek the alliance of Argos but in the Battle of Mantinea she loses most of her military and becomes an Athenian ally.
415-413 - Athenian expedition to Syracuse. Sicily.
3rd Stage of the Peloponnesian War from 413-404
Under the advice of Alcibiades, Sparta invades Attica. Athens continues to send ships and men to Sicily even though it is disastrous. Athens, which had started the war with the advantage in naval battle, loses this advantage to the Corinthians and Syracusans. Sparta then used Persian gold from Cyrus to build her fleet and destroys the Athenian fleet at the Battle of Aegosotami.
404 - Athens surrenders.
A major contributor to the Athenian defeat was its foolish attack on Sicily. This ill-fated enterprise cost the Athenians an army and a navy at a time they had their hands full battling the Spartans at home. The Athenian plan for Sicily showcased the extreme arrogance of the late empire – an empire that would crumble at the hands of the Spartans.
The Sicilian affair began in the spring of 415 when ambassadors of Athenian Sicilian allies came to Athens asking for help. Two cities in western Sicily, Segesta and Selinus, were in a dispute. Selinus won a battle between them and Segesta appealed to Syracuse for help. Not only was help not given, but Syracuse joined the side of Selinus. The Segestans appealed to Athens for there sense of honor and to protect Sicily against the designs of the Peloponnese (Syracuse was an ally of Corinth who was a member of the Peloponnesean Leagure). They also offered to fund the war.
After much debate in the Athenian Assembly, the decision was made to send a force to Sicily under the command of three generals: Nicias, Alcibiades, and Lamachus. Nicias was reluctant to command the mission, while Alcibiades (nephew of Pericles) was young, charismatic, and all for battle. Lamachus was chosen because he could offer an experienced point of view that would, hopefully, keep the expedition on course.
Things started badly. Just after the army’s departure, Alcibiades was accused of plotting to deface statues of the god Hermes in Athens, and asked to return. Instead he fled to Sparta and joined the Peloponnesean side. Nicias, still reluctant, wasted the first campaign season deciding how to attack Syracuse. He contented himself with building a wall around the city. Then, at the beginning of 414 the Syracusans sent their own envoys to Sparta asking for help. Alcibiades urged the Spartans to defend Syracuse, but they used caution and only sent four ships with no infantry.
Assuming this small fleet was not a threat Nicias worked on his wall, while the Spartans secretly used their allies to increase their force to 3000 infantry and 200 cavalry. They arrived in Syracuse in late 414 and started to construct a wall to counter the wall being built by the Athenians. Lamachus, was killed in a skirmish trying to defend the Athenian wall.
Nicias, now the sole commander and ill with a kidney ailment, realized he would never be able to take the city. He asked to be relieved, but was sent reinforcements under the command of Demosthenes. Not wanting to wait for Nicias to be reinforced, the Spartan commander Gylippus attacked the Athenian fleet in Syracuse harbor and defeated them. Soon after, Demosthenes arrived with plans for an immediate attack, but his two land assaults were unsuccessful during the spring of 413.
By fall, after much argument among the commanders, Nicias decided to withdraw, but was held up by a lunar eclipse on September 13th, which frightened his soldiers. A soothsayer advised that he wait 27 days before withdrawing which gave the Syracusans enough time to attack and destroy the Athenian fleet in the great harbor. Now forced to withdraw by land the Athenians were attacked and defeated. Nicias and Demosthenes were executed. Much of the blame for this debacle rests on Nicias, who was unsure of his goal and overly cautious. He also was carefully guarding his reputation as a winner and unwilling to return home in defeat, fearing the consequences.
This is a classic case of the danger of distance in war (think Viet Nam). The Athenians risked their future on hubris, sending an army far away to a conflict removed from their current struggle. They reinforced a weak commander and wasted an army and navy two times. Thucydides, the great Greek historian, is highly critical of the Athenians for their arrogance during this period. It is hard to get beneath his bias, however, to determine whether the Athenians were as foolish as he makes them out to be. One thing that is beyond dispute – the expedition to Sicily helped produce a Spartan victory in the Peloponnesean War.
The timeline shown came from about.com/ancient history.
1 comment:
monkeyface said...
Thanks for the summary. Didn't realize it was so long, that war. It wasn't The Demosthenes was it?
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Reading Questions for Charles Dickens' Great Expectations
3. If Pip had not received his "great expectations" and never left Joe's forge, how do you think his life would have been different? Are the lessons he learns during his physical and emotional journey necessary for him to arrive at the wisdom he displays as the middle-aged narrator of this tale? In what ways?
Share your thoughts below!
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Africa - African Recipes
Recipes By Country/Region
Africa - African
Argentina - Argentinean
Brazil - Brazilian
Britain - British
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Costa Rica - Costa Rican
Denmark - Danish
Egypt - Egyptian
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Israel - Israeli
Italy - Italian
Korea - Korean
Malaysia - Malaysian
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Middle Eastern
Morocco - Moroccan
Nepal - Nepalese
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Panama - Panamanian
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Portugal - Portuguese
Puerto Rico - Puerto Rican
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South Africa - South African
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Sweden - Swedish
Switzerland - Swiss
Thailand - Thai
Turkey - Turkish
Ukraine - Ukrainian
United States
Uruguay - Uruguayan
Venezuela - Venezuelan
Vietnam - Vietnamese
Yemen - Yemeni
Artichoke Salad
Bulgar Salad
Cucumber With Fish
Plantain Fritters
Beef Pastry
Beef Stew
Beef With Peppers
Anise Bread
Ethiopian Pancakes
Braised Chicken
Chicken Yassa
Madagascar Chicken
Rwandan Chicken
Buttermilk Pudding
Milk Tart
Friday, August 28th 2015
African cuisine has played a large influence both directly and indirectly among many countries throughout the world. The Mediterranean rim countries of Northern Africa have spread their influence with such foods as couscous and succulent lamb dishes. Curry and rice dishes that were brought to Africa long ago from India and Arabic countries were further spread to the Americas during colonial times.
Each country and region throughout Africa have distinct styles of cuisines that are largely based on long historical traditions. Fresh fruits and vegetables, lamb, goat, rice, root vegetables, chile peppers, and a huge amount of spices are quite common in most parts.
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M.D., Life Coach, Mind/Body Medicine Doctor
India - Tests: 2 - Portfolio: 2
I help people create joy in their life by using a simple yet powerful tool called PSYCH-K (sigh-kay). It is user-friendly way to rewrite the software of your mind and change the printout of your life. Change with this process is easily, effortless and faster than any other modality I have discovered so far. Psychologists have discovered that 95-99% of our thoughts, emotions and behaviour, both constructive and destructive, originate from subconscious mind, not the conscious or logical mind. Subconscious mind is the seat of your life. It will give you everything you desire when its correctly programmed. It may also kill you when programmed with self-sabotaging beliefs. Unfortunately, most of people are operating from self-sabotaging beliefs. Most people inspite of reading hundreds of self-help books and attending life changing seminars keep doing same old things they have been doing. Why? Because they target the wrong part of your mind i-e conscious mind which has little or no control over your life. Consciously, through will power (processing capacity: 4 Bits per second), we try to beat subconscious mind (processing capacity: 40 Millions bits per second). Who will win? Of course, subconscious beliefs, no matter if it has self-sabotaging. In PSYCH-K, we help people change their self-sabotaging beliefs in matter of minutes and align their subconscious beliefs with their conscious goals to create financial abundance, physical, emotional and social well being, improved relationship, improved job performance, self-confidence, expanding spiritual awareness, and much more. Because subconscious behaviour is automatic or habitual, your new beliefs become your thoughts, feeling and behaviour like self-fulfilling prophecy rather than a day to day struggle. Please feel free to contact me for skype or phone sessions. I look forward to helping you unleash your potential. Dr Preet, M.D., PSYCH-K Facilitator
Associated with: VIBGYOR Group
$44.44 /hr
873 hours
6. Christian Mitchell
Christian Mitchell
Media Producer, Python Coder, and Voice Talent
United States - Tests: 4
Over the past few years I've worked on both sides of the camera as an actor, producer, editor, videographer, and so forth. In addition to this I've used my creative talents to write content for online businesses in such formats as blog updates, Facebook posts, tweets, and official emails. I've also dedicated much of my time to singing and other vocal work, including voice acting. My most recent endeavor is to begin coding in python, which I've become quite proficient at.
$12.22 /hr
1 hours
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| 0.594623
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Extension Point
Targets can add themselves to an extension-points's depends list via their extensionOf attribute. The targets that add themselves will be added after the targets of the explicit depends-attribute of the extension-point, if multiple targets add themselves, their relative order is not defined.
For example your imported build file may need to compile code, it might look like:
<target name="create-directory-layout">
<extension-point name="ready-to-compile"
Call-Graph: create-directory-layout --> 'empty slot' --> compile
And you need to generate some source before compilation, then in your main build file you may use something like
<target name="generate-sources"
Call-Graph: create-directory-layout --> generate-sources --> compile
This will ensure that the generate-sources target is executed before the compile target.
Don't rely on the order of the depends list, if generate-sources depends on create-directory-layout then it must explicitly depend on it via its own depends attribute.
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| 0.833421
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Bleerie quickly goes for the door Gale talked about. She looks extremely fast for a gnome in full plate, moving just about as quickly as an unencumbered human. She wants to find someone, and she wants to find him or her quickly. As soon as she reaches the orc, she says "Greetings, fellow". All of this while looking around and trying to find any clues about the situation.
Double move while looking around. Taking 10 on any relevant check, for Spot and Listen it makes a 16 result.
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| 0.975331
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Gratitude Meditation
Gratitude meditation is one of the most powerful and rewarding exercises we can practice. To develop an attitude of gratitude creates contentment, true happiness and bliss. Gratitude makes us feel good and meditation helps us to a state of deep relaxation and contemplation.
Gratitude meditation can be incorporated together or you can spend a few minutes before you meditate doing some deep breathing relaxation techniques while you think of all the things you are grateful for in your life.
Breathing in through your mouth expands your chest, however when you breath in through your nose your abdomen extends causing the diaphragm to pull air to the bottom of your lungs which carries a healthy dose of oxygen into your bloodstream which will help you to become relaxed. Anthony Robbins teaches inhaling on a ratio of 1 holding for 4 and exhaling for 2. The ratio is the guide. So if you slowly inhale for example to the count of 4 you will hold your breath for the count of 16 and then exhale very slowly through your mouth to the count of 8. Repeat this exercise 10 times if you can. Simply find a number that you are comfortable with and build the ratio gradually.
When you are ready, lie down or sit in a chair suitable for meditation and close your eyes. Allow your muscles to relax, Let go of your thoughts and begin your breathing exercise. When you feel relaxed and comfortable think of everything you are grateful for in your life. I usually give thanks for my life and my healthy body, my family and friends. I give thanks for special moments like a hug from my little granddaughter. The trees, flowers, birds singing and the wonders of nature create gratitude in me. There is so much to be grateful for. And the more we are grateful for the more we receive.
Whether you choose to practice gratitude meditation or gratitude relaxation and breathing I’m sure you will enjoy either, and if you practice on a regular basis you will certainly achieve bliss and happiness.
“Throughout history wise men and women have encouraged us to feel grateful for what we have. Why? Very simply, because gratitude makes us feel good. When you’re feeling grateful, your mind is clear and therefore you have access to your greatest wisdom and common sense. You see the big picture.” Richard Carlson.
By Jane Adams
Popular related searches:
happiness meditation | thanksgiving meditation | inspiration meditation | thankfulness meditation | gratefulness meditation
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Illinois tornadoes
Death toll at six and climbing after at least 40 tornadoes rip through U.S. Midwest on a quiet Sunday
Across 12 states, powerful winds flattened entire neighbourhoods, flipped over cars and uprooted trees in a matter of minutes
Tornadoes, high winds sweep through Midwest causing extensive damage
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The three possible outcomes for same-sex marriages.Christopher Groskopf/NPR
And there’s also the possibility of the court saying bans are constitutional, but that all states must all recognize marriages performed in other states. This option retains the messiness of the above possibility, but it does mean that couples would be recognized equally nationwide.
While you can break the decisions down into three neatly color-coded maps, there is a complicated web of state laws at work, and it means outcomes could vary widely by state if the court decides bans are constitutional. Adam Romero, senior counsel at UCLA’s Williams Institute, says the states where federal action struck down state bans are where things could get really complicated.
“In those 20 states it’s uncertain if the bans would go back into effect because there’s a couple of different things in play,” he says. “So in those 20 states including California, Utah, et cetera, the bans could be reinstated, but there would need to be legal maneuvers done to reinstate the bans.”
And it’s not clear that those legal maneuvers would happen in all of those states. He points to Utah as an example. The court case that struck down Utah’s ban has long been over. If the Supreme Court were to uphold bans, Romero explains, the defendants in that Utah case would have to go back and ask the court to undo its injunction if the state were to have another ban. That could easily happen, but it’s also not 100 percent certain to happen.
In addition, there are complicated legal questions that could come into play for couples in those 20 states if the court decides to uphold bans — if you were married when it was legal in Florida, and then the court decided to uphold the ban there, does that mean that any actions you took with your spouse (paying taxes, for example) were not in fact valid? Figuring this out in all of those states could be a mess, to say the least.
Related Story
450219508_3ae4168ebe_oHow Lawsuits Against Kentucky's Gay Marriage Ban Reached The U.S. Supreme Court
No matter what the court decides, it won’t change marriage across the country overnight. In that case of Utah Romero mentioned, as well as in many other states, putting a ban back into place could be a long process. Likewise, if the court finds that the bans are unconstitutional, same-sex couples in all states where there are currently bans, like Texas and Nebraska, can’t immediately run out and get married. That’s because this ruling technically will only extend to the four states where the cases the court is considering originated, Romero explains — Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Michigan. The ruling wouldn’t change things directly — or immediately — in other states.
“If the Supreme Court strikes down those states’ bans, that doesn’t immediately mean Georgia’s ban [for example] is ineffective,” he says. “There still needs to be court action to strike down Georgia’s ban, to apply the Supreme Court’s decision to Georgia. I would expect the federal courts to move quickly to do that. But all of that’s to say there’s going to be some delay.”
Copyright 2015 NPR. To see more, visit
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Industry groups plan to work closely with government agencies to comply with new guidance and rules for use of antibiotics in livestock production. Last week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued its guidance, which calls for more veterinary oversight and voluntary suspension of the use of antibiotics for growth promotion. FDA also has asked drug companies to remove growth-promotion label claims from antibiotics important in human medicine.
Wednesday, representatives from the American Veterinary Medical Association, National Pork Producers Council and the Animal Health Institute discussed the transition with reporters in a news conference.
Dr. Rich Carnevale, AHI’s Vice President, Regulatory, Scientific and International Affairs, reminded participants that antibiotics used in livestock production are subject to the same review and approval process as those used in human medicine, requiring extensive testing to prove efficacy and safety. FDA allows four different claims for efficacy:
1. Treatment of disease.
2. Control of disease, such as during outbreaks when groups of animals require treatment.
3. Prevention of disease, such as when a veterinarian determines an outbreak is likely.
4. Growth promotion.
FDA considers treatment, control and prevention as therapeutic uses, while growth promotion is a sub-therapeutic use. The new guidance allows continued therapeutic uses, under oversight from a veterinarian.
Speaking for the American Veterinary Medical Association, Dr. Christine Hoang, Assistant Director, Scientific Activities, for the association, said AVMA supports the collaborative approach FDA has taken in developing the new guidance. The organization understands concerns over resistance and preserving the efficacy of antibiotics in human medicine, while also wishing to protect their judicious use in livestock production. The organization plans to work closely with FDA in specifying veterinary oversight provisions in the guidance.
Dr. Liz Wagstrom, Chief Veterinarian, National Pork Producers Council, expressed concerns over how FDA’s directive to drug companies to remove sub-therapeutic or growth-enhancement claims from their products over the next three years. Loss of these label claims, she says, will likely result in more health problems in pork operations and higher cost of production without any real public-health benefits.
NPPC supports the idea of veterinary oversight for antibiotic use, but also raises concerns that the requirements could cause hardships for smaller operations in remote areas that cannot afford or do not have access to veterinary support.
AHI’s Dr. Carnevale said the association and its members appreciate FDA’s concerns over the use of medically important antimicrobial products for growth promotion. He points out that the animal-health companies that make up AHI’s membership typically are divisions of companies that also market antibiotics for human medicine, and thus have a strong interest in preserving the efficacy of those products. AHI supports FDA’s position that claims for treatment, control and prevention qualify as therapeutic use, preserving those applications for veterinarians and producers.
AHI expects that companies will, over the next few years, pursue new therapeutic claims for products that lose their growth-promotion claims. In countries where sub-therapeutic uses have been banned, such as in Denmark, therapeutic use of antibiotics have increased. This suggests sub-therapeutic use helps suppress and prevent disease outbreaks, along with promoting growth.
Gaining approval for new label claims will, however, require extensive investment in research trials and data collection. Growth promotion, Carnevale says, is a relatively easy claim to demonstrate in research trials. Proving the efficacy of low-level feed-additive antimicrobials for suppressing sub-clinical disease is more complex.
Achieving any new label claim will require companies to undergo a complete testing and approval process through FDA, assuring a specific use is efficacious and safe. Assuming FDA grants a therapeutic label claim for a low-dose application, it is likely the approval would include changes in label requirements such as a specific treatment interval, contrasting with longer-term feeding for growth promotion.
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Huffpost Politics
Mark Blumenthal Headshot
"Bounce" Update
Posted: Updated:
I spent much of yesterday in taxis, airports and planes, and most of the last 24 hours sleeping and reintroducing myself to my family after a five day absence. So my apologies for being away when many of your are curious about the "bounce" and reactions to Republican VP choice Sarah Palin.
Let's start with "the bounce." The Gallup Daily tracking survey conducted Wednesday through Friday shows Barack Obama leading John McCain by eight points (49% to 41%) up from the 45-45% tie measured the full week before the convention. The Rasmussen Reports automated survey conducted over the same three nights shows Obama with a four point lead (49% to 45%), after they had him "leading by just one or two points for most of August."
The most important question, tossed my way by my colleague Marc Ambinder, is whether this shift represents a momentary "spike" or a real and persistent change in voter preferences. And the short but frustrating answer is, there is simply no way to know for certain right now.
One problem is that we have a very limited sample of past convention "bounces" to examine -- a sample size of 10 elections and 20 conventions since 1968 -- and the patterns within that sample have been inconsistent. Some bounces persist, some fade almost immediately.
Another problem, which I explored in a column earlier in the week, is that almost all of the "bounces" of conventions past were measured by multi-day polls conducted a week after the convention without another convention underway. This time, the virtual overlap of the two conventions prevents us from obtaining post DNC "bounce" numbers that are comparable to past measurements. So my recommendation is to avoid historical comparisons.
Finally, consider a few reasons why conventions bounces are sometimes just momentary blips.
First, most pollsters will tell you that attitudes are likely "in flux" at times like these. Watching one side of an argument for an hour or more might leave an uncertain voter "leaning" in one direction for a few days only to shift back in the other direction after hearing from the other side a few days or weeks later.
Second, the kinds of people likely to have been at home the last few days may have been a bit different than those who were away (and thus not part of the survey). Partisan Democrats and Obama supporters may have made it a point to be at home n order to watch the convention. Also, those who just happened to be home (for whatever reason) were probably more likely to have watched the convention and the news generally than those more likely to have been away (for whatever reason). The combination may result in a momentary "response bias" favor ingof the Democrats.
It is not surprising that the Rasmussen survey shows a smaller shift, since they weight by party identification. If the "bounce" is solely the result of a non-response bias toward Democratic identifiers, party weighting in this situation would make sense. But we don't know that it is. Conventions bounces that are real and persistent often shift party identification and candidate preference. In September 2004, for example, five national surveys conducted entirely after the Republican convention showed increases in Republican identification. Pollsters that weighted by the pre-convention party ID averages would have artificially suppressed the size of Bush's bounce.
So, like it or not, we really won't have a sense of what these shifts mean -- and what they portend for the rest of the campaign -- until the Republican convention ends and the dust starts to settle in about 10 days.
As for the polls out today testing reactions to Sarah Palin, I hope to post more tomorrow, but for now suffice it to say that I put very little stock in one-night quickie polls conducted on the Friday night before a three-day, holiday weekend. The one from Gallup is probably the best of the lot, if only because they provide comparable results from prior one-night quickie polls conducted to evaluate vice-presidential nominees (although most of these were fielded on week-nights). But take it all with huge grains of salt. With someone as unknown nationally as Sarah Palin was just 48 hours ago, first impressions can be exceptionally fleeting.
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[authors: David E. Kronenberg, Casey Servais]
In 1999, Goldman began acting as the sole clearing broker and prime broker for a group of hedge funds affiliated with Bayou Fund, LLC. As is standard in the brokerage industry, Bayou’s account at Goldman was governed by a customer agreement requiring it to resolve any disputes with Goldman through arbitration rather than a court proceeding. In 2005, the Bayou funds collapsed as it became clear they had been engaged in a massive Ponzi scheme. In this respect, the Bayou funds were an important precursor to the better-known Ponzi schemes run by Bernard L. Madoff and Allen Stanford.[1] Bayou later filed for bankruptcy protection, and the bankruptcy court authorized the Official Unsecured Creditors’ Committee to prosecute any claims the debtors’ estates might have against Goldman. In keeping with the arbitration clause of the customer agreement, the Committee brought a fraudulent transfer claim against Goldman in an arbitration proceeding before the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.
In the FINRA proceeding, the Committee alleged that transfers totaling approximately $20.6 million between Bayou’s and the other funds’ accounts at Goldman constituted “fraudulent transfers” under sections 544 and 548 of the Bankruptcy Code. The Committee further maintained that Goldman was liable for these transfers as an “initial transferee” under section 550(a) of the Bankruptcy Code, which provides that a bankruptcy trustee, or a creditors’ committee acting in the place of a bankruptcy trustee, may recover fraudulently transferred property from “the initial transferee of such transfer.”
Goldman raised a standard defense to section 550(a), arguing that it had not been an “initial transferee,” but rather had acted as a “mere conduit” for Bayou’s funds. Generally speaking, a recipient of fraudulently transferred property qualifies as an “initial transferee” only if the recipient exercises “dominion and control” over the fraudulently transferred property. Courts have traditionally considered a recipient that is not entitled to make use of the funds for its own purposes to be a “mere conduit” not subject to liability under section 550(a).
The FINRA arbitration panel rejected Goldman’s “mere conduit” defense and granted a $20,580,514.52 award in favor of the Creditors’ Committee. Arbitrators do not generally issue written opinions, so there is no express written analysis detailing on what case law the arbitration panel relied in reaching its conclusion that Goldman was liable as an initial transferee.
Goldman filed a petition with the District Court for the Southern District of New York, seeking to have the arbitration award vacated. The Federal Arbitration Act allows a U.S. District Court to vacate an arbitration award, but only under four narrow sets of circumstances, one of these being “where the arbitrators exceeded their powers, or so imperfectly executed them that a mutual, final, and definite award upon the subject matter submitted was not made.” 9 U.S.C. § 10(a)(4). Some courts, including the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, have construed this provision of the Federal Arbitration Act as authorizing courts to vacate awards in cases where the arbitrator has “manifestly disregarded the law.” Accordingly, in its petition to the District Court, Goldman argued that the arbitration panel had “manifestly disregarded the law” by failing to recognize its “mere conduit” defense. The District Court refused to vacate the arbitration award, and Goldman appealed to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.
The Second Circuit noted at the outset of its decision that the standard for appellate review of arbitration awards is highly deferential. Specifically, in order to overturn an arbitration award on the grounds that the arbitrator “manifestly disregarded the law,” an appellate court must find that the arbitrator knowingly ignored a governing legal principle that was “defined, explicit, and clearly applicable.” The Second Circuit affirmed the Southern District’s finding that the “mere conduit” defense was not clearly applicable in Goldman’s case, and that the FINRA arbitration panel therefore did not “manifestly disregard” this defense in ruling against Goldman.
The Second Circuit based its conclusion that the arbitration panel had not “manifestly disregarded the law” on a 2007 New York Southern District Court opinion that also dealt with the mere conduit defense. In Bear, Stearns Securities Corp. v. Gredd (In re Manhattan Inv. Fund, Ltd.), 397 B.R. 1 (S.D.N.Y. 2007), the Southern District held that Bear Stearns was liable as the “initial transferee” of funds that a Ponzi scheme customer had transferred into its margin account at the brokerage. The court concluded that Bear Stearns had dominion and control over the customer funds because the governing customer agreement gave Bear Stearns the right to use the funds to protect itself from the risk associated with stock loans it made to the customer.
In addition to giving Bear Stearns a security interest in the customer account, the relevant customer agreement gave Bear Stearns the right to (1) set any level of maintenance margin for the account; (2) prevent the customer from withdrawing money from its account while there were open short positions supported by the account; and (3) use the funds in the account to liquidate the customer’s open short positions, with or without the customer’s consent. In holding that these customer agreement provisions were sufficient to establish “dominion and control,” and thus transferee liability, Gredd deviated from a long line of cases holding that financial institutions do not exercise sufficient “dominion and control” over funds held in customer accounts to qualify as “initial transferees.”
The Second Circuit found that the facts in Gredd bore “striking similarities” to the facts in the instant case insofar as both cases involved a hedge fund engaged in a Ponzi scheme that deposited funds at a brokerage pursuant to a customer agreement that gave the brokerage “broad discretion” over the use of the funds. In the Second Circuit’s view, the terms of the industry-standard customer agreement at issue in Gredd were “similar, if not identical” to the terms in Goldman’s agreement with Bayou. Specifically, under the Goldman agreement, Goldman received a security interest in the deposited funds, and it also had the right (1) to require the Bayou hedge funds to deposit cash or collateral with Goldman to assure due performance of open contractual commitments; (2) to require the hedge funds to maintain such positions and margins as Goldman deemed necessary or advisable; (3) to lend either to itself or to others any of the hedge funds’ securities held by Goldman in a margin account; and (4) to liquidate securities and/or other property in the hedge funds’ accounts without notice to ensure that minimum maintenance requirements were satisfied. Goldman, 2012 U.S. App. LEXIS 13531, at *8.
Although the Second Circuit relied on Gredd, it fell short of actually endorsing Gredd’s holding, instead stating: “While we have not previously endorsed the district court’s decision in Gredd—and do not do so here—neither have we rejected it.” Accordingly, the Second Circuit held that the FINRA arbitration panel had not “manifestly disregarded the law” in rejecting Goldman’s defense, as the arbitration panel could reasonably have found Goldman to be an “initial transferee” under the legal principles articulated in Gredd.
Although Goldman was decided under a highly deferential standard for appellate review of an arbitration award, the case could impact the real or perceived risk that clearing firms face with respect to liability for fraudulent transfers. Arbitration awards technically have no binding precedential value, but arbitrators nonetheless often look to earlier arbitration awards for guidance in deciding new cases. The Second Circuit’s affirmance of the arbitration award in Goldman thus makes it more likely that arbitrators will recognize fraudulent transfer claims against clearing brokers in the future. Additionally, the Goldman decision, while not a complete endorsement by the Second Circuit of the Gredd opinion, lends heft to that controversial District Court decision, making it more likely other courts will reach similar rulings. The increased risk of liability that clearing brokers face as a result may lead to increased compliance costs, as clearing firms may need to implement new procedures to confirm the legitimacy and solvency of their customer accountholders.
[View source.]
Written by:
Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP on:
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Watch Limite Online
Film title: Limite
Rotten Tomatoes: 50%
Language: English
Plot: A team of counterfeiters thrives amid an atmosphere of corruption in writer-director Nicolás Jullian's gritty Chilean import starring Remigio Remedy, Adela Secall, Juan Ignacio Severín and Luis Dubó. When a fetching detective is sent in to trace the origins of a phony $100 bill, she uncovers a criminal network far more complex than she had ever imagined -- and soon finds herself caught in the web.
Limite Series
Where to watch Limite online:
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Text: H.Con.Res.132 — 107th Congress (2001-2002)All Bill Information (Except Text)
There is one version of the bill.
Text available as:
Shown Here:
Introduced in House (05/10/2001)
[Congressional Bills 107th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Printing Office]
[H. Con. Res. 132 Introduced in House (IH)]
1st Session
H. CON. RES. 132
Expressing the sense of Congress on the importance of promoting
electronic commerce, and for other purposes.
May 10, 2001
Mrs. Tauscher (for herself and Mr. Dreier) submitted the following
concurrent resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Ways and
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
Expressing the sense of Congress on the importance of promoting
electronic commerce, and for other purposes.
Whereas information technologies have spurred additional growth and efficiency
for the United States economy, given consumers greater power and choice,
and created new opportunities for entrepreneurs;
Whereas an estimated 60 percent of American businesses are involved in
electronic commerce;
Whereas in 2000, business-to-consumer electronic transactions were estimated at
$61,000,000,000 and business-to-business electronic transactions at
nearly $200,000,000,000;
Whereas economists have shown that the higher a nation's Internet usage, the
faster cross-border trade increases, especially among developing
Whereas cross-border electronic commerce represents a revolutionary form of
international trade, one that will provide new opportunities for growth,
efficiency, and rising living standards in the United States and
Whereas in this era of policy development for global electronic commerce,
certain policy measures could push Internet users into localized regions
of the World Wide Web, significantly reducing long-term opportunities
for growth and development;
Whereas the current World Trade Organization (WTO) trade rules, including (the
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, the General Agreement on Trade
in Services, and the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual
Property) apply to e-commerce;
Whereas the growth of international trade via global electronic commerce could
be stunted by domestic policies or measures that have the effect of
reducing or eliminating competition; and
Whereas carefully coordinated agreements that ensure open markets, broad access,
competition, and limited burdens on e-commerce can facilitate growth and
development in the United States and overseas: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring),
That it is the sense of Congress that--
(1) the Secretary of Commerce and the United States Trade
Representative should make the promotion of cross-border trade
via electronic commerce a high priority;
(2) the United States should work in good faith with our
trading partners to develop a cross-border trade regime that
promotes the continued growth of electronic commerce and
advances the interests of Internet buyers and sellers in
different countries; and
(3) the United States should encourage members of the World
Trade Organization to--
(A) promote the development of infrastructures that
are necessary to conduct e-commerce;
(B) promote the development of trade in goods and
services via e-commerce;
(C) ensure that products delivered electronically
receive the most beneficial treatment available under
trade agreements relating to similar products that are
delivered physically, including market access and non-
discriminatory treatment; and
(D) refrain from adopting measures that would
constitute actual or potential trade barriers to
electronic commerce, and ensure that all other measures
are predictable and transparent.
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Apple patents Samsung’s Galaxy Note-style radial menus for iOS
Samsung's Galaxy Note has used radial menus before. But don't worry: Apple got there first. (Picture: TechnoBuffalo)
Apple has been awarded a new patent for adding moving radial menus to both Macs and iOS devices.
The use of radial menus would give Apple an alternative to the pull-down menus currently used in most applications — allowing context-specific menus and submenus to be created at optimal positions close to a user’s mouse cursor or, in the case of an iPhone or iPad, their finger.
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| 0.992347
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Understanding Hypoglycemia
When you think about diabetes and blood glucose control, the first thing that comes to mind is probably avoiding high blood glucose levels. After all, the hallmark of diabetes is high blood glucose, or hyperglycemia. But controlling blood glucose is more than just managing the “highs”; it also involves preventing and managing “lows,” or hypoglycemia.
Most people are aware that keeping blood glucose levels as close to normal as possible helps prevent damage to the blood vessels and nerves in the body. But keeping blood glucose levels near normal can carry some risks as well. People who maintain “tight” blood glucose control are more likely to experience episodes of hypoglycemia, and frequent episodes of hypoglycemia — even mild hypoglycemia and even in people who don’t keep blood glucose levels close to normal — deplete the liver of stored glucose (called glycogen), which is what the body normally draws upon to raise blood glucose levels when they are low. Once liver stores of glycogen are low, severe hypoglycemia is more likely to develop, and research shows that severe hypoglycemia can be harmful. In children, frequent severe hypoglycemia can lead to impairment of intellectual function. In children and adults, severe hypoglycemia can lead to accidents. And in adults with cardiovascular disease, it can lead to strokes and heart attacks.
To keep yourself as healthy as possible, you need to learn how to balance food intake, physical activity, and any diabetes medicines or insulin you use to keep your blood glucose as close to normal as is safe for you without going too low. This article explains how hypoglycemia develops and how to treat and prevent it.
What is hypoglycemia?
Blood glucose levels vary throughout the day depending on what you eat, how active you are, and any diabetes medicines or insulin you take. Other things, such as hormone fluctuations, can affect blood glucose levels as well. In people who don’t have diabetes, blood glucose levels generally range from 65 mg/dl to 140 mg/dl, but in diabetes, the body’s natural control is disrupted, and blood glucose levels can go too high or too low. For people with diabetes, a blood glucose level of 70 mg/dl or less is considered low, and treatment is recommended to prevent it from dropping even lower.
Under normal circumstances, glucose is the brain’s sole energy source, making it particularly sensitive to any decrease in blood glucose level. When blood glucose levels drop too low, the body tries to increase the amount of glucose available in the bloodstream by releasing hormones such as glucagon and epinephrine (also called adrenaline) that stimulate the release of glycogen from the liver.
Some of the symptoms of hypoglycemia are caused by the brain’s lack of glucose; other symptoms are caused by the hormones, primarily epinephrine, released to help increase blood glucose levels. Epinephrine can cause feelings of weakness, shakiness, clamminess, and hunger and an increased heart rate. These are often called the “warning signs” of hypoglycemia. Lack of glucose to the brain can cause trouble concentrating, changes in vision, slurred speech, lack of coordination, headaches, dizziness, and drowsiness. Hypoglycemia can also cause changes in emotions and mood. Feelings of nervousness and irritability, becoming argumentative, showing aggression, and crying are common, although some people experience euphoria and giddiness. Recognizing emotional changes that may signal hypoglycemia is especially important in young children, who may not be able to understand or communicate other symptoms of hypoglycemia to adults. If hypoglycemia is not promptly treated with a form of sugar or glucose to bring blood glucose level up, the brain can become dangerously depleted of glucose, potentially causing severe confusion, seizures, and loss of consciousness.
Who is at risk?
Some people are at higher risk of developing hypoglycemia than others. Hypoglycemia is not a concern for people who manage their diabetes with only exercise and a meal plan. People who use insulin or certain types of oral diabetes medicines have a much greater chance of developing hypoglycemia and therefore need to be more careful to avoid it. Other risk factors for hypoglycemia include the following:
• Maintaining very “tight” (near-normal) blood glucose targets.
• Decreased kidney function. The kidneys help to degrade and remove insulin from the bloodstream. When the kidneys are not functioning well, insulin action can be unpredictable, and low blood glucose levels may result.
• Alcohol use.
• Conditions such as gastropathy (slowed stomach emptying) that cause variable rates of digestion and absorption of food.
• Having autonomic neuropathy, which can decrease symptoms when blood glucose levels drop. (Autonomic neuropathy is damage to nerves that control involuntary functions.)
• Pregnancy in women with preexisting diabetes, especially during the first trimester.
A side effect of diabetes treatment
Hypoglycemia is the most common side effect of insulin use and of some of the oral medicines used to treat Type 2 diabetes. How likely a drug is to cause hypoglycemia and the appropriate treatment for hypoglycemia depends on the type of drug.
Secretagogues. Oral medicines that stimulate the pancreas to release more insulin, which include sulfonylureas and the drugs nateglinide (brand name Starlix) and repaglinide (Prandin), have the potential side effect of hypoglycemia. Sulfonylureas include glimepiride (Amaryl), glipizide (Glucotrol and Glucotrol XL), and glyburide (DiaBeta, Micronase, and Glynase).
Sulfonylureas are taken once or twice a day, in the morning and the evening, and their blood-glucose-lowering effects last all day. If you miss a meal or snack, the medicine continues to work, and your blood glucose level may drop too low. So-called sulfa antibiotics (those that contain the ingredient sulfamethoxazole) can also increase the risk of hypoglycemia when taken with a sulfonylurea. Anyone who takes a sulfonylurea, therefore, should discuss this potential drug interaction with their health-care provider should antibiotic therapy be necessary.
Nateglinide and repaglinide are taken with meals and act for only a short time. The risk of hypoglycemia is lower than for sulfonylureas, but it is still possible to develop hypoglycemia if a dose of nateglinide or repaglinide is taken without food.
Insulin. All people with Type 1 diabetes and many with Type 2 use insulin for blood glucose control. Since insulin can cause hypoglycemia, it is important for those who use it to understand how it works and when its activity is greatest so they can properly balance food and activity and take precautions to avoid hypoglycemia. This is best discussed with a health-care provider who is knowledgeable about you, your lifestyle, and the particular insulin regimen you are using.
Biguanides and thiazolidinediones. The biguanides, of which metformin is the only one approved in the United States, decrease the amount of glucose manufactured by the liver. The thiazolidinediones, pioglitazone (Actos) and rosiglitazone (Avandia), help body cells become more sensitive to insulin. The risk of hypoglycemia is very low with these medicines. However, if you take metformin, pioglitazone, or rosiglitazone along with either insulin or a secretagogue, hypoglycemia is a possibility.
Alpha-glucosidase inhibitors. Drugs in this class, acarbose (Precose) and miglitol (Glyset), interfere with the digestion of carbohydrates to glucose and help to lower blood glucose levels after meals. When taken alone, these medicines do not cause hypoglycemia, but if combined with either insulin or a secretagogue, hypoglycemia is possible. Because alpha-glucosidase inhibitors interfere with the digestion of some types of carbohydrate, hypoglycemia can only be treated with pure glucose (also called dextrose or d-glucose), which is sold in tablets and tubes of gel. Other carbohydrates will not raise blood glucose levels quickly enough to treat hypoglycemia.
Striking a balance
Hypoglycemia unawareness
Treating lows
The following items have about 15 grams of carbohydrate:
• 3–4 glucose tablets
• 1 tablespoon of honey or syrup
• 1 tablespoon of sugar or 5 small sugar cubes
• 6–8 LifeSavers
• 8 ounces of skim (nonfat) milk
Avoiding hypoglycemia
Avoiding all episodes of hypoglycemia may be impossible for many people, especially since maintaining tight blood glucose control brings with it a higher risk of hypoglycemia. However, the following tips may help to prevent excessive lows:
• Know how your medicines work and when they have their strongest action.
• Work with your diabetes care team to coordinate your medicines or insulin with your eating plan. Meals and snacks should be timed to coordinate with the activity of your medicine or insulin.
• Learn how to count carbohydrates so you can keep your carbohydrate intake consistent at meals and snacks from day to day. Variations in carbohydrate intake can lead to hypoglycemia.
• Have carbohydrate-containing foods available in the places you frequent, such as in your car or at the office, to avoid delays in treatment of hypoglycemia.
• Develop a plan with your diabetes care team to adjust your food, medicine, or insulin for changes in activity or exercise.
• Discuss how to handle sick days and situations where you have trouble eating with your diabetes team.
• Always check your blood glucose level to verify any symptoms of hypoglycemia. Keep your meter with you, especially in situations where risk of hypoglycemia is increased.
• Wear a medical alert identification tag.
• Always treat blood glucose levels of 70 mg/dl or less whether or not you have symptoms.
• If you have hypoglycemia unawareness, you may need to work with your diabetes care team to modify your blood glucose goals or treatment plan.
• Check your blood glucose level frequently during the day and possibly at night, especially if you have hypoglycemia unawareness, are pregnant, or have exercised vigorously within the past 24 hours.
• Check your blood glucose level before driving or operating machinery to avoid any situations that could become dangerous if hypoglycemia occurred.
• Check the expiration date on your glucagon emergency kit once a year and replace it before it expires.
• Discuss alcohol intake with your diabetes care team. You may be advised not to drink on an empty stomach and/or to increase your carbohydrate intake if alcohol is an option for you. If you drink, always check your blood glucose level before bed and eat any snacks that are scheduled in your food plan.
Don’t risk your health
Although hypoglycemia can, at times, be unpleasant, don’t risk your health by allowing your blood glucose levels to run higher than recommended to avoid it. Meet with your diabetes care team to develop a plan to help you achieve the best possible blood glucose control safely and effectively. Think positive, and learn to be prepared with measures to prevent and promptly treat hypoglycemia should it occur.
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Online Electrical Engineering
Multiple Choice Questions on DC Motor | Page - 10
1. The speed of a cumulatively compound DC motor can be controlled by varying
The speed control of a cumulatively compound motor can obtained by varying any of one following - 1. Armature voltage, 2. Armature resistance, 3. Shunt field resistnace.
2. The function of field regular in a DC compound motor is to
In DC compound motor, the field regulators inserted in series with shunt field is to control field current..
3. In Ward-Leonard method of speed control, the directional of rotation of motor is reversed usually reversing the connection of the
The direction of rotation of motor armature can be reversed by reversing the direction of exciting current of the generator. This is done with help of reversing switch.
4. Ward-Leonard system for controlling the speed of a DC motor is used where
Ward-Leonard system is used for speed controlling of DC motor where speed in both direction, accuracy in speed control and very fine speed control the wide range are required. Such the system is required in steel rolling mills, paper machine, elevators, cranes, mine hoist etc.
5. The shunted armature control method of speed control for DC shunt motor is
In DC shunt motor, speed variation depends not only upon the controlling resistance but on the load current also. This double dependance makes it impossible to keep the speed sensibly constant on rapidly changing load.
6. The field flux method of speed control of DC shunt motor is generally used which one of following?
Since the flux cannot usually be increased beyond its normal value because of saturation of iron, so speed control by flux is limited too weakening which gives an increase in speed. So it is applicable over only a limited range, because if the field is weakened too much there is a loss of stability. Hence field flux method is generally used constant hp drive above the base speed.
7. The speed of DC shunt motor can be raised above its rated value by
The flux produced by field current. By inserting a resistance cause to reduce field current and hence the flux is also reduced. The reduction in flux will result in an increase in speed. Because of saturation of iron, the flux cannot increased beyond its normal value. So the motor runs at a speed higher than normal speed.
8. A DC shunt motor is supplying a load at its rated speed. The speed can be reduced by
9. The resistance of the field regulator of a DC shunt motor is of order of
We know the flux is produced by field current. In shunt motor, field regulator is connected in series with the shunt field winding. The connection of field regulator reduces the field current and hence the flux φ is also reduced. The reduction flux will result in an increase in the speed. If we want to reduce shunt field current then the resistance of field regulator would be higher value.
The divertor of series motor is connected in parallel with series field winding to reduce the current flowing through the field winding. This reduce the flux and increase the speed. If the resistnace of divertor is reduced then the current flowing through the shunt field is increased and flux also be increased and thereby the speed will be decreased.
11. The current drawn by a DC motor at starting is
When the motor is at rest the speed of DC motor is zero, therefore back emf is zero nad if a DC motor is connected directly to the supply mains a heavy current (about 10-12.5 times of rated current) will be drawn because from emf equation of armature circuit (Eb = V - IaRa, armature current is given as (V - Eb)/Ra and armature resistance Ra very small.
12. In DC shunt motors, at start, the field excitation is kept at maximum value in order to
A large field current, therefore, a higher value of flux will result in low operating speed and in higher motor torque for a particular value of starting current because motor torque is proportional to the product of flux per pole and armature current. Thus for given load torque, the motor will accelerate quikly and take less time to reach the lower operating speed from the starting instant. This will result in less heating of armature during starting.
13. High inrush of current during a starting of a DC motor can efficiency be restricted to a safer value by increasing the _________________ resistance.
14. If starting is not used with large DC motor for starting, it will draw a starting current which
Larg motor without starter will draw high inrush of current at starting instant may cause - (i) Heavy sparking at the commutatot and even flash over, (ii) damage to armature winding either by heat developed in the windings or by mechanical forces set up by electromagnetic action, (iii) large voltage drop in the supply voltage.
15. Direct-on-line (DOL) starters are not suitable for starting large DC motors, because
Direct-on-line (DOL) starting are not used for large DC motor because the starting current will be enourmously high which will cause large voltage drop in the supply mains. It is used for starting of motor of ratings up to 3.75 KW.
16. A 4-point starter is used to start and control the speed of a
The armature current of DC shunt motor Ia = (V - Eb)/Ra. At the time of starting Eb = 0. If the full supply voltage is applie to the motor it will draw a large current due to low armature resistance. A variable resistance should be connected in series with the armature resistance to limit the starting current. Hence a 4-point starter is used to start and control speed of DC shunt motor.
If the motor is to be stopped the main line switch should be opened. To stop the motor, the starter handle should never be pulled back at this would result in burning the starter contacts.
18. In a DC shunt motor, three point starter
Three point starter is to limit the starting current and to provide volt protection by "NO VOLT RELEASE" coil and overload protection by "HOLD-ON" coil.
19. If the no-voltage release in a DC motor starter fails to operate on failure of supply, on resumption of supply the motor will
When the supply voltage is switched on, no back emf will acting in the circuit, the armature being directly across the supply mains and resistance of armature being low, the armature will draw excessive current and will get damage.
20. If the handle of a three point starter goes to back to OFF position, it may due to
The starter handle goes to 'OFF' position because 1. The supply voltage is either zero or lower than rated voltage. 2. There are high field circuit resistance. 3. The motor may be over loaded
21. The DC motor starter handle should be removed
The DC motor starter handle should be moved smoothy in steps otherwise heavy sparking occur the stud of atarting resistance steps.
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The FCC on "Fake News": Who's Trying to Persuade You?
Here are a few interesting passages from the FCC's Public Notice:
<p>I just realized two things - one, that the links for the bill texts, above, expire after some length of time. So, if you're trying to get to S 266 or HR 373 and the links aren't working, go to and search by bill number.</p> <p>The other thing is that the S 266 definition for "propaganda" deserves attention unto itself, so I'll post it here:</p> <p>In this Act, the term 'publicity' or 'propaganda' includes--</p> <ol><li>a news release or other publication that does not clearly identify the Government agency directly or indirectly (through a contractor) financially responsible for the message;</li> <li>any audio or visual presentation that does not continuously and clearly identify the Government agency directly or indirectly financially responsible for the message;</li> <li>an Internet message that does not continuously and clearly identify the Government agency directly or indirectly financially responsible for the message;</li> <li>any attempt to manipulate the news media by payment to any journalist, reporter, columnist, commentator, editor, or news organization;</li> <li>any message designed to aid a political party or candidate;</li> <li>any message with the purpose of self-aggrandizement or puffery of the Administration, agency, Executive branch programs or policies, or pending congressional legislation;</li> <li>a message of a nature tending to emphasize the importance of the agency or its activities;</li> <li>a message that is so misleading or inaccurate that it constitutes propaganda; and</li> <li>the preparation, distribution, or use of any kit, pamphlet, booklet, publication, radio, television, or video presentation designed to support or defeat legislation pending before Congress or any State legislature, except in presentation to Congress or any State legislature itself.</li></ol>
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San Francisco Public Library
Sourdough Starter Workshop
1:30 - 2:30
Noe Valley/Sally Brunn
Noe Valley Meeting Room
451 Jersey Street
Sourdough Starter Workshop: Cat Shimizu, the "breaducator" from Sour Flour —a Mission District bakery dedicated to neighborly bread gifting and bread education— will talk about the art and science of making bread using a sourdough starter. This includes how to feed and take care of your own starter, and how different factors such as time, temperature, and starter hydration affect the fermentation process. And how the fermentation process, using wild yeast and lactic "good" bacteria, improves the nutritional and storage properties of bread. Samples and suggested reading will help get you started on a healthy, enjoyable and delicious new adventure in baking.
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SATURDAY, Dec. 17 (HealthDay News) — The busy holiday season may disrupt many people's daily routines, but at this time of year it is especially important to remember to look after your teeth, an expert advises.
"Holiday get-togethers tend to lead people to consume sugary treats and drink alcoholic beverages more than usual," Dr. George Shepley, spokesperson for the Academy of General Dentistry, said in an academy news release.
"Additionally, with their busy schedules and increased stress levels, I've noticed that my patients' oral hygiene suffers. They forget the most basic of oral hygiene tasks that can counteract the effects of sugary snacks and drinks," he pointed out.
Shepley offers suggestions on a number of ways to protect your teeth during the holiday season.
To reduce the risk of damage from drinking red and white wines, which are highly acidic and can eat away at a tooth's enamel, refrain from swishing wine around in your mouth and drink water between glasses of wine to rinse acid from your teeth.
And, while holiday goodies such as cookies, chocolate and candy canes are tempting, the sugar in them promotes the growth of cavity-causing bacteria. If you can't brush or floss after eating sweet treats, drink water or chew a piece of sugarless gum, which will increased saliva flow and help wash away the bacteria.
Finally, Shepley pointed out, holiday stress can cause some people to grind or clench their teeth, potentially resulting in chipped teeth, jaw pain and headaches.
"Finding ways to alleviate your anxiety can help, but it's also important to see your dentist, who can recommend solutions like a custom night guard," Shepley said. "Wearing one at night will prevent you from taking out the holiday stress on your teeth while you sleep."
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Submit Your Poems
Get Your Premium Membership
Senryu Butterfly Poems | Senryu Poems About Butterfly
These Senryu Butterfly poems are examples of Senryu poems about Butterfly. These are the best examples of Senryu Butterfly poems written by international PoetrySoup poets
Details | Senryu | |
Butterfly Secrets
Butterflies whisper
The secrets to peaceful life,
But our cars crush them.
Details | Senryu | |
Luminous Beings
Be meek, Be mild
words intended
the luminous Being to beguile
Details | Senryu | |
butterfly behind
her flowery shield the eyes
blink colored wings
Details | Senryu | |
The Butterfly
ethereal life wings painted by a dreamer innocent beauty
Details | Senryu | |
Butterfly Curls
Rhythmic motions
Stretching past the comfort zone
Tight muscles tingling
By Robb A. Kopp
Details | Senryu | |
Kiss the Butterfly
Kiss the butterfly Allow the wings to lift you Take off in the sky
Russell Sivey
Details | Senryu | |
Come to me butterflies,
Give me the wings of wisdom -
Flight of a lifetime.
(C) Anindya Mohan Tagore (Bobby)
Details | Senryu | |
stalinaya bobitchka(steel butterfly}
Montage of colors
sliding through tomorrow's light
what you seem to me.
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Category: Rants, Raves and More!
This section for everything not covered elsewhere on Hoboken411
public pensions how long can they last 5
Public Pensions
How long will “public pensions” exist? Question of the day: The reason I ask is, that it’s quite mind-blowing how much these local governments expect to siphon money from others to pay (former) (city,...
hoboken-cove-space-could-be-better-utilized 40
QotD: Expanding Hoboken?
What is wrong with this concept? I still think that back when I introduced this concept of “expanding” Hoboken into the Hudson River like they did over in Battery Park was a missed opportunity...
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Culinary Arts / Cooking Jobs Abroad
A Guide To
Culinary Jobs Abroad
67 Culinary Arts / Cooking Jobs Abroad Programs
Work Experience Australia Program
Alliance Abroad Group GUARANTEES a 6-12 month PAID hospitality job BEFORE you land in Australia. How do we do it? We have a great team in Australia and the US that have established excellent relationships with leading Australian hotels and resorts. We also ensure you are taken care of every step of the way. We help with your visa, housing and even organize Meet Ups with other AAG participants...
Smaller Earth
Instituto Hemingway
Our Paid Jobs program guarantees a placement in a top restaurant/hotel in Colombia. Accommodation, meals and pocket money are covered. You will earn enough to cover basic expenses. You will work on average 35-40 hours per week and will have one day off. The type of position will depend on your level of Spanish, experience in the hospitality management industry and dates. Generally speaking y...
Seasonal work placements throughout the U.S are available with the J-1 Visa program through the U.S. Department of State. Participants can work for up to 3 months then have the option of a 1 month travel period before returning home. Jobs Include: * Sales Help - Selling and preparing fast food (candy, hot dogs, french fries), using a cash register, helping customers, mopping floors, tak...
Knowledge Must
Responsibility for the preparation of high quality food to groups of up to 100 or more children and adults. Supervision of other staff, control of inventory, budgets and hygiene is expected. All staff must be a role model to the children who are our guests, act responsibly and in a caring manner at all times and show understanding of and appreciation for diverse cultural backgrounds.
USEH International Inc.
The program will allow participants to have a rotation within the Culinary Department where they will be able to see applications in different outlets including; Main Kitchen/ Banquet Kitchen/ Inventory obtaining positions based on their experience and interest areas such as hot kitchen/ cold kitchen/ pastry.
Hospitality Work Experience Italy
Embrace a paid work experience in the tourism sector in Italy. Work in Italian hotels, restaurants and improve your language skills greatly. Work and travel from 2 to 6 months in Italy. How would you like to travel to a gorgeous southern European country like Italy and participate in a paid internship in the hospitality sector? By undertaking a hospitality work placement in Italy while al...
HRC International
Join this chef's culinary team and create amazing dishes from the most fresh ingredients. They do they pastries and breads in house,always deliciously fresh. The ideal candidate will have at least 6 months of recent work experience as a commis chef and is a recent graduate from a culinary school or currently enrolled in one. Benefits: - uniform provided - complimentary meal during shif...
Visit the Real Australia and Get Paid Doing It!
Experience down under first hand and get paid doing it through Visitoz programs available the year round. The programme starts with a 9-day introductory package that includes one night in Brisbane, three nights at Rainbow Beach for jet lag recovery, soak under the sun or surfing, half day for administration and shopping with meals. The next days are spend on farm training that involves fun and ...
Latitude International Education
The Working Holiday in Canada program offers you the chance to experience beautiful, natural Canada including ski hills, modern cities, vibrant multiculturalism, wilderness and the highest quality of living in the world. Whether you start in Toronto, Calgary, Montreal or Vancouver you will always discover something new and exciting like the Olympic ski runs, Niagara falls or the Calgary Stamped...
Professional Internships in China (PIC) Program
The Language House
Have you always wanted to live abroad but never knew where to start? The Language House helps you turn your dreams into reality by guiding you from a rough idea thru to a solid action plan to actually carrying out that plan. Why continue to put off having the life you really want? Don't postpone joy, come and join us. The Job Abroad Coaching Package is designed for those who want to live and wo...
Back to Programs
Culinary Jobs Abroad
Every country and culture has a unique approach to culinary arts and cooking. By starting a cooking job abroad, you can master the skill set required to cook up any kind of dish in the world, while gaining impressive work experience to add to your CV too. So, where in the world will your taste buds take you?
Why Work Abroad in Culinary Arts
Working abroad is something that every chef should try at some point in their career. It’s not just the excitement of learning all about the culture and cuisine of another country which makes the prospect so enticing; with a huge amount of seasonal cooking jobs abroad, and positions available all over the world, it’s most definitely a professional opportunity as well. Finding a international cooking job is easy for trained chefs, and the work itself will prove to be an immensely rewarding challenge for any newbie in the field.
Asking which country is the best place cooking jobs abroad would lead to a never ending debate among professionals in the field. Every nation across the world takes pride in the quality and type of cuisine they serve up, and the answer will almost certainly differ from one chef to the next. Really it comes down to your own personal culinary aspirations, particularly what type of cookery you strive to improve in or explore and learn about.
Some countries are particularly infamous for the greatness of their cuisine, and thus are the first choice for many chefs looking for cooking jobs abroad. Italy, France, Greece, and Spain are typically thought of as the most prestigious countries in Europe where you can gain experience as a chef. The cuisine of China, Thailand, Japan, and India come with equally high regard in Asia. Elsewhere in the world, in countries ranging from Mexico to South Africa to the United States, you can find more great cooking job opportunities that will allow you to master a unique style of cooking.
These are just a few of the most popular countries for international cooking jobs, but there are culinary jobs abroad almost everywhere in the world. Some regions will certainly present a more challenging linguistic and cultural adaptation than others, so remember that there are many additional factors beyond culinary considerations that you should take into account when deciding where to work abroad.
Cooking Jobs Abroad
Many international cooking jobs are seasonal, which can be beneficial for many reasons. Since available positions tend to be open for only a few months at a time, you will be able to avoid the tangle of visa considerations. You will also be able move around frequently, gaining experience cooking in a variety of different cuisines and formats. Most seasonal cooking jobs abroad are in the tourism and hospitality industries. Manning the kitchens of hotels, resorts, and cruise ships are all examples of the type of culinary jobs you might find abroad. Working for private catering services, language schools, or camps are also promising places to look for culinary jobs abroad.
Competition is typically more stiff for permanent cooking jobs abroad at restaurants, and you will also have to jump through the hoops of organizing a work permit and residential visa with your employer. However, if you have the proper culinary training and prior experience as a chef, there is no reason why you shouldn’t be considered for permanent international cooking jobs. When you begin working abroad you may have to take an entry level position below your qualification, but with hard work and patience you could end up working alongside some of the top chefs in the world.
Salary & Affordability
Seasonal cooking jobs abroad will typically pay chefs fairly well, and also typically offer lodging as part of compensation packages. This can be a huge bonus; for example if you work at a resort in the Alps or on a cruise ship, you will likely have access to many additional luxuries and amenities while working abroad.
Relative pay rates for more long-term culinary jobs remain fairly constant around the world, but will fluctuate according to the economic level of the country you are in. You can expect to make considerably more money working as a chef in France, for example, than in India. However, the low costs of living in developing countries, such as India, will allow you to save up a considerable amount of money working abroad, so there is certainly a tradeoff.
Master a New Art. By working abroad as a chef, you can bring yourself closer to the origins of whatever country’s cuisine you seek to master. Working alongside chefs who have grown up cooking their native dishes will undoubtedly give you new insight into the culinary tradition.
Be Mobile. Since many culinary jobs abroad are seasonal, you will have the freedom to move around and work in different places all over the world. Not every profession allows you to have so much freedom to venture around the globe!
Make Yourself Stand Out. If you ever decide to settle down into a permanent cooking job abroad, or even want to open your own restaurant someday, working internationally will make you a more enticing candidate for the people with the power to make it happen. You will stand out as a very well-rounded chef, and have the experience to back it up.
Read More
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To Kill a Mockingbird
To Kill a Mockingbird Summary and Analysis of Chapters 25-31
Chapter 25
It is now September, and Jem and Scout are about to go to sleep on their cots on the back porch. Scout sees a roly-poly bug and goes to kill it. Jem stops her, saying the bug never did anything to harm her. Scout heeds his request and carefully takes the bug outside, noting internally that if anything, Jem is becoming more like a lady than she is. As she returns to her cot, she thinks of Dill and remembers his story of the day Tom Robinson died in late August.
Atticus and Calpurnia were driving out to see Tom's wife when they spotted Jem and Dill on their way back from swimming. Jem and Dill ask for a ride, and although hesitant at first, Atticus finally agrees to let them come along. Apparently, when Tom's wife saw Atticus and Calpurnia, she seemed to faint, falling to the ground in a heap. Tom's death was only news in Maycomb for two days, and was regarded as "typical," since prevailing opinion was that black men tend to run away without any plan.
Scout reflects that "in the secret courts of men's hearts," nothing Atticus could have said could have freed Tom. Upon hearing the news, Mr. Ewell is rumored to have said, "one down and about two more to go," and Scout is afraid for Atticus. Jem confidently tells Scout that Mr. Ewell won't really take any action on his threats.
Chapter 26
School is in session again, and Scout has lost her fear of the Radley place. Every now and then she daydreams about seeing Boo sitting on the porch, and greeting him as if they spoke to each other every day. School is hard for the Finch children: their peers are generally somewhat cold toward them due to Atticus defending Tom Robinson, as if their parents had instructed them to be civil but not outwardly friendly.
One day during Current Events, Scout's class gets into a discussion about Hitler and the persecution of the Jews. Her teacher, Miss Gates, speaks at length about how the German dictatorship allows for the Jews to be persecuted by a prejudiced leader, but she claims that in America, "we don't believe in persecuting anybody." Scout finds Miss Gates hypocritical because she remembers that on the day of Tom's trial, she overheard Miss Gates say that she thought it was, "time somebody taught them a lesson, they thought they was getting' way above themselves, an' the next thing they think they can do is marry us." "Them" meant black people. In Scout's mind, this doesn't make sense and she goes to talk to Jem about it. Jem responds very angrily, and tells her he never wants to talk about anything having to do with that trial again. Scout is taken aback and goes to Atticus, who assures her that Jem just needs some time to think about things, and then he'll be himself again.
Chapter 27
Scout relates a few events that have recently occurred in Maycomb. Mr. Ewell holds down a job for a few days, but then is fired from the WPA (Work Projects Administration) for laziness. One night, alone in his study, Judge Taylor finds the strange shadow of a prowler in his house and proceeds with his reading, but with a gun across his lap. Helen Robinson has been working on the property of Mr. Link Deas, but walks nearly a mile out of her way in order to avoid walking past the Ewell's house, because they "chunk" at her when she passes by. When Mr. Link Deas finds out, he approaches the Ewell house and yells to them, warning them not to bother Helen, or else he'll have them put in jail. The next day, Mr. Ewell follows Helen to work, "crooning foul words" the entire way, but Mr. Link Deas again threatens him with jail and he stops this behavior. Aunt Alexandra thinks that these events bode poorly for Atticus, as she is convinced that Ewell's threat after the trial carries more weight than Atticus is willing to believe.
It is nearly Halloween, and Mrs. Grace Merriweather writes a pageant for Maycomb people to perform about the history of the county. She wants children to play the parts of Maycomb's agricultural products, and Scout is assigned to play the part of the pork. She will wear a large costume made of chicken wire and wrapped around with brown cloth, which comes to just above her knees. She can't put it on or take it off without someone else's help because it pins her arms down, and she can't see well through the eyeholes. Jem escorts her to the pageant, because Atticus is too tired to go, and Aunt Alexandra opts to stay home with him.
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Scout tells the story of what happened outside to Atticus, the sheriff, and everyone else assembled. Mr. Tate notes the mark that Mr. Ewell's knife made in Scout's costume, and points out that Mr. Ewell meant to seriously harm or kill the children. When Scout points out the man who carried Jem, she finally takes a good look at him. He is very, very pale, with thin cheeks and feathery hair, and seems somewhat tense and nervous. She suddenly recognizes him as Boo Radley and, moved to tears, says "Hey, Boo."
Chapter 30
The doctor returns and everyone moves to the back porch. Trying to be as friendly as possible, Scout leads Boo to the porch and assists him into a rocking chair placed in a darker corner, where she thinks he will feel most comfortable. As she helps Boo along, she feels the odd sensation of her fantasy about finding him sitting on the porch one day coming true. Meanwhile, the others are discussing who killed Mr. Ewell. Atticus thinks that Jem must have done it since Scout named Jem as her protector in her story. However, the sheriff insists continually that Mr. Ewell fell onto his knife and killed himself, which irritates Atticus, who wants Jem to be treated as fairly as anyone else and not have exceptions made. After much arguing, finally the sheriff yells out that he's not trying to protect Jem (he is trying to protect Boo). The sheriff urges Atticus, this once, to accept the situation even if it's not perfect according to law: Mr. Ewell was responsible for Tom's death, and the sheriff urges Atticus to "let the dead bury the dead." He says that it would be a sin to drag shy Boo Radley out into the limelight, and declares officially that Mr. Ewell fell on his own knife. Atticus, deeply moved by this revelation, asks Scout if she understands. Scout assures him that she does, explaining that having it another way would be like shooting a mockingbird. Atticus looks at Scout with a sense of wonder, and thanks Boo for the lives of his children.
Chapter 31
Standing on Boo's porch, Scout look out over the neighborhood imagining how Boo must have seen it, and how, for all these years, he watched over "his" children. Back home, Scout sits with Atticus, who begins to read her one of the scary children's stories he has picked up, which ironically mirrors the story of Boo Radley. Scout says she wasn't scared by the night's events, saying just as Jem had on their fateful walk home, that "nothing's really scary 'cept in books." She falls asleep while Atticus reads to her, and wakes up while he carries her to bed. She tells him she was listening all the time, and that the book is about a character who was chased and caught and then found to be innocent and "real nice." Atticus tells her, "most people are, when you finally see them." Atticus then spends the rest of the night by Jem's side.
Maycomb's reaction to the news of Tom's death demonstrates how willingly the citizens interpret the actions of one black person negatively in order to maintain their social construct of subjugating the black population. Scout realizes that the decision to see the world fairly can only occur within each individual's heart, and that there is no way to reach a person who has not become personally convinced of the equality of all races and the virtue of following a moral course of action.
However, for the black community, the news of Tom's death is devastating, as exemplified by Helen's collapse. Atticus could not promise Tom that he would eventually go free, because he did not want to promise anything he couldn't be sure of. Unable to live an indefinite existence, Tom lost his courage and determination, and chose to run for freedom. Possibly, like Jem, Tom lost hope that people would listen to the voice of reason. Given all the injustices he had experienced in his life, Tom did not think it possible that his case would be appealed or that the outcome would be favorable.
The roly-poly incident is yet another example of Jem's increasing maturity. Having witnessed Tom's trial and his family's reaction of his death, Jem has an even greater sense of the need to protect the innocent. Therefore, the roly-poly bug is a symbol of the weak and oppressed who are often "stomped on" by society. Jem believes in the equality of all people, and his choice to protect the roly-poly demonstrates how deeply ingrained this value is. Jem is becoming a young man of honor and moral virtue, just like his father.
In Chapter 26, the coldness of the schoolchildren demonstrates that children who grow up in racist households tend to develop racist attitudes quite early in life. Just as Jem and Scout grow up in a household valuing fairness and equality, and therefore adhere to such morals. This dichotomy once again shows how people's identities and values are shaped by the society and family life in which they are raised.
In this chapter, Boo has made the full transition from monster to sad recluse and potential friend. The events of the trial have made the children consider that maybe Boo needs a good home to run to (Dill's theory) or maybe he prefers to stay out of contact with people (Jem's theory). Scout dreams of finally getting to talk to Boo, showing her desire to make him feel at home, and to show him that people might not be so bad.
Miss Gates's statement that the persecuted Jews have contributed to every society they've been a part of implies that blacks are not contributing in any way to American society. She hypocritically believes that the Jews deserve sympathy because they are white, whereas the persecuted group of the blacks still deserves second-class citizenship. She also insinuates that because the United States is a democracy, fairness is available for all, when blacks are suffering from the same kinds of discrimination and segregation that Jews experience in Hitler's dictatorial regime. The "democracy" she speaks of is not an all-inclusive one that offers the same rights to all. Scout's awareness of her teacher's hypocrisy once again demonstrates her powerful understanding of the true meaning of fairness and equality. Jem is clearly still distraught by the trial, and needs time to allow his still adolescent mind to understand the events in a more adult way.
In Chapter 27, Mr. Link Deas is revealed as another member of the forces working for fairness in Maycomb by his defense of Helen against the menace of Mr. Ewell. (During Tom's trial, Mr. Deas stood up and shouted that he had never had a problem with Tom Robinson, and that he was a good worker and a good man. The judge immediately quieted him and instructed the jury to ignore his statements in order to avoid a mistrial.) Meanwhile, Mr. Ewell is again shown to be cowardly and evil, threatening those who can defend themselves least. This chapter continues to provide a building tale of suspense, as the book is clearly coming to a close, and we will soon learn how Jem broke his arm, and the final events the novel has been leading up to. The ordinary and harmless event Halloween pageant develops into an evening fraught with horror.
The night of the pageant, in Chapter 28, is filled with foreshadowing of the violent events to occur. Before the children leave, Aunt Alexandra has a feeling that something is going wrong and Scout notices a strange look pass over her face. Alexandra blames it on "someone walking over her grave". The intense darkness of the night also creates a sense of foreboding, as does Scout's inability to see things around her, trapped inside the large, bulky costume. Then, Scout misses her cue, and ends the night upset and embarrassed. When she and Jem turn around to go back for her shoes, the school lights go out, leaving the children alone in the darkness.
The attack occurs all around Scout and the sense of her helplessness makes the account of the violence more intense. Though the book began with a fear for the monstrous, phantom-like figure of Boo Radley, this chapter solidifies a reversal: Boo becomes the children's savior against the real evil, a human man. One reason that Dill dwells in fantasy rather real life is that nothing can be as frightening in fantasy as it can be in reality. Now that the children have grown older, they come to know vividly that the real source of evil to be concerned about comes from their fellowman, not from imaginary ghosts.
In Chapter 29, with the description of his hair as "feathery," Boo is immediately identified with the "mockingbird," especially with his slight appearance and fluttery hand movements. He has finally become a real person, completing the progression from monster to human; meanwhile, Mr. Ewell's evilness has turned him into a human monster, whose bristling facial stubble felt by Scout suggests an animal-like appearance. When Scout addresses Boo directly, she makes her final step into the beginnings of maturity, leaving her childhood imaginary tales behind. As a mature young girl, she recognizes Boo as a real person, and treats him as such.
In Chapter 30, Atticus is trying to uphold the law by demanding that Jem be brought to trial for the crime of murdering Mr. Ewell, not realizing that the sheriff is trying to protect Boo. As seen before in the case of the Ewell's, who are allowed to hunt in season, the law must be bent in order to protect certain people; in this case Boo needs protection. When Atticus understands the sheriff's motivation, he relents, realizing that it is in everyone's best interests to allow Boo to unofficially punish the Ewell's for the crime of trying to send Tom to his death. By this point, the "mockingbird" theme has already been made clear, but this chapter rehashes the idea that the innocent should not suffer in the hands of the powerful. When Scout compares putting Boo on trial to shooting a mockingbird, she again demonstrates her newfound maturity and adult understanding. Scout understands it is necessary to prevent Boo from receiving excessive public attention, and that Boo should be allowed to live the quiet life he has always known. She knows that at heart, Boo is a good person.
In Chapter 31, Scout finally acts the part of the hospitable Southern lady in assisting Boo around the house and seeing him home. She interacts with him in a serious and grown-up fashion. Though she runs to tell Jem when she first discovers Boo is in their house, she reacts against this childish reflex and tactfully gives Boo his privacy. Scout has learned how to be a guide for others, as shown by her symbolic act of leading Boo to safety. She can visualize things from his perspective now, as Atticus once advised her to do, and from his front porch, she imagines how he has seen the years pass, and watched herself, Jem and Dill grow up. In this reflective moment, Scout also neatly summarizes the events of the book, reminding the reader of all that passed for her and her family to reach this point.
Scout shows that even though she has discovered that people (Mr. Ewell) can be evil in unfathomable ways, she still upholds her faith in humankind and can face anything with courage. Unlike Dill, she finds that the real world does follow patterns, and once one knows them, the world of fantasy and books is the only place where real fear can exist. Despite her growth and maturation, Scout is still a child at only eight years old, and we last see her as she falls asleep in her father's arms. The author very carefully avoids giving the reader any information about Scout's future. Instead, we are left with an image of Scout when she is discovering fundamental truths about the world. She understands that the world carries both good and evil, and she has an unshakeable faith in the inherent goodness of "folks."
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Ankerberg Show with Dr. John Ankerberg
Is God on America's Side? - Part 3
How can Christians be involved in changing moral and public policies in America, but not cloud the issue of the gospel? Does God have a side in the moral and public policies being debated in our country? In today’s culture war, what are liberals and conservatives missing? What seven biblical principles describe how God deals with nations?
Oferta destacada de Ankerberg Show
What Do Jehovah's Witnesses Believe? Answers Christians Need to Know
Dr. Ankerberg interviews three former Jehovah's Witnesses and two experts on this fast growing religious movement. Some topics discussed include information on what Jehovah's Witnesses teach about Jesus, the Trinity, and other biblical beliefs as well as the difference between the Bible and the New World Translation.
View: \areas\oneplace\views\popupplayer\player.cshtml
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We Serve Alumni Too!
PREPs works directly with alumni in several capacities. First, PREPs provides career advising and exploration to alumni that are job searching or looking to change careers. Additionally, alumni also serve as valuable employer connections and can be tapped to mentor current students, serve on panels and provide internship and other job opportunities.
Choose from the options below to find the resources that best fit your needs:
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The Whip's Role
The Whip is the second ranking elected official in the House Democratic Caucus. Congressman Steny Hoyer (D-MD) was elected Democratic Whip by acclamation on November 14, 2002.
The "Whipper In"
The name for the position of Whip is derived from the term "whipper in", which is a British term for the person responsible for keeping the foxhounds from leaving the pack. It was first used in the House of Commons in the late 1700s. In 1897, Speaker
Thomas Reed (R-ME) first adopted the term in the U.S. House of Representatives when he appointed Representative James A. Tawney (R-MN) a whip to help him keep track of party Members. The first Democratic Whip was appointed in 1901, and an official whip organization was first extensively used in the 1930s by the Democrats.
Today’s Whip
The Democratic Leader appointed the Democratic whip until 1986, since then the caucus has elected the Whip. The Whip is assisted in his or her duties by a large whip organization made up of Members and staff.
Mobilizing the Democratic Vote
The Whip talks to Democratic Members about their level of support for a piece of legislation before it comes to the Floor for a major vote. The Whip also works with Members to build strong support within the caucus for the Democratic agenda.
Liaison Between Members and Leadership
The Whip acts as liaison between Democratic Members and their Leadership by distributing information to Members such as the upcoming schedule of legislation, and providing information to Leadership concerning support within the caucus for various pieces of legislation.
The Whip provides Members with the "Weekly Whip" and the"Daily Whip", which detail by week and day respectively the legislation on the House floor. In addition to the Weekly Whip and the Daily Whip, the Whip also distributes the House calendar, which lists the days of the year that the House of Representatives is expected to be in session.
Coordinating Strategy
Finally, the Whip coordinates legislative strategy and scheduling with the Democratic Leader. The Whip is charged with "getting out the vote," by ensuring that Members will be present on the floor during close votes. The Whip is largely responsible for coordinating voting strategy among the party members to ensure wide support among caucus members for the Democratic position.
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I've recently seen a number of questions closed as duplicates of questions which explain general debug procedures (like this one). I usually encounter these duplicates when the original question contains insufficient information to diagnose the issue.
While it's true that the generic answer will be of use to the OP, is it correct to accept these duplicates? I often find myself hitting "Skip" or instead marking the question as "lacks sufficient information", as I'm concerned that a genuinely unique problem will remain unsolved due to its having been closed as a generic duplicate.
1 Answer 1
up vote 18 down vote accepted
No, they should not be closed as duplicates of Unfortunately MyApp has stopped. How can I solve this?.
It is a perfectly good question and answer. But questions like Moving files from source to destination folder in android and Sqlite database size compare with local db size (from your SEDE query) are hardly duplicates of it. It may help the OP of the example questions, but it doesn't answer the question (and most of the time the answers will be different). So by definition it's not a duplicate.
That doesn't mean the example questions shouldn't be closed for other reasons, they just shouldn't be closed for that reason.
So how do you prevent guess-answers from being posted until OP figures out the underlying issue and changes their question title and body entirely? – CodeCaster May 27 '14 at 15:47
@code You can still close the question as too broad. When the OP edits the question it will automatically be moved to the reopen queue. – slugster May 27 '14 at 20:48
@CodeCaster, I prefer the "Off topic" option of "because it lacks sufficient information to diagnose the problem. Describe your problem in more detail or include a minimal example" ..., since I feel that the OP is more likely to solve their own problem in the process of creating the minimal example. – Simon MᶜKenzie May 27 '14 at 23:23
@SimonMᶜKenzie, I do too, though it could be argued that the proposed canonical answer would help with that. – Paul Draper May 28 '14 at 4:56
@PaulDraper, true, but I also feel that since the question will look superficially similar to its "duplicate", a reopen is less likely to succeed once a duplicate has been marked. – Simon MᶜKenzie May 28 '14 at 5:14
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Barked: Thu Mar 1, '07 11:14pm PST
1.The correct answer was Submission.
Your dog is expressing that he does not wish to challenge your leadership. He accepts that you are the boss. Submissive dogs never stare at dominant dogs. Don't punish a dog that acts like this- he's already saying, 'You're the boss!'
2. The correct answer was I am afraid and may bite or run..
This is the classic profile of a fear biter. These dogs are the most dangerous, as they feel that they must bite to protect themselves. If they can run, they will, but if they feel cornered they will attack, often ferociously. They don't have the confidence of the dominant dog. Give this dog an escape route and don't force yourself on him!
3. The correct answer was I smell a bitch in heat.
This may be related to a courtship ritual in which the male dog nibbles the hair on the ears of the female. It may also help increase the transfer of scent to the nasal membranes.
4. The correct answer was To show that he is the boss..
Despite many misconceptions, this is a dominance ritual. It is perfectly normal. Neutered dogs and females also mount to show dominance.
5. The correct answer was I may bite you..
This is a very dominant dog. If you stare at him or otherwise challenge his dominance, he is likely to bite. When a dog like this comes towards you, turn your side to the dog and do not stare at him! Talk soothingly and quietly, and try to back away.
6. The correct answer was Play with me!.
This is a happy, relaxed dog who wants to have some fun!
7. The correct answer was I am nervous..
Dogs yawn when they are nervous about something. You often see dogs yawn in obedience classes when an owner is being too harsh with them. Some misled owners correct yawning dogs thinking that they are not paying attention- bad idea!
8. The correct answer was Hello!.
Believe it or not, this is a friendly gesture! It's equivalent to a human handshake. Dogs will grasp each others' muzzles in the same way.
9. The correct answer was I am submissive..
This puppy should not be punished. This behavior is the canine equivalent of saying, 'I'm sorry!' and if you punish it you'll set up a vicious cycle of reoccurrence.
10. The correct answer was He needs a break..
Behaviors like scratching and shaking like a wet dog happen because of 'sensory overload.' The dog needs a break to calm down.
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NXC Version 1.2.1 r5
All Data Structures Files Functions Variables Groups Pages
Sound module
Constants and functions related to the Sound module. More...
Sound module constants
Constants that are part of the NXT firmware's Sound module.
Sound module functions
Functions for accessing and modifying sound module features.
Sound module types
Types used by various sound module functions.
Detailed Description
Constants and functions related to the Sound module.
The NXT sound module encompasses all sound output features. The NXT provides support for playing basic tones as well as two different types of files.
Sound files (.rso) are like .wav files. They contain thousands of sound samples that digitally represent an analog waveform. With sounds files the NXT can speak or play music or make just about any sound imaginable.
Melody files are like MIDI files. They contain multiple tones with each tone being defined by a frequency and duration pair. When played on the NXT a melody file sounds like a pure sine-wave tone generator playing back a series of notes. While not as fancy as sound files, melody files are usually much smaller than sound files.
When a sound or a file is played on the NXT, execution of the program does not wait for the previous playback to complete. To play multiple tones or files sequentially it is necessary to wait for the previous tone or file playback to complete first. This can be done via the Wait API function or by using the sound state value within a while loop.
The NXC API defines frequency and duration constants which may be used in calls to PlayTone or PlayToneEx. Frequency constants start with TONE_A3 (the 'A' pitch in octave 3) and go to TONE_B7 (the 'B' pitch in octave 7). Duration constants start with MS_1 (1 millisecond) and go up to MIN_1 (60000 milliseconds) with several constants in between. See NBCCommon.h for the complete list.
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Washington, DC - Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today released the following statement:
"Across the country, farmers and ranchers are taking action to protect natural resources, and the Administration's Methane Reduction Strategy provides additional voluntary actions producers can take to cut methane emissions. USDA will help producers implement these strategies, including methane capture technologies like anaerobic digesters and biogas systems, which create jobs and allow producers to tap into a $3 billion market for renewable energy. Since 2009, USDA has provided $62 million in support for 93 methane digester projects across the United States.
The voluntary strategies outlined today expand USDA's efforts to mitigate the negative impacts of climate change. USDA's Climate Hubs conduct critical research to deliver practical tools and information to help farmers and ranchers. USDA and the Environmental Protection Agency have also challenged every American to do their part to reduce food thrown away at home to cut the amount of food waste in landfills producing greenhouse gases.
Collectively, these efforts will reduce the impact of climate change on farmers and ranchers, improve public health, and increase the security of our nation's food supply."
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The Analyst™
Comprehensive diagnosis of your symptoms
Vitamin Paba
Search treatments and conditions
PABA (para-aminobenzoic acid) is classified as a vitamin-like substance. PABA is a component of many biological systems and participates in many metabolic processes. It appears to function as a coenzyme in the conversion of certain chemical intermediates to purines. It has also been suggested that PABA has an antifibrosis activity, increasing oxygen uptake at the tissues. This increase in oxygen may enhance monoamine oxidase activity; furthermore, it is believed that too little monoamine oxidase activity is a contributing factor to fibrosis. It has been reported that folic acid and vitamin C assist the absorption of PABA while ethanol, coffee, sulfa drugs, and cola drinks prevent absorption. PABA is commonly used as a topical sunscreen, absorbing ultraviolet light. However, it does not absorb in the near ultraviolet range (350 to 400 nanometers) and thus does not prevent drug-related photosensitivity and phototoxicity. PABA has been used in combination with salicylates in the treatment of rheumatic fever.
Some people believe that PABA is not necessary for human health. However, as it occurs naturally in our food supply (in liver, yeast, wheat germ, and molasses), it may be there for as yet unknown reason.
A safe daily dose is 30mg per day, but higher doses are used for therapeutic reasons. Deficiency symptoms include fatigue, irritability, depression, nervousness, headache, constipation, and other digestive disorders.
Vitamin Paba can help with the following:
Autoimmune Dermatitis Herpetiformis
Para-aminobenzoic acid (PABA) in large doses (10 to 25gm per day) may reduce or eliminate the skin lesions of DH. People with DH have remained symptom-free for as long as 30 months. Because of these high doses, a watchful eye should be kept for any evidence of side effects. [Arch Dermatol Syph 1951;63: pp.115-32]
There have been several cases where paba, taken as "Potaba", caused significant and lasting improvement in those with dermatomyositis. Suppression and reversal of autoimmunity seemed to occur. Doses taken ranged up to 20 grams per day. [N Y State J Med 63: pp.140-4, 1963]
Low Adrenal Function / Adrenal Insufficiency
PABA potentiates the hormone cortisol. When cortisol is being supplemented, the dosage of PABA may need to be reduced.
Metabolic Diet Type
Peyronie's Disease
PABA has been suggested for diseases in which abnormal fibrous tissue is involved, such as Peyronie's disease. However, no double-blind studies have been performed. [Tech Urol 3: pp.135-139, 1997]
Weeping eczema has been noted in some people with PABA deficiency as well as patchy areas on the skin.
Female Infertility
Para-aminobenzoic acid (PABA) stimulates the pituitary gland and sometimes restores fertility to some women who cannot conceive.
Perimenopausal Status / Issues
PABA helps potentiate hormones, especially in women moving toward menopause.
May do some good
Likely to help
Highly recommended
Coenzyme: A heat stable molecule that must be associated with another enzyme for the enzyme to perform its function in the body. It is necessary in the utilization of vitamins and minerals.
Constipation: Difficult, incomplete, or infrequent evacuation of dry, hardened feces from the bowels.
Folic Acid: A B-complex vitamin that functions along with vitamin B-12 and vitamin C in the utilization of proteins. It has an essential role in the formation of heme (the iron containing protein in hemoglobin necessary for the formation of red blood cells) and DNA. Folic acid is essential during pregnancy to prevent neural tubular defects in the developing fetus.
Metabolism: The chemical processes of living cells in which energy is produced in order to replace and repair tissues and maintain a healthy body. Responsible for the production of energy, biosynthesis of important substances, and degradation of various compounds.
Milligram: (mg): 1/1,000 of a gram by weight.
Monoamine Oxidase: (MAO) Enzyme catalyzing the removal of an amine group from a variety of substrates, including norepinephrine and dopamine.
PABA: (Para Aminobenzoic Acid): May be considered part of the Vitamin B complex. As a coenzyme, PABA functions in the breakdown and utilization of proteins and in the formation of red blood cells.
Topical: Most commonly 'topical application': Administration to the skin.
Yeast: A single-cell organism that may cause infection in the mouth, vagina, gastrointestinal tract, and any or all bodily parts. Common yeast infections include candidiasis and thrush.
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Ten Essential Public Health Services
Throughout the United States, public health agencies can serve a city or town, a county, or an entire state. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention serves as the nation’s public health agency and also helps coordinate responses to problems that cross state boundaries.
Regardless of a public health agency’s jurisdiction or size, the “10 Essential Public Health Services” is the fundamental framework that guides public health activities throughout the United States.
1. Monitor health status to identify community health problems.
2. Diagnose and investigate health problems and health hazards in the community.
3. Inform, educate, and empower people about health issues.
4. Mobilize community partnerships to identify and solve health problems.
5. Develop policies and plans that support individual and community health efforts.
6. Enforce laws and regulations that protect health and ensure safety.
7. Link people to needed personal health services and assure the provision of healthcare when otherwise unavailable.
8. Assure a competent public health and personal healthcare workforce.
9. Evaluate effectiveness, accessibility, and quality of personal and population-based health services.
10. Research for new insights and innovative solutions to health problems.
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1028.4 #168 (DL Qual #81
Feb 24, 2013 10:41 AM Disneyland Talk Land
It's Official: March 23 it is. 🍃LIVERMORE🍃Meet up. Due to the movie not being out, this is a rough draft of the schedule. We will start out with lunch at 2pm and Movie around 6. Coffee in between lunch and movie. Please make suggestions for a lunch place. You are welcome to join us anytime. Dm me or TinkerSchelle if you have any questions. I'm excited for this! Should you wear your mickey ears or where emerald green for the event 🍀🎩🍃you automatically get entered (one per family)to win an Oz prize🎩🍀
This sounds like it will be a blast! Enjoy yourselves! - KylaShea 632.7 #298 10:53AM
Wish you could come. - adventurerEnDisneylandia {AED} 1028.4 #168 11:03AM
me too! I want to see all you amazing people again - KylaShea 632.7 #298 11:19AM
This will mark my first meetup, so excited I can't wait! - ribidib 1177.9 #137 6:20PM
sounds great. I can't wait..! - David09 731.5 #247 6:31PM
Can't wait to meet you all!!!! We have a fun day ahead of us!!!!😉 - TinkerSchelle 1783.3 #85 7:36PM
First Street Ale House has pretty darn good food...and beer if you are in the mood.... - CVDisneyland 388.1 #548 10:56PM
Hey guys! Would you guys be oppose to 3D IMAX in Dublin? - adventurerEnDisneylandia {AED} 1028.4 #168 9:18AM
Not at all. Might be easier for accommodating a larger group, anyway. - MeridaFan 3584.6 #36 9:41AM
It's $19.00 for adults and $14.50 for children. - adventurerEnDisneylandia {AED} 1028.4 #168 10:31AM
Dublin is closer to me than Livermôre. I don't know how much or which part of the meet up I'll attend. Gonna be hard with my kiddos. - LaPearleNoir 1638.1 #95 12:32PM
I prefer Livermore because I'm cheap😂 ($10x3 is better then $19x3)...oh and their popcorn is better too. But we'll go with whatever ya'll choose. - Linzee 1121.5 #150 12:38PM
I can come but will need to bring my 2 kiddos. - LaPearleNoir 1638.1 #95 11:09AM
Yes please. - adventurerEnDisneylandia {AED} 1028.4 #168 11:11AM
Can't wait!! - hatgal76 444.5 #460 11:14AM
Yay! You'll be there too. - LaPearleNoir 1638.1 #95 12:32PM
Awesome, I can't wait! This is going to be so much fun. - Bibba 409.4 #513 11:35AM
Yay can't wait!!! - ShannonAzevedo 157.1 #2539 11:38AM
I like the idea of green and mouse ears for the event. Green mouse ears ;-). But the mouse ears might not be so nice for those sitting behind us in the theater. - Bibba 409.4 #513 11:46AM
Not for the movies, defiently take them down by than. 👍 - adventurerEnDisneylandia {AED} 1028.4 #168 11:57AM
Very exciting!!! We are trying to make this our first mw meet up! - mcramos925 410.8 #510 12:05PM
You should go, it will by my first one also - Linzee 1121.5 #150 10:11PM
Me three 😊 - ribidib 1177.9 #137 5:22AM
I really want to see that movie so bad!!!! - DisneyDanielle2000 3.1 #35898 12:09PM
Thank you so much for organizing this meet up, me and my girlfriend Elidina29 have every intention of attending. - ribidib 1177.9 #137 5:08PM
This would be so much fun except not sure what the Birthday plans will be for me that day! If I had to choose for the meal my choice would be Simply Fondue..but well that is very pricey! But I will see if the family/friends have anything planned if not I may try to make it since this is closer to me than SF was. - yellowtonka 241.5 #1403 5:27PM
Oh I hope you make it. If not, we shall have a Modesto meet up soon. Maybe in April 😁 - adventurerEnDisneylandia {AED} 1028.4 #168 10:06PM
Maybe I can help plan a Modesto or even Manteca meetup...maybe bowling or minature golf or something like that or just a BBQ at a park in Ripon or something..I dunno..we can figure something out! - yellowtonka 241.5 #1403 6:22PM
Oh that sounds fun! I'll dm my phone number. - adventurerEnDisneylandia {AED} 1028.4 #168 6:45PM
ok. I may have your # from the SF Meetup. Cool! Ill text you and we can figure something out. - yellowtonka 241.5 #1403 7:21PM
Oooooo! I hope we get to spend your birthday with you cutie!!!!!😘🎉 - TinkerSchelle 1783.3 #85 7:37PM
Bumping🎩🍃🎩🍃 - adventurerEnDisneylandia {AED} 1028.4 #168 2:58PM
Less than a month away. - adventurerEnDisneylandia {AED} 1028.4 #168 5:32PM
We should be there for the movie 🎥😊 - Linzee 1121.5 #150 3:02PM
sorry to hijack your post but I want to have a meetup in DTD to get a bunch to go see this. Cannot wait!! - secretagentangel 2171.5 #65 5:47PM
"off with your head," wrong movie😁 - adventurerEnDisneylandia {AED} 1028.4 #168 6:17PM
Thats exciting!! - adventurerEnDisneylandia {AED} 1028.4 #168 6:19PM
Another perfect place not too far from Anaheim is the ipic theater in Pasadena. Tickets are about $28 a person but the theater has approx 48 seats. The seats are recliners and they serve cocktails. Mwers could technically rent out the whole show. - aidensmama 340.2 #661 6:22PM
do you know if we can make a reservation? if not, maybe i can call them tomorrow, we could carpool from various places and watch it, I would love to see it in a place with a great screen. - secretagentangel 2171.5 #65 6:49PM
oh, and sorry again for the hijacking, especially since it is at the top so I will make another post for us peeps down here. :( - secretagentangel 2171.5 #65 6:52PM
You can order tickets ahead of time. That is really recommended as tickets are already selling out. - aidensmama 340.2 #661 6:55PM
You can check them out at ipictheaters.com. Sorry as well. :) - aidensmama 340.2 #661 6:57PM
Never attended a meet up. Are they fun?? - jammingjoe 24.3 #6234 6:14PM
Nah - philliprocks 1176.3 #138 6:18PM
Is this a tricky question? - adventurerEnDisneylandia {AED} 1028.4 #168 6:44PM
This one most certainly will be!!! AED keeps texting me her fun ideas! You won't want to miss it!!!! 😉👍PR-I'm gonna get you!!!!😜 - TinkerSchelle 1783.3 #85 7:35PM
Some of you are from Livermore too? Woot woot. I'm in SoCal for a few more weeks and then back home to NorCal. - FairyGrandmother 292.0 #914 1:15AM
I'm actually 40 minutes away but most live somewhat in the area. - adventurerEnDisneylandia {AED} 1028.4 #168 8:35AM
I know! It's awesome to see so many MWers in the Livermore area! Wish I could be there for the meet up! - Dawnsharks 76.2 #3889 12:57PM
I'm Livermore! 😘 - TinkerSchelle 1783.3 #85 8:55AM
Walnut creek but we got married in Livermore at wente vineyards. So we are not too far away - mcramos925 410.8 #510 1:33PM
I'm in, sounds fun! Looking forward to meeting all of you! Just saw a few minutes of it at Disney this weekend, I think it be great in 3D! Let me know if there is anything I can do to help. 😃 - piratelife4me 1008.1 #175 11:04AM
I'd love to attend. Let me see what my schedule is like. - Eticket15 72.9 #3954 11:38AM
I live in the east bay and would love to go. Can someone dm me? - miss_rachel 120.3 #3149 1:33PM
Just dm'd you. - adventurerEnDisneylandia {AED} 1028.4 #168 1:51PM
Yay!!! - TinkerSchelle 1783.3 #85 8:56AM
🎩who wants 3D IMAX? - adventurerEnDisneylandia {AED} 1028.4 #168 8:43AM
I would love to see it in 3d, but I want to do whatever is the best for the majority to ensure that as many of the MWers can attend, it's my first so I would prefer to meet as many of u as possible 😃 - ribidib 1177.9 #137 8:50AM
I want 3D IMAX!!! - David09 731.5 #247 12:28PM
Ok so is it now in Dublin? Or is that what we are trying to figure out? - mcramos925 410.8 #510 10:17AM
It's a possibity! Only if everyone is ok with that. IMAX is at Dublin. Let me know what you think? - adventurerEnDisneylandia {AED} 1028.4 #168 10:24AM
Either place is good for my mom and I...can't wait to meet everyone! - Mepenguin16 168.4 #2358 10:36AM
Alright! Sorry guys, just trying to see what works for us. Due to some concerns of IMAX, we are sticking to regular screen. Those who don't have dm you can email me at [email protected] - adventurerEnDisneylandia {AED} 1028.4 #168 10:50AM
FTR, I was just joking around, my family gives me a hard time about all of my couponing and do it yourself, please tell me you didn't stick with Livermore because of my lame "I'm a cheap-o" comment😂. - Linzee 1121.5 #150 12:46PM
Sounds great! And hey couponing isn't bad! I was someone who also said stick with Livermore. I get horrible headaches from IMAX. We can sit I. The back together hahaha jk - mcramos925 410.8 #510 1:35PM
Keep me informed please - E-Ticket 1393.1 #110 7:01PM
Any further details for this meetup? - yellowtonka 241.5 #1403 8:35PM
Yes! Will update info. On saturday. - adventurerEnDisneylandia {AED} 1028.4 #168 8:39PM
I found a babysitter so my plans are finally set. I am in for lunch and coffee. I'm so excited to meet more MW friends! - LaPearleNoir 1638.1 #95 10:25PM
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Filters: Your search found 3 results.
Solar system
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Audience: Informal education
This is an activity about the detection of magnetic storms. Learners will plot the locations of magnetic observatories in Canada and analyze the magnetic intensity for each station, looking for the difference between stable magnetic activity and the... (View More)
Audience: High school
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The Birth of Biography
During the Hellenistic period, we assist to a changed conception of the Greek man and his life. He is finally rather freed from the ties that characterised the 5th century b.C. scenario where he was seen, and consequently felt himself, mainly – if not exclusively – as a member of the community, a citizen of his πόλις, principally belonging to his family and his tribe. His life was now conceivable under a diverse and autonomous perspective, far away from the authority thanks to the new larger distances that Alexander the Great had created within his humongous empire.
Greek man starts joining clubs in accordance with his trade or hobbies, begins reading avidly and more down to earth subjects rather than the topics upon which epic and the classic tragedy was based. Realism was the main issue in those days: artists active in any field (sculpture, painting, poetry…) started to represent reality in any possible way, leaving to the past the canons of the classic period. This implied no more images of gods and heroes, representing abstractly beauty, courage and rage, but realistic and more common resembling people with feelings and even flaws! In this very same period the interest for great men grew, as well as the audience of readers, including for the first time even women. This interest stimulated the birth of biography as an independent literary genre from history.
During the classical period the interest of historians like Herodotus and Thucydides for biography had been quite immaterial, as it was not even considered a separate genre. Probably the attention exclusively placed on ideal characters, myths and epic heroes prevented any interest in the analysis of the actual men. Furthermore life was believed in the hands of Τύχη (chance or fate) and consequently any effort of men on earth was of no avail – men’s frailty meant to a certain extent their uselessness. Finally men were deemed too equal to leave anyone enough room to excel too much with respect to his fellow citizens.
Nonetheless, we find early writers who commenced narrating about some personal characteristics or episodes, such as Ion of Chios (490 b.C.) who wrote in his Epidemiai (Travels) also anecdotes about Pericles and Sophocles in order to give to his readers some additional information about the person and not simply of his opus or acts.
Almost one century later Isocrates (with his Evagoras I of Salamina) and Xenophon (with his Agesilaus II of Sparta) developed a new variant: the encomium, which is the biography of kings and emperors mainly aimed at magnifying their greatness as men as well as monarchs.
Aristoxenus of Taras can be considered the real father of biography as a separate literary category. A convinced Pythagorean he travelled widely and then settled down in Athens, where he became one of the best students of Aristotle. Disillusioned for not having been appointed as successor of Aristotle in leading the Lyceum, he left the school (322 b.C.) and started writing extensively (about 450 books) on almost any possible subject (history, musicology, philosophy etc.). Unfortunately only three books of the Elements of Harmony, an incomplete musical treatise, have reached us.
Aristoxenus wrote biographies of Pythagoras, Archytas, Socrates, and Plato. His approach to biography was not simply following the Aristotelic interest for the classification of individual characters, since his personal idea was to rely on the interpretation of life and writings of great men in order to comprehend their thought and greatness. Aristoxenus was probably the first one who showed that great men were not merely or solely the heroes, kings or generals, but people who had a memorable life thank also to their thought – evidence is that he lived in the age of Alexander the Great, whose biography he did not write….
Thus with his writings he initiated a new genre, and almost all the successive biographers started following his framework, as a template: historical scenario, birth, early youth, paramount episodes to reveal the character and finally death. Aristoxenus often liked to enrich this framework with stingy personal opinions plus anecdotes and curiosities generally in order to show off his vast culture and deep erudition.
Following the trail created by Aristoxenus, Satyrus of Callatis Pontica, who lived and worked mainly in Egypt, wrote biographies of Euripides, Pythagoras, and Demosthenes. Then he shifted his attention to Dionysus II of Syracuse, and Philip II of Macedonia. He was, nevertheless, a balanced writer avoiding to downsize his biographies to legendary tales
Antigonus of Caristos was principally a sculptor; probably he participated to some bronze artefacts in Pergamus by Attalus court. However he wrote his Lives of the Philosophers, a very detailed and erudite account, based on original material and personal interviews. Almost in the same period Hieronymus of Cardias wrote nearly an encomium of Demetrius I Poliorcetes.
Also true historians, in their comprehensive and encyclopaedic writings, started to write and linger more on life of important characters. Theopompus, of Chios (378-323 b.C.) wrote extensively about Philip II of Macedonia, plus encomia of Mausolus, Philip and Alexander. Even Polybius, within his famous historical treatise on the birth and growth of the Roman Empire, lingers on the personality of the Achaean general Philopoemen.
Regardless this production and the growing interest of the readers, both biography and autobiography, whose first example is the Memoirs of Aratus of Sicyon (271-213 b.C.), were destined to be considered a minor art, a sub-category of history even centuries later in Rome…
Later on, starting with Plutarch biography slowly acquired its own dignity, and as much as someone more recently has reached to the conclusion that History itself is made of the histories of those who have had the fortune/misfortune to influence it.
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Why and whys of Philosophy
Why Philosophy? In other words what is the use of Philosophy, especially nowadays: in a hyper technical world, characterised by a fast, often brief and strongly superficial communication and even more by a quite rare inclination to introspection and meditation, and a tough reluctance to activities without a direct either social, career-wise or financial return.
Well I must admit that the response is not an easy one. I would start by saying that in the first place the enquiry itself is not well formulated and it already contains and shows at the same time the limits of a widely diffused current way of thinking: not all the activities a person performs must necessarily have a direct usefulness, in terms of present return or even of future spendability.
If you consider it, you will realise that Philosophy itself is the repudiation of this principle, since it means love for study, research and intellectual speculation. This love for knowledge is pure and uninterested and its only aim is knowledge.
This approach has lead – and still leads – the philosopher to ask himself questions which not necessarily, and rather seldom, have answers. Regardless the difficulties or impossibility of proposing answers philosophers have been asking themselves on behalf of the whole human kind the most capital whys and hows. Why do we live? Why we feel necessary to believe in something supernatural? What are the laws of the universe? How is the world born? What is the sense of life? Is there something after death? Should we believe in an overall supernatural justice? Is everything already written somewhere or we have the power of changing the course of our life? What is the conduct we should maintain in our life?
I know it is overwhelming: for over three thousand years the early scientists, thinkers, religious at the beginning and the true sole philosophers afterwards have been trying to contemplate responses to these questions. Some, but not all, of their explanations and solutions might seem naïve, especially when you go to the dawn of these studies, in the Greek Ionian City-states located on the West coast of what we call now Turkey.
Of course within these three millennia the progress in scientific studies and their technical applications have been enormous, but what is remarkably important is to note the strong need for these people, along all these centuries and still now, to ask themselves and try to give answers, a constant research which demonstrates the consistency of the inquisitive aspects of human nature, regardless the achievements, discovers and inventions. Some scientific theories, therefore, have been surpassed, and many inventions have been outshined; but I challenge you to throw the entire thought of an ancient Philosopher, some or even many of his findings cannot be considered old and inapplicable to our times.
Naturally still now, most if not all, of these question are unanswered – which makes Philosophy so present. A very controversial situation, in a world into which people are so used to believe that there are answers ready made for everyone…
I personally believe that Philosophy ought to help anyone to give to things and events the right weight and significance, to balance the judgment of situations, persons and relations, to develop a deeper consciousness of being.
Thus it ought to be studied, not for the sake of reaching responses, since, as it is easily understandable it would be a real disappointing exercise; but for the sake of the questions themselves. The research, the introspection, the speculations will widen the spectrum through which reading of our experiences and hopefully to break the often narrowness of our vision of the world.
Then expect a new, more critical approach to the interpretation of life, against the supine acceptance of the too widely and invasively proposed standards and cliché.
Don’t you think it is worth? I know I myself fell into the trap of proposing to study philosophy in order to achieve a direct goal, the real freedom of thought… after all also I am a child of these times…
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This data viewing tool from NOAA is highly engaging and offers nearly instant access to dozens of datasets about Earth. Users select from atmosphere, ocean, land, cryosphere, and climate, and drill down from there into more detailed categories.
In this activity learners work in pairs or small groups to apply knowledge of energy-wise habits to evaluate energy use in their school and make recommendations for improved efficiency. Students create and use an energy audit tool to collect data and present recommendations to their class. Further communication at the school and district level is encouraged.
Activity is a Project BudBurst/National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) exploration of eco-climactic domains, as defined by NEON, by investigating characteristics of a specific domain and studying two representative plants in that domain.
In this video, several scientists identify and describe examples of increasing health problems that they believe are related to climate change.
This video explores what scientists know about how changes in global climate and increasing temperatures affect different extreme weather events.
This video provides a comprehensive introduction to the role of coral reefs, the physiology of corals, and the impacts of both ocean warming and acidification on coral survival. It highlights experts from the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences and the University of Miami.
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Sunday, July 8, 2007
Cancer: A Mistep into Chaos Quicksand?
I spent much of this weekend pouring over two publications. The first, Probing Genetic Overlap Among Complex Human Phenotypes, was published in PNAS. Gene Expression has a nice post about the publication. While the paper itself focuses on genetic overlap between Autism, Schizophrenia, and Bi-polar Disorder, the scope of the work spans across over 150 diseases which were all compared in a pair-wise fashion. My personal interests in this work lie in their findings regarding Amytrophic Lateral Sclerosis which the authors included in their 200+ pages of supplementary materials. As I learn more about this work, I will share more about my understanding of the potential significance.
The second publication I spent a lot of time attempting to wrap my feeble mind around this past weekend was a fascinating conceptual "modeling" paper written by Dr. Ivo Janecka, MD, MBA, PhD (that's a lot of letters...). As I mentioned in my post about Miuro, I am very much intrigued by chaos mathematics and non-linear dynamics. It is the most ambitious of my many amateur interests.
The introduction of Janecka's publication starts with a quote by Fritjof Capra saying:
"The more we study the major problems of our time, the more we come to realize that they cannot be understood in isolation. They are systemic problems, which means they are interconnected and interdependent."
It is a sentiment which many scientists share, but is very easy to lose site of when we attempt to make our research efforts more manageable. We try to linearize our experiments. We pretend that we can study individual variables. We forget that we are usually attempting to solve complex problems rather than answer simple binary questions. In the twenty-first century, living systems and their "problems" are proving to be more complex than any systems humans have ever tried to understand.
When I decided to pursue a career in life sciences, it was because I could not imagine that any other field of study could offer systems as beautiful and mysterious as life. I also could not imagine a field that could offer so much promise to help fellow humans once some of the mysteries were unlocked.
In this publication, Janecka offers a conceptual model for life systems. He describes life as a "non-linear dynamical system following the principles of organized complexity" with a "health territory" defined by the the systems ability to self-organize and self-adapt.
OK, so what does that mean? Let's take it one part at a time.
What is a non-linear dynamical system?
This is a system where small changes to early conditions can directly result in hugely different results at some later time. Many people have heard of the concept of a butterfly fluttering its wings on the North American west coast resulting in dramatic changes to huge tropical weather system on the east coast. Weather patterns are good examples of non-linear dynamical systems.
What is self-organization?
A system that self-organizes is one that will find a way to go back to "normal" after it has been disrupted. Imagine a beehive that is completely buzzing with activity. Now, imagine throwing a very small pebble at that beehive and disrupting the activity of the bees. For a few moments, the bees buzz away and circle the hive, only to go right back to the hive. The hive then appears almost exactly as it had before it had been disrupted. The system always approaches an organized baseline of activity.
Life, specifically human life, is very much the same. Our bodies work to self-organize. When we suffer lacerations, bleeding stops and the lesion closes/heals. This propensity to self-organize is catagorized by Janecka into a "zone of order".
What is self-adaptation?
Self-adaptation can be described as a systems flexibility to change based on information received from outside to the system. If you have ever attempted to play the guitar, you will know that it hurts at first. Fingertips become raw. Forearms become very sore. Over time, the muscles in the hand and forearm become much stronger and the fingertips become calloused and less sensitive to pain. The system is self-adapting to the information conveyed from the environment. If we could not adapt the environment around us and we didn't have flexibility to express a variety of phenotypes, our species could not survive. This flexibility is catagorized by Janecka within the "inner edge of chaos".
If life is a self-organizing and self-adapting system, then, Janecka reasons, it can be described as a pendulum swinging back and forth through the "zone of order" and the "inner edge of chaos".
When life swings too far into the "zone of order", it is at the expense of adaptability. This can result in detrimental rigidity as in the case of ECG cardiac signalling. Lack of chaotic fluctuations in cardiac electical signalling invariably indicates cardiac disease because of its lack of adaptability to variable conditions of stress and strain. Imagine if your heart couldn't beat faster when you needed to run. You wouldn't be able to get oxygen to your blood and muscles fast enough. It would be detrimental to you as a "living system".
Likewise, when life swings too far past the "inner edge of chaos", the system loses its ability to self organize. This can be observed in cases of cancer where a subsystem of cells within the complete living system loses the ability to regulate expenditure of resources. In cancer, most cellular resources are allocated to reproduction instead of differentiation and functionality. The cancer cells replicate in exponential self-similar chaos fractal patterns like the common Mandelbrot geometic patterns of Merkel cell carcinomas.
Janecka suggests that many untreatable human diseases can be catagorized as pendulum swinging too far in either direction of the self-organizing/self-adapting systems. A swing in either direction plunges the living system into a stage of accelerating entropy ontil the system completely unravels at death. He goes on to suggest that scientists and clinicians could use the model to evaluate what needs to happen to a diseased patient to best bring them back to their healthy balance of order and chaos. In the case of cancer, Janecka proposes that efforts be made to re-educate the cancer cells to move back toward efficient energy consumption. Teach the cancer cells to differentiate again instead of reproduce. Re-balance the system.
The concept is fascinating and I look forward to following up on researcher who reference this publication.
No comments:
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Weather Forecast
Cathy Peck: Solve seed germination mysteries
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Cathy Peck: Solve seed germination mysteries
Bemidji Minnesota P.O. Box 455 56619
Seeds can be a mystery. Sometimes they germinate quickly; other times it seems to take forever and then there are the times when they don’t sprout at all.
Perennials flowers are often the most challenging. Perhaps we need to understand a bit more about what makes seeds tick.
For a plant species to survive (its main purpose), it often uses extraordinary means. Each plant has a niche where it thrives – the best growing zone, best soil, moisture, and light conditions, the place it can compete well with other hungry species, whether plant or animal.
A plant can’t pack a suitcase and move, but it does have a number of survival mechanisms, one of which is its seeds. Plants, however, don’t put all their eggs in one basket.
Some plants produce a lot of seeds but don’t necessarily expend all their energy giving every seed an embryo, thus some seeds don’t germinate. In nature some seeds become plants and ensure that the species survives. Too many little plants might grow into an overcrowded mass where all are weakened and none survive (plant birth control?).
Other seeds from the same seed pod may germinate at different times. This survival mechanism is good because if all seeds germinated at the same time, poor growing conditions, disease, insect or other predation might kill all the plants. This would endanger survival of that species. Plants often ensure survival by staggering germination times of their seeds. Some germinate immediately but others may go into a deep dormancy and not germinate for a year or longer. This can frustrate a gardener who isn’t forewarned, is impatient or simply can’t maintain the right germinating conditions for such a long period of time.
Some seeds need the forces of nature to allow them to germinate. It may take a cycle of freezing and thawing to break the seed coat or the seed coat may need exposure to certain chemicals present in the soil to break it open, allowing moisture to reach the seed itself so that it can sprout.
Other times it may take specific moisture levels and temperature fluctuations as well as daylight length to bring about the blessed event, germination. This usually occurs when it can have a reasonable expectation that it will grow, e.g., going through seasonal changes. Remember, a plant’s purpose is to live and reproduce successfully within its niche so that the species survives.
Our success in germinating and growing seeds lies in learning about and then duplicating nature’s methods. A good book such as Eileen Powell’s “From Seed to Bloom” can give you information about what it takes to germinate many types of plants. It includes advice on moisture needs, planting depth, temperature (air temperatures are higher than the soil mix in the six pack in your house), darkness or light, whether it needs a heat or cold treatment, whether the seed coat needs nicking to allow moisture to penetrate and how long it should take to germinate.
None of this will help, however, if the seeds have been stored improperly in too warm temperatures. Storing newly purchased seed in a refrigerator will aid your success. Seed sitting on a shelf in a store too long may fail.
Even with all your best efforts, you can get poor germination. Having started perennial flowers for over 30 years, I still persist.
The resulting plants often thrive better than the ones I purchase at a nursery. You can try new and different varieties and can grow many plants for create masses of color at a nominal cost. It is fun and worth the effort. Look for reliable horticulture information on the University of Minnesota Extension website at
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JEE (Main) Syllabus
• Mathematics
• Physics
• Chemistry
Mathematics Syllabus for JEE Main 2016
UNIT 1: Sets, Relations and Functions
Sets and their representation; Union, intersection and complement of sets and their algebraic properties; power set; Relation, types of relations, equivalence relations, functions;. one-one, into and onto functions, composition of functions.
UNIT 2: Complex Numbers and Quadratic Equations
Complex numbers as ordered pairs of reals, representation of complex numbers in the form a + ib and their representation in a plane, Argand diagram, algebra of complex numbers, modulus and argument (or amplitude) of a complex number, square root of a complex number, triangle inequality, quadratic equations in real and complex number system and their solutions. relation between roots and co-efficients, nature of roots, formation of quadratic equations with given roots.
UNIT 3: Matrices and Determinants
Matrices, algebra of matrices, types of matrices, determinants and matrices of order two and three. Properties of determinants, evaluation of determinants, area of triangles using determinants. adjoint and evaluation of inverse of a square matrix using determinants and elementary transformations, test of consistency and solution of simultaneous linear equations in two or three variables using determinants and matrices.
UNIT 4: Permutations and Combinations
Fundamental principle of counting, permutation as an arrangement and combination as selection, meaning of P (n, r) and C (n, r), simple applications.
UNIT 5: Mathematical Induction
Principle of Mathematical Induction and its simple applications.
UNIT 6: Binomial Theorem and its Simple Applications
Binomial theorem for a positive integral index, general term and middle term, properties of Binomial coefficients and simple applications.
UNIT 7: Sequence and Series
Arithmetic and Geometric progressions, insertion of arithmetic, geometric means between two given numbers. Relation between A.M. and G.M. Sum upto n terms of special series: S n, S n2, Sn3. Arithmetico – Geometric progression.
UNIT 8: Limit, Continuity and Differentiability
Real-valued functions, algebra of functions, polynomials, rational, trigonometric, logarithmic and exponential functions, inverse functions. Graphs of simple functions. Limits, continuity and differentiability. Differentiation of the sum, difference, product and quotient of two functions. Differentiation of trigonometric, inverse trigonometric, logarithmic, exponential, composite and implicit functions; derivatives of order upto two. Rolle’s and Lagrange’s Mean Value Theorems. Applications of derivatives: Rate of change of quantities, monotonic - increasing and decreasing functions, maxima and minima of functions of one variable, tangents and normals.
UNIT 9: Integral Calculus
Integral as an anti-derivative. Fundamental integrals involving algebraic, trigonometric, exponential and logarithmic functions. Integration by substitution, by parts and by partial fractions. Integration using trigonometric identities. Evaluation of simple integrals of the type
Integral as limit of a sum. Fundamental Theorem of Calculus. Properties of definite integrals. Evaluation of definite integrals, determining areas of the regions bounded by simple curves in standard form.
UNIT 10: Differential Equations
Ordinary differential equations, their order and degree. Formation of differential equations. Solution of differential equations by the method of separation of variables, solution of homogeneous and linear differential equations of the type:
UNIT 11: Co-ordinate Geometry
Cartesian system of rectangular co-ordinates in a plane, distance formula, section formula, locus and its equation, translation of axes, slope of a line, parallel and perpendicular lines, intercepts of a line on the coordinate axes.
Straight lines:
Circles, conic sections:
UNIT 12: Three Dimensional Geometry
Coordinates of a point in space, distance between two points, section formula. direction ratios and direction cosines, angle between two intersecting lines. Skew lines, the shortest distance between them and its equation. Equations of a line and a plane in different forms, intersection of a line and a plane, coplanar lines.
UNIT 13: Vector Algebra
UNIT 14: Statistics and Probability
Measures of Dispersion: Calculation of mean, median, mode of grouped and ungrouped data. Calculation of standard deviation, variance and mean deviation for grouped and ungrouped data.
UNIT 15: Trigonometry
Trigonometrical identities and equations. Trigonometrical functions. Inverse trigonometrical functions and their properties. Heights and Distances.
UNIT 16: Mathematical Reasoning
Statements, logical operations and, or, implies, implied by, if and only if. Understanding of tautology, contradiction, converse and contrapositive.
Physics Syllabus for JEE Main 2016
The syllabus contains two Sections - A and B. Section - A pertains to the Theory Part having 80% weightage, while Section - B contains Practical Component (Experimental Skills) having 20% weightage.
UNIT 1: Physics and Measurement
Physics, technology and society, SI units, Fundamental and derived units. Least count, accuracy and precision of measuring instruments, Errors in measurement, dimensions of Physical quantities, dimensional analysis and its applications.
UNIT 2: Kinematics
Frame of reference. Motion in a straight line: Position-time graph, speed and velocity. Uniform and non-uniform motion, average speed and instantaneous velocity. Uniformly accelerated motion, velocity-time, position-time graphs, relations for uniformly accelerated motion. scalars and vectors, vector addition and subtraction, zero vector, scalar and vector products, unit vector, resolution of a vector. Relative Velocity, Motion in a plane, Projectile Motion, Uniform Circular Motion.
UNIT 3: Laws of Motion
• Force and Inertia, Newton’s First Law of motion; Momentum, Newton’s Second Law of motion; Impulse; Newton’s Third Law of motion. Law of conservation of linear momentum and its applications, equilibrium of concurrent forces.
• Static and Kinetic friction, laws of friction, rolling friction.
• Dynamics of uniform circular motion: Centripetal force and its applications.
UNIT 4: Work, Energy and Power
UNIT 5: Rotational Motion
Centre of mass of a two-particle system, centre of mass of a rigid body, basic concepts of rotational motion; moment of a force, torque, angular momentum, conservation of angular momentum and its applications, moment of inertia, radius of gyration. Values of moments of inertia for simple geometrical objects, parallel and perpendicular axes theorems and their applications. Rigid body rotation, equations of rotational motion.
UNIT 6: Gravitation
UNIT 7: Properties of Solids and Liquids
Elastic behaviour, stress-strain relationship, hooke’s Law, young’s modulus, bulk modulus, modulus of rigidity. Pressure due to a fluid column; Pascal’s law and its applications. Viscosity, Stokes’ law, terminal velocity, streamline and turbulent flow, reynolds number. Bernoulli’s principle and its applications. Surface energy and surface tension, angle of contact, application of surface tension - drops, bubbles and capillary rise. Heat, temperature, thermal expansion; specific heat capacity, calorimetry; change of state, latent heat. Heat transfer; conduction, convection and radiation, Newton’s law of cooling.
UNIT 8: Thermodynamics
UNIT 9: Kinetic Theory of Gases
Equation of state of a perfect gas, work done on compressing a gas. Kinetic theory of gases - assumptions, concept of pressure. Kinetic energy and temperature: rms speed of gas molecules; degrees of freedom, law of equipartition of energy, applications to specific heat capacities of gases; mean free path, Avogadro’s number.
UNIT 10: Oscillations and Waves
Periodic motion - period, frequency, displacement as a function of time. Periodic functions. Simple harmonic motion (S.H.M.) and its equation; phase; oscillations of a spring -restoring force and force constant; energy in S.H.M. - kinetic and potential energies; Simple pendulum - derivation of expression for its time period; Free, forced and damped oscillations, resonance.
Wave motion. Longitudinal and transverse waves, speed of a wave. Displacement relation for a progressive wave. Principle of superposition of waves, reflection of waves, standing waves in strings and organ pipes, fundamental mode and harmonics, beats, doppler effect in sound.
UNIT 11: Electrostatics
Electric field: Electric field due to a point charge, electric field lines, Electric dipole, electric field due to a dipole, torque on a dipole in a uniform electric field.
UNIT 12: Current Electricity
Electric current, Drift velocity, Ohm’s law, electrical resistance, resistances of different materials, V-I characteristics of Ohmic and non-ohmic conductors, electrical energy and power, electrical resistivity, colour code for resistors; series and parallel combinations of resistors; temperature dependence of resistance.
Electric Cell and its Internal resistance, potential difference and emf of a cell, combination of cells in series and in parallel. Kirchhoff’s laws and their applications. Wheatstone bridge, metre bridge. Potentiometer - principle and its applications.
UNIT 13: Magnetic Effects of Current and Magnetism
Force on a current-carrying conductor in a uniform magnetic field. Force between two parallel current-carrying conductors-definition of ampere. Torque experienced by a current loop in uniform magnetic field; moving coil galvanometer, its current sensitivity and conversion to ammeter and voltmeter.
Magnetic susceptibility and permeability, hysteresis, electromagnets and permanent magnets.
UNIT 14: Electromagnetic Induction and Alternating Currents
Electromagnetic induction; Faraday’s law, induced emf and current; Lenz’s Law, eddy currents. Self and mutual inductance. Alternating currents, peak and rms value of alternating current/ voltage; reactance and impedance; LCR series circuit, resonance; quality factor, power in AC circuits, wattless current. AC generator and transformer.
UNIT 15: Electromagnetic Waves
Electromagnetic waves and their characteristics. Transverse nature of electromagnetic waves.
Electromagnetic spectrum (radio waves, microwaves, infrared, visible, ultraviolet, X-rays, gamma rays). Applications of e.m. waves.
UNIT 16: Optics
Reflection and refraction of light at plane and spherical surfaces, mirror formula, total internal reflection and its applications, deviation and dispersion of light by a prism, Lens Formula, magnification, power of a Lens, combination of thin lenses in contact, microscope and astronomical Telescope (reflecting and refracting) and their magnifying powers.
Wave optics: wavefront and Huygens’ principle, Laws of reflection and refraction using Huygens' principle. Interference, Young’s double slit experiment and expression for fringe width, coherent sources and sustained interference of light. Diffraction due to a single slit, width of central maximum. Resolving power of microscopes and astronomical telescopes, polarisation, plane polarized light; Brewster’s law, uses of plane polarized light and Polaroids.
UNIT 17: Dual Nature of Matter and Radiation
Dual nature of radiation. Photoelectric effect, Hertz and Lenard’s observations; Einstein’s photoelectric equation; particle nature of light. Matter waves-wave nature of particle, de Broglie relation. Davisson-Germer experiment.
UNIT 18: Atoms and Nuclei
UNIT 19: Electronic Devices
UNIT 20: Communication Systems
Propagation of electromagnetic waves in the atmosphere; sky and space wave propagation, need for modulation, amplitude and frequency modulation, bandwidth of signals, bandwidth of transmission medium, basic elements of a communication system (Block Diagram only).
UNIT 21: Experimental Skills
Familiarity with the basic approach and observations of the experiments and activities:
• Vernier callipers-its use to measure internal and external diameter and depth of a vessel.
• Screw gauge-its use to determine thickness/diameter of thin sheet/wire.
• Simple Pendulum-dissipation of energy by plotting a graph between square of amplitude and time.
• Metre Scale - mass of a given object by principle of moments.
• Young’s modulus of elasticity of the material of a metallic wire.
• Surface tension of water by capillary rise and effect of detergents.
• Co-efficient of Viscosity of a given viscous liquid by measuring terminal velocity of a given spherical body.
• Plotting a cooling curve for the relationship between the temperature of a hot body and time.
• Speed of sound in air at room temperature using a resonance tube.
• Specific heat capacity of a given (i) solid and (ii) liquid by method of mixtures.
• Resistivity of the material of a given wire using metre bridge.
• Resistance of a given wire using Ohm’s law.
• Potentiometer
• Comparison of emf of two primary cells.
• Determination of internal resistance of a cell.
• Resistance and figure of merit of a galvanometer by half deflection method.
• Focal length of:
• Convex mirror
• Concave mirror
• Convex lens
• using parallax method.
• Plot of angle of deviation vs angle of incidence for a triangular prism.
• Refractive index of a glass slab using a travelling microscope.
• Characteristic curves of a p-n junction diode in forward and reverse bias.
• Characteristic curves of a Zener diode and finding reverse break down voltage.
• Characteristic curves of a transistor and finding current gain and voltage gain.
• Identification of Diode, LED, Transistor, IC, Resistor, Capacitor from mixed collection of such items.
• Using multimeter to:
• Identify base of a transistor.
• Distinguish between npn and pnp type transistor.
• See the unidirectional flow of current in case of a diode and an LED.
• Check the correctness or otherwise of a given electronic component (diode, transistor or IC).
Chemistry Syllabus for JEE Main 2016
UNIT 1: Some Basic Concepts in Chemistry
Matter and its nature, Dalton’s atomic theory; Concept of atom, molecule, element and compound; Physical quantities and their measurements in Chemistry, precision and accuracy, significant figures, S.I. Units, dimensional analysis; laws of chemical combination; atomic and molecular masses, mole concept, molar mass, percentage composition, empirical and molecular formulae; chemical equations and stoichiometry.
UNIT 2: States of Matter
Classification of matter into solid, liquid and gaseous states.
Gaseous State: Measurable properties of gases; Gas laws - Boyle’s law, Charle’s law, Graham’s law of diffusion, Avogadro’s law, Dalton’s law of partial pressure; concept of absolute scale of temperature; ideal gas equation; kinetic theory of gases (only postulates); concept of average, root mean square and most probable velocities; real gases, deviation from ideal behaviour, compressibility factor and van der Waals equation.
Liquid State: Properties of liquids - vapour pressure, viscosity and surface tension and effect of temperature on them (qualitative treatment only).
Solid State: Classification of solids: molecular, ionic, covalent and metallic solids, amorphous and crystalline solids (elementary idea); Bragg’s Law and its applications; unit cell and lattices, packing in solids (fcc, bcc and hcp lattices), voids, calculations involving unit cell parameters, imperfection in solids; electrical and magnetic properties.
UNIT 3: Atomic Structure
Thomson and Rutherford atomic models and their limitations; nature of electromagnetic radiation, photoelectric effect; spectrum of hydrogen atom, Bohr model of hydrogen atom - its postulates, derivation of the relations for energy of the electron and radii of the different orbits, limitations of Bohr’s model; dual nature of matter, de-Broglie’s relationship, Heisenberg uncertainty principle. Elementary ideas of quantum mechanics, quantum mechanical model of atom, its important features. Ψ and Ψ2 concept of atomic orbitals as one electron wave functions; Variation of Ψ and Ψ2 with r for 1s and 2s orbitals; various quantum numbers (principal, angular momentum and magnetic quantum numbers) and their significance; shapes of s, p and d - orbitals, electron spin and spin quantum number; rules for filling electrons in orbitals – Aufbau principle, Pauli’s exclusion principle and Hund’s rule, electronic configuration of elements, extra stability of half-filled and completely filled orbitals.
UNIT 4: Chemical Bonding and Molecular Structure
Kossel - Lewis approach to chemical bond formation, concept of ionic and covalent bonds.
Covalent Bonding: Concept of electronegativity, Fajan’s rule, dipole moment; valence shell electron pair repulsion (VSEPR) theory and shapes of simple molecules.
Quantum mechanical approach to covalent bonding: Valence bond theory – Its important features, concept of hybridization involving s, p and d orbitals; Resonance.
Molecular Orbital Theory: Its important features, LCAOs, types of molecular orbitals (bonding, antibonding), sigma and pi-bonds, molecular orbital electronic configurations of homonuclear diatomic molecules, concept of bond order, bond length and bond energy. Elementary idea of metallic bonding. Hydrogen bonding and its applications.
UNIT 5: Chemical Thermodynamics
Fundamentals of thermodynamics - System and surroundings, extensive and intensive properties, state functions, types of processes.
First law of thermodynamics - Concept of work, heat internal energy and enthalpy, heat capacity, molar heat capacity; Hess’s law of constant heat summation; enthalpies of bond dissociation, combustion, formation, atomization, sublimation, phase transition, hydration, ionization and solution.
Second law of thermodynamics - Spontaneity of processes; ΔS of the universe and ΔG of the system as criteria for spontaneity, ΔG° (Standard Gibbs energy change) and equilibrium constant.
UNIT 6: Solutions
Different methods for expressing concentration of solution - molality, molarity, mole fraction, percentage (by volume and mass both), vapour pressure of solutions and Raoult’s Law – Ideal and non-ideal solutions, vapour pressure - composition, plots for ideal and non-ideal solutions; colligative properties of dilute solutions - relative lowering of vapour pressure, depression of freezing point, elevation of boiling point and osmotic pressure; determination of molecular mass using colligative properties; abnormal value of molar mass, van’t Hoff factor and its significance.
UNIT 7: Equilibrium
Meaning of equilibrium, concept of dynamic equilibrium.
Equilibria involving physical processes: Solid -liquid, liquid - gas and solid – gas equilibria, Henry’s law, general characteristics of equilibrium involving physical processes.
Equilibria involving chemical processes: Law of chemical equilibrium, equilibrium constants (Kp and Kc) and their significance, significance of ΔG and ΔG° in chemical equilibria, factors affecting equilibrium concentration, pressure, temperature, effect of catalyst; Le Chatelier’s principle.
Ionic equilibrium: Weak and strong electrolytes, ionization of electrolytes, various concepts of acids and bases (Arrhenius, Bronsted - Lowry and Lewis) and their ionization, acid - base equilibria (including multistage ionization) and ionization constants, ionization of water, pH scale, common ion effect, hydrolysis of salts and pH of their solutions, solubility of sparingly soluble salts and solubility products, buffer solutions.
UNIT 8: Redox Reactions and Electrochemistry
Electrochemical cells - Electrolytic and Galvanic cells, different types of electrodes, electrode potentials including standard electrode potential, half – cell and cell reactions, emf of a Galvanic cell and its measurement; Nernst equation and its applications; relationship between cell potential and Gibbs’ energy change; dry cell and lead accumulator; fuel cells.
UNIT 9: Chemical Kinetics
Rate of a chemical reaction, factors affecting the rate of reactions: concentration, temperature, pressure and catalyst; elementary and complex reactions, order and molecularity of reactions, rate law, rate constant and its units, differential and integral forms of zero and first order reactions, their characteristics and half - lives, effect of temperature on rate of reactions – Arrhenius theory, activation energy and its calculation, collision theory of bimolecular gaseous reactions (no derivation).
UNIT-10: Surface Chemistry
Adsorption- Physisorption and chemisorption and their characteristics, factors affecting adsorption of gases on solids - Freundlich and Langmuir adsorption isotherms, adsorption from solutions.
Catalysis- Homogenous and Hetrogenouus, activity and selectivity of solid catalysts, enzyme catalysis and its mechanism.
Colloidal state - distinction among true solutions, colloids and suspensions, classification of colloids - lyophilic, lyophobic; multi molecular, macromolecular and associated colloids (micelles), preparation and properties of colloids - Tyndall effect, Brownian movement, electrophoresis, dialysis, coagulation and flocculation; emulsions and their characteristics.
UNIT 11: Classification of Elements and Periodicity in Properties
Modem periodic law and present form of the periodic table, s, p, d and f block elements: periodic trends in properties of elements atomic and ionic radii, ionization enthalpy, electron gain enthalpy, valence, oxidation states and chemical reactivity.
UNIT 12: General Principles and Processes of Isolation of Metals
Modes of occurrence of elements in nature, minerals, ores; Steps involved in the extraction of metals - concentration, reduction (chemical and electrolytic methods) and refining with special reference to the extraction of Al, Cu, Zn and Fe; Thermodynamic and electrochemical principles involved in the extraction of metals.
UNIT 13: Hydrogen
Position of hydrogen in periodic table, isotopes, preparation, properties and uses of hydrogen; physical and chemical properties of water and heavy water; Structure, preparation, reactions and uses of hydrogen peroxide; Classification of hydrides - ionic, covalent and interstitial; hydrogen as a fuel.
UNIT 14: S - Block Elements (Alkali and Alkaline Earth Metals)
Group - 1 and 2 Elements
Preparation and properties of some important compounds - sodium carbonate and sodium hydroxide and sodium hydrogen carbonate; industrial uses of lime, limestone, plaster of paris and cement; biological significance of Na, K, Mg and Ca.
UNIT 15: P - Block Elements
Group - 13 to Group 18 Elements
Groupwise study of the p – block elements
Group – 13
Preparation, properties and uses of boron and aluminium; Structure, properties and uses of borax, boric acid, diborane, boron trifluoride, aluminium chloride and alums.
Group – 14
Tendency for catenation; Structure, properties and uses of Allotropes and oxides of carbon, silicon tetrachloride, silicates, zeolites and silicones.
Group – 15
Properties and uses of nitrogen and phosphorus; allotrophic forms of phosphorus; preparation, properties, structure and uses of ammonia, nitric acid, phosphine and phosphorus halides, (PCl3, PCl5); structures of oxides and oxoacids of nitrogen and phosphorus.
Group – 16
Preparation, properties, structures and uses of ozone; allotropic forms of sulphur; Preparation, properties, structures and uses of sulphuric acid (including its industrial preparation); structures of oxoacids of sulphur.
Group – 17
Preparation, properties and uses of hydrochloric acid; trends in the acidic nature of hydrogen halides; structures of interhalogen compounds and oxides and oxoacids of halogens.
Group –18
Occurrence and uses of noble gases; structures of fluorides and oxides of xenon.
UNIT 16: d – and f – Block Elements
Transition Elements: General introduction, electronic configuration, occurrence and characteristics, general trends in properties of the first row transition elements – physical properties, ionization enthalpy, oxidation states, atomic radii, colour, catalytic behaviour, magnetic properties, complex formation, interstitial compounds, alloy formation; preparation, properties and uses of K2Cr2O7 and KMnO4.
Inner Transition Elements
Lanthanoids - Electronic configuration, oxidation states and lanthanoid contraction.
Actinoids - Electronic configuration and oxidation states.
UNIT 17: Co-ordination Compounds
Introduction to co-ordination compounds, Werner’s theory; ligands, coordination number, denticity, chelation; IUPAC nomenclature of mononuclear co-ordination compounds, isomerism; bonding-valence bond approach and basic ideas of crystal field theory, colour and magnetic properties; importance of co-ordination compounds (in qualitative analysis, extraction of metals and in biological systems).
UNIT 18: Environmental Chemistry
Environmental pollution - atmospheric, water and soil.
Atmospheric pollution - tropospheric and stratospheric.
Tropospheric pollutants - gaseous pollutants: oxides of carbon, nitrogen and sulphur, hydrocarbons; their sources, harmful effects and prevention; green house effect and global warming; acid rain
Particulate pollutants - smoke, dust, smog, fumes, mist; their sources, harmful effects and prevention
Stratospheric pollution - Formation and breakdown of ozone, depletion of ozone layer - its mechanism and effects.
Water Pollution - Major pollutants such as, pathogens, organic wastes and chemical pollutants; their harmful effects and prevention.
Soil pollution - Major pollutants such as: Pesticides (insecticides, herbicides and fungicides), their harmful effects and prevention.
Strategies to control environmental pollution.
UNIT 19: Purification and Characterisation of Organic Compounds
Purification - Crystallization, sublimation, distillation, differential extraction and chromatography principles and their applications.
Qualitative analysis - Detection of nitrogen, sulphur, phosphorus and halogens.
Quantitative analysis (basic principles only) - Estimation of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, halogens, sulphur, phosphorus.
Calculations of empirical formulae and molecular formulae; numerical problems in organic quantitative analysis.
UNIT 20: Some Basic Principles of Organic Chemistry
Tetravalency of carbon; Shapes of simple molecules - hybridization (s and p); classification of organic compounds based on functional groups: and those containing halogens, oxygen, nitrogen and sulphur; homologous series; isomerism - structural and stereoisomerism.
Nomenclature (Trivial and IUPAC)
Covalent bond fission - Homolytic and heterolytic: free radicals, carbocations and carbanions; stability of carbocations and free radicals, electrophiles and nucleophiles.
Electronic displacement in a covalent bond - Inductive effect, electromeric effect, resonance and hyperconjugation.
Common types of organic reactions - Substitution, addition, elemination and rearrangement.
UNIT 21: Hydrocarbons
Classification, isomerism, IUPAC nomenclature, general methods of preparation, properties and reactions.
• Alkanes - Conformations: sawhorse and newman projections (of ethane); mechanism of halogenation of alkanes.
• Alkenes - Geometrical isomerism; mechanism of electrophilic addition: addition of hydrogen, halogens, water, hydrogen halides (Markownikoff’s and peroxide effect); Ozonolysis and polymerization.
• Alkynes - Acidic character; addition of hydrogen, halogens, water and hydrogen halides; polymerization.
• Aromatic hydrocarbons - Nomenclature, benzene - structure and aromaticity; mechanism of electrophilic substitution: halogenation, nitration, Friedel – Craft’s alkylation and acylation, directive influence of functional group in monosubstituted benzene.
UNIT 22: Organic Compounds Containing Halogens
General methods of preparation, properties and reactions; nature of C-X bond; mechanisms of substitution reactions.
Uses; environmental effects of chloroform, iodoform, freons and DDT.
UNIT 23: Organic Compounds Containing Oxygen
• General methods of preparation, properties, reactions and uses.
• Alcohols: Identification of primary, secondary and tertiary alcohols; mechanism of dehydration.
• Phenols: Acidic nature, electrophilic substitution reactions: halogenation, nitration and sulphonation, reimer - tiemann reaction.
• Ethers: Structure.
• Aldehyde and Ketones: Nature of carbonyl group; nucleophilic addition to >C=O group, relative reactivities of aldehydes and ketones; important reactions such as – Nucleophilic addition reactions (addition of HCN, NH3and its derivatives), grignard reagent; oxidation; reduction (Wolff Kishner and Clemmensen); acidity of hydrogen, aldol condensation, cannizzaro reaction, Haloform reaction; Chemical tests to distinguish between aldehydes and Ketones.
• CARBOXYLIC ACIDS: Acidic strength and factors affecting it.
UNIT 24: Organic Compounds Containing Nitrogen
General methods of preparation, properties, reactions and uses.
• Amines: Nomenclature, classification, structure, basic character and identification of primary, secondary and tertiary amines and their basic character.
• Diazonium Salts: Importance in synthetic organic chemistry.
UNIT 25: Polymers
General introduction and classification of polymers, general methods of polymerization-addition and condensation, copolymerization;
Natural and synthetic rubber and vulcanization; some important polymers with emphasis on their monomers and uses - polythene, nylon, polyester and bakelite.
UNIT 26: Biomolecules
General introduction and importance of biomolecules.
• CARBOHYDRATES - Classification: aldoses and ketoses; monosaccharides (glucose and fructose) and constituent monosaccharides of oligosaccharides (sucrose, lactose and maltose)
• PROTEINS - Elementary Idea of α - amino acids, peptide bond, polypeptides; proteins: primary, secondary, tertiary and quaternary structure (qualitative idea only), denaturation of proteins, enzymes.
• VITAMINS - Classification and functions.
• NUCLEIC ACIDS - Chemical constitution of DNA and RNA. Biological functions of nucleic acids.
UNIT 27: Chemistry in Everyday Life
• Chemicals in medicines - Analgesics, tranquilizers, antiseptics, disinfectants, antimicrobials, antifertility drugs, antibiotics, antacids, antihistamins – their meaning and common examples.
• Chemicals in food - Preservatives, artificial sweetening agents – common examples.
• Cleansing agents - Soaps and detergents, cleansing action.
UNIT 28: Principles Related to Practical Chemistry
• Detection of extra elements (N,S, halogens) in organic compounds; detection of the following functional groups: hydroxyl (alcoholic and phenolic), carbonyl (aldehyde and ketone), carboxyl and amino groups in organic compounds.
• Chemistry involved in the preparation of the following:
Inorganic compounds: Mohr’s salt, potash alum.
Organic compounds: Acetanilide, p-nitroacetanilide, aniline yellow, iodoform.
• Chemistry involved in the titrimetric excercises - Acids bases and the use of indicators, oxalic-acid vs KMnO4, Mohr’s salt vs KMnO4.
• Chemical principles involved in the qualitative salt analysis:
Anions- CO 2-3S2-, SO2-4, NO3-, NO2-, CI -, Br-, I-. (Insoluble salts excluded).
• Chemical principles involved in the following experiments:
1. Enthalpy of solution of CuSO4
2. Enthalpy of neutralization of strong acid and strong base.
3. Preparation of lyophilic and lyophobic sols.
4. Kinetic study of reaction of iodide ion with hydrogen peroxide at room temperature.
B.Arch./B.Planning (Aptitude test)
• Part- I Awareness of persons, places, Buildings, Materials, Objects, texture related to architecture and build~environment. Visualising three dimensional objects from two dimensional drawings. Visualising. different sides of three dimensional objects. Analytical Reasoning Mental Ability (Visual, Numerical and Verbal).
• Part- II Three dimensional - perception: Understanding and appreciation of scale and proportion of objects, building forms and elements, colour texture, harmony and contrast. Design and drawing of geometrical or abstract shapes and patterns in pencil. Transformation of forms both 2 D and 3 D union, subtraction, rotation, development of surfaces and volumes, Generation of Plan, elevations and 3 D views of objects. Creating two dimensional and three dimensional compositions using given shapes and forms.
• Sketching of scenes and activities from memory of urbanscape (public space, market, festivals, street scenes, monuments, recreational spaces etc.), landscape (river fronts, jungles, gardens, trees, plants etc.) and rural life.
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The EASY2C man-machine interface
Design plays an important role when developing new products. In the past, the design review process required physical models to be constructed at the original scale and with the planned design of the surface, which involved high expense in both time and cost. Today's modern technologies in terms of computers and presentation make it possible to render photorealistic images presented at any given perspective in real time. The object is shown in a "virtual reality", which is how this phrase was coined in the first place. The various possibilities of presentation are used for example by the automotive industry, where the "Virtual Showroom" has become a standard facility. So far a technical assistant has been required to create the desired views of the virtual models.
Man-machine interface
Therefore, for several years, the automotive industry has been looking for appropriate man-machine interface that is as easy to operate as possible, even by untrained staff. Many interfaces have been examined and evaluated as unsuitable, from keyboard and dataglove to head mounted display. A first marketable approach for these demands to synthetic image presentation was designed in 1999at the DLR Institute in cooperation with the licencee Realtime Technology A.G. (RTT), Munich. The special feature of the new technology is that anyone can operate it without the need for training or prior knowledge. The product is now marketed by RTT as "EASY2C" (pronounce: easy to see).
Mode of Operation
This new technology makes it possible to experience objects before their physical existence. The user moves a tangible object, the input medium, over a glass plate to create a view of the virtual model, which is displayed either on a projection screen or a monitor, where it follows the hand movements of the user. Moreover, the user can adjust a variety of options interactively.
Technical components
The shape of the input medium, be it a model car, a computer mouse or a cuboid, is irrelevant for the function of the system. The objects serving as input media have markers on their underside. They are moved by hand across a glass plate and detected by a video camera under the glass. The markers function as both, object reference points and identifiers. The evaluation of the video image is performed on a standard computer. According to this information, computer graphics calculates and displays a virtual image of the object in the given pose.
Using a touch-screen, the operator can achieve a variety of different ways of presentation, such as selecting the model type and color, as on a rotating plate, and varying the tilt angle which changes according to body height.
The ease of use and the closeness to reality of the experienced virtual object contributes considerably to the potential of this technology. For the immediate spatial relationship between the physical input medium and the virtual model makes the user instantly grasp the proper usage of the system and enables instant operation.
Innovation transfer
This technology was first introduced to the public on the 12th July 2000 in Ingolstadt at a trade fair for automotive suppliers. The first customer to use "EASY2C" was BMW Group Design Development at the Paris Autosaloon 2000 trade fair, where design studies for the new BMW MINI were presented. The enormous potential of the new technology was fully exploited by virtually exhibiting vehicles which did not yet exist. Thus visitors were able to see the already existing MINI COOPER or designs for a new MINI convertible, a MINI truck or a MINI pick-up, and choose their desired views themselves. In future, such techniques will also be used in marketing to help the customer decide whether or not to buy a car, a piece of furniture, or a house.
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Bebop, Jazz Manhood and “Piano Shame”
March 13, 2013
By Guthrie P. Ramsey, Jr.
pianoIn sixth or seventh grade, a time of life when most guys my age were trying on their swagger, I was walking back home from a practice session at a buddy’s house that was furnished with a piano. Along the way, my instruction book clutched under my arm like any average nerd, I passed some classmates who asked with simple curiosity and no malice, what was up, where I had been. “Practicing my music,” I said, probably looking serious, deep in my thoughts, and studiously absent-minded, as some people say they remember me. “Cool. What do you play?” somebody asked. Before I knew it, the word “sax” fell out my mouth.
I don’t know exactly where I had gotten this information, but it was clear to my adolescent, late-blooming ass that claiming the saxophone would make me look more swagger-full than the truth—that I was thoroughly enthralled with the piano. And that my family couldn’t afford one at the time so I practiced however I could, mapping out homes in my black, working-class neighborhood with an instrument. It was, indeed, another time when a kid with ambitions larger than his immediate circumstances could get a boost from the “Village.” I passed what I apparently perceived as the “coolness test,” relieved that nobody in the group pointed out that I was not actually carrying a saxophone. The heroic performance of self-assured, cool manhood would finally settle in by late adolescence, as admiring women would quietly pass their phone numbers after a stage show, other musicians would seek me out for gigs, and academic opportunities unavailable to those with picture perfect cross-over moves and jump shots began to open up. Although I’ve lost the need to lie about music for the sake of traditional manhood, the historical and social grounding of my childhood “piano shame” is a complex matter about masculinities worthy of discussion.
In a media-scape saturated with electronic beats, auto-tuned voices and urban contemporary styles grounded in hip-hop production sensibilities, contemporary popular music commands the attention of many commenters concerned with gender analysis. Jazz, for the most part, is not seen as a site worthy of such investigations, particularly in social media. Yet it’s fascinating to consider bebop (or modern jazz) and what people heard in it as a gendered sonic field doing extraordinary cultural work in the quest for masculinity. Artists such as Amiri Baraka and Quincy Jones have confessed their intense identification with bebop’s experimental language as young men, describing it as more of lifestyle than a musical choice, much like hip-hop devotees. It may surprise some readers that like the lyrics of rap, non-representational instrumental music such as jazz can be analyzed with respect to its registration of historically contingent social energies like masculinity in potent and pleasurable ways.
Much of this energy occurs at the borders of a perceived musical style or genre. And here is where the case for gender study gets compelling with regard to jazz and bebop. Feminist musicologist Susan McClary argues that “genres and conventions crystallize because they are embraced as natural by a certain community: they define the limits of what counts as proper musical behavior.” Thus, the occasions of stylistic disruption—those times when jazz musicians seemed to push the limit of acceptable generic expectations like they did in bebop—are important sites in which to tease out gendered meanings: in the space between convention and innovation exists the stories of power struggle through experimentation. In other words, as musicians push against a listening community’s acceptable codes of musical behavior, they are usually articulating who they believe they are in the world through displays of musical prowess, stylistic challenge, and experimentation. All of this has circulated, by the way, within a network of ideologies in which popular and “Other” cultures were historically rendered as “feminine” or non-prestigious when compared to an intentionally “butched-up” western art music discourse, illustrating yet another example of how musicality and gender are diligently policed performance fields.
What are some of the historical politics of “jazz-manhood”?
down beatWriting in 2001, in the context of a wave of scholarship named the New Jazz Studies, Sherrie Tucker argued persuasively for the inclusion of gender in jazz studies in many publications. Rather than seeing her project as solely aimed at recovering the history of women participating in jazz, Tucker suggested a more radical strategy. She pushed for the placement of jazz studies over the field of gender as a way to understand how the latter structures all aspects of the jazz field. While the compensatory histories of women in jazz are useful and long overdue, the critical study of gender in jazz studies should involve more than the “women were there, too” framework. All this work demands that we see jazzmen as possessing gendered identities, too: the music was an activity in which they negotiated their sense of manhood in American society. Although we’ve come a long way since the days when women’s bodies were used as a sign of music being “not real jazz” in publications such as Down Beat, the time is ripe for critical expansion. As Tucker argued, we “need to conceive of gender not as a synonym for women, and not just as a critical description of sex and gender roles, but as one of the primary fields ‘within which or by means of which power is articulated.’
budAn intense, aggressive virtuosity within and on top of the structures of American popular song constituted the heart of the bebop aesthetic. One scholar called this aesthetic a “politics of style,” a concept describing the specific mode of cultural work the music achieved in its time. The young black men in the bebop movement found in its sounds and politics a patriarchal, heroic performance space, one that became the new musical language of “jazz manhood.” One such musician was pianist Bud Powell (1924-66). The subject of my new book, The Amazing Bud Powell: Black Genius, Jazz History, and the Challenge of Bebop, he was certainly “the man” of bebop piano. He was a talented but introverted boy whose musical skills and seriousness about his craft paved the way for his meteoric rise in the New York jazz world. According to various people who knew Powell in his younger years, he had become enamored with the modernist sound elements in bebop before he was twenty years old. Former acquaintances shared stories of an increasingly impatient young man who sought out competitive situations in which he could show off his technical command in the new style in the tradition of the stride piano contests of previous generations. Otherwise soft-spoken and withdrawn, in purely musical settings Powell was known to want his own way—never with violence, but often with the seething insistence of someone with little regard for the feelings of others. Whether he was refusing to play a bandleader’s desired number or brusquely removing another pianist (or competitor) from the instrument to brandish his own “weapons,” Powell’s single-minded, almost myopic focus on showcasing his own gifts was often excused by others as harmless, youthful unruliness. But his exposure to alcohol, drugs, a nocturnal lifestyle that had interrupted his education, and the overall phallocentric vibe of the scene no doubt caused the sheltered prodigy to grow up and man up fast—both artistically and otherwise—although one can surmise from various accounts that Powell was still very much an adolescent emotionally.
What were the technical specifics of this language of jazz manhood in which Powell would immerse himself? And in which historical and material notions of the gender/music relationship were this language and its social environment grounded? What were the terms of Powell’s social contract as a black virtuoso in the bebop scene?
Although historians may still debate whether bebop was a revolutionary or an evolutionary style development, agreement exists on its core qualities. Most prominently, bebop consists of an enriched melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic vocabulary that required astute musicianship and a “virtuosic bravado.” Bebop’s most significant contribution to the jazz tradition was in the area of improvisation, both in soloing and accompanying. Improvised bebop solos shared the melodic and rhythmic character of many bebop themes, including a frequent use of asymmetrical phrase structures; a harmonic vocabulary that employed ninths, elevenths, and thirteenths; and chromatic melodic lines that often stressed the weak beats of the measure. Swing, bebop’s immediate stylistic predecessor, used more uniform phrases, structures, and accents and had less varied rhythmic patterns and less emphasis on harmonic dissonance.
hornFrontline virtuosos such as Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie attracted the lion’s share of public attention as they wove intricate solos before awestruck listeners. Yet much of the musical enchantment of bebop emanated from its new conception of accompaniment in the rhythm sections, which created brilliant sonic tapestries supporting the dramatic solos. Pianists, drummers, guitarists, and bassists supported bebop’s themes and solos with a rich and sometimes cacophonous mix of timbres, harmonic substitutions, and polyrhythmic accents that complemented and at the same time challenged the soloists. All the while, they maintained the fixed rhythmic pulse that linked the music to traditional black dance music forms. Bebop innovations brought about a heightened tension in melody, harmony, and rhythm that was, on some levels, a break with earlier styles of jazz. Thus, bebop musicians struck a balance that both satisfied modernist ideals of musical “complexity” and situated their music conceptually under the umbrella of black Atlantic musical traditions. The dynamic grooves struck by modern jazz musicians such as Powell were as central to the music’s influence as the work of frontline soloists. It was there—in the midst of the give and go of rhythms, subtle timbral shifts, and cagey harmonic embellishments—that audiences were able to discern that a new day had dawned in popular music, and that new communities and identities were being formed as well.
These new musical conceptions, together with a new social contract with the listening public, signaled that jazz had experienced a generic shift; that it had, in other words, become something new. Because social identities are “made” and often communicated to others within the context of expressive culture, one can look to concepts such as gender and genius to interpret modern jazz’s generic development.
onyxIn his discussion of gender and jazz in the 1930s, Patrick Burke argues that white masculinity in this context was constituted at “the tangled intersection of ideas about race, gender, labor, and musical practice.” In the after-hours cultural space of 52nd Street’s Onyx Club, a popular speakeasy, white male musicians negotiated their own sense of identity through several means, including their emulation of stereotypes about black musical spontaneity and “hotness,” the marginalization of women, and their antagonistic views about a supposed antithetical relationship between their lucrative gigs and “authentic expression.” These musicians were not exceptions in this regard: many throughout the history of the music have negotiated their identities in the jazz world. In this particular social setting, racial ventriloquism and anticommercial sentiments were rehearsed within a culture of urban bachelorhood. This was a powerful cocktail indeed.
How might the setting of the Onyx Club help us understand the world of black male musicians who, like Powell, played bebop at a later historical moment? As they operated with somewhat different social standings, white and black masculinities in the musical world of the 1940s shared little save the marginalization of female musicians, especially instrumentalists. Black musicians negotiated their immediate social worlds to procure for themselves some of the traditional advantages of male power—earning wages, spectacle, and hegemony over women—in the context of a growing black, urban, and artistic proletariat. Significant work in gender and music has, of course, been developed in studies of western art music and popular music studies. When we work with those insights into jazz and black music specifically, we must account for their similarities to and differences from both of those realms.
By the early 1900s, a “classical sphere” network based on European traditions of compositions was clearly in place in America, and it included “performing groups, concert halls, conservatories, and enough public interest in these institutions to support them financially.” Involvement with classical music became at this time a set of activities—performance, promotion, and audience participation—in which “men and women articulated their anxieties about changing gender roles.” As women pushed for fulfilling lives outside the home and the domestic realm, careers in music provided new alternatives: professional women musicians became emblematic of women’s desires for more satisfying public lives. Many formed civic clubs in which they exercised control over the community’s musical life and other realms of the public sphere. For their part, men tempered their muses by emphasizing their enthusiasm for “boxing, wrestling, or other similar activities, or by expressing their interests [in music] solely as a civic and husbandly duty.” Gender distinctions were a pressing concern, and America’s classical music world was a potent place in which to struggle with them, indeed, to “arbitrate anew the meanings of masculinity and femininity” in modern industrialized society.
During these same years, jazz emerged as a musical form distinct from classical-sphere music and its concerns, replete with varying ideas about gender, class, and, of course, race. Jazz became part of the popular sphere, and, as Richard Crawford has noted, “popular entertainment was well on its way to becoming modern ‘show business.’ And the workings of this new entertainment industry depended on a new approach to creating and marketing popular song.” The elements of this emerging structure created a space for a wide range of social formations. For example, it provided opportunities to work out gender roles in the public sphere, and African Americans were crucial in these new formations because the industry offered one of the precious few opportunities for them to be considered something more than servants and menial workers with the lowest pay.
jellyThe great jazz composer and pianist Jelly Roll Morton’s discussion of his childhood musical attitudes and aspirations in early-twentieth-century New Orleans gives us a snapshot of how race, gender, and class shaped his thinking. As Creoles, his class-conscious parents wanted him to play the “proper music heard at the French Opera House” and not popular music. As a child, he heard a man play a classical recital, and he was attracted to the music. But there was a problem. The gentleman had “long bushy hair, and, because the piano was known in our circle as an instrument for a lady, this confirmed for me my idea that if I played the piano I would be misunderstood.” In his own words, Morton “didn’t want to be called a sissy.” Because of this aversion to one of the prevalent social meanings of the piano in his world, he decided to study other instruments, “such as violin, drums, and guitar, until one day at a party I saw a gentleman sit down at the piano and play a very good piece of ragtime. This particular gentleman had short hair and I decided then that the instrument was good for a gentleman same as it was for a lady.”
Fletcher Henderson’s educated parents stressed piano lessons in the home as a crucial part of a thorough, well-rounded education in the Deep South at a time (the early twentieth century) when the instrument was a symbol of uplift and middle-class respectability. Everyone in the Henderson household read music and played the piano, although the repertoire was circumscribed to “classical and church music.” Because of this background, the pull of financial gain and masculinist success was strong and inevitable. Henderson would eventually forego his plans to earn a master’s degree in chemistry at Columbia University to pursue a successful career in dance music. The music industry at this time, together with a heightened African American cultural presence in American consciousness, provided what Jeffrey Magee has called “unprecedented opportunities for African Americans with ambition and talent.” Henderson clearly possessed both, and by 1923, three years after he arrived in New York, he was thoroughly ensconced in the city’s popular musical world.
One of his activities involved the new blues craze of the 1920s. Although he was not a blues or jazz musician per se when he came to New York, Henderson accepted the professional challenges of this environment, one far removed from his sheltered upbringing in the upper crust of the new black South. He enjoyed the money, notoriety, and popularity with the ladies. Indeed, the music industry became a promising alternative realm for black men to make new meanings in masculinity, even well-educated, prepared men such as Henderson.
Here it is important to remember that the popular sphere also gave women a platform to attain the empowering visibility and wage-earning potential that defined traditional masculinities. The blues industry in particular provided women with their own stage on which to publicly negotiate gender roles. The rise of black popular culture was part of a larger shift in the 1920s that wrested the sole responsibility for black progress and representation away from the educated, literate men of the “Talented Tenth.” In her study of 1920s blueswomen, Hazel Carby argues that black power and representation were up for grabs across the board—not just in the realm of music–as various constituencies jockeyed to publicly claim that their own group best represented “the experience of the race.” Thus black musical masculinity was performed in a larger cultural frame of diverse intra–African American struggles for social power, including but not limited to both men and women actively stepping out of traditional subservient roles.
We see multiple shifts occurring here. Popular music became an important province for African Americans, and classical music solidified their own idea of authenticity. Each realm was an important cultural territory for negotiating power through gendered meanings, and they would collide in the bebop movement. For black men, popular culture provided an arena of accomplishment that was thoroughly rooted in wage earning, visibility, and creative expression. Since the public aspect of popular culture remained, for the most part, segregated, it provided little threat to the “separate but equal” doctrine that policed race relations. In other words, there existed—on the surface, at least—few risks of direct sexual, financial, or social competition with white men.
The ascendancy of popular culture tended to flatten out class distinctions within the black community as well, as black middle-class musicians flocked to the unprecedented opportunities and prestige that it offered. Apparently, what the cultural arbiters of good taste considered “low-brow” was a shot at upward mobility for these “Others.” What was perceived as a threat to virile masculinity and good class standing by Jelly Roll Morton’s generation—particularly seen in his apparent view that “classical” music posed a threat to perceptions of his masculinity—was a springboard to becoming a sex symbol and iconic success for Duke Ellington, Willie “the Lion” Smith, and other, later musicians. It is within this historical, social, and material grounding that bebop and the new idea of “jazz manhood” emerged.
With all of these histories swirling around music, gender and sexuality, it’s easy to understand why I bailed on my beloved piano and claimed an instrument in which I had little interest. Ideas about manhood and musicality have always been fraught, fickle and powerful.
ramseyGuthrie P. Ramsey, Jr. is the Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn Term Professor of Music and Africana Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the author of Race Music: Black Cultures from Bebop to Hip-Hop and The Amazing Bud Powell: Black Genius, Jazz History and the Challenge of Bebop. In 2012, his band released The Colored Waiting Room, a recording of original music blending jazz, rhythm and blues, gospel, neo-soul, and classical. Ramsey is the founder popular music blog,, which is read around the world.
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4 Responses to Bebop, Jazz Manhood and “Piano Shame”
1. Blksnse on March 18, 2013 at 1:05 pm
What a wonderful, thoughtful and historical journey through a black perspective. The question of evolutionary verses revolutionary in terms of bebop in my mind has to be revolutionary because of the predominant white media and other forces who didn’t like the music and created a kind of protest about something they didn’t quite undestand nor quite contol. Evolutionary would be a more smooth transition.
2. Blksnse on March 18, 2013 at 1:05 pm
3. Blksnse on March 18, 2013 at 1:05 pm
4. Blksnse on March 18, 2013 at 1:05 pm
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Francis Channing Barlow (1834-1896)
Francis Channing Barlow (October 19, 1834 - January 11, 1896) was a lawyer, politician, and Union general during the American Civil War.
Barlow was born in Brooklyn, New York. He studied law at Harvard University, graduated first in his class, and was practicing law on the staff of the New York Tribune newspaper when the Civil War broke out in 1861.
In April, 1861, Barlow enlisted as a private in the 12th New York Militia, but was commissioned a first lieutenant in his first month of service. By November he was a lieutenant colonel in the 61st New York, with which he fought in the Seven Days Battles.
At the Battle of Antietam, commanding the 1st Brigade, 1st Division, II Corps of the Army of the Potomac, he was wounded by an artillery shell in the face and by grapeshot in the groin. Two days later Barlow was promoted to brigadier general of volunteers.
Barlow commanded the 2nd Brigade, 2nd Division, XI Corps at the Battle of Chancellorsville in May, 1863, and was subjected to the devastating flank attack of "Stonewall" Jackson that routed his corps.
In July, he commanded the 1st Division, XI Corps at the Battle of Gettysburg, where he led his division to a defensive position on Blocher's Knoll, which is now known as Barlow's Knoll. Unfortunately, this slight rise in the terrain was too far forward in comparison to the other XI Corps division and Barlow's position formed a salient that could be attacked from multiple sides. Jubal Early's division overwhelmed Barlow's division, causing serious losses and Barlow himself was wounded and left for dead on the field. He was found and cared for by Confederate General John B. Gordon. According to an account written by Gordon in 1901, he allowed Barlow's wife Arabella to enter the Confederate camp to tend to her wounded husband, but this account is deemed apocryphal. The popular story continued that Gordon presumed Barlow had died and that both men met years later, being very surprised each was still alive. An examination of Barlow's subsequent war record makes this story very unlikely.
Barlow recovered and was exchanged in time to assume command of the 1st Division, II Corps at the Battle of the Wilderness.
At the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House his division incorporated shock tactics developed by Col. Emory Upton to quickly assault the rebel entrenchments, effecting a breakthrough that could be exploited by reinforcements. Hand-to-hand fighting ensued for 21 hours, the longest hand-to-hand combat in the entire war, before Barlow's division finally broke through.
He fought at the Battle of Cold Harbor and the Siege of Petersburg in the same command. At Petersburg he took a brief sick leave but returned to command the 2nd Division, II Corps during the Appomattox Campaign.
Arabella Barlow died of typhus in the summer of 1864 while Francis was battling in the Overland Campaign. After the war, Barlow married Ellen Shaw, sister of Robert Gould Shaw.
Leaving the army in November, 1865, Barlow served as a United States Marshal and the secretary of state and attorney general of New York, before he returned to his law practice.
Francis Barlow died in New York City in 1896 and is buried in Brookline, Massachusetts.
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Spanish Dictionary
Translation of detection in Spanish
the detection el descubrimiento
Translation by Vocabulix
I bought the ticket very quickly and ran to the gate. A stewardess was waiting for me and waved. She shouted that I should hurry up. I ran as fast as I could and entered the gate leading to the plane.
My Spanish is weak, and I need to improve it here. But it is very difficult because I have many other things to do. I must take care of my family and my friends and have no time for Spanish.
Most common translations: dinner dismissal doggie dressing earn electron encourage equality exacerbate exploit
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CHEM106: Physical Chemistry II
Course Syllabus for "CHEM106: Physical Chemistry II"
Physical Chemistry II is quite different from Physical Chemistry I. In this second semester of the Physical Chemistry course, you will study the principles and laws of quantum mechanics as well as the interaction between matter and electromagnetic waves. During the late 19th century and early 20th century, scientists opened new frontiers in the understanding of matter at the molecular, atomic, and sub-atomic scale. These studies resulted in the development of quantum physics, which nowadays is still considered one of the greatest achievements of human mind. While present day quantum physics “zooms in” to look at subatomic particles, quantum chemistry “zooms out” to look at large molecular systems in order to theoretically understand their physical and chemical properties. Quantum chemistry has created certain “tools” (or computational methods) based on the laws of quantum mechanics that make it theoretically possible to understand how electrons and atomic nuclei interact with each other to form any kind of matter, ranging from diamond crystals to DNA strands to proteins to plastic polymers. Using these tools, quantum chemists can simulate complex biological systems, such as nucleic acids, proteins, and even cells, in order to understand their functions and behavior. These tools are increasingly used by researchers at pharmaceutical companies as they need to simulate the interaction of a potential drug molecule with the target receptor, such as a protein binding pocket on the surface of a cell. Scientists use computational tools of quantum chemistry to predict the optical and electronic properties of novel materials to be used in advanced technologies, such as organic photovoltaics (OPVs) for solar energy harvesting and organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) for electronic displays. In these applications, scientists can “calculate” the range of sunlight frequencies a certain material can absorb or the color of the emitted light in a pixel fabricated using certain molecules. Quantum chemistry treats light as both a wave and a particle and uses wavefunctions to describe systems composed by “tangible” matter, such as electrons and nuclei. A substantial portion of the course is dedicated to the theoretical understanding of the interactions between light (electromagnetic radiations) and matter (molecules, electrons, nuclei, etc.). These interactions are at the base of modern image techniques used in the medical field, such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). This senior course in quantum chemistry usually serves as an introduction to more advanced graduate courses in theoretical chemistry, rather than concluding your degree in chemistry. With the knowledge gained in this course, you will be able to calculate the energies of simple systems, such as small molecules. Keep in mind that these calculations of quantum chemistry are fairly complicated, thus you will learn several approximation techniques to aid your calculations of more advanced molecular systems. You will also be able to correlate the outcome of your calculation to certain physical properties of the molecule. In particular, you will learn how the spectroscopy properties are strictly interconnected with the electronic structure of molecules.
Learning Outcomes
• Describe the difference between classical and quantum mechanics.
• Explain the failure of classical mechanics in elucidating the black body radiation, the photoelectric effect, and atomic emission spectra.
• Define the wave-particle duality.
• Define the uncertainty principle.
• Solve the Hamiltonian for a particle in box, on a ring, and on a sphere.
• Solve the Schrodinger equation for hydrogen-like systems.
• Use technique of approximation to compute the Schrodinger equation for polyatomic systems.
• Describe the difference between the Valence Bond and the Molecular Orbital Theories.
• Identify the symmetry elements in a molecule.
• Predict and explain the outcome of electromagnetic radiations interacting with matter.
• Define Raman spectroscopy.
• Predict the vibrational spectra of molecules based on their electronic structure.
• Explain the selection rules for a molecule to be Raman or IR active.
• Explain the difference between fluorescence and phosphorescence.
• Describe the principle of operation of LASERs.
• Explain the effect of magnetic fields on electrons and nuclei.
Course Requirements
In order to take this course, you must:
√ Have access to a computer.
√ Have continuous broadband Internet access.
√ Have the ability/permission to install plug-ins (e.g., Adobe Reader or Flash) and software.
√ Have the ability to open Microsoft Office files and documents (.doc, .ppt, .xls, etc.).
√ Have competency in the English language.
√ Have read the Saylor Student Handbook.
√ Have strong skills in mathematics. Knowledge of using computational software, such as MatLab or Mathematica, will greatly facilitate your work and learning.
√ Have completed the following mathematics courses: multivariable calculus (MA103), linear algebra (MA211), and differential equations (MA221). Physical Chemistry I (CHEM105) is conceptually very different from Physical Chemistry II (this course), and the scientific concepts learned in Physical Chemistry I are not necessary to understand Physical Chemistry II. However, it is highly recommended that you take CHEM105 first, so you can master the use of multivariable calculus (partial derivatives) to solve chemistry problems. Another important prerequisite that some students in college take is calculus-based Physics-Classical Mechanics; the Saylor Foundation offers the algebra-based equivalent of such a course: PHYS101. Engineering courses such as ME102/ME202 could complement PHYS101.
Course Information
Welcome to CHEM106: Physical Chemistry II. Below, please find some general information about the course and its requirements.
Primary Resources: This course is comprised of a range of different free, online materials. However, the course makes primary use of the following materials:
Requirements for Completion: In order to complete this course, you will need to work through each unit and all of its assigned materials. Pay special attention to Units 1 and 2, as these lay the groundwork for understanding the more advanced, exploratory material presented in the latter units. You will also need to complete:
• The Final Exam
Note that you will only receive an official grade on your Final Exam. However, in order to adequately prepare for this exam, you will need to work through all of the resources in this course.
Time Commitment: This course should take you a total of 124.5 hours to complete. Each unit includes a “time advisory” that lists the amount of time you are expected to spend on each subunit. These should help you plan your time accordingly. It may be useful to take a look at these time advisories and determine how much time you have over the next few weeks to complete each unit and then set goals for yourself. For example, Unit 1 should take you 18 hours. Perhaps you can sit down with your calendar and decide to complete subunit 1.1 (a total of 4 hours) on Monday night, subunit 1.2 (a total of 4 hours) on Tuesday night, and so forth.
Tips/Suggestions: As noted in the “Course Requirements,” multivariable calculus (MA103) is a prerequisite for this course. If you are struggling with the mathematics as you progress through this course, consider taking a break to revisit MA103.
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Royal Society Publishing
Structure and biological activity of glasses and ceramics
A. N. Cormack, A. Tilocca
Biomaterials for repairing and regenerating parts of the human body play a key role in contemporary medicine, and have an increasing impact in modern society. Given the importance of orthopaedic medicine (bone is the second most replaced organ after blood), bioactive glasses and ceramics represent a key reference to guide technological advances in this field. Their established role in current biomedical applications has already led many research groups worldwide to look into their structural properties, with a view to identifying the molecular basis of their biological activity. As the efforts directed towards this crucial and exciting direction continue to increase, it is now timely to review the situation, in order to guide future investigations on structure–bioactivity relationships. In this introductory article, the field is reviewed, to provide an appropriate context for the contributions to this Theme Issue.
1. Introduction
During the last decades, the repair of weakened, deteriorated or damaged tissues has increasingly been affected by synthetic substitutes, the use of which will continue to grow. To take the case of bone, which is the second most replaced organ in the body after blood, approximately 2.2 million bone graft procedures are performed worldwide each year (2005 data [1]), and the estimated cost of these procedures approaches $2.5 billion per year [2]. Of these, currently, around 90–95% involve harvesting bone from either the patient or another donor, and thus the grafts require two surgical procedures, even if the replacement tissue is available. Using a synthetic substitute halves the number of invasive procedures, significantly reducing the possibility of infection or other complications, as well as lowering costs. This has been one of the main driving forces for the development of bone substitute materials.
2. Ceramics for biomedical applications
Approximately 60 per cent of the bone graft substitutes currently available involve ceramics (including glasses), either alone or in combination with another material [3]. Since the primary inorganic component of bone is calcium hydroxyapatite (HAp), ceramic materials, especially calcium phosphates, have been the focus of much of this development. The point of a bone graft is that it promotes new bone growth by acting as a scaffold to which new bone cells migrate, proliferate and differentiate. The cavity into which the graft has been inserted is thus replaced by new bone.
On the other hand, in many cases, the goal is to provide replacement material, as in prostheses such as hip or knee joints, for example. Ceramic materials have been found to be advantageous in these situations because of their good mechanical properties (strength and toughness) and excellent (i.e. low) wear rates. Alumina has been US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved for femoral heads and the acetabular cup linings since the 1960s [4], but is being replaced by zirconia-based materials because of their better mechanical properties—higher strength and toughness and lower Young's modulus [5]. However, zirconia suffers from ageing, even in its stabilized, or partially stabilized, form, a problem associated with low-temperature degradation [6]. A combination of alumina and zirconia, zirconia toughened alumina (ZTA), a composite material, is emerging [7,8] as a possible replacement for both alumina and zirconia.
Originally, materials for such prostheses were chosen on the basis of their inertness (and lack of toxicity, a feature of bioceramics [9,10]), but it was soon realized that improved performance was possible if the materials were bioactive, that is, if they elicited a biological response that led to bonding between the implant and the surrounding tissue. This would promote osseointegration and reduce the need for a further revision procedure to replace the original prosthesis. Presently, the average lifetime of orthopaedic implants is of the order of 15 years [11]. With patients requiring implants getting younger and younger, this is a strong driver to extend the lifetimes of implants, and so reduce the number of revision surgical procedures.
One approach to improve the integration of non-ceramic implants such as the titanium alloys used in femoral stems is to coat the metal with a ceramic [12]. Although alumina has been used, HAp is a preferred contender because it is bioactive and thus will bond to the surrounding bone. In fact, for many years [13,14] it was considered that the precipitation of such an HAp layer on an implant was a key indicator of bioactivity, or bone-bonding ability. This position is now being challenged [15], since some crystalline calcium phosphates (e.g. β-TCP) bond to bone without the formation of an HAp layer.
Inert bioceramics may be considered to be first generation biomaterials; second generation biomaterials include the bioactive glasses pioneered by Hench who has argued that the third generation biomaterials [16] will involve the use of regenerative, instead of replacement, materials. Consequently, a deeper understanding is required of the mechanisms of bioactivity, and the nature of the biological response that leads to bonding between the biomaterial and the surrounding tissue. In particular, one needs to consider the role of the biomaterial in osteogenesis: is it capable of osteoinduction?
This moves us to the realm of tissue engineering [1719], in general, and back to scaffolds, in particular.
In addition to being bioactive, materials for scaffolds for bone tissue engineering have to provide adequate mechanical strength and exhibit resorption rates equal to that of the new bone growth, since the scaffold is meant to be a transient structure [20]. Such materials should also be osteoconductive, osteointegrative and, perhaps most importantly, osteoinductive. Bioactive glasses are key contenders because they can be engineered to have these properties [21,22].
3. Bioactive glasses
There are several reasons why bioactive glasses continue to attract considerable attention [23]. As is well known, they can bond to both bone and soft tissue, and the extent of the bioactivity can be controlled through adjusting the composition. They have recently been found to show proangiogenic tendencies [2428], further promoting their use in tissue engineering. They are also resorbable, because the glass structure is fragmented and gradually dissolves during the process of forming an amorphous calcium phosphate layer and afterwards. This process is crucial, since the bioactivity is related to the formation on the glass surface of the layer of HAp which is known to be osteoconductive [29] and osteoinductive [30], and also due to the osteogenic properties of the products of the glass dissolution (see below).
Hench has outlined a multi-stage process to describe the bioactive nature of glasses [31]. The first step involves the exchange of sodium ions in the glass with protons in the biological environment, followed by the destruction of the silica tetrahedral network and the re-precipitation of an amorphous silica gel layer on the surface, onto which the HAp is deposited. Additional steps are related to the bonding of proteins to the glass surface, the adhesion of osteoblasts and the continuing dissolution of the glass [32].
It has recently become appreciated that the glass dissolution products are also of considerable importance: in 2001, Xynos et al. [33] found that ionic dissolution products of the 45S5 Bioglass® were able to regulate gene expression in human osteoblastic cells: this feature contributes to the superior bioactivity of the 45S5 composition (compared with other bioactive materials such as synthetic HAp) and has potential applications in tissue regeneration. Recent reviews of further work on this key property of bioactive glasses are available [34,35].
In addition to their bioactivity and resorbability, glasses are relatively easy to shape and to produce in microporous structures, making them extremely useful in a variety of scaffold applications [36]. For example, a gel casting approach has recently been demonstrated which allows near net shape three-dimensional fabrication [37].
The original Bioglass®, 45S5 [38], was a melt-derived glass, as this is the traditional way of making glasses. However, there is a tendency for some compositions, close to 45S5, to phase separate and crystallize, forming glass ceramics [39]. Crystallization is known to reduce the bioactivity [31]; in the case of 45S5, this results in the dissolution proceeding quite slowly, so there may be some remnant glass in the newly formed bone. There has thus been some work aimed at finding compositions that do not crystallize, such as the 13–93 (54.6 mol.% SiO2, 22.1 mol.% CaO, 6.0 mol.% Na2O, 7.7 mol.% MgO, 7.9 mol.% K2O, 1.7 mol.% P2O5) [40,41] and the ICIE 16 (49.46 mol.% SiO2, 36.27 mol.% CaO, 6.6 mol.% Na2O, 1.07 mol.% P2O5 and 6.6 mol.% K2O) [42] glasses. Alternatively, low-temperature sol–gel routes can be used [4345]. Because sol–gel-derived glasses are nanoporous, their specific surface areas are larger compared with melt-derived glasses, and so their bioactivity is greater, owing to the higher density of surface silanol groups and accelerated ion release [46]. It should be noted, however, that sol–gel-derived glasses are not suitable for large dense monolithic parts [19].
Although the original bioactive glasses are based on silicate compositions, a number of other glasses based on borate compositions have recently been shown to be bioactive as well [4750].
4. Need for a more rational approach
Whereas technological progress in the development of new biomaterials has generally been achieved through trial-and-error approaches, it is now clear that further substantial advances require a more fundamental understanding of the processes underlying bioactivity, that is, the integration of the biomaterial with the biological host. Here, we focus on bioceramics and bioactive glasses, because, as we have noted, their chemical properties resemble those of bone. (To be sure, their major drawback is the considerable differences in mechanical properties.) To date, there is no clear explanation for the mechanisms of tissue bonding in ceramics with bone and soft tissue, nor is there a complete understanding of how biomaterials promote osteoblast functions, such as adhesion, proliferation and differentiation [51]. What is clear, however, is that these are associated with the surface structure and chemistry of the biomaterial. It is known, for example, that these features, at the macro- and micro-scales, can have a strong influence on cell behaviour [52], and this point is underlined to a large extent by the observation that nanophase materials seem to offer enhanced bioactivity, at least to the extent of increased osteoblast adhesion [5356]. The interaction between cells and surfaces has been reviewed recently by Anselme et al. [57]. Although the surfaces in those studies were almost exclusively polymeric, such as the polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) used by Dalby et al. [58] in their work on the stimulation of human mesenchymal stem cells to produce bone mineral in vitro, it is not unlikely that a similar nanoscale structural disorder on the surfaces of bioceramics and glasses would produce a similar result.
A key issue is thus the characterization of the structure of a biomaterial and, particularly, of its interface with the biological environment. However, the inherent complexity of current (inorganic) biomaterials has somewhat hampered the application of standard experimental (e.g. diffraction) and theoretical (e.g. atomistic simulations) probes to determine key structural features and their correlation with the observed biological activity.
In the past few years, advances in experimental techniques (e.g. high-energy diffraction [59,60], multi-nuclear nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) [61] and extended X-ray fine structure (EXAFS) [61]), as well as in theoretical approaches [62] (e.g. development of optimized codes to exploit the rapidly growing computer power available) have led to substantial advances in the structural characterization of bioactive glass and ceramics.
For instance, the short- and medium-range structure of bulk 45S5 Bioglass® is now relatively well understood, thanks to the high-resolution experimental and theoretical probes available, and recent simulations have provided the first atomistic views of the dry [63] and hydrated Bioglass® surface [64] (figure 1).
Figure 1.
SEM micrograph of the Bioglass–bone interface (adapted from Fujibayashi et al. [65]), also showing the corresponding atomistic models of the bulk glass [66] and the interface with liquid water [64].
Given the central role of these materials in the present and future of biomedical applications, it is vital to use this information to rationalize the way in which biomaterials work. From this perspective, it is now important and timely to identify what has emerged from fundamental investigations on bioceramics and bioglasses so far, in order to guide future work in the field of biomaterials. For instance, understanding in detail the interlink between surface dissolution, ion release and triggering of osteogenic cellular processes in bioglasses is likely to expose features common to other biomedical materials, for which less or no structural information is available.
Thus, in this Theme Issue, we have invited leading practitioners to discuss their recent work. As has been discussed, bioactivity is essentially an interface-mediated property, but our molecular-level understanding of the surface structure of biomaterials and their interface with the physiological environment is somewhat rudimentary. Progress is now being made in this area. The contribution from Cerruti [67] discusses the use of a variety of surface characterization techniques—microscopy, spectroscopy, grazing angle diffraction and nanoscale visualization using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM)—to probe the surface structure of silicate bioceramics, as well as suggesting some new approaches which have yet to be adopted by the biomaterials community. The use of H2O and CO as probe molecules to investigate the nature of surface structure and chemistry of HAp is reported by Bolis et al. [68]. Grandfield et al. [69] describe the use of tomographic techniques to achieve nanometre resolution of the interface between biomaterials and bone, as well as of mesoporous titania coatings used in controlled drug delivery.
Some effort has been expended in trying to explain how the structure and bioactivity of glasses depends on chemical composition [34,66,7072], so that new bioactive compositions may be designed with larger processing windows than 45S5. This has involved both theoretical methods as well as experimental approaches. Here, Kiani et al. [73] discuss the range of techniques that have been used to elucidate the structure of phosphate glasses, focusing on the network connectivity information which can be obtained from two-dimensional magic angle spinning (MAS) NMR correlation experiments. They show how this has led to progress in the processing of these glasses, by describing the structural chemistry of titanium dopants in phosphate glasses.
Above we have noted the versatility of glasses as scaffolds in tissue engineering; Gunawidjaja, et al. [74], who are interested in mesoporous bioactive glasses because of their larger surface areas, also use solid-state NMR to probe both the bulk and surface structures of these biomaterials. They have elucidated details of surface alteration reactions and relate these to the steps in the Hench mechanism of bioactivity [23]. Vallet-Regi et al. [75] discuss in more detail an approach to engineer bioactive glasses (templated glasses) by combining structural and textural concepts of silica mesoporous materials (SMMs) with chemical compositions similar to those of conventional bioactive sol–gel glasses. They also describe the functionalization of the three-dimensional-ordered arrangement of mesopores in SMM, in order to control the rate of release of the drug molecules which are incorporated into the pores.
The nanoporous nature of sol–gel-derived glasses was noted earlier; in this issue, Martin et al. [76] describe a foaming process which produces scaffolds with a hierarchical structure, where the nanoporous walls are organized into a network of interconnected macropores, similar to porous human bone, and suitable for hosting osteogenic cells. They also echo the observation of Cerruti [67] that a range of complementary characterization techniques is required.
The biological response induced by a biomaterial is ultimately determined by its interaction with cells, mediated by proteins adsorbed on the biomaterial surface.
Consequently, a fundamental understanding of how proteins adsorb to biomaterial surfaces is essential to prospective biomaterials design for advanced medical devices. This requires an atomic-level description of both protein and biomaterial surface. One approach to obtaining this understanding is the use of computational and simulation tools. Raffaini & Ganazzoli [77] describe a classical combined MM/MD study of protein adsorption on the surface of TiO2 polymorphs. Giussani et al. [78] also use classical models to elucidate the interactions between an explicitly hydrated pepsin molecule and a silica surface. Although the numbers of atoms in the systems discussed in the previous two contributions preclude a full quantum mechanical (QM) treatment, by limiting attention to specific amino acid groups, it is possible to investigate with ab initio QM accuracy how side chains interact with biomaterial surfaces, as Rimola et al. [79] discuss for amino acid adsorption at HAp surfaces.
5. Conclusions
Whereas in the past, the tremendous advances in the development of bioactive glasses and ceramics have been largely empirical in nature, it is recognized that there is now a need for a more rational approach, based on a fundamental understanding of the relationship between structure and bioactivity, at the atomic or molecular level. The contributions to this Theme Issue describe the state of the art in this field.
View Abstract
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Prefaced as “A True Story/A True Family”, An Exercise In Discipline – Peel is Jane Campion’s debut work as a filmmaker, an uncomfortable short film that captures a brief incident of dissent during a family’s country drive. It would go on to earn Campion the Short Film Palme d’Or at the 1986 Cannes Film Festival, making her the first woman to ever win the prestigious award. Her command as a director is on full-display in the movie with its precise shot structure and editing, an incisive narrative arc, and the careful escalation of an increasingly unnerving tone.
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June 2, 2015
Making A Boat Of Plastic Bottles
Turning A Ball Of Fur Into A Dog
The Only Shop That Sells Stitched Products
Tiny Fish That Will Give You Nightmares For A Week
The deep-sea dragon fish is a member of the Stomiidae family. There are many genera and over two hundred different species altogether in this family. The most known about is the Barbeled dragon fish.
Deep-sea dragon fish lives in the deep parts of the Atlantic Ocean beyond where any plant life grows or light reaches, hence its name. This habitat has caused the dragon fish to adapt to the conditions at these depths by having light-producing organs called photophores and skeletons that better suit deep-sea life.
The deep-sea dragon fish, as its name states, lives in the deep-sea of the Pacific Ocean. The Dragon fish tends to live around 1000 to 3000 meters below the surface.
Some dragon fish have even been found at depths of 5000 meters. At these depths, the conditions are very extreme. The pressure can range from 200 to 600 atmospheres and the temperatures fall just below four degrees Celsius. The dragon fish lives below the Bathyal zone where no light reaches.
Going Too Far In Order To Cool Off
An apartment (in American English) or a flat (in British English) is a self-contained housing unit that only occupies a small part of a building. Such a building may be called an apartment building, apartment house), block of flats, tower block, high-rise or, occasionally mansion block, especially if it consists of many apartments for rent. In Scotland it is often called a tenement, which has a pejorative connotation elsewhere. Apartments may be owned by an owner/occupier by leasehold tenure or rented by tenants.
The term apartment is favored in North America and it is also the preferred term in Ireland. The term flat is commonly, but not exclusively, used in the UK, Singapore, Hong Kong and most Commonwealth nations.
In Australian English, the term flat was traditionally used, but the term apartment is also frequently used, as is “unit,” short for “home unit”.
Meet Pig: A Strange But Extremely Cute Dog
Dog is a usual term that refers to members of the subspecies Canis lupus familiaris (canis, “dog”; lupus, “wolf”; familiaris, “of a household” or “domestic”).
The term can also be used to refer to a wider range of related species, such as the members of the genus Canis, or “true dogs”, including the wolf, coyote, and jackals, or it can refer to the members of the tribe Canini, which would also include the African wild dog, or it can be used to refer to any member of the family Canidae, which would also include the foxes, bush dog, raccoon dog, and others. Some members of the family have dog in their common names, such as the raccoon dog and the African wild dog.
A few animals have dog in their common names but are not canids, the best example of this is the prairie dog.
The English word dog comes from Middle English dogge, from Old English docga, a “powerful dog breed”. The term may possibly derive from Proto-Germanic *dukkōn, represented in Old English finger-docce (“finger-muscle”).
The word also shows the familiar petname diminutive -ga also seen in frogga “frog”, picga “pig”, stagga “stag”, wicga “beetle, worm”, among others.
This Is The Clearest Body Of Water On Earth
Two Very Unusual Friends
In the typical sequence of an individual’s emotional development, friendships come after parental bonding and before pair bonding. In the intervening period between the end of early childhood and the onset of full adulthood, friendships are often the most important relationships in the emotional life of the adolescent, and are often more intense than relationships later in life. The absence of friends can be emotionally damaging.
The evolutionary psychology approach to human development has led to the theory of Dunbar’s number, proposed by British anthropologist Robin Dunbar. He theorized that there is a limit of approximately 150 people with whom a human can maintain stable social relationships.
Fitting An Entire Car In A Van
The original van was a huge covered wagon or the front of an army. Time has changed the definition to what it is now to only be a box vehicle.
A modern van is a kind of vehicle used for transporting goods or people.
In English usage, it can be either specially designed cargo vehicle or based on a saloon or sedan, the latter type often including derivatives with open backs (this variation is called a pickup trucks). Vans come in all shapes and sizes, ranging from the classic van version of the tiny Mini to much larger vehicles such as cargo vans and other commercial transport vehicles. Vans run up to about 4 tons and are classified as Light or Medium Duty Trucks (in North America) or Light Commercial Vehicles (in Europe). Similar larger vehicles are Lorries (the word Lorrie is used in UK), and are not known as vans.
The modern word van is a shortened version of the word caravan.
Strange Things To Bring Home From Vacation
A vacation (also known as a holiday) is a specific trip or journey, usually for the purpose of recreation or tourism. People often take a vacation during specific holiday observances, or for specific festivals or celebrations. Vacations are usually spent with company of friends or family.
In the UK, vacation once specifically referred to the long summer break taken by the law courts and then later the term was applied to universities.
Copyright © Wacky Owl © · All Rights Reserved ·
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Buying a Laptop Battery Charger
Most laptops come with a battery charger. An extra battery charger for your laptop is a worthwhile investment if you use your laptop in more than one location. Keeping one at home and one at the office, for example, might be preferable to having to remember to bring the charger brick and cable with you everywhere you go.
Universal battery chargers are becoming more common. These are especially convenient for people with several laptops, smartphones, reading devices, etc. Universal chargers generally have a plug or plugs for laptop tips and a USB port on one end and a wall socket plug on the other. Most universal chargers you will find have up to nine laptop tips for different brands and often a USB adapter for many cell phones. A universal charger typically costs between $50 and $100, depending on how many laptop brands and other devices it can support. If you use a lot of devices, a universal charger can be a smart investment.
Of course, prevention matters, too: there are ways to make a battery last. Always turn off the laptop when it is not in use. Lower the screen brightness and close any programs you aren’t using to decrease the load on the battery. Do not charge your battery unless it is needed, and consider using a lithium-ion battery if your laptop does not already have one. By preserving the life of your battery, you help prolong the life of the charger as well.
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Apartment rentals New York with East Village rental listings
Proposed East Village Historic District Could Raise Rents…Again
Manhattan Luxury Apartments - East Village Historic DistrictOnce a part of a larger, broader Lower East Side, the East Village is one of New York City’s trendiest neighborhoods. Adhering to Manhattan’s street grid unlike its former namesake, the East Village has a vibrant student, immigrant, and artist population, and demand in the area has skyrocketed as a result of being the place to be in Downtown Manhattan. Now, to the chagrin of basically everybody but landlords, rents might increase yet again, but for a completely different reason: the Landmarks Preservation Commission has its sights on the East Village.
In its conspiracy project to landmark all of Lower and Downtown Manhattan attempt to preserve historic architecture from the fate that belied much of the southeastern Lower East Side, the LPC has proposed a district centered on Second Avenue between East Second and Seventh Streets, comprising a wealth of 19th- and early 20th-century brownstones, walk ups, and federal architecture. The aim of this proposal is overwhelmingly positive, protecting a cherished neighborhood from even the smallest possibility of losing character. But what does it mean for rentals, specifically luxury rentals?
Go East: Lower Manhattan's East River Park Just About Finished
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I like were this is heading.
Will It Knee?
Earlier today, we seemed to agree on a tag to attach to our "danger knee death ignition" response to Patrick's original Camaro video.
Earlier today, there were only two, now we have 14. Some posts were added since them, some were edited to include the tag.
While mine was silly (becuase pre-fob vehicles) others are proving that other cars are just likely to be affected by a rouge knee hit.
Does that mean that all cars are dangerous, or that we all need to pay more attention to our knees?
So, if you plan on submitting a video of danger knee, use the tag "Will it Knee," and if you have previously posted one, add the tag.
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General C++ Programming (Page 2)
Why should 64 bit development ever be chosen over 32 bit?
Pardon me if this is a silly question, but I want to make sure I'm clear on this subject. 64 bit ge...
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Reading from file to array issue
Hey, so I am working on an assignment and for part of it I need to read from a file and then put the...
[4 replies] Last: why i is out the loop scope ? (by Ericool)
want to return multiple values
can anyone help me, I AM A BEGINNER i want to return account number(num_acc) also with number of it...
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Write your question here. //write an algorithm for this program and optimize the entire proced...
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#include <> not needed in
Hello! I have a somewhat simple problem. In you only thing you need is... #include <iostre...
[2 replies] Last: Thanks, I just was curios. (by FireCoder)
Problems with file I/O
Write a simple C++ program called sum.cpp. The program will: 1. Read a file that contains several i...
[1 reply] : Please use code tags in future and explain specifically what your prob... (by James2250)
How to solve this run time error? thx.. SOURCE CODE: #include <iostream> #include <string> #inclu...
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error:particleName’ was not declared
Dear All I have tried to include the compton scattering in one of the examples in geant4.10.01.p0...
[8 replies] Last: my desired data (shown in terminal) but I want them in file There is... (by keskiverto)
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ifstream - Skip words
Hi, I have to import data from a .txt file formatted like this: Name: AAAAA BBBBBB; Address:...
[6 replies] Last: Thank you very much JLBorges! :D I was starting to get crazy! lol (by leourb)
Multiple Inheritance
Hello to everyone, I have a question: is it possible that a derived class, inherite the values of ...
[8 replies] Last: Perfect, i've tried and it works. You've been really kind and helpful (by amidaraxar)
compile for very long expression
Hi All, I am working on a project for modeling robotic dynamics. It requires to compile very very...
[3 replies] Last: Try making the variables volatile qualified with external linkage. ... (by JLBorges)
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is there a simpler way to write an abs function?
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expected class name error
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Key Reading
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[no replies]
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Pages: 1234... 32
Archived months: [jun2015]
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Calendar conundrum
It's a question that, at first glance, appears inconsequential.
When should the Moffat County School District take winter break -- before or after ending the first semester?
Granted, the issue seems of little concern in the overall scheme of educating students. Certainly there are other pressing matters for the school district, the lowest funded in the state, to consider.
But, underneath it all lies an important question. And the answer could have ramifications on students' testing performances and final grades.
The school board, currently considering three options for the district's three-year calendar, is gauging public opinion on this question. Two of those options entail ending the semester in January after the two-week Christmas break, and a third proposes ending the semester in December, before the holiday leave.
The difference between options 1 and 2 and option 3 lies with the testing schedule students face.
Under options 1 and 2, students would take their final exams during the two-week gap between returning from break and semester's end, which fell on Friday this year.
Under option 3, students would take their final exams before leaving for winter break.
The editorial board believes the timing disparity could mean all the difference in the world to some students. For some, recalling a semester's worth of knowledge following a break might not be all that difficult.
For others, that two-week layoff is bound to be enough to wipe the slate, to forget, or at least have difficulty remembering course work leading up to final exams. This is particularly true considering many teachers opt to not assign homework during break.
So the real question is this: which option is better for education, the meat and potatoes of all school districts? Give credit to district officials for saying the crux of their decision will be based on what is deemed educationally advantageous to the student body.
Also credit them for seeking outside input before making the decision. The district has already taken comments from teachers and is now opening the line of dialogue up to parents.
Patrons may comment on the calendars by visiting the Web site, and clicking on "take the school calendar proposal survey" at the top of the page.
The editorial board encourages all district parents and faculty to take part in this process and give earnest thought and consideration before commenting.
The more feedback, the better a decision the board will make, which reverberates back to benefiting students.
Commenting has been disabled for this item.
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40 Cards in this Set
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- The region of the body that conatinsmuch of the diegestive tract and sometimes part of the reproductive system; in insects, the region behind the thorax
- Protein rich portion of the amniotes egg
- When broken down creates large amount of metabolic water
- Nutrient and water supply for embryo
- The place for waste products from the embryo inside the egg
- Nitrogenous wastes: urea, uric acid
- Fluid filled sack inside the amniote egg
- Where the embryo is located
- Amniote egg, which allows them to lay eggs on land instead of returning to the marine environment
- Embryo develops in fluid filled sack the amnion
- Anura, Urodela, Gynophonia
- Skin is the major site of gas exchange, most have moist skin restricting them to aquatic or humid terrestrial habitats
- Many include larval and adult life stages
- Gametangia that sperm is formed in
Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi
- Fungi with symbiotic associations with plant roots
- Colonize the roots of plants and proliferate in the soil around the plants, hyphae penetrate through cell walls and branch repeatedly to form arbuscles (little trees)
- Fungus obtains sugars from the plant and in return provides the plant with a steady suppy of dissolved minerals that it has obtained from the surrounding soil
- Leaven bread and produce ethanol in alcoholic beverages
- Form mycorrhizas in lichens
- Gametangia that bryophyte eggs are formed in
- Flask shaped structure that shelters eggs
- A reproductive body of an ascomycota that contains asci
- Hyphal body type fungi
- Sexual spores produced in sacs called asci
- Very numerous more than 30 000 identified species
- Have a dikaryotic life cycle
- Saclike structures in which spores are formed in sexual reproduction, gives the name to the phylum Ascomycota
- Often enclosed in a fruiting body
Background extinction
- One of two types of extinctions that occur, the type of extinction where most types of extinctions occur
- Based on a rate of extinction for species for most species the average is about 10 million years
- Basidium is a small club shaped structure in which sexual spores of the basidiomycetes arise
- 24 000 species of fungi in this phylum, common name is club fungi
- Hyphal body type
- Sexual spores form in basidia of a prominent fruiting body e.g. mushrooms
- Some degrade woody plant debris, some of the same species are carnivorous
- Form mycorrhizas with roots of forest trees
- Some produce very deadly toxins
- Can be dikaryotic
Carboniferous period
- Dominated by large vascular seedless plants which were abundant in lignin
- Buried remains of these plants became compressed and fossilized forming much of the worlds coal reserves
- In an amniote egg, an extraembyronic membrane that surrounds the embryo and yolk sac completely and exchanges oxygen and carbon dioxide with the environment; becomes part of the placenta in mammals.
- Used in annelid reproduction
- Modification of a section of body wall consisting of glandular thickening near the gonopores
- During copulation secretes mucus that keeps worms paired while sperm are being exchanged
- Secretes a viscid sac in which the eggs are deposited
Coal forests
- Name used for large wetland carboniferous and Permian forests that later accumulated large deposits of peat and later changed into coal
Complete metamorphosis
- Most insects undergo this type of metamorphosis the larva that hatches from the egg differs greatly from the adult
- Larva and adults occupy different habitats and consume different food
- Larvae are often worm shaped with chewing mouthparts
- Larvae will grow and moult several times before transforming into the sexually mature morphology
- An outer waxy layer that prevents water loss from plant tissues
- Or the exoskeleton of insects that give strength stability and waterproofing
- The life stage in certain fungi in which a cell contains two genetically distinct haploid nuclei
Ectomycorrhiyzal fungi
- A mycorrhiza that grows between and around the young roots of trees and shrubs but does not enter the root cells
- Water proofing portion of the insect exoskeleton
- Made out of waxes (lipids)
- Lack insect
- A hard external covering of an animal’s body that blocks the passage of water and provides support and protection
- Made from a epi and procuticle
- Chitin and glycoproteins form procuticle and waxes form epicuticle
Flood basalts
- When continental plates drift over mantle plumes and the earth melts and basalt lava floods out
- E.g. Iceland lava flows out of the mantle and floods across the ocean floor or on land
- Lava floods can be the size of continents and result in dust and debris that enter the atmosphere and cloud the sun
- Causes a loss in primary productivity and an increase in carbon dioxide and sulphur dioxide
- An individual of the haploid generation produced when a spore germinates and grows directly by mitotic divisions in organisms that undergo alternation of generations.
Gas hydrates
- Methane gas that is solidified due to water pressure and temperature return to a gas state and are released into the atmosphere
- Decreased pressure or falling ocean levels or increased water temperature could cause this release of methane
- Causes mass extinction
- A seed plant that produces naked seeds not enclosed in an ovary (fruit)
- First seen in the Devonian period
- Anterior most part of the body containing the brain, sensory structures, and feeding aparatus
- Organism that contains the mechanism in which both mature egg-producing and mature sperm-producing tissue are present in the same individual.
- Organisms that produce two types of spores
- Male microspores and female megaspores
- Producing only one type of spore
Hydrostatic skeleton
- A structure consisting of muscles and fluid that, by themselves, provide support for the animal or part of the animal; no rigid support, such as a bone, is involved.
- The threadlike filaments that form the mycelium of a fungus
- These fine filaments spread through whatever substrate the fungus is growing in forming a network (mycelium)
- Tubes of cytoplasm surrounded by cell walls of chitin
- Grow and exert mechanical force which allows them to push through their substrate, release enzymes and absorb nutrients as they go
- Nuclear fusion of recently combined haploid cells that are sexually compatible
- A sexually immature stage in the life cycle of many animals that is morphologically distinct from the adult
- A compound organism formed by an association between a fungus (ascomycete or basidiomycete called a mycobiont) and a green alga or cyanobacterium (photobiont).
- Secrete acids that eat away at rock breaking it down and converting it to soil
- 13500 different speices many reproduce asexually by fragmentations called soredia
- A tough intert polymer that strengthens the secondary walls of various plant cells and thus helps vascular plants grow taller and stay erect on land
- Enzyme produced by some bacidiomycetes fungi to decompose woody plant debris
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In my column for the FT this week I write about a subject which is freshly topical in the US but which takes me back 25 years to the debate in Britain in the 1980s about the right operational target for macroeconomic policy.
Samuel Brittan made the case for this approach decades ago on this page. The crucial point - how an increase in nominal GDP breaks down between output and inflation - is not something the Fed can determine, or should have to explain. There are pros and cons to this approach, but that is the decisive political virtue of casting the target this way.
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Werner Herzog
Werner Herzog2
“You should bear in mind that almost all my documentaries are feature films in disguise. Because I stylize, I invent, there’s a lot of fantasy in it—not for creating a fraud, but exactly the contrary, to create a deeper form of truth, which is not fact-related. Facts hardly ever give you any truth, and that’s a mistake of cinéma vérité, because they always postulate it as if facts would constitute truth. In that case, my answer is that the phone directory of Manhattan is a book of books. Because it has 4 million entries, and they are all factually correct, but it doesn’t illuminate us. You see, I do things for creating moments that illuminate you as an audience, and the same thing happens with feature films as well.”
Werner Herzog (born September 5, 1942)
Documentary on Ingmar Bergman
As he approaches his 90s, Ingmar Bergman is the last survivor of a generation of great European directors who brought to the cinema a new psychological depth and formal daring. This BBC presentation of a documentary on Ingmar Bergman begins with an accurate statement on the Swedish filmmaker. Except for the fact that he passed away in 2007, Bergman was a great director—I’d say one of the greatest—and he brought with his vision and style a filmography that considered not only the human experience but also the cinematic experience. When one visits an Ingmar Bergman film, he or she is getting exactly that, and to add to the beauty of this is that he directed more than forty films in his lifetime. Persona. Wild Strawberries. The Seventh Seal. There is a library of Bergman films to choose from, to fill out days and weeks, and this documentary shows why filling up your time with Bergman cinema is more than just acceptable. Ingmar Bergman is an example of the filmmaker as an artist. He became a leading light in presenting film unselfconsciously as art. From Woody Allen to Andrei Tarkovsky, Bergman’s work has had a profound effect on many people. However, only a privileged few have met and talked at length with the man himself. This documentary represents in many ways that privilege—40 precious minutes with Ingmar Bergman.
Esteetilistel põhjustel (For Aesthetic Reasons, 1999)
»For purely aesthetic reasons«, as he claims.
He loves Danish post-war Modernism and would like to live in a house designed by one of its most prominent architects, Arne Jacobsen, surrounded by the designs of Bang&Oluffsen. While we are guided through some of the significant Modernist buildings by Kurg, we parallelly follow his attempts to get in touch with city officials and the proper authorities to find a solution. As Eastern Europe is still a no-man’s land, the migrant-aesthete from the Baltics tends to arouse suspicion on an ethical level. The only practical advice given, and the only remaining possibility, is what the Lutheran pastor suggests with an apologetic smile hiding his uneasiness, to marry a Danish girl, since families are not taken apart. The film which„bursts upon the stale and stuffy Estonian documentary film scene”(Andres Maimik) is influenced by the filmmaking experience of Dogma 95.
German portrait and documentary photographer August Sander (b 1876 – d 1964).
19 ASA3:2f17:2f7012.tif
Secretary at West German Radio, Cologne
sander sisters
In the photograph, “Country Girls,” 1925, two sturdy blond girls stand stiffly before the camera holding hands and wearing identical dark dresses and watches. It seems safe to assume they are sisters, so closely do they resemble each other in appearance, expression and manner. Indeed, their similarity and closeness is as disquieting as a Diane Arbus photograph, for their dark dresses visually give the impression of one large shape with two heads emerging from it.
The two girls in this photograph face the camera in a vague imitation of traditional posing principles. Their interlocking hands provide the emotional core of the image, compensating for their inability to make eye contact with the camera and with one another.
For the final section of People of the Twentieth Century, in which this portrait is found, Sander photographed “idiots, the sick, the insane, and the dying.” Whether single figures or groups, indoors or out, these “last people” are presented in the same uncompromising way that he approached his other subjects. Remarkably, Sander never let his work devolve into a clinical exercise, but instead imbued it with a sense of engagement with and respect for his subjects. Together the photographs illuminate the cyclical nature of Sander’s project, whereby in dying one returns to the earth and so the cycle begins anew.
August Sander
“Documentary photography isn’t so much about the fulfillment of aesthetic rules pertaining to outer form and composition as it is about the significance of that which is portrayed.”
“One can snap a shot or take a photograph; “to snap a shot” means reckoning with chance, and “to take a photograph” meaning working with contemplation – that is, to comprehend something, or to bring an idea from a complex to a consummate composition.”
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Personal Chef
What is A Personal Chef?
Personal Chefs are trained professional people who prepare meals in the client’s home. The Chef will complete everything from planning the menus, grocery shopping, preparing meals and even the clean up! The meals are prepared in the client’s home to ensure industry regulations and proper food handling procedures are followed. The main distinction between Personal Chefs and Private Chefs is, Personal Chefs are employed by any number of clients and Private Chefs are exclusive to one client.
How does this Service work for “Me”?
We always say... “There are never enough hours in the day”! This is especially true if you have a busy life and/or family. Sometimes the last thing you want to do is cook! Spending money on restaurants, take-out or even convenience foods can add up, not to mention how they make you feel if they are not the healthiest choices. Through “Let’s Eat!” Personal Chef Services, you will enjoy a customized menu/meal plan with the foods you love with minimal time and waste!
Can I justify the cost of A Personal Chef?
Yes! Like any service offered, be it your Mechanic, Accountant, Lawyer, etc., we pay for good service by a professional and expect our money’s worth. I could bore you with the stats, but that’s no fun! When you look at your own budget and how much money you spend on food, compared to how much you actually consume, it is clear... It is affordable!
"Kerina, everyone was blown away by your food and your service. Totally!"
-- G.A. Jank Metal Scupture
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Golden Globes red carpet arrivals
Heidi Klum, Jennifer Lopez and Kate Hudson are among Hollywood's hottest stars rocking the red carpet at the Golden Globe Awards.
Star snaps of the day
Rihanna avoids a wardrobe malfunction, Ryan Reynolds gets friendly with fans, 50 Cent does some good, Sarah Jessica Parker struts and more.
Star snaps of the day
15 celebs to ban from the red carpet
When did the red carpet become a free-for-all? What was once a hallowed stage for the towering and talented (or at least marginally interesting) has turned into a carnival of...
‘Girls’ star buys $1M home in Brooklyn
Six in 60: Zosia Mamet is Brooklyn bound, an unlikely ‘DWTS’ candidate, Bieber’s other legal troubles, Paradis on Depp’s engagement, Shia LaBeouf’s new art form, Broadway star’s advice for Carly Rae Jepsen.
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Try the NEW!
Break Timr
by Alpine App Studio
Developer Notes
Break Timr is a simple to use digital 24 hour digital timer, with both count up and count down displays. It informs you of how long you have been on break and how long you have left.
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to BioTechniques free email alert service to receive content updates.
Unraveling Cancer Through Network Models
Sarah Webb, Ph.D.
Many cancer researchers have turned their attention to rare mutations. But how can they distinguish the mutations that lead to disease from random mutations with no effect? Find out...
In many ways, cancer is simply a devastating natural mutagenesis experiment. Alterations to genes and their products, as well as additional downstream modifications, lead to dangerous and deadly consequences. From recent studies, we know there are a few key cancer drivers, genes such as p53 and Ras that have central roles within the genetic pathways causing these devastating effects. But interestingly, these mutations don't show up in all cancers; in fact, they represent a small portion of the information that researchers and clinicians require to understand tumor biology and diagnose and treat disease.
The result is that cancer researchers are now focusing on the “long tail,” collecting and cataloging rare mutations occurring in 1% or fewer of cancer patients. These rarer mutations may underlie the critical functional changes within cells that characterize and define this collection of diseases. But there is a big challenge here, a double-edge sword for researchers: because of their rarity, it is actually much harder to distinguish these mutations from random mutations that don't affect disease.
Building network context
So how do researchers go about locating these important rare variants? The functional consequences of mutations in the genome often can be seen in the molecules, such as proteins, they encode. Over time, bioinformatics researchers have learned how these biomolecules interact with each other in the cell, curating protein and metabolite connections into wiring diagrams with nodes for proteins or other molecules and edges that indicate an interaction with another molecule. This has led to the development of a landscape of bioinformatics methods for understanding the misfires that cause cancer and control the disease process according to Trey Ideker a bioinformatician at the University of California at San Diego. Researchers gather systematic information on genetic interactions from genome sequencing that can then be combined with public data on protein-protein interactions, producing more comprehensive databases featuring millions of associations between molecules. The question then, Ideker says, is how researchers can take this grab bag of interactions and introduce context to build pathway models that can be used to understand and diagnose disease.
Even with millions of associations catalogued, these databases are far from complete. In many ways, our current understanding of interaction networks is like navigating through a major city with a general map, explains Andrea Califano of Columbia University. “It's like having a map of a city with Main St. and Broadway and not actually knowing whether the city is New York or Boston.”
Although understanding how proteins function together is critical for basic research, the real benefit could come from the diagnosis and treatment of disease. Here, cancer is the “killer app”—an important problem that motivates the need for networks.
“It's not just a good idea for solving these diseases, but required for solving these diseases,” says Ideker. So, as large data sets emerge from cancer genome sequencing projects such as the NIH/NHGRI's Cancer Genome Atlas project (TCGA), bioinformatic analysis that integrates that information into the context of protein networks is essential for helping researchers to make sense of the deluge of cancer data.
Using networks for analysis
A primary motivation for the TCGA project was to understand the similarities and differences among various types and subtypes of human cancers. Researchers involved in the TCGA are currently looking at hundreds of samples from each of more than 20 tumor types to identify rare mutations involved in cancer.
One bioinformatics approach to understanding the possible effects of specific rare mutations is to create a “heat map”—a graphical representation of mutations in context with nearby neighbors in a protein network. HotNet, an algorithm developed by Ben Raphael and his colleagues at Brown University, is one such algorithm. The idea is straightforward: mutations to a single gene confer a certain amount of “heat” to a pathway. If no nearby genes are mutated, only that single mutation is interesting to researchers. However, if 4 or 5 genes are only mutated occasionally but are closely linked in the network, those mutations propagate heat among them creating a “hot zone,” and implicating that area of the network. “The idea behind all these approaches is to implicate your neighborhood,” explains Ideker.
When Raphael and his colleagues used HotNet for their TGCA analysis of the ovarian cancer genome (1), they observed well-known signaling pathways such as p53 and Ras. But they also pulled out the Notch signaling pathway based on a combination of individual, infrequently mutated genes. While other experimental evidence had suggested that Notch might be involved in various cancers, Raphael emphasizes, it's a nice example of how computational tools can help point researchers toward a biologically relevant hypothesis.
Other findings have implicated genes that were not so well known to researchers. TCGA analysis of ovarian and kidney cancer samples (2) identified hotspot genes that don't line up with any current experimental hypotheses for cancer. “Are they real? Are they not? It requires some additional experimental work,” Raphael says. Even though the algorithm generates results that are consistent with experimental data, which lends credibility, “ultimately what we're doing is generating hypotheses.”
These algorithms based on molecular networks could allow researchers to classify tumors into subtypes based on overlapping hot zones. According to Ideker, patients might not have mutations in the same genes, but if they have mutations in genes that are closely connected within a network, that information might help researchers understand subtypes of the disease even if patients lack similar mutation profiles.
A core issue for this type of analysis is how best to simplify available biochemical data into a form that takes into account biological function, allowing researchers to model the effects. The sheer amount of information researchers have collected in curated networks (e.g., REACTOME, BioCarta, WikiPathways, KEGG, and NCI-PID) can be overwhelming, with data on gene expression, copy number, epigenetic state, neighbors in a pathway, transcription factors, and more, notes Josh Stuart of the University of California Santa Cruz. Collaborating with David Haussler, also at UC Santa Cruz, Stuart has developed an algorithm called PARADIGM which takes all that available data on a gene and transforms it into a single number to indicate whether the gene is active in the cell or not (3).
Computers can then use those single values in place of the original data to come up with predictions of how genes work within a cell. For a cancer data set, this means predictions can be made as to whether tumors with a particular genetic profile are likely to have better or worse outcomes or predict drug targets based on data from cell lines.
Stuart's algorithm is being used as part of the automated pipeline for TCGA data being funneled through Firehose, the computational pipeline used at the Broad Institute.
Biochemical identification of protein-protein interactions
Researchers use a variety of assays to establish if two proteins interact. Two high-throughput approaches to identifying interactions are yeast-2-hybrid screens and affinity purification-mass spectrometry. Researchers can also predict an interaction between two proteins if both proteins contain domains known to interact with one another. Researchers might also look at whether genes are co-expressed in a cell and whether they're localized to the same cellular compartment. While those last two aren't definitive evidence for an interaction, Stein says, they can provide support for an interaction predicted using another method.
Each method comes with advantages and limitations. For example, though widely used, yeast 2 hybrid screens have several downsides. These screens probe interactions in an in vitro milieu of reagents and antibodies and may miss transient interactions or ones that involve membrane proteins. Not to mention that since this is an in vitro assay, the screen might pick up an interaction that wouldn't normally occur in the cell. So, researchers are most confident in defining a protein-protein interaction when multiple lines of evidence from different experimental approaches support that it occurs.
Expanding networks
Although network analysis is improving, it is still hampered by the many protein-protein interactions within the cell that remain unmapped. (See “Biochemical identification of protein-protein interactions.”) Here, Califano says, the major challenge for the field is getting detailed reference maps for cells, particularly those of different lineages where different regulatory processes occur.
For the PARADIGM algorithm, Stuart and his colleagues are slowly adding new interactions to the networks they use. A quarter of human proteins so far have been noted to regulate another gene or gene product in the curated networks. Taking advantage of available high-throughput data, Stuart estimates that approximately 50% of proteins are included in the PARADIGM analysis networks.
Looming challenges
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U.S. stocks closed higher Friday as investors were relieved by reports of easing tensions between Ukraine and Russia. The gain in the S&P 500 was the biggest since Mar. 4 and turned the index higher for the week.
On Friday:
For the week:
The Dow rose 60.56 points, or 0.4 percent.
The S&P 500 rose 6.44 points, or 0.3 percent.
The Nasdaq rose 18.26 points, or 0.4 percent.
For the year:
The Dow is down 22.73 points, or 0.1 percent.
The S&P 500 index is up 83.23 points, or 4.5 percent.
The Nasdaq is up 194.31 points, or 4.7 percent.
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Advantages and disadvantages of circumcision
There are several potential advantages and disadvantages associated with circumcising boys shortly after they are born.
For example:
However, there are much more effective and less invasive ways of preventing these conditions. For example, practising good hygiene to prevent UTIs, or using a condom to prevent STIs.
Read about when circumcision may be necessary for more details.
Most healthcare professionals maintain that the potential benefits of circumcision are not strong enough to justify routine childhood circumcision. Critics of circumcision argue that it has disadvantages, such as:
• Potential complications of circumcision – these include excessive bleeding, post-operative infection and, in rare cases, injury to the urethra. These complications are thought to outweigh any potential benefits.
Critics have also argued that routinely circumcising baby boys on medical grounds violates the principle of consent to treatment. They say that circumcision should only be performed when a boy is old enough to make an informed decision about whether he wishes to be circumcised.
Page last reviewed: 10/01/2014
Next review due: 10/01/2016
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Several consumer markets are observing consumer demand to increasingly concentrate at the low and high ends of the price spectrum. We study two mechanisms through which income and wealth inequality can cause this increasing polarization of demand. More precisely, we advance that, aside from the conventional effect of income on budget constraints, different levels of consumer wealth determine whether different consumption motives are aroused or suppressed. Therefore, a heterogeneous distribution of consumer wealth elicits heterogeneous preferences for particular brands that satisfy different consumption motives. This theoretical model builds the foundation for a new economic model of non-homothetic preferences that allows marginal utility to depend on wealth. We test the proposed framework by estimating an econometric model of consumer choice with automobile data because high-end cars fulfill motives related to social status and self expression. The empirical study compares the proposed model against a more standard model of compensatory utility that is widely used in the empirical literature. The proposed model is able to predict the demand of a larger number of products and better predicts the sales of low-end and high-end products. A counterfactual analysis suggests that the polarization of demand is caused more by wealth inequality (through the saliency of consumption motives) than by income inequality (through budget constraints.) In particular, inequality weakens preferences for luxury and strengthens preferences for self-expression. The saliency of preferences for social status, in contrast, is less influenced by economic inequality. Finally, higher income inequality reduces demand concentration and dominates the opposing effect of higher wealth inequality.
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Exit the A38 at the Lancaster Circus Queensway and take the James Watt Queensway. After 0.1 miles turn right onto Newton Street. Continue straight on, onto Dale Street. At the end of the road turn left onto Carrs Lane and then turn immediately left. The hotel is situated on the left side of the road.
Hotel Policies
Check-in time starts at 15:00:00
Check-out time is 12:00:00
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Optional View
When a task needs to present some data for review, whose existence is optional, add a Siebel Query Option step before the optional view to check for the existence of data to be presented. Assign the query step's NumAffRows output argument to a task property of type Number. Follow the query step with a decision step with two outgoing branches: one of type Condition, and the other of type Default. In the conditional branch, test that this task property's value equals literal value of 0. Use that condition branch to by-pass the optional view, because it will be executed if no rows were found in the query step.
Field Activity may have instructions associated with it, but if there are no instructions to show, the view that presents them can be skipped.
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TED: Comedy is Translation
TED: Shape-Shifting Dinosaurs
TED: Treating Cancer With Electric Fields
Surgery, chemotherapy and radiation are the best-known methods for treating cancer. Bill Doyle presents a new approach, called Tumor Treating Fields, which uses electric fields to interrupt cancer cell division. Still in its infancy and approved for only certain types of cancer, the treatment comes with one big benefit: quality of life.
TED: The Happy Secret to Better Work
TED: Why I Chose a Gun
Peter van Uhm is the Netherlands’ Chief of Defense, but that does not mean he is pro-war. At TEDxAmsterdam he explains how his career is one shaped by a love of peace, not a desire for bloodshed, and why we need armies if we want peace.
TED: Doctors Can Make Mistakes
TED: Cut Your Food In Half
TED: Building a Park in the Sky
TED: Meet e-Patient Dave
TED: Computing a Rosetta Stone for the Indus Script
Rajesh Rao is fascinated by “the mother of all crossword puzzles”: How to decipher the 4,000 year old Indus script. He tells how he is enlisting modern computational techniques to read the Indus language, the key piece to understanding this ancient civilization.
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Increasing number of cars on Indian roads
Find here our infographics on NHDP road construction pace!
increasing number carsJust as a child experiences growing pains as it goes through the various stages of development, so too it seems, does a country. At least that appears to be the case in India as it slowly comes to terms with some of the by-products of its status as a developing nation. As the economy has grown, so too has disposable income, which in turn has led to an increase in the number of cars on the Indian road network.
There were 1.5 million cars sold in India in 2007, a figure which represents more than double the number sold in 2003. And the apparently insatiable appetite of Indian for motor vehicles shows no signs of being sated. It is widely predicted that this year will see India overtake China as the world’s fastest growing car market. The introduction of the world’s cheapest car, the Tato Nano, has played a significant role in the increase in cars on Indian roads. Priced at a mere USD 3,000, the model has opened the way for a significant number of first time buyers to own a car, something which had previously been unthinkable for all but a tiny minority of India’s population.
Compounding the problem created by the increase in cars on India’s roads is how disproportionately the vehicles are distributed. Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Bangalore are home to just five per cent of the country’s population. Yet the same four cities are also home to 14 per cent of India’s registered vehicles. What’s more, in six cities the amount of traffic is growing at a rate equivalent to four times faster than the population. It is clear that the current rate of growth in the number of cars on the Indian road network is unsustainable, but what is the most effective way of addressing the issue?
One solution which has been widely touted as the answer is the development of expanded, and more efficient, public transport systems. Existing networks such as those in London and New York are viewed as examples of how an effective public transport system can function, with officials in India are keen to introduce similar schemes to Indian cities. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has pushed for a metro rail network in Mumbai and it is likely that similar schemes could be implemented elsewhere if it were to prove a success.
While these schemes would likely be a popular move among the population, the huge investment that would be required remains the elephant in the room. With the worldwide financial crisis likely to take some time to improve, it is more likely that the authorities will seek cheaper alternatives to the increased number of cars on India’s roads. One such alternative is to reduce traffic through the introduction of a congestion charging scheme or by providing incentives for car-pooling. The congestion charge in London has proved a very effective way of reducing congestion, with traffic falling by 21 per cent and traffic speeds increasing by around 10 per cent. The revenue raised through such a scheme could then be channeled into improving existing public transport networks. This could provide good food for thought for the government.
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Depth of Field for Beginners
Ahh depth of field… aka DOF. This term strikes fear into the hearts of young aspiring photographers everywhere, both film and digital. They know it deals with optics and math - two things that most creative people are not really into. My first instinct is to say that depth of field is not that complicated… but then again I had to take an optics class in college which made me want to stab my eyes out with metal darkroom tongs… and then pour stop bath in them. I believe this class had a very deceptive name, along the lines of “Principles of Photography” or something like that. It was, in fact, all math. Ewww.
But as usual I digress, so let us get back to the task at hand - which is understanding the glorious principles of depth of field and how they apply to your film photography. Let me just say right now that I am about to do a basic overview “for dummies” style, so please do not write to me claiming that I did not explain such and such complicated principle. You can grab a copy of Ansel Adams’ “The Camera” for that. Here we go:
In über-simple laymen’s terms, depth of field refers to the part of your photograph that is in focus. If all or most of your photograph is in focus, you have a deep depth of field (also called deep focus.) If only a part of your photograph is in focus, you have a shallow depth of field (also called shallow focus and selective focus.) And that’s what depth of field is. Seriously.
The tricky part is figuring out how your aperture relates to your depth of field, and your beloved (or hated) exposure triangle. What is an exposure triangle, you say? You best be reading my Exposure 101, I answer. Several factors affect depth of field, including your distance to your subject, the focal length of your lens, your selected aperture (f-stop) and the format you are shooting. This means that a photo taken with a 50mm lens at f/1.8 from the same distance will not have the same depth of field when taken with a 35mm camera and 4x5 field camera.
A general rule to guide you: the smaller the f/stop number (so the larger the opening), the shallower the depth of field. F/1.2 has a shallower depth of field than f/1.8, which has a shallower depth of field than f/2.8 and so on. F/5.6 and F/8 tend to give medium focus, depending on your distance from the subject (and the format you shoot, of course.) If this confuses you, have a look at What is aperture/f-stop?.
Side-by-side examples:
{Selective Focus: F/2.8 - This is pretty shallow, but not to the point where it creates a complete bokeh effect and the background is indistinguishable. Both of these were shot at F/2.8 with a 50mm lens in 35mm.}
{Deep Focus: F/16. -These two, on the other hand, have deep focus - meaning that the foreground and background are in focus. Both were shot at F/16, but the left image is medium format and the right is 35mm.}
{Shallow and medium side-by-side: The background in the left shot is completely blurry with zero detail. It was shot at f/1.8, approximately 12 feet from the subject with an 80mm portrait lens on 35mm film. The right shot has a blurry background, but you can still tell what it is. It was shot at f/8, approximately three feet from the subject with a 50mm lens on medium format film.}
F/32 is most commonly the highest number on lenses that don’t cost a bajillion dollars, but you can definitely come across field cameras with an f/64. In fact, in the early 1930s, a bunch of photographers (including Ansel Adams) got together to form Group F/64. Their principal belief was that photographs should be perfectly exposed, profoundly sharp and completely in focus (in contrast to the Pictorialist era, for the History of Photo buffs.) An aperture of f/64 was the best way to achieve this, as far as they were concerned.
Some of you may be saying, “Hey, but f/32 really doesn’t let a lot of light in….” No, it doesn’t. This is where mastering your exposure knowledge truly helps you create the photograph you want. If you absolutely have to shoot 100 ISO and need a very deep DOF, you’ll have to lower your shutter speed. If you want to use a specific shutter speed at f/32, you’ll have to pick a film with a high enough ISO. For those who shoot digital, this doesn’t prove as much of a constraint, considering you can change the ISO. For my beloved kittens who shoot film, your ISO is your ISO and you can’t change it. Even if you decide to push or pull to fit the situation, you still have to shoot at that ISO for the entire roll. For more on that, please check out What is ISO? in the Beginner’s Guide to Film Photography.
All of this information can seem confusing, but your lens actually tells you the depth of field if you really look at it:
See how it’s on F/2.8? And there’s a little white diamond on the middle ring? And more numbers on the third ring? Voila your DOF indicators. We can understand that the manufacturer says that this lens at F/2.8 has a DOF range of 1.5 to 2 meters, or 5 to 7 feet. Meaning that anything in between that range will be in focus. The manufacterer is most often, but not always, right. (Side Note: Mastery of using these numbers to focus without looking is known as “Zone Focusing” in fancy photographer talk.)
Many SLR film cameras have a depth of field preview button; it’s usually located on the front near the button to release the lens or the self-timer. When you hold the depth of field preview button and look through the viewfinder, you’ll notice it is significantly darker but accurately displays your complete depth of field. For a great explanation of this button, check out Ken Rockwell’s The Depth of Field Preview Button.
Let’s sum up the major points:
• Depth of field refers to the areas of the photograph in focus.
• Small f-stop numbers produce shallow depth of field, or selective focus. This is when the background is blurry. Great for portraits.
• Medium f-stop numbers produce a medium depth of field, still with selective focus, but with significantly more definition in the out-of-focus areas. Good for portraits and specific landscapes.
• Large f-stop numbers produce a deep depth of field, meaning the foreground and background are in focus. Ideal for landscapes.
If you want to get more in depth on depth of field (sorry, couldn’t resist), I highly recommend Understanding Depth of Field in Photography from Cambridge in Color. They’ve got loads of fancy diagrams to confuse you ;)
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Disaster Assistance Programs
Disaster Assistance Programs: The Supplemental Revenue Assistance Program (SURE)
In the past decade, temporary ad hoc disaster assistance payments was the typical mechanism used to aid agricultural producers, including blackberry and raspberry growers, that had been adversely affected by natural disasters. However, given the ad hoc nature of this approach, these temporary disaster assistance payments have been difficult to manage fiscally. In the 2008 Farm Bill, officially known as the Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008, the SURE program was created as part of more permanent disaster legislation for agricultural producers. The SURE program is administered through the Farm Service Agency (FSA).
SURE is a new type of disaster assistance program. Most of the past disaster programs made payments based on individual crop losses and were often tied to base acres for either direct payments or countercyclical payments. SURE is a whole-farm disaster assistance program that is tied to crop insurance coverage and farm planted acreage. In a nutshell, if actual crop revenue from all crops (and all disaster and insurance payments) is less than the SURE guarantee, a SURE payment makes up 60 percent of the difference. SURE is tied to crop insurance because you need to have crop insurance coverage (i.e. NAP or AGR-Lite for brambles growers) to be eligible for the program.
For more information about the SURE program click here for a fact sheet and click here for a detailed paper.
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Trade Customers
Welcome to the section of our website dedicated to our Trade customers. We offer a number of unique services to help garages provide a better service to their customers and these will be introduced here in the coming months.
Webkat is the most comprehensive cataloguing system in the industry and it’s what our branch teams use to identify the parts you need. We are happy to provide our customers access to Webkat (which will also show the prices you’ll pay for our products) for a small fee. If you’re already registered, please click below for access. If not, please contact your local branch for more details.
Q. How can I get access to Webkat?
A. This catalogue is specifically designed for Garages & workshops. You will have to register your interest with your local GSF branch and need a GSF Trade account. Log in details will then be sent to you by email when your account is activated. Your local branch will give you a call when access is completed and arrange a time for a demonstration if required. Please remember to check your junk mail just in case.
Q. I have received my user name and password, but I still can't log on!
A. Use the user name and respective password sent to you. Please note that the user name and password are case sensitive. You can try copying the password from the confirmation email. If you have just received the confirmation email and can’t log on immediately, try again in 5 minutes allowing time for the server to update you as a user.
Q. I’ve forgotten my password and / or user name!
A. No problem, just email, and we will email you the details again asap.
Q. There are some blank areas on the screen when I load the page.
A. It may be because you are not using the latest internet browser version, please update whichever browser you are using to the latest version.
Q. What is the VRM Lookup.
A. Type your registration number into the VRM Lookup box and we’ll search for your vehicle. Some information will appear in a popup box, if it’s correct, click accept and just double check the vehicle matches the description in the left hand margin. You can then start looking for parts.
Q. My registration doesn’t link to the correct car?
A. Sorry, you will have to select the car manually from the model list. You can find more detailed instructions on how to do this at:
Q. My registration doesn’t link to any car?
A. A few vehicles are not recorded in the same way at the DVLA so you will have to select the car manually from the model list. You can find more detailed instructions on how to do this at:
Q. How do I get more information about the car I’m looking at?
A. If you click the little ‘I’ button next to the model description near the top of the catalogue, it will produce a pop up window with some further information about the car. You will also see a brief description of the car in the left hand margin.
Q. How do I find the parts I’m looking for?
A. You can either search for the parts by clicking through sections in the search tree, or type in a keyword into the search box. We have tried to use all the common terms used for parts to make them easy to find.
Q. I can’t find what I’m looking for!
A. We are adding to our product range all the time & our catalogue information. Please call our mail order hotline who will be happy to help you.
Q. What is the difference between ‘Standard’ and ‘Premium’ quality?
A. Standard Quality: Item will be of top aftermarket quality carefully selected from alternative suppliers that offer excellent value for money. Eg, Vetech, Erst Klassig, Franzen, NK, etc.
Premium Quality: Item will be of top quality sourced from leading suppliers that usually supply directly to manufacturers. Eg, ATE, Bosch, Brembo, GKN, Lesjofor, LUK, Mann Hummel, Remy, TRW, Valeo, etc.
Q. Where can I find consumables and things that are not car specific.
A. These items will all be found listed under the Universal tab just next to the shopping basket.
Q. How do I change the quantity of what I want to order?
A. Just select the ‘Quantity’ box and type in the required number and then click the ‘Update’ button.
Q. How do I know if my order has been received?
A. When we receive your order, an Order Acknowledgement screen will be generated. You'll also receive an email confirming that we have received your order details and containing details of your order and your order confirmation number. The supplying Branch also get an email detailing the order, In the event of any problems, they will give you a call.
Q. Can I add to an existing order?
A. You can add items to your order until you confirm your order. Once the order is confirmed, you can't add items to the same order. If you’d like to order additional items, you will need to place a new order or call the branch to get the new order on the same Van to you.
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619 words • 3~5 min read
A major issue standing between well-managed elasmobranch fisheries and the mess we find ourselves in today is species identification. Many species look very similar (in some cases, DNA tests are required to tell them apart), which makes recording catch statistics extremely difficult. In fact, United States fishery management policy sometimes focuses on species complexes (i.e. “Large Coastal Sharks”) of sharks rather than individual species. Species identification is a major issue for skates as well.
The common skate (Dipturus batis) is heavily exploited by the European seafood industry. While this species was once common, it is locally extinct throughout large parts of its historic territory. Many consider common skates to be the first example of modern industrial fishing technology bringing a fish to the brink of extinction. However, the story isn’t as clear as some textbooks would have us believe.
Some evidence (extremely variable morphological measurements, differences in time to reach reproductive maturity, etc) suggests that D. batis is actually two different species, prompting the authors to do a re-evaluation of the taxonomy. They present pretty convincing genetic and morphological evidence that D. batis is, in fact, two different species. This has major consequences for the management of skates. As the paper’s authors say:
“This taxonomic confusion puts into question all previously accumulated data based on D. batis. Its endangered status highlights the need for an extensive reassessment of population collapses with accurately identified species.”
Since these animals have been extensively fished for nearly a century and have some of the most detailed fishery data around, having “all previously accumulated data” put into question is a big deal. To make matters worse, the authors found that European fishing markets often incorrectly label skate meat- apparently, one of the newly-identified species formerly known as D. batis looks very similar to yet another species of skate.
This research has enormous implications for one of the world’s largest elasmobranch fisheries (and possibly for numerous similar fisheries worldwide ), and I’m very curious to see how regulations change as a result of it. In the meantime, in case you ever find yourself near one of these animals, here is a diagram of “the most significant morphological differences” between them. It’s no wonder that fishermen call them both the same animal.
Figure from Iglesias et al. 2010
Iglésias, S., Toulhoat, L., & Sellos, D. (2010). Taxonomic confusion and market mislabelling of threatened skates: important consequences for their conservation status Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems, 20 (3), 319-333 DOI: 10.1002/aqc.1083
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Staff Correspondent
MANGALORE: Two children reportedly died after they came under the wheels of a private bus at Polali Dwara on the outskirts of the city, under Bajpe police limits, on Wednesday.
This accident follows the accident on Monday in which a mother and her daughter were run over by a private city bus. The police gave the names of the children as Prajwal (5) and his one-and-a-half-year-old sister Bhavani.
Their mother, Lakshmi (25), who is expecting her third child, was injured in the accident. She is undergoing treatment at a private hospital in the city.
The accident occurred at about 5.45 a.m. when the person who was driving the bus tried to reverse it. The police are yet to ascertain whether it was the driver or the cleaner who was driving the bus.
The victims were children of migrant labourers, originally from Shimoga, but who had settled down at Trasi near Gangoli in Udupi district. They were staying in a tent at Polali Dwara. A group of around 150 people, who gathered at the scene of the accident, threw stones at the bus damaging it. They were angered by the apparent delay in ambulances reaching the spot. The police have seized the bus. Efforts are on to arrest the person responsible for the accident, police said.
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The First State Celebrates Constitution Day 2006
Justice Randy J. Holland
photo of Justice Randy J. Holland
Justice Randy J. Holland, Delaware Supreme Court
Delaware State Courts
Separation of powers is the defining principle of the American constitutional form of government. The foundation for both our national and state governments is a horizontal separation of sovereign powers between three independent branches - legislative, executive and judicial. The desirability of dividing the power of government into three main parts can be traced back to Aristotle. The drafters of America's constitutions were influenced by the 18th-century political philosopher Charles Montesquieu, who wrote: "There would be an end to everything, were the same [p]erson or the same body, whether of the nobles or of the people, to exercise those three powers, that of enacting the laws, that of executing the public resolutions, and of trying the causes of individuals."
In the United States, our federal constitutional system also divides the powers of sovereignty vertically between the national government and the government of each state. The powers of the national government are enumerated in the United States Constitution, and the Supremacy Clause makes those powers binding upon the states. The Tenth Amendment, however, reserves all residual sovereign powers to the states.
The primary function of the judicial branch at each level of government is to interpret the law and to apply its remedies or penalties with finality in specific cases and controversies involving both public and private parties. The United States Supreme Court is the ultimate interpreter of the United States Constitution and federal laws. The highest court in each state is the final interpreter of that state's constitution and laws. The opinion of each state's highest court is binding with respect to an interpretation of that state's law in all other state and federal courts.
State trial courts are presided over generally by single judges who interpret and apply the law in the context of a particular case, usually after hearing witnesses testify and considering other evidence presented by the litigants. In many trial courts, factual determinations are made by a jury. Appellate courts are comprised of multiple judges who, without taking additional evidence, hear appeals that allege legal errors were committed at the trial level. The highest appellate court in each state performs several functions: it corrects errors of law by a trial court in individual cases; it promotes uniformity in the law by reconciling conflicts in trial court decisions in different cases; it is the final interpreter of the state constitution and state statutes; and it develops the common law.
The Delaware judicial branch consists of the Supreme Court, the Court of Chancery, the Superior Court, the Family Court, the Court of Common Pleas, the Justice of the Peace Court and the Alderman's Courts.
The Delaware Court system looks like a triangle. The Justice of the Peace Court and the Alderman's Courts are the base of the triangle and the Supreme Court is the apex. As a case proceeds upward through the Delaware judicial system, the legal issues generally become more complex.
The Alderman's Courts are provided for in the statutory charters incorporating various municipalities throughout the state. They have very limited jurisdiction over civil and criminal matters. Litigants usually have the option of transferring their cases to another court.
For most citizens, the Justice of the Peace Court is the initial point of entry into the Delaware court system. That court has jurisdiction over civil cases in which the amount at issue does not exceed $15,000. In criminal cases, the Justice of the Peace Courts have jurisdiction over certain misdemeanors and most non-felony motor vehicle cases. The individual justices of the peace may act as committing magistrates for all crimes. Any appeals from the Justice of the Peace Court are taken to the Court of Common Pleas.
The Court of Common Pleas has jurisdiction in civil cases where the amount in controversy does not exceed $50,000. In criminal cases, the Court of Common Pleas has jurisdiction over all misdemeanors in the State except for certain drug-related offenses. It also hears motor vehicle offenses that are not felonies. In addition, the Court of Common Pleas holds preliminary hearings in felony cases. Any appeals are taken to the Superior Court.
The Family Court has exclusive jurisdiction over almost all family and juvenile matters. All civil appeals, including those relating to juvenile delinquency, go directly to the Supreme Court. Criminal cases are appealed to the Superior Court.
The Superior Court is a court of general jurisdiction. It has original jurisdiction over major criminal matters, including capital murder cases. It also hears major civil cases except for equity proceedings. The Superior Court has exclusive jurisdiction over felonies and almost all drug offenses. The Superior Court's authority to award damages in civil cases is not subject to a monetary maximum. The Superior Court also serves as an intermediate appellate court for appeals from the Court of Common Pleas, from the Family Court in criminal cases, and from several administrative agencies. Any appeals from the Superior Court are taken on the record to the Supreme Court.
The Court of Chancery has jurisdiction to hear all matters relating to equity. Its jurisdiction involves corporate matters, trusts, estates, fiduciary issues, disputes involving the purchase of land and questions of title to real estate. Any appeals from the Court of Chancery are taken on the record to the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court is Delaware's highest court. It receives direct appeals from the Court of Chancery, the Superior Court, and the Family Court. The Supreme Court has original jurisdiction to issue writs of prohibition and mandamus to trial courts. The Supreme Court also has exclusive authority for licensing and disciplining persons admitted to practice law in Delaware. The Supreme Court consists of a chief justice and four justices. As administrative head of the courts, the chief justice, in consultation with the other justices, sets administrative policy for the court system.
For the past four years, the United States Chamber of Commerce has ranked Delaware's courts as the number one state judicial system in the United States.
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Energy firms knowingly broke laws, Wetlands advocates say
The argument takes the form of a digital "timeline" that dates back to the 19th century. It is hosted by the website for the legal firm of Jones, Swanson, Huddell and Gerrison LLC, which represents the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority - East in its action against nearly 100 energy companies.
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Scissor-making in China
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Spring Schedule of Workshops
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Freeform Power Hammer Forging with Jon Ledford – Saturday, April 20, 2013
Our power hammer tooling and dies were set up according to the specifications of innovative blacksmith and educator Uri Hofi. Instructor Jon Ledford will show you how to make a power hammer perform acts of beauty in steel. For advanced students only. $220 includes materials. 9:30 AM- 4:30 PM
New Tool for my Apprentice
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I now have an apprentice, a young woman of remarkable intelligence and determination. Fearless, too. Laughing
my v block
my v block
antler chandelier
Delevery time for the big-un.
5' x 7' antler chandelier5' x 7' antler chandelier
Art metal
Professionally engaged in artistic metal forging. My site with articles. Intersnyh opinion of colleagues. 'm Designing with forged metal. Made of metal stairs, fences, canopies.
Fabrication | Jewelry | | | | |
New Forge Project
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Things have been a bit slow on the 'net for several days now so I thought I'd share with you all my latest shop project. The propane forge I've been using for the past five years has just about run its course and I decided to make a new and better one. The old one has been good, but it is a bit on the small side sometimes and isn't as adaptable as I would like. I put a 2" square port in the rear of it, but too often that isn't big enough for what I need to put through it so I'm forced to build up firebricks at the front of the forge and use the exhaust heat to get something up to temperature. Also, this little freon can forge can't accept the middle of a scroll, for instance. Such shapes are best done in a solid fuel forge, but most of the time I don't want to fire up the coal forge just to do one heat. I've been thinking for some months now of a new design for a forge that would solve some of my issues and still not be a huge, gas-guzzling monster that would drive me out of the shop with the dragon's breath and the waste heat. That waste heat is a significant factor in the tropics where I work, believe me!
Help with copper I am new!!!
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So I am BRAND NEW to metal smithing, as in just yesterday I pulled out my fathers anvil, got a good hot fire going and played around with some old scrap copper pipe. I was wondering, how do you get copper to fuse to itself when you fold it over? I know with iron they would sprinkle something like borax, but what about copper? (I realize my fire was probably no where near hot enough) Just looking for some advice, I had a blast playing around with it, made a neat cuff thats about 2 inches wide and heavy as hell lol.
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Indie Close-Up: Donnie Yen is a 'Dragon,' Diego Luna Talks Mexican Music in 'Hecho En Mexico'
Brad Pitt will be Killing Them Softly this weekend and a new batch of limited release indies look to get in on the weekend box office action. Let's see what's hitting theaters this weekend...
It may not seem like it, but it's been almost a year since a Donnie Yen movie was in American theaters. In January, he starred in the action biopic The Lost Bladesman which failed to impress and bid a quick exit onto home video. Dragon, however, has managed to win over critics and this weekend will get a limited release for action-drama fans to devour. The film centers on a martial arts expert who wants to start a new, tranquil life only to be hunted by a determined detective (House of Flying Daggers' Takeshi Kaneshiro) and his former master. Dragon has scored multiple wins at the Asian Film Awards and the Hong Kong Film Awards this year.
Originally slated for release back in 2010, Parked finally arrives in limited release this weekend. The film centers on a young man who returns to Ireland with nowhere to live but his car. He meets a dope-smoking 20-something, Cathal, who brightens his lonely world and through Cathal's encouragement, meets an attractive music teacher named Jules. Parked won the Audience Award at the Brussels European and Brussels International film festivals as well as nabbing multiple Irish Film and TV Award nominations.
Hecho En Mexico
Diego Luna returns to theaters in this documentary that showcases the richness of Mexican music, both young and old. Director Duncan Bridgeman examines the range of Mexican music from traditional styles to pop rock and rap, blending in interviews with leading personalities such as Luna, Lila Downs, Los Tucanes de Tijuana, Kinky and Alejandro Fernandez. A must-see for music fans!
California Solo
Robert Carlyle stars as a former British pop-rocker who now works on a farm and faces deportation after getting caught drunk driving. His efforts to stay in the U.S. force him to confront the past and current demons in his life, including an estranged ex-wife and daughter. Danny Masterson (That '70s Show) and Alexia Rasmussen (Chloe in Our Idiot Brother) co-star in this Woodstock Film Festival award-winner.
King Kelly
King Kelly is an aspiring internet star who performs webcam stripteases. When her car, which just happens to be filled with illegal narcotics waiting for delivery, gets stolen by a bitter ex-boyfriend, Kelly and her best friend embark on a whirlwind journey through drugs, sex and violence to reclaim what is hers. The film was made entirely from camera-phone footage.
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Carrie Underwood Nabs Lead Role in NBC Live Broadcast of 'The Sound of Music'
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Q. What will the oral examination be like?
A. The exam is two hours long. You and your partner will be asked a series of questions by a committee of three professors, including the Chair. The professors will take turns introducing lines of inquiry and will focus on works included on your list, though you may also be asked to go “off list” once or twice. Your professors might direct questions to you, to your partner, or to both of you. The best oral exams will evolve into true conversations among the faculty and students. However, sometimes questions will “stump” you or your partner; generally, when that happens, it is acceptable for the student who has an answer to respond and assist the struggling student. It is also usually appropriate to interject after your partner has had a chance to answer a question or questions if you want to share an answer of your own. Note that the exam is formal: professional self-presentation, including professional dress, is encouraged. You will not bring notes into the examination room, but you may bring a copy of your orals list.
Q. What kinds of questions will I be asked?
A. You will be asked an array of questions, falling mainly into two categories: interpretive and literary-historical. The former type of question will focus on your ability to recall and analyze details of plot, characterization, form, and style from the works on your list. You will be asked to close read from memory and “on your feet,” especially when the shorter works on your list come up. The latter type of question will assess your ability to connect works on your list with broader literary and historical phenomena, like genres, forms, intellectual and artistic movements, and eras/periods. (A common line of questioning is, “How does Work X exemplify Period Y [or the Y Movement],” or “I see that you classified Work X within Period Y, yet you could also have associated it with Period Z. Defend your decision,” or “Explain how Work X reflects a cultural change between Periods Y and Z by discussing it in relation to Literary Concept W.”)
Q. How should I make my list?
A. Consult the Core List and study it. Choose works that you want to read, re-read, and learn more about. Ensure that you understand the literary eras represented on the list and that you can define the terms associated with those periods before you even begin to draft a list. When you do start drafting, try to create a well-developed list: make sure you do not avoid literary periods, genres, or styles that you perceive as “hard” or with which you lack experience. On the contrary, challenge yourself to use your time studying for orals to strengthen yourself in areas you are less familiar with as well as to gain real mastery over areas with which you are already well-versed. Eschewing longer, denser, or less obvious works, or whole periods, genres, or styles of work, in favor of shorter, simpler, or better-known works, or periods, genres, and styles with which we know you to be very comfortable, will not go unnoticed: instead, such evasions will provoke questions that may uncover major deficiencies in your preparation.
Q. How are orals scored?
A. The three faculty members making up the exam committee confer after the exam to assess students’ performance in a number of key categories. Faculty then assign a score of “High Pass,” “Pass,” “Low Pass,” or “Fail.”
Q. What could cause a failing score, and what happens if a student fails?
A. If a student cannot recall textual details, cannot analyze details accurately, cannot define key terms associated with the works on his or her list, cannot speak knowledgeably about periods of literary history and their characteristics, or shows other major deficiencies in preparation or performance, he or she will not pass the exam. Depending on the area(s) of weakness, non-passing students will be given mandatory assignments intended both to help them remedy the weakness(es) and to demonstrate learning and growth in the problem area(s). Assignments might include close reading papers, thesis-based essays, short-answer essays, and other written or oral projects.
Q. How should I study?
A. You should approach studying for orals as a long-term research project. Endeavor to make a draft of your list early enough that it is possible to read and re-read the works you have chosen. We expect to see deep familiarity with key passages from longer works and with short lyrics, and we encourage students to commit to memory a great deal of literary material from the works on their lists. To ensure understanding of literary context, review class notes from courses in which you studied works on your list, but do not over-rely on your notes or use your class notes as your only study aid. Instead, also plan to conduct independent research and to make use of a range of study materials, like the bibliographies from your upper-level courses, books in the library, subject encyclopedias, scholarly articles, guides to literary history and literary terminology, and textbooks (e.g., the Norton Anthologies). (See also the list of recommended resources at the bottom of this page.) Use study techniques you know work for you (like note-cards or group studying) and try new ones, too. Finally, spend plenty of time thinking about and studying your list and ask yourself and your partner lots of different kinds of study questions. What connections can you make between and among specific, maybe even apparently unrelated, works on your list? Why (aside from personal preference) did you choose the works on your list instead of other works? How do literary works reflect or influence certain cultural contexts, or how do literary concepts develop over time? What changes do you observe in the English language throughout the works on your list, and how do different writers use language differently? These kinds of questions will come up during the exam, so you should think about them as you plan for it.
Q. I’m nervous. What if I’ve studied but during the exam I draw a blank?
A. It is natural to feel nervous, excited, and anxious before an oral exam. In fact, adrenaline can help you think faster; nervousness will not necessarily incapacitate you and may even give you a mental boost. If you have prepared well, you will be able to articulate answers even to challenging questions, but it can also help to have some “stalling strategies” in mind in the event that you do draw a blank. If you are asked a question you can’t immediately answer, it is usually fine to ask for a moment to think. It is also permissible to ask your professor to re-ask or re-phrase the question. Even simply saying, “That’s an interesting question. I hadn’t thought about it before, but …” can buy you a little time as you call up the information being asked for. Sometimes nerves begin to get in the way when you aren’t sure about a professor’s intention in asking a question, or when you receive a series of questions you haven’t prepared for. Try not to assume that any questions (especially simple ones) are “trick questions”: often, the question that’s stumping you really is as direct and basic as it seems, even if the “right” answer is concrete and complex. Finally, sometimes your professors will ask questions out of curiosity or interest, or to see you think creatively in the moment, and may not have a prefabricated or “right” answer in mind: try not to perceive this kind of questioning as sinister, and engage with it as best you can.
Q. When will my exam be, or when will my list be due?
A. You will be contacted in the spring of your senior year to schedule your comprehensive exams. You will be instructed at that time how and when to submit your list to the Department Chair.
Recommended resources
Consider reading the following books as you study for orals.
• M.H. Abrams, A Glossary of Literary Terms
• David H. Richter, The Critical Tradition: Classic Texts and Contemporary Trends
• Pat Rogers, The Oxford Illustrated History of English Literature
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Lessons Learned The Hard Way
Lapses in good practice, human error or lack of knowledge have resulted in serious injuries and deaths. A review of the root causes of these accidents reveals a worrying similarity.
In 1993, in Ankara, Turkey, three disused cobalt-60 teletherapy sources were packaged for re-export to the United States. The sources were not exported immediately, but were stored without the permission of the regulatory authority at the company’s premises. Over time, two of these packages were taken to Istanbul and eventually transferred to empty premises that were not secure. In November 1998, these premises were sold, and the new owners sold the packages as scrap metal to two brothers. By December 1998, the brothers had taken the packages to the family home and over a period of a few days began dismantling the protective containers, until they and others became ill with nausea and vomiting. At some point, pieces of the dismantled containers and at least one unshielded source were apparently left in a residential area before being taken to a local scrap yard.
By the time doctors suspected exposure to radiation, and not food poisoning, was the cause of the illnesses, a total of 18 persons were admitted to hospital. Ten of these persons had symptoms of severe radiation syndrome. Five of these had to be hospitalized for 45 days. Authorities recovered one source at the scrap yard before it was melted down. The second source, reported to be in one of the packages, has not been recovered to this day. Inadequate security over the sources and inadequate periodic inventory checks of the waste packages were the main contributing factors that allowed the unauthorized sale to take place.
Lack of recognition of the trefoil symbol on the source by those trying to dismantle the source was also an important factor in the number of persons affected by this accident. Improper waste management of the sources once they become disused was the root cause of the problem.
In February 2000, a serious accident in Samut Prakarn, Thailand resulted in death, injury, and widespread concern. A disused cobalt-60 teletherapy source was being stored, apparently without knowledge or permission of the regulatory authority, in insecure outdoor premises normally used for storing new cars. Two local scrap collectors allegedly bought some scrap including the source and took it home to dismantle and resell. They later took the partially dismantled teletherapy head to a junkyard where an employee cut open the protective shielding with an oxyacetylene torch. Those who had been nearby when the protective shielding was cut began to experience nausea and vomiting. Those who had touched some parts of the exposed metal began to suffer burn-like injuries. The symptoms worsened over a period of days.
It was not until about ten days later that some began to seek medical treatment for their symptoms. By the time medical authorities reported their suspicions about a radiation accident, approximately 17 days had passed. This accident resulted in radiation injuries to ten people of whom three died within the first two months despite medical treatment. Approximately 1,870 individuals living within 100 meters of the junkyard were exposed, with many seeking medical attention. The Ministry of Health is monitoring about 258 of these individuals who live within 50 meters of the junkyard for long-term health effects from the accident. An investigation revealed that the root cause of the accident was the failure of the party responsible for the disused source to keep it securely stored.
Had those who acquired the teletherapy head recognized the radiation symbol (trefoil), they might not have tried to dismantle it and would have not been exposed to radiation.
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Hyperlink Reference Libraries
Page 1 of about 355 Articles
Hairy Frog Trichobatrachus Robustus
2014-07-31 10:55:59
The Hairy Frog, Trichobatrachus robustus, is a Central African species of frog belonging to the Arthroleptidae family. It is a monotypic species within the genus Trichobatrachus. The common name refers to the somewhat hair-like structures found on the body and the thighs of the breeding male. This species is around 11 centimeters long. The head is large and is more broad than long, with a...
Brahman Cattle
2014-07-12 10:51:49
The Brahman or Brahma is a breed of cattle that originated in America during the early 1900s. It was developed from imported breeds during the years of 1854 to 1926 from India, the breeds included the Kankrej, Gujarat, Ongole and Gir. Approximately 266 different bulls and 22 different cows were used in the development of the Brahman. The American Brahman Breeders Association was established...
Boran Cattle
2014-07-12 10:36:21
Blue Grey Cattle
2014-07-12 10:27:38
Blonde dAquitaine Cattle
2014-07-12 10:17:57
The Blonde d’Aquitaine is a popular breed of beef cattle that originated in Aquitaine, France. It is found mainly in the Garonne valley and the Pyrenees. It was developed by crossing local breeds, the Garonnais, the Quercy and the Blonde des Pyrenees. In the late 1900s, the breed was imported to other parts of Europe as well as Canada, Australia and the United States where large...
Belmont Red Cattle
2014-07-09 15:13:20
The Belmont Red is a breed of beef Cattle produced in 1954 by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) in the Australian tropics. It was developed at the Belmont Research Station from several different breeds including the Africander and Hereford-Shorthorn. The Belmont Red was released to breeders in 1969. The Belmont Red was bred to have a greater resistance...
Belgian Blue Cattle
2014-07-09 14:37:46
Ayrshire Cattle
2014-07-09 14:00:00
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2014-07-06 14:56:54
The Australian Bradford is a breed of cattle that originated in Queensland, Australia between 1946 and 1952. It was developed from crossing Brahman bulls with the Hereford cattle in attempt to produce cattle to resist ticks and be resilient to drought. It is also resistant to pink eye, eye cancer and disease. The Bradford is raised mainly in NSW and Queensland, Australia. Semen from the...
Aubrac Cattle
2014-07-06 14:34:22
The Aubrac is a breed of cattle originating in France during the mid-1800s. The herd book was formed in 1893 by French monks. During the winter, the cows would give birth on the farms and when spring arrived they would go to the mountains to graze. Bulls were bred on the farms to become draft oxen. During the time, there were 300,000 Aubrac in existence, but by the end of World War II, a...
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May-June 2009
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Retrospect: May 29, 1953: First Successful Ascent of Mount Everest
Known to the Nepalese as Sagarmatha, which means “Goddess of the Sky,” Mount Everest holds a fascination among adventurers as the ultimate mountain-climbing achievement. Situated in the Himalayan range along the border between Nepal and Tibet, Everest’s superlative height among the giants of the Himalayas adds to both the allure and the challenge of climbing it. At an elevation of 29,029 feet (8,848 meters) above sea level, its summit straddles the upper-limits of the
troposphere, where the low density of the air imposes a formidable physical challenge for climbers, even with the aid of oxygen. Furthermore, Everest’s location makes it susceptible to the effects of the Asian monsoon, whose seasonal shift in wind direction brings blinding blizzard conditions and hurricane-force winds during the summer months. Because of this, most ascents are attempted during a very short window of time—typically during the month of May—after the winter season and before the onset of the monsoon.
After 3 decades of attempts on the mountain, New Zealand mountaineer Edmund Hillary and Nepalese Sherpa Tenzing Norgay became the first known climbers to successfully scale Everest on May 29, 1953. But while Hillary and Norgay often receive the credit, they were actually part of a much larger team led by British Colonel John Hunt.
Of all the factors that can make or break an attempt to climb Everest, the weather is perhaps the most critical. Hunt described the challenges in his 1954 book,
The Conquest of Everest: “So climbing Everest takes a long time...And in the final stages particularly, the saving of time is vital, not only because of physical deterioration but also because of another factor, the most important of all—weather.”
Hunt knew that regular weather reports would be essential to the team’s efforts and had arranged to have specialized forecasts supplied by the Indian Meteorological Service broadcasted daily by the All-India Radio and BBC Overseas networks.
The broadcasts began on May 1, 1953, more than 2 weeks after the team had established Base Camp at an elevation of 17,900 feet. The forecasts, as Hunt described, “foretold daily ‘snow showers’ with accuracy but monotonous regularity, useful to ourselves but giving little idea to other listeners to the trials and handicaps these ‘showers’ were proving to be to the toiling carries in the Icefall and the Cwm.” The Khumbu Icefall and the Western Cwm (pronounced “koom,” a Welsh word meaning valley) are two critical areas the climbers had to traverse on their way to the summit.
By May 10, members of the team who worked to clear a passage through the Icefall and Cwm encountered what Hunt described as “a depressing period,” due to the unrelenting daily snow showers: “On May 10th and 11th it snowed heavily from about midday until after dark, leaving a mantle of snow over a foot deep to be plowed through in the intense heat which filled the Cwm each morning, unrelieved by the faintest breeze. On the second of these days, Ed Hillary’s party took no less than 4 and a half hours between Camps III and IV, a journey which in fair conditions would be covered by a laden man in under 3 hours.”
As their journey progressed, the team was buoyed by a change in the weather. The relentless snow showers had ended, giving way to clear afternoons and the ability to push forward with greater speed and ease than before.
As Hunt and other team members waited at camp in the days before the final assault to the summit, they listened with more than a casual interest to the weather reports on the radio to learn what conditions awaited them. Tuning their shortwave radios one evening they heard the following:
This is the Overseas Service of the British Broadcasting Corporation. Here is the weather forecast for the Everest Expedition, valid for twenty-four hours commencing 12.00 hours G.M.T. or 17.30 hours Indian Standard Time...There will be mainly overcast skies with occasional thunderstorms, accompanied by moderate to heavy snow showers...Winds in free air at 29,000 feet above sea level will be mainly westerly at 35-40 miles, and the temperature in free air at the same altitude will be -16 to -12°F.
The team composed of Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay was actually 1 of 2 pairs of climbers Hunt chose to attempt a final assault on the summit. The first pair, Charles Evans and Tom Bourdillon, came within 300 feet of the summit on May 26 before they had to turn back due to problems with their oxygen equipment. In his own account of the final assault in Hunt’s book, Hillary describes how he awoke “feeling very cold and miserable” in the early morning hours of May 27. “The relentless wind was blowing in all its fury and the constant loud drumming on the tent made deep sleep impossible,” he wrote. “Reluctantly removing my hand from my sleeping bag, I looked at my watch.
It was 4 a.m. In the flickering light of a match, the thermometer lying against the tent wall read -25° Centigrade.” Strong winds kept Hillary and Norgay from continuing until the following day, when they were able to climb to a height of about 27,900 before camping for the night. At 6:30 on the morning of May 29, they set out for the final assault on the summit. “The weather for Everest seemed practically perfect,” Hillary recalled of their final hours toward reaching their goal. “Insulated as we were in all our down clothing and windproofs, we suffered no discomfort from cold or wind.” At 11:30 a.m. local time, Hillary and Norgay took the final steps up a snowy ridge and stood, for the first time, on top of the world.
In more than half a century since their accomplishment, nearly 2,500 people have followed in Hillary and Norgay’s footsteps to reach the summit of Everest. However, considerable risks remain, not the least of which is the weather. Of the 210 people who have lost their lives attempting to climb Everest, 15 perished during the tragic 1996 climbing season, including 4 members of an expedition of which journalist Jon Krakauer was a member. Krakauer, who was on assignment for Outside magazine when “a rogue storm that blew in without warning” claimed the lives of his companions, went on to tell a more detailed account of the ordeal in his 1997 New York Times best-selling book, Into Thin Air. The passage that begins Krakauer’s book—taken from a 1938 volume by British mountaineer Eric Shipton titled, Upon That Mountain—seems as relevant to Hillary and Norgay’s pioneering achievement in 1953 as it does today:
The truth of course lies in the fact that, at altitudes of 25,000 feet and beyond, the effects of low atmospheric pressure upon the human body are so severe that really difficult mountaineering is impossible and the consequences even of a mild storm may be deadly, that nothing but the most perfect conditions of weather and snow offers the slightest chances of success, and that on the last lap of the climb no party is in a position to choose its day.
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