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The transverse carpal ligament is the flexible, slightly elastic cord that lies on top of the carpal tunnel at the wrist. This ligament connects the bones to each other where the wrist and palm meet. The transverse carpal ligament may be cut during surgery for carpal tunnel syndrome. Cutting the ligament helps relieve the pressure on the median nerve, which runs through the carpal tunnel. (Pressure on the median nerve results in the symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome, including tingling, numbness, weakness, or pain in the fingers, hand, or lower arm.) Last Revised: October 21, 2010 Author: Healthwise Staff Medical Review: Adam Husney, MD - Family Medicine & David Pichora, MD, FRCSC - Orthopedic Surgery To learn more visit Healthwise.org © 1995-2012 Healthwise, Incorporated. Healthwise, Healthwise for every health decision, and the Healthwise logo are trademarks of Healthwise, Incorporated.

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Coincidentally, 2012 saw the largest acreage of corn in the U.S. planted since WW II, and subsequently the worst drought since the 1950′s, affecting 80% of agricultural land. This will cause price increases in meat and dairy, ethanol, and to a much lesser extent processed foods, since that is what virtually all of the cropland land is used for. Government subsidies and crop insurance go primarily to commodity crops, not human food ones, so the U.S. Government will be paying along with us for that drought. In the U.S. 45% of all land is pasture or cropland. Cropland = 408 million acres. Of this: Commodity crops – corn and soybeans, 170 million acres; wheat 57 million acres, oats 16 million acres, cotton 10 or more million acres, less for rice, oats and sorghum and others. Specialty crops – vegetables, fruits and nuts, flowers, Christmas trees, etc. 14 million acres, most of these for food crops . (Until recent farm bills, these food crops were not subsidized, farmers were even penalized for growing them. Now a small percentage of subsidies goes towards them.) This is why a salad costs more than a Big Mac.

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The financial aid process can be a daunting one. If you don’t get a primer from a guidance counselor or older sibling who is already on a college campus somewhere, it could be difficult to figure out where to start. The good news is, we’re here to help. With a little research and an introduction to the basics, you’ll be using even the most obscure financial aid acronyms with ease. Your starting point should always be the Free Application for Student Aid, or as you’ve probably already heard before, the FAFSA. That step will determine what you do next, as once your application is processed you’ll know exactly how much free money you’re going to get from federal assistance programs and grants, how much you’ll be able to borrow through federal loans, and how much of your package you may need to supplement through private lending agencies. The process is the same for graduate students, although you may not be eligible for all the programs available to undergraduates, including Federal Pell Grants, a free gift from the government with a current maximum of up to $5,550. Once you’ve done that, you begin weighing your options, and potentially looking for ways to cut your college costs. Scholarships are an excellent source of financial aid, and if you apply early and often enough, you’ll have a better chance of landing a good amount of free money to supplement your financial aid package. Below, you’ll find more information and tips on navgating the financial aid process, including articles on the latest news from the ever-changing financial aid industry. The best way to supplement your financial aid package is to apply for (and win) college scholarships. While it will take some initiative, research and time on your part, the payoff is worth it if it decreases your total student loan debt. These days you don’t have to be a star athlete or valedictorian to land scholarships. Many are based on characteristics like need, community service and your intended field of study, or if you dig even deeper, you’ll find a wide array of awards based on more specific characteristics. What makes you unique could be what lands you a generous college scholarship. Chances are you qualify for more scholarships than you thought you did, so conduct a free scholarship search or browse through our site to see awards you may be eligible for and start earning money toward college. If you’re lucky, your parents have been saving up for your transition from high school to college with one of the popular college saving accounts options. From 529 Plans, which vary by state but offer significant tax savings over taxable accounts, to Coverdell Accounts, which are a good option for families who don’t want to invest more than $2,000 a year for their college-bound children, every parent should be able to find a college saving account to meet their budgets and their needs. A good start for families unsure of where to begin or how much they should strive to save is estimating how much college will cost by using a college financial aid calculator. It’s fine to start with a conservative number, as some of the college saving accounts come with stipulations that the funds must be used for college expenses, which could hurt parents whose children don’t end up going to college or go for a low-cost option like community college. Federal aid, which is subject to changes in funding levels made by the government, comes in the form of federal grant programs, federal student loans and federal work-study programs. The best indicator of your eligibility for all federal aid is the FAFSA, which is also available online to speed up processing and is ready for you to fill out starting Jan. 1 of each year. Unless you plan on paying for your college expenses out-of-pocket or through your parents’ college savings accounts, the FAFSA will answer most questions of how much funding you’ll be receiving and which federal funding programs you qualify for. Worst case scenario, you find that you’re only eligible for Stafford Loans, which although they’re not as desirable as scholarships and grants that you won’t need to pay back, they’re lower interest than any private loan you’d qualify for. A little bit of research will not only help you to understand financial aid information better, but help dispel popular misconceptions about the process. Many students think they’re not eligible for many forms of aid, or that applying will not only be tedious but futile. The truth is, the financial aid process is one of the most important if not the most important step you’ll take toward getting yourself into college. More than $130 billion is awarded to college-bound students annually, and while it certainly helps to supplement your application with an impressive academic record, much of the funding is also needs-based or based on criteria that have nothing to do with your GPA or high school course load. Once you’ve filled out your FAFSA, conduct a free scholarship search to find awards you may have never known you were eligible for otherwise, and pad your financial aid package with as much free money from scholarships and grants as you can. The best way to know what to expect of your financial aid process is to do your research. Lucky for you, we’ve done it for you, and will continue to update our site with the latest news on financial aid happenings that could affect how much you get from the government. Check out our links for financial aid news to determine not only what higher education institutions are doing to affect students’ financial aid packages, but moves the government is making that will make it easier – or harder – for you to take out loans, get awarded grants, and pay for college. While college is supposed to be one of the most rewarding times in your life, you don’t want to be faced with a monthly payment post-graduation that takes over a high percentage of your salary, or worse yet, one you’d be forced to default on, hurting your credit score. Find money for college by educating yourself on the options available and taking advantage of the millions of dollars being awarded to college-bound high school students each year. And if you’re faced with a bigger tuition bill than you thought, consider your options to keep your college costs low.

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5 October 2011 | EN | FR The East Africa famine calls into question the wisdom of investing in early warning systems without improving take-up, writes Linda Nordling. When the UN declared a state of famine in the Horn of Africa in July, one group of scientists was not surprised. In August 2010, the USAID-funded Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) had issued a prediction of poor March–May rains this year. The tens of thousands of people that have died since then in East Africa, and the millions that remain hungry, are a harsh indictment of the ability of science-based early warnings of disaster to make a difference to the continent's most vulnerable people. As more and better African science data make predictions easier, more effort will be needed to understand and improve the uptake of early warnings at local, national and international levels. Why warnings fail So why did the rainfall warning fail to avert the disaster in the Horn of Africa? The problem is multifaceted, and not easy to address. Writing in Nature, FEWS NET scientist Chris Funk lists a number of reasons, from conflicting climate research predicting wetter conditions in East Africa, to political obstacles (especially conflict in Somalia) and the region's rapid population growth outpacing agricultural yields. Funk believes the answer is more science and better agricultural practices to improve yields in areas at risk of drought and food shortages. Working towards a more sustainable long-term strategy for feeding the region's population will limit the need for emergency response, he says. While most media reports have focused on the international community's failure to respond, Funk focuses on what must be done in Africa to improve uptake. He is right to do so. The failure of warnings to filter down into African policy at all levels is a graver problem than that of mobilising emergency aid, criticised by many observers for creating a dependency culture in formerly self-sufficient regions. Data poor no more The past decade's strong science push in Africa has boosted the understanding of its climate, diseases, and political and economic systems. This data flood has produced a wealth of mathematical models, and systems are now in place — or being set up — for predicting food price variability, malaria outbreaks, floods and even armed conflicts. They are all being billed as tools that can revolutionise the continent's response to emergencies. But it is not just FEWS NET that is struggling to live up to expectations. Last month, Nigeria's emergency management agency accused state governments of ignoring early warnings of floods that killed more than an estimated 140 people and left tens of thousands homeless. In Nigeria, the problem was a failure of state governments to act upon warnings by clearing drains and evacuating people living in flood plains. The weakest link Similar barriers held back the famine warning in the Horn of Africa. "There is a weak link between early warning and response," says Gideon Galu, a scientist with FEWS NET based in Nairobi, Kenya. Although FEWS NET works with decision-makers in the national government to highlight its findings, the link-up to local authorities and rural communities relies on national government structures, he says. Kenya, for example, has a food security steering group that passes scientific information on to decision-makers. Nongovernmental organisations and other partners can attend meetings and get a consensus on the scale and magnitude of a problem. But the final link in the flow of information is problematic in Kenya, and in Ethiopia; and it's particularly weak in countries like Somalia where governance is fragile. There are scant resources and information dissemination networks to make sure that messages reach the local level. These failures illustrate a key obstacle that many African countries must overcome. The impact of science-based early warning systems hinges on governments' capability (and perhaps willingness) to turn warnings into readiness on the ground. Avoiding warning fatigue In time, the early warning community will learn from its mistakes as it establishes strong networks that reach down to the community level — an activity that FEWS NET is working on. The organisation is also working to address the underlying vulnerability to food crises via the US Feed the Future programme, a US$3.5 billion investment in strengthening agriculture in Ethiopia, Kenya and other countries. Better links to local government and rural communities will also improve FEWS NET's capability to collect data on variables such as rainfall and temperature, making prediction more of a two-way street, adds Gulu. "They are now able to provide us with additional data about what is happening in the field," he says. But there is a downside: the explosion in early warning systems means that individual warnings could grow into a cacophony of calls to emergency action that compete for policymakers' attention and scarce resources. Such 'warning fatigue' would make it harder to discern credible alerts and act on them. In that future, a warning system well-connected to decision-makers with functioning lines of communication with local officials is likely to be more effective than one where all the money has gone to improving the science while neglecting the capacity to put the evidence to good use. Journalist Linda Nordling, based in Cape Town, South Africa, specialises in African science policy, education and development. She was the founding editor of Research Africa and writes for SciDev.Net, Nature and others. Funk, C. We thought trouble was coming, Nature, 476, 7 (2011) Susan fm LWEC ( Living With Environmental Change | United Kingdom ) 5 October 2011 This in some ways is a chilling article. However, I had a good insight into early warning fatigue at a Humanitarian Vision/NERC workshop to bring climate scientists into better dialogue with NGOs. We role played how we'd manage early warning of flood and it gave fascinating first hand insights into risk perception and how it varied in the room. Strikes me that this is very relevant in this context All SciDev.Net material is free to reproduce providing that the source and author are appropriately credited. For further details see Creative Commons.

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LA JOLLA, Calif., July 18, 2012 – In their quest to treat cardiovascular disease, researchers and pharmaceutical companies have long been interested in developing new medicines that activate a heart protein called APJ. But researchers at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute (Sanford-Burnham) and the Stanford University School of Medicine have now uncovered a second, previously unknown, function for APJ—it senses mechanical changes when the heart is in danger and sets the body on a course toward heart failure. This means that activating APJ could actually be harmful in some cases—potentially eye-opening information for some heart drug makers. The study appears July 18 in Nature. "Just finding a molecule that activates APJ is not enough. What's important to heart failure is not if this receptor is 'on' or 'off,' but the way it's activated," said Pilar Ruiz-Lozano, Ph.D., who led the study. Ruiz-Lozano, formerly assistant professor at Sanford-Burnham, is now associate professor of pediatrics in the Stanford University School of Medicine and adjunct faculty member at Sanford-Burnham. Stretching the heart APJ is a receptor that sits on the cell surface in many organs, where it senses the external environment. When a hormone called apelin comes along and binds APJ, it sets off a molecular chain reaction that influences a number of cellular functions. Many previous studies have shown that apelin-APJ activity directs beneficial processes such as embryonic heart development, maintenance of normal blood pressure, and new blood vessel formation. According to Ruiz-Lozano's latest study, however, APJ can also be activated a second, more harmful, way that doesn't involve apelin. In this pathway, APJ senses and responds to mechanical changes in the heart. To better understand these mechanical changes, let's look at a person with high blood pressure. In this case, the person's heart has to work harder to pump the same amount of blood at the same rate as a healthy person. To meet the increased demand, individual heart muscle cells start making more proteins, making the cells bigger. Eventually, cell membranes stretch and each cell begins to pull away from its neighbor. This leads to an enlarged heart—a condition known as hypertrophy. In pathological (disease) conditions, hypertrophy can lead to heart failure. APJ and heart failure The best way to determine the role a protein plays in a particular cellular process is to see what happens when it's missing. To do this, Ruiz-Lozano's team, including co-first authors Maria Cecilia Scimia, Ph.D. and Cecilia Hurtado, Ph.D., used mice that lack APJ. Under everyday conditions, the APJ-deficient mice appeared perfectly normal. However, unlike their normal counterparts, the mice lacking APJ couldn't sense danger when their hearts enlarged. As a result, mice were actually healthier without APJ—none succumbed to heart failure. "In other words, without APJ, ignorance is bliss—the heart doesn't sense the danger and so it doesn't activate the hypertrophic pathways that lead to heart failure," Ruiz-Lozano said. "This tells us that, depending on how it's done, activating APJ might make matters worse for heart disease patients."

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Mar. 20, 2007 An overexpressed protein protects human pancreatic cancer cells from being forced to devour themselves, removing one of the body's natural defenses against out-of-control cell growth, researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center report in the March issue of Molecular Cancer Research. The protein tissue transglutaminase, known by the abbreviation TG2, previously has been found by researchers at M. D. Anderson and elsewhere to be overexpressed in a variety of drug-resistant cancer cells and in cancer that has spread from its original organ (metastasized). "In general, you rarely see overexpression of TG2 in a normal cell," says Kapil Mehta, Ph.D., professor in the M. D. Anderson Department of Experimental Therapeutics, who began 10 years ago studying TG2 as an inflammatory protein. Mehta and colleagues in the past year have connected TG2 overexpression to drug-resistant and metastatic breast cancer, pancreatic cancer and melanoma. Expression of TG2 is tightly regulated in a healthy cell, Mehta says, and is temporarily increased in response to certain hormones or stress factors. "However, constitutive expression of this protein in a cancer cell helps confer protection from stress-induced cell death," Mehta says. "We are developing TG2 as a pharmaceutical target and are now working with a mouse model to that end." The mechanisms by which TG2 might promote drug-resistance and metastasis have remained elusive, the researchers note. In this paper, the M. D. Anderson team shows in lab experiments that inhibiting the protein in pancreatic cancer cells leads to a form of programmed cell suicide called autophagy, or self-digestion. TG2 was inhibited in two separate ways. First, the researchers blocked another protein known to activate TG2. Secondly, they also directly targeted TG2 with a tiny molecule known as small interfering RNA tailored to shut down expression of the protein. In both cases, the result was a drastic reduction of TG2 expression (up to 94 percent) and telltale signs of autophagy in the cancer cells, which became riddled with cavities called vacuoles. When autophagy occurs, a double membrane forms around a cell organ, or organelle. This autophagosome then merges with a digestive organelle called a lysosome and everything inside is consumed, leaving the vacuole and a residue of digested material. If enough of this happens, the cell dies. Gabriel Lopez-Berestein, M.D., professor of experimental therapeutics and study co-author, notes that the research also shows that the self-consuming cell death prevented by TG2 is independent of a prominent molecular pathway also known to regulate autophagy called the mammalian target of rapamycin. "Targeting TG2, or its activating protein PKC, or both, presents a novel and potentially effective approach to treating patients with pancreatic cancer," Lopez-Berestein said. Research in the mouse model remains in the early stages, the researchers caution. The researchers also show that the TG2 pathway also is separate from another, better known, form of programmed cell death called apoptosis. Apoptosis, like autophagy, is a normal biological defense mechanism that systematically destroys defective cells by forcing them to kill themselves. In apoptosis, the cells die via damage to their nucleus and DNA, with other cellular organelles preserved. Autophagy kills by degrading those other organelles while sparing the nucleus. Mehta's lab reported in a Cancer Research paper last September that TG2 overexpression also activates a protein called nuclear factor-kB known to play a role in regulating cell growth, metastasis and apoptosis. This pathway, Mehta explained, could make TG2 an attractive target for other forms of cancer as well. Co-authors with Mehta and Lopez-Berestein are: co-first authors Ugur Akar, Ph.D., and Bulent Ozpolat, M.D., Ph.D., and Jansina Fok, all of the Department of Experimental Therapeutics, and Yasuko Kondo, M.D., Ph.D, of the M. D. Anderson Department of Neurosurgery. Funding for this research was provided by the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health. Other social bookmarking and sharing tools: Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above. Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

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Mar. 4, 2013 Behind locked doors, in a lab built like a bomb shelter, Perry Gerakines makes something ordinary yet truly alien: ice. This isn't the ice of snowflakes or ice cubes. No, this ice needs such intense cold and low pressure to form that the right conditions rarely, if ever, occur naturally on Earth. And when Gerakines makes the ice, he must keep the layer so microscopically thin it is dwarfed by a grain of pollen. These ultrathin layers turn out to be perfect for recreating some of the key chemistry that takes place in space. In these tiny test tubes, Gerakines and his colleagues in the Cosmic Ice Lab at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., can reproduce reactions in ice from almost any time and place in the history of the solar system, including some that might help explain the origin of life. "This is not the chemistry people remember from high school," says Reggie Hudson, who heads the Cosmic Ice Lab. "This is chemistry in the extreme: bitter cold, harsh radiation and nearly non-existent pressure. And it's usually taking place in gases or solids, because generally speaking, there aren't liquids in interstellar space." The Cosmic Ice Lab is one of a few laboratories worldwide where researchers have been studying the ultracool chemistry of cosmic ice. With its powerful particle accelerator, the Goddard lab has the special ability to mimic almost any kind of solar or cosmic radiation to drive these reactions. And that lets them dig deep to study the chemistry of ice below the surface of planets and moons as well as ice in space. Recipe for disorder In a vacuum chamber about the size of a lunchbox, Gerakines recreates a little patch of deep space, in all its extremes. He pumps out air until the pressure inside drops to a level a billion times lower than normal for Earth, then chills the chamber to minus 433 degrees Fahrenheit (15 kelvins). To get ice, all that remains is to open a valve and let in water vapor. The instant the sprightly vapor molecules enter the chamber they are literally frozen in their tracks. Still pointing every which way, the molecules are transformed immediately from their gaseous state into the disorderly solid called amorphous ice. Amorphous ice is exactly the opposite of the typical ice on Earth, which forms perfect crystals like those that make up snowflakes or frost needles. These crystals are so orderly and predictable that this ice is considered a mineral, complete with a rating of 2.5 on the Mohs scale of hardness -- the same rating as a fingernail. Though almost unheard of on Earth, amorphous ice is so widespread in interstellar space that it could be the most common form of water in the universe. Left over from the age when the solar system was born, it is scattered across vast distances, often as particles no bigger than grains of dust. It's also been spotted in comets and icy moons. The secret to making amorphous ice in the lab, Gerakines finds, is to limit the layer to a depth of about half a micrometer -- thinner than a strand of spider's silk. "Water is such a good insulator that if the ice gets too thick, only the bottom of the sample, closer to the cooling source, will stay sufficiently cold," says Gerakines. "The ice on top will get warm enough to crystallize." The superthin ice can be spiked with all kinds of interesting chemicals found in space. One set of chemicals that Gerakines works with is amino acids, which are key players in the chemistry of life on Earth. Researchers have spent decades identifying a whole smorgasbord of amino acids in meteorites (including some involved in life), as well as one found in a sample taken from a comet. "And because water is the dominant form of frozen material in the interstellar medium and outer solar system," says Gerakines, "any amino acids out there are probably in contact with water at some point." For his current set of experiments, Gerakines makes three kinds of ice, each spiked with an amorphous form of an amino acid (either glycine, alanine or phenylalanine) that is found in proteins. The real action begins when Gerakines hits the ice with radiation. Earlier studies by other researchers have looked at ice chemistry using ultraviolet light. Gerakines opts instead to look at cosmic radiation, which can reach ice hidden below the surface of a planet or moon. To mimic this radiation, he uses a proton beam from the high-voltage particle accelerator, which resides in an underground room lined with immense concrete walls for safety. With the proton beam, a million years' worth of damage can be reproduced in just half an hour. And by adjusting the radiation dose, Gerakines can treat the ice as if it were lying exposed or buried at different depths of soil in comets or icy moons and planets. He tests the three kinds of water-plus-amino-acid ice and compares them to ice made from amino acids only. Between blasts, he checks the samples using a "molecular fingerprinting" technique called spectroscopy to see if the amino acids are breaking down and chemical by-products are forming. As expected, more and more of the amino acids break down as the radiation dose adds up. But Gerakines notices that the amino acids last longer if the ice includes water than if they are left on their own. This is odd, because when water breaks down, one of the fragments it leaves behind is hydroxyl (OH), a chemical well-known for attacking other compounds. The spectroscopy confirms that some OH is being produced. But overall, says Gerakines, "the water is essentially acting like a radiation shield, probably absorbing a lot of the energy, the same way a layer of rock or soil would." When he repeats the experiments at two higher temperatures, he is surprised to find the acids fare even better. From these preliminary measurements, he and Hudson calculate how long amino acids could remain intact in icy environments over a range of temperatures. "We find that some amino acids could survive tens to hundreds of millions of years in ice near the surface of Pluto or Mars and buried at least a centimeter [less than half an inch] deep in places like the comets of the outer solar system," says Gerakines. "For a place that gets heavy radiation, like Europa, they would need to be buried a few feet." (These findings were reported in the journal Icarus in August 2012.) "The good news for exploration missions," says Hudson, "is it looks as if these amino acids are actually more stable than anybody realized at temperatures typical of places like Pluto, Europa and even Mars." The Cosmic Ice Lab is part of the Astrochemistry Laboratory in Goddard's Solar System Exploration Division and is funded in part by the Goddard Center for Astrobiology and the NASA Astrobiology Institute. Other social bookmarking and sharing tools: Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

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View The Sky And Celestial Bodies Just As Galilieo Did 400 Years Ago The Galileoscope is 400 years of product development in the making - this high-quality telescope kit was developed by leading astronomers, optical engineers, and science educators to showcase how early astronomers made their discoveries. Once assembled, the telescope will offer views of lunar craters and mountains, four moons circling Jupiter, the phases of Venus, Saturn's rings, and countless stars invisible to the unaided eye. The 50mm diameter telescope offers 25X to 50X magnification. The kit is easy-to-assemble and includes standard components such as a base that fits most tripods and a 1.25 focuser. Educational activities and observing guides for use with your Galileoscope are available for free at www.TeachingWithTelescopes.org. “The father of modern observational astronomy,” Galileo Galilei was an Italian physicist and astronomer whose ideas and inventions were an important part of the Scientific Revolution. Supporting Copernicus’s heliocentric theory of the earth’s revolution around the sun, Galileo made several contributions to modern astronomy, with his telescopic observations WARNING: Use with adult supervision only. WARNING: Do not look at the Sun with the Galileoscope; severe eye damage will occur.

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As the use of technologies becomes less of an issue and approaches such as the use of SMS for mobile learning become ubiquitous – our attention must now move to an increased focus on pedagogy. How will the use of these technologies affect learners’ abilities to learn? How will teachers and facilitators need to change their existing practice? As individual access and control of content explodes, the higher education institutions that move toward the integration of services such assessing learning, helping students organize what they know into meaningful packages and then credential that learning will get the cheese. There will be new are the new institutions that build on what is currently happening and some will remake themselves. Mobile learning at OUM started with the formation of an research team on m-learning in August 2008. Its first task was to determine how ready OUM learners would be for mobile learning. We surveyed almost 3,000 learners throughout Malaysia and found that more than 80 percent of the learners said they would be ready for learning through their mobile phones. We first experimented with podcasts and moved on to using sms to support the blended mode of learning at OUM and found that the latter worked extremely well. When it comes to changes in formal and informal learning, we may need to think about the pedagogy involved, where there may also be a shift from collaborative learning in institutions to cooperative learning in networks. There may also be a shift from cooperative learning in networks to collaborative learning in institutions when MOOC is formally institutionalized and accreditated in institutions. Does it address the difference between cooperation and collaboration learning in the networks/groups? In other words, these MOOCs are set up by one or more individuals. They are created not collectively, as we go along, but usually by one or more (less than 5?) individuals working as a group. As creators and conveners of the MOOC, what responsibility do they have for their creation and the resultant learning that takes place in the MOOC? Where does their responsibility begin and end? Does it matter? After seeing several MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) come and go over the past couple of years, I've decided to play a part in a new one being facilitated by Dave Cormier, George Siemens and Stephen Downes. Is assessment always necessary in learning (in particular informal learning or social learning)? Can people learn effectively without being assessed? May be not, under a formal education system. But if we argue that it is growth of a person as a product of learning (refer to Stephen’s slides on Connectivism), and based on Connectivism and transculturality, then the assessment would be embedded in the “growth of knowledge, skills and competency”, which could be reflected in the performance in study or that at work, and that comes naturally also in network conversation. Information Literacy has been defined by the American Library Association in the following way: To be information literate, a person must be able to recognize when information is needed and has the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information. Digital Literacy seems to be very similar: In Wikipedia it starts with a definition that is almost word for word identical to ALA definition of information literacy but adds on three new words: Digital literacy is the ability to locate, organize, understand, evaluate and analyze information using digital technology. Digital citizenship refers to the use of these skills to interact with society. Today, with the proliferation of tablet computers such as the iPad and Galaxy Tab, OUM is considering using them as a learning device on OUM course modules can be easily downloaded into. Still at the planning stage, the idea of using tablet computers makes sense as through these devices, not only will course information and learning materials be more easily accessible, the learner will also benefit from other useful applications supported by such devices. In addition, with wi-fi facilities available in most, if not all classrooms in the OUM learning centers, the learners will be better engaged with OUM as a whole and with their facilitators in particular. It will be seamless and ubiquitous learning at its best. I think one education's challenges in the 21st century is going to be whether they can change and adapt to new technology. Moreover, whether education can embrace new forms of technology to drive different types of learning and increase international collaboration. I think #change11 is going to be a fascinating experiment for all involved. This MOOC guide based on the experience of the MobiMOOC(ourse) which was a course that ran from 2 April until the 14 May 2011 and had 580 participants that hooked up to its resources. The course resulted in collaborations transcending the duration of the course. The course focused on the subject of mobile learning and was delivered over 6 weeks, each of which had a different angle: introduction to mLearning, mLearning planning, mLearning for development, leading edge mobile innovations, mLearning in a mobile connected society and mLearning in k12 settings.

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paragraph and text alignment. Thanks to styles there’s no longer aneed to add blank lines between paragraphs. Within the paragraph, there may be some formatting applied only toa few words. This would be a character style. Some commonexamples of character style formatting include , underlineand strikethrough. While these styles may effect color and style of thetext, they generally don’t include layout and spacing attributes. List styles are technically paragraph styles, but with the addition of several choices for bullet or numbering options. For this reason, wewill discuss them separately. Some word processing systems includeoutline styles which are special purpose lists. Styles and Templates Styles are saved in the document template. When you create adocument based on a specific template, you also receive the customstyles defined for that template. Every document you create is basedon a template. Even if you don’t select a specific template, your wordprocessor will use its default template to create your document. Word Processing for Publishers Series - All About Styles

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Our bodies create a tremendous amount of internal heat. We normally cool ourselves by sweating and radiating heat through our skin. Under certain circumstances, such as unusually high temperatures, high humidity, or vigorous exercise in hot weather, this natural cooling system may begin to fail, allowing internal heat to build up to dangerous levels. The result may be heat illness, which can come in the form of heat cramps, heat exhaustion, or heatstroke. Heat cramps are brief, severe cramps in the muscles of the legs, arms, or abdomen that may occur during or after vigorous exercise in extreme heat. The sweating that occurs with vigorous exercise causes the body to lose salts and fluids. And the low level of salts causes the muscles to cramp. Children are particularly susceptible to heat cramps when they haven't been drinking enough fluids. Although painful, heat cramps aren't What to Do: Most heat cramps don't require special treatment. A cool place, rest, and fluids should ease your child's discomfort. Massaging cramped muscles may also help. Heat exhaustion is a more severe heat illness that can occur when a person in a hot climate or environment hasn't been drinking enough fluids. Symptoms may include: - clammy skin - nausea and/or - hyperventilation (rapid breathing) What to Do: - Bring your child indoors or into the shade. - Loosen or remove your child's clothing. - Encourage your child to eat and drink. - Give your child a bath in cool (not cold) water. - Call your child's doctor for further advice. If your child is too exhausted or ill to eat or drink, intravenous fluids may be necessary. If left untreated, heat exhaustion may escalate into heatstroke, which can be fatal. The most severe form of heat illness, heatstroke is a life-threatening medical emergency . The body loses its ability to regulate its own temperature. Body temperature can soar to 106 degrees Fahrenheit (41.1 degrees Celsius) or even higher, leading to brain damage or even death if it isn't quickly treated. Prompt medical treatment is required to bring the body temperature under control. Factors that increase the risk for heatstroke include overdressing and extreme physical exertion in hot weather with inadequate fluid intake. Heatstroke can also happen when a child is left in, or becomes accidentally trapped in, a car on a hot day. When the outside temperature is 93 degrees Fahrenheit (33.9 degrees Celsius), the temperature inside a car can reach 125 degrees Fahrenheit (51.7 degrees Celsius) in just 20 minutes, quickly raising a child's body temperature to dangerous levels. What to Do: Call for emergency medical help if your child has been outside in the sun exercising for a long time and shows one or more of the following symptoms of heatstroke: - flushed, hot, dry skin with no sweating - temperature of 105 degrees Fahrenheit (40.6 degrees Celsius) - severe, throbbing headache - weakness, dizziness, or confusion - sluggishness or fatigue - decreased responsiveness - loss of consciousness While waiting for help: - Get your child indoors or into the shade. - Undress your child and sponge or douse him or her with cool An Ounce of Prevention Some ways you can prevent your child from experiencing heat - Teach your child to always drink plenty of fluids before and during an activity in hot, sunny weather - even if he or she - Make sure your child wears light-colored loose clothing. - Make sure your child only participates in heavy activity outdoors before noon and after 6 PM. - Teach your child to come indoors immediately whenever he or she feels overheated. Updated and reviewed by: Steven Dowshen, MD Date reviewed: March 2007 Note: All information is for educational purposes only. For specific medical advice, diagnoses, and treatment, consult your doctor. © 1995-2009 The Nemours Foundation/KidsHealth. All rights reserved.

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What's in a name? Well, if you're The Weather Channel, today's winter storm is called Winter Storm Nemo. And if you're WFSB Channel 3, the storm is called Charlotte. Prior to The Weather Channel's announcement last fall that it would be naming winter storms, Channel 3 touted on its website that it was the only station in the nation to name them. The National Weather Service, an arm of the federal National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, is in charge of officially naming tropical storms, which retain their names if the systems turn into full-fledged hurricanes. In a statement, the weather service said, "The National Weather Service does not name winter storms because a winter storm's impact can vary from one location to another, and storms can weaken and redevelop, making it difficult to define where one ends and another begins. While the National Weather Service does not name winter storms, we do rate major winter storms after the fact." Today's storm is expected to end Saturday afternoon and leave behind 16 to 26 inches of snow for shoreline towns and 17 to 29 inches inland. Not every storm gets a name, Channel 3 notes. At least 6 inches of snow and/or significant ice accumulation of at least half an inch must be forecast for most of the state. "In other words, a major snow or ice storm," Channel 3 says. The tradition of naming winter storms began with Channel 3 and the Travelers Weather Service in 1971. The first storm was Arthur, on Thanksgiving Day that year, according to Channel 3. The Weather Channel says naming storms raises awareness, makes it easier to follow a weather system's progress, and in today's social media world, makes it easier to reference in communication. The Weather Channel notes that there is no national center to coordinate and communicate information on winter storms, so it decided to take on that role. The naming of winter storms is limited to no more than three days before impact to ensure there is moderate to strong confidence the system will produce significant effects on a populated area, The Weather Channel says. In any event, whether you call it Nemo, Charlotte or Joe Shmoe, be careful. A storm by any other name could be equally as dangerous.

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Indian removal had been taking place in the United States since the 18th Century as more Americans made the move westward. In the early 19th Century, Andrew Jackson and the majority of white Americans like him, wanted the Indians to move west of the Mississippi, out of the way from white expansion. Popular thought was that the Indians were savages who could not be civilized, and integration with the white culture was not a possibility. Through the next several years, Indian tribes all over the eastern front were forced to reservations of proportional inequality compared with land once owned. The United States bought the land from the Indians while using its brute power to force unruly tribes west. No matter how much they tried, the Indians were no match for the strength of the United States. Indians of the Sauk and Fox tribes tried to take back land that was ceded to the United States wrongfully. When they inhabited the vacant land, Americans saw them as a threat to the white settlements close-by. Illinois state militia was sent in to destroy the so-called "invaders." The Indians retreated back and the militia continued to attack until most had been killed. Were Americans justified in the mass movement of Indian tribes? I would have to say they were not. I cannot see the logic in their assumptions of the Indians. For the most part, little interaction took place with the Indians. Yet, Americans still believed they were uncivilized. Perhaps the problem was in terms of envy. Indians had been capable of adapting to land and using the land efficiently for years at a time. I think Americans saw how the Indians were able to do this, and became jealous of their superior farming abilities. Land was becoming useless in the east, and Indians had been able to use their land repeatedly. Americans saw this fertile land as rich in potential profit and were willing to go to any length in acquiring it. Evidence of the two cultures working together in a society was apparent in New Mexico, Texas, and California. If these people were able to survive and live off each other, I would have to assume that had the United States made an effort, they could have resolved this situation in an easier manner. Unless it was jealousy that was driving them to take the Indian land. Something tells me it was exactly that which caused such a debacle. Superior in farming techniques and land use, the Indians efficient ways were the downfall of their land availability.

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Word of the Day, Website of the Day, Number to Know, This Day in History, Today’s Featured Birthday and Daily Quote. Word of the Day Cohesive koh-HEE-siv (adjective) Exhibiting or producing a condition in which people or things are closely united - www.merriam-webster.com Website of the Day Today, on the birthday of Winnie-the-Pooh creator A.A. Milne (he was born Jan. 18, 1882), head to this Pooh site, which has information about Winnie and friends, a short biography of Milne, games and more. Number to Know 2: Number of Winnie-the-Pooh books that A.A. Milne wrote: “Winnie-the-Pooh” and “The House at Pooh Corner.” This Day in History Jan. 18, 1990: Washington, D.C., Mayor Marion Barry is arrested for drug possession in an FBI sting. Today’s Featured Birthday Actor Kevin Costner (58) “Did you ever stop to think, and forget to start again?” - A.A. Milne

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Murders seem to be increasing in northern Utah these days. That would be murders of crows. The ubiquitous black birds were once usually only seen in the winter in northern Utah when they migrated through the state. Bird experts say that has changed. “Fifteen years ago, a pair of crows stayed in downtown Ogden and nested there,” said Bill Fenimore, owner of the Wild About Birds Nature Center in Layton and an avid bird expert and watcher. “From that pairing, you have what we have today. They are here year-round. They are showing up in Provo, but Davis and Weber County have the biggest population.” Jim Parrish, native terrestrial wildlife program coordinator for the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, said the agency does not have hard data on the number of crows inhabiting the northern part of the state. But field observations lead him to believe that the numbers are increasing. “When I first came to Utah in 1982, there was a small little group in Utah County,” he said. “Overall, statewide, crows are on the upswing. We are seeing more and more of them. If there is an open slot, they are going to fill it. They don’t have competition in urban areas for food. They are generalists. They take a variety of food and eat a lot of different things. There is plenty of food at landfills, the side of the road or McDonald’s. There are plenty of opportunities and not much competition.” Fenimore tells the story of seeing crows pick walnuts off a tree and take them to a busy intersection where they drop the nuts in the middle of the road when the light is red. They then fly to a roost and wait for a green light so cars can run over the walnuts. They swoop down to pick up the nut pieces when the next red light happens. “My daughter-in-law works for the county in Layton,” said the veteran birder. “There are big cottonwood trees by the city complex. At night, they stick up there. She sees hundreds and hundreds of crows flying into the cottonwood trees. There are flocks lined up in the roost.” According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, American crows are social and can be seen in flocks in the millions. “Inquisitive and sometimes mischievous, crows are good problem learners and problem-solvers, often raiding garbage cans and picking over discarded food containers,” read the Cornell description. “They’re also aggressive and often chase away larger birds including hawks, owls and herons.” The birds might even scare off a small dog or cat, especially when trying to steal food that might have been left out. Fenimore said crows travel in family groups with the young learning from parents and extended families, often spending more than a year with family groups, learning how to make a living. Fenimore thinks the changing human use of the land in Davis County might be helping crows increase their numbers. In Davis County, land that used to be agricultural has been converted into subdivisions and shopping centers. “That provides resource food for the crows,” he said. “They are adept at utilizing human disturbances and settlements to make a living. They hang out with us and utilize our scraps.” It is sometimes easy to mistake a crow and a raven. Ravens, another smart black bird, are the larger of the two species. Parrish said ravens tend to stay in higher elevations than crows, though it is not unusual to see a raven in town as well. So, if you are a northern Utah resident and you think you are seeing more murders of crows in than in the past, chances are your observations are correct.

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Your baby’s skin has become opaque (it had been see-through), but it is still immature. The retina of the eye continues to form, but that also is not mature yet. The circulation to the lungs is forming, and the lungs are beginning to develop surfactant (a substance that keeps the lungs from sticking to themselves), however the lungs will be one of the last parts of your baby to fully mature. His body has caught up with his head, and although the head is still large compared to an adult, your baby’s body and head are in the right proportions for a newborn. His brainwaves also resemble those of a full-term newborn. He is developing a sleep-wake pattern and may be developing an active time that is pretty regular from day to day. At the end of the 24th week your baby will be around 10 inches from crown to rump and weigh 2 pounds. For most women the second trimester has brought some welcome changes. The uterus is too large for the pelvis, so there is less pressure on the bladder, but the uterus is not quite large enough to cause real problems with eating and breathing. You should have more energy than you did in the first trimester, along with an increased libido. You should also be feeling the baby move every day. Weight gain should be pretty steady now, meaning only that you continue to gain weight, not lose it. The growing uterus may be causing stretch marks across your lower abdomen and sides. The pressure of the uterus may also be causing some constipation and heartburn. Your thyroid gland is more active during pregnancy, which may cause an increased perspiration. Some women find that the increased blood volume during pregnancy causes their gums to bleed and nosebleeds. Although still early, some women begin to have leaking fluids from their breasts. It is normal for the breasts to leak, and normal for the breasts not to leak. It will have no effect on your ability to breastfeed. These symptoms are commonly experienced during this month. Heartburn and Indigestion Shortness of Breath

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The value of farm land in Southeast Missouri has always fluctuated; usually the price moves along with the financial health of the national economy. That was certainly the case beginning in the late 1920s. For Southeast Missouri, and especially New Madrid County the bad times began with the flood of 1927. With the ebb of the waters came the rise in business failures, ruined farms, and bank closings--all two years before financial disaster struck the rest of the country with the stock market crash in October 1929. This was the beginning of the Great Depression. Land and commodity prices fell, but property and drainage taxes did not. Many farms were sold on the east steps of the New Madrid County Courthouse by foreclosure or sheriff's sale for taxes due. Depressed land prices would continue through the next decade. The bargain-basement prices of land gave rise to one of the most successful partnerships in county history. Walter S. Edwards Sr. ran the Edwards Land and Title Company in New Madrid. Because many farms were "entailed," that is tied up with life estates or owners yet to be born, knowing which farms had a good title and those that did not was key to the decision of which farm to bid on. Edwards knew a lot about land titles, but he didn't have the capital needed to buy large tracts. E. B. Gee Sr. was a successful merchant in Blytheville, Ark. Gee had acquired some land in Southeast Missouri before 1927 according to the deed records, but he had limited knowledge of what was for sale and the history of the title. What he did have was capital. Edwards and Gee formed a partnership and began buying land--lots of land. Edwards selected the land; Gee provided the money. John Bailey, who was from Sikeston, graduated from law school at the University of Missouri in 1940. John married a member of the Gee family and in 1941 began working for E. B. Gee farms in Portageville. Much of Gee's farm operation was the land farmed and managed by the Edwards and Gee partnership. As partnerships go, this one was very successful. But, as is often the case, the circumstances of the partners evolve and change. Edwards decided that it would be best that they divide the lands and go their own ways. He had a map drawn up with a proposed division of some tens of thousands of acres between the two. One half was colored red and the other half colored blue. He presented the map to Gee. Gee looked it over and then gave it to John Bailey with the instruction to study it and give his opinion of its fairness. Bailey went to work. With another of Gee's employees, Arline Avery, the pair drove all over the county inspecting the farms and uncleared lands, talked to the tenants, studied soil and elevation maps, and poured over the partnership records. After some months of work he told Gee, in his opinion, the division was fair. Gee met with Edwards and agreed to the division, but the question remained as to who got which part, red or blue. They decided to flip a coin. According to Bailey, at the appointed time, the two met. Arlene Avery had painted a silver dollar, one side blue and the other red. Edwards flipped the coin and Gee made the call. How the coin landed is lost to history, but both were well satisfied. The division of tens of thousands of acres between the two was made and their legendary successful partnership closed--all on the flip of a painted coin.

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There was no change in the status of respect for religious freedom during the period covered by this report, and government policy continued to contribute to the generally free practice of religion. The Government and the religious communities historically have had good relations; however, as in previous years, the Government was critical of and harassed religious leaders who spoke out against the Government's ongoing campaign of violent intimidation against opposition supporters. Church leaders and members who criticized the Government faced arrest and detention. The generally amicable relations between the various religious communities contributed to religious freedom. The U.S. Government discusses religious freedom issues with the Government in the context of its overall dialog and policy of promoting human rights. Section I. Religious Demography The country has a total area of 240,122 square miles, and its population is estimated at 11.6 million. Between 60 and 70 percent of the population belong to the mainstream Christian denominations, with between 17 and 27 percent of the population identifying themselves as Roman Catholic. There are no reliable statistics on the exact number of Christian churches or religious movements in the country. The evangelical denominations, mostly Pentecostal churches, and Apostolic groups are the fastest growing religious groups in the country. They appeal to large numbers of disillusioned members from the established churches who reportedly are attracted by promises of miracles and messages of hope at a time of political, social and economic instability. The country's small Muslim population is estimated at 1 percent. The remainder of the population consists of practitioners of Greek Orthodoxy, Judaism, and traditional indigenous religions and indigenous syncretistic religions that mix Christianity and traditional African culture and beliefs; there also are small numbers of Hindus, Buddhists, Baha'is, and atheists. The dominance of Christianity dates to the early contact of Portuguese traders and Jesuit priests with Africans in the region in the late 1500s. The Jesuits established churches and educational institutions in the Zambezi Valley at that time. Several centuries later, Catholic, Methodist, Anglican, Dutch Reformed, and Salvation Army missionaries began to compete aggressively for territorial and spiritual monopolies throughout the country, resulting in "areas of interest" for each of these churches. As a result, many persons identify with the Christian denomination that has had the longest historical connection to their area. President Robert Mugabe is a Roman Catholic who professes to practice his faith actively, and many of those who make up the elite of society tend to be associated with one of the established Christian churches, especially the Anglican and Methodist churches. Due to the country's colonial and apartheid-like history, the vast majority of the country's black population was prevented from attending government schools, which were restricted to white students. Christian mission schools taught the few blacks who were able to obtain a formal education. Consequently the vast majority of the country's liberation war leadership, who later became the Government's senior officials, were instructed by Christian educators. The Muslim community consists primarily of South Asian immigrants (Indian and Pakistani), migrants from other southern and eastern African countries (Mozambique and Malawi), and a very small number of North African and Middle Eastern immigrants. There are mosques located in nearly all of the larger towns, and there are a number of mosques in rural areas. There are 18 mosques in the capital Harare and 8 in Bulawayo. The Muslim community generally has been somewhat insular; however, in the past several years, the Islamic community has expanded its outreach efforts, and is having increasing success proselytizing among the majority black indigenous population. A variety of indigenous churches and groups have emerged from the mainstream Christian churches over the years. Some, such as the Zimbabwe Assembly of God (ZAOG), continue to adhere strictly to Christian beliefs; in fact, they oppose the espousal of traditional religions. Other indigenous groups, such as the Seven Apostles, combine elements of established Christian beliefs with some beliefs based on traditional African culture and religion. These latter groups tend to be centered on a prophetic figure, with members of the congregation identifying themselves as "apostles." These church members wear long white robes and head coverings. Many of these churches date from the early 1920s, when there was widespread racial and religious segregation. Many of the founders of African indigenous churches broke away from Christian missionary churches, and some of their teachings incorporate what has become known as "black consciousness." To a large extent, these churches grew out of the Christian churches' failure to adapt to traditional African culture and religion. These indigenous churches have proliferated as a result of splits among the followers of the different "prophets." Many persons continue to believe, in varying degrees, in traditional indigenous religions. These persons may worship in a westernized Christian church on Sundays but consult with traditional healers during the week. Belief in traditional healers spans both the rural and urban areas. Traditional healers are very common and are licensed and regulated by the Zimbabwe National African Traditional Healers' Association (ZINATHA). Foreign missionaries operate in the country, including members of the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Church. Section II. Status of Religious Freedom The Constitution provides for freedom of religion, and the Government generally respects this right in practice; however, a law that criminalizes both purporting to practice witchcraft and accusing persons of practicing witchcraft reportedly was viewed as restrictive by some practitioners of indigenous religions. There is no state religion. The Government generally recognizes all religions. The Government does not require religious institutions to be registered. Religious organizations that operate schools or medical facilities are required to register those specific institutions with the appropriate ministry regulating those areas. Similarly, religious institutions may apply for tax-exempt status and duty-free privileges with the Customs Department, which generally grants such requests. The Government permits religious education in private schools. There are Islamic and Hebrew primary and secondary schools in the major urban areas, primarily Harare and Bulawayo. The country has had a long history of Catholic, Anglican, and Methodist primary and secondary schools. Since independence there also has been a proliferation of evangelical basic education schools. The Christian schools constitute one-third of the schools in the country, with the Catholic Church having the majority. In addition there are several institutions of higher education that include religious studies as a core component of the curriculum. Christian missions provided the first hospitals to care for black citizens. There are 126 hospitals and clinics in the country that fall under the Zimbabwe Association of Church Related Hospitals (ZACH), an association that consists largely of mainstream Christian churches. The individual churches are the predominant source of funding for maintaining these hospitals because of the Government's increasing inability to provide essential services. The Government does provide small subsidies to cover some hospital staff salaries, but these make up only a small percentage of the hospitals' operating budgets. Restrictions on Religious Freedom Witchcraft--widely understood to encompass attempts to harm others not only by magic but also by covert means of established efficacy such as poisons--traditionally has been a common explanation for diseases of which the causes were unknown. Although traditional indigenous religions generally include or accommodate belief in the efficacy of witchcraft, they generally approve of harmful witchcraft only for defensive or retaliatory purposes and purport to offer protection against it. In the past several years, interest in healing through traditional religion and through prayer reportedly has increased as HIV/AIDS has infected an estimated one-third of the adult population, and affordable science-based medicines effective in treating HIV/AIDS have remained unavailable. The Witchcraft Suppression Act (WSA) criminalizes purporting to practice witchcraft, accusing persons of practicing witchcraft, hunting witches, and soliciting persons to name witches; penalties include imprisonment for up to 7 years. The law defines witchcraft as "the use of charms and any other means or devices adopted in the practice of sorcery," and provides punishments for intending to cause disease or injury to any person or animal through the use of witchcraft. Since 1997 ZINATHA has proposed amendments to the law that would redefine witchcraft only as the practice of sorcery with the intent to cause harm, including illness, injury, or death; however, mainstream Christian churches reportedly have opposed such legislation. Human rights groups also generally supported the existing WSA; the Act has been used since independence primarily to protect persons, primarily women, who have been accused falsely of causing harm to persons or crops in rural areas where traditional religious practices are strong. In March 2002, the Traditional Medical Practitioners Council, formed from members of ZINATHA to oversee traditional healers, called for amendments to the WSA that would authenticate the existence of witches and wizards and remove penalties for accusing persons of practicing witchcraft. There is some tension between the Government and some indigenous African churches because of the latter's preference for prayer over science-based medical practices that result in the reduction of avoidable childhood diseases and deaths in those communities. Some members of the indigenous churches and groups believe in healing through prayer only and refuse to have their children vaccinated. The Ministry of Health has had limited success in vaccinating children against communicable childhood diseases in these religious communities. Human rights activists also have criticized these indigenous churches for their sanctioning of marriages of underage girls. President Mugabe has expressed skepticism about the increasing membership in evangelical and indigenous churches and has indicated that he believes that they could be subversive. According to press reports, he has refused to meet with bishops from indigenous churches since 1997. The Government maintains a monopoly on television broadcasting through the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC), despite a broadcasting law passed in 2001 that permits one independent television broadcaster but imposes stringent licensing requirements. The Government permits limited religious broadcasting on ZBC and advertising in the government-controlled press by the older, established Christian churches, as well as new evangelical churches and institutions, such as The 700 Club and World Vision. Programming produced by the U.S.-based Christian Broadcasting Network is shown on ZBC. The Government generally follows the recommendations of the Religious Advisory Board, an umbrella grouping of Christian denominations, on appropriate religious material to broadcast. Muslims, who are not represented on the board, have approached the advisory board about obtaining access to airtime. The chairman of the Religious Advisory Board believes that Muslims represent too small of a percentage of society to take up minimal religious airtime or to merit membership on the advisory board. Other evangelical church groups are more hostile to Islam and are unlikely to support the inclusion of Islamic programming in the already limited religious broadcasting block. However, during the period covered by this report, Muslims occasionally were allowed to conduct the daily opening prayer on ZBC. In the last few years, due to inadequate resources, the Government has returned several former church schools that it had taken over at independence to their respective churches. The Government has returned nearly all of the secondary schools and a few of the primary schools that it seized from the churches after independence. Most former church schools remaining under Government control are used as primary schools in the rural areas. Abuses of Religious Freedom The Government and government supporters targeted some clergymen because they strongly criticized the state-sanctioned, politically motivated crimes and violence during the period prior to the 2000 parliamentary elections and the March 2002 presidential election and urged the Government to restore peace in the country (see Section III). Church leaders and members who criticize the Government continue to face arrest, detention, and possible deportation. On February 28, police harassed, arrested and detained 21 pastors as they attempted to deliver a petition against the misuse of police power to Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri. On February 14, police arrested and detained a blind Roman Catholic nun in Harare along with thirty-nine other women for participating in a Valentine's Day March for Peace sponsored by Women of Zimbabwe Arise! (WOZA). Police also beat and arrested a priest, Fr. Nigel Johnson, for filming a similar march on the same day in Bulawayo. On February 13, police prevented a public meeting at the Northside Community Church in Harare, which was supposed to address churches' role in the country's political crisis. Police arrested the president of the Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe (EFZ), Bishop Trevor Manhanga, along with seven other people and detained them for several hours. In late May 2002, local government minister Ignatius Chombo prompted war veterans in Binga district, Matabeleland North province, to close down the food distribution efforts of the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP), which was the only source of food for many rural residents in the Binga district. Chombo criticized the CCJP for establishing local structures parallel to the Government's structures. War veterans continued to block the food from leaving CCJP's warehouse at the end of the period covered by this report, preventing food deliveries to hospital patients and school children. In February 2002, police arrested Father Kevin O'Doherty and eight others participating in a prayer processional to police headquarters in Bulawayo. They were charged with contravening the newly-passed Public Order and Security Act, but the charges later were dropped. During the 2002 presidential election campaign, the state-controlled daily newspaper in Bulawayo printed false accusations against Archbishop Pius Ncube, including that he distributed sexually explicit material to prisoners, following his remarks criticizing the Government's violent campaign tactics. At a campaign rally in February 2002, President Mugabe claimed Ncube had "political tentacles" and supported the opposition after the Archbishop resisted government attempts to take over the Catholic-run St. Luke's hospital. During the period covered by this report, Ncube reportedly received anonymous death threats, and intimidating visits by suspected officers from the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO). In August 2001, Gabriel McGuire, an Irish Catholic priest in Harare, was declared a prohibited person and deported. No official reason was given; however, church members speculated that the Government took exception to his sermons in which he made generic statements about citizens' "right to have a voice." Paul Andrianatos, a Greek Orthodox priest with South African citizenship who was ordered to leave the country in March 2001, remained outside the country at the end of the period covered by this report. There were no reports of religious prisoners or detainees. Forced Religious Conversion There were no reports of forced religious conversion, including of minor U.S. citizens who had been abducted or illegally removed from the United States, or of the refusal to allow such citizens to be returned to the United States. Section III. Societal Attitudes The generally amicable relations between the various religious communities contributed to religious freedom. The Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, Baha'i, and Buddhist religious communities are relatively small and generally are not in competition with Christian denominations for converts. Catholic Church officials say that they welcome interfaith dialog with Muslims. There are at least four umbrella religious organizations primarily focused on interdenominational dialog among Christians and other inter-religious activities. Muslims are not represented in any of these organizations, and there is no vehicle for formal Christian-Muslim dialog; however, informal dialog occurs from time to time. A few Muslims have complained of discrimination by private employers who refuse to allow them sufficient time to worship at their mosques on Fridays. The Zimbabwe Council of Churches (ZCC) is an umbrella organization of all non-Catholic ecumenical Christian missionary churches except for evangelical organizations. It maintains a secretariat in Harare, conducts development programs, has a Justice and Peace desk, and collaborates with the much older CCJP. The Catholic Church and the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops' Conference have observer status within the ZCC, and relations generally are cooperative. Some members of the Christian community are hesitant to support Catholics joining the ZCC because of memories of the inability of religious leaders to work together during the liberation war era, and they fear a repeat of that experience. The ZCC also has worked with other church groups and civil society organizations on social issues. The ZCC traditionally was supportive of President Mugabe, but it has become more critical as a result of the Government's politicization of food distribution and campaign of violent intimidation against opposition supporters. The Heads of Denominations (HOD) is a pragmatic association of Catholic and other Christian denominations that has no spiritual or theological emphasis. It was created to enable collaboration among Christian groups and the Government in the operation of religious schools and hospitals. The HOD provides a vehicle for Christian churches to speak to the Government with a common voice on policy issues and includes the Catholic Church, which operates a significant number of the rural hospitals and schools in the country. The HOD has a loose structure and no office. The HOD's secretarial support is provided by the general secretariat of the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops' Conference (ZCBC), and its secretary general holds the same position in the ZCBC. The education secretaries of the various churches work together under the HOD, as does the religious advisory board to the ZBC. This broad grouping of churches under the HOD also collaborates on a wide range of social issues including HIV/AIDS education, and, in conjunction with the ZCC, the Christian churches have addressed the declining economic conditions affecting their members across the country. The HOD continues to deliberate over the role religious institutions should play in combating the HIV/AIDS crisis. Many churches already operate programs designed to help the victims of HIV/AIDS; for example, the Catholic Church and other religious and lay persons operate a center for persons infected with HIV/AIDS called "Mashambanzou" in Harare. The Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe (EFZ) is an umbrella organization of loosely affiliated evangelical churches that was established in the early 1980s. The fellowship has observer status with the HOD but in general does not work closely with either the ZCC or Catholic Church. However, the evangelical and Catholic churches do collaborate in the broadcasting of religious programs. During the period covered by this report, the ZCC, ZCBC and EFZ issued public statements strongly critical of the Government for its campaign of violent intimidation against opposition supporters, campaign to politicize food distribution, corruption, and failure to guide Zimbabwe out of crisis, also calling for leadership and a spirit of tolerance and reconciliation. Privately the leaders of those organizations lamented that the Government prevented them from using existing regional church structures to import and distribute food aid in the midst of a famine. Several key church leaders and organizations strongly criticized the state-sanctioned, politically motivated crimes and violence during the period before and after the March 2002 presidential election and urged the Government to restore peace in the country. Since the 2000 parliamentary elections, church groups throughout the country gradually have become more vocal in their criticism of the Government for the continuation of politically motivated violence. In a July 30, 2001, address to regional Catholic bishops, President Mugabe stated that the Roman Catholic Church should support the Government's land acquisition program and criticized it for "equivocating in the face of racial injustice." In January 2002, Zimbabwe Council of Churches General-Secretary Denison Mafinyane severely criticized the Government for unleashing a "reign of terror" against innocent citizens. In a May 5, 2002, address to the 10th Synod session of the Anglican Diocese of Manicaland, Bishop Sebastian Bakare criticized politicians who say there is peace in the country when citizens continue to suffer from political violence at the hands of ruling party supporters. In late 2000 and early 2001, Pius Ncube, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Bulawayo, stayed in Germany for several months after receiving numerous death threats for writing public letters accusing the Government of fueling political violence and urging citizens to exercise their right to vote. The Vatican reportedly demanded that the Government take steps to ensure the Archbishop's safety. In 2000 Anglican priest Tim Neill of Harare received a death threat letter signed by Ngonidzashe Mutasa, the secretary general of the Revival of African Conscience, a previously unknown organization with no established following or platform. The police later apprehended Mutasa, who was tried and found guilty in September 2000; however, Mutasa was released in October 2000 under a general presidential amnesty for politically motivated crimes. Father Neill left the priesthood in July 2001 after the Government forced him to resign as Vicar General of Harare and bypassed canonical law to install Norbert Kunonga, a staunch Mugabe supporter, as Anglican Bishop of Harare. Other priests reportedly have left the diocese because of Kunonga's sermons supporting Mugabe's reelection and the sometimes violent expulsion of mostly white commercial farmers from their land. In late February 2002, ZANU-PF supporters beat three Catholic priests, two Catholic nuns, and a Catholic brother in Zaka after they met with U.S. officials. The perpetrators said the fact that the religious figures had met with U.S. diplomats suggested they were opposition supporters. Although local ruling party officials later apologized to the victims, the perpetrators were not charged with any crime. Several prominent evangelical, Roman Catholic and Protestant bishops, however, did collaborate in an attempt to bring the ruling and opposition parties back to the negotiating table to re-start dialog aimed at resolving the country's political crisis during the period covered by this report. Another area of ecumenical collaboration has been translation of the Bible into the majority language, Shona. Several priests and ministers have worked on this project since 1987. Fambidzano, which means "walking together," is a relatively new grouping of indigenous churches. A South African Dutch Reformed Church theologian and social anthropologist, Inus Daneel, who has researched these churches in South Africa and Zimbabwe, founded the organization in the mid-1970's. Fambidzano was created to give the leaders of these churches more theological and biblical education, according to Daneel. There is little dialog between Fambidzano and the Catholic Church; however, the two organizations are discussing the need to work with the indigenous churches, to which many persons are turning because of their emphasis on physical healing and spiritual salvation. ZINATHA is an organization that represents traditional indigenous religions. The head of that organization is a university professor and vocal Anglican who is working to increase interreligious dialog between ZINATHA and mainstream Christian churches. In 2002 ZINATHA members formed the Traditional Medical Practitioners Council to certify and oversee traditional healers. There were continuing reports of tensions between mainstream Christian churches and practitioners of traditional indigenous religions. A notable feature of some of the indigenous churches is the acceptance of polygamy among some of its members. Sexual abuse, the spread of HIV/AIDS, and the avoidance of modern medicines also are growing problems within these churches. In addition leaders of the Christian churches reportedly opposed the repeal or modification of the WSA sought by practitioners of traditional indigenous religions. There were no reports of ritual murders associated with traditional religious practices during the period covered by this report, and the Government generally enforces the law against murder in the case of ritual murders. Gordon Chavanduka, chairman of ZINATHA, reportedly has stated that the black-market demand for human body parts used in making potions has increased greatly in recent years. During the period covered by this report, there were no reports that persons killed children for body parts for use in healing rituals associated with traditional religions. In 1999 Faber Chidarikire, a Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) official and mayor of the northern town of Chinhoyi, was charged with murdering a 13-year-old girl in 1987, but he was released on bail shortly thereafter following intervention by the Attorney General. Chidarikire was tried for the murder of the girl in June 2001, and on July 22, 2002 the High Court acquitted him. Section IV. U.S. Government Policy The U.S. Government discusses religious freedom issues with the Government in the context of its overall dialog and policy of promoting human rights. The U.S. Government further supports religious and other constitutionally protected freedoms through demarches to the Government; nondenominational financial support for community development projects, which often are associated with religious institutions; and regular dialog with and support for civil society organizations that advocate and monitor respect for human rights, including freedom of religion. The Embassy meets regularly with leaders of religious communities, including minority groups, and with nongovernmental organizations that work on issues of religious freedom.

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A Geological Tour of Tumbledown Mountain On any given fine-weather day in any of the four seasons, Tumbledown Mountain in Township 6 North of Weld (Figure 1), is visited by scores of people; most in pursuit of the excellent views afforded by the bald peaks, and perhaps a few mistakenly seeking the solitude of a wilderness experience. While a few individuals may come specifically to look at the beautifully exposed bedrock here, over the course of an outing almost every visitor will develop some interest in the rocks if for no other reason than its near constant exposure along some of the popular summit trails. It is easy to guess the origin of the name "Tumbledown" simply by viewing the south side of the mountain from any of the trails that lead to the summit. Cliffs of several hundred feet bear the scars, old and new, of rock slides that have left piles of rubble (talus) at their bases (Figure 2). Western Maine is underlain by a regular sequence of layered metamorphic rocks which began their existence as layers of sand and mud on the edge of an ocean basin about 430 million years ago. As these sediments accumulated over millions of years, through a number of processes they gradually hardened into sandstone and shale. During the last great mountain building event that helped form the northern Appalachians about 415 million years ago, these layers were folded, thrust upward, and heated. Great masses of molten rock formed at depth and moved upward through the contorted layers of rock, cooling into solid rock some distance below the surface. Hundreds of millions of years of erosion have now exposed the resulting granites and granodiorites at the surface of the earth. |Let's look at some examples of these rocks. Figure 3 is a photograph showing some of the thinner layers of schist and granofels that can be found near Tumbledown Pond. The lighter layers are quartz-feldspar granofels, and the darker layers are andalusite schist. Note that while each light layer begins with a very sharp boundary on the right, there is only a gradual change to the corresponding dark layer on the left. This is a characteristic carried over from the sedimentary origins of the rock and is referred to as graded bedding. When the sediments that formed this rock were deposited, the actions of water flow were such that the coarser sand grains (quartz and feldspar) fell to the bottom first, followed by progressively smaller grains. Deposited last during each sedimentary event were very small grains of clay, before the next slug of sediment came down and the process began anew. Geologists use graded beds to determine which direction was originally up in the layers. This is important in determining which are the younger rocks in a sequence. Through the process of metamorphism, the quartz and feldspar grains changed little, but the clay grains changed into a variety of minerals including micas, staurolite, and andalusite, the coarsest grains in the rocks today. So, while the grain size of the sediment originally changed from coarse to fine as one moved from right to left in each bed, the grain size change of the metamorphic minerals is just the opposite. There is a good deal of variability in the thickness of layers at Tumbledown. Figure 4 shows some of the most striking layering exposed near the summit. In many places the layers are several feet thick and continuous for hundreds of feet. In several places on the mountain, large folds are exposed. One of the best examples is between Tumbledown Pond and the eastern summit of Tumbledown Mountain (Figure 5). These folds developed at the time the northern Appalachians were forming, when the rocks today at the surface were at considerable depth and subject to higher temperatures and pressures which were not uniform in all directions. Both sides (limbs) of the fold are inclined in the same direction in what geologists term an overturned Some who have ventured to Tumbledown have interpreted the shape of the mountain and the pond nestled among the peaks to be volcanic in origin. While this certainly is an exciting idea, it simply isn't true. As we've already explained, the rocks were formed in a sedimentary basin and are not at all volcanic in nature. The landscape or topography is also not of volcanic origin but formed through the interaction of several processes. |The first important factor in defining the topography is the nature of the bedrock, here composed of metamorphic rocks and granite intrusions. From the top of Tumbledown, a most striking feature of the landscape is the ring of mountains the completely encircle Webb Lake to the south (Figure 6). Webb Lake is underlain by granite while the ring of mountains is underlain by metamorphic rocks. In particular, these metamorphic rocks were subjected to even greater heat as the originally molten granite was intruded into them. One consequence of this process is that the metamorphic rocks immediately surrounding the granite are slightly more resistant to erosion than any of the other rocks. Granite, with its large crystals and abundant feldspar, is actually fairly susceptible to erosion. The result of all this is the ring of mountains underlain by metamorphic rocks, and the basin of Webb Lake, underlain by easily eroded granite. At the Mount Blue State Park visitor's center there is a plaster model of the landscape which illustrates this ring of mountains well. |The greatest agent of erosion is the glaciers which swept over the landscape just a few tens of thousands of years ago and represent the second most important factor in defining the topography. As the glaciers progressed across the landscape in a southeasterly direction, they scraped soils and weathered rock off the less erodable rock units and deeply gouged the earth in the more erodable rock units. Due to the complex processes of glacial flow, in many places the glaciers polished the northern slopes of mountains into rounded shapes, while they plucked broken rock without any polishing on the southern slopes of mountains. This is readily apparent in the landscape at Tumbledown. On the summit the rocks are well polished, and there are numerous knobs with smoothly rounded surfaces facing north and steep, unrounded surfaces facing south (see Figure 4). Tumbledown Pond itself (Figure 7) was produced by this gouging and plucking action. In many places on the summit, scratches formed by rocks imbedded in the base of the glacier as it advanced across the landscape, point to the northwest from whence the |Many trails (Figure 8) provide free public access to the summit and Tumbledown Pond through the auspices and stewardship of the Hancock Timber Resources Group, Inc. Originally published on the web as the April 1998 Site of the Month. Last updated on April 19, 2012

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Millions of Americans travel abroad each year. Safety should be a prime consideration for anyone traveling outside the United States. There are certain precautions that travelers can take to improve their safety while abroad. Motor vehicle safety while traveling Injuries from motor vehicle crashes pose the greatest risk of injury to international travelers, according to the CDC. The risk of death from motor vehicle crashes is many times higher in other countries than in the U.S. Inadequate roadway design, hazardous conditions, lack of appropriate vehicles and vehicle maintenance, unskilled or inexperienced drivers, inattention to pedestrians and cyclists, and impairment due to alcohol and drugs all contribute to the increased risk of being involved in a vehicle-related crash while visiting other countries. Important safety measures you can take include the following: Request a vehicle with safety belts and use them. Inspect cars and trucks to make sure that tires, windshield wipers, brakes, and headlights are in good condition. Request a vehicle equipped with air bags, where available. Avoid nonessential night driving, alcohol, and riding with persons under the influence of alcohol. Sit in the back seat, whenever possible, to minimize the risk of death if an accident should occur. Bring a car safety seat when traveling with young children. Use a safety helmet when riding a bicycle or motorcycle. Avoiding animal- or insect-associated hazards In areas where rabies is endemic (constantly present), domestic dogs, cats, or other animals should not be petted. Wild animals should always be avoided. Bites and stings from insects can cause unpleasant reactions, and medical attention should be sought immediately for any bite or sting that causes redness, swelling, bruising, or persistent pain. Take extra precautions when camping or staying in rustic or primitive areas by using insect repellents, protective clothing, and mosquito netting. Poisonous snakes are another hazard in certain parts of the world, although death from snake bites are rare. Never attempt to handle, harass, or kill a snake because bites often occur as a snake's defensive reaction. Avoiding swimming hazards For infectious disease prevention, only swimming pools that contain chlorinated water are considered safe for swimming. Swimming in contaminated water can result in skin, eye, ear, and certain intestinal infections. In certain areas, a fatal form of encephalitis has occurred after swimming in warm, dirty water. Other infectious diseases can develop from swimming in freshwater streams, canals, and lakes. To avoid drowning accidents, avoid swimming alone or in unfamiliar waters.

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Working out when to exercise in the cold and flu season Is exercising outside in winter months a good idea? ( Erik Unger, Chicago Tribune / February 11, 2013) Health and fitness experts advise to starve a fever of exercise. But feeding a cold moderately, with a brisk walk, may not be a bad idea. "The classic line from every sports medicine doctor is, âIf you can do it, do it. If you can't, don't,'" said Dr. Lewis G. Maharam, author of "Running Doc's Guide to Healthy Running." Usually if symptoms are confined to above the neck, exercising is OK, he explained. But if you're running a fever of 101 degrees Fahrenheit (38.3 degrees Celsius) or higher, skip it. Body heat rises during exercise due to increased metabolism, explained Maharam, who practices medicine in New York City. If you start high, your body's way of cooling you down is out of balance. "If fever gets too high, you break down proteins, maybe in the kidneys or liver," he said. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that more than 425 million case of colds and flu occur annually in the United States. The average person has about three respiratory infections per year. Dr. David C. Nieman, a professor of health sciences at Appalachian State University, North Carolina Research Campus, said research shows that regular, moderate aerobic exercise strengthens the immune system, and that people who exercise report fewer colds than their inactive peers. Nieman said five days or more of aerobic activity per week was found to be a powerful factor in lowering the number of sick days. "Even three to four days was effective. To be avoided was being sedentary," he explained. But when animals infected with a systemic virus are forced to exercise in fever and pain, studies show that their symptoms are exacerbated, prolonged, and sometimes life-threatening. "It's very dangerous." said Nieman, who has written about the impact of exercise on the common cold. "If you have flu or virus with fever and pain, the best remedy is bed rest. The worst thing is to sweat it out with exercise." He said common cold and flu viruses can stay on objects, such as door handles, treadmills and computer keyboards, for hours. The main route to infection is through touching one's mouth or nose with unwashed hands. Patrick Strait, of Snap Fitness, a franchiser of gyms with locations worldwide, said this time of year fitness centers step up cleaning efforts because they see a lot more traffic and so many people catch colds and the flu. "It's a public place where a lot of people are sweating," said Strait. "We tell manager/owners to clean once an hour, wash down the equipment with bleach, etc." He urged clients to wipe down equipment and wash hands often. "And if you're sick, don't come to the gym," he said. Jessica Matthews, an exercise physiologist with the American Council on Exercise, said some days symptoms dictate scaling back your workout or, if you're contagious, skipping the gym entirely. "Always listen to your body," she said. "It might be a good idea to exercise at home or privately." Nieman said that while moderate exercise strengthens the immune system, elite athletes will experience a rise in stress hormones and a dip in immunity after about 90 minutes of high-intensity activity. Maharam said the immunity of marathoners is decreased for up to 72 hours after a race. During that time, the athletes are more susceptible to colds, flu, and, most commonly, the so-called "marathon sniffles." He said symptoms usually subside within 48 hours. "At the end of a race, when you're all sweaty and they're all sweaty, you don't need to be hugging and kissing people," Maharam said. "Your immune system isn't as strong as it was." (Editing by Patricia Reaney and Xavier Briand)

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23 knock-out native plants Incorporating plants native to your climate means less water, less maintenance, and more wildlife. Here are our top picks around the West Native to: California and southern Oregon To about 1 ft. high, 10 in. wide. Rosettes of narrow, fleshy, evergreen leaves bear 10-in. stems topped by large, extremely showy clusters of 1-in. white or pink flowers often striped with rose or red. Blooms from spring to early summer. Lewisia cotyledon howellii is similar but has wavy-edged leaves and somewhat larger flowers. Prune out side growth to maintain air circulation around root crown. Can be grown in pots of fast-draining sterilized soil or growing mixes. More: All about lewisia

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The purpose of this section is to provide a broad overview of the methodology used to construct the four separate Indices of Deprivation. Those wishing to access more detailed information should follow the links to the Indices' technical reports shown in the 'Useful links' section. The methodologies used to derive the separate indices of multiple deprivation are broadly similar. In each case, the index measures the level of multiple deprivation experienced by individuals in small areas. Firstly, levels of deprivation are measured for a number of separate dimensions or 'domains'. The number and title of domains varies between each index but each measures deprivation across key themes of income, employment, education and health. For each domain, deprivation is calculated according to a series of summary statistics or 'indicators'. These indicators are designed to measure key features of a particular deprivation theme. The choice of indicators is agreed through consultation and varies between each index. Typically there are between two and six indicators per domain. For each index, the indicators are combined in broadly the same way to provide a domain level measure of deprivation. Where possible and most notably in the income and employment domains, indicators are summed and divided by the 'at risk population' (for example, the number of income support claimants as a proportion of the total population) to give an overall area rate of deprivation. Where rates are not possible, appropriate weights for combining indicators into a single deprivation score are selected using a range of techniques including Maximum Likelihood factor analysis. The domain level scores which represent specific dimensions of deprivation are then ranked and transformed to an exponential distribution. Weights are then applied to provide the overall Index of Multiple Deprivation for each country in the UK. The weights are selected according to a number of criteria which are used to assess the level of importance attached to each domain theme in the overall measurement of deprivation. As each index uses different indicators and domains, the weights applied to aggregate domain scores are different.

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The City of Talisay used to be an Agustinian estate in 1648 but only became a municipality in 1849 with Silverio Fernandez as its first gobernadorcillo and Pedro Labuca as capitan. Some accounts trace the origin of its name from Magtalisay trees abounding in areas while others claim origin of the name from a town in Spain. In both the American and Japanese occupations, Talisay served as haven of colonial forces. During World War II, the city served as the center of guerilla intelligence operations for the Philippine residence movement in Cebu. The returning American forces made their historic landing in the beach of Talisay on March 26, 1945 - an event that marked the eventual surrender of the Japanese forces in Cebu. The event is now annually commemorated by the provincial government of Cebu. On December 30 2000, Talisay became a component city by virtue of Republic Act 8979. To promote and sustain environmental balance, economic stability and social equity for the welfare of its empowered citizenry An environmentally sustainable Aqua City with a happy empowered citizenry working towards a peaceful and progressive community in a diversified economy guided by dynamic and efficient local leadership.

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Mapping the disease Devil Facial Tumour Disease (DFTD) is one of only three recorded cancers that can spread like a contagious disease. The cancer is passed from devil to devil through biting. The live tumour cells aren’t rejected by the animal’s immune system because of a lack of genetic diversity among Tasmanian devils. For this reason, cases continue to occur in areas where the disease had not previously been recorded. As at February 2011, there has been an 84% decline in average sightings of devils across Tasmania during the annual spotlight surveys. In the north-east region, where signs of DFTD were first reported, there has been a 96% decline of average sightings. While the majority of diseased populations studied have shown a standard response to DFTD (loss of abundance, loss of older age classes, females breeding earlier), there is a population that has been studied for the past 5 years by a PhD student that is showing a different pattern of responses to the disease. Although DFTD has spread through this population at the same rate that it is spreading elsewhere, abundance throughout the population has not plummeted, the full age structure is still intact and tumours appear to grow slower, regress and take longer to kill the animal. The STDP, in collaboration with UTas, will begin trapping a neighbouring and similar population to determine whether this atypical response occurs in more than one population and whether it is the disease or the devil population that is different. Disease front and DFTD distribution as at June 2012 The STDP continues to monitor devil populations across Tasmania to determine how far DFTD has spread and the impact that it is having. The disease now affects 75% of the state. In November 2011 STDP staff and volunteers spent 10 days in the forestry coupes around Takone for this annual activity. 65 animals were caught during the trip, including 63 devils and 2 spotted tailed quolls. There were 38 new devils and 25 recaptured devils. The 63 devils were made up of 37 females and 26 males. More than half of the females were lactating. Three devils were caught with tumours consistent with DFTD, and were given a DFTD score of 5. All 3 animals tested positive. It seems that the disease is moving further into the population but prevalence (0.05%) is still very low, suggesting the fairly recent arrival of the disease into the area. The disease front trapping work supports a range of activities including planning for saving populations, managing diseased populations and monitoring any changes in the disease. Disease front and DFTD distribution - 2010 Following the success of the ‘snapshot' surveys conducted in 2009 to find the westerly extent of DFTD (see below), further surveys were conducted in October and November 2010 to update our knowledge on where the disease front currently lies. Some lessons were learnt about the efficacy of snapshot-type surveys in areas of varying devil abundance, so the surveys this year were concentrated in an area to the west of the Murchison Highway, between Wynyard in the north and just below Waratah in the south where devil abundance was high. Areas of low devil abundance will be targeted with the use of remote-sensing cameras. Four teams conducted 7-day trapping trips, following the same protocol used in 2009. All animals caught with a possible DFTD tumour had the disease confirmed using histology. A total of 234 individual animals were caught and inspected for DFTD, with 8 animals confirmed with the disease. A single animal with a high probability of carrying DFTD was located 5km due-west of the most westerly confirmed disease from 2009, but this could not be confirmed. Unfortunately this animal was located at the most westerly extent of the front, suggesting that the disease may have moved as much as 7km in the past year. The Program hopes to set sentinel cameras on the disease front in the coming months so that disease spread on the front can be monitored throughout the year. Locating the western extent of Devil Facial Tumour disease - 2009 During September and October 2009, surveys were conducted in western Tasmania with the objective of locating the western extent of Tasmanian devil facial tumour disease (DFTD). Knowing the location of the disease ‘front' is essential to inform other management projects aimed at preserving the species in the long term, including the potential fencing off of disease free areas and the development of free range captive enclosures. Prior to these focused trips, there had been no intensive, focused trapping trips to find the location of the disease front. Six teams surveyed sites between Burnie in the north and Kelly basin in the south. A roving veterinary team responded to reports of potential disease in captured animals, and collected biopsies and blood samples for confirmation of the disease. As the principle aim of these trips was to catch as many unique animals as possible, it was decided to use a ‘snapshot' technique where traps would be moved to a new site each day to maximise the number of new devils caught and reduce the number of re-captures. In sites of high devil abundance two nights trapping maximised the chances of catching any possible diseased animals. Likewise, in sites of very low devil abundance trapping was extended to two nights to maximise chances of catching any devils in the area. Prior to the beginning of the disease front trips, two 5-day reconnaissance trips were conducted to determine the best areas to locate transects. Map 1 indicates the locations of traps deployed by each team. A total of 231 individual Tasmanian devils were captured and inspected for presence of devil facial tumour disease. Of these at least thirteen devils have been confirmed as diseased by histology. Three devils were captured by remote cameras clearly showing signs of what appeared to be DFTD - however these cannot be confirmed by histology. The most western extent of DFTD recorded in this survey was approximately 15km west of the last known location of DFTD (Surrey Hills, recorded in 2008). However, the high prevalence of DFTD at Surrey Hills in 2008 suggests that DFTD will have been present further to the west at that time, and the distance travelled from 2008 to 2009 would not have been as great as 15km. The current most westerly point of confirmed disease is just to the east of the Murchison Highway. To date no confirmed cases of DFTD have been recorded west of the Murchison Hwy. There was an obvious gradient of devil abundance from the north to the south, with 50 devils caught by one team in the north and 11 by another team over the same period of time in the south. The very different habitat and the difficulty of access in the southern regions makes it difficult to catch devils and even harder to locate the disease. Our ‘snapshot' method of trapping for these trips will need to be revised for these areas of lower devil abundance before we re-trap in any of these areas.

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All Property Taxes Real, Public Utility and Tangible Personal Property Taxes Assessed Value and Taxes Levied for Taxes Payable in Calendar Year 1988, by County Table PD-30 shows total assessed value of, and taxes levied on, real, public utility personal, and tangible personal property for taxes payable in calendar year 1988. Taxes for real and public utility personal property were levied in tax year 1987, but payable in calendar year 1988. Special assessments were also levied in tax year 1987 and payable in calendar year 1988. In contrast, personal property taxes (excluding public utility personal property) are levied and payable in the same year - in this case 1988. Total taxes levied on the three categories of property were $6.6 billion on a total assessed value of $106.7 billion. Special assessments totalled $107.9 million. Total real property taxes levied were $5.0 billion, while public utility personal property and tangible personal property taxes totalled $613.4 million and $1.0 billion, The value of real property was $78.9 billion compared to $10.8 billion and $17.0 billion for public utility personal and tangible personal property, respectively. Real property taxes shown in the table are prior to application of "tax reduction factors" and are prior to subtracting the 10 percent property tax rollback for all real property, the 2.5 percent rollback for residential real property, and the homestead exemption deduction. Among all Ohio counties, Cuyahoga County had the highest property value ($14.8 billion of which real property accounted for $11.3 billion) and the highest amount of taxes levied ($929.5 million in real property taxes and $1.2 billion in total property taxes). Vinton County had the lowest value of real property ($57.4 million) and the lowest total property value ($99.1 million); Cuyahoga County also levied the lowest amount of taxes ($2.1 million in real property taxes and $3.6 million in total Lucas County led all Ohio counties in the amount of special assessments levied, with $21.8 million. Four counties - Adams, Morgan, Pike, and Vinton- recorded no special Data for this table were taken from abstracts filed by county auditors with the Ohio Department of Taxation.

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Quantum Teleportation Leaps to New Distance Record A new record of roughly 60 miles has been set in the field of qubit transmission. "This is just a transmission method, so it could have wide utility, though I expect the cost will initially make it best for huge data streams," said analyst Rob Enderle. "Something like this could turn us into a SaaS world." Scientists in China have transmitted quantum bits, or qubits, over a record distance of 97 km, or roughly 60 miles. This is more than six times the distance of the previous record of 16 km, set by another team of Chinese researchers in May of 2010, as reported in Nature.com. The results represent a step toward the establishment of a global quantum network, and the methods used in the experiment could be utilized for satellite-based quantum communications, the scientists said. "This is just a transmission method, so it could have wide utility, though I expect the cost will initially make it best for huge data streams," Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group, told TechNewsWorld. This technology "could end up changing much of the world" because it's both potentially higher bandwidth and lower latency, approaching zero, and these factors "could drive massive computer centralization on a world scale and force a massive shakeout of security, networking and computer companies," Enderle continued. "Something like this could turn us into a SaaS (Software as a Service) world." The Theory Behind the Experiment The latest experiment demonstrated quantum teleportation of an independent unknown state between two optical free-space links 97 km apart with multi-photon entanglement. Quantum teleportation is a process for transmitting information using quantum physics to, in effect, encrypt the data transmitted. It's also known as entanglement-assisted teleportation. In quantum teleportation experiments, beams of lights are used to encode qubits. The encoded beam of light, which is described as quantum entangled, is split into two and transmitted. When a qubit at one receiver is observed and take a defined form, the other half of the qubit at the other receiver takes the same defined form. Quantum entanglement results when particles such as photons or electrons interact physically and then become separated but remain in the same quantum state. A quantum state is a set of mathematical variables, including position, momentum and spin, that fully describes a quantum system. What the Researchers Did The researchers used an ultra-bright entangled photon source based on Type-II spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC). The SPDC process involves using a non-linear crystal to split photons into two. Those photons in a pair whose polarizations are perpendicular to one another are termed "Type II" photons. In an SPDC apparatus, a strong laser beam, called the "pump" beam, is directed at a beta-barium borate (BBO) crystal. That's exactly what the researchers did. This generated the beam of light, which was split and sent across Lake Qinghai in China.

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Even with these advances, the fuel cell wouldn’t come on instantly, and turning it on and off with every short trip in the car would cause a lot of wear and tear, reducing its lifetime. Instead, it would be paired with a battery pack, as a combustion engine is in the Volt, Wachsman says. The fuel cell could then run more steadily, serving to keep the battery topped without providing bursts of acceleration. The researchers achieved their result largely by modifying the solid electrolyte material at the core of a solid-oxide fuel cell. In fuel cells on the market, such as one made by Bloom Energy, the electrolyte has to be made thick enough to provide structural support. But the thickness of the electrolyte limits power generation. Over the last several years, researchers have been developing designs that don’t require the electrolyte to support the cell so they can make the electrolyte thinner and achieve high power output at lower temperatures. The University of Maryland researchers took this a step further by developing new multilayered electrolytes that increase the power output still more. The work is part of a larger U.S. Department of Energy effort, over the past decade, to make solid-oxide fuel cells practical. The first fruits of that effort likely won’t be fuel cells in cars—so far, Wachsman has only made relatively small fuel cells, and significant engineering work remains to be done. The first applications of solid oxide fuels in vehicles may be on long-haul trucks with sleeper cabs. Equipment suppliers such as Delphi and Cummins are developing fuel cells that can power the air conditioners, TVs, and microwaves inside the cabs, potentially cutting fuel consumption by 85 percent compared to idling the truck’s engine. The Delphi system also uses a design that allows for a thinner electrolyte, but it operates at higher temperatures than Wachsman’s fuel cell. The fuel cell could be turned on Monday, and left to run at low rates all week and still get the 85 percent reduction. Delphi has built a prototype and plans to demonstrate its system on a truck next year.

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Museum Collections - Mesoamerica - Maya (Before A. D. 1520) - Artifact #3 WHO: Maya culture WHEN: Late Classic Period, A.D. 550-800 WHAT: This vase (tall dish form) features a seated jaguar. The jaguar was an important symbol of power to the ancient Maya. The jaguar, as the most powerful and feared animal in the jungle, was the natural symbol for the authority of Maya rulers. HOW: Hand-formed earthenware, polychrome slip decoration. MUSEUM: Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art. G83.1.140 Zoomify Interactive: To see an image of this artifact that you can zoom in on, click on this link: Front (Warning: This link will open in a new window)

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Okra is heat loving crop, originating in North Africa, where it was been cultivated for centuries. Okra was introduced to Brazil in 1658 and entered North America with the slave trade. Okra should be used the same day as harvested or frozen. Fresh okra should be stored below 45°F, otherwise chilling injury and decay will occur. Pods may be sliced and cooked in soups, curries and stews, where they have thickening effect. Okra forms an integral part of many Cajun and Creole recipes. In some countries okra is dried (bamia) for long-term storage. Southern Fried Okra 5 C. okra sliced 1/2 inch thick 1/2 C. flour 1/2 C. cornmeal 1 T. bacon grease salt and pepper to taste Combine flour and cornmeal in a paper bag. Add okra. Shake, coating well. Add bacon grease to a skillet and slowly fry the okra for 30 - 45 minutes over low heat and okra is golden brown. Season with salt and pepper.

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Identity theft occurs more frequently in the United States than people want to believe. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, identity theft and identity fraud are referred to as "all types of crime in which someone wrongfully obtains and uses another person's personal data in some way that involves fraud or deception for economic gain." The Federal Trade Commission compiles a report every year for identity theft complaints in the United States. These complaints increased more than 78 percent between 2009 and 2011. With identity theft becoming an increasing problem, Professor Duanne J. Thompson, the acting program chair of Criminal Justice at Argosy University, Atlanta, offers some advice for consumers to take in order to protect themselves from identity theft: 1. Protect your identity like you would protect your house. 2. Don't give out sensitive information such as Social Security information. In most states it is illegal for a business to ask for your Social Security number for transactions. 3. If purchasing on the Web, make sure you know who you are buying from and that the site is secure. 4. Don't fall for phishing scams. Legitimate websites will never ask for your password or account information. If in doubt contact the vendor before you send your information. Thompson also says that consumers should be aware that they have a right to have one free credit report from every credit clearing house, such as Equifax, TransUnion and Experian, at least once a year. In some states, consumers are allowed a free credit report at least twice a year. Consumers should look at the information from their reports and ensure that the information is correct and accurate. They should look specifically at each credit statement every month for suspicious fraudulent activity. The bigger question is what a consumer should do if they find themselves victims of identity theft. Thompson suggests to first notify your credit vendor that your card has been compromised and that there is an individual acting as you. Consumers should then call their local police department and file a report. Afterward, gather as much information as possible about your accounts and all transactions to help aid the investigator in the case. Once the police report is obtained, file an identity theft claim with all three credit clearing houses (Equifax, TransUnion and Experian). All three credit clearing houses will require a copy of the local police report and all the information you have supporting the theft. With the rise of online trends such as social media and online banking, consumers must be more vigilant about their identity as these trends lead to more and more avenues for identity theft criminals. The best way a consumer can protect their identity to simply be smart and be aware of their financial records. GateHouse News Service

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Exclusive: Medical Experts Explain How to Treat Spinal Defect Before a Child Is Even Born Editor’s Note: This is the second in a five part series where The Blaze has looked into a newer treatment for children diagnosed with spina bifida. While most would have the hole exposing his or her spine closed after birth, more than a decade ago surgeries that were considered controversial at the time began where the hole was closed in utero in the hopes of reversing some of the disabling effects of the disorder. The first results of a federally funded human trial were released in 2011, showing the success seen in the new treatment thus far. We’ve talked to families who had the elective surgery before it ever entered a formal human trial and those who more recently have had the surgery since the period trial ended. We’ve timed this series to specifically run close to Glenn Beck’s Restoring Love as the parents of children who underwent the surgery, many of whom still have some disability, want the world to know the blessing of celebrating differences. Dr. Scott Adzick, the Department of Surgery Chief at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), says the best decision he ever made was to head to the University of California-San Francisco 30 years ago in order to be on the cutting edge of fetal medicine. Adzick wanted to research surgery before birth and San Francisco was the mecca at the time. “I was frustrated taking care of babies with life-threatening problems, and when the baby was born, we were too late,” he said. It was out of this frustration of not being able to treat disorders early enough that Adzick and a few others decided they wanted to operate on the fetus through the mother’s womb as a treatment — a treatment specifically for spina bifida. At the time, fetal surgeries were reserved for only babies in life-or-death situations. Spina bifida wasn’t necessarily life threatening to the infant, but still very debilitating — and research prior to actually beginning the surgeries on human fetuses showed they could be a benefit. Spina bifida is a congenital disorder that occurs when the backbone and spinal canal do not close. What causes spina bifida varies, but it can be genetic or result from low levels of folic acid early in pregnancy. The most severe and most common cases of spina bifida where the hole doesn’t close in the lower half of the spine, known as myelomeningocele, occurs in 1 in every 800 infants. More than 1,500 babies are born with spina bifida in the United States each year, making it the most common birth defect of the central nervous system. It is estimated 64 percent of fetuses diagnosed with spina bifida are aborted. With myelomeningocele, the membranes and the neural tube will protrude from the back forming a sack. A nurse described it as looking about the size of a small mellon. The mother can learn of the condition around 18 to 22 weeks, generally when the she goes in for her an ultrasound. Watch this video from CHOP explaining what spina bifida is: The treatment — still the most common treatment for those with the disorder today — is closure of the hole after birth. More often than not, depending on the child’s “lesion level” — the location where the spinal canal failed to close in the womb — the child would have hydrocephalus (water on the brain) and could require a shunt (a pump that would drain the fluid from the brain). They could be paralyzed from the waist down or, if they’re lucky, could walk with a walker or braces on their legs. They frequently don’t have proper nerve formation for normal bowel and bladder function and would need to be catheterized first by the parents and at an older age by themselves. Before fetal surgery could even be considered to correct the spines of human fetuses, research was done to define what Adzick called the disorder’s “natural history.” Essentially, this means tracking the disorder back to when it begins to form and what occurs in the womb after the hole fails to close. A husband-and-wife team, Dr. Martin Meuli and Dr. Claudia Simmen-Meuli, conducted reviews of aborted fetuses that had myelomeningocele and found the exposed spinal cord would go through varying degrees of injury within the womb, which was the cause of the symptoms after birth. Dr. G.M. Hutchins, who was also involved with these initial reviews, with the Meuli’s conducted an experiment using fetal sheep, where the fetal lamb’s spine was exposed in the womb, creating a spina bifida-like defect. At birth, the lambs exhibited similar symptoms to children with myelomeningocele. In some lambs though, were operated on again to correct the lesion. Adzick, who was also involved in this research, said the results on lambs that had the spinal correction were “phenomenal.” “There was some distortion but they were remarkably protected,” he said. In this video, Adzick and other doctors explain how fetal surgeries came about: After these findings and strict procedural regulations, Adzick and others began offering this as an option for parents who wanted to prevent some of the effects of the most severe forms of spina bifida. Eventually, a clinical trial was instituted to establish if there was in fact a significant benefit in the outcome of those with spina bifida who had fetal surgery compared to the more traditional, after-birth treatment. Three hospitals were involved in the trial: the CHOP, Vanderbilt University Medical Center and the University of California-San Francisco. The Management of Myelomeningocele Study (MOMS) was a randomized trial that began in 2001 where some fetus underwent fetal surgery while others had the traditional treatment after birth. Watch an overview video from CHOP on the study here. Just last year, after 10 years, the trial stopped accepting patients because those evaluating the data found they had enough information to show that fetal surgery was more successful at reducing the need for a shunt, reversing the Chiari malformation and other more minor effects. “In spite of an increased risk for preterm birth, children who underwent surgery while in the uterus did much better, on balance, than those who had surgery after birth,” Alan E. Guttmacher, M.D., director of NICHD, which funded the study said in a Feb. 2011 press release on the findings. “However, caution is advised. Because the surgery is highly specialized, it is best undertaken in facilities with staff having experience in the procedure.” “This was very exciting,” Adzick said referring to when the results of the study became apparent. “[The] results basically matched what we had seen at CHOP before the [MOMS study] began.” The time period from when a woman finds out her child has spina bifida to when she is considered for the surgery and goes under the knife is very short. Although procedures vary slightly among hospitals at the moment, most will not perform the surgery after 26 weeks of gestation. The lesion in the fetuses back needs to be at a certain level, and the fetal candidate cannot have any other genetic abnormalities. These are just a few requirements for the fetus — the mom has some as well. The mother will not be accepted for surgery if she doesn’t meet a range of criteria. Not to mention the mental and ethical evaluation parents are put through. Lori Howell, a nurse working with families of children with birth defects for more than 30 years who is currently the executive director of CHOP’s Center for Fetal Diagnosis and Treatment, explains that the process for choosing candidates is rigorous. The candidates tour the neonatal intensive care unit, seeing all the extremely premature and sick babies. A place where their child could potentially end up. They also meet with a ethics board who asks them several questions, many of which are hard to hear but are meant to prepare the mother for every possible outcome. One mother told the Blaze that the board asks questions like “If you didn’t have this surgery, your child will most likely be born healthy considering their condition and the surgery performed after birth to fix the hole in his or her back is routine. This fetal surgery is elective, there is the potential your child — or you — could die as a result of this procedure. Would you still want to go through with it for this risk?” Watch this video explaining the surgery and the process: “It’s not for everybody,” Howell said. “You shouldn’t feel guilty if you can’t have a fetal surgery or if you opt to make another choice.” Stay tuned for the third installation of this five part series tomorrow where the Blaze will cover many of the positive results of fetal surgeries as explained by parents whose children had the operation years ago. - Shock Video Surfaces: Meat Cleaver-Wielding Man Shouts ‘You People Will Never Be Safe!’ Moments After Gruesome London Attack 488 Comments - Why Were DHS Agents Seemingly Monitoring Multiple Tea Party IRS Protests Across the Country on Tuesday? 475 Comments - Confusion Erupts in IRS Hearing After Lois Lerner Tries to Plead the 5th — Watch It All Unfold 466 Comments - The Tense Exchange Between Rep. 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The concrete industry and most other industries are under pressure to gain better control over their waste streams. This industry hasn't been negligent, however. For years, we have incorporated various technologies for dust suppression and collection and reclaiming ready-mix. Unfortunately, these conservation efforts don't prevent many operations from continuing to dump on the back of their lots. The "washout mountain" takes up unnecessary space and can be an environmental hazard, usually necessitating costly removal. But there is another option: recycling the concrete by crushing and screening. This not only solves the problem of disposal, but creates a product that can be sold as a road base. Some producers also accept concrete from demolition work to their recycling program. The amount of money saved by recycling instead of hauling concrete away is quite significant. The cost of excavation and hauling 40,000 tons of concrete totals around $138,000 while the cost of crushing the same amount and then selling the recycled material at $4 a ton comes to only $40,000. There is even a margin for profit if the market for recycled concrete will support higher prices.

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Our Birds - Barred Plymouth Rock Chicken Our Animals > Barred Plymouth Rock Chicken The Plymouth Rock, often called simply Rocks or Barred Rocks (after their most popular color), is a chicken breed that originated in the United States. The Plymouth Rock is a dual-purpose, cold-hardy bird and therefore makes a great breed for the small farm or backyard flock owner. These chickens are often called Plymouth Rocks, but this title correctly belongs to the entire breed, not just the Barred variety. There are seven varieties of Plymouth Rock chickens: barred, blue, buff, Columbian, partridge, silver-penciled and white. The Plymouth Rock was developed in New England in the middle of the 19th century and was first exhibited as a breed in 1869. Several individuals claimed its invention, using crosses of Dominiques, Black Javas, Cochins, and perhaps Malays and Dorkings. John C. Bennett (1804-1867) has been credited with either creating or popularizing the breed. Plymouth Rocks were bred as a dual-purpose fowl, meaning that they were valued both for their meat and for the hens' egg-laying ability. The first Plymouth Rock was barred and other varieties were developed later. The breed became popular very rapidly, and in fact, until World War II, no breed was ever kept and bred as extensively in the United States as the Barred Plymouth Rock. Its popularity came from its qualities as an outstanding farm chicken: hardiness, docility, broodiness, and excellent production of both eggs and meat. Most of the other varieties were developed from crosses containing some of the same ancestral background as the barred variety. Early in its development, the name Plymouth Rock implied a barred bird, but as more varieties were developed, it became the designation for the breed. The Barred Plymouth Rock was one of the foundation breeds for the broiler industry in the 1920s, and the White Rock continues to be used as the female side of the commercial broiler cross. Plymouth Rocks are large, long-lived chickens. Some varieties are good layers while others are bred principally for meat. They possess a long, broad back; a moderately deep, full breast; and yellow skin and legs. The hens have a deep, full abdomen, which is a sign of a good layer. The face of a Plymouth Rock is red with red ear lobes, a bright yellow beak, bay-colored eyes, and a single comb of moderate size. Their feathers are fairly loosely held but not so long as to easily tangle. Generally, Plymouth Rocks are not aggressive, and tame quite easily. They are docile and may show broodiness. The hens usually make good mothers. However, some males and females are big and active enough to be quite a problem if they become aggressive. Breeders should be aware of the standard weights and not select small or narrow birds for the breeding pen. Common faults include a shallow breast, high tails, narrow bodies and small size. Friendly and curious.

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Does exercise help you detox? Explore This Story The word “detoxification” is flung around the fitness community as frequently as kettlebells. Yoga teachers regularly speak of detoxifying twists, aerobics instructors of detoxifying sweat, dieters of detoxifying fasts. But health professionals are skeptical. “If you start talking about exercising to detoxify, there’s no scientific data,” said Dr. Elizabeth Matzkin, chief of women’s sports medicine at Harvard Medical School. “The human body is designed to get rid of what we don’t need.” The same applies to fasting. “No good scientific data supports any of those cleanses, where you drink juice, or (only) water for a week,” she said. Exercise is important, Matzkin added, because it enables our body to do what it is made to do, but the kidneys and colon get rid of waste. The role of exercise in that process is unclear. “In general exercise helps our lungs; kidneys get rid of things that can cause us onset of disease,” she said. A healthy lifestyle — eating healthy, drinking plenty of water and exercising — is important to detoxifying because it enables our body to do what is intended to do. “As for specific yoga moves, I’m not so sure,” she said. Yoga instructor and fitness expert Shirley Archer, an author and spokeswoman for the American Council on Exercise (ACE) said the theory behind the effectiveness of detoxifying twists in yoga is that they squeeze the organs, which push the blood out so fresh blood can rush in. “Better circulation equals better health,” said Archer, who is based in Florida. “If detox means to eliminate from the body what it no longer needs, then certain yogic practices can help.” She said yogic deep breathing with strong exhalations can empty the lungs of unneeded carbon dioxide and allow for a fresh breath of more oxygenated air. “This nourishes all of our cells,” she said. “It is also a method of cleansing because better circulation equals better health.” Meditative movement practices, such as yoga and tai chi, she added, can detox your attitude because they require staying in the present moment and discourage dwelling on the past. Last summer, celebrity trainer Tracy Anderson began taking groups of 40-odd women on what she calls Detox Weeks, which involve at least three hours of workouts each day, as well as lectures on fitness and nutrition aimed mainly at encouraging lifestyle changes. Similar weeks in other cities are planned for 2013. “Women work out and think ‘Why can’t my love handles, muffin tops go away’?” said Anderson, creator of the Tracy Anderson Method and a co-owner, with actress Gwyneth Paltrow, of fitness centres in Los Angeles and New York. “The most important thing is if you can become a consistent exerciser.” “A good workout is not five to 10 yoga poses,” she explained. “You have to learn to scale up your endurance. If you can only jump for five minutes straight, we’ll go to 10 minutes, then 20 minutes.” Anderson said she uses the term detoxification broadly to include everything from working up a good sweat to clearing the mind of destructive thoughts. “Detoxification is a big topic,” she said. Nancy Clark, a registered dietitian in Boston, Massachusetts and a member of the American College of Sports Medicine, said the body generally does a fine job of detoxifying itself through the liver and kidneys. Sweating has nothing to do with it. “When you sweat you really don’t detoxify anything,” she explained. “If someone goes on a crash diet, then maybe toxins are released but then the body would take care of them. When you sweat you lose sodium.” - NEW RCMP probing Senate expense scandal, Senate speaker says - NEW Mayor Rob Ford fires chief of staff Mark Towhey - Toronto terror suspect asks for defence lawyer who is guided by ‘holy book’ - Updated London attack: Two more people arrested, police say - Tim Bosma homicide: Second suspect Mark Smich appears in court - Updated City councillor Paul Ainslie's licence suspended after roadside check - DiManno: No matter how it seems on Planet Ford, it’s over - Updated As world gawks at Rob Ford scandal, Toronto police wait and watch

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A parliamentary bill is divided into sections called clauses. Printed in the margin next to each clause is a brief explanatory `side-note' giving details of what the effect of the clause will be. During the committee stage of a bill, MPs examine these clauses in detail and may introduce new clauses of their own or table amendments to the existing clauses. When a bill becomes an Act of Parliament, clauses become known as sections. contributed by user Tom Loosemore Think you know a phrase that should be here? Help us improve the site by adding it.

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There are many techniques available to help students get started with a piece of writing. Getting started can be hard for all levels of writers. Freewriting is one great technique to build fluency. That was explored in an earlier lesson plan: http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/adulted/lessons/lesson18.html This unit offers some other techniques. These techniques may be especially helpful with students who prefer a style of learning or teaching that could be described as visual, spatial, or graphic. Sometimes those styles or overlooked in favor of approaches that are very linguistic or linear. The approaches here will attend to a broader range of learning styles as they add variety. - Writing: Writing Process, Pre-Writing, Autobiography, Exposition, Personal Narrative, Argumentation, Comparison and Contrast, Description. Students will be able to: - Write more fluently (writing more with greater ease) - Generate writing topics - Select topics that will yield strong pieces of writing - Connect personal experience, knowledge, and examples to an assigned - Produce better organized pieces of writing National Reporting System of Adult Education standards are applicable here. These are the standards required by the 1998 Workforce Investment Act. See Pencils, colored pencils, pens, markers, crayons, unlined paper, magazines and newspapers with pictures inside, glue or paste, and paper. Big paper or poster board can make the pre-writing exercises more eye-catching, more of a project, and better for display. Video and TV: Prep for Teachers Make sure you try each of the activities yourself before you ask students to do them. That will give you a better understanding of the activities and help you recognize any potential points that may be confusing or difficult. This also gives you a sample to show the students. Its much easier to create a diagram if you are shown an example of one. Here are some Web sites that give background and even more ideas about you pre-writing, diagrams, graphic organizers, and other ideas to get started with writing. There is some repetition here. You dont have to read them all. But check them out and see what you think.

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No one knows how the first organisms or even the first organic precursors formed on Earth, but one theory is that they didn't. Rather, they were imported from space. Scientists have been finding what looks like biological raw material in meteorites for years, but it's usually been shown to be ground contamination. This year, however, investigators studying a dozen meteorites that landed in Antarctica found traces of adenine and guanine two of the four nucleobases that make DNA. That's not a big surprise, since nucleobases have been found in meteorites before. But these were found in the company of other molecules that were similar in structure but not identical. Those had never been detected in previous meteorite samples and they were also not found on the ground where the space rocks landed. That rules out contamination and rules in space organics. A little adenine and guanine in the company of other mysterious stuff is a long, long way from something living but it's closer than we were before. Next Star Wars Gets Real

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"Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me." Very few people would agree that words don't hurt. In fact, it has been said that the tongue is like a sword. What comes from it can be deadly: "I hate you." "You make me sick." "You really need to lose some weight. Oh, did I just say that out loud?" Almost everyone can remember statements made to them in the heat of anger or out of frustration. One grown woman recalled when she was 14 years old, a supervisor told her she was being pushy even though the supervisor had agreed to get back to her with an answer the week before. A man with adult children shared how he is still haunted by the words a relative said to him as an adolescent, "You're no good! You're going to end up being just like your daddy." He has worked his whole life not to allow those words to define him. Once something has been said, it is impossible to take back. You can apologize and say you didn't mean it, but the words are still out there. How many of us have spoken disrespectfully to someone on the phone or behind a ticket counter in the midst of a frustrating situation? What statements have you made to your spouse or your children that you wish had never come out of your mouth? Words are powerful, and they can impact people for life. Questions to ask yourselF * How do you talk about your spouse in front of other people? * How do you speak to your spouse? * How do you talk to your children? * How do you talk to your co-workers? * How do you talk to the clerk at the grocery store? You can leave a person feeling trampled and beaten down or feeling supported and encouraged even if they are in the wrong. There is a big difference in saying, "That makes you look like an elephant," and "That isn't your best look." Choose your words carefully Here are some things to consider as you prepare for your next conversation. * Remember what you say and how you say it matter. * Consider how you would like the conversation to go. Just because someone is condescending to you does not justify you dishing it right back. * You can be angry, disappointed or frustrated and still be respectful. * Avoid the use of sarcasm; it isn't helpful. Communicating well is a skill. Your spouse, children, co-workers and neighbors all have the potential to say or do things that will make your blood pressure rise. Think before you speak, and choose your words carefully. Putting your foot in your mouth is always easier than trying to figure out how to get it out. E-mail Julie Baumgardner at email@example.com. related articles » Some of the more recent local injuries include malnourishment, broken bones and “shaken baby syndrome.” The question, said Ramon Presson, came out of the blue to a friend of his who was leading a “proper ... Since Don Britton has been there and done that when it comes to marriage, he'd like to save others the ...

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Madam Walker Made Millions Door to Door with Her Line of Beauty Products When a list is compiled naming the ten top famous African Americans from history, the name Madam C.J. Walker seldom makes the cut. But, that's a mistake: Her name should be included. Madam Walker was the first woman millionaire in the US. Not just the first African American millionaire, mind you, but the first woman ever to reach that lofty goal. And not only was she a shrewd and accomplished businesswoman, she was also a philanthropist and social activist. Walker's story began in Delta, Louisiana, on December 23, 1867. Born to parents just recently freed from slavery by the Civil War, she was an orphan by the age of eight. She made her way by working in the cotton fields and eventually relocated to St. Louis to be near her four brothers. By then she was widowed and had a daughter of her own, Lelia. She supported her child by working as a laundress. In the 1890's, suffering from an unknown scalp ailment, Walker began experimenting with homemade remedies and beauty treatments. When she and her new husband, Charles Walker, moved to Denver, Colorado, she started marketing her homemade hair and scalp treatments. Traveling the South and selling her products door to door, Walker watched the demand for her beauty treatments grow. Madam CJ Walker's Accomplishments Helped Create Nearly 3,000 Jobs By 1910, demand was high enough for her to begin mass production. Moving to Indianapolis, she built a factory to produce her growing line of beauty products. A hair salon and training school quickly followed. Her manufacturing company created nearly three thousand jobs in the area and her army of door-to-door saleswomen would eventually number nearly 20,000. Less than a year later, she was making headlines for her contributions to worthy African American causes in Indianapolis. In 1916, Walker moved her headquarters to New York City. There, she became increasingly socially aware and politically active. She donated $5000 to the NAACP's anti-lynching campaign and presented a petition at the White House demanding the passage of national anti-lynching legislation. At yearly conventions, she encouraged the women who worked for her to be politically active as well. Madam C.J. Walker died on May 25, 1919. She was only 52 years old, yet, during her relatively short lifetime, she had championed many worthy causes. She had been a major contributor to the NAACP, she had encouraged other budding businesswomen, and she had funded numerous scholarships for young men and women to attend the Tuskegee Institute, an all-black college founded by Booker T. Washington. Madam CJ Walker Closing Statments While her name does not always make the list of famous African Americans, Madam Walker earned her place in history. Generous and hardworking, she represents the very model of successful entrepreneurship and responsible stewardship. She founded a company that not only earned her millions but gave jobs to thousands of other people as well. And she used her money and her position to support civic and educational agencies that aided black people and also fought against racial discrimination. Even without the word "millionaire" behind her name, she is a woman worth remembering. Follow the link for another great article - Black Women and Small Business : Avenues for Aid What are your thoughts of Madame Walker's Accomplishments... please comment below!

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The Facts About Thinning Hair and Hair Growth Find out the causes and solutions of hair loss including hair care products that actually boost hair growth In what is called female pattern baldness, the cause of this inability to grow new hair is not well understood, but likely has to do with genes, aging and levels of endocrine hormones. The hormonal process of testosterone converting to dihydrotestosterone (DHT) -- which occurs in men and women -- damages the hair follicles. Note: All you need to remember as you're reading this is that DHT is not your friend because it triggers hair loss and inhibits hair growth. Check out thinning hair 101 now. Other than female pattern baldness, thinning hair happens in women for myriad reasons: • Underactive thyroid • Telogen effluvium (temporary hair shedding) • Alopecia areata (an immune disorder causing temporary hair loss) • Breaking of hair due to styling treatments and pulling of hair • Iron deficiency • Vitamin deficiency • Certain medications • Particular skin diseases • Hormonal abnormalities Dr. Philip Kingsley, unmatched expert on hair health, explains stress and thinning hair further. Plus, we highlight some hair care products to help stop hair loss and increase hair growth. Proceed to thinning hair 101. SEE NEXT PAGE: Hormones and hair loss

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© 2013 TutorialsPoint.COM SOAP Fault Element When an error occurs during processing, the response to a SOAP message is a SOAP fault element in the body of the message, and the fault is returned to the sender of the SOAP message. The SOAP fault mechanism returns specific information about the error, including a predefined code, a description, the address of the SOAP processor that generated A SOAP Message can carry only one fault block Fault element is an optional part of SOAP Message For the HTTP binding, a successful response is linked to the 200 to 299 range of status codes; SOAP fault is linked to the 500 to 599 range of status codes. The SOAP Fault element has the following sub elements: ||A text code used to indicate a class of errors. See the next Table for a listing of predefined fault codes. ||A text message explaning the error ||A text string indicating who caused the fault. This is useful if the SOAP message travels through several nodes in the SOAP message path, and the client needs to know which node caused the error. A node that does not act as the ultimate destination must include a faultActor element. An element used to carry application-specific error messages. The detail element can contain child elements, called detail entries. SOAP Fault Codes The faultCode values defined below must be used in the faultcode element when describing faults ||Found an invalid namespace for the SOAP Envelope element ||An immediate child element of the Header element, with the mustUnderstand attribute set to "1", was ||The message was incorrectly formed or contained incorrect information ||There was a problem with the server so the message could not proceed SOAP Fault Example The following code is a sample Fault. The client has requested a method named ValidateCreditCard , but the service does not support such a method. This represents a client request error, and the server returns the following SOAP response: <?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?> Failed to locate method (ValidateCreditCard) in class (examplesCreditCard) at /usr/local/ActivePerl-5.6/lib/ site_perl/5.6.0/SOAP/Lite.pm line 1555.

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Checkup on Health Who should consider taking a daily aspirin? Aspirin, once mostly used on an occasional basis for fever, aches and pains, is now, for many, taken daily like a vitamin pill. If you’re taking an aspirin daily, is that a wise practice? Alternatively, if you’re not, should you be? How aspirin works Aspirin has many effects because it reduces the body’s production of prostaglandins, a hormone-like substance that acts in numerous ways. Reducing prostaglandins diminishes pain and fever and weakens platelets’ ability to stick together and form clots. This characteristic is especially important in lessening the risk of strokes and heart attack, which are caused by clots lodging in coronary arteries or blood vessels in the brain. Reducing prostaglandins can have harmful effects as well. It can make the stomach lining more vulnerable to ulcer formation and bleeding. And for some people who are prone to asthma, it can trigger an attack. Who should take aspirin? Aspirin’s ability to reduce the risk of a second heart attack or stroke has been known for quite a while, and doctors have long advised people who have previously had a heart attack, an ischemic stroke (one caused by a clot) or TIAs (so-called “mini-strokes”) to take a daily aspirin. Patients with unstable angina, who are at very high risk for a heart attack, are also treated with aspirin in the hospital. There is also enough evidence of aspirin’s benefits in reducing heart attack and stroke risk that doctors are increasingly recommending a daily aspirin for many healthy people. This includes all men over age 50 and all women over age 60, especially if they have even one risk factor for heart disease. Risk factors include a personal or family history of heart disease, having hypertension, being overweight, not exercising, smoking, having high cholesterol or being diabetic. Who shouldn’t have daily aspirin? For some individuals, the risks of aspirin therapy itself are greater than the potential benefits. A significant percentage of people develop stomach irritation from aspirin. For many it is mild, but for others who develop ulcers or internal bleeding, the health consequences can be major. Gastric problems can often be avoided by taking the lowest recommended daily dosage or using enteric, or coated aspirin. People who suffer from severe liver or kidney disease should also avoid aspirin, as should those who consume three or more alcoholic drinks each day. People who are allergic to aspirin, as evidenced by facial swelling or an asthma attack, also must not take aspirin. High blood pressure, while posing a significant risk for heart attack and stroke, must be brought under control before initiating daily aspirin. High blood pressure greatly increases the risk for hemorrhagic strokes, the type caused by rupture of a small blood vessel and resultant blood leakage into the brain. The anticoagulant properties of aspirin can exacerbate this kind of stroke. People who have been diagnosed with atrial fibrillation need anticoagulant medication, but aspirin is typically not adequate for their needs. Most are advised to take warfarin (Coumadin), a stronger medication that is generally not combined with aspirin. For minor aches and pains, patients on warfarin should take acetaminophen or another non-aspirin analgesic. Daily aspirin therapy can be a lifesaver for many, but because of the risks, do not start a program without consulting your physician. Also discuss the best daily dosage for you, which can safely range from 50 mg to 325 mg a day. Even if you decide not to take a daily aspirin, keep a bottle of chewable baby aspirin in your car and in your medicine cabinet. It’s important to have one on hand in case of a heart attack. Take two 81-mg tablets as soon as any heart attack symptom, such as chest pain or tightness, arises. Then go to a hospital emergency room or call 911 at once. Aspirin, however, should not be taken at the time of a stroke. Symptoms may include sudden severe headache, dizziness, blurred vision, confusion, weakness or trouble speaking or understanding speech. Before a medical evaluation, it is impossible to determine if a stroke is hemorrhagic, which may worsen with aspirin.

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It's time to talk... About Underage Drinking April is Alcohol Awareness Month. Are you talking to your teen about alcohol? For many parents, bringing up the subject of alcohol is no easy matter. Your young teen may try to dodge the discussion, and you yourself may feel unsure about how to proceed. To make the most of your conversation, take some time to think about the issues you want to discuss before you talk with your child. Consider too how your child might react and ways you might respond to your youngster’s questions and feelings. Then choose a time to talk when both you and your child have some “down time” and are feeling relaxed. You don’t need to cover everything at once. In fact, you’re likely to have a greater impact on your child’s decisions about drinking by having a number of talks about alcohol use throughout his or her adolescence. Think of this talk with your child as the first part of an ongoing conversation. And remember, do make it a conversation, not a lecture! You might begin by finding out what your child thinks about alcohol and drinking. Your Child’s Views About Alcohol. Ask your young teen what he or she knows about alcohol and what he or she thinks about teen drinking. Ask your child why he or she thinks kids drink. Listen carefully without interrupting. Not only will this approach help your child to feel heard and respected, but it can serve as a natural “lead-in” to discussing alcohol topics. Important Facts About Alcohol. Although many kids believe that they already know everything about alcohol, myths and misinformation abound. Here are some important facts to share: Alcohol is a powerful drug that slows down the body and mind. It impairs coordination; slows reaction time; and impairs vision, clear thinking, and judgment. Beer and wine are not “safer” than hard liquor. A 12-ounce can of beer, a 5-ounce glass of wine, and 1.5 ounces of hard liquor all contain the same amount of alcohol and have the same effects on the body and mind. On average, it takes 2 to 3 hours for a single drink to leave a person’s system. Nothing can speed up this process, including drinking coffee, taking a cold shower, or “walking it off.” People tend to be very bad at judging how seriously alcohol has affected them. That means many individuals who drive after drinking think they can control a car—but actually cannot. Anyone can develop a serious alcohol problem, including a teenager. Good Reasons Not to Drink. In talking with your child about reasons to avoid alcohol, stay away from scare tactics. Most young teens are aware that many people drink without problems, so it is important to discuss the consequences of alcohol use without overstating the case. Some good reasons why teens should not drink: You want your child to avoid alcohol. Clearly state your own expectations about your child’s drinking. Your values and attitudes count with your child, even though he or she may not always show it. To maintain self-respect. Teens say the best way to persuade them to avoid alcohol is to appeal to their self-respect—let them know that they are too smart and have too much going for them to need the crutch of alcohol. Teens also are likely to pay attention to examples of how alcohol might lead to embarrassing situations or events—things that might damage their self-respect or alter important relationships. Drinking is illegal. Because alcohol use under the age of 21 is illegal, getting caught may mean trouble with the authorities. Even if getting caught doesn’t lead to police action, the parents of your child’s friends may no longer permit them to associate with your child. Drinking can be dangerous. One of the leading causes of teen deaths is motor vehicle crashes involving alcohol. Drinking also makes a young person more vulnerable to sexual assault and unprotected sex. And while your teen may believe he or she wouldn’t engage in hazardous activities after drinking, point out that because alcohol impairs judgment, a drinker is very likely to think such activities won’t be dangerous. You have a family history of alcoholism. If one or more members of your family has suffered from alcoholism, your child may be somewhat more vulnerable to developing a drinking problem. Alcohol affects young people differently than adults. Drinking while the brain is still maturing may lead to long-lasting intellectual effects and may even increase the likelihood of developing alcohol dependence later in life. If you would like to learn more about how underage alcohol consumption affects teens, and how you can prevent your teen from using, join us for our next Community Forum on Underage Drinking at the Community Services Buildign on May 14th at 7:00pm. If you have questions about the event contact Holly Zweizig at 937-645-2016

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Protein critical for insulin secretion may be contributor to diabetes October 26, 2009 A cellular protein from a family involved in several human diseases is crucial for the proper production and release of insulin, new research has found, suggesting that the protein might play a role in diabetes. Mice lacking the ClC-3 channel, a passageway that allows negatively charged chloride ions to pass through cell membranes, have only one-fifth the circulating insulin of normal mice, according to research published this month in the journal Cell Metabolism. Researchers Deborah Nelson and Louis Philipson of the University of Chicago, senior authors on the paper, argue that the finding may explain a portion of what goes wrong in Type 2 diabetes and could help doctors find rare patients whose diabetes has a previously-undetected genetic origin. "Chloride regulation is not really well understood, but it's at the heart of cystic fibrosis, and it is related to the regulation of how insulin gets made," said Philipson, professor of medicine and medical director of the Kovler Diabetes Center at the University of Chicago. "Now we see that it's a critical feature of how insulin gets converted from a precursor form to its most active form." Insulin is made and released by specialized pancreas cells called Beta-cells. The cell first synthesizes a protein called pro-insulin, discovered forty years ago at the University of Chicago by Donald Steiner, which is then put inside structures called secretory granules. Inside the secretory granule, proinsulin is chemically converted into insulin, and the granule moves to the cell surface where it can release insulin into the blood. Steiner discovered that the conversion of proinsulin to insulin must happen in an acidic environment, but how the granules make themselves acidic was unknown. A team lead by Ludmila Deriy, a research assistant professor in Nelson's laboratory, studied genetic knockout mice missing the ClC-3 chloride channel. The blood of those mice contained lower levels of insulin and cellular measurements discovered that fewer granules were released by Beta-cells from ClC-3 knockouts and that the granules of ClC-3 knockout mice were less acidic than those from normal mice. High-powered electron microscope images allowed researchers to observe that the granules of ClC-3 knockout mice contained higher amounts of proinsulin than granules from normal mice. Missing ClC-3 therefore appears to cause a dramatic slowdown of the conversion of proinsulin to insulin inside the granules, said Nelson, professor of neurobiology at the University of Chicago. "Not only is release down, but what is released is not as efficacious a molecule," Nelson said. "It's pro-insulin rather insulin, if anything's released at all." A mutation in the function of ClC-3 in humans could very well be the cause of a select few cases of juvenile diabetes, Nelson and Philipson said. However, while other ClC proteins have been linked to bone, muscle and kidney disease, no human case of diabetes has yet been linked to the function of this specific protein. Because ClC-3 knockout mice also experience epileptic seizures, a patient diagnosed with both epilepsy and diabetes could potentially have an undetected defect in their ClC-3 channel. "If it happens that there's epilepsy and diabetes, it's not currently recognized as a syndrome," Philipson said. "We would be extremely interested in cases like that." Finding a patient with this rare form of genetically-caused diabetes could be aided by efforts such as Lilly's Law, an Illinois legislation signed in August that created a statewide diabetes registry. The law requires that doctors report all diagnoses of children younger than 12 months to the state Department of Public Health. Scientists can then test those children to see if their disease is caused by a genetic mutation, knowledge that can improve the child's treatment. The law is named for Lilly Jaffe, a girl diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes that was treated by Philipson and University of Chicago Medical Center colleagues in 2006. Lilly was found to have a rare genetic mutation in a different cellular protein, meaning her disease was treatable with oral medication rather than insulin injections. A mutation of the ClC-3 channel would probably still be treated with insulin rather than an oral medication. But observing ClC-3 function in humans may provide insight into Type 2 diabetes as well, Philipson said, as the disruption of insulin production and secretion resembles cellular effects seen in adult-onset diabetes. "We know that Type 2 diabetes is a progressive illness where insulin secretion is high and then goes down over time, but why does it do that? This ties some connection between chloride channels and granular function to the ability of insulin to come out of the cell," Philipson said. "This could be an important pathway in Type 2 diabetes, so it's not just the rare patient that's affected, it's 25 million people in the United States." The study, "The Granular Chloride Channel ClC-3 Is Permissive for Insulin Secretion," was published in the journal Cell Metabolism on October 7. Alongside Deriy, Philipson, and Nelson, Erwin Gomez, David Jacobson, XueQing Wang, Jessika Hopson, Xiang Liu, Guangping Zhang, and Vytautas Bindokas are listed as authors. All authors come from the University of Chicago. Funding for the research was provided by the National Institutes of Health and by the University of Chicago Diabetes Research and Training Center. The University of Chicago Medicine 950 E. 61st Street, Third Floor Chicago, IL 60637 Phone (773) 702-0025 Fax (773) 702-3171

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Carrollton, the seat of Carroll county, is located on the Ohio River at the mouth of the Kentucky River. The area was settled in the late eighteenth century and the town was established in 1794 as Port William, named probably for William Porter, an early settler. Port William was the seat of Gallatin county (formed in 1798) until 1838 when Carroll county was formed. Port William was made the seat of the new county and renamed Carrollton. The Port William post office opened in 1807 and was renamed Carrollton in 1838. The population in 1990 was 3,715.

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Get answers to your heart disease prevention questions. First aid - heart attack; First aid - cardiopulmonary arrest; First aid - cardiac arrest A heart attack is a medical emergency. Call 911 or your local emergency number if you think you or someone else is having a heart attack. The average person waits 3 hours before seeking help for symptoms of a heart attack. Many heart attack patients die before they reach a hospital. The sooner the person gets to the emergency room, the better the chance of survival. Prompt medical treatment reduces the amount of heart damage. This article discusses what to do if you think someone may be having a heart attack. For more information on the condition itself, see: Heart attack. A heart attack occurs when the blood flow that carries oxygen to the heart is blocked. The heart muscle becomes starved for oxygen and begins to die. See: Heart attack Symptoms of a heart attack can vary from person to person. They may be mild or severe. Women, the elderly, and people with diabetes are more likely to have subtle or unusual symptoms. Symptoms in adults may include: Call 911 or your local emergency number immediately if the person: Adults should take steps to control heart disease risk factors whenever possible. Hollander JE. Acute coronary syndromes. Acute myocardial infarction and unstable angina. In: Tintinalli JE, Kelen GD, Stapczynski JS, Ma OJ, Cline DM, eds. Emergency Medcinie: A Comprehensive Study Guide. 6th ed. New York, NY:McGraw-Hill;2004:chap 50. Anderson JL, Adams CD, Antman EM, Bridges CR, Califf RM, Casey DE Jr., et al. ACC/AHA 2007 guidelines for the management of patients with unstable angina/non-ST-elevation myocardial infarction: a report of the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association Task Force on Practice Guidelines (Writing Committee to Revise the 2002 Guidelines for the Management of Patients with Unstable Angina/Non-ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction) developed in collaboration with the American College of Emergency Physicians, the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions, and the Society of Thoracic Surgeons endorsed by the American Association of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation and the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2007;50:e1-e157. Brady WJ, Harrigan RA, Chan TC. Acute coronary syndrome. In: Marx JA, Hockberger RS, Walls RM, et al, eds. Rosen’s Emergency Medicine: Concepts and Clinical Practice. 7th ed. Philadelphia, Pa: Mosby Elsevier; 2009:chap 76. In: Marx JA, Hockberger RS, Walls RM, et al, eds. Rosen’s Emergency Medicine: Concepts and Clinical Practice. 7th ed. Philadelphia, Pa: Mosby Elsevier; 2009. © 2011 University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC). All rights reserved. UMMC is a member of the University of Maryland Medical System, 22 S. Greene Street, Baltimore, MD 21201. TDD: 1-800-735-2258 or 1.866.408.6885

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Poor sanitary conditions lead to increase in skin disease in SyriaListen / There has been an increase in cases of leishmaniasis in Syria, according to Dr. Glen Thomas of the World Health Organization, (WHO). Leishmaniasis is a disease transmitted by the bite of the sand fly and characterized by skin sores. Dr. Thomas says the disease is spreading because of poor waste and hygiene management caused by the continuing conflict in the country. The form of the disease which affects the skin is not life-threatening and not a priority disease, says the doctor, but it is a concern. The symptoms are sores and scars on the body and they come into effect a couple of weeks after the sand flies have transmitted the disease. And we are now helping and trying to get deliveries of treatments to the affected areas. But obviously because of the situation, it is very difficult. Dr. Thomas says the Aleppo area is where the increase in leishmaniasis has been seen. Gerry Adams, United Nations

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New Class of Tuberculosis-Fighting Antibiotics Suggested By Biochemical-Pathway Study (Philadelphia, PA) - A worldwide health problem, tuberculosis kills more people than any other bacterial infection. The World Health Organization estimates that two billion people are infected with TB, and that two million people die each year from the disease. However, due to multi-drug resistance and a protracted medication regimen, it is extremely difficult to treat. Hence, there is still a great deal of interest in developing new anti-tubercular drugs. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have identified a biochemical target that could lead to a new class of antibiotics to fight TB. They report their findings in this week’s online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. In a proof-of-principle study, Harvey Rubin, MD, PhD, Professor of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, and colleagues were able to stop the bacteria from multiplying by inhibiting the first step in a common biochemical pathway. This pathway is responsible for making the energy molecules all cells need to survive. First author Edward Weinstein, an MD/PhD student, Rubin, and colleagues characterized the pathway and showed that an important enzyme in it is a key target for anti-TB agents. The pathway, explains Rubin, is like a series of links in a chain, with enzymes facilitating reactions along the way. “We discovered that if you inhibit the very first enzyme in the chain, you inhibit everything else downstream and eventually the bacteria die,” he explains. The research group tested phenothiazine, a drug used in the past to treat schizophrenia, in cultures of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacterium that causes TB. They found that phenothiazines killed the bacterium in culture and suppressed its growth in mice with acute TB infection. While the effect on the growth of TB in mice was small, it suggested that a valid target was identified. The research group went on to show that the enzyme disabled by the phenothiazines is called type II NADH dehydrogenase and is a unique and important antimicrobial target. “What we have now is a new target in TB,” says Rubin. “We’ve been able to find at least the beginnings of a class of compounds that we can start working with and that we know is biochemically active against the TB bacteria in culture and in small animals.” Is it a new drug for tuberculosis? Not yet, cautions Rubin. It’s premature to say that this class of drugs will cure TB, but it does represent the start of basic research towards that, he concludes. Next steps include more investigations on inhibitors of the NADH biochemical pathway in TB, and the development of high-throughput screens to find better and safer inhibitors of type II NADH dehydrogenase. This work was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health. Rubin and Weinstein’s coauthors are Takahiro Yano, Lin-Sheng Li, David Avarbock, Andrew Avarbock and Douglas Helm from Penn, and Andrew McColm, Ken Duncan, and John T. Lonsdale from GlaxoSmithKline (Collegeville, PA and Stevenage, UK). Animal studies were conducted at GlaxoSmithKline. Penn researchers report no conflicts of interest. PENN Medicine is a $2.7 billion enterprise dedicated to the related missions of medical education, biomedical research, and high-quality patient care. PENN Medicine consists of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine (founded in 1765 as the nation’s first medical school) and the University of Pennsylvania Health System (created in 1993 as the nation’s first integrated academic health Penn’s School of Medicine is ranked #3 in the nation for receipt of NIH research funds; and ranked #4 in the nation in U.S. News & World Report’s most recent ranking of top research-oriented medical schools. Supporting 1,400 fulltime faculty and 700 students, the School of Medicine is recognized worldwide for its superior education and training of the next generation of physician-scientists and leaders of academic Penn Health System is comprised of: its flagship hospital, the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, consistently rated one of the nation’s “Honor Roll” hospitals by U.S. News & World Report; Pennsylvania Hospital, the nation's first hospital; Presbyterian Medical Center; a faculty practice plan; a primary-care provider network; two multispecialty satellite facilities; and home health care and hospice.

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Anthony Atala is a surgeon, the Chair of the Department of Urology at the Wake Forest University for Medicine, and the Director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, where he specializes in the growth and regeneration of organs and tissues. He is also the former Director of the Laboratory for Tissue Engineering and Cellular Therapeutics at Children's Hospital Boston. When Atala joined the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine in 2004, he led the research team that created the first lab-grown organ - a human bladder - to be successfully implanted in a human being. Currently, he is working on growing and printing other organs to eventually reduce the time that transplant patients spend waiting for an organ. He and his team have successfully printed prototype kidneys for this purpose. Atala has also been successful in harvesting stem cells from the amniotic fluid of pregnant women. Amniotic stem cells can be manipulated to transform into various types of mature cells that make up nerves, muscles, bones and other tissues. These stem cells are able to thrive for years and can be used to grow new tissues and organs when damaged ones are in need of replacement. They are easier to grow than embryonic stem cells and avoid the ethical concerns that are associated with embryonic stem cell research. Atala believes that, "A bank of 100,000 specimens of the amniotic stem cells theoretically could supply 99% of the US population with perfect genetic matches for transplants." Atala's lecture will address the implications of organ and tissue regeneration, as well as consider what the future of synthetic organs will bring. ABOUT THIS LECTURE Today there are many more people awaiting organs than there are organs available from donors. People are dying as a result. And the problem is only going to get worse in the future as the number of organs required grows at a much faster rate than the number of donors. Dr. Anthony Atala, a leading researcher in the field of regenerative medicine, is exploring a variety of approaches to making human organs in the lab for transplant into those with failing organs. In this presentation, he will discuss where the field of regenerative medicine is going in the context of the approaches that he is exploring. Possibly the most intriguing of these is the use of a device that his lab has built based on the principle of an ink-jet printer. Instead of ink in the printer that he has built, Atala uses human cells and he quite literally prints human organs. To do so, he extracts cells from the patient and, using the extracted cells as seeds, grows many more in the lab. He then mixes the cells with a chemical that turns into a gel when it comes into contact with water. He places this mixture in the 'ink' cartridge of the printer that he has built. The ink-jet mechanism of the printer prints a layer of cells onto a petri dish containing water, which with the chemical additive, turns the water into a gel. The dish is then moved down a fraction of an inch and a second layer is printed. This continues until the organ is complete. The printing process is designed in such a way that the cells are able to create various shapes in each layer. In this way, Atala is able to create blood vessels and other essential organ components as he prints it such that once complete he has a functioning organ. Furthermore, because the organ has been made with the patient's cells this approach avoids problems of rejection associated with donor supplied organs. At this time, printed organs have not been used in humans; Atala is still developing the technique and significant work remains before the approach is ready for to be tested in patients. Previous to the printing of organs, Atala has artificially grown organs using human tissue. For example, he was the first to successfully create a bladder in the laboratory and place it into a human. Anthony Atala's Profile Anthony Atala's profile on the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine website Anthony Atala's TED Talk on lab-grown organs Anthony Atala's TED Talk on printing a human kidney Singularity Hub Article An article about Anthony Atala's work on the Singularity Hub

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Hormone Promises to Keep Joint Injuries from Causing Long-term Osteoarthritis Goal to Extend Useful Life of Arthritic Knees and Hips September 12, 2009 An existing osteoporosis drug is the first ever found to prevent cartilage loss from osteoarthritis following injury to a joint, and may also regenerate some cartilage that has been lost to osteoarthritis, according to an early study presented today at the annual meeting of the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research in Denver. While the study was in mice, the model closely mimics human osteoarthritis that develops following knee injuries, according to the study authors. Cartilage can become damaged by many kinds of injury and by mechanical stresses that come with age. Over time, damaged cartilage deteriorates to cause osteoarthritis (OA), with its attendant joint inflammation and pain. Currently available drugs like steroids or non-steroidal anti-inflammatory agents (e.g. Advil, Aleve) reduce pain but do not address the loss of cartilage behind the osteoarthritis, which is projected to afflict more than 50 million Americans by 2020. Cartilage forms the sponge-like, shock-absorbing layers that keep the impact of running and jumping and lifting from grinding bones against each other in joints. The cell type at the heart of osteoarthritis is the chondrocyte, the cartilage-producing cell responsible for maintaining the integrity of joint cartilage. Outside of joints, chondrocytes undergo a normal maturation process that helps to form bone as part of fracture healing and bone growth in children. Disease processes and injury, however, cause chondrocytes in joint surface cartilage to become like those that help to heal bone elsewhere, but where bone is not supposed to form. This mistaken maturation contributes to the gradual destruction of the joint seen in osteoarthritis. Parathyroid hormone (PTH), known as teriparatide in drug form, has emerged as a major player in the maintenance and healing of bone, and the race is on to design new applications for it. Past studies have established that PTH prevents chondrocytes from undergoing maturation, and stimulates their proliferation, preserving larger pools of cartilage cells in the joint. Signaling molecules like PTH have their effect in the body by interacting with specifically shaped proteins on the cell surfaces called receptors. PTH docks into its receptors, like a ship coming into port, which changes the shape of the dock such that biochemical signals are sent. The authors of the current study observed that chondrocytes within injured and degenerating cartilage have more PTH type 1 receptors on their surfaces. This makes them especially sensitive to the PTH signal that prevents harmful chondrocyte maturation into bone in the joint cartilage. Thus, PTH therapy should increase the cartilage supply exactly where cartilage loss is causing disease. “Right now physicians have no way to bring back cartilage in patients who have lost it to osteoarthritis,” said Randy Rosier, M.D., Ph.D., professor within the Department of Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation at the University of Rochester Medical Center. “Our current results, at least in mice, show that we can inhibit cartilage degeneration and improve the volume of cartilage in diseased joints. It’s remarkable enough that this compound delays the loss of cartilage, but these results show it also may be able to restore, at least to some extent, cartilage in already degraded joint surfaces.” Researchers examined the impact of a daily dose of Forteo®/teriparatide, manufactured by Eli Lilly, and a generic version of teriparatide made by Sigma on the progress of OA following injury in study mice. Experiments established a five-fold increase in PTH type 1 receptor expression in the articular cartilage of mice with injury-related osteoarthritis when compared to healthy cartilage. Injury triggers genetic mechanisms in an attempt to begin repairs, a response that may be responsible for the increase in PTH receptor in the joint. This in turn makes damaged cartilage particularly responsive to PTH. In the current study, one group of mice with cartilage and ligament injuries was randomized to receive either saline as a control, Forteo® or generic PTH daily for 12 weeks. A second group of mice with joint injuries did not receive treatment until 8 weeks after injury. The delay was an attempt to determine the effect of treatment once the osteoarthritic process was already underway and some cartilage lost, a scenario that more closely mimics clinical reality. Injurd patients do not ask their doctor to prevent the onset of osteoarthritis 10 years in the future, Rosier said. They come in when an old injury and time have combined to degrade cartilage to the point where function is lost and pain felt. Studies revealed that after 12 weeks of Forteo®- or generic PTH treatment, there was approximately 27 percent more joint cartilage compared to saline-treated mice. Strikingly, delayed teriparatide treatment was even more effective in improving the amount of cartilage, with up to 35 percent more cartilage in Forteo®- and PTH-treated groups than in the saline group, suggesting an ability to regenerate at least some of the lost cartilage. With a new use patent application in place, the team will next seek to confirm the durability of the effect in further animal studies, and prepare to seek funding from the National Institutes of Health to begin pilot clinical studies of PTH treatment of osteoarthritis in humans, possibly in the later half of 2010. Along with Rosier, the study was led by Erik Sampson, Todd O’Brien, Di Chen, Susan Bukata, J. Edward Puzas, Regis O’Keefe and Michael Zuscik within the Department of Orthopaedics and by Hani Awad in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Rochester Medical Center. The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health. “These pre-clinical findings provide strong proof-of-concept support for the potential use of teriparatide to slow joint cartilage degeneration in OA patients, and perhaps even reverse it,” Rosier said. “In the near future, we hope this serves as the foundation of new treatments that restore function to long-injured joints, perhaps staving off joint replacement surgeries for some years.” Note: Drs. Puzas and Bukata are members of Eli Lilly's speaker bureau.

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|Dr. Elizabeth Cochran, a geophysicist with USGS, conducts seismic research along the San Andreas Fault in California.| Dr. Elizabeth Cochran, a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey, was named one of President Obama’s recipients of the Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers, the highest honor bestowed by the United States government on science and engineering professionals in the early stages of their independent research careers. Cochran, who came to work for the USGS in June after a career as an assistant professor at the University of California, Riverside, is an accomplished seismologist. She has made important contributions to the understanding of earthquake physics and earthquake triggering, the physical properties and geometry of earthquake fault zones and their evolution after earthquakes, and to the development of a new method of earthquake monitoring using low-cost earthquake sensors, called the Quake-Catcher Network (QCN). This network allows scientists to monitor earthquakes and quantify ground shaking with unprecedented spatial resolution through data gathered from citizen volunteers. “It is inspiring to see the innovative work being done by these scientists and engineers as they ramp up their careers — careers that I know will be not only personally rewarding but also invaluable to the Nation,” President Obama said. “That so many of them are also devoting time to mentoring and other forms of community service speaks volumes about their potential for leadership, not only as scientists but as model citizens.” The Presidential early career awards embody the high priority the Obama Administration places on producing outstanding scientists and engineers to advance the Nation’s goals, tackle grand challenges, and contribute to the American economy. “It is an incredible honor to receive this award, and it is nice that it recognizes the combination of research and education,” said Cochran, who was nominated for the award by the National Science Foundation. “I am very proud and a little stunned.” “Dr. Cochran’s work on next generation sensor networks is exactly what the United States needs to help enable earthquake early warning,” said USGS Director Dr. Marcia McNutt. “As was clearly demonstrated by the recent Japanese experience, even a few seconds of warning before an earthquake can reduce the loss of life and property. Dr. Cochran’s innovative research will help make the nation safer from this natural hazard.” The QCN, a collaborative research project between Cochran and Jesse Lawrence of Stanford University, uses computers that are installed with software and special sensors to record moderate-to-large earthquakes and aftershocks. Citizen volunteers have the sensors installed externally to their desktop computers or internally to their laptop computers. These computers become seismic stations by providing the physical infrastructure, computer, internet connection, power, and the location and measurement of seismic activity. The computers are then networked using distributed computing techniques that allow scientists to monitor the sensors and retrieve earthquake data automatically. “The Quake-Catcher Network is a way to involve the public in scientific data collection in high-risk earthquake and aftershock zones in the United States and around the world and to collect seismic data in non-traditional ways,” said Cochran. |Dr. Elizabeth Cochran.| By using this sensor-driven process, a great number of seismic data can be processed in a short period of time and produce nearly instantaneous detection and characterization of earthquakes. The first release of the software was in Reno, Nev., in April 2008. A few people from the area signed up to get the software, just in time to record a swarm of earthquakes that hit in June of that year. “When the swarm of earthquakes struck Reno, the information from these citizen volunteers enabled us to test our system, and from that, we learned that the sensors and data communication were working correctly,” said Cochran. “For this set of earthquakes, we had some of the closest seismic stations to the swarm. We had records of those earthquakes that looked like typical seismograms. I was really excited that it worked. It was really fun.” Since then, volunteers have popped up in just about every state in the United States and across the world. After the magnitude 8.8 earthquake struck Chile in early 2010, Cochran and her team enlisted 100 volunteers in Chile to hook up the sensors to their computers. When the aftershocks kept occurring, the instrumentation provided invaluable information to scientists and proved the value of the QCN. “In the case of Chile, we could get estimates of magnitude and locations in about 20 to 30 seconds after earthquake started,” said Cochran. “We found we can actually do well recording earthquakes this way, and eventually we hope this is a way to augment existing seismic networks to provide more precise early earthquake warning.” The data Cochran and her team gathered from Chile was especially valuable in analyzing small scale ground shaking — how it is different in one location versus a half a mile away. “There is a lot of variation in ground shaking, even in small scales,” said Cochran. “We were able to generate our own Quake-Catcher Network ShakeMaps, or what seismologists call microzonation, where you can examine specific areas for earthquake hazards. This information can provide critical data to feed back into building codes and to help determine where critical infrastructure such as power plants, hospitals, water lines and transportation facilities should be built.” When the magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck New Zealand in September 2010, Cochran and her team deployed 180 sensors in the area. A paper on the results of the data is expected out this fall. “We are in the middle of demonstrating that the data from these sensor stations in New Zealand show the same amplitude and waveform characteristics as do other strong motion sensors in the area and is sufficient enough quality to produce reliable results,” said Cochran. In early September 2011, Cochran and her team set out on an ambitious goal: to install 500 sensor stations in the San Francisco Bay area, a high-risk earthquake location. Volunteers need to have a high speed Internet connection; a computer, about 5 years old or less that runs on a Windows or Macintosh operating system with a spare USB port to which the sensor can be connected; and, a small space about the size of a post-it note for mounting the sensor. Information for those interested in volunteering or learning more about the QCN is available online. “I came up with the idea for the Quake-Catcher Network by playing around on a Mac laptop, and my husband pointed out that you could download a widget that would allow you to see the real-time output from the sensor,” said Cochran. “I downloaded the widget and was seeing output from tapping I was doing on the computer, and it dawned on me that if it picked up this movement, it would probably pick up earthquake movements. I also knew about distributed computing that allows people to donate their unused CPU processing time to scientific projects and thought that combining the low cost sensors with distributed computing would be a perfect way to gather data from moderate to large earthquakes at very little cost. I discussed it with my colleague Jesse Lawrence who said, ‘That’s the coolest idea I ever heard,’ and then we pursued and received a grant from the National Science Foundation to start it up.” Cochran’s research is fundamental to the mission of the USGS to continue to innovate the recording of weak and strong ground motions necessary to accurately locate earthquakes, to study their rupture process, and to map the variations in the strong ground motions caused by the local soil conditions and the details of the earthquake rupture process. “I am really excited that the Quake-Catcher Network is moving forward and has continued to be successful,” said Cochran. Since its inception in 2008, the QCN has gained academic partners from the University of California-Berkeley, California Institute of Technology, University of California-San Diego and the University of Delaware. After receiving her PhD in geophysics and space physics from UCLA in 2005, Cochran served as a postdoctoral fellow at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography until the end of 2006, when she joined UC Riverside in 2007 as an assistant professor in earth sciences, supervising both graduate students and postdoctoral scholars. She joined the USGS in June 2011. Her accomplishments have been recognized by her receiving the NSF Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award in 2010 and the Geological Society of America Subaru Outstanding Woman in Science in 2006 for the scientific impact of her work on the geosciences. She is the author or co-author of 21 peer-reviewed journal publications, 9 as a first author, and has a Scopus H-index of 7. Her first-author papers have been published in prestigious journals Science, Journal of Geophysical Research, Geophysical Research Letters, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, Seismological Research Letters, and Geology. She has also played prominent roles in professional organizations, including as the co-chair of the seismology discipline for the Southern California Earthquake Center since 2009 and as a member of the IRIS Data Management System Standing Committee from 2008 to 2010. The Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers was established by President Clinton in 1996 and are coordinated by the Office of Science and Technology Policy within the Executive Office of the President. Awardees are selected for their pursuit of innovative research at the frontiers of science and technology and their commitment to community service as demonstrated through scientific leadership, public education, or community outreach. Cochran was one of 94 recipients this year.

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elcome to historic Germantown! George Washington and the capital were here in 1793. During the Revolution, the Battle of Germantown was fought up and down the main street, with muskets firing from house windows. The first American Bible was published here, and the first kidnapping in the United States also took place in Germantown. The writer Louisa May Alcott was born here and the painter Gilbert Stuart worked in a small barn in Germantown. merica's history lies in the cobblestones of Germantown Avenue, echoes through the halls of Stenton and Cliveden, and is forever captured in Germantown's historic buildings, homes, and cemeteries. An incredible amount of history took place in the distance of a few miles in this historic town, now part of Philadelphia. ermantown became a big industrial town in the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. Then in the 1940's and 50's the area's affluent citizens began to leave for the suburbs. Today, Germantown is undoubtedly a very urbanized region; however, the historical sites have been very well preserved by the active Historical Society and the National Park Service. Most are open to the public. Explore historic Germantown with this virtual tour.

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Born to a Jewish father and a Catholic mother, Otto grew up in a city well known for its musical tradition. The younger of two children, Otto began studying the piano at age 10. After entering the Vienna Conservatory of Music, he gave his first concert at age 14. Encouraged by Maestro Bruno Walter, he hoped to become a conductor and concert pianist. 1933-39: After Germany annexed Austria in March 1938, Otto was kicked out of the Vienna Conservatory. One night, two men ordered him to go with them to a cellar, where they forced other people to mop and scrub. They told Otto to wait his turn, but in the confusion he escaped. To get out of Austria, he entered a piano contest in Belgium. From Belgium he went to France, and then sailed for America on August 11, 1939. 1940-44: In New York Otto gave piano lessons and concert recitals. He also gave benefit performances for Austrian resistance groups and Jewish refugees from Europe. After the U.S. entered the war, Otto was given a choice--either join the U.S. Army or be deported as an enemy alien. He chose the army. In October 1944 he was sent into combat in France and southern Germany. His job was to interrogate German prisoners; they all denied knowing anything about concentration camps, but Otto had already seen the camps with his own eyes. Otto was stationed in Germany at the end of the war. A day before he was to return to America, he was killed. The cause of his death is still under investigation.

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United States, December 8, 1941 Yesterday, December 7th, 1941, a date which will live in infamy, [the] United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the empire of Japan. The United States was at peace with that nation, and, at the solicitation of Japan, was still in conversation with its government and its emperor, looking towards the maintenance of peace in the Pacific. Indeed, one hour after Japanese air squadrons had commenced bombing in the American island of Oahu, the Japanese ambassador to the United States, and his colleague, delivered to our secretary of state a formal reply to a recent American message. Japan has therefore undertaken a surprise offensive extending throughout the Pacific area. The facts of yesterday and today speak for themselves. The people of the United States have already formed their opinions, and well understand the implications for the very life and safety of our nation. With confidence in our armed forces, with the unbounding determination of our people, we will gain the inevitable triumph so help us God [applause]. I ask that the Congress declare that since the unprovoked and dastardly attack by Japan on Sunday, December 7th, 1941, a state of war has existed between the United States and the Japanese empire. Portion of the speech in which President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked the US Congress to declare war on Japan following the previous day's surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. National Archives - Film

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Older Adults Make Smarter Decisions That Lead to Long-Term Gains, Study Shows Sept. 19, 2011 AUSTIN, Texas — Many people believe getting older means losing a mental edge, leading to poor decision-making, but a new study from psychologists at The University of Texas at Austin and Texas A&M University suggests older adults are far better at making choices that lead to long-term gain. The study, co-authored by University of Texas at Austin psychologist Todd Maddox, found older adults, at least 60 years old, are better at strategizing their decisions than those in their late teens and early 20s, who tend to focus on instant gratification. Findings from the study, led by Darrell Worthy, professor of psychology at Texas A&M University, will be published in Psychological Science. Collaborators on the study include University of Texas psychologists David Schnyer, Jennifer Pacheco and Marissa Gorlick. Contradicting negative stereotypes of age and reasoning ability, the results show that the wisdom that comes with age can allow people to make better decisions under some conditions. Maddox says the study gives insight into the decision-making process, which will help researchers learn more about the effects of aging in the brain. "Broadly, these results suggest that younger adults may behave more impulsively, favoring immediate gains, while older adults are better at considering the long-term ramifications of their actions," Maddox says. As part of the study, 28 older adults and 28 younger counterparts performed decision-making tasks, in which they only needed to consider immediate rewards to earn points. In this experiment, the younger adults were more efficient at selecting the options that yielded the best short-term rewards. However, in a second experiment, the older participants outperformed the younger group in choosing options that resulted in long-term gains, such as strategically storing the most amount of oxygen in "oxygen accumulators" on an imaginary space mission in Mars. In this portion of the study, 52 older adults (ages 67-82) and 51 younger adults (ages 20-26) performed decision-making tasks in which the choices they made influenced future rewards. As part of the experiment, the researchers created a test with two oxygen extraction systems on Mars. The rewards depended on the respondents' previous choices. The respondents had to choose from two options: the "increasing option," which increased rewards in future trials, and the "decreasing option," which decreased future rewards but offered a larger immediate reward. In each permutation of the experiment, the older participants outperformed the younger group by figuring out which option led to the most long-term cumulative rewards. "We found that younger adults performed equivalently in the experiment, but older adults were more adept at adjusting their strategy to fit the goals of the task," Maddox says. The researchers suggest these results provide insight into how people use their brains as they age. When making choices, younger people use the ventral striatum, a region of the brain associated with habit formation and immediate rewards. As this declines with age, the psychologists theorize that people compensate by using their prefrontal cortex, an area of the brain that controls rational and deliberate thoughts. To test this theory, Maddox and his team of researchers are conducting a neuroimaging study to determine which parts of the brain respond to immediate gratification and long-term rewards while the participants engage in decision-making tasks. Collaborators on this study include Worthy, Jeannette Mumford, psychology research assistant at The University of Texas at Austin, and Russell Poldrack, professor of psychology and neurobiology and director of the Imaging Research Center at The University of Texas at Austin.

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Dangling Modifiers are words or phrases which “dangle” because they have no word in the sentence to describe: While taking a shower, the doorbell rang. --The doorbell was taking a shower? Revise dangling modifiers by adding a headword—a noun or pronoun that is described: While I was taking a shower, the doorbell rang. OR While taking a shower, I heard the doorbell ring. A Misplaced Modifier is placed too close to some other word that it does not intend to modify: I only speak one language. --All you ever do is speak one language? Revise misplaced modifiers by placing the modifier next to its headword: I speak only one language. Split Infinitives are misplaced modifiers which are placed between the preposition to and the verb in an infinitive--a grammatical unit consisting of the word to plus a verb (to eat, to sleep, etc.): Dentists encourage children to regularly brush their teeth. --The modifier regularly is splitting the infinitive to brush. Revise split infinitives by moving the modifier to another part of the sentence: Dentists encourage children to brush their teeth regularly. Squinting Modifiers are misplaced modifiers that seem to modify two words: Patty who was walking quickly reached the disco. --Is Patty walking quickly, or is she quickly reaching the disco? Revise squinting modifiers by changing the word order so there is no ambiguity: Patty, who was quickly walking, reached the disco. OR Patty who was walking...

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Tooth decay is damage that occurs when bacteria in the mouth make acids that eat away at the enamel of a tooth. This can cause a hole in the tooth called a cavity. If it isn't treated, tooth decay can cause infection, pain, and loss of Kathleen Romito, MD - Family Medicine & Steven K. Patterson, BS, DDS, MPH - Dentistry How this information was developed to help you make better health decisions.

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No matter how adventurous your cat, it’s confronted by many risks the second it steps foot outside. The Humane Society of the United States estimates a free-roaming cat might live as few as three years, compared to 12 to 15 years for an indoor-only cat. For much of feline history, cats roamed freely, serving as handy rodent-catchers around grain crops. As the years went on, people brought cats indoors, again relying on felines to reduce numbers of unwanted vermin. The cat’s role today has primarily evolved to that of a beloved companion, which needs and deserves our protection. The situation benefits both people and cats, since an indoor cat is a safer cat. Most feline fanciers are getting the message. About two-thirds of the estimated 90 million cats in the United States alone reside indoors. However, cats need more than just the security of staying inside. It’s up to you to provide an environment that meets the needs of your indoor cat. The Indoor Cat Initiative, an Ohio State University College of Veterinary Medicine project, is designed to help you understand just what your indoor cat requires and how you can easily help it live a happy, healthy life. “As long as we’re going to have cats indoors, we certainly have the responsibility to keep them in the most enriched situation possible,’’ says Tony Buffington, DVM, Ph.D, director of the Indoor Cat Initiative. The Initiative’s website offers basic advice for meeting your indoor cat’s requirements. You can also order a DVD from the site. You’ll be in tune with your cat’s needs, says Dr. Buffington, if you provide your house cat with these eight inside essentials: - Exercise Many veterinarians, such as Elizabeth Colleran, DVM, MS, of Chico, Calif., are concerned about the number of overweight felines they see in their practices. Dr. Colleran suggests providing “an abundance of cat toys. Having just one cat toy is silly.” The Indoor Cat Initiative advises understanding your cat’s prey of choice. Would your pal rather romp after an object that moves in the air? A furry toy? A laser light? Pay attention to your cat’s playtime preferences and buy accordingly. - Mental stimulation Playing with your feline during the day offers additional benefits, says Dr. Colleran. You’ll engage your cat mentally, which will help to keep your pal alert and involved with its surroundings. Your cat, nocturnal by nature, will also be less likely to keep you up during the night. Allowing your cat to hunt for food you’ve placed around the house also provides stimulation, she says. Don’t forget to offer your pet at least one room with a view. Cats love to watch outdoor activity. - Something to scratch Determine, just by observation and experimentation, what material your cat enjoys under its paws, says Dr. Colleran. Some cats scratch vertically, while others prefer to scratch horizontally. A scratching post needn’t be fancy. It can be a simple homemade device, created by nailing or stapling some scratching material, such as a carpet remnant, to a piece of plywood. Just be sure no sharp nails or staple points protrude before you present it to your clawed friend. - A place of its own Your cat needs a space where it feels safe and secure. Make sure food, water and litter are not located where another animal or person can sneak up or surprise your cat. The Indoor Cat Initiative suggests placing dishes and the litter box away from appliances or air ducts that might suddenly turn on, startling your cat. - Something to climb “People don’t think about cats operating in three dimensions,’’ says Dr. Buffington. “They need to climb. That’s part of their natural behavior. But people often don’t want them to climb on certain things.” Dr. Buffington believes cat owners often neglect to provide their cats a suitable alternative. You can purchase commercial perches and roosts for cats or, suggests Dr. Buffington, a six-foot pine ladder, if you don’t mind the unusual addition to your décor. - Clean, fresh litter Litter should be scooped daily and cleaned regularly, with each cat provided with its own box. Offer an ample-sized box, advises Dr. Colleran, who has written several papers about indoor cats. Select one of the bigger litter boxes you find on the shelf at your local pet store. Most large boxes measure around 18.5 inches in length and 15.25 inches in width, or more. Keep clutter and debris cleared from around the box. “Cats are really fastidious. They like their bathrooms clean, and they need a great, big litter box.” - Fresh grass or catnip Offer your cat something green to graze on, as it would chomp on grass outdoors. - Choice Cats enjoy choice, says Dr. Buffington. For instance, before you make a decision to change cat litter brands, place samples of both old and new for your cat to try. At mealtime, try offering two different-flavored foods side by side to see which one might be your pet’s fave. Perhaps the most important thing you can do, according to Dr. Buffington, is to recognize when your indoor cat is healthy and engaged in its environment. If your indoor cat is alert and energetic, those are good signs that you are providing for its needs. “Learn to become a good cat observer,” he advises. Copyright (c) 2008 Studio One Networks. All rights reserved.

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What is feline diabetes? Diabetes mellitus, the clinical name for "sugar diabetes," is a condition that affects the concentration of glucose, a type of sugar, in a cat's blood. Diabetes in cats is rarely the result of a shortage of insulin (Type I Diabetes). More commonly, diabetes results when a cat's body has trouble using the insulin it has made properly (Type II Diabetes). Insulin affects the way a cat's body uses food. When a cat eats, food is broken down into very small components that the body can use. One component, carbohydrate, is converted into several types of sugars, including glucose. Glucose is absorbed from the intestines into the blood. Once in the bloodstream, glucose travels to cells where it can be absorbed and used as a source of energy-if insulin is present. Without enough insulin, glucose can't enter cells and builds up in the bloodstream. So a cat may act hungry all the time and eat constantly, but still lose weight because its cells can't absorb glucose. Most cats develop Type II Diabetes, in which their cells no longer respond normally to the amounts of insulin produced by the pancreas. While many cats initially require daily insulin injections, the treatment goal is to correct the factors or conditions causing insulin resistance. If these factors, such as obesity, can be adequately controlled, many cats will experience temporary remission or permanent resolution of their diabetes. Many cats with Type II Diabetes will experience marked improvement in their insulin sensitivity when changed to a species-appropriate high protein, low carbohydrate food. However, not all cats with diabetes are suited to this type of diet. Your veterinarian will conduct a thorough evaluation and recommend the most appropriate diet and treatment for your cat's diabetes. - Older Cats - Neutered Male Cats - Physical Inactivity - Medications (Steroids and Progestins) If you think your cat may be at risk, make an appointment today to get your cat checked for diabetes. Diabetes is one of many conditions that can affect your cat and cause visible changes in behavior and other signs. That's why it's important your cat be thoroughly examined by a veterinarian at least once a year or more frequently, if your veterinarian advises. - Drinks more water than usual (polydipsia) - Urinates more frequently, produces more urine per day, or has "accidents" outside the litter box (polyuria) - Always acts hungry (polyphagia), but maintains or loses weight - Is less active or sleeps more (lethargic) - Has thinning, dry, or dull hair When evaluating your cat for diabetes, your veterinarian may ask about these signs and will check your cat's general health to rule out the possibility of other conditions or infections. A sample of your cat's urine may be tested first for the presence of glucose, ketones, and/or a urinary tract infection. If glucose is present in your cat's urine, your veterinarian will want to determine your cat's blood glucose concentration and fructosamine concentration. If the blood glucose concentration is consistently higher than normal, your cat's pancreas may not be secreting enough insulin or your cat's body is "resistant" to the insulin being produced. Regardless of the cause for increased blood sugar, your pet is suffering from diabetes mellitus. A diabetes diagnosis is considered definite when glucose is found at a persistently high concentration in blood and in urine. - Diet–determining the best type of food for your cat. Cats, as carnivores, often have significant improvement in their blood sugar levels when placed on a high protein, low carbohydrate food. This is also the perfect time to address weight loss if your cat is overweight or obese - Insulin–how to store and administer it properly - Hypoglycemia–how to identify and treat potentially life-threatening low blood sugar - At-home monitoring you should perform and when you should alert your veterinarian. Ask how you should monitor your cat for the possibility of diabetes remission - Recommended veterinary rechecks - Diabetes Mellitus in Cats Diabetes Mellitus is a disease of the pancreas. In simple terms, it is caused by the failure of the pancreas to regulate blood sugar. Click on the link to learn more. - Diabetes in Cats – Testing and Monitoring There are several recommended tests to have done on your cat when Diabetes Mellitus is suspected. Cats can live happily and healthfully with diabetes if proper monitoring is performed by you at home and your cat has regularly scheduled visits with your veterinarian. For the best monitoring of a diabetic cat and the highest chance of diabetic remission, blood glucose can be checked by you at home. Ask your veterinarian if this monitoring approach might be right for you and your cat. Click on the link to learn more. - Giving Injections to Cats Diabetes Mellitus can be controlled in cats by administering daily insulin injections. Click on the link to learn more. To learn more about diabetes in dogs and cats, check our Pet Health Library. Special thanks to our partners

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Search This Site News :: School board learns of impact of iPads, 1 to 1 laptops at VSHS · 5:19pm January 14th, 2013 Members of the Vinton-Shellsburg School Board saw several demonstrations of how modern computer technology can help with education. Several teachers demonstrated how students are using Apple iPads and laptop computers to create videos, and learn reading and pronunciation skills. But first, the school board members had a chance for some training on their own iPads. The school district has replaced the laptop computers that the school board members used for meetings with iPads. Technology specialist Kim Meyer spent a half hour giving board members basic instructions in how to use the devices. The meeting took place in the library of Tilford Elementary Monday afternoon. District considering 1 to 1 computers at VSHS High School Principal Matt Kingsbury joined Meyer in sharing with the school board their proposal for providing each student at VSHS with his or her own laptop computer. The program would cost $700,000 with the money coming from the PPEL levy; no additional tax revenues would be required. The purchase would be repeated every four years; middle school students would eventually use the computers after the high school students received new ones. Kingsbury said the $700,000 includes computers, carrying bags, security and software. Kingsbury and Meyer told the board why they believe Macintosh computers are better than PCs. VS leaders have spoken about the 1 to 1 computer program with other districts. Students in those schools generally took very good care of their computers. Kingsbury and Meyer said that the tech committee at VSHS is putting together policies governing computer use, as well as possible fees for families if a student accidentally damages a computer. A survey by school officials indicated that 157 people responded that they were in favor of each student having his own computer; 25 respondents said no; and 76 said maybe. Concerns expressed in the survey included the cost of the program, the expense for families of students, and filtering to make sure that students do not use inappropriate web sites. Meyer and Kingsbury explained how current technogology allows the school IT personnel to monitor every computer in the system. The school board heard how students have used already computers to do several projects, including creating radio broadcasts and e-books. Kingsbury said he is working with VSHS staff on setting up training sessions for students and teachers, as well as a meeting for parents; the plan is to have the computers available for the next school year, if the district and board grant final approval. "No decision has been made, but there is some momentum building," said Superintendent Mary Jo Hainstock. Vinton to see 28 percent increase in county landfill fee in 2013 Speech contest season begins; VS hosts WAMAC Large Group event

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The president of France, Nicolas Sarkozy, had planned to use his leadership of the G20 this year to highlight some of the needs of the developing world. Instead, the focus of G20 summit in Cannes has been on the threat of a Greek default and destabilization of the eurozone. Europe’s financial crisis affects more than the 27 members of the European Union. “There is a direct relationship between the crisis in Europe and flows of resources to Africa and development efforts around the world,” says Sam Worthington of InterAction, the largest U.S. coalition of non-profit organizations devoted to debt relief and development. “Europe is one of the biggest centers of remittances around the world,” he explained. “As Europe gets poorer, those remittances begin to dry up. European banks have a large presence in Africa, bank credits will also continue to dry up. And as European countries begin to try to deal with their own fiscal crises, one of the first areas where we fear we will see cuts is in official development assistance.” Famine and food prices It’s ironic, Worthington said, that the debt crisis in the eurozone comes at the same time as the first famine of the 21st century in the Horn of Africa, with 13 million people being food insecure and another 750,000 people at risk of starvation. Contributing to the situation is the growing volatility of food prices, an issue that is also to be considered by G20 leaders. U.S. President Barack Obama (L) walks with French President Nicholas Sarkozy, after Obama's arrival at Espace Riviera for the G20 summit in Cannes, France, November 3, 2011. “The solutions being offered here in Cannes,” said Worthington, “are important but not sufficient. One of the big proposals being debated in the communiqué right now are issues of food stocks in West Africa. At this point in time, it looks likely that some form of food reserves will be put in place but only for humanitarian uses in Africa. The broader question of regulation of food prices and the deeper fulfillment of the commitment made by the G8 at L’Aquila for f 22 billion dollars [in development aid] still remains elusive.” Strengthening the safey net Another goal of the G20 is to find new ways to improve the social safety nets of developing countries and support for development, education and climate mitigation. One proposal, back by Microsoft entrepreneur Bill Gates, calls for a tax on international financial transactions. Some countries, including the United States, Britain, Japan and Brazil, oppose the tax. “The UK will clearly not be on board,” said Worthington, “so it will come down to Germany, France and other euro countries, a process that will need to make it through to [European Union headquarters in] Brussels. “It is unlikely France will act alone,” he continued. “We are seeing some support from South Africa and other groups. African countries have largely been silent in support for this tax, but if it is put in place it could generate up to 60 billion dollars in revenues.” He said supporters of tax are using a two-part approach. “The real question is what will be its uses?” he said. “Some in Germany say it should be used to offset deficits within European countries themselves. The battle for the tax itself is a big one. But the bigger battle is will this tax be used as a tool to finance some of the repayment effort s and financial efforts associated with Greece ? The concern of NGOs, he said, is that the poor and development projects will not benefit in the long run. French gendarmes stand near an anti G20 demonstrator who takes part in protest against globalization and tax havens, at the French-Monaco border in Cap d'Ail, November 3, 2011. “Our real cry here in Cannes,” said Worthington, “is that the problems the developed world is currently experiencing should not mean solutions are done on the backs of the world’s poor.” He adds that with global interconnectedness, the answers to the sluggish world economy require inclusive solutions. Inclusive growth means support for development efforts. “The growth in Africa and in other parts of the world are now central to the well-being of people [everywhere],” he said. “So there is now a direct economic relationship between development efforts in Africa, growth in African countries and the longer term global recovery,” said Worthington

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Over four years, college tuition, room and board, and textbooks can really add up. Since your time in college can be very expensive, it is important to start practicing good habits when it comes to spending money. Not only will these help you control spending now, but you will become savvier when it comes to saving in the future. Follow these tips to be more frugal on a student budget The first step to becoming more frugal in college is to develop a budget. Determine your monthly income, whether that be from your job or allowance from your parents. Then subtract your monthly expenses, including food, rent, and daily costs. From the remainder, save as much as you can, always leaving yourself a cushion in case you have extra expenses one month. The money left over is for spending. Once you’ve created your budget, stick to it! You’ve probably heard this one before, but dining out in restaurants or even buying fast food can add up quickly. Limit the number of times you dine out each week. This will give you something to look forward to and a chance to spend time with your friends. Instead, be creative when you go grocery shopping. You can try new foods and experiment with cooking by eating at home. Although it’s nice to sit in a coffee shop and enjoy your favorite drink, these beverages are often expensive and not worth their value. Invest in a coffee pot so that you can still get your caffeine fix without the cost. Many shops even sell their coffee packaged in the supermarket. This will last you for a longer time and allow you to get the same coffee you like without spending so much. When it comes to major purchases, like electronics or textbooks, take the time to do your research and find the best deals possible. Use comparison shopping engines that will allow you to compare prices on the products you want. When it comes to textbooks, think about alternative options. Look into ways to buy online, find used books, or even rent textbooks. Digital textbooks are another option to consider, which are usually cheaper than buying the hardcover version of a book. That is not to say that you should spend more, but that you should use cash instead of paying with a debit or credit card. This trick will help you feel more emotionally attached to your money. For every purchase you make, you will be able to see the actual transaction and feel your wallet getting thinner. You will become more aware of your spending and have more of an impulse to control how much you spend. One way to save money at school is to take advantage of free entertainment. College campuses often have active theatre scenes and offer free movies, concerts, and plays. You will also have access to discounts on entertainment using your student ID card. Many museums, movie theatres, and venues offer lower prices to students, so benefit from discount tickets while you can. Part of making smart choices when it comes to spending is knowing when to make substitutions. For every purchase you make, think it through and decide if it’s something you really want. If you can easily think of something you’d rather buy, then this is probably not an item you truly want or need. These tips will help you to better manage your money, not only as a college student, but in the years to come!

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Lake Shore Drive in its present incarnation is a relatively recent addition to Chicago’s landscape. Built in pieces over much of the last century, the road was known variously as Leif Erickson Drive and Field Boulevard before it was christened with its current name in 1946. The germ of the idea, however, began in 1882 with Potter Palmer, who wanted the city to build a road along the lakefront to increase property values. And as long as there’s been a Drive there’s been this question about the Drive: To expand or not to expand? And if we expand it, how far north or south should it go? In 1933 Lake Shore Drive was extended from Belmont to Foster. In the ‘50s the road pushed further north to Bryn Mawr, and then to Hollywood Avenue in 1957. On the South Side, there has been talk of expanding Lake Shore Drive into the former U.S. Steel South Works site, currently being redeveloped by Chicago based McCaffery Interests. But conversations about expanding North Lake Shore Drive beyond its current stopping point have been more controversial. The idea was resoundingly rejected in a 2004 referendum in which 90 percent of Rogers Park residents voted against the idea of expansion. Author Neal Samors grew up in Rogers Park and remembers the various LSD expansions. Together with co-author Bernie Judge, Samors tracks the highway’s history in Chicago’s Lake Shore Drive: America’s Most Beautiful Roadway. In the audio above, the two explain why the question of expansion has tended to rouse the ire of many North Siders. Dynamic Range showcases hidden gems unearthed from Chicago Amplified’s vast archive of public events and appears on weekends. Neal Samors and Bernard Judge spoke at an event presented by Chicago Architecture Foundation in January. Click here to hear the event in its entirety.

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Study: Most Plastics Leach Hormone-Like Chemicals Most plastic products, from sippy cups to food wraps, can release chemicals that act like the sex hormone estrogen, according to a study in Environmental Health Perspectives. The study found these chemicals even in products that didn't contain BPA, a compound in certain plastics that's been widely criticized because it mimics estrogen. Many plastic products are now marketed as BPA-free, and manufacturers have begun substituting other chemicals whose effects aren't as well known. But it's still unclear whether people are being harmed by BPA or any other so-called estrogenic chemicals in plastics. Most studies of health effects have been done in mice and rats. The new study doesn't look at health risks. It simply asks whether common plastic products release estrogen-like chemicals other than BPA. To Fear Or Not To Fear Plastics? Exactly how BPA affects humans, and how serious its effects are, are still very much up for debate. The U.S. government generally advocates caution and more research, but agencies have issued a range of hesitant warnings. The National Toxicology Program, a division of the National Institutes of Health, says it has "some concern" about potential BPA exposures to the brains and prostate glands of fetuses, infants and children. Other agencies say they have lingering, unresolved "questions" about the chemical. Those questions largely circle around how prolonged exposure to the chemical in childhood or adulthood could affect reproduction and growth; how low-dose exposure at sensitive developmental stages could affect children and babies later in life; and how parental exposure could affect the next generation. Studies have shown links between BPA and cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and a host of other illnesses. One major sticking point for scientists is the challenge of drawing conclusions from hundreds of studies, each using different animals (mice and rats among them), doses, and routes of exposure. As the Environmental Protection Agency has noted, "there is controversy about whether effects seen at lower doses in animals are meaningful and relevant to humans." And scientists have also wondered whether rodents are more sensitive to the chemical than us because they metabolize it differently. Last year, the NIH launched a new round of studies, all with the same methodology, designed to answer the some of the niggling questions and help the government provide clearer guidance than it's been able to so far. -- Eliza Barclay The researchers bought more than 450 plastic items from stores including Walmart and Whole Foods. They chose products designed to come in contact with food — things like baby bottles, deli packaging and flexible bags, says George Bittner, one of the study's authors and a professor of biology at the University of Texas, Austin. Then CertiChem, a testing company founded by Bittner, chopped up pieces of each product and soaked them in either saltwater or alcohol to see what came out. The testing showed that more than 70 percent of the products released chemicals that acted like estrogen. And that was before they exposed the stuff to real-world conditions: simulated sunlight, dishwashing and microwaving, Bittner says. "Then, you greatly increase the probability that you're going to get chemicals having estrogenic activity released," he says, adding that more than 95 percent of the products tested positive after undergoing this sort of stress. But what about all those products marketed as BPA-free? That's a claim being made for everything from dog bowls to bento boxes these days. The team concentrated on BPA-free baby bottles and water bottles, Bittner says, "and all of them released chemicals having estrogenic activity." Sometimes the BPA-free products had even more activity than products known to contain BPA. The testing didn't show which chemicals are to blame, which is likely to be frustrating to manufacturers. But Bittner says consumers should be encouraged that at least some plastic products had no estrogen-like activity. He says that shows it is possible to make these products. Early reaction to the study was mixed. Some scientists wondered about the test's reliability. Others noted that wine and many vegetables also can act like estrogen. And a few observed that Bittner has a financial interest in the testing lab and in a company involved in making plastic products that don't release estrogenic chemicals. On the other hand, groups that have warned about the potential dangers of BPA in the past seemed to welcome the new research. "This is really helpful because they took a look at very common products," says Sonya Lunder, a senior analyst at the Environmental Working Group. But the results suggest that concerns about plastics can't be solved by worried consumers at the checkout counter, Lunder says. It's a problem for government, she says. "Regulatory agencies need to study the effect of chemicals leaching out of plastic," Lunder says, adding that an EPA program formed more than a decade ago to do this sort of research still hasn't produced many results. Until scientists come up with more definitive answers, Lunder says, worried consumers can follow the old advice to avoid putting those baby bottles and other plastic products in dishwashers or microwaves. "We've long cautioned consumers to avoid extreme heat and cooling for plastics, to discard scratched and worn plastics and we feel like this [study] validates one of our many concerns," she says. MICHELE NORRIS, host: Many of you have been clearing your house of baby bottles and other plastic products because they're made with the chemical BPA. Research has shown that BPA can act like the hormone estrogen, at least in mice and in rats. Now, as NPR's Jon Hamilton reports, a new study finds that even plastics without BPA can release estrogen-like chemicals. JON HAMILTON: Before you toss out your Tupperware, it's worth noting that scientists still don't know whether people are harmed by any of the chemicals coming from plastics. It's just not clear. And the new study doesn't look at health risks. It simply asks whether common plastic products release estrogen-like chemicals other than BPA. That's something George Bittner, a biologist at the University of Texas in Austin, had been wondering for a long time. So he sent a research team to stores, including Wal-Mart and Whole Foods. Their mission: buy a whole bunch of stuff made of plastic, the kind of stuff that might come in contact with food. Mr. GEORGE BITTNER (Biologist, University of Texas at Austin): Baby bottles, deli packaging, flexible bags. HAMILTON: The team came back with more than 450 products. Then CertiChem, a testing company that Bittner founded, chopped up pieces of each product and soaked them in either salt water or alcohol to see what leeched out. Bittner says the tests made one thing clear. Mr. BITTNER: Most plastic products on the market today release chemicals having easily detectible estrogenic activity. HAMILTON: Estrogenic activity means they act like estrogen. Bittner says about 70 percent of the stuff the lab tested released these chemicals, and Bittner says that was before they exposed the stuff to real-world conditions: simulated sunlight, dishwashing and microwaving. Mr. BITTNER: Then, you greatly increase the probability that you're going to get chemicals having estrogenic activity released, in fact, maybe somewhere between 95 to 98 percent. HAMILTON: But what about all those things marketed as BPA-free - you know, dog bowls, bento boxes? Mr. BITTNER: In particular, we've concentrated on baby bottles and water bottles. We've tested them and all of them released chemicals having estrogenic activity. HAMILTON: Sometimes even more than products known to contain BPA. The testing didn't show which chemicals are to blame. That's likely to be frustrating to manufacturers, but Bittner says consumers should be encouraged that at least some plastic products had no estrogen-like activity. He says that shows it can be done. Early reaction to the study was mixed. Some scientists wondered about the test's reliability. Others noted that wine and many vegetables also have estrogenic activity. And they note that Bittner has a financial interest in the testing lab and in a plastics company. But groups that have warned about BPA in the past seemed to welcome the new research. Ms. SONYA LUNDER (Senior Analyst, Environmental Working Group): This is really helpful because they took a look at very common products. HAMILTON: Sonya Lunder is from the Environmental Working Group. She says the results suggest the concerns about plastics can't be solved by worried consumers at the checkout counter. It's a problem for government. Ms. LUNDER: Regulatory agencies like the FDA need to study the effect of chemicals leeching out of plastic. We know the EPA first proposed its hormone disrupter screening program 15 years ago and has made virtually no progress. HAMILTON: Lunder says that until there are more definitive answers, worried consumers can follow the old advice to avoid putting those baby bottles in dishwashers or microwaves. Ms. LUNDER: See, we've long cautioned consumers to avoid extreme heat and cooling for plastics, to discard scratched and worn plastics, and we feel like this validates one of our many concerns. HAMILTON: The new study appears in the online edition of the journal Environmental Health Perspectives. Jon Hamilton, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

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FR. AYODELE AYENI CsSP April 2, 2012 At the dawn of creation, "the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters (Genesis 1.2)." The waters at creation not only manifest the symbolism of water in Christian theology, but also its creational importance. Water sustains life and its absence spells doom or death. The story of Noah and the Ark gives a Christian account of the havoc excessive water may cause, even if there will be a rebuilding or newness that follows. However, wherever water cohabits with the Spirit of God, as we see in Genesis 1.2, creational order unfolds from chaos. The Spirit of God hovering over water gives life and saving effects to water - "Wherever the river goes, every living creature that swarms will live" (Ezekiel 47.9). Water and Spirit have come a long way. In recognition of the association of water with the Spirit, we now say, in the Second Eucharistic Prayer: "Make holy, therefore, these gifts, we pray, by sending down your Spirit upon them like the dewfall." Here again, the Spirit is associated with water, in the form of a dewfall, with the mission of creating something new - the transubstantiation (changing) of bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ. St. Paul already anticipated this link between water and Spirit when he said: "For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body - Jews or Greeks, slaves or free - and we were all made to drink of one Spirit (1 Corinthians 12.13)." What a theological evolution! St. Paul anticipated the theological link between water and spirit. The instructions of God at creation (Genesis 1.1-2.4) brought creation into being, and every creature was given its limits, including water: "I (God) placed the sand as a boundary for the sea, a perpetual barrier that it cannot pass; though the waves toss, they cannot prevail, though they roar, they cannot pass over it" (Jeremiah 5.22). The human person pushed his boundary by "sin of origin," only to discover his frailty. When humans needed regeneration or salvation from their sins, water was readily available: "You (God) set the beams of your chambers on the waters, you make the clouds your chariot, you ride on the wings of the wind. . . . When you send forth your spirit, they are created; and you renew the face of the earth" (Psalm 104.3, 30). Humans can either lose their identity through sin, or have their identity denied them by servitude, like the enslavement of the Israelites in Egypt. The restoration of a lost identity comes via redemption. God redeems by re-creating the primeva l state of creation, not necessarily through destruction, but by manifesting his power as creator. With the Israelites, he chose water as the medium of his re-creation. The waters of re-creation originated with the redemption of the Israelites from Egypt, a fact which coincided with their new identity as a people. St. Paul theologized on the crossing of the sea in these words: "I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea" (1 Corinthians 101-3). The birth of a new people, Israel, by the passing through the sea, keeps giving new birth and identity to all who approach the baptismal font, especially on Easter night. The column of light which announces God's presence among the Israelites, symbolized by the paschal candle, and the waters of the sea, represented by the water of Baptism, offer Christians the eternal memorial of God's acts of creation and re-creation. Throughout human history, God never ceases to act. Every Easter season actualizes God's presence and intervention on behalf of his people, in all circumstances of their lives. The baptismal font symbolizes those waters of re-creation. Baptism confers Christian identity to all who receive it, just as the Israelites received their identity before God. Also, since the Israelites received a collective identity as a nation of people, at Baptism, every Christian is incorporated, as an adopted child of God, into the Body of Christ, as a member of the Church. At Easter, we celebrate our individual and collective Christian birthday, our identity and our re-creation or redemption in Christ: "As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3.27-28). Spiritan Father Ayodele Ayeni is a sessional lecturer at Newman Theological College and pastor of Mary Help of Christians (Chinese) Parish in Edmonton.

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AtomMate is a chemistry card game that consists of a deck of 49 playing cards with the names, symbols and facts about the elements of the Periodic Table. It is used to play games that involve making chemical compounds. Designed for students aged 10 and up, it is a grow-with-me game. Beginning students learn the names and symbols of the elements. Intermediate students learn to combine the elements to form molecules and compounds. More advanced students can use the cards to enhance their understanding of simple reactions. Instructions for eight easy games, which range in difficulty from easy to complex, are included. There are several games that may be played with these cards. All games are designed for 2 to 4 players. The deck contains a sub-set of the elements in the periodic table, with repetitions of some elements. Some of the elements have the word TOXIC on them - this gives the card special powers in some of the games. There are 8 non-element cards: 4 reduce and 4 oxidize. These allow the player to make additional moves in some of the games. The following information on the cards may be used to play the games: AtomMate is a game developed by Dr. Carol Brevett who has taught Chemistry at Iowa State University and has been working in industry, including at the DuPont company of Delaware, as a research scientist for over 13 years. She has developed and tested the Atommate games over many years. A must for the chemistry enthusiast, the science scholar, the science-oriented pupil or anyone who wants to play an unusual and novel card game. With each order we'll send you a free silky periodic table bookmark and a free glossy laminated postcard sized periodic table for your noticeboard! Delivery and shipping | Terms and conditions | About us |

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You might recognize prominent primatologist Frans de Waal from lectures he has given about his research on primate behavior, which have been popularized on YouTube. His face is familiar to chimpanzees, too; some chimps that he knew as babies still recognize him even after decades apart, he said. "Chimpanzees have the advantage that you cannot ask them questions, so you have to watch (their) behavior to see what they do," says de Waal, director of Emory University's Living Links Center, in his Dutch-accented voice that is both gentle and authoritative. He adds, with dry humor: "With humans, you can ask questions and you get all sorts of answers I don't trust, so I prefer to work with chimpanzees for that reason." Living Links is part of the oldest and largest primate center in the United States: The Yerkes National Primate Research Center, a secluded grassy area in suburban Atlanta where humans work in office trailers and other animals play in open-air compounds. De Waal, who has been at the center for more than 20 years, has made a career out of finding links between primate and human behavior, particularly in the areas of morality and empathy. You might think of "morality" as special for humans, but there are elements of it that are found in the animal kingdom, says de Waal -- namely, fairness and reciprocity. His latest study, published this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggests that chimpanzees may show some of the same sensibility about fairness that humans do. The popular belief that the natural world is based on competition is a simplification, de Waal says. The strength of one's immune system, and the ability to find food, are also crucial. And many animals survive by cooperating. "The struggle for life is not necessarily literally a struggle," he said. "Humans are a highly cooperative species, and we can see in our close relatives where that comes from." Mammals such as wolves, orcas and elephants need their groups to survive, and empathy and cooperation are survival mechanisms. De Waal discusses these mechanisms in his 2009 book "The Age of Empathy: Nature's Lessons for a Kinder Society."

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Has smallpox really disappeared from The International Vaccination Newsletter, Dec 1997 In 1982, the WHO advised a global vaccination moratorium against the smallpox vaccination because, they said, the disease appeared to have vanished from the earth. For another thing, the side-effects had become too obvious to maintain the traditional guidelines in favour of mass vaccination. There are many questions about the role of the vaccine in the decline of the disease, a point which may be clarified in a later issue of IVN. However, it is questionable whether smallpox really was eradicated as we have been told. Some publications stated that the last smallpox virus had disappeared from this globe. But had it really? Certainly not, since viruses were stored and even used in later experiments as carrier molecules for an experimental AIDS vaccine. Some of the volunteers engaged by the Pasteur Institute died during the experiment from a smallpox-like illness (1). The institute managed to keep the information out of the front pages. A new and embarrassing development was the resurgence of pox-family viruses in Africa, known as the monkeypox. This fact has been known for many years but the public was reassured that this had nothing to do with smallpox and that the human species was safe. Not as safe as we were told, though, since in the Congo in 1970, pox viruses were isolated from humans2 corresponding to the pox viruses found in captive monkeys in 1958 and identified the next year (3). It was baptised monkeypox~. The same virus was isolated from 6 humans in 1959 by Foster. In 1976, Gipsen reported on more cases in Nigeria (4). The terminology of the disease became ever more confusing, since what were at first simply monkeypox are now introduced into literature ashuman monkeypox. What, now, is the difference between smallpox and human monkeypox? It is interesting to read in a recent article in the Lancet that "Human monkeypox is a systemic exanthem, resembling smallpox, that occurs as a sporadic zoonosis in rural rainforest villages of western and central Africa. The disease is caused by an orthopoxvirus, which is transmitted to human beings by handling infected animals; serosurveys have implicated squirrels ... as the probable reservoir. Secondary human-to-human spread by aerosol or direct contact accounts for about 28% of cases..." (my emphasis) So, let us make a simple addition. This virus is an orthopox virus, which means, literally translated, a real pox virus. This virus spreads among humans causing an exanthem resembling smallpox, and causing disease and death among the infected (between February and August 1996, 71 cases were notified in the Katako-Kombe area in Zaire, 6 of which 4 died from the disease (5). So what is the difference between smallpox and human monkeypox? The difference is a difference in protein structure. Nucleotide sequence analysis revealed different structures. But what does this really matter it both viruses affect us in the same way, spread in the same way, and cause the same eruptions and the same clinical disease? Scientists do, the victims dont! It is quite odd that the authors do not mention the smallpox vaccination status of the infected. All they mention is that in a preliminary study none of the examined had a scar of smallpox vaccination. Which does not mean that they had not been vaccinated as the vaccine may not have taken. No figures are available about antibodies against smallpox, so that we have no real clue whether, in this study, the vaccine showed any protection against monkeypox or not. Many of the patients described elsewhere were vaccinated. Arita and Henderson (6) found 94 children with facial scarring caused by monkeypox; all except two who also showed scars typical for smallpox vaccination. So the least one can do is to question the protection offered by smallpox vaccination against the new monkey-pox virus. Apparently the new virus is quite infectious, since 42 cases, including 3 deaths, were reported in a small village with only 346 inhabitants. The article further states that "present cluster of cases constitutes a reemergence of human monkeypox on a scale greater in magnitude than the approximate 65 annual cases previously indicated for Kasai Oriental, Bandundu, and Equateur regions from 1981 to 1986" and also that "it contains a more extensive occurrence of person-to-person transmission than previously recognised." The conclusion of the authors is that" Because sequence analyses have indicated that Zairian monkeypox strains have not diverged greatly from the first isolate from the area in 1970 and monkeypox and smallpox variola viruses are independently evolved species (7), notions of monkeypox virus mutating into variola virus are unfounded." This does not sound very reassuring. Former suggestions that "prolonged episodes or sustained cascades of transmission of human monkeypox would be unlikely" (8) do not hold up. Although the smallpox VIRUS appears to have died down a few decades ago, obviously the DISEASE is still present on this earth and able to make a come-back. Whether this is due to the mutation of the original virus or to a new virus that generates the same disease is a question that remains unanswered. Another pillar of the vaccine dogma, its victory over smallpox, has fallen into pieces. 1. Personal communication with a staff member. 2. Mukinda, V.B.K.; et al Reemergence of human monkeypox in Zaire in 1996. Lancet, 1997; 349:1449-50 3. von Magnus, P.; et al A pox-like disease In cynomolgus monkeys. Acta Pathologica et Microbiologica Scandinavica, 1959; 46/2:156-76 4. Gipsen, R.; et al Monkeypoxspecific antibodies in human and simian sera from the ivory Coast and Nigeria. Bull, WHO, 1976; 53; 355-60 5. WHO. Monkeypox, Zaire. Widy Epidemiol Aec, 1996; 71:326 6. Arita, I.; Henderson, D.A.; Monkey-pox and whitepox viruses in West and Central Africa.Bull WHO, 1976; 53:347-53 7. Douglass, N.; Dumbell, K.R.; Independent evolution of monkeypox and variola viruses. J Virol, 1992; 66:7565-7 8. Jezek, Z.; Fenner, F.; Human monkeypox. Monographs In Virology Vol 17, J.L.Melnick, ed. Basel, Switzerland:Karger, 1988 [Vaccination] [Gaublomme] [Smallpox]

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The National Park Service maintains a number of historic sites associated with black history. Ten of those sites are featured here, each with a link to visitors information from the park service. Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site commemorates the Supreme Court's landmark decision to end segregation in the country's public schools. The Black Heritage Trail on Boston's Beacon Hill pieces together the story of the free African American community that lived here during the decades leading up to and during the Civil War. Fort Davis is important in understanding the presence of African Americans in the West and in the frontier military because the 24th and 25th U.S. Frederick Douglass was born into slavery on the Eastern Shore of Maryland in 1818, and was given the name Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey (Baly), after his mother Harriet Bailey. On October 16, 17, and 18, 1859, John Brown and his "Provisional Army of the United States" took possession of the United States Armory and Arsenal at Harpers Ferry.

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First published in 1925, the Winnie the Pooh stories made Pooh into the world’s most loved and trusted bear. Pooh, a bear of “very little brain,” is always searching for honey. The heartwarming tales of Pooh and his friends in 100 Acre Woods were based on the stuffed animals owned by the author’s son, Christopher Robbins. Disney first introduced film audiences to the lovable Pooh in 1966. The Winnie the Pooh key ring collection includes Pooh and his friends gloomy Eeyore, bouncy Tigger, and cute Piglet who tries to be brave. The colorful Pooh key chains are available in two types: traditional pictures of the well-known characters and the young characters as “Disney Cuties.”

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Whenever experts talk about digestive health, the one word that comes up more often than not is fiber. Rich in vitamins and minerals, fiber works by sponging and scouring your digestive tract. It's one of the best-known preventives and cure-alls for constipation, and it can be helpful in managing irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Recent research conducted at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston reveals it may also relieve heartburn and protect against gastroesophageal reflux disease. What's more, "eating a sufficient amount of fiber daily helps with weight loss, lowers ‘bad' cholesterol and has been shown to protect against heart disease, diabetes and some forms of cancer," notes Dr. Wes Jones, a gastroenterologist and founder of the Cape Fear Center for Digestive Diseases in North Carolina. Yet despite all the buzz, most Americans consume only half the recommended 25 to 30 grams of fiber they should eat every day, according to the USDA. If you're one of them, it's time to add more fiber to your diet. But do it gradually to give your body time to adjust, advises Jones, author of Cure Constipation Now: A Doctor's Fiber Therapy to Cleanse and Heal. This will help you avoid bloating and other temporary side effects. Then, once your body has adjusted, follow these tips to get enough fiber in your diet every day. At the Grocery Store Read labels: Certain foods like grains and beans are naturally high in fiber, and many others have fiber added. Foods labeled "high fiber" contain 5 grams or more per serving. Those labeled "good source" of fiber have at least 2.5 grams per serving. Opt for whole grains: Look for "whole grain flour" as the first ingredient listed on breads and pasta. Or try quinoa, bulgur, barley or brown rice. Stock up on flax: One of the highest sources of fiber, flaxseed can be sprinkled on salads or yogurt and added to smoothies, sauces and soups. Ground flaxseed can be substituted for fat in some baked goods and gives any food a big burst of fiber. Meal by Meal Start the day right: Have a high-fiber cereal like shredded wheat or oatmeal. Top your breakfast with a tablespoon of flax plus fruit and nuts for a double dose of fiber. Choose fruits and vegetables highest in fiber: Artichokes, broccoli, berries, figs, pears and apples -- along with many other fruits and vegetables -- have 5 or more grams of fiber per serving. Eat them alongside a whole-grain sandwich for a heart- and digestion-friendly midday meal. Munch on fiber-rich snacks: Carrot and celery sticks with hummus or guacamole make a yummy pick-me-up, as do sliced apples with chunky peanut butter, dried fruit and nuts. Load up on legumes: Peas, lentils, garbanzo beans and other legumes make tasty side dishes and are healthy additions to salads, soups and stews. All plant-based foods contain fiber, but "not all types of high-fiber foods and fiber supplements behave in your gut the same way," says Jones. To combat constipation, ease IBS, relieve heartburn or simply optimize your overall health, Jones recommends varying the types of fiber you eat by including a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, whole grains and nuts in your diet throughout the day, every day. *DISCLAIMER*: The information contained in or provided through this site section is intended for general consumer understanding and education only and is not intended to be and is not a substitute for professional advice. Use of this site section and any information contained on or provided through this site section is at your own risk and any information contained on or provided through this site section is provided on an "as is" basis without any representations or warranties.

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Breast ironing tradition targeted in Cameroon. Every morning before school, nine-year-old Terisia Techu would undergo a painful procedure. Her mother would take a burning hot pestle straight out of a fire and use it to press her breasts. With tears in her eyes as she recalls what it was like, Terisia tells CNN that one day the pestle was so hot, it burned her, leaving a mark. Now 18, she is still traumatized. Her mother, Grace, denies the incident. But she proudly demonstrates the method she used on her daughter for several weeks, saying the goal was to make her less desirable to boys -- and stave off pregnancy. A study found that one in four girls in Cameroon have been affected by the practice. The U.S. State Department, in its 2010 human rights report on Cameroon, cited news reports and said breast ironing "victimized numerous girls in the country" and in some cases "resulted in burns, deformities, and psychological problems." There are more than 200 ethnic groups in Cameroon with different norms and customs. Breast ironing is practiced by all of them. Some mothers use hot stones or coconut shells to flatten their daughters' breasts. Doctors believe improved diets have resulted in young Cameroonian girls going through puberty early. Many of them are also becoming pregnant early. Terisia became pregnant at 15. Her child died at birth. She told CNN that breast ironing doesn't work. She hates the practice and wishes her mother had instead talked to her about sex and preventing pregnancy. Grace Techu argues that if it weren't for the breast ironing, Terisia would have become pregnant at an even younger age. Techu has four daughters, and she used the procedure on the first two. The third avoided it because her breasts are growing at an acceptable rate, Techu says, and the fourth girl is still too young. Mothers who want their children to finish school before becoming parents have resorted to this drastic measure, and many see nothing wrong with it. In 2006, a German nongovernmental organization exposed the practice, which at the time was done mainly in secret. Now, charities have embarked on campaigns to educate mothers in Cameroon that sex education -- not breast ironing -- is the solution to ending teenage pregnancy. Dr Sinou Tchana, a gynecologist in Cameroon, has seen breast glands that were destroyed. She also saw one case of cancer, though she says it couldn't be established whether the ironing caused or only exacerbated the cancer. "One mother came with secondary burns because the stone she was using to do this breast ironing burned her," Tchana says. One of Tchana's patients is a 23-year-old whose scars are still painful 14 years after her breasts were ironed. She has joined the effort to confront mothers about the effects of their actions. The challenge for all those trying to stop the practice is reaching parents like Techu in villages before a ritual that they say is motivated by love shatters more lives.

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Background Information for Morocco Background: In 788, about a century after the Arab conquest of North Africa, successive Moorish dynasties began to rule in Morocco. In the 16th century, the Sa'adi monarchy, particularly under Ahmad AL-MANSUR (1578-1603), repelled foreign invaders and inaugurated a golden age. In 1860, Spain occupied northern Morocco and ushered in a half century of trade rivalry among European powers that saw Morocco's sovereignty steadily erode; in 1912, the French imposed a protectorate over the country. A protracted independence struggle with France ended successfully in 1956. The internationalized city of Tangier and most Spanish possessions were turned over to the new country that same year. Morocco virtually annexed Western Sahara during the late 1970s, but final resolution on the status of the territory remains unresolved. Gradual political reforms in the 1990s resulted in the establishment of a bicameral legislature, which first met in 1997. The country has made improvements in human rights under King MOHAMMED VI and its press is moderately free. Despite the continuing reforms, ultimate authority remains in the hands of the monarch. The information here has been derived from Public Domain Sources such as the CIA World Factbook. No liability can be taken for any inaccuracies. You can use the maps, flags and facts presented here however you choose.

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Semen quality is a much-discussed subject among scientists these days. Data suggests sperm concentration has been declining in Western countries over the past couple of decades -- and reasons for the decline are debatable. The lead author of a new study on the subject, Audrey Gaskins, has been studying the effects of diet and exercise on semen for several years as a doctoral candidate at the Harvard School of Public Health. Her latest research shows a lack of physical activity -- and too much time in front of the television -- may impact sperm count and concentration. Previous studies have shown a link between physical activity and decreased levels of oxidative stress, Gaskins says. "Oxidative stress" is stress placed on the body as it tries to get rid of free radicals or repair the damage caused by them. Exercise may protect certain male cells from oxidative damage, Gaskins says, leading to increased sperm concentration. Those findings led Gaskins to complete an observational study on young men's exercise and TV habits as they relate to semen quality. The results were published online Monday in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. Gaskins and her colleagues asked 189 healthy men between the ages of 18 and 22 how often they exercised each week and how intensely they worked out. The study participants also recorded their TV watching habits. Then at the clinic, semen samples were collected from each man. The semen was analyzed for sperm size and shape, motility, concentration and total sperm count. The researchers also conducted a physical examination and looked at the men's diet, body weight, reproductive history, stress levels and smoking habits to rule out other potential causes of their findings. The men who did moderate to vigorous exercise 15 hours or more per week had a significantly higher sperm concentration than those who worked out less than five hours a week. And the men who watched more than 20 hours of TV a week had almost half the sperm concentration as the men who watched zero hours a week.

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CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Dear Cindy, What is a resting heart rate, and how do I determine mine? -- Corinne A resting heart rate is the number of heartbeats each minute you are at rest and completely still. The RHR can tell you how strong and efficient your heart is and, based on that number, indicate whether your heart is getting stronger or weaker as time goes by. The lower the number, the more powerful your heart probably is, and the higher the number, the less able your heart is to efficiently pump the blood from the tip of your toes to the top of your head. Certain medications can skew these numbers, but generally your RHR is a great way to see if your cardio workouts are challenging your system enough to make a healthy difference over time. The most accurate way to determine your RHR is to plan to take your pulse in advance because it must be taken before you rise. Once you get out of bed and move, the heart rate increases. Place a timepiece with a second hand near your bed so that when you wake, you can easily begin counting your heartbeats. You must record it for a full minute and repeat the count daily for five days. The average will be your RHR. This is a great question, and because February is American Heart Month, I want to share some information vital to your heart health. Care for your sweet heart According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the United States. One in three deaths is from heart disease and/or stroke, which equates to 2,200 deaths every day. It's also quite costly. In fact, hospitalizations because of heart disease and stroke cost the nation more than $444 billion in health-care expenses and lost productivity. Pretty depressing statistics, considering it doesn't have to be this way. These numbers are out of control because we are out of control. Physical activity and better nutrition are life-changing choices we need to make a priority if we want to save lives and to reduce the insane financial burden heart disease is putting on our nation. Recently, the CDC and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services launched Million Hearts, a simple yet powerful initiative that aims to empower everyone to make heart-healthy choices and to reduce the 1 million heart attacks and strokes in the U.S. over the next five years. Granted, conquering the nation's biggest killer is not a simple task. After all, some risk factors are not within our control. But most are, so you actually have the power to add quality years to your life. The goal of Million Hearts is reachable and can be as easy as ABC. The ABCs of saving a heart

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SUMMARY PARAGRAPH for CDC13 Cdc13p is a multi-functional, telomere-binding protein that plays a role in telomere replication, length maintenance, end protection and telomerase regulation (4). CDC13/EST4 is one of five genes required for telomerase activity in vivo. EST1, EST2, TLC1 and EST3 are the other four genes. Mutations in any of these five genes leads to progressive telomere shortening, the so-called ever shorter telomeres (EST) phenotype and eventually to cell death; however, a complete deletion of CDC13 is inviable. CDC13 is the only essential gene among the EST genes (7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and references therein). The N-terminal region of Cdc13p is crucial for the protein's activity due to its various interactions with different binding proteins (12). The telomere capping function is mediated through its interaction with Stn1p and Ten1p, essential proteins required for telomere length regulation (13, 14, 15). Cdc13p plays a role in telomere replication through its interactions with the Pol1p catalytic subunit of DNA polymerase alpha, and an essential subunit of telomerase, Est1p (16). Cdc13p and Est1p also recruit and activate the telomere-bound Est2p catalytic subunit of telomerase for its replication (17). The telomerase recruitment step is regulated by the yeast ku heterodimer (Yku70p-Yku80p), and Stn1p which impart positive and negative control on the Cdc13p-Est1p interaction (11, 18). Cdc13p is regulated by the phosphorylation of the SQ/TQ motif in the telomerase recruitment domain by the checkpoint kinases, Mec1p and Tel1p (19). Mutation in Cdc13p results in abnormal uncapped telomeres with long exposed G-strands leading to activation of the RAD9 DNA damage pathway, cell cycle arrest at the G2/M phase and cell death (1, 20, 21, 22, 12). In humans, telomere length is linked to aging and cancer: in human germline cells telomeres are long, whereas in cells of somatic tissues, telomerase activity is absent and the telomeres are short. Upon sufficient shortening, the somatic cells stop dividing and become senescent. Inappropriate telomerase activity is detected in most malignant tumors, and the genes required for telomerase activity are potential targets for cancer therapy (23, 8). Human orthologs for four of the telomerase subunits are known. Est2p, the telomerase reverse transcriptase catalytic enzyme, is similar to TERT (OMIM), TLC1, the template RNA is similar to TERC/hTR (OMIM), while Cdc13p shares sequence similarity with human POT1 (OMIM) (24, 9). There are three Est1p like proteins in humans, although only hEST1A and hEST1B have been shown to be associated with the telomerase (25). A human ortholog for EST3 hasn't been identified. Mutations in TERT (OMIM) and TERC/hTR (OMIM) cause short telomeres and congenital aplastic anemia (OMIM, 24). Last updated: 2007-06-27

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On-Site Energy Installations Increase Nationwide July 28, 2004 As power reliability becomes more and more important, the United States is turning to on-site energy systems more than ever before. Sales were up by 20 percent overall in 2003, and most purchases were fairly evenly distributed among the government, communications, and emergency response/healthcare sectors. On-site systems generate power or heat for nearby use, and they can be connected to a building as well as to the electric grid. Energy generation thus appears to be following a "distributed" pathway similar to the one charted in the telecommunications industry by cellular technology. Today, both established and new energy technologies are used for on-site electricity generation. Some of the major technologies include: - advanced batteries and fuels cells; - combined heat and power (CHP) systems; - heat engines and smaller natural gas, propane, and diesel generators; - micro-hydropower and small (less than 50-kilowatt) wind systems; - modular biomass; and - solar technologies (photovoltaics and solar thermal systems). On-site systems can also provide thermal energy for space heating and cooling, water heating, and industrial process heat and preheating. In addition to CHP systems, these technologies include the following: - concentrated solar systems, - ground-source heat pumps, - solar thermal water heaters, and - transpired solar "walls" to preheat air for buildings. There are several reasons for this increase in the use of on-site energy systems; one is cost. On-site systems save money in some applications, especially when the alternative involves installing new utility wires and transformers. In addition, both demand charges and peak power rates can often be offset by producing energy on site for use during times of peak demand. Another reason for the increase in the use of on-site energy systems is regulatory. On-site renewable energy technologies help users meet green power requirements and renewable portfolio standards. They also provide ways to comply with procurement and environmental regulations established by federal, state, and local governments. Some users want to ensure backup power with something other than diesel generator sets, not only because it might be hard to obtain diesel fuel, but also for environmental reasons. If the fuel must be transported a great distance, this can also be costly as well as risky. On-site solar, wind, or fuel cell generators are some of the technologies that can alleviate this problem. Another reason for on-site generation is to increase power quality. In some applications, surges and transients on the electric grid can impede the performance of electrical equipment or even harm sensitive controls, computers, or communication systems. Dedicating sensitive systems to on-site generation, or adding distributed energy to the grid as backup, can be a good solution. Finally, one increasingly important reason is to ensure reliability. Distributed, on-site energy systems are maturing to the point that it's easier than ever to use them to ensure reliable power, particularly for strategically-important functions such as national emergencies and homeland security. In addition to installations described in earlier issues of FEMP Focus, there are numerous examples of effective, reliable on-site energy systems meeting the need for reliable power in critical applications. One is the 1-kilowatt ReliOn fuel cell unit installed at McCord Air Force Base in Tacoma, Washington. The unit runs on unpressurized, industrial-grade hydrogen to back up communications for a Federal Aviation Administration radar system. It has been running flawlessly, according to Mr. Howard Kernodle of the Federal Aviation Administration. The FAA supported the San Francisco International Airport's installation of building-integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) roofing panels to produce 20-kilowatts of electricity. This system supplies a portion of the power needed at one of the airport's support buildings. In New York City, Montefiore Medical Center was the only hospital that continued to operate with full power during the first night of the 2003 regional blackout, in large part because a Solar Turbines Taurus 60 generator set drives its CHP system. Montefiore operates its own 14-megawatt cogeneration plant, and all its critical loads are backed up by emergency power generators. The United States Postal Service implemented an innovative combination of on-site renewable generation and demand control measures to reduce electrical demand and energy use at the Marina Mail Processing Center in Los Angeles. Their partnership with PowerLight and Viron Energy Services led to the installation of a 127 kWp solar electric system atop the Marina del Rey facility, and a state-wide energy information system for 27 USPS sites. This energy system allows USPS to automatically shed more than 4 megawatts of electrical load. The solar system covers more than 15,00 square feet of the facility's roof and can generate enough electricity during the day to power more than 120 homes. The combination of solar electric generation and demand control measures gives USPS maximum flexibility to respond to high electric demand charges and utility grid emergencies. Utilities are also using on-site alternatives. Solargenix LLC recently installed a 30-ton solar absorption cooling system to cool the Austin Energy Sand Hill Power Plant control center in Texas. This power plant provides energy to many federal and state government facilities in and around the state capitol, so it's important to keep it up and running. On-site systems are becoming more attractive options as cleaner, quieter, and even more reliable systems enter the market. They also come with warranties and are becoming more standardized. To help cover costs, several innovative leasing and financing packages are available for federal, state, and local government groups. In the coming years, look for even better choices, system configurations, and financing methods that will help facility managers obtain the on-site energy systems that are best for their sites.

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Supplemental Student Aid Early Literacy Development Charter School Facilities Quotes to Note On January 8, in his last policy speech, President Bush discussed his record on education and pressed Congress to reauthorize a robust No Child Left Behind Act at General Philip Kearny School in Philadelphia. "Seven years ago, today, I had the honor of signing a bill that forever changed America's school systems," he said. "I firmly believe that, thanks to [the No Child Left Behind Act], more students are learning and the achievement gap is closing. And, on this anniversary, I have come to talk about why we need to keep the law strong." In his remarks, the President addressed common complaints about the law, but he stressed that there was "no debate about the results." Specifically, he cited having accountability plans in place in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, disaggregated data, a clear focus on the achievement gap, highly qualified teachers, and research-proven strategies for reading instruction. As evidence of success, he also referenced the new Teacher Incentive Fund, supplemental educational services, and increased numbers of charter schools. "The most important result of No Child Left Behind is this: fewer students are falling behind, and more students are achieving high standards." Then, in closing, the President urged Congress to reauthorize the lawwithout undermining its core principles. "There is a growing consensus across the country that now is not the time to water down standards or roll-back accountability," he said. "And, I call upon those who can determine the fate of No Child Left Behind... to stay strong in the face of criticism, to not weaken the lawbecause, in so weakening the law, you weaken the chance for a child to succeed in Americabut to strengthen the law for the sake of every child." For more information, please go to http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2009/ 01/20090108-2.html. (Note: A White House fact sheet on education is available at http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2009/ Joining President Bush in Philadelphia, Secretary Spellings released Great Expectations, a new, well-referenced document which examines the history of public education in the U.S. and how students once left behind are now making progress. "Great Expectations explores education's evolution in America from a privilege for a few to a necessity for all. It tells the story of a remarkable comeback by our nation's students, who are achieving record high test scores in reading and math and reveals the reforms that have led to these results," she stated. "Most importantly, Great Expectations reminds us that our work has just begunwe cannot turn back or slow down. In fact, we must pick up the pace to ensure a quality education for all." The publication is divided into the following eight sections: (1) History of Expectations, (2) Search for Accountability, (3) Education as Civil Right, (4) Doing What Works, (5) Recognizing and Rewarding Teachers, (6) Higher Education That Aims Higher, (7) New Choices for a New Century, and (8) What's Next? For more information, please go to http://www.ed.gov/nclb/overview/importance/greatexpectations/. (Note: A Department fact sheet on Great Expectations is available at http://www.ed.gov/nclb/overview/importance/greatexpectations/ Meanwhile, in the Washington Post, the Secretary penned a letter to her successor. Her concluding advice? "Many in Washington will judge you on your popularity with adults. If some adults are made uncomfortable by your policies, so be it. The needs of children must come first." For more information, please go to http://www.ed.gov/news/opeds/edit/2009/01132009.html. Tying up some loose ends, the Department issued official letters to every state, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico on the status of some No Child Left Behind cornerstones, including assessments, accountability, and flexibility. In addition, states received a spreadsheet, specifying where each state stands on these issues, and an updated fact sheet on state standards and assessments. To date, 39 states have implemented high-quality standards and assessment systems that have received either "full approval" or "approval with recommendations" from the agency. For more information, please go to http://www.ed.gov/admins/lead/account/cornerstones/. At the same time, the Secretary announced the approval of several state proposals under the Department's growth model and differentiated accountability pilot programs. First, four additional states (Colorado, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, and Texas) are approved to implement growth-based accountability models (see http://www.ed.gov/news/pressreleases/2009/01/01082009a.html). Colorado and Minnesota are immediately approved to use their models this school year, while Pennsylvania and Texas are conditionally approved, assuming they satisfy requirements related to their assessment and accountability systems. Growth models allow states to receive credit for improving individual students' performance over timebut retain the No Child Left Behind core principles of annual assessment, disaggregation of data, and grade-level proficiency for all students by 2013-2014. Fifteen states have now been approved to implement growth models. Second, three additional states (Arkansas, Louisiana, and New York) may differentiate between underperforming schools in need of dramatic interventions and those that are closer to meeting the goals of No Child Left Behind (see http://www.ed.gov/news/pressreleases/2009/01/01082009b.html). The law currently treats all schools in improvement similarly. Differentiated accountability permits states to vary the intensity and type of interventions to match the academic reasons that led to a school's identification. Nine states have now been approved to implement differentiated accountability. For both pilots, the Department used a rigorous peer review process to ensure that the selections were fair and transparent. Also, the Department's Policy and Program Studies Services recently published new evaluation studies on state and local implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act: - "Targeting and Uses of Federal Education Funds" (http://www.ed.gov/rschstat/eval/disadv/nclb-targeting/) examines how well federal funds are targeted to schools and school districts serving economically disadvantaged students, how Title I targeting has changed over the past seven years, how districts have spent federal funds, and the base of state and local resources to which federal funds are added. Key finding? Federal funds were more strongly targeted to high-poverty districts than were state and local funds. However, the higher level of federal funding in high-poverty districts was not sufficient to close the funding gap between high- and low-poverty districts. - "Title I School Choice and Supplemental Educational Services" (http://www.ed.gov/rschstat/eval/choice/nclb-choice-ses-final/) supplies updated information on the implementation and usage of choice options offered to students in Title I schools identified for improvement. Key finding? The number of students eligible for and participating in public school choice or supplemental educational services (SES) have increased substantially, although, nationwide, participation rates remained stable at 1% and 17%, respectively. (Note: The Department just released non-regulatory guidance on implementing public school choice and SES. This guidance updates and expands upon previous versions of guidance, covering issues related to the new Title I regulations and including information on other major policy guidance the agency has released during the last few years. See http://www.ed.gov/news/pressreleases/2009/ - "Implementation of the [Students with Disabilities] 1% Rule and 2% Interim Policy Options" (http://www.ed.gov/rschstat/eval/disadv/nclb-disab/) presents findings about the implementation of regulations and guidelines issued under No Child Left Behind providing greater flexibility for the treatment of certain students with disabilities in state assessment and accountability systems. Key finding? Most states with sound data reported that less than 10% of tested students with disabilities participated in an alternate assessment based on alternate achievement standards. Supplemental Student Aid Participation in the Department's Academic Competitiveness (AC) and National Science and Mathematics Access to Retain Talent (SMART) grant programs grew by 28% in the 2007-08 academic year, with 95,000 more students receiving grants than in 2006-07. For 2007-08, a total of 401,372 students received $297,604,911 in AC grants and 66,120 students received $195,474,710 in SMART grants. Both of these programs were created in 2006 as part of the President's American Competitiveness Initiative. They aim to increase college access and completion for low-income students by providing additional funds to students eligible for a Pell Grant. First-year students who have fulfilled a rigorous high school course of study are eligible to receive an AC grant up to $750; students who attain a 3.0 grade point average as freshman are eligible to receive up to $1,300 as a sophomore. SMART grants up to $4,000 are awarded to juniors and seniors studying math, science, technology, engineering, or a critical foreign language and sustaining a 3.0 grade point average in their major. For more information, please go to http://www.ed.gov/programs/smart/performance.html. Early Literacy Development Last week, at the National Press Club, the National Institute for Literacy released "Developing Early Literacy." This report, developed by the nine-member National Early Literacy Panel (NELP), bridges the large gap in the early literacy research knowledge base. By synthesizing research on language, literacy, and communication, it clearly identifies which critical early skills/abilities and proven instructional practices are precursors of later literacy achievement. (According to the findings, among the best early predictors of literacy are alphabet knowledge, phonemic awareness, rapid naming skills, writing [such as writing one's own name], and short-term memory for words said aloud.) It also tenders clues and insights into emergent literacy from birth through age 5 and points the way for future literacy research and scientific inquiry. The National Institute for Literacy convened the NELP in 2002 with support from the Departments of Education and Health and Human Services. For more information, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/nifl/NELP/NELP09.html. Also: Turning the issue of literacy development on its head, the Department's National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) has unveiled a new web tool with estimates of the percentage of adultsfor all states and counties in the U.S.who lack basic prose literacy skills. The web tool allows for comparisons to be made between two states, two counties, and across data years. Estimates were developed using statistical models that related estimated percentages of adults lacking basic literacy skills in counties sampled for the 1992 National Adult Literacy Survey and the 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy to county characteristics, such as levels of educational attainment. For more information, please go to http://nces.ed.gov/naal/estimates/. Charter School Facilities Earlier this week, the Department's Office of Innovation and Improvement (OII) released the latest guide in its popular "Innovations in Education" series, "Making Charter School Facilities More Affordable: State-Driven Policy Approaches." This guide, which complements earlier charter school guides, profiles policy interventions from eight states and the District of Columbia that have been developed to help charter schools address various facilities-related challenges. While the guide does not describe every effort, it details how some jurisdictions have dedicated funding streams to support charter facilities and how others have helped charter school operators access relatively low-cost financing to buy, lease, or renovate school buildings. For more information, please go to http://www.ed.gov/admins/comm/choice/charterfacilities/. On January 20, our nation will observe the transition from one presidential administration to the next. Like all other recurring publications of the Department, ED Review will be on hiatus as it is evaluated by the incoming administration. We expect either ED Review or another resource will be available in the near future to provide you updates on Department activities. In the interim, we strongly encourage you to visit http://www.ed.gov/ and check the headlines. Thank you for your patience. Quotes to Note "I have seen the resolve for reform and the belief in high standards in Chicago, where reading and math scores are soaring, and where every child still has time to study a foreign language and the fine arts. The school in Chicago we went to [Horace Greeley Elementary School], like other schools across the city, have benefited from the vision and leadership of a person named Arne Duncan. And, he is going to be the next Secretary of Education. We are fortunate he has agreed to take on this position. We wish him all the very best." |||President George W. Bush (1/8/09), on the seventh anniversary of the No Child Left Behind Act| "You need no lessons from me on toughness and tenacity. Not only did you achieve results for Chicago's schoolchildren, but you did it in the face of steady criticism. You stuck to your guns on merit pay for teachers who showed results. You expanded charter schools when others wanted to limit them. And, you closed chronically underperforming schools so that they could be restructured. I am confident that you will bring this attitude to Washington." |||Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings (1/9/09), in a letter to the Secretary of Education-Designate| Don't forget! The next "Education News Parents Can Use" broadcast (January 20, 8:00-9:00 ET) will look back at some of the most engaging topics explored on recent shows from the "fresh" point of view of the Teaching Ambassador Fellows. For more information, please go to http://www.ed.gov/edtv/. (You can watch archived webcasts at http://www.connectlive.com/events/ednews/.) Next month, the Department will exhibit at the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education's Annual Meeting in Chicago (February 6-8); the National Association for Bilingual Education's Annual Conference in Austin (February 18-21); the American Association of School Administrators' National Conference in San Francisco (February 19-21); the National Title I Conference in San Antonio (February 19-22); and the National Association of Secondary School Principals' Annual Convention in San Diego (February 26-28). If you are attending any of these events, please stop by the Department's booth. Credits, Subscribe & Unsubscribe Please feel free to contact the Office of Communications and Outreach with any questions: Director, Intergovernmental AffairsRogers Johnson, (202) 401-0026, Rogers.Johnson@ed.gov Deputy DirectorKeith Brancato, (202) 401-6178, Keith.Brancato@ed.gov Program AnalystAdam Honeysett, (202) 401-3003, Adam.Honeysett@ed.gov To be added or removed from distribution, or submit comments (we welcome your feedback!), please contact Adam Honeysett. Or, visit http://www.ed.gov/news/newsletters/edreview/index.html. This newsletter contains hypertext links to information created and maintained by other public and private organizations. These links are provided for the user's convenience. The U.S. Department of Education does not control or guarantee the accuracy, relevance, timeliness, or completeness of this outside information. Furthermore, the inclusion of links is not intended to reflect their importance, nor is it intended to endorse any views expressed, or products or services offered, on these sites, or the organizations sponsoring the sites.

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Developing Cultural Diversity in Teaching What is Cultural Diversity? The phrase 'Cultural Diversity'means a range of different societies or peoples with different origins, religions and traditions all living and interacting together. To be culturally diverse is to accept and celebrate difference. For tutors that means finding a way of ‘bringing the world into classroom’ to reflect the diversity of our community and to enrich the learning experience of all our learners as well as creating an inclusive learning environment. To help tutors create more culturally diverse programmes we have put together the following guidance with a down-loadable Cultural Diversity resource 121kb for subject specific ideas. Re-examine your teaching materials and planning, to identify where you can incorporate a broader view of the world. - How outward looking are you expecting your learners to be? Are you encouraging learner autonomy? - Do you expect them to research, and explore the subject outside the classroom? Are they dependant on you for everything? - Do you draw learner attention to related activities happening locally, nationally and globally? - Examine your own source of your inspiration, ideas, knowledge – how culturally diverse are they? - Be pro-active and consider cultural diversity at the planning stage, otherwise it won’t happen! - Be aware of individual rights and responsibilities (e.g. gender, age-related issues) - Consider the differences in your learners i.e. age, sex, race etc and plan resources to include all. - Share good practice – Make this resource useful to ev.eryone by sending your contributions to: email@example.com.

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I just read about the discovery of a temple at Beth-Shemesh in Israel, dated to the 11th century B.C. (see the link below). This got my attention right away because (1) Beth-Shemesh was a border town in Old Testament times, between the Israelites and Philistines, (2) the 11th century B.C. was the time of the last judges and King Saul, and (3) a story from the Old Testament took place in Beth-Shemesh, right at that time. According to 1 Samuel 4-6, the Philistines captured the Ark of the Covenant in a battle, but after a wave of plagues hit the cities where the Ark was kept, they decided to return it. To find out if God was behind the plagues, they loaded the Ark on an ox-cart, and sent it off without a driver, to see if the oxen would take it to Israel. They did, and when the cart reached Beth-Shemesh, the locals rejoiced and made a sacrifice of the oxen, until a number of them were struck dead for not handling the Ark properly. Then the Ark was sent to another town, Kiriath-Jearim, and because nobody there wanted to touch it, after what had already happened, it stayed there for at least forty years, until King David came along and took the Ark to Jerusalem. The article goes on to say that the site was identified as a holy place because of the animal bones found there, and that it was destroyed once and rebuilt. The archaeologists are guessing it was an Israelite place of worship, which the Philistines destroyed when they took Beth-Shemesh, and the Israelites rebuilt it later, when they took Beth-Shemesh back. So far so good, but I have a few questions which the story did not answer. First, how did the archaeologists get the 11th century B.C. date? I am assuming it was carbon-14 dating, or a comparison of the local styles of pottery. This matters because at other sites in the Holy Land, it now looks like the artifacts were dated to the wrong period. The ashlar stone walls at Megiddo, for example, are usually dated to the time when the Canaanites ruled the city, when King Solomon may have been the one who really built them. Second, how did they decide it was an Israelite temple, and not a Philistine or Canaanite one? It would have helped if the article mentioned what kind of animal bones were found; if they included pig bones, you can rule out the Israelites. In those days, the Israelites were only allowed to perform sacrifices where the Ark was (usually at Shiloh), so sacrifices only could have been done legally during the brief period when the Ark was at Beth-Shemesh. Have we found the exact spot where a Bible story (1 Samuel 6) took place? It’s an exciting thought.

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The Journal of American Medical Association did a study on “e-mobile technology”, for example sending text messages on phones to try to increase immunization rates, in this case flu rates of children. The research was done at the University of Rochester where about 8,000, mostly low-income kids, and parents got a series of text messages regarding flu shots starting at the beginning of the 2010-2011 flu season, and then received an additional reminder. About half the parents got weekly text messages, educating them about the flu and the importance of immunizing their children. They also got weekly text messages reminding them about flu clinics that were being held. Researchers found that about 44% of the kids and teens that were in the text message group were vaccinated and about 40% of those parents who did not receive texts were vaccinated. Statistically, there’s not much difference, but clinically this is important, and here’s why. These authors pointed out that if these results were applied to the entire population you would have several million more kids getting vaccinated. One of the concerns we should consider is cost and even potentially, some privacy issues. But despite the possible downsides, even if it’s only a 4% difference, if you apply that, it could result in lives saved. I think we should continue to pursue this area of research of using text message reminders as a potential to make a difference from the public health perspective. In the meantime though, make sure your children are getting their flu shots every year!

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A Beautiful Way to Communicate - Languages of Love and Understanding Making English the official language, is exclusionary, elitist, and demeaning to hardworking, striving individuals. It is politically destructive to limit the use of languages. Sharing languages is a means of creating harmony and understanding between people of different cultures and a way to foster cooperation. It is a growth experience for individuals, an enhancement in strengthening communities, and eventually a benefit for government for languages to be recognized and shared, and for groups of people to be respected. English will always be considered the first language of the United States. It should not have to be legislated as such. By recognizing the use and importance of other languages in the United States, English will take priority. In lieu of disenfranchising and discouraging others, the idea here would be to take the positive approach of recognizing the second most commonly used language, Spanish, as a second , or, sister language. English, therefore, remains 1

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Given all the evidence presently available, we believe it entirely reasonable that Mars is inhabited with living organisms and that life independently originated there The conclusion of a study by the National Academy of Sciences in March 1965, after 88 years of surveying the red planet through blurry telescopes. Four months later, NASA’s Mariner 4 spacecraft would beam back the first satellite images of Mars confirming the opposite. After Earth and Mars were born four and a half billion years ago, they both contained all the elements necessary for life. After initially having surface water and an atmosphere, scientists now believe Mars lost it’s atmosphere four billion years ago, with Earth getting an oxygenated atmosphere around half a billion years later. According to the chief scientist on NASA’s Curiosity mission, if life ever existed on Mars it was most likely microscopic and lived more than three and a half billion years ago. But even on Earth, fossils that old are vanishingly rare. “You can count them on one hand,” he says. “Five locations. You can waste time looking at hundreds of thousands of rocks and not find anything.” The impact of a 40kg meteor on the Moon on March 17 was bright enough to see from Earth without a telescope, according to NASA, who captured the impact through a Moon-monitoring telescope. Now NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter will try and search out the impact crater, which could be up to 20 metres wide.

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Delineating each addition to the 63 chapters covering new developments, techniques, and knowledge in neuroscience would require excessive space. Generally speaking, the progression of the chapters has remained the same, with relevant additions made to each to deal with new developments. Most of these additions, as already noted, fall into the molecular arena. A new chapter, "Genes and Behavior," is presented in part 1 and provides the foundation for genetic topics in subsequent chapters. The "Genes and Behavior" overview describes very cogently the multiple avenues for exploration of the genetic determinants of behavior, including single gene allele determinants of normal variations in behavior, as well as the effects of mutations, deletions, and other defects in manifest behaviors. This introduction does an exceptional job of setting the stage for the remainder of the text. The broad scope of this text is exemplified in the introduction as it overviews genetic findings in worms, Drosophila, and mice, bridging these findings with studies of complex behavioral and psychiatric disturbances such as bipolar affective disorder and schizophrenia.

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Around 1881, Herbert Bryant, a prominent citizen who owned a large fertilizer plant in Alexandria, had a new home built near the northwest corner of North Washington and Queen streets. Designed by architect Benjamin F. Price, the Second Empire style home featuring a mansard roof was noted in a local paper: Of all the residences in the city, none are handsomer than the one recently erected by Captain Herbert Bryant. The building inside is supplied with all the modern improvements. The workmanship on this building reflects credit upon Alexandria mechanics. Even more than 25 years later, a souvenir publication described it as a splendid modern residence. Bryant died at his home at 306 North Washington St. in 1914, and around 1918, the property became the site for a new parochial school. The Xaverian Brothers operated the school for boys within St. Marys parish. The first two floors served as classroom space and initially, the brothers lived on the top floor. But as enrollment grew, St. Marys purchased a nearby property to provide living quarters for the brothers. Lawn parties and suppers were held on the grounds to help raise money for the St. Marys school. Student enrollment at the Xaverian School reached 154 in 1930, but the school proved to be too expensive to operate. With church officials citing the impact of the Depression, it closed around 1934. The old Bryant home was used as an apartment building for many years. In 1956, it and other structures in the 300 block of North Washington Street were demolished. In the early 1960s, an office building was constructed on the site. Out of the Attic is provided by the Office of Historic Alexandria.

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An individual who uses a computer with an Internet connection pretty much practices caution when downloading programs from the Internet and email because of the threat of viruses and worms. These malicious program codes and programs can cause your system to become unstable and worse yet, after it has spread within your system, it further infects other systems connected to yours. This is why any sensible computer user has anti virus programs installed in one’s computer for protection against attacks from viruses and worms that proliferate the Internet. The good thing about viruses and worms is the fact that it is easier to spot them trying to get into your system. For instance, a virus or worm can try to enter your system through a suspicious attachment usually from an unknown source. By now, most Internet users know better than to open suspicious attachments. Also, rigorous anti virus programs can scan attachments before you can open them so that your risk against viruses and worms are properly managed. However, as an Internet user, you have more to worry about than viruses and worms. Unfortunately, anti virus programs are not designed to detect other types of threats and if you are not careful, you may unwittingly install adware and spyware into your system and once this happens, uninstalling these programs can become problematic. For one thing, most spyware can go undetected in your system. You will continue on your regular computer and Internet habits without realizing that your privacy is immensely violated and your security is greatly hindered. Since spyware can go undetected and you can continue to use your computer and the Internet as usual, there is no need to worry about uninstalling spyware, right? Spyware in mild cases infringes on your privacy because it can track and take note of your usage patterns and these information are reported back to the company that created the spyware so that they can build marketing profiles. More than that though, some spyware have the ability to register and take note of key strokes, scan documents within your computer‘s hard drive, and can steal your passwords and other sensitive information that can make you the victim of identity theft and other situations where your personal information can be used to compromise your security. On the other hand, adware is used by companies to infect your computer with unsolicited ads. The most problematic kinds are the ones that indiscriminately pop ads on to your screen even if you are not viewing their site or using the parent program that launched the adware. In fact, in some cases, adware continues to work into your system long after you uninstalled the program it came bundled with. Given the security risks, the invasion of your right to privacy, and the annoying effects of spyware and adware, you will be wise to uninstall these programs from your computer. However, to uninstall adware and spyware from your system is not such a simply task. For one thing, companies that proliferate the Internet with spyware and adware go to great lengths to ensure that uninstalling them from your system can be difficult. For instance, in most cases, you will be unable to use legitimate software if you attempt to uninstall the adware or spyware it comes bundled with. Adware and spyware are usually bundled with legitimate freeware or shareware and cannot run independently of each other.

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Nutrition: Nuts May, in Fact, Help Avert Diverticulitis Doctors have long advised people with diverticulosis to steer clear of nuts and foods with small seeds, fearing they might cause severe intestinal complications. But a study has found that eating these foods not only does not increase the risk of complications, but may even lower the risk of developing the disease. The study, published in the Aug. 27 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association, is the first large-scale study of the matter. About a third of Americans over 60 develop diverticulosis, which causes intense pain in the abdomen and leads to the rupture of small pouches in the colon, called diverticula. In the study, scientists analyzed data on more than 47,000 men ages 40 to 75 who had no history of the disease at the start of the study. The subjects were followed for the next 18 years, a period in which 800 cases of diverticulitis and about 380 cases of diverticular bleeding were diagnosed. Those who ate the most nuts, twice a week or more, had a 20 percent lower risk of developing diverticulitis than those who ate the least, while those who ate popcorn at least twice a week had a 28 percent lower risk. They also found no link between any foods and complications. The authors say the benefits may come from nutrients and fiber in nuts and light popcorn.

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In the long, often boring, and generally disappointing history of evolution, nothing has managed to capture our imagination quite like the dinosaurs.1 The simple fact that there were once giant, terrifying reptiles with tiny brains who “ruled the Earth”2 is enough to inspire awe, but that they then disappeared prior to the invention of the camera phone really compounds it. On the cosmic scale of things, the fact that grizzly bears frighten us is a bit laughable, for if they stepped out of a time machine and into the age of the dinosaurs, grizzly bears would spend the majority of their short lives screaming like children and running away from everything they saw – including the plants, probably – and wondering what the hell was going on here (and also kicking themselves for not just stopping the time machine in 1929 and shorting the stock market, like they had planned). ‘I’m short oil, I’m short steel, I’m short railroads…I’m short pretty much everything. Oh, I’m from the future.’ Of all the dinosaurs, none is so iconic as Tyrannosaurus rex (lit. ‘Tyrant-Lizard King (not the band)’). Hailing from the late Cretaceous between 85 and 65 million years ago, Tyrannosaurus rex (or T. rex, as it preferred to be called), was, from what we can suss out based on skeletal remains, one of the largest carnivores ever, standing 15 feet tall, reaching up to 40 feet long, and weighing somewhere around 7,000 pounds. According to people who estimate things that are impossible to estimate, its 700 pound head could, with the aid of serrated teeth the size of bananas, tear off up to 500 pounds of meat in a single bite. But what’s most breathtaking about T. rex was that it was, at one point, real. T. rexes roamed Western North America for millions of years, and in a time when dinosaurs ruled, they were king. ‘More mead and serving wenches! And tell my younger brother to calm down. I can’t handle his psychodrama right now.’ Or so we’re led to believe. The truth is that everything we know about T. rex comes from fossilized remains – reptilian bone slowly replaced by minerals over the course of millions of years – and a few Spielberg movies. And from these sources, our best and brightest scientists can only make rough deductions about T. rex based on a knowledge of biomechanics and animal anatomy comparisons drawn from extant fauna. What this means is that, while it certainly looked like a carnivorous tyrant-lizard king, for all we really know, T. rex actually liked eating flowers and hugging. Only one thing is for sure—leaving behind a giant skeleton with massive teeth the size of bananas is a surefire way to get lots of kids books written about yourself. His one wish was that some future species educate their offspring about his work. As with all other dinosaurs, there are no T. rexes frozen in ice (unlike the wooly mammoth), no T. rex photographs, no T. rex audio recordings, and only the crudest of T. rex diary entries, leaving a vast chasm of T. rex knowledge that is open to interpretation, speculation, and prolific grant-writing by bearded paleontologists who spend their adult lives hoping that PBS interviews them in their Indiana Jones hat at least once. ‘Believe it or not, I’m a bit of a rebel. I mean, I got the hat and everything.’ For instance, some paleontologists believe that all tyrannosaurs, including T. rex, must have been covered in feathers at some point during their life cycles (most likely after hatching). If nothing else, a feather-covered T. rex was surely a lot less intimidating, not to mention a lot more upsetting for his dad. But we don’t know. We also don’t know whether T. rex was a hunter or a scavenger. While a massive dinosaur with a mouthful of banana teeth that could deliver a bite with 1440 pounds of force in the front part of its jaw and 3011 in the back would seem to be a bit of a no-brainer in the hunting department, some paleontologists suggest that their massive legs may have prevented them from running as fast as their potential prey (biomechanics pins their top speed at about 18 mph, which is slightly faster than a human being can run). They also had relatively large olfactory lobes, which could (could!) mean a powerful sense of smell for locating rotten meat (similar to New World vultures, which are award-winning, world-class scavengers). And then, of course, there was the issue of T. rex’s hilariously undersized forearms, which could not even reach their own mouth (meaning that, however they got their food, they never wiped their mouth after dinner). These almost vestigial forearms were likely little use for grasping prey, and they were almost certainly worthless in push up contests. ‘Well they’ll work just fine for Xbox. When’s that coming out again?’ But others dissent from this view and remain convinced T. rex was a hunter, pointing to its stereoscopic vision (and, you know, the spiky banana teeth). Still others think the shreds of rotten, bacteria-infested meat lodged in its numerous teeth gave T. rex a “septic bite,” which caused an initial bite wound to become infected, making these tyrannosaurs among the very first bioterrorists. And, for what it’s worth, this would also explain why two T. rex fossils have never been found locked in a passionate kiss. The most complete T. rex skeleton ever found was discovered in South Dakota in 1990. Currently on display at the Field Museum in Chicago, ‘Sue’ has shed a great deal of new light on the Tyrannosaurus rex. For instance, we now know that we don’t know whether Sue was a male or a female. We do know, however, that Sue died at some point in what is now South Dakota. Probably. For all we know, she or he passed away in what is now Montana, but the other T. rexes brought her to South Dakota for an incredibly elaborate funeral procession that featured a full marching band and several push up contests. ‘By the way, I was also pink. Everything was. Long story.’ However, using a little bit of common sense, we can probably make the reasonable leap and conclude that T. rex was a hunter; after all, T. rex-esque wounds have been found in other dinosaur skeletons. Of course, these may have been inflicted post-mortem. But let’s be honest–does anyone think that something with banana teeth and a brain smaller than a quart of milk was reluctant to bite anything and everything around it? Obviously, grading an animal that no longer exists – and about whom so much remains murky – presents a challenge. But after much meditation and consideration, one is stuck with the words ‘banana teeth,’ and grading T. rex, unlike every other aspect of its investigation, becomes quite simple. 1 The notable exception being the great white shark. 2 A small minority of experts think that the dinosaurs were brought down by an overextended state budget, bread riots, an overreliance on mercenaries, and general internal decadence. This minority is very, very small.

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Member States were next asked a series of questions related to safety and herbal medicines. The first question asked countries to describe those regulatory requirements used for the safety assessment of herbal medicines. The following options were given: same requirements as for conventional pharmaceuticals, special requirements or no requirements. If Member States chose the option “special requirements”, they were further asked to choose all that applied from the following options: traditional use without demonstrated harmful effects, reference to documented scientific research on similar products, and other requirements. If other requirements were selected, the respondents were asked to describe the requirement. A total of 130 Member States responded to this question: however, as respondents were asked to choose all that applied, there are more responses than respondents for this question (Figure 30). Eighty two countries indicated that special regulatory requirements exist for herbal medicine. Of the remaining responses, 57 countries indicated that the same regulatory requirements for safety assessment apply to herbal medicines as to conventional pharmaceuticals. Finally, 28 countries indicated that no regulatory requirements for safety assessment exist in their country. Figure 30. Regulatory requirements for safety assessment of herbal medicines When selecting the category “special requirements”, countries were further asked to choose the relevant categories of special requirement, or to describe other special requirements. Sixty-six countries of the 82 that chose the category of special requirements indicated that their laws and regulations employ the regulatory requirement of traditional use without demonstrated harmful effects, while 53 countries indicated that they had a regulatory requirement for reference to documented scientific research (Figure 31). Please note that, as countries were able to choose all options that apply, the number of responses exceeds the number of responding countries. Figure 31. Special regulatory requirements for safety assessment of herbal medicines Twenty-one countries chose the option “other” and provided details on other regulatory requirements for safety assessment. These included the following: clinical studies, bibliographical documents, screening of herbs not suitable for food use, screening for toxic elements, radioactivity and heavy metals, well-established use, traditional literature documentation and toxicological studies. Finally, countries were asked whether control mechanisms exist for the regulatory requirements for safety assessment detailed above and, if so, a brief description was requested. Though 125 Member States responded, the figure below only includes 106 since it excludes those that did not respond to the previous question, or responded solely that that there are no requirements. Of the responding countries, 67%, or 71 countries, indicated that such control mechanisms exist (Figure 32). The control mechanisms were also specified in some cases, of which licensing and registration, laboratory testing and pharmacovigilance centres were among the most frequently cited. Figure 32. Existence of a control mechanism for safety requirements

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As the years tick by with most of the planet doing little in the way of reducing carbon emissions, researchers are getting increasingly serious about the possibility of carbon sequestration. If it looks like we're going to be burning coal for decades, carbon sequestration offers us the best chance of limiting its impact on climate change and ocean acidification. A paper that will appear in today's PNAS describes a fantastic resource for carbon sequestration that happens to be located right next to many of the US' major urban centers on the East Coast. Assuming that capturing the carbon dioxide is financially and energetically feasible, the big concern becomes where to put it so that it will stay out of the atmosphere for centuries. There appear to be two main schools of thought here. One is that areas that hold large deposits of natural gas should be able to trap other gasses for the long term. The one concern here is that, unlike natural gas, CO2 readily dissolves in water, and may escape via groundwater that flows through these features. The alternative approach turns that problem into a virtue: dissolved CO2 can react with minerals in rocks called basalts (the product of major volcanic activity), forming insoluble carbonate minerals. This should provide an irreversible chemical sequestration. The new paper helpfully points out that if we're looking for basalts, the East Coast of the US, home to many of its major urban centers and their associated carbon emissions, has an embarrassment of riches. The rifting that broke up the supercontinent called Pangea and formed the Atlantic Ocean's basin triggered some massive basalt flows at the time, which are now part of the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province, or CAMP. The authors estimate that prior to some erosion, CAMP had the equivalent of the largest basalt flows we're currently aware of, the Siberian and Deccan Traps. Some of this basalt is on land—anyone in northern Manhattan can look across the Hudson River and see it in the sheer cliffs of the Palisades. But much, much more of it is off the coast under the Atlantic Ocean. The authors provide some evidence in the form of drill cores and seismic readings that indicate there are large basalt deposits in basins offshore of New Jersey and New York, extending up to southern New England. These areas are now covered with millions of years of sediment, which should provide a largely impermeable barrier that will trap any gas injected into the basalt for many years. The deposits should also have reached equilibrium with the seawater above, which will provide the water necessary for the chemical reactions that precipitate out carbonate minerals. Using a drill core from an onshore deposit, the authors show that the basalt deposits are also composed of many distinct flows of material. Each of these flows would have undergone rapid cooling on both its upper and lower surface, which fragmented the rock. The core samples show porosity levels between 10 and 20 percent, which should allow any CO2 pumped into the deposits to spread widely. The authors estimate that New Jersey's Sandy Hook basin, a relatively small deposit, is sufficient to house 40 years' worth of emissions from coal plants that produce 4GW of electricity. And the Sandy Hook basin is dwarfed by one that lies off the Carolinas and Georgia. They estimate that the South Georgia Rift basin covers roughly 40,000 square kilometers. The authors argue that although laboratory simulations suggest the basic idea of using basalts for carbon sequestration is sound, the actual effectiveness in a given region can depend on local quirks of geology, so pilot tests in the field are absolutely essential for determining whether a given deposit is suitable. So far, only one small-scale test has been performed on any of the CAMP deposits. Given the area's proximity to significant sources of CO2 and the infrastructure that could be brought into play if full-scale sequestration is attempted, it seems like one of the most promising proposals to date. PNAS, 2010. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0913721107

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April is national Autism Awareness Month. To many of you, that won't mean more then a new colorful ribbon that you might see people wearing or some information on the TV talk shows or news, but for many others this is an important time to raise awareness about our loved one's autism. Autism is a lifelong neurological spectrum disorder that affects a person's social communication and behavior. There has been more information in the news recently about Autism Spectrum Disorder because of the data that the Centers for Disease Control released in February 2007. The CDC found that the prevalence of autism in the USA is now affecting one in every 150 children. That means that every day 50 new families face a diagnosis of autism, and one in every four American families have a loved one with autism. Alarming, yes! The diagnosis is growing at an incredible rate of 10 to 17 percent each year.

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(The source of funds used…) 1) The source of funds used by a non-resident Indian (NRI) should be identified at the time of investing in order to decide if the money can be taken outside the country on sale or redemption. 2) If the source of funds is foreign currency, it can be sent without any restriction. If, however, it is Indian rupees, it cannot be remitted. These two sources cannot be clubbed together. 3) The bank account through which the investment is routed is used to determine the source of funds. The funds that are remitted from abroad into the NRE or FCNR accounts and invested can be freely sent back. 4) The income earned in India on investments is repatriable, irrespective of the source of funds. This includes interest from bonds and bank accounts, rental income, dividends from shares and mutual funds. 5) The income earned on an investment is freely repatriable once the taxes have been paid according to the Indian laws. 6) The income in the form of sale proceeds from capital assets, such as property, land, shares, bonds, and mutual funds held in India, are repatriable to the extent of funds remitted from abroad for buying these capital assets. (The content on this page is courtesy Centre for Investment Education and Learning (CIEL). Contributions by Sunita Abraham, Girija Gadre and Arti Bhargava.)

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Seventh Grade - Practice Vocabulary Word List A / B / C / D / E / F / G / H / I / J / K / L / M / N / O / P / Q / R / S / T / U / V / W / X / Y / Z Vocabulary Words - Seventh Grade - E: 1 - 25 (of 26) (adj.) Honest and polite; serious. (adj.) Related to the economy. (adj.) Using time, money, or goods carefully and without wasting any. (n.) The financial situation in an area. (n.) A group of plants, animals and their environment that work together as a unit. (n.) A change that is made on a person or thing. (adj.) Doing something without wasting time and doing it well. (adj.) Something that can be stretched. (n.) Energy carried by wires that you use to provide heat or light or to make machines work. (v.) To put into another substance. (v.) To do something to the surface of an object. (v.) To make something possible. (n.) A set of books that give information on many topics. (n.) The area where people or animals live. (v.) To wish for someone else's talents or possessions. (adj.) Needed; important. (v.) To judge how well something or someone works. (v.) To surpass or go beyond what was expected. (n.) Something left out of the usual rule. (n.) A short trip. (n.) A manager or supervisor. (adj.) Related to the job of a manager or supervisor. (n.) A display in public. (v.) To make a public display. (v.) To increase. (v.) To treat someone unfairly to make money. (n.) When something is made bigger or longer. We've taken all of the words found in our Practice Vocabulary Word Lists and created an online vocabulary building game that anyone can play. We call it Lemons for Literacy. This vocabulary building game is meant to be a fun way to improve vocabulary comprehension, spelling and reading skills, but it is also tool for people to help in the cause of literacy. As you play, and match vocabulary words with their definitions, Reading Horizons will donate money and it's award winning reading software to people in need.

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Research Brief: Effectiveness of low-cost intervention to improve sun protection Published by Colorado Cancer Blogs A blistering sunburn during childhood or adolescence more than doubles the adult risk of skin cancer. The accumulation of long-term sun exposure may be equally dangerous. A study from the Colorado School of Public Health and the University of Colorado Cancer Center recently published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine shows one way to reduce this exposure: a double-blind randomized clinical trial of mailed sun protection packets led to higher frequency of sun protective behaviors including the use of long clothing, hats, shade, sunscreen, and midday sun avoidance. “This is a low-cost, effective intervention that could be an important component in efforts to reduce sun exposure in children during the years that they acquire much of their risk for skin cancer,” says the paper’s first author, Lori Crane, PhD, MPH, CU Cancer Center investigator and chair of the Department of Community & Behavioral Health at the Colorado School of Public Health.

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For the first time ever, scientists have mapped out the underground reservoirs of water throughout Africa and found that the northern part of the continent has the most groundwater stored. Contrary to the common notions, beneath Africa's vast desert landscapes there exists about 0.66 million km3 of groundwater, a hundred times more than can be found on the surface and twenty times more than in Africa's lakes. Researchers from the British Geological Survey (BGS) and University College-London mapped out the groundwater reservoirs, also known as aquifers, by cross-referencing a geological base map of the African continent with previously published maps of the African continent's aquifers, in addition to conducting studies of 283 African aquifers. The results were the first "quantitative groundwater maps for Africa." As the climate became drier, transforming the Sahara into a desert, water was trapped underneath the surface in these aquifers more than 5,000 years ago. In Africa, more than 300 million people do not have access to safe drinking water. The discovery of these reservoirs offer hope for the continent, provided that the water resources are not exhausted by recurrent droughts. "Much lower storage aquifers are present across much of sub-Saharan Africa. However, our work shows that with careful exploring and construction, there is sufficient groundwater under Africa to support low-yielding water supplies for drinking and community irrigation," Helen Bonsor, co-author of the BGS report, told the BBC. However, these underground acquifers have not been replenished for an estimated 5,000 years due to the lack of rain, meaning that the stored groundwater is of limited supply. This fact has raised debate over how to best extract the water for drinking purposes. Generally, groundwater is accessed by drilling boreholes, deep and narrow holes. However, caution must be exercised given the limited supply. Wide developments of boreholes could actually deplete the aquifers. "It is not as simple as drilling big bore-holes and seeing rice fields spring up everywhere. In some places it could be economically and technically feasible to use groundwater to reduce crop loss, but I would question whether that is true everywhere. It will need detailed evaluation," Dr Stephen Foster, a London-based senior adviser for aid group Global Water Partnership told Reuters. In addition the yield of boreholes, as in how much water is delivered from pumping, might not be enough for large-scale irrigation. The uneven groundwater distribution is another cause for debate and potentially violent conflict between African countries as they become more desperate for water. The discovery of groundwater under the notoriously dry continent Africa could dramatically affect its population, but practical access and extraction of the water could further delay the thirst relief. To contact the editor, e-mail:

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The CPU market is now flooded with multi-core and multi-threaded CPUs. We see them in everything from smartphones (with Dual Core Cortex A9 from ARM) to the highest end notebooks and desktops where the Core i7-980X is now king. But the question many people are asking is; what will more cores give me? - So let's take a brief look at why even with 6 and 12 core CPUs in the channel we do not see better multi-thread and multi-tasking support in our applications and operating systems. The question of what does more cores get me is an important one and one that needs to be answered by the big software companies. If you go back a few years (like around 10), you will see that it was not until very recently that even the big names like Microsoft began to seriously consider multiple CPUs or cores in their products. True, you had Windows NT that would support more than one CPU, but the scheduler that handled the tasks was very basic, though it still achieved the end result and allowed you to use more than one CPU through the OS. In the professional space this was great and helped with production and content creation. In the consumer space there were very few applications that could deal with this, so it was up to the very immature task scheduler to deal with these in what it felt was the most efficient manner. From Windows NT we moved to Windows 2000 then to Windows XP (yes, I know, I am skipping over a few years here). Of these two, only XP had rudimentary support for consumer level SMP and SMT systems. But, again this was not a very mature or efficient product. In fact, there was quite a large issue with the Home version of XP and anything with more than one CPU. The problem centered on the poorly written task scheduler and the power management. If you had a dual core CPU (or dual CPU system) and only one core was active, the PWM system would still try to throttle down both cores. This caused many systems to slow down dramatically or simply lockup. This was one of the reasons that most gamers and enthusiasts used Windows XP Professional over Home (there were others, but this was a big one). Again, even with support for more than one CPU in Windows XP, it was very limited. In fact, the original Kernel only had support for two CPUs, the same type of SMP support that existed since the days of Windows NT workstation. This was still going on while Quad Core CPUs from Intel and AMD were hitting the market. It was very interesting to see reviews on quad core CPUs using software and games that could not even deal with two, especially considering that Windows XP was still not able to efficiently deal with them. Some of that changed when many sites moved to the Server 2003 Kernel based Windows XP x64 OS. You still did not have many applications outside the professional world that would allow you to use more than two cores, but the platform was getting better. With the release of Windows Vista we saw MS try its hand at SMT/SMP for the masses again. The Scheduler in Vista was much more efficient and was a big improvement over anything (other than server operating systems) that had been available on the consumer market before. However, Vista was not received well and due to some internal issues combined with terrible press, it was not widely adopted across the consumer space. It can also be said that Microsoft's insistence on making 50 different SKUs for the OS hurt. When people think of an OS, they think of it by name. They have Vista, not Vista Basic, or Vista Home, or Vista Home Basic Premium Lite. This caused major confusion and only hurt the adoption of better SMT and SMP support in the consumer space. It is only now in the beginnings of 2010 that we see a widely adopted operating system with good solid multi-thread and multi-CPU support in the consumer market space. Windows 7 has a great task scheduler; it is very efficient at managing the applications and giving them CPU time based on demand and application need. It's not 100% perfect, but it is pretty damn good compared to what we had before. There are some things I would like to see in future versions; preset core affinity would be nice, as would being able to set application priority at launch vs. having to do it after the fact in task manager, but I am digressing here. The reason I touched on the path of SMT and SMP in the operating system is to cover the major reason why most consumer applications have almost no support for multi core systems. To put it simply and rather bluntly, they have not seen the need to spend the money on it. After all, if the OS does not support it, why should they? I have said this over and over again; money drives the market. You can put any friendly name on it you want. Consumer demand, adoption rate, call it what you will; both equal sales and money. Software development costs money, so to add in even rudimentary support for multiple CPUs or threads to an existing application that does not already have it, is not worth the time for most companies. They will happily continue to push out the same core product with a few minor updates, all the while unknowingly limiting their own customer's performance on their new systems. After all, if you think about it; every application that was pushed out to the consumer while XP was king was fighting for the same single CPU core and its resources. You had to rely on the dodgy task scheduler in Windows XP to hopefully open up the new application instance on another free CPU core, but that did not always happen. The same issue was present in almost every game. I mean come on guys; we saw SMP and SMT support going all the way back to Quake III and Half Life! Why can't we see that now when a dual core is the standard and quad cores are not far behind? It makes no sense at all to be honest. Page 1 of 2 Further Reading: Read and find more Software content at our Software reviews, guides and articles index page. Do you get our RSS feed? Get It!

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The story of the relationship between Sigmund Freud and his American nephew, Edward Bernays. Bernays invented the public relations profession in the 1920s and was the first person to take Freud's ideas and use them to manipulate the masses. He showed American corporations how they could make people want things they didn't need by systematically linking mass-produced goods to their unconscious desires. Bernays was one of the main architects of the modern techniques of mass-consumer persuasion, using every trick in the book, from celebrity endorsement and outrageous PR stunts, to eroticising the motorcar. His most notorious coup was breaking the taboo on women smoking by persuading them that cigarettes were a symbol of independence and freedom. But Bernays was convinced that this was more than just a way of selling consumer goods. It was a new political idea of how to control the masses. By satisfying the inner irrational desires that his uncle had identified, people could be made happy and thus docile.It was the start of the all-consuming self which has come to dominate today's world. The programme explores how those in power in post-war America used Freud's ideas about the unconscious mind to try and control the masses. Politicians and planners came to believe Freud's underlying premise - that deep within all human beings were dangerous and irrational desires and fears. They were convinced that it was the unleashing of these instincts that had led to the barbarism of Nazi Germany. To stop it ever happening again they set out to find ways to control this hidden enemy within the human mind. Sigmund Freud's daughter, Anna, and his nephew, Edward Bernays, provided the centrepiece philosophy. The US government, big business, and the CIA used their ideas to develop techniques to manage and control the minds of the American people. But this was not a cynical exercise in manipulation. Those in power believed that the only way to make democracy work and create a stable society was to repress the savage barbarism that lurked just under the surface of normal American life. In the 1960s, a radical group of psychotherapists challenged the influence of Freudian ideas in America. They were inspired by the ideas of Wilhelm Reich, a pupil of Freud's, who had turned against him and was hated by the Freud family. He believed that the inner self did not need to be repressed and controlled. It should be encouraged to express itself. Out of this came a political movement that sought to create new beings free of the psychological conformity that had been implanted in people's minds by business and politics. This programme shows how this rapidly developed in America through self-help movements like Werber Erhard's Erhard Seminar Training - into the irresistible rise of the expressive self: the Me Generation. But the American corporations soon realised that this new self was not a threat but their greatest opportunity. It was in their interest to encourage people to feel they were unique individuals and then sell them ways to express that individuality. To do this they turned to techniques developed by Freudian psychoanalysts to read the inner desires of the new self. This episode explains how politicians on the left, in both Britain and America, turned to the techniques developed by business to read and fulfil the inner desires of the self. Both New Labour, under Tony Blair, and the Democrats, led by Bill Clinton, used the focus group, which had been invented by psychoanalysts, in order to regain power. They set out to mould their policies to people's inner desires and feelings, just as capitalism had learnt to do with products. Out of this grew a new culture of public relations and marketing in politics, business and journalism. One of its stars in Britain was Matthew Freud who followed in the footsteps of his relation, Edward Bernays, the inventor of public relations in the 1920s. The politicians believed they were creating a new and better form of democracy, one that truly responded to the inner feelings of individual. But what they didn't realise was that the aim of those who had originally created these techniques had not been to liberate the people but to develop a new way of controlling them. The purpose of the second part of this book is to show various aspects of political and non-political strategy used to change the feelings and thoughts of the masses, starting with simple advertising and propaganda, then surveying psychological warfare and actual cold war, and going on to examine the means used for internal streamlining of man's thoughts and behavior. Part Two ends with an intricate exmination of how one of the tools of emotional fascination and attack -- the weapon of fear -- is used and what reactions it arouses in men. The ordinary, law-abiding citizen of Totalitaria, far from being a hero, is potentially guilty of hundreds of crimes. He is a criminal if he is stubborn in defense of his own point of view. He is a criminal if he refuses to become confused. He is a criminal if he does not loudly and vigorously participate in all official acts; reserve, silence, and ideological withdrawal are treasonable. He is a criminal if he doesn't LOOK happy, for then he is guilty of what the Nazis called physiognomic insubordination. He can be a criminal by association or disassociation, by scapegoatism, or by projection, by intention or by anticipation. He is a criminal if he refuses to become an informer. He can be tried and found guilty by every conceivable "ism" -- cosmopolitanism, provincialism; deviationalism, mechanism; imperialism, nationalism; pacifism, militarism; objectivism, subjectivism; chavinism, equalitarianism; practicalism, idealism. He is guilty every time he IS something. The only safe conduct pass for the citizen of Totalitaria lies in the complete abdication of his mental integrity.

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The New York City Council released a study today entitled, “The Middle Class Squeeze," a report that details how New York City’s middle class is shrinking as a percentage of the city’s working-age population. The study – which uses the Area Median Income (AMI) standard developed by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to define the middle class – outlines the striking economic challenges for New York City’s middle-class families. Most remarkably, the study found New York City is one of the most expensive places to live in the country: Manhattan and Brooklyn ranked first and second with the most expensive housing costs out of 300 U.S. metropolitan areas. Queens ranked seventh. In sheer numbers, the city’s middle class has seen growth between 1989 and 2012, gaining 129,000 middle class adults. However, the number of middle-class residents as a percentage of the total population has gotten smaller, as well as the overall median income of middle-class residents (see chart). In addition, the number of poor residents in the City has grown significantly, causing what researchers are terming the “hollow in the middle” effect, where the middle gives way to a heavier top and bottom. The City’s share of residents who are college-educated or better is higher than the nation as a whole. But the percentage of the population without a high school diploma fell, as well as those associated with the middle-educated section of the City’s population – those with some college population or an associate degree , reflecting the same “hollow in the middle” income polarization. Also, between 1989 and 2012 the City’s middle class also has grown more diverse, a trend that largely reflects the growing Hispanic and Asian populations in the city. However, although the chance that an African-American, Hispanic or Asian was in the middle class remained relatively stable throughout the period, the representation of African-American and Hispanic middle-class households has fallen. The report also found: - Jobs paying middle class wages are increasingly scarce. - Since 2001, median rents for middle class households rose by 6.2%, the price of a condominium apartment increased by 47%. - New York City’s middle class unemployment rate is 6.2%, three times higher than it was in 2008 and 75% higher than in 1989. - In 1989, more than half of the city’s working age high school graduates were in the middle class. Today only a third are in the middle class. “Clearly the middle class wants to be here, but it’s getting harder to stay,” said Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn. “This report demonstrates the need to address long-term housing costs, develop opportunities for middle class workers and help create a New York City that middle class families continue to seek out as a place to call home.” To read the report online, please visit www.council.nyc.gov.

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bussos: byssus (a species of flax), also (the) linen (made from it)Original Word: βύσσος, ου, ἡ Part of Speech: Noun, Feminine Phonetic Spelling: (boos'-sos) Short Definition: fine linen, cotton Definition: fine linen, cotton. Cognate: 1040 býssos – fine linen, i.e. a very expensive (sought-after) form of linen – "a specific species of Egyptian flax or linen made from it that is very costly, delicate" (J. Thayer). See 1039 (byssinos). Word Origin of Hebrew origin buts byssus (a species of flax), also (the) linen (made from it) fine linen (1). STRONGS NT 1040: βύσσος βύσσος, βύσσου, ἡ (Vanicek, Fremdwörter, under the word), byssus, a species of Egyptian flax (found also in India and Achaia) — or linen made from it — very costly, delicate, soft, white, and also of a yellow color (see respecting it Pollux, onomast. 50:7 c. 17 § 75): Luke 16:19; Revelation 18:12 Rec. (In the Sept. generally for שֵׁשׁ, also בּוּץ, cf. 1 Chronicles 15:27; 2 Chronicles 5:12; cf. Winers RWB under the word Baumwolle; (BB. DD., see under the words, and ). Josephus, Antiquities 3, 6, 1f; 3, 7, 2; Philostr. vit. Apoll. 2, 20 (p. 71, Olear. edition); on the flax of Achaia growing about Elis, cf. Pausanias, 5, 5, 2; 7, 21, 7.)<1> Of Hebrew origin (buwts); white linen -- fine linen. see HEBREW buwts βυούσης βυσσον βύσσον βύσσος βύσσου βύσσω βώλακας βώλους busson bysson býsson Strong's Greek 1040 βύσσον — 1 Occ. Luke 16:19 N-AFS BIB: πορφύραν καὶ βύσσον εὐφραινόμενος καθ' NAS: in purple and fine linen, joyously living KJV: and fine linen, and fared INT: purple and fine linen making good cheer every

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