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Imagine that one knows nothing about tectonic theory and geography. Such a map would be quite illuminating. The comments section contains an exchange between two Martins about the hazard of non-experts plotting and then commenting on data they know little about. In the past, this conversation would take place behind closed doors as the statistician works with the geologist, each learning from the other. In our modern age, it is common for both sides to take up arms in public with colorful language. The lesson for us spectators is the importance of understanding how data is collected, how data is defined, how data is processed, etc. The plots Martin made do give me a chance to talk about a few interesting statistical issues relating to plotting data. The chart doesn't have a vertical scale so it is hard to judge whether the growth is meaningful or not. The US Geological Service doesn't seem to think this is a remarkable event, as the other Martin pointed out. One explanation is the increasing sensitivity of measuring equipment, which leads to more small-magnitude earthquakes being recorded over time. Whether or not this hypothesis is true in the context of earthquakes, this is a very important phenomenon that occurs often. One of the mysteries in the epidemiology of autism is the recent rise in the number of cases but this is made complicated by the much higher probability of diagnosis in recent times. Similarly, as the stigma against reporting rapes, harassment and other crimes dissipate, more such criminal reports will be filed, and how does one distinguish between higher reporting and higher incidence, both of which lead to higher counts? This same phenomenon happened during the Toyota brake scare last year. It appeared as if the problem was getting worse while the scandal brewed. But as the awareness of the potential risk increases, so too will the probability of someone reporting an issue. One other feature of the bar chart worth noting is the faux plunge in the number of earthquakes in 2011. My recommendation is either to omit the incomplete year, or to forecast the end-of-year count (labelling it clearly as a forecast). Finally, for data relating to rare events like earthquakes, one should try to take as long a view as possible. Twenty years is good but a hundred years would be better. Next, Martin created this histogram that plots the number of earthquakes of different magnitudes over the last two decades or so. As Martin noted, Richter scale is a log scale, meaning a 1-unit increase on the horizontal direction is really a 10 fold increase. Martin's point is to show how strong the earthquake in Japan was compared to historical earthquakes. This is a useful and interesting question to ask, and his choice of graphics cannot be faulted. What the other Martin was complaining about is the third corner of our Trifecta checkup: whether the right data has been used. Martin used what he was able to find. The histogram in fact looked quite nice, was rather symmetric, and suggested a tractable mathematical model. But if we proceed along that path, we would have chosen the wrong model. The trap is a missing data problem that will not be evident to non-experts. As discussed above, small-magnitude quakes are not being tracked. Thus, the left side of the histogram severely under-represents the true frequency of such small tremors. There is a Guthenberg-Richter law relating earthquake magnitude and frequency. It's a power law. Roughly speaking, for each 1 unit decrease in Richter magnitude, earthquakes of that magnitude occur about one-tenth as frequently. This law fits the actual data really well when Richter magnitude is high but at lower magnitudes, geologists believe that our records are severely under-counted. In the chart shown on the right, which comes from this paper (PDF link) about predicting earthquakes, the dots sit on the line at higher magnitudes but the observed frequencies fall markedly below the line (projection) for magnitude lower than 2. It suggests that the bars on the left side of the histogram above should have been much taller than we are seeing. For a proper power law, the bars on the left should be the tallest of all!

Forced Perspective Photography Forced Perspective is a technique that employs optical illusion to make an object appear farther away, closer, larger or smaller than it actually is. It is used primarily in photography, filmmaking and architecture. What you will be doing: - You will need to have three final photos. Each photo needs to be a different concept of forced perspective photography - Use Pinterest to get ideas! There’s some pretty amazing ones on there - Take multiple photos of each idea - Photos must be in focus!! If it is out of focus, reshoot it! Your grade will be significantly lowered if the entire photo is out of focus. If you have any questions on this, please let me know. - You will be graded on composition, originality, and image quality

Approach #1 Brute Force [Time Limit Exceeded] Enumerate all possible subsequences to see if they are arithmetic sequences. We can use depth-first search to generate all subsequences. We can check a Subsequence is arithmetic or not by its definition. Time complexity : . For each element in the array, it can be in or outside the subsequence. So the time complexity is . Space complexity : . We only need the space to store the array. Approach #2 Dynamic Programming [Accepted] To determine an arithmetic sequence, we need at least two parameters: the first (or last) element of the sequence, and the common difference. Starting from this point, we can easily figure out that one state representation that may work: f[i][d]denotes the number of arithmetic subsequences that ends with A[i]and its common difference is Let's try to find the state transitions based on the representation above. Assume we want to append a new element A[i] to existing arithmetic subsequences to form new subsequences. We can append A[i] to an existing arithmetic subsequence, only if the difference between the sequence's last element and A[i] is equal to the sequence's common difference. Thus, we can define the state transitions for the element A[i] intuitively : j < i, f[i][A[i] - A[j]] += f[j][A[i] - A[j]]. This demonstrates the appending process above to form new arithmetic subsequences. But here comes the problem. Initially all f[i][d] are set to be 0, but how can we form a new arithmetic subsequence if there are no existing subsequences before? In the original definition of arithmetic subsequences, the length of the subsequence must be at least 3. This makes it hard to form new subsequences if only two indices j are given. How about taking the subsequences of length 2 into account? We can define weak arithmetic subsequences as follows: Weak arithmetic subsequences are subsequences that consist of at least two elements and if the difference between any two consecutive elements is the same. There are two properties of weak arithmetic subsequences that are very useful: For any pair i, j (i != j), A[j]can always form a weak arithmetic subsequence. If we can append a new element to a weak arithmetic subsequence and keep it arithmetic, then the new subsequence must be an arithmetic subsequence. The second property is quite trival, because the only difference between arithmetic subsequences and weak arithmetic subsequences is their length. Thus we can change the state representations accordingly: f[i][d]denotes the number of weak arithmetic subsequences that ends with A[i]and its common difference is Now the state transitions are quite straightforward: j < i, f[i][A[i] - A[j]] += (f[j][A[i] - A[j]] + 1). 1 appears here because of the property one, we can form a new weak arithmetic subsequence for the pair Now the number of all weak arithmetic subsequences is the sum of all f[i][d]. But how can we get the number of arithmetic subsequences that are not There are two ways: First, we can count the number of pure weakarithmetic subsequences directly. The pure weakarithmetic subsequences are the arithmetic subsequences of length 2, so the number of pure weakarithmetic subsequences should be equal to the number of pairs (i, j), which is Second, for the summation f[i][A[i] - A[j]] += (f[j][A[i] - A[j]] + 1), f[j][A[i] - A[j]]is the number of existing weak arithmetic subsequences, while 1is the new subsequence built with A[j]. Based on property two, when we are appending new elements to existing weak arithmetic subsequences, we are forming arithmetic subsequences. So the first part, f[j][A[i] - A[j]]is the number of new formed arithmetic subsequences, and can be added to the answer. We can use the following example to illustrate the process: [1, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5] We need to count the answer for the above sequence. For the first element 1, there is no element in front of it, the answer remains For the second element 1, the element itself with the previous 1can form a pure weak arithmetic subsequence with common difference For the third element 2, it cannot be appended to the only weak arithmetic subsequence [1, 1], so the answer remains 0. Similar to the second element, it can form new weak arithmetic subsequences For the forth element 3, if we append it to some arithmetic subsequences ending with 2, these subsequences must have a common difference of 3 - 2 = 1. Indeed there are two: [1, 2]. So we can append 3to the end of these subsequences, and the answer is added by 2. Similar to above, it can form new weak arithmetic subsequences [1, 3], [1, 3]and The other elements are the same, we can view the process in the figure below. The red bracket indicates the weak arithmetic subsequence of length 2, and the black bracket indicates the arithmetic subsequence. The answer should be the total number of black brackets. Time complexity : . We can use double loop to enumerate all possible states. Space complexity : . For each i, we need to store at most ndistinct common differences, so the total space complexity is .

Circadian and Melatonin Disruption by Exposure to Light at Night Drives Intrinsic Resistance to Tamoxifen Therapy in Breast Cancer Robert T. Dauchy, Shulin Xiang, Lulu Mao, Samantha Brimer, Melissa A. Wren, Lin Yuan, Muralidharan Anbalagan, Adam Hauch, Tripp Frasch, Brian G. Rowan, David E. Blask, and Steven M. Hill Cancer Res. 2014 Aug 1;74(15):4099-110 Two-thirds to three-quarters of breast cancers are hormone receptor positive – meaning they express the estrogen or progesterone receptor – and so can be treated with endocrine therapies such as tamoxifen or aromatase inhibitors. On the whole, this is good news for the patient. The endocrine therapies are very good at choking off the hormone signals that make the cancer grow, and so are good at keeping the cancer in check. If the cancer is not hormone dependent, then this avenue of therapy is not an option. Endocrine therapy works by removing the source of estrogen, or preventing it from interacting with its receptor, everywhere in the body. It is substantially contributing to the longer life expectancy of breast cancer patients. However, as patients live longer, it is more common to see reoccurrence of the cancer, once it has escaped the hormone suppressive therapy. When it does, it is more aggressive and often metastatic. Analyses of the cancers that come back shows that they have learned to live without the external estrogen signal that tamoxifen or aromatase inhibitors eradicated. How do they do that? Hormone receptors switch on specific signals inside the cells to fulfill their function. But there are other, alternate ways to switch these signals on too – and it is by activating these other ways that the recurrent breast cancer cells have stepped around the hormone therapy and resumed their growth. Broadly speaking the alternate pathways are kinase pathways – a kinase is an enzyme that decorates other molecule with phosphate, and this constitutes typically a “go” signal – it promotes growth, or movement for example, depending on the proteins involved. So how does this relate to darkness? Well, it turns out that melatonin, a hormone that is produced in animals when they are in the dark and controls the night-day cycle, is an inhibitor of some of these same alternate kinase signals. In the case of breast cancer patients, melatonin therefore cooperates with endocrine therapy to suppress breast cancer growth. One way to think of this, is that melatonin helps your body sleep by down regulating kinase activity, and this effect is also felt by the cancer cells. When these cancer cells are simultaneously deprived of estrogen, the suppression of cancer growth is enhanced – the cancer cells remain dormant, or maybe are even killed. In contrast, if you are exposed to light all the time, even relatively small amounts, then the kinase pathways remain more active, and the threshold to overcome the estrogen deprivation is more easily reached. Cancer cells may awaken more easily and even overcome the hormone deprivation. Dauchy et al modeled this in rats, and were able to show the biology behind it. They grew experimental breast cancers in rats, and either let the rats sleep in the dark or with a little light. Then some rats were treated with tamoxifen, and tumor growth was followed. Keeping the lights on negated the effect of tamoxifen. Convincingly when they gave melatonin as a drug to the rats that were sleeping in the light, they were able to restore the effectiveness of the tamoxifen. They did a lot of additional biology – looking at the kinase signaling, and the behavior of the tumor cells – to figure out the mechanism behind this observation. So what does it mean to a breast cancer patient on endocrine therapy? Perhaps most simply, it is important to get a good nights sleep, in the dark. How much light should you worry about? Dr. Hill, the senior author of the study and leader of the research group that undertook it, has said that amount of light the rats in this study were exposed to was “roughly equivalent to faint light coming under a door” or “the amount of light that comes in the bedroom window from a street light”. Should you take your tamoxifen or aromatase inhibitor at a particular time of the day? While these data in rats are pretty suggestive, we don’t have human data yet, so that is a major caveat. Furthermore, the endocrine therapy will have its own rhythm depending on the rate of uptake, metabolism and excretion of the drug, and so it is not easy to predict when the ideal time is. Clearly, as the authors of Dauchy et al indicate, more research on these specifics is needed. Having said that… … and on a personal note, I am making changes based on this research. Here is my thinking: - We know that tamoxifen has a peak plasma concentration 3-6 hours after administration, and a half life between 7 and 14 hours. - Peak melatonin levels are reached about midway through the dark cycle, and if you sleep 7-8 hours a night, that would be about 3-4 hours after you go to bed. - Taking the tamoxifen at bed time would therefore give you a maximum of both its active metabolite and melatonin around the same time, and based on the rat model here, maximum impact on estrogen dependent breast cancer cells. One concern about taking tamoxifen at night is that occasionally I have a glass of wine, or a beer, and since liver metabolism is critical to conversion of tamoxifen to its active form, that crossed my mind, However, the metabolic pathways for alcohol and tamoxifen are different, and so I think the occasional drink will not reduce its effectiveness.

Everyone knows the drill when the police pull someone over under the suspicion of DUI. They ask the driver to step out of the vehicle and perform tasks to determine their level of intoxication. The three field sobriety tests drivers are most often asked to perform the walk-and-turn, the one-leg stand, and the horizontal gaze test. What you may not know is that these tests are not entirely accurate. There are some studies that show just how ineffective these tests can be. Today we are going to explore the history and accuracy of field sobriety tests. The History of Field Sobriety Tests In 1975 the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) gave the task of standardizing field sobriety tests to the Southern California Research Institute. Up until that point, every police department had different tests. The goal of the study was to find the most accurate tests and make them the national standard. SCRI took a look at 16 different tests that police departments nationwide were using. The test had to determine if a driver’s BAC was greater than .10% not that they were under the influence. In the end, the researchers choose the walk-and-turn test, the one-leg stand test, and the Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus test (HGN). The walk-and-turn test is exactly what it sounds like. A driver has to take nine heel to toe steps in a straight line, turn around, and take nine heel to toe steps back. In the one-leg stand test, a driver elevates one foot six inches off the ground while counting by one thousand until the officer tells them to stop. Lastly, the HGN test involves a driver following an object with only their eyes, back and forth. The Accuracy of Field Sobriety Tests Upon conclusion of the study, the SCRI put officers to the test. Officers had to determine the level of intoxication of a participant with only the help of the three tests. So what were the results? The officers got it right with about the same frequency as they would have had they flipped a coin. There was a 47 percent margin of error. Researchers attributed the poor test results to officers not scoring the tests properly and ignoring evidence that showed some impairment was from factors other than alcohol. The test results were so bad that the NHTSA had the institute conduct them again in 1981. After six years of training police officers, you would think the tests would be extremely accurate. However, the results still weren’t great. The HGN test could correctly identify someone with a BAC over .10, 77 percent of the time. The walk-and-turn test was accurate 68 percent of the time. Lastly, the one-leg stand test was correct 65 percent of the time. However, in combination, these tests were correct 80 percent of the time. The authors noted that there was a 32 percent false arrest rate. These tests are far from perfect and result in countless false arrests for DUIs every year. The tests are especially inaccurate when performed by people over the age of 65, are more than 50 pounds overweight, or that have back leg, or middle ear problems. So, as you can see these tests do not accurately predict someone’s BAC in many cases. Should You Take Field Sobriety Tests? The short answer is no. Field sobriety tests are not a requirement. However, police officers receive training to make it seem like you don’t have a choice. You can politely decline to take the field sobriety tests. Taking the tests can only give an officer more probable cause to arrest you. If an officer pulls you over for a DUI, it is probably best to not take the tests. The same is true for a portable breathalyzer device. These devices are only a tool to increase probable cause; they can’t be used in a court case against you. You can politely decline to take a portable breathalyzer. However, Massachusetts has what is called implied consent. This means that if you have a driver’s license, you give your consent to submit to a chemical test. This only applies to more accurate tests like those administered at the police station or a hospital. If an officer still places you under arrest after not submitting to any roadside tests, it may be best to submit to the chemical testing. If you do not your license will be immediately suspended. The last thing you should do if a police officer pulls you over under suspicion of DUI is to remain silent. Under no circumstances should you admit to drinking. Telling the officer that you had one drink hours ago instantly gives them probable cause. Respectfully state that you are exercising your right to remain silent. If you are facing DUI charges, contact an experienced Massachusetts DUI attorney today.

Here is a card trick. Your task is to figure out how this is done. Two people (who know the trick) do the following: To help you determine how this trick is done, the following simulation allows you to enter the three visible cards and will announce the value of the hidden card. You can find out much more about this through the column and article by Colm Mulcahy. - Player 1 shuffles a deck of cards and takes 4 at random, without showing Player 2. - Player 1 puts one card aside (still not showing Player 2), and puts down the remaining three cards. If she chooses, Player 1 can put each card either face up or face down. - Player 2 then announces the suit and value of the card that was put aside.

Rav Chaim Kreiswirth, Rav and Av Beis Din of Antwerp and son-in-law of Rav Avraham Grodzinski. Rav Chaim was well-known to have memorized Talmud Bavli and Yerushalmi, as well as Rishonim and Acharonim (1920-2001). Today in History – 16 Teves · The Turkish leader Morad IV conquered Baghdad from the Persians with the help of the Jews, 1640. This day became Baghdad Purim. · Emperor Joseph II of Austria issued an Edict of Toleration in 1782 which repealed most restrictions on Jews that had been imposed by the Church. · The ship, “The 29th of November”, with illegal Jewish immigrants, was driven off the coast of Eretz Yisrael by the British, 1947

News & Events July 19, 2018 IceCube detects a high-energy neutrino and its source Yesterday the National Science Foundation announced that the IceCube Neutrino Observatory discovered a source of high energy neutrinos for the first time ever, in a scientific breakthrough that netted them the cover of the journal Science. The neutrinos came from a blazar – a super-massive black hole in the centre of a galaxy that jets out energy and particles as matter is sucked into the black hole. The jet from this particular blazar happens to point directly at us, so neutrinos coming from it are headed straight towards Earth. One of these neutrinos got caught in the Antarctic ice, creating a signal detected by IceCube’s sensors. McDonald Institute researchers Ken Clark and Juan Pablo Yañez are collaborators on the IceCube experiment, which consists of over 5000 detectors buried within a cubic kilometre of ice near the south pole. Upon detecting the high energy neutrino and the direction it came from, IceCube alerted astronomers around the world. Many large telescope arrays sensitive to a range of wavelengths were pointed to where the neutrino originated. There, the telescopes detected signatures of a blazar, confirming for the first time the source of cosmic rays. “The science behind this discovery is amazing, but what’s more incredible is that it marks the start of a new era for this type of physics. The coming together of so many researchers from all these collaborations to make measurements across such a wide range of wavelengths really shows the cooperative effort that is required to make discoveries of this magnitude. The science we’re searching for is becoming more challenging and this result shows how future discoveries will need to be made.” said Clark. This approach, using multiple tools to examine the same event (called multi-messenger astronomy), was first employed when telescopes were used to determine what direction a gravitational wave detected by LIGO came from. As physics advances further towards discovering the mysteries of our universe, we are entering the age of multi-messenger astronomy, letting us learn more about these events than ever before.

From Inside Technology Computing, Risk, and Trust Most aspects of our private and social lives—our safety, the integrity of the financial system, the functioning of utilities and other services, and national security—now depend on computing. But how can we know that this computing is trustworthy? In Mechanizing Proof, Donald MacKenzie addresses this key issue by investigating the interrelations of computing, risk, and mathematical proof over the last half century from the perspectives of history and sociology. His discussion draws on the technical literature of computer science and artificial intelligence and on extensive interviews with participants. MacKenzie argues that our culture now contains two ideals of proof: proof as traditionally conducted by human mathematicians, and formal, mechanized proof. He describes the systems constructed by those committed to the latter ideal and the many questions those systems raise about the nature of proof. He looks at the primary social influence on the development of automated proof—the need to predict the behavior of the computer systems upon which human life and security depend—and explores the involvement of powerful organizations such as the National Security Agency. He concludes that in mechanizing proof, and in pursuing dependable computer systems, we do not obviate the need for trust in our collective human judgment. HardcoverOut of Print ISBN: 9780262133937 440 pp. | 6 in x 9 in 48 illus. Paperback$35.00 X | £27.00 ISBN: 9780262632959 440 pp. | 6 in x 9 in 48 illus. - Winner of the 2003 Robert K. Merton Book Award presented by the Science, Knowledge, and Technology section of the American Sociological Association.

March 19th Presentation On September 20, 2017 Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico, that lovely and beloved island. Now that name, a name symbolic of purity and motherhood, will never be the same again; for it joins the list of storm bad girls Katrina, Sandy, Irene, Irma, Wilma, Rita, etc. The tree filled island pre-Maria was left bald on Maria’s departure. Much of the island went without power for months. Over 40,000 landslides triggered by this storm occurred in at least three-fourths of Puerto Rico’s 78 municipalities. The most recent official death toll numbers to an astounding 2,975, the deadliest event in more than one hundred years. Hurricane Maria represents many firsts in U.S. history: the longest sustained domestic air mission of food and water response, the largest disaster commodity distribution commission, the most expansive sea-bridge operation of federal disaster aid, and the biggest disaster generator installation mission. In addition, Maria constitutes one of the largest disaster medical response and housing operations in U.S. history. The words above just skim the surface of the devastation and consequences. The ever evolving results of the damage Maria did presently shows that over 160,000 people left the island for the states. Given the uncertain nature of the island’s economy, a continuation of Puerto Rican migration to the states is to be expected. This will also mean a changing experience for stateside Puerto Ricans. Centro, the Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College composed the report, “Puerto Rico One Year After Hurricane Maria” that marks this important turning point via a year of hindsight. On March 19, Carlos Vargas-Ramos, PhD (of Columbia University’s Political Science Dept. and Centro) will present the report’s findings at Swinging Sixties Senior Center. This 2-hour presentation, starts at 6 p.m., and a question and answer session will follow the lecture. Centro is currently creating an online community to strengthen the network of stateside Puerto Rican communities. This community will connect organizations across the country who are working to address Puerto Rico’s economic and humanitarian crisis. To join go here: http://centropr.nationbuilder.com “Puerto Rico One Year After Hurricane Maria” will be presented on March 19th, 6 p.m. –8 p.m.at Swinging Sixties Senior Center, 211 Ainslie Street, Brooklyn. For Reservations: mariaoneyearlater.eventbrite.com

Getting a Handle on Canine Epilepsy Dogs, like humans, may experience seizures for a variety of underlying conditions. But while many different medications and treatment plans exist to manage human seizures, veterinarians don’t have the same arsenal of options, said Ane Uriarte, a neurologist at the Henry and Lois Foster Hospital for Small Animals. That is because veterinary medicine lacks the same quality of diagnostics and seizures classifications as human medicine, said Uriarte, who is also a Cummings School assistant professor of clinical sciences. When people have a seizure, typically they will undergo a video-EEG (electroencephalogram) to capture their brain waves and map them to the physical movements observed during a seizure. As a result, “doctors often can tell what kind of disease you have just by looking at what kind of seizure you had,” said Uriarte, “and know kind of medication will work better for you.” Dogs, however, typically have seizures while they’re sleeping at night, so veterinarians almost never observe a patient mid-seizure. “We must rely on owners to tell us exactly what a seizure looked like,” Uriarte said. And since video-EEGs on dogs is not commonly feasible, veterinarians still have no idea if the type of seizure a dog has is related to a different disease process or response to medication. To improve diagnostics and care for epileptic dogs, Uriarte is working with Tufts engineering students to develop a free iPhone app called My Dog’s Epilepsy. Owners will be able to record notes and receive reminders about, veterinary appointments, and medication. The app also will allow them to record seizures and upload the videos to a cloud-based database. By collecting footage of thousands of epileptic dogs, Uriarte hopes to finally give veterinary researchers the data they need to start classifying canine seizures and creating more targeted treatments. Tufts School of Engineering seniors Donna Chen, Meet Patel, and Jeremy Su spent this past year helping Uriarte develop the app as their capstone project. The students devised information architecture for the app and set up the backend systems with a goal of creating a product that will be user-friendly for dog owners, while also storing data that’s easily searchable and exportable for Uriarte’s research. A $10,000 seed grant from Tufts will fund the final build of the app, for release on the Apple Store this summer. Genevieve Rajewski can be reached at [email protected].

Here you will notice that we are at the highest point in the watershed where the water that falls on the land as precipitation begins its journey down the valley. Headwater streams are many, but they are also the smallest streams in the watershed - some only a few inches wide, the largest only a few feet wide. The land here is often steep and the water may run fast, forming small waterfalls and pools. Headwater streams may form from surface runoff, melting snow, or groundwater that seeps out to the surface as springs. Most of the water you will see later in the lakes and rivers downstream is the result of the collected water from hundreds and even thousands of small headwater streams. For this reason, what happens to and on the land surrounding the headwaters affects the quality of the rivers and lakes hundreds of miles away! Now, on to the Middle Reaches!

Summary and Keywords All too often we emphasize the dangers of police work, but seem to neglect the hidden psychological danger of this profession. Suicide is a consequence of that hidden danger. It is a clear indication of the intolerable strain placed on the police officer’s work and life roles. Policing is an occupation replete with stress and traumatic incidents. For example, witnessing death, encountering abused children, and experiencing violent street combat weigh heavily as precipitants to depression, alcohol use, and suicide among police. Ideas as far back as Freud’s aggression theory relate to the police because officers cannot legally express anger and aggression outwardly and turn it within. Following Freud, other studies examined the frustration of police work and how it was turned inward. Other theoretical ideas concerning police suicide that have emerged over the years are included in this article—police cultural socialization, strain theory, and interpersonal suicide theory. Scientific research on police suicide has helped to focus on this topic. Much research is on suicide rates in an effort to determine the scope of this problem. Several recent studies are discussed in this article, including a national study. Such studies, however, are not without controversy and more work is necessary to clarify the validity of findings. There is lack of data available on police suicide, which adds to the problem of research. Many believe that causes of police suicide are really no different than those in other groups in society, such as relationship problems, financial difficulties, or significant loss. While scholars cannot yet be certain that police work is an etiological suicide risk factor, we can with some assurance state that it serves as a fertile arena for suicide precipitants. Culturally approved alcohol use and maladaptive coping, firearms availability, and exposure to psychologically adverse incidents all add to the suicide nexus. Last, and most important, the issue of police suicide prevention is discussed. Likely the biggest challenge in prevention is convincing officers to go for help. The police and societal culture at large attach a stigma to suicide which is difficult to deal with. Additionally, the police culture does not allow for weakness of any kind, either physical or psychological. Several promising prevention approaches are discussed. Given the reluctance to report the deaths of police officers as suicides unfortunately leaves us in a position of “best guess” based on what evidence we can collect. Looking to the future, the development of a national database focused on police suicide would help to establish the actual scope of this tragic loss of life. Interventions need to more efficaciously target at-risk police officers. More research, using longitudinal study designs, is needed to inform interventions and, in particular, to determine how suicide prevention efforts can be modified to meet the unique needs of law enforcement officers. Access to the complete content on Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Criminology requires a subscription or purchase. Public users are able to search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter without a subscription. If you are a student or academic complete our librarian recommendation form to recommend the Oxford Research Encyclopedias to your librarians for an institutional free trial. If you have purchased a print title that contains an access token, please see the token for information about how to register your code.

A Question of Self-Esteem A local reader asked over coffee a few questions about self-esteem. Since the information is worth sharing, I present it here in Question and Answer form. Q: “What is self-esteem? Is it another word for self-confidence? A: No, they are different. SELF-ESTEEM deals with the image we have of ourselves. It is about how we see and FEEL about ourselves. It is about the degree to which we VALUE ourselves. Those who have a positive self-image, hold themselves in ESTEEM. (They have high self-esteem.) Those who have a negative self-image, hold themselves in contempt, believe they have little value or are convinced they are worthless. (They have low self-esteem.) Although self-esteem is about belief in ourselves, SELF-CONFIDENCE is about belief in our abilities. The first belief deals with how we perceive our value as a human. The second with how well equipped (skilful) we believe we are to deal with life. Q: How important is self-esteem? A: Extremely. In fact, of the four steps to success, it is the most important. Q: What are the four steps to success? A: To succeed in life, or reach our dreams, there are four requirements: 1. We need to know what we want. 2. We need to believe we deserve it. 3. We need to believe we can achieve it. 4. We need to take the action steps that will lead us to our goal. Step number two is the most important. It can make us or break us. Q: Why is that? A: Well, we can use REASON, analysis, and planning to learn what we want (Step 1) and how to get it (Step 4). And if we don’t have all the skills we need to reach our goal (Step 3), reason, again, will come to our aid. For reason tells us if we lack skills, we can take a course, attend a school, or hire an instructor to bring us up to par. Reason and logic rely on the tool of language, which belongs to the domain of the conscious mind. The subconscious has its own language, which consists mainly of IMAGES and FEELINGS. The images are similar to video clips of events in our lives (our memories). And feelings are the emotions associated with the video clips.’ We can no more use logic to change our memories than we can use logic to change the video on a DVD. Our self-esteem resides in the subconscious, so it is out of the reach of logic. This is why it is impossible to cure an anorexic with logic. No use telling her she is starving herself to death, for her subconscious believes she is too fat. If we can’t cure an anorexic or change our self-image with logic, does that mean we are condemned to remain the same? Not at all. It simply means we have to use the same language as the subconscious, which consists of images and feelings. We can overwrite our past video clips’ and feelings with new ones. An example of how to do so in nine steps is given in this article: http://www.personal-development.com/chuck/overcoming-your-past.htm. On a subconscious level, those who have low self-esteem don’t believe they deserve to succeed. Once this belief is in place, the subconscious will do everything in its power to live consistent with this belief. Occasionally, someone with low self-esteem will stumble on success, win the lottery, or have success thrust on them, but as soon as that happens, the subconscious gets busy, tearing down their success to bring them down to the level it believes they belong. That’s why Step 2 of the four steps to success is so important. Low self-esteem can easily lead to a dead-end street. That’s why the best -selling author of The Road Less Traveled, M. Scott Peck, MD (1936 ~ 2005), wrote, Until you value yourself, you will not value your time. Until you value your time, you will not do anything with it. Q: Since self-esteem is so important, how can I raise mine? A: Here are some steps you can take to boost your self-esteem: 1. Low self-esteem or a poor self-image is associated with negative thinking while high self-esteem is associated with positive thinking. So, start thinking like a successful person today. That is, become a positive thinker. Here is a fact: You can raise your self-esteem as high as you wish. Granted, it may take a little work, but it is well in your power. That is a fact. That is a positive fact. That is something to be grateful for. So, start being grateful and positive today. Like Walt Whitman (1819 ~ 1892), repeat these words every day, I am as bad as the worst, but, thank God, I am as good as the best. 2. Check out the article mentioned earlier to learn how to overwrite your past. 3. Choose your friends carefully. Today, with great pain, I dropped a close friend of many years. Over the years we have gone in different directions, he becoming very negative. All of us become like those we associate with. I cannot afford to hang around negative people and neither can you. 4. To understand this next fact, you will have to do more than open your mind; you’ll have to open your heart. Here is the fact: Those who are responsible for your less than satisfactory self-esteem did the best they could under the circumstances. Like yours, their upbringing was less than perfect. Because of these facts, forgive them. Once you do so, you will feel better. You will feel better because you will have become a better person. In other words, you will have added to your value, you will have become more worthy. Reworded, you will have raised your own self-esteem. The reason it is so important to learn how to forgive others is that you will be unable to forgive yourself until you can forgive others. And once you forgive yourself for your own failings, a weight will be lifted from your shoulders and your self-esteem will rise another notch. 5. Do good. Help others. Become a volunteer. Support, encourage, and uplift everyone you meet. These actions will make the world a better place. Because of your contributions, you will feel valuable and worthy (that’s another way of saying you will experience high self-esteem). Besides, as you encourage others, they will encourage you, boosting your self-esteem even further. 6. Practice visualization exercises. If you don’t know how to, borrow or buy a book or attend a workshop. Remember, the language of the subconscious is images and feelings, not logic. So, close your eyes and see yourself as the person you wish to become. How is the person you wish to become breathing and feeling? Copy those same patterns. As you grow skilful and can clearly see the person you wish to become, see yourself stand up (in your mind’s eye), walk up to the person you want to become, and step into its body, just like you are putting on new clothes. With frequent practice, the message will reach the subconscious and it will start acting consistent with the new image of yourself. 7. To reinforce the visualization exercise and carry it a step further, follow the advice of William James (1842 ~ 1910) and ACT LIKE the person you wish to become. Pretend you are an actor and the world is your stage. Pretend you are the person you wish to become and give your best possible performance. Increase your acting skills with practice, acting more each day like the person you wish to become. This powerful exercise is magical. If you practice it religiously, before long you will believe you have indeed become the new you. After all, as you act as the person you wish to become, people start treating you differently. As they treat you with more respect, you develop more self-respect. In short, they act as stage directors in your play, guiding you to becoming the person you want to be and were meant to be. 8. As Brian Tracy teaches, Never say anything about yourself you do not want to come true. (After all, your subconscious is listening.) That is, even in jest, never say things like, “I’m so stupid…” 9. Stop being self-critical and focus on the positive. To change your focus, keep a journal titled “What’s Great about Me.” At the end of each day list your accomplishments, positive attributes, and what you are proud of. Do this long enough and you will experience a dramatic shift for the better in your self-image. 10. Take the 30-week “Sentence Completion” course by renowned self-esteem expert Nathaniel Branden, Ph.D. You can learn how to do this free program here: http://mol.redbarn.org/objectivism/Writing/NathanielBranden/WorkingWithSelfEsteemInPsychotherapy.html. After learning how to do the exercises, copy the Sentence Completion stems here: http://mol.redbarn.org/objectivism/Writing/NathanielBranden/WorkingWithSelfEsteemCompletionProgram.html . Q: Can you recommend some books on self-esteem? A: Because of the pervasiveness of self-esteem problems, many excellent books are available. You won’t have to study many books as long as you apply what you learn from one good book. Dr. Nathaniel Branden’s “The Six Pillars of Self-Esteem” (Bantam, 1995) is a classic reference. If you get the book, you won’t need to do Step 9 above because the Sentence Completion program appears in Appendix B of the book. While Dr. Branden’s book takes a somewhat scholarly approach, Matthew McKay, Ph.D. and Patrick Fanning have written a book that is easy to read, highly practical, and based on modern psychological research. Their book is titled, “SELF-ESTEEM“. Another excellent book is “Conquer Your Critical Inner Voice” by Robert W. Firestone, Ph.D., Lisa Firestone, Ph.D., and Joyce Catlett, M.A., New Harbinger Publications, 2002 Yet another useful book is “CELEBRATE YOURSELF, Enhancing Your Own Self-Esteem,” by Dorothy Corkille Briggs, Doubleday, 1977. In addition to books, there are also many web sites that provide valuable information about self-esteem, here’s one example. Chuck Gallozzi lived, studied, and worked in Japan for 15 years, immersing himself in the wisdom of the Far East and graduating with B.A. and M.A. degrees in Asian Studies. He is a Certified NLP Practitioner, speaker, seminar leader, and coach. Corporations, church groups, teachers, counselors, and caregivers use his more than 400 articles as a resource to help others. Among his diverse accomplishments, he is also the Grand Prix Winner of a Ricoh International Photo Competition, the Canadian National Champion of a Toastmasters International Humorous Speech Contest, and the Founder and Head of the Positive Thinkers Group that has been meeting at St. Michael’s Hospital, Toronto since 1999. His articles are published in books, newsletters, magazines, and newspapers. He was interviewed on CBC’s “Steven and Chris Show,” appearing nationally on Canadian TV. Chuck can be contacted at [email protected]. View his photography at https://500px.com/chuckgallozzi. This article cannot be re-published without permission.

- Lithium ion - Video on demand - How batteries work. Adam Jacobson. TED-ED (2015). Batteries are a triumph of science — they allow smartphones and other technologies to exist without anchoring us to an infernal tangle of power cables. Yet even the best batteries will diminish daily, slowly losing capacity until they finally die. Why does this happen, and how do our batteries even store so much charge in the first place? - The Mechanical Universe and Beyond (1985) - The Electric Battery. Volta invents the electric battery using the internal properties of different metals.

Individual differences | Methods | Statistics | Clinical | Educational | Industrial | Professional items | World psychology | | A sow and her piglet.| Pigs, also called hogs or swine, are ungulates which have been domesticated as sources of food, leather, and similar products since ancient times. More recently, they have been involved in biomedical research and treatments. Their long association with humans has led to their considerable representation in cultural milieux from paintings to proverbs. Native to Eurasia, they are collectively grouped under the genus Sus within the Suidae family. Despite pigs' reputation for gluttony, and another reputation for dirtiness, a lesser known quality is their intelligence. The nearest living relatives of the swine family are the peccaries. Description and behaviorEdit A pig has a snout for a nose, small eyes, and a small tail, which may be curly, kinked, or straight. It has a thick body and short legs. There are four toes on each foot, with the two large middle toes used for walking. Pigs are omnivores, which means that they consume both plants and animals. Pigs will scavenge and have been known to eat any kind of food, including dead insects, worms, tree bark, rotting carcasses, garbage, and even other pigs. In the wild, they are foraging animals, primarily eating leaves and grasses, roots, fruits and flowers. Occasionally, in captivity, pigs may eat their own young, often if they become severely stressed. A typical pig has a large head with a long snout which is strengthened by a special bone called the prenasal bone and by a disk of cartilage in the tip. The snout is used to dig into the soil to find food and is a very sensitive sense organ. Pigs have a full set of 44 teeth. The canine teeth, called tusks, grow continually and are sharpened by the lowers and uppers rubbing against each other. Pigs that are allowed to forage may be watched by swineherds. Because of their foraging abilities and excellent sense of smell, they are used to find truffles in many European countries. Domesticated pigs are commonly raised as livestock by farmers for meat (called pork), as well as for leather. Their bristly hairs are also used for brushes. Some breeds of pigs, such as the Asian pot-bellied pig, are kept as pets. A female pig can become pregnant at around 8-18 months of age. She will then go into heat every 21 days if not bred. Male pigs become sexually active at 8-10 months of age. A litter of piglets typically contains between 6 and 12 piglets. Pigs do not have functional sweat glands, so pigs cool themselves using water or mud during hot weather. They also use mud as a form of sunscreen to protect their skin from sunburn. Mud also provides protection against flies and parasites. - See also: Boar - Sus barbatus - Sus bucculentus (possibly extinct). - Sus cebifrons - Sus celebensis - Sus falconeri † (extinct). - Sus heureni - Sus hysudricus † (extinct). - Sus philippensis - Sus salvanius - Sus scrofa - Sus strozzi † (extinct). - Sus timoriensis - Sus verrucosus - Main article: Domestic pig Pigs have been domesticated since ancient times in the Old World and, unlike many domestic animals, are known for their intelligence. Pigs are particularly valued in China and on certain oceanic islands, where their self-sufficiency allows them to be turned loose, although the practice is not without its drawbacks (see below). Pigs can be trained to perform numerous simple tasks and tricks. Recently, they have enjoyed a measure of popularity as house pets, particularly the dwarf breeds. Cultural references to pigsEdit - Main article: Cultural references to pigs Pigs are frequently referenced in culture and are a popular topic for idioms and famous quotes. Environmental impacts Edit Domestic pigs that have escaped from farms or were allowed to forage in the wild, and in some cases wild boars which were introduced as prey for hunting, have given rise to large populations of feral pigs in North and South America, Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii and other areas where pigs are not native. Accidental or deliberate releases of pigs into countries or environments where they are an alien species have caused extensive environmental change. Their omnivorous diet, aggressive behaviour and their feeding method of rooting in the ground all combine to severely alter ecosystems unused to pigs. Pigs will even eat small animals and destroy nests of ground nesting birds. The Invasive Species Specialist Group lists feral pigs on the list of the world's 100 worst invasive species and says about them: |“||Feral pigs like other introduced mammals are major drivers of extinction and ecosystem change. They have been introduced into many parts of the world, and will damage crops and home gardens as well as potentially spreading disease. They uproot large areas of land, eliminating native vegetation and spreading weeds. This results in habitat alteration, a change in plant succession and composition and a decrease in native fauna dependent on the original habitat.||”| Pigs harbour a range of parasites and diseases that can be transmitted to humans. These include trichinosis, cysticercosis, and brucellosis. Pigs are also known to host large concentrations of parasitic ascarid worms in their digestive tract.The presence of these diseases and parasites is one of the reasons why pork meat should always be well cooked or cured before eating. Some religious groups that consider pork unclean refer to these issues as support for their views. Pigs can be susceptible to pneumonia, usually caused by weather. Pigs have small lungs in relation to body size; for this reason, bronchitis or pneumonia can kill a pig quickly. Pigs can be aggressive and pig-induced injuries are relatively common in areas where pigs are reared or where they form part of the wild or feral fauna. - ↑ Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society (1997), 120: 163–191. - ↑ ADW: Sus scrofa: Information - ↑ Managing Heat Stress In Outdoor Pigs - ↑ Müller, 1838 - ↑ Heude, 1888 - ↑ Müller & Schlegel, 1843 - ↑ Hardjasasmita, 1987 - ↑ Nehring, 1886 - ↑ Hodgson, 1847 - ↑ Linnaeus, 1758 - ↑ Müller & Schlegal, 1845 - ↑ Müller, 1840 - ↑ ADW: Sus scrofa: Information - ↑ issg Database: Ecology of Sus scrofa - SwineCast podcast - Feral Pig Fact Sheet - Nature: The Joy of Pigs - TV special on PBS - Pigs as Pets - Pig Health - Pig Genome Resources - Special issue on swine genome research - Swine Breeds, with pictures - University Pig Teaching and Research Program |This page uses Creative Commons Licensed content from Wikipedia (view authors).|

by Ben Roberts An area rich with diversity We’re not short of interesting animals in the area around Pwllpeiran. Doubtless many of you will know about the presence of some of them, from iconic raptors gliding in the skies above, to the variety of wildlife in the woodlands around Hafod and beyond. The diversity of sometimes rare and endangered species in the area is plain to see, whether it be on a trip to Nant Yr Arian to see the red kite feedings, or evidenced by Vincent Wildlife Trust staff out and about on the roads or scouting the forestry for pine martens and pole cats. Finding the motivation… Knowing this, I had always liked the idea of going out at some point to attempt to photograph the animal wildlife that might be present around Pwllpeiran. Unfortunately, a number of factors including frequent wet weather, lack of spare time, and a general lack of patience to sit out on the hillside for hours on end hoping to see something more than just sheep meant somehow I never got round to it…. However, this time last year it began to become a reality via an unlikely route. Daffodils on the menu? Having completed our first daffodil harvest, we were preparing to put sheep back out on the plots to let them eat the grass which had grown in their absence whilst the daffodils grew, when we came across a conundrum. We had always believed that the sheep would be unlikely to eat the daffodils, given that the alkaloids which we are after are actually in the plant to stop mammalian herbivory and were expected to make the plants bitter. But given no one had tried this combination before, we lacked solid scientific data as to whether our assumptions were true or not. So the question was, how do we check that the sheep aren’t eating them? Finding a hands-off method Being the lowest grade member of staff, and knowing that a suggestion of a straw poll was unlikely to win out as the method of deciding who had the honour of keeping a vigil over the daffodils, I decided to quickly search for a solution that involved a less hands-on experience! Having seen a good deal of BBC nature documentaries throughout my life, I knew that camera traps were a good way of catching animals in action without having to be there. You simply strap the camera to a tree or post facing a trodden path or area where animals are likely to be seen, and leave the camera on standby ready to snap/ record at any time when something crosses its field of vision. This led me to think this might be a useful solution. Rather than looking out for exotic wildlife, we would simply have the camera overlooking the daffodil rows, and when a sheep came in its vision we would see whether they were just eating the grass or choosing to sample the daffodils as well. The adventures begin! After a few stints at a few different places, we felt confident that the sheep weren’t eating the daffodils. It was at that point we realised that now having a spare camera trap, we could maybe have a look at some wildlife after all. We started putting it up at different places around Pwllpeiran, and because it didn’t require us to be there – we could leave it for weeks at a time taking pictures and videos. Below are a few of the sightings we’ve had… Despite the rarity of deer in the area (see previous blog), there have recently been one or two sightings not too far from Pwllpeiran, and there was lots of excitement when we managed to get one of them captured on camera. But it was travelling at speed, and it’s not clear from the image what type it might be. We’ve had a go at re-positioning the camera to try and catch it head on, but haven’t had any luck as yet. Birds are a lot more easier to catch. Here’s a a blackbird playing hide and seek. But it’d better watch out for what’s lurking in the undergrowth! The camera trap is now up again. Watch this space for further photos/ videos when they arrive!

In his provocative essay The Age of Reason, Thomas Paine didn’t mince words on Christianity. ”What is it the Bible teaches us?” he asked, and answered: ”rapine, cruelty and murder. What is it the New Testament teaches us?—to believe that the Almighty committed debauchery with a woman engaged to be married; and the belief of this debauchery is called faith.” In 1819, the English deist Richard Carlile was convicted of blasphemy and sentenced to two years in prison for selling The Age of Reason. Today Tom Paine is celebrated as one of the Enlightenment’s foremost champions of human rights. But even 200 years after his conviction Carlile might not have been vindicated had he been able to take his case to the European Court of Human Rights. In a recent ruling, the Court upheld the conviction of an Austrian citizen for an ”abusive attack on the Prophet of Islam which could stir up prejudice and threaten religious peace” for denouncing the Prophet Muhammad as a “pedophile.” The Court insisted that the comments could arouse “justified indignation” in religious believers who have a right to have their religious feelings protected. Moreover, states have wide discretion to prevent such “improper attacks on religious groups” in order to ensure social and religious peace. Paine would have been shocked and horrified by such logic. And it is deeply regrettable that the Court declined to revisit its long-held doctrine that the freedoms of religion and speech are conflicting rather than complementary rights. Paine’s scathing attack on holy scripture was clearly offensive to many Christians—US President Theodore Roosevelt later called Paine “a filthy little Atheist.” But the harsh attacks on the authority of religion by Paine and other Enlightenment figures contributed to a broadening concept of tolerance encompassing both the right to express, critique and reject religious doctrines. So the Court’s insistence that the freedoms of religion and speech are in conflict when the latter is used to attack the former is regressive, however noble the purposes of securing “social peace” and “tolerance.” The Court’s reasoning is ultimately based on protecting the secular aim of peaceful co-existence rather than religious doctrine. But the underlying idea that expressions offensive to religious dogma constitute a threat to the social and religious peace of society has deep roots stretching back centuries. This was the very basis of the Roman Inquisition with its Index of Censorship from 1559 which aimed at protecting the faithful “from the poison, the danger of infection, the corruption springing up from bad books and writings.” The last execution of the Spanish Inquisition did not take place until 1826 when the deist teacher Cayetano Ripoll was hanged in Valencia. Avoiding the spread of infectious ideas was also behind John Calvin’s burning of Michael Servetus in Geneva in 1553 for “lacerat[ing] the sacred name of God.” But not all Christians accepted that social peace demanded religious uniformity and coercion. In the early 17th Century, English Baptists such as Thomas Helwys and John Murton protested the systematic religious intolerance of England under King James I: For men’s religion to God is between God and themselves. The king shall not answer for it. Neither may the king be judge between God and man. Let them be heretics, Turks, Jews, or whatsoever, it appertains not to the earthly power to punish them in the least measure. Both Helwys and Murton died in prison for their principles. The gradual acceptance that freedom of conscience is the foundation rather than a threat to religious peace and co-existence is therefore one of the most important and consequential ideas of Western democracy and has benefited religious believers as much as nonbelievers. This remains true today. There is ample evidence to debunk the claim that laws against blasphemy are a necessary and effective tool for ensuring social peace. The vast majority of European democracies have abolished their blasphemy bans without an increase in religious conflict, unrest or violence. And those who do seek to enforce the “Jihadist’s Veto” by killing and threatening journalists and authors in Amsterdam, Paris and Copenhagen, should not be rewarded for their efforts. Enforcing blasphemy bans is neither a sign of progress and tolerance nor likely to appease religious extremists. That lesson should be clear from a number of Muslim majority countries where blasphemy laws contribute to more, not less, extremism and violence. In 1992, Egyptian secularist intellectual Faraq Fouda was condemned as a blasphemer by a council at the Islamic Al-Azhar Islamic for mocking Islamist ideology and pointing to dark chapters in the history of Islam. Shortly thereafter, he was murdered by Islamists. Subsequently, Al-Azhar university not only blamed Fouda for his own murder but also banned Fouda’s complete works. In a 2015 study, Amjad Mahmoud Khan from UCLA found that: In Pakistan, Indonesia, and Nigeria—as may be true of other countries with anti-blasphemy laws—terrorism and blasphemy are inextricably intertwined. (…) The blasphemy criminal apparatus can embolden terrorists to commit crimes against humanity with impunity. (…)Efforts to repeal or reform such laws can be a critical step in delegitimizing the most dangerous organizations in the world. Human rights organizations including Amnesty International, Freedom House and Human Rights Watch, have also noted that blasphemy laws are being abused to target religious minorities, dissenters, and to legitimize vigilant mob violence. Human rights discourse should play no part in providing legitimacy—however indirectly—to such practices. The critical comments about the Prophet of Islam were based on accounts of the life of Muhammad in the Hadiths which next to the Qur’an are the most important foundational texts of Islam. According to some hadiths, the 53-year old Muhammad married a girl named Aisha at the age of six and consummated the marriage when she was nine. A millennium before the Rights Revolutions that brought basic rights to (some) women and girls, child marriages were common in many parts of the world. So judging a 7th-century figure by the standards of the 21st century looks like bad history lacking proper context. But since Muslims claim Muhammad is the seal of Prophets, whose life is an example to follow even today, debating the merits and moral nature of his acts and sayings remains deeply relevant. Especially since modern secular states like Denmark, Norway and Sweden have debated allowing child marriages of asylum seekers out of “respect” for traditional culture. Accordingly, the Court’s insistence that verbal attacks on religious doctrines and figures should have a certain “factual basis” creates an impediment to rigorous and passionate debate of religion. Much contained in texts considered sacred by their followers will be rejected as falsehoods by those of other faiths or non-believers. Moreover, to the non-believer, the Quran—like the Bible—includes many contradictions and even fervent believers passionately disagree about the correct interpretation. Hence, the numerous different sects each insisting that their interpretation of scripture is The Truth. When it comes to the life of Muhammad, historian Tom Holland has made the important point that almost no textual record appears until almost 200 years after Muhammad’s death. Accordingly, no reliable standard of “factual basis” can or should be required for any opinion on religion or religious figures, however offensive to those who hold such doctrines or persons to be sacred. In the words of Jonathan Rauch, “A society which has accepted skeptical principles will accept that sincere criticism is always legitimate. In other words, if any belief may be wrong, then no one can legitimately claim to have ended any discussion—ever. In other words: No one gets the final say.” It is this principle of “liberal science,” which the Court’s reasoning rejects by accepting only a benign interpretation of the life of Muhammad as The Truth. While the bloody and repressive aspect of religious intolerance has mostly been abandoned in democratic Europe, religious doctrine still trumps the conscience of the individual in many parts of the world. Blasphemy and apostasy is punishable by death in 13 Muslim majority countries. In Russia, artists, bloggers and YouTubers have been prosecuted for mocking religion under that country’s nebulous law against offending religious feelings. As the Court’s ruling stands, it might well have accepted the conviction of the Moscow Sakharov’s Museum’s curator and director for organizing an exhibition titled Religion, Be Careful! The Court’s ruling does not mean that European countries are obliged to adopt blasphemy or religious insult laws. But it does suggest that if the editors of Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten and French magazine Charlie Hebdo had been convicted for publishing mocking cartoons of Muhammed, they would not have been protected by free speech. And the decision will almost certainly embolden authoritarian governments in the Muslim world and elsewhere to renew efforts to erect a global blasphemy ban. From 1999 until 2010, Muslim states in the Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC) supported by Russia and others attempted to include a ban against “defamation of religion” in international human rights law. Only a sustained effort led by democratic states, international organizations and activists defeated the effort. Since then the UN’s Human Rights Committee has clarified that “Prohibitions of displays of lack of respect for a religion or other belief system, including blasphemy laws, are incompatible” with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Even the very organization to which the Court belongs has distanced itself from blasphemy laws. In April 2017, Council of Europe Secretary General Thorbjørn Jagtland emphasized that “blasphemy should not be deemed a criminal offence as the freedom of conscience forms part of freedom of expression.” Moreover, in the past ten years a number of European countries including Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, the UK, Malta, and most recently, Ireland, have abolished blasphemy bans, leaving only a handful blemishes on the map of democratic Europe. The Court’s decision therefore constitutes a clear and present danger to the emerging consensus that blasphemy laws are incompatible with international human rights law. The Court’s decision will also blunt criticism of existing blasphemy bans in countries where they’re used to marginalize minorities and punish dissent. Why should Pakistan, Russia and Saudi Arabia feel any pressure to abolish their blasphemy bans when the top human rights court in democratic Europe has blessed the idea that religion can be protected from offense without violating free speech? Jacob Mchangama writes and narrates the podcast “Clear and Present Danger: A History of Free Speech.” He is also the founder and director of Justitia, a civil liberties think tank in Copenhagen. You can follow him on Twitter @JMchangama and @CAPD_freespeech Flemming Rose is a journalist, and senior fellow at the Cato Institute and is the author of The Tyranny of Silence: How One Cartoon Ignited a Global Debate on the Future of Free Speech.

Many people are well aware of the value of brushing and flossing each day and seeing the dental practitioner each and every half a year. However, if you truly want to keep your teeth strong and healthier, there exists still far more to do. For a few great guidance on dental treatment, the following article is a good place to start. Flossing helps take away oral plaque on and about your periodontal collection and must be done at least twice daily. When flossing, lightly operate the dentistry floss all around between each teeth. Will not subjugate your gum area to harsh flossing procedures alternatively, use a mild palm and waxed dental care floss to help safeguard your gum line. If you use up all your tooth paste, preparing soda and drinking water is definitely an successful substitute. Just add some water with a small amount of baking soft drink and employ it just as you might toothpaste. An added help to using cooking soft drink is the fact that, as well as neutralizing mouth area odours, its rough mother nature can sort out spot elimination. When deciding on your next tooth remember to brush, make sure you steer clear of one who is too difficult. Specialists advise that you use either a delicate or medium sized-soft remember to brush on a regular basis. The tough bristles could be way too hard on the gums and will also put on away on the enamel covering your tooth! It is possible to expose electric toothbrushes to the youngsters commencing at age three. You should always watch over your children’s toothbrushing actions when using these brushes and make sure that your youngster understands that an electric powered tooth brush will not be a gadget and should just be used in his / her mouth. To help you safeguard your youngsters from swallowing excessive toothpaste watch over their cleaning. Use only a tiny amount of toothpaste. Dental surgeons usually recommend employing a modest pea scaled volume of toothpaste for youngsters below 6 years old to aid safeguard their own health. Throughout your child’s tooth brushing regimen, explain the necessity of brushing every single tooth correctly. Every half a year, go for a dental cleansing plus a check out-up. Obtaining your the teeth washed is crucial. Cleaning will be carried out as well as any troubles is going to be noticed. When your dental professional suggests orthodontics, you need to think about it. Getting the pearly whites straightened is usually greater than a aesthetic matter incorrect alignment in the teeth or jawbone could cause severe oral health issues later on. Despite the fact that kids most often use braces, adults can usually benefit from orthodontic therapy at the same time. Some common guidance is to try using lime or white vinegar to help your the teeth get whitened. This is simply not real. Both contain acid solution and ought not to be used on your pearly whites. The acids during these fluids can damage teeth enamel. Take the time to thoroughly clean your tongue every time which you remember to brush your teeth. Your tongue can take a great deal of viruses and must be kept as clear as is possible. A nice and clean tongue also promotes clean breathing. In order to fit everything in you are able to to possess a healthy oral cavity you will comply with this idea frequently. You simply purchase one group of long term tooth in your lifetime, so you have to take better care of them. In the event you crash to achieve this, you can be in for quite some time of high-priced and distressing dentistry work. Avoid this requirement through the use of these dental treatments suggestions each and every day. When you beloved this informative article and also you would like to receive details regarding health implore you to visit our own internet site.

This page uses content from Wikipedia and is licensed under CC BY-SA. Satellite image of the Baja California Peninsula |Adjacent bodies of water| |Area||143,390 km2 (55,360 sq mi)| The Baja California Peninsula (English: Lower California Peninsula, Spanish: Península de Baja California) is a peninsula in Northwestern Mexico. It separates the Pacific Ocean from the Gulf of California. The peninsula extends 1,247 km (775 miles) from Mexicali, Baja California in the north to Cabo San Lucas, Baja California Sur in the south. It ranges from 40 km (25 miles) at its narrowest to 320 km (200 miles) at its widest point and has approximately 3,000 km (1,900 miles) of coastline and approximately 65 islands. The total area of the Baja California Peninsula is 143,390 km2 (55,360 sq mi). The peninsula is separated from mainland Mexico by the Gulf of California and the Colorado River. There are four main desert areas on the peninsula: the San Felipe Desert, the Central Coast Desert, the Vizcaíno Desert and the Magdalena Plain Desert. The land of California existed as a myth among European explorers before it was discovered. The earliest known mention of the idea of California was in the 1510 romance novel Las Sergas de Esplandián by Spanish author Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo. The book described the Island of California as being west of the Indies, "very close to the side of the Terrestrial Paradise; and it is peopled by black women, without any man among them, for they live in the manner of Amazons". Following Hernán Cortés' conquest of Mexico, the lure of an earthly paradise as well as the search for the fabled Strait of Anián, helped motivate him to send several expeditions to the west coast of New Spain in the 1530s and early 1540s. Its first expedition reached the Gulf of California and California, and proved the Island of California was in fact a peninsula. Nevertheless, the idea of the island persisted for well over a century and was included in many maps. The Spaniards gave the name Las Californias to the peninsula and lands to the north, including both Baja California and Alta California, the region that became parts of the present-day U.S. states of California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, and parts of Colorado and Wyoming. The two Californias division was kept after Mexican independence in 1821. The Spanish Baja California Province became Mexican Baja California Territory, and remained a separate territory until 1836. In 1836, the Siete Leyes constitutional reforms reunited both Californias in the Departamento de las Californias. After 1848, the Baja California Peninsula again became a Mexican territory when Alta California was ceded to the United States (see 1854 map). In 1931 Baja California Territory was divided into northern and southern territories. In 1952, the "North Territory of Baja California" became the 29th State of Mexico as Baja California. In 1974, the "South Territory of Baja California" became the 31st state as Baja California Sur. The Baja California Peninsula was once a part of the North American Plate, the tectonic plate of which mainland Mexico remains a part. About 12 to 15 million years ago the East Pacific Rise began cutting into the margin of the North American Plate, initiating the separation of the peninsula from it. Spreading within the Gulf of California consists of short oblique rifts or ridge segments connected by long northwest trending transform faults, which together comprise the Gulf of California Rift Zone. The north end of the rift zone is located in the Brawley seismic zone in the Salton Sea basin between the Imperial Fault and the San Andreas Fault. The Baja California Peninsula is now part of the Pacific Plate and is moving with it away from the East Pacific Rise in a north northwestward direction. Volcanoes of the peninsula and adjacent islands include: Researchers from Scripps Institution of Oceanography have found a 2,000-year-old layer of non-decomposed roots, or peat, up to four meters (13 feet) under the desert mangroves. The peat layer acts like a sponge for stored atmospheric carbon, a record of sea-level-rise is also recorded in the peat layer. The desert mangroves restricted to rocky inlets on the rugged coast of Baja California have been growing over their own root remains over thousands of years to compensate for sea-level rise, accumulating a thick layer of peat below their roots. However, mangroves in flat coastal floodplains have accumulated a thinner peat layer. The Peninsular Ranges form the backbone of the peninsula. They are an uplifted and eroded Jurassic to Cretaceous batholith, part of the same original batholith chain which formed much of the Sierra Nevada mountains in U.S. California. This chain was formed primarily as a result of the subduction of the Farallon Plate millions of years ago all along the margin of North America. The two most prominent capes along the Pacific coastline of the peninsula are Punta Eugenia, located about halfway up the coast, and Cabo San Lazaro, located about a quarter of the way north from Cabo San Lucas. The Bahia Sebastian Vizcaino, the largest bay in Baja, lies along the Pacific coast halfway up the peninsula. The large island of Isla Cedros is situated between the bay and the Pacific, just north of Punta Eugenia. Onshore southeast of the bay is the Desierto de Vizcaino, an extensive desert lying between the Sierra Vizcaino to the west, and the Tres Virgenes range which runs along the Gulf of California to the east. The largest bays along the coastline of the Gulf are Bahia de La Paz where the city of La Paz is located, and Bahia Concepcion. The Bahía de los Ángeles is a small bay located west of the Canal de las Ballenas which separates the Baja California peninsula from the large island of Angel de la Guarda in the Gulf of California. The peninsula is home to several distinct ecoregions. Most of the peninsula is deserts and xeric shrublands, although pine-oak forests are found in the mountains at the northern and southern ends of the peninsula. The southern tip of the peninsula, which was formerly an island, has many species with affinities to tropical Mexico. The peninsula is known colloquially as Baja by American and Canadian tourists, and is known for its natural environment. It draws ecotourists who go whale watching for migrating California Gray Whales as well as tourists that arrive to the Baja California Gold Coast and resorts on the southern tip of the Peninsula. Its location between the North Pacific and Gulf of California give it a reputation for sports fishing. |Wikimedia Commons has media related to Baja California peninsula.|

The effects of naturalness, gender, and age on how urban green space is perceived and used Journal article, 2016 Neighbourhood green space serves an important function for the urban population, and provides valuable ecosystem services for human well-being. In this article, we investigate the effects of naturalness, gender, and age on the activities, aesthetics, and self-reported well-being associated with urban green space. Our findings are based on a postal survey of residents living in close proximity to six different green spaces in the city of Gothenburg, Sweden. It is shown that higher perceived naturalness generated more activities and higher aesthetic values and self-reported well-being for residents living close to urban green spaces. The results also indicated that, regardless of the type of naturalness, women were more active in urban green spaces than were men. Women also saw greater aesthetic value in green spaces than men did, and had higher self-reported well-being associated with the urban green spaces. Finally, older residents were shown to participate in a greater number of nature-related activities than younger residents. Older residents also saw greater aesthetic values and had higher self-reported well-being associated with urban green spaces than younger people did. Seemingly, this poses a considerable planning challenge if areas of perceived naturalness are to be retained in cities, since the present trend is for reduced green spaces in cities and a ‘parkification’ of surviving natural areas. Further, because of the importance of perceived natural areas to the elderly, and in particularly women, distances to urban green areas should not be too great. Cultural ecosystem services

The Cassini Spacecraft gives us another interesting view of Saturn. Saturn’s A and F rings appear bizarrely warped where they intersect the planet’s limb, whose atmosphere acts here like a very big lens. In its upper regions, Saturn’s atmosphere absorbs some of the light reflected by the rings as it passes through. But absorption is not the only thing that happens to that light. As it passes from space to the atmosphere and back out into space towards Cassini’s cameras, its path is refracted, or bent. The result is that the ring’s image appears warped. This view looks toward the sunlit side of the rings from about 18 degrees above the ring plane. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on June 9, 2016. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 1.1 million miles (1.8 million kilometers) from the rings and at a Sun-rings-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 112 degrees. Image scale is 7 miles (11 kilometers) per pixel. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

The official name is a "glob" pattern. According to Wikipedia, the term originally was the name of a program (/etc/glob) which in the comments called itself "global command". It stems from an early versions of unix. Wikipedia has a more information, including a link to the original source. The top of the original source contains this comment: /* global command -- "*" in params matches r.e ".*" "?" in params matches r.e. "." "[...]" in params matches character class "[...a-z...]" in params matches a through z. perform command with argument list constructed as follows: if param does not contain "*", "[", or "?", use it as is if it does, find all files in current directory which match the param, sort them, and use them prepend the command name with "/bin" or "/usr/bin" For more information see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glob_(programming)

Voted as Best Calculator: Input the numbers in form: a+b*i, the first complex number, and c+d*i, the second complex number, where "i" is the imaginary unit. First Complex Number (N1): a= b= a+b*i Second Complex Number (N2): c= d= Modulus (absolute value) Copyright (c) 2006-2016 SolveMyMath. All rights are reserved.

Due to the lack of STEM-related education opportunities here in Turlock, STEM Learning Education was born. We are piloting with Summer 2018 Coding Camps and hope to offer more STEM-related classes (e.g. robotics, game development, etc) and turn this into a year-long program. In our context, computer programs are a set of written instructions that a computer can understand and execute. The work that computer programmers produce, computer instructions, is known as the computer code. The act of writing a computer program is called coding or programming. Don't let the term programming fool you; you probably have been programming household devices and appliances without even realizing it. For example, you may have programmed your garage door opener, TV remote control, set DVR (dare I say VCR) to record a show, program sprinkler system, or even your thermostat. However, just because programming and coding have been around for a long time, it does "not" mean that its importance can be diminished. I've seen friends and colleagues spend hours doing a monotonous task because they didn't know how to do a string extraction using a formula in the spreadsheets. The use of computers is becoming commonplace in the schools; but, their utilization does not necessarily translate to being able to utilize the technology most effectively. Just as a sharp scalpel is a necessary tool for a surgeon, understanding how to solve a logical problem on computers is essential. It is important to recognize that computer programming is a profession, and it takes years to master. We've seen college students advance through computer science courses without understanding the fundamental principles until later in their academic career. Our goal is to expose students to computer science and programming in a fun way. Along their journey, they will learn how to analyze and solve problems systematically. Their mastery of the computer language is inconsequential; but, their ability to create algorithms (step-by-step instructions) to solve problems is paramount. There are hundreds of different computer languages. Though there are a handful of popular and core programming languages, it is the understanding and comprehension of abstract and intangible ideas that is important. Once the programming concepts and methodologies have been internalized, learning new computer languages can literally be accomplished over a weekend. Each child starts with a simple lesson and advances through different lessons at their own pace. Regardless of the learning track (syntax based or block coding), they need to implement algorithms (step-by-step computer instructions) to solve problems in increasing complexity. Children are given the opportunity to think through and solve the problems on their own to help strengthen the neural pathways needed for solving more complicated logical problems. There are hundreds of computer programming languages that are different in many forms; but, for our purposes, we'll categorize them into two parts. One part is drag & drop visual programming environment and the other is typed computer instruction, which we call syntax based coding. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) introduced the visual programming environment called Scratch. Students drag & drop code blocks onto a canvas. Similar to the way photo puzzle piece must be organized, scratch instruction blocks are forced into a structure and "snap" into place. Because students have a preexisting mental model, they are able to recognize a set of computer programming patterns that aid them in learning key fundamentals of grouping computer instructions. Similar to Scratch coding model, the students with CodeMonkey will click on CoffeeScript instruction icons to place them onto their canvas during programming. This relieve the need to know how to type, which is a skill that even many adults lack. However, as kids progress through their lesson plan, at times they will find that it might be easier to type an instruction. For example, the act of clicking back space on the keyboard and then using a mouse to click on several objects is more work then typing the expression a=5. This also has the added benefit of seeing real algebraic algebraic expressions in action. Kids that are 7 years old should be in the Scratch program. If your child is getting ready for middle school or junior high school STEM program; then the syntax-based curriculum offered in CodeMonkey is a better choice. Kids can work through both camps. CodeMonkey introduces students to the idea of measuring distance and degrees of rotations, which will be the new concept to the younger audience. Students will be challenged, guided, encouraged, and motivated to learn computer programming regardless of the track you choose. The goal is to help them learn while having fun. The choice between the two really comes down to personal preference. Assyrian American Civic Club (small banquet room; easily accessible from the east side [back] of the facility) 2618 N. Golden State Blvd, Turlock CA To transfer the savings to parents, the venue is held at a local event center. If there is enough demand (and we hope Turlock is ready for it), we shall look for a permanent location to offer year-round STEM Learning Education. Safety and security of children is very important to us. Children will be under supervision at all times except when they need to use the restroom. For restroom breaks, they will be asked to use a buddy system (pair with similar age buddy) so that they are not alone. There will be at least one adult trained in first-aid/CPR on site. The medical information will be made available to emergency personnel in case of an emergency. The summer 2018 camp is a pilot program to STEM enrichment. If there is enough demand then we will offer additional courses (e.g. robotics, game design, space exploration, etc) year-round and offer discounts due to additional session enrollments, sibling, dual membership (i.e. scouting). At this time, as a pilot program, no further discounts are provided. Franchises like Code Ninja and other stem enrichment opportunities are sprouting all over the country; but, is Turlock ready for this opportunity? Please post messages on your social media and inform friends & educators about this pilot program. By the end of the year we will know if there is enough demand to support such program. How do Astronotes raise plants in a microgravity environment? How does raising a plant in space is different than the one on the surface of our planet? These and many other questions are presented and students work in a large group to research growth patterns of their seeds that are aligned with the next generation science standards. The seeds will be grown and monitored locally as well as remotely on the International Space Station (ISS). Kids stuff? Absolutely! But is Turlock ready for these STEM opportunities or are we a little ahead of our time? Coupon codes are time sensitive; kindly make sure you use it before the expiry date. To apply the coupon code follow the following steps: - Add item(s) to your cart first and then proceed to checkout. - On the payment page, you will get an option to apply the coupon code. - Enter the code and press apply and proceed with the payment transaction. We have preconfigured computers for students to utilize; therefore, they do not need to bring a personal computer with them. The lesson plans are part of the application software that students will utilize; so, no textbooks will be used or provided. Additionally, due to nature of lesson progression, there is no need for any form of writing pads or utensils. The only thing your child needs is comfortable cloths and a satisfied belly for a three hour session. The coding camp is for five days, and three hours per day;l totaling to 15 hours per registered session. Students will not be working continuously for three-hour sessions. Studies show that frequent breaks yield higher retention. Furthermore, real-world programmers often need to walk away from a problem before they can try to solve it. Due to nature of the venue, kids will not be allowed to go outside the event center. The only exception to this rule is for children needing a bathroom break, in which they must be accompanied by a similar age buddy.

7 Reasons Why You Might Get Gastroenteritis It is an inflammation of the gastric walls and small intestine, more specifically the duodenum. It results from infections caused by eating foods contaminated by certain microorganisms. The microorganisms range from viruses to bacteria and non-infectious causes which lead to gastroenteritis. If you want to prevent this disease, you must pay close attention. This is a painful condition which requires time to recover, no matter how old the patient is. Do you know what the main causes of gastroenteritis are? - Harmful substances. - Lactose intolerance. Also see: Gastroenteritis Rotavirus is one of the most common viruses associated with gastroenteritis that was caused food contamination. It’s a virus that generally affects non-vaccinated babies. Additionally, adenovirus and astrovirus are other viruses that cause children to have diarrhea episodes, nausea and vomiting due to inflammation. They cause more than 70% of infectious diarrhea cases. Furthermore, these viruses mostly affect children between the ages of 2 and 7 who have eaten contaminated foods. There’s a long list of gastroenteritis causing bacteria. However, the most common type is Campylobacter jejuni, followed by Salmonella and Escherichia coli, which comes from having direct contact with feces. For the most part, it comes from eating poultry meat contaminated by bacteria. Poultry meat can be kept at room-temperature for several hours after being slaughter. Thus, the meat is exposed to colonizing bacteria. Toxins produced by bacteria such as Clostridium difficile are another potential cause of gastroenteritis. Their effects can take place in a matter of hours, causing diarrhea after eating improperly stored food products. Please read: How to Constantly Detox Your Body Parasites play an important role in causing gastroenteritis. The most common type of parasite is Entamoeba histolytica, followed by Giardia lamblia. Both are parasites that thrive on improperly cleansed foods. Giardia lamblia is a parasite that causes severe gastroenteritis in travelers who visit countries where this infections is prominent. Meanwhile, Entamoeba histolytica is a parasite – – commonly known as amoeba – – that leads to severe gastroenteritis and diarrhea. If you think something’s wrong with your stomach, then keep an eye out for common intestinal parasite symptoms. Your lifestyle might also be a factor for gastroenteritis There are many people who suffer from lactose intolerance. At the same time, this condition might be the result of consuming any kind of dairy product. Dairy products include milk, cheese, butter and yogurt. Any of these dairy products can trigger inflammation in the gastrointestinal track, causing intense cramping. This pain only goes away through a bowel movement; which eliminates any trace of lactose in the body. Several types of medication might have side-effects. Among these side-effects are gastrointestinal symptoms, which include: Diarrhea, abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting. Many cases involve non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), which cause gastroenteritis symptoms when reacting with the stomach’s hydrochloric acid. Aside from intoxication, the immediate consequences of alcohol are endless. Alcohol inflames the gastric mucosa, resulting in noninfectious gastroenteritis. The symptoms include abdominal pain and diarrhea. Nevertheless, both the pain and diarrhea are gone once the alcohol completely leaves the body.

Environmentalism comes in many different flavors; organic gardening, composting, reuse technologies, and vegetarianism are just a few of the many, many different ways to live a gentler life on the planet. Permaculture, a school of thought that emphasizes using the natural processes of the earth in order to live symbiotically with nature, is one of those lifestyles that is rapidly gaining attention in the media. In essence, permaculture focuses on the principles of environmental and ecological design, striving to integrate all aspects of the environment into a circular whole. This means connecting all parts of the natural ecological cycle – water, plants, landscape, and waste – in a symbiotic and synergistic relationship that sustains itself with little intervention or energy expense. The above explanation sounds complicated, but the illustration is quite easy to grasp. Let’s say you have a backyard that has bad erosion from rain runoff, and the water pools in a low area, becomes stagnant and a prime breeding ground for mosquitoes. Rather than use expensive, heavy machinery that guzzles gas to reshape and level your yard, you would work with the existing landscape to channel the water and prevent further erosion using plants and trees. The standing water edges could be planted with greenery that would attract mosquito-eating wildlife. You would also include plants and trees that provided food for yourself and indigenous wildlife. This is an oversimplified example, but the principles are the same. Permaculture strives to mimic the order of nature so little human interference is necessary. “Permaculture is a more symbiotic relationship with nature so that I can be even lazier,” is the way Paul Wheaton, the “Duke of Permaculture,” describes it. Wheaton just recently completed a rocket stove Kickstarter campaign for developing a dvd set expounding the virtues of the super-efficient woodstove technology. Wheaton began his journey in permaculture back in 2001 when he sought different methods to maintain and improve his land in Montana. In the process, he founded the Permies.com and Richsoil.com websites that are devoted to permaculture and sustainable living practices. Permies.com is now the largest permaculture website on the internet, and has forums on every imaginable environmental topic. If permaculture sounds like something you’d like to explore, surf the Permies.com website, and read “Gaia’s Garden” by Toby Hemenway. Hemenway provides great basic information about small-scale permaculture practices that anyone can implement, even in an urban setting. It may just whet your appetite to try a more natural approach to the land you live on. Enjoy this article? Subscribe above and share your enjoyment with your friends, or follow me on Facebook – you’ll be the first to know when the next article is up!

Relics of the past reveal intriguing truths about the people that came before us. Yet there are some artifacts that defy easy explanation. One such item is a codex dating back to the early 15th century, known as the Voynich Manuscript. Filled with mysterious illustrations and text written in an unknown language, cryptographers and historians continue to debate over exactly what it is. The manuscript takes its name from Wilfrid Michael Voynich, a Polish revolutionary and antiquarian who purchased the tome in 1912. Wilfrid was far from the first reader to fall under the spell of the manuscript. In fact, the legacy of its ownership is a mystery onto itself. In 1666, a Bohemian doctor named Jan Marek Marci transferred the manuscript to a Jesuit scholar in Rome named Athanasius Kircher. Tucked inside the cover was a letter that claimed the tome once belonged to Rudolf II. Rudolf II, a lover of occult arts, was a Bohemian emperor of the Holy Roman Empire from 1576 to 1612. While the veracity of the letter could not be confirmed, it claimed that Rudolf paid around two kilograms of gold for the mysterious manuscript. At some point, the emperor lent the manuscript to his personal doctor, Jakub Hořčický. Hořčický then passed it on to Georg Baresch, a Czech antique collector and alchemist. Baresch is considered the earliest confirmed owner of the Voynich Manuscript, largely due to the paper trail he left in attempting to solve its riddle. He sent copies to Kircher, who had a knack for decoding arcane documents and became fascinated with the book. Baresch passed the manuscript to his close friend Jan Marek Marci upon his death in 1662, and Marci then transferred the artifact to Kircher in Rome in 1666. From that point on, however, records of the Voynich cease. It’s believed that Baresch stashed the manuscript in the library of Collegio Romano, where it collected dust for 200 years. In 1912, the Italian government conducted a private book sale. It was then that Wilfrid Voynich purchased the strange manuscript. The Polish antiquarian bequeathed the tome to his wife upon his death, and eventually it wound up in the hands of Hans P. Kraus. Kraus is regarded as one of the most prominent rare book dealers of the 20th century. Yet even he struggled to find a buyer. Eventually, he donated the Voynich Manuscript to Yale University in 1969, where it was filed away under the call number “MS 408.” Throughout its journey across Europe and the Atlantic Ocean, the question remained: just what was encoded inside Voynich? Several theories exist. The most dominant is that the manuscript is written in a European language scrambled by a cipher. Another hypothesis, known as the “codebook” theory, states that the letters are actually codes that can be looked up in a corresponding glossary. Yet another maintains that the Voynich Manuscript is a work of steganography – the practice of hiding messages and information within a second body of work. Some linguists, however, believe the manuscript represents a lost language, or a language badly translated. Studies show that the word structure found in the Voynich Manuscript bears a strong resemblance to languages in East and Central Asia, leading researchers to conclude that it may be an early attempt by Western explorers to document an Asian language. The ornate construction of the Voynich Manuscript is equally as mysterious. Containing 240 vellum pages, the book is filled from front to back with a curly script, interspersed with vivid illustrations and artfully constructed pages that fold out. The script itself runs from left to right, and the majority of characters were made with no more than two brushstrokes. Some words occur only in certain parts of the book, and some characters appear just once. Where numbers appear, they are consistent with the dominant style of the era. It completely lacks punctuation. The Voynich Manuscript’s many illustrations have been used to divide the book into six sections, each based on the nature of what’s depicted. The herbal section includes images of plants both identifiable and unknown. The astronomical section includes circular diagrams, stars, suns, moons, and zodiac figures. Other sections include depictions of nude human beings, pharmaceutical lists, cosmological imagery, and a chapter that seems devoted to recipes. Could the truth behind this 600-year-old riddle be a medieval cookbook? Perhaps. The Voynich Manuscript holds many secrets, and remains one of history’s greatest mysteries. All photos: Wikimedia Commons

If I had to pick one supplement that I would advise women to take during pregnancy, it would be folic acid because it can reduce the risk of neural tube defects (NTD) such as spina bifida in the child. The Department of Health recommends that women take 400 micrograms of folic acid during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy at least. Folic acid is found in green leafy vegetables and brown rice but it would be almost impossible to get enough from food alone which is why doctors recommend taking a supplement. "All women are different and we need to look at everyone individually" Other than that, pregnant women just need to have a balanced, and nutritious diet - there is no need to take unnecessary vitamins if they are eating well. However, all women are different and we need to look at everyone individually. If for any reason there is an imbalance, that’s when an expectant mother needs to take extra care. We need to look at a woman’s diet and lifestyle to ensure they are getting enough vitamin C, iron, and vitamin D. This could become an issue if they are vegetarian or vegan as vitamin D is found in oily fish, meat and eggs. Our bodies also make vitamin D when exposed to sunlight. Likewise if a woman is anaemic they will need to make sure they take extra iron supplements. It’s also important that expectant mothers do some regular exercise and get plenty of rest to ensure their bodies are as fit and healthy as possible, and that they keep well hydrated. But there no need to take unnecessary extra vitamins during pregnancy.

Over the earlier couple a long time, electronic technology has revolutionized the development and replica of files and literary is effective across the globe. Ironically, the prodigious effect that this engineering has built on literature may very well be likened to that of Gutenberg’s invention of transportable, equipment more than five hundreds of years ago. Whilst the site with the device within the literary world has remained undoubted all the way through this period, new technological developments have pundits to forecast an ending into the recent dominance. Aided by the introduction and accelerated reputation of electronic audience, there was a growing settlement the future of publications is electronic. Continue reading The future of PRINTED Publications Around the Electronic AGE The emergence of digital setting has brought a revolution within the Printing business. It has resulted in a universal migration on the standard paper to paperless producing with the usage of units such as computers, iPads and kindles. Earlier, nearly all typing and printing operate was accustomed to be completed pretty much manually by push. But, in today’s entire world of technologies, typing is finished domestically at one’s personal machine (Pc) and printing finished from home printer, therefore creating moveable electronic publications. Continue reading The future of printed books while in the digital age. The books are really favorite among all age groups and vocations. Considering historical days, publications happen to have been acknowledged as being a usually means of schooling, a resource of data enrichment, a instrument for leisure and an devices to instil talents to solve issues. Early textbooks ended up handwritten, in many cases on wooden, leaves or possibly fabric – something that crafted them hard to transportation and distribute1. Along with the creation of paper and ink, this situation was shortly resolved. However, replicating a guide continue to remained un-scalable until the evolution of your printing push – an creation that ultimately gave start to the trendy “printed books”. Continue reading What is the way forward for the printed books while in the electronic age?

The museum I visited was the modern museum. The modern museum houses many pieces of art that are important in showing the various works that are associated with the modern society. The museum mostly deals with modern art and as such focusses on the different events that have happened and making art the reflects the modern society. The museum is quite exquisite in its arrangement as there is a modern touch to the surroundings of the institutions especially the rooms that house the art. The attendees in the museum are mostly young adults including men and women together with few elderly people. Some are sitting on the chairs in the exhibition rooms while others are staring at the various pieces of art. The museum is located in New York on the 53rd street. I ventured into the museum at eleven in the morning on 18 March. The various sculptures are mostly found outside and few within the museum. Several pieces caught my attention when I ventured into the museum that I thought was involved and eye-catching was the painting by Edgar Degas, A Strange New Beauty. The painting is drawn in such manner as showing surfaces only and not focusing on the details associated with the face of the person. The painting is a monotype where the painter employed the use of the metal plate and then the painting passed through a printing press. The painting shows two people, a man and a woman. One form the first glance could think that the picture was etched or some other coloring using charcoal since the painting is in black and white. The painter mostly made his paintings then used the printing press to generate them in black and white color. The painting was done in the 1800s and contributes greatly to the methods that were used in the 19th century to ensure that modern painters learn from them and perfect on their paintings. The painting was shown on the sixth floor of the North exhibition gallery. Another good piece in the museum is the self-portrait with cropped hair by Frida Kahlo. Fridha Kahlo was a feminist in the 1900s and eventually divorced from her husband. The picture shows her wearing men’s clothing at that time and thus speaks greatly on the issue of feminist. The picture thus tends to bring out the different events that happen during that era with feminism at the forefront and thus how women were treated. In wearing the trousers in the painting, she tended to show the displeasure with the state the women were being. An important article helps one to go back in history especially in issues related to women’s emancipation. Therefore, the painting is critical regarding showing the history affecting feminism and helping to appreciate how the women fare have gone in their quest for equality. The museum has various galleries that display the various items associated with premodern and postmodern times. The museum houses many types of work that range from premodern to postmodern art. The build is vast, and the various rooms are sectioned to house various galleries associated with different paintings. It has a hotel, auditorium, and bookshop. The picture is clearly placed in the different rooms for exhibition with modern furnished arrangements. They are numerous sculptures outside the exhibition together with those inside the building. The building uses technology that includes multiple screens to air some of the paintings to the viewers. The museum shows various arts using many spaces and is one of the most elegant and influential museums regarding displaying art. The museum is an elegant feature itself especially with the arrangement and exhibition of the various paintings together with the sculptures in place.

“Pride” is a concept that seems to get misunderstood a lot in our culture. “Pride” has historically been considered a “sin”— in fone of the “Seven Deadly Sins,” in fact, along with laziness, greed, and gluttony. We’ve been told “pride goeth before a fall.” And yet, there are positive connotations we have with the concept of “pride” as well. We tell our loved ones who accomplish difficult things that we’re “proud” of them. We celebrate holidays that are focused on “ethnic pride.” Civil rights movements have sought to restore the collective “pride” of groups who have historically suffered from institutional oppression and cultural discrimination. So what is “pride,” a Deadly Sin or a useful emotional tool? As with so many concepts that speak to how humans relate to our presence and accomplishments in the world, it can be both— depending on how we understand and relate to the concept of “pride.” I can’t tell you what “pride” should mean to you spiritually, i.e., if it’s a Deadly Sin that should be avoided at all costs. That’s between you and your deity and your spiritual mentors. It’s my understanding that the religious condemnation of pride is likely rooted in many religious traditions’ wariness about humans becoming so enamored of their own accomplishments and success that they neglect to give God proper attention, credit, and respect. In other words, many religious traditions heavily emphasize placing worship of their “true God” above all else, and warnings against human “pride” are more than anything about keeping God in proper perspective. The sin of “pride” is thus more about NOT giving God his due, rather than giving humans their due. Moreover, the “pride” that we’ve been warned “goes before a fall” seems more akin to the concept of “arrogance” or “hubris” than anything else. It seems that this saying— “pride goeth before a fall”— often refers to the lack of humility and attention that can happen when humans become overconfident in there abilities or accomplishments. When we get too comfortable or confident in what we can do or what we can accomplish, we can sometimes get lured into not paying as close attention as we should. So what is the basic problem with “pride,” then? Or what can be the basic problem with pride? Pride becomes a problem when it takes away from our central priorities. Pride becomes a problem when it blinds us. Pride becomes a problem when we become more enthusiastic about or interested in it than our actual goals and values. In the end “pride” is just a label that we humans have attached to many things— recognition of progress, celebration of history, confirmation of dignity. Part of the very problem inherent in the concept of “pride” is how many people use it to mean so many different things. But let’s be real: ANYTHING is a problem when it blinds us. Intelligence, desire, money, sexuality, success, poverty— anything that makes us less focused on our goals and values, including “pride,” can be said to “goeth before a fall.” You can celebrate your identity your progress, your accomplishments, and your history without becoming blinded. It takes effort, though. It takes the willingness to go through every day with eyes wide open— even to the challenges, even to the disappointments, even to the hurt, even to the bad stuff. Sometimes we want to close our eyes to the bad stuff. We WANT to be blinded. Self-esteem can’t be built with your eyes closed tight. Celebrate who you are. You don’t need a special month or day or parade for that. Be aware of and celebrate your identity, celebrate how far you’ve come, celebrate the extent to which you’ve chosen to be honest with yourself and others about who you are. Lights aren’t meant to be hid under bushels, and we human beings can be dazzling lights indeed. But remember that your feelings about yourself— your “pride” in various aspects of who you are— do not remove from you the necessity to stay humble and realistic and vigilant about what you need to do, day to day, to move toward your goals and values. Pride doesn’t have to goeth before a fall. But it’s on us to manage it. Subscribe to the Doc’s free weekly email newsletter and never miss a blog or social media post!

Adding an important new chapter to the history of postwar metropolitan development, this book investigates how struggles over transportation systems have defined both the physical and political landscapes of Houston. Since World War II, Houston has become a burgeoning, internationally connected metropolis—and a sprawling, car-dependent city. In 1950, it possessed only one highway, the Gulf Freeway, which ran between Houston and Galveston. Today, Houston and Harris County have more than 1,200 miles of highways, and a third major loop is under construction nearly thirty miles out from the historic core. Highways have driven every aspect of Houston’s postwar development, from the physical layout of the city to the political process that has transformed both the transportation network and the balance of power between governing elites and ordinary citizens. Power Moves examines debates around the planning, construction, and use of highway and public transportation systems in Houston. Kyle Shelton shows how Houstonians helped shape the city’s growth by attending city council meetings, writing letters to the highway commission, and protesting the destruction of homes to make way for freeways, which happened in both affluent and low-income neighborhoods. He demonstrates that these assertions of what he terms “infrastructural citizenship” opened up the transportation decision-making process to meaningful input from the public and gave many previously marginalized citizens a more powerful voice in civic affairs. Power Moves also reveals the long-lasting results of choosing highway and auto-based infrastructure over other transit options and the resulting challenges that Houstonians currently face as they grapple with how best to move forward from the consequences and opportunities created by past choices. - 1. Building a Highway Metropolis: The Origins and Advent of Houston’s Postwar Growth - 2. Whose Highways? Planning, Politics, and Consequences - 3. “Only You Can Prevent Another Freeway”: The Harrisburg Freeway and the Struggle to Shape a Neighborhood - 4. Infrastructural Elections: Transit Referenda in the 1970s - 5. By Road or by Rail? The 1983 Transit Debate - 6. The Legacies and Limits of Infrastructural Citizenship “As our nation struggles to find the will to repair and develop our failing infrastructure, Shelton's detailed and nuanced account is timely indeed. This is a book worth pondering, written about a city that continues to stumble towards sustainability, justice, and accessibility. ” Southwestern Historical Quarterly “This book will be of value to regional policy-makers and activists, urban historians and planners, Houston history buffs, and historians of transportation, technology, and the environment. It was a pleasure to read Shelton's work.” “In this fascinating study, Kyle Shelton examines the increasingly contentious processes by which the residents of postwar Houston participated in a series of vigorous debates about their city’s transportation infrastructure. By focusing on the frequently messy and nearly always heated politics surrounding these debates, Shelton teases out a variety of important insights—not only about the tangible consequences that big transportation projects have had for urban growth, but also about the ways that the debates affected the citizens who participated in them. An original and important book.” Christopher W. Wells, author of Car Country: An Environmental History “Highways remade the landscape of Houston and most other American cities after World War II. In this marvelous book, Kyle Shelton shows how they also remade urban citizenship and public culture in Houston’s inner city and suburbs alike. Power Moves is as important as it is timely.” Andrew Needham, author of Power Lines: Phoenix and the Making of the Modern Southwest “A superb and relevant examination of transportation battles in Houston since the 1950s. The book makes significant contributions to the fields of post-1945 US urban and suburban history, southern/Sunbelt history, the history of Houston, the history of citizen and community activism, and transportation and mobility studies. It also shows why scholars of social and political activism in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s should pay attention to contests over the building and use of urban infrastructure, clearly illustrating how these battles can reveal the role of citizen activism during these tumultuous decades.” Wesley G. Phelps, Sam Houston State University, author of A People’s War on Poverty: Urban Politics and Grassroots Activists in Houston “Power Moves effectively shows how Houston’s built environment was the product of contestation among diverse interest groups, each of which attempted to wield the power at their disposal to shape megaprojects to their own ends. In a moment when such large-scale infrastructure projects are again entering our political debate, this book could not be more timely. An important contribution to Texas history and US urban history more broadly.” Max Krochmal, author of Blue Texas: The Making of a Multiracial Democratic Coalition in the Civil Rights Era

A guardian for your underground cable network SICAM Fault Passage Indicator (FPI) is a device that is used for detection and signalling of short circuit and earth-fault on medium voltage cable networks. 4 external current sensors detect the phase faults (R, Y, B) and earth-fault (E). The current sensor detects phase fault and earth-fault current based on the set current threshold detection and communicate to SICAM FPI via an optical signal. By using the rotary switch available on the individual sensor, you can set the fault current threshold for phase sensors from 200 A to 1200 A (Type 1 Series), 200 A to 800 A (Type 2 Series) and for earth sensor from 10 A to 100 A (Type 1 Series), 40 A to 300 A (Type 2 Series). When the current exceeds the set threshold level, the current sensor provides an input via plastic fibre-optic cable to SICAM FPI. In this condition, the corresponding LEDs blink. In normal operating condition, there is no LED indication. SICAM FPI is used as a fault detection and indication unit. SICAM FPI is used in the feeder and distribution automation of secondary medium-voltage systems that ranges from 10 kV to 36 kV. Phase-Fault Current Range (Type 1 Series) 200 A/400 A/500 A/600 A/800 A/ 1000 A/1200 A AC < 10% of selected range (cable 0 30 mm to 0 50 mm) Phase-Fault Current Range (Type 2 Series) 200 A/300 A/400 A/500 A/600 A/ 700 A/800 A AC < 15% of selected range (cable 0 30 mm to 0 50 mm) Earth-Fault Current Range (Type 1 Series) 10 A/20 A/30 A/40 A/60 A/80 A/ 100 A AC < 10% of selected range (cable 0 85 mm to 0 105 mm) Earth-Fault Current Range (Type 2 Series) 40 A/80 A/1 20 A/160 A/200 A/260 A/ 300 A AC < 15% of selected range (cable 0 85 mm to 0 105 mm) 40 ms, 60 ms, 80 ms, 160 ms, 200 ms, 300 ms, 500 ms Auto Reset Time 1 h, 2 h, 4h, 8 h Self sustained, continues functioning using internal lithium battery even after the main incomer feeder has tripped. Safe, complies with the IEC 61010-1 safety standards. Simple, DIP switch based setting for configuration and diagnostic testing. Configurable Binary Outputs, for remote indication to SCADA for faults/diagnostics via FRTU/RTU. Enhanced diagnostics, self and sensor cable diagnostics is supported. Local Indication, 3 red LEDs for phase fault, 1 red LED for earth fault, 1 yellow LED for battery health condition for local indication. Multiple reset functionality, Auto reset, remote reset via external push buttons, front fascia. User Configurable Momentary Fault Override function. Extended Battery Life, Enhanced Power Management leading more than 2000 hours of operation under fault conditions (blinking). Sensors, IP 67 complaint self sustained accurate sensors with a noise immune plastic fibre-optic cable interface to the SICAM FPI Indicator unit. Medium-voltage cable distribution systems 10 kV to 36 kV, 50 Hz/60 Hz Signalization 3 red LEDs - phase fault 1 red LED - earth fault 1 yellow LED for battery health condition Inputs and Outputs Current Sensor Inputs: Phase current R, Y, B and earth current E via a plastic fibre-optic cable 2 Binary inputs: 1x 230 V AC reset input, 1x remote reset input from dry contact 2 Binary outputs potential-free (max switching voltage 250 V AC/ 220 V DC) Battery for 2,000 hours, service life of approx. 10 years -30 °C to +55 ° Polycarbonate, 96 x 48 x 45 mm (W x H x D) Degree of protection: front IP20, rear IP67 For any technical queries, please contact our customer support center Keeping your grids up and running Using sophisticated tools and solutions for fast grid restoration Unplanned outages cannot always be avoided. Flexible solutions for local and remote monitoring enable the fast and efficient restoration of cable grids and overhead lines. Optimizing business operations Comprehensive and efficient ways for municipalities and DSOs to get the most out of their OPEX The growing demand for power from industries and households can be fulfilled simply. With modern technologies and innovative solutions such as optimized voltage and capacity management, self-healing grids, and by avoiding losses of any kind. Fault reporting – fast, flexible, and directFault localization in the cloud – the cloud-based service for fault detection by SiemensThe basis for fast and efficient fault management was previously bound to the control room. Fault localization in the cloud is a new, cloud-based service, which makes it possible to send fault information – including the fault location – directly to the maintenance crews, without the need for a grid control center. Related Products, Systems & Solutions

Johann Peter Krafft: Die Sieger von Aspern, painted 1820. Battle of Aspern-Essling, 23 October 2014. Starting in 1789 a revolution in France that became increasingly radical in tenor began to cause concern among the other rulers of Europe, especially Leopold II, Queen Marie Antoinette’s brother. The revolutionary regime declared war on Austria and Prussia in the spring of 1792, and its army unexpectedly defeated the Austrians and Prussians at the Battle of Valmy in September 1792. Revolutionary France now plunged Europe into a quarter of a century of ongoing warfare. Earlier in that same year in March, Leopold himself had died unexpectedly, well before he had fully resolved the dangerous situation bequeathed to him by his brother, Joseph. Leopold’s eldest son, Francis (1768–1830), who began his reign as Francis II of the Holy Roman Empire and ended it as Francis I of the Austrian Empire, was no scion of the Enlightenment like his father and uncle. Moreover, the first two decades of his long reign (1792–1835) were overshadowed by the need to stave off recurring military challenges from France that threatened the very survival of his dynasty’s patrimony. This left few options for creative initiatives in state building. When combined with Francis’s particularly cautious personality traits, all of these unexpected demands produced a conservative and defensive approach to maintaining the existing state. Like both his uncle, Joseph, and father, Leopold, however, Francis did see himself as a devoted servant both of the state and of the law. Like both of them, he also pursued a fundamentally centralizing agenda. Unlike his father, however, Francis was unsympathetic to even limited ideas of constitutional reform. Unlike his uncle, Francis had a very limited imagination. His bureaucracy was not there to reform society. Rather, the bureaucracy served to maintain order and legality in society. Francis’s image of the ideals that his bureaucrats should embody also differed from Joseph’s. Not only did they have to live up to the exacting standards of work laid forth for them by Joseph II, and for less pay in a time of terrible wartime inflation, but increasingly their private lives also became objects of state interest. A bureaucrat’s private life had not particularly interested Joseph; he had cared only about how well a man did his job. Contemporaries, however, often interpreted the social upheavals caused by the French Revolution as products of private moral decay. Thus under Francis, an Austrian bureaucrat’s private life came to outweigh his particular knowledge or accomplishments when he applied for a post. Now a bureaucrat’s (and his family’s) morals and religiosity counted more than his education and experience. This had implications well beyond death or gender, since a bureaucrat’s widow had to remain morally “above reproach” if she hoped to receive a pension and his daughter likewise had to be considered virtuous if she hoped to qualify for a scholarship to a young lady’s academy. Francis’s attitude toward the very purpose of his state service created considerable problems once the long wartime emergency had ended. Unlike both his father and uncle, he also believed that the interests of the crown and the crownland aristocracies were essentially one. Thus, despite the fact that many Josephenists remained in their positions, one historian has called Francis’s system “absolutist and centralist in its institutions, but usually aristocratic and ultra conservative in the conduct of them.” After the first few years of war, when surprisingly good harvests had kept food prices low, war began to cause inflation and food shortages in many parts of the monarchy, especially in the cities and towns. By 1795 the government was printing paper money to cover the added costs of war, and by 1797—as a result of a panic caused by fears that Napoleon would take Vienna—silver was completely withdrawn from circulation, and state employees and state creditors had to accept paper bills as their payment. Conditions for urban working people deteriorated drastically during the war for a variety of reasons, while the city and town populations nevertheless continued to grow. In the first years of the war Viennese journeymen in the textile industry protested openly against their employers’ increasing use of unskilled female and child labor. The protestors, however, tended to blame their employers and not local women. Almost twenty years later, crowds attacked bakeries, took paper money from the till, and tore it up to general jubilation. Meanwhile, the gentlemen of the textile industry throughout the monarchy often profited handsomely from the war, thanks to military contracts for uniforms and other supplies, and later thanks to Napoleon’s blockade of British goods from the European continent. War also produced mounting fears of subversion on the part of the regime. Starting in 1800, the state for the first time required bureaucrats to swear an annual oath of loyalty. The regime also acted to limit those spaces in society where it believed that subversion might develop. It closed down Freemason associations and cracked down harshly on the alleged “Jacobin conspiracies” it unearthed in Vienna, Tyrol, Hungary, Carinthia, and Carniola. These so-called “Jacobin conspiracies,” named after the radical French political party of the mid 1790s, tended to involve civil servants, educated men who had served Joseph II and Leopold II and who hoped to inject more of a reform orientation into the reign of Francis II. Many of them generally supported programs that were hardly radical by the standards of the 1790s. Indeed, among the plans developed by the most radical of the conspirators was one to convoke an empire-wide people’s parliament (Volksrat), suggesting that even they did not question the existence of the empire; they questioned merely its particular style of rule. Nonetheless, those conspiracies that the police managed to uncover were treated with incredible severity, and several ended in executions. Still, the war saw no diminution of the popular eighteenth-century coffee houses and other social meeting places in towns and cities throughout the monarchy. If anything, in the towns at least, coffee houses took on new roles as sites where the latest news about the war could be exchanged and debated. On the other hand, Emperor Francis opposed mobilizing popular patriotism for his empire during most of the two decades of war. While a few other central European monarchs—especially the King of Prussia—embarked on significant experiments with reform programs to rebuild their military and create popular support for war, Francis did so only with the greatest reluctance. Anything that promoted social reform or worse still, popular enthusiasm, once unleashed, might not be so easily contained. So it fell to others to advance the wartime popularity of the emerging Habsburg state and of the new Austrian Empire that Francis eventually proclaimed in 1804. Already in 1796, for example, as French armies in northern Italy neared the Austrian border, the governor of Lower Austria, Count Francis Joseph von Saurau, commissioned poet Leopold Haschka to write a text to encourage patriotic enthusiasm for Austria’s cause. Saura then persuaded composer Joseph Haydn to set the text to music. Haydn referred to his composition specifically as the “peoples’ song” (Volkslied). On February 12, 1797, on the occasion of the emperor’s birthday, this now famous “Emperor’s Song,” or “God Save Our Emperor,” was first performed in theaters across the empire (the emperor himself heard it in the Court Theater). The song, translated into all the vernacular languages of the monarchy, would become Imperial Austria’s official anthem later in the nineteenth century. Finally, after losing three consecutive wars against France (in 1793, 1799, and 1805), and with several Austrian territories under foreign occupation (the Bavarians occupied Tyrol, while the French took parts of the empire’s new Adriatic holdings), Emperor Francis reluctantly approved some cautious efforts to reform Austrian society to build wartime patriotism. This brief reform period was nothing like that engaged in by Prussia during this time, and we should keep a clear sense of proportion in mind when examining the changes themselves. Nevertheless, it is apparent that the few reforms the government did propose helped to build a greater sense of common purpose and identification among the emperor’s subjects. The emperor’s brother Field Marshal Archduke Charles (1772–1847) carried out the most far reaching of these administrative reforms: he dismissed twenty-five generals, worked to humanize military discipline, implemented the new idea of reserve battalions, and promoted plans to create a popular “people’s militia.” For his part, the emperor proclaimed his intention to allow society a freer intellectual life (including support for literature) and to establish more schools, but expectations that he would abolish censorship were disappointed, as were expectations that he would reform the scope of the secret police (whom Francis had spy on his popular brothers as well as on ordinary Austrians). As Austria prepared for the War of the Fifth Coalition against Napoleon in 1809, the emperor’s popular—and some have argued more capable—brother Archduke Johann (1782–1859), organized Austrian men into a home militia (Landwehr). The militia was compulsory for all men between the ages of eighteen and forty-five who were not already serving in the military and was instituted in the hereditary provinces and the Bohemian lands. At the same time, the government also created a comparable institution in Hungary called the insurrectio. In Galicia, however, where the regime rightly suspected the Polish nationalist elite of harboring sympathy for Napoleon’s promise to reconstitute an independent Poland, the regime created a reserve instead. The home militia, or Landwehr, attained considerable emblematic significance as an interregional all-Austrian patriotic institution. Symbolizing the universal mobilization of all Austrians and their commitment to an interregional defense, the militia demonstrated that the war was not waged on behalf of far-away rulers and that it instead involved the “Austrian people”—all classes, all generations, sometimes even both genders—sacrificing to defend their common interest. In 1813, only four years after the creation of the militia, during the War of the Sixth Coalition, also referred to as the War of Liberation, painter Johann Peter Krafft portrayed a determined young man dressed as a militiaman, with rifle in hand, leaving his family for the war in The Departure of the Militiaman, a popular painting that represented the militiaman in general as the embodiment of the Austrian people’s sacrifice and of their enthusiasm for the common cause. The setting of the painting is domestic, depicting the interior of a modest rural hut that nevertheless contains several articles of furniture and décor that indicate the solid prosperity enjoyed by the family. The scene is also intergenerational, showing the parents of the militiaman weeping and praying, while his wife and three children are saying goodbye. Another militiaman accompanies the subject of this painting, and through a small window we see many others departing in a hilly landscape. There is nothing forced about the militiaman’s attitude. His determined expression captures his alleged willingness to defend the fatherland, while his family voluntarily makes their sacrifice, even as they understand the terrible consequences war might bring. Although the militiaman’s mother hides her face in tears, his wife clasps his hand and does not cry or look away (nor do the children). The centrality of the wife in the picture suggests to me the degree to which Krafft wished to depict the universality of a cause that demanded sacrifice of Austria’s women as well as of its men.

Queen's Electronic Information Security Policy Framework Security Standard: Sensitive Information Protection This standard guides those responsible for managing computers, storage devices, networks, and other IT Resources which are used to store, provide access to, transmit, or otherwise are associated with the use of personal, confidential, or operationally sensitive information, as defined by the Queen's University Data Classification Standard. The requirement to protect Sensitive Information is established under the responsibilities within the Queen's University Electronic Information Security Policy, and the Queen's University Network and Systems Security Policy. - Sensitive Information stored on workstations and servers must be encrypted in a manner that is consistent with Queen's University Electronic Information Security Policy and associated guidelines and standards. - When transmitted over non-secure networks, Sensitive Information must be encrypted. - Sensitive Information stored on portable devices such as cellular phones, PDAs, cameras, and storage devices such as portable hard drives, USB memory sticks or keys, must be encrypted in a manner that is consistent with Queen's IT standards and recommended practices. B) Storage Location - Wherever possible, Sensitive Information should be stored on appropriately protected servers, and not on less secure workstations. C) Secure Disposal and Data Removal - Any computing or storage device on which there may be Sensitive Information must be disposed of in a secure manner, whether being discarded, sold, or donated to some other party. This applies to all of the following types of devices: - Computer internal hard drives, portable hard drives, USB memory drives/keys; - Cell phones, PDAs, and cameras. - Any other device which has the capability to store data. D) Printers, Photocopiers and Other Multi-function document devices - Printers, scanners, photocopiers and facsimile devices which have internal storage capability (e.g. hard drives), must be installed, configured, and disposed of in accordance with the Multi-Function Device Security Guidelines. E. Media Handling - All media, such as CD-ROM, DVD, tape, etc. that are used to store or transport personal, confidential or operationally sensitive information should be protected in accordance with the most sensitive information stored on the media, and be appropriately labelled as such. F. Exchange of Information With External Parties - When exchanging sensitive information with external agencies or parties, the information needs to be appropriately protected while in transit or transfer. - An information sharing agreement, establishing the need for confidentiality and due diligence to protect the information, must be signed by the external party.

Diana Margaret Liverman (born May 15, 1954, Accra, Ghana)is Regents Professor of Geography and Development, and formerly co-Director of the Institute of the Environment at the University of Arizona, USA. She is an expert on the human dimensions of global environmental change and the impacts of climate on society. She was a co-author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) October 8, 2018 Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5ºC. Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located along the Gulf of Guinea and Atlantic Ocean, in the subregion of West Africa. Spanning a land mass of 238,535 km2 (92,099 sq mi), Ghana is bordered by the Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, Togo in the east and the Gulf of Guinea and Atlantic Ocean in the south. Ghana means "Warrior King" in the Soninke language. Geography is a field of science devoted to the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of the Earth and planets. The first person to use the word γεωγραφία was Eratosthenes. Geography is an all-encompassing discipline that seeks an understanding of Earth and its human and natural complexities—not merely where objects are, but also how they have changed and come to be. Development geography is a branch of geography which refers to the standard of living and its quality of life of its human inhabitants. In this context, development is a process of change that affects people's lives. It may involve an improvement in the quality of life as perceived by the people undergoing change. However, development is not always a positive process. Gunder Frank commented on the global economic forces that lead to the development of underdevelopment. This is covered in his dependency theory. Diana Liverman was born in Accra, Ghana to British parents, and the family later moved back to the UK. She studied geography at University College London, the University of Toronto, and UCLA where she received her PhD in 1984. She was a student and postdoc at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colorado from 1982-1985, working with Steve Schneider. She then taught geography at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where she was also affiliated with the Institute for Environmental Studies and at Penn State University where she was the Associate Director of the Earth System Science Center directed by Eric Barron. She moved to the University of Arizona in 1995 to become Director of Latin American Studies. University College London (UCL) is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom. It is a constituent college of the federal University of London, and is the third largest university in the United Kingdom by total enrolment, and the largest by postgraduate enrolment. The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in the colony of Upper Canada. Originally controlled by the Church of England, the university assumed the present name in 1850 upon becoming a secular institution. As a collegiate university, it comprises eleven colleges, which differ in character and history, each with substantial autonomy on financial and institutional affairs. It has two satellite campuses in Scarborough and Mississauga. The US National Center for Atmospheric Research is a US federally funded research and development center (FFRDC) managed by the nonprofit University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) and funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). NCAR has multiple facilities, including the I. M. Pei-designed Mesa Laboratory headquarters in Boulder, Colorado. Studies include meteorology, climate science, atmospheric chemistry, solar-terrestrial interactions, environmental and societal impacts. In 2003 she was appointed to the first Chair in Environmental Science at the University of Oxford (where she was also the first woman appointed to a chair in the School of Geography), and became Director of the Environmental Change Institute,a centre for research, teaching and outreach on the environment at Oxford University. Over five years she increased the income, size, and profile of ECI, hiring a number of distinguished scholars and working with groups such as the Tyndall Centre and James Martin 21st Century School. In 2009 she returned to Arizona to co-direct the Institute of the Environment, working with Prof. Jonathan Overpeck until 2016 when the University restructured senior personnel. The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the world's second-oldest university in continuous operation. It grew rapidly from 1167 when Henry II banned English students from attending the University of Paris. After disputes between students and Oxford townsfolk in 1209, some academics fled north-east to Cambridge where they established what became the University of Cambridge. The two 'ancient universities' are frequently jointly called 'Oxbridge'. The history and influence of the University of Oxford has made it one of the most prestigious universities in the world. She has served on several national and international committees including the National Academy of Sciences' Committee on the Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change, and the NAS Committee on America's Climate Choices. She also chaired the scientific advisory committee of the Global Environmental Change and Food Systems (GECAFS) program and of the IHDP Earth System Governance Project. She co-chaired a transition team to create a new international research initiative, Future Earth, for an Alliance of international organizations that include ICSU, UNEP, and UNESCO. The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the National Academy of Medicine (NAM). The Earth System Governance Project is a long-term, interdisciplinary social science research programme originally developed under the auspices of the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change. It started in January 2009. She serves on the board of a number of organizations including cultural and creative sustainability experts Julie's Bicycle (http://www.juliesbicycle.com/) Over 60 students have graduated under her supervision. Liverman has made many contributions to understanding of the human dimensions of global environmental change. Her publications and research grants deal with climate impacts, vulnerability and adaptation, climate change and food security, and climate policy, mitigation and justice especially in the developing world. She has a particular interest in the political ecology of environmental management in the Americas, especially in Mexico. Liverman worked on the human impacts of drought as early as the 1980s, and the impacts of climate change on food systems using early climate modelling techniques and crop simulation models. Having identified the limitations to modelling approaches, fieldwork in Mexico followed, examining vulnerability to natural hazards in the agricultural sector, and the potential impacts of climatic change on food systems. Liverman has also examined the effects of neoliberalism on Latin American society and environmental regimes, particularly along the US-Mexico border. In recent years she has focused on the international dimensions of climate policy and the growth of the new carbon economy, and is a frequent speaker and commentator on global climate issues.She was a co-author of a series of high-profile papers on planetary boundaries and Earth system governance. She has also led several major collaborative research projects, funded mainly by US and European agencies. In 2011 she was part of a group who briefed the Dalai Lama (2011)on climate change. Sir Robert Tony Watson CMG FRS is a British chemist who has worked on atmospheric science issues including ozone depletion, global warming and paleoclimatology since the 1980s. Climate change and agriculture are interrelated processes, both of which take place on a global scale. Climate change affects agriculture in a number of ways, including through changes in average temperatures, rainfall, and climate extremes ; changes in pests and diseases; changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide and ground-level ozone concentrations; changes in the nutritional quality of some foods; and changes in sea level. Scientific opinion on climate change is a judgment of scientists regarding the degree to which global warming is occurring, its likely causes, and its probable consequences. The effects of global warming are the environmental and social changes caused by human emissions of greenhouse gases. There is a scientific consensus that climate change is occurring, and that human activities are the primary driver. Many impacts of climate change have already been observed, including glacier retreat, changes in the timing of seasonal events, and changes in agricultural productivity. Anthropogenic forcing has likely contributed to some of the observed changes, including sea level rise, changes in climate extremes, declines in Arctic sea ice extent and glacier retreat. The economics of global warming concerns the economic aspects of global warming; this can inform policies that governments might consider in response. A number of factors make this a difficult problem from both economic and political perspectives: it is a long-term, intergenerational problem; benefits and costs are distributed unequally both within and across countries; and scientific and public opinions may diverge. Climate change adaptation is a response to global warming, that seeks to reduce the vulnerability of social and biological systems to relatively sudden change and thus offset the effects of global warming. Even if emissions are stabilized relatively soon, global warming and its effects should last many years, and adaptation would be necessary to the resulting changes in climate. Adaptation is especially important in developing countries since those countries are predicted to bear the brunt of the effects of global warming. That is, the capacity and potential for humans to adapt is unevenly distributed across different regions and populations, and developing countries generally have less capacity to adapt. Furthermore, the degree of adaptation correlates to the situational focus on environmental issues. Therefore, adaptation requires the situational assessment of sensitivity and vulnerability to environmental impacts. Global warming is a long-term rise in the average temperature of the Earth's climate system, an aspect of climate change shown by temperature measurements and by multiple effects of the warming. The term commonly refers to the mainly human-caused observed warming since pre-industrial times and its projected continuation, though there were also much earlier periods of global warming. In the modern context the terms global warming and climate change are commonly used interchangeably, but climate change includes both global warming and its effects, such as changes to precipitation and impacts that differ by region. Many of the observed warming changes since the 1950s are unprecedented in the instrumental temperature record, and in historical and paleoclimate proxy records of climate change over thousands to millions of years. Robert W. Kates was an American geographer and independent scholar in Trenton, Maine, and University Professor (Emeritus) at Brown University. The Burtoni Award was created in 2003 by a group of leading experts and policy makers in the field of climate change. Its purpose is to recognize outstanding contributions to the science of adaptation to climate change. The award is named after the first recipient of the award, Ian Burton, an emeritus professor at the University of Toronto and a pioneer in the field of adaptation to climate change and extreme events and disasters. Ian has contributed to three assessment reports of the IPCC and the recent Special Report on Extremes (SREX). Regional effects of global warming are long-term significant changes in the expected patterns of average weather of a specific region due to global warming. The world average temperature is rising due to the greenhouse effect caused by increasing levels of greenhouse gases, especially carbon dioxide. When the global temperature changes, the changes in climate are not expected to be uniform across the Earth. In particular, land areas change more quickly than oceans, and northern high latitudes change more quickly than the tropics, and the margins of biome regions change faster than do their cores. The environmental impact of the energy industry is diverse. Energy has been harnessed by human beings for millennia. Initially it was with the use of fire for light, heat, cooking and for safety, and its use can be traced back at least 1.9 million years. In recent years there has been a trend towards the increased commercialization of various renewable energy sources. This article is about climate change, industry and society. This article describes the economic impacts of climate change. Given the inherent nature of economic forecasting, which involves significant degrees of uncertainty, estimates of the results of global warming over the 21st century have varied widely. Many analyses, such as that of the Stern Review presented to the British Government, have predicted reductions by several percent of world gross domestic product due to climate related costs such as dealing with increased extreme weather events and stresses to low-lying areas due to sea level rises. Other studies by independent economists looking at the effects of climate change have found more ambiguous results around the range of net-neutral changes when all aspects of the issue are evaluated, though the issue remains intensely debated. Climate change and poverty link a process and a condition that are interrelated. While climate change and global warming affect the natural environment, especially agriculture, it also affects humans. Climate change globally impacts poverty, particularly in low-income communities. Climate change in Africa pertains to aspects of climate change within the continent of Africa. Human Rights and Climate Change is a conceptual and legal framework under which international human rights and their relationship to global warming are studied, analyzed, and addressed. The framework has been employed by governments, United Nations organizations, intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations, human rights and environmental advocates, and academics to guide national and international policy on climate change under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the core international human rights instruments. The contributions of women in climate change have received increasing attention in the early 21st century. Feedback from women and the issues faced by women have been described as "imperative" by the United Nations and "critical" by the Population Reference Bureau. A report by the World Health Organization concluded that incorporating gender-based analysis would "provide more effective climate change mitigation and adaptation." Climate change has brought about possibly permanent alterations to Earth's geological, biological and ecological systems. These changes have led to the emergence of a not so large-scale environmental hazards to human health, such as extreme weather, ozone depletion, increased danger of wildland fires, loss of biodiversity, stresses to food-producing systems and the global spread of infectious diseases. In addition, climatic changes are estimated to cause over 150,000 deaths annually. Fatima Denton is the Co-ordinator for the African Climate Policy Centre (ACPC) of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. She directs a special initiatives division focused on innovation, science, technology and natural resource management. She partners with countries such as Benin and Liberia to develop and implement country needs assessment missions. "IPCC special report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels and related global greenhouse gas emission pathways, in the context of strengthening the global response to the threat of climate change, sustainable development, and efforts to eradicate poverty

Folic acid - water soluble solution of vitamin B9, which is necessary for the body for normal growth and development of the immune system and the circulatory system. Basically, the vitamin is prescribed to pregnant women. But folic acid is no less important for the male body. A lack of folic acid in the body can lead to serious consequences. Scientists have found that men who have low levels of this vitamin in their bodies are at risk of having an insufficient amount of chromosomes in their sperm. Subsequently, this may lead to a deviation in the development of the unborn child. What is important folic acid for men? - Necessary for normal blood (the formation of red blood cells, white blood cells, platelets). - Together with vitamin B12, folic acid is needed for cell and tissue division. - Promotes digestion, breakdown and transport of proteins. Helps to connect protein group in hemo - and myoglobin. - Stimulates cell regeneration. - Helps absorb amino acids and sugar. - Folic acid is necessary for the formation of RNA and DNA, which are involved in the transmission of hereditary traits. - Folacin, which is contained in the vitamin, prevents the development of atherosclerosis. If there is a shortage of this substance in the male body, there is a greater likelihood of atherosclerosis and megalobiliary anemia. Atherosclerosis occurs due to a metabolic disorder of sulfur-containing amino acids. This is dangerous because the body begins to produce a dangerous substance - homocysteine. The substance destroys blood vessels, leading to strokes and heart attacks. - Vitamin is prescribed to protect against food poisoning and intestinal parasites. - Provides healthy skin and good appetite. - It is the prevention of ulcerative stomatitis. - Participates in the metabolism. - Affects the quality and quantity of sperm in the male body. With a lack of folic acid in the male body increases the likelihood of defective sperm. This leads to infertility or the birth of children with disabilities. Scientists have proved that if men include products containing this vitamin, sperm quality is significantly improved. - Megaloblastic anemia is a disease in which the bone marrow produces poor quality red blood cells. This triggers the onset of progressive anemia, which can be fatal. Lack of folic acid in the body of a man A deficiency in the body of this substance may indicate serious violations, among which are the following: - Incorrect and inadequate nutrition. - Resection of the stomach and intestines. - Malignant tumors. - Liver disease. - Vitamin B12 deficiency. - Hemolytic anemia. Blood levels of folic acid are reduced by drugs such as aspirin, estrogens, biseptol, anticonvulsants, etc. What foods contain folic acid? To increase the level of the substance in the body, you need to follow a special diet. Experts say that 3 months before conceiving a child, men should definitely include in their diet foods containing folic acid and B vitamins.. This substance is found in large quantities in products such as: - Dark green vegetables with leaves (spinach, lettuce, asparagus, etc.) - Egg yolk. - Pumpkin and carrot. - Parsley and onions. - Nuts, peas, buckwheat and legumes. - Oats and barley. - Salmon, tuna, pork, lamb, chicken. - Milk and cheese. - Apricots, avocados, oranges, bananas, melons, dates. Fruits and vegetables must be eaten raw, as during heat treatment, about 90% of the nutrients are destroyed. When you fill in the body of folic acid can not drink alcohol and take hormones. Folic acid for men: dosage The optimal level of folic acid in the blood - 3 - 17 ng / ml. Daily dose - 400 mg. There are drugs that contain this substance. They are available in tablets and capsules of 1 and 5 mg. Tablets in the package can be 50 and 100 pcs. The prophylactic dose of folic acid for the male body is 1 mg 1 time per day. The maximum therapeutic dosage of the drug can reach 5 mg per day. Folic acid is simply necessary for the male body, if a man wants to leave behind a healthy and strong offspring. It is necessary for men at any age. To feel great and not be prone to atherosclerosis and other diseases, eat foods that contain folic acid, and you will be healthy and full of energy.

Buddha: How to Recognize Truth Three things cannot remain long hidden; the sun, the moon, and the truth. We live in a world drowning in information and starving for wisdom. Many have compared the flow of information into our lives to "drinking from a firehose." Seeing through all the nonsense to glean the truth requires patience and discernment. It turns out people 2500 years ago had a similar challenge. That story is captured in Buddhist texts. In my opinion, the Buddha's solid advice holds true for us today. During a visit to the town of the Kalamas, the Buddha was asked a crucial question. “Reverend Gautama, many teachers enter our midst teaching that their way and their way alone is the path to salvation. They extol the virtues of their own doctrines while tearing down the doctrines of other teachers. This creates doubt in our minds about all their teachings. For how are we to know which speaks the truth and which speaks falsehood?” Buddha replied, “Kalamas, you have doubt in circumstances where doubt is understandable. Where doubt thrives uncertainty is born.” The Buddha proposed a test against which to measure any teaching including his own. - Do not believe something because it has been passed down and believed for many generations. - Do not believe something merely because it is a traditional practice. - Do not believe something because everyone believes it. - Do not believe something because it is written in a book and has been recited over and over. - Do not believe something solely on the grounds of logical reasoning. - Do not believe something because it fits your preconceived notions. - Do not believe something because you trust who is saying it. - Do not believe something only because your teacher says it is so. “Kalamas, when you yourselves know directly something is unskillful, unwholesome, blameworthy, rejected by the wise, harmful to yourselves or others, leads to poverty or unhappiness, you should give it up.” “On the other hand, Kalamas, when you know directly that something is skilled, wholesome, blameless, praised by the wise, and leads to well-being, prosperity, and happiness, you should accept it and practice it.” We all need to examine the beliefs that are driving our actions in this world. When we look at the state of the world we must conclude that there is more each of us can do to make a difference. It all begins with questioning age-old beliefs. Even beliefs based in truth can become clouded by generations of unexamined hatreds, fears, and prejudices. Every change, personal or global, begins with the courage to question. Keep seeking, keep searching, my friends. for 6 Sense Media

What are the world’s most commonly spoken languages? This can be a very difficult (and highly contested) question to answer. There is a range of data available, all collected at different times by different sources. This can lead to differences in total numbers and provides us with, at best, estimates of the most common language populations. Fluctuations in estimates can be attributed to population growth, as well as how linguists choose to group dialects and microlanguages into larger groups. The most common languages can also vary depending on whether studies include only primary languages, or all languages spoken in a population. And then, of course, there’s the problem of what constitutes a dialect vs a language vs a creole. Still, there are some things we can assert with a degree of certainty. For instance, although the estimates of total number of speakers may vary depending on the source you consult, Mandarin, English, Hindu, and Spanish are all likely to appear in the top 10 of any list. Below, we’ve compiled a list of the ten most commonly spoken languages as recorded by Statista in 2018. Keep in mind that this list is composed of native speakers — so people who learned Mandarin in college, for example, are not included in the total number of Mandarin speakers. You might find some languages that surprise you! With 1,299 million speakers, Mandarin claims the top spot as the world’s most common language — and one that often requires professional translation services. One of the five major dialects of Chinese, Mandarin is the official language of China and Taiwan, as well as one of the four official dialects of Singapore. Approximately 15 percent of the world’s population are native speakers of Mandarin. Its prominence in the Americas as well as in Europe makes Spanish one of the most common languages, with an estimated 442 million speakers. The Castilian dialect in Spain is held as a national standard, although Andalusian and Catalan are also spoken. English used to be the second-most common language, but Spanish-speakers have increased much more rapidly over the past 20 years. Still, scholars have named English the world’s “most influential language,” due to the number of speakers (378 million) and the number of countries in which it is spoken. When doing business in English, however, it’s important to remember the key role that localization plays since there are many variations on the language depending on the region you’re targeting. Arabic, spoken by 315 million speakers worldwide, is also the language of Muslim holy writings. Additionally, the influence and legacy of Arabic is far-reaching. Many other languages on this list have words with Arabic roots, including Spanish which features approximately 4,000 words with Arabic roots. Although they have different written forms, Hindi and Urdu share a history, many common words, and a grammar. Many linguists consider them different “registers” of the same common language. Over 260 million people speak one of the two. But don’t be fooled into thinking that your marketing strategies in India can rely on just a Hindi and/or Urdu translation. India is home to a large variety of languages and, as studies show, it’s natives are preforming searches online in their local languages. With 243 million speakers, Bengali is also the second most widely spoken language in India, popular in the easternmost states. Bengali is an official language of both India and Bangladesh. Out of the 223 million Portuguese speakers worldwide, nearly 150 million of them speak Brazilian Portuguese, the most common language variant. Portuguese is also the official language of other countries including Angola, Mozambique, and — of course — Portugal, among others. Russian’s 154 million speakers make it the world’s eighth most common language. It is also one of the six official languages of the United Nations, along with Arabic, Chinese (Mandarin), English, French, and Spanish. Out of the approximately 128 million people who speak Japanese, 124 million live in Japan and the island group of Okinawa. This makes it unusual among the most common languages due to its geographic concentration. Another interesting fact about the Japanese language is that it’s written form consists of three different alphabets: Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji. Not too long ago, German held the tenth spot, though Punjabi has now surpassed it. With 119 million speakers, Punjabi is mainly spoken in India and Pakistan, and is a native language of almost 2 percent of the world’s population. Languages That Just Missed Out on the Top 10 As stated above, the top ten estimates provided here are just that — estimates. There are many other languages around the world that are spoken by an equally high number of native speakers. When data estimates fluctuate due to the method of collection and total number of participates, among other things, we see these top ten shift as well. Past iterations of this list have included such languages as French and German, which also have near 100 million native speakers worldwide. Did any of the languages above surprise you? Let us know in the comments below!

The Supreme Court could in this case make major strides in ensuring that Fourth Amendment protections keep pace with advancing technology. In 2011, FBI agents in Detroit obtained several months’ worth of location records from cellphone companies for suspects in a robbery investigation — all without a warrant. They were able to do so because of an outdated legal theory called the “third-party doctrine” that has been used by law enforcement to access personal data without ever having to demonstrate probable cause to a judge. Timothy Carpenter, represented by the ACLU, argues that the government violated his Fourth Amendment rights when it obtained his location records without a warrant. The court’s decision in the case will also have implications for the extent of the Constitution’s protections against warrantless search and seizure of much of the private data collected and stored by current technologies. What is this case about? Every time a cellphone makes or receives a call or text message or accesses a wireless data connection — as when it automatically checks for emails or social media messages — the phone company logs and retains a record of the phone’s location based on the cell tower and cellular antenna the phone was connected to. The volume and precision of that location data has increased over time, and today, cellphone location data can paint a detailed picture of where we go over the course of days, weeks, and months. The question in this case is whether the Fourth Amendment protects that data by requiring police to get a search warrant from a judge before requesting it from the phone company. What is the third-party doctrine and why does it matter? The third-party doctrine says that by sharing information or records with a “third party,” meaning a business or another person, a person gives up any reasonable expectation that the information will remain private. The doctrine was established in Supreme Court cases from the 1970s, which reasoned that without an expectation of privacy, there is no Fourth Amendment protection for certain records voluntarily shared with businesses, such as canceled checks sent to a bank or phone numbers dialed on a phone and transmitted over a phone company's equipment. The government, along with some lower courts, have extended that principle to cover all kinds of sensitive digital records. But as Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote several years ago, “[t]his approach is ill suited to the digital age, in which people reveal a great deal of information about themselves to third parties in the course of carrying out mundane tasks." How would this case affect data collection beyond cellphones? If the justices were to apply the government’s 1970s-era view of the third-party doctrine to cellphone location data, it could throw open a huge array of highly sensitive digital records to warrantless access by police. Today, our most sensitive records aren’t necessarily held in homes and cabinets. They’re held by third parties. The contents of emails, text messages, and social media messages are stored by companies like Google, Verizon, and Facebook; family photos reside with Apple, Flickr, and the like; and information about health conditions, relationships, finances, political opinions, sexual orientation, and daily habits is stored on servers of the many companies that provide internet service and smartphone apps. And as the “internet of things” begins to take off, we will see information about the interior of our homes and the state of our bodies being constantly collected and stored in the cloud. It is critical that the Supreme Court explain that the Fourth Amendment protections these kinds of data. What are the options before the Supreme Court? The broad question before the court is whether law enforcement’s warrantless acquisition of historical cellphone location data violates the Fourth Amendment. If the court decides that this constitutes a Fourth Amendment search, it could further rule that a warrant is required -- as it should — or it could send the case back to the lower court for further consideration. This is the latest in a series of recent cases in which the Supreme Court has made clear that interpretations of the Fourth Amendment must keep up with evolving technology. The court’s decision will set a precedent for years to come, making it crucial that it ensures that the police are subject to limits on search and seizure in the digital age.

DOM-based XSS involves the execution of a payload as a result of modifying the DOM inside the browser used by a client side script. Since the payload resides in the DOM, the payload may not necessarily be sent to the web server. Sources and Sinks In order to understand how DOM-based XSS vulnerabilities work, one must first understand the difference between sources and sinks. The source is the property that is read from the DOM. This is the property where a script can be injected to exploit a DOM XSS vulnerability. The sources listed hereunder are amongst some of the DOM properties that are most commonly exploited for DOM-based XSS. |Source Name||Property susceptible to DOM-based XSS| |Location / Document URL / URL|| |Sink Name||Property susceptible to DOM-based XSS| |HTML Element Sink|| |Set Location Sink|| document.location and its properties can be both a source as well as a sink. A Simple Example of DOM-based XSS The following example is taken from OWASP’s DOM-based XSS article, and shall be used to demonstrate how DOM-based XSS is detected by Acunetix WVS. A more advanced, harder to detect example of DOM-based XSS is covered further on in this article. The following HTML markup can be used to allow users to select a default language. <html> <head><title>DOMXSS</title></head> </body> Select your language: <select><script> document.write("<OPTION value=1>"+document.location.href.substring(document.location.href.indexOf("default=")+8)+"</OPTION>"); document.write("<OPTION value=2>English</OPTION>"); </script></select> </body> </html> The above markup renders the default language by making use of the query string. For instance, the following URL includes the parameter “German” in the query string. Running a scan with Acunetix WVS on such a page will detect a DOM-based XSS vulnerability as indicated below. Reproducing this vulnerability is straightforward since the source of this DOM-based XSS vulnerability is actually in the Location which is an object in the DOM that can be used to get the current page address (URL). Therefore, considering the alert Acunetix WVS provides, by simply entering the following URL inside of a browser, the vulnerability is exploited since anything that is entered in the URL’s query string is being echoed back into the page (in the <select> control) without being sanitized first. Note – This example may not work in some browsers due to built-in XSS prevention mechanisms. A More Advanced Example of DOM-based XSS While the example above is rather straight forward to understand and fix, some DOM-based XSS vulnerabilities are generally more complex to identify. The screenshot below is taken from an Acunetix WVS scan of http://testhtml5.vulnweb.com. Under Attack Details, Acunetix WVS lists useful information which can be used to find the source of the issue and reproduce the vulnerability manually. The information presented in the Attack Details section shows the following: - The Source of the vulnerability – - The data input used by Acunetix WVS to identify and exploit this vulnerability – In this case, Acunetix WVS set - The Execution Sink causing the data input to be executed – evaluate code section. Note that Acunetix WVS may not always determine the exact sink and will provide multiple possible Execution Sinks. - The Evaluated code, which is the code that shows where the payload was outputted to the page or executed. - The Stack Trace With this information, it is now possible to identify and reproduce this vulnerability. The portion of the alert that details the source of the vulnerability provides an indication of which part of the DOM is being manipulated in the attack. In this case, the vulnerable parameter is window.name, which can be exploited with the following code hereunder (pop-ups need to be enabled). <html> <body> <script> window.open("http://testhtml5.vulnweb.com", "alert('DOM XSS');"); </script> </body> </html> window.name source. However, window.name is nowhere to be found in sessvars.js in the file. This will be explained further on, but first the Stack Trace provided by Acunetix WVS will be used to get more information. Checking line 105 in sessvers.js, as indicated in the Stack Trace (since a Stack Trace is built from bottom-to-top), reveals the DOM-based XSS sink; which is in fact an x which is in-turn being set by the eval() is indeed one of the possible execution sinks that Acunetix WVS reports in the above alert. When checking line 76, as per the Stack Trace, the toObject function is being passed top.name without any sanitization. toObject is the function that contains the DOM-based XSS sink as described above. While this may be slightly confusing at first, upon taking a closer look, one may notice that the property vulnerable to DOM-based XSS in sessvars.js is top object returns the top-most browser window and is in fact inheriting properties from window. This is the place where the source of the DOM XSS vulnerability is being read from the DOM.

The exhibit showcases hundreds of personal items that belonged to people killed at the Nazi concentration camp—including many that have never before been on display in this country. Of the six million Jews killed in Nazi concentration camps during the Holocaust, an estimated 1.1 million died at Auschwitz. Now, 74 years following the Nazi surrender on May 8, 1945 (which signaled the end of World War II in Europe), a major exhibition at New York City’s Museum of Jewish Heritage will delve into this dark period in not-so-far-gone history. Auschwitz. Not long ago. Not far away traces the development of Nazi ideology, outlining the transformation of the Polish town named Oświęcim into Auschwitz. Curated by an international team of experts and historians, the 18,000-square-foot exhibition includes personal testimonies from Holocaust survivors as well as more than 1,000 artifacts recovered from Auschwitz. Among the items on display are a German-made freight wagon that was used to transport Jews to the extermination camp, plus suitcases, eyeglasses, shoes, and other belongings left behind by survivors and victims. Located about 45 miles west of Krakow, Poland, Auschwitz was one of many sites used by the Nazis to carry out the systematic “extermination” of Jews and other minority groups during the Holocaust. It remains the largest documented mass murder site in human history and has since become an enduring symbol of the dangerous realms to which the spread of xenophobia and hate speech can lead. “When we had the vision to create the exhibition, we conceived its narrative as an opportunity to better understand how such a place could come to exist and as warning of where hatred can take us to,” said Luis Ferreiro, director of the international exhibition firm Musealia, which partnered with the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in Poland to create the exhibition project. As part of this goal, the exhibition—the largest on Auschwitz ever to be presented in the United States—goes beyond showcasing recovered artifacts from the concentration camp. Throughout 20 galleries that span three floors of the museum, Auschwitz. Not long ago. Not far away provides context about the rise of Nazism by outlining the stories of various Holocaust victims, perpetrators, and bystanders. The exhibit also sheds light on the aftermath of the horrific experiences by Holocaust survivors—the youngest of whom are in their mid-70s today—with more than 100 artifacts from survivors who found refuge in the greater New York City area; those artifacts include sketchbooks and letters of personal correspondence, some of which have never before been on display in the United States. Audio guides with detailed narration will be available upon request in English, Spanish, French, Hebrew, Mandarin, German, Polish, and Russian. “As the title of the exhibit suggests, Auschwitz is not ancient history but living memory,” said Bruce C. Ratner, chairman of the museum’s board of trustees. “My hope for this exhibit is that it motivates all of us to make the connections between the world of the past and the world of the present and to take a firm stand against hate, bigotry, ethnic violence, religious intolerance, and nationalist brutality of all kinds.” “This exhibit reminds, in the starkest ways, where anti-Semitism can ultimately lead,” said Ron Lauder, founder and chairman of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation Committee and president of the World Jewish Congress. “And the world should never go there again.” Auschwitz. Not long ago. Not far away runs from May 8, 2019, through January 3, 2020, at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York City. Advance tickets are available for purchase at Auschwitz.nyc. Holocaust survivors, active members of the military and first responders, and NYC public school students and educators (with valid school-issued identification) receive free entry. >> Next: Plan Your Trip With AFAR’s Guide to New York City

It would be easy to drive right by the Lee County Stockade. The decrepit white concrete building sits in the shadow of a school bus depot and looks like the kind of place that long ago outlived its purpose. On a breezy, overcast day in mid-January, Shirley Green Reese, dressed in a white pantsuit and silver accessories, stood at the stockade door, directing a stream of reporters, filmmakers and locals to step inside. She began describing the early morning hours of July 1963 when she and a wagonload of at least 14 other girls ranging in age from 12 to 15 were dropped at the jail more than 20 miles from their homes. They had been arrested just a day earlier during a nonviolent civil rights protest at a movie theater in Americus. Holed up in the stockade for weeks, they waited and wondered if their efforts would have an impact. “I feel very honored that we can share the story and that some people are excited about it and are accepting of it,” Reese said. “Some can’t believe it happened in 1963, and some still have questions about it.” Known as the Girls of Leesburg Stockade, their story has been shared by news outlets and in books, films and lectures for the past several decades, but to most Americans, including many residents in the southwest Georgia counties where the events took place, the women are largely unknown. They had joined the movement to be seen as Americans with the full force of civil rights, and like many other young protesters of the era, the details of their stories were subsumed by the larger narrative of the civil rights movement. Now their memories have worn thin. Some of the women recall details that the others do not, and there are disputes about who was actually jailed in the stockade and for how long. But what the girls from Leesburg Stockade now collectively possess that they did not in the past is the desire for their efforts to be seen, heard and understood. The stockade is now owned by the local school district. There is talk of preserving the building as a historic landmark. Last year, students at the high school worked to have the girls of Leesburg recognized on a historical marker. The marker, in partnership with the Georgia Historical Society, will be dedicated later this year to commemorate the spirit and sacrifice the girls showed during the summer of 1963. The young seek a role The road to the Leesburg Stockade began miles away and years before the girls were locked up. A nascent civil rights effort had been brewing in that pocket of southwest Georgia as the 1950s gave way to the turbulent ’60s. It centered around Albany, and by 1962 had made its way to Americus, 38 miles north. Children were encouraged to be part of the movement, as they had been in Albany and in Birmingham. It was a controversial tactic, but one that became a signature of the resistance. If a town could lock up its black children to avoid integration, what would it do to their parents? “Around April of ’63 is when we started asking the SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) workers, ‘When are we going to go and test these places and restaurants to serve us?’” said Sam Mahone, one of the early leaders of the Americus-Sumter County Movement. “At first, SNCC didn’t think Americus was ready, but the students didn’t want to wait.” After a series of mass meetings were held at local black churches to energize the crowds, direct action protests began. The first target was the town’s segregated movie theater. Having slipped away from home on a Saturday afternoon while her parents were downtown, Reese and her best friend Mae Smith-Davis decided to attend the mass meeting at Friendship Baptist Church. When they arrived, the group was already planning to go to Martin Theater. The pastor and SNCC workers gave them instructions. Don’t talk to anybody. Follow everyone closely. They joined the line and marched toward downtown. Law enforcement in Americus responded with brute force: water hoses, cattle prods, nightsticks. They arrested protesters by the scores. Some were adults, but the overwhelming number of those taken into custody were teenagers, some as young as 12. When the city jail filled, surrounding counties offered space. Boys and girls were separated, although they were often held in the same building. ‘No swinging doors in Leesburg’ As the protests continued, the stockade in Leesburg filled with girls. Paddywagons brought them to the stockade, a remote, low-slung structure surrounded by woods and bordered on one side by a lonely stretch of country road. The building was by then a relic, gloomy and filthy. Bars covered the windows, but much of the glass was broken, giving easy access to bugs. The stockade’s sole toilet would not flush. There was no soap. Water from the shower head trickled in a thin stream. Day in and day out, the girls were fed either scrambled egg sandwiches or four rare hamburgers a day. Some of the girls were ill and afraid. Lulu Westbrook Griffin, 69, had joined the group of protesters at the church knowing she would likely end up in jail, but she wasn’t prepared for the trauma she would feel. “We weren’t used to going off and staying overnight anywhere,” said Griffin, who was 12 at the time. “We went to church, to school. We didn’t even walk out of the house without our parents’ permission.” Though she was in the company of other girls, Griffin said the experience left her with bouts of crying and nightmares that would persist well into adulthood. She had joined the movement to feel empowered, but her one act of protest left her feeling weak. Diane Bowens’ activism had been brewing long before she attended the protest at the theater. By then, she was fully invested in the movement. In the stockade, her commitment didn’t waver, said Bowens, then 13. “If you were going to be a part of it, you were going to be a part of it,” she said. “There were no swinging doors in Leesburg.” Outside world takes notice As the days turned into weeks, other girls arrived, a signal to the ones already there that the protests continued back in Americus, 27 miles north. But here, the story of the girls of Leesburg Stockade gets muddled. Some reports have said there were more than 30 girls at the stockade arriving and leaving between mid-July and mid-September, but the only visual evidence of girls being held in the stockade, an image shot by a SNCC photographer, pictures 15 girls. Some girls, those from wealthier families in town, have said their parents paid a fee and got them out before the others. SNCC kept tabs on what counties the children were taken to and where they were being kept, but they didn’t always have names for every child, especially if the child gave a false name. Which is what Carolyn DeLoatch did. DeLoatch, then 15, had begged her parents to let her get involved in the movement and they’d relented, telling her she could go to mass meetings but to not intentionally get arrested. But there DeLoatch was in August, locked up. Their days in the stockade were filled with talking, sleeping, praying, singing and wondering when they’d go home, DeLoatch, now 70, said. The monotony was about as intolerable as the food. But by being in Leesburg, she felt she was doing something important. “It was bearable because it was all of us together,” DeLoatch said. “We were all demonstrating and we wanted people to know that we wanted to be free.” After several days, her father paid a fine, possibly $45, she said, and she was brought back to Americus. Her father told her he was proud of her, she said, but within three days, her parents shipped her off to a South Carolina boarding school for black girls. Reese was still in the stockade when Danny Lyon, a young white photographer for SNCC, showed up. Though their parents had come to look in on them and pass fresh clothing and food through the bars, they didn’t have the means or influence to get them out. “Nobody had any rights. Who were they going to go to?” said Reese. It was mid-to-late August and the girls pressed their faces against the bars staring at Lyon and stretching their arms through the panes framed with broken glass. He lifted his Nikon and started shooting. “I remember touching them through the bars and we said ‘Freedom’ — that was a code word for the civil rights movement,” Lyon said. “The fact that someone from the outside world was there was incredible to them.” His visit lasted less than 15 minutes, he thinks, but it resulted in the only known images of the girls and the conditions in which they were being held. Not long after the pictures appeared in the black press, the girls were released. It would be the last time for several decades many of them would acknowledge their connection to the Leesburg Stockade. Readjusting to their lives On their return to Americus, the girls were dropped right back into their lives. “I just remember being happy to get out of there,” Bowens said. Though her arrival home was celebrated, Bowens grappled with her feelings. Her mom pressed to know if anyone had sexually assaulted the girls. Her brother threatened to hurt anyone who had, though no one did. “I just closed off that part of my life,” said Bowens, 69, who would go outside and sit under the house for hours crying. “Just knowing that someone would treat you like that and do that to you. I was feeling sad. I felt like, Is this it? Is this all there is to life?” As they journeyed from teens to young women, many of the Leesburg girls’ worlds spread beyond the confines of southwest Georgia to New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and beyond. The 15 girls captured in Lyon’s now famous photo would go on to become pastors, civil servants, educators, authors and public speakers. When Bowens met her husband, she began to feel better. He had been in the movement as well, and they would talk about all the things that happened in Americus. Raising her four children and building a long career as an inspector in the automotive industry changed her outlook, but Bowens still feels sad sometimes. “Things are better now, but basically things are still the same,” she said. School had been in session for weeks when Reese walked into Sumter High after her release from the stockade. “Not even the teachers asked where I was coming from,” Reese said. “My grades started falling.” Reese began diving into extracurricular activities — choir, dance, basketball — to keep her mind off those weeks during the summer. “When I first got out, I didn’t feel whole,” she said. She fed off the energy of close friends who were talented, had a positive attitude and were accepting of her. After high school, her mother sent her to Savannah to live with her aunts. Reese enrolled in Savannah State University and embarked on an educational journey — ultimately earning a doctorate in philosophy from Florida State University — that would bring her some measure of solace and success. She went on to become the first black female athletic director in the state of Georgia. “I pushed the stockade out of my mind because I had to get an education. That is what my parents had pushed all our lives,” she said. Though she spent less time in the stockade, DeLoatch was nonetheless marked by the experience. For her, it was an “awakening.” Before Leesburg, she was sheltered by her educator parents, her father a school principal and her mother a librarian in Americus’ segregated school system. They were part of the town’s tiny black middle class. Leesburg and the Americus movement taught DeLoatch that civil rights would only come with a sustained fight. She went from being voted “most civic minded” at her boarding school to later participating in the Poor People’s Campaign while a college student at Virginia Union in Richmond, she said. Eventually she became a city planner in Chicago and the mother of two. She watched with pride as her son decided to register to vote as soon as he turned 18: no literacy test to pass; no poll tax to pay. “There was no problem,” DeLoatch said. Making their voices heard Leesburg was a moment in DeLoatch’s life but not the only important one. “I moved on but I used that to help me become the person I am: the kind of person who doesn’t let anybody push them around; the kind of person who is secure in my personhood,” she said. But the impacts of childhood trauma can linger, said Vincent Willis, assistant professor of interdisciplinary studies at the University of Alabama. Willis is writing the book “Audacious Agitation,” on the experiences of student protesters in southwest Georgia during the civil rights movement. He’s including a chapter on the larger Americus movement and has interviewed some of the women who were jailed in the stockade as girls, he said. “That 14-year-old girl is still in there somewhere,” Willis said. “The idea that time heals all wounds, I argue against it. They’re told to get over it, that the battle was won, but there are always lingering effects. There’s always psychological damage.” Griffin was first among the girls of Leesburg Stockade to share her story on a national platform. In 1996, she saw a book, “Memories of the Southern Civil Rights Movement,” with the photographs Lyon had taken at the stockade. “The pictures had no names. I thought, wow, I need to put a name to these faces,” said Griffin, a retired educator. She would later write a book and hold speaking engagements at schools. When she began planning a documentary, which premiered in Americus in 2003, she contacted some of the other women, she said. Some of them were still reluctant to speak out about the past, fearing repercussion from locals. A few years later, in 2006, a reporter from Essence magazine wrote a story, and some of the women who had previously been reluctant began to speak out. Reese returned to Americus for good in 2002. She got involved with local civic organizations, including the Boys and Girls Clubs of Americus-Sumter County and the City Council. “I felt I needed to get back in there and help the kids move forward so they would not have to go through what we went through,” Reese said. For years, she had suppressed her feelings about the stockade, but since returning to Americus, she has vowed to keep telling their story. “We as a people don’t want to address something like this because they feel like things are better now. But we can’t let them forget the past,” Reese said. “Even if they don’t care, I care.” Support real journalism. Support local journalism. Subscribe to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution today. See offers. Your subscription to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution funds in-depth reporting and investigations that keep you informed. Thank you for supporting real journalism.

Engage patients to help prevent this possibly deadly condition. - Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is responsible for more deaths annually than AIDS, breast cancer, prostate cancer, and motor vehicle accidents combined. - Most VTE are preventable. - Nurses play a key role in preventing and treating VTE. By Carolyn E. Crumley, DNP, RN, ACNS-BC, CWOCN Venous Thromboembolism (VTE) is the number-one cause of preventable death in hospitalized patients. (See VTE facts.) A thrombus is a clot that forms in a blood vessel, most often in a deep vein, which results in deep vein thrombosis (DVT). The danger lies in the thrombus breaking loose from the vein and traveling through the right side of the heart to the lungs, resulting in a pulmonary embolism (PE). This process is different from a thrombus that forms in an artery and results in a myocardial infarction or cerebral vascular accident. (See DVT and PE defined.) Beyond the immediate dangers, both DVT and PE can produce long-lasting debilitating effects. Chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension, which develops in about 5% of individuals who survive a PE, is characterized by progressive dyspnea, eventually leading to right-sided heart failure. After a DVT, around one-third of patients will develop post-thrombotic syndrome with chronic lower-extremity edema, pain, and skin changes that can progress to weeping ulcerations. More than 20% of patients with proximal DVT (thrombus located in the popliteal, femoral, or iliac veins) or PE will suffer a recurrent event after discontinuing anticoagulation, and patients may experience loss of function, financial burdens from treatment, and fear of recurrence. VTE risk factors Virchow’s triad illustrates VTE risk factors based on blood flow stasis, endothelial damage, and hypercoagulability. (See VTE risk factors.) Normal venous return of blood from the extremities depends on the pumping action from the muscles and competent one-way valves in the vein. Reduced mobility can result in decreased blood return, and damaged valves can contribute to blood pooling in the distal extremities. Damage to the endothelial layer of the veins from trauma, I.V. catheters, or surgery initiates the coagulation cascade. In addition, inherited hypercoagulable disorders and other conditions—such as dehydration, inflammatory bowel disease, and cancer—can produce varying degrees of hypercoagulability. Hospitalization is the most important risk factor for VTE. Surgery patients have long been considered at greater risk for VTEs, but recent evidence suggests that they develop equally between patients admitted for medical illness and those admitted for surgery. Overall risk factors include lung disease, prior VTE, family history of VTE, and older age. Oncology patients are at particular risk for developing VTE because many cancers (pancreatic, lymphoma, brain, liver, leukemia, colorectal, and metastatic) produce a hypercoagulable state. Cancer is so often associated with VTE that the development of a VTE in a patient with no known risk factors may warrant screening for occult cancers. A systematic literature review by van Es and colleagues noted that cancer was found in one in 20 patients within a year of developing an unprovoked (no known risk factor) VTE, with rates seven times higher in patients age 50 years and older. In addition, many patients with cancer are less mobile and have vascular catheters, compounding their risk. Commitment to prevention Thromboprophylaxis for at-risk hospitalized patients can reduce VTE by 30% to 65%, has a low incidence of major bleeding complications, and is cost-effective. However, despite widely published guidelines, public reporting, and incremental payment withholding for VTE, prevention recommendations remain largely underused. Because VTE risk factors are spread across patient populations and medical specialties, no one group takes responsibility for addressing prevention; “everyone’s problem” becomes “no one’s problem.” Passive approaches, such as relying on staff and provider education or order sets have not proven effective. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) recommends “measure-vention” to boost compliance with adequate prophylaxis and to reduce rates of hospital-acquired VTE. This approach involves active measurement of adherence to and lapses in VTE prevention recommendations, combined with concurrent interventions to correct lapses, including notification of the primary team. The principles of prevention efforts are: - institutional support and prioritization for the initiative - a multidisciplinary team focused on reaching VTE prophylaxis targets and reporting to key medical staff committees - reliable data collection and performance tracking - specific goals or aims that are ambitious, time defined, and measurable - proven quality improvement frameworks to coordinate steps toward breakthrough improvement - evidence-based protocols that standardize VTE risk assessment and prophylaxis - institutional infrastructure, policies, practices, and educational programs that promote use of the protocol. A three-bucket model based on risk level (low, moderate, high) may be an effective protocol. (See Three-bucket model: An example.) Protocols should be “opt-out” because nearly all hospitalized patients are at risk for developing VTE. In this model, mechanical and pharmaceutical interventions are activated for all patients, with those considered low risk or with contraindications to preventive measures “opted out.” Patients considered to be low risk in this model can ambulate independently and have no other risk factors. Guidelines published and regularly updated by the American College of Chest Physicians provide recommendations for the choice and duration of anticoagulant therapy to treat VTE, modified based on underlying risk factors. For patients with a PE or proximal DVT, a minimum course of 3 months of anticoagulant therapy is recommended. For patients with underlying cancer, low molecular weight heparin (LMWH) is preferable. For all other patients, direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs, also called NOACs [nonvitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants]) are preferred over vitamin K antagonist therapy. Dabigatran and edoxaban require initial parenteral anticoagulation. After completing the initial 3 months of treatment, patients with transient risk factors, such as surgery, typically don’t need additional therapy. For patients with unprovoked VTE, the provider should evaluate the risks and benefits of continued therapy. Most patients with active cancer will need to continue therapy. Anticoagulants are indicated for the prevention and treatment of VTE. Understanding anticoagulant options will help when educating patients and monitoring for adverse effects. Keep in mind that all anticoagulants carry the risk of bleeding, so monitor for and immediately report any unusual bleeding. Unfractionated heparin (UFH) and newer LMWHs are the parenteral agents used. UFH was the first parenteral anticoagulant; approved in 1939, it’s indicated for VTE prevention and treatment. It can be administered as a subcutaneous injection or I.V. infusion. Patients receiving a continuous infusion should have their partial thromboplastin time (PTT) monitored and dosage adjusted to maintain a PTT 1.5 to 2 times normal range. Most hospitals have a protocol for monitoring and adjusting heparin infusions. Protamine sulfate is the reversal agent. The LMWH enoxaparin is indicated for DVT prevention in patients who’ve had abdominal surgery or hip or knee replacement. It’s also indicated for patients whose mobility is severely restricted because of acute illness and for treatment of acute DVT, with or without PE. Protamine sulfate is the reversal agent. Other LMWHs approved in the United States include dalteparin and tinzaparin. When administered subcutaneously, both UFH and LMWH are injected into the abdomen. Hold a skinfold between the thumb and index finger throughout the injection, and don’t rub the site. Warfarin has been the mainstay of oral anticoagulants for many years, but several new agents have been approved, including DOACs. The vitamin K antagonist warfarin was approved in 1954. Because warfarin takes several days to become effective, it’s generally not used for immediate VTE prevention. Although relatively inexpensive and effective, warfarin requires lab monitoring of the patient’s international normalized ratio (INR) and frequent dose adjustments to maintain its narrow therapeutic range. Dosing is further complicated by metabolism variations based on DNA variants in two genes: CYP2C9 and VKORC1. Dosing algorithms are available based on genetic data. Warfarin can be affected by many other medications and foods. It can be reversed with vitamin K. DOACs address some of the issues surrounding warfarin; for instance, they don’t require routine monitoring and have fewer drug interactions. A downside is that they’re more expensive than warfarin. Recent studies suggest similar efficacy rates between warfarin and DOACs. Risks of bleeding appear similar, possibly favoring some of the DOACs over warfarin, even though no reversal agents are available, except for dabigatran. Extensive clinical trials have provided information on the safety and efficacy of DOACs in study populations; specifically, younger and healthier subjects. Postmarketing observational studies involving real-world, older individuals with more comorbidities have been performed primarily in patients with atrial fibrillation taking DOACs because they were approved for that indication before approval for VTE prevention and treatment. Several DOACs have been approved for VTE prevention, including one that is a direct thrombin inhibitor (dabigatran) and four that are factor Xa inhibitors (apixaban, rivaroxaban, edoxaban, and betrixaban). Dosages must be adjusted for factors such as decreased creatinine clearance and whether the intention is treatment or prevention. Dabigatranis indicated for VTE prevention in patients after hip replacement, treatment of VTE after 5 to 10 days of parenteral anticoagulation, and recurrent VTE reduction. Side effects include GI upset. Idarucizumab is the reversal agent. Rivaroxabanand apixabanare indicated for DVT prevention in patients who’ve had hip or knee replacement, VTE treatment, and recurrence reduction. Patients should avoid concomitant use of rivaroxaban with drugs that are combined P-gp and strong CYP3A4 inducers (for example, carbamazepine, phenytoin, rifampin, and St. John’s wort). Menorrhagia and longer periods have been reported with rivaroxaban use. Andexanet alfa has been approved as a reversal agent for rivaroxaban and apixaban, although its supply is expected to be limited until early 2019. Edoxabanis indicated for VTE treatment and has no reversal agent. Betrixabanis indicated for VTE prophylaxis in adult patients hospitalized for an acute medical illness who are at risk for thromboembolic complications because of moderately or severely restricted mobility and other VTE risk factors. It has no reversal agent. Anticoagulants and discharge At discharge, provide patients with verbal instructions and supplemental written information about all medications—generic and trade names, dosage, frequency, possible food or drug interactions, and precautions—follow-up appointments, including lab monitoring, and signs and symptoms they should report. Explain the importance of continuing treatment beyond discharge and that patients shouldn’t stop anticoagulant therapy without discussing it with their provider. In addition, you can direct patients to resources to help cover the cost of anticoagulant therapy. In addition to administering prophylaxis as ordered by the provider, you can help reduce your patient’s risk of developing a VTE. (See VTE prevention.) Patients are more likely to engage in prevention measures if they’re educated about their individual VTE risk factors, appreciate the consequences of a VTE, and understand the effectiveness of preventive measures. Maintain and improve you patient’s mobility level by helping him or her walk to the bathroom, sit in a chair for meals, and walk in the hall with assistance. You also can teach your patient how to perform lower-extremity range-of-motion exercises and the rationale for compression stockings or lower-extremity mechanical devices. Remind patients to reapply devices after walking, and consistently reinforce your efforts. In addition, ensure patients are well hydrated; dehydration can contribute to hypercoagulability. Even with preventive measures in place, VTE can develop. Early identification and treatment with anticoagulants can minimize serious long-term consequences. Immediately report any signs and symptoms of a VTE. DVT symptoms can be subtle, so continually monitor for edema, pain, erythema, warmth, or tenderness in an extremity. Although DVTs typically are unilateral, also evaluate for bilateral symptoms. PE symptoms may be more dramatic, but still nonspecific. Suspect a PE in any patient with a sudden onset of shortness of breath, pleuritic chest pain, cough, hemoptysis or frothy sputum, tachycardia, or lightheadedness. These symptoms can be very distressing for the patient, so reassure him or her that the condition is being addressed and provide emotional support. Administer treatment for VTE, such as anticoagulants, as instructed, and monitor for adverse effects. Laying a foundation Understanding VTE risk factors, prevention measures, and treatment options gives you a foundation for effectively engaging with patients and their families. Provide them with the information they’ll need to prevent VTE and to recognize signs and symptoms if they occur. Carolyn E. Crumley is an adjunct assistant professor and clinical nurse specialist program coordinator at the University of Missouri-Columbia. She’s also a wound, ostomy, and continence nurse at Saint Luke’s East Hospital in Lee’s Summit, Missouri. D’Alesandro M. Focusing on lower extremity DVT. Nursing. 2016;46(4):28-35. Dobesh PP. Economic burden of venous thromboembolism in hospitalized patients. Pharmacotherapy. 2009;29(8):943-53. Heit JA, Spencer FA, White RH. The epidemiology of venous thromboembolism. J Thromb Thrombolysis. 2016;41(1):3-14. Jenkins IH, White RH, Amin AN, et al. Reducing the incidence of hospital-associated venous thromboembolism within a network of academic hospitals: Findings from five University of California medical centers. J Hosp Med. 2016;11(suppl 2):S22-8. Kearon C, Akl EA, Ornelas J, et al. Antithrombotic therapy for VTE disease: CHEST guideline and expert panel report. Chest. 2016;149(2):315-52. Maynard G. Preventing hospital-associated venous thromboembolism: A guide for effective quality improvement, 2nd ed. AHRQ Publication No. 16-0001-EF. Rockville, MD: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Reviewed August 2016. ahrq.gov/professionals/quality-patient-safety/patient-safety-resources/resources/vtguide/index.html Office of the Surgeon General. The Surgeon General’s call to action to prevent deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism. Rockville, MD: Office of the Surgeon General. Patel K, Fasanya A, Yadam S, Joshi AA, Singh AC, DuMont T. Pathogenesis and epidemiology of venous thromboembolic disease. Crit Care Nurse Q. 2017;40(3):191-200. van Es N, Le Gal G, Otten HM, et al. Screening for occult cancer in patients with unprovoked venous thromboembolism: A systematic review and meta-analysis of individual patient data. Ann Intern Med. 2017;167(6):410-7.16-21 CE

- Researchers have developed an AI agent that dreams up scenarios and learns from them by itself (unsupervised learning) - The structure of the model is divided into three units: vision, memory (RNN model) and controller - On a selection of 100 randomly selected tracks, the average score of the model was almost three times higher than that of DeepMind’s initial Deep Q-Learning algorithm! A tennis player, on the receiving end of a booming 150km/hr serve, has milliseconds to decide which way the ball is coming, how high it’ll bounce, and how he/she wants to swing the racket so as to make it go where he/she wants. The player predicts all these things subconsciously, based on the images the brain generates. We have a tendency of creating a mental image of the world around us, based on events that are perceived by our limited senses. The decisions we make and the actions we take are built around these mental “models”. There is a VAST amount of information that we intake every single day; we observe something and proceed to remember an abstract version of it. Think about this for a minute – it is true for all of us. Two researchers, David Ha and Jurgen Schmidhuber, have developed an AI model that not only plays video games with awesome accuracy, but also has the ability to conjure up new scenarios (or dreams), learn from them, and then apply them on the game itself. The model can be trained in an unsupervised manner to learn the “spatial and temporal representation of the environment”. The model was trained to play a car racing game and the VizDoom game. How does the algorithm work? The researchers trained a deep neural network (RNN) to deal with Reinforcement Learning tasks, by dividing the agent into two parts: a large world model and a small controller model. To start with, they trained a large neural network so it could learn a model of the AI’s world in an unsupervised manner, and then trained the smaller controller model to perform tasks using the previously built model. Below is the structure of the final model: - Vision model: The system is provided with a high dimensional input observation which is usually a 2D image frame (that is part of a video sequence). The team uses Variational Autoencoder (VAE) as the vision model. It compresses the internal representation of the game into a small, representative code - Memory model (RNN-model): Serves as the predictive model for future vectors that the vision model is expected to produce. To save previous experiences which is helpful in designing new gameplay. (that the AI has not seen before). It makes predictions about the future codes based on previous information - Controller model: A simple single layer linear model is used in the controller unit to decisions for how to play the game or tackle the new scenario. To make decision, it uses the representations created by the vision and memory components In the racing game, on a selection of 100 randomly selected tracks, the average score of the model was almost three times higher than that of DeepMind’s initial Deep Q-Learning algorithm! This concept is wonderfully explained in the below video: Our take on this A truly jaw dropping application of AI. We are getting closer and closer towards machines imitating humans. It’s quite similar to DeepMind’s AlphaZero (which has basically come the benchmark for similar algorithms) but this AI does it’s training in an unsupervised manner. It is ideal for games where the rules are complex, and not straightforward. Most deep learning models need gigantic data sets to be trained on and an algorithm like this really brings the data size down, consequently saving a ton of money for the researchers/organizations. And obviously, since it learn by itself, it takes a lot of the human effort out of the equation as well. I highly recommend checking out all the resources we have provided in this article. Subscribe to AVBytes here to get regular data science, machine learning and AI updates in your inbox! You can also read this article on Analytics Vidhya's Android APP

It is the immediacy of Must Farm’s archaeology that is so startling. Walking around the site it is easy to believe that the embers have barely cooled following the disaster that overtook the settlement. Instead, the charred and tumbled vestiges of roundhouses lay in Fenland silts for almost 3,000 years. This stunning preservation will bring Late Bronze Age building techniques into sharp focus, but what lies beneath the flattened superstructure might prove even more valuable. If the Must Farm fire did claim the homes of colonists seeking to exploit the Fenland, their tragedy could revolutionise our understanding of an entire era. The Roman state indulged in colonisation on a grander scale, but the surviving relics of its empire in Britain are usually judged pale imitations of continental models. Survey of the Roman town at Aldborough in the military north, however, has highlighted hints of a surprisingly cosmopolitan approach to urban planning. St Kilda, to the west of the Scottish Western Isles, is often celebrated as an isolated archipelago insulated from the wider world. Recent research has revealed, though, that the romantic appeal of this image has obscured the islands’ links with their neighbours. Scientific analysis is demonstrating the lengths that the inhabitants of Roman Britain went to in order to forge a connection with their gods. The elite spent considerable sums importing the exotic fragrances that courted divine favour and helped mask any air of decay during funerary rites. Finally, we return to the Fens to discover what contribution archaeology can make to investigating historic aircraft crash sites. IN THIS ISSUE: THE MUST FARM INFERNO Exploring an intact Late Bronze Age settlement Ongoing excavation of a remarkably well-preserved Bronze Age site, destroyed by fire and submerged in water, is providing a unique snapshot of life in the prehistoric fens. Exploring the Roman town of Isurium Brigantum What can town planning tell us about life in Britain’s Roman north? An extensive programme of geophysical survey may hold the answer. The last and outmost isle Exploring some of Britain’s most remote islands, we bring you the latest archaeological research from this surprisingly well-connected archipelago. THE FRAGRANT DEAD How to treat the departed, Roman style Expensive perfumed resins played an important role in the funerary rites of the higher levels of Roman society in continental Europe – but did this elite practice ever reach the northern outpost of Britannia? A SPITFIRE NAMED ‘KERALA’ Investigating a Battle of Britain training accident Excavating a Second World War crash site using archaeological methods has shed new light on how the aircraft came down, and given us the pilot’s body 75 years before. Exploring our Anglo-Saxon ancestry; Origins of York’s ‘gladiators’ revealed; Tudor treasure from the Thames foreshore; A towering find from Hampton Court; York’s WWII writing on the wall; Expanding Roman Carlisle; Work to restore Jorvik begins; Meet the Woodbridge Wildman Current Archaeology Live! 2016 is just weeks away. We have the final details of the timetable and speakers, and our exciting bonus Sunday activity The Stonehenge Landscape; Rescue Archaeology; Bog Bodies Uncovered Chris Catling’s irreverent take on heritage issues Historic Pools of Britain

Sage or salvia officinalis, as it is scientifically called, has been used in traditional medicine for centuries and is a valuable remedy for throat/mouth problems, intestinal/digestion complaints and menopausal hot flushes, to name just a few. It is a native to Southern Europe and the Mediterranean region, where the leaves of this small evergreen, perennial plant are used as a popular culinary herb. Sage oil is extracted by distillation from its dried leaves and the leaves make a soothing cup of tea which provides many health benefits. Sage is associated with wisdom and it is a wise person who takes heed of this herb. In his book: The Breuss Cancer Cure, Austrian healer Rudolf Breuss has this to say:“I class Sage tea as the most important of all the teas, it should be drunk throughout your life. It wasn’t for nothing that a Roman scientist wrote ‘Why die when Sage is grown in your garden’. By that he meant, of course, why die young.” From being all things to all people, including a panacea for immortality as well as an aphrodisiac, sage has evolved into its present position as a meat preservative for the same reasons that rosemary is such an effective preservative. Sage also has a host of medicinal uses. Sage is a strong antiseptic and is particularly potent against staphylococcus infections. Used as a gargle, its antiseptic property makes sage one of the best remedies for: - sore throats - throat ulcers Many children and adults could have saved themselves a tonsillectomy had they taken sage, as the phenolic acids it contains are antibacterial. Sage is also an excellent remedy for loose and bleeding teeth, and for ulcerated or receding gums. Sage’s volatile oil gives it both a carminative and stimulating effect on the digestive system. Sage removes mucus from the respiratory organs and stomach, as well as relieving intestinal troubles and mild diarrhoea. It is a valuable agent in the battle against liver complaints, it strengthens the nerves and can be used to combat cramps, trembling of the limbs and nervous excitement. Sage has also proved itself as a blood cleanser and a valuable carminative to relieve dyspepsia, and as a fomentation, it promotes the healing of wounds. Sage has oestrogenic properties, making it most beneficial during menopause. Due to sage’s oestrogenic properties, it is most useful in countering night sweats and hot flushes during menopause. It relieves painful menstrual periods and helps to stop breast milk production in mothers who are ready to finish breastfeeding. Please note that sage stimulates the muscles of the uterus, so it should be avoided during pregnancy.

12 Feb ABC GARDENING AUSTRALIA: WILD PLAY ABC Gardening Australia: Series 30 | Episode 2 The Ian Potter Children’s Wild Play Garden in Sydney is purpose built for kids to go wild in and explore the wonders of nature – including water sprinklers on a hot day! “A few years ago we decided to have a bit of a shift in the sort of education we were doing at the park and we started the bush school,” says Sam Crosby, who is coordinator of Education and Community Programs at Centennial Parklands. The idea was to create a place where people could visit anytime rather than relying on educators to run a program. WILD PLAY features all sorts of interesting structures and plants that encourage young minds to be inventive and interact with the environment. There are archways of woven branches, canyons with paths running through slabs of cut stone, timber boardwalks and rocks to clamber over. “Some of the kids are a bit wobbly when they first get here because they’re not using to walking on uneven ground,” Sam says. “But within about 20 minutes they’re starting to negotiate the boulders, the logs, they’re balancing and able to move freely and speed up a bit. That resilience building happens a lot in a space like this.” Sam says the obstacles help bring out characteristics and skills that a child might not show in a classroom environment. Other features reflect the park’s wildlife, such as the stone ‘turtle mounds’. Sam’s favourite part is a climbing bridge made of a single log with stepping stones cut out of it, which leads to a high platform, all enclosed in a bamboo mini forest. There is safety netting on either side but children are still challenged to slow down and take a mental risk in climbing the pole. Paths of wooden beams are different lengths and at different heights. Horticulturist Bryce Lambert says he doesn’t mind replacing hundreds of trampled plants each year. “They get stepped on, torn, ripped and played with – and that’s fantastic,” he says. “If I worried about every single plant that got pulled out of the ground or ripped I’d go insane.” “I think the garden provides a place for them to grow physically, socially, emotionally, cognitively and ecologically,” says Sam. “They get to be surrounded by nature,” agreed Bryce. “And hopefully, with that connection to nature, become custodians.” Broadcast: Fri 8 Feb 2019, 7:30pm | Published: Fri 8 Feb 2019, 8:00pm Original broadcast: https://iview.abc.net.au/show/gardening-australia/series/30/video/RF1805V002S00

How to teach a dog to lie down Teaching your dog to lie down on cue is a great behaviour to train, especially as part of teaching your dog to stay or to settle. It’s much easier to teach your dog to lie down if they already know how to sit, but it is still possible even if they can’t. Some dogs, such as greyhounds, or dogs with shorter legs, find sitting uncomfortable, so there are different methods you can try. With all these methods, your dog may find it easier and more comfortable to lie down on a mat or blanket. Our canine behavioural experts demonstrate three different approaches to teaching your dog a 'Down' command. Teaching a dog who can sit With a smelly treat in your hand, ask your dog to sit (on the mat, if you have one.) As soon as they sit, let them sniff the treat and slowly lure their nose down to between their front paws, keeping the treat touching their nose. If they stand up, start over, and ask them to sit again. As soon as your dog lies down, praise them, and reward them with the treat. You may find that your dog hovers with their elbows off the floor for a while before lying down. If they stay like this then stand them up and try again, this time rewarding them for almost lying down. Repeat until they fully relax into lying down. Repeat the process until your dog is following the treat lure and lying down consistently. Take it a step further by going through the first step again, but this time with a treat in both hands. Bring your dog down with one hand, and reward them with the treat in your other hand. Now, with no treat, move your hand to the floor and say “down”. Your dog may just look down at your hand without lying down. If this happens, tuck a treat between your palm and your thumb and repeat the signal of moving your hand to the floor. As soon as your dog lies down, praise them and give them a treat. Repeat this three times in succession and on the fourth repetition, use the same hand movement but with no treat. This will allow you to move on to giving the command without the expectation of food. Once your dog is comfortable with the hand signals, you can get your dog to lie down on voice cue alone. Say “down”, wait three seconds, give them the hand signal, and reward them for lying down. Repeat this a few times, increasing the seconds between voice cue and hand signal until your dog makes the connection between the two and responds to the voice cue alone. Now your dog understands how to lie down on cue, start to phase out the treat reward (but not the praise). Prioritise giving treats for faster downs, but you should still give praise for slower downs. Once your dog is lying down on command you can give treats every now and then, or if the environment is particularly distracting. Teaching dogs who cannot sit If your dog cannot sit, there are a few adjustments that can be made. With your dog standing on a blanket, hold a smelly treat in your hand. Let them sniff the treat and slowly lure their nose down towards their chest, on to the floor. As they lie down, praise them and give them a treat. Once your dog is comfortable with this, you can continue with steps two - five above. Dogs with short legs Sit on the floor, or on a blanket, with your legs in front of you, bent up at the knee. Use a smelly treat to direct your dog to crawl under your legs. When their back end goes to the floor, praise them and reward them with a treat. Practise this several times until your dog is readily lying down. Once this feels comfortable, continue with steps two - five above.

Video games have many advantages: they especially promote mental adaptation. The whole thing is to control the time spent on it. Video games: they promote communication The study was conducted with undergraduate students for two months. The total playing time was 14 hours, which is far from huge. This amounts to playing about 30 minutes a day. This short time has, however, allowed us to identify positive effects. Compared to the control group, youth who played video games communicated more easily, were more resourceful, resourceful and adaptable. These games encourage critical thinking, reflection, two important behaviors in adult life and professional life. Provided, of course, to choose the right games, and not to become addict! This is an old debate between parents and children so many times, but since the generalization of the use of video games (the average age is 41), it seems to preoccupy the entire society. Doctors, psychologists, sociologists, everyone goes from his theory and is a singer or detractor of the virtual. Studies are multiplying and, armed with new technical means, we will even probe our brain activity in search of answers. With the proliferation of gaming media, the increasing share of women long-time left behind, the emergence of mega productions and fierce marketing campaigns, it appears that the concept of video games in itself cannot more to be denied, especially with the appearance of studies unequivocally affirming their great advantages. Yet, various facts linking the violence of games and its transposition into the real world, as well as the increasingly recurrent phenomenon of dependence, tip the scales towards greater restriction and improved control. So, between virulent accusations and undeniable success, will video games experience future decay or will they become our best allies? They make you smarter! You will not be able to complain about the haughty character of the Geeks. If they display this superior and intelligent air, it may be because they are! In any case, this is the result of numerous studies that point to the stimulation of instant reactivity and the reflection on ways to get out of a complex situation. This cannot be generalized to all games but would mainly concern those related to strategy like Star-craft, which has been competing with a more “stupid “game by a London university to prove the impact of games on intelligence. These works, corroborated also by a study, tend to express clearly the positive impact of these games on the gray matter, also improving the memory, developing the patience and the spatial tracking. Moreover, they would even allow women to catch up with men in this area! These properties have been confirmed in the elderly, helping to delay aging and senility at home. This is the mobilization of mental abilities that tend to weaken with the natural aging of the body, allowing their maintenance and maintenance of a keen brain activity. Indeed, the latest advances in neurology have broken the myth of a brain almost irremovable in adulthood; it would continue to undergo significant changes according to our behavior and that until our death.

Bronze is such a critical metal for fabrication that there is an entire historical era dedicated to its name. Its durability and sense of permanence made it the go-to metal for centuries starting as early as 4500BCE in Serbia, and 3000BCE in China and eventually replacing all stone tools in Europe by 1200BCE. The legacy of bronze is a favourite of archaeologists and history buffs because it preserved much of the cultural artifacts from these ancient civilizations and is a large part of the reason we have any knowledge about their cultures at all. Bronze is still widely used today and its popularity with clients has never slowed down. It offers variety in terms of design capabilities and typefaces, and ultimately, establishes a prominence in the finished product. The final look of bronze can change over time, developing something called patinas, or the greenish layers that unfold on bronze over time. The look of aged bronze conjures up images of old Europe and important art institutions. Many clients love this style, particularly for artisanal sculptural or statue work, as the green finish that comes to bronze with time carries the weight and prestige of history with it. As bronze is primarily an alloy of copper and other metals, it is really the oxidation of its copper content that accounts for this process. Perhaps one of the most prominent examples of oxidized copper is the roof of the Canadian Parliament Buildings. Bronze, however, offers the best alternative because it gives this iconic, historicized look but once the oxidized layer is formed, the underlying metal is ultimately protected from further corrosion. This means that it does not need to be replaced and remains an extremely durable metal. If this ancient look is what you desire, you need not fear having to wait years to get it. With Behrends, this natural process can easily be mimicked and sped up with the application of various processes to develop patinas, and we have had multiple requests to do so in our 60+ years in the industry. Alternately, (mainly in the case of plaques) bronze can also go darker without that iconic green hue. The result is a very aged look that can be a bit dull. In particularly old plaques, this can dampen its overall effect. For these circumstances, Behrends is also proficient in restorative practices that will refinish a plaque (no matter how old!) and breathe new life into it. Recently, we had the incredible experience of refinishing a plaque for the City of Calgary. The plaque originally memorialized the erecting of the HillHurst (Louise) Bridge in 1920 which would make the plaque nearly 100 years old! Inside sources suggest that when the bridge was rehabilitated in the mid-1990s, this plaque was removed and put into storage for 18 to 20 years. All of this took its toll on the plaque until it was found, forgotten in a shed and brought to Behrends for refinishing. The end result is a brilliant plaque that points to the incredible resilience of the original bronze. We are so proud to be part of the preservation and making of history in the communities that we serve!

Orascoptic Magnification Loupes Did you know that watchmakers use tools so tiny that many are smaller than a dime? Now, you may be wondering what this has to do with modern dentistry, but there is a connection. You see, in order to make precision watches, a watchmaker uses a high-powered loupe (eye piece) to see clearly. Your dentist and hygienist are no different. They have to be able to see even the tiniest details of your teeth when they work. Orascoptic magnification loupes enable them to do just that. Orascoptic magnification loupes are like super-powered magnifying glasses combined with a high quality light that allows the dentist to see clearly and work more precisely so that you can get the best smile possible.

(Click here to return to the Media and Education Overview page. If you find a broken link please inform us here.) Interactions between Antibodies and Receptors of Immune Responses: from Basic Science to Medicine Use. (Video 82 mins) Robert Huber, Cardiff School of Biosciences, Cardiff University published: June 5, 2007, recorded: November 2005. Robert Huber is a German biochemist and Nobel laureate. He was born 20 February 1937 in Munich where his father, Sebastian, was a bank cashier. He was educated at the Humanistische Karls-Gymnasium from 1947 to 1956 and then studied chemistry at the Technische Hochschule, receiving his diploma in 1960. He stayed, and did research into using crystallography to elucidate the structure of organic compounds. In 1971 he became a director at the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry where his team developed methods for the crystallography of proteins. In 1988 he received the Nobel Prize jointly with Johann Deisenhofer and Hartmut Michel. The trio were recognized for their work in first crystallizing an intramembrane protein important in photosynthesis in cyanobacteria, and subsequently applying X-ray crystallography to quantify the protein's structure. The information provided the first insight into the structural bodies that performed the integral function of photosynthesis. This insight could be translated to understand the more complex analogue of photosynthesis in plants. ?He is married with four children. ?He has recently taken up a post at the Cardiff University and will spearhead the development of Structural Biology at the university on a part time basis. Swine Flu Outbreak, Nature, Accident, or Intentional? (videos Parts 1-6 total 45 mins) Join our host Sherry Beall as we talk about the recent Swine Flu outbreak from an angle rarely discussed in the main stream media. Is this outbreak a natural occurrence, or an accident made in the pharmaceutical lab like the February 2009 incident when Baxter Pharmaceuticals got caught mixing the Avian Flu with the standard flu vaccine? Or could this possibly be intentional? We'll be joined by 2 leading world experts on vaccines: Dr. Viera Scheibner, author & world renowned researcher on vaccinations, she's a doctor of Natural Sciences and currently resides in Australia where she teaches doctors about the nature of disease. And Dr. Leonard Horowitz, bestselling author, internationally recognized expert on Emerging Diseases & Natural Healing, and graduate of Harvard in Public Health. We'll discuss safe, natural solutions, and we'll take your calls so stay tuned!

The Church of Santa Maria della Vita was founded in the second half of the 13th century by the Congregation of Battuti or Flagellati, whose name derived from their custom of flagellating themselves for penitence. The Congregation was one of the first in Italy that followed the Organization of the Disciplinati (or disciplined ones), established in Perugia in 1260 by Raniero Fasani. Members mainly devoted themselves to charitable activities, so much so that they built a hospital and church (Santa Maria della Vita) in 1287. The church, which is actually a shrine, was extended between 1454 and 1502 and rebuilt at the end of the 17th century by architect G. B. Bergonzoni after the ceiling collapsed in 1686. The dome was designed by Giuseppe Tubertini and built in 1787. The inside of the building features an elliptic layout and an elegant open style, and is home to the famous Compianto del Cristo Morto (Lamentation over the Dead Christ), a masterpiece of Italian sculpture. The piece was sculpted by Niccolò dell'Arca during the second half of the 15th century. On the high altar there is a fresco dating back to the second half of the 14th century portraying “Madonna della Vita”.

On Wednesday, June 8, the Brown Center is hosting a public event about racial inequities in education. An esteemed group of community leaders and education experts will gather to discuss how race and income level factor into education opportunities in present-day America, and why, in an age when the national dialogue routinely does focus on issues of racial inequality, isn’t education a bigger part of that conversation? In advance of the event, we’ve put together a list of seven findings about racial disparities in education that scholars and contributors at the Brookings Institution have highlighted over the past year. School readiness gaps are improving, except for black kids As Richard Reeves details, a 2015 paper by Sean Reardon and Ximena Portilla demonstrates that inequality in school readiness—in terms of math, reading, and behavior—declined quite significantly between 1998 and 2010, but that progress in terms of closing race gaps was uneven. While Hispanic-white differentials in school readiness have narrowed, the black-white gap has shown much less movement, and that movement is not statistically distinguishable from zero. Misbehavior in school can pay off for white, but not black students On the Chalkboard, Nicholas Papageorge summarizes his research that finds some non-cognitive skills that manifest as childhood misbehavior in the classroom, such as aggression, are also predictive of higher earnings later in life. He finds, however, that this benefit is limited to children who do not come from low-income families. And preliminary evidence shows that for the same levels of externalizing behaviors, African American children face higher earnings penalties than white children. Teacher-student racial mismatch harms black kids Seth Gershenson’s troubling research finds that non-black teachers have significantly lower educational expectations for black students than black teachers do when evaluating the same students. For example, when a black student is evaluated by one black teacher and by one non-black teacher, the non-black teacher is about 30 percent less likely to expect that the student will complete a four-year college degree than the black teacher. In another Chalkboard post, Dick Startz discusses Adam Wright’s findings that black and white teachers also evaluate the behavior of black students differently. When a black student has a black teacher that teacher is much, much less likely to see behavioral problems than when the same black student has a white teacher. This has serious and far-reaching implications. For instance, the research demonstrates that the more times a black student is matched with a black teacher, the less likely that student is to be suspended. White and Asian students are more likely to be exposed to advanced classes The practice of tracking—offering qualified students the opportunity to take advanced-level courses apart from many of their fellow students—is more prevalent in suburban middle class communities and in schools serving white and Asian students and less prevalent in urban schools and schools serving predominantly black, Hispanic, or disadvantaged populations. A historical belief that tracking itself is discriminatory in nature has led different communities to view and utilize the practice in unequal measure, according to Tom Loveless. And as a result, disadvantaged students are much less likely to be exposed to and to benefit from advanced coursework. Gaps remain in high school completion rates While the gap in high school completion is closing, black and Hispanic students are still less likely than their white counterparts to have a high school diploma, according to a paper on multidimensional poverty and race by Richard Reeves, Edward Rodrigue, and Elizabeth Kneebone. Similar college enrollment rates mask unequal degree completion rates Black and Latino students have only somewhat lower rates of post-secondary school enrollment than whites and Asians, but have much lower levels of educational attainment by their mid-20s, according to the Metropolitan Policy Program’s Martha Ross. While students across these groups enroll at similar rates, they earn bachelor’s degrees at significantly different rates: Black and white students do not attend colleges of equal quality While there has been an increase in black college-going, most of this rise has been in lower-quality institutions, at least in terms of alumni earnings, illustrates Jonathan Rothwell. Black students make up just four percent of undergraduate enrollees in the top decile of the nation’s four-year colleges, ranked by mid-career alumni earning figures. By contrast, 26 percent of students in the bottom rank of colleges are black: These facts demonstrate what any number of Americans could tell you: there are significant racial disparities in terms of education access and quality in the US. Join us on June 8—online or in-person—as we discuss how to elevate this issue to the forefront of the political discussion this election year and other ways to address this fundamental problem. You can follow the conversation on Twitter with #EducationDisparities. The Brown Center Chalkboard launched in January 2013 as a weekly series of new analyses of policy, research, and practice relevant to U.S. education. In July 2015, the Chalkboard was re-launched as a Brookings blog in order to offer more frequent, timely, and diverse content. Contributors to both the original paper series and current blog are committed to bringing evidence to bear on the debates around education policy in America.

Customer expectations are the feelings, needs, and ideas that customers have towards certain products or services. Customers experience is based on what they want from the products or services they are paying for. Most successful organizations always aim at meeting or exceeding customer expectations through high-quality products and services. They are the outcome of a learning process and once they are formed. These expectations influence decision-making towards a product or service selection which can be very difficult to change. For example, customers expect famous brands to be of high quality than new and generic brands. The little-known brands are not considered even if they are of superior quality than the famous brands. Types of customer expectations - Implicit expectations – This type of expectation is based on the existing norms of performance. They are formed by experiences such as comparison with competitors’ products and alertness of their services. - Explicit expectations – These are the mental targets customers have regarding the quality of product, performance and services rendered. g. when the expectations of a customer are for a printer that prints 20 pages of quality color but the product delivered prints ten pages of quality color. - Interpersonal expectations – Interpersonal relationships are of paramount importance in situations where products need support to ensure that they function and/or are used properly. They focus on the relationship that exists between the customer and the product or service provider. - Dynamic performance expectations – This type of expectation addresses the evolution of a product or service over a period of time. The changes that a product or service undergoes in order to meet business goals as well as customer needs and wants; falls under dynamic expectations. Managing customer expectations Most successful companies are able to keep their customers happy for a long time by properly managing their expectations. The following are some of the effective strategies they use to manage expectations. - Openly discuss solutions – incase products or services have potential, the provider needs to be fully equipped with varieties of solutions so that customers have different alternatives if they ask for the impossible. This makes customers understand the complexity of any problem and be involved directly with its solution. - Transparency and honesty – customers’ ability to trust a company depends on transparency when managing customer expectations. Companies should ensure that customers have confidence in their providers by encouraging transparency and honesty when handling every situation. Customers who have a clue of what is happening will know what to expect and will be satisfied by how situations are being handled. - Provide clear timelines – customers will not raise complaints while waiting provided they know and understand why. They understand that errors and defects come up, but need the providers to be completely honest about it. They should clearly state the amount of time and work needed to complete a task or get them a solution.

Why is it Important To Go Green Starting Today? We all want to figure out how to reduce our carbon footprints. We wash our dishes by hand, we use reusable shopping bags, we bike instead of drive. There are dozens of different ways that you can reduce your energy consumption, waste, and “green up” your lifestyle. The idea of “going green” has grown so much in popularity that now sustainability is a branding technique. Green is now its own industry. There are a lot of reasons to want to go green. For one thing, it is a huge money saver. Even the upgrades you make that might be expensive at the beginning almost always more than pay for themselves in the long run. And, if you are lucky enough to live in a deregulated energy market, you can even choose renewable energy plans that are more affordable than those that are traditionally sourced fossil fuels. For example, the energy prices Texas offers to its residents vary wildly based on providers, as do those for residents in Illinois, Delaware, most of New England, etc. A nation that destroys its soils destroys itself. Forests are the lungs of our land, purifying the air and giving fresh strength to our people. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt Affordability, however, is not the only reason to reduce your energy consumption. There are a lot of very important reasons to opt for environmentally friendly and sustainable options. Here are a few of them. Sustainability is Healthier For You One of the tenets of sustainable living is to rid yourself of processed foods and other chemicals. Eating only fresh and whole nutrients, making as much of your own food as possible, etc reduces the demand for factory produced processed meals and meal components. This doesn’t necessarily mean that you need to go full vegetarian or vegan, but it does encourage you to source your meat based proteins from local butchers instead of factory farmed alternatives you’ll find in most grocery stores. Independently raised and free range livestock have fewer antibiotics and hormones injected into them, eat healthier diets and–as crass as it might sound–taste better than mass produced meats. In addition to naturally sourced foods, going green reduces the likelihood that we will have to deal with issues like skin cancer, because the less waste we produce, the healthier our ozone becomes and hopefully if we keep up with our sustainability kick, it will eventually repair itself (we’ll talk more about this later). Going Green is Better For the Animals We’re not just talking about your pets–though they will benefit from your switch to natural cleansers as their living environments will be healthier–we’re talking about natural ecosystems and wildlife. The less waste we produce as humans, the better it is for the ecosystems on our planets. By now everybody knows about the melting of the ice caps and the danger that poses to the polar bear and penguin populations. These are not the only animals affected. For example, global warming produces acid rain, which messes with the pH balance of our oceans. Even tiny animals like mollusks are experiencing disastrous effects from this increased acidity. Their shells are thinner and soon they won’t be able to produce any shells at all. Most oceanic life can only exist within a certain range of acidity so as we produce more waste and pollution, we are essentially depleting our oceans of life. Going Green is Better for the Planet There are probably a few people reading this that are convinced that global warming aka climate change is a hoax or not that big a deal. After all, the Earth does regularly warm and cool. The difference is that the natural warming and cooling happens over eons, not decades. The science behind climate change is easy enough for any first year chemistry student to understand. As carbon and other free radicals are released into the atmosphere they break apart Ozone (O3) molecules to form different compounds. These compounds react with each other in different ways, but one thing is universal: the ozone molecules are harder to form than to split up. This is why the hole exists. The good news is that, by reducing our carbon footprints and waste production, we are reducing the number of errant chemicals in our atmosphere. Eventually they will, for lack of a better term, “react themselves out” of the ozone…but only if we continue to reduce the amount of pollutants we send out into the water and the air. Going Green Saves you Money Going green can definitely save you some money in your pocket. Your electric bill can drop to 15% if you can adopt to some smaller changes like switching off gadgets when not in use or use of energy efficient lights or proper insulation of your windows and doors. Keeping thermostat one degree down during summers and one degree up in winters can also result in saving of power which will further lower your electric bill. Going Green Increases Your Property Value Once you construct a green home, it will save you money due to excellent insulation and durability of sustainable materials. These energy efficient improvements can increase your home’s value in real estate market. Whether you plan to install solar panels or energy saving lights or use of sustainable materials, a carefully designed, money-saving house always have a huge demand in the market which means you can expect better return for your property. Going Green Helps You Reduce Your Carbon Footprint Who does not want to reduce his/her carbon footprint? While there are number of ways to reduce carbon footprint, one of the easiest way is to design your home in such a way that it has minimum impact on the environment. Here is one post on top 15 green home building techniques and ideas that can help you in creating a green home. Apart from this, you can also get your home audit done and get to know what all measures you can take to make your home more environment friendly.` Basically, going green is about more than saving a few bucks at the pump or the grocery store. It is about healing the planet so that we can all–human and other animals alike–be healthier and live longer. Image credit: flickr Latest posts by Rinkesh (see all) - 15 Miraculous Drought Tolerant Plants That Hardly Need Any Water To Survive - May 26, 2019 - 5 Ways To Save Energy At Home Today - May 21, 2019 - 13 Amazing Health Benefits of Monk Fruit - May 14, 2019

Dr Parvesh Kumar From “Farm to plate, make food safe”, the food which we consume undergoes a lot of process.It is food only that makes people healthy and It is food only that makes people diseased. It is important to ensure if the food you are consuming is making you healthier or dragging you towards disease. Food safety is everybody’s concern, and it is difficult to find anyone who has not encountered an unpleasant moment of foodborne illness at least once in the past year. Foodborne illnesses may result from the consumption of food contaminated by microbial pathogens, toxic chemicals or radioactive materials. Food allergy is another emerging problem. While many foodborne diseases may be self-limiting, some can be very serious and even result in death. Ensuring food safety is becoming increasingly important in the context our food supply becomes increasingly globalized, the need to strengthen food safety systems in and between all countries is becoming more and more evident. Food Safety refers to handling, preparing and storing food in a way to best reduce the risk of individuals becoming sick from foodborne illnesses. Food safety is a global concern that covers a variety of different areas of everyday life. The only aim is to prevent food from becoming contaminated and causing food poisoning. This is achieved through a variety of different avenues, like Properly cleaning and sanitizing all surfaces, equipment and utensils Maintaining a high level of personal hygiene, especially hand-washing, Storing, chilling and heating food correctly with regards to temperature, environment and equipment Implementing effective pest control Comprehending food allergies, food poisoning and food intolerance Regardless of why you are handling food, whether as part of your job or cooking at home, it is essential to always apply the proper food safety principles. Any number of potential food hazards exist in a food handling environment, many of which carry with them serious consequences. The introduction of bottled drinking water and its popularity in urban areas has contributed to prevent waterborne and diarrhoeal diseases in countries with inconsistent water treatment. Political awareness and consumer education on food safety will help strengthen enforcement of food standards, improve hygienic practices, and prevent foodborne illnesses. The “WHO Five keys to safer food” serve as the basis for educational programmes to train food handlers and educate the consumers. They are especially important in preventing foodborne illness. The Five keys are as follows. Keep food surfaces clean. Wash all utensils, plates, platters, and cutlery as soon as used. Separate raw food from cooked food. Cook food thoroughly, to the appropriate temperature. Keep food at safe temperatures, both for serving and storage. Use safe water and raw materials. Ensuring food safety starts with production, at the farm level. In this regard, misuse of agro-chemicals, including pesticides, growth hormones and veterinary drugs may have harmful effects on human health. The microbial and chemical risks could be introduced at the farm-level (e.g. using water contaminated by industrial waste or poultry farm waste for irrigation of crops). Good agricultural practices should be applied to reduce microbial and chemical hazards. Ensuring food safety requires due attention during harvest, transport, processing, storage and finally during food preparation and storage by consumers. Processed, frozen or ready-to-eat food is gaining popularity in recent years due to changing food habits, product diversification, busy lifestyle and mass production practices. In urban settings, there is a growing tendency to buy meat, milk and vegetables on the weekend and store these items in the freezer or refrigerator. Microwave ovens are often used for reheating of food. However, while using a refrigerator and microwave are part of daily life in urban settings, most users and food handlers rarely have a chance to learn how to safely store and reheat food. Check for cleanliness: see if the retailer you buy from follows proper food handling techniques Separate foods: separate raw meat, poultry, and seafood from other foods at all times Do not buy open or bulging jars or cans: canned foods should be sterile. A bulging lid may mean that the food was under-processed and is contaminated; openings in the can may lead to contamination Do not buy frozen food with damaged packaging: packaging on frozen foods, as with cans and jars, should not be opened Grab frozen foods and perishables last: place meat, poultry, fish, and eggs in the cart first, so that their juices do not drip onto other foods. Carefully choose fresh eggs: buy only non-cracked, refrigerated eggs, Be mindful of temperature: place all perishable foods that should be refrigerated or frozen in the appropriate place within two hours. wash hands and cooking surfaces thoroughly. Wash hands and kitchen utensils with soap and water after preparing each food item. do not use the same utensils or surfaces for raw meat, poultry, and seafood as those used for other foods Cook (at safe temperatures) One of my major pet peeves is seeing someone cook while wearing jewellery. Why anyone would (for example) mix ingredients with their hands, without first removing their rings, is totally beyond my comprehension! Your jewellery may be beautiful, but the microscopic germs lurking on and under its surfaces could put you out of action for days!So before you startcooking, remove the BLING!It should go without saying, but it’s really essential that the rules of good hygiene must be closely followed in the kitchen. The germs that can cause food poisoning are usually controlled by heating (cooking) and/or chilling (refrigerating) our food, but given half a chance, they can easily spread around the kitchen – via hands, chopping boards, cloths, knives and other utensils.Use paper towels whenever possible, if you can afford to buy them. Dish towels can be a source of cross-contamination so use them sparingly and change them regularly. Be sure to wash them in a hot-wash cycle. (The author is Assistant Commissioner, Food Safety Jammu.) Dr Parvesh Kumar

Aerobic exercise is any activity that uses large muscle groups, can be maintained continuously, and is rhythmic in nature. It is a type of exercise that overloads the heart and lungs and causes them to work harder than at rest. The benefits of aerobic exercise can be yours today if you simply get up and get moving – life is motion! We should all try to get at least 30 minutes of exercise per day. A lot of things count as physical activity – try walking, jogging, bicycling, swimming, dancing... whatever you enjoy. In general, the more activity, the better. Specific benefits of aerobic exercise include: With all of these benefits, and more activities than ever to choose from, everyone should find one or more things that keep their heart rate elevated for a continuous time period and get moving to a healthier life. On September 5, 2002, the U.S. government released new activity guidelines which double the amount of exercise that adults should get in order to stay healthy. Previous American Heart Association guidelines recommended 30 minutes of exercise at least three days a week. The newer guidelines advised that daily exercise was best but "at least six days is recommended." [Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association] The recommendation is part of a massive, authoritative study produced by the National Academies' Institute of Medicine which also doubled the amount of recommended daily exercise from the 1996 U.S. Surgeon General recommendation of 30 minutes a day of moderately strenuous exercise up to 60 minutes a day. NOTE: All changes in one's exercise program should be done gradually and with the permission of a licensed medical professional. Available literature indicates that patients with myasthenia gravis may benefit from both a strengthening as well as an aerobic/cardiovascular fitness program. Patients should be taught a home exercise program that is individualized for their limitations and tolerance. Physical training is safe for patients with mild myasthenia gravis and does produce some improvement in overall muscle strength. Walking for short periods at a slow pace is a good way to start a walking program. Increase the exercise time slowly until you build up to 30 minutes of continuous walking. If you are comfortable with this, then your speed can slowly be increased. Before beginning any exercise program, please check with your doctor for advice on whether this is appropriate for you, and what form of exercise is preferred. A carefully graded, progressive, aerobic exercise program (30 minutes 3 times per week) is a necessity. Walking is a good exercise with which to start. Since angina is known to be exacerbated by physical exertion following a meal, give your body at least one and a half hours after a meal before exercising. It is important to get regular moderate exercise. Walking is the best, and swimming may also be helpful. Regular exercise increases the body's ability to dissolve clots. Wherever you may be, do not sit for more than an hour at a time without getting up and walking around. Better yet, every hour exercise the legs for 2 minutes, as if you are riding a bike (lifting the legs) while breathing deeply. Do not squat (sit back on your heels), except momentarily. If you have to travel a distance while seated (airplane, car, etc.), stop and walk around every so often. Do not let the circulation become sluggish. Regular aerobic exercise lowers fibrinogen levels – a risk factor for atherosclerosis of equal or greater predictive value than cholesterol. Additionally, exercise improves the production of nitric oxide within the blood vessel wall, which should limit the progression of atherosclerosis. Exercise improves the fitness of the heart as well as circulation. Some patients are told to take it easy, but a recent study found that moderate exercise can benefit individuals with this condition. Amongst women who exercised, the symptoms that saw the most improvement were chest pain, fatigue, dizziness and mood swings. Over-exertion can often increase the symptoms of mitral valve prolapse, so increase exercise levels gradually. Regular exercise to promote blood flow and regulation can improve low blood pressure. A systematic review of randomized trials suggests that exercise rehabilitation therapy improves symptoms of intermittent claudication. [Physical Therapy 1998 78: pp.278-88] Heavy physical activity can be life-threatening for cardiomyopathy patients. However, appropriate physician supervised exercise often benefits individuals with cardiomyopathy. Regular exercise will improve circulation and help detoxify the body. Exercise regularly but moderately. Maintaining a high level of physical fitness increases the possibility of conception. For both men and women, the ability to reproduce is dependent on a healthy body. Stressing your body with intensive exercise can cause a decrease in fertility. Exercising in the evening decreases melatonin levels for up to 3 hours afterwards, at precisely the time of day when they should be rising. Decrease exercise and/or try to exercise earlier in the day. Exercise is often a problem for people with CFS because physical activity can worsen symptoms. Medical opinion has been divided on whether CFS patients should attempt regular exercise or not – some believe that gentle exercise is helpful, while others caution against any form of aerobic activity at all. However, a study published in the British Medical Journal found that patient education on CFS and a graded exercise program can greatly improve CFS symptoms in many cases. Some people with CFS, especially in the weeks or months following onset, are unable to perform the most basic activities, such as showering or walking from one room to another. In such cases of extreme exhaustion and pain, the person may be confined to their bed. As time passes, they may feel a little better and attempt regular exercise. However, aerobic activity can cause a relapse of symptoms that forces the person back to their bed again. The added problem for CFS sufferers is that a sedentary lifestyle causes a range of other health problems including muscle wastage, loss of bone mass, and increased risk of obesity and cardiovascular disease. A person with CFS needs a gentle approach to physical activity and should only make tiny increases in the frequency, duration and intensity of their exercise program. General suggestions include: A healthy immune system may be important in controlling the virus, so proper nutrition, exercise and rest is recommended. For many individuals, an exercise period of 45 minutes can produce greater reduction in plasma triglycerides than the shorter periods of exercise sometimes recommended for lowering triglyceride levels. Researchers found that walking for 30 minutes each day quickly improved depressive symptoms faster than antidepressant drugs typically do. Another study compared exercise with antidepressants among older adults and found that physical activity was the more effective depression-fighter. [British Journal of Sports Medicine April 2001;35: pp.114-7] Previous studies have suggested that exercise is a potent mood-booster, and some research indicates that for some patients regular activity may be a better depression treatment than psychotherapy or medication. Exactly why is unclear, but exercise does influence certain mood-related hormones. And it is also believed to enhance people's sense of control over their lives. The main conclusion to draw from studies conducted is that the practice of exercise shows a negative correlation with depression – in other words, the more you exercise, the less depressed you feel. Interestingly, any kind of exercise relieves the symptoms of depression. Exercise is one of the most important coping mechanisms to combat anxiety and stress. By discharging negative emotions and stress hormones through physical activity, you can enter a more relaxed state from which to deal with the issues and conflicts that are causing your anxiety. The benefits of exercise can come from many directions: the decision to take up exercise, the symbolic meaning of the activity, the distraction from worries, mastering your inertia and the effects on self-image, and the biochemical and physiological changes that accompany the activity. Exercise increases blood flow to the brain, releases hormones, stimulates the nervous system, and increases levels of morphine-like substances found in the body (such as beta-endorphin) that can have a positive effect on mood and pain. Exercise may trigger a neurophysiological high that produces an antidepressant effect in some, an antianxiety effect in others, and a general sense of "feeling better" in most. Vigorous physical exertion at the earliest sign of an attack can, in some patients, be remarkably effective in ameliorating or even aborting an attack. [Atkinson, 1977; Ekbom and Lindahl, 1970] Exercise will improve oxygen levels within the bloodstream, which will in turn naturally increase oxygen levels in the brain. Regular exercise can help reduce elevated levels of hormones (such as cortisol) that are associated with chronic stress. Regular exercise may help increase blood circulation to the head and thus reduce the symptoms of tinnitus if it is caused by poor circulation. Increased physical activity lowers the risk of obesity, favorably influences the distribution of body weight and has a variety of health-related benefits, even in the absence of weight loss. Exercise is the natural partner to weight loss. You will discover improvement in balance, energy level, immune function, muscular strength, reflexes, and self-esteem. Exercise is an important aid in the treatment both of insulin sensitivity and Syndrome X. Exercise not only helps with losing weight but also makes muscle more insulin-sensitive, which in turn improves the sensitivity of the whole body. Edema can be caused by a sedentary lifestyle – in other words, long periods of standing or sitting. If this is the case for you, regular exercise (not necessarily prolonged or strenuous) should help. Exercise frequently and consistently, with a special focus on weight-bearing exercises such as walking since these strengthen bones. Research shows that a good treatment for Osteoarthritis is exercise. It can improve mood and outlook, decrease pain, increase joint flexibility, improve the heart and blood flow, maintain or decrease weight, and promote general well being. The amount and form of exercise will depend on which joints are involved, how stable the joints are, and whether a joint replacement has already been done. Physical activity may help reduce fracture risk by enhancing bone strength and improving bone quality. Exercise strengthens bones. Exercising within your tolerances and limitations will invariably produce musculoskeletal health improvement. Activity is encouraged to the degree tolerated. For ACUTE lower back pain, exercise should be avoided during the recovery period. [The New Eng J of Med. Feb. 9, 1995;332(6):35 pp.1-55] However, in cases of CHRONIC lower back pain, normal activity produces better recovery than bed rest, so you should stay mobile. The success of using exercise as a treatment of low back pain and rehabilitation is overwhelming. The tissues of the vertebral column need the stresses of exercise, even under conditions of back pain. Exercises to strengthen the back and abdominal muscles can be useful, but only after recovery from the acute phase. If there are no other medical contraindications to exercise, nephrologists usually recommend a moderate-to-vigorous exercise program that stimulates the cardiovascular system, such as walking, swimming or cycling (stationary or otherwise). Because high-impact exercise can worsen proteinuria and/or hematuria, if applicable, you may be advised to avoid those (unlikely unless your proteinuria is heavy or your hematuria is visible). You may be advised against heavy contact sports, due to the possibility of an impact that might cause direct injury to a kidney. Exercise increases blood flow and thus the supply of oxygen and nutrients to your skin. Exercise, such as riding an exercise bicycle for a few minutes before bedtime, can help prevent cramps from developing during the night, especially if a person does not get a lot of exercise during the day. A 14-year study by a team from the Harvard School of Public Health found that men over 65 who worked out vigorously for at least three hours a week had an almost 70% lower risk of advanced and fatal cases of prostate cancer. The 47,620 men involved in the study were followed from 1986 to 2000. A preliminary study reported at the AACR-Prostate Cancer Foundation Conference in 2014 found that men who reported walking at a brisk pace had more regularly-shaped vessels in their tumor, which has been associated with having a better prognosis. Stay physically active. Patients with Alzheimer's disease have been found to have had lower levels of physical activity earlier in life. Those who exercised regularly throughout life were less likely to contract the disease than those who were inactive. Doctors caution that exercise does not guarantee immunity. A sedentary lifestyle of physical inactivity is almost as great a risk factor for heart disease as smoking because of diminished circulation and weight gain. Research has shown that even moderate exercise can substantially reduce the incidence of coronary events. Aerobic exercise reduces cardiac risk by lowering LDL- and raising HDL-cholesterol levels, and by reducing blood pressure, body fat, blood sugar, mental stress, and blood clotting. Exercise also improves the heart's pumping ability, greatly enhancing the body's functional capacity and stamina. It is never too late to start. Healthy people who begin exercising after age 45 can reduce their death rate by 23%, and even patients who have already had heart attacks can use medically-supervised aerobic exercise to reduce their risk of another heart attack by up to 25%. One study of 6,000 healthy adults found a 52% increased risk for hypertension in sedentary individuals compared to those who were fit, while another study found a 35% increase. In one of the few studies that have been done, the most active men had a 37% lower risk of symptomatic diverticular disease than the least active men. Most of the protection against diverticulitis was due to vigorous activities such as jogging and running, rather than moderate activities like walking. [Gut 36: p.276, 1995] Active men had one-half to one-third the risk of developing a duodenal ulcer over 20 years compared with their sedentary counterparts. Men who walked or ran at least 10 miles per week were 62% less likely than inactive subjects to develop an ulcer. Men who walked or ran less than 10 miles each week had about half the ulcer risk of those with no regular exercise. Studies have shown that the more physically active one is, the lower one's risk of gallstone formation. One study indicated that men who performed endurance-type exercise (such as jogging and running, racquet sports, and brisk walking) for thirty minutes five times per week reduced their risk for gallbladder disease by up to 34%. The benefit depended more on the intensity of activity than the type of exercise. Some researchers guess that in addition to controlling weight, exercise helps normalize blood sugar levels and insulin levels, which, if abnormal, may contribute to gallstones. Try to get at least 30 minutes of physical activity every day. Exercising at least four hours per week for 12 years can reduce a woman's risk of breast cancer in half, according to a study of breast cancer patients performed at the University of Southern California. The study revealed that exercise is especially important during the adolescent and child-bearing years. In addition, the 12 years of exercise do not need to be performed consecutively. This study complements one performed at the Alberta Cancer Board in Alberta, Canada, which showed that exercising throughout life can cut a woman's risk of breast cancer by 20%. Researchers studied more than 2,100 women and found that those who exercised for more than 6 hours per week were 27% less likely to develop ovarian cancer than women who exercised less than 1 hour each week. High activity levels were found to protect women of all ages. [Obstetrics and Gynecology 96: pp.609-14, October 2000] Your body is a highly complex, interconnected system. Instead of guessing at what might be wrong, let us help you discover what is really going on inside your body based on the many clues it is giving. Our multiple symptom checker provides in-depth health analysis by The Analyst™ with full explanations, recommendations and (optionally) doctors available for case review and answering your specific questions.

Alternative names: Sodium Bicarbonate Baking soda is a very common household product, used for baking, cleaning, and odor-removal. It also has many medicinal uses. Here are some of the many medical uses of baking soda: Soak the feet in a solution of baking soda and water for about 30 minutes daily. This will change the pH of the skin. Also sprinkle baking soda on the feet and in your shoes and socks. It will soak up some of the perspiration and help neutralize the skin at the same time. Reported in Natural News, August 26, 2009: Researchers in the United Kingdom have made a breakthrough in the treatment of advanced CKD – using a daily dose of sodium bicarbonate (baking soda). Baking soda has been shown to slow the decline of kidney function in CKD, according to a study set for publication in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (JASN). "This cheap and simple strategy also improves patients' nutritional status, and has the potential of translating into significant economic, quality of life, and clinical outcome benefits," said researcher Magdi Yaqoob, MD, of the Royal London Hospital. Dr. Yaqoob studied 134 patients with advanced CKD and low bicarbonate levels, a condition known as metabolic acidosis. One group of these patients was treated with a small daily dose of sodium bicarbonate in tablet form, in addition to their usual care. The results? The rate of decline in kidney function was dramatically reduced in these patients. Overall, the decline was about two-thirds slower than in patients not given sodium bicarbonate. "In fact, in patients taking sodium bicarbonate, the rate of decline in kidney function was similar to the normal age-related decline," Dr. Yaqoob stated.

While thinking about new ways to control and navigate geographical visualisations we came back to some previous work using two ping pong balls and two LEDs to fly through Google Earth. Based on the Atlas Gloves system we utilized a projector displaying Google Earth and the control software in a blacked out lecture theatre. This allowed a clear view of the lights which are turned on and off in combination with various hand gestures to remotely control Google Earth. The movie below demonstrates the trial, we were going to leave the movie audio free but couldn’t resist dubbing in the The Sorcerer’s Apprentice by Stokowski. Linking Google Earth to a remote vision based control interface is quick and easy and the fact it worked first time is testament to the teams clear instructions and software. Take a look at Atlas Gloves to try it out yourself.

When someone has Parkinson’s disease, the progression of the disease needs to be frequently monitored. This usually involves numerous visits to the hospital to be examined by medical experts. Having to follow this intensive regime can put a strain on both patients and hospital resources. Now researchers at the University of Oxford, U.K., have found a possible solution to this stressful situation: simply analyze the speech patterns of Parkinson’s patients to determine the severity of the symptoms of the disease. A research team made up of British and U.S. scientists analyzed almost 6,000 speech recordings from 42 people with Parkinson’s and developed algorithms using the data to estimate how bad the symptoms were. Parkinson’s is a disease affecting the nervous system. No one has so far found out exactly what causes the onset of the disease. In primary Parkinson’s, the brain loses the ability to manufacture three chemicals. These three chemicals are important in maintaining the health of the nervous system. Common symptoms of Parkinson’s include tremors, a slow and heavy gait, and muscular stiffness. For the U.K. study, researchers dispensed with the standard method of assessing symptom severity using the Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS). UPDRS requires a doctor or specialist to make a clinical evaluation of the patient’s ability to cope with a range of tasks. Instead, the researchers used simple, self-administered speech tests that didn’t require the patient’s physical presence in a clinic. By applying a wide range of known speech signal processing algorithms to a large database (approximately 6,000 recordings from 42 Parkinson’s patients, recruited to a six-month, multi-center trial), the research team was able to locate algorithms that seem to reveal symptoms in Parkinson’s disease more accurately than conventional approaches. The researchers compared estimates made using the new technique with assessments made by doctors. They found that, based on around 140 speech samples from each of the 42 patients, the estimates made using the algorithms differed from doctors’ UPDRS ratings by around two points. The researchers say that the study provided good evidence that speech impairment and the average overall severity of other Parkinson’s disease symptoms are very closely linked. This means that symptom severity should be able to be accurately measured just by analyzing speech. Remote monitoring, or “telemonitoring” could be particularly important for people with Parkinson’s who may find it difficult and stressful to make frequent hospital visits.

How Does Medicaid Help People with Low Incomes Pay Medical Bills? Medicaid is a joint federal and state program that helps pay medical bills for people with low income and limited resources. Eligibility for Medicaid depends on income level and family size. Medicaid coverage differs from state to state. In all states, Medicaid pays for basic home health care and medical equipment. Medicaid may pay for homemaker, personal care, and other services that are not covered by Medicare. There are Medicaid programs that pay some or all of Medicare’s premiums and may also pay deductibles and coinsurance for certain people who qualify for Medicare and need financial assistance. For more information about Medicaid coverage in your state and to see whether you qualify, call your state medical assistance office.

Microsoft Excel is a familiar tool for maintaining lists and tables as well as for performing calculations using its rich spreadsheet function library. Sometimes, however, Excel does not have a pre-built function that suits a specific need. Not to worry, using a working understanding of Visual Basic for Applications (VBA), you can create your own user-defined functions to fill the gap! Let’s say you have a spreadsheet with a list of tasks and assigned resource(s). For each task you want to enter the duration, namely how many workdays it will take to complete the task. You also want to enter a Start Date and have the spreadsheet calculate the Finish Date. Or you may want to enter the Finish Date and have the spreadsheet calculate the Start Date. Weekends and company holidays are not to be included. So how do you do this? Here’s how… Step 1: Setup the spreadsheet with the necessary columns. You may already have a spreadsheet with columns for Task, Assigned to, Duration, Start, and Finish. If not, here’s a good starting point. - Format the column cells to reflect the kind of data they will contain. For example, Duration should contain whole numbers. Start and Finish should contain dates. - Fill the Start and Finish cells with a color to indicate they will be calculated. Step 2: Create a Holidays named range. This is where you will maintain the list of company holidays so that these dates won’t be considered when calculating Start or Finish dates. - Enter the holiday dates in a blank column on the same spreadsheet where the tasks are maintained. You can hide this column later if you don’t want it displayed. An alternative approach is to maintain the holidays in a column on a separate tab that can also be hidden. - Select the cells that will contain the holiday dates and enter the range name in the Name Box. The example shows cells A2:A5 selected, corresponding range Holidays, with holidays 8/31/2012, 9/3/2012, and 9/4/2012 entered. Named ranges are a good way to reference cell ranges within spreadsheet formulas and user-defined functions. Step 3: Create the user-defined function. This is where the fun begins! - Open the Visual Basic for Applications Editor via shortcut ALT+F11. - Insert a new Module via selecting Insert | Module. - In the Project Explorer, double-click on the Module created (e.g. Module1) so that it is active. Open the Add Procedure dialogue via selecting Insert | Procedure…. - Name = dNewDate: Function Names cannot have a space. ‘d’ as the first character reflects a naming convention that indicates the user-defined function returns a date. - Type = Function: User-defined functions are ‘Function’ procedures. They calculate and return values to the spreadsheet. They cannot do things that change a spreadsheet such as inserting rows or changing font colors. - Scope = Public - Click on OK when done. The dNewDate function shell is created. - First, important key points to remember about user-defined functions. - Required: All code is entered between the Public Function and End Function statements. - Required: A variable whose name is the same as the user-defined function is used to return the calculated value to the spreadsheet (e.g. dNewDate). - Required if the function will use spreadsheet values: The items within the parenthesis after the function name represent the spreadsheet values used within the function and are called ‘arguments’.‘ByVal’ means a copy of the values are used in the function and not the actual spreadsheet values.‘As…’ indicates to the function the kind of data the spreadsheet’s values represent. - Optional but Recommended: ‘As…’ after the arguments section indicates the kind of data that will be returned to the spreadsheet. Next, let’s look at each section of the dNewDate user-defined function. Text that follows an apostrophe is considered a comment and appears in green. Comments provide helpful information about what a user-defined function does or what a section of code does. The On Error statement enables basic error-handling code at the end of the procedure. Variables and constants used within the procedure are declared within this section. Validating data passed from the spreadsheet to the procedure is performed here. If the values passed are not correct, a message box displays, the Reference Date is returned to the spreadsheet, and the procedure ends. Tip: This code is not needed if the validation is performed within the spreadsheet via Data Validation. Avoid reinventing the wheel by using native Excel functionality whenever possible instead of writing custom code! Initializing variables used within the procedure is performed here. The ‘Multiplier’ section sets the variable to the value that will result in the calculated date being earlier or later than the Reference Date (dDate). The calculated date will be earlier if it will be the Start date and later if it will be the Finish date. The ‘Holidays’ section builds a temporary String variable containing all of the company holidays defined within the spreadsheet. This variable ensures that calculated Start and Finish dates do not consider defined holidays when derived. The calculated Start or Finish date returned to the spreadsheet is determined here. Starting with the Reference Date, the code checks whether it is a weekend or a defined holiday. If it is, the code remembers the day was counted. If it is a work day, the code remembers the day was counted and that it is a workday. The calculation repeats with each calendar day after the Reference Date until the number of work days counted equals or exceeds the number of work days in the spreadsheet. The last date calculated is returned to the spreadsheet. With the On Error statement at the beginning of the procedure, errors encountered while the code executes are handled here. A message box displays with error information. One benefit of using simple error handling is that errors aren’t as likely to lock up your system. Step 4: Create the user-defined function spreadsheet formulas. This is where you’ll enter the dNewDate spreadsheet formula and arguments to calculate a Start or Finish date. You can do this in one of two ways: - Enter the spreadsheet formula and arguments ‘free-style’. The arguments must be entered in the order in which they appear within the user-defined function. - Create the spreadsheet formula and arguments via the Insert Function and Function Argumentsdialogues. - Select the cell where the dNewDate spreadsheet formula will be located. - Click on Formulas | Insert Function. - Select User Defined from the Or select a category combo. - Select dNewDate. - Click on OK. - Set the function’s arguments. - Click on OK. To edit a previously entered spreadsheet formula, select the cell containing the formula and then click on Formulas | Insert Function. The Function Arguments dialogue will appear. Tip: User-defined functions reside within the spreadsheet in which they were created. To use them within any spreadsheet you open, create the VBA code within a separate workbook and save the workbook as an Excel Add-In. To enable the new Excel Add-In: - Excel 2007: Click on the Office Button / Excel 2010: Click on File. - Excel 2007: Click on Excel Options / Excel 2010: Click on Options. - Click on Add-Ins. - In the Manage combo, select Excel Add-Ins. - Click on Go. - Check the Add-In you created. - Click on OK. - Restart Excel. Additional user-defined functions created for use in multiple workbooks should be done within the Add-In. Creating a Holidays tab within an Add-In is not recommended because the tab is cumbersome to access for maintenance. Summary: In this article, you learned how to create user-defined functions that supplement Excel’s rich spreadsheet function library. They can be as simple or as complex as needed… the sky is the limit!

Emerging technologies are already impacting how we live and work. They're also changing how we approach, plan, and integrate security operations. With the advent of artificial intelligence, robotics, quantum computing, the Internet of Things, augmented reality, materials science, 3-D printing, and data analytics, the security industry is being transformed. Certainly, we are living in an era where innovation, agility and imagination are all essential in order to keep pace with the exponential technological transformation taking place. For security, both physical and cyber, the equation is the same catalyzing many new potential applications for emerging technologies. Some of the applied verticals in homeland security where I personally see emerging technologies are making an impact include: That is my own emerging homeland security technologies short list. There is much more to add. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) has many projects and technology solutions that impact the Homeland Security mission. There are a variety of amazing innovations and products in key DHS mission areas, such as aviation security, border security, cyber security, and first responder capabilities. New technologies are also being commercialized by technology foraging. The Department of Homeland Security defines technology foraging as a process of “identifying, locating and evaluating existing or developing technologies, products, services and emerging trends. This approach allows faster development and increases partnership opportunities and resources to assist the development of current or future homeland security systems and needs.” DHS is not alone in bringing emerging security to stakeholders. The Department of Defense (DOD), through the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), is the progenitor of many technologies beyond imagination. As the DoD’s primary innovation engine, DARPA undertakes projects that are finite in duration but that create lasting revolutionary change.” Some of DARPA’s recent projects include deep dives into security applications of artificial intelligence and machine learning. The Intelligence Community is also active in tech foraging. The Intelligence Advanced Research Project Activity (IARPA) has cybersecurity research focus areas that include information assurance, advanced computing technologies and architectures, quantum information science and technology, and threat detection and mitigation. The DOE National Labs and Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDC’s) are also very involved in developing security technologies. These include some of our nation’s most recognized national Labs including: Lawrence Livermore, Oak Ridge, Argonne, Sandia, Idaho National laboratory, Battelle, and Brookhaven. The benefits of the Labs’ role include experienced capability in rapid proto-typing of new technologies ready for transitioning, showcasing, and commercialization. As in most emerging technology endeavors, the public and private sectors are working partners in funding research and development, and creating foundries and innovation centers to build and market these emerging security technologies. There is still much to be discovered, tested, prototyped and employed in protecting us from future threats. Security technologies can be enablers in helping prevent and mitigate acts of terrorism, pandemics and natural disasters. Accordingly, the security industry is being transformed for those missions. Chuck Brooks is the Principal Market Growth Strategist for General Dynamics Mission Systems for Cybersecurity and Emerging Technologies. He is also Adjunct Faculty in Georgetown University’s Graduate Applied Intelligence program.

By Kate Stone It has been said that the brave don’t live as long, but the timid don’t live at all, so this one is for the brave. Bold lizards, regardless of size or sex, have the most success finding mates. Ecologists have found a valuable life lesson to be learned from lizards: a bold personality—not body size or sex—correlates with the mating success of yellow-spotted monitor lizards roaming the remote Oombulgurri floodplains of tropical Western Australia. But boldness has a cost: bold individuals expose themselves to a much higher risk of being eaten by predators. Researchers demonstrated quantifiable behavioral syndromes in the large lizards, with an intriguing relationship to their seasonal hunting strategies. Do lizards have personalities? Seriously? “Personality is kind of interchangeable with the term behavioral syndrome,” says Georgia Ward-Fear, a researcher at the University of Sydney. “Some scientists have a weird thing about saying ‘personality’; they don’t like to think animals have personalities. But they definitely do.” Boldness, she and her co-authors found, was not conveyed by imposing stature. “There are bold females as well as bold males, and shy females as well as shy males. Some of the biggest individuals we observed were really shy.” The yellow-spotted monitors (Varanus panoptes), known locally as goannas, are related to Komodo dragons and share many of their larger cousins’ behaviors. Adults can be 1.6 meters long, and some males grow larger than that. The lizards hunt insects, frogs, and small mammals, and they scavenge whatever they can get. “This boldness syndrome was not only quantifiable, but it also correlated with a heap of ecological traits that we were monitoring. We were only able to figure that out because we were radio tracking individuals to assess their home ranges and the characteristics of the habitats that they were choosing to stay in during the two distinct seasons,” Ward-Fear explains. “It was based on intuition really, to start with, but we couldn’t have imagined how many correlations we would pull out based on the behavioral differences within individuals.” “Anyone who works with these animals knows that they are amazing. They are renowned for their intelligence, but there has been no formal study of their cognition. They do come across as intelligent lizards. They are quite sneaky, and inquisitive. They are a bit more like a mammal in that sense. They’re fun to work with,” Ward-Fear continues. Bold lizards have substantially more mating success than more timid lizards. Running the lizards through a series of behavioral tests, the researchers found that mating success didn’t depend on size or even sex. Successful lizards took up more space, faced physical challenges head-on, and explored their surroundings. “They’ll try to take you on if they feel too threatened, or if they’re angry, or during the mating season. They stand up on their hind legs, and they inflate their throats,” Ward-Fear says, but the goannas are also curious. “They watch you from a long distance away, and they can let you get quite close to them.” When annual monsoons flood the Oombulgurri, the plains burst to life along the rivers. The verdant river edges are prized goanna hunting areas, rich in food, but the thick plant life also hides dangerous predators. During the wet season, large pythons descend from the steep, rocky escarpment at the edge of the plain to patrol the river edges. The pythons, like dingos, raptors, and humans, are big enough to make a meal of yellow-spotted monitors. The food-rich wet season is also the season of highest risk for goannas. The ecologists discovered that shy goannas abandon the high-risk riparian zone during the wet season. Bold individuals, on the other hand, stay close, managing risk by avoiding dense vegetation where snakes lurk. As a consequence, many bold goannas are eaten during the wet season. Shyer lizards stick to sparser plant cover at all times of the year. During the dry season, when the need for water draws shy goannas back to the rivers, they experience their highest rate of predation. Goannas of different personality types appear to pursue complementary life strategies. So, what can we learn from lizards? Perhaps that fortune, indeed, favors the bold. This study was published in the Ecological Society of America’s open-access journal Ecosphere. Featured image by Akshay Chauhan. Ward-Fear, G., Brown, G. P., Pearson, D. J., West, A., Rollins, L. A., & Shine, R. (2018). The ecological and life history correlates of boldness in free-ranging lizards. Ecosphere, 9(3):e02125. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.2125 Open Access GotScience Magazine is published by the nonprofit Science Connected, is made possible by donations from readers like you. You can support open-access science communication – and it only takes a minute. Donate now.

The photo below, shot over Turkey, provides enlightenment to anyone unfamiliar with meteorology. This is a classic anvil head Cumulonimbus, better known as a thunderhead. If you have ever been caught in a thunder storm (on the ground, of course, because if you have been in an aircraft, you would be alive to read this fine prose), this is what the sky above your head looks like, unless of course it’s an imbedded thunderstorm, which is impossible to photograph (because it’s imbedded). This is the type of cloud formation feared, and rightly so, by all pilots. These seething giants can toss about and tear apart even to largest and heaviest aircraft. None is immune from its power and ferociousness. There is no better example of how nature always wins in fight, because the fight is never fair and there is nothing humans can do about that lack of fairness and always losing. One can only remain at a safe distance, admire the beauty, and take photographs. Isn't that a cool word? But, that's not the point... If you want to see something interesting (warning: this is about nature, which is tied to “science”), check out the typhoon heading towards Japan. This storm is readily apparent on the wind map offered by this site. To see this, you must rotate the globe to the western Pacific Ocean. People unfamiliar with geography (ie. Americans) can consult an atlas to discover where Japan lies. Compare the storm in the Pacific to the remnants of the hurricane that recently spoiled the July 4th weekend of Cape Hatteras residents, which is now dropping rain on northeast Canada. The most nationalistic aspect of a news program is the weather, except for international channels. For example, weather reports show a country as if it’s an island. Germany floats on a blank canvas, with no detail beyond its borders. One would think that Northern Ireland is a small island, when seen on the weather map of British channels. The “other” Ireland has been erased. Do these people think that the weather gods recognize national boundaries? Clouds over Germany do not extend into France. A rain shower does not dampen Austria. The sun does not shine on Holland. It’s almost as if news people do not want to share their weather information with their neighbors. How was one to know that Mach and April weather would be visited upon us in May? The North Atlantic Oscillation has been sending textbook examples of the Icelandic low, one after the other, storming across Germany. No one can complain about lack of rain, as farmers did in past months. Planning a garden party is not a good idea... I don’t know if the cause is global warming, El Nino, the Tea Party, or Vladimir Putin, but I had to cut the grass. This is March 7th. I usually do not start until May. Following the first crocuses, the first hyacinths have blossomed. Regardless of whose fault the warm winter was, I did not miss the cold or snow. Even if it means more work, I am happy that Spring has showed up early. Because this is positive, I expect someone or some group to take credit... I noticed weather reports predicting more cold and snow for most of the northern states of the United States. From what I recall of my earlier life in that country, this is rather normal for this time of year. Winter is cold and snow falls frequently. I remember snow covering the ground some years from November to March and many days off from school. Unlike hockey players today, who are spoiled by artificial ice and indoor arenas, we hoped for cold to freeze the pond and feared snow, which had to be shoveled before we could play. I wonder if today’s youth is tough enough. I remember two Canadians arguing about players being coddled in indoor rinks. The conversation, in part, as follows: First: "It’s not heated, so it’s just as cold as outside." Second: "Maybe, but the don’t have to buck the wind." My point is that winter is winter....except in Germany. We have had the warmest temperatures on record and no snow. Flowers are blooming and fruit trees are blossoming. No longer playing hockey, I prefer the milder winter. I do not miss shoveling snow. That said, I happy to sympathize with anyone needing sympathy. I don’t know what climate change deniers smoke, but I suggest they put the following data in their pipes: Having just lived through January (and most of February), I can attest to the fact the weather was mild. I do not recall any winter being so warm. But what do I know? I am not being paid to deny climate change... Anyone with a firm grasp of the obvious will notice that I changed the photo at the top of the first page. I like to change this a few times a year to reflect conditions under which people read books. I liked the shot of the moon over the Alps, but it was a bit dark. Some might call the scene depressing. I recall the night, and it was far from depressing. It was a good night to sit in front of a warm fire and read a good book. Unfortunately (or not) winter has not lived up to the promise of that photo. We have had no snow. Today, the temperature climbed into the 50's. People sat at outdoor cafés and caught a few rays. The new photo, with the Alps having a light dusting of snow, reflects the fading/never-showed-up winter. If you asked me to guess the date, based upon the photo, I would pick some day early in April. The photo was taken on February 16. How’s that for evidence of a screwed-up (unusual) climate in central Germany? I can’t say that I missed shoveling snow, not that I have done much during my years in this country. The North Atlantic Oscillation, often mentioned by me, has been kind to central Germany this year. England has suffered repeated buffeting and flooding, thanks to low pressure systems spiraling off the North Atlantic.. In the past, these storms usually came our way, but this year have veered off to the north. Calendars inform me that it is February: deep in winter. The problem is that a glance out the window fools me. I see flowers begin to sprout in the garden. I planted these bulbs only a few weeks ago and did not expect to see sign of them until Easter. I hope that winter does not come raging back, because these poor things might catch a cold. Farmers are already moaning about potential loss of crops, because too many, not having a calendar--believe that spring has arrived. Of course, a cold snap would put an end to the weeds, which have also returned early... Prior to writing novels, the author enjoyed a multifaceted career: from decorated combat aviator to advertising professional to global communications director of a major consumer brand. He has traveled the world and met sports, film and television stars, political leaders, and royalty. He graduated from Middlebury College, is married, lives in Germany, and has two grown children.

What is tennis elbow Not as the name suggested, tennis elbow is not the condition that only tennis players have. It can affect anyone who constantly practices physical activities or hard movements that use wrist and arms too much. This is completely a common injury that might bring along swelling and painful feeling. It will require minor treatment with not much of medicine or doctor interfere. Tennis elbow is what known, scientifically, it has got the term as lateral epicondylitis What causes tennis elbow? As mentioned, tennis elbow is occurred mostly by straining your tendons and muscles within the areas of forearms and elbow joint. When you know that you are down with elbow joint, you will really notice that your elbow’s outer part is hurt and pain. Tendons are not the exception as it involved in the movements. Therefore, it can also be affected by pain and inflammation. Playing these Sports that are likely to get tennis elbows: badminton, racquetball, fencing and especially tennis. Along with that, elderly tend to get tennis arms as well, those who are from 50 years old onward. The common thing most tennis arm patients share is probably that it will affect dominant arms. Symptoms of tennis arms In the beginning, there will be common symptoms such as pain within the areas of wrist and elbows, weak grasps. Over the course of time, it will follow with the troubles lifting arms as well as extending forearms, especially when bending, it can be hurt. If you not treated, the problems can last weeks or up to a month. There are extreme cases when it takes a bloody long time to heal tendons, about one year. How to treat tennis arms (Remedies) When you know that you have tennis arms, it is recommended to take rest as the condition will heal itself. IF you want to fasten process, you can apply some natural home remedies to treat by yourself or in some extreme cases; you need to visit doctors. Following are some simple methods to follow without costing too much. They are pure natural so no worries about the side effects: 1 Ice Cubes Coldness is the best solution to numb every case of pain. It will sooth the nerve and quickly reduce swelling and painful sensation. Moreover, if the pain is spreading, ice will help to cease this progress. Applying ice cubesa is utterly simple, which is a plus for instant painkiller method. - Grab ice cubes from the fridge and wrap them up with a clean - Apply directly to the affected areas. - Rub them over and keep for few minutes before melting. - For heavy pain, you can re-apply few times. - Repeat this action few times a day. In case you cannot find any ice cubes in your fridge, frozen pea bag is also a good choice, even better choice as it will not melt, which is way more convenient. 2. Contrast Hydrotherapy This method is more likely to be known as a cold-heat method; you will opt for heat and cold respectively. The cold-heat method might take a bit longer to apply and more complicated. However, the result will surprise you. The rule of this way is that the heat helps improving blood circulation to alleviate pain, along with the cold helps to numb the pain as well as inflammation. You might follow the very same steps applying ice cubes, for the heat part, you can make use of the heat bag then apply contrast hydrotherapy as following. - Apply the heat bag over affected areas for 3 mins then opt for frozen bean bags for the same period. This is counted as one time. - After a while, opt for the heat bag, keep doing so for 5 times, around 30 minutes. - Apply this few times a day until the pain is lifted. It is curcumin in turmeric that makes this ingredient an excellent treatment for tennis elbow. This is regarded as the painkiller thanks to the inflammatories and antioxidants properties. Also, those who are seeking for methods to improve the healing by destroying free radicals, turmeric might also be the way. You will need to follow these steps: - Add few teaspoons of turmeric powder into a cup of milk. - Mix them well then add one teaspoon of honey. - Drink this warm mixture once a day every within few weeks. Another option when you cannot drink turmeric mixture is to take in curcumin supplement for the convenience. However, natural turmeric powder is the best to treat tennis elbow naturally. Another powerful option you can go for is ginger. This ingredient has a high concentration of anti-inflammatory that helps relieve the pain almost instantly along with swelling pain. You can either consume ginger juice or apply ginger over the affected areas. - To consume ginger: You can make ginger tea. The key is to add slices of ginger into a cup of boiling water. To make it easier to drink, you can add honey to the cup. The sweet taste of honey also helps your stomach. - Apply ginger: You will need grated ginger to be wrapped in a bag. Dip that very bag into hot water for a while then take out and wait for it to cool down for a bit. Apply it to the affected areas while it is still warm. Keep it for 15 minutes, and there is no need to rinse off with water. Massage is also on the list of first things when people are suffering from pain, It soothes your nerve and calms the pain. To get the best result, you can utilise essential oil in your house. Calendula oil and lavender oil or peppermint oils will make tennis elbow go away almost instantly. The best time to massage is before going to bed, or whenever you are in severe pain. You can repeat massage few times a day. You can add oil when massage, however, do not apply too much oil as tennis elbow might be overheated. Source: home remedies for tennis elbow

Elizabeth I quickly needed a religious settlement for Tudor England after the years of religious turmoil her subjects had experienced. This came in 1559 and is known as the Religious Settlement. However, just how much it actually settled in religious terms is open to debate as both Puritans and Catholics had become entrenched in their views and position. If religious turmoil continued after the 1559 Settlement it was probably more as a result of their unwillingness to compromise as opposed to the government’s stance – though this was still obviously an issue of contention post-1559. While Tudor society may still have had a less than positive viewpoint of women and their role in society, few doubted that Elizabeth was a queen of ability and that her intelligence and ability was as good as many men in the Privy Council. Therefore, when Elizabeth announced that there had to be a religious settlement for her people, there were no dissenters among her advisors. Elizabeth simply could not accept the notion that religious turmoil was seemingly the norm for England – though this had been so in the previous thirty years – and she pushed hard for a settlement that all would take on board. Ironically the simple accession of Elizabeth in 1558 made any desire for a settlement so much more difficult. On the death of Mary and the accession of Elizabeth, many hard-line Protestants returned from mainland Europe (where they had fled for their own safety during the reign of Mary) in the full expectation that they were returning to a state where Protestantism was the one and only tolerated religion. However, many Catholics had remained in England on Elizabeth’s accession because of the conciliatory tone she had taken on religious issues. Both parties were bound to clash and threaten any form of religious settlement. The sudden influx of Protestants from Europe alarmed perfectly moderate Protestants and Catholics alike who had remained in England. At Mary’s funeral oration, Bishop White stated: “The wolves be coming out of Geneva and have sent their books before, full of pestilent, doctrines.” London, in particular, became a base for these hardliners. It would have been very easy for them to stir up the capital’s poorer population, especially if they had a scapegoat – the Catholics. Elizabeth tried to control the behaviour of these men but within a very large and densely populated city, this proved to be very difficult. The Venetian Il Schifanoya, who was living in London, described in letters back to friends in Europe how hoards of men were forcefully getting into churches and preaching extreme Protestant views to those members of the public who had followed them in. Elizabeth had to issue a proclamation that stated that such acts of public disorder would not be tolerated and that any religious settlement would go through Parliament so that it had their seal of approval as well as the Queen’s. Parliament opened for business on January 25th 1559. It was highly likely that the House of Commons would support the new queen without trouble. However, Elizabeth herself fully expected more delays from the House of Lords where Catholic bishops still maintained their power and titles. Elizabeth had another reason for treading carefully. There were both Protestant and Catholic rulers in Europe who were keeping a very close eye on the religious situation in England. Protestant leaders in northern Germany expected Elizabeth to take up the cause of the Protestants. However, Elizabeth was also very aware that two very powerful Catholic states were carefully scrutinising religious events in England. At this time, 1559, Spain was seen as an ally – after all, the late Queen Mary had been married to Philip of Spain. Also the last thing Elizabeth wanted to do was to anger Catholic France and push the French government even more into a relationship with Scotland. Therefore, any religious settlement had to satisfy both camps and this took a great deal of skill to achieve. In England itself, Elizabeth faced problems over religion. The first was when Convocation stated its belief in Papal supremacy and its support for the doctrine of transubstantiation. This was clearly a snub for any form of conciliation towards the Protestants who would have viewed both statements with contempt. In fact, Elizabeth underestimated the strength of feeling in the House of Lords. Whereas the Commons was willing to support the new queen, this was not the case in the Lords. The final religious settlement recognised royal supremacy within the church. The Act of Supremacy made Elizabeth Supreme Governor of the Church and church officials were required to take an oath of obedience to Elizabeth. Neither zealous Catholics or Protestants were willing to accept a woman as Head of the Church – hence Elizabeth’s compromise of taking the title ‘Supreme Governor’ as opposed to ‘Head’. The heresy laws passed in the reign of Mary were repealed and the celebration of Communion in both kinds was confirmed. Catholic bishops in the Lords were hostile to this but were eventually outnumbered in voting terms and the Act of Supremacy was confirmed. The arrest and imprisonment in the Tower of two catholic bishops during the Easter Recess of 1559 may have also ‘persuaded’ some Catholics in the Lords that it was in their best interests to support the new Queen. The Act of Uniformity (1559) just about passed the Lords. It was Elizabeth’s attempt to ensure as many believers as was possible could find salvation. The 1552 Prayer Book was to be used in services while the wording of the 1549 Prayer Book was to be incorporated into the Communion service, so that a generous interpretation as to what was meant by the ‘real presence’ could be incorporated into services. Religion was a highly contentious issue in Tudor England. Many held views that put them firmly into one corner or the other. The 1559 Religious Settlement was an honest attempt to bring as many as was possible into the fold – but it could never have satisfied the wishes of those who were at the religious extremes of society. Only one Catholic bishop took the oath to Elizabeth – all the rest refused and lost their office. However, only 4% of all lower clergy refused to take the oath to the Queen. While the clergy was allowed to marry, they were actively discouraged from doing so. An injunction was passed that stated that any member of the clergy who wanted to marry had to be questioned by his bishop and by two JP’s from his diocese. Elizabeth made it clear that she herself frowned on the clergy marrying. - Roman Catholicism was enforced in England and Wales during the reign of Mary I. Protestants were persecuted and a number were executed as heretics. Many…

How To Recognize Adolescent Depression According to WebMD.com, adolescent depression affects about 1 out of every 33 children, including one out of every 8 adolescent. It is normal for your child to feel feelings of sadness, and to even have times of sadness that they can’t really explain the cause of. It begins to warrant a closer look once those periods start to last for longer than two weeks, or if your child starts to display other signs of clinical depression. Depression is not just a state of mind; it is a medical illness and can be treated. Failure to seek treatment can be devastating. It has been estimated that of those that are diagnosed with depression, one in ten will be successful at committing suicide. Among the 15 to 24 age bracket, suicide is listed as the third leading cause of death. Female adolescents are three times more likely to attempt suicide, while their male counterparts are five times more likely to succeed. Most statistics put the rates of suicide among adolescents at between 7 and 10 per 100,000. If you are concerned about whether or not your child could be depressed there are signs that you can look for. Watch for a sudden change from being very sad, to appearing to be happy and very calm. Many suicidal people display such calmness after they have resigned themselves to committing suicide. Be aware if they seem to consistently think about or talk about death. Does your child take unnecessary risks, sometimes described as “having a death wish”? Be aware of your child describes feelings of hopelessness and despair. A sudden lack of interest in activities that your child used to enjoy can also be a sign of depression. If your child displays any of these signs, it is necessary to seek medical help to rule out depression as the cause. Sometimes symptoms can be caused by other causes, such as certain medications that your child takes, various viruses, and other illnesses. Diagnosis will begin with a physical examination by a medical doctor. The doctor will need to know when the symptoms began, how long they have persisted, and the severity of the symptoms. Encourage your child to not be embarrassed and to give as honest answers to the doctor as he can. You will need to recall when you first noticed the symptoms also. The doctor will also examine your child’s history. Has he been diagnosed in the past and was treatment provided? Has there been any evidence of drug or alcohol abuse? Your family history of mental illness including depression will also be taken into account because there is evidence that heredity can play a role in determining how susceptible your child is to depression. Unfortunately there is no test that can be administered to conclusively diagnose depression, so it is very important that the doctor has the most accurate information to base his diagnosis on. Adolescent depression is a serious disease and needs to be taken seriously. Do not assume that your child is just seeking attention if he talks about or threatens suicide. Seek help immediately, either through your local suicide hotline, or through your family doctor. Your child’s life may be dependent on it.

It is arguably the most powerful hallucinogen on the planet, and until recently had been written off by lawmakers and academics as a dangerous narcotic, fit neither for consumption nor scientific investigation. Yet indigenous Amazonian communities have been using ayahuasca to treat all manner of physical and psychological ailments for centuries, and thanks to a recent spike in Western intrigue, the doors to research into this consciousness-altering liquid are finally opening. What is Ayahuasca? Ayahuasca is a psychedelic brew used in shamanic healing rituals and initiation rites throughout the Amazon. It is made by boiling the leaves of a plant called chacruna (Psychotria viridis) with the ayahuasca vine (Banisteriospsis caapi). The former contains a potent psychedelic compound called N,N-Dimethyltryptamine (DMT), which, interestingly, is found in nearly all the plants and animals we eat. However, upon arrival in the gut it is destroyed by an enzyme called monoamine oxidase, so it doesn’t reach the brain and produce its hallucinogenic effects. That’s where the B. caapi comes in: It contains compounds called monoamine oxidase inhibitors that block these enzymes and ensure the DMT reaches the brain intact, resulting in an intense psychedelic trip, typically lasting four to six hours. Banisteriopsis Caapi contains monoamine oxidase inhibitors that prevent enzymes in the gut from breaking down DMT. Image: Aya2 by Apollo via Flickr. CC BY 2.0 Is Ayahuasca Dangerous? Jordi Riba, who studies the effects of ayahuasca on the human brain as part of the Beckley/Sant Pau Research Programme, told IFLScience that “the active principles from both B. caapi and P. viridis are cleared from the organism after a few hours, so toxicity and overdosing is very unlikely.” However, while the brew may be safe from a physical perspective, Riba says that without the correct preparation, taking an ayahuasca trip can be psychologically damaging. “Some people may experience anxiety due to the intense and unusual nature of the experience. This is most often the case with travelers to the Amazon who take ayahuasca with people they don’t know or trust in an unfamiliar setting.” Indeed, while members of indigenous Amazonian communities are primed from birth to be able to deal with the visions encountered during their ayahuasca trips, Western backpackers can often be overwhelmed by their psychedelic experiences. What are the Benefits of Ayahuasca? As scary as it sounds, the mind-expanding trip generated by ayahuasca has been found to have therapeutic value. “People who have taken ayahuasca report having been confronted with painful personal issues. They claim to have gained new insights into these issues, helping them to come to terms with them,” says Riba. “We have even seen people manage to overcome heavy cocaine and opiate addictions after a series of ayahuasca sessions.” Amazingly, one Beckley/Sant Pau study found that taking ayahuasca produced an anti-depressant effect in individuals who had failed to respond to any other treatment for their depression. Even more remarkable was the fact that this improvement in symptoms was noticed almost immediately after the ayahuasca session and persisted for several weeks – a period Riba calls “the after-glow”, and which he says offers a “vital window of opportunity for psychotherapy,” as patients tend to be much more open and receptive at this time. Harnessing the ayahuasca after-glow may, therefore, lead to faster, longer-lasting treatments than those currently used for depression, such as SSRIs. Uncovering the neurological mechanisms behind this after-glow effect is the next big challenge for ayahuasca researchers, and several pieces of the puzzle have already been discovered. Ayahuasca is used by indigenous groups throughout the Amazon. Image: Lubasi via Wikimedia Commons How Does Ayahuasca Work? “We found that brain connectivity is changed in the 24 hours following an ayahuasca session,” explains Riba. During this period, “brain areas associated with creating and maintaining a sense of self become more connected with other regions that process emotions and autobiographical memories.” Interestingly, the magnitude of this effect was found to correlate with an increase in certain key traits associated with mindfulness, which is one of the main goals of meditation and is measured using an array of scientifically validated questionnaires. Delving deeper into the mystery, Riba and his team found that long-term ayahuasca users exhibit shrinkage to a brain region called the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC). Amanda Feilding, who founded and directs the Beckley Foundation, told IFLScience that the PCC is “a major hub center in the default mode network, which censors and represses perceptions, leading to the rigid patterns of thought and cognition that underlie psychological disorders like depression, addiction, and post-traumatic stress disorder.” However, brain imaging studies have shown that under the effects of psychedelics like DMT, LSD and psilocybin, “the repressive control of the default mode network is lessened, so there’s more whole-brain connectivity and perception becomes much richer. It resets the psyche, and people often find that they can break free from their compulsive patterns of thought and behavior.” Ayahuasca produces changes in brain activity that are similar to those seen during meditation, and lead to an increase in mindfulness. Image: Pixabay The reduction in the size of the PCC may well mediate this effect in ayahuasca drinkers, although it is unlikely to be the only factor. For instance, a separate study revealed how a type of brainwave called alpha waves is markedly reduced during an ayahuasca trip. Given that much of the activity of the default mode network is coordinated using alpha waves, it is perhaps unsurprising that this reduction was also correlated with an increase in mindfulness. Even more intriguing is the fact that a similar effect has been found in the brain during meditation, suggesting that both of these ancient healing practices may activate the same neurological circuits in order to bring about their therapeutic effects. Overall, Riba claims that “ayahuasca’s three main areas of potential application are the treatment of addiction, depression and psychological trauma.” Yet as Feilding points out, “we are at the foothills of understanding how these compounds work,” and much more important research is needed if we are to unlock the secrets of this ancient hallucinogen.

Astronomers working on New Horizons have released a false color picture of Pluto to highlight subtle differences in soil composition between the dwarf planet’s distinct regions. The image was produced using a technique called principal component analysis. The true colors (which, to the naked eye, appear very similar) are given new values that are independent from each other, and can make them appear different. In this way, the variation of Pluto’s surface can be highlighted more easily. Although the image is funky to look at, it has important scientific consequences. It is interesting to notice how the Sputnik Planum (the left part of Pluto’s heart) is a mostly uniform mauve color. This area is believed to have been formed very recently (a few hundred million years at the most) as scientists weren’t able to find any big meteor craters. The images were taken during the closest approach on July 14 at 11:11 AM UTC, from 35,000 kilometers (22,000 miles) over the planet’s surface. It was snapped by the Ralph telescope's several instruments, which photographed the planet in different wavelengths. Produced by New Horizons' surface composition team, the image was first shown at the Division for Planetary Sciences (DPS) meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) in National Harbor, Maryland. It was presented by Dr Will Grundy, who is a co-investigator on NASA’s New Horizons. The full scale picture can be seen on the NASA website.

Researchers have discovered a gene that appears to be critical for maintaining a healthy sense of balance in mice. The study, led by a team at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, appears in the April 1 issue of the journal Human Molecular Genetics and online March 24. "Loss of balance is a significant problem in the elderly because it can lead to dangerous falls and injuries," says one of the studys principal investigators, David M. Ornitz, M.D., Ph.D., professor of molecular biology and pharmacology at the School of Medicine. "Loss of balance also is a problem for astronauts following exposure to zero gravity. Now that weve discovered this new gene, we can begin to understand the mechanisms that allow the body to sense gravity and maintain balance." Balance is determined and regulated by the vestibular system, which is housed in the inner ear. To detect gravity, a cluster of particles called otoconia rests atop hair cells lining the inner ear. Like a water buoy guided by the movement of waves, otoconia are displaced as the body moves. As otoconia move, they shift the hair cells, which triggers the cells to send messages to the brain. Gila Z. Reckess | EurekAlert! New understanding of how cells form tunnels may help in treating wounds, tumors 27.05.2019 | Virginia Tech Coat of proteins makes viruses more infectious and links them to Alzheimer's disease 27.05.2019 | Stockholm University Researchers from Sweden's Chalmers University of Technology and the University of Gothenburg present a new method which can double the energy of a proton beam produced by laser-based particle accelerators. The breakthrough could lead to more compact, cheaper equipment that could be useful for many applications, including proton therapy. Proton therapy involves firing a beam of accelerated protons at cancerous tumours, killing them through irradiation. But the equipment needed is so large and... A new assessment of NASA's record of global temperatures revealed that the agency's estimate of Earth's long-term temperature rise in recent decades is accurate to within less than a tenth of a degree Fahrenheit, providing confidence that past and future research is correctly capturing rising surface temperatures. The most complete assessment ever of statistical uncertainty within the GISS Surface Temperature Analysis (GISTEMP) data product shows that the annual values... Physicists at the University of Basel are able to show for the first time how a single electron looks in an artificial atom. A newly developed method enables them to show the probability of an electron being present in a space. This allows improved control of electron spins, which could serve as the smallest information unit in a future quantum computer. The experiments were published in Physical Review Letters and the related theory in Physical Review B. The spin of an electron is a promising candidate for use as the smallest information unit (qubit) of a quantum computer. Controlling and switching this spin or... Engineers at the University of Tokyo continually pioneer new ways to improve battery technology. Professor Atsuo Yamada and his team recently developed a... With a quantum coprocessor in the cloud, physicists from Innsbruck, Austria, open the door to the simulation of previously unsolvable problems in chemistry, materials research or high-energy physics. The research groups led by Rainer Blatt and Peter Zoller report in the journal Nature how they simulated particle physics phenomena on 20 quantum bits and how the quantum simulator self-verified the result for the first time. Many scientists are currently working on investigating how quantum advantage can be exploited on hardware already available today. Three years ago, physicists... 29.04.2019 | Event News 17.04.2019 | Event News 15.04.2019 | Event News 27.05.2019 | Information Technology 27.05.2019 | Physics and Astronomy 27.05.2019 | Life Sciences

Five tips for making wise, data-informed decisions Development professionals want to use data to inform decisions, but often the available datasets don’t address the relevant questions or it’s unclear how the data was gathered. Sometimes using data to make decisions would even have a negative impact on colleagues and be strongly opposed by important stakeholders. What should you do? Here are five tips for making data-informed decisions in these and other real-world scenarios. 1. Clearly articulate the information need The first step is to articulate an information gap that, if resolved, would facilitate more effective decisions. Ask yourself, “What evidence would be valuable and influential as I make this decision?” The foundation of a data-informed decision-making process is to formulate a question or problem statement to determine your objectives and better inform the data gathering, cleaning, and analysis. For example, the human resources department at Google wanted to answer the following question: “Do managers make a difference in their team’s performance?” By asking this clearly defined question at the outset, the team was able to identify relevant data sources, such as employee surveys and performance reviews, to better inform hiring, training, and (when necessary) firing decisions about managers. Too often in development, we find ourselves looking at available data first and then searching for a problem or decision the data could help us address. In contrast, starting with a clearly defined problem and question before collecting data helps to ensure that the data you collect will meet a real need. 2. Ensure data is representative of all groups Employing a diversity, equity, and inclusion lens in every decision might be time-consuming, but it is necessary. If you lead a development organization or a large project, you’re likely receiving regular reports from staff with insights and recommendations. As a decision-maker, you have a responsibility to review the disaggregate data and ask how it was gathered and analyzed. For example, imagine your organization conducts an annual staff survey to inform its strategic priorities. To understand which supervisors need help in boosting morale, it isn’t enough just to look at the overall results; you must also break down the data by team and make sure that you have an adequate survey response rate that represents most—if not all—employees. If data collection seems burdensome and expensive, leaders should consider adopting the type of lean data approach developed by Acumen and Harvard Business School to tackle the complexities of data usage in decision-making. Never be afraid to iterate, gather more data, and analyze it again. If you’re not willing to take a step back after identifying a data gap, the evidence and conclusions will be flawed. 3. Identify your biases—and those embedded in data In an increasingly digital world, leaders have access to more data than ever, but human bias can easily warp which data gets collected and how it’s analyzed. Be wary not just of your own preconceived notions when interpreting data but of the human biases that have been built into machines. Many companies have created algorithms that perpetuate biases. As Cathy O’Neil explains, “Algorithms are opinions embedded in code.... [They] repeat our past practices and automate the status quo.” Her book Weapons of Math Destruction is essential reading for development professionals who work with data. She gives the example of a company that wants to use machine learning to define the characteristics of a successful job applicant and select applicants for interviews. Machine learning is driven by historical data. If this company has only hired men in the past, then the algorithm would use gender as a predictor of success and skew the candidate pool toward men. Sometimes biases can be even more difficult to detect in results. For example, Amazon found that its system was unfairly downgrading graduates of two all-women’s colleges. Researchers can also unconsciously introduce sampling bias during the data-collection stage. Leaders must be aware of groups that might not be included in the data instead of accepting the preliminary analysis at face value or jumping to premature conclusions. 4. Make data-informed decisions that align with your values To make decisions, we must be data-informed and not data-driven. The former recognizes that there are intangible variables that influence decision-making. The latter assumes that data is 100% accurate and that the only factors that matter are the ones we can quantify. We could gain access to all the data in the world, but at the end of the day, our values and experiences will drive our toughest decisions. A study found that “61% of U.S. business decision-makers believe that human insights should precede hard analytics when making decisions.” To better recognize the elements influencing your decision, you can use value maps or matrices to prioritize your values and understand their significance relative to a decision. Another approach to guide your decision-making process is to revisit your organization’s mission, values, and goals to identify how well they align with decisions. This is a particularly effective strategy when gathering feedback from team members and stakeholders about specific dilemmas. 5. Be transparent about your decision-making process and explain how it was data-informed Often, leaders must make controversial decisions that will have negative repercussions on their colleagues or business partners. The worst way to communicate tough decisions is to be impersonal and evasive—for example, by sending an ambiguous mass e-mail to all employees. Instead, work to achieve transparency and empathy before and after making data-informed decisions. This can reduce the negative impact on morale and make employees more likely to accept the outcome while guiding you toward better decisions. Having an honest conversation with your colleagues about how the data was collected, discussing the known biases within it, and acknowledging that the data does not encompass all aspects of people’s experiences will build trust. In communicating the final decision, explain how the decision was made and who was involved in the deliberation. Lastly, create open channels of communication that will enable all stakeholders to have a dialogue with you regarding the decision, its impact, and the outlook for the future.

Welcome to the Ironmines Summer Newsletter for 2018! It’s been a very hot, dry summer here in the Southern Highlands and one of the worst snake seasons yet. Snake season is upon us, and it’s not just dog and cats that are at risk, cattle are too! This newsletter has a focus on heat stress in small animals and cattle and snake bites in pets. HEAT STRESS IN CATTLE Cattle have a tougher time than humans. Cattle are unable to dissipate heat efficiently through sweating and rely heavily on respiration to cool down. Also, the fermentation process within their rumen generates additional heat. Heat stress can be related to humidity, air movement and access to shade. The most severe heat stress occurs when both temperature and humidity are high and night temperatures do not decrease to allow cattle to dissipate their body heat. Heat stress can decrease production such as weight gain, milk production and milk composition. Typical signs of heat stress: - Panting and open mouth breathing - Seeking shade and refusal to lie down - Crowding over the water troughs - Decreased activity and eating - Agitation and restlessness - Lack of coordination and trembling Ways to minimise heat stress: - Provide access to clean drinking water in close proximity to cattle - Ensure summer pasture is of high quality - Provide supplementary feed at night when it’s cooler - Provide shade, ideally use paddocks with shade trees during periods of heat stress - Reduce the walking distance and speed of cattle movement where possible. - Sprinklers can be used over the yard to wet the cows’ coat and aid evaporative cooling - Removal of water vapour by air movement such as a fan is ideal If you are concerned about any cattle that appears to be in heat stress, contact our clinic for assistance. Nurse’s corner – heat stress in pets Summer time means trips to the beach, an awesome tan and thank goodness- we have air conditioning. Summer can also be the time for heat stress and heat stroke. Heat stress is a dangerous condition caused by a severely elevated core body temperature. In extreme cases this can lead to death. Our pets aren’t as efficient at releasing heat from their bodies as we are and may heat up faster than us. Dogs only have sweat glands in their feet and cool down by panting. Cats will groom themselves frequently in order to keep their coat damp. Our pocket pets, like rabbits and guinea pigs- tend to use their ears as their temperature control. So, how can we help keep our pets cool? - Provide your dogs with a paddle pool (like a clam shell that you can get from Bunnings!) - Cats and rabbits can be wiped over with a damp cloth. - Birds may like to be sprayed with water, using a misting nozzle. - Place damp towels over your rabbit and guinea pig hutches, so the breeze gives them cool air. - Always ensure they have plenty of drinking water, and not just from one available source. - Make icy treats! Put their favourite treats in a plastic container with water and freeze overnight. - Only exercise your pets early in the morning, or very late evening. Be mindful not to over exercise. - We’re in the age of technology, if someone isn’t going to be home, you can get awesome nanny cams that connect via your WiFi and directly to your phone. Signs of heat stress in our animals include: increase in breathing and panting, initially appearing restless followed by lethargy, bright red gums, a rapid heart rate, vomiting, diarrhoea, depression, muscle tremors and possibly seizures. If you are concerned about your pet and see any of these signs, they need to be cooled down gradually. Remove them from the heat source, wrap them in a damp towel and transport to your vet immediately. Snake bites in dogs Australia is home to some of the most venmous snakes in the world. We have 21 of the world’s 25 most venomous snakes! There are twelve species of Australian snakes that are potentially lethal to dogs, however the highest proportion of NSW snake envenomation is due to the Red Bellied Black snake followed by the Brown snake and then the Tiger snake. Diagnosis of snake bites based on clinical signs is challenging due to the differences in the venom components and similar signs seen in other diseases. Signs to look out for are; paralysis, weakness, collapse, panting or difficulty breathing. Vomiting can also occur in some cases. There is a huge unpredictability factor due to the variable time following a snake bite for clinical signs to appear, which can be up to 24hrs. If you suspect that your dog has been in contact with a snake and your dog seems fine, it’s best to double check with a vet before things progress. The major role of snake venom is to incapacitate prey, facilitate digestion. Each species of snake contains different venom. For example venom in species such as the Brown, Tiger and Red-bellied Black snake can cause excessive blood clotting. However, venom from the Copperhead has the opposite effect and stops the blood from clotting normally. Snake venom may contain neurotoxic components that can cause paralysis and muscle weakness. Early veterinary treatment can save lives, treatment often involves the use of anti-venom, providing intravenous fluids and intensive nursing care

Women with inverted or flat nipples can breast-feed. Breast-feeding experts disagree on whether pregnant women should be screened for flat or inverted nipples, and whether treatments to draw out the nipple should be routinely recommended.1 The following approaches can be taken. Preconception/antenatallySuction devices may offer permanent nipple correction,2 but are not a prerequisite if the woman plans to breast-feed. These devices need to be used regularly (for up to 8 hours at a time), pre-pregnancy or in the first and second trimesters, if the woman is seeking permanent nipple correction. PostnatallyMothers can stimulate nipples before feeds by rolling them between the thumb and index finger and applying a moist cold cloth. Expressing milk onto the nipple also encourages infant suckling. Applying suction (using a pump or specialist suction device immediately before each feed) offers effective non-surgical correction of inverted nipples and triggers the let-down reflex; this is a good way to establish breast-feeding in women with inverted or flat nipples. Alternatively, breast shells may be worn immediately before feeding or for a few hours or during the day whilst not feeding: they draw out the nipples by exerting pressure around the areola. Occasionally, while breast-feeding is being established, using a nipple shield may help the baby to latch on, by drawing out the nipple, although there is little clinical evidence to support this approach.1 References1. The MAIN Trial Collaborative Group. Preparing for breast feeding: treatment of inverted and non-protractile nipples in pregnancy. Midwifery 1994; 10: 200–214. 2. McGeorge DD. The "Niplette": an instrument for the non-surgical correction of inverted nipples. Br J Plast Surg 1994; 47: 6–49. From: Journal of Family Health Care Bulletin. Directory of Breast-Feeding Advice. December 2009. Published with JFHC 2009; 19(6). http://www.jfhc.co.uk/images/stories/breastfeeding.pdf

Chemical Board’s animated video describes events leading up to chemical plant fires Posted November 17, 2017 The U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) released an animated video with a preliminary explanation of the events that led to a large fire at a chemical plant in Crosby, Texas. The fire was related to flooding caused by Hurricane Harvey. The chemical plant, located near Houston, Texas, manufactured and distributed organic peroxides, which are highly reactive chemicals used to make certain consumer products. These organic peroxides must be handled carefully and must be stored in refrigerated conditions to prevent them from decomposing and catching fire. The plant’s organic peroxides were stored in several temperature-controlled warehouses and were shipped offsite in refrigerated trailers. On August 26, in response to Hurricane Harvey, the chemical plant implemented its hurricane preparedness plan. The next day, rising waters caused the plant to shut down several of its facilities, including some of the low-temperature warehouses and their generators. Without power, the warehouses were at risk of warming to the point where the organic peroxides would decompose. To prevent this, plant operators began moving the chemicals to other warehouses that still had power. They also moved some of the organic peroxides onto refrigerated trailers, which, when full, were moved to a yard on the north side of the plant. On August 29, the facility’s transformers were flooded, leaving the entire plant without power. While backup generators provided power to the largest warehouse, workers believed the generators would soon be flooded as well. Therefore, the workers moved all the remaining organic peroxides from the warehouse onto refrigerated trailers. Taking matters from bad to worse, floodwaters reached the lot where the refrigerated trailers had been moved, causing them to fail. In addition, three other trailers were stranded near the warehouses, although workers continued to load organic peroxides onto them, sometimes by hand. After all the organic peroxides were moved from the warehouses onto the refrigerated trailers. These trailers also failed due to rising floodwaters and began to heat up. The owners of the plant informed the fire department that the organic peroxides were at risk of heating up and catching fire. On August 30, officials evacuated all remaining workers from the site, in addition to all residents within a 1.5-mile radius of the plant. On August 31, as the trailers nearest the warehouse increased in temperature, the peroxides spontaneously combusted. On Sunday, September 3, officials ignited the remaining trailers. The evacuation zone was lifted on September 4, 2017. The CSB, an independent, non-regulatory federal agency that investigates the root causes of major chemical incidents, is still investigating the chemical fires. J. J. Keller's HazSafety Training Advisor helps employees understand regs and best practices related to Hazmat, HazCom, HazWaste, and HAZWOPER. J. J. Keller's FREE Workplace SafetyClicks™ email newsletter brings quick-read workplace safety and compliance news right to your email box.

Most of our batteries can be disposed for recycling and not landfilling! JJ Scrap Metals supports the initiative and battery recycling program across Australia for the collection of used batteries, which can become a hazard if discarded incorrectly in the environment. Generally, batteries recycling is an activity which aims to reduce the number of used batteries from becoming a part of municipal waste. These batteries contain a lot of toxic chemicals and heavy metals which can raise concerns of water pollution and soil contamination. Easy Collection and Best Prices for Batteries Australia Why Recycle Batteries? Each year, millions of batteries reach the end of their working life across Australia. These batteries can end up in the landfills, with the incinerators leaking in the environment and posing serious health risk to the inhabitants. Moreover, recycling will not only prevent the health hazards, but statistically contribute to almost 50% of lead supply for various applications. With our services in door-to-door collection and transport of spent batteries, we collect both single-use batteries and rechargeable batteries, making disposing batteries convenient. - Lead Acid batteries – Plastic, lead, sulphuric acid - Nickel Cadmium batteries - Lithium Ion batteries - Lithium batteries - Mercury batteries - Zinc carbon batteries - Zinc air batteries - Alkaline batteries – AAA, AA, C, D, 9V and more - Nickel metal hydride batteries - Single-use batteries - Rechargeable batteries - Mobile phone batteries - Medical batteries What You Can Do to Prevent the Hazards Associated With Batteries Batteries are linked to major negative environmental impact and increased carbon footprint, with battery recycling process being highly energy intensive. There are ways to ensure that the batteries pose lesser risk to the atmosphere, such as, - Reduced battery use - Using rechargeable batteries – which can be used up to 1000 times, are cheaper and known as eco-friendly alternatives to single-use batteries - Select batteries which can be recycled For all type of battery waste, call us for services in scrap collection and transport in Australia. We ensure that your batteries are disposed to recycling units, making the optimal use of your discarded batteries! We are pleased to provide our services in the areas of Moorabbin, Moorabbin East, Braeside, Dandenong South, Mulgrave, Dandenong, Pakenham, Clayton, Seaford, Docklands, Laverton, Hallam, and Ringwood areas.

“Threat” to 14 centuries long Kerala ethos from pseudo-Hinduism, pan-Islamism Fathomless antiquity of Indian history and civilization generated amazing diversity not only in the evolution of various facets of human activity but in the nature and character of engagement with outsiders landed in India also, as traders, sanctuary seekers, immigrants and invaders. Though Vedic Aryans in the 18th to 15th Centuries Before Christian Era (BCE) to the European colonial powers of the 16th to 19th Centuries of Christian Era (CE) could win battles against natives, and politically dominate patches of Indian geography, in the long run, all among them, who settled in India, did merge into a composite and blended Indian way of life, socio-economic and cultural ethos. History recorded arrival of the Abrahamite religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, in India, simultaneous to propagation and expansion of these faiths in their area of origin. Christians and Muslims from Middle East initially landed in Kerala with the motivation for trade and commerce and cordial evangelization of spiritual, religious, ethical and socio-cultural facets of the gospel of Jesus Christ and message of Prophet Mohammed. Numerous reliable chronicles confirm highly laudable symbiotic and syncretic legacy in the interface of Christians and Muslims with the elite of Hindu socio-cultural and political hierarchy. This time tested bond laid durable foundations for rare communitarianism, as distinct from competitive communalism elsewhere in India, despite rigors of caste system. Over the years, the caste-centric graded inequality had germinated among minorities also. This resulted in their forging camaraderie with respective social groups among Hindus. Notably, the Christian ecclesiastical order and Islamic scholars did not make massive pugnacious and vigorous efforts to lure the lower caste Hindus into their religious order, lest this would jeopardize their solidarity with caste Hindus. This scenario is in total contrast to largely belligerent, intensely hostile and confrontationist phase of Hindu-Muslim relations in rest of India where the message of Islam (surrender to the will of God revealed in the Holy Quran and Hadith – monothism and brotherhood of mankind) reached along with invaders, empire-builders and wealth seekers through sword and canons. Illustrative cases are: Arab invasion of Sindh in the 18th Century CE; Repeated depredations by Sultan Mohammad of Ghazni in the early 11th Century; Conquest and consolidation by Turko-Afghan warriors like Mohammad Gori, in the 13th Century, and The Mughals led by Babar in the 16th Century. The Islamic preachers and Sufi Saints had enjoyed liberal patronage of rulers from the inception of the Delhi Sultanate in 1206 CE to the decline of the Mughal Empire in 1707 CE, with the death of Aurangzeb. Nevertheless, none of these Muslim rulers did accept the temporal or religious suzerainty of Khalifa or any other politico-religious authority outside India, nor did any tribute paid and recognition sought from Islamic rulers head quartered in Mecca, Medina, Baghdad, Damascus and Istanbul, thanks to the absence of pan-Islamism motivated by Western powers, in those days. However, none can deny that a small minority of over-enthusiastic de-spiritualized fundamentalist Mullas, Maulavis and Imams operating in vast hinterland of India, had vigorously pressed down a politico-religious agenda on non-Muslims, banking on patronage of a handful of fanatic rulers. This posture of a section of Muslim Junta had alienated the bulk of Hindus, who perceived themselves to be second class subjects inferior to co-religionists of Sultans and Mughals. Imposition of jazia tax on non-Muslims, destruction of Hindu temples by a few exclusivist autocratic rulers, viz. Tughlaq and Aurangazeb, injected a mindset of hatred against Muslims, in the victims of atrocities. Nonetheless, such alienated Hindus and Islamic fundamentalists were cleverly exploited by the British to further their imperialist agenda of divide and rule, by facilitating the inception of Hindu Mahasabha, RSS and Muslim League, in the early years of the 20th Century. Remarkably, the character, tone and tenor of Hindu-Muslim interface in Kerala from 7th Century CE was commendably cordial and inclusive, exhibiting vibrant mutual trust and complementarity, practically in all arenas of public life. Metaphysical and doctrinaire obstinacy in religious dogmas could hardly prevail over zeal for inclusiveness in socio-religious and cultural affairs. Economic symbiosis of spice trade between Kerala and the Middle-East from the days of the Jewish King Solomon assumed higher dimensions with the establishment of Arab Muslim Empires in Mecca, Damascus and Baghdad. Islamic preachers accompanying traders never degraded the religious, social and cultural ethos of natives in Kerala. Practically, all mosques, dargas, maqams and religious centers till modern times, were built in the land liberally donated by local kings, particularly King Samuthiri of Kozhikode, feudal landlords and affluent people professing Hindu religion. No wonder, so far there is no dispute about ownership of land where Muslim religious institutions are built in Kerala. This is in sharp contrast to the raging conflicts over the property rights of Babri Masjid to Taj Mahal, and to Krishna Jamnabhumi in Mathura. Even today, in annual day celebrations of many mosques and churches, the holy offerings are religiously presented to the families of the original land donors. Well-reputed books like “Tuhafatul Mujahidin” by Shaikh Sainuddin-II and numerous documents quoted in scholarly books, viz.; “Malabar Paithrukavum Prathapavum” (Malabar – Legacy and Glory), edited by Dr PB Salim, IAS, and “Kozhikodinde Charithram” (History of Kozhikode) by Dr MGS Narayanan (both published by Mathrubhumi) highlighted plethora of traditions of rare non-pareil and un-paralleled facets of benign inter-community amiability, ignoring insular socio-cultural practices in the rest of the Islamic World. Both Hindus and Muslims consciously or as part of local socio-religious conventions had literally adhered to the golden laws of spiritual secularism, viz.; equal respect to all religious faiths and beliefs and practiced Sarva Dharma Viswasa/Shraddha Samabhavana. This well-articulated collective symmetry of majority and minority communities is at variance with the post-renaissance European secularism of total separation of religion, its bodies and the state. Creditably in Kerala, class, caste, social, ethnic, political, gender and regional distinctions and diversity could not debilitate, counter and damage inter-community synergy, despite many political vicissitude over the years. Numerous are historical exemplifying occasions. Islamic religious gentry of Maulanas, Tangals, Musaliars, Koyas and Keis jointly declared holy war (Jehad) against invading Portuguese for protecting a non-believer (Kafir) King Samuthiri. It is the only instance in the history of Islam. Historians unanimously opined that minus such a valiant defence by Hindus and Muslims, Malabar would have become a Portuguese colony like Goa. King Samuthiri ordered Hindu fishermen families to get one male converted to Islam for facilitating his recruitment to Kunjali Marakkar led Navy, because Brahmanical Hindus excommunicated those Hindus who crossed high seas. In the major festivals of Mamankam, official ceremonies like Kings’ Coronation, Kozhikode Harbour In-charge, Shah Bander Koya, was always seated next to King Samuthiri for partaking in conventional rites and formalities. Mappila Muslims did participate in Hindu socio-cultural activities and even offered prayers during Deeparadhana (propitiation with camphor flame) with folded hands. Etymology of the word “Mappila” meaning great gentleman (Maha – great, Pillai – Noble Man) is indicative of status accorded to Arab Muslims. Even today, the word is used as a honorific to the bride-groom and son-in-law in Tamil and Malayalam languages. The Muslims who martyred for protecting common people by fighting criminal depredators, brigands and cruel caste Hindus, were elevated as Hindu demi Gods and worshipped even today, annually as Theyyams. Hassan, Ali, Bivi and Mappila Theyyams are famous and they are taken out in procession in temple premises annually and devotees got blessings from them to get their mundane problems solved. Islamic scholars like Kozhikode Kazi and others in the days before the advent of pan Islamism, praised King Samuthiri and prominent Hindu leaders, whenever they visited Sultans of Egypt, Iran, Iraq and Turky. Many locations of Sufi Saints like Darghas, Maquams, Mazar etc. have been centers of shared sacred place of healing and devotional practices, betraying heterodoxy and multi-culturalism. People worshipped in these places for accomplishing their personal wishes. Maquams did not prescribe any strict form of rituals, but allowed diversity of ceremonies in its premises. Religious legalists and champions of dogma hardly questioned these popular religio-spiritual conventions. Many Chandana- kudam festivals throughout Kerala, Kondotty Nercha, Trivandrum Kaduvapalli Annual Day celebrations are quite popular. Unfortunately, since commencement of Ram Janma Bhumi movement, people are increasingly influenced by toxic indoctrination by sectarian radical elements among Hindus and Muslims. Raising the bogey of threat to religious identity, these pseudo-religious radicals are advancing their power politics through spirituality-deficient aggravated competitive communalism. Reversal of the Shah Banu judgement through Central Legislation, permission to worship of Rama Idol inside Babri Masjid, the Rajiv Gandhi government-sponsored Ram Temple Stone Laying Ceremony and so on, accelerated de-politicization and communalization of gullible people in both communities. Retrogression to medieval obscurantism by a minority in both the communities, is a major challenge to the letter, spirit and ethos of the Constitution of India. Sangh Parivar and Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) are toiling relentlessly for erasing out the long standing communal harmony from the memory of people through grass root level Goebbelsian tactics. On the ill-founded grounds of “decontamination and purification of faith” Hindu and Islamic radicals are stopping many rituals, conventions and practices of geniality in religious and cultural centers. Funds flowing from Hindutva addicted NRIs and those electrified by pan Islamic concepts of Wahabism, Qutabism and Mehudoodism are pushing Hindu-Muslim communities in water-tight compartments and curtailing observance of inter-community camaraderie. Illustratively, a marked reduction in Muslim students joining in institutions like Kerala Kala Mandalam for learning Kerala cultural and performing arts like Kathakali and classical dances, reportedly due to objection from Hind chauvinist groups are unfortunate (let us not forget the great doyan of Kathakali Music – the late Haiderali). Fundamentalist Hindus are objecting the location of the Mazar of Vavar – the associate of Lord Ayyappa in Sabarimala. In the golden panels affixed on the outer wall of Sabarimala temple sanctum sanctorum, no panel depicting the fraternity of Vavar and Ayyappa is fixed, reportedly, due to objection from Hindutva supporters. PaniIslamic organizations are endeavouring for Arabization of socio-cultural life of Kerala Muslims, bypassing the fact that Islam reached Kerala before its spread in many parts of West Asia. Delocalization of life style of Kerala Muslims in the domain of dress, cultural conventions (objection to Nila Vilakku) social interactions, artistic articulation, style of mosque architecture is rampant. Though multifarious interests of Kerala Muslim community is well looked after by Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) and other parties, a sense of artificial alienation is created among a section of Muslim youth by radicals. Resultantly, nearly two dozens of youngsters had joined ranks of Taliban and ISIS. SDPI is trying to emerge as Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindanrwale of Khalistani frame among the Muslims by denigrating the mature and sensible leadership role of IUML and Muslim leaders in United Democratic Front (UDF) and Left Democratic Front (LDF) (Binderwala’s politics was for belittling Akali Dal, who traditionally well protected the interests of Sikh community). SDPI is toiling for creating disaffection against government authorities and Hindu community through motivated poisonous propaganda in their publications like ‘Tejas’. Paradoxically, Islamic radicalization is begetting a congenial ambiance for Sangh Parivar to wean away more Hindus to its fold. In this context, real believers among Hindus and Muslims, who are agile to the core spiritual values of their religion, should design projects to counter radical communal activists, who are trying to claim and monopolize the custody of both religions. The mission of law-abiding spiritual secularists should be to launch micro and macro level programmes to enliven the vibrancy of Hindu-Muslim solidarity persisting in Kerala from 8th Century CE. Firstly, awareness creation programmes about the 14 centuries long golden heritage of amity be set in motion to educate people. In the long run, the ambit of these projects be extended to sensitive areas outside Kerala. No effort should be made to suppress short-lived trends of communal conflict during invasion of Tipu Sultan in the 18th Century and Mappila rebellion in 1921, but emphasis should be on re-assertion of friendship between Hindus and Muslims, after those short-lived deviations. Secondly, at ground-level joint socio-cultural programmes be activized. Traditions of participation of all communities in the religious festivals of an area be re-enacted. Imaginative moves are necessary to counter resistance from self-appointed sectarian and exclusivist religious leaders from both communities, who are for political capitalization of religious concepts. Disciplining of satanic elements is imperative to make any progress towards decommunalization of Kerala society. Radicalized Islamic preachers, ICS Abdul Nazar Madani and SDPI could establish roots in Kerala in the fertile grounds of post-Babri Masjid demolition scenario. Guardians of radicalization of both communities do not have any concrete agenda to upgrade quality of integrity and service delivery of their supporters in government service and reduce social vices of alcohol, drug addiction, atrocities on women and so on. Thirdly, well-meaning spiritually oriented scholars and intellectuals should educate people about inherent unity in spiritual ideals of all religions. Both God-centric religions of Vedic Hinduism, Sikhism, Zorastianism, Shintoism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam and rational sects of Buddhism, Jainism, Taoism and Confucianism, unanimously confirm their objective as (1) manifold self-empowerment and enlightenment of the individual, and (2) similar ennoblement of outside world, viz.; fellow human beings and environment in tune with divine order of nature. The dictum of reciprocity – “atmana pratikulani paresan na samacharat” (Mahabharata) – is accepted by all scriptures. Actualization of these ideals will nullify the strife among misguided people fighting on peripheral socio-cultural and political issues related to materialistic aspirations of religious establishments. Will people of Kerala take up this historic mission at the national level by getting motivated and energized from centuries-long heritage of synergic harmony and counter decent of Indian society to retrogressive belligerent midievalism, fastly enveloping Bimaru States of our motherland? Will genuine believers of all communities in Kerala wake up from their lethargic slumber and neutralize activists of pan-Islamism and hierarchically sectarian pseudo-Hinduism of Sangh Parivar? Source : COUNTERVIEW

Also, various committees have given a view in relating to this. One of which is Halim Committee on the anti-defection law (1998) which suggested that the words ‘voluntarily giving up the membership of a political party’ be comprehensively defined. Restrictions like the prohibition on joining another party or holding offices in the government be imposed on expelled members. The term political party should be defined clearly. 2. If the representative votes against the directions of ruling party or abstain from voting for such party. The constitutional validity of this provision has been challenged in Court. The Constitution provides for free voting in Parliament. Generally, courts have regarded voting by ordinary citizens to be a part of speech on the grounds that it is a tool of expressing feelings, sentiments, ideas or opinions of an individual.The right to vote for the candidate of one’s choice is nothing but freedom of voting, and it is the essence of a democratic polity. While the right to vote is a statutory right, the freedom to vote is considered a facet of the fundamental right enshrined in Art. 19(1)(a). Every person has the right to form his opinion about any candidate. Casting a vote in favour of one or the other candidate is tantamount to an expression of this preference. This final stage in the exercise of voting marks the accomplishment of freedom of speech of the voter. Extending this finding to voting in Parliament, voting becomes an essential element of the freedom under Art. 105(1). Voting by members must not thus, be restricted. On this point in a case Kihota Hollohon vs. Zachilhu , The court decided that the provisions do not subvert the democratic rights of elected members in Parliament and state legislatures. It does not violate their conscience. The provisions do not violate any right or freedom under Articles 105 and 194 of the Constitution. The provisions are salutary and are intended to strengthen the fabric of Indian parliamentary democracy by curbing unprincipled and unethical political defections. 3. If a member of a political party joins any other party after his election as a member of House. This issue was raised in a recent case Imkong Imchen vs Union Of India And Ors . regarding the constitutional validity of the anti-defection law in respect of imposing an unreasonable restriction on the elected independent members of Legislative Assemblies by way of dis-allowing them to join any political party. It was contended that it was in direct violation of Article 14 of Constitution. The Hon'ble Apex Court held that fundamental rights are not absolute and the legislature is competent enough to make reasonable classifications even within the same category of persons Exceptions to these grounds are:- If a member of house splits up into a group which consist of one-third members of the legislature party concerned. If a member of house merges with a newly formed political party with a majority vote of two-third members of the party. These exceptions have been criticized by various lawyers and reports of committees. Law Commission (170th Report, 1999) suggested that the provisions which exempt splits and mergers from disqualification to be deleted. AUTHORITY UNDER THIS ACT The question as to whether a member of a House of Parliament or State Legislature has become subject to disqualification will be determined by the Chairman/Speaker of the House and his decision will be final. Where the question is with reference to the Chairman/Speaker himself it will be decided by a member of the House elected by the House in that behalf and his decision will be final. The court cannot intervene in decisions taken by Speaker. CHALLENGES FACED BY THIS ACT Even though the anti-defection law is an efficient way to structure political party so that members don’t engage in scrupulous activities by supporting opposite party. Still few issues are needed to be focused on which was reiterated by Law Commission in its report- - Pre-poll electoral fronts should be treated as political parties under anti-defection law. - Political parties should limit the issuance of whips to instances only when the government is in danger. - Decisions under the Tenth Schedule should be made by the President/ Governor on the binding advice of the Election Commission. Recently in Uttrakhand crisis, the nine Congress MLA’s was disqualified from voting in floor test. But if BJP government would have split it government with support these nine rebels then it could have an adverse effect on the political system.These provisions relating to split should, therefore, be deleted. From the above discussion, it can be concluded that anti-defection law needed to be amended to be in consonance with current facts and circumstances. However, it depends more on judicial interpretation of such law. The menace of corruption and bribery is yet to be cured which is nowhere dealt with under 10th Schedule. The power given to Speaker can be exercised arbitrarily as his decision is considered final. So, in a way you are giving all right to parliamentarian which should not be in a democratic country like India. Legistify connects you with the best lawyers in India and top Chartered Accountants in India with simple telephonic conversation or email. Call us at 846-883-3013 or send us an email at [email protected] to get started.

Say what? This headline likely caught your attention because it challenges our predominant stereotypes about gender and heterosexual relationships. The media would have us believe that men look for unemotional, no-strings-attached sex whereas women have sex primarily for the cuddling afterwards. Sex and the City featured an episode about ‘having sex like a man,’ a term that referred to having sex without emotions. A previous SofR article discussed how gender stereotypes like these and the tendency for the media to focus on gender differences limits our understanding of relationships. In fact, researchers often find that gender differences are small,1 and that many gendered assumptions do not hold up to the test of science. Well, here’s one more to add to the list. A recent study, one that has garnered attention for presenting information that contradicts gender stereotypes, found that physical affection (a.k.a. cuddling) was more important for men’s happiness in long-term relationships than it was for women’s happiness. The researchers surveyed over 1000 couples with an average age over 50 and average relationship length of 25 years. In this study, contrary to what the researchers expected, women were more sexually satisfied than men and men were happier in their relationships than were women.2 Although cuddling was only predictive of men’s relationship happiness, it was important for both men and women’s sexual satisfaction. Higher levels of sexual desire and arousal were also associated with greater relationship and sexual satisfaction for men and women. Other researchers have challenged the idea that women only want sex for the cuddling, and focused on identifying the characteristics of highly sexual women. Women characterized as highly sexual (they weren’t hard to find) held more favorable attitudes toward casual sex, fantasized about sex often and enjoyed sex outside of a committed relationship.3 Taken together, these findings tell us that the importance of sex or cuddling is not solely based on gender. 1Hyde, J. S. (2005). The gender similarities hypothesis. American Psychologist, 60, 581-592. 2Heiman, J. R., Long, J. S., Smith, S. N., Fisher, W. A., Sand, M. S., & Rosen, R. C. (2011). Sexual satisfaction and relationship happiness in midlife and older couples in five countries. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 40, 741-753. 3Wentland, J. J., Herold, E. S., Desmarais, S., & Milhausen, R. R. (2009). Differentiating highly sexual women from less sexual women. Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality, 18, 169-182. Amy Muise – Science of Relationships articles | Website/CV Amy’s research focuses on sexuality, including the role of sexual motives in maintaining sexual desire in long-term relationships, and sexual well-being. She also studies the relational effects of new media, such as how technology influences dating scripts and the experience of jealousy.

Source Water Protection Drinking water sources are vulnerable to contamination whether it be from harmful chemicals or biological organisms (such as bacteria and viruses). Contamination often comes from activities on the land near the source of water. Water systems, no matter how small or large, must produce safe water through a "multiple barrier approach" which includes protecting the source, providing proper disinfection and treatment, cleaning and maintaining water pipes and tanks that carry and store the water after treatment, and monitoring water quality throughout all of those processes. Source protection is the first and most important of these barriers. Source Water Assessment Program (SWAP) The Source Water Assessment Program (SWAP), mandated by EPA, assesses the vulnerability of the state's public water supplies and provides communities with information and resources to better protect their water sources. Templates and Guidance - Best Management Practices for Groundwater Protection (PDF) - Do's and Don'ts: Protecting Your Wellhead and Drinking Water Supply (PDF) - Home Heating Oil Tank Replacement (PDF) - Model Wellhead Protection Ordinance (PDF) - Source Protection Guide for Public Water Systems (PDF) - Underground Storage Tanks (USTs) Setbacks (PDF) - Wellhead Protection Plan Template for Small Water Systems (PDF) and Instructions for Wellhead Protection Plan Template (PDF) - Farm-A-Syst Program Grants and loans available are available to assist public water systems in protecting their drinking water sources. Land Acquisition Loans are available for the purchase or legal control of land within a water system's source protection area. Wellhead Protection Grants and Source Water Protection Grants are available for projects that will clearly reduce the likelihood of contamination occurring in a water system's source protection area by existing or future activities. The Sanitary Seal Well Cap Program is available for partial funding of the installation of sanitary well caps for public water systems without sanitary well seal caps on their groundwater well sources. Maps and Data Our GIS database helps protect public water sources. This database contains GPS (global positioning system) locations of all public water supply wells and intakes in the State of Maine. A wellhead protection area coverage has also been added. Gravel well delineations and watersheds for surface water supplies will be added as they come available. You can find a list of your county's public water supplies online by clicking here (PDF). The Maine Office of GIS also has an internet mapping site where you can find locations of public water supplies in your hometown. Hard copy color maps are also available for municipalities and consultants upon request from Drinking Water Program.

Genetic Finding Could Lead to New Targets for Treatment of Alopecia Areata, Researchers Say By Katrina Woznicki WebMD Health News Latest Skin News Reviewed By Laura J. Martin, MD This is one of the first studies to locate genes potentially linked to alopecia areata. What is most striking about the genes identified is that they are already associated with a number of autoimmune disorders, including type 1 diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis. Now, researchers at Columbia University Medical Center in New York suggest these genes could be targets for new alopecia areata treatments. Genes Linked to Hair Loss One gene in particular caught the eye of study author Angela M. Christiano, PhD, a professor of dermatology and genetics and development at Columbia, and her colleagues. Known as ULBP3, this gene is normally not present in hair follicles, but ULBP3 proteins were found in high concentrations in hair follicles affected by alopecia areata. ULBP3 attracts immune cells called cytotoxic cells. If an infection is present in the body, cytotoxic cells can help fight the infection or destroy damaged cells, but if there is no infection or damage, these immune cells end up attacking healthy tissue. The ULBP3 proteins attract cells marked by a killer cell receptor, known as NKG2D, which is also involved in other autoimmune disorders and could potentially serve as a biomarker for alopecia areata. Two other genes were also expressed in hair follicles, while the remaining five genes were involved in immune system response. The findings are based on the genome analysis of 1,054 people with alopecia areata and 3,278 people without the disorder and appear in the July 1 issue of Nature. "Finding the initial genes underlying alopecia areata is a big step forward, but the nature of the genes is even more exciting," Christiano says. "There seems to be a shared mechanism among organs that express NKG2D danger signals as part of the initiating process. And since drugs are already in development that target these pathways -- because they are being tested to treat rheumatoid arthritis, type 1 diabetes, and other diseases where the NKG2D receptor is involved -- we may soon be able to test these drugs in clinical trials for alopecia areata. Finally, we have the possibility of developing drugs that specifically target the mechanism behind the disease." New Alopecia Areata Treatments Needed Alopecia areata was originally thought to be associated with psoriasis; however, psoriasis treatments failed to offer any benefit in treating alopecia areata. There is a 1.7% lifetime risk for alopecia areata, which can begin with a sudden whitening of hair and then losing patches of hair on the scalp. The condition may ultimately lead to complete scalp hair loss or even total body hair loss. The condition's severity varies by person and the hair does grow back in some patients. However, alopecia areata greatly affects quality of life that can be socially marginalizing, particularly for children. Current treatments range from topical foams to steroid injections. "This research is very exciting, as alopecia areata affects a huge number of people worldwide, and there are very few treatments for it -- resulting in an enormous unmet medical need," says Vicki Kalabokes, president and CEO of the National Alopecia Areata Foundation, which funded Christiano's early pilot studies on the genetic basis of alopecia areata. "Hair loss is life-altering - sufferers, especially children, experience social stigma. It affects their quality of life and can lead to long-term psychosocial impact." SOURCES: News release, Columbia University. Petukhova, L. Nature, July 1, 2010; vol 466. ©2010 WebMD, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Federal authorities have delayed a major forest-thinning project -- aimed at reducing fire danger near Shaver Lake -- because new research suggests the work could harm the weasel-like Pacific fisher. By late March, Sierra National Forest officials plan revisions to further protect the sensitive fisher in the Kings River Project, about 13,000 acres east of Fresno. The project plan, which had been approved in 2006 after more than a decade of work, could be ready again this fall. The delay pleased environmentalists but disappointed a Tulare County sawmill executive who says he needs timber from the area to keep his 125 employees working. Kent Duysen, general manager of Sierra Forest Products, said sensitive species have been studied for two decades. "At what point do you say we need to move on?" he asked. Environmentalists, who last year sued to stop the project, said the U.S. Forest Service is correct to move cautiously. "We need to deal with the fire risk without doing more harm," said Craig Thomas, executive director of Sierra Forest Legacy, a Sacramento-based coalition of groups dedicated to protecting forests. Forest officials said the new fisher research was completed after the project's approval in December 2006. The research shows the animal needs more larger, older trees and more of a canopy overhead than officials had anticipated. "At the time the plan was approved, we didn't know when the new research would be available," said Sue Exline, spokeswoman for the Sierra National Forest. The research was done by forest service scientists and a private, nonprofit group called the Conservation Biology Institute, based in Oregon. The fisher is a focus of great environmental concern south of Yosemite National Park in such places as the Kings River Project area. It has disappeared in the Sierra Nevada north of Yosemite all the way to the Cascades. The loss of fishers has been blamed on logging and trapping. The animal has been a candidate for listing under the Endangered Species Act, but the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service does not have the money to offer protections. But now wildfire is among the biggest threats to the fisher and other sensitive species, such as the California spotted owl. The goal of the Kings River Project has been to mimic the open pine forest that existed in 1850. At that time, the forest was dominated by large trees. Small, lightning-sparked fires regularly cleared out brush and small trees without killing big trees. Decades of fire suppression have left the Sierra's forests overgrown with brush and small trees, making them susceptible to destructive wildfires. Thomas of Sierra Forest Legacy does not argue against the use of chain saws to thin the forest. But for years, he has said the Forest Service planned to remove too many large trees in the Kings River Project and jeopardize the fisher. "The logging in this plan was way more intensive than it should have been," he said.

Family : Leguminosae Text © Pietro Puccio English translation by Mario Beltramini Cultivated since remote times, its exact origin place is unknown, it is thought to be India, Sri Lanka and South-East Asia where it is common in the deciduous forests up to about 1200 m of altitude. The generic name comes from the Greek “κασια” (casia) utilized by Dioscorides and coming from the Hebrew name, “quetsi’oth”, of a plant; the specific name is the Latin name “fistula” = tube, with reference to the shape of the fruits. Common names: golden shower, Indian laburnum, purging cassia, purging fistula (English); sonaru (Assamese); sonali (Bengali); mai lum, ngujat (Burmese); chang kuo tzu shu, la chang shu (Chinese); bâton casse, canéficer, casse doux, douche d’or (French); amaltas, kerla (Hindi); khoun (Lao); kritamalam, konna (Malayalam); dulang, tengguli (Malay); briksha, rajbrikcha (Nepali); cana-fístula, cássia-fístula, cássia-imperial, chuva-de-ouro (Portuguese-Brazil); suvarnaka, ràjataru (Sanskrit); cañafístula, lluvia de oro (Spanish); sarakkonrai (Tamil); reylu, suvarnam, tela (Telugu); ku phe ya, poe so, puu yo, ratchaphruek (Thai); don ga (Tibetan); bo cap nuoc, muong bo-cap (Vietnamese). The Cassia fistula L. (1753) is a deciduous or semi-deciduous tree, up to 20 m tall, with smooth and greyish bark in the young specimens tending to turn wrinkled and brown with the age. Spirally arranged leaves paripinnate, 20-45 cm long, with 3-8 pairs of oblong-ovate leaflets with entire margin and obtuse or pointed apex, 6-18 cm long and 4-8 cm broad, of intense green colour and glossy above.The inflorescences are axillar drooping racemes, 20-50 cm long, bearing numerous hermaphroditic flowers, on a 3-5 cm long pedicel, of 4-6 cm of diameter. Calyx with 5 ovate sepals with pointed apex, 1 cm long, retroflexed, of green colour, corolla with 5 unguiculate petals (petals with long restricted base similar to a stem) with ovate lamina slightly concave, 2-2,5 cm long, of golden yellow colour, 10 stamina, of which 3 lower, 3-4 cm long, 4 almost straight, 0,6-1 cm long and 3 sterile, 0,3 cm long, curved ovary, flattened, slightly villous. The fruit is a hanging indehiscent legume, cylindrical, 30-60 cm long and of about 2 cm of diameter, of blackish brown colour when ripe, containing numerous obovate-ellipsoid seeds, rather flattened, of glossy brown colour, 0,8-1 cm long and 0,6-0,7 cm broad, surrounded by blackish viscous pulp, arranged transversally and separated by a papery septum. It propagates by seed, perviously scarified and immersed in water for one day, in sandy loam maintained humid at the temperature of 24-26 °C, with germination times of 2-4 weeks and first blooming after 8-10 years in the tropics, the times get longer in the subtropical and temperate-warm zones; it reproduces also by cutting and by air layering. Species of very high ornamental and landscape value, amply cultivated in the tropical, subtropical and marginally temperate-warm climate countries, where it can bear lowest values of temperature, if exceptional and very short lasting, up to about -3 °C; utilizable in parks and in gardens as isolated specimen or in group and as road tree. It abundantly blooms in late spring or early summer, depending on the climate, sporadically later, requires full sun and perfectly draining soils, preferably calcareous, moreover, is moderately resistant to drought and salinity. The young plants may have a disorderly look due to the branches that tend to be drooping, are useful therefore appropriate prunings for a more compact foliage. The bark, because of the presence of tannins (about 10%), is locally utilized in the leather tanning, and from it they get a red dye; the wood, hard, heavy and long lasting, is utilized in the constructions and for the fabrication of agricultural tools and hand crafted and artistic objects. All parts of the plant are toxic, particularly the seeds; the cortex of the roots, the leaves, the flowers and the pulp of the fruit are utilized since remote times in the traditional medicine by various populations, in particular the pulp, due to its laxative action, which has contributed in the vast diffusion of the species, and whose presence is permitted within the European Community in the dietary supplements. The tree and its flowers are the flora symbols of Thailand and the flower of the state of Kerala. Synonyms: Bactyrilobium fistula (L.) Willd. (1809); Cassia rhombifolia Roxb. (1814); Cassia fistuloides Collad. (1816); Cassia excelsa Kunth (1823); Cassia bonplandiana DC. (1825); Cathartocarpus excelsus G. Don (1832); Cathartocarpus fistuloides (Collad.) G. Don (1832); Cathartocarpus rhombifolius (Roxb.) G. Don (1832).

“Daily iron in pregnancy reduces small baby risk,” BBC News reports, with a similar story in the Daily Express. The news stories follow a major review of the best available evidence on the link between use of iron supplements during pregnancy, and pregnancy and birth outcomes. The pooled results suggest that, compared with no supplements, taking iron supplements increases the mother’s haemoglobin levels, and halves the risk of the mother becoming anaemic during pregnancy. Supplements also resulted in the baby being on average 41.2g heavier at birth and reduced the risk of low birthweight by 19%. The findings showed a dose-response relationship, with higher doses being associated with lower risk of maternal anaemia and lower risk of low birthweight. Overall, this offers evidence to back iron supplementation during pregnancy. However, this review focussed on low, middle and high income countries. Women do need increased iron during pregnancy, but in the UK, should be able to get all the iron they need in their diet (such as from leafy vegetables). Currently, iron supplements are recommended if pregnancy blood tests show that the mother is anaemic. They are not routinely offered to all pregnant women due to the potential for side effects. Folic acid supplements are, however, recommended while trying to conceive and during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. Where did the story come from? The study was carried out by researchers from Harvard School of Public Health, Harvard Medical School and Imperial College, London. Funding was provided by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Additional support came from the Saving Brains Program, Grand Challenges Canada Grant. The study was published in the peer-reviewed, British Medical Journal. The news stories provide a representative view of the findings. What kind of research was this? This was a systematic review and meta-analysis. It pooled the results from randomised controlled trials and observational cohort studies that examined the relationship between use of iron supplements during pregnancy, and pregnancy and birth outcomes. The researchers say that iron deficiency is the most common cause of anaemia during pregnancy worldwide. Because of this, the World Health Organization recommends the use of antenatal iron supplements in low and middle income countries, and it is also recommended in some high income countries. Observational studies are said to have found suggested links between iron deficiency anaemia and premature birth, and clinical trials have given inconclusive results on the link between iron levels and birth outcomes. This review aimed to address this question by identifying all observational studies and clinical trials investigating the issue, and pooling the results in meta-analysis to see whether there is a link between use of iron supplements during pregnancy and haemoglobin levels in the mother and birth outcomes. A systematic review is the best way to examine the current evidence related to this issue. What did the research involve? The researchers conducted a search across medical databases up to May 2012, including randomised controlled trials in pregnant women investigating the use of daily oral iron or iron and folic acid supplements compared with inactive placebo pill or no treatment. They excluded trials that investigated multiple vitamins or minerals, or in women with significant illnesses (such as mothers infected with HIV). Trials were required to have examined maternal outcomes such as anaemia (defined as haemoglobin <110g/l) and iron deficiency (defined as serum ferritin <12 micrograms/l), and birth outcomes, such as premature birth, birthweight and infant death around the time of birth. Their search also included observational cohort studies that prospectively followed the association between baseline anaemia and birth outcomes. The researchers assessed the quality of included studies, and pooled their results where possible, taking into account the differences between the findings of the individual studies (heterogeneity). Source: Read More at NHS

IELTS Writing Test More Lessons English as a Second Language Welcome to our collection of English as a Second Language (ESL) tools & resources for students, teachers, and educators. We have lots of free videos that will help you improve your English and also advice and tips that will help you in English proficiency examinations like TOEFL and IELTS. IELTS Writing test lasts for 60 minutes. You can take either the Academic test, or the General Training test. You are required to complete two writing tasks. IELTS Academic Writing : You are given a task based on some graphic or pictorial information. You are expected to write a descriptive report of at least 150 words on the information provided. You are advised to spend about 20 minutes on this task. : You are expected to produce a written argument on a given topic and to organise your answer clearly, given some examples to support your points. You will have to write at least 250 words. You are advised to spend approximately 40 minutes on this task. IELTS General Writing You are allowed one hour to complete two tasks, of 150 and 250 words, as in the Academic Writing. However, Task 1 is always a letter, while Task 2 is an essay based on a given topic. IELTS Assessment Criteria - IELTS Preparation Series In this lesson we will learn about some of the criteria the examiner uses when assessing the IELTS writing and speaking test. Knowing what the examiner is looking for can help improve your results because you will know what to focus on when practising. Writing Task Response - IELTS Preparation Series In this lesson we'll look at the writing task in the essay section of both the academic and general IELTS tests. IELTS essay topics are of general interest and relate to current issues in society. Coherence and Cohesion in Writing - IELTS Preparation Series In this lesson we will learn about Coherence - the logical organisation of ideas through paragraphing and sequencing; and Cohesion - the organisation of language, or how sentences are connected and related. These are criteria used to assess Writing Tasks. Rotate to landscape screen format on a mobile phone or small tablet to use the Mathway widget, a free math problem solver that answers your questions with step-by-step explanations. You can use the free Mathway calculator and problem solver below to practice Algebra or other math topics. Try the given examples, or type in your own problem and check your answer with the step-by-step explanations.

While you’re probably pretty good at understanding a concept after you hear it, your kids – or grandkids – process new information very differently. Kids are more naturally kinesthetic and visual – they want to touch and see what you’re telling them. Keeping this in mind, here are some projects to do with your kids to put them on the road to a lifetime of choosing, and actually preferring! – healthy foods. Be Out Standing In A Field: Take the kids to tour an organic farm. It’s one thing to see carrots, peeled and sealed in a plastic bag on the kitchen counter. It’s a completely different thing to stand in rich loamy earth and pull a carrot out of the ground. Or pluck blueberries from a bush and put as many in your pail as you put in your mouth. Or see how easily the vine releases a scarlet tomato when it’s ripe for the picking. Walking through the fields and groves of local farms will help kids feel a new respect for where their food comes from – and might even make them want to try their hand at growing something. A Feast for the Eyes Ends Up in the Tummy: Knowing that the things that are most accessible are probably the first thing the kids will reach for, reserve the front of your refrigerator and cupboards for the healthy foods you want them to eat. A grove of broccoli “trees” standing in a bed of hummus; bite size celery pieces; grapes washed and off the vine and frozen; cherry tomatoes – when they’re prominently displayed and readily available, the kids will find the healthy foods first – and gobble them up. Get Kids in the Kitchen: If the only time your kids see their food is when it’s prepared and plated, they will continue to have a passive relationship with it. Instead, make it fun – and mandatory – that they actively participate in planning and creating healthy meals and snacks with activities that match their age and skill set. For very young kids, “Ants on a Log” is a great choice. You cut the celery and fill the stalk with almond butter, while they add the raisin “ants.” As they get older they’ll be able to use knives, a blender and other appliances with your direct supervision. The important thing is to let the kids have the hands-on experience of creating healthy, nutritious meals or snacks for family and friends. Show how Food is Medicine and Fuel: For this one you’ll need a stack of family-friendly magazines, scissors, glue and a piece of poster board and the internet. You’re going to be illustrating what foods are important for specific parts of the body, or for sustaining energy. “Let there be more joy and laughter in your living.” – Eileen Caddy Long before growing miraculous 40-pound cabbages at Findhorn in Scotland and creating a library of inspiration books, Eileen Caddy was looking within for guidance and wisdom. Living in England in in 1939, she and her first husband were active members in the Moral Re-armament (MRA), a global community launched by American minister Frank Buchman. Buchman’s goal was to help nations and individuals re-arm spiritually and morally, and essentially “battle for peace” by emphasizing teamwork, cooperation and integrity in all aspects of life. Part of MRA’s process was the discipline of deep meditation. During these “quiet times,” group members would listen for divine guidance. Even though that marriage didn’t last, Eileen’s dedication to going into a deep Alpha state for spiritual guidance and insight became an essential part of the rest of her life. During one such meditation after her marriage dissolved, Eileen heard what she later called “the voice of God.” It commanded her to, “Be still and know that I am God.” Frightened at first that she was mentally ill, Eileen began tuning in to this inner voice regularly, and powerful, positive things began to unfold in her life. She married fellow spiritual seeker and visionary Peter Caddy, and together they transformed a run-down hotel in Scotland into a four-star destination by following the guidance of the voice. They had similar good fortune with a second hotel, and next began practicing organic gardening near the Scottish village of Findhorn. To their surprise and delight, their crops yielded exceptional produce, including 40 pound cabbages that attracted international attention. Eileen attributed the phenomenal results to her claim that she was communicating with plant spirits. Soon a large spiritual following began to form around Eileen and Peter, which became known as the Findhorn Community. People from around the world came to visit and participate in the healing work Eileen and Peter directed at Findhorn for body, mind and spirit. In 1972 Eileen received divine guidance to take her message of hope, joy and love to the world. She traveled to spiritual gatherings and wrote a number of inspirational books, which were translated into 30 languages. One of her most popular works is God Spoke to Me . Daily at the Optimum Health Institute missions in San Diego and Austin, Texas, one of Eileen’s quotes is offered in the morning prayer circle. OHI guests are invited to meditate on the thought throughout the day, seeing how their understanding of the words changes and evolves as their awareness changes with each new task and opportunity. The very words that this spiritual teacher heard in her head and heart decades ago continue to motivate, encourage and bring joy, long after her death in 2006. You can purchase God Spoke to Me, and other books by and about Eileen Caddy, at the Optimum Health Store. You can also order Eileen’s divinely inspired works by calling the store at (800) 993-4325. Come experience the healing power of Eileen Caddy’s words as part of a transformative experience for all your senses and your body, mind and spirit at OHI. We can help you achieve your mental, physical, emotional and spiritual goals for optimal health in 2013. Call us at (800) 993-4325 to make your reservation.

Reduce the spread of Dengue by ensuring a weekly treatment frequency for mosquitoes. This disrupts their breeding cycles and minimizes the mosquito population onsite. ORIGIN uses water-based mist mosquito control, not conventional smoke fogging, which is instrumental in protecting asthmatic children. We also minimise chemicals on school grounds by using a biological larvicide, BTI, a naturally occurring soil bacterium, to target mosquito larvae. We also utilise chemical-free methodologies to prevent cockroaches and their excrement, which can be known to trigger asthma. Futhermore, we can do all this on Saturdays and Sundays to prevent disruption to class schedules.

The word fairy tends, for most of us, to conjure up a vision of a tiny, winged woman with a trail of golden dust twinkling in her wake. However, as with all things mysterious and paranormal, there are all kinds of ideas as to what they really are – or even whether they’re real. No matter where you’re from, there is probably a whole chapter of local folklore dedicated to fairies. The centuries have seen them appear in tales and legends as traditional fluttering creatures, unlucky omens and even mischievous beings to be avoided at all costs. Although ideas of fairies differ and change, one thing has always been consistent, they tend to live in natural places, such as woodland and gardens. What they get up to in them is another matter… Although fairy folklore describes fairies as everything from goblins, to gnomes and beautiful ethereal creatures, those who have claimed to see fairies have relayed tiny beings of human appearance with wings and clothes. The Cottingley fairies became the closest Britain had come to seeing evidence of their existence when a photograph of them was taken in 1917. Sisters, Frances and Elsie Wright, claimed the fairies lived at the bottom of their garden, and the photos inspired a whole period of fairy folklore and speculation. It isn’t only children who have claimed to see fairies. The Romantic poet William Blake once told of how he watched a fairy funeral in his own garden…and if it was an eccentric joke he was very matter of fact! For many, the idea of leafy fairy funerals may be a step too far into the inexplicable, but let’s go back a few centuries and have a look at the earliest fairy tales. It’s interesting that the word itself can be traced back to the Latin ‘fata’, used to describe a Fate, or guardian spirit. As with most supernatural spirits, we tend to see them as human in form (if far smaller) with magical powers. As mentioned, whilst most of us think of fairies as kind and well-meaning spirits, there have been plenty of generations that saw them as a little darker! Although it’s difficult to picture a fairy without wings, before the Victorian era they were depicted as flying by other means, such as magic or flying on animals. They were even believed to shape shift into various other animal forms, tricking unsuspecting humans who passed their habitats. Fairies have been blamed for all kinds of misfortune, from tangled hair, to travellers losing their way and even babies being abducted. Unsurprisingly, there is a whole range of ways to avoid fairy powers, from carrying dry bread, ringing church bells and wearing one’s clothes inside out. Ideas of fairies have been even more sinister that mischievous creatures to be avoided, they are also seen as those who have passed away, as demoted angels and as deities. The myths and legends of Western Europe have painted fairies in all kinds of shapes and forms, but it’s a common view that you’re unlikely to see one if you don’t believe in them. So, do children tend to see them more often because they have vivid imaginations…or is it because the fairies know they believe?!

“That's a drag.” You're talking to your friend on the phone. He tells you that he lost his wallet. You can imagine how annoying and difficult that is, so you say this, sympathetically. That's a drag. "That's a drag" means "That's too bad" or "That sucks". You say these expressions when someone tells you about bad things that have happened to them. You can use "That's a drag" to talk about situations that are kind of bad, but not too horrible. For example, here are some situations where "That's a drag" is a good response: - Your friend says that she wasn't able to get tickets to the concert that she wanted to go to. - Your coworker's car broke down, and he has to pay a thousand dollars to get it fixed. - Your son's homework was deleted because his computer crashed. Now he has to do it again. For more serious situations, use a different expression. For example, if someone's father has passed away, you should say something like this: Oh, Steven. I'm so, so sorry to hear that. The word "drag" was once a slang expression, but has become common.

This investigation allows students to explore the geography of Antarctica and become an active member of the citizen science project, PenguinWatch. - Examine maps of the World, South Polar Regions and Antarctica and interpret geographic location influence on climates - Develop map skills by learning how to use longitude and latitude coordinates to locate 6 research stations in Antarctica - Evaluate interactions between penguins and their ecosystems - Become citizen scientist through engagement in the Penguin Watch project - Practice skills of the scientific method - Formulate a hypothesis based on student research of penguin life cycles and/or Antarctica’s climate - Gather data through the analysis of photographs shared by the Penguin Watch science team - Analyze collected data to construct a conclusion that supports or refutes their hypothesis - Communicate the results of their scientific investigation to their peers summarizing the results of their investigation and creating a visual representation of the key concepts about the influence of Antarctica’s geography on penguin populations - Distribute Antarctica pre-assessment worksheet. - Students read the Antarctica encyclopedia on National Geographic taking notes on climate attributes. - Group share: Each students share with class one interesting thing they learned from encyclopedia entry. - Teacher lecture on the seasons of Antarctica with props. - Introduce students to Penguin Watch online program. - Explain the research program and how students will become involved in this project. - Distribute packet on the five species students will be collecting data on during their investigation and a map of the world. - Students complete penguin packet through research using the internet and label the world map on where the five species are located. - Mapping Antarctica Temperature - Hand out Map of Antarctica - As a class label remaining missing Latitude and Longitude lines - Display coordinates of 6 research stations work as a class to label two stations positions on Antarctica. Have students place the remaining four research stations. - Provide students Excel sheet of year round temperatures at each location. - Assign each student a month and have them color the research center according to its temperature and the legend. - Hand out student PenguinWatch assignment sheet and data recording sheet - Brainstorm as a class variable that can be investigated through this data collection. Have students construct their own hypothesis and explain data collection process. Days 4 & 5 - Students collect data from analyzing PenguinWatch photographs; Recording data to investigate their own hypothesis. - Students analyze the data they have collected and evaluate if they can support or not support their hypothesis. Students write a conclusion paragraph using this evidence. Conduct a class discussion on students’ investigations. Day 7, 8, 9 - Assign each student a role in creating class bulletin board to communicate their research to their peers. Potential Final Products: - Life size: 5 Penguin Species, Leopard seal, Skua birds - Life cycle chart - Tabletop Map of South Polar Region - 6 Research station summaries: Picture and graphs of annual precipitation and temperatures (add locations to Tabletop graph) Students may investigate current laws and acts that protect the continent of Antarctica and its species and their impacts. - Antarctica Pre-assessment worksheet - Species Packet - Antarctica map with labeled research stations - Student bulletin board contribution - Hypothesis, data collection sheets, and conclusion statements - Antarctica Post-assessment worksheet Bridget Ward, PolarTREC Teacher 2019 Springfield Central High School bridgetlward [at] yahoo.com

When you're an environmental activist, every day is Earth Day, not just April 22. In many places around the globe, being an environmental activist can literally mean putting your life on the line. More than 900 environmental and land-rights activists were killed around the world between 2002 and 2013, according to a new report by the watchdog group Global Witness. The numbers are "shocking," says co-author Oliver Courtney. These are people "who have been killed in the line of protecting their rights to land and the environment ... often some of the poorest and most vulnerable people in the world." "What's perhaps even more shocking," Courtney says, "is that all the signs point to a vast number of cases which are going unmonitored and unrecognized." Courtney says two-thirds of the cases Global Witness documented in their report, Deadly Environment: the Dramatic Rise in Killings of Environmental and Land Defenders, involved conflicts over who has the right to particular tracts of land "and whether or not people who've been living on that land for generations can really assert their rights." In particular, he says, the vast majority of those case have involved "resistence to the operations of mining or logging or agribusiness companies." The report also found that very few of the killings are being prosecuted. "One percent of the cases that we have documented (involve) a known killer who has been brought to justice," Courtney says. Among the worst places for deadly environmental conflicts, the report found, is Latin America, which includes five of the six countries with the largest number of killings — Brazil, Honduras, Peru, Colombia and Mexico. One of the common themes in this region, Courtney says, is a combination of concentration of land ownership in the hands of a few, very powerful land owners with a very large percentage of the population that remains poor and reliant on the land. "That dynamic sparks conflict," Courtney says. Courtney says governments need to do much more to monitor and prosecute threats and crimes against environmental and land-rights activists, but he says the responsibility for the problem doesn't stop there. Mining, logging and agribusiness companies doing business around the world "have a responsibility to make sure that they aren't involved with or sponsoring this kind of abuse," he says. And he says there's a role for consumers. "This problem is ultimately driven by consumption in the rich world," Courtney says. "So that's something we have to consider ourselves on a day to day basis, and our governments have to legislate for."

Lower Extremity Compression with Lymphedema Lymphedema can arise from infection, injury or genetics. In patients with diabetes, we often see swelling in the extremities as the result of circulatory problems. Whether a patient is experiencing a lymphatic blockage or is showing signs of complications from diabetes, heart disease or venous insufficiency, compression clothing or bandages should be part of the treatment plan. Compression garments reduce lymphedema by encouraging the flow of fluid out of the limb through the proper avenues. They also act as force for the calf muscles to work against. This reduces the accumulation of fluids and the accompanying swelling, and promotes the flow of oxygenated blood flow throughout the leg, preventing ulcerations from arterial insufficiency. Compression garments should be worn 24 hours a day and must be replaced regularly. A SIGVARIS sock such as this one delivers graduated compression, with more force exerted at the ankle than at the knee. Socks such as these are ideal for ambulatory patients, and offer the advantage of easy application and removal. In addition to compression garments, massage and exercise can be beneficial to the patient. More About Lymph Lymph is a colorless extra-cellular fluid containing a variety of nutrients and other molecules such as proteins, salts, glucose and water. In addition, lymph plays an important role in immune defense because it carries white blood cells. In healthy adults, lymph circulates throughout the body at about 20 liters per day. While some lymph is naturally not reabsorbed in the filtering process, about 85 percent of all lymph manages to re-enter the blood vessels to rejoin the cardiovascular system. Lymph has different compositions in different parts of the body. In the small intestine, for example, lymph is higher in certain fats and in the liver, the concentration of proteins is about ten times higher than elsewhere. More About the Lymphatic System A healthy cardiovascular system pumps blood into capillary beds, which allows for the exchange of nutrients via oxygen. Once the blood has gone through this process, it circulates back to the lungs to pick up more oxygen and is subsequently pumped back out to the rest of the body via the heart. To do all of this work, the heart exerts quite a bit of pressure. This pressure forces fluid out, particularly through the capillaries. As lymph leaves the capillaries, the concentration of smaller proteins such as albumin is lowered while the concentration of red blood cells and larger proteins increases. This change affects the pressure on the outside of the capillaries, making blood more osmotically active, and pulling molecules on the outside of the capillaries back in. Without the lymphatic system, fluids would accumulate and a buildup would occur. The lymphatic system addresses the issue of accumulation by acting as the body's internal plumbing system. Lymphatic vessels collect excess fluid and bring it back into circulation. These vessels are different from blood vessels because they don't function in a loop. Rather, fluids are picked up from outside of the blood vessels and then redeposited back in the blood vessels. This process is necessary for surrounding cells as it provides nutrients, proteins, glucose and more. Signs of Lymphedema - Swelling, particularly in the extremities - A feeling of heaviness - Recurring skin irritation and infection - Thickening of the skin - Restricted range of motion

A few miles east of Shawnee lies the ghost town of Earlsboro. Actually the town still exists today with a few small businesses – namely a tag agency and a restaurant, along with several homes. It offers quite a history, having been through two boom and bust cycles before 1940. Earlsboro is worth the visit to stop and grab a fried pie or hamburger at David’s Cafe. A transplant from California, David moved to Oklahoma to be closer to his grandkids. He serves up the small town staple of hamburgers, daily specials, and fried pies. Many days you will find locals at the back table. Be sure and give them a shout and learn a bit of history about the area. David has a lot of old pictures from Earlsboro’s boom days on the walls. Although not exactly a ghost town, Earlsboro is listed as such in John W. Morris’ book “Ghost Towns of Oklahoma“. LOCATION; (a) Sec. 8, T 9 N, R 5 E (b) 4‘/2 miles south, 7 miles east of Shawnee; 7 miles east of Tecumseh POST OFFICE: June 12, 1895- NEWSPAPERS: Earlsboro Border Journal; Earlsboro Echo; Earlsboro Plain People; Earlsboro Times; Earlsboro Journal; Earlsboro Messenger RAILROAD: Choctaw Coal and Railroad Company (Rock Island) Earlsboro has twice been a boom town of considerable importance and twice a decaying, disintegrating, and dilapidated village. It was formed in 1891 a few days after the Choctaw Coal and Railroad Company extended its tracks westward from the Seminole Nation. The town was platted under the name of Boom-De-Ay. A post office by the name of Tum was moved to the new site, and the name was changed to Earlsboro. The fact that Earlsboro was situated near the Indian Territory boundary aided its early growth. Liquor was prohibited in Indian Territory, but saloons in Oklahoma Territory were legal. Because of the demand of the people living in Indian Territory for liquor, Earlsboro became known as a “whiskey town.” Three of the first four businesses established were saloons; the other was a grocery store. The number of saloons and stores handling liquor continued to increase and to dominate the business activities of the village until 1905. During that year it was estimated that 90 percent of the merchants were dealing profitably in liquor. With approaching statehood, however, many liquor dealers started moving their activities to other states, and the first boom period ended. Along with the whiskey trade, Earlsboro developed as a small commercial center serving nearby farmers. A blacksmith shop, gristmill, and cotton gin were built. Churches were started and a school district organized. Some streets were graded, and homes were constructed. The railroad located a boxcar next to the track to serve as a depot, and the village became a regular stop for passenger service. During its first year of existence Earlsboro had a population of about 100 persons. By 1900 the population had increased to 400, and it continued to increase until 1905, when it reached an estimated 500 persons. The special census of 1907 recorded only 387 persons, the decrease being accounted for by the moving of liquor dealers. Population continued to decrease gradually, the 1920 census showing a total of 317 persons. During the early 1920s the commercial activi- ties of Earlsboro were like those of many other small, farm-centered communities. Poor roads and slow transportation caused farmers in the vicinity to trade in Earlsboro. Subsistence stores supplying the most essential needs dominated the business area. A bank and a newspaper also aided in making it an active rural center. The situation was completely and abruptly changed on March 1, 1926. On that day the first oil well to be a commercial producer in the Earlsboro Sand, the well that caused the active development of the Earlsboro Field, “blew in.” The Earlsboro Sand was penetrated at a depth of 3,557 feet, and oil started flowing at a rate of two hundred barrels per day. Although this well was minor compared to some drilled shortly thereafter, the discovery started a violent oil boom; speculation in royalty rights and leases mounted rapidly, and drilling became frenzied. Once begun, Earlsboro grew rapidly, so rapidly that in two or three months the town had a population variously estimated at from five thousand to ten thousand people. Main Street was lengthened from one to five blocks, with numerous side and parallel streets added to the business section. The streets were lined with stores of all types in addition to pool halls, picture shows, beauty shops, lumberyards, and cafes. A large four-story brick hotel was soon under construction. Doctors, lawyers, engineers, and geologists sought office space in any type of building. The residential area expanded as rapidly as the business section. Shotgun houses of all varieties were built on land once used for gardens or lawns. Tents frequently occupied unused spaces, and often tent space in a back yard rented for as much as twenty-five dollars per month. No streets in the residential area were paved or graveled. Public utilities were almost unknown to Earlsboro when the boom started. There was no sewage disposal, the water supply was furnished by individual wells, and most of the homes used kerosene lamps for light. The post office was entirely inadequate to handle the increase in mail. Earlsboro was too small to have delivery service, so everybody received his mail at the general delivery window or from a box in the post office. Two general delivery windows were soon opened, but this procedure only slightly relieved the situation. The people waiting to receive their mail often formed lines over a block in length. One of the biggest problems that faced Earlsboro during the boom period was transportation. There were no paved roads in the community or town. Because of the heavy traffic, every road leading to Earlsboro was either a cloud of dust or a sea of mud. Automobiles, teamsters, and trucks all moved at a snail’s pace. Rainfall was exceptionally heavy during the fall of 1926, greatly exceeding the normal. Roads and fields were so boggy that it seemed drilling would have to be temporarily discontinued. Trucks were practically abandoned in favor of horses. Rail transportation was even more inadequate than the roads. Trackage and storage space were missing. By 1928 the boom was beginning to settle as the limits of the producing fields were determined. New oil developments in nearby fields resulted in many of the single workers seeking steadier employment elsewhere. New city leaders, working with the older ones, began to bring order out of chaos and to improve the facilities of the community. Main Street was paved, a city water system was developed, and electricity was brought to the town. In 1928 the population within the incorporated limits of the community was estimated at 4,000, but by 1930 it had decreased to 1,950. Also in 1928 the number of business establishments, as listed in the Earlsboro Journal, totaled 286. The 1940 population census (486) and a count of business establishments in the same year (19) showed that the second boom period had definitely ended and that the second stage of decay was well advanced. Present-day Earlsboro is but a broken hull of the twice-booming community. About forty homes, many unpainted since the 1930s, remain scattered about the incorporated limits. Several residential streets have been closed and a few plowed and planted. Only uncared-for trees and broken foundations occupy previously densely populated blocks. The business area definitely shows that the boom is over and that the town is dying. Once busy streets are now’ almost unused. One block of brick buildings remains, and only three of them are in use. Grass and weeds grow in cracks along the sidewalks and in places once occupied by buildings. The depot built to replace the first boxcar has long since been removed, and trains no longer stop. The 1970 census recorded only 248 persons. The population continues to decrease. How long will Earlsboro continue? As one of the oldest residents stated recently, “We can always hope for another boom.”

What Is A Pedestrian Crossing?Pedestrian crossings are areas designated for foot traffic, that are intended to increase pedestrian safety and facilitate the flow of vehicular traffic. They are absolutely vital in maintaining order in the streets and protecting both drivers and pedestrians on the road. While pedestrian crossings have been around for quite some time, their definition and markings have changed and evolved over the years. In 1992, the Uniform Vehicle Code1 defined a crosswalk as “part of a roadway at an intersection included within the connections of the lateral lines of sidewalks… or elsewhere distinctly indicated for pedestrian crossing by lines or other markings on the surface.” According to this definition crosswalks at intersections need not be marked if they occur as a continuation of a sidewalk at an intersection. However, the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices stipulates that a crosswalk may be marked with paint or other materials. Most commonly in the United States and around the world, crosswalks are denoted by zebra crossing stripes, alternating between white and a dark color. These stripes are used both at intersections with lights and crosswalks without lights. In general, pedestrians are given the right-of-way at all crossings, though this absolute focus on pedestrians has historically resulted in mixed safety results. History of the Pedestrian Crossing, and its EffectivenessThe first country to actively attempt pedestrian safety was England2 . Prior to motor vehicles, foot traffic would compete mostly with horse and carriage traffic. Early regulations involved mandatory forfeiture of any animal or cart involved in a fatal accident. However, those regulations soon changed to encourage people to adopt more mobile transport, leading to an increase in pedestrian fatalities. The use of designated foot traffic crosswalks with lighted indicators and zebra stripes began in England and is still in use today. The signals were manufactured by railway signal makers and consisted of a lever that was raised and lowered by a police officer. In 1929, local traffic authorities3 could designate crosswalks for pedestrians, but pedestrians were granted right of way over all vehicles so long as they adhered to traffic signals. By 1955, legislature required “walk” and “don’t walk” signals at intersections. Crosswalks near schools and in residential areas with heavy pedestrian traffic receivedadditional markings and signs. By 1978, laws were passed to ensure all vehicles must yield to pedestrians on curbs or in crosswalks, while pedestrians must yield to vehicles when not in these locations4 . This law reflects a growing awareness of different parties on the road, and effectively prohibits “jay-walking” or crossing outside of a clearly marked pedestrian crossing. The exceptions to these rules stipulate that vehicular and foot traffic must yield to emergency vehicles with lights or sirens. In 1994, crosswalk rules were slightly amended to require drivers to grant right-of-way to pedestrians, and not just yield. Some Relevant Statistics Even with all of these regulations, pedestrian fatalities continue to occur. While all pedestrians are at risk, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration5 finds that young boys between the ages of 5 and 9 are most likely to be involved in a pedestrian crash, while older people, though less likely to be hit, are more prone to suffer a fatality. The NHTSA also finds that speeding is a contributing factor in about one third of fatal crashes, and alcohol is involved in approximately 40%. With an estimated 70,000 pedestrians killed yearly worldwide in motor vehicle collisions, the importance of firm laws, proper signage, and careful attention is clear. Perhaps the greatest defense against pedestrian collisions is caution from both motorists and pedestrians alike. Pedestrian crossing signage, usually a yellow pentagon- or diamond-shaped sign with two figures walking, can warn drivers on approach to areas with heavy foot traffic. Zebra crossings and standing signs advising drivers to yield also serve this purpose. Additionally, pedestrians need to be mindful of crossing in the proper places. Jay-walking, or crossing outside of crosswalks, can be dangerous, as drivers are often unprepared for an unexpected pedestrianin the street. Cities have always seen high levels of pedestrian collisions, and taking precautions with safety has been shown to successfully lower the number of fatalities and accidents. Showing respect and sharing the road are the easiest ways to lessen the danger that pedestrian traffic poses. Since the days of horse drawn chariots and through the changes in transportation, pedestrians have always competed for safe road space. Signs and markings help them achieve safer roads, but only as much as the people on the road pay attention to those around them. 1 US Department of Transportation: Federal Highway Administration, "Pedestrian Safety Guide and Countermeasure Selection System: Crash Statistics." Last modified 2004.Accessed June 18, 2012. http://www.walkinginfo.org/pedsafe/crashstats.cfm. 2 Ishaque, Muhammad M., and Robert B. Noland. Centre for Transport Studies, "Making Roads Safe For Pedestrians or Keeping Them Out of The Way: A Historical Perspective on Pedestrian Policies in Britain." Last modified 2005.Accessed June 18, 2012. http://www.cts.cv.ic.ac.uk/documents/poster/poster00845.pdf. 3 Jordan, Laura. The Connecticut General Assembly: Office of Legislative Research, "Traffic Regulations." Last modified January 31, 1997.Accessed June 18, 2012. http://www.cga.ct.gov/ps97/rpt/olr/htm/97-r-0173.htm. 4 Weingroff, Richard. US Department of Transportation: Federal Highway Administation, "Highway History." Last modified April 07, 2011.Accessed June 18, 2012. http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/infrastructure/walk.cfm. 5 Burnell, Tamiko. US Department of Transportation: Federal Highway Administation, "Pedestrian Safety- Report To Congress." Last modified August 2008.Accessed June 18, 2012. http://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/ped_bike/legis_guide/rpts_cngs/pedrpt_0808/chap_3.cfm. Like this topic? Check out our related products:

Habit: stout perennial growing from rhizomes, with large fleshy tropical leaves and winged petioles. The spike inflorescence consists of yellowish-green flowers tightly clustered on a fleshy spadix (stem), which is subtended by a yellow to cream colored leafy bract. Flowers give off a strong aroma of skunk. Berry like fruits ripen from green to red. Blooms early spring, between March and May. Ecology: found in wet meadows, swamps, and along streams from sea level to 4200 ft (1300 m) along the Pacific Coast from Alaska through California, and inland to Wyoming and Montana. Growing Conditions: full to partial shade, in moist to wet soil. Grows in areas where most won’t without any drainage. Flies and beetles attracted by the distinctive odor of skunk, when Lysichiton americanus flowers, pollinate the plant. This is a thermogenic plant meaning that the blooming stem produces enough heat to melt surrounding snow.

Bankart Repair/Anterior Stabilisation of the Shoulder Condition What is a Bankart injury? The shoulder is a ball and socket joint and is made up of three bones; the humerus (arm bone), scapula (shoulder blade) and clavicle (collar bone). Your shoulder is the most mobile joint in your body. It is dependent on muscles, ligaments (including the joint ‘capsule’) and a rim of cartilage (called the ‘labrum’) to stabilise it during movement. The labrum is located on the rim of the ‘socket’ on the ball and socket joint. Some injuries to the shoulder can dislocate it forwards, stretching and in some cases, tearing the joint capsule, ligaments and cartilage away from the front of the joint. If the labrum is torn the shoulder can become unstable. If the tear is at the front of the shoulder (anterior), it is called a labral lesion. There are other labral lesions of the shoulder which you may have been told you have in your shoulder i.e. SLAP lesion or an ALPSA lesion. The repairs of these lesions are completed in the same way as described above. What are the alternatives? Solutions for your shoulder pain before considering surgery are : - Modifying activity and sport to avoid the pain - Taking painkillers and/or anti-inflammatory tablets. - Physiotherapy and other allied specialities such as acupuncture. Questions that we are often asked about the operation: You will be given a general anaesthetic. General anaesthesia is drug-induced unconsciousness: an anaesthetist, who is a doctor with specialist training, always provides it. Unfortunately, general anaesthesia can cause side effects and complications. Side effects are common, but are usually short-lived: they include nausea, confusion and pain. Complications are very, very rare. The anaesthetist may give you an additional ‘nerve block’ for pain relief. The nerve block is an injection onto or near the nerves in the shoulder for temporary pain control during and after the operation. The injection will either be an interscalene or suprascapular nerve block. The risks of anaesthesia and surgery are lower for those who are undergoing minor surgery, and who are young, fit, active and well. You will be given an opportunity to discuss anaesthetic options and risks with your anaesthetist before your surgery. If you are worried about any of these risks, please speak to Mr Al-Sabti. ABOUT OUR CLINIC Shoulder Clinic provides the very highest standards of professional medical care, including diagnosis, treatment and after care, all under one roof. CONDITIONS AND TREATMENT Shoulder Clinic offers a range of treatments for problematic shoulders, joints, ligaments and other underlying issues. Shoulder Clinic provides the very highest recovery care, and followed up with a treatment plan tailored to meet each individual’s requirements.

A new study has found that bee propolis can help prevent or reverse hair loss. The research, published in the December 2014 edition of the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, found that topical application of bee propolis reversed the balding effect, Bee propolis is a natural resin substance made by bees to patch up holes and damage in their hive walls. Bee propolis has strong anti-inflammatory effects when applied to the skin and research shows that most hair loss is due to underlying inflammation in the skin cells below the scalp. Skin conditions such as scalp eczema or dermatitis, scalp psoriasis, scalp acne and even dandruff as well as some hormonal imbalances and medications can cause inflammation of the scalp skin cells, leading to weakened and damaged hair that eventually falls out. The research showed that the application of bee propolis to the scalp in areas where hair thinning or loss had taken place helped increase the number of hair growth cells, halting hair damage to the hair follicle and increasing the strength of the hair root. The bee propolis scalp application also stimulated hair re-growth in areas of baldness.