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From earliest times, astronomers assumed that the orbits in which the planets moved were circular; yet the numerous catalogs of measurements compiled especially during the 16th cent. did not fit this theory. At the beginning of the 17th cent., Johannes Kepler stated three laws of planetary motion that explained the observed data: the orbit of each planet is an ellipse with the sun at one focus; the speed of a planet varies in such a way that an imaginary line drawn from the planet to the sun sweeps out equal areas in equal amounts of time; and the ratio of the squares of the periods of revolution of any two planets is equal to the ratio of the cubes of their average distances from the sun. The orbits of the solar planets, while elliptical, are almost circular; on the other hand, the orbits of many of the extrasolar planets discovered during the 1990s are highly elliptical. After the laws of planetary motion were established, astronomers developed the means of determining the size, shape, and relative position in space of a planet's orbit. The size and shape of an orbit are specified by its semimajor axis and by its eccentricity. The semimajor axis is a length equal to half the greatest diameter of the orbit. The eccentricity is the distance of the sun from the center of the orbit divided by the length of the orbit's semimajor axis; this value is a measure of how elliptical the orbit is. The position of the orbit in space, relative to the earth, is determined by three factors: (1) the inclination, or tilt, of the plane of the planet's orbit to the plane of the earth's orbit (the ecliptic); (2) the longitude of the planet's ascending node (the point where the planet cuts the ecliptic moving from south to north); and (3) the longitude of the planet's perihelion point (point at which it is nearest the sun; see apsis). These quantities, which determine the size, shape, and position of a planet's orbit, are known as the orbital elements. If only the sun influenced the planet in its orbit, then by knowing the orbital elements plus its position at some particular time, one could calculate its position at any later time. However, the gravitational attractions of bodies other than the sun cause perturbations in the planet's motions that can make the orbit shift, or precess, in space or can cause the planet to wobble slightly. Once these perturbations have been calculated one can closely determine its position for any future date over long periods of time. Modern methods for computing the orbit of a planet or other body have been refined from methods developed by Newton, Laplace, and Gauss, in which all the needed quantities are acquired from three separate observations of the planet's apparent position. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

http://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/science/orbit-planetary-orbits.html

Some knowledge of plate tectonics. Need to know how to use the internet. Understand what causes earthquakes and the types of things that are studied during an event. Understand how scientists measure earthquakes and how building structures survive or are damaged during an earthquake. Can print out notes page for students to complete using powerpoint presentation or have them answer on sheet of paper. Text of Learning Exercise: This assignment consists of 2 parts: 1) Have students view the powerpoint and answer the questions on the notes page. 2) Have students visit the "Make a Quake" website and have them construct different building structures on different ground types. Make sure they read the evaluations at the end of each simulation and have them compare and contrast what happens to their building during the same magnitude of earthquake simulated.

http://www.merlot.org/merlot/viewAssignment.htm?id=91864

Start Your Visit WithHistorical Timelines General Interest Maps The point at which the Monongahela and Allegheny rivers join to form the Ohio River (La Belle Riviere to the French) has been known as the Forks of the Ohio, an area recognized for its strategic importance by early British and French agents. In the 1740s, William Trent, an English fur trader and entrepreneur, built a small trading post at the Forks. He conducted an active trade with neighboring Indian tribes and became wealthy in the process. The French noted the English presence and began to construct a string of forts in the area in the early 1750s; installations sprang up at Presque Isle, Marchault (Venango) and Le Boeuf. Robert Dinwiddie, governor of Virginia and an active land speculator, responded by ordering the construction of a fort at the Forks to protect his budding business interests. In April 1754, Virginian construction forces began their labors, but were driven away by a vastly superior French force. Work was then completed on a structure that became known as Fort Duquesne, named in honor of the governor-general of New France. The British suffered a series of defeats in the war's opening years, but the tide turned in 1758. John Forbes gathered a force of 6,000 men at Fort Cumberland in western Maryland. This army included Washington’s contingent of 2,000 Virginia militiamen. Weakly defended Fort Duquesne was the target of this venture, but an early debate raged over the route to be taken to the Forks. Washington pressed hard for using the already existing Braddock Road, the path that had laboriously been cleared before the disaster of 1755. Others, including some with business interests in Pennsylvania, urged the construction of a new road through the central portions of that colony. Forbes eventually gave approval to the latter plan. Progress on the new road was exceedingly slow; huge trees and almost impenetrable brush had to be cleared. Washington seethed over the wasted time, fearing that Fort Duquesne might be reinforced. Eventually the Alleghenies were crossed, which brought the British army close to its objective. An advance party was dispatched to gather information about the fort’s defenses. On September 14, Major James Grant unwisely enticed French forces into a confrontation and his British soldiers sustained heavy casualties. An initial decision to delay the offensive until the next spring was forced by deteriorating weather conditions. However, Washington's soldiers managed to capture several enemy scouts and learn from them how poorly Fort Duquesne was manned. Few regular French soldiers were on hand and the Indian allies had deserted in large numbers. Washington ordered an immediate advance on the fort. On November 24, the French commander recognized that he faced total disaster if he were to resist. Under the cover of night, the French withdrew from Fort Duquesne, set it afire and floated down the Ohio River to safety. The British claimed the smoldering remains on November 25 and were horrified to finds the heads of some of Grant’s Highlanders impaled on stakes with their kilts displayed below. A contingent of British forces remained on the site and began to construct the new Fort Pitt, named in honor of the secretary of state who had done so much to fashion a winning war strategy. Washington returned home where he would soon assume a seat in the House of Burgesses and marry a young widow, Martha Custis. The capture of Fort Duquesne coincided with the fall of Fort Frontenac and the fortress at Louisbourg. Considered together, they marked a great turning point in the war. The lesson was not lost on the Indian allies, many of whom deserted the French cause at this time. Fort Pitt would be known as Fort Dunmore for a brief time in the early 1770s to honor the royal governor of New York and Virginia, but would revert to its earlier name during the War for Independence. The village that developed around the fort was called Pittsburgh. See French and Indian War Timeline. Fort Duquesne, Fort Pitt, and Fort Dunmore ... Fort Duquesne, Fort Pitt, and Fort Dunmore Image Details Image Title » Fort Duquesne, Fort Pitt, and Fort Dunmore Source » Ohio Historical Society Artist » Jason Cannon This image is property of the Ohio Historical Society. If Fort Duquesne, Fort Pitt, and Fort Dunmore Image Details Image Title » Fort Duquesne, Fort Pitt, and Fort Dunmore Source » Ohio Historical Society Artist » Jason Cannon This image is property of the Ohio Historical Society. If Fort Duquesne, Fort Pitt, and Fort Dunmore Source » Ohio Historical Society Artist » Jason Cannon This image is property of the Ohio Historical Society. If you would ... American Revolution - George Washington at Battle of Fort Duquesne Fort Duquesne was part of French defenses during the French and Indian War that stretched from Quebec City on the St. Lawrence River to New Orleans on the Mississippi River. The French were determined to contain British colonization toFort Duquesne was part of French defenses during the French and Indian War that stretched from Quebec City on the St. Lawrence River to New Orleans on the Mississippi River. The French were determined to contain British colonization to the east ... AKValley.com--Fall of Fort Duquesne Instead of marching like Braddock, at one stretch to Fort Duquesne, burdened with a long and cumbrous baggage-train, it was the plan of Forbes to push on by slow stages, establishing fortified magazines as he went, and at last, when wiFort Duquesne, burdened with a long and cumbrous baggage-train, it was the plan of Forbes to push on by slow stages, establishing fortified magazines as he went, and at last, when within easy ...

http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1195.html

Routing is one of the most important features in a network that needs to connect with other networks. In this page we try to explain the difference between Routed and Routing protocols and explain different methods used to achieve the routing of protocols.The fact is that if routing of protocols was not possible, then we wouldn't be able to comminucate using computers because there would be no way of getting the data across to the other end ! Routing is used for taking a packet (data) from one device and sending it through the network to another device on a different network. If your network has no routers then you are not routing. Routers route traffic to all the networks in your internetwork. To be able to route packets, a router must know the following : - Destination address - Neighbor routers from which it can lean about remote networks - Possible routes to all remote networks - The best route to each remote network - How to maintain and verify routing information Before we go on, I would like to define 3 networking terms : Convergence: The process required for all routers in an internetwork to update their routing tables and create a consistent view of the network, using the best possible paths. No user data is passed during convergence. Default Route: A "standard" route entry in a routing table which is used as a first option. Any packets sent by a device will be sent first to the default route. If that fails, it will try alternative routes. Static Route: A permanent route entered manually into a routing table. This route will remain in the table, even if the link goes down. It can only be erased manually. Dynamic Route: A route entry which is dynamically (automatically) updated as changes to the network occur. Dynamic routes are basically the opposite to static routes. We start off with the explanation of the IP routing process and move onto routed protocols, then tackle the routing protocols and finally the routing tables. There is plenty to read about, so grab that tea or coffee and let's start !

http://www.firewall.cx/networking-topics/routing.html

Paleontologists have constructed a model of a prehistoric penguin that stood almost a metre-and-a half-tall when it lived in what is now New Zealand, approximately 25 million years ago. Named Kairuku, a Maori word that means "diver who returns with food," the penguin was reconstructed from fossilised bones that were collected in 1977 by Dr Ewan Fordyce, a paleontologist from the University of Otago. The bones drew the attention of Dr Dan Ksepka from North Carolina State University because of the unusual shape of the body. "Kairuku was an elegant bird by penguin standards, with a slender body and long flippers, but short, thick legs and feet," says Ksepka. "If we had done a reconstruction by extrapolating from the length of its flippers, it would have stood over six-feet tall. In reality, Kairuku was around four feet-and-two-inches tall or Aided by North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences colleague Dr Paul Brinkman, Ksepka built the physical model of the bird using two separate fossils and the skeleton of an existing king penguin. The resultant reconstruction revealed a penguin that would have been the largest of the five species known to have lived in New Zealand during the period. Says Ksepka: "The location was great for penguins in terms of both food and safety. Most of New Zealand was underwater at that time, leaving isolated, rocky land masses that kept the penguins safe from potential predators and provided them with a plentiful food supply." The results, which have been published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, are hoped will aid the research into the entire prehistoric penguin population in this area. "This species gives us a more complete picture of these giant penguins generally, and may help us to determine how great their range was during the Oligocene period," says Ksepka.

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-02/28/prehistoric-new-zealand-penguin

Modeling Numbers: Decimals This unit uses one of the digital learning objects, Modelling Numbers: Decimals, to support students as they investigate the place value of numbers with three decimal places. The numbers are represented using a variety of place value equipment commonly used in classrooms. The knowledge section of the New Zealand Number Framework outlines the important items of knowledge that students should learn as they progress through the strategy stages. This unit of work and the associated learning object are useful for students at stage 7, Advanced Multiplicative Part Whole, of the Number Framework. represent numbers with three decimal places using place value equipment The learning object has two main functions. Firstly, the learning object allows students to make their choice of number using the place value equipment. They can listen to that number being read using the speaker function. The learning object also represents the number using place value equipment, written words, place value houses, standard form and an abacus. The learning object’s second function is to provide students with a number that they are asked represent using the place value equipment. Feedback is provided to the students to help them. This unit is suitable for students working at stage 7 of the Number Framework. It includes a sequence of problems and questions that can be used by the teacher when working with a group of students on the learning object, and ideas for independent student work. The Learning Objects The learning object, Modeling Numbers: decimals, can be accessed from the link below: Prior to using the Modeling Numbers: Decimals learning objects The learning objects Modeling Numbers: 3-digits and Modeling Numbers: 6-digits are very similar but only have whole numbers. It would be useful for students to try one of these learning objects first. It would also be helpful if students had some understanding of decimals . Working with the learning object with students (Choose your own Number) 1. Show students the learning object and explain that it provides a model for representing numbers using place value equipment. Zoom in by clicking on the magnifying glass icon to show the students the names of the columns for the places to the right of the decimal point. Use the magnifying glass to click back to the hundreds, tens, and ones place value equipment. Use the arrow keys to show students how to make a number. Start from the ones column and click through the numbers so the students can see the colour change for the 6th cube. Discuss how this makes it easier to immediately identify numbers between 6 and 9. 2. Ask the students to count as you click the arrows to make the numbers 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. Watch as the 10 cubes join to make a rod and slide into the tens column. Ask the students what they think will happen when you make 11. Ask the students what they think will happen if you count backwards from 11. Watch the place value equipment change as you click back using the arrows 3. Zoom in to the decimal section using the magnifying glass. Show the students that the place value equipment behaves in the same way for the thousandths, hundredths and tenths columns. Use the arrow keys to make a number in the thousandths column and click through the numbers so the students can see the colour change happen for the 6th cube as it did in the ones column. 4. Ask the students to count as you click to arrows to make the numbers 6 thousandths, 7 thousandths, 8 thousandths, 9 thousandths, 10 thousandths. Watch as the 10 cubes join to make a rod and slide into the hundredths column. Ask the students what they think will happen when you make the 11 thousandths. Ask the students what they think will happen if you count backwards from 11 thousandths. Watch the place value equipment change as you click back using the arrows. 5. Click the right arrow to see the number represented using words, a place value house, in standard form or represented on a three bar abacus. Show the students the words written in the form of three and eighty-four hundredths and in the form three point eight four. Usually decimals are read in the format three point zero eight four, but this learning object also provides it in the format of three and eighty-four hundredths to help develop students understandings of decimal place value. Again the colour of the place value equipment matches the colour of the columns in the text. Using the left and right arrows the students can choose how to represent the number. 6. You may wish to explain the other representations to the students. Using the magnifying glass zoom out to see the full number. Continue to make a number. Make sure students understand how a zero digit in the number is represented. Do enough examples together for students to see how the equipment shows the change between the columns. 7. If you have selected to show the number using written words below the place value equipment then a speaker icon is available to click. Click the speaker icon to hear the number being spoken. Ask the student if it is same as what they said. The speaker icon is available for both the format of zero point zero two, and zero and two hundredths. Working with the object with students (Model a Given Number) Click on the die at the bottom left of the screen. A number will appear in words in the box for the student to build using the place value equipment. The format of the wording is either in the form zero point three or zero and three tenths. The format follows the same format shown before the die is clicked on. The student can click on the speaker icon to hear the number being spoken. Ask a student to use the arrow keys to build the number. The learning object provides feedback to the student. Ensure that you try enough examples that students see that the second feedback provided by the computer indicates which column their error is in. Clicking the down arrow at the bottom of the screen will return you to modeling choosing your own number. Notes regarding working with place value equipment. There are a number of ways to explore place value concepts. The learning object provides a model to help students visualize the place value columns. Students will benefit from exploring place value with a range of equipment ranging from place value blocks, decimats, pipe decimals, a three bar abacus, and number flip charts. Students working independently with the learning object Because this learning object generates numbers for students to model, once they are familiar with how it works you could allow individual students or pairs of students to work with the learning object independently. They could be encouraged to complete a given number of examples. Students can also explore making their own number, saying it aloud and then checking using the speaker icon. Students working independently without the learning object Using place value equipment students can work in pairs to represent numbers. Working in pairs provides students with the opportunities to work together to practice saying and representing numbers with equipment.

http://www.nzmaths.co.nz/resource/modeling-numbers-decimals

Composting is a biological process of aerobic decomposition for converting organic waste materials (feedstocks) to stable value-added compost suitable for nutrient supplement to crop. Because composting is environment friendly and allows reuse of natural resources, it is becoming a popular waste management option. Compost increases the water and nutrient retention of the soil, provides a porous medium for roots to grow in, increase organic matter and decreases the bulk density or penetration resistance. The composting process produces a final product that is stable, free of pathogens and viable plant seeds, and can be beneficially applied to the product stabilizes, odours are reduced and pathogens eliminated. A Case study on ‘Development of a Farm-Scale System to Compost Liquid Pig Manure’ will give an insight for process, product and economics of the composting system from swine manure. A documentation entitled ‘Composting Hog Manure – Is it Right for Your Farm?’ (Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada) elaborates the perspective of composting swine waste with an explanation of different machineries used in the composting process. Under controlled conditions, composting is accomplished in two main stages: an active stage and a curing stage. In the first stage, while most of the degradable organic matter is decomposed, microorganisms consume oxygen (O2) while feeding on organic matter in manure and produce heat, carbon dioxide (CO2) and water vapour. Appropriate management plan is needed to maintain proper temperature, oxygen and moisture for the organisms. Finished compost has 20 to 60% volume reduction, 40 to 50% moisture content reduction. Composting may contribute greenhouse effect because carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (NH4) and nitrous oxide (NO2) are emitted to the atmosphere during composting Composting can be done in one of the following methods: - Bin composting - Passive windrow composting - Active windrow composting (turned) - Aerated static pile composting - In-vessel composting The most important factors influencing a quality compost are moisture content, carbon to nitrogen ratio (C:N ratio) of the raw materials, and the temperature achieved during the composting process. A check of C:N ratio of base material (eg. animal waste) helps determine what proportion of carbon rich materials need to be added for composting. During composting process microbes need C:N ratio of about 20:1 to 25:1. The microorganisms digest carbon as an energy source and ingest nitrogen for protein and reproduction. Generally sources of carbon include shavings, sawdust, straw, municipal shredded newsprint or cardboard. The minimum desirable oxygen concentration in the composting material is 5%. Greater than 10% is ideal to avoid conditions and high odour potential. Aeration adds fresh air in the center of the composting material. Rapid aerobic decomposition can only occur in the presence of sufficient oxygen. Moisture plays an essential role in the metabolism of microorganisms and indirectly in the supply of oxygen. Microbes can utilize only those organic molecules that are dissolved in water. Moisture content between 50 and 60% provided moisture without limiting aeration.

http://www.sustainableagrisystems.com/composting.htm

Math in Music Lesson Plan MEDIA RESOURCES FROM THE GET THE MATH WEBSITE - The Setup (video) Optional An introduction to Get the Math and the professionals and student teams featured in the program. - Math in Music: Introduction (video) Manny Dominguez and Luis Lopez of DobleFlo talk about how their duo got started, how they use math in producing hip-hop music, and set up a music-related algebra challenge. - Math in Music: Take the challenge (web interactive) In this interactive activity, users try to solve the challenge presented in the video segment, “Math in Music: Introduction,” by matching the tempo of the electronic drum track to the tempo of the instrumental sample. - Math in Music: See how the teams solved the challenge (video) The teams use algebra to match the tempo of an electronic drum track to the tempo of an instrumental sample created by DobleFlo. - Math in Music: Try other music challenges (web interactive) In this activity students select from several options of instrumental samples and drum tracks and then try to match the tempo of the selected drum track to that of the selected instrumental sample. For the class: - Computer, projection screen, and speakers (for class viewing of online/downloaded video segments) - One copy of “Math in Music: Take the Challenge” answer key (download DOC | PDF) - One copy of the “Math in Music: Try other music challenges” answer key (download DOC | PDF) For each student: - One copy of the “Math in Music: Take the challenge” handout (download DOC | PDF) - One copy of the “Math in Music: Try other music challenges” handout (download DOC | PDF) - One calculator for use in Learning Activities 1 and 2 (Optional) - Grid paper, chart paper, whiteboards/markers or other materials for students to display their math strategies used to solve the challenges in the Learning Activities. - Computers with internet access for Learning Activities 1 and 2 (Note: These activities can either be conducted with one computer and an LCD screen or by dividing students into small groups and using multiple computers.) BEFORE THE LESSON Prior to teaching this lesson, you will need to: - Preview all of the video segments and web interactives used in this lesson. - Download the video clips used in the lesson to your classroom computer(s) or prepare to watch them using your classroom’s internet connection. - Bookmark all web interactives you plan to use in the lesson on each computer in your classroom. Using an online bookmarking tool (such as delicious, diigo, or portaportal) will allow you to organize all the links in a central location. - Make one copy of the “Math in Music: Take the challenge” and “Math in Music: Try other music challenges” handouts for each student. - Print out one copy of the “Math in Music: Take the challenge” and the “Math in Music: Try other music challenges” answer keys. - Begin with a brief discussion about music. For example, ask students to tell you their favorite genres of music (jazz, hip-hop, pop, classical, etc.). - Explain that today’s lesson will be focusing on the use of math in music. Ask students where they think mathematics might be used in music. (Possible answers include: in counting the beat, in calculating the tempo, writing rhymes, in digital music programs, etc.) Ask your students if they play a musical instrument and, if so, to describe how math can be helpful in mastering music. - Explain that today’s lesson features video segments and interactives from Get the Math, a program that highlights how math is used in the real world. If this is your first time using the program with this class, you may choose to play the video segment The Setup, which introduces the professionals and student teams featured in Get the Math. - Introduce the video segment Math in Music: Introduction by letting students know that you will now be showing them a segment which features musicians Manny Dominguez and Luis Lopez from Brooklyn, NY, who have formed a hip-hop duo named DobleFlo. Ask students to watch for the math that the artists are using and to write down their observations as they watch the video. - Play Math in Music: Introduction. After showing the segment, ask students to discuss the different ways that Manny and Luis use math in their music. (Sample responses: counting, decimals, numerical operations, ratios, rates, subtraction, elapsed time, problem solving using proportions.) - Ask students to describe the challenge that Manny and Luis posed to the teens in the video segment. (In the featured sample of music, the tempo of the drum track doesn’t match the tempo of the instrumental sample. The tempo, or speed, is measured in beats per minute (BPM). Since the drum beat is programmed electronically, it is possible to use the computer to speed up or slow down this beat to match the instrumental sample. In order to correctly match the drum beat to the sample, it is necessary to figure out the tempo of the sample. DobleFlo asked the students to calculate the BPM of the instrumental sample to determine the tempo.) LEARNING ACTIVITY 1 - Explain that the students will now have an opportunity to solve the problem. Ask students what common rates they are familiar with in daily life. (Sample responses: miles per gallon; miles per hour, etc.) - Ask students if they have ever had their pulse taken at the doctor’s office. Ask if the doctors/nurses hold their fingers on your pulse for a full minute or several minutes to find beats per minute. (A part of a minute will be enough time.) Discuss why you would need only part of a minute to calculate the pulse rate. (You can compare a part to a whole using ratios/proportions.) - Explain that word “per” means “for each” (for example, miles per gallon/miles per hour) and a rate can be represented by division. (For example, to calculate miles per gallon, the equation would be miles divided by gallons.) - Explain that just like the doctors/nurses only need to calculate the pulse for a few seconds to figure out the pulse rate, the same is true for calculating the beats per minute in music. Students only need to listen to the music for a few seconds to calculate the beats per minute. - Review the following terminology with your students: - Tempo: the speed at which music is played, or the “beat” of the song. - BPM: beats per minute - Distribute the “Math in Music: Take the challenge” handout. Note: The handout is designed to be used in conjunction with the Math in Music: Take the challenge interactive here on the web site. - Let your students know that it is now their turn to solve the challenge DobleFlo presented to the teams in the video. Ask students to work together to explore the Math in Music: Take the challenge interactive and complete the handout. Use the “Math in Music: Take the Challenge” answer key as a guide to help students explore the interactive. - If you have multiple computers, ask students to work in small groups to explore the interactive and complete the handout. - If you only have one computer, conduct the activity with your students as a group, so that they can all hear the instrumental sample and count the total number of beats together. - As students complete the challenge, encourage them to use the following 6-step mathematical modeling cycle to develop a plan: - Step 1: Understand the problem: Identify variables in the situation that represent essential features (For example, let “b” represent the number of beats and “t” represent the time, or specify in either seconds “s” or minutes “m”). - Step 2: Formulate a model by creating and selecting multiple representations (For example, students may use symbolic representations such as a proportion, or may use a chart or table to record information). - Step 3: Compute by analyzing and performing operations on relationships to draw conclusions (For example, operations include multiplication and algebraic transformations used to determine cross products as they solve a proportion). - Step 4: Interpret the results in terms of the original situation (The results of the first three steps should be examined in the context of the challenge to mix the music tracks). - Step 5: Ask students to validate their conclusions by comparing them with the situation, and then either improving the model or, if acceptable, - Step 6: Report on the conclusions and the reasoning behind them. (This step allows a student to explain their strategy and justify their choices in a specific context.) Assess the reasoning process and product by asking students to articulate how they are solving the challenge: - What strategy are you using to find the solution? How will your strategy help you to calculate the beats per minute? - After students have completed the handout, ask each group to share their solutions and problem solving strategies with the class using whiteboards, overhead transparencies, chart paper, or other tools to illustrate how they solved the challenge. - As students present their solutions, ask them to discuss the mathematics they used in solving the challenge. (Sample responses: counting beats, numerical operations, ratios, rates, problem solving using proportions.) - Introduce the Math in Music: See how the teams solved the challenge video segment by letting students know that they will now be seeing how the teams in the video calculated the BPM. Ask students to observe what strategies the teams used and whether they were similar to or different from the strategies presented by the class. - Play Math in Music: See how the teams solved the challenge. After showing the video, ask students to discuss the strategies the teams used and to compare them to the strategies presented by the class. During the discussion, point out that the two teams in the video solved the music challenge in two distinct ways. Ask students to discuss why one team ended up with an incorrect answer. Discuss the strategies listed in the “Math in Music: Take the challenge” answer key, which the class has not yet discussed (if any). LEARNING ACTIVITY 2: - Go to Math in Music: Try other music challenges. Let your students know that they will now calculate the Beats Per Minute using other music samples on the Get the Math website. Explain that this interactive provides students with additional opportunities to match the tempo of an electronic drum track to the tempo of the instrumental sample. Note: As in the previous challenge, you can conduct this activity with one computer and an LCD projector in front of the entire class or your students can work in small groups on computers. This can also be assigned to students to complete as an independent project or as homework using the accompanying handout as a guide. - Distribute the “Math in Music: Try other music challenges” handout. Clarify and discuss the directions. Ask students to explore the “Math in Music: Try other music challenges” interactive on the Get the Math website, using the handout as a guide. Ask students to complete all of the steps listed on the handout. - As in Learning Activity 1, encourage your students to use the 5-step mathematical modeling cycle as they develop a strategy to solve the challenge. - After students have completed the activity, lead a group discussion where students can share the strategies they used to find the correct tempo for each combination. Refer to and discuss the strategies and solutions presented in the “Math in Music: Try other music challenges” answer key, as desired. - Assess deeper understanding: Ask your students to reflect upon and write down their thoughts about the following: - How did you determine an effective strategy for the problem situation? What are your conclusions and the reasoning behind them? (Sample answers: by looking for relationships between the number of beats and the time; by setting up a proportion and/or an equation to solve the problem you can compare part of a minute to a whole minute, or the number of samples in a whole minute, to find the solution.) - Compare and contrast the various numerical and algebraic representations possible for the problem. How does the approach used to solve the challenge affect the choice of representations? (Sample answers: some approaches use numerical operations in a sequence or order; another approach is to use symbols or variables to represent what is unknown and then write a proportion to solve the problem.) Are all equivalent? (Yes.) Why do you think this is the case? (There are many different ways to represent and solve a problem; a proportion is an equation that can be written using ratios that are equivalent but in a different order as long as some common element ties the numerators together and a common element ties the denominators together, such as beats and minutes.) - What is proportionality? How does using this concept help you to understand and solve problems? (Sample answer: When two quantities are proportional, a change in one quantity corresponds to a predictable change in the other. This helps to set up a comparison of the two quantities, or a ratio, that can be used to solve a problem by increasing or decreasing the ratio by the same factor.) - Why is it useful to represent real-life situations algebraically? (Sample responses: Symbols or variables can be used to represent missing values to set up and solve equations to find a solution. Using algebra can be a simpler and efficient way to set up and solve problems by using ratios, rates, or proportions.) - What are some ways to represent, describe, and analyze patterns that occur in our world? (Sample responses: Patterns can be represented with numbers, symbols, expressions/equations, words, and pictures or graphs.) - After students have written their reflections, lead a group discussion where students can discuss their journal entries. During the discussion, ask students to share their thoughts about how algebra can be applied to music. Ask students to brainstorm other real-world situations which involve the type of math and problem solving that they used in this lesson to calculate the Beats Per Minute (for example, miles per gallon, pulse rate, etc).

http://www.thirteen.org/get-the-math/teachers/math-in-music-lesson-plan/activities/76/

Plate shapes hold earthquake clues Tectonic tips A new study of tectonic plate boundaries may help scientists understand how earthquakes happen. The work by researchers including Dr Giampiero Iaffaldano from the Australian National University focused on the Nazca plate, which plunges beneath the continental South American plate. The Earth's crust is covered by 15 major tectonic plates, which are in constant motion due primarily to heat convection through the mantle from deep within the planet. Iaffaldano says earthquakes and volcanic eruptions are symptomatic of these tectonic plate movements. "They occur at plate boundaries, so if we want to understand them more clearly, we need to also understand the forces tectonic plates exchange when they collide," says Iaffaldano. Iaffaldano and colleages studied the Nazca plate because the unusual curvature where the plates meet is reflected in the shape of the nearby Andes mountain range. Reporting in the journal Tectonophysics, they found a link between the shape of plate margins and the forces they exchange with each other. "We found at least 20 per cent of the force driving plate tectonic movement needed to be traded between the two plates to create the unique shape seen at Nazca. Simulating millions of years The researchers simulated the collision between the Nazca and South America plates in their laboratory using layers of silicon putty plunging into big tanks of glucose syrup. "You would be surprised how the mechanical properties of certain materials allows us to mimic the mechanical properties of tectonic plates on small scales and time periods," says Iaffaldano. "We understand the movements involved, and want to better understand the forces driving these movements." There are three primary types of plate tectonic movement: divergent motion, where plates move away from each other such as the mid-ocean ridge; transform motion, where plates slide parallel to each other, such as the San Andreas fault; and convergent motion, where one plate subducts or plunges under another. Iaffaldono says the Nazca plate demonstrates the latter type of motion. "The Nazca plate subducts under the South American continental plate, in a prime example of relatively young convergent motion, where mountain building is going on," he says. According to Iaffaldano, the curved shapes of plate margins are useful and precise diagnostics because they show the degree of coupling between tectonic plates. He believes the findings could help unravel the impact of plate interactions on large earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. "These forces are responsible for deformation of the Earth's crust, the rise of large mountain chains and ultimately the seismic behaviour of plate margins, so it is of paramount importance to understand their magnitude," says Iaffaldano. "With more research we should gain a more detailed understanding of these forces by looking at how they varied in the past million years. " "While we know what types of forces are acting on the plates, we would also like to know the history of these forces and their magnitude through time," he says.

http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2011/11/11/3361712.htm

What is a viral respiratory infection (VRI)? Viral respiratory infections (VRIs) include colds, the flu, and bronchiolitis. "Respiratory" means something that affects the lungs and airways (breathing passages). VRIs may cause coughing, sneezing, runny noses, sore throats, or fever. "Viral" means something that is caused by a virus. Viruses that cause VRIs include respiratory syncytial viruses (RSV), influenza viruses, parainfluenza viruses, adenoviruses, and rhinoviruses. Rhinoviruses are the viruses that cause the common cold. VRIs are not caused by any of the following things, although the symptoms may be similar: - bacteria, such as group A streptococcus (Strep) or pertussis - other medical conditions Symptoms of a VRI A person with a VRI may have the following symptoms: - runny nose - sore throat - trouble breathing The person may also have a headache or sore muscles, or she may feel very tired. In general, the symptoms start 1 to 2 days after the person catches the virus. They may last for 1 to 10 days, depending on which virus is causing the illness. How a VRI is spread VRIs are spread in the following ways: - by touching mucus from the nose or mouth of a person who has the virus - by touching soiled tissues or surfaces a person with the virus has touched - by touching the unwashed hands of a person with the virus Anyone can get a VRI People of all ages and backgrounds can get a VRI. Babies and toddlers tend to get RSV more often. This can cause a condition called bronchiolitis. A VRI can be a serious illness for some people For most people, a VRI is not a serious illness. People who get a VRI almost always get completely well. They do not have any long-term problems. For some people, though, a VRI can be a serious illness. People who are more at risk from a VRI include the following: - young children - people with an immune system problem - people who cannot care for themselves well, such as the disabled or elderly These people may develop more serious complications, like pneumonia. They may get more severe symptoms than healthy people. People with severe symptoms may need to stay in the hospital for treatment to help with their breathing. Treating a VRI To treat a VRI in children and adults, you should do the following things: - Make sure the person gets plenty of rest. - Give the person lots of clear fluids to drink, such as water and apple juice. This will help make sure the person does not get dehydrated. "Dehydrated" means the person does not have enough fluid in her body. In the hospital, a person can be given fluids directly into the blood through an intravenous line (IV) if necessary. A doctor may prescribe medicine to help the infected person breathe more easily. The doctor will probably not prescribe antibiotics. Because VRIs are caused by viruses, antibiotics usually will not help. If your child has a VRI in the hospital Your child may be placed in a single room and will not be able to visit the playroom until she is feeling better. Ask the Child Life Specialist to bring toys and supplies to your room. Hospital staff will be wearing a mask, eye protection, gloves, and gowns when they visit. Always wash your hands before and after touching your child and before leaving your child's room. Hospital staff should wash their hands as well. If you or anyone else who has visited becomes ill with symptoms of a viral respiratory infection, let your child's doctor or nurse know. VRIs can be prevented with good hygiene and sometimes shots Good handwashing can help people from catching or spreading a VRI. This is very important in hospitals, but it is true in other places as well. To avoid spreading a VRI, you should also do the following things: - Always cover your mouth and nose with a tissue when you cough or sneeze. Throw away the tissue. Then wash your hands. - Do not visit the hospital when you are ill with symptoms of a VRI. Ask other family members and friends to do the same. Some premature or sick babies are at high risk from RSV. They can take a medicine that can help make the symptoms of RSV infection shorter and less severe. For more information, please see Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV). Every autumn, the flu shot is offered as a way to prevent influenza (flu) infection. Getting a flu shot is easy. It should help make sure you and your child do not catch the flu that year. Ask your doctor if your child can have the flu shot. The flu shot can prevent flu, but not infections from other respiratory viruses. For more information, please see Influenza (Flu). - Viral respiratory infection (VRI) is a name for several types of infections of the lungs and airways. - VRIs are caused by different viruses. - VRIs spread through contact with mucus from the mouth or nose. - VRI can be a serious illness for people who are already ill or weakened in some other way. - Good hygiene practices, including handwashing and covering the mouth and nose when coughing, can help prevent the spread of VRI.

http://www.aboutkidshealth.ca/En/HealthAZ/ConditionsandDiseases/InfectiousDiseases/Pages/Viral-Respiratory-Infection-VRI.aspx

This document was created to divide and distribute land back to the Native Americans. This act was named after U.S. Senator Henry L. Dawes and was signed on February 8, 1887. The Dawes Act divides the large reservation lands into small pieces of land for individual distribution. The land that was not given to the natives were used to build railroads. This division of land caused the Native Americans to lose their tradition and values. The Native Americans were forced to abandon their communal way of life. After losing their own culture American culture was forced upon them. This caused many tribes to scatter which lead to the lose of many Native American traditions. I think the lawmakers created the Dawes Act in order to cleverly steal the land away from the native Americans to build railroads and expand capitalism. By dividing their land, the native’s culture was destroyed and they were forced assimilate in order to survive in this country. We will never know if the intentions of this act were good or bad but one thing is for sure, the native Americans suffered once again in the hands of the United States.

http://blsciblogs.baruch.cuny.edu/his1005spring2011/tag/native-americans/

May 17 marks the anniversary of the unanimous 1954 Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education. Prior to Brown, many parts of the United States permitted segregation in public education based on the principle of ‘separate but equal,’ a doctrine based on the longstanding decision in Plessy v. Ferguson. Brown brought together cases from four different states challenging the validity of that doctrine. The court considered whether segregation was consistent with the framers’ intent in the Fourteenth Amendment but found little support there for overruling Plessy. In order to forge a unanimous opinion, the justices rested their decision on the critical role education plays in determining personal opportunity and development, finding that racial segregation generated irreversible feelings of inferiority in black children. The court concluded that segregated schools were inherently unequal and abandoned the premise that ‘separate but equal’ did not cause harm or stigmatization. Landmark Supreme Court Cases: A Reference Guide, Donald E. Lively (Greenwood Press, 1999). Brown v. Board of Education: Caste, Culture and the Constitution, Robert J. Cottrol (University Press of Kansas, 2003). Education Law Stories, Michael A. Olivas (Foundation Press, 2007). Encyclopedia of the Supreme Court of the United States, David S. Tanenhaus (Macmillan Reference USA, 2008).

http://www.mendikmatters.org/today-in-legal-history-brown-v-board-of-education/

Feb. 6, 2013 Computer games, virtual classroom with a discussion forum and video drama can be integrated in a common learning environment for teaching teenage children. This pedagogical approach has demonstrated the significance of using a variety of learning objects to achieve a common educational goal. In his PhD research, Mr Joseph Kizito Bada from Makerere University Business School, Kampala Uganda, designed computer games and a virtual classroom using pedagogical, cognitive and technological criteria. The learning environment (NetAIDS) consisted of the learning objects that Mr Bada designed with and experimented in a number of Ugandan schools for teaching HIV/AIDS basic facts and preventive measures. The acceptance rate of NetAIDS among school children was 80%. The researcher performed empirical testing on the key research variables and established that the use of computer games for HIV/AIDS education positively influenced the learning outcome. The virtual classroom with discussion forum positively influenced the learning process which in turn influenced the learning outcome. Half of the participants who used NetAIDS for HIV/AIDS education preferred computer games for lessons while the other half preferred virtual classroom with discussion forum. Therefore, integration of different learning objects in a common digital environment offers a variety of learning opportunities for the learners to freely choose what is more appropriate to each to learn something new. A new pedagogical approach (GASONEL) for integrating digital learning objects in a common environment with one educational goal was formulated with the corresponding software design method for developing similar digital environments. NetAIDS has shown the importance of using digital learning objects for HIV/AIDS education in Uganda; the same approach can be used in other countries as educational tool for educating school children about HIV/AIDS preventive measures or other health-related problems. HIV/AIDS epidemic has affected humankind in the last three decades with negative impact on development: it has claimed more than 30 million lives (WHO, 2010); increased the number of orphans to about 16 million (UNAIDS, 2010); weakened institutions by destroying the labor force; and increased expenditure of US$ 24 billion on countries by 2015 for fighting the epidemic (UNAIDS, World AIDS Day Report, 2012). At the present there is no known cure for the disease. Education has been described as social vaccine for HIV/AIDS prevention. Other social bookmarking and sharing tools: Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above. Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/02/130206093805.htm

By Danielle Torrent In stark contrast to southern Mexico’s surrounding dry plains, the mountains in Mesoamerica ascend into a secret world, enshrouded in fog. The mesmerizing flora and fauna create a mystical aura and the sounds of birds and Howler monkeys fill the air – picture a scene from “Avatar,” where mysterious creatures are a reality. Mesoamerican cloud forests are home to some of the most diverse plants and animals in the world. Like sponges, they store water from the clouds and release it slowly, a vital process for replenishing and sustaining water. Palpable moisture and mild temperatures on mountain slopes where they occur support numerous native, endangered communities scientists have only begun to explore. These biodiversity hotspots historically provided billions of gallons of fresh water, and yet the delicate ecosystems have been devastated for grazing, development, and coffee and coca farming. In northern Mesoamerica, which includes southern Mexico and Guatemala, 50 percent of the original cloud forest habitat has been destroyed and it occupies less than 1 percent of the total geographic area today. Cloud forests are naturally fragmented and among the most threatened habitats in the region. Hoping to create effective conservation plans for these important ecosystems, an international team of researchers analyzed genetic information of cloud forest plant and animal species to better understand the habitat’s evolutionary history. Using DNA markers and computer programs designed to reconstruct the past, scientists determined that while populations of diverse plants and animals endemic to the forests have similar geographic distributions today, they show genetic diversity among their populations – different cloud forest organisms from northern Mesoamerica may have complex different genetic histories. The research was published in PLOS One Feb. 7. “A species will occur in different areas, but each area has its own genetic fingerprint, just as humans that are from Africa, or Asia or North America would’ve had their own genetic history because of the long period of separation before lots of human migration and intermingling,” said study co-author Doug Soltis, a distinguished professor at the Florida Museum of Natural History and the University of Florida biology department. “Populations of the same species may look very similar, but genetically, they’re different.” Scientists have historically thought of cloud forests as a single habitat unit in northern Mesoamerica. These differences among populations reflect periods of isolation and different histories of migration over the past several million years during environmental changes, such as glaciations. “What this information means from a conservation standpoint is that you can’t pick one cloud forest area and say, ‘I’m just going to preserve what’s here in this one spot,’ ” Doug Soltis said. “To preserve genetic diversity, you really need to conserve areas that represent different belts, or regions of cloud forest.” In collaboration with colleagues from Mexico, Doug Soltis and Pam Soltis, also a distinguished professor at the Florida Museum of Natural History on the UF campus, conducted DNA analysis on five plant species: two trees, a shrub, a herbaceous plant and one epiphyte, a plant that grows upon another plant instead of in the soil. “Geographic breaks in different species at the same places may look like they were all caused by similar environmental factors, but when you add the time component, you can see that they actually occurred at different times,“ Pam Soltis said. “That’s one of the things I think is most fascinating about the results of the study.” Into the jungle In 2011, study co-authors traveled to Veracruz, Mexico, to conduct phylogenetic analyses on the species in surrounding cloud forests. Researchers used comparative phylogeography, a field of genetics in which scientists collect sample populations and use genetic markers to reconstruct the past. “This is like CSI, but in natural populations,” Doug Soltis said. Scientists analyzed DNA data for 15 different plant and animal species. In addition to the five plant species, they included three rodents and seven birds, three of which are hummingbird species. Eight of the species originated in North America, five in South America and two in Central America. The group represents the great diversity of organisms found in the highlands of northern Mesoamerica, which are recognized as one of Conservation International’s ‘Biodiversity Hotspots.’ “Even though we think of most of Mexico as having very dry-adapted organisms, in the cloud forests, you have a lot of very temperate or wet-adapted plants and animals,” Doug Soltis said. “A great example is the tree sweetgum, which we have growing here on the UF campus – it’s down in those cloud forests in southern Mexico even though it’s primarily a temperate plant from the eastern U.S. Beech trees are also there and you think of those as being in the northern United States, maybe in northern North Carolina or Virginia. The trees are growing there with tropical plants such as bromeliads and many ferns hanging from their branches. It’s a very striking place.” People of the forest One of the interesting aspects of cloud forest habitats in Mesoamerica is the way indigenous peoples have adapted to live in these areas. “It’s hard to go anywhere there and not find people,” Doug Soltis said. “There are little towns everywhere.” Many depend on the forests’ resources and land for farming in order to survive. Evidence of this adaptation is seen in how farmers use the shaded canopy of forests to grow coffee. “In one sense, a reason why some of these forests remain is because of the organic coffee demand – rather than cutting down a whole forest and just planting nothing but coffee there, farmers go in and cut out the understory, the low-growing plants that occur there, and plant coffee underneath the canopy of the trees,” Doug Soltis said. “It’s a blessing on the one hand because the forests might be gone otherwise, but on the other hand, it would be nice to have larger areas where you just keep the entire forest community intact.” Scientists hope this type of research will help prompt the Mexican government to support conservation of cloud forest habitats in national or regional parks, he said. “We talk about cloud forests as if it’s only one biological unit, but the worst thing that could happen is that this view could be used to lump everything together and we only protect one of these remaining areas of cloud forest,” Doug Soltis said. “That would be a bad conservation strategy and the genetic data provide the underpinnings for a more helpful strategy in which multiple areas are preserved.” “It is now a highly fragmented and damaged habitat that requires immediate protection before it is too late,” he said. Study co-authors include Juan Francisco Ornelas, Victoria Sosa, Clementina González, Carla Gutiérrez-Rodríguez, Alejandro Espinosa de los Monteros and Eduardo Ruiz-Sanchez of Instituto de Ecología, AC, Xalapa, in Veracruz, Mexico; Juan M. Daza of Universidad de Antioquia in Colombia; Todd A. Castoe of the University of Colorado School of Medicine; and Charles Bell of the University of New Orleans. The study may be viewed at http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0056283 Writer: Danielle Torrent, email@example.com

http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/science-stories/2013/02/19/museum-researchers-use-dna-evidence-to-understand-diversity-in-endangered-cloud-forests/

Copyright © University of Cambridge. All rights reserved. Why do this problem? , in line with the theme for this month, offers an 'action' to perform on a group of numbers which pupils can continue and explore. Or, you could think of the writing down of the 'description' of a sequence as an action performed on that sequence. It might particularly appeal to those pupils who enjoy number work but who are perhaps not used to succeeding in this area. Introduce the task by taking an example and work it through with the group/class of pupils, emphasising how careful we have to be with the simple act of counting. Give them plenty of time to explore their own choice of numbers before bringing them together to share findings. Depending on the age and experience of the learners, you may like to give them a separate sheet of paper simply to note down anything they notice as they work. Encourage them not to rub out as they go along so they have a record of their thoughts, to some extent. A whole-group discussion could focus on what they notice and what other questions they might have as a result of working on this task. Some children might be keen to try to explain their findings. Do encourage them in this, even if you are not sure of the reasons yourself. Admitting your possible uncertainty will spur them on! Tell me about what you see happening. What will you do now? Can you make any predictions before you start the next one? Change the rules so that only odd numbers are available, for example: Rule 1 - The starting number must have just three different digits chosen from $1, 3, 5, 7$ Rule 2 - The starting number should have four digits, so thousands, hundreds, tens and ones. For example, $3155$ or $1135$. Some children might like to find out about 'Golomb sequences' which are related to this task. Some pupils may need help in carefully counting the number of occurrences of each digit. It might, therefore, be useful for children to work in pairs so that someone else is always checking the counting.

http://nrich.maths.org/7302/note?nomenu=1

Neptune is, as of 2006, the last full planet in our solar system, and is the last of the gas giants that are filled to the brim with hydrogen and helium in their atmospheres. Like neighboring Uranus, Neptune’s blue color comes from methane. However, Neptune’s blue is brighter than the blue on Uranus, leaving scientists to wonder what causes the more vivid coloring. The planet completes an orbit around the sun every 165 Earth years with a day on the planet lasting a little over 16 Earth hours. Due to its distance from Earth (which changes over time given the planet’s odd orbital patterns), Neptune is not visible with the naked eye, and in fact the planet’s existence was hypothesized through math due to changes in Uranus’ orbit. Like Uranus, Neptune has not been the focus of much scientific research. Voyager 2, the first spacecraft to visit Uranus, was also the first and only spacecraft to visit Neptune, passing over the planet’s north pole in 1989. In 1998, scientists discovered that the planet had rings and ring arcs around it. (Text by Noel Kirkpatrick)

http://www.mnn.com/eco-glossary/neptune

THE plumes of hot magma that fuel the volcanism of "hotspots" like Hawaii and Iceland have long been thought to be efficient conduits of Earth's fiery contents. Yet it seems they can be rather lacklustre on their way to the surface. We traditionally picture the plumes of hot magma that rise through the mantle as mushroom-shaped with a thin stalk feeding a bulbous head, or hotspot, beneath the crust. However, seismic imaging in Iceland reveals a patchy structure without a stalk, leading some researchers to suggest there are no plumes at all. Ichiro Kumagai and colleagues at the Paris Institute of Earth Physics in France reckon they can explain these patchy structures. They created plumes by heating the base of a tank containing sugar syrups of varying densities, to simulate the composition of the mantle. The densest material was heated just enough to rise and create the core of ... To continue reading this article, subscribe to receive access to all of newscientist.com, including 20 years of archive content.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19926665.000

computer networkArticle Free Pass computer network, also called Network, two or more computers that are connected with one another for the purpose of communicating data electronically. Besides physically connecting computer and communication devices, a network system serves the important function of establishing a cohesive architecture that allows a variety of equipment types to transfer information in a near-seamless fashion. Two popular architectures are ISO Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) and IBM’s Systems Network Architecture (SNA). Two basic network types are local-area networks (LANs) and wide-area (or long-haul) networks. LANs connect computers and peripheral devices in a limited physical area, such as a business office, laboratory, or college campus, by means of permanent links (wires, cables, fibre optics) that transmit data rapidly. A typical LAN consists of two or more personal computers, printers, and high-capacity disk-storage devices called file servers, which enable each computer on the network to access a common set of files. LAN operating system software, which interprets input and instructs networked devices, allows users to communicate with each other; share the printers and storage equipment; and simultaneously access centrally located processors, data, or programs (instruction sets). LAN users may also access other LANs or tap into wide-area networks. LANs with similar architectures are linked by “bridges,” which act as transfer points. LANs with different architectures are linked by “gateways,” which convert data as it passes between systems. Wide-area networks connect computers and smaller networks to larger networks over greater geographic areas, including different continents. They may link the computers by means of cables, optical fibres, or satellites, but their users commonly access the networks via a modem (a device that allows computers to communicate over telephone lines). The largest wide-area network is the Internet, a collection of networks and gateways linking millions of computer users on every continent. What made you want to look up "computer network"? Please share what surprised you most...

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/130637/computer-network

The technical definition for aphasia is “the loss of ability to understand or express speech because of brain damage.” Simply put, aphasia refers to a condition in which an individual is unable to communicate. Primarily, they have problems with expression and the comprehension of language. Aphasia is often the result of a head injury or stroke. In less common cases, aphasia is the result of a brain tumor or a degenerative brain condition. In these cases, the severity of aphasia is determined by the location and extent of damage to the brain. Aphasia can vary by type and by the symptoms exhibited. Some of the most common aphasia types include non-fluent aphasia (also known as “expressive aphasia” or Broca’s aphasia), fluent aphasia, and global aphasia. Some of the symptoms observed in aphasic patients include: • Spelling errors • The inability to comprehend conversation • Broken speech (i.e., sentences that are short, incomplete, or incoherent) • Literal interpretation of figurative speech • Speaking in “gibberish” or using words that do not make sense Aphasia is a condition that requires immediate medical attention. An individual suffering from aphasia should consult a medical professional. For more information on aphasia, see below: © 2013 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

http://www.newsmax.com/FastFeatures/aphasia-aphasic-defineaphasia-expressiveaphasia/2011/06/07/id/399188

Before you go, here are a couple of things that you might find interesting: chomp() versus chop() In addition to the chomp() function used above, Perl also has a chop() function. While the chomp() function is used to remove the trailing newline if it exists, the chop() function is designed to remove the last character of a variable, irrespective of whether or not it is a newline character. #!/usr/bin/perl # set up the variables $sacrificial_goat1 = "boom"; $sacrificial_goat2 = "boom"; # chomp it! chomp($sacrificial_goat1); print($sacrificial_goat1, "\n"); # chop it! chop($sacrificial_goat2); print($sacrificial_goat2, "\n"); Assignment operators versus equality operators An important point to note - and one which many novice programmers fall foul of - is the difference between the assignment operator [=] and the equality operator [==]. The former is used to assign a value to a variable, while the latter is used to test for equality in a conditional expression. $a = 47; assigns the value 47 to the variable $a, while $a == 47 tests whether the value of $a is equal to 47. Special characters and print() As you've seen, print() can be used in either one of two ways: #!/usr/bin/perl $day = "Tuesday"; print("Today is ", $day); #!/usr/bin/perl $day = "Tuesday"; print "Today is $day"; both of which are equivalent, and return this output: Today is Tuesday But now try replacing the double quotes with singles, and watch what happens: #!/usr/bin/perl $day = "Tuesday"; print 'Today is $day'; Your output should now read Today is $day Thus, single quotes turn off Perl's "variable interpolation" - simply, the ability to replace variables with their actual value when executing a program. This also applies to special characters like the newline character - single quotes will cause Perl to print the newline character as part of the string, while double quotes will allow it to recognize the character correctly. You should note this difference in behaviour, if only to save yourself a few minutes of debugging time. The second thing to note about print() is that you need to "escape" special characters with a backslash. Take a look at this example: #!/usr/bin/perl print("She said "Hello" to me, and my heart skipped a beat."); When you run this, you'll see a series of error messages - this is because the multiple sets of double quotes within the print() function call confuse Perl. And so, if you'd like your output to contain double quotes [or other special characters], it's necessary to escape them with a preceding backslash. #!/usr/bin/perl print("She said \"Hello\" to me, and my heart skipped a beat."); As to what happens next - you'll have to wait for the next lesson in this series, when we'll be teaching you a few more control structures and introducing you to the different types of loops supported by Perl. See you then! This article copyright Melonfire 2000. All rights reserved. blog comments powered by Disqus

http://www.devshed.com/c/a/Perl/Perl-101-Part-2--Of-Variables-And-Operators/7/

drift is a profoundly important subject because very often it explains why major geological structures like mountain ranges and great valleys are where they are, why volcanoes erupt, and much, much more... Some 350 million years ago the Earth's landmasses were all clumped together into a supercontinent that today we call Pangea. The supposed appearance of this huge landmass is shown above, with today's continents pencilled in. In fact, before Pangea, there had been yet another supercontinent called Rondinia, which fragmented around 650 million years ago. Well, all this is almost too much to believe, but it's all been worked out and the proof for it is wonderful to learn about, and the consequences of it are mind-boggling to think about. You can learn all about continental drift and geological processes associated with it at the Berkeley University Plate Tectonics Site, where you can even view an animation showing how the the continents have drifted during the last 750 million years!

http://www.backyardnature.net/g/contdrft.htm

Applied Force (Fapp) – An applied force is the force that a person applies to an object. It is any push or pull caused by a person. Weight (FG) – The weight of an object measures how heavy it is. It is caused by earth’s gravity pulling on the object. It can be calculated using the mass of the object: FG = mg Normal Force (FN) – The normal force is the force of a surface pushing back against an object. It measures how much a surface (like the ground or a table) must push back to support the weight of an object. For example, if you place a 2 lb book on a table, the table must push up on the book with a force of 2 lbs in order to support the weight. Tension (FT) – Tension is a force that is being applied by a rope, cable, or string. Friction (Ff) – Friction is a force that always opposes motion. It is caused when two rough surfaces scrape against each other. Even surfaces that seem very smooth have friction because of microscopic bumps and cracks on its surface. It can be calculated using the normal force: Ff = μ FN. The symbol “μ” is the coefficient of friction. It measures how rough the surface is; the larger the coefficient, the rougher the surface.

http://brentwoodphysics.tumblr.com/

Any action, practice, or belief that reflects the racial worldview—the ideology that humans are divided into separate and exclusive biological entities called “races,” that there is a causal link between inherited physical traits and traits of personality, intellect, morality, and other cultural behavioral features, and that some “races” are innately superior to others. Racism was at the heart of North American slavery and the overseas colonization and empire-building activities of some western Europeans, especially in the 18th century. The idea of race was invented to magnify the differences between people of European origin in the U.S. and those of African descent whose ancestors had been brought against their will to function as slaves in the American South. By viewing Africans and their descendants as lesser human beings, the proponents of slavery attempted to justify and maintain this system of exploitation while at the same time portraying the U.S. as a bastion and champion of human freedom, with human rights, democratic institutions, unlimited opportunities, and equality. The contradiction between slavery and the ideology of human equality, accompanying a philosophy of human freedom and dignity, seemed to demand the dehumanization of those enslaved. By the 19th century racism had matured and the idea spread around the world. Racism differs from ethnocentrism in that it is linked to physical and therefore immutable differences among people. Ethnic identity is acquired, and ethnic features are learned forms of behaviour. Race, on the other hand, is a form of identity that is perceived as innate and unalterable. In the last half of the 20th century several conflicts around the world were interpreted in racial terms even though their origins were in the ethnic hostilities that have long characterized many human societies (e.g., Arabs and Jews, English and Irish). Racism reflects an acceptance of the deepest forms and degrees of divisiveness and carries the implication that differences among groups are so great that they cannot be transcended. Seealso ethnic group; sociocultural evolution. Learn more about racism with a free trial on Britannica.com. Racialism entails a belief in the existence and significance of racial categories, but not necessarily in a hierarchy between the races, or in any political or ideological position of racial supremacy. One racialist position is the controversial claim of a measurable correlation between race and intelligence, or race and crime. Less controversial observations on correlations of e.g. race and height or race and disease are strictly speaking also racialist positions. It is important to note, however, that this distribution of meanings between the two terms used to be precisely inverse at the time they were coined: The Oxford English Dictionary glosses racialism as "belief in the superiority of a particular race" and gives a 1907 quote as the first recorded use. The term racism is glossed by the OED as "[t]he theory that distinctive human characteristics and abilities are determined by race", giving 1936 as the first recorded use. Additionally, the OED records racism as a synonym of racialism: "belief in the superiority of a particular race". By the end of World War II, racism had acquired the same supremacist connotations as racialism: racism now implied racial discrimination, racial supremacism and a harmful intent. Since the 1960s, some authors have introduced a new meaning for the less-current racialism: Black civil rights activist W. E. B. Du Bois introduced racialism as having the same meaning as racism had prior to WWII, i.e. the philosophical belief that differences exist between human races, be they biological, social, psychological or in the realm of the soul. He reserved the use of racism to refer to the belief that one's particular race is superior to the others (viz., precisely the inverse of the OED definitions). Scholar Molefi Kete Asante criticised DuBois for this definition of racialism in The Afrocentric Idea (1992) where he defines racialism as "...the view…that there are heritable characteristics, possessed by members of our species, which allow us to divide them into a small set of races, in such a way that all the members of these races share certain traits and tendencies with each other that they do not share with members of any other race." Philosopher Pierre-André Taguieff has used the word racialism as a perfect synonym of scientific racism, to distinguish it from popular racism; He uses the term racialism to mean racism that claims to be scientifically founded. Arthur Gobineau's An Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races (1853-55) is an example of such racialism. Human zoos have been an important component of both popular racism and racialism, popularizing colonialism to the masses and was a subject of curiosity for anthropology and anthropometric studies, until at least the 1930s. The field of whiteness studies examines the idea that race is a category that only applies to groups that are perceived to be different in some way. This area of scholarship scrutinizes the ways in which white people have become the standard against which all races are marked. Current racialist positions have moved away from 19th century classifications and rely instead on genetics, studying physiological differences between groups such as race and height, but also more complex, and thus controversial, questions like race and intelligence or race and health. In the mid-20th century, support for some of the classical terminology of scientific racism declined among anthropologists: scientific support for the "Caucasoid", "Negroid", "Mongoloid" terminology has fallen steadily over the past century. Whereas 78 percent of the articles in the 1931 volume of Journal of Physical Anthropology employed these or similar terms, only 36 percent did so in 1965 (see African-American Civil Rights Movement (1955-1968)), and just 28 percent did in 1996. In February 2001, the editors of the medical journal Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine asked authors to no longer use "race" as explanatory variable, nor to use obsolescent terms. Other peer-reviewed journals, such as the New England Journal of Medicine and the American Journal of Public Health, have done the same. The National Institutes of Health issued a program announcement for grant applications through February 1, 2006, specifically seeking researchers to investigate and publicize the detrimental effects of using racial classifications within the healthcare field. The program announcement quoted the editors of one journal as saying that "analysis by race and ethnicity has become an analytical knee-jerk reflex. Racialist vocabulary with inconsistent definitions is still used in medicine to a small extent, even when it has vanished from some census agencies and everyday speech. Genetics has renewed racialist perspectives, combining with the racialist perspectives of craniofacial anthropometry. Racialism in genetics is criticized as being subjective and otherwise inappropriate, although this tends to be a matter of bias.

http://www.reference.com/browse/racialism

Selection bias is a statistical bias in which there is an error in choosing the individuals or groups to take part in a scientific study. It is sometimes referred to as the selection effect. The phrase "selection bias" most often refers to the distortion of a statistical analysis, resulting from the method of collecting samples. If the selection bias is not taken into account then certain conclusions drawn may be wrong. There are many types of possible selection bias, including: Sampling bias is systematic error due to a non-random sample of a population, causing some members of the population to be less likely to be included than others, resulting in a biased sample, defined as a statistical sample of a population (or non-human factors) in which all participants are not equally balanced or objectively represented. It is mostly classified as a subtype of selection bias, sometimes specifically termed sample selection bias, but some classify it as a separate type of bias. A distinction, albeit not universally accepted, of sampling bias is that it undermines the external validity of a test (the ability of its results to be generalized to the rest of the population), while selection bias mainly addresses internal validity for differences or similarities found in the sample at hand. In this sense, errors occurring in the process of gathering the sample or cohort cause sampling bias, while errors in any process thereafter cause selection bias. Examples of sampling bias include self-selection, pre-screening of trial participants, discounting trial subjects/tests that did not run to completion and migration bias by excluding subjects who have recently moved into or out of the study area. - Early termination of a trial at a time when its results support a desired conclusion. - A trial may be terminated early at an extreme value (often for ethical reasons), but the extreme value is likely to be reached by the variable with the largest variance, even if all variables have a similar mean. - Susceptibility bias - Clinical susceptibility bias, when one disease predisposes for a second disease, and the treatment for the first disease erroneously appears to predispose to the second disease. For example, postmenopausal syndrome gives a higher likelihood of also developing endometrial cancer, so estrogens given for the postmenopausal syndrome may receive a higher than actual blame for causing endometrial cancer. - Protopathic bias, when a treatment for the first symptoms of a disease or other outcome appear to cause the outcome. It is a potential bias when there is a lag time from the first symptoms and start of treatment before actual diagnosis. It can be mitigated by lagging, that is, exclusion of exposures that occurred in a certain time period before diagnosis. - Indication bias, a potential mix up between cause and effect when exposure is dependent on indication, e.g. a treatment is given to people in high risk of acquiring a disease, potentially causing a preponderance of treated people among those acquiring the disease. This may cause an erroneous appearance of the treatment being a cause of the disease. - Partitioning data with knowledge of the contents of the partitions, and then analyzing them with tests designed for blindly chosen partitions. - Rejection of "bad" data on arbitrary grounds, instead of according to previously stated or generally agreed criteria. - Rejection of "outliers" on statistical grounds that fail to take into account important information that could be derived from "wild" observations. - Selection of which studies to include in a meta-analysis (see also combinatorial meta-analysis). - Performing repeated experiments and reporting only the most favorable results, perhaps relabelling lab records of other experiments as "calibration tests", "instrumentation errors" or "preliminary surveys". - Presenting the most significant result of a data dredge as if it were a single experiment (which is logically the same as the previous item, but is seen as much less dishonest). Attrition bias is a kind of selection bias caused by attrition (loss of participants), discounting trial subjects/tests that did not run to completion. It includes dropout, nonresponse (lower response rate), withdrawal and protocol deviators. It gives biased results where it is unequal in regard to exposure and/or outcome. For example, in a test of a dieting program, the researcher may simply reject everyone who drops out of the trial, but most of those who drop out are those for whom it was not working. Different loss of subjects in intervention and comparison group may change the characteristics of these groups and outcomes irrespective of the studied intervention. Data is filtered not only by study design and measurement, but by the necessary precondition that there has to be someone doing a study. In situations where the existence of the observer or the study is correlated with the data observation selection effects occur, and anthropic reasoning is required. An example is the past impact event record of Earth: if large impacts cause mass extinctions and ecological disruptions precluding the evolution of intelligent observers for long periods, no one will observe any evidence of large impacts in the recent past (since they would have prevented intelligent observers from evolving). Hence there is a potential bias in the impact record of Earth. Astronomical existential risks might similarly be underestimated due to selection bias, and an anthropic correction has to be introduced. In the general case, selection biases cannot be overcome with statistical analysis of existing data alone, though Heckman correction may be used in special cases. An informal assessment of the degree of selection bias can be made by examining correlations between exogenous (background) variables and a treatment indicator. However, in regression models, it is correlation between unobserved determinants of the outcome and unobserved determinants of selection into the sample which bias estimates, and this correlation between unobservables cannot be directly assessed by the observed determinants of treatment. Selection bias is closely related to: - publication bias or reporting bias, the distortion produced in community perception or meta-analyses by not publishing uninteresting (usually negative) results, or results which go against the experimenter's prejudices, a sponsor's interests, or community expectations. - confirmation bias, the distortion produced by experiments that are designed to seek confirmatory evidence instead of trying to disprove the hypothesis. - exclusion bias, results from applying different criteria to cases and controls in regards to participation eligibility for a study/different variables serving as basis for exclusion. - Berkson's paradox - Black Swan theory - Cherry picking (fallacy) - Funding bias - List of cognitive biases - Reporting bias - Sampling bias - Self-fulfilling prophecy - Publication bias - Participation bias - Survivorship bias - Dictionary of Cancer Terms → selection bias. Retrieved on September 23, 2009. - Medical Dictionary - 'Sampling Bias' Retrieved on September 23, 2009 - TheFreeDictionary → biased sample. Retrieved on 2009-09-23. Site in turn cites: Mosby's Medical Dictionary, 8th edition. - Dictionary of Cancer Terms → Selection Bias. Retrieved on September 23, 2009. - The effects of sample selection bias on racial differences in child abuse reporting Ards S, Chung C, Myers SL Jr. Child Abuse Negl. 1999 Dec;23(12):1209; author reply 1211-5. PMID 9504213. - Sample Selection Bias Correction Theory Corinna Cortes, Mehryar Mohri, Michael Riley, and Afshin Rostamizadeh. New York University. - Domain Adaptation and Sample Bias Correction Theory and Algorithm for Regression Corinna Cortes, Mehryar Mohri. New York University. - Page 262 in: Behavioral Science. Board Review Series. By Barbara Fadem. ISBN 0-7817-8257-0, ISBN 978-0-7817-8257-9. 216 pages - Feinstein AR, Horwitz RI (November 1978). "A critique of the statistical evidence associating estrogens with endometrial cancer". Cancer Res. 38 (11 Pt 2): 4001–5. PMID 698947. - Tamim H, Monfared AA, LeLorier J (March 2007). "Application of lag-time into exposure definitions to control for protopathic bias". Pharmacoepidemiol Drug Saf 16 (3): 250–8. doi:10.1002/pds.1360. PMID 17245804. - Matthew R. Weir (2005). Hypertension (Key Diseases) (Acp Key Diseases Series). Philadelphia, Pa: American College of Physicians. p. 159. ISBN 1-930513-58-5. - Kruskal, W. (1960) Some notes on wild observations, Technometrics. - Jüni P, Egger M. Empirical evidence of attrition bias in clinical trials. Int J Epidemiol. 2005 Feb;34(1):87-8. - Nick Bostrom, Anthropic Bias: Observation selection effects in science and philosophy. Routledge, New York 2002 - Milan M. Církovic, Anders Sandberg, and Nick Bostrom. Anthropic Shadow: Observation Selection Effects and Human Extinction Risks. Risk Analysis, Vol. 30, No. 10, 2010. - Max Tegmark and Nick Bostrom, How unlikely is a doomsday catastrophe? Nature, Vol. 438 (2005): 75. arXiv:astro-ph/0512204 - Heckman, J. (1979) Sample selection bias as a specification error. Econometrica, 47, 153–61.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selection_bias

The small intestine is made up of the duodenum, jejunum, and ileum. Together with the large intestine and the stomach it forms the gastrointestinal tract. In living humans, the small intestine alone measures around six meters. After death, this length can increase by up to half. It has a surface area of over 200 meters The internal walls of the organ are covered in villi, themselves harbouring subsections called microvilli, which increase the surface area available for the absorption of nutrients. Food already broken down by chewing and stomach enzymes, is degraded by further enzymes. Some of these chemicals are secreted in the lumen, but others are transported to the intestine from other organs such as the pancreas and liver. Depending on the type of nutrient or vitamin being absorbed, this may take place in different sections of the small intestine. Once fully reduced to a chemical level the molecules pass through the walls of the intestine into the bloodstream. Peristalsis, contraction of the muscle walls, is the force that propels matter through the small intestine. It is a slow process, allowing the food matter to mix with the digestive juices. Written and medically reviewed by the Healthline Editorial Team In Depth: Small intestine

http://www.healthline.com/human-body-maps/small-intestine

From Ohio History Central The Republican Party began in 1854 as a result of the Kansas-Nebraska Act. This legislation split Whig Party members along regional lines. Former Northern Whigs united with members of the Free Soil Party and the American Party to create the Republican Party. Republican Party members generally opposed slavery, but many of these people also believed that the federal government could not end slavery where it already existed. Most Republicans initially opposed granting African Americans equal rights with whites when and if slavery ever ended. During the American Civil War, a more extreme group of Republicans called the Radical Republicans became quite influential in the party. The radicals believed that the Civil War had to end slavery. They felt the South's agrarian economy centered on slave labor was ineffective. The South needed to adopt a free-labor economy so that the United States could emerge as one of the leading economic powers in the world. White Southerners also needed to end slavery for moral reasons. Radical Republicans believed that African Americans deserved immediate freedom from bondage and should receive the same rights as whites. Radical Republicans favored granting civil rights to African Americans for various reasons. Some radicals truly believed that African Americans were equals to the whites. Other Radical Republicans hoped to create a political base for the Republican Party in the South. Radical Republicans in Ohio did have some political successes during and immediately following the Civil War. For example, most Ohioans supported the adoption of the Thirteenth Amendment. This amendment formally ended slavery in the United States in 1865. Only one of Ohio's representatives in Congress opposed the amendment's ratification. Governor John Brough encouraged the Ohio legislature to approve the amendment, and both houses did so with significant majorities. Despite their support for emancipation, many Ohioans did not necessarily believe that Ohio's African Americans deserved the same rights as whites. The efforts of Radical Republicans to work for equal rights for African Americans, led to political conflict in Ohio. Many Ohioans initially approved the Fourteenth Amendment, which granted African Americans equal protection under the law. Members of the Union Party, a conglomeration of Ohio's Republican Party and pro-war Democrats, strongly supported the amendment. Former Peace Democrats usually objected to all parts of it. The Peace Democrats claimed that the amendment empowered African Americans, while it denied former white Confederates constitutional guarantees. While some of these people opposed slavery, many of them also believed that African Americans were inferior to whites. The Ohio General Assembly with Union Party members in control of both houses of the legislature approved the Fourteenth Amendment on January 4, 1867. In the state elections of 1867, the Union Party lost control of the General Assembly to former Peace Democrats. The Democrats quickly moved to rescind Ohio's ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment. On January 15, 1868, the Ohio legislature voted to reverse its earlier decision. Despite the Ohio legislature's action, the federal government continued to count Ohio as one of the three-fourths of the states necessary for the amendment's final approval. Ohio ratified the Fourteenth Amendment a second time on September 17, 2003. Since the Civil War's conclusion, Ohio citizens had debated whether or not to permit African-American men to vote. Members of the Democratic Party, especially former Peace Democrats, generally opposed suffrage for black men. Republicans supported extending the right to vote to African-American men. When the United States Congress submitted the Fifteenth Amendment to the states for approval, Democrats controlled the Ohio legislature and refused to ratify the amendment. Governor Rutherford B. Hayes, a Republican, supported the amendment. In the state elections of 1869, Hayes retained his seat by a slim margin of 7,500 votes. The Republicans gained a slight majority in both houses of the General Assembly. The legislature ratified the Fifteenth Amendment in 1870. The Ohio Senate approved it by a single vote, and the Ohio House ratified it with just a two-vote majority. Ohio's Republicans had expected an easy victory in the state elections of 1869. Many white Ohioans, however, objected to granting suffrage to African-American men. Following the adoption of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments, the power and influence of the Radical Republicans began to decline. Many radicals believed that they had accomplished their goals for African Americans. Other people became disenchanted with the federal government's inability to stop the violence toward African-Americans in the South. They saw no way to continue the struggle to secure the rights of African Americans and decided to move on to other issues. - Bogue, Allan G. The Earnest Men: Republicans of the Civil War Senate. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1981. - Calhoun, Charles William. Conceiving a New Republic: The Republican Party and the Southern Question, 1869-1900. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2006. - Dee, Christine, ed. Ohio's War: The Civil War in Documents. Athens: Ohio University Press, 2007. - Donald, David Herbert. The Politics of Reconstruction, 1863-1867. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1984. - Foner, Eric. A Short History of Reconstruction. New York, NY: Harper & Row, 1990. - Jordan, Philip D. Ohio Comes of Age: 1874-1899. Columbus: Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society, 1943. - Mantell, Martin E. Johnson, Grant, and the Politics of Reconstruction. New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 1973. - Reid, Whitelaw. Ohio in the War: Her Statesmen, Generals and Soldiers. Cincinnati, OH: Clarke, 1895. - Richardson, Heather Cox. The Death of Reconstruction: Race, Labor, and Politics in the Post-Civil War North, 1865-1901. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2001. - Roseboom, Eugene H. The Civil War Era: 1850-1873. Columbus: Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society, 1944. - Simpson, Brooks D. Let Us Have Peace: Ulysses S. Grant and the Politics of War and Reconstruction, 1861-1868. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1991. - Simpson, Brooks D. The Reconstruction Presidents. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1998. - Slap, Andrew L. The Doom of Reconstruction: The Liberal Republicans in the Civil War Era. New York, NY: Fordham University Press, 2006.

http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Radical_Republicans?rec=623

|NASA CONNECT: Dancing in the Night Sky| In this program, students learn about the Aurora Borealis or Northern Lights. They learn the many legends and myths that have revolved around the aurora throughout human history. Students also discover how NASA scientists and engineers use satellite technology to measure and analyze aurora data, as well as how Norwegian scientists study the Northern Lights by using ground-based instruments and sounding rockets. Students plot the auroral oval in the northern hemisphere and determine the height of the northern lights using Carl Stormer?s triangulation method. Length: 30:00. Intended for grade levels: Type of resource: No specific technical requirements, just a browser required Cost / Copyright: Cost information is not known Copyright and other restrictions information is unknown. DLESE Catalog ID: NASA-ESERevSProd236 Resource contact / Creator / Publisher:

http://www.dlese.org/library/catalog_NASA-ESERevSProd236.htm

Welcome to Ohio Civil War Central An Encyclopedia. An Almanac. An Atlas. An exhaustive look at Ohio in the Civil War. From 1861 to 1865, the United States of America was torn apart by a Civil War, divided between the North and the South, the Union and the Confederacy, the free states and the slave states. The causes of the war were many, and ran deep. From the founding of the nation through the election of President Lincoln in 1860, the issues festered until finally South Carolina declared its independence in December of 1860. More states followed and in 1861 they formed their own nation, with their own constitution. They called themselves the Confederate States of America. Soon after, the new President called for volunteers to come, join the Federal army and help put down the rebellion of the Southern states. From all over the Northern states, territories and even some Southern states, men of all ages volunteered. Tens of thousands of Ohioans answered the call, including 10-year-old Gilbert Van Zandt, and by the time the war ended in 1865 more than 310,000 had served their country, fought against their brethren, and helped to restore the Union of North and South. When the war first broke out in Charleston Harbor on the morning of April 12, 1861, many people on both sides thought it would end quickly. Very few foresaw the bloodshed that would occur, and even fewer realized the havoc and atrocities that advances in weaponry would wreak. Initially, the Confederate forces held their own, and even managed to embarrass the Union army on more than one occasion. Hampered by indecisive leaders in the Eastern Theater, the Union army failed to subdue the Army of Northern Virginia, led by Robert E. Lee. But in the Western Theater, the Union armies were led by men who understood war and were decisive. In July of 1863, the war turned in favor of the North when Lee was repulsed in the bloodiest battle that has ever taken place on American soil -- Gettysburg -- and control of the Mississippi River was won when Vicksburg fell to Union forces led by a man from Ohio -- Ulysses S. Grant. Grant would go on to lead the Union army to victory in the war, but he had help from other Ohioans, namely William T. Sherman and Philip Sheridan. When it was all said and done, right or wrong, it was Ohioans who made the tough decisions, implemented the crippling strategy and eventually exhausted, outlasted and demoralized the Southern armies. Ohio Civil War Central has been developed as a way to document the contributions of the brave men from Ohio that volunteered to serve their country at time of great division, of great unrest, and an upheaval that changed the course of this great nation. We invite you to explore this site, which will continue to grow and expand over time as we work to develop the most comprehensive, authoritative resource covering the impact of Ohio on the outcome of the Civil War. Almanac for May 22 Events from this day in history related to the American Civil War. There are no events for this day. Civil War Books You can help support Ohio Civil War Central's ongoing development by purchasing books, like the ones below, from Amazon.com.

http://www.ohiocivilwarcentral.com/index.php

This article describes the formula syntax and usage of the CONCATENATE function (function: A prewritten formula that takes a value or values, performs an operation, and returns a value or values. Use functions to simplify and shorten formulas on a worksheet, especially those that perform lengthy or complex calculations.) in Microsoft Office Excel. The CONCATENATE function joins up to 255 text strings into one text string. The joined items can be text, numbers, cell references, or a combination of those items. For example, if your worksheet contains a person's first name in cell A1 and the person's last name in cell B1, you can combine the two values in another cell by using the following formula: The second argument in this example (" ") is a space character. You must specify any spaces or punctuation that you want to appear in the results as an argument that is enclosed in quotation marks. CONCATENATE(text1, [text2], ...) The CONCATENATE function syntax has the following arguments (argument: A value that provides information to an action, an event, a method, a property, a function, or a procedure.): - text1 Required. The first text item to be concatenated. - text2 ... Optional. Additional text items, up to a maximum of 255 items. The items must be separated by commas. Note You can also use the ampersand (&) calculation operator instead of the CONCATENATE function to join text items. For example, =A1 & B1 returns the same value as =CONCATENATE(A1, B1). The example may be easier to understand if you copy it to a blank worksheet. How do I copy an example? - Select the example in this article. If you are copying the example in Excel Web App, copy and paste one cell at a time.Important Do not select the row or column headers. Selecting an example from Help - Press CTRL+C. - Create a blank workbook or worksheet. - In the worksheet, select cell A1, and press CTRL+V. If you are working in Excel Web App, repeat copying and pasting for each cell in the example. Important For the example to work properly, you must paste it into cell A1 of the worksheet. - To switch between viewing the results and viewing the formulas that return the results, press CTRL+` (grave accent), or on the Formulas tab, in the Formula Auditing group, click the Show Formulas button. After you copy the example to a blank worksheet, you can adapt it to suit your needs. |=CONCATENATE("Stream population for ",A2," ",A3," is ",A4,"/mile") ||Creates a sentence by concatenating the data in column A with other text. ||Stream population for brook trout species is 32/mile |=CONCATENATE(B2, " ", C2) ||Concatenates the string in cell B2, a space character, and the value in cell C2. |=CONCATENATE(C2, ", ", B2) ||Concatenates the string in cell C2, a string consisting of a comma and a space character, and the value in cell B2. |=CONCATENATE(B3," & ",C3) ||Concatenates the string in cell B3, a string consisting of a space, an ampersand, another space, and the value in cell C3. ||Fourth & Pine |=B3 & " & " & C3 ||Concatenates the same items as the previous example, but by using the ampersand (&) calculation operator instead of the CONCATENATE function. ||Fourth & Pine

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/concatenate-function-HP010062562.aspx?CTT=5&origin=HA010248390

Animal Info -> Classification of Animals -> Invertebrates > Protozoa Protozoa are single celled organisms that are very diverse groups. They vary in their size, shape, features, and habitat. The characteristic of the protozoa are usually liked with other animals. The most common characteristic of the protozoa are mobility and heterotrophy. Protozoa are grouped in the kingdom Protista. There are about 92,000 described species of protozoa in the world. The protozoa can be seen in all the habitats including freshwater, marine water, and terrestrial soil. Most of the protozoa are the agents for human diseases like malarial and parasitic diseases. Normally the protozoa range from 10 to micrometer but some has the capacity to grow up to 1mm. The protozoa cannot be seen with the naked eye. They can be seen only under the microscope. The protozoa move with the help of flagella a whip like tail structure. Protozoa reproduce through both sexually and asexually means. To know more about their characteristics refer to the page Characteristic of Protozoa. Protozoa prey on unicellular and filamentous algae as a predator. In the food chain the protozoa play a very important role both as herbivores and consumers. They mainly control the growth of bacterial population. The protozoa in take their food with the help of the cell membrane. Some of the protozoa surround their prey and swallow them and some others have an opening called the mouth pores through which they sweep the food. The foods eaten by them are digested in the vacuoles a stomach like compartments. The protozoa have a skeletal structure called a Pellicle which consists of the plasma membrane and cytoskeleton. Plasma membrane act as the outer surface and the cytoskeleton consists of the additional membranes, microtubules, plates, and microfilaments. The pellicle is in the shape of the cell. To know more about the body structures of the take a visit to the page Anatomy of the Protozoa. Protozoa can be further classified on the basis of locomotion. They are: To get a brief idea about each classification move to the page Classification of Protozoa.

http://www.animalsworlds.com/protozoa.html

Until 1992, when California’s magnitude-7.3 Landers earthquake set off small jolts as far away as Yellowstone National Park, scientists did not believe large earthquakes sparked smaller tremors at distant locations. Now, a definitive study shows large earthquakes routinely trigger smaller jolts worldwide, including on the opposite side of the planet and in areas not prone to quakes. “Previously it was thought seismically active regions or geothermal areas were most vulnerable to large earthquake triggers,” says Kris Pankow, a seismologist at the University of Utah Seismograph Stations and a co-author of the new study. But Pankow and colleagues analyzed 15 major earthquakes stronger than magnitude-7.0 since 1992, and found that at least 12 of them triggered small quakes hundreds and even thousands of miles away, according to the findings published online Sunday, May 25, 2008 in the journal Nature Geoscience. “We conclude that dynamic triggering is a ubiquitous phenomenon,” they wrote. Pankow conducted the study with seismologist Aaron Velasco and undergraduate student Stephen Hernandez, both at the University of Texas at El Paso; and seismologist Tom Parsons, of U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park, Calif. They analyzed data from more than 500 seismic recording stations five hours before and five hours after earthquakes that registered more than 7.0 on the “moment magnitude” scale, which scientists say is the most accurate scale for large earthquakes. (The frequently cited Richter scale measures only relatively small, nearby quakes). The data – obtained from the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology, a consortium of universities – included 15 major earthquakes from 1992 through 2006, including the 1992 Landers quake in California 800 miles southwest of Yellowstone, the magnitude-7.9 Denali fault quake in Alaska in 2002, and the magnitude-9.2 Sumatra-Andaman Islands quake near Indonesia in 2004 that generated a catastrophic tsunami blamed for most of the quake’s 227,898 deaths in South Asia and East Africa. Scientists previously noted that those three major quakes triggered not only nearby aftershocks, but small quakes at great distances. The new study is the first to systematically analyze all the world’s big quakes during 1992-2006 and find that most of them triggered distant, smaller tremors. These are different than aftershocks, which occur fairly close to the main quake. After the devastating 2004 Sumatra earthquake, triggered quakes even occurred in Ecuador, on the opposite side of the Earth. Earthquakes Release Waves of Energy When an earthquake begins, energy is released in the form of shock waves that move through the ground. The first waves are called P or pressure waves, which move at high speed with an up-and-down motion. The next waves are S or shear waves. These move from side to side, causing much damage from an earthquake. The next waves are two types of surface waves: Love waves move in a shearing fashion, followed by Rayleigh waves, which have a rolling motion. Pankow and colleagues showed that magnitude-4 or smaller seismic events often are triggered when either Love or Rayleigh waves from a major quake pass a given point. “We can recognize the different kinds of waves as they pass and can filter out everything except the small seismic events, which are presumed to be local small earthquakes,” says Pankow. There are about 600 small seismic events around the Earth every five minutes. For five hours after the arrival of Love waves from a major quake, the researchers saw a 37 percent increase in the number of small quakes worldwide. And after Rayleigh waves from the same large quake followed the Love waves, the number of small quakes worldwide shot up by 60 percent during the five hours after the major quake. “It is interesting that Rayleigh and Love waves, two very different types of surface waves, are both able to trigger these events,” says Pankow. In addition to the 1992 Landers, 2002 Denali and 2004 Sumatra-Andaman Islands quakes, the other 12 major quakes in the study (and their moment magnitudes) were: 1998 Balleny Island near Antarctica (8.1), 1999 Izmit, Turkey (7.6), 1999 Hector Mine, Calif. (7.1), 2000 New Ireland, Papua New Guinea (8.0), 2001 Peru (8.4), 2001 Kunlun, China (7.8), 2003 Hokkaido, Japan (8.3), 2003 Siberia, Russia (7.3), 2004 Macquarie Ridge, near New Zealand (8.1), 2005 Sumatra, Indonesia (8.7), 2006 Java, Indonesia (7.7) and 2006 Kuril Islands, Russia (8.3). Only the Hector Mine, Siberia, and Kuril Islands quakes did not show triggering events in the study. But it is known from previous studies that the Hector Mine earthquake indeed triggered smaller quakes near California’s Salton Sea. Those were not included in the study, because they were within about 680 miles of the main shock’s epicenter. Researchers excluded triggered quakes within that distance to avoid counting aftershocks in the same category as more distant triggered quakes. How do the surface waves trigger small earthquakes at distant locations? “The physical mechanism is not known,” says Pankow. “It has been proposed that the passage of the waves may change the water flow in a fault, possibly increasing the number of conduits that water can flow through which could cause the fault to slip.” Other theories are that surface waves may increase the strain on a fault, or loosen a fault so that it prematurely breaks or slides, she adds. The study was funded by the United States Geological Survey and the National Science Foundation, Pankow says. Source: University of Utah Explore further: Professor argues Earth's mantle affects long-term sea-level rise estimates

http://phys.org/news130942304.html

Mouse-over a link for a quick definition or click to read more in-depth! - Signed in 1991 in the city of Maastricht in the Netherlands, this treaty created the European Union and laid out the plans for the formation of a monetary union by 1999. - It was understood that in order for the monetary union to be successful, its members needed to be part of an “optimal currency area”, and that stability among members was extremely important. In order to meet these requirements, the Maastricht Treaty set out convergence and stability criteria that had to be met before a country could become a member of the EMU. The criteria were as follows (see here): - Inflation was to be no more than 1.5 percentage points above that of the 3 lowest inflation rates in EMU members. - This was to insure that monetary policies were similar across countries as well as to gauge whether a country was susceptible to asymmetric shocks. - Government deficits were limited to be no larger than 3 percent of GDP. - This was to promote stability by overcoming Europe’s deficit bias. - Government debt was limited to be no larger than 60 percent of GDP. - This rule was not enforced, as most EMU members were unable to meet this criterion before 1999. As long as a potential member was reducing debt levels (through good management of deficit positions) they were allowed to enter the EMU. - The potential member had to demonstrate exchange rate stability by being a member in the exchange rate mechanism (ERM) for at least 2 years prior to joining the EMU. In the ERM a country’s central bank is required to keep exchange rate fluctuations within a specified rage. - This was again used to align monetary policy before joining the union, as well ensures a proper exchange rate once the local currency was exchanged for euros. - The long-term interest rate is not to exceed the lowest 3 rates among EMU members (or potential members) by more than 2 percentage points. - This was to ensure that the fundamentals of the economy were similar across potential members. - Each new member of the EU must meet these criteria before they can enter the EMU. - Once a country becomes a member of the EMU, it no longer must abide by the Maastricht treaty (in the case of exchange rates, inflation, and the long-term interest rate, it really doesn’t have the control to maintain these economic variables). - Once in the EMU, a country must abide by the Stability and Growth Pact. - Inflation convergence: Inflation rates dramatically improved and converged in the run up to joining the EMU in 1999. - Deficits: Every member (with the exception of Greece who met the criteria by 2000) was able to bring their deficit to GDP ratio within 3 percent by 1999. - Debt: Very few members met the 60 percent debt to GDP ratio, but authorities are pleased to see the general decline in the debt levels. - Exchange rates: Each member was able to stay within the ERM within 2 years of joining the EMU. - Long-run interest rates: Every member was successful in bringing long-term interest rates into line.

http://www.unc.edu/depts/europe/euroeconomics/Maastricht%20Treaty.php

Reading is Fun! Reading to Learn Comprehension is an ultimate goal of reading. Comprehension is the ability to understand the meaning or importance of something read. In this lesson, students will use comprehension strategies so that they can understand and retain the information they are reading. Students will learn to ask questions about story structure in order to better understand the text prior to reading, while reading, and after reading as well as examine key components such as main characters, conflict, and resolution. List these questions on a piece of paper for the story map: Who is the main character(s)?, b) Where and when did the story/chapter take place?, c) What did the characters do?, d) How did the story/chapter end?, e) How did the main character(s) feel? 2 Story Maps for each student: (and one on the board that can be filled in multiple times) Stellaluna, copy for each student A to Z Mysteries, The Talking T-Rex, copy for each student 1. Introduce the lesson by talking about what good readers are and what they do. Good readers pay attention while they are reading and after reading, they can retell the story and summarize what happened in the story and they can also point out the main points of the story. After reading, good readers need to know the characters, settings, and plot of the story. We are going to read a story today and we are going to practice asking these questions as we read. 2. Introduce the familiar book with a book talk. We will be reading Stellaluna. It is a book about a baby fruit bat, named Stellaluna who is happily flying along with her mother when an owl attacks. Stellaluna is knocked out of her mother's grip and lands in a birds' nest. Stellaluna is accepted by the mother bird as long as she acts like a bird, not a bat. So, Stellaluna learns to eat bugs and stop hanging by her feet. When she finally has a chance to show her bird siblings, Pip, Flutter and Flap, what life as a bat is like, they are confused by how they can be so alike and different at the same time. What do you think will happen to Stellaluna? Do you think she will stay with the birds? Discuss these questions with the class. Also, discuss what the word lunar means with the class. Stellaluna comes from another word. Lunar relates to the word Moon. Why do you think Stellaluna has that name? Is it because she flies at night? Why do Bats fly at night? Which word relates to the word Lunar? Night or day? Great job! Then read the book, have each child buddy read the book to a partner. Then bring class back together and discuss the stories key elements. 3. Pass out the story chart to each child. Tell them that as we discuss the story and its key elements, we will be filling in this chart. I will have this chart projected onto the smartboard and fill in along with the class. Class, let’s start by filling in the title and author of the book. Then the main characters, then add in the setting, where the book takes place. Now, who are the supporting characters of this story? They are not the main characters, but they do have an important role in the story. Great! Now, what is the problem in this story? Good, not how do they fix that problem, or what is the solution to that problem? Great job! We just filled out our story chart! 4. Now you all get to show me what you just learned! I am going to give you all another story chart and a copy of A to Z Mysteries, The Talking T-Rex. This story is about Dink Duncan and he likes to read mystery books. He also likes to solve crimes and capers in real life. Along with his two best friends, Josh and Ruth Rose, Dink unravels mysteries in his hometown of Green Lawn, Connecticut-and sometimes far away from home, too, at places like a dude ranch in Montana and a castle in Maine. Follow the clues along with Dink and his friends on each of their adventures! We will read this book silently to ourselves. What does this mean? Good, you are not to talk or move your mouth and you are to sit in your desk and read. Afterwards, I want you to use your knowledge and fill in the story chart just like we did for Stellaluna. As the students read and fill in their chart, the teacher will monitor to make sure they are on task. 5. Once they are finished filling in their charts, I will pair them off and they will discuss with their partner the book, what they thought about it, and how they filled in their chart. Once they have had time to discuss it with their partner, we will discuss it as a class and fill in the chart on the board. 6. Fill in the chart. Tell all the students they did a great job today and I am very proud of what they learned about story grammar! 7. For assessment, I will check all of their charts to make sure they filled them in correctly to make sure they understand the concept. For further assessment, they could take an Accelerated Reader test on the book. Cannon, Janell. Stellaluna (Harcourt Children's Books, April 30, 1993). Lyndsey Ford, “Meatballs, Meatballs Go Away.” http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/journeys/fordrl.htm Roy, Ron "A to Z Mysteries, The Talking T Rex" Go to Doorways Go to Doorways

http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/doorways/jacksonhrl.htm

150 years ago today, Texas seceded from the Union. It was the last of the Lower South states to leave. The day following, February 2, 1861, the state’s secession convention issued a “Declaration of Causes” to explain its decision. In all the southern states that chose to explain their act of secession at length–South Carolina, Mississippi, Georgia, and Texas–slavery figures prominently. This blog will visit the relevant language for the three former states over the course of this month. Today, Civil War and Emancipation shares the passages on slavery in Texas’ “Declaration of Causes.” They clearly show the centrality of slavery to secession in the Lone Star State. “She was received as a commonwealth holding, maintaining and protecting the institution known as negro slavery–the servitude of the African to the white race within her limits–a relation that had existed from the first settlement of her wilderness by the white race, and which her people intended should exist in all future time. Her institutions and geographical position established the strongest ties between her and other slave-holding States of the confederacy. Those ties have been strengthened by association. But what has been the course of the government of the United States, and of the people and authorities of the non-slave-holding States, since our connection with them?” “The controlling majority of the Federal Government, under various pretences and disguises, has so administered the same as to exclude the citizens of the Southern States, unless under odious and unconstitutional restrictions, from all the immense territory owned in common by all the States on the Pacific Ocean, for the avowed purpose of acquiring sufficient power in the common government to use it as a means of destroying the institutions of Texas and her sister slave-holding States.” “In all the non-slave-holding States, in violation of that good faith and comity which should exist between entirely distinct nations, the people have formed themselves into a great sectional party, now strong enough in numbers to control the affairs of each of those States, based upon the unnatural feeling of hostility to these Southern States and their beneficent and patriarchal system of African slavery, proclaiming the debasing doctrine of the equality of all men, irrespective of race or color–a doctrine at war with nature, in opposition to the experience of mankind, and in violation of the plainest revelations of the Divine Law. They demand the abolition of negro slavery throughout the confederacy, the recognition of political equality between the white and the negro races, and avow their determination to press on their crusade against us, so long as a negro slave remains in these States.” “For years past this abolition organization has been actively sowing the seeds of discord through the Union, and has rendered the federal congress the arena for spreading firebrands and hatred between the slave-holding and non-slave-holding States.” “By consolidating their strength, they have placed the slave-holding States in a hopeless minority in the federal congress, and rendered representation of no avail in protecting Southern rights against their exactions and encroachments.” “They have for years past encouraged and sustained lawless organizations to steal our slaves and prevent their recapture, and have repeatedly murdered Southern citizens while lawfully seeking their rendition.” “They have invaded Southern soil and murdered unoffending citizens, and through the press their leading men and a fanatical pulpit have bestowed praise upon the actors and assassins in these crimes, while the governors of several of their States have refused to deliver parties implicated and indicted for participation in such offences, upon the legal demands of the States aggrieved.” “They have, through the mails and hired emissaries, sent seditious pamphlets and papers among us to stir up servile insurrection and bring blood and carnage to our firesides.” “They have sent hired emissaries among us to burn our towns and distribute arms and poison to our slaves for the same purpose.” “They have impoverished the slave-holding States by unequal and partial legislation, thereby enriching themselves by draining our substance.” “They have refused to vote appropriations for protecting Texas against ruthless savages, for the sole reason that she is a slave-holding State.” “And, finally, by the combined sectional vote of the seventeen non-slave-holding States, they have elected as president and vice-president of the whole confederacy two men whose chief claims to such high positions are their approval of these long continued wrongs, and their pledges to continue them to the final consummation of these schemes for the ruin of the slave-holding States.”

http://cwemancipation.wordpress.com/2011/02/01/texas-secession-and-slavery/?like=1&_wpnonce=b93d0ca0fa

The basis for this lesson plan is to learn the role of antiquity in understanding history; the processes involved in an archaeological dig; reconstructing history and the challenges of historic inquiry. These activities and resources teach students about the contributions of Black settlers to the development of Québec and Students conduct research, write scripts, and portray a historical figure in Canadian history. Changes can be made to accommodate location, space, student population, community population, or any other variable. How can you ensure that time at a historic site is useful, academic and fun? The trick is to harness students’ natural creativity and desire to be outlandish. This approach has worked for the author and his colleagues in many settings for over a d... Once aware of the election, we start preparing immediately. This could take anywhere from four to eight weeks due to the amount of organizing, planning and arranging involved. Students conduct their own oral histories by interviewing their family, recording their responses, and compiling their research into a book. These activities show students the progression and variations of the relationship of First Nations groups with Europeans and colonizers. Students gain a deeper understanding of First Nations history, and think critically about events in the news t... Students will create Canadian History Trading Cards that will serve as a visual representation of the history of Canada's growth and maturity into the great nation it is today. Using the story of Harriet Tubman, students will learn about slavery, the Underground Railroad, and the role of conflict, struggle and human agency in history. Students will conduct an investigation into one side of their family to determine how events in Canadian history and those in the world have defined the decisions one’s family had to make, and as a result, its sense of Canadian identity and citize... This lesson incorporates historical fiction with journaling and understanding the French contribution to Nova Scotia, along with cooperative learning and group dynamics. This basic idea can be used with any historical novel. The study of local houses in the community provides essential insight into local history. The mainspring for this lesson is the perennial challenge to help students see connections between the past, present and future and to appreciate the relevance of history in general, and Canadian history in particular, to our lives. Students complete six activities - including walking tours, map-making, and personal research - to help them better understand their community and its history. The Pageant wagon is based on medieval parade wagons; the intent is to build dioramas and participate in community parades. The dioramas can be raffled off to raise money for future projects. Culture can tell us so much about the people and events of history. In this lesson plan, students look at novels, art and music to understand how Canadians shaped, and were shaped by, culture during wartime. Students use a problem-solving method to examine Canada’s participation in World War II and its repercussions on Quebec. Students "produce" a song for a Second World War film to apply their new found understanding of the subject. Students research a humanitarian and a developing country to better understand Canada's history of international development. Students use their research to write and record a podcast interview. In this lesson plan, students will explore the nature of citizenship and what it means to them. This exercise recreates the historical process that helped lead the world into the Great War. Students are presented with some of the dilemmas that faced the major powers in 1914 and are tasked with making choices as leaders of these countries.

http://canadashistory.ca/Education/Lesson-Plans/View-All-High-School.aspx

Moderate Labor Day Solar Flare Eruption This movie from the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) shows the flare in the 171 Angstrom wavelength. Credit: NASA/SDO/LMSAL| › Play/Download video At 9:35 PM ET on September 5, 2011, the sun emitted an Earth-directed M5.3 class flare as measured by the GOES satellite. The flare erupted from a region of the sun that appears close to dead center from Earth's perspective, an active region designated number 1283. The flare caused a slight increase of solar energetic protons some 26,000 miles above Earth's surface. A coronal mass ejection (CME) -- another solar phenomenon that can send solar particles into space -- was associated with this flare. The CME is a relatively slow one, traveling at under 200 miles per second. Further updates on the event will be provided as they become available. What is a solar flare? What is a coronal mass ejection? For answers to these and other space weather questions, please visit the Spaceweather Frequently Asked Questions Karen C. Fox NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

http://www1.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sunearth/news/News090611-m5.3flare.html

TeenHealthInfo on Mono: Varicella is an infection commonly known as chickenpox. It occurs most frequently in children between the ages of 5 and 9. It is characterized by the formation of fluid filled bumps (vesicles) on the face, body and inside the mouth. Chickenpox is caused by the varicella virus. It is a type of herpes virus. It is not however, associated with oral or genital herpes. The virus can be spread by contact with fluid in the vesicles (vesicles contain live virus), or by respiratory droplets (i.e. being sneezed by someone who has chickenpox). It may take up to two weeks after exposure to the virus before any skin changes become apparent. During this time, one may experience fever, headache, decreased appetite, and fatigue. When the skin changes finally appear, they usually begin on the chest and back. They begin as flat red spots. This rash then progresses to bumps. The bumps then progress to vesicles. The rash then progress to involve the face and moist areas of the body (i.e. inside the mouth and around the genital area). They vesicles look to be in different stages o healing. They often cause moderate discomfort because of itching. The severity of the infection varies. Some may have very mild symptoms with few bumps. Others may have more severe involvement. Individuals with varicella are infectious one day before the appearance of vesicles. They remain infective until all the vesicles are dried up. Dry vesicles have a crusty appearance. The outcome of chickenpox depends on how healthy one was before they got the illness. Young healthy individuals have few complications outside of the possibility of scaring (mostly due to scratching). The bumps may become infected. In some cases, encephalitis may occur. Pregnant women who become infected with varicella are at increased risk of developing other illness such as pneumonia. They are also have an increased incidence of miscarriages. Their unborn children are at increased risk for having birth defects. Older people who get varicella usually have more severe illness than seen in infections that occur in childhood. They are also more vulnerable other infections that may lead to death (i.e. viral Individuals that do not have a healthy immune system (i.e. as in HIV) develop severe illness and may die as well. Finally, anyone who has previously had chickenpox may have reoccurrence of the rash. This is called varicella zoster (AKA shingles). This occurs because the virus never goes away. Instead it lays dormant in the body. During this time, the individual is not infective. Stress or illness have been known to trigger shingles. It usually occurs in the same place as the initial infection. It can be The diagnosis of chickenpox can be made by physical exam. It can be confirmed by the presence of antibodies in the blood against the virus, by examination of the vesicle fluid by special microscopy (electron microscope), or the appearance of virally infected cells on a tzanc smear (a special stain). The best thing one can do to avoid getting chickenpox is to be vaccinated against it. This should be done in any individual who has never had the illness. It is usually advised to immunize children against varicella between the ages of 12 and 15 months. People who have had the disease have immunity. They rarely get infected again. Young children usually recover from the illness without treatment. They may benefit from drugs that stop itching. Pregnant women who do not have immunity against chickenpox and become exposed should receive treatment with immune globulin and an Individuals over 16 may benefit from antiviral therapy. Zoster can be treated by antiviral therapy as well People who do not have healthy immune systems and are infected with varicella should receive antiviral therapy (i.e. acyclovir) as well as immune globulin. Alcohol, Smoking & Drugs Assault & Abuse Exercise & Nutrition

http://teenshealthinfo.com/healthcare/chickenpox.html

|Territorial evolution of Germany in the 20th century |Territorial evolution of Poland in the 20th century The Oder–Neisse line (Polish: granica na Odrze i Nysie Łużyckiej, German: Oder-Neiße-Grenze) is the border between Germany and Poland which was drawn in the aftermath of World War II. The line is formed primarily by the Oder and Lusatian Neisse rivers, and meets the Baltic Sea west of the seaport cities of Szczecin (German: Stettin) and Świnoujście (Swinemünde). All pre-war German territory east of the line and within the 1937 German boundaries (23.8% of the former Weimar Republic lands, most of them from Prussia) were discussed at the Potsdam Conference, and were placed under International Law Administrative status of Poland (for most of the area) and the Soviet Union (northern East Prussia) after the war (pending the final World War II peace treaty for Germany), and the vast majority of its native German population was killed, fled or was expelled by force. The Oder–Neisse line marked the border between the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) and Poland from 1950 to 1990. East Germany confirmed the border with Poland in 1950, while West Germany, after a period of refusal, finally accepted the border in 1970. In 1990 the newly reunified Germany and the Republic of Poland signed a treaty recognizing it as their border. Historical border between Poland and Germany The lower Oder was Piast Poland's western border from 10th through 13th century. Some proposed restoring this line, in belief that it would provide protection against Germany; the first ideas representing that line of thought emerged around the time of World War I. One of the first proposals was laid down in the Russian Empire. After the war, when Nazis gained power these areas were used to militarize and build up assets that would allow Germany to wage further war, the Polish population in these territories faced Germanisation. The policies of Nazi Germany also encouraged nationalist activities among the German minority in Poland. Before World War II, Poland's western border with Germany had been fixed under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles of 1919. It partially ran along the historic borders between the Holy Roman Empire and Greater Poland, but with certain adjustments that were intended to reasonably reflect the ethnic compositions of small areas beyond the traditional provincial borders. However, Pomerelia and Upper Silesia had been divided, leaving areas populated by Polish minority as well as other Slavic minorities on the German side and some German minority on the Polish side. Moreover, the border left Germany divided into two portions by the Polish Corridor and the independent Free City of Danzig, which had a predominantly German urban population, but was split from Germany to help secure Poland's access to the Baltic Sea. Considerations during the war |This article or section may contain previously unpublished synthesis of published material that conveys ideas not attributable to the original sources. (June 2011)| ||This section may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. (June 2011)| ||This section contains information of unclear or questionable importance or relevance to the article's subject matter. Please help improve this article by clarifying or removing superfluous information. (June 2011)| During the interwar period the concept of "Western thought" (myśl zachodnia) became popular among some Polish nationalists. The "Polish motherland territories" were defined by scholars like Zygmunt Wojciechowski as the areas that belonged to Piast Poland in the borders of the 10th century. Some Polish historians called for the "return" of territories up to the river Elbe. The proponents of these ideas, in pre-war Poland often described as a "group of fantasists", were organized in the National Party, which was also opposed to the then current government of Poland, the Sanacja. The proposal to establish the border along Oder and Neisse was not seriously considered for a long time After World War II the Polish Communists, lacking their own expertise regarding the Western border, adopted the National Democratic concept of western thought After Nazi Germany invaded and occupied Poland, the idea of revising the German borders began to be seen necessary by some Polish politicians A secure border was seen as essential, especially in the light of Nazi atrocities (during the war Nazi Germany engaged in genocide of the Polish and Jewish populations, classified as untermenschen); changing the western border was considered a way of punishing the Germans for their atrocities and compensating Poland. The participation in the genocide by German minorities and their paramilitary organizations, such as the Selbstschutz, and support for Nazism among German society also connected the issue of border changes with the idea of population transfers intended to avoid such events in the future. Initially the Polish government in exile envisioned territorial changes after the war which would incorporate East Prussia, Danzig (Gdańsk) and the Oppeln (Opole) Silesian region into post-war Poland, along with a straightening of the Pomeranian border and minor acquisition in the Lauenburg (Lębork) area. The border changes were to provide Poland with a safe border and strip Germans of using Western Pomerania and East Prussia as strategic assets against Poland. Only with the changing situation during the war were these territorial proposals modified. In October 1941 the exile newspaper Dziennik Polski postulated a postwar Polish western border that would include East Prussia, Silesia up to the Lausitzer Neisse and at least both banks of the Oder's mouth. While these territorial claims were regarded as "megalomaniacal" by the Soviet ambassador in London, in October 1941 Stalin announced the "return of East Prussia to Slavdom" after the war. On 16 December 1941 Stalin remarked in a meeting with the British Foreign minister Anthony Eden, though inconsistent in detail, that Poland should receive all German territory up to the river Oder. In May 1942 General Władysław Sikorski, Prime Minister of the Polish government in exile, sent two memoranda to the US government, sketching a postwar Polish western border along the Oder and Neisse (inconsistent about the Eastern Glatzer Neisse and the Western Lausitzer Neisse). The concept was however dropped by the government-in-exile in late 1942. In post-war Poland the Oder–Neisse line was described as the result of tough negotiations between Polish Communists and Stalin. According to the modern Institute of National Remembrance however, Polish claims or aspirations did not have an independent impact on the final outcome, rather the idea of a westward shift of the Polish border after World War II was adopted synthetically by Stalin who was the final arbiter in the matter. Stalin's conception of a switch of eastern Polish lands for acquisitions in the west was motivated by his political ideas, as well as a desire to ensure enmity between Poles and Germans, so as to control both countries. Tehran Conference It was the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin who at the Tehran Conference in late 1943 brought up the subject of Poland's western frontier and its extension to the River Oder. While the Americans were not interested in discussing any border changes at that time, Roosevelt agreed that in general the Polish border should be extended West to the Oder, while Polish eastern borders should be shifted westwards, he also confessed that owing to elections at home he could not express his position publicly. British Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden wrote in his diary that "A difficulty is that the Americans are terrified of the subject which [Roosevelt advisor] Harry [Hopkins] called 'political dynamite' for their elections. But, as I told him, if we cannot get a solution, Polish-Russian relations six months from now, with Russian armies in Poland, will be infinitely worse and elections nearer." Winston Churchill compared the westward shift of Poland to Soldiers taking two steps "left close" and declared in his memoirs: "If Poland trod on some German toes that could not be helped, but there must be a strong Poland." The British government formed a clear position on the issue and at the first meeting of the European Advisory Commission on 14 January 1944, recommended "that East Prussia and Danzig, and possibly other areas, will ultimately be given to Poland" as well as agreeing on a Polish "frontier on the Oder". Yalta Conference In February 1945, American and British officials met in Yalta and agreed on the basics on Poland's future borders. In the east, the British agreed to the Curzon line but recognised that the US might push for Lwów to be included in post-war Poland. In the west, Poland should receive part of East Prussia, Danzig, the eastern tip of Pomerania and Upper Silesia. President Franklin D. Roosevelt said that it would "make it easier for me at home" if Stalin were generous to Poland with respect to Poland's eastern frontiers. Winston Churchill said a Soviet concession on that point would be admired as "a gesture of magnanimity" and declared that, with respect to Poland's post-war government, the British would "never be content with a solution which did not leave Poland a free and independent state." With respect to Poland's western frontiers, Stalin noted that the Polish Prime Minister in exile, Stanisław Mikołajczyk, had been pleased when Stalin had told him Poland would be granted Stettin/Szczecin and the German territories east of the Western Neisse. Yalta was the first time that the Soviets openly declared support for a German-Polish frontier on western as opposed to eastern Neisse. Churchill objected to the Western Neisse frontier saying that "it would be a pity to stuff the Polish goose so full of German food that it got indigestion." He added that many Britons would be shocked if such large numbers of Germans were driven out of these areas, to which Stalin responded that "many Germans" had "already fled before the Red Army." Poland's western frontier was ultimately left to be decided at the Potsdam Conference. Polish and Soviet demands Originally, Germany was to retain Stettin, while the Poles were to annex East Prussia with Königsberg (now Kaliningrad). The Polish government had in fact demanded this since the start of World War II in 1939, because of East Prussia's strategic position that allegedly undermined the defense of Poland. Other territorial changes proposed by the Polish government were the transfer of the Silesian region of Oppeln and the Pomeranian regions of Danzig, Bütow and Lauenburg, and the straightening of the border somewhat in Western Pomerania. However, Stalin decided that he wanted Königsberg as a year-round warm water port for the Soviet Navy, and he argued that the Poles should receive Stettin instead. The pre-war Polish government-in-exile had little to say in these decisions, but insisted on retaining the city of Lwów (now L'viv) in Galicia. Stalin refused to concede, and instead proposed all of Lower Silesia with Breslau (Polish: Wrocław) be given to Poland. Many Poles from Lwów later would be moved to populate the city. The eventual border was not the most far-reaching territorial change that was proposed. There were suggestions of including areas further west so that Poland could include the small minority population of ethnic Slavic Sorbs who lived near Cottbus and Bautzen. The precise location of the western border was left open. The western Allies accepted in general that the Oder would be the future western border of Poland. Still in doubt was whether the border should follow the eastern or western Neisse, and whether Stettin, now Szczecin, the traditional seaport of Berlin and a city with a dominant German population with a small Polish minority that numbered 2,000 in the interwar period, should remain German or be placed in Poland (with an expulsion of the German population). The western Allies sought to place the border on the eastern Neisse at Breslau, but Stalin refused to budge. Suggestions of a border on the Bóbr (Bober) were also rejected by the Soviets. Potsdam Conference At Potsdam, Stalin argued for the Oder–Neisse line on the grounds that the Polish Government demanded this frontier and that there were no longer any Germans left east of this line Later the Russians admitted that at least "a million Germans" (still far lower than the true number) still remained in the area at that time. Several Polish-Communist leaders appeared at the conference to advance arguments for an Oder–Western Neisse frontier. The port of Szczecin was demanded for Eastern European exports. If Szczecin was Polish, then "in view of the fact that the supply of water is found between the Oder and the Lausitzer Neisse, if the Oder's tributaries were controlled by someone else the river could be blocked." Soviet forces had initially expelled Polish administrators who tried to seize control of Szczecin in May and June, and the city was governed by a German communist-appointed mayor, under the surveillance of the Soviet occupiers, until 5 July 1945. James Byrnes – who had become the American Secretary of State earlier that month – later advised the Soviets that the U.S. was prepared to concede the area east of the Oder and the Eastern Neisse to Polish administration, and for it not to consider it part of the Soviet occupation zone, in return for a moderation of Soviet demands for reparations from the Western occupation zones. A Nysa Kłodzka boundary would have left Germany with roughly half of Silesia – including the majority of Wrocław, the former provincial capital and the largest city in the region. The Soviets insisted that the Poles would not accept this. The Polish representatives (and Stalin) were in fact willing to concede a line following the Oder-Bober-Queiss (Odra-Bóbr-Kwisa) rivers through Żagań (Sagan) and Lubań (Lauban), but even this small concession ultimately proved unnecessary, since on the next day, Byrnes told the Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov that the Americans would reluctantly concede to the Western Neisse. Byrnes's concession undermined the British position, and although the British Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin raised objections, the British eventually agreed to the American concession. In response to American and British statements that the Poles were claiming far too much German territory, Stanisław Mikołajczyk argued that "the western lands were needed as a reservoir to absorb the Polish population east of the Curzon line, Poles who returned from the West, and Polish people who lived in the overcrowded central districts of Poland." The U.S. and the U.K. were also negative towards the idea of giving Poland an occupation zone in Germany. However on July 29, President Truman handed Molotov a proposal for a temporary solution whereby the U.S. accepted Polish administration of land to the Oder and eastern Neisse until a final peace conference determined the boundary. In return for this large concession, the U.S. demanded that "each of the occupation powers take its share of reparations from its own [Occupation] Zone and provide for admission of Italy into the United Nations." The Soviets stated that they were not pleased "because it denied Polish administration of the area between the two Neisse rivers." On the 29th Stalin asked Bolesław Bierut, the head of the Soviet-controlled Polish government, to accept in consideration of the large American concessions. The Polish delegation decided to accept a boundary of the administration zone at "somewhere between the western Neisse and the Kwisa". Later that day the Poles changed their mind; "Bierut, accompanied by Rola-Zymierski, returned to Stalin and argued against any compromise with the Americans. Stalin told his Polish protégés that he would defend their position at the conference." Finally on 2 August 1945, the Potsdam Agreement of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union, in anticipation of the final peace treaty, placed the German territories east of the Oder–Neisse line formally under Polish administrative control. It was also decided that all Germans remaining in the new and old Polish territory should be expelled. Recovered territories Those territories are known as the Regained or Recovered Territories, a term based on the claim that they have been in the past the possession of the Piast dynasty of Polish kings, Polish fiefs or included in the parts lost to Prussia during the Partitions of Poland. The term was widely exploited by Propaganda in the People's Republic of Poland The creation of a picture of the new territories as an "integral part of historical Poland" in the post-war era had the aim of forging Polish settlers and repatriates arriving there into a coherent community loyal to the new Communist Regime. The term was in use immediately following the end of World War II when it was part of the Communist indoctrination of the Polish settlers in those territories. The final agreements in effect compensated Poland with 112 000 km² of former German territories for 187,000 square kilometers of land lying east of the Curzon line – Polish areas occupied by the Soviet Union. Poles and Polish Jews from the Soviet Union were subject of a process called "repatriation" (settlement within the territory of post-war Poland), but many of them who were imprisoned or deported to work camps in Siberia or Kazakhstan were frequently excluded. One reason for this version of the new border was that it was the shortest possible border between Poland and Germany. It is only 472 kilometers in length, stretching from the northernmost point of the Czech Republic to one of the southernmost points of the Baltic Sea in the Oder estuary. World War II aftermath Winston Churchill was not present at the end of the Conference, since the results of the British elections had made it clear that he had been defeated. Churchill later claimed that he would never have agreed to the Oder–Western Neisse line, and in his famous Iron Curtain speech declared that "The Russian-dominated Polish Government has been encouraged to make enormous and wrongful inroads upon Germany, and mass expulsions of millions of Germans on a scale grievous and undreamed-of are now taking place." Not only were the German territorial changes of the Nazis reversed, but the border was moved westward, deep into territory which had been in 1937 part of Germany with an almost exclusively German population. The new line placed almost all of Silesia, more than half of Pomerania, the eastern portion of Brandenburg, a small area of Saxony, the former Free City of Danzig and the southern two-thirds of East Prussia (Masuria and Warmia) within Poland (see Former eastern territories of Germany). The northeastern third of East Prussia was directly annexed by the Soviet Union, with the Memelland becoming part of the Lithuanian SSR and the bulk of the territory forming the new Kaliningrad Oblast of the Russian SFSR. These territorial changes were followed by large-scale population transfers, involving 14 million people all together from the whole of Eastern Europe, including many people already shifted during the war. Nearly all remaining Germans from the territory annexed by Poland were expelled, while Polish persons who had been displaced into Germany, usually as slave laborers, returned to settle in the area. In addition to this, the Polish population originating from the eastern half of the former Second Polish Republic, now annexed by the Soviet Union, was mostly expelled and transferred to the newly acquired territories. Most Poles supported the new border, mostly out of fear of renewed German aggression and German irredentism. The border was also presented as a just consequence for the Nazi German state's initiation of World War II and the subsequent genocide against Poles and the attempt to destroy Polish statehood, as well as for the territorial losses of eastern Poland to the Soviet Union, mainly western Ukraine and Belarus. Resentment towards the expelled German population on the part of the Poles was based on the fact that the majority of that population was loyal to the Nazis during the invasion and occupation, and the active role some of them played in the persecution and mass murder of Poles and Jews. These circumstances have impeded sensitivity among Poles with respect to the expulsion committed during the aftermath of World War II. The new order was in Stalin's interests, because it enabled the Soviet Communists to present themselves as the primary maintainer of Poland's new western border. It also provided the Soviet Union with territorial gains from part of East Prussia and the eastern part of the Second Republic of Poland. "At Potsdam specific areas which were part of Germany were provisionally assigned to the Soviet Union and to Poland, subject to the final decisions of the Peace Conference. (…) With regard to Silesia and other eastern German areas, the assignment of this territory to Poland by Russia for administrative purposes had taken place before the Potsdam meeting. The heads of government agreed that, pending the final determination of Poland's western frontier, Silesia and other eastern German areas should be under the administration of the Polish state and for such purposes should not be considered as a part of the Soviet zone of occupation in Germany. However, as the Protocol of the Potsdam Conference makes clear, the heads of government did not agree to support at the peace settlement the cession of this particular area. The Soviets and the Poles suffered greatly at the hands of Hitler's invading armies. As a result of the agreement at Yalta, Poland ceded to the Soviet Union territory east of the Curzon Line. Because of this, Poland asked for revision of her northern and western frontiers. The United States will support revision of these frontiers in Poland's favor. However, the extent of the area to be ceded to Poland must be determined when the final settlement is agreed upon." The speech was met with shock in Poland and Deputy Prime Minister Mikołajczyk immediately issued a response declaring that retention of Polish territories based on the Oder–Neisse line was matter of life and death. Byrnes, who accepted Western Neisse as provisional Polish border, in fact did not state that such a change would take place (as was read by Germans who hoped for support of their revisionist goals). The purpose of the speech and associated US diplomatic activities was as propaganda aimed at Germany by Western Powers, who could blame Polish-German border and German expulsions on Moscow alone. In the late 1950s, by the time of Dwight D. Eisenhower's Presidency, the United States had largely accepted the Oder–Neisse line as final and did not support German demands regarding the border, while officially declaring a need for a final settlement in a peace treaty. In the mid-1960s the US government accepted the Oder–Neisse line as binding and agreed that there would be no changes to it in the future. German revisionism regarding the border began to cost West Germany sympathies among its western allies. The Oder–Neisse line was however never formally recognized by the United States until the revolutionary changes of 1989 and 1990. In 1959 France officially issued a statement supporting the Oder–Neisse line, which created controversy in West Germany. Recognition of the border by Germany The East German Socialist Unity Party (SED), founded 1946, originally rejected the Oder–Neisse line. Under Soviet occupation and heavy pressure by Moscow, the official phrase Friedensgrenze (border of peace) was promulgated in March–April 1947 at the Moscow Foreign Ministers Conference. The German Democratic Republic and Poland's Communist government, signed the Treaty of Zgorzelec in 1950, recognizing the Oder–Neisse line, officially designated by the Communists as the "Border of Peace and Friendship". In 1952, recognition of the Oder–Neisse line as a permanent boundary was one of Stalin's conditions for the Soviet Union to agree to a reunification of Germany (see Stalin Note). The offer was rejected by the West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer. In West Germany, where the majority of the 12 million displaced refugees found refuge, recognition of the Oder-Neisse Line as permanent was long regarded as unacceptable. In fact, under the Hallstein Doctrine, West Germany recognized neither the government of Communist Poland, nor the German Democratic Republic (East Germany). In 1963 the German opposition leader Willy Brandt said that "abnegation is betrayal", but it was Brandt who eventually changed West Germany's attitude with his policy of Ostpolitik. In 1970 West Germany signed treaties with the Soviet Union (Treaty of Moscow) and Poland (Treaty of Warsaw) recognizing Poland's Western border at the Oder–Neisse line as current reality, not to be changed by force. This had the effect of making family visits by the displaced eastern Germans to their lost homelands now more or less possible. Such visits were still very difficult, however, and permanent resettlement in the homeland, now Poland, remained impossible. In 1989, another treaty was signed between Poland and East Germany, the sea border was defined, and a dispute from 1985 was settled. In November 1990, after German reunification, the Federal Republic of Germany and the Republic of Poland signed a treaty confirming the border between them, as requested by the Treaty on the Final Settlement With Respect to Germany. Earlier, Germany had amended its constitution and abolished Article 23 of West Germany's Basic Law (on which reunification was based), which could have been used to claim the former German eastern territories. The 1990 German-Polish Border Treaty finalizing the Oder–Neisse line as the Polish-German border came into force on 16 January 1992, together with a second one, a Treaty of Good Neighbourship, signed in June 1991, in which the two countries, among other things, recognized basic political and cultural rights for both the German and the Polish minorities living on either side of the border. After 1990, approximately 150,000 Germans still resided in the areas transferred to Poland, mainly in the Opole Voivodeship, with a smaller presence in regions such as Lower Silesia and Warmia-Masuria. There are 1.5 million Poles or ethnic Poles living in Germany, including both recent immigrants and the descendants of Poles that settled in Germany many generations ago. Other developments Division of cities Partially open border 1971–1980 Millions visited the neighbouring country (either Poland or East Germany) during the years 1971–1980. Economic crisis made the Poles less welcome by 1976 and politically dangerous for the GDR government by the time of the 1980 strikes.[clarification needed] Schengen Agreement Poland joined the Schengen Area in 2007. The far-right National Democratic Party of Germany protested against "Polish invasion" in 2009, and in 2011 placed posters near the border. The limitations on Poles working in Germany expired in April 2011. See also |Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Germany-Poland border| - Vistula-Oder Offensive, from January 12 until February 2, 1945 - Malta Conference, from January 30 to February 3, 1945 - Yalta Conference, from February 4 to February 11, 1945 - Battle of Königsberg, from April 6 until April 9, 1945 - Battle of the Oder-Neisse, from April 16 until April 19, 1945 - Potsdam Conference, from July 17 to August 2, 1945 ||Constructs such as ibid., loc. cit. and idem are discouraged by Wikipedia's style guide for footnotes, as they are easily broken. Please improve this article by replacing them with named references (quick guide), or an abbreviated title. (July 2010)| - An encyclopedic dictionary of conflict and conflict resolution, 1945–1996, John E. Jessup, page 543, Greenwood 1998 - Historical dictionary of Poland, 966–1945 Jan Jerzy Lerski, page 398, Greenwood Publishing Group 1996 - Biuletyn Instytutu Pamięci Narodowej nr 9-10/2005, „Polski Dziki Zachód” – ze Stanisławem Jankowiakiem, Czesławem Osękowskim i Włodzimierzem Suleją rozmawia Barbara Polak, pages 4–28 - Piskorski, Jan M. (2003). Traditionen – Visionen: 44. Deutscher Historikertag in Halle an der Saale 2002 (in German). Oldenbourg. p. 102. ISBN 3-486-56769-1. - Hackmann, Jörg (1996). Ostpreussen und Westpreussen in deutscher und polnischer Sicht (in German). Deutsches Historisches Institut Warschau/Niemiecki Instytut Historyczny w Warszawie. p. 224. ISBN 3-447-03766-0. - Faraldo, José M. (2008). Europe, nationalism, communism: Essays on Poland. Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften. p. 17. ISBN 9783631567623. - Fahlbusch, Michael; Haar, Ingo (2005/). German scholars and ethnic cleansing, 1919–1945. Berghahn Books. pp. 263, 265. ISBN 1-57181-435-3. - Myśl zachodnia Ruchu Narodowego w czasie II wojny światowej" dr Tomasz Kenar.Dodatek Specjalny IPN Nowe Państwo 1/2010 - Thum, Gregor (2011). Uprooted: How Breslau became Wroclaw during the century of expulsions. Princeton University Press. p. 194. ISBN 978-0-691-14024-7. - Polacy wobec Niemców, Anna Wolff-Powęska 1993 Przesunięcie granicy zachodniej na korzyść Polski było uważane także za jedną z form ukarania Niemców za popełnione zbrodnie i zadośćuczynienia Polsce. page 49 - Polacy – wysiedleni, wypędzeni i wyrugowani przez III Rzeszę", Maria Wardzyńska, Warsaw 2004. - Polacy wobec Niemców, Anna Wolff-Powęska 1993 Nowa Granica miała osłabić korzystny dotąd układ strategiczny wykorzystywany przeciwko Polsce(Prusy Wschodnie, Pomorze Zachodnie) page 49 - Laufer, Jochen (2009). Pax Sovietica: Stalin, die Westmächte und die deutsche Frage 1941–1945 (in German). Böhlau. pp. 179, 180. ISBN 978-3-412-20416-7. - Laufer, Jochen: "Pax Sovietica", page 181 - Laufer, Jochen: "Pax Sovietica",page 194 - US State Department, Foreign Relations of the US: The Conference at Cairo and Tehran 1943, "Tripartite Dinner Meeting, 28 November 1943" pp. 509–14 - The Oder-Neisse line: the United States, Poland, and Germany in the Cold War Debra J. Allen, page 13,2003 Praeger - Anthony Eden, The Reckoning (London, 1965) p. 427. - Churchill, Winston (1986). Closing the ring. Mariner books. ISBN 9780395410592. - Foreign Relations of the United States 1944, vol. I, p. 141 - The Oder-Neisse line...page 13 - US Dept. of State, Foreign Relations of the US, The Conferences at Malta and Yalta, 1945, Third Plenary Meeting 6 February 1945, Matthews Minutes, p. 77 - Ibid., Bohlen Minutes, p. 669. - Llewellyn Woodward, British Foreign Policy in the Second World War, (London, 1962) p. 299 - Allen, Debra J. (2003). The Oder-Neisse line: the United States, Poland, and Germany in the Cold War. Westport: Praeger. p. 17. ISBN 978-0-313-32359-1. Retrieved 2009-10-27. - Winston Churchill and the Soviet Union during the Second World War – The Churchill Centre - Kimball, Warren F., The Cold War Warmed Over The American Historical Review © 1974 American Historical Association - Lebensraum, Time Magazine 13 August 1945 - Tadeusz Białecki, "Historia Szczecina" Zakład Narodowy im. Ossolińskich, 1992 Wrocław. Pages 9, 20–55, 92–95, 258–260, 300–306. - Polonia szczecińska 1890–1939 Anna Poniatowska Bogusław Drewniak, Poznań 1961 - Sergeĭ Khrushchev, George Shriver, Stephen Shenfield, Memoirs of Nikita Khrushchev, Penn State Press, 2007, p.637, ISBN 0-271-02935-8 - Harry Truman, Year of Decisions, (New York, 1955) p. 296 - US Dept of State, Foreign Relations of the US, The Conference of Berlin (Potsdam) 1945, vol. II pp. 1522–1524. - Heitmann, Clemens Die Stettin-Frage: Die KPD, die Sowjetunion und die deutsch-polnische Grenze 1945. Zeitschrift für Ostmitteleuropa-Forschung, 2002, vol. 51, no1, pp. 25–63. - US Dept of State, Foreign Relations of the US, The Conference of Berlin (Potsdam) 1945, vol. II p. 1150 - (Ibid., p. 480) - Ibid., p. 519 - Richard C. Lukas Bitter Legacy: Polish-American Relations in the Wake of World War II. p 16 - Richard C. Lukas Bitter Legacy: Polish-American Relations in the Wake of World War II. p.17 - An explanation note in "The Neighbors Respond: The Controversy Over the Jedwabne Massacre in Poland", ed. by Polonsky and Michlic, p.466 - Martin Åberg, Mikael Sandberg, Social Capital and Democratisation: Roots of Trust in Post-Communist Poland and Ukraine, Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2003, ISBN 0-7546-1936-2, Google Print, p.79 - Churchill's Iron Curtain, On expulsion of ethnic Germans – historyguide.org - The History of Poland by Mieczysław B. Biskupski, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2000. p. 124 - Debra J. Allen The Oder-Neisse line: the United States, Poland, and Germany in the Cold War, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2003, pg. 4 - Stuttgart Speech - The Oder-Neisse line: the United States, Poland, and Germany in the Cold War Debra J. Allen,page 52, 2003 Praeger - No exit: America and the German problem, 1943–1954, page 94, James McAllister,Cornell University Press 2002 - " (Peter H. Merkl, German Unification, 2004 Penn State Press, p. 338") - " (Pertti Ahonen, After the expulsion: West Germany and Eastern Europe, 1945–1990, 2003 Oxford University Press, pp. 26–27") - The Germans and the East Charles W. Ingrao, Franz A. J. Szabo, Page 406, Purdue University Press, 2007 - The Oder-Neisse line: the United States, Poland, and Germany in the Cold War Debra J. Allen,page 215, 2003 Praeger - The Germans and the East Charles W. Ingrao, Franz A. J. Szabo, Page 407, Purdue University Press, 2007 - Ingrao, Charles W.; Szabo, Franz A.J. (2008). The Germans and the East. Purdue University Press. p. 406. ISBN 978-1-55753-443-9. - Allen, Debra J. (2003). The Oder-Neisse line: the United States, Poland, and Germany in the Cold War. Praeger. p. 1. ISBN 9780313323591. "Although the Polish and German governments signed a treaty in 1970..., the United States withheld the formal recognition of the Oder-Neisse until the revolutionary changes of 1989 and 1990, ..." - The Oder-Neisse line: the United States, Poland, and Germany in the Cold War Debra J. Allen, page 221, Preager 2003 - Timmermann, Heiner; Ihmel-Tuchel, Beate (1997). Potsdam 1945 (in German). Duncker & Humblodt. p. 307. ISBN 3-428-08876-X. - Ślaski kwartalnik historyczny Sobótka , Volume 60,Wrocławskie Towarzystwo Miłośników Historii, page 249 Zakład im. Ossolińskich, 2005 - Polityka, Issues 44–52, page 84, Wydawnictwo Prasowe "Polityka", 2005 - Why is the Oder-Neiße Line a Peace Border? (1950) - Treaty between the Federal Republic of Germany and the Republic of Poland on the confirmation of the frontier between them, 14 November 1990(PDF) - Anti-Polish posters - An East German pamphlet for propagandists entitled "Why is the Oder-Neiße Line a Peace Border?" - Treaty between the Federal Republic of Germany and the Republic of Poland on the confirmation of the frontier between them, 14 November 1990(PDF) (Treaty confirming the border between Germany and Poland (Warsaw, November 14, 1990) in Polish and German) - The Oder Neisse Line Problem (German) (PDF) - Closing The Ring Winston Churchill; Excerpt on the Teheran conference, from his memoirs. - Speaking Frankly James F. Byrnes; Excerpt on the Yalta conference, from his memoirs. - Triumph and Tragedy Winston Churchill; Excerpt on the Yalta conference, from his memoirs. - Churchill's statement to the House of Commons 27, February, 1945, Describing the outcome of Yalta - The German-Polish Border Region. A Case of Regional Integration? ARENA Working Papers WP 97/19 Jorunn Sem Fure Department of History, University of Bergen

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oder-Neisse_line

What We Know Research includes concepts of critical thinking, inquiry and problem-based learning. Successful researchers are able to identify problems or questions for research, locate sources to solve problems, analyze the validity of the resources and synthesize that information to solve a problem or answer a The concept of students as researchers responsible for constructing their own learning developed in the middle of the 20th century with the work of John Dewey and Benjamin Bloom. These educational leaders developed theories of inquiry that challenged the traditional paradigm of the student as a passive recipient of learning (Loertscher & Woolls, 1997). Research into the human brain shows that our brains make the strongest connections through actual experiences. To help students make these strong associations, educators can provide students with opportunities to solve authentic problems (Wolfe, 2001). Students in the elementary grades should begin to develop the building blocks of a strong research foundation. It is not until adolescence, however, that most students display the increasing abilities to think abstractly, reflectively and critically, which are prerequisites for conducting independent research (Zorfass, 1998). Teachers should be encouraged to use research in their classrooms because it has been demonstrated to have a positive impact on student performance. In Educational Programs That Work: The Catalogue of the National Diffusion Network (Lang, 1995), the U.S Department of Education's National Diffusion Network cited many successful programs that used curricula employing techniques of actively involving students in research projects (Zorfass, 1998). "We want our young adolescents to develop inquiry skills so that they can be active researchers both now and in the future." --Zorfass, 1998, p. 6 "Here's a chance for individual students to choose topics that really interest them and begin to make a piece of intellectual territory their own. Students can be active learners...gathering material and attempting to explain it to --Zemelman and Daniels, 1988, p. 257

http://ims.ode.state.oh.us/ode/ims/rrt/research/Content/research_what_we_know.asp

This lesson plan is designed for young learners at the novice or novice-intermediate level of proficiency in Spanish. It is important for students to develop simple vocabulary and pronunciation in the Spanish language, and this lesson plan can be an excellent tool for this. The vocabulary, the colors, is appealing to young learners because colors are easy for them to comprehend and observe while connecting the newly acquired vocabulary to familiar objects. The activities in this lesson plan will help students learn ten colors in Spanish and also provide them with practice to use them in context. This lesson plan helps satisfy standard 1.2 (Interpretive Communication) of the National Standards for Learning Languages to show comprehension of authentic audio and visual resources based on familiar themes. By the end of this lesson, the students will have The students will be learning the following ten colors: Students can get started by learning the words to this popular song about colors, “De colores.” The teacher should help the students with any new vocabulary. The lyrics can be printed for the students to try and read aloud together. The link to the lyrics of this song can be found at the site for the Texas State Library and Archives Commission. Students will use the list of categories to study the different colors learned as well as objects that are of the same color. This is available via the EDSITEment created Worksheet number 1. Students can use the worksheet to find out the meanings of words they don’t know. After studying the lists, the students should go to the interactive activity and see how many objects they can name and match to their correct color through a series of multiple choice exercises. The interactive will allow the students to listen to the words in Spanish. In this activity, students will try to determine the information about three kids: Juan, Marlena, and Estela, including their age, their grade in school, and their favorite colors using the EDSITEment-created worksheet number 2. This assessment will ask students to work with worksheet number 3, where they will be asked to correct ten sentences. The sentences have the wrong colors used, or they are using the colors incorrectly (wrong gender or number). Students will be asked to rewrite the sentences in the spaces provided but grammatically correct. To complement the learning experience, students can expand their use of colors and further practice their use of number/gender agreement for adjectives by asking questions about clothes. In this activity, students will make a list of clothing items they want to buy for themselves, their family, or their friends. In a conversation with a partner or partners students will ask each other questions about the items on their list. A sample list could include: un vestido, unos calcetines, una chaqueta, una camisa, un pantalón, un abrigo, unos zapatos, una blusa. Define to students any words they may not be familiar with. Students will de divided in pairs and following the queue cards on the extending the lesson worksheet they will ask and answer each other questions about shopping for clothes and the colors they prefer. The students can then reverse roles. 2-3 class periods

http://edsitement.neh.gov/lesson-plan/de-colores

Today, Earth scientists' goals are to not only observe weather patterns around our world, but to determine the causes and effects of climate and environmental change. With increasingly sophisticated satellite remote sensors, we can measure a wide range of geophysical parameters (such as surface temperature, distribution of clouds and aerosol particles, the abundance of trace gases in the atmosphere, or the distribution and types of life on land and in the ocean) with unprecedented accuracy and resolution. Moreover, we can now measure how changing certain aspects of the climate system (such as cloud cover) can have a "ripple effect" through other aspects of the climate system (such as surface temperature, precipitation, the radiation budget). Scientists are feeding these new satellite data, collected throughout the Earth's climate system, into sophisticated new computer models that, ultimately, will enable them to predict climate changes months, years, or even decades before they occur. If we are to become better stewards of our home planetif we are to leave abundant natural resources to our grandchildren and to their grandchildrenthen we must continue monitoring our planet with satellite sensors ever improving our understanding of how the Earth system works. Parkinson, Claire L., 1997: Earth From AboveUsing Color-Coded Satellite Images to Examine the Global Environment. University Science Books, Sausalito, CA; 175 pages. Wallace, Lane E., 1999: Dreams, Hopes, RealitiesNASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, The First Forty Years. NASA History Office, Office of Policy and Plans, Washington, D.C., NASA SP-4312; 219 pages. Space-based Observations of the Earth

http://www.visibleearth.nasa.gov/Features/Observing/obs_6.php

Textbooks: Advantages and Disadvantages Page 2 of 2 One of the major movements in schools everywhere is standards-based education. Generally speaking, a standard is a description of what students should know and be able to do. A mathematics standard for students in grades 6 though 8 is to “compare and order fractions, decimals, and percents efficiently and find their approximate locations on a number line.” An example of a writing standard for students in grade 11 is to “write a persuasive piece that includes a clearly stated position or opinion along with convincing, elaborated and properly cited evidence.” By definition, educational standards let everyone—students, teachers, parents, administrators—know what students are expected to learn. Educational standards have been developed by a number of professional organizations in addition to those created by state departments of education and local school districts. Standards are designed to answer four questions: What do we want students to know and be able to do? How well do we want them to know/do those things? How will we know if students know and can do those things? How can we redesign schooling to ensure that we get the results we want? Let's take a look at each of these questions in a little more detail. Learn to Earn Standards make clear to everyone, including students, the expectations for learning. They are designed to help students be responsible for their own learning, become a good thinker and problem-solver, and know what quality work looks like. They are based on three primary concepts: Content standards. These describe what students should know or be able to do in 10 content areas: language arts, mathematics, science, social studies, fine arts, health, physical education, world languages, career and life skills, and educational technology. Benchmarks. These make clear what students should know and be able to do at grade levels K to 3, 4 to 5, 6 to 8, and 9 to 12. Performance standards. These answer the questions, “What does good performance look like?” and “How good is good enough?” Higher and Higher Standards-based education engages students, not only in the learning process, but also in knowing what is expected of them. Students know, before a lesson begins, what they should do to achieve competence. They also know that you, as their teacher, will do whatever it takes to help them achieve the standards of a lesson or unit. In a standards-based school, everyone is accountable. Students are responsible for their own learning, parents know what is expected of their children, teachers provide a positive learning environment, administrators provide the necessary leadership, and community members work to support the learning. Everybody has a role, and everybody is responsible for learning to happen. Teach Them, and They Will Come Standards-based teaching is different from some of the more traditional forms of teaching with which you may be familiar. It is a sequential and developmental process in which academic standards become the focus, or pillars, around which all instruction revolves. Here's how you would develop a standards-based lesson: Standards-based teaching is when teachers use activities and lessons to ensure that students master a predetermined set of requirements or standards. Define the content standards and the accompanying benchmarks. Write the learning objectives. Develop the appropriate assessments. Establish the performance standards or levels. Design the lesson. Plan the instructional strategies and/or activities. Implement the instruction (teach). Evaluate and refine the teaching/learning process. And the Difference Is …? There are two major differences between standards-based teaching and traditional forms of teaching. In standards-based education … Teachers identify key knowledge and skills first and use them to focus all instructional and assessment activities. Teachers determine performance standards and share these with students before instruction begins. It is important to note that standards-based reforms have met with both success and controversy. Many school districts across the United States report that standards-based efforts have resulted in higher overall achievement test results. Another benefit is that community members are more engaged in the affairs of the school. There are also some negative views on standards-based education. Teachers have concerns because of the sheer number of standards in place within a single content area or at a single grade level. Some teachers feel as though they have to “teach for the test” so their students will have higher test scores. There are also concerns about the lack of emphasis on problem-solving skills and critical-thinking abilities. Some communities are concerned that their urban schools are not being treated fairly and that the higher standards are causing higher failure rates. Standards, whether those from professional organizations, your state, or your school district, are another form of instructional resource for your classroom. They can guide you in developing appropriate lessons and assist you in helping your students achieve academically. However, just as with any other resource, they are teaching tools. Just as you would select one set of tools to build a log cabin, so, too, would you select another set of tools to build a condominium. The same is true of the teaching tools at your disposal. Excerpted from The Complete Idiot's Guide to Success as a Teacher © 2005 by Anthony D. Fredericks. All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. Used by arrangement with Alpha Books, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.To order this book visit Amazon's web site or call 1-800-253-6476. Asian-Pacific-American Heritage Month May is Asian-Pacific-American Heritage Month! Don't overlook this opportunity to study and enjoy activities about the history and culture of Asian-Pacific American communities. The recent rash of tornadoes in Oklahoma, which killed at least two dozen people, may have your students wondering why such natural disasters occur, how they may be affected by them, and what they can do to help. Use these resources to teach the geography of Oklahoma and the Southwestern United States, to explain tornadoes, and to discuss the resulting crises with your class. Top 10 Galleries Explore our most popular Top 10 galleries, from Top 10 Behavior Management Tips for the Classroom and Top 10 Classroom Organization Tips from Veteran Teachers to Top 10 Free (& Cheap) Rewards for Students and Top 10 Things Every Teacher Needs in the Classroom. We'll help you get organized and prepared for every classroom situation, holiday, and more! Check out all of our galleries today. May Calendar of Events May is full of holidays and events that you can incorporate into your standard curriculum. Our Educators' Calendar outlines activities for each event, including: Backyard Games Week (5/23-29) and Memorial Day (5/27). Plus, celebrate Asian-Pacific-American Heritage Month, Clean Air Month, and Physical Fitness & Sports Month all May long! Common Core Lessons & Resources Is your school district adopting the Common Core? Work these new standards into your curriculum with our reading, writing, speaking, social studies, and math lessons and activities. Each piece of content incorporates the Common Core State Standards into the activity or lesson.

http://www.teachervision.fen.com/curriculum-planning/new-teacher/48347.html?page=2

Sickle cell anemia is an inherited disease. People who have the disease inherit two genes for sickle hemoglobin—one from each parent. Sickle hemoglobin causes red blood cells to develop a sickle, or crescent, shape. Sickle cells are stiff and sticky. They tend to block blood flow in the blood vessels of the limbs and organs. Blocked blood flow can cause pain and organ damage. It can also raise the risk for infection. People who inherit a sickle hemoglobin gene from one parent and a normal gene from the other parent have sickle cell trait. Their bodies make both sickle hemoglobin and normal hemoglobin. People who have sickle cell trait usually have few, if any, symptoms and lead normal lives. However, some people may have medical complications. People who have sickle cell trait can pass the sickle hemoglobin gene to their children. The following image shows an example of an inheritance pattern for sickle cell trait. When both parents have a normal gene and an abnormal gene, each child has a 25 percent chance of inheriting two normal genes; a 50 percent chance of inheriting one normal gene and one abnormal gene; and a 25 percent chance of inheriting two abnormal genes. Living With and Managing Sickle Cell Disease (Nicholas) Clinical trials are research studies that explore whether a medical strategy, treatment, or device is safe and effective for humans. To find clinical trials that are currently underway for Sickle Cell Anemia, visit www.clinicaltrials.gov. Visit Children and Clinical Studies to hear experts, parents, and children talk about their experiences with clinical research. NHLBI-supported research has helped reduce the burden of sickle cell disease. Learn more about how this research has benefited Tiffany McCoy and others who are living with sickle cell disease in the NHLBI’s stories of success. The NHLBI updates Health Topics articles on a biennial cycle based on a thorough review of research findings and new literature. The articles also are updated as needed if important new research is published. The date on each Health Topics article reflects when the content was originally posted or last revised.

http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/sca/causes.html

Pneumonia is an inflammation of the lung caused by infection with bacteria, viruses, and other organisms. Pneumonia is usually triggered when a patient's defense system is weakened, most often by a simple viral upper respiratory tract infection or a case of influenza. Such infections or other triggers do not cause pneumonia directly but they alter the mucous blanket, thus encouraging bacterial growth. Other factors can also make specific people susceptible to bacterial growth and pneumonia. Cause of pneumonia Bacteria are the most common causes of pneumonia, but these infections can also be caused by other microbial organisms. It is often impossible to identify the specific culprit. The most common cause of pneumonia is the gram-positive bacterium Streptococcus pneumoniae (also called S. pneumoniae or pneumococcal pneumonia ). The most common gram-negative species causing pneumonia is Haemophilus influenzae (generally occurring in patients with chronic lung disease, older patients, and alcoholics). Atypical pneumonias are generally caused by tiny nonbacterial organisms called Mycoplasma or Chlamydia pneumoniae and produce mild symptoms with a dry cough. Viruses that can cause or lead to pneumonia include influenza, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), herpes simplex virus, varicella-zoster (the cause of chicken pox), and adenovirus. PNEUMONIA - Symptoms of Common Pneumonias The symptoms of bacterial pneumonia develop abruptly and may include chest pain, fever, shaking, chills, shortness of breath, and rapid breathing and heart beat. Symptoms of pneumonia indicating a medical emergency include high fever, a rapid heart rate, low blood pressure, bluish-skin, and mental confusion. Coughing up sputum containing pus or blood is an indication of serious infection. Severe abdominal pain may accompany pneumonia occurring in the lower lobes of the lung. In advanced cases, the patient's skin may become bluish (cyanotic), breathing may become labored and heavy, and the patient may become confused. Symptoms in the Elderly. It is important to note that older people may have fewer or different symptoms than younger people have. An elderly person who experiences even a minor cough and weakness for more than a day should seek medical help. Some may exhibit confusion, lethargy, and general deterioration. Symptoms of Pneumonia Causes by Anaerobic Bacteria People with pneumonia caused by anaerobic bacteria such as Bacteroides, which can produce abscesses, often have prolonged fever and productive cough, frequently showing blood in the sputum, which indicates necrosis (tissue death) in the lung. About a third of these patients experience weight loss. Symptoms of Atypical Pneumonia General Symptoms for Atypical Pneumonias. Atypical nonbacterial pneumonia is most commonly caused by Mycoplasma and usually appears in children and young adults. Symptoms progress gradually, often beginning with general flu-like symptoms, such as fatigue, fever, weakness, headache, nasal discharge, sore throat, ear ache, and stomach and intestinal distress. Vague pain under and around the breast bone may occur, but the severe chest pain associated with typical bacterial pneumonia is uncommon. Patients may experience a severe hacking cough, but it usually does not produce sputum. Symptoms of Legionnaire's Disease Symptoms of Legionnaire's disease usually evolve more rapidly and include high fever, a dry cough, and shortness of breath, often accompanied by headache, muscle pains, fatigue, gastrointestinal problems, and mental confusion.

http://www.homeotreatments.com/remedies/respiratory-diseases.html

Parent Help Suggestions for Reading - Have your child read at least 20 minute every day. This could be a newspaper, magazine, books, etc. - Have a reading time when everyone reads. At the end of that time have a small discussion allowing each person to tell about what they are reading. - Listen to your child read or do a shared reading taking turns reading paragraphs or pages. - Who is/are the characters in the story? - Questions to ask about what your child is reading. - Choose one character. Why is that character important in the story? - Did any of the characters change during the story? Is so, how? - Choose one character. does this character remind you of anyone? If so, who and why? - What is the setting of the story? (time and place of the story) - How did the setting affect what happened in the story? - How would the story be different if the setting were different? - What is the author's purpose in the story? (to inform, persuade, entertain, or express ideas or - What is the author trying to tell you in this story? - If you were to suggest this story to someone, what would you say this story is mostly about? - How did you feel when you finished the story? What in the story made you feel this way? - What is the conflict (problem) in the story? - What is the resolution (how is the problem solved) to the story? - How did the character(s) solve the conflict? - How could the character(s) solve the story differently?

http://www.tiffin.k12.oh.us/olc/page.aspx?id=22921&s=1090

Most global warming stories talk about carbon dioxide, the colorless gas that accumulates in the atmosphere and insulates the planet like a giant, invisible blanket. But carbon dioxide isn’t the only greenhouse gas. Another, called methane, also traps heats in Earth's atmosphere (one definition of the greenhouse effect) — more than 20 times as much as the same amount of carbon dioxide. But unlike carbon dioxide, which can hover for hundreds of years, methane stays in the air for only about 12 years. So reducing methane might be an easy way to start tackling a big problem. In a new study, scientists say that bringing down methane emissions may be a quick, relatively simple way to slow down the temperature increase caused by global warming. The scientists also report that making small efforts to reduce soot — the black carbon particles spewed from fires into the air — can help. If people were to lessen the amounts of methane and soot that end up in the atmosphere, we could knock almost a full Fahrenheit degree (half a degree Celsius) off the amount of warming predicted to happen by 2050. The scientists report that reducing methane and soot would have another benefit: keeping people alive. In addition to slowing down warming, reducing methane and soot cleans up the air. The scientists estimate that better air quality could prevent between 0.7 million and 4.7 million deaths per year that would otherwise have been caused by air pollution. Climate scientist Drew Shindell told Science News that we could tackle two major problems without much effort by cutting back on methane and soot. Shindell says the pollutants are the “low-hanging fruit both for mitigating climate change and improving air quality.” Shindell, from the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York City, led the new study. He and his colleagues used computer programs to test about 400 different ways to reduce pollutants. Seven of those strategies focused on methane, another seven on soot. The scientists say that taking actions to reduce methane and soot will influence the climate faster than trying to tackle problems due to carbon dioxide. Not all scientists agree that the recommendations offer a clear-cut solution. Climate scientist Piers Forster at the University of Leeds in England told Science News that cutting methane is probably a good start. But soot is another story. He points out that some of the sources of soot also produce particles that reflect sunlight away from the planet, keeping it cooler. “If you were to cut out these emissions, you might actually get a warming effect instead of a cooling effect,” Forster told Science News. Even if the climate effects of cutting soot are uncertain, the study by Shindell and his team points to a huge human benefit from reducing the pollutant. The scientists calculated that less soot leads to fewer deaths in countries like India and China, where the black pollution can be inhaled deeply and trigger lung diseases. Shindell and other scientists know that when people get serious about slowing down climate change, carbon dioxide will be the biggest obstacle. But maybe the world can get a head start on slowing down Earth’s warming by cutting back on methane and soot. POWER WORDS (adapted from the New Oxford American Dictionary) methane A colorless, odorless, flammable gas that is the main constituent of natural gas. Methane is a greenhouse gas, sometimes produced in the air when natural gas does not burn completely. carbon dioxide A colorless, odorless gas produced by burning carbon and organic compounds and by respiration. It is naturally present in air and is absorbed by plants in photosynthesis. greenhouse gas A gas that contributes to Earth’s greenhouse, or warming, effect by absorbing heat. soot A black, powdery or flaky substance consisting largely of carbon, produced by the incomplete burning of organic matter, such as coal and wood.

http://www.sciencenewsforkids.org/2012/01/climate-coolers/

Initializing a variable is considered very helpful while making programs. We can initialize variables of primitive types at the time of their declarations. For example: int a = 10; In Object Oriented Programming language (OOPL) like Java, the need of initialization of fields of a new object is even more common. We have already done this using two approaches. In the first approach, we used a dot operator to access and assign values to the instance variables individually for each object. However, it can be a tedious job to initialize the instance variables of all the objects individually. Moreover, it does not promotes data hiding. r1.length = 5; r2.length = 7; Where rl,r2 are objects of a Rectangle class. In another approach, we made use of method setData() to assign values to fields of each object individually. But it would have to be called explicitly for each object. This would become inconvenient if the number of objects are very large. rl.setData(5,6);//sets length and breadth of rl Rectangle object The above two approaches does not simulate the problem properly. A better solution to the above problem is to initialize values to the object at the time of its creation in the same way as we initialize values to a variable of primitive data types. This is accomplished using a special method in Java known as constructor that enables an object to initialize itself at the time of its creation without the need to make separate call to the instance method. A constructor is a special method that is called whenever an object is created using the new keyword. It contains a block of statements that can be used to initialize instance variables of an object before the reference to this object is returned by new. A constructor does look and feel a lot like a method but it is different from a method generally in two ways. A constructor always has the same name as the class whose instance members they initialize. The constructor does not have a return type, nor even void. It is because the constructor is automatically called by the compiler whenever an object of a class is created. The syntax for constructor is as follows. Here, the ConstructorName is same as the class name it belongs to. The parameterList is the list of optional zero or more parameter(s) that is specified after the classname in parentheses. Each parameter specification, if any, consists of a type and a name and are separated from each other by commas. Now let us consider a program // use of Constructor length = 5; breath = 6; Int rectArea = length * breath; Public static void main(String args) Rectangle firstRect = new Rectangle(); System.out.println(“Area of Rectangle = ”+ firstrect.area()); Output: Area of rectangle =30 Explanation : In this program, when the statement Rectangle firstRect = new Rectangle(); IS executed, the new operator creates a new but uninitialized object of the class. Then the constructor (Rectangle (») is called and the statements in its body are executed. As a result, the instance variables length and breadth of object firstRect will be initialized to integer literals 5 and 6 respectively. Then the address of the allocated Rectangle object is returned and assigned to the reference variable firstRect. This method of initializing instance variable(s) of an object(s) using constructor is very simple and concise as there is no need to explicitly call the method for each object separately. There are three types of Constructor as follows:- 1)Default Constructor:- Default Constructor is also called as Empty Constructor which has no arguments andis Automatically called when we creates the object of class but Remember name of Constructor is same as name of class. 2)Parameterized Constructor :- This is AnotherConstructor which has some Arguments and same name as class name but it uses some Arguments So For this We have to create object of Class by passing some Arguments at the time of creating object with the name of class. 3)Copy Constructor:- This is also Another type of Constructor. InConstructor object of another Constructor is passed As name Suggests you Copy means Copy values of another Class object This is used for Copying the values of class object into an another object of class So For Calling Copy Constructor We have to pass the name of object whose values we wants to Copying . 1. It is a member function whose name is same as the class. But preceded by a ~ (tilde) symbol. 2. It has no return type. 3. It cannot have parameters. 4. It is implicitly called when object is no longer required. 5. It is used to release the memory and close files and database conversions. ( No Destructor concept in java ) Note :- java does not support destructor. But it is supported by C,C++.

http://ecomputernotes.com/java/what-is-java/what-is-java-constructor-type-of-constructor

Math with manipulatives: Preschool number activities designed to foster your child’s number sense © 2008 -2013 Gwen Dewar, Ph.D., all rights reserved Never mind the talking toys and fancy video games. These preschool number activities require only a dose of imagination and a few household supplies. Discoveries in cognitive psychology and neuroscience suggest that preschool number activities should address more than verbal counting. Young children need to develop an intuitive feeling for numerosity—-the “how many-ness” associated with specific numbers. These activities are designed to help kids sharpen their “number sense” and provide them with opportunities to put several math concepts into practice, including • the notion of relative magnitudes • the one-to-one principle of numerosity (two sets are equal if the items in each set can be matched one-to-one with no items left over) • the one-to-one principle of counting (each item to be counted is counted once and only once) • the stable order principle (number words must be recited in the same order) • the principle of increasing magnitudes (the later number words refer to greater numerosities) • the cardinal principle (the last word counted represents the numerosity of the set) Most of these preschool number activities rely on a set of cards and a set of tokens. Here’s what you need to get started. Making a set of cards and manipulatives The cards will be used in two ways—as displays of dots for kids to count, and as templates for kids to cover with tokens. For this group of preschool number activities, you’ll need • 10 or more tokens (each over 1.25” in diameter to avoid a choking hazard) • 10 or more sheets of heavy-stock paper or large index cards • Felt-tip pen • Optional: a set of small stickers Finding tokens that aren't distracting or hazardous A variety of objects can be used for tokens, but keep in mind: Kids can get distracted if your tokens are too interesting, so it's best to avoid the fancy plastic frogs and fully-embellished coins (Petersen and McNeil 2012). Also, you need to be conscious of choking hazards for kids under 3. According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, a ball-shaped object is unsafe if it is smaller than a 1.75” diameter golf ball. Other objects are unsafe if they can fit inside a tube with a diameter of 1.25” inches. I’ve used plastic poker chips. You can also use something safe and edible, like “O”-shaped cereal pieces. Creating the cards Each card will be marked by an Arabic numeral and corresponding number of dots. Make the dots with a felt tip marker. Alternatively, you can use stickers to make your dots. The dots should be spaced far enough apart for your child to place a token over each dot. The larger your tokens, the larger your cards will need to be. Make at least one card for each number between 1 and 10. In addition, make multiple cards for the same number—each card bearing dots arranged in different configurations. For example, one “three” card might show three dots arranged in a triangular configuration. Another might show the dots arranged in a line. Still another might show the dots that appear to have been placed randomly. Whatever your configuration, leave enough space between dots for your child to place a token over each dot. Preschool number activities: Mix and match One you have your cards and tokens, you can play any of the preschool number activities below. As you play, keep in mind the points raised in my guide to preschool math lessons: • Start small. It’s important to adjust the game to your child’s attention span and developmental level. For beginners, this means counting tasks that focus on very small numbers (up to 3 or 4). • Keep it fun. If it’s not playful and fun, it’s time to stop. • Be patient. It takes kids about a year to learn how the counting system works. The basic game: One-to-one matching Place a card, face up, before your child. Then ask your child to place the correct number of tokens on the card—one token over each dot. After the child has finished the task, replace the card and tokens and start again with a new card. Once your child has got the hang of this, you can modify the game by helping your child count each token as he puts it in place. The Tea Party: Relative magnitudes Choose two cards that display a different number of dots, taking care that the cards differ by a ratio of at least 2:1. For instance, try 1 vs. 2, 2 vs. 4, and 2 vs. 5. You can also try larger numbers, like 6 vs. 12. Then set each card down in front of a toy creature / doll / teddy bear, and show your child how to cover the dots with a token. When I’ve played this game, I used poker chips and called them cookies. But you could also use edible tokens, like pieces of cereal. After your child has covered each dot with a token, ask him “Which (creature) has more (cookies / treats)?” After he answers you, you can count each “tray” of treats to check the answer. But I’d skip this step if you are working with larger numbers (like 6 vs. 12) that are beyond your child’s current grasp. You don’t want to make this game feel like a tedious exercise. As your child becomes better at this game, you can try somewhat smaller ratios (like 5 vs. 9). Bigger and bigger: Increasing magnitudes Instead of playing with the tokens, have your child place the cards side-by-side in correct numeric sequence. For beginners, try this with very small numbers (1, 2, 3) and with numbers that vary by a large degree (e.g., 1, 3, 6, 12). Sharing at the tea party: The one-to-one principle I’ve stolen this one directly from experiments done by Brian Butterworth and his colleagues (2008). Choose three toy creatures as party attendees and have your child set the table—providing one and only plate, cup, and spoon to each toy. Then give your child a set of “cookies” (tokens or real edibles) and ask her to share these among the party guests so they each receive the same amount. Make it simple by giving your child 6 or 9 tokens so that none will be left over. As always, go at your child’s pace and quit if it isn’t fun. If your child makes a mistake and gives one creature too many tokens, you can play the part of another creature and complain that it isn’t fair. You can also play the part of tea party host and deliberately make a mistake. Ask for your child’s help? Did someone get too many tokens? Or not enough? Have your child fix it. Once your child gets the hang of things, try providing him with one token too many and discuss what to do about this "leftover." One solution is to divide the remainder into three equal bits. But your child may come up with other, non-mathematical solutions, like eating the extra bit himself. Matching patterns: Counting and numerosity Play the basic game as described above, but instead of having your child place the tokens directly over the dots, have your child place the tokens alongside the card. Ask your child to arrange his tokens in the same pattern that is illustrated on the card. And count! Matching patterns: Conservation of number For this game, use cards bearing dots only-—no numerals. To play, place two cards—-each bearing the same number of dots, but arranged in different patterns—-side by side. Ask your child to recreate each pattern using his tokens. When she’s done, help her count the number of tokens in each pattern. The patterns look different, but they use the same number of dots/tokens. Spotting the goof: The one-to-one and cardinal principles Here’s another activity swiped from the experimental literature. In one study, researchers asked preschoolers to watch—-and help-—a rather incompetent puppet count a set of objects (Gelman et al 1986). The puppet would occasionally violate the one-to-one principle by double-counting (e.g., “one, two, three, three, four…). He also sometimes skipped an object or repeated the wrong cardinal value. Kids ranging in age from 3 to 5 were pretty good at detecting these violations. So your child might have fun correcting your own “goof up” puppet or toy at home. Have the puppet count the number of tokens in a set, and, sometimes, make mistakes. If your child doesn’t notice the error, you can correct the puppet yourself. But either way, ask your child to explain what went wrong. Experimenters working with 4- and 5-year olds found that kids didn’t make conceptual progress unless they were asked to explain either their own or the experimenter's reasoning (Muldoon et al 2007). The cookie maker: Making predictions about changes to a set Even before kids master counting, they can learn about the concepts of addition and subtraction. Here are some research-inspired preschool number activities that ask kids to make predictions about addition and subtraction For these games, have a puppet or toy “bake cookies” (a set of tokens). Ask your child to count the cookies (helping if necessary) and then have the puppet bake one more cookie and add it to the set. Are there more cookies or fewer cookies now? Ask your child to predict how many cookies are left. Then count again to check the answer. Try the same thing with subtraction by having the puppet eat a cookie. Don’t expect answers that are precise and correct. But you may find that your child is good at getting the gist. When researchers asked 3-, 4- and 5-year olds to perform similar tasks, they found that 90% of the predictions were in the right direction (Zur and Gelman 2004). The Big Race: Increasing magnitudes and the number line As your child begins to master the first few number words, you can also try these research-tested preschool number activities for teaching kids about the number line. References: Preschool number activities Butterworth B, Reeve R, and Lloyd D. 2008. Numerical thought with and without words: Evidence from indigenous Australian children. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 105(35): 13179-13184. Gelman R, Meck E, and Merkin S. 1986. Young children’s numerical competence. Cognitive Development 1(1): 1-29. Muldoon KP, Lewis C, Francis B. 2007. Using cardinality to compare quantities: the role of social-cognitive conflict in early numeracy. Developmental Psychology 10(5):694-711. Petersen LA and McNeil NM. 2012. Effects of Perceptually Rich Manipulatives on Preschoolers' Counting Performance: Established Knowledge Counts. Child Dev. 2012 Dec 13. doi: 10.1111/cdev.12028. [Epub ahead of print] Zur O and Gelman R. 2004. Young children can add and subtract by predicting and checking. Early childhood Research Quarterly 19: 121-137. Content last modified 3/13

http://www.parentingscience.com/preschool-number-activities.html

Bile is a digestive juice that is secreted by the liver and stored in the gallbladder. It has two important functions : - Assists with fat digestion and absorption in the gut. - Is a means for the body to excrete waste products from the blood. Bile does not contain enzymes like other secretions from the gastrointestinal tract. Instead it has bile salts (acids) which can : - Emulsify fats and break it down into small particles. This is a detergent-like action of bile. - Helps the body absorb the breakdown products of fat in the gut. Bile salts bind with lipids to form micelles. This is then absorbed through the intestinal mucosa. The other important function of bile is that it contains waste products from hemoglobin break down. This is known as bilirubin and is normally formed by the body as it gets rid of old red blood cells which are rich in hemoglobin. Bile also carries excess cholesterol out of the body and ‘dumps’ it into the gastrointestinal tract where it can be passed out with other waste matter.

http://www.healthhype.com/category/liver-gallbladder/page/10

Scientists launch interplanetary missions to study the planets, asteroids, and comets close up. Mariner 2 was the first successful interplanetary craft flying past Venus in 1962. MARS EXPLORATION began with Mariner 4 in 1965. Since then all the planets except Pluto have been visited by interplanetary craft. Some spacecraft study their targets as they fly by, some orbit their targets, and others even land on them. The Magellan spacecraft went into orbit around Venus in 1990. It used radar to find out what lay beneath the clouds that permanently cover the planet. The images it sent back showed that the landscape of Venus was covered in huge lava flows from hundreds of volcanoes. There were also spidery cracks, called arachnoids, in the planet’s surface. A spacecraft called NEAR-Shoemaker made an unexpected landing on the asteroid Eros in February 2001. It had spent the previous year in orbit around the 33-km (21-mile) rocky body, which sometimes comes within 22 million km (14 million miles) of Earth. At the end of the mission, the scientists decided to let the craft get closer and closer to the surface, taking pictures as it went. To their surprise, the craft survived quite a hard landing on the asteroid, and one instrument continued to work for several days afterwards. In 2004 the Cassini spacecraft reached the beautiful ringed planet Saturn after a seven-year journey from Earth. The aim was to study the planet and many of its moons over a long period of time. Cassini was programmed to release a probe called Huygens into the thick atmosphere of Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, and to land it on the moon’s surface. Some of the most exciting interplanetary missions have been to Mars, our neighbouring planet. Mars is the only other planet where life may once have existed and where human beings could possibly settle in the future. Mars is being explored in depth by spacecraft on its surface and in orbit around it. These missions have found a lot of frozen water in the Martian rocks, perhaps all that is left of ancient Martian oceans. In January 2004, two robot vehicles called Spirit and Opportunity touched down on Mars and began moving slowly over the surface. They carried instruments to study rocks, and cameras to take pictures of the surface, and for navigation. Before every stage of exploration, each rover took pictures of the area directly ahead. These were used to plan a route, avoiding hazards, to the next target area. The Mars Global Surveyor was launched in 1996 and reached Mars orbit 10 months later. In 1999, it began its main mission: to orbit the planet acquiring data in order to create a detailed picture of the Martian surface. It also mapped the topography (the three-dimensional landscape) of the planet, and studied the surface rocks and the atmosphere.

http://life.familyeducation.com/dk/science/encyclopedia/interplanetary-missions.html

On this day in 1863, Union General Ambrose Burnside is removed as commander of the Army of the Potomac after serving in the role for two months. Burnside assumed command of the army after President Abraham Lincoln removed General George B. McClellan from command in November 1862. Lincoln had a difficult relationship with McClellan, who built the army admirably but was a sluggish and overly cautious field commander. Lincoln wanted an attack on the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, which was commanded by Robert E. Lee. Burnside drafted a plan to move south towards Richmond, Virginia. The plan was sound, but delays in its execution alerted Lee to the danger. Lee headed Burnside off at Fredericksburg, Virginia, on December 13. Burnside attacked repeatedly against entrenched Confederates along Marye's Heights above Fredericksburg with tragic results for the Union. More than 13,000 Yankees fell; Lee lost just 5,000 troops. Northern morale sunk in the winter of 1862-1863. Lincoln allowed Burnside one more chance. In January 1863, Burnside attempted another campaign against Lee. Four days of rain turned the Union offensive into the ignominious "Mud March," during which the Yankees floundered on mud roads while Lee's men jeered at them from across the Rappahannock River. Lincoln had seen enough--General Joseph Hooker took over command of the army from Burnside.

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/burnside-relieved-of-command?catId=2

Using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers pinpointed a blaze of light from the farthest supernova ever seen, a dying star that exploded 10 billion years ago. The detection and analysis of this supernova, called 1997ff, is greatly bolstering the case for the existence of a mysterious form of dark energy pervading the cosmos, making galaxies hurl ever faster away from each other. The supernova also offers the first glimpse of the universe slowing down soon after the Big Bang, before it began speeding up. This panel of images, taken with the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2, shows the supernova's cosmic neighborhood; its home galaxy; and the dying star itself. Astronomers found this supernova in 1997 during a second look at the northern Hubble Deep Field [top panel], a tiny region of sky first explored by the Hubble telescope in 1995. The image shows the myriad of galaxies Hubble spied when it peered across more than 10 billion years of time and space. The white box marks the area where the supernova dwells. The photo at bottom left is a close-up view of that region. The white arrow points to the exploding star's home galaxy, a faint elliptical. Its redness is due to the billions of old stars residing there. The picture at bottom right shows the supernova itself, distinguished by the white dot in the center. Although this stellar explosion is among the brightest beacons in the universe, it could not be seen directly in the Hubble images. The stellar blast is so distant from Earth that its light is buried in the glow of its host galaxy. To find the supernova, astronomers compared two pictures of the "deep field" taken two years apart. One image was of the original Hubble Deep Field; the other, the follow-up deep-field picture taken in 1997. Using special computer software, astronomers then measured the light from the galaxies in both images. Noting any changes in light output between the two pictures, the computer identified a blob of light in the 1997 picture that wasn't in the original deep-field study. That blob turned out to be the supernova. The red background texture is an artifact of the process of isolating the supernova. Object Names: HDF-N, SN1997ff Image Type: Astronomical/Illustration To access available information and downloadable versions of images in this news release, click on any of the images below:

http://www.hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/survey/2001/09/image/a/

- Build self–esteem - Develop initiative - Provide outlet for creativity - Responsibility for possession - Responsibility for being well behaved - Responsibility for making an honest effort - Prepare foundation for drama, dance, & arts - Attention span and concentration level - Visual memory - Aural memory - Time–management and organizational skills - Goal–setting and task–completion skills - Problem–solving skills - Confidence in facing new situations & challenges As the student continues with music education, their following skills strengthen: 1.Comprehention. Learning to perceive and derive meaning from musical sounds V for example, to identify a musical theme V sharpens your childs ability to comprehend abstractions. 2.Problem Solving. The ability to understand a problem and reach an appropriate solution is one of the most important skills your child can learn. Learning the basics of musical language, such as harmony, or interpreting a work through performance teaches this skill. 3.Logical Thinking. Applying particular lessons to other problems and situations requires sound reasoning. When your child learns to analyse a musical work from a cultural, structural, or historical perspective, or to improvise within a certain musical style, both inductive and deductive reasoning grow stronger. 4.Making Value Judgements. Learning to comprehend, consider, and evaluate in music can help your child make informed decisions in other aspects of life. Discriminating between great and lesser works or justifying musical choices in compositions can teach your child independent thinking and how to make and uphold value judgements. 5.Using Symbols. The ability to use symbols distinguishes the human race among all forms of life. Learning to read, write, and interpret musical notation provides access to a nonverbal world to thought and strengthens the use of other symbol systems as well, such as mathematics or language. 6.Conceptualizing. Your child learns to classify and generalize by learning to identify different types and styles of music, to recognize how different cultures use music for personal expression, and to recognize common elements in different works. 7.Communication. Perhaps the greatest gift of music is its ability to cultivate our feelings and thoughts through nonverbal means. Being able to express theses feelings and thoughts V and to respond to them in others V is part of every successful program of music study and indispensable in your childs total development.BACK TO TOP Can I learn music as an Adult? Am I too old? I've heard people say that they wish they had continued music lessons as a kid, but now they are too old to learn. I beg to differ; in my experience, adults make the best music students and usually the best musicians, no matter when they started playing. If you are an adult and are thinking of learning to play, there are a few general things to keep in mind. As an adult music student, you bring much more to the table than a child brings to the study of music. You bring desire, life experience and physical maturity. First, you have desire. You want to learn. You want to make music. You 'know' you want to learn. The desire is yours and comes directly from you. You are the person with the vision and the dream of making music. Next, you bring a life-long body of knowledge and life experience with you into your pursuit of music. Of course, you're going to have some road blocks that some children don't have. Lack of time is probably the first and biggest enemy. You have many more time commitments that will demand your attention. You're tendency will be to be frustrated with slow progress as your fingers won't do what your mind is telling them to do. You can also be stubbornly successful when you really want to be. Set your mind like this: Success in making music is in the journey, not in the destination. It is never too late to learn, so with that in mind, let's play music. The advantage you have as an adult is the fact that you probably really want to play music. Where children sometimes want to experiment for a short while, adults usually have thought seriously about it.BACK TO TOP

http://www.broadwaymusic.ca/lessons.php?p=2

Gorilla Black Hole in the Mist This false-color image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows a distant galaxy (yellow) that houses a quasar, a super-massive black hole circled by a ring, or torus, of gas and dust. Spitzer's infrared eyes cut through the dust to find this hidden object, which appears to be a member of the long-sought population of missing quasars. The green and blue splotches are galaxies that do not hold quasars. Astronomers had predicted that most quasars are blocked from our view by their tori, or by surrounding dust-drenched galaxies, making them difficult to find. Because infrared light can travel through gas and dust, Spitzer was able to detect enough of these objects to show that there is most likely a large population of obscured quasars. In addition to the quasar-bearing galaxy shown here, Spitzer discovered 20 others in a small patch of sky. Astronomers identified the quasars with the help of radio data from the National Radio Astronomy Observatory's Very Large Array radio telescope in New Mexico. While normal galaxies do not produce strong radio waves, many galaxies with quasars appear bright when viewed with radio telescopes. In this image, infrared data from Spitzer is colored both blue (3.6 microns) and green (24 microns), and radio data from the Very Large Array telescope is colored red. The quasar-bearing galaxy stands out in yellow because it emits both infrared and radio light. Of the 21 quasars uncovered by Spitzer, astronomers believe that 10 are hidden by their dusty tori, while the rest are altogether buried in dusty galaxies. The quasar inside the galaxy pictured here is of the type that is obscured by its torus.

http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/images/1462-ssc2005-17a-Gorilla-Black-Hole-in-the-Mist

The Hearing Process In the course of hearing, sound waves enter the auditory canal and strike the eardrum, causing it to vibrate. The sound waves are concentrated by passing from a relatively large area (the eardrum) through the ossicles to a relatively small opening leading to the inner ear. Here the stirrup vibrates, setting in motion the fluid of the cochlea. The alternating changes of pressure agitate the basilar membrane on which the organ of Corti rests, moving the hair cells. This movement stimulates the sensory hair cells to send impulses along the auditory nerve to the brain. It is not known how the brain distinguishes high-pitched from low-pitched sounds. One theory proposes that the sensation of pitch is dependent on which area of the basilar membrane is made to vibrate. How the brain distinguishes between loud and soft sounds is also not understood, though some scientists believe that loudness is determined by the intensity of vibration of the basilar membrane. In a small portion of normal hearing, sound waves are transmitted directly to the inner ear by causing the bones of the skull to vibrate, i.e., the auditory canal and the middle ear are bypassed. This kind of hearing, called bone conduction, is utilized in compensating for certain kinds of deafness (see deafness; hearing aid), and plays a role in the hearing of extremely loud sounds.

http://www.factmonster.com/encyclopedia/science/ear-the-hearing-process.html

the movements of continents relative to each other across the Earth's surface; see plate tectonics. The theory that continents have moved in relation to one another. The theory that the continents move in relation to one another. Horizontal movement of continents located in plates moving via sea-floor spreading. The theory that horizontal movement of the earth's surface causes slow, relative movements of the continents toward or away from one another. The widely accepted view that the continents of the Earth are slowly drifting across the surface of the globe. The travel of continents to their present position caused by the movement of lithospheric plates. when major plates are slowly but steadily moved apart First substantial hypothesis, stated originally by Alfred Wegener, explaining the geographic distribution of similar fossils, rocks, and rock structures in widely separated continents that also have closely fitting coastlines. Seminal hypothesis for later development of the theory of plate tectonics. Movement of the continents over the Earth's surface. The slow movement of the continents across the Earth's surface. gradual separation of the continents produced by convective motions of lithospheric plates at a rate of a few centimeters per year. The slow movement of continental and oceanic plates probably caused by convection in the underlying asthenosphere, measured in a few centimeters per year, that has resulted in massive alterations of the features of the Earth's crust over geologic time. Colliding plates can generate mountain ranges and upwellings of the mantle can push plates apart to produce ocean basins. Also called plate tectonics. The lateral movement of continents as a result of sea-floor spreading. the gradual movement and formation of continents (as described by plate tectonics) Theory formed by the German scientist Alfred Wegener. According to the theory continents move in consequence of the movement of plates which move in consequence of convection currents. theory that continental plates under the Earth's crust rupture, move apart, and collide with one another. When collision occurs, mountain ranges are created the geologic theory that all continents were originally part of a single landmass before they slowly separated and drifted apart. The very slow movement of the continents on their underlying plates. (See also plate tectonics.) the slow, lateral movements of continents across the surface of the Earth. the constant movement of the Earth's plates The process by which the continents move as part of large plates floating on Earth's mantle. See plate tectonics. The hypothesis, proposed by Alfred Wegener, that today's continents broke off from a single supercontinent and then plowed through the ocean floors into their present positions. This explanation of the shapes and locations of Earth's current continents evolved into the theory of plate tectonics. A hypothesis proposed by Alfred Wegener suggesting that the continents are not stationary, but have 'drifted' through time. Plate tectonics is the name for the theory that provided the evidence necessary to support Wegener's hypothesis. more details... Palaeogeography as ordered by plate tectonics in which sea floor spreading from mid-ocean ridges moves continents apart. A scientific theory of the slow movement of rock plates of oceanic and continental crust. The gradual movement of the Earth's continents that has occurred over hundreds of millions of years. A theory put forward in early this century by Alfred Wegener based on ideas of continental movement that had been around for many years, but with much added evidence in the form of the distribution of old climatic zones and of fossils. Continental Drift envisaged the continents moving, but unlike plate tectonics it offered no mechanism for this movement and presumed that continental crust moves over, rather than is carried by, oceanic crust. Plate Tectonics was very much built upon the evidence of Continental Drift but includes mechanisms of movement and explains earthquake and volcanic distribution which Continental Drift could not. Continental drift is the movement of the Earth's continents. The land masses are hunks of Earth's crust that float on the molten core. The ideas of continental drift and the existence of a supercontinent ( Pangaea) were presented by Alfred Wegener in 1915. the idea that a past supercontinent split apart into pieces, which drifted over time to their present locations The hypothesis proposed by Alfred Wegener that the continents are not stationary, but have moved across the surface of Earth over time. The theory that the configuration of Earth's continents was once different than it is today; that some of the individual landmasses of today once were joined in other continental forms; and that these landmasses later separated and moved to their present locations. the theory that the continents have drifted apart when a supercontinent, Pangaea, broke apart. See Plate Tectonics. A scientific theory first put forth by Afred Wegener in 1915. The theory states that at some time in the distant geologic past, there existed one single, large "supercontinent" called Pangaea. Approximately 200 million years ago, this landmass broke up, pieces of which "drifted," forming the continents as we known them today. The idea eventually led to the today's theory of plate tectonics (see below). The separation and movement of land masses in geological time. A term applied to early theories supporting the possibility that the continents are in motion over the Earth's surface. [Scientific American. v 266, 84, 1992.] [Scientific American. v 264, 66, 1991. the breakup of the earth's original single landmass into continents that then separated; they are still drifting apart today The theory, first advanced by Alfred Wegener, that Earth's continents were originally one land mass. Pieces of the land mass split off and migrated to form the continents. Theory that the continental land masses drift across the earth as the earth’s plates move and interact in a process called plate tectonics. Theory that suggests that the Earth's crust is composed of several continental plates that have the ability to move. First proposed by A. Snider in 1858 and developed by F.B. Taylor (1908) and Alfred Wegener (1915). The concept that the continents drift across the surface of the Earth [LCOTE The lateral movement of continental plates over the globe, allowing continents to divide and rejoin in different patterns. This process can separate populations of organisms, providing the geographic barriers that can result in speciation. The theory proposed in 1915 by Alfred Wegener, a German geophysicist and meteorologist. The theory stated that the continents had once been joined into one "supercontinent," called Pangaea. About 200 million years ago, Pangaea broke apart and the continents drifted to their present positions. Wegener based his theory on the similarity of fossils and rock types on the east coast of South America and the west coast of Africa. The theory was widely ridiculed at the time because Wegener had not proposed a driving force for such drift. The movement of the continents relative to each other. Continental drift is a consequence of plate tectonics. Continents generally move with respect to each other at the rate of a few centimeters per year. Continental drift, is the movement of the Earth's continents relative to each other. Frank Bursley Taylor had proposed the concept in a Geological Society of America meeting in 1908 and published his work in the GSA Bulletin in June 1910.Frank Bursley Taylor, Bearing of the Tertiary Mountain Belt on the Origin of the Earth's Plan, GSA Bulletin, June 1910; Taylor FB (2005) WHEN THE CONTINENTS CREPT AWAY. GSA Today: Vol. 15, No. 7 pp. 29 http://www.gsajournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.1130%2F1052-5173(2005)015%5B29b%3AWTCCA%5D2.0.CO%3B2 Francis Bacon, Antonio Snider-Pellegrini, Benjamin Franklin, and others had noted earlier that the shapes of continents on either side of the Atlantic Ocean (most notably, Africa and South America) seem to fit together.

http://www.metaglossary.com/meanings/310489/

Branching out: Microscopic channels etched into a thin sheet of hydrogel mimic the capillaries in the root and leaf system of a tree. Another channel represents the tree trunk. A tree can transport water an amazing distance–from its roots, through a trunk up to 85 meters tall, and finally to its leaves, where the water evaporates. Now, scientists at Cornell University have created a microfluidic system to mimic that process. Their “synthetic tree” opens up a new way to move liquids over long distances without using mechanical pumps. Abraham Stroock, an assistant professor of chemical and biological engineering at Cornell, and graduate student Tobias Wheeler created the synthetic tree out of a thin sheet of hydrogel, a material more commonly used to make contact lenses. They etched two networks of parallel channels into the hydrogel to represent the capillaries in a tree’s root system as well as the ones in its leaves. They connected the two networks with a single channel representing the trunk of the tree. In a real tree, evaporation from the leaves is what pulls water up through the plant–a process known as transpiration. This evaporation occurs because plants need to take in carbon dioxide to perform photosynthesis. “When they open their cells up for all this CO2 diffusion, the water is diffusing out much faster,” says N. Michele Holbrook, a professor of biology and forestry at Harvard University. “All this water that’s coming up the tree is because it’s trying to get CO2. Ninety-nine percent of that water is going right through the tree.” Stroock and Wheeler found that their system accurately mimics this transpiration process, pulling water through at strengths several times greater than those inside a real tree. The researchers’ findings appeared last week in the journal Nature. Furthermore, because the water in a tree is under negative pressure–as if it were being sucked up through a straw–the water is in a metastable state, meaning it is between a liquid and a vapor. So the synthetic tree could also serve as a model system for studying liquids in this state. “Metastable liquids, though they are important in fundamental issues of science, tend to be curiosities, as opposed to main components of technological applications,” says Pablo Debenedetti, a professor of chemical engineering at Princeton University. “In the case of liquid under negative pressure, it would tend to boil and become a vapor to relieve the negative pressure. But trees have managed to handle water in a metastable state very efficiently, so that’s why this work is so nice.” Choosing a hydrogel for the material was key to making the system work, Stroock says. His team knew that a porous solid generates the capillary action in plants to pull the water through the channels, and that a smaller pore size translates into larger negative pressures. What’s more, the team knew that the pore size can be no greater than 10 nanometers or else “that pore will fail to hold on to the liquid, and the whole plant will dry out through that pore,” Stroock says. “The characteristic of a gel that’s important is, it’s a porous solid, but the mixture of the solid phase and the liquid phase is down at the molecular scale. It’s like getting subnanometer-scale pores.” Stroock envisions that the synthetic tree system could be used to move liquids passively without needing mechanical pumps. In heat-transfer applications, it could cool small devices, like laptop computers, or larger ones, like vehicles, or even buildings. It could also be part of an soil remediation system, Stroock says. Instead of needing to flood soil with water to flush out contaminants, a synthetic tree could pull the contaminated water out. “This paper is more proof of principle, but by clever selection of materials and micromachining, it shows you can handle liquids under tension in a stable and reproducible way,” says Debenedetti.

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/410833/synthetic-tree-hauls-water/?a=f

Want to stay on top of all the space news? Follow @universetoday on Twitter Mar’s surface is a dry, barren wasteland marked by old volcanoes and impact craters. The entire surface can be scoured by a single sand storm that hides it from observation for days at a time. Despite the formidable conditions, Mar’s surface is better understood by scientists than any other part of the Solar System, except our own planet, of course. Mars is a small world. Its radius is half of the Earth’s and it has a mass that is less than one tenth. The Red Planet’s total surface area is about 28% of Earth. While that does not sound like a large world at all, it is nearly equivalent to all of the dry land on Earth. The surface is thought to be mostly basalt, covered by a fine layer of iron oxide dust that has the consistency of talcum powder. Iron oxide(rust as it is commonly called) gives the planet its characteristic red hue. In the ancient past of the planet volcanoes were able to erupt for millions of years unabated. A single hotspot could dump molten rock on the surface for millenia because Mars lacks plate tectonics. The lack of tectonics means that the same rupture in the surface stayed open until there was no more pressure to force magma to the surface. Olympus Mons formed in this manner and is the largest mountain in the Solar System. It is three time taller than Mt. Everest. These runaway volcanic actions could also partially explain the deepest valley in the Solar System. Valles Marineris is thought to be the result of a collapse of the material between two hotspots and is also on Mars. The Martian surface is dotted with impact craters. Most of these craters are still intact because there are no environmental forces to erode them. The planet lacks the wind, rain, and plate tectonics that cause erosion here on Earth. The atmosphere is much thinner than Earth’s so smaller meteorites are able to impact the planet. Mar’s surface is believed to be much different than it was billions of years ago. Data returned by rovers and orbiters has shown that there are many minerals and erosion patterns on the planet that indicate liquid water in the past. It is possible that small oceans and long rivers once dominated the landscape. The last vestiges of that water are trapped as water ice below the surface. Scientists hope to analyze some of that ice and discover hidden Martian treasures. Want to explore the surface of Mars, check it out with Google Mars. Here is some more information about surface features on Mars. Finally, if you’d like to learn more about Mars in general, we have done several podcast episodes about the Red Planet at Astronomy Cast. Episode 52: Mars, and Episode 91: The Search for Water on Mars.

http://www.universetoday.com/14885/mars-surface/

A brief description of the literary movement within its historical context. What different European and Native American groups inhabited the eastern shores of North America in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries? What kinds of strategies did they adopt in order to forge community identities? What and whom did they exclude? What and whom did they embrace? How did their respective visions and ideals undermine, overlap, and compete with one another? What qualities characterize the jeremiad form? How do jeremiads work to condemn a community's spiritual decline while at the same time reaffirming the community's identity and promise? How did the Puritans use typology to understand and justify their experiences in the world? How did the image of America as a "vast and unpeopled country" shape European immigrants' attitudes and ideals? How did they deal with the fact that millions of Native Americans already inhabited the land that they had come over to claim? How did the Puritans sense that they were living in the "end time" impact their culture? Why is apocalyptic imagery so prevalent in Puritan iconography and literature? What is plain style? What values and beliefs influenced the development of this mode of expression? Why has the jeremiad remained a central component of the rhetoric of American public life? How do Puritan and Quaker texts work to form enduring myths about America's status as a chosen nation? About its inclusiveness and tolerance? About its role as a "City on a Hill" that should serve as an example to the rest of the world? Are there texts, or passages in texts, in this unit that challenge the myths created by the dominant society? Why are the Puritans, more than any other early immigrant group, considered such an important starting point for American national culture? This tool builds multimedia presentations for classrooms or assignments. An online collection of 3000 artifacts for classroom use.

http://www.learner.org/amerpass/unit03/overview_qstns.html

> Letter T > T is for Exodus Chapter 19 & 20 Printable activities > Teacher's Guides > God Saves His People - Pt. 4 at dltk-bible.com Here are printable materials and some suggestions to present letter T. This activity is part of the Bible alphabet A to Z available in block handwriting formats. Alphabet Activity: Alphabet Letter T is for Ten Commandments Present and display your option of printable materials listed in the materials column. * Finger and Pencil Tracing: Trace letter T's in upper and lower case with your finger as you also sound out the letter. Invite the children to do the same on their coloring Encourage the children to trace the dotted letter with your choice of sharpened crayon, fine tip marker, coloring or regular pencil and demonstrate the direction of the arrows and numbers that help them trace the letter correctly. During the demonstration, you may want to count out loud as you trace so children become aware of how the number order aids them in the writing process. * Find the letter T's: Have the children find all the letter T's in upper and lower case on the page and encourage them to circle or trace/shade them first. Visit each child to make sure they have identified the letter P's and then discuss the locations with the poster. *Coloring Activity: Encourage the children to color the image in the coloring page or Letter T words: Letter T Activity Worksheet and Mini Book This activity worksheet and matching mini book can be used as part of Letter T program of activities to reinforce letter practice and to identify related letter T words. Read suggested instructions for using the worksheet Discuss other letter T words and images: First 'brainstorm' and ask the children about other words that have that beginning sound and write them on a board (dry erase board) as the children come up with example. You can print letter T in a different bright color to make it stand out. If you have illustrated alphabet books you can also use images in them. You can also display other T posters and coloring pages or even make a letter T classroom book using coloring images or color posters. Visit Letter T Printable Materials to make your choice. Search & Handwriting Practice The word search game features letter T words with pictures and handwriting practice. Advanced Handwriting Practice: 1. Print your choice of printable lined-paper. Have children draw and color an image of the Ten Commandment tablets behind the lined paper. 2. Drawing and writing paper: encourage children to draw and color an image of the Ten Commandments tablets and practice writing letter T t. Activities > Bible > Ten Commandments Theme Bibles passages on Ten Commandments > he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant--the Ten Commandments. Activity > Online External Resources > Teacher's guides at DLTK-bible.com featuring printable activities. 1. Teacher's Guide > God Saves His People - Pt. 4 > Moses and the Ten Commandments Preschool thru Grade 1: God saves us by giving us rules to obey. Combines the Christian message of Moses and the 10 Commandments and the Bible story from Exodus Chapter 19 and 20. *coloring and writing materials

http://first-school.ws/activities/bible/alphabet/ten-commandments.htm

In order to calculate how far away a star is, astronomers use a method called parallax. Because of the Earth's revolution about the sun, near stars seem to shift their position against the farther stars. This is called parallax shift. By observing the distance of the shift and knowing the diameter of the Earth's orbit, astronomers are able to calculate the parallax angle across the sky. The smaller the parallax shift, the farther away from earth the star is. This method is only accurate for stars within a few hundred light-years of Earth. When the stars are very far away, the parallax shift is too small to measure. Your vote on this answer has already been received It is by LIGHT YEARS AWAY.Is a unit of length, equal to just under 10 trillion kilometres (1016 metres, 10 petametres or about 6 trillion miles). As defined by the International Astronomical Union (IAU), a light-year is the distance that light travels in a vacuum in one Julian year.

http://qna.rediff.com/questions-and-answers/wat-is-the-distance-between-sun-and-earth....../19966913/answers/18947114

Axial tiltAxial tilt is an astronomical term regarding the inclination angle of a planet's rotation axis in relation to its orbital plane. A planet whose rotation axis were completely perpendicular to the orbital plane would have an axial tilt of 0°. In our solar sytem, the orbital plane that contains the earth is known as the plane of the ecliptic. Earth has an axial tilt of 23.5°. The Earth is tilted in the same direction throughout a year; however, as the Earth orbits the Sun, the hemisphere tilted away from the Sun will gradually come to be tilted towards the Sun, whereas the hemisphere tilted towards the Sun will come to be tilted away from the Sun. Axial tilt is partially responsible for the seasons. During part of the year one hemisphere (or the other) is tilted toward the Sun, resulting in longer days and shorter nights; during the rest of the year the hemisphere is tilted away from the sun. Not only does axial tilt cause the hours of sunlight to vary but it can also result in sunlight striking the ground at a more (summer) or less (winter) perpendicular angle. Although the angle of the earth's tilt does not change perceptibly, the direction of the tilt gradually undergoes precession, moving in a slow circle over a period of about 25,800 years. However, other factors may change the axial tilt of the earth (and of other planets).

http://www.encyclopedia4u.com/a/axial-tilt.html

Slavery was a very large institution in Ancient Rome. It was a normal part of Roman society. It was not unusual for even a home of moderate means to have slaves. Slaves did all the work that the Romans did not want to do. They were often captives that were taken after the Roman army conquered other territories. When they were being sold, slaves would be displayed at the marketplace with signs around their necks giving details about them. Slaves had very few rights, and owners could treat them badly with very little fear of any legal consequences. Slavery was not necessarily a lifetime position. Slaves could earn money to buy their freedom later in life. After gaining their freedom, many would often become tradesmen. At times, some slaves were highly trained as physicians. Despite earning their freedom and learning a trade, freed slaves still could not get citizenship in Rome; however, their children could become citizens. The freed slaves often bought their own slaves to work in their shops and homes. This practice aided in perpetuating the institution of slavery in New Image Sections: Also New - Ancient Rome Web Resource Section Translate Link 101Continuous Translations for entire site Please see Pictures Galleries for Royalty Free images for Educational uses. Copyright © 2000-2013 All Rights Reserved History Source LLC. Contact Us: Suggest a Site - General Comments See Our New Photo Site HistoryPhoto101.com

http://www.historylink101.com/2/Rome/roman-slaves.htm

Before multibeam technology was invented, surveys of sea mounts were made by simple echo sounders. The sound signal was strong enough, however, that it could penetrate the sea floor, showing some of the structure. In this image from the Deep Sea Drilling Reports, you can see Nashville Seamount and the surrounding sea floor. In this image, horizontal distance is measured in hours that it took the ship to pass over the area, and the vertical measure is the seconds it took the sound to travel back to the ship. At this scale, Nashville seamount is seen rising from the abyssal plain. Actually, the sediment of the abyssal plain has been deposited in the 85 million years since Nashville Seamount was an active volcano.

http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/03mountains/background/geology/media/nashville.html

Please work through the Lithoframe user guide and/or the video tutorial to become acquainted with the model. Explore the geology displayed in the model by exploding the model and rotating it. Now create some cross-sections and boreholes in order to familiarise yourself with the geology of this area. Draw a profile of the topography shown in the model. (Hint: a cross section will help with this) - What might the high and low areas of the profile tell you about the underlying rocks? - Can you locate any breaks in slope? (Hint: these often indicate a change in geology) - What is the age of the youngest rocks in the model? - What is the age of the oldest rocks in the model? - How many millions of years does this represent? - Are there any periods of geological time that don't seem to be represented by the rocks here? (Hint: about 100 million years, the Silurian and Devonian are missing.) - If there are then you have identified an unconformity. What does this represent? - Locate the carboniferous limestone in the model and describe its extent? - What is the dip of the carboniferous limestone? (Hint: little or no dip, about 5 degrees north-east) - Can you identify any faults? - Can you identify any drumlins? - What kind of resources might be available from this region? - Where might you situate a quarry? - What socio-economic factors would you need to investigate?

http://www.bgs.ac.uk/services/3dgeology/teachingAndLearning/ingleborough.html

In the centuries preceding the invention of photography, oftentimes a device known as the camera obscura was used to help an artist produce a more realistic image of his subject. Latin for “dark chamber,” the camera obscura in its earliest form consisted of a modest dark room with a small hole (aperture) strategically placed in a wall or window shutter so that light could pass through it, producing an inverted image of the subject placed outside of the room on a whitened wall opposite the aperture. The principle upon which the camera obscura was based is believed to have been known by ancient philosophers, but was not likely used as an aid for drawing until about five hundred years ago. One of the earliest descriptions of the camera obscura’s use for such a purpose can be found in the notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519). Similar to da Vinci, Daniel Barbaro was an Italian who encouraged the use of the camera obscura for artistic endeavors. By the time he adapted the technique, however, the chamber of the camera obscura was typically a simple box rather than an entire room. Little has been established with certainty about the personal life of Barbaro. He is known, however, to have been born around 1514 in Venice and to have died in 1570. Also, it may be assumed that the nobleman was well educated, since he is credited with translating ten books on architecture written by the celebrated Roman engineer Vitruvius and composed his own work La pratica della perspettiva (Practice of Perspective), which was published in 1568. An extremely influential work during the sixteenth century, Daniel Barbaro’s treatise on perspective includes the earliest known account of a lens being utilized with the camera obscura, bringing the device one step closer to the modern-day camera. The improvement in the image obtained with the device brought about by the inclusion of a lens as well as by adjusting the distance upon which the image is to be projected was described by Barbaro: "Close all shutters and doors until no light enters the camera except through the lens, and opposite hold a piece of paper, which you move forward and backward until the scene appears in the sharpest detail. There on the paper you will see the whole view as it really is, with its distances, its colours and shadows and motion, the clouds, the water twinkling, the birds flying. By holding the paper steady you can trace the whole perspective with a pen, shade it and delicately colour it from nature." Also according to Barbaro, “You should choose the glass which does the best, and you should cover it so much that you leave a little in the middle clear and open and you will see a still brighter affect.” The glass that reportedly worked best for Barbaro was a bi-convex lens taken from a pair of ordinary spectacles, though he also experimented with concave lenses with little success. By the eighteenth century, other pioneers in optics had improved the camera obscura to an even greater extent by using multiple lenses and mirrors to create brighter, erect images. BACK TO PIONEERS IN OPTICS Questions or comments? Send us an email. © 1995-2013 by Michael W. Davidson and The Florida State University. All Rights Reserved. No images, graphics, software, scripts, or applets may be reproduced or used in any manner without permission from the copyright holders. Use of this website means you agree to all of the Legal Terms and Conditions set forth by the owners. Last Modification Saturday, Oct 02, 2004 at 10:44 AM Access Count Since October 4, 2004: 18020 Visit the websites of our partners in education:

http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/optics/timeline/people/barbaro.html

Because of political pressure, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, ending segregation in places of public accommodation; restaurants, buses, stores, etc., and establishing anti-discrimination in hiring. Segregationists, however, found loopholes in the law and continued to exclude people based on the color of their skin. Martin Luther King Jr. preached for a peaceable solution to racial inequality, and held marches in places like Washington D. C. and small towns like Selma, Alabama. A week after his assassination, April 4, 1968, President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1968, ending discrimination in housing . . . often called the Fair Housing Act. No longer could real estate agents deny an apartment or home to anyone based on skin tone (or gender, religion, family status, or disability [the act has been interpreted not to cover the gay/lesbian population]). While the segregation of schools, in theory, ended with the Supreme Court 1954 decision, Brown vs. Board of Education . . . in practice, it continued. It required Supreme Court ordered busing, in 1971, to end the inequality between mostly black intercity schools and white suburban schools. Not everyone thought that busing was a good solution, and many urban parents formed private community schools rather than bussing their children. In 1995 African-American men gathered in Washington D.C. at the Million Man March. The gathering was designed to raise awareness in the community and encourage involvement in the political process. Soon after, the Million Woman March shared those same goals with African-American women. Racial inequality is still an issue. ~ Timothy Mullin

http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/gob1/

Agent Pincher: The Case of the UFO--Unfamiliar Foreign Objects. That is what currency from another country may look like. Sometimes when people first try to use money from another country, they feel like they are playing with toy money-it is a different size, color, and shape, compared to one's own national currency, and it often comes with unfamiliar writing. As a special agent, your job is get the facts on these UFOs and compile a profile for guide book for your section. - Describe the currency from other countries and explain how foreign currency functions in the same way as United States currency. - Identify at least one foreign currency and the country that uses that currency, and be able to complete one calculation of the exchange rate between U.S. dollars and that currency. - Identify economic characteristics (indicators) of other countries. This lesson enables you to introduce the concepts of trade, foreign currency, exchange rates, imports and exports to your students. If you have not taught your students about the characteristics and functions of money, you may wish to explore one of the EconEdLink lessons listed in the Resources before proceeding with this lesson. The students will need a basic understanding of money’s function as a medium of exchange. The students will research a specific country, gather data and share their findings with the class by creating a fact book. Lessons to consider teaching before this lesson: - Agent Pincher: The Case of the Missing Susan B. Anthony Dollar - Agent Pincher: P is for Penny, or Where Did Money Come From? - The Need for Money That Everyone Can Use Lessons to consider teaching before this lesson: Student Notebook: The students will need to fill this out to complete the lesson. Teacher Briefing: This worksheet can be used to brief the class and prepare them for the lesson. International Currency Factbook: This EconEdLink Worksheet allows students to compare international currency. International Currency Factbook The UN Cyber School Bus: Here the students can explore information about various countries around the world, according to categories such as Economy, Health, Environment, etc. CIA World Fact Book. This location will provide students with easy access to information that will help them complete their Agent Notebook on their selected country. International Bank Note Society: Using this site, students can print out a picture of the front and back of their country's most recent currency. Central Intelligence Agency: The students can explore the following site to find information about various countries and their import/export commodities. - Import Commodities Lost Memo: This memo will provide good practice for students in their attempts to understand exchange rates. - Make sure the students are prepared to begin this lesson, and they have their Student Notebook. Three lessons are posted in the resource section as background material for this lesson. Also, the Teacher's Briefing can be used as a starting point. - Explain that the students will be investigating something that is probably not familiar to them (unless they have had the opportunity for foreign travel) – foreign currency. - Select approximately 10 countries more than the number of students in your class. You may wish to focus your selections on a region of the world that you wish to introduce, or one that is included in your curriculum. You may also let the students sign up for their own choices--but avoid duplication. You may choose to group students in pairs to accomplish the research. - Print out the International Currency Fact Sheet. Post this in a convenient location so that students can enter data regarding the currency of the country of their research. Have the students print out a copy of the Agent Notebook. The students will complete their notebooks by following the assignments listed below. The students will visit the UN Cyber School Bus to view the country they have picked and to obtain a picture and some general information about that country. Have the students use the to complete assignment 2 in the Agent Notebook. Have the students fill in the International Currency Factsheet with the information they have gained through research. Have the students print out a picture of the front and back of their country's most recent currency. Pictures of currency can be viewed at the International Bank Note Society . Students will need first to select a language: then they should select "paper money virtual gallery." Once there, the students need to select "banknotes," which leads them to different maps of different continents. Have the students find their country by clicking on a the continent it belongs to. Have the students complete assignment 4 in their Agent Notebook. A calculator is recommended for assignment 4. You may choose to use a world map and place push pins in the capital cities of the researched countries. When the students have identified exports and imports, you might use different-colored threads to link countries to their trading partners. This will illustrate the interdependence of nations in a global market. At the conclusion of the activity, compile the students' completed Agent Notebooks to create a factbook for the countries researched. Take a moment to review with your students the names of the different currencies their countries use. Also, take note of how their currencies stack up against the U.S. dollar. Using assignment 4 from their completed Agent Notebooks, you can show the class these exchange relations. Conclude the lesson by asking the class to discuss the following questions: 1. What is an export? Who receives the commodities? 2. Why do people trade? 3. What is the UFO? – Unidentified Foreign Objects? (Currency from other countries.) 4. Why doesn’t everybody in the world use U.S. dollars? Or euros? 5. Why do we no longer use pieces of gold for exchange? As a final challenge, present this lost memo and see if any students can figure out the exchange rate, using the knowledge they have gathered from the lesson. This memo can be used from the Web site or it can be printed out and distributed among the students. The information found in the memo was taken from one of the Harry Potter books. [It has been a mystery to figure out how much the Harry Potter currency is worth. If I got this memo, first I'd figure out: $250 million = 34 million Galleon. What would 1 Galleon be worth? Then maybe I'd figure out (in today's dollars since that was back in 1985) the next step: If something was worth $250 million dollars in 1985, how much is that in 2005? From there (assuming a fixed exchange rate), how many Galleons is it worth today? And then the kids could figure the number of Knuts and Sickles.] - Ask the students to create a memo to the Big Bosses, providing a one-page briefing on the country they have researched. - For an integrated assignment, have the students create drawings, or find pictures on the Web, of the top three items their country exports, and have them identify other students who represent countries with which they have trade relations. If students are able to handle the math, have them identify what the exchange rate would be between countries (not including the U.S. dollar). When you have finished the main lesson, your students might have enough energy left to pursue more information and make some comparisons. You may wish to divide your students into groups and instruct them to return to the UN Cyber School Bus site. Instruct the students to enter their countries' names again and then select go. Here they should be patient: there is a lot of information to bring together. As a group, they may select up to 6 comparison data categories. Don't forget to look for the small printer icon to print out the data. Once they have their data, the students can make inferences based on the information they have found. For example: They can find the population of China and Australia and also the surface area of these two countries. They will see that China has many more people living in a smaller area: therefore, China would be very crowded compared to Australia. Have the students write down their findings and ,with time permitting, you can have a class discussion about their inferences. Identity factors you'd like to have them use in making comparisons about each country: the economy and technology categories, for example, will provide you several items worthy of class discussion. Suggest selected categories that would be common for each group to use as a basis of comparison: Population, economy, health, technology, environment. “I find your lesson very helpful and informative. It facilitates easy instructions. Thank you.”

http://www.econedlink.org/lessons/index.php?lid=605&type=educator

Mercury may have harbored an ancient magma ocean Massive lava flows may have given rise to two distinct rock types on Mercury’s surface. February 22, 2013 By analyzing Mercury’s rocky surface, scientists have been able to partially reconstruct the planet’s history over billions of years. Now, drawing upon the chemical composition of rock features on the planet’s surface, scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge have proposed that Mercury may have harbored a large, roiling ocean of magma early in its history, shortly after its formation about 4.5 billion years ago. United States Geological Survey The scientists analyzed data gathered by the MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER), a NASA probe that has orbited the planet since March 2011. Later that year, a group of scientists analyzed X-ray fluorescence data from the probe and identified two distinct compositions of rocks on the planet’s surface. The discovery unearthed a planetary puzzle: What geological processes could have given rise to such distinct surface compositions? To answer that question, the MIT team used the compositional data to recreate the two rock types in the lab and subjected each synthetic rock to high temperatures and pressures to simulate various geological processes. From their experiments, the scientists came up with only one phenomenon to explain the two compositions: a vast magma ocean that created two different layers of crystals, solidified, and eventually remelted into magma that then erupted onto Mercury’s surface. “The thing that’s really amazing on Mercury is this didn’t happen yesterday,” said Timothy Grove from MIT. “The crust is probably more than 4 billion years old, so this magma ocean is a really ancient feature.” Making Mercury’s rocks MESSENGER entered Mercury’s orbit during a period of intense solar-flare activity; as the solar system’s innermost planet, Mercury takes the brunt of the Sun’s rays. The rocks on its surface reflect an intense fluorescent spectrum that scientists can measure with X-ray spectrometers to determine the chemical composition of surface materials. As the spacecraft orbited the planet, an onboard X-ray spectrometer measured the X-ray radiation generated by Mercury’s surface. In September 2011, the MESSENGER science team parsed these energy spectra into peaks, with each peak signifying a certain chemical element in the rocks. From this research, the group identified two main rock types on Mercury’s surface. Grove and his team set out to find an explanation for the differences in rock compositions. They translated the chemical element ratios into the corresponding building blocks that make up rocks, such as magnesium oxide, silicon dioxide, and aluminum oxide. The researchers then consulted what Grove refers to as a “pantry of oxides” — finely powdered chemicals — to recreate the rocks in the lab. “We just mix these together in the right proportions, and we’ve got a synthetic copy of what’s on the surface of Mercury,” Grove said. Crystals in the melt The researchers then melted the samples of synthetic rock in a furnace, cranking the heat up and down to simulate geological processes that would cause crystals, and eventually rocks, to form in the melt. “You can tell what would happen as the melt cools and crystals form and change the chemical composition of the remaining melted rock,” Grove said. “The leftover melt changes composition.” After cooling the samples, the researchers picked out tiny crystals and melt pockets for analysis. The scientists initially looked for scenarios in which both original rock compositions might be related. For example, both rock types may have come from one region: One rock may have crystallized more than the other, creating distinct but related compositions. But Grove found the two compositions were too different to have originated from the same region and, instead, may have come from two separate areas within the planet. The easiest explanation for what created these distinct regions, Grove said, is a large magma ocean, which over time likely formed different compositions of crystals as it solidified. This molten ocean eventually remelted, spewing lava onto the surface of the planet in massive volcanic eruptions. Grove estimates that this magma ocean likely existed early in Mercury’s existence — possibly within the first 1 million to 10 million years — and may have been created from the violent processes that formed the planet. As the solar nebula condensed, small pieces of matter collided into larger chunks to form tiny, and then larger, planets. That process of colliding and accreting may produce enough energy to completely melt the planet — a scenario that would make an early magma ocean plausible. “The acquisition of data by spacecraft must be combined with laboratory experiments,” said Bernard Charlier from MIT. “Although these data are valuable by themselves, experimental studies on these compositions enable scientists to reach the next level in the interpretation of planetary evolution.” Look for this icon. This denotes premium subscriber content. Learn more »

http://www.astronomy.com/~/link.aspx?_id=12b282fd-3b4d-4ba8-9db0-7ad1bc4aff4c

Geology & Diversity of the Galapagos Islands The islands that we visit are the peaks of immense volcanoes submerged beneath the sea. While we are not likely to see an actual eruption (last eruption was on May 2005 in Fernandina Island), we will see the results of past volcanic activity everywhere on the islands. The lava flows and ashbeds, the craters and volcanic necks, even the "black sand" beaches are all signs of the volcanic activity that continues even today on the western islands. The volcanic islands of the oceans are a very different landscape from what we see in the crumpled and folded mountains of the continents. The Galapagos Islands are a long chain of isolated volcanoes set on a flat sea floor. The western end of this chain has the tallest and youngest volcanoes while the progressively smaller and older volcanoes extend to the northeast towards South America. The Galapagos volcanoes are also composed of basalts and basaltic "tuffs" rather than the many different kinds of rocks found on the continents. The Galapagos Islands, like the Hawaiian islands, lie over a "hot spot," a place where a plume or column of very hot material rises from deep in the Earth's interior and pushes up against the bottom of a rigid crustal plate. The top of a mantle plume may be 30 miles in diameter and while it does not melt through the crust, molten rock from it may flow up through cracks to the surface. At the surface the molten lava spills out to form flows that cool and become the rock we call "basalt," or it may explode as clouds of gas, steam, and ash to from "tuff" deposits. Each volcano is active for about 500,000 to 1,000,000 years. At fist the volcano is a low mound on the deep ocean floor where molten lava seeps up through cracks. Gradually, the volcano is built up by later eruptions until its top rises above the sea surface to form an island. Eventually, as the movement of the underlying crustal plate carries the island volcano away from the top of the mantle plume, the volcano is cut off from its source and ceases activity. Then the island is slowly destroyed by weathering and erosion of its rocks. At the same time the cooling crustal plate slowly sinks underneath it. The volcano is gradually reduced to a low, flat island just barely above sea level and finally it becomes a completely submerged seamount called a "gyote." As old islands are sunk, new ones are born to the west and so there are always some islands in the chain. The Galapagos Islands formed at least 8 million years ago, and the island chain may be much older. The oldest island still above sea level is at least 3.5 million years old.

http://www.redmangrove.com/galapagos/geology.html

When the crew of Apollo 11 splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on July 24, 1969, Americans hailed the successful completion of the most audacious and complex technological undertaking of the 20th century: landing humans on the moon and returning them safely to earth. Just over eight years before, when President John F. Kennedy proposed the manned lunar landing as the focus of the United States' space program, only one American - Lt. Comdr. Alan B. Shepard, Jr. - had been into space, on a suborbital lob shot lasting 15 minutes. At the end of the first lunar landing mission, American astronauts had logged more than 5,000 man-hours in space. To the extent that any single event could, the first successful lunar landing mission marked the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's development of the capability to explore space by whatever means were appropriate for whatever purposes seemed to serve the national interest. To many, Apollo 11 demonstrated that the United States had clearly won the "space race" with the Soviet Union, which had been one of the space program's major purposes. By the time that was done, other issues dominated the scene. National interests were not the same in mid-1969 as they had been in 1961. Of the public reaction after Apollo 11, a congressional historian has written, The high drama of the first landing on the Moon was over. The players and stagehands stood around waiting for more curtain calls, but the audience drifted away. . . . The bloody carnage in Vietnam, the plight of the cities, the revolt on the campuses, the monetary woes of budget deficits and inflation, plus a widespread determination to reorder priorities pushed the manned space effort lower in national support.1 Project Apollo encompassed more than simply sending men to the moon and back. It reflected a determination to show that humans had an important role to play in exploring space, as they had in exploring the unknown comers of the earth in earlier centuries. That proposition was not universally accepted. From the time the space agency determined to put humans into space, many Americans argued vigorously against manned space flight on the grounds that it was unnecessary and inordinately expensive. Space scientists had already shown how much could be done with instruments, and planners were designing spacecraft that would revolutionize communications, weather forecasting, and observation of the earth, all without requiring the presence of people in space. These arguments were difficult to refute. Only when it came to exploring other planets did humans seem superior. For all of their limitations, humans were far more flexible than the most sophisticated robot, capable - as preprogrammed instruments were not - of responding creatively to the unexpected. If people had a place in space exploration, surely it would be on the surface of the moon. Man's place in space exploration was decided, however, on other grounds. President Kennedy chose to send humans to the moon as a way of demonstrating the nation's technological prowess; and Congress and the nation endorsed his choice. That demonstration made and the tools for lunar exploration developed, Americans would go back to the moon five times, to explore it for the benefit of science. 1. 1. U.S., Congress, House, Toward the Endless Frontier: History of the Committee on Science and Technology, 1959-1979 (Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1980), p. 269. This history was written by Ken Hechler, a Ph.D. historian and author of books on political and military history. who served on the House Committee on Science and Technology for 18 years beginning in 1959.

http://www.solarviews.com/history/SP-4214/ch1-1.html

Science Fair Project Encyclopedia The oxidation state or oxidation number is defined as the sum of negative and positive charges in an atom, which indirectly indicates the number of electrons it has accepted or donated. The oxidation number is a convenient conceptual approximation when working with complex electrochemical reactions that eases the tracking of electrons and helps verify that they have been conserved. This is especially useful whilst expressing complex half-reaction equations involved in oxidation/reduction reactions. Atoms are defined as having an oxidation number of zero, meaning that they are electrically neutral. The positive protons in the nucleus balance the negative electron cloud surrounding it, there being equal numbers of both. If an atom donates an electron it has more protons than electrons and becomes positive. This ion is said to have an oxidation number of +1. Conversely if an atom accepts an electron it becomes negatively charged, gaining an oxidation number of -1. In summary, if an atom or ion donates an electron in a reaction its oxidation state is increased by one, if an element accepts an electron its oxidation state is decreased by one. Oxidation numbers are denoted in chemical names by bracketed Roman numerals placed immediately after the relevant element. For example, an iron ion, with an oxidation state of +3 is expressed as iron(III). Manganese with an oxidation state of +7 present in manganese oxide is given the name manganese(VII) oxide. The motive for placing oxidation numbers in names is only to distinguish between different compounds of the same elements. The actual charge (positive/negative) of the ion is not expressed because it is not necessary for this purpose. In chemical formulae, the oxidation number of ions is placed in superscript after the element's symbol. For example, oxygen(-II) is written as O2-. Oxidation numbers of neutral numbers are not expressed. The following formula describes the element I2 accepting two electrons to gain an oxidation number of -1. - I2 + 2e- → 2I- When dealing with oxidation-reduction or "redox" reactions, the following rules define oxidation number: - The atom with the greater electronegativity of dissimilar atoms sharing an electron is counted as receiving the electron. - Identical atoms sharing an electron are each credited with one/half of the electron. Sometimes it is not immediately obvious what the oxidation number of ions in a formula are from its molecular formula alone. For example, given Cr(OH)3, no oxidation numbers are present yet it is clear that ionic bonding is occurring. There are a number of rules that can be used in determining the oxidation number of a molecule or ion: - The oxidation number of (neutral) atoms equal zero. - In neutral molecules, the sum of the oxidation numbers adds up to zero. - Fluorine always has a -1 oxidation number within compounds. - Oxygen has an oxidation number of -2 in compounds, except (i) in the presence of fluorine, in which fluorine's oxidation number takes precedence; (ii) in oxygen-oxygen bonds, where one oxygen must neutralize the other's charge; (iii) in peroxide compounds, in which it takes an oxidation number of -1. - Group I ions have an oxidation number equal to +1 within compounds. - Group II ions have an oxidation number of +2 within compounds. - Halogens, besides fluorine, generally have -1 oxidation numbers in compounds. This rule can be broken in the presence of oxygen or other halogens, where the oxidation numbers can be positive. - Hydrogen always has an oxidation number of +1 oxidation number in compounds, except in metal hydrides where instead it is -1. With the example, Cr(OH)3, oxygen has an oxidation number of -2 (no fluorine, O-O bonds or peroxide present), and hydrogen has a state of +1 (not a metal hydride). So, the triple hydroxide group has a charge of 3*(-2 + 1) = -3. As the compound is neutral, Cr has to have a charge of +3. 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

http://www.all-science-fair-projects.com/science_fair_projects_encyclopedia/Oxidation_number

Astronomers and Telescopes Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) take place about once per day. They are difficult to study as they are short lived and occur at seemingly random locations and times. To achieve an understanding of what exactly GRBs are and why they occur, astronomers need to act quickly to pin down their exact location and observe them while they are exploding. Gamma rays do not penetrate our atmosphere, so they must first be detected by an orbiting satellite such as NASA's Swift satellite shown above. Click on the Swift button below to learn about how astronomers respond to Swift's detections. Return to Palomar Observatory Main Page Return to Palomar Observatory Visitor Center Page

http://www.astro.caltech.edu/palomar/exhibits/grb/at01.htm

19th Amendment, Ratified August 18, 1920 In 1917, the year the United States entered World War I, women in New York State won a tremendous victory when the state granted the electoral franchise to women. The two national women's suffrage organizations, the conservative National American Women's Suffrage Association (NAWSA) and the radical National Women's Party (NWP), argued that it was hypocritical to fight for democracy in Europe while denying democracy to half the American population. In fact, significantly more than half of American citizens were denied the right to vote at that time. African Americans of both sexes were systematically denied the franchise. In theory, however, black men, unlike women of any race, were promised the vote by the 15th Amendment. The NWP used confrontational tactics, chaining supporters to the White House gates, and demanding that President Woodrow Wilson support a constitutional amendment; NAWSA, on the other hand, presented itself as the patriotic, conservative alternative, knitting socks for soldiers while reminding President Wilson of his promises to "make the world safe for democracy." In 1918, the House of Representatives passed a constitutional amendment that gave the franchise to women, and Wilson endorsed it. However, anti-suffrage Republicans and Southern Democrats in the Senate balked. In response, the NWP and NAWSA mobilized thousands for massive marches and meetings. The Senate finally passed what is known as the Susan B. Anthony Amendment, and local networks of suffragists ensured that it was ratified by the states. Tennessee was the 36th state to ratify, and it became the 19th Amendment in time for women's votes to affect the 1920 presidential election. Browse Publications Digitized for Women Working - National Archives, Teaching With Documents: Woman Suffrage and the 19th Amendment. - U.S. News & World Report, The People's Vote: 100 Documents that Shaped America, 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Women's Right to Vote (1920).

http://ocp.hul.harvard.edu/ww/nineteenth.html

Heavy eruptions of the Tambora volcano in Indonesia are letting up by this day in 1815. The volcano, which began rumbling on April 5, killed almost 100,000 people directly and indirectly. The eruption was the largest ever recorded and its effects were noted throughout the world. Tambora is located on Sumbawa Island, on the eastern end of the Indonesian archipelago. There had been no signs of volcanic activity there for thousands of years prior to the 1815 eruption. On April 10, the first of a series of eruptions that month sent ash 20 miles into the atmosphere, covering the island with ash to a height of 1.5 meters. Five days later, Tambora erupted violently once again. This time, so much ash was expelled that the sun was not seen for several days. Flaming hot debris thrown into the surrounding ocean caused explosions of steam. The debris also caused a moderate-sized tsunami. In all, so much rock and ash was thrown out of Tambora that the height of the volcano was reduced from 14,000 to 9,000 feet. The worst explosions were heard hundreds of miles away. The eruptions of Tambora also affected the climate worldwide. Enough ash had been thrown into the atmosphere that global temperatures were reduced over the next year; it also caused spectacularly colored sunsets throughout the world. The eruption was blamed for snow and frost in New England during June and July that summer. Ten thousand people were killed by the eruptions, most on Sumbawa Island. In subsequent months, more than 80,000 people died in the surrounding area from starvation due to the resulting crop failures and disease.

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/volcanic-eruption-kills-80000

2.1 The Strength of Gravity and Electric Forces Gravity is a relatively very weak force. The electric Coulomb force between a proton and an electron is of the order of 1039 (that’s 1 with 39 zeros after it) times stronger than the gravitational force between them. We can get a hint of the relative strength of electromagnetic forces when we use a small magnet to pick up an iron object, say, a ball bearing. Even though the whole of Earth’s gravitation attraction is acting upon the ball bearing, the magnet overcomes this easily when close enough to the ball bearing. In space, gravity only becomes significant in those places where the electromagnetic forces are shielded or neutralized. For spherical masses and charges, both the gravity force and the electric Coulomb force vary inversely with the square of the distance and so decrease rapidly with distance. For other geometries/configurations, the forces decrease more slowly with distance. For example, the force between two relatively long and thin electric currents moving parallel to each other varies inversely with the first power of the distance between them. Electric currents can transport energy over huge distances before using that energy to create some detectable result, just like we use energy from a distant power station to boil a kettle in our kitchen. This means that, over longer distances, electromagnetic forces and electric currents together can be much more effective than either the puny force of gravity or even the stronger electrostatic Coulomb force. Remember that, just in order to explain the behavior of the matter we can detect, the Gravity Model needs to imagine twenty-four times more matter than we can see, in special locations, and of a special invisible type. It seems much more reasonable to investigate whether the known physics of electromagnetic forces and electric currents can bring about the observed effects instead of having to invent what may not exist. 2.2 The “Vacuum” of Space Until about 100 years ago, space was thought to be empty. The words “vacuum” and “emptiness” were interchangeable. But probes have found that space contains atoms, dust, ions, and electrons. Although the density of matter in space is very low, it is not zero. Therefore, space is not a vacuum in the conventional sense of there being “nothing there at all”. For example, the Solar “wind” is known to be a flow of charged particles coming from the Sun and sweeping round the Earth, ultimately causing visible effects like the Northern (and Southern) Lights. The dust particles in space are thought to be 2 to 200 nanometers in size, and many of them are also electrically charged, along with the ions and electrons. This mixture of neutral and charged matter is called plasma, and it is suffused with electromagnetic fields. We will discuss plasma and its unique interactions with electromagnetic fields in more detail in Chapter 3. The “empty” spaces between planets or stars or galaxies are very different from what astronomers assumed in the earlier part of the 20th century. (Note about terminology in links: astronomers often refer to matter in the plasma state as “gas,” “winds,” “hot, ionized gas,” “clouds,” etc. This fails to distinguish between the two differently-behaving states of matter in space, the first of which is electrically-charged plasma and the other of which may be neutral gas which is just widely-dispersed, non-ionized molecules or atoms.) The existence of charged particles and electromagnetic fields in space is accepted in both the Gravity Model and the Electric Model. But the emphasis placed on them and their behavior is one distinctive difference between the models. We will therefore discuss magnetic fields next. 2.3 Introduction to Magnetic Fields What do we mean by the terms “magnetic field” and “magnetic field lines”? In order to understand the concept of a field, let’s start with a more familiar example: gravity. We know that gravity is a force of attraction between bodies or particles having mass. We say that the Earth’s gravity is all around us here on the surface of the Earth and that the Earth’s gravity extends out into space. We can express the same idea more economically by saying that the Earth has a gravitational field which extends into space in all directions. In other words, a gravitational field is a region where a gravitational force of attraction will be exerted between bodies with mass. Similarly, a magnetic field is a region in which a magnetic force would act on a magnetized or charged body. (We will look at the origin of magnetic fields later). The effect of the magnetic force is most obvious on ferromagnetic materials. For example, iron filings placed on a surface in a magnetic field align themselves in the direction of the field like compass needles. Because the iron filings tend to align themselves south pole to north pole, the pattern they make could be drawn as a series of concentric lines, which would indicate the direction and, indirectly, strength of the field at any point. Therefore magnetic field lines are one convenient way to represent the direction of the field, and serve as guiding centers for trajectories of charged particles moving in the field (ref. Fundamentals of Plasma Physics, Cambridge University Press, 2006, Paul Bellan, Ph.D.). It is important to remember that field lines do not exist as physical objects. Each iron filing in a magnetic field is acting like a compass: you could move it over a bit and it would still point magnetic north-south from its new position. Similarly, a plumb bob (a string with a weight at one end) will indicate the local direction of the gravitational field. Lines drawn longitudinally through a series of plumb bobs would make a set of gravitational field lines. Such lines do not really exist; they are just a convenient, imaginary means of visualizing or depicting the direction of force applied by the field. See Appendix I for more discussion of this subject, or here, at Fizzics Fizzle. A field line does not necessarily indicate the direction of the force exerted by whatever is causing the field. Field lines may be drawn to indicate direction or polarity of a force, or may be drawn as contours of equal intensities of a force, in the same way as contour lines on a map connect points of equal elevation above, say, sea level. Often, around 3-dimensional bodies with magnetic fields, imaginary surfaces are used to represent the area of equal force, instead of lines. By consensus, the definition of the direction of a magnetic field at some point is from the north to the south pole. In a gravitational field, one could choose to draw contour lines of equal gravitational force instead of the lines of the direction of the force. These lines of equal gravitational force would vary with height (that is, with distance from the center of the body), rather like contour lines on a map. To find the direction of the force using these elevation contour lines, one would have to work out which way a body would move. Placed on the side of a hill, a stone rolls downhill, across the contours. In other words the gravitational force is perpendicular to the field lines of equal gravitational force. Magnetic fields are more complicated than gravity in that they can either attract or repel. Two permanent bar magnets with their opposite ends (opposite “poles”, or N-S) facing each other will attract each other along the direction indicated by the field lines of the combined field from them both (see image above). Magnets with the same polarity (N-N or S-S) repel one other along the same direction. Magnetic fields also exert forces on charged particles that are in motion. Because the force that the charged particle experiences is at right angles to both the magnetic field line and the particle’s direction, a charged particle moving across a magnetic field is made to change direction (i.e. to accelerate) by the action of the field. Its speed remains unchanged to conserve kinetic energy. The following image shows what happens to an electron beam in a vacuum tube before and after a magnetic field is applied, in a lab demonstration. The magnetic force on a charged particle in motion is analogous to the gyroscopic force. A charged particle moving directly along or “with” a magnetic field line won’t experience a force trying to change its direction, just as pushing on a spinning gyroscope directly along its axis of rotation will not cause it to turn or “precess”. Even though the force on different charged particles varies, the concept of visualizing the direction of the magnetic field as a set of imaginary field lines is useful because the direction of the force on any one material, such as a moving charged particle, can be worked out from the field direction. 2.4 The Origin of Magnetic Fields There is only one way that magnetic fields can be generated: by moving electric charges. In permanent magnets, the fields are generated by electrons spinning around the nuclei of the atoms. A strong magnet is created when all the electrons orbiting the nuclei have spins that are aligned, creating a powerful combined force. If the magnet is heated to its Curie temperature, the thermal motion of the atoms breaks down the orderly spin alignments, greatly reducing the net magnetic field. In a metal wire carrying a current, the magnetic field is generated by electrons moving down the length of the wire. A more detailed introduction to the complex subject of exchange coupling and ferromagnetism can be found here. Either way, any time electric charges move, they generate magnetic fields. Without moving electric charges, magnetic fields cannot exist. Ampère’s Law states that a moving charge generates a magnetic field with circular lines of force, on a plane that is perpendicular to the movement of the charge. Since electric currents made up of moving electric charges can be invisible and difficult to detect at a distance, detecting a magnetic field at a location in space (by well-known methods in astronomy, see below) is a sure sign that it is accompanied by an electric current. If a current flows in a conductor, such as a long straight wire or a plasma filament, then each charged particle in the current will have a small magnetic field around it. When all the individual small magnetic fields are added together, the result is a continuous magnetic field around the whole length of the conductor. The regions in space around the wire where the field strength is equal (called “equipotential surfaces”) are cylinders concentric with the wire. Time-varying electric and magnetic fields are considered later. (See Chapter IV and Appendix III) The question of the origin of magnetic fields in space is one of the key differences between the Gravity Model and the Electric Model. The Gravity Model allows for the existence of magnetic fields in space because they are routinely observed, but they are said to be caused by dynamos inside stars. For most researchers today, neither electric fields nor electric currents in space play any significant part in generating magnetic fields. In contrast, the Electric Model, as we shall see in more detail later, argues that magnetic fields must be generated by the movement of charged particles in space in the same way that magnetic fields are generated by moving charged particles here on Earth. Of course, the Electric Model accepts that stars and planets have magnetic fields, too, evidenced by magnetospheres and other observations. The new insight has been to explain a different origin for these magnetic fields in space if they are not created by dynamos in stars. 2.5 Detecting Magnetic Fields in Space Since the start of the space age, spacecraft have been able to measure magnetic fields in the solar system using instruments on board the spacecraft. We can “see” magnetic fields beyond the range of spacecraft because of the effect that the fields have on light and other radiation passing through them. We can even estimate the strength of the magnetic fields by measuring the amount of that effect. Optical image Magnetic field intensity, direction We have known about the Earth’s magnetic field for centuries. We can now detect such fields in space, so the concept of magnetic fields in space is intuitively easy to understand, although astronomers have difficulty in explaining the origination of these magnetic fields. Magnetic fields can be detected at many wavelengths by observing the amount of symmetrical spectrographic emission line or absorption line splitting that the magnetic field induces. This is known as the Zeeman effect, after Dutch physicist and 1902 Nobel laureate, Pieter Zeeman, (1865—1943). Note in the right image above how closely the field direction aligns with the galactic arms visible in the optical image, left. Another indicator of the presence of magnetic fields is the polarization of synchrotron emission radiated by electrons in magnetic fields, useful at galactic scales. See Beck’s article on Galactic Magnetic Fields, in Scholarpedia, plus Beck and Sherwood’s Atlas of Magnetic Fields in Nearby Galaxies. Measurement of the degree of polarization makes use of the Faraday effect. The Faraday rotation in turn leads to the derivation of the strength of the magnetic field through which the polarized light is passing. The highly instructional paper by Phillip Kronberg et al, Measurement of the Electric Current in a Kpc-Scale Jet, provides a compelling insight into the direct link between the measured Faraday rotation in the powerful “knots” in a large galactic jet, the resultant magnetic field strength, and the electric current present in the jet. Magnetic fields are included in both the Gravity Model and the Electric Model of the Universe. The essential difference is that the Electric Model recognizes that magnetic fields in space always accompany electric currents. We will take up electric fields and currents next. 2.6 Introduction to Electric Fields An electric charge has polarity. That is, it is either positive or negative. By agreement, the elementary (smallest) unit of charge is equal to that of an electron (-e) or a proton (+e). Electric charge is quantized; it is always an integer multiple of e. The fundamental unit of charge is the coulomb (C), where e = 1.60×10-19 coulomb. By taking the inverse of the latter tiny value, one coulomb is 6.25×1018 singly-charged particles. One ampere (A) of electric current is one coulomb per second. A 20A current thus would be 20 C of charge per second, or the passage of 1.25×1020 electrons per second past a fixed point. Every charge has an electric field associated with it. An electric field is similar to a magnetic field in that it is caused by the fundamental force of electromagnetic interaction and its “range” or extent of influence is infinite, or indefinitely large. The electric field surrounding a single charged particle is spherical, like the gravitational acceleration field around a small point mass or a large spherical mass. The strength of an electric field at a point is defined as the force in newtons (N) that would be exerted on a positive test charge of 1 coulomb placed at that point. Like gravity, the force from one charge is inversely proportional to the square of the distance to the test (or any other) charge. The point in defining a test charge as positive is to consistently define the direction of the force due to one charge acting upon another charge. Since like charges repel and opposites attract, just like magnetic poles, the imaginary electric field lines tend to point away from positive charges and toward negative charges. See a short YouTube video on the electric field here. Here is a user-controlled demonstration of 2 charges and their associated lines of force in this Mathematica application. You may need to download Mathematica Player (just once, and it’s free) from the linked web site to play with the demo. Click on “Download Live Demo”after you install Mathematica Player. You can adjust strength and polarity of charge (+ or -) with the sliders, and drag the charged particles around the screen. Give the field lines time to smooth out between changes. Electromagnetic forces are commonly stronger than gravitational forces on plasma in space. Electromagnetism can be shielded, while gravity can not, so far as is known. The common argument in the standard model is that most of the electrons in one region or body are paired with protons in the nuclei of atoms and molecules, so the net forces of the positive charges and negative charges cancel out so perfectly that “for large bodies gravity can dominate” (link: Wikipedia, Fundamental Interactions, look under the Electromagnetism sub-heading). What is overlooked above is that, with the occasional exception of relatively cool, stable and near-neutral planetary environments like those found here on Earth, most other matter in the Universe consists of plasma; i.e., charged particles and neutral particles moving in a complex symphony of charge separation and the electric and magnetic fields of their own making. Gravity, while always present, is not typically the dominant force. Far from consisting of mostly neutralized charge and weak magnetic and electric fields and their associated weak currents, electric fields and currents in plasma can and often do become very large and powerful in space. The Electric Model holds that phenomena in space such as magnetospheres, Birkeland currents, stars, pulsars, galaxies, galactic and stellar jets, planetary nebulas, “black holes”, energetic particles such as gamma rays and X-rays and more, are fundamentally electric events in plasma physics. Even the rocky bodies – planets, asteroids, moons and comets, and the gas bodies in a solar system – exist in the heliospheres of their stars, and are not exempt from electromagnetic forces and their effects. Each separate charged particle contributes to the total electric field. The net force at any point in a complex electromagnetic field can be calculated using vectors, if the charges are assumed stationary. If charged particles are moving (and they always are), however, they “create” – are accompanied by – magnetic fields, too, and this changes the magnetic configuration. Changes in a magnetic field in turn create electric fields and thereby affect currents themselves, so fields that start with moving particles represent very complex interactions, feedback loops and messy mathematics. Charges in space may be distributed spatially in any configuration. If, instead of a point or a sphere, the charges are distributed in a linear fashion so that the length of a charged area is much longer than its width or diameter, it can be shown that the electric field surrounds the linear shape like cylinders of equal force potential, and that the field from this configuration decreases with distance from the configuration as the inverse of the distance (not the inverse square of the distance) from the centerline. This is important in studying the effects of electric and magnetic fields in filamentary currents such as lightning strokes, a plasma focus, or large Birkeland currents in space. Remember that the direction of applied force on a positive charge starts from positive charge and terminates on negative charge, or failing a negative charge, extends indefinitely far. Even a small charge imbalance with, say, more positively-charged particles here and more negatively-charged particles a distance away leads to a region of force or electric field between the areas of separated dissimilar charges. The importance of this arrangement will become more clear in the discussion of double layers in plasma, further on. Think of an electrical capacitor where there are two separated, oppositely charged plates or layers, similar to the two charged plates “B” in the diagram above. There will be an electric field between the layers. Any charged particle moving or placed between the layers will be accelerated towards the oppositely charged layer. Electrons (which are negatively charged) accelerate toward the positively charged layer, and positive ions and protons toward the negatively charged layer. According to Newton’s Laws, force results in acceleration. Therefore electric fields will result in charged particles’ acquiring velocity. Oppositely charged particles will move in opposite directions. An electric current is, by definition, movement of charge past a point. Electric fields therefore cause electric currents by giving charged particles a velocity. If an electric field is strong enough, then charged particles will be accelerated to very high velocities by the field. For a little further reading on electric fields see this. 2.7 Detecting Electric Fields and Currents in Space Electric fields and currents are more difficult to detect without putting a measuring instrument directly into the field, but we have detected currents in the solar system using spacecraft. One of the first was the low-altitude polar orbit TRIAD satellite in the 1970s, which found currents interacting with the Earth’s upper atmosphere. In 1981 Hannes Alfvén described a heliospheric current model in his book, Cosmic Plasma. Since then, a region of electric current called the heliospheric current sheet (HCS) has been found that separates the positive and negative regions of the Sun’s magnetic field. It is tilted approximately 15 degrees to the solar equator. During one half of a solar cycle, outward-pointing magnetic fields lie above the HCS and inward-pointing fields below it. This is reversed when the Sun’s magnetic field reverses its polarity halfway through the solar cycle. As the Sun rotates, the HCS rotates with it, “dragging” its undulations into what NASA terms “the standard Parker spiral”. Spacecraft have measured changes over time in the current sheet at various locations since the 1980s. They have detected near-Earth and solar currents as well. The Gravity Model accepts that these currents exist in space but assumes they are a result of the magnetic field. We will return to this point later. Electric fields outside the reach of spacecraft are not detectable in precisely the same way as magnetic fields. Line-splitting or broadening in electric fields occurs, but it is asymmetrical line splitting that indicates the presence of an electric field, in contrast to the symmetric line splitting in magnetic fields. Further, electric field line broadening is sensitive to the mass of the elements emitting light (the lighter elements being readily broadened or split, and heavier elements less so affected), while Zeeman (magnetic field) broadening is indifferent to mass. Asymmetric bright-line splitting or broadening is called the Stark effect, after Johannes Stark (1874–1957). Another way in which we can detect electric fields is by inference from the behavior of charged particles, especially those that are accelerated to high velocities, and the existence of electromagnetic radiation such as X-rays in space, which we have long known from Earth-bound experience are generated by strong electric fields. Electric currents in low density plasmas in space operate like fluorescent lights or evacuated Crookes Tubes. In a weak current state, the plasma is dark and radiates little visible light (although cold, thin plasma can radiate a lot in the radio and far infrared wavelengths). As current increases, plasma enters a glow mode, radiating a modest amount of electromagnetic energy in the visible spectrum. This is visible in the image at the end of this chapter. When electrical current becomes very intense in a plasma, the plasma radiates in the arc mode. Other than scale, there is little significant difference between lightning and the radiating surface of a star’s photosphere. This means, of course, that alternative explanations for these effects are also possible, at least in theory. The Gravity Model often assumes that the weak force of gravity multiplied by supernatural densities that are hypothesized to make up black holes or neutron stars creates these types of effect. Or maybe particles are accelerated to near-light-speed by supernovae explosions. The question is whether “multiplied gravity” or lab-testable electromagnetism is more consistent with observations that the Universe is composed of plasma. The Electric Model argues that electrical effects are not just limited to those parts of the solar system that spacecraft have been able to reach. The Electric Model supposes that similar electrical effects also occur outside the solar system. After all, it would be odd if the solar system was the only place in the Universe where electrical effects do occur in space. End of Chapter 2

http://www.thunderbolts.info/wp/2011/10/17/essential-guide-to-the-eu-chapter-2/

ANALYTICAL SKILLS LESSON PLAN Teachers may either print out the lesson and have students read it themselves, or use the lesson for your own skills lesson. 1. Introduce the topic by explaining that analytical skills are essential in processing complex information or situations. 2. Have the students read the text. 3. Have students look at the cartoon and read the analysis. 4. Distribute the exercise sheet and have students work in pairs to answer the questions. Debrief: Check all the factual answers. Round up some of the ideas they have for the opinion answers. The ability to analyze information and situations is a key life skill that we use when we study, in the workplace and in our daily lives. The analytical process requires us to bring a number of different thinking processes to bear on information or a situation. A useful breakdown of such processes was provided by Benjamin Bloom in his Taxonomy of Educational Objectives (1956). He identified six types of thinking (the cognitive domain) that we use when we process information: Lesson Printable Materials - Print out the teaching lesson pages and exercise worksheets for use with this lesson:

http://www.moneyinstructor.com/lesson/analyticalskill.asp

The Environment of the Earth in the Past Calculations show that the Earth had large oceans very early in its history. During this time the Earth should have been frozen because of the weak luminosity of the sun at that time, nevertheless the fact that there was a large and vigorous ocean suggests that the Earth must have had a large and vigorous atmosphere in place to keep the surface warm. The warm early ocean of Earth was ideal for the development of life. The earliest fossils show that there was life on Earth at least 3.8 billion years ago (see the geologic record for the corresponding epochs of the Earth's history). The atmosphere of the Earth came from, and continues to come from volcanoes, which produce a great deal of water vapor, carbon dioxide and other gases. Over the course of time the composition of the atmosphere has changed significantly. In particular, the earliest atmosphere was very rich in carbon dioxide (like present Mars and Venus). The present atmosphere is 80% Nitrogen and 20% Oxygen. It was life on Earth which was largely responsible for transforming the content of the Earth's atmosphere to its present composition. The changes in the atmosphere, as well as the changes to the locations of the continents, have contributed to very significant changes in the climate of the Earth. The surface of the Earth has seen extremely high temperatures, as well as extremely low temperatures. Today's concern about global warming is part of a long history of Earth's variability with regard to climate.

http://www.windows2universe.org/life/earth_past_environment.html&edu=high

Contents | < Browse | Browse > 12B. computing with floats Because to E a float will seem like just another LONG, it will happily apply integer math to it when used in an expression, which is mostly not what you want. Also, one would like to be able to convert to integer and vice-versa. The float operator "!" handles all this. assume in the following examples that a,b,c contain integer values, and x,y,z float values. By default, an expression in E is considered an integer expression. what the "!" does when it occurs in an expression is the following: - changes the expression from int to float. any operators following (+ * - / = <> > < >= <=) will be float operations. "!" may occur any number of times in an expression, changing from and to float again and again. - the expression that did occur before the "!", if any, is converted to the appropriate type. converts "a" to float, and stores the result in x. "a" is an integer exp, which is then toggled to float, which implies a conversion. converts "x" to integer and stores the result in a. no "!" is needed here since no operator-math or conversions are necessary. the "*" acts on y and z as floats, since "!" denotes the whole as a float-exp. the float result is stored in x a more complex example: the int "b" is converted to float, then x and y are float-multiplied and float-added to it. The result is converted to int and stored in the int "a" all (+ * - /) are computed as float, and the int "a" is converted to float somewhere in the middle. since "(" ")" denotes a new expression, it has it's own status of "!". Same idea for the function below. IF !x<0.1 THEN WriteF('Float value too small!\n') as you can see, "!" also works on the six comparison operators.

http://blubbedev.net/e_guide_html/ch_12b.html

At first glance the anatomy of a turtle may appear to be simple, however, underneath of its shell the turtle can be fairly complex. - Head: foremost part of a tortoise which is attached to the trunk - Neck: part of a tortoise between the head and the body - Nuchal shell: hard plate that forms the shell of the tortoise close to the nape of the neck - Vertebral shell: scale above the tortoises spinal column - Costal shell: side scale - Pygal shield: scale situated above the tail - Tail: extension of the spinal column of a tortoise - Nail: nail of a tortoise - Hind leg: rearmost limb of the tortoise - Marginal shell: each of the scales that form the edge of the tortoise’s shell - Front leg: foremost limb of the tortoise - Mandible: lower jaw - Mouth: entrance to the digestive tract - Nostril: entrance to the respiratory system - Eye: sight organ of the tortoise The turtle has a very unique appearance that can be easily identified trough the presence of its shell. The turtle shell plays a vital role in protection and very little about its form or function has changed over the 200 million years of the turtle’s evolution. The carapace and plastron are joined together on the turtle’s sides by bony structures called bridges. The inner layer of a turtle’s shell is made up of about 60 bones that include portions of the backbone and the ribs. That means the turtle cannot crawl out of its shell. In most turtles, the outer layer of the shell is covered by horny scales called scutes that are part of its outer skin – epidermis. Scutes are made of keratin (the primary substance in hair, nails and hooves of other animals). The pigment melanin, present in the scutes, can form different designs and brightly colored patterns in some species. Some turtles do not have horny scutes. Like the leatherback sea turtle and the soft-shelled turtles have shells covered with leathery skin instead of horny scutes. Although the scutes form the familiar outer layer of the shell, it is the bony layer underneath which actually provides the shape, support and protection of the turtle shell. Baby turtles shells are much like human babies skulls. When born the plates are not fused or connected in any way. Nonetheless, over time the bone like plates will grow together and once the turtle has reached its maximum size the plates will begin to fuse together. Keratin continues to grow and layer over top of the plates throughout the turtles life. The continuous growth of keratin aids the turtle in its amazing regenerative abilities. If a section or part of a shell were harmed or damaged in any way the other areas of the shell would continue to grow and the hurt portion would possibly heal over time. Tortoises, being land-based, have rather heavy shells. In contrast, aquatic and soft-shelled turtles have lighter shells that help them avoid sinking in water and swimming faster with more agility. These lighter shells have large spaces called fontanelles between the shell bones. The shells of leatherback sea turtles are extremely light because they lack scutes and contain many fontanelles. The color of a turtle’s shell may vary. Turtle shells are commonly colored brown, black, or olive-green. In some species, shells may have red, orange, yellow, or grey markings and these markings are often spots, lines, or irregular blotches. One of the most colorful turtles is the eastern painted turtle which includes a yellow plastron and a black or olive shell with red markings around the rim. The shape of the shell gives helpful clues to how a turtle lives. Most tortoises have a large, dome-shaped shell that makes it difficult for predators to crush the shell between their jaws. One of the few exceptions is the African pancake tortoise, which has a flat, flexible shell that allows it to hide in rock crevices. Most aquatic turtles have flat, streamlined shells which aid in swimming and diving. American snapping turtles and musk turtles have small, cross-shaped plastrons that give them more efficient leg movement for walking along the bottom of ponds and streams. Although the shell provides excellent protection from many predators, it can also make the turtle vulnerable to health problems if it is not given good care in captivity. Most turtles that spend most of their lives on land have their eyes looking down at objects in front of them. Some aquatic turtles, such as snapping turtles and soft-shelled turtles, have eyes closer to the top of the head. These species of turtles can hide from predators in shallow water, where they lie entirely submerged except for their eyes and nostrils. Sea turtles possess glands near their eyes that produce salty tears that rid their body of excess salt taken in from the water they drink. Turtles are thought to have exceptional night vision due to the unusually large number of rod cells in their retinas. Turtles have color vision with a wealth of cone subtypes with sensitivities ranging from the near ultraviolet (UV A) to red. Some land turtles have very poor pursuit movement abilities, which are normally reserved for predators that hunt quick-moving prey, but carnivorous turtles are able to move their heads quickly to snap. Turtles have a rigid beak. Turtles use their jaws to cut and chew food. Instead of teeth, the upper and lower jaws of the turtle are covered by horny ridges. Carnivorous turtles usually have knife-sharp ridges for slicing through their prey. Herbivorous turtles have serrated-edged ridges that help them cut through tough plants. Turtles use their tongues to swallow food, but they cannot, unlike most reptiles, stick out their tongues to catch food. Terrestrial tortoises have short, sturdy feet. Tortoises are famous for moving slowly, in part because of their heavy, cumbersome shell, which restricts stride length. The amphibious turtles normally have limbs similar to those of tortoises, except the feet are webbed and often have long claws. These turtles swim using all four feet in a way similar to the dog paddle, with the feet on the left and right side of the body alternately providing thrust. Large turtles tend to swim less than smaller ones, and the very big species, such as alligator snapping turtles, hardly swim at all, preferring to simply walk along the bottom of the river or lake. As well as webbed feet, turtles have very long claws, used to help them clamber onto riverbanks and floating logs, upon which they like to bask. Male turtles tend to have particularly long claws, and these appear to be used to stimulate the female while mating. While most turtles have webbed feet, some, such as the pig-nosed turtle, have true flippers, with the digits being fused into paddles and the claws being relatively small. These species swim in the same way as sea turtles. Sea turtles are almost entirely aquatic and have flippers instead of feet. Sea turtles fly through the water, using the up-and-down motion of the front flippers to generate thrust; the back feet are not used for propulsion, but may be used as rudders for steering. Compared with freshwater turtles, sea turtles have very limited mobility on land, and apart from the dash from the nest to the sea as hatchlings, male sea turtles normally never leave the sea. Females must come back onto land to lay eggs. They move very slowly and laboriously, dragging themselves forwards with their flippers. Skin and molting As mentioned before, the outer layer of the shell is part of the skin; each scute (or plate) on the shell corresponds to a single modified scale. The remainder of the skin is composed of skin with much smaller scales, similar to the skin of other reptiles. Turtles do not molt their skins all at once, as snakes do, but continuously, in small pieces. When kept in aquaria, small sheets of dead skin can be seen in the water (often appearing to be a thin piece of plastic) having been sloughed off when the animal deliberately rubs itself against a piece of wood or stone. Tortoises also shed skin, but a lot of dead skin is allowed to accumulate into thick knobs and plates that provide protection to parts of the body outside the shell. By counting the rings formed by the stack of smaller, older scutes on top of the larger, newer ones, it is possible to estimate the age of a turtle, if one knows how many scutes are produced in a year. This method is not very accurate, partly because growth rate is not constant, but also because some of the scutes eventually fall away from the shell. - Trachea: the windpipe, which connects the larynx and bronchi of the tortoise - Lung: respiratory organ of the tortoise - Stomach: part of the digestive tract of the tortoise between the esophagus and the intestine - Pancreas: gland in the tortoise that produces digestive enzymes - Rectum: final part of the tortoise’s digestive tract - Anus: outlet of the tortoise’s digestive tract - Bladder: pocket in which urine collects before it is evacuated - Ovary: egg-producing reproductive gland - Intestine: part of the digestive tract of the tortoise after the stomach - Liver: bile-producing digestive gland - Heart: blood-pumping organ of the tortoise - Esophagus: part of the digestive tract of a tortoise between the mouth and the stomach The rigid shell means turtles cannot breathe as other reptiles do, by changing the volume of their chest cavity via expansion and contraction of the ribs. Instead, turtles breathe in two ways. First, they employ buccal pumping, pulling air into their mouth, then pushing it into the lungs via oscillations of the floor of the throat. Secondly, by contracting the abdominal muscles that cover the posterior opening of the shell, the internal volume of the shell increases, drawing air into the lungs, allowing these muscles to function in much the same way as the mammalian diaphragm. Mouth, Pharynx and Cloaca Food, water and other nutrients are ingested into two main cavities in most turtles, the mouth and the pharynx. These two cavities are located inside of a turtles skull. However, sea turtles also have the ability to take in oxygen through their cloaca. This special feature is used in extreme situation typically to keep the turtle alive when oxygen levels are low (i.e. deep sea diving, hibernation). Glottis and Larynx The glottis of the turtle is a small opening positioned behind the tongue that acts as a barrier between the pharynx and the larynx when swimming underwater, diving or eating. The larynx is connected to the glottis and leads to the trachea. It is considered to be the upper most portion of the respiratory duct. If you have ever heard a turtle hiss and wonder if it means that they are mad…rest assured, they are not mad. They are just frightened. So when they are frightened, and they need to pull their head and legs into their shell, they won’t quite fit in because of full inflated lungs. What they do is expel the air within their lungs out as fast as they can so that they will have room for their appendages to fit into the security of their hard shells. With this rush of air leaving their bodies, it makes a hissing noise and leads one to believe the turtle is ticked off and warning them to stay away. Most vertebrates have similar digestive systems and the turtle is no exception. Turtles are not strictly herbivores. All species are found to eat at least some meat which causes them to have powerful digestive enzymes. In addition turtles swallow their food with very little chewing. Food particles are often whole or in fairly large chunks. The salivary glands of the turtle help to soften and break down the food to make swallowing possible. Mouth and Tongue The mouth of a turtle is a cavity found inside its skull. The tongue is flat and wide and fastened securely to the bottom of its mouth to prevent it from moving. Air, water, food and other essential nutrients enter the turtle’s body most often by way of the mouth. Esophagus and Stomach The esophagus is tubular, digestive structure that is connected to the stomach. Powerful digestive enzymes and acids within the turtle’s stomach decompose the food. The walls of the organs in the digestive system are composed of smooth muscle that helps to push the food through the system and aids in decomposition of the food by churning during the digestive process. Liver, Gall Bladder and Pancreas The liver is the largest organ in the body of a turtle. The liver has numerous functions and capabilities among which one is bile production. The gall bladder, on the other hand, is a small organ hidden behind the liver. It transfers the bile produced in the liver to the small intestine in the digestive process. Finally, the pancreas sliver like gland located next to the small intestine. It aids in the digestive process by introducing digestive enzymes into the small intestine as well. Small and Large Intestine The small intestine is connected from the stomach to the large intestine. Villi (or villus singular) located on the small intestine wall absorb food into the body. The large intestine, which is also known as the colon, reabsorbs excess waste and water produced by the digestive system. The last part of the digestive system, the anus is where the feces (or wastes) exit the turtle’s body. - Skull: bony case of the brain of the tortoise - Phalanges: small bones forming the fingers - Humerus: arm bone - Proscapular process: bone of pectoral girdle of a tortoise, situated in front of the coracoid - Back bone: vertebral column of a tortoise - Femur: thigh bone - Tibia: one of the two leg bones - Phalanges: small bones forming the toes - Fibula: one of the two leg bones - Pelvic girdle: set of bones to which the limbs of a tortoise are attached - Coracoid: bone of the pectoral girdle of a tortoise - Scapula: shoulder bone - Radius: one of the two bones of the forearm - Ulna: one of the two bones of the forearm - Vertebra: each of the bones forming the spine of a tortoise - Mandible: lower jaw of the tortoise Bones make up the majority of the skeletal system in turtles as opposed to amphibians who have a large amount of cartilage in their system. Connective tissue in the turtles is mineralized and becomes bone and the interior of their bones consists of sponge like marrow. The turtle skeleton is divided into two main sections, the endoskeleton and the ectoskeleton. The endoskeleton consists of all the internal bones and the ectoskeleton of a turtle is its shell. The endoskeleton is further divided into two subsections called the axial skeleton and the appendicular skeleton. The axial skeleton is made up of the skull and both the cervical and thoracic vertebrae. The appendicular skeleton on the other hand consists the remaining bones in the skeleton. The nervous system of the sea turtle is composed of the brain, nerves and spinal cord. In addition, specialized cells called neurons are the signal transmitters throughout the system. The brain is the center of turtle’s nervous system and it is there that the impulses carried by the nerves from the sensory organs are processed. Although the brain of turtles is more advanced than an amphibian’s it is primitive in regards to birds and mammals. The spinal cord of the turtle extends down it’s back and is protected by the carapace vertebrae. It is through the spinal cord that the information is carried to and from the brain. Turtles exhibit all the same senses as most organisms but the sense of smell is most advanced.

http://www.infoturtle.com/turtle-anatomy/

Fourier analysis is named after Jean Baptiste Joseph Fourier (1768-1830), a French mathematician and physicist. (Fourier is pronounced: , and is always capitalized). While many contributed to the field, Fourier is honored for his mathematical discoveries and insight into the practical usefulness of the techniques. Fourier was interested in heat propagation, and presented a paper in 1807 to the Institut de France on the use of sinusoids to represent temperature distributions. The paper contained the controversial claim that any continuous periodic signal could be represented as the sum of properly chosen sinusoidal waves. Among the reviewers were two of history's most famous mathematicians, Joseph Louis Lagrange (1736-1813), and Pierre Simon de Laplace (1749-1827). While Laplace and the other reviewers voted to publish the paper, Lagrange adamantly protested. For nearly 50 years, Lagrange had insisted that such an approach could not be used to represent signals with corners, i.e., discontinuous slopes, such as in square waves. The Institut de France bowed to the prestige of Lagrange, and rejected Fourier's work. It was only after Lagrange died that the paper was finally published, some 15 years later. Luckily, Fourier had other things to keep him busy, political activities, expeditions to Egypt with Napoleon, and trying to avoid the guillotine after the French Revolution (literally!). Who was right? It's a split decision. Lagrange was correct in his assertion that a summation of sinusoids cannot form a signal with a corner. However, you can get very close. So close that the difference between the two has zero energy. In this sense, Fourier was right, although 18th century science knew little about the concept of energy. This phenomenon now goes by the name: Gibbs Effect, and will be discussed in Chapter 11. Figure 8-1 illustrates how a signal can be decomposed into sine and cosine waves. Figure (a) shows an example signal, 16 points long, running from sample number 0 to 15. Figure (b) shows the Fourier decomposition of this signal, nine cosine waves and nine sine waves, each with a different frequency and amplitude. Although far from obvious, these 18 sinusoids add to produce the waveform in (a). It should be noted that the objection made by Lagrange only applies to continuous signals. For discrete signals, this decomposition is mathematically exact. There is no difference between the signal in (a) and the sum of the signals in (b), just as there is no difference between 7 and 3+4. Why are sinusoids used instead of, for instance, square or triangular waves? Remember, there are an infinite number of ways that a signal can be decomposed. The goal of decomposition is to end up with something easier to deal with than the original signal. For example, impulse decomposition allows signals to be examined one point at a time, leading to the powerful technique of convolution. The component sine and cosine waves are simpler than the original signal because they have a property that the original signal does not have: sinusoidal fidelity. As discussed in Chapter 5, a sinusoid input to a system is guaranteed to produce a sinusoidal output. Only the amplitude and phase of the signal can change; the frequency and wave shape must remain the same. Sinusoids are the only waveform that have this useful property. While square and triangular decompositions are possible, there is no general reason for them to be useful. The general term: Fourier transform, can be broken into four categories, resulting from the four basic types of signals that can be encountered. A signal can be either continuous or discrete, and it can be either periodic or aperiodic. The combination of these two features generates the four categories, described below and illustrated in Fig. 8-2. This includes, for example, decaying exponentials and the Gaussian curve. These signals extend to both positive and negative infinity without repeating in a periodic pattern. The Fourier Transform for this type of signal is simply called the Fourier Transform. Here the examples include: sine waves, square waves, and any waveform that repeats itself in a regular pattern from negative to positive infinity. This version of the Fourier transform is called the Fourier Series. These signals are only defined at discrete points between positive and negative infinity, and do not repeat themselves in a periodic fashion. This type of Fourier transform is called the Discrete Time Fourier Transform. These are discrete signals that repeat themselves in a periodic fashion from negative to positive infinity. This class of Fourier Transform is sometimes called the Discrete Fourier Series, but is most often called the Discrete Fourier Transform. You might be thinking that the names given to these four types of Fourier transforms are confusing and poorly organized. You're right, the names have evolved rather haphazardly over 200 years. There is nothing you can do but memorize them and move on. These four classes of signals all extend to positive and negative infinity. Hold on, you say! What if you only have a finite number of samples stored in your computer, say a signal formed from 1024 points. Isn't there a version of the Fourier Transform that uses finite length signals? No, there isn't. Sine and cosine waves are defined as extending from negative infinity to positive infinity. You cannot use a group of infinitely long signals to synthesize something finite in length. The way around this dilemma is to make the finite data look like an infinite length signal. This is done by imagining that the signal has an infinite number of samples on the left and right of the actual points. If all these imaginary samples have a value of zero, the signal looks discrete and aperiodic, and the Discrete Time Fourier Transform applies. As an alternative, the imaginary samples can be a duplication of the actual 1024 points. In this case, the signal looks discrete and periodic, with a period of 1024 samples. This calls for the Discrete Fourier Transform to be used. As it turns out, an infinite number of sinusoids are required to synthesize a signal that is aperiodic. This makes it impossible to calculate the Discrete Time Fourier Transform in a computer algorithm. By elimination, the only type of Fourier transform that can be used in DSP is the DFT. In other words, digital computers can only work with information that is discrete and finite in length. When you struggle with theoretical issues, grapple with homework problems, and ponder mathematical mysteries, you may find yourself using the first three members of the Fourier transform family. When you sit down to your computer, you will only use the DFT. We will briefly look at these other Fourier transforms in future chapters. For now, concentrate on understanding the Discrete Fourier Transform. Look back at the example DFT decomposition in Fig. 8-1. On the face of it, it appears to be a 16 point signal being decomposed into 18 sinusoids, each consisting of 16 points. In more formal terms, the 16 point signal, shown in (a), must be viewed as a single period of an infinitely long periodic signal. Likewise, each of the 18 sinusoids, shown in (b), represents a 16 point segment from an infinitely long sinusoid. Does it really matter if we view this as a 16 point signal being synthesized from 16 point sinusoids, or as an infinitely long periodic signal being synthesized from infinitely long sinusoids? The answer is: usually no, but sometimes, yes. In upcoming chapters we will encounter properties of the DFT that seem baffling if the signals are viewed as finite, but become obvious when the periodic nature is considered. The key point to understand is that this periodicity is invoked in order to use a mathematical tool, i.e., the DFT. It is usually meaningless in terms of where the signal originated or how it was acquired. Each of the four Fourier Transforms can be subdivided into real and complex versions. The real version is the simplest, using ordinary numbers and algebra for the synthesis and decomposition. For instance, Fig. 8-1 is an example of the real DFT. The complex versions of the four Fourier transforms are immensely more complicated, requiring the use of complex numbers. These are numbers such as: 3 + 4j, where j is equal to √-1 (electrical engineers use the variable j, while mathematicians use the variable, i). Complex mathematics can quickly become overwhelming, even to those that specialize in DSP. In fact, a primary goal of this book is to present the fundamentals of DSP without the use of complex math, allowing the material to be understood by a wider range of scientists and engineers. The complex Fourier transforms are the realm of those that specialize in DSP, and are willing to sink to their necks in the swamp of mathematics. If you are so inclined, Chapters 28-31 will take you there. The mathematical term: transform, is extensively used in Digital Signal Processing, such as: Fourier transform, Laplace transform, Z transform, Hilbert transform, Discrete Cosine transform, etc. Just what is a transform? To answer this question, remember what a function is. A function is an algorithm or procedure that changes one value into another value. For example, y = 2x + 1 is a function. You pick some value for x, plug it into the equation, and out pops a value for y. Functions can also change several values into a single value, such as: y = 2a + 3b + 4c, where a, b and c are changed into y. Transforms are a direct extension of this, allowing both the input and output to have multiple values. Suppose you have a signal composed of 100 samples. If you devise some equation, algorithm, or procedure for changing these 100 samples into another 100 samples, you have yourself a transform. If you think it is useful enough, you have the perfect right to attach your last name to it and expound its merits to your colleagues. (This works best if you are an eminent 18th century French mathematician). Transforms are not limited to any specific type or number of data. For example, you might have 100 samples of discrete data for the input and 200 samples of discrete data for the output. Likewise, you might have a continuous signal for the input and a continuous signal for the output. Mixed signals are also allowed, discrete in and continuous out, and vice versa. In short, a transform is any fixed procedure that changes one chunk of data into another chunk of data. Let's see how this applies to the topic at hand: the Discrete Fourier transform.

http://www.dspguide.com/ch8/1.htm

Indus valley civilization Indus valley civilization, ancient civilization that flourished from about 2500 B.C. to about 1500 B.C. in the valley of the Indus River and its tributaries, in the northwestern portion of the Indian subcontinent, i.e., present-day Pakistan. At its height, its geographical reach exceeded that of Egypt or Mesopotamia. Since 1921 this civilization has been revealed by spectacular finds at Mohenjo-Daro, an archaeological site in NW Sind, and at Harappa, in central Punjab near the Ravi River. These sites, each of which measures more than 3 mi (5 km) in circumference, were once great urban centers, the chief cities of the Indus civilization. They had large and complex hill citadels, housing palaces, granaries, and baths that were probably used for sacred ablutions; the great bath at Mohenjo-Daro was c.40 ft (12 m) long and 23 ft (7 m) wide. Beyond the citadels were well-planned towns, laid out in rectangular patterns. Houses, often two-storied and spacious, lined the town streets; they had drainage systems that led into brick-lined sewers. The economy of the Indus civilization was based on a highly organized agriculture, supplemented by an active commerce, probably connected to that of the ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia. The arts flourished there, and many objects of copper, bronze, and pottery, including a large collection of terra-cotta toys, have been uncovered. Most notable, however, are the steatite seals, exquisitely engraved with animal figures and often bearing a line of pictographic script. On some seals are depicted a bo tree or, as some authorities hold, a Babylonian tree of life, and others have as their central figure the god Shiva, who later became preeminent in the Hindu pantheon. The writing, long a riddle to archaeologists, has yet to be satisfactorily deciphered; the language appears to be structurally related to the Dravidian languages. The origin, rise, and decline of the Indus valley civilization remain a mystery, but it seems most probable that the civilization fell (c.1500 B.C.) to invading Aryans. See Sir John Marshall, Mohenjo-Daro and the Indus Civilization (3 vol., 1931); E. J. H. MacKay, The Indus Civilization (1935, repr. 1983); S. Piggott, Prehistoric India (1950); Sir Mortimer Wheeler, The Indus Civilization (3d ed. 1968); J. H. Hawkes, The First Great Civilizations (1973). The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. More on Indus valley civilization from Fact Monster: See more Encyclopedia articles on: South Asian History

http://www.factmonster.com/encyclopedia/history/indus-valley-civilization.html

Rosa Louise McCauley Parks (February 4, 1913 – October 24, 2005) was an African American civil rights activist whom the U.S. Congress later called the "Mother of the Modern-Day Civil Rights Movement." On December 1, 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama, Parks, age 42, refused to obey bus driver James Blake's order that she give up her seat to make room for a white passenger. Her action was not the first of its kind: Irene Morgan, in 1946, and Sarah Louise Keys, in 1955, had won rulings before the U.S. Supreme Court and the Interstate Commerce Commission respectively in the area of interstate bus travel. Nine months before Parks refused to give up her seat, 15-year-old Claudette Colvin refused to move from her seat on the same bus system. But unlike these previous individual actions of civil disobedience, Parks's action sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Parks's act of defiance became an important symbol of the modern Civil Rights Movement and Parks became an international icon of resistance to racial segregation. She organized and collaborated with civil rights leaders, including boycott leader Martin Luther King, Jr., helping to launch him to national prominence in the civil rights movement.

http://www.upi.com/topic/Rosa_Lee_Parks/wiki/

Welcome to Chile • What can Chile show the world? • Curriculum standards 1. Write a variety of expository texts which include a thesis in the introduction, supporting details in the body, and transition words throughout leading to the conclusion. Additionally, writing will include information from primary and secondary sources that has been quoted, paraphrased. 2. Use appropriate conventions for documentation in the text, notes and bibliographies by adhering to those in style manuals. 3. Write a narrative which explores experiences and events, using language in natural, fresh and vivid ways to establish a specific tone. 4. Write responses to literature or texts to demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of the significant ideas in words or passages; analyze the imagery language, universal themes, and unique aspects of the text; supporting important ideas and view points through accurate and detailed references to texts. 1. Read various types of authentic texts in order to interpret, extract information, identify literary elements and techniques, make judgments, form conclusions, and establish global relationships through analysis and critical thinking. 2. Participate in interdisciplinary projects requiring the integration of language skills with academic areas. 3. Apply reading strategies such as skimming, scanning, and summarizing in order to better understand the text. • Expected outcomes 1. To communicate in different situations producing comprehensible written texts. 2. To solicit, give and exchange information understanding the purpose and message in various situations. 3. To learn writing techniques that can be applied in academic and personal setting. 4. To understand the importance of the written word in self-expression. 1. To comprehend authentic literary and expository texts of various lengths. 2. To skim and scan for meaning of authentic texts for various communicative purposes. 3. To draw conclusions and find relationships that aid in the interpretation of the text. 4. To develop a positive attitude towards reading, respect for diverse cultures, and motivation to further promote reading in English. 1. To respect and value differing beliefs, ideas and opinions; to view dialogue as a platform for conflict-resolution and an approximation to the truth. 2. To promote motivation and a quest for knowledge; to search for, select and use relevant information. • Required resources: -Primary source information (survey, interview, or letter) • This project will help Chile to develop tourism. MACARENAVilla Maria Academy, XIII región Metropolitana de Santiago, Chile CONSTANZAVilla Maria Academy, XIII región Metropolitana de Santiago, Chile TRINIDADVilla Maria Academy, XIII región Metropolitana de Santiago, Chile 19 & under Jacinda ForsterVilla Maria Academy, XIII región Metropolitana de Santiago, Chile Geography & Travel > South America Our team happened to work very efficiently together and we finished our project on time. We divided our project according the different areas of interest of each member of the team, this way we were all motivated to investigate about our topic. Trinidad helped all the team with her experience, by teaching us how to use MAC computers that were the ones that we had to use for the project. Additionally, Macarena provided her optimism and her unique ideas to give our project its basic structure. Last but not least, Constanza enthusiastically cooperated with her great typing and writing skills giving the project the finest details and ideas. The members of our team are very diverse and we all contribute with different skills and points of view to the project. All three of us come from different group of friends inside of our school. Although we are all Catholics, we are part of varied Christian groups like Schoenstatt or CVX. In spite of all this we shared our diverse ideas and heard the other ones respecting each other. As we are sure most of the other groups did, we also searched in books and encyclopedias, instead of just searching the Web. That way our sources came from several places and we gathered a complete and wider idea of our topic.

http://www.thinkquest.org/pls/html/f?p=52300:100:4262968543484917::::P100_TEAM_ID:482085393

Directions: Point at a day of the month and the Moon will go to its orbital position for the beginning of the corresponding day. Point away from any days and the Moon's motion will resume. The Left Panel shows the motion of Earth and Moon from an "overhead" viewpoint. The Sun is far to the right. This view does not represent the true relative sizes or distances of Earth and Moon. The Moon should be about one quarter the size of Earth and about 1 meter away from Earth on the screen. The Upper Right Panel shows the phase of the Moon as we see it from Earth. The Lower Right Panel tracks the motion and phase of the Moon based on a simplified 28-day calendar. The Moon actually takes 27.3 days to complete one orbit around Earth. The Moon takes 29.5 days to complete one cycle of phases. Questions to Consider: 1. On what day (or days) does the following occur? (Click for Answer) The astronomical month is considered to start with a New Moon. In this demo, the New Moon occurs at the beginning of Day 1. A New Moon appears completely dark because the part of the Moon that is visible is the Moon's night side. During the next week (Days 1-7), less than 50% of the Moon's visible face is illuminated and we see a Crescent Moon. After one full week (Day 8), exactly 50% of the Moon's visible face is illuminated. We see a First Quarter Moon. That is, one quarter of the month has elapsed. During the next week (Days 8-14), more than 50% of the Moon's visible face is illuminated and we see a Gibbous Moon. Halfway through the month (Day 15), the Moon's visible face is fully illuminated. A Full Moon is completely bright because the part of the Moon that is visible is the Moon's day side. During the next week (Days 15-21), more than 50% of the Moon's visible face is illuminated and we see a Gibbous Moon again. After three full weeks (Day 22), exactly 50% of the Moon's visible face is illuminated again. We see a Third Quarter Moon. That is three quarters of the month has elapsed. After one month, the Moon returns to the same location in the sky as the Sun and we see a New Moon again. The demo represents a month as 28 days for simplicity. But the real cycle of phases takes 29.5 days to complete. 2. How much of the Moon do we see at any time? (Click for Answer) Flip through the days in the month and notice how the dark and bright features on the Moon's surface don't move in the view from Earth. From Earth, an observer can see only one hemisphere (50%) of the Moon's surface. This hemisphere is known as the Moon's "near side". The other hemisphere is never visible from Earth. It is called the Moon's "far side". This part of the Moon was not photographed until 1959 (the Soviet Luna 3 space probe) and not seen by human eyes until 1968 (Apollo 8). 3. How much of the Moon is illuminated by the Sun at any time? (Click for Answer) Sunlight normally falls on one hemisphere (50%) of the Moon's surface. The only exception is when the Moon passes through Earth's shadow during a lunar eclipse. This can only occur when the Sun, Earth, and Moon are lined up during a Full Moon (at Day 15 in the demo). 4. Does the Moon rotate? Watch and think about this cafefully! (Click for Answer) Yes, the Moon rotates. Watch the appearance of the Moon in the left panel of the demo. The Moon's bright and dark features rotate counterclockwise over 28 days. (Earth's does this once a day.) Imagine standing on the Moon's near side for one day and watching Earth hang in the sky. Earth would appear as a spinning globe, with Australia, Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas visible in turn. In contrast, the Moon rotates once a month and orbits Earth once a month. This curious situation is called "synchronous rotation". The Moon achieved this link between rotation and orbit due to the interaction of the tides of Earth and Moon. For this reason, this situation is also known as "tidal locking". The large moons of the other planets move in the same way. 5. What causes the phases of the Moon? Is it Earth's shadow or some other effect? (Click for Answer) The Moon's visible face appears to be more or less illuminated over the course of the month. This is due to our changing view of the Moon's day and night side The Moon can only pass through Earth's shadow during a single day of the month: Full Moon. At other times of the month, the Moon is far from Earth's shadow. So Earth's shadow plays no part in the cycle of the phases of the Moon. Created by Kevin Healy, 2007

http://www.mc.maricopa.edu/~kev2077220/flash/moonphase.html

Resistance of a resistor The function of a resistor is to oppose the electric current through it. This is called electrical resistance, and is measured in the unit ohm. The resistance can be calculated with Ohms law, when the current is known and the voltage drop is measured: The resistance of a resistor is dependent on its material and shape. Some materials have a higher resistivity, causing a higher value. The value is often printed on the resistor with a number or in the form of a color code. What is resistance? The concept of current, voltage and resistance can be explained by a hydraulic analogy. A flow of water through a pipe is restricted by a constriction. This causes a pressure drop after the constriction. The flow of water is equivalent to electric current. The pressure drop is equal to the voltage drop. The constriction is equivalent to the resistor, and has a certain resistance. The resistance is proportional to the voltage or pressure drop for a given current. In the hydraulic example, the resistance can be increased by for example reducing the diameter of the constriction. For a resistor or wire, the resistance is in general dependent on the material and the geometrical shape. The influence of the geometrical shape, can easily be explained by using the hydraulic example. A long and narrow tube will have a higher resistance than a short and wide tube. The resistance property of a material is called resistivity. The electrical resistance of a resistor is proportional to the resistivity of the material. For a rectangular cross-section resistor the resistance R is given by: where ρ is the resistivity of the resistor material (W·m), l is the length of the resistor along direction of current flow (m), and A is the cross-sectional area perpendicular to current flow (m^2). Resistivity is a property of materials. For many materials the resistivity is constant, and V and I are directly proportional to each other. Materials that meet this characteristic are called Ohmic materials. Good resistor materials have resistivity’s between 2·10^-8 and 200·10^-8 W·m. Resistance in series The equivalent resistance of resistors in series is equal to the sum of each resistor: The current through each resistor in series is equal, but the voltage is not. For a more detailed explanation and practical examples, refer to the article resistors in series. Sometimes the desired value is not available with standard preferred values. Instead, to reach the value two resistors can be connected in series or parallel. Resistance in parallel The equivalent resistance of resistors in parallel can be calculated with the following formula: The voltage across each resistor in parallel is equal, but the current not. For a more detailed explanation and practical examples, refer to the article resistors in parallel. How to find the resistance of a resistor The resistance of a resistor is either printed on the resistor body or marked with a color code. The combination of colors indicated the value and tolerance of a resistor. For a calculator or full explanation, refer to resistor code.

http://www.resistorguide.com/resistance-of-a-resistor/

This topic covers infections of the middle ear, commonly called ear infections. For information on outer ear infections, see the topic Ear Canal Problems (Swimmer's Ear). For information on inner ear infections, see the topic Labyrinthitis. The middle ear is the small part of your ear behind your eardrum. It can get infected when germs from the nose and throat are trapped there. A small tube connects your ear to your throat. These two tubes are called eustachian tubes (say "yoo-STAY-shee-un"). A cold can cause this tube to swell. When the tube swells enough to become blocked, it can trap fluid inside your ear. This makes it a perfect place for germs to grow and cause an infection. Ear infections happen mostly to young children, because their tubes are smaller and get blocked more easily. The main symptom is an earache. It can be mild, or it can hurt a lot. Babies and young children may be fussy. They may pull at their ears and cry. They may have trouble sleeping. They may also have a fever. You may see thick, yellow fluid coming from their ears. This happens when the infection has caused the eardrum to burst and the fluid flows out. This is not serious and usually makes the pain go away. The eardrum usually heals on its own. When fluid builds up but does not get infected, children often say that their ears just feel plugged. They may have trouble hearing, but their hearing usually returns to normal after the fluid is gone. It may take weeks for the fluid to drain away. Your doctor will talk to you about your child's symptoms. Then he or she will look into your child's ears. A special tool with a light lets the doctor see the eardrum and tell whether there is fluid behind it. This exam is rarely uncomfortable. It bothers some children more than others. Most ear infections go away on their own, although antibiotics are recommended for children under the age of 2 and for children at high risk for complications. You can treat your child at home with an over-the-counter pain reliever like acetaminophen (such as Tylenol), a warm washcloth or heating pad on the ear, and rest. Do not give aspirin to anyone younger than 20. Your doctor may give you eardrops that can help your child's pain. Sometimes after an infection, a child cannot hear well for a while. Call your doctor if this lasts for 3 to 4 months. Children need to be able to hear in order to learn how to talk. Your doctor can give your child antibiotics, but ear infections often get better without them. Talk about this with your doctor. Whether you use them will depend on how old your child is and how bad the infection is. Minor surgery to put tubes in the ears may help if your child has hearing problems or repeat infections. There are many ways to help prevent ear infections. Do not smoke. Ear infections happen more often to children who are around cigarette smoke. Even the fumes from tobacco smoke on your hair and clothes can affect them. Hand-washing and having your child immunized can help, too. Also, make sure your child does not go to sleep while sucking on a bottle. And try to limit the use of group child care. Learning about ear infections: Helping a sick child: Health Tools help you make wise health decisions or take action to improve your health. |Decision Points focus on key medical care decisions that are important to many health problems.| |Ear Infection: Should I Give My Child Antibiotics?| |Ear Problems: Should My Child Be Treated for Fluid Buildup in the Middle Ear?| Middle ear infections are caused by bacteria and viruses. During a cold, sinus or throat infection, or an allergy attack, the eustachian tubes, which connect the middle ears to the throat, can become blocked. This stops fluid from draining from the middle ear. This fluid is a perfect breeding ground for bacteria or viruses to grow into an ear infection. When swelling from an upper respiratory infection or allergy blocks the eustachian tube, air can't reach the middle ear. This creates a vacuum and suction, which pulls fluid and germs from the nose and throat into the middle ear. The swollen tube prevents this fluid from draining. An ear infection begins when bacteria or viruses in the trapped fluid grow into an infection. Inflammation and fluid buildup can occur without infection and cause a feeling of stuffiness in the ears. This is known as otitis media with effusion. Symptoms of a middle ear infection (acute otitis media) often start 2 to 7 days after the start of a cold or other upper respiratory infection. Symptoms of an ear infection may include: Symptoms of fluid buildup may include: Some children don't have any symptoms with this condition. Middle ear infections usually occur along with an upper respiratory infection (URI), such as a cold. During a URI, the lining of the eustachian tube can swell and block the tube. Fluid builds up in the middle ear, creating a perfect breeding ground for bacteria or viruses to grow into an ear infection. Pus develops as the body tries to fight the ear infection. More fluid collects and pushes against the eardrum, causing pain and sometimes problems hearing. Fever generally lasts a few days. And pain and crying usually last for several hours. After that, most children have some pain on and off for several days, although young children may have pain that comes and goes for more than a week. Antibiotic treatment may shorten some symptoms. But most of the time the immune system can fight infection and heal the ear infection without the use of these medicines. Children under 2 are treated with antibiotics, because they are more likely to have complications from the ear infection. In severe cases, too much fluid can increase pressure on the eardrum until it ruptures, allowing the fluid to drain. When this happens, fever and pain usually go away and the infection clears. The eardrum usually heals on its own, often in just a couple of weeks. Sometimes complications, such as a condition called chronic suppurative otitis media (an ear infection with chronic drainage), can arise from repeat ear infections. Most children who have ear infections still have some fluid behind the eardrum a few weeks after the infection is gone. For some children, the fluid clears in about a month. And a few children still have fluid buildup (effusion) several months after an ear infection clears. This fluid buildup in the ear is called otitis media with effusion. Hearing problems can result, because the fluid affects how the middle ear works. Usually, infection does not occur. Otitis media with fluid buildup (effusion) may occur even if a child has not had an obvious ear infection or upper respiratory infection. In these cases, something else has caused eustachian tube blockage. In rare cases, complications can arise from middle ear infection or fluid buildup. Examples include hearing loss and ruptured eardrum. Some factors that increase the risk for middle ear infection (acute otitis media) are out of your control. These include: Other factors that increase the risk for ear infection include: Factors that increase the risk for repeated ear infections also include: Call your doctor immediately if: Call your doctor if: Watchful waiting is when you and your doctor watch symptoms to see if the health problem improves on its own. If it does, no treatment is necessary. If the symptoms don't get better or get worse, then it’s time to take the next treatment step. Your doctor may recommend watchful waiting if your child is 2 years of age or older, has mild ear pain, and is otherwise healthy. Most ear infections get better without antibiotics. But if your child's pain doesn't get better with nonprescription children's pain reliever (such as acetaminophen) or the symptoms continue after 48 hours, call a doctor. Health professionals who can diagnose and treat ear infections (acute otitis media) include: Children who have ear infections often may need to see one of these specialists: To prepare for your appointment, see the topic Making the Most of Your Appointment. Middle ear infections are usually diagnosed using a health history, a physical exam, and an ear exam. With a middle ear infection, the eardrum, when seen through a pneumatic otoscope, is red or yellow and bulging. In the case of fluid buildup without infection (otitis media with effusion), the eardrum can look like it's bulging or sucking in. In both cases, the eardrum doesn't move freely when the pneumatic otoscope pushes air into the ear. Other tests can include: Treatment for middle ear infections (acute otitis media) involves home treatment for symptom relief. Your doctor can give your child antibiotics, but ear infections often get better without them. Talk about this with your doctor. Whether you use antibiotics will depend on how old your child is and how bad the infection is. Follow-up exams with a doctor are important to check for persistent infection, fluid behind the eardrum (otitis media with effusion), or repeat infections. The first treatment of a middle ear infection focuses on relieving pain. The doctor will also assess your child for any risk of complications. If your child has an ear infection and appears very ill, is younger than 2, or is at risk for complications from the infection, your doctor will likely give antibiotics right away. If your child has cochlear implants, your doctor will probably prescribe antibiotics, because bacterial meningitis is more common in children who have cochlear implants than in children who do not have cochlear implants. For children ages 2 and older, more options are available. Some doctors prescribe antibiotics for all ear infections, because it's hard to tell which ear infections will clear up on their own. Other doctors ask parents to watch their child's symptoms for a couple of days, since most ear infections get better without treatment. Antibiotic treatment has only minimal benefits in reducing pain and fever. The cost of medicine and possible side effects are factors doctors consider before giving antibiotics. Also, many doctors are concerned about the growing number of bacteria that are becoming resistant to antibiotics because of frequent use of antibiotics. If your child's condition improves in the first couple of days, treating the symptoms at home may be all that is needed. Some steps you can take at home to treat ear infection include: If your child isn't better after a couple of days of home treatment, call your doctor. He or she may prescribe antibiotics. Decongestants, antihistamines, and other over-the-counter cold remedies do not often work for treating or preventing ear infection. Antihistamines that cause sleepiness may thicken fluids, which can make your child feel worse. Check with the doctor before giving these medicines to your child. Experts say not to give decongestants to children younger than 2. If your child with an ear infection must take an airplane trip, talk with your doctor about how to cope with ear pain during the trip. Fluid behind the eardrum after an ear infection is normal. And in most children, the fluid clears up within 3 months without treatment. Test your child's hearing if the fluid persists past that point. If hearing is normal, you may choose to continue monitoring your child without treatment. If a child has repeat ear infections (three or more ear infections in a 6-month period or four in 1 year), you may want to consider treatment to prevent future infections. One option used a lot in the past is long-term oral antibiotic treatment. There is debate within the medical community about using antibiotics on a long-term basis to prevent ear infections. Many doctors don't want to prescribe long-term antibiotics, because they are not sure that they really work. Also, when antibiotics are used too often, bacteria can become resistant to antibiotics. Having tubes put in the ears is another option for treating repeat ear infections. If your child has fluid buildup without infection, you may try watchful waiting. Fluid behind the eardrum after an ear infection is normal. In most children, the fluid clears up within a few months without treatment. Have your child's hearing tested if the fluid persists past 3 months. If hearing is normal, you may choose to keep watching your child without treatment. If a child has fluid behind the eardrum for more than 3 months and has significant hearing problems, treatment is needed. Sometimes short-term hearing loss occurs, which is especially a concern in children ages 2 and younger. Normal hearing is very important when young children are learning to talk. Doctors may consider surgery for children with repeat ear infections or those with persistent fluid behind the eardrum. Procedures include inserting ear tubes or removing adenoids and, in rare cases, the tonsils. Inserting tubes into the eardrum (myringotomy or tympanostomy with tube placement) allows fluid to drain from the middle ear. The tubes keep fluid from building up and may prevent repeat ear infections. These tubes stay in place for 6 to 12 months and then fall out on their own. If needed, tubes are inserted again if more fluid builds up. About 8 out of 10 children need no further treatment after tubes are inserted for otitis media with effusion.3 You can use antibiotic eardrops for ear infections while tubes are in place. In some cases, antibiotic eardrops seem to work better than antibiotics by mouth when tubes are present.4 While tubes are in place, your doctor will recommend ear protection, including caution with water. The ear could get infected if any germs in the water get into the ear. As a treatment for chronic ear infections, experts recommend removing adenoids and tonsils only after tubes and antibiotics have failed. Removing adenoids may improve air and fluid flow in nasal passages. This may reduce the chance of fluid collecting in the middle ear, which can lead to infection. Tonsils are removed if they are frequently infected. Experts do not recommend tonsil removal alone as a treatment for ear infections.5 If your child has a ruptured eardrum, keep water from getting in the ear when your child takes a bath or a shower or goes swimming. The ear could get infected if any germs in the water get into the ear. If your doctor says it’s okay, your child may use earplugs. Or your doctor may have other advice for you. He or she can tell you when the hole in the eardrum has healed and when it’s okay to go back to regular water activities. If a ruptured eardrum hasn't healed in 3 to 6 months, your child may need surgery (myringoplasty or tympanoplasty) to close the hole. This surgery is rarely done, because the eardrum usually heals on its own within a few weeks. If a child has had many ear infections, you may delay surgery until the child is 6 to 8 years old to allow time for eustachian tube function to improve. At this point, there is a better chance that surgery will work. If amoxicillin—the most commonly used antibiotic for ear infections—does not improve symptoms in 48 hours, your doctor may try a different antibiotic. When taking antibiotics for ear infection, it is very important that your child take all of the medicine as directed, even if he or she feels better. Do not use leftover antibiotics to treat another illness. Misuse of antibiotics can lead to drug-resistant bacteria. Most studies find that decongestants, antihistamines, and other nonprescription cold remedies usually do not help prevent or treat ear infections or fluid behind the eardrum. Children who have fluid behind the eardrum longer than 3 months (chronic otitis media with effusion) may have trouble hearing and need a hearing test. If there is a hearing problem, your doctor may also prescribe antibiotics to help clear the fluid. But that usually doesn't help. The doctor might also suggest placing tubes in the ears to drain the fluid and improve hearing. If your child is younger than 2, your doctor may not wait 3 months to start treatment because hearing problems at this age could affect your child's speaking ability. This is also why children in this age group are closely watched when they have ear infections. Children who get rare but serious problems from ear infections, such as infection in the tissues around the brain and spinal cord (meningitis) or infection in the bone behind the ear (mastoiditis), need treatment right away. You may be able to prevent your child from getting middle ear infections by: Rest and care at home is often all children 2 years of age or older with ear infections need. Most ear infections get better without treatment. If your child is mildly ill and home treatment takes care of the earache, you may choose not to seek treatment for the ear infection. At home, try: Decongestants, antihistamines, expectorants, and other over-the-counter cold remedies usually do not work for treating or preventing ear infections. Antihistamines that cause sleepiness may thicken fluids, which can make your child feel worse. Check with the doctor before giving these medicines to your child. Experts say not to give decongestants to children younger than age 2. If your child with an ear infection must take an airplane trip, talk with your doctor about how to help your child cope with ear pain during the trip. If your child isn't better after a few days of home treatment, call your doctor. If your child has a ruptured eardrum or has ear tubes in place, keep water from getting in the ear when your child takes a bath or a shower or goes swimming. The ear could get infected if any germs in the water get into the ear. If your doctor says it’s okay, your child may use earplugs. Or your doctor may have other advice for you. He or she can tell you when the hole in the eardrum has healed and when it’s okay to go back to regular water activities. Antibiotics can treat ear infections. But most children with ear infections get better without them. If the care you give at home relieves pain, and a child's symptoms are getting better after a few days, you may not need antibiotics. If your child has an ear infection and appears very ill, is younger than 2, or is at risk for complications from the infection, your doctor will likely give antibiotics right away. For children ages 2 and older, many doctors wait for a few days to see if the ear infection will get better on its own. When doctors do prescribe antibiotics, they most often use amoxicillin because it works well and costs less than other brands. Experts suggest a hearing test if a child has had fluid behind his or her eardrum longer than 3 months. Normal hearing is critical during the first 2 years when your child is learning to talk. Your doctor may prescribe antibiotics to help clear the fluid. But that usually doesn't help. The doctor may also suggest placing tubes in the ears to drain fluid and improve hearing. Other medicines that can treat symptoms of ear infection include: Decongestants, antihistamines, expectorants, and other over-the-counter cold remedies usually do not work well for treating or preventing ear infections. Antihistamines that may make your child sleepy can thicken fluids and may actually make your child feel worse. Check with the doctor before giving these medicines to your child. Experts say not to give decongestants to children younger than 2. Antibiotics may help cure ear infections caused by bacteria. Some doctors prefer to treat all ear infections with antibiotics. Some things to consider before your child takes antibiotics include: If your child still has symptoms (fever and earache) longer than 48 hours after starting an antibiotic, a different antibiotic may work better. Call your doctor if your child isn't feeling better after 2 days of antibiotic treatment. Surgery for middle ear infections (acute otitis media) often means placing a drainage tube into the eardrum of one or both ears. It's one of the most common childhood operations. While the child is under general anesthesia, the surgeon cuts a small hole in the eardrum and inserts a small plastic tube in the opening (myringotomy or tympanostomy with tube placement). The tubes will ventilate the middle ear after the fluid is gone. And they help relieve hearing problems. Doctors consider tube placement for children who have had repeat infections or fluid behind the eardrum in both ears for 3 to 4 months and have trouble hearing. Sometimes they consider tubes for a child who has fluid in only one ear but also has trouble hearing. Inserting ear tubes (myringotomy or tympanostomy with tube placement) often restores hearing and helps prevent buildup of pressure and fluid in the middle ear. Adenoid removal (adenoidectomy) or adenoid and tonsil removal (adenotonsillectomy) may help some children who have repeat ear infections or fluid behind the eardrum. Children younger than 4 don't usually have their adenoids taken out unless they have severe nasal blockage. Taking out the tonsils alone is not usually done unless a child has another reason to have them removed. Most tubes stay in place for about 6 to 12 months, after which they usually fall out on their own. After the tubes are out, the hole in the eardrum usually closes in 3 to 4 weeks. Some children need tubes put back in their ears because fluid behind the eardrum returns. In rare cases, tubes may scar the eardrum and lead to permanent hearing loss. Doctors suggest tubes if fluid behind the eardrum or ear infections keep coming back. Learn the pros and cons of this surgery. Before deciding, ask how the surgery can help or hurt your child and how much it will cost. Surgeons sometimes operate to close a ruptured eardrum that hasn't healed in 3 to 6 months, though this is rare. The eardrum usually heals on its own within a few weeks. If your child has a ruptured eardrum or has ear tubes in place, your doctor will recommend ear protection, including caution with water. The ear could get infected if any germs in the water get into the ear. If your doctor says it’s okay, your child may use earplugs. Or your doctor may have other advice for you. He or she can tell you when the hole in the eardrum has healed and when it’s okay to go back to regular water activities. Allergy treatment can help children who have allergies and who also have frequent ear infections. Allergy testing isn't suggested unless children have signs of allergies. Some people use herbal remedies, such as echinacea and garlic oil capsules, to treat ear infections. There is no scientific evidence that these therapies work. If you are thinking about using these therapies for your child's ear infection, talk with your doctor. |Centers for Disease Control and Prevention| |1600 Clifton Road| |Atlanta, GA 30333| The Get Smart Web site at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) provides information for both consumers and health professionals on the appropriate use of antibiotics. The Web site explains the dangers of inappropriate use of antibiotics and gives tips on actions people can take to feel better if they have an infection that cannot be helped by antibiotics. Some materials are available in English and in Spanish. |American Academy of Family Physicians| |P.O. Box 11210| |Shawnee Mission, KS 66207-1210| The American Academy of Family Physicians offers information on adult and child health conditions and healthy living. Its Web site has topics on medicines, doctor visits, physical and mental health issues, parenting, and more. |American Academy of Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery (AAO-HNS)| |1650 Diagonal Road| |Alexandria, VA 22314-2857| The American Academy of Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery (AAO-HNS) is the world's largest organization of physicians dedicated to the care of ear, nose, and throat (ENT) disorders. Its Web site includes information for the general public on ENT disorders. |American Academy of Pediatrics| |141 Northwest Point Boulevard| |Elk Grove Village, IL 60007-1098| 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. |KidsHealth for Parents, Children, and Teens| |10140 Centurion Parkway North| |Jacksonville, FL 32256| 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. |National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication DisordersNational Institutes of Health| |31 Center Drive, MSC 2320| |Bethesda, MD 20892-2320| The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, advances research in all aspects of human communication and helps people who have communication disorders. The website has information about hearing, balance, smell, taste, voice, speech, and language. - Kelley PE, et al. (2009). Ear, nose, and throat. In WW Hay et al., eds., Current Diagnosis and Treatment: Pediatrics, 19th ed., pp. 437–470. New York: McGraw-Hill. - American Academy of Pediatrics and American Academy of Family Physicians (2004). Clinical practice guideline: Diagnosis and management of acute otitis media. Pediatrics, 113(5): 1451–1465. - Weinberger PM, Terris DJ (2010). Otitis media section of Otolaryngology-Head and neck surgery. In GM Doherty, ed., Current Diagnosis and Treatment: Surgery, 13th ed., pp. 228–229. New York: McGraw-Hill. - Macfadyen CA, et al. (2006). Systemic antibiotics versus topical treatments for chronically discharging ears with underlying eardrum perforations. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (1). Oxford: Update Software. - Rovers MM, et al. (2004). Otitis media. Lancet, 363(9407): 465–473. - Pneumococcal vaccine (Prevnar) for otitis media (2003). Medical Letter on Drugs and Therapeutics, 45 (W1153B): 27–28. Other Works Consulted - Bradley-Stevenson C, et al. (2007). AOM in children (acute), search date January 2007. Online version of BMJ Clinical Evidence: http://www.clinicalevidence.com. - Glasziou PP, et al. (2004). Antibiotics for acute otitis media in children. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (1). Oxford: Update Software. - Kerschner JE (2007). Otitis media. In RM Kliegman et al., eds., Nelson Textbook of Pediatrics, 18th ed., pp. 2632–2646. Philadelphia: Saunders Elsevier. - Klein JO, Bluestone CD (2009). Otitis media. In RD Feigin et al., eds., Feigin and Cherry's Textbook of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, 6th ed., vol. 1, pp. 216–236. Philadelphia: Saunders Elsevier. - Yates PD, Anari S (2008). Otitis media. In AK Lalwani, ed., Current Diagnosis and Treatment in Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery, pp. 655–665. New York: McGraw-Hill. |Primary Medical Reviewer||Michael J. Sexton, MD - Pediatrics| |Specialist Medical Reviewer||Charles M. Myer, III, MD - Otolaryngology| |Last Revised||May 9, 2011| Last Revised: May 9, 2011 To learn more visit Healthwise.org © 1995-2012 Healthwise, Incorporated. Healthwise, Healthwise for every health decision, and the Healthwise logo are trademarks of Healthwise, Incorporated.

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Gravitational waves are so weak that no one has yet discovered a single one. Yet if you gang up enough of them, their effect can be profound — strong enough to kick a supermassive black hole out of its home galaxy, for example. Gravitational waves are produced by the motion of any object with mass — from fireflies to fiery stars. They’re so extremely weak, however, that it takes the motion of an extremely massive object to produce any detectable effect at all. Astronomers have detected the signature of gravitational waves in the changing orbits of pairs of dense stellar corpses known as neutron stars, for example. They’ve also detected the likely result of gravitational waves in the heart of a galaxy that’s about four billion light-years away. Observations by ground- and space-based telescopes revealed two large, compact objects near the center of the galaxy that are moving away from each other at about three million miles an hour. Follow-up observations suggest that one is a supermassive black hole, while the other is a star cluster. Astronomers suspect that the galaxy formed from the merger of two smaller galaxies. The black holes at the centers of these galaxies also merged, forming an even bigger black hole. But the way the black holes merged produced a torrent of gravitational waves — enough to send the combined black hole skittering out of the galaxy at millions of miles an hour. More about black holes tomorrow. Script by Damond Benningfield, Copyright 2012 For more skywatching tips, astronomy news, and much more, read StarDate magazine.

http://stardate.org/radio/program/gravitational-kick

The Rate Law When studying a chemical reaction, it is important to consider not only the chemical properties of the reactants, but also the conditions under which the reaction occurs, the mechanism by which it takes place, the rate at which it occurs, and the equilibrium toward which it proceeds. According to the law of mass action, the rate of a chemical reaction at a constant temperature depends only on the concentrations of the substances that influence the rate (Wikipedia). The substances that influence the rate of reaction are usually one or more of the reactants, but can occasionally be a product. Another influence on the rate of reaction can be a catalyst that does not appear in the balanced overall chemical equation. The rate law can only be experimentally determined and can be used to predict the relationship between the rate of a reaction and the concentrations of reactants. How fast a reaction occurs depends on the reaction mechanism, the step-by-step molecular pathway leading from the reaction to products. Chemical kinetics is concerned with how rates of chemical reactions are measured, how they can be predicted, and how reaction rate data is used to deduce probable reactions. The reaction rate or speed refers to something that happens in a unit of time. Consider that you are driving, and you want to know the distance from point A to point B, the distance from the points is the product of time x rate. Just think of it as the distance (concentration) is equal to the product of speed in M/sec and time(sec, min, and hour). The rate itself is defined as the change in concentration of a reactant or product per unit of time. If A is a reactant and C a product, the rate might be expressed as: In other words, the reaction rate is the change in concentration of reactant A or product C, over the change in time. This is an average rate of change and the minus sign is used to express the rate in terms of a reactant concentration. The reason for this is that by the conservation of mass, the rate of generation of product C must be equal to the rate of consumption of reactant A. One may also wish to consider the instantaneous rate by taking the limit of the average rate as delta t approaches 0. This will give the instantaneous rate as: Now the reaction rate is expressed as a derivative of the concentration of reactant A or product C, with respect to time, t. Consider a reaction 2A + B -> C, in which one mole of C is produced from every 2 moles of A and one mole of B. The rate of this reaction may be described in terms of either the disappearance of reactants over time, or the appearance of products over time: rate = (decrease in concentration of reactions)/(time) = (increase in concentration of products)/time Because the concentration of a reactant decreases during the reaction, a minus sign is placed before a rate that is expressed in terms of reactants. For the reaction above, the rate of reaction with respect to A is -Δ[A]/Δt, with respect to B is -Δ[B]/Δt, and with respect to C is Δ[C]/Δt. In this particular reaction, the three rates are not equal. According to the stoichiometry of the reaction, A is used up twice as fast as B, and A is consumed twice as fast as C is produced. To show a standard rate of reaction in which the rates with respect to all substances are equal, the rate for each substance should be divided by its stoichiometric coefficient. Rate = -(1/2)(Δ[A]/Δt) = -Δ[B]/Δt = Δ[C]/Δt Rate (as well as the Rate Law) is expressed in the units of molarity per second. Rate Law (Rate Equation) For nearly all forward, irreversible reactions, the rate is proportional to the product of the concentrations of the reactants, each raised to some power. For the general reaction: aA + bB → cC + dD The rate is proportional to [A]m[B]n that is: rate = k[A]m[B]n This expression is the rate law for the general reaction above, where k is the rate constant. Multiplying the units of k by the concentration factors raised to the appropriate powers give the rate in units of concentration/time. The dependence of the rate of reaction on the concentrations can often be expressed as a direct proportionality in which the concentrations may appear to be the zero, first, or second power. The power to which the concentration of a substance appears in the rate law is the order of the reaction with respect to that substance. In the reaction above the order of reaction is: m + n The order of the chemical equation can only be determined by experiment. In other words, one cannot determine what m and n are by just looking at a balanced chemical equation; m and n must be determined by the use of data. The overall order of a reaction is the sum of the orders with respect to the sum of the exponents. Furthermore, the order of a reaction is stated with respect to a named substance in the reaction. The exponents in the rate law are not equal to the stoichiometric coefficients unless the reaction actually occurs via a single step mechanism. However, the exponents are equal to the stoichiometric coefficients of the rate-determining step. In general, the rate law can calculate the rate of reaction from known concentrations for reactants and derive an equation that expresses a reactant as a function of time. The proportionality factor, k, called the rate constant is a constant at a fixed temperature. Nonetheless, the rate constant varies with temperature. There are dimensions to k and can be determined with simple dimensional analysis of the particular rate law. The units should be expressed when the k-values are tabulated. The higher the k value, the faster the reaction proceeds. Experimental Determination of Rate Law The values of k, x, and y in the rate law equation (r =[A]m[B]n) must be determined experimentally for a given reaction at a given temperature. The rate is usually measured as a function of the initial concentrations of the reactants, A and B. Example: Given the data below, find the rate law for the following reaction at 300K. A + B → C + D Solution: First, look for two trials in which the concentrations of all but one of the substances are held constant. a. In trials 1 and 2, the concentration of A is kept constant while the concentration of B is doubled. The rate increases by a factor of approximately 4. Write down the rate expression of the two trials. Trial 1: r1 = k[A]x[B]y = k(1.00)x(1.00)y Trial 2: r2 = k[A]x[B]y = k(1.00)x(2.00)y Divide the second equation by the first which yields: 4 = (2.00)y y = 2 b. In trials 2 and 3, the concentration of B is kept constant while the concentration of A is doubled; the rate is increased by a factor of approximately 2. The rate expressions of the two trails are: Trial 2: r2 = k[A]x[B]y = k(1.00)x(2.00)y Trial 3: r3 = k[A]x[B]y = k(2.00)x(1.00)y Divide the second equation by the third which yields: 2 = (2.00)x x = 1 So r = k[A][B]2 The order of the reaction with respect to A is 1 and with respect to B is 2; the overall reaction order is: 1 + 2 = 3 To calculate k, substitute the values from any one of the above trials into the rate law: 2.0 M/sec = k(1.00 M)(1.00M)2 k = 2.0 M-2 sec-1 Therefore the rate law is r =2.0[A][B]2 Order of Reactions Chemical reactions are often classified on the basis of kinetics as zero-order, first-order, second-order, mixed order, or higher-order reactions. The general reaction aA + bB → cC + dD will be used in the discussion next. First lets note what each of these orders means in terms of initial rate of reaction effect: A zero-order reaction has a constant rate, which is independent of the reactant's concentrations. Thus the rate law is: rate = k = constant where k has the units of M(sec-1). In other words, a zero-order reaction has a rate law in which the sum of the exponents is equal to zero. An increase in temperature or a decrease in in temperature is the only factor that can change the rate of a zero-order reaction. In addition, a reaction is zero order if concentration data are plotted versus time and the result is a straight line. The slope of this resulting line is the negative of the zero order rate constant k. At times, chemists and researchers are also concerned with the relationship between the concentration of a reactant and time. Such expression is called the integrated rate law in which the equation expresses the concentration of a reactant as a function of time (remember, each order of reaction has its own unique integrated rate law). The integrated rate law of a zero-order reaction is: [At] = -kt + [A0] (See page on zero-order reactions to see how this is derived) Notice, however, that this model cannot be entirely accurate since this equation predicts negative concentrations at sufficiently large times. In other words, if one were to graph the concentration of A as a function of time, at some point, the line will cross below 0. This is of course, physically impossible since concentrations cannot be negative. Nevertheless, this model is a sufficient model for ranges of time where concentration is predicted as greater than zero. The half life (t1/2) of a reaction is the time needed for the concentration of the radioactive substance to decrease to one-half of its original value. The half-life of a zero-order reaction can be derived as follows: Given a reaction involving reactant A and from the definition of a half-life, we know that t1/2 is the time it takes for half of the initial concentration of reactant A to react. So we can now substitute new conditions into the integrated rate law form to obtain: We now solve for t1/2 to obtain the following: A first-order reaction has a rate proportional to the concentration of one reactant. rate = k[A] or rate = k[B] First-order rate constants have units of sec-1. In other words, a first-order reaction has a rate law in which the sum of the exponents is equal to 1. The integrated rate law of a first-order reactions is: ln[A]t = -kt + ln[A]0 ln([A]t/[A]0) = -kt Moreover, a first-order reaction can be determined by plotting a graph of ln[A] vs. time t and a straight line is produced with a negative slope of k. The classic example of a first-order reaction is the process of radioactive decay. The concentration of radioactive substance A at any time t an be expressed mathematically as: [At] = [A0]e-kt where [A0] = initial concentration of A [At] = concentration of A at time t k = rate constant t = elapsed time The half-life of a first order reaction can be calculated in a similar fashion as with the half-life of the zero order reaction and one would obtain the following: where k is the first order rate constant. Notice that the half-life associated with the first-order reaction is the only case where half-life is independent of concentration of a reactant or product. In other words, [A] does not appear in the half-life formula above. A second-order reaction has a rate proportional to the product of the concentration of two reactants, or to the square of the concentration of a single reactant. For example: rate = k[A]2 rate = k[B]2 rate = k[A][B] are all second-order reactions. Therefore, a second-order reaction has rate law in which the sum of the exponents are equal to 2. The integrated rate law of a second-order reaction is as follows: (See page on second-order reactions to see how this is derived) The half-life of a second-order reaction is: Determining Reaction Rate In the laboratory, one may collect a sample of data consisting of measured concentrations of a certain reactant A at different times. This sample data may look like the following (Sample data obtain from ChemElements Post-Laboratory Exercises): One can then plot [A] versus time, ln[A] versus time, and 1/[A] versus time to see which plot yields a straight line. The reaction order will then be the order associated with the plot that gives a straight line. While it may seem that doing this seems tedious and difficult, the process becomes quite simple with the use of Excel, or any other similar program. By utilizing the formula capabilities of Excel, we can obtain two more data tables of ln[A] vs. time and 1/[A] vs. time very easily. We now plot the three data sets to get We can see clearly that the graph of ln[A] vs time is a straight line. Therefore the reaction associated with the given data is a first order reaction. 1. In a third-order reaction involving two reactants and two products, doubling the concentration of the first reaction causes the rate to increase by a factor of 2. If the concentration of the second reactant is cut in half, the rate of this reaction will be? Solution: The rate is directly proportional to the concentration of the first reactant. When the concentration of the reactant doubles, the rate also doubles. Because the reaction is third-order, the sum of the exponents in the rate law must be equal to 3. Therefore, the rate law is defined as follows: rate - k[A][B]2. Reactant A has no exponent because its concentration is directly proportional to the rate. For this reason, the concentration of reactant B must be squared in order to write a law that represents a third-order reaction. when the concentration of reactant B is multiplied by 1/2, the rate will be multiplied by 1/4. Therefore, the rate of reaction will decrease by a factor of 4. 2. A certain chemical reaction follows the rate law, rate = k[NO][Cl2]. Which of the following statements describe the kinetics of this reaction: 3. The data in the following table is collected for the combustion of the theoretical compound XH4: XH4 + 2O2 → XO2 + 2H2O What is the rate law for the reaction described? If you want future readers to know that you worked on this module (not required) This page viewed 222397 times

http://chemwiki.ucdavis.edu/index.php?title=Physical_Chemistry/Kinetics/Rate_Laws/The_Rate_Law&bc=0

Earthquakes result when the subducting crust gets stuck, then lurches back into motion. Volcanoes are formed when subducted rock melts and returns to the surface as magma. (Learn more about how and why earthquakes happen.) The large Indonesia earthquakes of December 2004 and March 2005 were caused by a similar plate collision off the island of Sumatra. But the Java earthquake has some important differences, Mark Leonard, senior seismologist with the government organization Geoscience Australia in Canberra, wrote in an email. Not only was the epicenter of the Java quake several hundred miles away from Sumatra, but the motion was of a type geologists refer to as strike-slip, Leonard says. Strike-slip earthquakes involve sideways motion along a fault. The 2004 and 2005 earthquakes were "thrust" earthquakes, in which the two sides of the fault were rammed more directly toward each other. Also, Leonard says, this weekend's earthquake originated only 18.6 miles (30 kilometers) beneath the surface. Usually subduction-zone earthquakes in this region occur 40 to 60 miles (70 to 100 kilometers) deep. "This all suggests that this earthquake was possibly not on the main subduction zone," he wrote, "but on a shallower [unmapped] strike-slip fault [in the overlying crust]." "I am speculating," he added, "but if this is the case, [the shallow nature of the quake] would explain why the damage is greater than for other magnitude 6.0 to 6.5 earthquakes in the last couple of decades." The damage has been significant, with many villages destroyed and two of Indonesia's major cultural sites affected. Borobudur, the largest Buddhist temple on Earth (see photo), was built 1,200 years ago about 25 miles (40 kilometers) north of the royal capital of Yogyakarta (pronounced JOG-jakarta), the major city in the affected region. The temple lay abandoned for centuries before being rediscovered and restored in the early 1900s. The recent quake damaged the structure, but it appears to be mostly intact. Prambanan, the oldest Hindu temple in Indonesia, was not so fortunate. This complex, built about 1,150 years ago, appears to have taken significant damage, according to newspaper reports. The epicenter for Saturday's earthquake is also only a few dozen miles from the erupting Merapi volcano. But this doesn't mean that the eruption triggered the quake. In a statement posted to its Web site, the U.S. Geological Survey notes that magma movements at volcanoes can produce shallow earthquakes. "In the cases of many earthquakes that occur in the general vicinity of volcanoes, however, there are not obvious links to volcanic eruptions," the agency said. Leonard, of Geoscience Australia, was more certain. Though Merapi and the recent earthquake were produced by the same large-scale tectonic forcesthe slow collision of the Sunda and Australian plates. The fact that the quake occurred during the eruption "is a coincidence," he wrote. Free Email News Updates Sign up for our Inside National Geographic newsletter. Every two weeks we'll send you our top stories and pictures (see sample). SOURCES AND RELATED WEB SITES

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/05/060530-java-quake_2.html

- Thinking & Reasoning - Social & Civic Responsibility 5 class periods that run 45 minutes each. Summary:Students will understand the similarities and differences between the various political parties in the United States. Essential Questions:How did political parties develop? What is the difference between the numerous political ideologies? How do the viewpoints of the dominant political parties differ on the main issues affecting the United States? Main Curriculum Tie: Social Studies - U.S. Government & Citizenship Standard 4 Objective 1 Investigate the responsibilities and obligations of a citizen. U.S. News Classroom 06-04-01 U.S. History book Whiteboard or overhead Background For Teachers: U.S. News 06-04-01, U.S. History book a. Radical: Seen as being on the far left of the political spectrum, radical wide-sweeping rapid change in the basic structure of the political, social and economic system. They may be willing to resort to extreme methods to get change, including some violence and revolution. b. Liberal: liberals believe that the government should be actively involved in the promotion of social welfare of a nation's citizens. Liberals usually can stand gradual change within the existing political system. They reject violence as a way of changing the way things are, often called the status-quo. c. Moderates: moderates may share viewpoints with both liberals and conservatives. They are seen as tolerant of other people's views, and they do not have views of their own. They advocate "go slow" or "wait and see" approaches to political change. d. Conservatives:, people who hold conservative ideals favor keeping things as they are or maintaining the status-quo if it is what they desire. Conservatives are hesitant or cautious about adopting new policies, especially if they increase government activism in some way. They feel that less government is better. They agree with Jefferson's view that "the best governments govern least." e. Reactionary: sitting on the far right of the ideological spectrum, reactionaries go back to the way things were- "good ol' days". Often reactionaries are willing to use extreme methods, such as repressive use of government force to achieve goals. Intended Learning Outcomes:Students will understand the similarities and differences between the various political parties in the United States.Students will explain how political parties developed. Students will research the difference between the numerous political ideologies. Students will show how the viewpoints of the dominant political parties differ on the main issues affecting the United States. Students should be given the grading rubric ahead of time. 1. Put a chart on the board with the headlines: radical, liberal, moderate, conservative, reactionary 2. Have students copy and write their own definition to these words. 3. Pass out handout with appropriate definitions on or have them look them up in a dictionary. 4. Make a list of the important political issues of the day. Based on true definitions, how would each political ideology treat those issues. (Put on the board). 5. Show how these names have evolved over the years. 6. Now have students put down which political parties belong in which category. 7. Using a prepared list assign one or two students to research a certain political party. Assign them one that will stretch his or her thinking away from their dominant belief system. 8. Have them do an oral presentation with the information they have researched. - Directory of U.S. Political Parties This is an extensive list of all the political parties in the United States. - primary source worksheet This web site provides analysis worksheets to evaluate: sound recordings, motion pictures,artifact analysis worksheet,maps,posters,photos, and written documents This site has great information and pictures on all historical periods and events. - History Channel Anything that can be found on the History Channel can be found here. - Truman Library Great political cartoons and information from the Truman era. The students will give a Key-note political speech that addresses the key issues of the day and show stands that the party may take. Use a standard rubric to evaluate the presentation. U.S. News 6-04-01 Created Date : Aug 05 2002 09:22 AM

http://www.uen.org/Lessonplan/preview.cgi?LPid=497

Predators in Peril Merge the Print Version of Science World With 21st Century Tools! Follow this digital lesson plan of "Predators in Peril” designed especially for your interactive whiteboard. Sharks are an integral part of the ocean food web. But their populations are struggling because of over fishing and unintentional capture. Now, an unlikely ally—shark-attack survivors—has gathered in Washington D.C. to raise awareness for legislation to protect these fearsome predators. Curriculum Area: Life Special Focus: Conservation National Science Education Standards - Grades 5-8: Populations and ecosystems - Grades 9-12: Natural and human-induced hazards 1. Before You Start Download the PowerPoint that accompanies this issue’s article and project it onto your interactive whiteboard. 2. Discuss Before Viewing the PowerPoint Lesson Prime your students for the lesson by telling them that they will be learning about how sharks are declining in number and how a group of shark-attack survivors is working to help them. Introduce them to some of the information they will encounter in the PowerPoint they are about to view. Ask them: - Do you think that sharks are struggling for survival? - What do you think the term “shark-finning” means? - What type of people would you expect to help rally to save sharks? 3. View the PowerPoint - Click through the PowerPoint in Slide Show mode. - After discussing slide 7 together as a class, pause and have students open to the article, “Predators in Peril,” on page 8 of their print edition of Science World. - Project the digital version of "Predators in Peril” onto your interactive whiteboard. 4. Discuss Before Reading the Article Tell students that they are about to read an article about the shark-attack survivor group they just saw in the PowerPoint and learn why sharks need protection. To connect the content from the PowerPoint to the article, ask students these questions: - If a shark had attacked you in the past, would you now want to help them? - Do you think that the shark species at the greatest risk of extinction should be protected? 5. Read the Article Have students begin reading “Predators in Peril” on page 8 of their print magazines. Keep the digital version of the article onscreen in case you need to reference it during reading or if students have questions. 6. Test Student’s Diagram-Reading Skills Download the "What’s For Dinner?" skills sheet here. Use it either on your interactive whiteboard or as a handout to test students' diagram-reading skills. NOTE: The Answers to the skills sheet are: - The seal eats small fish and large fish. The small fish eat zooplankton and phytoplankton. - In the diagram, the only producers are the phytoplankton that use the sun’s energy to make their own food. The zooplankton, birds, small fish, large fish, squid, sperm whale, crustaceans, seal, tiger shark, and humans are all consumers. - Answers will vary but should include: The tiger shark has the most arrows pointing to it. This is because it is an apex predator that is at the top of the food web. - Answers will vary but should include: The animals that have two or more arrows pointing to them tend to be larger and tend to be vertebrates. - Answers will vary but should include: If sharks were removed from the food chain, the system could be thrown off balance. The animals that it eats might not be kept in check and their populations could boom. This could then lead to a shortage in fish or other animals that these new apex predators eat. 7. Engage Students in Project-Based Learning Project the last slide from the PowerPoint you showed earlier. - Tell students it is project time. - Challenge them to imagine that they were planning to attend a “Save the Sharks” rally in Washington, D.C. - Have them create a poster that includes images, a slogan, and facts that would convince the government to create legislation to protect sharks. - For more resources and activities, download this issue's Teacher's Edition.

http://www.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=3754121

Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine Scientists use a mesh material as a scaffold to seed bladder cells as they grow. After three to six weeks, the cells are transplanted inside the child's urethra, where they eventually replace the damaged tissue. Scientists use a mesh material as a scaffold to seed bladder cells as they grow. After three to six weeks, the cells are transplanted inside the child's urethra, where they eventually replace the damaged tissue. Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine For going on 30 years, scientists have been trying to grow replacement parts for diseased, defective or damaged tissues and organs. They've had more disappointments than successes. But now and again, they come up with results that rekindle the flame. The latest involves five Mexican boys between 10 and 14 who suffered terrible damage to their urinary tracts from auto accidents. They were unable to urinate normally. "When they first came in, they had a leg bag that drains urine, and they have to carry this bag everywhere they go," says Dr. Anthony Atala of Wake Forest University in North Carolina. "It's uncomfortable and painful. So these children were mostly sitting or bed-bound." Atala and his colleagues, including doctors at Metropolitan Autonomous University in Mexico City, figured out a way to grow a new urethra, the tube that empties urine from the bladder, for the children. The first thing they did was remove a small patch of each boy's bladder. "The piece of tissue we take is very small -– less than half the size of a postage stamp," Atala says. The tissue contains two types of cells –- muscle cells and endothelial cells, which form the lining of the urethra and other hollow tubes in the body, such as blood vessels. The researchers multiplied these cells in the lab until there were 100 million of them. Then they used the cells to "seed" a cylinder made out of biodegradable material. A week or so later, the cells covered the cylinder, creating a tube of tissue about as long as a deck of cards, with a diameter a little bigger than a soda straw. The researchers stitched these made-to-order tissue tubes into the gaps in the boys' urinary systems. Eventually, the biodegradable "scaffolding" melts away. That was as long as six years ago. Today, in every case, the boys' re-engineered urinary tracts are functioning normally, the researchers say. The unusually long follow-up is perhaps the most important aspect of the new report, which appears online in the British journal The Lancet. Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine Dr. Anthony Atala of the Wake Forest University School of Medicine says more studies are needed to see if the technique, which has only been tried in children, works in adults. Dr. Anthony Atala of the Wake Forest University School of Medicine says more studies are needed to see if the technique, which has only been tried in children, works in adults. Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine "Typically, if you're going to see these structures fail, they can fail early or they can fail late," Atala says. "But if you have them with this long of a follow-up, then you know they're going to do well over time." Atala says the tissue grafts have grown along with the boys, who have had major growth spurts since their urinary repairs. "So the body is recognizing the implant as its own," Atala says. He says the procedure has transformed the boys' lives. "These children are now totally normal," he says. "They're running around and doing the things they usually do." The procedure might ultimately help thousands of children — not only those who suffer injury, but those with urinary birth defects, which afflict about one in every 150 male births. But it won't happen tomorrow. First the trick has to be replicated in many more cases. "We are only talking about five patients, which is certainly not enough for widespread, meaningful conclusions," says Dr. Dario Fauzo of Children's Hospital in Boston, a researcher not connected with Atala's research. Fauzo welcomed the new results but says he'd like more evidence that the implanted cells actually stuck around. Alternatively, they might have somehow stimulated other cells in the boys' systems to heal the damage. Either way, he says, it appears they "did something helpful," but it would be important to know how they did it. Atala says animal studies have shown that existing cells can't grow more than a half-centimeter into the kind of biodegradable "scaffolding" like the ones implanted in the Mexican children. So he thinks the implanted cells must have persisted. In 2009, Atala's Wake Forest group implanted tissue-engineered bladders in nine patients, seven of whom were followed long-term. He says all seven of those replacement bladders are still functioning normally. Other researchers have reported success in growing windpipes and blood vessels — though no one has yet grown a solid organ, such as a liver or kidney. But, in another sign that the field of tissue engineering may be entering a new phase, Fauzo is set to try correcting some birth defects diagnosed by ultrasound in gestating fetuses. If the experiment wins Food and Drug Administration approval, he plans to harvest fetal cells from the amniotic fluid, multiply them in the laboratory, and direct them into becoming tissues that can replace a defective windpipe or repair a hernia in the fetus's diaphragm. If it works, the replacement part would be ready by the time the baby is born. Beyond that, Fauzo hopes it will be possible to use the lab-grown tissues to repair birth defects before birth.

http://www.npr.org/2011/03/08/134340350/scientists-grow-parts-for-kids-with-urinary-damage

by Harold L. Levin Chapter 3 - page 1 Time and Geology Pamela J. W. Gore Georgia Perimeter College The science that deals with determining the ages of rocks is called geochronology. There are two basic methods of dating rocks: - Relative dating Using fundamental principles of geology (Steno's Laws, Fossil Succession, etc.) to determine which rocks are older and which are younger. "A is older than B." - Absolute dating Quantifying the date in years. This is done primarily by radiometric dating (or analysis of the breakdown of radioactive elements in the rocks over time). Geologic Time Scale The geologic time scale has been determined bit-by-bit over the years through relative dating, correlation, examination of fossils, and radiometric dating. Boundaries on the time scale are drawn where important changes occur in the fossil record, such as extinction events. The time scale is divided into a number of types of units of differing size. From the largest units to the smaller units, they are: These units are geochronologic units. Geochronologic units are time units. Geologic time scale. Eons are the largest division of geologic time. In order from oldest to youngest, the three eons are as follows: - Archean Eon - "ancient or archaic" (oldest rocks on Earth). - Proterozoic Eon - "beginning life" (2.5 billion to 542 million years ago). - Phanerozoic Eon - "visible life" (542 million years ago to present). The Archean and Proterozoic are collectively referred to as the Precambrian (meaning "before the Cambrian Period"), which covers 87% of geologic history. Eras are a major division of geologic time. Eras are divided into geologic periods. There are three eras in the Phanerozoic Eon. In order from oldest to youngest, they are as follows: - Paleozoic Era - "ancient life" (such as trilobites). - Mesozoic Era - "middle life" (such as dinosaurs). - Cenozoic Era - "recent life" (such as mammals and flowering plants). Eras are divided into periods. - Cambrian Period (oldest). - Ordovician Period. - Silurian Period. - Devonian Period. - Carboniferous Period (Mississippian and Pennsylvanian Periods in North America). - Permian Period. - Triassic Period (oldest). - Jurassic Period. - Cretaceous Period. - Paleogene Period. - Neogene Period (youngest). Periods can be subdivided into epochs. The epochs are listed for the periods in the Cenozoic Era. They are as follows: Epochs can be subdivided into ages. - Paleogene Period - Paleocene Epoch (oldest) - Eocene Epoch - Oligocene Epoch - Neogene Period - Miocene Epoch - Pliocene Epoch - Pleistocene Epoch - Holocene Epoch (youngest - today) Chronostratigraphic units are the actual rocks formed or deposited during a specific time interval. (They are sometimes called time-rock units.) Chronostratigraphic units include: - Eonothem (all rocks corresponding to a given eon). - Erathem (all rocks corresponding to a given era). - System (all rocks corresponding to a given period). - Series (all rocks corresponding to an epoch). - Stage (all rocks corresponding to a particular age). Geochronologic units have the same names as the chronostratigraphic units that they represent. For example, the Cambrian System is a rock unit, and the Cambrian Period is a time unit. The rocks of the Cambrian System were deposited during the Cambrian Period. Next Page | Back to Index Document created by: Pamela J. W. Gore Georgia Perimeter College, Clarkston, GA September 5, 2005

http://higheredbcs.wiley.com/legacy/college/levin/0471697435/chap_tut/chaps/chapter03-01.html

WHOI biologists used mathematical models to predict the effect on penguins of climate change and the resulting loss of sea ice. The research indicates that if climate change continues to melt sea ice at predicted rates, the median population size of a large emperor penguin colony in Terre Adelie, Antarctica, likely will shrink from its present size of 3,000 to only 400 breeding pairs by the end of the century. (Chris Linder, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution) Emperor penguins, which delighted audiences of the Academy Award-winning documentary March of the Penguins, could be sliding on the path toward extinction—the victims of climate change. The key threat to the penguins is diminishing sea ice, an essential platform on which the tall, tuxedoed birds breed, feed, and molt. The ice also serves as a grazing ground for krill, tiny crustaceans that thrive on algae growing on the underside of the ice. Krill, in turn, provide food for fish, seals, whales, and penguins. Stephanie Jenouvrier and Hal Caswell, biologists at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, developed mathematical models that project the penguins’ population growth and decline based on observations of the birds’ mating, breeding, and feeding behaviors and birth and mortality rates. The models used data collected over 43 years by French scientists studying the large emperor penguin colony in Terre Adelie, Antarctica. Jenouvrier and Caswell coupled their population dynamics models with projections of Antarctic climate change and resulting loss of sea ice—working with scientists from the National Center for Atmospheric Research and the National Snow and Ice Data Center and from Expeditions Polaires Francaises and Institut Paul Emile Victor in France. Their results predicted what would happen to the penguin population under various climate scenarios. The study, published Jan. 26, 2009, in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, showed that if climate change continues to melt sea ice at the rates published in the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports, the median population size of the Terre Adelie penguin colony likely would shrink from its present size of 3,000 to only 400 breeding pairs by the end of the century. What’s more, the researchers calculated a 40 to 80 percent probability that the population would drastically decline (by 95 percent or more) and threaten it with extinction. In the 1970s, reduced sea ice conditions led to a 50-percent population decline in the Terre Adelie population. But how sea ice changes affect the penguins is complex and still not fully understood. Nor is it known how climate changes would affect other emperor penguin populations throughout Antarctica, Caswell said. “Unlike some other Antarctic bird species that have altered their life cycles to changing conditions, penguins are long-lived, so they adapt slowly,” Jenouvrier said. “This is a problem because the climate is changing very fast.” The effects of yellow band disease can be seen on the coral Montastraea in the Caribbean (top), as well as Indo-Pacific corals (bottom). Researchers found that YBD seems to be getting worse with global warming. (James Cervino, Pace University) Coral reefs around the world are in serious trouble from pollution, overfishing, climate change and more. The last thing they need is an infection. But that’s exactly what yellow band disease (YBD) is—a bacterial infection that sickens coral colonies. Researchers at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and colleagues have identified the bacteria responsible for the disease and say that YBD seems to be getting worse with global warming. Just as a doctor can diagnose chicken pox by the small, round bumps on skin, scientists can spot the characteristic markings of YBD. The affliction etches a swath of pale-yellow or white lesions along the surface of an infected coral colony. The discolored band is a mark of death. It indicates where the bacterial infection has killed the corals’ photosynthetic symbionts, called zooxanthellae, which provide their major source of energy. The coral host suffers from cellular damage, starves, and usually does not recover. In the November 2008 issue of the Journal of Applied Microbiology, lead author James Cervino, a guest investigator in the WHOI Marine Chemistry and Geochemistry Department, and colleagues reported that they isolated the microbes that cause YBD: a group of four new species of Vibrio, which combine with existing Vibrio on the coral to attack the zooxanthellae. This is the first demonstration that the same microbial culprits are to blame for the disease throughout the Caribbean, as well as halfway around the world in Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines. The Vibrio that cause YBD are genetically close to shellfish pathogens. They are also distantly related to Vibrio cholera, the pathogen that causes cholera in people, but there is no known danger to humans from YBD. Cervino and colleagues grew Vibrio pathogens together with healthy coral. “Contrary to what many experts have assumed, this disease occurs independently of warming temperatures,” he said. But when water temperatures go up, infections do become more lethal. “Thermal stress and pathogenic stress are a double-whammy for the organism,” he said. With ocean temperatures on the rise and the Vibrio pathogens living in tropical oceans throughout the glob, the prognosis for the spread of YBD is rather grim, he said. Cervino, a professor at Pace University in New York, is a visiting scientist at WHOI, working with WHOI geochemist Konrad Hughen. “You have biology and chemistry merging together in this lab at WHOI, and it’s turning out to be an amazing collaboration,” Cervino said. No phosphorus? No worries! Marine life finds substitutes Benjamin Van Mooy, a geochemist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and colleagues found microscopic plants growing in the Sargasso Sea that make their cell membranes in a fundamentally different, and until now essentially unknown, way. (Tom Kleindinst, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution) Get ready to send the biology textbooks back to the printer. In a new study, Benjamin Van Mooy, a geochemist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), reported that microscopic plants growing in the Sargasso Sea have come up with a completely unexpected way of building their cell membranes. Until now, scientists thought that all membranes surrounding cells contain molecules called phospholipids—oily compounds that contain phosphorus and other biochemical nutrients including nitrogen. However, Van Mooy and colleagues found phytoplankton in the Sargasso Sea that make their cell membranes without phospholipids—substituting instead lipids that don’t contain phosphorus. These “substitute lipids” once were regarded as merely a molecular peculiarity of phytoplankton grown in the laboratory, but now scientists recognize that phytoplankton throughout the world’s oceans use these lipids. Substitute lipids “are the most abundant membrane molecules in the sea, and they were essentially unknown until now,” said Van Mooy. The finding, published March 5, 2009, in the journal Nature, could help rewrite the fundamentals of cell biochemistry. The Sargasso Sea is in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean—an area where phosphorus and nitrogen are as scarce as water in the desert. A molecule of phosphorus dissolved in the Sargasso Sea remains there for perhaps an hour or two before a phosphorus-starved cell greedily absorbs it. For comparison, phosphorous in the Pacific Ocean may linger for nearly a year before plankton use it. Nevertheless, small photosynthetic bacteria called cyanobacteria flourish in the Sargasso Sea They do it by building a membrane lipid called SQDG, a molecule based on sulfur rather than phosphorus. “Cyanobacteria can make membranes that require essentially no nutrients, no phosphorus, and no nitrogen,” Van Mooy explained. Van Mooy and his colleagues—from WHOI, the University of Southern California, University of Hawaii, the Czech Academy of Sciences, the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences, University of Southern Maine, and the Centre d’Océanologie de Marseille—found that cyanobacteria aren’t the only class of plankton building phosphorous-free cell membrane lipids. Studying more complex eukaryotic phytoplankton in the Sargasso Sea, they found “this whole other class of substitute lipids, which were betaine molecules,” Van Mooy said. “We are the first people to report finding these molecules in the ocean.” These betaine molecules have structures that resemble amino acids, the building blocks of proteins, and contain nitrogen. Unlike the cyanobacterial SQDG, the more structurally sophisticated plants have dodged the phosphorus requirement, but they still have to have nitrogen. Van Mooy thinks he’s on to something fundamental about the ways that phytoplankton survive in the ocean. "Our work provides an example of how much remains to be discovered about the biochemicals that are present in marine organisms,” he said, “and puts a biochemical face on the idea that all cells are not created equal."

http://www.whoi.edu/oceanus/viewArticle.do?id=59246&archives=true

On June 6, the storm clouds that typically cover the south pole of Titan, Saturn's largest moon, moved aside, just in time for a flyby of NASA's Cassini spacecraft. What the spacecraft's cameras recorded was a surface feature, the first that looks remarkably lake-like, researchers say. "It's an unusual looking feature, dark with smooth borders," says Alfred McEwen, a Cassini imaging team member. The borders of the feature about the size of Lake Ontario are analogous to lake shores on Earth, which remain smooth from rain and water erosion. But instead of water, a lake on Titan would consist of liquid methane. Titan's large surface pressure and chilly temperatures (minus 180 degrees Celsius) allow methane to exist not only in the gas phase, but also as a liquid. This image part of a time-lapse video, depicts a possible liquid-methane lake in the south polar region of Titan. The smooth border and dark color make it the best candidate found thus far by the Cassini mission. Image courtesy of NASA. Prior to Cassini, scientists speculated that such lakes might be common on Titan, and might possibly be the source of the methane in the atmosphere. Over time, ultraviolet light in Titan's atmosphere breaks down the gas and strips it away. "Something has to be actively replenishing it [methane]," McEwen says. And lakes, or possibly a subsurface methane ocean, would do the trick. But since the first close flyby of Titan in October 2004, no pools of surface liquid had been observed. "This is the best candidate," McEwen says. But according to Elizabeth Turtle, a Cassini imaging team associate, if the lake-like feature and its smaller companions do contain liquid methane, they alone would not be enough to replenish Titan's methane-depleting atmosphere. Contribution from subsurface methane is still a consideration. The location itself also adds support to the possibility that the feature could be a lake. "It's very near to the south pole, the most likely place on Titan for rain to occur," McEwen says. Polar atmosphereic upwellings and convections that are conducive to storms are common during Titan's eight-year summers. And with an almost constant presence of storm clouds, the chance for methane rain to reach the surface and possibly fill a lake increases dramatically. "Those clouds are another interesting part of the story," McEwen says. But the Cassini imaging team is also considering possibilities other than a liquid lake. One idea is that the feature previously contained liquid methane but has since dried-up, leaving behind concentrated deposits that would explain the dark color. "Both are reasonable hypotheses," McEwen says. "There's no smoking gun." Another thought researchers are considering is that the smooth shape was not caused by rainfall at all, but may be the result of a sinkhole or a volcanic caldera filled in by dark, solid hydrocarbons deposited by the methane-rich atmosphere. "It doesn't take long to get to 'we don't know' when questioned about Titan," McEwen says. The imaging team is currently looking for an opportunity within Cassini's 39 future flybys to catch a closer look. The Cassini flyby that discovered the feature was not in the best position, at 450,000 kilometers away, to gather evidence for liquid methane in the feature. "It was fairly distant," Some researchers propose that a glint from the surface would be a good indication of liquid, but McEwen says that cameras would be unlikely to pick up any reflection. He proposes instead that a visual infrared spectrometer could confirm the feature's composition and morphological detail. "On an extended mission, it would be a high priority target," McEwen says. "By then, clouds would likely obscure it, but radar doesn't care," as it penetrates clouds. Whether the feature turns out to be a lake of liquid methane, a dry lakebed, a sinkhole or a caldera, researchers say the feature is not a fluke. The imaging team has already spotted a few smaller objects, within the same region, that are similar to the first. If there is one, McEwen says, "it is likely that there are more." NASA's Cassini Mission main page with the latest images and news Cassini Imaging Central Laboratory for Operations with imaging diary Movie sequence of Titan's south polar region Back to top

http://www.geotimes.org/july05/WebExtra070105.html

Imagine we have four bags containing a large number of 1s, 4s, 7s and 10s. What numbers can we make? A game for 2 players that can be played online. Players take it in turns to select a word from the 9 words given. The aim is to select all the occurrences of the same letter. Euler discussed whether or not it was possible to stroll around Koenigsberg crossing each of its seven bridges exactly once. Experiment with different numbers of islands and bridges. ABC is an equilateral triangle and P is a point in the interior of the triangle. We know that AP = 3cm and BP = 4cm. Prove that CP must be less than 10 cm. Can you cross each of the seven bridges that join the north and south of the river to the two islands, once and once only, without retracing your steps? A huge wheel is rolling past your window. What do you see? Show that among the interior angles of a convex polygon there cannot be more than three acute angles. If you can copy a network without lifting your pen off the paper and without drawing any line twice, then it is traversable. Decide which of these diagrams are traversable. How many pairs of numbers can you find that add up to a multiple of 11? Do you notice anything interesting about your results? Do you know how to find the area of a triangle? You can count the squares. What happens if we turn the triangle on end? Press the button and see. Try counting the number of units in the triangle now. . . . Is it possible to rearrange the numbers 1,2......12 around a clock face in such a way that every two numbers in adjacent positions differ by any of 3, 4 or 5 hours? Make a set of numbers that use all the digits from 1 to 9, once and once only. Add them up. The result is divisible by 9. Add each of the digits in the new number. What is their sum? Now try some. . . . You can work out the number someone else is thinking of as follows. Ask a friend to think of any natural number less than 100. Then ask them to tell you the remainders when this number is divided by. . . . Find some triples of whole numbers a, b and c such that a^2 + b^2 + c^2 is a multiple of 4. Is it necessarily the case that a, b and c must all be even? If so, can you explain why? These formulae are often quoted, but rarely proved. In this article, we derive the formulae for the volumes of a square-based pyramid and a cone, using relatively simple mathematical concepts. Blue Flibbins are so jealous of their red partners that they will not leave them on their own with any other bue Flibbin. What is the quickest way of getting the five pairs of Flibbins safely to. . . . Is it true that any convex hexagon will tessellate if it has a pair of opposite sides that are equal, and three adjacent angles that add up to 360 degrees? In how many distinct ways can six islands be joined by bridges so that each island can be reached from every other island... Can you find all the 4-ball shuffles? Powers of numbers behave in surprising ways. Take a look at some of these and try to explain why they are true. Can you arrange the numbers 1 to 17 in a row so that each adjacent pair adds up to a square number? Imagine we have four bags containing numbers from a sequence. What numbers can we make now? This article invites you to get familiar with a strategic game called "sprouts". The game is simple enough for younger children to understand, and has also provided experienced mathematicians with. . . . There are four children in a family, two girls, Kate and Sally, and two boys, Tom and Ben. How old are the children? Caroline and James pick sets of five numbers. Charlie chooses three of them that add together to make a multiple of three. Can they stop him? Can you discover whether this is a fair game? You have been given nine weights, one of which is slightly heavier than the rest. Can you work out which weight is heavier in just two weighings of the balance? Take any two digit number, for example 58. What do you have to do to reverse the order of the digits? Can you find a rule for reversing the order of digits for any two digit number? Prove that if a^2+b^2 is a multiple of 3 then both a and b are multiples of 3. A standard die has the numbers 1, 2 and 3 are opposite 6, 5 and 4 respectively so that opposite faces add to 7? If you make standard dice by writing 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 on blank cubes you will find. . . . Factorial one hundred (written 100!) has 24 noughts when written in full and that 1000! has 249 noughts? Convince yourself that the above is true. Perhaps your methodology will help you find the. . . . The nth term of a sequence is given by the formula n^3 + 11n . Find the first four terms of the sequence given by this formula and the first term of the sequence which is bigger than one million. . . . I start with a red, a blue, a green and a yellow marble. I can trade any of my marbles for three others, one of each colour. Can I end up with exactly two marbles of each colour? The picture illustrates the sum 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 = (4 x 5)/2. Prove the general formula for the sum of the first n natural numbers and the formula for the sum of the cubes of the first n natural. . . . Show that if three prime numbers, all greater than 3, form an arithmetic progression then the common difference is divisible by 6. What if one of the terms is 3? Can you see how this picture illustrates the formula for the sum of the first six cube numbers? A little bit of algebra explains this 'magic'. Ask a friend to pick 3 consecutive numbers and to tell you a multiple of 3. Then ask them to add the four numbers and multiply by 67, and to tell you. . . . Replace each letter with a digit to make this addition correct. Carry out cyclic permutations of nine digit numbers containing the digits from 1 to 9 (until you get back to the first number). Prove that whatever number you choose, they will add to the same total. What happens to the perimeter of triangle ABC as the two smaller circles change size and roll around inside the bigger circle? Some puzzles requiring no knowledge of knot theory, just a careful inspection of the patterns. A glimpse of the classification of knots and a little about prime knots, crossing numbers and. . . . What are the missing numbers in the pyramids? We are given a regular icosahedron having three red vertices. Show that it has a vertex that has at least two red neighbours. Problem solving is at the heart of the NRICH site. All the problems give learners opportunities to learn, develop or use mathematical concepts and skills. Read here for more information. Advent Calendar 2011 - a mathematical activity for each day during the run-up to Christmas. Can you fit Ls together to make larger versions of themselves? Pick a square within a multiplication square and add the numbers on each diagonal. What do you notice? Choose a couple of the sequences. Try to picture how to make the next, and the next, and the next... Can you describe your reasoning? Consider the equation 1/a + 1/b + 1/c = 1 where a, b and c are natural numbers and 0 < a < b < c. Prove that there is only one set of values which satisfy this equation. Three frogs hopped onto the table. A red frog on the left a green in the middle and a blue frog on the right. Then frogs started jumping randomly over any adjacent frog. Is it possible for them to. . . .

http://nrich.maths.org/public/leg.php?code=71&cl=3&cldcmpid=4928

Satellite photography enables earth-mapping applications such as Google Earth to pull together vast amounts of imagery to provide high resolution views of the planet for a spectrum of personal, business, and government applications. However, satellites have two fundamental limitations: they can’t see at night and they can’t see through obscuring trees or other vegetation. Radar imaging can do both of these by probing the earth with radio waves and using a computer to process and render their echoes as a picture. This imaging technique provides information about the materials on or just below the surface of the earth. Such an approach is the subject of a paper at SC12 this week. This has practical applications beyond the obvious military ones, such as for: - Monitoring crop characteristics for farmers - Revealing ice hazards for ocean navigation - Geology and mineral exploration - Environmental monitoring of deforestation or oil spills - Providing aircraft autopilots with real-time, all-weather images of the terrain ahead The challenge with radar imaging is that due to the nature of radio waves, the aperture size required to collect the image is many meters – very large compared to a telescope lens, and not at all portable. Instead, a large aperture is synthesized by flying a plane-mounted radar system in a circular pattern and combining all the data into one image. This technique is called “synthetic aperture radar” or SAR. In order to make SAR capabilities available for the civilian applications listed, two challenges must be addressed. First, creating a SAR image is computationally intense, requiring 100s of Teraflops processing power. Second, the collection algorithms typically used require that the surface to be imaged be very flat and the plane’s flight path to be nearly perfect, inducing many practical challenges. Intel is presenting a paper at SC12 that tackles both problems successfully. Intel Labs and Intel’s Software & Services Group (SSG), in collaboration with Georgia Institute of Technology demonstrate the potential for significant reductions in computational cost using a ‘backprojection’ algorithm. Backprojection is a SAR imaging technique that allows non-flat surfaces to be imaged with more flexible flight paths – i.e. without having to fly in an absolutely perfect circle. However, backprojection has been considered less computationally efficient. Intel Labs and SSG demonstrate that through algorithmic innovation and parallel processing using Intel® Xeon® systems equipped with the new Intel® Xeon Phi™ co-processor (two per node), over 35 billion SAR backprojection calculations per second can be performed. This is enough to generate the equivalent of one 3000 x 3000 pixel image per second per compute node. The addition of Xeon Phi cards sped each node by 4.8x for this application (see notices below). Furthermore, these algorithmic improvements have the potential to be applied to imaging applications in a variety of other fields. The backprojection method is similar to those used in medical applications such as X-ray CT scans and ultrasound imaging. Hence this research could help advance imaging capability for a variety of data-intensive image processing applications. - Software and workloads used in performance tests may have been optimized for performance only on Intel microprocessors. Performance tests, such as SYSmark and MobileMark, are measured using specific computer systems, components, software, operations and functions. Any change to any of those factors may cause the results to vary. You should consult other information and performance tests to assist you in fully evaluating your contemplated purchases, including the performance of that product when combined with other products. For more information go to http://www.intel.com/performance - Intel’s compilers may or may not optimize to the same degree for non-Intel microprocessors for optimizations that are not unique to Intel microprocessors. These optimizations include SSE2, SSE3, and SSE3 instruction sets and other optimizations. Intel does not guarantee the availability, functionality, or effectiveness of any optimization on microprocessors not manufactured by Intel. Microprocessor-dependent optimizations in this product are intended for use with Intel microprocessors. Certain optimizations not specific to Intel microarchitecture are reserved for Intel microprocessors. Please refer to the applicable product User and Reference Guides for more information regarding the specific instruction sets covered by this notice. Notice revision #20110804

http://blogs.intel.com/intellabs/2012/11/16/revealing-the-earth-intel-labssc12/

Epithelium is a tissue composed of sheets of cells that are joined together in one or more layers. Epithelia cover the body surface, line body cavities and hollow organs, and form glands. Epithelial tissue forms a barrier between the body and the external environment and plays important roles in protection, filtration, absorption, excretion, and sensation. The rapid regeneration of epithelial cells is important to their protective function. Impervious barriers between cells (tight junctions) allow some epithelia (as in the gut) to tightly regulate flow of materials across them. Glands typically contain clusters of epithelial cells that either secrete their products (such as hormones ) into the bloodstream or secrete products (such as digestive enzymes ) by way of ducts onto an epithelial surface, such as the epidermis or stomach lining. Epithelia are classified on the basis of cell shape and number of layers: Squamous cells are thin and flat, cuboidal cells are cubical to round, and columnar cells are tall and cylindrical. A simple epithelium is composed of a single layer of cells, all of which contact a nonliving basement membrane below. A stratified epithelium is composed of two or more cell layers. Each of these classes has four types of epithelium (see table below). Simple squamous epithelium is a single layer of flat cells, simple cuboidal epithelium has a single layer of cubical cells, and simple columnar epithelium has a single layer of columnar cells. Pseudostratified columnar epithelium is a simple epithelium that looks stratified because some of its cells are shorter than others and do not reach the free surface. Stratified epithelia are named for the shape of the cells at the surface; the deeper cells may or may not have a different shape. In stratified |Type of Epithelium||Typical Locations||Typical Functions| |Simple Squamous||lining of heart, blood vessels, and lungs||filtration and secretion| |Simple Cuboidal||lining of kidney tubules and other ducts||secretion and absorption| |Simple Columnar||lining of gastrointestinal tract||secretion and absorption| |Stratified Squamous||epidermis of skin||protection| |Stratified Cuboidal||lining of sweat gland ducts||protection| |Stratified Columnar||lining of large ducts||protection| |Transitional||lining of urinary bladder||elastic properties| |Pseudostratified Columnar||lining of the upper respiratory tract||secretion and movement| squamous epithelium, the surface cells are flat; in stratified cuboidal epithelium, the surface cells are cubical or round; and in stratified columnar epithelium, surface columnar cells rest on a basal layer of cuboidal cells. Transitional epithelium, a stratified type found only in the urinary tract, has cells that change shape and move across each other as an organ, such as the bladder, expands and contracts. Michael G. Scott Gartner, Leslie P., and James L. Hiatt. Color Textbook of Histology. Philadelphia, PA: W. B. Saunders, Co., 1997. Tortora, Gerard J., and Sandra R. Grabowski. Principles of Anatomy and Physiology, 9th ed. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc, 2000.

http://www.biologyreference.com/Ep-Fl/Epithelium.html

Art and culture from Ancient Persia, £20.00 Explore / Articles Confucius was born in around 551 BC, in the small Chinese feudal state of Lu, in what is now Shandong province. At the time, he was one of many philosophers preaching his ideas. His most important disciples were Mencius, in the fourth century BC, and Xunzi a century later. It was only during the Han dynasty (206 BC-AD 225) however, that his thoughts were compiled into the so-called Confucian Classics, the most important of which is the Analects. By the second century BC, Confucianism was the official religion of China, and the Classics became the basis of study for all scholars and officials. Confucius' teachings stressed virtue, goodness and learning. The principal ideas concerned the achievement of peace and harmony together with the nature of the good man, the junzi, who was supposed to show respectful, considerate behaviour. Proper behaviour could only be achieved through a lifetime of practice, including the observation of prescribed rules and rituals known as li. The Classics had a much wider application, as well. Confucianism discussed the role of the ruler and the subject, and the position of each in a very hierarchical society. Just as a son's most important virtue was filial piety, so should the subject respect his ruler. Sage-kings of the past (some apocryphal) became symbols of the ideal ruler, and ancient times were held up as golden ages of moral and natural order. Official rituals honoured gods and heroes of the past. All aspects of nature that might affect daily life, such as the seasons, weather and natural disasters, were also included in ritual observance.

http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/articles/c/confucianism.aspx