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1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a charged particle beam writing apparatus and a charged particle beam writing method, and for example, relates to a writing apparatus that corrects distortion produced in a subfield (SF) and a method therefor. 2. Description of Related Arts A lithography technique that advances microminiaturization of semiconductor devices is an extremely important process only which forms patterns in semiconductor manufacturing processes. In recent years, with high integration of large-scale integrated circuits (LSI), a circuit critical dimension required for semiconductor devices becomes minuter year by year. In order to form a desired circuit pattern on semiconductor devices, there is required a master pattern (also called a mask or a reticle) of high precision. The electron beam writing technique intrinsically has excellent resolution and is used for manufacturing a highly precise master pattern. FIG. 6 shows a schematic diagram for describing operations of a variable-shaped type electron beam (EB) writing apparatus. As shown in the figure, the variable-shaped electron beam writing apparatus includes two aperture plates and operates as follows: A first or “upper” aperture plate 410 has a rectangular opening or “hole” 411 for shaping an electron beam 330. This shape of the rectangular opening may also be a square, a rhombus, a rhomboid, etc. A second or “lower” aperture plate 420 has a variable-shaped opening 421 for shaping the electron beam 330 that passed through the opening 411 into a desired rectangular shape. The electron beam 330 being emitted from a charged particle source 430 and having passed through the opening 411 is deflected by a deflector to penetrate a part of the variable-shaped opening 421 and thereby to irradiate a target workpiece or “sample” 340 mounted on a stage continuously moving in one predetermined direction (e.g. x direction) during the writing or “drawing”. In other words, a rectangular shape capable of passing through both the opening 411 and the variable-shaped opening 421 is written in the writing region of the target workpiece 340 on the stage. This method of writing or “forming” a given shape by letting beams pass through both the opening 411 and the variable-shaped opening 421 is referred to as a “variable shaping” method. In the electron beam pattern writing apparatus, there exist some factors which degrade the accuracy of the position of a pattern. For example, such factors are position accuracy degradation generated in the electron optical system, inclination or distortion of a mirror which is set at the stage to measure the stage position, and flexure or distortion of a mask serving as a target workpiece. In particular, inclination or distortion of the mirror, or flexure or distortion of the mask changes gradually over the whole mask surface. Therefore, a gradual position error (global position error) arises over the whole mask surface because of the distortion or flexure. In electron beam pattern writing apparatuses, a writing region is divided into small regions (SF: subfield), and then writing is performed for each SF. Conventionally, the global position error mentioned above is corrected by correcting a reference position of an SF when writing (e.g., refer to Japanese Patent No. 3197024). Furthermore, when exposing a pattern of a mask onto a silicon wafer by using an exposure apparatus and the mask which is written by the electron beam pattern writing apparatus, distortion occurs in setting the mask in the exposure apparatus. For example, in an exposure/transfer apparatus using EUV (Extreme UltraViolet) lights, which is studied in recent years, distortion occurs in the mask when fixing the mask by an electrostatic chuck. Then, it is necessary to correct the distortion in advance on the mask. Hereinafter, a distorted state in the electron beam writing apparatus and distortion produced in the exposure/transfer apparatus will be called “distortion”, and correcting the distortion will be called a “distortion correction.” FIGS. 7A and 7B show schematic diagrams for explaining a conventional distortion correction. When distortion or flexure occurs in a writing region 20 as shown in FIG. 7A, the position of a center 24 of an SF 22 is corrected so that it may be located on a straight line as shown in FIG. 7B after writing. FIG. 7B shows an example of position relation after the correction. That is, only the coordinates of the center 24 of each SF 22 are corrected without correcting the distortion of the SF 22 itself. In this case, a part of SFs, namely the SFs 22a to 22d and the centers 24a to 24d of them, are shown. According to this method, however, the correction is equally added to the shot position in the SF 22. Therefore, there is a problem that errors resulting from the distortion or flexure in the SF still remain after writing as shown in FIG. 7B. Thus, it has been impossible to perform a sufficiently precise correction. In recent years, with the miniaturization of patterns, it is requested to highly accurately correct errors caused by the distortion or flexure in the SF. Accordingly, there exists a problem that to correct only the SF position as mentioned above is insufficient as correction precision.

Cybersecurity threat vectors are paths that malefactors use to gain access to computing assets, such as devices or networks of devices, in order to acquire command and control of such assets and thereby advance nefarious objectives. Threat vectors, for instance, exploit misconfigured firewalls, unsecured wireless routers, wired modems, infected laptops located elsewhere that can access the network behind the firewall, infected USB keys, or known or unknown vulnerabilities in software running on computing assets. Often there are a number of vulnerabilities in computing asset defenses. Given a set of vulnerabilities associated with a computing asset, a threat vector can be conceptualized as being drawn through some subset of the vulnerabilities, with the threat vector exploiting each of the vulnerabilities in the subset in a sequential ordered process. For instance, a first such vulnerability of the computing asset may be exploited to deliver a weapon. Then, a second such vulnerability may be exploited to install the weapon on the computing asset. A third such vulnerability of the computing asset may then be exploited to obtain command and control over the computing asset in order to achieve a nefarious objective. In this example, the threat vector encompasses the three vulnerabilities of the computing asset and exploits them in a sequential ordered process. In some instances, multiple different threat vectors are applied against a computing asset in a brute force attack. That is, system vulnerabilities are discovered and exploited rapidly in a brute force manner. In other instances, a single threat vector, from among all the theoretically possible threat vectors, is implemented over a long period of time in order to obviate discovery of the breach in security of the computing asset. In any event, in modern computing assets, it is typically the case that the security of the computing asset is breached by the execution of a chain of events, and this chain of events is termed a threat vector. In some situations, vulnerabilities that may form the basis for a threat vector are discovered through reconnaissance. Attempts are then made to exploit each of the vulnerabilities, often by firing off automated exploit attempts to see which one of the vulnerabilities can be successfully exploited in order to compromise the computing asset defenses and gain access to an interior environment of the computing asset. Once access to an interior environment is reached, attempts are made to use the interior environment as a jump point, thereby creating several different chains of attack, known as fish bones. That is, the jump points are used to find more vulnerabilities deeper in the interior of the computing asset until enough of the computing asset is compromised to exploit and compromise the computing asset (e.g., obtain command and control of the computing asset in order to shut a process down, implement a foreign process, alter a process, destroy computer code, steal data or computer code, etc.). The successive exploitation of vulnerabilities within the computer defenses constitutes a threat vector. Associated with the threat vector is a velocity with which the attack can be done, the velocity with which data or computer code can be taken out (in instances where the threat vector is designed to acquire data or compute code), and the route that it takes. To protect computing assets against threat vectors, threat vector analysis is done. Such an analysis starts by evaluating each of the possible vulnerabilities of a computing asset. For instance, in the case where the computing asset is a networked system, all the exterior systems of the networked system are evaluated, all the ports on such exterior systems are evaluated, and so forth. Then, for specific threat vectors, very specific preventive actions, known as kill chain actions are developed. Kill chains implement specific controls or methods that break the chain of a corresponding threat vector in as many places as possible. The more places where the chain of vulnerabilities that constitutes a threat vector are blocked, the more effective the kill chain. For higher value computing assets, kill chains are designed that break every link in the vulnerabilities that constitute a corresponding threat vector. For instance, a kill chain may put some control in place to make sure that certain events can't happen. In the art, kill chains are preemptive. That is, they implement a safeguard strategy that prevents certain events from happening on protected computing assets. There are many types of preemptive kill chain tools. For instance, network filters can be used to filter out illegitimate traffic, such as traffic to TCP port 445 in instances where such traffic is undesirable. Network intrusion prevention systems can be used to scan embedded data of legitimate network traffic for signatures of known attacks. Network connections or packets containing recognized attacks can be dropped and only clean data delivered to the computing assets. If an attack is not recognized and stopped by the network filters or the network intrusion prevention systems and thus reaches an application running on the computing asset, then a host intrusion prevention system can be used to proactively detect attempts to exploit vulnerabilities in code to execute guarded system calls. Examples of such vulnerabilities, of which there are many, include vulnerability CVE-2009-0658 in the Adobe Acrobat Portable Document Format (PDF), documented by ADOBE on Feb. 19, 2009 and patched Mar. 10, 2009, and CVE-2009-0556 in MICROSOFT POWERPOINT, which was discovered Mar. 23, 2009 and patched on May 12, 2009. See Hutchins et al., 2011, “Intelligence-Driven Computer Network Defense Informed by Analysis of Adversary Campaigns and Intrusion Kill Chains,” Leading Issues in Information Warfare and Security Research 1, ed. Julie Ryan, Good New Digital Books, which is hereby incorporated by reference. Further still, if the above identified preemptive defenses are not successful then behavior blocking can be enacted to prevent various types of threat vectors by detecting dangerous anomalies in application behavior such as launching unrelated external executable files, tampering with the content of executable files, or discovering processes that are commanding excessive computer resources. Products that have incorporated multiple such preemptive defenses have been marketed, and include Kerio ServerFirewall, Kerio Technologies, 2005. However, what are lacking in the art are satisfactory methods for enacting automated kill chains that include countermeasures. While the above-described safeguards are general safeguard measures to apply in order to protect against threat vectors, countermeasures specifically counter specific threats. That is, a countermeasure breaks the chain of vulnerabilities exploited by a threat vector in real time or near real time upon detection of an explicit threat associated with the threat vector. As such, countermeasures are more effective against threat vectors then safeguards. Countermeasures are not found in automated kill chains because system administrators are adverse to the collateral damage often associated with automated countermeasures. For instance, consider a computing asset that is a web service used by customers. If there is an automated countermeasure system or an intrusion-prevention system that is in place, an intelligent attacker can actually leverage that countermeasure automation against the computing asset. For instance, the hacker can find out who all the best customers are and craft an attack that causes the countermeasure to block all the best customers from getting to the web service. This would force the system administrator to have to unwind the countermeasure, and in all likelihood, cause a significant loss in revenue. This example provides a simple demonstration of why defenses that fire automated countermeasures against detected threat vectors have been found to be unsatisfactory to system administrators. Thus, given the above background, what is need in the art are satisfactory kill chain procedures that can launch automated kill chains that include countermeasures in response to specific threats.

ResearchSaturday November 17th, 2018​Saturday May 18th, 2018 OtherFriday February 9th, 2018​Saturday February 10th, 2018 USS North Carolina (BB-55) was the lead ship of North Carolina-class battleships and the fourth warship in the U.S. Navy to be named for the State of North Carolina. She was the first newly constructed American battleship to enter service during World War II, and took part in every major naval offensive in the Pacific Theater of Operations; her 15 battle stars made her the most decorated American battleship of World War II. She was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1986, and is now a museum ship and memorial kept at the seaport of Wilmington, North Carolina. The USS North Carolina's primary role was protecting aircraft carriers and she served in every major Pacific battle during the war, and won a total of 15 battle stars. With a crew complement of 1880 men, nine 16" guns, twenty 5" guns, sixteen 1.1" machine guns, and twelve .50-cal machine guns, she was one of the most formidable weapons of any naval arsenal. Visitors may also view one of the nine surviving OS2U Kingfisher aircraft, displayed near the stern of the ship. This particular aircraft was salvaged from a mountainside in British Columbia in 1964 and restored. Ten men were lost during on this ship, five of those as a result of a torpedo hit on her port side that created a hole 32 ft. by 18. ft, 20 ft. below the water line. It is believed that one or two still remain with the ship. A young blond man has been seen in the passageways. A different one peers out of portholes occasionally. One has hitched a ride with an unsuspecting guest. Hatches and doors open or close themselves, televisions and lights turn themselves off or on. Things move by themselves in front of witnesses. And they don't hesitate to make themselves known by talking or even yelling. And of course there are cold spots, footsteps and other eerie experiences. Investigation Data APRIL 1st, 2017 EVP - "DAMN" Lead investigator Nelson Nauss captured this EVP at the base of the port side 5-inch battery director. This area of the USS North Carolina Battleship is where 44 men were wounded and 3 killed as a result of a friendly fire incident on April 6th 1945.​ November 17th, 2018 Bed Springs in Sick Bay Lead investigators Jason Waters and Kelly McConkey captured this strange occurrence during an EVP session in the Sick Bay. Disembodied voice letting us know we are not welcome Lead investigator Nelson Nauss and VIP guest Wes Storms were secluded in the Coding Room of the Communications Area. This area was considered highly secured and off-limits to most as we were clearly reminded that night...

The present invention relates to an expanded memory of a so-called LIM system, which is a type of expanded memory system. Recently, the memory capacity of personal computers has been increased, and a variety of expanded memory systems have been proposed. In an expanded memory of the LIM type, a portion of a memory address space of a central processing unit (CPU) is used as a window, and the CPU accesses a memory of a maximum of 8 MB through the window. The specification of the LIM system was developed by joint research of three U.S. companies, Lotus Development, Intel, and Microsoft Corp. The LIM expanded memory board is a commercially available product sold by Intel under the trademark "ABOVE BOARD". FIG. 14 shows an arrangement of an expanded memory utilizing the LIM system. Four contiguous windows are provided for accessing the expanded memory in units of 16 KB. Each 16-KB window is called a physical page, and a combination of the four physical pages is called a page frame. The expanded memory that is accessed through each physical page has a 16-KB unit called a logical page. There are a maximum of 512 logical pages, and the total amount is 16 KB.times.512=8 MB. The correspondence between the physical and logical pages is established by changing the content of an I/O port address, which is called a page controlling register, under the control of the CPU. The CPU can access a maximum of 8-MB of expanded memory. FIG. 15 is a block diagram of a prior-art system. Each expanded memory has a set number, and corresponds to an I/O port address of the page controlling register. Each expanded memory includes four page controlling registers. A page controlling register of physical page Y and set X (X=0, 1, 5, 6; Y=0, 1, 2, 3) has a format shown in FIG. 16. In FIG. 16, the bits of the page controlling register have the following meanings: PE: page enable bit 0: disable Mapping from physical page Y to a logical page is not performed in the range of the logical page of set X. 1: enable Mapping from physical page Y to a logical page is performed in the range of the logical page of set X. PAi: page address bit (i=0 to 6) A logical page for mapping physical page Y is designated. If PE=0, this bit is invalid. The system operation will be described below with reference to FIG. 15. CPU 110 accesses conventional memory 130, extended memory 140, and expanded memories 810, 820, 830, and 840 through system bus 120. When expanded memories 810, 820, 830, and 840 are to be accessed, CPU 110 sets arbitrary values in page controlling registers 811, 821, 831, and 841 by I/O write. Assume that data in physical page Y is mapped to logical page Z (Z=0, 1, . . . , 511). Set X, including logical page Z to which physical page Y is to be mapped, is determined. An offset value for mapping data in physical page Y to the logical page of set X is then calculated. The offset value is set to be PAi, and the CPU I/O writes 8-bit data having PE=1 in the page controlling register of page Y and set X to which data is mapped. At the same time, the CPU I/O writes 8-bit data having PE=0 in the page controlling registers of other sets. Note that PAi in other page controlling registers is an arbitrary value. When CPU 110 performs memory access to physical page Y after data is set in the page controlling register, only a set having PE=1 of page controlling registers 811, 821, 831, and 841 is selected. The CPU executes memory access to corresponding ones of memory chips 813, 823, 833, and 843. Along with development of the semiconductor technique, highly integrated memory chips can be used, and four expanded memories 810, 820, 830, and 840 shown in FIG. 15 can be formed on one board. In addition, four expanded memories 810, 820, 830 and 840, conventional memory 130, and extended memory 140 can be integrated on one system board. However, in such a system, the control circuit is complicated and cost is undesirably high. As for the expanded memory, the PA bit length of the page controlling register may be increased from 7 bits to 9 bits, so that all the 512 logical pages are controlled by a single page controlling register. However, with this system, the page controlling register is different from that in the prior-art system, resulting in poor software compatibility.

The semiconductor industry has recently experienced technological advances that have permitted dramatic increases in circuit density and complexity, and equally dramatic decreases in power consumption and package sizes. Present semiconductor technology now permits single-chip microprocessors with many millions of transistors, operating at speeds of hundreds of millions of instructions per second to be packaged in relatively small, air-cooled semiconductor device packages. A by-product of such high-density and high functionality in semiconductor devices has been the demand for increased numbers of external electrical connections to be present on the exterior of the die and on the exterior of the semiconductor packages which receive the die, for connecting the packaged device to external systems, such as a printed circuit board. As the manufacturing processes for semiconductor devices and integrated circuits increase in difficulty, methods for testing and debugging these devices become increasingly important. Not only is it important to ensure that individual chips are functional, it is also important to ensure that batches of chips perform consistently. In addition, the ability to detect a defective manufacturing process early is helpful for reducing the number of defective devices manufactured. Traditionally, integrated circuit dies have been tested using methods including accessing circuitry or devices within the die. In order to access portions of circuitry in the integrated circuit die it is sometimes necessary to align the die with equipment such as a milling device, a test fixture, or other test equipment. For example, in flip-chip type dies, transistors and other circuitry are located in a very thin epitaxially-grown silicon layer in a circuit side of the die. The circuit side of the die is arranged facedown on a package substrate. This orientation provides many operational advantages. However, due to the face-down orientation of the circuit side of the die, the transistors and other circuitry near the circuit side are not readily accessible for testing, modification, or other purposes. Therefore, access to the transistors and circuitry near the circuit side is from the back side of the chip. Such back side access often requires milling through the back side and probing certain circuit elements. The milling and probing processes may potentially damage elements in the integrated circuit if not properly aligned. The difficulty, cost, and destructive aspects of existing methods for testing integrated circuits are impediments to the growth and improvement of semiconductor technologies. To access the backside circuitry, it is necessary to align the circuit with a CAD layout. This is done with alignment markers; however, alignment markers are not visible through silicon from the backside with most tools without substantial thinning.

Carbon nanostructures include single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWNT), multi-wall carbon nanotubes (MWNT), fullerenes, nanodiamonds, and nanoonions, and such nanostructures can be manufactured in various manners. For example, in one relatively common manner, nanotubes can be produced by electric arc discharge. Nanotubes formed by such a process are typically MWNT. To produce SWNT, various catalytic metals (e.g., cobalt) can be added to the graphite electrodes. Arc discharge typically provides relatively low yield. Moreover, the so formed nanotubes will have in most cases relatively large inhomogeneity in length and chirality. Fullerenes can be obtained in similar manner from soot prepared in an arc generator using a carbonaceous electrode (typically without catalyst). When the electrodes are immersed in water, nanoonions can be formed that float to the surface of the water. So formed fullerenes and nanoonions can then be processed (typically in a shockwave compression) to form nanodiamonds. Alternatively, especially where increased yield or localized synthesis of nanostructures is desired, chemical vapor deposition (CVD) can be employed in which a feed gas (e.g., methane or ethylene) is decomposed in the presence of a metal catalyst to grow nanotubes. For example, numerous nanotubes can be grown at the same time on a silicon dioxide template (that can be patterned) in predetermined positions. Such process may further be modified by the choice of the particular catalyst to influence the type of nanotube that is to be produced. While CVD synthesis is directional and relatively simple, industrial significant yields are typically not achieved. CVD was reported to also yield nanodiamonds under certain conditions, however, other nanostructures are rarely formed using CVD. In yet another manner, laser ablation may be employed in which a laser pulse evaporates a solid target of graphite that contains a small amount of metal catalyst (˜1 atomic % Ni and ˜1% Co). The ablated material is transferred into a background gas (e.g., Ar) which is gently flowing through a quartz tube inside a high temperature (e.g., 1000° C.) oven. Laser ablation generally allows for tighter control of reaction conditions, and with that tends to provide a more defined population of nanotubes. Furthermore, nanotubes (and also fullerenes under certain conditions) can be produced in relatively good quantities. However, such a process is relatively energy consuming, requires expensive equipment, and highly trained personnel. Other less common methods of forming nanostructures include plasma based synthesis of nanotubes. Such methods advantageously allow for mass production of nanotubes, but generally require megawatt quantities of energy. Similarly, nanostructures have been produced by impulse heating of fluorinated graphite dust in a 27.12 MHz inductively coupled plasma. Again, which such method may yield a relatively high yield of SWNT, the energy demand in most cases is cost-prohibitive. “Two-dimensional” carbon nanostructures, and particularly graphene, were until recently thought to be difficult, if not even impossible to manufacture. However, advances in plasma assisted CVD have yielded doped carbon flakes as described in WO 2004/095494, and more recently, graphene layers were reported that were extracted as an individual plane from a graphite crystal (Novoselov et al., Electric Field Effect in Atomically Thin Carbon Films, Science 2004 306: 666-669). Therefore, while various materials and methods for manufacture of carbon nanostructures are known in the art, all or almost all of them suffer from one or more disadvantages, especially where large quantities of carbon nanostructures are desired. Thus, there is still a need to provide improved compositions and methods for manufacture of carbon nanostructures.

Tricky Words: Deny, Reject, Refuse, Doubt, and Suspect Verbs like deny, refuse, and reject have overlapping meanings. Sometimes, they can even be used interchangeably. The same is true for the pair doubt and suspect. However, with both sets of words, the context can often help clarify the subtle differences between them. Today in class, to help students understand them more easily, I wrote the following paragraph. A police officer pulled over a car late at night for drunk driving. The driver denied that he had been drinking and refused to take a breathalyzer test. The police officer, however, suspected that he had, indeed, been drinking. The man’s car had been swerving from side to side, and he smelled strongly of alcohol. The officer doubted the man’s excuse that the road had been slippery and that the car smelled because he’d given a drunk friend a ride home from a bar. The officer rejected the bribe that the man tried to offer him to “forget the whole thing.” When you deny something, you say that it isn’t true. He denied stealing money from the company. The student denied plagiarizing the paper. You can also deny a request, or say “no to” it. His boss denied his request for a raise. When you reject something, you say no to the offer / claim. She rejected her date’s attempts to kiss her. My boss rejected my proposal to switch to a four-day work week. My friends rejected my suggestion to go to a pizza place for dinner. When you reject an idea, you refuse to believe it. He rejected the claim that the earth was created in seven days. She rejects the notion that women are worse drivers than men. When you refuse something, you say “No thanks” or “I won’t do it.” My friend refused to loan me $1,000 for the weekend. His girlfriend refused to let his dog sleep in the bed with them. When you doubt something, you think that it isn’t true/won’t happen. My friend doubted that I would repay his $1,000 even though I promised that I would. The weatherman doubted that it would snow tomorrow. When you suspect something/someone, you use evidence to come to your conclusion–often negative. My friend suspected that I would take his money and run. I suspected that the group of teenagers I saw in the park was up to no good. Which verbs best fits? (Answers below) Possible Answers: 1) She refused to marry him. She rejected his marriage proposal. 2) They suspected that he was the murderer. 3) He refused the money. He rejected the bribe. 4) I doubt that ghosts exist. 5) I doubt that the world is flat. 6) He rejected the broccoli. 7) She doubted that there was a tooth fairy after her mother forgot to take her tooth & leave money under her pillow. She suspected that her mother had been lying to her about the tooth fairy. At first, her mother denied it, but finally she confessed. 8) The suspect denied the accusation. He denied having been the robber.

Sand Lake National Wildlife Refuge Sand Lake National Wildlife Refuge is located in the northeastern part of the U.S. state of South Dakota and is administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Created in 1935, it is a wetlands of international importance and a Globally Important Bird Area. Over 260 bird species are found in the refuge, including many migratory bird species and the world's largest breeding colony of Franklin's gulls. History and management In the late 1880s, the Sand Lake area was settled by farmers. Their agricultural practices depleted wildlife habitat and caused a severe decline in waterfowl numbers. The US Congress established the refuge in 1935 to preserve wildlife habitat and breeding grounds. The Sand Lake National Wildlife Refuge is located in northeastern South Dakota, and covers of wildlife habitat. It is part of the National Wildlife Refuge System, which covers over 550 such refuges in the US. The system is managed by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, part of the Department of the Interior. The Sand Lake Wetland Management District, which focuses on the conservation of wetland and grassland habitat on private property, is run through the wildlife refuge. The program is the largest such district in the country, and manages properties in eight counties. The refuge hosts around 75,000 visitors annually. Wetlands Sand Lake National Wildlife Refuge is one of the refuges included in the list of wetlands of international importance under the Ramsar Convention, which was signed in 1971 and entered into force in the US in 1987. It is one of 35 such sites in the US, which cover a total of . Sand Lake was designated on August 3, 1998 and covers . As a "large freshwater cattail marsh", it was selected as a refuge due to being a "critical nesting and staging habitat" for numerous species of birds, including tens of thousands of migrating waterfowl. The wetlands are a popular tourist attraction, with thousands of visitors each year. Flora and fauna Large concentrations of more than 260 bird species, 40 mammals and a variety of other species live in the refuge. WildBird Magazine called Sand Lake one of North America's top 15 sites for bird watching. Mallard ducks, wood ducks and Canada geese are frequently seen, as are Western grebes, white pelicans and snow geese. The largest nesting colony of Franklin's gulls in the world is also found in Sand Lake. The Sand Lake National Wildlife Refuge had been designated as a Globally Important Bird Area by the American Bird Conservancy, one of 500 such sites in the US and approximately 3,500 worldwide. It is one of two such sites in South Dakota, with the other being the Fort Pierre National Grassland. The main waterway in the refuge is the James River, which feeds Sand Lake and Mud Lake. The lakes were created by the Civilian Conservation Corps during the New Deal Era, as they built dams on local rivers. References External links Category:Important Bird Areas of the United States Category:National Wildlife Refuges in South Dakota Category:Protected areas of Brown County, South Dakota Category:Protected areas established in 1935 Category:Ramsar sites in the United States Category:Wetlands of South Dakota Category:Landforms of Brown County, South Dakota Category:1935 establishments in South Dakota

Biography July 29 A false-color photograph of NGC 1097, a barred spiral galaxy about 45 million light-years away in the constellation Fornax. The galaxy was discovered by William Herschel on 9 October 1790. It has a supermassive black hole at its center, which is 140 million times the mass of the Sun, as well as two satellite galaxies. The photograph was taken in infrared light by the Spitzer Space Telescope. Photograph: NASA/JPL-Caltech Wikipedia is hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation, a non-profit organization that also hosts a range of other projects: This Wikipedia is written in English. Started in 2001 (2001), it currently contains 4,930,244 articles. Many other Wikipedias are available; some of the largest are listed below.

Client (computing) A client is a piece of computer hardware or software that accesses a service made available by a server. The server is often (but not always) on another computer system, in which case the client accesses the service by way of a network. Overview A client is a computer or a program that, as part of its operation, relies on sending a request to another program or a computer hardware or software that accesses a service made available by a server (which may or may not be located on another computer). For example, web browsers are clients that connect to web servers and retrieve web pages for display. Email clients retrieve email from mail servers. Online chat uses a variety of clients, which vary on the chat protocol being used. Multiplayer video games or online video games may run as a client on each computer. The term "client" may also be applied to computers or devices that run the client software or users that use the client software. A client is part of a client–server model, which is still used today. Clients and servers may be computer programs run on the same machine and connect via inter-process communication techniques. Combined with Internet sockets, programs may connect to a service operating on a possibly remote system through the Internet protocol suite. Servers wait for potential clients to initiate connections that they may accept. The term was first applied to devices that were not capable of running their own stand-alone programs, but could interact with remote computers via a network. These computer terminals were clients of the time-sharing mainframe computer. Types In one classification, client computers and devices are either thick clients, thin clients, or hybrid clients. Thick A Thick client, also known as a rich client or fat client, is a client that performs the bulk of any data processing operations itself, and does not necessarily rely on the server. The personal computer is a common example of a fat client, because of its relatively large set of features and capabilities and its light reliance upon a server. For example, a computer running an Art program (such as Krita or Sketchup) that ultimately shares the result of its work on a network is a thick client. A computer that runs almost entirely as a standalone machine save to send or receive files via a network is by standard called a workstation. Thin A thin client is a minimal sort of client. Thin clients use the resources of the host computer. A thin client generally only presents processed data provided by an application server, which performs the bulk of any required data processing. A device using web application (such as Office Web Apps) is a thin client. Hybrid A hybrid client is a mixture of the above two client models. Similar to a fat client, it processes locally, but relies on the server for storing persistent data. This approach offers features from both the fat client (multimedia support, high performance) and the thin client (high manageability, flexibility). A device running an online version of the video game Diablo III is an example of hybrid client. References Category:Peer-to-peer computing

Sangihe Plate Sangihe Plate has recently (1990s) been postulated to be a microplate within the Molucca Sea Collision Zone of eastern Indonesia. Regional tectonics The tectonic setting of the Molucca Sea region is unique. It is the only global example of an active arc-arc collision consuming an oceanic basin via subduction in two directions. The Molucca Sea Plate has been subsumed by tectonic microplates, the Halmahera Plate and the Sangihe Plate. The whole complexity is now known as the Molucca Sea Collision Zone. The existence of Sangihe as a tectonic plate separate from the Molucca Sea Plate is not yet entirely agreed upon by geologists. Some see Sangihe as a western slab of the Molucca Sea Plate, just as they regard Halmahera as an eastern slab of the Molucca Sea Plate. What is apparent to date is that Sangihe was part of the Molucca Sea slab subducted during the Neogene between 45 Ma and 25 Ma. Seismicity shows the west-dipping Sangihe reaches a depth of about . Both Sangihe and Halmahera are exposed to the surface while the Molucca Sea plate is completely subsumed below these two microplates. The southern boundary of the Molucca Sea Plate is also the boundary of the Philippine Sea Plate and the Australian Plate, and is moving northwards. Since the Sangihe Plate and the Halmahera Plate are in continuity with the Molucca Sea Plate, this implies all three slabs are moving northward in mantle with the Australian Plate. See also References Category:Tectonic plates Category:Geology of the Pacific Ocean Category:Geology of Indonesia Category:Geology of the Philippines Category:Molucca Sea

Preparation of early Drosophila embryonic fillets (before cuticle deposition). This article describes the dissection of early Drosophila embryos to generate flat or fillet preparations. For the procedure, a modified chamber or well is designed using glass slides and sealant. Embryos are dissected by removing the chorionic (outer) membrane (performed outside the chamber) and then removing the vitelline (inner) membrane (performed inside the chamber and under saline).

There is a wide variety of known printing systems. A printing system may be self-contained or may be one that requires cooperation of two or more units, such as a computer printer that is controlled using drive software installed on a personal computer. Print material, such as ink, may be deposited upon a sheet of paper or other print medium by sequential movements of the depositing structure relative to the sheet. As one well known example, an inkjet printhead may be repeatedly scanned across a sheet of paper to apply ink in a series of swaths, until the composite image is formed. Referring to FIG. 1, an example of a printer 10 is shown. The printer includes a body 12 and a hinged cover 14. An inkjet printhead 16 is attached to a carriage 18 that moves bidirectionally along a carriage transport rail 20. A flexible cable 22 connects the components of the print carriage to a print engine, not shown. The flexible cable includes electrical power lines, clocking lines, control lines, and data lines. Nozzles of the inkjet printhead are individually activated to project droplets of ink onto a print medium delivered from a supply 24, such as a tray of paper. During each print operation, the print medium is stepped in one direction, while the inkjet printhead is moved along the transport rail in the perpendicular direction. In the design of a printing system, a number of factors are considered to be significant. These factors include cost, speed, and print quality. A concern is that there is a tradeoff among these factors, particularly when a printer is designed to provide photo-quality printing. The inks of an inkjet printer 10 are water-based and are delivered to the medium as droplets. The quality of an image is dependent upon the consistency of droplet development at the printhead, the accuracy of delivery, and the droplet cooperation at the print medium. Inkjet printing may be considered to be a droplet-on-demand (DOD) technology. Techniques for forming the droplets include thermal activation and piezoelectric pumping. Regardless, sufficient time between two activations of a single nozzle must be provided, if a sufficient volume of ink is to be accumulated for consistency in firing. Thus, a maximum “firing frequency” is enforced. For any particular nozzle of an inkjet printhead, this firing frequency limits the firing opportunities of the nozzle for a given period of time. Merely for the purpose of example, the firing frequency may be set at 12,400 activations per second. At the print medium, there are concerns with “bleeding” and other phenomena. Bleeding of one color into another color is most detectable along edges of sharp color contrast within an image. Printers use a multi-pass concept to reduce the likelihood of bleeding and to provide compensation for other phenomena that affect image quality. Using the multi-pass concept, less than all of the droplets are deposited on a single pass over a particular area of the print medium. Each area of the print medium is scanned multiple times in order to deposit all of the droplets. The portion of the droplets which are deposited on a particular pass is controlled by a predefined masking pattern. As defined herein, a “masking pattern” is associated with a single pass, although multiple passes may be necessary in order to complete the printing. This use of the term is consistent with U.S. Pat. No. 6,310,640 to Askeland. In a multi-pass process, there is a “composite masking pattern” to which the print data is applied in defining droplet deposition. The composite masking pattern provides the basis for the individual masking patterns. Typically, the composite masking pattern is determined at the design stage for a particular printer. In printing two photographs, the composite masking pattern is applied in the same manner to the image data of the two photographs, so that it is the difference in the image data (from photograph to photograph) that causes differences between the two series of masking patterns. The determination of which droplets are to be deposited on a particular pass includes a degree of randomness. In general, artifacts are more apparent when masks are more regular and uniform. While the generation of printing masks involves significant randomization, it is known to apply restrictions to such pattern generation. U.S. Pat. No. 6,250,739 to Serra describes some possible restrictions. A checkerboard pattern may be imposed on each masking pattern. Each image region is divided into distinct complementary patches. Bleeding among droplets placed in adjacent pixels of a composite image is less likely to occur, since horizontally neighboring pixels do not receive droplets in the same pass. However, bleeding may occur between diagonal pixels. Serra states that this can be overcome using the “Hickman system” in which printing in intervening lines and in intervening columns is presented in a single pass. The patent states that a concern with this system is that it forfeits the ability to print in the intervening lines and columns even with respect to printmodes in which bleeding and similar problems are absent, such as in a single-pass mode for printing black-and-white text. Serra describes bidirectional scanning printheads which discharge color-ink droplets at ultra high resolution, with each swath of printing on the paper being completed in either eight passes with four paper advances, or four passes with two paper advances, or two passes in a single paper advance.

It was already known that genes inherited from ancient retroviruses[1] are essential to the placenta in mammals, a finding to which scientists in the Laboratoire Physiologie et Pathologie Moléculaires des Rétrovirus Endogènes et Infectieux (CNRS/Université Paris-Sud) contributed. Today, the same scientists[2] have revealed a new chapter in this astonishing story: these genes of viral origin may also be responsible for the more developed muscle mass seen in males! Their findings are published on 2 September 2016 in PLOS Genetics. Retroviruses carry proteins on their surface that are able to mediate fusion of their envelope with the membrane of a target cell. Once released inside that cell, their genetic material becomes integrated in the host's chromosomes. In the rare cases where the infected cell is involved in reproduction, the viral genes may be transmitted to progeny. Thus nearly 8% of the mammalian genome is made up of vestiges of retroviruses, or "endogenous" retroviruses. Most of them are inactive, but some remain capable of producing proteins: this is the case of syncytins, proteins that are present in all mammals and encoded by genes inherited from retroviruses "captured" by their ancestors. A little more than five years ago, and thanks to inactivation of these genes in mice, the team led by Thierry Heidmann demonstrated that syncytins contribute to formation of the placenta. Because of their ancestral ability to mediate cell-cell fusion they give rise to the syncytiotrophoblast[3], a tissue formed by the fusion of a large number of cells derived from the embryo, at the fetomaternal interface. Using the same mice, the team has revealed a "collateral" and unexpected effect of these proteins: they endow males with more muscle mass than females! Like the syncytiotrophoblast, muscle mass develops from fused stem cells. In the genetically-modified male mice, these fibers were 20% smaller and displayed 20% fewer nuclei than in standard males; they were then similar to those seen in females, as was their total muscle mass. It therefore appears that the inactivation of syncytins leads to a fusion deficit during muscle growth, but only in males. The scientists observed the same phenomenon in the case of muscle regeneration following a lesion: the male mice incapable of producing syncytins experienced less effective regeneration than the other males, but it was comparable to that seen in females. Furthermore, the regenerating muscle fibers produced syncytin -- once again, only in males. If this discovery were to be confirmed in other mammals, it might account for the muscle dimorphism observed between males and females, a difference that is not seen so systematically in egg laying animals. By cultivating muscle stem cells from different mammalian species (mouse, sheep, dog, human), the scientists have advanced some way along the path: they indeed showed that syncytins contributed to the formation of muscle fibers in all the species tested. It is now necessary to demonstrate whether, in these species as well, the action of syncytins is also male-specific. [1] The particular feature of retroviruses is that they possess an enzyme that permits transcription of their RNA genome in a "complementary" DNA molecule which is able to integrate in the DNA of the host cell. The AIDS virus (HIV) is the best known example of a retrovirus. [2] In collaboration with colleagues working on muscles: the teams led by Julie Dumonceaux at the Centre de Recherche en Myologie (CNRS/UPMC/Inserm) and Laurent Tiret at the École Nationale Vétérinaire d'Alfort and the Institut Mondor de Recherche Biomédicale (Inserm/UPEC). [3] The syncytiotrophoblast is part of the placenta that permits implantation in the uterus and then constitutes the interface between the maternal bloodstream and that of the embryo, where the exchanges of gases and nutrients necessary for the latter's development occur.

Honored citizenship in the Emperor's Russia: 1890-1917 The Empress Catherine II established the social estate of "distinguished townsmen" by her Letters Patent in 1789. This patent stated that owners of real estate property who served on an elective city post for a definite time could pretend to be registered in this class. In addition, scientists, artists and composers could receive such a title. After being granted the "distinguished townsmen" title, people could not be subjects to corporal punishment, nor draftee duty and had a right to own gardens, factories, as well as sea and river ships. The title was hereditary. After reaching 30 years old, the grandsons of persons granted such a title, could be registered among the nobility in case of irreproachable bearing of the "distinguished townsman" title by their grandfather and father. The first time, merchants could have such a title, but it became impossible for them after Ukase of January 1, 1807. After this date, only scientists and artists could receive this special status. On April 10, 1832, Emperor Nicholas I established the official class of honored citizens which replaced the "distinguished townsmen" title. Honored citizenship could be personal or hereditary. Personal title was granted to a person and his wife. Children of hereditary honored citizen received such a title since birth according to origin. As well as the distinguished townsmen before, the honored citizens were liberated of recruitment duty, corporal punishment and poll-tax. Their names were entered in the city inhabitants registers, and not in the simple revision lists. The following subjects could receive such a hereditary title: - Children of personal noblemen (since June 11, 1845 they received the title of hereditary honored citizen automatically); - Children of Orthodox priests in case of graduation the latter from the Religious Academy or Seminary with the corresponding degrees; - Children of Lutheran and Reformer preachers. Personal title could receive: - Children of priests not graduated from Academy; - Children of the high rank Caucasus Muslim clergy; - People adopted by the noblemen and hereditary honored citizens (since March 12, 1891). In addition, the title of hereditary or personal honored citizen could receive: - The people in rank of commerce or manufactory councilors; the widows and children of such people; - Merchants registered in the 1st guild for 20 years running or granted an order. - People granted a scholarly degree of doctor or magister in some Russian University; - Actors of the Emperor's theaters and artists (since 1839). - Pharmacists, engineers-technologists, veterinary physicians (since 1849). Becides, honored citizenship could be acquired according to service and special statements. People of any social estate could receive such a personal title because of their social activity during a period of ten years. Personal honored citizens engaged in such activity for ten years could ask for hereditary title. Since children of hereditary honored citizens received such a title according to origin from birth, initiating its confirmation by a specific way was not necessary. In this case, if they wished a certificate anyway, they could apply to the Heraldry Department of Governing Senate for this. This was the only institution that officially granted and confirmed the title. Files with documents of the cases for granting people with the title of hereditary honored citizenship and issuing certificates about this, are most often found in the Fond of this institution - Fond 1343 RGIA. Cases of granting people the title of hereditary honored citizen: - Fond 1343 Inventory 39. 6061 files with documents of the cases for the years 1830-1890; - Fond 1343 Inventory 40. 6261 files, years 1890-1917; Files with documents of cases about personal honored citizenship: - Fond 1343 Inventory 41. 415 files for the years 1890-1917. The files listed in Inventory 47 of Fond 1343, concern acquiring the rights of honored citizenship. There are 1109 files for the years 1897-1917. In addition, files on this subject are available in Fond 1405 (Justice Ministry) in the same Archive. Below, we provide surnames listed in Inventory 40, Fond 1343. Some surnames are repeated in the inventory since different people with the same surname received such a title. However, for this list we list the surname just once. The surname spelling is according to traditional Russian-English transliteration and for searches, we give the possible spelling variants - mostly, for foreign surnames. Anyway, more variants of spelling each surname in foreign languages are possible. There are some details in the titles of files listed in inventory: name, city or province, occupation of the person. To receive such information and understand if you wish order the files examining, please contact BLITZ Research provided by BLITZ – Information Center St. Petersburg, Russia – Elena Tsvetkova rublitz@gmail.com San Rafael, California – Kristin Nute enute@igc.org

Q: What does ~ means in Java? Searching on the documentation of Node in JavaFX i walked through this method: /** * Set all dirty bits */ private void setDirty() { dirtyBits = ~0; } //where dirtyBits is an int I have searched on search engine but can't find what ~ means? A: Is a the unary bitwise operator, changes in binary each 0 by 1 and each 1 by 0 From documentation The unary bitwise complement operator "~" inverts a bit pattern; it can be applied to any of the integral types, making every "0" a "1" and every "1" a "0". For example, a byte contains 8 bits; applying this operator to a value whose bit pattern is 00000000 would change its pattern to 11111111. As stated in comments, problem of this is not lack of effort by user either documentation but problem of the search engines like google because remove punctuation symbols (like ~) when searching. For people like me, non English native speakers is a real problem sometimes to find the correct words. In order to avoid this, in this case, you can search java bitwise operator for further info.

Follow Us Energy Saving Tips Paint your computer green! A typical desktop computer draws about 125 to 140 watts of power when in use. Not only can this be wasteful when the computer is not needed, it also impacts our building air conditioning systems, since most of that energy is transformed into heat that is blown out the back of the PC. These setting are best handled by your local systems administrator, but a reasonably savvy computer user should have no trouble turning their computers green. In a WINDOWS ™ computer, go to the START menu, then Control Panel, then Hardware and Sound, then either “Power Options” (classic view) or “Performance and Maintenance.” You will then need to select the “Power Saver” version under preferred plans and make power management changes to that plan by selecting the option on the right “Change Plan Settings.” Here’s a quick primer on computer power management. Computers save energy through a number of steps which they can be configured to take after specified periods of idle time. They’re listed below in the order they’re generally invoked: Turn off the monitor. This does not effect your current session, all applications remain open, and it can be reversed quickly. Boise State recommends all computers should be set up to power down the monitor and that the user’s password is required to return to your session. This step not only saves electricity, but it enhances the security of our computing network. Five minutes is a good setting for this feature, and your electricity usage will fall by about 30% when the monitor is turned off. Turn off the hard drive. This is not as effective as the other measures because operating systems use the hard drive periodically for background applications and they’re not as idle. System Standby. This mode comes from the laptop community and allows the system to nearly shut down while preserving your session. Minimal power is consumed to preserve the state of your applications while making it fast and easy to return to it when needed. When in Standby mode, your computer will consume about 5% of it’s normal power. This adds up to significant savings. Many users find that going into standby after 20 or 30 minutes is an appropriate setting. Hibernate. This mode is as close to turning off the computer as you can get, but still preserves your setting. The computer writes a large file to your hard disk recording all the details of your desktop and open applications, then shuts down the computer. Upon return, it takes a few moments (30 seconds or so) to read that file and gets you back to your desktop. Having your system hibernate after 1 hour would be a great energy savings over time. In some cases you have to explicitly enable the Hibernate mode using the control panel. Power down. Going through the system shutdown procedure turns off your computer and allows it to boot fresh when you come back. The re-boot process takes several minutes and this is why many people keep their computers running all night. Unplugged. To make sure your computer is completely off, you must disconnect it from the grid. You can do this by either unplugging it, or using a switched power strip. In either case, this is the only way to ensure that you’re not wasting any electricity. Folks at the OIT help desk are always available to help if you have any questions, call 426-4357 or email helpdesk@boisestate.edu.

When analyzing the behavior of an engineering structure made of complex mixed materials, a three phase concept of the material profile can be introduced. The first phase of the profile is at a macro-continuum level of the structure. That is, the structure is built as an assembly of macro-continuum elements. The second phase is at a micro-continuum level of the structure. It should be noted that most macro-continuum materials, which seem to be homogeneous in the macro-continuum level, in fact comprise several constituent components when considered from the microscopic point of view. This kind of material is said to be micro-inhomogeneous. The third phase of the profile is at a molecular level. This phase is founded on the physical fact that each constituent material of the micro-continuum consists of a vast number of atoms and/or molecules. As an example, a bridge is considered as a target structure that is made of granite. The granite is a macro-continuum material. Granite includes three major component minerals such as quartz, feldspar and mica in the micro-continuum level thereof. That is, the micro-structure of granite comprises three constituent minerals, each in turn including a set of atoms/molecules that constitutes a molecular system. Similarly, a concrete dam structure has the same phases. That is, the concrete is a macro-continuum material; gravel, sand and cement paste are micro-continuum materials; and each of the micro-continuum materials constitutes a molecular system. When designing an engineering structure with plural member elements, it is known to follow a theory of macro-phenomenological mechanics, and to perform a series of experiments in order to determine the macro-mechanical properties of each macro- continuum element. It should be recalled that the material properties obtained in these experiments are averaged in the specimen. This procedure is applied in the same manner in many fields of mechanics such as mechanical engineering and civil engineering. In order to overcome the theoretical insufficiency involved in the above described macro-phenomenological theory, it is commonly believed that for the micro-inhomogeneous material the size of experimental specimens must be more than ten times larger than the largest size of the constituent components. However, in fact it is not truly known if this belief is true. Furthermore, it is difficult for the macro-phenomenological theory to recognize what happens in the micro-continuum level, although the local phenomena are directly related to the global behavior of the structure. It can thus be said that the conventional macro-phenomenological procedure is not appropriate for analyzing the behavior of the micro-inhomogeneous material, especially where such a material is used under very extreme engineering condition such as high pressure, high temperature and/or long elapsed time. In analyzing the behavior of micro-inhomogeneous material two essential problems must be solved. Firstly, it is necessary to determine characteristics of constituent components of the micro-continuum which are directly affected by their molecular movement. Secondly, there must be developed an approach to relating the microscale characteristics to the macroscale behavior of the structure and the macro-continuum elements thereof. The prior art has not yet succeeded in developing such a fully unified procedure to analyze the molecular movements of the constituent components of the micro-continuum with respect to the macroscale behavior of the structure, much less to design the micro-structure optimally based on such considerations. MS is a known type of a computer simulation technique. In an MS computation, one gives a material system which consists of particles, atoms and/or molecules, and provides two physical laws, that is, the interatomic interaction potential and the equation of motion or equilibrium. Positions, velocities and/or accelerations of all particles are then calculated under the foregoing physical laws. A statistical thermodynamics procedure is applied to the simulated results, and one can estimate bulk-based physicochemical properties of the material (hereinafter called the bulk properties of the material) such as structure factor of the solid crystal. It is noted that the bulk properties represent thermodynamical averages of the ensemble of particles. Three classes of MS methods are known: 1) the Monte Carlo method (hereafter abbreviated as MC), PA1 2) the Molecular Mechanics method (hereafter abbreviated as MM), and PA1 3) the Molecular Dynamics method (hereafter abbreviated as MD). MC, developed by Metropolis et al, estimates the statistical equilibrium state of particles by generating their displacements randomly. Various thermomechanical properties are then calculated by averaging over the states in the Markov chain. MM is applied for a molecular system which consists of a finite number of atoms, and determines the equilibrium state by optimizing the structure and potential energy. The bulk properties are calculated by using statistical thermodynamics procedure. MM is mainly used in the field of organic chemistry. On the other hand, MD solves the equation of motion for a system of particles under a given interatomic interaction potential by using a time-discrete finite difference scheme, and the whole time trajectories of particles are specified. The bulk properties are calculated by using statistical thermodynamics procedure for the results. As MC and MM provide no knowledge of chronological trajectories of particles, these techniques are incapable of considering quantities that are defined in terms of particle motion, such as diffusion. In this sense, except for computational efficiency, MD is more useful so the MD procedure is shown herein as a typical example of MS. In the MD calculation, the law of conservation of linear momentum is applied for every particle to get the following equation of motion for the i-th component: ##EQU1## where m.sub.i is the mass of the i-th particle, v.sub.i =dr.sub.i /dt is its velocity at the position r.sub.i, and the force F.sub.i is calculated from the potential function U.sub.ij between two particles by ##EQU2## The MD system usually contains many particles of atoms and/or molecules in a basic cell, and (for simplicity of calculation) the method uses a three dimensional periodic lattice, which is repeated in each direction. Under these conditions one solves a time discrete form of the equation of motion, and the instantaneous position, velocity and acceleration of each particle are specified. Then, using these results and statistical thermodynamic theory, one computes for the material the bulk properties and their change with time, such as density, diffusivity of atoms, molecular vibrations, temperature- and/or pressure-dependent nonlinear elastic moduli, viscosity, heat capacity and heat conductivity. The interatomic potential function for all atom-atom pairs plays an essential role for the MD calculation. Equation (3) presents a potential function developed by Kawamura so as to reproduce structural and physical properties of several oxide crystals such as quartz, corundum and feldspars properly. 2-body term: ##EQU3## The right hand side of this equation shows the Coulomb, the short-range repulsion, the van der Waals and the Morse terms, respectively. These terms are selectively used for some materials due to the nature of the interaction. For water a 3-body term is also added to the H--O--H interaction because of its Sp.sup.3 hybrid orbital. 3-body term: ##EQU4## Parameters {z, a, b, c} and {D, .beta., r*} for the 2-body term, and {f.sub.k, .theta..sub.0, g.sub.r, r.sub.m } for the 3-body term are specified by using experimental data of structural and physical properties of relevant materials. Many types of simulation schemes have been developed in MD. For example, in the early stage of MD there was employed a scheme where the number of particles N, the volume V and the total energy E are constant (the constant-(NVE) ensemble), while in the 1980's there was developed a scheme in which the number of particles N, the pressure P and the temperature T are constant (the constant-(NPT) ensemble). MD generates information at the molecular level such as position, velocity and acceleration of each particle. Statistical thermodynamics provide averaged quantities of the system which are called the bulk properties. For example, one can calculate the temperature as ##EQU5## where k.sub.B is Boltzmann's constant, and ##EQU6## is the kinetic energy of the k-th particle with its mass m.sub.k and velocity v.sub.k. Note that <A>gives the time average of a quantity A(t) taken over a long time interval: ##EQU7## The right hand side term is used for a discrete system with N-particles for N.sub.s -number of a time slice .DELTA..tau.. Then, by applying the virial theorem the pressure P is calculated as ##EQU8## where r.sub.i is the position vector and F.sub.i the force acting on the i-th particle. Similar to this, one can calculate the stress tensor which is the force per unit area acting on three coordinate surfaces in the three dimensional case. On the other hand, if one uses the constant-(NPT) ensemble scheme for example, the normal strain .epsilon..sub.xx in the x-direction is calculated by ##EQU9## where L.sub.x is the original size of the basic cell in the x-direction, and L.sup.c.sub.x is its size after relaxation by the MD calculation. Other components of strains including shear components can be calculated in a similar manner. If the pressure is changed, one gets a different value of strain. Plotting these values yields a stress-strain relation in the micro-continuum level. Thus, one gets a stress or strain dependent type of the Young's modulus E. Though MD is quite powerful for simulating the true behavior of materials, it is impossible to use this method directly for designing an engineering structure on a human size scale, such as a car, an airplane and a bridge, because such structures involve extremely large numbers of molecules. Note that one mole of material (equivalent to 12 g of carbon) consists of 6.0221367.times.10.sup.23 molecules, and even if the fastest computer known at present were used, one can calculate a system with at most 10.sup.6 molecules. It is thus impossible to use MS in a simple manner for designing a practical engineering structure. This circumstance will not be changed in near future. The HA method, which is based on a new type of perturbation theory, has been developed for micro-inhomogeneous media with a periodic microstructure. This method allows a determination of both macroscopic and microscopic distribution of field variables such as temperature, displacement, stress and strain. It is noted that the perturbation theory is a method mainly for solving nonlinear problems. The simplest example of HA is shown herein for applying the one dimensional static equilibrium problem, which is described by the following equation. ##EQU10## where u.sup..epsilon. (x) denotes the displacement which changes rapidly in the micro-continuum level, E Young's modulus, and f the body force. Note that E also varies in that micro-continuum level. Let the size of the microstructure be .epsilon.Y, and one introduces a local coordinate system y in the micro-continuum level. The global coordinate x is related to the local one y by ##EQU11## By using this .epsilon., a perturbation expansion is introduced by EQU u.sup..epsilon. (x).congruent.u.sub.0 (x,y)+.epsilon.u.sub.1 (x,y)+.epsilon..sup.2 u.sub.1 (x,y)+.LAMBDA. (12) where u.sub.0 (x,y), u.sub.1 (x,y), u.sub.2 (x,y), . . . are periodic functions satisfying the condition u.sub.i (x,y+Y)=u.sub.i (x,y) (i=0,1,2, . . .). If the two coordinates x and y are used, the differentiation is changed as ##EQU12## On substituting the perturbed expansion (12) and the differentiation form (13) into the equilibrium equation (10), and setting each term of the series for .epsilon. to be zero, the following relations can be obtained: ##EQU13## This implies that u.sub.0 is the function of only the global coordinate x, that is, u.sub.0 =u.sub.0 (x). ##EQU14## This gives a differential equation to determine u.sub.1 (x,y) in y, and on introducing a separation of variable ##EQU15## yields a differential equation for the characteristic function N(y): ##EQU16## This equation is called the microscale equation. ##EQU17## For this equation, the following average operation is introduced: ##EQU18## then the macroscale equation is obtained for determining u.sub.0 as ##EQU19## where ##EQU20## The quantity E* is called the homogenized elastic coefficient. Thus, first the microscale equation is solved under the periodic boundary condition to get the characteristic function N(y). One substitutes it for the definition of the homogenized elastic coefficient, and solving the macroscale equation which is of the same form of the original equation of equilibrium yields u.sub.0. Now one gets u.sub.1 by using u.sub.0 and N(y), then u.sub.2 can be calculated by the differential equation of .epsilon..sup.0 -term. However since the value of terms .epsilon..sup.k u.sub.k (x,y)(k.gtoreq.2) is thought to be small, one sets EQU u.sup..epsilon. (x).congruent.u.sub.0 (x,y)+.epsilon.u.sub.1 (x,y). (22) In this case, the strain can be obtained as ##EQU21## and the stress is given by EQU .sigma..sup..epsilon. =Ee.sup..epsilon.. (24) In practical engineering problems with two or three dimensions, a finite element approximation method is applied for solving the above mentioned microscale and macroscale equations. The various methods of MS and HA have been developed in different fields, and no intercorrelation has been tried in these two fields. Both the MS methods and HA involve difficulties in attempting to apply them to simulate the behavior of a practical engineering structure made of a micro-inhomogeneous material: MS methods can only treat a system with far less particles than in a practical structure, while in HA it is difficult to find bulk properties of each constituent material and their interfaces. In view of the difficulties of the prior art, it is thus important to establish an accurate method for analyzing the behavior of a structure made of micro-inhomogeneous material and for designing the micro-structure of the micro-inhomogeneous material optimally in the case of manufacturing. It is accordingly an object of the invention to overcome the difficulties of the prior art and to provide a novel method for analyzing and designing a structure made of micro-inhomogeneous material.

This shows an atomic-scale model of a nanophononic metamaterial. The vibrations caused by the pillar slow down the horizontal flow of heat through the thin film. Credit: Mahmoud Hussein University of Colorado Boulder scientists have found a creative way to radically improve thermoelectric materials, a finding that could one day lead to the development of improved solar panels, more energy-efficient cooling equipment, and even the creation of new devices that could turn the vast amounts of heat wasted at power plants into more electricity. The technique—building an array of tiny pillars on top of a sheet of thermoelectric material—represents an entirely new way of attacking a century-old problem, said Mahmoud Hussein, an assistant professor of aerospace engineering sciences who pioneered the discovery. The thermoelectric effect, first discovered in the 1800s, refers to the ability to generate an electric current from a temperature difference between one side of a material and the other. Conversely, applying an electric voltage to a thermoelectric material can cause one side of the material to heat up while the other stays cool, or, alternatively, one side to cool down while the other stays hot. Devices that incorporate thermoelectric materials have been used in both ways: to create electricity from a heat source, such as the sun, for example, or to cool precision instruments by consuming electricity. However, the widespread use of thermoelectric materials has been hindered by a fundamental problem that has kept scientists busy for decades. Materials that allow electricity to flow through them also allow heat to flow through them. This means that at the same time a temperature difference creates an electric potential, the temperature difference itself begins to dissipate, weakening the current it created. Until the 1990s, scientists addressed this problem by looking for materials with intrinsic properties that allowed electricity to flow more easily than heat. "Until 20 years ago, people were looking at the chemistry of the materials," Hussein said. "And then nanotechnology came into the picture and allowed researchers to engineer the materials for the properties they wanted." Using nanotechnology, material physicists began creating barriers in thermoelectric materials—such as holes or particles—that impeded the flow of heat more than the flow of electricity. But even under the best scenario, the flow of electrons—which carry electric energy—also was slowed. In a new study published in the journal Physical Review Letters, Hussein and doctoral student Bruce Davis demonstrate that nanotechnology could be used in an entirely different way to slow the heat transfer without affecting the motion of electrons. The new concept involves building an array of nanoscale pillars on top of a sheet of a thermoelectric material, such as silicon, to form what the authors call a "nanophononic metamaterial." Heat is carried through the material as a series of vibrations, known as phonons. The atoms making up the miniature pillars also vibrate at a variety of frequencies. Davis and Hussein used a computer model to show that the vibrations of the pillars would interact with the vibrations of the phonons, slowing down the flow of heat. The pillar vibrations are not expected to affect the electric current. The team estimates that their nanoscale pillars could reduce the heat flow through a material by half, but the reduction could be significantly stronger because the calculations were made very conservatively, Hussein said. "If we can improve thermoelectric energy conversion significantly, there will be all kinds of important practical applications," Hussein said. These include recapturing the waste heat emitted by different types of equipment—from laptops to cars to power plants—and turning that heat into electricity. Better thermoelectrics also could vastly improve the efficiency of solar panels and refrigeration devices. The next step is for Hussein to partner with colleagues in the physics department and other institutions to fabricate the pillars so that the idea can be tested in the lab. "This is still early in the phase of laboratory demonstration but the remaining steps are within reach." Hussein also hopes to further refine the models he used to gain additional insight into the underlying physics. "A team of highly motivated Ph.D. students are working with me around the clock on this project," he said. Explore further Large thermoelectric power from a combination of magnets and superconductors

Stanford marshmallow experiment This article or section may contain misleading parts. Please help clarify this article according to any suggestions provided on the talk page.(August 2016) This article needs attention from an expert in Psychology. See the talk page for details. WikiProject Psychology may be able to help recruit an expert.(August 2016) The Stanford marshmallow experiment was a series of studies on delayed gratification in the late 1960s and early 1970s led by psychologist Walter Mischel, then a professor at Stanford University.[1] In these studies, a child was offered a choice between one small reward provided immediately or two small rewards if they waited for a short period, approximately 15 minutes, during which the tester left the room and then returned. (The reward was sometimes a marshmallow, but often a cookie or a pretzel.) In follow-up studies, the researchers found that children who were able to wait longer for the preferred rewards tended to have better life outcomes, as measured by SAT scores,[2] educational attainment,[3] body mass index (BMI),[4] and other life measures.[5] A replication attempt with a more diverse sample population over 10 times larger than the original study failed to support the original study's conclusions and suggested that economic background rather than willpower explained the results.[6] Contents The experiment has its roots in an earlier one performed in Trinidad, where Mischel noticed that the different ethnic groups living on the island had contrasting stereotypes about one another, in terms of the other's perceived recklessness, self-control, and ability to have fun.[7] This study focused on male and female children aged seven to nine (35 Black and 18 East Indian) in a rural Trinidad school. The children were required to indicate a choice between receiving a 1¢ candy immediately, or having a 10¢ candy given to them in one week's time. Mischel reported a significant ethnic difference, with Indian children showing far more ability to delay gratification as compared to African students, as well as large age differences, and that "Comparison of the 'high' versus 'low' socioeconomic groups on the experimental choice did not yield a significant difference".[7] Absence of the father was prevalent in the African-descent group but occurred only once in the East Indian group, and this variable showed the strongest link to delay of gratification, with children from intact families showing superior ability to delay. The first "Marshmallow Test" was a study conducted by Walter Mischel and Ebbe B. Ebbesen at Stanford University in 1960.[8] The purpose of the original study was to understand when the control of delayed gratification, the ability to wait to obtain something that one wants, develops in children. The original experiment took place at the Bing Nursery School located at Stanford University, using children of ages four to six as subjects. The children were led into a room, empty of distractions, where a treat of their choice (Oreo cookie, marshmallow, or pretzel stick) was placed on a table.[1] The children could eat the treat, the researchers said, but if they waited for fifteen minutes without giving in to the temptation, they would be rewarded with a second treat.[1] Mischel observed that some would "cover their eyes with their hands or turn around so that they can't see the tray, others start kicking the desk, or tug on their pigtails, or stroke the marshmallow as if it were a tiny stuffed animal," while others would simply eat the marshmallow as soon as the researchers left.[1] In over 600 children who took part in the experiment, a minority ate the marshmallow immediately. Of those who attempted to delay, one third deferred gratification long enough to get the second marshmallow.[1] Age was a major determinant of deferred gratification. Test subjects were 16 boys and 16 girls attending the Bing Nursery School of Stanford University. Three other subjects were run, but eliminated because of their failure to comprehend the instructions. The children ranged in age from 3 years, 6 months to 5 years, 8 months (with a median age of 4 years, 6 months). The procedures were conducted by two male experimenters. Eight subjects (four male and four female) were assigned randomly to each of the four experimental conditions. In each condition each experimenter ran two boys and two girls in order to avoid systematic biasing effects from sex or experimenters.[8] On the table in the experimental room there were five pretzels and an opaquecake tin. Under the cake tin were five pretzels and two animal cookies. There were two chairs in front of the table; on one chair was an empty cardboard box. On the floor near the chair with the cardboard box on it were four battery operated toys. The experimenter pointed out the four toys; before the child could play with the toys, the experimenter asked the child to sit in the chair and then demonstrated each toy briefly and in a friendly manner, saying that they would play with the toys later on. Then the experimenter placed each toy in the cardboard box and out of sight of the child. The experimenter explained to the child that the experimenter sometimes has to go out of the room but if the child eats a pretzel the experimenter will come back into the room. These instructions were repeated until the child seemed to understand them completely. The experimenter left the room and waited for the child to eat a pretzel – they did this four times. Next, the experimenter opened the cake tin to reveal two sets of reward objects to the child: five pretzels and two animal crackers. The experimenter asked which of the two the child liked better, and after the child chose, the experimenter explained that the child could either continue waiting for the more preferred reward until the experimenter returned, or the child could stop waiting by bringing the experimenter back. If the child stopped waiting, then the child would receive the less favored reward and forgo the more preferred one. Depending on the condition and the child's choice of preferred reward, the experimenter picked up the cake tin and along with it either nothing, one of the rewards, or both. The experimenter returned either as soon as the child signaled him to do so or after 15 minutes.[8] In follow-up studies, Mischel found unexpected correlations between the results of the marshmallow test and the success of the children many years later.[5] The first follow-up study, in 1988, showed that "preschool children who delayed gratification longer in the self-imposed delay paradigm, were described more than 10 years later by their parents as adolescents who were significantly more competent."[citation needed] A second follow-up study, in 1990, showed that the ability to delay gratification also correlated with higher SAT scores.[5] A 2006 paper to which Mischel contributed reports a similar experiment, this time relating ability to delay in order to receive a cookie (at age 4) and reaction time on a go/no go task.[9] A 2011 brain imaging study of a sample from the original Stanford participants when they reached mid-life showed key differences between those with high delay times and those with low delay times in two areas: the prefrontal cortex (more active in high delayers) and the ventral striatum, (more active in low delayers) when they were trying to control their responses to alluring temptations.[10][11] A 2012 study at the University of Rochester (with a smaller N= 28) altered the experiment by dividing children into two groups: one group was given a broken promise before the marshmallow test was conducted (the unreliable tester group), and the second group had a fulfilled promise before their marshmallow test (the reliable tester group). The reliable tester group waited up to four times longer (12 min) than the unreliable tester group for the second marshmallow to appear.[12][13] The authors argue that this calls into question the original interpretation of self-control as the critical factor in children's performance, since self-control should predict ability to wait, not strategic waiting when it makes sense. Prior to the Marshmallow Studies at Stanford, Walter Mischel had shown that the child's belief that the promised delayed rewards would actually be delivered is an important determinant of the choice to delay, but his later experiments did not take this factor into account or control for individual variation in beliefs about reliability when reporting correlations with life successes.[14][15][16][17] In the studies Mischel and colleagues conducted at Stanford University,[1][8] in order to establish trust that the experimenter would return, at the beginning of the "marshmallow test" children first engaged in a game in which they summoned the experimenter back by ringing a bell; the actual waiting portion of the experiment did not start until after the children clearly understood that the experimenter would keep the promise. Participants of the original studies at the Bing School at Stanford University appeared to have no doubt that they would receive a reward after waiting and chose to wait for the more desirable reward. However, Mischel's earlier studies showed there are many other situations in which children cannot be certain that they would receive the delayed outcome.[14][15][16][17] In such situations, waiting for delayed rewards may not be an adaptive response. Watts, Duncan and Quan's 2018 conceptual replication [18] yielded mostly statistically insignificant correlations with behavioral problems but a significant correlation with achievement tests at age 15. These effects were lower than in the original experiment and reduced further when controlling for early cognitive ability and behavior, family background, and home environment.

Q: All squares above 6 have an even number of multiples of 10. Why? I was recently looking at a puzzle in Martin Gardner's book: Two brothers sell their heard of sheep, and receive the same number of dollars per sheep, as there were sheep in the heard. They receive the money in $\$10$ bills, and then the remainder is made up of silver dollars. They split the money by alternating taking \$10 bills, and then the last takes all the silver dollars. The older brother goes first, and takes the first bill, and the last bill - so the younger brother complains that he receives less. The older brother agrees to write him a cheque to cover the difference. How much is the cheque for? Now, to get to the solution - as the book says - you know that the total amount of money was $\$n^2$, and that $n^2 - n^2 \mod 10$ is odd. Looking at the squares, you have $1,4,9,16,25,36,49,64,81,100,121,144,\ldots$ . And so the number of sheep has to have been either 4, or 6, and so the cheque must be for $\$2$. But how do I show that all the squares above 6 have an even number of tens? Pointed out below, were $14^2, 16^2, 24^2, 26^2, \ldots$ - all the squares of numbers ending in 4 or 6. Is there a relationship with these numbers? A: All integers are of the form $10n\pm k$, where $0\le k\le5$. Squaring, we have $100n^2\pm20kn+k^2$. For $k^2<10\iff0\le k\le3$, the tens digit is always even. For $k=4$ we have numbers ending in $4$ and $10-4=6$ yielding squares with an odd tens digit, since $4^2={\color{red}1}6$. For $k=5$ we have $k^2={\color{red}2}5$, so the tens digit is again even.

Dementia is defined by the World Health Organization as a syndrome, usually chronic and progressive, with different causes.[@B1] It is a complex condition that affects cognition, behavior, and the autonomy for practicing activities of daily living.[@B2] Currently, 50 million people are living with dementia, and projections suggest that this number will triple by 2050, affecting 152 million people.[@B3] Alzheimer's disease (AD) is one of the most common causes of this syndrome.[@B2] Cognitive dysfunction, such as mild cognitive impairment (MCI), can be considered a prodromal manifestation of dementia and can be identified years before dementia onset.[@B4] The prevalence of MCI in older adults ranges from 15 to 20%, and this condition may be related to high levels of amyloid protein, a biomarker for neurodegeneration and increased risk for dementia.[@B5] ^,^ [@B6] Little is known about the actual prevalence of dementia.[@B2] However, it is known to be more common in women and has a prevalence of 5% in people aged over 65 and up to 32% in elderly aged 85 or older.[@B1] In addition, a relationship has been observed between dementia and increased risk for cardiovascular diseases, metabolic syndrome, and neuropsychiatric disorders.[@B7] ^,^ [@B8] Another intriguing fact about dementia syndromes is underreporting rates, which are higher in low- and middle-income countries (93.2% in Asia, 62.9% in North America, 53.7% in Europe).[@B9] Usually, the delay for establishing dementia diagnosis is about 29-37 weeks between symptoms onset and definitive clinical diagnosis.[@B10] In this context, primary health care represents the first and closest contact between the elderly and health system, as well as being fundamental for the development of strategies for early identification of diseases.[@B8] On the other hand, numerous factors have been suggested as causes for late diagnosis of dementia: normal cognitive changes expected in the aging process, patients' low educational level, and lack of professional training for correct interpretation of neuropsychiatric symptoms.[@B8] ^,^ [@B10] ^,^ [@B11] Given the importance of early diagnosis for dementia and cognitive dysfunction (i.e. MCI), as well as the fact that primary health care settings are the entry point to the health system, the aim of this systematic review was to identify how low-, middle-, and high-income countries establish this diagnosis in primary health care. METHODS ======= This systematic review was conducted to determine the diagnostic strategies used in primary health care to diagnose dementia and cognitive dysfunction in low-, middle-, and high-income countries. Thus, based on this research question, studies from the past five years were searched on SCOPUS, PubMed, EMBASE, LILACS, SCIELO, and Web of Science. The search occurred in October, 2018, and the key-words used in this study were obtained both from DeCS (Descritores em Ciências da Saúde) and MeSH (Medical Subject Headlines). Country-income classification was based on data from the World Bank website (<http://www.worldbank.org/>) and adapted to comprise three categories as proposed by the International Association for Media and Communication Research (<https://iamcr.org/income>). The descriptors were: "dementia", "cognitive dysfunction", "diagnosis", "primary health care", and "mass screening" - and their correlates in Portuguese and Spanish. The Boolean operator "AND" was used as a search strategy to combine the descriptors considering all the possibilities. The combinations, in English, were: "Diagnosis AND Dementia AND Primary Health Care"; "Diagnosis AND Cognitive Dysfunction AND Primary Health Care"; "Dementia AND Primary Health Care AND Mass Screening"; "Cognitive Dysfunction AND Primary Health Care AND Mass Screening". The same combinations were employed in both Portuguese and Spanish. To make the search more precise, the following filters were applied: papers written in English, Spanish, or Portuguese; publication date from 2014 up to the time of the search (October, 2018). The limit of five years was established due to the improvement and recent discoveries that have been made in the field of dementia screening and diagnosis. On SCOPUS and EMBASE, the required document type was article, and the search was conducted by article, title, and key-word. On PubMed and Scielo, the search was conducted for all fields. On LILACS, the search was by words. Finally, on Web of Science, articles were searched by topic. After the search, a data base was created by two different researchers. The purpose was to minimize errors and bias. After both data bases were complete, another researcher compared them to ensure they were the same. The selection process was based on the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) protocol. PRISMA was chosen to accomplish careful planning and organizing data to ensure a review with rigor and quality.[@B12] Also, an adapted version of an instrument proposed by URSI (2005) was used for data extraction and analysis. From the findings obtained by the above mentioned instrument, results were organized in a table to facilitate data descriptive synthesis. For this review, the inclusion criteria considered studies from the previous five years; published in English, Portuguese, or Spanish; conducted in primary health care services; whose participants were aged 60 or older; availability (possible to access); and studies whose topic addressed either diagnosis/screening of dementia or cognitive dysfunction. On the other hand, exclusion criteria were: duplicated articles; drug trials, literature reviews, letters to the editor, editorial, recommendations, monographies, dissertations, and thesis; as well as for articles whose topic did not involve the diagnosis of dementia or cognitive dysfunction. Because this study was based on published articles, submission to the Research Ethics Committee was not required, according to Brazilian National Health Council's resolution (nº510/2016).[@B13] RESULTS ======= The search of the databases retrieved a total of 1987 articles. As mentioned above, PRISMA was the tool used for the selection process. Of the initial total found, 707 papers were excluded because they were duplicated (inter or intra-database). After this exclusion, 1280 remained for title and abstract reading. In this phase, a further 1123 papers were excluded, and 157 articles were selected for full reading. Of this total, 124 documents did not meet the inclusion criteria and therefore 33 studies were included in this systematic review. Results from PRISMA can be seen in [Figure 1](#f1){ref-type="fig"}. Figure 1Summary of Paper Selection Process, PRISMA, São Carlos, São Paulo, Brazil, 2019. This study's initial question was "what are the diagnostic strategies to diagnose dementia and cognitive dysfunction in primary health care in low-, middle-, and high-income countries?". Results showed that more than 90% (n = 30) of the articles were from high-income countries, while 3 papers were from middle-income countries. Unfortunately, no articles from low-income countries were found. Regarding participants' demographic characteristics, most of the articles (n = 21) had a predominance of female participants. Age was also analyzed. In general, participant age ranged from 70 to 80 years. Studies conducted in middle-income countries considered older adults as participants aged 60 or older. From the pool of selected studies, 75.8% had between 101 and 1,000 participants; 18.2% had between 1,001 and 10,000; finally, the percentage of studies whose number of participants was more than 10,001 was 6.0%. It was noted that studies often failed to describe participants' ethnicity. Of the studies that provided this information, Hispanic, African American, Chinese, and White ethnicities were reported. Because the topic of interest in this study was dementia/cognitive dysfunction diagnosis in primary health care, the type of diagnosis was a variable of interest. After the analysis, three diagnosis categories were established: dementia only (n = 10), MCI only (n = 8), and dementia and MCI (n = 15). Regarding the diagnostic criteria, all of the papers (n = 33) reported clinical diagnosis, conducted either by a general practitioner or a multidisciplinary group, where 13 articles used DSM-IV as the reference criteria. Three studies had different criteria sources for dementia and MCI. In these studies, dementia diagnosis was based on DSM-IV, whereas MCI was based on recommendations of experts (e.g. Petersen et al., and Winblad et al.). For biomarkers, three studies used blood measurements and one study used neuroimaging. Of the total, 9 articles mentioned only neuropsychological testing as a criterion for screening or diagnosing dementia and MCI. Interestingly, all the studies conducted in middle-income countries had this characteristic. This review also investigated the instruments used for assessing patients' neuropsychological status and others aspects (e.g. functioning, quality of life, and comorbidities). [Graph 1](#f3){ref-type="fig"} shows a schematic representation for the most used instruments by the studies. Cognitive instruments were cited in 31 out of the 33 articles; however, only 14 papers mentioned other types of evaluation (non-cognitive). Most of these evaluations reported measurements for quality of life, activities of daily living, and health status. Regarding cognitive assessment, 25 studies used the MMSE as one of the instruments for measuring cognition, and 23 used the MMSE together with another type of cognitive measure. MMSE was the most used instrument. In addition, 5 papers used the MoCA and NPI; 4 papers used the AD8; 3 papers used verbal fluency, digit span, CERAD, digit symbol, test your memory, and CAMCOG tests; 2 papers used the CDR, DemTect, Stroop color-word test, Mini-Cog and the Clock Drawing Test. Quality of life was assessed by the EuroQol in 3 studies and by the QoL-AD in one study. Depressive symptoms were evaluated by the GDS in 7 studies. Graph 1Measurement Instruments used in the studies, São Carlos, São Paulo, Brazil, 2019. The number of diagnosed older adults was also an outcome of interest. Only one study did not provide this information. In total, ten studies investigated the diagnosis of dementia. One did not provide information about the number of diagnosed participants. In three studies, all participants were diagnosed as having dementia. In the other six articles, dementia diagnosis rate ranged from 3.2% to 55%. Furthermore, MCI diagnosis ranged from 15.2% to 55.8% among those studies which investigated this condition only (n = 8). In studies that investigated both dementia and MCI, the number diagnosed with MCI was higher than the number diagnosed with dementia. [Appendix 1](#app01){ref-type="app"} shows the information obtained from the analysis of the articles selected for this systematic review. Also, some articles evaluated the number of patients that did not test positive on screened or diagnosis for dementia/MCI in primary health care. One study suggested that the elderly were considerably underdiagnosed in primary health care. Similarly, another article stated that the rate for underdiagnosed older adults was around 60%. The qualitative analysis revealed that high-income countries usually use a manual (e.g. DSM), in addition to cognitive and functional instruments, as well as general practitioners' evaluation, to establish a diagnosis of dementia in primary health care, for further referral to specialized care. On the other hand, middle-income countries seemed to use only neuropsychological instruments (e.g. MMSE). [Figure 2](#f2){ref-type="fig"} shows a scheme of diagnostic criteria used in high-income countries that should be helpful for general practitioners when evaluating or screening older adults for MCI or dementia in primary health care. Figure 2Practice for the diagnosis of dementia and cognitive impairment in high-income countries´primary health care. DISCUSSION ========== In this systematic review, studies about the diagnosis of dementia and MCI in primary health care were mostly from high-income countries. In addition, no studies in low-income countries were found. Although dementia is recognized as a global public health issue, poor countries face more difficulties diagnosing and treating this syndrome.[@B14] This could be explained by the fact that in low-income countries, health facilities are more often located in big cities, whereas there are few professionals practicing both in the countryside and rural areas.[@B15] Also, lack of economic and medical resources, poor training, and lack of expertise in mental health are the main factors contributing to poor care for the elderly, especially those with dementia.[@B14] ^,^ [@B16] Another possible explanation for the absence of studies in low-income countries may be related to the limited access to health services, as well as the limited creation and implementation of public health policies that contribute toward both patient diagnosis and treatment.[@B14] ^,^ [@B15] ^,^ [@B17] Regarding demographic information, the mean age observed in this review (70-80 years) follows the pattern in the literature, which shows that the prevalence of dementia is higher for the oldest elderly.[@B18] Research has suggested age as an important risk factor for the development of dementia because, in most cases, it affects individuals aged 65 or older.[@B19] ^,^ [@B20] It was also observed that high-income countries define older adults as those who are 65 years old or over. This is mainly defined by the increase in life expectancy, as well as the elderly's better socioeconomic and health conditions.[@B18] Because biological age is not always enough to define old age, the World Health Organization has established the age of 60 years old or over for low- and middle-income countries and 65 or over for high-income countries.[@B15] ^,^ [@B21] In this review, studies reported greater MCI than dementia diagnosis. Although much progress needs to be made in order to solve underdiagnosis problems, research has suggested that MCI is indeed more prevalent than dementia in older adults.[@B18] ^,^ [@B22] ^,^ [@B23] Regarding diagnostic criteria, most of the studies used DSM-IV as a guideline. It is important to mention that there is a new edition, DSM-V, but the studies reviewed probably used the previous version because the fourth edition was the only version available at the time the studies were conducted. Also, this manual was shown to be used in high-income countries. Middle-income countries used cognitive evaluation instruments. According to Parra et al.,[@B15] middle- and low-income countries have shown a tendency to accept international recommendations for dementia; however, the authors suggested that lack of financial support, resources, trained professionals, and the inexistence of primary health care programs make it difficult to follow these standards. As the strategy for screening older adults for cognitive decline, most of the articles in this review cited GP evaluation. Only a few studies mentioned a multi-professional group. However, different professionals can contribute toward identification of possible cases of MCI and dementia.[@B24] ^,^ [@B25] Middle-income countries, such as China, have been investing in the use of screening instruments for trained nurses, who are intended to be part of a multi-professional dementia identification network.[@B14] ^,^ [@B25] It is also noteworthy that a multi-professional approach with the elderly is recommended because this is desirable to achieve effective and comprehensive health care.[@B26] In this context, professionals such as gerontologists, nurses, physical therapists, geriatricians, neurologists, occupational therapists, and psychologists are key elements for dementia screening, diagnosis, and management. Another interesting aspect observed in this study was the different methods for dementia and MCI identification and confirmation. High-income countries had a uniform standard for diagnosis in primary health care. Our results suggest that these countries, in addition to a manual recommendation (e.g. DSM), also employ complementary tests, such as neuroimaging and blood tests. Research has shown that blood tests, neuropsychological evaluation, and patient health history,[@B27] as well as neuroimaging,[@B28] ^,^ [@B29] are relevant for early identification and differential diagnosis. On the other hand, in this review, studies from middle-income countries only cited the use of neuropsychological evaluation. According to Ferri et al.,[@B14] this might be explained by the lack of structure and financial resources for primary health care settings in low- and middle-income countries. Of the neuropsychological tests mentioned in the articles analyzed, MMSE was the most used. It is also the most commonly used test in screening strategies around the world due to its wide acceptance by the scientific and clinical community, and also because of its practicality and breadth of evaluation.[@B30] In addition, MMSE advantages include fast administration and availability in various languages.[@B31] As mentioned previously, MCI diagnosis was more common than dementia diagnosis. Although the number of diagnosed patients is substantially larger than the prevalence suggested in the literature, it is relevant to observe that some of the studies suggested the existence of undiagnosed older adults in primary health care. For instance, Zaganas et al.[@B32] stated in their study that 60% of the older adults remained without a dementia/MCI diagnosis in primary health care until further in-depth neuropsychiatric evaluation. Similarly, Parmar et al.[@B33] evaluated medical records from the Canadian primary health care system and found no cases of MCI diagnosis. The authors also mentioned that 41% of dementia cases were not identified in primary health care.[@B33] To sum up, Thyrian et al. concluded in their study, that elderly from primary health care are frequently underdiagnosed for dementia and MCI. Thus, there is still much to be done in order minimize the number of undiagnosed people in primary health care. One limitation of this study was the fact that the study design did not include the number of diagnoses missed in primary health care, in other words, the number of underdiagnosed patients. In conclusion, this systematic review aimed to describe how low-, middle-, and high-income countries establish diagnoses for dementia and cognitive dysfunction in primary health care. Most of the articles included in this study were from high-income countries, and no articles were published in low-income countries. In high-income countries, diagnosis or screening for dementia and cognitive dysfunction is usually conducted by general practitioners, who used well-established diagnostic criteria and instruments for assessments (cognitive and functional). In addition, some GPs used complementary evaluations, such as blood tests and neuroimaging. On the other hand, studies published in middle-income countries described only the cognitive assessment process. The diagnosis rate of patients was 3.2-55% for MCI and 15.2%-55.8% for dementia. Studies focusing on low- and middle-income countries should be conducted. It is important to mention that, considering the demographic profile of these countries, the population tends to be aging and dementia cases may increase considerably. Public policies and investment should be made to prepare primary health care professionals for screening and diagnosing dementia. This would improve both the health system and the flow of patients between the different levels of health care. ###### Main characteristics of the studies selected for analysis, São Carlos, São Paulo, Brazil, 2019. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- First author\ Demographics\ Diagnosis type Diagnostic criteria Percentage of positive\ Main findings Year, and place (n/mean/age/gender) screened/diagnosed patients -------------------------- ---------------------- ---------------- ------------------------------------------ ----------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------- Garcia-Ptacek[@B29]\ 3,891\ Dementia GP's evaluation; ICD-10; neuroimaging;\ 100% CDT and neuroimaging are used in most of GP's\ 2017, Sweden 81.1 (±6.6)\ blood testing dementia diagnosis in primary health care 63.9% Female Grober[@B34]\ 257\ Dementia DSM-IV; interview with family members\ 25.7% Screening based on informants to reduce false-\ 2016, USA 75.8\ or friends positive rates 69.7% Female Noda[@B28]\ 623\ Dementia GP's evaluation; DSM-IV 27.4% DSM Score \> I or \> II reduces errors for dementia\ 2018, Japan 86.9\ identification in primary health care 54.2% Female Tierney[@B35]\ 263\ MCI GP's evaluation; MMSE \< 26 28.5% MMSE would improve GP's capacity to detect MCI\ 2014, Canada 77.6 (±6.9)\ in primary health care 58.55% Male Wilcock[@B27]\ 136\ Dementia MCI Blood testing, cognitive evaluation 100% An update of diagnosis records for comprehensive\ 2016, England 79.5\ care is needed 64% Female Chan[@B36]\ 309\ Dementia MCI DSM-IV 21.3% Combinations of AD8 and NINDS provided\ 2016, Singapore 71.7 (+-8.2)\ a sensitivity of 73.3% and specificity of 96.9% for\ 50.2% Female dementia and MCI diagnosis, respectively Eichler[@B37]\ 243\ Dementia MCI DemTect \< 9; medical records Dementia - 40%\ Diagnosis rates for dementia in Germany are\ 2014, Germany 79.61 (±5.44)\ MCI-58% consistent with international literature 61 % Female Eichler[@B38]\ 243\ Dementia MCI MMSE \< 23; DemTect \< 9 Dementia - 49% The diagnosis rate of dementia increased 40% 2015, Germany \>70\ 60.9% Female Arabi[@B39]\ 200\ Dementia\ EDQ \< 5; MMSE \< 21 EDQ-40%\ Validated questionnaire 2016, Malaysia 68.5 (±6.28)\ MCI MMSE-20% 52% Female Shaik[@B40]\ 309\ MCI At least one impaired cognitive domain\ 54.8% Risk factors identified were: age, female gender,\ 2015, Singapore 71.8 (±8.2)\ on objective cognitive evaluation hypertension, diabetes, hyperlipidemia and smoking 54.8% Female Booker[@B41]\ 11,956\ Dementia Medical Database analysis 100% The risk factors identified were: diabetes,\ 2016, Germany 80.4\ hypertension, obesity, hyperlipidemia, vascular\ 61 % Female diseases Rosenbloom[@B42]\ 87\ Dementia\ Mini-Cog \< 4/5 27.3% among screened\ Twice the percentage previously identified with\ 2018, USA 77.2 (±6.2)\ MCI positive on Mini-Cog cognitive impairment 59.8% Female Lee[@B43]\ 140\ MCI MMSE; MoCA 23.5% Just a small fraction of those considered high\ 2017, Singapore 72.15 (±8.42)\ risk for developing dementia made use of health\ 68% Male services Corcoles[@B10]\ 104\ MCI MMSE 55.8% 91.4% of cases with alteration on MMSE had no\ 2017, Spain 77.8 (±6.74)\ history of Cognitive Impairment 68.3% Female Holsinger[@B44]\ 186\ DementiaCIND Medical evaluation Dementia -12%\ 20% returned to normal cognition, 67% remained\ 2015, USA 74.5 (±6.5)\ CIND-31% impaired, and 12% developed dementia 96.2% Male de Oliveira[@B45]\ 102\ Dementia DSM-IV; medical records; MMSE; CASI-S 46% Validation of CASI-S with a 93% sensitivity and\ 2016, Brazil 76.81 (±7.03)\ 81% specificity 83% Female Zaganas[@B32]\ 3,140\ Dementia\ DSM-IV Dementia-10.8%\ Dementia prevalence was 4%; in primary care 60%\ 2019, Greece 73.7 (±7.8)\ MCI MCI-32.4% remain undiagnosed until detailed neuropsychiatric\ Gender: 56.8% Female evaluation Pujades-Rodrigues[@B46]\ 47,386 Dementia Medical records 55% 47,386 with dementia, 12,633 Alzheimer Disease,\ 2018, UK 9,540 vascular disease and 1539 with other less\ common causes Malmstron[@B47]\ 533\ Dementia\ DSMIV Dementia -12%\ RCS sensitivity 89% and specificity 87% for\ 2015, USA 65-92\ MCI MCI-26% detecting Dementia, compared to 94% and 70%\ 100% Male for MCI Stein[@B48]\ 3,327\ Dementia GP's and multidisciplinary group's\ Follow-up I - 3.2%\ MMSE was more accurate than MMSE for diagnosis 2015, Germany 81.14\ evaluation; DSM-IV; SIDAM Follow-up II - 4.62% 65.3% Female Yang[@B25]\ 249\ MCI MMSE Impaired cognition -12.9%\ Simple instruments, such as MMSE and MoCA used\ 2015, China 67.6\ MCI-41% for screening the elderly in primary health care 61.8% Female Shaik[@B49]\ 168\ Dementia\ Nurses' screening; AD8; Specialist's\ Screened positive -13.7% 98.8% of nurses considered AD8 easy to use.\ 2016, Singapore 80.7\ MCI evaluation 78.3% of GPs considered AD8 useful 56% Female Thyrian[@B50]\ 516\ Dementia\ GP's evaluation; ICD-10 MCI-90.8%\ Older adults from primary health care are\ 2016, Germany 80\ MCI Dementia-99.8% considerably underdiagnosed 59.5% Female Koekkoek[@B51]\ 513\ MCI GP's evaluation; DSM-IV (Dementia);\ 15.2% This study protocol describes all the procedures for\ 2015, Netherlands \>70 Winblad et al. (MCI) the Cog-ld study Chan[@B52]\ 309\ Dementia DSM-IV; CDR 36.5% For participant age, AD8 was better than MMSE and as\ 2016, Singapore 71.7 (±8.2)\ good as MoCA 60.5% Female Koekkoek[@B53]\ 228\ MCI DSM-IV (Dementia); Winblad et al. (MCI) 19.3% TYM's negative predictive value (NPV) was 81% and\ 2016, Netherlands 76.8\ SAGE's was 85%. GP's evaluations had a similar\ 60% Male NPV, however, the positive predictive value was\ higher Dungen[@B54]\ 647\ Dementia\ DSM-IV (Dementia); Petersen at al. (MCI) Dementia -14%\ The authors did not find statistical relevance in the\ 2015, Netherlands 79.8 (±7.1)\ MCI MCI-31.5% number of diagnoses between the groups before or\ 39.6% Male after intervention Groeneveld[@B55]\ 120\ Dementia\ DSM-IV (Dementia). MCI: not dementia,\ Dementia-2.5%\ The authors suggested that patients with type 2\ 2018, Netherlands 77.0 (±4.5)\ MCI but not normal cognition; cognitive\ MCI-30% diabetes should be screened for MCI and dementia. 60% Male complaints; objective impairment in one\ or more cognitive domain; no functional\ impairment Campbell[@B56]\ 350\ Dementia\ Multidisciplinary group evaluation Dementia - 2%\ The use of anticholinergic drugs increased the\ 2018, USA 71.2 (±5.1)\ MCI MCI-94.8% likelihood of conversion from normal to MCI. On the\ 79.1 % Female other hand, reversion from MCI to normal cognition\ was not observed. Jessen[@B57]\ 2,892\ Dementia\ CERAD's verbal memory task (SMI, eMCI,\ Ml - 36.6%\ The highest risk for developing dementia was in the\ 2014, Germany 79.7 (±3.58)\ MCI\ and IMCI); DSM-IV, SIDAM (Dementia) eMCI - 8.6%\ late MCI group. In SMI and early MCI groups, those\ 64.8% Female SMI MCI-12.3%\ who had concerns about their memory impairment\ DA-7.4% had a similar risk for developing dementia. Wray[@B58]\ 5,333\ Dementia Medical records Not mentioned B0MC+ patients were 5.12 times more likely to\ 2014, USA 80.7\ receive a dementia diagnosis, when comparing to\ 97% Male BOMC- group. Alonso[@B59]\ 4,360\>65 MCI Mini-cog screening test, MMSE and\ 18.5% Cognitive impairment is a common reason for\ 2016, Spain Alzheimer's Questionnaire appointments in primary health care. Brodaty[@B60]\ 1,717\ Dementia Medical records, MMSE 7.3% GPCOG's sensitivity was 79% and specificity 92%. 2016, Australia 81.05\ (±4.12) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MCI: Mild Cognitive Impairment; CIND-Cognitive impairment not-dementia; SMI -Subjective Memory Impairment; eMCI: Early Mild Cognitive Impairment; lMCI: Late Mild Cognitive Impairment; GP: General Practitioner; ICD: International Statistical Classifi cations of Diseases and Related Health Problems; DSM: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; MMSE- Mini-Mental State Examination; MoCA: Montreal Cognitive Assessment; CASI-S: Cognitive Abilities Screening Instrument-Short Form; EDQ: Early Dementia Questionnaire; SIDAM - Structured Interview for the diagnosis of Dementia of the Alzheimer type; CDR: Clinical Dementia Rating; GPCOG: General Practitioner assessment of Cognition. [^1]: **Disclosure:** The authors report no conflicts of interest. [^2]: **Authors contributions.** Lucas N.C. Pelegrini: design, selection of studies, analysis of data, intellectual contribution to the writing of the manuscript. Gabriela M.P. Mota: design, selection of studies, intellectual contribution to the writing of the manuscript. Caio F. Ramos: design, selection of studies, intellectual contribution to the writing of the manuscript. Edson Jesus: design, selection of studies, intellectual contribution to the writing of the manuscript. Francisco A.C. Vale: design, selection of studies, analysis of data, intellectual contribution to the writing of the manuscript.

Ascaris suum: development of intestinal immunity to infective second-stage larvae in swine. The development of protective immunity to Ascaris suum was examined in pigs naturally exposed to eggs on a contaminated dirt lot. Pigs became almost totally immune to second-stage larvae migrating from the intestines because few larvae from a challenge inoculum could be found in the lungs, and liver white-spot lesions (an immunopathologic response to migrating larvae) were absent. Blood from these pigs contained lymphocytes that responded blastogenically to larval antigens in vitro, while the serum contained antibody to larval antigens. Immunity was related to parasite exposure and not to the age of the host, and was not affected by the removal of adult A. suum from the intestines. Naturally exposed pigs responded to a variety of A. suum antigens with an immediate-type skin reactivity, and their intestinal mucosa contained relatively large numbers of mast cells and eosinophils. Other pigs were maintained on a dirt lot not contaminated with A. suum eggs and the effects of common environmental conditions on development of resistance to A. suum were studied. Resistance also developed in these pigs because 72% fewer larvae were detected in their lungs following a challenge exposure than in control pigs confined indoors on concrete floors and challenged similarly. This response was not expressed at the intestinal level, however, because their livers had numerous, intense white-spot lesions. To verify that the intestinal immunity that developed in pigs after natural exposure to A. suum was a direct result of homologous infection and not related to other stimuli encountered on a dirt lot, pigs maintained indoors on concrete floors, free from inadvertent helminthic infection, were inoculated orally with A. suum eggs daily for 16 weeks. Intestinal immunity was induced because larvae from a challenge inoculum were not detected in the lungs, and few white-spot lesions appeared on the livers of these pigs. Apparently, continual exposure of the intestinal mucosa to larvae eventually elicits the appropriate effector components necessary to prevent larval migration from the intestines.

What are Solar Panels, and How Do They Work? Solar panels convert sunlight into electricity, and the process they use is actually quite simple. The more sunlight that hits a panel, the more electricity it will produce. Basically the sun’s light is made up of protons. When the sunlight passes through the solar panels, the protons react with electrons contained within materials inside the solar panel and electricity is produced. Source Inside a Solar Panel The inside of a solar panel contains a series of chemical sandwiches known as Photovoltaic cells. Each sandwiches directed into the chemical sandwiches inside the solar panels, a chemical reaction occurs that is transferred form one sandwich to another. This reaction creates an electric current, which is then converted into a type of energy which can be used to power the equipment and appliances in your home. A single photovoltaic cell produces approximately a half volt of electrical output. When 36 cells are connected in a series, a module is created which produces 18 volts. Another word for module is panel. Each solar panel contains a number of interconnected photovoltaic sells which are housed in a finished product. A typical module (solar panel) measures around 2.5 ft. wide by 5 feet long. They are usually bluish or black in color, and the frames are generally constructed out of aluminum. The frames can either r be left in their natural aluminum finish or painted black, though most homeowners choose black as the panels then blend in better with whatever color tiles or shingles are on the roof. A wide range of voltage and current outputs can be achieved according to how the solar panels are connected together. The larger the surface of the panel, the more electricity it will produce, as it will be able to absorb more sunlight. Solar panels are generally rectangular in shape and come in a variety of sizes, depending on the size of the roof or area where they will be housed, and the amount of electricity required. A typical residential solar panel produces around 200 watts of power. Basically photovoltaic cells are linked together to produce essentially what are solar panels. How Photovoltaic Solar Panels Work Source How Long Do Solar Panels Last? How long do solar panels last” is often one of the first questions that solar energy system contractors are asked. There is no simple, short answer to the question, as there are many variables to consider. The make of your panels, the type of panel, your geographic location, climate, and where they will be located all factor into the equation. There are solar panels that are still in operation after being installed in the 1970’s. These were some of the first panels developed, and technology since has only made them better. Most modern manufacturers offer a 25 year warranty on solar panels, but often they can last much longer. Under optimum conditions that figure could almost double, but that is also dependent on the quality of materials used by an individual manufacturer. Inside each solar panel is a series of photovoltaic cells. These are basically semi conductors composed of silicon, boron, and phosphorus as well as some metals. The quality of those materials and how they are manufactured will also play apart in a panel’s longevity. Your geographic location and climate probably plays a larger role in anything when considering how long do solar panels last. Don’t get climate confused with weather. Weather is the conditions for a day; climate is the cumulative weather conditions over a substantial period of time. Though a lot of sun will help you produce lots of electricity, it will also cause a bit more wear and tear on your solar hardware. Rain in areas with lots of pollution will be acidic, and so cause corrosion on fittings and panel frames. If you live in such an area, don’t let that discourage you from haven solar panels installed. A bit of regular maintenance can counter those effects quite easily. That can be as simple as hosing your panels off once or twice a week, which will also keep them free from dust and other debris which can also hinder output production. If you live in an area that is susceptible to high winds, you’ll need to take extra precautions to make sure your panels are adequately insured. Of course winter brings its own set of problems, and you’ll have to keep your panels clear of snow to avoid deterioration, and to keep output up. Generally maintenance is quite simple, and a lifespan of 25 years or more is not unreasonable to expect. The professionalism with which you have them installed, and how well you maintain them will dictate how long your solar panels will last. Take care of them and they’ll take care of you. Source 9 Reasons Why Solar Energy is Soaring The demand for fossil fuels in the United States is beginning to exceed the available supply. Even if any found new reserves exceed expectations or new technology significantly improves oil and gas recovery, supply and demand will become unbalanced. But that is only one of the reasons why many homeowners are converting to solar power. Solar power is versatile and can be used in a number of different ways. Each has its own complexity and costs, but in the end the benefits are indisputable. Following are nine applications of solar power that are contributing to its increasing popularity. Generating Electricity for General Usage: You can actually install a solar energy system that will inevitably reduce tour electricity bill to zero. It will require a significant initial investment, but it will end up saving you loads of cash, and it’s good for the environment. Running a household is one of the most popular uses of solar energy, and solar power systems installation is growing at a rate of 25% or more per year. Cooking: There are a few easy to build solar powered ovens and stoves that can be constructed so that you can cook using the sun’s energy. The technology is there, you are only limited by your imagination! Space Heating: Strategically placed blinds, awnings, sunrooms, and skylights and such can help you to heat your home naturally. Heating Water: Heating the domestic water supply is another popular application of solar energy. Many homeowners have sun-warmed water pumped through compatible plumbing systems to supply their homes, and often require no electrical pumps or other moving parts to do so. Pumping Water: There are solar systems that are designed so that you can slowly pump water into a tank when the sun is shining, and then draw on it later. The tanks are also designed to absorb sunlight, thus heating the water naturally and reducing the power load on any domestic water heaters in the house. Heating of Swimming Pools: Many homeowners who have a swimming pool keep it covered with a solar blanket that heats it efficiently and cheaply. There are also hot water heating panels that can be installed on the roof of your house or garage to heat the water in your pool year round. Landscape Lighting: Solar powered garden and landscaping lights are a very effective way to light your grounds at night. Modern technology has advanced to the point where such lights are efficient and attractive, so there is no need to use expensive lighting powered by the utility companies anymore. In fact, solar lighting is the most widely used solar technology, and there is virtually no drawback to using it. Indoor Lighting: There are a number of effective solar lighting systems for inside the home that use LED (light emitting diodes) technology. These small electronic lights use little current, and entire rooms in your house can be lit using them in combination with a small off-grid solar system connected to a battery. The battery is charged during the day so that there is enough juice to do the job at night. Powering Remote Dwellings: An entire holiday or camping cabin, RV or boat can be powered by solar energy, a niche in which technology continues to develop and solar usage increases. Summary Solar power is produced domestically, and every kilowatt hour produced reduces the demand for foreign oil by the same amount. As you can see from the above nine applications, you can install a system to power your entire household, or just an aspect of it. Every little bit helps; not just your wallet, but the environment as well. This website uses cookies As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. 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An LCD is a display apparatus in which polarized liquid crystal, a macromolecule substance, is sealed in between two transparent electrodes. Information is displayed on the LCD by applying a desired voltage between the two electrodes to change the orientation of the liquid crystal molecules according to the applied voltage to control the light transmittance between the electrodes on a pixel basis. To fabricate an LCD, therefore, a pixel part which consists of transparent electrodes and liquid crystal sealed therebetween as well as a driver for controlling the voltage to be applied to the pixel are required. FIG. 1 shows an equivalent circuit of an LCD. The liquid crystal sandwiched between two electrodes is represented as a pixel capacitor 1. In many cases, an auxiliary capacitor 9 is formed on a panel in order to provide sufficient capacitance. The auxiliary capacitor 9 has a constant capacitance. The pixel capacitor 1 and the auxiliary capacitor 9 are connected to a switching transistor 2 which is driven by a gate line 3. The source electrode of the switching transistor is connected to a source line 4. An address is assigned to the gate line 3 and the source line 4, respectively. When the address (Sm, Gn) is specified, the voltage on the source line 4 is provided to the pixel capacitor 1 which consists of two electrodes and liquid crystal sealed in between them, and the auxiliary capacitor 9 described above through the switching transistor 2 which is driven by the gate line 3. This voltage causes the orientation of the liquid crystal molecules to change to control light transmittance. An electrode which is opposed to a pixel electrode 5 is commonly called the "counter electrode" 6. In general, the tilt angle of liquid crystal molecules is roughly proportional to an applied voltage. In recent years, as the display quality has been refined, eight or 16 levels of voltage are applied, instead of simple two levels, and the different brightness levels are represented according to the different voltage levels. That is, the voltage applied to the source line is not constant. Instead, the voltage varies according to data which is to be displayed by a particular pixel. The alignment of the liquid crystal molecules may be caused by applying a dc voltage to them. However, it is known that the liquid crystal sealed in the cell deteriorates in a very short time or is burnt if a dc voltage is applied. To apply a level of voltage to the liquid crystal cell, therefore, an ac voltage is generally used. That is, usually, voltages which have the same absolute value and opposite polarity and corresponds to certain gray scale are applied alternately in order to display gray scale. There are two types of such a driving method using an alternating voltage which are conventionally used. The first method uses a high voltage driver. This method applies a potential to the pixel electrode by using an alternating voltage while retaining the voltage applied to the counter electrode at a constant level, as shown in FIG. 2. The potential applied to the cell is high, typically between 10 and 20V. This method presents a number of problems in terms of manufacturability. For example, it is difficult to develop a driver which achieves both a high voltage and high speed. Furthermore, it is not easy to integrate a high voltage circuit which provides multiple levels of output. The second method, as shown in FIG. 3, applies a relatively low voltage (about 5V) to the pixel electrode while applying a high alternating voltage to the counter electrode, and combines these voltages applied to the pixel and the counter electrode in order to achieve an alternating voltage drive effect. This method, however, requires that the counter electrode with large load be driven by a high alternating voltage, thus, the power consumption of the LCD panel is very large. Furthermore, this method is not practical because, as the pixel size becomes smaller, it is difficult to include wiring for driving the counter electrode by alternating voltage, especially in the case where an auxiliary capacitor 9 is included in the cell. As described above, although the counter electrode potential may be maintained at a constant level using a high voltage driver, it is difficult to achieve high speed using such a driver, and such a driver is costly. If a low withstand voltage driver is used, an alternating voltage must be applied to the counter electrode in order to accomplish alternative driving of the cell. The application of this voltage will consume more electric power and increase the complexity of wiring, and the complex wiring will increase the cost. Therefore, it is desirable to overcome these disadvantages.

Doubts on progress and technology Bedazzled by Energy Efficiency To focus on energy efficiency is to make present ways of life non-negotiable. However, transforming present ways of life is key to mitigating climate change and decreasing our dependence on fossil fuels. Energy efficiency policy Energy efficiency is a cornerstone of policies to reduce carbon emissions and fossil fuel dependence in the industrialised world. For example, the European Union (EU) has set a target of achieving 20% energy savings through improvements in energy efficiency by 2020, and 30% by 2030. Measures to achieve these EU goals include mandatory energy efficiency certificates for buildings, minimum efficiency standards and labelling for a variety of products such as boilers, household appliances, lighting and televisions, and emissions performance standards for cars. [1] The EU has the world’s most progressive energy efficiency policy, but similar measures are now applied in many other industrialised countries, including China. On a global scale, the International Energy Agency (IEA) asserts that “energy efficiency is the key to ensuring a safe, reliable, affordable and sustainable energy system for the future”. [2] In 2011, the organisation launched its 450 scenario, which aims to limit the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere to 450 parts per million. Improved energy efficiency accounts for 71% of projected carbon reductions in the period to 2020, and 48% in the period to 2035. [2] [3] What are the results? Do improvements in energy efficiency actually lead to energy savings? At first sight, the advantages of efficiency seem to be impressive. For example, the energy efficiency of a range of domestic appliances covered by the EU directives has improved significantly over the last 15 years. Between 1998 and 2012, fridges and freezers became 75% more energy efficient, washing machines 63%, laundry dryers 72%, and dishwashers 50%. [4] However, energy use in the EU-28 in 2015 was only slightly below the energy use in 2000 (1,627 Mtoe compared to 1.730 Mtoe, or million tonnes of oil equivalents). Furthermore, there are several other factors that may explain the (limited) decrease in energy use, like the 2007 economic crisis. Indeed, after decades of continuous growth, energy use in the EU decreased slightly between 2007 and 2014, only to go up again in 2015 and 2016 when economic growth returned. [1] On a global level, energy use keeps rising at an average rate of 2.4% per year. [3] This is double the rate of population growth, while close to half of the global population has limited or no access to modern energy sources. [5] In industrialised (OECD) countries, energy use per head of the population doubled between 1960 and 2007. [6] Rebound effects? Why is it that advances in energy efficiency do not result in a reduction of energy demand? Most critics focus on so-called “rebound effects”, which have been described since the nineteenth century. [7] According to the rebound argument, improvements in energy efficiency often encourage greater use of the services which energy helps to provide. [8] For example, the advance of solid state lighting (LED), which is six times more energy efficient than old-fashioned incandescent lighting, has not led to a decrease in energy demand for lighting. Instead, it resulted in six times more light. [9] In some cases, rebound effects may be sufficiently large to lead to an overall increase in energy use. [8] For example, the improved efficiency of microchips has accelerated the use of computers, whose total energy use now exceeds the total energy use of earlier generations of computers which had less energy efficient microchips. Energy efficiency advances in one product category can also lead to increased energy use in other product categories, or lead to the creation of an entirely new product category. For example, LED-screens are more energy efficient than LCD-screens, and could therefore reduce the energy use of televisions. However, they also led to the arrival of digital billboards, which are enormous power hogs in spite of their energy efficient components. [10] Finally, money saved through improvements in energy efficiency can also be spent on other energy-intensive goods and services, which is a possibility usually referred to as an indirect rebound effect. Beyond the rebound argument Rebound effects are ignored by the EU and the IEA, and this might partly explain why the results fall short of the projections. Among academics, the magnitude of the rebound effect is hotly debated. While some argue that “rebound effects frequently offset or even eliminate the energy savings from improved efficiency” [3], others maintain that rebound effects “have become a distraction” because they are relatively small: “behavioural responses shave 5-30% of intended energy savings, reaching no more than 60% when combined with macro-economic effects – energy efficiency does save energy”. [11] Those who downplay rebound effects attribute the lack of results to the fact that we don’t try hard enough: “many opportunities for improving energy efficiency still go wasted”. [11] Others are driven by the goal of improving energy efficiency policy. One response is to suggest that the frame of reference be expanded and that analysts should consider the efficiency not of individual products but of entire systems or societies. In this view, energy efficiency is not framed holistically enough, nor given sufficient context. [12] [13] However, a few critics go one step further. In their view, energy efficiency policy cannot be fixed. The problem with energy efficiency, they argue, is that it establishes and reproduces ways of life that are not sustainable in the long run. [12][14] A parellel universe Rebound effects are often presented as “unintended” consequences, but they are the logical outcome of the abstraction that is required to define and measure energy efficiency. According to Loren Lutzenhiser, a researcher at Portland State University in the US, energy efficiency policy is so abstracted from the everyday dynamics of energy use that it operates in a “parallel universe”. [14] In a more recent paper, What is wrong with energy efficiency?, UK researcher Elizabeth Shove unravels this “parallel universe”, concluding that efficiency policies are “counter-productive” and “part of the problem”. [12] According to some critics, efficiency policies are "counter-productive" and "part of the problem". To start with, the parallel universe of energy efficiency interprets “energy savings” in a peculiar way. When the EU states that it will achieve 20% “energy savings” by 2020, “energy savings” are not defined as a reduction in actual energy consumption compared to present or historical figures. Indeed, such a definition would show that energy efficiency doesn’t reduce energy use at all. Instead, the “energy savings” are defined as reductions compared to the projected energy use in 2020. These reductions are measured by quantifying “avoided energy” – the energy resources not used because of advances in energy efficiency. Even if the projected “energy savings” were to be fully realised, they would not result in an absolute reduction in energy demand. The EU argues that advances in energy efficiency will be “roughly equivalent to turning off 400 power stations”, but in reality no single power station will be turned off in 2020 because of advances in energy efficiency. Instead, the reasoning is that Europe would have needed to build an extra 400 power stations by 2020, were it not for the increases in energy efficiency. In taking this approach, the EU treats energy efficiency as a fuel, “a source of energy in its own right”. [15] The IEA goes even further when it claims that “energy avoided by IEA member countries in 2010 (generated from investments over the preceding 1974 to 2010 period), was larger than actual demand met by any other supply side resource, including oil, gas, coal and electricity”, thus making energy efficiency “the largest or first fuel”. [16] [12] Measuring something that doesn’t exist Treating energy efficiency as a fuel and measuring its success in terms of “avoided energy” is pretty weird. For one thing, it is about not using a fuel that does not exist. [14] Furthermore, the higher the projected energy use in 2030, the larger the “avoided energy” would be. On the other hand, if the projected energy use in 2030 were to be lower than present-day energy use (we reduce energy demand), the “avoided energy” becomes negative. An energy policy that seeks to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and fossil fuel dependency must measure its success in terms of lower fossil fuel consumption. [17] However, by measuring “avoided energy”, energy efficiency policy does exactly the opposite. Because projected energy use is higher than present energy use, energy efficiency policy takes for granted that total energy consumption will keep rising. That other pillar of climate change policy – the decarbonisation of the energy supply by encouraging the use of renewable energy power plants – suffers from similar defects. Because the increase in total energy demand outpaces the growth in renewable energy, solar and wind power plants are in fact not decarbonising the energy supply. They are not replacing fossil fuel power plants, but are helping to accommodate the ever growing demand for energy. Only by introducing the concept of “avoided emissions” can renewables be presented as having something of the desired effect. [18] What is it that is efficient? In What is wrong with energy efficiency?, Elizabeth Shove demonstrates that the concept of energy efficiency is just as abstract as the concept of “avoided energy”. Efficiency is about delivering more services (heat, light, transportation,…) for the same energy input, or the same services for less energy input. Consequently, a first step in identifying improvements depends on specifying “service” (what is it that is efficient?) and on quantifying the amount of energy involved (how is “less energy” known?). Setting a reference against which “energy savings” are measured also involves specifying temporal boundaries (where does efficiency start and end?). [12] Shove’s main argument is that setting temporal boundaries (where does efficiency start and end?) automatically specifies the “service” (what is it that is efficient?), and the other way around. That’s because energy efficiency can only be defined and measured if it is based on equivalence of service. Shove focuses on home heating, but her point is valid for all other technology. For example, in 1985, the average passenger plane used 8 litres of fuel to transport one passenger over a distance of 100 km, a figure that came down to 3.7 litres today. Consequently, we are told that airplanes have become twice as efficient. However, if we make a comparison in fuel use between today and 1950, instead of 1985, airplanes do not use less energy at all. In the 1960s, propeller aircraft were replaced by jet aircraft, which are twice as fast but initially consumed twice as much fuel. Only fifty years later, the jet airplane became as “energy efficient” as the last propeller planes from the 1950s. [19] If viewed in a larger historical context, the concept of energy efficiency completely disintegrates. What then is a meaningful timespan over which to compare efficiencies? Should propeller planes be taken into account, or should they be ignored? The answer depends on the definition of equivalent service. If the service is defined as “flying”, then propeller planes should be included. But, if the energy service is defined as “flying at a speed of roughly 1,000 km/h”, we can discard propellers and focus on jet engines. However, the latter definition assumes a more energy-intensive service. If we go back even further in time, for example to the early twentieth century, people didn’t fly at all and there’s no sense in comparing fuel use per passenger per kilometre. Similar observations can be made for many other technologies or services that have become “more energy efficient”. If they are viewed in a larger historical context, the concept of energy efficiency completely disintegrates because the services are not at all equivalent. Often, it’s not necessary to go back very far to prove this. For example, when the energy efficiency of smartphones is calculated, the earlier generation of much less energy demanding “dumbphones” is not taken into account, although they were common less than a decade ago. How efficient is a clothesline? Because of the need to compare 'like with like' and establish equivalent of service, energy efficiency policy ignores many low energy alternatives that often have a long history but are still relevant in the context of climate change. For example, the EU has calculated that energy labels for tumble driers will be able to “save up to 3.3 Twh of electricity by 2020, equivalent to the annual energy consumption of Malta”. [20]. But how much energy use would be avoided if by 2020 every European would use a clothesline instead of a tumble drier? Don’t ask the EU, because it has not calculated the avoided energy use of clotheslines. Neither do the EU or the IEA measure the energy efficiency and avoided energy of bicycles, hand powered drills, or thermal underwear. Nevertheless, if clotheslines would be taken seriously as an alternative, then the projected 3.3 TWh of energy “saved” by more energy efficient tumble driers can no longer be considered “avoided energy”, let alone a fuel. In a similar way, bicycles and clothing undermine the very idea of calculating the “avoided energy” of more energy efficient cars and central heating boilers. Unsustainable concepts of service The problem with energy efficiency policies, then, is that they are very effective in reproducing and stabilising essentially unsustainable concepts of service. [12] Measuring the energy efficiency of cars and tumble driers, but not of bicycles and clotheslines, makes fast but energy-intensive ways of travel or clothes drying non-negotiable, and marginalises much more sustainable alternatives. According to Shove: “Programmes of energy efficiency are politically uncontroversial precisely because they take current interpretations of ‘service’ for granted… The unreflexive pursuit of efficiency is problematic not because it doesn’t work or because the benefits are absorbed elsewhere, as the rebound effect suggests, but because it does work – via the necessary concept of equivalence of services – to sustain, perhaps escalate, but never undermine… increasingly energy intensive ways of life.” [12] Indeed, the concept of energy efficiency easily accommodates further growth of energy services. All future novelties can be subjected to an efficiency approach. For example, if patio heaters and monsoon showers become “normal”, they could be incorporated in existing energy efficiency policy – and when that happens, the problem of their energy use is considered to be under control. At the same time, defining, measuring and comparing the efficiency of patio heaters and monsoon showers helps make them more “normal”. As a bonus, adding new products to the mix will only increase the energy use that is “avoided” through energy efficiency. In short, neither the EU nor the IEA capture the “avoided energy” generated by doing things differently, or by not doing them at all – while these arguably have the largest potential to reduce energy demand. [12] Since the start of the Industrial Revolution, there has been a massive expansion in the uses of energy and in the delegation of human to mechanical forms of power. But although these trends are driving the continuing increase in energy demand, they cannot be measured through the concept of energy efficiency. As Shove demonstrates, this problem cannot be solved, because energy efficiency can only be measured on the basis of equivalent service. Instead, she argues that the challenge is “to debate and extend meanings of service and explicitly engage with the ways in which these evolve”. [12] Towards an energy inefficiency policy? There are several ways to escape from the parallel universe of energy efficiency. First, while energy efficiency hinders significant long term reduction in energy demand through the need for equivalence of service, the opposite also holds true – making everything less energy efficient would reverse the growth in energy services and reduce energy demand. For example, if we were to install 1960s internal combustion engines into modern SUVs, fuel use per kilometre driven would be much higher than it is today. Few people would be able or willing to afford to drive such cars, and they would have no other choice but to switch to a much lighter, smaller and less powerful vehicle, or to drive less. Making everything less energy efficient would reverse the growth in energy services and reduce energy demand. Likewise, if an “energy inefficiency policy” were to mandate the use of inefficient central heating boilers, heating large homes to present-day comfort standards would be unaffordable for most people. They would be forced to find alternative solutions to achieve thermal comfort, for instance heating only one room, dressing more warmly, using personal heating devices, or moving to a smaller home. Recent research into the heating of buildings confirms that inefficiency can save energy. A German study examined the calculated energy performance ratings of 3,400 homes and compared these with the actual measured consumption. [21] In line with the rebound argument, the researchers found that residents of the most energy efficient homes (75 kWh/m2/yr) use on average 30% more energy than the calculated rating. However, for less energy efficient homes, the opposite – “pre-bound” – effect was observed: people use less energy than the models had calculated, and the more inefficient the dwelling is, the larger this gap becomes. In the most energy inefficient dwellings (500 kWh/m2/yr), energy use was 60% below the predicted level. From efficiency to sufficiency? However, while abandoning – or reversing – energy efficiency policy would arguably bring more energy savings than continuing it, there is another option that’s more attractive and could bring even larger energy savings. For an effective policy approach, efficiency can be complemented by or perhaps woven into a “sufficiency” strategy. Energy efficiency aims to increase the ratio of service output to energy input while holding the output at least constant. Energy sufficiency, by contrast, is a strategy that aims to reduce the growth in energy services. [4] In essence, this is a return to the “conservation” policies of the 1970s. [14] Sufficiency can involve a reduction of services (less light, less travelling, less speed, lower indoor temperatures, smaller houses), or a substitution of services (a bicycle instead of a car, a clothesline instead of a tumble drier, thermal underclothing instead of central heating). Unlike energy efficiency, the policy objectives of sufficiency cannot be expressed in relative variables (like kWh/m2/year). Instead, the focus is on absolute variables, such as reductions in carbon emissions, fossil fuel use, or oil imports. [17] Unlike energy efficiency, sufficiency cannot be defined and measured by examining a single product type, because sufficiency can involve various forms of substitution. [22] Instead, a sufficiency policy is defined and measured by looking at what people actually do. A sufficiency policy could be developed without a parallel efficiency policy, but combining them could bring larger energy savings. The key step here is to think of energy efficiency as a means rather than an end in itself, argues Shove. [12] For example, imagine how much energy could be saved if we would use an energy efficient boiler to heat just one room to 16 degrees, if we install an energy efficient engine in a much lighter vehicle, or if we combine an energy saving shower design with fewer and shorter showers. Nevertheless, while energy efficiency is considered to be a win-win strategy, to develop the concept of sufficiency as a significant force in policy is to make normative judgments: so much consumption is enough, so much is too much. [23] This is sure to be controversial, and it risks being authoritarian, at least as long as there is a cheap supply of fossil fuels. Low-tech Magazine makes the jump from web to paper. The first result is a 710-page perfect-bound paperback which is printed on demand and contains 37 of the most recent articles from the website (2012 to 2018). A second volume, collecting articles published between 2007 and 2011, will appear later this year. Thank you for writing this article and explaining why the energy efficiency madness only creates more problems. Whenever people try to give me long rants about how green energy will save the planet I can refer them to this. For too long I have argued that energy efficiency can only work if society rethinks and backtracks on modern conveniences they refuse to give up. People look at me like I have three heads for insisting on riding my bike or walking instead of driving short distances, using my effective dumb phone instead of constantly buying new ones, building a well insulated small house instead of living in a large house with air conditioning, using an integrated fish pond system to clean my dishes with carp instead of a washing machine, and growing most of my own food to avoid the fuel and plastic waste. If people are willing to be a little imaginative and less lazy we could deal with many of our environmental issues. I won't hold my breath for that. the advance of solid state lighting (LED), which is six times more energy efficient than old-fashioned incandescent lighting, has not led to a decrease in energy demand for lighting. Instead, it resulted in six times more light. Ha! Caught me! I designed a lighting system using copper wire, low-voltage transformers, alligator clips and halogen lights. I had three strings with 150 watts on each. I took pride in providing such "task lighting" instead of "area lighting," and life was good. Now, 12V MR-16 LED lamps are common and cheap. My spouse wanted more light on the kitchen counter. We had a dark spot in the living room, and we needed to extend one of the strings there, possible only because we could use LEDs instead of halogens. Bottom line: we have more lights, using the same amount of electricity. Jevon's Paradox is a bitch. There are practical benefits to doing things this way. My spouse likes "a bright house," not desiring to feel deprivation, leaving the task lighting on in the kitchen "because it brightens the dining room." So much for the benefits of task lighting. Admittedly, getting through a northern winter without a major bout of depressian is aided by plenty of light. So, do we succumb to "shivering in the dark," or do we take the gift of efficiency (with its ominous, hidden footprint) to improve our mental state? Taking aside those virtual savings and the quest to reduce energy use in the EU, I don't understand why we have to connect energy efficiency and saving energy. To me energy efficiency means only that we can use energy more efficiently. Not that we use less. Of course defining "efficient" is possible only within some kind of ideological framework, but within one I would say that the problem is not comparing servies, but units. For example: going fast has greater value than going slow taking into account limited human life, therefore we should compare fuel consumption not against distance, but speed (not J/m but J/(m/s), which translates to Ns istead of N showing visibly that now we only compare how hard we "push" and not how long) Having said that, I would agree that increasing energy efficiency is not a way to reduce energy use, only to use it more efficiently and there's no miracle cure other than just restraining ourselves. You can make a very similar argument about budgets: Spending money on crap you don't need is a loss, no matter how good of deal you get on it. It seems to me like your argument is "The efficiency of random widgets isn't important, because if we met human needs more efficiently in the first place, we wouldn't need the widgets". Are you familiar with "Fundamental Human Needs and Human-Scale Development" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fundamental_human_needs. It might be a good baseline to start from. Within your same mode of thinking, I'm also struck by the logical opposite: efficiency in reclaiming ambient energy doesn't really matter. A boat mill that is only 5% efficient wastes exactly? You can't really waste ambient energy. There is no need for policy to think about all those technical details. Such thinking is both difficult and authoritarian. Same applies for efficiency and sufficiency. Thinking from policy point of view, there is only one tool which is needed - Pigou tax. If something (like dirty energy) generates negative externalities, then tax it proportionally. Period. Leave everything else to market. People and companies will think about ways to avoid taxated consumption, in both quantity and quality ways, in a way that fits them best personally. So there is no need to compare anyone's way of life with anything else, it all becomes just a matter of style. I'd argue that sufficiency is efficiency on a systemic level. Spacial planning e.g. can save very much energy because one's personal daily mobility can be reached with less traffic if jobs, schools, shops are close. Driving less is considered as sufficiency, but providing a city with high accessibilities leads to more mobility with less traffic: it's efficient! Friedrich E. Schumacher, in his Small Is Beautiful, called this the "efficiency as seen by a buddhist economist". I've always had an issue with the argument that increased efficient leads to increased use. That is absolutely true up to a point of maximum utility, but after that you just have energy savings. I used to work for a solar company that installed off-grid systems and we would see exactly what Jan Steinman wrote about with lighting. However, when the room was bright enough for all parties, gains in efficiency did not result in an increase in usage. If someone had enough incandescent lights in their home to satisfy them, they didn't double (assuming double efficiency for the sake of argument) the number of bulbs they used when CFLs were introduced and they didn't double them again when LEDs were introduced. When you have enough lumens you don't add more when technology increases efficiency. The same argument is often made for commuter vehicles. If commuting becomes cheaper people will move farther and farther from where they work because the housing farther away is cheaper. Someone driving half an hour each way might choose to move an hour out if commuting was cheap enough, but very very few people are going to live 2, 3 or 4 hours away from where they work regardless of how cheap it is to commute. It would not be worth the time. I had an old 25mpg Subaru Outback. I bought a new Priuc C which is roughly 50 mpg the way I drive. I had already been driving everywhere I needed or wanted to with the Subaru, so my driving habits didn't change when I got a more efficient vehicle and I saved money and energy. I now have a company car (also a Prius C) and I no longer pay for fuel at all, but again, since I was already going everywhere I needed or anted to go effectively having "free fuel" didn't increase the amount of fuel I was using. So, this confirms again that supply side solutions are no real solutions. I have sort of come to the conclusion that people and society will use up all the energy that is available to them, for as long as it is affordable. Interesting piece. But it continues the mistaken idea that rebound is a reason to discard energy efficiency improvements. What is missing in the analysis, though, is that rebound can be controlled with adequate "rebound policy", which would cause energy efficiency to automatically become much more effective in contributing to less energy use (or fewer carbon emissions). See this paper for more details:https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10640-010-9396-z About 'commuting', you will probably find the Marchetti's constant[1] or de BREVER-wet [2] interesting. So since Neolithic times, people spend 1 to 1,5 hour on transport. So 'time spend' is indeed a constant, but not 'travel distance', which has increased a l-o-t the last years (and so the energy use). Most people who have a 'company car' or 'salary car' *will* probably have an increased amount of fuel. According to a study [3] 84 to 93% of those with a company car take their car to go to work, compared to 59% with people who don't have such a car. That same study also found that people with a company car have 9200 extra driven kilometers! Think carefully about your situation. Suppose you have to go somewhere and you could go by public transport. But you will have to pay a ticket. And than you see your company car on your drive way, which rides totally for free. What will you choose? What will most people choose in the same situation? Thanks for an extremely mind-provoking article! One quote here is very precise This is sure to be controversial, and it risks being authoritarian, at least as long as there is a cheap supply of fossil fuels. Now, as a child I've seen the "saving policies" being gradually introduced in my family due to an economic collapse. First we've had to sell the car because we were not in a position to buy fuel. Then it became way too expensive to use public transportation. At times, there was no electricity for many hours, the temperatures indoors dropped to 16C, and I, a thin boy of eight, have been freezing at home alone, struggling to save some warmth by keeping my arms inside the sweater... it didn't really help, I've been getting cold every now and then. And by the way, when electricity was going down, so did the elevators, and I've had to climb to the 11 floor. And when the water was off... well, use your imagination. Still, we've had food every day, even occasionally meat, "seasonal" and conserved fruits and vegetables - we've had an extreme luck of having our own garden and potato field and three extremely laborous grannies (one of them never married). I even had an opportunity to eat some cheese several times in the year 1992, bought especially for me by another childless grandauntie. My future wife was by far not that lucky. Whatever the cause, I've live through the gradual application of these "sustainability" policies. To everyone who thinks of them as being just "controversal" - wish you to experience it yourself. Taking the UK as an example, domestic lighting is totally saturated thanks to halogen downlighters which now account for half of domestic lighting demand. Consumption by downlighters will be cut by about 75% by switching to LEDs. There will doubtless be some rebound due to people being more casual about leaving lights on after the switch, but that will be dwarfed by switching from 30W-50W halogens to 5W-10W LEDs. People already have a crazy number of downlighters in their living areas; they're not going to add more. UK domestic lighting demand fell of a cliff thanks to the switch from GLS to CFL and will fall off a cliff again thanks to the switch from halogen to LED, no question. Would making lights less efficient force people to use their lights less? I'm sure they'd be a bit more diligent about switching off when not in use but they're not going to reconfigure their lighting set up and they're certainly not going to use their lights 25% of the time. The idea of making energy using products less efficient in order to increase the cost of service so that people use less energy seems sub-optimal to say the least. Surely if you want to use cost-of-service as your tool to reduce energy demand (which is controversial) then increasing the price of energy whilst making energy using products more efficient would be the logical way to do it. It would have the same outcome but wouldn't mean needlessly designing inefficiency into our energy system. Note that the above example is for an affluent country where ownership of energy using products is pretty saturated. We're seeing sustained reductions in domestic electricity consumption as a direct result of energy efficiency measures and these reductions will continue into the future for quite a while yet. In less affluent countries where ownership of energy using products is at low levels then naturally we would expect energy demand to grow as more people start to purchase these things. Energy efficiency will allow much needed development and energy access to take place with reduced impact which is a good thing isn't it? The idea of foisting less efficient products on developing countries is, in my view, perverse. I completely agree that the EU target is bollocks and we need to be achieving absolute, not relative, reductions. I am also a strong advocate of low tech solutions like line drying, better body insulation and bike use, but I just don't see that energy efficiency inhibiting the adoption of those solutions significantly. A far stronger factor is the mindset perpetuated by the media that these are 'hair shirt' privations that hark back to the 19th century. That is the main barrier, not energy efficiency. "As a child I've seen the 'saving policies' being gradually introduced in my family due to an economic collapse....To everyone who thinks of them as being just 'controversial' - wish you to experience it yourself." You raise an important issue that will be the topic of the next article. Some people have insufficient access to energy, a condition which scientists and policy makers call "energy poverty". Your description fits that definition. People living in these conditions need MORE energy, in spite of climate change and all the other environmental problems. However, there are other people who use much more energy than they "need". They should use LESS energy. Energy use needs to be redistributed to solve the problem. @ Jan Steinman (#5) "So, do we succumb to "shivering in the dark," or do we take the gift of efficiency (with its ominous, hidden footprint) to improve our mental state?" That is a very difficult question. See also my comment to Nikolay above. If the absence of light makes people depressed, you could argue that it is a need and not a luxury. But then again, thinking like this could lead to even more light, because indoor light levels are still very much lower than outdoor light levels. And we feel at our best when the sun shines. @ Coutney C (#4) "Using an integrated fish pond system to clean my dishes with carp instead of a washing machine" "When you have enough lumens you don't add more when technology increases efficiency" Your clients did not buy double the amounts of bulbs when CFLs were introduced, because that's not how it works. They will probably only renew their bulbs if the old ones die and need to be replaced. Lighting habits change gradually over time, which makes them hard to notice unless you do historical research or observe these trends over a lifetime. Much of the rebound effects of LEDs have also crossed product categories, see for instance the giant digital screens popping up everywhere (same LED-technology). Also, let's assume that you are right and that there is a level of light that is bright enough for all parties, in a domestic context. How do you know if this level of light and energy use is sustainable? It's easy to think of a world in which everything is perfect but you also have to keep in mind that high energy use comes with a cost. Considering the environmental constraints, we probably can't have all that we can imagine. @ JamieB (#14) "We're seeing sustained reductions in domestic consumption as a direct result of energy efficiency measures and these reductions will continue into the future for a quite a while yet" Sorry, but the article has made clear that this is bullsh*t. "The idea of foisting less efficient products on developing countries is, in my view, perverse." The article is not advancing that idea. "The idea of making energy using products less efficient in order to increase the cost of service so that people use less energy seems sub-optimal to say the least." The article argues that we should combine efficiency with sufficiency. Thanks for the link. But in contrast to what you write I do not argue that rebound is a reason to discard energy efficiency. I argue that the need for equivalence of service is the reason to discard energy efficiency. And in fact I don't discard energy efficiency at all, I conclude that it should be combined with sufficiency in order to reduce energy demand. What's bullshit? That UK domestic electricity demand is reducing or that the reduction is due to energy efficiency measures or that it'll continue for the foreseeable future? All three statements are correct. Demand for domestic lighting and refrigeration services in the UK is saturated and since the mid-2000s efficiency has been pushing demand down. Surprisingly even consumer electronics and ICT energy demand appear to have started to trend down too, primarily thanks to everyone having plenty of TVs and the switch to mobile devices. Looking at EU28 gross inland consumption data I see that it is trending down quite nicely too and is 10% lower than its peak in 2006. There was a particularly big drop in 2009 due to the financial crisis but t returned to the trend line in 2010 and has continued reducing since, even while the EU economy has been growing. Is EU28 demand reducing fast enough? Manifestly not. Re-reading your piece I realise I was so distracted by the suggestion in the penultimate section that energy inefficiency might be a good thing that I forgot that you switch back to endorsing energy efficiency in the conclusion (to be honest I'm a bit puzzled as to why you put that penultimate section in the piece). I think we're basically coming from the same position: as long as society is demanding more of a service then efficiency can only stem (or at best modestly reduce) the increase in absolute demand. Where I think we probably diverge is the extent to which society will accept reductions in service demand. In my view the potential for reduced service demand is big in the transport sector and there is some potential in the domestic sector but I think that potential will be limited by the attitude society currently has towards what is perceived as privation. Personally I'll accept saturated demand for services because then efficiency can do its job, but if we can reduce service demand too then I'm all for it as it will mean we'll get to where we need to be faster. Efficiency is, as noted in the article, "inefficient" when it is the driving factor. However, the article did not recognize that this is the condition it used for the evaluation. Efficiency is however "efficient" in the case where it is necessary for sufficiency. That is, when the supply or availability of "something" is restricted. As Herman Daly put it: "A policy of 'frugality-first' induces efficiency as a secondary consequence. Efficiency-first does not induce frugality, it makes frugality seem less necessary." Now consider the case of the need to reduce CO2 emissions to essentially zero in western nations by about 2035 and globally by 2050 (as the carbon budget for 1.5 or 2oC is currently understood). The increase so far in renewable energy in minuscule in comparison to any nation's overall energy consumption. Electricity and fuels are overwhelmingly from fossil sources. This means that either informal rationing (e.g. by price or taxes) or traditional rationing (by coupons or smart cards) of fossil fuels will be necessary if we are avoid catastrophe -- until renewable energy supplies can catch up to what is considered "sufficient." Rationing as mentioned here would be with an annually declining cap (directly or indirectly) on carbon in fossil fuels. (And of the two methods the first would be inherently unfair, and the latter would give equal access. Past rationing, e.g. in WW-II has included price controls, to have low prices.) The interesting thing with rationing is that it will drive efficiency, hence avoiding rebound. It will do so because efficiency becomes a necessity for sufficiency (and some luxury), instead of being primarily a means to monetary savings. All three statements are. First, because you are making exactly the kind of abstraction that the article is arguing against. It is always possible to demonstrate "energy savings" or "avoided energy" because of efficiency, you just need to set the parameters right. Second, you cannot simply attribute any reduction in energy use to energy efficiency. There are many other factors at play. For example, gas and electricity prices in the UK have more than doubled between 2002 and 2016, and there was a major economic crisis that was not limited to 2009, as you seem to suggest. Energy use declined in almost all European countries between 2008 and 2014, and only went up again in 2015 and 2016, when economic growth returned. Also in the UK, by the way: "Final energy consumption increased by 2,167 ktoe (1.6%) in 2016 to 140,668 ktoe. The domestic sector saw the biggest increase in both absolute and percentage terms; by 1,249ktoe (3.1%)." And look what happens when we define and measure energy efficiency as domestic electric use alone: "Average gas consumption increased by 4.6 per cent to 13,801kWh, and by 1.7 per cent on a temperature corrected basis. Average electricity consumption continued to fall, by 0.8 per cent to 3,889KWh in 2016" We can still pretend that energy use goes down, while it actually goes up. Just set the parameters right. Looking at these figures, it could very well be that domestic electricity use in the UK has declined because people have switched from electric to gas powered water boilers and cooking stoves. Efficiency is always a ratio. Productive efficiency, energy efficiency, time efficiency, etc. It's all arbitrary value X divided by arbitrary value Y. Those values and those ratios have no intrinsic meaning or utility. In a world of nearly infinite numbers to collect and compare, we are guided on what efficiencies we will concern ourselves by our ethics, the numbers themselves are amoral. Numbers cannot tell us what we should do, only what we can. Our values tell us what we should do. I am sorry I keep harping on this but it cannot be escaped: this is ethics conversation, not a technological one. Efficiency, in and of itself, means nothing. The concern is why not how, and if the answer to why is "So the endless growth model can continue, but with slightly less pollution per dollar of GDP growth", then that is exactly what you get, as the article points out extensively. If the answer to why is "so that billions of humans like us don't have to suffer and die from privation" we might get something else all together. There is more than enough time and money on earth for everyone to live a decent life. We make, for instance about 200% more food than it takes to feed everyone and there many more homes than homeless people. For that to change the food and homes are going to have to be taken from their current lawful owners and given to someone else. If there is a way to do that without authoritarianism, I'm all ears. Thanks Kris for your excellent article. It helps me greatly with what has recently been on my mind: that reducing carbon emissions can only occur by people becoming poorer (in the economic sense, not necessarily in experience). The question of efficient lighting discussed above is a good example: if LED lights allow a family to save money (instead of increasing lighting), then the savings will be spent on energy-consuming products, perhaps travelling by Prius instead of by bike, or eating more cheese. As you point out, real reductions in energy consumption are consequences of economic constraints - people getting poorer. The value of efficiency is not in reducing energy consumption or emissions, but in improving the conditions for people who are poor through low income or high energy price. I don't see how what I'm saying can be described as an abstraction. The EU target of X% reduction compared to some assumed counterfactual is, sure, but the electricity demand reductions that we're seeing in the UK are very real. I don't see how you can argue otherwise. 1) "UK domestic electricity demand is reducing". It really is! See Table 3.01 of ECUK. It peaked in 2005 and is 14% down in 2016, in spite of there being 10% more households over the same period. 2) "The reduction is due to energy efficiency measures". Sure it's not *all* due to physical measures - prices have an effect as well, naturally, as they drive behaviour change (which is energy efficiency as well). But real electricity prices have been stable for the past 3 or 4 years and yet electricity demand continues to drop because people steadily replace their appliances as they break and people are starting the switch to LED lighting. 3) "It'll continue for the foreseeable future". Well only time will tell but as long as we continue not to take any meaningful steps to electrify heat, I can't see how it can go anywhere but down. All end uses of domestic electricity are now flat or trending down and there are still an awful lot of inefficient appliances and lights to swap out. Regarding the final energy consumption data you cite, don't forget that weather has a strong effect but temperature-corrected final energy demand in the domestic sector did increase slightly (1.4%) between 2015 and 2016. The main reason for that? We've more or less stopped insulating homes in the last couple of years. I think the problem resides in our capitalist "self regulating" market democracies. As we now are used to think, control over energy consumption takes away "freedom" from cityzen's lives. If we want to guarantee a free market, of course democracies cannot avoid letting producers sell and overproduce, and people to buy and overconsume. If we base our economy on GDP, we cannot avoid improving fossil energy use. If we do the contrary, as you stated ("...This is sure to be controversial, and it risks being authoritarian, at least as long as there is a cheap supply of fossil fuels...") freedom as we know it - which is substantially freedom to consume energy - will end. So the only way is to change our culture, and it will be a long long way, hoping we have time enough. Thank you for you effort. Talking about household appliances,Your article does not mention the fact that these units are made to fail, unlike appliances of the past. We recently purchased all brand new appliances for our new home, thank God for extended warranties! We have had at least 15 visits from various repairmen to replace or repair different issues. The repairmen all say the same thing "they don't make them like they used to" I have brought this up in conversation with many folks who all have the same reports. The Brand name dishwasher made it to the landfill after 18 months. Talk about efficiency! Consumerism at it's finest. Thank you thank you Kris! I am an energy efficiency consultant for buildings, and I see all of this in my work. What a waste of time for me, and how self deluded are my clients! The fake "savings" thinking infects most educated people I know. I would like to change careers to develop more useful cargo bicycles. Your work on this site brings me joy. Great stuff. Thinking like this is a rare occurrence. I would imagine you are quite familiar with the works of Schumacher, but I wanted to make sure you had read or heard this lecture given by Andrew Kimbrell: Congratulations! Very thought-provoking! Change could come quickly if we had the courage to tax energy use to include its environmental costs. See the EPA's Social Cost of Carbon before and after Trump. Take an extreme example: increase taxes on gasoline so that the price per gallon doubles. Thank you Kris, excellent! Right, energy saving is neither “the” solution nor the problem, it is a necessity. Unfortunately the rebound effect is disputed, but also the (your?) idea of “sufficiency” or to stick to a “fixed supply” in the EU simply neglects the existence of roughly 6 billion non westerners. Population growth is the minor issue here. The real problem is lifestyle and it’s scalability. This includes living in huge cities, contrary to where food is produced. With all energy (and other) savings, but considering the world’s actually existing population, we clearly must accept _the_enemy_is_us_. We are already beyond all limits and will go further. Increasing efficiency costs a lot of time, diligence and even more energy + resources to develop and produce efficient products. Efficiency isn’t bad. On the contrary, efficiency may be the main factor why we are still alive, given our mantra of never ending growth. But our net growth is in energy consumption per capita (worldwide average). Only that it is impossible to scale this prosperity to the already living mankind. Excellent paper, Kris. Your paper didn't mention this but it was implied by examples of automobiles and aircraft. For example the BLS in the US doesn't measure inflation by comparing the early price of a good to the price later if there has been a " hedonic quality adjustment" in the auto. Everyone is aware there has been a very large increase in car prices from say 30 or 40 years ago but BLS can prove that isn't so by virtue of improvements in the cars which negates the increase in price. Example: I bought a new GMC suburban for $7800 in the late 70's. A new suburban is about $60000.I see that as inflation of 700%. The bls says not so. My old one had roll up windows, a bench seat rubber mats and an am radio. A 2019 has cruise and climate control, a back up camera, power windows and computers and is not repairable by a handy car owner like my 70's suburban.The BLS gets to decide how much to value these "hedonic improvements" to prove that there is minimal inflation. I could also make the point that fuel use is probably higher in the new suburbans which get 18 mpg instead of the old one of 13-14 mpg which were also much heavier. Because of highway congestion the avg speed today is lower, spent in low gear.My suburban in stop and go can get under 10 mpg. Because of highway improvements and 75-80 mph speed limits the suburban gets abysmal economy whereas with the old suburban and 50-55 mph limits, economy was around 14. Not only do these newer vehicles cost far more, they still use the same or more fuel in a year. In only 5 years or so they lose 75% or more of their value perhaps40-$50000. Which one would you buy if you had a choice?

Glaucoma is an ocular disorder associated with elevated intraocular pressures which are too high for normal function and may result in irreversible loss of visual function. If untreated, glaucoma may eventually lead to blindness. Ocular hypertension, i.e., the condition of elevated intraocular pressure without optic nerve head damage or characteristic glaucomatous visual field defects, is now believed by many ophthalmologists to represent the earliest phase of glaucoma. Many of the drugs formerly used to treat glaucoma proved not entirely satisfactory. Indeed, few advances were made in the treatment of glaucoma since pilocarpine and physostigmine were introduced. Only recently have clinicians noted that many .beta.-adrenergic blocking agents are effective in reducing intraocular pressure. While many of these agents are effective in reducing intraocular pressure, they also have other characteristics, e.g. membrane stabilizing activity, that are not acceptable for chronic ocular use. (S)-1-tert-Butylamino-3[(4-morpholino-1,2,5-thiadiazol-3yl)oxy]-2-propanol , a .beta.-adrenergic blocking agent, was found to reduce intraocular pressure and to be devoid of many unwanted side effects associated with pilocarpine and, in addition, to possess advantages over many other .beta.-adrenergic blocking agents, e.g. to be devoid of local anesthetic properties, to have a long duration of activity, and to display minimal tolerance. Although pilocarpine, physostigmine and the .beta.-blocking agents mentioned above reduce intraocular pressure, none of these drugs manifests its action by inhibiting the enzyme carbonic anhydrase and, thereby, impeding the contribution to aqueous humor formation made by the carbonic anhydrase pathway. Agents referred to as carbonic anhydrase inhibitors, block or impede this inflow pathway by inhibiting the enzyme, carbonic anhydrase. While such carbonic anhydrase inhibitors are now used to treat intraocular pressure by oral, intravenous or other systemic routes, they thereby have the distinct disadvantage of inhibiting carbonic anhydrase throughout the entire body. Such a gross disruption of a basic enzyme system is justified only during an acute attack of alarmingly elevated intraocular pressure, or when no other agent is effective. Despite the desirability of directing the carbonic anhydrase inhibitor only to the desired ophthalmic target tissue, no topically effective carbonic anhydrase inhibitors are available for clinical use. However topically effective carbonic anhydrase inhibitors are reported in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,386,098; 4,416,890; 4,426,388; and 4,668,697, where the compounds reported therein are 5 (and 6)-hydroxy-2-benzothiazole-sulfonamides and acyl esters thereof and 5 (and 6)-hydroxy-2-sulfamoyl-benzothiophenes and esters thereof, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,677,115, where the compounds are reported to be 5,6-dihydro-thieno-thiophensulfonamides.

The Apollo 11 Mission Sequence Preparation started weeks before launch, but the final count down started 13 hours before lift off. The propellant and oxidiser tanks were filled and the crew ran through the mission checklist.The first stage ignition sequence started 8.9 seconds before the launch. During the final stages of count down, the crew were sitting on 2500 tons of propellant with a potential explosive yield of just over half a kiloton of TNT, equivalent to a small nuclear bomb*, waiting for ignition and blast off into the unknown in a complex space vehicle constructed from 7 million components which had to perform flawlessly to get them back home safely. Perhaps the Apollo crew reflected on the comments of John Glenn, America's first astronaut to orbit the Earth, about his thoughts as he waited in his Mercury capsule for blast off into space. He reportedly said "I look around at all the complex equipment and think that every piece was bought from the lowest cost vendor". The five F-1 kerosene fuelled rocket engines of the Saturn V launch vehicle, each with a thrust of over 1.5 million pounds, fired 0.3 seconds apart to lessen resonance effects in the fuel system which could cause "pogo stick" like vibrations on the rocket's structure and systems as well as on the astronauts, and Apollo 11 slowly rose from the launch pad taking 11 seconds to clear the launch tower. S-1C (First Stage) S-1C powered flight with a thrust of 7.6 million pounds from the five F-1 engines gulping 13 tons of kerosene (RP-1) and liquid oxygen (LOX) per second, pinning the astronauts into their seats with a "g" force of 4.5 g. Pitch and Roll Two miles off the launch pad and travelling at 1500 mph, Saturn's guidance computer set Apollo 11 on the planned trajectory with directional adjustments being made by means of hydraulic actuators on the gimbal mounts of the four outer F-1 engines. Loss of control during the critical launch phase would have resulted in the destruction of the rocket. Such an event would however have triggered the Launch Escape System to eject the crew capsule and deploy its parachutes to bring the crew safely back to the ground. Mission Control Center (MCC) in Houston tracked the spacecraft throughout its mission, except when it was behind the Moon during which time communications were not possible. The timings and duration of the engine burns at key points were controlled by Houston Mission Control and were programmed into the Guidance Computers in the Instrument Unit, the Command Module and the Lunar Module. S-1C (First Stage) / S-11 (Second Stage) Separation After 2.5 minutes the 4.5 million pounds (over 2,000 tons) of propellant in S-1C were used up and the S-IC's eight retro rockets were fired to separate it from the S-11. The S-1C was jettisoned and fell into the Atlantic Ocean. By that time, Saturn V had reached an altitude of 45 miles, 350 miles downrange and was travelling at 6,300 m.p.h. Four seconds later the five J-2 hydrogen fuelled engines of the S-11 started up. S-II (Second Stage) S-11 powered flight with a total thrust of 1.125 million pounds from the five J-2 engines. Launch Escape Tower Jettison Once the second stage was safely on its way, at a height of 60 miles, the Launch Escape Tower was jettisoned. S-11 (Second Stage) / S-1VB (Third Stage) Separation After 6.5 minutes the 942,000 pounds (over 400 tons) of propellant in Stage 2 were exhausted. The S-1VB Stage 3 took over and the S-11 was jettisoned. By that time Saturn V had reached an altitude of 110 miles, 1,400 miles down range travelling at 15,000 m.p.h. S-1VB (Third Stage) S-1VB powered flight with a single J-2 re-startable engine with a thrust of 225,000 pounds. Earth Parking Orbit The J-2 engine burned for 2.75 minutes to put the Saturn V into a circular parking orbit 1,640 miles downrange at an altitude of 118.8 miles (191.2 km) with an orbital velocity of 17,432 mph and an orbital period of 1 hour, 28 minutes, 16 seconds. The third stage remained attached to the Apollo 11 spacecraft while it orbited the Earth one and a half times during which time the astronauts and mission controllers checked that all systems were functioning correctly and positioned the rocket precisely for initiating translunar injection. Trans Lunar Injection - Accelerating to the Escape Velocity After one and a half Earth orbits, 2 hours and 44 minutes after launch, the Saturn's third-stage J-2 engine was re-started to produce a second burn lasting 5.2 minutes which accelerated the Apollo 11 to an altitude of 190 miles with a velocity of 24,500 mph (10.9 kms/sec) to escape from its Earth parking orbit and enter into a "free return trajectory" to the Moon. This meant that when the spacecraft eventually passed by the Moon its velocity, direction and radial distance from the Moon would be such that the Moon's gravity would deflect it into a "slingshot" path around the Moon and back in the direction it came from towards the Earth. Too close or too slow would cause the spacecraft to crash into the Moon. Too far away or too fast would send the spacecraft on a one way journey into space. Public domain - Modified To complicate the manoeuvre even further, the Moon is a moving target travelling at 2286 m.p.h. orbiting the earth in 27 days so that the direction of the spacecraft as it left its Earth orbit was not to where the Moon was at the instant of departure, but to where it would be in three day's time when the spacecraft actually reached it. This required very precise control over the point and timing at which the spacecraft left the Earth orbit and the duration of the engine burn. Note that the velocity necessary to overcome from the Earth's gravitational pull depends on the spacecraft's orbital altitude. At the Earth's surface, the escape velocity is slightly higher at 25,000 mph (11.2 kms/sec). (See Entering Space). Initial Translunar Coast Apollo 11 began its three-day, 240,000 mile un-powered flight through the vacuum of space during which the spacecraft's momentum alone kept it moving towards the Moon. Service Module Orientation, Docking and Extraction During its transit through the atmosphere the flimsy Lunar Module (LM) sat on top of the Saturn V third stage inside the LM Adapter which protected it from damage caused by aerodynamic pressures and friction. Then during the first 10 minutes of the translunar coast, when Apollo11 was above the Earth's atmosphere, the attitude of the spacecraft was adjusted in readiness for extracting the Lunar Module from the LM Adapter and coupling it to the Command and Service Module (CSM). The next three steps were the Lunar Module Transposition and Docking Public domain (Modified) Lunar Module Transposition and Docking Step 1 - CSM separation from the LM Adapter The panels of the LM Adapter were jettisoned and the reaction control thrusters of the CSM mother ship were fired to separate it from the Saturn S-1VB third stage, leaving the Lunar Module behind and stopping 50 to 75 feet away. Step 2 - CSM docking with LM / S-IVB (Third Stage) The CSM thrusters then rotated the CSM by 180 degrees and docked it with the Lunar Module which was still attached to the third stage. All this happened with the Saturn S-1VB and the CSM hurtling separately through space at over 24,000 miles per hour. Step 3 - CSM /LM separation from S-IVB The LM now attached to the CSM was extracted from the LM Adapter and the third stage S-IVB, together with its attached Instrument Unit was jettisoned, and went into orbit around the Sun. After 4 hours and 40 minutes into the flight, the LM now docked with the CSM mother ship was ready for its journey to the moon. The CSM and LM continued their three day journey to the Moon tracked by mission control in Houston. Travelling through the vacuum of space, the flimsy Lunar Module no longer needed the protection of the LM Adapter. During this phase of the journey the spacecraft was put into a slow roll of two revolutions per hour to provide uniform solar heating, however this was stopped during navigation sightings and course corrections. Still influenced by the Earth's gravitational pull, the spacecraft gradually slowed down to about 2040 mph at 39,000 miles from the Moon but as the Earth's gravitational effect continued to weaken, the Moon's gravity began to dominate and the spacecraft speeded up again to about 5600 mph until it was eventually pulled into a "slingshot" trajectory around the back of the Moon. Mid-Course Correction Mid-course corrections to ensure that the spacecraft did not stray from its "free return trajectory" were implemented by either, or both, the Service Module's reaction control thrusters or by its main propulsion engine. Besides the mid-course correction, during the flight, the crew periodically checked their position with respect to the stars using a sextant and this celestial reference was used to correct for any drift of the gyroscopes in the inertial navigation system. Loss of Signal Although the Apollo 11 had autonomous navigation and control systems, it still needed constant communications with Mission Control in Houston since it did not have sufficient computing power at all times to monitor the spacecraft's speed and position in space and to program the timing and duration of the main engine and control thruster burns to make any course corrections necessary to initiate lunar orbit insertion or to get the spacecraft back to Earth in an emergency. But communications. between the Earth and the spacecraft need a "line of sight" link between the transmitters and the receivers and this raised potential problems at both ends of the link. While in lunar orbit, the Apollo 11 spent 45 minutes behind the Moon during each two hour orbit, and while it was behind the Moon, communications with the Earth were not possible. At the other end of the link the Earth is rotating and part of the time the Mission Control Center in Houston was facing away from the Moon and unable to "see" the spacecraft. To address the first problem the spacecraft received targeting information from Houston before each loss of signal as it passed behind the Moon. If acquisition of the signal failed when it emerged from behind the Moon, the landing would be abandoned and the crew would use that information to target a contingency burn home. To maintain communications with the spacecraft as the Earth rotated, at least three satellite ground stations separated by approximately 120 degrees of longitude and connected by a terrestrial network to Mission Control were required so that as the Earth turned the spacecraft was always above the horizon of at least one station so that there was no loss of signal due to the Earth's rotation.. Lunar Orbit Insertion To breakout from its slingshot track around the Moon and enter into lunar orbit, a retro-thrust was required to slow the spacecraft down from its velocity of around 5,600 mph, with respect to the Moon's velocity, to 3,600 mph allowing it to be captured by the Moon's gravity. Due to the ballistics of the slingshot trajectory around the Moon, this manoeuvre had to take place while the spacecraft was behind the Moon and out of communication with the Earth. Thus after loss of signal, as Apollo 11 passed behind the Moon, the Service Module fired its main propulsion engine in two burns in the direction of travel to slow its momentum and enter lunar orbit. The first burn lasted 6 minutes and placed the craft in an initial elliptical lunar orbit of 196 by 69 miles. The second burn lasted just 17 seconds and eased Apollo 11 into a circular orbit of 69 miles, in preparation for Lunar Module separation and powered descent. Using two shorter burns reduced the chance of over-burn, which would slow the spacecraft too much causing it to crash into the lunar surface. Lunar Orbit The CSM docked with the LM, travelling at 3,600 mph at an altitude of 69 miles, continued orbiting the Moon once every two hours during which time it was out of communication with the Earth for 45 minutes. During 13 orbits the crew checked that all systems were functioning correctly, made observations of their planned landing site in The Sea of Tranquility and also spent some time resting. Crew Transfer to LM The LM pilots, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin transfered from the Command Module to the crew compartment in the Ascent Stage of the LM and checked that all systems were performing correctly. Lunar Module Separation Using its reaction control thrusters the LM was undocked from CSM to prepare for descent while Michael Collins in the Command Module made a visual check that the LM legs of the landing gear had opened from their stowed position and were latched in place. LM Descent Because the Moon has no atmosphere it was not possible to use parachutes to make a soft landing nor wings to glide down to the surface. A rocket powered descent to the lunar surface was therfore needed. Balancing a rocket on its exhaust jet and preventing it from toppling over while simultaneously reducing its thrust to make a gentle, upright landing is no mean feat. The LM's Digital AutoPilot (DAP) and gimbals kept the direction of the rocket's thrust in line with the centre of mass of the LM to ensure stability during the descent. The descent to, and ascent from, the Moon were both controlled from the LM crew compartment in the Ascent Stage which contained the necessary status displays and control systems. A single set of 16 reaction control thrusters, identical to those used on the Service Module, to control both the descent and ascent was also mounted on the Ascent Stage of the LM. However the LM Ascent and Descent stages each had their own main engines, the descent engine with a thrust of 10,125 pounds being much larger since it had to support a much greater weight, and the ascent engine with a thrust of 3,600 pounds. In a series of pre-programmed, controlled burns by the descent engine to slow the Lunar Module, the LM was first put into an elliptical orbit of 70 miles by 9.5 miles (50,000 feet), high enough to clear the Moon's mountains, and to bring it over the planned landing point at its pericynthion (the orbit's nearest point to the Moon), then a further braking burn took the LM down to 9000 feet and oriented so that the crew could see and begin to evaluate the suitability of the landing zone. A further pre-programmed burn then took the LM down to 500 feet at which point the crew had to take over manual control of the descent. Final Landing Phase - Touchdown - 20 July 1969 at the Moon's Sea of Tranquility Before landing, the crew were unaware of the precise nature of the Moon's surface and whether they would sink into a deep layer of dust. Depending on the nature of the terrain below, the pilot had to guide the LM away from any observed hazards such as boulders, craters, fissures and rock outcrops. Real time feedback control from Mission Control of the final landing manoeuvres was not possible, even if it was desirable, because the two-way delay of a radio signals, travelling at the speed of light, carrying sensing inputs to Houston and responses back to the Moon was too long at 2.6 seconds and would have resulted in instability and loss of control. (To this delay would have to be added the further delays introduced by the terrestrial signal networks). At 500 feet the LM pilot Neil Armstrong took control of the descent making any adjustments necessary. Finally, at 65 feet above the lunar surface, the LM was re-oriented and descended vertically to the Moon at 3 feet per second and the engine was shut off as soon as the landing gear touched the surface. Dramas at the End of the Line Descending to the surface, Apollo 11's Lunar module was about 6,000 feet above the surface and the descent engine was halfway through its final 12-minute burn that would land the crew safely on the moon, when a yellow caution light lit up on the computer control panel. It was coded 1202, an "executive overflow" alarm, which meant the computer was having trouble completing its work in the cycling time available, and the astronauts asked Mission Control for instructions. As NASA legend has it, 26 year old Steve Bales, the guidance officer (GUIDO) who had the authority to issue a Go or No Go decision on the landing - continued to issue a confident "We're Go!" throughout the remaining seconds of the descent, even as the 1202 and a similar alarm, the 1201, sounded intermittently. When the lunar module made its landing, it had seconds of fuel remaining before it would have to abort. The icy calm of Bales is a dramatic, iconic moment in NASA history, but as you peel back the layers of preparation that led to those moments, the story becomes almost astounding. Bales – who later accepted the NASA Group Achievement Award from President Nixon on behalf of the entire mission operations team – credited his quick decision to an even younger whiz kid, John R. "Jack" Garman, 24 years old, an expert in the guidance computer software. It was Garman who, a few months before Apollo 11, gave the simulation supervisor, Dick Koos, the idea of testing the reaction of flight controllers to computer error codes. He also supported flight controllers in Mission Control as a backroom advisor on computer systems. By the time the actual landing was being attempted by astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, Garman knew almost instinctively that a single 1202 or 1201 alarm did not mean the mission had to be aborted; it simply meant the computer was struggling to keep up. As long as the alarm did not become continuous, which would have meant that the computer was not getting any work done and vital tasks were being neglected, it would not prevent a landing. And it was Garman supporting Bales from another console to whom Bales turned when the 1202 alarm went off. “Quite frankly,” Bales later recalled, “Jack, who had these things memorized, said, ‘That’s okay,’ before I could even remember which group [the alarm] was in.” For his part, Garman gives credit for his memorisation of the alarm codes to Gene Kranz, the fiery Flight Director who brought the Apollo 13 astronauts back to Earth after the explosion in their spacecraft. “[Before the mission] Gene Kranz, who was the real hero of that whole episode, said, ‘No, no, no. I want you all to write down every possible computer alarm that can possibly go wrong.’” Garman did so, along with the correct reaction to those alarms – and kept this handwritten list under glass on his desk. Searching for landing space in boulder field Apollo 11 Lunar Module touched down with only enough fuel and oxidiser in its tanks for a further 25 seconds of flight. Exploration of Lunar Surface Inside the controlled environment of the Lunar Module Armstrong and Aldrin changed from their pressurised flight suits into space suits with self-contained life support systems before depressurising the cabin and stepping down into the vacuum of space. Alighting from the LM they remained for two and a half hours of Extra Vehicular Activity (EVA) on the Moon during which they collected 22 Kg of samples of lunar rocks and soil as well as samples of the solar wind (charged particles emitted by the Sun) to bring back to Earth. They also took photographs and set up experiments to investigate soil mechanics and lunar seismic activity and they deployed a laser ranging retro-reflector to enable precise measurements of the distance between the Earth and the Moon. LM Ascent Liftoff After 21.5 hours parked on the lunar surface, the crew fired up the LM Ascent Stage to return to the CSM mother ship leaving the Descent Stage on the Moon. The Lunar Module Ascent Stage didn’t need to accelerate to the Moon's escape velocity of 5,300 mph to leave the Moon. it only had to reach a lunar orbit with a velocity of 3,600 mph to rendezvous and dock with the CSM mother ship. The CSM provided the thrust to escape from the Moon's gravity. The main engine of the ascent stage took the LM up to over 11 miles and put it into an elliptical orbit. There was no contingency plan if the Ascent Stage failed to get off the ground. Rendezvous and Docking To rendezvous with the CSM, the LM executed a series of burns by its reaction control thrusters, controlled by the LM computer on the basis of data supplied by Houston Mission Control, that initially put it into a circular orbit at an altitude of 69 miles concentric with the CSM, and then slowed it down to dock with the CSM. The LM commander took over control for the final docking manoeuvre. Return docking was very critical and difficult. Transfer of Crew and Equipment from LM to CSM The crew returned to the Command Module and the hatch was sealed. CSM / LM Separation and Lunar Module Jettison The LM was detached from CSM which fired its reaction control thrusters to ensure complete separation. The LM Ascent Stage was left in lunar orbit. Trans Earth-Injection The CSM main engine fired for 2.5 minutes to increase its velocity from 3,600 mph to 5,500, just over the Moon's escape velocity, to break out of lunar orbit and send the Apollo 11 on a trajectory back to Earth. Like the Lunar Orbit Insertion, this manoeuvre took place when the CSM was behind the Moon and out of communication with Mission Control. Trans-Earth Coast Apollo 11's return voyage to Earth powered by the Earth's gravity. The gravitational effects of the Trans Lunar Coast were reversed. The velocity of the CSM initially slowed due to the gravitational pull from the Moon, but as the spacecraft moved away from the Moon, the Moon's gravitational effect diminished while and the Earth's gravitational pull increased. Once the Earth's gravitation became dominant the spacecraft was accelerated in a free fall all the way to the Earth reaching a velocity of 25,000 m.p.h. as it entered the Earth's atmosphere over three days later. Mid Course Correction Similar to the outward journey, the velocity and angle of approach to the Earth had to be very precisely controlled to ensure capture by the Earth's gravity and splashdown in the designated area. Command Module / Service Module Separation Shortly before entering the Earth's atmosphere at an altitude of 400,000 feet (around 75 miles) the Service Module was jettisoned by simultaneous firing of the reaction control thrusters in both the Service Module and the Command Module. The Command module was then rotated by 180 degrees to turn its blunt end towards the Earth. Re-entry Landing is just as dangerous as taking off and the precise re-entry trajectory is critical to making a safe landing. Once initiated there is no possibility of a second chance by "going around" and trying again if things go wrong. The initial drag of 0.05 g experienced as the capsule entered the atmosphere triggered the Earth Landing Subsystem (ELS) which controlled the re-entry process. The Command Module entered the atmosphere, blunt end first, at 400,000 feet with a velocity approaching 25,000 mph at an angle of 6.488 degrees to the horizontal and flew about 1240 miles around the Earth to its designated landing point in the Pacific Ocean. The velocity of entry and the angle of the flight-path had to be very closely controlled to achieve this. At the very high entry velocity the compression of the air in front of the capsule heated its surface up to around 2760 °C (5000 °F), hot enough to vaporise most metals, turning the capsule into a shooting star. A 2.5 inch thick, sacrificial ablative heat shield which burns and erodes in a controlled way, carrying the heat away with its combustion products, protected the capsule from the heat of re-entry. The only braking from the high re-entry velocity, down to the velocity at which parachutes could be deployed was by the drag of the atmosphere on the blunt shaped capsule. The reason for the 1240 mile trip half way around the world was mainly to provide adequate braking distance for the capsule, but also time for it to cool, by directing it along a sloping path through the atmosphere. Entering the atmosphere at too high an angle would either incinerate the crew or subject them to crushing g forces. In any case, in a normal landing the astronauts were typically subject to 6g. On the other hand, entering the atmosphere at too low an angle would not provide sufficient braking and the un-powered capsule would fly off into space with no possibility of return. Communications Blackout Period At the start of re-entry, the extreme heat of the shockwave generated by the compression of the air in front of the Command Module ionised the air creating a plasma which effectively blocked the transmission of radio signals to and from the spacecraft for about three minutes as it entered the atmosphere Splashdown 24 July 1969 By the time the capsule had descended to 24,000 feet, it had slowed to around 325 mph and a barometric switch initiated the jettisoning of the forward heat shield and the deployment of drogue parachutes which stabilised the craft, slowing its descent even further. At 10,700 feet and travelling at 175 m.p.h. the three main parachutes were deployed reducing the Command Module's decent velocity to 22 mph for splashdown in the Pacific Ocean, just 15 miles from where the US Navy recovery ship Hornet was waiting for it. Quarantine The astronauts spent 21 days in quarantine as a precaution against the possibility of bringing back unknown pathogens from the lunar surface.

2m Composite LIDAR Digital Surface Model Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) is an airborne mapping technique, which uses a laser to measure the distance between the aircraft and the ground. Up to 100,000 measurements per second are made of the ground, allowing highly detailed terrain models to be generated at spatial resolutions of between 25cm and 2 metres. The Environment Agency's LIDAR data archive contains digital elevation data derived from surveys carried out by the Environment Agency and represents over 10 years of survey work carried out by a specialist remote sensing team based in Bath and Coventry. Accurate elevation data is available for approximately 50% of England and Wales.This dataset is derived from a combination of our full dataset which has been merged and re-sampled to give the best possible coverage. The dataset is 2m resolution and is supplied as a Digital Surface Model produced from the signal returned to the LIDAR (which includes heights of objects, such as vehicles, buildings and vegetation, as well as the terrain surface).

Therefore, on April 11, , Truman fired MacArthur from his commands. The dismissal of General Douglas MacArthur was among the least politically popular decisions in presidential history. Truman and his generals considered the use of nuclear weapons against the Chinese army, but ultimately chose not to escalate the war to a nuclear level. It called for tripling the defense budget, and the globalization and militarization of containment policy whereby the United States and its NATO allies would respond militarily to actual Soviet expansion. The document was drafted by Paul Nitze , who consulted State and Defense officials, and was formally approved by President Truman as official national strategy after the war began in Korea. It called for partial mobilization of the U. The plan called for strengthening Europe, weakening the Soviet Union, and building up the United States both militarily and economically. The treaty establishing it was widely popular and easily passed the Senate in ; Truman appointed General Eisenhower as commander. The alliance resulted in the Soviets establishing a similar alliance, called the Warsaw Pact. On June 27, , after the outbreak of fighting in Korea, Truman ordered the U. Truman usually worked well with his top staff—the exceptions were Israel in and Spain — Truman was a very strong opponent of Francisco Franco , the right-wing dictator of Spain. He withdrew the American ambassador but diplomatic relations were not formally broken , kept Spain out of the UN, and rejected any Marshall Plan financial aid to Spain. However, as the Cold War escalated, support for Spain was strong in Congress, the Pentagon, the business community and other influential elements especially Catholics and cotton growers. Liberal opposition to Spain had faded after the Wallace element broke with the Democratic Party in ; the CIO became passive on the issue. As Secretary of State Acheson increased his pressure on Truman, the president, stood alone in his administration as his own top appointees wanted to normalize relations. When China entered the Korean War and pushed American forces back, the argument for allies became irresistible. Admitting he was "overruled and worn down," Truman relented and sent an ambassador and made loans available. He said an underground communist network had worked inside the U. Chambers did not allege any spying during the Truman presidency. Although Hiss denied the allegations, he was convicted in January for perjury for denials under oath. In , Truman described American communist leaders, whom his administration was prosecuting , as "traitors", but in he vetoed the McCarran Internal Security Act. It was passed over his veto. In , Truman ordered an addition to the exterior of the White House: The addition was unpopular. Some said it spoiled the appearance of the south facade, but it gave the First Family more living space. As the newer West Wing , including the Oval Office , remained open, Truman walked to and from his work across the street each morning and afternoon. On the street outside the residence, Torresola mortally wounded a White House policeman, Leslie Coffelt. Before he died, the officer shot and killed Torresola. Collazo was wounded and stopped before he entered the house. He was found guilty of murder and sentenced to death in Truman commuted his sentence to life in prison. To try to settle the question of Puerto Rican independence, Truman allowed a plebiscite in Puerto Rico in to determine the status of its relationship to the United States. Truman cited his authority as Commander in Chief and the need to maintain an uninterrupted supply of steel for munitions for the war in Korea. In , the Senate, led by Estes Kefauver , investigated numerous charges of corruption among senior administration officials, some of whom received fur coats and deep freezers in exchange for favors. When Attorney General J. Howard McGrath fired the special prosecutor in early for being too zealous, Truman fired McGrath. Miss Truman is a unique American phenomenon with a pleasant voice of little size and fair quality Some day I hope to meet you. Pegler , a gutter snipe, is a gentleman alongside you. Truman was criticized by many for the letter. However, he pointed out that he wrote it as a loving father and not as the president. A report by the Truman administration titled To Secure These Rights presented a detailed ten-point agenda of civil rights reforms. Speaking about this report, international developments have to be taken into account, for with the UN-Charter being passed in , the question whether international human rights law could be applicable also on an inner-land basis became crucial in the United States. Though the report acknowledged such a path was not free from controversy in the s United States, it nevertheless raised the possibility for the UN-Charter to be used as a legal tool to combat racial discrimination in the United States. In February , the president submitted a civil rights agenda to Congress that proposed creating several federal offices devoted to issues such as voting rights and fair employment practices. Tales of the abuse, violence, and persecution suffered by many African-American veterans upon their return from World War II infuriated Truman, and were a major factor in his decision to issue Executive Order , in July , requiring equal opportunity in the armed forces. Another executive order, also in , made it illegal to discriminate against persons applying for civil service positions based on race. This committee ensured defense contractors did not discriminate because of race. Truman made five international trips during his presidency: In , the United States ratified the 22nd Amendment , making a president ineligible for election to a third term or for election to a second full term after serving more than two remaining years of a term of a previously elected president. Nevertheless, he seriously considered running for another term in , and left his name on the ballot in the New Hampshire primary. However all his close advisors, pointing to his age, his failing abilities, and his poor showing in the polls, talked him out of it. His first choice, Chief Justice Fred M. Vinson , had declined to run; Illinois Governor Adlai Stevenson had also turned Truman down, Vice President Barkley was considered too old, [] [] and Truman distrusted and disliked Senator Kefauver, who had made a name for himself by his investigations of the Truman administration scandals. Truman had hoped to recruit General Eisenhower as a Democratic candidate, but found him more interested in seeking the Republican nomination. Accordingly, Truman let his name be entered in the New Hampshire primary by supporters. Truman was eventually able to persuade Stevenson to run, and the governor gained the nomination at the Democratic National Convention. He pledged to clean up the "mess in Washington," and promised to "go to Korea. While Truman and Eisenhower had previously been on good terms, Truman felt annoyed Eisenhower did not denounce Joseph McCarthy during the campaign. Anti-Semitism, anti-Catholicism, and anti-foreignism" within the Republican Party. Upon leaving the presidency, Truman returned to Independence, Missouri, to live at the Wallace home he and Bess had shared for years with her mother. He also turned down numerous offers for commercial endorsements. Since his earlier business ventures had proved unsuccessful, he had no personal savings. As a result, he faced financial challenges. Once Truman left the White House, his only income was his old army pension: In , however, there was no such benefit package for former presidents, and he received no pension for his Senate service. Truman took out a personal loan from a Missouri bank shortly after leaving office, and then found a lucrative book deal for his memoirs. Memoirs by Harry S. Year of Decisions and Memoirs by Harry S. Years of Trial and Hope The former president told House Majority Leader John McCormack in , "Had it not been for the fact that I was able to sell some property that my brother, sister, and I inherited from our mother, I would practically be on relief, but with the sale of that property I am not financially embarrassed. Roosevelt, had organized his own presidential library , but legislation to enable future presidents to do something similar had not been enacted. Truman worked to garner private donations to build a presidential library, which he donated to the federal government to maintain and operate—a practice adopted by his successors. Max Skidmore, in his book on the life of former presidents, noted that Truman was a well-read man, especially in history. Skidmore added that the presidential papers legislation and the founding of his library "was the culmination of his interest in history. Together they constitute an enormous contribution to the United States—one of the greatest of any former president. In late , when Lyndon B. It has become an operational and at times a policy-making arm of the government. This has led to trouble and may have compounded our difficulties in several explosive areas. Averell Harriman of New York. After a fall in his home in late , his physical condition declined. In , President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Medicare bill at the Harry S. He developed multiple organ failure, fell into a coma, and died at 7: Bess Truman opted for a simple private service at the library rather than a state funeral in Washington. A week after the funeral, foreign dignitaries and Washington officials attended a memorial service at Washington National Cathedral. Bess died in and is buried next to Harry at the Harry S. Truman Library and Museum in Independence, Missouri. Vigorous, hard-working, simple, he had grown up close to the soil of the Midwest and understood the struggles of the people on the farms and in the small towns. After 10 years in the Senate, he had risen above the Pendergast organization. Still, he had come from a world of two-bit politicians, and its aura was one that he never was able to shed entirely. And he did retain certain characteristics one often sees in machine-bred politicians: Citing continuing divisions within the Democratic Party, the ongoing Cold War, and the boom and bust cycle, journalist Samuel Lubell in stated: Nowhere in the whole Truman record can one point to a single, decisive break-through All his skills and energies—and he was among our hardest-working Presidents—were directed to standing still. The period following his death consolidated a partial rehabilitation of his legacy among both historians and members of the public. Truman has had his latter-day critics as well. After a review of information available to Truman about the presence of espionage activities in the U. The Dissolution of the Soviet Union in caused Truman advocates to claim vindication for his decisions in the postwar period. According to Truman biographer Robert Dallek , "His contribution to victory in the cold war without a devastating nuclear conflict elevated him to the stature of a great or near-great president. McCoy in his book on the Truman presidency:. Harry Truman himself gave a strong and far-from-incorrect impression of being a tough, concerned and direct leader. He was occasionally vulgar, often partisan, and usually nationalistic On his own terms, Truman can be seen as having prevented the coming of a third world war and having preserved from Communist oppression much of what he called the free world. Yet clearly he largely failed to achieve his Wilsonian aim of securing perpetual peace, making the world safe for democracy, and advancing opportunities for individual development internationally. In , Truman traveled to Europe with his wife. In , he helped establish the Grandview Lodge, and he served as its first Worshipful Master. In September , during his Senate re-election campaign, Truman was elected Grand Master of the Missouri Grand Lodge of Freemasonry; Truman said later that the Masonic election assured his victory in the general election. Southern Jurisdiction Headquarters in Washington D. In , the Truman Scholarship was created as a federal program to honor U. Truman Fellowship in National Security Science and Engineering was created as a distinguished postdoctoral three-year appointment at Sandia National Laboratories. Truman School of Public Affairs to advance the study and practice of governance. A member institution of the City Colleges of Chicago , Harry S Truman College in Chicago, Illinois , is named in his honor for his dedication to public colleges and universities. In , the headquarters for the State Department , built in the s but never officially named, was dedicated as the Harry S Truman Building. Truman, was erected in with donations from Greek-Americans. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. For other uses, see Harry Truman disambiguation. Corporal National Guard Captain active Colonel reserve. Democratic Party vice presidential candidate selection, Truman visits his mother in Grandview, Missouri , after being nominated the Democratic candidate for vice president , July Roosevelt —Truman poster from Presidency of Harry S. Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Strike wave of United States presidential election, Truman, October 13, , St. Paul, Minnesota, Radio Broadcast [] [] [] [] []. If it was, half to three-quarters of them would be in jail. Truman Presidential Library and Museum. As this was prior to the adoption of the Twenty-Fifth Amendment in , a vacancy in the office of Vice President was not filled until the next ensuing election and inauguration. There is controversy over whether the period after the S should be included, or omitted, or if both forms are equally valid. New York Summit Books. A Profile of Kansas City Jewry. University of Missouri Press. The Rise to Power. From Law Office to Oval Office. The Letters from Harry to Bess Truman, — President Truman and the Cold War, — Adversaries for a Common Cause. Immigration and the Legacy of Harry S. Truman State University Press. Religion and the American Presidency. God In The Obama Era. Retrieved May 21, Was President Truman the first Baptist president? George Washington to George W. US Army Order of Battle, — Combat Studies Institute Press. Association of the United States Army, St. The Myths of Revisionism. Truman, 33rd President of the United States". Truman Library and Museum. Retrieved May 27, Truman Military Personnel File". Retrieved December 17, — via Harry S. He was the Vice President elected with Franklin D. Roosevelt in , and succeeded to the Presidency when FDR died. Truman was re-elected in , serving as President from April 12, to January 20, What was the name of the 33rd president of US? The 33rd president of the US is Harry S. The 33rd president of the U. What is the 33rd state? The 33rd state admitted to the Union was Oregon. Was California the 33rd state? No, California was the 31st state. Minnesota was 32nd, and Oregonwas 33rd. Who was the 33rd US president? Truman fromApril 12, to January 20, Harry S. Truman was the 33rd US President. Truman later ran for the office in Hewas an underdog to win the presidency in that election year to theRepublican Governor of the State of New York. Truman was famous forthe quote of "The buck stops here". Roosevelt the 33rd president? It can be used for panfish, or even for sport fish like bass. Many use them to catch ocean panfish like croakers … and pompano, easily one of the best all purpose reels ever. Can you use 33 cent stamps? Yes you can use 33 cent stamps. As long as the total postage on the envelope equals the cost of postage it is okay. US stamps have not been devalued since the Civil War.. Can you still use cent stamps? In Coins and Paper Money. In Bodies of Water. There are thousands of lakes and ponds in the United States, and thousands more rivers, streams, brooks, etc. As this question was asked and answered in July , the answer isRonald Reagan. Democratic Republican Third parties Libertarian Green. For example, George Washington served two consecutive terms and is counted as the first president not the first and second. Grover Cleveland was both the 22nd president and the 24th president because his two terms were not consecutive. A vice president who temporarily becomes acting president under the Twenty-fifth Amendment to the Constitution is not counted, because the president remains in office during such a period. As a result, his first term was only 1, days long as opposed to the usual 1, , and was the shortest term for a U. The elections of were the first ones in the United States that were contested on anything resembling a partisan basis. As a result, his first term was only 1, days long, and was the shortest term for a U. Federalist John Adams was elected president, and Jefferson of the Democratic-Republicans was elected vice president. Later, while president, Johnson tried and failed to build a party of loyalists under the National Union banner. Near the end of his presidency, Johnson rejoined the Democratic Party. Arthur was initially sworn in as president on September 20, , and then again on September Retrieved October 1, Retrieved July 1, Retrieved January 22, Retrieved January 18, Retrieved March 6, Retrieved November 21, Retrieved November 27, Retrieved March 7, Retrieved January 20, Presidents of the United States. Chief executives of the United States. President of the United States. Retrieved from " https: Wikipedia pages semi-protected against vandalism Use mdy dates from April Articles with short description. Views Read View source View history. In other projects Wikiquote. This page was last edited on 29 January , at By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. This article is part of a series on the. Elections Presidential elections Midterm elections Off-year elections. United States portal Other countries Atlas. April 30, [d] — March 4, George Washington — Lived: Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army — John Adams [e] [f]. March 4, — March 4, John Adams — Lived: Thomas Jefferson — Lived: Aaron Burr March 4, — March 4, George Clinton March 4, — March 4, James Madison — Lived: George Clinton March 4, — April 20, Died in office. Martin Van Buren March 4, — March 4, Martin Van Buren — Lived: March 4, — April 4, Died in office. William Henry Harrison — Lived: United States Minister to Colombia — John Tyler Succeeded to presidency. April 4, [i] — March 4, John Tyler — Lived: Whig April 4, — September 13, Unaffiliated September 13, — March 4, [j]. March 4, — July 9, Died in office. Commanding General of the U. Army — No prior elected office. Schuyler Colfax March 4, — March 4, Henry Wilson March 4, — November 22, Died in office. March 4, — September 19, Died in office. Arthur Succeeded to presidency. Truman cited his authority as Commander in Chief and the need to maintain an uninterrupted supply of steel for munitions for the war in Korea. In , the Senate, led by Estes Kefauver , investigated numerous charges of corruption among senior administration officials, some of whom received fur coats and deep freezers in exchange for favors. When Attorney General J. Howard McGrath fired the special prosecutor in early for being too zealous, Truman fired McGrath. Miss Truman is a unique American phenomenon with a pleasant voice of little size and fair quality Some day I hope to meet you. Pegler , a gutter snipe, is a gentleman alongside you. Truman was criticized by many for the letter. However, he pointed out that he wrote it as a loving father and not as the president. A report by the Truman administration titled To Secure These Rights presented a detailed ten-point agenda of civil rights reforms. Speaking about this report, international developments have to be taken into account, for with the UN-Charter being passed in , the question whether international human rights law could be applicable also on an inner-land basis became crucial in the United States. Though the report acknowledged such a path was not free from controversy in the s United States, it nevertheless raised the possibility for the UN-Charter to be used as a legal tool to combat racial discrimination in the United States. In February , the president submitted a civil rights agenda to Congress that proposed creating several federal offices devoted to issues such as voting rights and fair employment practices. Tales of the abuse, violence, and persecution suffered by many African-American veterans upon their return from World War II infuriated Truman, and were a major factor in his decision to issue Executive Order , in July , requiring equal opportunity in the armed forces. Another executive order, also in , made it illegal to discriminate against persons applying for civil service positions based on race. This committee ensured defense contractors did not discriminate because of race. Truman made five international trips during his presidency: In , the United States ratified the 22nd Amendment , making a president ineligible for election to a third term or for election to a second full term after serving more than two remaining years of a term of a previously elected president. Nevertheless, he seriously considered running for another term in , and left his name on the ballot in the New Hampshire primary. However all his close advisors, pointing to his age, his failing abilities, and his poor showing in the polls, talked him out of it. His first choice, Chief Justice Fred M. Vinson , had declined to run; Illinois Governor Adlai Stevenson had also turned Truman down, Vice President Barkley was considered too old, [] [] and Truman distrusted and disliked Senator Kefauver, who had made a name for himself by his investigations of the Truman administration scandals. Truman had hoped to recruit General Eisenhower as a Democratic candidate, but found him more interested in seeking the Republican nomination. Accordingly, Truman let his name be entered in the New Hampshire primary by supporters. Truman was eventually able to persuade Stevenson to run, and the governor gained the nomination at the Democratic National Convention. He pledged to clean up the "mess in Washington," and promised to "go to Korea. While Truman and Eisenhower had previously been on good terms, Truman felt annoyed Eisenhower did not denounce Joseph McCarthy during the campaign. Anti-Semitism, anti-Catholicism, and anti-foreignism" within the Republican Party. Upon leaving the presidency, Truman returned to Independence, Missouri, to live at the Wallace home he and Bess had shared for years with her mother. He also turned down numerous offers for commercial endorsements. Since his earlier business ventures had proved unsuccessful, he had no personal savings. As a result, he faced financial challenges. Once Truman left the White House, his only income was his old army pension: In , however, there was no such benefit package for former presidents, and he received no pension for his Senate service. Truman took out a personal loan from a Missouri bank shortly after leaving office, and then found a lucrative book deal for his memoirs. Memoirs by Harry S. Year of Decisions and Memoirs by Harry S. Years of Trial and Hope The former president told House Majority Leader John McCormack in , "Had it not been for the fact that I was able to sell some property that my brother, sister, and I inherited from our mother, I would practically be on relief, but with the sale of that property I am not financially embarrassed. Roosevelt, had organized his own presidential library , but legislation to enable future presidents to do something similar had not been enacted. Truman worked to garner private donations to build a presidential library, which he donated to the federal government to maintain and operate—a practice adopted by his successors. Max Skidmore, in his book on the life of former presidents, noted that Truman was a well-read man, especially in history. Skidmore added that the presidential papers legislation and the founding of his library "was the culmination of his interest in history. Together they constitute an enormous contribution to the United States—one of the greatest of any former president. In late , when Lyndon B. It has become an operational and at times a policy-making arm of the government. This has led to trouble and may have compounded our difficulties in several explosive areas. Averell Harriman of New York. After a fall in his home in late , his physical condition declined. In , President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Medicare bill at the Harry S. He developed multiple organ failure, fell into a coma, and died at 7: Bess Truman opted for a simple private service at the library rather than a state funeral in Washington. A week after the funeral, foreign dignitaries and Washington officials attended a memorial service at Washington National Cathedral. Bess died in and is buried next to Harry at the Harry S. Truman Library and Museum in Independence, Missouri. Vigorous, hard-working, simple, he had grown up close to the soil of the Midwest and understood the struggles of the people on the farms and in the small towns. After 10 years in the Senate, he had risen above the Pendergast organization. Still, he had come from a world of two-bit politicians, and its aura was one that he never was able to shed entirely. And he did retain certain characteristics one often sees in machine-bred politicians: Citing continuing divisions within the Democratic Party, the ongoing Cold War, and the boom and bust cycle, journalist Samuel Lubell in stated: Nowhere in the whole Truman record can one point to a single, decisive break-through All his skills and energies—and he was among our hardest-working Presidents—were directed to standing still. The period following his death consolidated a partial rehabilitation of his legacy among both historians and members of the public. Truman has had his latter-day critics as well. After a review of information available to Truman about the presence of espionage activities in the U. The Dissolution of the Soviet Union in caused Truman advocates to claim vindication for his decisions in the postwar period. According to Truman biographer Robert Dallek , "His contribution to victory in the cold war without a devastating nuclear conflict elevated him to the stature of a great or near-great president. McCoy in his book on the Truman presidency:. Harry Truman himself gave a strong and far-from-incorrect impression of being a tough, concerned and direct leader. He was occasionally vulgar, often partisan, and usually nationalistic On his own terms, Truman can be seen as having prevented the coming of a third world war and having preserved from Communist oppression much of what he called the free world. Yet clearly he largely failed to achieve his Wilsonian aim of securing perpetual peace, making the world safe for democracy, and advancing opportunities for individual development internationally. In , Truman traveled to Europe with his wife. In , he helped establish the Grandview Lodge, and he served as its first Worshipful Master. In September , during his Senate re-election campaign, Truman was elected Grand Master of the Missouri Grand Lodge of Freemasonry; Truman said later that the Masonic election assured his victory in the general election. Southern Jurisdiction Headquarters in Washington D. In , the Truman Scholarship was created as a federal program to honor U. Truman Fellowship in National Security Science and Engineering was created as a distinguished postdoctoral three-year appointment at Sandia National Laboratories. Truman School of Public Affairs to advance the study and practice of governance. A member institution of the City Colleges of Chicago , Harry S Truman College in Chicago, Illinois , is named in his honor for his dedication to public colleges and universities. In , the headquarters for the State Department , built in the s but never officially named, was dedicated as the Harry S Truman Building. Truman, was erected in with donations from Greek-Americans. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. For other uses, see Harry Truman disambiguation. Corporal National Guard Captain active Colonel reserve. Democratic Party vice presidential candidate selection, Truman visits his mother in Grandview, Missouri , after being nominated the Democratic candidate for vice president , July Roosevelt —Truman poster from Presidency of Harry S. If it was, half to three-quarters of them would be in jail. Truman Presidential Library and Museum. As this was prior to the adoption of the Twenty-Fifth Amendment in , a vacancy in the office of Vice President was not filled until the next ensuing election and inauguration. There is controversy over whether the period after the S should be included, or omitted, or if both forms are equally valid. New York Summit Books. A Profile of Kansas City Jewry. University of Missouri Press. The Rise to Power. From Law Office to Oval Office. The Letters from Harry to Bess Truman, — President Truman and the Cold War, — Adversaries for a Common Cause. Immigration and the Legacy of Harry S. Truman State University Press. Religion and the American Presidency. God In The Obama Era. Retrieved May 21, Was President Truman the first Baptist president? George Washington to George W. US Army Order of Battle, — Combat Studies Institute Press. Association of the United States Army, St. The Myths of Revisionism. Truman, 33rd President of the United States". Truman Library and Museum. Retrieved May 27, Truman Military Personnel File". Retrieved December 17, — via Harry S. The Real History of the Cold War: A New Look at the Past. Daniels quotes journalist Marquis Childs who wrote in November that the Truman Committee had "saved billions—yes, billions—of dollars. A Political Biography of Harry S. Truman Greenwood Press, , p. Byrd , Senate, —, Vol. The vote was tied, and Truman voted no, which, in a sense, was unnecessary since the bill would have died even without his vote. What is a 33 gauge needle used for? Bennett Champ ClarkForrest C. Soon after succeeding to the presidency he became the only world leader to have used nuclear weapons in war. Senator from Missouri Class 1 There is controversy over whether the period after the S should be included, or omitted, or if both forms are equally valid. Wikiquote has jackpot zahlen freitag related to: The 80th Congress included Republican freshmen who would become prominent in U. The Myths of Revisionism. King John C. Kleider casino States Senators from Missouri. Association of the United States Army, St. Calvin Coolidge — Lived: Truman believed this would entail an unacceptable risk of war.

Scientists at the University of Southampton have developed maps of chemicals found in jellyfish which could offer a new tool for conservation in British waters and fisheries. The maps will also be able to detect fraudulently labelled food in retail outlets by helping to trace the origins of seafood. The Southampton based research team including Dr Clive Trueman, Dr Katie St. John Glew and Dr Laura Graham, built maps of the chemical variations in jellyfish caught in an area of approximately 1 million km2 of the UK shelf seas. These chemical signals vary according to where the fish has been feeding due to differences in the marine environment’s chemistry, biology and physical processes. Dr Katie St John Glew explains “The chemical differences detected in the jellyfish are also present in other animals throughout the food chain, like seabirds, seals and fishes. This means that we can measure the same signals in, for example feathers from seabirds or fresh fish fillets, then match them back to the jellyfish map and work out where the birds have been feeding or where the fish was most likely caught.” The developers hope that the maps will help policy makers at authorities such as the Marine Management Organisation and Marine Stewardship Council learn more about the movement of local marine animals and support conservation efforts. They could also provide a new way to trace the origin of fish sold in supermarkets and fishmongers which will also help detect food fraud occurring in products sourced from, or claiming to be sourced from, British waters. This research is based on a well-established process for forensically analysing food produced on land such as meat, honey and wine but which has not yet been applied to seafood. Dr Trueman said “In our changing political climate, it is likely that the authorities will need new ways to manage our waters so it will be critical to have a better understanding our local marine environment and those animals that live within it. Being able to verify where seafood products have been caught may also become essential for protecting our fisheries and combating food fraud in a future with more borders, boundaries and regulations.”

TE heat pumps are well known and offer an efficient means for pumping or moving small amounts of heat, generally less than 200 watts. Well known uses include temperature controlling (cooling or heating) small enclosures that contain such items as food, wine, medicine or electronics, and direct temperature control of electronic chips and laser diode devices by direct placement of a TE heat pump on a device. A less well-known application for TE technology is to pump heat through the TE unit to produce electrical power, known as a TE generator. A conventional TE device, chip, or module 20 is shown in FIG. 1 with the typical upper alumina substrate 14 removed. The module consists of an array of negatively (N) and positively (P) doped thermoelectric semiconductor elements, 10a and 10b, arranged in pairs or thermocouples with TE elements 10a and 10b connected electrically in series and thermally in parallel. The TE elements are connected electrically by copper connectors such as tabs or bus bars 12. The TE elements and their connectors are in turn sandwiched between the top alumina substrate 14 and a bottom alumina substrate 16. The substrates provide electrical insulation and mechanical support and protection for the TE elements 10a and 10b. When DC electrical power is applied to such an array of thermocouples via the positive connection wire 18a and the negative connection wire 18b, heat is absorbed on one side (cold side), conducted through the elements by charge carriers, and deposited on the opposite side (hot side). Switching the direction of the DC current will reverse the hot and cold sides. Conversely, putting a temperature differential across the two sides will produce DC electrical power, often called a generator. In FIG. 1, for the current direction shown, substrate 14 is on the cold side of the module where heat is absorbed, and substrate 16 is on the hot side of the module from which heat is rejected. FIGS. 2 and 2A show a perspective and a cross-sectional view of a typical TE assembly 22 incorporating TE module 20 from FIG. 1, found in a temperature controlled enclosure such as a cooled portable picnic box. One side is exposed to the interior air and the opposite side is exposed to the ambient air. On the interior side, generally called the cold side, a heat exchanger or cold sink 24 is attached to the top substrate or cold side 14 of module 20 to increase heat transfer to the cold side from the interior air. Similarly a heat exchanger or hot sink 26 is attached to the hot side 16 of the module to increase heat transfer between the hot side 16 and the exterior air. The heat exchangers are generally extended surfaces made of highly heat-conductive material, such as aluminum-finned heat sinks. The hot sink 26 is normally larger than the cold sink 24 as it transfers both the heat pumped from the cold side and the heat generated by the power input into module 20. A means of moving air or other heat-transferring fluid over or across cold sink 24 and especially hot sink 26, such as a fan (not shown) is typically used to improve thermal efficiency. A metal spacer 28 is often placed between the cold side 14 and cold sink 24 to increase the distance between the hot sink 26 and cold sink 24 and thereby reduce parasitic heat transfer between the hot and cold sinks. Insulating foam 30 is often placed or sprayed into this area around the spacer and module as shown to further reduce this unwanted heat transfer. The heat sinks 24 and 26 are generally held against the cold and hot sides or surfaces 14 and 16 of module 20 by use of stainless steel screws 32. A series of insulating, fastening, and Belleville washers 34, 36, 38 are used to insulate and keep the assembly under compression. Interface materials such as thermal grease or compliant thermal pads (not shown) are placed between cold side 14 and spacer 28, between hot side 16 and hot sink 26, and between spacer 28 and cold sink 24 to increase heat transfer by removing or filling small air gaps. The assembly 22 is typically fit into a hole cut into the insulating walls 31 of the cooled enclosure. While the above assembly works adequately, those skilled in the art recognize that it has a number of disadvantages. One disadvantage is the use of the insulating substrates 14 and 16, typically alumina ceramic. The substrates are costly and reduce thermal efficiency by adding resistance to the flow of heat; this resistance to heat flow is called thermal resistance. The alumina substrates are still used in small-scale TE heat pumps for consumer appliances sold today, despite decades of trying to minimize thermal resistance by removing electrical insulators from the TE module and connecting the TE elements directly to the heat sinks and thereby combine the heat sink and electrical connector functions. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,903,857 to Lindenblad (1959) discloses an extremely large TE heat pump, intended for regulating room temperature in homes, in which each thermoelectric pair of TE elements is bonded directly to an individual or discrete heat sink in the form of a large, generally U-shaped channel member on one side, and to individual, spaced cold sink plates on the other. Multiple channel members are then bolted together in series for increased heating and cooling capacity, and to define an elongated airflow path through the series-connected channels. The disadvantages to this design are that it does not lend itself to moisture sealing, has poor structural support for the huge hot sinks, and relies on flexible electrical connections between the spaced cold sink plates in each TE pair to protect the TE elements from thermal stresses. Lindenblad's assembly also appears to rely on an inadequate natural, fanless convection to remove heat from the interconnected hot sinks, possibly due to a widely held belief at the time that the efficiency of the TE materials would improve by orders of magnitude, which large improvement never occurred. U.S. Pat. No. 2,997,514 to Roeder (1961) discloses an assembly that again bonds discrete heat sinks to the TE elements, but addresses the sealing and structural issues with expensive and thermally resistive spring contact members and impractical packaging of the assembly. U.S. Pat. No. 3,076,051 to Haba (1963) discloses a different approach that minimizes the thermal resistance of the electrical insulator rather than eliminating it. Haba does this by making the alumina insulating layer extremely thin by means of anodized aluminum plates. One problem with this approach is that the aluminum has three to four times the thermal expansion of alumina ceramic and causes stress fractures of the solder bonds that connect the TE elements to the copper connectors upon heating and cooling. Several types of structure for the so-called “Direct Transfer Method” have been proposed in patents such as U.S. Pat. No. 3,213,630 to Mole (1963), U.S. Pat. No. 4,730,459 to Schicklin et al. (1988), the published article in International Thermoelectric Society proceedings entitled “Application of Thermoelectric Technology to Naval Submarine Cooling” by Blankenship et al. (1988), and U.S. Pat. No. 6,385,976 to Yamamura et al. (2002). The Direct Transfer Method bonds a heat sink to the TE elements utilizing the walls of metal conduits as the electrical connectors, while the conduit interior conducts heat transfer fluid. Although used successfully in large-scale applications such as the cooling of trains and submarines, this technique is prohibitively expensive and complex in small-scale applications, particularly in consumer products. U.S. Pat. No. 6,226,994 to Yamada et al. (2001) also discloses a basic “double skeleton” thermoelectric structure without the conventional substrates. The structure consists of TE elements protruding through a partition, the connecting electrodes on one side having an inverted, fluid-cooled T-shape, the structure believed to be especially intended for use with liquid-cooled systems. This basic structure is believed to be relatively fragile and difficult to ship and handle for assembly. While Yamada et al. focuses on liquid-cooled arrangements, the less-detailed air-cooled embodiments replace the T-shaped electrodes with conventional flat electrodes bonded directly to a conventional unitary hot sink with a conventional insulating layer, similar to the Haba structure described above and believed to have similar stress problems. Sealing of the TE elements and their electrodes against moisture and corrosion is not adequately addressed. Air cooling is not believed to be practical with any of Yamada et al's disclosed structures, since the cooling flow path and electrode orientation would reduce efficiency by causing pressure drop, by raising the delta temperature of both the TE elements and their electrodes across the array, and by presenting an inefficient fan interface. A second important disadvantage of known TE module construction is the corrosion and corresponding thermal performance degradation resulting from moisture condensing on the cold side elements. Water vapor is a relatively small molecule and permeates most module packaging materials other than glass or metal. As small voids or spaces around the cold-side surfaces cool, the water vapor in the spaces condenses to liquid water and lowers the vapor pressure. This creates a vapor pressure gradient where the high-pressure vapor on the exterior of the hot side of the module is pushed toward the lower pressure vapor on the cold side, and then condenses. Vapor thereby moves through interstitial areas in screw threads, connector wires, and insulation foams and condenses on the cold side. The liquid water is then trapped in the open spaces of the module, causing corrosion and parasitic heat losses. One typical solution to the condensation/corrosion problem is to seal the perimeter of the TE module or its foam packaging assembly and all ingress points such as screws or wires with sealant materials such as epoxy or silicone. This solution is time-consuming, expensive, and prone to leaks. A second solution is to let the vapor in, but provide an exit for condensed water via weep holes or wicking materials. This solution is hard to implement with conventional TE modules, since the elements are close together and sandwiched between the two alumina substrates, such that surface tension tends to keep the water inside the module. Another disadvantage with known TE module construction is the thermal expansion and contraction of materials. TE heat pump materials, like other electronic materials, have different rates of thermal expansion upon heating or cooling. This difference creates stresses that reduce the life of the module by breaking the solder bonds that connect the elements to the copper conductors. This problem is compounded by the fact that one side is heating and expanding while the other side is cooling and contracting. This difference in expansion and contraction is particularly troublesome in applications that experience wide and/or fast variations in temperature. Yet another disadvantage with known TE module construction is that the process of combining the TE modules and heat sinks is time-consuming and error prone. Time-consuming procedures must be used to guarantee that uneven pressure from the screw assembly does not damage the brittle TE module. Processes must be implemented to insure the flatness and cleanliness of the mating surfaces, since the thermal performance is extremely sensitive to any dirt, dust, debris, bumps, irregularities, or non-flat areas on or between the mating surfaces of the TE module and heat sink.

The Kaduna State Government expressed concern on the reported outbreak of a rice disease known as rice blast, in some parts of the state. The Kaduna Agricultural Development Project (KADP) said that the outbreak had been reported in zones where the crop is cultivated in commercial quantity. Extension service workers had been deployed to the areas to take samples for laboratory analysis to ascertain the extent of the outbreak and the total areas affected. They said the outbreak, in addition to the recent flood disaster, may likely affect the projected rice yield of the state. Farmers cultivate an average of 300 000 hectares [about 740 000 acres] per year, and the state produces an average of one million metric tonnes of rice. They appealed to farmers not to panic, assuring that the state government had taken steps to ascertain the cause of the outbreak in order to control its spread. [Rice blast is caused by the fungus _Magnaporthe oryzae_ (previously classified as a strain of _M. grisea_, synonym _Pyricularia oryzae_). It is one of the most destructive diseases of rice worldwide with potential yield losses of more than 50 percent. Symptoms include lesions on all parts of the shoot, as well as stem rot and panicle blight. When nodes are infected, all plant parts above the infection die, and yield losses are severe. When infection occurs at the seedling or tillering stages, plants are often completely killed. More than 50 species of grasses and sedges can be affected by related pathogens, but most strains isolated from rice can only infect a limited number of cultivars. Symptom severity and spread of the blast fungus are influenced by climatic conditions. The disease is also favoured by high nitrogen levels (for example from fertilizers) and high humidity. The fungus is spread by infected plant debris, mechanical means (including insect activity), water, and wind. Disease management may include fungicides and cultural practices but relies mainly on resistant varieties. However, the fungus is highly variable, and this favours the emergence of new strains with increased virulence. In a recent survey amongst a group of about 500 fungal plant pathologists, rice blast was perceived as the fungal disease with the highest potential scientific and/or economic importance. Reasons given were (1) that more than half of the world's population relies on rice as the main source of calories and (2) because the pathogen has also developed into a model system for the study of plant-pathogen interactions. (Ref: R Dean et al, 2012. Molecular Plant Pathology 13, 414-430. DOI: 10.1111/j.1364-3703.2011.00783.x; see link below)

Killer Whale The killer whale (Orcinus orca) is the top marine predator and perhaps the most widespread vertebrate on earth, occurring in all the world’s oceans. They prey on protected marine mammal populations and commercially important fish stocks, and we need to understand the impacts of this predation, particularly in rapidly changing ecosystems. We are therefore undertaking a multi-faceted, but integrated, research program to study killer whales in a number of different locations (Pitman 2011). TaxonomyCurrently recognized as a single species, our recent genetic investigations have suggested that there may be multiple species of killer whales (Morin et al. 2010). Notably, our research has revealed that there are at least 4 distinct forms of killer whales in Antarctic and Southern Ocean waters (Pitman and Ensor 2003; Pitman et al. 2010), with distinct genetic differences (LeDuc et al. 2008; Foote et al. 2011) and morphological differences (Pitman et al. 2007a; see poster). MovementsThe impact of killer whale predation on local prey populations will be mediated by their movements. We deploy small (49g) satellite tags on killer whales to provide higher resolution and longer term monitoring of their movement patterns. This approach is being used to study the migration patterns of Antarctic killer whales (Andrews et al., 2008; Durban and Pitman, 2011), the movement patterns of killer whales hunting migratory gray whales off the west coast of the United States, and to locate whales in real time to observe predation behavior (Pitman and Durban, 2011).

As hydrocarbon wells mature, they exhibit a decrease in bottom-hole pressures and the production velocities, which are necessary to carry fluids—e.g., produced water, oil and condensate—to the surface. Over time, these fluids can accumulate in the downhole production tubing, resulting in a condition known as liquid loading. Toward the end of the production life of the hydrocarbon well, as formation fluid accumulates at the bottom of the wellbore, the liquid loading may reach a level that interferes with the well's performance. In particular, the well loses energy as the reservoir's natural pressure is countered by the hydrostatic head created by the accumulated fluid. The lost energy in the well necessitates employing measures to lift the formation fluid to the surface to prevent the liquid-loading condition from killing the well. Several techniques exist for artificially lifting formation fluids, including plunger lift systems. Plunger lift systems attempt to remove fluids from the wellbore so that the well can be produced at the lowest bottom-hole pressure and maximum rate by harnessing the well's own energy to remove the accumulated fluids and sustain gas production. Conventional plunger lift systems rely on a piston dropped into a flowing or non-flowing wellbore. A bumper spring at the bottom of the well cushions the impact of the piston. Gas flowing into the well below the piston pushes the piston upward, thereby pushing any formation fluid toward the surface. These pistons—e.g., pad, solid, bypass, and brush plungers, etc.—may have fluid fallback due to insufficient sealing with the tubing/casing wall. There are problems with using conventional tubular-shaped plungers in deviated and vertical wells. Such plungers may not have a sufficient seal, thereby causing undesirable fluid fallback to occur. Typical sealing devices are constructed from steel and/or fibers. These seals fail over time. The lack of seal may allow the well to liquid load over time because of fluid fallback. Liquid loading occurs when the hydrostatic pressure of the fluid is greater than the gas pressure below, restricting gas from surfacing through the surface equipment. The conventional tubing coupling collar used in the industry has a gap between each tubing joint. This gap in the inside diameter of the tubing allows fluid to be trapped at each connection and is an obstruction to making contact between the plunger and seal. Contact with artificial lift tools and this tubing/collar gap will cause premature wear, breakage, and fluid fallback. Thus, there is a need for a plunger lift system that reduces fluid fallback and more efficiently lifts formation fluid to the surface.

In 1933, prior to the annexation of Austria into Germany, the population of Germany was approximately 67% Protestant and 33% Catholic.[1] A census in May 1939, six years into the Nazi era[2] and incorporating the annexation of mostly Catholic Austria into Germany, indicates that 54% considered themselves Protestant (including non-denominational Christians), 40% Catholic, 3.5% self-identified as "gottgläubig" (lit. "believers in god", often described as predominately creationist and deistic[3]), and 1.5% as non-religious. Nazism wanted to transform the subjective consciousness of the German people—their attitudes, values and mentalities—into a single-minded, obedient "national community". The Nazis believed they would therefore have to replace class, religious and regional allegiances.[4] Under the Gleichschaltung process, Hitler attempted to create a unified Protestant Reich Church from Germany's 28 existing Protestant churches. The plan failed, and was resisted by the Confessing Church. Persecution of the Catholic Church in Germany followed the Nazi takeover. Hitler moved quickly to eliminate political catholicism. Amid harassment of the Church, the Reich concordat treaty with the Vatican was signed in 1933, and promised to respect Church autonomy. Hitler routinely disregarded the Concordat, closing all Catholic institutions whose functions were not strictly religious. Clergy, nuns, and lay leaders were targeted, with thousands of arrests over the ensuing years. The Church accused the regime of "fundamental hostility to Christ and his Church". Smaller religious minorities such as the Jehovah's Witnesses and Bahá'í Faith were banned in Germany, while the eradication of Judaism by the genocide of its adherents was attempted. The Salvation Army, Christian Saints and Seventh Day Adventist Church all disappeared from Germany, while Astrologers, Healers and Fortune tellers were banned. The small pagan "German Faith Movement", which worshipped the sun and seasons, supported the Nazis.[5] Many historians believed that Hitler and the Nazis intended to eradicate Christianity in Germany after winning victory in the war.[6][7] Christianity has ancient roots among Germanic peoples dating to the missionary work of Columbanus and St. Boniface in the 6th–8th centuries. The Reformation, initiated by Martin Luther in 1517, divided German Christians between a majority of Protestants and a minority of Roman Catholics. The south and west remained mainly Catholic, while north and east became mainly Protestant.[8] The Catholic Church enjoyed a degree of privilege in the Bavarian region, the Rhineland and Westphalia as well as parts in south-west Germany, while in the Protestant North, Catholics suffered some discrimination.[9][10] Bismarck's Kulturkampf ("Battle for Culture") of 1871–78 had seen an attempt to assert a Protestant vision of German nationalism over Germany, and fused anticlericalism and suspicion of the Catholic population, whose loyalty was presumed to lie with Austria and France, rather than the new German Empire. The Centre Party had formed in 1870, initially to represent the religious interests of Catholics and Protestants, but was transformed by the Kulturkampf into the "political voice of Catholics".[11] Bismarck's Culture Struggle failed in its attempt to eliminate Catholic institutions in Germany, or their strong connections outside of Germany, particularly various international missions and Rome.[12] Christianity in Germany has, since the Protestant Reformation, been divided into Catholicism and Protestantism. As a specific outcome of the Reformation in Germany, the large Protestant denominations are organized into Landeskirchen (roughly: Federal Churches). The German word for denomination is Konfession. For the large churches in Germany (Catholic and evangelisch i.e., Protestant ) the German government collects the church tax, which is then given to the Churches. For this reason, membership in the Catholic or Protestant (evangelische) Church is officially registered.[14] It is apparent they were politically motivated. For this reason Historian Richard Steigmann-Gall argues that "nominal church membership is a very unreliable gauge of actual piety in this context"[15] and determining someone's actual religious convictions should be based on other criteria. It is important to keep this 'official aspect' in mind when turning to such questions as the religious beliefs of Adolf Hitler or Joseph Goebbels. Both men had ceased to attend Catholic mass or to go to Confession long before 1933, but neither had officially left the Church and neither of them refused to pay his church taxes.[14] Historians have taken a look at the numbers of people who left their church in Germany during the 1933-45 period. The option to be taken off the church rolls (Kirchenaustritt) has existed in Germany since 1873, when Otto von Bismarck had introduced it as part of the Kulturkampf aimed against Catholicism.[16] For parity this was made possible for Protestants, too, and for the next 40 years it was mostly they who took advantage of it.[16] Statistics exist since 1884 for the Protestant churches and since 1917 for the Catholic Church.[16] An analysis of this data for the time of the Nazis' rule is available in a paper by Sven Granzow et al., published in a collection edited by Götz Aly. Altogether more Protestants than Catholics left their church, however, overall Protestants and Catholics decided similarly.[17] The spike in the numbers from 1937-38 is the result of the annexation of Austria in 1938 and other territories. The number of Kirchenaustritte reached its "historical high"[18] in 1939 when it peaked at 480,000. Granzow et al. see the numbers not only in relation to the Nazi policy towards the churches,[19] (which changed drastically from 1935 onwards) but also as indicator of the trust in the Führer and the Nazi leadership. The decline in the number of people who left the church after 1942 is explained as resulting from a loss of confidence in the future of Nazi Germany. People tended to keep their ties to the church, because they feared an uncertain future.[18] The historian Richard J Evans wrote that, by 1939, 95% of Germans still called themselves Protestant or Catholic, while 3.5% identified as "gottgläubig" (lit. "believers in god", a non-denominational nazified outlook on god beliefs, often described as predominately based on creationist and deistic views[3]) and 1.5% atheist. According to Evans, those members of the affiliation gottgläubig "were convinced Nazis who had left their Church at the behest of the Party, which had been trying since the mid 1930s to reduce the influence of Christianity in society".[20]Heinrich Himmler, who himself was fascinated with Germanic paganism[citation needed], was a strong promoter of the gottgläubig movement and didn't allow atheists into the SS, arguing that their "refusal to acknowledge higher powers" would be a "potential source of indiscipline".[21] The majority of the three million Nazi Party members continued to pay their church taxes and register as either Roman Catholic or Evangelical Protestant Christians.[22] According to the BBC, the Salvation Army, Christian Saints and Seventh Day Adventist Church all disappeared from Germany during the Nazi era.[5] Sicherheitsdienst des Reichsführers-SS or SD members withdrew from their Christian denominations, changing their religious affiliation to gottgläubig, while nearly 70% of the officers of the Schutzstaffel SS did the same.[23] Hitler never portrayed himself and the Nazi movement to the German people as outspoken proponents of atheism, but rather as faithful Christians.[24][25] He publicly declared: "We tolerate no one in our ranks who attacks the ideas of Christianity ... in fact our movement is Christian."[26] As a measure in the struggle for power against the influence of the churches (Kirchenkampf) the Nazis tried to establish a "third denomination" called positive Christianity, aiming to replace the established churches to reduce their influence. Historians have suspected this was an attempt to start a cult worshipping Hitler as the new Messiah. However, in a diary entry of 28 December 1939, Joseph Goebbels wrote that "the Fuhrer passionately rejects any thought of founding a religion. He has no intention of becoming a priest. His sole exclusive role is that of a politician."[27] In Hitler's political relations dealing with religion he readily adopted a strategy "that suited his immediate political purposes."[28] Christianity remained the dominant religion in Germany through the Nazi period, and its influence over Germans displeased the Nazi hierarchy. Evans wrote that Hitler believed that in the long run National Socialism and religion would not be able to co-exist, and stressed repeatedly that Nazism was a secular ideology, founded on modern science: "Science, he declared, would easily destroy the last remaining vestiges of superstition". Germany could not tolerate the intervention of foreign influences such as the Pope and "Priests, he said, were 'black bugs', 'abortions in black cassocks'".[29] During Hitler's dictatorship, more than 6,000 clergymen, on the charge of treasonable activity, were imprisoned or executed.[30] The same measures were taken in the occupied territories; in French Lorraine, the Nazis forbade religious youth movements, parish meetings, and scout meetings. Church assets were taken, Church schools were closed, and teachers in religious institutes were dismissed. The episcopal seminary was closed, and the SA and SS desecrated churches, religious statutes and pictures. 300 clergy were expelled from the Lorraine region, monks and nuns were deported or forced to renounce their vows.[31] The Nazi leadership made use of indigenous Germanic pagan imagery and ancient Roman symbolism in their propaganda. However, the use of pagan symbolism worried some Protestants.[32] Many Nazi leaders, including Adolf Hitler,[30] subscribed either to a mixture of pseudoscientific theories, particularly Social Darwinism,[33] or to mysticism and occultism, which was especially strong in the SS.[34][35] Central to both groupings was the belief in Germanic (white Nordic) racial superiority. The existence of a Ministry of Church Affairs, instituted in 1935 and headed by Hanns Kerrl, was hardly recognized by ideologists such as Alfred Rosenberg or by other political decision-makers.[36] A relative moderate, Kerrl accused dissident churchmen of failing to appreciate the Nazi doctrine of "Race, blood and soil" and gave the following explanation of the Nazi conception of "Positive Christianity", telling a group of submissive clergy in 1937:[37] Dr Zoellner and [Catholic Bishop of Munster] Count Galen have tried to make clear to me that Christianity consists in faith in Christ as the son of God. That makes me laugh... No, Christianity is not dependent upon the Apostle's Creed... True Christianity is represented by the party, and the German people are now called by the party and especially the Fuehrer to a real Christianity... the Fuehrer is the herald of a new revelation". The National Reich Church claims exclusive right and control over all Churches. The National Church is determined to exterminate foreign Christian faiths imported into Germany in the ill-omened year 800. The National Church demands immediate cessation of the publishing and dissemination of the Bible. The National Church will clear away from its altars all Crucifixes, Bibles and pictures of Saints. On the altars there must be nothing but Mein Kampf and to the left of the altar a sword.[38] When exploring the Nazi party's public speeches and writings, Steigmann-Gall notes that they can provide insight into their "untempered" ideas.[39] We are no theologians, no representatives of the teaching profession in this sense, put forth no theology. But we claim one thing for ourselves: that we place the great fundamental idea of Christianity in the center of our ideology [Ideenwelt]- the hero and sufferer Christ himself stands in the center."[40] — Hans Schemm, Nazi Gauleiter The Nazi propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels, among the most aggressive anti-Church Nazis, wrote that there was "an insoluble opposition between the Christian and a heroic-German world view".[41] Hanns Kerrl (center). A relative moderate, as Reichsminister of Church Affairs, he described Hitler as the "herald of a new revelation" and said that Nazi-backed "Positive Christianity" was not dependent on the Apostle's Creed or belief in Christ as the son of God.[42] Prior to the Reichstag vote for the Enabling Act under which Hitler gained the "temporary" dictatorial powers with which he went on to permanently dismantle the Weimar Republic, Hitler promised the Reichstag on 23 March 1933, that he would not interfere with the rights of the churches. However, with power secured in Germany, Hitler quickly broke this promise.[43][44] Various historians have written that the goal of the Nazi Kirchenkampf (Church Struggle) entailed not only ideological struggle, but ultimately the eradication of the Churches.[45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54] However, leading Nazis varied in the importance they attached to the Church Struggle. William Shirer wrote that "under the leadership of Rosenberg, Bormann and Himmler, who were backed by Hitler, the Nazi regime intended to destroy Christianity in Germany, if it could, and substitute the old paganism of the early tribal Germanic gods and the new paganism of the Nazi extremists."[55] But according to Steigman-Gall, some Nazis, like Dietrich Eckart (d.1923) and Walter Buch, saw Nazism and Christianity as part of the same movement.[56] Aggressive anti-Church radicals like Joseph Goebbels and Martin Bormann saw the conflict with the Churches as a priority concern, and anti-church and anti-clerical sentiments were strong among grassroots party activists.[41] Hitler himself possessed radical instincts in relation to the continuing conflict with the Catholic and Protestant Churches in Germany. Though he occasionally spoke of wanting to delay the Church struggle and was prepared to restrain his anti-clericalism out of political considerations, his "own inflammatory comments gave his immediate underlings all the license they needed to turn up the heat in the 'Church Struggle, confident that they were 'working towards the Fuhrer'".[41] According to the Goebbels Diaries, Hitler hated Christianity. In an 8 April 1941 entry, Goebbels wrote "He hates Christianity, because it has crippled all that is noble in humanity."[57] In Bullock's assessment, though raised a Catholic, Hitler "believed neither in God nor in conscience", retained some regard for the organisational power of Catholicism, but had contempt for its central teachings, which he said, if taken to their conclusion, "would mean the systematic cultivation of the human failure".[58][59] Bullock wrote:[58] In Hitler's eyes, Christianity was a religion fit only for slaves; he detested its ethics in particular. Its teaching, he declared, was a rebellion against the natural law of selection by struggle and the survival of the fittest. Writing for Yad Vashem, the historian Michael Phayer wrote that by the latter 1930s, church officials knew that the long-term aim of Hitler was the "total elimination of Catholicism and of the Christian religion", but that given the prominence of Christianity in Germany, this was necessarily a long-term goal.[60] According to Bullock, Hitler intended to destroy the influence of the Christian churches in Germany after the war.[61] In his memoirs, Hitler's chief architect Albert Speer recalled that when drafting his plans for the "new Berlin", he consulted Protestant and Catholic authorities, but was "curtly informed" by Hitler's private secretary Martin Bormann that churches were not to receive building sites.[62] Kershaw wrote that, in Hitler's scheme for the Germanization of Eastern Europe, he made clear that there would be "no place in this utopia for the Christian Churches'.[63] Geoffrey Blainey wrote that Hitler and his Fascist ally Mussolini were atheists, but that Hitler courted and benefited from fear among German Christians of militant Communist atheism.[64] (Other historians have characterised Hitler's mature religious position as a form of deism.) "The aggressive spread of atheism in the Soviet Union alarmed many German Christians", wrote Blainey, and with the National Socialists becoming the main opponent of Communism in Germany: "[Hitler] himself saw Christianity as a temporary ally, for in his opinion 'one is either a Christian or a German'. To be both was impossible. Nazism itself was a religion, a pagan religion, and Hitler was its high priest... Its high altar [was] Germany itself and the German people, their soil and forests and language and traditions".[64] According to Kershaw, following the Nazi Takeover, Race policy and the 'Church Struggle' were among the most important ideological spheres: "In both areas, the party had no difficulty in mobilizing its activists, whose radicalism in turn forced the government into legislative action. In fact the party leadership often found itself compelled to respond to pressures from below, stirred up by the Gauleiter playing their own game, or emanating sometimes from radical activists at a local level".[65] As time went on, anti-clericalism and anti-church sentiment among grass roots party activists "simply couldn't be eradicated", wrote Kershaw and they could "draw on the verbal violence of party leaders towards the churches for their encouragement.[66] Unlike some other Fascist movements of the era, Nazi ideology was essentially hostile to Christianity and clashed with Christian beliefs in many respects.[67] Nazism saw the Christian ideals of meekness and conscience as obstacles to the violent instincts required to defeat other races.[67] From the mid-1930s anti-Christian elements within the Nazi party became more prominent; however, they were restrained by Hitler because of the negative press their actions were receiving, and by 1934 the Nazi party pretended a neutral position in regard to the Protestant Churches.[68] Alfred Rosenberg, an "outspoken pagan", held among offices the title of "the Fuehrer's Delegate for the Entire Intellectual and Philosophical Education and Instruction for the National Socialist Party".[55] In his "Myth of the Twentieth Century" (1930), Rosenberg wrote that the main enemies of the Germans were the "Russian Tartars" and "Semites" - with "Semites" including Christians, especially the Catholic Church:[69]Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi Minister for Propaganda, was among the most aggressive anti-Church Nazi radicals. Goebbels led the Nazi persecution of the German clergy and, as the war progressed, on the "Church Question", he wrote "after the war it has to be generally solved... There is, namely, an insoluble opposition between the Christian and a heroic-German world view".[41]Martin Bormann became Hitler's private secretary and de facto "deputy" fuhrer from 1941. He was a leading advocate of the Kirchenkampf, a project which Hitler for the most part wished to keep until after the war.[70] Bormann was a rigid guardian of National Socialist orthodoxy and saw Christianity and Nazism as "incompatible".[71] He said publicly in 1941 that "National Socialism and Christianity are irreconcilable".[55] In a confidential message to the Gauleiter on June 9, 1941, Martin Bormann, had declared that "National Socialism and Christianity are irreconcilable."[72] He also declared that the Churches' influence in the leadership of the people "must absolutely and finally be broken." Bormann believed Nazism was based on a "scientific" world-view, and was completely incompatible with Christianity.[72] Bormann stated: Martin Bormann, Hitler's "deputy" from 1941, also saw Nazism and Christianity as "incompatible" and had a particular loathing for the Semitic origins of Christianity.[67] Alfred Rosenberg, the official Nazi philosopher. A proponent of "Positive Christianity", he planned the "extermination of the foreign Christian faiths imported into Germany", and for the Bible and Christian cross to be replaced with Mein Kampf and the swastika.[42] When we National Socialists speak of belief in God, we do not mean, like the naive Christians and their spiritual exploiters, a man-like being sitting around somewhere in the universe. The force governed by natural law by which all these countless planets move in the universe, we call omnipotence or God. The assertion that this universal force can trouble itself about the destiny of each individual being, every smallest earthly bacillus, can be influenced by so-called prayers or other surprising things, depends upon a requisite dose of naivety or else upon shameless professional self-interest.[73] As the Nazi Party began its takeover of power in Germany in 1933 the struggling, but still nominally functioning Weimar government, led by its President, Paul von Hindenburg, and represented by his appointed Vice-Chancellor, Franz von Papen, initiated talks with the Holy See concerning the establishment of a concordat. The talks lasted three and half months while Hitler consolidated his hold on power.[68] This attempt achieved the signing of the Reichskonkordat on July 20, 1933, which protected the freedom of the Catholic Church and restricted priests and bishops from political activity.[68] Like the idea of the Reichskonkordat, the notion of a Protestant Reich Church, which would unify the Protestant Churches, also had been considered previously.[74] Hitler had discussed the matter as early as 1927 with Ludwig Müller, who was at that time the military chaplain of Königsberg.[74] The Catholic Church was particularly suppressed in Poland: between 1939 and 1945, an estimated 3,000 members (18%) of the Polish clergy, were murdered; of these, 1,992 died in concentration camps.[75] In the annexed territory of Reichsgau Wartheland it was even more harsh: churches were systematically closed and most priests were either killed, imprisoned, or deported to the General Government. Eighty per cent of the Catholic clergy and five bishops of Warthegau were sent to concentration camps in 1939; 108 of them are regarded as blessed martyrs.[75] Religious persecution was not confined to Poland: in Dachau concentration camp alone, 2,600 Catholic priests from 24 different countries were killed.[75] A number of historians maintain that the Nazis had a general covert plan, which some argue existed before the Nazis' rose to power,[76] to destroy Christianity within the Reich.[47][77][78][79][80][81][82] To what extent a plan to subordinate the churches and limit their role in the country's life existed before the Nazi rise to power, and exactly who among the Nazi leadership supported such a move remains contested."[76] However, a minority of historians maintain, against consensus,[original research?] no such plan existed.[83][84][85][86][87][88] Summarizing a 1945 Office of Strategic Services report, New York Times columnist Joe Sharkey, stated that the Nazis had a plan to "subvert and destroy German Christianity," which was to be accomplished through control and subversion of the churches and to be completed after the war.[46][51] However, the report stated this goal was limited to a "sector of the National Socialist party," namely Alfred Rosenberg and Baldur von Schirach.[89] Historian Roger Griffin maintains: "There is no doubt that in the long run Nazi leaders such as Hitler and Himmler intended to eradicate Christianity just as ruthlessly as any other rival ideology, even if in the short term they had to be content to make compromises with it."[47] In his study The Holy Reich, the historian Richard Steigmann-Gall comes to the opposite conclusion, "Totally absent, besides Hitler's vague ranting, is any firm evidence that Hitler or the Nazis were going to 'destroy' or 'eliminate' the churches once the war was over."[83] Regarding his wider thesis that, "leading Nazis in fact considered themselves Christian" or at least understood their movement "within a Christian frame of reference",[90] Steigmann-Gall admits he "argues against the consensus that Nazism as a whole was either unrelated to Christianity or actively opposed to it."[91] Although there are high-profile cases of individual Lutherans and Catholics who died in prison or in concentration camps, the largest number of Christians who died would have been Jewish Christians or mischlinge who were sent to death camps for their race rather than their religion.[citation needed] Kahane (1999) state that the total number of Christians of Jewish descent in the Third Reich is estimated at around 200,000.[92] Among the Gentile Christians 11,300 Jehovah's Witnesses were placed in camps, and about 1,490 died, of whom 270 were executed as conscientious objectors.[93] Dachau had a special "priest block." Of the 2,720 priests (among them 2,579 Catholic) held in Dachau, 1,034 did not survive the camp. The majority of these priests were Polish (1,780), of whom 868 died in Dachau. During the First and Second World War, German Protestant leaders used the writings of Luther to support the cause of German nationalism.[94] At the 450th anniversary of Luther's birth, which took place only a few months after the Nazi Party began its seizure of power in 1933, there were celebrations conducted on a large scale both by the Protestant Churches and the Nazi Party.[95] At a celebration at Königsberg, Erich Koch, at that time Gauleiter of East Prussia, made a speech which, among other things, compared Adolf Hitler and Martin Luther and claimed that the Nazis fought with Luther's spirit.[95] Such a speech might be dismissed as mere propaganda,[95] but, as Steigmann-Gall points out: "Contemporaries regarded Koch as a bona fide Christian who had attained his position [of the elected president of a provincial Church synod] through a genuine commitment to Protestantism and its institutions."[96] Even so, Steigmann-Gail states that the Nazis were not a Christian movement.[97] The prominent Protestant theologian Karl Barth, of the Swiss Reformed, opposed this appropriation of Luther in the German Empire and Nazi Germany, when he stated in 1939 that the writings of Martin Luther were used by the Nazis to glorify the State and state absolutism:"The German people suffer under his error of the relation between law and bible, between secular and spiritual power",[98] in which Luther divided the temporal State from the inward focusing spiritual, thus limiting the ability of the individual or the church to question the actions of the State,[99] which was seen as a God ordained instrument.[100] On February 1940, Barth accused German Lutherans specifically of separating Biblical teachings from its teachings of the State and thus legitimizing the Nazi state ideology.[101] He was not alone with his view. A few years earlier on October 5, 1933, Pastor Wilhelm Rehm from Reutlingen declared publicly that "Hitler would not have been possible without Martin Luther",[102] though many have also made this same statement about other influences in Hitler's rise to power. Anti-Communist historian Paul Johnson has said that "without Lenin, Hitler would not have been possible".[103] Different German states possessed regional social variations as to class densities and religious denomination.[104] Richard Steigmann-Gall alleges a linkage between several Protestant churches and Nazism.[105] The "German Christians" (Deutsche Christen) were a movement within the Protestant Church of Germany with the aim of changing traditional Christian teachings to align with the ideology of National Socialism and its anti-Jewish policies.[106] The Deutsche Christen factions were united in the goal of establishing a national socialist Protestantism[107] and abolishing what they considered to be Jewish traditions in Christianity, and some but not all rejected the Old Testament and the teaching of the Apostle Paul. In November 1933, A Protestant mass rally of the Deutsche Christen, which brought together a record 20,000 people, passed three resolutions: The "German Christians" selected Ludwig Müller (1883–1945) as their candidate for Reich bishop in 1933.[109] In response to Hitler's campaigning,[110] two-thirds of those Protestants who voted elected Ludwig Müller, a neo-pagan candidate, to govern the Protestant Churches.[68] Müller was convinced that he had a divine responsibility to promote Hitler and his ideals,[111] and together with Hitler, he favoured a unified Reichskirche of Protestants and Catholics. This Reichskirche was to be a loose federation in the form of a council, but subordinated to the National Socialist State.[112] The level of ties between Nazism and the Protestant churches has been a contentious issue for decades. One difficulty is that Protestantism includes a number of religious bodies many of whom had little relation to each other. Added to that, Protestantism tends to allow more variation among individual congregations than Catholicism or Eastern Orthodox Christianity, which makes statements about "official positions" of denominations problematic. The "German Christians" were a minority within the Protestant population,[113] numbering one third to one forth of the 40 million Protestants in Germany.[106] With Bishop Müller's efforts and Hitlers support "The German Evangelical Church" was formed and recognized by the state as a legal entity on July 14, 1933, with the aim of melting State, people and Church into one body.[114] Dissenters were silenced by expulsion or violence.[115] The support of the "German Christian" movement within the churches was opposed by many adherents of traditional Christian teachings.[116] Other groups within the Protestant church included members of the Confessing Church, prominent members of the Bekennende Kirche (Confessing Church), included Martin Niemöller and Dietrich Bonhoeffer;[117] both rejected the Nazi efforts to meld volkisch principles with traditional Lutheran doctrine.[118] Martin Niemöller organized the Pastors' Emergency League which was supported by nearly 40 percent of the Evangelical pastors.[119][120] They were, however, (as of 1932) in the minority within the Protestant church bodies in Germany. But in 1933, a number of Deutsche Christen left the movement after a November speech by Reinhold Krause that urged, among other things, the rejection of the Old Testament as Jewish superstition.[121] So when Ludwig Müller could not deliver on conforming all Christians to National Socialism, and after some of the "German Christan" rallies and more radical ideas generated a backlash, Hitler's condescending attitudes toward Protestants increased and he lost all interest in Protestant church affairs.[110] The resistance within the churches to Nazi ideology was the longest lasting and most bitter of any German institution.[122] The Nazis weakened the churches' resistance from within but the Nazis had not yet succeeded in taking full control of the churches, evidenced by the thousands of clergy sent to concentration camps.[123] Rev. Martin Niemöller was imprisoned in 1937, charged with "misuse of the pulpit to vilify the State and the Party and attack the authority of the Government."[124] After a failed assassination on Hitler's life in 1943 by members of the military and members of the German Resistance movement,[125] of which Dietrich Bonhoeffer and others in the Confessing Church movement belonged to, Hitler ordered the arrest of Protestant, mainly Lutheran clergy. However, even the "Confessing Church made frequent declarations of loyalty to Hitler".[126] But later many Protestants were solidly opposed to Nazism after the nature of the movement was better understood but a number also maintained until the end of the war that Nazism was compatible with the church. The small Methodist population at times was deemed foreign; this stemmed from the fact that Methodism began in England, while it did not develop in Germany until the nineteenth century with Christoph Gottlob Müller and Louis Jacoby. Because of this history they felt the urge to be "more German than the Germans" to avoid suspicion. Methodist Bishop John L. Nelsen toured the U.S. on Hitler's behalf to protect his church, but in private letters indicated that he feared and hated Nazism, and so retired/fled to Switzerland. Methodist Bishop F. H. Otto Melle took a far more collaborationist position that included apparently sincere support for Nazism. He was also committed to an asylum near the war's end. To show his gratitude to the latter bishop, Hitler made a gift of 10,000 marks in 1939 to a Methodist congregation to purchase an organ. The money was never used.[127] Outside of Germany, Melle's views were overwhelmingly rejected by most Methodists. The leader of pro-Nazi segment of Baptists was Paul Schmidt. The idea of a "national church" was possible in the history of mainstream German Protestantism, but National Churches devoted primarily to the state were generally forbidden among the Anabaptists, Jehovah's Witnesses, and the Catholic Church. The forms or offshoots of Protestantism that advocated pacificism, anti-nationalism, or racial equality tended to oppose the Nazi state in the strongest terms. Prominent Protestant, or Protestant offshoot, groups known for their efforts against Nazism include the Jehovah's Witnesses. In 1934, the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society published a letter entitled "Declaration of Facts".[128] In this personal letter to then Reich Chancellor Hitler, J. F. Rutherford stated that "the Bible Researchers of Germany are fighting for the very same high ethical goals and ideals which also the national government of the German Reich proclaimed respecting the relationship of humans to God, namely: honesty of the created being towards its creator".[129][130] However, while the Jehovah's Witnesses sought to reassure the Nazi government that their goals were purely religious and non-political and expressed hope that the government would allow them to continue their preaching, Hitler still restricted their work in Nazi Germany. After this J. F. Rutherford began denouncing Hitler in articles through his publications potentially making the plight of Jehovah's Witnesses in Nazi Germany worse.[131] Jehovah's Witnesses or "Bible Researchers" (Bibelforschers) as they were known in Germany, comprised 25,000 members and were among those persecuted by the Nazi government. All incarcerated members were identified by a unique purple triangle. Some members of the religious group refused to serve in the German military or give allegiance to the Nazi government, for which 250 were executed.[132] An estimated 10,000 were arrested for various crimes, and 2,000 were sent to Nazi concentration camps, where approximately 1,200 were killed.[132] Jehovah's Witnesses were among the few who could leave the concentration camps simply by signing a document renouncing their religious beliefs.[133] The attitude of the Nazi party to the Catholic Church ranged from tolerance, to near total renunciation and outright aggression.[134] Bullock wrote that Hitler had some regard for the organisational power of Catholicism, but utter contempt for its central teachings, which he said, if taken to their conclusion, "would mean the systematic cultivation of the human failure".[58] Many Nazis were anti-clerical in both private and public life.[135] The Nazi party had decidedly pagan elements.[136] One position is that the Church and fascism could never have a lasting connection because both are a "holistic Weltanschauung" claiming the whole of the person.[134]Adolf Hitler himself has been described as a "spiritualist" by Laqueur; but by Bullock as a "rationalist" and "materialist" with no appreciation of the spiritual side of humanity;[137] and a simple "atheist" by Blainey.[138] His Fascist comrade Benito Mussolini was an atheist. Both were anticlerical, but understood that it would be rash to begin their Kulturkampfs against Catholicism prematurely. Such a clash, possibly inevitable in the future, was put off while they dealt with other enemies.[139] The nature of the Nazi Party's relations with the Catholic Church was also complicated. As Hitler rose to power, many Catholic bishops, priests, religious and lay leaders vociferously opposed Nazism on the grounds of its incompatibility with Christian morals. In early 1931, the German bishops issued an edict excommunicating all leaders of the Nazi Party and banned Catholics from membership.[140] The ban was conditionally modified in 1933 when State law mandated all Trade Union workers and Civil Servants must be members of the Nazi Party. In July 1933 a Concord Reichskonkordat was signed with the Vatican which prevented political activity by the Church in Germany; however, the Vatican continued to speak out on issues of faith and morals opposing Nazi philosophy. In 1937 Pope Pius XI issued the encyclicalMit brennender Sorge condemning Nazi ideology, notably the Gleichschaltung policy directed against religious influence upon education, as well as Nazi racism and antisemitism. His death prevented the issuing of a planned encyclical Humani generis unitas, but the similar Summi Pontificatus was the first encyclical released by his successor (Pius XII), in October 1939. This encyclical strongly condemned both racism and totalitarianism, without the anti-Judaism present in the draft presented to Pope Pius XI for Humani generis unitas. The massive Catholic opposition to the euthanasia programs led them to be quieted on 28 August 1941, (according to Spielvogel pp. 257–258). Catholics, on occasion, actively and openly protested Nazi antisemitism through several bishops and priests such as Bishop Clemens von Galen of Münster. In Nazi Germany, political dissenters were imprisoned, and some German priests were sent to the concentration camps for their opposition, including the pastor of Berlin's Catholic Cathedral Bernhard Lichtenberg and the seminarian Karl Leisner.[141] In 1941 the Nazi authorities decreed the dissolution of all monasteries and abbeys in the German Reich, many of them effectively being occupied and secularized by the Allgemeine SS under Himmler. However, on July 30, 1941 the Aktion Klostersturm (Operation Monastery) was put to an end by a decree of Hitler, who feared the increasing protests by the Catholic part of German population might result in passive rebellions and thereby harm the Nazi war effort at the eastern front.[142] Historian Heinz Hürten (professor emeritus at the Catholic University of Eichstaett) noted that the Nazi party had plans for the Roman Catholic Church, according to which the Church was supposed to "eat from the hands of the government." The sequence of these plans, he states, follow this sequence: an abolition of the priestly celibacy and a nationalisation of all church property, the dissolution of monasticreligious institutes, and an end to the influence of the Catholic Church upon education. Hutzen states that Hitler proposed to reduce vocations to the priesthood by forbidding seminaries from receiving applicants before their 25th birthdays, and thus had hoped that these men would marry beforehand, during the time (18 – 25 years) in which they were obliged to work in military or labour service. Also, along with this process, the Church's sacraments would be revised and changed to so-called "Lebensfeiern", the non-Christian celebrations of different periods of life.[143] There existed some considerable differences among officials within the Nazi Party on the question of Christianity. Goebbels is purported to have feared the creation of a third front of Catholics against their regime in Germany itself. In his diary, Goebbels wrote about the "traitors of the Black International who again stabbed our glorious government in the back by their criticism", by which Hutzen states meant the indirectly or actively resisting Catholic clergymen (who wore black cassocks).[144] Hitler called a truce in the Church conflict with the outbreak of war, wanting to back away from policies likely to cause internal friction in Germany. He decreed at the outset of war that "no further action should be taken against the Evangelical and Catholic Churches for the duration of the war". According to John Conway, "The Nazis had to reckon with the fact that, despite all Rosenberg's efforts, only 5 percent of the population registered themselves at the 1930 census as no longer connected with Christian Churches."[145] The support of millions of German Christians was needed in order for Hitler's plans to come to fruition. It was Hitler's belief that if religion is a help, "it can only be an advantage". Most of the 3 million Nazi Party members "still paid the Church taxes" and considered themselves Christians.[146] Regardless, a number of Nazi radicals in the hierarchy determined that the Church Struggle should be continued.[147] Following victory in Poland, the repression of the Churches was extended, despite their early protestations of loyalty to the cause.[148] Goebbels' Ministry of Propaganda issued threats and applied intense pressure on the Churches to voice support for the war, and the Gestapo banned Church meetings for a few weeks. In the first few months of the war, the German Churches complied.[149] No denunciations of the invasion of Poland, nor the Blitzkrieg were issued. On the contrary, Bishop Marahrens gave thanks to God that the Polish conflict was over, and "that He has granted our armies a quick victory." The Ministry for Church Affairs suggested Church bells across Germany ring for a week in celebration, and pastors and priests "flocked to volunteer as chaplains" for the German forces.[150] The Catholic bishops asked their followers to support the war effort: "We appeal to the faithful to join in ardent prayer that God's providence may lead this war to blessed success for Fatherland and people."[151] Likewise, the Evangelicals proclaimed: "We unite in this hour with our people in intercession for our Fuhrer and Reich, for all the armed forces, and for all who do their duty for the fatherland."[151] Even in the face of evidence of Nazi atrocities against Catholic priests and lay people in Poland, which were broadcast on Vatican Radio, German Catholic religious leaders continued their support of the Nazi war effort. They urged their Catholic followers to "fulfill their duty to the Fuhrer".[151] Nazi war actions in 1940 and 1941 similarly prompted the Church to voice its support. The bishops declared that the Church "assents to the just war, especially one designed for the safeguarding to the state and the people" and wanted a "peace beneficial to Germany and Europe" and called the faithful to "fulfill their civil and military virtues." [150] But the Nazis strongly disapproved of the sentiments against war expressed by the Pope through his first encyclical, Summi Pontificatus and his 1939 Christmas message, and were angry at his support for Poland and the "provocative" use of Vatican Radio by Cardinal Hlond of Poland. Distribution of the encyclical was banned.[152] Conway wrote that anti-church radical Reinhard Heydrich estimated in a report to Hitler of October 1939, that the majority of Church people were supporting the war effort - though a few "well known agitators among the pastors needed to be dealt with".[147] Heydrich determined that support from church leaders could not be expected because of the nature of their doctrines and internationalism, so he devised measures to restrict the operation of the Churches under cover of war time exigencies, such as reducing resources available to Church presses on the basis of rationing, and prohibiting pilgrimages and large church gatherings on the basis of transportation difficulties. Churches were closed for being "too far from bomb shelters". Bells were melted down. Presses were closed.[148] With the expansion of the war in the East from 1941, there came also an expansion of the regime's attack on the churches. Monasteries and convents were targeted and expropriation of Church properties surged. The Nazi authorities claimed that the properties were needed for wartime necessities such as hospitals, or accommodation for refugees or children, but in fact used them for their own purposes. "Hostility to the state" was another common cause give for the confiscations, and the action of a single member of a monastery could result in seizure of the whole. The Jesuits were especially targeted.[153] The Papal Nuncio Cesare Orsenigo and Cardinal Bertram complained constantly to the authorities but were told to expect more requisitions owing to war-time needs.[154] Rather than focusing on religious differentiation, Hitler maintained it was important to promote "an antisemitism of reason", one that acknowledged the racial basis of Jewry.[155] Interviews with Nazis by other historians show that the Nazis thought that their views were rooted in biology, not historical prejudices. For example, "S. became a missionary for this biomedical vision... As for anti-Semitic attitudes and actions, he insisted that "the racial question... [and] resentment of the Jewish race... had nothing to do with medieval anti-Semitism..." That is, it was all a matter of scientific biology and of community."[156] In his history of Christianity, Geoffrey Blainey wrote that "Christianity could not escape some indirect blame for the terrible Holocaust. The Jews and Christians had been rivals and sometimes enemies for a long period of history. Furthermore it was traditional for Christians to blame Jewish leaders for the crucifixion of Christ...", but, noted Blainey, "At the same time, Christians showed devotion and respect. They were conscious of their debt to the Jews. Jesus and all the disciples an all the authors of his Gospels were of the Jewish race. Christians viewed the Old Testament, the holy book of the synagogues as equally a holy book for them...".[157] Laurence Rees noted that "emphasis on Christianity" was absent from the vision expressed by Hitler in Mein Kampf and his "bleak and violent vision" and visceral hatred of the Jews had been influenced by quite different sources: the notion of life as struggle he drew from Social Darwinism, the notion of the superiority of the "Aryan race" he drew from Arthur de Gobineau's The Inequality of the Human Races; and from Alfred Rosenberg he took the idea of a link between Judaism and Bolshevism.[158] Hitler espoused a ruthless policy of "negative eugenic selection", believing that world history consisted of a struggle for survival between races, in which the Jews plotted to undermine the Germans, and inferior groups like Slavs and defective individuals in the German gene pool, threatened the Aryan "master race". Richard J. Evans wrote that his views on these subjects have often been called "social Darwinist", but that there is little agreement among historians as to what the term may mean.[159] According to Evans, Hitler "used his own version of the language of social Darwinism as a central element in the discursive practice of extermination...", and the language of Social Darwinism, in its Nazi variant, helped to remove all restraint from the directors of the "terroristic and exterminatory" policies of the regime, by "persuading them that what they were doing was justified by history, science and nature".[160] In the Appendix of The Nazi Persecution of the Churches, Conway has included a document: "List of sects prohibited by the Gestapo up to December 1938." It mentions the "International Jehovah's Witness" under No.1, but also includes a so-called "Study group for Psychic Research" and even the "Bahai Sect."[161] Astrologers, Healers and Fortune tellers were banned under the Nazis, while the small pagan "German Faith Movement", which worshipped the sun and seasons, supported the Nazis.[5] On October 13, 1933, Deputy FührerRudolf Hess issued a decree stating: "No National Socialist may suffer any detriment on the ground that he does not profess any particular faith or confession or on the ground that he does not make any religious profession at all."[162] However, the regime strongly opposed "godless communism"[163][164] and most of Germany's freethinking (freigeist), atheist, and largely left-wing organizations were banned the same year.[165][166] In a speech made during the negotiations for the Nazi-Vatican Concordant of 1933, Hitler argued against secular schools, stating: "Secular schools can never be tolerated because such schools have no religious instruction, and a general moral instruction without a religious foundation is built on air; consequently, all character training and religion must be derived from faith."[167] One of the groups closed down by the Nazi regime was the German Freethinkers League. Christians appealed to Hitler to end anti-religious and anti-Church propaganda promulgated by Free Thinkers,[168] and within Hitler's Nazi Party some atheists were quite vocal in their anti-Christian views, especially Martin Bormann.[169]Heinrich Himmler, who himself was fascinated with Germanic paganism,[170] was a strong promoter of the gottgläubig movement and didn't allow atheists into the SS, arguing that their "refusal to acknowledge higher powers" would be a "potential source of indiscipline".[21] Several elements of Nazism were quasi-religious in nature. The cult around Hitler as the Führer, the "huge congregations, banners, sacred flames, processions, a style of popular and radical preachings, prayers-and-responses, memorials and funeral marches" have been described by historian of Esotericism Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke as "essential props for the cult of race and nation, the mission of Aryan Germany and victory over her enemies."[171] These kinds of religious aspects of Nazism have led some scholars to consider Nazism, like communism, a kind of political religion.[172] Hitler's plans, for example, to erect a magnificent new capital at Berlin (Welthauptstadt Germania), has been described as attempting to build a version of the New Jerusalem.[173] Since Fritz Stern's classical study The Politics of Cultural Despair, most historians have viewed the relation of Nazism and religion in this way. Some historians see the Nazi movement and Adolf Hitler as fundamentally hostile to Christianity, though not irreligious.[who?] In the first chapter of The Nazi Persecution of the Churches, historian John S. Conway elaborates that Christian Churches in Germany had lost their appeal in the time of the Weimar Republic, and that Hitler offered "what appeared to be a vital secular faith in place of the discredited creeds of Christianity."[174] Hitler's chief architect, Albert Speer, wrote in his memoirs that Hitler himself had a negative view toward the mystical notions pushed by Himmler and Alfred Rosenberg. Speer quotes Hitler as having said of Himmler's attempt to mythologize the SS:[175] What nonsense! Here we have at last reached an age that has left all mysticism behind it, and now [Himmler] wants to start that all over again. We might just as well have stayed with the church. At least it had tradition. To think that I may some day be turned into an SS saint! Can you imagine it? I would turn over in my grave... Scholar of fascism, Stanley Payne notes that fundamental to fascism was the foundation of a purely materialistic "civic religion" that would "displace preceding structures of belief and relegate supernatural religion to a secondary role, or to none at all", and that "though there were specific examples of religious or would-be 'Christian fascists,' fascism presupposed a post-Christian, post-religious, secular, and immanent frame of reference."[176] One theory is that religion and fascism could never have a lasting connection because both are a "holistic weltanschauung" claiming the whole of the person.[177] Along these lines, Yale political scientist, Juan Linz and others have noted that secularization had created a void which could be filled by another total ideology, making secular totalitarianism possible,[178][179] and Roger Griffin has characterized fascism as a type of anti-religious political religion.[180] However, Robert Paxton finds that "Fascists often cursed ... materialist secularism" and adds that the circumstances of past fascism does not mean that future fascisms can not "build upon a religion in place of a nation, or as the expression of national identity. Even in Europe, religion-based fascisms were not unknown: the Falange Española, Belgian Rexism, the Finnish Lapua Movement, and the Romanian Legion of the Archangel Michael are all good examples".[181] Separately, Richard L. Rubenstein maintains that the religious dimensions of the Holocaust and Nazi fascism were decidedly unique.[182] There has been significant literature on the potential religious aspects of Nazism. Wilfried Daim suggests Hitler and the Nazi leadership planned to replace Christianity in Germany with a new religion in which Hitler would be considered a messiah. In his book on the connection between Lanz von Liebenfels and Hitler, Daim published a reprint of an alleged document of a session[clarification needed] on "the unconditional abolishment of all religious commitments (Religionsbekenntnisse) after the final victory (Endsieg) ... with a simultaneous proclamation of Adolf Hitler as the new messiah."[183] This session report came from a private collection. Griffin, RogerFascism's relation to religion in Blamires, Cyprian, World fascism: a historical encyclopedia, Volume 1, p. 10, ABC-CLIO, 2006: “There is no doubt that in the long run Nazi leaders such as Hiltz and Himmler intended to eradicate Christianity just as ruthlessly as any other rival ideology, even if in the short term they had to be content to make compromises with it.” Shirer, William L., Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany, p. p 240, Simon and Schuster, 1990: “And even fewer paused to reflect that under the leadership of Rosenberg, Bormann and Himmler, who were backed by Hiltz, the Nazi regime intended eventually to destroy Christianity in Germany, if it could, and substitute the old paganism of the early tribal Germanic gods and the new paganism of the Nazi extremists.” Dill, Marshall, Germany: a modern history , p. 365, University of Michigan Press, 1970: “It seems no exaggeration to insist that the greatest challenge the Nazis had to face was their effort to eradicate Christianity in Germany or at least to subjugate it to their general world outlook.” ^Bendersky, Joseph W., A concise history of Nazi Germany, p. 147, Rowman & Littlefield, 2007: “Consequently, it was Hitler’s long range goal to eliminate the churches once he had consolidated control over his European empire.” ^Dill, Marshall, Germany: a modern history , p. 365, University of Michigan Press, 1970: “It seems no exaggeration to insist that the greatest challenge the Nazis had to face was their effort to eradicate Christianity in Germany or at least to subjugate it to their general world outlook.” ^Bendersky, Joseph W., A concise history of Nazi Germany, p. 147, Rowman & Littlefield, 2007: “Consequently, it was Hitler’s long rang goal to eliminate the churches once he had consolidated control over his European empire.” ^Shirer, William L., Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany, p. p 240, Simon and Schuster, 1990: “And even fewer paused to reflect that under the leadership of Rosenberg, Bormann and Himmler, who were backed by Hitler, the Nazi regime intended eventually to destroy Christianity in Germany, if it could, and substitute the old paganism of the early tribal Germanic gods and the new paganism of the Nazi extremists.” ^Bendersky, Joseph W. (2007). A concise history of Nazi Germany. Rowman & Littlefield, p. 147: "Consequently, it was Hitler’s long rang goal to eliminate the churches once he had consolidated control over his European empire." ^Shirer, William L. (1990). Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany. New York: Simon and Schuster, p. 240: "And even fewer paused to reflect that under the leadership of Rosenberg, Bormann and Himmler, who were backed by Hitler, the Nazi regime intended eventually to destroy Christianity in Germany, if it could, and substitute the old paganism of the early tribal Germanic gods and the new paganism of the Nazi extremists." ^Dill, Marshall (1970). Germany: a modern history. University of Michigan Press, p. 365: "It seems no exaggeration to insist that the greatest challenge the Nazis had to face was their effort to eradicate Christianity in Germany or at least to subjugate it to their general world outlook." ^Charlotte Kahane - Rescue and Abandonment: The Complex Fate of Jews in Nazi Germany 1999 ".3 "The total number of Christians of Jewish descent in the Third Reich is estimated at around 200000 — although the true figure remains unknown, as many Mischlinge tried to hide their real status. The Jews remained unprotected " ^Richard J. Evans; In Search of German Social Darwinism: The History and Historiography of a Concept; a chapter from Medicine & Modernity: Public Health & Medical Care in 19th and 20th Century Germany; Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge; 1997; pp.55-57 ^"The Nazi crusade was indeed essentially religious in its adoption of apocalyptic beliefs and fantasies including a New Jerusalem (cf. Hitler's plans for a magnificent new capital at Berlin)..." Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, The Occult Roots of Nazism, p. 203.

## Part 6: working with lists This is the last section before we're done implementing the language, and compared to the last part it should be relatively easy. Any proper language needs good data structures, and *lists* are one of them. To be able to work properly with lists, we’ll introduce four new forms to our language: - `cons` is used to construct lists from a "head" element, and the rest of the list (the "tail"). - `head` extracts the first element of a list - `tail` returns the rest of the elements, once the first is dropped. - `empty` takes a list as input, and returns `#t` if it is empty and `#f` otherwise. Go on then, finish your language. ```bash nosetests tests/test_6_working_with_lists.py --stop ``` ### What's next? With the language implementation done, it's time to use our language in [part 7](7.md).

Prevalence and trends in overweight and obesity among children and adolescents in Thessaloniki, Greece. Obesity is the most prevalent nutrition-related problem in Western societies. Childhood obesity is rapidly emerging as a global epidemic that will have profound public health consequences, as overweight children become overweight adults. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of overweight and obesity among children and adolescents in the city of Thessaloniki, and evaluate the trends in Greece by comparing our results to those of other cross-sectional studies. Data concerning the height and weight of 2,458 schoolchildren aged 6 to 17 years (1,226 6-10 years, 1,232 11-17 years) of 27 primary and secondary public schools were collected. BMI was calculated from the two measurements. In the analyses, the estimations of the prevalence of overweight and obesity are based on recently established international BMI percentile curves and cut-off points from 2-18 years. To investigate the secular trends in obesity in Greece, data of schoolchildren from four successive surveys were used. In the younger group (6-10 yr), the prevalence of overweight and obesity were 25.3% and 5.6%, while for adolescents (11-17 yr) they were 19.0% and 2.6%, respectively. The prevalence was 25.9% and 5.1% for all males, and 19.1% and 3.2% for all females, respectively. As far as trends are concerned, an increase of BMI was found among males when the results of our survey were compared with those of the previous three. However, the trends for girls are different. An increase was found when the results of our study were compared with 1942. A decrease of BMI at most ages was found when the results of our study were compared with those of the 1982 survey, while an increase was recorded only for younger girls below 13 years compared to the 1984-5 study. This study demonstrates that the prevalence of overweight and obesity among schoolchildren is 22.2% and 4.1%, respectively, and has been increasing in the last decades, especially among boys.

Most present disk drives are based on magnetic recording technology. Magnetic recording technology may be described by two distinct processes: writing onto the magnetic storage media and reading from the magnetic storage media. The whole phenomena of writing on the surface of a magnetic storage media consists of changing the magnetic polarity from north to south or from south to north. FIG. 1a illustrates a change in the orientation of the magnetic field 110. While writing on the magnetic surface, the magnetic storage media which is typically a disk, continues to rotate under the recording head. The change in magnetic polarity (also referred to as change in magnetization) creates a transition in the write data signal which is used to record data onto the magnetic storage media. Because it is impossible to instantaneously build up a current, the transition in the write data signal has a finite rise time. FIG. 1 illustrates the transition of the write data signal 120 as the magnetic field 110 changes magnetization. In order to read back data from the magnetic storage media, the transitions are detected by the read head. The read head may be the same head as the recording head and is therefore referred to as the R/W head. The readback signal is typically a voltage signal representing the non-linear response of the write data signal. The readback 130 illustrates the readback signal for the transition in the write data signal 120 shown in FIG. 1a. FIG. 1b illustrates a write data signal 140 having multiple transitions. The readback signal 160 illustrates the non-linear transform of the write data signal 140. According to FIG. 1b, the magnetic recording media and the R/W head creates the non-linear system 150. All magnetic recorders produce unwanted signals in the form of noise, which impose limitations on the achievable performance of the magnetic recorder. Two of the major sources of noise is the medium noise and the head noise. The medium noise arises from the fact that no medium is magnetically homogeneous. In other words, the recording medium noise is due to the uncertainty or randomness of some property of the medium and any variation from point to point will produce medium noise. The major head noise arises from the fact that any head possess an impedance, and the real part of this impedance gives rise to noise of thermal origin. Other forms of head noise are associated with magnetic domain changes or magnetostriction effects such as the Barkhausen noise. Noise renders the output signal an imperfect replica of the non-linear transform of the input signal. In other words, the noise causes the readback signals to deviate from an ideal readback signal. Therefore, one of the tasks of the recording system designer is reduce the noise to a tolerable level so that some predetermined criteria of performance are met. A common criteria for performance is the signal-to-noise ratio ("SNR"). Currently, several techniques are available for measuring the distortion of the readback signal caused by noise. The distortion in the readback signal is typically caused by multiple factors. Among these factors are: amplitude loss due to linear superposition of crowded transitions, pattern induced bit-shift, isolated pulse distortion, over-write of a previously written signal, partial erasure of data, and other forms of noise. Dipulse Extraction using Pseudo-random Sequences proposed by IBM in 1987 is a well know method of measuring different nonlinear distortions in the readback signal. Alexander Taratorin, PRML: A Practical Approach, Guzik Technical Enterprises. The Dipulse Extraction is based on the "shift" and "add" properties of a pseudo-random sequence. A Pseudo-Random Sequence is generated by a polynomial (e.g., x.sup.7 +X.sup.3 +1) which possess "shift" and "add" properties. The shift and add properties means that the exclusive OR (a product of two NRZ bits) of the initial sequence is the same sequence shifted by some number of bits. If the pseudo-random sequence is written on the disk, different non-linear distortions create specific terms in the readback signal. More specifically, the readback signal is described by the main or "zero" term and one or several "copies" or "echoes" caused by non-linearities. The shift and add properties allow one to predict where the echoes will be found. The method of dipulse extraction provides a method for selecting these echoes. The advantage of the dipulse extraction method is that it provides a separation of different non-linear effects into different echoes of pseudo-random sequence and some approximate estimates of these non-linearities. The amount of distortion can be determined by the size of the echo. The dipulse extraction method of testing requires the measurement of the dipulse shape or an idealized dipulse shape. However, this method is complicated and requires sophisticated hardware and software. FIG. 1c illustrates an extracted dipulse with echoes which characterize non-linearities. The waveform 170 is the result of complex computations based on the pseudo-random sequence. According to FIG. 1c, there is a main pulse referred to as the main term 180 and four smaller pulses referred to as echoes 190a, 190b, 190c, and 190d. The echoes may correspond to various non-linearities such as an over-write of a previously written signal, a hard/easy transition shift or a nonlinear transistion shift. Under certain circumstances, it may be useful to measure the distortion on an isolated pulse without measuring the other distortion variables. Therefore, it is desirable to provide a simple and accurate method of measuring the distortion of an isolated pulse without using the complex method of dipulse extraction. Furthermore, it is desirable to measure distortion of an isolated pulse without the interference between two adjacent pulses forming a dipulse.

Recently, the appearance of Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) have perplexed the astronomers. This astrophysical discovery represents the origination of short radio waves entering our galaxy form neighboring galaxy that are as far as billions of light-years. Astronomers can’t figure out their origination and are definitely in search of any clue in order to investigate the properly. The FRSs has occurred almost 60 times, and only one of the observed FRBs were repetitive from single source. Astronoers from Okanagan Valley, British Columbia detected the second repetitive FRB using Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) radio telescope and reported this incidence on January 9, 2019 in collaboration with McGill University. The findings were discussed in Seattle on American Astronomical Society panel and were published two peer-reviewed papers– Nature. Pinterest reddit Tumblr Over a timespan of three weeks, 13 FRB were counted during summer 2018 and more were recorded in later weeks. The repetitive FRB from single source are thought to be more exciting than FRB recorded from general source only once. In 2015, the FRB was recorded using the Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico. in 2015. Ingrid Stairs, CHIME team member and also an astrophysicist at the University of British Columbia (UBC) stated that: Until now, there was only one known repeating FRB. Knowing that there is another suggests that there could be more out there. And with more repeaters and more sources available for study, we may be able to understand these cosmic puzzles – where they’re from and what causes them. Pinterest reddit Tumblr CHIME results obtained from 13 outburts of 2015 were found to be in frequency lower than 400 MHz. However, before them the most FRBs found were close to before 1400 megahertz (MHz), while the telescopeic range at that times were from 400-800 MHz. Thereby, the newly observed FRB are lowest frequencies recorded by CHIME and astronomers believe even lesser frequency FRBs could be found. Does the new observed FRBs really matter? The cause and source of these FRBs are unknown and needed to be figured out. But somehow astronomers believe the appearance of the Fast Radio Bursts certainly involve neutron stars or black holes or could be aliens sending signals from other galaxies. According to Arun Naidu from McGill University: Whatever the source of these radio waves is, it’s interesting to see how wide a range of frequencies it can produce. There are some models where intrinsically the source can’t produce anything below a certain frequency. In 2007 Duncan Lorimer Discocerved the first FRB using FRB 121102 when his students were looking forward to discover any archival pulsar survey data.  To this Tom Landecker, member of CHIME team from the National Research Council of Canada, stated: [We now know] the sources can produce low-frequency radio waves and those low-frequency waves can escape their environment, and are not too scattered to be detected by the time they reach the Earth. That tells us something about the environments and the sources. We haven’t solved the problem, but it’s several more pieces in the puzzle. Further Kendrick Smith, a cosmologist from Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Ontario added to these statement as: FRBs were an unexpected mystery. There aren’t so many qualitative mysteries in astrophysics. So explaining their nature has become one of the biggest unsolved problems in astrophysics in the last few years. CHIME as an exclusively designed radio telescope and is built by Canadian astronomers, Smith explained that: CHIME reconstructs the image of the overhead sky by processing the radio signals recorded by thousands of antennas with a large signal processing system. CHIME’s signal processing system is the largest of any telescope on Earth, allowing it to search huge regions of the sky simultaneously. Pinterest reddit Tumblr Most astronomers believe that there must be any natural source behind the appearance of these FRBs, while the source is difficult to discover. Seth Shostak, a senior astronomer at the SETI Institute, stated that the difficult to find out its source is too high as these FRBs appear to come from all over the sky, such as galaxies that are billions of light-years apart. But you can safely bet that aliens are not the cause of FRBs. Why? The bursters are seen all over the sky, that’s why. The same sort of signal is coming from galaxies that are generally separated by billions of light-years. So how could aliens organize so much of the universe to engage in broadcasting the same sort of signal? There’s hardly been enough time since the Big Bang to coordinate such widespread teamwork, even if you can think of a reason for it! There could be aliens involved in sending these FRBs as signal. Occam’s razor a scientist, suggested that FRBs are definite natural origin, however, the cause is needed to be discovered. Bottom line: FRBs till now were considered as mysterious phenomenon, however the invention of telescopes like CHIME, has helped scientists to figure out more new and exotic FRBs, regardless of their unidentified source. Source: Observations of fast radio bursts at frequencies down to 400 megahertz

The concept of a virtual universe (also called a virtual world or a metaverse) is rapidly becoming a popular part of today's culture. In general, a virtual universe (VU) is a digital world (e.g., a three-dimensional computer-generated landscape) in which a user controls an avatar (e.g., a graphical representation of the user in the VU) to interact with objects and other avatars within the VU. Examples of popular VUs include SECOND LIFE® (a registered trademark of Linden Research, Inc. in the United States, other countries, or both) and ACTIVEWORLDS® (a registered trademark of Activeworlds, Inc. in the United States, other countries, or both). Generally, a host computing system stores data regarding the landscape, objects, and users of the VU. A client software program runs on each user computer. The client program communicates (e.g., through a network connection) with the host system, and provides a visual (and, sometimes, audible) representation of the VU on the user computer. As the user moves his or her avatar throughout the VU, the visual representation displayed on the user computer changes according to the avatar location in the VU. In this manner, a user may cause his or her avatar to approach other avatars and interact with the other avatars. For example, one avatar may approach and communicate with another avatar via VOIP (voice over IP) and/or text-based communication through the network. Moreover, in some VUs, users may possess virtual money that is purchased with real money. For example, a user may allow a VU host to debit his or her credit card in exchange for virtual money. The user can then exchange this virtual money with other users of the virtual world for a wide range of items and/or services, such as, for example, objects (e.g., clothing for an avatar), access to private areas of the VU, etc. Additionally, in some VUs, users may even own virtual real estate. For example, a user may pay the VU host, or another third party, real money for an area of virtual real estate in the VU. The user may then create objects on that real estate, such as a night club where music plays and other avatars are invited to congregate to socialize (e.g., chat, dance, etc.). Moreover, real estate within a VU has a cost, both in terms of dollars and computing resources. Currently all real estate locations within a VU are built on a static grid. Once a location is created, it exists at all times, whether it is being used or not. The use of such static locations for advertising is both inefficient and costly.

An asteroid turned into a blazing fireball as it disintegrated over southern Africa last weekend, just hours after it was first spotted. The boulder-size asteroid was discovered on Saturday morning, according to NASA’s Center for Near Earth Object Studies. Dubbed 2018 LA, the asteroid was estimated to be about 6 feet across, which is small enough to safely disintegrate in Earth’s atmosphere. 2018 LA was first detected by the Catalina Sky Survey near Tucson, Ariz., which is funded by NASA and is operated by the University of Arizona. METEORITE HUNTERS FIND FIRST PIECES OF THE MICHIGAN FIREBALL “Reports of a bright fireball above Botswana, Africa, early Saturday evening match up with the predicted trajectory for the asteroid,” explained NASA, in a statement. Traveling at 38,000 mph, the asteroid entered Earth’s atmosphere at 6:44 p.m. local Botswana time (12:44 p.m. EDT). The space rock disintegrated several miles above the Earth’s surface. Videos posted to YouTube reportedly show the fireball streaking across the night sky, including one captured on a South African farm’s security camera. The object, however, was much smaller than the meteor – estimated to be about 56 feet wide, that exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia in 2013, injuring more than 1,000 people. METEORITE HUNTERS: SCIENTISTS SET TO SCOUR ANTARCTICA FOR RARE SPACE ROCKS A small chunk of an asteroid or comet is also known as a meteoroid. When it enters Earth's atmosphere, it becomes a meteor or fireball or shooting star. The pieces of rock that hit the ground, valuable to collectors, are meteorites. Earlier this year, a meteor made headlines when it flashed across the sky in Michigan. The blazing fireball sent meteorite hunters scrambling to find fragments of the rare space rock. The Associated Press contributed to this article. Follow James Rogers on Twitter @jamesjrogers

Introduction ============ Epileptic seizures are typically described as a short-term manifestation of numerous signs and/or symptoms because of unusually superfluous or concurrent activity in the brain. In contrast, epilepsy is a collection of neurological disorders characterized by the lasting tendency to spawn epileptic seizures ([@B15]). Epilepsy is a serious disorder of the Central Nervous System (CNS) as the global epilepsy prevalence is approximately one in 100 people according to [@B21]. Whilst the underlying cause of epilepsy is not always clear, anti-convulsant drugs or anti-epileptic drugs (AEDs) as they are commonly known, may be used for the symptomatic treatment of epilepsy. The older generation of AEDs have side effects which range from abdominal discomfort and anorexia to psychosis and aplastic anemia; together with an array of different idiosyncratic reactions. In comparison, AEDs from the newer generation can result in side effects which range from fatigue and drowsiness to vomiting and diplopia ([@B16]). Whilst the efficacy of the AEDs in use today has been demonstrated, a need for the discovery of new AEDs with fewer side effects remains. *Orthosiphon stamineus* is a Malaysian herb also known locally as 'misai kucing' and is widely grown in tropical regions which have high temperatures and year-round rainfall ([@B1]). In the Southeast Asian region, *O. stamineus* leaves are harvested and dried to make tea leaves ([@B17]). The *O. stamineus* tea leaves can then be brewed into a herbal tea and used as a traditional medicine to treat epilepsy ([@B22]). An extract of *O. stamineus* leaves has been found to possess anti-inflammatory, ([@B42]) anti-oxidant and free-radical scavenging abilities ([@B43]). Although the exact mechanism leading to the formation of seizures is unknown, there is evidence that pro-inflammatory mediators released by the brain and peripheral immune cells play a role ([@B40]). There has also been an indication that oxidative stress has a role in epilepsy, given the high degree of oxidative metabolism, limited antioxidant defense and the abundance of polyunsaturated fatty acids in the brain. It is possible that these conditions increase the vulnerability of the brain to free radical damage, leading to certain types of epilepsy ([@B11]). An experiment by [@B44] suggested that the components of *O. stamineus* leaves which are responsible for its anti-inflammatory effect in a chloroform extract are the polymethoxylated flavones sinensetin, eupatorine and 30-hydroxy-5,6,7,40-tetramethoxyflavone; which possibly function by inhibiting the nitric oxide pathway and the synthesis of prostaglandin. [@B2] also found that sinensetin, eupatorine, 30-hydroxy-5,6,7,40-tetramethoxyflavone, rosmarinic acid and quercetin form the major components in an *O. stamineus* extract which possess significant free radical scavenging and antioxidant ability. Thus, the properties of *O. stamineus* combined with its traditional usage for the treatment of epilepsy makes it an encouraging candidate for the development of novel AEDs. One of the most frequently used approaches to inducing seizures in animals are chemoconvulsants. An example of a chemoconvulsant among many the different available is pentylenetetrazol (PTZ). PTZ is believed to induce seizures primarily by binding to the γ-Aminobutyric Acid (GABA~A~) receptor and impeding the neuroinhibitory action of GABA ([@B7]). Although the majority of past research concerning epilepsy has been undertaken using rodents as the animal model, zebrafish are currently becoming increasingly popular as a model for epilepsy. One possible reason for this is that dissolving the compounds to be tested directly in the zebrafish tank water becomes an option, which eliminates the necessity of performing an invasive procedure such as an injection. Despite zebrafish being fish and hence more removed from humans in an evolutionary perspective in comparison to the mammalian rodents, their genes are nevertheless still around 75% homologous to human genes ([@B5]; [@B7]). Among the other aspects in which zebrafish are superior to rodents as an animal model are their longer lifespan and robust phenotypes, as they display obvious and easily quantifiable behavioral endpoints ([@B37]). The blood brain barrier in zebrafish is also tight-junction based, and highly permeable to macromolecules, meaning that zebrafish will be extremely responsive the compounds being tested ([@B13]). It is for these reasons that this experiment utilized zebrafish as an animal model of epilepsy over rodents. Once the animal model of epilepsy and the method of inducing seizures is ascertained, a technique for assessing compounds believed to be anti-convulsive is needed. One way of doing this is to test adult zebrafish inside a tank in which they can be observed so that their seizure behavior can be scored according to a predefined scoring system. Both the top and side points of view for the observation tank can be utilized for the neurophenotypic classification of the responses which result in chemoconvulsant treated adult zebrafish, as they are very similar to those observed during a seizure. Whilst the abnormal response displayed by the zebrafish varies based on the chemoconvulsant used, the conventional endpoints which are used include rapid twitching, loss of body posture, hyperactive, spiral or circular swimming, paralysis or immobility, body contractions similar to spasms and death ([@B37]). An induced seizure has also been shown using rodent models of epilepsy, to also result in an upregulation of specific genes at the site where the seizure was initiated. The upregulated genes are known as immediate-early genes ([@B29]) and are comprised of genes such as the early proto-oncogene c-Fos, which also functions as a neuronal activation marker. A similar pattern in the upregulation of seizure related genes during an induced seizure is also present in zebrafish brains ([@B37]) and may be quantitively examined to possibly serve as biomarkers of brain disorders. Thus, whilst the efficacy of the AEDs used today for the symptomatic treatment of epilepsy is proven, there is still a necessity for the discovery of new AEDs with comparable efficacies, but with fewer side effects. Given its beneficial properties and traditional usage, *O. stamineus* leaves have the potential to be a novel treatment for epilepsy. Thus, this study aimed to determine if an ethanolic leaf extract of *O. stamineus* is pharmacologically active against seizures. This was done by observing whether pre-treating zebrafish with varying doses of the extract has any effect on the progression of PTZ-induced seizures. This experiment involved the use of three different treatment doses of the *O. stamineus* ethanolic leaf extract; with the exact concentrations decided based on a prior toxicity study using adult zebrafish. The last part of this study involved harvesting the zebrafish brains for gene expression studies to help determine the mechanism of action by which an ethanolic leaf extract of *O. stamineus* exerts its anti-convulsive effect in the zebrafish brain as the expression level of certain genes changes characteristically after a seizure ([@B29]). Materials and Methods {#s1} ===================== Materials --------- ### Chemicals The standardized *O. stamineus* ethanolic leaf extract was purchased from Natureceuticals Sdn Bhd. According to the manufacturer, the extract was a 50% ethanolic extract prepared using Digimaz technology. Pentylenetetrazol (PTZ) and the standard AED diazepam (DZP) were purchased from Sigma--Aldrich (United States). TRIzol^®^ reagent was purchased from Invitrogen, Carlsbad, CA, United States. For the gene expression study, QuantiTect SYBR Green dye (Qiagen, Valencia, CA, United States) was used together with the following primer sets: > BDNF: Dr_bdnf_1\_SG QuantiTect Primer Assay (Cat no. QT02125326); > > NF-κB: Dr_nfkb1_2\_SG QuantiTect Primer Assay (Cat no. QT02498762); > > NPY: Dr_npy_1\_SG QuantiTect Primer Assay (Cat no. QT02205763); > > c-Fos: Dr_fos_1\_SG QuantiTect Primer Assay (Cat no. QT02103243); > > TNF-α: Dr_tnf_1\_SG QuantiTect Primer Assay (Cat no. QT02097655); > > IL-1: Dr_il1rapl1a_1\_SG QuantiTect Primer Assay (Cat no. QT02131850); > > eef1a1b: Dr_eef1a1b_2\_SG QuantiTect Primer Assay (Cat no. QT02042684) ### Software and Equipment The Smart V3.0.05 tracking software (Pan Lab, Harvard apparatus) was used for the automated tracking of zebrafish swimming patterns. The Applied Biosystems StepOnePlus^TM^ Real-Time PCR System was used for the gene expression study. ### Animals Adult zebrafish (*Danio rerio*) 3--4 months of age and of the heterogeneous wild-type strain with a typical short-fin phenotype were purchased at the aquarium shop 'Akarium Batu Karang Laut' (Subang Jaya, Malaysia). All zebrafish were held at the Monash University Malaysia animal facility under standard husbandry conditions. The zebrafish tanks were kept at a water temperature of between 26 and 30°C, a water pH of between pH 6.8 and pH 7.1 and under a 250-lux light intensity with a cycle of 14-h of light to 10 h of darkness. The lights were automatically turned on at 8 am and automatically turned off at 10 pm via a timer. The zebrafish were fed thrice a day with TetraMin^®^ Tropical Flakes and their diet was supplemented with live brine shrimps (*Artemia*) purchased from Bio-Marine (Aquafauna, Inc. United States). Standard zebrafish tanks with a length of 36 cm, a width of 26 cm and a height of 22 cm were used to house the zebrafish. The tanks were equipped with a water circulation system to provide constant aeration. Group housing, whereby 10--12 fish were kept per tank, was practiced with the females and males being housed separately. All animal experimentation was authorized by the Monash Animal Research Platform (MARP), Australia. Methods ------- ### Toxicity Study A zebrafish toxicity study was carried out on adult zebrafish to determine the exact *O. stamineus* ethanolic leaf extract concentrations to be used with each of the three treatment groups. A limit test was first performed based on a modified version of the OECD Guidelines for the Testing of Chemicals No. 203 ([@B30]). An observation tank was first set up and filled with 13 L of the water normally used to fill the zebrafish tanks. One zebrafish from the untreated normal control group was then placed in the tank and its behavior was recorded for 10 min. After each recording, the zebrafish was transferred into individual 1 L tanks filled with the same water. The procedure then was repeated for each of the seven zebrafish in the control group. The recording and tank transfer procedure was then repeated with the seven zebrafish of the treatment group but with the extract added to the water to make up a concentration of 100 mg/L. All 14 zebrafish were then kept for 96 h in their respective one-liter tanks. All 14 zebrafish were checked on every 15 min for the first 2 h of exposure and every half an hour thereafter for the first day. On subsequent days, the zebrafish were checked on thrice daily during the morning, afternoon and evening. Any zebrafish found to exhibit severe symptoms of pain or suffering according to our predefined monitoring sheet at any checkpoint were humanely euthanized via an overdose of benzocaine. If no zebrafish require euthanasia at the limit concentration, the extract concentration will be raised by a factor of 2--200 mg/L and the test protocol repeated. If there is at least one zebrafish requiring euthanasia at the limit concentration, the concentration will be decreased by a factor of two, to 50 mg/L and the test protocol repeated. This protocol deviates from the OECD guidelines in that it does not use mortality as the criterion to determine toxicity due to the concerns of the MARP-Australia in using death as an endpoint. The highest dose which did not require euthanasia of any zebrafish was used as the 'High' dose in the following behavioral study with the 'Medium' dose and 'Low' dose being a factor of two and four lower than the 'High' dose, respectively. ### Behavioral Study #### Drug treatment and groups Three-month-old adult zebrafish with weights ranging from 0.4 to 0.8 g were selected. The zebrafish were then divided into six groups, with 10 fish per group. PTZ was dissolved in distilled water whereas DZP and the *O. stamineus* extract was dissolved in the same water used to fill the zebrafish tanks. > Group I: Vehicle Control (CP), Tank Water Only; > > Group II: Negative Control (CN), PTZ (170 mg/kg) Only; > > Group III: Positive Control (CP), DZP (10 mg/L) + PTZ (170 mg/kg); > > Group IV: Treatment Group 1, *O. stamineus* extract (Low dose) + PTZ (170 mg/kg); > > Group V: Treatment Group 2, *O. stamineus* extract (Medium dose) + PTZ (170 mg/kg); > > Group VI: Treatment Group 3, *O. stamineus* extract (High dose) + PTZ (170 mg/kg) #### Procedure for a zebrafish intraperitoneal injection All intraperitoneal injections were administered into the abdominal cavity at a location posterior to the pelvic girdle, using a 10 μl Hamilton syringe (700 series, Hamilton 80400) ([@B36]). The experiment was performed in a separate behavior room with the room temperature kept between 26 and 30°C and humidity between 50 and 60%. All zebrafish were acclimatized in the said behavior room for 2 hours prior to experiment for the purpose of minimizing any novel tank response. Other precautions taken include using a small injection volume of 10 μl per gram of fish and using a 35-gage needle. The zebrafish were restrained in a water saturated sponge under benzocaine anesthesia to reduce the distress inflicted on the zebrafish ([@B24]). This intraperitoneal injection technique was found to be effective in zebrafish ([@B27]) and did not cause any mortality throughout the experiment. Each zebrafish was captured individually using a fish holding net, and then transferred into an anesthesia solution (30 mg/L Benzocaine). The zebrafish was taken out once anesthetized and then weighed to calculate the dose and hence the injection volume. A soft sponge approximately 20 mm in height was saturated with water and set inside a 60 mm Petri dish. A cut between 10 and 15 mm in depth was made in the sponge to restrain and hold the fish for the intraperitoneal injection. The intraperitoneal injection was given while using a dissecting microscope by inserting the needle into the midline between the pelvic fins. An appropriate volume was then injected into the zebrafish, after taking into account the body weight of the zebrafish. After the intraperitoneal injection, the zebrafish was immediately transferred to an observation tank. #### PTZ-Induced Seizure Model The zebrafish were habituated for 30 min in 1 L treatment tanks filled with 1 L of the water normally used to fill the zebrafish tanks, before administration of PTZ. Groups I and II were habituated in tanks only containing the water normally used to fill the zebrafish tanks. Groups III to VI had either diazepam (10 mg/L) or the extract added to the tank water. After the 30-min habituation time, the zebrafish from groups II to VI were injected with PTZ (170 mg/kg, IP). Group I zebrafish did not receive any injections. PTZ injected zebrafish present diverse seizure profiles, intensities and latency in reaching the different seizure scores. PTZ-induced seizures will persist for about 10 min after the PTZ injection and gradually decrease with time. The PTZ injected adult zebrafish were then moved to a 13-L observation tank filled three quarters of the way with water. The behavior of the zebrafish was then recorded for 10 min after recovery from anesthesia and the video was later viewed using computer to determine the highest seizure score every minute. The zebrafish seizure score was recorded as per the scoring system used by [@B27] and is given below. > Score 1 - Short swim mainly at the bottom of the tank > > Score 2 - Increased swimming activity and high frequency of opercular movement > > Score 3 - Burst swimming, left and right movements as well as erratic movements > > Score 4 - Circular movements Under the directives of MARP-Australia, the PTZ dose was set at 170 mg per kg of zebrafish body weight in order to limit the resulting seizure scores to a maximum of four. Time to score four seizure onset (seconds) and mean seizure score over 10 min were noted when viewing the recorded video. The mean seizure score over 10 min was calculated by first assigning the highest observed seizure score 1 min after the start of the video, as the seizure score for the first minute. This process was repeated until the end of the 10th min and all 10 seizure scores were averaged to obtain the mean seizure score over 10 min. The zebrafish swimming pattern was determined via analysis using the Smart tracking software. The dose of PTZ (170 mg/kg) and the duration of the behavior recording (10 min) represent the standard protocol of our laboratory for inducing seizures with PTZ, as determined previously by [@B27]. The diazepam dose (10 mg/L) and the habituation time (30 min) were chosen based on the results of an unpublished preliminary trial using the same methodology. The diazepam dose and the habituation time were varied till a mean seizure score over 10 min of less than one was obtained. ### Gene Expression Study #### Brain harvesting After the behavioral study, the zebrafish brains were harvested by removing the zebrafish skull and extracting the brain, before transferring it straight into 200 μl of ice-cold TRIzol^®^. The zebrafish brains were then immediately stored at -80°C till required. #### RNA isolation and synthesis of first strand cDNA The mRNA was isolated according to the protocol supplied by the kit's manufacturer, and was identical to the protocol used by [@B27]. In short, the zebrafish brain was first homogenized whilst in TRIzol^®^ before chloroform was mixed in. The resulting mixture was then centrifuged at a speed of 13,500 rpm (revolutions per minute) for a period 15 min and at a temperature of 4°C. After centrifugation, the resulting aqueous supernatant was then transferred into a new tube before the addition of isopropanol. After mixing, the new tube was incubated for 10 min at room temperature and subsequently centrifuged for a period of 10 min at a speed of 13,500 rpm and at a temperature of 4°C. The resulting supernatant was removed and the pellet was rinsed with 75% ethanol. The pellet was then allowed to air dry for between 5 and 10 min. Nuclease-free water was then added to the tube for the purpose of dissolving the mRNA pellet. The purity and concentration of the resulting isolated mRNA was then measured with a NanoDrop Spectrophotometer. Afterwards, the isolated mRNA was then converted to cDNA as per the instructions given in the Omniscript Reverse-transcription Kit from QIAGEN. #### StepOne^®^ real-time PCR The gene expression level of Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF), Nuclear Factor Kappa-light-chain-enhancer of activated B cells (NF-κB), Neuropeptide Y (NPY), c-Fos, Tumor Necrosis Factor alpha (TNF-α), Interleukin-1 (IL-1) and the housekeeping gene Elongation factor 1-alpha-1b (eef1a1b) were calculated via real-time quantitative RT-PCR (Applied Biosystems) together with QuantiTect SYBR Green dye and the appropriate Qiagen primer set for each gene; using a similar protocol to that used by [@B27]. The samples were first incubated at 95°C for 2 min prior to thermal cycling. The thermal cycling settings used were 40 cycles of 95°C for 5 s, followed by 60°C for 15 s. The relative expression level (Fold Change) of the six genes of interest was calculated by normalizing the threshold cycle (Ct) values obtained from the genes of interest, against the Ct value of the eef1a1b housekeeping gene using the formula: 2 ^∧^ \[Ct eef1a1b -- Ct Gene of interest\]. ### Statistical Analysis All results were expressed as Mean ± Standard Error of the Mean (SEM). The data was analysed using one-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and followed with Dunnett's test. The PTZ only negative control group (Group II/CN) was used as the control for Dunnett's test and all other groups were compared to it. The *P*-value, ^∗∗∗^*P* \< 0.001 was regarded as statistically significant for the behavioral study, whereas a *P*-value of ^∗∗^*P* \< 0.01 and ^∗^*P* \< 0.05 was regarded as statistically significant for the gene expression study. Results ======= Toxicity Study -------------- The limit test performed using 100 mg/L of *O. stamineus* ethanolic leaf extract did not result in any mortality, morbidity or abnormal behavior in the zebrafish (*n* = 7). As per the protocol, the toxicity study was repeated using twice the concentration of the extract (200 mg/L) and again resulted in no mortality, morbidity or abnormal behavior in the zebrafish. Doubling the extract concentration once again to 400 mg/L produced no abnormal behavior in the zebrafish during the initial observation period, but later resulted in the death of all the treated zebrafish after an overnight exposure (less than 18 h after the last observation); during which the zebrafish were not monitored. From the results of the toxicity study, 200 mg/L was chosen to be the 'High' dose (T200) for the following behavioral study. The 'Medium' and 'Low' doses were thus chosen to be 100 mg/L (T100) and 50 mg/L (T50), respectively. From the software generated zebrafish swimming patterns (**Figure [1](#F1){ref-type="fig"}**), it was found that zebrafish treated with 100 mg/L of the extract spent more time at the bottom of the tank. This is in comparison to the vehicle control group (CV), which displayed a slight preference for the bottom of the tank but otherwise swam throughout the whole tank. In contrast, the zebrafish treated with 200 and 400 mg/L of the extract displayed no preference for any one location in the tank. {#F1} Behavioral Study ---------------- ### Seizure Onset Time and Seizure Score Analysis Mean seizure onset time for the untreated CV group was taken to be 600 s, or the entire length of the video and a mean seizure score of 0 was assigned to the untreated CV group. This is because the vehicle control zebrafish were not injected with PTZ and thus did not develop seizures. Injecting PTZ into the zebrafish in the CV group resulted in a significant decrease in mean seizure onset time to 191 s and a significant increase in mean seizure score to 2.96 in comparison to the CV group. The results of the CN group were then used as a baseline for the positive control and treatment groups. Pre-treating the zebrafish with the positive control drug diazepam (CP) before challenging them with PTZ, significantly increased the mean seizure onset time to 453.4 s and significantly reduced the mean seizure score to 0.69. In contrast, pre-treating the zebrafish with 50 mg/L of *O. stamineus* ethanolic leaf extract (T50 Group) increased the mean seizure onset time to 314.4 s, although this was statistically insignificant (*P* = 0.233). However, the decrease in mean seizure score of the T50 group to 1.86 was considered statistically significant. Doubling the extract pre-treatment dose to 100 mg/L (T100 Group) produced a significant increase in the mean seizure onset time to 518.8 s and a significant decrease in the mean seizure score to 0.66. The final treatment group (T200 Group) was pre-treated with 200 mg/L of extract and did not reach seizure score 4 and thus the mean seizure onset time was recorded as 600 s or the full length of the recorded video. The T200 group also had a significant decrease in the mean seizure score to 0.47. All results were considered significant at the significance level of ^∗∗∗^α = 0.001. The mean seizure onset time (seconds) and seizure score for each zebrafish group are presented in a graphical format in **Figure [2](#F2){ref-type="fig"}**. {#F2} ### Representative Locomotion Patterns Using the Smart tracking software for the automated tracking of zebrafish swimming patterns, one representative swimming pattern was chosen for each group from among the *n* = 10 zebrafish per group. The representative swimming patterns are given in **Figure [2](#F2){ref-type="fig"}**. The normal zebrafish swimming behavior demonstrated by the zebrafish in the CV group is to spend roughly an equal amount of time swimming throughout the entire tank. In contrast, the untreated negative control zebrafish had a more erratic swimming pattern after the PTZ challenge, with the zebrafish dwelling at bottom of the tank more frequently. Pre-treatment with the standard AED diazepam modified the post PTZ challenge swimming behavior into a zig-zag like swimming pattern, with a significant amount of time being spent at the top and bottom of the tank. Pre-treatment with all three *O. stamineus* ethanolic leaf extract doses produced a swimming pattern similar to that of the normal control, although the 50 and 200 mg/L doses produced more bottom dwelling in the zebrafish. In comparison, the 100 mg/L dose produced the most similar swimming pattern to the vehicle control, but showed an increase in time spent at the water surface. Gene Expression Study --------------------- ### BDNF The change in the gene expression level of BDNF was determined to be statistically insignificant in all groups in comparison to the negative control at a level of ^∗^α = 0.05. However, when graphically represented in **Figure [3](#F3){ref-type="fig"}**, an increase BDNF expression by the CN group as compared to the CV group is visible. The BDNF expression level was reduced in both the CP and T50 groups, whereas the T100 and T200 produced an increase in BDNF expression level in comparison to the CN group. {#F3} ### NF-κB There was a significant rise in the gene expression level of NF-κB for the CN group in comparison to the vehicle control (^∗∗^*P* \< 0.01). The CP, T100 and T200 groups had a significant reduction in NF-κB expression (^∗∗^*P* \< 0.01) as compared to the CN group. The T50 group also showed a reduction in NF-κB expression, but this did not approach statistical significance (*P* = 0.317). The NF-κB expression level for each zebrafish group is graphically represented in **Figure [3](#F3){ref-type="fig"}**. ### NPY There was a significant rise in NPY expression for the CN group in comparison to the vehicle control. In comparison to the negative control, only the T100 group showed a significant decrease in NPY expression. The CP, T50, and T200 groups did show a decrease in NPY expression but this was not significant at the level of ^∗^α = 0.05. The NPY expression level for each zebrafish group is graphically represented in **Figure [3](#F3){ref-type="fig"}**. ### c-Fos The change in the gene expression level of c-Fos was determined to be statistically insignificant in all groups in comparison to the negative control. However, when graphically represented in **Figure [3](#F3){ref-type="fig"}**, it can be seen that there is an increase c-Fos expression by the CN group as compared to the CV group. The level of c-Fos expression was decreased in the CP, T50, and T200 groups, whereas the T100 group had a decrease in c-Fos expression level when compared to the CN group. ### TNF-α There was a significant rise in the expression of TNF-α for the CN group as compared to the CV group. The CP, T50, T100, and T200 groups showed a significant reduction in the expression of TNF-α in comparison to the CN group. All changes in TNF-α expression were significant at the level of ^∗∗^α = 0.01. The TNF-α expression level for each zebrafish group is graphically represented in **Figure [3](#F3){ref-type="fig"}**. ### IL-1 The change in the gene expression level of IL-1 was deemed to be statistically insignificant in all groups as compared to the negative control. However, when graphically represented in **Figure [3](#F3){ref-type="fig"}**, an increase IL-1 expression by the CN group as compared to the CV group is visible. The IL-1 expression level was reduced in the CP, T50, T100, and T200 groups as compared to the CN group. The IL-1 expression level for each zebrafish group is graphically represented in **Figure [3](#F3){ref-type="fig"}**. Discussion ========== This work aims to determine if an ethanolic leaf extract of *O. stamineus* has the potential to be a novel treatment for epileptic seizures. To that end, a toxicity study was carried out to determine if the extract is safe for use with zebrafish, as well as to determine the doses to be used for the following behavioral study. The toxicity study had to be conducted as no prior published study using this extract has been conducted on adult zebrafish before. A prior literature search only yielded *O. stamineus* toxicity studies on Sprague Dawley rats ([@B9]) and zebrafish embryos ([@B23]), and thus this work represents the first of its kind. The reason that an *O. stamineus* ethanolic extract was used is because ethanolic extracts of *O. stamineus* tend to have the highest concentration of phenolic compounds, followed by methanolic and aqueous extracts ([@B35]). Thus, as oxidative stress plays a role in epilepsy ([@B11]) and that the phenols in *O. stamineus* such as rosmarinic acid possess significant free radical scavenging, anti-inflammatory and antioxidant ability ([@B2]; [@B44]), an ethanolic extract of *O. stamineus* is the ideal choice for this experiment. The results of [@B35] support this idea as they found that an ethanolic leaf extract of *O. stamineus* possess the greatest anti-oxidant activity from among a combination of ethanolic, methanolic and aqueous extracts. The reason that a leaf extract of *O. stamineus* was used over another part of the plant was due to experimental evidence such as that by [@B35] showing that extracts of the leaves possess anti-oxidant activity and that the traditional remedy for epilepsy utilizes the leaves of the plant ([@B22]). Given the uncertainty associated with any novel experiment, the toxicity study used in this experiment follows a modified version of the OECD Guidelines for the Testing of Chemicals No. 203, which concerns acute toxicity tests in fish. The test involves the use of the test substance at a concentration of 100 mg/L of water, with a minimum of seven fish each for the treatment and control groups. The principle behind the test is that when there are no fish deaths after an exposure period of 96 h, the LC~50~ for the test substance can be said to be above 100 mg/L with a confidence of 99% or greater ([@B30]). As there have been no prior publications regarding the testing of the anti-convulsive potential of an ethanolic extract of *O. stamineus* in any animal species, this dose determination study was a necessity. From the zebrafish swimming pattern after exposure to 200 and 400 mg/L of the *O. stamineus* ethanolic leaf extract, no bottom dwelling behavior was observed. Bottom dwelling in zebrafish in associated with anxiety and is initially seen in zebrafish which have just been transferred into a novel tank ([@B8]). As anxiolytics have been found to reduce bottom dwelling ([@B18]), the results of this study suggest that the extract has anxiolytic properties, at least at a concentration greater than 200 mg/L. The finding of this study that an overnight exposure to *O. stamineus* ethanolic leaf extract at a concentration of 400 mg/L is lethal to adult zebrafish is also noteworthy. This is because an acute oral toxicity study was performed using Sprague Dawley rats by [@B9], by administering *O. stamineus* leaf extract up to a dose of 5.0 g/kg of rat body weight, daily for 14 days. The study by [@B9] resulted in no rat deaths or any adverse effect on parameters such as body weight and they deemed that their methanolic *O. stamineus* whole plant extract seemingly lacked any toxic effects. Another toxicity experiment by [@B23] found that an aqueous extract of *O. stamineus* only significantly causes mortality in zebrafish embryos when the concentration reaches 5.0 g/L of water. However, both these experiments relied on a different manner of producing *O. stamineus* extracts compared to this study and thus may have a different proportion of constituents than the extract we used. In addition, a reliable correlation between zebrafish and rodent toxicities has not been established ([@B12]) and embryonic zebrafish toxicity may also not entirely correlate to adult zebrafish toxicity. Also, unlike dosing a rodent via the oral route, introducing a substance directly into the tank water makes it difficult to determine exactly how much of the substance has been taken up by the zebrafish ([@B26]). Thus, further work needs to be done to determine the mechanism behind the toxicity of *O. stamineus* ethanolic leaf extract in adult zebrafish to help reconcile the difference in toxicity results between this study and previous ones. It should also be noted that there is also no conversion factor for translating zebrafish toxicity to mammalian toxicity, although LC50 value zebrafish is generally lower than that for the corresponding rodent LC50 for certain chemicals such as polychlorinated biphenyls ([@B31]; [@B12]). However, given the popularity of *O. stamineus* as a traditional remedy for a plethora of illnesses, combined with multiple pharmacological studies demonstrating beneficial properties such as being hepatoprotective, antioxidant and antihypertensive ([@B3]) as well as a relatively high toxic dose in rats ([@B9]), it is possible that *O. stamineus* derived AEDs would be relatively safe and non-toxic to humans. Building on the toxicity study results, this experiment has also demonstrated that pre-treating zebrafish with an ethanolic leaf extract of *O. stamineus* for 30 min significantly increases the mean seizure onset time and decreases the mean seizure score of PTZ challenged zebrafish in a dose dependent manner. A 100 mg/L dose of the extract has been found in this study to rival the anti-convulsive effects of a 10 mg/L dose of the standard AED diazepam and a 200 mg/L dose of the extract has a stronger anti-convulsive effect than diazepam. The representative zebrafish swimming patterns also showed that diazepam reverses the bottom dwelling seen in PTZ challenge zebrafish, which is said to be comparable to the stupor like behavior and anxiety associated with an epileptic condition ([@B27]). The swimming pattern produced by the zebrafish pre-treated with diazepam could be due to the sedative effect of diazepam, as it is a benzodiazepine ([@B20]). In contrast to diazepam, zebrafish pre-treated with the extract produced a swimming pattern very similar to that of the vehicle control which was not challenged with PTZ. However, the 50 and 200 mg/L extract doses still produced some degree of bottom dwelling, although to a lesser degree than the negative control. This suggests that the 50 and 200 mg/L dose was insufficient to completely prevent the PTZ-induced seizures and this is supported by the mean seizure score for those doses being greater than zero. Interestingly, the 100 mg/L extract dose completely abolished bottom dwelling, although there was an increase in time spent on the water surface instead and the mean seizure score for 100 mg/L was also greater than zero. Taken together, the behavioral study results show that the *O. stamineus* ethanolic leaf extract does indeed possess dose dependent anti-convulsive properties but does not seem to produce the cognitive impairment associated with currently available AEDs such as diazepam. Thus, our study shows that an *O. stamineus* ethanolic leaf extract derived novel AED has the potential to be comparable to diazepam, which is one of the standard AEDs available today. Undoubtedly, further work needs to be conducted to discover the active constituent/s of *O. stamineus* which contribute to its anti-convulsive properties. A follow up study similar to this one should then be conducted to test if a dose of the active constituent comparable to that of standard AEDs will still have similar or even better anti-convulsive efficacy. This is because our experiment shows that a dose of crude *O. stamineus* ethanolic leaf extract needs to be 10-fold that of diazepam to equal its effects. This is undesirable as high doses of substances in general tend to result in more side effects. Among the possible constituents responsible for the anti-convulsive effect an ethanolic leaf extract of *O. stamineus* are rosmarinic acid, sinensetin, eupatorine and 30-hydroxy-5,6,7,40-tetramethoxyflavone as they represent the major compounds in the extract which have anti-inflammatory action as well as substantial free radical scavenging and antioxidant ability ([@B33]; [@B2]; [@B44]), all of which are factors that seem to protect against epilepsy ([@B11]; [@B40]). However, rosmarinic acid seems to be a likely candidate as several studies have found that it possesses anti-convulsive properties, possibly due to its activation of the GABAergic system ([@B25]; [@B19]) and hence promotion of inhibitory neurotransmission. Rosmarinic acid is also neuroprotective as a result of its anti-oxidant and free radical scavenging abilities ([@B14]). Data provided by the manufacturer of our standardized extract also reiterates the importance of rosmarinic acid as they found that rosmarinic acid (5.02%) was the most abundant of the four marker compounds they tested, followed by sinensetin (0.21%), eupatorine (0.17%), and 30-hydroxy-5,6,7,40-tetramethoxyflavone (Trace Amounts). Interestingly, doubling the dose from 50 to 100 mg/L produced a much larger positive effect on both mean seizure onset time and seizure score as compared to doubling the dose from 100 to 200 mg/L. This suggests that some yet unknown factor could be limiting the bioavailability of the extract, at least for the given exposure period of 30 min. However, it is worth reiterating that the actual amount of substance taken up by the zebrafish is not known when the substance is dissolved in the tank water, unlike methods such as an intraperitoneal injection whereby the quantity delivered is defined based on the weight of the fish ([@B26]). Despite the limitations of dissolving the *O. stamineus* ethanolic leaf extract directly into the tank water, it is utilized by this study as the AEDs used today for the chronic symptomatic treatment of epilepsy are given orally ([@B4]). Thus, as we are aiming to develop a novel AED based on an ethanolic *O. stamineus* leaf extract, it must also work through the oral route. This is because if the AED must be injected into a patient to work, it will likely be underutilized due to the chronic nature of epilepsy; regardless of its efficacy. Based on the results of the gene expression study, the downregulation of NF-κB by the *O. stamineus* ethanolic leaf extract is unusual as inhibition of the NF-κB pathway usually results in a decreased seizure threshold ([@B45]). This could be explained by the extract controlling the PTZ-induced seizures via another mechanism and hence there is minimal activation of the NF-κB pathway. This theory is supported by the fact that diazepam also reduces the NF-κB expression level in comparison to the negative control and that the CP, T100, and T200 groups displayed a NF-κB expression level very similar to that of the baseline expression level in the CV group. As NF-κB also regulates the expression level of BDNF during seizures ([@B28]), the BDNF expression levels should also mirror that of NF-κB. However, we found no significant upregulation in the BDNF expression level after a PTZ-induced seizure for any pre-treated group as compared to the negative control. However, the role of BDNF in the development of seizures and epilepsy is somewhat controversial as although there is usually an upregulation of BDNF is associated with a seizure, it is unclear whether this promotes or inhibits seizure development ([@B28]). In the case of NPY, our results are unusual, with diazepam and the 50 mg/L extract dose not having a significant effect on the NPY expression level as compared to the negative control whereas the 100 and 200 mg/L dose decreased it to around the same as the baseline vehicle control level. Although only the 100 mg/L group represented a significant change, the unusual results could be explained due to the anti-convulsive effect of NPY and also its regulation of learning and memory ([@B10]). The 50 mg/L still produced an upregulation in NPY as it does not sufficiently control the PTZ-induced seizures on its own and thus requires the assistance of NPY. Whilst diazepam does control the PTZ-induced seizures, it also negatively affects cognitive abilities ([@B27]) and hence an upregulation of NPY is needed to counteract the cognitive dysfunction which results. The explanation for the decrease in the expression level of NPY for the 100 and 200 mg/L treatment groups is similar to that of NF-κB, as the seizures are controlled via other mechanisms and thus the NPY expression level is similar to the baseline vehicle control. In the case of c-Fos expression, we found no significant upregulation as a result of a PTZ-induced seizure and no significant difference in c-Fos expression levels as a result of any treatment. However, according to literature, a seizure usually results in an increase in c-Fos expression ([@B32]). This discrepancy could be explained by the time between the PTZ challenge and removal of the zebrafish brain, which was 10 min in our experiment. According to [@B6], in the case of rodents at least, c-Fos takes around 30 min to become significantly elevated from baselines levels after challenging with a pro-convulsant. It is possible that in our experiment, there was not enough time for c-Fos expression to become significantly elevated. For TNF-α, we found that there was a significant increase in TNF-α expression as a result of a PTZ-induced seizure, which is consistent with the results found in literature ([@B41]). Although all pre-treatments significantly decreased the TNF-α expression level, the T100 and T200 groups had a slightly lower expression level than the baseline vehicle control. This suggests that the ethanolic *O. stamineus* leaf extract may at least partially exert its anti-convulsive effect by acting as an anti-inflammatory agent as TNF-α is involved in systemic inflammation. The anti-inflammatory action of the extract may in turn be due to the downregulation of TNF-α by the extract, along with IL-1, COX-1 and COX-2 as determined by [@B39]. The last gene we tested was IL-1, which was found to have no significant upregulation in the expression level after a PTZ-induced seizure, nor any other significant change for any pre-treated group as compared to the negative control. Whilst this contrasts with reports in literature about an increase in IL-1 levels after a seizure and the ability of the extract to decrease IL-1 expression levels ([@B39]), there are conflicting reports which describe a decrease in IL-1 levels after a seizure ([@B34]). The role of IL-1 in seizures also currently remains unknown and controversial ([@B34]). Future Directions ================= Whilst this work represents a significant step in bridging the research gap, further research needs to be conducted on the discovery of the active anti-convulsive compound in the extract. Once identified, dose comparison studies with currently available AEDs should be conducted for a true test of their relative efficacies. Another area of future research is the usage of zebrafish tests such as the T-maze, which is design to assess the cognitive ability of the zebrafish ([@B38]). This would help to determine if the extract does not cause cognitive impairment in zebrafish as our zebrafish swimming pattern results suggest. Conclusion ========== In conclusion, an ethanolic leaf extract of *O. stamineus* has the potential to be a novel symptomatic treatment for epileptic seizures as it is pharmacologically active against seizures in a zebrafish model. The anti-convulsive effect of this extract is also comparable to that of diazepam at higher doses and can surpass diazepam in certain cases. Treatment with the extract also counteracts the upregulation of NF-κB, NPY, and TNF-α as a result of a PTZ treated seizure. The anti-convulsive action for this extract could be at least partially due to its anti-inflammatory effects due to the downregulation of TNF-α. Ethics Statement ================ The experimental protocol was approved by the Monash Animal Research Platform (MARP) Animal Ethics Committee, Monash University, Australia (MARP/2017/047). Author Contributions ==================== BC performed all the experiments and was responsible for the writing of the manuscript in its entirety. UK performed the gene expression study in tandem with BC. MS was responsible for conceptualizing and revising the manuscript. YK, S-MH, and IO were also involved in conceptualizing and proofreading. All authors gave their final approval for the submission of the manuscript. Conflict of Interest Statement ============================== The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. [^1]: Edited by: *Marianthi Papakosta, Pfizer, United States* [^2]: Reviewed by: *Thomas Heinbockel, Howard University, United States; Fathi M. Sherif, University of Tripoli, Libya* [^3]: This article was submitted to Neuropharmacology, a section of the journal Frontiers in Pharmacology

Microwave auditory effect The microwave auditory effect, also known as the microwave hearing effect or the Frey effect, consists of audible clicks (or, with speech modulation, spoken words) induced by pulsed/modulated microwave frequencies. The clicks are generated directly inside the human head without the need of any receiving electronic device. The effect was first reported by persons working in the vicinity of radar transponders during World War II. These induced sounds are not audible to other people nearby. The microwave auditory effect was later discovered to be inducible with shorter-wavelength portions of the electromagnetic spectrum. During the Cold War era, the Americanneuroscientist Allan H. Frey studied this phenomenon and was the first to publish[1] information on the nature of the microwave auditory effect. Pulsed microwave radiation can be heard by some workers; the irradiated personnel perceive auditory sensations of clicking or buzzing. The cause is thought to be thermoelastic expansion of portions of the auditory apparatus.[2] The auditory system response occurs at least from 200 MHz to at least 3 GHz. In the tests, repetition rate of 50 Hz was used, with pulse width between 10–70 microseconds. The perceived loudness was found to be linked to the peak power density instead of average power density. At 1.245 GHz, the peak power density for perception was below 80 mW/cm2.[citation needed] However, competing theories explain the results of interferometric holography tests differently.[3] In 2003-2004, the WaveBand Corp. had a contract from the US Navy for the design an MAE system they called MEDUSA (Mob Excess Deterrent Using Silent Audio) intended to remotely, temporarily incapacitate personnel. The project was cancelled in 2005.[4][5][6] Contents The first American to publish on the microwave hearing effect was Allan H. Frey, in 1961. In his experiments, the subjects were discovered to be able to hear appropriately pulsed microwave radiation, from a distance of 100 meters from the transmitter. This was accompanied by side effects such as dizziness, headaches, and a pins and needles sensation. A decade later, an overview, in the American Psychologist, of radiation impacts on human perceptions, cites investigations at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research that demonstrated 'receiverless' wireless voice transmission: "Appropriate modulation of microwave energy can result in direct 'wireless' and 'receiverless' communication of speech."[7] A 1998 patent describes a device that can scare off birds from wind turbines, aircraft, and other sensitive installations by way of microwave energy pulses. Using frequencies from 1 GHz to about 40 GHz, the warning system generates pulses of milliseconds duration, which are claimed to be sensed by the birds' auditory systems. It is believed this may cause them to veer away from the protected object.[8] As stated by the above-mentioned journal entry to the American Psychologist, "the averaged densities of energy required to transmit longer messages would approach the current 10mW/cm² limit of safe exposure", which makes the technology improper for human telecommunication. For this very same 'receiverless' wireless sound transmission to human beings, sound from ultrasound is used instead. There are extensive online support networks and numerous websites maintained by people fearing mind control. California psychiatrist Alan Drucker has identified evidence of delusional disorders on many of these websites[9] and other psychologists are divided over whether such sites negatively reinforce mental troubles or act as a form of group cognitive therapy.[11]

Among 38 of the world’s more developed nations, the United States has the least liberal government policies regarding paid parental leave, leading some to argue that this puts American women at a disadvantage as they navigate their careers. But it also turns out that some countries that offer more liberal parental leave policies have higher pay gaps among men and women ages 30 to 34, according to analyses of 16 countries conducted by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. OECD theorizes that this link may be driven by the fact that women are more likely than men to actually use their parental leave, and that time out of the workforce is associated with lower wages. The hourly pay gap in the U.S. is now 16%, according to a recent Pew Research Center report on gender and work – meaning that women today earn 84 cents for every $1 a man earns in an hour. This gap remains persistent, but has shrunk markedly from 36% in 1980. Using a slightly different metric, the OECD found that the pay gap in the U.S. was about 18%, slightly higher than the median pay gap across 26 OECD states, which was about 14%. Countries with lower pay gaps include New Zealand and Belgium; these nations also provide little by way of paid time off for new parents. Countries with higher pay gaps include The Czech Republic and Austria, both of which offer new parents about 10 months of paid parental leave (this figure does not reflect unpaid leave, or paid maternity or paternity leave). The U.S. has no national paid family leave policy, though a bill was recently introduced in Congress proposing one. (Some private U.S. employers offer paid leave.) But parental leave and gender differences in work experience are not the only factors associated with the gender pay gap. As is the case in the U.S., across these other 25 countries the gap increases with age, and with parenthood. As in the U.S., women in most of these countries have more education than men; this reduces the pay gap to some extent. It’s difficult to know the extent to which other factors may be driving the pay gap. What is clear is that among majorities in several developed nations, there is a perception that women are at a disadvantage when it comes to job opportunities. In 2010, Pew Research surveyed publics in a number of countries, seven of which are also represented in this pay gap data, about whether “men get more opportunities than women for jobs that pay well, even when women are as qualified as men for the job.” Majorities in all seven countries agreed with the statement. Agreement ranged from about seven-in-ten in the U.S. and Spain (68%), and up to more than eight-in-ten in Poland (83%) and Germany (84%).

By James Sweet III | United States Hierarchies are naturally occurring, but the values that determine an individual’s placement in that hierarchy varies. The most peculiar of social structures is the one formed by the youth, whose brain is still developing. In high schools, students are often associated with groups, and those groups are placed above another group. These social structures vary according to location, like most social structures. Unlike other social hierarchies, this one is not reliant on wealth, race, or gender. Rather, the high school social hierarchy focuses on the acceptance of others. The Structure PBS compiled and analyzed research to determine what a high school social hierarchy typically looks like. The following is what they believe the average high school social structure looks like. The “Very Popular Kids”: The athletic “alpha males” and the “queen bees”. They often have social skills and looks that make others more attracted to them. They are usually physically stronger than other students of their respective gender and may be more aggressive. The “Accepted Kids”: The majority of high school students fall into this group. They are considered well known or popular and are smart and outgoing. The “Average or Ambiguous Kids”: While not popular, they are also not unpopular. They are very common in friend groups. The “Neglected Kids”: These students are often well-behaved students and achieve good or average grades, causing teachers to not give them special or extra attention. However, it does take them much longer to make friends, and they often do require or wish for some kind of attention from parents and teachers. The “Controversial Kids”: They often have a mixed, mostly negative, reputation to their name. They may be nice with some weird habits or be bullies to kids while making others laugh with their sense of humor. The “Rejected Kids”: These students are at the highest social risk. “Rejected Kids” are either submissive, meaning they withdraw themselves from social activities so as to not receive any attention, or aggressive, meaning they purposely act up or emotionally blow up if they are teased too much. The Line of Acceptance A student that belongs in any of the first three groups finds themselves above the “line of acceptance”. They are mostly accepted by their peers or are at least not considered unaccepted. Any students one of the last three groups are below the line. They are mostly not accepted by the majority of their peers. The line is drawn between the “Average Kids” and the “Neglected Kids”. If you are on that line, you are, theoretically, perfectly balanced between acceptance and its opposite. The line is the halfway point towards total acceptance and domination of your school as well as complete isolation and “undesirable” status. One question arises from this: What causes one to rise or fall in this social structure? The Aggressive Social Climb As previously stated, the students at the top of the high school social hierarchy are likely to be more aggressive than their counterparts. In fact, a student is more likely to be aggressive if they above the line of acceptance and submissive if they are below the line of acceptance. While you can have bullies that are beneath the line of acceptance, they are often found above the line. Some students below the line of acceptance undeniably are victims of bullying by either students in their same social status or by those above them. Those at the top of the social structure, however, face bullying and/or aggressive actions more commonly than one typically thinks. In schools, students are taught that bullies are insecure or are mimicking their home life. This isn’t entirely true for all bullies. It may apply for the kids that are in the “Controversial” social status, but it likely isn’t the case for bullies that are on the top. Researchers from the University of California at Davis and Pennsylvania State sought to uncover the motives of bullying and found a possible answer. Students at the top of the social hierarchy are aggressive and competing to become the king or queen of the school. In a conflict that occurs over the social climb, neither student is willing to back down. Students at the top of the social structure have more to lose than the average student. After all, a group of friends may revolve around one person, and they are very likely to defend that status as the center of their group, meaning that conflicts are usually started by those in the center and that the friends in the circle back up their “leader”. Assuming you fit the social norms, the risk of victimization increases with your social status. Being at the top makes you a target. If you’re taken down or outdone and do nothing about it, that’s a guarantee that you are going to lose social status and your rival will gain your former place. If you continue to fall down the social ladder, there is less of a reason for those wishing to climb up to bully you. Once a student is threatened, they are likely to undergo radical personal changes, either to prepare for the fall to the bottom or to prepare their retaliation. This conflict at the top does spill out to the social groups below them. If an aggressive alpha male drastically drops in social status, they may take their anger out on some submissive, lower status student who wishes no harm. There is little to gain from this, but it serves as an emotional vent for the fallen. The Lesson High school has a very tense environment. Students compete for grades and social status. So how does one ensure that they are not trampled during the stampede for the top? One thing should be clear: do not change who you are as a person. You are a unique individual, and trying to conform yourself to the masses is a way to erode your identity. It comes down to being able and willing to fight back. Do not initiate conflict, but do not avoid it if it comes your way. If you are willing to defend your own status, not only are you ensuring that you will stay at your current place in the hierarchy, you are also making it possible to shut an aggressive bully down and climb the ladder yourself. As Dr. Jordan B. Peterson said: “Stand up straight with your shoulders back.” Get awesome merchandise. Help 71 Republic end the media oligarchy. Donate today to our Patreon, which you can find here. Thank you very much for your support!

The H7N9 bird flu virus is less likely to cause disease than the H5N1 virus that has killed hundreds of people worldwide, scientists say. But tracking the new virus is harder, as it seems to spread quietly among poultry. While the spread of H5N1 has been halted by culls of chickens, this will not work with the H7N9 virus, as it is not known to have caused widespread deaths among birds or other animals, says Professor Yuen Kwok-yung, a microbiologist at the University of Hong Kong. Though symptoms are mild in animals infected with H7N9, the virus seems to be more deadly to humans, having killed three of the nine people infected so far and left the others critically ill. "These avian viruses are not well adapted to humans, so they cause much more of a problem," Yuen said. These avian viruses are not well adapted to humans, so they cause much more of a problem Professor Yuen Kwok-yung, a microbiologist at the University of Hong Kong Since culling is ineffective, the remaining preventive measures are screening tests and vaccination. Some Western countries have developed a vaccine against the H7 virus but its efficacy on H7N9 is unknown. Scientists around the world have been seeking clues from the genome of the virus since it was obtained from the first three cases in Shanghai and published online on Sunday. Analysis suggests that reassortment - in which different virus strains swap genes with one another in a host - gave birth to the new strain, according to an article published in science journal Nature on Tuesday. It appears to stem from the reassortment of three virus strains that only infect birds. The H7N9 virus most likely originated in eastern China in wild birds, and was then transmitted to poultry and later to people, Yuan says. Dr Masato Tashiro, who researches the genome of the virus at the World Health Organisation, says it has mutations that adapted to infect mammals. As such, pigs are also a possible infecting agent. A feature of the virus is that its H protein is structurally similar to that of viruses that do not make birds severely ill. It has acquired key mutations that enable the H protein to latch onto receptors on mammal cells in the airways instead of bird receptors, according to the Nature article. Yuen found that one of its eight gene segments had a mutation that helped it adapt to the human body temperature of 37 degrees Celsius. As for how H7N9 infections will develop, Yuen says human infections may disappear suddenly, sporadic cases may continue before the virus returns as a more severe strain next winter, or human-to-human transmission may occur. This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as H7N9 harder to track but less likely to cause disease "...having killed three of the nine people infected so far and left the others critically ill." One wonders how they know how many humans might have been infected with this if those people didn't become critically ill and seek treatment. The conclusion of only nine people being infected seems unwarranted from the facts presented.

However, these irreplaceable physical collections are not all that has apparently been lost in the fire. Gumercinda Gonda, a Professor at Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), alerts in a Facebook post that the National Museum’s indigenous languages collection has also been destroyed. UFRJ has a close association with the National Museum. Folks, there’s nothing left from the Linguistics division. We lost all the indigenous languages collection: the recordings since 1958, the chants in all the languages for which there are no native speakers alive anymore, the Curt Niemuendaju archives: papers, photos, negatives, the original ethnic-historic-linguistic map localizing all the ethnic groups in Brazil, the only record that we had from 1945. The ethnological and archeological references of all ethnic groups in Brazil since the 16th century… An irreparable loss of our historic memory. It just hurts so much to see all in ashes. Indigenous language preservation and knowledge management The loss of the National Museum of Brazil’s indigenous languages collection is an important knowledge management (KM) issue, for three reasons: 1. Indigenous languages are critically linked to indigenous knowledge The RealKM Magazine article series “The case for indigenous knowledge systems and knowledge sovereignty” highlights the importance of indigenous knowledge, and a report to the Canadian Government1 highlights the importance of indigenous languages to indigenous knowledge: Language is by far the most significant factor in the survival of Indigenous knowledge. Indigenous languages and their symbolic, verbal, and unconscious orders structure Indigenous knowledge; therefore, educators cannot stand outside of Indigenous languages to understand Indigenous knowledge. Numerous guides and guidelines have been published describing measures to protect museum collections from the risk of fire, for example the guides from the Arts Council England and United States National Parks Service. All museums should be implementing such measures, but their ongoing effectiveness will always be at risk of being undermined by changes in government priorities. Indeed, in the wake of the National Museum of Brazil fire, there have been angry accusations of spending cuts and inadequate maintenance, including of the National Museum’s sprinkler system. Writing in WIRED, Emily Dreyfuss advises what must also be done in addition to fire protection: museums need to digitally backup indigenous knowledge, and doing this must be a high priority. In regard to the loss of the National Museum of Brazil indigenous languages collection, she states that: It didn’t have to be this way. All of these artifacts could have been systematically backed up over the years with photographs, scans, audio files. The failure to do so speaks to a vital truth about the limits of technology: Just because the means to do something exists technologically doesn’t mean it will be done. And it underscores that the academic community has not yet fully embraced the importance of archiving—not just in Brazil, but around the world. 3. Effective digital preservation programs are part of taking KM to the next level As Dreyfuss discusses, language researchers have tended to focus on collecting linguistics information, rather than on protecting what they collect. Organisations funding language research have also only recently started to require data management as part of their funding agreements, and the digital preservation of languages is very expensive. Knowledge managers can encourage museums and other similar organisations they are working with to place a higher priority on digital preservation, and then facilitate or assist the development and implementation of the resulting programs. Through their blog and social media posts and KM conferences and forums, knowledge managers can also actively promote the importance of digital preservation and the need for governments and other funding bodies to adequately support it. About the Author Bruce Boyes is Editor and Lead Writer of RealKM Magazine, and has also been a teacher at Shanxi University in northern China where he established new knowledge management classes. He is an experienced knowledge manager, environmental manager, and educator with expertise in information and knowledge management, program and project management, environmental management and sustainability, community and stakeholder engagement and development, research, writing and editing, education and training, website management, and event and meeting management. Bruce holds a Master of Environmental Management with Distinction and a Certificate of Technology (Electronics). With a demonstrated ability to collaboratively identify and implement innovative solutions to complex problems, Bruce’s career highlights include using agile approaches to implement an award-winning $77.4 million river recovery program in western Sydney on time and under budget, leading the development and implementation of a knowledge strategy process for the natural resource management organisations across Australia, and pioneering collaborative learning and governance approaches to help communities to sustainably manage landscapes and catchments.

Introduction {#Sec1} ============ Artificial Intelligence (ΑΙ) increasingly integrates our daily lives with the creation and analysis of intelligent software and hardware, called intelligent agents. Intelligent agents can do a variety of tasks ranging from labor work to sophisticated operations. A chatbot is a typical example of an AI system and one of the most elementary and widespread examples of intelligent Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) \[[@CR1]\]. It is a computer program, which responds like a smart entity when conversed with through text or voice and understands one or more human languages by Natural Language Processing (NLP) \[[@CR2]\]. In the lexicon, a chatbot is defined as "A computer program designed to simulate conversation with human users, especially over the Internet" \[[@CR3]\]. Chatbots are also known as smart bots, interactive agents, digital assistants, or artificial conversation entities. Chatbots can mimic human conversation and entertain users but they are not built only for this. They are useful in applications such as education, information retrieval, business, and e-commerce \[[@CR4]\]. They became so popular because there are many advantages of chatbots for users and developers too. Most implementations are platform-independent and instantly available to users without needed installations. Contact to the chatbot is spread through a user's social graph without leaving the messaging app the chatbot lives in, which provides and guarantees the user's identity. Moreover, payment services are integrated into the messaging system and can be used safely and reliably and a notification system re-engages inactive users. Chatbots are integrated with group conversations or shared just like any other contact, while multiple conversations can be carried forward in parallel. Knowledge in the use of one chatbot is easily transferred to the usage of other chatbots, and there are limited data requirements. Communication reliability, fast and uncomplicated development iterations, lack of version fragmentation, and limited design efforts for the interface are some of the advantages for developers too \[[@CR5]\]. The rest of the paper is organized as follows. In Sect. [2](#Sec2){ref-type="sec"}, we briefly present the history of chatbots and highlight the growing interest of the research community. In Sect. [3](#Sec3){ref-type="sec"}, some issues about the association with chatbots are discussed, while in Sect. [4](#Sec4){ref-type="sec"}, essential concepts relevant to chatbot technology are described. Next, in Sect. [5](#Sec5){ref-type="sec"}, we present a classification of existing chatbots while in Sect. [6](#Sec6){ref-type="sec"}, we present the underlying chatbot architecture and the leading platforms for their development. Finally, Sect. [7](#Sec7){ref-type="sec"} reports conclusions and highlights further research topics. History {#Sec2} ======= Alan Turing in 1950 proposed the Turing Test ("Can machines think?"), and it was at that time that the idea of a chatbot was popularized \[[@CR6]\]. The first known chatbot was Eliza, developed in 1966, whose purpose was to act as a psychotherapist returning the user utterances in a question form \[[@CR7]\]. It used simple pattern matching \[[@CR8]\] and a template-based response mechanism. Its conversational ability was not good, but it was enough to confuse people at a time when they were not used to interacting with computers and give them the impetus to start developing other chatbots \[[@CR5]\]. An improvement over ELIZA was a chatbot with a personality named PARRY developed in 1972 \[[@CR9]\]. In 1995, the chatbot ALICE was developed which won the Loebner Prize, an annual Turing Test, in years 2000, 2001, and 2004. It was the first computer to gain the rank of the "most human computer" \[[@CR10]\]. ALICE relies on a simple pattern-matching algorithm with the underlying intelligence based on the Artificial Intelligence Markup Language (AIML) \[[@CR11]\], which makes it possible for developers to define the building blocks of the chatbot knowledge \[[@CR10]\]. Chatbots, like SmarterChild \[[@CR12]\] in 2001, were developed and became available through messenger applications. The next step was the creation of virtual personal assistants like Apple Siri \[[@CR13]\], Microsoft Cortana \[[@CR14]\], Amazon Alexa \[[@CR15]\], Google Assistant \[[@CR16]\] and IBM Watson \[[@CR17]\]. As shown in Fig. [1](#Fig1){ref-type="fig"} according to Scopus \[[@CR18]\], there was a rapid growth of interest in chatbots especially after the year 2016. Many chatbots were developed for industrial solutions while there is a wide range of less famous chatbots relevant to research and their applications \[[@CR19]\].Fig. 1.Search results in Scopus by year for "chatbot" or "conversation agent" or "conversational interface" as keywords from 2000 to 2019. Associate with Chatbots {#Sec3} ======================= Why do users use chatbots? Chatbots seem to hold tremendous promise for providing users with quick and convenient support responding specifically to their questions. The most frequent motivation for chatbot users is considered to be productivity, while other motives are entertainment, social factors, and contact with novelty. However, to balance the motivations mentioned above, a chatbot should be built in a way that acts as a tool, a toy, and a friend at the same time \[[@CR8]\]. The reduction in customer service costs and the ability to handle many users at a time are some of the reasons why chatbots have become so popular in business groups \[[@CR20]\]. Chatbots are no longer seen as mere assistants, and their way of interacting brings them closer to users as friendly companions \[[@CR21]\]. According to a study, social media user requests on chatbots for customer service are emotional and informational, with the first category rate being more than 40% and with users not intending to take specific information \[[@CR22]\]. Machine learning is what gives the capability to customer service chatbots for sentiment detection and also the ability to relate to customers emotionally as human operators do \[[@CR23]\]. Concerning the user's trust in chatbots, it depends on factors relative to the chatbot itself, like how much it responds like a human, how it is self-presented, and how much professional its appearance is. Nevertheless, it depends also on factors relative to its service contexts, like the brand of the chatbot host, privacy and security in the chatbot, and other risk issues about the topic of the request \[[@CR10]\]. Human-likeness can be suggested by using human figures (visual cues), human-associated names, or identity (identity cues) and mimicking of human languages (conversational cues) \[[@CR24]\]. It has already been studied the influence of personification and interactivity in people's disclosures around sensitive topics, such as psychological stressors \[[@CR25]\]. Important to mention is that chatbots still lack empathy understanding meaning and that they are not as capable as humans of understanding conversational undertones. Though progress has been made in this field, and soon machines will not only be able to understand what somebody is saying but also what is the feeling of what he is saying \[[@CR26]\]. However, a biased view of gender is revealed, as most of the chatbots perform tasks that echo historically feminine roles and articulate these features with stereotypical behaviors. Accordingly, general or specialized chatbots automate work that is coded as female, given that they mainly operate in service or assistance related contexts, acting as personal assistants or secretaries \[[@CR21]\]. Soon we will live in a world where conversational partners will be humans or chatbots, and in many cases, we will not know and will not care what our conversational partner will be \[[@CR27]\]. Essential Concepts {#Sec4} ================== Below are some fundamental concepts related to chatbot technology. **Pattern Matching** is predicated on representative stimulus-response blocks. A sentence (stimuli) is entered, and output (response) is created consistent with the user input \[[@CR11]\]. Eliza and ALICE were the first chatbots developed using pattern recognition algorithms. The disadvantage of this approach is that the responses are entirely predictable, repetitive, and lack the human touch. Also, there is no storage of past responses, which can lead to looping conversations \[[@CR28]\]. The **Artificial Intelligence Markup Language (AIML)** was created from 1995 to 2000, and it is based on the concepts of Pattern Recognition or Pattern Matching technique. It is applied to natural language modeling for the dialogue between humans and chatbots that follow the stimulus-response approach. It is an XML-based markup language and it is tag-based. As shown in Fig. [2](#Fig2){ref-type="fig"}, AIML is based on basic units of dialogue called categories (tag \<category\>) which are formed by user input patterns (tag \<pattern\>) and chatbot responses (tag \<template\>) \[[@CR11]\].Fig. 2.Example of AIML code **Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA)** may be used together with AIML for the development of chatbots. It is used to discover likenesses between words as vector representation \[[@CR29]\]. Template-based questions like greetings and general questions can be answered using AIML while other unanswered questions use LSA to give replies \[[@CR30]\]. **Chatscript**, being the successor of the AIML language, is an expert system, which consists of an open-source scripting language and the engine that runs it. It is comprised of rules which are associated with topics, finding the best item that matches the user query string and executing a rule in that topic. Chatscript also includes long-term memory in the form of \\\$ variables which can be used to store specific user information like the name or age of the user. It is also case-sensitive, widening the possible responses that can be given to the same user input based on the intended emotion, as uppercase is typically used in conversations to indicate emphasis \[[@CR28]\]. **RiveScript** is a plain text, line-based scripting language for the development of chatbots and other conversational entities. It is open-source with available interfaces for Go, Java, JavaScript, Perl, and Python \[[@CR31]\]. **Natural Language Processing (NLP)**, an area of artificial intelligence, explores the manipulation of natural language text or speech by computers. Knowledge of the understanding and use of human language is gathered to develop techniques that will make computers understand and manipulate natural expressions to perform desired tasks \[[@CR32]\]. Most NLP techniques are based on machine learning. **Natural Language Understanding (NLU)** is at the core of any NLP task. It is a technique to implement natural user interfaces such as a chatbot. NLU aims to extract context and meanings from natural language user inputs, which may be unstructured and respond appropriately according to user intention \[[@CR32]\]. It identifies user intent and extracts domain-specific entities. More specifically, an **intent** represents a mapping between what a user says and what action should be taken by the chatbot. Actions correspond to the steps the chatbot will take when specific intents are triggered by user inputs and may have parameters for specifying detailed information about it \[[@CR28]\]. Intent detection is typically formulated as sentence classification in which single or multiple intent labels are predicted for each sentence \[[@CR32]\]. An **entity** is a tool for extracting parameter values from natural language inputs. For example, consider the sentence "What is the weather in Greece?". The user intent is to learn the weather forecast. The entity value is Greece. Therefore, the user asks for the weather forecast in Greece \[[@CR33]\]. Entities can be either system-defined or developer-defined. For example, the system entity \@sys.date corresponds to standard date references like 10 August 2019 or the 10th of August \[[@CR28]\]. Domain entity extraction usually referred to as a slot-filling problem, is formulated as a sequential tagging problem where parts of a sentence are extracted and tagged with domain entities \[[@CR32]\]. Finally, **contexts** are strings that store the context of the object the user is referring to or talking about. For example, a user might refer to a previously defined object in his following sentence. A user may input "Switch on the fan." Here the context to be saved is the fan so that when a user says, "Switch it off" as the next input, the intent "switch off" may be invoked on the context "fan" \[[@CR28]\]. Types of Chatbots {#Sec5} ================= Chatbots can be classified using different parameters: the knowledge domain, the service provided, the goals, the input processing and response generation method, the human-aid, and the build method. Classification based on the **knowledge domain** considers the knowledge a chatbot can access or the amount of data it is trained upon. **Open domain** chatbots can talk about general topics and respond appropriately, while **closed domain** chatbots are focused on a particular knowledge domain and might fail to respond to other questions \[[@CR34]\]. Classification based on the **service provided** considers the sentimental proximity of the chatbot to the user, the amount of intimate interaction that takes place, and it is also dependent upon the task the chatbot is performing. **Interpersonal** chatbots lie in the domain of communication and provide services such as Restaurant booking, Flight booking, and FAQ bots. They are not companions of the user, but they get information and pass them on to the user. They can have a personality, can be friendly, and will probably remember information about the user, but they are not obliged or expected to do so. **Intrapersonal** chatbots exist within the personal domain of the user, such as chat apps like Messenger, Slack, and WhatsApp. They are companions to the user and understand the user like a human does. **Inter-agent** chatbots become omnipresent while all chatbots will require some inter-chatbot communication possibilities. The need for protocols for inter-chatbot communication has already emerged. Alexa-Cortana integration is an example of inter-agent communication \[[@CR34]\]. Classification based on the **goals** considers the primary goal chatbots aim to achieve. **Informative** chatbots are designed to provide the user with information that is stored beforehand or is available from a fixed source, like FAQ chatbots. **Chat-based/Conversational** chatbots talk to the user, like another human being, and their goal is to respond correctly to the sentence they have been given. **Task-based** chatbots perform a specific task such as booking a flight or helping somebody. These chatbots are intelligent in the context of asking for information and understanding the user's input. Restaurant booking bots and FAQ chatbots are examples of Task-based chatbots \[[@CR34], [@CR35]\]. Classification based on the **input processing and response generation method** takes into account the method of processing inputs and generating responses. There are three models used to produce the appropriate responses: **rule-based** model, **retrieval-based** model, and **generative** model \[[@CR36]\]. **Rule-based** model chatbots are the type of architecture which most of the first chatbots have been built with, like numerous online chatbots. They choose the system response based on a fixed predefined set of rules, based on recognizing the lexical form of the input text without creating any new text answers. The knowledge used in the chatbot is humanly hand-coded and is organized and presented with conversational patterns \[[@CR28]\]. A more comprehensive rule database allows the chatbot to reply to more types of user input. However, this type of model is not robust to spelling and grammatical mistakes in user input. Most existing research on rule-based chatbots studies response selection for single-turn conversation, which only considers the last input message. In more human-like chatbots, multi-turn response selection takes into consideration previous parts of the conversation to select a response relevant to the whole conversation context \[[@CR37]\]. A little different from the rule-based model is the **retrieval-based** model, which offers more flexibility as it queries and analyzes available resources using APIs \[[@CR36]\]. A retrieval-based chatbot retrieves some response candidates from an index before it applies the matching approach to the response selection \[[@CR37]\]. The **generative** model generates answers in a better way than the other three models, based on current and previous user messages. These chatbots are more human-like and use machine learning algorithms and deep learning techniques. However, there are difficulties in building and training them \[[@CR36]\]. Another classification for chatbots considers the amount of **human-aid** in their components. **Human-aided** chatbots utilize human computation in at least one element from the chatbot. Crowd workers, freelancers, or full-time employees can embody their intelligence in the chatbot logic to fill the gaps caused by limitations of fully automated chatbots. While human computation, compared to rule-based algorithms and machine learning, provides more flexibility and robustness, still, it cannot process a given piece of information as fast as a machine, which makes it hard to scale to more user requests \[[@CR35]\]. Chatbots can also be classified according to the permissions provided by their development platform. Development platforms can be of open-source, such as RASA, or can be of proprietary code such as development platforms typically offered by large companies such as Google or IBM. **Open-source platforms** provide the chatbot designer with the ability to intervene in most aspects of implementation. **Closed platforms**, typically act as black boxes, which may be a significant disadvantage depending on the project requirements. However, access to state-of-the-art technologies may be considered more immediate for large companies. Moreover, one may assume that chatbots developed based on large companies' platforms may be benefited by a large amount of data that these companies collect. Of course, chatbots do not exclusively belong to one category or another, but these categories exist in each chatbot in varying proportions. Design and Development {#Sec6} ====================== The design and development of a chatbot involve a variety of techniques \[[@CR29]\]. Understanding what the chatbot will offer and what category falls into helps developers pick the algorithms or platforms and tools to build it. At the same time, it also helps the end-users understand what to expect \[[@CR34]\]. The requirements for designing a chatbot include accurate knowledge representation, an answer generation strategy, and a set of predefined neutral answers to reply when user utterance is not understood \[[@CR38]\]. The first step in designing any system is to divide it into constituent parts according to a standard so that a modular development approach can be followed \[[@CR28]\]. In Fig. [3](#Fig3){ref-type="fig"}, a general chatbot architecture is introduced.Fig. 3.General chatbot architecture The process starts with a user's request, for example, "What is the meaning of environment?", to the chatbot using a messenger app like Facebook, Slack, WhatsApp, WeChat or Skype, or an app using text or speech input like Amazon Echo \[[@CR39]\]. After the chatbot receives the user request, the Language Understanding Component parses it to infer the user's intention and the associated information (intent: "translate," entities: \[word: "environment"\]) \[[@CR35]\]. Once a chatbot reaches the best interpretation it can, it must determine how to proceed \[[@CR40]\]. It can act upon the new information directly, remember whatever it has understood and wait to see what happens next, require more context information or ask for clarification. When the request is understood, action execution and information retrieval take place. The chatbot performs the requested actions or retrieves the data of interest from its data sources, which may be a database, known as the Knowledge Base of the chatbot, or external resources that are accessed through an API call \[[@CR35]\]. Upon retrieval, the Response Generation Component uses Natural Language Generation (NLG) \[[@CR41]\] to prepare a natural language human-like response to the user based on the intent and context information returned from the user message analysis component. The appropriate responses are produced by one of the three models mentioned in Sect. [5](#Sec5){ref-type="sec"} of the paper: rule-based, retrieval based, and generative model \[[@CR36]\]. A Dialogue Management Component keeps and updates the context of a conversation which is the current intent, identified entities, or missing entities required to fulfill user requests. Moreover, it requests missing information, processes clarifications by users, and asks follow-up questions. For example, the chatbot may respond: "Would you like to tell me as well an example sentence with the word environment?" \[[@CR35]\]. Many commercial and open-source options are available for the development of a chatbot. The number of chatbot-related technologies is already overwhelming and growing each day \[[@CR42]\]. Chatbots are developed in two ways: using any programming language like Java, Clojure, Python, C++, PHP, Ruby, and Lisp or using state-of-the-art platforms. At this time, we are distinguishing six leading NLU cloud platforms that developers can use to create applications able to understand natural languages: Google's DialogFlow \[[@CR43]\], Facebook's wit.ai \[[@CR44]\], Microsoft LUIS \[[@CR45]\], IBM Watson Conversation \[[@CR17]\], Amazon Lex \[[@CR46]\], and SAP Conversation AI \[[@CR47]\]. All these platforms are supported by machine learning. They share some standard functionality (they are cloud-based, they support various programming and natural languages) but differ significantly in other aspects \[[@CR33]\]. Other known chatbot development platforms are RASA \[[@CR48]\], Botsify \[[@CR49]\], Chatfuel \[[@CR50]\], Manychat \[[@CR51]\], Flow XO \[[@CR52]\], Chatterbot \[[@CR53]\], Pandorabots \[[@CR54]\], Botkit \[[@CR55]\], and Botlytics \[[@CR56]\]. Conclusions {#Sec7} =========== Minimal human interference in the use of devices is the goal of our world of technology. Chatbots can reach out to a broad audience on messaging apps and be more effective than humans are. At the same time, they may develop into a capable information-gathering tool. They provide significant savings in the operation of customer service departments. With further development of AI and machine learning, somebody may not be capable of understanding whether he talks to a chatbot or a real-life agent. We consider that this research provides useful information about the basic principles of chatbots. Users and developers can have a more precise understanding of chatbots and get the ability to use and create them appropriately for the purpose they aim to operate. Further work of this research would be exploring in detail existing chatbot platforms and compare them. It would also be interesting to examine the degree of ingenuity and functionality of current chatbots. Some ethical issues relative to chatbots would be worth studying like abuse and deception, as people, on some occasions, believe they talk to real humans while they are talking to chatbots. This work is partially supported by the MPhil program "Advanced Technologies in Informatics and Computers", hosted by the Department of Computer Science, International Hellenic University.

HIS 303 Week 2 DQ 2 A Symbolic Figurehead This file of HIS 303 Week 2 Discussion Question 2 A Symbolic Figurehead shows the solutions to the following problems: Americans tend to pay more attention to the president than to any other government official, blaming him when things go wrong, even in areas over which the president has little control, and crediting him with successes which stem from the legislature instead of the executive. In many ways, the president serves as a symbolic figurehead of both the government and the nation, with the consequence that the executive often overshadows the other branches of government. Review the powers and responsibilities which the Constitution grants to the president. Then explain how presidents from, George Washington through Abraham Lincoln, have wielded and expanded those powers. How did the role of the president change from 1789 to 1865? Which presidents were most responsible for those changes? How did the judiciary and the legislature encourage or seek to curtail the expansion of executive power? In your response, draw from material in two of the following videos: a. The presidents: 1789-1825 b. The presidents: 1825-1849 c. The presidents: 1849-1865 d. Presidents from 1789-1849

Introduction ============ Infection with hepatitis B virus (HBV) remains a worldwide public health problem. It is estimated that more than 2 billion people have been infected with HBV, among whom 360 million have chronic liver disease, and 600 000--1 200 000 deaths result from HBV infection-related diseases annually.[@R1]^-^[@R3] According to a 2006 national seroepidemiologic survey, the HBV infection rate in China is high, with an HBsAg carrier rate of 7.2% in people between 1 and 59 y of age. It is estimated that 9.3 million people in this group are chronic HBV carriers.[@R4]^,^[@R5] Because the many HBV carriers do not know their infection status, they pose a significant risk of infection to a susceptible population. Especially perilous are the consequences to young children, because approximately 90% of HBV-infected newborns and 25--30% of children become chronic HBV carriers and thus are at increased risk for cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma.[@R6]^-^[@R8] In China, over 80% of the general population have anti-HAV, with the highest incidence in children.[@R9] Furthermore, chronic HBV carriers have a higher morbidity and mortality when super-infected with hepatitis A virus.[@R10] However, the universal infantile hepatitis A vaccination program began in 2007 in China, and the current hepatitis A vaccine is used on a "self-select and self-pay" basis in people \>7 y of age, but does not result in 100% coverage levels in chronic HBV carriers to reduce the morbidity and mortality. Also, prevention of hepatitis B can prevent hepatitis D, as the hepatitis D virus is a defective virus that only causes hepatitis in the presence of the HBV. While costly anti-viral treatment has limitations in resolving chronic HBV infection,[@R11]^,^[@R12] hepatitis B vaccination is an effective and inexpensive measure against HBV infection,[@R6]^,^[@R13] although a small number of immunization failures do occur.[@R14]^-^[@R17] In China, infants initiated a program of 10 μg plasma-derived HepB administered at zero, 1 and 6 mo in 1992--1997, and this was modified to dosages of 5 μg of recombinant HepB in 1998. After \>10 y of HepB mass vaccination, the HBV infection rate in the Chinese population, especially among children \<15 y of age, has declined significantly. The prevalence of HBsAg has decreased from 9.67% in 1992 to 0.96% in 2006, and the number of HBV-infected children has decreased by nearly 80 million,[@R4]^,^[@R5] but the prevalence of HBsAg in children between 5 and 14 y of age was 3.1--6.6% in some counties.[@R18]^,^[@R19] It is generally observed that the antibody titers decline over time following immunization,[@R20] resulting in an increased rate of infection, especially when the antibody titers are reduced below the protective level.[@R21]^,^[@R22] Consequently, the need for booster vaccination is becoming apparent. Some studies have reported that due to persistence of cellular immunity, booster vaccinations are unnecessary in a healthy population.[@R6]^,^[@R23] However, Ren et al.[@R24] reported that the percentages of IFN-γ-positive and IL-4-positive in a population with an anti-HBs titers (anti-HBs \< 10 mIU/mL) was significantly lower than those in a population with an anti-HBs titers (anti-HBs ≥ 10 mIU/mL) after primary immunization. This study indicates that cellular immunity to HBV may be as weak as humoral immunity in the population with an anti-HBs titers \< 10 mIU/mL. Currently, little is known about the effects of booster vaccination with HepB at different dosages in a large sample study. Although the effects of booster vaccination against hepatitis B have been examined,[@R25]^-^[@R28] these studies have been limited by small sample sizes or the lack of comparability of enzyme-linked immuno sorbent assay (ELISA) or radioimmanoassay (RIA) detection methods. Furthermore, previous studies have shown that horizontal transmission is one of the main ways children are infected with HBV,[@R29] and booster vaccination is cost-effective.[@R30] Because children \>5 y of age attend school, they have a greater chance of exposure to HBV than younger children. Therefore, in this study we determined the effects of different dosage levels of HepB as booster on children \>5 y of age. Subjects were vaccinated, after which the booster immunization effect of different dosages of HepB in children with anti-HBs lower less than the protective level (\<10 mIU/ml) was determined. From this study we developed recommendations for a specific program of vaccination. Results ======= Characteristics of the study subjects ------------------------------------- A total of 3818 children between 5 and 15 y of age were initially enrolled in screening, and 2229 of these children were eligible for the study. Only subjects with three negative indices (HBsAg, anti-HBs, anti-HBc) were included. Of these 2229 subjects, 123 children were lost to follow-up. Thus, there were 2106 children who participated in the entire vaccination study. Among the 2106 children, 976 (46.3%) were vaccinated with 5 μg of HepB, and the other 1130 children (53.7%) were vaccinated with 10 μg of HepB. The children characteristics are shown in [Table 1](#T1){ref-type="table"}. The proportion of males and females were similar in children 5--9 y of age who were vaccinated with 5 μg of HepB and with 10 μg of HepB, or in children 10--15 y of age. ###### **Table 1.** Characteristics of the study subjects Age group (Years) Number of cases Male Female Age (‾x ± s, years) ---------------------------------------------- ----------------- ------ -------- --------------------- ------ ------------ Received hepB booster vaccination with 5 ug 5-- 458 225 49.1 233 50.9 7.8 ± 1.5 10--15 518 248 47.9 270 52.1 12.5 ± 1.3 Received hepB booster vaccination with 10 ug 5-- 506 266 52.6 240 47.4 7.9 ± 1.3 10--15 624 318 51.0 306 49.0 12.4 ± 1.4 Before the booster vaccination, in children 5--9 y of age, the proportions of anti-HBs titers \< 1 mIU/ml and anti-HBs titers ≥ 1 mIU/ml and \< 10 mIU/ml were 36.9% and 63.1%, respectively; in children 10--15 y of age, the proportions of anti-HBs titers \< 1 mIU/ml and anti-HBs titers ≥ 1 mIU/ml and \< 10 mIU/ml were 50.1% and 49.9%, respectively. The proportion of anti-HBs titers in children 5--9 y of age who were revaccinated with 5 μg of HepB is similar to that in children who were revaccinated with 10 μg of HepB, similarly, in children 10--15 y of age . Whereas the differences in the proportion of anti-HBs titers in children who were revaccinated with 5 or 10 ugHepB are statistically significant between children 5--9 y and 10--15 y of age (*χ^2^* = 15.582 or 21.054, *P*\< 0.05, chi-square test). The distribution of age-specific anti-HBs titers on the basis of sex stratificationis is shown in [Table 2](#T2){ref-type="table"}. ###### **Table 2.** Distribution of age-specific anti-HBs titers before booster vaccination Sex Age group (Years) Dosage Number of cases anti-HBs titer (0--1 mIu/ml) anti-HBs titer (1--10 mIu/ml) *χ^2^* *P* value -------- ------------------- -------- ----------------- ------------------------------ ------------------------------- -------- ----------- -------- -------- Male 5-- 5 μg 225 80 35.6 145 64.4 0.407 \>0.05 10 μg 266 102 38.3 164 61.7 10--15 5 μg 248 121 48.8 127 51.2 0.082 \>0.05 10 μg 318 159 50.0 159 50.0 Female 5-- 5 μg 233 88 37.8 145 62.2 0.190 \>0.05 10 μg 240 86 35.8 154 64.2 10--15 5 μg 270 134 49.6 136 50.4 0.231 \>0.05 10 μg 306 158 51.6 148 48.4 Total 5-- 5 μg 458 168 36.7 290 63.3 0.023 \>0.05 10 μg 506 188 37.2 318 62.9 10--15 5 μg 518 255 49.2 263 50.8 0.280 \>0.05 10 μg 624 317 50.8 307 49.2 Antibody seroconversion rates and GMTs after booster vaccination with 5 or 10 μg of HepB ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- After the first booster dose, the anti-HBs seroconversion rates with 5 or 10 μg of HepB were 90.3% and 93.6%, respectively, and these observed differences were statistically significant (*χ^2^* = 8.107, *P*\< 0.05 chi-square test); the corresponding GMTs were 255 ± 11 mIU/ml and 877 ± 11 mIU/ml respectively (*t* = −11.755, *P*\< 0.05, *t* test). While the differences in anti-HBs seroconversion rates with 5 μg of HepB and 10 μg of HepB in 10--15 y old boys were statistically significant (*χ^2^* = 5.753, *P*\< 0.05 chi-square test). The distribution of dosage-specific anti-HBs titers on the basis of sex stratificationis is shown in [Table 3](#T3){ref-type="table"}. ###### **Table 3.** Antibody seroconversion rates and GMTs after the different-dosage hepatitis B vaccine booster vaccination -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sex Age group (Years) Dosage Number of cases After the first booster vaccination After the third booster vaccination *χ*[@R2]^\*^ *P* value\* *Z*\*\* *P* value\*\* -------- ------------------- -------- ----------------- ------------------------------------- ------------------------------------- -------------- ------------- --------- --------------- --------- --------- -------- -------- Male 5-- 5 μg 225 217 96.4 626 ± 4 225 100.0 786 ± 3 \_ \<0.05 −2.437 \<0.05 10 μg 266 258 97.0 2002 ± 5 266 100.0 2847 ± 3 \_ \<0.05 −4.633 \<0.05 10--15 5 μg 248 209 84.3 267 ± 5 246 99.2 620 ± 4 35.027 \<0.05 −9.529 \<0.05 10 μg 318 289 90.9 972 ± 7 318 100.0 2644 ± 3 27.034 \<0.05 −11.391 \<0.05 5--15 5 μg 473 426 90.1 686 ± 5 471 99.6 669 ± 3 43.022 \<0.05 −9.037 \<0.05 10 μg 584 547 93.7 2205 ± 5 584 100.0 2841 ± 3 35.027 \<0.05 −11.995 \<0.05 Female 5-- 5 μg 233 215 92.3 358 ± 5 232 99.6 644 ± 4 \_ \<0.05 −0.939 \>0.05 10 μg 240 231 96.3 907 ± 6 240 100.0 2339 ± 4 \_ \<0.05 −2.948 \<0.05 10--15 5 μg 270 240 88.9 655 ± 5 269 99.6 724 ± 3 27.034 \<0.05 −7.849 \<0.05 10 μg 306 280 91.5 2095 ± 5 303 99.0 2844 ± 3 \_ \<0.05 −10.686 \<0.05 5--15 5 μg 503 455 90.5 312 ± 5 501 99.6 632 ± 4 42.188 \<0.05 −6.644 \<0.05 10 μg 546 511 93.6 939 ± 6 543 99.5 2490 ± 3 28.265 \<0.05 −10.375 \<0.05 Total 5-- 5 μg 458 432 94.3 463 ± 8 457 99.8 717 ± 3 21.333 \<0.05 −2.317 \>0.05 10 μg 506 489 96.6 1675 ± 6 506 100.0 2844 ± 3 \_ \<0.05 −5.393 \<0.05 10--15 5 μg 518 449 86.7 150 ± 22 515 99.4 610 ± 2 64.015 \<0.05 −12.410 \<0.05 10 μg 624 569 91.2 519 ± 14 621 99.5 2415 ± 4 48.176 \<0.05 −15.580 \<0.05 \ 5 μg 976 881 90.3 255 ± 11 972 99.6 658 ± 4 87.097 \<0.05 −11.060 \<0.05 5--15 10 μg 1130 1058 93.6 877 ± 11 1127 99.7 2599 ± 3 65.127 \<0.05 −15.858 \<0.05 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- \*McNemar test,"---"is Exact test; \*\*Wilcoxon signed--rank test. After the third booster dose, the anti-HBs seroconversion rates with 5 or 10 μg of HepB were higher than those after the first booster dose (all *P*\< 0.05); the anti-HBs GMTs in 5- to 9-y-old girls vaccinated with 5 μg of HepB were similar after the third and first booster dose, whereas the differences in the other corresponding GMTs are statistically significant (all *P*\< 0.05; [Table 3](#T3){ref-type="table"}) . After the first booster dose, the age-specific anti-HBs seroconversion rates with 5 or 10 μg of HepB in boys were similar to that in girls. After the first booster dose, the difference in anti-HBs seroconversion rate for revaccination both with 5 or 10 μg of HepB was statistically significant in children 5--9 y and 10--15 y of age (*χ^2^* = 16.164 or 13.934, *P*\< 0.05 chi-square test), whereas after the third booster dose, the anti-HBs seroconversion rates were similar. Discussion ========== This study's results showed that the post--third dose anti-HBs seroconversion rates and GMTs for booster vaccination with 5 and 10 μg HepB were at a high level in children 5--15 y of age. The results of this study are similar to the results of a study involving booster vaccination in non-and-low responsers reported by Wu.[@R28]Specifically, a three-dose booster vaccination regimen with 10 or 5 μg of HepB is effective. It is generally believed that individuals whose anti-HBs antibody titers ≥10 mIU/ml after vaccination with HepB will resist HBV infection.[@R31]Although the anti-HBs seroconversion rates with a 3-dose booster vaccination were greater than those with a 1-dose booster vaccination, the post-single dose anti-HBs seroconversion rates for booster vaccination with 5 or 10 μg HepB were at high levels (\>88%) in 5- to 15-y-old girls and 5- to 9-y-old boys, thus a single booster dose with 5 or 10 µg of HepB for the majority of such children can prevent HBV infection. In contrast, the rate for booster vaccination with 5 μg HepB was at lower levels(\<85%) in 10- to 15-y-old boys, and it may be correlated with that the vaccinees, 10--15-y-old boys, were at the upper end of the age group for which 5 μg HepB is recommended in China and that the larger body mass index than the same age girls affected the response to the first hepatitis B booster; whereas the post-dose-one anti-HBs seroconversion rate for booster vaccination with 10 μg of HepB was at a high level (\>90%) in 10- to 15-y-old boys, and was higher than that reported in Sprading PR et al. study,[@R32] which indicates one dose of 5 μg HepB is insufficient for 10- to 15-y-old boys, whereas a single booster dose with 10 µg of HepB for 10- to 15-y-old boys is ideal. In addition, this study's results also show the post-single dose anti-HBs GMTs for booster vaccination with 10 μg of HepB were more than twice those with 3-dose 5 μg of HepB in children 5--9 y of age and were very similar to the anti-HBs GMTs with 3-dose 5 μg of HepB in children 10--15 y of age. The results of this study were higher than other reported results.[@R25]^,^[@R33] A possible explanation for this difference was the use of different testing methods, and the serum anti-HBs antibody titers of the latter studies were measured using an ELISA or RIA. Although the post-3 dose anti-HBs seroconversion rates and GMTs for vaccination with 10 or 5 μg of HepB were higher than the post-single dose rates and GMTs in children 5--15 y of age, a booster vaccination with one dose can reduce the number of needles. The small percentage of children (\<8%) with anti-HBs titers less than protective levels after the first dose can be given an additional booster dose to improve their anti-HBs titers. This study also showed that the proportion of anti-HBs titers (1--10 mIU/ml) in children aged 5- to 9-y-old who have anti-HBs titers less than protective levels was higher than that in children aged 10- to 15-y-old after primary immunization. The previous studies showed the immunization effect of booster vaccination was correlated with the pro-vaccination anti-HBs titers,[@R33]^,^[@R34] and the duration of protection may be evaluated indirectly by measuring the anamnestic immune response to a booster dose of vaccine. This study showed that the same age and different sex children had similar anti-HBs seroconversion rates after the first booster dose and have an equal duration of protection, but the post-single dose anti-HBs seroconversion rates for children aged 5- to 9-y-old who were booster vaccinated with 5 or 10 μg of HepB were higher than those in children aged 10- to 15-y-old, which indicates that a shorter interval between primary immunization and booster vaccination gives a better response. The results of this study were similar to other reported studies.[@R35]^-^[@R38]Thus, the anti-HBs titer should be monitored regularly to screen for anti-HBs-negative children at the time of the students' annual examinations. Booster vaccination can then be given to increase the antibody levels for these children. This study had some limitations. First, it was not possible to identify the reasons that some children had lower than protective levels of anti-HBs titers before booster vaccination. Possibly, this may be due to non-responsiveness to primary immunization or a decrease in the antibody titer over time. Second, we could not collect blood samples from each subject and detect antibody titer after the second booster dose because of field operation constraints, so that we could not analyze the effects of the second and the third booster doses. In Clemens R et al. study,[@R39] all non-responders developed anti-HBs levels ≥100 mIU/ml after the third booster dose, and all low-responders reached this level after the second booster dose; whereas in this study, 99.6% of anti-HBs negative children developed anti-HBs levels ≥10 mIU/ml after the third booster dose, thus this may have had an minimal impact on the results. Finally, this study used vaccines produced by different companies to compare the immunization effects of different dosages, and it is possible that the use of HepB produced by different companies caused a small effect in this study. In conclusion, the immunization effects of booster vaccination with 3 doses of HepB with 5 or 10 µg are effective; a single booster dose with 10 µg of HepB for 10--15-y-old boys and with 5 or 10 µg of HepB for 5--9 y old boys and for 5--15-y-old girls are effective in generating protective antibody against HBV; however, for anti-HBs-negative children after a single dose of booster, 3 doses are needed. Materials and Methods ===================== Study participants ------------------ This research was performed in Longquan County, Xinqu County, Yuhuan County, Kaihua County, and Changshan County in Zhejiang province, in 2009--2010; two towns were selected in each county as research sites. Sample subjects were clustered based on school enrolment. Children were selected who were born between 1993 and 2003, and who had received three vaccinations against the hepatitis B virus: at birth, at 1 mo and at 6 mo of age (children born between 1993 and 1997 received 10 μg hepatitis B Vaccine prepared from plasma; children born between 1998 and 2003 received 5 μg recombinant hepatitis B vaccine), Children who had previously received booster vaccinations were excluded from this study, as were children who tested positive for HBsAg, anti-HBs or antibody to hepatitis B c antigen (anti-HBc). A flowchart of the participants enrolled in the study is summarized in [Figure 1](#F1){ref-type="fig"}. We ascertained whether children had received a primary hepatitis B vaccine by checking their vaccination certificates. Finally, the children's ages were calculated on the survey date, and then rounded to the nearest whole number in years. This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of the Zhejiang Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and written informed consent was obtained from every parent. {#F1} Specific inclusion criteria were as follows: 1. Born between May 1, 1993 and September 30, 2003 and vaccinated against HBV at 0, 1, and 6 mo; 2. Never received a Hepatitis B vaccine booster; 3. Parental willingness to participate in the follow-up study and to have their child's blood sampled after vaccination; 4. Stable home address since birth; 5. No acute illness within the previous 7 d; no fever within the past 3 d (armpit temperature ≥38 °C); and no allergies or severe reaction to vaccination. 6. All information regarding the study was provided to the parents, and the consent form was signed by them. Designs and Methods =================== Methods ------- After acquiring informed consent from the parents or guardians, 3 ml blood samples were collected from each subject. Booster vaccinations of Hepatitis B vaccine (lot number: 20090309 (01--06), dosage: 10 μg HBsAg; produced by Dalianhanxin Biotechnology Co Ltd. lot number: 20071223(1--9), dosage: 5 μg HBsAg; produced by Shenzhenkangtai Biotechnology Co Ltd.) were administered by intramuscular injection in the upper arm deltoid according to the immunization procedure used at months 0, 1, and 6. One month after the first and the third dose of booster vaccine injections, 3 ml blood samples were collected from each subject and preserved for testing. Lab testing and sample processing --------------------------------- Frozen separated serum samples were sent to ADICON Clinical Laboratories, Inc. in Hangzhou for quantification of HBsAg, anti-HBs, and anti-HBc by chemiluminescence immunoassay (CLIA). Samples with anti-HBs ≥ 1000 mIU/ml were diluted for further testing, while samples with anti-HBs ≥ 15 000 mIU/ml were excluded from further analysis to avoid large errors in the results. Apparatus and reagents ---------------------- An Architect-i2000 (Abbott) was used for the chemical luminescence immunoassay. The reagent lot number for the HBsAg tests was 70318HN00 (Abbott Laboratories). An signal to noise(S/N) ratio ≥ 0.05 was considered to be positive. The reagent lot number for the anti-HBs tests was 75684M100 (Abbott Laboratories), and an anti-HBs ≥ 10 mIU/ml was considered to be positive and to provide protection against HBV infection. The reagent lot number for the anti-HBc tests was 72448M100 (Abbott Laboratories), and an anti-HBc ≥ 1 mIU/ml was considered to be positive. Data analysis ------------- A database EpiData3.2 (EpiData) was established, and statistical analysis was performed using SPSS 18.0 and Excel 2003. We used the McNemar test for related samples enumeration data and Chi-square test or the Fisher exact test for independent samples enumeration data and the Student *t*test for independent sample measurement data (normal continuous variables) and Wicoxon Singed-Rank test for related samples measurement data. A two-tailed probability was used in statistical tests, with an α of 0.05 considered to be significant. No potential conflicts of interest were disclosed. We are grateful to the children and parents who volunteered to participate in this study and to the doctors in Longqua, Xinqu, Yuhuan, Kaihua, Changshan counties Center for Disease Control and Prevention. This work was supported by the National Scientific and Technological Major Project of China (No.2008ZX10002-001) and grant from the scientific research fund of medical and health in Zhejiang province (No.2009A035 and No.2012ZHB001). [10.4161/hv.26936](10.4161/hv.26936) [^1]: These authors contributed equally to this work.

1. Field of the Invention This invention relates to the recovery of oil from petroleum reservoirs, and relates particularly to the use of hydrogen peroxide and its aqueous solutions to recover viscous oil from geological reservoirs. 2. Brief Description of the Existing Art In excess of 4 trillion barrels of viscous oil are estimated to exist in Canada, Venezuela, Calif. and various other worldwide locations. Viscous oil may be defined as oil having a viscosity greater than about 100 centipoises at reservoir conditions. The known reserves of viscous oil are estimated to be at least three times the known worldwide reserves of easily recovered low viscosity oil. With present technology, most of the world's viscous oil reserves cannot be produced economically. The incentive to recover these vast reserves, however, is enormous and many methods have been tried to do so. The existing art for recovery of viscous oil includes the following methods. Most of the present recovery methods rely on thermal techniques to reduce the viscosity of the oil and increase its ability to flow. One method uses mining techniques to dig up the oil-containing sand and liberate the viscous oil from the sand by washing with hot water. Another method uses hot solvent to dissolve the tarry hydrocarbon from the mined solids. The most commonly used non-mining thermal methods are hot water injection, steam injection, and in situ combustion. (a) Hot Water Injection The simplest thermal method to reduce oil viscosity in situ is by injection of hot water. The water is heated at the surface, and then pumped down a metal pipe and into a subterranean oil-bearing formation. The hot water warms the oil and thereby reduces its viscosity, and the less viscous oil is able to move more easily toward a production well. This method, however, is limited to shallow reservoirs, and heat loss to the nonproductive overburden limits the maximum temperature at which one can inject hot water. (b) Steam Injection Steam injection is generally preferred over hot water injection because, pound for pound, steam will typically have 3 to 4 times more heat available for reducing oil viscosity than will hot water. Typically, steam is generated at the surface and injected in much the same manner as hot water. Steam also loses heat to the nonproductive overburden (typically 10 to 30% of its heat content) but because of steam's higher initial heat content it can be used at greater depths to generate higher downhole temperatures than can hot water. The problems associated with steam injection are many and are well known to those skilled in the art. For instance, water treatment costs are high, and insulated injection tubing is required for deep reservoirs. Expensive and non-conventional completion methods must be used in steam injection, such as special cementing techniques, special expansion joints, special casing and couplings, etc. In addition, steam tends to "finger" through the reservoir to the production well, leaving large quantities of oil in place in the reservoir. A common method for well stimulation and more rapid production of viscous oil involves injection of steam into a well for a short period of time (2 to 4 weeks) followed by a soak period of a few days. The soak period is followed by production from that same well for a period of 8 to 12 weeks. This method of well stimulation is commonly called Huff and Puff. In this method, the reservoir sand around the well bore is heated by injecting steam and allowing time for the steam to condense. This allows the oil bearing zone to extract the considerable latent heat of vaporization of the steam. The flow is then reversed by converting the former injection well to a production well. The hot oil near the injection well flows relatively easily into the well bore. Cooler oil from farther out in the reservoir moves radially into the heated zone where the oil extracts heat from the hot reservoir sand. Production is continued until the formation sand is too cool to lower the oil viscosity appreciably. The process can sometimes be repeated as many as five times before the operation becomes uneconomic. (c) In Situ Combustion In order to reduce excessive heat losses to the nonproductive overburden during hot water or steam floods, techniques have been devised to generate the desired heat in the oil bearing zone itself. In situ combustion is one such method. Typically, air is compressed to some pressure higher than reservoir pressure and injected into the formation. Spontaneous ignition of the hydrocarbon with air can sometimes take place, but ways to initiate the combustion have also been suggested. For instance, L.S. Melik-Aslanov et al (Russian Patent Certificate No. 570700, Aug. 30, 1977) suggests use of chromic acid solution to catalyze the rapid decomposition of hydrogen peroxide at the bottom zone of a well bore. The rapid decomposition is theorized to cause a high temperature near the well bore which enhances recovery by initiating combustion of the resident oil during subsequent injection and ignition of air-water foam. Another method for causing a high temperature at the bottom of a well bore is suggested by J. C. McKimmell (U.S. Pat. No. 3,561,533). He proposed to mix foams of two highly reactive compounds in the well bore--hydrogen peroxide and hydrazine, a common rocket propellant mixture--to effect chemical heating in a well. Oxygen in air can react with hydrocarbons to produce heat, water, and carbon dioxide. Only about 20% of air, however, is oxygen. The remaining 80% is substantially all nitrogen, and nitrogen is inert, has low solubility in oil or reservoir fluids, and causes fingers of gas to move rapidly toward the production well. The nitrogen fingers provide an easy path for the steam and combustion front to follow, leaving a large amount of the resident oil in place. Premature arrival of the combustion front at a production well frequently signals the termination of the fire-flood. To help alleviate this condition, water is sometimes injected with the air. Water tends to occupy part of the nitrogen fingers and slows down the passage of air toward the fingers. Water also tends to prevent overriding of the air because water-air mixtures are much more dense than air alone. Other techniques to minimize the adverse effects of inert gas fingering have been used, such as injection of pure oxygen, or mixtures of oxygen with water, flue gas, or carbon dioxide. See, for example, W. R. Shu, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,454,916 and 4,474,237, and G. Savard, U.S. Pat. No. 4,557,329. Manufacture and compression of pure oxygen in the oil field, however, is expensive and hazardous. More complete descriptions of the existing art may be found in Development of Heavy Oil Reservoirs, Briggs et al, J. of Petroleum Technology, Feb. 1988, p. 206; and in the books Enhanced Oil Recovery of Residual and Heavy Oils, M. M. Schumacher, Second Ed., Noyes Data Corp., Park Ridge, N.J., ISBN 0-8155-0816-6, and Fundamentals of Enhanced Oil Recovery, H.K. van Poollen and Associates, PennWell Publishing, Tulsa 1980.

Cables, such as telecommunication cables and electrical power distribution cables, are ubiquitous and used for distributing electrical power and all manner of data across vast networks. The majority of cables are electrically conductive cables (typically copper), although the use of optical fiber cables is growing rapidly in telecommunication systems as larger and larger amounts of data are transmitted. As cables are routed across power or data networks, it is necessary to periodically open the cable and splice or tap into the cable so that power or data may be distributed to other cables or “branches” of the network. The cable branches may be further distributed until the network reaches individual homes, businesses, offices, and so on. The cables of the distributed lines are often referred to as drop lines, branch lines, or distribution lines. At each point where the cable is opened, it is necessary to provide some type of enclosure to protect the cable. Commonly, the enclosure has one or more entry ports through which cables enter the enclosure. Depending upon the number of entry ports in the enclosure, the sizes of the entry ports, the number of cables entering the enclosure, and the sizes of the cables, the number of cables passing through the each entry port will vary. Often, especially with smaller diameter cables as are typically used in distributed lines, multiple cables are bundled for placement into a single larger entry port. This is particularly common where multiple smaller cables are routed from a single point to multiple locations, such as individual homes, buildings, offices, etc. At each entry port, no matter the number of cables passing therethrough, it is often desirable or necessary to provide a seal around the cables to prevent the ingress of moisture, dust, insects, and the like into the enclosure. Current methods of providing a seal around the cables typically involve bundling cables with mastic material or rubber tape. Such sealing methods are replete with disadvantages. The quality of the resulting seal is highly dependent upon the skill of the installer, and is therefore typically inconsistent from one installer to another installer. Further, as the number of cables increases, it becomes more and more difficult to form a reliable seal. The use of mastic or rubber tape to form a seal also presents difficulties when it is desired to re-enter the enclosure, so as to add or remove cables in the entry port. Specifically, the old sealing materials must be removed without damaging the cables, and a new seal must be constructed. The removal and reconstruction of the seal requires the use of additional time and materials, and therefore adds to the cost of maintaining or expanding the network. To address the above-described disadvantages of mastic or rubber tape seals, there have been attempts to use pre-formed grommets to expand the capacity of entry ports in an enclosure. Typically, the grommets are sized to fit within an enclosure entry port, and have a predetermined number of holes for accepting smaller diameter cables. The cables are threaded through the holes in the grommet, and the grommet is in turn secured within the entry port. Such grommets have the disadvantage that the cables must have a free end to thread through the grommet openings. However, in many applications a free cable end is not available because the cable has already been connected, spliced or terminated. In such situations, to avoid disconnecting, re-splicing or re-terminating the cable, the installer typically cuts through the body of the grommet into the opening, using a utility knife or the like; such that the cable can be inserted lengthwise into the opening. Successfully cutting into the grommet in this manner is very dependent upon the skill of installer, and becomes increasingly difficult as the number of cables increases and as the size of the grommet and cables decreases. Further, the grommet is left with several cuts extending directly from the openings to the outer surface of the grommet. The cuts degrade the reliability of the grommet, and are a potential pathway for the ingress of moisture into the enclosure. A need exists for a seal that enables an installer to consistently and reliably bundle multiple cables for placement into a single entry port of an enclosure, independent of the skill level of the installer. Furthermore, a need exists for a seal that can be easily and quickly installed, and that can be easily re-entered and re-used. Still further, a need exists for a such a seal that can also be installed on an existing cable, without disconnecting, re-splicing or re-terminating the cable.

Portable tools such as chain saws or power cutters are used in many different handling positions, even up side down. They are therefore usually crankcase scavenged and lubricant, e.g., oil is supplied to the crankcase. This lubrication system works in every handling position. However, oil tends to collect in the crankcase so there is a surplus in the crankcase and tends to be a shortage for some lubricating places. By adding more oil this can of course be compensated for, but this will increase oil consumption and increase emissions of oil smoke in the exhaust gases. There are even lubricating places that are very difficult to lubricate at all, e.g., a bearing on the crankshaft supporting a centrifugal clutch normally used for portable tools. Some tools use a sealed bearing that is pre-filled with grease. The seals will wear resulting in loss of grease and the shaft will corrode increasing the wear of the seals and the loss of grease and shortening the life of the bearing. Other tools use a duct arranged in the crankshaft so that one end of the duct reaches the bearing area. The other end of the duct either ends in the crankcase to get oilmist there, or ends in the outer end of the crankshaft to be lubricated with grease occasionally. In both cases the efficiency is limited and also dirt easily fills the respective duct so that the lubrication will be decreased or stopped.

A commonly desired feature of video surveillance cameras is the ability to detect when something unusual happens and then issue an appropriate report or alarm. Historically, detection of unusual events in video surveillance has been performed by is having security professionals watching video footage of a scene on one or more video display monitors. More recently, the field of video analytics has allowed computers to perform automatic detection of objects in video. Security professionals can use these detected video objects to create rules that trigger alarms or events when certain criteria are met. For example, an object of a certain size entering a predefined area of a scene may trigger an alarm. These rules are used for a variety of purposes, such as intrusion detection, abandoned object detection, removed object detection, tailgating detection, speeding detection, and falling over detection. While such rules are useful in a scene with requirements that are well understood and easily definable, sometimes a scene is more complicated and it is difficult to set up accurate rules, or the security professional just wants to be told when something unusual happens. There are several existing systems for detecting abnormal events. One method uses motion detection to estimate velocity at each point of a scene captured in a video sequence, without associating that velocity with any particular object, in order to build up an average “flow map” of the scene over a period of time. If a current video sequence has velocities that are sufficiently different from the flow map, the method triggers an abnormal behaviour event. This method is limited to velocity vectors, however, because this method does not perform true object detection. This method cannot detect objects of unusual size, or objects in unusual positions in the scene, unless these objects are also accompanied by sufficiently unusual velocity vectors. Another method uses background subtraction to build up statistics for a scene over time relating to how often a portion of the scene is part of the background. At a given time, a current foreground mask can be compared with an average background mask to detect whether the current frame has objects in abnormal positions. This method is limited to detecting abnormal positions of objects. This method is not able to detect an object moving at an unusual speed, or an object of an unusual size, unless that object was also in an unusual position. A third method uses histograms to accumulate position and motion information about a scene, using point-feature extraction to obtain object and tracking data. Abnormal events are detected by comparing current positions and motions of objects with the histograms. This method has a disadvantage in that because input parameters are broken up into histogram bins, it is memory intensive to add extra parameters, each parameter contributing an additional dimension to the storage array. In addition, because this method uses point-feature extraction, it has no concept of object size. Thus, a need exists to provide an improved method for classifying a behaviour of a detected video object in a video frame.

In the related art, motors (three-phase motors) that are driven in three phases have been widely used. In general three-phase motors, coils of respective phases are connected to each other at neutral positions thereof, and electric currents are not independently applied to the coils of the respective phases. In contrast, an invention of an electric power steering apparatus equipped with a motor having a connection relationship in which coils of respective phases can be independently driven is disclosed (for example, refer to Patent Document 1). If the coils of the respective phases can be independently driven, a larger torque can be output as compared to the case where the coils of the respective phases are connected to each other. On the other hand, the applicability of motors has also increased. For example, an invention of a motor generator that functions as a starter motor at the time of starting an engine and functions as a generator after the engine is started is disclosed (refer to Patent Document 2). The motor generator of such an aspect may be referred to as an alternating current generator (ACG) starter. By using the ACG starter, the need for including a related-art cell motor type starter disappears. For this reason, weight and costs can be reduced, and generation of noise caused by a reduction gear that couples a cell motor type starter and a crankshaft together can be eliminated. Particularly, in vehicles that perform idling stop, which have recently become more common, the ACG starter is preferably used because mechanical noise at the time of the starting of the engine is suppressed.

For the last 60 million years, fungus-growing ants have farmed fungi for food. In their cultivation of those fungi, they've successfully relied on bacteria-produced antimicrobial ingredients to protect their crops from other species of parasitic fungi. Now, researchers reporting in the journal Trends in Ecology & Evolution say they are looking to these ants to find new ways to stop or slow the evolution of antibiotic resistance that now presents a major threat to modern medicine. "Somehow the ant-bacteria alliance seems to have been able to sidestep the problem of antibiotic resistance," says Massimiliano Marvasi of the Università degli Studi di Firenze, Italy. "This led us to hypothesize that the application of potent cocktails of continually evolving variants of antimicrobial compounds was the most likely model by which to explain this dynamic." Marvasi's team had been studying the fitness of multi-drug resistant pathogens in the environment. While exploring this, first author of the new review Ayush Pathak suggested that they compare what they saw in other environments including clinics to what happens in the fungus gardens of attine ants. In clinical settings, antimicrobial use leads quickly to the rise of resistant bacterial strains. But the ants weren't having this same problem. The question was: Why? The researchers say that the secret to the ants' success may be explained by the fact that the bacteria they associate with rely on antimicrobials that vary subtly and continually over time in both structure and combination. This element of surprise, enabled by the presence of gene clusters under selective pressure, allows the ant-associated bacteria to produce ever-changing and unpredictable antimicrobials. As a result, it's much tougher for the parasitic fungi to become resistant, even over the course of millions of years. The ants' example suggests that mixing and administering continually varying cocktails of slight structural variants of known antibiotics might hold promise as a means to address antimicrobial resistance in the clinic, the researchers say. Along with the continued development of new molecules and classes of antibiotics, they suggest this strategy should now be assessed in the lab and ultimately in the clinic. "I think the development of effective strategies for mixing subtle antibiotic variants could give a new life to old antibiotics," Marvasi says. The researchers say the next step is to investigate the effects of selection pressure upon the bacterial gene clusters that produce antibiotic variants. "A better understanding of this relationship and its coevolutionary processes at the genetic level will complement development of new strategies for combating the rise of resistance as well as potentially giving rise to novel antibiotic compounds," Pathak says.

1. Introduction {#sec0005} =============== Trace metals (TMs) constitute one group of known hazardous substances; in some cases, these elements are naturally present in soils \[[@bib0005]\], as they originate from the erosion of rocks or volcanic activity. Additionally, anthropogenic activities like mineral processing; chemical, metallurgic, petrochemical, and textile industries; and fuel combustion, among others \[[@bib0010]\], have increased TM concentrations. In both cases, these contaminants are readily available for intake by plants because they are present mostly in the soil surface, along with plant nutrients \[[@bib0005],[@bib0015]\]. There is worldwide concern about some metals, such as cadmium (Cd), iron (Fe), and zinc (Zn), because they have the capacity to translocate into plant shoots; other metals like arsenic (As), chromium (Cr), and lead (Pb) bioaccumulate in most plant organs: roots, stem, leaves, and fruits \[[@bib0005]\]. In addition, TMs are nonbiodegradable, and they can move through food webs to ultimately be consumed by humans, which may result in various health risks due to their acute or chronic toxicity \[[@bib0020], [@bib0025], [@bib0030]\]. This concern has led researchers to test and apply different methodologies for sample preparation and metal quantification in food samples, including acid calcination \[[@bib0035]\], microwave-assisted acid digestion \[[@bib0040], [@bib0045], [@bib0050]\], and the use of absorbents and nanoparticles to extract TMs before quantification \[[@bib0055], [@bib0060], [@bib0065]\]. In crop cultivation, organic waste is commonly used as a source of nutrients, but long-term application can increase TM concentrations in soils \[[@bib0070]\]. In cultivable soils, Cd presence is assumed to occur from the soils' own natural volcanic composition, but it can also follow when some fertilizers (e.g., phosphorous derivatives) are used. Once consumed, this metal is retained in the human body, particularly in the kidneys, producing highly toxic effects and increasing the risk of kidney failure and cancer \[[@bib0075]\]. For nonsmoking populations, food consumption is the main source of Cd exposure \[[@bib0015]\]. Pb is another harmful TM that can damage the nervous, skeletal, circulatory, enzymatic, endocrine, and immune systems \[[@bib0025]\]. The presence of metals in vegetables is influenced by many factors, principally by the crop species and its metabolism, and by others such as the soil's initial concentration of contaminants, pH, organic matter availability, and presence of other ions and molecules \[[@bib0080],[@bib0085]\]. The kinetics of TMs' uptake depends on the mechanisms of their ion toxicity, including the blocking of functional groups in biomolecules and the replacing of essential metal ions in biomolecules \[[@bib0090]\]. Crops that are located close to vehicular traffic and factories also have an increased likelihood of TM presence \[[@bib0095]\]. Considering that vegetables are an important dietary source of essential nutrients, especially in terms of their high content of protein, vitamins, minerals, and fibers as well as beneficial antioxidant effects \[[@bib0100]\], their consumption is generally recommended \[[@bib0105]\]. Nevertheless, vegetables may also contain elevated concentrations of TMs due to high transfer from the soil to the harvested crop \[[@bib0005]\]. Further, since the early 20th century, human exposure to TMs from natural food consumption has increased because of their intensified use in industrial processes and products \[[@bib0025]\]. To protect food safety and human health, national and international organizations have established maximum permissible levels of TMs in food meant for human consumption \[[@bib0015],[@bib0105]\]. One such regulation is the General Standard for Contaminants and Toxins in Food and Feed Codex (CXS) 193--1995 \[[@bib0110]\]. In addition, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed the use of hazard quotients (HQs), which help evaluate the potential exposure status of a population as related to their alimentary habits \[[@bib0115],[@bib0120]\]. The HQs have been extensively used to assess human health risk from vegetable consumption \[[@bib0020],[@bib0025]\]. In Ecuador, two of the most consumed crops in the population's daily diet are tomato (*Solanum lycopersicum*) and lettuce (*Lactuca sativa*), which are frequently used in salads and sandwiches. Each Ecuadorian consumes on average four kilos of tomatoes per year \[[@bib0125]\], and lettuce demand and consumption are high because of its use in both traditional and gourmet recipes \[[@bib0130]\]. There are no local-context studies that have determined Cd and Pb content in tomato and lettuce sold in the main markets in the Metropolitan District of Quito (DMQ, for its name in Spanish). For this reason, the present study aims to determine the Cd and Pb concentrations in tomato and lettuce samples from organic and nonorganic markets in the DMQ, Ecuador, to quantify the concentration of these TMs and evaluate compliance with the CXS 193--1995 international standard \[[@bib0110]\]. 2. Materials and methods {#sec0010} ======================== 2.1. Study location {#sec0015} ------------------- The DMQ was selected for the current study as it is the most densely populated city in Ecuador, with a population of 2,735,987 \[[@bib0135]\]. It is the country's capital and one of the most touristic destinations of the region. In addition, the DMQ and its surroundings include different industrial and commercial enterprises as well as relatively heavy traffic around and within the city, which are potential pollution sources. At the same time, large-scale vegetable production is conducted near this area, principally to supply the main city markets. The climate in Quito varies daily but remains relatively steady throughout the year; the weather ranges from warm, sunny days to cold and windy conditions mixed with rain. The average annual temperature in Quito is 18 °C with an annual low temperature around 7 °C and an annual high temperature around 25 °C \[[@bib0140]\]. 2.2. Sampling {#sec0020} ------------- All formal and registered nonorganic markets within the DMQ were considered for sampling, using information from the Direction of Markets, Fairs, and Platforms from the District Trade Coordination Agency of the DMQ municipality. Supermarkets were excluded because they have a limited number of approved vegetable providers, thus causing reduced variety in the samples. Additionally, organic markets (bioferias) were also sampled as another subgroup using information from the Economic Promotion Agency (CONQUITO) of the DMQ municipality. The nonorganic markets were marked on a city map, which was divided into North, Central, and South zones; then, considering that there are four times as fewer bioferias than nonorganic markets, these organic markets were considered another group for this study. Sixty-six markets were identified: 53 nonorganic markets, mixed markets, submarkets, and fairs and 13 organic bioferias. Once located on the map and grouped by location/type, the representative amount of markets for the sample was calculated using the whole square root of the total number of markets per zone, shown in [Table 1](#tbl0005){ref-type="table"}.Table 1Number of sampled locations for each market subgroup.Table 1SubgroupTotal number of marketsNumber of sampled marketsNorth zone174Central zone184South zone184Bioferias134**Total**6616 The following markets were randomly selected:•North zone: "Bellavista" mixed market, "La Carolina" mixed market, "Rumiñahui" mixed market, and "San Antonio" mixed market.•Central zone: "América" mixed market, "Arenas" market, "Jaime Roldós" fair, and "Toctiuco" market.•South zone: "El Calzado" submarket, "Conocoto" mixed market, "Guamaní" fair, and "El Tingo" fair.•Bioferias: "Conquito," "La Floresta," "Quito Tenis," and "Quitumbe." In every market, the Ecuadorian Standardization Service's (INEN) Ecuadorian Technical Standard (NTE) 1750:1994 was applied in the selection of samples \[[@bib0145]\], considering that every vendor had fewer than 100 kg of each product. A total of two kg of tomatoes and 10 units of lettuce were randomly selected from one vendor, collecting from five different vendors in each market. A total of 80 tomato and 80 lettuce samples from five vendors from each of the 16 markets were purchased and transferred to the Centro de Estudios Aplicados en Químca (CESAQ) laboratory. Then, all sample products were refrigerated at 4 ± 2 °C until their preparation. During the sampling process, the number of vendors from whom samples were taken was selected according to the total number of vendors inside each market. In some cases, (Bellavista, Arenas, Guamaní, and Conquito), when there were less than five vendors, one vendor was considered as two or more lots. 2.3. Analysis of samples {#sec0025} ------------------------ The sample preparation and quantification methods were done using heat drying, microwave-assisted acid digestion, and graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrophotometry, taking as reference the methods described in Romero-Estévez et al. \[[@bib0050]\]. Initially, all samples were washed with high-quality reagent water (resistivity: 18.2 MΩ cm) to eliminate impurities. For both tomatoes and lettuce, the five samples from the same market were mashed and homogenized to obtain a composite sample (16 total composite samples for each vegetable). The water content of the composite samples was determined using a humidity analyzer (Mettler Toledo, HB43-S, Greifensee, Switzerland). Then, the composite samples were dried for 48 h at 60 °C in a Memmert UM 500 stove (Schwabach, Germany). One (1.0000) gram of each composite sample was weighed in Teflon vials, where 5 mL of 70 % nitric acid (Fisher Chemical, Certified ACS plus, CAS\# 7697-37-2) and 3 mL of 30 % hydrogen peroxide (Fisher Chemical, Certified ACS plus, CAS\# 7722-81-1) were gradually added. Acid digestion was performed using a MARS 6 microwave (CEM, Matthews, NC, USA). For the quantification, the obtained digestions were filtered. Then, Cd and Pb content were determined using an absorption spectrophotometer coupled to a graphite furnace (HGA 900 and AAnalys 400, Perkin Elmer Inc., Waltham, MA, USA), using the temperature programming described in [Table 2](#tbl0010){ref-type="table"}. Calibration curves were prepared using four different concentration levels of dilutions of certified reference materials of 0.5, 1.0, 2.0, and 4.0 μg/mL for Cd (Inorganic Ventures, 1000 μg/mL, Certified Standard, CAS \# 7697-37-2) and 5.0, 10.0, 20.0, and 40.0 μg/mL for Pb (Inorganic Ventures, 1000 μg/mL, Certified Standard, CAS \# 7697-37-2). A linear regression coefficient (R^2^) of a minimum of 0.99 was expected to demonstrate linear adjustment between concentration and absorbance. All the standards of the calibration curves, samples, and blanks were prepared using analytical grade reagents and high-quality reagent water. The results are presented in mg/kg of dry and fresh weight. Matrix modifiers were also used: for Cd analysis, a mixture of 0.015 mg Pd (Inorganic Ventures, Matrix modifier, CAS \# 7697-37-2) and 0.01 mg Mg(NO~3~)~2~; for Pb, 0.2 mg NH~4~H~2~PO~4~ (Inorganic Ventures, Matrix modifier, CAS \# 7697-38-2).Table 2Temperature programming of the graphite furnace used to analyze the Cd and Pb in the samples.Table 2Temperature (°C)Ramp Time (s)Hold Time\ (s)CadmiumLead1101101301301301530850700102016501800052450245013 All composite samples were analyzed in duplicate, and reagent blanks and fortifications in known concentrations (0.050 mg/kg for Cd and 0.250 mg/kg for Pb) prepared from certified reference materials of approximately 1000 mg/mL were added to original non-fortified samples and used as quality control. The relative standard deviation (RSD) and the accuracy as relative recovery rates of fortifications were also evaluated using the criteria established in the Guidelines for Single Laboratory Validation of Chemical Methods for Dietary Supplements and Botanicals of the Association of Official Analytical Chemists (AOAC) \[[@bib0150]\]: precision of 16.0 % for repeatability and recoveries between 75.0 % and 120.0 % for accuracy. In addition, a certified reference material of tomato leaves 1573a from the National Institute of Standards and Technology was used as an additional quality control. The obtained results were compared with the CXS 193--1995 \[[@bib0110]\]. The corresponding threshold value in fresh weight for tomato is 0.100 mg/kg for both Cd and Pb; for lettuce, the values corresponding to fresh weight are 0.200 mg/kg for Cd and 0.300 mg/kg for Pb \[[@bib0110]\]. 3. Results and discussion {#sec0030} ========================= All the calibration curves presented R^2^ values higher than 0.99. The limits of detection (LOD) and the limits of quantification (LOQ) were calculated by using low-level concentration fortifications for each metal. The obtained LOD values were 0.010 and 0.150 μg/kg for Cd and Pb, respectively, and the obtained LOQ values were 0.050 and 0.250 mg/kg for Cd and Pb, respectively. As shown in [Table 3](#tbl0015){ref-type="table"}, Cd results in tomatoes indicated that the 16 composite samples had concentrations lower than the CXS 193--1995 threshold values (0.100 mg/kg, fresh weight); the highest values were found in bioferias and North zone markets. In addition, three markets (two bioferias and one from the Central zone) had non-detectable results.Table 3Cadmium results in tomato and lettuce from 16 of the principal markets in Quito, Ecuador.Table 3MarketZoneTOMATO (*Solanum lycopersicum*)LETTUCE (*Lactuca sativa*)Cadmium content in samples \[mg/kg\] (dry weight)Cadmium content in samples \[mg/kg\] (fresh weight)RSD \[%\]Relative\ recovery \[%\]Cadmium content in samples \[mg/kg\] (dry weight)Cadmium content in samples \[mg/kg\] (fresh weight)RSD \[%\]Relative\ recovery \[%\]1South\<0.050\<LOQ\--84.2 %0.1660.0082.4%82.1 %2South0.1150.0105.5%102.0 %0.0540.0022.2%119.3 %3South0.1000.0098.9%104.7 %\<0.050\<LOQ\--81.4 %4South\<0.050\<LOQ\--115.8 %NDND\--94.5 %5CentralNDND\--87.2 %\<0.050\<LOQ\--80.9 %6Central\<0.050\<LOQ\--79.0 %\<0.050\<LOQ\--85.7 %7Central\<0.050\<LOQ\--119.3 %NDND\--84.2 %8Central0.1470.01410.7%112.7 %\<0.050\<LOQ\--91.2 %9North0.3780.0353.8%78.4 %0.5650.0272.4 %114.5 %10North0.142\<LOQ\--113.8 %0.2450.0191.6 %104.2 %11North0.1420.0146.3%84.6 %0.0940.00314.7 %76.5 %12North0.1570.0158.5%97.9 %\<0.050\<LOQ\--103.7 %13BioferiaNDND\--78.7 %NDND\--77.3 %14BioferiaNDND\--117.6 %NDND\--91.7 %15Bioferia0.3500.0333.5%116.5 %0.4500.0242.2%119.2 %16Bioferia0.6600.0580.3%105.0 %0.4310.0341.8%118.9 %Threshold values[a](#tblfn0005){ref-type="table-fn"}0.1000.200Acceptance limits[b](#tblfn0010){ref-type="table-fn"}16.0 %75.0--120.0 %16.0 %75.0--120.0 %[^1][^2][^3] For lettuce, the 16 markets also showed results lower than the CXS 193--1995 threshold values (0.200 mg/kg, fresh weight). The highest results for Cd were found in the same bioferias that had the highest Cd levels in tomatoes and markets from the North zone. Four markets showed no detectable results (two bioferias, one from the Central and one from the South zone). The Pb quantification results ([Table 4](#tbl0020){ref-type="table"}) demonstrated that for tomatoes, 4 of the 16 markets sampled (25 %) had Pb content near or exceeding the CXS 193--1995 threshold values (0.100 mg/kg, fresh weight). Two markets had Pb in non-detectable concentrations, and the highest values were found in markets from the South zone and bioferias. In the case of lettuce, Pb results did not exceed the CXS 193--1995 threshold values (0.300 mg/kg, fresh weight), and the highest values were found in markets from the Central zone and one bioferia.Table 4Lead results in tomato and lettuce from 16 of the principal markets in Quito, Ecuador.Table 4MarketZoneTOMATO (*Solanum lycopersicum*)LETTUCE (*Lactuca sativa*)Lead content in samples \[mg/kg\] (dry weight)Lead content in samples \[mg/kg\] (fresh weight)RSD \[%\]Relative\ recovery \[%\]Lead content in samples \[mg/kg\] (dry weight)Lead content in samples \[mg/kg\] (fresh weight)RSD \[%\]Relative recovery \[%\]1South\<0.250\<LOQ\--93.9 %0.4990.0242.3%87.7 %2South2.3270.2090.5%115.6 %0.7870.0361.3%105.2 %3South0.5440.0521.0%103.9 %0.8080.0321.7%116.1 %4South0.8100.0790.3%88.0 %1.0050.0381.5%118.6 %5Central1.6370.1620.2%116.1 %1.1820.0600.2%82.3 %6Central0.9940.0911.6%90.6 %0.9960.0391.5%102.8 %7Central0.4720.0452.9 %95.5 %0.6360.0240.5%94.3 %8Central\<0.250\<LOQ\--86.1 %0.2540.0102.5%93.2 %9NorthNDND\--103.6 %NDND\--112.6 %10North\<0.250\<LOQ\--87.1 %\<0.250\<LOQ\--103.8 %11North\<0.250\<LOQ\--102.2 %\<0.250\<LOQ\--115.5 %12North0.4370.0412.7%103.3 %\<0.250\<LOQ\--108.4 %13Bioferia1.0180.1101.3%118.0 %1.0770.0661.1%99.2 %14Bioferia0.9380.0990.7%93.0 %\<0.250\<LOQ\--118.1 %15Bioferia0.5260.0531.3%94.8 %0.5570.0291.6%81.3 %16BioferiaNDND\--116.8 %\<0.250\<LOQ\--113.9 %**Threshold values**[a](#tblfn0015){ref-type="table-fn"}0.1000.300**Acceptance limits**[b](#tblfn0020){ref-type="table-fn"}16.0 %75.0--120.0 %16.0 %75.0--120.0 %[^4][^5][^6] As mentioned, for tomatoes, the Pb concentration in 25 % of the samples was near or exceeded the corresponding suggested threshold value. These results could indicate an important source of Pb contamination and a possible hazard from the consumption of these and similar products, especially if consumption is high and frequent, which could increase the probability of health problems associated with Pb toxicity. The contamination level of food and the effectiveness of actions to reduce contamination should be assessed by monitoring, survey programs, and more specialized research programs where necessary \[[@bib0110]\]. In this sense, local health and commercial control authorities should monitor the contaminants in food products sold in the DMQ and other places in Ecuador to ensure their safety. The quality control results were consistent with AOAC criteria \[[@bib0150]\]. For precision, considering the RSD values, the highest were 14.7 % and 2.9 % for Cd and Pb, respectively. The fortification relative recoveries were between 77.3 % and 119.3 % for Cd and between 81.3 % and 118.6 % for Pb. The recoveries of the certified reference material used were between 87.2 % and 98.1 % for Cd. Considering the total amount of Cd and Pb in the tomato and lettuce samples, the markets from the North zone (9--12) had the lowest concentration of metals. The highest metal content was found in markets 2, 5, and 13, corresponding to the South and Central zones and one bioferia, respectively ([Fig. 1](#fig0005){ref-type="fig"}). This result shows that the metal content is unrelated to market location; rather, markets in the same zones had different results, which confirms that the tomatoes and lettuce sold differed in terms of origin.Fig. 1Total metal content (cadmium \[Cd\] and lead \[Pb\]) in tomatoes and lettuce from 16 principal markets in Quito, Ecuador.Fig. 1 Various studies related to these toxic metals' content in tomatoes and lettuce have been conducted in products from local markets in Ecuador and other countries. [Table 5](#tbl0025){ref-type="table"} shows the present study's results compared to those obtained by other studies.Table 5Ranges of cadmium and lead concentrations from studies conducted in different countries.Table 5CountryCadmium content (mg/kg)Lead content (mg/kg)ReferenceTomatoLettuceTomatoLettuceEcuador (Quito)0.009--0.0580.002--0.0340.041--0.2090.010--0.066The present study\<0.050--0.660[\*](#tblfn0025){ref-type="table-fn"}\<0.050--0.565[\*](#tblfn0025){ref-type="table-fn"}\<0.250--2.327[\*](#tblfn0025){ref-type="table-fn"}\<0.250--1.182[\*](#tblfn0025){ref-type="table-fn"}Ecuador (Quito)\--0.008--0.019\--0.0011--0.027\[[@bib0155]\]Ecuador (Quito)0.008--0.0240.004--0.0050.001--0.0040.031--0.273\[[@bib0160]\]Croatia (Varaždin)\--0.97--1.52[\*](#tblfn0025){ref-type="table-fn"}\--0.82--2.22[\*](#tblfn0025){ref-type="table-fn"}\[[@bib0005]\]Argelia\--26.99[\*](#tblfn0025){ref-type="table-fn"}\-\-\--\[[@bib0025]\]Chile (metropolitan region)\-\-\--\<0.014--0.057\<0.143--0.208\[[@bib0165]\]Brazil (Belo Horizonte)\-\-\--0.009[\*](#tblfn0025){ref-type="table-fn"}0.037[\*](#tblfn0025){ref-type="table-fn"}\[[@bib0095]\]Brazil (Pernambuco)\-\-\--\<0.01\<0.06\[[@bib0170]\]Spain (Barcelona)\-\-\--\<0.0050.0080--0.0244\[[@bib0175]\]Spain (Valencia)0.00550.009800.0038\[[@bib0225]\]India (Amravati)0.2[\*](#tblfn0025){ref-type="table-fn"}5.5[\*](#tblfn0025){ref-type="table-fn"}\-\-\--\[[@bib0180]\]India (Nashik)0.90[\*](#tblfn0025){ref-type="table-fn"}2.20[\*](#tblfn0025){ref-type="table-fn"}\-\-\--\[[@bib0185]\]India (Andhra Pradesh)0.0193\--0.3\--\[[@bib0230]\]USA (Florida) organic products0.000930.004950.014500.0120\[[@bib0190]\]USA (Florida) nonorganic products0.00430.007720.004870.0253Jamaica0.266\--0.021\--\[[@bib0220]\][^7] In Carrillo Quezada's \[[@bib0155]\] study, lettuce samples from 30 DMQ markets showed slightly lower results than those from the present study for both Cd and Pb. Further, in a later study by Velasquez Paredes \[[@bib0160]\], in tomato and lettuce samples collected from two of the DMQ's main markets, the Cd results were also lower than the present study's in both vegetables. However, Velasquez Paredes \[[@bib0160]\] found Pb content in lettuce samples that was approximately four times higher than that found in the present study, whereas for tomatoes, the present study's Pb results were approximately 50 times higher. This heterogeneity in TM levels strongly suggests that determining a TM concentration trend is not possible since even within the same market, TM levels vary by vegetable and vegetable origin; therefore, frequent control of these contaminants in vegetables is needed. The maximum Cd concentration obtained in tomatoes (0.660 mg/kg, dry weight) in the current study was three times higher than that reported by Mohod \[[@bib0180]\] from Amravati, India, but lower than that reported by Labhade \[[@bib0185]\] from Nashik, Murad Basha et al. \[[@bib0230]\] from Andhra Pradesh, India, and quite lower than that reported by Murad Basha et al. \[[@bib0220]\] from Jamaica. Further, the concentrations reported by Hadayat et al. \[[@bib0190]\] from Florida (USA) in both organic and nonorganic tomatoes were considerably lower than those from the present study, the same happened with the concentrations reported by Marín et al. \[[@bib0225]\] from Valencia. For Cd content in lettuce, the dry weight results obtained by the present study were largely lower than those reported in Croatia \[[@bib0005]\], Argelia \[[@bib0025]\], and India \[[@bib0185]\], but higher than the value assessed in Valencia \[[@bib0225]\]. This heterogeneity could be due to several external factors that could affect the TM content in natural products, such as the initial metal content in the crop soils and the environmental pollution near the cultivation sites. The Pb results in lettuce samples for the current study showed values that were similar to those from Croatia \[[@bib0005]\], Brazil \[[@bib0095]\], Chile \[[@bib0165]\], and Spain \[[@bib0175]\]. In the case of tomatoes, the Pb concentrations obtained by the present study were higher than all the international studies in [Table 5](#tbl0025){ref-type="table"}, except from the mining area of India (Andhra Pradesh) \[[@bib0230]\], which clearly demonstrate the possible toxicity of Ecuadorian tomatoes, especially those from the four markets where the samples exceeded the CDX 193-95 threshold values \[[@bib0110]\]. A study conducted by Silva et al. \[[@bib0195]\] demonstrated that even with low Pb concentrations, genotoxic effects in plants occur, as proven by the increase in the number of micronucleated cells and of DNA fragmentation. When comparing the results between nonorganic and organic crops (bioferias), considering the values from the present study and those reported by Hadayat et al. \[[@bib0190]\], the metal content is completely different. Hadayat et al. \[[@bib0190]\] describe that in the analyses of organic market products, the TM concentration was lower than that found in nonorganic crops; the authors suggest this is due to the non-use of metal-based pesticides. In the present study, the samples from organic markets (bioferias) had Cd and Pb content in tomatoes and lettuce greater than that from the other three market groups selling nonorganic products. Further, the Cd content found by the present study and the results of Hadayat et al. \[[@bib0190]\] are contradictory. There has been a significant increase in consumer demand for organic products, which are marketed as such because of the relatively low use of chemicals in their cultivation and less processing. Nevertheless, a superior nutritional content and lower presence of toxins (TMs) that contribute to the safe consumption of these products have not yet been fully demonstrated. Proximal analyses of macro and micronutrients have shown a low nitrogen content in organic crops, but evidence in relation to other nutrients and contaminants is lacking \[[@bib0200]\]. Furthermore, the high levels of Cd and Pb in Ecuadorian vegetables may be because Ecuadorian soils are rich in some metals, including Cd and Pb \[[@bib0205],[@bib0210]\]; this natural presence contributes to their incidence in crops. In addition, one general organic cultivation practice involves using the residue from the previous generation of plants as fertilizer; thus, all the metal content present in the leaves, stems, and other parts of the harvested plants is reincorporated into the soil, which replaces mineral nutrients for the next generation's growth. Moreover, even when urban agriculture plays an important role in cities' sustainable food supply, the products need to be monitored and regulated because not only TMs but also other toxic substances from air pollution and soil contamination could be present \[[@bib0095]\]. Currently, industrial and motor vehicle emissions are one of the main sources of air pollution identified in urban sites, including big cities. These pollutants can be present in the particulate matter of air emissions and eventually be deposited in the soil and plants \[[@bib0170]\]. Adopting soilless cultivation systems that include good management practices can reduce crop soil contamination. In the last decade, the number of soilless cultivation systems in cities has increased because of the benefits they offer \[[@bib0175]\]. This distinct cultivation technique avoids the likelihood of the transference of contaminants and TMs from soils to vegetables, which is a long-term health and safety risk associated with urban agriculture. Dala-Paula et al. \[[@bib0095]\] found a significant positive correlation between Cd in lettuce and in soil; in the case of Pb, even when soil concentrations varied, its low mobility made no significant difference in the metal intake of plants. Contrary to this, in the present study, higher concentrations of Pb were found, and this could be related to the presence of this element in the atmosphere. In cities like the DMQ, especially in locations in or near mountains, the natural presence (from volcanic eruptions, the weathering of rocks, and erosion) of contaminants like TMs can lead to high concentrations in soils. Adding to this natural presence are anthropogenic activities like irrigation; the use of fertilizers, pesticides, and sludge applications; industrial activities; solid waste disposal; mining; smelting; vehicular exhaust; and domestic and agricultural use of metals and metallic compounds \[[@bib0215]\]. All of these may necessitate the application of protocols for the cultivation, production, and transportation of agricultural products as well as education regarding possible sources of contamination and ways of mitigating the danger. 4. Conclusions {#sec0035} ============== As no local studies have been conducted related to the content of Cd and Pb in tomatoes and lettuce sold in the main markets of all the different areas of the DMQ, this research is the first to determine the levels of these metals in products of daily consumption. Although the results showed that in most of the cases, the TM concentrations were lower than the threshold values, their presence in agricultural products in Ecuador should still be considered. In the case of tomatoes and lettuce, TM contamination is not overtly related to agricultural and transportation processes; therefore, the TM content found in these products is assumed to be from soil contamination. This information needs to be considered by farmers so remediation techniques that reduce TM presence in their crops can be utilized. Further, Ecuadorian agricultural authorities should implement control mechanisms to ensure that food contaminants are within the maximum limits established in national and international regulations. In addition, the controversy involving organic versus nonorganic agricultural products continues; nutritional information, toxicity levels, and even pricing of organic products are not fully supported by scientific evidence. The results of the present study show that in fact the organic products, which are considered "healthier" than nonorganic products, in most of the cases had higher concentrations of Cd and Pb. In view of this study's findings, more research should be conducted that not only analyzes the TM content in foodstuffs but also tracks pollution in the soil, water, and air. In addition, it is necessary to carry out studies focused on the differences between organic and nonorganic crop nutrients and the possible effect of contaminants like TMs on these nutrients. Funding {#sec0040} ======= This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. CRediT authorship contribution statement {#sec00005} ======================================== **David Romero-Estévez:** Conceptualization, Methodology, Software, Validation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Data curation, Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing, Visualization. **Gabriela S. Yánez-Jácome:** Writing - review & editing, Visualization. **Karina Simbaña-Farinango:** Formal analysis, Investigation. **Pamela Y. Vélez-Terreros:** Formal analysis, Investigation. **Hugo Navarrete:** Conceptualization, Resources, Supervision, Project administration, Funding acquisition. Declaration of Competing Interest ================================= The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper. The authors would like to thank the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador for the total funding of this research. [^1]: RSD: Relative standard deviation; \<LOQ: lower than the limit of quantification; ND: Not detectable. [^2]: FAO/WHO. General Standard for Contaminants and Toxins in Food and Feed CXS 193--1995 (Revision 2019). [^3]: AOAC. Guidelines for Single Laboratory Validation of Chemical Methods for Dietary Supplements and Botanicals. [^4]: RSD: Relative standard deviation; \<LOQ: lower than the limit of quantification; ND: Not detectable. [^5]: FAO/WHO. General Standard for Contaminants and Toxins in Food and Feed CXS 193--1995 (Revision 2019). [^6]: AOAC. Guidelines for Single Laboratory Validation of Chemical Methods for Dietary Supplements and Botanicals. [^7]: Dry weight.

Juan Correa Juan Correa (1646–1716) was a distinguished Mexican painter of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. His years of greatest activity were from 1671 to 1716. He was an Afro-Mexican, the son of a Mulatto physician from Cádiz, Spain of the same name, and a free black woman, Pascuala de Santoyo. Correa "became one of the most prominent artists in New Spain during his lifetime, along with Cristóbal de Villalpando."  Manuel Toussaint considers Correa and Villalpando the main exponents of the Baroque style of painting in Mexico. Correa was a very productive religious painter, with two major paintings in sacristy of the Cathedral of Mexico City, one of the Immaculate Conception and the other An Allegory of the Church.  He also painted major works for the Jesuit church in Tepozotlan, Mexico (now the Museum of the Viceroyalty). According to Toussaint, Correa is "important in achieving a new quality, in the creative impulse he expresses, and which one cannot doubt embodies the eagerness of New Spain for an art of its own, breaking away from its Spanish lineage. Here New Sapin attains its own personality, unique and unmistakable." Correa was José de Ibarra's teacher. Gallery See also Afro-Mexicans Castas Mexican art References Further reading Bailey, Gauvin Alexander. ‘’Art of Colonial Latin America’’. London: Phaidon Press 2005. Donahue Wallace, Kelly. "A Virgin of Sorrows Attributed to Juan Correa." Anales del Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas. Vol. 23. No. 79. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas, 2001. Hyman, Aaron M. "Inventing Painting: Cristóbal de Villalpando, Juan Correa, and New Spain's Transatlantic Canon." The Art Bulletin 99.2 (2017): 102-135. Toussaint, Manuel.  ‘’Colonial Art in Mexico’’. Translated and edited by Elizabeth Wilder Weisman.  Austin: University of Texas Press 1967. Category:Afro-Mexican Category:Colonial Mexico Category:17th-century Mexican painters Category:Mexican male painters Category:18th-century Mexican painters Category:People of New Spain Category:Mexican painters Category:Religious painters Category:1646 births Category:1716 deaths

The True-Born Englishman The True-Born Englishman is a satirical poem published in 1701 by Daniel Defoe defending the then King of England William, who was Dutch-born, against xenophobic attacks by his political enemies, and ridiculing the notion of English racial purity. It quickly became popular. According to a preface Defoe supplied to an edition of 1703, the poem's declared target is not Englishness as such but English cultural xenophobia, against the cultural disturbance new immigrants caused. Defoe's argument was that the English nation as it already existed in his time was a product of various incoming European ethnic groups, from Ancient Britons to Anglo-Saxons, Normans and beyond. It was therefore nonsensical to abuse newer arrivals since the English law and customs would assure their inevitable assimilation: Extract This extract was used by historian and political scientist Benedict Anderson as an epigram for his 1983 book Imagined Communities discussing the origins of nationalism. References Further reading Category:English poems Category:Satirical works Category:1701 poems Category:1701 in England Category:Prejudice and discrimination Category:Works by Daniel Defoe

It is well-known that superior energy resolution can be realized with radiation detectors that use superconducting tunnel junctions, as compared with semiconductor radiation detectors using semiconductors. The energy gap of a superconductor is small, on the order of 1/1000th of the energy gap of a semiconductor or less, and is considerably smaller than the maximum phonon energy; therefore, when radiation is absorbed in a superconductor, a 1000-times greater number of electrons than in the case of a semiconductor detector are excited above the energy gap. In a superconducting tunnel junction, the electrons excited above the energy gap can be extracted as signal charge via a tunneling effect. Therefore, a radiation detector using a superconducting tunnel junction can have extremely high sensitivity and high energy resolution (see Non-Patent Literature 1). However, with a detector of the type in which radiation is directly absorbed in a single superconducting tunnel junction to measure its energy, because the superconducting tunnel junction has a small surface area on the order of several hundred micrometers×several hundred micrometers or less and a thickness on the order of several hundred nanometers, the detection efficiency is extremely low, at one part in several thousand compared with that of a semiconductor detector. To overcome these drawbacks of radiation detectors using superconducting tunnel junctions, a superconducting series-junction detector has been developed (for example, see Patent Literature 1 and Patent Literature 2). The superconducting series-junction detector is provided with a superconducting series junction in which a large number of superconducting tunnel junctions are connected in series or in parallel on at least one surface of a single-crystal insulator or semiconductor substrate. The superconducting series junction mentioned here includes not only junctions connected in a single series, as in Patent Literature 1, but also includes multiple series junctions connected in parallel. The substrate thickness is, for example, about 400 micrometers. In the superconducting series-junction detector, radiation is absorbed in a radiation absorber, such as the substrate, where the energy thereof is converted to phonons, the phonons are absorbed in the superconducting tunnel junctions formed on the surface of the radiation absorber, exciting electrons in the superconductor, and those excited electrons are extracted as signal charge via the tunneling effect. The energy of the radiation is measured from the magnitude of that signal charge. Because the phonons are absorbed in a large number of superconducting tunnel junctions, the effective area of the detector can be made large. In addition, because the thickness of the radiation absorber is the thickness of the detector, the radiation absorption efficiency can also be increased. A superconducting tunnel junction is also effective for an optical sensor. When a superconducting series junction is used as an optical sensor, the sensor effective area is large; therefore, in this case too, an advantage is afforded in that the detection efficiency is high. In the present invention, light such as ultraviolet light, visible light, infrared light, which are electromagnetic waves similar to X-rays etc., are also included in the definition of radiation. With regard to radiation detectors making use of the fact that a large number of electrons are excited in a superconductor by radiation, besides superconducting tunnel junction detectors, for example, kinetic induction detectors (Kinetic Inductance Detector) are also well-known (for example, see Non-Patent Literature 2). Kinetic inductance detectors are also known as microwave kinetic inductance detectors (Microwave Kinetic Inductance Detector). In a kinetic inductance detector, when electrons are excited in a superconducting film of a resonator by radiation, the kinetic inductance of the superconductor resonator changes. The resonance frequency and Q factor of the superconducting resonator change due to this change in the kinetic inductance. The amount of radiation or the energy per individual unit of radiation is measured from the magnitude of the changes in resonance frequency and Q factor (for example, see Non-Patent Literature 3). In other words, in a kinetic inductance detector and a superconducting tunnel junction detector, although the signal extraction methods are different, what they have in common is that the basis of the signal is excited electrons in the superconductor. In the case of a kinetic inductance detector, similar to the case of a superconducting series-junction detector, radiation can be absorbed in a semiconductor or insulator single-crystal radiation absorber, where the energy thereof is converted to phonons, these phonons are absorbed in a phonon-absorbing superconducting film provided on the surface of the radiation absorber, exciting electrons, and the radiation can also be detected using changes in the resonance frequency and Q factor of a resonator formed to include this superconducting film (for example, see Non-Patent Literature 4 and Non-Patent Literature 5). In other words, with the phonon-mediated kinetic inductance detector and the superconducting series-junction detector, although the signal extraction methods differ, what they have in common is that the basis of the signal is excited electrons that are excited in the superconducting film on the substrate surface by phonons generated by radiation absorbed in the substrate. Note that, in the case of the superconducting series junction, the superconducting film on the substrate surface is a superconducting lower electrode of the superconducting tunnel junction. In the case of the phonon-mediated kinetic inductance detector, it is necessary to provide the superconductor for absorbing phonons on the surface of the radiation absorber substrate; however, with regard to the entire resonator, in some cases the entire resonator is provided on that substrate surface (for example, see Non-Patent Literature 4), and in some cases, some elements of the resonator are provided on another substrate close to that substrate (for example, see Non-Patent Literature 5). FIGS. 1 to 4 show example structures of these kinetic inductance detectors. FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 are an example in which the entire resonator is provided on the surface of the radiation absorber substrate, where FIG. 1 is a plan view, and FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken through part A-A in FIG. 1. FIG. 3 and FIG. 4 are an example in which part of the resonator is provided on another substrate close to the radiation absorber substrate. FIG. 3 is a plan view of the other substrate close to the radiation absorber substrate, and FIG. 4 is a sectional view of the entire resonator, corresponding to part A-A in FIG. 3, including both a radiation absorber substrate 4 and another substrate 5 close to it. 1 represents a through-line formed of a superconducting film for supplying microwaves and measuring the Q factor and resonance frequency, 2 represents a phonon-absorbing superconducting film, and 3 represents a high-Q-factor superconducting resonator line. The through-line 1 and the high-Q-factor superconducting resonator line 3 are capacitively coupled. In addition, in this case also, the phonon sensor 2 is bonded to the surface of the radiation absorber 4. In the superconducting series-junction detector and the kinetic inductance detector, radiation is absorbed in the radiation absorber, such as a semiconductor or insulator substrate, where the energy thereof is converted to phonons, the phonons are absorbed in the superconducting tunnel junction or phonon-absorbing superconductor formed on the surface of the radiation absorber, exciting electrons in the superconductor, and these excited electrons are extracted as signal charge via the tunneling effect, or a change in the characteristics of the superconducting resonator due to the excited electrons is extracted as a signal. The radiation energy is measured from the magnitude of this signal. However, this does not mean that all of the radiation energy is directly converted to phonons. This can be understood from the principle of a semiconductor detector that does not use phonons. In the case of a semiconductor detector, an electric field is applied to the detector to collect electrons and holes excited by radiation, and the radiation energy is measured from the magnitude of this signal charge. On the other hand, in the case of a radiation detector in which a signal is generated by phonons, such as the superconducting series-junction detector, the electrons and holes in the radiation absorber cannot contribute to the signal charge unless their energy is converted to phonons. The processing time for the signal from the superconducting series-junction detector and the kinetic inductance detector is normally from several microseconds to several tens of microseconds. Therefore, in the case of these superconducting radiation detectors, the radiation energy expended in generating electrons and holes in the radiation absorber, such as a semiconductor or insulator, by the radiation does not contribute to the signal unless the electrons and holes recombine within the time for extracting and processing the signal, and the energy is thereof is converted to phonons. However, the lifetime of excited electrons in a high-purity silicon substrate, in other words, the electron-hole recombination time, is from several tens of microseconds to 1 millisecond or longer. In addition, for example, in the case where the radiation absorber is semiconductor silicon and where the radiation is X-rays, it is well-known that about 30% of the X-ray energy is imparted to electrons, and the remaining about 70% is expended in generating phonons. However, this energy distribution ratio statistically fluctuates for each unit of radiation even though the radiation energy is constant, and this statistical fluctuation degrades the energy resolution. Unless the excitation energy possessed by electrons excited by radiation such as X-rays and light is released in the form of phonons within the signal measurement time, there is a problem in that, not only does the energy resolution of these detectors deteriorate, but also the sensitivity is reduced by a corresponding amount.

Q: trying to understand why a tuple is preferred over a list for a specific python example (from a tutorial) I'm trying to learn what iterators and generators are in python, going through a tutorial i found online which used this fibonacci iterator as an example. I'm having trouble with the comment on lines 9-11. What does it mean that "the old values of self.fn1 and self.nf2 are used in assigning the new value"? I understand that tuples are immutable objects but i'm failing to see here why using tuple is preferred over a list. I guess I'm failing to see why using a tuple here is better than using a list and I would like to understand better if anyone can help explain it :/ 4 class fibnum: 5 def __init__(self): 6 self.fn2 = 1 # "f_{n-2}" 7 self.fn1 = 1 # "f_{n-1}" 8 def next(self): # next() is the heart of any iterator 9 # note the use of the following tuple to not only save lines of 10 # code but also to insure that only the old values of self.fn1 and 11 # self.fn2 are used in assigning the new values 12 (self.fn1,self.fn2,oldfn2) = (self.fn1+self.fn2,self.fn1,self.fn2) 13 return oldfn2 14 def __iter__(self): 15 return self from : http://heather.cs.ucdavis.edu/~matloff/Python/PyIterGen.pdf A: There's no point in using a list here, because you're always dealing with three elements, rather than a variable number of them. By "insure [sic] that only the old values of self.fn1 and self.fn2 are used in assigning the new values", the programmer seems to be comparing this method with the alternative: self.fn1 = X self.fn2 = Y oldfn2 = Z which wouldn't work out of the box since self.fn1 is reassigned before its old value can be assigned to self.fn2. Reordering the assignments can fix that, but with the tuple assignment, you don't need to worry about the order. This could have been written without the parens, btw: self.fn1, self.fn2, oldfn2 = self.fn1+self.fn2, self.fn1, self.fn2

The skin consists mainly of three layers, namely, starting from the outermost: epidermis, dermis and hypodermis. The epidermis consists in particular of keratinocytes (primarily), melanocytes (involved in skin pigmentation) and Langerhans cells. Its function is to protect the body from the external environment and ensure its integrity, and notably to block the penetration of microorganisms or of chemical substances, and prevent evaporation of the water contained in the skin. For this purpose, the keratinocytes undergo a continuous process of directed maturation, in which the keratinocytes located in the basal layer of the epidermis form, in the terminal stage of their differentiation, corneocytes, which are cells resulting from cornification (a particular form of apoptosis). These corneocytes are very inter-cohesive, fully keratinized in the form of cornified envelopes and surrounded by an extracellular medium that is very rich in lipids. The constituent elements of these cells, as well as the enzymes that regulate their detachment to permit desquamation, are mainly synthesized by the keratinocytes of the underlying cellular layer, the stratum granulosum or granular layer. The granular keratinocytes correspond to the last nucleated stage of keratinocyte differentiation, before cornification, which is accompanied by nuclear lysis with stoppage of all activity of transcription and translation. It is at this stage that there is culmination of the production of the precursors of the cornified envelope and other specific cellular constituents indispensable to the barrier function of the epidermis such as ceramides, cholesterol and free fatty acids. The cornified envelope formed during cornification replaces the lipid bilayer of granular keratinocytes. It represents 7% of the dry weight of the stratum corneum. It consists of proteins that are bound to one another or to the lamellar lipid envelope covalently by transglutaminases, forming a macromolecular complex that is particularly stable, insoluble and impermeable, which is essential for the physical strength and the barrier function of the stratum corneum. Epidermal differentiation is a complex phenomenon requiring fine regulation of the expression of the genes permitting manufacture of the various constituents of the keratinocytes and then of the corneocytes. A great many transcription factors are involved in this process. The genes of numerous proteins of the cornified envelope are localized within one and the same cluster of 2.5 Mb called the “Epidermal Differentiation Complex” (EDC) in position 1q21.3. The EDC comprises more than 50 different genes, expressed principally in the epidermis. Most of the genes coding for the structural proteins necessary for terminal differentiation, such as loricrin, filaggrin and involucrin, are found there. The EDC also contains several families of genes, at least 18 of which code for the late proteins of the Late Cornified Envelope (LCE) (Marshall et al. 2001, Differentially expressed late constituents of the epidermal cornified envelope. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 98: 13031-6). In the course of cornification, these proteins of the LCE family are incorporated in the cornified envelope owing to the action of transglutaminases, which establish an ε-(γ-glutamyl) lysyl linkage between a donor glutamine residue and an acceptor amine group, in a calcium-dependent manner. The barrier function of the epidermis may be disturbed in certain climatic conditions (under the effect of cold and/or wind, for example); under the effect of stress or fatigue; under the effect of certain chemical factors (pollution, ultraviolet radiation, alcohol, irritating soaps, domestic cleaning products, detergents, etc.). Many skin disorders that are characterized by production of a thickened stratum corneum and by abnormal desquamation, i.e. hyperkeratosis, also display an altered barrier function. Hyperkeratosis can occur on all anatomic skin areas and in very varied clinical contexts. Its underlying physiopathology and its causes are varied. As examples we may mention: xerosis (or dry skin), ichthyoses, psoriasis, certain benign or malignant tumoral lesions, reactive hyperkeratoses. Conversely, certain pathological manifestations involve thinning of the epidermis and especially of the stratum corneum, which is reflected in excessive fragility of the skin. The latter can occur in various anatomical regions, its cause is variable and it can be constitutional or acquired. As examples we may mention: trophic skin disorders of the lower limbs in patients with vascular disorders, varices, arteriopathies (diabetes, arteriosclerosis, etc.), trophic skin disorders in the context of an algodystrophic syndrome, trophic disorders following abnormal healing. The barrier function of the epidermis may also be disturbed during aging. Thus, older subjects, and notably those over 50 years of age, are often found to have a xerosis or a dryness of the mucosae, linked to a decrease in secretion of sebum, hormonal changes or to slowing of the flow of water through the epidermis. These disturbances of the barrier of the epidermis cause a decrease in the amount of organized water, a desynchronization of the synthesis or a change in the structure and/or composition of the bilayers of the granular layer. These changes thus promote desquamation of the stratum corneum, penetration of allergens, of irritants or of microorganisms, which thus cause dry skin, which may give rise to sensations of discomfort such as tightness or redness, as well as affecting the radiance of the complexion and the flexibility of the skin. To prevent this phenomenon or correct it, it is known to apply cosmetic or pharmaceutical compositions on the skin, said compositions containing hygroscopic agents, such as sugars or polyols, or urea and lactic acid (components of the NMF, Natural Moisturizer Factor) intended to capture the water present in the skin and thus block its evaporation. Classically, fats have also been used for forming an occlusive film on the skin, such as petroleum jelly, which helps to block the evaporation of water. Moreover, these compositions frequently incorporate active ingredients acting on one or more of the various biological targets involved either in the processes of regeneration of the skin, in particular in the differentiation of the keratinocytes, synthesis of the epidermal lipids and cohesion of the corneocytes, or in the endogenous synthesis of constituents of the natural moisturizer factor (NMF) of the skin, in particular in the synthesis of proteoglycans. However, there is still a need for new cosmetic or pharmaceutical active ingredients for more effectively combating dry skin, disorders of the barrier function and/or development of fragility of the epidermis.

Exodus 21:1-24:18 The understanding of the Torah (תּוֹרָ֣ה direction, instruction, law) among many New Testament Christians tends to be relegated only to the Ten Commandments that all of Israel heard blasted like thunder from Mount Sinai in chapter 20 of Exodus. However, the rest of the rules in the subsequent chapters are inextricably linked as God continues to give instructions regarding other matters, such as building an altar and offering sacrifices (20:22-26). The Torah is not limited to ten commandments, but includes all that Yehovah spoke to Moses. The chapters following the Ten Commandments give instructions on how to treat other people. Even when, due to differences in time, place, and culture, we cannot literally follow the instructions, we should extract the principle meaning and purpose of the instructions and apply them to our own lives as best as we can. Hebrew slaves worked to pay their debt no more than 6 years at a time. Non-Hebrew slaves did not have this time limit (Ex. 21:2; Deut. 15:12). Hebrew slaves were freed and returned to their ancestor’s property at the end of every Jubilee cycle (at the end of every 49 years) on the Hebrew calendar. Non-Hebrew slaves did not have this time limit (Lev. 25: 39-40). Masters must generously give starting capital to the slaves after they are freed (Deut. 15:13-14). Slave masters sometimes provided a wife and family for the slaves (Ex. 21:4). Slaves sometimes chose to remain with their masters for a lifetime (Ex. 21:5). If a master changes his mind about a female slave, he must sell her back to relatives (Ex. 21:8). If a female slave marries into the master’s family, she must have rights as a daughter (Ex. 21:9). If the master marries a female slave, she shall have full rights as his wife (Ex. 21:10-11). Masters should not rule ruthlessly but treat the slaves as hired servants year by year (Lev. 25:43, 52-53). Female captives of war cannot be married until they have a time of mourning for their families and the man has time to consider the decision. Once married, she has rights as a wife. If divorced, cannot become a slave once again but must go as she pleases (Deut. 21:10-14). The pivotal event ending Israel as a nation was the destruction of Jerusalem and slavery into Babylon. This was the penalty for Israel mistreating their slaves (Jeremiah 34:8-22). Today, those who have outstanding debt may have their wages garnished or may be imprisoned. Garnishing wages is a similar concept to the debt slavery practiced in ancient Israel. Curiously absent from the Torah is any consideration of a prison system. The next group of instructions explain in detail how we should treat others. Various punishments ensue after physically harming people. Due to secular government law, the punishments cannot be implemented. God’s people should attempt to obey the instructions as best as they can even though the punishments incurred for disobedience may be different. For example, God protected the rights of the unborn child and required severe punishment to those who caused an unborn child harm, but most governments today allow abortion. God’s people must still oppose abortion even though this action has no legal punishment today. Intentional injury to others requires a punishment of the same, regardless of social status as a free man or a slave (Ex. 21:12, 20). Unintentional injury to others requires the guilty person to run away to a city of refuge. (21:13). Unintentional injury done to an unborn child requires punishment of the same injury (21:22-25). Those doing violence toward or swearing violence toward parents receive the death penalty (21:15, 17). Swearing violence toward the government rulers is forbidden (22:28). Kidnapping receives the death penalty (21:16). People can use lethal force to defend themselves and their property from burglars and home intruders, but killing the intruder should be avoided if possible (22:2-3).Injury resulting in loss of work requires worker’s compensation (21:18-19). Mistreating others is especially abhorrent if they cannot defend themselves, for example a foreigner, an orphan, or a widow (22:21-24). If proper precautions are not observed when doing field work or other work changing the environment (such as digging a hole), and this causes injury to someone’s animals or other people, then the person is responsible (21:33-34).Animals that cause injury to humans or other animals must be put to death (21:28-29, 35-36). People should be good neighbors by returning property to them when found or by rescuing their animals (23:4-5) Masters who permanently injure their slaves must let the slaves go free (21:26-28). Animals known to be violent that cause death to a person must be put to death along with the animals’ owners (21:29). Stealing from others requires reimbursement and sometimes even paying back more than the value of the items (22:1). Damaging other people’s property requires reimbursement (22:5-6). Losing a neighbor’s property results in a stricter punishment if the person has received payment to keep his neighbor’s property safe (22:7-11). If he has been paid to keep it safe, he has to reimburse the value of the lost property. If he was not paid and kept his neighbor’s property as a favor, he makes an oath – swears by Yehovah – that he no longer has the property and doesn’t know where it is. Damage done to things borrowed from a neighbor results in a stricter if the neighbor has lent it out for free (22:14-15). If the things are damaged while lent to someone, that person must make full reimbursement. If the things are damaged while rented to someone, that person does not have to pay any more fee except for the rental fee. Lenders should not require high interest from borrowers, especially if they borrower is poor. Lenders trying to collect their loans should not take away from the borrower the basic property needed to live (22:25-27). Sex outside of marriage requires a wedding and marriage covenant. If no marriage covenant is made, the man must pay a fine to the family of the woman (22:16-17). Bestiality results in the death penalty (22:19). Sorcery and other dealings with evil spirits requires the death penalty (22:18). Sacrificing or worshiping any other god except for Yehovah results in the death penalty (22:20). We should generously and quickly give our offerings to God (22:29-30). God gave great detail about maintaining justice in the courtroom by avoiding lies, avoiding partial justice, and having consistent laws even for foreigners (23:1-9). Overall, all of these instructions in this reading passage teach us to be fair and honest with people, regardless of their social status, financial status, gender, or nationality. We should take great strides to understand the purpose of each law and apply the spirit (principle) of the law to our own lives. An ancient seat of Moses (of authority) from New Testament times, located at the old village of Chorazin God re-emphasized the importance of the weekly Sabbath (23:10-12), and he introduced three major annual Sabbaths that require traveling to the religious center of Israel. (23:14-19). These three annual Sabbaths are called by different names in Scripture: (1) Passover, called Unleavened Bread (2) Pentecost, called Harvest (3) and Tabernacles, called Ingathering. Yehovah repeated multiple times to obey all of his instructions. He emphatically stated that when Israel entered the promised land of Canaan, they were to completely obliterate the Canaanites and their religious structures (23:23-33). He gave instructions not to remember or speak about the names of other gods (23:13) or to do what other people do for worshiping other gods (23:19b). God promised them victory over their enemies, blessings, many children, health, and wellness if they obeyed him fully. God promised the borders of Israel would be from the Red Sea in the south to the Mediterranean Sea in the west, to the desert in the north, to the Euphrates in the east. After giving all of these instructions, warnings, and promises, Moses made a blood covenant with the people of Israel. Moses read all of these laws to the people and sprinkled blood on them, sealing the contract that the people had made with God (24:1-8). Then God invited Moses and the chiefs of Israel to come up Mount Sinai where they saw God in some form (24:9-11). Moses climbed higher into the fiery mountain top and received a set of the Ten Commandments from God to replace the ones that he has broken (24:12-18). Exodus 21 by Sweet Media Then he took the book of the covenant and read it in the hearing of the people; and they said, “All that Yehovah has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient!” So Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people, and said, “Behold the blood of the covenant, which Yehovah has made with you in accordance with all these words.” Like this: LikeLoading... Related About Jonathan Lankford Jonathan has a Bachelor of Arts degree (BA) in Bible with a concentration in missions and intercultural communication. He also earned his Master's in Business Quality Management (MBQPM) and graduated Summa Cum Laude with a Master's in Education (MEd) focusing on Administration. He has been an educator since 2007, teaching English and humanities in Vietnamese universities. He currently holds the position of Associate Registrar at Tan Tao University, Vietnam.

IBM makes nano circuit This site may earn affiliate commissions from the links on this page. Terms of use. using carbon nanotubes, ibm researchers have built the smallest computer logic circuit ever created: a two-transistor “not gate” the size of a single carbon molecule. ibm's phaedon avouris, manager of nanoscale science at ibm research, made the announcement yesterday at an american chemical society meeting, touting the achievement as the next big step in the replacement of today's silicon-based computer chips and the preservation of moore's law. the nano-circuit not gate (voltage inverter circuit) has a positive transistor and a negative transistor and can change a 1 to a 0 (binary) and vice versa. this is the simplest of the three necessary computing circuits (and gates and or gates are the next steps), but is a big breakthrough because past work with carbon nanotubes has yielded only positive (“p-type”) transistors. by heating p-type transistors in a vacuum, the ibm researchers created negative (“n-type”) transistors for the first time; the team also found that selected portions of a carbon nanotube could be heated and converted to n-type, which allowed them to create the single carbon molecule not gate. the nanotube circuit also produced a strong enough signal output “to drive other gates or circuits,” meaning that complex circuits in chains should be possible. that in turn means that molecular computer chips consisting of “many transistor-embedded logic circuits” can be a viable alternative to today's microprocessors. carbon nanotube-based chips are expected to be at least as fast as today's silicon-based ones, and should produce less heat (since they'll use less power). ibm hopes to start building carbon nanotube circuits in the next two years or so, but doesn't expect any product to be marketable for another 10 to 15 years. sam's opinion i don't know about you, but i get pretty excited when i read about these nano-computing discoveries. as the a.p. article points out, there are plenty of other teams researching nano-computing and coming up with breakthroughs, and that's even more exciting, since there won't be a single company controlling the pace of progress. at the same time we've also got lots of folks looking into quantum computing, though i have a feeling that's a bit further down the timeline from realization (though you never know). even knowing that nanotube-based molecular chips are probably 15 years away (though i won't be surprised to see them sooner) isn't enough to make these findings less exciting: imagine building a micrprocessor out of something 100k times smaller than one of your hairs but that's 10 times stronger than steel. incredible. another thing that struck me when i was reading the articles was that moore's law is still intact after 35 years or so. scientists have been predicting an end to moore's law in the next 10 or 15 years because of silicon's physical limitations, but i'm just amazed that a prediction made in 1965 is still holding water. the pace and scope of technological change has been mind-boggling in the last 10 years alone … just think of how big computers were back in 1965, and now we're talking about a single-molecule circuit. who could've guessed gordon moore would hit the nail on the head even now when we're looking at 2ghz processors? i also would like to point out that the guy running ibm research's nano-science section has perhaps the most appropriate-sounding name for this kind of cool research. phaedon? perfect. :) user comments 47 comment(s) nice(11:16am est mon aug 27 2001)hey, the researchers have to have something to do with all those ee majors, eh? – by beefstu01 good to see…(11:16am est mon aug 27 2001)that somebody is going to pick up where silicon left off, and give moore's law a bit of breathing room! – by keith soleil the “elephant in the living room” is that those little nanotubes need to be patterened into unbelievably sophisticated tapestries – in order to “process” anything at all. from what i can tell, no one has ever made a nanotube that actually is positioned “where we wanted it”. like sprinking sugar onto a pie, nanotubes land whereever the hell they feel like it. the transistor was originally a little block of ge with itsibitsi wires touching the surface. then, they discovered that melting dots of dopant on a thin wafer, it was both more reliable and much higher powered. then, boffins at texas instruments saw that it could be done on 'one surface' instead of both sides. then they integrated two transistors into a “super transistor”. from there, the first “real” integrated circuit, the rtl nand gate. it had 4 transistors. but from those earliest beginnings — to now, it has literally been a “straight shot”, of improving photolithographic technique, improving the quality of the silicon wafers, improving the metals and plastics that make up a chip. nothing radical. just ever smaller. i have no reason to believe that the technology to organize all those pesky nanotubes – would better be used to fabricate 3d chips. today's chip might be 1 cm on a side (or if you prefer, 10,000,000 nanometers) but it is only 100 nanometers “thick”. you could stack a lot of layers into a 1 cm cube. like, 100,000 of them. a 1 mm “grain of salt” chip would store 1,000 gb. anyway. nanocomputing is nice, but i predict we'll probably not see practical large-scale uses for it. – by goatguy thats nice but(11:41am est mon aug 27 2001)when it comes to computers dont u think we will have molecular computer in 10 to 15 years so who cares, i mean yeah its cool u made it but molecular computers are sapsode to be developed in 3 to 5 years and one is more powerfull then all the supercomputers or some bullshit like that my 2 cents – by ff manufacturing(11:47am est mon aug 27 2001)right now, nanotubes are basically made by throwing the carbon into an arc and extracting the good pieces. it's not a very organized manufacturing process, so we are definitely a few years away from seeing these things in printed circuit boards. however, organic polymers are slowly making their way into electronics. i worked with a research group that was examining energy transfer in electro-luminescent polymers. once the problem of longevity is solved, the extremely cheap cost of manufacturing these products will make carbon based electronics much more favorable. – by laserman then the paranoid side of me starts…(12:32pm est mon aug 27 2001)get a grip: ever read “acts of the apostles”? the basic equation of the story is: it makes you wonder(1:37pm est mon aug 27 2001)just what is in those flu shots?it seemed that when i was in the army they tried to give us flu shots every month or so, it was crazy! they always got me sick too. so i wonder, was it really a vaccine for the ful, or naonites invading my brain to maek me a killing machine. crap maeks me wondr even more what the hell is in the antrax vaccine! – by damn government!! question to ponder(1:44pm est mon aug 27 2001)if this thing is made out of carbon, the basic building block of all living thing, has built in logic that could be viewed as the ability to reason, plus any major advancement in human genome project that might be applied to this, what are we looking at 200 years down the road? or 50 for that matter. and does this carbon have the abilty to grown or could it in the future? just thoughts – by eek the cat re: eek the cat(1:57pm est mon aug 27 2001)during your lifetime, this carbon will be as close to sentient as a number 2 pencil. t1000(3:37pm est mon aug 27 2001)“yes, the time has finally come. according to the world famous terminator movies skynet went on-line on monday, august 4th, 1997 and becomes self aware at 2:14 a.m. august 29th, 1997. things take a turn for the worse at that point and soon the missiles are zipping around the planet.” (check out for more info) – by hungrywolverine t1000 point(3:55pm est mon aug 27 2001)the interesting thing i was reading off of popular mechanics was the fact that e-bombs (electromagnetic) are comming into play in the “world” arsenals. even though i didn t read the article completely, i wonder how/if something this small could be effected….. – by id-10-t error ibm is too cool(6:23pm est mon aug 27 2001)i like how they have changed into a great company. research seem to be king there unlike microsoft where coping is king. – by rax changed….ibm?(8:06pm est mon aug 27 2001)uhh…ibm has been the research stalwart…the only reason they dropped in the mid/late 80's is because everyone started to clone pcs…now they are back up at the top again..but always number one at ibm has beenresearch…they haven't changed…they are simply reaffirming their position… – by distempered quit whining!(9:43pm est mon aug 27 2001)quit whiner like a cheap trash yourself. get over with it. go recyle your soda cans make some money then buy it. go education to be as a geek and nerd so you can make a millions dollar. i would take a class to study a mircosoft. i want work there. enough moving around your ass on your couch. get up and get a bigger life. i have no choice but i have career ahead of me to met bill gates. so long cheap trash lazy butt lol! – by lol faeries and other such tech(1:27am est tue aug 28 2001)i sat in a lecture 11 years ago on circuits built using nanotubules. it's an interesting idea, but clearly progress has been slow. i think it's more likely that nanotubules might find some use as cladding, insulation, or some other passive kind of function. you might want to check out what kind of gain, current and q they're getting out of their n-type fullerine transistors. my guess is that a practical device of any kind is way out of the question. – by papasmurf moore again…(1:44am est tue aug 28 2001)just touching back to the second comment, in terms of computer power increasing, moore's law was blown out of the water. i belive the actual rate was something along two to three times what moore projected. as for quantum computing, i agree, probably the next step beyond nano, but to the belife that nano would be eschewed for 3d chips… well, if this were only a question of computing, i would agree, that would be the next logical step before nano. but we are talking nano-tech. development in one area feeds into movment in the others. medicen, computing, enginering, there is an incredible amount of money going into research. many pudits belive that nano-tech, when we get it right, will be the eqivalence of harnessing electricity. nano tech is the future from many points of view, obviously ibm, ray kurswiel, mit, ucla berkely… the list is a long one. as for practical large scale uses, what pratical use did a house wife in the seventys have for a personal computer? and what pratical uses are there now… the adoption of a set of technoligies lies only partialy in the merits of the technology itself. it's the applications of such that makes or breaks the industry. much is left to be seen, but i have high hopes. – by r-mani 3d chips?(2:38am est tue aug 28 2001)cool, but how do you cool this chip? – by evert odds and ends…(8:30am est tue aug 28 2001)3d chips: if one layer gets my cpu temp (with decent cooling) to ~40 degrees c, how much heat is 100,000 layers going to produce? and how the *** do you propose to dissapate the heat from the middle? :p carbon molecues? yeah, a nice-sized diamond ) – by charmaka the heat is on(1:37pm est tue aug 28 2001)infommercial presenter: “the 3d nano chips will naturatlly consume so little energy, that they will practically cool themselves while working !” if that doesn't work, they can always put in a few nano fans between the layers.… or generate steam to power the nano fans using a nano steam engine, thus saving even more power ! – by bogglesthemind carbon molecule(7:28pm est tue aug 28 2001)this is probably the single most non-descriptive non-scientific term i have ever heard. how many damn atoms are in this modelcule? how are they arranged? i had hydrocarbons for breakfast. that's not saying much is it? either they are being top secret or think we're too dumb to ask what a carbon molecule is. – by bugs bunny some where people started talking about 3d nanochips. one of the things that can be done with molecular level activity is to rely on the quantum mechanics for the activity inside the nanocomputer. at room temperature all the way down to absolute zero molecules are vibrating and transfers of energy take place. so the computer would require no power at all! only if it was frozen all the way down to absolute zero would it stop proceesing information. there has been lab experiments that have demonstrated the extreme processing speed of molecular circuits operating at around 100 trillion cycles per second. if you use the wired donut approach and 4 cubic nanometers for space, you can have a computer the size of a sugar cube with a trillion of processors and 18.4 quintilion (2^64) of bytes and a proccessing speed of septillions (trillions of trillion s)floating point operations per second!!! – by peter. carbon molecule(4:18am est thu aug 30 2001)probably means a nanotube, sp2 bonded carbon atoms form a graphite-like 2d sheet which is rolled into a tube then capped at either end with half of a buckyball. that's not the process by the way, that's just how a capped single-walled nanotube looks. the tube could be as long as you like, but isn't yet… – by xamos uhm…(5:28am est sat sep 01 2001)what the heck is a nano….? i thougth it was a kind of weapon the borg use in voyager. anyways…can nano technology as a whole be used to either move or manipulate carbon atom positions or structures? or can they be used to synthesis certain objects? or can they be used to cure people at nano levels? i think this nano thing would be pretty festive if it ever came to light, but ibm should be careful. they work so hard on it, someone breaks into the lab and sells the tech. to intel, and then they release 20447ghz cpu's that fit on your thumbnail, and then the take over the world, raping our dogs and cats repeatedly until their heads explode, and we have to wipe green toxic goo of the living room walls…. oh, i'm sorry. i'll take my tablets now. – by raspertril carbon molecule(2:14am est fri sep 07 2001)various 'real' carbon molecules: c60, c72, c84… these are true molecules as they have a precise structure and are self-contained, ie. they are not an 'infinite' lattice like diamond or graphite. carbon nanotubes can be simply a c60 ball cut in half with a rolled up cylinder of graphite like carbon inserted in between the two halves. this way, an almost infinite variety of true carbon molecules can and do exist. – by another chem geek opinions are like …(10:58pm est sun sep 09 2001)people who can't learn basic spelling and grammar are endangering their brain cell trying to comprehend quantum computing theories.opinions should be reserved for people who can form complete thoughts, words, and sentences. – by bubba nano – taliban(10:36pm est thu oct 25 2001)isn't there a way to unleash some nano-bombs (not chemical or biological) on the taliban? kind of like swarms of mosquitos or nats, but with one hell of a bite. – by pir sayed ahmad gail nano – taliban(8:27am est thu nov 08 2001)or maybe we can make a nano sas, send them in on nano choppers, and drop them into the talibans ears on nano parachutes. then we could either destroy their brains from within, or completely re-build them so they can make trainers for nike! – by bilgemonkey electrophysics(6:10pm est wed feb 06 2002)when i read this first i was not really shocked because as u guess all roads in new technologies leads to a new way to small worlds. in addition it is obvious that future will be the world of quantum mechanics and electronics namely electrophysics and the names that we call it for now is nanotecnology , quantum electronics. – by atli supercomputers(11:58pm est fri mar 01 2002)i would like to askwhether these sc have the power themself to link to all other computer on the basis on computer is and not on internet – by prabhakar buckyballs(9:40pm est sun jul 07 2002)closed ind tubes now are in a whole different physics class than a true tube. capped tubes, like a glass, now have a resonance interference to deal with, and this could be mistaken for cycles, when in actuality, its just interference resonance. just a thought. – by tubes and glassses edubucation(2:04am est sun oct 06 2002)what kind of education do i need to go into this field? i'm currently in first year materials engineering (that means i can switch in 2nd year). as far as nanotechnology is concerned, materials engineering only deals with 'synthesis of nanomaterials'. – by tim chek in going to inside(12:19am est mon jul 14 2003)plz sir help memy face is nowadays is going to short by means of chek chek is is going to inside day by day– by romash

Why Styrofoam (Expanded Polystyrene) Should Be Banned Everywhere In The World By Jeff Lewis Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) or Styrofoam, is a petroleum-based non-biodegradable foam, which the EPA and International Agency for Research on Cancer consider styrene a “possible human carcinogen” and “that such materials can have serious impacts upon human health, wildlife, and aquatic environment, and the economy.” Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) or Styrofoam is sensitive to sunlight in a process called photodegradation, or “breakdown by light.” Over months, continual exposure to sunlight affects the outer layer of the plastic, discoloring it and turning it into a powdery substance. Because of this action, thin styrofoam packaging can break down in a few years. Inside a landfill and shielded from light, however, no such breakdown takes place. It remains on this earth forever as a piece of toxic trash to humans, to wildlife and marine life, food supply, and our environment while costing taxpayers millions in clean up and mitigation costs. While EPS is technically “recyclable” there is, to date, no meaningful recycling of Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) or Styrofoam due to high food contamination rates and a very weak market to clean, handle and process the material. I’ve analyzed and categorized the following report of the environmental impacts, public health issues, economic strains and costs from current laws (State, County, and City) pertaining to the negative effects of Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) or Styrofoam. The irrefutable evidence and research has been mounting over decades from various federal agencies, city staff reports, state staff reports, environmental clubs, and nonprofits. Table of Contents (Issues): A. Public Health B. Wildlife and Marine Life Health C. Nearly Un-Recyclable D. Polluted Environment, Beaches, Oceans, and Waterways E. Financial Burden on Local Government and Taxpayers F. Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) or Styrofoam Alternatives A. Public Health Albany, California (Ordinance 08–02): “Styrene, a component of polystyrene, is a known hazardous substance that medical evidence and the Food and Drug Administration suggests leaches from polystyrene containers into food and drink.” “Styrene is a suspected carcinogen and neurotoxin which potentially threatens human health.” “The general public is not typically warned of any potential hazard, particularly in the immigrant and non-English-speaking community.” “Due to the physical properties of polystyrene, the EPA states “that such materials can also have serious impacts on human health, wildlife, the aquatic environment and the economy.” Berkeley, California (Ordinance 5888-NS): “It is in the interest of the health, safety, and welfare of all who live, work, and do business in the City that the amount of litter on the public streets, parks, public places, and open spaces be reduced.” “Evidence indicates that all blowing agents currently used or proposed in connection with the manufacture of polystyrene foam pose dangers to the environment. Beyond the generally acknowledged dangers of Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) to the ozone layer, which are addressed in another City of Berkeley ordinance, other blowing agents also create dangers. For example, the blowing agent pentane creates hazardous earth-level smog and has already been restricted in some regions for air quality reasons.” Abington, Massachusetts: “Styrene exposure can occur through smoking, inhalation of indoor air, and ingestion of food.” “In a study concerning the migration of styrene in polystyrene cups to hot drinks, it was determined the concentration of styrene monomer found in the drinks was above the Environmental Protection Agency recommended levels, including the Maximum Contaminant Level Goal (MCLG) standard.” Amherst, Massachusetts (Article 9): “Expanded Polystyrene food containers are not recyclable, nor are they biodegradable. Once buried in our landfills, they will persist for centuries.” “Eliminated of Expanded Polystyrene food containers is in the best interest of the health and welfare of Town inhabitants.” Calabasas, California (Ordinance 2007–233): “It is in the best interest of health, safety, and welfare of all who live, work and do business in the City that, to the extent feasible, the amount of litter on the public streets, parks, public places, and open spaces to be reduced and that litter which does reach the natural environment be biodegradable.” Cambridge, Massachusetts (Ordinance 1374): “Polystyrene is a type of plastic that includes Styrofoam and is expensive to recycle and is not biodegradable, and has been shown to leach harmful chemicals into food and beverages.” Clean Water Action California: “EPS is made using the monomer, Styrene, a lab animal carcinogen and a possible human carcinogen and neurotoxin. Styrene can migrate from polystyrene containers into food and beverages when heated, or in contact with fatty or acidic foods.” “Styrene residues are found in 100% of all samples of human fat tissue.” “Styrene exposure increases the risk of leukemia and lymphoma and is a neurotoxin.” “Workers in polystyrene products manufacturing are exposed to many harmful chemicals, including Styrene, Toluene, Xylene, Acetone, Methyl Chloride, and Methyl Ketone.” “Occupational exposure to Styrene increases risk of lymphoma, leukemia, lung tumors, pancreatic cancer, urinary bladder cancer, prostate cancer, and colorectal cancer.” “High rates of neurotoxicological effects have been reported in workers, including slowed reaction time, effects on balance and spatial orientation, hearing problems, concentration problems, and decreased color discrimination. Some studies also show significant decrease in sperm count and increased sperm abnormality.” Environmental Protection Agency: “Acute exposure to styrene in humans results in respiratory effects, such as mucous membrane irritation, eye irritation, and gastrointestinal effects.” “Chronic exposure to styrene in humans results in effects on the CNS, with symptoms such as headache, fatigue, weakness, depression, CNS dysfunction (reaction time, memory, visuomotor speed and accuracy, intellectual function), and hearing loss, peripheral neuropathy, minor effects on some kidney enzyme functions and on the blood.” “Animal studies have reported effects on the CNS, liver, kidney, and eye and nasal irritation from inhalation exposure to styrene.” “Liver, blood, kidney, and stomach effects have been observed in animals following chronic oral exposure.” “Lung tumors have been observed in the offspring of orally exposed mice.” “Animal cancer studies have produced variable results and provide limited evidence for carcinogenicity.” “Styrene oxide is a reactive metabolite of styrene and shows positive carcinogenic results in oral exposure bioassays. Styrene oxide has been detected in workers exposed to styrene. IARC has classified this metabolite as a Group 2A, probable human carcinogen.” “Styrofoam production as the 5th largest creator of toxic waste in the United States.” Gloucester, Massachusetts: “Polystyrene manufacture, use, and disposal requires substantial energy consumption and contributes to greenhouse gases and other adverse environmental effects.” Manhattan Beach, California (Ordinance 13–0009 & 14–0003): “Polystyrene has been shown to pose human health impacts to workers and consumers and these impacts can be mitigated by reducing its use.” Millbrae, California (Ordinance 717): “Restricting the use of polystyrene foam and solid disposable food service ware products and replacing non-biodegradable, non-compostable, non-reusable, or non-recyclable food service ware with biodegradable, compostable, reusable, or recyclable food service ware products in Millbrae will further protect the public health and safety of the residents of Millbrae, the natural environment, waterways and wildlife and would advance the City’s goal of developing a sustainable City.” Newport Beach, California (Ordinance 2008–17): “Due to the physical properties of polystyrene, the EPA states ‘that such materials can also have serious impacts on human health, wildlife, the aquatic environment, and the economy.’” Pinole, California (Ordinance 2018–01): “The use of polystyrene products by food services providers and the sale of polystyrene products in the City is detrimental to public health and welfare.” Oakland, California (Ordinance 12747): “Styrene is a suspected carcinogen and neurotoxin which potentially threatens human health.” Rahway, New Jersey (Ordinance O-53–96): “It is in the interest of the health, safety, and welfare of all of the citizens of the City of Rahway who live, work or do business in the City that the amount of nonrecyclable, nondegradable packaging be reduced, and that the amount of litter on the public streets, parks and open spaces be reduced.” San Clemente, California (Ordinance 1533): “A deterioration in the quality of the City’s ocean waters and beaches threatens the public health, safety, and welfare and negatively affects tourism and the local economy which depends on tourist trade.” San Francisco, California (Ordinance 140–16): “Styrene has been linked to cancer as well as reproductive and developmental disorders by the National Research Council, and that styrene leaches from polystyrene into food and drink.” “Styrene is also a chemical known by the State of California to cause cancer, and is included as a listed chemical under the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986 (Proposition 65) by the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment.” Santa Cruz County, California (Ordinance 5122): “Styrene is a suspected carcinogen and neurotoxin, which potentially threatens human health.” “The general public, especially the non-English speaking community, is not typically warned of any potential hazard from styrene.” Seattle, Washington (Ordinance 122751): “It is in the best interest of the health, safety and welfare of the people that regulations prohibit the use of certain expanded polystyrene food service products and disposable food service ware to reduce the cost of solid waste disposal by the City and to protect the environment.” Scotts Valley, California (Ordinance 182): “Prohibiting the use of polystyrene foam take-out food packaging and replacing it with biodegradable, compostable or recyclable food service products will further protect local waterways, the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, City residents and visitors, and will support the City’s goal of reducing waste and litter for a cleaner environment for generations to come.” Solana Beach, California (Ordinance 466): “The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ 13th Report on Carcinogens concludes that styrene “is reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen.” Takoma Park, Maryland (Ordinance 2014–62): “Polystyrene (resin code #6, commonly known as Styrofoam), often are used in the manufacturer of food service ware, is made from styrene, a known neurotoxicant that has been found to be reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen.” The Sierra Club: “Polystyrene resin usually contains a small percentage of residual styrene. Styrene leaching increases with temperature and with certain foods (alcohol, oils or fat).” “Polystyrene is made from non-renewable fossil fuels (oil and natural gas). The cost of natural gas, is relatively lower cost because of hydrofracking, which causes many environmental and health problems.” Westfield, Massachusetts Board of Health: “Styrene exposure can occur through smoking, inhalation of indoor air, and ingestion of food.” “The amount of styrene monomer migration from polystyrene into hot drinks was dependent on the temperature and fat content of the drinks.” “exposure to styrene vapor can cause irritations of the eyes, nose, throat, and skin, as well as toxic effects on the liver, and can act as a depressant on the central nervous system that also causes neurological impairment.” “Potential effects of styrene exposure during its production can cause eye and mucosal irritations and gastrointestinal issues. Possible effects on the central nervous system include headache, weakness, fatigue, depression, general dysfunction hearing loss and peripheral neuropathy.” “Workers with high exposure to styrene showed increased cancer of the lymph hematopoietic system and possibly related mortality, as well as increased levels of DNA adducts and genetic damage to lymphocytes.” “Occupational studies concerning styrene have shown risks for workers for lymph hematopoietic cancers, such as leukemia and lymphoma, and genetic damage in the white blood cells, or lymphocytes, as well as increased risks for pancreatic and esophageal cancers.” “Styrene has caused lung tumors in mice.” “Benzene, a component of polystyrene is a known carcinogen and enters the body through the respiratory system and skin contact.” B. Wildlife and Marine Life Health Alameda, California (Ordinance 2977): “It enters the marine and natural environment and is damaging to the environment and marine wildlife.” Albany, California (Ordinance 08–02): “Polystyrene foam is notorious as a pollutant that breaks down into smaller, non-biodegradable pieces that are ingested by marine life and other wildlife thus harming or killing them.” Aliso Viejo, California (Ordinance 2004–060): “Expanded Polystyrene waste poses a risk to the fragile ecological balance, since marine and land wildlife often perish as a result of ingesting Expanded Polystyrene products.This risk can occur over and over again since Expanded Polystyrene remains in the ecosystem for a very long time.” Andover, Massachusetts (Article 56): “Polystyrene is a common environmental pollutant that fragments into smaller pieces that harm or kill marine life and wildlife when they ingest them.” Arroyo Grande, California (Ordinance 676): “Marine animals and birds often confused expanded polystyrene with pieces of food, and when ingested, it can impact their digestive tracts, often leading to death.” Berkeley, California (Ordinance 5888-NS): “It enters the marine and natural environment and is ingested by aquatic wildlife, frequently causing death. There is resultant damage to the ecological balance.” Brisbane, California (Ordinance 590): “Polystyrene containers can adversely affect marine life if they find their way into waterways and water bodies. In comparison, reusable, recyclable, and/or compostable food service ware reduces litter and conserves natural resources.” Brunswick, Maine (Ordinance 3–21–16): “Polystyrene foam is a common pollutant that fragments into smaller, non-biodegradable pieces that are ingested by marine life and other wildlife, thus harming or killing them.” Clean Water Action California: “Plastics, including EPS, photodegrade. That is, they break down into smaller and smaller pieces and marine animals easily mistake polystyrene for food.” Dana Point, California (Ordinance 12–03): “EPS debris poses a risk to the fragile ecological balance because wildlife often confuse EPS debris for a source of food, and the ingestion of EPS can result in reduced appetite and nutrient absorption and death by starvation.” Davis, California (Ordinance 2501): “Polystyrene foam is a light weight material that can be blown by the wind out of garbage cans and landfills into storm drains and waterways, creating litter, polluting the water, and potentially causing harm to wildlife who mistakenly eat the material.” Encinitas, California (Ordinance 2016–12): “The availability of this material as litter has been known to cause birds fish and marine animals to starve as a result of eating the foam which does not break down in their digestive tracts.” Gloucester, Massachusetts: “Polystyrene is a common environmental pollutant that fragments into smaller pieces that harm or kill marine life and wildlife when they ingest them.” Grover Beach, California (Ordinance 18–01): “Marine animals and birds ofter confused Expanded Polystyrene with pieces of food and, when ingested, it can impact their digestive tracts, often leading to death.” Laguna Beach, California (Ordinance 1480): “Marine animals and birds often confuse Expanded Polystyrene foam material for a source of food and ingestion of Expanded Polystyrene often results in reduced appetite and nutrient absorption and possible death by starvation of birds and marine animals.” Laguna Woods, California (Ordinance 12–06): “Animals and birds often confuse polystyrene foam for a source of food and its ingestion can result in reduced appeared and nutrient absorption and possible death by starvation.” Manhattan Beach, California (Ordinance 13–0009 & 14–0003): “Polystyrene breaks down in the marine environment into smaller pieces, which negatively impacts water quality and harms marine wildlife that often mistake pieces of polystyrene for food.” Miami Beach, Florida (Ordinance 2014–3884): “Expanded Polystyrene is a common pollutant, which fragments into smaller non-biodegradable pieces that are ingested by marine life and other wildlife, thus harming or killing them.” Millbrae, California (Ordinance 717): “Polystyrene foam is a common pollutant that fragments into smaller, non- biodegradable pieces that are ingested by marine life and other wildlife thus harming or killing them.” Milpitas, California (Ordinance 293): “Plastic debris and, in particular, expanded polystyrene foam (“EPS”) is a distinctive litter concern because it is lightweight, floats, breaks down into small pieces, and readily travels from land to inland waterways and out to the ocean where it can be mistaken for food by birds and other marine wildlife.” Morro Bay, California (Ordinance 600): “Marine animals and birds often confuse expanded polystyrene with pieces of food, and when ingested, it can impact their digestive tracts, often leading to death.” Newport Beach, California (Ordinance 2008–17): “Marine animals and birds often confuse EPS for a source of food and the ingestion of EPS often results in reduced appetite and nutrient absorption and possible death by starvation of birds and marine animals.” Oakland, California (Ordinance 12747): “Polystyrene foam is notorious as a pollutant that breaks down into smaller, non-biodegradable pieces that are ingested by marine life and other wildlife thus harming or killing them.” San Clemente, California (Ordinance 1533): “Marine animals and birds may confuse EPS for a source of food and the ingestion of EPS can result in reduced appetite and nutrient absorption and possible death by starvation of birds and marine animals.” Santa Clara County, California (Ordinance 517.80): “Polystyrene foam fragments into smaller pieces that are ingested by aquatic life and other wildlife.” Santa Cruz County, California (Ordinance 5122): “The County of Santa Cruz is situated at the edge of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. Marine animals and birds often confuse polystyrene foam pieces as a food source, which when ingested, can impact the digestive track which often leads to death.” San Francisco, California (Ordinance 140–16): “Polystyrene foam is a notorious pollutant that breaks down into smaller, non-biodegradable pieces that are often mistaken for fish eggs by seabirds and other marine life.” Santa Monica, California (Ordinance 2216): “Marine animals and birds often confuse EPS for a source of food and ingestion of EPS often results in reduced appetite and nutrient absorption and possible death by starvation of birds and marine animals.” Satellite Beach, Florida (Ordinance 1129): “Expanded Polystyrene is a common pollutant, which fragments into smaller, non-biodegradable pieces that are ingested by marine life and other wildlife, thus harming or killing them.” Scotts Valley, California (Ordinance 182): “Marine animals and birds often confuse polystyrene foam with pieces of food, and when ingested, it can impact their digestive tracts, often leading to death.” Solana Beach, California (Ordinance 466): “The plastic breaks up into smaller and smaller pieces that can enter the food chain by animals believing the pieces are food.” South Portland, Maine (Ordinance 4–15/16): “Polystyrene foam is a common pollutant that fragments into smaller, non-biodegradable pieces that are ingested by marine life and other wildlife thus harming or killing them.” The Sierra Club: “The foam form in particular is often mistaken as food by both domesticated and wild animals. Birds may also use foam for nesting material. Untold numbers of animals die per year by ingesting polystyrene and other plastic items.” “Although they do fragment through mechanical action and photodegradation in the presence of light, these processes are slow taking an estimated 200+ years to complete. When a polystyrene item kills an animal, the item may go on to kill again.” Westford, Massachusetts (Article 20): “Styrene can leach from polystyrene containers into food an beverages. It has become a major component of plastic debris in the ocean and animals often mistake if for food. It is also hazardous to marine life, transferring toxic chemicals to the food chain.” C. Nearly Un-Recyclable Abington, Massachusetts: “Polystyrene is not recycled because it is not economic to wash, degrease, transport, and store in order to recycle.” Albany, California (Ordinance 08–02): “There continues to be no meaningful recycling of polystyrene foam food service ware and biodegradable or compostable food service ware is an affordable, safe, more ecologically sound alternative.” Aliso Viejo, California (Ordinance 2004–060): “There is currently no meaningful recycling of food service Expanded Polystyrene products, due in part to contamination from food residue.” Andover, Massachusetts (Article 56): “Polystyrene is not biodegradable or compostable, and is generally not recyclable.” Arroyo Grande, California (Ordinance 676): “Items made from Expanded Polystyrene are not biodegradable, compostable, or recyclable locally.” Berkeley, California (Ordinance 5888-NS): “Solid waste that is non-degradable or non-recyclable poses an acute problem for any environmentally and financially responsible program of solid waste management. Such waste covers the City’s streets, parks, public places, and open spaces.” Brunswick, Maine (Ordinance 3–21–16): “There is no economically feasible means of recycling polystyrene foam locally.” Calabasas, California (Ordinance 2007–233): “Non-biodegradable and non-recyclable materials pose a challenge to any environmentally and financially responsible solid waste management program. Discarded food packaging constitutes a significant and growing portion of the City’s waste stream.” Clean Water Action California: “EPS food packaging is typically not ‘clean’ enough to be recycled.” “EPS has a very low recycling rate. According to a 2004 study by the California Integrated Waste Management Board, of the 377,580 tons of polystyrene produced in the state, only 0.8% is recycled. Of that, only 0.2% (310 tons) of polystyrene food service packaging is recycled.” Culver City, California (Ordinance 2017–008): “The plastic recycling symbol for polystyrene is #6 and is not recyclable in Culver City.” Dana Point, California (Ordinance 12–03): “There is no meaningful way to recycle EPS products used for food service ware.” Davis, California (Ordinance 2501): “Polystyrene foam food serving ware is not locally recyclable but has comparable and easily accessible recyclable and composting alternatives.” El Cerrito, California (Ordinance 2013–04): “EPS food ware is commonly used by food providers in the City of El Cerrito, and has limited recycling potential.” Gloucester, Massachusetts: “Polystyrene is not biodegradable or compostable, and is generally not recyclable.” Grover Beach, California (Ordinance 18–01): “Items made from Expanded Polystyrene are not biodegradable, compostable, or recycle locally.” Laguna Woods, California (Ordinance 12–06): “There is no meaningful recycling of polystyrene foam products used for food service ware.” Lenox, Massachusetts Board of Health: “Polystyrene is not biodegradable or compostable, and cannot be practically recycled.” “Some of the waste generated in Lenox ends up in landfills in other communities, with the potential for Polystyrene to litter the surrounding areas. Manhattan Beach, California (Ordinance 13–0009 & 14–0003): “Education about the reduction of food-spoils polystyrene food service ware, which can be difficult to clean and recycle, may advance waste stream reduction and recycling efforts and reduce the presences of this non-biodegradable material in landfills.” Miami Beach, Florida (Ordinance 2014–3884): “Expanded Polystyrene, a petroleum by-product commonly known as Styrofoam is neither readily recyclable nor biodegradable and takes hundreds of thousands of years to degrade in the environment.” Millbrae, California (Ordinance 717): “There continues to be no substantial recycling of Polystyrene food service ware.” Monterey, California (Ordinance 3426): “Polystyrene foam means and includes expanded polystyrene (EPS), which is not collected for recycling in the Central Coast region because it is not economically viable.” “Food service-ware made from polystyrene foam is not biodegradable, returnable, or practically recyclable.” “It is not economically feasible at this time to recycle polystyrene foam in or near the City of Monterey.” Montgomery County, Maryland (Local Law 41–14): “Expanded polystyrene (PS) #6 products are not recyclable in Montgomery County, Maryland.” Morro Bay, California (Ordinance 600): “Expanded polystyrene is not recycled at the Cold Canyon Landfill and there are no current plans to recycle it, and regulating the use of expanded polystyrene products will, therefore, maximize the operating life of the landfills.” Oakland, California (Ordinance 12747): “There continues to be no meaningful recycling of polystyrene foam food service ware and biodegradable or compostable food service ware is an affordable, safe, more ecologically sound alternative.” Rahway, New Jersey (Ordinance O-53–96): “The use of polystyrene and polyvinyl chloride for food packaging is problematical because neither of these plastics are readily recyclable; that their abundant commercial use in lieu of other plastics such as polyethylene or polypropylene unnecessarily complicates the chemical composition of the municipal waste and subtracts from the possible emergence of viable plastic recycling programs.” Salinas, California (Ordinance 2519): “It is not economically feasible at this time to recycle polystyrene foam in or near the City of Salinas.” “Polystyrene foam means and includes expanded polystyrene (EPS), which is not collected for recycling in the Central Coast region because it is not economically viable.” San Clemente, California (Ordinance 1533): “There is no meaningful recycling of EPS food service products used for food service ware.” San Francisco, California (Ordinance 140–16): “An estimated 1% of all polystyrene foam is recycled in California because of food contamination and the material’s bulky, easily airborne characteristics, given it is 95% air.” “Recycled polystyrene has very little market value and can only be used to make a small range of products, most of which cannot be recycled themselves.” “Polystyrene foam packaging and food service ware cannot be recycled through San Francisco’s recycling (blue bin) collection program and is otherwise difficult or impossible to recycle, and is not compostable. Compostable or recyclable disposable packaging and food service ware are an affordable, safe, more ecologically sound alternative.” San Mateo County, California (Ordinance 04542): “Polystyrene, often referred to by the trademark Styrofoam, has also become a problematic environmental pollutant given its non-biodegradable, and nearly non-reusable nature.” Santa Clara County, California (Ordinance 517.80): “There continues to be no substantial local recycling of polystyrene food service ware.” Santa Cruz County, California (Ordinance 5122): “It is not economically feasible to recycle most polystyrene in Santa Cruz County. Eliminating the use of polystyrene foam and other noncompostable and nomecyclable items will maximize the operating life of our landfills and will lessen the economic and environmental costs of waste management for businesses and citizens of Santa Cruz County.” Santa Monica, California (Ordinance 2216): “Recycling of EPS products is not currently economically viable.” Satellite Beach, Florida (Ordinance 1129): “Expanded Polystyrene, a petroleum by-product commonly known as Styrofoam, is neither readily recyclable nor biodegradable.” Scotts Valley, California (Ordinance 182): “It is not economically feasible at this time, to recycle polystyrene foam in Santa Cruz County.” Solana Beach, California (Ordinance 466): “There are few facilities in the Sate of California that recycle polystyrene and they are able to do so only if there is a demand and the product is wiped clean of all food debris.” South Portland, Maine (Ordinance 4–15/16): “There is no economically feasible means of recycling Polystyrene foam locally.” Takoma Park, Maryland (Ordinance 2014–62): “Items comprised of polystyrene are not recyclable.” The Sierra Club: “The rigid form even when collected curbside is never recycled. But even if the recycling rate were significantly increased, the end result would still have an unacceptably large negative impact.” Westfield, Massachusetts Board of Health: “Less than 35% of fast food restaurants’ waste does not end up in landfills.” “Polystyrene is not recycled because it is not economic to wash, degrease, transport, and store in order to recycle.” Westford, Massachusetts (Article 20): “Expanded Polystyrene containers are not part of the Town’s regular recycling program.” D. Polluted Environment, Beaches, Oceans, and Waterways Alameda, California (Ordinance 2977): “The City Council finds that polystyrene foam food service ware constitutes a significant adverse environmental impact.” “It enters the marine and natural environment and is damaging to the environment and marine wildlife.” Albany, California (Ordinance 08–02): “Disposable food service ware constitutes a large portion of the litter in Albany’s streets, parks and public places.” “In the product manufacturing process as well as the use and disposal of the products, the energy consumption, greenhouse gas effect, and total environmental effect, polystyrene’s environmental impacts were second highest, behind aluminum, according to the California Integrated Waste Management Board.” “Polystyrene foam is a common environmental pollutant as well as a non- biodegradable substance used as food service ware by food vendors operating in the City of Albany.” Aliso Viejo, California (Ordinance 2004–060): “Expanded Polystyrene, a petroleum based product that is frequently used for food service purposes, enters the various water bodies from both direct as well as indirect sources (such as storm conveyance systems), and contributes to the degradation of the overall quality of streams, ocean waters and adjacent beach areas.” “Expanded Polystyrene does not effectively biodegrade (decay into constituent substance) in the environment, but merely breaks down into smaller particles, that litter the City’s streets, parks, public places, and open spaces and eventually is carried to the area’s beaches and ocean.” “Expanded Polystyrene food service products, by their nature, have a useful life that can measured in minutes or hours, yet the material takes up valuable space in landfills for an indefinitely long period of time.” Andover, Massachusetts (Article 56): “Polystyrene is made from fossil fuels, a non-renewable resource.” “Polystyrene manufacture, use, and disposal requires substantial energy consumption and contributes to greenhouse gases and other adverse environmental effects.” Arroyo Grande, California (Ordinance 676): “Expanded Polystyrene breaks into small pieces and because it is lightweight, may be picked up by the wind even when it has been disposed of properly.” “Expanded Polystyrene as litter is highly durable and is present in many public places, streets and roads, waterways and storm drains which may ultimately float, or be blown, into the Pacific Ocean.” “Regulating the use of Expanded Polystyrene products within the City will help protect the City’s natural environment from contamination and degradation.” “According to the California Department of Transportation, expanded polystyrene products (“EPS”) comprises approximately 15% of storm drain litter and is the second most common form of beach debris in California. Also, plastic products, including expanded polystyrene, make up 80–90% of floating marine debris.” Belmont, California (Ordinance 1065): “Polystyrene, often referred to by the trademark Styrofoam, has also become a problematic environmental pollutant given it’s nonbiodegradable, and nearly non-reusable nature.” “The City Council of the City of Belmont finds that polystyrene-based, single-use food service ware constitutes a substantial portion of the litter within the City of Belmont.” Berkeley, California (Ordinance 5888-NS): “Products which are degradable or recyclable offer environmentally sound alternatives or non- degradable and non-recyclable products currently used. By decaying into their constituent substances, degradable products, compared to their non-degradable equivalents, are less of a danger to the natural environment, and less of a permanent blight on the urban landscape.” “Polystyrene foam is a petroleum processing by-product. Oil is a non-renewable resource, which can only be obtained by increasingly hazardous methods such as off-shore drilling, which poses significant dangers to the environment.” “Takeout food packaging constitutes the single greatest source of litter in Berkeley and is a significant contributor to the total amount of waste entering the City’s waste stream.” Brisbane, California (Ordinance 590): “Polystyrene foam, commonly known as Styrofoam, is a petroleum-based lightweight plastic material commonly used as food service ware by retail food service and had become a problematic environmental pollutant, given its non-biodegradable and nearly non-reusable nature.” Brunswick, Maine (Ordinance 3–21–16): “Disposable food containers made from Polystyrene foam constitute a portion of the litter in Brunswick’s streets, parks and public places that increases town maintenance costs.” Calabasas, California (Ordinance 2007–233): “Discarded packaging from foods, beverages and other products constitutes a significant and growing portion of Calabasas’s waste stream.” “Plastic pollution had proliferated such that there are six times as many bits of plastic waste in the surface layer of the Pacific Ocean as marine life.” “Plastic waste originating from the United States has been found at Midway Atoll in the far reaches of the Pacific, and every cubic yard of sediment in California’s costal creeks and streams contains one-half pound of plastic waste.” California Integrated Waste Management Board: “In the product manufacturing process as well as the use and disposal of the products, the energy consumption, greenhouse gas effect, and total environmental effect, polystyrene’s environmental impacts were second highest, behind aluminum.” Clean Water Action California: “The lifetime of plastics in the marine environment is unknown. Some researchers feel that the composition of conventional petroleum-based plastics as durable polymers means they will degrade to increasingly smaller sizes but never disappear.” “Roughly 80 percent of marine debris originates from land-based sources. Plastics comprise 90 percent of floating marine debris.” “A study of beach debris at 43 sites along the Orange County coast found EPS was the second most abundant form of beach debris.” “Styrene can be found in air, water, and soil after release from the manufacture, use, and disposal of styrene-based products.” Culver City, California (Ordinance 2017–008): “Ballona Creek, a focal point of the community, flows through Culver City as an open channel which drains stormwater and urban runoff within the 130-square-mile Ballona Creek Watershed to the Pacific Ocean. Trash and other hazards, such as Styrofoam containers and cups, have entered Ballona Creek, breaking down into dangerously small particles, which pollutes the water that flows directly to the Pacific Ocean.” Dana Point, California (Ordinance 12–03): “Expandable Polystyrene (EPS), a petroleum based product that is frequently used for food services purposes, enters various water bodies from both direct and indirect sources (such as storm drains), and negatively impacts the overall quality of ocean waters and adjacent beach areas.” “Numerous studies have documented the prevalence of EPS debris in the environment, including storm drains, ocean waters and on beaches.” “EPS products contribute to urban blight as litter, because, even when they have been disposed of properly, EPS products easily break down into smaller pieces, which are so light that they float in water and get carried by the wind.” “EPS food service products, by their nature, have a useful life that can be measured in minutes or hours, yet these products take several decades to hundreds of years to biodegrade.” Davis, California (Ordinance 2501): “Polystyrene foam is a light weight material that can be blown by the wind out of garbage cans and landfills into storm drains and waterways, creating litter, polluting the water, and potentially causing harm to wildlife who mistakenly eat the material.” “The use of polystyrene foam has negative environmental impacts including: litter, solid waste generation, and effects on wildlife.” El Cerrito, California (Ordinance 2013–04): “Littering EPS food ware can result in blocked storm drains, fouled waterways, and increased marine debris.” Ellen MacArthur Foundation: “An increasing rate of plastics entering the oceans and predicts that, without significant action to reduce that flow, by 2050 there will be by weight more plastic in the oceans of the world than fish. According to the report, most of these plastics come from packaging, including food and beverage containers, and much of these plastics are made from polystyrene foam.” Encinitas, California (Ordinance 2016–12): “The manufacture and use of polystyrene foam is contributing to the degradation of our environment, a consequence which was neither foreseen or predicted with the introduction of this material.” “The primary negative attribute of polystyrene foam is that it is non-biodegradable and persists in the environment for decades. Thus, the polystyrene foam litter seen today will still be around several years from now, accumulating rather than biodegrading.” Fairfax, California (Ordinance 623): “Polystyrene is a prime contributing factor to the enormous debris patch in the Central Pacific Ocean commonly known as the Pacific Gyre.” Grover Beach, California (Ordinance 18–01): “According to the California Department of Transportation, Expanded Polystyrene products (“EPS”) comprises approximately 15% of storm drain litter and is the second most common form of beach debris in California. Also, plastic products, including Expanded Polystyrene, make up 80–90% of floating marine debris.” “Expanded Polystyrene breaks into small pieces and because it is lightweight, may be picked up by the wind even when it has been disposed of properly.” “Expanded Polystyrene as litter is highly durable and is present in many public roads, waterways and storm drains which may ultimately float, or be blown, into the Pacific Ocean.” “Regulating the use of Expanded Polystyrene products within the City will help protect the City’s natural environment from contamination and degradation.” Laguna Beach, California (Ordinance 1480): “Expanded Polystyrene foam is a common environmental pollutant as well as a non-biodegradable substance that is commonly used as food service ware by food vendors operating in the City of Laguna Beach.” “Expanded Polystyrene foam material easily breaks into smaller pieces and is so light that it floats in water and is easily carried by the wind, even when it has been disposed of properly.” Laguna Woods, California (Ordinance 12–06): “Numerous studies have documented the prevalence of Polystyrene foam product debris in the environment, including storm drains.” “Polystyrene foam — both extended (EPS) and extruded (XPS) — products are not biodegradable and as a result persist in the environment for hundreds of years.” “Polystyrene foam breaks down into smaller pieces that migrate onto public property and into the City’s storm drain system, even when disposed of properly.” Lenox, Massachusetts Board of Health: “Polystyrene is made from non-renewable fossil fuels, and Polystyrene manufacture, use, and disposal requires substantial energy consumption and contributes to greenhouse gases and other adverse environmental effects.” Manhattan Beach, California (Ordinance 13–0009 & 14–0003): “Polystyrene, a lightweight petroleum-based plastic material, is commonly littered or blown out of trash receptacles and migrates to the storm drain system and eventually to the ocean and beaches.” “Littered polystyrene, especially expanded foam, is difficult to clean up and may cumulatively result in increased litter.” “Reduction of polystyrene in the environment will advance compliance with Federal, State and City clean water mandates, including compliance with the Total Maximum Daily Loads and other requirements of the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System.” Morro Bay, California (Ordinance 600): “According to the California Department of Transportation, expanded polystyrene comprises approximately 15% of storm drain litter and is the second most common form of beach debris in California, and plastic products, including expanded polystyrene, make up 80 -90% of floating marine debris.” “The City is situated adjacent to the Pacific Ocean and during regular beach clean-ups, expanded polystyrene products are found and discarded.” “Items made from expanded polystyrene are not biodegradable, compostable, or recyclable locally and expanded polystyrene as litter is high durable.” “Expanded polystyrene breaks into small, lightweight pieces that may be picked up by the wind even when it has been disposed of property, and flow or be flown into creeks and the Pacific Ocean, contributing to water quality and habitat protection concerns.” “Regulating the use of expanded polystyrene products within the City will help protect the City’s natural environment from contamination and degradation.” “Expanded polystyrene is manufactured from petroleum, a non — renewable resources.” New York City, New York: “Styrofoam (polystyrene) is not biodegradable and takes an estimated 500 years to break down when discarded in landfills.” Miami Beach, Florida (Ordinance 2014–3884): “Expanded Polystyrene, a petroleum by-product commonly known as Styrofoam is neither readily recyclable nor biodegradable and takes hundreds of thousands of years to degrade in the environment.” “Disposable food service articles constitute a portion of the litter in the City of Miami Beach’s streets, parks, public places, and waterways.” Milpitas, California (Ordinance 293): “The Bay Area Stormwater Management Agencies (BASMAA) found in its May 2014 study San Francisco Bay Area Stormwater Trash Generation Rates that EPS disposable food service ware compromised 6% of the volume of trash observed in storm drains.” Monterey, California (Ordinance 3426): “Polystyrene is a plastic resin that is used to make up a wide range of consumer goods and packaging, and in its “foamed” or “expanded” state is frequently used to produce takeout containers for food. However, unlike many other types of packaging, littered polystyrene foam remains permanently in the environment where it breaks into tiny pieces that disperse widely.” “The City of Monterey has seen first-hand the impact of polystyrene foam plastic lifter in our storm drains, in our fields, on our roadways and highways, in our rivers, in the ocean and on our beaches. Banning polystyrene foam take-out packaging locally will help to address marine pollution by requiring the use of environmentally preferable alternatives while helping to educate business owners and citizens on the positive impact their packaging choices can make.” “Polystyrene foam breaks into smaller pieces and, because it is lightweight, may be picked up by the wind even when it has been placed in a waste receptacle.” “A prevalence of polystyrene foam packaging, which is highly durable and persists longer than any other type of refuse, litters parks and public places, streets and roads, waterways, storm drains and beaches. This litter ultimately floats, or is blown into the Monterey Bay.” Newport Beach, California (Ordinance 2008–17): “Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) is not biodegradable and as a result persists in the environment for hundreds and possibly thousands of years” “EPS material easily breaks down into smaller pieces and is so light that it floats in the water and is easily carried by the wind, even when it has been disposed of properly.” “Numerous studies have document the prevalence of EPS debris in the environment, including storm drains and on beaches. Ojai, California (Ordinance 837): “Polystyrene-based, single use food service ware and products constitute a substation portion of litter within the City of Ojai.” Pinole, California (Ordinance 2018–01): “Products made from polystyrene, commonly known by the trademarked name of Styrofoam, are a major source of trash and litter in the City, its waterways and storm drains, and the San Francisco Bay.” “Trash and litter for polystyrene products affects the City’s parks, streets, creeks, and waterfront’s beauty and recreation activities, impacting the quality of life for residents.” Rahway, New Jersey (Ordinance O-53–96): “Evidence available to the Municipal Council indicates that discarded packaging, especially take-out food service packaging, constitutes the single greatest category of waste within the waste stream of the City of Rahway, the single greatest source of litter within the City of Rahway.” “Single use nonrecyclable, nondegradable packaging and plastic containers are considered to be a fundamental cause of problems associated with municipal waste disposal and litter.” “The economic and environmental problems associated with nondegradable substances mixed with degradable substances in the waste stream are so severe that a program to modify the composition of the solid waste in the waste stream thereby reducing the environmental hazards and toxicity associated with solid waste incineration, and encouraging the composting of putrescible biodegradable wastes and encouraging other forms of recycling of solid waste substances is hereby determined to be the policy of the City of Rahway.” “The widespread use of plastics, especially polystyrene and polyvinyl chloride, pose a threat to the environment by posing unnecessary taking of landfill space, and/or when incinerated, by the possible introduction of toxic by-products into the atmosphere.” Salinas, California (Ordinance 2519): “A prevalence of polystyrene foam packaging, which is highly durable and which persists longer than nay other type fo refuse, litters parks and public places, streets and roads, waterways, and stormdrains. This litter ultimately floats or is blown into the Salinas River and the Monterey Bay.” “Laws, policies, and regulations pertaining to disposable food service wares are a vital component in the City of Salina’s efforts to reduce the amount of disposed waste.” “The City of Salinas has seen first-hand the impact of polystyrene foam plastic litter in the City’s storm drains, agricultural fields, roadways and highways, and in the Salinas River.” San Clemente, California (Ordinance 1533): “Numerous studies have documented the prevalence of Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) debris in the environment, including in storm drains and on beaches.” “EPS material easily breaks down into smaller pieces and is so light that it floats in water and is easily carried by the wind, even when it has been disposed of properly.” San Francisco, California (Ordinance 140–16): “Disposable food service ware and packaging foam constitute a significant source of litter on San Francisco’s street, parks, and public places, and the costs of managing this litter is substantial.” “The Bay Area Stormwater Management Agencies Association and Caltrans found that between 8 to 15% of plastics in San Francisco storm drains are polystyrene foam.” “The San Francisco Estuary Institute found that 8% of the micro-plastics entering San Francisco Bay from wastewater treatment facilities are polystyrene foam.” San Mateo County, California (Ordinance 04542): “Polystyrene-based, single-use food service ware constitutes a substantial portion of the litter within the County of San Mateo.” Santa Clara County, California (Ordinance 517.80): “There is a prevalence of polystyrene foam packing littering City/County parks and public places, streets and roads, waterways, storm drains and wetlands.” Santa Cruz County, California (Ordinance 5122): “Products made from expanded polystyrene foam (commonly called styrofoam) are not biodegradable, returnable or recyclable.” “Polystyrene foam easily breaks up into smaller pieces and because it is lightweight, is carried by the wind even when it has been disposed of properly.” “As litter, polystyrene foam is highly durable, persisting and detracting from the appearance of an area longer than any other type of litter. There is a prevalence of polystyrene foam debris littering our parks and public places, streets and roads, waterways, storm drains and beaches. This litter ultimately floats, or is blown, into the Monterey Bay.” “Discarded polystyrene constitutes a significant portion of the County of Santa Cruz waste stream.” “Laws, policies and regulations pertaining to this material, which is difficult to recycle, have become a vital component in the efforts to reduce the amount disposed waste.” “According to local environmental organizations, despite the passage of the County’s Environmentally Acceptable Packaging Materials Ordinance in 2008, polystyrene foam is still one of the most abundant types of litter found during beach cleanups.” Santa Monica, California (Ordinance 2216): “EPS is not biodegradable and as a result persists in the environment for hundreds and possibly thousands of years.” “EPS material easily breaks down into smaller pieces and is so light that if floats in water and is easily carried by the wind, even when it has been disposed of properly.” Satellite Beach, Florida (Ordinance 1129): “Expanded Polystyrene materials, especially as they related to food service articles, constitute a statistically significant portion of the litter in the City’s streets, parks, public places, and waterways.” Scotts Valley, California (Ordinance 182): “Discarded food and beverage packaging constitutes a significant and growing portion of the City’s waste stream.” “Eliminating all non-biodegradable, non-returnable, and non-recyclable food packaging material from all establishments within the City of Scotts Valley will protect the City’s environment from contamination and degradation.” “As litter, polystyrene foam is highly durable, persisting longer than any other type of litter. There is a prevalence of polystyrene foam packaging littering City parks and public places, streets and roads, storm drains and waterways. This litter ultimately floats, or is blown, into local creeks and into the Monterey Bay. This litter creates a financial cost to City residents and an environmental cost to natural resources.” Seattle, Washington (Ordinance 122751): “SPU has completed the first of those studies, finding that the production, use and disposal of expanded polystyrene food service products and disposable food service ware have significant adverse impacts on the environment and that compostable or recyclable alternative products are available.” Solana Beach, California (Ordinance 466): “Plastic products photodegrade, which means they break up into smaller pieces when exposed to sunlight, and these smaller pieces persist in the marine environment for hundreds of years.” “Plastics also leech chemicals wherever they end up, including solids and into the water.” “Approximately 80% of all refuse that ends up in the oceans come from land.” “Refuse found and collected along San Diego County coasts is primarily comprised of plastics. San Diego Coastkeeper reports that in 2014, 46% of debris collected was plastic. Many of the plastics collected were pieces less than one inch in diameter, and much of it was non-recyclable expanded polystyrene foam.” “Polystyrene is particularly harmful to the environment because it is frequently used for single-use purposes. A website by Californians Against Waste estimates that 377,579 tons of expanded polystyrene are produced in California and that 154,808 tons of that type of polystyrene are made specifically for food service packaging that ends up in the landfill. Either these products are immediately disposed of after a single use, or they are dispersed into the environment either intentionally or accidentally from being blown by the wind or falling out of trash receptacles, for example.” South Portland, Maine (Ordinance 4–15/16): “Disposable food containers made from polystyrene foam constitute a portion of the litter in City streets, parks, and public places that is highly durable, buoyant, and non-biodegradable and, therefore, persists and detracts from the appearance of the area longer than many other types of litter.” The Sierra Club: “Polystyrene foam easily breaks down into small pieces that can escape from the garbage truck, landfill, boat, and average consumer’s hands — and are then carried into lakes and waterways, and eventually into the ocean.” “When polystyrene items finally do break down, they do not dissolve into benign substances: they just fracture into smaller and smaller bits called microplastics. These small particles present the greatest long-term danger, as these particles displace food supplies in the world’s oceans. Once microplastics enter our oceans, they will stay there virtually forever, because they persist and their removal is not possible.” “Polystyrene is made from non-renewable fossil fuels (oil and natural gas). The cost of natural gas, is relatively lower cost because of hydrofracking, which causes many environmental and health problems.” United Nations: “From a 2006 study, it’s estimated that in this region there are 46,000 floating pieces of plastic for every square mile of ocean and the trash now circulates to a depth of 30 meters.” Westfield, Massachusetts Board of Health: “Polystyrene is a harm to the environment. It makes up a considerable amount of debris in cities, and is harmful to the marine wildlife that it often arrives in.” “The environmental impacts of polystyrene rank second behind aluminum for total environmental impacts especially in energy consumption and greenhouse gas effects.” “Over 80% of plastic pollution to the ocean comes from urban litter such as polystyrene.” “Polystyrene is not biodegradable and does not easily deteriorate in landfills, taking up more space than paper.” Westford, Massachusetts (Article 20): “Styrofoam is the brand name for polystyrene (Dow Chemical Co.), a synthetic plastic that biodegrades so slowly (hundreds of years) it is considered to be non-biodegradable.” E. Financial Burden on Local Government and Taxpayers Abington, Massachusetts: “Programs to recycle polystyrene are expensive, costing thousands of dollars per ton and litter clean-up costs billions.” Alameda, California (Ordinance 2977): “It clogs storm drains, arch culverts, and catch basins thereby significantly increasing time and expense to public works maintenance crews during a storm event.” Albany, California (Ordinance 08–02): “A number of Albany businesses engage in organics recycling and it has been demonstrated that the use of biodegradable or compostable food service ware can reduce waste disposal costs when the products are taken to composting facilities as part of an organics recycling program rather than disposed in a landfill.” Aliso Viejo, California (Ordinance 2004–060): “A deterioration in the quality of the City’s open spaces, parks, streets, and waterways can negatively affect tourism, property values, and the local economy which depends on tourist trade.” Amherst, Massachusetts (Article 9): “Expanded Polystyrene food containers form a significant portion of the solid waste stream going into our landfills. Local landfills are funning out of room; our future solid waste may have to be transported hundreds of miles to a landfill at a considerable cost.” Andover, Massachusetts (Article 56): “Disposable food service ware constitutes a portion of the litter in Andover’s streets, parks and public places, which increases Andover’s costs.” Arroyo Grande, California (Ordinance 676): “Take-out food packaging that is biodegradable, compostable, and recyclable is the most responsible and sustainable choice for the City’s tourist economy, its citizenry and its environment. When products are recycled, natural resources are spared, less energy is used for the production of new products, and landfill space is preserved.” “Regulating the use of Expanded Polystyrene products will maximize the operating life of landfills.” Berkeley, California (Ordinance 5888-NS): “Recycling of products reduces costly waste of natural resources and energy used in production of new products as well as costly disposal of waste in landfills.” “The City of Berkeley has the duty to responsibly dispose of its solid waste, yet existing landfill sites are rapidly approaching capacity, and additional sites are increasingly unavailable.” Brunswick, Maine (Ordinance 3–21–16): “Disposable food containers made from Polystyrene foam constitute a portion of the litter in Brunswick’s streets, parks and public places that increases town maintenance costs.” Calabasas, California (Ordinance 2007–233): “Discarded packaging from foods, beverages and other products constitutes a significant and growing portion of Calabasas’s waste stream.” “Existing landfill sites are rapidly approaching capacity, and additionally sites are increasingly unavailable.” “Use and recycling of those alternative products saves the cost of disposing of waste in landfills and the energy and other resources used in production of new products.” California Costal Commission: “A 2012 study determined that 90 west coast communities spend a total of more than $520,000,000 each year to combat litter.” Clean Water Action California: “Caltrans spends approximately $60 million a year to remove litter and debris from roadsides and highways.” “The County of Los Angeles (L.A.) spends $18 million annually on litter cleanup and education.” “Some coastal communities spend considerable funds on beach cleaning. For example, L.A. County collects over 4,000 tons of trash annually on its beaches. In 1994, it cost the County over $4 million to clean 31 miles of beaches.” “Since 2001, Southern California cities have spent in excess of $1.7 billion cleaning trash out of storm drain systems leading to the L.A. River and Ballona Creek in order to comply with stormwater regulations.” Dana Point, California (Ordinance 12–03): “The litter problem resulting from expandable polystyrene (EPS) products is becoming increasingly difficult to manage and has costly negative implications for tourism, wildlife, aesthetics, and most recently, public storm drain systems.” “A deterioration in the quality of the City’s ocean waters and beaches threatens the public health, safety and welfare and negatively affects tourism and the local economy which depends on tourist trade.” El Cerrito, California (Ordinance 2013–04): “Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) disposable food ware has been associated with considerable environmental impacts, including being a problematic component of litter, which is unsightly and costly to clean up.” Gloucester, Massachusetts: “Disposable food service ware constitutes a portion of litter in Gloucester’s streets, parks and public places, which increases City’s costs.” Grover Beach, California (Ordinance 18–01): “Take-out food packaging that is biodegradable, compostable, and recyclable is the most responsible and sustainable choice for the City’s tourist economy, it’s citizenry and its environment. When products are recycled, natural resources are spared, less energy is used for the production of productions, and the landfill space is preserved.” “Regulating the use of Expanded Polystyrene products will maximize the operating life of landfills.” Laguna Woods, California (Ordinance 12–06): “Polystyrene foam breaks down into smaller pieces that migrate onto public property and into the City’s storm drain system, even when disposed of properly; and result in increased costs to maintain public parks and streets.” Lenox, Massachusetts Board of Health: “Disposable Food Containers constitute a portion of the litter in Lenox’s streets, parks, and public places, thereby adversely affecting the attractiveness of the town and the enjoyment of residents and visitors, and requires time, effort, and expense to clean up.” “Tourism is vital to Lenox’s economy and an increasing number of municipalities whose residents recreate in the Berkshires because of its natural beauty and pristine environmental image have acted to reduce the use of Polystyrene in Disposable Food Containers.” Millbrae, California (Ordinance 717): “Disposable food service ware constitutes a portion of the litter in Millbrae’s streets, parks and public places which increases City costs.” Pinole, California (Ordinance 2018–01): “Polystyrene food service containers easily break into smaller pieces, creating trash and litter that is harder to collect and remove.” San Clemente, California (Ordinance 1533): “A deterioration in the quality of the City’s ocean waters and beaches threatens the public health, safety, and welfare and negatively affects tourism and the local economy which depends on tourist trade.” Santa Cruz County, California (Ordinance 5122): “This litter exists at a financial cost to residents and an environmental cost to our natural resources.” New York City, New York: “New York City discards approximately 20,000 tons of Styrofoam annually, including an estimated 150 million styrofoam meal trays in the NYC school system alone. Phasing out 20,000 tons of styrofoam from the municipal waste stream would save taxpayers an estimated $1.9 million each year based on current rates.” Newport Beach, California (Ordinance 2008–17): “Due to the physical properties of polystyrene, the EPA states ‘that such materials can also have serious impacts on human health, wildlife, the aquatic environment, and the economy.’” Oakland, California (Ordinance 12747): “Disposable food service ware constitutes a large portion of the Utter in Oakland’s estuary, streets, parks and public places and the cost of managing this litter is high and rising.” Rahway, New Jersey (Ordinance O-53–96): “Solid waste management within the City of Rahway is a fundamental concern of the Municipal Council due to the limited landfill space available, rising costs of waste disposal, and impacts on the environment.” Salinas, California (Ordinance 2519): “Solid waste that is non-degradable or non-recyclable poses and acute problem for any environmentally and financially responsible solid waste management program.” Santa Monica, California (Ordinance 2216): “Numerous studies have documented the prevalence of EPS debris in the environment, including in storm drains and on beaches, causing Santa Monica’s residents to pay thousands of dollars in clean-up costs.” Santa Clara County, California (Ordinance 517.80): “Management of this litter places a financial burden on the City/County.” Scotts Valley, California (Ordinance 182): “Eliminating the use of polystyrene foam and other non-compostable, non-biodegradable, and non-recyclable food packaging items will maximize the operating life of landfills and will lessen the economic and environmental costs of managing waste.” “When products are recycled, natural resources are spared, less energy is used for the production of new products, and premium landfill space is preserved.” “As litter, polystyrene foam is highly durable, persisting longer than any other type of litter. There is a prevalence of polystyrene foam packaging littering City parks and public places, streets and roads, storm drains and waterways. This litter ultimately floats, or is blown, into local creeks and into the Monterey Bay. This litter creates a financial cost to City residents and an environmental cost to natural resources.” Seattle, Washington (Ordinance 122751): “Costs associated with the use and disposal of expanded polystyrene food service products and disposable food service ware in Seattle creates burdens on the City’s solid waste disposal system.” South Portland, Maine (Ordinance 4–15/16): “Disposable food containers made from polystyrene foam constitute a portion of the litter in Portland’s streets, parks and public places that increases city maintenance costs.” United Nations: “A 2014 study with conservative estimates of the overall financial damage of plastics to marine ecosystems is standing at US $13 billion each year. However, it notes that marine pollution is the largest downstream cost, and that the figure of US $13 billion is likely a significant underestimate.” Westfield, Massachusetts Board of Health: “Programs to recycle polystyrene are expensive, costing thousands of dollars per ton and litter clean-up costs billions.” F. Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) or Styrofoam Alternatives Albany, California (Ordinance 08–02): “Effective ways to reduce the negative environmental impacts of throwaway food service ware include reusing food service ware and using compostable and biodegradable take-out materials made from renewable resources such as paper, corn starch and sugarcane.” “Affordable biodegradable or compostable food service ware products are increasingly available for several food service applications such as cold cups, plates and hinge containers and these products are more ecologically sound than polystyrene foam materials and can be turned into a compost product.” “The natural compost product from these biodegradable or compostable materials is used as fertilizer for farms and gardens, thereby moving towards a healthier zero waste system.” “Due to these concerns nearly 100 cities have banned polystyrene foam food service ware including several California cities, and many local businesses and several national corporations have successfully replaced polystyrene foam and other non-biodegradable food service ware with affordable, safe, biodegradable products.” Aliso Viejo, California (Ordinance 2004–060): “Alternative products, which are biodegradable, reusable and/or recyclable are readily available at a reasonable cost.” Amherst, Massachusetts (Article 9): “Approximately 60% of Amherst food establishments have already stopped using Expanded Polystyrene food containers.” “University of Massachusetts/Amherst College, and Hampshire College food services have eliminated single-use Expanded Polystyrene food containers in their dinning halls.” “Appropriate alternative products are readily available from the vendors used by local food establishments; cooperative bulk buying arrangements are possible.” Andover, Massachusetts (Article 56): “Affordable and effective ways to reduce the negative environmental impacts of polystyrene products through the use of reusable, recyclable, biodegradable and/or compostable materials are available for most retail applications.” “Over 100 municipalities throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, and Asia have banned polystyrene food service ware, including Amherst, Brookline, Great Barrington, Somerville, and South Hadley in Massachusetts, as well as: Los Angeles, CA; Chicago, IL; Miami Beach, FL; Albany, NY; New York, NY; Portland, OR; and Seattle, WA.” Belmont, California (Ordinance 1065): “The City Council of the City of Belmont finds that effective ways to reduce the negative environmental impacts of disposable food service ware include reusing or recycling food service ware and using compostable materials made from renewable resources such as paper, cardboard, corn starch, potato starch, and/or sugarcane. “There are similarly-priced alternatives — Many restaurants use non-foam containers and have doing so for a long time. Since the 47 California jurisdictions have already implemented bans on EPS, there are many businesses that have made the switch. They can find comparably priced and even cheaper alternatives.” Berkeley, California (Ordinance 5888-NS): “Alternative products which are degradable or recyclable pose far less overall hazards than continued and expanded reliance on oil-based products.” Brunswick, Maine (Ordinance 3–21–16): “The Town’s goal is to replace polystyrene foam food containers with reusable, recyclable or compostable alternatives; and such alternatives are readily available.” Calabasas, California (Ordinance 2007–233): “Replacing non-bio-degradable food packing with biodegradable packing will further protect the public health and safety of the residents, the City’s natural environment, creeks and wildlife.” “Biodegradable and recyclable products offer environmentally sound alternatives to products currently used. Biodegradable products decay, causing less harm to the environment and the landscape of the City than products now in use.” “Use and recycling of those alternative products saves the cost of disposing of waste in landfills and the energy and other resources used in production of new products.” “Bioplastics are commercially available and scientific studies show that these materials biodegrade both in compost and in the natural environment and return their base constituents to the food chain, such materials can be composted even if contaminated with food waste, and sugar cane stock (also known as bagasse) is suitable for hot foods and beverages” Clean Water Action California: “The City of Millbrae Chamber of Commerce surveyed their members when the city was considering a ban. They decided that they would support the ban and make it a publicity opportunity- several restaurants joined the Green Business program and transitioned earlier than the ban. They were happy with the PR they received from being early adopters.” Dana Point, California (Ordinance 12–03): “There are alternatives to EPS products used for food service ware.” Davis, California (Ordinance 2501): “Polystyrene foam food serving ware is not locally recyclable but has comparable and easily accessible recyclable and composting alternatives.” El Cerrito, California (Ordinance 2013–04): “Many businesses in Bay Area cities engage in organics recycling and have demonstrated that the use of compostable food ware can reduce disposal costs when the products are taken to composting facilities as part of an organics recycling program rather than disposed in a landfill.” “Compostable food ware products such as cups, plates, bowls and hinged containers are available in local stores, are increasingly available in the food service market.” Encinitas, California (Ordinance 2016–12): “There are alternative products available that are less detrimental to the environment than polystyrene.” Fairfax, California (Ordinance 623): “There are commercially available products and packaging that can replace polystyrene without economic loss to local merchants.” Gloucester, Massachusetts: “Affordable and effective ways o reduce the negative environmental impacts of polystyrene products through the use of reusable, recyclable, biodegradable and/or compostable materials are available for most retail applications.” Laguna Beach, California (Ordinance 1480): “There are several alternatives to expanded polystyrene food service containers available from existing food packaging suppliers.” Laguna Woods, California (Ordinance 12–06): “There are alternatives to polystyrene foam single-use food service ware readily available.” Lenox, Massachusetts Board of Health: “Affordable and effective ways exist to reduce the negative impacts of Polystyrene products through the use of safer, Moree sustainable, and environmentally friendly materials.” Millbrae, California (Ordinance 717): “Affordable compostable food service ware products are increasingly becoming available for most food service applications such as cups, plates, and hinged containers and these products are more ecologically sound than polystyrene materials and can be turned into a compost product.” “Due to these concerns, cities began banning polystyrene foam food service ware including several California cities such as Berkeley (1990), Oakland (2007), and San Francisco (2007) where local businesses and several national corporations have successfully replaced it and other non-biodegradable food service ware with affordable, safe, biodegradable products.” Milpitas, California (Ordinance 293): “The Santa Clara Valley Runoff Pollution Prevention Program found in its September 2016 study Storm Drain Trash Monitoring and Characterization Project — Technical Report that ‘…there was a 74% decrease in the volume of EPS food service ware observed in the 53 sites in common between this Project and the BASMAA Trash Generation Rates Study (BASMAA 2014). This large decrease coincides with ordinances that have been adopted throughout most of the Santa Clara Valley.’” Morro Bay, California (Ordinance 600): “Take-out food packaging that is biodegradable, compostable, and recyclable is the most responsible and sustainable choice for the City’s tourist economy, its citizenry and its environment and when those products are recycled, natural resources are spared and less energy is used for the production of new products.” Newport Beach, California (Ordinance 2008–17): “There are several alternatives to EPS disposable food service ware available in Newport Beach from existing packaging suppliers.” Oakland, California (Ordinance 12747): “Affordable biodegradable or compostable food service ware products are increasingly available for several food service applications such as cold cups, plates and hinge containers and these products are more ecologically sound than polystyrene foam materials and can be turned into a compost product.” “The Oakland Coliseum has successfully replaced its cups with biodegradable corn starch cups and has shown an overall cost savings due to organics recycling.” “Over 155 businesses in Oakland engage in organics recycling and it has been demonstrated that the use of biodegradable or compostable food service ware can reduce waste disposal costs when the products are taken to composting facilities as part of an organics recycling program rather than disposed in a landfill.” “The natural compost product from these biodegradable or compostable materials is used as fertilizer for farms and gardens, thereby moving towards a healthier zero waste system.” Ojai, California (Ordinance 837): “Effective ways to reduce the negative environmental impacts of disposable food service ware include reusing or recycling food service ware and using compostable materials made from renewable resources such as paper, cardboard, corn starch, potato starch, and sugarcane.” Pinole, California (Ordinance 2018–01): “There are many widely available alternatives to polystyrene products, such as products made from paper, corn waste, and recyclable plastic.” Rahway, New Jersey (Ordinance O-53–96): “There are reality available plastic and/or paper product substitutes for most of the polystyrene and polyvinyl chloride retail food packaging now being used in the City of Rahway, the use of which alternatives, would be environmentally and economically advantageous to the citizens of the City of Rahway.” San Clemente, California (Ordinance 1533): “There are alternative to EPS disposable food service ware available in San Clemente from existing packaging suppliers.” San Francisco, California (Ordinance 140–16): “The City of San Francisco has had over 3,000 businesses come into compliance with the ban and none have filed any notices of financial hardship which is an option under the city’s ordinance.” San Mateo County, California (Ordinance 04542): “Effective ways to reduce the negative environmental impacts of disposable food service ware include reusing or recycling food service ware and using compostable materials made from renewable resources such as paper, cardboard, corn starch, potato starch, and/or sugarcane.” Santa Clara County, California (Ordinance 517.80): “Local business and several national corporations have successfully replaced polystyrene and other non-biodegradable food service ware with affordable products.” “Affordable compostable food service ware products are becoming increasingly available for most food service applications such as cups, plates, and hinged containers and these products can be turned into a compost product.” Santa Cruz County, California (Ordinance 5122): “At the present time, over 50 businesses in the County of Santa Cruz engage in organics recycling, and it has been demonstrated that the use of biodegradable or compostable food service ware can reduce waste disposal costs when the products are taken to composting facilities as par of an organics recycling program rather than disposed in a landfill. Compost produced from biodegradable products can be used as a soil amendment for farms, landscaping and gardens thereby moving towards a healthier zero waste system.” “Biodegradable/compostable and recyclable take-out food packaging such as cups, plates, hinge containers, cutlery and straws are made from organic materials such as paper, sugarcane stalk, com waste and potato starch. These products are available locally and are competitively priced.” “Alternative products exist for almost all uses of polystyrene foam.” Santa Monica, California (Ordinance 2216): “There are several alternatives to EPS disposable food service containers available in Santa Monica from existing food packaging suppliers.” Scotts Valley, California (Ordinance 182): “Take-out food packaging that is biodegradable, compostable, and recyclable is the most responsible and sustainable choice for the City’s economy, its citizenry and its environment.” “When biodegradable products are turned into compost they can reduce water use and lessen the need for fertilizer.” “biodegradable take-out packaging such as cups, plates, and clamshell containers are now made from paper, sugarcane stalk, corn bi-products, and potato starch. As these products degrade, they pose less of a danger to the environment and are not a permanent blight on the landscape. These products are available locally.” South Portland, Maine (Ordinance 4–15/16): “Such alternatives are readily available.” Takoma Park, Maryland (Ordinance 2014–62): “Non-polystyrene food-service ware and packaging is affordable and available, as is compostable food-service ware, although reuse of durable food-service ware is a preferable alternative to disposable, recycling, and composting.” The Sierra Club: “Polystyrene is cheaper than some alternatives. However, the environmental expense of polystyrene far exceeds the cost restaurants and grocery stores are currently paying to provide them. There is no need for this because there are many alternatives that are readily available.” Westford, Massachusetts (Article 20):

In many technical fields, resources are shared by more than one units or devices. To give some examples, in a master slave configuration a plurality of masters may share a common slave, a plurality of units may share a common bus, a plurality of processors may share a common memory or pieces of information such as data packets may be transferred over a common data channel. When more than one unit requests to get access to the shared resource at the same time, a conflict exists between the units requesting access since at a given time only one of the units can get access while the other has to be prevented from accessing. To address this problem, arbitration is used. Arbitration is a process, where a unit is given priority over another unit (or a plurality of other units). Many arbitration techniques with different degrees of fairness for the requesters and different degrees of complexity are known. Arbitration may take for example into account the number of previous requests by a given unit or the identity of the unit (i.e. the identity of the port. Furthermore, fair arbitration techniques may take into consideration that requesters are handled fair and one requester is for example not blocked by another requester. Fair arbitration techniques include for example round robin arbitration (RR), weighted round robin (WRR) or deficit round robin (DRR).

Black Rubric The term Black Rubric is the popular name for the declaration found at the end of the "Order for the Administration of the Lord's Supper" in the Prayer Book of the Church of England (BCP) which explains why the communicants should kneel and excludes possible misunderstandings of this action. The term dates from the 19th century when the medieval custom of printing the rubrics in red was followed in editions of the BCP and the declaration was printed in black; but the declaration itself was composed in 1552. History of the declaration In September 1552, after Parliament had approved the Second Prayer Book of Edward VI, John Knox and others argued before the Privy Council that the Holy Communion should be received sitting; but were refuted by Archbishop Thomas Cranmer. As a result of this clash, the council acted on its own authority and ordered the inclusion of the declaration in the new prayer book. The first copies had already been printed so it had to be pasted into them as a correction slip. It explained that kneeling was an expression of "humble and grateful acknowledging of the benefits of Christ, given unto the worthy receiver" and did not imply any adoration of the bread and wine or of the real and essential presence of Christ's natural flesh and blood. Historians have asked about whose victory the Black Rubric represents. Whilst Diarmaid MacCulloch has argued that it was a victory for Cranmer, Isabel Davis, who has made a study based on multiple examples, has made the case that it was a victory for no one and that its interpolation physically, as it printed matter, disrupted Cranmer's prayer book and the project of uniformity. The "rubric" was omitted from the Elizabethan prayer-book of 1559, probably as part of the Queen's policy to retain the support of moderate traditionalists (she believed in the Real Presence without a definition of it; and, had she got her way, the celebration of the Prayer Book Communion would looked like a Mass), but possibly also on the technical grounds that the reversal of her Catholic predecessor's repeal of Edward VI's Protestant legislation revived the 1552 BCP as approved by Parliament and not as published. This omission was one of the cherished grievances of the Puritans and in the Savoy Conference of 1661 the Presbyterians demanded its restoration; but the twelve bishops who took part were not willing to grant it. However, the revision of the prayer-book in 1661/2 involved all the bishops, representatives of the clergy and both Houses of Parliament. At a late stage in the proceedings, the "rubric" was rewritten and condensed with its language updated and a possibly significant verbal modification, the words "real and essential" in 1552 being changed to "Corporal". In this new form, it became part of the book as finally approved. and therefore forms part of the doctrinal standards of the Church of England (Canon A5), but it has never been included in the alternative forms of worship (such as Common Worship) authorised or allowed by Canons B1, B2 and B4. It is debatable whether the verbal change "corporal" in place of "real and essential" implied some type of recognition of the "real presence" or simply updated the terminology because the original phrase was now out of date. Frere says it does but Griffith Thomas says the opposite.. The answer can be found in the text itself: Christ's Presence is real and essential after the manner of a sacrament, but not in the flesh as in his "natural body".The removal of the rubric by Elizabeth halted any movement towards a more radical Calvinistic position in favor of "fudging and fumbling" (playing a course between radical Protestantism and Catholicism and stressing the continuity of the Church "no break with the Popish past"), Christopher Haigh, op. cit., p. 242. Such a definition seems to be related to Aquinas' argument that the Body of Christ in the Sacrament is not to be understood as the same as a body in space (like ours) and the it is not to be understood "materialiter" (physically) or "localiter" (as trapped in a place). Text In the 1552 edition of the Book of Common Prayer, the Black Rubric was written as follows (italics added for emphasis): The 1662 version was slightly altered as follows (italics added for emphasis): Whereas it is ordained in this Office for the Administration of the Lord's Supper, that the Communicants should receive the same kneeling; (which order is well meant, for a signification of our humble and grateful acknowledgment of the benefits of Christ therein given to all worthy Receivers, and for the avoiding of such profanation and disorder in the holy Communion, as might otherwise ensue;) yet, lest the same kneeling should by any persons, either out of ignorance and infirmity, or out of malice and obstinacy, be misconstrued and depraved: It is hereby declared, That thereby no adoration is intended, or ought to be done, either unto the Sacramental Bread or Wine there bodily received, or unto any Corporal Presence of Christ's natural Flesh and Blood. For the Sacramental Bread and Wine remain still in their very natural substances, and therefore may not be adored; (for that were Idolatry, to be abhorred of all faithful Christians;) and the natural Body and Blood of our Saviour Christ are in Heaven, and not here; it being against the truth of Christ's natural Body to be at one time in more places than one. References Bibliography Brian Douglas, A Companion to Anglican Eucharistic Theology, Volume 1, Leiden: Brill, 2012 External links "Black Rubric", Anglican Eucharistic Theology website. Category:Book of Common Prayer Category:Anglican Eucharistic theology Category:English Reformation Category:Savoy Conference Category:17th-century documents

Reconstructing the evolutionary history of the artiodactyl ribonuclease superfamily. The sequences of proteins from ancient organisms can be reconstructed from the sequences of their descendants by a procedure that assumes that the descendant proteins arose from the extinct ancestor by the smallest number of independent evolutionary events ('parsimony'). The reconstructed sequences can then be prepared in the laboratory and studied. Thirteen ancient ribonucleases (RNases) have been reconstructed as intermediates in the evolution of the RNase protein family in artiodactyls (the mammal order that includes pig, camel, deer, sheep and ox). The properties of the reconstructed proteins suggest that parsimony yields plausible ancient sequences. Going back in time, a significant change in behaviour, namely a fivefold increase in catalytic activity against double-stranded RNA, appears in the RNase reconstructed for the founding ancestor of the artiodactyl lineage, which lived about 40 million years ago. This corresponds to the period when ruminant digestion arose in the artiodactyls, suggests that contemporary artiodactyl digestive RNases arose from a non-digestive ancestor, and illustrates how evolutionary reconstructions can help in the understanding of physiological function within a protein family.

The catalytic partial oxidation process could very suitably be used to provide the hydrogen feed for a fuel cell. In fuel cells, hydrogen and oxygen are passed over the fuel cell in order to produce electricity and water. Fuel cell technology is well known in the art. One of the most challenging applications of fuel cells is in transportation. Transport means, such as automotive vehicles and crafts, powered by fuel cells are under development. The oxygen needed for the fuel cell may be obtained from the ambient air, the hydrogen feed could be obtained from a hydrogen fuel tank but is preferably produced on-board, for example by catalytic reforming of methanol. The on-board production of hydrogen by catalytic reforming of methanol has been proposed, for example by R. A. Lemons, Journal of Power Sources 29 (1990), p 251-264. The on-board production of hydrogen by a catalytic partial oxidation process, for example as described in WO99/19249, has been proposed as an alternative for steam reforming of methanol. An important advantage of this catalytic partial oxidation process is its flexibility towards the choice of fuel. In a catalytic partial oxidation process in a fixed catalyst bed, the temperature of the top layer, i.e. the layer at the upstream end of the catalyst bed, is typically higher than the temperature further downstream in the catalyst bed. This is due to the fact that the catalytic partial oxidation reaction is mass and heat transfer limited, i.e. full conversion is subject to mass and heat transfer limitations between the bulk of the gaseous feed mixture and the catalyst surface. Typically, upon an increase in the average carbon number of the hydrocarbonaceous feedstock, the temperature of the top layer of the catalyst bed will increase. This is probably due to the fact that if the feedstock has a high carbon number, and thus a high molecular weight, the oxygen concentration at the upstream surface of the catalyst will be relatively high, i.e. higher than the average oxygen concentration in the feed mixture supplied, since the diffusion of the smaller oxygen molecules to the upstream surface will be faster than the diffusion of the larger hydrocarbon molecules. Thus, as the number of carbon atoms increases a larger part of the hydrocarbons will be completely oxidised at the upstream surface of the catalyst bed. Since the complete oxidation reaction is more exothermic than the partial oxidation reaction, more heat is produced, resulting in a very high temperature of the upstream part of the catalyst bed. Temperatures of the top layer of the catalyst bed above 1200° C. have been observed in the catalytic partial oxidation of a naphtha feedstock. It will be appreciated that the temperature of the top layer will not only depend on the feedstock, but also on the catalyst composition and structure, the composition of the feed mixture, the process conditions and the configuration of the reactor. High temperatures in the top layer of the catalyst bed are unwanted, since the rate of catalyst deactivation increases with temperature. Therefore, there is a need in the art for a catalytic partial oxidation process wherein the temperature in the top layer of the catalyst bed can be reduced.

1. Field of the Invention This invention relates to a device for providing complete control of an electric motor in a remote, radio controlled moving device, such as a model airplane. 2. Description of the Related Art With the advent of Ni-Cad batteries, model airplane builders found that they could use electric permanent magnet motors to power their aircraft instead of using conventional two-stroke gas engines. The gas engines provided ample power and thrust so that the weight of the remote control receiver, the receiver batteries, the servo controllers and various linkages did not pose a weight problem for flying the plane. Electric motors do not deliver as much thrust, and they require batteries. This combination makes saving weight in the aircraft an imperative goal if a reasonable flight envelope for the aircraft is to be achieved. If the receiver batteries, ON/OFF switch wiring harness, servo and micro-switch can be eliminated, significant weight savings can be realized which will lengthen flying time; increase the rate of climb; enable aerobatic maneuvers; extend the glide ratio and generally improve the flying performance of the plane.

Opto-electronic imaging systems are used, for example, in the field of space technology, for earth observation, in reconnaissance systems or in automotive engineering for recognizing obstacles. The sensor head of opto-electronic systems consists of front optics, for example, a lens objective or a telescope, detectors in the focal plane and electronics. The front optics, for example, reflecting telescopes as often used for space instruments have a curved image plane or a curved focal plane. However, conventional detector technology requires a planar design. To flatten the image surface, so-called field correctors or field flatteners must, therefore, be connected downstream of the telescopes or optics in order to be able to place a planar detector surface into the focal surface. In general, the field correctors consist of lens assemblies that can typically effect a correction of the image plane only in a limited region over the field of view. FIG. 4 illustrates a conventional Cassegrain system that can be used as a reflecting telescope for space instruments. FIG. 5 illustrates the curved focal surface of a concave mirror. FIG. 6 illustrates a Quasi-Ritchey-Chrétien booster system with a conventional field corrector or its beam paths, respectively. However, in many applications, a broad field of view is required, for example to achieve a broad swath width. A corresponding expansion of the visual field of the telescope is particularly required in a scanning pushbroom instrument. For reasons of stability, particularly to withstand the launching loads, reflecting telescopes are primarily used for geometric high-resolution space instruments. Furthermore, in many cases a broadband spectral sensitivity is required. The detectors in the focal plane are the hearts of opto-electronic imaging systems. For example, conventional CCD detectors are often used as well as CMOS detectors with active pixel technology. These detectors have an integrated readout electronics and can be manufactured in one manufacturing process. In the field of automotive engineering, cameras used for recognizing obstacles are required to have a large visual field or panorama cameras are used. However, these require complicated optics to achieve a large visual field and to reduce distortions. Correspondingly, the price for a camera or an imaging system for such applications is very high. To achieve a better reproduction quality, very narrow thermo-mechanical tolerances are also required. The field correctors often restrict the spectral transmission range, which is caused, for example, by the narrow transmission range of the employed lens glasses. Overall, the conventional opto-electronic imaging systems or detector designs exhibit significant disadvantages, such as the restriction of the field of view and the limitations of spectral transmission properties of the telescopes, a complex design with field correctors to create planar image planes, complicated and elaborate front optics and high costs. Therefore, the objectives of the present invention include overcoming the aforementioned disadvantages, simplifying opto-electronic imaging systems and enabling wider fields of view (FOV).

Beheading the Kite Beheading the Kite (, ) is a Kashubian Midsummer Eve custom of ritually beheading a kite, a bird which in the Kashubian region used to symbolize evil. Since mid-19th century the ritual has become a part of Midsummer Eve, Whit Sunday or Corpus Christi celebrations. After all the residents have gathered, the village elder and village council publicly condemned the captured kite, blaming it for evil deeds, and sentenced it to death by beheading. Whenever a kite could not be captured alive, a hen or a crow could be used instead. The Ritual The ritual had most likely been meant as a warning, since the village elder reading the sentence would always allude to current events in the village and warn his people that doing the same deeds for which the kite was punished might bring similar punishment. The kite's bad reputation might be related to the fact that it is a bird of prey and was known for decimating poultry. Another hypothesis suggests that the bird was a harbinger of drought, since its cry was similar to the words "pi, pi" which mean "drink, drink" (cf. ). To prevent this disaster, the bird had to be killed. Nowadays the beheading of a kite is a public event, and an effigy is used instead of a live kite. Occasionally the bird is replaced with a red flower. Name and origins The red kite (Milvus milvus) is a medium-large bird of prey in the hawks and eagles (Accipitridae) family. Although found across Poland, it is relatively the commonest in the Pomerania region. The bird feeds on small rodents, frogs, young and infirm birds and carrion. The kite's cry resembles "hee-ye". Kashubian folk tradition considered the bird to be antagonistic towards humans and their possessions; it was also associated with laziness. If a kite couldn't be procured for the ritual, a hen or a crow would be used instead. Today in Polish villages (e.g. in Łączyńska Huta) the kite is symbolized by an effigy stuffed with feathers. The ritual was first mentioned in an 1851 text by Florian Ceynowa, who described the custom as it was in his home village. Also Jan Patock writes about the ritual in Dzień św. Jana na Kaszubach [St. John's Day in the Kashubia region] (1932). Today the custom takes place in summer, usually in June. Local activists, actors and volunteers perform in a number of Kashubian villages (Łączyńska Huta, Wdzydze Kiszewskie, Szymbark, Strzelno). There are several legends concerning the rite's origins: Dr. Bernard Sychta, in Zbiór podań, opowieści i baśni kaszubskich [A collection of Kashubian tales and fables] writes about drought in the region so severe that lakes and rivers had dried out. God took pity on the birds dying of thirst and ordered them to dig wells. When all the birds began the work, the kite refused because it didn't want to get dirt on its legs. For this deed, the bird was punished and since then it can only drink water droplets from cracks in stones. In the northern part of the region the kite was identified with a woman: a local tale related to this belief is about Christ travelling with St. Peter and asking a woman for some water. When she refused to share it, she was punished by being turned into the bird. A story from the Kościerzyna area explains that the kite is an enchanted wizard, who possessed great knowledge and treasures. His spells stopped rains in the region. When he had been transformed into the kite, he was allowed to drink water only from cracks in stones. In summer he is very thirsty and cries: "pi, pi" which means "drink, drink". Characters Individual roles are assigned randomly by drawing lots or asking for volunteers (before or on the ritual day) and assigning the following roles: The Village Leader and his wife: Village leaders are usually the show's organisers – they are supposed to welcome and say goodbye to the guests. The leader announces the death sentence; he wears a hat adorned with flowers and ribbons. Together with the Executioner they are the most distinctive characters of the event. The Executioner and his wife: The Executioner beheads the kite, sometimes also announces the sentence. He wears red (sometimes white or black) clothes. He is armed with a sabre. The Judge and his wife: The Judge only appeared in the early 20th century. During the ritual the Judge demands information about the characters and the conduct of the other characters' wives. He wears white robes, sometimes with a cape. A chain made from gilded paper hangs around his neck. The Hunter and his wife: The Hunter is responsible for catching the kite and tying it to the pole. The Dog Catcher and the Hunter are sometimes described as the Executioner's help. The Game Warden and his wife: Helps the Hunter. The Dog Catcher and his wife: The Dog Catcher removes the dead kite. In some variations he may be replaced with the Digger and the Carrier with stretches. The Jew: A character wearing typical Jewish clothes, carrying a bag of cats on his back. He provides comic relief towards the ritual's end. The course of the ritual The original tradition was upheld until the 19th century. After Florian Ceynowa's publications in the mid 19th century (two articles in "Nadwiślanin" magazine), the ritual was resurrected by activists, members of pro-Kashubian organizations, employees of ethnographic and open-air museums. Today the tradition is based on Edmund Kamiński's text found in Jan Rompski's "Ścinanie kani. Kaszubski zwyczaj ludowy" [Beheading a kite. A Kashubian folk tradition]. The ritual usually takes place on a meadow, possibly near water. A podium decorated with plants is placed there. Local women bring high men's hats decorated with colorful strings. Each woman aims for her hat to be the prettiest. The hats are to be worn by the future "husbands" during the ritual. A pole to which the kite will be tied is placed in the centre. The village leader or the executioner begin to circle around the pole, driving the audience away with a sabre to make room. Then, wives are selected for the actors. Women approach a box with tickets and draw one, and the selection is confirmed by the village leader. Having selected the husbands, the women form a circle and sing together. The village leader gives a speech; this is a solemn moment. The executioner accuses the kite of various crimes and the judgement begins. The prosecutor – village leader – points out all the crimes the kite had committed. In addition to the damage done to poultry and cattle, there are also allusions to young women. The village leader addresses the community and pronounces the kite guilty of all the sins, and sentences it to death. The people applaud. After securing an agreement to proceed with the execution, the executioner attempts to kill the kite with three strikes (the Executioner who does not manage to kill the kite with up to three strikes will be laughed at). The Executioner wraps the beheaded bird and its head in white cloth and carries it to a grave, where the catcher buries it. Finally the village leader thanks the audience for attending; the actors and all participants make a bonfire and celebrate. See also References Category:Polish traditions Category:Kashubian culture

javac is the compiler, which translates your source code into byte code. Byte code is a list of simple instructions that the JVM (Java Virtual Machine) can execute. The JVM contains a JIT (just-in-time) compiler that translates byte code into native machine code that the CPU in your computer can execute directly. That is a high-level description; ofcourse there are a lot more details to understand if you really want to know exactly how the Java compiler and the JVM work.

Post navigation What’s The Forecast On Kepler-7B? Hot And Cloudy (NPR) An artist’s rendition of Kepler-7b (left) with Jupiter for comparison. (Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MIT) What’s The Forecast On Kepler-7B? Hot And Cloudy by October 01, 201311:02 AM Scientists are reasonably sure that it’s a cloudy day on , a planet that orbits its star about 1,000 light-years away from us. Using NASA’s orbiting space telescopes, researchers publishing in say that for the first time they’ve been able to make a rudimentary map of the atmosphere of an extrasolar planet. The team used faint visible light and infrared reflections from Kepler-7b to make their cloud map. “By observing this planet with Spitzer and Kepler [telescopes] for more than three years, we were able to produce a very low-resolution ‘map’ of this giant, gaseous planet,” study co-author Brice-Olivier Demory of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge said in a statement.

19 2020 Living in the Algorithmic Age Living in the Algorithmic Age Algorithms are sometimes compared to cathedrals, in that they share the same ambition, and the same folly. Some algorithms, such as telephone operating systems, data management systems, or search engines, are huge objects involving the contributions of thousands of people. With algorithms, Homo sapiens has finally created a tool equal to its aspirations. Why do we blame algorithms for our woes? Because they push us out of our comfort zone? No doubt. But also because we often agree to use them, not understanding what they really are and how they work. Our dreams and our fears are the consequences of this ignorance. We fear algorithms because we see them as mysterious beings, endowed with supernatural powers, perhaps evil intentions. We often agree to use them, not understanding what they really are and how they work. In the book, we clarify the opaque vocabulary often used in this context explaining the basics of this science for a general public. To free yourselves from any magical thinking, to separate legitimate hopes from childish fantasies, justified fears from unfounded anxieties, we invite you on a journey through the world of algorithms. We discuss the digital society and the new human in becoming, enlightening societal and philosophical issues such as the transformation of work, property, privacy… that are often explained confusingly in the media. We explain how scientific knowledge is impacted by computer science across all fields with big data, machine learning… It is essential for you to get familiar with these notions to understand better the transformations of the world and acquire a more modern viewpoint. The goal of The Age of Algorithms is to make you more aware of the environments you live in, to empower you with your own viewpoint and understanding instead of being frightened by the new technology. This, we believe, will help you improve your life in the digital world. Algorithms can lead to the best or the worst outcome, but we must never forget that they do not, in themselves, have intention. Human beings have designed them. They are what we want them to be. That is also the message of the book. Gilles Dowek is a researcher in computer science. He has published several popular science books, as well as books on epistemology of computer science and ethics in the digital world. His book Computation, Proof, Machine (Cambridge, 2015) has received the French Academy philosophy award.... Serge Abiteboul is a member of the Board of Arcep and a computer scientist at Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et en Automatique (INRIA), Rocquencourt. He has been visiting professor at Stanford University, California, and is a founder of the Xyleme company. He is fascinated by and likes to write about societal issues related to the d...

SMS Carola SMS Carola was the lead ship of the of steam corvettes built for the German Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy) in the 1880s. Intended for service in the German colonial empire, the ship was designed with a combination of steam and sail power for extended range, and was equipped with a battery of ten guns. Carola was laid down at the AG Vulcan shipyard in Stettin in 1879, launched in November 1880, and completed in September 1881. Carola was sent abroad twice during her career, the first immediately after entering service in 1881 and lasting into 1883. She sailed to the central Pacific Ocean to protect German interests in Samoa and Melanesia and was the first German warship to reach what would become German Southwest Africa. Her second deployment came in 1886, and lasted into 1891; the tour saw Carola alternate between German East Africa and the central Pacific. During operations in the former from 1888 to 1890, she participated in anti-slave trade operations and helped suppress the Abushiri revolt. After returning to Germany in 1891, Carola was converted into a gunnery training ship, as she was by then obsolete as a warship. She served in this capacity through the 1890s and early 1900s, before being decommissioned in 1905, sold the following year, and broken up for scrap. Design The six ships of the Carola class were ordered in the late 1870s to supplement Germany's fleet of cruising warships, which at that time relied on several ships that were twenty years old. Carola and her sister ships were intended to patrol Germany's colonial empire and safeguard German economic interests around the world. Carola was long overall, with a beam of and a draft of forward. She displaced at full load. The ship's crew consisted of 10 officers and 246 enlisted men. She was powered by a single marine steam engine that drove one 2-bladed screw propeller, with steam provided by eight coal-fired fire-tube boilers, which gave her a top speed of at . She had a cruising radius of at a speed of . As built, Carola was equipped with a three-masted barque rig, but she had her rigging reduced in 1891. Carola was armed with a battery of ten 22-caliber (cal.) breech-loading guns and two 24-cal. guns. She also carried six Hotchkiss revolver cannons. The 15 cm guns were later reduced to six and then four guns, and the 8.7 cm guns were replaced with a pair of SK L/35 guns, eight SK L/30 guns, and two SK L/40 guns. Service history Construction and first overseas deployment Carola was laid down at the AG Vulcan shipyard in Stettin in late 1879 under the contract designation "E", denoting a new addition to the fleet. She was launched on 27 November 1880, and during the ceremony she was christened Carola in honor of Queen Carola of Saxony. After completing fitting-out work, Carola was commissioned on 1 September 1881 for sea trials, though these lasted just two weeks, as the ship was needed in the central Pacific Ocean to protect German interests in the region. Carola left Kiel on 18 October, bound for Australia; from there, she proceeded north to Apia in Samoa, where she relieved the gunboat on 15 April 1882. After arriving, Carola took the German consul in Samoa on a tour of the islands to meet with the Samoan chiefs Malietoa Laupepa and Tupua Tamasese Titimaea. She cruised to visit Tonga, New Zealand, and the Society Islands; in the latter archipelago, she helped suppress a fire in Papeete on the island of Tahiti. Carola returned to Apia, where she was joined by the gunboat . The two vessels began a trip to the Bismarck Archipelago on 22 November. On the way, Carola independently visited Tuvalu and the Carteret Islands before rejoining Hyäne in Matupi Harbor. The ships proceeded to the Hermit Islands, where locals had murdered two Germans and nine native employees of a German company. Carola and Hyäne were ordered to punish those responsible for the killings. They sent landing parties ashore to track them down, but the murderers fled to another island. After an extensive search that involved destroying local farms and huts, the Germans captured two men who were involved in the killings; both were executed. The two ships returned to Matupi, and on 16 January 1883, Carola departed for Sydney, Australia, stopping in the Duke of York Islands on the way. She sailed to Buka Island to search for a French expedition that had gone missing, but she was unable to locate the explorers. She remained in Buka from 20 to 24 January in a previously unused harbor, which was named "Queen Carola Harbor" in honor of the ship's namesake. Carola thereafter returned to Sydney, where from 11 February to 19 March she was overhauled. She returned to Apia on 8 May, where she received orders to return to Germany. A week later, Hyäne arrived to relieve her, and Carola embarked the consul for a tour of Polynesia and Melanesia that concluded in Matupi in early August. She left the consul there and began the voyage home on 4 August. While in Cape Town, South Africa, Carola received the order to go to south western Africa, where merchant Adolf Lüderitz had recently acquired a strip of territory around Angra Pequena. She reached the bay there on 18 August, the first German warship to arrive in what became the colony of German South West Africa. Carola departed and arrived in Kiel on 1 November, where she was inspected by General Leo von Caprivi, the new Chief of the Kaiserliche Admiralität (Imperial Admiralty). The ship was then decommissioned. Second overseas deployment While out of service, Carola was equipped with a torpedo tube. She was recommissioned on 4 May 1886 for another deployment to the Pacific. She left on 17 May, transited the Suez Canal, and reached Singapore on 26 July. From there, she sailed to Hong Kong, where on 14 August she rendezvoused with the German overseas cruiser squadron, which consisted of her sister ship and the corvette , the flagship of Konteradmiral (KAdm—Rear Admiral) Eduard von Knorr. The three ships visited ports in Japan before departing East Asian waters for German East Africa; while en route, Carola had to stop in Singapore to repair her engines. She caught up with Bismarck and Olga in Zanzibar in late December. Germany had been granted a protectorate over Wituland, and Carola and Olga were tasked with surveying the coast. On 1 March 1887, the squadron received orders to return to the central Pacific, but before the ships could depart, they were temporarily redirected to Cape Town, where they were to await further orders, owing to a possibility of war with France. While they were waiting for the crisis to pass, Kapitän zur See (KzS—Captain at Sea) Karl Eduard Heusner arrived to replace Knorr, and Carola visited Angra Pequena again. On 15 April, Heusner arrived and the squadron was ordered to continue on their voyage to the Pacific on 7 May. They arrived in Sydney in early June, where they were overhauled between 9 June and 3 August. While there, men from Carola participated in a parade held for the celebration of British Queen Victoria's 40th year on the throne. After emerging from the Sydney dry dock, the three corvettes sailed to Samoa, where they were sent to punish Malietoa Laupepa for threatening German interests in the islands. Carola and Bismarck left Samoa for East Asia by way of the Bismarck Archipelago, where they visited several ports through May 1888. Heusner received the order to take his squadron back to East Africa; while in Singapore, Bismarck was ordered back to Germany, and her place as the squadron flagship was taken by Carolas sister . Carola was delayed in Singapore by engine troubles, which necessitated repairs that lasted until 26 June. The delay nevertheless allowed Olga time to rendezvous with the rest of the squadron while it waited for Carola to be ready for sea. In late-July, Carola went to Walvis Bay in German Southwest Africa, as rumors led the German government to believe a local revolt was planned. Nothing came in the colony, however, and Carola conducted a survey of the bay before returning to East Africa. While in Zanzibar in August, Heusner was recalled to Germany, and he was replaced by KAdm Karl August Deinhard aboard the corvette , which took over the role of squadron flagship. The ships of the squadron were deployed to suppress the slave trade between central Africa, Zanzibar, and Arabia. On 6 November, Carola rejoined the squadron in Zanzibar before returning to operations in German East Africa. She bombarded rebels in Windi and sent marines ashore to attack them, and in the process captured a slave dhow with 78 slaves aboard, which she freed. The crew from the dhow, which was not familiar with the black-painted German warship, thought it to be a British vessel, which were painted white. Believing that it posed no threat to them, they sailed close to Carola, allowing her to easily capture the slave ship. In further operations around Bagamoyo, Carolas marines captured a pair of field guns used by rebel forces. Carolas marines took part in the occupation of Kunduchi on 27 March 1889, in a campaign led by Major Hermann Wissmann to suppress the Abushiri revolt. On 14 May, Carola left for Mahé in the Seychelles, as a significant number of her crew had contracted dysentery and needed time to rest and recover. Carola was back in East African waters on 11 June, when she took part in the search for three steam ships that had been sent to support Wissmann's forces. The ships were located in Kismayo on 15 June, and Carola escorted them to Zanzibar. She took part in the conquest of Pangani on 8 July and Tanga two days later. Carola went to Aden, where part of her crew were replaced. The ship's captain, Korvettenkapitän (Corvette Captain) Valette, served as the squadron commander from 13 August to 10 November, as he was the most senior officer in the area in the absence of Deinhard. Carola departed for Bombay on 10 November for an overhaul; she arrived back in Zanzibar on 17 February 1890. By this time, the cruiser squadron had been disbanded, and the new unprotected cruisers and had arrived in East Africa to strengthen German forces in the colony. Valette again served as the commander of naval operations on the ship's return. Carola returned to operations against rebels in East Africa, bombarding Kilwa Kisiwani on 28 March and sending troops ashore to capture the town between 1 and 4 May. She supported the capture of Lindi on 10 May. From 11 August to 17 September, she returned to Mahé for another rest period. On 9 October, she was present for the erecting of a monument to the soldiers killed in the fighting at Tanga. Toward the end of the year, Carola was recalled to Germany. She left Zanzibar on 20 January 1891 and was greeted by Kaiser Wilhelm II aboard the aviso on arriving in Germany. Later career Since she was by now obsolete as a warship, the Imperial Admiralty decided to convert Carola into a gunnery training ship as the older vessel was no longer sufficient for the task, particularly because of the adoption of smokeless powder and quick-firing guns, which required more training than older-style guns. She was sent to the Kaiserliche Werft (Imperial Shipyard) in Danzig for the conversion. Her rigging was cut down and she was fitted with heavy military masts with fighting tops, her 15 cm guns were bolstered with shields to protect the crews, she received new 10.5 cm, 8.8 cm, and 5 cm guns, and the torpedo tube was removed. Carola returned to service in 1893 in her new role, initially operating in the Baltic Sea. She cruised either alone, with her tender , an old gunboat, or with Mars, which was by then used to train artillery officers. She periodically also participated in maneuvers with the rest of the fleet. From 2 January 1894 to 15 March, Carola operated with a reduced crew. She had to go into dry dock in Kiel for repairs to her engines in September that year. She again had a reduced crew from 12 November 1894 to mid-February 1895, and again from 13 December 1895 to the end of February 1896. Carola and Mars served as target ships for the fleet in the North Sea in 1897, and she returned to gunnery training duties in 1898 and 1899. Her rudder was damaged in September 1899, necessitating repairs in Kiel. After an accident with Mars removed her from service in 1900, Carola had to take on her function as well as her own, though on 31 October, Olga returned to service as a gunnery training ship, reducing the burden on Carola. In 1902, Carola was overhauled at the Kaiserliche Werft in Wilhelmshaven. The following year, the naval artillery school was established in Sonderburg, and Carola was relocated there, operating in the waters off Alsen. The following year passed uneventfully, and on 10 January 1905, she was decommissioned and stricken from the naval register. She was sold the next year and broken up in Hamburg. Notes References Category:Carola-class corvettes Category:1880 ships Category:Ships built in Stettin

Landscaping Lawns produce significant amounts of nutrient-rich stormwater runoff, and research shows that such runoff can potentially cause excess algae growth in streams, lakes, and estuaries. Pesticide runoff can contaminate drinking water supplies with chemicals toxic to both humans and aquatic organisms. (Source: EPA). Landscapers and homeowners can help to reduce the adverse effects of fertilizer and pesticides on local waterways by following simple best management practices. FOLLOW THESE BEST MANAGEMENT PRACTICES TO REDUCE OR ELIMINATE LANDSCAPE STORMWATER RUNOFF: Material Storage All fertilizers and pesticides, as well as gas and oil for machinery, should be stored in appropriate containers that don’t leak. Any excess chemical spills should be swept up immediately. Store all containers holding powder and liquid materials under cover to protect from rain and snow. Use secondary containment devices or construct dikes/curbs to contain any possible leaks. Always keep containers closed and secure. Store soil and mulch piles in contained areas where they cannot be washed into the storm drainage system. When these materials are transported for use on site, store them on the lot and out of the street where they won’t be washed into the street and storm drain system with overspray from irrigation or stormwater. Fertilizers, Herbicides and Pesticides•Whenever possible, use chemical alternatives, or low-toxic chemicals. •Follow manufacturer’s recommendations for safe use and disposal. •Use the smallest amount necessary. •Apply at optimal times for the specific application. Equipment Maintenance•Inspect vehicles and equipment for leaks regularly. Fix problems as soon as possible. •When draining fluids, use a drip pan and/or funnel to prevent any spills. •Keep a cleanup kit of safety equipment and absorbent material, such as kitty litter or sand for spills. •Never hose down streets or sidewalks to clean. Use a broom and properly dispose of sweepings.

This book provides you with the knowledge to analyse, specify and debug SCADA systems in the instrumentation and control environment. A SCADA system gathers information, such as where a leak on a pipeline has occurred, transfers the information back to a central site, alerting the home station that the leak has occurred, carrying out necessary analysis and control, such as determining if the leak is critical, and displaying the information in a logical and organized fashion. SCADA systems can be relatively simple, such as one that monitors environmental conditions of a small office building, or incredibly complex, such as a system that monitors all the activity in a nuclear power plant or the activity of a municipal water system. An engineer's introduction to Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems and their application in monitoring and controlling equipment and industrial plant Essential reading for data acquisition and control professionals in plant engineering, manufacturing, telecommunications, water and waste control, energy, oil and gas refining and transportation Provides the knowledge to analyse, specify and debug SCADA systems, covering the fundamentals of hardware, software and the communications systems that connect SCADA operator stations DISCLAIMER Some of the links, content directing to links, videos, and other references are not owned and is not stored on the site. If you feel that we need to remove any of those aforementioned elements, feel free to inform the administrator of the site.

Q: Which perturbs LEO satellites more, the Moon's gravity directly, or the changes in Earth's gravity field due to the Moon? Reading this tutorial answer on models of Earth's gravity field I was realized that I'd never thought of it as time dependent. According to it, the biggest short term changes in the shape of Earth's gravity field in LEO space is the movement of the tides. It got me wondering, if that question were relaxed and it asked about the total gravity field of the Earth-Moon system, what gravitational force would tend to perturb LEO satellites more, the modulation of Earth's gravity field due to the movement of the tides, or the gravity field of the Moon (which is also causing those tides)? A: The Moon's gravitational field itself, by far. The perturbations on a satellite due to the reshaping of the Earth due to the Moon and Sun's gravity fields are small effects. The primary impact of this secondary tidal effects is a slight change in $J_2$ ($C_{2,0}$). A description of how the Earth tides affect the gravitational field is in section 6.2 of IERS Technical Note 36. The next section (6.3) covers the impacts of ocean tides. These are smaller yet.

The news: Considering a promotion? Consider this first: As you get more powerful, physical changes in your brain will make you less and less empathetic towards the people around you. It's no surprise that powerful people care less about others, yet this is one of the first times scientists have been able to see exactly what happens as we climb the social ladder. It turns out that bringing in steadily more money or joining a higher social class (or, as so often happens in America, both) causes shifts in the brain in a special region that gauges our sensitivity to other peoples' actions and emotions. As we feel more and more powerful, we have more and more trouble putting ourselves in others' shoes. The recent finding comes from three Canadian neuroscientists at the University of Toronto and Wilfrid Laurier University who published their research in the Journal of Experimental Psychology. I feel you (or not): This special brain area, known as the mirror system, is filled with cells that activate when you carry out an action, like opening a door or walking across a room, or when you watch someone else do that action. It's part of how we get inside other people's heads. And because what we do is linked with how we feel or what we want, the mirror region is what helps us empathize with another person's motivations. Image Credit: Flickr Those who feel more powerful show far less activity in the brain region that helps us feel empathy. Yet in those who feel powerless, the mirror region sparkles with activity — meaning people can empathize with what they witness. "Power diminishes all varieties of empathy," Daniel Keltner, a social psychologist at the University of California, Berkeley, told NPR. Existing psychological research backs up this idea: A 2010 study, for example, found that people in a higher social class were less able to identify the emotions in photographs of human faces than coworkers in a lower social class. In a 2003 review, a group of psychologists noted that powerful people pay attention to others only insofar as how they satisfy their own wants or needs. People who feel powerless, on the other hand, pay closer attention to others' feelings and actions because they are often more dependent on them to avoid punishment or threats. The big picture: Bringing in steadily more money or joining a higher social class causes physical changes in the brain that make it harder for us to feel for others. Being aware that there's a scientific, not merely a social, reason that people with power become less attuned to the needs of others could help us break a cycle of inequity.

1. Introduction {#sec1} =============== Even though at present there is a close relationship between computer science and virtual reality (and therefore it would seem impossible to understand and achieve the latter without the former), as a theoretical conceptualization, it is possible to establish an early origin of virtual reality rather much before the beginning of computer science. This fact shows how ancient the desire of the human being to create and experience realities alternative to the physical reality is ([@bib1]; [@bib18]; [@bib21]). This brief curiosity shows that virtual reality is not another technological advance that someday will fall into disuse, but rather it certainly is the greater technological revolution of our generation. It actually responds to a human desire that goes beyond computer environments and artificially created graphics ([@bib19]; [@bib10]). It implies the fact of living an experience beyond the physical reality itself and being capable of making everything that can be imagined to come true: historical events, places of fantasy, imagined events, etc ([@bib6]; [@bib37],[@bib38]). Therefore, human beings expand the boundaries of their creations, experiences and learnings to everything that can be represented into a virtual environment. This, in fact, has many fewer restrictions and is closer to the real experience than any other device has designed until now ([@bib42]; [@bib5]; [@bib16]). The scientific field cannot stand aside of this technological revolution. It must lead the advances and show the possibilities of this technology in the different fields of interaction between technology and human beings ([@bib45]). This is the context that frames this research. It is based on a first approach by the authors to the practical use of virtual reality in primary classrooms in Spain ([@bib6]) and the exploration of the existing possibilities in terms of applications and software for the different current commercial viewers ([@bib37],[@bib38]). A great interest of learners towards the use of this technology was clearly observed, presenting a great intrinsic motivation in its use. It was verified that, not only the virtual reality offers great possibilities for teaching at many levels, but it also is a relatively unexplored area in its beginnings that urgently needs to deepen its application in the classroom. There is a whole new generation of students and learners who will naturally learn and interact within the digital environment. Furthermore, their communicative style needs tools and applications adapted to their learning style ([@bib46]). For this reason, it is especially important to lay the foundations of both (1) the state of play and (2) the interest that this technology arouses in its own users as a learning tool ([@bib33]). Taking as a reference the definition of virtual reality found at the *Encyclopaedia Britannica*, created by [@bib25], virtual reality is understood as the immersion of an individual in an artificial environment, generally created using computer means, which simulates a complete reality for the users and enables them to interact with this environment to a certain degree. The *'being there'* feeling is a *sine qua non* condition to achieve a virtual reality experience. This definition sets the limit of what virtual reality is; *vis-a-vis* what it intends to be but without becoming it. Virtual reality requires that the users feel the immersion in a reality, other than the physical one, where they may have a certain degree of interaction. When the feeling of 'journey' towards another reality is not experienced, there is no virtual reality at all; thus, a 3D video experience is not virtual reality because the user does not feel that needed dissociation between mind and body. The use of video games is not considered virtual reality either, even though several studies from the 90s referred to it with experiences that did not fulfil minimum requirements ([@bib35]). From the beginning of the computer science maturity, the possibility of simulating artificial reality environments created with computer means started to be envisaged. However, none of them could properly reflect an actual artificial reality due to lack of technological means in each period ([@bib3]; [@bib50]). In order to make an individual feel that he/she is inside another reality, virtual reality requires the use of perceptive devices similar to the human senses. Currently, these human senses are still more complex than the technology designed until now ([@bib37],[@bib38]). It is in this decade when the minimum requirements to make it possible have started to be glimpsed ([@bib27]). Until then, every experience had simulated three-dimensional environments rather complex, but they had not achieved a minimal immersion of the user in an artificial reality ([@bib47]). Due to the limitations of technology itself, the participant did not perceive dissociation between mind and body in the artificially designed experiences. This dissociation is necessary to get the sensation of '*being there*' proper to immersion in an artificial reality alternative to the physical one, and therefore, the desired virtual reality was not achieved. Oculus\' project ([@bib32]) could be considered as the pioneer in the development of virtual reality experiences with minimum requirements. It started with a *Kickstarter* project in 2012 and then in 2013 marketed its first development kit, establishing the first patent in the United States in 2014 ([@bib26]). From then, virtual reality has been seen as something possible but required some highly demanding specifications for current technology ([@bib27]; [@bib11]). Current innovations in technology, computer science and optics have achieved that this idea, which other generations could only dream about, becomes now a reality, although within the limitations that exploring a completely new and until now undiscovered field means ([@bib47]; [@bib22]). Before publishing its first commercial version in 2016, the VR Oculus project presented two virtual reality development kits in 2012 and 2014 that were among the first viewers with a real capacity to present an artificial reality that guaranteed minimal immersion. Other important projects were added later to that commercial version the same year, such as the HTC Vive or the PlayStation VR by Sony. The following year, other commercial viewers started to be marketed, such as those sponsored by Microsoft under the acronym WMR (Windows Mixed Reality), thus increasing the virtual reality commercial offer that was available for the average user. Therefore, the period that has elapsed between the first virtual reality viewers that guaranteed an actual virtual reality and the current period has been rather brief. Within this brief period of less than two years, users of virtual reality have been able to try this new technology and have acquired knowledge regarding its real application, which is essential in order to determine the practical and daily use of this technology. Due to the fact that commercial virtual reality viewers have been on the market for less than two years, this technology is still far from settling into the general population. Therefore, it is difficult to know what society will ask of this technology when it becomes mainstream, as observed by [@bib29]. The interests shown by early adopters offer us the keys to glimpse that moment and estimate the extent of their demands. We will be able to advance the development of the necessary applications or to take the necessary measures to meet them, in the same way that the so-called \'beta testers\' do with computer software and videogames ([@bib41]). The results offered by this study would therefore be a first step towards a better understanding of the relationship between human beings and virtual reality. As [@bib33] state, VR currently still raises many questions, especially from the point of view of a learning tool. Subsequent scientific research may focus on adapting its interventions and experience design to the observations of this study, optimizing the effectiveness and appropriateness of its intervention. There are previous studies that support research in relation to the acceptance and attitudes generated by virtual reality in society today. For example, [@bib8] and [@bib43] explored the acceptance of virtual reality for tourist use. They conclude that knowing and promoting different tourist sites was seen in an optimistic and highly valued way. In a completely different field, [@bib9] showed that even elder population could develop positive attitudes and high satisfaction with the practical use of virtual reality. One of the most important potential use of VR, among others, is found in the educational field. The potential of a learning tool foreseen by a student when he/she is exposed to a factual experience of an almost real learning content, might suppose a much more solid, fast and effective learning than other more traditional learning situation. For instance, [@bib14] shows the way current primary students have a high motivation to learn using alternative reality elements, such as augmented reality, which reflects a very positive attitude from part of students to the inclusion of the VR in classrooms. [@bib17], on the other hand, lists the possibilities of VR for the development of collaborative learning. [@bib2] show how the sense of presence influences the development of learning through virtual reality. However, there are also current studies against the fact of virtual reality\'s representing a significant improvement over poorer means of presentation. [@bib23] showed similar results and significantly lower costs using slide presentations, so it would be necessary to determine in further research the circumstances in which virtual reality can truly mark an improvement in learning. Many educational situations could be enriched, accelerated or deepened through virtual reality, for instance, understanding a historical event by recreating its entire world from within, making the learner a part of it; recreating extinct species or environments and perceiving their real dimensions in contrast to today\'s world; travelling through unreachable places such as the universe or the deep sea; or even putting the learner in someone else\'s place to know how they feel. All these situations can contribute to the development of empathy and education in values, among others. These facts suggest that pedagogy should not be excluded from this technological revolution ([@bib15]; [@bib21]; [@bib16]; [@bib34]). Early adopters of the first commercial viewers of virtual reality could perform a first approach to the potential use as a learning tool, because they offer real information about their use, their interests and their possibilities ([@bib4]; [@bib28]; [@bib31]; [@bib24]; [@bib48]; [@bib49]). Usually, early adopters are a proven source of information for the settling of new technologies. However, in virtual reality, their participation is essential, since the possibilities for teaching and learning this technology cannot be observed from the outside and only those who cross the threshold of virtual reality are able to perceive all its possibilities. Moreover, virtual reality viewers are in their early stages in the commercialization in the market. This fact gives a great scientific and practical value to this study, as the data obtained have not been previously consulted and could easily serve to glimpse the future of the relationship between virtual reality and the educational field. The present study aims to collect this information through the administration of a questionnaire designed to assess and value the experiences lived by the early adopters of virtual reality in Spain with viewers that guarantee a sufficient immersion, such as those described before. It is intended to assess the interest of use of this technology as a learning tool in a near future, reflecting the early adopters\' interests and privileged points of view. With the purpose of finding answers and confirmations to the mentioned questions, this research sets out two objectives: (1) To describe the social and demographic profile of early adopters of virtual reality viewers in Spain and (2) to assess the interest that these users may have in its use as a learning tool in order to be able to evaluate its possible future inclusion within the formal educational setting. 2. Material and methods {#sec2} ======================= 2.1. Participants {#sec2.1} ----------------- Considering that the first virtual reality viewers have been on the market for less than two years and the settling of technology in society is still limited (do not confuse the settling of technology with its popularity: virtual reality is very popular, but a large part of society has never tried it), the population from which to extract a scientifically acceptable sample is very small. It is very difficult to know the exact number of early adopters of virtual reality in Spain, given that most manufacturers do not make their sales public so as not to discourage future investors and users. According to indirect sources ([@bib40]), it is estimated that by 2018, less than 4 million viewers were sold on the world market. This represents a percentage of technological applications, software and video games users significantly lower than 1% of the total population ([@bib30]), which approximately is 42% of the total population of society ([@bib13]). Therefore, it can be considered that currently, less than 5 per thousand of the population are of early adopters. Another problem addressed in the study is how to locate virtual reality users, since it is a heterogeneous group with different interests and socio-demographic profiles. They are distributed according to different viewers (PSVR, Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, WMR, etc.) and platforms (PC, PS4, smartphones, etc.), so it will be necessary to access those global online portals they usually visit searching for information and help to properly use their viewers and be informed. The *elotrolado.net* is a forum portal for new technologies, digital leisure and video games with more than 460,000 users and 10 million visits per month ([@bib39]). It is the only Spanish-speaking portal that has a specific virtual reality forum with more than 400 threads and 76,000 early VR adopters\' messages/contributions from all viewers and platforms on the market ([@bib12]). Therefore, it is the ideal place to obtain a representative sample of early VR adopters. On February 15, 2018, a new thread was created in the virtual reality forum explaining the study to be carried out and hosting a hyperlink to the questionnaire designed and maintained through the private server encuestafacil.com. This thread received 1,000 visits from users of elotrolado.net. The sample of this study consists of 117 virtual reality users (21 women and 96 men) owing any of the viewers marketed in Spain, with an average age of 36.91 years old (36.19 for women and 37.07 for men) and a standard deviation of 6.39 (7.50 for women and 6.15 for men). The sample was obtained after filtering 578 open questionnaires and eliminating the \'undelivered\' cases and 36 incomplete questionnaires. 2.2. Instruments for obtaining data {#sec2.2} ----------------------------------- An *ad hoc* online questionnaire was designed and hosted at the *Encuestafacil.com* private server, so that participants could remotely have access from any kind of electronic device with Internet. The questionnaire was assessed by the *Scientific and Ethical Committee of the Nebrija University* and overcame a severe validation process led by external experts. Moreover, the designed questionnaire had a high reliability and internal consistency, measured through the Alpha\'s Cronbach (0.826). This questionnaire consisted of a first page where the participants expressed their written and informed consent, three more pages with 25 quantitative questions and a fifth page with open questions for future qualitative analysis. Concerning this study, only quantitative results obtained in questions related to demographical aspects and possibilities of use as a learning tool of the technology have been considered in the analysis. 2.3. Assessed variables {#sec2.3} ----------------------- The following variables were taken into account for the purposes of this study:1.[Gender:]{.ul} As a dichotomous variable (man or woman). Although gender differences in the use of video games and new technologies are narrowing, current studies such as those by [@bib36] or [@bib7] show that this is still an attributive variable to be considered in this type of studies.2.[Age:]{.ul} As a discrete quantitative variable.3.[Educational level:]{.ul} As an ordinal categorical variable with four options (primary, secondary, university and postgraduate).4.[Current direct relationship with formal education:]{.ul} As a dichotomous variable (YES, if the participant is a teacher or a student, and NO, if he/she is none of them). This variable is important, as its daily involvement in formal education can influence decisively the interest of the virtual reality user in its use as a learning tool.5.[Previous experiences with advanced virtual reality viewers:]{.ul} As a dichotomous variable (YES, if the participant has previously used a viewer special for video game consoles or personal computers, and NO if he/she has only used mobile phones in order to experience virtual reality). This variable is important due to the limitations of the possibilities of mobile experiences, and users who have not tried the advanced VR might not see its full potential.6.[Level of the private viewer:]{.ul} As an ordinal categorical variable with three options (mobile phone, video game console and personal computer). This variable reflects different uses and qualities according to the type of user. The PC user has more possibilities, the mobile user wants an easier access and the video console user is mainly interested in leisure.7.[Number of years using virtual reality:]{.ul} As an ordinal categorical variable with four options (Less than one year, Between one and two years, Between two and three years and More than three years). This variable is important, as users using development kits for more than two years started with much more expensive kits, less advanced and much more exclusive, demonstrating a true passion for VR. Additionally, a descending curve of interest based on the antique technology could reflect that virtual reality can generate weariness, tiredness or frustration in the long term.8.[Frequency of use:]{.ul} As an ordinal categorical variable with four options (Occasionally, Once a week, Several times a week and One or more hours each day).9.[Current use of virtual reality as a learning tool:]{.ul} As a dichotomous variable (YES, if the participant uses virtual reality in order to learn and obtain knowledge, and NO, otherwise).10.[Interest in the use of virtual reality as a learning tool:]{.ul} As a dichotomous variable (YES, if the participant shows an interest in its educational use, and NO, otherwise).11.[Interest in the future use of virtual reality in formal education:]{.ul} As a dichotomous variable (YES, if the participant would like to learn through the use of this tool, and NO, otherwise).12.[Optimism regarding the future pedagogical possibilities of virtual reality:]{.ul} As a dichotomous variable (YES, if the participant considers that the educational field will have a proper development within the virtual reality sphere in the future, and NO, otherwise). 2.4. Design and procedures {#sec2.4} -------------------------- A cross-sectional descriptive study of virtual reality users in Spain and the interest in the use of this technology as a learning tool assessment of the technology was carried out, evaluating the influence and interaction of several nominal, ordinal and quantitative variables. Once the data of the participants was anonymously collected, the statistical analyses were performed using SPSS statistical software. Arithmetic mean and standard deviation were used as descriptive statistics for the quantitative variable 'Age', and frequency distribution was used for the rest of variables. Concerning inferential statistics, the significance level of the discrete quantitative variable 'Age' has been analysed by comparing means through *Snedecor\'s F* distribution non-considering equality of variances. For the rest of the nominal and ordinal variables, as purely quantitative analyses could not be carried out, *Chi-squared* test was conducted on contingency tables to test whether or not a relationship exists between variables, and *Somers\'D* to reflect strength and direction of the association between variables. Finally, decisions regarding the significance were made with confidence levels of 99% (α: 0.01) and 95% (α: 0.05) in the collected results. 3. Results {#sec3} ========== [Table 1](#tbl1){ref-type="table"} presents the frequency distribution obtained through the studied sample in the nominal/dichotomous variables and in the ordinal variables assessed during the study.Table 1Frequencies distribution according to the variables considered in the study.Table 1**GenderFrequencyPercentage** Man9682.1 Woman2117.9**Educational levelFrequencyPercentage** Primary32.6 Secondary3933.3 University4941.9 Postgraduate2622.2**Current direct relationship with formal educationFrequencyPercentage** None9076.9 Teacher or student2723.1**Previous experiences with advanced virtual reality viewersFrequencyPercentage** No2117.9 Yes9682.1**Level of the private viewerFrequencyPercentage** Mobile phone2622.2 Video game console5446.2 Computer3731.6**Number of years using virtual realityFrequencyPercentage** Less than one year7261.5 Between one and two years3529.9 Between two and three years43.4 More than three years65.1**Frequency of useFrequencyPercentage** Occasionally4336.8 Once a week2521.4 Several times a week4034.2 One or more hours each day97.7**Current use of virtual reality as a learning toolFrequencyPercentage** No10186.3 Yes1613.7**Interest in the use of virtual reality as a learning toolFrequencyPercentage** No8471.8 Yes3328.2**Interest in the use of virtual reality in formal education in the futureFrequencyPercentage** No5748.7 Yes6051.3**Optimism regarding the future pedagogical possibilities of virtual realityFrequencyPercentage** No6253.0 Yes5547.0**Total117100.0**Source: Self-elaboration In a first simple analysis of the results, [Table 1](#tbl1){ref-type="table"} shows that the majority options are the following: to be a man (82.1%); to have at least university studies (university students plus postgraduates amounts to 64.1%); not to have a direct relationship with education (76.9%); to have previously tried advanced virtual reality viewers (82.1%); to be users of video game consoles viewers (46.2%); to have acquired a viewer during the last year (61.5%); to use virtual reality at least once a week (63.2%); not to use virtual reality as a learning tool (86.3%); not to have interest in its use as a learning tool (71.8%); to have interest in learning through virtual reality in the future (51.3%); and not to have optimism regarding its future pedagogical possibilities (47%). Concerning the discrete quantitative variable 'age', the global mean obtained was M: 36.91 with a standard deviation of SD: 6.39. In relation to its combination with the "gender" variable, it can be observed in [Fig. 1](#fig1){ref-type="fig"} below that presence of men (82.1%) is significantly higher than presence of women (17.1%). However, age difference does not imply statistical significance according to gender, as it can be seen in [Table 2](#tbl2){ref-type="table"}. Only the 'Optimism regarding the future pedagogical possibilities of virtual reality\'s variable presents a different performance in combination with the 'age' variable. Those who feel more optimistic are significantly younger (*M: 35.56; SD: 5.74*) than those who do not feel that way (*M: 38.11; SD: 6.74*).Fig. 1Age and gender pyramid.Fig. 1Source: Self-elaborationTable 2Comparison of means by age over the rest of the variables through ANOVA test.Table 2VariablesSum of squaresdfRoot mean squareFSig.Gender13.418113.418.327.569Educational level165.879355.2931.367.256Current direct relationship with formal education20.616120.616.503.480Previous experiences with advanced virtual reality viewers27.568127.568.673.414Level of the private viewer161.535280.7682.013.138Number of years using virtual reality169.738356.5791.400.246Frequency of use57.568319.189.464.708Current use of virtual reality as a learning tool51.353151.3531.261.264Interest in the use of virtual reality as a learning tool33.517133.517.820.367Interest in the use of virtual reality in formal education in the future4.04414.044.098.754Optimism regarding the future pedagogical possibilities of virtual reality189.4081189.4084.792.031[a](#tbl2fna){ref-type="table-fn"}[^1]Source: Self-elaboration The significance of the observed differences between the various nominal and ordinal variables of this study may be analysed from [Table 3](#tbl3){ref-type="table"}. This table shows the values obtained from the contingency tables using the statistical *Chi-squared test*, which shows the significance of the correlations between two variables, and the *Somers\' D*, which shows the significance and direction of the correlations observed.Table 3Contingency table using the chi-squared test (first value in each cell) and Somers\' D (second value in each cell).Table 3GenderELDRFEPEVLPVYUVFUCULILTILEOFPGender-14.55\*\*\ .3\*\*12.38\*\*\ .32\*\*20.6\*\*\ −.42\*\*30.29\*\*\ −.1710.06\*\ −.08327.1\*\*\ −.35\*\*18.463\*\*\ .395\*\*1.24\ .1.352\ .053.177\ −.038EL14.55\*\*\ .3\*\*-15.32\*\*\ .3\*\*6.70\ −.17\*13.63\*\ −.1715.37\ −.0217.45\*\ −.26\*\*3.62\ .14.25\ .033.99\ .13.2\ .11DRFE12.38\*\*\ .32\*\*15.32\*\*\ .3\*\*-12.38\*\*\ −.32\*\*22.57\*\*\ −.31\*\*5.11\ −.068.04\*\ −.18\*4.46\*\ .191.35\ .11.138\ −.03.018\ .0.12PEV20.60\*\*\ −.42\*\*6.7\ −.17\*12.38\*\*\ −.32\*\*-59.88\*\*\ .47\*\*1.56\ .0.817.82\*\*\ .28\*\*4.81\*\ −.2.33\ −.05.012\ −.01.82\ .08LPV30.29\*\*\ −.1713.62\*\ −.1722.57\*\*\ −.31\*\*59.88\*\*\ .47\*\*-12.02\ .0531.92\*\*\ .3\*\*19.07\*\*\ −.092.35\ −.05.64\ −.032.06\ .11YUV10.06\*\ −.0815.37\ −.025.11\ −.061.56\ .0.7612.02\ .05-23.39\*\*\ .1618.18\*\*\ .056.35\ .092.88\ −.0815.25\ .179\*FU27.1\*\*\ −.35\*\*17.45\*\ −.26\*\*8.04\*\ −.18\*17.82\*\*\ .28\*\*31.92\*\*\ .3\*\*23.39\*\*\ .16-2.98\ −.043.44\ .137.296\ −.0442.957\ .142CUL18.46\*\*\ .39\*\*3.62\ .144.46\*\ .194.81\*\ −.2019.07\*\*\ −.0918.18\*\*\ .052.98\ −.043-32.18\*\*\ .51\*\*4.17\*\ .18\*3.52\ .16ILT1.24\ .1.25\ .0.31.35\ .11.33\ −.052.35\ −.056.3\ .093.43\ .1332.18\*\*\ .51\*\*-11.02\*\*\ .31\*\*5.1\*\ .21\*IUE.35\ .053.99\ .1.14\ −.03.01\ −.01.64\ −.032.88\ −.087.3\ −.044.17\*\ .18\*11.02\*\*\ .31\*\*-10.62\*\*\ .3\*\*OFP.18\ −.043.2\ .11.02\ .0.12.82\ .082.06\ .115.25\ .18\*2.96\ .143.52\ .165.1\*\ .29\*10.62\*\*\ .3\*\*-[^2][^3]Source: Self-elaboration It should be taken into account that in order to establish a direction in significance, some nominal variables were given different scores, thus becoming ordinal variables. Therefore, the relationship between the man/woman category and the rest of the assessed variables can be easily observed. Otherwise it would not be possible to establish which gender has a direct or inverse association with the rest of the measured variables. The same conversion was carried out in every dichotomous variable, giving the higher score to the category associated with the answer "YES" in each one of those variables. From the previous *Chi-squared test* and *Somers´D* conducted on the contingency table, it can be outlined that some combination of variables shows a statistically significant relationship. For instance, the 'gender' variable shows that women have a significantly higher educational level, higher number of women are related to formal education and higher number of women use virtual reality as a learning tool. On the other hand, men have more frequently tried the advanced viewers and used virtual reality viewers. The current direct relationship with formal education is also significantly and directly associated to the educational level and significantly and inversely associated to the fact of having tried an advanced virtual reality viewer, to the level of the private virtual reality viewer and to the frequency of use of virtual reality. In addition to the before mentioned significant relationships, the frequency of use is significantly and directly associated to the fact of having tried an advanced virtual reality viewer and to the level of the private virtual reality viewer. The same variable is significantly and inversely associated to the educational level. Another strong and direct significant relationship is found between the fact of having tried an advanced virtual reality viewer and the level of the private viewer. Regarding the variables directly related to the use and interest of virtual reality as a learning tool, it can be generally observed that strong and positive significant correlations exist. Both affirmative answers of having interest in the use of virtual reality as a learning tool and in learning through virtual reality in formal education in the future are significantly and directly associated between them. They are as well associated with the two other variables considered (the current use of virtual reality as a learning tool and the optimism regarding the future pedagogical possibilities of virtual reality). Results in the previous contingency table also show a statistically significant and nonlinear or second-degree association, which implies combinations of variables with significant values through the *Chi-squared test* but not through *Somers\' D*. This situation exists when some of the categories for a variable produce a partial influence over other variable, such as 'Number of years using virtual reality' variable; its performance is different depending on the associated variable because in the case of categories in which users have been using virtual reality since recently, the interest of the user in this technology is still in a stage of discovering of its possibilities, so their frequency of use is unusually high and their interests very varied when wanting to try all the possibilities of the new technology. Regarding the 'Level of the private viewer', the category 'Video game console' has a different performance in relation to the 'gender' variable (see [Fig. 2](#fig2){ref-type="fig"}), and in 'Current use of virtual reality as a learning tool' (see [Fig. 3](#fig3){ref-type="fig"}). The fact that among the users of game consoles viewers (Sony PSVR) there are no women, nor interest in the use of the VR as a learning tool, indicates a very specific user profile with an interest directly associated with leisure.Fig. 2Level of the private viewer and gender.Fig. 2Source: Self-elaborationFig. 3Level of the private viewer and current use.Fig. 3Source: Self-elaboration 4. Discussion {#sec4} ============= The description of the social and demographic profile of the first generation of virtual reality viewers users in Spain is the primary objective of the presented work. In a first analysis, this profile has been asserted, according to the percentages produced by this study, It would mainly correspond to a man (81.2%), with an age of 37, with university studies (62.1%), without a current direct relationship with formal education (23.1%), who had previous experiences with advanced virtual reality viewers (82.1%), mainly owner of a video game console (46.2%), who acquired a viewer during the last year (61.5%) and uses its own viewer at least once a week (63.2%). Once carried out an in-depth analysis, the study of the contingencies between the evaluated variables led to the following conclusions:•First of all, concerning the age, it should be remarked that the early adopters of virtual reality in Spain does not meet the standard profile of the first Information and Communication Technology (ICT) users ([@bib48]), as the average age (M: 36.91) shows that those who are initially more interested in this technology are individuals closer to maturity than to adolescence. This could be certainly explained because this technology is currently expensive and shows little appreciation among the parents of teenagers. Therefore, an economic independence would be necessary and, as a consequence, many adolescents and young possible users cannot afford to access it in many cases. This fact contrasts with the data collected under the last survey about equipment and use of ICT at Spanish households in 2017 ([@bib20]). The main conclusion of this study was that individuals who used the mobile phone during the last three months (99.0%), who have ever used the computer (97.5%) and who have ever used the Internet (98%) correspond to the age group including ages between 16 and 24, closely followed by the age group between 25 and 34 years old and, in the third place, the age group of individuals between 35 and 44 years old (who in turn are those who stand out in this study concerning the use of virtual reality viewers ([Table 4](#tbl4){ref-type="table"}).Table 4Use of ICT devices according to demographic features and type of device.Table 4Individuals who used the mobile phone during the last 3 monthsIndividuals who have ever used the computerIndividuals who have ever used the InternetAge: Between 16 and 2499,0%97,5%98,0%Age: Between 25 and 3498,8%93,9%97,4%Age: Between 35 and 4499,2%92,3%96,7%Age: Between 45 and 5497,5%85,3%91,5%Age: Between 55 and 6494,4%69,4%76,1%Age: Between 65 and 7485,3%45,7%46,5%Source: Spanish Statistical Office (2017)•Regarding the 'gender' variable, both genders have a different profile and show distinct approaches towards virtual reality. Women who use virtual reality have a higher educational level, are often teachers or students, use virtual reality for learning purposes, use their viewers less frequently, have tried less personal computer viewers and their viewers are not video games consoles (they usually prefer to approach virtual reality by means of mobile phones). These results can be explained considering that women usually approach virtual reality for working or learning purposes rather than a leisure one, which would justify the whole profile before described. These gender differences confirm the results obtained in recent studies, which still regard a greater consumption of digital leisure among men ([@bib7]; [@bib36]).•Concerning the educational level, apart from the differences between genders being significant, in cases with a higher educational level, there is higher relationship with formal education and the viewer is used less frequently. Taking into account that the main current use of virtual reality viewers is related to leisure ([@bib10]; [@bib37],[@bib38]), this result is justified considering the previous conclusion, because an approach to this technology in a professional way implies a specific and unusual use of it.•Regarding teachers and students (who are usually women with a high-level education), it can be asserted that they occasionally try advanced viewers, have mostly mobile viewers and use their viewers less often. Within these groups, as it is shown in this study, portability and easy access to this technology are more important than an advanced exploitation of its possibilities, which can be done through personal computer viewers. [@bib28] study supports this assertion, giving a positive value to the educational efficiency of mobile viewers and its cost-performance ratio. Nevertheless, this study advised against the use beyond an occasional and unusual manner, as they found that mobile viewers caused dizziness and nauseas to a 40% of the studied sample ([@bib28]).•This study clearly confirms that those who try advanced virtual reality viewers on a computer finally acquire them and use them more frequently. Moreover, those individuals are not usually women or teachers. This result shows how important is to try the product for this new technology, because thanks to it, the potential buyer is encouraged to acquire the product. This conclusion is related to the study of [@bib4], who considered that one of the features hindering the expansion of virtual reality in the current market is the difficulty selling a product which can only be known through itself, which explains why the Internet, radio or TV commercials do not have the expected impact ([@bib4]).•If we analyse the results obtained under the variable 'Number of years using virtual reality', it can be observed that recent viewer\'s acquirers have not used them as a learning tool. Probably this could be mainly explained because they are still in a discovering stage of the technology ([@bib22]) so they are initially interested in exploring its possibilities and living original experiences. Once this initial stage gets past, they will start to open their interest to those features that virtual reality can offer and value how virtual reality can provide them with what they really want.•Finally, regarding the frequency of use of virtual reality, as it has already been presented under the previous variables, those who make a greater use are men, with lower educational level, no related to formal education and who have both tried and own advanced viewers. The results obtained by [@bib7] support the relationship shown in this study among gender, frequency of use and formative level. In response to the second objective of this research, related to the assessment of the interest that early adopters of virtual reality may have in its use as a learning tool, in order to make an evaluation of its possible future inclusion within the formal educational environment, the following is concluded:•First of all, the participants of the study directly related with formal education (students and teachers) are especially important in order to respond to this objective. They represent only the 23.1% of the sample and they prefer the portability that mobile virtual reality offers rather than the deeper experience that the others viewers can present, besides the fact that they only occasionally use this technology. These results partly explain why virtual reality implantation is being so slow in this field ([@bib21]). The possible future reduction in costs for the user of advanced virtual reality equipment may bring virtual reality closer to the classroom, as it can be stated from this study, because the use of an advanced VR viewer is directly associated with greater frequency of use. Currently, prices of viewers are excessively high in order to use them in the classroom in all their potential, so their use is very reduced and limited.•Concerning the current use of virtual reality as a learning tool, it is still a minority who uses it for this purpose (13.7% of the sample). However, this fact is not yet alarming, because we are facing a technology that takes its first steps, with numerous lacks, especially regarding everything that goes beyond the leisure field ([@bib11]).•Those who use virtual reality as a learning tool (13.7%) are usually women, show more interest in learning with virtual reality and would like to learn in the future in formal education using this technology. This particular low percentage is also explained because there are currently very few experiences available in this field and they have a very low budget, which makes that experiences related to other fields, such as videogames, video, tourism, etc. result much more attractive and better developed for the end user ([@bib48]; [@bib49]). Probably, the more the offer increases, the greater the percentage of users of virtual reality with an educational purpose will also be, as it is shown under higher percentages of other variables presented in this study such as 'Interest in the use of virtual reality as a learning tool' (28.2%), 'Interest in the use of virtual reality in formal education in the future' (51.3%) and 'Optimism regarding the future pedagogical possibilities of virtual reality' (47%).•Regarding those who have interest in using virtual reality as a learning tool, in a first approach it could be asserted that the percentage is not so high. Nevertheless, when comparing them with those who currently use virtual reality viewers with pedagogical purposes, it clearly results that they are more than double (28.2% vs. 13.7%). This supports the idea that virtual reality is not often used as a learning tool due to the lack of experiences and applications, and not because users have no interest in it. On the other hand, there is a significant direct correlation between every variable related to the valuation of the virtual reality used as a learning tool, which explains the coherence regarding that interest in the future, when suitable conditions are in place.•Finally, both variables 'Interest in the use of virtual reality in formal education in the future' (51.3%) and 'Optimism regarding the future pedagogical possibilities of virtual reality' (47%) show that a great percentage of users are interested in the virtual reality-education binomial. Therefore, we can be optimistic regarding its future evolution, as one of the more significant indicators associated to the consolidation of a product is the presence of an important number of individuals showing interest in it. 5. Conclusions {#sec5} ============== To sum up, according to the analysed results, it can be asserted that the relationship between the educational field and the virtual reality technology is currently at a crucial moment. This technology is now taking its first commercial steps and, therefore, its efforts are focused on putting itself in the map and promote its sales, mainly as a leisure tool, as the majority of applications designed for the different platforms and the greatest interest of their users are directed towards leisure ([@bib30]; [@bib40]). In this study, moreover, it has been observed that this marked interest in leisure is much greater regarding virtual reality viewers for video consoles (PSVR), which are especially designated for that use, and among male users who also use their computers more frequently. Its educational use is not a priority right now and those interested in it still have few options, as shown in the reduced supply of educational applications in the Oculus Store, for instance ([@bib44]). However, its current use is far from being a mere anecdote, as a 13.7% of use means a visible range of users of the whole. Interest in the use of virtual reality as a learning tool is much higher than its current use, as concluded in this study, and the optimism concerning better pedagogical possibilities of virtual reality reaches almost half of the users. This rate of optimism, joined to the fact that this technology is taking its first steps and the initial conditions are not yet the best, shows indications rather encouraging. This conclusion is similar to other researches such as [@bib48] or [@bib14], who also observed an interest in the use of virtual reality as an educational tool among a sample of students. Nevertheless, the progress of this relationship between education and virtual reality in the future depends on the development of applications and experiences within this concrete field. The results show that the lack of applications is hindering the interest of the users, so they are fundamental and necessary. Without them, these first green shoots could wither on short notice and this relationship could get cold and be wasted in the future. Another problem to be faced in the future for the use of virtual reality as a learning tool is accessibility to groups of students. Currently, teachers participating in this study prefer cheap equipment and sporadic use. If prices are reduced, it is likely that teachers will end up using better equipment and increasing the time of use, considering greater possibilities of virtual reality as a tool for learning. Discussions about the curricular quality and adequacy of schools to the 21st century reality are necessary as an urgent challenge with significant repercussion on the international political-pedagogical debate. Numerous organizations are urging upon the need of reformulating the pedagogical culture in order to achieve educational institutions where the ICT become actual pedagogical tools and, generally, the students could take advantage of their complete development, instead of been a mere mechanical response to problems disconnected from reality ([@bib45]). At this point, virtual reality will play an important role, since it is the technology destined to bring the educational sphere closer to reality. It will be able to consider experiences so near to reality that they could generate emotions and sensations very similar to those generated by reality itself, bringing the distance between educational simulation and reality so close that they almost can touch each other. The correct use of the virtual reality technology applied to the educational world is now part of these challenges. Software and all kind of tools and applications that make students travel to the inside of contents are spreading, allowing the reconstruction and direct experimentation of any imaginable situation inside the classroom ([@bib6]). Virtual reality is the technology that will best achieve the objective of bringing the student closer to learning situations as close to reality, without the need to assume the risks involved (as, for example, travelling through the Milky Way, getting involved in a historical war, adopting the size of a molecule to know the microscopic world, etc). The possibilities of offering a greater quality education are multiplied exponentially, as well as the motivation of students towards learning ([@bib14]). So that, from all the new technologies applicable to education, there are good reasons to consider the development of virtual reality applications for education as a priority. Nevertheless, due to their emerging pedagogical use, it is not currently possible to do a solid prospective reflection about every educational possibility that their correct use in teaching procedures would have. It will be necessary, at least, to wait until this technology settles down to evaluate the limits of its potential reach. This study has described the social and demographic profile of the early adopters of virtual reality in Spain and has assessed their interest in this technology. Therefore, together with other studies, a series of rational evidences and considerations are emerging step by step that allows us to have a clearer and wider idea about the real possibilities of virtual reality that is arriving to the classrooms. To explore contexts, to experience sensations, to travel through time and to live experiences at the classroom, unthinkable a few years ago, it means a new world of possibilities that is modifying classrooms, educational institutions, pedagogical stereotype and, ultimately, the educational world as we know it until now. Declarations {#sec6} ============ Author contribution statement {#sec6.1} ----------------------------- Roberto Sánchez-Cabrero: Conceived and designed the experiments; Performed the experiments; Analyzed and interpreted the data; Contributed reagents, materials, analysis tools or data; Wrote the paper. Oscar Costa-Román, Francisco Javier Pericacho-Gómez, Miguel Ángel Novillo-López: Performed the experiments; Wrote the paper. Amaya Arigita-García, Amelia Barrientos-Fernández: Analyzed and interpreted the data; Contributed reagents, materials, analysis tools or data. Funding statement {#sec6.2} ----------------- This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. Competing interest statement {#sec6.3} ---------------------------- The authors declare no conflict of interest. Additional information {#sec6.4} ---------------------- No additional information is available for this paper. The authors would like to express their gratitude to the managing team of *Elotrolado.net*, since without their help we would have not been able to obtain the sample of participants, as well as to *Encuestafacil.com*, which lent out their application free of charge so that we could create the questionnaire, and their servers in order to collect the data. [^1]: Comparison of means is significant at the level of 0.05. [^2]: EL: Educational level; DRFE: Current direct relationship with formal education; PEV: Previous experiences with advanced virtual reality viewers; LPV: Level of the private viewer; YUV: Number of years using virtual reality; FU: Frequency of use; CUL: Current use of virtual reality as a learning tool; ILT: Interest in the use of virtual reality as a learning tool; IUE: Interest in the use of virtual reality in formal education in the future; OFP: Optimism regarding the future pedagogical possibilities of virtual reality. [^3]: \*Correlation is significant at the level of 0.05/\*\* Correlation is significant at the level of 0.01.

March 07, 1973 : Bangladesh’s first democratic leader Introduction Sheikh Mujib Rahman, a leader of the Bangladeshi independence movement and first prime minister of Bangladesh, wins a landslide victory in the country’s first general elections. At the end of British rule in the Indian subcontinent in 1947, East Pakistan was declared a possession of Pakistan to the west, despite the fact that the two regions were separated by over 1,000 miles of Indian territory. Although the two Pakistans shared the Islamic religion, significant cultural and racial differences existed between the regions, and by the late 1960s East Pakistan began to call for greater autonomy from West Pakistan. In March 1971, the independent state of Bangladesh was proclaimed and West Pakistani forces were called in to suppress the revolt. An estimated one million Bengalis–the largest ethnic group in Bangladesh–were killed by the Pakistani forces during the next several months, while more than 10 million took refuge in India. In December 1971, India, which had provided substantial clandestine aid to the East Pakistani independence movement, launched a massive invasion of the region and routed the West Pakistani occupation forces. A few weeks later, Sheikh Mujib was released from a yearlong imprisonment in West Pakistan and returned to Bangladesh to assume the post of prime minister. In March 1973, the Bangladeshi people overwhelmingly confirmed his government in democratic elections, and in the next year Pakistan agreed to recognize the independence of Bangladesh.

An average flight from Miami to Seattle takes about six hours and 40 minutes, but imagine being able to reduce that time to 50 minutes or less. A recent study by NASA and Binghamton University researchers could lead to a drastic decrease in flight times. The study, funded in part by the U.S. Air Force, is one of the first steps toward the creation of planes able to move at hypersonic speeds, five to 10 times the speed of sound. Binghamton University Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering Changhong Ke explained that there are currently quite a few obstacles when it comes to building these super planes. The first of which is finding a material that can hold up to hypersonic travel. “Our study used what are called boron nitride nanotubes (BNNTs). NASA currently owns one of the few facilities in the world able to produce quality BNNTs.” Typically, carbon nanotubes have been used in planes for their strength — they’re stronger than steel — and their ability to conduct heat. However, BNNTs are the wave of the future when it comes to air travel. “While carbon nanotubes can stay stable at temperatures up to 400 degrees Celsius, our study found that BNNTs can withstand up to 900 degrees Celsius,” said Ke. BNNTs are also able to handle high amounts of stress and are extremely lightweight. Withstanding high temperatures is an important requirement for any material meant to build the world’s next super planes, however, Ke clarified that the material has to be able to maintain both structural and mechanical properties in an oxygen environment. “We weren’t testing this material in a vacuum like what you would experience in space. Materials can withstand much higher temperatures in space. We wanted to see if BNNTs could hold up in the type of environment an average fighter jet or commercial plane would experience.” While the study has brought new light to the strength and stability of BNNTs, their use on planes may not be a reality for another five to 10 years. “Right now, BNNTs cost about $1,000 per gram. It would be impractical to use a product that expensive,” said Ke. But, that does not mean it will never happen. Carbon nanotubes were about the same price 20 years ago. As more studies indicated the usefulness of carbon nanotubes, the production rates increased and prices went down to the current rate, between $10 and $20 per gram. Ke sees the same fate coming down the line for BNNTs. Ke plans to continue this type of research on BNNTs. He has worked with the U.S. Air Force on several research projects and in 2010 was chosen for the U.S. Air Force’s Young Investigator Research Program, a prestigious program with fewer than 20 percent of applicants accepted. While the advances of BNNTs will probably be used first in fighter jets, Ke said he can see this type of technology trickling down to commercial flights. In 10 to 20 years, air travel could be drastically different from what we experience today.

Photomasks, referred to for short as masks or else as reticles, are used in lithographic methods for chip production. Structures that serve for imaging desired structures on wafers are formed on said masks. Said structures on the mask are predefined as mask design. Lithographic scanners are used for the exposure of wafers. A light-sensitive layer, the resist, is formed on a wafer. Said resist is developed after exposure by the scanner and the structure is etched into the wafer surface. Structures produced on the wafer are becoming smaller and smaller. In order to produce the structures, the resolution limit of the optical units used in scanners has to be exploited further and further. The optical unit of a scanner acts similar to a low-pass filter between mask and wafer. This low-pass filtering has the effect that structures on the mask mutually influence one another during the imaging. An imaging of a structure onto the wafer is influenced not only by itself but also by its neighborhood. The imaging quality is influenced by further mask properties such as, e.g.: Refractive index of the mask substrate, thickness of the absorber, side wall angle, corner rounding, dimensions of structure features such as, for example, changes in the line widths of structures, line end shortening. Since the influences are attributable to optical effects and since they are locally delimited, these effects are referred to as optical proximity effects (OPC effects for short). Besides the OPC effects mentioned, the mask structures on the way to the structure on the wafer are changed by further effects. These may be, for example: optical aberrations as a result of the optical system of the scanner, apodization and vector effects, effects during the exposure and development of the resist and during the etching of the wafer. Nowadays, all factors which change the structure on a mask until the representation thereof on the wafer are referred to as OPC effects. In order to counteract these undesired changes in the structures on the wafer, the structures on the mask are changed in a targeted manner such that the imaging of the changed structures with the effects brought about by the lithographic system produces a structure on the wafer which comes as close as possible to the desired structure. This correction of a mask is called Optical Proximity Correction (abbreviated to OPC). The change experienced by a structure on a mask proceeding from a predefined mask design until the formation of a wafer structure is described in a so-called OPC model. An OPC model has numerous parameters for adaption to the lithography process used. This adaptation is effected empirically by a calibration mask being fabricated, on which test structures are formed, which are exposed onto a wafer. The wafer structures produced in the process are measured by use of a wafer CD-SEM. With this information, the parameters of the OPC model are then adapted such that, proceeding from the known mask designs, they can determine the resulting wafer structures with high possible accuracy. The OPC models are implemented in commercially available software solutions, such as, for example, the Calibre or nmWorkFlow software from Mentor Graphics.

In general, capacitors are components that are commonly used in chip fabrication and packaging designs for various purposes. For instance, on-chip capacitors are fundamental components for constructing semiconductor integrated circuits including, for example, memory arrays, charge pumps, RC filters, peaking amplifiers and various types of analog integrated circuits. In addition, capacitors are used in integrated circuits and chip packages for purposes of AC coupling and DC blocking. For example, capacitors can be implemented as series elements that couple RF energy from one part of a circuit to another part while blocking DC signals. In particular, in RF amplifier designs, DC blocking capacitors are used for interconnecting RF amplifier stages Moreover, capacitors are commonly used in chip fabrication/package designs as decoupling capacitors to stabilize power supply voltages, i.e., minimize or eliminate power jitter. Indeed, high performance circuits require high capacitance, high quality (Q), and low-impedance decoupling capacitors between a DC power supply and ground lines to limit noise created by rapid switching of current, where such noise results from, inductive and capacitive parasitic impedances. The ability to reduce or eliminate such noise is particularly important for mixed-mode product designs (analog/digital), where it is necessary to work with very low signals. Insufficient decoupling capacitance can result in high power supply and ground noise. In conventional designs, DC blocking and decoupling capacitors are implemented as discrete, off-chip components that are mounted inside a chip package module or on an electrical board (e.g., printed circuit board) on which a chip is mounted. Continuing advances in semiconductor IC chip fabrication and packaging technologies, however, is allowing the development of high-performance IC chips and chip package structures with increasingly higher levels of integration density, and lower fabrication costs. In this regard, IC chip and package designs utilize on-chip DC blocking and decupling capacitors, for example, to reduce chip package cost and to reduce module size. Moreover, the use of on-chip decoupling capacitors, for example, allows for higher performance designs as on-chip decoupling capacitors are more effective in reducing noise in power and ground lines when placed closer to the relevant loads. Depending on the application, however, the use of on-chip capacitors can be problematic. For example, with high-density chip designs, there can be limited 2D/3D silicon space on the chip for building the integrated capacitors, resulting in practical limitations in integration density. Consequently, to achieve a desired level of integration for a given design, the sizes of the on-chip capacitors may be reduced, resulting in decreased performance. Moreover, the type of on-chip capacitor that is used in a given design may limit the level of performance and/or integration density achievable. For example, high-performance chips are typically fabricated using capacitor technologies that yield high quality factor (Q) capacitors, but such technologies do not scale well as integration density increases, as higher integration results in formation of capacitors with relatively poor performance due to increased parasitic impedances and plate resistance. Other capacitor technologies enable high-integration designs, but result in lower quality capacitors that are not useful in high-performance applications. For instance, deep-trench or stacked capacitor techniques that are used in DRAM technology can be used to achieve high capacitance density, but can result in low quality capacitors. For instance, with such technologies, the thin dielectric layers that are formed on capacitor trench sidewalls and 3D-structures can not sustain high-voltage stress and thus, susceptible to breakdown. To address this problem, several capacitors must be serially connected to obtain an effective capacitance, but this technique results in four times increase in the area needed to construct the capacitors, and increase the cost of fabrication. Other conventional techniques using planar or 3-D MIM (metal-insulation-metal) capacitor, interdigitated structure, etc., may be used to form high-quality capacitors, but at the expense of consuming valuable silicon real estate on the chip front side.

Q: Dividing square of 2013x2013 Is the square of 2013×2013 can be divided into rectangles 1×3 in such a way that the number of rectangles arranged vertically differ by 1 from the number rectangles arranged horizontally? Prove your answer I totally have no idea how to solve that. I need accurate solutions or good hints. A: Since $2013$ is divisble by $3$, show by complete induction that the number of vertical bars that extend upward starting with bottom base at row $k$ must be divisible by $3$. Then you will get that the total number of vertical bars is divisible by $3$, and by symmetry, the number of horizontal bars that extend rightward starting with base column $k$ must be divisible by $3$, so the total number of horizontal bars must also be divisible by $3$, so they cannot differ by $1$.

Effects of endocrine disruptors on experimental animals and wildlife are well established. Antiandrogens and estrogens cause reproductive disorders, such as cryptorchidism, hypospadias, testicular dysgenesis and subfertility. This raises a natural question whether these disorders in humans are also caused by endocrine disrupters and whether they should alert us of harmful exposures. While we still do not know the answer to this question, we know that the incidence of testicular cancer has rapidly increased over two generations, and the birth rates of hypospadias and cryptorchidism are alarmingly high. Furthermore, semen quality of young European men remains very poor at the moment. We have analyzed the association of cryptorchidism with exposure to several endocrine disruptors. This kind of studies cannot prove any causality. However, we have found a weak positive association of cryptorchidism with exposure to chlorinated pesticides, dioxins and furans, and polybrominated diphenyl ethers. It has become obvious that there is no individual compound that could be linked to etiology of cryptorchidism, but rather a mixture of several chemicals can cause the effect in genetically susceptible individuals. Modern systems biological approaches are needed to deal with complex exposure scenarios and genetic variability. Supported by the Academy of Finland, EU Fp7 Environment DEER, Sigrid Juselius Foundation, and Turku University Hospital.

What happens as we increase the number of classes in a histogram? 1 Answers If you increase the number of classes in a histogram the columns become narrower, class intervals become rounder and central tendency becomes more obvious meaning the data becomes more accurate and any underlying information becomes more detailed as you are able to collect more data and the histogram becomes more informative. A histogram is a basic quality tool. It is used to graphically summarize and display the distribution and variation of a process data set. The main purpose of a histogram is to clarify the data presented to make sure it is both accurate and correct. Typical applications of histograms in root cause analysis include: Presenting data to determine which causes dominate Understanding the distribution of occurrences of different problems, causes, consequences, etc. A histogram is a specialized type of bar chart, high bars can indicate more points in a class whereas low bars can indicate less points. However there are weaknesses in analyzing data this way. These are: If too few or too many bars are present then the data can be misleading histograms can show many different pictures thus can be manipulated. So, depending on the type of presented data you need to clarify a histogram may not be the most suitable method as sometimes it can tell a different story but sometimes it can only tell part of a story.

Lignocelluloses are available in plentiful and is a renewable resource made up of ca. 40-50% cellulose, 25-30% hemicellulose and 20-25% lignin. Technologies are in place to separate cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin from each other and hence raw material, hemicellulose is readily available. Hemicellulose a carbohydrate is abundantly and cheaply available across the globe and is a main factor that many countries will be independent about their chemical needs. Hemicellulose, which is basically derived from the non-edible source, will have advantage over edible sources for their conversion into chemicals as it is independent of food-crisis and geo-political factors. Conversion of fossil feedstock (crude oil, natural gas, coal etc.) into chemicals and energy produces significant amount of carbon dioxide which causes global warming. The recent exponential price rise of crude oil on the back-drop of mismatch in increasing demand and limited supply has pushed the world economy to a jinx. Moreover, geo-political factors and finite reserves available in only selective areas on the earth are also held responsible for the current situation. To maintain the prices of fuels and to keep carbon dioxide at constant levels, efforts are being made in the field of production of biomass based fuels (bio-ethanol and bio-diesel) and this in turn has made the whole situation more complex. As these fuels are mostly sought from the increasing uses of edible sources such as starch (corn, rice etc.) and vegetable oils (seed oils), it has attracted a lot of criticism across the globe on the note of increasing food prices. Thus, ways to overcome limitations arising from the use of fossil feedstock and edible sources for the synthesis of chemicals are being sought by way of the utilization of non-edible biomass resource under the bio-refinery title. Biomass during its growth captures light energy, water and carbon dioxide to form carbohydrates in a photosynthesis process. The integral part of fixing of CO2 during carbohydrate synthesis makes the utilization of plant derived biomass a totally “carbon neutral” process. The net annual yield of photosynthesis is around 1.3 trillion tons, thus making it the largest renewable resource available and a part of this renewable, non-edible resources are lignocellulosic materials such as wood and agricultural wastes.

One type of orthodontic appliance that is known is a custom made plate appliance that is made in a dental laboratory and is moulded from bite impressions of the dental arches and associated dental structures of that particular patient. The bite impressions are used to make laboratory models of that particular patient's arches and associated dental structures. These models are then used to mould a customised appliance including a plate that is shaped and configured to be complementary to that particular user's dental arch and thereby closely fit that user's dental arch and arch structures. A limitation of plate appliances is that the cost of producing them is high because they are individually made for each patient in a dental laboratory based on a dental model of the patient and a bite impression of the patient. Orthodontic systems using fixed appliances that are commonly called orthodontic braces are also used for orthodontic treatment. Orthodontic braces comprise a plurality of brackets each of which is mounted over an individual tooth and bonded thereto so that it is permanently mounted on the tooth. The brackets are linked together by means of a wire that passes through wire apertures formed in each of the brackets. The wire applies a force to the brackets that can then reposition and align the teeth on the dental arch. In particular these fixed appliances can be used to bring the anterior teeth on the upper and lower arches in the correct relative position to each other. The wire can progressively be drawn in to retract the incisor teeth on the anterior region of the upper dental arch to “close” an “open” bite. These fixed appliances using brackets focus on moving teeth on a dental arch, particularly to align the teeth. For example they can be used to retract protruding teeth, in particular protruding incisors on the upper arch of a user, and they can also be used to advance retruded teeth. The fixed appliances described above have their drawbacks. Firstly Applicant's experience is that most orthodontic patients would choose not to wear braces if an alternative treatment was available. The brackets of the braces are generally unsightly and detract from the patient's looks while the braces are being worn, e.g. for the direction of the treatment. Secondly the braces can be uncomfortable to wear and can cause trauma, such as cuts and bruises to the intraoral soft tissues of a user. The soft buccal mucosa is particularly susceptible to injury from projections on the buccal surface of the brackets. Thirdly the brackets and wire are permanently attached to the dentition and thus cannot be temporarily removed by a patient in the way that a removable appliance can be removed. If the braces are particularly uncomfortable at any point in time to a user they cannot be temporarily removed to afford the patient some respite from the discomfort. Fourthly another problem that has plagued the use of braces is patient relapse. By this is meant that the teeth tend to move back to their original positions once the brackets are removed. The braces are permanent appliances so that when they are removed they cease to have any influence on teeth positioning. They cannot be used on an intermittent basis to provide a retaining function after the braces have been removed in the way that a removable appliance can be used. The braces do not offer a realistic or practical option as a retainer appliance once its use as an active appliance to achieve teeth repositioning is completed. Aside from the traditional orthodontic treatments described above, in more recent times some treatments have focused on encouraging and promoting improved myofunctional habits as a way of developing an intraoral environment that is less predisposed to the development of severe class 2 and class 3 malocclusions. For example some orthodontic practitioners have recognised that poor oral habits such as tongue thrusting, incorrect swallowing, and mouth breathing create the conditions in which a malocclusion is likely to develop in a growing child. The applicant has developed an arch shaped appliance having a front region and two arm regions to train a patient's or user's myofunctional habits so that the environment in which arch development and teeth positioning takes place is improved. In particular the appliance can train a patient to position certain key intraoral structures such as the tongue in the correct position and thereby resist the development of malocclusions that are caused by poor oral habits. One such feature is a tongue tab that assists in positioning the tongue at the correct height and to reduce tongue thrusting. The appliance also correctly positions the lower jaw or mandible of the patient relative to the upper jaw or maxillae. The appliance also encourages the patient to maintain their lips in a closed position and not to breathe through their mouth. These appliances are integrally formed of a soft and resilient material such as PVC or silicon rubber. The soft and resilient material enables the appliance to be comfortably worn when it bears against the dental arch and arch structures such as the teeth and gums of a patient. As the material from which the appliance is formed is soft and flexible it is easy to deform the appliance to move the arm regions of the appliance towards and away from each other and also to bend and twist the appliance. The resilience of the material will apply a return force tending to return the appliance to its original shape when it is distorted out of its original shape. In a case where the appliance is deformed to enable it to be fitted onto the dental arch of a patient, the resilient nature of the appliance material may cause the appliance to apply some force to the arch of a patient when it is deformed. However because the appliance material is soft and flexible it does not exert a resilient force that is strong enough to significantly develop the bone structure of the dental arch of the user. In addition such an appliance does not make a significant contribution to alignment of the dentition on the associated arch. The primary orthodontic influence conferred by the appliance is to train the patient to adopt improved myofunctional habits. These improved myofunctional habits in turn encourage the patient's dental arch to develop in a way that leads to better dental occlusion over a period of time. The development of the arch form in turn provides an environment in which alignment of the dentition can be sought using other orthodontic contrivances and techniques. It would be advantageous if an orthodontic appliance could be devised that directed a force onto the dental arch of a patient that was capable of developing the arch form of a user. It would further be advantageous if the orthodontic appliance was capable of achieving this arch development within a reasonable treatment time. It would be further advantageous if an orthodontic appliance could be devised that was able to positively influence dental alignment of a patient's teeth along the dental arch as well as to develop the arch form. It would be further advantageous if such an orthodontic appliance was removable so that it could be inserted into a patient's mouth, and also be removed from the patient's mouth during the course of treatment. It would be advantageous if an orthodontic appliance could be devised that could be manufactured in a number of sizes in a moulding operation and these sizes could then be fitted to a significant cross-section of the population. This would create the potential to manufacture the appliance on a commercial scale.

Patient Resources Glaucoma Glaucoma is a serious sight-threatening condition in which there is an abnormal pressure inside the eye. Typically, the pressure or IOP (intraocular pressure) is too high for the blood vessels and optic nerve to function normally, leading to loss of vision. There are some forms of glaucoma that can occur with normal pressure in the eye. The average IOP for a healthy eye is 10 to 22 mm of Mercury. Just as a physician’s office tests your blood pressure annually, the eye doctor tests your IOP during annual eye examinations. Types of Glaucoma There are several varieties of the disease, with primary open-angle glaucoma being the most common. Primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) occurs when the IOP is higher than normal. As the pressure increases, it destroys vital nerve tissue that is irreparable. POAG usually occurs over a long period of time, months to years, and slowly causes peripheral visual field loss. If left untreated, a sufferer progresses to tunnel vision and then to total blindness. A second type of glaucoma is acute-angle closure. This is considered a medical emergency because the interocular pressure spikes suddenly to anywhere from 30-70 mm or higher. This causes extremely sharp pain, nausea and vomiting, and cloudy vision. The IOP needs to be lowered within hours to prevent permanent vision loss. Juvenile open-angle glaucoma, or JOAP, is similar to POAG, in that is causes a gradual visual field loss. The most common form is in children from ages 3 to 21. Infantile or congenital glaucoma is a type of glaucoma that manifests itself between birth to 3 years of age. A typical sign is an enlarged bluish-gray cornea, the front dome of the eye. Excessive tearing of the eye and sensitivity to light are also symptoms. Finally, secondary glaucoma is caused from trauma, eye disease, or certain medications. Causes of Glaucoma Many theories on the cause of glaucoma exist, but the exact cause is unknown. Glaucoma can be a hereditary condition. It also can be caused by malformed anatomical structures in the eye. Certain risk factors such as hyperopia and cataracts cause a higher incidence of certain types of glaucoma. One cause of glaucoma is an insufficient drainage system of the aqueous fluid. The aqueous imbalance causes a gradual buildup of pressure which destroys vision. Another cause is an insufficient flow of blood to the optic nerve. Ocular trauma or injury that damages the anterior segment for the lens and drainage mechanism of the eye can also lead to glaucoma. In the case of normal tension glaucoma, pressure readings are in the normal range. The cause of this is unknown. Treatment Even though in most cases there is no way to prevent glaucoma, there are many treatment options. Medications in the form of eyedrops are commonly prescribed. Different combinations of agents act on mechanisms of action to lower IOP or to slow the production of fluid. Advanced surgical and laser procedures can also be viable options for the treatment of glaucoma. An in-office procedure called laser trabeculoplasty can cause the meshwork in the eye to work more efficiently. This treatment has a temporary effect and may need to be done multiple times. Another effective surgery uses a drainage implant to facilitate better outflow and inflow of aqueous fluid in the eye. These procedures help keep the pressure stabilized. Conventional surgery for glaucoma is done in an operating room scenario. A flap in the eye is created to facilitate outflow of the pressure. This pressure-controlling surgery is known as a trabeculotomy. Furthermore, some oral medications can also be used in the treatment of glaucoma. Methods of Testing for Glaucoma During a comprehensive eye examination, eye pressure can be tested through various methods. Tonometry gives a pressure reading of the eye. A tomometer has different methods such as a probe that gently touches the front of the eye after the eye doctor has administered anesthetic eyedrops. Another method of testing uses a puff of air. For children, there is a tonometer that is quick and does not require anesthesia. A pachometer, which measures the thickness of the front of the eye called the cornea, can also aid in diagnosis. A visual field device can measure for early or late damage in the peripheral fields of vision. Lastly, newer technology called OCT, or optical coherence tomography, counts the nerve fibers, which can help detect early changes in the disease. Prevalence of Glaucoma There are approximately 3 million individuals in the United States with glaucoma. It is the second leading cause of blindness in the country. Most cases are found in the population over age 40, and more women than men have the disease. Two thirds of glaucoma cases are in the Caucasian population, approximately 20% are African-American, and 10% are Hispanic. Glaucoma continues to rise every year in the population. The key to success in the treatment of glaucoma is early detection and progressive monitoring of the condition. Comprehensive eye examinations and diligent monitoring will help protect from vision loss with this disease.

Golden orb-web spiders (Nephila clavipes) are sit-and-wait hunters that accumulate prey larders on their webs. These larders are sometimes stolen by other spiders. If prey items are removed from their webs, golden orb-web spiders search for them. They search longer when they have lost more prey items as well as when they have lost larger prey items. Rafael Rodríguez of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and colleagues wanted to know if these spiders have a sense of numerosity: the ability to track the number of prey items in their larders. The researchers conducted a field experiment in Costa Rica to determine whether golden orb-web spiders represent the number of prey items or the total mass of their larders in their memories. Rodríguez says these spiders are extremely pleasant to study: "They are large, active during the day, and move relatively slowly, so they are a dream come true for students of behavior." Ianaré Sévi, via Wikimedia Commons. Distributed under a CC BY 3.0 license. The key to testing these two hypotheses was looking for a difference in the increase of searching effort with either mass or counts. "It could be that the spiders keep track of counts but one wouldn't know if the increase is the same as for equivalent increases in mass," Rodríguez says. Finding a difference would indicate that they can keep track of both variables. Rodríguez and his colleagues found golden orb-web spiders on their webs and gave them some amount of prey items (mealworm larvae), either in the form of a given prey size or a given count of prey items of the same size. They let the spiders perform their normal behavior of capturing the prey and beginning to feed on it, and then removed the prey. This caused the spiders to begin searching. The researchers found that spiders increased their searching efforts both with prey count and prey size, but they did so more steeply with prey counts. This suggests they track both prey numerosity and size, and that they give more weight to prey numerosity. "We can make a tentative conclusion that these spiders possess a sense of numerosity," says Rodríguez. This ability puts golden orb-web spiders among many vertebrates and at least a few other invertebrates. "This is interesting because it suggests that brains of very different sizes and organizations can give animals this ability," says Rodríguez. __Reference: __ Rodríguez, R. L., Briceño, R. D., Briceño-Aguilar, E., and Höbel, G. (2015). *Nephila clavipes *spiders (Aranae: Nephilidae) keep track of captured prey counts: testing for a sense of numerosity in an orb-weaver. Animal Cognition 18: 307-314. doi: 10.1007/s10071-014-0801-9.

How Detecting Neurotransmitter Imbalance Can Help You to Feel Better Detecting Neurotransmitter Imbalance: Neurotransmitters, chemicals in our brains that work as messengers between brain cells, are responsible for most of what goes on in our bodies. They regulate our behavior, our emotions, our ability to learn, and the way we sleep. When these chemicals are not present in the proper balance, it can affect everything from our energy levels to our ability to focus to how we feel. Studies have shown that neurotransmitters have a tremendous influence on our mood, and insufficient levels of certain neurotransmitters have been identified in patients with emotional disorders and mental illness. What, exactly, are neurotransmitters, and how do they work? Our brain contains specialized nerve cells, called neurons, which are responsible for receiving information, processing it, and transmitting it to other cells. Neurons are not in direct contact with one another; in order for neurons to pass messages to each other, they rely on highly specialized chemicals called neurotransmitters. How Detecting Neurotransmitter Imbalance Can Help You to Feel Better: Neurotransmitters are made out of amino acids, which come from proteins. Neurotransmitters are made out of amino acids, which come from proteins – you will see why this is important further on. The neurotransmitters essentially bridge the “gaps” (called synapses) between neurons to relay their messages. When these neurotransmitters exist at insufficient levels, important information may not be passed along correctly. Some of the important neurotransmitters that affect our moods are described here. Acetylcholine -regulates voluntary movement, sleep, memory, and learning. Too much acetylcholine is present with depression, and too little is present in patients with dementia. Dopamine – helps to regulate learning, focus and movement. Excessive levels of dopamine are present in patients with schizophrenia; too little dopamine is associated with depression, as well as the tremors exhibited by patients with Parkinson’s disease. Norepinephrine (noradrenalin) – helps to regulate appetite and alertness; low levels are found in patients with depression, while excessive norepinephrine has been found in patients with schizophrenia. What causes neurotransmitter imbalance? Neurotransmitter imbalance can be caused by high levels of stress. Diet also plays an important part in maintaining neurotransmitter levels. The formation of neurotransmitters requires sufficient levels of dietary protein, in addition to certain vitamins and minerals. Medications, drugs and alcohol, hormone imbalances, genetics, and heavy metal toxicity can all play a role in neurotransmitter depletion, as well. Neurotransmitter Testing Typically, treatment for any of the disorders described here involves medication, which is prescribed to treat the symptoms without any real evidence of what is causing the condition. In many cases, several different medications are tried before coming across one that works. Neurotransmitter testing provides a simple tool for determining the precise cause of the symptoms by pinpointing exactly which neurotransmitters are in imbalance. Neurotransmitter testing enables medical professionals to guide treatment toward the cause of the condition, rather than tossing medications at it until one of them finally works. In many cases, therapeutic drugs may not be necessary at all. Changes in dietary and lifestyle habits and the use of natural remedies and neurotransmitter supplements can correct neurotransmitter imbalances without the use of prescription medications that may have negative side effects. Testing for neurotransmitter imbalances consists of taking a simple blood or urine sample. Neurotransmitter tests are covered by most insurance plans, making them easily affordable. By identifying the neurotransmitter imbalance that is causing your health issues, you can ensure that you are receiving the proper treatment and that you will begin to feel better as soon as possible.

For data storage (e.g., cache, main memory, long term storage, etc.), there is typically a trade-off between quality of service and error correction. Quality of service refers to a level of precision with which a computer system (e.g., storage system) processes data. Error correction refers to processes a hardware system performs in order to correct errors in data. As the quality of service (e.g., precision of data) increases, the amount of error-correction that a hardware device (e.g., memory device) must perform typically goes up. Conversely, as less quality of service is needed, the amount of error-correction that a hardware device must perform typically goes down. A computer system may be configured to compute with full data-correctness-guarantees (e.g., high-precision). Computing with full data-correctness-guarantees refers to maintaining all, or substantially all, bits of the data. However, computing full data-correctness-guarantees, on a full-time basis, is often not practical for many computing operations. Hardware (e.g., a memory device) typically provides strong guarantees for error correction. Software typically relies completely on hardware to maintain full data error-correction guarantees. Such complete reliance on hardware is demanding on the hardware. The demand can lead to memory devices that operate more slowly. Perhaps worse, the memory devices may also experience shorter life spans. For example, precise flash memory operation may cause quicker wear out due to the need for a larger number of write iterations. When the hardware cannot maintain the error-correction guarantees, the hardware issues a fatal error. Then, neither the hardware nor the software can proceed with normal computing operations. Full data-correctness-guarantees (e.g., high-precision operations with an effort to maintain the precision of all bits of data), which are often required by hardware, are not always needed for software applications. Some software applications can tolerate errors in some of their data structures, such as, for example, picture data, audio data, video data, and/or most other data that a user decides to store. A computer can process these types of data with approximate precision and, at the same time, maintain virtually no perceptible difference in the user experience during the processing of the data. In one example, approximate storage refers to a computer system storing data in memory, and later the memory device returning approximately the data that was stored in that memory. Approximate precision is the precision with which the memory device returns approximately the data that was stored in the memory. Approximate precision is a precision level at which the memory device does not guarantee full data-correctness for one or more variables of data. For example, the memory device does not guarantee all bits of the data are correct.

Kayseri place s around the foot of Erciyes Mountain which has steppe climate, which is one of the middle anatolian cities. Through the history, it exposed plenty of outbreak sickness. Moreover, because of the deficiency of sewerage system arised the sickness of malaria at summer time. Thus, Kayseri natives moved to Ali mount and Erciyes Mountain because of having more plenty of air than town center. Through a summer season, They lived on there, where called 'Bağ' means vineyard. The moving of almost whole city, brings a lot of culture materials into life. Employing of grape growing was very famous occupation. There were different 33 sorts of grape.On this study we observed in order of words, idioms, concepts and traditions about grape and vineyard.

Congruence relation In abstract algebra, a congruence relation (or simply congruence) is an equivalence relation on an algebraic structure (such as a group, ring, or vector space) that is compatible with the structure in the sense that algebraic operations done with equivalent elements will yield equivalent elements. Every congruence relation has a corresponding quotient structure, whose elements are the equivalence classes (or congruence classes) for the relation. Basic example The prototypical example of a congruence relation is congruence modulo on the set of integers. For a given positive integer , two integers and are called congruent modulo , written if is divisible by (or equivalently if and have the same remainder when divided by ). For example, and are congruent modulo , since is a multiple of 10, or equivalently since both and have a remainder of when divided by . Congruence modulo (for a fixed ) is compatible with both addition and multiplication on the integers. That is, if and then and The corresponding addition and multiplication of equivalence classes is known as modular arithmetic. From the point of view of abstract algebra, congruence modulo is a congruence relation on the ring of integers, and arithmetic modulo occurs on the corresponding quotient ring. Definition The definition of a congruence depends on the type of algebraic structure under consideration. Particular definitions of congruence can be made for groups, rings, vector spaces, modules, semigroups, lattices, and so forth. The common theme is that a congruence is an equivalence relation on an algebraic object that is compatible with the algebraic structure, in the sense that the operations are well-defined on the equivalence classes. For example, a group is an algebraic object consisting of a set together with a single binary operation, satisfying certain axioms. If is a group with operation , a congruence relation on is an equivalence relation on the elements of satisfying and for all , , , . For a congruence on a group, the equivalence class containing the identity element is always a normal subgroup, and the other equivalence classes are the cosets of this subgroup. Together, these equivalence classes are the elements of a quotient group. When an algebraic structure includes more than one operation, congruence relations are required to be compatible with each operation. For example, a ring possesses both addition and multiplication, and a congruence relation on a ring must satisfy whenever . For a congruence on a ring, the equivalence class containing 0 is always a two-sided ideal, and the two operations on the set of equivalence classes define the corresponding quotient ring. The general notion of a congruence relation can be given a formal definition in the context of universal algebra, a field which studies ideas common to all algebraic structures. In this setting, a congruence relation is an equivalence relation on an algebraic structure that satisfies for every -ary operation and all elements such that for each Relation with homomorphisms If is a homomorphism between two algebraic structures (such as homomorphism of groups, or a linear map between vector spaces), then the relation defined by if and only if is a congruence relation. By the first isomorphism theorem, the image of A under is a substructure of B isomorphic to the quotient of A by this congruence. Congruences of groups, and normal subgroups and ideals In the particular case of groups, congruence relations can be described in elementary terms as follows: If G is a group (with identity element e and operation *) and ~ is a binary relation on G, then ~ is a congruence whenever: Given any element a of G, a ~ a (reflexivity); Given any elements a and b of G, if a ~ b, then b ~ a (symmetry); Given any elements a, b, and c of G, if a ~ b and b ~ c, then a ~ c (transitivity); Given any elements a, a' , b, and b' of G, if a ~ a' and b ~ b' , then a * b ~ a' * b' ; Given any elements a and a' of G, if a ~ a' , then a−1 ~ a' −1 (this can actually be proven from the other four, so is strictly redundant). Conditions 1, 2, and 3 say that ~ is an equivalence relation. A congruence ~ is determined entirely by the set {a ∈ G : a ~ e} of those elements of G that are congruent to the identity element, and this set is a normal subgroup. Specifically, a ~ b if and only if b−1 * a ~ e. So instead of talking about congruences on groups, people usually speak in terms of normal subgroups of them; in fact, every congruence corresponds uniquely to some normal subgroup of G. Ideals of rings and the general case A similar trick allows one to speak of kernels in ring theory as ideals instead of congruence relations, and in module theory as submodules instead of congruence relations. A more general situation where this trick is possible is with Omega-groups (in the general sense allowing operators with multiple arity). But this cannot be done with, for example, monoids, so the study of congruence relations plays a more central role in monoid theory. Universal algebra The idea is generalized in universal algebra: A congruence relation on an algebra A is a subset of the direct product A × A that is both an equivalence relation on A and a subalgebra of A × A. The kernel of a homomorphism is always a congruence. Indeed, every congruence arises as a kernel. For a given congruence ~ on A, the set A/~ of equivalence classes can be given the structure of an algebra in a natural fashion, the quotient algebra. The function that maps every element of A to its equivalence class is a homomorphism, and the kernel of this homomorphism is ~. The lattice Con(A) of all congruence relations on an algebra A is algebraic. John M. Howie described how semigroup theory illustrates congruence relations in universal algebra: In a group a congruence is determined if we know a single congruence class, in particular if we know the normal subgroup which is the class containing the identity. Similarly, in a ring a congruence is determined if we know the ideal which is the congruence class containing the zero. In semigroups there is no such fortunate occurrence, and we are therefore faced with the necessity of studying congruences as such. More than anything else, it is this necessity that gives semigroup theory its characteristic flavour. Semigroups are in fact the first and simplest type of algebra to which the methods of universal algebra must be applied… See also Table of congruences Linear congruence theorem Congruence lattice problem Notes References Horn and Johnson, Matrix Analysis, Cambridge University Press, 1985. . (Section 4.5 discusses congruency of matrices.) Category:Modular arithmetic Category:Algebra Category:Binary relations Category:Equivalence (mathematics)

Get all information about education in this website Social insight is the capacity to viably arrange interpersonal collaborations and complex social situations. It includes powerful relational abilities, the capacity to peruse non-verbal signs into how other individuals are feeling and temperances, for example, compassion and thought. Preschool is a kid’s first raid into a social situation brimming with different chances to learn and hone social aptitudes. In any case, without grown-up intercession and displaying of proper conduct, it would be troublesome for kids to figure out how to approach the complex and regularly confounding universe of social collaborations. This article gives a few tips to guardians, instructors and overseers for helping youngsters create gainful social aptitudes that will do them a lifetime of good. This is what you can do to help your tyke, understudy, niece/nephew or cousin turn out to be more compassionate, kind and positive about social settings. *Model the conduct you’d like the kid to receive Kids learn fitting practices by copying grown-ups. In the event that a family always contends with each other before the tyke, it is likely that the tyke would consider animosity as an adequate type of communicating one’s emotions. On the off chance that you reprimand your tyke cruelly when they decline to be tender with other youngsters, you are not demonstrating tenderness. The least demanding approach to help your tyke learn qualities, for example, persistence, absolution, empathy, liberality and tenderness is to demonstrate these qualities in your everyday collaborations with other individuals. Youngsters continually watch and learn. *Help the kid comprehend and mark their emotions Mindfulness is the initial step to poise. That is the reason attempting to constrain your kid to stifle negative feelings, for example, outrage or trouble can really demonstrate unfavorable to their passionate wellbeing and social fitness. In the event that you spot youngsters turning out to be verbally or physically forceful, mediate and express so everyone can hear a verbal depiction of the circumstance and the kids’ plausible feelings. For instance, you could say something like, “I see that you both might want to play on the slide. You both appear to be anxious.” Go on as far as possible, “You can’t push someone else off the slide. You should inquire as to whether you can have a go as well. On the off chance that they won’t, you should hold up calmly or go pick another movement to do.” Sympathizing with a kid’s sentiments quiets them down. Test into how they are feeling amid or after the contention as that would help them comprehend and name their emotions. *Allow kids to experience and resolve clashes It is totally characteristic for preschoolers to experience clashes. Youngsters this age for the most part need to have things go their direction but then have other kids to play with. The capacity to arrange and trade off is sharpened through the contentions that emerge between little children. Be close by yet don’t intercede in a contention until you feel that you totally need to. Notwithstanding when you do intercede, ensure that rather than essentially telling everybody what they ought to do, you help them sympathize with each other and comprehend why they ought to carry on especially. At the point when individuals consider schools there are just two which strike a chord which are tuition based schools and state funded schools. However non-public schools have an assortment of various sorts also. Knowing which sort of tuition based school is useful for your tyke is completely essential. For example individuals realize that Private schools in Sharjah are an extraordinary decision for offspring of all ages. Here you can experience the most widely recognized sorts of tuition based schools. Autonomous or tuition based schools Non-public schools and free schools are by and large unique sorts of schools. They have similar components with regards to the financing. Both schools are supported by outside associations and individuals. Numerous tuition based schools can be a part of any religious request or different sorts of associations. Tuition based school Grade Levels Review level separation of any tuition based school is the most widely recognized sorts. Primary school is the school which offer evaluations from one to five. This is the beginning of the private tutoring. After this the center school covers grades from six to eight. This can likewise be known as the middle school since there are a ton of schools which calls the evaluations seven through nine as a middle school. In conclusion non-public schools from evaluations nine to twelve are called green beans completely through to seniors. School prep is additionally given by different tuition based schools like Private schools in Sharjah which takes into account the school going capacity to the tyke. Day Schools/Country Day Schools Nation day school is another sort of school which offers classes all during that time and the youngsters for the most part go home during the evening. These sorts of nation day schools are situated in suburbia or the nation. Unique Needs Schools Understudies who are incapacitated with any sort of learning or perusing handicaps can settle on such schools. There are additionally different sorts which concentrate on those understudies with passionate needs. Additionally understudies who wish to concentrate on one ability are welcome to such schools. They can sharpen the capacity of the understudy enormously. These schools tend to much lesser in number however. Montessori Schools This sort of school is just for extremely youthful kids and they help in fortifying the understudy’s engine aptitudes and faculties. They have a tendency to underline on different insights, additionally advance self coordinated learning, uniqueness and freedom. A portion of the youngsters are combined and have a tendency to be of different ages. This assistance in building relational abilities and different parts of eth kid. Regardless of which kind of tuition based school you wish to send your kid to ensure that you have an all around created comprehension of what you need. On the off chance that you need general advancement then Private schools in Sharjah is an incredible choice. For student in government funded schools that don’t require the utilization of outfits, the main day back is a day to awe and demonstrate their companions the amount they’ve changed or not changed over the mid year. The garments that a young person will wear on his/her first day back in school is as a rule since quite a while ago thought and arranged for. The majority of you presumably asked for shopping cash from their folks to have that impeccable, fancied search for THE main day back. Here are a few tips for what to wear on your first day back in school. Wear easygoing garments that will permit you to move around. Dont go for anything high support like a solid pullover or a short dress. Amid that first day, you and your companions will presumably be hyperactive in your energy to see each other once more. There will be heaps of embraces, high fives, hopping and screeching, pounding on the back, etcetera. Attempt to keep your look straightforward yet attractive. Wear brilliant, merry pastel hues to upgrade a cheerful manner. You can match your pants with a complimenting pullover for young ladies, and polo shirts for young men. Blacks and grays are okay the length of the texture is in great condition and the shading is not dull. Else, it will be ugly. One more update for young ladies. On the off chance that you need to wear a dress, ensure its not very short or youll have infringement records at the earliest reference point of the school year, which is not the way it ought to be. Be aware of the climate as well. It is getting flighty as of late, however in the event that the pattern is going towards colder temperatures, then dont neglect to put on a coat. There are numerous in vogue coats and coats to look over in the market and online so there ought to be no stresses in selecting one. Finish your arrangements by preparing yourself well. Ensure your nails are spotless and for the young ladies, have your nail trims done the day preceding school begins. Along these lines there’s no compelling reason to hastily correct a new layer of nail clean. This is especially vital if youll be wearing shoes, flip slumps or open shoes. Have a perfect face and enough hours of rest. Before you go to bed the prior night first day of school, lay out the outfit you’ve chosen and set up your assets already. There’s no expectation to sound like your folks here, simply giving a helpful piece of counsel. It will spare you the bother of waking up right on time and assemble the things youll convey to class, or hunting your drawers down assistants to wear. That time will be better spent lackadaisical doing your hair or taking your breakfast. For some students, taking test could be something so terrifying that they would rather skip school at all than having to face that moment. A lot of them take the test as a point where everything is down to that exact second. They feel as if their entire fate is hanging on whether they make it or not. Oftentimes, it is this state of frightened that drives them mad and eventually failing the test by the end of the day. Admittedly, it will never be an easy thing having to embark on a test with that big of baggage behind you. Every choice of answers you make needs to be calculated ones and has to be backed up by the kind of determination that is unshaken. Consequently, it is something with a lot of risks. Take one step wrong and the whole things would crumble down and you will regret having made that kind of answer in the first place. Arguably, you can simply buy an essay online to solve this problem but that will only work if and only if the task involved making an essay. If not, you would only be wasting your cash in the process. Another way to put this is that the online essay service should only be taken as the very last resort. Online essay service does help you out a lot but you need to understand that if you hang on to the easiest solution there is, you will not be able to learn anything. Instead of that, you can prepare yourself way ahead of the moment the test comes. At the very first day of school, make sure that you have covered all of your bases. Take complete notes of anything the teachers say, do you homework, do not get distract during the class, and study all the materials thoroughly. Make sure also that you have the required time to study before the test. Do not allocate last-minute studying and hoping that what you have just read would stick—because, unless you have that kind of photographic memory, they absolutely would not. If possible, please ask the teachers about what would be in the test: the emphasis, the subjects, the topics of the test. Of course, this requires special skills of communication that might enable you to pick your teachers’ mind. Do not skip meals before the test. It is understandable that you would feel so stressed out and nervous and all that, but you should never miss eating. And empty your bladder before the test. You wouldn’t want your time wasted on having to excuse yourself out of the room during the test. You need energy to go through all of this. In addition, try to show up at least 5 minutes before the test commences. Arriving early will subtly boost your confidence so you should feel that you can take on any kind of problems shows up in the test. Lastly, don’t sell short on the alarm clock. You might think that you will not miss the morning sleeping in but in reality, you most certainly will. If you are planning to join a flight school in South Africa, then you will want to know few pointers which can help you. In South Africa there are many flight schools which offer their services. While most of them are genuine and have skilled trainers, some schools are not even certified, which is why, you will want to ensure that you are making the right decision. Knowing certain pointers will help you make the right choice. The reputation of the flight school The reputation of the flight school in South Africa should be verified. This can be found out by what people are speaking about the flight school. Perhaps it is located in a town or city, which is popular or known because of the flight school based in there. When the locals have good things to say about it, then it is definitely worth a look. The years of experience and certification of the flight school The years of experience and certification of the aviation school should be checked. The fees and the course duration also have to be verified. That mainly depends on the kind of course you are planning to make use of. When you want to enroll in the beginner’s course, then the duration is usually for few months or less than 3 months. The middle course is meant for pilots who like to drive small planes. Usually small plane owners like to learn how to drive them before they make their big purchase. The course duration is less than a year. The professional pilot course lasts for few years and can cost high. Hence the student should be prepared and know his/her purpose for the course and then join likewise. Though all the details of the aviation school in South Africa are available on their website, you need to do yourself a favor and see things for yourself in the flight school. Visit them and meet the trainers. Riding a plane is no joke and unless the trainers are pilots who have years of experience to back them, you are taking a huge risk by joining in that school. The license and certifications of a flight school are also important. Unless they have been registered by the proper government authorities and are based in the out skirts of the city or town, you know that you are dealing with a poorly organized flight school and are better off not joining there. Check out the video below to give you some more information on aviation schools in South Africa: Completing high school is something that everyone must do in light of the fact that it can open up new entryways for those that are endeavoring to urge business. While not having a high school endorsement, similar to a recognition or GED, an individual can see that they’re extremely limited in the sort of occupations that they’ll do after they are longing for work. Consequently, it’s recommended that everyone takes their high school courses and pass them all together that they’ll graduate. Along these lines, they’ll get livelihood by taking on the web high school courses the same number of parts need that an individual elements a high school training. As a matter of reality, most of the roles within the United States, which pay something at all, are those for people who have graduated high school or a minimum of completed their high school courses. This is often why online high school courses can be of such a lot facilitates to a personal. During a room setting, there’s a lot to distract you. Someone gets the impression that it’s harder in high school than on the web. The web courses are the most effective choice for people who wish to require their high school categories and pass them likewise as for people who might produce other obligations that prevent them from attending school during an ancient setting. Anyone who desires to finish high school will do therefore at an authorized web site on-line wherever they’ll get the courses that they have further because the probability to require their test in order that they’re going to be able to attain the equivalent of a high school sheepskin. While not this, someone is severely restricted on the kind of job that they’ll do. However, once someone has the high school sheepskin or GED, then they’ll proceed to higher learning additionally to having the ability to induce a stronger job that needs this sort of education. Just because you will have had a difficult time in high school within the past is not any reason to feel like that you simply cannot pass your courses. If you attend an internet web site, there’s ample chance to achieve your education while not has to step into a schoolroom. This can be conjointly ideal for people who have had to go away ancient faculty for numerous reasons. Some don’t just like the high school setting, whereas others may need to have to go away attributed to some type of family obligation. Young mothers who might not have had the prospect to finish their high school education don’t have to feel like they can’t graduate and attain this type of feat. They’ll take the categories online and acquire a high school credential, or equivalent, once they take these online courses that are designed for people who need to finish their high school education. High school training is critical to gain essential learning of different scholastic subjects. It is amid your high school days that you establish the frameworks of a lucrative vocation for driving a cheerful and effective life. Your high school training may appear to be really testing and tedious, however keep in mind that a high school confirmation loads numerous prizes upon you. In the event that you put in true endeavors and finish your high school graduation the prizes will be yours. Despite what might be expected, dropping out of high school denies you of these prizes. Let your high school studies be great fun. Don’t allow it to make you feel bogged down. Of course you will have to attend to the usual academic work that goes on throughout the year. At times there may be pressures of completing assignments but don’t give up and never join the herd of dropouts. Getting into high school has been your important step towards a successful professional life. The qualities of hard work, patience and perseverance always pay off helping you to move ahead in life with a great sense of self-esteem. The percentage of high school dropouts in the US has been very high. For varied reasons ranging from a feeling of insecurity in a school environment to being unable to cope with the academic work many students tend to drop out. They are the people who have no career goals or ambitions in life. They are just drifting in life. If you don’t want to be one among them, it is important that you set your career goals and always stick to it. Staying focused on your goals is key to successfully completing your high school graduation. You cannot expect high school to be as easy as middle school. Naturally you will have to invest more time and energy. You cannot take it easy and hope to come out with flying colors in the examinations. If you carefully plan your daily schedule including all activities you can manage your high school studies very well. High school is not meant for only reading books; there are times for sports and various other extracurricular activities. You get the opportunity to learn foreign languages and pursue your interests and hobbies. A particular subject that you can pursue further in college and university may fascinate you. Similarly you get to draw and paint under the guidance of your art teacher. Do not let go of such wonderful opportunities by dropping out of high school. To make things easier for yourself plan your schedule for the whole year breaking it into each month. Include even you holidays and vacations and plan all your activities accordingly. Vacations are good times for completing your projects and other lengthy assignments. Similarly make your weekly plan and don’t forget to include some fun-filled activities for the weekends. This will help you recharge your batteries after a busy academic schedule over the week and you can look forward to the next week with renewed energy and enthusiasm. Allocate enough time for rest and relaxation. However do not let yourself slacken the pace of work putting off what you had earlier decided to do. It may snowball into a real problem and upset your entire planned schedule. Remember there is life outside the classroom. High school education encourages you to explore the life outside school. It provides you with opportunities to explore your hidden talents and potentials. If you find something that interests you, stick to it throughout the year. You may find yourself excelling in multiple areas. There are various events that schools and community organizations organize which you may involve yourself in. If you have time to spare then volunteer for some social activities or jobs, which can offer you a good experience along with your high school learning. Aside from the capabilities, a basic educator should have the right demeanor for the occupation. Here are a few attributes to finding the privilege grade teacher. Is it accurate to say that they will assume various parts? Being a elementary teacher obliges you to be touchy to youngsters. Meanwhile, you should be sufficiently strict with the goal that train can be ingrained. As it were, to be a powerful instructor, your part does not end at being a man who passes on learning. They are really a teacher, companion, instructor, good example, taskmaster, and surrogate parent. Is the candidate willing to work extra hours? The day does not end when the bell rings. There are other responsibilities they will need to fulfill like marking assignments, attending meetings, meeting parents, and waiting for students to go home safely. Are they good in managing their time? As mentioned previously, there are lots of work to follow up on other than the teaching itself. Thus, it is important for a teacher to be able to organize their time table so that they will be able to do all the work assigned to them, while making sure that nothing clashes. This is also important as they are the role model for their students, so practicing good time management is an indirect way of teaching it. It also indicates good discipline. Are they street smart? Being able to make quick, independent, yet practical decisions is important when they face sudden situations. For example, if something happened to a student during lessons, they will need to be able to be calm and take charge of the situation without creating anxiety among other students. Another example is being able to protect their students from harm’s way during field trips. Do they have the perseverance? It is not enough that they fulfill the previously mentioned characteristics. Being able to persevere through tough situations is one of the most important characteristic, as without it, they will not be able to last through the job. As there are many people they will meet in their career, they would also face situations of all sorts. Not every day is a sunny day. The quantity of guardians in this day and age that settle on self-teaching their youngsters is expanding because of the numerous points of interest that self-teaching offers. Wellbeing concerns, nature of training, participation issues, state of mind of instructors, needs of an individual kid that are not met in government funded schools and so forth; these are a portion of the elements that are keeping the guardians far from sending their kids to state funded schools. Self-teaching kids is coming up as a very remunerating choice to control your youngster and watching him develop with the fulfillment that the kid has the best establishment for an effective future ahead. The fact that homeschooling is only meant for elementary levels is misleading. High school homeschooling is becoming equally popular. High school homeschooling option is more advisable as at the high school level not just the parents but also the student or the child is big enough to make sound decisions. Adolescents or teenagers take the decision for homeschooling to ease out the pressures at school, like bullying, peer pressure or the pressure of keeping pace with the regular school curriculum. Some high schoolers also do not like to be tied down in the regular schools and may want to take internship programs, volunteering jobs or trainings that may give them hands on experience to prepare for the struggle outside school. Home school high schoolers have the option of getting an accredited high school diploma from online schools that takes care of all the documentation like education verification letters and comprehensive official transcripts. Selecting the right curriculum and study material plays a very important role for high school studies. Internet is a powerful tool that can provide a lot of study material and support through networking. Homeschoolers interact with each other through chats, forums and message boards. Browsing through various subject sites on the Internet also enables a high school homeschooler to locate support groups in the subjects taken up. Homeschooling for high school equips the teenager with a better judgment and decision making ability. This makes them more responsible as they actively take part in choosing the right curriculum and creating their own methods for studying. The students have the flexibility of choosing a variety of activities that provide them with a holistic development of their personality rather than forcing themselves to pursue a fixed school curriculum. High school homeschoolers have the option of choosing from among various internship programs and practical training programs, depending upon the field they wish to follow. Some of the different courses that can be undertaken while completing their high school diploma side by side are, computer based trainings in trouble shooting and hardware, graphics, multimedia, database management and administration, web designing, software development etc. Training in these fields leads to a better position in the future job market. A high school graduation endorsement gives you the possibility of improving life. Today, rivalry has gotten to be extreme, and one must be accomplished to hold an occupation with an OK pay. Numerous occasions happen where a business favors a fresher high school graduate than an accomplished individual with no graduation. Pitiful as it might appear, reality, without a high school graduation endorsement you stand no place in the occupation advertise. So, if you had given up on your studies for any reason, worry not as you can still go ahead and complete your education for better prospects. You need to update to survive in this competitive world. Several opportunities may have come knocking at your door to offer you better things in life, but you were denied a job because you did not hold a high school graduation certificate. Sounds familiar, right? Fear not, for hope is not lost and it is never too late to graduate high school. Vacancies exist that need to be filled in only by graduates. After high school graduation, you can apply for various companies across the nation and earn as per the region. If you are already working, you will see a promotion coming your way sooner no sooner you hold a job and have completed your high school graduation. It is the minimum that employers expect from employees to earn better salaries, and enjoy more perks. Getting yourself a high school graduation certificate will be an added advantage to your resume. You will be glad to note that many employers would love to give you an opportunity to work in their organization, and a good salary. You can also continue to study further by applying to various colleges and universities. If you wish to work and then study, you can opt for a higher course from distance learning or online institutes. This way you can avail of better courses from the comforts of your home or office. To make high school graduation easy, many schools have come up with online education that can help you study at any age. After completing your high school graduation, you get to enroll for higher studies and that too in your favorite subjects. Various courses need you to be a high school graduate. By enrolling for higher courses, you open up better career options as you get a chance to work on higher positions with a better salary. Moreover, a better salary surely offers you a better life. In contrast with national midpoints, self-taught kids advance through their studies to accomplish the most elevated scholastic levels. Youngsters who are instructed at home beginning with rudimentary self-teaching frequently accomplish three or four review levels higher than kids who are most certainly not. It bodes well to begin self-teaching at a basic level. It is very important to test your child in order to find out their current grade level before beginning to home school. Your child will take a series of tests that will show his strengths and weaknesses in order for you to pick the correct curriculum for your child’s grade level. There is a wide range of curriculums available for elementary home schooling. Each curriculum has specific details that can aid in teaching what your child needs. For the elementary levels, there is a diverse range of course work available. Due to each state’s different regulations, it is important you choose one that conforms to those standards. Keeping the state standards in mind, it is also important to choose a program that is the best fit for your child’s individual needs. Many home schooled families consider it vital to study particular subjects, such as Christian home schooling or languages, for example. Spend some time selecting the elementary home schooling program that is right for you. This will enable you to better understand it. Making sure that you know what the program includes is quite important, as is knowing which methods are used to teach it. Starting with elementary home schooling seems deliver the most benefit for home schooled children. It is very rewarding for both parent and child to stay at home working together to accomplish an education designed for their unique needs and interests. Both can discover all the value that home schooling has to offer. With regards to examining in high school, you ought to contemplate what subjects to concentrate on and how you consider. This will ensure that you will end up being a major accomplishment amid high school. On the off chance that you recognize what you need to take at college, school or exchange school, you ought to take comparative subjects amid high school if conceivable. For instance, on the off chance that you need to take sciences or dialects at college, then take sciences or dialects in high school. Bodes well? Nonetheless, it is additionally valuable to top off whatever is left of your classes with an assortment of subjects keeping in mind the end goal to get a more extensive field of information. There might be some mandatory subjects like algebra math that you will consider to be of no use in life. You might be sitting in the classroom wondering why the heck you’re learning this stuff anyway. I know I did! Then I realized years later that the purpose of taking these useless (but difficult) subjects was not to be able to use them in the real world. Their purpose was to teach you to think at higher levels. These subjects challenge your brains and help sharpen your minds. Think of these as mental exercise. A sharp mind will help you in a future career, plan for your investments or anything else that will require some brainpower. As far as how to study, it’s great listening to music blasting away in your room but if your head isn’t absorbing the stuff you’re suppose to be studying and your grades are poor, then you need a change in study environment. This means turning off the tunes until your study session is done. Close the door and even consider not taking any telephone calls during your study session. Can’t concentrate at home or friends are always interrupting? Then hit the library. Put in the time to study like it’s part of your duty. Some teachers might hassle you if your grades stink or if your assignments are late. At university, nobody is going to be on your case to study. This might sound good but if your study habits are lousy at university or college, you might end up failing out and many professors there won’t really care. It really pays to develop good study habits while you are still in high school because believe me, you will need them later during university or college. I realized during my senior high school years that a main reason for even showing up for classes was to make sure that I get accepted into a school of higher education, whether it’s university or college. Since you usually need to get decent marks to get into one, especially the top places, grades are important. Even if you would rather get a job or start a family full time right after high school graduation, it is still helpful to maximize your grades. This is because you may change your mind a few years down the road. Many decide to return to school when they realize they could get a higher paying job with higher education. Of course, you may never ever want to go for higher education but at least if you had decent grades during high school, you will have that option open to you in the future. Better to be safe than sorry because you never know. Numerous families have acknowledged the idea of Home schooling as a favored approach to show kids as opposed to send them to government funded schools. It is helpful to those guardians who attempt to educate their wards at home, since it develops a bond among the families. As a rule it is the mother instructs the children. It is one of the best encounters to effectively assume the part of a mother, and also an educator. . The first and most important thing is to be backed with a strong reason and then make a firm decision to home school. The reasons can be many like safety of the child, personal attention while learning, special needs of the child to be looked into, or even religious or other solid reasons. Why you undertake home schooling should be crystal clear and you have to believe in your decision. . It is very important to update yourself with home schooling programs. This helps to execute the programs and guide your children the right way. You must also ensure that you find out the rules of your state and consult the local school authority to learn about the home schooling programs and get fresh updates about the home schooling rights and needs. There may be some state laws that require a specific curriculum and specific subjects to be covered. . Mothers have to be patient and flexible as teachers. You want to give your children good quality education and expect them to excel, in whatever they do. Patience and perseverance is important when you are teaching. . There can be other home schooling moms in your state or within your locality itself. You will find local groups of home schooling parents or communities, which could be a good opportunity to meet other parents. Home schooling moms can get together and share ideas openly and freely. This helps to understand various approaches or methods of teaching, which can be effective. You can have greater effect with new techniques and ideas for teaching. Moreover, it allows home schooling children to meet other kids too. . Being organized and having a fixed schedule and place for studies is very important. If you have a specific area or place to study, which is well designed will keep your children interested and attentive and it helps a lot. It should preferably be a secluded place and away from distractions like the TV for the child to do the routine work. Having a fixed schedule also helps and ensures that the child develops value for time. This is necessary to make your teaching time productive. . There are generally programs, which have various evaluation time slots. It normally includes oral tests, project work and tests that can help evaluate your child regularly and keep them updated. . Avoid TV and video or computer games on school days. Try and find as many interesting books as possible from libraries and stores and your children will surely start loving them. If possible avoid doing any chores during study time or finish home chores before you start teaching. . Do not be pressurized with others for what they have to say. You know what is best for your child and continue to do it. Make learning interesting by practical teachings. You can visit places to learn about them, or you can have outings like visits to museums, exhibitions etc which can be fun as well as to learn. So you need to settle the right sort of elementary school for your kid? At that point the uplifting news is that you have now process river elementary school as your alternative which in certainty remains as the best choice to pick. The best choice of getting educated is to make a wide research about the few potential schools around your area and consequently take your astute choice with respect to the same. Attempt to get a note pad where you would accumulate all the data with respect to your perception so you would not overlook the littlest things about which you have taken data of. The different facilities How the exterior and the interior of the school building looking? Is it well maintained, dilapidated, large, inviting or small? Take a look on the classrooms, the restrooms, the cafeteria and also the administrative rooms and offices. Although a building which is well equipped from all aspects does not mean that it needs to be a perfect place for your kids. In fact the above mentioned spaces need to be well looked out for as these are the places which are actually going to leave some good impact on your child. If all the rooms in the school have been well-maintained, then the number of students will likely be taking admission. Being the parent you are also needed to check about the decorations of each room and how those are being equipped. Do you feel to spend a few hours in that room or just failing to come back home as soon as possible. And if the latter happens then quite likely your child would not want to spend their time inside the mill creek elementary Hamilton mill. Playground When they are at the playground either with their friends or teachers, they gets too many vital lessons out there. They are taught the various ways of making them engaged about the ways of getting involved in social relationships, they are being taught about the ways of swing, climb on some elevated structure of how to play bat and ball. This in fact is the place where they get forged for some lifelong friendships. Does the place offer enough space to run around, play, and laugh their heart out or developing their gross skills? Does those equipments which they are using to play are safe to be at their leg or hand? Does all the students getting monitored by some teachers or monitors? Cafeteria What the menu list consists of for their healthy dietary? The food which will be served in the elementary school will be giving you an option about how they will be taking care of your kids. Are they taking proper nutrition cooked by the school staffs or they are running out of the right diet chart. Numerous individuals incline toward self-teaching their children because of the weaknesses of state funded school. In any case, self-teaching accompanies its own particular arrangement of difficulties and issues to be fathomed. This article contains the data you have to know in case you’re going to self-teach your kids. Recognize what your state requires of self-teaching programs. There are changed tenets and directions in various territories, and you need to tail them to make a fruitful school. Contingent upon where you live, you may need to make your own particular educational modules instead of tailing one gave by your state. You ought to endeavor to take after the school area’s date-book while arranging your self-teaching lessons for the year. Set up excursions with other adjacent self-teaching families. You can have a great deal of fun while giving your children some social collaboration with their companions. Additionally, you can show signs of improvement gathering rates through this procedure, diminishing your costs. Where will you instruct your children? Keep the territory in a place with minimal measure of diversions conceivable. You may require space for acting or moving alongside regions for composing and testing. This ought to be a place that is effortlessly seen too. Craftsmanship ought to be utilized as a part of learning history, English and even math. Kids love to shading and paint pictures. Permit your youngster’s creative ability to be the guide in communicating considerations about the lesson in melody, move, verse, form, pasta workmanship and then some! Submersion in a lesson is the way to retaining the substance, so the more dynamic you get them while showing them, the better the outcomes at last. Understand that self-teaching is not all good times. You will events when you must be the drill sergeant and get strict about completing the work. Streak cards is not generally fun, and an exhausting book is not pleasant. A savvy remunerate framework will energize the kids with positive criticism and a tiny bit of fun in the wake of finishing a hard undertaking. Lay out your rationale for needing to self-teach on paper. Seeing thoughts on paper is an incredible approach to execute them. By working out a mindful and compact passage about your objectives, you will have an impeccable answer when you are addressed concerning why you decided to self-teach. This will settle on a ultimate choice much less demanding for you to reach. Homeschooling is truly an escalating development about the nation and the whole world, amid which mothers and fathers instruct their little ones in the home instead of transmitting the law breakers to a traditional open or even individual school. People pick homeschooling for a wide range of causes, for example, dissatisfaction utilizing the instructional accessible alternatives, different non common ethics or even instructional methods of insight, and also the way that little ones aren’t becoming inside ordinary school structure. The homeschooling movement commenced rising within the 1970s, whenever some popular authors as well as experts, for instance David Holt as well as Dorothy as well as Raymond Moore, started talking about instructional change, that they encouraged homeschooling as a substitute instructional alternative. Using the Nationwide Home Schooling Analysis Start, these days there are over two thousand little ones becoming homeschooled within U.S., using the percent rapidly growing by 7 % to 15 % every year. Homeschooling is actually appropriate in all of the 50 says as well as in most unusual countries. Do you know the prerequisites? Legitimate prerequisites for homeschooling within U.S., changes from place to place. A number of says possess handful of or even simply no prerequisites; other folks obtain account testimonials or even standardized tests on selected time intervals. As outlined by Holt, creator on the best-selling book Train your own personal, it is important moms and dads ought for homeschooling their little ones is actually “to just like them, appreciate their organization, their actual occurrence, their energy, foolishness, as well as love. They must appreciate all their speak as well as concerns, and enjoy equally trying to answer individuals concerns. Inches For the majority associated with moms and dads whom home school, the only real requirement is the wish for this, and also devotion for the instructional method. Home school materials is usually high-priced, affordable or even free. Take care to never invest a lot you can’t modify training course when you remember to prepare money. You can understand as well as producing modifications. Make the most of most of these chances to be lent materials as well as to find some good free provides straight up to your residence school. Considers have demonstrated that the most critical time of a kid’s life is their initial five years. Youngsters are equipped for gaining from an early age, so it is perfect to open them to a supporting and instructive environment amid those years. By giving a situation that is sensational, protected and fortifying, you can guarantee that your tyke gets off to an extraordinary begin. While grown-ups normally consider play-time as a type of stimulation, it can really instruct your kid an awesome arrangement about themselves and their general surroundings. Trust it or not, playing look a-boo is really advantageous for your kid. The prior a kid builds up these aptitudes, the more critical the long haul effect will be. Self-regard, certainty, coordination, critical thinking abilities, and social aptitudes, are however a couple of cases of the advantages that can be increased through play. Additionally Read: Learning through Play Self regard can be upgraded by reacting warmly to your kid’s activities. Whether they coo, murmur, burp, cry or grin, giving your tyke a positive response and giving heaps of energy will have inconceivable advantages. Physical coordination can be produced by changing your tyke’s position, and permitting him/her the chance to move about. Empower development and portability at an early age by setting toys and questions a short separation far from your youngster. Giving your tyke diverse toys with various shapes, surfaces and hues will support association and create physical coordination. There are numerous toys available particularly intended to fortify innovative thought and activity. Playing find the stowaway can help your kid create critical thinking aptitudes. By setting a toy in the face of your good faith and urging your infant to discover it, you will give your tyke an early gratefulness for circumstances and end results. Likewise by giving an infant a shake, the infant will understand they can make commotion independent from anyone else on the off chance that they shake it. A comprehension of circumstances and end results will put your tyke on the right way to a lifetime of learning. As your tyke becomes more seasoned, consider giving your tyke some family obligations or tasks. A tyke as youthful as two can begin the importance of obligation. Utilize “exceptional” much of the time and give them age-proper assignments, for example, giving out napkins during supper. Make certain to energize your tyke through positive assertion of his/her activities. The accompanying are other general tips to improve the formative phases of your young tyke’s life, a couple of more exercises for early little child years to set the phase for life to come: * Go to the library with your kid to choose a book, and afterward read it together. * Encourage your kid to investigate expressions and specialties to build up her innovative side. * The web is an incredible instructive apparatus for kids. There are some extraordinary destinations out there! * Watch TV with your kid and discuss what she sees on screen. * Buy them instructive toys, yet not in mass. Present one toy at once, else they will be overpowered. For almost 100 years, the Harvard Graduate School of Education has arranged keen and enthusiastic people to end up transformative pioneers in training. Established in 1920, the Harvard Graduate School of Education is an uncommon and synergistic group of personnel, understudies, and graduated class committed to enhancing lives and extending openings through the complete study and viable routine of training. Through graduate degree, doctoral degree, and expert training programs, HGSE develops creative pioneers and business visionaries, investigates the most critical inquiries in instruction, and shares energizing thoughts and best practices with the world. All that we do at HGSE is grounded in the conviction that training is the most problem that is begging to be addressed of our time, and that exploration based instruction approach and practice have the ability to make an all the more just and prosperous society. HGSE staff, understudies, and graduated class deliver noteworthy research in fields as different as the ethical improvement of youngsters, global training arrangement, hierarchical authority, neuroscience and intellectual advancement, and the part of human expressions in schools. Our master’s, doctoral, and proficient training programs mirror the uncommon differing qualities and profundity of staff research and understudy involvement with HGSE. Browse graduate degrees and expert advancement programs investigating each aspect of training, from pre-K through school, in school and after school, and over the human life expectancy. You will be instructed by famous specialists and encompassed by partners who are energetic about training and planning to end up transformative pioneers. Harvard University is situated in Cambridge, Massachusetts, an energetic school town of cafés and book shops over the Charles River from noteworthy and element Boston. Boston is the origin of American state funded instruction, and home to several imaginative schools, not-for-profit associations, and training business people. Boston and Cambridge give the perfect scholarly and expert setting for the propelled investigation of training. Harvard Graduate School of Education understudies have the advantage of being at one of the world’s incredible scholarly organizations, Harvard University. The college environment furnishes Ed School understudies with chances to enlist in classes at different schools, to think about with world-class researchers, to investigate the biggest college library framework on the planet, and to meet and gain from an uncommonly assorted understudy populace. The HGSE workforce is an independently amazing gathering of researchers, specialists, experts, and policymakers effectively attempting to enhance the condition of instruction around the world. As a HGSE understudy, you will work with a staff that incorporates MacArthur Prize Fellows and Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers beneficiaries making unprecedented commitments to fields like early adolescence improvement, classroom innovation reconciliation, and school authority. Envision taking a course on state training strategy instructed by the previous secretary of instruction for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts; investigating approach mediations in creating countries with a World Bank market analyst; taking in various insights hypothesis or general plan from the general population who developed them; or examining school reasonableness with a presidentially designated individual from the National Board of Education Sciences. On the off chance that you need to make an enduring and positive effect in the lives of learners, you will discover able and empathetic coaches in the staff of HGSE. In composing her late book, The Test, NPR’s lead training blogger Anya Kamenetz needed to follow high-stakes testing back to its underlying foundations in the trust of understanding where these tests originate from, how they are made, and how they are truly influencing. You will probably plan to compose a few request out ahead of time. Make the request very simple – it’s not the substance we’re discovering, yet how you can impart request furthermore replies. You could contrast the issue of the worries in view of the age furthermore capacity level of your understudies. On the off chance that you are demonstrating a differing gathering of learners, you could even plan to target specific understudies with specific inquiries, e.g., offer the propelled understudies the harder concerns. You could make it significantly more agreeable manuallying out signals or chimes – the underlying individual to “ring in” achieves address the question. Simply ensure that everybody acquires a turn. Pretend Build up particular situations in your class, situations that your understudies will probably confront. Have one understudy arrange a pizza from an extra understudy. Have a student ask for bearings. On the other hand have one understudy welcome an extra understudy to a gathering. A few students will positively require your guide to acquire with the scene. Different understudies will surely be able to survive a scene without support. For cutting edge learners, there is enormous esteem in being the optional part player, e.g., the individual getting the pizza arrange or the gathering welcome. Turn on the Subtitles! Discover a TV program that is suitable for your course’ age and learning level. (Amusingness is a furthermore.) See the program with close inscribing. The students will absolutely hear the words, see the general population talking, and see the substance all in the meantime! Play Word Organization Have the understudies sit around. Start the amusement with a clear word and ask the person to your depended to express the underlying (English) word that enters your brain. After that, the person to his or her left should express the principal word that includes his/her brain. Make sure to stop infrequently to question and characterize any kind of enchanted words. A variation of this computer game is to have every understudy say a word that begins with the last letter of the past word, e.g., word, jackass, warble, nut case. Play Word Lottery amusement Before class, print out many direct things and verbs. Cut them directly into little slides of paper and set them into a cap or pack. Welcome every understudy to pull in two words from the cap (you could utilize a great deal more for cutting edge understudies). Give them each a moment ahead up with a sentence that uses those match of words, and in addition bodes well. After that welcome each of them to impart their sentence to the class. Amass the words and also go by and by. It’s okay to rehash words, as the rehashing A top need for early adolescence instructors is to instruct youngsters to peruse. Utilizing formatively suitable practices (DAP) while consolidating foundational ideas into lessons help educators separate guideline, connect with understudies in the learning procedure, and increment accomplishment of all youngsters. While understudies are dealt with as remarkable people, all practices ought to be suitable to the tyke’s age and formative stage and expand on already educated ideas. The motivation behind this article is to investigate educators’ encounters as they execute DAP into their proficiency direction. It additionally looks at deterrents they confront as they execute their practices. Early years instruction has turned out to be extremely famous in the most recent quite a long while and is by and large exceptionally recognized and perceived by instructive organizations. A lot of cash has been put into early instruction of late on account of the positive influences the projects are having on understudies’ future achievement in school . In early youth classrooms, the attention ought to be on DAP that fuses the physical, social, enthusiastic, and social advancement of the entire tyke with assorted populaces in connection to proficiency direction . Proficiency is the center and establishment level of instructing. This permits kids to expand on fundamental abilities which begin in early learning classrooms. Instructors should viably arrange proficiency guideline, ponder formative phases of kids, the premiums of those kids, and permit them to participate in the learning and critical thinking process. Early youth experts that utilize a proficiency drawing in air where DAP is utilized demonstrate to have flourishing and effective understudies . At the point when DAP is utilized in classroom situations, lessons are more fruitful, exceptionally powerful, and all understudies advantage all through every learning space in connection to education guideline . Executing formatively proper practices into classroom education guideline implies meeting the understudies at the formative stage they are right now and empowering them to achieve objectives that are set for them. DAP diminishes learning crevices, builds accomplishment for all youngsters, and permits understudies to share and take part in the learning procedure while they take care of their own issues as they learn new data . Formatively suitable practices are demonstrated in research to help youngsters succeed. An instructor that executes DAP into his educating utilizes a bustling classroom where understudies are self-connected with, collaborating physically with articles and individuals, rationally handling, and developing information that expands on past learning . A DAP classroom has coordinate hands-on cooperation, is loaded with materials, exercises, and associations that prompt various types of information that youthful youngsters ought to secure amid the early years (Beaty 2009). As instructors we pick instructing methodologies that best fit our understudies by utilizing our insight into youngsters, tyke advancement, and learners and how they realize, how to arrange educational modules, understanding what the objectives are, and learning styles. Social insight is the capacity to viably arrange interpersonal collaborations and complex social situations. It includes powerful relational abilities, the capacity to peruse non-verbal signs into Read More »

The wind power harvested by a wind turbine increases with wind speed and rotor diameter. A greater rotor diameter requires a greater nacelle height which entails the further advantage that wind speed typically increases with height above ground. Thus, with the desire for always greater rated wind turbine powers, there is a trend to higher wind turbine towers. As wind speeds and rotor diameters increase, so do the lateral loads on the tower. For this reason the average diameters of wind turbine towers have been increasing throughout the years. Usually, wind turbine towers are fabricated from steel or concrete. The towers are produced in cylindrically or frustoconical sections which then are brought to the site where the wind turbine is to be erected. The dimensions of such sections of tall wind turbine towers are approaching limits set by the infrastructure of various countries. Such limiting aspects may include headroom under bridges, tunnel heights, maximum allowable weight or the radii of roundabouts. The increasing number of wind power installations is also causing difficulties because the equipment needed for the transportation of the tower sections is not available in the required quantities. Thus, installation of new wind turbines may be delayed due to logistic problems. For this reason WO 01/07731 proposes constructing the wind turbine tower at the installation site of the wind turbine by using a slipforming technique.

Q: Why do doors turn? I really think that I might be overthinking it but I was thinking about a door. When you try and open it with a force, it will produce a translational AND a rotational effect on the door. Any good door you have probably doesn't translate so that means the hinges must be applying a force to oppose this translational motion (Newton's 3rd Law). But if the hinges are applying a force, and not at the center, shouldn't it produce a torque too? Shockingly, as the force must be equal, that means the rotational torque must be equal too right? So how can doors turn if they have equal but opposite torques applied to them? Is this similar to how objects can fall despite having no net force (air resistance balancing out gravity) A: Torque depends on the force and the distance between the hinge and the point where the force is applied. When you pull on the door at the handle, you apply a force and there is a nonzero distance between handle and hinges, so you get torque and as a consequence rotation around the hinges. The hinges apply their force at the rotational center, so they can't produce any torque. There are no "equal but opposite torques" because there is only one. Torques change rotations just as forces change translations. Ongoing rotations or translations don't require acting torques or forces.