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Many languages provide a built-in function to test whether an expression is undefined, e.g. Perl's defined() function.
Attempting to operate on an undefined value, e.g. add it to a number or append it to a string, may either raise an error or result in the undefined value being converted (cast) to some appropriate value, e.g. false, zero or empty string, according to the type of expression.
This definition is an example of a paradox.
Try this search on Wikipedia, OneLook, Google
Nearby terms: uncountable « uncurry « uncurrying « undefined » undefined external reference » underflow » Undernet
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Vanilla is a product of Lussumo:Documentation and Support.
101 to 101 of 101
After five years of steady progress, scientists are now edging closer and closer to mastering real-world invisibility.Sure, researchers have already made marked strides toward making objects unseeable. But much of the work was more like mimicry: Meta-materials that bent light around an object to conceal it, but only worked in two dimensions. Or a device that played tricks on the eye, by harnessing the mirage effect to make objects behind it “disappear.”Now, a team of researchers have taken an incredible leap forward. They’ve successfully made a 3-D object disappear.A group of scientists at the University of Texas at Austin have figured out how to “cloak a three-dimensional object standing in free space.” That means the object is invisible, from any angle of observation.
A dose of ultrasound to the testicles can stop the production of sperm, according to researchers investigating a new form of contraception.They found that two, 15-minute doses "significantly reduced" the number of sperm-producing cells and sperm levels.It was most effective when delivered two days apart and through warm salt water.
Possessing the ability to noninvasively elicit brain circuit activity yields immense experimental and therapeutic power. Most currently employed neurostimulation methods rely on the somewhat invasive use of stimulating electrodes or photon-emitting devices. Due to its ability to noninvasively propagate through bone and other tissues in a focused manner, the implementation of ultrasound (US) represents a compelling alternative approach to current neuromodulation strategies. Here, we investigated the influence of low-intensity, low-frequency ultrasound (LILFU) on neuronal activity. By transmitting US waveforms through hippocampal slice cultures and ex vivo mouse brains, we determined LILFU is capable of remotely and noninvasively exciting neurons and network activity. Our results illustrate that LILFU can stimulate electrical activity in neurons by activating voltage-gated sodium channels, as well as voltage-gated calcium channels. The LILFU-induced changes in neuronal activity were sufficient to trigger SNARE-mediated exocytosis and synaptic transmission in hippocampal circuits. Because LILFU can stimulate electrical activity and calcium signaling in neurons as well as central synaptic transmission we conclude US provides a powerful tool for remotely modulating brain circuit activity.
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Native Polish surnames, just as surnames of other Slavonic nations, can be roughly divided into three main groups:
- those derived from original nicknames, as names of animals, trees, things, professions,
- those derived from the Christian name or profession of the father (patronymics)
- those derived from names of towns, villages, regions etc. (toponymics)
This may appear simple, but in many cases it is nearly impossible to determine if a given surname is derived from the name of a profession or from the name of the village which has this profession in its root. The surnames derived from names of professions can be treated as members of either of the above groups.
The Slavonic languages use many suffixes to form surnames. As an example let's look at the profession "Kowal" (a smith). Whereas the English language has one surname "Smith", and the German several of them, "Schmitt", "Schmidt" etc. (which differ only by spelling), the Polish language can add numerous suffixes (sometimes even several on the same name). Therefore, apart from the surname "Kowal" we have Kowalski, Kowalik, Kowalewski, Kowalak, Kowalka, Kowalkowski, and Kowalczyk, to name just a few which are the most frequently used ones. The same holds true for the surnames derived from Christian names. From the common name "Jan" (John), the Poles have formed more than 100 surnames, among them being Jankowski, Janicki, Jankowiak, Janiak, Jasicki, Jasinski and Jachowicz. In the case of Christian names many forms such as deminutiva and local (dialectal) variants are known, which therefore increase the possible number of surnames. Most of the surname-forming suffixes do not mean anything by themselves. Despite this, we can still learn something about a surname from the suffix that is present. The -ak suffix is typical for Western Poland, whereas -uk is chiefly found in the East. The suffix -ski is commonly said to prove "noble" origin of a family. This was true about 200 years ago. Presently most people whose surnames end with -ski (or -cki which is a phonetic variant of -ski) originate from the former lower social classes. This phenomenon is easily explained because in the 19th century everybody wanted to be considered as "noble", thus many people improved their names with this suffix.
The process of forming Polish surnames lasted several centuries. The noble class originally used "clan" names which later survived in the names of their coats of arms. Particular families within a clan used a surname derived from the name of the village they owned. When a family moved, it was usual to change the surname as well. Those surnames usually ended with -ski or -cki, which gave birth to the common statement that these suffixes "prove" a noble origin. Since at least the 17th century the surnames of the noble families became fixed and were inherited by following generations.These remain in that form from those times until today.
City inhabitants also began to use surnames at the end of the Middle Ages. Those of them who came from other countries retained their original surnames with modifications or translated them into Polish. Native Poles formed their surnames from diverse nicknames. In the 17th century this procedure ended as well.
Peasants didn't have surnames in our contemporary meaning of the word surnames until practically the late 1600's. They were using nicknames to discriminate between people with the same Christian name, but these were generally not passed from generation to generation. This custom appeared in the first half of the 18th century, at first in the Western parts of Poland and then later in the East. Despite this, within the next 100 years, surnames were often modified within a given family both by spelling and by suffixes. After 1850 the practice of developing surnames had mostly ended throughout the entire population. Also at that time the Jews were obliged to use their inherited surnames instead of their traditional patronymics.
Source: What Does My Surname Mean?
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to the Spiritual Growth Study on Exodus: The Journey to Freedom.
Christine Keels and the Rev. Bernard Keels have provided a deep
river of content to draw us through the historical journey of African
American Methodists in the United States. For these modern-day successors
of the ancient Hebrews whom Moses led out of slavery in Egypt, there
is a river between their desert wandering and the promised land;
it is the river Jordan, and those traveling to the promised land
have to go through it.
can be read as an ancient history of the Hebrews, showing the power
of our God, whom we worship in church each Sunday. This is important.
But the United States has its own Exodus story to tell, and we have
not crossed over Jordan yet. Many generations have passed since
our Civil War, and many have forgotten the story of how freedom
was won for an enslaved people in this country. There is no annual
commemoration like that of the Jewish Passover. No bread is broken,
no wine is spilled, and no story is told about why "this night
is different from all other nights" in remembrance of the African
American freedom story. There is no solemn celebration to remind
the people of the present about the lash and chains suffered by
their forebears and about their ancestors brave resistance
and long journey toward freedom.
This more recent
freedom saga is complex. The story of Black Americans cannot be
told without the story of White Americans. The stories of Native
Americans, Spanish descendants, and a multitude of immigrants -
the Germans, Irish, Italians, Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, and a
host of other transplanted people, some willing, some coerced -
are entwined with the story of a nation founded on the genocide
of the peoples native to the land and on the slave labor of the
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The late eighteenth century saw two successful anti-colonial revolutions unfold in the Americas. The first was in the United States, culminating in 1783. The second was in Haiti, then the French colony of Saint-Domingue. That revolution began with a mass insurrection by the enslaved in August 1791, which led first to the abolition of slavery in the colony in 1793, then to its abolition throughout the French empire in 1794, and finally to Haitian independence from France in 1804.
What was the relationship between these two remarkable revolutions?
The story of these revolutions is generally told in national terms. But we learn a great deal about both of them if we examine them as intertwined stories within the larger history of Atlantic revolutions, with particular attention to the United States, France, and Haiti. According to historian Robin Blackburn, as the three connected revolutions unfolded, they led to increasingly radical outcomes. While the American Revolution represented a profound challenge to imperial structures, it did not cause a true social revolution in North America, where colonial elites became the new national elite. And despite the offers of freedom put forth by the British to enslaved people who would fight for them, which many slaves took up, and the initiation of emancipation in many northern states, slavery ultimately survived that revolution and even expanded and thrived in its wake.Show Full EssayHide Full Essay
The events in North America did have global ramifications, however. They helped set the stage for the French Revolution, both by putting forth powerful new political ideologies and through the debts contracted by the French king in his support of the North American rebels. The French Revolution ultimately led to a far-reaching social transformation within the country. Its unfolding was intricately tied to events in France’s most important colony, Saint-Domingue, where the weakening colonial governance and the emergence of new political language and new possibilities for mobilization—including the enslaved—set the stage for a profoundly radical revolution.
Though the 1790s saw mobilization, revolt, and transformation throughout the French Caribbean, the changes that took place in Saint-Domingue were the most epochal. The contrast with the American Revolution is striking. In both places slavery was important, but in Saint-Domingue it dominated everything: 90 percent of the population was enslaved. As the year 1789 began, it would have been very difficult to imagine, for those both in the colony and outside of it, that the slave system would be completely overturned. And yet by 1793 there were no slaves in Saint-Domingue, and by 1804 it had become a new nation, led by an ex-slave general named Jean-Jacques Dessalines. The Haitian Revolution was the speediest and most successful abolitionist movement in history: it took a mere two years to go from revolt to universal and immediate emancipation.
In recent years scholars have increasingly insisted that much of what we inherited from the Age of Revolution—especially ideas of universal rights—were in fact crucially shaped by the events in the Caribbean. As an anti-slavery revolution largely made by enslaved people of African descent, the Haitian Revolution posed a direct threat to deeply entrenched interests throughout the world, including in the United States itself. Whereas the US relatively quickly found acceptance within the broader concert of nations, no foreign nation even acknowledged Haitian independence officially until France did so in 1825, and it took the US until 1862, in the wake of secession, to recognize the country. It was the last nation to do so.
The very different trajectories the two nations have taken since independence sometimes obscure the extent to which the Haitian and American Revolutions were ideologically intertwined. Understanding the links in the prerevolutionary histories of the US and Haiti is critical to understanding how the revolutions evolved.
The economic geography of the Americas looked dramatically different in the eighteenth century than it does today. The Caribbean was an economic and strategic center, in many ways much more significant than North America from the perspective of European empires. The booming sugar and coffee plantations of colonies like Saint-Domingue and Jamaica were the motor of the broader Atlantic economy. Though only the size of Maryland, the French colony of Saint-Domingue created as much wealth for France as the thirteen colonies did for England.
This economic configuration made North America dependent on the Caribbean. The North American colonies, especially New England, profited from extensive trade with Saint-Domingue. Merchants from the British colonies brought lumber and provisions to the French colony and came home with various goods, particularly molasses, which was turned into rum in New England refineries. The French and the English imperial governments sought to stamp out this contraband trade, but it was a hopeless task. Eventually, by the late eighteenth century, the French government grudgingly allowed some forms of intercolonial trade, establishing “free ports” where foreign merchants could bring in certain goods. But much of the trade continued illegally anyway. These patterns of exchange continued during the Haitian Revolution, when US merchants supplied not only provisions but crucial weapons and ammunition to the rebels. And in fact, except for a few years between 1806 and 1809, trade with independent Haiti continued essentially unabated throughout the early nineteenth century, despite the fact that the US hadn’t officially recognized the country.
This trade relationship between the two colonies had political effects in both places. In North America, the lucrative trade with Saint-Domingue helped spur the demands for free trade that became part of the American Revolution. The success of the American Revolution, in turn, inspired certain French planters and merchants in Saint-Domingue, who during the 1770s and 1780s frequently demanded freer trade, sometimes through violent revolt. When the events of 1789 in France created a political opening, white colonists pressed for more economic autonomy. The American Revolution surfaced as a particular kind of example, however: the slaveholders of the United States had managed to secure political and economic autonomy while preserving slavery. The latter point was key, because white planters in Saint-Domingue were worried that abolitionist sentiment in France would encourage slave revolt in the colony. Though demands for outright independence were rare in Saint-Domingue, planters hoped that they would be able to carve out greater economic and political autonomy, with the United States as an example of the advantages of doing so.
The link between the American Revolution and the actions of people of African descent in Saint-Domingue is more complex. The little-known role played by troops from Saint-Domingue in the American Revolution is part of this story. In 1779, several hundred gens de couleur—free men of African descent—joined the French military and fought at the siege of Savannah. Though no one yet has found documents listing the members of this unit, a number of important Haitian Revolutionaries—including André Rigaud and Henry Christophe—later claimed to have been part of this mission. The effects of this participation on the development of the revolution are difficult to track. On the one hand, the international military expedition was a source of pride for those who had participated. But for many, frustration at the way they were treated afterward may have stoked some of the resentment that came out during the early years of the Haitian Revolution.
Between 1789 and 1791, free people of color in Saint-Domingue initiated what can be considered the first stage of the Haitian Revolution as they fought—at first peacefully, and then violently—for political rights. Their actions, coupled with increasingly powerful divisions within the white population and between planters and French administrators, created an opening that the enslaved population took advantage of. In 1791, tens of thousands of enslaved people in the north of Haiti went into open and violent revolt against the plantation system, burning cane fields, killing masters, and smashing the machinery of sugar production. Within a few months, this uprising had been consolidated into a formidable political and military movement. Within two years they had pressured local officials to decree emancipation in the colony. This decision was ratified in February 1794 by the National Convention in Paris, which abolished slavery throughout the French empire.
This decree was the first national abolition of slavery in history. It was a radical, stunning, and challenging victory not only because of what it represented but also because of how it had happened. Slaves had transformed themselves into military leaders and then full-fledged citizens. Their actions resounded in an Atlantic world dominated by slavery and racial hierarchy. Throughout the nineteenth century and beyond, the Haitian Revolution became a pivotal referent—an inspiration for some, a terror for others—in debates about slavery, emancipation, and race.
The United States, then in the midst of its own conflicts over the development of the new republic, was very close to these events. In the 1790s refugees from Saint-Domingue streamed into US cities, particularly Charleston, Philadelphia, and New York, where they became a crucial part of the cultural and social fabric of urban life. They included masters and slaves, but also free people of color, and their presence helped spur debates about slavery in Philadelphia and New York. They also embodied one part of the story of the Haitian Revolution, influencing the ways in which people in the US saw what was happening in the Caribbean.
Some startling scenes played out in the United States: in 1793, a delegation of representatives from Saint-Domingue on their way to France stopped in Philadelphia. The delegation included an African-born man, Jean-Baptiste Belley, whose presence was a powerful symbol of the emancipation in Saint-Domingue. He arrived wearing a tri-color symbol, and a mob of refugees from the colony ripped it off him and threatened to lynch him. He stood his ground, recalling his service in the French military in the colony and explaining that a man who had defended whites in combat could very well also represent them in politics. Belley went on to Paris, where he was part of the delegation that argued for the abolition of slavery in France. His service as a member of the parliament in France during the 1790s highlights one of the profound differences between the American and Haitian Revolutions. It would take many decades, and a civil war, before a black person would serve in Congress in the United States, whereas several men of African descent did so in France in the 1790s.
The history of US policy toward Haiti has been explored in rich detail in recent years. Adams and Jefferson pursued very different policies. Adams offered support to Toussaint Louverture, leader of the Haitian revolution, and at one point the US Navy actually helped the black general defeat one of his internal enemies, André Rigaud, by blockading and bombarding the port town of Jacmel. Jefferson was much more reticent about links with Haiti, fearful of how the example of slave revolt might spread to the United States. In both cases, however, decisions about trade and political relations with Saint-Domingue, and then independent Haiti, were influenced by domestic and international factors. And though Jefferson refused to recognize Haitian independence—like all other nations at the time—the US only briefly outlawed trade with the new nation. Indeed, in 1802 and 1803 arms shipments from the US were crucial in the victory of the Haitian revolutionaries against France. In this sense, the two revolutions found a certain common cause—though unofficially, through commerce rather than any direct US aid—as weapons from the US ended up contributing to the creation of the second independent nation in the Americas.
Starting in late 1801, Napoleon Bonaparte began to reverse the policies of emancipation decreed in 1794 and to strike out against Toussaint Louverture and the new leadership class that had emerged in Saint-Domingue. This change in policy precipitated the conflicts that culminated in Haitian independence in January of 1804. For the revolutionaries, the cry of “Liberty or Death!” took on quite literal meaning: defeat at the hands of the French, it became increasingly clear, would mean a return to slavery.
In the wake of independence, Dessalines ordered the massacre of most of the remaining French planters on the island. But even this did not dissuade North American merchants from trading with the newly independent nation. Indeed some seem to have sold him weapons directly during this period. In the first year after Haiti’s declaration of independence, no fewer than forty ships sailed between Haiti and the United States. Though there was broad hostility to the Haitian Revolution, reactions to the events there were not uniform, and economic interest played a critical role in defining US policy.
US merchants were interested in Haiti because there were profits to be made. And that was because, contrary to the stories often told about post-independence Haiti, there were some important economic successes. In particular, the new form of small-scale farming that ex-slaves developed on the ashes of the plantation system was quite productive. Coffee, cultivated more on small to medium-sized farms, became an important export from Haiti in the early nineteenth century. And Haitians continued to import goods from the north. Although the country suffered greatly on the political scene from its diplomatic isolation, that did not sever the links between the two countries.
At the center of the Haitian Revolution, and of the battle for Haitian independence, was a desire to secure both a permanent end to slavery and access to a system that would allow people autonomy and dignity. In a nation whose population was made up almost entirely of ex-slaves, a small majority of them African-born, the challenge was to find forms of social and economic organization that would allow this to happen. The very different social situation in Haiti and the US after independence explains why the two independence declarations are so radically different. In fact, Jean-Jacques Dessalines explicitly refused a version that was based on the US Declaration of Independence. Instead, the Haitian Declaration was issued as a powerful denunciation of slavery and racism.
“It is not enough to have expelled the barbarians who have bloodied our land for two centuries,” the Declaration begins,
it is not enough to have restrained those ever-evolving factions that one after another mocked the specter of liberty that France dangled before you. We must, with one last act of national authority, forever assure the empire of liberty in the country of our birth; we must take any hope of re-enslaving us away from the inhuman government that for so long kept us in the most humiliating torpor. In the end we must live independent or die.
If the language was quite different, certain concepts were shared: the “empire of liberty” and the call for “Liberty or Death,” which was emblazoned atop the official publication of the Declaration. There was much in the world order of the time that made it difficult to see that at their root the two revolutions shared a common set of principles. What has been even more difficult for centuries to understand is that, in many ways, it was the Haitians who in fact showed the way forward, by insisting that any claim to natural or human rights was incomplete as long as slavery persisted.
Some of the research in this essay is based on work done for the New-York Historical Society exhibit Revolution! The Atlantic World Reborn, which I participated in as the co-chair of the Scholar’s committee.
Robin Blackburn, “Haiti, Slavery, and the Age of the Democratic Revolution,” William and Mary Quarterly 63, no. 4, Third Series (October 2006): 643–674.
I present an analysis of the relationship between the French revolution and events in the Caribbean, specifically Guadeloupe, in Laurent Dubois, A Colony of Citizens: Revolution & Slave Emancipation in the French Caribbean, 1787–1804 (Chapel Hill: Published for the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, Williamsburg, VA, by the University of North Carolina Press, 2004). An excellent panorama of this period is offered in A Turbulent Time: The French Revolution and the Greater Caribbean, Blacks in the Diaspora (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1997).
I explore the long-term ramifications of the revolutionary period in my history of Haiti: Laurent Dubois, Haiti: The Aftershocks of History (New York: Metropolitan Books, 2012).
Dubois, Aftershocks, 137–138.
Laurent Dubois, Avengers of the New World: The Story of the Haitian Revolution (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2004), chapters 1–2.
John Garrigus, “Catalyst or Catastrophe? Saint-Domingue’s Free Men of Color and the Battle of Savannah, 1779-1782,” Revista/Review Interamericana 22, no. 1–2 (1992): 109–125; John D. Garrigus, Before Haiti: Race and Citizenship in French Saint-Domingue (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006).
I offer a detailed history of the revolution in Dubois, Avengers. On the abolition of 1793 see the detailed account of Jeremy D. Popkin, You Are All Free: The Haitian Revolution and the Abolition of Slavery (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010).
Ashli White, Encountering Revolution: Haiti and the Making of the Early Republic (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2010); Gary B. Nash, Forging Freedom: The Formation of Philadelphia’s Black Community, 1720–1840 (Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 1988).
Dubois, Avengers, 168–170.
Tim Matthewson, A Proslavery Foreign Policy: Haitian-American Relations during the Early Republic (Westport, Conn: Praeger, 2003); Gordon S. Brown, Toussaint’s Clause: The Founding Fathers and the Haitian Revolution (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2005).
On early US reactions to the Revolution see Rayford Whittingham Logan, The Diplomatic Relations of the United States with Haiti, 1776–1891 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1941), chapter 5.
A translation of the declaration, along with other documents relating to the Haitian Revolution, is available in Laurent Dubois and John D. Garrigus, Slave Revolution in the Caribbean, 1789–1804: A Brief History with Documents (New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2006).
Laurent Dubois is the Marcello Lotti Professor of Romance Studies and History and co-director of the Haiti Laboratory of the Franklin Humanities Center at Duke University. His books on Haiti and the French Caribbean include A Colony of Citizens: Revolution and Slave Emancipation in the French Caribbean, 1787–1804 (2004), which received the Frederick Douglass Book Prize; Avengers of the New World: The Story of the Haitian Revolution (2004); and Haiti: The Aftershocks of History (2012).
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| 4.176549 |
STRENGTH OF MATERIALS).
The longitudinal strain e is always accom panied by a strain e' of the transverse dimen sions; for a given material e'=cre where a is constant for isotropy. Thus if a rod receives a longitudinal strain e the strain of any straight line in a cross-section is ae: at is not an areal strain. In engineering. m is used for a. a is called Poisson's ratio after Poisson, who in 1828 calculated it to be for all materials; experiment has not verified his prediction.
(2) For shear stress q and strain q-=-14; p is the modulus of shear or of rigidity. Young was the first to point out that resistance to (detrusion,p as he called shear, was different from resistance to stretching. But he did not introduce the shear modulus; this was done by Navier in 1833. The symbol p was first used by Lame in 1852; in books on the strength of materials N and G are used for p.
.(3) A constant normal stress p over the entire surface of a body produces a volumetric strain A, called the dilatation, where k being the bulk modulus or modulus of com pression.
For isoteopic bodies there are thus four constants of elasticity: E, p, a, k. It will be shown later that only two of them are inde pendent. Stokes in 1845 ((Mathematical and Physical Papers,' Vol. I, p. 75) pointed out that p and k are of basic importance in theo retical work; in engineering E and p are more convenient.
For eolotropic substances we may still as sume the stress to be a linear function of the strain, in which case the generalized forms of Hooke's law are Cyy+ Cu ess+Cu Gay+ Cis els+ esz Cn eyy + eXtl+ CIS eyx+ Cs" and so on for Zs, Xy, Z., the 36 coeffi cients, Cu to Cu, being the elastic constants. Green in 1837 proved that for conservative systems Css. Cam whereby the constants re duce to 21 for eolotropy. For isotropy they reduce to 2. To express the stresses in terrns of strains for isotropy consider the effect of a single tension X.. 13y Hooke's law it pro duces a strain Xi/E in its own direction, and according to Poisson's ratio, a lateral com pressive strain aX./ E. Hence if a parallele piped is acted on by tensions X., and Zs, the resultant axial strains will be given by E,e.. X — a ( Yy Zz) Eeyy = Yy — agz -1-Xx) . . . (6) Efts = Z.— a(Xx Ifv); exx, , est are called the equivalent simple strains, and when multiplied by E, the equiva lent simple stresses. By addition eyy ett)= (X.+ Yy Zs) (i— 2c7) ; the first parenthesis is the volumetric strain because the change of volume is (I -I- e..) dx (1 -I- eind dy (I -I- est) ds—dx dy dz =(azz+ eins dx dy dm if the strains are so small that terms above the first order are negligible. The volumetric strain or dilatation A is then A Cyy es: Now it is obvious from Fig. 2 that the infinites • au imal shear does not change the area of aY the face dx dy; if one does not, none vvIll, so that shear does not change areas. In the" same
way it follows that infinitesimal shear will not alter volumes; this is why the dilatation contains only linear strains.
If the stresses in the equation following (6) are all equal to X.
3(1 — 2a) X.= EA whence, as p.---kA k —2a) If a> 5/2, k is negative whence volumes would be increased by compression and decreased by tension; as this does not occur a cannot ex ceed %. Furthermore a negative a would mean lateral expansion under tension; this is not true of isotropic materials. Therefore a is a positive fraction not larger than Vs; ex periment verifies this.
If the first equation of (6) is written Xx=Eezz±a(Xx+ +Z.)-0X.
and the parenthesis eliminated by means of the equation below (6), there results Xs aa 2ut..; similarly Yy= RA ± Zuevy (7) Zs= RA + 2pes.
where etE -Fe).
0 +00-2a) It will be proved ldter that p is the modulus of shear as defined above; hence Xy=pess , Ys=pess , Z.=---pezx , (8) Navier, Poisson, and Cauchy, the founders of the theory of elastidty, derived their equations from a hypothesis of intermolecular actions the consequences of which demanded that X=0; then contrary to experiment. They belonged to what Pearson has called the rari-constant, as opposed to the multi-constant, school of elasticians. The weight of evidence is in favor of the necessity of two constants for specifying the elastic properties of isotro pic materials. To interpret p in the equations just found, consider a cubical element under tension p on one pair of faces and compres sion p on a perpendicular pair, as on the full line square in Fig. 4. By taking as a free-body the shaded corner cut off by a 45-degree plane and resolving the forces (stressXarea) par allel and normal to the oblique surface, we find that a stress q=-p on the oblique face is neces sary and sufficient for equilibrium. That is, orthogonal, equal, unlike normal stresses pro duce pure shear of equal magnitude on any plane at 45 degrees. Take now the dash-line square as a free-body: it is in pure shear of magnitude q=p. Since the change of a right angle is the shear strain 0, the change of ik=45°) is 0/2. As the sides of the inner square are not altered in length, D is constant in dl D=1 cos whence = &kin° dl But and dB= 0 •• = A By eq (6) — E and P E 2(1 + a) For the purposes of integration it is con venient to eliminate the internal stresses from equations (5). Substituting equations (7) and (8) in (5), replacing the strains by their values in (1) and (2) and using the symbolic abbrevia tion — the Lapacian operator — a. a. as , axt az? we find atu (X — Vls pX = p at.
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Mapping the Way
This two day workshop took place with year 8 pupils from St.Paul's Way Community School in Tower Hamlets, London. On each day we set out to map the school grounds by walking at the edges of footpaths and boundaries, around buildings, and along the painted lines of the playing field.
When all the walks from both days were overlaid it produced a map composed of over 40 miles of tracks (left). It shows the overall accessible areas and details of the features within while the densities of lines destinguish the popular and unpopular places.
As the pupils walked along the edges of the school with GPS receivers their positions were
automatically recorded every two seconds for about an hour.
Back in the classroom we uploaded the GPS tracks and scrutintized them on a big screen.
We also had a large outline of the school drawn on the wall that we gradually filled in with
annotations and details of where things were.
Above is a selection of some of the individual maps made by the students.
We could see where they had mapped, and where they hadn't. We could also see where
they stopped to have a natter as it was represented as a cluster of small squiggles on the map.
The reception of the GPS signals from the satellites wasn't always clear so some of the individual tracks weren't as precise as we hoped for.
When we combined all the tracks at the end of each day we produced a GPS map where the density of the lines defines the features of the area.
The workshop was part the Creative Mapping project by
GPS MAP OF ST. PAULS WAY COMMINITY SCHOOL - JULY 2007
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Back to A History of Minneapolis index page
The first labor unions in Minneapolis were organized following the Civil War. During the substantial growth of population and industry in the 1880s-1890s, labor unions became a major political force in the state of Minnesota, and especially in Minneapolis, where industrial workers were concentrated.
Relations between unions and employers were most contentious--violent in fact--in 1934, when Minneapolis teamsters, having successfully won a strike in the coal yards, tried to organize all the teamsters in the city. They met fierce opposition from the Citizens Alliance of Minneapolis, the employer's organization representing over 800 city businesses. The union voted to strike May 12, 1934 and violent clashes ensued in May and July, killing several people.
Governor Floyd B. Olson declared martial law on the streets of Minneapolis and eventually requested President Franklin D. Roosevelt to intervene. Although he didn't do so publicly, Roosevelt did threaten to withdraw public funds available to Minneapolis firms via the Reconstruction Finance Corporation. This proved to be ample motivation for employers to recognize the unions and to enter into collective bargaining with the workers.
In the mid 1930s, Nellie Stone Johnson organized workers of the Minneapolis Athletic Club and was one of the founders of the Hotel and Restaurant Union-Local 665. She went on to become the first black elected to public office in Minneapolis in 1945, when she won a seat on the Library Board. In 2001, Broadway Community School in north Minneapolis was renamed the Nellie Stone Johnson School in her honor.
Previous: Central Business District (Part II)
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Sports participation in the United States has reached record levels, and high school-level sports participation continues to rise. In fact, the National Federation of State High School Associations estimates that more than 7.6 million high school students (over 55% of all students) played sports during the 2010-2011 academic year.
As orthopaedic surgeons, we are all too familiar with injuries that can occur in sports. But the benefits far outweight the potential for injury. Since we are wrapping up National Physical Fitness and Sports Month, the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine would like to focus on the many positive benefits of sports - and encourage Americans to participate.
The physical benefits of competitive sports are the most obvious. Much attention has been given to the role of sports and exercise in decreasing the rates of obesity in our nation's youth. While lower body mass among athletes is certainly a desirable marker, it is not the only purported advantage of the regular exercise that comes with sports participation. Athletes experience lower rates of diabetes and high blood pressure, as well as improved cardiovascular and pulmonary function.
However, the benefits of sports are not simply limited to physical health. Here are just a few reasons to consider playing sports or encouraging your children to play sports.
A study published in Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine reported that out of 14,000 high school atheletes, the ones who regularly played sports were less likely to use drugs. Likewise, a survey performed by the National Household Survey of Drug Abuse showed that students who played sports were less likely to have smoked cigarettes or used drugs and were more likely to disapprove of others using them. Also, the Women's Sports Foundation has stated that female high school athletes are 80% less likely to become pregnant than non-athletes.
Studies perfomed among students in multiple states - including Wyoming, Iowa, and Colorado - have shown that playing sports can actually increase success in the classroom. Various data demonstrate that athletes have higher grade point averages, higher standardized test scores, better attendance, lower dropout rates, and a better chance of going to college.
A survey of individuals at the level of executive Vice President of 75 Fortune 500 companies showed that 95% of them played sports in high school. While it might be hard to argue that sports participation could guarantee higher incomes, promotions, and better jobs, the leadership skills and development of teamwork, hard work, and determination might help prepare students to be leaders at work and in their communities later in life.
While it is important for adults to be aware of the risks of injuries in various sports, both for themselves and for their kids, it is important to remember that there are many great reasons to play them as well! How are you encouraging your family and friends to get involved in sports?
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Strabismus is a disorder in which the eyes do not line up in the same direction. People with strabismus cannot look at the same object or place with both eyes at the same time. The condition is often referred to as “crossed eyes.”
Strabismus usually develops in infants and children by the time they are 3 years old. The condition occurs when the muscles of each eye do not work together to point to the same place.
The brain will then receive two images, which can cause double vision or confusion. It can be a result of problems with the eye muscles themselves, the nerves that transfer information to the eye muscles, or the part of the brain that controls eye movements.
Over time, the brain will learn to ignore one of the images. If strabismus is not treated, it can lead to a permanent reduction of vision in one eye. This is usually called amblyopia or lazy eye. However, if treated early, strabismus can often be corrected with very good results.
According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), in most children the true cause of strabismus is not known.
The condition can also develop in adults. In adults, strabismus may be caused by:
- stroke (the leading cause of strabismus in adults)
- trauma that damages the brain, nerves, or muscles of the eye
- neurological problems
- Grave’s disease (a thyroid disorder affecting the eyes)
There are several different types of strabismus. The types are usually described by the direction of the eye misalignment. The most common types of strabismus are:
- estotropia: inward turning of the eyes, or “cross-eyed”
- exotropia: outward turning of the eyes, or “wall-eyed”
- hypertropia: when the abnormal eye is higher than the normal fixating eye
- hypotropia: when the abnormal eye is lower than the normal fixating eye
Some types of strabismus have special patterns and unique names such as Brown syndrome (a mechanical problem with the eyes causing difficulty with looking up and inward), and Duane syndrome (abnormal eye movements causing difficulty with rotating eyes outward or inward). The eye-turning symptoms may be present all the time, or may occur only when the patient is tired or sick.
According to the American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus, an estimated four percent of people in the United States have strabismus (AAPOS). It can develop in otherwise healthy children. However, risk factors include:
- family history: children with parents or siblings who also have strabismus are more likely to have it
- other medical disorders that affect the brain, including:
- Down syndrome
- cerebral palsy
- brain tumors
- farsightedness: people who have farsightedness may develop strabismus because they need to focus more to keep objects clear
Any child older than 4 months whose eyes do not seem to be straight all the time should be examined by a doctor for strabismus.
Strabismus is diagnosed by an eye exam. The eye exam is comprehensive, but the doctor will pay particular attention to how the eyes focus and move. According to the American Optometric Association (AOA), an eye exam typically includes the following tests or procedures:
An eye doctor will ask the patient about any symptoms he or she is experiencing and about general health problems, medications, and environmental factors that may contribute to the patient’s health.
Visual acuity measures the clearness of a person’s vision. A patient will usually be asked to read letters on a chart from a distance of 20 feet. Visual acuity is written as a fraction. 20/20 is considered normal. The top number is the distance at which the testing is done (20 feet), and the bottom number is the smallest size of the letter that the patient is able to read from 20 feet away.
In other words, if a person has 20/40 visual acuity, it means they need to be 20 feet away from the letter to see it, when they actually should be able to see when standing 40 feet away.
An eye doctor will use a refraction test to find out what type of lens a patient needs to correct a refractive error. This test requires the patient to look through lenses of different strengths, one eye at a time, at an eye chart 20 feet away. Refractive errors include nearsightedness, farsightedness, or astigmatism.
Alignment and Focusing Testing
An eye doctor will measure how well the eyes focus and move together.
Examination of Eye Structure and Health
An eye doctor will look at the inside and outside structure of the eye.
An eye doctor should be able to diagnose strabismus based on the results of the comprehensive eye exam. If strabismus is diagnosed, an eye doctor will normally recommend a treatment plan.
Strabismus treatment aims to improve the alignment of the eyes so they can work better together. Treatment may involve:
- eye glasses: to correct farsightedness
- eye exercises and vision therapy: to help train the eyes and brain to work together; these exercises may take place at home or in a doctor’s office
- prism lenses: special lenses with a prescription for prism power; they alter the light that enters the eye to reduce the amount of turning the eye has to do to look at objects
- eye patch: if the patient has lazy eye, an eye patch will be placed over the good eye, forcing the weak eye to work harder
- surgery: to change the length or position of the eye muscles
With treatment, the prognosis is typically very good and the eyes become straight. However, vision problems may still remain, even after surgery. In general, the younger the child is when treatment is started or surgery is performed, the better the outcome.
If strabismus is not treated, it can lead to a permanent reduction of vision in one eye.
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(SOURCES: Anne Moore, M.D., Ph.D., medical epidemiologist, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Marc Siegel, M.D., associate professor, medicine, NYU Langone Medical Center, New York City; July 6, 2012, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report )
THURSDAY, July 5 (HealthDay News) -- As many as 300,000 people in the United States may have chronic Chagas disease -- mostly spread by blood-sucking insects -- health officials report.
However, the first confirmed U.S. case of transmission from a mother to a newborn was recently documented, adding to ongoing concern about this parasitic disease, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Most people with Chagas disease in the United States are immigrants from areas in Latin America, where the disease is endemic, the report said.
While Chagas is treatable and curable, it often goes unrecognized. Untreated, the infection is lifelong.
"Only a few people who are infected develop early symptoms," said Dr. Anne Moore, a CDC medical epidemiologist. "The vast majority have such mild symptoms, or no symptoms, that they don't know they are infected."
The parasite stays in the blood system and gradually causes disease in the tissues it affects -- and the tissues it likes the most are heart muscle, Moore said.
"About 30 percent of those infected will develop serious cardiac disease, which can be fatal," she explained.
Chagas is spread by triatomine insects, which can carry the parasite that causes the disease. People become infected when the bug feeds by sucking blood. The insects are also called kissing bugs because they tend to bite around the face, Moore said.
While most people who have Chagas are from Latin America and Mexico, the insects that cause the disease are common across the lower southern, eastern and western United States, according to the CDC.
Whether the species of these bugs found in the United States carry this parasite isn't known, Moore said.
"We really don't have good information about whether there is a lot of transmission in the United States -- there has been a handful of cases, but no one is looking, so we don't have an idea of the magnitude of the problem," she noted.
The CDC, however, does test these insects for the parasite, she said.
Other, but undiagnosed, cases of mother-infant transmission have likely occurred in the United States, the report said. In other countries, the rate of congenital transmission from infected mothers is about 1 percent to 10 percent.
Two antiparasitic drugs can be used to treat Chagas. "Neither one is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, but they are available free from the CDC," Moore said.
No manufacturer has applied for approval for the drug because there are only a few cases of Chagas in the United States, she noted.
Moore believes people from Latin America, especially pregnant women, should be screened for Chagas, particularly those who have lived in rural areas. Many doctors don't know about the disease, so they don't look for it in these patients, she added.
The report was published in the July 6 issue of the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
The current case involved an infant whose mother had recently emigrated from Bolivia. The child was diagnosed two weeks after birth when doctors saw Trypanosoma cruzi parasites in the blood.
The infant was treated and cured with the antiparasitic drug benznidazole.
Chagas also can be spread through blood transfusions and organ transplants. In 2006, the American Red Cross began screening blood donors for Chagas, Moore noted. Chagas can be acquired through food contaminated with the parasite.
Dr. Marc Siegel, an infectious disease expert, said that "Chagas disease is a reminder to us that we are part of a worldwide community of health."
Chagas affects about 10 million people around the world, said Siegel, an associate professor of medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City.
"With all of the immigrants we have, Chagas has become more of a problem, because it can be transmitted from mother to child or through blood transfusion, not just through an insect," Siegel said.
This report should alert doctors to look for Chagas in patients with unexplained heart disease, he said.
"It's not enough of a problem that we should be worried about it," Siegel said. "It's trending and we have to keep an eye on it."
For more about Chagas disease, visit the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Copyright © 2013 ScoutNews, LLC. All rights reserved.
HealthDayNews articles are derived from various sources and do not reflect federal policy. healthfinder.gov does not endorse opinions, products, or services that may appear in news stories. For more information on health topics in the news, visit Health News on healthfinder.gov.
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Phones-for-Health leverages the existing mobile phone infrastructure so partner countries can extend the reach of their health information networks to remote areas. Mobile phones use software to relay patient data to a central computer system, allowing health workers and policymakers to instantly access the data.
The system allows health workers in the field to use a standard Motorola handset equipped with a downloadable application, as well as PCs and PDAs, to enter health data. Once entered, the data is transferred via a packet based mobile connection (GPRS) into a central database. If GPRS isn’t available, the software can use a SMS data channel to transmit the information. The data is then mapped and analyzed by the system, and is immediately available to health authorities at multiple levels via the web. The system also supports SMS alerting and other tools for communication with field staff.
Health workers will also be able to use the system to order medicine, send alerts, download treatment guidelines, training materials and access other appropriate information. Managers at the regional and national level can access information in real-time via a web based database.
Phones-for-Health is proving to be a cost-effective means for data collection and information dissemination—both critical to facilitating rapid interventions for at-risk patients through education and treatment programs. It is also a platform easily expanded to surveillance of other diseases, such as malaria and avian influenza. Country-level Ministries of Health and Social Welfare are exploring ways to expand the utility of the mobile platform to enhance data reporting and evidence-based decision-making.
Initially implemented in Rwanda, the project aims to expand to 10 other African countries after 2010.
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Rock Art Images of Northern New Mexico
"People have left their "mark" on the land forever. Those marks are apparent in the images pecked as Petroglyphs or painted as Pictographs seen on the New Mexico landscape."
This guide directs visitors to eight sites (5 public and 3 restricted) in the central Rio Grande region where the ancient symbols can be experienced in their original setting.
Dennis Slifer, author of five books, explains the significance of rock art in areas of New Mexico. An excellent timeline helps you identify stylistic differences in the images. A master locator map and detail site maps, show you how to find the sites and provide marked trails to follow. The guide is packed with striking contemporary photographs and graphic illustrations of actual images.
Color-relief highway map of the southwest covers the lands of the Navajo and other American Indian places, with 41 sites highlited by Anne Hillerman's text and Don Strel's photographs. Some sites highlited with quotes from Tony's mystery novels featuring Navajo policemen Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee.
Trading Posts, special places, National Parks and Monuments are identified on the map along with an introduction to Navajo weavings.
"Roads to the Past" is the first map of New Mexico to identify its most important archaeological sites. The highway map, printed in color relief, shows 23 sites of past archaeological exploration for all to experience human history through visitation and observation.
The reverse side of the map explains archaeology in detail, tracing populations of the state from the last Ice Age through Pre-History to flourishing cultures of 1000 years ago. More recently, it provides helpful information on movements of peoples due to climate changes from the time of the European explores to present-day Native American cultures of the 21st century.
One of the most popular natural places in New Mexico, this map gives is valuable for understanding the geology and formation of these unusual formations
Geology is made interesting by author and volcanologist Kirt Kempter, PhD. This map provides a handy trail guide with dramatic photographs and graphics that explain the geology over the past millennia.
Geology is made interesting by author and volcanologist Kirt Kempter, PhD. This map explores the dramatic history of the Caldera over the last millions of years to the present day with diagrams and beautiful photographs to bring the history alive, up to present day.
One of the most beautiful places in New Mexico is now depicted on a map useful to hikers, cross-country skiers, fly-fishers, photographers, mountain bikers, etc...
Attractive, conveniently-sized 32 page guide book for all who wish to visit. Accurate descriptions and background of Pueblo Indian Ceremonies year-round in New Mexico. Unique "Dial-A-Dance" shows dates, dances and pueblos.
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Kerala's Timber Temples
The temptation was irresistible. Though they knew that stone was, and still is, the orthodox temple building material, the matriarchal Keralites were so in love with their beautiful and abundant hardwoods, especially teak, they created their own temple architecture just to show it off. Heavy monsoons and 44 rivers flowing down from the Western Ghats nourish this slender, leaf-like state into India's most lushly verdant land. Forests cover 27% of the state, some so dense they have never been accessed. In 1970, a tribe of cave-dwellers was discovered in the Nilamber Valley.
One thousand timber temples span Kerala, serving its 70% Hindu population. "The typical design is a cluster of modest buildings standing freely within a compound. The most usual type is square, but rectangular, circular and even elliptical examples are also common," notes Indologist George Michell. "The most important auxiliary structure is the kuttumbalam, the hall for ritual dance and theatre."
Interestingly, this sloping-roof design with gables, circumabulatory porch/walkways, intricate carving and fine joinery is used also for wealthy residences, even mosques. But today, wood is so costly that concrete has replaced wood as the state's primary building material for temples and other edifices.
Photos and data for this article were drawn from several issues of Marg magazine. Subscribe today to see what you're missing.
The comments are owned by the author. We aren't responsible for their content.
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Question of the Week
Where was one of the oldest and largest iron ore deposits in America found in the 1730s?
Answer: Cornwall, Pa.
In the 1730s, Peter Grubb, a stone mason, discovered one of the oldest and largest iron ore deposits in America in the town of Cornwall, Pa.
Later called the Cornwall Ore Banks, it was composed of three hills: Large Iron Hill (about 58 acres), Middle Hill (about 35 acres), and Grassy Hill (about 10 acres). Grubb set about mining the ore and built Cornwall Furnace in 1742. After Grubb died in 1754, his sons Curtis and Peter inherited the furnace. During the Revolutionary War, Cornwall Furnace produced arms and armaments for American soldiers. In late October 1776, General Washington and General Lafayette personally visited the grounds to see the casting of the furnace’s first cannon.
Under the purview of the Grubb brothers, Cornwall became one of the state’s leading producers of pig iron, producing 500 tons annually by 1789. Nine years later, Robert Coleman had gained control of the furnace operation.
Cornwall operated continuously from 1742 to 1883, which made it the nation’s oldest cold blast charcoal furnace in constant use. The site was virtually abandoned after 1883 when newer furnace operations make it obsolete. However, Coleman’s great-granddaughter, Margaret Coleman Freeman Buckingham, took notice of the property decades later and gave the site to the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, along with money for its renewal, in 1932. Today, Cornwall Furnace and its grounds are a National Historic Landmark and are open to the public; and iron making demonstrations continue in the restored furnace.
Among HSP’s significant collection of forge and furnace records (#212) are many record books from Cornwall Furnace. The society also has several collections of papers from the Grubb family (#1967A, #1967B, and #1488), which further document this history of iron production in Pennsylvania.
Image: Cornwall Furnace, print from the Evening Bulletin (1940), Grubb family collection (Collection 1967A), The Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
About the Author
Look for these history stories every Sunday in the Philadelphia Inquirer. The stories, called Memory Stream, are published in the Currents section of the newspaper.
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As you walk, muscles and neurons constantly send information to your brain about where your legs are, where your feet hit the ground, and how hard they push off. Without that feedback, it can be hard to coordinate movement. As a result, amputees who wear prosthetic legs commonly develop gait abnormalities such as shorter strides, slower walking speeds, and standing on tip-toe to swing the prosthetic leg.
“The lack of sensation can affect mobility and quality of life,” says Zachary McKinney, a graduate student in biomedical engineering at UCLA. McKinney and his colleagues have been working on a simple feedback system that can be incorporated with almost any below-the-knee prosthetic leg. “Our goal is to improve sensory awareness of the prosthetic.”
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To help researchers take advantage of Blacklight, the largest shared-memory system in the world, the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center (PSC) has launched a Memory Advantage Program.
Shared memory” means that a system’s memory can be directly accessed from all of its processors, as opposed to “distributed memory” (in which each processor’s memory is directly accessed only by that processor). Being a very large shared-memory system, Blacklight enables many memory-intensive research projects that can’t be easily deployed on distributed-memory supercomputers. These include convenient and rapid expression of algorithms — such as graph-theoretical ones, for which distributed memory implementations are difficult, and interactive analysis of large data sets, which can be loaded in their entirety into random-access memory.
Read the Full Story.
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It’s very common for newborns to have rashes or other skin problems. Some
of them have long names that are hard to say and sound scary. But most will go
away on their own in a few days or weeks.
Here are some of the
things you may notice about your baby's skin.
Birthmarks come in different sizes, shapes, and
colors. Some are flat and some form a raised area on the skin. Most are
harmless and need no treatment. They often fade or disappear as a child grows
For more information, see the
Many newborn babies have a
yellow tint to their skin and the whites of their eyes. This is called
jaundice. In newborns, jaundice usually goes away on
its own within a week and does not need treatment. But if you are nursing, it
may be normal for your baby to have very mild jaundice throughout
breast-feeding. As long as your baby is getting enough milk and is fed often
(about 8 to 12 times every 24 hours), jaundice usually is not a problem.
In rare cases, jaundice gets worse and can cause brain damage. That is
why it is important to call your doctor if you notice signs that jaundice is
getting worse. If you think that your baby's skin or eyes are getting more
yellow, or if your baby is more tired or is not acting normally, call your
doctor. For more information, see the topic
Jaundice in Newborns.
Always call a doctor
if you have any concerns, if your baby is not acting normally, or if the skin
shows signs of being infected. The signs can include:
If you have concerns about what lotions or other
products to use on your baby's skin, talk to your baby's doctor at the next
visit. Not all newborn skin conditions need to be treated with lotions and
creams. You don’t usually need to use lotions and other products on healthy
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) offers a
variety of educational materials about parenting,
general growth and development, immunizations, safety, disease prevention, and more. AAP guidelines for various conditions and links to other
organizations are also available.
This website is sponsored by the Nemours Foundation. It
has a wide range of information about children's health, from allergies and
diseases to normal growth and development (birth to adolescence). This website
offers separate areas for kids, teens, and parents, each providing
age-appropriate information that the child or parent can understand. You can
sign up to get weekly emails about your area of interest.
Other Works ConsultedAmerican Academy of Pediatrics (2009). Your baby's first days. In SP Shelov et al., eds., Caring For Your Baby and Young Child: Birth to Age 5, 5th ed., pp. 125–130. New York: Bantam. Chang MW, Orlow SJ (2008). Neonates and infants
section of Neonatal, pediatric, and adolescent dermatology. In K Wolff et al.,
eds., Fitzpatrick's Dermatology in General Medicine, 7th
ed., vol. 1, pp. 935–941. New York: McGraw-Hill.Habif TP (2010). Vesicular and bullous diseases. In Clinical Dermatology: A Color Guide to Diagnosis and Therapy, 5th ed., pp. 635–670. Edinburgh: Mosby Elsevier.Miller JH, Hebert AA (2010). Hemangiomas. In MG Lebwohl et al., eds., Treatment of Skin Disease: Comprehensive Therapeutic Strategies, 3rd ed., pp. 289–291. Edinburgh: Saunders Elsevier.
February 2, 2011
Susan C. Kim, MD - Pediatrics & Thomas Emmett Francoeur, MD, MDCM, CSPQ, FRCPC - Pediatrics
How this information was developed to help you make better health decisions.
To learn more visit Healthwise.org
© 1995-2013 Healthwise, Incorporated. Healthwise, Healthwise for every health decision, and the Healthwise logo are trademarks of Healthwise, Incorporated.
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Henrietta Szold, 1860 - 1945
The last major effort of Henrietta Szold's life turned out to be one of the most challenging, engaging, and significant of her career. In early 1930, Szold was contacted by activists in Germany, who sought help in sending German Jewish youth to Palestine. In 1933, with conditions for Jews in Germany deteriorating rapidly, Szold took hold of Youth Aliyah, putting into place a giant effort that entailed preparing and organizing young people in Germany to live in Palestine, securing visas and transportation, and establishing an educational and support system for the new arrivals within Jewish agricultural settlements.
11,000 young people, first from Germany and then from other nations that fell under the Nazi shadow, came to Palestine as part of Youth Aliyah. Szold tried to meet every arriving transport of children and took a personal interest in the placement and situation of every child. When emigration from Nazi-occupied Europe was finally cut off, Szold sought to turn the resources of the movement toward the care of socially disadvantaged youth within Palestine itself.
The success of this complicated organizational effort of rescue in the face of the growing European catastrophe added to the already stunning record of achievement claimed by Szold and by Hadassah, which funded the work of its former leader. Her intense commitment to the children of Youth Aliyah gained the childless Szold recognition, throughout Palestine and the Jewish world, as a true mother in Israel.
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(En español: Polidipsia)
If someone's diabetes isn't under control, he or she might be really thirsty and drink a lot of fluids. Polydipsia is the medical word for this. In diabetes, polydipsia happens because the person's blood sugar levels are high and the kidneys are working overtime to get rid of the sugar. To do this, the kidneys produce more urine (pee). A lot of fluid leaves the body in pee so the person feels really thirsty and tries to replace the fluid by drinking a lot.
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Just about everyone knows that we can't live without blood. And that the blood in our bodies is pumped by the heart through a network of arteries and veins. But beyond those blood basics, what do you know about that red stuff beneath your skin?
Blood is essential for good health because the body depends on a steady supply of fuel and oxygen to reach its billions of cells. Even the heart couldn't survive without blood flowing through the vessels that bring nourishment to its muscular walls. Blood also carries carbon dioxide and other waste materials to the lungs, kidneys, and digestive system; from there they are removed from the body.
Without blood, we couldn't keep warm or cool off, we couldn't fight infections, and we couldn't get rid of our own waste products.
So how exactly does blood do these things? How is it made, and what's in it? How does blood clot? It's time to learn a little about the mysterious, life-sustaining fluid called blood.
What Is Blood and What Does It Do?
Two types of blood vessels carry blood throughout our bodies: The arteries carry oxygenated blood (blood that has received oxygen from the lungs) from the heart to the rest of the body. The blood then travels through the veins back to the heart and lungs, where it receives more oxygen. As the heart beats, you can feel blood traveling through the body at your pulse points — like the neck and the wrist — where large, blood-filled arteries run close to the surface of the skin.
The blood that flows through this network of veins and arteries is called whole blood. Whole blood contains three types of blood cells:
red blood cells
white blood cells
In babies and young children, blood cells are made in the of many bones throughout the body. But as kids get older, blood cells are made mostly in the bone marrow of the vertebrae (the bones that make up the spine), ribs, pelvis, skull, sternum (the breastbone), and parts of the humerus (the upper arm bone) and femur (the thigh bone).
Blood cells travel through the circulatory system suspended in a yellowish fluid called plasma. Plasma is 90% water and contains nutrients, proteins, hormones, and waste products. Whole blood is a mixture of blood cells and plasma.
Red blood cells (RBCs, and also called erythrocytes, pronounced: ih-rith-ruh-sytes) are shaped like slightly indented, flattened disks. RBCs contain an iron-rich protein called hemoglobin (pronounced: hee-muh-glow-bun). Blood gets its bright red color when the hemoglobin in RBCs picks up oxygen in the lungs. As the blood travels through the body, the hemoglobin releases oxygen to the tissues.
The body contains more RBCs than any other type of cell, and each has a life span of about 4 months. Each day, the body produces new RBCs to replace those that die or are lost from the body.
White Blood Cells
White blood cells (WBCs, and also called leukocytes, pronounced: loo-kuh-sytes) are a key part of the body's system for defending itself against infection. They can move in and out of the bloodstream to reach affected tissues. The blood contains far fewer white blood cells than red cells, although the body can increase production of WBCs to fight infection.
There are several types of white blood cells, and their life spans vary from a few days to months. New cells are constantly being formed in the bone marrow.
Several different parts of blood are involved in fighting infection. White blood cells called granulocytes (pronounced: gran-yuh-low-sytes) and lymphocytes (pronounced: lim-fuh-sytes) travel along the walls of blood vessels. They fight germs such as bacteria and viruses and may also attempt to destroy cells that have become infected or have changed into cancer cells.
Certain types of WBCs produce antibodies, special proteins that recognize foreign materials and help the body destroy or neutralize them. Someone with an infection will often have a higher white cell count than when he or she is well because more WBCs are being produced or are entering the bloodstream to battle the infection. After the body has been challenged by some infections, lymphocytes "remember" how to make the specific antibodies that will quickly attack the same germ if it enters the body again.
Platelets (also called thrombocytes, pronounced: throm-buh-sytes) are tiny oval-shaped cells made in the bone marrow. They help in the clotting process. When a blood vessel breaks, platelets gather in the area and help seal off the leak. Platelets survive only about 9 days in the bloodstream and are constantly being replaced by new cells.
Blood also contains important proteins called clotting factors, which are critical to the clotting process. Although platelets alone can plug small blood vessel leaks and temporarily stop or slow bleeding, the action of clotting factors is needed to produce a strong, stable clot.
Platelets and clotting factors work together to form solid lumps to seal leaks, wounds, cuts, and scratches and to prevent bleeding inside and on the surfaces of our bodies. The process of clotting is like a puzzle with interlocking parts. When the last part is in place, the clot happens — but if only one piece is missing, the final pieces can't come together.
When large blood vessels are severed (or cut), the body may not be able to repair itself through clotting alone. In these cases, dressings or stitches are used to help control bleeding.
In addition to the cells and clotting factors, blood contains other important substances, such as nutrients from the food that has been processed by the digestive system. Blood also carries hormones released by the endocrine glands and carries them to the body parts that need them.
An interesting thing about blood is that blood cells and some of the special proteins blood contains can be replaced or supplemented by giving a person blood from someone else. This process is called a transfusion. In addition to receiving whole-blood transfusions, people can also receive transfusions of a particular component of blood that they need. For example, someone can receive only platelets, red blood cells, or a clotting factor. When people donate blood, the whole blood can be separated into its different parts and used in this way.
Most of the time, blood functions normally, but sometimes, blood disorders or diseases can cause problems. Diseases of the blood that commonly affect young people can involve any or all of the three types of blood cells (red blood cells, white blood cells, or platelets) or the proteins and chemicals in the plasma that are responsible for clotting.
Some of the diseases and conditions involving the blood include:
Diseases of the Red Blood Cells
The most common condition affecting the red blood cells of teens is anemia, a lower-than-normal number of red cells in the blood. Anemia is accompanied by a decrease in the amount of hemoglobin present in the blood. Anemia symptoms — such as pale skin, weakness, and a fast heart rate — happen because of the blood's reduced capacity for carrying oxygen. Causes of anemia can be grouped into two categories: anemia caused by insufficient RBC production and anemia caused by RBCs being destroyed too soon.
Anemia resulting from inadequate red blood cell production:
Several conditions can cause a reduced production of red blood cells, including:
Iron deficiency anemia. Iron deficiency anemia is the most common type of anemia and can affect people who have a diet low in iron or who've lost a lot of RBCs (and the iron they contain) through bleeding. Premature babies, infants with poor nutrition, menstruating teenage girls, and those with ongoing blood loss due to illnesses such as inflammatory bowel disease are especially likely to have iron deficiency anemia.
Anemia due to chronic disease. People with chronic diseases (such as cancer or human immunodeficiency virus infection [HIV]) often develop anemia as a complication of their illness.
Anemia due to kidney disease. The kidneys produce erythropoietin, a hormone that stimulates production of red cells in the bone marrow. Kidney disease can interfere with the production of this hormone.
Anemia resulting from unusually rapid red blood cell destruction:
When red blood cells are destroyed more quickly than normal by disease (this process is called hemolysis, pronounced: hih-mah-luh-sus), the bone marrow will make up for it by increasing production of new red cells to take their place. But if RBCs are destroyed faster than they can be replaced, a person will develop anemia. Several causes of increased red blood cell destruction can affect teens:
G6PD deficiency. G6PD is an enzyme that helps to protect RBCs from the destructive effects of certain chemicals found in foods and medications. When the enzyme is deficient, these chemicals can cause red cells to hemolyze, or burst. G6PD deficiency is a common hereditary disease among people of African, Mediterranean, and Southeast Asian descent.
Hereditary spherocytosis (pronounced: sfeer-o-sye-toe-sus). In this inherited condition, RBCs are misshapen (like tiny spheres, instead of disks) and especially fragile because of a genetic problem with a protein in the structure of the red blood cell. This fragility causes the cells to be easily destroyed.
Autoimmune hemolytic anemia. Sometimes — because of disease or for no known reason — the body's immune system mistakenly attacks and destroys red blood cells.
Sickle cell anemia. Most common in people of African descent, sickle cell anemia is a hereditary disease that results in the production of abnormal hemoglobin. The RBCs become sickle shaped, cannot carry oxygen adequately, and are easily destroyed. The sickle-shaped cells also tend to abnormally stick together, causing obstruction of blood vessels. This blockage in the blood vessels can seriously damage organs and cause bouts of severe pain.
Neutropenia (pronounced: noo-truh-pee-nee-uh) occurs when there aren't enough of a certain type of white blood cell to protect the body against bacterial infections. People who take certain chemotherapy drugs to treat cancer may develop neutropenia.
Human immunodeficiency virus(HIV) attacks certain types of white blood cells (lymphocytes) that work to fight infection. Infection with the virus can result in AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome), leaving the body prone to infections and certain other diseases. Teens and adults can get the disease from sexual intercourse with an infected person or from sharing contaminated needles used for injecting drugs or tattoo ink.
Leukemias are cancers of the cells that produce white blood cells. These cancers include acute myeloid leukemia (AML), chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL), and chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). The most common types of leukemia affecting kids are ALL and AML. Scientists have made great advances in treating several types of childhood leukemia, most notably certain types of ALL.
Diseases of Platelets
Thrombocytopenia (pronounced: throm-buh-syte-uh-pee-nee-uh), or a lower than normal number of platelets, is usually diagnosed because a person has abnormal bruising or bleeding. Thrombocytopenia can happen when someone takes certain drugs or develops infections or leukemia or when the body uses up too many platelets. Idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) is a condition in which the immune system attacks and destroys platelets.
Diseases of the Clotting System
The body's clotting system depends on platelets as well as many clotting factors and other blood components. If a hereditary defect affects any of these components, a person can have a bleeding disorder. Common bleeding disorders include:
Hemophilia (pronounced: hee-muh-fil-ee-uh), an inherited condition that almost exclusively affects guys, involves a lack of particular clotting factors in the blood. People with severe hemophilia are at risk for excessive bleeding and bruising after dental work, surgery, and trauma. They may experience episodes of life-threatening internal bleeding, even if they haven't been injured.
Von Willebrand disease, the most common hereditary bleeding disorder, also involves a clotting-factor deficiency. It affects both guys and girls.
Other causes of clotting problems include chronic liver disease (clotting factors are produced in the liver) and vitamin K deficiency (the vitamin is necessary for the production of certain clotting factors).
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PROPEL YOUR CAREER
Aerospace engineering is the primary branch of engineering concerned with the design, construction, and science of aircraft and spacecraft. It is divided into two major and overlapping branches: aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering. The former deals with craft that stay within Earth's atmosphere, and the latter with craft that operates outside it.
While aeronautical engineering was the original term, the broader "aerospace" has superseded it in usage, as flight technology advanced to include craft operating in outer space. Aerospace engineering, particularly the astronautics branch, is referred to colloquially as "rocket science".
Aeronautical engineering as a career option is not only financially satisfying but also provides huge job satisfaction like no other organization can. In this specialized branch of Engineering one would be dealing with the construction, design and study of the science behind the forces and physical properties of aircraft, rockets, flying craft, and spacecraft. The field also covers their aerodynamic properties and behaviours, airfoil, control surfaces, lift, drag, and other properties.
Aerospace engineering is both challenging and rewarding.
India’s ‘Chandrayan’ and NASA’s space shuttle are examples of such challenging careers. For an aeronautical engineer careers exist in Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL), Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), Defence Research & Development Organization (DRDO), Defence Forces such as Indian Air Force, Indian Navy, Indian Army, Airlines in the Govt. and private sector as well as in the aircraft manufacturing companies in the private sector. You could also become a part of the military aircrafts, commercial planes, helicopters, satellites or rockets. Mission
As Aerospace engineering involves design and manufacture of very high technology systems, the job requires manual, technical as well as mechanical aptitude. Aeronautical engineer's usually work in teams under the supervision of senior engineers, bringing together their skills and technical expertise. Though highly paid, the work is very demanding. An aeronautical engineer needs to be physically fit and fully dedicated to his work. One needs to be alert, have an eye for detail and should have a high level of mathematical precision to be successful.
Aeronautical Engineering at
is an established institute and conducts a 4-year full time B.Tech. programme in Aeronautical Engineering. It is actively associated in grooming the aeronautical engineering students by introducing them to various specializations in Aeronautical engineering as per the curriculum of the B.Tech. (Aero) programme. These include the areas of aerodynamics, aircraft propulsion, aircraft structures, aircraft materials, aircraft design, computational techniques, etc. A wide selection of projects, seminars and training facilities besides technical visits to industrial enterprises generate enormous potential and confidence among the students enabling them to independently handle the real life problems in their engineering careers. The eligibility requirements for admission to this UG programme are a 10+2 Senior Secondary School Examination or its equivalent qualification for entry from the 1st year or Engineering Diploma recognized by different States in Manav Rachna International University for lateral entry from 2nd year. India
A low speed subsonic wind tunnel has been installed. This can be used for both undergraduate and post graduate studies. Other lab facilities like aircraft systems lab, aircraft propulsion lab, aeromodelling lab and a supersonic wind tunnel are also being planned during the near future.
A team of highly qualified and experienced, dedicated faculty members are continually engaged in arousing the interest of students and help them achieve a position of command in competitions. The faculty is also encouraged to enroll for higher studies.
A person will start as an engineer trainee or junior Engineer for training. After successful completion of training they will be recruited as assistant aircraft engineers or assistant technical officers. They have to pass periodic exams to gain promotions. They could also become consultants later on.
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After an unforgivably long time, the revolutionary idea that girls should get the same education as boys seems to be gaining acceptance. What's surprising, then, is that one of the great impediments to keeping girls in school — particularly girls in the developing world — remains largely unremarked upon and unaddressed. By this we mean the stubborn persistence of child marriage.
Child brides remain alarmingly common. An estimated 10 million marriages occur worldwide each year in which at least one spouse, usually the female, is younger than 18. In 16 countries, half of girls marry by that age. West Africa has the highest incidence of child marriage, South Asia the largest numbers. In many places, brides are preposterously young. In Niger, 36 percent of girls are wed before turning 15.
These unions produce a host of social ills. Younger brides become pregnant at younger ages, often before their bodies fully mature, putting mother and child at risk. In the developing world, a baby born to a mother under 20 is 50 percent more likely to be stillborn or die in the first month than one born to a mother 20 to 29. Pregnant girls younger than 15 are five times more likely to die giving birth than women over 20 are.
A particular danger for teen mothers is obstetric fistula, a condition that can develop during untended, obstructed labor and lead to constant leakage of urine or feces; such girls are often cast out of society.
Girls who marry young also typically leave school. Their children are more likely than those of older brides to be undereducated and malnourished.
Generally, the younger the bride, the greater the age gap between her and her husband, which translates to a power imbalance that often leads to spousal abuse.
In recent decades, several countries have increased the legal marital age to 18 to comply with international conventions defining marriage as an agreement between consenting adults. Yet legal change alone has made little difference. The prevalence of child marriage is decreasing — but very slowly, and in many places not at all. Some members of Egypt's Parliament actually want to rescind the country's law that sets the marriage age at 18.
In societies where this tradition is entrenched, particularly among the poorest of the poor, parents often regard early marriage as a way to eliminate an economic burden. They may see educating a daughter as a waste of resources and seek to hasten the day when she moves to her husband's home.
Programs that target this economic dynamic have reduced child marriages. In Ethiopia's rural Amhara region, for example, parents of girls 10 to 14 were given $6 to pay for their daughter's school supplies plus a goat worth $25 if she remained enrolled for two years. After that period, girls in the program were one-tenth as likely to be married and three times as likely to be in school as their peers. Similar programs in Malawi and Bangladesh have also reduced child-marriage rates.
In addition to helping pay the costs of keeping a daughter at home, these programs encourage a view of girls as children rather than brides. Parents can imagine a return on investment in educated daughters equipped for jobs. And schooling gives girls the skills, social networks and confidence to better negotiate their futures.
The challenge is to expand these interventions. Governments will need to make them part of national education policy, and donors will need to help with funding. The Ethiopian program was a partnership of local authorities and the Population Council, a nongovernmental organization focused on health and development issues, with funding from the Nike Foundation, the United Nations and the U.S. Agency for International Development.
High child-marriage rates are associated with weak national indicators not only in maternal health and education but also poverty, food security and HIV incidence, since badly informed and weakly connected mothers make poor decisions for themselves and their families. If girls are educated, they won't be the only ones who benefit.
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Search Course Communities:
Calculus on the Web (a.k.a. Cowculus on the Web) Precalculus Book
Course Topic(s): One-Variable Calculus | Background
Interactive quizzes allow students not only to see if their answers are correct but also to access online explanations of the ideas and techniques needed in order to understand and do the quiz problems. The "Precalculus Book" contains a detailed topic index to modules consisting of problems (interactive quizzes) and reading on sequences; inequalities; conic sections; and functions including polynomial, trigonometric, logarithmic, and exponential functions.
Resource URL: http://www.math.temple.edu/~cow/
To rate this resource on a 1-5 scheme, click on the appropriate icosahedron:
Creator(s): Gerardo Mendoza (Temple University) and Dan Reich (Temple University)
Contributor(s): Gerardo Mendoza (Temple University) and Dan Reich (Temple University)
This resource was cataloged by Janet BeeryPublisher:
Temple University Mathematics Department
Resource copyright: Temple University
This review was published on February 07, 2011
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Be the first to start a discussion about this resource.
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Post-polio syndrome (PPS) is a condition that affects polio survivors. About 20% to 40% of people who recover from polio will later develop PPS. The onset may occur 10 to 40 years after the initial polio attack.
The exact cause is unknown. It is not due to the original polio virus. However, the virus can cause damage to nerve and muscle cells that may lead to the development of PPS.
Factors that may increase your chance of developing PPS include:
- Previous polio attack
- Severe original polio attack
- Later age at onset of infection
Symptoms may include:
- Slowly progressive muscle weakness
- Muscular atrophy
- Muscle spasms
- Muscle pain
- Difficulty swallowing or breathing
- Intolerance to heat or cold
If the symptoms during the first attack of polio were severe, the symptoms of PPS may also be severe.
The doctor will ask about your symptoms and medical history. A neuromuscular exam may also be done. PPS may be hard to diagnose because symptoms come and go. The symptoms may also overlap with other diseases.
Testing often involves electromyography. This measures how well your nerves and muscles are communicating. Other, less common tests may include:
Treatment focuses on managing symptoms. The goals are to:
- Prevent overuse of weak muscles
- Prevent disuse atrophy and weakness
- Protect joints left vulnerable from weak muscles
- Maximize function
- Minimize discomfort
Treatment may include:
- Physical therapy
- Occupational therapy
- Speech therapy
- Assistive devices
- Weight loss, if overweight
- Medicine to relieve muscle spasms and pain
- Occasionally, surgery to correct deformities that interfere with function
- Immunoglobulin—currently being studied to treat PPS
There are no guidelines for preventing PPS. But, polio survivors who keep physically fit may have a reduced risk of PPS.
- Reviewer: Michael K. Mansour, MD, PhD
- Review Date: 05/2013 -
- Update Date: 05/20/2013 -
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More often than not, when the topic of immigration arises, we conjure pictures of people from foreign lands, bundled in woolen coats, standing on the side of a boat headed toward Ellis Island, their eyes filled with wonder and hope. Once the boats docked though, the immigrants faced challenges that are often overlooked.
The wave of European immigration from the late 1800's to the mid-twentieth century changed the face of America. Europeans settled in a young United States, established traditions, built communities, influenced the economy, and solidified their place in North American history.
When examining European immigration, most roads lead directly back to Ellis Island. During the years 1892 to 1954, over twelve million immigrants entered the United States through the port of Ellis Island, a small island in the New York Harbor. (Learn more about Ellis Island) An immigrant would get their first glimpse of the new world as they spied the Statue of Liberty, appearing on the horizon and welcoming them to their new life. Once the immigrants had entered the new country, many were faced with obstacles they were not expecting. Each culture, though, managed to carve out their piece of America and create a personal history and vision of the American dream.
Each immigration webpage is printableMore Printables
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Traditionally, power amplifiers for communication systems have been designed to meet specifications like 1-dB gain-compression output power or third-order intercept point. Such tests can be made with one or two sinusoidal input tones. In reality, however, these power amplifiers are usually required to meet a certain adjacent-channel-power-ratio (ACPR) specification or satisfy a spectral mask at a particular output power. These results may not be obtained by using sinusoidal input signals.
To complete these simulations more accurately, one may use the Circuit Envelope simulator in the Advanced Design System (ADS) RF and microwave design software. It may be time consuming to obtain swept-power results, however. At each input power level, the modulated input signal must be swept long enough to attain sufficient spectral resolution. Such resolution is needed to accurately calculate output power and ACPR.
A faster method exists for simulating the ACPR and output power of an amplifier versus input power (with a modulated input signal.) A one-tone, swept-power, harmonic-balance simulation, which typically requires only seconds to run, is required to generate the amplifier's gain-and phase-versusinput-power curves. With the magnitude and phase of the modulated signal, one can then calculate ACPR and output power versus input power. This ACPR calculation is performed using equations on the data display. As a result, not a lot of additional time is required to calculate the ACPR.
The calculation of ACPR or output power is done in several steps:
- Generate curve-fit expressions for output voltage and output phase versus input voltage from the one-tone, swept-power, harmonic-balance simulation. The top two plots in the figure show how well the curve-fit expression matches the harmonic-balance simulation.
- Obtain the modulated input signal versus time—either from some other simulation or from a signal generator.
- Calculate the magnitude and phase of the output-signal voltage versus time from the curve-fit expressions as well as the magnitude and phase of the modulated input signal versus time. This computation may be repeated for a range of input-signal amplitudes by applying a scale factor with a range of values to the input signal.
- Compute the spectrum, output power, and ACPR of the output signal for each value of the scale factor. The bottom plot in the figure shows the output power in the main channel and the upper and lower ACPRs versus the available source power.
This technique of computing ACPR from a one-tone, swept-power, harmonic-balance simulation does not include any memory effects in the active devices or from the bias networks. Nor does it include any frequency-response variation of the circuit within the bandwidth of the main and adjacent channels. The circuit is characterized by a static, single-frequency, harmonic-balance simulation. To include these effects, one should use a standard Envelope simulation of the transistor-level amplifier. In doing so, results that previously required at least tens of minutes should now require only seconds. As a result, designers can experiment much more with their designs while improving performance.
There are two versions of the data display used to compute the ACPR and output power versus input power. One has all of the equations visible on the data display page while the other uses a custom AEL function that implements the same equations. The computation uses matrix math to determine the coefficients of a fifth-order polynomial that fits the Vout versus Vin and phase out versus Vin data of the simulated amplifier. To get the output amplitude and the output phase shift, the magnitude of the modulated input signal is then applied to both of these curve-fit polynomials.
The markers on the Vout-versus-Vin curve of the amplifier can be moved to determine the range of data to be used in the curve-fitting calculation. A range of scale factors can be specified to scale the magnitude of the modulated input signal. The custom AEL function lets the user know if the maximum scaled input-signal amplitude is beyond the maximum input-signal amplitude used in the one-tone simulation of the amplifier. If this occurs, the user may want to re-run the one-tone simulation with a higher maximum input-signal power.
The ACPR calculation does require that the user specify the frequency limits of the main channel and the upper and lower adjacent channels relative to the center frequency of the main channel. These limits differ for each communication standard. Users of Agilent's Advanced Design System may download an example file showing the technique discussed here from the Agilent EEsof EDA Knowledge Center (www.agilent.com/find/eesof-knowledgecenter).
Agilent Technologies, 1400 Fountaingrove Parkway, Santa Rosa, CA 95403; Internet: www.agilent.com.
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watershed are you in?
On a large scale, the Greater Lansing area falls within
the Grand River Watershed, which eventually drains into
Lake Michigan. The urbanized area around the City of
Lansing lies within a portion of the Upper Grand River
Watershed which has been broken into three smaller watershed
areas to aid in analysis. For the purpose of this analysis,
the local watershed areas are identified as the Grand
River Watershed, the Looking Glass River Watershed,
and the Red Cedar River Watershed and are depicted in
the below map. The GLRC has developed watershed management plans for each of the urbanized subwatersheds shown here.
Because watersheds cross political boundaries, twenty
of the communities that fall within these defined local
watersheds are a part of a cooperative effort and have
formed the Greater Lansing Regional Committee for Stormwater
Management (GLRC) to address water quality in our lakes,
rivers, streams, and wetlands.
• Headwaters: Source of a stream.
• Watershed: The land from which
rain collects and runs to a single point.
• Stormwater: Includes stormwater runoff (from rain events), snow melt runoff, and surface runoff and drainage.
• Illicit Discharge: Any discharge to, or seepage into, a separate storm sewer that is not composed entirely of stormwater or uncontaminated groundwater. This can be through pipes or other physical connections including dumping of motor vehichle fluids, household hazardous wastes, domestic animal waste, leaf litter, grass clippings, restuarant waste, etc. See below document link before for full definition.
• Illicit Connection: A physical connection to the seperate storm sewer that 1) primarily conveys illicit discharges inot the system, or 2) is not authorized or permitted by the local authority.
• Groundwater: Water that lies
beneath the earth's surface.
• Infiltration: The slow movement
of water from the surface to the groundwater.
• Hydrologic: Related to water
in all its forms.
• Aquifer: An underground water
supply flowing through rock.
List of all definitions related to the Phase II Stormwater Requirements.
For more information on the GLRC see the About Us section of this website.
For more information on why watersheds are important
and ways you can protect our water see the Watershed Protection section.
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The National Science Education Standards address not only what students should learn about science but also how their learning should be assessed. How do we know what they know?
This accompanying volume to the Standards focuses on a key kind of assessment: the evaluation that occurs regularly in the classroom, by the teacher and his or her students as interacting participants. As students conduct experiments, for example, the teacher circulates around the room and asks individuals about their findings, using the feedback to adjust lessons plans and take other actions to boost learning.
Focusing on the teacher as the primary player in assessment, the book offers assessment guidelines and explores how they can be adapted to the individual classroom. It features examples, definitions, illustrative vignettes, and practical suggestions to help teachers obtain the greatest benefit from this daily evaluation and tailoring process. The volume discusses how classroom assessment differs from conventional testing and grading-and how it fits into the larger, comprehensive assessment system.
"...a vitally important supplement to the National Research Council's 1996 publication. ... The well-organized text effectively promotes the view of a balanced system of assessment. ...this book would be a valuable addition to school, college, and community audiences because assessment truly is the 'fuel' that drives systemic reform."
-- NSTA Recommends, December 2001
"...a good introductory overview of a broadened view of assessment... Classroom Assessment might best be considered a primer on formative assessment in science education. In accessible language, it introduces a large number of complex ideas that help to meet the intended goal of supplementing the Standards. It successfully describes the arenas in which work must be done in order to achieve the intent of the Standards."
-- Science Education, March 2003
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For the more information about water resources in the National Park Service, please visit http://www.nature.nps.gov/water/.
Great Lakes Invasive Species Database
The Great Lakes Invasive Species Database includes data for five Great Lakes National Park units: Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, Isle Royale National Park, Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, and Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore.
Information on invasive species in National Parks was compiled from the following databases: NPSpecies, U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), NPS Coastal Watershed Assessments (CWA), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA), and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). Criteria for including species in the Great Lakes Invasive Species Database were adapted from the Great Lakes Aquatic Nonindigenous Species Information System (GLANSIS). However, some of the data sources did not meet all of the criteria. The criteria included:[+] Geographic criteria
[+] Aquatic criteria
[+] Nonindigenous criteria
- The species appeared suddenly and had not been recorded in the basin previously
- It subsequently spreads within the basin
- Its distribution within the basin is restricted compared with native species
- Its global distribution is anomalously disjunct (i.e., contains widely scattered and isolated populations)
- Its global distribution is associated with human vectors of dispersal
- The basin is isolated from regions possessing the most genetically and morphologically similar species
[+] Established criteria
The database characterizes invasive species in two ways. The first are species documented in parks based on NPSpecies, USGS, and NPS CWAs. The second are species deemed potentially invasive because they are established in the Great Lakes system, though not yet documented in a particular national park and was compiled from all five data sources. Any species that was documented in a park or within the Great Lakes system was included as a potential invasive species for other Great Lakes parks.
Search the Marine and Great Lakes Invasive Species database.
Last Updated: January 17, 2012
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A 3D visualisation of an asteroid before it hit the Earth as devised by Queen's Astrophysics Research Centre astronomers
A team of British scientists and engineers is developing plans for a spacecraft that could stop large asteroids from hitting the Earth.
The 10-tonne "gravity tractor" would deflect any orbiting rocks years before any potential collision could happen.
The device, which would rely on the force of gravity, is being developed by Stevenage space company EADS Astrium.
However, the idea is still in its early stages and the company says a prototype is some way off from being built.
The tractor would steer asteroids away from the Earth
The US space agency's (Nasa) Near Earth Object programme reports on its website that it has recorded 1068 known "Potentially Hazardous Asteroids", however there are thousands more estimated to be present in space.
Dr Ralph Cordey, who is EADS Astrium's head of exploration and business, told BBC News that the concept of a gravity tug was actually first mooted by two Nasa astronauts, Edward Lu and Stanley Love, a few years ago.
He said: "Frankly, I thought it was crackers. I thought it would never work."
But he said after reconsidering the idea and focusing on specific engineering issues, including the size of the spacecraft, and long-term propulsion methods, it was considered by the team to be potentially feasible.
The tractor would intercept the asteroid from just 48m away and exert a small gravitational force on it, pulling the rock towards it. The pair would then embark on a slightly different orbit, away from the Earth.
It could possibly be powered using solar panels.
However, the device would have to be launched at least 15 years before any predicted collision and would need a team to monitor it from the ground during this time.
Dr Cordey said the company had worked with a number of space authorities on other methods of protecting the Earth from asteroids but this one would be able to target a wider range.
He said: "We have done quite a lot of design work on this with the European Space Agency and we believe this would work just as well on a big solid iron asteroid as well as other types."
But the high cost implications mean that before the device could be made, it would have to be commissioned by a government or a group of governments working together.
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Scientists have confirmed the first sighting in more than a decade of one of the world’s rarest animals - the saola, sometimes called Asia’s “unicorn.”
The animal was captured by villagers in Laos in August, according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. The villagers took the saola back to their village in Bolikhamxay province and Laotian conservation authorities sent a team to check on the animal. The creature, likely weakened from its time in captivity, died shortly after that team arrived.
"The death of this Saola is unfortunate,” the Provincial Conservation Unit of Bolikhamxay province said in the IUCN statement. “But at least it confirms an area where it still occurs and the government will immediately move to strengthen conservation efforts there."
This was the first confirmed sighting of a saola since 1999, when remotely triggered cameras took images of one in Laos.
First discovered in 1992, the saola is considered critically endangered, its numbers so few that biologists have never witnessed one in the wild. Fewer than a few hundred saolas are believed to roam the Annamite Mountains of Laos and Vietnam. There are none in captivity.
The rarity of the saola, which resembles an African antelope but it more closely related genetically to wild cattle, gives it mythical status in some circles, according to the IUCN. The saola, although it has two horns, may be the basis of the mythical Chinese unicorn, the qilin, although it is unknown if saolas ever existed in China.
The carcass of the saola recovered in the Laotian village was being preserved for study, officials said.
"Study of the carcass can yield some good from this unfortunate incident. Our lack of knowledge of Saola biology is a major constraint to efforts to conserve it,” says Dr. Pierre Comizzoli, a veterinarian with the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute and a member of the IUCN Saola Working Group. “This can be a major step forward in understanding this remarkable and mysterious species.”
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Up close, an electric vehicle is clearly cleaner than a gasoline-powered car. No matter how efficient a combustion engine becomes—and some gasoline-powered cars can be very efficient—it still, well, combusts, spewing carbon and other exhaust gases into the atmosphere. But nothing at all comes out the tailpipe of an electric car. It’s as clean as it is silent.
But that’s just up close. The electricity used to power an electric car’s battery has to be generated somewhere—and depending on the source of that power, an EV may be less than squeaky clean. That’s the takeaway of a new report (PDF) by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS). UCS used the electrical power requirements of the Nissan Leaf and estimated how much greenhouse gas the car would be responsible for if it were charged in different parts of the country. No big surprises—the more coal or gas-heavy a state’s electricity profile is, the more carbon the electric car would be responsible for. So in relatively clean California—where hydro, nuclear and renewables supply most electricity—the Leaf would produce as much carbon as a gasoline-powered car that got 79 miles to the gallon. In coal-happy Oklahoma, though, it would be comparable to a 37 mpg car. If you’re driving in the middle of the country, the climate would actually be better if you picked a hybrid like the Prius or even a highly efficient gasoline-powered car rather than an EV—and support policies that can shift electricity away from carbon-intensive coal.
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I have been getting numerous calls about trees that have dead limbs near the top, or trees producing fewer blooms or leaves than in years past.
Large trees have plenty of reserves stored so they can still flower and leaf out for a number of years before drought, root damage or something else causes the tree to suffer. The drought of the past two years has caused a number of our trees to use up their stored energy, and they are in a state of decline. When the tree starts declining, the area of the tree the greatest distance from the roots will be hit hardest, which is why the limbs in the top of the tree are dying.
Also, stressed trees are more prone to insect and disease problems than healthy trees. I am seeing oak, maple and elm trees with dying limbs.
This is not a problem with the roots. This is a widespread insect problem called scale. Infested branches will have brownish, red bumps on the limbs. These are the scale insects.
Once they start feeding, they are immovable. They will spend the rest of their lives at that spot. In the spring, their eggs hatch and the young move to find a spot to start feeding. This is called the crawler stage and is the easiest time to control them.
There is a systemic insecticide called dinotefuran that can be used to control this insect. Homeowners can find this in a product made by Green Light called Safari. When applied around the root system, the insecticide moves through the plant and kills the scale as they feed.
Another way to help reduce the problem is to remove the limbs that have the scale on them. This will work if there are a few infested limbs, but if numerous limbs have scale on them, it could do more harm to the tree to remove the limbs.
To help trees recover from the drought, mulch should be placed around them. Mulches help the trees recover by conserving soil moisture and reducing soil erosion and water run-off. Mulches can reduce the summer soil temperature, which creates a better environment for the root system. Large mulched areas also protect the tree from lawn mowers and weed eaters.
The mulch needs to be 3 to 4 inches deep, and extend to the edge of the canopy or farther. As the tree gets larger, increase the size of the mulched area to encompass more of the root system. Don’t put the mulch up the trunk of the trees. This encourages the root system to grow into the mulch. It can increase the chance of diseases and insects attacking the trunk of the tree, and it reduces the growth of the tree.
The next practice that can help trees recover is to lightly fertilize them. Use a complete fertilizer, because phosphorus aids in root development. Phosphorus is the middle number on the fertilizer bag. If there is grass or shrubs under the tree, the amount of fertilizer that is used on these plants will help the tree and it doesn’t need additional fertilizer.
Pine trees also are dying all over the county. Some of these trees, especially smaller ones, are dying from the drought, but most of the trees are being attacked by pine beetles. There are three pine beetles that attack pines: the black turpentine beetle, IPS engraver beetle, and the Southern pine beetle. The IPS engraver beetle and the Southern pine beetle are more prevalent. The majority of the beetles have left the tree by the time the needles on the tree turn brown.
The best control option for these beetles is to cut the tree down at the first symptoms of the tree being killed by the beetles. By laying the tree on the ground, the beetles are confused when they emerge from the tree. Then the tree needs to be removed from the property. There is an insecticide that contains bifenthrin that will help protect the trees, but it needs to be applied to the whole length of the tree.
Trees can recover from the effects of the drought if we help them out by controlling insects, mulching, and giving them extra water.
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Mon May 21, 2012
New Hampshire's Immigration Story - The Influence of the Irish
Irish men and women started trickling over to New Hampshire in the 1820 and 30s, and by the 1840s, they become the Granite State’s first major population of immigrants. By 1850 there was over thirteen hundred Irish in Manchester alone and by 1860 that number triples. More than one quarter of the city’s residents are now foreign born and of that, the Irish made up seventy three percent of them. But as New Hampshire’s first major immigrant group settled, the first major anti-immigrant feelings started brewing in our state as well.
The Catholic population in the United States just mushrooms between 1840s and 1860s,
Lucy Salyer is an Associate Professor of History at the University of New Hamphshire
and when you put it into the context, especially in a place like New Hampshire, which was historically very Protestant and also historically very anti-Catholic, there was a heritage of a great distrust of Catholics, and Irish Catholics really bore the brunt of this.
New Hampshire natives had a love hate relationship with these Irish Catholics. The Irish provided the workers who built the entire city that they now enjoyed. They laid down the railroads and provided a large part of the work force for a burgeoning Amoskeag Manufacturing company. But the Irish worshiped differently and the Catholic churches that sprung up, engendered fear and revulsion. As the diary of Manchester resident Joseph Kidder illustrates.
The most dangerous system of religion , if it be not a desecration to call it a religion is the Roman Catholic. The Subjects are simply so many suppliant tools in the hands of Pope, Bishop and Priest to carry out just what desired these men may require. They are void of a conscience. Their conscience is in the keeping of the priest. It’s a dangerous doctrine
But it was more than just religion)... they spoke differently, acted differently, had different beliefs and for the more established Granite stators, the Irish drove wages down. John Clayton is a former columnist for the Union Leader newspaper and author of seven books on Manchester history
many of them spoke Gaelic. And if you could not understand what people were saying you were immediately looked upon with distrust and there was the always ever present economic factor. If the Irish were coming in, that meant they were taking jobs from someone else. And again as in often the case, the immigrants were willing to work for less because they desperately needed the money.
So as Boston businesses began to hang a sign that said, “Irish need not apply”, the Irish could still work in the mills in New Hampshire, but their treatment outside the mills was getting more and more tense.
One passage I came up with was them describing these foreigners, short hand for Irish
- (OVERLAY) these are children of foreigners, who make not a small part of our population. They are daily spending their time in the streets in idleness and incipient dissipation, disturbing the peace of our citizens by their profane, obscene, blasphemous language.
And that was a direct shot at the Irish and that’s the spirit by which they were greeted.
By the 1850s in New Hampshire, the tension between the state’s natives and its newer Irish Catholics grew and grew until it reached its breaking point on the third of July, 1854.
In the early 1850s, New Hampshire and the rest of the nation was undergoing a lot of stress
The stress came from a debate on slavery that divided the country, but it also came from a debate on the immigrant. Irish and German Catholics were arriving in droves. Anti-immigrant and anti-Catholic speakers fanned Nativist flames. One of these was a man named, John Orr better known by his nickname, as the Angel Gabriel who appeared in Manchester on June 24th. Historian Stu Wallace
The angel Gabriel was a neat guy. He was this complete lunatic dressed up as an angel with a big horn and he’d stand on the street corners bringing attention by beeping his horn and then he’d come up with all this nasty bigotry stuff
That same month Michael Callin, a Irish man got into fight with a former state representative by the name of John Marshall who bludgeoned Callin to death with his monkey wrench.
Marshall was arraigned and ordered to stand trial for murder. Tensions were rising as was the summer heat. Former columnist John Clayton
It’s hot they’re living in tenements, there’s no air conditioning, there’s no refrigeration. Everybody’s out on the stoop, everyone’s out in the park , in what was the largest urban area in NH at the time . Tempers get a little short, people may take too much of their favorite beverage in an attempt to stay cool and cooler heads do not always prevail under those circumstances.
A gang of Irish men gathered smashing windows and assaulting 2 native born Granite Staters. By the next day a mob 500 had gathered seeking revenge. An article in the Manchester Union Democrat, a paper sympathetic to the Irish cause, picks up the story.
(UNDER CROWD NOISE) A Large number of men, armed with clubs and other destructive implements about day break commence an assault upon all the Irish houses in that neighborhood. Some ten or fifteen were pretty thoroughly dismantled – the doors and windows of many of them being completely stove in. The rioters next proceeded to the Catholic Church – just rebuilt at great cost and probably the handsomest in the State – and continued their fiendish work
The church was St. Anne’s Parish, Manchester’s first Catholic Church. It might have burned that night if it weren’t for a man by the name of John Maynard, a prominent builder. Once again John Clayton.
John Maynard, stood out there in his nightshirt, and with one hand beseeched them to stop, but it was the other hand that made them stop because in the other hand he held a pistol. John Maynard was a protestant and he didn’t like what was happening and he stopped the mob from destroying this bastion of Catholicism in Manchester, St. Anne’s Parish and strangely enough, years later, they built a school in the neighborhood and the Irish community from St. Anne’s petitioned the city father’s of Manchester to ordain the school in his honor.
After the riots of 1854, tensions remained, but there were no other major outbreaks of violence against these immigrants. Over time the Irish began to assimilate more and more. In 1859, Manchester elected its first Irish mayor, Edward Harrington. In the Civil War, the Irish fought side by side with their fellow Granite Staters, and by the time troops returned home a new Immigrant began to arrive from the North. And they would change the cultural environment of New Hampshire for good.
For New Hampshire Public Radio, I'm Keith Shields
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Institute Activities and Advances
Obesity is a growing epidemic, but prevention efforts have not been successful. To a great extent, this is due to the challenging task of changing the way people eat, move, and live. Obesity is both a biological and a social problem and must be considered as a function of these larger contexts. Several NICHD organizational units conduct and support research on a broad range of areas related to excess weight gain, including the causes, effects, prevention, and treatment of obesity and related conditions.
Because environment and genetics play important roles in childhood obesity, the NICHD’s Section on Growth and Obesity works to increase understanding of the metabolic and behavioral factors involved in determining body weight regulation and body composition during childhood. The section also studies prevention and treatment interventions, and places a special emphasis on minority populations that are at an increased risk for obesity. For example, in one study on African American and Caucasian children and adolescents, researchers found that the gastrointestinal lipase inhibitor orlistat improved weight loss. Another study found that the medication metformin added to a behavioral program significantly improved weight loss and lowered insulin resistance in severely obese, insulin-resistant children.
The Pediatric Growth and Nutrition Branch (PGNB) also supports a wide range of childhood obesity research, including studies on psychosocial risks of obesity, the natural history and clinical pathophysiology of body composition, metabolic syndrome and diabetes, environmental and policy research in relation to obesity, and preventive and therapeutic interventions for childhood obesity. Funding from the PGNB has led to several noteworthy advances, including one of the first large genome-wide association studies on weight among U.S. children. Researchers funded by the PGNB identified two genes that appear to increase the likelihood of common childhood obesity.
Obesity affects pregnancy in several significant ways. The Pregnancy and Perinatology Branch (PPB) conducts obesity-related research in many areas, including the short- and long-term effects of maternal obesity and weight gain during pregnancy on women’s and children’s health. In addition, the Branch supports studies of lifestyle interventions during pregnancy that aim to improve maternal and child health through healthy changes in diet and physical activity levels. The PPB also has explored the possible connection between obesity and postpartum depression.
Obesity also can affect fertility. The NICHD’s Fertility and Infertility (FI) Branch explores ways to prevent and treat infertility related to obesity. One recent scientific advance provided new insights into the relationship between obesity, androgen excess, and polycystic ovary syndrome in adolescents.
Other NICHD units, such as the Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Branch (IDDB), explore issues related to obesity in specific populations, such as people with Down syndrome. In addition, the Division of Epidemiology, Statistics, and Prevention Research (DESPR) works to fill critical data gaps to advance understanding of such factors as obesity that affect health. For example, DESPR launched a 7-year assessment of U.S. adolescents and young adults to identify several health-related factors, including genetic, personal, family, school, and social factors that promote or sustain positive health behaviors.
To ensure that NICHD organizational units advance the most effective obesity-related science, the NICHD’s Obesity Research Strategic Core (ORSC) brings together research and translational activities from across the Institute. Some of the ORSC’s focus areas include:
- Interventions, such as pediatric obesity prevention or treatment studies in the primary care setting, at home, in schools, and in camps
- Behavioral and psychosocial observational research, including observational studies that examine social and psychological antecedents, consequences, or correlates of diet, physical activity, sedentary behavior, and/or obesity in children and adolescents
- Basic sciences research, including human in vitro or animal studies that focus primarily on the genetic, molecular, cellular, or organ-system factors related to diet, physical activity, development of adiposity, or other aspects of energy metabolism
- Clinical physiology, such as human studies that focus on clinical cohorts of either normal weight or overweight children and adolescents
The ORSC also is working to promote a systems-oriented approach to childhood obesity that includes the following key features:
- Framing obesity as a complex systems problem
- Emphasizing cross-level and cross-disciplinary hypotheses at the outset of research
- Increasing efforts in structural or upstream interventions
- Building capacity for multilevel research, in terms of training and collaborating with partner organizations
- Investing in complex systems research methodologies
- Maintaining a global perspective
Other Activities and Advances
The NICHD works to promote collaborative efforts to understand overweight and obesity and to promote healthy weight. For example:
- In 2003, the NIH director began addressing the problem of the obesity epidemic by forming the Obesity Research Task Force (PDF - 3.29 MB) to promote obesity research efforts across the NIH.
- The NICHD is a member of the National Collaborative on Childhood Obesity Research (NCCOR), which brings together leading research funders (including the NIH, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation) in a public-private collaboration to accelerate progress on reversing the epidemic of overweight and obesity among U.S. youth. The mission of NCCOR is to improve the efficiency, effectiveness, and application of childhood obesity research, and to halt—and reverse—childhood obesity through enhanced coordination and collaboration.
- The NICHD created the Maternal-Fetal Medicine Units Network to focus on clinical questions in maternal-fetal medicine and obstetrics. The Network is composed of 14 university-based clinical centers and a data coordinating center that have explored a number of issues, including weight gain and nutrition.
- The NICHD also works to encourage a healthy weight among young people. It joins several other NIH Institutes to support We Can! (Ways to Enhance Children’s Activity and Nutrition), which focuses its evidence-based education activities on parents and caregivers—the primary group for influencing youth. The NICHD’s Media-Smart Youth: Eat, Think, and Be Active! curriculum is one of four youth curricula offered through We Can! Media-Smart Youth is an afterschool program that helps participants become aware of, and think critically about, the media’s influence on their nutrition and physical activity choices.
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Simple Innovation to Electrodes Makes a Big Difference
Researcher expects improvements in epilepsy diagnosis and prevention of life-threatening seizures
Walt Besio developed a tripolar ring electrode, which is compared here to a conventional electrode.
Credit and Larger Version
December 20, 2012
The electroencephalogram (EEG) for human use has been around since 1924. Small metal discs placed along the scalp measure electrical activity in the human brain, which is important in diagnosing or evaluating epilepsy, sleep disorders and other conditions.
But these electrodes have changed little since their introduction, and are far from perfect. Among other things, they pick up extraneous noise and movement in addition to brain wave activity, often making the readings difficult to interpret.
Walt Besio thinks he has a better way.
The National Science Foundation- (NSF) funded scientist, who is associate professor of biomedical engineering at the University of Rhode Island, has invented a new and improved electrode, one that produces a performance difference that he says is akin to "taking the rabbit ears you used to have for your television set, and converting to high definition."
Besio's innovation is relatively simple, but apparently makes a big difference. Besio added two new metal rings around the basic disc, a change that eliminates outside noises and improves spatial resolution.
"EEG has two main problems: It's very noisy and contaminated with artifacts, and it's spatial resolution is bad," he explains. "We have improved the signal-to-noise ratio. It's four times better than it was before. Because it is now a very local signal, it means we can put electrodes closer together, which improves spatial resolution, meaning you can better determine where the signal is coming from."
The additional rings work almost like an inner tube tossed on top of a rippling body of water. "The water is flat in the center of the inner tube and choppy on the outside," Besio says. "The outer rings on the electrodes behave like that inner tube."
For researchers and clinicians, having improved electrodes could open up potential new uses, as well as improve current ones--more accurate epilepsy diagnosis, for example, as well as the promise of "reading" someone's thoughts in the future, with the goal, for example, of activating an otherwise inert body part, such as an arm or leg, and ultimately helping people with spinal cord injuries.
The aim is to have the highly sensitive electrodes first translate a person's thoughts into electrical impulses that can be read by a computer, then, eventually move to robots, and later, limbs. Other scientists are conducting similar research, but Besio wants to show "that it works better with these types of electrodes."
His work was inspired by the experiences of his older brother, who was paralyzed in an automobile accident, and died about 15 years ago.
"The hope is to interpret someone's thoughts using an electrode and the computer," Besio says. "The ultimate objective is to control some type of stimulation that will activate nerves and muscles, allowing them to move, to give people more independence and not have them be locked into a non-functioning body."
More immediately, however, Besio believes the new electrodes can improve epilepsy diagnosis, as well as help stop a common life-threatening type of seizure--status epilepticus--an acute, prolonged seizure that he estimates kills up to 40,000 people a year in the United States.
Using the electrodes to stimulate the brain may be effective in stopping such seizures, he says. Besio already has shown that it works in animals. "We were able to show we could stop that type of ongoing seizure in rats, a seizure that normally would kill them," he says.
Besio envisions a non-invasive or minimally invasive way for epileptics to wear the electrodes, under a cap or hat, perhaps, or just under the skin of the scalp. The device would detect when a seizure starts, then deliver a dose of electrical stimulation capable of turning it off.
At the moment, however, "what is driving this is the epilepsy diagnosis," he adds. "Clinicians need this improvement to help diagnose epilepsy. We are moving to get this recording system into the hands of researchers so they can do their brain research.
"Neurologists and neurosurgeons are pushing me to get this technology going," he adds. "They tell me there is a lot of misdiagnosis in epilepsy, and that they need something better than what they have. They need a better brain signal; the normal signal is very contaminated and it's hard to see where a seizure is coming from."
In the fall of 2011, Besio was among the first group of scientists to receive a $50,000 NSF Innovation Corps (I-Corps) award, which supports a set of activities and programs that prepare scientists and engineers to extend their focus beyond the laboratory into the commercial world.
Such results may be translated through I-Corps into technologies with near-term benefits for the economy and society. It is a public-private partnership program that teaches grantees to identify valuable product opportunities that can emerge from academic research, and offers entrepreneurship training to faculty and student participants.
Besio has started a company, CRE Medical (the CRE stands for "concentric ring electrodes") with the hope of commercializing the technology, which also includes unique electronics that work with the electrodes. "We are partnering with other companies that want this technology," he says.
Moreover, "more than 75 percent of people with epilepsy live in developing countries and can't afford drugs," he says. "I'm hoping this will provide a low-cost alternative."
Cimons, National Science Foundation
University of Rhode Island
#0933596 Tripolar Concentric Ring Electrodes (TCREs) for Brain Computer Interface
#1157882 I-Corps: Concentric Technology
#1248654 SBIR Phase I: Innovative Tripolar Concentric Ring Electrode Electroencephalography (tEEG) to Advance Epilepsy Diagnosis
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Margaret E. Knight (1838-1914)
Ask about the role of American women in the 19th century Industrial Revolution, and you may be told of women who worked in the New England textile mills. But the story does not end there. Fascinated by tools and machinery, Margaret E. Knight applied her natural creative genius while working at various factories to invent devices that improved productivity and saved lives. Knight was fortunate that her family allowed her to pursue these unconventional interests during her childhood in Maine. Knight received little schooling and never traveled out of northern New England, instead joining her brothers in factory work.
Before electricity, manufacturers built their facilities along rapidly flowing water, preferably waterfalls, which provided the energy to turn the waterwheels that powered the belts that turned the wheels inside the factory In Knight's time, mills expanded from producing lumber and processing grains to manufacturing many types of goods, such as fabric and shoes which families formerly made completely and tediously by hand. Knight's New England was soon was dotted with textile mills and shoe manufacturers.
While it was water that powered factory machinery, it was women who ran those machines - almost all of them young. Scratching out a living from rocky soil in a cold climate always had been difficult, and countless families sent their teenage daughters to work in the new factories. Often these daughters earned more cash money than their fathers and brothers who remained on the farm.
While Knight was one of these factory girls, she was different from most with her keen eye and mind for inventions. She reportedly made her first invention at age twelve, when she saw a shuttle fly from a machine and injure a worker in Manchester, New Hampshire. These accidents were not uncommon, and young Knight solved the problem in that factory by creating a stop-motion device. She was too young and her family too uneducated, however, to patent the idea and make money from its resale.
That was in 1850; it was not until 1870 that Knight finally applied for her first patent - and then she had to fight for it. She was working during the late 1860s for a paper bag manufacturer in Springfield, Massachusetts. Her keen mechanical mind envisioned a machine that could do the necessary folding of square-bottom paper bags, the kind of bag that still is used today. Knight built a wooden model of her creative folding device and took it to Boston to be cast into iron. There a man, Charles Annan, saw her work and stole her idea: when, a few months later, she perfected the machine and applied for its patent, his was already on file. The Patent Office investigated the Knight vs. Annan dispute, and in a rare victory for women in that era, issued the patent to her.
Over her lifetime, she received at least twenty-seven patents; some sources claim that she held more than eighty. Most of her patents related to working with heavy machinery. She methodically thought out the problems of an industry and worked on solutions for several years: she devoted the first half of the 1890s, for example, engineering mechanical changes that improved shoe manufacturing. Although she was in her sixties when the automobile was introduced at the turn of the century, she nevertheless patented a series of rotary engine designs prior to her death in1914.
Although Margaret Knight never became wealthy from her inventions, she appeared to enjoy her creative life -- and she certainly provided a positive role model for other girls.
- Article reprinted from NWHM Winter 2007 Newsletter, Author Doris Weatherford
- PHOTO: "Women Inventors Index - 1790-1895," Miami University Libraries, 12 December 2003, http://www.lib.muohio.edu/epub/govlaw/FemInv/kinv.php (9 May 2007).
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The American republic has endured for well over two centuries, but over the past 50 years, the apparatus of American governance has undergone a radical transformation. In some basic respects—its scale, its preoccupations, even many of its purposes—the U.S. government today would be scarcely recognizable to Franklin D. Roosevelt, much less to Abraham Lincoln or Thomas Jefferson.
Are Entitlements Corrupting Us? No
What is monumentally new about the American state today is the vast empire of entitlement payments that it protects, manages and finances. Within living memory, the federal government has become an entitlements machine. As a day-to-day operation, it devotes more attention and resources to the public transfer of money, goods and services to individual citizens than to any other objective, spending more than for all other ends combined.
The growth of entitlement payments over the past half-century has been breathtaking. In 1960, U.S. government transfers to individuals totaled about $24 billion in current dollars, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. By 2010 that total was almost 100 times as large. Even after adjusting for inflation and population growth, entitlement transfers to individuals have grown 727% over the past half-century, rising at an average rate of about 4% a year.
In 2010 alone, government at all levels oversaw a transfer of over $2.2 trillion in money, goods and services. The burden of these entitlements came to slightly more than $7,200 for every person in America. Scaled against a notional family of four, the average entitlements burden for that year alone approached $29,000.
A half-century of unfettered expansion of entitlement outlays has completely inverted the priorities, structure and functions of federal administration as these were understood by all previous generations. Until 1960 the accepted task of the federal government, in keeping with its constitutional charge, was governing. The overwhelming share of federal expenditures was allocated to some limited public services and infrastructure investments and to defending the republic against enemies foreign and domestic.
In 1960, entitlement payments accounted for well under a third of the federal government's total outlays—about the same fraction as in 1940, when the Great Depression was still shaping American life. But over subsequent decades, entitlements as a percentage of total federal spending soared. By 2010 they accounted for just about two-thirds of all federal spending, with all other responsibilities of the federal government making up barely one-third. In a very real sense, entitlements have turned American governance upside-down.
Government data on public transfers can be used to divide entitlement spending into six baskets: income maintenance, Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, unemployment insurance and all the others. Broadly speaking, the first two baskets concern entitlements based on poverty or income status; the second two, entitlements attendant on aging or old-age status; and the next, entitlements based on employment status. These entitlements account for about 90% of total government transfers to individuals, and the first four categories comprise about five-sixths of all such spending. These four bear closest consideration.
Poverty- or income-related entitlements—transfers of money, goods or services, including health-care services—accounted for over $650 billion in government outlays in 2010. Between 1960 and 2010, inflation-adjusted transfers for these objectives increased by over 30-fold, or by over 7% a year. Significantly, however, income and benefit transfers associated with traditional safety-net programs comprised only about a third of entitlements granted on income status, with two-thirds of those allocations absorbed by the health-care guarantees offered through the Medicaid program.
For their part, entitlements for older Americans—Medicare, Social Security and other pension payments—worked out to even more by 2010, about $1.2 trillion. In real terms, these transfers multiplied by a factor of about 12 over that period—or an average growth of more than 5% a year. But in purely arithmetic terms, the most astonishing growth of entitlements has been for health-care guarantees based on claims of age (Medicare) or income (Medicaid). Until the mid-1960s, no such entitlements existed; by 2010, these two programs were absorbing more than $900 billion annually.
In current political discourse, it is common to think of the Democrats as the party of entitlements, but long-term trends seem to tell a somewhat different tale. From a purely statistical standpoint, the growth of entitlement spending over the past half-century has been distinctly greater under Republican administrations than Democratic ones. Between 1960 and 2010, the growth of entitlement spending was exponential, but in any given year, it was on the whole roughly 8% higher if the president happened to be a Republican rather than a Democrat.
This is in keeping with the basic facts of the time: Notwithstanding the criticisms of "big government" that emanated from their Oval Offices from time to time, the administrations of Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford and George W. Bush presided over especially lavish expansions of the American entitlement state. Irrespective of the reputations and the rhetoric of the Democratic and Republican parties today, the empirical correspondence between Republican presidencies and turbocharged entitlement expenditures should underscore the unsettling truth that both political parties have, on the whole, been working together in an often unspoken consensus to fuel the explosion of entitlement spending.
From the founding of our nation until quite recently, the U.S. and its citizens were regarded, at home and abroad, as exceptional in a number of deep and important respects. One of these was their fierce and principled independence, which informed not only the design of the political experiment that is the U.S. Constitution but also their approach to everyday affairs.
The proud self-reliance that struck Alexis de Tocqueville in his visit to the U.S. in the early 1830s extended to personal finances. The American "individualism" about which he wrote did not exclude social cooperation—the young nation was a hotbed of civic associations and voluntary organizations. But in an environment bursting with opportunity, American men and women viewed themselves as accountable for their own situation through their own achievements—a novel outlook at that time, markedly different from the prevailing attitudes of the Old World (or at least the Continent).
The corollaries of this American ethos were, on the one hand, an affinity for personal enterprise and industry and, on the other, a horror of dependency and contempt for anything that smacked of a mendicant mentality. Although many Americans in earlier times were poor, even people in fairly desperate circumstances were known to refuse help or handouts as an affront to their dignity and independence. People who subsisted on public resources were known as "paupers," and provision for them was a local undertaking. Neither beneficiaries nor recipients held the condition of pauperism in high regard.
Overcoming America's historic cultural resistance to government entitlements has been a long and formidable endeavor. But as we know today, this resistance did not ultimately prove an insurmountable obstacle to establishing mass public entitlements and normalizing the entitlement lifestyle. The U.S. is now on the verge of a symbolic threshold: the point at which more than half of all American households receive and accept transfer benefits from the government. From cradle to grave, a treasure chest of government-supplied benefits is there for the taking for every American citizen—and exercising one's legal rights to these many blandishments is now part of the American way of life.
As Americans opt to reward themselves ever more lavishly with entitlement benefits, the question of how to pay for these government transfers inescapably comes to the fore. Citizens have become ever more broad-minded about the propriety of tapping new sources of finance for supporting their appetite for more entitlements. The taker mentality has thus ineluctably gravitated toward taking from a pool of citizens who can offer no resistance to such schemes: the unborn descendants of today's entitlement-seeking population.
Among policy makers in Washington today, it is very close to received wisdom that America's national hunger for entitlement benefits has placed the country on a financially untenable trajectory, with the federal budget generating ultimately unbearable expenditures and levels of public debt. The bipartisan 2010 Bowles/Simpson Commission put this view plainly: "Our nation is on an unsustainable fiscal path."
The prospect of careening along an unsustainable economic road is deeply disturbing. But another possibility is even more frightening—namely, that the present course may in fact be sustainable for far longer than most people today might imagine.
The U.S. is a very wealthy society. If it so chooses, it has vast resources to squander. And internationally, the dollar is still the world's reserve currency; there remains great scope for financial abuse of that privilege.
Such devices might well postpone the day of fiscal judgment: not so the day of reckoning for American character, which may be sacrificed long before the credibility of the U.S. economy. Some would argue that it is an asset already wasting away before our very eyes.—Mr. Eberstadt holds the Henry Wendt Chair in Political Economy at the American Enterprise Institute. Excerpted from "A Nation of Takers: America's Entitlement Epidemic," forthcoming from the Templeton Press. To read the complete essay, go to www.templetonpress.org.
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Example: "The school library provides multiple technology services that allow students to access information."
Technology services are services that make use of modern technology. Examples include Internet service providers (ISPs), Web hosts, and technical support companies. Since many technology services are related to information technology, they are sometimes called "information technology services," or ITS. However, other services like graphic design, audio/video production, and scientific engineering also fall under the scope of technology services. Therefore, while technology services are often related to IT, they may be associated with other forms of technology as well.
Updated: November 5, 2009
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The oldest raptors to roam what is now American soil were thought to be about 75 million years old, but scientists announced Thursday a new discovery dates raptors back 125 million years!
Bones of a small, feathered raptor-like dinosaur, the Geminiraptor suarezarum, were discovered in eastern Utah and is the oldest reported discovery of its kind.
James Kirkland, a paleontologist with the Utah Geological Survey, describes the species as:
"They were fast, they were smart, they had big eyes and very dexterous hands."
The creature was named after identical twins, Celina and Marina Suarez of San Antonio, Texas who discovered the quarry where the bones were found.
Celina Suarez commented on their discovery:
"As kids, we always kind of thought we might dig up a dinosaur in our backyard. We didn't know we would have to drive to Utah to do it."
The quarry, now named after the twin sisters as well, has since yielded two dinosaur discoveries, with bones that may suggest a third!
Job well done, ladies!
Now we just need to work on using DNA to bring dinosaurs back to life so we can open that theme park we've always dreamed of.
[Image via AP Images.]
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O Captain! My Tyrant!
February 13, 2012 by Sam Rolley
Sunday marked the 203rd birthday of the 16th President of the United States, The Great Emancipator: Abraham Lincoln.
Lincoln Liked Racial Inequality
Lincoln is a President who many Americans hold in great esteem, and many take a peculiar notion from their earliest school lectures: Lincoln ended slavery and preserved the Union in doing so. This is false. Perhaps the end of slavery was a byproduct of the Civil War, but it is often duly noted that every other country that abolished slavery during the 19th century did so peacefully by means of emancipation compensation or waiting until industrialization effectively eliminated the need for slave labor. Historians have never ceased to argue whether this would have happened in the United States had the Civil War not occurred because Southern States rejected the idea of compensated emancipation each time it was proposed.
But Lincoln did not free the slaves. In fact, it could be said that the President effectively enslaved the 11 States that seceded from the Union to the will of a Federal government that today has grown into a mammoth of stifling bureaucracy.
The idea that Lincoln had any interest in freeing slaves was heavily based in rumors spurred by his Democratic challenger, Stephen Douglas, during the famous Lincoln-Douglas debates during a Senate race in 1858. Douglas focused much of his campaign on issues of race relations and accused Lincoln, and Republicans in general, of advocating the political and social equality of the white and black races, and of thereby promoting racial amalgamation. Lincoln flatly denied the charge, saying that he simply wanted to stop the spread of slavery to the Western territories and new States to reduce the proximity between whites and blacks, thereby reducing chances of race mixing. Douglas won the election, but the Lincoln-Douglas debates had raised Lincoln’s political profile.
On Aug. 21, 1858, before a crowd of 10,000 in Ottawa, Ill., Lincoln declared:
I have no purpose directly or indirectly to interfere with the institution of slavery in the states where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so.
I have no purpose to introduce political and social equality between the white and black races. There is physical difference between the two which, in my judgment, will probably forever forbid their living together upon the footing of perfect equality, and inasmuch as it becomes a necessity that there must be a difference, I, as well as Judge Douglas, am in favor of the race to which I belong having the superior position.
When Lincoln became the Republican nominee for President in 1860, Southerners became very nervous. Though he and most Republicans contended that abolishing slavery was not an issue of central importance, Douglas’ accusations from 1858 stuck in the minds of many in the South. After the results of the election were known, South Carolina called for a State convention to vote on secession. Within 40 days of South Carolina’s secession, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas followed suit. The Confederate States of America was formed, and Jefferson Davis of Mississippi was inaugurated as its President — all before Lincoln took office.
Lincoln Opposed ‘The Consent Of The Governed’
In his inauguration speech on March 4, 1861, Lincoln again said that he had no ambition of freeing slaves, and he told his audience that no State had the right to withdraw itself from the Union:
I shall take care, as the Constitution itself expressly enjoins upon me, that the laws of the Union be faithfully executed in all the states. Doing this I deem to be only a simple duty on my part; and I shall perform it, so far as practicable, unless my rightful masters, the American people, shall withhold the requisite means, or, in some authoritative manner, direct the contrary.
Lincoln held no regard for the Jeffersonian principle of “consent of the governed.”
The war to preserve the Union and forever make each State in it subservient to the edict of the ruling class began on April 12, 1861, when Southern secessionists sought control of the U.S. military installation at Fort Sumter, S.C., and so began Lincoln’s tyranny.
Violence in the United States gave Lincoln the opportunity to exercise practices expressly forbidden in the Constitution.
In 1861, in order to finance the Civil War, Lincoln signed the Revenue Act, imposing the first Federal income tax in U.S. history. The Revenue Act defined income as gain “derived from any kind of property, or from any professional trade, employment, or vocation carried on in the United States or elsewhere or from any source whatever.”
The President suspended Habeas Corpus in 1862 and, like a true despot, began to order the military arrest of thousands of critics in order to ensure that supreme power in the United States would forever be wielded from Washington, D.C., where the Federal income tax money was being sent. Federal bureaucrats have long thanked Lincoln for testing the waters of how far tyranny would be allowed to go in the United States, most recently paying tribute with the passage of the National Defense Authorization Act, the bill that allows for indefinite detention of U.S. citizens.
When Chief Justice of the United States, Roger B. Taney, issued an opinion in the case of Ex parte Merryman (May, 1861) that declared Lincoln’s actions unConstitutional, the embarrassed tyrant did what any other would do: He ordered Taney’s arrest.
Professor Thomas DiLorenzo in his book The Real Lincoln: A New Look at Abraham Lincoln, His Agenda, and an Unnecessary War probably best summarizes Lincoln’s assaults on the Constitution:
Lincoln implemented a series of unconstitutional acts, including launching an invasion of the South without consulting Congress, as required by the Constitution; declaring martial law; blockading the Southern ports; suspending the writ of habeas corpus for the duration of his administration; imprisoning without trial thousands of Northern citizens; arresting and imprisoning newspaper publishers who were critical of him; censoring all telegraph communication; nationalizing the railroads; creating several new states without the consent of the citizens of those states; ordering Federal troops to interfere with elections in the North by intimidating Democratic voters; deporting a member of Congress, Clement L. Vallandigham of Ohio, for criticizing the administration’s income tax proposal at a Democratic Party rally; confiscating private property; confiscating firearms in violation of the Second Amendment; and effectively gutting the Ninth and Tenth Amendments to the Constitution, among other things.
In observing today’s American political landscape, as lawmakers continue to do everything in their power to take away citizens’ rights, it is no surprise that people are still taught and still believe that Lincoln freed the slaves because he cared, saved the Union because the Constitution gave him the right and that the United State could not have survived — or would have been worse off in the long term –without him. He remains the most powerful propaganda tool the United States has ever seen for the advancement of Federal tyranny.
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Butterflies are the most delightful insects on earth. Together with moths, they make up one of the major insect orders or groups called Lepidoptera. The word lepidoptera is derived from Greek words lepidos, meaning scales and ptera meaning, wings. Butterflies and moths can easily be distinguished from other insects by their wings. These wings are covered with thousands of tiny overlapping scales. Each scale is one color, but collectively a butterfly’s color pattern is produced by a complex mixture of differently colored scales.
Butterflies are important component of plant ecosystems. They are pollinators to plants and their presence is an indication of a good quality ecological habitat. Butterflies are also important component of flora and fauna’s food chain. Contrary to popular belief, butterflies’ larvae are not serious threath to the economically important plants. They benefit more the environment by keeping its balance. I simply cannot imagine the world without butterflies! It is us humans who are serious threat to the dwindling number of these insects. We create the main threat to their extinction by destroying their habitats. The pollution of rivers and destruction of river banks; the devastation of forest areas by means of illegal logging, mining and upland farming; the expansion of commercial development to rural areas and the widespread use of pesticides in agriculture contribute to this habitat loss. Butterflies are God’s beautiful living creations and the only consideration that must be kept in mind is that we should treat them and their habitat with respect and in a safe and humane manner.
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A team of researchers from the University of Bristol, Natural History Museum of London, the University of Missouri and Ohio University has discovered the eating habits of Diplodocus using a three-dimensional model of the dinosaur's skull. The eating habits of the herbivore have been uncertain since its discovery more than 130 years ago. Understanding these behaviors could help scientists better understand extinct and modern ecosystems and what it takes to feed these giant herbivores, as well as today's living animals.
Diplodocus was a giant, herbivorous sauropod dinosaur from the Jurassic period, which was around 150 million years ago. The dinosaur, which was more than 170 feet long and weighed more than 12 tons, was the longest animal ever to walk the planet. Its neck was about 20 feet in length.
"Since Diplodocus was such a huge animal, its eating habits and behavior have always been a question in the paleontology community," said Casey Holliday, an assistant professor of pathology and anatomical sciences at MU. "With the 3D model of the skull, we were able to simulate three eating scenarios using a computer-based analysis to determine the stresses that the skull would experience in each situation."
Using data from a CT scan, the team of researchers designed a three-dimensional model of the 2.5-foot-long Diplodocus' skull and tested it using finite element analysis (FEA). FEA, which is commonly used to aid in mechanical engineering and design, revealed the stresses on the dinosaur skull from three different eating behaviors: a normal bite, "branch stripping" and "bark stripping."
"Originally, some scientists in the early 1900s thought that Diplodocus would strip bark off of trees using its jaws to close down on the bark," Holliday said. "However, we found that this process places a lot of stress and strain on the dinosaur's teeth and skull, which could result in bone damage or breaking of teeth. The model and the scans showed that branch stripping, which is when the dinosaur would place its mouth on a branch and pull all the leaves off the branch, placed little to or no stress on the teeth and skull."
While the feeding habits of the Diplodocus have largely been resolved, the behaviors of other extinct animals also could be tested using FEA.
"Sauropod dinosaurs, like Diplodocus, were so weird and different from living animals that there is no animal we can compare them with," said Mark Young, a doctoral student at the University of Bristol and lead author on the research. "This makes understanding their feeding ecology very difficult. That's why biomechanically modeling is so important to our understanding of long-extinct animals."
Holliday thinks that findings from the Diplodocus feeding habits can help determine the ways extinct animals live, but he also said that understanding large, extinct animals will continue to help scientists' understanding of large animals today.
"Sauropods tell us about the evolution of gigantism, or giant body size, because they enable us to understand how much range or space giant animals really need to get around, and how much food they need to survive," Holliday said. "The findings on sauropods also help us understand today's giant herbivores, such as elephants and giraffes, and how they interact with their environments."
The study's authors included Paul Barrett, merit researcher at The Natural History Museum in London; Emily Rayfield, senior lecturer at University of Bristol; and Lawrence Witmer, professor of anatomy at Ohio University. The study was published in Naturwissenschaften, a natural sciences journal.
Explore further: Engineering technology reveals eating habits of giant dinosaurs
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Thanks to Stephen Hawking, a great theoretical physicist and author of A Brief History of Time, for inspiring the title of this post. My knowledge of physics is less than rudimentary but I do know that there are underlying principles at play each time kids launch themselves over the precipice and into the descent. We’re talking about the speed demons, acceleration and velocity getting out of the gate with a little pull from gravity.
Now in more simplified terms that the mathematically disinclined like myself can grab hold of, this is what we’re really saying when we try and quantify the slide experience. It’s pretty much whee to the power of three when screaming down the slide at whoosh factor nine, or in unorthodox mathematical notation
where ‘whee’ is the squeal of unbridled release and ‘whoosh’ is the air flow required to have a full head of hair pluming up from the nape of the neck.
I’ve done some wondering about the antecedents of the slide family. More specifically, I have tried to trace its origins. Not much luck using my standard research tools – Google and interviews with primary sources.
There does not appear to be anything in the ancient visual record that can pinpoint the slide’s birth. There are no paintings on the Lascaux caves, no hieroglyphic whisperings from the Nile delta. I have not come across any evidence-based materials that go back earlier than the beginning of the 20th century. Consequently I have had to rely on broad speculation which I introduce to you the readers as theoretical surmise.
I believe the slide originated in the northern hemisphere, in areas with hilly terrain. Long, cold winters were the norm. Sliding down snowy embankments was great organic entertainment. In North America, this was happening before the Europeans ever arrived on the scene. However, with the introduction of the horse, it’s entirely possible that aboriginal peoples of the northern plains tried to replicate sliding fun in warmer weather. When the family was taking a rest on the trail or setting up camp, it’s plausible that the younger kids would get to zip down a makeshift slide constructed with travois poles.
Before dismissing this musing as completely out of hand, listen to Corn and Potato a wonderful song by singer David Campbell that speaks to a few things that came about via the ‘Indians’. David, an Arawak from Guyana, was world beat in the late 70s and early 80s before the term was coined. He incorporates Caribbean and aboriginal rhythms in his compositions. This was one of the artist’s most requested tunes when he toured schools.
Of course, it may not have happened like this. However, in the absence of empirical evidence to the contrary, I’m sticking with the northern plains Aboriginal Nations as the innovators who brought us what we now know as the slide. If you have other theories, please send them in as comments.
Thanks to the US Patent Office for archival materials dating back to the early 20th century. A few of the illustrations below are from this period. Click on the image for slideshow and here for the photo gallery. There is no indication as to how many of these patents actually went into production. Some are fanciful, some outright funny. All were designed with the intent to elicit squeals of laughter in kids and, after a second look at selected drawings, maybe some mild terror tremors.
Once experienced, whoosh factor 9 is addictive. That’s why we see kids climbing up, zipping down, climbing up the ladders, zipping down again, trying to catch that ephemeral boost. They will even wait in line for minutes on end to slide away in a burst of whoosh.
Size isn’t everything where the thrill of the descent is concerned but it can add a certain cachet. Each of us has our own particular preferences. I’m more a fan of the steep incline than the interminable ride. I want to know is my heart stopping as I look over the precipice anticipating a roller coaster scream?
The Around the World in 18 Slides gallery is a sampling of the ordinary and extraordinary. There isn’t one slide among them that I wouldn’t want to try myself (the dump truck might be a little outré). There is a little bit of everything here including a selection of animal slides – giraffe, elephant, dinosaur… Thanks to all you flickr photogs.
Around the world, 18 photos – a bit of exaggeration on my part. The math just doesn’t add up. I have noted though that Japan seems to have a love affair with slides. Octopus slides and roller slides have captured the popular imagination. Take a look at this Octopus’ Garden and the journey down Japan’s longest slide in western Kyushu.
As it turns out, there is still ample room for scholarly work on the origins of the slide following this minor dalliance with the subject. Will a true historian or anthropologist be able to unravel the mysteries of the slide’s origin, or perhaps confirm the conjecture offered here? Only time and research will tell. In the interim, just keep on slip, slidin’ away…
1. Sharon K – Teardrop Park Slide, NYC
2. Veronica Gomez Castaneda – Sea Serpent Slide at La Laguna, San Gabriel, California
3. US Patent Office
5. unknown Japanese photograper
All materials, unless otherwise attributed or credited, copyright ⓒ 2010 Alex Smith.
If you’re a non-profit or not-for-profit group, feel free to hyperlink, excerpt, or reproduce the contents of this post. Please reference PlayGroundology. For commercial reproduction of this content, please consult the editor.
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Horse power requires fuel.
A century ago, thousands of tons of prairie hay were sold out of wild meadows each year. Railroads carried the hay to distant markets.
Hay was an important income source for homesteaders who were trying to get ahead. A 1908 New York Times article (pdf) states that hay was the second most important cash crop of Nebraska.
The 1919 Encyclopedia Americana reported that Nebraska was the biggest producer of prairie hay in the nation (2,544,000 tons in 1917). It also notes that the largest hay-shipping station in the world was located at Newport, Nebraska.
The following short description of the best of Nebraska's fine hay prairies was written in the late 1930, after the hay-shipping market had begun to decline:
West of O'Neill, the highway [Highway 20] passes through the great hay-producing country, which extends as far as Valentine in an almost unbroken stretch of prairie, dotted in the fall with large haystacks.
Source: Nebraska, a Guide to the Cornhusker State (page 310), by The Federal Writers Project, Nebraska. Published in 1939 by US History Publishers.
And where did the railroads carry all this hay? Some of it went to the horses of the U.S. Army, but much of it went to cities, to feed the millions of horses that labored in the streets.
If one assumes an urban horse population of approximately 3 million in 1900, then 7,200,000 tons of hay and 4,200,000 tons of oats were consumed by city horses per year. To grow this amount of fodder may have required as many as 15,000,000 acres.
Source: The Making of Urban America (page 120) by Raymond Mohl. Published by Rowman & Littlefield in 1997.
The production of hay for the urban horses was an important part of the economy. In the early 1930s, the Horse Association of America (HAA) issued several statements that blamed the depression in the agricultural sector on the automobile. They claimed that the ag depression would never have happened if automobiles, etc., had not largely replaced horses in city streets, and they provided a set of figures to prove it.
The authors of The Horse in the City think that the HAA may have underestimated the amount of hay needed, had horses and mules still been powering all city vehicles in 1930. However,
[t]here can be little dispute that the amount of land needed to feed urban horses and mules was vast. In short, horses had to eat in order to produce energy, and the food they consumed absorbed the output of large amounts of agricultural land, required massive capital and labor inputs for production and transportation, and necessitated an extensive regional and urban distribution system.
Source: The Horse in the City (p. 129) by Clay McShane and Joel Arthur Tarr. Published by JHU Press in 2007
The importance of hay in the economy helps to explain why the New York Times archives from the era of horses contain many reports of prairie fires. An example is the article, A Disastrous Prairie Fire (pdf), which burned a portion of the hay crop in the Newport, Nebraska area.
Besides the interest that the public always has in disasters, such fires were matters of concern to business people. Just as we watch the price of gasoline today, people watched the price of hay then.
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Researchers at the University of Warwick have for the first time been able to detail how and why specific neurons in the brain control the hunger response. They have revealed a set of pacemaker nerve cells in the brain that appear to underlie the drive to feed which itself feeds on a complex web of signals. The level of complexity they have found is such that the system could be much more at risk of serious repercussions from a single error in how those signals are processed than anyone had previously thought. Any number of a range of errors could lead to over activity of these pacemaker cells and explain why many people find difficulty in eating less.
In the research, published in the May Issue of Nature Neuroscience, Dr David Spanswick and his research team in the University of Warwick's Department of Biological Sciences, looked at a part of the brain called the hypothalamic arcuate nucleus which was known to deal with hunger and satiety signals but how it achieves this is poorly understood. The University of Warwick team have identified very specific neurons that act as feeding "pacemakers".
This specific group of neurons- which they have dubbed the "ARC pacemaker" produce regular bursts of electrical activity. However these cells integrate and process a wide variety of signals indicating the energy needs of the body signals most often transmitted by the use of chemical messengers such as hormones like ghrelin, released from the gut and leptin from fat cells.
The combination of these signals and their integration by the ARC pacemaker is such a finely balanced mechanism that one small error or mutation leading to any inappropriate communication in these pathways could produce a significant untoward affect on human eating or feeding patterns.
The high number of potential ways that this delicately balanced hunger pacemaker can go wrong could explain why many overweight people are unable to address their weight problems by a combination of diet and exercise. In the past people with a weight problem have faced scepticism and doubts as to how hard they were really trying to stick to diet and exercise regimes. This research shows that there may indeed be very good reasons why they seem unable to solve their weight problems simply by employing the usual methods, - eating less may be a more difficult and complicated problem than we currently anticipate.
Source: Eurekalert & othersLast reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 21 Feb 2009
Published on PsychCentral.com. All rights reserved.
Self-pity is our worst enemy and if we yield to it, we can never do anything wise in this world.
-- Helen Keller
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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).|
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BCI - What Is A "Missing Person?"
A "Missing Person" is one who, for whatever reason is not found to be in their usual abode and whose family or acquaintances are unaware of their whereabouts. "Missing Children "are those who for whatever reason are not in their usual abode and whose parents or caretakers are unaware of the whereabouts.
They include persons who:
- are abducted by a stranger or acquaintance;
- are abducted by a parent or relative due to custody disputes;
- run away, become lost, or have been discarded by their lawful custodian or parent.
While the majority of children who become "missing" are eventually recovered or return home, they may be gone for significant periods of time. Some children are found dead, and some are never recovered at all. Coordination and cooperation between law enforcement, the missing children's clearinghouse, and all involved agencies can shorten the time a child is away from his/her proper custodian or family, thereby lessening chances of exposure to dangerous situations.
Abductions by a stranger, while accounting for the least amount of missing persons, have the most "grim" outlook for recovery, especially if the child is not located within 48 hours. Immediate and intensive location efforts are necessary.
Children abducted by non-custodial parent live the life of victims of both emotional and sometimes physical abuse. Life is frequently "on the run" and they are uprooted from familiar schools, friends and often moved to other states, where their names may be changed to avoid detection. They are frequently traumatized not only emotionally but by physical abuse from a desperate absconding parent.
Runaways comprise the largest category of missing children. The manpower and resources needed to track them, as well as the perception that they will eventually return to their families by themselves, have made them a difficult enforcement problem. Unfortunately, while away, they are likely to be exposed to adverse and exploitive influences including drugs and prostitution. Often they enter criminal statistics through these activities or others.
Nationally, there are approximately 47,842 missing adults entered into the National Crime Information Center database. There are many more adults who may be missing, but not entered into any database. The Utah Missing Persons Clearinghouse focuses equally on missing adultd as well as missing children.
Some reasons adults may be missing may include:
* Endangered due to foul play
* Diminished mental capacity
* Physical disability
* Suspicious circumstances
FEDERAL AND STATE LAWS
This bill sets guidelines for judges to determine when a child is at risk for abduction; requires a party to file a petition with the court specifying risk factors that might lead to an abduction; addresses specific issues for international abductions; and allows a court to issue a warrant to take immediate physical custody of a child it determines is at risk for abduction.
Missing Children Act
The Missing Children Act (1982) authorizes the Attorney General to collect and exchange information that would assist in the identification of unidentified deceased individuals and the location of missing persons, including missing children.
Missing Children's Assistance Act
The Missing Children's Assistance Act (1984) directs the Administrator of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention to establish and operate a national toll-free telephone line for missing children and a national resource center and clearinghouse.
The National Child Search Assistance Act of 1990 requires each federal, state, and local law-enforcement agency to enter information about missing children younger than the age of 18 into the Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) National Crime Information Center (NCIC) database. The Act also establishes state reporting requirements.
Section 3701(a) of the Crime Control Act of 1990 and Protect Act of 2003(a) In General - Each Federal, State and local law enforcement agency shall report each case of a missing child under the age of 21 reported to such agency to the National Crime Information Center of the Department of Justice.
The Adam Walsh Act (2006) requires tougher laws on sex offender registration and notification. Section 3702 of the Crime Control Act of 1990 ( 42 U.S.C. 5780)(addition) ensures no law enforcement agency within a state establishes or maintains any policy that requires the removal of a missing person entry from its state law enforcement system or the National Crime Information Center computer database based solely on the age of the person and requires law enforcement enter the missing person under the age of 21 within 2 hours of being notified of that missing person.[Last Update - Friday, 08-Mar-2013 16:27:06 MST]
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Getting influenza (flu) shots is the most important step in protecting you and your children against catching the flu, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). As such, CDC recommends that everyone 6 months of age and older get a seasonal flu shot. The seasonal flu vaccine available for the 2012-2013 flu season offers protection against three flu viruses...
- A/California/7/2009 (H1N1)pdm09-like virus
- A/Victoria/361/2011 (H3N2)-like virus
- B/Wisconsin/1/2010-like virus (from the B/Yamagata lineage of viruses)
Types of Flu Shots
There are three types of flu shots being administered. The right one for any particular individual is determined primarily by age and health condition. The nasal-spray flu vaccine is an alternative for healthy people ages 2 to 49 years and not pregnant.
- Seasonal flu shot approved for people ages 6 months and older.
- Fluzone high-dose seasonal flu shot approved for people 65 and older.
- Intradermal flu shot approved for people 18 to 64 years of age.
Learn more about the seasonal flu vaccine from the CDC "Preventing Seasonal Flu With Vaccination" web page.
Who Should Get a Seasonal Flu Shot?
Influenza is not a benign disease. In the U.S., over 200,000 people a year are hospitalized because of seasonal flu and thousands of people die from it. CDC recommends that everyone 6 months of age and older get vaccinated as soon as the seasonal vaccine is available. It takes about two weeks after a vaccination for the immune response to develop. The seasonal vaccine for 2012-2013 affords approximately a years' protection against the three virus strains listed above.
Certain people have been identified by CDC as those who should be vaccinated every year because they are at high risk for serious seasonal flu complications or care for such people:
- Children under 5 years old, and especially those under 2 year old.
- Pregnant women (any stage of pregnancy).
- People 65 years of age and older.
- American Indians and Alaskan Natives, who seem to be at higher risk of flu complications.
- People of any age with certain chronic medical conditions:
- Neurological and neurodevelopmental conditions, including disorders of the brain, spinal cord, peripheral nerve, and muscle such as cerebral palsy, epilepsy (seizure disorders), stroke, intellectual disability (mental retardation), moderate to severe developmental delay, muscular dystrophy, or spinal cord injury.
- Chronic lung disease, such as COPD and cyctic fibrosis.
- Heart disease.
- Blood disorders.
- Endocrine disorders.
- Kidney disorders.
- Liver disorders.
- Metabolic disorders.
- Weakened immune system due to disease or medication.
- People who are morbidly obese.
- People younger than 19 years of age who are receiving long-term aspirin therapy.
- People who live in nursing homes and other long-term care facilities.
- People who live with or care for those at high risk for complications from flu, including:
- Health care workers.
- Household contacts of persons at high risk for complications from the flu.
- Household contacts and out of home caregivers of children less than 6 months of age (children too young to be vaccinated).
Washoe County and State of Nevada Flu Information
Both of these government entities have set up websites to help Nevadans deal with health hazards inherent with seasonal flu. The State of Nevada site in particular has a wealth of information to keep citizens informed and help dispell fear caused by misinformation.
- State of Nevada Influenza (Flu) Information
- Washoe County Flu Season Information
- Regional Emergency Medical Services Authority (REMSA) Flu and Pneumonia Vaccinations
Where to Get Seasonal Flu Shots
Washoe County District Health Immunization Clinic - 1001 East Ninth Street, Building B, Reno. Clinics for both children and adults are on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays and require an appointment. Clinic hours are 8 a.m. to 12 noon, and 1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. To schedule an appointment, call (775) 328-2402 on Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday between 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. (closed noon to 1 p.m.). Appointments can be made up to a week in advance. Walk-ins may be accommodated depending on appointment openings.
St. Mary's Regional Medical Center - Flu vaccinations through St. Mary's are available at two locations of The Clinic at Walmart. One is at 5065 Pyramid Highway in Spanish Springs / Sparks, (775) 770-7664. The other is in Reno at 4855 Kietzke Lane, (775) 770-7664.
Renown Health - Flu shots are being offered at various locations throughout the area. Get the details at Flu Shot Information or call (775) 982-5757.
Other Places to get Flu Shots - In addition to those listed above, you can find a clinic near you with the HealthMap Vaccine Finder. This tool is easy to use and updated frequently. I tried it and found several flu vaccination clinics near my home in Reno. Common locations are drug stores and pharmacies (Walgreens, CVS, Target, Safeway), and urgent care facilities. Prices vary - if you are paying cash, you might save a few bucks by shopping around.
Vaccines for Children (VFC) - This is a federal program that provides immunizations to children without insurance or whose parents can't afford the cost. There are many healthcare providers in the Reno area and throughout Nevada offering the VFC program. Use this list of providers to find a provider in your area.
Flu Shots for the Homebound
If you live in the Reno / Sparks area and cannot get out due to illness or disability, the Regional Emergency Medical Services Authority (REMSA) will come to you with seasonal flu and pneumonia shots. To schedule an appointment or for more information, call REMSA at (775) 858-5741.
Where to Get Seasonal Flu Shots in the Carson City AreaFlu shots are available on Thursdays only at the Carson City Health and Human Services, 900 E. Long Street in Carson City. Clinic hours are from 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Both walk-ins and appointments are accepted. To make an appointment and for more information, call (775) 887-2195.
Sources: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Washoe County Health District.
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Black Abolitionist Archive
Subtitle: Colored People in Michigan.
Speaker or author: editor
Newspaper or publication: Voice of the Fugitive (1851 - 1852)
The editor shares statistical information gathered for the government on the number of African Americans living in Michigan.
Description of file(s): one scanned, two columned, newspaper page
The material featured on this site is subject to copyright protection unless otherwise indicated. The documents may be reproduced free of charge in any format or medium, provided it is reproduced accurately and not used in a misleading context. The source of the material, the University of Detroit Mercy Black Abolitionist Archive, must be identified and the copyright status acknowledged.
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|Feature Article - October 1999|
|by Do-While Jones|
We explained why we believe the coulees were formed about the time of an ice age that we believe ended three or four thousand years ago. Even evolutionary geologists would say the coulees must be younger than 70,000 years because they would have been destroyed by the ice age that evolutionists believe happened 15,000 to 70,000 years ago.
We also explained why we believe the eggs were laid after the coulees were formed. If the eggs were laid after the coulees were formed, they have to be less than 70,000 years old by the evolutionists’ reckoning of time, or less than 4,000 years by ours.
The theory of evolution rests upon these three articles of faith:
The age of the dinosaurs goes directly to this third article of faith. Evolutionists believe the dinosaurs lived 65 to 250 million years ago. If dinosaurs lived a few thousand years ago, then there isn’t enough time for evolution to occur. (Actually, 250 million years isn’t enough time for dinosaurs to evolve into birds, but that’s another story.)
The claimed antiquity of the dinosaur eggs in question is 75 million years old. Last month we looked at the big-picture geology that indicated that the eggs were laid recently. This month we are going to get down on our hands and knees and look at the rocks around the eggs, and see what they tell us.
I used a paintbrush to dust some of the loose sand off some of the bones I was digging, but stopped doing that rather quickly. The brush not only removed the loose sand, it also dug into the “rock” and even the bones. I wished I had brought along one of those battery-powered hand-held fans for blowing the dirt off the bones. I just wasn’t prepared for such soft “rock” and fragile bones.
While talking to the leader of the expedition, I happened to mention in passing that I felt uncomfortable referring to the stuff we were digging as “rock.” She replied that she knew exactly what I meant. She used to call it “sediment”, but a more senior professor rebuked her saying, “it can’t be sediment because it is 75 million years old.” Since she really believes it is 75 million years old, she doesn’t call it sediment anymore. Isn’t it interesting that a preconceived interpretation can affect the description of data?
|We were instructed that whenever we found any seashells, we were to take them immediately to Anne Wilkins, our invertebrate paleontology expert. She would identify them, and that might help us more firmly establish the date of the rock. (Well, that’s what they believe.)
I knew what fossil seashells look like. I bought these fossil seashells (pictured at the right) at a rock shop.
They are gray, like rock, and as hard as rock (because they have become rock).
|I was really excited when my chisel split open a dirt clod, revealing this seashell. I could not wait to take a picture of it.
It was shiny white. It wasn’t fossilized at all! I thought I had made a breakthrough discovery, so I hurriedly took it to Anne.
She was not impressed. Apparently, it is very common to find “75 million-year-old” shells that aren’t fossilized. In fact, that week I found about two dozen shells, and none of them were fossilized at all. They were so unimportant that Anne told me I could keep some of them, so I did. I showed some of them at our booth at the Community Dinner last month.
The main reason I was so skeptical of the report in Earth magazine describing the discovery of dried blood in unfossilized dinosaur bones 1 was that I thought it was unheard of to discover unfossilized bones in Montana. I could believe unfossilzed bones in Alaska, where they might have been protected by being frozen. But bones in Montana should be fossilized. I was surprised to find out that they sometimes aren’t.
I guess I should have known better. I had read about finding dinosaur embryos in dinosaur eggs. I wondered how they would know that. I thought they probably used x-rays, or maybe they used a tiny drill to carve away the egg, leaving just the embryo skeleton.
The eggs turned out not to be hard rocks at all. The eggshells are even more fragile than modern chicken eggs. You won’t even feel them when you slide your chisel (or spoon) through the “rock”. (Let’s be honest. It is hard dirt.) After you remove each thin section of dirt, you have to look carefully to see if the dirt is discolored. The discoloration is the eggshell. The picture at the right (which is a small copy of the original at the MSUN web site) shows a cross section of an egg.
I hope you can see the thin black line that is the eggshell. It only differs from the surrounding dirt by its color.
|When we found the eggs, we dug out around them, trying not to get too close to the egg itself. We wrapped the dirt surrounding the egg in aluminum foil, burlap, and plaster, so they could be taken back to MSUN. There, someone will very carefully separate the embryo bones from the dirt.|
Vickie told me about the reaction of the scientific community to the article. She told me how her friend, Mary Schweitzer, had been unfairly treated after the article was published. Vickie made some accusations that I prefer not to repeat. None of this surprised me, either.
She then told me, in confidence, of a discovery she had made. It is a very surprising discovery. It is a discovery that is likely to provoke a nasty attack from her peers, and she is understandably reluctant to publish it. She has some very solid evidence, but she wants to make sure her case is absolutely air-tight before publishing it so she can defend it against all attacks.
What she has discovered is much more easily explained by a young-earth creationist model than by the traditional evolutionary model. But just as Anne has seen so many unfossilized seashells and still believes they are tens of millions of years old, Vickie’s own discovery has not convinced her that the material in question is not tens of millions of years old.
Although fame can be a valuable career-advancing asset for a paleontologist, Vickie tries to avoid publicity. Last year she discovered the skeleton of a hadrosaur embryo that is 60% developed. This skeleton is at least 90% complete, and includes the only known hadrosaur embryo skull. But you haven’t heard about it yet because Vickie isn’t a publicity seeker. She doesn’t want reporters bothering her all the time, interfering with her work. She especially doesn’t want reporters misrepresenting her findings (intentionally or unintentionally) just to sell newspapers or magazines. Although she didn’t say so, I am sure that Vickie must fear that creationists will “misinterpret” her discovery and use it as evidence against evolution. She doesn’t want to be a poster girl for creationists. She doesn’t want what happened to her friend, Mary Schweitzer, to happen to her, too.
Although I don’t agree with her interpretations of the fossils she is studying in Montana, I believe she has courage and integrity. I believe that she recognizes the importance of her discovery, and will eventually publish it regardless of the personal consequences. When she does, we will make sure you hear about it.
[Five and a half years after this essay was written, secular science journals finally confirmed it.]
I did not expect to find unfossilized shells myself. I did not expect to find the dinosaur eggs in dirt rather than in rock. I did not expect to find geologic evidence that the eggs were laid after the coulees were formed. I did not expect to find out that there is so much evidence for the recent existence of dinosaurs known by professionals, but ignored.
These things surprised me because I had been told the opposite for so many years. I never had the opportunity to check them out myself, first-hand. I am grateful that I had this opportunity.
How many things have you read or been told that you have accepted without question? Have you been told that Stanley Miller’s experiments proved how life began? Have you been told that horses and whales show clear evidence of evolution? Have you been told that missing links between humans and apes have been found? We encourage you to check these things out for yourself. You might not find what you expect.
|Quick links to|
|Science Against Evolution
|Back issues of
of the Month
Schweitzer & Staedter, Earth magazine, June 1997, “The Real Jurassic Park” pages 55 - 57
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Beginning teachers often say they need to deal with discipline before they can focus on instruction. They quickly discover that if their instruction is busy and fast paced, many of the discipline problems disappear. Most discipline problems occur during down time—periods of time when students are not actively engaged in instruction, such as the start or end of class, during class changes, during lunch or recess, and during transitions between activities within your class. That’s why it is so important to keep your instruction moving at a rapid pace. Don’t go so fast you lose everyone, but keep it moving.
Jason Womack taught 50-minute high school classes. Each day the first task for students was to copy the schedule off the board. He organized his instruction around a theme for the day and always listed 5 to 12 activities. Typically, he scheduled 10, five-minute activities. He wanted students to see, hear, and touch something at least twice every day. In a typical day, they would “see something (watch me or data); hear about it (listen to me lecture or use the closed-eye process [tell 4–7 min. story with eyes closed]...touch some- thing (come back from wherever they went to [in their mind] and produce
something based on what they heard; draw, write it, make a video,...or a puppet show). My goal was to give them information and let them internalize and give it back; not just force-feed info and make them regurgitate it, but to give them an opportunity to internalize and express it.”
He also ensured that his students were constantly engaged in learning. Pacing is critical, as is keeping students engaged. How can you improve what you are already doing to increase student engagement and keep discipline problems at bay?
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of Peace | Peace is a Sunset | Puppets
for Peace | Peaceful Places in our School | Peace Cranes
in Mrs. Bauer's Grade 4 class have been exploring the symbols of peace.
The sunflower is an internationally recognized symbol of peace which represents
the end of nuclear weapons. The children planted sunflowers and made wishes
of peace for the earth. The students have created wire sculptures of a
sunflower and inside of each sunflower, then chose another symbol of peace
such as the kite, poppy, dove, or hand.
is a Sunset
to listen to "Peace
Is a Sunset," a song by Grade 1 Room 17 (MP3)
at Olympic Heights School enjoyed Puppets for Peace presentations by The
Project Ploughshares organization. These interactive puppet plays introduced
“the ‘Footsteps to Peace” strategies and grade appropriate
scenarios which explore what bullying means and how to handle it peacefully.
Places in Our School
Grade 1 Room 17
The children talked
about all the peaceful places there are around our school and how they
felt when they went there. They thought it would be great to share these
special spots. They broke up into groups and took pictures of places that
they loved with the digital camera. Then they used a photo editor to turn
the pictures into art. Here are some of their works of art.
Click to enlarge
Sadako Sasaki was two years old when the bomb was dropped on her home city of Hiroshima, Japan on August 6. 1945. Sadako seemed to escape any ill effects after her
exposure to the bomb, until, ten years later, she developed leukemia “the atom bomb
While she was in the hospital, her friend Chizuko brought her a folded paper crane and told her the story about it. According to Japanese legend, the crane lives for a thousand years and a sick person who folds a thousand cranes will become well again.
Sadako folded cranes through her illness. The flock hung above her bed on strings. When she died at the age of twelve, Sadako had folded six hundred and forty-four (644) cranes. Classmates folded the remaining three hundred and fifty-six (356) cranes so that one thousand were buried with Sadako.
In 1958, with contributions from school children, a statue was erected in Hiroshima Peace Park, dedicated to Sadako and to all children who were killed by the atom bomb.
Each year on August 6, Peace Day, thousand of paper cranes are placed beneath Sadako’s statue by people who wish to remember Hiroshima and express this hopes for a peaceful world.
Their prayer is engraved on the base of the statue:
This is our cry, this is our prayer; peace in the world.
“Paper crane, I will write peace on your wings and you will fly over the world.”
Sadako Sasaki, age 12
In memory of Sadako, Olympic Heights School has made peace cranes as our offer to promote peace in the world.
We are a member of Peaceful School International.
Click to enlarge
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Unit of power in the SI unit system. 1 Watt = 1 Joule per second.
A very dense star with a mass below 1.4 solar masses that is no longer burning nuclear fuel. The Sun will one day evolve into a white dwarf with a diameter of 10 000 km.
Periodic comet which orbits the Sun once every 5.45 years. Discovered in 1948 at the Lick Observatory, California, by Carl A. Wirtanen. It is a so-called `Jupiter-type' comet, whose orbit is strongly influenced by that planet. Perihelion is at 159 million km (1.06 AU) from the Sun, i.e. just outside the orbit of the Earth. Aphelion is at a distance of about 768 million km (5.13 AU), near the orbit of Jupiter. Target of ESA's Rosetta mission, which will go into orbit around the nucleus and deploy a lander on its surface.
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David J. Flaspohler, an avian ecologist and conservation biologist at Michigan Technological University, writes from Hawaii, where he is studying the influence of human activities on birds and the natural ecosystems that support them.
Tuesday, May 22
One of the great pleasures of learning bird songs comes in the drowsy predawn twilight. Through the window comes the voice of the first bold male offering up his species’ diagnostic song. From my bed in a friend’s cabin 30 miles north of Hilo this morning, the first sound to break the silence is the emphatic, repeated “whit-cheer!” of the northern cardinal, a bird I grew up hearing in southern Michigan. Next comes the soft cooing of Asian spotted and zebra doves, followed by the occasional harsh notes of the common myna, an import from India. Finally, I hear the slurred warbles of the Japanese white-eye. Later, with a cup of coffee, looking out over the pasture and woodlots spreading down to the sea, I hear and see a rich and complex ecosystem, almost none of which belongs here.
It is quite conceivable that a casual visitor to Hawaii could spend a pleasant holiday of a week or two and not see a single native Hawaiian species. Nearly all native lowland ecosystems in Hawaii have been replaced by nonnative species, including nearly all plants, birds, reptiles, amphibians and insects. Human residents and tourists concentrate themselves in these areas near the ocean, so it is even possible to grow up in many parts of Hawaii thinking that mynas, doves, papaya, eucalyptus, geckos and even mosquitoes have always been here.
To see, hear and smell native Hawaiian forests, you need to get away from the beaches and go up in elevation where most of the exotic birds disappear. Our research in these kipuka forests is aimed at understanding how kipuka size and introduced rats influence kipuka food webs and the native birds. But if the birds in these kipuka are imperiled, some listed and others being considered for listing under the Endangered Species Act, Hawaii is also home to a few bird species even worse off.
To see what intensive care looks like for the most critically endangered birds, I spend a morning at the Keauhou Bird Conservation Center in Volcano, Hawaii. Rich Switzer, manager for the Hawaii Endangered Bird Conservation Program at the San Diego Zoo, meets me at the gate, and we drive up to a compound of one-story buildings scattered within a sparse ohia forest. The mission of Keauhou is to conserve the most critically endangered Hawaiian birds through captive breeding and, with careful planning, reintroduce them back into the wild.
We remove our shoes, a common practice in Hawaii, but here a precaution against spreading disease. We first tour a darkened hallway with rooms on both sides and small vertical windows along the walls, looking into aviaries housing palila, Maui parrotbill, puaiohi and apapane. It is the breeding season, so we speak in whispers. There are only about 500 parrotbills left, and they are found only on a small part of Maui. The puaiohi is even rarer. It is one of only two endemic thrushes left in Hawaii and is found only at the highest elevations on Kaua’i.
Next, we visit the extensive aviaries dedicated to saving one of the rarest birds in the world — the Hawaiian crow, called an ‘alala, which no one has seen in the wild since 2002. Prior to the disappearance of the wild birds, a small population was established in captivity with the hope of preventing their extinction. We enter a control room with a dozen black-and-white screens streaming live video from each aviary. Lisa Komarczyk, a senior research associate at Keauhou, closely monitors a mated pair of ‘alala and a nest platform covered with sticks assembled by the female. Lisa records how frequently the female nestles in the nest cup, a precursor to egg laying, and as we watch, a female named Moa Nui sits quietly as her mate perches in the background.
The ‘alala is a relative of the crows, ravens and jays found across much of the globe. This family is among the smartest birds, with some species using tools and in other ways showing the capacity for complex thought and for cultural transmission of learned information. Today, with the ‘alala facing extinction, such traits cut both ways. A greater capacity for learning might be advantageous as this bird struggles to survive in a changing world. Yet cultural information like where and when to find food and how best to react to predators is at least somewhat learned from experienced older birds. It does not take long in captivity for such abilities to disappear. An earlier effort to reintroduce ‘alala into the wild failed in part because the native hawk, the ‘io, was able to capture birds that may have been weakened by introduced disease or lost adaptive responses to the predator, or both.
As we watch the monitor, Rich points to a video screen showing a female sitting quietly on her nest. He and Lisa note some rhythmic head movements and contractions of the bird’s body. We note that the fine black feathers on the bird’s head have become erect, and the bird gives a subtle but distinct shudder. They’ve seen egg laying many times before, but for me, this is thrilling. I ask if they think she just laid, but they are noncommittal. The female shuffles a bit and rises to reveal a shiny spotted egg. Bending her head down, she uses her bill to delicately arrange the egg beneath her. She then settles her warm belly down over the egg and waits to see what the future will bring.
| 3.110626 |
Cambridge [England] ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2010.
xviii, 215 p. : ill. ; 24 cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 201-211) and index.
"Studies of learning are too frequently conceptualized only in terms of knowledge development. Yet it is vital to pay close attention to the social and emotional aspects of learning in order to understand why and how it occurs. How Students Come to Be, Know, and Do builds a theoretical argument for and a methodological approach to studying learning in a holistic way. The authors provide examples of urban fourth graders from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds studying science as a way to illustrate how this model contributes to a more complete and complex understanding of learning in school settings. What makes this book unique is its insistence that to fully understand human learning we have to consider the affective-volitional processes of learning along with the more familiar emphasis on knowledge and skills. Developing interest, persisting in the face of difficulty, actively listening to others' ideas, accepting and responding to feedback, and challenging ideas are crucial dimensions of students' experiences that are often ignored"--Provided by publisher.
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Witch-hazel’s name — A botanical mysteryWritten by George Ellison
The unusually dry, warm days this month have resulted in a delayed color season as well as an abundance of fall wildflowers. During recent field trips conducted for the North Carolina Arboretum along the Blue Ridge Parkway and for the Smoky Mountain Field School in the high Smokies, there have been dazzling displays of late-blooming species like ladies’-tresses, lobelia, aster, and goldenrod. My favorite fall wildflower, however, has always been witch-hazel.
If you take a walk along a woodland edge within the next few weeks, there’s every chance you’ll discover witch-hazel in full bloom. It sometimes flowers by early September and will persist into late December or early January during warm winters. But from early October into early November is the time to catch witch-hazel in its prime.
Witch-hazel is renowned as a utilitarian plant, especially as an astringent or as the forked branch of choice for those dowsing for water. But before we consider its utilitarian possibilities, let’s first take a look at its natural history.
Flowers are designed to attract pollinators. Somehow witch-hazel has “discovered” that a late flowering period provides a niche in which the competition with other plants for certain pollinators is at a minimum. In The Natural History of Wild Shrubs and Vines (1989), Donald Stokes observes that “A question for which I have not been able to find an answer is, ‘Who pollinates the flowers?’ It blooms when very few insects are out collecting food. I have watched the flowers when they are in bloom and the only visitors I have seen are ants.”
I don’t know the answer to that question either, but you can easily observe that during warm intervals (when insects would be out and about) witch-hazel’s yellow tassels are unfurled, thereby allowing access to the floral cup. During cold snaps, the tassels curl tightly over the cup to protect the plant’s sexual parts.
Note that last year’s fruits are ripening just as this year’s flowers appear. These grayish-brown, hairy capsules are tiny cannons that eject their black seeds with such force they can land up to 30 feet away from the parent shrub or tree. If you hear a mysterious crackling in the leaf litter, it’s probably the result of a witch-hazel seed bombardment.
What’s in a name? One source suggests that witch-hazel’s seed propulsion tactics “suggested witchcraft to those who first observed the phenomenon.” Another source suggests that the plant’s leaves often display cone-shaped insect galls that resemble “the hat of a witch.” And yet another source observes that “the name refers not to magic and witchcraft but to an old English word meaning ‘to bend.’” Take your pick.
I’m inclined to go along with the last suggestion since witch-hazel has traditionally been utilized in water-witchery; that is, the locating of water by the use of a forked branch that bends over its objective. In A Natural History of Trees (1950), Donald Culross Peattie provides some details: “You took a forked branch (of witch-hazel), one whose points grew north and south so that they had the influence of the sun at its rising and setting, and you carried it with a point in each hand, the stem pointing forward. Any downward tug of the stem was caused by the flow of hidden water.”
On the other hand, “Both skeptics of dowsing and many of dowsing’s supporters believe that dowsing apparatus have no special powers, but merely amplify small imperceptible movements of the hands arising from the expectations of the dowser. This psychological phenomenon is known as the ideomotor effect.” (http://www.paralumun.com/dowsing.htm)
Witch-hazel leaf extract is widely used today as an astringent for toning skin. Virtually all of the facial cleansers in your local pharmacy will feature this extract. Herbal Medicine Past and Present (vol. 2, 1989) by John K. Crellin and Jane Philpot, provides the following background:
“The basis of witch-hazel’s reputation has long rested on the astringency due to hydrolysable tannins. Distilled witch-hazel contains no tannins but a small amount of volatile oil. Alcohol is usually added, which provides a sense of astringency when applied to the skin; this, plus a characteristically pleasant taste and odor, probably accounts for the considerable reputation of distilled witch-hazel for bruises and cuts … Recent concern has been expressed over the presence of a safrole (a carcinogen), but this is irrelevant because of the small quantity present. Furthermore, preparations of witch-hazel are employed externally, including for hemorrhoids.
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After hiding in the Sun's glare for many weeks, the planet Venus is slowly returning to prominence. It's quite low in the west at sunset, and sets in early evening, so there's not a lot of time to look for it. But it's a little easier to spot this evening because it teams up with the crescent Moon.
Venus spent most of last year in the morning sky. But it passed "behind" the Sun early this year, and moved into the evening sky. It'll remain there through the summer.
Venus completes 13 orbits around the Sun for every eight that Earth makes. Because of that, Venus follows five distinct paths across the skies, which repeat themselves every eight years.
Such relationships between planets, or between moons in orbit around planets, are fairly common. The bodies' mutual gravitational attraction pulls them into a "resonance" with each other, like two complementary musical notes.
But planetary scientists aren't sure if the Venus-Earth pattern is such a resonance, or if it's just a coincidence. That's because the relationship isn't perfect: It's off by a few days. It's possible that as the eons roll by, the pattern will become more synchronized, and Earth and Venus will spend the rest of their days orbiting the Sun in perfect harmony.
Look for Venus -- the bright "evening star" -- a little to the left or upper left of the Moon as darkness begins to fall this evening, and well below the Moon tomorrow evening.
Script by Damond Benningfield, Copyright 2010
For more skywatching tips, astronomy news, and much more, read StarDate magazine.
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Is emotional thought the platform for learning, memory, decision making & creativity? Through experience, do we establish such beliefs?
About education: have you watched this?
Neuroscience research, cognition process, a person’s mind, school, education….these sound related, and seem interconnected. But how did we conclude with those researches? More activities (physical, cognitive, thinking), more neurons in action, in connection, more learning? That sounds great, based on our past life experience, with games providing rich learning experience, isn’t it? But this comes with also great assumptions behind…
How could we “isolate” one factor in learning from another? The emotions and cognitions are always part of the learning equation. Without emotions, the thinking would rely much on the pure analysis, and this would be similar to a machine or a computer program, which gives you the “perfect answer”, the (MCQ) MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTION type of answer. Doesn’t it sound right in education? May be for examination and tests. But, what has or hasn’t been learnt? When I was young, someone who “rolled” a pencil and got the right answer in MCQ could get the same results as me thinking through the questions and then answer. What can I claim from such an experiment? One who rolled the pencil didn’t learn, but I did. However, it is the outcome that we seem to be interested, and we conclude that the one who rolled the pencil did learn (or performed as good as I did) because we got the same result. Right? Wrong!
The marshmallow experiment did show the effect of the importance of self-control in leading to successful learning (or even a successful life), to some extent, I think, but what are the cause and effect of self-control to emotional intelligences and personal successes? What were the assumptions behind that experiment? How would the scientists conclude with those who exercise “self-controlled” did better? Was that so simple? Who exercises the control, or the self-control? At work, is self-control that easily isolated for study – in terms of EQ?
In summary, I think there are lots of great findings and new discoveries with these scientific researches. However, have we identified the factors that have led to “effective” and “successful” learning as yet, based on the neuroscience research? What assumptions have we (you) made in the claims? What are our experiences and perceptions on these findings, education and learning, in schools settings, and in social networked learning? Are those findings reliable?
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Posted on March 17, 2013 by Bob Berwyn
Hammerhead sharks received much-needed protection from unsustainable trade. Photo courtesy Florida Museum of Natural History.
International group sanctions restrictions on trade of endangered species
By Summit Voice
FRISCO — Years of efforts by ocean conservation advocates yielded results last week, as the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species adopted new protections for five species of highly traded sharks, as well as two species of manta rays and one species of sawfish.
Japan, Gambia and India unsuccessfully challenged the Committee decision to list the oceanic whitetip shark, while Grenada and China failed in an attempt to reopen debate on listing three hammerhead species. Colombia, Senegal, Mexico and others took the floor to defend Committee decisions to list sharks. (more…)
Filed under: biodiversity, endangered species, Environment | Tagged: biodiversity, CITES, Hammerhead sharks, IUCN Red List, manta rays, Oceanic whitetip shark, oceans, sawfish, Wildlife Conservation Society | 3 Comments »
Posted on May 12, 2012 by Bob Berwyn
Costa Rica, Honduras propose listing scalloped hammerheads under interntational trade agreement
By Summit Voice
SUMMIT COUNTY — Two Caribbean nations this week moved to try and protect threatened hammerhead sharks from overfishing under an international trade agreement.
Costa Rica and Honduras proposed listing scalloped hammerhead sharks under an appendix to to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), considered to be one of the best-enforced international conservation agreements. Regulation under the appendix ensures that trade is sustainable and legal. Appendix II covers species that are not necessarily threatened with extinction but could become so unless trade is closely controlled. (more…)
Filed under: biodiversity, endangered species, Environment, Marine biology | Tagged: CITES, Costa Rica, Hammerhead sharks, Honduras, marine conservation, Scalloped hammerhead | Leave a Comment »
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You can add a formula to any cell in a spreadsheet by typing an equal sign (=) followed by the name of the function. Auto-suggest will show a box displaying the name and syntax of the formula you're building.
A function used in the same cell with another function is called a nested function. When functions are combined, Google Sheets will calculate the innermost function first. The nested function is contained in parentheses and is used as one of the components of the surrounding function.
For example, let's say you want to calculate the absolute value of a sum of several numbers in the cell range A1:A7. To calculate the sum of these numbers, you would enter '=SUM(A1:A7)' into a cell.
To calculate the absolute value of this sum, you need to nest the sum formula within absolute value formula. To calculate both formulas in a single cell, enter '=ABS(SUM(A1:A7))' into the cell. Note that the =SUM() function is performed first and is used as a component in the =ABS() function.
When you reference other cells in a formula, we highlight those cells in contrasting colors to help you more easily build a formula. When you click on the cell that contains a completed formula, you'll also see these cells highlighted.
Learn more about functions and formulas in our comprehensive list of functions.
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A convergence of Dutch, Spanish, Latin American and African colonial influences, the small ABC Islands of Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao in the Eastern Caribbean are part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. A former Dutch colony in the 17th century, the area was once known as the Dutch West Indies, before becoming the Netherlands Antilles in 1954. Colonised by Spain in 1572, many believe that the islands were discovered by the Spanish navigator Amerigo Vespucci in around 1419. The Spaniards, who were unable to find any precious extractable metals, deemed the islands ‘Islas Inutiles’; the Useless Islands. The Spain and Netherlands both sought possession of the islands in 1634, with the Dutch West India Company taking possession of Curacao, and then Aruba. During Dutch colonial rule, Curacao emerged as a major port for the slave trade, with Bonaire used for plantations.
Aruba remained one of the most prosperous islands in the Caribbean, helped in part by the gold rush boom of the 1820s before the mines were exhausted, and the introduction of petroleum refineries in the 1920s following the discovery of oil in nearby Venezuela. Today, the main monetary capital for the islands comes from the tourist industry. Aruba gained independence from the Netherlands Antilles in 1986, and was granted a separate, more autonomous status under the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Constitutional changes were also made to other islands following a referendum, with Curacao also becoming an autonomous country within the Kingdom in 2010, and the less densely populated, smaller island of Bonaire receiving city status within the Netherlands.
One of the defining features of the islands is the indigenous Creole Papiamento language, one of the most widely spoken on the ABC Islands. There is a small but growing Dutch-Antillean literary tradition, spearheaded by the Curacaoan author Cola Debrot. One of the leading figures of Dutch- Caribbean literature, his most famous work is the novella My Black Sister, released in 1935. Founded in 1958, the Cas di Cultura Theatre in Oranjestaf, Aruba also hosts annual international dance and theatre festivals.
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From Kansas to Louisiana, Multimedia Is Creating a New Look in the Classroom
In McPherson, Kan., interactive multimedia has helped educators create an innovative new approach to teaching history, social studies and geography at the high school level. And in St. James Parish, La., elementary school students are taking "field trips" in their classroom, thanks to an exciting new multimedia program developed jointly by IBM and Children's Television Workshop. "We didn't set out to rewrite history or to change the content of our social and physical sciences," says Dr. Randy Watson, assistant superintendent for curriculum in McPherson, Kansas. "We simply wanted to change the way students learn and make learning exciting and fun again," he adds. "We decided on a thematic or inter-disciplinary approach that encouraged student initiative, group participation and the development of inter-personal skills." During the 1992/93 school year, McPherson Unified School District initiated a new approach for teaching American and world history, government, social studies and geography at the high school level. A textbook-less environment, which embraced multi-disciplinary subject areas, combined many of the concepts taught previously in separate courses. Students were organized into learning teams to explore over-lapping topics in history, government, social sciences and geography. Among the topics were "immigration and exploration," "war and conflicts," and the "Bill of Rights and other freedoms." IBM's highly interactive programs #172;Columbus: Encounter, Discovery and Beyond; Evolution/Revolution; and Bill of Rights #172;were chosen to support the initiatives. These knowledge-based programs fully utilize multimedia computers' CD-ROM technology; their presentations are alive with text, photographs, music, sound, graphics and video. To supplement the software component, students were encouraged to do individual research and to participate in group study and discussions. Assigned responsibilities included reviews of periodicals, library research and the use of electronic media such as CD-ROM. Student Test Scores Impressive At the conclusion of courses, students involved in the programs were required to make oral presentations and to take the same written tests given to students in traditional classes. The results, according to Watson, have been "nothing short of spectacular." Of the students involved in the initial programs, only 4% received "C" grades. The remaining 96% earned either "A's" or "B's" and they were far more well-rounded in their comprehension than the control students. This compares to an average performance curve of about 18% of all students receiving "F's", "D's" or "C's." An unexpected benefit was the performance of special educational students, who worked at their own pace and far exceeded previous records of achievement. McPherson was not one of the early school districts to embrace computer technology for its classrooms, according to Watson. But starting later allowed it to learn from others' experiences and to choose the most effective approach for its students. The district began implementing classroom technology during the 1990/91 school year in the primary grades. Next, it was added at the middle- and high-schools levels. McPherson plans to network classrooms in all six schools by 1997 and is looking at the possibility of expanding multimedia in all areas of the junior and senior high curriculum. Multimedia at Elementary Level Some 1,000 miles away #172;in St. James Parish, La. #172;the Mississippi River moves at a leisurely pace as it winds through the heart of the parish school district. But in St. James' schools, the pace is anything but leisurely. In 1984, Romeville Elementary School became one of the first schools to install IBM's Writing to Read program, and later, Writing to Write. Test score increases of 20% after only one year with Writing to Read led to a plan for adding technology in other St. James Parish schools. In fall of 1994, Romeville introduced elementary students to interactive multimedia with the addition of IBM's Nature of Science Visit Series for grades 1 through 6. "The Nature of Science Visit Series is a very compelling new learning tool for our young people," says Janie Vee Henderson, instructional supervisor at St. James Parish. "The program not only makes science fun and exciting, it creates enthusiasm for learning that spills over into other areas of the curriculum." The Nature of Science Visit Series, developed in conjunction with the Children's Television Workshop (CTW), embraces IBM's Teaching and Learning with Computers methodology, encouraging personal involvement, individual decision making and higher-order thinking skills. At the primary grade levels, the highly interactive Through the Woods and At the Seashore programs allow students to take colorful and fun-filled "field trips" right in the classroom. Along the way, they encounter all sorts of animal and sea life, depicted in photographs, illustrations and video segments. As students experience these fascinating trips into multimedia computing, they begin to understand the animals' relationships to their environment, according to Henderson. Children also learn to observe and ask questions and develop a positive attitude about nature and science. In grades 3 through 6, students explore more advanced course content, including solar energy and investigating light. Built-in Motivation Romeville elementary teacher Glenn Chenier says that students can't wait for their afternoon classes and working with the multimedia technology. "One of the more touching examples of the impact of this program involves a student who was being evaluated for special education classes," he says. "He was lethargic and totally un-involved in the classroom. After being exposed to this program, the student became totally engrossed, and his attitude in the class changed dramatically," notes Chenier. "Many of these children have grown up with educational television," says Henderson, "and interactive programs such as the Nature of Science Series build on the techniques of combining entertainment with education in a very stimulating and challenging way." It's a combination that's not only stimulating children to learn, it's exciting St. James educators over the possibilities.
This article originally appeared in the 04/01/1995 issue of THE Journal.
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by Jennifer Morgan, via WRI Insights
Australia, one of world’s most carbon-intensive countries, recently began implementing a comprehensive national policy to address climate change and transition to a clean-energy economy. Yesterday, WRI had the pleasure of hosting Mark Dreyfus, Australian Parliamentary Secretary for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency, who outlined his country’s plans to a group of business, congressional, and NGO representatives.
One point that came through at the event is that Australia’s recent energy and climate choices can be very instructive to the United States. This post provides a quick look at Australia’s new policy and explores how it can inform and inspire U.S. efforts to move toward a low-carbon future.
Why Did Australia Adopt a National Climate and Energy Policy?
Australia faces a high level of climate risk, with significant vulnerability to sea level rise as well as to extreme weather eventslike drought, heat waves, and wildfires. At the same time, the country is heavily dependent on carbon-intensive resources. Australia has the highest per capita greenhouse gas emissions of any country in the developed world, and it’s the 15th largest emitter overall.
Recognizing the major environmental and economic risks of continuing with business as usual, as well as the opportunities involved in shifting to clean energy, Australia decided to transform its economy toward a more sustainable path. The policy change involved a long and at times acrimonious political debate, but the country’s leaders decided that they could no longer afford not to act.
What Does the Country’s New Climate Policy Look Like?
The Clean Energy Future Package, in effect since July, includes a national emissions reduction target of 5 percent below 2000 levels by 2020 and 80 percent below 2000 levels by 2050. To meet these targets, the Package features a range of policy instruments that will put a price on carbon, promote renewable energy (setting a target of 20 percent of Australia’s electricity coming from renewables by 2020), encourage energy efficiency, and reduce pollution.
The centerpiece of the policy is the carbon price, starting at $23 AUD/ton until July 2015. After that, a flexible phase will begin where the market will set the price. Around 500 businesses – large emitters spanning sectors that cover 68 percent of Australia’s emissions – will be required to pay for their pollution under the carbon pricing mechanism.
Australia has also created institutions to ensure that the system works effectively. A Climate Change Authority will monitor and advise on the level of pollution caps, operation of the carbon price and other initiatives, and progress toward meeting targets. A Clean Energy Regulator will administer the carbon price mechanism, the Renewable Energy Target, a Carbon Farming Initiative, and the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Program. A Productivity Commission will monitor and report on what kinds of climate change policies other countries are implementing, as well as focus the effects of the program on jobs and competitiveness. In addition, a Clean Energy Finance Corporation is being created to invest in renewables and energy efficiency. Australia hopes that these elements, as well as others, will help the country meet its emissions and pollution-reduction targets.
Australia has also paid close attention to the issue of fairness across the economy. In particular, the government thought about how to ensure that poorer households were protected from potentially higher energy costs. The country also put in a program to shield energy-intensive industries from the carbon price.
What Is Particularly Relevant for the United States?
As Secretary Dreyfus pointed out at the WRI event, there are many similarities between Australia and the United States in the context of climate and energy policy. For example, the countries share similar emissions profiles, are extremely fossil-fuel dependent, and face highly partisan policy environments in which climate change is a divisive issue. While there are many lessons America can learn from the Australian experience, four key ones jump out:
- It’s clear that a mix of policy instruments is needed across the economy. A carbon price is very important, but it’s not enough to actually create the needed transformation. Policies and incentives around renewable energy and energy efficiency are also needed, and creating a specific finance corporation to invest in clean technologies can be an effective part of an overall package.
- “Fairness” is a vital component of any policy deal. Australia had a long discussion nationally about how to create a fair approach. The country utilized various tools such as carbon policy and tax policy to protect households from any higher energy costs and shield energy-intensive industries from competitiveness concerns. Like Australia, the United States has a wide divergence of economic circumstances, both in households and on the industry side. The Australian plan shows that with political leadership and time, effective solutions can be found.
- We must not lose sight of the science when creating policies. Australia recognized its own vulnerability to climate change and shared that risk analysis with its citizens through town hall meetings across the country. It also created an independent commission to monitor these risks and make recommendations. The United States also faces significant climate risks, from sea-level rise in Florida to forest die-back in the West. It’s very instructive for the United States to understand how Australia assessed its own risk and built institutions to forge a strong link between science and policymaking.
- Persistence is essential. The Australian government had been trying to implement a comprehensive climate package for many years, and on the fourth try – despite intense opposition – it finally succeeded. It’s important for the United States to not give up, to learn from past debates, and to keep working to develop an effective approach that can meet the joint goals of economic growth and reduced emissions.
In the end, every country has to find its own way to address climate change risks and position itself in the clean-energy economy. The United States is currently a step behind Australia in determining its own pathway. Hopefully some inspiration from Down Under will motivate U.S. business and government to join the growing number of countries that are tackling climate change one step at a time.
Jennifer L. Morgan oversees the Institute’s work on climate change issues and guides WRI strategy in helping countries, governments, and individuals take positive action toward achieving a zero-carbon future. This piece was originally published at WRI Insights and was reprinted with permission.
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"These are the laws that you are to place before them:" Exodus 21:17 (TM)
For 400 hundred years, the Hebrews had been slaves in Egypt. They had been ruled over and governed by Pharaoh. Now the entire nation is on a sojourn to the promised land and they have no official system of government or rules by which to govern themselves. Imagine the chaos of millions of people on a 40 year trek.
A few chapters ago, in Exodus 18, we read about Moses spending day and night with people lining up to have him judge matters between them. The first step in organizing the nation was to have a group of leaders organized to help judge disputes between people. But how are you going to make sure all these judges rule consistenty?
God is helping Moses set up a system, a "rule of law," by which this fledgling Hebrew nation can be organized and governed. We have a system of rules, too. The federal government has a set of rules, or laws, called the "U.S. Code" which helps judges rule. Each state has their own set of rules, or laws. Iowa’s is called the "Iowa Code." The cool thing is that God’s "rule of law" organizational structure is still in effect today – even though the rules have changed.
When reading the Old Testament laws, it’s easy to get mired in the minutiae of rules that were made for a different time and culture. The laws are often confusing to us thousands of years later. It’s important to keep sight of the big picture of what God was doing and the principles of law that still govern us today – even if the culture and civilization have changed radically in the thousands of years since.
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Dordogne Berry Limousin :
Where to go?
Art and Culture
Art and Culture
- Art and Architecture
- Gallo-Roman Architecture
- Romanesque Art and Religious Architecture
- Gothic Art and Architecture
- Civil and Military Architecture
- The Renaissance
- Traditional Rural Architecture
Art and Architecture
The Vézère Valley, the prehistoric sites of Les Eyzies and the caves of the Quercy contain some of the finest known examples of prehistoric art, the earliest manifestations of art in France. Since that time, art and architecture have evolved in close connection with the region’s turbulent history. The significant periods of construction took place in periods of peace: the Pax Romana, the 12C (many monasteries date from this century) and the period spanning the end of the 14C to the 16C. During times of war – the Hundred Years War, the Wars of Religion – the main concern of the local population was its protection, hence the fortification of towns, castles and churches.
Only a few buildings constructed by the Romans have withstood the test of time, although vestiges of the Gaulish period do still survive.
Excavations undertaken at Drevant, near St-Amand-Montrond, have established that a large Gallo-Roman centre developed on the site of a small Gaulish market town; a theatre, baths and a vast walled area which may have been a Gallo-Roman forum or temple have been uncovered here.
In Limoges, an amphitheatre was built on the northwest outskirts of the old town; however, it was razed to the ground in the 16C and its ruins are now hidden beneath the Jardin d’Orsay.
In Périgueux, traces have been discovered of the ancient Vesunna, capital of the Petrocorii. The finds include the Vesunna tower, the arena and the perimeter wall. The Puy d’Issolud near Vayrac is believed to be the site of the Uxellodunum encampment – this was the last bastion of the Gauls in their resistance against the all-conquering Caesar. At Luzech, traces of the Impernal encampment which commanded a bend in the River Lot have been unearthed; the ruins of the Murcens oppidum have also been discovered near the Vers Valley.
Romanesque Art and Religious Architecture
In the Berry
Though characteristics of the Poitou School are widely represented across the region, most Romanesque churches in the Berry have a precise plan with certain features peculiar to the area: the chancel generally consists of two bays flanked by aisles which communicate with the choir through arches resting on columns adorned with historiated capitals; the apse is semicircular; the transept has a dome on squinches above the crossing and barrel vaulting above the arms; the nave is wider than the transept crossing and communicates with the arms of the transept by narrow passages known as Berrichon passages.
The abbey churches are based on the Benedictine design, for the Order of St-Benedict spread throughout Berry and built abbeys at Fontgombault, Chezal-Benoît and at Châteaumeillant, where the church of St-Genès has an unusual arrangement of the chevet with six parallel apsidal chapels.
Noirlac was created by the Cistercians, Plaimpied and Puy-Ferrand by the Augustinian Canons Regular. One church in the Bourges diocese is designed quite differently: the basilica of Neuvy-St-Sépulcre was built in the form of a rotunda and was inspired by the church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.
The Limousin School
The Limousin School combines many of the characteristics of its neighbours: the Auvergne School, whose chief feature is the semi-barrel vaulting of the aisles or the galleries above the nave Beaulieu-sur-Dordogne); the Poitou School, whose influence can be seen in the collegiate church of St-Pierre in Le Dorat – a blind nave with broken-barrel vaulting and aisles with groined vaulting; and the Périgord School – the domes on the church at Solignac.
Nevertheless, certain elements can be considered as purely Limousin. Firstly, the use of granite, which is found throughout the region and whose colour, while usually grey, sometimes verges on a golden tone.
Secondly, in the peculiar design of some belfries: the octagonal spire which crowns them is joined to the square tiers that form the base of the tower by one or two octagonal storeys; and the gables that stand on the upper square tiers are not only ornamental but play a part in the overall construction, since they divide and balance the weight of the upper octagonal tiers.
The best examples of this style are the belfries at St-Léonard, Collonges, Uzerche and Brantôme (in the Périgord). The belfry at St-Junien was probably planned to follow this pattern as the beginning of a steeply sloping gable can be seen above the second square tier.
Lastly, the façades present a more or less uniform style: massive belfry-porches adorned with blind arcades of various sizes and forms (Le Dorat, St-Junien); doorways with recessed elongated arcades on either side (St-Junien); a first storey flanked by bell turrets which are pierced at Le Dorat and encircled by a corbelled gallery at St-Junien; and doorways with twin doors framed by recessed covings, which in some cases are scalloped, showing the influence of Islamic art (Mozarabic style).
In the Dordogne
The plain, almost severe appearance of the area’s many Romanesque churches was enhanced by the use of fine golden sandstone. The exteriors are startling for the extreme simplicity of their decoration: the doorways without tympana were embellished with recessed orders, and carved with rounded mouldings and festoons in a saw-tooth pattern. Inside, the churches are equally plain, with apsidal chapels opening off the chancel, which is usually flat. Only a few churches were built with side aisles; as a general rule the nave stands alone.
The originality of the Périgord Romanesque style is in its vaulting and dome. Some specialists believe that this shows eastern influence, others that it is a French invention.
The dome offers several advantages over cradle vaulting, which requires the use of powerful buttresses. The dome on pendentives allows the support of the weight of the vault to be divided between the side walls and the transverse arches of the nave. Often set over the transept crossing, the domes also vault the nave when they follow one after another in a series (such as at St-Étienne-de-la-Cité, Périgueux).
The nave is thus divided into several square bays vaulted with a dome on pendentives.
The pendentives serve as a transition from a square base to the circular dome. The cathedral of St-Front in Périgueux is unique, with its five domes erected above a Greek-cross plan. However, some of the region’s numerous Romanesque churches illustrate different designs: as an example, in St-Privat-des-Prés and Cadouin the naves have aisles with rounded and pointed barrel-vaulting. Some façades are adorned with rows of arcades; this reflects the influence of the Saintonge and Angoumois regions.
The neighbouring Quercy has a slightly different Romanesque style, characterised by richer sculptural embellishment (influence of the Moissac and Languedoc schools). Inspired by Byzantine art, illuminations and Antiquity, some of the carved doorways and tympana in this region are stunning: Cahors, Carennac, Martel, and Collonges-La-Rouge, on the border with the Limousin.
The Abbaye de St-Martial, in Limoges, with its many dependent priories, was the principal centre in the Limousin for the development of enamel, gold and silverwork. From the 10C onwards, the monks here produced shrines, episcopal rings and statues in gold and silver. The skill of the Limousin gold and silversmiths and their proven technique paved the way for the subsequent development of enamelwork.
Using methods practised from the 6C onwards by Byzantine enamellers, the Limousin workshops at first undertook cloisonné ware (in which the colours are kept apart by thin outline plates). But in the 12C they turned entirely to champlevé enamelware (in which a thick sheet of copper is hollowed out in certain areas and the cavities are filled in with enamel). Towards the end of the Romanesque period, colours became more subtle and often the cavities were filled with two or even four colours, placed one on top of the other. The folds of garments were rendered by the use of a highlight – white, light blue or yellow – around areas of dark blue and green.
Most of the work was inspired by the art of illuminators, by manuscripts, ivories and Byzantine and Oriental silks. From the beginning of the 12C, small enamelled figures were represented on a background of smooth gilded copper. From 1170 onwards this background was chiselled with decorative foliage motifs, with fantastic fauna intermingled with religious symbols. The compositions, although often naïve, show a very strong artistic sense. Of the many objects produced in this way, the most remarkable are the reliquary shrines of Ambazac, Gimel and Bellac. The municipal museums of Limoges and Guéret contain rich collections of enamelwork.
Gothic Art and Architecture
The essential elements of Gothic art – quadripartite vaulting based on diagonal ribs and the systematic use of the pointed arch – underwent various regional modifications. Diagonal ribs revolutionised construction and architects became masters of the thrust and balance of a building. Through the use of pointed arches, piers and flying buttresses, they freed the inner space so that a church could be lofty and light, illuminated by stained-glass windows.
The most important Gothic building in the region, recognised worldwide as an architectural masterpiece inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List, is Bourges Cathedral. It bears no resemblance to any of the other great cathedrals of France; its high nave covered with sexpartite vaulting, its double side aisles which extend round the chancel and the absence of a transept make it unique.
The simultaneous influences of the Languedoc School (southern Gothic) and the schools of northern France were in play in the region. The passion for building in the 13C and 14C is illustrated in the cathedral of St-Étienne and the churches of St-Pierre-du-Queyroix and St-Michel-des-Lions at Limoges, in the nave of the church of St-Martin at Brive, the collegiate church at St-Yrieix, and the belfry-porch of Tulle Cathedral.
Sarlat Cathedral is an example of the influence of both southern and northern Gothic styles: the nave has wide side aisles and soaring flying buttresses typical of the north, whereas the side chapel shows southern influence. Another commonly found aspect of the Languedoc School is the nave’s shape, almost as wide as it is high, with side chapels but no aisles (Gourdon, Martel, Montpezat-du-Quercy and St-Cirq-Lapopie).
In the Berry, Limousin and Dordogne, many monasteries were built during this period, although few have emerged intact from the ravages of time. In Cadouin and Cahors, there are still cloisters built in the Flamboyant style, and in Périgueux the cloisters were built between the 12C and the 16C.
During the 13C-14C, fortified churches were built in the region in response to unrest, in particular during the Hundred Years War. The sanctuaries provided villagers with a safe place of refuge from marauders and the churches and abbeys were like fortified castles in appearance, with crenellations, watch-paths, and sometimes even protective moats.
Sculpture and painting
Art in stained glass reached its climax in Bourges with the completion in the 13C of a remarkable series of windows.
Around the middle of the 14C, under the guidance of Duke Jean de Berry, the Berry developed into a great intellectual and artistic centre. As an example, the stained-glass window known as the Grand Housteau in the cathedral at Bourges was a gift from the duke.
The duke assembled excellent artists but most of the masterpieces created in the studios and workshops in Bourges have unfortunately disappeared: only a few fragments of Berry’s tomb remain in the cathedral crypt (originally placed in the Sainte-Chapelle in Bourges, since demolished). The greater part of the statuary, however, dates from this period and has survived. At Issoudun, in the chapel of the former Hôtel-Dieu, there is a fine carved Tree of Jesse.
In Limoges, two tombs executed in the purest 14C style can still be seen in the ambulatory around the chancel in the cathedral of St-Étienne; the village of Reygade in the Corrèze possesses an Entombment dating from the 15C which resembles the one at Carennac; and the church at Eymoutiers is ornamented with interesting 15C stained glass.
Limousin enamelwork which flourished in the Romanesque period was transformed in the 15C with the appearance of painted enamels produced under the direction of such famous master-craftsmen as Monvaerni and Nardon Pénicaud.
From the second half of the 13C until the 15C, several remarkable works were produced: the tomb of St Stephen at Aubazine, a magnificent shrine carved in limestone in the second half of the 13C; the Entombment (15C) at Carennac; the tomb of the Cardaillacs at Espagnac-Ste-Eulalie; and the recumbent figures of Cardinal Pierre des Prés and his nephew Jean in the church at Montpezat-du-Quercy.
Frescoes, mural paintings produced with water-based paint on fresh plaster (a technique which allows the colours to sink in), were used to decorate many chapels and churches. The west dome of Cahors Cathedral is entirely covered with 14C frescoes. Naïve 14C and 15C polychrome statuary and certain frescoes give a good idea of how peasants and nobility dressed at the time. In Rocamadour, the interiors of chapels are painted, with further embellishment on the façades.
Civil and Military Architecture
A few Gothic residences remain in the region, the most noteworthy example of which is the Palais Jacques Cœur in Bourges, one of the finest Gothic palaces in Europe. Built on the vestiges of a Gallo-Roman wall, the building is a combination of massive, forbidding towers and a lively, sculpted façade. Inside, the architecture seems to hint at the approaching Renaissance in its graceful lines and fanciful motifs.
These new, fortified towns (in the Oc language: bastidas) appeared in the 13C; their fortified aspect was further developed during the course of the following century.
The principal founders of bastides were Alphonse de Poitiers (1249-71), count of Toulouse and brother to St Louis, and, from 1272 on, seneschal lords under Philip the Bold, Philip the Fair and King Edward I of England, who also held the title of duke of Aquitaine.
Their construction satisfied economic, military and political needs, with founders taking advantage of the growth of the population and encouraging people to settle on their land, in turn rationalising its use and cultivation. In return, inhabitants were granted a charter, guaranteed protection, exempted from military service and given the right to inherit. The bailiff represented the king, dispensed justice and collected taxes, whereas the consuls, elected by the people, administered the town; towns flourished under this system. After the Albigensian Crusade, when the count of Toulouse, Raymond VII, built about 40 bastides, and with the outbreak of hostilities between the French and the English over the Périgord, Quercy and the Agenais, the political and military advantages of the bastides were confirmed. Alphonse de Poitiers built Eymet, Catillonès and Villeréal along the River Dropt as well as Villefranche-du-Périgord and Ste-Foy-la-Grande. The king of England responded with the construction of Beaumont, Molières, Lalinde and Monpazier, while in 1281 Philip the Bold founded Domme.
All of the bastides, French and English, were built to the same plan – a square or rectangle – and yet they differed because of the terrain, the type of site, the potential for population growth, and their defensive plan. Occasionally, the bastide was built around a pre-existing building such as a fortified church (Beaumont) or a castle.
The design of Monpazier is most characteristic: it is built according to a quadrilateral plan with straight streets crossed at right angles by alleys known as carreyrous; narrow spaces, andrones, stand between the houses and serve as fire breaks, drains or even latrines. In the centre of town, the main square is surrounded by covered arcades or couverts (also known as cornières). The covered market or halle, also stands in this square. The church and the cemetery stand nearby, and the outer walls are punctuated with towers and gateways. The best-preserved bastides are today found in Monpazier, Domme and Eymet.
The Berry and Limousin
The fortresses of Turenne, Merle, Ventadour, Châlus, Montbrunand Chalusset all existed in the Limousin in the 13C. The ruins of Crozant overlooking the valley of the Creuse evoke what was once the powerful stronghold of the counts of Marche.
Numerous castles were built in the Berry during the Middle Ages: on Henry II’s accession to the throne of England in 1154, the English controlled Aquitaine and threatened the neighbouring Berry. The local lords therefore improved the fortification of their castles to resist the enemy. The Château de Culan, taken by Philip Augustus in 1188, was rebuilt in the 13C but retained its severity of appearance emphasised by its three round towers topped by a wooden hoarding. Ainay-le-Vieil is protected by its perimeter wall with nine towers, while Meillant still possesses its seven haughty feudal towers.
There are few traces left of the civil architecture of the Romanesque period. The feudal fortresses erected in the 10C and 11C were greatly altered in later centuries and can scarcely be said to have withstood the warfare and destruction of the times. The only remaining buildings of this period are the square keeps – the last refuge of the defensive system. Castelnau-Bretenoux in the Quercy, with its strongly fortified keep, is a good example of feudal construction built on a hilltop site.
In the Périgord, parts of the castles of Biron and Beynac, Bourdeilles, Commarque and Castelnaud date back to the Romanesque period.
Many of the castles in the Périgord and Quercy were constructed during the Gothic period, as is visible in their architectural detail; examples of these are at Bourdeilles, Beynac-et-Cazenac, Castelnaud and Castelnau-Bretenoux. Bonaguil is unique in that although it was built at the end of the 15C and in the early part of the 16C, it has all the features of a medieval fortress.
A considerable boom in town building occurred after the Hundred Years War with Sarlat, Périgueux, Bergerac, Cahors, Figeac, Gourdon and Martel all benefiting from this. The façades of town houses were decorated with large pointed arches on the ground floor (where small shops were set up), flattened arches or rose windows adorned the upper floors, with turrets crowning the roof. Among the finest examples of this period, note the Hôtel de la Raymondie in Martel, the Hôtel de la Monnaie in Figeac, the Hôtel Plamon in Sarlat and the famous Pont Valentré in Cahors.
At the beginning of the 16C the artistic movement in France was revitalised by the influence of Italy. King François I and the aristocracy were moved by the desire to copy Italian architecture and sculpture and introduced new styles by employing Italian artists. In the space of a century, hundreds of châteaux were built or restored, as financial resources boomed with the end of the Hundred Years War.
Other factors encouraging this artistic movement in the region included improved returns on farm estates (thanks to the development of share-cropping), increased freedom of trade, the mining of iron ore, low labour costs and the advent of ready credit.
At least half of the châteaux in the Berry were rebuilt in the years between 1430 and 1550, and most of the urban centres were transformed. Yet it took a long time for the Italian influence to be felt in the Berry where Gothic art was so strongly implanted. Generally, the Italian styles were interpreted, rather than copied. In Bourges, which was ravaged by fire in 1487, the most notable examples of Renaissance architecture are the Hôtel Lallemant, the Hôtel Cujas and the Hôtel des Échevins. In the countryside, defensive castles became more comfortable residences, as was the case with Ainay-le-Vieil, Meillant, La Verrerie and Villegongis.
In Limoges, the Renaissance influence can be seen on the St John’s doorway (Portail St-Jean) – the monumental entrance to the cathedral. In Tulle, the Maison de Loyac is a manor house dating from the 16C. Châteaux which were built or transformed in what is considered a transitional style include those at Rochechouart, Coussac-Bonneval, Pompadour and Sédières.
The new style flourished in Montal and Puyguilhem, which are similar in appearance to the châteaux of the Loire Valley. Most of the other 16C châteaux incorporate significant defensive features besides the windows, dormers, chimneys and other purely Renaissance elements; this is particularly evident in Monbazillac. In Cénevières, Bourdeilles, Lanquais, Les Bories and Rouffignac (church), buildings were partially transformed; the Château de Biron is graced by a marvellous Renaissance chapel.
Civil architecture was also influenced by the Italian style, as witnessed in the Maison de Roaldès in Cahors, the Maison Cayla (or Maison des Consuls) in Périgueux, the Hôtel de Maleville in Sarlat, and the Hôtel Labenche in Brive.
Sculpture and other arts
The Berry and the Limousin
In the Marche, tapestry-making developed rapidly. Throughout the 16C the Aubusson, Bourganeuf and Felletin workshops profited from the growing demand for tapestries and hangings as part of contemporary furnishings.
Aubusson and Felletin continued to take pride in making tapestries and even as late as the Revolution produced verdures (greeneries) in which plants and fantastic animals appeared against a background of foliage.
Sculpture can be best admired in the cathedral in Limoges, where the magnificent rood screen, erected between 1533 and 1535, and the tomb of Jean de Langeac, are considered outstanding works of art.
Following the exceptional developments of the 12C to 14C, Limousin enamelwork found new favour in the 15C-16C through the Pénicaud, Nouailher and Limosin families. Léonard Limosin reached new artistic heights through the use of innovative techniques.
In Bourges, the art of making stained-glass windows was revived through the work of the artist Lescuyer.
The inner court of the Château de Montal is an outstanding example of the Italian style, with its busts in high relief – superb works of art which are both realistic and refined. Inside, the remarkable staircase rivals those of the Loire Valley châteaux. In the chapel at Biron, the recumbent figures of the Gontaut-Biron family are decorated with figures influenced by the Italian Quattrocento (15C).
From the 17c to the 20c
By copying the styles of Paris and Versailles, art lost all its regional character in the 17C.
In the Berry, François le Vau - brother of the architect who designed the Louvre, Vaux and Versailles - planned the Château de Lignières in the style of the Grand Siècle: the frontons are supported by pilasters, and the main buildings are reflected in sheets of water, with French-style gardens extending beyond.
The Château de Hautefort, on the border of the Limousin and Périgord, is a very good example of Classical architecture in its planning and unity of design; although it was ravaged by fire in 1968, it has since been completely restored. The Château de Rastignac was built at the end of the 18C: the purity of its lines and the harmony of its proportions place it among the most interesting buildings of that period.
In architecture, the 19C was largely devoted to the restoration and renovation of old buildings. Painting and tapestry, however, saw the introduction of numerous innovations. Auguste Renoir and Suzanne Valadon both heralded from the Limousin, although both left the province at a young age. Corot, on the other hand, was born in Paris and came to the region often to paint. His student, Berthe Morisot, a native of Bourges, was influenced by Renoir and Manet. Claude Monet was inspired by the ruins at Crozant, and painted 30 versions of the site in 1889. Ingres and Bourdelle, both from Montauban, are considered the most eminent representatives of the Quercy from this period.
The art of tapestry-making was revived in the 20C thanks to the new ideas and techniques introduced by Lurçat, Dufy, Marc Saint-Saëns, Gromaire and the Association of Tapestry Cartoon-Painters. Modern art is now displayed in many regional and municipal museums as well as at the Centre National d’Art et du Paysage at the Lac de Vassivière.
Traditional Rural Architecture
Limestone, sandstone and cob are the traditional building materials of the Berry countryside, yet distinctive differences in style exist between one area and the next. For example, in the Champagne Berrichonne, large farm buildings are set around a courtyard. The low roof is covered in flat, brown tiles (or slate closer to the Loire); inside, where a big communal room is heated by a stone chimney, the floor is also tiled. The farms of the Pays Fort are more modest, with walls made from cob (clay and straw). Thatched roofs have gradually been replaced with tiles, with the extension of the eaves protecting the walls from wet weather. Around Sancerre, farms have a long façade of white limestone crowned with a roof punctuated with dormer windows; the living area is often flanked by a barn or stable. Other types of houses are found near the Sologne region and in La Brenne. Some features, however, are shared by all; these include ceramic finials, weathercocks or other ornaments placed on the ridge of the roof or at the apex of a gable, and plain interior furnishings.
Most of the houses in the Limousin countryside date from the 19C and are made of local granite. In the area known as the Montagne, the low-built dwellings are attached to the barn and stable. The double-sloped roofs used to be predominantly thatch, but have been mostly replaced by slate. Many houses have lean-to additions next to the garden or orchard, and in the past each farm had its own well or spring.
In the Xaintrie, the barn dwellings are often built into a hillside and the rough-cast walls are biscuit-coloured. In the south of the area, half-timbering appears, along with upper storeys in the form of wooden terraces protected by overhanging lauze roofs.
The granite houses of the Haute-Marche are usually built with a door and a small window on the ground floor, two small windows on the floor above, and an attic used for storing grain on top.
In the Bas-Pays Corrézien, the ground floor is used for storage, whereas the dwelling rooms are located above. The sandstone houses are covered with a four-sided sloping roof; an outer stairway links the two storeys by way of a landing and the cellar entrance is at the bottom of the steps.
Higher up on the plateau, the box-shaped buildings in blue or ochre granite have small windows and round-tiled roofs. In addition to the stables, where the hay is stored above the animals, many farms have a special room for drying chestnuts, or a dovecot. Every farm is served by its own well.
The most typical type of house found in the Périgord Noir is a sturdy, block-like construction in golden limestone, topped with a steeply pitched roof covered with flat, brown tiles or lauzes. The lauzes are neither slate nor layered schist tiles, but small limestone slabs. Set horizontally, their weight is such (500kg per m2/about 102lb per sq ft) that they require a strong, steeply pitched timberwork roof to distribute the weight. Towers or dovecots adjoin the houses of larger houses.
In the Périgord Blanc, low houses in grey or white limestone are lit through windows topped with bull’s-eyes (œils-de-bœuf). The flat roof covered with Roman-style terracotta tiles already reflects the more southern style.
In the forested area known as the Double, houses were traditionally built of cob and half-timbering.
In the vineyards of Bergerac, the houses of wine-growers are understandably organised around the activities of pressing grapes and making wine; generally they form a U shape or else have two adjoining courtyards. The tumble-down cottages in the surrounding vineyards are used as dwellings for labourers etc.
The houses of the Quercy are built in blocks of white limestone mortared in lime, and display a range of shapes, additions, towers and windows. The lower level is partly below ground and called the cave; it was here that the stable, shed and storerooms were traditionally located. The floor above was reserved for the living quarters; the two levels are connected by an outside staircase above a terrace protected by a porch supported by stone or wood columns.
The region is dotted with numerous dovecots, many of which are particularly elegant. Some are no more than small towers attached to the main building; others stand alone, either resting on a porch or supported by columns. Before the French Revolution, the right to keep pigeons was generally reserved for large landowners, although the Quercy and Périgord (where the right could be purchased for a fee) were exceptions. Dovecots were built mainly for collecting pigeon droppings – the value of these droppings is evident in the fact that when a property was divided up after a death, they were shared out between heirs in the same way as the livestock. Not only was it excellent manure, but it was also prized by bakers (for the aroma it gave their bread) and by pharmacists as a relief for goitre – the swelling of the thyroid gland – among other conditions. The appearance of chemical fertilisers after 1850 led to a decline in production.
The oldest types of free-standing dovecots were arcaded (so-called hanging dovecots), built on small columns to protect them from the damp. The stubby capitals (capels) created overhangs to deter would-be predators from climbing up the columns.
These small constructions are dotted around the region, and can be found either standing in isolation in a field or, more rarely, grouped together. They are built entirely of dry stones and crowned with conical roofs of stones supported by joggles (notches in each new layer are fitted into notches of the layer below to stop the roof from slipping, and the whole roof is fixed at the top by a sort of keystone). They are known as gariottes, caselles or bories, but it is not known precisely what their function used to be, nor exactly when they were built. Today’s farmers may speculate about the mysterious origins of these surprisingly solid huts; meanwhile, they are happy to use them as tool sheds and storage space and proudly show them off to visitors.
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Row Echelon Form
Row echelon form is a (non-unique) simplification of the form of a matrix that can be reached by elementary row operations. A matrix is in row echelon form if all the empty (all-zero) rows are below all the nonzero rows, and the leftmost nonzero entry in a given row is to the right of the leftmost nonzero entry in the row above it. For example, an upper-triangular matrix is in row echelon form. We put a matrix into row echelon form by a method called “Gaussian elimination”, which always moves a matrix closer and closer to row echelon form.
First, we look at the first column. If it’s empty we leave it alone and move on the next column. If there are any nonzero entries, there must be only one of them at the top of the column, or the matrix can’t be in row echelon form. So, if this isn’t the case then we pick one of the nonzero entries and call it our “pivot”. Swap its whole row up to the top row, and then use shears to eliminate all the other nonzero entries in the column before moving on to the second column.
Before we continue, I’ll point out that the pivot is now the leading entry on a nonzero row at the top of the matrix. We’ll regard it as fixed, so whenever I say “all rows” I mean all the rows that we haven’t locked down yet.
Now that we’ve moved on to the next column, we again look for any nonzero entries. If there are none, we can move on. But if there are, we choose one to be a pivot, swap it to the top (below the previously locked rows) and use shears to remove all the other nonzero entries in the column (other than the locked rows). We continue like this, choosing pivots where there are nonzero entries to deal with, moving them to the top, and eliminating all the other nonzero entries below them, until we’ve locked down all the rows or run out of columns.
Let’s look at this method applied to the matrix
in the first column we have the nonzero value in the first row, so we may as well leave it where it is. We add times the first row to the second to eliminate the there, and add the first row to the third to eliminate the there. At this point our matrix looks like
Now in the second row we have at the top (since the very top row is finished). We leave it where it is and add times the second row to the third to eliminate the there. Now the matrix looks like
now there are no empty rows, so “all” of them are below all the nonzero rows. Further, within the nonzero rows the leading entries move from left to right as we move down the rows. The matrix is now in row echelon form.
Now let’s try this one:
Again, we’ll start with using the upper-left as our first pivot. We use shears to eliminate the rest of the entries in the first column and get
Now there are nonzero entries in the second column, but none of them are at the top. So we swap the second and third rows to bring a pivot to the top
and eliminate using a shear
the third column has no nonzero entries (other than the two locked-in entries at the top), so we skip it. In the fourth column we use as a pivot and eliminate, getting
Now the empty row is on the bottom, and the leading entries of the other rows move from left to right as we move down the rows. Thus, the matrix is now in row echelon form.
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Childhood is a time of rapid growth and change. You will have pediatric well-child visits most often when your child is developing the fastest.
Each visit includes a complete physical examination. At this exam, the health care provider will check the infant or young child's growth and development and try to find problems early.
The health care provider will record your child's height, weight, and other important information. Hearing, vision, and other tests will be part of some visits. Preventive care is important to keep children healthy.
Well-child visits are key times for communication. Expect to be given information about normal development, nutrition, sleep, safety, diseases that are "going around," and other important topics.
Make the most of these visits by writing down important questions and concerns to bring with you.
Special attention is paid to whether the child is meeting normal developmental milestones. The height, weight, and head circumference are recorded on a growth chart
, which the health care provider keeps with the child's medical record. This can be a great start for a discussion about your child's health.
Ask your doctor about the body mass index (BMI) curve, which is the most important tool for identifying and preventing obesity.
There are several schedules for routine well-child visits. One schedule, recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics, is given below.
PREVENTIVE HEALTH CARE SCHEDULE
A visit with a health care provider before the baby is born is important for first-time parents, those with high-risk pregnancies, and any other parent who wishes to discuss common issues such as feeding, circumcision
, and general questions.
After the baby is born, the next visit should be 2-3 days after bringing the baby home (for breast-fed babies) or when the baby is 2-4 days old (for all babies who are released from a hospital before they are 2 days old). For experienced parents, some health care providers will delay the visit until the baby is 1-2 weeks old.
After that, visits should occur at the following ages:
- By 1 month (although experienced parents can wait until 2 months)
- 2 months
- 4 months
- 6 months
- 9 months
- 1 year
- 15 months
- 18 months
- 2 years
- 3 years
- 4 years
- 5 years
- 6 years
- 8 years
- 10 years
- Each year after that until age 21
In addition to these visits, call and visit a health care provider any time your baby or child seems ill or whenever you are worried about your baby's health or development.
Growth and development:
Preparing a child for an office visit is similar to test and procedure preparation. See:
Jennifer K. Mannheim, ARNP, Medical Staff, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health, Seattle Children's Hospital. Also reviewed by David Zieve, MD, MHA, Medical Director, A.D.A.M., Inc.
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Gestalt Psychology is worth looking up (mainly about visual patterns)
Chess is also a good example:
One important role in chess skill is pattern recognition (vs. the ability to search through the problem space). Through years of practice and study, masters have learnt several hundred thousands of perceptual chess patterns (called chunking). When one of these patterns is recognized in a particular position, the master then has rapid access to information such as potential moves or move sequences, tactics, and strategies. This explains automatic and intuitive discovery of good moves by a master, as well as extraordinary memory for game-like chess positions.
You can also argue that stored patterns operate a bit like 'production rules' in AI... although AI gets a bit complex !
See also: 'Schemas' - which are pre-existing mental 'patterns' which we tend to apply to incoming mental data:
A schema is a cognitive framework or concept that helps organize and interpret information. Schemas can be useful, because they allow us to take shortcuts in interpreting a vast amount of information. However, these mental frameworks also cause us to exclude pertinent information in favor of information that confirms our pre-existing beliefs and ideas. Schemas can contribute to stereotypes and make it difficult to retain new information that does not conform to our established schemas.
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What is meant by small mammals? Small mammals in this document refer to those species commonly kept as pets, not including
dogs and cats, for example, rodents (rats, mice, chinchillas, guinea pigs), rabbits, and ferrets. Even less is known about
hedgehogs (rodent) and sugar gliders (marsupial), but they are included as well.
Not only are small mammals used in laboratory medicine (ferrets are used in flu vaccine development every year), but they
are also kept as pets, taken to shows (yes, even mice have shows!), are exhibited at schools or zoos, and even in the case
of rabbits, provide meat and fur (production animals). The needs of the client may dictate the approach taken to resolving
a problem in a particular animal.
What research has been done in small mammals and what is known?
Because of the advanced field of laboratory animal medicine, there is more scientific information available regarding analgesia
in small mammals than what is known about birds and reptiles combined.
Remember that there is no generic small mammal. Some known differences in drug metabolism are known and include: after tramadol
IV or PO rabbits make over 5 different metabolites, rabbits can seizure and die after being given fipronyl (FrontlineŽ), and
rabbits' GI flora is disrupted by certain antibiotics including oral penicillins, macrolides and cephalosporins. From the
above description, it seems rabbits are the different ones, hmmmmm...... well there are probably some unknown differences
in metabolism within each species and, as some researchers are finding out, there are subtle differences between strains.
The most is known about the rat, including published studies of pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics (using the tail flick test)
and established, standard methods of assessing pain.
A study was performed determining the magnitude and duration of analgesia using the standard hot plate test and the tail
flick test, showing (n=61 ea. spp.):
Table 1. Study results
Using information gained from the study above, the following was recommended:
- use morphine for severe pain and redose every 2-3 h
- use butorphanol for mild pain of short duration and redose every 1-2 h
- use buprenorphine for mild to moderate pain of increased duration and redose
- rats every 6-8 h and mice every 3-5 h.
How do you assess pain in small mammals and when do you give analgesics?
It is very difficult to assess pain in small mammals. They seems very stoic and do not cry out in pain unless they are in
extreme pain (I assume this is probably like a 10 out of 10 on the human scale we see when we go to the hospital). Small mammals
are prey animals, so they do not want to be conspicuous if they are in pain or injured. So, try to observe your patient before
they are aware you are observing them.
Dr. Flecknell has available a training video with an objective scoring system to evaluate pain in rats. By counting the number
of times a rat "flinches" the skin on its back, stretches like a cat or falters in its gait during a set period of time, a
numerical score is assigned as to how much pain that rat is experiencing. It is my opinion that all practitioners should learn
how to assess pain in their rat patients from this video. There is much laboratory animal medicine information available in
the literature and from colleagues. Small mammal practitioners would do well to consult and use this large body of information.
Less is known about objectively assessing pain in the mouse and rabbit, but Dr. Flecknell and his colleagues are currently
attempting to develop a scoring system for these species as well.
TABLE 2: Formulary doses and references (from Carpenter's formulary and Quesenberry book):
Heard DJ. Anesthesia, Analgesia, and Sedation of Small Mammals. In: Quesenberry KE and Carpenter JW (eds). Ferrets, Rabbits
and Rodents – Clinical Medicine and Surgery, 2nd ed., 2004, pp.356-369.
Gamble C and Morrisey JK. Ferrets. In: Carpenter JW (ed). Exotic Animal Formulary, 3rd ed., Elsevier, St. Louis, 2005, pp.447-478.
Hernandez-Divers SJ. Rabbits. In: Carpenter JW (ed). Exotic Animal Formulary, 3rd ed., Elsevier, St. Louis, 2005, pp.410-446.
Ness RD. Rodents. In: Carpenter JW (ed). Exotic Animal Formulary, 3rd ed., Elsevier, St. Louis, 2005, pp.377-410.
Martin LB+, Thompson AC, Martin T, Kristal MB. Analgesic efficacy of orally administered buprenorphine in rats. Comp Med,
Gades NM, Danneman PJ, Wixson SK, Tolley EA. The magnitude and duration of the analgesic effect of morphine, butorphanol,
and buprenorphine in rats and mice. Contemp Top Lab Anim Sci, 2000, 39(2):8-13.
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t the beginning of the 21st Century,humanity confronts a criticalenvironmental challenge that threatensour economical development, naturalecosystems and efforts to achieve the MillenniumDevelopment Goals: climate change.For decades, mankind has caused great harm to theenvironment, our common home. By doing so, we haveput our civilisation at unprecedented risk. We havewitnessed the power of nature: our societies areexperiencing an increasing frequency of hurricanesand heavy rain, a rise in sea levels, devastating floods,high temperatures, less biodiversity, economic damageand the regrettable loss of life.The facts are right in front of us if we choose to look. Forinstance, during 2010 Pakistan has experiences itsworst flooding in 80 years. According to the UnitedNations, nearly 20 million people have beensignificantly affected, that is approximately thepopulation of New York State, and at least 1,100 peoplehave died and thousands more have lost everything theyowned. The monsoons affected nearly 160,000 squarekilometres -an area larger than England.Recently, Mexico has faced severe weather conditionsthat have caused much destruction. According topreliminary information, around 908 squarekilometres in southern Mexico were affected duringthis hurricane season, 40 people died and more than250,000 people have suffered severe propertydamage or total loss. The worst-hit were, as usual, thepoorest that are always the most vulnerable. We are onthe front lines of the battle against climate change and we know that must prepare ourselves better to avoid the worst effects of these increasinglycommon disasters.I am convinced that we can change the course ofevents. Climate change is a global challenge thatdemands a global response in order to preserve anadequate environment for the human race. We need anurgent political and technical response based on thelatest science. This is why Mexico has been participating so activelywith the international community to define andpromote the necessary agreements. From November29th to December the 10th we will host in Cancún the 16th Conference of the Parties from the United Nations Framework Convention on ClimateChange (COP16) and the Sixth Conference of the Parties serving as the Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (CMP6). On the way to Cancún, we have worked with countries from allregions of the world to try to reach a successfuloutcome in terms of substance, commitment and aforward looking strategy.From our meetings and consultations, there seems tobe general agreement that the Cancún meeting shouldresult in a balanced package of decisions thatoperationalise key elements of the Bali Action Plan inthe areas of adaptation, mitigation, technology,finance and capacity building. There is also highpotential for agreement on Reductions of Emissionsfrom Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+). At the COP16, we have the challenge of advancingtowards sustainable human development for everyoneon this planet; to realign our methods of productionand consumption and create a much greener globaleconomy and a much more prosperous one. I am confident that the Parties will work to reduce tothe minimum the gap between the scientific evidenceRight: Juan Rafael ElviraQuesada visiting the areaaffected during a recenthurricane season inMexicoA BALANCED PACKAGE FOR THE COP16018CANCUN FOCUSJUAN RAFAEL ELVIRA QUESADA, MINISTER OF ENVIRONMENT AND NATURAL RESOURCES, MEXICOA
CANCUN FOCUS019and the political response. I know it is possible, andabove all it is our responsibility.We need to be pragmatic, and pragmatism in this casedemands we be ambitious. The evidence shows weneed to do more and Cancún 2010 could mark thebeginning of a new era of agreements on climatechange. This is what our peoples expect. Mexico is doing its utmost to ensure that the meetingwill produce far-reaching agreements and concreteresults by providing clear and inclusive leadershipduring the discussions. Therefore I invite you all tokeep our ultimate goal in sight: the wellbeing of ourpeoples and the safeguarding of our planet must be ourpriorities. The elements for success are already on thetable, it is now up to all of us to collectively decide itsfinal shape and scope.I am convinced that our immediate response willdefine our future; to fail in this endeavor could meanthe greatest collective failure in human history. nABOUT THE AUTHORJuan Rafael Elvira Quesada, Minister of Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT in Spanish) in Mexico has heldimportant positions in the federal publicadministration, including Vice-Attorney for Industrial Inspection at the Federal Attorney for the Environmental Protection (PROFEPA inSpanish) and Vice-Minister of Promotion andEnvironmental Regulation at the SEMARNAT. The administration of Mr Juan Elvira stands out forboosting the system of "payment for environmentalservices" as a mechanism to promote conservation ofnatural resources in Mexico (work that has beenrecognised by the World Bank and placed Mexico as a leader among developing countries in this field).Recently, Mr Elvira has been distinguished with various public recognitions for his leadershipand actions, including the Medal for Integration"Simón Bolívar".
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If you missed the series introduction, you can read it here.
Tobacco is an elemental part of American history. Within five years of the founding of the colony at Jamestown, Virginia, the first white settlers were growing tobacco as a cash crop, and it was the economic foundation for how they survived. George Washington grew and sold tobacco. Or to be more precise, the workers in his fields grew tobacco. And thus it has ever been through the whole winding course of American history: slaves, migrants, poor dirt farmers, small-plot landowners, and others have worked the fields to grow this plant and turn it into money. This picture depicts a sight you can see anywhere tobacco is grown: tobacco farmers and workers taking advantage of any available ground — a small patch adjacent to a healthy stand of corn, as is shown here, or untillable land on an awkward rocky slope — and working it to yield this sturdy, reliable cash crop. Here, you see the oversized, beautiful, fragrant tobacco leaves, so full of the promise of cash. And so full of illness.
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The Deccan Traps are one of the largest volcanic provinces in the world. It consists of more than 6,500 feet (>2,000 m) of flat-lying basalt lava flows and covers an area of nearly 200,000 square miles (500,000 square km) (roughly the size of the states of Washington and Oregon combined) in west-central India. Estimates of the original area covered by the lava flows are as high as 600,000 square miles (1.5 million square km). The volume of basalt is estimated to be 12,275 cubic miles (512,000 cubic km)(the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens produced 1 cubic km of volcanic material). The Deccan Traps are flood basalts similar to the Columbia River basalts of the northwestern United States. This photo shows a thick stack of basalt lava flows north of Mahabaleshwar. Photograph by Lazlo Keszthelyi, January 28, 1996.
The Deccan basalts may have played a role in the extinction of the dinosaurs. Most of the basalt was erupted between 65 and 60 million years ago. Gases released by the eruption may have changed the global climate and lead to the demise of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. This photo shows the Deccan Tarps between Mambai and Mahabaleshwar. Photograph by Lazlo Keszthelyi, January 27, 1996.
Vocanologists are also trying to understand how such great volumes of lava are erupted. Early models proposed that lava flooded across large areas at extremely rapid rates. Recently proposed models suggested that at least some of the flows are emplaced at gradual rates, lasting months to years. This photo shows the Ajunta Caves, temples carved into the basalts. Note the school group for scale. Photograph by Lazlo Keszthelyi, January 31, 1996.
More information on the Deccan
Sources of Information:
Bhattacharji, S., Chatterjee, N., Wampler, J.M., Nayak, P.N., and Deshnukh, S.S., 1996, Indian intraplate and continental margin rifting, lithospheric extension, and mantle upwelling in Deccan flood basalt volcanism near the K/T boundary: evidence from mafic dike swarms: Journal of Petrology, v. 104, p. 379-398.
Beane, J.E., Turner, C.A., Hooper, P.R., and Subbarao, K.V., and Walsh, J.N., 1986, Stratigraphy, composition and form of the Deccan Basalts, western Ghats, India.
Krishnan, M.S., 1953, The structural and tectonic history of India: Mem. Geological Survey of India, 81: 109 p.
Officer, C.B., and Drake, C.L., 1985, Terminal Cretaceous environment events: Science, v. 227, p. 1161-1167.
Rampino, M.R., and Stothers, R.B., 1988, Flood basalt volcanism during the past 250 million years: Science, v. 241, p. 663-668.
Self, S., Thordarson, T., and Keszthelyi, L., 1996, Inflation features as keys to the emplacement of pahoehoe lava flow fields in the Columbia River Basalt Group, in Conference Abstracts Long Lava Flows, Whithead, P., ed.: James Cook University, Queensland, p. 72-73.
Self, S., Finnemore, S.L., Walker, G.P.L., and Thordarson, T., 1993, How are flood basalt lavas emplaced? -- A case of the tortoise and the hare, IAVCEI Abstracts, Canberra, Australia, p. 98.
White, R.S., and McKenzie, D.P., 1989, Magmatism at rift zones: the generation of volcanic continental margins and flood basalts: Journal of Geophysical Research, v. 94, p. 7,685-7,730.
Images of Volcanoes To VolcanoWorld
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For the NAACP, April is a historic month. On April 4, 1968, civil rights icon Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated while advocating against economic injustice, a fundamental tenet of his Poor People's Campaign.
The Campaign called on the federal government to provide a stronger safety net for the poor because Dr. King recognized economic justice as intractably linked to racial justice. He famously stated, "Depressed living standards for Negroes are not simply the consequences of neglect. Nor can they be explained by the myth of the Negro's innate incapacities, or by the more sophisticated rationalization of his acquired infirmities. They are a structural part of the economic system in the United States."
Continuing this call for economic justice, the NAACP re-affirmed economic issues as central to advancing equality, and on April 4, 2011, the orginization opened the Financial Freedom Center (FFC), headquarters for the NAACP Economic Department.
The FFC was birthed out of an agreement between Wells Fargo and the NAACP to work constructively to improve fair credit access, sustainable homeownership and to provide financial education resources to communities of color and other historically disadvantaged communities.
The NAACP Economic Department's work is informed by its three advocacy pillars 1). Empowering local communities with the necessary education, resources and partnerships to develop sustainable economic models that advance diversity and equity; 2.) Ensuring that government and industry are knowledgeable, and committed to bridging racial inequality particularly as it relates to employment, wealth, lending practices, and business ownership; and 3.) Growing a movement of concerned citizens and organizations who work together to produce an inclusive and strong middle class for the 21st century economy. Over the past year, the NAACP Economic Department staff has grown to include nine full time staff members, several interns and four program areas 1) Economic Education; 2) Fair Lending; 3) Diversity and Inclusion and 4) Community and Economic Development.
The NAACP's Economic Department has successfully trained 21 NAACP units nationwide to provide yearlong financial education workshops in their communities. The Department will be inaugurating a new group of units (including youth and college chapters) this spring. The NAACP Economic Department participates in the NAACP national, regional and state conferences presenting on issues such as racial economic inequality and financial education, as well as facilitating brainstorming sessions around economic issues to mobilize communities into action. The Department has participated in external conferences including the Bennett College Invisible Woman Conference, the Color of Wealth Policy Summit and the White House Youth Jobs + Summit. The NAACP Economic Department has also helped organize events like the We Are One Conference and the Gulf Financial Counseling Fairs.
Most recently, the Department launched the Financial Advocacy and Community Tour (F.A.C.T.) at regional conferences throughout the country. F.A.C.T. provided local residents with access to hands-on expertise through financial planners, HUD certified counselors, representatives from financial institutions and non-profit economic advocacy organizations. F.A.C.T. is a continuation of our work to help families and individuals know the facts about racial economic inequality, today's structural economic challenges, repairing credit, increasing and maintaining homeownership and building wealth.
Also, the NAACP Economic Department has strengthened and enhanced its communications tools. The Department's official website, (www.Naacp.org/Econ) is live and highlights our work as well as provides economic resources including reports, PowerPoint presentations, recommended economic websites and much more. We are on Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr. Also, we release our economic update, "The Angle," the 15th of every month and regularly contribute to the Crisis, NAACP's quarterly publication.
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THE TRAIL BEGINS
maps, the Oregon Trail starts just west of St. Louis, Missouri.
In time, the beginning of the Trail is a bit harder to place.
first wagon train rolled onto the Trail in 1841 and emigrants eventually
wore the road into a great highway, in some places a hundred feet
wide and ten feet deep. Before then, however, many travelers had
come to Oregon by a variety of routes: early explorers and traders
from the west by sea; French Canadians and British emigrants overland
from the north; companies of traders out of Spanish California from
the south; and, following the fur trade, a small number of American
trappers and missionaries from the east.
number of trails already crisscrossed Oregon before the arrival
of the first Europeans. The earliest Oregon newcomers found that
coastal tribes, who had never before seen whites, already possessed
a few guns, knives, kettles, and even silver spoons. Native Americans
of the Oregon Plateau traded west of the Cascades and east of the
Bitteroot Mountains while coastal tribes traveled far inland for
a lively yearly commerce at traditional sites on the Columbia River.
IN THE RAIN
Traditionally, the story of the Oregon Trail begins with the
European/American discovery of the Columbia River and the voyages
of captains Gray
and Vancouver in 1792. These explorers' ships were just two of the
28 trading vessels in the Northwest in that year. After the mid-1780's,
a thriving sea-otter fur trade centered at Nootka Sound (on present-day
Vancouver Island) as part of a vast trading network which linked
London, New England, Hawaii, Canada's coastal islands, Russian Alaska,
and China. In spite of well-traveled trade routes along the Pacific
Coast, the mouth of the Columbia River remained hidden from explorers
behind constant rain and mist until 1792.
Time Frame is designed to help researchers place individuals and
events on the Oregon Trail into context. As well as a great number
of very diverse people, the formation of the Trail involved many
shorter journeys on future segments of the Trail. Sometimes the
context of the Trail shifts to its western end in Oregon, sometimes
to the fur trade out of St. Louis and Canada, and often to the travels
of the mountain men who explored the region in between.
OF THE COLUMBIA RIVER BY GRAY AND VANCOUVER:
and the ship Columbia sailed on their second voyage from Boston
to the Northwest on September 29, 1790. They spent the winter of
1791-92 at an encampment just north of Nootka Sound (on present
day Vancouver Island), explored the local Pacific coast, and collected
sea-otter furs for sale in China.
May 11, 1792, the Columbia crossed the treacherous sand bar at the
mouth of the Columbia River and explored the waterway. Among the
50 men aboard the first ship to sail into Oregon's Columbia River
were Robert HASWELL, first officer, Andrew NEWELL, seaman and veteran
of Gray's first voyage, ATTOO, cabin boy returning to his native
Hawaii, Joseph BARNES, a seaman who had signed on in China, John
AMES and Benjamin POPKINS, armorers, Barlet PEASE, cooper, Thomas
NICHOLS, tailor, Obadiah WESTON, sail-maker, Thomas TRUMAN, cook,
Samuel YENDELL and Nathan DEWLEY, carpenters, George DAVIDSON, painter
of the ship (and painter of art), and Samuel HOMER, a 10 or 11 year
old boy. Gray and the Columbia sailed home by way of China, completing
their second trip around the world, and returned to Boston on July
April 1, 1791 Captain George VANCOUVER in the sloop Discovery and
his lieutenant Captain William R. BROUGHTON in the tender Chatham
left Falmouth, England, on an official British expedition to the
Northwest coast of America, then known as New Albion. Among Vancouver's
crew were lieutenants Joseph BAKER, PUGET, and WHIDBEY. They arrived
in the Northwest in mid-April 1792 and concentrated on exploring
the Straits of Juan de Fuca. In October 1792, Vancouver sent Broughton
to search for navigable waterways south of the Straight. Broughton
noted the Columbia River's mouth but dismissed the river as unsuitable
for sea-going commerce.
Vancouver and Haswell kept journals during the voyages. John
Scofield's Hail Columbia includes an extensive bibliography
with information on such primary sources as the journals of
Haswell and Vancouver. Frederick W. Howay's Voyages of the Columbia
to the Northwest Coast contains a wealth of primary materials
in the form of journals, documents, and letters. "Dr. John
Scouler's Journal," Oregon Historical Quarterly #6, records
another early voyage to the Northwest.
27, 1792: The captains of the Discovery and the Columbia met just
2 days sail from Cape Disappointment. Gray showed Vancouver his
map pin-pointing the location of the Columbia River (then unnamed;
Gray had spotted the river mouth sometime during his explorations
the previous year and charted its location). Although Vancouver
had noted "river-colored water" in the sea as Discovery
had passed a spot off the Oregon coast just two days earlier, he
dismissed Gray's report just as he had dismissed the colored water
as the outflow of a few minor streams. To Vancouver, Gray was simply
a gullible amateur who had swallowed another legend about a great
11, 1792: Captain Robert Gray took the Columbia across the perilous
sand bar and into the Columbia River.
1792: Vancouver dispatched Lt. William Broughton to search for navigable
rivers to the south. Broughton traveled just far enough into the
Columbia River to judge it "not suitable for major commerce."
25, 1793: Gray and the Columbia returned to Boston harbor after
a voyage of 2 years, 313 days.
1793: VANCOUVER's vessels returned from Hawaii to the Pacific Coast
with Lt. PUGET now in command of the Chatham.
1793: Lt. Puget and the ship Chatham explored the northern Pacific
Coast while Vancouver and the Discovery made way up the coast of
California. The Chatham reached Nootka on April 15 and the Discovery
on May 20. After exploring further north, the Vancouver expedition
returned to Nootka on October 5, 1793.
MACKENZIE completed an expedition in 1793 that was the first to
come OVERLAND TO THE PACIFIC through the Rocky Mountains. The party
of 9 men left Ft. Chepewyan (near Athabasca Lake, northeast Alberta)
in October 1792 and in July 1793 reached the Pacific at Fitzhough's
Sound at the Bellacoola River (north of Vancouver Island) traveling
by way of the Peace and Findlay rivers. By late July, the party
had descended the Fraser River and again reached the Pacific (near
the present Canada-US border). Among those who left Ft. Chepewyan
with MacKenzie: Alexander MACKAY, Francois BEAUDIEUX, Baptiste BISSON,
Francois COURTOIS, Jacques BEAUCHAMP, Joseph LANDRY, and Charles
January 1794, the Spanish and British agreed that the outpost at
Nootka would officially return to the British Crown but that both
nations would then cease to occupy Nootka Sound.
extensive quotes and use of primaries in Jacob A. Meyer's "Jacques
Rafael Finlay" (Washington Historical Quarterly, vol.10,
no.3, June 1919) and Agnes C Laut's Conquest of the Great Northwest
,(Moffat, Yard & Co., 1911); John C. Jackson's Children
of the Fur Trade details the life of Finlay and other metis
[part European Canadian, part Indian people]; John McDonald
of Garth wrote a Reminiscence in 1798--location of modern copy
Rafael Finlay (aka Jocco, Jocko) was in charge of the Northwest
Fur Company's Upper Bow Fort (near Duck Lake on the upper Saskatchewan
River). Jocko Finlay would become a trailblazer and a familiar figure
in fur trade history. In 1796, Finlay took charge of Fort des Prairies
(present-day Edmonton, Alberta)
June the Hudson's Bay Company Fort Branch (just 1000 yards from
Upper Bow Fort) was attacked by Sioux or Gros Ventres and 8 or 9
HBC employees killed (among them Magnus Annel, Hugh Brough, and
William Fea). An employee named Vanderiel--among those saved by
Jocko and his men, according to fur trapper Peter Fidler--hurried
to York Factory (Hudson's Bay Company headquarters) to report the
American ship Sea Otter, under command of Capt. Samuel HILL, entered
the Columbia River. Hill reported nine other ships on the Oregon
coast including the Alexander under Captain Dodge and another under
Captain Rowan. Many ships pursued the fur trade along the coast
from California to Alaska, some of which may have sailed the Columbia
River or anchored off the Oregon Coast without leaving records.
Ships in Pacific Northwest waters during the first two decades of
the 19th century included British, Spanish, and Russian fur-traders/explorers,
New England whalers, Boston traders, some French expeditions, and
even few Japanese junks.
David Thompson (Hopwood, narrative; Glover or Tyrell, journal
1797-8 David THOMPSON, Jean Baptiste HOULE and others with the Northwest
Fur Company made contact with the Mandan villages of the Upper Missouri
March, the American ship Eliza (Captain Rowan) traded for furs with
the Kanganee Haida of Prince Edward Island (north of the Hecate
Strait, northern British Columbia/Alaskan panhandle region). The
Haida chief displayed a silver spoon given to him by Capt. Roberts
(also an American) and explained how the Cumshewa (Tsimshian) Indians
had become enemies of his tribe by forcing them from the mainland.
The Americans also had an enemy among the Tsimshian, a chief named
Scotseye, but sailed to the mouth of the Nass River, Tsimshian territory,
and fired their cannons to begin trade.
this time, in May, the ships Ulysees (Captain Lamb) and another
under Capt. Breck were also in the region. The Americans of the
Eliza pretended to be British, traded with the Tsimshians for over
100 furs, and then siezed Scotseye with his brother and son as captives.
Scoteye's son was ransomed for 3 of the 6 white-men's scalps held
by the Tsimshian tribe plus 18 muskrat pelts. Scotseye and his brother,
however, were turned over to the Kanganee Haida for execution. The
crew of the Eliza joined 1800-2000 of the Haida to witness their
deaths by stabbing.
Journal of William Sturges (edited by S.W. Jackson, 1978)
1799, the Eliza became the first American ship to sail into San
Francisco (Yerba Buena) Bay.
on the NORTHWEST COMPANY: Wallace, W.S., Documents Relating
to the Northwest Company, 1934, Champlain Society, Toronto;
David Thompson (Hopwood, narrative; Glover or Tyrell, journal
the fall, a party of Kutenai (Indians from Canada west of the Rocky
Mountains) visited traders of the Northwest Company at Rocky Mountain
House (on the upper Saskatchewan River). Charles LAGRASSE, Pierre
LEBLANC, and LeBlanc's wife returned to Kutenai country with them.
MCGILLIVRAY and David THOMPSON, head traders for the Northwest Fur
Company, visited the Pikuni (or Piegan) Blackfeet to assure safe
conduct for Company hunters now moving from the Saskatchewan River
to trade in the Bow River region (present-day southern Alberta).
Fur trader Manuel LISA established a post and trade in the Osage
country west of St. Louis.
PURSLEY traveled to New Mexico from St. Louis on a hunting expedition.
Trade out of St. Louis into this more southern region rapidly followed
and included the Arkansas and Colorado river basins and traffic
to Taos and Santa Fe. Some names associated with this trade later
became familiar figures of the Oregon Trail: Robert CAMPBELL, Captain
GAUNT, Jim BRIDGER, DRIPPS, FONTENELLE, BLACKWELL, TRAPP, GERVAIS,
BRENT, ST. VRAIN, and VAN DUSEN.
March 1802, Gros Ventres killed 14 Iroquois and 2 Canadians trapping
for the Northwest Fur Company in the Bow River region (present-day
Nineteenth century histories of Russian America: Berkh, Vasilii
Nikolaevich (1781-1834), The Chronological History of the
Discovery of the Aleutian Islands; or the Exploits of the
Russian Merchants; with the Supplement of Historical Data
on Fur Trade: Works Projects Administration, 1938. And Rezanov,
Nikolai Petrovich (1764-1807), A History of the Russian-American
Company: 1978, University of Washington Press; Journals for
this year by David Thompson (Hopwood, narrative; Glover or
Tyrell journal, 1784-1812; Coues, journal, 1799-1814); Robert
In 1802, the Tlingits attacked the small outpost of the RUSSIAN
AMERICAN COMPANY on Sitka Sound. After, Aleuts, Inuits, and Konigas
would become Russian allies and employees while the Tlingits remained
1803, the Russians sent their first expedition to California in
pursuit of the sea-otter trade.
1803, President Thomas Jefferson negotiated the LOUISIANA PURCHASE
from France (then under First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte). For 80
million francs, the United States added all of France's territory
between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains.
In 1804, rival companies engaged in the fur trade out of Canada
merged, with most trade after the merger under the Hudson Bay Company
or the Northwest Fur Company.
American ship Lelia Bird under Captain William SHALER could not
find a safe passage across the bar at the mouth of the Columbia
River in 1804. Abandoning the attempt to enter Oregon, the ship
sailed south to trade in California.
American ship Boston was also attacked by the Nootka people of southern
Vancouver Island in 1804. The Nootka killed all but 2 of the crew.
JOHN JEWETT WAS HELD CAPTIVE until rescue in 1805. YUTRAMAKI, chieftan
in the Makah tribe (a people closely allied to the Nootka) had not
been able to secure Jewett's release from MACQUINNA, chief of the
Nootka. Instead Yutramaki passed a message to Capt. Samuel HILL
of the Lydia who arranged ransom either before or after his visit
1805, Native Americans on Vancouver Island attacked and killed 8
of the crew of the Athualpa.
1805, the Lydia of Boston, Capt. Samuel HILL, entered the Columbia
River to acquire timber for spars; it returned to Nootka Sound by
November 1805. From this-- and probably several other fur trading
ships-- Oregon Native Americans were aware of a European-settled
nation far to their east even before the arrival of the LEWIS AND
President Jefferson assigned Meriwether LEWIS, his personal secretary,
to head an exploring expedition into the lands added the United
States territory in 1803, the Louisiana Purchase. Lewis chose his
friend, William CLARK, as co-leader and assembled a party of men
for the journey. The Lewis and Clark Expedition left St. Louis on
May 14, 1804. [They would not reach the Pacific until late the next
year and would not return to St. Louis until near the end of 1806].
the end of July, 1804, the Lewis and Clark Expedition had reached
the present-day site of Omaha, Nebraska. After they reached the
site of (present-day) Mandan, North Dakota, they constructed quarters
and storage rooms protected by an 18-foot stockade. Toussant CHARBONNEAU--traveling
with his pregnant wife, their toddler Jean Baptiste, and a Minnitaree
Indian on his way to make peace with the Shoshone--signed on as
an interpreter for the Expedition. The wife, SACAJAWEA, proved most
valuable as interpreter and guide. She was a Shoshone, captured
by Minnitarees in childhood, and then taken in by Charbonneau.
Expedition began their Continental trek westward in spring 1805
and, by early June reached a place where the Missouri River seemed
to divide into two channels. Lewis and a party traced the northern
channel while Clark and 6 men determined that the southern stream
was the Little Missouri. Farther west in August, at the extreme
southwest of Montana, Sacajawea was surprised to find her brother
whom she had not seen since she had been taken captive. Her brother,
a chief, and his people provided the expedition with fresh horses
and guided them through Lemhi Pass.
late August, the party was cold and hungry and Sacajawea was traveling
with her newborn son, Pompey. They reached the confluence of the
Snake and Columbia Rivers (near present-day Richland, Washington)
on October 16, and, by November, finally achieved the mouth of the
Columbia and the Pacific Ocean (Bakers Bay, just inland-ward of
Cape Disappointment). To encamp for the winter 1805-1806, the Lewis
and Clark Expedition crossed to the south shore, raised cabins and
a stockade, and named their camp Fort Clatsop.
The Lewis and Clark Expedition journal, including a roster
taken April 1805, has been published in various editions as
Expedition to the Sources of the Missouri and Pacific Ocean
(first edition 1814, Philadelphia and London); see also Donald
Jackson's Letters of the Lewis and Clark Expedition with Related
Documents, 1783-1854: 1962, Illinois. Sgt. Patrick Gass (Hosmer)
and Sgt. Charles Floyd (OHS MS) also kept journals on the
expedition. Indian oral traditions about the visit of Lewis
and Clark may be found in Olin Dunbar Wheeler's The Trail
of Lewis and Clark, 1804-1904, GP Putnam & Sons, Knickerbocker
Press, NY and London, 1904) and in "Sayleesh Accounts
of the Arrival of Lewis and Clark," Northwest Discovery:
the Journal of Northwest History and Natural History, 7: 32&33
the winter of 1805-06, the governor of Louisiana equipped a small
party to scout northward to the Yellowstone River. The scouts included
Phillipe DEGIE and Francois RIVET. Five of this party (including
Rivet) had helped the Lewis and Clark Expedition reach their Mandan
winter camp in the winter of 1804-05. In 1805, Rivet and some others
had not returned downstream to St. Louis but remained to trap in
the high country.
1804 the US government sponsored a second western exploring expedition,
this one headed by Lt. ZEBULON PIKE on a southwestern route. Although
the trails in this region are outside the scope of the Oregon Trail
Time Frame, it should be noted that a southwest fur trade from the
Sates to Taos and Santa Fe, with trails extending into California
and Texas grew during the same time period as the Oregon Trail.
Many of the same pathfinders would travel both regions. Pike explored
from St. Louis to the Upper Mississippi to Leech Lake and back in
1804. Between 1805 and 1807, he and his command went again from
St. Louis, to the Pawnee Villages, through the Colorado Rockies,
south all the way to the Rio Grande, and then back via El Camino
Real across Texas.
March 23, 1806, the LEWIS AND CLARK EXPEDITION left Fort Clatsop,
Oregon, to begin the long journey home. On their way up the Columbia
they noted Sauvies Island to the south but fog hid the Willamette
River (future destination of the Oregon Trail). After Indians told
them they had passed by a huge river (the "Multnomah"),
some members of Lewis and Clark's crew back-tracked forty miles
and explored the Willamette as far south as present-day Linnton,
Travelers Rest, east of Lolo Pass in the Rockies, Lewis headed a
party headed through the Three Forks region and the Marie River.
Meanwhile, Clark went through Bozeman Pass and by way of the Yellowstone
River. On August 12, the Expedition reunited at the confluence of
the Yellowstone and Missouri rivers.
and her family said farewell to the Expedition at the Mandan Fort
(North Dakota). John COLTER also stayed at the Mandan Villages while
the rest of the Expedition continued downriver.
September 23, 1806, the Lewis and Clark Expedition reached St. Louis
after a nearly 27 month round-trip journey all the way to the Pacific.
Only one man (due to illness early in the trip) had died in all
the thousands of miles of hardship.
David THOMPSON was in charge at Rocky Mountain House for the Northwest
Company with Nicholas MONTOUR, Jacques QUESNAL, and others under
his command. In 1806, John McDonald of Garth (a Northwest Company
partner) ordered Jacques (JACCO) Raphael FINDLAY to improve a trail
from Rocky Mountain House on the upper Saskatchewan River over the
Rockies and into Kutenai Indian country. Accompanied by Kutenai
Indians, Findlay, his wife, and children followed the Blaeberry
River and reached the upper Columbia River on their round trip over
the Rockies. Finlay's party traveled by way of Howse Pass (later
named for Joseph Howse, a Hudson's Bay Co trader, who traveled the
Pass for the first time in 1809).
Finlay reportedly wintered on the Kootenay Plain near the headwaters
of the Saskatchewan River 1806-1807 but David Thompson noted that
he arrived back at Rocky Mountain House in November 1806 (accompanied
by Jacques QUESNEL, Joseph Daniel, BERCIER, and BOUNARD).
bypass hostile Native Americans in the Northwest, the RUSSIAN AMERICAN
COMPANY contracted with the American ship Peacock (Captain Oliver
KIMBALL) in 1806-1807 to carry Russian fur traders to California.
Timofei TARAKANOV sailed with this expedition and later (1808) with
the disastrous Sv. Nikolai voyage to the Oregon Country.
David Thompson (Hopwood, narrative; Glover or Tyrell journal,
1784-1812; Coues, journal, 1799-1814); Alexander Henry (Coues,
New Light on the Early History....); on Russian American traders
SLOBODCHIKOV led another group of Russian traders sailing on the
American ship O'Cain. Slododchikov quarreled with the ship's owner,
Johathan WINSHIP, and left with his men in Baja Calfornia. There
he bought the Tamana (a ship built for King Kamehameha I) and sailed
to Hawaii with a crew of 3 Hawaiians and 3 Americans. He renamed
the ship the Sv. Nikolai and anchored at Sitka Sound, Alaska, in
1806 to 1807, John COLTER trapped in the Three Forks (of the Missouri
River) region with Joseph DICKSON and Forrest HANCOCK.
April 1807, Manuel LISA, a fur trader, Benito VASQUEZ, his second
in command, Andrew HENRY and a small party (including Lewis and
Clark Expediton veterans George DRUILLARD, John POTTS, and Peter
WISER) journeyed from St. Louis to establish a post at the confluence
of the Yellowstone and Big Horn rivers (Montana) among the Crow
nation. Druillard was with this expedition to represent stay-at-home
fur company partners, William Morrison and Pierre Menard.
the mouth of the Platte River, John Colter who was descending the
Missouri from the Mandan Villages, met Lisa's party. He then guided
the fur company to the Three Forks region. The company made camp
at the confluence of the Big Horn and Yellowstone rivers
Fall, Lisa (who intended to begin fur trade with the initially friendly
Blackfeet) dispatched Colter to the headwaters of the Missouri River,
the Big Horn basin, and Yellowstone area to pave the way for trade.
Before winter settled in, Colter had journeyed south to Wind River,
then west to Jackson Hole (Wyoming), and then crossed Teton Pass
into Idaho's Wind River region.
March 1807, Jocko FINLAY returned to Rocky Mountain House (Alberta)
from the mountains after his exploration trip over the Rocky Mountains
as far as the upper Columbia River region of (present-day) British
THOMPSON a geographer, explorer, and trader with the Northwest Fur
Company departed with fellow Nor'wester Finan MCDONALD and six other
men in 1807 to explore the Columbia all the way to the ocean. His
wife Charlotte and their children accompanied him on his explorations
between Rocky Mountain House and the Great Divide and on his journey
to the Northwest.
a time, hostile Piegan Blackfeet halted Thompson's advance into
the Rockies. When the Indians were diverted by a reported skirmish
between Blackfoot kinsmen and the Lewis and Clark Expedition (then
well to the south on their return journey), Thompson and party made
way through Howse Pass. Here, in June 1807, the explorers found
Finlay's steep, narrow trail, which he had blazed for a length of
forty miles. The canoes Finlay had prepared for navigation of the
Blaeberry River had been stripped of their birch coverings by porcupines
and mice over the winter.
built Kootenae House at the headwaters of the Columbia River near
Lake Windmere and close to the Kootenai River (present-day Athalmer,
British Columbia). He and his party wintered here, 1807-1808. [This
Kootenae House was called "Old Kootenae Fort" and is not
to be confused with two other forts on the Kootenai River: Kallyspell
House (present-day Bonner's Ferry, northern Idaho) was later named
Kootenay Fort and another post was built even farther east on the
Kootenai River in extreme northwest Montana]
Thompson severely criticized Jacco Findlay's preparation of the
trail and demanded that he be fined and lose half his yearly wages.
Findlay resigned from the Northwest Company and became a free trapper
allied with the HBC. He worked out of Edmunton House (under James
BIRD and Peter FIDLER in 1807) and rejoined the Northwest Company
in this Autumn, 1807, Finan McDonald established Lake Indian House
on the Kootenai River in Idaho. (this post was abandoned in favor
of Spokane House in 1811).
David Thompson (Hopwood, narrative; Glover or Tyrell journal,
1784-1812; Coues, journal, 1799-1814).
September 1807, John MCCLELLAN, Francois RIVET, and a large party
of American and Canadian independent trappers (perhaps including
Charles COURTIN, Registre BELLAIRE, and Michel BORDEAUX DIT BOURDON)
encamped in the Bitterroot Valley. McClellan sent word to Thompson
of the Northwest Company (then on the Columbia River) not to encroach
on their Bitterroot trading territory.
the winter of 1807-08, eight men of the Bitterroot camp, including
the leader John McClellan, were killed in a battle with Blackfeet
or Gros Ventres.
early Spring, John COLTER returned from the Wind River region by
way of the Snake River, Jackson Hole, and a route that took him
through the Yellowstone Park area. Back in St. Louis, Colter's description
of Yellowstone was disbelieved and the fantastic region was named
traveled with a group of Crows and fought along side them when they
were raided by Blackfeet, the Crows' traditional enemies. After
1808, the Blackfeet became enemies of the American traders in the
Colter rejoined the Lisa-Henry party at the mouth of the Big Horn
on the Yellowstone. At this place, in Spring of 1808, the party
constructed Fort "Raymond" (which was usually referred
to as Ft. Manuel).
DROUILLARD, like Colter, was dispatched by Lisa from his Fort Manuel
to explore the Big Horn basin in 1808.
and a man named POTTS left on a separate scouting expedition up
the Jefferson River from the Three Forks region. They encountered
800 menacing Blackfeet who demanded they come ashore. Colter waded
to land while Potts remained in the canoe. The Blackfeet shot Potts
in the hip while Colter was stripped and robbed. Potts hollered
that he was too wounded to escape-- that Colter should make a run
for it while Potts could shoot at least one enemy. Potts did so,
died in a hail of bullets and arrows, and was hacked to pieces and
thrown in Coter's face.
Blackfeet told Colter to run, to give a sporting chance. Colter
walked about hundred yards and then took off, out-running all but
one warrior who kept with him half way to the Madison River. Colter
killed this man with the head of his own spear. He hid from the
rest of his pursuers behind a log in the river, swimming and floating
away during the night. Clad only in the Indian's blanket and armed
only with the spearhead, Colter walked 11 days back to the Yellowstone
July, Lisa returned by river to St. Louis while Henry stayed at
the fort. Back in St. Louis, Manuel Lisa organized the Missouri
Fur Company (partnered with Benjamin Wilkinson, Pierre Chouteau
Sr., Auguste Chouteau Jr., Reubin Lewis, William Clark, Sylvestre
Labbadie, Pierre Menard, William Morrison, and Andrew Henry).
American ships Derby, Capt. SWIFT, and Guatimozin, Capt. GLANVILLE,
entered the Columbia River in 1808.
FRASER led an exploring expedition in the Northwest this year.
BELLAIRE, a former employee of the Missouri River trader Charles
Courtin, was hired by David Thompson to work for the Northwest Company
in the Columbia River region in 1808. Carlo CHATA (Charlot TseTse)
also worked for Thompson between 1808 and 1810. In this year, or
perhaps slightly later, Nicholas MONTOUR was placed in charge of
The Wreck of the Sv. Nikolai (Oregon Historical Society
Press, 1985), by Kenneth N. Owens, editor, and Alton S. Donelly,
translator, contains the journal of Timofei Tarakanov and
the oral tradition narrative of Ben Hobucket, a Quileute,
as well as a debunking of the fraudulent journal of "Vassilie
Petrovich" (H.H. Bancroft's source); JOURNAL SOURCES:
Robert Campbell (Campbell); David Thompson (Hopwood, narrative;
Glover or Tyrell journal, 1784-1812; Coues, journal, 1799-1814);
ON RUSSIAN AMERICA: ((Berkh, Rezenov).
1808, the RUSSIAN AMERICAN COMPANY recaptured Sitka Sound from the
Tlingits with help from Aleut allies. Continued Tlingit hostility
convinced Chief Manager Aleksandr BARANOV to concentrate future
Russian efforts to the south, beginning with the Oregon Country.
WRECK OF THE SV. NIKOLAI (St. Nicolas): In September 1808, the Russian
American Company dispatched a ship from New Arkhangel, Alaska, to
found an outpost in the Oregon Country. In October, the Sv. Nicholai
wrecked near the Quillayute River (present-day La Push, WA). The
crew of 22-- Russians, Aleuts, and one American--fought with the
Quileute Indians and fled south to the Ho River. The Hoh Indians
took 2 men and 2 women captive. The rest fled to the interior and
spent a miserable winter. (The names of the crew of the Nikolai
and their fates are detailed in the 1810 section)
Jocco FINLAY and his large family had an outpost near to Old Fort
Kootenae but closer to the Blaeberry River. In April, after the
death of the wife of one of Thompson's voyageurs, (Basile?) LUSSIER,
Findlay took in the Lussier children. In August, Finlay and family
took refuge with Thompson after their camp was raided by Piegan
THOMPSON of the Northwest Company extended trading operations into
the Flathead (that is Salish) region. Traders with Thompson in 1809
included the metis Michel BOURDEAUX DIT BOURDON, Michel KINVILLE,
Francois SANS FACON, Francois GREGOIRE, Pierre GREGNON, and Francois
RIVET. (Other names associated with Thompson at this time: Brucier,
Pembrook [Pembuck?], Bellaire, James McMillan, and Jean Baptiste
October 1809, after a 200 mile journey, Thompson and his party set
up a trading camp near the site of present-day Libby, Montana (later
the site of Kullyspell House and later still Fort Kootenay). Soon
they built and established Flathead Post (Salish House, present
day Montana) south of Flathead Lake and near Clark Fork River to
trade with the Salish and Pend d'Oreil Indians.
arrival, the Northwesters found about 20 metis (mixed white and
Indian people, usually descendants of European/Canadian fur traders
and Indian wives) already engaged in the fur trade in the Flathead
region. This vanguard of Canadian emigration to the Northwest included
the mixed-race clans of the Iroquois, emigrants from the Saskatchewan
River region, and remnants of McClellan's 1807-08 American expedition
into the Bitterroots.
territory that would later become Washington State, the SURVIVORS
OF THE WRECK OF THE SV. NIKOLAI, tried to reach the coast after
a miserable winter spent in the foothills of the Olympics. Anna
Petrovna BULYGIN, the wife of the ship's navigator and captive of
the Makah people, persuaded Bulygin, Timofei TARAKANOV, and a few
others to surrender and take refuge with the Makah.
rest attempted to escape by sea, leaving the Ho River in canoes,
and were killed or captured by Hohs or Quileutes. The survivors
of the Sv. Nickolai spent the next year in captivity among the Hoh,
Quileute, and Makah. (The names of the crew of the Nikolai and their
fates are detailed in the 1810 section)
least three of the SURVIVORS OF THE NIKOLAI REACHED THE COLUMBIA
RIVER in 1809. One, an un-named Aleut man, was ransomed by Capt.
George Washington EAYRES (of the American ship Mercury) when he
was offered for sale by his Indian captors on the bank of the Columbia
River. Another, ship's apprentice Filip KOTELNIKOV, had been bought
by Chinooks from the Hohs or Quileutes and apparently decided to
remain with the Chinooks voluntarily. BOLGUSOV, another of the crew
who had been sold to Columbia River Indians, was ransomed by Captain
BROWN of the American ship Lydia in 1810.
spring of 1809, Andrew HENRY, field captain, Pierre CHOUTEAU, military
commander, Pierre MENARD, company manager, and a party of Missouri
Fur Company trappers set out from St. Louis to the Three Forks region
of the Missouri River. Manuel LISA followed them up the Missouri
in June, overtaking the flotilla of 13 barges and keelboats before
they reached the Mandan Villages on the Upper Missouri.
JAMES commanded a flotilla of 13 barges and keelboats. Pierre Chouteau
(one of the fur company partners) escorted SHAHAKA, who had been
brought to St. Louis by Lewis and Clark, back to his home among
the Mandans. RUEBEN LEWIS (brother of Merriwether Lewis), Francoise
VALLE, LABBADIE, MENARD, MILLER, MORRISON, one of Chouteau's sons
and Thomas James (barge captain) also made the journey.
VASQUEZ (Lisa's second in command in 1807-1808) met them at the
Mandan villages. Many of the Americans with the party dropped out
and went back down river at this point. Lisa had recruited heavily
among the Creoles of Detroit, St. Louis, and Kankaski and the original
party was about half-and-half American and French. They had bickered
all the way up river with Chouteau and Lisa the targets of the Americans'
anger. (Henry and the small party of Americans that were with him
"David Thompson's Journey in Idaho" (his journal
of Sept 1809 in Washinton Historical Quarterly, vol. 11, no.
2, April 1920); John C. Jackson's Children of the Fur Trade
(Mountain Press Publishing Company, Montana, 1995) analyzes
a huge number of primary sources (such as Hudson Bay Company
archives and Harriet C. Duncan's 6-volume Catholic Church
Records of the Pacific Northwest) to trace the history of
Metis (part-Indian) French Canadians.
Thompson (Hopwood, narrative; Glover or Tyrell journal, 1784-1812;
Coues, journal, 1799-1814); on the SV NIKOLAI (Owens).
the company founded Ft. Lisa (often called Ft. Mandan) just upriver
from the native Mandan villages, arguments came to a head. When
Lisa and Chouteau refused to give the Americans promised trapping
equipment, one man threatened them with death. The commanders confiscated
all the guns and the Americans camped outside the new fort. When
Chouteau ordered his men to fire upon the Americans, Henry, Valle,
Sylvestre Labbadie, Pierre Menard, William Morrison, and Chouteau's
son placed themselves bodily between the hostile factions. Chouteau
returned to the fort with no shots fired.
Missouri Fur Company was now ready to begin operations. Thomas James,
MCDANIELS, and Miller had left to trap two days before the big argument.
Henry went quickly overland to Ft. Manuel (Raymond) while Menard,
most of the men, and the supplies voyaged upriver to meet him.
Henry and the trappers wintered at the fort (at the mouth of the
Big Horn on the Yellowstone River) Manuel Lisa and Pierre Chouteau
returned to St. Louis.
Jacob ASTOR received a charter in New York to form the AMERICAN
FUR COMPANY in 1809.
1810, Indians on the Columbia River shore offered to sell BOLGUSOV,
a survivor of the wreck of the Sv. Nikolai, as a slave to CAPTAIN
BROWN of the American ship Lydia. Brown ransomed Bolgusov and sailed
north to the territory of the Makahs where the other survivors were
May 6, 1810, the Lydia anchored off the coast of the Olympic Peninsula
near Cape Flattery and Neah Bay. Brown negotiated the release and
ransom of the 13 captives and set out northward for New Archangel,
Alaska, arriving June 9, 1810.
13 ransomed were Timofei TARAKANOV, Dmitrii SHUBIN, Ivan BOLOTOV,
Ivan KURMACHEV, Afansii VALGUSOV, Kasian ZYPIANOV, Savva ZUEV, Abram
PETUKOV, John WILLIAMS (American), two Aleut men, and two Aleut
women. Navigator BULYGIN and wife Anna Petrovna Bulygin died in
Makah captivity. Five others died in battles with the Quileute or
Hoh or died in captivity: IAKOV PETUKOV, Kozma OVCHINNIKOV, Khariton
SOBACHNIKOV, and two Aleuts.
Aleut man and a Russian named BOLGUSOV were ransomed on the Columbia
River by American captains. Another, naval apprentice Filip KOTELNIKOV,
apparently decided to stay voluntarily with the Chinooks on the
of the Nikolai passengers had developed affection for their captors.
One captive rescued from the Quileutes (an Aleut woman) was brought
along on a later expedition sent to punish and enslave the Quileute;
she called out to them from the ship and warned away their canoes.
YUTRAMAKI (or Machee Ulatilla), a Makah chief, was particularly
praised for his nobility and protection. In 1805, this same Yutramaki
had arranged for the release of American John JEWETT from Nootka
26 through July 19, 1810: In spring of 1810 Capt. Nathan WINSHIP
of Boston and a small crew arrived in the trading ship Albatross
and attempted to establish a post on the Columbia River on an island
about 3 miles from the present day site of Quincy, OR (at Oak Point
about 40 miles from the mouth of the Columbia). Winship intended
to leave a small party under the leadership of a man named WASHINGTON
to stay the winter. Instead, during construction of the post, Winship
imprisoned some Chilwitz (Echeloot) men mistakenly believing they
were the party who had attacked the Russian post at New Archangel
(Alaska). As the Chilwitz prepared for war, Winship and his crew
retreated down the Columbia.
of trappers with the NORTHWEST FUR COMPANY set out from the Hudson
Bay fort region for an expedition to the Pacific. They were led
by David THOMPSON on a route through the Athabasca Pass (through
a region named later as Alberta Province along the border of British
1810, Jacco FINDLAY had rejoined the Northwest Company and worked
as a clerk under Finan MCDONALD at Salish House.
the summer of 1810, Salish Indians with the Northwest Company's
BOURDON, Jean Baptiste BOUCHE, Jacco FINDLAY, and Finan MCDONALD
crossed the Rockies heading east. The company held off an attack
by Pikuni Blackfeet, retreated, and built the stronghold of Spokane
House (near the junction of the Spokane Riverand the Little Spokane,
present-day Washington State).
David Thompson and a party had traveled east of the Rockies. In
the summer of 1810, Piegan Blackfeet had unsuccessfully fought a
force of 150 Nez Perce and Flatheads on the plains (some of whom,
unlike the Piegans, had received guns in trade from the Northwesters).
The hostile Piegans blocked Thompson's usual route over the Rockies.
He crossed on a more northerly pass, traveled south along the Kootenai
and Pend d'Oreil rivers, and arrived at Spokane House in June 1811.
EAST TO WEST:
by John COLTER, Andrew HENRY, Pierre MENARD, and most of the trappers
who had wintered at Fort Manuel traveled to the Three Forks region
in April 1810 for trapping and trade with local Indians.
men were killed in an attack by an estimated 200 Blackfeet of the
Kiniah tribe (also called Bloods). In another skirmish on the Jefferson
River, one American lost his life as the trappers killed 22 Blackfeet.
George DRUILLARD, who was trapping with a group of 21 men, was killed
in yet another battle. Henry, Menard, and their men retreated over
the pass to the Yellowstone. At the mouth of the Clark River on
the Yellowstone they met a large party of friendly Crows. Here they
cached their goods and divided into two groups, the men with Menard
traveling back to Ft. Manuel (also called Ft. Raymond, at the mouth
of the Big Horn) and those with Henry west to the Madison River.
and his sixty men passed through a low divide to the south (Bozeman
Pass) and crossed over the Tetons to the headwaters of the Snake
River. Spying abundant beaver, they built a fort just downstream
of a lake on Henry's Fork (site of present-day St. Anthony, Idaho).
Archibald PELTON became separated from Henry's company somewhere
along the Fork (He would not be seen again until 1811). Although
the beaver were plenty, the high elevation meant game was scarce
and the men endured a starvation diet. John HOBACK, Edward ROBINSON,
P. MCBRIDE, Jacob REZNOR, B. JACKSON, and L. CATHER were among those
wintering over at the miserable Ft. Henry.
his eastern Rockies-based American Fur Company driven out of business
by competition from the MACKINAW COMPANY in the north and the Missouri
Fur Company and others in the south, JOHN JACOB ASTOR formed the
PACIFIC FUR COMPANY to pursue the fur trade from west of the Rockies.
Astor dispatched one party by ship from New York and another overland
from St. Louis in 1810 to begin operations for the Pacific Fur Company.
original Pacific Fur Company partners were John Jacob Astor of New
York, an American from New Jersey named William Price HUNT and three
former members of the Canadian Northwest Fur Company, Alexander
MCKAY, Duncan MCDOUGAL, and Donald MACKENZIE.
1810 the two parties representing ASTOR'S PACIFIC FUR COMPANY, set
out to establish the first trading post on the Columbia River. One
party sailed from New York on the ship Tonquin, under the command
of Captain Jonathan THORNE. The other party set out overland from
St. Louis led by William Price HUNT. Both parties expected to arrive
at the mouth of the Columbia River at about the same time. Astor
also dispatched the ship Beaver with a load of supplies and some
additional workers for the company.
ship, the TONQUIN, put to sea on September 8, 1810. Aboard were
Captain Jonathan THORNE, fur company partners Alexander MCKAY, Duncan
MCDOUGAL, David STUART, his nephew Robert Stuart, 12 clerks, and
enough voyagers to make a crew of 20.
Hawaii, 20 to 30 Hawaiians joined the Tonquin for the voyage to
ON RUSSIAN AMERICA (Owens, Berkh, Rezenov); on the NORTHWEST
COMPANY: Wallace, W.S., Documents Relating to the Northwest
Company, 1934, Champlain Society, Toronto; David Thompson
(Hopwood, narrative; Glover or Tyrell journal, 1784-1812;
Coues, journal, 1799-1814); John C. Jackson's Children of
the Fur Trade (Mountain Press Publishing Company, Montana,
1995) analyzes a huge number of primary sources (such as Hudson
Bay Company archives and Harriet C. Duncan's 6-volume Catholic
Church Records of the Pacific Northwest) to trace the history
of Metis (part-Indian) French Canadians.
of the Overland Astorians, 1810-1812" (OHQ 1933); [The
roll of the overland Astorians 1810-12 appears in Oregon Historical
Quarterly #34 as well as the trail journal of Robert Stuart];
On the ship Tonquin, Robert Stuart, Thomas and Alexander McKay;
on the trail William P. Hunt (Franchere).
overland expedition to Oregon was led by William Price HUNT with
partner Donald MACKENZIE. MacKenzie and Hunt left Montreal by canoe
and arrived at Mackinaw (at the confluence of lakes Michigan and
Huron) on July 23, 1810. Ramsey CROOKS (a Scotsman) joined them
at Mackinaw and the party headed down river to arrive at St. Louis
September 3, 1810. (Their journey took them via Green Bay to the
Fox River, then the Wisconsin River to Prairie du Chien and on to
the Mississippi River).
Pierre MENARD came downstream from Ft. Manuel and reached St. Louis
in September. His report to the Missouri Fur Company was so discouraging
that the partners decided not to send new supplies to Andrew Henry
and his trappers. Instead, they planned to dispatch a small rescue
party come Spring.
ST. LOUIS, HUNT and the Pacific Fur Company party recruited Joseph
MILLER as a partner (he was a fur trapper from Maryland--Bancroft's
Oregon, vol. 1, says Miller, who came west with Henry, met Astorians
in Idaho; otherwise he would have had to have returned to St. Louis
from Ft. Manuel, as Menard did). The Pacific Fur Company partners
and men departed From St. Louis October 10. 1810 to establish winter
quarters up the Missouri River. At Nodowa, the site of their winter
camp, Robert MCCLELLAN (a war veteran) and John DAY (a hunter from
Virginia) joined the Astorian party.
late 1810, the Missouri Fur Company's Cedar Post accidentally burned
with $12,000 to $15,000 worth of furs.
bought out the Mackinaw Fur Company in 1811 and added it to his
holdings in the American Fur Company and the Pacific Fur Company.
Briefly, just until the War of 1812, Astor's merger of the Mackinaw
and the American fur companies operated under the name the SOUTHWEST
FUR COMPANY but revived after the war as the AMERICAN FUR COMPANY.
March 25, concerned about Astor's operations, the Missouri Fur Company
partners met in St. Louis to discuss the rescue party that they
had planned during the previous September. The CHOUTEAUs withdrew
their financial backing and only partners Manuel LISA, William CLARK,
and Pierre MENARD supported the transport of reinforcements and
supplies to aid Andrew Henry and his men. Lisa was to lead the rescue
party and await Henry and his trappers at the Mandan villages.
wintering at Ft. Henry (Idaho), MISSOURI FUR COMPANY members under
Andrew HENRY abandoned the post to go east in the spring of 1811.
Several men remained to trap in the mountains.
group under Henry went northeast to Ft. Manuel (officially named
Ft. Raymond) by way of the Yellowstone River. The other party traveled
to Jackson Hole, over Togwotee Pass (Lewis and Clark's route), and
then perhaps down the Wind River and Big Horn to reach Ft. Manuel
via the Yellowstone River.
the Fort, the trappers found that no supplies had been sent by the
Missouri Fur Company partners in St. Louis.
THE EAST TO THE WEST:
New Year's Day, 1811, W.P. HUNT left the Astorians' winter camp
(called Nadowa) on the Missouri River with 5 men to return to St.
Louis. In St. Louis, Manuel LISA of the Missouri Fur Company was
recruiting men for a rescue party so supplies and new recruits were
scarce. Hunt was able to hire Pierre DORIONE as guide and Sioux
interpreter, but only two of the five men who accompanied him to
St. Louis returned (Dr. John BRADBURY, a botanist of the Linnean
Society of Liverpool and Thomas NUTTALL, a scientist).
Spring 1811, on his way back up the Missouri River to winter camp
(at Nowdowa) Hunt encountered Daniel BOONE (then 85 years old) and
John COLTER. The Pacific Fur Company under Hunt, left Nodowa Village
for their journey to Oregon on March12, 1811. Hunt and his party
of 60 reached the Platte River on April 28, Omaha Village on May
10, and just below the Arikara Village (near the mouth of the Grand
River on the Missouri) on the first of June 1811. Lisa and his rescue
party were already encamped.
his boat, and a crew of 21 set out from St. Louis on April 2, slightly
behind the Pacific Fur Company party. With him were Henry Marie
BRECKENRIDGE and a couple returning to the Hadatsa Village; Toussaint
CHARBONNEAU and SACAJAWEA were going home after a visit with William
Clark in St. Louis.
steadily gained on Hunt's party as he and his crew made way up the
Missouri. They passed the mouth of the Platte on May 10, the Omaha
Village on May 19. At this point, Hunt was only four days ahead.
On May 23, Lisa met F.M. BENOIT who had come downriver (Benoit was
the Missouri Company's chief factor at the Mandan Villages, upriver
near the mouth of the Big Knife River). Benoit reported that all
Indians except the Arikaras and the Mandans had become the Americans'
enemies. The Sioux, said Benoit, had killed several Americans in
the Mandan vincinity.
days later, on May 26, two of Hunt's men who had been dispatched
by him to go back downriver reached Lisa with a message: Hunt was
only one day away and would wait for Lisa and his company at the
Ponca Village (mouth of the Niobrara river, now northeast Nebraska).
Lisa also encountered two deserters from Hunt's party who told him
that Hunt had placated hostile Sioux by promising the Indians that
Lisa was on his way with goods for them.
on the same day, three of Andrew Henry's men (Jacob REZNOR, Edward
ROBINSON, and John HOBACK) came to Hunt's encampment from Ft. Manuel
(on the Yellowstone River). The three joined Hunt's party as guides.
and the Astorians (Pacific Fur Company) found Lisa and his Missouri
Fur Company rescue party already encamped when they arrived at the
Arikara Village (at the mouth of the Grand River). From here, Lisa
continued upriver and arrived at the Mandan Villages on June 26.
Reubin LEWIS was waiting there for him but the rest of Henry's company
did not arrive at Ft. Lisa (more commonly called Ft.Mandan) until
September. Lewis told Lisa that Henry was on his way with a huge
catch of furs. Henry, Lisa, Benoit and others returned downriver
to St. Louis in the Fall of 1811. On their way back, they rebuilt
the trading post on Cedar Island.
the Arikara Villages, Hunt and the Astorians departed from the Missouri
River overland on July 23, 1811. To avoid hostile Blackfeet, the
three guides (formerly Andrew Henry's men) convinced the party to
go west by way of Union Pass rather than the more northerly route
of Lewis and Clark (Togwotee Pass).
DORIONE, Alexander CARSON, and GRADPIE traveled ahead and lost the
main party. The party with Hunt, by veering sharply westward, rejoined
them at the Little Missouri River in mid-August. The Astorians with
Hunt reached Ft. Henry on October 8, 1811.
the deserted Ft. Henry (westernmost Wyoming), Louis ST. MICHEL,
Pierre DELAUNEY, Pierre DETAYE,and Alexander CARSON were instructed
to trap for furs and then make way to the Columbia River. (Francois
LANDRY, Andre LACHAPPELLE and Jean TURCOTTE may also have left the
party here or further west near the Mad River).
HOBACK, Jacob REZNOR, and Edward ROBINSON (who were traveling west
with the Astorians as guides) rejoined the remnant of the party
that came west with Andrew Henry in 1810. These men stayed to trap
in the Bear River region as the Pacific Fur Company proceeded toward
the Columbia River. (This party may have included a man named CASS
and Joseph MILLER, if he had not met the Astorians in St. Louis
as reported in some sources. One source, Jackson's Children of the
Fur Trade, says that William CANNON and DUBRIEUL were also left
by the Astorians to hunt in the Snake River region in 1811).
with the Astorians named CLAPPINE drowned in a canoe accident near
Caldron Linn in late October 1811. Hunt's company cached supplies
and furs at this place on the Snake River (between the American
and Shoshone Falls) and headed for Oregon. At the Lewis River, they
found the long lost Archibald PELTON who had become separated from
Henry's expedition the year before. Pelton appeared to be out of
his mind but fortunately had been taken in by Snake Indians (Shoshones).
route westward was unclear and Hunt's company split up. John REED
led one party. Eighteen men under under HUNT and Pierre DORION followed
after. Ramsey CROOKS led another 18. Crook's party reunited with
Hunt and company on December 6, 1811. The rest of the Astorians
together with John Reed, Donald MACKENZIE,and Robert MCCLELLAN,
were by this time well ahead of Hunt's combined company.
this point, Hunt left CROOKS and John DAY (then ailing) to make
their way slowly along the Columbia River while Hunt's company doubled
back to the last place where they had been able to find and purchase
provisions (Woodpile Creek). On December 29, Madame DORION, wife
of Pierre Dorion and mother of four- and two-year-olds (all on the
expedition) gave birth to a healthy baby. Hunt, Dorion, and company
resumed the journey westward on January 2, 1812.
SHIP TONQUIN ARRIVED AT THE MOUTH OF THE COLUMBIA on March 22, 1811.
(It put to sea from New England September 8, 1810). Eight men, the
crews of two small boats, were drowned during attempts to locate
a channel across the bar during stormy weather.
MCDOUGAL and David STUART went ashore at a landing site at Baker
Bay to scout on April 5, 1811. They returned to the ship with Chief
COMCOMLY of the Chinooks on April 12 and reported a better site
for a post at a spot later named George Point. Captain THORNE set
some of the crew and a small portion of the supplies ashore and
sailed to Vancouver Island.
than begin trade with the Native Americans on Vancouver Island (at
Clayoquot Bay), Thorne so antagonized them that they attacked the
Tonquin. All on board were killed and the Tonquin burned, exploded,
and sank to the bottom with all supplies.
Indian interpreter named JOSEACHAL (a Quinault) returned to Ft.
Astor, the sole survivor of the WRECK OF THE TONQUIN. Joseachal
said that four survivors of the original attack had holed up in
the cabin of the Tonquin with a severely wounded clerk, James LEWIS.
Lewis told them to escape and then ambushed Neeweetee (that is,
Nootka or Clayoquot) Indians still aboard by setting fire to the
ship's store of ammunition. The three other survivors were later
captured and killed while the interpreter made his escape.
William Price Hunt, journal (Franchere and in Thwaites, vol.6);
Thomas Nuttall, travel books (published in the early 19th
century and available at the Bancroft Library: Travels into
the Old Northwest, ; Travels in North America, ;
"Journal," Oct. 1818 to Feb. 1820; Journal of Travels
[Arkansas], 1819; Nuttall, a botanist and orinthologist, came
to Oregon on the Trail in 1834--after he returned to the east,
he published a book on his travels in Oregon, Hawaii, and
California, 1834-35); Brackenridge, Henry Marie, Views of
Louisiana, Readex Microprint, 1966; Bradbury, John, Travels
in the Interior of America, Readex Microprint, 1966.
Journals by William P. Hunt (Franchere), Ross Cox (Stewart),
Alexander Ross (Ross wrote Fur Hunter of the Far West; excerpts
in OHS VF--from the Oregonian newspaper, 1885; also OHQ 1913);
David Thompson (Hopwood, narrative; Glover or Tyrell journal,
1784-1812; Coues, journal, 1799-1814); "Matthews' Adventures
on the Columbia" (OHQ 40); Gabrielle Franchere's journal
of a voyage arriving in Oregon this year (Quaife); in this
year, Robert Stuart was in Oregon--he arrived on the ship
Tonquin (Rollins, editor--Stuart's journal begins in 1812
but recounts past events); Thomas McKay was in Oregon, arriving
on the Tonquin (William Cameron McKay Papers [son of Thomas
McKay] are in the Pendleton Public Library, Oregon); material
about the NORTHWEST COMPANY: Wallace, W.S., Documents Relating
to the Northwest Company, 1934, Champlain Society, Toronto.
shore crew on the Columbia River could only hope for a speedy arrival
of the overland party and began work on FT. ASTOR. David STUART
set out with 6 men of this company to establish another post beyond
the upper Columbia (on the Okanagan River in territory that would
later be Washington State). Stuart's party met a Pacific-bound expedition
led by David THOMPSON during their journey up the Columbia River.
Thompson, an employee of the Northwest Fur Company, continued with
his party down the Columbia, set up camp outside Ft. Astor, and
established a presence for the NORTHWEST FUR COMPANY.
summer of 1811, David THOMPSON, Michel BOURDON, BOULARD, Ignace
L'IROQUOIS, and others of a Northwest Company boat-party arrived
at Ft. Astor after travel down the Columbia River. Boulard, who
was ill, stayed at the fort and was replaced by a Hawaiian named
COX for the return journey. Those paddling up river with Thompson
also included Maurice PICARD, Thomas CANASWAREL, and Ignace SALIAHONE
who had left his family at Ft. Astor. (Thompson was at Spokane House
on June 14, 1811; at Ft. Astor August 6; back to Spokane August
13 where he met Jacco FINDLAY; and to Salish House by November 11).
November, Thompson left Cox and Paul "Iroquoi" with Jocco
FINLAY at Spokane House. He also ordered Michel KINVILLE to abandon
his charge of Lake Indian House and move all company goods to Spokane
September 26, 1811 the Astorians had completed quarters built of
stone and clay. On October 2, they launched a new small schooner
and named her Dolly.
from David STUART's post on the Okanagan arrived on October 5, 1811;
David Stuart had sent half the company back to Ft. Astor while he
and the rest wintered over at the Okanagan post. Registre BRUGIER
may have been with this party or with another Pacific Fur Company
party that returned to Ft. Astor in October 1811. At the fort, Gabriel
FRANCHERE recognized Brugier from their previous association in
the Iroquois trade out of Saskatchewan.
THE TRAIL TO OREGON:
with William Price HUNT left their camp at the lower Snake River
on January 2, 1812 and reached the confluence of the Walla Walla
and Columbia rivers on January 21, 1812.
about this date in January, Donald MACKENZIE, Robert MCCLELLAND,
and John REED arrived at Ft. Astor with a portion of the OVERLAND
PACIFIC FUR COMPANY (ASTORIAN) EXPEDITION. Those with William Price
Hunt arrived about a month later on February 15, 1812 (they had
camped at Wishram Village, Celilo Falls, on January 31 and made
the rest of the journey by canoe). Only 35 members of the original
Astorian party of 59 overlanders reached the mouth of the Columbia
River. Sickness, starvation, drownings, hostile Indians, fatigue
and desertions took their toll during the 17 months of travel. Ramsey
CROOKS and John DAY had been seen by neither party since December
the Astorians left behind to hunt IN IDAHO traveled mostly northeast
towards the Missouri River. While a party of four was on its way
north towards the Missouri headwaters in late 1811 or early 1812,
Pierre DETAYE was killed by Crows. Alexander CARSON, Pierre DELAUNEY,
and Luis ST. MICHEL had also been attacked but reached the Missouri
River region. Others with the Astorian fur trappers--Francois LANDRY,
Andre LACHAPPELLE and Jean TURCOTTE--traveled with a party of Shoshones
who were attacked by Blackfeet while traveling northeast from the
Snake River. This party retreated to the Snake River at Caldron
historian, Daniel Lee in Ten Years in Oregon, claims that Landry,
LaChapelle, and Turcotte "deserted" Crooks and Day in
February 1812 and purposely led a party of Shoshones to plunder
the cache. Other accounts, more likely, say the 3 stayed with Shoshones--who
had guided Hunt and the main company in October 1811--and both the
Shoshones and the Astorians were robbed of the cached supplies by
marauding Blackfeet. In any case, the cache was discovered and plundered
before the eastbound Astorians looked for it in August of 1812]
March 22, 1812 three parties set out from Ft. Astor to begin fur
trade: RUSSELL, FARNHAM, Donald GILLES, and a party of 8 were to
go to the cache at Caldron Linn . Robert STUART was to reinforce
his uncle's post on the Okanagan and John REED, MCCLELLAN and their
company were to go east with dispatches for Astor in New York. For
400 miles up the Columbia River, the routes for all three parties
were the same and they traveled together
portage at Deschutes, REED and his small party of companions were
attacked by Indians. Two of the attackers were killed and the others
driven off. In the melee, Reed was severely injured by tomahawk
blows to his head and the dispatches were lost.
three parties of Astorians changed their courses to go to David
Stuart's post on the Onkanagan River. David STUART joined them for
the return trip to Ft. Astor.
the Columbia River, the party found the long-missing John DAY and
Ramsey CROOKS. At the end of the previous year, Walla Walla Indians
had taken in and sustained the two men. When they resumed their
journey to the mouth of the Columbia River in 1812, traveling alone,
they had been attacked by another tribe of Indians near Deschutes.
They were uninjured but robbed of every supply.
company returned to Ft. Astor on May 11, 1812.
May 6, 1812, the Astorian SUPPLY SHIP BEAVER arrived at the Columbia
the end of June, the Astorians were ready to make a new attempt
at trading expeditions. This time ROBERT STUART led the party bound
for the States including John DAY, Andrew VALLE, Ramsey CROOKS,
Benjamin JONES, Robert MCCLELLAN and Francois LECLAIRE. DAVID STUART
went to establish a new post (300 miles beyond Okanagan) and parties
with Donald MACKENZIE, Ross COX, and John CLARKE went to explore
the upper Snake River region.
again, all the Astorians traveled together up the Columbia River.
At the junction of the Walla Walla and Columbia Rivers, on July
31, 1812, ROBERT STUART AND HIS PARTY SET OUT OVERLAND FOR THE STATES
(see the section titled "West to East" below for the chronology
of this journey). DAVID STUART traveled north to establish another
post 300 miles beyond Ft. Okanagan. Donald MACKENZIE, John CLARKE,
and Ross COX parted company at the juncture of the Clearwater River
and the Snake. John Clarke's party went up the upper Snake and the
Lewis River to make a post at Spokane. [This post called Spokane
Fort was just a half mile from the Northwester's Spokane House (established
1810)]. Meanwhile MacKenzie's company canoed the Lewis River to
the Sahaptin River and made camp among the Nez Perce.
summer INDIAN RENDEZVOUS of 1812 in Oregon (at the confluence of
the Columbia and Walla Walla rivers) included David THOMPSON, David
STUART, and Alexander ROSS. Ross reported that this traditional
trading meet attracted about 1500 Cayuses, Walla Walla (Palouse),
and other Shehaptin Indians (Indians of the Plateau region). He
also estimated 400 horses.
Stuart and other Astorians joined David Thompson (of the Northwest
Fur Company) for the return trip down river to Ft. Astor.
August 1812, W.P. HUNT and the ship Beaver left Ft. Astor to pursue
the fur trade along the north coast. Duncan MCDOUGAL, left in charge
of the fort, expected their return in October.
his Shahaptin River camp, MacKenzie dispatched John REED and a small
party to go east to the cache at Cauldron Linn on the lower Snake
River. In the Caldron Linn region, Reed encountered Pacific Fur
Company trappers who had wintered east of the Blue Mountains (Alexander
CARSON, Louis ST. MICHEL, Pierre DELAUNEY, Joseph LANDRY, Andre
LACHAPELLE, and Jean TURCOTTE). All the trappers headed back to
MacKenzie's camp on the Shahaptin River with the sad news that the
Caldron Linn cache had been thoroughly plundered.
CLARKE, Ross COX, and Donald MACKENZIE reunited at Spokane House
(Clarke's post) in the fall of 1812. Here they received news of
the War between the United States and Britain. The news had been
brought by John George MCTAVISH who had come from Lake Winnepeg
OVERLAND WITH MEN OF THE CANADIAN NORTHWEST FUR COMPANY.
November or December 1812, Ross COX and Russell FARNHAM left the
Flathead country to hunt buffalo in the Upper Missouri region. Buffalo-hunting
Salish (one of the tribes often called "Flatheads") were
now accompanied by fur traders on the Indian's traditional incursions
into Blackfoot territory; this caused frequent skirmishes and brought
Americans and Canadians further into conflict with the Blackfeet.
late 1812 or very early 1813, MacKenzie returned to Ft. Astor. David
Stuart sent some of his company back to the mouth of the Columbia
but he himself wintered at Okanagan.
conference with Duncan MCDOUGAL at Ft. Astor in January 1813, MACKENZIE
and a party of men once again traveled up the Columbia, this time
to confer with David Stuart and John Clarke about the news of war
and the failure of the ship Beaver to return as scheduled.
of native hostility to Europeans and Americans in territory south
of Alaska (and because of the increasing presence of British and
Americans in Oregon) the RUSSIAN AMERICAN COMPANY abandoned all
attempts to create trading outposts in the Oregon Country. Instead,
Ivan KUSHKOV founded ROSS COLONY in California in 1812, an outpost
that remained until 1841.
THE WEST TO THE EAST:
during summer and fall of 1812, Robert STUART and 6 men continued
their OVERLAND JOURNEY BACK TO ST. LOUIS from Oregon.
the mouth of the Willamette River, John DAY became too mentally
deranged to continue the journey. Stuart disarmed him and sent him
back to Ft. Astor under the care of Wapato Island Indians.
William P. Hunt (Franchere)
Cox (Stewart), Alexander Ross (Ross wrote Fur Hunter of the
Far West; excerpts in OHS VF--from the Oregonian newspaper,
1885) and "Journal of Alexander Ross--Snake Country Expedition"
(OHQ 1913); Robert Stuart (Rollins), David Thompson (Hopwood,
narrative; Glover or Tyrell for Thompson's journal, 1784-1812;
Coues, journal, 1799-1814).
Stuart, journal of west to east journey (Rollins); John C.
Luttig, journal on the Upper Missouri, 1812-1813 (Drumm);
David Thompson (Hopwood, narrative; Glover or Tyrell for Thompson's
journal 1784-1812; Coues, journal, 1799-1814)
August 20, Stuart and company had reached Hunt's former camp on
Woodpile Creek. In western Idaho on August 25, Stuart's party encountered
some of the men who came overland with the Pacific Fur Company in
1811 and with the Missouri Fur Company in 1810: John HOBACK, Edward
ROBINSON, Jacob REZNOR, and Joseph Miller (Martin CASS had been
with them during the winter). One of the four fur trappers encountered
in western Idaho, Joseph MILLER, joined the Astorian caravan for
the journey back to St. Louis.
August 29, 1812, they reached Cauldron Linn and discovered that
the caches of supplies left the year before had been plundered.
On September 18 the party passed "Mad River" [from Stuarts'
journal, probably Madison River].
returning Astorians discovered South Pass through the Rocky Mountains
and traveled as far east as Chimney Rock in 1812. They retraced
their steps westward to the Nebraska-Wyoming line and then spent
three miserable months wintering over before setting out again for
Astorians with Robert Stuart journeyed back to the States, Donald
MCKENZIE, David STUART, and John CLARKE explored the upper Columbia
sent the SHIP LARK (a supply ship for Ft. Astor) from New York in
March 1813. It would never reach Oregon but sank in a storm off
the coast of Hawaii late in 1813.
same month, on March 25, 1813, the British dispatched two ships
from England, the Isaac Todd and the Phoebe, under secret orders
to destroy any American settlement on the Columbia River or the
Pacific Coast. The ships Raccoon and Cherub joined them during the
voyage as the slow-sailing Todd slipped farther and farther behind.
The Raccoon was sent ahead to the Northwest as the other BRITISH
WARSHIPS battled and defeated the American ship Essex off the coast
of Valparaiso, Chile.
THE EAST END OF THE OREGON TRAIL:
January 10, 1813, Manuel LISA and Andrew HENRY met with others in
St. Louis to reorganize the Missouri Fur Company. The enterprise
had been profitable but the War of 1812 and Indian trouble made
the venture very risky.
was created in Missouri (then under Governor William Clark) because
of the War. The First and Third Battalions included names familiar
in the fur trade: Andrew HENRY (Commander, 1st); Jacob PETIT (Captain,
1st); William JAMES (Lieutenant, 1st); Benjamin HORINE (Ensign);
Robert BROWN (Captain, 3rd); James H. MOUTREE (Lieutenant, 3rd);
and Drury GOOCHE (Ensign, 3rd).
ROI and Francois DORUIN traveled from St. Louis to the Otoe village
(present day Yutan, Nebraska) in spring of 1813. Major Eli CLEMSON
was in charge at Ft. Osage.
STUART's PACIFIC FUR COMPANY PARTY, which had left Ft. Astor in
June 1812, left their winter camp to resume the journey to St. Louis.
In early April 1813 they arrived at the Otoe village near Grand
Isle and met Doruin and Roi. Here they learned of the war between
the US and Britain. They reached Ft. Osage (then under LT. BROWNSON)
on April 16, 1813
April 30, 1813, ROBERT STUART AND THE PACIFIC FUR COMPANY TRAVELERS
ARRIVED IN ST. LOUIS from Oregon. Their route through Idaho and
Wyoming was almost precisely the path later followed by the Oregon
MACKENZIE had returned from inland Oregon to Ft. Astor with news
of the war between the US and Britain. After conference with Duncan
MCDOUGAL at the fort in January 1813, MacKenzie, Alfred SETON, John
REED and a party of 17 men once again traveled up the Columbia to
return to MacKenzie's encampment on the Shahaptin River. MacKenzie
also carried letters from McDougal for David STUART and John CLARKE
about the news of war with Britain, the failure of the ship Beaver
to return as scheduled, and the possibility of ending Pacific Fur
Company business in Oregon.
the Deschutes portage, where Reed had been attacked the previous
year, MacKenzie and two volunteers tried to demand the return of
Reed's rifle from Indians encamped there. The chief refused to smoke
the pipe of peace during uneasy negotiations and MacKenzie felt
threatened. He was able to trade a blanket and ax for the rifle
and retreat in safety.
after passing Deschutes on the Columbia River, MacKenzie's party
encountered John George MCTAVISH and two boatloads of Canadians
then on their way downriver to Ft. Astor. The two parties camped
together overnight and then proceeded in opposite directions on
arrived at his encampment to discover that his caches had been plundered
of all trading goods and furs. He dispatched parties to search for
the thieves and another, under John REED, with messages for Clarke
May 25, John CLARKE and a party of men with 28 horses left the encampment
at Spokane and Lewis rivers. On May 30, at the confluence of the
Pavion and Lewis rivers, the party stopped to retrieve and repair
canoes left with Indians at their camp. Clarke's silver goblet was
stolen and he threatened to hang the chief. The next night, when
another Indian was caught stealing goods, Clarke promptly "tried"
and hanged the thief.
violent act, condemned by David Stuart and Donald MacKenzie, caused
much upset among the various tribes gathered for summer INDIAN RENDEZVOUS
at the confluence of the Walla Walla and Columbia rivers. At this
rendezvous, attended by Stuart, MacKenzie, Clarke and others of
the Pacific Fur Company, Alexander Ross recorded the statement of
TUMMEATAPAM: "What have you done my friends. You have spilt
blood on our lands."
Pacific Fur Company trappers returned to Ft. Astor from Indian rendezvous
on June 12, 1813. Some who had originally intended to go to trade
on the inland plains instead returned to Astoria. A group of 20
with David STUART and Keith was attacked while making portage at
the Cascades. Stuart was wounded by arrows and their goods stolen
but the party returned with their lives to Ft. Astor.
mid-July, John G. MCTAVISH and his party of men from the Northwest
Fur Company left Ft. Astor to begin an overland journey back to
after, in August 1813, William P. HUNT and some of the crew of the
Beaver finally returned to Ft. Astor after nearly a year without
communication with the fort. In 1812, the Beaver had an accident
in a storm off of Alaska and had limped into Hawaii for repairs.
Hunt chartered another ship, the Albatross, for his much delayed
journey back to Oregon. The news of the War of 1812 had also reached
Hawaii by this time.
Early Voyages in the Pacific Northwest 1813-1818 by Peter
Corney, Fairfield, WA, 1965
C. Luttig, journal on the Upper Missouri, 1812-1813 (Drumm);
Robert Stuart, journal of west to east journey on the Oregon
Alexander Ross (Ross wrote Fur Hunter of the Far West; excerpts
in OHS VF--from the Oregonian newspaper, 1885) and "Journal
of Alexander Ross--Snake Country Expedition" (OHQ 1913);
Peter Corney's Early Voyages in the Pacific Northwest, 1813-1818;
David Thompson (Coues, journal, 1799-1814); William P. Hunt,
journal of journey west to east (Franchere). On the NORTHWEST
COMPANY: Wallace, W.S., Documents Relating to the Northwest
Company, 1934, Champlain Society, Toronto; John C. Jackson's
Children of the Fur Trade (Mountain Press Publishing Company,
Montana, 1995) analyzes a huge number of primary sources (such
as Hudson Bay Company archives and Harriet C. Duncan's 6-volume
Catholic Church Records of the Pacific Northwest) to trace
the history of Metis (part-Indian) French Canadians.
Pacific Fur Company partners sold Ft. Astor to the Northwest Company
in October 1813, much influenced by news of the war and ships dispatched
from England to take Ft. Astor.
the Albatross returned to Hawaii and (at Ft. Astor) Pacific Fur
Company partner MCDOUGAL changed his allegiance to the Northwest
Fur Company. While McDougal remained at Ft. Astor, Alexander ROSS
and a party went to Walla Walla country.
Northwest Company employee, Registre BELLAIRE, and former Astorians
John DAY, William CANNON, and Alexander CARSON worked together as
free trappers along the Willamette in the winter of 1813-14.
of the Northwest Fur Company who wintered 1813-14 at Ft. Astor included
Iroquois Pierre CAWANARDE, Thomas OCANASAWARET, Jacques OSTISERICO,
Etienne OWAYAISSA, Jacques SHATACKOANI, Ignace SALIOHENI and George
TEEWHATTAHOWIE. J. SAGANAKEI, a Nipissing, and M. MANICQUE, a Wyandot,
were also at the fort. Thornbun FINDLAY and Raphael FINDLAY Jr.
(sons of the Northwest Company's Jacco Findlay) were employed by
Ft. Astor (later called Ft. George) from 1813-14.
the British warship Raccoon (Captain BLACK) arrived at Ft. Astor,
Dec. 12, 1813, the Fort was already in British hands. The British
officially took charge of Ft. Astor on December 13, 1813 in a flag
raising ceremony held by the captain of the Raccoon. Ft. Astor was
officially renamed FT. GEORGE and became an outpost of the Northwest
in Hawaii on December 20, 1813, HUNT met the survivors of the ship
Lark. THE LARK, sent by Astor from New York to resupply Ft. Astor,
had sunk in a storm off of Hawaii before ever reaching the Columbia
British ship Raccoon sailed way from Ft. Astor on New Years Day,
1814 after re-naming the post FT. GEORGE and raising the British
January 20, 1814, 85 men in 18 canoes set out from Ft. George to
avenge the attack on Stuart's party at the Cascades portage the
previous year. The Northwesters anchored at the foot of the rapids
to begin negotiations. John G. MCTAVISH led four days' of negotiations
demanding return of stolen property while the Cascade chiefs demanded
the trappers turn over the men who had killed two of the tribe.
The trapper company retreated to the fort on the fifth day after
being robbed during the night.
Hawaii, HUNT obtained the brig Pedler and sailed for Oregon with
Capt. NORTHROP, and the survivors of the wreck of Astor's ship,
the Lark. At Ft. George (formerly Ft. Astor) on February 28, 1814,
the Pedler took aboard those Americans unwilling to join the Northwest
Company and sailed for New York, April 14, 1814. Former Pacific
Fur Company partners MACKENZIE, CLARKE, and STUART soon set out
from Ft. George overland. MacKenzie traveled to the Willamette River
while John Clarke and David Stuart returned to their posts north
of the Columbia River.
April 17, 1814, the British ship Issac Todd arrived at Ft. George
at Astoria (the modern name for the region). Donald MCTAVISH took
charge of Ft. George (formerly Ft. Astor) and planned to travel
overland to Montreal after order had been established at Astoria.
McTavish and his clerk, Alexander HENRY Jr., were drowned attempting
to reach the Todd in an open boat from Ft. George. The Issac Todd
sailed away for China under the command of Capt. Frazer SMITH.
Isaac Todd had left behind four Spanish cattle at Ft. George. These
and the goats and hogs brought by the Astorians became the early
basis for domestic livestock in Oregon.
May of 1814 Ross COX, who had joined the Northwest Fur Company,
traveled with 5 companions to the Yakima country (around Spokane
ROSS, Tom MCKAY, and 2 unnamed Canadians traveling with native wives
were also in this region and traveled to a village where over 3000
had camped to gather camas roots. Negotiations were wary and tense
but Ross traded for 100 horses.
BELLAIRE in 1814 hired 4 Hawaiians to pursue the fur trade with
him in the Walla Walla Valley region.
DORION, an overland Astorian who had gone to hunt in the Snake country
in 1813, was killed by Indians in 1814. His widow and 2 children
hailed an upriver-bound boat of trappers for rescue near the mouth
of the Umatilla River at the Columbia in 1814.
* Alexander Henry, journal (Coues); on the NORTHWEST COMPANY:
Wallace, W.S., Documents Relating to the Northwest Company,
1934, Champlain Society, Toronto.
earlier entries for journals kept by Astorians and Northwest
Company explorers. Alexander Henry Jr. (called the Younger),
a Company clerk, arrived in Oregon by ship in 1814 and kept
a journal this year (Gough, journal 1799-1814); David Thompson
(Coues, journal, 1799-1814).
1814, the US Congress forbid any British or Canadian concerns to
trade with Native Americans of the Missouri River Basin. By 1816,
J.J. Astor had bought out all British holdings in US territory east
of the Rocky Mountains.
WAR OF 1812, which included the burning of Washington D.C. in August
1814, exaggerated American resentment toward and competition with
the British. The Treaty of Ghent officially ended the war on December
24, 1814. News of peace and the implementation of the Treaty took
a long time to reach the Northwest. The agreed upon British-American
joint occupancy of the lands between Russian Alaska and Spanish
California was not made official in Oregon until 1818.
the summer of 1815, James MCMILLAN, Nicholas MONTOUR, and Ross COX
hunted in the Spokane Plains.
provided by Patricia Kohnen
| 3.659621 |
Written by: Petros Skapinakis, MD, MPH, PhD, lecturer of Psychiatry in the University of Ioannina Medical School, Greece.
Eva Gerasi, postgraduate student in the Department of Psychiatry, University Hospital of Ioannina, Greece.
22 Jul 2008.
30 Jul 2008.
How common is bipolar disorder? What is the frequency of its occurrence? In which ages does it usually start?
Studies in the USA have shown that more than 2 million American adults, 1 or about 1 percent of the population age 18 and older in any given year, have bipolar disorder. Bipolar disorder typically develops in late adolescence or early adulthood. However, some people have their first symptoms during childhood, and some develop them late in life.
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purposes only. The material is in no way intended to
replace professional medical care or attention by a
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Satan (a.k.a. The Devil, Lucifer, Beelzebub) is the personification of evil. Modern Christian mythology casts Satan as an angel who defied the will of God. He was cast out of heaven with his followers and was condemned to rule over hell. He is seen as “the father of lies”, the tempter of Adam and Eve, the tormentor of mankind on earth, and the torturer of mankind in hell.
But this has not always been Satan’s lot. Before modern Christianity condemned him to hell, Satan had a very different mythology associated with him.
Definitions of Satan
"Among those books of the Hebrew Scriptures written before 300 BCE, the term 'satan' (root word 's'tn') appears often. The word is derived from the original Hebrew verb 'satan' which means 'to oppose.' The Septuagint translation of the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek was widely used in the early Christian church. They translated 'satan' as 'diaboloc' from which we derive our English term 'devil' and 'diabolic.'"
- — Religious Tolerance web site
Satan as an adversary
There are several different definitions when the term 'satan' is used in early writtings. One is a person acting as an accuser or enemy. In 1 Samuel 29:4 , the Philistines were distrustful of David, fearing that he would be a satan. (translated "adversary" or "someone who will turn against us"). In 2 Samuel 19:22 Shime-i apologizes to King David. The King rejects the apology, saying that they should not be a satan to each other (translated "adversary" or "opponent"). In 1 Kings 5:4 , King Solomon is talking to Hiram, the King of Tyre. He says that now that there is neither satan nor bad luck to stop him, he can build the Temple. (translated as "adversary", "enemy", or "one who opposes"). And in 1 Kings 11:14 , God raised up Hadad the Edomite as a satan against Solomon. (translated as "adversary," or "opponent").
Satan as a divine messenger
Another use of the Hebrew term translates as a divine messenger sent by God as an adversary. In the story of Balaam in Numbers 22 , God appears in a dream, and tells Balaam to go with the princes of Moab to meet Balak. But when Balaam sets out the next morning on his donkey, God is angry with him for his attempt to evade God's wishes, and he sends an angel/messenger to kill Balaam. The donkey sees the angel and takes evasive actions, but the angel is invisible to Balaam, who beats the animal. The donkey asks Balaam why he had beat her three times and Balaam (who doesn't seem to realize that a talking donkey is particularly odd) replies that the donkey has mocked him. The angel then appears and explains that he has come as a satan to kill him. (translated as "one who opposes, "withstand," "adversary")
Satan as a divine councilor
Another use of the Hebrew term translates as a member of God's council, sort of a chief prosecutor. In 1 Chronicles 21:1 , Satan, "a supernatural evil emissary," acting on God's behalf, influences David to hold a census. The census is taken, but God becomes angry for reasons not given in the writings. God then offers David his choice of one of three punishments: a three year famine, three months of fleeing before his enemies' armies, or a plague throughout Israel. David selects the plague and God kills 70 thousand men. There is no mention of the number of women or children, or even if the 70 thousand includes women and children. In 2 Samuel 24 , the identical event is described. However, this time, the text states that God influences David to hold the census, yet still becomes angry that it was done and punishes the Israelites with a plague. Some scholars consider the writings in 2 Samuel to be the original account. It is believed that when Samuel was finally edited (circa 560 BCE), the editors thought that all supernatural actions (good and bad) came from God. When Chronicles was written over a century later (circa 400 BCE), the author viewed God as operating indirectly through his helpers.
In Job 1-2 , Satan is clearly described as one of the members of the court of heaven. Here, Satan is portrayed as a servant of God whose task it is to dutifully carry out evil deeds at God's instruction. And in Zechariah 3:1-7 , Satan is again portrayed as a member of God's council, where he objects to the selection of Joshua as the high priest.
The transformation of Satan
The Protestant Christian Bible closes the Hebrew Scriptures with the book of Malachi, written circa 397 BCE. The Catholic Bible continues with seven other books called the Apocrypha. They both pick up the story again at the birth of Jesus. This gap of several centuries is commonly called the "intertestamental period." By the end of the "intertestamental period" Satan had taken his place as the ruler of hell and the enemy of God and all mankind.
So what happened between 300 BCE and 33 CE to alter the previous theological ideas?
During the last three centuries before Christ's birth, the portrayal of Satan in Judaism changes. From the middle of the 5th century BCE until 53 BC and even later, the Jews picked up a number of concepts from the official religion of Babylon called Zoroastorism: specifically, the concept of angels, of Satan (Angra Manyu aka Ahriman, the God of Evil) and of the immortality of the soul. Of the three main divisions of Judaism (Essenes, Pharisees, Sadducees) in the 1st century BCE, the Essenes seems to have focused the most on Satan. The Zoroastrian/Persian dualism concept appears in Jewish writing: God, formerly the source of good and evil, becomes wholly good; and Satan as profoundly evil. History is suddenly viewed as a battle between them. No longer was Satan simply God's prosecuting attorney, helper, or lackey. Satan, and his demons, suddenly become humanity's greatest enemies.
In the Apocryphal texts, the Book of Tobias mentions the demon Asmodeus and the angel Raphael, betraying the Persian influence. In the Book of Enoch, the word “Satan” occurs in both singular and plural forms and, in Ecclesiasticus, he is identified with the subtle serpent of Genesis. Finally, the Book of Secrets of Enoch describes his rebellion against God and consequent expulsion from heaven. Note that none of these texts are part of the officially recognized Hebrew Scriptures. They are very late additions to Hebrew theology, with dates of writing ranging from 200 BCE to about 100 CE. Ironically, one of the reasons that the Protestants use for their rejection of these texts within the bible is that neither Jesus nor his followers quotes directly from them, yet the entire context of an all-evil opponent of God who falls from service and resides over Hell is taken from these late period stories.
Clearly, Jesus and his followers were familiar with these texts in the early part of the first century C.E. Mythology had completed Satan's transformation from the loyal servant of God to his most significant adversary.
Some modern Christians have rejected the idea of Satan, while some others have taken the Satan concept to the extremes of their imaginations, blaming him for everything from rock and roll music to homosexuality.
- Zoroastrian Scriptures
- Influence of Zoroastrianism on other religions (WebCite copy)
- The Hebrews to 1000 BCE Does this deal with Satan or the devil?
- About Satan / Early history: 300 BCE to 100 CE from ReligiousTolerance.org, (WebCite copy)
- A comment by abadidea on a post at Alethian Worldview, listing and providing glosses for all the (few) mentions of Satan in the Bible
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When we hear the word “literacy,” we usually think of the ability to read. We want our children “literate” by kindergarten or so, and we consider our children literate once they have read their first storybook.
www.wikipedia.org defines literacy as “ the ability to read for knowledge and write coherently and think critically about the written word. Literacy can also include the ability to understand all forms of communication, be it body language, pictures, video & sound (reading, speaking, listening and viewing).” Sounds like a recipe for PECs and multi-sensory learning, doesn’t it? As parents of children with learning disabilities or differences, having this holistic approach to literacy is necessary as we deliberately plot our child’s course on the road to reading.
I want to make books come alive for our children. I want our children to do more than just sit still while we read to them. I want them to see the story, not just a bunch of random colors and shapes. I want them to think about what they are seeing. I want them to apply their knowledge to the new pictures and text on the written page before them. I want them to take from the pictures and text on the written page new tidbits of knowledge. I want these stories that we read to our much-loved children to do more than just entertain them for five minutes or so. I want these stories and ideas to attach themselves to our children’s minds and hearts in the form of memories that will last a lifetime.
We did that today. Wow, when I write it all out and see it in black and white, I realize we accomplished quite a bit!
My mind is still whirring from all I learned at the 2012 TSHA Convention. Taking away a little bit from each workshop I went to, I’ve come up with a couple of ideas for literacy-based activities that I’d like to feature here on a regular basis. Yesterday I posted our first Build-As-You-Go PEC Storyboard, and today I made our first Find and Seek PEC board. Here’s how it works.
Method: Find and Seek PEC Boards
- Reading and Listening Comprehension
1. Choose a short picture-based book to read to your child.
2. Make PECs that correlate with different details in the pictures.
3. Prepare the PECs (print, cut and laminate PECs. Place velcro loop dots on the back of the PECs.)
4. Prepare a PEC board (laminated paper with a length-wise strip of velcro hooks at the top, middle and bottom).
5. Choose the PECs that you want to focus on for that session and place them face up in front of your child.
6. Read through the book with your child, stopping to point out the details that you have a corresponding PEC for. For example:
Mom: (Pointing to a shoe in the picture) “Oh, look, what is she wearing on her foot?”
Noah: (says or signs) “Shoe.”
Mom: What color is the shoe?
Mom: “Oh, she has a blue shoe.” Do you have a blue shoe (pointing to the PECs)?
At this point, Noah will pick up the blue shoe PEC and place it on the PEC board.
7. Alternatively, you may want to have a session with your child where you are only working on the PECs. So you may read the book in one session, and work on PECs in the next.
In case you are wondering, the difference between Find and Seek Boards and Build-As-You-Go Boards are the BAYG boards focus on the main point of each page or spread, and the Find and Seek Boards focus on pictoral details that may not even come to light in the text.
One thing I have heard over and over again about working with children with learning disabilities is that we should always take things down to a level where they can be successful. So don’t hesitate to only put one picture in front of your child at a time to choose from. You are building up their abilities by taking baby steps. The first thing they need to be able to do is to pick up the correct card. So even if they are doing that without having to make a choice, they are being successful. Reward them!!!! Praise looks like ”Good job, way to go, that’s right, yes!” Once they have that down, just have them choose between two cards at a time. Slowly build up from there until they are looking through a whole book’s worth of PECs to find the right one. Children are more likely to want to return to an activity that they have experienced success at (and come to think of it, so are parents, right?)
Stay tuned for my first Find and Seek PEC Board, coming soon!
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Nicolo E. DiGirolamo, SSAI/NASA GSFC, and Jesse Allen, NASA Earth Observatory
About 40 percent of Greenland's ice sheet thawed at or near the surface on July 8. Four days later, the melt had dramatically accelerated and an estimated 97 percent of the ice sheet surface had thawed.
Three satellites found that 97 percent of Greenland -- the land mass second only to Antarctica for its volume of ice -- underwent a thaw never before seen in 33 years of satellite tracking, NASA reported Tuesday.
Satellite experts at first didn't trust their readings, especially since they showed an incredible acceleration. Over four days, Greenland's ice sheet -- which covers 683,000 square miles -- went from 40 percent in thaw to nearly entirely in thaw.
"This was so extraordinary that at first I questioned the result: Was this real or was it due to a data error?" Son Nghiem of NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, Calif., said in NASA's statement about the findings.
Scientists on the ground in Greenland had been reporting an unusually warm summer thaw, including damage at a snow airfield and strong runoff threatening a bridge, Tom Wagner, who manages NASA's ice research programs, told NBC News.
Ice cores from Greenland's highest region do reveal that such island-wide thaws have happened every 150 years or so, at least over the last few thousand years, but the fear now is that it might occur much more frequently due to warming sea and air temperatures.
"We can't lose sight of the fact that Greenland's ice sheet is losing 150 gigatons of ice a year," Wagner said. That translates into raising sea levels by one-one hundredth of an inch. Additionally, the danger of greater warming and greater melt persists.
"If we continue to observe melting events like this in upcoming years, it will be worrisome," said Lora Koenig, a NASA glaciologist who helped analyze the satellite data.
Monitoring stations on land "showed temperatures above freezing, confirming that the surface was melting for the entire ice sheet," Konrad Steffen, director of the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research, told NBC News.
Since then, he added, "temperatures have fallen below freezing for the higher elevations but still are melting below 1500 meters."
The director of the top ice research center in the U.S. said the discovery fits into "the larger picture of a strongly warming Arctic."
A large glacier, twice the size of Manhattan, split off on July 16. NBC's Brian Williams reports.
"Arctic sea ice extent this summer is so far tracking at very low, near record levels, and the ice cover is unusually diffuse," Mark Serreze of the National Snow and Ice Data Center told NBC News.
On top of that, he said, the seasonal melt that followed the 2012 winter "started unusually early over most of the Arctic Ocean."
The center's latest report, issued Tuesday, noted that" Arctic sea ice continued to track at levels far below average through the middle of July, with open water in the Kara and Barents seas reaching as far north as typically seen during September."
Thomas Mote, a University of Georgia climatologist who looked at the satellite data, said the melt followed an unusual series of warm air ridges over Greenland since late May, with the strongest coinciding with the rapid thaw in mid-July.
Each successive ridge, Mote told NBC News, was "stronger than the previous one" and it looks like the pattern has finally broken down.
The ridges happened just as a cyclical weather phase known as the North Atlantic Oscillation shifted. "Together, they produced near perfect conditions for this event," Mote added.
Because they hold so much ice on land, Greenland and Antarctica have the potential to raise sea levels significantly if warming continues or worsens.
Sea levels have already risen by about 8 inches in the last century, partly due to some ice melt but also thermal expansion caused by warming seas.
The U.N. climate panel estimates sea level could rise between 7 inches and nearly two feet this century -- the latter a scenario that could prove catastrophic for many coastal areas around the globe.
NASA said researchers had not yet determined whether this summer's Greenland thaw would be significant enough to raise sea levels.
Greenland has enough ice to raise sea levels by 23 feet if it all melted off.
A recent study found that it could take a long-term increase in global temperatures of just 2-3 degrees Fahrenheit to completely melt Greenland's ice sheet in 2,000 years.
More world stories from NBC News:
- Going for gold: British workers cash in on Olympics with strike threats
- Afghan police commander leads defection to Taliban
- Norway to London: One family's Olympic odyssey
- Reports: Workers told to underplay Fukushima radiation
- US F-16 fighter jet crashes off coast of Japan
- Gunman in Afghan police uniform kills 3, wounds several
- Explosion, fire shuts down Turkey-Iraq oil pipeline; PKK blamed
- Assad reportedly directs troops from tribal heartland as rebels flood capital
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Location and General Description
The Southern Annamites Montane Rain Forests [IM0152] ecoregion extends along the greater Annamite Range from central Vietnam south to the Bolovans Plateau of Laos and the Central Highlands of Vietnam. It includes a broad topographic range from lowlands with wet evergreen forests to montane habitats with evergreen hardwood and conifer forests.
The geology of this ecoregion is also extremely diverse. The Kontum Massif of exposed granitic basement rock extends over an area extending 250 km from north to south and inland for 200 km. Ngoc Linh (Ngoc Pan), at the northwestern margin of the Kontum Massif, is the highest point of the Annamite Range in central Vietnam at 2,598 m. To the south the Annamite Range includes a complex mosaic of volcanic basalts, granites, and sedimentary substrates. Chu Yang Sinh, located 80 km inland from Nha Trang, forms the highest peak in the southern Annamite Range at 2,410 m. The Dac Lac (Darlac), Pleiku, Haute Cochinchine, Djirling, and Bolovans plateaus of southern Vietnam and Laos are volcanic remnants that reach maximum elevations as high as 2,200 m. Weathered basalts in these areas produce highly fertile soils with good agricultural potential. The heavily eroded Dalat Plateau of southern Vietnam, including the peak of Lang Bian, which reaches an elevation of 2,163 m, has soils formed from schists and quartzites and extensive areas of granites and volcanic rhyolites, andesites, and dactites.
Strong climatic gradients of rainfall and temperature are present within the ecoregion. The higher Kontum Massif and Dalat plateaus of central and southern Vietnam, and to a lesser degree the plateaus of Pleiku, Haut Chhlong, Djiring, and Haut Cochinchine, all rise to elevations or have exposures sufficient to give them more humid climatic zones. The semi-humid submontane zone at elevations of about 800-1,000 m has moderate levels of rainfall, with 1,500-2,200 mm annually. The peak of this rainfall occurs in September or October under the influence of the southward return of the monsoon with northeastern winds. Mean annual temperatures are about 20-21(C. The humid submontane climate zone comprises upland areas at middle elevations below about 1,100 m that are exposed to humid winds. Mean annual rainfall generally is above 2,500 mm and quite regular, with brief dry seasons lasting three months or less. Peak months for rainfall are typically August through October. Dew is abundant in the brief dry season, and foggy mists are common. The climatic zone covers much of the Kontum Massif, Haut Chhlong, and Haut Cochinchine and small areas east of the Dac Lac (Darlac) Plateau. The final climatic zone is the lower montane climate of southern Vietnam. This zone is present in the Kontum Massif and around the Dalat Plateau, where rainfall is about 1,800-2,000 mm, and there are 3-4 dry months of less than 50 mm rainfall. Very heavy rains of more than 3,850 mm annually occur on the eastern margin of the Dalat Plateau, with no dry month. These rains peak very late in November under the influence of the northeastern monsoon winds. Morning dew and foggy mists are common throughout this zone.
As expected from the complex geological, topographic, and climatic gradients present in the Southern Annamites Montane Rain Forests [IM0152] ecoregion, forest structure and composition are highly variable. Reconstruction of pristine forest structure and composition has been made very difficult by the high degree of landscape degradation that has taken place, much of it as the result of swidden agricultural practices. Wet evergreen forests at 600-900 m elevation are dominated by species of Fagaceae, Myrtaceae, and Lauraceae, with high overall species richness. For the Fagaceae, as many as twenty species of Lithocarpus, five species of Castanopsis, and three species of Quercus may be present in this formation. Very large emergent trees are also present among the Anacardiaceae, Burseraceae, Dipterocarpaceae, and Schima crenata. Hopea pierrei may be the most abundant of the large trees, forming up to 90 percent of all trunks reaching more than 1 m in diameter. Lianas form an important component of this forest community. Lower-elevation areas are dominated by wet evergreen forest in mesic sites and semi-evergreen forest in drier sites.
Montane hardwood forests above 900 m elevation in this ecoregion vary in structure and composition depending on geological substrate and moisture availability. Evergreen hardwood forests generally have an upper canopy reaching to about 30 m in height. Canopy heights decline with increasing elevation and decreasing soil depth.
The family best represented in the upper canopy of these habitats is the Fagaceae, with important contributions from the Magnoliaceae, Aceraceae, Podocarpaceae, Lauraceae, and Theaceae. The diversity of conifers is high in montane forests, with five genera present (Podocarpus sensu latu., Calocedrus, Fokienia, Cephalotaxus, and Taxus). A number of significant endemic species are present, including Pinus dalatensis and P. krempfii. Epiphytes form a notable part of the biodiversity of these montane forests. Particularly diverse are the orchids in the upper canopy and ferns in the middle and lower canopy.
Pinus kesiya extends over a fairly broad range of montane areas of the Dalat Plateau and other uplands in southern Vietnam at elevations up to 1,800 m. These are less mesic habitats than those of the high-elevation humid montane forests, where more diverse conifer forests are present. Human impacts on montane landscapes have almost certainly promoted the expansion of the range of P. kesiya at the expense of what were once montane evergreen forests. Keteleeria evelyniana may be present in denser gallery forests along the margins of the pine stands but seldom as an associate of the pure pine formations. Fire is a common factor in these forests.
The highest elevations and the slopes most exposed to humid winds in the montane zone often are bathed in moist clouds. The abundant dew and fog in these areas compensate for the lack of rainfall in the short dry season, producing lush conditions of mossy forest. Conifers (Fokienia hodginsii, Podocarpus spp.), Fagaceae (Quercus spp., Lithocarpus spp.), Theaceae (Gordonia, Pyrenaria, Ternstroemia), and Ericaceae form the dominant elements of these forests.
Of the 122 mammal species known from the ecoregion, three are near-endemic species, and two are endemic (table 1). Some of the threatened species in this assemblage include the tiger, Asian elephant, douc langur, gaur, banteng, Eld's deer, serow, clouded leopard, pygmy loris (Nycticebus pymaeus), pig-tailed macaque (Macaca nemestrina), wild dog, Malayan sun bear, and smooth-coated otter (Lutrogale perspicillata).
Table 1. Endemic and Near-Endemic Mammal Species.
Hylobatidae Hylobates gabriellae
Muridae* Rattus hoxaensis*
Cercopithecidae Pygathrix nemaeus
Muridae* Rattus osgoodi*
Muridae Maxomys moi
An asterisk signifies that the species' range is limited to this ecoregion.
The large habitat blocks that remain have been included within a high-priority (Level I) TCU (Dinerstein et al. 1997). But because of rampant hunting to supply the wildlife trade (WWF-Indochina 1998), tiger and prey populations have been depleted.
More than 410 bird species are known from this ecoregion. Five of these species are near endemic, and five are endemic (table 2). Among the other bird species that need conservation attention are the globally threatened white-winged duck (Cairina scutulata), the critically endangered Edwards's pheasant (Lophura edwardsi), and the threatened Siamese fireback (Lophura diardi), green peafowl (Pavo muticus), and Germain's peacock-pheasant (Polyplectron germaini). Several other species such as the great hornbill (Buceros bicornis), Austen's brown hornbill (Anorrhinus austeni), wreathed hornbill (Aceros undulatus), and crested argus (Rheinardia ocellata) are indicators of low disturbance levels and relatively intact forests. The ecoregion also overlaps with two EBAs identified by BirdLife International, the Da Lat Plateau (145) and South Vietnamese Lowlands (144), which have eight and three restricted-range bird species, respectively (Stattersfield et al. 1998).
Table 2. Endemic and Near-Endemic Bird Species.
Family Common Name Species
Phasianidae Edwards's pheasant Lophura edwardsi
Phasianidae Germain's peacock-pheasant Polyplectron germaini
Phasianidae Crested argus Rheinardia ocellata
Timaliidae Collared laughingthrush* Garrulax yersini*
Timaliidae Golden-winged laughingthrush* Garrulax ngoclinhensis*
Timaliidae Short-tailed scimitar-babbler Jabouilleia danjoui
Timaliidae Grey-faced tit-babbler Macronous kelleyi
Timaliidae Black-crowned barwing* Actinodura sodangorum*
Timaliidae Grey-crowned crocias* Crocias langbianis*
Fringillidae Vietnamese greenfinch* Carduelis monguilloti*
An asterisk signifies that the species' range is limited to this ecoregion.
More than 75 percent of this ecoregion's natural habitat has been converted or degraded. The remaining forest is distributed in small, isolated fragments. There are sixteen protected areas that average 150 km2 and cover almost 2,500 km2, or 5 percent of the ecoregion area (table 3). Many of these protected areas are paper parks that lack good management and effective protection.
Table 3. WCMC (1997) Protected Areas That Overlap with the Ecoregion.
Protected Area Area (km2) IUCN Category
Bach Ma [IM0141] 160 II
Dong Hua Sao [IM0202] 400 VIII
Ngoc Linh 200 IV
Kong Cha Rang 210 IV
Kon Kai Kinh 200 IV
Bana-Nui Chua 60 IV
Nui Thanh [IM0211] 20 UA
Rung Kho Phan Rang [IM0211] 30 IV
Deo Ngoau Muc [IM0211] 30 ?
Kalon Song Mao [IM0211] 30 IV
Chu Yang Sinh 190 IV
Thuong Da Nhim 390 IV
Mt. Lang Bian 110 IV
Nam Lung 120 IV
Nui Dai Binh 100 IV
Phnom Nam Lyr [IM0210] 160 IV
Ecoregion numbers of protected areas that overlap with additional ecoregions are listed in brackets.
Types and Severity of Threats
Because of the high elevations and steep slopes of this ecoregion, the human population density here is moderate (MacKinnon 1997). However, anthropogenic influences are pervasive throughout the ecoregion in the form of regular burning to create open woodlands and shifting cultivation. Large areas in the Da Lat Plateau in Vietnam have been cleared for settlements, plantations, and agriculture. Shifting cultivation is prevalent in the upper slopes. Bolovans Plateau is severely threatened by clearing of the forested area for coffee plantations. Wildlife poaching and excessive harvesting of NTFPs are severely threatening the integrity of Dong Hua Sao.
Justification of Ecoregion Delineation
In a previous analysis of conservation units across the Indo-Malayan realm, MacKinnon (1997) included the coastal habitats of Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand in the Coastal Indochina biounit (05). This biounit consisted of four subunits, and each includes large areas of different vegetation types. In keeping with our rules for delineating ecoregions, we extracted the wet evergreen forests that cover the mountain range and plateaus (to the south of the Hai Van Pass) from the adjacent dry forests and placed them in the Southern Annamites Montane Rain Forests [IM0152].
References for this ecoregion are currently consolidated in one document for the entire Indo-Pacific realm.
Indo-Pacific Reference List
Prepared by: Eric Wikramanayake, Philip Rundel, and Ramesh Boonratana
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Here are five ideas to get the creative juices flowing (and please, take these ideas, build on them, make them your own, use them as a springboard for bigger and better ideas):
Day One – Take your child on a field trip – take him/her to work with mom or dad. Even the most mundane place is fun and new to a child.
Day Two – Count the number of steps it takes to walk to the corner with your child.
Day Four – Have your child list all uses of math around the house. Take him/her shopping and have the child keep track of what’s being purchased – great lesson about budgeting!
Day Five – Cut pieces of paper into shapes and paste them in a quilt pattern with your child.
Featured Craft of the Week:
4 to 5 year olds
Artwork Jewelry (or use Shrinky Dinks!)
6 to 8 year olds
9 to 12 year olds
Here is a fun activity from the book, “A Lithgow Palooza!”:
This palooza directs our gaze to the sky in search of the art and poetry there.
What to do:
Explore the nighttime sky and find the art in the stars. Translate what you see into images and words.
Take a look at Vincent van Gogh’s Starry Night. This famous painting isn’t an exact representation of the stars, but an expression of how they made van Gogh feel.
What do you see in the stars?
Start with a little stargazing. Choose a good viewing place and time: a clear night far from a city. If you live in a city, save this palooza for when you’re on vacation, or hop in the car and drive to where the city glow won’t disturb your view.
Turn off all yard lights and inside lights, then go outside with a pair of binoculars. Let your eyes get used to the dark while you’re setting up — it can take up to ten minutes for your eyes to fully adjust to the darkness. Spread a blanket on the ground, lie down on your back and look up.
You’re seen stars so often that you stop noticing them. Try now to really look at them. Let the sky full of stars wash over you and surround you. Think about the stars in relation to your five senses. What do they look like to you? Jewels? Pinpricks of light? Observe how they’re grouped, how they shine. Note the words that come to mind about what you’re seeing.
If stars were music, what would it sound like? Something light and tinkly, from the high end of the piano? Or complex and dramatic – a symphony of sound? Do stars have a scent? Have you ever tasted anything that reminds you of stars? If you could reach up and touch the stars, what would they feel like? When you get back inside, jot down any impressions you had while looking at the stars and any words that describe them. Think about colors, shapes, sounds, tastes, textures; use nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs.
Try writing some poetry about the stars. Start with a simple haiku, a non-rhyming poem that has three lines and seventeen syllables. The first line has five syllables, the second line has seven syllables, and there are five syllables in the third. Look at your star word notes and see if there are some that seem to connect well. For example:
Bright stars glimmering
Against the dark sky at night
Are smiling at me.
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Study: Sit less, live longer
(CNN) — What would happen if the entire population of adults in the U.S. reduced the amount of time they spent sitting or watching television?
Researchers, whose work is published in the British Medical Journal Open, say Americans may live longer. They estimate a gain of two years to life expectancy for reducing sitting to less than three hours a day, or an additional 1.38 years if everybody limited the time they spent plopped in front of the television to two hours.
“Right now, if you’re born in the U.S. this year, your life expectancy is 78.5 years,” said Peter Katzmarzyk, Professor of Epidemiology at Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. “What we’re saying is, if you got everyone in the U.S. to sit less, that population-level life expectancy would be two years higher. Our life expectancy as a country would be 80 years.”
Keep in mind that this research is based on associations, not causes. The researchers did not prove that sitting more is the cause of earlier death. But they examined previous evidence that sitting appears to have detrimental effects on lifestyle.
Katzmarzyk, along with I-Min Lee at Harvard Medical School in Boston, quantified the behaviorto see the effect on the life expectancy of Americans.
They studied five prior studies, which involved 167,000 men and women ages 18 to 90, which were done in several different countries. They looked at the health risks of sitting and then used the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, or NHANES, to determine how prevalent sedentary behavior is in U.S. society.
“A lot of people are sitting a lot and a lot of people are watching a lot of TV,” he added. “So when you combine these two things, that’s when you get the true population risk.”
Katzmarzyk stresses that the study is not comparing people who are sedentary versus those who are active, but instead looks at the country as a whole.
“We know at an individual level that sitting’s bad for you, but by putting this at the level of the population and life expectancy, we understand that it is such a frequent behavior that it’s just as important as obesity, it’s just as important as activity, it’s just as important as smoking,” he said.
Studies about interventions to get people to sit less are something that he hopes to see, especially in the workplace. In addition, Katzmarzyk says he would like to see research guiding Americans on how much sitting exactly is “too much.”
“Right now, all we can say is we want people to reduce the amount of time they spend sitting,” he said. “We can’t actually say what that magic number is.”
The 2008 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans recommend adults should get at least 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity each week.
“You can meet those guidelines but you can still be very sedentary (or sit a lot) so they’re kind of separate risk factors,” he added.
Dr. Melina Jampolis, a physician nutrition specialist and CNNhealth.com’s diet and fitness expert, was not surprised by the study.
“We really need to try to be more active in general,” she said.
Jampolis gives the following suggestions to turn a sedentary day into an active one.
–Get up and move at work
–Stand and chat at the water cooler instead of e-mailing
–Build in more active/less sedentary activities on weekends (think: park instead of movie theater), and try to limit TV time
“There is a lot of overlap between sedentary behavior and poor cardiometabolic markers, which can increase your risk of diabetes and heart disease,” Jampolis said.
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Happiness: a skill you can learn
Western neuroscience has now confirmed what Eastern wisdom has known for a long time: happiness is a skill we can learn.
Research shows that happiness, compassion and kindness are the products of skills that can be learned and enhanced through training, thanks to the neuroplasticity of our brains.
Together we're stronger
Having a network of social connections or high levels of social support has been shown to increase our immunity to infection, lower our risk of heart disease and reduce mental decline as we get older.
Not having close personal ties has been shown to pose significant risks for our health.
Giving is good for you
When we give to others it activates the areas of the brain associated with pleasure, social connection and trust.
Altruistic behaviour releases endorphins in the brain and boosts happiness for us as well as the people we help. Studies have shown that giving money away tends to make people happier than spending it on themselves.
Mindfulness changes your brain
Recent research has shown that an 8 week mindfulness meditation class can lead to structural brain changes including increased grey-matter density in the hippocampus, known to be important for learning and memory, and in structures associated with self-awareness, compassion and introspection.
Optimism helps us achieve our goals
Research shows that people who are optimistic tend to be happier, healthier and cope better in tough times.
"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined"
- Henry David Thoreau
Happiness is good for your heart
Harvard School of Public Health examined 200 separate research
studies on psychological wellbeing and cardiovascular health.
Optimism and positive emotion were found to provide protection against cardiovascular disease, to slow progression of heart disease and reduce risk, by around 50%, of experiencing a cardiovascular event, such as a heart attack.
Happiness is contagious
Our happiness influences the people we know and the people they know.
Research shows that the happiness of a close contact increases the chance of being happy by 15%. The happiness of a 2nd-degree contact (e.g. friend's spouse) increases it by 10% and the happiness of a 3rd-degree contact (e.g. friend of a friend of a friend) by 6%.
Positive emotions make us more resilient
Our emotions affect our long term well-being. Research shows that experiencing positive emotions in a 3-to-1 ratio with negative ones leads to a tipping point beyond which we naturally become more resilient to adversity and better able to achieve things.
Happier people live longer
Happiness doesn't just feel good. A review of hundreds of studies has found compelling evidence that happier people have better overall health and live longer than their less happy peers.
Anxiety, depression, pessimism and a lack of enjoyment of daily activities have all been found to be associated with higher rates of disease and shorter lifespans
Our happiness is not set in stone
Although our genes influence about 50% of the variation in our personal happiness, our circumstances (like income and environment) affect only about 10%.
As much as 40% is accounted for by our daily activities and the conscious choices we make. So the good news is that our actions really can make a difference.
Happiness leads to success
Most people think that if they become successful, then they'll be happy. But recent discoveries in psychology and neuroscience show that this formula is backward: Happiness fuels success, not the other way around.
When we're positive, our brains are more motivated, engaged, creative, energetic, resilient, and productive.
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Facts: The “Fukushima nuclear accidents” are a series of ongoing equipment failures and releases of radioactive materials at the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant, following the 2011 Japan’s earthquake and tsunami on 11 March 2011. The plant comprises six separate boiling water reactors maintained by the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO). Reactors 4, 5 and 6 had been shut down prior to the earthquake for planned maintenance. The remaining reactors were shut down automatically after the earthquake, but the subsequent 14 meters tsunami flooded the plant, knocking out emergency generators needed to run pumps which cool and control the reactors. The flooding and earthquake damage prevented assistance being brought from elsewhere.
Post author: Daniel Semper
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Science Fair Project Encyclopedia
Harlan County, USA
Harlan County, USA is a 1976 documentary film documenting the efforts of 180 coal-miners on strike in Harlan County, Kentucky in 1974. It was directed by Barbara Kopple , who has long been an advocate of workers' rights. Harlan County, U.S.A. is less ambivalent in its attitude toward unions than her later American Dream.
Kopple and her crew spent years with the families depicted in the film, documenting the dire straits they put themselves through striking for higher wages: following them to picket in front of the stock exchange in New York, filming interviews with people affected by black lung disease, and even catching an attempted murder on tape.
The film won the 1976 Academy Award for Documentary Feature and has been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. The events are also been dramatized in the 2000 TV movie Harlan County War .
The contents of this article is licensed from www.wikipedia.org under the GNU Free Documentation License. Click here to see the transparent copy and copyright details
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Science Fair Project Encyclopedia
White is a color (more accurately it contains all the colors of the spectrum and is sometimes described as an achromatic color—black is the absence of color) that has high brightness but zero hue. The impression of white light can be created by mixing (via a process called "additive mixing") appropriate intensities of the primary color spectrum: red, green and blue, but it must be noted that the illumination provided by this technique has significant differences from that produced by incandescence (see below).
In painting, white can be created by reflecting ambient light from a white pigment. White when mixed with black produces gray. To art students, the use of white can present particular problems, and there is at least one training course specialising in the use of white in art.
Until Newton's work became accepted, most scientists believed that white was the fundamental color of light; and that other colors were formed only by adding something to light. Newton demonstrated that white was formed by combining the other colors.
In the science of lighting, there is a continuum of colors of light that can be called "white". One set of colors that deserve this description are the colors emitted, via the process called incandescence, by a black body at various relatively-high temperatures. For example, the color of a black body at a temperature of 2848 kelvins matches that produced by domestic incandescent light bulbs. It is said that "the color temperature of such a light bulb is 2848 K". The white light used in theatre illumination has a color temperature of about 3200 K. Daylight has a nominal color temperature of 5400 K (called equal energy white), but can vary from a cool red up to a bluish 25,000 K. Not all black body radiation can be considered white light: the background radiation of the universe, to name an extreme example, is only a few kelvins and is quite invisible.
Standard whites are often defined with reference to the International Commission on Illumination's (CIE's) chromaticity diagram. These are the D series of standard illuminants. Illuminant D65, originally corresponding to a color temperature of 6,500 K, is taken to represent standard daylight.
Computer displays often have a color temperature control, allowing the user to select the color temperature (usually from a small set of fixed values) of the light emitted when the computer produces the electrical signal corresponding to "white". The RGB coordinates of white are 255 255 255.
Usage, symbolism, colloquial expressions
- The term white is often used in the West to denote "race" for so-called Caucasian people, i.e. people of European/West Asian descent with light skin color, whose skin color actually ranges from pink to pale brown, and overlaps with some people that might be classified as "Blacks". For more details, see Whites.
- White noise, in acoustics, is a sibilant sound that is often a nuisance, although it can also be deliberately created for test purposes.
- Whitewash, figuratively, means an attempt to obscure the truth by issuing a blanket of lies. See propaganda.
- Whiteout is a weather condition in which visibility is reduced and surface definition lost in snowy environments.
- White is often associated with Conservatism (as opposed to Communism), particularly in the years following World War I, with civil wars fought between "Reds" and "Whites", for instance the Civil War in Russia and the Civil War in Finland.
- A white flag is an international sign of either surrender, or truce, that is, it is a sign of peaceful intent, typically at time of war.
- The white ribbon is worn by movements denouncing violence against women. It is also worn by some feminists and was a symbol for peace in Quebec, in the beginning of 2003, as part of the popular opposition to war on Iraq.
- To "show the white feather" is to display cowardice. In cockfighting, a white feather in the tail is considered a mark of inferior breeding. In Victorian England a purported coward would be presented with a white feather.
- White is also one of the two opponents in many board games of abstract strategy, such as go, chess, and checkers.
White in heraldry
Arthur Charles Fox-Davies has argued that white can be considered a tincture in heraldry separate from its use to represent argent, and in fact the labels borne on the arms, crests and supporters of members of the British Royal Family other than the reigning sovereign are invariably shown as white.
The contents of this article is licensed from www.wikipedia.org under the GNU Free Documentation License. Click here to see the transparent copy and copyright details
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On this day in 1777, the great state of Vermont decided to declare its independence not only from Great Britain but from the neighboring state of New York as well. For years, the settlers in the Vermont area had been asserting their right to break from New York, but were unable to do so. Thanks in part to the efforts of Ethan Allen and his "Green Mountain Boys," Vermont was able to finally able to gain its independence and maintain a relatively neutral stance during the American Revolution.
Origionally named New Connecticut, the state's delegates chose to adopt the new name of Vermont, which is an inaccurate translation of the French phrase "green mountain."
Vermont was also the first state to draft an official constitution. Its constitution was one of the most radical to say the least. It guaranteed every male (reguardless of property status) the right to vote, it abolished slavery (making Vermont the first state to do so), and it gave some rights (mostly property rights) to women. Despite their incredible efforts to gain independence, Vermont was finally incorporated into the United States in 1792, making it the first state outside of the original thirteen colonies to join the union.
The origional flag of Vermont was the same flag that was used by Ethan Allen and his Green Mountain Boys (a picture of the flag is posted at the beginning of this article). The flag has 13 stars in a scattared pattern, which was to represent the scattered and unsettled nature of the early United States. The green color is, of course, representative of the Green Mountains of Vermont.
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A Box of Universe
Watch the cosmos evolve in a cube one billion light-years wide
Isaac Newton’s universe was a cozy, tidy place. Gathered around the sun were six planets, a handful of moons and the occasional comet, all moving against a backdrop of stationary stars. Newton provided us with the mathematical tools needed to compute the motions of these bodies. Given initial positions and velocities, we can calculate the forces acting on each object, using Newton’s law of universal gravitation. From the forces we can determine accelerations, and then update the positions and velocities for the next round of calculations. This scheme of computation is known as the n-body method. Perhaps Newton himself could have put it to work if he had had suitable computing machinery.
Today we have the computers. On the other hand, our universe is far larger and more intricate than Newton’s. Now the solar system is merely a speck in a spiral galaxy of several hundred billion stars. Our galaxy drifts among billions of others, which form clusters and superclusters and a whole hierarchy of structures extending as far as the eye (and the telescope) can see. Those objects are getting farther away all the time because the universe is expanding, and moreover the expansion is accelerating. Strangest of all, the luminous matter of the galaxies—everything we see shining in the night sky—makes up less than one-half of 1 percent of what’s out there. Most of the universe is unseen and unidentified stuff known only as “dark matter” and “dark energy.”
Given this profound change in the nature and the scale of the known universe, I find it remarkable that computer simulations of cosmic evolution can still rely on n-body algorithms rooted in the principles of Newtonian mechanics. The same techniques that predict planetary motions here at home in the solar system also describe the gravitational process that assembles thousands of galaxies into filaments a hundred million light-years long.
A major new series of cosmological simulations is now beginning to release its findings. The project, known as Bolshoi, is led by Anatoly Klypin of New Mexico State University and Joel Primack of the University of California, Santa Cruz. “Bolshoi” is Russian for “big” or “grand,” and the name is apt: This is a large-scale computational project, consuming six million CPU hours and producing a hundred terabytes of data. And yet, when you ponder the vast sweep of space and time being modeled, it seems a marvel that so much universe can be squeezed into such a small box.
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Mindfulness is not a new idea. It has been part of religious texts for centuries, poets and writers have sung its praises, and it has been central to many contemplative traditions such as Buddhism. Scientific research has shown growing evidence that cultivating mindfulness can increase our enjoyment of life, expand our capacity to cope with illness, and improve our physical and emotional health. It is a powerful tool in reducing the stress and anxiety that occurs with chronic illness and as an adjunct to modern medicine it may enhance other treatments.
One form of mindfulness practice is a discipline called mindfulness meditation, which involves sitting quietly for 20 or 30 minutes, once or twice a day. Begin by focusing on the breath while allowing the mind and body to let go of thoughts and sensations.
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For nearly 20 years, Kathleen Howell has been combing the solar system in search of specific points in empty space, called libration points. Using high-speed computers, she now has determined that spacecraft launched from Earth can practically "surf" toward a libration point by simply landing in a kind of gravitational "undertow" that naturally funnels a craft there.
Her efforts could help lower costs of planetary missions. Her work already is being utilized to support studies of the sun and its effects on planetary environments. Such missions may provide advance warning on solar activity that can cripple communications satellites orbiting our planet.
Howell, an associate professor of aeronautics and astronautics at Purdue, studies spacecraft trajectories in the vicinity of libration points, where the gravitational pull from two or more heavenly bodies, plus the centrifugal force from their rotation, cancel each other out. For example, there is a libration point between the Earth and the sun.
Theoretically, a spacecraft placed at a libration point would stay there indefinitely. However, very subtle gravitational tugs from distant planets or an errant asteroid could disturb a craft enough to cause it to drift away, Howell says. But place a spacecraft in orbit near a libration point and you've got a stable venue for making observations and taking data.
"In the late 1970s, when I was working on my dissertation at Stanford University, my adviser was involved in the discovery of orbits around libration points, and that's when the utility of these regions was first realized," Howell explains. "These orbits are very complicated, much more complex than the orbit of a planet around the sun, which is why we often refer to the orbit as 'near' a libration point instead of 'around' a libration point."
Howell will talk about her research on libration point orbits Feb. 10-12 at the American Astronautical Society Spaceflight Mechanics Meeting in Huntsville, Ala.
An orbit near a libration point is considered stable if a spacecraft in orbit needs little or no "station keeping," small nudges from positioning rockets to keep the craft on the right track. Howell has investigated many orbits near libration points throughout the solar system.
"Libration points are located at places in the solar system where very interesting things are happening, such as the environment between the Earth and the sun," Howell says. Spacecraft placed in such regions can gather data over a longer period of time than other missions, such as flybys, and can collect data from various regions of space, without being limited to the space near planets.
Getting into a libration point orbit can be half the fun.
Currently, space missions are planned by calculating a specific trajectory, or path, to a destination, a complicated mathematical process that has to be repeated for each new mission.
But by applying sophisticated mathematics to what is essentially an engineering problem, Howell, in the past three years, has discovered that a spacecraft could "surf" into a libration point orbit. She and her colleagues have found that the complicated gravitational fields in space can form two-dimensional "surfaces" around libration points, surfaces that extend out into space. These surfaces, some of which pass relatively close to the Earth, contain gentle curves and bends, like the surface of a sheet billowing in the wind. If you can get a spacecraft anywhere on the sheet, she says, it will naturally get into orbit around a particular libration point, without having to use fuel to steer the craft. And once you find a sheet, you don't have to perform the calculations to find it again.
"It's kind of like a marble rolling in a funnel," she says. "All I have to do is get on the sheet and I can 'ride' to a libration point. We can also 'shift' from one sheet to another to get to a destination, not necessarily a libration point. This is an entirely new way of planning a mission. It's a tremendous tool that if nothing else will clearly cut down on the computational misery associated with designing libration point mission trajectories."
Howell says that riding a surface would be slower than using high-powered engines to go directly to a destination, such as Jupiter. However, a mission utilizing the surfaces could be a "low-thrust" mission, meaning much less powerful engines would be needed on a craft, less fuel would be consumed on the journey and smaller spacecraft could be used.
Howell and her graduate students are looking for such surfaces in the solar system, determining where they go and then plotting them on a computer. They are among the first to use the surfaces to plan possible future missions being submitted to NASA. For example, they are putting together three surfaces to build a path for a spacecraft that will collect and bring back to Earth samples of material being swept out of the sun.
Eventually Howell would like to provide mission designers with a complete data base of surfaces, enabling them to click on the starting and ending points of a mission and have the computer quickly and automatically plot a trajectory using the sheets. She is working with engineers and mathematicians at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., to determine how the surfaces can be used most effectively.
Libration point orbits also could help lower the cost of planetary and exploratory missions. "Instead of launching five individual spacecraft from Earth, which is expensive, we could launch five spacecraft all in one craft and send them to a particular libration point orbit," Howell says. "From there, it would take much less fuel to send each craft off in a different direction, to other libration point orbits or possibly to other planets."
The practicality of having spacecraft in libration point orbits was demonstrated just last month.
Between Jan. 6 and 10, two satellites in libration point orbits between the Earth and the sun, called SOHO and WIND, detected and recorded data from a major space "storm" that originated from a huge eruption on the sun. The disturbance hurled particles and radiation from the sun into space, sweeping past the Earth.
"Solar activity such as this and solar flares can interfere with power stations and disrupt satellites in Earth orbit," Howell says. Earth-orbiting satellites control everything from telephone and television signals to sensitive global positioning systems used extensively for air, land and sea navigation.
"Not only can satellites in this region help us better understand the environment around the sun and Earth, but they also can provide advance warning for possibly crippling communications and power disturbances," Howell says.
Source: Kathleen Howell, (765) 494-5786; e-mail, [email protected]
Writer: Amanda Siegfried, (765) 494-4709; e-mail, [email protected]
Original file name: CNI - Surfing thru space?
This file was converted with TextToHTML - (c) Logic n.v.
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Lysimachos was born around 360 B.C. to Thessalian Greek parents who had migrated to Macedonia. He served in the army of Philip II and was appointed to the select somatophylakes (royal bodyguards) under Alexander the Great. After Alexander’s death, he was given a satrapy consisting of Thrace and parts of northwestern Asia Minor. He supported the various coalitions that included Seleukos, Ptolemy and Kassandros against the growing power of Antigonos Monophthalmos. Like the other major successor generals, he proclaimed himself king in 305/4 B.C. and built his capital, Lysimacheia, in the Thracian Chersonesos. Lysimachos was instrumental in the final destruction of Antigonos at the battle of Ipsos in 301. It fell to him and his army to hold the Antigonid forces in Asia Minor until Seleukos could arrive from the east with his war elephants and deliver the coup de grace. Because of the great risks that he undertook, Lysimachos received the majority of Antigonos' possessions in Asia Minor. Despite some difficulties with native Thracian tribal chiefs, Lysimachos wrested the very throne of Macedonia from Demetrios Poliorketes in 285. Unfortunately, Lysimachos was unable to conciliate his subjects to himself. Eventually, the peoples of Asia Minor, gorwing discontent with Lysimachos’ rule and over-taxation, invited Seleukos to save them. The ensuing contest was decided on the field of Koroupedion in 291 B.C. when Lysimachos fell to the forces of Seleukos I.
How many hands have touched a coin in your pocket or purse? What eras and lands have the coin traversed on its journey into our possession? As we reach into our pockets to pull out some change, we rarely hesitate to think of who might have touched the coin before us, or where the coin will venture to after it leaves our hands. More than money, coins are a symbol of the state that struck them, of a specific time and location, whether active currencies in the age we live or artifacts of a long forgotten empire. This stunning hand-struck coin reveals an expertise of craftsmanship and intricate sculptural detail that is often lacking in contemporary machine-made currencies. Like most successors, Lysimachos adopted the imagery of Alexander the Great in order to bolter his legitimacy as an independent ruler. Although Athena was favored by Alexander, the particular iconography used here on the reverse was popularized by the Successors. The goddess is shown as Nikephoros, 'the victory bearer' and holds Nike to indicate this function. Victory was an important concept for Hellenistic rulers because without victory it was impossible to be taken seriously as a king. Thus Nike is seen here to be crowning the name of Lysimachos with a laurel wreath. This coin seeks to establish the legitimacy of Lysimachos’ rule. However, today this ancient artifact is more than a testament to a leader, it is concrete remnants of an ancient empire passed from the hands of civilization to civilization, from generation to generation. - (C.397)
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Nilgiri wood-pigeon (Columba elphinstonii)
|Also known as:||Nilgiri wood pigeon|
|Size||Length: 42 cm (2)|
|Weight||383 g (2)|
The Nilgiri wood-pigeon is classified as Vulnerable (VU) on the IUCN Red List (1).
The most striking feature of the beautiful Nilgiri wood-pigeon (Columba elphinstonii) is the black and white checkerboard pattern on the back of its neck. Unlike its sometimes unpopular urban cousin, the rock pigeon (Columba livia), which is a familiar inhabitant of cities and parks, the Nilgiri wood-pigeon is a rather more rare bird, endemic to the Western Ghats in India (2).
The adult male Nilgiri wood-pigeon has dark brown or black plumage with a wonderful maroon sheen on its upperparts (2) and a darker grey or black chest and tail. Its face is also grey. The female and juvenile Nilgiri wood pigeons are slightly less glossy, lacking the metallic sheen to some degree, but otherwise appear very similar to the adult male (3).
The Nilgiri wood-pigeon is one of only 16 bird species endemic to the Western Ghatsof south-western India(4). Its range stretches from north-western Maharashtra, souththrough to Karnataka and Goa, to southern Kerala and western Tamil Nadu(5).
The Nilgiri wood-pigeon inhabits moist evergreen and semi-evergreen forest, including densely wooded ravines and hollows known as ‘sholas’. It occurs primarily in foothills and mountains, up to 2,250 metres above sea level (5). It may also be found in Eucalyptus and Pinus plantations, but does not breed in these habitats (5).
Usually found moving about in the daytime, alone or in pairs, the Nilgiri wood-pigeon feeds primarily on fruit, which it forages for in the upper and middle canopy of the forest. It also eat seeds, flowers, plant buds (6) and, less frequently, small invertebrates and snails (2). Although it usually simply picks these food items off a plant, it is also known to throw itself forward to gain fruit from an out-of-reach branch (2).
The breeding season of the Nilgiri wood pigeon stretches from March to July (5). Each clutch typically contains just a single egg and the chick is fed on ‘crop milk’, a secretion from the thickened lining of a pouch in the bird’s gullet. Both the male and female produce this highly nutritious substance to feed the young (2).
In the past, the Nilgiri wood-pigeon was threatened by hunting for sport and food. Today, the major threat to this species is habitat destruction (5).
The clearance of land for agriculture and human settlements, combined with the cutting down of trees for fuel and building materials, has resulted in a significant decline in forest cover in the Western Ghats (5). In the Kerala region alone, a shocking 47 percent of evergreen and semi-evergreen forest was lost between 1961 and 1988, and forest cover has continued to decline since (5).
The Nilgiri wood-pigeon is protected by law in India and it occurs in sixteen protected areas, the majority of which are in Kerala. These consist of ten wildlife sanctuaries, three national parks, two reserve forests and one tiger reserve (5).
To help ensure the successful conservation of the Nilgiri wood-pigeon, the seasonal movements of this species need to be researched and key sites need to be identified and protected (5).
Furthermore, it is essential that the sustainable exploitation of forests throughout the Western Ghats is promoted. Local communities should be encouraged to seek alternatives to deforestation and to restore disturbed natural habitats (5).
Discover more about conservation in the Western Ghats:
Conservation International – Biodiversity Hotspots:
Learn more about bird conservation:
This information is awaiting authentication by a species expert, and will be updated as soon as possible. If you are able to help please contact:
- Endemic: a species or taxonomic group that is only found in one particular country or geographic area.
- Evergreen: evergreen forest consists mainly of evergreen trees, which retain leaves all year round. This is in contrast to deciduous trees, which completely lose their leaves for part of the year.
- Invertebrates: animals with no backbone, such as insects, crustaceans, worms and spiders.
IUCN Red List (November, 2010)
- Hildyard, A. (Ed.) (2001) Endangered Wildlife and Plants of the World. Marshall Cavendish Corporation, New York.
- Baker, E.C.S. (1913) Indian Pigeons and Doves. Witherby & Co, London.
- BirdLife International (2001) Threatened Birds of Asia: the BirdLife International Red Data Book. BirdLife International, Cambridge, UK.
BirdLife International (November, 2010)
- Somasundaram, S. and Vijayan, L. (2010) Foraging ecology of the globally threatened Nilgiri wood pigeon (Columba elphinstonii) in the Western Ghats, India. Chinese Birds, 1(1): 9-21.
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Prepare the body’s trunk to control rotation. Coiling (rotating) the body, then quickly uncoiling is the primary source of power for many Soldier and athletic tasks such as throwing a punch or heaving an object onto a platform (Figure C-16). Each of these activities produces a torque on the spine and other joints that may cause injury if the forces are uncontrolled. Control comes from setting the hips, tightening the abdominals, and allowing the hips and knees to bend so as to absorb some of the stress of rotation.
Figure C-16. Rotation
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Treating Cardiovascular Diseases in Wisconsin and Northern Illinois
Lymphedema is the abnormal buildup of fluid, usually in the arms or legs, which can occur when lymph nodes are removed or lymph vessels are damaged, impaired or missing. When these pathways that return the lymph into the body’s circulation are disrupted, lymph cannot drain properly. This causes it to accumulate, resulting in swelling.
The most common lymphedema symptoms are swelling in the arms, legs, hands, fingers, shoulders or chest. The swelling usually follows a trauma, such as a bruise, cut, sports injury or sunburn. It can also occur after an infection or cancer treatment.
Your lymphatic system helps protect your body against disease and foreign substances. This system includes your lymph vessels, lymph nodes and lymph fluid, as well as lymphoid organs, such as the thymus and spleen, and lymphoid tissue, such as the tonsils and Peyer’s patch, located in the small intestine.
Your lymph vessels extend throughout your body, much like blood vessels do. Fluid collects between your cells and drains into tiny capillaries that branch out from your lymph vessels. Lymph nodes filter and store the lymph fluid.
Symptoms of lymphedemamay include:
- Swelling in the arms, legs, hands, finger, shoulders or chest
- A “full” sensation in the arms or legs
- Lack of flexibility in the hand, wrist or ankle
- Tightness in clothing, especially in one specific area
- Tightness when wearing a ring or watch that wasn’t there before
Causes of Lymphedema
Lymphedema causescan be inherited or acquired. Inherited lymphedema, also known as primary lymphedema, occurs when you are born without lymph vessels and nodes.
Acquired lymphedema, or secondary lymphedema, is more common and occurs when there is an injury to your lymphatic system that interrupts or blocks the flow of lymph through the lymphatic system. Examples of these injuries include:
- Deep vein thrombosis
- Radiation to treat cancer
- Scar tissue
- Surgery to remove cancer, such as a mastectomy or lumpectomy
- Trauma (including bruises, cuts and sports injuries)
Your doctor will diagnose lymphedema based on a physical exam and a careful evaluation of your medical history, which is likely to include questions about recent injuries, infections, cancer treatments and surgeries. In some cases, additional testing may be necessary.
Treatment for lymphedema is very individualized and depends on the cause and severity of your condition. If your condition is triggered by an infection, your doctor is likely to prescribe antibiotics.
To reduce swelling, your doctor may recommend compression garments or special wrapping techniques over the affected area. Massaging and stretching the skin can also help drain lymph fluid.
In some cases, your doctor may refer you to a physical therapist who can recommend specific exercises for your condition. Other times, your doctor may advise that you avoid certain exercises, especially those that are repetitive or vigorous.
To help prevent lymphedema from recurring, it is important to:
- Avoid tight-fitting clothes on the affected area
- Be extra careful with cutting your fingernails or toenails
- Call your doctor immediately if you notice signs of infection, such as a fever, flu-like symptoms, pain, tenderness, swelling or a wound that won’t heal
- Eat a healthy diet, making sure to get adequate protein
- Get regular low-impact physical activity, such as walking for about 20 minutes most days of the week
- Keep your skin clean
- Protect your hands when gardening or doing housework
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Find a doctor or heart specialist near you. Aurora doctors are located throughout eastern WI and northeastern IL. To get a second opinion or if you need assistance finding a provider, please call 888-649-6892.
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Why preschoolers use bad languageYour preschooler isn't happy about going to bed, so calls you a "poo-head". Like many adults, he's finding it difficult to find words to express his frustration.
Or perhaps his best friend at playgroup has just expanded his vocabulary and thought it funny to share a few choice words - which your child is now eager to try out at home.
In almost every case, you're watching a thoughtful experiment on your preschooler's part. He's clearly heard someone else say something with a level of intensity or distaste, and wants to see what happens when he gives it a go.
No matter where this language comes from though, it's never too early to teach your child that it isn't acceptable.
What to do about swearing and potty talkBe matter-of-fact
Try not to wrinkle your nose every time you change your preschooler's pull-up. Whispering the words for the contents of his nappy isn't a good idea either, as he'll quickly realise that naming bodily functions guarantees a reaction. Remind yourself that it's normal for a child who's in the process of potty training to be fascinated with his body and everything that comes out of it.
Keep a straight face
When your preschooler says something rude, resist the urge to laugh, as he will take that as a great reinforcement to keep doing it. The ability to get such a reaction out of an adult is enormously satisfying when you're small.
Come up with fun alternatives
If your child's just trying a new word out, you can probably persuade him to substitute it for another exciting phrase that he hasn't heard before. "Abracadabra" and "shazam" work well. If the problem is that he's short of acceptable words to express his anger or frustration, it may help to encourage him to say loudly, "I'm cross" or "I'm angry", when relevant.
If your preschooler has latched on to a serious profanity or two, he needs you to teach him that saying those words is wrong. It's crucial to do this calmly, otherwise each time you lose your temper you'll just remind him how much power he has to make you pay attention to him quickly. If it's a made-up insult, tell him that there's no such thing and you don't understand what he's saying. For adult swear words, don't explain what they mean or why they're unacceptable. Just make it clear, in a matter-of-fact and disinterested voice, which words are off-limits.
If your preschooler won't stop being rude even after a warning or two, then it's time for disciplinary tactics. Stay calm, respond swiftly and be consistent. If time-outs alone don't work, you may need to start withdrawing privileges, such as stopping him watching his favourite television programme. At this point, you may want to give some thought to why your preschooler is being so resistant to your rules. Perhaps his use of foul language is a sign that something else is bothering him.
Don't let swearing get results
If your preschooler's swearing because he wants something, make sure he doesn't get whatever it is he's asking for.
Swear words and potty talk won't be looked upon kindly at nursery school, in the playground, at a friend's house or at Grandma's dinner table. Explain that these words make people uncomfortable and hurt their feelings. Also point out that it makes no difference if other children are using the same language. Your preschooler is still learning to be empathetic and won't always remember to think of others, but he still needs to know that his actions have an effect on them.
Watch your own mouth
Of course, there are different rules for adults and children, but if your youngster hears you casually swearing on a day-to-day basis, it'll be a lot harder to convince him not to talk that way himself. If he mimics something you said, admit that you shouldn't have said it either. And, if you have older children, make sure you monitor their use of bad language too, as young children love to copy their older siblings.
Monitor his TV viewing
Small children absorb information from television programmes so make sure that he watches shows that are appropriate for his age and, whenever possible, watch the television with your child.
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Situated at the strategically important crossroads where Europe meets Asia, Georgia has a unique and ancient cultural heritage, and is famed for its traditions of hospitality and cuisine.
Over the centuries, Georgia was the object of rivalry between Persia, Turkey and Russia, before being eventually annexed by Russia in the 19th century.
Since emerging from the collapsing Soviet Union as an independent state in 1991, Georgia has again become the arena of conflicting interests, this time between the US and a reviving Russia. Tense relations with Russia have been further exacerbated by Moscow's support for the separatist regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
Georgia's brief interlude of independence after the 1917 Bolshevik revolution in Russia ended when it was invaded by the Soviet Red Army in 1921 and incorporated into the Soviet Union a year later.
At a glance
- Politics: President Mikhail Saakashvili won a second term in 2008. He swept to power in the "Rose Revolution" in 2003, but lost control of parliament in 2012
- Economy: Foreign investment and economic reform have driven growth. Agriculture, including wine-making, is a key sector
- International: Georgia has ambitions to join NATO, and its troops serve in Afghanistan. Russia drove Georgian forces from breakaway South Ossetia during a brief war in 2008
Country profiles compiled by BBC Monitoring
The US has a major strategic interest in the country, having invested heavily in an oil pipeline from Azerbaijan via Georgia to Turkey. The Georgian armed forces have been receiving US training and support.
Increasing US economic and political influence in the country has long been a source of concern for the Kremlin, as have Georgia's aspirations to join NATO and the EU.
Tensions between Moscow and Tbilisi are never far from the surface and in August 2008 flared up into an armed conflict triggered by clashes between Georgian troops and South Ossetian separatist forces.Post-Soviet years
Following the collapse of communism in the USSR in 1991, Georgians voted overwhelmingly for the restoration of independence and elected nationalist leader Zviad Gamsakhurdia as president. However, Gamsakhurdia was soon overthrown by opposition militias which in 1992 installed former Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze as the country's new leader.
During his 11 years in office, the Georgian people felt increasingly at the mercy of poverty, corruption and crime. He was ousted in November 2003 following mass demonstrations over the conduct of parliamentary elections.
Once a relatively affluent part of the USSR, with independence Georgia lost the cheap energy to which it had access in the Soviet period. As relations between Georgia and Russia deteriorated, Moscow did not flinch from tightening the economic screws, and the rupturing of trading ties caused the Georgian economy to nose-dive.
Georgia has been heavily dependent on Russia for its energy supply. Like some other states of the former Soviet Union, it saw the price of gas supplied by the Russian gas giant Gazprom rise sharply in January 2006. Gazprom has since doubled the price again. It is no coincidence that Georgia has started receiving an increasing proportion of its gas from Azerbaijan.Breakaway regions
Since independence, the people of Georgia have endured periods of civil war and unrest as well as violence related to the independence aspirations of the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Both regions had close ties with Moscow, which in August 2008 announced it was formally recognising their independence.
Russian troops had operated there since the early 1990s, and were regularly accused by Georgia of siding with the separatists.
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Human Anatomy, Physiology, and Medicine. Anything human!
2 posts • Page 1 of 1
With great response to my post discovering how and why we die in a philosophical and scientifical context, i am here again to discuss on reflexes. particularly Red is Stop, Green is Go.
Why not red is go, green is stop. can we adapt?
A reflex action or reflex is a biological control system linking stimulus to response and mediated by a reflex arc. Reflexes can be built-in or learned. It occurs very quickly before thinking. Before the message is sent to the brain, the spinal cord senses the sensory stimulus, and sends a signal (action potential) to an effector organ, (muscle) to create an immediate action to counter the stimulus. For example, a person stepping on a sharp object would initiate the reflex action through the creation of a stimulus, (pain) within specialized sense receptors located in the skin tissue of the foot. The resulting stimulus would be transmitted through afferent, or sensory neurons and processed at the lower end of the spinal cord, part of the central nervous system. This stimulus is processed by an interneuron to create an immediate response to pain by initiating a motor (muscular) response which is acted upon by muscles of the leg, retracting the foot away from the object. This activity would occur as the pain is arriving in the brain which would process a more cognitive evaluation of the situation.
A simple reflex is entirely automatic and involves no learning.
An example is the escape reflex (e.g., the sudden withdrawal of a hand in response to a pain stimulus), or the patellar reflex (the jerking of a leg when the kneecap is tapped). Sensory cells (receptors) in the stimulated body part send signals to the spinal cord along a sensory nerve cell. Within the spine a reflex arc switches the signals straight back to the muscles of the body (in this case the arm or the leg) (effectors) via an intermediate nerve cell and then a motor nerve cell; contraction of the leg occurs, and the muscle contracts (the arm or leg jerks upwards). Only three nerve cells are involved, and the brain is only aware of the response after it has taken place. Such reflex arcs are particularly common in animals, and have a high survival value, enabling organisms to take rapid action to avoid potential danger.
A conditioned reflex involves the modification of a reflex action in response to experience (learning). A stimulus that produces a simple reflex response becomes linked with another, possibly unrelated, stimulus. For example, a dog may salivate (a reflex action) when it sees its owner remove a tin-opener from a drawer because it has learned to associate that stimulus with the stimulus of being fed.
Now the question is. When we see the color red, we tend to be cautious or stop. when we see green, we tend to move on, we r relaxed. is this simple or conditioned reflex? how you guys answer will lead to my next question.
Well, a conditioned reflex is part of the Classical Conditioning http://www.as.wvu.edu/~sbb/comm221/chapters/pavlov.htm
It's impossible to consider the decision to go when green and stop when red as a simple reflex. I mean, it's obvious that you decide whether you want to move or you don't. Otherwise, when someone presented a green light you would move unconsciously. No way. You really do think about it before action.
Though I'm not sure about it as a conditioned reflex. I'll think about it.
I do think there's some social learning. You know, in part we tend to think that red is to be aware and green to be ok cause of social environment. It have always been like that. Everyone thinks like that.
There's something interesting though.
In the 1995 TV Serie "Sliders", in the very first episode, pilot, Quinn travels to a parallel world where actually red is go and green is stop.
2 posts • Page 1 of 1
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Chapter abstracts are short descriptions of events that occur in each chapter. They highlight major plot events and detail the important relationships and characteristics of characters and objects. The Chapter Abstracts can be used to review what the students have read, or to prepare the students for what they will read. Hand the abstracts out in class as a study guide, or use them as a "key" for a class discussion. They are relatively brief, but can serve to be an excellent refresher of the text for either a student or teacher.
Prologue, Chapter 1-6 Abstract
* Thomas Covenant is a successful author who develops leprosy. His wife left him because of the disease and he is bitter.
* Covenant is called to the "Land" where he is treated like a hero and can do magic because of his white gold wedding band.
* Covenant travels...
This section contains 3,107 words|
(approx. 11 pages at 300 words per page)
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6th Grade Curriculum Page
1. Physical Properties in Matter
- Substances react chemically in characteristic ways with other substances to form substances with different characteristics (e.g., rusting, burning, reaction between baking soda and vinegar, etc.).
2nd quarter; two weeks
Suggested Teaching Strategies:
Activities should demonstrate a change other than a physical change that produces substances different from their reactants. These should include the five signs for a chemical change: color change; gas produced, endothermic reaction, exothermic reaction, and new substance formed.
- Physical and Chemical Attributes
Sample CRT Questions
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