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A congressional investigation has found levels of arsenic, lead and other toxic metals in many popular baby foods, including organic brands.
In a report released Thursday, a U.S. House Subcommittee said it requested internal data from seven companies, including Walmart and Gerber, in 2019.
The data showed levels of arsenic, lead, cadmium and mercury, even though the U.S. Food and Drug Administration considers those harmful to human health. The metals can remain in the environment for decades from past pesticide and herbicide use.
Baby food makers and the FDA say the metals are in many foods, and they are making progress in removing them.
The FDA released a statement to the Associated Press:
“We acknowledge that there is more work to be done, but the FDA reiterates its strong commitment to continue to reduce consumer exposure to toxic elements and other contaminants,” the FDA said.
The report follows a previous study by Healthy Babies, Healthy Futures, which found that 95% of commercially produced baby food contains toxic metals.
"These four harmful metals are found in all food – not just baby food. They occur naturally or from pollution in the environment. Crops absorb them from soil and water, and they are even found in organic food. Their presence in baby food raises unique concern, because babies are more sensitive to the toxic impacts," the group said. | <urn:uuid:01f35e94-13f7-441a-be4a-8b92768f0083> | {
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This Common Core resource includes 34 rigorous unit learning tasks for Avi’s, "Nothing But The Truth." The teacher-created learning tasks include standard(s) alignment using the language of Common Core State Standards. The unit activities represent a balance of analysis and evaluation activities focusing on a variety of literary elements, constructed responses, and extended informational/explanatory and argumentative writing. This resource also includes some embedded external documents, charts and informational texts that have thematic parallels with "Nothing But The Truth." The learning tasks will delve deeper into the complex character development, figurative and connotative meanings, and themes that have made it a literary classic.
Critical reading of literary texts is a critical component of the Common Core State Standards, and analyzing texts is a key skill that students will need for college and the jobs of the future. The critical foci of the learning tasks include:
1. Figurative and connotative meanings
2. Citing strong and thorough textual evidence (inferencing)
3. Analyzing themes and their development over the course of the text.
4. Analyzing complex character development
5. Responding to literature using constructed responses and extended writing.
6. Collegial discussions and presenting information.
7. Analyzing how the author intentionally structures the text to develop a unique point of view
8. Comparing a theme between the text and an artistic medium
Avi's "Nothing But The Truth" - 34 Rigorous Common Core Learning Tasks!!
by Dr. Joel Boyce
is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License | <urn:uuid:98122266-2307-462c-803c-5daa98ce849a> | {
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Global food prices rose sharply in December, following an increasing trend that brings them close to levels that led to shortages and riots three years ago in developing countries.
February marked an eleven-month trend of new monthly highs for food prices. Prices for grain alone have increased dramatically with wheat elevating over 55 percent and corn nearly 90 percent in the past year. This trend may continue over subsequent months causing increased stress within developing countries. In recent months, rising food costs contributed to riots across North Africa and the Middle East that toppled leaders in Egypt andTunisia.
Some economists are claiming that many factors, like substantial stockpiles of grains, might prevent a serious problem, but prices are expected to remain high this year as bad weather has affected some commodity crops in exporting countries, causing prices to surge and triggering a domino effect. In one case, Russia banned grain exports after its worst drought in a half-century, causing importers in North America and the Middle East to cling to supplies. More recently, heavy rains in Australia and harsh, dry conditions in Argentina and the United States are expected to hurt the winter wheat crop.
Only rice, a primary food for more than half the world’s population, remained stable, a gift of hope to those dependent on this staple during a precarious global food situation. This hope was jeopardized when an earthquake, a tsunami, and a nuclear disaster befell the northeastern region of Japan, where most of its rice agriculture occurs. Now the stability of rice prices seems less certain.
Following the nuclear disaster, Japan’s exports have all but halted as reports of radioactive produce and goods have accumulated. Russia, Australia, Singapore, Canada and others have banned food imports from at least the four prefectures nearest the nuclear plant. A report from Hong Kong’s Vegetable Marketing Program shows that wholesale prices of Chinese produce have risen 20 percent as panic has forced Japanese consumers to buy outside the country. Tests on Japan’s water have found unsafe levels of radiation, forcing the government to distribute bottled water to its citizens. With Japan’s exports halted and its own citizens relying heavily on food imported from China and elsewhere, its agricultural economy, particularly in the northern rice-growing regions, will undoubtedly suffer while the global community can only wait to learn what this will mean for the global food situation.
United States food price inflation has remained relatively low and price increases are only predicted at 2 to 3 percent this year. But in poorer countries relying on imports, the prices swing in a broader arc. Large, unexpected swings in food prices endanger the nutrition of poor households in developing countries, who spend as much as 70 percent of their incomes on food. The crisis situation of 2007 and 2008, which included high petroleum prices, increasing global demand for food, and poor harvests, pushed food prices in poorer importing countries and ultimately led to shortages and deadly riots. But with December 2010’s index reaching higher than the previous peak in June 2008, the current situation is not so different.
“The concern is that the long duration of the high prices for the months to come may eventually result in these high prices reaching the domestic markets of these poorer countries,” said Abdolreza Abbassian, an economist for the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. “In the event of that, there is the chance of the repeat of the events of 2007 and 2008.”
Still, a repeat can be prevented. Africa, for instance, produced good harvests from crops planted last year, reducing their reliance on imports. Their grain prices remain well below the highs they hit in 2007 and 2008, and export prices for rice (not accounting for Japan’s tragedy) have stayed 40 to 50 percent below those highs. This factor is significant because, according to Mr. Abbassian, grain prices have a much greater impact on the food budgets of people in poor countries than prices for commodities like sugar or meat. In addition, global supplies of wheat and rice are much larger today than during the past crisis. While it’s unclear how profound the effect of Japan’s crisis will be on the world food issue, it leaves us wondering how sustainable our food system is when tested by our planet. | <urn:uuid:204ce1d6-3762-40f1-ba6f-14206a0c72eb> | {
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By Ted Auch, Great Lakes Program Coordinator, FracTracker Alliance
While solar and wind energy gets much of the attention in renewable energy debates, various states are also leaning more and more on burning biomass and waste to reach renewable energy targets and mandates. As is the case with all sources of energy, these so-called “renewable energy” projects present a unique set of environmental and socioeconomic justice issues, as well as environmental costs and benefits. In an effort to document the geography of these active and proposed future projects, this article offers some analysis and a new map of waste and woody biomass-to-energy infrastructure across the U.S. with the maximum capacities of each facility.
To illustrate the problems of woody biomass-to-energy projects, one only needs to look at Michigan. Michigan’s growing practice of generating energy from the wood biomass relies on ten facilities that currently produce roughly 209 Megawatts (an average of 21 MW per facility) from 1.86 million tons of wood biomass (an average of 309,167 tons per facility). Based on our initial analysis this is equivalent to 71% of the wood and paper waste produced in Michigan.
Making matters worse, these ten facilities rely disproportionately on clearcutting 60-120 years old late successional northern Michigan hardwood and red pine forests. These parcels are often replanted with red pine and grown in highly managed, homogeneous 20-30 year rotations. Reliance on this type of feedstock stands in sharp contrast to many biomass-to-energy facilities nationally, which tend to utilize woody waste from urban centers. Although, to provide context to their needs, the area of forest required to service Michigan’s 1.86 million-ton demand is roughly 920 mi2. This is 1.65 times the area of Chicago, Milwaukee, Detroit, Cleveland, Buffalo, and Toronto combined.
Panorama of the Sunset Trail Road 30 Acre Biomass Clearcut, Kalkaska Conty, Michigan
Based on an analysis of 128 U.S. facilities, the typical woody biomass energy facility produces 0.01-0.58 kW, or an average of 0.13 kW per ton of woody biomass. A few examples of facilities in Michigan include Grayling Generating Station, Grayling County (36.2 MW Capacity and 400,000 TPY), Viking Energy of McBain, Missaukee County (17 MW Capacity and 225,000 TPY), and Cadillac Renewable Energy, Wexford County (34 MW Capacity and 400,000 TPY).
The relationship between wood processed and energy generated across all U.S. landfill waste-to-energy operations is represented in the figure below (note: data was log transformed to generate this relationship).
Dr. Jim Stewart at the University of the West in Rosemead, California, recently summarized the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) costs of waste landfill energy projects and a recent collaboration between the Sierra Club and International Brotherhood of Teamsters explored the dangers of privatizing waste-to-energy given that two companies, Waste Management and Republic Services/Allied Waste, are now a duopoly controlling all remaining U.S. landfill capacity (an additional Landfill Gas Fact Sheet from Energy Justice can be found here).
Their combined analysis tells us that, by harnessing and combusting landfill methane, the current inventory of ninety-three U.S. waste-to-energy facilities generate 5.3 MW of electricity per facility. Expanded exploitation of existing landfills could bring an additional 500 MW online and alleviate 21.12 million metric tons of CO2 pollution (based on reduction in fugitive methane, a potent greenhouse gas). Looking at this capacity from a different angle, approximately 0.027 MW of electricity is generated per ton of waste processed, or 1.64 MW per acre. If we assume the average American produces 4.4 pounds of waste per day, we have the potential to produce roughly 6.9 million MW of energy from our annual waste outputs, or the equivalent energy demand created by 10.28 million Americans.
The relationship between waste processed per day and energy generated across all U.S. landfill waste-to-energy operations is represented in the figure below.
Waste burning and woody biomass-to-energy “renewable energy”projects come with their own sets of problems and benefits. FracTracker saw this firsthand when visiting Kalkaska County, Michigan, this past summer. There, the forestry industry has rebounded in response to several wood biomass-to-energy projects. While these projects may provide local economic opportunity, the industry has relied disproportionately on clearcutting, such as is seen in the below photograph of a 30-acre clearcut along Sunset Trail Road:
As states diversify their energy sources away from fossil fuels and seek to increase energy efficiency per unit of economic productivity, we will likely see more and more reliance on the above practices as “bridge fuel” energy sources. However, the term “renewable” needs parameterization in order to understand the true costs and benefits of the varying energy sources it presently encompasses. The sustainability of clearcutting practices in rural areas—and the analogous waste-to-energy projects in largely urban areas—deserves further scrutiny by forest health and other environmental experts. This will require additional mapping similar to what is offered in this article, as well as land-use analysis and the quantification of how these energy generation industries enhance or degrade ecosystem services. Of equal importance will be providing a better picture of whether or not these practices actually produce sustainable and well-paid jobs, as well as their water, waste, and land-use footprints relative to fossil fuels unconventional or otherwise. | <urn:uuid:722d21e3-d93a-4ffb-8c86-3424d374d9ae> | {
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Having just finished Iain Banks’ The Player of Games, I’m thinking about the ‘orbitals’ he describes in his series of novels about the Culture, a vast, star-crossing civilization that can build space habitats in the form of massive rings. Orbitals are smaller than the kind of ‘ringworld’ Larry Niven envisioned, but huge nonetheless, bracelets of super-strong materials housing billions who live on their inner surfaces as they orbit a parent star. The visual effects Banks pulls off in describing these habitats are spectacular. And now a new paper by Duncan Forgan (University of Edinburgh) and Martin Elvis (Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics) has me wondering about the kind of mining activities it would take to produce the raw materials for such constructs.
Forgan and Elvis are interested in what they describe as a multi-wavelength, multi-signal approach to SETI. We’re used to the idea of huge radio dishes listening for extraterrestrial signals, but SETI is evolving through the use of optical methods, and moving in another tangent into ways of searching for extraterrestrial artifacts on the grand scale, like Dyson spheres. Throw in our ongoing hunt for terrestrial-class exoplanets through missions like Kepler and you have a broadly based strategy open to the detection of another civilization. The authors’ new paper suggests adding one more place to look: In the debris disks around other stars, where we might find signs of asteroid mining for raw material.
Image: Iain Banks’ Consider Phlebas has appeared with a number of different covers, but this one gives you a sense of the scope of the ‘orbitals’ he writes about, vast technological ‘bracelets’ on which billions live. What would it take to produce the raw materials for an orbital? Would we be able to detect such work as it progressed?
Data Mining in a Debris Disk
Debris disks are what’s left over when the gaseous disks around young stars go through their normal evolution, leaving rocky and icy debris in various sizes, like the comets and asteroids found in our own Solar System. We’ve been learning a great deal about debris disks through spectroscopy and imaging ever since the first detection of such a disk around the star Vega, back in the 1980s. These days, we have finely tuned instruments like the Herschel Space Telescope and Spitzer that can provide a wealth of new data. How could we use that data to search for potential evidence of an extraterrestrial intelligence manipulating a debris disk?
It’s a fascinating notion (and thanks to Adam Crowl for calling my attention to this paper). The authors assume that the engineering limitations we have experienced in our own history will also hold for alien cultures. Like us, they will need large quantities of raw material to build the structures their civilization requires. And like us, if we are ever to build a spacefaring civilization, they will need to mine such materials as they move into nearby space, building space vehicles and large habitats as sections of the population move off-planet. Both biological and post-biological civilizations will, then, need the resources demanded by their own growth.
From our perspective, targeted asteroid mining (TAM) presents high initial costs but great potential for profits, lowering the costs of manufacturing future technologies. In fact, Forgan and Elvis argue that the expertise we would gain by creating the necessary infrastructure for asteroid mining could be brought to bear on other aspects of space exploration. Given its hazards, asteroid mining is likely to be turned over quickly to automated workers, putting an emphasis on developing advanced artificial intelligence as we evolve a post-biological culture.
From the paper:
ETIs which have similar economic concerns to ours will eventually find extraplanetary mining projects desirable as their own resources become depleted (provided of course they are sufficiently technologically advanced). We suggest the complexity of TAM missions are such that most species capable of it have the potential to become truly space-faring. If technological civilisations more advanced than ours exist in the Galaxy, a distinct possibility given the estimated median age of terrestrial planets being around 1 Gyr older than Earth (Lineweaver, 2001), and asteroid mining is a common activity which underpins their existence, then searching for signatures of TAM is an appropriate activity for SETI to undertake.
The Signature of Targeted Mining
All of which leads us to the kind of artificial observational signals we might hope to detect. The paper studies this question in relation to the Vega debris disk and finds three kinds of disequilibrium that might be created by asteroid mining at a large scale. The extraction of specific minerals and elements will create an imbalance in the disk, and the authors note the likelihood of iron and nickel mining, these being of practical use in large-scale space engineering projects, along with rarer elements such as platinum and palladium, useful in technological innovation. A sharp depletion in several of these species would be a potential marker.
So, too, would large-scale mining’s effects on the dynamics of a debris disk system, for we would expect these activities to result in the destruction of the larger asteroids in the system. Unusual temperature distributions are a third possible marker, created by the production of dust in the mining process. An anomalous dust source or an unusual temperature gradient in the disk would provide a potentially detectable signal. For that matter, variability in the disk as different locations are mined could also be detectable, although here we’re talking about future instrumentation, as what we have today probably isn’t sensitive enough to make such observations.
Potential for a Detection
Asteroid mining would be no easy catch. In fact, it’s best seen as part of a larger strategy, and may help us primarily in calling our attention to systems that demand further investigation. Having analyzed the signature from the various mining activities, the authors add:
The general trend is somewhat disappointing. For TAM to be detectable, it must be prolific and industrial-scale, producing a large amount of debris and disrupting the system significantly to be detected. However, instrumentation is continually improving, and sensitivity to such effects will only grow, reducing the constraints on detectability. What remains indefatigable with technological advance is the confusion of apparent TAM signals with natural phenomena. A detection of any one of these TAM signals can be explained with a simpler natural model, but detection of many (or all) of these signals in tandem will prove more difficult to model, and hence TAM more difficult to discount as a possibility.
So targeted asteroid mining appears unlikely to provide us with a conclusive detection of an extraterrestrial civilization, but tentative signals seen in unusual dust size distributions or deficits in chemical composition could be markers that tell us to look at a system more closely. Usefully, the markers of asteroid mining would, unlike biomarkers in an atmosphere, indicate not just life but an intelligent, technology-driven culture. For that reason, the authors argue that searching for asteroid mining signatures is a useful addition to the multi-wavelength, multi-signal SETI strategy that is now evolving as we extend our hunt far beyond conventional methods.
The paper is Forgan and Elvis, “Extrasolar Asteroid Mining as Forensic Evidence for Extraterrestrial Intelligence,” accepted for publication in the International Journal of Astrobiology (preprint). And if you’re not familiar with Iain Banks, do look into his novels about the Culture. His plots are ingenious, but I continue to marvel at his visual sense, and always take away images of places that are both astounding and inspiring. Oh to see technology used like this! | <urn:uuid:e2ebd8cc-3ada-4d51-9a4b-9e342620c7f5> | {
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Elevated concentrations of ground-level ozone are still a hazard for both crops and people. Photo: Flickr.com / Pierre Metivier CC BY-NC
Stronger air quality measures needed
Air pollution remains the single largest environmental health hazard in Europe, resulting in a lower quality of life due to illnesses and nearly half a million premature deaths per year.
Air quality in Europe is slowly improving, according to a new report by the European Environment Agency (EEA). Using data from official monitoring stations across Europe, and including more than 400 cities, the report presents an updated overview and analysis of air quality from 2000 to 2014.
The good news is that annual average levels of PM10 have fallen in three-quarters of the monitored locations during the period 2000–2014, and average PM2.5 concentrations have also decreased between 2006 and 2014.
Despite these improvements, almost all city dwellers continue to be exposed to pollutants at levels deemed unsafe by the World Health Organization (WHO). In 2014, around nine out of ten urban citizens in the EU were exposed to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and ozone levels above the WHO guideline values. See Table 1.
Table1. Percentage of the urban population in the EU28 exposed to air pollutant concentrations above EU and WHO reference levels (2012–2014).
Moreover, in the 41 countries considered, 467,000 premature deaths in 2013 were attributed to PM2.5 exposure and 71,000 and 17,000 premature deaths to nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and ozone (O3) exposure, respectively. In the EU28, the numbers of premature deaths attributed to PM2.5, NO2 and O3 exposure were 436,000, 68,000 and 16,000, respectively.
Table 2 shows the best estimate figures for total mortality due to exposure to PM2.5, NO2 and O3 per country, for all the European countries included in the analysis.
Table 2. Estimates of premature deaths attributable to exposure to PM2.5, O3 and NO2 in 40 European countries.
The report also shows country-by-country data on the estimated number of years of life lost (YLL) and the YLL per 100,000 inhabitants due to exposure to the different pollutants. In the EU28, the YLL attributed to PM2.5, NO2 and O3 exposure are 4,668,000, 723,000 and 179,000, respectively.
When considering YLL per 100,000 inhabitants due to PM2.5, the largest impacts are observed in the central and eastern European countries, which is also where the highest concentrations are observed, i.e. Kosovo, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Poland, Serbia, Hungary, Romania, Greece, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
The largest health impacts attributable to NO2 exposure and expressed as YLL per 100,000 inhabitants, are found in Italy, Belgium, the UK and Serbia. Regarding ozone, the countries with the highest rates of YLL per100,000 inhabitants are Greece, Italy, most of the countries in the western Balkans and Hungary.
It should be noted that the impacts estimated for each pollutant may not be added to determine the total impact attributable to exposure to the three pollutants. Because concentrations – especially those of PM2.5 and NO2 – are correlated, additions may result in double counting.
On top of the health impacts, air pollution continues to damage vegetation and ecosystems. Elevated concentrations of ground-level ozone damage agricultural crops, forests and plants by reducing photosynthesis. In 2013, the EU’s long-term objective for the protection of vegetation was exceeded in 81 per cent of the total EU agricultural area, and the critical level for the protection of forests was exceeded in 68 per cent of the total EU forest area.
Excess deposition of sulphur and nitrogen compounds (from emissions of SO2, NOx, and NH3) contribute to the acidification of soil, lakes and rivers, causing the loss of biodiversity. In 2010, seven per cent of the total EU ecosystem area and five per cent of the Natura 2000 area were exposed to acidifying depositions exceeding the limits of nature’s tolerance.
Emissions of NH3 and NOx also disrupt land and water ecosystems by introducing excessive amounts of nutrient nitrogen, causing eutrophication, an oversupply of nutrients, with resulting impacts on biodiversity. In 2010, nearly two-thirds of the total EU ecosystem area and three-quarters of the Natura 2000 area were exposed to nitrogen deposition exceeding the critical eutrophication limits.
Commenting on the report, EEA Executive Director Hans Bruyninckx said: “Emission reductions have led to improvements in air quality in Europe, but not enough to avoid unacceptable damage to human health and the environment. We need to tackle the root causes of air pollution, which calls for a fundamental and innovative transformation of our mobility, energy and food systems. This process of change requires action from us all, including public authorities, businesses, citizens and research community.”
Note: PM in ambient air originates both from primary particles emitted directly into the air and from secondary particles produced as a result of chemical reactions of PM precursor pollutants, namely sulphur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx), ammonia (NH3) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). New research shows that PM concentrations can be considerably reduced by additional cuts in agricultural NH3 emissions.
Air quality in Europe - 2016 report. EEA Report No 28/2016. Available at: http://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/air-quality-in-europe-2016
EU environmental indicators
More action is needed to protect the natural environment and people’s health. This is the main conclusion of the EEA’s new report on environmental indicators, which gives a snapshot of progress made so far in meeting a selected number of EU policy objectives that are relevant to achieving the three key priority objectives of the EU’s 7th Environment Action Programme: natural capital; resource-efficient, low-carbon economy, and people’s health and well-being.
The report and briefings: http://www.eea.europa.eu/airs | <urn:uuid:2049f603-1d9a-4b85-9f04-6e1f1583392b> | {
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According to the World Bank USD 93 billion a year is needed for Sub-Saharan Africa’s infrastructure - two-thirds for investment in new physical infrastructure and a third for operations and maintenance of existing assets. However, only USD 45 billion is being mobilised.
The funding gap is assumed to be significant for North Africa as well. To fill the gap for the whole continent, substantial scaling up of resources is required, as well as institutional and policy reforms to strengthen the framework for infrastructure development.
However, resources from African governments, their citizens, and donors are not enough to respond to these needs. Private investment can therefore make an important contribution but, for this to happen, a sound policy environment and financing instruments that facilitate investment must be in place. Official development finance can play a catalytic role in this regard by helping African governments to improve the enabling environment and by mitigating the risks to investors.
Released in May 2012, Mapping Support for Africa's Infrastructure Investment (pdf) [ en français ], describes:
- official development finance to Africa’s hard and soft infrastructure
- the role of official agencies in supporting infrastructure through financial tools such as export credits, blending mechanisms, guarantees and investment funds
- the contribution of non-OECD financiers such as China
- how donors implement the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness in their support for infrastructure
This report was prepared as part of the OECD’s Aid for Investment in Africa's Infrastructure project which aims to better understand how aid can leverage private investment in Africa’s infrastructure sectors. This project is a joint undertaking of the OECD's Investment and Development Assistance Committees, and implemented within the framework of the NEPAD-OECD Africa Investment Initiative.
Policy brief: Aid to Africa (pdf)
Policy brief: Infrastructure in Africa (pdf)
OECD work on private sector participation in the water and sanitation sector
NEPAD-OECD Africa Investment Initiative
OECD Development Co-operation Directorate
African Development Bank: www.afdb.org | <urn:uuid:f1ad258b-9e69-43c2-9b25-871b481a4ada> | {
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Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto: Natives must count in the 2020 Census
In 2010, the United States conducted its once-a-decade census, as required by the Constitution. That census missed nearly 5% of the Native American population of the country — one in twenty people in native communities simply did not count. We can’t let that happen again.
The Constitution says the census has to enumerate every person living in the United States, including children. This count serves many purposes. Most essentially, it determines the total number of representatives that each state will have in the U.S. House of Representatives. States also rely on census figures to determine the boundaries of voting districts for federal, state, and local elections.
Just as importantly, census data determines how the federal government distributes money from various federal programs. In 2015 alone, the federal government used 2010 Census data to direct $6 billion dollars to the state of Nevada. The government needs accurate figures to award Nevada its fair share of funds for healthcare, housing, nutrition assistance, education, child care, and much more. Studies suggest that every uncounted person could cost state, local, and tribal governments up to $3,000 in these lost funds.
But private groups also use census information. Businesses use it to locate new customers or improve services for old ones. And scientists rely on it to protect public health.
For these reasons, it’s vital that we accurately count Native Americans, who were by far the most underrepresented group in the last census. There are many reasons for the undercount of native and tribal populations. For some people, language barriers or literacy issues make it hard to fully answer census questions.
Another major problem is geography. Many tribal lands are in remote places, with poor or unpaved roads. Often, addresses don’t have the house number and street name format that suburban homes do — instead, they may be highway or route numbers paired with box numbers. Homelessness or frequently changing residence in the Native American community is also a factor.
And for urban Indian populations, apartment living can also present a problem — it’s easier to count people living in single-family homes than the multiple families living in apartment buildings, which is one of the reasons that affluent whites are actually overrepresented in census tallies.
Internet access and the digital divide are also a factor. Rural and tribal areas often lack high speed internet access, which means that one of the main methods the current census offers to reach individuals could be hard for Native Americans to use. (The 2020 Census, which begins in March of next year, will also use mailed forms, telephone, and in-person census-takers.)
Finally, the average age of Native American communities could play a part. The census traditionally undercounts children, possibly because families don’t always realize that children ought to be included. Communities with more children, therefore, are more likely to be undercounted.
That’s why, here in Nevada, we need to go the extra mile to make sure every single person in the state gets counted in the census. Governor Steve Sisolak has set aside $5 million dollars to fund Nevada’s Complete Count Committee, which is working with government and other groups to reach out to everyone in the Silver State and encourage them to be part of the 2020 Census. I know you’ll be hearing much more about these efforts in the coming months.
I also want to personally encourage everyone in Nevada to help us count the people in your household, your neighbors, and your friends. I’m going to do everything in my power to ensure that we follow the Constitution’s requirement, so that Nevadans get the voice in politics and the funds that our communities deserve.
U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) submitted this opinion column to First Nation’s Focus for publication. Go to cortezmasto.senate.gov to learn more and to contact the senator. | <urn:uuid:090988d6-77bd-49f5-b7b6-04135381383c> | {
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There has always been evidence that men, throughout life, are at higher risk of early death—from the beginning, a higher male incidence of Death by Mastodon Stomping, a higher incidence of Spiked Club to the Brainpan, a statistically significant disparity between how many men and how many women die of Accidentally Shooting Themselves in the Face or Getting Really Fat and Having a Heart Attack. The male of the species dies younger than the female—about five years on average. Divide a population into groups by birth year, and by the time each cohort reaches 85, there are two women left for every man alive. In fact, the male wins every age class: Baby boys die more often than baby girls; little boys die more often than little girls; teenage boys; young men; middle-aged men. Death champions across the board.
Now it seems that early death isn’t enough for us—we’re on track instead to void the species entirely. Last summer a group of researchers from Hebrew University and Mount Sinai medical school published a study showing that sperm counts in the U.S., Europe, Australia, and New Zealand have fallen by more than 50 percent over the past four decades. (They judged data from the rest of the world to be insufficient to draw conclusions from, but there are studies suggesting that the trend could be worldwide.) That is to say: We are producing half the sperm our grandfathers did. We are half as fertile.
Between the caging of immigrants and human beings losing the ability to reproduce, it’s clear that Children of Men has become a documentary. | <urn:uuid:927ab2b3-c98a-450a-bc22-4c1f4a8ee699> | {
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It is often said that hopanoids are the ‘most abundant natural products on Earth.’ Most commonly, hopanoids are found in select groups of Bacteria, all of which are aerobic. Although they are known to be synthesized by a wide variety of cultured aerobic bacteria, there does not to be any obligate requirement for oxygen in their biosynthesis and cyclization of squalene to a pentacyclic triterpanoid with a hopane skeleton. Therefore, hopanoid synthesis might also be possible in anaerobes. The characteristic base structure of a hopane (the degraded and saturated version of a hopanoid), shown above, has four cyclohexane rings and one cyclopentane ring, and might have a side chain emerging from C30. Prokaryotic cells utilize certain types of hopanoids in their cell walls (as opposed to eukaryotes, who use certain types of sterols).
During diagenesis and catagenesis, the biological stereospecificity of hopanoids, particularly at C-17 and C-21 is usually lost, and isomers are generated (see above for numbering). The term alpha beta hopane is commonly used as short-hand to denote hopanes with the 17 alpha(H), 21 beta(H) configuration, while alpha alpha hopane would denote 17 alpha(H), 21 alpha(H) stereochemistry. The notation 17 alpha(H) indicates that the hydrogen is located below the plane of the paper, whereas in 17 beta(H) it is above the plane. The prefix ‘nor’, as for example in 30-norhopane, indicates that the molecule is formally derived for the parent structure by loss of the indicated carbon atom, i.e. C-30 is removed from the hopane skeleton. Similarly, bisnor-, dinor- or trinor- hopane indicate that the molecule is derived from the parent structure by loss of two or three carbon atoms at the specified positions. For example, 25, 28, 30 trinorhopane indicates that carbons at those positions were lost from the parent molecule.
The presence of alkyl substituents on the hopanoid skeleton, like 2-methyl hopane (above) and 3-methyl hopane (below) appears to be limited to specific physiological groups. 2 beta -methylhopanoids are produced by many cyanobacteria and have few other demonstrated sources. Thus, the corresponding sedimentary 2 alpha -methylhopane hydrocarbons are hypothesized to be biomarkers for cyanobacteria. These biomarkers may help to establish the time of the beginning of oxygenic photosynthesis on the primitive earth.
Summons R.E., Jahnke L.L., Logan G.A. & Hope J.M. (1999) 2-Methylhopanoids as biomarkers for cyanobacterial oxygenic photosynthesis. Nature 398:554-57.
Methanotrophic and acetic acid bacteria biosynthesize a range of 3 beta-hopanoids. The corresponding 3 beta-methylhopane hydrocarbons could be derived from either group of bacteria, but a large 13C depletion observed in their sedimentary sources points to methanotrophic sources being more important. Methanotrophic bacteria may have been among the most primitive forms of life in the early earth.
Bisnorhopane and trisnorhopanes
Bisnorhopanes are missing 2 carbon atoms in the positions denoted. Shown here is a 28,30 bisnorhopane, also known as BNH.
Trisnorhopanes are missing 3 carbon atoms in the positions denoted. Shown here is a 25,28,30 trisnorhopane, also known as TNH.
High concentrations of BNH and TNH are typical of anoxic or euxinic depositional environments. There is strong correlation between the presence of BNH and a sulfidic water column. Their occurence indicates that some bacteria specific to these environments are the ultimate source, but are currently unidentified.
Ts and Tm are specific types of trisnorhopanes (specifically 18 alpha (H) 22,29,30 trisnorhopane and 17 alpha (H) 22,29,30 , respectively). Ts is more stable than Tm, and degrades less during diagenesis and catagenesis. Thus the ratio of Ts to Tm is an indicator of the maturity of a rock. | <urn:uuid:e3e96cd6-3cb3-4731-90be-05a663c31016> | {
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GRIZZLED GIANT SQUIRREL
Why in News?
- For the first time, researchers have sighted nests of the grizzled giant squirrel
Grizzled Giant Squirrel:
- Grizzled giant squirrel is a large tree squirrel found in the highlands of the Central and Uva provinces of Sri Lanka, and in patches of riparian forest along the Kaveri River and in the hill forests of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala states of southern India
- It is an endangered species listed under Schedule I of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972
- The grizzled giant squirrel is usually known to nest in the Western Ghats in Southern India ranging from Chinnar Wildlife sanctuary in Kerala to Anamalai Tiger Reserve and Palani hills in Tamil Nadu. Habitat loss coupled with hunting for its fur and bushmeat by the locals are said to be the major threats to this species,
- Owing to habitat loss and poaching, the species has been categorised as near threatened by the Red List and listed under Schedule II of CITES
Pakkamalai Reserve Forest:
- Pakkamalai Reserve Forest is a sacred mountain located about 45 kms from Gingee in Villupuram district. Several diverse and endangered species including the Golden Gecko, Bamboo Pit Viper and Mouse Deer have also been spotted in the Pakkamalai Reserve Forests.
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The oldest humanoid skeleton ever found has been taken out of Ethiopia for a controversial tour of American museums.
The public has only seen the real Lucy remains twice in Ethiopia
Archaeologists say the 3.2m-year-old remains - known as Lucy - are far too fragile to be moved around.
But Ethiopia said it would use cash raised from the six-year tour to fund museums back home and build new ones.
The discovery of Lucy in north-eastern Ethiopia in 1974 led scientists to rethink existing theories about early human evolution.
The fossilised partial skeleton of what was once a 3.5ft (1m) tall adult was the earliest known hominid, Australopithecus afarensis.
The real Lucy remains have only been exhibited publicly in Ethiopia twice.
A replica is on display at the Natural History Museum in the capital Addis Ababa.
Zelalem Assefa, an Ethiopian who works at the Smithsonian Institution, a prestigious US research institute, said in Addis Ababa he disapproved of the tour.
He told the Associated Press news agency: "These are original, irreplaceable materials. These are things you don't gamble with."
The BBC's Elizabeth Blunt in Addis Ababa said Ethiopian exiles in the US have mounted a vociferous campaign against the exhibition.
The skeleton will go on display first at the Houston Museum of Natural Science.
Ethiopian officials said New York, Denver and Chicago were among the other US tour stops. | <urn:uuid:21a5d3ba-08cd-4f5d-8b01-4897c2e584ea> | {
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Ultra-fast bomb detection unveiled
Researchers from the University of Surrey have developed a new ‘ultra-fast’ method to detect materials that could be used by terrorists to build explosives.
The new detection system is able to analyse a wider range of materials than current thermal-based detection systems used in airports, and other high-risk locations while reducing false positive reports.
Using swabbing material to collect samples of explosives, the new method is able to detect substances such as nitrotoluenes, trinitrotriazine, hexamethylene triperoxide diamine and nitroglycerine. Detection of peroxide-based explosives is key as high-profile terrorist attacks, such as the London bombings in 2007, used devices made from these materials.
The Surrey researchers say the swab spray technique is able to achieve “high sensitivity results” and has also been tested on ‘dirty’ surfaces such as new and used keyboards.
In a comprehensive two-part paper published by the journal Propellants, Explosives, Pyrotechnics and Forensic Science International: Synergy, the Surrey team – Dr Melanie Bailey, Dr Catia Costa and Dr Patrick Sears – details how it has built on its previous groundbreaking work on super-fast fingerprint drug testing to develop a technique that is able to detect ‘key’ explosives in just 30 seconds.
Dr Bailey said: “It’s the unfortunate reality that security, especially in our airports, has to stay several steps ahead of those that wish to cause harm and destruction. The current thermal-based way of detecting explosive material is becoming outdated and has the propensity of producing false positives. What we demonstrate with our research is an extremely fast, accurate and sensitive detection system that is able to identify a wide range of explosive materials.”
Dr Costa added that the need for fast screening methods with enhanced selectivity and sensitivity to explosives “has reached a new boiling point with the recent terrorist activity”.
“The use of paper spray for applications such as these may help reduce false-negative events while also allowing simultaneous detection of other substances such as drugs, as previously reported by our group,” she said.
Dr Patrick Sears said the critical advantage of the system was “the ability to uniquely identify the explosive being detected, making it much less likely to create false alarms”.
“The selectivity of this system means that it could also be used to identify a range of other threat materials while the sensitivity would allow the detection of invisible traces of explosives,” he added. | <urn:uuid:f81e2d64-df0e-423e-82dc-2db6ea65679b> | {
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E-Learning Advances Across the Country
Online education has experienced incredibly rapid growth in postsecondary and continuing education. For adults, online courses offer flexible scheduling and affordable tuition, as well as extraordinary new opportunities for distance learning. While kids have long been at the forefront of online entertainment, online education has been much slower to take hold in K-12. But that's changing.
In 2004, the Evergreen Education Group released the first Keeping Pace report. This series of annual reports explores policy and practice in K-12 online education across the country. They recently released Keeping Pace 2009, which shows continuous growth in online learning opportunities for elementary and secondary students.
There are many forms of 'e-learning.' Keeping Pace primarily defines online learning as education that takes place on the Internet with the teacher and student geographically separated. A blend of online coursework and face-to-face instruction is another popular option, as is the use of Internet-based resources in lieu of full courses, both of which are included in Keeping Pace where significant policies related to those practices are in place. Finally, the report distinguishes between full-time programs where students are enrolled only in virtual schools, and supplemental programs where students in traditional schools take additional courses online. This distinction allows policymakers to measure the effectiveness of online-only education.
Figure 3 from Keeping Pace with K-12 Online Learning: A Review of State-Level Policy and Practice, 2009, page 8.
As of fall 2009, 27 states had state virtual schools. These are schools that are created and primarily funded at the state level, rather than the district level. They offer centralized online programs for students across the state. Six more states have 'state-led online learning initiatives' that offer online educational resources without the full suite of services provided by a virtual school. Together, these programs had about 320,000 for-credit course enrollments in the 2008-2009 school year. However, many of these virtual schools are supplementary. There are currently 24 states plus Washington D.C. offering full-time 'cyberschools,' and several states have full-time online programs available to some, but not all, students in their state. All told, Keeping Pace reports that 45 out of 50 states have either a state virtual school, an online initiative, a full-time cyberschool, or some combination of the three.
Online programs run at the district level are still relatively rare, but growing rapidly. They tend to rely more on a blending of online and face-to-face instruction, but some district-run full-time programs exist as well. The report's authors note that the emergence of online programs at the district level may signal a sea change in public education. They point out that school districts are where education trends truly take hold because districts have the closest relationships with students and their families. The authors predict that while state-led programs will continue to grow, district-level programs will start to outpace them as online education becomes more widely accepted.
Online Education Offers a 21st Century Solution
The Alliance for Excellent Education (AEE) agrees that American public education is at a major turning point. However, they see e-learning as more than just a new resource - according to a brief published this month by Alliance members Bob Wise and Robert Rothman, online education offers a solution to the three main crises facing K-12 education in the U.S. They identify these problems as:
- Growth in the demand for global skills is outpacing educational attainment. Few people deny that the 21st century workplace demands higher education. There is a large - and growing - salary gap between workers with a high school diploma and those with a college degree, and recent studies have even shown that life satisfaction is higher among people with a postsecondary education. While the U.S. has managed to increase the number of American students attending college in recent years, our college-completion rate is still dismal. Only half of all 4-year college students earn their degrees within six years, and the graduation rate at community colleges is 38 percent. In order to improve college completion rates, high schools need to focus not just on graduating students, but on preparing them for the college experience.
- Local, state and federal revenues for education are declining. The federal government has put a lot of money toward K-12 education in both the FY2011 budget and through stimulus programs like Race to the Top. However, the federal funds can only go so far, and schools are facing a 'funding cliff.' Even as the economy recovers, states will be under pressure to fund so many essential programs - education, unemployment, Medicaid - that a recent report by the National Governor's Association (NGA) suggests that states won't fully recover from the current recession until the end of the decade. This means that in order to meet the increasing demands for quality education, schools will be forced to do more with less.
- A teacher shortage is looming. Teacher effectiveness may be the single most important factor in student success, but the quality of teachers across geographic and socioeconomic lines is wildly uneven. Furthermore, almost one-third of current teachers in the U.S. are eligible to retire in the next five to seven years. This will lead to a dramatic loss in both the total number of teachers and the amount of collective experience in the field at a time when the demands on teachers are only increasing.
The AEE proposes that online education is a crucial part of solving these problems. Although it often requires a significant investment up-front, online learning has proven to be much more cost-effective in the long term. When implemented effectively, e-learning can allow schools to actually improve their offerings while operating under a lower budget. However, in Keeping Pace 2009, the Evergreen Education Group cautions that states and school districts must make very careful choices when choosing online providers. As the programs proliferate so do the vendors that offer them, and while most will meet minimum state guidelines, not all will actually offer students a better alternative to traditional education. It's not enough that online education cost less - it must be equally or more effective.
However, good online programs may also offer elegant solutions to the other crises listed above. Because online education is not tied to geographical location, it allows for more collaboration. This means that it will be easier to implement common standards across the country, offering students everywhere a chance at greater college readiness. It also means that fewer teachers can reach more students. Theoretically, an online student could access a teacher somewhere in the world at any time, 24/7. Furthermore, the quality of a student's teachers would no longer be dictated by the student's location, and great teachers could more easily share their knowledge and best practices with others.
The AEE's brief encourages policymakers to seize this opportunity to use online education to implement real reform in K-12 education: 'As technology has revolutionized the way Americans get news, communicate, listen to music, shop, and do business, now is the time for American students in thousands of underperforming classrooms to realize the same gains.' | <urn:uuid:92ea77be-34af-4d4e-9db3-d5472d2368b8> | {
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Frederick III of Germany, Potsdam, Princess Victoria the Princess Royal, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, Throat Cancer, Wilhelm I of Prussia, Wilhelm II of Germany
Prince Friedrich-Wilhelm of Prussia was born in the New Palace at Potsdam in Prussia on October 18, 1831. He was a scion of the House of Hohenzollern, rulers of Prussia, then the most powerful of the German states. Friedrich’s father, Prince Wilhelm (future German Emperor and King of Prussia), was a younger brother of King Friedrich-Wilhelm IV and, having been raised in the military traditions of the Hohenzollerns, developed into a strict disciplinarian.
Prince Friedrich’s mother was Princess Augusta of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, the second daughter of Charles-Friedrich, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach and Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Russia, a daughter of Paul I of Russia and Sophie-Dorothea of Württemberg.
In 1851, his mother sent Friedrich to England, ostensibly to visit the Great Exhibition but in truth, she hoped that the cradle of liberalism and home of the industrial revolution would have a positive influence on her son. Prince Albert took Friedrich under his wing during his stay but it was Albert’s daughter, Victoria, Princess Royal, only eleven at the time, who guided the German prince around the Exhibition.
Friedrich only knew a few words of English, while Victoria could converse fluently in German. He was impressed by her mix of innocence, intellectual curiosity and simplicity, and their meeting proved to be a success. A regular exchange of letters between Victoria and Friedrich followed.
Friedrich proposed to Victoria in 1855, when she was 14 years old and he was 23. The betrothal of the young couple was announced on May 19, 1857, at Buckingham Palace and the Prussian Court, and their marriage took place on January 25, 1858 in the Chapel Royal of St. James’s Palace, London. Victoria too had received a liberal education and shared her husband’s views. Of the two, Victoria was the dominant one in the relationship.
The couple often resided at the Crown Prince’s Palace and had eight children: Wilhelm in 1859, Charlotte in 1860, Heinrich in 1862, Sigismund in 1864, Victoria in 1866, Waldemar in 1868, Sophia in 1870 and Margaret in 1872. Sigismund died at the age of 2 and Waldemar at age 11, and their eldest son, Wilhelm, suffered from a withered arm—probably due to his difficult and dangerous breech birth, although it could have also resulted from a mild case of cerebral palsy.
When his father succeeded to the Prussian throne as King Wilhelm I of Prussia on January 2, 1861, Friedrich became the Crown Prince of Prussia.
Three days after Friedrich was confirmed to be suffering from cancer, his father Emperor Wilhelm I died aged 90 at 8:22 a.m. on March 9, 1888, upon which Friedrich became German Emperor and King of Prussia. His son, Wilhelm, now Crown Prince, telegraphed the news to his father in Italy. Later the same day, Friedrich wrote in his diary that he had received the telegram upon returning from a walk, “…and so I have ascended the throne of my forefathers and of the German Kaiser! God help me fulfill my duties conscientiously and for the weal of my Fatherland, in both the narrower and the wider sense.” Germany’s progressive elements hoped that Wilhelm’s death, and thus Friedrich’s succession, would usher the country into a new era governed along liberal lines.
Logically, Friedrich should have taken as his regnal name, Friedrich I (beccause the Bismarckian empire was considered a new entity). The new Emperor wanted to call himself Friedrich IV, (mistakenly thinking this new empire was a continuation of the old Holy Roman Empire, which had had three emperors named Friedrich). However, on the advice of Bismarck that this would create legal problems, he opted to simply keep the same regnal name he had as the king of Prussia, Friedrich III.
The new Emperor reached Berlin at 11 p.m. on the night of March 11; those who saw him were horrified by his “pitiful” appearance. The question now was how much longer the mortally ill emperor could be expected to live, and what, if anything, he could hope to achieve. In spite of his illness, Friedrich did his best to fulfill his obligations as Emperor.
Immediately after the announcement of his accession, he took the ribbon and star of his Order of the Black Eagle from his jacket and pinned it on the dress of his wife; he was determined to honor her position as Empress. Too ill to march in his father’s funeral procession, he was represented by Wilhelm, the new Crown Prince, while he watched, weeping, from his rooms in the Charlottenburg Palace.
As the German Emperor, he officially received Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom (his mother-in-law) and King Oscar II of Sweden and Norway, and attended the wedding of his son Prince Heinrich to his niece Princess Irene. However, Friedrich III reigned for only 99 days, and was unable to bring about much lasting change. The majority of the German ruling elite viewed Friedrich III’s reign as merely a brief interim period before the accession of his son Wilhelm to the throne.
An edict he penned before he ascended to the throne that would limit the powers of the chancellor and monarch under the constitution was never put into effect,although he did force Robert von Puttkamer to resign as Prussian Minister of the Interior on June 8, when evidence indicated that Puttkamer had interfered in the Reichstag elections. Dr. Mackenzie wrote that the Emperor had “an almost overwhelming sense of the duties of his position.”
A letter to Lord Napier, Empress Victoria wrote “The Emperor is able to attend to his business, and do a great deal, but not being able to speak is, of course, most trying.” Friedrich III had the fervour but not the time to accomplish his desires, lamenting in May 1888, “I cannot die … What would happen to Germany?”
From April 1888, Friedrich III became so weak he was unable to walk, and was largely confined to his bed; his continual coughing brought up large quantities of pus. In early June, the cancer spread to and perforated his esophagus, preventing him from eating. He suffered from bouts of vomiting and ran high fevers, but remained alert enough to write a last diary entry on June 11: “What’s happening to me? I must get well again; I have so much to do!”
Friedrich III died in Potsdam at 11:30 a.m. on June 15, 1888, and was succeeded by his 29-year-old son as Wilhelm II, German Emperor and King of Prussia. Under Emperor Wilhelm II, his parents and maternal grandparents, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert’s hopes of a liberal Germany were not fulfilled. He believed in the autocracy and Conservative principles of his paternal grandfather, Emperor Wilhelm I.
Frederick is buried in a mausoleum attached to the Friedenskirche in Potsdam. After his death, William Ewart Gladstone described him as the “Barbarossa of German liberalism.” His wife, Empress Victoria, now calling herself the Empress Friedrich, went on to continue spreading her husband’s thoughts and ideals throughout Germany, but no longer had power within the government.
The early death of Emperor Friedrich III is a tragedy in German history. For if he lived and was able to enact his Liberal policies the history of Germany would have been much different. | <urn:uuid:a8648ce0-517e-4860-9309-2363ada33253> | {
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SQL Query Processing
Structured Query Language
SQL Data Definition Language
SQL Data Manipulation Language
SQL Data Control Language
SQL DRL / DSL
SQL Stored Procedure
SQL Query Processing
Database Transaction Control
Database Concurrency Control
Database Backup and Recovery
OLTP and OLAP
CRM and SCM
Introduction to Query Processing
Query Processing is a translation of high-level queries into low-level expression.
It is a step wise process that can be used at the physical level of the file system, query optimization and actual execution of the query to get the result.
It requires the basic concepts of relational algebra and file structure.
It refers to the range of activities that are involved in extracting data from the database.
It includes translation of queries in high-level database languages into expressions that can be implemented at the physical level of the file system.
In query processing, we will actually understand how these queries are processed and how they are optimized.
In the above diagram,
The first step is to transform the query into a standard form.
A query is translated into SQL and into a relational algebraic expression. During this process, Parser checks the syntax and verifies the relations and the attributes which are used in the query.
The second step is Query Optimizer. In this, it transforms the query into equivalent expressions that are more efficient to execute.
The third step is Query evaluation. It executes the above query execution plan and returns the result.
Translating SQL Queries into Relational Algebra
SELECT Ename FROM Employee
WHERE Salary > 5000;
Translated into Relational Algebra Expression
σ Salary > 5000 (π Ename (Employee))
π Ename (σ Salary > 5000 (Employee))
A sequence of primitive operations that can be used to evaluate a query is a Query Execution Plan or Query Evaluation Plan.
The above diagram indicates that the query execution engine takes a query execution plan and returns the answers to the query.
Query Execution Plan minimizes the cost of query evaluation.
SQL Query Optimization
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Gadgets & Games
Digital Voice Recorders Turn Students Into Interviewers
Students in Oklahoma are using digital voice recorders to capture family and local community history, elementary school students in Oregon are teaming up with the state park system to create educational podcasts with the audio devices, and foreign language students are recording and playing back lessons to practice pronunciation and vocabulary.
Because of their portable size, low cost, and ease of use, ed-tech experts say the new generation of digital voice recorders make ideal classroom tools.
“I think that a digital recorder is one of those things that I would put in every middle school [and high school] student’s backpack. There are so many ways they could use it,” says Larry S. Anderson, the founder and director of the Tupelo, Miss.-based National Center for Technology Planning, a clearinghouse of information about technology in the classroom.
For example, students can record themselves reading a story they’ve written in order to critique both their story and their oral presentation skills, says Anderson. And the device can give students who have trouble writing stories a voice, he adds.
“Not everybody learns the same way,” he says. “There are those who may not be able to write a story, but they can tell a story.”
Digital recorders can also be useful tools for English-language learners, says Anderson. They can use the devices to practice pronunciation or make recordings of certain phrases or words to increase their vocabulary.
Eva LaMar, a 3rd grade teacher at the 400-student Riverbend Elementary School in Springfield, Ore., teams her students up with local state park officials to record educational podcasts about the parks with digital voice recorders.
“[The state parks] don’t have the money to produce the documentation and support [materials] for the teachers, and we’ve got kids who would love to put together podcasts,” she says.
Last year, in addition to recording their own findings and research, the students gave state park rangers questions, which they answered using a resource called GCast. The service allowed the rangers to call in and answer the questions on their own time and made it easy for the students to pull the audio files and incorporate them into the podcats, says LaMar.
In the end, the park benefits from having the resource, and the students have the opportunity to apply their skills to the real world, she says.
Digital voice recorders are often a more practical option for schools than microphones attached to iPods, says LaMar, simply because they are affordable—a decent voice recorder can range in price from about $50 to $100—and they are durable.
In addition, many digital voice recorders use memory cards to store the files, so multiple students can use the same device by switching out the memory card, says LaMar.
And because digital voice recorders can fit in the palm of a student’s hand, they are easy to carry around and use. “When you need it, it’s there and available,” she says.
Because the device is so small and easy to use, the technology itself fades into the background, say Anderson and LaMar.
“The technology needs to be invisible, and the content needs to be in the forefront,” says LaMar.
Digital voice recorders are a good example of how technology can become a tool for creating content, says Wesley Fryer, a co-founder and the executive director of Story Chasers, a multi-state, nonprofit initiative that supports student and teacher citizen journalism.
“The technology is the easy part,” says Fryer. “It’s not hard to show folks how to use the recorder. What is most challenging is the interview process.”
Story Chaser’s principal project, Celebrate Oklahoma Voices, encourages students across Oklahoma to archive and share local oral histories.
“When you interview a grandparent, neighbor, or relative and ask them to tell you part of their life story, you have that chance to hear it and maybe write a paper about it,” says Fryer. “And if you can record it with audio, there’s so much value, from a family standpoint, but then also of course also from a historical standpoint.”
‘Emotion and Expression’
Don Wilson, the instructional-technology director for the 14,600-student Midwest City-Del City schools east of Oklahoma City, participated in the Celebrate Oklahoma Voices project.
“It’s really about the information skills that kids gain,” he says. “It’s exactly the opposite of your typical textbook assignment.”
The project also gave teachers a chance to teach students the ethical way to use the tools, says Wilson, such as not recording other people without their permission and how to respect copyright laws when putting together a multimedia presentation.
“One of our main concerns was educating students on the appropriate use of these tools,” he says.
The audio element of digital voice recorders in particular is motivating to students and captures an extra layer of creativity and expression to student work, says Fryer.
“There’s some magic to the human voice. There’s emotion and expression,” he says. “There’s a level of communication that you can convey with recorded audio that you don’t get when you just read someone’s text that they’ve written.”
But perhaps the greatest advantage of digital voice recorders is that they create learner-centered lessons, Fryer says.
“If we want kids to have meaningful experiences in schools, ... we need the students actively creating content, not just being passive and listening to the teacher,” he says. “Digital audio recorders empower individuals to be active in their learning.”
The variety of digital voice recorders available can make narrowing down the field daunting, but there are certain features to look for, says Arnie Abrams, a professor of multimedia at the Ashland, Ore.-based Southern Oregon University.
“At the heart of it, sound quality is the ultimate feature needed in a digital recorder. This is especially true if you are going to record musical performances,” says Abrams. Most classrooms will want at least 16-bit sound at 44.1kHz, or “CD-quality sound,” he says.
Teachers should also consider whether they want a device with a built-in microphone or an external one, says Abrams. External microphones capture better sound, but make the devices bulkier, he says.
In addition, schools should investigate whether the recorders use removable memory cards, so that the devices can be passed from student to student without having to exchange their files, says Abrams.
Some other factors to consider are how the device is powered, what file formats it can record in, whether it has sound effects or filters, if it has the capability to screw into a tripod, and how simple it is to use, says Abrams.
“Above all, I want to be able to give a student a recorder and tell them to take it home and record their narration. I don’t want them to come back and tell me they couldn’t figure out how to use it,” he says. “In some cases, a lower-end model will be easier to use than the high-end one with all of the bells and whistles.”
But once the students have the tool in their hands, the possibilities for what they can be used for are vast—ranging from recording narration for a video, to practicing a lecture or speech, to creating podcasts, says Abrams. “Having a digital recorder makes it easy and painless for students to record their voice and the world around them.”
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Expected School-wide Learning Results
The Armenian Sisters' Academy strives to prepare students who will achieve the following at grade appropriate level:
Know the Ten Commandments
Know and understand the basic teachings and religious celebrations of the Armenian Church.
Know the basic prayers and hymns of the Armenian Church liturgy.
Have a strong foundation in core subjects and achieve appropriate levels in English, Math, and Science.
Know and use information technology (IT).
Apply critical thinking skills and problem-solving abilities to everyday life.
Understand basic health, fitness, nutrition, and hygiene.
Demonstrate good sportsmanship.
Learn different types of music, art, theatre, and dance.
Demonstrate their artistic skills through displays and performances.
Be disciplined and responsible citizens.
Be active participants in their local communities through volunteer work and activism.
Develop an environmental consciousness.
Be able to speak, read, and write in Armenian.
Know Armenian History.
Practice and preserve the Armenian culture and heritage.
Respect different cultures and diversity. | <urn:uuid:c70877ea-b923-49f8-98e5-355a3c384288> | {
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Humanities › History & Culture The Tupamaros Uruguay's Marxist Revolutionaries Share Flipboard Email Print Walden69 / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 2.5 History & Culture The 20th Century The 80s People & Events Fads & Fashions Early 20th Century The 20s The 30s The 40s The 50s The 60s The 90s American History African American History African History Ancient History and Culture Asian History European History Genealogy Inventions Latin American History Medieval & Renaissance History Military History Women's History View More By Christopher Minster Professor of History and Literature Ph.D., Spanish, Ohio State University M.A., Spanish, University of Montana B.A., Spanish, Penn State University Christopher Minster, Ph.D., is a professor at the Universidad San Francisco de Quito in Ecuador. He is a former head writer at VIVA Travel Guides. our editorial process Christopher Minster Updated May 30, 2019 The Tupamaros were a group of urban guerrillas who operated in Uruguay (primarily Montevideo) from the early 1960s to the 1980s. At one time, there may have been as many as 5,000 Tupamaros operating in Uruguay. Although initially, they saw bloodshed as a last resort to achieving their aim of improved social justice in Uruguay, their methods became increasingly violent as the military government cracked down on citizens. In the mid-1980s, democracy returned to Uruguay and the Tupamaro movement went legitimate, laying down their weapons in favor of joining the political process. They are also known as the MLN (Movimiento de Liberación Nacional, or National Liberation Movement) and their current political party is known as the MPP (Movimiento de Participación Popular, or Popular Participation Movement). Creation of the Tupamaros The Tupamaros were created in the early 1960s by Raúl Sendic, a Marxist lawyer and activist who had sought to bring about social change peacefully by unionizing sugarcane workers. When the workers were continually repressed, Sendic knew that he would never meet his goals peacefully. On May 5, 1962, Sendic, along with a handful of sugarcane workers, attacked and burned the Uruguayan Union Confederation building in Montevideo. The lone casualty was Dora Isabel López de Oricchio, a nursing student who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. According to many, this was the first action of the Tupamaros. The Tupamaros themselves, however, point to the 1963 attack on the Swiss Gun Club—which netted them several weapons—as their first act. In the early 1960s, the Tupamaros committed a series of low-level crimes such as robberies, often distributing part of the money to Uruguay's poor. The name Tupamaro is derived from Túpac Amaru, last of the ruling members of the royal Inca line, who was executed by the Spanish in 1572. It was first associated with the group in 1964. Going Underground Sendic, a known subversive, went underground in 1963 counting on his fellow Tupamaros to keep him safe in hiding. On December 22, 1966, there was a confrontation between Tupamaros and the police. Carlos Flores, 23, was killed in a shootout when police investigated a stolen truck driven by Tupamaros. This was a huge break for the police, who immediately began rounding up known associates of Flores. Most of the Tupamaro leaders, fearful of being captured, were forced to go underground. Hidden from the police, the Tupamaros were able to regroup and prepare new actions. At this time, some Tupamaros went to Cuba where they were trained in military techniques. The Late 1960s in Uruguay In 1967 President and former General Oscar Gestido died and the Vice President, Jorge Pacheco Areco, took over. Pacheco soon took strong actions to stop what he saw as a deteriorating situation in the country. The economy had been struggling for some time and inflation was rampant which had resulted in a rise in crime and sympathy for rebel groups such as the Tupamaros, who promised change. Pacheco decreed a wage and price freeze in 1968 while cracking down on unions and student groups. A state of emergency and martial law were declared in June of 1968. A student, Líber Arce, was killed by police breaking up a student protest, further straining the relations between the government and the populace. Dan Mitrione On July 31, 1970, the Tupamaros kidnapped Dan Mitrione, an American FBI agent on loan to the Uruguayan police. He had previously been stationed in Brazil. Mitrione's specialty was interrogation, and he was in Montevideo to teach the police how to torture information out of suspects. Ironically, according to a later interview with Sendic, the Tupamaros did not know that Mitrione was a torturer. They thought he was there as a riot control specialist and targeted him in retaliation for student deaths. When the Uruguayan government refused the Tupamaros' offer of a prisoner exchange, Mitrione was executed. His death was a big deal in the US, and several high-ranking officials from the Nixon administration attended his funeral. The Early 1970s 1970 and 1971 saw the most activity on the part of the Tupamaros. Besides the Mitrione kidnapping, the Tupamaros committed several other kidnappings for ransom, including that of British Ambassador Sir Geoffrey Jackson in January of 1971. Jackson's release and ransom were negotiated by Chilean President Salvador Allende. The Tupamaros also murdered magistrates and policemen. In September of 1971, the Tupamaros got a huge boost when 111 political prisoners, most of them Tupamaros, escaped from Punta Carretas prison. One of the prisoners who escaped was Sendic himself, who had been in prison since August of 1970. One of the Tupamaro's leaders, Eleuterio Fernández Huidobro, wrote about the escape in his book La Fuga de Punta Carretas. Tupamaros Weakened After the increased Tupamaro activity in 1970-1971, the Uruguayan government decided to crack down even further. Hundreds were arrested, and due to widespread torture and interrogation, most of the Tupamaros' top leaders were captured by late 1972, including Sendic and Fernández Huidobro. In November 1971, the Tupamaros called a cease-fire to promote safe elections. They joined the Frente Amplio, or "Wide Front," political union of leftist groups determined to defeat Pacheco's handpicked candidate, Juan María Bordaberry Arocena. Although Bordaberry won (in an extremely questionable election), the Frente Amplio did win enough votes to give its supporters hope. Between the loss of their top leadership and the defections of those who thought that political pressure was the path to change, by the end of 1972 the Tupamaro movement was severely weakened. In 1972, the Tupamaros joined the JCR (Junta Coordinadora Revolucionaria), a union of leftist rebels including groups working in Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile. The idea is that the rebels would share information and resources. By that time, however, the Tupamaros were in decline and had little to offer their fellow rebels. In any event, Operation Condor would smash the JCR within the next few years. The Years of Military Rule Although the Tupamaros had been relatively quiet for a time, Bordaberry dissolved the government in June of 1973, serving as a dictator supported by the military. This allowed further crackdowns and arrests. The military forced Bordaberry to step down in 1976 and Uruguay remained a military-run state until 1985. During this time, the government of Uruguay joined with Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Paraguay, and Bolivia as members of Operation Condor, a union of right-wing military governments who shared intelligence and operatives to hunt down, capture, and/or kill suspected subversives in each others' countries. In 1976, two prominent Uruguayan exiles living in Buenos Aires were assassinated as part of Condor: Senator Zelmar Michelini and House Leader Héctor Gutiérrez Ruiz. In 2006, Bordaberry would be brought up on charges related to their deaths. Former Tupamaro Efraín Martínez Platero, also living in Buenos Aires, narrowly missed being killed around the same time. He had been inactive in Tupamaro activities for some time. During this time, the imprisoned Tupamaro leaders were moved from prison to prison and subjected to horrendous tortures and conditions. Freedom for the Tupamaros By 1984, the Uruguayan people had seen enough of the military government. They took to the streets, demanding democracy. Dictator/General/President Gregorio Alvarez organized a transition to democracy, and in 1985 free elections were held. Julio María Sanguinetti of the Colorado Party won and immediately set about rebuilding the nation. As far as the political unrest of the previous years, Sanguinetti settled on a peaceful solution—an amnesty that would cover both the military leaders that had inflicted atrocities on the people in the name of counterinsurgency and the Tupamaros who had fought them. The military leaders were allowed to live out their lives with no fear of prosecution and the Tupamaros were set free. This solution worked at the time, but in recent years there have been calls to remove the immunity for military leaders during the years of dictatorship. Into Politics The freed Tupamaros decided to lay down their weapons once and for all and join the political process. They formed the Movimiento de Participación Popular, or the Popular Participation Movement, currently one of the most important parties in Uruguay. Several former Tupamaros have been elected to public office in Uruguay, most notably José Mujica who was elected to the presidency of Uruguay in November of 2009. Source Dinges, John. "The Condor Years: How Pinochet And His Allies Brought Terrorism To Three Continents." Paperback, Reprint edition, The New Press, June 1, 2005. | <urn:uuid:85cd2c63-1466-4c6d-bcbc-3686b2a18cf9> | {
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Top 8 Cloud-Related Skills Employers Are Demanding
In today’s tech job market, some scoff at the concept of job security. While there may be some truth to that, there are things you can do to stay ahead of the curve and keep your IT skills relevant. And perhaps the best way to stay in demand is to master the tech skills most directly related to the cloud.
Hadoop has become a big player in the enterprise and is virtually synonymous with big data. Inspired by Google’s MapReduce framework, Hadoop was created to deal with the enormous amounts of data the Google team was creating.
In a recent survey, Dice asked more than 1,000 technology-focused hiring managers and recruiters about their biggest expected demand for data analytics professionals for the upcoming year and Hadoop skills topped the list at 25 percent. Companies are using this open source Java framework to handle and sift through thousands of data points from disparate sources and systems.
By providing a basic messaging framework that can be built upon by more abstract layers, SOAP, which is essentially a protocol for exchanging XML-based messages over a network, serves as the foundation layer of the Web services stack.
As the successor of XML-RPC, it specifies how to encode an HTTP header and an XML file so that an application in one computer can pass information to an application in another computer while specifying how the called program should return a response. RESTful approaches, often used instead of SOAP lately, remove SOAP faults, instead relying upon HTTP error codes that may not be helpful to either the application or the developer.
Python–a general-purpose, high-level programming language that emphasizes code readability–enables programmers to express concepts using less code than would be possible in other common programming languages. It provides them with constructs that are effective on both small and large scale applications.
In April of 2008, Python was the first and only programming language supported by Google’s App Engine cloud development platform, and its simple and effective constructs are still being used by cloud developers for the same reasons.
Ruby–a dynamic, reflective, general-purpose object-oriented programming language–was created by Yukihiro “Matz” Matsumoto in the mid-1990s. It was influenced by Eiffel and Lisp, and combines syntax similar to that of Perl with features much like Smalltalk.
Ruby on Rails, usually shortened to just Rails, is an open source full-stack Web application framework for the Ruby programming language. Rails, which uses the Model-View-Controller (MVC) architecture pattern to organize application programming, works well for cloud computing because of that architecture.
Perl, which was originally developed in 1987 by Larry Wall, was intended to be a general-purpose Unix scripting language. It combines features from other programming languages such as C, with features from shell scripting, AWK and sed to provide programmers with powerful text-processing facilities that then enable the easy manipulation of data from text files.
Its parsing functionality made it popular in the 1990s as a CGI scripting language, and it is commonly referred to today as the glue that binds the Internet together, the “Swiss Army chainsaw of scripting languages.” For cloud developers, Perl Catalyst and projects such as Cloud Perl are indicative of the fact that Perl will continue to be used to help build the Web of the future.
PHP–which originally was an acronym for Personal Home Page and now stands for PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor–was created by Rasmus Lerdorf in 1995 and is still the most often used server-side scripting language on the Web, used by more 75 percent of all Websites in existence.
Cloud hosting has opened up even more opportunities for PHP developers, as the ease of app migration that came with cloud programming environments vastly improved the upgrade process, leaving developers to focus on programming, rather than setting up test environments on local machines. New classes provided by the Zend Framework make using cloud-based storage services even easier for PHP developers who wish to use cloud storage services from Amazon and other providers.
Microsoft’s cloud platform, known as the Azure Services Platform, has simplified the app migration process for .NET and Java developers, who are now able to use in a cloud-based runtime environment the same tools and APIs they are used to working with in their local run-time environment. This type of mixing and matching, along with the capability to scale elastically, is what the whole concept of “deploying in the cloud” is about. Microsoft’s .NET Services puts the Microsoft .NET Framework in the cloud, and provides many common building blocks for .NET developers that make it much easier to create cloud-based applications.
Storage engineers are typically responsible for installing and configuring the storage system for their employer. Until recently, their responsibilities have included designing installations and configurations for Network Attached Storage (NAS), Storage Area Networks (SAN), backup/recovery servers, tape library management software, and archive and retrieval systems management software.
Other data storage systems, such as disk arrays, virtual storage devices, storage resource management software, file systems and volume managers, also fell under the storage engineering umbrella. The concept of cloud storage has opened up new opportunities and with them, new responsibilities for the Storage Engineer. | <urn:uuid:11aa85fc-2024-403f-b5a9-59628b65c25e> | {
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The only underground nuclear waste repository in the United States doesn't have enough space for radioactive tools, clothing and other debris left over from decades of bomb-making and research, much less tons of weapons-grade plutonium that the nation has agreed to eliminate as part of a pact with Russia, federal auditors said.
In addition, the U.S. Government Accountability Office found that the U.S. Energy Department has no plans for securing regulatory approvals and expanding the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico before it reaches capacity in less than a decade.
"DOE modeling that is needed to begin the regulatory approval process is not expected to be ready until 2024," the auditors said in their report released Tuesday.
Energy Department officials contend there's enough time to design and build additional storage before existing operations are significantly affected.
A Senate committee requested the review from auditors amid concerns about ballooning costs and delays in the U.S. effort to dispose of 34 metric tons of its plutonium.
Citing the delays and other reasons, Russia last fall suspended its commitment to get rid of its own excess plutonium.
The U.S. has not made a final decision about how to proceed. However, the Energy Department agrees with auditors about the need to expand disposal space at the repository and devise guidance for defense sites and federal laboratories to better estimate how much radioactive waste must be shipped to New Mexico as the U.S. cleans up Cold War-era contamination.
Don Hancock, director of the nuclear waste safety program at the Southwest Research and Information Center in Albuquerque, said he was pleased the auditors acknowledged the space limitations and hoped the report would spur a public discussion about how to handle the surplus plutonium and waste from bomb-making and nuclear research.
"The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, it was never supposed to be the one and only," Hancock said. "So it's past time to start the discussion of what other disposal sites we're going to have."
The New Mexico repository was carved out of an ancient salt formation about a half-mile below the desert, with the idea that shifting salt would eventually entomb the radioactive tools, clothing, gloves and other debris.
The facility resumed operations earlier this year following a shutdown that followed a 2014 radiation release caused by inappropriate packaging of waste by workers at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
The release contaminated part of the underground disposal area and caused other problems that further limited space.
Federal auditors say another two disposal vaults would have to be carved out to accommodate the waste already in the government's inventory. More space would be needed for the weapons-grade plutonium.
The initial plan called for conversion of the excess plutonium into a mixed oxide fuel that would render it useless for making weapons and could be used in nuclear reactors.
However, the estimated cost of building a conversion facility at the Energy Department's Savannah River site in South Carolina has grown from $1.4 billion in 2004 to more than $17 billion. About $5 billion already has been spent on the facility.
Estimates also show it would take until 2048 to complete the facility.
Faced with the skyrocketing cost, the government began considering whether it would be cheaper to dilute the plutonium and entomb it at the plant in New Mexico. No final decisions have been made.
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In the fall of 2005, the Dalai Lama gave the inaugural Dialogues between Neuroscience and Society lecture at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in Washington, DC. There were over 30,000 neuroscientists registered for the meeting, and it seemed as if most of them attended the talk. The Dalai Lama’s address was designed to highlight the areas of convergence between neuroscience and Buddhist thought about the mind, and to many in the audience he clearly achieved his objective. There was some controversy over his being invited to deliver this lecture insofar as he is both a head of state and a religious leader, and for that reason he largely stuck to his prepared text. But he strayed from the text at least once, reminding the audience that not only was he a Buddhist monk but also an enthusiastic proponent of modern technology.
Elaborating, he shared a confidence with the audience, telling the audience of scientists that meditating was hard work for him (even though he meditates for 4 hours every morning), and that if neuroscientists were able to find a way to put electrodes in his brain and provide him with the same outcome as he gets from meditating, he would be an enthusiastic volunteer. It turns out that a recent set of experiments, from researchers at MIT and Stanford, moves us a step closer to making his wish a reality.
The Dalai Lama’s interest in neuroscience has been reciprocated by at least some members of the neuroscience community. Reasoning that studying the brains of people who meditate might lead to novel insights about the human brain, investigations of long-term meditators has been fertile ground for scientific investigation, with some of the more rigorous work emerging from Richard Davidson’s laboratory at the University of Wisconsin. From the perspective of neuroscience, meditation can be characterized as a series of mental exercises by which one strengthens one’s control over the workings of their own brain. The simplest of these meditation practices is ‘focused attention’ where one concentrates on a single object, for example one’s breath. When expert meditators practiced focused attention meditation, demonstrable changes were seen using fMRI in the networks of the brain that are known to modulate attention.
A second set of experiments studied long-term meditators practicing ‘open monitoring meditation’, a more advanced meditation practice which in many ways is a form of metacognition: the objective is not to focus one’s attention but rather to use one’s brain to monitor the universe of mental experience without directing attention to any one task. The unexpected result of this experiment was that the EEG of long-term meditators exhibited much more gamma-synchrony than that of naive meditators. Moreover, normally human brains produce only short bursts of gamma-synchrony. What was most remarkable about this study was that long-term meditators were able to produce sustained gamma-activity in a manner that had never previously been observed in any other human. As such, sustained gamma activity has emerged as a proxy for at least some aspects of the meditative state.
But what causes gamma rhythm? And are there any potential benefits of sustained gamma-activity? The strongest hypothesis for the cellular mechanisms underlying generation of the gamma rhythm is that it is due to the activation of fast-spiking interneurons in the cerebral cortex. ...
via Meditation on Demand: Scientific American. | <urn:uuid:5131db78-6110-48e6-9594-d5747d924c58> | {
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Did you know that certain foods and drinks can get in the way of your recovery from an illness as they may hamper the action of antibiotics? No one wants to prolong the agony of being homebound or less productive because of a health issue, and that is why you should take your meds — and mind what you eat and drink as well!
There are all sorts of reasons why the wrong diet can actually reduce the efficacy of the antibiotics you are taking. First, it can interfere with the way your body breaks down the drug. Second, it can slow down the emptying of the stomach, resulting in the decelerated absorption rate of the drug. In some instances, it can actually prevent the absorption of the drug, rendering it ineffective against the problem it was prescribed for.
So the next time your doctor hands you that prescription of antibiotics, remember to ask about which foods and drinks you may take it with — and shouldn’t. The following are some of the things you should momentarily refrain from consuming while popping antibiotics in your mouth:
Cheese, sour cream, milk, butter, ice cream — these and other dairy products should not be served on the table while you’re on antibiotics. Calcium present in abundant amounts in these treats can hinder the proper absorption of antibiotics. However, there’s one dairy product that you may still take: yogurt. That’s because it is packed with probiotics that help keep the gut healthy and prevent diarrhea, a common side effect of antibiotics.
Just like calcium, iron is known to block the absorption of antibiotics. Chicken liver, red meat, oysters, squash, nuts, dark leafy greens, dark chocolate — try to limit your consumption of these until your course of antibiotics is completed. Are you taking iron supplements or multivitamins containing iron? If so, take them at least 3 hours after you have swallowed your antibiotics to ensure proper absorption.
The truth is alcohol does not have any effect on the breakdown or absorption of antibiotics by your body. So what’s the reason why it is a good idea to steer clear of alcohol while you’re taking antibiotics? Alcohol is said to augment the common side effects of antibiotics, which include dizziness and gastrointestinal issues like diarrhea. So while you are on antibiotics, it’s a great idea to refrain from guzzling down alcoholic drinks.
We all know that eating citrus fruits is a great way to bounce back much faster from a variety of health problems as they are loaded with immune-system boosting vitamin C. However, reaching for them is a no-no if your doctor has instructed you to take antibiotics. That’s because the likes of oranges, tangerines, lemons and most especially grapefruit can have a negative effect on the way your body absorbs antibiotics.
Acidic Foods and Drinks
It’s not just citrus fruits that you should avoid before you’re through with your course of antibiotics, but also anything else that’s acidic. Again, consuming them can keep antibiotics from being properly absorbed, keeping their intake from being fully beneficial. While on antibiotics, stay away from chocolates and anything with tomatoes in them. Certainly, you should refrain from drinking wine, coffee, sodas and even most sports drinks.
The inclusion of high-fiber foods in your everyday diet is unquestionably good for your body. However, it’s something that you should momentarily sidestep while you are taking antibiotics. That’s because the likes of brown rice, oats, whole-wheat bread, cereals, beans, nuts, corn and leafy greens slow down the rate of your stomach’s emptying, and this causes the absorption rate of antibiotics or any other medication that your doctor has prescribed to decelerate. | <urn:uuid:93c1f6b5-8a54-4bf4-95ec-7890049f0a24> | {
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One year ago, the United States Supreme Court issued their 5-4 decision in Windsor v United States in which the court invalidated a part of the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) that defined marriage under federal law as the union of one man and one woman. The court’s majority opinion contained two main themes – the obligation of the federal government to respect the rights of states in their historic role of regulating marriage, and the failure of the federal government to respect the dignity of gays and lesbians.
The spate of poorly reasoned decisions in the lower federal courts since the Windsor decision has led many gay activists to conclude they are on a path to certain victory before the U.S. Supreme Court when one of these cases are heard. Since Justice Anthony Kennedy – the key swing vote on the divided court — authored the majority opinion in Windsor, and several other “pro-gay” opinions, it is taken as an article of faith that he will side with gay marriage advocates when the court ultimately rules.
We believe they are wrong.
States have the right to define marriage in ways that reflect their considered judgment about what constitutes a marriage. While it may be true that a majority of the court is sympathetic to gays and lesbians being subject to societal disapproval and “stigma,” it doesn’t mean they are going to “constitutionalize” gay marriage, invalidating the decisions of state legislatures and over 50 million American voters in 31 states to preserve marriage as the union of one man and one woman.
It is not irrational for states to want to preserve marriage. Federal judges routinely declare that defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman serves “no rational purpose.” This is nothing more than judicial arrogance and hubris. Only unions between men and women have the capacity to produce children; it is in the best interest of children to have institutions encouraging men and women to be mothers and fathers to their children. Moreover, it is clearly rational for a state to wait and see how this experiment of same-sex marriage plays itself out elsewhere before considering redefining marriage in their own state. Plenty of negative implications have already risen to the surface, such as the impact on religious liberty, to give states pause.
The court will be inclined to allow the democratic system to work, trusting elected officials and voters to make informed decisions over time. When the court took the issue of abortion away from the states in 1973, they launched a forty-plus year culture war. Many justices have bemoaned that outcome, observing that it would have been better to allow the issue to be resolved through the democratic process. The same should be true of same-sex marriage. Invalidating marriage laws across the country will usher in an immense societal reaction and millions of Americans will consider such a ruling to be illegitimate.
If the court had wanted to impose same-sex marriage, they could have already begun the process. For example in Utah, the court issued, unanimously, an emergency stay of the lower courts’ decisions to overturn traditional marriage, believing that the state has a likelihood of prevailing on the merits. Had the court wanted to begin to condition the country to a same-sex marriage regime, they could have refused to act. | <urn:uuid:daa6dbec-7cf2-489b-88ce-8dd1d0f8d874> | {
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Kota: The 'Head and Neck cancer' is among the top most cancers affecting Indian men and the third most common ailment among women, a study by Indian Council of Medical Research has found.
The 'Head and Neck' cancers or Head Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma (HNSC) usually begin in the squamous cells that line the moist, mucosal surfaces inside the head and neck (for example, inside the mouth, nose and throat).
The study further mentions that oral cancer is the commonest among all HNSC cancers.
Around 50 per cent of the affected people die within 12 months of its diagnosis. Throat Cancer (Pharynx and Larynx) is next to oral cancer in terms of prevalence, it said.
The HNSC cancer has been linked with increased consumption of tobacco including gutka and pan masala.
As per a 2014 study conducted by Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and World Health Organization on the impact of banning of tobacco in India, 90 per cent of respondents (gutka users) desired that the government should ban the manufacturing, sale and distribution of all forms of smokeless tobacco.
The study was conducted with 1,001 current and former gutka users and 458 tobacco product retailers in eight states - Assam, Bihar, Gujarat, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha and Delhi.
The survey also found that of the respondents who continue to use pre-packaged gutka (available illegally), 50 per cent reported they consume less since the ban and 80 per cent believed that ban will motivate them to quit.
According to the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) data, output of tobacco, including cigarettes, bidis and chewable tobacco products, declined by 12.1 per cent in March 2015 since the last year.
But experts complain that the ban imposed on chewable tobacco by various states is ineffective in bringing a larger change as both pan masala and tobacco are freely available in markets.
The government should increase taxes over tobacco products and impose a total ban over them to check the consumption of the same, Dr R C Sahani, chairman of Samvedna Foundation of Kota, an NGO working in this sector said.
Dr Pawan Singhal, Associate Professor, SMS Hospital noted that since 90 per cent of HNSCC cancers are related to tobacco, alcohol and areca nut usage, they are highly preventable.
They can be prevented and cured if detected early, he said.
The experts added that, however, millions of people suffer from delayed diagnosis, inadequate treatment, inappropriate rehabilitation and palliation. | <urn:uuid:f95cbd6d-e906-453d-9eb2-d31780466bee> | {
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Photo: graibeard (flickr)
Out With Spuds
The USDA is asking the question: Will cutting out white potatoes make school children healthier?
Starch-heavy corn and peas are also in danger of being cut in favor of leafy greens and orange vegetables, like the other spud: sweet potato.
The National Potato Council is fighting back… hard.
According to John Keeling, the council’s CEO, there may be unhealthy ways to prepare potatoes, but there are no inherently bad fruits or vegetables. He also expresses concern about the effect this decision could have on the potato industry’s bottom line. “When you force a limit on potatoes… you drive the cost up, you reduce the flexibility of the schools, you take away a vegetable that kids like, and you run the risk of… delivering less nutrition.”
The council is even going so far as to say that potatoes are “gateway vegetables” that could eventually lead kids to other foods like carrots or spinach.
Researchers have found that the potato has sixty different beneficial compounds in varying amounts in both the flesh and skin of different strains of potatoes.
The USDA’s new school lunch guidelines say that saturated fat, sugar and sodium have to be lowered while whole grains, fruits and vegetables need to be increased.
There are also set maximum calories per lunch:
- Grade K-5 – 650 calories
- Grade 6-8 – 700 calories
- Grade 9-12 – 850 calories
The new guidelines must be implemented in schools by 2012. | <urn:uuid:48f236f1-91a2-457f-a6dc-e6606d36b046> | {
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Derrick Ong, accredited dietitian in Australia and Singapore, and director of Eat Right Nutrition Consultancy (www.eatright.sg), shares some sweet facts.
Q: How can we identify the various types of sugars and tell the good from the bad?
A: The chemical name for table sugar is sucrose. Generally, ingredients in food labels ending writh “ose” are sugar compounds. These include glucose, fructose, maltose, and dextrose. Other common ingredients containing sugar are molasses, maple syrup or golden syrup. We can’t classify any sugar as “good” or “bad”, but we can distinguish between sugars found in whole foods and those added during food preparation. Whole fruit contains naturally occurring sugars and other important nutrients such as dietary fibre, vitamins and minerals. Sugars added during food or drink preparation are usually devoid of nutrients, and merely give a sweet taste.
Q: Can you suggest a daily meal plan with the recommended sugar intake?
A: Limit your sugar intake to eight to 10 teaspoons a day. For breakfast, have a tuna sandwich with a cup of coffee or tea (three teaspoons of sugar). Order a bowl of fishball noodle soup and a cup of chrysanthemum tea for lunch (four teaspoons of sugar). Have a plate of economical rice with meat and vegetables, and a beverage for dinner (three teaspoons of sugar). You can replace each teaspoon of sugar with one sachet of Equal Stevia to avoid the unwanted calories and effects of sugar. | <urn:uuid:e3823c6c-e6c7-4a8e-9ea0-56f1e12c8e4c> | {
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Transparency of the Regulatory System
The full text of draft regulations is made available for public review, and regulatory agencies give notice of proposed regulations in public meetings where consultations can take place. All proposed regulations are published on a unified website: http://consultoria.gob.do/ .
On the Global Innovations Index, the Dominican Republic ranks 103 out of 128 for regulatory environment and 73 out of 128 for regulatory quality. The World Economic Forum’s 2016 Global Competitiveness report ranked the Dominican Republic 127th out of 138 countries in efficiency of the legal framework in challenging regulations, and 110th in burden of government regulations.
The Dominican Institute of Certified Public Accountants (ICPARD) is the country’s legally-recognized professional accounting organization and has authority to establish accounting standards in accordance with article 31 of Law 479-08, which also declares that financial statements should be prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting standards nationally and internationally (as amended by Law 31-11). The ICPARD and the country’s stock market regulator (Superintendencia de Valores) require the use of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), including IFRS for small and medium-sized entities (SMEs).
In recent years, the Dominican government carried out a major reform effort aimed at improving the transparency and effectiveness of laws affecting competition. Law 42-08 from 2008 on the defense of competition set up an agency to improve and enforce competition laws. Nonetheless, efforts to establish the rule of law in many sectors of the economy have been impeded, or in some cases, soundly defeated by special interests. For example, in 2008, the government refused to enforce a court ruling to halt an illegal blockade of a U.S. business by disgruntled ex-contractors. As another example, in 2013, the Dominican government rescinded permits for a U.S.-owned tourism and real estate development and declared large swaths of the land as a national park. In 2015, several U.S. investors cited the Dominican government’s repeated failure to pay compensation for or return expropriated land, even though valid court orders had been obtained. Many investors, both Dominican and foreign, consider that influence through political contacts trumps formal systems of regulation.
International Regulatory Considerations
The Dominican Republic is member of the WTO and a signatory to several multilateral FTAs including CAFTA-DR, CARICOM-DR, and EPA. In addition, the Dominican Republic is a member of a number of other regional and international organizations, including the United Nations, the Organization of American States, the Central American Integration System, the International Center for Settlement of Investor Disputes, and the Multilateral Investment Guaranty Agency.
As a member of the WTO, the government has committed to, but does not always, notify all draft technical regulations to the WTO Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT).
Legal System and Judicial Independence
The legal system of the Dominican Republic is civil law and is based on the Napoleonic code. On October 23, 2007, Decree No. 610-07 placed the Directorate of Foreign Commerce of the then-Secretariat of State for Industry and Commerce (DICOEX) in charge of commercial dispute settlement, including disputes related to the Investment Chapter of CAFTA-DR. The main laws governing commercial disputes are the Commercial Code; Law No. 479-08, the Commercial Societies Law; Law No. 3-02, concerning Business Registration; and Law No. 126-02, concerning e-Commerce and Digital Documents and Signatures.
The country is divided into 12 Judicial Departments, each one headed by a Court of Appeals with jurisdiction over civil and criminal matters. Each Judicial District has a court of first instance. Justices of the Peace handle small claims, certain traffic accidents, landlord-tenant disputes, and other matters. There are also specialized courts with jurisdiction over labor cases, disputes involving registered land, cases involving minors, and administrative matters. The Supreme Court is the highest court, with jurisdiction to handle most appeals from the courts of appeal, and first instance jurisdiction in criminal matters involving certain high-level government officials. The Constitutional Tribunal, created in 2010, rules on the constitutionality of laws and treaties and decides cases involving constitutional questions.
According to the Constitution, the Judicial Branch is independent of the other branches of the State. The right of access to justice is a constitutional right granted by Article 69 of the Constitution. It provides that every person, including foreigners, has the right to appear in court.
The judicial process in the Dominican Republic is procedurally competent, although investors complain of long wait times for a decision. The resolution of a civil case normally takes 2-4 years, although some take significantly longer. Some investors complain that the local court system is unreliable, biased against them, and that special interests and powerful individuals are able to use the legal system in their favor. Regardless of whether they are located in a free-trade zone, companies have problems with dispute resolution, both with the Dominican government and with private-sector entities. U.S. firms indicate that corruption on all levels – business, government, and judicial – impedes their access to justice to defend their interests. Moreover, several large U.S. firms have been subject of injunctions issued by lower courts on behalf of distributors with whom they are engaged in a contract dispute. These disputes are often the result of the firm seeking to end the relationship in accordance with the contract, and the distributor using the injunction as a way of obtaining a more beneficial settlement. These injunctions often disrupt the U.S. companies’ distribution activities, resulting in severe negative impact on sales. In order to effectively engage in the Dominican market, many U.S. companies seek local partners that are well-connected and understand the local business environment.
The World Economic Forum’s 2016 Global Competitiveness report ranked the Dominican Republic 127th out of 138 countries in judicial independence and 112th in efficiency of the legal framework in settling disputes. On the Global Innovations Index, the Dominican Republic ranked 85 out of 128 countries for rule of law.
Laws and Regulations on Foreign Direct Investment
CEI-RD, which aims to be a one-stop-shop for investment information, registration, and investor after-care services, maintains a user-friendly website for guidance on the government’s priority sectors for inward investment and on the range of investment incentives (http://cei-rd.gob.do/ ).
Competition and Anti-Trust Laws
There is no government agency that reviews transactions for competition-related concerns (whether domestic or international in nature); however, the government’s National Commission for the Defense of Competition (ProCompetencia) is responsible for promoting and defending competition by fostering best practices.
Expropriation and Compensation
There are dozens of outstanding disputes between U.S. investors and the Dominican government concerning unpaid government contracts or expropriated property and businesses. Property claims make up the majority of expropriation cases. Most, but not all, expropriations have been used for infrastructure or commercial development. In some cases, claims have remained unresolved for many years. Typically, investors and lenders have not received prompt payment of fair market value for their losses, and subsequent enforcement has been difficult even in cases in which the Dominican courts, including the Supreme Court, have ordered compensation or the government has recognized a claim. In other cases, lengthy delays in compensation payments are blamed on errors committed by government-contracted property assessors, slow processes to correct land title errors, a lack of budgeted funds, and other technical problems. The procedures to resolve expropriations lack transparency and, to a foreigner, may appear to be antiquated. Few examples exist where government officials are held responsible for not paying a recognized claim or not paying the claim in a timely manner.
Discussions at the U.S.-Dominican Trade and Investment Council meetings in October 2002 prompted the Dominican government to establish procedures under a 1999 law to issue bonds to settle claims against the Dominican government dating from before August 16, 1996, including claims for expropriated property.
In 2005, with assistance from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the Dominican government identified and analyzed 248 expropriation cases; most (65.5 percent) were resolved by paying claimants with bonds or by dismissing the claim. However, a number of U.S. claims against the Dominican Republic remain.
Recent administrations have expropriated fewer properties than their predecessors, and for the most part have paid compensation. Nonetheless, there are current disputes alleging expropriation, particularly in areas where the government changed or enforced national protected areas regulations.
ICSID Convention and New York Convention
In 2000, the Dominican Republic signed the International Center for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID, also known as the “Washington Convention”), but has not ratified it. In 2002, the Dominican Republic became signatory to the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards (New York Convention).
Investor-State Dispute Settlement
The Dominican Republic has entered into several bilateral investment treaties, most of which contain dispute resolution provisions that submit the parties to arbitration. The Dominican Republic is a signatory to CAFTA-DR and is thus bound by the investment chapter of CAFTA-DR. There are currently three pending investor-state cases filed against the Dominican Republic under CAFTA-DR.
The Embassy is aware of at least 25 U.S. investors who are involved in ongoing legal disputes with the Dominican government and parastatal firms involving payments, expropriations, contractual obligations, or regulatory obligations. The investors range from large firms to private individuals and the disputes are at various levels of legal review.
International Commercial Arbitration and Foreign Courts
Law 489-09 on commercial arbitration governs the enforcement of arbitration awards, arbitral agreements, and arbitration proceedings in the Dominican Republic. Per law 489-09, arbitration may be ad-hoc or institutional, meaning the parties may either agree on the rules of procedure applicable to their claim, or they may adopt the rules of a particular institution. Certain aspects of the UNICTRAL model law are incorporated into Law 489-09.
Foreign arbitral awards are enforceable in the Dominican Republic in accordance with Law 489-09 and applicable treaties, including the New York Convention, to which the Dominican Republic is a party. There are complaints that the court process is slow and that domestic claimants with political connections have an advantage.
The Restructuring and Liquidation of Business Entities and Merchants Law (Law 141-15) was signed by President Medina on August 18, 2015, which took effect 18 months after signing. The law will allow a debtor company to continue to operate for up to five years during reorganization proceedings by staying legal proceedings. The law orders the creation of new courts with exclusive jurisdiction to hear all matters regarding the insolvency process, contemplates the appointment of conciliators, verifiers, experts, and employee representatives, allows the debtor to contract for new debt which will have priority status in relation to other secured and unsecured claims, stipulates civil and criminal sanctions for non-compliance, and permits the possibility of coordinating cross-border proceedings based on recommendations of the United Nations Commission on International Trade (UNCITRAL) Model Law of 1997.
Eighteen months after the law’s signing, no specialized bankruptcy courts have yet been set up. Certain judges have been assigned to hear bankruptcy matters but there are no specialized bankruptcy judges yet. | <urn:uuid:951b2af6-63e9-4c46-be73-7f9bea705d2e> | {
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Ghosting through the forests of Laos and Vietnam, the saola—a large ox that looks like an antelope—eluded researchers and their cameras for nearly 14 years.
But camera traps set out by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the Vietnamese government in the central Annamite Mountains in Vietnam captured grainy black and white photographs of the extremely rare mammal in September of this year, the group announced this week.
The last sighting of a saola (Pseudoryx nghetinhensis) in the wild was in 1999 in Laos.
“When our team first looked at the photos we couldn’t believe our eyes,” said Van Ngoc Thinh, Vietnam’s country director for the WWF, in a statement. “Saola are the holy grail for south-east Asian conservationists so there was a lot of excitement.”
First discovered in 1992 near the border between Laos and Vietnam, the saola was the first large mammal new to science in more than 50 years, according to a WWF statement.
The mammal is often referred to as the “Asian unicorn” because of its rarity, although it sports two pointed horns on its head rather than one.
Although its elusive nature makes for a fun nickname, it has stymied researchers’ efforts to get a handle on the animal’s basic biology and population numbers.
Some estimates place global populations at 250 to 300 animals. But these are based on interviews with villagers who have seen the animal, and on hunting trophies, according to a report in Smithsonian magazine.
It’s incredibly difficult to measure the size of the saola population because conservationists do not have a full grasp on where they live, said Barney Long, the WWF director of species protection and Asian species conservation, in an interview this week.
One of the projects they’re working on to help detect this rare mammal in the field is by using leeches. “Southeast Asian land leeches drink blood from passing animals, and the blood stays in leeches for a few months,” he said. So researchers can test the blood to find out which animals the leech has been feeding on.
If saola blood turns up in a leech, the scientists will know the mammals are in the vicinity.
Listed as critically endangered in the IUCN Red List, saola often end up as incidental victims to snares set by hunters looking to catch Asiatic black bears or Malayan sun bears. The bears are hunted for their bile, which is used in traditional Chinese medicine. (See “Endangered Moon Bears Harvested for Bile in Vietnam.”)
Habitat fragmentation due mainly to road construction has also hammered saola populations.
The Vietnamese government has created nature preserves in the saola’s range, and banned all hunting in the mammal’s habitat in an effort to protect the animal.
“Since 2011, forest guard patrols in CarBi area have removed more than 30,000 snares from this critical saola habitat and destroyed more than 600 illegal hunters’ camps,” Van Ngoc in the statement. “Confirmation of the presence of the saola in this area is a testament to the dedicated and tireless efforts of these forest guards.”
Danielle Elliot assisted with reporting on this story.
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By Amy Youngs The Worm Share project encourages symbiotic relationships between humans and worms. Through experimental artworks, participatory designs, workshops and networking technologies, I facilitate the travel and propagation of composting worms into domestic spaces and encourage others to do the same. In exchange, the worm colonies provide valuable ecosystem services.
Eisenia Foetida is a species of worm suited to living in a wide variety of situations, including domestic spaces. These hearty creatures are able to efficiently turn our food and paper waste into plant fertilizer. Vermicomposting (worm composting) can happen in a very local way—in a kitchen, a basement, an office or in a bin embedded in furniture—and it can empower individuals to participate in the reduction of greenhouse gases. Landfills and organic wastes thrown in traditional composting bins decompose and emit methane, a greenhouse gas that is more potent than carbon dioxide. On the contrary, the process of vermicomposting emits no harmful gas or unpleasant odors. The byproduct of worms is a nutrient-rich material that looks and smells like soil.
The project began with artworks that integrated live worms into sculptures and furniture within domestic spaces. In my sculpture Digestive Table, for instance, a flow-through worm bag was built into a functional table so humans could literally share a meal with worms. People observed the composting activity of the worms on an LCD screen built into the table surface and connected to an infrared camera that monitored the worms’ activity below. I posted the building plans for this sculpture online to help popularize vermicomposting by inspiring others, who might also have desired a useful and aesthetically pleasing worm home, to reproduce the table. I soon discovered that there was far more demand for a simpler, utilitarian version of the flow-through worm bag—one without the table or the camera technology. Once I posted my simplified worm bag designs online, a community of builders developed. People I’d never met began to construct their own bags, ask me questions, post suggestions and upload photos of their finished projects—many of which, based upon a builder’s needs or the materials available, diverged widely from the original. I was impressed with the improvements and evolution of the design that spontaneously occurred just within the comments section of the instructions webpage: http://www.instructables.com/id/Worm-bin-bag-for-indoor-vermicomposting-and-easy-s/. With more than 59,000 viewers and 160 public comments, this project has had more exposure than most of my gallery exhibitions.
Recently, Worm Share has taken on the form of workshops that encourage people to design their own creative worm bins to fit their lifestyles and the needs of the worms. Everything from custom kitchen cabinets to bike trailer bins have been imagined and some of the new designs are being field tested now. All of the workshop participants who are ready to build their bins, are encouraged to take home a pound of free starter worms, which come from my own worm colony. Worms are a never-ending, regenerative source, multiplying based on the amount of food and space available. Workshop participants also learn how they can double their efforts to reduce greenhouse gases by freely sharing their worms with friends and strangers. Worldwide worm sharing is possible through the online network, Vermicomposters.com, which encourages people to identify their general location on a map and willingness to share worms with others. Free and anonymous worm sharing regularly takes place in my town via porch drop-offs. In exchange, I encourage the people receiving starter worms to "pay it forward" and become a future worm-sharing node within this community of creative design and open-source sharing.
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[/aslideshow] World map of vermicomposters (red markers identify a person willing to share): http://vermicomposters.com/
Photos of Worm Share Workshop at Spaces Gallery in Cleveland, OH: http://hypernatural.com/wormshare.html
Digestive Table sculpture and worm bag construction plans: http://hypernatural.com/digestive.html
Contributor’s biography Amy M. Youngs creates biological art, interactive sculptures and digital media works that explore the complex relationship between technology and our changing concept of nature and self. Obsessions include creating artificial nature experiences, spying on worms and constructing indoor, edible ecosystems. She lives in Columbus, Ohio, where she is an Associate Professor of Art and Technology at The Ohio State University. To learn more about her, please visit her website at http://hypernatural.com.
Photo Credits: Photo 05 is a compilation of photos that were posted to the comments page of Young's "Instructable" for building a worm bin. Photo 08 from Spaces Gallery Staff. | <urn:uuid:45c29c64-4bf0-415d-9bd2-da3d7f8e9736> | {
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and endocrinologists focusing on hemoglobin A1C and microvascular complications. The new evidence.
at the impact of these drugs on patients that have heart failure, whether they have diabetes or no.
Mar 31, 2015.
Macrovascular and microvascular complications that accompany Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) add to the burden among patients.
Jun 7, 2016.
Cardiovascular complications. Jun 30.2010 – Umesh Masharani, MB, BS, MRCP( UK). 1. Heart disease – Microangiopathy occurs in the heart.
Independent of diabetes,
development of diverse cardiovascular outcomes [.
Hypertension, or high blood pressure, is linked to diabetes, and each condition can make the other worse. Both can lead to severe, life-altering, and even fatal consequences. This MNT Knowledge.
Hypertension, also known as high blood pressure, often affects people with type 1 and type 2 diabetes. The American Diabetes Association reports that from 2000 to 2012, 71 percent of adults with.
Hypertension, also known as high blood pressure, often affects people with type 1 and type 2 diabetes. The American Diabetes Association reports that from 2000 to.
Recommendations for CVD management, including lipids and BP, in patients with type 2 diabetes from the 2016 ADA diabetes guidelines
The Solution to the Global Epidemic – Angiogenesis through CVBT’s Drug Candidates – Cardiovascular diseases are a result of restricted or lack of blood flow to tissues or organs. Angiogenesis is the growth of new blood vessels to tissue or organs.
Diabetes is a group of chronic diseases characterized by hyperglycemia. Modern medical care uses a vast array of lifestyle and pharmaceutical interventions aimed at preventing and controlling hyperglycemia. In addition to ensuring the adequate delivery of glucose to the tissues of the body.
If you have the following diabetes symptoms, you can’t afford to ignore them. The good news is there are ways to treat diabetes symptoms naturally.
Diabetes is known to many as a lifestyle disease.
which can cost them their lives in a few hours or long term complication.
Of the many complex complications of diabetes, adverse cardiovascular (CV) events have the greatest capacity to cause sudden or premature death and.
Aggressive treatment of risk factors to prevent cardiovascular complications of Diabetes. Ms. Kristin L. Eckland, RN, MSN, ACNP-BC. Duke University Health.
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a class of diseases that involve the heart or blood vessels.
. If a female has diabetes, she is more likely to develop heart disease than a male with.
. In fact, cardiovascular disease is the most life- threatening of the diabetic complications and diabetics are two- to four-fold more likely to die of.
The diagnosis was surprising: Type 1 diabetes. Alec’s blood sugar.
a nurse practitioner discussed the potential complications of the chronic disease, including blindness, nerve damage, and kidney a.
Preventing diabetes complications is like fighting a war with many fronts. Testing your blood sugar every day and making sure you have low hemoglobin A1C readings can help prevent many problems.
Nov 10, 2017.
For patients with Type 2 diabetes and pre-existing heart disease, the.
whether these medications help reduce heart complications in those.
The Ghana Heart Initiative (GHI) project has been launched in Accra.
smoking cessation and physical activity as well as re.
Prevention Of Type 1 Diabetes In Children New research published in Diabetologia (the journal of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes [EASD]) shows that children with type. of islet autoimmunity in the “Type 1 Diabetes Predic. Our Mission. The mission of the Children with Diabetes Research Foundation is to fund human clinical trials leading to cure and prevention of Type
WHO-EM/DIN6/E/G MANAGEMENT OF DIABETES MELLITUS STANDARDS OF CARE AND CLINICAL PRACTICE GUIDELINES Edited by Dr A.A.S. Alwan Regional Adviser, Noncommunicable Diseases
Diabetes without Drugs: The 5-Step Program to Control Blood Sugar Naturally and Prevent Diabetes Complications [Suzy Cohen] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Based on breakthrough studies, Cohen’s program reveals how people with diabetes can reduce their need for prescription medication and minimize the disease’s effect on the body.
Approximately 29 million Americans are diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes annually. Of that.
Cardiovascular and Related Complications and Evidence- Based.
Diabetes is a disease that occurs when your blood glucose, also called blood sugar, is too high. Over time, having too much glucose in your blood can cause health problems, such as heart disease, nerve damage, eye problems, and kidney disease.
This trial is conducted in Africa, Asia, Europe, and North and South America. The aim of this trial is to determine the long term effect of liraglutide on cardiovascular events in subjects with type 2 diabetes.
Cardiopulmonary and vascular complications associated with diabetes are major contributors to mortality of patients with diabetes. Dr. Ayako Makino's.
The report released in December says that certain pregnancy complications may mean chronic or even life-threatening health issues like heart disease –– later. And fetal growth restriction.
Know the Warning Signs. If you’ve noticed any signs and symptoms of diabetes, visit your doctor and get checked now. Learn more
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- Eating Healthy Diabetes Jewel Osco: Food City is an American supermarket chain with stores located in Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia. It is owned by K-VA-T Food Stores, Inc., Join us for a FREE Eating Healthy with Diabetes™ grocery store tour. In just 90 minutes, receive an...
- Nova Diabetes Nova Biomedical Corp: Sheet3 Sheet2 Sheet1 Aronowitz v. Home Diagnostics, Inc., 419 Fed. Appx. 988 (Fed. Cir. April 20, 2011) R. 36 Accuride Int'l Inc. v. SSW Holding Co., Inc., 417 Fed. EDP Member Application Join the Employer Discount Program now and start commuting to ...
- Alimentacion De Una Embarazada Con Diabetes: Esto puede causarles problemas a ambos durante el embarazo, el parto y en los años venideros. Seguir un plan de alimentación es una de las formas más. Cuando una mujer que no es diabética pero, durante el embarazo, presenta unos niveles elevados de g...
- Picture Of Diabetes Type 1: Blood glucose (blood sugar) monitoring is the main tool you have to check your diabetes control. This check tells you your blood glucose level at any one time. Keeping a log of your results is vital. When you bring this record to your health care pro...
- Traveling With Diabetes 2: I was reading a blog post today from Diabetics Daily and while this issue doesn’t pop up on our blog too often, it's apparently a concern on other diabetes related blogs and message boards. From Diabetics Daily, Sara Knicks writes: I just got back fr...
- Diabetes The Glycaemic Index And Older People: What is Glycemic Index? Carbohydrate is an essential part of our diets, but not all carbohydrate foods are equal. The glycemic index (GI) was first developed by Jenkins and colleagues 2) and the Glycemic Index (GI) is a relative ranking of carbohydra... | <urn:uuid:5242f720-11ea-4e49-9900-854c8a842d2c> | {
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The Great Flood of 1850
We now know that Hopkin Thomas and his partner, John Ollis began erection of a machine shop and foundry in Tamaqua in 1848. The location was in the industrial district just below the tracks of the Little Schuylkill R. R. and to the right of Vine St. in the contemporary map shown below.
Tamaqua’s industrial area – as noted below, the river originally ran where the tracks are now located.
Current (2010) satellite photo of industrial area north of Broad Street. Click for enlargement.
By 1850, the business should have been stable. As was noted earlier, a possibility exists that the business was surveyed in the special census of manufacturers in 1850 which recorded with the number of people employed in each business, the type of power (water, steam, etc.) used in the manufacturing process, and other items – including the name of the business. Thus far a copy of that census has not been reviewed.
In any event, it was reported in the testimonial to Hopkin published in the Catasauqua Dispatch that the business failed and that Hopkin lost a large sum of money. The failure would seem to have occurred in about 1850. Based on the accounts of the Great Flood of 1850, it is most likely that Hopkin and his partner lost their investment when the flood wiped out the Tamaqua industrial area.
The flood has been described to a limited extent in several regional histories. Serfass’s Iron Steps contains the most best description and is reproduced here:
To realize what happened in Tamaqua in 1850, one must first understand that the town had just completed a major project that altered nature -- changing the course of the Little Schuylkill River from its natural path through downtown to a new location about 2 blocks east. The natural riverbed was in the heart of the downtown, about where the railroad tracks divide the town today. The reason for this undertaking is unclear, perhaps the river's natural course interfered with the laying of the railroad tracks. Or maybe the river occupied prime real estate in the burgeoning downtown business area. Whatever the reason, the river's path was intercepted north of town and diverted eastward in a large crescent shape to the southern tip of town, where it was allowed to return to its natural path. (Today, the river still follows this man-made path through town.)
It began as a gentle rain in Tamaqua on Sunday evening, September 1, 1850, and gradually turned into a nonstop downpour, By daylight, the trestles leading into the mines at Newkirk, just beyond the west end of town, became clogged with dirt and debris that built up so high that a massive natural dam formed on the Wabash Creek. After several hours, the dam gave way and water rushed into the valley toward Tamaqua, combining with yet another flood racing down from the north mountains as the swollen Little Schuylkill River, over its banks, roared toward town determined to return to its natural course, its path of least resistance. Two floods converged on Tamaqua in one horrific crash, destroying much of what had been built on the flatlands. For a brief time, the Little Schuylkill River had indeed returned to its natural path, and in doing so, bitterly destroyed almost everything man had erected along the way. The water's depth was beyond imagination.
One of the historical sketches indicates, "The generally accepted theory is that the flood was caused by a great water spout which burst over the valleys. In the gorge on Burning Mountain a tree 60 feet up the side marks the height of the sudden flood-everything on the flats was swept away. Dwellings, foundations and workshops were taken away by the waters. A double frame house in which 22 persons had taken shelter, was torn asunder and all were drowned The Rev. Oberfeld was caught by the water while in the act of rescuing a child and was drowned."
Accounts reveal that 62 people lost their lives during the disaster. The tracks of the Little Schuylkill Railroad were completely obliterated and the town was isolated from the outside world for six days. On September 2 and 3, everybody turned out to retrieve the dead. One procession brought in 11 bodies at one time. Mourners simply wandered the streets in disbelief, as it seemed that death had claimed a life in every home.
Many businesses never reopened and approximately 40 homes were completely swept away by the flood waters. Bridges and roads ceased to exist. People were rescued from trees. One story even tells of a gallant man galloping his horse by the water's edge trying to save struggling victims, only to be swept away himself by the erratic current.
As for the minister who died rescuing a child, there remains a stark, solemn monument in St. John's Lutheran Cemetery on Patterson Street in Tamaqua. The tallest white, thin grave marker in the cemetery's old section at one time provided an account of the rescue in English on the markers east side and in the German language on the west. Today, the inscription on the English side has surrendered to nature, but on the German side, you still can discern the words of the heroic attempt of "Rev. Peter Z. Oberfelter" (the German spelling), who gave his life to save a drowning child. The tombstone, six feet high, rests high and dry on Dutch Hill, overlooking the valley.
Sadly, the Great Flood of 1850 remains Tamaqua’s most historic single event and most noted tragedy.
One would think that a disaster of this magnitude would have been thoroughly documented by someone living in the area, but no news article has been uncovered. What were the “many businesses that never reopened”? There is no record.
The only contemporary news article that covered the tragedy that has been uncovered was that published in The Miner’s Journal And Pottsville General Advertiser on September 7. The text of section dealing with Tamaqua is as follows:
TAMAQUA. The flood reached this place about 4 o’clock A.M. Part of the town is situated on a flats in the valley of the Little Schuylkill; this was swept clean of every building, and from the suddenness of the waters rise and the hour of the occurrence, the loss of life is very great. The damage to individual property is also greater than at any other place we had heard from; about 50 lives it is supposed were lost. Up to Wednesday evening 36 bodies had been recovered. The following is a list of names of those drowned so far as we have ascertained: Wife of Thomas Foster, two girls and boy; Mrs. Edmunds, one boy, one girl, and two grand-daughters; Mrs. David Jones and child; Mrs. Gresing and child; Mr. Geo. Welsh, one boy and two girls; Mrs. Ytringham, two girls and two boys; Mrs. Heron, and four children; Catherine Williams; Mary. McCartney a young girl from Beaver Meadows; a young girl fourteen years of age, daughter of Daniel Oxrider; Rev. P. Z. Oberfelt, pastor of the German Lutheran congregation; Mary Williams.
Without further information on the specifics of this disastrous event we speculate that it was the Great Flood of 1850 that led to Hopkin’s business failure in Tamaqua.
Rev. November 2010 | <urn:uuid:121de743-ffe4-43a8-9694-2d18f6ca7b62> | {
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At Feldmanis Family Dentistry, Dr. Rita Feldmanis always strives to inform patients about the important role that diet plays in helping to maintain and improve their oral health. But what if you never drank a soda or ever ate anything overly acidic, would you still suffer from tooth decay? How much does genetics play in determining our long-term oral health, and does it matter whether you’re a girl or a boy?
For decades, researchers have found it difficult to determine why some patients suffer from tooth decay while others who share similar diets and eating habits do not. Many different studies have found that severe tooth decay occurs more frequently in men than women. Studies on dental erosion have been conducted on groups as diverse as wine lovers to patients suffering from eating disorders. Both of these groups include individuals who frequently expose their teeth to acid, and therefore have a higher risk of suffering from tooth decay. Surprisingly, research has found that not all of the people in these types of groups share the same risk for tooth decay. A new study from researchers at the University of Oslo’s Faculty of Dentistry are now attempting to explain this discrepancy.
More Than Just Acid Erosion
What explains why some individuals suffer from tooth decay while others do not? Why do some people, when exposed to oral acids, have such a different reaction than others who consume a similar diet and receive the same level of exposure? These are the types of questions the research team hopes to answer.
“As dentists and researchers, we are often facing cases of dental erosion that we have difficulties explaining, and we meet patients who don’t have dental erosion although their lifestyle indicates that they should. It is also a general assumption that boys tend to have more erosion and more severe erosive lesion than girls. We believe that this disparity is due to something more than just the acidic effect,” explains researchers in a written statement.
Finding an Answer
To begin finding some answers, researchers conducted a study on 66 patients with vomiting and eating disorders. The study included a clinical examination and a questionnaire where patients were asked to detail their illness. Questions about the frequency of vomiting and duration of the eating disorder were asked of all the participants, along with questions regarding their general health, eating and drinking habits, and oral hygiene habits.
The study found that 70 percent of the participants suffered from tooth decay and that those who had suffered with their illnesses the longest had more evidence of decay and more lesions when compared to those who had dealt with their disease for a shorter period of time. The findings of this study helped to confirm researchers’ assumptions that tooth decay is a common problem in patients dealing with an eating disorder. However, researchers were surprised to find that a full third of participants showed no signs of enamel erosion, despite also frequently vomiting due to their eating disorder.
Researchers then conducted laboratory testing in an attempt to isolate why certain study participants were immune to tooth decay. The results showed that the susceptibility to tooth decay seemed to be influenced by both an individual’s oral biome and the quality of dental enamel.
Researchers believe that the key to explaining this discrepancy may simply come down to genetics. Some people may possess a genetic makeup that makes their teeth naturally more resilient to tooth decay. While this certainly seems unfair to all of us you had to endure a filling despite brushing and flossing daily, it does give researchers hope that by identifying the genetic markers for stronger tooth enamel they may be able to find ways of duplicating that effect for others.
Until that time, it’s important that patients keep brushing and flossing daily, and continue to schedule regular exams and cleanings at Feldmanis Family Dentistry. | <urn:uuid:5f623dae-3485-4639-a2b1-a81e4860ff38> | {
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The study from the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service, published on Wednesday in the Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry, compared spinach leaves kept under continuous lighting against spinach kept in the dark, each for three to nine days.
It found the spinach kept under lighting had significantly higher levels of vitamins C, K and E and folate, and the carotenoids lutein and zeaxanthin, reported Reuters.
Comparatively, the spinach stored in the dark lost nutrients. The research should extend to other vegetables.
The idea for the study came to researcher Gene Lester while shopping, he said. Seeing spinach kept in supermarkets at 4°C under fluorescent lighting, he wondered if it was good or bad for the vegetables.
“It is about time we asked some of these questions and do some of the science,” he told Reuters, adding the findings should ultimately not be surprising.
“These vitamins are basically in the plant for photosynthesis and we humans, being the biggest predator of plants, have evolved over time to utilise them as opposed to we having to manufacture them,” he explained.
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Brussels is the home and heart of the European Union, including the European Research Council, and the project ERC=Science², run by the Brussels-based media and communications company, Science|Business has been promoting ERC grantees around Europe for more than three years. If you’re interested in the latest European research into Smart Cities, Food/Nutrition, Longevity, the Senses, Music and AI, take a look at the project’s interactive articles on-line. The project was designed to reach a wide public of specialists and non-specialists in Europe and afar, using traditional web and social media, as well as videos, cartoons, augmented reality, and ‘popup’ displays for museums and shopping centres.
Science like you’ve never tasted it before – Brussels-style
One such ERC funded project featured by ERC=Science² is ShareCity. Irish researcher Anna Davies and her ERC-funded project is in its fourth year now, studying ways to share food within cities. The group built a database of food-sharing initiatives in 100 cities around the world, including Brussels.
What is science? Better question: what isn’t it?
Since 2015, we have been chronicling the amazing diversity of work funded by the European Research Council – finding science in traffic jams, urban gardens, Turkish music, even the lifespans of monks. Science, it appears, is everywhere. Indeed, the specialised term, “scientist,” is only a few hundred years old; before then, there were “natural philosophers” or, as technical experts, crafts people – and their work of course affected every aspect of life.
In painting, for instance, Marieke Hendriksen, a Dutch historian studying the technology of the arts from 1500 to 1950, says: “we have come across examples where the reader is advised to taste a fluid for cleaning old paintings to establish its acidity,” Another example: “a pressing iron that should be cooled before use to the point where it no longer hisses when a wet sponge is pressed against it.” Her goal, as part of an ERC-funded team: to create a database of recipes and techniques, an online historical semantic map of (in Dutch) “techné”.
With this broad definition in mind, here are highlights and updates from some of the researchers we have written about and connected with through social media and events across the European Union.
Is food-sharing the future?
Irish researcher Anna Davies and her ERC-funded project is in its fourth year now, studying ways to share food within cities. The group built a database of food-sharing initiatives in 100 cities around the world, including New York, Santiago, Brussels, Mumbai, Nairobi and Christchurch. She has a book coming out, Urban Food Sharing, and is launching online tools to help these eco-friendly initiatives grow. They include a match-making service to help the initiatives inter-connect, and a set of indicators to consider and communicate the impacts of the food sharing efforts they support.
In September 2019, her project is running an international workshop in Dublin to reflect on the findings of their research examining the governance of food sharing. The aim: a governance manifesto for sustainable food sharing.
“I’m hopeful that the impacts of urban food sharing will become more visible in decision making,” Davies says. “The long-term goal is of course the attainment of the (UN) 2030 Agenda and a food system that not only provides safe, healthy, and sustainable food for everyone, but which also provides opportunities for people to grow, cook and eat together.”
Now smell this
Another ERC-funded researcher, Marianna Obrist, helped bring the smell of the forest to the World Economic Forum, a famous international gathering of the rich and powerful every January in Davos, Switzerland. There, New York-based designer New Reality built a virtual reality show that lets you feel what it’s like to be a growing rainforest tree, with your body as trunk and your arms as branches. Based partly on Obrist’s sensory research, the team developed a software and hardware system called OWidgets to delivers burst of compressed air – in this case, whatever it is a tree might smell if a tree could smell – to the user’s nose.
She has gone on, in a series of scientific publications, to explore smell in greater depth. One, which she entitled “Smell-O-Message”, had volunteers test “the effectiveness of visual, olfactory and combined visual-olfactory notifications in a messaging application.” The conclusion: adding smell to a message gets your attention fast – or, in the more formal scientific language: “We demonstrated that olfactory notifications improve users’ confidence and performance in identifying the urgency level of a message, with the same reaction time and disruption levels as for visual notifications.”
Power to the people
Jennifer Gabrys has been running a citizen science project to help people better understand the amount of pollution in their local environment. The group developed devices that city dwellers can use to measure particulate matter in the air around them, and demonstrated that urban vegetation can have a mitigating effect on air pollution levels. Or, as they put it: “While reducing emissions at the source is the best way to address air pollution, vegetation can play an important role in mitigating air pollution. Trees and plants can capture particulate matter, absorb gaseous pollutants, and phyto-remediate soils. In addition, vegetation can enhance biodiversity, capture stormwater and reduce flooding, and lessen the urban heat island effect.”
They then developed what they call an air quality garden with the Museum of London and the City of London. Through further workshops and walks hosted during Open Fest, the team developed a “phyto-sensor toolkit” for people to set up their own gardens to improve air quality.
Another citizen-scientist advocate is Manuel Franco, who organised people in an impoverished neighbourhood of Madrid to photograph their local food environment – the good, the bad and the ugly. The focus: habits or circumstances in the city that can endanger people’s cardiovascular health. Result? These citizen scientists were emboldened to develop their own food policy recommendations, which they gave to local authorities (for instance, get healthier workplace vending machines.)
Since then, the group has been helping similar citizen-science efforts in the US and Spain, and published 29 scientific articles. And it developed a method to identify “risky areas” in cities for cardiovascular health in cities.
What happens when a research project fails?
Of course, not every experiment is a success; if it were, it wouldn’t be real science.
For a brief time in early 2018, we had a wonderful Twitter connection with the ERC-funded project PICSAT (@PicSat), a nano-satellite the size of a shoebox aimed at observing the transit of a young planet outside our solar system, Beta Pictoris b, as it moves in front of its bright and equally young star Beta Pictoris.
PicSat, on Twitter, was an anthropomorphised, chatty, poetry-writing, “talking” satellite. Its purpose was scientific, but while en route it – or rather its human handlers – engaged with schoolchildren, astronomers and ham radio operators from around the world. We chatted with PicSat about astronomy in general, and PicSat’s mission in particular. We marveled at the close connection PicSat had with ham radio operators from around the world who regularly sent the PicSat team information they gathered from its “beams” back to earth.
As a reward, the team would regularly direct PicSat to beam down space-themed quotes and the like for the ham radio operators to decode. A sample: On 1 March 2018, one ham radio operator @EA4SG tweeted: “@IamPicSat is telling us: ‘Enjoy your weekend with lots of apple pie! If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the Universe (CS)’”- a reference to the late astronomer Carl Sagan.
And then, after 10 weeks in operation, on the afternoon (in Paris) of Tuesday, 20 March 2018, PicSat suddenly fell silent. Attempts to re-establish contact failed. No sign of life. Did something in space hit it? Did its power fail? No explanation. Just the silence of space.
Of course, that isn’t the end of the story. The researchers learned a lot about managing this new breed of tiny, (relatively) inexpensive satellites, and are planning further research. The @SciSq tweet on 5 April 2018: “We’re deeply saddened @IamPicSat ‘disappeared from our radar’ most likely, forever. We’ll never forget the loyal & outstanding #citizensciencecollaboration it had w/ #hamradio amateurs around the globe, & the way in which it delighted all who followed it. Farewell, stargazer!”
Author: Diane Fresquez
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The Power of Mirror Neurons and Why Parents’ Energy Matters
Because we’re frequently the first responders to our kids’ challenging moments, our own energy and emotions have a major effect on them. Learn how mirror neurons impact behavior, and how you can help calm extreme ADHD emotions with your reactions.
There is a clear connection between a parent’s energy and a child’s emotional regulation. One trait that almost all differently-wired kids share is emotional intensity or hypersensitivity to the world around them — physical, mental, emotional. In other words, they respond to energy.
Ask anyone raising a child with sensory processing issues, and they’ll tell you their kid can read a room better than a seasoned politician. They lose it over things like a pebble in their shoe or a tag in their shirt. Likewise, when kids with ADHD notice energy shifts, they often respond as if a switch has been flipped. They are emotional barometers, not to mention mirrors of us as parents.
Our Energy Affects Our Teens
If we don’t regulate our own energy, we can make a bad situation worse. We have a type of brain cell called “mirror neurons” — cells that mimic behavior and feelings they see in others. If we see a friend bump her head, our mirror neurons fire up, and we wince in sympathy.
So when we get angry or yell during difficult moments with our kids, our child’s mirror neurons rise up to meet ours. More anger ensues, the situation intensifies, and it takes us longer to get to a place of calm and resolution. And we blame ourselves for not being “perfect.”
Use Energy for Good
Mirror neurons can work in our favor and contribute to creating an environment of calmness and acceptance, even in tough moments. By learning how to manage our own energy — which comes with commitment — we can stop muddying the waters, and defuse a conflict without saying a word. Even better, using our energy for good bonds us to our kids, since we will be their rock no matter what feelings they are working through.
Don’t Transfer Your Own Anxiety to Your Child
I recently reviewed an email from a mother whose daughter has executive functioning challenges and dysgraphia, and, possibly, ADHD. For the last few years, the mother has struggled with anxiety over her daughter’s challenges. Then the mom worked hard to focus on the present and recognize that her daughter would be fine in the long run, likely even stronger for her struggles. Once she did this, it changed the way her daughter experienced her life as well.
Many of us harbor anxiety over present and future unknowns relating to our child. We might notice that our anxiety peaks during certain times of the year, such as high school graduation season, a time when our Facebook newsfeeds are filled with photos of happy students transitioning to bright futures. We see those images and we act a little differently toward our child — less patient, more intense, less trusting. And our kids will feel it.
We want to know our emotional triggers so we can know when they’re being pulled. I know my own — feeling like I’m not being taken seriously, or having someone be angry with me when I feel they have no right to be. Being aware of these triggers keeps me honest about my reactions when my son sparks a strong response in me.
One way to get to the heart of our feelings about our teen is to ask: What am I making this mean? I have a friend with a twice-exceptional child with autism. He has no friends. My friend has racked her brain looking for ways to help him build a social circle. I asked her what she was making it mean that her son didn’t have a social circle. I know that her son is happy doing his own thing and spending time alone.
After my friend gave it some thought, she realized she had a lot invested in the idea that her son needed a small, tight-knit circle of friends to be happy, in part because she herself wouldn’t have survived high school without her two best friends. Making this connection didn’t end the worries for my friend, but it did prompt her to consider that her son’s needs were different from hers, and that he might spend a lot of time alone. And that’s OK. Knowing that helps her stay more relaxed when another social situation triggers the same response.
Reframe the Situation for a Better Perspective
Another powerful reframing question is What’s perfect about this? Meaning, how might what’s happening in this moment be exactly what needs to happen for my child, for me, or both of us? Often my response was, “I can’t think of a single thing.” But then I discovered there is always a way to flip a situation around and consider the gifts that might be hidden within it.
Excerpted from Differently Wired: Raising an Exceptional Child in a Conventional World, by DEBORAH REBER. Copyright 2018, Workman Publishing.
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Lesson 8: refer to evidence in a text to draw a character
In this lesson you will:
Find the description of Auggie in the text
Draw Auggie, using the written description as a set of instructions
Use colour to depict emotion and character
Read from A Tour of the Galaxy to August through the Peephole. You can listen here
I wonder why we have not had a proper description of Auggie thus far in the novel.
I wonder why it has taken the reader so long to be given a description of him when his physical features are so key to the story.
What are your thoughts about this? Write them down.
Draw a picture of Auggie. You will need to use the description given in the book, in particular, Via's perspective. I wonder if this differs from Auggie's descriptions of himself.
Show some of Auggie's personality in your drawing: explore how you might do this using colour (think about the first art lesson for the term based on Emotions and Feelings).
Email your picture to me so that I can post them here: it would be interesting to see how your images differ and how they are the same.
Are you continuing to make a note of interesting phrases and sayings that occur in each chapter? | <urn:uuid:2759798a-e044-4d83-a155-6f3bd0c324b5> | {
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- 1 Should You Use Timelines In Your Presentations?
- 2 How To Use SmartArt To Make A Timeline In PowerPoint
- 3 How To Create Timelines Manually In PowerPoint
- 4 Final Words On How To Make A Timeline In PowerPoint
In this article, I’m going to teach you how to make a timeline in PowerPoint. When presenting a list of events in a sequential or chronological order, it’s best to do so using a graphical representation, also known as a timeline.
You can also use text, of course, but when presenting a timeline in PowerPoint, it’s more preferable to use a visual representation as it makes it easier to follow a chain of events from the starting point until the endpoint.
Should You Use Timelines In Your Presentations?
Many PowerPoint presentations can benefit from the use of timelines. Here are some examples:
- If you’re a history teacher, you can present a timeline of whatever historical event you’re discussing in class.
- If you’re a project manager, you can present a timeline of milestones, deadlines, and deliverables for your project.
- For startups looking for investor funding, you may want to include your product or project’s timeline so potential investors can see if it’s worthwhile getting involved with your company.
There are plenty of uses for a timeline, and it’s ultimately up to you if you’re going to use one in your presentation.
Now, there are a couple of different ways you can make a timeline in PowerPoint. Let’s start with the first, and easiest, method.
How To Use SmartArt To Make A Timeline In PowerPoint
SmartArt is great for making timelines in PowerPoint because whenever you add a new point in the timeline, the diagram is going to automatically adjust and resize. This means you don’t have to manually drag and resize your timeline. In all honesty, this can be a very time-consuming process especially if you’re working through a lot of dates or milestones.
So here’s how to use SmartArt for timelines:
- Go to Insert > Illustrations > SmartArt.
- The Choose a SmartArt Graphic dialog box will then pop-up. Usually, the SmartArt graphics used for timelines are in the Process You can play around and go through the different graphics to see which one best suits your needs.
You can see below that I’ve clicked on the Basic Timeline graphic. You can see a description on the lower right section of the screenshot that PowerPoint gives you a description of what each SmartArt graphic is best used for.
- Once you’ve selected a suitable SmartArt timeline, click the OK For my example, I chose to go with the Basic Timeline graphic. This is what it looks like on my slide.
- You can simply click on the [Text] box and start typing your text. For this example, I chose to write Milestones 1 to 3 on the timeline.
- If you want to add more milestones or dates, you can do so by going to SmartArt Tools > Design, and then clicking on Add Shape. But before you do that make sure you’ve selected or clicked on one of the shapes so you can choose if you want to add the additional shape before or after the shape you’ve clicked on.
- This is what happens when I add more shapes to my timeline. To edit the text easily, I type in the Text Pane instead of on the timeline graphic itself.
- If you want to add a bullet point under each milestone, you can click on the milestone and then go to SmartArt Tools > Design > Add Bullet. Note that if you don’t click on the milestone first, the Add Bullet button is not going to be clickable.
- If you’d like to customize your timeline’s look, you can go through the different settings in the SmartArt Tools tabs Design and Format. For instance, if you’d like to change the direction of the arrow, you can click on the Right To Left button. Here’s what it looks like:
If you’d like to change the layout, you can go to the Layouts section in the Design tab. Here’s what I changed my arrow SmartArt graphic timeline to:
If you’d like to change colors, go to SmartArt Styles, then click on Change Colors.
You can easily change the way your timeline graphic looks. But, at the end of the day, it’s still going to look familiar to many people who’ve been exposed to PowerPoint timelines.
Don’t get me wrong, SmartArt is a great tool for making timelines quickly. However, like I mentioned above, the downside is that your presentation is going to look a lot like millions of other PowerPoint timelines.
How To Create Timelines Manually In PowerPoint
If you care about good design and standing out from the crowd, then you should consider creating timelines manually. This is going to take you a bit longer, but if you’re aiming to impress your audience, this is the way to do it.
Here are a few tips to get you started:
1. Get Inspiration
There are plenty of places on the Internet where you can get ideas on how to create a great looking timeline. Timeline infographics are particularly useful because these are often designed by creative designers.
You can go on Pinterest and browse through millions of graphics submitted and shared by members. Here’s what my search for ‘timeline infographic design’ on Pinterest gave me.
2. Use PowerPoint Templates
Templates are awesome because they give you a head start on creating great looking timelines. Now, there are two kinds of templates: free and premium.
Most premium templates include a couple of slides dedicated to timelines. Here’s an example premium template on GraphicRiver. The bestselling template there is called Motagua, and you can see from the screenshot below that their timeline template looks vastly different from PowerPoint’s SmartArt graphics:
3. Use Vector Graphics
For visually enticing timelines, you should use vector graphics as these are fully scalable and can be resized without pixelating. Here are a few sites where you can download free vectors: Freepik, VectorStock, and Vector4Free.
4. Use Animations And Slide Transitions
Don’t show your timeline all at once. Instead, you should show only the first point, talk about it a bit, before proceeding to the next point. Using animations will help get your point across and will keep your audience’s interest as well.
Final Words On How To Make A Timeline In PowerPoint
Timelines are a powerful way of conveying sequential information such as important historical dates or future project milestones or deadlines. If you don’t have a lot of time and you need to come up with a timeline fast, PowerPoint’s SmartArt graphics is a tool you can use to quickly come up with a nice-looking timeline.
However, if you have a bit of time or maybe a budget for premium PowerPoint templates, then you’re not limited to using SmartArt. With imagination and some inspiration, you can create stunning timelines that will impress everyone in the room. | <urn:uuid:555108f6-fbe5-4e41-a1df-e766840b11bc> | {
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Obesity is less common in more equal societies.
Obesity is increasing rapidly throughout the developed world. In some countries rates have doubled in just a few years. In the USA, three-quarters of the population are overweight, and close to a third are obese. In the UK, two-thirds of adults are overweight and more than a fifth are obese. Obesity increases the risk of hypertension, late onset diabetes, cardiovascular disease, gallbladder disease, and some cancers. The trends in children's obesity are likely to lead to shorter life expectancies for today's children - this would be the first reversal in life expectancy since the nineteenth century.
We found that obesity among men and women (see graph), as well as calorie intake and deaths from diabetes, are related to income inequality in rich countries. In addition, obesity in adults is also related to inequality in the 50 US states; and the percentage of children who are overweight is related to inequality both internationally and in the USA.
Pickett KE, Kelly S, Brunner E, Lobstein T, Wilkinson RG. Wider income gaps, wider waistbands? An ecological study of obesity and income inequality. Journal of Epidemioogy and Community Health 2005;59(8):670-4
The International Obesity TaskForce http://www.iotf.org/
World Health Organization http://www.who.int/topics/obesity/en/
Wilkinson RG, Pickett KE. The Spirit Level. Penguin. 2009. Buy the book from Amazon. | <urn:uuid:c4d88856-8186-46d7-bcd5-04a2d79b91ba> | {
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Of our 43 presidents, only one -- Calvin Coolidge -- was born on the anniversary of Independence Day. It was in 1872 on a small farm in Vermont where the emphasis was on simplicity, learning, respect for hard work, thrift, the principles of representative democracy and a deep belief in God. Independence Day was not only his birthday, it also symbolized for him the genius of the American experiment.
When we think of Coolidge today -- if we think of him at all -- it is as "Silent Cal," a man of few words. In fact, he had a lot to say, but he used words economically, without adornment. His Yankee upbringing and a classical education at Amherst College combined to give him a way of expressing himself that was, at once, both simple and eloquent.
In July 1926, President Coolidge was in Philadelphia to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. He was the last president to write all of his own speeches. A latter-day presidential speechwriter would have a hard time improving on what the 30th president said at Philadelphia:
"If all men are created equal, that is final. If they are endowed with inalienable rights, that is final. If governments derive their just power from the consent of the governed, that is final. No advance, no progress can be made beyond these propositions. If anyone wishes to deny their truth and their soundness, the only direction in which he can proceed historically is not forward, but backward toward the time when there was no equality, no rights of the individual, no rule of the people. Those who wish to proceed in that direction cannot lay claim to progress. They are reactionary." It would be hard to improve on that.
Coolidge's era, the Twenties, had some parallels to our own: unprecedented prosperity, great technological innovation, emphasis on material gain, but also a widespread thirst for deeper values, for moral grounding. He was the antithesis of the stereotype that comes down to us from the Twenties -- flappers, bathtub gin, fast cars and dancing. He constantly appealed to the higher instincts of the people. For example, he once said, "Prosperity is only an instrument to be used, not a deity to be worshipped." In a newspaper article after he left the White House, he wrote, "...wealth is not an end, but a means. We need it only for the use we can make of it. The real standard of life is not one of quantity but of quality; not of money, but of character."
Too bad the corner-cutters and rule-benders at Enron, Arthur Anderson, Worldcom, Tyco and a handful of other "go-go" companies were never treated to a lecture from Silent Cal. Then again, they all seemed to be following the ruling passion of the Nineties. That is, that the end justifies the means. For Bill Clinton, it meant doing whatever was necessary to get to the White House and to stay there, including letting his allies loose to destroy the reputations of anyone who dared criticize him. For the go-go corporate chieftains, it was bookkeeping trickery and endless acquisitions that carried them to greater and greater heights. That is, until their respective bubbles burst.
Coolidge would have had a low opinion of the whole bunch. He had an almost mystical reverence for public service. Today, talk of public service often produces yawns from those who hear it, but for Coolidge, rectitude and a sense of duty were genuine.
As president, he believed in minimalist government, one that should stand aside in areas where it was not needed. His growth-oriented tax policies led to great expansion of prosperity. He produced balanced budgets annually and reduced the national debt by approximately $1 billion each year he was in office. And, shortly after taking office upon the sudden death of President Warren Harding, he cleaned up the scandals that erupted from that administration.
Coolidge would be dismayed by the incessant attacks nowadays upon references to God in our national symbols and institutions. He considered the "inalienable rights" referred to in the Declaration of Independence as being God-given. So did the nation's founders. Coolidge put it this way: "The foundation of our independence and our government rests upon our basic religious convictions." Those convictions guided this son of the Fourth of July all of his life.
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Museum of Science, Boston
The Computing Revolution
To shrink an entire museum into one exhibition
User Experience/Interface Design Enigma Game Programming Programming
When the Museum of Science took over Boston’s Computer Museum, their challenge was to shrink an entire museum into one exhibition. We created seven computer stations and a companion web site that highlight key moments, concepts and breakthroughs from the history of computing, and provide a high level of interactivity.
Working with materials and direction from the Museum, we visualized the history of The Computing Revolution by creating unique user interfaces for each of the seven kiosks: Enigma, Whirlwind, UNIVAC, Personal Computers, When Computers Go Bad, Hacking, and 21st Century.
To give visitors some experience with a well known antecedent of modern computers, we recreated a working World War II Enigma Machine where they can try their hands at creating and decoding messages, and under- stand the tremendous achievement of breaking the German code.
We developed a video capture tool for two of the stations; visitors can tell their own horror stories at When Computers Go Bad, and they can predict the future of computing at the 21st Century station.
It was essential for Museum staff to be able to review and edit these visitor videos, so we developed an admin tool that allows Museum staff to review the recorded videos and then update the selection to be featured on the kiosks, from their own desktops. We also created four short, 3D-animated films detailing the inner workings of computers, teaching visitors about Binary Counting, Vacuum Tubes, Magnetic Core Memory and Integrated Circuit Chips.
Robin White Owen, Producer Phil Wilhelm, Designer Rob Womack, Programmer Cameron Hickey, 3D animations | <urn:uuid:f5ca6e0b-9cb8-4dfe-8aac-5e80563de876> | {
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Los Tres Ojos
Los Tres Ojos (The Three Eyes in English) is the name given to a 50-yard open-air limestone cave located in the Mirador del Este park, in the Santo Domingo Este municipality of the Dominican Republic. A series of three lakes, or ojos, the site is currently one of the most visited tourist attractions in the country. The caves are open from 9 am to 5 pm, and are illuminated at night by many colored lights.
The site was created centuries ago as a result of tectonic fractures when underground caves collapsed, forming a bowl-shaped depression which subsequently filled with water. Initially, the cave was inhabited by the indigenous Taíno Indians who were the first inhabitants of the Hispaniola island. The three lakes are called "Lago de Azufre" (discovered in 1916), "La Nevera" and "El Lago de las Damas". Some of the lakes also have openings on the outside. A staircase cut into the rock gives access to the first cave. A boat pulls visitors across the second lake to give access to a fourth lake called "Los Zaramagullones," not considered one of the three "eyes" or main lakes since it has an opening to the outside.
The caves are fed by water from an underground river and surrounded by stalactites and stalagmites. The composition of the water varies. The two ponds are respectively made of sulphurous water and salt water, while the large lake is composed of freshwater. Their temperature varies between 20 °C to 29 °C, depending on the site, and their various depths give rise to different colored reflections, blue, green, and sometimes yellow. The fauna is also very varied and includes fish, bats and turtles. Surrounding vegetation is lush and abundant. The depth of the lake remains unknown.
- Los Tres Ojos, Destination 360 Destination360.com Retrieved 21 June 2009
- (in French) République Dominicaine, Visites Karavel.com Retrieved 21 June 2009
- Dominican Republic and Haiti, Paul Clammer, Michael Grosberg, Jens Porup, 2008, p. 87
- Cueva de los Tres Ojos/Three Eyes Cave, Viva Travel Guides, Christopher Minster Vivatravelguides.com Retrieved 21 June 2009
- (in Spanish) Parque Nacional Los Tres Ojos Hoteles.com Retrieved 21 June 2009
- (in French) Visite de la grotte los tres ojos Entre2voyages.com Retrieved 21 June 2009
- (in French) République Dominicaine ABC-latina.com Retrieved 21 June 2009
- (in French) "La République Dominicaine", Échappées belles, France 5, broadcast on 3 February 2007 France5.tr Retrieved 21 June 2009
- (in French) Description Los Tres Ojos Cityzeum.com Retrieved 21 June 2009
- Explore the Dominican Republic, Harry S. Pariser, 1998, p.137-38
- Culture and customs of the Dominican Republic, Isabel Zakrzewski Brown, 1999, p. 10
- Los Tres Ojos travel guide | <urn:uuid:ed886699-f875-4da7-9c67-3ee2e4c9651f> | {
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