The two most harmful air pollutants, particulate matter (PM2.5) and ozone, hardly declined during the lockdown period in China.
Researchers from the University of Leeds and the University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen, analysed 1,600 air quality monitoring stations in China from January 2015 to April 2020 in order to isolate and understand the changes in air pollution during the lockdown period.
The researchers found that while concentrations of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) did show improvements, the two most harmful pollutants to human health hardly declined.
Fine particles measuring less than 2.5µm – had a modest reduction of 11% in some areas and did not decline at all in north-east China.
The researchers also found that there was almost no change in ozone concentrations across the country.
Lead author of the study Ben Silver, from the University of Leeds, said: ‘The largest reductions of NO2 were in the Hubei province, where NO2 concentrations were over 50% lower during the lockdown.
‘Much smaller reductions were observed for other pollutants. PM2.5 particles had only a modest reduction and are the most harmful constituent of air pollution, as they travel deep into the lungs and bloodstream and damage the lungs and heart.’
Co-author Xinyue He, added: ‘Chinese NOx emissions are dominated by transport (35%), industry (35%), and power generation (19%, all of which are likely to have been affected by the lockdown.
‘Whereas PM2.5 concentrations in China are heavily influenced by residential emissions, which are likely to have been less affected by the control measures.
‘The modest improvement in air quality during the lockdown, despite very large reductions in emissions from some sources such as traffic, highlights the challenge facing China as it tries to further improve air quality.
‘Our study provides insight into the effects of future emission reductions and can help inform the development of effective air pollution mitigation strategies.’


Preventing falls in one of the foremost responsibilities of senior care providers. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) approximately 1,800 nursing home residents die from falls annually, and more than half of residents will fall in any given year. Between 10% and 20% of nursing home falls cause serious injuries, and 2% to 6% cause fractures.
Falls rarely have a single cause. Instead, they are usually the result of a confluence of interwoven causes. It’s important that those responsible for clinical care at senior care facilities be mindful of the various factors that can contribute to a fall.
Here are seven fall risk factors that senior living providers can’t afford to ignore:
1. A History of Falls
One of the most reliable predictors of future falls is past falls. Senior communities should obtain a thorough fall history of all new residents so that they can proactively identify individuals who are at a high risk of falling. Providers should also carefully monitor and track any incidents that have occurred within the community so that they can personalize and perfect their fall prevention strategies.
2. Impaired Mobility and Gait
Naturally, residents who have come to develop trouble ambulating are at a higher risk of stumbling and falling. Changes in mobility and gait can be caused from issues ranging from foot problems, to a bruised knee, to muscle weakness, but whatever the cause, they invariably increase a senior’s risk of falling. Sometimes these changes in mobility and gait are apparent to a casual observer, and staff can appropriately intervene to reduce the risk. But other times these changes are subtle and not readily apparent to human observers.
Passive, sensor-based fall risk assessment technologies can use artificial intelligence to detect changes from norms, such as subtle changes in gait, which may not be obvious to a human observer but that none-the-less indicate an increased fall risk. These systems provide alerts that afford staff the opportunity to put in place extra safeguards to prevent falls when residents are at higher risk.
3. Sedentary Behavior
Elderly adults who rarely engage in physical activity experience an increased incidence of falls. Conversely, seniors who take part in physical activity and exercise that’s appropriate to their age and abilities see “significant reductions in falls that result in injuries”, wrote the authors of a study published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.
Senior communities can encourage all residents to participate in community fitness programs, and should take note if a resident’s activity level is waning. However, decreases in activity aren’t always immediately noticed by staff. This is another case where sensor-based passive monitoring technologies can help to detect behaviors that humans alone could not. Automated, ambient fall monitoring technologies can assess resident activity levels even when they are alone, and can notify staff if decreased activity may be an indication of illness or heightened fall risk.
4. Vision Problems
Sight problems are also a major contributor to falls. Conditions such as cataracts, glaucoma, macular degeneration, as well as depth perception issues can lead to falls. Senior living providers should exercise special caution when it comes to the safety of residents with vision problems. For instance, the living spaces of vision-impaired residents should be carefully assessed to make sure they are safe, accessible, and free of potential obstacles or hazards.
Medications can be a major contributor to fall risk among seniors. In particular, sedating medicines like benzodiazepines (e.g. Xanax, Valium) can strongly increase a resident’s risk of falling. While these medications do have a role in treating conditions such as anxiety and insomnia, providers should aim to limit their use as much as possible. When a resident must take medications associated with an increased fall risk, providers are wise to take special care to acknowledge and address that risk. They should also know that, as a rule, the more medication a resident is taking, the higher their fall risk.
Dizziness can find its root in a variety of common health issues, including blood pressure drops and medication side effects. Dizziness is particularly hazardous because it is often accompanied by balance problems, and can come on suddenly and unexpectedly. Residents who complain of dizziness or vertigo-like symptoms should be carefully monitored.
The symptoms of diabetes can increase a senior’s fall risks through several different mechanisms. Circulation problems can make diabetic seniors more prone to foot and leg injuries that can contribute to falls, and changes in blood sugar levels can cause dizziness and faintness.
Caring for diabetic residents can be a major challenge for providers. It’s important that, when tackling this challenge, fall prevention strategies be part of a resident’s care plan.
Providers that thoroughly assess the fall risk of their residents can put in place safeguards that are tailored to each resident’s unique needs. Automated, personalized fall risk assessment technologies can help providers proactively manage and limit the number of adverse events such as falls. These efforts dramatically improve the quality of life of residents while simultaneously easing the often overwhelming job care providers face each day. At the same time, they can lead to increased occupancy rates by making the provider a more desirable option for consumers who are searching for the best long-term care in their area, plus lengthening the average stay of residents by keeping their residents healthier for longer periods of time.
What fall warning signs do you look out for in your resident population? Is there a particular warning sign that you believe is especially important to monitor? Share your thoughts below.


World is the totality of entities and reality. It is everything that exists. The concept of world is conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions consider the world as a singular entity, while others believe that there are many different worlds that exist in the same space. This article explores the different ways in which the word world is used. This essay will discuss three of the most common examples and explain their meanings. Let’s first look at the definition of world.
The word world is also used to refer to a region or the whole human civilization. It can also refer to the physical Universe, an ontological realm, or a spiritual or religious experience. The term “end of the world” is commonly used to describe scenarios concerning the end of human civilization. The term is generally applied to the history of the Earth, which spans five millennia. The term world encompasses the major geopolitical developments over the past five millennia.
The concept of world has several meanings in philosophy. It can refer to all of reality, or it can refer to a specific ontological sense. Western philosophy has been preoccupied for centuries with the problem of how to define the concept of world. The theme of world first appeared explicitly in the early twentieth century, and has remained a subject of debate ever since. There is a wide variety of interpretations of the word world. In the end, we can define the term as whatever is referred to in a given context.
Historically, the surface of the Earth has been subdivided into seven continental masses: Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, and South America. Each continent is surrounded by five major oceans, and each has its own climate and other unique characteristics. This makes it convenient to divide the surface of the Earth into layers. The traditional divisions of the world are the North American, European, and Australian regions. Each region of the Earth is divided into its own concentric layer.
The concept of the world is a universal concept. It refers to the entire human civilization. The term can also refer to the physical world and the global economy. In addition to geographical features, the term world may also refer to the various concentric layers of the Earth. The continents are a geographical region of the globe, and the continents are geographically separated by continents. Its inhabitants have lived in various places throughout history, and it is easy to see how they came to be where they are today.
In other words, the world is the entirety of humanity. It is the sum of all the societies on the Earth and in the universe. Depending on the context, the term can mean anything from a single person to the entire human race. The world is not only a geographical area, but it can also be a time zone. A country’s population is the population of its country in a particular country. It is a measure of its culture.


How Teens Learn About Others
Despite their intense interest in other people, adolescents are slower to learn about the preferences of their peers than adults, according to results from a new approach to studying social development published in JNeurosci.
Understanding the mental states of others has been extensively studied in children, yet the development of this theory of mind in teenagers as they transition into the socially complex world of adults and the brain network supporting this ability is not well understood.
In this study, healthy adolescents and adults performed a task in which they learned about a peer's preferences for activities, fashion and food items from a previously conducted survey of individuals not involved in the study. Comparing 13 computational models to explain participants' behavior, Gabriela Rosenblau and colleagues found that both adolescents and adults use a combination of their own preferences and feedback about how their peer actually rated each item to predict their peer's preferences for future items. Adolescents, however, were less accurate in predicting their peer's preferences and had lower learning rates than adults. Ongoing development of the fusiform cortex and medial prefrontal cortex during adolescence may underlie these differences.
Article: A computational account of optimizing social predictions reveals that adolescents are conservative learners in social contexts
Corresponding author: Gabriela Rosenblau (The George Washington University and Children's National Health System, Washington, DC, USA), firstname.lastname@example.org


The Office of Religious and Spiritual Life, the Center of Multicultural Services and the Hillel club, held a celebration in the Sukkah to celebrate the Jewish holiday of Sukkot Monday at Sneaky Park.
A Sukkah is a temporary fixture meant to symbolize the huts that Israelites dwelled in during the 40 years they wandered through the desert after escaping slavery in Egypt.
They built a Sukkah to live in for a week and to celebrate the discovery of the promised land by having a stuffed feast and harvest inside it.
The festival is celebrated the fifth day after Yom Kippur and is known to be one of the most joyous Jewish holidays.
“The Sukkah itself is built in a way that it is shelter, but doesn’t protect you from all of the elements,” said Zandra Wagoner, university chaplain and assistant professor of philosophy and religion.
“By reproducing this experience, it’s recognizing that God still cared for the Israelites all that time.”
Sukkot is one of the three Biblically commanded pilgrimage festivals that is typically held on a full moon.
The holiday is set by the Hebrew calendar because the Jewish aim to stay in sync with the solar cycle.
Cantor Paul Buch from Temple Beth Israel in Pomona shared why the Sukkot is celebrated in a Sukkah and the purpose of spending time underneath a full moon.
“If you’re harvesting, you can save more later into the night since there’s at least light in the sky,” Buch said. “When you harvest your crops, regardless of your religion, you have a sense of completion and the connection with the earth, along with the bounty and fertility that need to be celebrated.”
A few student leaders who associate with Judaism and interfaith relations, publicized the holidays.
Nicole Temple, Hillel president and junior biology major, said she participated in the celebration because of Sukkot’s popularity across society and the importance of the holiday.
“It encourages spending time outdoors and amongst loved ones,” Temple said. “I wanted to share this feeling with La Verne.”
Interfaith leaders on campus serve to fulfill one of the University’s core values, diversity and inclusivity, by sharing the importance of celebrating as many holidays as possible.
Damairis Lao, interfaith leader and senior art and art history double major, participates and celebrates Sukkot because of the Sukkah’s symbolism.
Lao said it is important to engage with students who are not aware of cultures and holidays outside of their own religion or culture.
“I’ve attended the Sukkah blessing for the past three years because I love Cantor Paul’s explanation of the multilevel symbolism of the temporary shelter of the Sukkah through song and demonstration,” Lao said.
“I feel like we should organize celebrations from other religions as well because holidays and celebrations are meaningful and engaging ways to introduce students to religions and cultures outside of their own.”
Temple hopes that Sukkot becomes a more known holiday and that students know that they are celebrating and participating by just eating their food under the Sukkah.
Lao said that a potential challenge for planning any religious celebration or event would be the ability to reach out to a variety of students who are interested in attending them.
“The challenge will be reaching a wide range of students who would be interested in attending or organizing them,” Lao said.
“And also broadening our scope to include eastern cultures and establishing those events as annual traditions that show the University’s commitment to diversity and inclusivity,” Lao said.
Nicolette Rojo can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.org.


Sergey Sall, a physicist: ”If we adopt these technologies, need for oil and gas will be reduced tenfold”
The reactor of Rossi uses #Nickel powder, which is heated and then there is the reaction of cold fusion and, say, a few hundred grams of nickel powder allows to heat a large house for a dozen years. Can you imagine what huge energy is? The same systems can be put on a vehicle, anywhere. With the appropriate investment of effort and money, Catalyzer Rossi could transfer all the energy on cold fusion.


On November 3, 2004, leaders in the movement for LGBT equality watched as voters in 11 US states overwhelmingly approved ballot measures banning marriage for gay and lesbian couples. The moment was devastating for thousands of families in those states, as well as hundreds of advocates who had been forced into the fight.
Prior to that election, many LGBT leaders were hesitant to prioritize marriage as an issue, believing America wasn’t ready for that conversation. They preferred to focus on other issues such as protecting lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Americans from discrimination. But opponents of equality wanted a wedge issue and managed to force marriage to the fore.
Before the losses of 2004, a few foundations, including the Gill Foundation and the Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund, already had been supporting public education efforts to promote the freedom to marry. Following 2004’s string of defeats, the Gill Foundation hosted an emergency convening of LGBT leaders and funders in Denver to develop a serious national public education campaign.
The goal was clear and daunting: to win a majority for marriage. The challenge of building that majority would be massive. In 2004, national support for same-sex marriage stood at 31 percent, with opposition at 60 percent, according to Pew Research.
Within months of the Denver meeting, a plan was underway, including priority investments in public opinion research. Early research focused largely on polling, with relatively limited investment in qualitative research. Early polling consistently indicated two important findings: 1) a strong majority opposed same-sex marriage, and 2) an even stronger majority was sympathetic to the unfairness of denying certain protections, such as hospital visitation, to gay couples.
Armed with that information, the LGBT movement at first studiously focused its messaging on the rights that same-sex couples were being denied. A 2006 Colorado ad promoting the concept of civil unions, for example, featured a man sitting alone in a hospital corridor, having been denied the right to visit his partner’s room because they were not, legally, family. The tag line read, “It’s not marriage, it’s basic civil rights.” A 2008 ad in California featured two women sitting at a kitchen table talking about the marriage of a gay couple they knew. One of the women expressed her conflict over the issue, and the other woman asked, “Are you really willing to take away rights?”
Poll after poll showed that these ads resonated with viewers, but they failed to sway voters at the ballot box. By 2009, the LGBT movement had lost 30 statewide votes over marriage for gay couples, including a shocking loss on California’s Proposition 8, which overturned same-sex couples’ right to marry in the state. The movement’s public education campaign clearly wasn’t moving public opinion as hoped.
In the wake of Proposition 8, advocates proposed a new project: They wanted to research why, when polls showed such high support for the rights of marriage, the public continually rejected the freedom to marry at the ballot box.
The proposed research project would focus in one state at first and use a combination of polling paired with more intensive qualitative research, including focus groups and interviews. The project would include multiple rounds over several months, with each phase of research informing the development of subsequent phases. Following the research conducted among focus groups and polls, the project would test various types of paid advertising in the real world to assess the efficacy of new messages.
Movement organizers quickly chose Oregon as the pilot state. Oregon’s leading LGBT advocacy organization, Basic Rights Education Fund, was a particularly strong in-state partner, which was important given the complexity of the project. Oregon also had relatively affordable media markets, which would ensure efficient use of funding.
In a series of focus groups, researchers had their “eureka” moment. Listening to people talk about why they chose to marry—because they fell in love and wanted to make a lifetime commitment—researchers realized the LGBT movement had been making a critical mistake with its emphasis on rights-based messages.
Moveable audiences—those Americans who weren’t yet with our cause but might be persuaded to support it—were wrestling with concerns that allowing gay couples to marry would somehow change the institution of marriage. Hearing gay people talk about marriage in unfamiliar terms—as a collection of rights, from inheritance to hospital visitation—reinforced those concerns.
Following this realization, researchers tested a new approach. They presented gay couples talking about marriage in a more familiar way, invoking the shared values of love and commitment. This approach, tested in newly developed ads, allowed moveable audiences to get past their conflict and support the freedom to marry.
Perhaps no ad better captured the message of love and commitment than one featuring the Gardner family in Maine. In the 2012 ad, four generations of the Gardner family sat around the kitchen table as the grandparents spoke. They talked about what their own marriage of 59 years had meant to them and how they wanted their granddaughter, Katie, to be able to make the same kind of lifelong commitment to her partner. The grandfather, a World War II veteran and lifelong Catholic, said, “Marriage is too precious a thing not to share.” And the words “love, commitment, marriage” scrolled across the screen.
The results spoke for themselves—and not just in Maine, where voters approved marriage at the ballot that year. In Pew’s national poll, support for marriage equality grew from 42 percent in 2010 to 55 percent in 2015, creating an undeniable national imperative and setting the stage for the Supreme Court’s landmark decision that same-sex marriage is a constitutional right in Obergefell v. Hodges.
There is little doubt that messaging was an important factor in shifting public opinion so dramatically and so quickly. For advocates working on other issues, there are clear lessons from the movement’s messaging failures and successes.
First, knowing your audience matters. And it’s not just demographic data that’s important. To build majority support, you must understand deeply how moveable audiences think and feel about your issue. Too often, advocates use messages that may feel right to them, or energize their base of supporters, but fail to resonate with the people who need to be persuaded.
Second, be smart about messaging research. We are all guilty from time to time of relying too heavily on polling, which has its purposes but can be insufficient, especially on emotionally complicated issues. The only way to really understand your moveable audience is to listen to it. The last few years have seen a wealth of innovation in how to conduct qualitative research relatively quickly and affordably. Such research adds a richness of understanding that polling simply can’t provide.
Finally, nothing happens without funders who understand the commitment required to execute effective messaging research. It takes tremendous investment to conduct the kind of multi-methodology research that transformed the marriage movement, let alone the capacity to disseminate it and maintain message discipline across many organizations and throughout the country. LGBT funders were willing to make that investment, and it paid off.
It would be an oversimplification to reduce the campaign for the freedom to marry to successful messaging. The campaign engaged hundreds of thousands of passionate advocates across the country, people who were willing to share their personal stories and tirelessly push for change with their friends, neighbors, co-workers, elected officials, and federal judges. But it’s certainly true that the swift and dramatic change in public opinion was inextricably tied to the movement gaining a deeper and more nuanced understanding of the public’s feelings about the issue. The ability to move individuals from opposition to support was the result of a willingness to meet them where they were with empathy, travel with them through their conflict, and welcome them to the other side, united around the values we hold so dear.


Understanding Your Spirituality
Spirituality is a broad term that includes beliefs and practices about something beyond the physical world. It strives to answer questions about the meaning of life, how people are connected to each other, and truths about the universe.
Spiritual practices can include religious worship or devotion, meditation, yoga, time in nature, or other activities that help you connect to your inner spiritual self. They also can involve helping others, such as serving the poor or supporting online communities.
Understanding your spirituality will allow you to be more present and compassionate with yourself, others, and the world. It may help you cope with stress, depression, and anxiety; restore hope and optimism; and build your immune system.
The right spiritual practices can be helpful for all kinds of people, regardless of religion or belief. It can be easy to get frustrated when you are trying to find a spiritual path that fits your needs and beliefs.
Define what you mean by “spirituality” and then decide how you want to practice it. If you’re a beginner, it can be helpful to make small steps to incorporate your spirituality into your daily life, such as setting aside time each day to reflect on what’s happening in your life.
Whether you’re religious or not, taking the time to define what spirituality means to you can help you develop a more authentic spiritual practice and increase your wellbeing.
Spirituality can help you cope with illness, loss, and death. Studies have shown that it can improve physical and mental health, reduce anxiety and fear of dying, and enhance recovery from surgery and illness. Identifying your spiritual beliefs and sharing them with your doctor can help you make better health care decisions.


In order to provide access to energy and limit climate change, the world must find ways to reduce emissions from the production and use of fossil fuels, as well as increasing the share of alternative energy sources. Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) can play a pivotal role in reducing emissions from oil and gas production, and from fossil fuels used in power generation and industrial processes. The challenge for large-scale deployment of CCS technology in the power and industrial sectors is integrating the capture, transport and storage of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions with appropriate commercial and regulatory support to foster further development. We have developed several mechanisms to drive knowledge sharing among project developers and support innovation, with the intention of further reducing the cost of CCS.
The International CCS Knowledge Centre
BHP Billiton and Saskatchewan-based electricity provider, SaskPower, have established the International CCS Knowledge Centre to help advance CCS as a means of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. BHP Billiton is contributing approximately C$4 million per year for five years to fund the Knowledge Centre, which will operate as a not-for-profit corporation in Regina, Saskatchewan.
The Knowledge Centre will enhance global access to the data, information and lessons learned from SaskPower’s unique Boundary Dam facility – the first power plant to successfully integrate CCS. In sharing the outcomes of this unique project broadly, we hope to assist project developers to reduce both the capital and operating costs of subsequent projects. The Knowledge Centre will also advocate for policies that support the development of CCS. It is anticipated that our support for the Knowledge Centre will lead to accelerated global deployment of CCS.
Reducing emissions in the steel sector
Emissions from the industrial sector represent approximately a quarter of global emissions, and more than half of these originate from the combined production of steel and cement. Coking coal is an essential input to the vast majority of the world’s steel production. In China, we are working with Peking University in a collaborative research project focused on reducing emissions from the use of coking coal in the steel sector using CCS. We will contribute approximately US$7 million over three years, with the objective of addressing the key technical, policy and economic barriers to further deployment of CCS in the steel sector. Projects such as this offer us the opportunity to work with our supply chain for shared outcomes. Research outcomes will be communicated via collaborative industry forums and conferences, and a multidisciplinary Advisory Board will guide the research team.
Understanding the mechanisms of long-term CO2 storage
BHP Billiton is also seeking to support fundamental research through a consortium of universities and test facilities to further characterise the long-term storage mechanisms of CO2 in sub-surface locations. This important work has the capability to unlock significant storage potential, which is essential if CCS is to play a role in global emissions reductions in the future. The research also seeks to demonstrate the safety and security of sub-surface CO2 storage.


Jorg Drewes was talking about water quality, a favorite topic, when the Mines Park student housing sprinklers kicked on just uphill. As artificial rain fell onto July bluegrass, he observed: “They’re wasting pure drinking water.”
Drewes, an associate professor of environmental science and engineering, dedicates much of his intellectual energy to avoiding precisely such waste. It happened that he was standing next to a pilot system already capable, with the addition of a bit of plumbing, of substituting such squandered drinking water with purified wastewater from the Mines Park housing complex itself.
The system, a sequencing batch membrane bioreactor provided by Aqua-Aerobic Systems, has been up and running since February – one of several initiatives under way at Mines’ Advanced Water Technology Center, or AQWATEC, which Drewes heads up.
It works like this: Mines Park sewage is diverted into a 2,500-gallon holding tank, where it is ground up and pumped to the 1.5-story bioreactor. Here sewage flows through a 2-millimeter filter screen and into one of two 7,000-gallon bioreactor tanks. While traditional sewage treatment sends wastewater through a series of tanks – some oxygen starved, some oxygen rich, some in between – triggering different eating habits among the invisible horde of microbes, AQWATEC’s sequencing batch reactor simply alters the conditions in the same tank.
The system’s membrane bioreactor filter is the final stage. Two hollow-fiber membrane cassettes do the filtering, each containing nine bundles of spaghetti-like strands. Every strand is pocked with 50-nanometer-wide pores too small for most microbes or viruses to get through.
“I wouldn’t drink this, no,” admitted Rick Huggins, a doctoral student whose work optimizing and assessing the economics of the system will one day inform his dissertation. The bottle of filtered water he was holding had a faintly yellow tinge. Still, the Mines system exceeds the performance of many conventional wastewater treatment plants, particularly at removing organic carbon, as well as nitrogen and phosphorous compounds – all without the use of the chemicals typically used in wastewater treatment.
And producing drinking water isn’t the objective. It’s a modular technology that enables decentralized wastewater treatment through microbial action and filtration, producing water pure enough for sprinklers, crop irrigation, or release into streams and rivers.
The demonstration project aims to advance the technology to the point that it no longer requires the attention of doctoral students to maximize the system’s efficiency, making it as close to “plug-and-play” as possible. Anything less and risk-averse water managers will shy away, Drewes said.
Next steps include rerouting some of the system’s outflow to a sprinkler system and converting an adjacent Residence Life storage facility into a water-reuse field laboratory.
Once the lab is completed, the AQWATEC team will experiment with systems that can filter the effluent to drinkability, while testing advanced oxidation processes.
In addition to domestic wastewater treatment, AQWATEC is developing technologies that make use of water resources such as seawater, industrial effluent, and water extracted with oil and gas production.
Ultimately, every drop of wastewater reused on a field or in a drinking glass relieves the pressure on natural systems upon which we all depend. As said by Tzahi Cath, AQWATEC’s associate director and one of Drewes’ fellow faculty members: “In our work, there’s always a link from the bench to real life.”


Visit your San Diego, CA Optometrist to Learn More About Treatment Options
Presbyopia is an age-related condition in which objects at a close range, such as newspapers, books or sewing, become blurred. As people around the world are reaching older ages, a larger number of individuals are developing presbyopia, which is an unavoidable result of your aging eye.
Theories about the cause of presbyopia are that the human eye will begin to harden around age forty, making it harder for eyes to focus in on something, particularly something nearby. Sufferers often deal with the reduced vision by holding the paper far away or standing at a distance from the object they want to focus on. Shifting from looking at far away things to nearer ones can often be strenuous for those with presbyopia. The stress could worsen the situation by causing headaches, eye strain or fatigue.
Most of the time bifocals or progressives (PALs) are used to resolve this problem. Bifocal lenses are divided into two points of focus, the upper portion is for viewing objects from a distance and a second, lower portion for focusing on things nearby. Progressive addition lenses work similarly to bifocal lenses, but the transitions between the two prescriptions are more gradual and have no visible distinction between them. Users will more easily change visual focus, as they could if they had uninhibited vision. Another option is reading glasses which, unlike bifocals or PALs which are worn continually, are used only as needed.
If contacts are preferable, you might want to consider multifocal lenses. It may take a few tries to figure out the best method and type of contacts due to the fact that different lenses can have an effect on your comfort or distance vision.
There are also surgical options that could be considered that you may want to discuss with your optometrist. A significant number of people find the most success by combining options for presbyopia. Additionally, since your eyesight will continue to deteriorate with age, it is likely that you will need to continually adjust your prescription. The positive news is, there is quite a bit of research being done to identify more and perhaps more permanent treatments for presbyopia.
If you are starting to notice symptoms of presbyopia, schedule a check up with your San Diego, CA eye doctor. Better eyesight is only a call away!


January Gardening - Top Ten Growing Tips
Gardening Tip #1: Christmas is over. Now, what do you do with all
Gardening Tip # 2: Do you want an even better garden this year? Of
course you do!! While the snow flies outdoors, it's the perfect time to review
our many How to Grow articles.
Gardening Tip #3: Chances are, you will be starting some plants indoors
in the next several weeks. Learn now about the biggest danger to your young
seedlings, and how to avoid it.
Gardening Tip #4: Were your houseplants forgotten during the holiday?
Perk them up with a dose of fertilizer.
Gardening Tip #5: No compostable material should ever go to a landfill,
not even in the winter. You can, and should practice composting all year
round... even in the winter.
Gardening Tip #6: Your backyard birds get the high energy they need
to survive the cold and snowy weather, from bird seeds. Each species prefer
different kinds of seeds.
Seed Feeding chart.......
Gardening Tip #7: Some herbs make great indoor houseplants. Plant
some chives or basil indoors this month, and enjoy fresh herbs long before
your outdoor starts sprout in the spring.
Gardening Tip #8: A great way to pass time during the long winter
months, is to propagate some of your houseplants. Perhaps, you can give a
newly potted plant to a family member, or a shut-in.
Learn how to
Gardening Tip #9: The majority of us, will grow one or more varieties
of tomatoes this year. There are hundreds of varieties to choose from. That
means there's one or more varieties perfect for you. We hope you try something
old, and something new.
Gardening Tip #10: Celebrate Houseplant Appreciation Day. It is in
More Gardening Resources:
See Garden Tips by Month


What more can be done about passwords?
We tell users to choose unique, complicated passwords that contain a gallimaufry of bizarre characters – and they tell us they’re impossible to remember, especially when they need to remember different passwords for the many different websites out there.
We tell computer users to get help with remembering their complex login credentials by using a password manager, and most of them look at us like we’re talking Esperanto.
The result? People continue to use passwords like “Password1”, or their favourite soccer team, or their year of birth as their supposedly secure PIN code.
Ideally, I would hope that people would adopt password management software – as it can do such a good job of generating complex, truly random passwords, and storing them securely for easy retrieval when required. But it seems the great unwashed public isn’t entirely ready for that as a solution.
So, to be practical, we need to look for other solutions.
Enter UK tech firm Intelligent Environments, who late last week gave me a sneak preview of their proposed solution to the problem – emoji passcodes.
It’s a neat idea – especially as people typically find it so much easier to remember stories and pictures than numbers and words.
Intelligent Environments work with banks to develop interfaces and systems that you and I might use when checking into our online accounts. So the prototype they showed me isn’t necessarily how the system would end up looking in your own bank’s app, as it would no doubt be customised to the bank’s requirements, but it gives some indication of how the system would work.
First things first, it’s unlikely that any bank would demand that you use emojis for your security passcode. That’s good for curmudgeons like me who get almost as grumpy about emojis as selfie sticks, and also for those whose middle-aged eyesight has deteriorated to such an extent (also me) that it’s pretty hard to tell one emoji from another without a magnifying glass.
So, if you prefer to use a passphrase or a PIN code then you can continue to do so (bank willing).
But if you decide you wanted to setup an emoji passcode then you would be presented with a screen like this.
Now, in the demo I was shown there was only the option for four emoji characters. But that, again, would be entirely up to the bank. It would be trivial to make the system work with six, eight or more if greater security was required.
You’ll also notice that Intelligent Environments isn’t using the standard emojis which come with modern operating systems. Instead, they have made their own. This is intentional because so many emojis are similar with only small differences, which would perhaps make correct selection and remembering more tricky.
And again, clearly, different banks could design and choose their own emojis as they wished. Some may not want one of the smiley poo for instance.
Additionally, rather than offering users the daunting choice of thousands of emojis to thumb through, in the demo they offer just 44 (the top right graphic on the keyboard is a delete button).
44 may not sound like much. But a traditional four digit PIN only provides 7,290 unique permutations of non-repeating numbers. An emoji passcode of the same length gives you “3,498,308 million unique permutations of non-repeating emojis, based on a selection size of 44 emoji.”
That’s quite an improvement.
Of course, there are other considerations.
For instance, should the emojis be displayed in a random order to prevent bias to one particular selection? For instance, if the emoji selection screen was static might we see a bias towards passcodes in the top left hand corner? Would flamenco dancers playing football while carrying scissors in the sunshine become a popular passcode!?
I would hope in any roll-out of the system, the order of emojis would be randomised – and, of course, the fact that different banks can choose different emojis would help prevent users from repeating the same passcodes on multiple systems.
Quite how users would record their emoji passcode in their password vault I’m not so sure about – maybe write it out long hand? – but all in all, this seems like a novel idea to an ongoing problem that could suit some people very well.
We’re used to banks taking security very seriously. After all, they’re the ones with all the money – so they have the most to lose.
Which has made it all the more baffling that we protect access to our bank accounts via cash machines with a simple 4 digit code rather than the kind of complex password any self-respecting website would demand you choose.
Yes, a hole-in-the-wall ATM does require you to be carrying your cash card as well, but it sends a bizarre message for banks to be seemingly teaching people that a code from 0000 to 9999 should be enough to lock up your worldly riches.
Maybe in the future we can hope to see the numerical keypads in ATMs replaced by touch screens showing us emojis instead… that may be a while off, but don’t be surprised if some banking apps start to ask you for your emoji passcode sooner rather than later.


Structural steel is a standard construction material, manufactured from specific grades of steel and formed in a variety of industry standard cross-sectional shapes (or ‘Sections’). Structural steel grades are designed with particular mechanical properties and chemical compositions formulated for specific applications.
In Europe, the structural steel must conform to the European Standard EN 10025 governed by the ECISS (European Committee for Iron and Steel Standardization), which is a subset of CEN (European Committee for Standardization).
Some examples of European grades of structural steel are S195, S235, S275, S355, S420, S460 etc. However, the scope of this article is to focus on the Mechanical Properties, Chemical Composition, and Applications of S235, S275, S355, which are the three regular structural steel grades used in every aspect of construction projects across the EU.
Inline with the European Standard classifications, structural steels should be referenced using standard symbols including but not limited to: "S"235"J2’‘K2’’C’’Z’’W’’JR’’JO’’
- S – denotes the fact that it is Structural Steel
- 235 – related to the minimum yield strength of the steel (tested at a thickness of 16 mm)
- J2 / K2 / JR / JO – material toughness in relation to the Charpy impact or ‘V’notch test methodology
- W – Weathering Steel (Atmospheric Corrosion Resistant)
- Z – Structural steel with improved strength perpendicular to the surface
- C – Cold-formed
Based on the manufacturing process, chemical composition and relevant application, additional letters and classifications might be used to reference specific grades/products of structural steel.
As the EU Standard classifications are inherently not a global standard, several corresponding grades with the same Mechanical and Chemical properties may be used in other parts of the globe. For instance, Structural Steels manufactured for the US market must be specified according to the ASTM (American Society for Testing and Materials) international guidelines and will be referenced with an ‘A’, followed by the relevant Grade such as A36, A53 etc.
US Equivalent Grades
In most countries, Structural Steel is regulated and it is essential that it meets a minimum specific criterion for size, shape, strength, chemical composition, etc.
Chemical Composition of Structural Steels - S235, S275 and S355
Structural steel’s chemical composition is very important and highly regulated. It is a fundamental factor that defines the Mechanical properties of the steel material. In the table given below, one can see the Max % levels of certain regulated elements present in European structural steel grades S235, S275, and S355.
The chemical composition of Structural Steel is paramount to the engineer and will change with specific grades based on their intended use. For instance, the structural steel S355K2W has been hardened (K2) and designed with a chemical composition to endure increased weathering (W). Hence, the chemical composition of this grade of structural steel will be slightly different from that of the standard S355 grade.
Mechanical Properties of Structural Steel - S235, S275, S355
The Mechanical Properties of Structural Steel are fundamental to its classification and thus, application. While Chemical Composition is a major factor of the steel’s the mechanical properties, understanding the minimum standards for the Mechanical Properties (performance characteristics) such as yield strength and tensile strength is also vital.
The yield strength of structural steel determines the minimum force needed to create a permanent deformation in the steel. The naming convention used in European Standard EN10025 indicates the Minimum Yield strength of the steel grade tested at a thickness of 16 mm.
Grade at 16 mm
|Minimum Yield Strength at
nominal thickness 16 mm
||33 000 ksi
||36 000 ksi
||50 000 ksi
The Tensile Strength of Structural Steel relates to the point at which permanent deformation occurs on pulling or stretching the material laterally along its length.
|Structural Steel Grade
||Tensile Strength MPa at
Nom thickness between 3 mm and 16 mm
||360 – 510 MPa
||370 – 530 MPa
||470 – 630 MPa
Typical Structural Steel ‘Sections’ / Cross-Sectional Shapes
Structural steel is available in several Grades but is usually sold pre-formed with a defined cross-sectional shape, designed for particular applications. For instance, it is not unusual to find Structural Steel sold in: Z-beams, I-Beams, HSS (Hollow Structural Section), L-shaped, Box Lintels, Steel Plate etc.
Based on the preferred application, an engineer will specify a grade of steel (mostly to meet minimum strength, maximum weight and/or weathering requirements) and the sectional shape, relative to the desired location and expected load to be performed or job to be carried out.
Applications of Structural Steel
Structural steels are used in various ways and have diverse applications. They are especially valuable as they provide the unique combination of good welding properties with assured strengths. Structural steel is an exceptionally versatile product and is generally preferred by the engineer trying to maximize strength or structure while minimizing its weight.
Unsurprisingly, the construction industry is the largest consumer of Structural Steel, where it is used for every purpose and employed at diverse scales. Whether a vast I-beam is bolted in place to hold the road surface on a bridge or a small box lintel is used to carry the load of a structural wall in a residential property, structural steel can be specified, designed, and fabricated for the job.
- High Rise Buildings / Skyscrapers
- Train Tracks
- Shopping Malls
- Road barriers
- S275 - Leeco Steel
- S235 - Masteel
- Structural Steels - SteelStrip
- Tata Steel Europe
This information has been sourced, reviewed and adapted from materials provided by Masteel UK Ltd.
For more information on this source, please visit Masteel UK Ltd.


Despite growing awareness of the wage gap between men and women, little progress has been made over the last two decades to close it.
A tar sands worker at the Syncrude mine north of Fort McMurray, Alta.
What has two arms, two legs, and works for 14 per cent less than another equally capable biped? Why, a woman of course.
Canadian female workers took home an average of 86 cents for every dollar in hourly wages earned by men in 2015, according to data drawn from CANSIM, Statistics Canada’s socioeconomic database. Worse, the gap has barely budged in over a decade, with average female pay compared to male earnings rising only 5.4 per cent since 1997.
But even when there’s a woman behind the wheel of that truck, she’s not going to pocket the fatter paycheque. Female workers in CANSIM’s “trade, transport and equipment operators” category received less than 74 cents for every dollar earned by men as of December 2015, well below the cross-industry average. As our GIF shows, the manufacturing and natural resources sectors display similarly wider gaps. Only management jobs and occupations in arts, culture, recreation and sports saw the wage gap narrow in any meaningful way.
In other words, when women work in traditionally female-dominated fields, they earn slightly less than their equally poorly paid male colleagues. And when they choose to fight it out in higher paying, male-dominated jobs, they receive but a fraction of what men make.
Happy International Women’s Day to you.


The Role of Translation in Fighting Climate Change
When the world faces a global threat such as climate change, an all-hands-on-deck approach is required. Evidence of the problem can occur anywhere, and any realistic solution must make sense everywhere.
The Paris Agreement
The landmark 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change — called by some “the world’s greatest diplomatic success” — was published in all six official United Nations (UN) languages: English, Spanish, French, Chinese, Arabic and Russian. Its intended reach is clear, as is the importance of translators in implementing its proposals.
Translators were critical to every phase of the project. Before meaningful discussion among international parties could even commence, documentation from around the world describing the evidence and effects of climate change had to be transcribed into numerous languages. Interpreters were vital in negotiations and for translating the many speeches given, and there was a Herculean amount of multilingual transcription required for the work documents, including meeting notes and position papers.
Eyewitness reports in all languages
Global warming’s role in creating the extreme weather behind any single specific disaster can be hard to pin down, but the overall trend is clear, and the reports coming from all over are both heartbreaking and important for everyone to see. It may be the decimation of Caribbean islands from super-hurricanes, epochal flooding in southeast Asia, mudslides in the Andes, or the death of a solitary biker overcome by unusual heat in Australia’s Beerburrum State Forest. Wherever the calamity, witnesses in all languages provide critical first-hand reportage.
Multilingual dissemination of research
While long-term responses are being developed, there is a dire need to learn how to live with the effects of climate change now, and multilingual dissemination of research has become an increasingly critical factor in keeping people alive.
For example, when the Bolivian Mountain Institute NGO (Non-Governmental Organization) completed a study of glacial lakes in the Andes and discovered that 25 of them now pose risks to local populations, the English- and Spanish-speaking researchers made sure their report was produced in both languages. Importantly, it contained transcriptions of eyewitness accounts of glacial-outburst flooding that could help local governments effectively respond should similar catastrophes occur in the future.
In order to help ensure that their studies are of optimal value to parties working on climate change, NGOs have been utilizing teams of translators who understand the languages they serve as well as their intrinsic cultural perspectives, economics and politics – which are critical for convincing local populations to implement changes.
For example, when the Mountain Partnership submitted research for discussion to the United Nations, it provided carefully translated copies in all six U.N. languages. The investment paid off when the U.N. established three mountain-oriented targets in their 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
A new academic field
There is even an emerging academic field called Ecolinguistics that investigates the role of language in the development and possible solution of ecological and environmental problems. For example, scholar Kjersti Fløttum wrote this paper titled “A linguistic and discursive view on climate change discourse” and, at the University of Bergen, students can now register for a PhD research course titled “Climate Change Narratives: Language Use in the Circulation of Climate Knowledge.”
Subtitled star power
Multilingual dissemination of climate change information is an area that private climate advocates are also taking greater advantage of. The reach of persuasive English-language content such as Al Gore’s film An Inconvenient Truth has significantly expanded its impact thanks to versions subtitled in over 30 languages. Leonardo di Caprio’s English-language Before the Flood is available with subtitles in 12 languages. These Hollywood stars have realized the obvious: engaging people around the world in resolving the climate change challenge requires speaking their language.
Translation is part of the solution
As the conversation about climate change moves from persuasion to action, the international presence of NGOs and other advocacy groups continues to make them invaluable partners in the search for solutions. The information they collect is the foundation upon which climate change strategy must be built, and their innovative thinkers help move the discussion forward. As a result, the need for accurate, timely translation services across many languages has never been more important: They make possible the most global conversation we’ve ever seen.


05 September 2018
An Environmental Baseline Study (EBS) is a part of BHP’s HSE requirements for entering into any areas of operations. As Petroleum entered Mexico as part of the Trion contract and began an EBS, the main objectives were to fulfil the monitoring requirements enacted by Mexico’s environmental regulatory agency (ASEA) and to document environmental status of the area prior to the start of operations. The ASEA required sediment and water sampling, box core samples and SPI (Sediment Profile Images). In addition to the EBS sample collection, existing conditions of the Trion-1 and Trion-1DL well heads and surrounding seafloor are documented using a Remote Operated Vehicle (ROV).
The EBS was submitted in November 2017 with the work resulting in numerous data, videos and photos, some of which are helping to increase the scientific knowledge of the area.
Adriana Garcia, Manger HSE, provided her thoughts on the results of the EBS, “The EBS provided a descriptive and quantitative record of environmental abiotic and biotic conditions over the area and range of habitat type at the Trion field prior to the onset of BHP exploration and development activities. SPIs are not normally used during the EBS, as they are routinely used to monitor the environmental impacts of dredged material disposal and characterize the sediment quality, but we are seeing a lot of value in capturing these images. The results were conclusive to our expectation.
In terms of diversity, as is typical for the GoM, flat-view images captured epifaunal organisms during this study, including branched bryozoans, red shrimp, red and white starfish, and ophiuroids, helping us to better understand the current environmental conditions and the biodiversity of the area.”


The United States Geology Survey has provided a comprehensive and uniformly classified geologic map of the lunar surface for the first time.
The extensive geologic map of the moon will be used to develop further understanding of the outer space rocky surface and help orchestrate future human missions.
Completion of what is being referred to as the “Unified Geologic Map of the Moon” was achieved by the USGS in collaboration with NASA and the Lunar Planetary Institute.
The USGS stated that the digital map will become “invaluable to the international scientific community, educators and the public at large”.
For USGS director and former NASA astronaut Jim Reilly, the map will serve as a valuable resource in planning future moon missions.
“People have always been fascinated by the moon and when we might return,” he said. “So, it’s wonderful to see USGS create a resource that can help NASA with their planning for future missions.”
Creation of the map was achieved by using information from six regional maps of the moon that date back to the Apollo era (from 1969 to 1972) in conjunction with new satellite data of the moon.
The map was updated by USGS scientists who combined the new and old information to deliver a unified presentation of the stratigraphy (rock layers) of the moon.
An accurate description of the moon’s rock names, descriptions and ages has now been achieved. These had been inconsistent in relation to previous maps.
USGS geologist and lead author Corey Fortezzo said the information used in the map is the results of decades of research.
“This map is a culmination of a decades-long project,” he said. “It provides vital information for new scientific studies by connecting the exploration of specific sites on the moon with the rest of the lunar surface.”
Further information about the map can be found at the Unified Geologic Map of the Moon website.


- Fundraising Appeal
- Three Mile Island
- General Interest
- Rare Earth Mining
- War & Peace
- Nuclear Testing
- Fossil Fuels
- NUCLEAR POWER
- NUCLEAR WEAPONS
- NUCLEAR WASTE
- PUBLIC HEALTH
- CLIMATE CHANGE
Germany sets new solar power record, institute says
One of the reasons Germany will be successful in phasing out nuclear power in favor of renewable energy is that they are actually trying. They are putting their minds, and their money, to the task and investing in the future. In this, they will not only ensure their success, they ensure that success will be profitable. Renewable energy technology and expertise is the capital of the future. Why not make money saving the planet instead of destroying it?
Erik Kirschbaum l Reuters 28 May, 2012
(Reuters) - German solar power plants produced a world record 22 gigawatts of electricity - equal to 20 nuclear power stations at full capacity - through the midday hours on Friday and Saturday, the head of a renewable energy think tank said.
The German government decided to abandon nuclear power after the Fukushima nuclear disaster last year, closing eight plants immediately and shutting down the remaining nine by 2022.
They will be replaced by renewable energy sources such as wind, solar and bio-mass.
Norbert Allnoch, director of the Institute of the Renewable Energy Industry (IWR) in Muenster, said the 22 gigawatts o f solar power fed into the national grid on Saturday met nearly 50 percent of the nation's midday electricity needs.
"Never before anywhere has a country produced as much photovoltaic electricity," Allnoch told Reuters. "Germany came close to the 20 gigawatt (GW) mark a few times in recent weeks. But this was the first time we made it over."
The record-breaking amount of solar power shows one of the world's leading industrial nations was able to meet a third of its electricity needs on a work day...


A single devastating graph shows official climate predictions were wild
By Christopher Monckton of Brenchley
The new global warming speedometer shows in a single telling graph just how badly the model-based predictions made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have over-predicted global warming.
The speedometer for the 15 years 4 months January 2001 to April 2016 shows the [1.1, 4.2] C°/century-equivalent interval of global warming rates (red/orange) that IPCC’s 1990, 1995 and 2001 reports predicted should be occurring by now, compared with real-world, observed warming (green) equivalent to less than 0.5 C°/century over the period.
RSS and UAH monthly near-global satellite lower-troposphere temperature anomaly values for each month from January 2001 to April 2016 were assumed to be broadly accurate and were averaged. The least-squares linear-regression trend on their mean was determined and found equivalent to 0.47 C°/century.
Predictions in IPCC’s Assessment Reports
IPCC (2007, 2013) are…
View original post 292 more words


The extraction (removal) of minerals and metals from below the ground, such as copper, coal and gold. Mining is usually carried by a national or international company, with the permission of that country’s government. Some mining takes place by people who are not part of a company and without permission from the government. This is artesinal mining and usually small scale with people working in dangerous conditions, making little profit. This mining is often called ‘illegal’ mining.
Is mining the same as extraction or extractivism…?
Mining is extraction. Extractivism is the removal of natural resources to sell on the world market. It does include mining, which is the extraction of fossil fuels and minerals below the ground. But extractivism is more than that – it includes fracking, deforestation, agro-industry and megadams. Historically, extractivism has adversely affected the Global Majority world more, especially indigenous communities; and has benefited rich countries.
Extractivism is linked to neo-colonialism because many mining companies are from other countries – historically in the Global North – although this is changing. Indigeneous communities are disproportionately targeted for extractivism and, while companies may seek the state’s permission and even work with them to share the profits, they often do not seek informed consent from communities before they begin extracting – or stealing – their resources. The profit made rarely gets to the affected communities whose land, water sources and labour is often being used. Communities are often displaced, left with physical, mental and spiritual illhealth, and often experience difficulties continuing with traditional livelihoods of farming and fishing due to the destruction or contamination of the environment.
Mining techniques, processes and waste
Take a look at these powerpoints for information on the technical side of mining – they’re very reader-friendly.
Coal mining is of special concern because the impacts of coal burning on climate change. But there are other concerns too. London Mining Network has produced an introductory briefing on coal mining, dealing with its impacts on farming communities, Indigenous Peoples, water, air and human health. It calls for a just, planned transition away from coal and the creation of alternative livelihoods for the very many people reliant on coal mining. (This briefing does not deal with the issue of climate change.)
Uranium is also of special concern because of the effects of radiation. Read our briefing on the health and environmental impacts of uranium mining and watch a slide show on uranium mining and nuclear power.
Is mining inherently bad?
- Mining is one of the most polluting industries in the world.
- It has an especially negative impact on land-based communities, especially Indigenous Peoples.
- It is frequently associated with forced evictions, militarization, conflict and human rights abuses.
- Use of coal in energy generation is a major contributor to destructive climate change.
- Use of uranium produces a radioactive legacy which threatens the well-being of thousands of generations to come.
- In 2007, the UN General Assembly adopted the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, establishing their right to Free, Prior and Informed Consent before projects affecting their lands or resources are allowed to go ahead. Mining companies and governments need to respect this Declaration – but they often do not.
What can we do about it?
Find out community concerns about mining projects and find out about their demands, struggles and successes. See our Resources page on organisations that work on different campaigns. And, although we work primarily with communities overseas, some of our network members are involved with resistance in the UK to proposed and current mining and fracking projects. Many have a long-term presence at the sites and would welcome extra support.
Look up the mining company they are resisting. We have a unique advantage being based in London in that the mining companies we target are registered on the London Stock Exchange or the AIM, some have headquarters in London and most have their annual general meetings in London. We focus on these companies as a strategic move, while working in collaboration with affected communities.
Organise with us. Sigh up to our newsletters for mining-related news. Come to an event or set up your own. And get in touch!


New Developments in Current Sensors in Solid State Meters
In recent years, there has been a rapid incr-ease in the market share for the solid state energy meter. Tens of millions of solid state meters are deployed annually worldwide.
Modern solid state electric meters contain both voltage and current sensing elements. Voltage sensing is typically achieved by dividing down the line voltage using a resistor divider or a potential transformer when isolation from the line is required. However, current sensing is a much more difficult problem. Not only does the current sensor require a much wider measurement dynamic range, but it also needs to handle a much wider frequency range, because of the rich harmonic content in the current waveform.
Next generation energy meters must have high current handling capability. In the US residential market, for example, the maximum current in many houses is becoming as high as 200 A. Today’s popular sensing technologies are not well-suited for the next generation meters. Meter manufacturers need to find a new current sensor that can satisfy all the requirements and incur little or no cost penalty.
The Rogowski coil relies on measuring the magnetic field changes around the current carrying wire to produce a voltage signal, which is proportional to the derivative of current (di/dt), and an integrator is needed to convert the signal to the appropriate signal. The task of creating an integrator that is stable and accurate over a long metering lifetime used to be daunting. However, recent digital implementation of the integrator has the promise of making this technology a reality in electric meters.
For comparison purpose, we first summarise the three most common sensor technologies: the low resistance current shunt, the current transformer (CT), and the Hall Effect sensor.
Low Resistance Current Shunt
The low resistance current shunt is the lowest cost solution available today and it offers simple current measurement and superb accuracy. A model for this device is a resistor. When performing high precision current measurement, one must consider the parasitic inductance of the shunt, and although this affects the magnitude of the impedance at relatively high frequency, its affect on phase at line frequency is enough to cause noticeable error at low power factor. A phase mismatch of 0.1° will lead to about 0.3% error at power factor 0.5.
The low cost and high reliability make the low resistance current shunt a very popular choice for energy metering. However, because the shunt is fundamentally a resistive element, the power loss is proportional to the square of the current passing through it and consequently it is a rarity among high current energy meters.
The current transformer (CT) uses the principle of a transformer to convert the high primary current into a smaller secondary current.
The CT is common among high current solid state energy meters. It is a passive device, with no extra driving circuitry needed to use it. Furthermore, it can measure up to very high current and consumes little power. However, saturation of the ferrite material used in the core can occur when the primary current is very high or when there is a substantial DC component in the current. Once magnetised the core will contain hysteresis and the accuracy will degrade unless it is demagnetised again.
Hall Effect Sensor
There are two main types of Hall Effect sensors, open-loop and closed-loop. The latter offers better accuracy and wider dynamic ranges but at higher cost, and most Hall Effect sensors found in energy meters use open-loop design for lower system cost. The Hall Effect sensor has outstanding frequency response and is capable of measuring very large current. However, the drawbacks include the output having a large temperature drift and the requirement for external driving circuitry. These, coupled with the relatively high cost, make Hall Effect sensors somewhat rare compared with the CT.
A simple model of the Rogowski coil is an inductor with mutual inductance with the primary current (Figure 1).
If current i(t) passes through a long straight wire on the z-axis, the magnetic field at a random point P which has coordinates (r, q, z) in cylindrical coordinates is:
The electromotive force (EMF) generated by the magnetic field in any area in space can be calculated using Maxwell’s equation:
The constant term M is called the mutual inductance of the Rogowski coil, and has a unit Henry (H). It indicates the signal level from the output of the coil per unit di/dt. The voltage output of the coil relies only on the changes in primary current. When interfacing with an IC that has on-chip digital integrator, building a meter with a Rogowski coil is just as simple as using current sensors such as the CT or current shunt. The air-core coil has no hysteresis, saturation, or non-linearity problem. In addition, it has outstanding ability to handle large current where the theoretical upper limit of the coil is the breakdown voltage of air.
As the output from the Rogowski coil is proportional to the time derivative of the current, an integrator is needed to convert this back to the format i(t). In the frequency domain, this is equivalent to a –20 dB/dec attenuation and a constant
–90° phase shift. Figures 2a and b are the frequency response and phase response of the digital integrator implemented in Analog Devices’ ADE7759 energy measurement IC.
As can be seen, the phase and magnitude responses of a digital integrator are very close to ideal. The added benefit of the digital implementation is that it is more stable over time and environmental changes. These are very important for energy metering applications because of the hostile operating condition and long operation life of the meter. In-house experimental results show outstanding accuracy over a very wide dynamic range.
The popularity of the solid state meter has stimulated much interest in finding a new current sensing technology which can measure very large current without DC saturation. The Rogowski coil combined with a digital integrator offers a cost-competitive solution and could become the technology of choice for the next generation electric energy meters.


Childrens' donations would fund design and construction. The famous, 55 year old, free symbol, is the United Kingdom based Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament's or CND's. It's also known as the ban the bomb symbol. Wellington campaigners used it for the City and then New Zealand to become nuclear weapons free. The Botanic Garden is of gorgeous life. Nuclear weapons totally insult all life. The symbol is correct for there. It would remind us to try harder to abolish all nuclear weapons for ever.
Murray Richard (called Richard) Tingey
||5 August 2013
||5 November 2013
There are about twenty artistic items in the Botanic Garden of a peace theme. However, the International Peace Symbol has the specific message of immediate abolition of nuclear weapons. An 80 mm by 500 mm visible, stainless steel clad, steel stem, on grass, would go down to a hidden, foundation. Smooth marble pebbles, every 50 mm, in the exposed aggregate, would symbolise cities belonging to people, but not nuclear weapons, as Wellington's, The City is Ours Incorporated, aspires to.


This was supposed to be posted in December. Whoopsie.
Dr. Patricia Bath was a woman of many firsts:
- The first Black person to complete a residency in ophthalmology.
- The first female faculty member and first female chair in the Department of Ophthalmology at UCLA’s Jules Stein Eye Institute.
- The first Black female doctor to receive a medical patent.
- Founder of the field of “community ophthalmology.”
Born in Harlem, New York, on Nov. 4, 1942, there was little about Patricia Bath’s early life to portend her future greatness. Her father, Rupert, was an immigrant from Trinidad and the first Black subway motorman in New York City, and her mother, Gladys, who was descendant from both the Cherokee Tribe and African slaves, was a domestic worker.
Despite their humble circumstances, the Baths encouraged their daughter’s natural curiosity and intelligence, which later proved to be early signs of genius. When, inspired by newspaper articles on Dr. Albert Schweitzer’s work with lepers in Africa, she expressed an interest in medicine, her mother bought her a chemistry set. Her father stoked her wanderlust through stories of his time in the Merchant Marines.
Patricia flourished in school. At the age of 16, she was one of a handful of students to attend a National Science Foundation cancer research workshop. In just three months of study on the effects of streptomycin residue on bacteria, she discovered that cancer was a catabolic disease and tumor growth was a symptom. She also calculated an equation to predict cancer cell growth. Her discoveries were so impressive that Dr. Robert Bernard, head of the program, included her findings in a scientific paper he presented at a conference. As a result, she made the front page of the New York Times and won the Mademoiselle magazine Merit Award in 1960.
Patricia graduated high school in two years and went on to Hunter College, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in 1964. Having decided to devote her life to medicine, she then attended Howard University and she graduated with honors in 1968. After an internship at Harlem Hospital—where she convinced her professors to perform eye surgery on blind patients for free—she completed a fellowship in ophthalmology at Columbia University.
In 1973, Dr. Bath became the first African American to complete a residency in ophthalmology. Now married with a daughter, she completed a second fellowship in corneal transplantation and keratoprosthesis (replacing a human cornea with an artificial one).
By contrasting her patient’s experiences at the mostly Black, lower income Harlem Hospital and the mostly white, wealthier Columbia University, Dr. Bath found that Black people were twice as likely to suffer from blindness than other patients and eight times more likely to develop glaucoma.
Concerned and knowing that many Black people could not afford treatment for such conditions, she developed “community ophthalmology.” This new specialty focused on helping underserved populations by using volunteers trained in basic eye screenings and tests who went to senior centers and daycares to test vision.
Dr. Bath moved to California in 1974 to work as an assistant professor of surgery at both Charles R. Drew University and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). In 1975, she became the first female faculty member in the Department of Ophthalmology at UCLA’s Jules Stein Eye Institute. With this honor came an office “in the basement next to the lab animals,” which she refused to use. “I didn’t say it was racist or sexist,” she explained. “I said it was inappropriate and succeeded in getting acceptable office space. I decided I was just going to [ignore the hate and] do my work.” Much of her research was conducted in places like Berlin, Paris and Loughborough, England, where her race and sex didn’t matter.
In 1976, Dr. Bath co-founded the American Institute for the Prevention of Blindness, which established that “eyesight is a basic human right.” Likely remembering her well-traveled father, she lectured and performed surgery all over the world as part of this program, trying to bridge the gap between care provided in industrial and developing nations.
In 1981, she began working on her most well-known invention: the Laserphaco Probe. Using a laser, the device created a less painful and more precise treatment of cataracts that removed the cataract more easily and made it easier to insert a new lens. She received a patent for the device in 1988, becoming the first Black female doctor to receive a U.S. patent for a medical purpose. She also holds patents in Japan, Canada and Europe. Using this device, she was able to help people see who had been blind for more than 30 years.
In 1983, while working on her laser, Dr. Bath helped create the Ophthalmology Residency Training program at UCLA-Drew, which she also chaired—the first woman in the country to do so.
Dr. Bath retired from her position at the UCLA Medical Center in 1993. That same year, she was named a “Howard University Pioneer in Academic Medicine.”
Dr. Bath was an early advocate of telemedicine, the use of technology to provide medical services in remote areas. She went on to hold positions in telemedicine at Howard University and St. George’s University in Grenada.
Patricia died on May 30, 2019, from complications related to cancer at the age of 76.


This article was originally published on IDA’s website, www.documentary.org
For as long as stories have called upon documentary filmmakers to tell them, makers have used—and evolved—technology to shape the art and business of reflecting reality. While hardly a techno-deterministic art form and impulse, there’s no question that the evolution of film gear—from early analog days to the evolving digital era—has simultaneously expanded to include new filmmakers while allowing the documentary form to capture the intimacy of private human moments. What’s possible in documentary storytelling—and by which storytellers—lives in parallel with technology innovations.
As artists, documentary filmmakers are a scrappy bunch who have long taken full advantage of the artistic possibilities of technology. Decades after photography pioneer Auguste and Louis Lumière invented the motion picture camera in the 1880s, heavy, expensive 35mm cameras dominated film—until documentarians and activists got their hands on less bulky 16mm field cameras that popped up in Army surplus stores after World War II. In the 1950s and into the 1960s, pioneering documentary filmmakers Robert Drew, DA Pennebaker, David and Albert Maysles, and Richard Leacock, notorious gear tinkerers, innovated a way to record audio and images at the same time in the field. In 1967, Sony’s revolutionary Portapack hit the market—the first battery-powered video gear that recorded simultaneous audio and picture, able to be operated by a single person. Filmmakers and activists quickly picked up on the style of intimate filmmaking powered by nimble gear, and the cinema vérité movement—alternately called direct cinema or observational film, free of the news-like construction and voice-of-God narration of the past—indelibly shaped documentary storytelling from the 1960s through the community media movements of the 1970s well into the present day.
With the help of accessible film gear and, later, video, activists filmed stories inside social movements, and voices from traditionally marginalized communities—people of color, women—demanded attention and distribution. In 1971, pioneers Julia Reichert, Jim Klein, Amalie Rothschild and Liane Brandon launched New Day Films to train women documentary filmmakers and fuel the growing women’s movement with the help of documentaries made by women on film and video. In 1994, Kartemquin Films, a leader in vérité documentary storytelling, filmed its legendary classic, Hoop Dreams, on video, converting it later to film for a theatrical release. Along the way, Kartemquin contributed to expanding audience interest and the commercial and public marketplace for documentary while showcasing an inexpensive way to film years of intimate material. In the early 2000s, film technology evolved again with the advent of home-based editing on Final Cut Pro and the move from mini-DV tapes to tapeless cameras. A democratizing gear climate and user-generated distribution on YouTube and Vimeo opened the door to new storytellers and the tales they tell. Contemporary documentaries like The Square (2013), Citizenfour (2014) and Minding the Gap (2018) are testimonials to accessible video and editing technology in the fast-moving digital age.
Today, amidst the dizzying pace of the streaming media era, documentary resides in a boom moment and expanded marketplace that ranges from legacy stalwarts like PBS and HBO to the revolutionary upstarts like Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, Apple TV and more. New and emerging storytellers are more likely to be women and people of color than in years past, opening cultural portals to the depth of human experiences often invisible in the media sphere. As in years past, understanding how technology empowers documentary filmmakers remains important.
2019 Documentary Equipment Survey
In 2019, the International Documentary Association (IDA), with counsel from the Center for Media & Social Impact, launched a survey designed to investigate the gear favored by contemporary documentary filmmakers in the production and post-production processes, from cameras to audio to lighting to editing software, and why and how they make their technology decisions.
The first part of the survey yielded valuable qualitative information about why respondents favored specific equipment and programs. The next phase took a deeper, more quantitative dive into both the brands and models of gear that the documentary community deploys, as well as the range of shooting scenarios in the documentary practice. For Part II of the survey, all questions were asked in terms of filmmakers’ “most recent completed or post-production-stage documentary project.”
The results of both iterations of the survey provide a robust narrative about the optimal tools of the trade for making your best work. Read the brief report summarizing the findings from both parts of Tools of the Trade: Documentary Equipment Survey here.
All photography by Maggie Shannon


The green transition relies on the use of numerous rare minerals. Lithium is crucial for electrification, in particular for electric cars, and demand is growing. Currently dependant on imports, the EU would like to source the lithium needed for decarbonisation closer to home. But with huge protests in Serbia, it is clear that local communities are asking, “Whose green transition”?
In Serbia, lithium has become a divisive topic. Citizens, environmental activists, and green political parties stand on one side. On the other stands a major company supported by Serbia’s ruling parties, as well as certain political forces from within the EU. Polarisation between supporters and opponents of lithium extraction has made genuine debate impossible. The question of whether there is even a need for lithium mining – and under what conditions it might be acceptable – rarely figures.
The importance of lithium
The lightest metal in the periodic table, lithium is used in most batteries due to its ability to “do the most work with the least mass”. While batteries can also be made of metals such as sodium, magnesium, or aluminium that are found abundantly in nature – lithium, by contrast, makes up less than 0.002 per cent of the Earth’s crust – these are less practical because of their larger volume.
Barring a major technological shift, demand for lithium is likely to increase fivefold by 2030 according to US public-private alliance Li-Bridge. Most of the demand will be generated by the car industry, which is planning an accelerated transition to electric vehicles. Nevertheless, it should be noted that the price of lithium carbonate – the main material for electric batteries – has been falling since early 2023 due to a slowdown in the sale of electric vehicles in China. Predicting how prices will move in the future is not easy.
Global lithium production is dominated by Australia, Chile, and China. The largest European reserves are found in Germany and Czechia, followed by Serbia, which has an estimated 1.2 million tonnes of this lightest of metals. However, lithium is not extracted on a major scale in Europe.
Currently, the EU is therefore almost entirely dependent on imports for lithium, as well as other raw materials that are crucial for the green transition. In spring 2023, the European Commission published a proposal for the Critical Raw Materials Act. With this act, the EU plans to reduce its current dependence on the import of critical raw materials, especially from China, which is currently the world’s largest exporter. It sets the goal that, by 2030, European mines and recycling centres should produce 10 per cent and 15 per cent respectively of the raw materials needed by the EU’s green industries. The draft act introduces the possibility of declaring certain raw materials projects as “strategic”, which would bring a series of administrative “benefits” in the form of shorter waiting times. It would also imply higher ecological costs, as the time allocated for assessing the environmental impact of such projects would be significantly reduced.
It remains unclear how this new proposal will affect Serbia. As part of its accession negotiations with the EU, Serbia is obliged to harmonise its laws with EU legislation. Increased pressure to open up access to the country’s lithium reserves is to be expected.
Serbia is a sacrifice zone
At the beginning of 2004, a new mineral with the chemical formula sodium-lithium-borosilicate-hydroxide was discovered in western Serbia. It was named Jadarite after the surrounding area and nearby river Jadar. This new mineral initially attracted media attention for its chemical similarity to the fictitious kryptonite after the supposed formula of the latter was revealed in the 2006 movie Superman Returns. Kryptonite is Superman’s weak point; while it can give otherwise ordinary people superhuman abilities in the short term, it is deadly over the long term.
Similar to the story of Superman, the fight against the planned exploitation of lithium in western Serbia is full of dubious characters and sudden turns but also struggle and solidarity. The story is far from over. Currently, we are in the calm before the storm that no doubt lies ahead.
Gornje Nedeljice is a small village in the western Serbian municipality of Loznica. The degree of economic development in the region is between 60 and 80 per cent of the national average, and its economy is dominated by agriculture – mainly cereals but also fruit and livestock farming. This village and its surrounding area is where multinational mining behemoth Rio Tinto was planning to start the underground mining of lithium.
Despite the initial hype, jadarite was soon forgotten by most. Not, however, by Rio Tinto, which spent years conducting research. For a time, its activities went relatively unnoticed by locals and ecological organisations. But, in 2020, they suddenly became aware of the company’s intention to open a mine in their area – a mine that would produce the raw material for major industrial chemicals boric acid, lithium carbonate, and sodium sulphate. But also a mine that, according to local activists and academics, would cause ecological devastation and turn the predominantly agricultural area into a “sacrifice zone”. To obtain lithium and boron from jadarite ore, large quantities of sulphuric acid are needed. As the planned location of the mine and the tailings dump was next to abundant river courses that often flood, there were justified fears of water and soil contamination.
The mine threatened more than 15,000 local households, in particular those living in properties located within the area of the proposed site, which could be seized by the state – on behalf of corporate actors in this instance – if their owners are not prepared to sell their land.
That the area around Jadar was planned as a sacrifice zone for the sake of Europe’s green transition was also flagged up by British anti-capitalist research group Corporate Watch, which has criticised the EU as well as Rio Tinto for appearing ready to sacrifice the Serbian environment for the benefit of the European car industry.
The fight for a clean environment
After attempts to contest the proposed mine through formal channels failed to yield any results, local activists turned to protest. Gornje Nedeljice was the site of the first protests, which in 2021 spread to regional centre Loznica, where the planning decision permitting the construction of the mine was taken. These protests were ignored by the local and national government, which in Serbia is under the absolute control of the Serbian Progressive Party, which emerged from the far-right Serbian Radical Party and currently occupies a strong centre-right position.
The protests against the exploitation of lithium – and Rio Tinto – soon moved to Serbia’s capital and largest city, Belgrade. At a large environmental protest held there in September 2022, the organisers demanded that the controversial proposed laws on the expropriation of land and on a planned referendum – meant to facilitate the implementation of the lithium mining project – be withdrawn. The third demand was that Rio Tinto leave Serbia immediately.
As the adoption of the disputed laws approached, the protests became more radical, culminating in blockades of all Serbia’s major roads. In Belgrade, over 10,000 people blocked Gazela Bridge, which is part of the international highway. According to some estimates, during the largest blockades, around 100,000 people gathered across the country. These were the largest environmental protests in Serbian history.
The protests succeeded. In early 2022, President Aleksandar Vučić announced the withdrawal of the two proposed laws. A few weeks later, the Jadar lithium project was removed from the spatial plan of the municipality of Loznica. This was achieved due to unprecedented pressure from citizens, but also in order to calm the country before the elections on 3 April 2022.
Green wave in Serbia
The fact that environmental issues occupied an important place in the campaign for the 2022 elections was at least partly thanks to the protests against the Jadar mine. For the first time, environmental topics were on the agenda of political actors in Serbia, and there was active debate on the possible exploitation of lithium in the country, with all opposition parties speaking out against the project.
The fight against lithium mining, together with the campaigns for clean air and against harmful mini-hydroelectric projects – backed up by a clear municipalist programme and support from the Ne davimo Beograd (Don’t drown Belgrade) movement in the capital city – contributed to the success of green candidates in the elections. In both the national parliamentary elections and the Belgrade city elections, green-left coalition Moramo achieved good results – 4.7 and 10.8 per cent respectively – and managed to get a genuinely ecologist option into the institutions for the first time.
All members of the Moramo coalition were actively involved in the protests, and they continued to institutionally oppose lithium exploitation in Serbia. In the meantime, a petition organised by the Kreni-Promeni (Move-Change) movement calling for a ban on lithium and boron mining was signed by more than 30,000 citizens and submitted. Not only did the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia fail to make a public statement on the petition, there were also claims that the signatures were lost. Moramo MPs continued to insist that those responsible for this alleged loss be identified and that this issue be raised in parliament.
Meanwhile, President Vučić – who has immense de facto decision-making power in spite of the purely representative nature of his role – often makes reference to lithium mining in his speeches. He emphasises how a great opportunity was missed and how foreign intelligence services played a key role in preventing the project, thereby denying the role of the citizens who braved freezing temperatures to protest and block roads – a narrative that leaves the door open for further attempts at lithium exploitation.
Another extraction is possible?
Despite the so-far successful opposition to the mine, there is no getting around the importance of lithium to the green transition.
Of course, no one would want a mine opened right next to their house or in their local area. Still, if we are to be guided by a development paradigm that envisions a green transition to a low-carbon society, lithium must be mined somewhere. If the ore isn’t mined in Serbia, it will be mined in Bolivia, Argentina, or Chile, where local communities will also be affected. How, then, to deal with such challenges?
As a strategic resource for the future, the Serbian state should under no circumstances give up the country’s lithium to a private company that would have a monopoly over its extraction and production. For guidance, Serbia could look to Bolivia and Chile, who are moving to nationalise lithium in order to secure control over and profit from the mineral’s extraction.
There is no getting around the importance of lithium to the green transition.
The Serbian state could, for example, establish a public company under direct citizen control to manage its lithium reserves. In this way, instead of receiving a meagre resource rent, the public purse would keep the profits from ore production. If mining is to take place, the state has a responsibility to its citizens to employ the best available technologies and commit to the repair of pollution damage, which is unfortunately inevitable no matter the technology used.
Besides mines, the state should also ensure that lithium processing plants (in which finished products in the form of lithium batteries are produced) are opened. And why not take things further and envision electric car factories based in Serbia? That way, lithium could bring long-term development – not only to the Loznica area but also further afield.
What is to be done?
The citizens of Serbia are not convinced that the plan to exploit lithium in the country has been permanently blocked. The government is sending mixed messages, and trust in political parties and institutions is generally low. That various European officials are directly or indirectly exerting pressure in favour of lithium exploitation hardly helps.
They are distrustful because they fear that lithium exploitation could cause ecological degradation and that all the profits would go elsewhere. Serbia has one of the lowest mineral rents in Europe. While the development of a lithium processing complex would be desirable, it seems that instead, ore extracted in Serbia would be exported unprocessed. Serbia would not make batteries for new electric cars. Nor would those cars be assembled in Serbia. The surplus value would be generated elsewhere for someone else’s benefit.
They also know that they will not drive those electric cars. In a society where the average net monthly salary rose above 500 euros for the first time only last year, affording a 50,000 euro electric car remains a dream. As per the relationship between the European periphery and its capitalist core, Serbia can expect old cars with internal combustion engines that make the country’s dangerous levels of air pollution even worse.
In the global push for electrification, whether there is even enough lithium to replace all fossil fuel-powered vehicles with electric cars remains questionable. Should we not instead be thinking about how to replace cars – the most inefficient form of individual transportation – with collective forms of transport that are significantly more sustainable?
Keeping lithium reserves in the ground would require a paradigm shift at all levels – from local to national and European to global – towards societies that will spend less, but more fairly and more efficiently. After all, the greenest products are those that are never produced.
Source: Green European Journal