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Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome is one of the most common sleep disorders today and has reached epidemic proportions becoming more numerous then diabetes. Northern California Sleep Apnea Dentist Dr. Abramson is a specialist in working with patients who suffer from obstructive sleep apnea. At this time it is estimated to affecting up to 17% of all adult population with men out numbering women 2 to 1 up until women reach menopause when the ratio becomes even. This is truly a public health crisis. In sleep apnea syndromes reduction or complete cutting off of the airway in sleep, hypopnea or apnea, and resultant lowering of oxygen in the blood cause the brain to call the body to “wake up and breathe”. The brain directs a release of adrenaline to jolt the body to awaken interrupting one’s sleep. These interruptions in sleep, arousals, can occur every 2 minutes to every 30 seconds on average in severe apnea. In obstructive sleep apnea the interruptions in sleep do not allow one to get into the refreshing deep stages of sleep and not only causes loss of sleep, but selective loss of deep restful sleep and REM sleep which is important for the health of our body and memory function and attention. In addition, sleep apnea syndromes cause many other medical conditions secondarily, and even sudden death. |Take the Snore Quiz and find out if you are at risk for having obstructive sleep apnea| - high blood pressure, - heart failure, - lung dysfunction, - heart attacks, - attention deficit disorder, - gastric reflux, - heart arrhythmias, - night time urination - and mood disorders.

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Fastener applications are demanding. Whether fasteners are being used in the petrochemical industry, in medical or mining applications, for assembly of marine or nuclear components or in the aerospace, automotive or construction world, vacuum processing allows us to repeatedly achieve the highest quality and metallurgy. Most fastener materials, including stainless steels and superalloy grades, benefit from or actually require vacuum processing for heat treatment instead of being run under protective atmospheres. In general, there are three main sets of applications where vacuum heat treatment is used: - Processes that can be done in no other way than in a vacuum; - Processes that can be done better in a vacuum from a metallurgical standpoint; - Processes that can be done better in a vacuum from an economic standpoint. The absence of surface reactions or the ability to precisely control them is the main difference between vacuum heat treatment and all other forms of heat treatment. Vacuum processing can also remove contaminants from parts, and in some instances, degas or convert oxides found on the material’s surface. A vacuum system (Fig. 1) provides a space in which the pressure can be reduced and held below atmospheric pressure at all times. One of the primary advantages of vacuum heat treatment is its versatility. In addition to being self-contained, vacuum heat treatment provides a “safe” environment for the surface of the parts being treated and uses consistently reproduced cycles and recipes. When not in use, like an electric light, it is simply turned off saving energy. When turned back on, minimal conditioning time is required. Vacuum processes are run in a variety of equipment (Fig. 2) designed to accommodate various workload sizes. Processes for vacuum hardening of fasteners will be discussed by type of material. Hardening by Oil Quenching (Plain Carbon and Alloy Steels) Oil quenching typically takes place in horizontal vacuum furnaces equipped with integral quench tanks (Fig. 3) as well as vertical vacuum furnaces (Fig. 4). The design of the quench tank is similar to its atmosphere counterpart; fixed or variable speed oil circulation via agitators or pumps located on one or both sides of the tank and internal baffles to guide the respective oil flow around and through the load. Cold or preheated oil, in the 50°C – 65°C (120°F – 150°F) range, are the most common and special (hot) oils, which run at 135°C – 175°C (275°F – 350°F), have been used with success. Heaters control the oil temperature and the oil is cooled via double wall construction or external heat exchangers usually employing air, for safety reasons. Compared to normal quench oils, vacuum quench oils are distilled and fractionated to higher purity levels. This allows for a better surface appearance on quenched parts. It is common that the partial pressure of nitrogen above the quench oil is between 540 mbar (400 Torr) and 675 mbar (500 Torr). Usually, higher partial pressures above the quench oil can be advantageous in obtaining full hardness on both unalloyed or very low alloy materials. Low partial pressures above the quench oil produce higher hardness values, as well as lower distortion on parts consisting of medium or highly alloyed steels. Medium alloy steels (Table 2) and most case hardening steels are hardened either by oil quenching or high-pressure gas quenching (up to 20 bar). [a] Austenitizing temperature in vacuum is often 15°C (25°F) – 30°C (50°F) higher than atmosphere processing. [b] Cooling nomenclature: OQ = oil quench; PQ = pressure quench. Hardening by Gas Quenching (Alloy Steels) The most popular method of quenching used for hardening in vacuum furnaces is inert gas pressure quenching used at pressures of 2 – 20 bar. Nitrogen and argon are the most common quenching gases. Cooling in argon produces the slowest heat transfer rates, followed by nitrogen, then helium and finally hydrogen. Nitrogen is the most attractive gas mixture from a cost perspective, however, limitations exist with certain alloys (e.g. titanium). Theoretically, there is no limit to the improvement in cooling rate that can be obtained by increasing gas velocity and pressure. Practically, however, very high pressure and very high-velocity systems are complex and costly to construct. In particular, the power required for gas recirculation increases faster than benefits accrue. The trend today is to “dial in” the quench pressure, that is, use only the highest pressure required to properly transform the material. This has been made possible due to recent changes in both material chemistry and pressure quench design (e.g. alternating gas flows, directionally adjustable blades, variable speed drives). Gas quenching is now being used to produce full hardness in many materials that in the past have been traditionally oil quenched. Martensitic Stainless Steels. All grades of martensitic stainless steel fastener grades can be processed in vacuum furnaces. Austenitizing temperatures and general heat treatment considerations are similar to those used in atmosphere furnaces (Table 3). Since the austenitizing temperatures are usually below 1100°C (2000°F), vacuum levels in the range of 10-3 mbar (10-3 Torr) are very often used which result in clean and bright part surfaces. To avoid evaporation of certain alloying elements, vacuum levels in the range of 0.1 – 1.3 mbar (10-1 to 1 Torr) are required, resulting in some sacrifice of brightness. Due to the differences in the hardenability of the various martensitic stainless alloys, there is a limitation on the section sizes that can be fully hardened by recirculated nitrogen gas quenching; other types of cooling gas (e.g. helium) can be used but the economic benefits must be carefully considered. The actual values of section size limits depend on the type of cooling system and the capability of the specific furnace employed. [a] Rapid heating rates can cause distortion and/or cracking. In vacuum heating rates of 8°C (15°F)/minute – 15°C (25°F)/minute are recommended for small parts or intricate shapes. [b] Certain parts will benefit from an initial preheat at the temperatures shown. [c] Cooling nomenclature: OQ = oil quench; PQ = pressure quench. [d] As quenched (oil) data shown. Precipitation Hardening of Stainless Steels Determining the heat treatment temperature for precipitation-hardened stainless steels (Fig. 5) depends on a number of factors such as the alloy grade, the type of parts being treated, and the required mechanical properties (Table 4). It is not uncommon, for multiple heat treatment steps to be specified. In other cases, the material is purchased in the so-called Condition “A” requiring only an aging operation to be performed (this is typically not done in a vacuum). For optimum creep and creep rupture properties, the high side of the solution annealing temperature range is typically used. A low-end annealing temperature is used to obtain optimum strength during relatively short-term service at high temperatures. A final aging heat treatment produces a finely dispersed precipitate throughout the microstructure significantly increasing the room-temperature yield strength. [a] Cooling nomenclature: WQ = water quench; OQ = oil quench; PQ = pressure quench; AQ = air cool. Superalloys cover a wide range of materials, typically nickel, cobalt or iron-based alloys and are generally intended for high-temperature applications with most of them being hardened using a solution treating and aging process (Table 5). Solution treating involves heating the alloy to a temperature in the range of 980°C (1800°F) or higher, followed by gas quenching. In most cases, gas quenching with nitrogen at a pressure of 2 bar or less is sufficient. Aging at an intermediate temperature for an extended period of time follows. In some cases, the complete solution treatment and aging cycles are programmed into the furnace instrumentation so that unloading is not required between cycles. Certain superalloys, however, require other specialized treatments to develop required properties. [a] Cooling nomenclature: FC = furnace cooling; AC = air cooling; RAC = rapid air cool; OQ = oil quench; PQ = pressure quench. [b] Air cooling equivalent is defined as cooling at a rate not less than 22°C (40°F) per minute to 595°C (1100°F) and not less than 8°C (15°F) per minute from 595°C to 540°C (1100°F – 1000°F). Below 540°C (1000°F) any rate may be used. [c] To provide adequate quenching after solution heat treatment, cool below 540°C (1000°F) rapidly enough to carbide precipitation. Oil or water quenching may be required on thick sections. The automotive, aerospace, medical device and construction industries rely heavily on the use of fasteners to secure component assemblies. For example, medical devices (e.g. dental & orthopedic implants, instruments) employ literally hundreds of different types of fasteners to hold their assemblies together. Even though the components in the medical devices are small or even tiny, when a fastener fails, the device will almost always fail as well. The correct fastener ensures that the device goes together and stays together for the intended life of the assembly and that the device performs as desired. Fasteners can overcome challenges in assembly, solve quality problems and significantly reduce the total cost of the device. Fasteners for Construction Oval head, tapered head, round head (countersunk) bolts, square head bolts (Fig. 1) and hex head bolts (Fig. 2) are typical products for the construction industry, manufactured from various grades of stainless steels (e.g., 400 series, PH grades such as 17-4, 17-7, 15-7, 13-8 and duplex grades) and alloy steels (e.g., 4140, 4340, 300M). Liner bolts are an example of applications where the bolt is designed to wear down with the liner. With standard bolts, there is often a 3mm (1/8″) clearance between the bolt and the liner; creating point contact. To stabilize the assembled joint, liner bolts are designed to conform to the tapered surface of the liner hole when assembled, creating a solid surface to tighten against. Martensitic stainless steels are hardened by austenitizing, quenching and tempering much like low alloy steels. Austenitizing temperatures between 980°C (1800°F) and 1010°C (1850°F) are typical. As-quenched hardness increases with austenitizing temperature to about 980°C (1800°F) and then decreases due to the presence of retained austenite. For some grades the optimum austenitizing temperature may depend on the subsequent tempering temperature. Slow heating rates or preheating before austenitizing is recommended to prevent cracking in high carbon grades (e.g. 440°C) and in intricate sections of low carbon types. Preheating at 790°C (1450°F), followed by heating to the austenitizing temperature is a common practice. The hardening of martensitic grades of stainless steels because of their high hardenability and high alloy content is essentially the same as for plain carbon or low-alloyed steels. Air-cooling from the austenitizing temperature is usually adequate to produce full hardness, but oil quenching is sometimes used, particularly for larger sections. Parts should be tempered as soon as they have cooled to room temperature, particularly if oil quenching has been used, to avoid delayed cracking. Tempering at temperatures above 510°C (950°F) should be followed by relatively rapid cooling to below 400°C (750°F) to avoid embrittlement of ferritic grades at 475°C (885°F). Precipitation hardening grades (e.g. 17-4, 17-7, 15-7, 13-8) typically require full annealing followed by austenite conditioning, transformation cooling, and age (precipitation) hardening. Hardening improves strength and toughness and typically takes place in the 480°C (900°F) to 620°C (1150°F) range. Carburizing (Fig. 3) as well as low and high-temperature nitriding processes have been developed for austenitic stainless steels and are rapidly gaining acceptance, especially for improving resistance to wear and corrosion. It should be noted that softcore hardness could limit these processes in heavily loaded applications. Fasteners for Medical Devices Medical devices fall into two broad categories, surgical/non-implant devices, and implantable devices. Surgical and dental instruments are examples of non-implant medical devices typically manufactured from austenitic stainless steels where good corrosion resistance and moderate strength are required. Examples include canulae, dental impression trays, guide pins, hollowware, hypodermic needles, steam sterilizers, storage cabinets, and work surfaces and thoracic retractors to name a few. These applications often use a variety of stainless steels that can be easily formed into complex shapes. Specific grades of austenitic stainless steel and high-nitrogen austenitic stainless steels are used for some surgical implants. Examples include aneurysm clips, bone plates and screws, femoral fixation devices, intramedullary nails and pins, and joints for ankles, elbows, fingers, knees, hips, shoulders and wrists. The vast majority of orthopedic implants worldwide are manufactured from titanium (e.g. Ti-6Al-4V alloy) or cobalt-based alloys (e.g. ASTM F75, a cobalt-based alloy or cobalt-chromium-molybdenum alloys). They are manufactured from castings, forgings, or bar stock. Medical application examples (Fig Nos. 4 – 6) include pins, bone plates, screws, bars, rods, wires, posts, expandable rib cages, spinal fusion cages, finger and toe replacements, hip and knee replacements and maxio-facial prosthetics. Other Uses for Titanium Alloys Titanium and its alloys have experienced rapid growth in the industrial (38%), commercial aerospace (29%) and military aerospace (23%) segments. The benefits of titanium include its strength, strength-to-weight ratio, corrosion resistance, non-toxicity, biocompatibility, excellent fatigue and fracture resistance, non-magnetic characteristics, life, cost, flexibility and elasticity that rival that of human bone. Non-medical applications include: - Manned and unmanned aircraft (e.g. commercial & military aircraft, rotorcraft) - Artillery (e.g. howitzers) - Military Vehicles (e.g. tanks, hovercraft) - Naval and marine applications (e.g. surface vessels, submarines) - Turbines (e.g. power generation) - Chemical processing plants (e.g. petrochemical, oil platforms) - Architecture (e.g. sculptures) - Automotive (e.g. motorcycles, performance automobiles) - Pulp and paper industry (e.g. washing & bleaching systems) - Consumer electronics (e.g. batteries, watches) - Sports equipment (e.g. bicycle frames, golf clubs) The heat treatment of titanium and titanium alloys is complex and demands an understanding of the end use application, desired microstructure, and process variables. Heat Treat Examples: Types of Titanium Alloys Titanium alloys are classified in four (4) main groups based on the types and amounts of alloying elements they contain: - Alpha (α) alloys– cannot be strengthened by heat treatment; low-to-medium strength, good notch toughness, and good creep resistance (superior to beta alloys) at somewhat elevated temperatures. They are formable and weldable. - Near alpha phase alloys – medium strength and good creep resistance - Alpha-beta (α – β) alloys –strengthened by heat treatment; medium to high strength, high formability, good creep resistance (but less than most alpha alloys), alloys with beta content less than 20% are weldable. The most familiar alloy in this category is Ti-6Al-4V. - Beta (β) alloys –strengthened by heat treatment; high strength, and fair creep resistance. Some alloying elements (e.g. Al, Ga, Ge, C, O, N) raise the alpha-to-beta transition temperature (alpha stabilizers) while others (e.g. Mo, V, Ta, Nb, Mn, Fe, Cr, Co, Ni, Cu, Si) lower the beta transition temperature (beta stabilizers). Types of Heat Treatments While pure titanium is soft and relatively weak, heat treating can significantly enhance its properties. Titanium and titanium alloys are heat treated in order to: - Reduce residual stresses developed during fabrication (stress relieving); - Produce an optimum combination of ductility, machinability, and dimensional and structural stability (annealing); - Increase strength (solution treating and aging); - Optimize specific properties such as fracture toughness, fatigue strength, and high-temperature creep strength or create specific conditions in the material. Standard heat treatments are typically done in vacuum style furnaces or in inert (argon) atmosphere furnaces and include: - Annealing –increases fracture toughness and ductility (at room temperature), as well as dimensional stability and improved creep resistance. Annealing may be necessary following severe cold work and to enhance fabrication and machining. - Homogenizing – for improved chemical homogeneity in castings. - Solution Treating and Age Hardening (Aging) –a process of heating into the beta or high into the alpha-beta region, quenching, and then reheating again to the alpha-beta region. A wide range of strength levels is possible, fatigue strength increases while ductility, fracture toughness, and creep resistance is enhanced. - Stress Relief –used to reduce residual stresses during fabrication or following severe forming or welding to avoid cracking or distortion and to improve fatigue resistance. Strength and ductility will not be adversely affected and the cooling rate is not critical. - Tempering – When titanium is quenched from an elevated temperature, reheated to a temperature below the beta transus, held for a length of time and again quenched, it is said to have been tempered. Three variables exist in tempering: the phases present, the time held, and the tempering temperature. Custom heat treatments include: - Beta Vacuum Annealing & Vacuum Aging – improves fatigue and yield strength as well as elongation in alloys such as Ti-5553 (Ti-5Al-5V-5Mo-3Cr). - Brazing – induction, resistance and furnace brazing in an argon atmosphere or in vacuum; torch brazing is not applicable. Cleanliness is important to avoid contamination. - Creep Forming – takes advantage of the fact that titanium moves and takes a set at temperature. - Degassing – involves removing of entrapped gases such as hydrogen (to under < 50 ppm) to avoid embrittlement. - Diffusion bonding – primarily in powder metallurgy where individual particles fuse together from intimate contact of their surfaces. - Hydriding/Dehydriding – the deliberate addition of hydrogen to embrittle the material followed by the removal of the hydrogen after crushing the material into powder. These are the basic steps in the production of titanium powders. - Isothermal Transformation – involves quenching an alloy from the all beta region into the alpha-beta field, holding and then continuing to quench to room temperature. Treatment in this way causes precipitation of the alpha phase from the beta. - Sintering – typically involving hot isostatic pressing and laser sintering of powder particles to form near net shape components. What’s Important – Practical Considerations The heat treatment of all types of fasteners is best done in a vacuum furnace (Fig. 7). Heat treat furnace capacity is an important consideration since parts are either volume limited or weight limited. Load support is a critical issue in many applications to prevent creep or other dimensional changes, especially on intricate or complex part geometries. Vacuum pumping systems must be capable of reaching high vacuum levels, 1 x 10-5 Torr or lower before starting to heat. This vacuum level must be maintained while heating (requiring very slow ramp rates) as well as when at temperature. Diffusion pumping systems must be properly maintained for maximum efficiency and to avoid backstreaming. Temperature measurement and control must be exact, usually ± 5.5°C (±10°F) or better throughout the entire working zone of the furnace. Work thermocouples are needed; part temperature, not just the furnace temperature, must be known. Caution: when heating parts one must be aware of issues involving eutectics. For example, heating titanium over 1730°F (943°C) in contact with a nickel alloy or stainless steels results in eutectic melting. Vacuum furnace interiors must be pristine when processing fasteners for the medical, nuclear and aerospace industry; for medical applications, all-metal hot zones (Fig. 8) are popular and dedicated furnaces are desired, but graphite lined furnaces also used for other processes are typical throughout the industry as a practical necessity. Thus, fixtures and furnaces must be “baked out” (i.e., cleaned) before use, typically at 1315°C (2400°F). Vacuum processing of fasteners is a highly repeatable process that will produce the best surface finish and metallurgy of all the heat treatment methods. While there is always a cost premium, its benefits with respect to metallurgy, properties and repeatability make it a technology to consider. Fasteners are at the heart of many industries and heat treatment plays a critical role in the manufacturing process. Whether made of alloy or stainless steel, titanium, tungsten carbide or superalloys, a heat treat recipe is available to maximum both mechanical and metallurgical properties for every application. - Herring, Daniel H., Vacuum Heat Treating BNP Media Group, 2012. - Modern Steels and Their Properties, Handbook 268, Bethlehem Steel, 1949. - Heat Treater’s Guide: Practices and Procedures for Nonferrous Alloys, Candler, Harry (Ed), ASM International, 1996. - Herring, Daniel H., Using Vacuum Technology for the Heat Treatment of Fastener Materials, China Fastener World (CFW40), 2013. - Herring, Daniel H, Vacuum Heat Treatment, Volume I, BNP Media, 2012 - Herring, Daniel H, Vacuum Heat Treatment, Volume II, BNP Media (in preparation) - Jones, Christie L., Fastening Solutions for Medical Devices, White Paper, SPIROL International Corporation. - Herring, Daniel H., Practical Aspects Related to the Heat Treatment of Titanium and Titanium Alloys, Industrial Heating, February 2007. - Herring, Daniel H., Vacuum Heat Treatment, BNP Custom Media, 2012.

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An industrial dispute may be defined as a conflict or difference of opinion between management and workers on the terms of employment. It is a disagreement between an employer and employees' representative; usually a trade union, over pay and other working conditions and can result in industrial actions. When an industrial dispute occurs, both the parties, that is the management and the workmen, try to pressurize each other. The management may resort to lockouts while the workers may resort to strikes, picketing or gheraos. As per Section 2(k) of Industrial Disputes Act,1947, an industrial dispute in defined as any dispute or difference between employers and employers, or between employers and workmen, or between workmen and which is connected with the employment or non-employment or the terms of employment or with the conditions of labor, of any person. This definition includes all the aspects of a dispute. It, not only includes the disagreement between employees and employers, but also emphasizes the difference of opinion between worker and worker. The disputes generally arise on account of poor wage structure or poor working conditions. This disagreement or difference could be on any matter concerning the workers individually or collectively. It must be connected with employment or non-employment or with the conditions of labor. From the point of view of the employer, an industrial dispute resulting in stoppage of work means a stoppage of production. This results in increase in the average cost of production since fixed expenses continue to be incurred. It also leads to a fall in sales and the rate of turnover, leading to a fall in profits. The employer may also be liable to compensate his customers with whom he may have contracted for regular supply. Apart from the immediate economic effects, loss of prestige and credit, alienation of the labor force, and other non-economic, psychological and social consequences may also arise. Loss due to destruction of property, personal injury and physical intimidation or inconvenience also arises. For the employee, an industrial dispute entails loss of income. The regular income by way of wages and allowance ceases, and great hardship may be caused to the worker and his family. Employees also suffer from personal injury if they indulge into strikes n picketing; and the psychological and physical consequences of forced idleness. The threat of loss of employment in case of failure to settle the dispute advantageously, or the threat of reprisal action by employers also exists. Prolonged stoppages of work have also an adverse effect on the national productivity, national income. They cause wastage of national resources. Hatred may be generated resulting in political unrest and disrupting amicable social/industrial relations or community attitudes.

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BOSTON — If sea level rise projections become reality and high tides a century from now resemble what today are major floods, the Aquarium Blue Line Station would likely be underwater while across the harbor the Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital will be better prepared to weather frequent incursions of harbor water, according to Boston Harbor Association executive director Julie Wormser. “By mid-century, every year the T’s going to have to deal with a foot and a half of seawater. By the end of the century it’s dealing more with 5 feet of seawater,” said Wormser, who said the Aquarium Station would need to be moved. She said, “People have mentioned doing giant sea dams across our Boston Harbor Islands. I don’t know what that would do for all the money we spent on the cleanup, for one, but it also would sap all of our money to do anything else. What do you do with the water? You can’t keep back the tide?” Officials from San Francisco, Louisiana and the Netherlands traveled to the JFK Library yesterday, carrying with them schematics and animations that depicted flooding scenarios that in the case of the Netherlands nearly swallowed the whole country, and discussed ways to reroute floodwaters and build large, protective sandbars. In the Netherlands, parkland has been built to serve as temporary retaining ponds, or polders, during major floods; rivers have been reconfigured; and a city provided beach parking and reinforced the sand dunes at the same time by constructing an underground garage by the shore, said Royal Dutch Embassy Senior Economist Dale Morris. “They get it. They get it. We don’t. It’s as simple as that,” said William Golden, executive director of the new National Institute for Coastal and Harbor Infrastructure, who said the impending sea level rise will be “the biggest business opportunity for engineering firms in this country.” He said, “The Dutch are coming over here and they’re eating your lunch.”

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Definition of peperomia in English: A small fleshy-leaved tropical plant of the pepper family. Many are grown as houseplants, chiefly for their decorative foliage. - Genus Peperomia, family Piperaceae - Some of my favorite windowsill plants include many varieties of trailing ivy, African violets, primroses, pansies and violets, geraniums, gloxinias, cyclamens, coleus, kalonchoes, peperomias, and heartleaf philodendrons. - Currently, there are over 100 species of Peperomia cultivated in the United States, although many are in the hands of collectors. - There are many species of peperomia but all are grown for their decorative leaves. Definition of peperomia in: - US English dictionary What do you find interesting about this word or phrase? Comments that don't adhere to our Community Guidelines may be moderated or removed.

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Mount Toba, ancient volcano located in the Barisan Mountains, north-central Sumatra, Indonesia. A massive eruption sometime between 71,000 and 74,000 years ago expelled an estimated 2,800 cubic km (about 670 cubic miles) of ash and lava. That event is considered by many volcanologists to be the largest volcanic eruption in all of human history, and some scientists maintain that it sent the planet into a severe ice age that nearly caused the extinction of modern humans. Ice-core evidence suggests that average air temperatures worldwide plunged by 3–5 °C (5.4–9.0 °F) for years after the eruption. Some model simulations estimate that this temperature decline may have been as much as 10 °C [18 °F] in the Northern Hemisphere in the first year after the event. The remnants of the volcano’s caldera contain present-day Lake Toba. Ancient volcano, Sumatra, Indonesia

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The Tower of London boasts many historical gems within its depths. Head to Beauchamp (pronounced “Beecham”) Tower—a part of the inner defensive wall that once held high-ranking prisoners—and you’ll see graffiti carved into its walls. The writings and images are from prisoners from the 16th and 17th centuries, many of whom were confined for political or religious reasons. The various carvings are much different from the type of graffiti you’d typically come across today. They’re beautiful, intricate, and poignant, as these are self-created epithets made by prisoners leaving a last message for the world of the living before going to their execution. The script is neat, fluid, and at times, downright fancy. The images are complex—some prisoners even carved out elaborate designs featuring animals, plants, and in one case, a mysterious zodiac wheel. Browse the graffiti, which is now protected behind clear, protective panels, and you’ll see the marks of many memorable prisoners. Thomas Abel, the chaplain to Queen Katherine of Aragon, carved his name and a bell into the wall after he was imprisoned by King Henry VIII. Arthur and Edmund Poole, two brothers accused of plotting to secure the throne for Mary Queen of Scots, left various marks within the prison. You can even see the work of Lord Guildford Dudley, the Lady Jane Grey’s husband. Know Before You Go Beauchamp Tower is part of the Tower of London. The Tower of London is open Tuesday through Saturday from 9:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and 10:00 a.m. to 5:30 a.m on Sunday and Monday. Admission for adults (18 - 64) is £24.70. You can save money by buying your tickets online or by combining London tourist attractions.

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The outbreak of monkeypox in individuals who have handled exotic pets in the Upper Midwest and Northeast poses little danger to the general population -- there is no evidence it has spread from one human to another. But if it is not contained, the disease could become rooted in animal populations in this country. That could lead to periodic outbreaks like the one the United States is experiencing now or, even worse, the disease could mutate and become easily transmissible among humans. The episode has raised troubling questions about the adequacy of the nation's defenses against imported animal diseases. Most of all, it raises warning flags about the sale of exotic wild animals for pets. So far some 50 people in Wisconsin, Indiana, Illinois and New Jersey have come down with symptoms consistent with monkeypox: blisterlike rashes, fever, swollen glands, dry coughs and headaches. Laboratory tests have confirmed that several were definitely infected with the monkeypox virus, a weaker and less contagious cousin of smallpox. Most of these people had direct contact with infected prairie dogs or, in at least one case, with a rabbit that apparently got the disease from an infected prairie dog. The prairie dogs themselves may have been infected by a Gambian giant pouched rat imported from Africa, where monkeypox has long existed.

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It’s always fascinated me that the mountains of Venus are capped with snow made of heavy metal minerals. Frosts made of shiny, lustrous material, giving a metallic glint to the tops of mountains hidden beneath kilometres of acrid cloud. I always thought it was such a poetic concept. Specifically, those minerals are mostly lead sulfide (galena) and bismuth sulfide (bismuthinite) which sublime from the planet’s hot lowlands to be deposited on the mountaintops. Heavy metal snow. Venus is just full of underappreciated surprises. If you’re still curious, there’s much more to read here. Really, Venus is just my favourite planet of this whole ragtag bunch of oddballs we call a solar system. While I may find Titan fascinating, be incredibly curious about Mercury, wonder what that weird red colour comes from on Jupiter and, of course, be rather fond of Earth… Venus just enthralls me. I don’t know entirely why, but I suspect it always will On an unrelated note, it bothers me somewhat that while virtually all surface features on Venus have female names, the tallest mountain on Earth’s sister world is named after a man. Perhaps it shouldn’t bother me, but it does. The tallest most dominant feature which, by necessity, is frequently referenced in articles about the Venusian surface topography. I mean seriously, how masculine can you get? Admittedly, Maxwell Montes (the 11 km tall, highest peak on Venus) is named for James Clerk Maxwell whose theory work underpinned the radar which allowed us to see beneath the Venusian clouds. But still… Personally, and with no disrespect intended to Maxwell, I’d move to rename it with the same convention as the other Venusian mountains. All of the mountains on Venus are named after goddesses. I rather think Juno Montes would be a much better name for it. Irrespective of names though, it’s a pity that no one’s sent any probes below the clouds of Venus in over 30 years. I really do hope we go back sometime…

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Double-faced cell innovation will boost solar power efficiencies Apr 19 2017 Electroblog Print Article Apr 19 2017 Electroblog The power-generation potential of solar cells has received a significant boost following the development of a highly efficient bifacial cell. The cell design was facilitated by nano-electronics and digital technology organisation Imec and bifacial solar cells are capable of capturing light on both front and back sides which means they can take advantage of a variety of sources of light that are not necessarily direct. Examples of this indirect light included light reflected from the ground and buildings, diffused light during cloudy weather and sunrise and sunset light. Imec says tests indicate that during a lifetime operating period these cells might generate 10-40% more electricity than traditional monofacial cells. This will depend however on their bifaciality, the PV installation properties and their location. This may result in an estimated levelised cost of electricity (LCOE) reduction for photovoltaic (PV) installations of up to 30% The Imec bifacial n-PERT solar cells are created using what it says is an industrially compatible process which provides a front-side conversion efficiency of 22.8%. They have thin and narrow (< 20 µm) nickel-silver (Ni/Ag) plated fingers on both the n+ and p+ side of the cell and feature contacts that are fabricated in a patented process of simultaneously plating both cell sides. This cell plating is performed on cassette level (simultaneous plating on a full cassette of wafers in a chemical bath) without the need for an electrical contact to be made to the substrates. This results in a solar cell batch with an average conversion efficiency of 22.4% with the best cell demonstrating a record efficiency of 22.8%. These evaluations were measured internally based on an ISE CalLab calibrated reference cell with a GridTOUCH system under standard test conditions using only front side illumination and a non-reflective chuck. By Paul WhytockPaul Whytock is European Editor for Electropages. He has reported extensively on the electronics industry in Europe, the United States and the Far East for over twenty years. Prior to entering journalism he worked as a design engineer with Ford Motor Company at locations in England, Germany, Holland and Belgium.

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No-one can feel safe and content when the people around them are frightening, abusive or even violent towards them. It’s natural to take it for granted that the people with whom you share your life – your family and friends, neighbours and carers – will treat you with kindness and respect. Regretfully, this is not the case for everyone. Abuse within the home Many people have good reason to be concerned, even fearful, about the treatment they receive within their own homes, and the majority of abusers are well-known to their victims. Domestic abuse and child abuse wreck lives and break up families. Elder abuse is widespread and yet many perpetrators do not recognise their behaviour as abusive. People who need support services – whether at home or in a residential setting – should receive kindness and respect from those who are paid to care for them and yet abuse also takes place in residential settings. If you wish to raise concerns about a care service or residential home, contact the Care and Social Services Inspectorate Wales. Abuse outside the home Sometimes it’s not the people you share your life with that are the problem but those you encounter when you leave your home. Anti-social behaviour and nuisance neighbours can make your life a misery but there is no need to suffer in silence. If you are being harassed or threatened, or your property or possessions are being vandalised, contact the police. You can report noise problems the environment department of your local council. Hate crime should always be reported. Call the police on 101 or report it to the police online. If you are unhappy or feel unsafe with the people around you but are scared to make a fuss, you might prefer someone to speak up on your behalf. If you or someone else is in immediate danger, always call 999.

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Culture is a shared set of values and perceptions -- and a very powerful concept. Culture can be limited to small groups, such as an office or a company, or it can be wide enough to span continents as is the case when people refer to "Western Culture," which encompasses the commonalities of numerous nations. Each individual runs into culture in our towns, regions, nations, ethnic backgrounds and of course, work. Business intersects with culture at many junctures and a smart businessperson considers all of these when making important decisions. America is a country of immigrants. As such, people of widely varied races and ethnic backgrounds form the modern workforce. While America certainly has elements of an overarching American culture, it is equally characterizes by the variations of its various ethnicities and subcultures. Employers and employees must respect the cultural variations, and the different perceptions and human needs they create. This ranges from being sensitive when discussing religion, culture and politics to being thoughtful about scheduling and allowing for people's time off to accommodate their holidays and celebrations. It also includes working with people for whom English may not be a first language and trying to help them succeed in your workplace. Every company has a culture and they are far from uniform. When dealing with clients, vendors and business partners, you have to consider the company culture when addressing its representatives. For example, your office may be small, relaxed and friendly, but your client's culture may be very formal and traditional. Starting an email with a "Hey, Bob..." could be seen very poorly. Similarly, when making a sales pitch, a strong emphasis on personalities and understanding may not go over well with a formal company. Instead, a very well organized PowerPoint presentation accompanied with written reports will get you further. Company cultures give everyone in the organization a common platform and approach for their work. The shared outlooks of a company's culture determine employees' attitudes, effectiveness and sense of team. Some cultures develop around the way a company works, and other times, leaders work to shape and implement a company culture. Creating a strong and effective company culture stems largely from the communication strategies of owners and top management. Companies who want a creative and proactive company culture not only have to communicate this to employees, but to reinforce it in their daily communication styles. For example, managers of empowered company cultures often say things like, "Great thinking -- can you take the lead on implementing that?", "How would you solve this problem?" and "I'd like you to come up with three great ideas and come show them to me later." Culture And Marketing When companies interact with their customer bases, they have to consider that not every market works the same way. The marketing and sales approaches that work in an upscale suburb might be completely ineffective and even inappropriate to an inner-city area with ethnic minorities or a rural area with a different socio-economic composition. Particularly in retail sectors, companies have to construct their marketing and communication strategies to be culturally sensitive and appealing to a numerous ethnic groups and demographics. This may include using Spanish billboards in some areas orChinese signage in stores in other areas as well as changing certain stores' product mixes to meet the needs and tastes of the local populations. Working with overseas clients, business partners, vendors and offices means understanding the cultures with which you're working. To sell effectively or create a strong working platform, you have to make sure good communication is actually occurring and communication only occurs when both parties reach a common understanding. When meeting with foreign clients, be sure to develop presentations that mesh with their business culture. Also be prepared to interact in a way that shows respect for their ways of doing business. Effective international communication usually involves some careful preparation by studying a culture as well as a lot of face-to-face communication, which may include video conferences. - Entrepreneur: Empowerment - Charlotte-Mecklenburg Workforce Development Board: Cultural and Language Barriers in the Workplace - BNet: Interational Journal of Business Strategy: Adapting to Promote Commitment in International Marketing Strategies - Agent's Sales Journal: One Producer's Diversity Marketing Strategy - University of Minnesota: Reinventing Internal Communications - Ryouchin/Digital Vision/Getty Images

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John John Florence Habitats 1. Habitat is a word for the natural climate or environment for something; e.g.- the habitat for a frog would be a dam, bushy, water an plantation. 2. Bark, rubbish, pollution and . Pictures! the structure of the kidney: the long tentical is called the renal pelvis. and what the renal pelvis goes into is the renal pyramid. the outer layer of your kidney is the renal capsule. this is very delicate and very soft. the 5 things i learned was that the oesophagus is your food artery and the diaphragm is the muscle in the middle of your body. and the hydrogen peroxide is called h2o2. the thoracic cavity is the top half of your body. the alveoli is the little airbags in your lungs. by lwiiiss miiillsss the three things i learnt was that the systemic circuit pumps blood around you body. also i learnt that the pulmonary systems also turns the blood into rich blood. And also the valves look like spider webs and they are very strong. by lewiisss millsssss What is the glycemic index- the glycemic index describes the difference in by ranking carbohydrates according to how quickly and how much they increase blood glucose levels. Some low-GI foods are cereal based on oats, barley and bran. If you were a vegetarian you can still get protein without meat. There are something called legumes. Legumes is essential for a healthy diet, and include lentils, beans and peas such as chickpeas or green peas. Legumes are low fat and have more protein than any other plants, with about 26 per cent of legume calories in protein. The most interesting thing I found was that you can get plant protein! Another thing was that potatoes was not a low-GI food. What happens if I don’t get enough protein? Well, when you don’t have enough protein you start to lose a lot of muscle and start to become very weak and useless. You also lose alot of energy. Average vegetarians get enough protein by eating lots of vegetables and fruit. It is very vital that you get enough protein in the day so you can be fit and have energy to get through the day. by lewis mills the most thing that i ate in the 5 days was wheat bix. i ate 5 wheat bix in the morning and 5 in the afternoon. my average daily intake was around 2000 calories. my daily in take should be around 1460 calories a day. i have gone a bit over but i do exercise. by lewis mills The heart is like a pump to pump our body in the body. We need blood to carry nutrients and oxygen to every cell in the body and carry away the waste and carbon dioxide. The heart moves the blood through the blood vessels just like a delivery route. I love skating because its a endless game. You can just never say alright i have learned everything there is, you just can do that so thats what keeps me intrigued and motivated. and also when who land a gnarly trick you get the best feeling the 2 new things i have found is that there is a new skateboard called a p2 board which makes the board lighter and a quicker pop and also it lasts way longer. it is made of thin maple ply. another is that bowls are cool They didn’t believe that the earth revolved around the sun because….. 1. They believed that the earth was the centre of the universe. 2.they believed that if gods son was a human and he was on earth and god was the centre of everything that everything must orbit the earth. 3.the people of the church did not belive Galileo because they thought that everything revolved around the earth. by Lewis Mills

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Area 10,831 square mi (28,051 square km) Population 778,100 (2014) Highest Point 9,870 ft (3,008 m) Lowest Point 0 m GDP $14.31 billion (2014) Primary Natural Resources petroleum, wood uranium, gold, manganese. EQUATORIAL GUINEA is located in west-central Africa just north of the equator. It is made up of Rio Muni on the African mainland and the islands of Bioko, Annobon, Corisco, Elobey Grande, and Elobey Chico. Rio Muni is bordered by CAMEROON to the north and by GABON to the east and south. The Campo River forms part of the northern boundary with Cameroon, and the Rio Muni River forms part of the southern boundary with Gabon. These two rivers, along with the Mbini River, located in the center of Rio Muni, are the three largest rivers in the country. Rio Muni contains 93 percent of Equatorial Guinea’s total landmass, and 80 percent of the population lives here. The major urban areas in Equatorial Guinea include Malabo and Luba on Bioko Island and Bata, Mbini, Ebebiyin, Mongomo, and Evinayong on the mainland of Rio Muni. Both Bioko and Annobon islands are volcanic. Equatorial Guinea has a tropical climate that is hot and humid year-round. Along the coastal plain, the city of Bata is cooler and drier than the rest of the country. Rio Muni is mainly hilly terrain averaging about 2,000 ft (610 m) in elevation with some 4,000-ft (1,220-m) peaks. Bioko Island, which was called Fernando Po until the 1970s, lies about 25 mi (40 km) from Cameroon and is the largest island in the Gulf of Guinea, covering 780 square mi (2,017 square km). It was discovered in 1471 by Portuguese explorer Fernando Póo, who was seeking a route to INDIA. PORTUGAL controlled the island until 1778, when it ceded this, surrounding islets, and commercial rights to the mainland between NIGER and the Ogoue River to SPAIN in the Treaty of Pardo in exchange for territory in South America (mainly territories in BRAZIL). Bioko is made up of three extinct volcanoes, the largest of which, Pico Basile, reaches up 9,870 ft (3,008 m). The coastline is 120 mi (195 km) long, very steep to the south from the volcanoes rising up, and much lower in the northwest, with good harbors at both Malabo and Luba. Also along the northwestern coast between Malabo and Luba are several scenic beaches. Indigenous to Bioko Island are the Bubi people constituting 15 percent of the population. The Bubi are descendants of slaves liberated from western Africa by the British during the 19th century. Originally, it is believed that the first inhabitants of Equatorial Guinea were Pygmies who still live in isolated areas of northern Rio Muni. The majority of the people of Equatorial Guinea are of Bantu origin, most of these being from the Fang tribe, which makes up 80 percent of the total population of Equatorial Guinea. Spain granted Equatorial Guinea independence on October 12, 1968. After gaining independence, they suffered for 11 years under a repressive dictatorship that suppressed the local economy. Equatorial Guinea’s economy was mainly based on developing the rich volcanic soil for agricultural use. They grow cacoa, coffee, plantains, cassavas, sweet potatoes, and palm oil. They are slowly developing their fishing industry with the help of Spain, NIGERIA, and MOROCCO. Oil and gas discovered offshore is now the main export and will continue to drive the economy for years to come.

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Brian Wansink, director of the Cornell University Food and Brand Laboratory, has made his career pointing out the mindless (and often mind-blowing) mistakes we make when choosing what, when and how much to eat. In one of his best-known studies, Wansink gave moviegoers at a Philadelphia theater 14-day-old popcorn instead of a fresh batch (Wansink & Kim 2005). As rated by the participants themselves after the movie, this popcorn was nasty stuff: stale, soggy, verging on disgusting. But did the moviegoers storm the popcorn stand demanding refunds? No. They ate it. And if they were given a large container instead of the medium size, they ate 34% more. The unsuspecting participants made their eating choices based on external cues (container size, the sound of others eating) and the expectation that the popcorn would taste good. They even ate about 60% as much popcorn as those who received a fresh batch. It’s another case of mindless eating. Why do we do it? Wansink says it’s because we’re responding to external cues: our peers, the lighting, the sounds, our history of eating popcorn. I say it’s because we’re wired to. Our brains are on survival mode, always. If food is available, and we are not paying attention, we will shift into automatic and eat all of it. The brain will revert to primitive mode and remember we didn’t always know where the next meal would come from–or when–and therefore we must eat every bit of the currently available one. In automatic, we’re not deciding to eat. We’re not choosing our calories or our food source. We’re just eating. Mindlessly. Automatically. The solution? PAY ATTENTION! Give every mouthful your undivided focus. Align your meal with your goal of good health. If you’re having a treat, DECIDE to do it. And limit it. And then mindfully thank your self. Believe you are doing the right thing. Belief is the rocket fuel of success!

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Personal Qualifications & Qualities for a Forensic Scientist Forensic scientists apply scientific knowledge and methods, especially in chemistry and biology, to help police investigate and solve crimes. These scientific specialists collect and analyze various types of physical evidence, including blood and other body fluids; DNA; and human tissue. They also collect weapons-related evidence. Aspiring forensic scientists should have strong educational preparation that includes college degrees in a scientific field. They also should have inquisitive minds and a willingness to spend long hours in a job that lacks the drama and excitement portrayed on television shows such as "CSI." Becoming a forensic scientist begins with the right education, which means the minimum of a bachelor's degree. The American Academy of Forensic Sciences advises students to major in a scientific field, such as chemistry, physics or biology. AAFS further recommends studying the courses offered by a particular degree program before deciding on a major. A good course of study should include at least 24 credit hours -- about eight courses -- in chemistry or biology. In addition, aspiring forensic scientists need strong math skills. The popularity of forensic science as a profession has led to growth in degree programs in forensic science. However, Florida State University School of Criminal Justice and Criminology warns that a forensic science degree is less marketable in a tight job market than a chemistry or biology degree. AAFS says to make sure that a forensic science degree program emphasizes science coursework, noting that the content of a degree is more important than the title. In addition to a college degree, forensic scientists need strong written and verbal communication skills. These abilities are vital, because they help forensic scientists convey complex scientific information to police investigators, attorneys, jurors and other nonscientists. AAFS recommends taking English composition courses while in college and developing public speaking skills through membership in a group such as Toastmasters. Forensic scientists are detail-oriented deep thinkers, willing to spend many hours at crime scenes and crime labs, examining and testing various types of evidence to help reconstruct what happened in a particular crime. Therefore, AAFS points out that forensic scientists should have intellectual curiosity. In addition, because they work in the criminal justice system, they should have personal integrity, and should not have criminal records, including youthful indiscretions, according to Florida State University. Shane Hall is a writer and research analyst with more than 20 years of experience. His work has appeared in "Brookings Papers on Education Policy," "Population and Development" and various Texas newspapers. Hall has a Doctor of Philosophy in political economy and is a former college instructor of economics and political science.

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May 20, 2008 -- Most Americans who have celiac disease probably don't know it. A new study shows that the criteria used to diagnose the disorder may be too stringent, leaving many people undiagnosed and untreated. It is estimated that one in every 100 Americans may be affected by celiac disease. But "only 5% of these people have ever been diagnosed," says Peter H. Green, MD, professor of clinical medicine at Columbia University Medical School in New York City. Green moderated a news briefing to discuss the new research at Digestive Disease Week 2008 in San Diego. Also at the briefing, researchers reported early success in developing new treatments for celiac disease. What Is Celiac Disease? People with celiac disease cannot tolerate gluten protein found in wheat, rye, and barley products, such as many breads and cereals. They must follow a strict gluten-free diet to control their symptoms, which can include diarrhea, weight loss, abdominal pain, anemia, and oral ulcerations. When people with celiac disease eat foods containing gluten, their immune system attacks the protein. This damages the intestinal lining, hampering the ability to absorb vital nutrients from food and eventually leading to malnutrition. Currently, a biopsy of the small intestine is considered the gold standard for diagnosing celiac disease, Green says. Doctors look for damage of the villi -- little finger-like protrusions in the small intestine important for absorbing nutrients. Biopsy May Miss Celiac Disease The new study involved 145 patients suspected of having celiac disease. Of those, 71 were positive on the antibody blood test. Of those, 48 met the criteria for celiac disease on biopsy. The remaining 23 patients were divided randomly into two groups. One group was placed on a gluten-free diet, and the other continued eating a regular diet that included gluten. After one year, patients on the gluten-free diet were free of symptoms. But symptoms worsened in people who continued to eat the regular diet. And their intestinal linings showed signs of inflammation and deterioration. The fact that they got worse shows they had celiac disease, says researcher Markku Maki, MD, professor of pediatrics at the University of Tampere in Finland. Plus, when these patients then eliminated gluten from their diet, their symptoms got better and their intestinal lining healed, he tells WebMD. Green says researchers are working on a better blood test to detect celiac disease. There are other reasons celiac disease is often missed, he adds. "It's a problem of physician education, as doctors are taught it's a rare childhood disease," he says. In fact, celiac disease can appear at any point in life. Then, there's the fact that the symptoms are so varied. Patients may go to one doctor for bloating and diarrhea, another for joint pain, and another for unexplained anemia, and no one puts all the pieces of the puzzle together, Green says. New Pill for Celiac Disease Once celiac disease is diagnosed, "the only effective treatment is a lifelong gluten-free diet. But gluten is so ubiquitous that it is difficult to completely get it out of the diet," Green says. Inadvertent consumption of gluten is the major causes of symptoms in people who know they have the disease, he says. That's why researchers are closely watching early studies of two new treatments that may help protect patients with celiac disease from exposure to gluten. The first study looked at an experimental pill called larazotide, also known as AT-1001. It blocks gluten from crossing into the intestinal lining where it can cause harm. The study of 69 patients showed that those who were given gluten and larazotide had less nausea, bloating, and other symptoms of celiac disease than those who were given gluten and a placebo. However, the drug did no better than placebo at preventing gluten from leaking through the intestine lining over the 14 days of active treatment, which was the study's primary goal. "What was surprising was that leakage improved in all patients over the first week," says Daniel Leffler, MD, clinical research director at the Celiac Disease Center at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. "It shows that just being in a study helps people practice healthier habits and improves outcomes," he tells WebMD. Also, there were some signs that the drug helped to curb gluten leakage in the weeks after treatment ended, "suggesting the drug has some efficacy," he says. "The results are somewhat promising," Leffler says, adding that the researchers are proceeding with a larger, longer trial. The study was funded by Alba Therapeutics, maker of the drug. Yet another treatment that shows promise is a pill that contains two enzymes engineered to digest gluten, Green says. The very fact that the pharmaceutical industry is becoming interested in celiac disease is "exciting for patients," he says. "Probably one of the reasons that condition is so underdiagnosed is because there is no medication and doctors aren't being educated."

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Pearls are considered as highly prized jewellery since thousands of years. There was always huge demand for saltwater pearls. However, now it is obtained mainly through cultivation. Following are the main sources of saltwater pearls. The coasts of Oman, Iran and Saudi Arabia are the major pearl producing areas of the world. These waters have been producing creamy white pearls for over 2,000 years. During May-September which is diving season, many small boats are working on these waters. Pearls are obtained from oysters; they are washed and sold to India. After necessary processing poor-quality pearls are sent to Far East and better pearls are sent mostly to Paris. From Paris it is mostly exported to the US. Gulf of Manaar This is in the arm of Indian Ocean and lies between India and Sri Lanka. For above 2,500 years, this is one of the important sources of pearls in this area. The government of Sri Lanka controls all the fishing and auctions of the oyster. The oysters are then opened by just leaving them on ground to rot. People then search the decomposed matters for pearls. Pearls from here go to Bombay for further processing. Divers in armoured suits usually fish for only pearl oysters in the northwest, west, and north coasts. Silvery white to yellowish pearls are produced here. Recovery of shell is also a big industry here. This refers to south Pacific and the Indian oceans, and these pearls are generically called as “Tahitian Pearls.” These pearls can grow large and are generally round. Tahiti is one of the major centres of pearl. Japanese waters nowadays rapidly becoming very polluted for natural existence of any Pinctada. Cultured pearls of white colour constitute much bigger industry in this area. Mexico and Panama Until 20th century, major sources of pearls were from here; today they are producing Tahitian-type cultured pearls. California and Florida Occasionally they are found in the USA. Mostly they are conch pearls or abalone. California also produces few black pearls. Venezuelan oysters usually produce small pearls only. Now they are not producing many pearls. Pearls found here are whiter than most.

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In this Great Feast of the Dormition of the Virgin Mary, usually people speak about the theology of the Virgin Mary, who she was, who she is in the Church, her role within the Church, and we’ve spoken about these things many times. Much less do we concentrate on the Gospel today, which doesn’t speak about the Virgin Mary at all, but rather mentions another Mary who is the sister of Martha, who also had the brother Lazarus, whom we hear Jesus raised from the dead on the fourth day after his death, on the Saturday a week before his own resurrection. We celebrate this, obviously, on Lazarus Saturday at the beginning of Holy Week. We see that in this particular story—and it’s interesting that the Church places it on this day, the Dormition of the Virgin Mary—we see that Mary is sitting at the Lord’s feet, listening to his words, listening to his teachings, and not doing what is expected of her, which is to serve, because especially at the time of Christ, in the Jewish society, the women were there to serve; they were not there to learn Scripture, to learn the Law. That was for the men, and so the women would stay [away]. It was the same thing at the synagogue: the men would go into the synagogue and study; the women would have to stay outside or in a special section for them. Their job was to serve the people, to run the household, but not to learn the Scripture and not to learn the faith and to engage in the faith as much as the men were. It was a very patriarchal society. We see that Mary is doing the opposite of what is expected of her, and Martha gets annoyed with her, because she is left alone to serve all the guests that were in her house. Of course, there were many, many people there coming to see Christ. So Martha goes to Christ and she complains about her sister and says, “Do you not care that my sister is sitting here, doing nothing and listening to you and not doing her job as a woman of the household?” And what does Christ do? He rebukes her, and he responds with something we would not expect a first-century rabbi to say. Christ does this many times: goes against the cultural grain, the traditions of his people, to prove a point. Christ tells her, “Martha, you are very anxious about many, many things, but there is only one thing that is needful, and Mary has chosen it.” So he is reminding Martha that, yes, there is work to be done; yes, there are obligations to be fulfilled; yes, everybody has a role within society to a certain degree, but in the end, the beginning, at the forefront of our lives, on the front burner, as a priority, we have to have our spirituality, our relationship with God, our understanding of our faith, our understanding of Scripture, our understanding of who Christ is and what he has come to do. This is something that we as Christians today understand, logically. We say, “Yes, that is something that we should try to do as Christians,” but it’s much more difficult to put it into practice. It’s easy to say it. It’s easy to understand it. It’s easy to say that we are Christians and that we believe in certain things, but it’s much harder to place those beliefs, that morality, that set of things that we try to do, to put into practice what we believe—it’s much harder to put those things into practice in our daily lives and to put them at the forefront, in front of everything else that we do. Really what happens is—and I include myself in this—is that we usually push that spirituality, that priority to the back burner, and we get overwhelmed with the everyday, mundane necessities of life: We need to go to work, we need to pay the bills, we need to take our children to school, we need to take our children to extra-curricular activities. We need to do all these things that clutter up our lives, and in the end we have no time for peace, for quiet, for calmness, and for personal prayer. One of the things that helps us to try to move away from this chaos that we live in today is a tradition that unfortunately in our day and age—and at least I’ve noticed it amongst our people, especially the Greek Orthodox—is that a tradition that is again falling away is the Jesus prayer. Many of you may be wearing what we call a komboskini, a prayer rope. I wear one on my right hand as well. Some of you have it on; some of you do not. Some of you have never seen one, but many people who wear it—I’ve seen amongst the youth sometimes—somebody gave it to them or they bought one in Greece or they got one from a monastery. They think that it’s simply a religious bracelet or a Greek bracelet, something that tells them that they’re Orthodox, but really they don’t understand the significance of it. Really, the komboskini, the prayer rope, is made up of little knots that are hand-made. This cannot be made by a machine, because it is too difficult to be done. There are seven little crosses in every knot, that is seven different prayers that are read by the person who’s making it. Usually there are about 33 knots on the wrist, which is 33 years of Jesus’ life. If you multiply 33 times seven, that’s 231 prayers that somebody put into one komboskini that our children or one of us wears. So we are carrying around 231 prayers for us that someone else took the time to do. I make these myself, and I make them for people as well. It’s a good way for me to focus my time and my mind on prayer as well. It takes approximately, depending on how fast you go, maybe an hour and a half to two hours to make one of these. So somebody has to take time out of their day, to have peace in their mind and their heart, and to pray for that person to make one of these. So when we wear these, we shouldn’t be wearing them as fashion statements, and we shouldn’t just be wearing them to say that we’re Orthodox. Rather, we should be using them. And how does one use them? Well, there’s the tradition, in monastic circles… If you go to a monastery and you speak to a monk or a nun, they will tell you very well and very easily what the Jesus prayer is, because this is what they do, day in and day out, 24 hours a day, sometimes even in their sleep, and that is: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” And they repeat this, over and over again, for every knot that they use. And they count, and they do it so often that it gets to the point where they don’t even need the prayer rope any more. It just becomes a prayer that repeats in their heads at all times, and especially at times when they need it. This is something that we can apply to our daily lives. I speak about this to the youth group, I speak about it to the kids at camp, and I speak about it even to you adults, because it is something that helps us in our daily lives. It’s a simple tradition that we can incorporate into our very busy lives, so that even sometimes when we’re driving in the car, we can use it and pray. Even when we are at work or we have a few minutes to spare, we can pray. Even when we are waiting in line at the supermarket, we can pray. These things may seem funny to us, or they may seem unlikely that we may actually pray at these times, but when this very simple prayer—“Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, a sinner.”—begins to play in our heads over and over, we will see that it begins to calm us. It begins to push out all those negative thoughts and all those negative distractions that we have in our minds that plague us every day, but do not allow us to have a peace of mind and a calmness within our hearts and our souls. We see that, especially at times, at least for myself, I have anxiety or I get upset or something bothers me or there’s high stress, I find that that prayer kicks into my mind right away, and it helps calm me at that moment so that I can make the proper decisions, and I can be peaceful and calm and treat my neighbor with love and compassion and not be agitated. So this is one of those things, one of the many traditions that we have in our Church, that allows us to keep Christ at the forefront of our minds, the forefront of our hearts, because as people we are forgetful. We forget. We forget about Christ, we forget about our faith, we forget about the teachings of the Church in our daily lives, because we are bombarded by so many secular things, so many worldly things. Really, in the end, it doesn’t matter what we say we believe. It doesn’t matter that we say we’re Christians on the final Day. It only matters what we do, and that’s why Christ’s last words at the end of the gospel are what? The woman says, “Blessed is the woman who bore you, the womb that bore you, and the breasts that suckled you.” And he says, “Rather, blessed are the people who hear the word of God and keep it.” So it’s not enough just to hear. We all hear. We all know what’s right and wrong. We all hear what we should believe. We come to church sometimes, we listen to the priest talk and talk and talk, we listen to the prayers, and we know what we’re supposed to do. But to actually do those things is the difficult part, and I think all of us can identify with that, how difficult it is to actually apply those teachings, that ethic, that morality to our daily lives, to every single decision that we make. So the only way that we can do that is if we keep Christ in our minds and our hearts, and the Jesus prayer is an excellent way of doing that, so that we can always be guided by that faith in everything that we do. If we do not, then we become just like everybody else. We become just like everybody else who may not believe in anything, who follow other religions, who follow other philosophies or follow nothing at all and basically live their lives according to their own philosophies and their own religion and their own belief system. But for us, we claim that we follow the true God, and we try to conform our lives to what he has to say about things and how what is good for us, so this is one way that we can try to do it. Blessed are those who not only hear the word of God, but keep it in action. Amen.

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By Duane Schultz The five Americans were trapped in a small, dark, empty wine cellar in an isolated French villa on the coast of Algiers. Upstairs, directly overhead, French police stomped back and forth across the rug that covered the trapdoor. The police were so close that the Americans could hear them questioning the owner of the house, Henri Tessier, and the senior American counselor to the Vichy French regime in Algiers, Robert Murphy, about their presence. It was Tuesday afternoon, October 23, 1942. Tessier had instructed his Arab servants to stay away from the house for the rest of the day. That had made them suspicious enough, but when they spotted several sets of footprints crossing the sandy beach heading toward the house, they reported their suspicions to the police. Murphy and Tessier pretended to be drunk. Murphy told the investigating officers that they had been having a party. There were women in the bedrooms upstairs, he whispered, and he pleaded with them not to embarrass a “senior American diplomat” who was only having a little fun. The group in the cellar was led by Maj. Gen. Mark Clark. When he heard the voices, he kneeled at the bottom of the stairs, pointing his carbine toward the trapdoor. Years later he said that he was “prepared to shoot if necessary.” A few hours earlier, in a meeting in the dining room upstairs with General Charles Mast, commander of the French XIX Corps in northern Algeria, Clark had persuaded Mast not to resist the planned American invasion of North Africa. Codenamed Operation Torch, it was scheduled to take place in three weeks. But if Clark and his group were captured by the French police they would be turned over to the Germans. “If we fell into Nazi hands,” Clark said, “it would be far from pleasant, and, of more importance, it would jeopardize the whole operation.” They had to get out of the house and back to the British submarine that was waiting for them offshore. With Clark were Brig. Gen. Lyman Lemnitzer, Colonel Archelaus L. Hamblen, Colonel Julius Holmes, and U.S. Navy Captain Jerauld Wright, an authority on naval gunnery, along with three British commandos. Five days earlier the group had left England for Gibraltar, where they were taken aboard HMS Seraph, an S-class submarine of the British Royal Navy; its commander, Lieutenant Norman Limbury Auchinleck Jewell, was known as Bill. When Clark told Lieutenant Jewell they would be looking for a house with white walls and a red tile roof some 12 miles west of a fishing village called Cherchell, Bill said casually, “I am sure that we can get you in there and get you off again.” He had arranged for three commandos of the Royal Marines—Captain C.P. Courtney, Captain R.T. Livingstone, and Lieutenant J.P. Foote—to serve as bodyguards. To enable the group to reach the shore and later return safely to the submarine, the commandos acquainted the Americans with their collapsible two-person kayaks. The boats were constructed of hickory wood frames covered with canvas. Because they could be folded to take up less space, they would be easy to hide onshore. “I had never been aboard a submarine before,” Clark wrote, “and I soon realized that they were not made for a lanky six-foot-two man.” He had to crouch, and going to the latrine found himself nearly on all fours. When the Seraph submerged, the air grew so stale it made the men groggy. They passed the time playing bridge or trying to sleep. They arrived at their destination at 4 am on October 21. Two Algerian fishing boats were anchored where they had expected to land. There was no choice but to spend the day submerged in deep water until 10 pm. The fishing boats were gone, but now there was no signal light from the villa indicating that it was safe to come ashore. While they waited and watched for the light, someone suggested that they change into civilian clothes. “Hell no!” Clark said. “We’ll go ashore as American officers and nothing else. It will help the people we are dealing with to remember who we are and whom we represent.” That settled, Clark strapped $2,000 in Canadian gold coins and American dollars into a money belt inside his pants for use in an emergency, and a little after midnight on October 22, when the signal light finally appeared from the house, the group made their way to shore through the heavy surf, emerging soaking wet. Robert Murphy was waiting for them on the beach. “Welcome to North Africa,” he said. Clark, who had prepared a formal statement that he had practiced in French, instead blurted out, “I’m damn glad we made it.” The meeting with General Mast seemed to go well. Mast was eager to cooperate with the planned American invasion but insisted on knowing the strength of the landing force. He knew that if it was not sufficiently large, the Germans might be able to defeat it on their own. And if the Germans won, Mast would be in trouble for not having fought alongside them. Clark knew this was a crucial point that could make or break the agreement with the Vichy government, so he greatly exaggerated the size of the American force. “I had to keep a poker face,” Clark recalled, “while saying that a half a million Allied troops would come in, and I said that we could put 2,000 planes in the air as well as plenty of U.S. Navy.” He knew that only 112,000 troops would be in the landing force. He later wrote in his diary that he had been “lying like hell.” Clark’s ruse worked, and Mast agreed that the Vichy French troops under his command would not fight the Americans. After a lunch of chicken served with a hot peppery sauce, red wine, and oranges, Mast left while his aides worked out the details of the agreement. Everyone seemed pleased with the outcome of the mission until an urgent telephone call that afternoon announced that French police were on their way to the villa. Clark and his party hustled into the wine cellar just as the police car pulled up outside. While the police were still upstairs, Captain Courtney began to choke while trying to suppress a cough; they all knew the noise would give them away. Courtney whispered to Clark, “General, I’m afraid I’ll choke.” Clark hissed back, “I’m afraid you won’t.” Clark handed him a piece of chewing gum, which managed to stop the cough. Later, Courtney complained that American chewing gum was tasteless. Clark laughed and told Courtney that was because he had been chewing the gum himself for hours before he gave it to him! There is no record of Courtney’s reply. The French police left after about half an hour, warning Murphy that they still had their suspicions and might be back to continue their search of the house. Murphy opened the door to the cellar and told Clark that they had better leave. He suggested that they hide in the woods until they could return to the submarine. Clark agreed; there was no reason to stay there any longer. When they tried to get back to the submarine, the surf was so strong that Clark took off his trousers, concerned that the money belt containing the gold would weigh him down. But they could not get into the kayaks because of the high waves. Finally, by 4 am on October 23, the sea had calmed down enough to try again to reach the submarine. But before they got into the kayaks again, what historian Jon Mikolashek described as “a bizarre exchange took place. Wet and [still] fearful that the gold would weigh him down, Clark rolled up his pants and ordered General Lemnitzer to drop his pants and give them to him. What followed next is a prime example of rank. Lemnitzer, now pantless, ordered a colonel to do the same. Eventually, the epic of the pants reached lowly Lieutenant Foote, who outranked no one and was forced to paddle to the submarine without any pants.” The boats finally reached the submarine, but before they could be hauled on board one of them was tossed by the waves and slammed against the sub, cracking the wooden frame. The commando manning it leaped aboard, but the kayak drifted away and sank, carrying the coins, some secret papers, and Mark Clark’s pants. Clark radioed Robert Murphy and asked him to search for the lost articles in case they washed up on the beach. The pants were later retrieved, but not the papers or the gold. Murphy had the trousers cleaned and pressed, and he radioed Clark that they would be waiting for him upon his return. The next day, October 24, the sub surfaced so that Clark could send a radio message to supreme commander General Dwight D. Eisenhower touting the success of his mission and describing how, with the arrival of the French police, they all had to hide in a wine cellar. To avoid any possible misunderstanding, however, Clark emphasized that they hid “in an empty—repeat empty—wine cellar.” When they arrived back in London, Clark briefed Eisenhower on the mission. Clark was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal, and he and Ike were invited to Buckingham Palace to meet King George VI. When introduced, the monarch said, “I know all about you. You’re the one who took that fabulous trip. Didn’t you get stranded on the beach without your pants?” On the same day, General George C. Marshall, the U.S. Army Chief of Staff, called Clark’s wife, Maurine (called Renie), to assure her that her husband had returned from his mission. He warned her not to talk about it. “General Marshall made it very clear,” she wrote later, “that it was a secret that had to be kept. Adding that it had not yet been decided whether the story would be made public ever.” Renie Clark had always been eager to promote her husband’s accomplishments. And, fortunately for her, three days after the Torch landings began on November 8, Marshall changed his mind about publicizing Clark’s secret mission. Clark was promoted to lieutenant general on November 11, at that time the youngest three-star general in the U.S. Army. A War Department press release cited his diplomatic skill as well as his courage in undertaking the secret mission to Algiers. In response to a clamor from the press for more details, Marshall decided it would be good for public morale to release more stories of a personal nature to the public. And to start this new campaign he gave Clark permission to tell the press about his mission to Algiers, which included the story of his lost pants, which by then had been returned by Murphy, cleaned and pressed as promised. The report of a general losing his pants on a cloak-and-dagger mission behind enemy lines immediately became headline news back in the United States. Mark Clark was suddenly a household name, a celebrity. The story captured the public imagination to such an extent that parents named their newborn sons after him, and thousands of people sent letters and gifts. Clark’s biographer, Martin Blumenson, wrote, “Every war produced an act of personal daring, ingenuity, and devotion that gave individuals a permanent place in history: Nathan Hale had been the first such American. Clark was the latest.” The celebrity Hollywood gossip columnist Louella Parsons called Clark ”America’s Dream Hero.” Time magazine noted that Clark was the “only U.S. general in World War II to lose his pants in enemy territory!” Once the secret was out, Renie Clark did everything she could to enhance her husband’s newfound status. She went on war bond tours with Hollywood movie stars. “I talked five nights a week for nine months in 1943,” she wrote. “It was a roadshow, a new city each night, a one-hour talk in each city.” And she did the same in 1944. She was so effective that the War Department awarded her a Distinguished Service Citation for having sold more than $25 million worth of war bonds. The prominent Redpath Speakers Bureau hired her to give public, paid lectures, which gave her an even larger audience. A compelling and magnetic speaker, Renie toured the country for Redpath, telling and retelling the tale of her husband’s dangerous secret mission, “one of the great adventures of all time.” She talked relentlessly about his bravery and how he was winning the war. She read from his letters to adoring crowds and even displayed the famous trousers. And with that theatrical gesture she went too far; General Marshall did not like the idea of his officers being praised for losing their pants. Marshall made his objections clear to Eisenhower, who in turn informed Clark that his reputation was being damaged by his wife and that he was becoming the butt of jokes. Clark was mortified. Even though he relished the attention and adulation, he was furious. “I do not want you to refer to me in any way in your talks,” he wrote to Renie. “Positively no quotes from me, for some I have seen lately have been embarrassing.” But the damage had been done, and it fueled the already notable resentment among high-ranking officers that had started before the war when Clark was promoted from lieutenant colonel to brigadier general, skipping the rank of colonel. Less than a year later he was promoted to major general. Many officers senior in age and rank took offense. Clark was also considered to be arrogant, vain, and overly ambitious for personal fame. Omar Bradley wrote some 40 years after the war that he thought Clark had been “too eager to impress, too hungry for the limelight, promotions and personal publicity.” Even George Patton, no stranger to arrogance and vanity, believed Clark “was more preoccupied with bettering his own future than winning the war.” Both Marshall and Eisenhower warned Clark on several occasions about being so overtly self-promoting. It was hard not to notice that Clark insisted that the general’s star insignia painted on his jeep had to be bigger than what most other generals had and that he kept a public relations staff of almost 50. Their job was to make sure that photographers were available for important moments like a visit to the front lines. Photos were to be taken of Clark’s better side (the left) and news reports had to mention Clark’s name at least three times at the outset. The episode with the pants brought Mark Clark to the attention of the American public, which needed heroes in 1942, and also perhaps a bit of comic relief after the defeats early in the war. The story was good for morale, and it undoubtedly helped Renie and other celebrities sell war bonds, which definitely helped the war effort. Despite Clark’s admonitions to his wife, however, the story of the pants continued to reappear in the news until after the end of the war. An article in the New York Times on September 21, 1943, titled “Not Selling Clark ‘Pants,’” was based on an interview with Mrs. Clark. There had apparently been public pressure for her to hold an auction for the famous pants, the proceeds of which would go to the war effort. When a reporter asked if she would sell the item, she said she was “going to give them to the Smithsonian Institution” in Washington, D.C. On January 9, 1944, another New York Times piece, this one called “Pants for Posterity,” noted that a spokesman for the Smithsonian said they had received many requests from visitors to see “the well-known britches [but] we have had no offers of the pants, and we, on our part, have made no steps to get them.” The writer, Jay Walz, added (perhaps in an off-the-cuff remark) that “the Smithsonian has no prejudice against pants,” and noted that the museum had collected some worn by George Washington. Shortly after the war, on August 25, 1945, an article by Geoffrey Hellman and E.B. White in The New Yorker quoted another Smithsonian official: “[The pants] were offered, but were rejected as not being a complete exhibit.” End of story. The notoriety acquired by losing his pants does not detract from Clark’s leadership in Operation Flagpole; it was a test of courage that he passed. On the day before he left England to fly to Gibraltar to board the submarine Seraph, Clark had written to Renie, “I am leaving in twenty minutes on a mission which is extremely hazardous. If I succeed and return, I will have done great things for my country and the Allied cause.” He was not exaggerating about the danger or the importance. Later he admitted that he had “hardly ever been less certain of the success of an operational mission in my life.” More than 50 years after the war, historian Rick Atkinson described the mission as both “courageous and daft,” but added that it became “one of the most celebrated clandestine operations of the war.” Duane Schultz, a psychologist, has written more than two dozen nonfiction and fiction books and numerous magazine articles on World War II. His more recent books include Crossing the Rapido: A Tragedy of World War II, Into the Fire: Ploesti, and Patton’s Last Gamble: The Disastrous Raid on POW Camp Hammelburg. He can be reached at www. duaneschultz.com.

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Taima, which means ‘stop’ in Inuktitut, is exactly what researchers at The Ottawa Hospital want to do – stop the spread of tuberculosis in Canada’s Arctic. Tuberculosis in Nunavut is 26 times the Canadian average. Since 2011, the Taima TB research team, led by Respirologist Dr. Gonzalo Alvarez, has been working with Inuit and government partners on innovative technologies and strategies to help stop the spread of this contagious disease in their communities. Taima TB has successfully introduced: - A new test that can diagnose TB in just two days instead of the previous procedure that took more than a month. - A new treatment for latent TB that means patients take only one treatment a week for 12 weeks, instead of taking hundreds of pills over nine months. - A targeted TB screening strategy for those at highest risk. - Community and youth-specific TB education tools. Help us continue to provide innovative patient care and research. Donate now

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Burmese Modernism By Ranard, Andrew Modernistic painting in Burma first assertively appeared in the 1940s and with greater force in the 1950s, emerging as a full-fledged movement in the 1960s. An element of Burmese painting is its lateralism, whereby realist or modernist styles have persistently drawn from a surviving wellspring of traditional arts. In the 1940s–1960s, artists sought an indigenous development that did not mimic foreign aesthetics. They began to look backwards into the ancient mural painting in Pagan 800 years earlier, which in many ways anticipated Surrealism and abstraction. However, by the late 1970s, modernism began to wane. When Burma began to open to the outside world in 1987, an older mastery in Realist and Impressionist painting—introduced by Ba Nyan (1897–1945), who studied in London in the 1920s—dominated the country’s painting style. From the late 1990s onwards, modernism in Burma experienced a vigorous resurgence.

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So I've taken two differential topology/geometry classes both from a mathematics department. I see all over this forum a whole lot of talk about indices being up or down and raising/lowering etc. My professors barely ever mentioned these things though I did notice that when they worked in local coordinates they always wrote the indices on certain objects up and other objects down. For example, inner products of vectors always seem to have repeated indices that are up on one object and down on the other like: inner product of x and y = sum_i (x_i*y^i) I've never really understood what we gain from this notation. At least for my example of an inner product no information seems to be gained by writing the indices this way. When talking about more complicated things than inner products I'm at a loss as to how I should arrange the indices and what benefit there is from doing things this way. I initially thought that the notation was up on objects that transform covariantly and down contravariantly (or vice versa) but I'm at a loss as to what this means for objects with mixed indices. It's also not at all clear to me what it means to "raise" or "lower" the indices on some object. If anyone is willing, I'd like clarification both on how the notation actually works as well as on the "philosophy" behind why this notation was chosen.

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The Gambang is a very old ensemble important in certain Hindu ceremonies, especially funeral ceremony ( Ngaben ).There are not many active Gambang groups left in Bali, however, their survival is ensured as a matter of importance. The Gambang is made up of 2 Gangsa (metalophones) and 4-5 instruments with hard bamboo slats set in a strange order to facilitate modes unique to the Gambang. This order corresponds to the forked mallets used to strike them, each mallet has 2 heads spaced according to the instrument used. The left hand plays the left side of the instrument and the right plays the right side. The intervals formed are approx. 4ths and 5ths in a scale known as Kidung, which is basically a seven tone system, however, it differs from the 7 tone Pelog scales common in Bali and Java.. This Kidung style is pre Majapahit thought to come from the Bali Aga culture of the indigenous Balinese. However, the movement around these islands has been happening over a long period so the origins are hard to establish. The Kidung style along with it's various modes are intrenched in Balinese music today. The Gangsa plays the beat and basic melody while the bamboo instruments play the chordal backing and rhythmic changes. 'Their is a general belief that the Gambang doesn't play Kotekan because of its origin and age. It seems this ensemble may be the forefather of the more modern gamelans. Listening closely I could hear the reyong repetitive parts being played by the Penjilah instruments, the gangsa sangsih and polos sounds of the Angklung by the Pemetit and the jegogan sounds by the large Penangga Bali and Gangsa .’-- Richard . I Ketut Suardana has formed the Yayasan "Suara Dana", which means 'gift of music'. Ketut is a successful silversmith with a love of traditional Balinese music. He has set up the Yayasan at his own expense to revive old music, translating it to Indonesian and rehearsing a group of dedicated players. He has bought the instruments for 2 complete Salonding ensembles, a Gambang ensemble, a Gender Wayang and even a Rare Saron Luang ensemble. He has also built a large attic to house and rehearse these instruments in Celuk,Bali. The Gambang group plays at many important ceremonies around Bali. He is always keen on having more experienced players join the group with the aim of improving the group itself. The group he has assembled to play the music are mostly locals and family members. they include; Members: Penanga Bali: I Komang Mustika Pemero : I Ketut Pujaadi Pemetit: I Wayan Asmana Gangsa: I Nyoman Suarjaya Pengenter: I Ketut Grantipala PenyIlah: I Rai Sudarsana Gangsa: I Ketut Suardana More about tuning: Gambang - Bali. A pair or quartet of bamboo xylophones played with double, forked, mallets. The bars of Balinese gambang are placed in a non-scalar order to facilitate particular double-stop intervals. Gambang is used for cremation rites and draws it's repertoire and scales from ancient Kidung literature. The Gambang playing at Pura Besakih, the most important temple in Bali Gambang in Dlod Pangkung Sukawati Gianyar BALI This Traditional Gambang in the village of Dlod Pangkung in Gianyar consists of elderly members of the village. The youth are not interested in learning the Gambang so this will be the last in this village. This music is played from memory, handed down many years ago by their predecessors . The group was joined by a Hindu High Priest (Pedanda) from Sanur ( also in his eighties) and his friends who sing Pupuh with the Seka Gambang . Pemetit: I Ketut Dayuh Penyilah: I Wayan Targia Gangsa: I Made Lanus Penoro: I Nyoman Mengol Penanga: I Ketut Cemok

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Machu Picchu isn't a "lost city," as many tourist brochures would have you believe. It was simply a summer hangout for the Inca king. Undiscovered by Spanish conquistadors, it wasn't until 1911 that American explorer Hiram Bingham broadcast Machu Picchu's secrets to the world. The site is now Peru's most-visited tourist attraction. Completed around 1450, Machu Picchu is an undisturbed masterwork of Inca craftmanship nestled high in the remote Andes. Supporting as many as 750 residents during the summer months, the seasonal retreat is a carefully-planned patchwork of homes and temples held up by a mammoth network of underground walls. Acres of terraced farms notched into the Andean mountainsides provided the settlement with food. Most amazingly, the entire city is constructed from interlocking walls of smooth, polished stones. Without using mortar, the Inca fit the stones together like an immense jigsaw puzzle. Their work was so precise that, even after centuries of earthquakes, in many places it's still impossible to slip a piece of paper between the seams of two Machu Picchu stones. The mystery of Machu Picchu is how the Inca were able to move such large stones to such a remote location. Although the rock was quarried locally, workers would still have needed to hoist 20-ton stones up steep mountain cliffs -- an especially grueling task when you consider that the Inca didn't use wheels. Ultimately, the coming of the Spanish conquistadors was so devastating to the Inca that within a generation after the arrival of Europeans, nobody was left alive to recall the secrets of their mountaintop city.

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Celebrated annually on the last Monday in May, Memorial Day is a United States federal holiday where the men and women who gave the ultimate sacrifice while serving in the armed forces are remembered. It was formerly known as Decoration Day and originated after the American Civil War in honor of the Union and Confederate soldiers who died in the war. This honor was extended to all Americans who died while in military service. It is thought of as the unofficial start of the summer vacation season an idea that I think blurs the real reason for the holiday but that seems to happened with most holidays. Many people visit cemeteries and memorials, particularly to honor those who have died in military service. Many volunteers place an American flag on each grave in national cemeteries. I visited my father’s grave this weekend and placed a flag at his marker. Although it is for remembrance of those that died in service, I like to think of veterans in general for Memorial Day even though we also have Veterans Day in November. Although my father is no longer living and he served in the Navy during World War 2, he did not die in that service. I am writing his war story in my blog USS Hornet (CV-12), A Father’s Untold War Story. History of the holiday The practice of decorating soldiers’ graves with flowers is an ancient custom. Soldiers’ graves were decorated in the U.S. before and during the American Civil War. A claim was made in 1906 that the first Civil War soldier’s grave ever decorated was in Warrenton, Virginia, on June 3, 1861, implying the first Memorial Day occurred there. Though not for Union soldiers, there is authentic documentation that women in Savannah, Georgia, decorated Confederate soldiers’ graves in 1862. In 1863, the cemetery dedication at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, was a ceremony of commemoration at the graves of dead soldiers. Local historians in Boalsburg, Pennsylvania, claim that ladies there decorated soldiers’ graves on July 4, 1864. As a result, Boalsburg promotes itself as the birthplace of Memorial Day. Following President Abraham Lincoln’s assassination in April 1865, there were a variety of events of commemoration. The sheer number of soldiers of both sides who died in the Civil War, more than 600,000, meant that burial and memorializing took on new cultural significance. Under the leadership of women during the war, an increasingly formal practice of decorating graves had taken shape. In 1865, the federal government began creating national military cemeteries for the Union war dead. The first widely publicized observance of a Memorial Day-type observance after the Civil War was in Charleston, South Carolina, on May 1, 1865. During the war, Union soldiers who were prisoners of war had been held at the Charleston Race Course; at least 257 Union prisoners died there and were hastily buried in unmarked graves. Together with teachers and missionaries, black residents of Charleston organized a May Day ceremony in 1865, which was covered by the New York Tribune and other national papers. The freedmen cleaned up and landscaped the burial ground, building an enclosure and an arch labeled, “Martyrs of the Race Course.” Nearly ten thousand people, mostly freedmen, gathered on May 1 to commemorate the war dead. Involved were about 3,000 school children newly enrolled in freedmen’s schools, mutual aid societies, Union troops, black ministers, and white northern missionaries. Most brought flowers to lay on the burial field. Today the site is used as Hampton Park. Years later, the celebration would come to be called the “First Decoration Day” in the North. David W. Blight described the day: “This was the first Memorial Day. African Americans invented Memorial Day in Charleston, South Carolina. What you have there is black Americans recently freed from slavery announcing to the world with their flowers, their feet, and their songs what the war had been about. What they basically were creating was the Independence Day of a Second American Revolution.” However, Blight stated he “has no evidence” that this event in Charleston inspired the establishment of Memorial Day across the country. On May 26, 1966, President Johnson signed a presidential proclamation naming Waterloo, New York, as the birthplace of Memorial Day. Earlier, the 89th Congress adopted House Concurrent Resolution 587, which officially recognized that the patriotic tradition of observing Memorial Day began one hundred years prior in Waterloo, New York. According to legend, in the summer of 1865 a local druggist Henry Welles, while talking to friends, suggested that it might be good to remember those soldiers who did not make it home from the Civil War. Not much came of it until he mentioned it to General John B. Murray, a Civil War hero, who gathered support from other surviving veterans. On May 5, 1866, they marched to the three local cemeteries and decorated the graves of fallen soldiers. It is believed that Murray, who knew General Logan, told Logan about the observance and that led to Logan issuing Logan’s Order in 1868 calling for a national observance. In the North Copying an earlier holiday that had been established in the Southern states, on May 5, 1868, in his capacity as commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, the veterans’ organization for Union Civil War veterans, General John A. Logan issued a proclamation calling for “Decoration Day” to be observed annually and nationwide. It was observed for the first time that year on Saturday May 30; the date was chosen because it was not the anniversary of any particular battle. According to the White House, the May 30 date was chosen as the optimal date for flowers to be in bloom. Memorial events were held in 183 cemeteries in 27 states in 1868, and 336 in 1869. The northern states quickly adopted the holiday. Michigan made “Decoration Day” an official state holiday in 1871 and by 1890, every northern state had followed suit. The ceremonies were sponsored by the Women’s Relief Corps, the women’s auxiliary of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR), which had 100,000 members. By 1870, the remains of nearly 300,000 Union dead had been reinterred in 73 national cemeteries, located near major battlefields and thus mainly in the South. The most famous are Gettysburg National Cemetery in Pennsylvania and Arlington National Cemetery, near Washington, D.C. Memorial Day speeches became an occasion for veterans, politicians, and ministers to commemorate the War and, at first, to rehash the “atrocities” of the enemy. They mixed religion and celebratory nationalism and provided a means for the people to make sense of their history in terms of sacrifice for a better nation. People of all religious beliefs joined together and the point was often made that the German and Irish soldiers had become true Americans in the “baptism of blood” on the battlefield. By the end of the 1870s, much of the war-time rancor was gone, and the speeches usually praised the brave soldiers, both Blue and Gray. In the South Evidence exists that shows General Logan had adopted and adapted for the North the annual Confederate Memorial Day custom that had been in practice in the South since 1866. The U.S. National Park Service attributes the beginning to the ladies of Columbus, Georgia. The separate tradition of Memorial Day observance which had emerged earlier in the South was linked to the Lost Cause and served as the prototype for the national day of memory. Historians acknowledge the Ladies Memorial Association played a key role in its development. Various dates ranging from April 25 to mid-June were adopted in different Southern states. Across the South, associations were founded, many by women, to establish and care for permanent cemeteries for the Confederate dead, organize commemorative ceremonies, and sponsor appropriate monuments as a permanent way of remembering the Confederate cause and sacrifice. The most important was the United Daughters of the Confederacy, which grew from 17,000 members in 1900 to nearly 100,000 women by World War I. They were “strikingly successful at raising money to build Confederate monuments, lobbying legislatures and Congress for the reburial of Confederate dead, and working to shape the content of history textbooks.” On April 25, 1866, women in Columbus, Mississippi laid flowers on the graves of both the Union and Confederate dead in the city’s cemetery. The early Confederate Memorial Day celebrations were simple, somber occasions for veterans and their families to honor the dead and tend to local cemeteries. By 1890, there was a shift from the emphasis on honoring specific soldiers to a public commemoration of the lost Confederate cause. Changes in the ceremony’s hymns and speeches reflect an evolution of the ritual into a symbol of cultural renewal and conservatism in the South. By 1913, the theme of American nationalism shared equal time with the Lost Cause. Name and date Memorial Day endures as a holiday which most businesses observe because it marks the unofficial beginning of summer. The Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) and Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War (SUVCW) advocate returning to the original date, although the significance of the date is tenuous. The VFW stated in a 2002 Memorial Day Address: Changing the date merely to create three-day weekends has undermined the very meaning of the day. No doubt, this has contributed a lot to the general public’s nonchalant observance of Memorial Day. Starting in 1987 Hawaii’s Senator Daniel Inouye, a World War II veteran, introduced a measure to return Memorial Day to its traditional date. Inouye continued introducing the resolution until his death in 2012. I tend to agree with him. Don’t get me wrong, I like days off from work like the next person and a three-day weekend is great but on Tuesday when your co-workers ask about your Memorial Day, they want to know about the barbeque or the trip to the beach, not about you putting flags on graves or attending a parade.

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Energy from hot rocks below the Earth’s crust will help to replace fossil fuels and speed Europe’s path to carbon neutrality. LONDON, 8 May, 2020 − The Romans were the first people to exploit Europe’s geothermal energy, using underground springs warmed by hot rocks for large-scale public bathing pools and as central heating for their houses. Two thousand years later, the European Union is using modern technology to renew its efforts to exploit the same resource to make electricity and provide district heating as part of its plan to replace fossil fuels and become carbon-neutral by 2050. With wind and solar power and biogas already well-developed, expanding rapidly and already competing with fossil fuels, the EU has decided that geothermal energy should also now be exploited as a fourth major renewable resource. The European Commission’s Green Deal aims to exploit what officials admit has been the neglect of a potentially large renewable energy industry, which they think should be harnessed to reduce carbon emissions. As a result, the Commission is spending €172 million (£151m) on 12 different developments, described in what it calls a Results Pack. “The cost of harnessing geothermal energy has tumbled in recent years, making it far more competitive with coal and gas. Shallow boreholes using heat pumps have cut the cost of harnessing it by 20-30%” Some countries in Europe with active volcanoes, notably Italy and Iceland, have been exploiting hot rocks for decades to heat water, produce steam and drive turbines to make electricity. More recently engineers in Iceland, exploring further and drilling down to 4,650 metres (15,250 feet), have reached rocks at 600°C, potentially providing vast quantities of renewable energy. The EU believes that, with hot rocks found everywhere below the Earth’s crust, it is only a question of boring deep enough. It says the technologies being developed in Europe to exploit this heat can be used anywhere in the world, and have great potential for the international efforts to wean countries off fossil fuels. Its Results Pack says heating and cooling accounts for about half of all the continent’s energy consumption. Currently about 75% of that is provided by fossil fuels. However, drilling deep enough would mean all Europe’s buildings could be heated and cooled using subterranean energy. Like wind and solar, the cost of harnessing geothermal energy has tumbled in recent years, making it far more competitive with coal and gas. Shallow boreholes using heat pumps have cut the cost of harnessing it by 20-30%. Rare metal bonus One of the most interesting of the 12 examples in the Pack is a way of extracting heat for energy while at the same time obtaining rare and expensive metals from far below the Earth’s crust. This is being developed at the University of Miskolc in Hungary. Cold water is pumped 4-5 kilometres into a borehole at high pressure. It passes through natural fissures in the hot rock and comes to the surface through another drill hole as hot vapour. This gas is used to produce electricity and for heating. The rocks with their many cracks form a natural underground heat exchanger, but the scheme offers an added bonus. As the cold water is pumped through the cracks it gradually dissolves the rock, making the cracks larger and the system more efficient, and over time increasing the output of both electricity and heat. But also important, as a potential resource, is the fact that the return borehole brings up precious metals in the vapour. Using patented gaseous diffusion techniques, the vapour can yield the metals with a near-100% recovery rate. The metals’ market value dramatically improves the return on investment, the paper says. − Climate News Network Our daily service Climate News Network is a free and objective service publishing a daily news story on climate and energy issues. Sign up here to get our latest articles sent straight to your Inbox.

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- Provide broad knowledge and understanding of the organization, institutions, culture, and processes of society. - Make clear the interrelatedness of Sociology and other social disciplines. - Provide the viewpoints and tools essential for significant, systematic, and study and interpretation of social problems. - Prepare students for advanced study in graduate and professional institutions and for work. - Incorporate technology into the discipline. - Help students master the nine core competencies.

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25 years on at America's most contaminated nuclear waste site - 11 June 2014 - From the section Magazine Hanford, Washington, has long been the most contaminated nuclear waste site in the US. But critics say poor management has put the site in further danger. When Susan Leckband moved to eastern Washington state to take a job 30 years ago, radioactive contamination was not on her mind. "I loved my job," she says. But it was only a handful of years before the place she worked, Hanford, turned from a plutonium production complex to a massive environmental clean-up site. For Leckband, the question is not about the past, but the progress made on cleaning contaminated buildings and soil. "It's important to the entire Pacific North-West... the food crops, the salmon, the Indian tribes - it's a huge, huge obligation," she says. Situated on a plain along the Columbia River, the Hanford site is where the US produced plutonium used in the Manhattan Project, for the bomb that destroyed Nagasaki, and for a Cold War stockpile. Despite being a professional place of destruction, Hanford was teeming with life by the end of World War Two. In her book Plutopia, historian Kate Brown describes how Richland, the largest town near the site, was one of the first "nuclear" communities, a structured suburb for Hanford workers with high security clearances. Working at Hanford, even when many didn't know the full extent of what was being produced, was considered patriotic. Sixty years later, Hanford is in the midst of America's largest nuclear waste clean-up operation, which has already cost $40bn (£24bn) and is expected to continue for decades. And despite some progress, the site's most complicated and potentially dangerous waste issue - 56 million gallons (255 million litres) of high-level radioactive waste sitting inside tanks at the centre of the site - is facing more problems. In the mid-1980s, activists and reporters began to unwind Hanford's history, detailing safety lapses and environmental hazards across the site. "They made the plutonium, but they did it in a very dirty manner," says Tom Carpenter, director of watchdog organisation Hanford Challenge. By 1989, Hanford was no longer a bomb factory, but a site in need of serious clean-up. Twenty-five years later, the region around Hanford is once again booming. Clean-up has taken the place of the business of plutonium production. The US Department of Energy (DOE), which manages the clean-up effort as part of an agreement with Washington state and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), counts among its accomplishments at Hanford seven reactors cocooned for future dismantling, nine billion gallons of treated groundwater, and hundreds of cleaned or demolished buildings. "It's staggering how much material we've moved," says Dennis Faulk, a Hanford project manager with the Environmental Protection Agency. But critics of the way Hanford has been managed are worried that contamination could become worse. In February, Oregon Senator Ron Wyden accused the DOE of a "never-ending pattern of failing to disclose what it actually knows about conditions at Hanford". Wyden is most recently concerned about the tanks holding by-products of plutonium production, buried just below the surface at the centre of the site. The original containers, single-shell tanks built in the 1940s and 1950s, had already leaked at least 1 million gallons of liquid waste into the ground. Hanford officials built double-shell tanks in the 1970s and 1980s and began transferring the radioactive waste into the newer vessels. But in October 2012, the energy department announced one of the double-shell tanks was leaking into the space between the two shells. Waste in that tank has not entered the environment. Wyden released an engineering review that said six other double-shells had similar construction flaws. He accused the agency of hiding what they knew, as the report had been made months after the initial leak announcement, but no other warnings from the DOE had followed. Meanwhile, Hanford officials have recently submitted a plan to start emptying the leaking tank in two years. Then, in late March, two dozen workers fell ill because of chemical vapours near the tanks. Workers again noticed vapours around the tanks in May. Tom Fletcher, assistant manager of Hanford's tank farms, told the BBC in February that what Senator Wyden released was "one data point" and that visual inspections on the six tanks conducted after that report showed no abnormalities. The composition of the waste in the leaking tank makes it more likely to corrode, Fletcher says. No other double-shell tank holds such a mixture and full inspections on the tanks will now be done more frequently, But in general, the double-shells must do their job for several more decades until a waste treatment plant - currently under construction - immobilises in glass all 56 million gallons of waste in the tanks. The treatment plant was scheduled to become operational by 2019, but construction has been slowed or entirely halted on two key parts of the plant for additional testing. Once the treatment plant goes into operation, parts of it must be run entirely by robotics because of the high radioactivity of the waste. Regulators call it a "black-box" system. Hanford Challenge represents two whistleblowers, Walt Tamosaitis and Donna Busche, who say they have been punished for expressing concerns about the treatment plant's design. Carpenter says the whistleblowers are speaking up now because once the plant begins operations, there will be no chance to fix potentially dangerous errors. Both Tamosaitis and Busche have been fired by URS, one of the contractors at Hanford. The energy department says it has asked its inspector general to "review the circumstances surrounding the termination of Ms Busche", a safety manager who alleged continuing harassment since she first brought up concerns in 2011. Meanwhile the waste remains in the aging tanks. Tom Fletcher said when the time comes to start retrieving the waste for the treatment plant, Hanford will be ready. "We have those technologies now," he says, explaining that the leaking double-shell tank would be treated much the same way the single-shell tanks currently are. Hanford and its contractors are also facing pressure from a source closer to home. In March Washington Governor Jay Inslee threatened legal action if the energy department did not accept a new state proposal on cleaning up the waste tanks or develop a new one with "sufficient detail". Inslee wants to create a series of deadlines to solve the technical problems at the waste plant, making sure it begins working by 2028. And the Washington governor also wants Hanford to build new double-shell tanks, a proposal that energy officials have heard before, but not adopted. Now retired, Susan Leckband continues to serve on Hanford Communities, an advisory board for the clean-up effort, but she is frustrated by the slow pace. What's been done already, she says, is low-hanging fruit. "Can we do a better job?" she says.

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Sandia’s Z machine is Earth’s most powerful pulsed-power facility and X-ray generator. Z compresses energy in time and space to achieve extreme powers and intensities, found nowhere else on Earth. In approximately 200 shots Z fires every year, the machine uses currents of about 26 million amps to reach peak X-ray emissions of 350 terawatts and an X-ray output of 2.7 megajoules. The Z machine is located in Albuquerque, N.M., and is part of Sandia’s Pulsed Power Program, which began in the 1960s. Pulsed power is a technology that concentrates electrical energy and turns it into short pulses of enormous power, which are then used to generate X-rays and gamma rays. Produced in the laboratory, this controlled radiation creates conditions similar to those caused by the detonation of nuclear weapons, which is why from its earliest days pulsed power has been used to study weapons effects. Pulsed power has been explored for decades—with relatively small machines at first, and now in some cases more than three times the area of a tennis court, called accelerators. As accelerators were being developed for use in weapons research, a different kind of technology, the laser, was also being perfected and used for similar purposes. Fusion Research & Lasers For many years lasers were seen as the frontrunner technology for fusion research. Fusion — the process by which two atomic nuclei are joined together — is a powerful reaction currently being explored as a potential source of energy. Lasers are useful in fusion research because of their great ability to focus tightly on a small area. This is crucial to fusion experiments because in order to compress and heat the starting materials enough to fuse atoms, power must be concentrated sharply on the target. Compared to laser beams, the particle beams produced by early accelerators were difficult to focus to a small area. But during the 1980s Sandia developed complex accelerators designed specifically to study controlled fusion, and within the Pulsed Power Program, simulation of weapons effects started to contend with fusion in importance. One of Sandia’s accelerators started making big progress in the realm of fusion, not with particle beams, but with another technology known as the Z pinch. The Z pinch had been studied at Sandia since the 1960s as part of the weapons program, but its potential for fusion was not explored because particle beams seemed better suited for that purpose. With the Z pinch revelation, Sandia moved the focus of its fusion research away from particle beams, and in 1997 it reconfigured one of its accelerators to explore the potential of Z pinches instead. Accelerators, in particular the one that came to be known as the “Z machine,” suddenly became an unexpected and very strong candidate in the fusion arena. For the past decade, images of the spectacular Z machine in action have garnered as much attention in the popular press as its scientific breakthroughs have among researchers. Today the facility continues to be a major tool in the development of Sandia’s weapons effects, weapons physics, and fusion technologies, all of which make invaluable contributions to science, national security, and fusion energy research.

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Albert Einstein’s discovery of E = mc2 is without a doubt one of the world’s most famous equations. When Keith Wilson and Monte Westfall, successful administrators of the Lawrence Virtual School, and I began working on our workshop about equity for Education Elements’ Personalized Learning Summit(May 10-12, 2017), we chose this very equation as the title but added a new twist. For our purposes E = mc2 is transformed to Equity = Meaningful Change for Children.” Our workshop’s connection with Albert Einstein does not stop with his famous equation. Einstein represents the students we serve, who are often misunderstood, less than excited to be in school, yet have great potential. According to some accounts, teachers found Einstein lazy, felt he was not bright, and were frustrated by his disdain for the protocols of school. He is said to have been dyslexic, ADHD, and on the spectrum for Asperger’s Syndrome. Today, despite these childhood labels, he is remembered for his contributions to science, and his brilliance. Many of today’s children who attend our schools are misunderstood, much like Einstein. The Lawrence Virtual School works with a diverse group of students who identify themselves as: LGBTQ+ students, English Language Learners, special needs students, talented and gifted students, semi-pro athletes, professional actors and actresses, students with physical and mental illnesses, and students of color, to name a few. Successfully educating this diverse group of students requires personalization of the school experience, the creation of positive relationships, a rigorous curriculum, and staff flexibility. In preparing our “E = mc2” workshop, we were adamant about creating an experience for workshop participants that mirrored the personalized experiences we ask our teachers to provide their students daily. None of us had attended a totally personalized workshop, and the notion of presenting this kind of experience at a national-level was seductive yet risky. After many long conversations about the workshop, we realized we had to “up our game” and become more prepared than we would have in a traditional presentation. During the ideation process for this event, we questioned and dissected every activity and choice to ensure audience personalization. After hours of discussion we had our “eureka” moment that the ingredients to this “secret sauce” are: participant voice and choice in the topics, meaningful connections, practical ideas, student-centered conversations, fun, inspiration and a bit of chocolate. Personalization requires giving up control, becoming a guide - not an expert, and acknowledging the desires of the participants. I won’t deny that we are a bit nervous and apprehensive about this kind of workshop, yet we know we can depend on each other and together we will provide a successful experience. We are excited to put in the extra effort to take the risk, and to deliver our first totally personalized workshop, where the audience is the driver. Keith, Monte and I hope you will join us for “Equity = Meaningful Change for Children” Friday May 12th 9:30am at the Personalized Learning Summit in San Francisco.About the workshop presenters: Keith Wilson and Monte Westfall are the administrators of a virtual school that serves 1200 Kindergarten through 12th grade students in Kansas. The program they provide could be a model for virtual schools across our country. Personalization, creativity, rigor and relationships are the key components to the Lawrence Virtual School’s many successes. Jerri Kemble is the Assistant Superintendent of Innovation and Technology, the department that houses the Lawrence Virtual School. @Techsavvysupt

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Presentation on theme: "Decay Behavior of Parent and Daughter Atoms. Deriving the age equation The change in the number of parent atoms is proportional to the total number of."— Presentation transcript: Deriving the age equation The change in the number of parent atoms is proportional to the total number of parent atoms. N: Number of atoms t: Time - d N / d t α N Decay rate is different for each type of parent and is called the decay constant. λ: Decay constant So: - d N / d t = λ N Solving this equation and setting N=N 0 at t=0 we get: N = N 0 exp(- λt) The Age Equation λ = Decay constant D = Daughter Product N = Parent Remaining In geology we want to know the age of the rock from something we can measure. Generally we measure the amount of the parent isotope and the amount of the daughter. So we want the previous equation in terms of daughter and parent. Rearranging the previous equation one can find that: Some Radioactive Elements Used in Geologic Dating ParentFinal DaughterDecay const(/yr)Half Life (yr) Uranium(U)-238Lead-2069.8485 x 10 -10 4.47 billion Uranium(U)-235Lead-2071.55125 x 10 -10 704 million Thorium(Th)-232Lead-2084.9475 x 10 -11 14 billion Potassium(K)-40Argon(Ar)-40 Calcium(Ca)-40 4.96 x 10 -10 0.581 x 10 -10 1.25 billion Rubidium(Rb)-87Strontium(Sr)-876.54 x 10 -12 106 billion Carbon(C)-14Nitrogen(N)-141.29 x 10 -4 5730 What minerals are used? Potassium 40 is found in: potassium feldspar (orthoclase) muscovite amphibole glauconite (found in some sedimentary rocks; rare) Uranium may be found in: zircon urananite monazite apatite sphene 40 Ar/ 39 Ar Dating method 40 K decays into Ca and Ar. Ca exists in most rocks already so better to measure Ar which is less likely to contaminate the sample. Instead of measuring the parent K in the sample, K is irradiated and produces 39 Ar which is measured. Much more precise to measure Daughter and Parent at the same time. Very small amounts of sample can be used (grams to mg). By step heating one can sometimes determine if the sample has been disturbed or altered. Uranium Lead Dating Long half-life Decay constants well known Two isotope system ( 235 U and 238 U) Zircons exclude the daughter (Pb) when forming and hold the parent very tightly. Zircons have high melting temperature and resistant to alteration

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On Thursday, Battalion Chief Kwame Cooper presented highlights of a comprehensive two-year case study on what occurred in the Los Angeles City (CA) Department (LAFD) that prompted more than 25 work environment discrimination lawsuits between 2006 and 2009. In “Firehouse Pranks or Professionalism? The LA Story,” he showed the importance of effectively leading diverse commands at the local fire station level. He emphasized the importance of recognizing potential hostile work environment issues and the responsibility of supervisors to take immediate action to prevent harm to any member of the department. Reviewing the history of the LAFD, founded in 1886, he noted the first African-American firefighter was hired in 1892. However, in 1902, African-American firefighters were segregated to a single fire station. Not until 1955 did integration begin in the department. The first female firefighter was hired in 1983, and the first African-American chief was hired in 2007. Cooper discussed in detail an incident in which firefighters, as a prank, secretly added dog food to an African-American firefighter’s food. The firefighter eventually sued. In the ensuing controversy, city paid a large settlement and the fire chief resigned under pressure. The LAFD was deeply affected, with tension among firefighters, low morale, less community involvement, and public distrust. Cooper offered a comprehensive review of the strategic steps the incoming fire chief took to provide leadership and commitment to confront and eliminate discrimination within the department. Issues addressed included work environment/hazing/discrimination. The employee complaint process instituted an internal affairs department independent of the chain of command, and guidelines were created for the discipline process. The recruit academy implemented consistent performance standards to address diversity recruitment and retention issues. The academy’s performance would be analyzed through retention statistics. Cooper and the class discussed questions such as at what point does a prank go too far, and who’s responsible for addressing the situation in the firehouse. Although the chief of the department may create policies, Cooper noted, it’s the company officers who must implement them. “The company officers run the department.” he said. Class attendees offered their comments, perspectives, and experiences, and Cooper reviewed recent court cases involving allegations racial/sexual harassment and discrimination. Cooper commented, “This is aconversation that we as firefighters need to have out in the open.” Kwame Cooper is a 29-year veteran of and battalion chief with the Los Angeles City (CA) Fire Department and an instructor with the National Fire Academy.

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The formation of a gastrula from a blastula. Gastrulation is a phase in the embryonic development of most animals. It consists of a complex and coordinated series of cellular movements which occurs at the end of cleavage. The details of these movements vary among species, but usually result in the formation of an embryonic stage called a gastrula. The gastrula has two primary germ layers, the ectoderm and endoderm in diploblastic animals, and three primary germ layers with the development of the mesoderm in triploblastic animals. Related category• DEVELOPMENTAL BIOLOGY Home • About • Copyright © The Worlds of David Darling • Encyclopedia of Alternative Energy • Contact

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Your task today is to add inverted commas (speech marks) to the following text. Remember to check the sentence for all the correct punctuation. Follow these tips below to help you complete the sentences; 1) Put the speech marks around the parts that are spoken 2) Make sure the spoken parts start with a capital letter 3) Punctuation needs to be inside the speed marks - see example below 4) Do all names have a capital letter 5) Don't punctuation at the end of the sentence The first one has been done for you. 1. dan can i come round to your house please asked miss parker = "Dan can I come round to your house please?" asked Miss Parker. 2. can i have an ice cream please asked josh 3. what are you watching on tv charlie asked jack 4. stop theres a car coming yelled mr cawley 5. good morning everyone said mrs stamp 6. can you stop banging up there shouted billy 7. its lunch time announced mrs babbage 8. please can i have blue option replied lily 9. i dont want to go to break whispered layla 10. if you dont hurry up and get ready to go home your going to be sleeping here jordan joked mr tribbeck 1. Can you write some of your own sentences with speech? 2. Can you write a paragraph of a story and include speech within it? Remember to send us your work!

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Monday, September 24, 2012 HealthTeacher recently released the first-ever interactive, pro-social mobile game to address one of the nation’s leading issues affecting youth: bullying. This game titled “Awesome Upstander!” encourages young kids to race through a school cafeteria and bathroom to help rescue a target from a bully. Along the way, players must collect enough friends to stand up to the bully together. “Awesome Upstander! offers a highly entertaining play experience for kids while teaching them they have the power to diminish bullying by banning together as upstanders," said John Herbold, VP Product of HealthTeacher. "Kids tell us Awesome Upstander! is fun to play, and parents say it gives them peace of mind knowing their children are learning how to deal with an issue affecting the emotional and physical safety of their kids." Filled with challenges, levels, hidden objects and fun sound effects, Awesome Upstander! is designed to engage kids just like other popular interactive games while promoting social good. At the Awesome Upstander! website www.awesomeupstander.com, teachers can download supporting material for their classroom, and parents can download resources for teaching their kids about upstanding at home. Baptist Health Systems in Jackson, Miss. partnered with HealthTeacher last year, providing high quality health education resources for teachers, school nurses, and school counselors in 18 counties in central MS. HealthTeacher is an online resource of lessons and interactive tools that help kids live well. Lessons cover relevant youth health issues and are designed to engage students and fold seamlessly into the classroom setting. Baptist is the only hospital in Mississippi offering this program. “As the 2012/2013 school year kicked-off, we continue to work with the funded school districts providing HealthTeacher access and training,” added Shay Lewis, Health Education Coordinator for Mississippi. “The new interactive anti-bullying game is a powerful tool for engaging kids and teaching them how to make a stand against bullying. The video game can be played at home or in the classroom setting and works hand in hand with HealthTeacher’s lesson plans centered on the topic of bullying.” According to a study by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), 1.6 million children in grades 6 through 10 in the United States are bullied at least once a week and 1.7 million children bully others as frequently. Bullying most often occurs where adult supervision is low or absent: schoolyards, cafeterias, bathrooms, hallways, and stairwells. According to the U.S. Department of Justice’s “Bullying in Schools” report, only 10 to 20 percent of non-involved students provide any real help when another student is victimized. Bullying has been a hot topic in Mississippi during the last few years. In 2010, the Mississippi legislature passed Senate Bill 2015, requiring public schools to adopt an anti-bullying policy, prohibiting bullying or harassing behavior in schools. Mary Ann Simpkins, Director of Community Education for HealthTeacher stated that “Awesome Upstander! is a great teaching tool for supporting MS anti-bullying policies and addressing the real-life issues of bullying in our schools. We all want our children to thrive and succeed in a safe environment, free of danger or barriers to learning. It is important to educate all kids about the importance of standing up for someone being bullied and to encourage them to be an upstander, not a bystander.” Dr. Susan Lipkins, child psychologist and leading expert in the development of Awesome Upstander!, believes playing this game can set the standards for teaching elementary-aged kids how to be an upstander, a person who knows how to intervene in a bully situation in a safe and positive manner. According to Dr. Lipkins, "Bystanders are the answer...we're all bystanders. And when bystanders are empowered and they learn how to prevent and intervene in bullying, I think we're going to see a change." Awesome Upstander! is brought to you by HealthTeacher, the interactive leader in youth health. AwesomeUpstander! can be played online for free at www.awesomeupstander.com, or purchased in the Apple App Store or Google Play for $.99. ABOUT AWESOME UPSTANDER! Awesome Upstander!, the first-ever anti-bullying game for young kids, is the most fun way to learn how to deal with bullies. Awesome Upstander! is a side-scrolling adventure where players must race through school cafeterias and bathrooms to rescue a target from a bully. To successfully rescue the target, players must collect enough friends to become upstanders and stand up to the bully together. ABOUT BAPTIST HEALTH SYSTEMS’ HEALTHTEACHER PARTNERSHIP Baptist joined forces with teachers throughout 34 school districts in central Mississippi to make it easy for them to teach good health habits to children. Funded by Baptist Health Foundation, the project includes health education materials and professional development for K-12 schools, preschools, after school programs, and community organizations. The 2007 Healthy Students Act requires that all schools implement 45 minutes of Health Education per week, and 150 minute of physical education/physical activity per week in grades K-8. It also requires half Carnegie Unit of Health Education and Physical Education in high school for graduation. Baptist Health Systems is the parent company of Baptist Medical Center, The Mississippi Hospital for Restorative Care and a number of related healthcare services and programs. For over 100 years, Baptist Medical Center has served Mississippi and the surrounding states as a Christian-based, non-profit comprehensive medical Center. HealthTeacher is the interactive leader in youth health, creating games, apps, and educational resources to make health awesome for kids. HealthTeacher's research based products are designed to get kids moving and to develop healthy behaviors that last a lifetime. Reaching over 6 million kids through its fast-growing network of 11,000+ schools, HealthTeacher’s interactive products are used by teachers, parents, and kids to address important youth health issues, including physical activity, nutrition, and social and emotional well-being. To learn more, visit www.healthteacher.com. What can we help you find?close ×

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The Punjab State Human Rights Commission is an expression of state’s concern for the protection and promotion of human rights. It came into being in March 1997. Inquire, on its own initiative or on a petition presented to it by a victim or any person on his behalf, into complaint of- - violation of human rights or abetment thereof or…. - negligence in the prevention of such violation by, a public servant - intervene in any proceeding involving any allegation of violation of human rights pending before a court with the approval of such court; - visit, under intimation to the State Government, any jail or any other institution under the control of the State Government, where persons are detained or lodged for purposes of treatment, reformation or protection to study the living conditions of the inmates and make recommendations thereon; - Review the safeguards provided by or under the Constitution or any law for the time being in force for the protection of human rights and recommend measures for their effective implementation; - Review the factors, including acts of terrorism that inhibit the enjoyment of human rights and recommend appropriate remedial measures; - Study treaties and other international instruments on human rights and make recommendations for their effective implementation; - Undertake and promote research in the field of human rights; - Spread human rights literacy among various sections of society and promote awareness of the safeguards available for the protection of these rights through publications, the media, seminars and other available means; - Encourage the efforts of non-governmental organisations and institutions working in the field of human rights; - Such other functions as it may consider necessary for the promotion of human rights. - Summoning and enforcing the attendance of witnesses and examining them on oath; - Discovery and production of any document; - Receiving evidence on affidavits; - Requisitioning any public record or copy thereof from any court or office; - Issuing commissions for the examination of witnesses or documents; - Any other matter which may be prescribed. - Yes. The Commission has its own investigating staff for investigation into complaints of human rights violations. Under the Act, it is open to the Commission to utilise the services of any officer or investigation agency of the Central Government or any State Government with the concurrence of the center government or the State Government. - Yes. The autonomy of the Commission derives, inter-alia, from the method of appointing its Members, their fixity of tenure, and statutory guarantees thereto, the status they have been accorded and the manner in which the staff responsible to the Commission – including its investigative agency – will be appointed and conduct themselves. The financial economy of the Commission is spelt out in Section 32 and 33 of the Act. - The Chairperson and Members of the Commission are appointed by the Governor on the basis of recommendations of a Committee comprising the Chief Minister as the Chairperson, the Speaker of the legislative assembly, the minister in charge of the Department of Home in the State, the leaders of the opposition in the Legislative assembly as Members. - The Commission while inquiring into complaints of violations of human rights may call for information or report from the Central Government or State Government or any other authority or organization subordinate thereto within such time as may be specified by it; provided that if the information or report is not received within the time stipulated by the Commission, it may proceed to inquire into the complaint on its own; On the other hand, if, on receipt of information or report, the Commission is satisfied either that no further inquiry is required or that the required action has been initiated or taken by the concerned Government or authority, it may not proceed with the complaint and inform the complainant accordingly. - Where the inquiry discloses the commission of violation of human rights or negligence in the prevention of violation of human rights by a public servant, it may recommend to the concerned Government or authority the initiation of proceedings for prosecution or such other action as the Commission may deem fit against the concerned person or persons; - Approach the Supreme Court or the High Court concerned for such directions, orders or writs as that Court may deem necessary; - Recommend to the concerned Government or authority for the grant of such immediate interim relief to the victim or the members of his family as the Commission may consider necessary. - They may be in Punjabi or English . However, the State Commission may entertain complaint in any other language. The complaints are expected to be self contained. No fee is charged on complaints. The Commission may ask for further information and affidavits to be filed in support of allegations whenever considered necessary. The Commission may, in its discretion, accept telegraphic complaints and complaints conveyed through FAX. - Commission shall not inquire into any matter after the expiry of one year from the date on which the act constituting violation of human rights is alleged to have been committed. - Commission shall not inquire into any matter which is pending before any other commission duly constituted under law. For the time being in force. - Matters which are vague or anonymous - Matters of frivolous or trivial nature - Personal matters like disputes between landlord and tenant, conjugal disputes, disputes relating to property inheritance, partitions etc. - Violation of human rights by members of Central Armed Forces (they may be looked into by the National Human Rights Commission under section 19 of the Act) - When allegations are not against any public servant of the State Government. - When allegations do not make out any specific violation of human rights. - When matter is covered by a judicial verdict/decision of the State Commission - When the matter is outside the purview of the State Commission on any other ground. - The authority/State Government has to indicate its comments/action taken on the report/recommendations of the Commission within a period of one month in respect of general complaints. To know the composition of the Commission, please check the Member section of this website or click the link below:- Chairperson & Members SCO NO. 20-21-22, SECTOR 34-A, CHANDIGARH - 160034, INDIA Ph.: 0172-2635414, 0172-2635436, 0172-2635424-26 (Investigation) Fax: 0172-2635435, 0172-2635401 (Chairperson), 0172-2635430 (Secy.)

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Recovery or off-season The main features of this phase are maintaining an active approach with at least three low- to moderateintensity aerobic swims completed each week, specialized programs to target weaknesses in individual fitness profiles, and dietary control to maintain body composition. There are few studies that have directly addressed the issue of the most effective program for swimmers to follow during the off-season or in short breaks from training and competition. There is, however, a significant body of literature that details the Lime course of training adaptations with training and loss of fitness during detraining (Counsilman & Counsilman 1991; Mujika & Padilla 2000). A typical strategy for the off-season involves a marked 50-70% reduction in the frequency, volume, and intensity of training. For a highly trained swimmer, who normally completes 10 training sessions per week, this would equate to approximately three sessions of low- to moderateintensity training. Apart from maintaining the underlying cardiovascular and metabolic adaptations, regular training will also help retain neuromuscular patterns and the all important "feel for the water."

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Primary Source Education Modules The Ransom Center's primary source education modules combine digitized archives and artifacts from the Center’s collections with inquiry-based methods to teach understanding and analysis of primary source material. Each activity is printer-friendly and includes all of the materials you will need, including suggested procedures, worksheets, applicable educational standards, and facsimiles of documents and artifacts that can be downloaded for classroom and student use. With an estimated 45 million artifacts in its collections, the Ransom Center is a remarkable research facility. Providing resources online is an important step in reaching students and teachers who may never have the opportunity to visit the Center’s building. Teaching with artifacts such as the Gutenberg Bible can enrich student learning by stimulating critical thinking and historical literacy. By studying objects and primary sources such as letters, books, and early drafts of well-known literature, students of any age can use observation, analysis, and personal experience to connect with different historical time periods and intellectual movements.

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Individual differences | Methods | Statistics | Clinical | Educational | Industrial | Professional items | World psychology | puppet therapy for children is also effective with adults, training adults to communicate with puppets,including ventriloquy opens vistas of improvement. Children relate better to puppets than to therapists and are more likely to imitate their appropriate behaviour (Webster-Stratton et al., 2001). Use of puppets in play therapyEdit Use of puppets in cases of sexual abuseEdit Therapist Sydney Kislevitz uses ventriloquy puppets to transcend abuse this rapid technique of recovery evolves - Webster-Stratton, C, Mihalic, S., Fagan, A., Arnold, D.,Taylor, T & Tingley. C. (2001). Blueprints for violence prevention. Book 11: The incredible years:Parent, teacher and child Training series. Boulder, CO: Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence.

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National Council of Women of Canada - Blog A blog (a blend of the term web log) is a type of or part of a website. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order. Most blogs (including this one) are interactive, allowing visitors to leave comments and even message each other via widgets on the blogs and it is this interactivity that distinguishes them from other static websites Many blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, web pates, and other media related to its topic. The ability of readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs. As of 16 February 2011 (2011 -02-16)[update], there were over 156 million public blogs in existence. The above from Wikipedia! Monday, April 11, 2011 Canada's Reality Check Think Canada is a great place to live? Use this checklist to ensure nothing less than a Canada with Human Rights for ALL its citizens! Does your candidate support: * policies and programs that are transparent and accountable? * a national child care program that is universal, accessible, affordable, good quality, secure, public and non-profit? * a federal housing strategy that will create affordable, stable, accessible and safe housing for women and children? * a federal poverty reduction strategy that invests in Canada's social infrastructure to reduce the impact of poverty on ALL women and children? * economic security for women that includes good jobs, equal wages, and decent EI and social assistance entitlements? * a federal strategy to end violence against women and girls, based on human rights principles, to ensure that they are no longer 'over-policed and under-protected'? * repeal of the unnecessary and expensive criminal justice reforms, and spend those billions of tax dollars on social, economic, health and educational services instead of prisons?

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METOC EFFECTS ON VARIOUS LEARNING OBJECTIVES: Identify the publication that outlines the contents of antisubmarine (ASW), space and electronic warfare (SEW), strike warfare (STW), antisurface warfare (ASUW), and antiair warfare (AAW) briefs. It is beyond the scope of this text to discuss all the information considered important for the various METOC briefs listed below. Significant information regarding these briefs, for the most part, is confidential. Refer to the text Environmental Effects on Weapon Systems and Naval Warfare, (S)RP1, for a discussion of these topics: l Environmental factors affecting ASW operations . Environmental effects on special warfare l Environmental effects on SEW . Environmental effects on chemical, biological, and radiological (CBR) operations . Environmental considerations for STW l Environmental considerations for ASUW l Environmental considerations for AAW l Target environmental conditions Now lets discuss those elements of importance during the planning and execution of minewarfare BRIEFING OF METOC EFFECTS ON LEARNING OBJECTIVES: Brief the effects that water depth, currents, tides, and bottom characteristics have on MIW operations. Understand the impact of the magnetic, acoustic, pressure, and biological environments on MIW operations. There are environmental considerations unique to the planning of MIW operations and this section will be devoted to this topic. For further discussion of MIW operations, refer to the technical manual, Composite Warfare Oceanographic Support Modules (CWOSM), Part 1, TM 04-92. Water depth is a factor to be considered in the spacing of mines, sensitivity setting, mine type, and mine impact velocity (air-laid mines). . Bottom mines In deep water (180 ft or greater), detonation will not cause much of a disturbance in the upper layers of the ocean. . Moored mines Depth may exceed the mooring range required for the mine to be effective. l Sensitivity and actuation width Important for bottom mines since an increase in depth will result in a decrease of the sensitivity and actuation width of a . Damage width Water depth affects the damage width in the same way as in actuation width. Increasing water depth causes a reduction in the damage width of a mine. l Mine burial upon impact The depth at which terminal velocity is reached depends on the initial velocity when launched and the depth of the water. Subsurface currents may set in different direction as mines descend, and current velocity may also vary These factors must be considered during planning of MIW operations. l Burial Burial on the sea floor can result from scour (water velocity increases around the mine, setting sand and sediments in motion, burying the mine). Once the mine is completely buried, scouring stops. . Sand ridge migration Currents may cause large sand dunes to migrate along the bottom in the direction of the current. The dunes can be as high as 12 to 20 ft. . Mine dip (vertical movement of mines) An increase in mine depth from the normal vertical position above the mooring point. Current action creates forces against the mine, increasing the depth, Dip is directly proportional to current speed; therefore, dip will increase with faster currents. During flood and ebb

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Basic differences in Earth physics[change | change source] Because the Earth was only half as old as now, there were some basic differences from today. Heat in the Earth's interior was greater than today. This was mainly due to the higher abundance of radioactive isotopes, which decay as time passes. Temperatures at the surface were also higher, due to radiation from the Earth's interior, and due to a methane and carbon dioxide-based greenhouse atmosphere. During the previous eon, the Archaean, the oceans were hot (55–85 °C). This was only partly balanced by the fact that the Sun's radiation was lower at that time. Paleontological evidence on the Earth's rotational history suggests that ~1.8 billion years ago, there were about 450 days in a year, implying 20 hour days. Further back, the Earth day had about 17 hours, and there were 514±33 days per year. The Earth–Moon distance for the earliest Palaeoproterozoic was 51.9±3.3 Earth radii (compared to 60.27 at present). Supercontinent[change | change source] Climate[change | change source] Drop in methane[change | change source] There are clear indications that the era saw a drop in atmospheric methane: - "The collapse of methane from formerly high levels in the Archaean atmosphere probably plays a large role, not only the oxygenation history, but also the occurrence of Palaeoproterozoic ice ages. The data point to 2.4–2.3 billion years ago as host to a ‘Great Oxidation Event’, during which Earth's surface environment changed profoundly and irreversibly". The buildup of oxygen[change | change source] Oxygen was produced by the cyanobacteria, but it was mostly used up by chemical sinks. These were the unoxidized sulfur and iron. Until roughly 2.3 billion years ago, oxygen was probably only 1% to 2% of its current level.p323 Banded iron formations, which provide most of the world's iron ore, were formed by the oxygen forming compounds with iron; most accumulation ceased after 1.9 billion years ago. Red beds, which are colored by hematite, indicate an increase in atmospheric oxygen after 2 billion years ago; they are not found in older rocks.p324 Ice ages[change | change source] There were three major ice ages, with ice deep into the tropics. Undoubtedly, they happened as a result of reduced greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, and the rise of oxygen production. There is what researchers call "a puzzling interval of ~1,400 million years with no verified glaciation between early Palaeoproterozoic glaciations at 2400–2200 mya in North America, South Africa, Scandinavia and Australia and the Neoproterozoic glaciations that affected all continents at 800–600 mya". Meteorite strikes[change | change source] There were major bolide impacts during the era, two of which caused the largest impact crators on Earth. There are also three smaller (equal or more than 30 kilometers diameter) in the time zone of 3.0 to 1.2 billion years ago. Origin of eukaryotes[change | change source] The origin of the eukaryotic cell was a milestone in the evolution of life, since they include all complex cells and almost all multi-cellular organisms. The timing of this series of events is hard to determine; Knoll suggests they developed approximately 1.6–2.1 billion years ago. Some acritarchs are known from at least 1650 million years ago, and the possible alga Grypania has been found as far back as 2100 million years ago. References[change | change source] - Reddy S.M. and Evans D.A.D. 2009. Palaeoproterozoic supercontinents and global evolution: correlations from core to atmosphere. Geological Society. 203, 1–26. - Giorgio Pannella 1972. Paleontological evidence on the Earth's rotational history since early precambrian Astrophysics and Space Science 16.2 p212 - Williams G.E. 2000. Geological constraints on the Precambrian history of Earth's rotation and the moon's orbit. Reviews of Geophysics 38:37–59. - Rogers J.J.W. and Santosh M. 2002. Configuration of Columbia, a Mesoproterozoic supercontinent. Gondwana Research. 5, 5-22 - Zhao, Gochun et al. (2002). "Review of global 2.1–1.8 Ga orogens: implications for a pre-Rodinia supercontinent". Earth-Science Reviews 59: 125–162. - Cloud P.E. 1968. Atmospheric and hydrospheric evolution on the primitive Earth. Science 160:729–736. - Holland H.D. 2006. The oxygenation of the atmosphere and oceans. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 361:903–915. - Stanley, Steven M. 1999. Earth system history. New York: W.H. Freeman. ISBN 0-7167-2882-6. - Evans D.A., Beukes N.J., Kirschvink J.L. 1997. Low-latitude glaciation in the Palaeoproterozoic era. Nature 386:262–266. - Williams G.E. 2005. Subglacial meltwater channels and glaciofluvial deposits in the Kimberley Basin, Western Australia: 1.8 Ga low-latitude glaciation coeval with continental assembly. Journal of the Geological Society 162:111–124. - Grieve R. and Therriault A. 2000. Vredefort, Sudbury, Chicxulub: three of a kind? Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences 28:305–338. - Knoll, Andrew H. 2004. Life on a young planet: the first three billion years of evolution on Earth. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-12029-3 - Knoll, Andrew H.; Javaux E.J; Hewitt D. and Cohen P. (2006). "Eukaryotic organisms in Proterozoic oceans". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Part B 361 (1470): 1023–38. doi:10.1098/rstb.2006.1843. PMC 1578724. PMID 16754612. |Precambrian (4.567 gya – 541 mya)| |In the left column are Eons, bold are Eras, not bold are Periods. gya = billion years ago, mya = million years ago| |Hadean (4.567 gya – 4 gya)||Chaotian Zirconian| |Archaean (4 gya – 2.5 gya)||Eoarchaean (4 gya – 3.6 gya)| |Proterozoic (2.5 gya – 541 mya)||Palaeoproterozoic (2.5 gya – 1.6 gya) Siderian (2.5 gya – 2.3 gya) Rhyacian (2.3 gya – 2.05 gya) Orosirian (2.05 gya – 1.8 gya) Statherian (1.8 gya – 1.6 gya)| |Phanerozoic (541 mya – today)| |In the left column are Eras, bold are Periods, not bold or italics are Epochs, Italics are stages. kya = thousand years ago, mya = million years ago| |Palaeozoic (541 mya – 252.17 mya)||Cambrian (541 mya – 485.4 mya)| |Mesozoic (252.17 mya – 66.0 mya)||Triassic (252.17 mya – 201.3 mya) Lower Triassic (252.17 mya – 247.2 mya) Middle Triassic (247.2 mya – 237 mya) Upper Triassic (237 mya – 201.3 mya)| |Cainozoic (66.0 mya – today)||Palaeogene (66.0 mya – 23.03 mya) Palaeocene (66.0 mya – 56 mya) Eocene (56 mya - 33.9 mya) Oligocene (33.9 mya – 23.03 mya)|

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Gifted Students and Social Stigma Gifted Students and Social Stigma Philosopher Benedict Spinoza said, "Man is a social animal" (Kaplan 278). The desire for social acceptance, whether recognized or denied, is part of human culture. People yearn for it, obsess over it, and alter themselves to obtain it. Humans can spend their entire lives unsuccessfully attempting to achieve a level of social status they believe will validate them. Acceptance is denied for superficial reasons varying from clothing to cliques. However, it is also denied due to innate elements of personality. Stigmatizing others for a natural characteristic not only seems unwarranted but also unfair. Yet, a stigma is imposed daily on gifted adolescents who neither deserve, nor know how to deal with, the disparagement. One group particularly stinted in terms of social acceptance is gifted students. Intellectually exceptional students are socially stigmatized. Often, their intelligence inversely correlates to their social abilities. The more precocious the gift the less adept the social skills. And the spectrum of the stigma extends from negative peer perceptions to an inability to interact socially with their peers, the extreme of which can result in suicide. The origin of the social stigma is often educators and parents, those ideally associated with student guidance and support. The advanced ability of most gifted children is identified at a young age. And, in the current educational system of teaching the fundamentals and helping students to just get by, gifted students are not challenged. Director of the Area Service Center for Gifted Education in southern Chicago, Joyce Van Tassel states, "The system itself does not demand much of these students. We're worried about minimum competency and back to basics these days, but these kids already know the basics" (Johnson 27). Because intelligent children are already competent in terms of educational basics, they proceed to question the nature of things. They want to know what something is but also why it is that way. Teachers can take this curiosity to be offensive and oftentimes the student is viewed negatively by their peers due to an adoption of the teacher's negative attitude, thus beginning the social stigma (Johnson 27). Another standard, "educational" treatment of gifted students is to separate them from the class. Because the gifted student has surpassed the majority the teacher isolates the child with a separate advanced activity and returns to the majority. In these situations the gifted student and his/her peers become accustomed to this "different" status. The gifted student becomes an outsider in relation to the group by default, due to his/her above average abilities. Educational treatment of the gift denies the student the opportunity to learn to socially interact at a young age. Gifted students never become accustomed to peer interaction because this system is perpetuated upward throughout the grade levels. And unfortunately, in an educational atmosphere where grades are a primary focus, poor interpersonal skills are more likely to be tolerated than poor work-related skills (Wolfle 3). It becomes a norm for the student to work alone and his/her social and psychological needs are ignored. The students themselves report that one prevailing stigmatism of being gifted is being neglected, not only as academics but also as people. Sadly, the truth is that as long as gifted students maintain high grade point averages and therefore raise school achievement records, they are largely overlooked (Johnson 27). They are the prize-winners but never the attention-getters. These students tend to be introverted, on-task, non-discipline issues in class. In a typical classroom the students that are loud, at-risk or discipline problems are the ones that receive the teacher's attention and often they usurp it for the entire period (Wolfe 2). While harried teachers appreciate gifted students they do not... Bibliography: Wallace, Margaret. "Nuturing Nonconformists." Educational Leadership. 57.4. (1999): Please join StudyMode to read the full document

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Forecasts for the growth of the Internet of Things (a.k.a. IoT or IoE, as in the Internet of Everything) suggest tens of billions of devices will be connected as spending grows to exceed a trillion dollars by 2020, according the 2017 NMC Horizons Report for Higher Education. As IoT becomes entrenched on our campuses (I wrote about this for University Business last month), it’s not surprising that it is also finding its way into our classrooms as well. IoT College Courses Last spring, the McCormick school of engineering at Northwestern University in Illinois introduced a new course offering: EECS 395/495: The Internet of Things, focused on exploring the ecosystem surrounding this new paradigm. Drs. Lawrence Henschen and Goce Trajcevski developed and delivered the course, in which students worked in groups to develop IoT-based projects. Some of these projects could have commercial potential and some could have applications on our campuses. One project involved using cameras and object recognition to identify students losing interest during a lecture based on changes in head and body positioning, according to Dr. Henschen. Additionally, several groups worked on projects intended to increase the efficiency of garbage collection using sensors in collection bins. This project raised interest in the local community. One student is still actively engaged in research on her project, which seeks to bring automation to gauging and adjusting to a crowd’s interest in music, explained Henschen. DJ’s are quite adept at this as they regularly take the pulse of club goers and adjust what they play. This project utilizes beacons that look for Bluetooth wireless devices to sense how many people are “on the floor”. Combining this data with other information like noise levels can help to enable the automation of changes in the music being played to encourage more people to dance. Courses like the Northwestern offering are becoming increasingly common in engineering schools across the country. At UC Berkeley School of Information, students can take Info 290 – Internet of Things: Foundations and Application. The University of Massachusetts at Amherst offers CS390N: The Internet of Things, and Purdue Polytechnic has CNIT 58100-IOT: The Internet of Things, which “explores the top-level problems that IoT promises to solve, the business drivers, the attributes of IoT enabled enterprise and consumer markets, and how IoT is different from the contemporary Internet.” MIT is offering a course through its edX platform titled, “Internet of Things: Roadmap to a Connected World” and it is being taught by none other than the inventor of the World Wide Web, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, along with other tech luminaries. Privacy and Security Concerns IoT really is everywhere. Of course, it's not simply “all good”. There are plenty of security consideration to pay attention to. Not only is a questionable volume of of data about us being captured and shared, IoT is also rapidly increasing the number of highly vulnerable end points on our networks. As IoT use continues to grow, we need to keep security and privacy considerations at the forefront of our implementation efforts.

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This material must not be used for commercial purposes, or in any hospital or medical facility. Failure to comply may result in legal action. WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) is a disease that causes damage to your brain, spine, and nerves. CJD results in loss of mental, emotional, and physical abilities. CJD is fatal over time. - Medicines are given to decrease pain, anxiety, and muscle spasms. - Take your medicine as directed. Contact your healthcare provider if you think your medicine is not helping or if you have side effects. Tell him or her if you are allergic to any medicine. Keep a list of the medicines, vitamins, and herbs you take. Include the amounts, and when and why you take them. Bring the list or the pill bottles to follow-up visits. Carry your medicine list with you in case of an emergency. Follow up with your healthcare provider as directed: Write down your questions so you remember to ask them during your visits. Walking and home safety: Use a 4-pronged cane or walker to help you keep your balance when you walk. Remove loose carpeting from the floor to reduce your risk for a fall. Use chairs with side arms and hard cushions to make it easier to get up and out of a chair. Put grab bars on the walls beside toilets and inside showers and bathtubs. These will help you get up and prevent falls. You may want to put a shower chair inside the shower. Contact your healthcare provider if: - You have a fever. - You are depressed and feel you cannot cope with your condition. - You are anxious or nervous even after you take medicine. - You have severe muscle twitching or pain even after you take medicine. - You have questions or concerns about your condition or care. Seek care immediately or call 911 if: - You have trouble breathing. - You have sudden changes in your vision. © Copyright IBM Corporation 2018 Information is for End User's use only and may not be sold, redistributed or otherwise used for commercial purposes. All illustrations and images included in CareNotes® are the copyrighted property of A.D.A.M., Inc. or IBM Watson Health The above information is an educational aid only. It is not intended as medical advice for individual conditions or treatments. Talk to your doctor, nurse or pharmacist before following any medical regimen to see if it is safe and effective for you. Always consult your healthcare provider to ensure the information displayed on this page applies to your personal circumstances.

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Trisomy 13 (also called Patau syndrome) Trisomy 13 is a severe syndrome with multiple malformations due to additional genetic material on the 13th chromosome. The cause is unknown. Babies are usually identified at birth and the diagnosis is confirmed with genetic testing. Babies are small at birth and have characteristic facial appearance. Trisomy 13 occurs in 1 of 5000 births and the incidence increases with increased maternal age. The risk of recurrence in future pregnancies is 1%. Common Associated Conditions Babies with trisomy 13 will have a characteristic group of problems that may include the following: microcephaly (small head size), cleft lip (facial defect), omphalocele (abdominal defect), spina bifida (spine defect), microphthalmia (small eyes), anophthalmia (absent eyes), scalp defects, polydactyly (extra fingers and toes) and cryptorchidism (undescended testicles). Short-term Treatment and Outcomes Babies will be given comfort care, and 80% will not survive past the first month of life. Most will not live past the first week, regardless of medical intervention. Despite good caloric intake, many babies with chromosomal defects will show slow growth. Parents will be offered genetic testing and counseling. A very few children are less severely affected and will overcome many of the difficulties; those babies will provided with regular child care visits for immunizations and anticipatory guidance, with screening at frequent intervals for vision and hearing difficulties, scoliosis, developmental delays and symptoms of other conditions that can be treated. Long-term Treatment and Outcomes The 5% of children who do survive past the first year will all exhibit developmental and growth delays. Families will need support and resources to provide the needed care for their child and may need respite care to be able to take care of themselves and give needed attention to siblings. Early intervention programs and special education will be very important to the relatively small number of children with trisomy 13 who survive the difficult early months. The list of possible complications is very great because so many body systems are involved with the trisomy 13 condition. Infection and difficulty feeding will be big issues in caring for these babies. Implications for Children's Development The birth of a severely affected child is very difficult and families will find support from other families who have experienced similar circumstances. Support groups can be found on the internet as well as in many communities. Children who do survive may make some developmental gains such as rolling over, recognizing their parents and expressing pleasure or pain in some way. A few may progress to be able to enter school with the help of early intervention and special education adaptations. Decision-making for children with chromosomal defects is very difficult and parents need information and support. Hospice or palliative care staff can be very helpful to provide comfort and compassionate care. Parental education and support are essential, and local, regional and national organizations are very helpful. Listed below is an organization that provides practical information and support for families with a child with trisomy 13.

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