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Tornadoes are the most intense storms on the planet, and they’re never discussed without at least some mention of the term wind shear. Many of us sitting at home, though, have no idea what wind shear is, or if we do, how it affects tornado production.
What is Wind Shear
Wind shear, although it might sound complex, is a simple concept. Wind shear is merely the change in wind with height, in terms of wind direction and speed. I think that we all understand that the wind is generally stronger in the atmosphere over our heads than it is here on the ground, and if we think of the atmosphere in terms of the three dimensions that it has, it should not be surprising that the wind above us might also be blowing from a different direction than the wind at the ground. When that happens–the wind speed and direction vary with height–wind shear is occurring.
Wind Shear and Supercell Thunderstorms
This wind shear is an important part of the process in the development of a supercell thunderstorm, from which the vast majority of strong tornadoes form.
All thunderstorms are produced by a powerful updraft–a surge of air that rises from the ground into the upper levels of the atmosphere, and when this updraft forms in an area where wind shear is present, the updraft is influence by this speed and different direction of the wind above, pushing the column of air in the updraft into a more vertical alignment.
Rain’s Influence on Tornado Production
Needless to say, thunderstorms typically produce very heavy rain, and rain-cooled air is much heavier than the warm air of the updraft, so the rain-cooled air, produces a compensating downdraft (what comes up, must come down). This downdraft pushes the part of the rotating air that was forced in its direction by the stronger wind aloft downward, and the result is a horizontal column of rotating air.
That’s Not a Tornado!
I know what you’re thinking that you’ve seen enough TLC or Discovery Channel shows to know that a horizontal column of air is NOT a tornado; you need a vertical column of air.
This Can Be a Tornado
You’re right, but remember the updraft that is driving the thunderstorm is still working, and it’s able to pull the horizontal, spinning column of air into the thunderstorm, resulting in a vertical column of spinning air.
(NOAA image showing vertical column of air in a supercell thunderstorm)
The result is a rotating thunderstorm capable of producing a tornado, and it would not be possible without wind shear.
(NOAA image showing tornado formation in supercell thunderstorm)
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Is this bone a Neanderthal flute?
Cave Bear femur fragment from Slovenia, 43+kya
DOUBTS AIRED OVER NEANDERTHAL BONE 'FLUTE'
(AND REPLY BY MUSICOLOGIST BOB FINK)
Science News 153 (April 4, 1998): 215.
By B. Bower
Amid much media fanfare, a research team in 1996 trumpeted an ancient, hollowed out bear bone pierced on one side with four complete or partial holes as the earliest known musical instrument. The perforated bone, found in an Eastern European cave, represents a flute made and played by Neandertals at least 43,000 ye us ago, the scientists contended.
Now it's time to stop the music, say two archaeologists who examined the purported flute last spring. On closer inspection, the bone appears to have been punctured and gnawed by the teeth of an animal -- perhaps a wolf -- as it stripped the limb of meat and marrow report, April Nowell and Philip G. Chase, both of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. "The bone was heavily chewed by one or more carnivores, creating holes that became more rounded due to natural processes after burial," Nowell says. "It provides very weak evidence for the origins of [Stone Age] music." Nowell presented the new analysis at the annual meeting of the Paleoanthropology Society in Seattle last week.
Nowell and Chase examined the bone with the permission of its discoverer, Ivan Turk of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences in Ljubljana (S.N.: 11/23/96, p. 328). Turk knows of their conclusion but still views the specimen as a flute.
Both open ends of the thighbone contain clear signs of gnawing by carnivores, Nowell asserts. Wolves and other animals typically bite off nutrient-rich tissue at the ends of limb bones and extract available marrow. If Neandertals had hollowed out the bone and fashioned holes in it, animals would not have bothered to gnaw it, she says.
Complete and partial holes on the bone's shaft were also made by carnivores, says Nowell. Carnivores typically break open bones with their scissor like cheek teeth. Uneven bone thickness and signs of wear along the borders of the holes, products of extended burial in the soil, indicate that openings made by cheek teeth were at first less rounded and slightly smaller, the researchers hold.
Moreover, the simultaneous pressure of an upper and lower tooth produced a set of opposing holes, one partial and one complete, they maintain.
Prehistoric, carnivore-chewed bear bones in two Spanish caves display circular punctures aligned in much the same way as those on the Slovenian find. In the March Antiquity, Francesco d'Errico of the Institute of Quaternary Prehistory and Geology in Talence, France, and his colleagues describe the Spanish bones.
In a different twist, Bob Fink, an independent musicologist in Canada, has reported
on the Internet
(http://www.webster.sk.ca/greenwich/fl-compl.htm) that the spacing of the two complete and two partial holes on the back of the Slovenian bone conforms to musical notes on the diatonic (do, re, mi. . .) scale.
The bone is too short to incorporate the diatonic scale's seven notes, counter Nowell and Chase. Working with Pennsylvania musicologist Robert Judd, they estimate that the find's 5.7-inch length is less than half that needed to cover the diatonic spectrum. The recent meeting presentation is "a most convincing analysis," comments J. Desmond Clark of the University of California, Berkeley, although it's possible that Neandertals blew single notes through carnivore-chewed holes in the bone.
"We can't exclude that possibility," Nowell responds. "But it's a big leap of faith to conclude that this was an intentionally constructed flute."
TO THE EDITOR, SCIENCE NEWS (REPLY BY BOB FINK, May 1998)
(See an update of this discussion on Bob Fink's web site, November 2000)
The doubts raised by Nowell and Chase (April 4th, DOUBTS AIRED OVER NEANDERTHAL BONE 'FLUTE') saying the Neanderthal Bone is not a flute have these weaknesses:
The alignment of the holes -- all in a row, and all of equivalent diameter, appear to be contrary to most teeth marks, unless some holes were made independently by several animals. The latter case boggles the odds for the holes ending up being in line. It also would be strange that animals homed in on this one bone in a cave full of bones, where no reports of similarly chewed bones have been made.
This claim is harder to believe when it is calculated that chances for holes to
be arranged, by chance, in a pattern that matches the spacings of 4 notes of a
diatonic flute, are only one in hundreds to occur .
The analysis I made on the Internet (http://www.webster.sk.ca/greenwich/fl-compl.htm) regarding the bone being capable of matching 4 notes of the do, re, mi (diatonic) scale included the possibility that the bone was extended with another bone "mouthpiece" sufficiently long to make the notes sound fairly in tune. While Nowell says "it's a big leap of faith to conclude that this was an intentionally constructed flute," it's a bigger leap of faith to accept the immense coincidence that animals blindly created a hole-spacing pattern with holes all in line (in what clearly looks like so many other known bone flutes which are made to play notes in a step-wise scale) and blindly create a pattern that also could play a known acoustic scale if the bone was extended. That's too much coincidence for me to accept. It is more likely that it is an intentionally made flute, although admittedly with only the barest of clues regarding its original condition.
The 5.7 inch figure your article quoted appears erroneous, as the centimeter scale provided by its discoverer, Ivan Turk, indicates the artifact is about 4.3 inches long. However, the unbroken femur would originally have been about 8.5 inches, and the possibility of an additional hole or two exists, to complete a full scale, perhaps aided by the possible thumbhole. However, the full diatonic spectrum is not required as indicated by Nowell and Chase: It could also have been a simpler (but still diatonic) 4 or 5 note scale. Such short-scale flutes are plentiful in homo sapiens history.
Finally, a worn-out or broken flute bone can serve as a scoop for manipulation of food, explaining why animals might chew on its ends later. It is also well-known that dogs chase and maul even sticks, despite their non-nutritional nature. What appears "weak" is not the case for a flute, but the case against it by Nowell and Chase.
Letter to the Editor: Antiquity Journal:
"A Bone to Pick"
By Bob Fink
I have a bone to pick with Francesco d'Errico's viewpoint in the March issue of Antiquity (article too long to reproduce here) regarding the Neanderthal flute found in Slovenia by Ivan Turk. D'Errico argues the bone artifact is not a flute.
D'Errico omits dealing with the best evidence that this bone find is a flute.
Regarding the most important evidence, that of the holes being lined up, neither d'Errico nor Turk make mention of this.
This line-up is remarkable especially if they were made by more than one carnivore, which apparently they'd have to be, based on Turk's analysis of the center-spans of the holes precluding their being made by a single carnivore or bite (Turk,* pp.171-175). To account for this possible difficulty, some doubters do mention "one or more" carnivores (Chase & Nowell, Science News 4/4/98).
My arguments over the past year pointed out the mathematical odds of the lining up of the holes occurring by chance-chewing are too difficult to believe.
The Appendix in my essay ("Neanderthal Flute --A Musicological Analysis") proves that the number of ways a set of 4 random holes could be differently spaced (to produce an audibly different set of tones) are 680 ways. The chances a random set would match the existing fragment's spacing [which also could produce a match to four diatonic notes of the scale] are therefore only one in hundreds. If, in calculating the odds, you also allowed the holes to be out of line, or to be less than 4 holes as well, then the chance of a line-up match is only one from many tens of thousands.
And yet randomness and animal bites still are acceptable to account for holes being in line that could also play some notes of the scale? This is too much coincidence for me to believe occurred by chance.
D'Errico mentions my essay in his article and what he thought it was about, but he overstates my case into being a less believable one. My case simply was that if the bone was long enough (or a shorter bone extended by a mouthpiece insert) then the 4 holes would be consistent and in tune with the sounds of Do, Re, Mi, Fa (or flat Mi, Fa, Sol, and flat La in a minor scale).
In the 5 points I list below, extracted from Turk's monograph in support of this being a flute, d'Errico omits dealing with much of the first, and all of the second, fourth and sixth points.
Turk & Co's monograph shows the presence on site of boring tools, and includes experiments made by Turk's colleague Guiliano Bastiani who successfully produced similar holes in fresh bone using tools of the type found at the site (pp. 176-78 Turk).
They also wrote (pp. 171-75) that:
1. The center-to-center distances of the holes in the artifact are smaller than that of the tooth spans of most carnivores. The smallest tooth spans they found were 45mm, and the holes on the bone are 35mm (or less) apart;
2. Holes bitten are usually at the ends of bones rather than in the center of them;
3. There is an absence of dents, scratches and other signs of gnawing and counter-bites on the artifact;
4. The center-to-center distances do not correspond to the spans of carnivores which could pierce the bone;
5. The diameters of the holes are greater than that producible by a wolf exerting the greatest jaw pressure it had available -- it's doubtful that a wolf's jaws would be strong enough (like a hyena's) to have made the holes, especially in the thickest part of the wall of the artifact.
6. If you accept one or more carnivores, then why did they over-target one bone, when there were so many other bones in the cave site? Only about 4.5% of the juvenile bones were chewed or had holes, according to Turk (p. 117).
* Turk, Ivan (ed.) (1997). Mousterian Bone Flute. Znanstvenoraziskovalni
Center Sazu, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Maintained by Francis F. Steen, Communication Studies, University of California Los Angeles
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In some people, macular degeneration advances so slowly that it has little effect on their vision. But in others, the disease progresses faster and may lead to vision loss. Sometimes only one eye is affected, while the other eye remains free of problems for many years. People with dry macular degeneration in one eye often do not notice any changes in their vision. With one eye seeing clearly, they can still drive, read, and see fine details. Some people may notice changes in their vision only if macular degeneration affects both of their eyes. Both dry and wet macular degeneration cause no pain.
Symptoms of macular degeneration include:
Blurred vision —This is an early sign. An example of early findings is that you may need more light for reading and other tasks.
Difficulty seeing details in front of you —You may have a difficult time seeing words in a book or faces.
Blind spot —A small, growing blind spot will appear in the middle of your field of vision. This spot occurs because a group of cells in the macula have stopped working properly. Over time, the blurred spot may get bigger and darker, taking more of your central vision.
Crooked lines —An early symptom of wet macular degeneration is straight lines that will appear crooked or wavy. This happens because the newly formed blood vessels leak fluid under the macula. The fluid raises the macula from its normal place at the back of the eye and distorts your vision.
Lighting —Images appear more gray in color and colors are not as bright
Contact your ophthalmologist immediately for an eye exam if you notice:
- Visual distortions
- Sudden decrease in central vision
- A central blind spot
- Any other visual problems
- Reviewer: Christopher Cheyer, MD
- Update Date: 09/01/2011 -
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A bullock cart or ox cart is a two-wheeled or four-wheeled vehicle pulled by oxen (draught cattle). It is a means of transportation used since ancient times in many parts of the world. They are still used today where modern vehicles are too expensive or the infrastructure does not favor them.
Used especially for carrying goods, the bullock cart is pulled by one or several oxen (bullocks). The cart (also known as a jinker) is attached to a bullock team by a special chain attached to yokes, but a rope may also be used for one or two animals. The driver and any other passengers sit on the front of the cart, while load is placed in the back. Traditionally the cargo was usually agrarian goods and lumber.
Costa Rica
In Costa Rica, ox carts (carretas in the Spanish language) were an important aspect of the daily life and commerce, especially between 1850 to 1935, developing a unique construction and decoration tradition that is still being developed. Costa Rican parades and traditional celebrations are not complete without a traditional ox cart parade.
In 1988, the traditional ox cart was declared as National Symbol of Work by the Costa Rican government.
In 2005, the "Oxherding and Oxcart Traditions in Costa Rica" were included in UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
In Indonesia, Bullock Carts are commonly used in the rural parts of the country, where it is used for transporting goods and carriages and also people. But it is mostly common in Indonesia that there are Horse Car than Bullock Carts on the streets of Indonesia.
Bullock carts were widely used in Malaysia before the introduction of automobiles, and many are still used today. These included passenger vehicles, now used especially for tourists. Passenger carts are usually equipped with awnings for protection against sun and rain, and are often gaily decorated.
See also
|Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Ox-drawn carts|
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Deep-space communication improved with electromagnetic radiation antenna
- Robert C. Dye
- Technology Transfer
- (505) 667-3404
Electromagnetic radiation antenna has potential for deep-space communication
- Directed Energy
- Long-range communications
- Medicine (Oncology)
- RADAR imaging applications are countermeasure-resistant
- Communications can be spatially-encrypted
- 4-dimensional volumes of energy can be aimed at a single space-time point for directed energy applications
- Nonspherical decay of the cusp enables low-power communications and propagation over great distances
Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) researchers have developed the Lightslinger, a completely new type of antenna that produces tightly-focused packets of electromagnetic radiation fundamentally different from the emissions of conventional transmitters. The device has potential applications in RADAR, directed-energy (non-kinetic kill), secure communications, ultra-long-range communications (e.g., deep-space), medicine (oncology) and astrophysics.
The Lightslinger functions by producing a moving polarization pattern in a ring of alumina. By careful timing of voltages applied to electrodes that surround the alumina, the polarization pattern can be made to move superluminally, i.e., faster than the speed of light in a vacuum. Nobel laureate Vitaly Ginzberg showed both that such superluminal polarization patterns do not violate the principles of special relativity and that they emit electromagnetic radiation. Once a source travels faster than the waves that it emits, it can make contributions at multiple retarded times to a signal received instantaneously at a distance. This effect is already well known in acoustics; when a supersonic airplane accelerates through the speed of sound, a violent “sonic boom” is heard many miles away, even if the airplane itself is rather quiet. The Lightslinger enables the same thing to be done with electromagnetic radiation; i.e., a relatively low-power source can make an “electromagnetic boom”, an intense concentration of radiowaves at a great distance.
The “electromagnetic boom” is due to temporal focusing, that is, focusing in the time domain. Because of this effect, part of the emitted radiation possesses an intensity that decays with distance r as 1/r rather than as the conventional inverse square law, 1/r2. These nonspherically-decaying wavepackets represent a game-changing technology in the applications of electromagnetic radiation.
Development stage: Working prototype
Patent status: Patent pending
Licensing status: Available for exclusive or non-exclusive licensing
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The test team views the use of a pulley as an intermediate step only, and has planned to shift to a reliance on windlasses like those that apparently were used to hoist sails on Egyptian ships.
"The whole approach has been to downgrade the technology," Gharib said. "We first wanted to show that a kite could raise a huge weight at all. Now that we're raising larger and larger stones, we're also preparing to replace the steel scaffolding with wooden poles and the steel pulleys with wooden pulleys like the ones they may have used on Egyptian ships."
For Gharib, the idea of accomplishing heavy tasks with limited manpower is appealing from an engineer's standpoint because it makes more logistical sense.
"You can imagine how hard it is to coordinate the activities of hundreds if not thousands of laborers to accomplish an intricate task," said Gharib. "It's one thing to send thousands of soldiers to attack another army on a battlefield. But an engineering project requires everything to be put precisely into place.
"I prefer to think of the technology as simple, with relatively few people involved," he explained.
Gharib and Graff came up with a way of building a simple structure around the obelisk, with a pulley system mounted in front of the stone. That way, the base of the obelisk would drag on the ground for a few feet as the kite lifted the stone, and the stone would be quite stable once it was pulled upright into a vertical position. If the obelisk were raised with the base as a pivot, the stone would tend to swing past the vertical position and fall the other way.
The top of the obelisk is tied with ropes threaded through the pulleys and attached to the kite. The operation is guided by a couple of workers using ropes attached to the pulleys.
No one has found any evidence that the ancient Egyptians moved stones or any other objects with kites and pulleys. But Clemmons has found some tantalizing hints that the project is on the right track. On a building frieze in a Cairo museum, there is a wing pattern in bas-relief that does not resemble any living bird. Directly below are several men standing near vertical objects that could be ropes.
Gharib's interest in the project is mainly to demonstrate that the technique may be viable.
"We're not Egyptologists," he said. "We're mainly interested in determining whether there is a possibility that the Egyptians were aware of wind power, and whether they used it to make their lives better."
Now that Gharib and his team have successfully raised the four-ton concrete obelisk, they plan to further test the approach using a ten-ton stone, and perhaps an even heavier one after that. Eventually they hope to obtain permission to try using their technique to raise one of the obelisks that still lie in an Egyptian quarry.
"In fact, we may not even need a kite. It could be we can get along with just a drag chute," Gharib said.
An important question is: Was there enough wind in Egypt for a kite or a drag chute to fly? Probably so, as steady winds of up to 30 miles per hour are not unusual in the areas where pyramids and obelisks were found.
(c) 2001 Caltech
SOURCES AND RELATED WEB SITES
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Classroom Activities for Teaching Sedimentary GeologyThis collection of teaching materials allows for the sharing of ideas and activities within the community of geoscience teachers. Do you have a favorite teaching activity you'd like to share? Please help us expand this collection by contributing your own teaching materials.
Subject: Sedimentary Geology
Results 1 - 4 of 4 matches
Chemical and Physical Weathering Field and Lab Experiment: Development and Testing of Hypotheses part of Activities
Lisa Greer, Washington and Lee University
This exercise combines an integrated field and laboratory experiment with a significant scientific writing assignment to address chemical and physical weathering processes via hypothesis development, experimental ...
Demystifying the Equations of Sedimentary Geology part of Activities
Larry Lemke, Wayne State University
This activity includes three strategies to help students develop a deeper comfort level and stronger intuitive sense for understanding mathematical expressions commonly encountered in sedimentary geology. Each can ...
Digital Sandstone Tutorial part of Activities
Kitty Milliken, University of Texas at Austin, The
The Tutorial Petrographic Image Atlas is designed to give students more exposure to petrographic features than they can get during organized laboratory periods.
Red rock and concretion models from Earth to Mars: Teaching diagenesis part of Activities
Margie Chan, University of Utah
This activity teaches students concepts of terrestrial diagenesis (cementation, fluid flow, porosity and permeability, concretions) and encourages them to apply those concepts to new or unknown settings, including ...
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http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/sedimentary/activities.html?q1=sercvocabs__43%253A206
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By JOHN CARTER
When Abraham Lincoln died from an assassin’s bullet on April 15, 1865, Edwin Stanton remarked to those gathered around his bedside, “Now he belongs to the ages.”
One of the meanings implied in Stanton’s famous statement is that Lincoln would not only be remembered as an iconic figure of the past, but that his spirit would also play a significant role in ages to come.
The Oscar-nominated movie “Lincoln,” which chronicles the struggle to pass the 13th amendment abolishing slavery, has turned our attention again to Lincoln’s legacy and his relevance amid our nation’s present divisions and growing pains.
Here is some of the wit and wisdom of Abraham Lincoln worth pondering:
“As for being president, I feel like the man who was tarred and feathered and ridden out of town on a rail. To the man who asked him how he liked it, he said, ‘If it wasn’t for the honor of the thing, I’d rather walk.’”
“I desire so to conduct the affairs of this administration that if at the end, when I come to lay down the reins of power, I have lost every other friend on earth, I shall at least have one friend left, and that friend shall be down inside of me.”
“Should my administration prove to be a very wicked one, or what is more probable, a very foolish one, if you the people are true to yourselves and the Constitution, there is but little harm I can do, thank God.”
“Bad promises are better broken than kept.”
“I am not at all concerned that the Lord is on our side in this great struggle, for I know that the Lord is always on the side of the right; but it is my constant anxiety and prayer that I and this nation may be on the Lord’s side.”
“I have never had a feeling, politically, that did not spring from the sentiments embodied in the Declaration of Independence.”
“Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves; and, under a just God, cannot long retain it.”
“As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy.”
“The probability that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just.”
“The true rule, in determining to embrace or reject anything, is not whether it have any evil in it, but whether it have more evil than good. There are few things wholly evil or wholly good.”
“Some of our generals complain that I impair discipline and subordination in the army by my pardons and respites, but it makes me rested, after a hard day’s work, if I can find some good excuse for saving a man’s life, and I go to bed happy as I think how joyful the signing of my name will make him (a deserter) and his family.”
“I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go.”
In addition, Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address and his second inaugural speech are ever relevant. And you may wish to add your own favorites to these.
Paul’s advice to us in Philippians 4:8 is to “fill your minds with those things that are good and deserve praise: things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, and honorable.”
As we celebrate his birthday on the 12th, Lincoln’s words more than meet this standard!
John Carter is a Weatherford resident whose column, “Notes From the Journey,” is published weekly in the Weatherford Democrat.
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Science Fair Project Encyclopedia
The chloride ion is formed when the element chlorine picks up one electron to form the anion (negatively charged ion) Cl−. The salts of hydrochloric acid HCl contain chloride ions and are also called chlorides. An example is table salt, which is sodium chloride with the chemical formula NaCl. In water, it dissolves into Na+ and Cl− ions.
The word chloride can also refer to a chemical compound in which one or more chlorine atoms are covalently bonded in the molecule. This means that chlorides can be either inorganic or organic compounds. The simplest example of an inorganic covalently bonded chloride is hydrogen chloride, HCl. A simple example of an organic covalently bonded chloride is chloromethane (CH3Cl), often called methyl chloride.
Other examples of inorganic covalently bonded chlorides which are used as reactants are:
- phosphorus trichloride, phosphorus pentachloride, and thionyl chloride - all three are reactive chlorinating reagents which have been used in a laboratory.
- Disulfur dichloride (SCl2) - used for vulcanization of rubber.
Chloride ions have important physiological roles. For instance, in the central nervous system the inhibitory action of glycine and some of the action of GABA relies on the entry of Cl− into specific neurons.
The contents of this article is licensed from www.wikipedia.org under the GNU Free Documentation License. Click here to see the transparent copy and copyright details
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Brain Matures a Few Years Late in ADHD
but Follows Normal Pattern
A 2007 press release from the National Institute of Mental Health discusses brain development in ADHD youths. In some cases, brain development is delayed as much as three years. The full release and related video are available on the NIMH site: Brain Matures a Few Years Late in ADHD, but Follows Normal Pattern.
Autistic Spectrum Disorders (ASD):
How to Help Children with Autism Learn
From Dr. Lauer and Dr. Beaulieu's talk
Quick facts about Pervasive Developmental Disorders (PDD)/ Autistic Spectrum Disorders (ASD)
- Autism is a 'spectrum disorder' meaning that it affects children in different ways and at different times in their development.
- Typically, delays and learning problems can emerge in several areas of functioning including social functioning, communication skills, motor skills, and overall intellectual potential.
- Each child has their own learning style that includes specific learning challenges as well as areas of preserved skills and, at times, exceptional abilities.
- Both autism and Asperger's disorder are on the same continuum but are distinct in their expression.
What are the challenges students with PDD/ASD frequently experience?
- Academic difficulties that can often be misinterpreted as learning disabilities.
- Problems with executive functioning skills.
- Difficulty in forming relationships with peers.
- Emotional difficulties due to learning and social problems such as anxiety, depression, low self-esteem.
- Fear of new situations and trouble adjusting to changes.
- May look like or be misconstrued as attention-deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), Nonverbal Learning Disability (NLD), Oppositional-Defiant Disorder or Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD).
Why choose US to help YOU?
- Our evaluations are conducted by neuropsychologists who have been extensively trained in the early detection of autistic spectrum disorders and in the identification of specific patterns of learning strengths and weaknesses that are often associated with this condition.
- Our evaluations help determine which teaching style is best suited to fit an individuals' specific learning profile; we also offer suggestions regarding compensatory educational approached.
- We work as a team with other learning professionals, advocates and health professionals to enhance the child's potential for success in all settings.
'The design of truly individual treatment plans that exploit strengths and compensate for weaknesses begins with a detailed understanding of how learning is different for children with autism than for those without autism and how learning is different among children with autism.'
— Bryna Siegel, Ph.D., author of Helping Children with Autism Learn
For more information on current research, interventions and programs, follow us on Facebook.
Coming to see you for an evaluation was so helpful and Im so happy that I did this. After struggling for years with ADHD but not knowing thats what it was and almost completely ruining our marriage because of it, your diagnosis helped more than you could know. Now I know that its not just me the diagnosis has turned our lives around and helped me feel more accomplished at work. Thanks again for everything.
Sandy and Bob M.
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1854-89 THREE DOLLARS INDIAN HEAD
In 1853 the United States negotiated the "Gadsden Purchase"settlement of a boundary dispute with Mexico that resulted in the U.S. acquiring what would become the southern portions of Arizona and New Mexico for ten million dollars. The following year Commodore Matthew Perry embarked upon his famed expedition to re-open Japan to the Western world and establish trade. Spreading beyond its borders in many ways, a few years earlier the United States had joined the worldwide move to uniform postage rates and printed stamps when the Congressional Act of March 3, 1845 authorized the first U.S. postage stamps, and set the local prepaid letter rate at five cents. This set the stage for a close connection between postal and coinage history.
Exactly six years later, the postage rate was reduced to three cents when New York Senator Daniel S. Dickinson fathered legislation that simultaneously initiated coinage of the tiny silver three-cent piece as a public convenience. The large cents then in circulation were cumbersome and unpopular, and the new denomination was designed to facilitate the purchase of stamps without using the hated "coppers."
This reasoning was carried a step further when the Mint Act of February 21, 1853 authorized a three-dollar gold coin. Congress and Mint Director Robert Maskell Patterson were convinced that the new coin would speed purchases of three-cent stamps by the sheet and of the silver three-cent coins in roll quantities. Unfortunately, at no time during the 35-year span of this denomination did public demand justify these hopes. Chief Engraver James Barton Longacre chose an "Indian Princess" for his obverse not a Native American profile, but actually a profile modeled after the Greco-Roman Venus Accroupie statue then in a Philadelphia museum. Longacre used this distinctive sharp-nosed profile on his gold dollar of 1849 and would employ it again on the Indian Head cent of 1859. On the three-dollar coin Liberty is wearing a feathered headdress of equal-sized plumes with a band bearing LIBERTY in raised letters. She's surrounded by the inscription UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. Such a headdress dates back to the earliest known drawings of American Indians by French artist Jacques le Moyne du Morgue's sketches of the Florida Timucua tribe who lived near the tragic French colony of Fort Caroline in 1562. It was accepted by engravers and medalists of the day as the design shorthand for "America."
Longacre's reverse depicted a wreath of tobacco, wheat, corn and cotton with a plant at top bearing two conical seed masses. The original wax models of this wreath still exist on brass discs in a Midwestern collection and show how meticulous Longacre was in preparing his design. Encircled by the wreath is the denomination 3 DOLLARS and the date. There are two boldly different reverse types, the small DOLLARS appearing only in 1854 and the large DOLLARS on coins of 1855-89. Many dates show bold "outlining" of letters and devices, resembling a double strike but probably the result of excessive forcing of the design punches into the die steel, causing a hint of their sloping "shoulders" to appear as part of the coin's design. The high points of the obverse design that first show wear are the cheek and hair above the eye; on the reverse, check the bow knot and leaves.
A total of just over 535,000 pieces were issued along with 2058 proofs. The first coins struck were the 15 proofs of 1854. Regular coinage began on May 1, and that first year saw 138,618 pieces struck at Philadelphia (no mintmark), 1,120 at Dahlonega (D), and 24,000 at New Orleans (O). These two branch mints would strike coins only in 1854. San Francisco produced the three-dollar denomination in 1855, 1856, and 1857, again in 1860, and apparently one final piece in 1870. Mintmarks are found below the wreath.
Every U.S. denomination boasts a number of major rarities. The three-dollar gold coinage of 1854-1889 is studded with so many low-mintage dates that the entire series may fairly be called rare. In mint state 1878 is the most common date, followed by the 1879, 1888, 1854 and 1889 issues. Every other date is very rare in high grade, particularly 1858, 1865, 1873 Closed 3 and all the San Francisco issues. Minuscule mintages were the rule in the later years. Proof coins prior to 1859 are extremely rare and more difficult to find than the proof-only issues of 1873 Open 3, 1875 and 1876, but many dates are even rarer in the higher Mint State grades. This is because at least some proofs were saved by well- heeled collectors while few lower-budget collectors showed any interest in higher-grade business strikes of later-date gold. Counterfeits are known for many dates; any suspicious piece should be authenticated.
The rarest date of all is the unique 1870-S, of which only one example was struck for inclusion in the new Mint's cornerstone. Either the coin escaped, or a second was struck as a pocket piece for San Francisco Mint Coiner J.B. Harmstead. In any event, one coin showing traces of jewelry use surfaced in the numismatic market in 1907. It was sold to prominent collector William H. Woodin, and when Thomas L. Elder sold the Woodin collection in 1911, the coin went to Baltimore's Waldo C. Newcomer. Later owned by Virgil Brand, it was next sold by Ted and Carl Brandts of Ohio's Celina Coin Co. and Stack's of New York to Louis C. Eliasberg in 1946 for $11,500. In Bowers and Merena's October 1982 sale of the U.S. Gold Collection, this famous coin sold for a record $687,500.
The three-dollar denomination quietly expired in 1889 along with the gold dollar and nickel three-cent piece. America's coinage was certainly more prosaic without this odd denomination gold piece, but its future popularity with collectors would vastly outstrip the lukewarm public reception it enjoyed during its circulating life.
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Rainy Day Painting
Create your very own creepy, haunted castle sitting in a turbulent field of flowing grass, eerily surrounded by dark, ominous clouds.
Fireworks are such an exciting part of part of summer festivities, but it's sad when the show is over. Keep them alive all year long with watercolor fireworks.
Show your high schooler how to celebrate Mary Cassatt, an Impressionist painter, by creating a mother-child painting in her style.
Put your individual fingerprint on the 100th Day of School (literally!) with this activity.
Show your preschooler how to make a print of a butterfly using her hand as a tool--a great way to stimulate her sense of touch.
Use marbles and paint to explore the wild world of shapes and color...and build kindergarten writing strength, too.
Introduce your kindergartener to some art history by showing him how to create an everyday object print, Andy Warhol-style.
Celebrate the changing seasons with this fun, hands-on art activity that will teach your child about the different colors of the seasons.
Help your preschooler begin reading and writing the printed word by connecting simple letter recognition exercises with this easy art project: alphabet trees!
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http://www.education.com/collection/zapkode/rainy-day-painting/
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the energy [r]evolution
The climate change imperative demands nothing short of an Energy [R]evolution. The expert consensus is that this fundamental shift must begin immediately and be well underway within the next ten years in order to avert the worst impacts. What is needed is a complete transformation of the way we produce, consume and distribute energy, while at the same time maintaining economic growth. Nothing short of such a revolution will enable us to limit global warming to less than a rise in temperature of 2° Celsius, above which the impacts become devastating.
Current electricity generation relies mainly on burning fossil fuels, with their associated CO2 emissions, in very large power stations which waste much of their primary input energy. More energy is lost as the power is moved around the electricity grid network and converted from high transmission voltage down to a supply suitable for domestic or commercial consumers. The system is innately vulnerable to disruption: localised technical, weather-related or even deliberately caused faults can quickly cascade, resulting in widespread blackouts. Whichever technology is used to generate electricity within this old fashioned configuration, it will inevitably be subject to some, or all, of these problems. At the core of the Energy [R]evolution there therefore needs to be a change in the way that energy is both produced and distributed.
4.1 key principles
the energy [r]evolution can be achieved by adhering to five key principles:
1.respect natural limits – phase out fossil fuels by the end of this century We must learn to respect natural limits. There is only so much carbon that the atmosphere can absorb. Each year humans emit over 25 billion tonnes of carbon equivalent; we are literally filling up the sky. Geological resources of coal could provide several hundred years of fuel, but we cannot burn them and keep within safe limits. Oil and coal development must be ended. The global Energy [R]evolution scenario has a target to reduce energy related CO2 emissions to a maximum of 10 Gigatonnes (Gt) by 2050 and phase out fossil fuels by 2085.
2.equity and fairness As long as there are natural limits there needs to be a fair distribution of benefits and costs within societies, between nations and between present and future generations. At one extreme, a third of the world’s population has no access to electricity, whilst the most industrialised countries consume much more than their fair share.
The effects of climate change on the poorest communities are exacerbated by massive global energy inequality. If we are to address climate change, one of the core principles must be equity and fairness, so that the benefits of energy services – such as light, heat, power and transport – are available for all: north and south, rich and poor. Only in this way can we create true energy security, as well as the conditions for genuine human wellbeing.
The Advanced Energy [R]evolution scenario has a target to achieve energy equity as soon as technically possible. By 2050 the average per capita emission should be between 1 and 2 tonnes of CO2.
3.implement clean, renewable solutions and decentralise energy systems. There is no energy shortage. All we need to do is use existing technologies to harness energy effectively and efficiently. Renewable energy and energy efficiency measures are ready, viable and increasingly competitive. Wind, solar and other renewable energy technologies have experienced double digit market growth for the past decade.
Just as climate change is real, so is the renewable energy sector. Sustainable decentralised energy systems produce less carbon emissions, are cheaper and involve less dependence on imported fuel. They create more jobs and empower local communities. Decentralised systems are more secure and more efficient. This is what the Energy [R]evolution must aim to create.
To stop the earth’s climate spinning out of control, most of the world’s fossil fuel reserves – coal, oil and gas – must remain in the ground. Our goal is for humans to live within the natural limits of our small planet.
4.decouple growth from fossil fuel use Starting in the developed countries, economic growth must be fully decoupled from fossil fuel usage. It is a fallacy to suggest that economic growth must be predicated on their increased combustion.
We need to use the energy we produce much more efficiently, and we need to make the transition to renewable energy and away from fossil fuels quickly in order to enable clean and sustainable growth.
5.phase out dirty, unsustainable energyWe need to phase out coal and nuclear power. We cannot continue to build coal plants at a time when emissions pose a real and present danger to both ecosystems and people. And we cannot continue to fuel the myriad nuclear threats by pretending nuclear power can in any way help to combat climate change. There is no role for nuclear power in the Energy [R]evolution.
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Gay and Lesbian Issues
The adolescent years are full of challenges, many related to sex and sexual identity. These issues can be especially difficult for teens who are (or think they may be) homosexual. Homosexual teens deserve the same understanding and respect as heterosexual teens, and it is important for everyone to know the facts about homosexuality. Here are the basics.
Each of us has a biological sex (we have a male or female body), a gender identity (we feel like a male or female), and a sexual orientation (we are attracted to males or females). Homosexuality refers to a person's sexual orientation; homosexual teen-agers have strong romantic or sexual feelings for a person of the same sex. Heterosexual teen-agers are attracted to people of the opposite sex, and bisexual teens are attracted to people of both sexes.
The word "gay" is used to describe both men and women who are homosexual, with the word "lesbian" specifically referring to a homosexual woman. It is estimated that 10 percent of the population in the United States and throughout the world is lesbian or gay.
Although scientists don't know why some people are homosexual and others are not, most believe that homosexuality is a normal variation of sexual orientation. It may be genetic, result from natural substances (hormones) in the body, be influenced by the environment before or after birth, or, most likely, several of these things working in combination. Homosexual teens are found in all types of families. Homosexuality is not caused by "bad parenting." If your teen is gay, it is not because of anything you or anyone else did.
Homosexuality also is not something a person chooses, nor is it an illness that can be cured. According to the American Psychiatric Association, so-called therapies such as "reparative therapy" and "transformational ministry" don't work and actually can be harmful, causing guilt and anxiety in homosexual teens.
Not all teen-agers who are attracted to members of the same sex are homosexual. Many teens experiment with their sexuality during adolescence, in much the same way that they experiment with clothing, body art or music. This brief sexual experimentation is thought to be a normal part of sexual development. For homosexual teens, the attraction to people of the same sex is stronger and longer lasting.
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Every family is different. While one parent may find out by chance that a teen is homosexual, others may hear directly from their teen in person, in a letter or by a phone call. When a teen tells other people that he is homosexual, it's called "coming out." Although this process sometimes can be difficult or painful for families, it also can be a time of tremendous growth. It is important to remember that all teens need their family's support and acceptance, especially when they are dealing with sensitive issues.
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"Coming out" can be scary and painful, and parents need to reassure their children that they will not be loved any less for sharing the truth about themselves. If your teen tells you he is gay, let him know that you love him unconditionally, and accept him no matter what.
Show your teen that you care by learning more about homosexuality. Read books on the subject or check out reputable Web sites (such as www.pflag.org). Talk to some adults you know who are gay. Look for organizations or support groups in your community that can give you information on homosexuality. It will be easier for you to support your teen when you know more and are comfortable with the subject.
Parents may worry about how friends, neighbors and family will react to their teen's homosexuality. It is usually best not to share any information without your teen-ager's permission. Unfortunately, prejudice against homosexuals is widespread, mostly due to ignorance and fear. When your teen is ready for you to let others know, you should talk with them about your teen's sexual orientation and help them to understand, by using what you have learned.
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Growing up as a homosexual in a mostly heterosexual society often is not easy. Gay and lesbian adolescents sometimes must cope with unfair, prejudiced, and even violent behavior at school, at home and in the community. They may feel fear or be alone and unsupported. This can push some teens to use drugs and alcohol, engage in risky sexual behavior, or even attempt suicide. It is important that homosexual teens feel supported by their parents and always able to talk openly with them about these issues.
Overall, most gay and lesbian youth grow up to be well-adjusted and happy adults, with successful careers and family lives.
Books for parents of the newly out:
"Is it A Choice? Answers to 300 Most Asked Questions About Gay and Lesbian People" by Eric Marcus
"Loving Someone Gay" by Don Clark, Ph.D.
"My Child is Gay" by Bryce McDougall, editor
Last updated May 29, 2011
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Ulva spp. on freshwater-influenced or unstable upper eulittoral rock
Ecological and functional relationships
The community predominantly consists of algae which cover the rock surface and creates a patchy canopy. In doing so, the algae provides an amenable habitat in an otherwise hostile environment, exploitable on a temporary basis by other species. For instance, Ulva intestinalis provides shelter for the orange harpacticoid copepod, Tigriopus brevicornis, and the chironomid larva of Halocladius fucicola (McAllen, 1999). The copepod and chironomid species utilize the hollow thalli of Ulva intestinalis as a moist refuge from desiccation when rockpools completely dry. Several hundred individuals of Tigriopus brevicornis have been observed in a single thallus of Ulva intestinalis (McAllen, 1999). The occasional grazing gastropods that survive in this biotope no doubt graze Ulva.
Seasonal and longer term change
- During the winter, elevated levels of freshwater runoff would be expected owing to seasonal rainfall. Also, winter storm action may disturb the relatively soft substratum of chalk and firm mud, or boulders may be overturned.
- Seasonal fluctuation in the abundance of Ulva spp. Would therefore be expected with the biotope thriving in winter months. Porphyra also tends to be regarded as a winter seaweed, abundant from late autumn to the succeeding spring, owing to the fact that the blade shaped fronds of the gametophyte develop in early autumn, whilst the microscopic filamentous stages of the spring and summer are less apparent (see recruitment process, below).
Habitat structure and complexity
Habitat complexity in this biotope is relatively limited in comparison to other biotopes. The upper shore substrata, consisting of chalk, firm mud, bedrock or boulders, will probably offer a variety of surfaces for colonization, whilst the patchy covering of ephemeral algae provides a refuge for faunal species and an additional substratum for colonization. However, species diversity in this biotope is poor owing to disturbance and changes in the prevailing environmental factors, e.g. desiccation, salinity and temperature. Only species able to tolerate changes/disturbance or those able to seek refuge will thrive.
The biotope is characterized by primary producers. Rocky shore communities are highly productive and are an important source of food and nutrients for neighbouring terrestrial and marine ecosystems (Hill et al., 1998). Macroalgae exude considerable amounts of dissolved organic carbon which is taken up readily by bacteria and may even be taken up directly by some larger invertebrates. Dissolved organic carbon, algal fragments and microbial film organisms are continually removed by the sea. This may enter the food chain of local, subtidal ecosystems, or be exported further offshore. Rocky shores make a contribution to the food of many marine species through the production of planktonic larvae and propagules which contribute to pelagic food chains.
The life histories of common algae on the shore are generally complex and varied, but follow a basic pattern, whereby there is an alternation of a haploid, gamete-producing phase (gametophyte-producing eggs and sperm) and a diploid spore-producing (sporophyte) phase. All have dispersive phases which are circulated around in the water column before settling on the rock and growing into a germling (Hawkins & Jones, 1992).
Ulva intestinalis is generally considered to be an opportunistic species, with an 'r-type' strategy for survival. The r-strategists have a high growth rate and high reproductive rate. For instance, the thalli of Ulva intestinalis, which arise from spores and zygotes, grow within a few weeks into thalli that reproduce again, and the majority of the cell contents are converted into reproductive cells. The species is also capable of dispersal over a considerable distance. For instance, Amsler & Searles (1980) showed that 'swarmers' of a coastal population of Ulva reached exposed artificial substrata on a submarine plateau 35 km away.
The life cycle of Porphyra involves a heteromorphic (of different form) alternation of generations, that are either blade shaped or filamentous. Two kinds of reproductive bodies (male and female (carpogonium)) are found on the blade shaped frond of Porphyra that is abundant during winter. On release these fuse and thereafter, division of the fertilized carpogonium is mitotic, and packets of diploid carpospores are formed. The released carpospores develop into the 'conchocelis' phase (the diploid sporophyte consisting of microscopic filaments), which bore into shells (and probably the chalk rock) and grow vegetatively. The conchocelis filaments reproduce asexually. In the presence of decreasing day length and falling temperatures, terminal cells of the conchocelis phase produce conchospores inside conchosporangia. Meiosis occurs during the germination of the conchospore and produces the macroscopic gametophyte (blade shaped phase) and the cycle is repeated (Cole & Conway, 1980).
Time for community to reach maturity
Disturbance is an important factor structuring the biotope, consequently the biotope is characterized by ephemeral algae able to rapidly exploit newly available substrata and that are tolerant of changes in the prevailing conditions, e.g. temperature, salinity and desiccation. For instance, following the Torrey Canyon tanker oil spill in mid March 1967, which bleached filamentous algae such as Ulva and adhered to the thin fronds of Porphyra, which after a few weeks became brittle and were washed away, regeneration of Porphyra and Ulva was noted by the end of April at Marazion, Cornwall. Similarly, at Sennen Cove where rocks had completely lost their cover of Porphyra and Ulva during April, by mid-May had occasional blade-shaped fronds of Porphyra sp. up to 15 cm long. These had either regenerated from basal parts of the 'Porphyra' phase or from the 'conchocelis' phase on the rocks (see recruitment processes). By mid-August these regenerated specimens were common and well grown but darkly pigmented and reproductively immature. Besides the Porphyra, a very thick coating of Ulva (as Enteromorpha) was recorded in mid-August (Smith 1968). Such evidence suggests that the community would reach maturity relatively rapidly and probably be considered mature in terms of the species present and ability to reproduce well within six months.
No text entered.
This review can be cited as follows:
Ulva spp. on freshwater-influenced or unstable upper eulittoral rock.
Marine Life Information Network: Biology and Sensitivity Key Information Sub-programme [on-line].
Plymouth: Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom.
Available from: <http://www.marlin.ac.uk/habitatecology.php?habitatid=104&code=2004>
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History of the Indians of the United States
by Angie Debo
The political, social, and military conflicts and foul-ups between the Indians and whites from the colonial era to the 1970s.
6 x 9 450 pages, index, maps, illustrated, paperbound
#300 Indians in the US $24.95
by Barry C. Kent
Culturally and linguistically, the Susquehannocks closely resembled the Iroquois of New York state. Actually, they were a fiercely independent nation that lived along the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania and Maryland. They often invaded the tribes of lower Maryland. This is a detailed narrative of the Susquehannocks' lifestyle, villages,
and artifacts. Also describes their relationship with the Conestogas, Conoy, Shawnee, Delaware, and other tribes that lived along the river.
6" x 9" 440 pages, index, illustrated, maps, paperbound
#372 Susquehanna's Indians $16.95
Indians and World War II
by Alison R. Bernstein
The impact of World War II on Indian affairs was more provound and lasting than that of any other event or policy, including FDR's Indian New Deal and eforts to terminate federal responsibility for tribes under Eisenhower. Focusing on the period from 1941 to 1947, Bernstein explains why termination and tribal self-determination wer logical results of the Indians' World War II experiences in battle and on the home front. Includes a brief story of the Navajo Marine Codetalkers and Ira Hayes, a Pima Indian who helped raise the flag at Iwo Jima.
5½" x 8½" 247 pages, index, some photos, paperbound
#373 Indians & WWII $19.95
FAX: 717 464-3250
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January 23, 2007:
The paper by researchers at Yale, the University of Winnipeg, Stony Brook University, and led by University of Florida paleontologist Jonathan Bloch reconstructs the base of the primate family tree by comparing skeletal and fossil specimens representing more than 85 modern and extinct species. The team also discovered two 56-million-year-old fossils, including the most primitive primate skeleton ever described.
In the two-part study, an extensive evaluation of skeletal structures provides evidence that plesiadapiforms, a group of archaic mammals once thought to be more closely related to flying lemurs, are the most primitive primates. The team analyzed 173 characteristics of modern primates, tree shrews, flying lemurs with plesiadapiform skeletons to determine their evolutionary relationships. High-resolution CT scanning made fine resolution of inaccessible structures inside the skulls possible.
"This is the first study to bring it all together," said co-author Eric Sargis, associate professor of anthropology at Yale University and Assistant Curator of Vertebrate Zoology at Yale's Peabody Museum of Natural History. "The extensive dataset, the number and type of characteristics we were able to compare, and the availability of full skeletons, let us test far more than any previous study."
At least five major features characterize modern primates: relatively large brains, enhanced vision and eyes that face forward, a specialized ability to leap, nails instead of claws on at least the first toes, and specialized grasping hands and feet. Plesiadapiforms have some but not all of these traits. The article argues that these early primates may have acquired the traits over 10 million years in incremental changes to exploit their environment.
While the study did not include a molecular evaluation of the samples, according to Sargis, these results are consistent with molecular studies on related living groups. Compatibility with the independent molecular data increases the researchers' confidence in their own results.
Bloch discovered the new plesiadapiform species, Ignacius clarkforkensis and Dryomomys szalayi, just outside Yellowstone National Park in the Bighorn Basin with co-author Doug Boyer, a graduate student in anatomical sciences at Stony Brook. Previously, based only on skulls and isolated bones, scientists proposed that Ignacius was not an archaic primate, but instead a gliding mammal related to flying lemurs. However, analysis of a more complete and well-preserved skeleton by Bloch and his team altered this idea.
"These fossil finds from Wyoming show that our earliest primate ancestors were the size of a mouse, ate fruit and lived in the trees," said study leader Jonathan Bloch, a vertebrate paleontology curator at the Florida Museum of Natural History. "It is remarkable to think we are still discovering new fossil species in an area studied by paleontologists for over 100 years."
Researchers previously hypothesized plesiadapiforms as the ancestors of modern primates, but the idea generated strong debate within the primatology community. This study places the origins of Plesiadapiforms in the Paleocene, about 65 (million) to 55 million years ago in the period between the extinction of the dinosaurs and the first appearance of a number of undisputed members of the modern orders of mammals.
"Plesiadapiforms have long been one of the most controversial groups in mammalian phylogeny," said Michael J. Novacek, curator of paleontology at the American Museum of Natural History. "First, they are somewhere near primates and us. Second, historically they have offered tantalizing, but very often incomplete, fossil evidence. But the specimens in their study are beautifully and spectacularly preserved."
"The results of this study suggest that plesiadapiforms are the critical taxa to study in understanding the earliest phases of human evolution. As such, they should be of very broad interest to biologists, paleontologists, and anthropologists," said co-author Mary Silcox, professor of anthropology at the University of Winnipeg.
"This collaboration is the first to bring together evidence from all regions of the skeleton, and offers a well-supported perspective on the structure of the earliest part of the primate family tree," Bloch said.
The research was supported by grants from the National Science Foundation, Field Museum of Natural History, Yale University, Sigma Xi Scientific Research Society, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (Canada), University of Winnipeg, the Paleobiological Fund, and The Wenner--Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research.
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What is Rainwater Harvesting?
Rainwater harvesting is an ancient practice of catching and holding rain for later use. In a rainwater harvesting system, rain is gathered from a building rooftop or other source and is held in large containers for future use, such as watering gardens or washing cars. This practice reduces the demand on water resources and is excellent during times of drought.
Why is it Important?
In addition to reducing the demand on our water sources (especially important during drought), rainwater harvesting also helps prevent water pollution. Surprised?
Here’s why: the success of the 1972 Clean Water Act has meant that the greatest threat to New York’s waterbodies comes not from industrial sources, but rather through the small actions we all make in our daily lives. For example, in a rain storm, the oil, pesticides, animal waste, and litter from our lawns, sidewalks, driveways, and streets are washed down into our sewers. This is called non-point source (NPS) pollution because the pollutants come from too many sources to be identified. Rainwater harvesting diverts water from becoming polluted stormwater; instead, this captured rainwater may be used to irrigate gardens near where it falls.
In New York City, keeping rainwater out of the sewer system is very important. That’s because the city has an old combined sewer system that uses the same pipes to transport both household waste and stormwater to sewage treatment plants. During heavy rains, the system overloads; then untreated sewage and contaminated stormwater overflow into our rivers and estuary, with serious consequences:
Who is Harvesting Rainwater in New York City?
Back in 2002, a drought emergency pushed many community gardens to the brink of extinction. For the first time in twenty years, community gardeners were denied permission to use fire hydrants, the primary source of water for most community gardens. This crisis led to the formation of the Water Resources Group (WRG), an open collaboration of community gardening and environmental organizations. With help from the WRG, rainwater harvesting systems have now been built as demonstration sites in twenty NYC community gardens.
At community gardens that harvest rainwater, rain is diverted from the gutters of adjacent buildings and is stored in tanks in the gardens. A 1-inch rainfall on a 1,000-square-foot roof produces 600 gallons of water. The tanks are mosquito proof, so the standing water does not encourage West Nile virus. Because rainwater is chlorine free, it is better than tap water for plant growth, meaning healthier plants. And it’s free!
What are Other Cities Doing?
Many cities have adopted creative, low-cost ways to stop wasting rainwater by diverting it from their sewage systems and putting it to use where it falls. Here are some examples:
What Can I Do?
Spread the word! Educate those around you on the importance of lifestyle decisions.
Tell people not to litter, dump oil down storm drains, or overfertilize their lawns.
Install a rainwater harvesting system at your home, school, business, or local community center.
Contact your local elected officials, and let them know you support rainwater harvesting!
Supporting rainwater harvesting Jade Boat Loans
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Intellectual disability begins in childhood. People with intellectual disability have limits in their mental functioning seen in below-average intelligence (IQ) tests and in their ability to communicate, socialize, and take care of their everyday needs. The degree of disability can vary from person to person. It can be categorized as mild, moderate, severe, or profound.
Some causes of intellectual disability can be prevented with proper medical care. Children diagnosed with an intellectual disability are most successful when they get help early in life. If you suspect that your child may have an intellectual disability, contact your doctor.
Several hundred causes of intellectual disability have been discovered, but many are still unknown. The most common ones are:
Biomedical causes resulting from:
- Abnormal genes inherited from parents
- Errors when genes combine, such as Down syndrome and Fragile X syndrome
- Nutritional deficiencies
- Metabolic conditions, such as phenylketonuria (PKU), galactosemia , and congenital hypothyroidism
- Developmental brain abnormality, such as hydrocephalus and brain malformation
- Infections during pregnancy, such as:
- Behavioral issues during pregnancy, such as:
Problems at birth, such as:
- Premature delivery or low birth weight
- Baby doesn’t get enough oxygen during birth
- Baby is injured during birth
Factors during childhood, such as:
- Nutritional deficiencies
- Illnesses or infections that affect the brain, including meningitis , encephalitis , chickenpox , whooping cough , and measles
- Exposure to lead , mercury , and other toxins
- Head injury or near drowning
- Social factors, such as child stimulation and adult responsiveness
- Educational deficiencies
A child could be at higher risk for intellectual disability due to any of the causes listed above, or due to intellectual disability in other family members. If you are concerned that your child is at risk, tell your child's doctor.
Symptoms appear before a child reaches age 18. Symptoms vary depending on the degree of the intellectual disability. If you think your child has any of these symptoms, do not assume it is due to intellectual disability. These symptoms may be caused by other, less serious health conditions.
- Learning and developing more slowly than other children of the same age
- Difficulty communicating or socializing with others
- Lower than average scores on IQ tests
- Trouble learning in school
- Inability to do everyday things like getting dressed or using the bathroom without help
- Difficulty hearing, seeing, walking, or talking
- Inability to think logically
The following categories are often used to describe the level of intellectual disability:
- IQ 50-70
- Slower than normal in all areas
- No unusual physical signs
- Can learn practical skills
- Reading and math skills up to grades 3-6
- Can conform socially
- Can learn daily task skills
- Functions in society
- IQ 35-49
- Noticeable delays, particularly speech
- May have unusual physical signs
- Can learn simple communication
- Can learn elementary health and safety skills
- Can participate in simple activities and self-care
- Can perform supervised tasks
- Can travel alone to familiar places
- IQ 20-34
- Significant delays in some areas; may walk late
- Little or no communication skills, but some understanding of speech with some response
- Can be taught daily routines and repetitive activities
- May be trained in simple self-care
- Needs direction and supervision socially
- IQ <20
- Significant delays in all areas
- Congenital abnormalities present
- Needs close supervision
- Requires attendant care
- May respond to regular physical and social activity
- Not capable of self-care
If you suspect your child is not developing skills on time, tell the doctor as soon as possible. Your doctor will ask about your child’s symptoms and medical history. A physical exam will be done. Standardized tests may be given that measure:
- Intelligence—IQ tests measure a person’s ability to do things such as think abstractly, learn, and solve problems. A child may have intellectual disability if IQ test results are 70 or below.
Adaptive behavior—These are skills needed to function in everyday life, including:
- Conceptual skills like reading and writing
- Social skills like responsibility and self-esteem
- Practical skills like the ability to eat, use the bathroom, and get dressed
Children with intellectual disability have a higher risk for other disabilities such as hearing impairment , visual problems, seizures , attention deficit hyperactivity disorder , or orthopaedic conditions. Additional testing may be needed to check for other conditions.
Talk with your doctor about the best treatment plan for your child. Treatment is most helpful if it begins as early as possible. Treatment includes:
- Early intervention programming for infants and toddlers up to age three
- Family counseling
- Human development training, including emotional skills and hand-eye coordination
- Special education programs
- Life skills training, such as preparing food, bathing
- Job coaching
- Social opportunities
- Housing services
To help reduce your child’s chance of becoming intellectually disabled, take the following steps:
- During pregnancy:
- Have your newborn screened for conditions that may produce intellectual disability.
- Have your child properly immunized .
- Schedule regular visits to the pediatrician.
- Use child safety seats and bicycle helmets.
- Remove lead-based paint from your home.
- Keep poisonous household products out of reach .
- Aspirin is not recommended for children or teens with a current or recent viral infection. This is because of the risk of Reye's syndrome , which can cause neurological problems. Ask your doctor which medicines are safe for your child.
- Reviewer: Rimas Lukas, MD
- Review Date: 03/2013 -
- Update Date: 00/31/2013 -
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12. June 2012 10:55
Retinal hemorrhage occurs when the blood vessels in the retina get damaged or ruptured, leading to abnormal bleeding. The retina, which is composed of rods and cones is the region of the eye responsible for sensitivity to light, and vision. The retinal vein and artery, along with a dense network of capillaries, are responsible for transmitting the blood supply to the retina. When these blood vessels are damaged, due to any reason, this affects the blood supply to the retina, which in turn leads to a decrease in visual acuity. Diabetic retinopathy is the leading cause of blindness in people aged between 20 and 65.
The dense network of cells in the retina is extremely sensitive, and can be damaged with even a slight trauma.
The causes due to which this damage might occur include:
- High blood pressure
- Forceful blows in the head region
- Child abuse in infants
- Improper development of blood vessels in infants born prematurely
- Blurred vision
- Spotted vision
- Lines in the field of vision
- Blind spots
- Distorted vision
- Progressive vision loss
- The disease is diagnosed by an ophthalmologist, who uses an opthalmoscope to examine the internal structure of the eye.
- Another method that is commonly used to detect the abnormalities in the blood vessels is a fluorescein angiography test, in which a fluorescent dye is injected into the patient’s bloodstream, after which photographs are clicked to view the blood vessels.
- In some cases, the physician might also order for a blood test to be performed.
- The disorder is self-limiting in most patients, with more than 85% cases healing on their own.
- The most common treatment for retinal hemorrhages is laser treatment, in which a laser beam is used to remove the affected blood vessels.
- If the disease is caused by some underlying medical condition like diabetes or hypertension, the treatment focuses on eliminating that disorder.
- Injection of anti-VEGF drugs like Avestin has been found to be effective in the treatment of hemorrhages associated with the growth of new vessels.
- The administration of various nutritional and herbal supplements like antioxidants, omega-3-rich foods, antioxidant vitamins, zinc, lutein, pine bark extract, grape seed extract, etc. has also been found to be effective in improving the symptoms of the disease.
We at Killeen Eyecare center are renowned throughout Killeen for providing the highest quality eye care to all our patients. We help them maintain healthy eyes and treat various eye diseases using most sophisticated instruments. For more details, you can visit us at 416 North Gray Street, Killeen, TX 76541, Downtown Killeen or call at 254-634-7805.
Eye Doctor Killeen - Eye Doctor Fort Hood
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http://killeeneyecarecenter.com/blog/post/Retinal-Hemorrhage-Symptoms-Diagnosis-And-Treatment.aspx
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Types of literature
PRIMARY SOURCES are publications that report the results of original research. They may be in the form of conference papers, monographic series, technical reports, theses and dissertations, or journal articles. Because they present information in its original form (that is, it has not been interpreted or condensed or otherwise “repackaged” by other writers), these are considered primary sources. The works present new thinking/discoveries/results and unite them with the existing knowledge base. Journal articles that report original research are one of the more common and important steps in the information sharing cycle. They often go through a process in which they are “peer reviewed” by other experts who evaluate the work and findings before publication.
SECONDARY SOURCES are those which are published about the primary literature, that generalize, analyze, interpret, evaluate or otherwise “add value” to the original information, OR which simplify the process of finding and evaluating the primary literature. Some examples of secondary sources are “review” articles and indexes or bibliographies, such as PubMed or the ScienceDirect.
TERTIARY SOURCES compile or digest information from primary or secondary sources that has become widely accepted. They aim to provide a broad overview of a topic, or data, already proven facts, and definitions, often presented in a convenient form. They provide no new information. These include “reference” types of works such as textbooks, encyclopedias, fact books, guides and handbooks, and computer databases such as The Handbook of the Microbiological Media and SciFinder.
GRAY LITERATURE are source materials not available through the usual systems of publication (e.g., books or periodicals) and distribution. Gray literature includes conference proceedings, dissertations, technical reports, and working papers. Locating this type of literature is a little more difficult, but there are finding tools such as Dissertations Abstracts and PapersFirst.
What is a literature review?
A literature review discusses published information in a particular subject area, and sometimes information in a particular subject area within a certain time period.
A literature review can be just a simple summary of the sources, but it usually has an organizational pattern and combines both summary and synthesis. A summary is a recap of the important information of the source, but a synthesis is a re-organization, or a reshuffling, of that information. It might give a new interpretation of old material or combine new with old interpretations. Or it might trace the intellectual progression of the field, including major debates. And depending on the situation, the literature review may evaluate the sources and advise the reader on the most pertinent or relevant.
But how is a literature review different from an academic research paper?
While the main focus of an academic research paper is to support your own argument, the focus of a literature review is to summarize and synthesize the arguments and ideas of others. The academic research paper also covers a range of sources, but it is usually a select number of sources, because the emphasis is on the argument. Likewise, a literature review can also have an "argument," but it is not as important as covering a number of sources. In short, an academic research paper and a literature review contain some of the same elements. In fact, many academic research papers will contain a literature review section. But it is the aspect of the study (the argument or the sources) that is emphasized that determines what type of document it is.
Why do we write literature reviews?
Literature reviews provide you with a handy guide to a particular topic. If you have limited time to conduct research, literature reviews can give you an overview or act as a stepping stone. For professionals, they are useful reports that keep them up to date with what is current in the field. For scholars, the depth and breadth of the literature review emphasizes the credibility of the writer in his or her field. Literature reviews also provide a solid background for a research paper's investigation. Comprehensive knowledge of the literature of the field is essential to most research papers.
Who writes these things, anyway?
Literature reviews are written occasionally in the humanities, but mostly in the sciences and social sciences; in experiment and lab reports, they constitute a section of the paper. Sometimes a literature review is written as a paper in itself.
Excerpt from “Literature Reviews” from The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (http://writingcenter.unc.edu/resources/handouts-demos/specific-writing-assignments/literature-reviews), 2007.
Collection Development Librarian
1014 Boswell Ave.
Crete NE 68333
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<urn:uuid:36c1f567-48f3-46f4-b9c2-332bfdf4d2b6>
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http://libguides.doane.edu/biosem
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The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft is expected to discover its 1,000TH comet this summer.
The SOHO spacecraft is a joint effort between NASA and the European Space Agency. It has accounted for approximately one-half of all comet discoveries with computed orbits in the history of astronomy.
"Before SOHO was launched, only 16 sun grazing comets had been discovered by space observatories. Based on that experience, who could have predicted SOHO would discover more than 60 times that number, and in only nine years," said Dr. Chris St. Cyr. He is senior project scientist for NASA's Living With a Star program at the agency's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. "This is truly a remarkable achievement!"
About 85 percent of the comets SOHO discovered belongs to the Kreutz group of sun grazing comets, so named because their orbits take them very close to Earth's star. The Kreutz sun grazers pass within 500,000 miles of the star's visible surface. Mercury, the planet closest to the sun, is about 36 million miles from the solar surface.
SOHO has also been used to discover three other well-populated comet groups: the Meyer, with at least 55 members; Marsden, with at least 21 members; and the Kracht, with 24 members. These groups are named after the astronomers who suggested the comets are related, because they have similar orbits.
Many comet discoveries were made by amateurs using SOHO images on the Internet. SOHO comet hunters come from all over the world. The United States, United Kingdom, China, Japan, Taiwan, Russia, Ukraine, France, Germany, and Lithuania are among the many countries whose citizens have used SOHO to chase comets.
Almost all of SOHO's comets are discovered using images from its Large Angle and Spectrometric Coronagraph (LASCO) instrument. LASCO is used to observe the faint, multimillion-degree outer atmosphere of the sun, called the corona. A disk in the instrument is used to make an artificial eclipse, blocking direct light from the sun, so the much fainter corona can be seen. Sun grazing comets are discovered when they enter LASCO's field of view as they pass close by the star.
"Building coronagraphs like LASCO is still more art than science, because the light we are trying to detect is very faint," said Dr. Joe Gurman, U.S. project scientist for SOHO at Goddard. "Any imperfections in the optics or dust in the instrument will scatter the light, making the images too noisy to be useful. Discovering almost 1,000 comets since SOHO's launch on December 2, 1995 is a testament to the skill of the LASCO team."
SOHO successfully completed its primary mission in April 1998. It has enough fuel to remain on station to keep hunting comets for decades if the LASCO continues to function.
For information about SOHO on the Internet, visit:
Explore further: Long-term warming, short-term variability: Why climate change is still an issue
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While any kind of dog can attack, some breeds are more prone to attacks than others. In fact, some dogs are more likely than others to kill humans.
The Centers of Disease Control estimates that more than 4.7 million people are bitten by dogs every year. Of those, 20 percent require medical attention.
In a 15-year study (1979-1994) a total of 239 deaths were reported as a result of injuries from dog attacks in the United States. Through its research, the CDC compiled a list of the dogs most responsible for human fatalities. They are as follows:
The study found that most dog-bite-related deaths happened to children. But, according to the CDC there are steps children (and adults) can take cut down the risk of a dog attack from family pets as well as dogs they are not familiar with:
-Don't approach an unfamiliar dog.
-If an unfamiliar dog approaches you, stay motionless.
-Don't run from a dog or scream.
-If a dog knocks you down, roll into a ball and stay still.
-Avoid looking directly into a dog's eyes.
-Leave a dog alone that is sleeping, eating or taking care of puppies.
-Let a dog see and sniff you before petting it.
-Don't play with a dog unless there is an adult present.
-If a dog bites you, tell an adult immediately.
But, the CDC's report says most attacks are preventable in three ways:
1. "Owner and public education. Dog owners, through proper selection, socialization, training, care, and treatment of a dog, can reduce the likelihood of owning a dog that will eventually bite. Male and unspayed/unneutered dogs are more likely to bite than are female and spayed/neutered dogs."
2. "Animal control at the community level. Animal-control programs should be supported, and laws for regulating dangerous or vicious dogs should be promulgated and enforced vigorously. For example, in this report, 30% of dog-bite-related deaths resulted from groups of owned dogs that were free roaming off the owner's property."
3. "Bite reporting. Evaluation of prevention efforts requires improved surveillance for dog bites. Dog bites should be reported as required by local or state ordinances, and reports of such incidents should include information about the circumstances of the bite; ownership, breed, sex, age, spay/neuter status, and history of prior aggression of the animal; and the nature of restraint before the bite incident."
CDC officials did make one important note about its list: The reporting of the breed was subjective. There is no way to determine if the identification of the breed was correct. Also, there is no way to verify if the dog was a purebred or a mixed breed.
Copyright 2011 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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Glucose is a type of sugar. It comes from food, and is also created in the liver. Glucose travels through the body in the blood. It moves from the blood to cells with the help of a hormone called insulin. Once glucose is in those cells, it can be used for energy.
Diabetes is a condition that makes it difficult for the body to use glucose. This causes a buildup of glucose in the blood. It also means the body is not getting enough energy. Type 2 diabetes is one type of diabetes. It is the most common type.
Medication, lifestyle changes, and monitoring can help control blood glucose levels.
Type 2 diabetes is often caused by a combination of factors. One factor is that your body begins to make less insulin. A second factor is that your body becomes resistant to insulin. This means there is insulin in your body, but your body cannot use it effectively. Insulin resistance is often related to excess body fat.
The doctor will ask about your symptoms and medical history. You will also be asked about your family history. A physical exam will be done.
Diagnosis is based on the results of blood testing. American Diabetes Association (ADA) recommends diagnosis be made if you have one of the following:
Symptoms of diabetes and a
random blood test
with a blood sugar level greater than or equal to 200 mg/dL (11.1 mmol/L)
- Fasting blood sugar test—Done after you have not eaten for eight or more hours—Showing blood sugar levels greater than or equal to 126 mg/dL (7 mmol/L) on two different days
- Glucose tolerance test—Measuring blood sugar two hours after you eat glucose—Showing glucose levels greater than or equal to 200 mg/dL (11.1 mmol/L)
- HbA1c level of 6.5% or higher—Indicates poor blood sugar control over the past 2-4 months
mg/dL = milligrams per deciliter of blood; mmol/L = millimole per liter of blood
Treatment aims to:
- Maintain blood sugar at levels as close to normal as possible
- Prevent or delay complications
- Control other conditions that you may have, like high blood pressure and high cholesterol
Food and drinks have a direct effect on your blood glucose level. Eating healthy meals can help you control your blood glucose. It will also help your overall health. Some basic tips include:
If you are overweight, weight loss will help your body use insulin better. Talk to your doctor about a healthy weight goal. You and your doctor or dietitian can make a safe meal plan for you.
These options may help you lose weight:
Physical activity can:
- Make the body more sensitive to insulin
- Help you reach and maintain a healthy weight
- Lower the levels of fat in your blood
exercise is any activity that increases your heart rate. Resistance training helps build muscle strength. Both types of exercise help to improve
long-term glucose control. Regular exercise can also help reduce your risk of heart disease.
Talk to your doctor about an activity plan. Ask about any precautions you may need to take.
Certain medicines will help to manage blood glucose levels.
Medication taken by mouth may include:
- Metformin—To reduce the amount of glucose made by the body and to make the body more sensitive to insulin
Medications that encourage the pancreas to make more insulin such as sulfonylureas (glyburide,
tolazamide), dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitors (saxagliptin,
Insulin sensitizers such as
pioglitazone—To help the body use insulin better
Starch blockers such as
miglitol—To decrease the amount of glucose absorbed into the blood
Some medicine needs to be given through injections, such as:
Incretin-mimetics such as
stimulate the pancreas to produce insulin and decrease appetite (can assist with weight loss)
Amylin analogs such as
replace a protein of the pancreas that is low in people with type 2 diabetes
Insulin may be needed if:
- The body does not make enough of its own insulin.
- Blood glucose levels cannot be controlled with lifestyle changes and medicine.
Insulin is given through injections.
Blood Glucose Testing
You can check the level of glucose in your blood with a blood glucose meter. Checking your blood glucose levels
during the day can help you stay on track. It will also help your doctor determine if your treatment is working. Keeping track of blood sugar levels is especially important if you take insulin.
Regular testing may not be needed if your diabetes is under control and you don't take insulin. Talk with your doctor before stopping blood sugar monitoring.
may also be done at your doctor's office. This is a measure of blood glucose control over a long period of time. Doctors advise that most people keep their HbA1c levels below 7%. Your exact goal may be different. Keeping HbA1c in your goal range can help lower the chance of complications.
Decreasing Risk of Complications
Over a long period of time, high blood glucose levels can damage vital organs. The kidneys, eyes, and nerves are most affected. Diabetes can also increase your risk of heart disease.
Maintaining goal blood glucose levels is the first step to lowering your risk of these complications. Other steps include:
- Take good care of your feet. Be on the lookout for any sores or irritated areas. Keep your feet dry and clean.
- Have your eyes checked once a year.
- Don't smoke. If you do, look for programs or products that can help you quit.
- Plan medical visits as recommended.
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First ever direct measurement of the Earth’s rotation
Geodesists are pinpointing the orientation of the Earth’s axis using the world’s most stable ring laser
A group with researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and the Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (BKG) are the first to plot changes in the Earth’s axis through laboratory measurements. To do this, they constructed the world’s most stable ring laser in an underground lab and used it to determine changes in the Earth’s rotation. Previously, scientists were only able to track shifts in the polar axis indirectly by monitoring fixed objects in space. Capturing the tilt of the Earth’s axis and its rotational velocity is crucial for precise positional information on Earth – and thus for the accurate functioning of modern navigation systems, for instance. The scientists’ work has been recognized an Exceptional Research Spotlight by the American Physical Society.
The Earth wobbles. Like a spinning top touched in mid-spin, its rotational axis fluctuates in relation to space. This is partly caused by gravitation from the sun and the moon. At the same time, the Earth’s rotational axis constantly changes relative to the Earth’s surface. On the one hand, this is caused by variation in atmospheric pressure, ocean loading and wind. These elements combine in an effect known as the Chandler wobble to create polar motion. Named after the scientist who discovered it, this phenomenon has a period of around 435 days. On the other hand, an event known as the “annual wobble” causes the rotational axis to move over a period of a year. This is due to the Earth’s elliptical orbit around the sun. These two effects cause the Earth’s axis to migrate irregularly along a circular path with a radius of up to six meters.
Capturing these movements is crucial to create a reliable coordinate system that can feed navigation systems or project trajectory paths in space travel. “Locating a point to the exact centimeter for global positioning is an extremely dynamic process – after all, at our latitude, we are moving at around 350 meters to the east per second,” explains Prof. Karl Ulrich Schreiber, meanwhile as station director of the geodetic observatory Wettzell where the ring laser is settled. Karl Ulrich Schreiber had directed the project in TUM’s Research Section Satellite Geodesy. The geodetic observatory Wettzell is run together by TUM and BKG.
The researchers have succeeded in corroborating the Chandler and annual wobble measurements based on the data captured by radio telescopes. They now aim to make the apparatus more accurate, enabling them to determine changes in the Earth’s rotational axis over a single day. The scientists also plan to make the ring laser capable of continuous operation so that it can run for a period of years without any deviations. “In simple terms,” concludes Schreiber, “in future, we want to be able to just pop down into the basement and find out how fast the Earth is accurately turning right now."
For more information please visit the TU München homepage http://portal.mytum.de/pressestelle/pressemitteilungen/NewsArticle_20111220_100621/newsarticle_view?.
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http://www.bkg.bund.de/nn_149566/sid_0F335650A0F77C3C47FE83A10BEB41EC/nsc_true/EN/News/01News/N2011/2011__12__27ring-laser.html
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the National Science Foundation
Available Languages: English, Spanish
This classroom-tested learning module gives a condensed, easily-understood view of the development of atomic theory from the late 19th through early 20th century. The key idea was the discovery that the atom is not an "indivisible" particle, but consists of smaller constituents: the proton, neutron, and electron. It discusses the contributions of John Dalton, J.J. Thomson, Ernest Rutherford, and James Chadwick, whose experiments revolutionized the world view of atomic structure. See Related Materials for a link to Part 2 of this series.
atomic structure, cathode ray experiment, electron, helium atom, history of atom, history of the atom, hydrogen atom, neutron, proton
Metadata instance created
July 12, 2011
by Caroline Hall
October 10, 2012
by Caroline Hall
Last Update when Cataloged:
January 1, 2006
AAAS Benchmark Alignments (2008 Version)
4. The Physical Setting
4D. The Structure of Matter
6-8: 4D/M1a. All matter is made up of atoms, which are far too small to see directly through a microscope.
9-12: 4D/H1. Atoms are made of a positively charged nucleus surrounded by negatively charged electrons. The nucleus is a tiny fraction of the volume of an atom but makes up almost all of its mass. The nucleus is composed of protons and neutrons which have roughly the same mass but differ in that protons are positively charged while neutrons have no electric charge.
9-12: 4D/H2. The number of protons in the nucleus determines what an atom's electron configuration can be and so defines the element. An atom's electron configuration, particularly the outermost electrons, determines how the atom can interact with other atoms. Atoms form bonds to other atoms by transferring or sharing electrons.
10. Historical Perspectives
10F. Understanding Fire
9-12: 10F/H1. In the late 1700s and early 1800s, the idea of atoms reemerged in response to questions about the structure of matter, the nature of fire, and the basis of chemical phenomena.
9-12: 10F/H3. In the early 1800s, British chemist and physicist John Dalton united the concepts of atoms and elements. He proposed two ideas that laid the groundwork for modern chemistry: first, that elements are formed from small, indivisible particles called atoms, which are identical for a given element but different from any other element; and second, that chemical compounds are formed from atoms by combining a definite number of each type of atom to form one molecule of the compound.
9-12: 10F/H4. Dalton figured out how the relative weights of the atoms could be determined experimentally. His idea that every substance had a unique atomic composition provided an explanation for why substances were made up of elements in specific proportions.
This resource is part of a Physics Front Topical Unit.
Topic: Particles and Interactions and the Standard Model Unit Title: History and Discovery
This classroom-tested learning module gives a condensed, easily-understood view of the development of atomic theory from the late 19th through early 20th century. The key idea was the discovery that the atom is not an "indivisible" particle, but consists of smaller constituents: the proton, neutron, and electron. It discusses the contributions of John Dalton, J.J. Thomson, Ernest Rutherford, and James Chadwick, whose experiments revolutionized the world view of atomic structure.
%0 Electronic Source %A Carpi, Anthony %D January 1, 2006 %T Visionlearning: Atomic Theory I %I Visionlearning %V 2013 %N 21 May 2013 %8 January 1, 2006 %9 text/html %U http://www.visionlearning.com/library/module_viewer.php?mid=50&l=
Disclaimer: ComPADRE offers citation styles as a guide only. We cannot offer interpretations about citations as this is an automated procedure. Please refer to the style manuals in the Citation Source Information area for clarifications.
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http://www.compadre.org/precollege/items/detail.cfm?ID=11307
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Micro vs Macro
Micro and macro are prefixes that are used before words to make them small or big respectively. This is true with micro and macroeconomics, micro and macro evolution, microorganism, micro lens and macro lens, micro finance and macro finance, and so on. The list of words that makes use of these prefixes is long and exhaustive. Many people confuse between micro and macro despite knowing that these prefixes signify small and large respectively. This article takes a closer look at the two prefixes to find out their differences.
To understand the difference between micro and macro, let us take up the example of micro and macro evolution. To signify evolution that takes place within a single species, the word microevolution is used whereas evolution that transcends the boundaries of species and takes place on a very large scale is termed as macroevolution. Though the principles of evolution such as genetics, mutation, natural selection, and migration remain the same across microevolution as well as macro evolution, this distinction between microevolution and macroevolution is a great way to explain this natural phenomenon.
Another field of study that makes use of micro and macro is economics. While the study of the overall economy and how it works is called macroeconomics, microeconomics focuses on the individual person, company, or industry. Thus, the study of GDP, employment, inflation etc. in an economy is classified under macroeconomics. Microeconomics is the study of forces of demand and supply inside a particular industry effecting the goods and services. So it is macroeconomics when economists choose to concentrate upon the state of the economy in a nation whereas the study of a single market or industry remains within the realms of microeconomics.
There is also the study of finance where these two prefixes are commonly used. Thus, we have microfinance where the focus is upon the monetary needs and requirements of a single individual where there is also macro finance where financing by the banks or other financial institutions is of very large nature.
Micro and macro are derived from Greek language where micro means small and macro refers to large. These prefixes are used in many fields of study such as finance, economics, evolution etc. where we have words like micro finance and macro finance, micro evolution and macro evolution etc. Studying something at a small level is micro while studying it on a large scale is macro analysis. Financing the needs of an individual may be micro financing whereas the financial needs of a builder requiring money for a very large infrastructural project may be referred to as macro finance.
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Leaf Characteristics (PK1) This set introduces simple vocabulary to describe the physical features of 40 North American tree, garden, and house plant leaves. First - The child sorts 9 leaf characteristics cards (3" x 4") onto 3 control cards (10-3/8” x 5¼”) that identify characteristics of Leaf Types, Leaf Veins, and Leaf Margins. Second - After learning the 9 characteristics of leaves, it is time to describe the 3 characteristics of just one leaf. A leaf card is selected from the 40 leaf cards provided (3" x 4"). The child selects the 3 characteristics cards (type, venation, margin) that describe that leaf, and places them on the blank Leaf Identification card (10-3/8” x 5¼”). Real leaves can be used in this exercise as well. Background information is included for the teacher.
Leaves (PK1C) This set consists of 40 DUPLICATE leaf cards (80 cards total). One group of 20 cards illustrates familiar leaves such as dandelion, marigold, and ivy. The second group illustrates common North American tree leaves such as oak, maple, and cottonwood. These are the same leaf cards found in In-Print for Children's “Leaf Characteristics” activity.
Flowers (FL1) This set is designed to help children recognize and to name 20 common flowers, many of which are commercially available throughout the year. This duplicate set of picture cards can be used in simple matching exercises, or in 3-part matching activities if one set is cut apart. The 40 photocards (3¼” x 4") are in full-color and laminated. Flower background information is included for the teacher.
Nuts (PK3) Nuts are nourishing snacks and learning how they grow will make eating them all the more fun! This set of 22 two-color cards (5½” x 3½”) of plant and nut illustrations represents eleven edible nuts/seeds. The child pairs the illustration cards of the nuts in their growing stage to the cards of the nuts in and out of their shells. Make the activity even more successful by bringing the real nuts into the classroom.
Kitchen Herbs & Spices (PK5) This set help children to learn about 20 plants that give us herbs and spices. The delicately drawn, 2-color illustrations clearly show the parts of the plants that give us edible leaves, seeds, stems, bark, bulbs, and berries. Create an aromatic and tasty exercise by having the children pair real herbs and spices with these cards (4½” x 6¼”).
Plants We Eat (PK9) Learn more about food plants and their different edible parts. This set classifies 18 plant foods into six groups: roots, stems, leaves, flowers, fruits, and seeds. A duplicate set of 18 labeled picture/definition cards (6" x 6") shows plants in their growing stage with only their “food” portion in color. One set of picture/ definition cards is spiral bound into 6 control booklets that include definitions of the root, stem, leaf, flower, fruit, and seed. The other set of picture/ definition cards are to be cut apart for 2 or 3-part matching exercises. Plant description cards can be used for “Who am I?” games with our plant picture cards or with real foods. Both cards and booklets are laminated.
Plants We Eat Replicards (PK9w) Six replicards are photocopied to produce worksheets for an extension exercise using our set Plants We Eat (PK9). Children color and label the worksheets, which illustrate three plant examples for each of the following groups: roots, stems, leaves, flowers, fruits, and seeds. The Plants We Eat booklets serve as controls. After worksheets (8½” x 11") are colored and labeled, they can be cut apart, stapled together, and made into six take-home booklets. These booklets may generate lively family dinner-table discussions: “A potato is a what?”
Plants - Who am I? (WP) This beginning activity for lower elementary strengthens both reading and listening skills, and provides children with simple facts about 10 plants. The set consists of duplicate, labeled picture cards with descriptive text and features plants different from those in the First Knowledge: Plant Stories (see below). The set of cards with text ending in “Who am I?” is cut apart into 10 picture cards, 10 plant name cards, and 10 text cards. The other set is left whole. Cards are used for picture-to-text card matching exercises and for playing the “Who am I” game. Cards measure 6½” x 4" and are in full color and laminated.
First Knowledge: Plant Stories (PK7) This set consists of 19 duplicate plant picture/text cards. One set is cut apart for 3-part matching activities, and the other set is placed in the green, 6-ring mini-binder labeled Plants. The teacher has the option of changing the cards in the binder as needed. The children can match the 3-part cards (6" x 3¾”) to the cards in the binder, practice reading, learn about the diverse characteristics of these plants, and then play “Who am I?” The eight angiosperms picture cards can be sorted beneath two cards that name and define Monocots and Dicots. These activities prepare children for later work with our Plant Kingdom Chart & Cards (see below), which illustrates the same plants.
Plant Kingdom Chart and Cards (PK6) Our 4-color plastic paper chart and cards represents the current classification of the plant kingdom (not illustrated here) – the same as is used in secondary and college level biology courses. This classification organizes the plant kingdom in a straightforward manner with simple definitions and examples under each heading. Firs the plants are categorized as either Nonvascular Plants (Bryophytes) or Vascular Plants. Then the Vascular plants are divided into two groups: Seedless Plants or Seed Plants. Seed Plants are divided into two groups: Gymnosperms and Angiosperms with sub-categories. Nineteen picture cards (2¼” x 3") illustrate the currently recognized phyla of the plant kingdom. Children match the 19 plant picture cards to the pictures on the chart (18" x 32"). Text on the back of the picture cards describes each plant. Advanced students can recreate the chart with the title cards provided, using the chart as a control of error. Background information is provided.
Parts of a Mushroom Parts of a gilled mushroom are highlighted and labeled on six 2-color cards (3" x 5"). Photocopy the Replicard (8½” x 11") to make quarter page worksheets. The child colors and labels the worksheets, using the picture cards as a guide. Completed worksheets can be stapled together to make a booklet for “Parts of a Mushroom”. (In-Print product code FK1)
Fungi (FK4) Members of the Fungus Kingdom have a wide variety of forms. Children see fungi everywhere, such as mold on food, or mushrooms on the lawn. This duplicate set of labeled picture cards shows 12 common fungi found indoors and out. Fungi illustrated: blue cheese fungus, bolete, coral fungus, cup fungus, jelly fungus, lichens, mildew, milky mushrooms, mold, and morel. Background information is included. Pictures cards (3½” x 4½”) are in full color and laminated.
Classification of the Fungus KingdomChart and Cards (FK3) This classification of the Fungus Kingdom organizes 18 representative fungi into four major groups and two important fungal partnerships: Chytrids, Yoke Fungi, Sac Fungi, Club Fungi, Lichens, Mycorrhizae. Children match the 18 picture cards (2-7/8” x 2-3/8”) to the pictures on the 2-color chart (18" x 16"). After this activity, they can sort the picture cards under the label cards for the 5 fungus groups, using the chart as the control. Description of each fungus type is printed on the back of the picture cards. Background information is included for the teacher. This chart is printed on vinyl and does not need to be laminated.
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<urn:uuid:d8d399d3-71ef-4f88-8432-8aa6553e707a>
| 3.96875
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http://www.in-printforchildren.com/3201/4285.html
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: the study of the conformation of the skull based on the belief that it is indicative of mental faculties and character
Study of the shape of the skull as an indication of mental abilities and character traits. Franz Joseph Gall stated the principle that each of the innate mental faculties is based in a specific brain region (organ), whose size reflects the faculty's prominence in a person and is reflected by the skull's surface. He examined the skulls of persons with particular traits (including criminal traits) for a feature he could identify with it. His followers Johann Kaspar Spurzheim (1776–1832) and George Combe (1788–1858) divided the scalp into areas they labeled with traits such as combativeness, cautiousness, and form perception. Though popular well into the 20th century, phrenology has been wholly discredited.
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<urn:uuid:0946e91b-14ac-49fc-8c05-8dc7853d40e6>
| 3.578125
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http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/phrenology
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LESSON ONE: Transforming Everyday Objects
Marcel Duchamp: Bicycle Wheel, bicycle wheel on wooden stool, 1963 (Henley-on-Thames, Richard Hamilton Collection); © 2007 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris, photo credit: Cameraphoto/Art Resource, NY
Man Ray: Rayograph, gelatin silver print, 29.4×23.2 cm, 1923 (New York, Museum of Modern Art); © 2007 Man Ray Trust/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris, photo © The Museum of Modern Art, New York
Meret Oppenheim: Object (Le Déjeuner en fourrure), fur-lined cup, diam. 109 mm, saucer, diam. 237 mm, spoon, l. 202 mm, overall, h. 73 mm, 1936 (New York, Museum of Modern Art); © 2007 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ProLitteris, Zurich, photo © Museum of Modern Art/Licensed by SCALA/Art Resource, NY
Dada and Surrealist artists questioned long-held assumptions about what a work of art should be about and how it should be made. Rather than creating every element of their artworks, they boldly selected everyday, manufactured objects and either modified and combined them with other items or simply se-lected them and called them “art.” In this lesson students will consider their own criteria for something to be called a work of art, and then explore three works of art that may challenge their definitions.
Students will consider their own definitions of art.
Students will consider how Dada and Surrealist artists challenged conventional ideas of art.
Students will be introduced to Readymades and photograms.
Ask your students to take a moment to think about what makes something a work of art. Does art have to be seen in a specific place? Where does one encounter art? What is art supposed to accomplish? Who is it for?
Ask your students to create an individual list of their criteria. Then, divide your students into small groups to discuss and debate the results and come up with a final list. Finally, ask each group to share with the class what they think is the most important criteria and what is the most contested criteria for something to be called a work of art. Write these on the chalkboard for the class to review and discuss.
Show your students the image of Bicycle Wheel. Ask your students if Marcel Duchamp’s sculp-ture fulfills any of their criteria for something to be called a work of art. Ask them to support their obser-vations with visual evidence.
Inform your students that Duchamp made this work by fastening a Bicycle Wheel to a kitchen stool. Ask your students to consider the fact that Duchamp rendered these two functional objects unus-able. Make certain that your students notice that there is no tire on the Bicycle Wheel.
To challenge accepted notions of art, Duchamp selected mass-produced, often functional objects from everyday life for his artworks, which he called Readymades. He did this to shift viewers’ engagement with a work of art from what he called the “retinal” (there to please the eye) to the “intellectual” (“in the service of the mind.”) [H. H. Arnason and Marla F. Prather, History of Modern Art: Painting, Sculpture, Architecture, Photography (Fourth Edition) (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1998), 274.] By doing so, Duchamp subverted the traditional notion that beauty is a defining characteristic of art.
Inform your students that Bicycle Wheel is the third version of this work. The first, now lost, was made in 1913, almost forty years earlier. Because the materials Duchamp selected to be Readymades were mass-produced, he did not consider any Readymade to be “original.”
Ask your students to revisit their list of criteria for something to be called a work of art. Ask them to list criteria related specifically to the visual aspects of a work of art (such as “beauty” or realistic rendering).
Duchamp said of Bicycle Wheel, “In 1913 I had the happy idea to fasten a Bicycle Wheel to a kitchen stool and watch it turn.” [John Elderfield, ed., Studies in Modern Art 2: Essays on Assemblage (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1992), 135.] Bicycle Wheel is a kinetic sculpture that depends on motion for effect. Although Duchamp selected items for his Readymades without regard to their so-called beauty, he said, “To see that wheel turning was very soothing, very comforting . . . I en-joyed looking at it, just as I enjoy looking at the flames dancing in a fireplace.” [Francis M. Naumann, The Mary and William Sisler Collection (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1984), 160.] By en-couraging viewers to spin Bicycle Wheel, Duchamp challenged the common expectation that works of art should not to be touched.
Show your students Rayograph. Ask your students to name recognizable shapes in this work. Ask them to support their findings with visual evidence. How do they think this image was made?
Inform your students that Rayograph was made by Man Ray, an American artist who was well-known for his portrait and fashion photography. Man Ray transformed everyday objects into mysterious images by placing them on photographic paper, exposing them to light, and oftentimes repeating this process with additional objects and exposures. When photographic paper is developed in chemicals, the areas blocked from light by objects placed on the paper earlier on will remain light, and the areas exposed to light will turn black. Man Ray discovered the technique of making photograms by chance, when he placed some objects in his darkroom on light-sensitive paper and accidentally exposed them to light. He liked the resulting images and experimented with the process for years to come. He likened the technique, now known as the photogram, to “painting with light,” calling the images rayographs, after his assumed name.
Now that your students have identified some recognizable objects used to make Rayograph, ask them to consider which of those objects might have been translucent and which might have been opaque, based on the tone of the shapes in the photogram.
Now show your students Meret Oppenheim’s sculpture Object (Déjeuner en fourrure). Both Rayograph and Object were made using everyday objects and materials not traditionally used for making art, which, when combined, challenge ideas of reality in unexpected ways. Ask your students what those everyday objects are and how they have been transformed by the artists.
Ask your students to name some traditional uses for the individual materials (cup, spoon, saucer, fur) used to make Object. Ask your students what choices they think Oppenheim made to transform these materials and objects.
In 1936, the Swiss artist Oppenheim was at a café in Paris with her friends Pablo Picasso and Dora Maar. Oppenheim was wearing a bracelet she had made from fur-lined, polished metal tubing. Picasso joked that one could cover anything with fur, to which Oppenheim replied, “Even this cup and saucer.” [Bice Curiger, Meret Oppenheim: Defiance in the Face of Freedom (Zurich, Frankfurt, New York: PARKETT Publishers Inc., 1989), 39.] Her tea was getting cold, and she reportedly called out, “Waiter, a little more fur!” Soon after, when asked to participate in a Surrealist exhibition, she bought a cup, saucer, and spoon at a department store and lined them with the fur of a Chinese gazelle. [Josephine Withers, “The Famous Fur-Lined Teacup and the Anonymous Meret Oppenheim” (New York: Arts Magazine, Vol. 52, Novem-ber 1977), 88-93.]
Duchamp, Oppenheim, and Man Ray transformed everyday objects into Readymades, Surrealist objects, and photograms. Ask your students to review the images of the three artworks in this lesson and discuss the similarities and differences between these artists’ transformation of everyday objects.
Art and Controversy
At the time they were made, works of art like Duchamp’s Bicycle Wheel and Oppenheim’s Object were controversial. Critics called Duchamp’s Readymades immoral and vulgar—even plagiaristic. Overwhelmed by the publicity Object received, Oppenheim sunk into a twenty-year depres-sion that greatly inhibited her creative production.
Ask your students to conduct research on a work of art that has recently been met with controversy. Each student should find at least two articles that critique the work of art. Have your students write a one-page summary of the issues addressed in these articles. Students should consider how and why the work chal-lenged and upset critics. Was the controversial reception related to the representation, the medium, the scale, the cost, or the location of the work? After completing the assignment, ask your students to share their findings with the class. Keep a list of shared critiques among the work’s various receptions.
Make a Photogram
If your school has a darkroom, have your students make photograms. Each student should collect several small objects from school, home, and the outside to place on photographic paper. Their collection should include a range of translucent and opaque objects to allow different levels of light to shine through. Stu-dents may want to overlap objects or use their hands to cover parts of the light-sensitive paper. Once the objects are arranged on the paper in a darkroom, have your students expose the paper to light for several seconds (probably about five to ten seconds, depending on the level of light) then develop, fix, rinse, and dry the paper. Allow for a few sheets of photographic paper per student so that they can experiment with different arrangements and exposures. After the photograms are complete, have your students discuss the different results that they achieved. Students may also make negatives of their photograms by placing them on top of a fresh sheet of photographic paper and covering the two with a sheet of glass. After ex-posing this to light, they can develop the paper to get the negative of the original photogram.
Encourage your students to try FAUXtogram, an activity available on Red Studio, MoMA's Web site for teens.
GROVE ART ONLINE: Suggested Reading
Below is a list of selected articles which provide more information on the specific topics discussed in this lesson.
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<urn:uuid:31fab53b-eb78-4e38-ae2c-77d787710125>
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http://www.oxfordartonline.com/public/page/lessons/Unit5Lesson1
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The pleura are two thin, moist membranes around the lungs. The inner layer is attached to the lungs. The outer layer is attached to the ribs. Pleural effusion is the buildup of excess fluid in the space between the pleura. The fluid can prevent the lungs from fully opening. This can make it difficult to catch your breath.
Pleural effusion may be transudative or exudative based on the cause. Treatment of pleural effusion depends on the condition causing the effusion.
Effusion is usually caused by disease or injury.
Transudative effusion may be caused by:
Exudative effusion may be caused by:
Factors that increase your chance of getting pleural effusion include:
- Having conditions or diseases listed above
- Certain medications such as:
- Nitrofurantoin (Macrodantin, Furadantin, Macrobid)
- Methysergide (Sansert)
- Bromocriptine (Parlodel)
- Procarbazine (Matulane)
- Amiodarone (Cordarone)
- Chest injury or trauma
- Radiation therapy
Surgery, especially involving:
- Organ transplantation
Some types of pleural effusion do not cause symptoms. Others cause a variety of symptoms, including:
- Shortness of breath
- Chest pain
- Stomach discomfort
- Coughing up blood
- Shallow breathing
- Rapid pulse or breathing rate
- Weight loss
- Fever, chills, or sweating
These symptoms may be caused by many other conditions. Let your doctor know if you have any of these symptoms.
The doctor will ask about your symptoms and medical history. A physical exam will be done. This may include listening to or tapping on your chest. Lung function tests will test your ability to move air in and out of your lungs.
Images of your lungs may be taken with:
Your doctor may take samples of the fluid or pleura tissue for testing. This may be done with:
Treatment is usually aimed at treating the underlying cause. This may include medications or surgery.
Your doctor may take a "watchful waiting" approach if your symptoms are minor. You will be monitored until the effusion is gone.
To Support Breathing
If you are having trouble breathing, your doctor may recommend:
- Breathing treatments—inhaling medication directly to lungs
- Oxygen therapy
Drain the Pleural Effusion
The pleural effusion may be drained by:
- Therapeutic thoracentesis —a needle is inserted into the area to withdraw excess fluid.
- Tube thoracostomy—a tube is placed in the side of your chest to allow fluid to drain. It will be left in place for several days.
Seal the Pleural Layers
The doctor may recommend chemical pleurodesis. During this procedure, talc powder or an irritating chemical is injected into the pleural space. This will permanently seal the two layers of the pleura together. The seal may help prevent further fluid buildup.
Radiation therapy may also be used to seal the pleura.
In severe cases, surgery may be needed. Some of the pleura will be removed during surgery. Suregery options may include:
- Thoracotomy—traditional, open chest procedure
- Video-assisted thorascopic surgery (VATS)—minimally-invasive surgery that only requires small keyhole size incisions
Prompt treatment for any condition that may lead to effusion is the best way to prevent pleural effusion.
- Reviewer: Brian Randall, MD
- Review Date: 02/2013 -
- Update Date: 03/05/2013 -
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<urn:uuid:b050fe6e-cde2-4f69-8178-49ddeb1ead6b>
| 3.546875
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http://largomedical.com/your-health/?/2010812305/Pleural-Effusion
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Student Learning Outcomes
Students who complete the French Program will be able to:
- Communicate in a meaningful context in French.
- Analyze the nature of language through comparisons of the French language and their own.
- Demonstrate knowledge of and sensitivity to aspects of behavior, attitudes, and customs of France and other French speaking countries.
- Connect with the global community through study and acquisition of the French language.
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<urn:uuid:5af48c87-5ebf-40b0-9437-a79124e81436>
| 3.53125
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http://sdmesa.edu/instruction/slo/programs.cfm?DeptID=28
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MIT professor’s book digs into the eclectic, textually linked reading choices of people in medieval London.
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Following the 1997 creation of the first laser to emit pulsed beams of atoms, MIT researchers report in the May 16 online version of Science that they have now made a continuous source of coherent atoms. This work paves the way for a laser that emits a continuous stream of atoms.
MIT physicists led by physics professor Wolfgang Ketterle (who shared the 2001 Nobel prize in physics) created the first atom laser. A long-sought goal in physics, the atom laser emitted atoms, similar in concept to the way an optical laser emits light.
"I am amazed at the rapid progress in the field," Ketterle said. "A continuous source of Bose-Einstein condensate is just one of many recent advances."
Because the atom laser operates in an ultra-high vacuum, it may never be as ubiquitous as optical lasers. But, like its predecessor, the pulsed atom laser, a continuous-stream atom laser may someday be used for a variety of applications in fundamental physics.
It could be used to directly deposit atoms onto computer chips, and improve the precision and accuracy of atomic clocks and gyroscopes. It could aid in precision measurements of fundamental constants, atom optics and interferometry.
A continuous stream laser could do all of these things better than a pulsed atomic laser, said co-author Ananth P. Chikkatur , a physics graduate student at MIT. "Similar to the optical laser revolution, a continuous stream atom laser might be useful for more things than a pulsed laser," he said.
In addition to Ketterle and Chikkatur, authors include MIT graduate students Yong-Il Shin and Aaron E. Leanhardt; David F. Kielpinski, postdoctoral fellow in the MIT Research Laboratory of Electronics (RLE); physics senior Edem Tsikata; MIT affiliate Todd L. Gustavson; and David E. Pritchard, Cecil and Ida Green Professor of Physics and a member of the MIT-Harvard Center for Ultracold Atoms and the RLE.
A NEW FORM OF MATTER
An important step toward the first atom laser was the creation of a new form of matter - the Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC). BEC forms at temperatures around one millionth of a degree Kelvin, a million times colder than interstellar space.
Ketterle's group had developed novel cooling techniques that were key to the observation of BEC in 1995, first by a group at the University of Colorado at Boulder, then a few months later by Ketterle at MIT. It was for this achievement that researchers from both institutions were honored with the Nobel prize last year.
Ketterle and his research team managed to merge a bunch of atoms into what he calls a single matter-wave, and then used fluctuating magnetic fields to shape the matter-wave into a beam much like a laser.
To test the coherence of a BEC, the researchers generated two separate matter-waves, made them overlap and photographed a so-called "interference pattern" that only can be created by coherent waves. The researchers then had proof that they had created the first atom laser.
Since 1995, all atom lasers and BEC have been produced in a pulsed manner, emitting individual pulses of atoms several times per minute. Until now, little progress has been made toward a continuous BEC source.
While it took about six months to create a continuous optical laser after the first pulsed optical laser was produced in 1960, the much more technically challenging continuous source of coherent atoms has taken seven years since Ketterle and colleagues first observed BEC in 1995.
A NEW CHALLENGE
Creating a continuous BEC source involved three steps: building a chamber where the condensate could be stored in an optical trap, moving the fresh condensate and merging the new condensate with the existing condensate stored in the optical trap. (The same researchers first developed an optical trap for BECs in 1998.)
The researchers built an apparatus containing two vacuum chambers: a production chamber where the condensate is produced and a "science chamber" around 30 centimeters away, where the condensate is stored.
The condensate in the science chamber had to be protected from laser light, which was necessary to produce a fresh condensate, and also from hot atoms. This required great precision, because a single laser-cooled atom has enough energy to knock thousands of atoms out of the condensate. In addition, they used an optical trap as the reservoir trap, which is insensitive to the magnetic fields used for cooling atoms into a BEC.
The researchers also needed to figure out how to move the fresh condensate - chilled to astronomically low temperatures - from the production chamber to the science chamber without heating them up. This was accomplished using optical tweezers - a focused laser light beam that traps the condensate.
Finally, to merge the new condensate with the existing condensate in the science chamber, they moved the new condensate in the tweezers into the science chamber by merging the condensates together.
A BUCKET OF ATOMS
If the pulsed atom laser is like a faucet that drips, Chikkatur says the new innovations create a sort of bucket that collects the drips without wasting or changing the condensate too dramatically by heating it. This way, a reservoir of condensate is always on hand to replenish an atom laser.
The condensate pulses are like a dripping faucet, where the drops are analogous to the pulsed BEC production. "We have now implemented a bucket (our reservoir trap), where we collect these drips to have continuous source of water (BEC)," Chikkatur said. "Although we did not demonstrate this, if we poke a hole in this bucket, we will have a steady stream of water. This hole would be an outcoupling technique from which we can produce a continuous atom laser output.
"The big achievement here is that we have invented the bucket, which can store atoms continuously and also makes sure that the drips of water do not cause a lot of splashing (heating of BECs)," he said.
The next step would be to improve the number of atoms in the source, perhaps by implementing a large-volume optical trap. Another important step would be to demonstrate a phase-coherent condensate merger using a matter wave amplification technique pioneered by the MIT group and a group in Japan, he said.
This work is funded by the National Science Foundation, the Office of Naval Research, the Army Research Office, the Packard Foundation and NASA.
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<urn:uuid:00cd54cf-be16-4b4b-8800-7d5342159b7a>
| 3.515625
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http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2002/atomsource.html
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We are banishing darkness from the night. Electric lights have been shining over cities and towns around the world for a century. But, increasingly, even rural areas glimmer through the night, with mixed – and largely unstudied – impacts on wildlife. Understanding these impacts is a crucial conservation challenge and bats, as almost exclusively nocturnal animals, are ideal subjects for exploring the effects of light pollution.
Previous studies have confirmed what many city dwellers have long noted: some bats enjoy a positive impact of illumination by learning to feed on insects attracted to streetlights. My research, however, demonstrates for the first time an important downside: artificial lighting can disrupt the commuting behavior of a threatened bat species. This project, using a novel experimental approach, was supported in part by BCI Student Research Scholarships.
Artificial lighting is a global phenomenon and the amount of light pollution is growing rapidly, with a 24 percent increase in England between 1993 and 2000. Since then, cultural restoration projects have brought lighting to old docks and riversides, placing important river corridors used by bats and other wildlife at risk of disturbance.
Studies of bats' foraging activity around streetlights find that these bats are usually fast-flying species that forage in open landscapes, typically species of Pipistrellus, Nyctalus, Vespertilio and Eptesicus. Such bats are better able than their slower cousins to evade hawks, owls and other birds of prey.
For our study, we chose the lesser horseshoe bat (Rhinolophus hipposideros), a shy, slow-?ying bat that typically travels no more than about 1.2 miles (2 kilometers) from its roost to forage each night, often flying no more than 16 feet (5 meters) from the ground. The species is adapted for feeding in cluttered, woodland environments. Its global populations are reported decreasing and the species is endangered in many countries of central Europe. The United Kingdom provides a European stronghold for the lesser horseshoe bat, with an estimated population of around 50,000.
These bats' slow flight leaves them especially vulnerable to birds of prey, so they leave their roosts only as the light fades and commute to foraging areas along linear features such as hedgerows. Hedgerows are densely wooded corridors of shrubs and small trees that typically separate fields from each other and from roadways. Such features are important commuting routes for many bat species, which use them for protection from predators and the elements. We suspected that lesser horseshoe bats would avoid illuminated areas, largely because of a heightened risk from raptors.
We conducted arti?cial-lighting experiments along hedgerows in eight sites around southern Britain. We first surveyed light levels at currently illuminated hedgerows, then duplicated those levels at our experimental hedgerow sites, all of them normally unlighted. We installed two temporary, generator-powered lights – about 100 feet (30 meters) apart – that mimic the intensity and light spectra of streetlights. Each site was near a maternity colony and along confirmed commuting routes of lesser horseshoe bats.
Bat activity at each site was monitored acoustically, with mounted bat detectors, during four specific treatments: control (with no lights); noise (generator on and lights installed but switched off); lit (full illumination all night for four consecutive nights); and another night of noise only. We identified horseshoe bat calls to species and measured relative activity by counting the number of bat passes per species each night.
We found no significant difference in activity levels of lesser horseshoe bats between the control nights and either of the two noise nights, when the generators were running but the lights were off. The presence of the lighting units and the noise of the generators had no effect on bat activity.
The negative impacts came when we turned on the lights. We documented dramatic reductions in activity of lesser horseshoe bats during all of the illuminated nights. In our study, 42 percent of commuting bats continued flying through the lights; 30 percent reversed direction and left before reaching the lights; 17 percent flew over the hedgerows; 9 percent flew through the thick hedgerow vegetation; and 2 percent circled high or wide to avoid the lights. We also recorded some strange behavior on one night when two bats flew over the hedge in a dark area between two lights, then flew up and down repeatedly, as though trapped between the lights.
We examined the effects of light on the timing of bats' commuting activity. The bats began their commute, on average, 29.9 minutes after sunset on control nights, but 78.6 minutes after sunset when the lights were turned on. Light pollution significantly delayed the bats' commuting behavior. Interestingly, the activity began a few minutes earlier (23 minutes after sunset) on the first, but not the second, noise night. It is possible that some bats emerged early to investigate the generator noise.
We clearly demonstrated how artificial lighting disrupts the behavior of lesser horseshoe bats. We found no evidence of habituation: at least on our timescale, the bats did not become accustomed to the illumination and begin returning to normal activity or timing.
These results suggest that light pollution may fragment the network of commuting routes used by lesser horseshoe bats, causing them to seek alternate, and probably longer, paths between roosting and foraging habitats. For some bats, this increased flight time can increase energy costs and stress, with potential impacts on reproductive success. It is critical, therefore, that light pollution be considered in conservation efforts.
Light pollution is an increasing global problem with negative impacts on such important animal behaviors as foraging, reproduction and communication. Yet lighting is rarely considered in habitat-management plans and streetlights are specifically excluded from light-pollution legislation in England and Wales.
I plan to use these results as the basis for recommendations for changes in policy, conservation and management for bat habitat in areas that are subject to development. This knowledge is fundamental for understanding the factors that impact bat populations not only in the United Kingdom but around the world, and in developing effective bat-conservation actions. I hope these findings will also help guide further research.
Scientists need to determine what levels of lighting particular bat species can tolerate, so we can take appropriate measures to limit the impact. These might include reducing illumination at commuting times, directing light away from commuting routes and constructing alternative flight routes.
We sincerely hope this research and similar studies will cause both officials and the public to think more about the consequences of artificial lighting on bats and other wildlife.
EMMA STONE is a Ph.D. student at the University of Bristol and a researcher at the university's School of Biological Sciences. This project earned her the national Vincent Weir Scientific Award from the Bat Conservation Trust of the United Kingdom. Visit her project website for more information: www.batsandlighting.co.uk.
This research was originally published in the journal Current Biology, with co-authors Gareth Jones and Stephen Harris.
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http://www.batcon.org/index.php/media-and-info/bats-archives.html?task=viewArticle&magArticleID=1066
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Asthma is a lifelong disease that causes wheezing, breathlessness, chest tightness, and coughing. It can limit a person's quality of life. While we don't know why asthma rates are rising, we do know that most people with asthma can control their symptoms and prevent asthma attacks by avoiding asthma triggers and correctly using prescribed medicines, such as inhaled corticosteroids.
The number of people diagnosed with asthma grew by 4.3 million from 2001 to 2009. From 2001 through 2009 asthma rates rose the most among black children, almost a 50% increase. Asthma was linked to 3,447 deaths (about 9 per day) in 2007. Asthma costs in the US grew from about $53 billion in 2002 to about $56 billion in 2007, about a 6% increase. Greater access to medical care is needed for the growing number of people with asthma.
Asthma is increasing every year in the US.
Too many people have asthma.
- The number of people with asthma continues to grow. One in 12 people (about 25 million, or 8% of the population) had asthma in 2009, compared with 1 in 14 (about 20 million, or 7%) in 2001.
- More than half (53%) of people with asthma had an asthma attack in 2008. More children (57%) than adults (51%) had an attack.
- 185 children and 3,262 adults died from asthma in 2007.
- About 1 in 10 children (10%) had asthma and 1 in 12 adults (8%) had asthma in 2009. Women were more likely than men and boys more likely than girls to have asthma.
- About 1 in 9 (11%) non-Hispanic blacks of all ages and about 1 in 6 (17%) of non-Hispanic black children had asthma in 2009, the highest rate among racial/ethnic groups.
- The greatest rise in asthma rates was among black children (almost a 50% increase) from 2001 through 2009.
Asthma Action Plan Stages
Green Zone: Doing Well
No cough, wheeze, chest tightness, or shortness of breath; can do all usual activities. Take prescribed longterm control medicine such as inhaled corticosteroids.
Yellow Zone: Getting Worse
Cough, wheeze, chest tightness, or shortness of breath; waking at night; can do some, but not all, usual activities. Add quick-relief medicine.
Red Zone: Medical Alert!
Very short of breath; quick-relief medicines don't help; cannot do usual activities; symptoms no better after 24 hours in Yellow Zone. Get medical help NOW.
Full Action Plan: http://www.cdc.gov/asthma/actionplan.html
Asthma has a high cost for individuals and the nation.
- Asthma cost the US about $3,300 per person with asthma each year from 2002 to 2007 in medical expenses.
- Medical expenses associated with asthma increased from $48.6 billion in 2002 to $50.1 billion in 2007. About 2 in 5 (40%) uninsured people with asthma could not afford their prescription medicines and about 1 in 9 (11%) insured people with asthma could not afford
their prescription medicines.
- More than half (59%) of children and one-third (33%) of adults who had an asthma attack missed school or work because of asthma in 2008. On average, in 2008 children missed 4 days of school and adults missed 5 days of work because of asthma.
Better asthma education is needed.
- People with asthma can prevent asthma attacks if they are taught to use inhaled corticosteroids and other prescribed daily long-term control medicines correctly and to avoid asthma triggers. Triggers can include tobacco smoke, mold, outdoor air pollution, and colds and flu.
- In 2008 less than half of people with asthma reported being taught how to avoid triggers. Almost half (48%) of adults who were taught how to avoid triggers did not follow most of this advice.
- Doctors and patients can better manage asthma by creating a personal asthma action plan that the patient follows.
Asthma by age and sex US, 2001-2009
Percentages are age-adjusted
SOURCE: National Center for Health Statistics; 2010.
Asthma self-management education by age, US, 2008
SOURCE: National Health Interview Survey, 2008, asthma supplement.
Adults with asthma in the US, 2009
SOURCE: Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, 2009
Federal, state, and local health officials can:
- Track asthma rates and the effectiveness of control measures so continuous improvements can be made in prevention efforts.
- Promote influenza and pneumonia vaccination for people with asthma.
- Promote improvements in indoor air quality for people with asthma through measures such as smoke-free air laws and policies, healthy schools and workplaces, and improvements in outdoor air quality.
Health care providers can:
- Determine the severity of asthma and monitor how much control the patient has over it.
- Make an asthma action plan for patients. Use this to teach them how to use inhaled corticosteroids and other prescribed medicines correctly and how to avoid asthma triggers such as tobacco smoke, mold, pet dander, and outdoor air pollution.
- Prescribe inhaled corticosteroids for all patients with persistent asthma.
People with asthma and parents of children with asthma can:
- Receive ongoing appropriate medical care.
- Be empowered through education to manage their asthma and asthma attacks.
- Avoid asthma triggers at school, work, home, and outdoors. Parents of children with asthma should not smoke, or if they do, smoke only outdoors and not in their cars.
- Use inhaled corticosteroids and other prescribed medicines correctly.
Schools and school nurses can:
- Use student asthma action plans to guide use of inhaled corticosteroids and other prescribed asthma medicines correctly and to avoid asthma triggers.
- Make students' quick-relief inhalers readily available for them to use at school as needed.
- Take steps to fix indoor air quality problems like mold and outdoor air quality problems such as idling school buses.
Employers and insurers can:
- Promote healthy workplaces by reducing or eliminating known asthma triggers.
- Promote measures that prevent asthma attacks such as eliminating co-payments for inhaled corticosteroids and other prescribed medicines.
- Provide reimbursement for educational sessions conducted by clinicians, health educators, and other health professionals both within and outside of the clinical setting.
- Provide reimbursement for long-term control medicines, education, and services to reduce asthma triggers that are often not covered by health insurers.
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http://www.cdc.gov/VitalSigns/Asthma/index.html
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Human expansion and interference have detrimental effects as civilizations continue to encroach on previously undisturbed habitats. As a result, many species of animals and plants must struggle to survive.
Biodiversity reveals the important role each of these life forms plays in its ecosystem as well as the irreversible and extensive consequences that would result from a massive loss of biodiversity. It explores the ecological and evolutionary processes, how these processes depend on the cohabitation of a wide range of life forms within an ecosystem, and how the existence of these diverse organisms maintains a crucial stability in the natural world. Beginning with an introduction to biodiversity, this new volume discusses its importance and history, the difficulties in maintaining it, and past and current efforts to protect ecosystems from greater destruction. It examines five specific case studies, including the United States, Indonesia, New Zealand, Madagascar, and Costa Rica, describing the current status and history of biodiversity, obstacles, and conservation efforts in the country at hand.
Maps. Index. Bibliography. Glossary. Chronology. Tables and graphs.
About the Author(s)
Natalie Goldstein is a freelance writer who has written numerous books for the educational market, including textbooks and teacher's guides for the middle school and encyclopedias for the high school. She also wrote Globalization and Free Trade and Global Warming in the Global Issues series.
Foreword author Julie L. Lockwood is director of the graduate program in ecology and evolution and associate professor in the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Natural Resources at Rutgers University. She is the coauthor of Avian Invasions: The Ecology and Evolution of Exotic Birds and Invasion Ecology.
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http://www.infobasepublishing.com/Bookdetail.aspx?ISBN=0816082421&eBooks=0
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Let's Talk About: Cosmic collisions
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It has been almost 100 years since Edwin Hubble measured the universe beyond the Milky Way Galaxy. Today, astronomers believe that as many as 100 billion other galaxies are sharing the cosmos. Most of these cosmic islands are classified by shape as either spiral or elliptical, but stargazing scientists have discovered galaxies that don't quite fit these molds.
Common to this "irregular" category are galaxies that interact with other galaxies. These gravitational interactions are often referred to as mergers, and their existence invites the question: Is the Milky Way collision-prone? To evaluate the probability, look to the Andromeda Galaxy. Located more than 2.5 million light-years away, Andromeda appears as a small fuzzy patch in the sky. However, there is nothing miniature about it. Similar to the shape (spiral), size and mass of the Milky Way, Andromeda is home to a trillion other stars.
Astronomers have known for decades that our galactic neighbor is rapidly closing in on us -- at approximately 250,000 miles per hour. They know this because of blueshift, a measured decrease in electromagnetic wavelength caused by the motion of a light-emitting source, in this case Andromeda, as it moves closer to the observer.
Recently, data collected from the Hubble Space Telescope has allowed astronomers to predict a merger with certainty, in 4 billion years. Our sun will still be shining, and Earth will most likely survive the impact. Reason being, galaxies, although single units of stars gravitationally tied together, are mostly gigantic voids. One can compare a galaxy-on-galaxy collision to the pouring of one glass of water into another. The end result is a larger collection of water, or in the case of a cosmic collision, a larger galaxy. Future Earth inhabitants, billions of years from now, could look up and observe only small portions of such an event because it will take 2 billion years for these cosmic islands to become one.
First Published November 29, 2012 12:00 am
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http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/news/science/lets-talk-about-cosmic-collisions-664068/
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Lauren Boulden's Story
Using Think-Alouds to Get Inside Langston Hughes' Head
Over my past few years of teaching, there have been multiple occasions where I have been stumped on how to present a particular concept to my students. I've always been able to turn to ReadWriteThink.org for hands-on, engaging lessons. For example, I knew I wanted my students to develop their skills when it came to interacting with text, particularly with poetry. While searching through the myriad options on ReadWriteThink, I came upon "Building Reading Comprehension Through Think-Alouds."
At first, I planned to use the lesson exactly as written: Read Langston Hughes's poem "Dream Variation" and model a think-aloud with students; then have the students try their hand at some think-alouds using other poetry. After working out all of the details, I realized I could develop some additional skills, which would fit perfectly into the scope and sequence of my class. After completing the think-aloud to "Dream Variation," I broke students into selected groups. Each group was given a different Langston Hughes poem and asked to complete a think-aloud. The next day, the students were put into a new jigsaw group where they were solely responsible for sharing what their Langston Hughes poem conveyed. Based on the meanings behind their group mates' poems, along with using the knowledge of both their poem and "Dream Variation," students were asked to figure out who Langston Hughes was as a man. What did he stand for? What were his beliefs? What did he want out of life? Students used clues from the various poems to fill in a head-shaped graphic organizer to depict their understanding of who Hughes could be. This simple lesson of working with poems and think-alouds turned into a few days of group communication, text deciphering, inferences, and even an author study!
Without great lessons available on ReadWriteThink.org, such as "Building Reading Comprehension Through Think-Alouds," my students would never have been able to tackle so many key reading strategies in such a short amount of time.
Grades 6 – 8 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson
Students learn components of think-alouds and type-of-text interactions through teacher modeling. In the process, students develop the ability to use think-alouds to aid in reading comprehension tasks.
Lauren describes how she used ReadWriteThink in her classroom.
I have been teaching seventh- and eighth-grade language arts in Delaware for the past five years. I grew up in Long Island, New York, but have called Delaware my home since completing my undergraduate and master’s work at the University of Delaware. Teaching and learning have become my prime passions in life, which is why my days are spent teaching English, directing plays, organizing the school newspaper, and teaching yoga in the evenings.
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http://www.readwritethink.org/about/community-stories/using-think-alouds-inside-36.html
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King James II of England (who was also James VII of Scotland) inherited the throne in 1685 upon the death of his brother, Charles II. James II was unpopular because of his attempts to increase the power of the monarchy and restore the Catholic faith. Deposed in the "Glorious Revolution" of 1688-89, he fled to France. His daughter and son-in-law succeeded him as Queen Mary II and King William III. James II died in 1701.
Unless otherwise noted, these books are for sale at Amazon.com. Your purchase through these links will help to support the continued operation and improvement of the Royalty.nu site.
James II by John Miller. Biography from the Yale English Monarchs series.
James II: The Triumph and the Tragedy by John Callow. Charts James' life using little-known material from the UK National Archives. Includes James' own description of the Battle of Edgehill, his reasons for his conversion to Catholicism, and his correspondence with William of Orange.
A Court in Exile: The Stuarts in France, 1689-1718 by Edward Corp. After James II was deposed, he established his court in France. The book describes his court and the close relationships between the British and French royal families.
King in Exile: James II: Warrior, King and Saint by John Callow. Reassesses James's strategy for dealing with his downfall and exile, presenting a portrait of a man who planned for great political rewards and popular acclaim.
James II and the Trial of the Seven Bishops by William Gibson. The trial of seven bishops in 1688 was a prelude to the Glorious Revolution, as popular support for the bishops led to widespread welcome for William of Orange's invasion.
The Making of King James II by John Callow is about the formative years of the fallen king. Out of print, but sometimes available from Alibris.
The Countess and the King: A Novel of the Countess of Dorchester and King James II by Susan Holloway Scott. Novel about Katherine Sedley, a royal mistress forced to make the most perilous of choices: to remain loyal to the king, or to England.
The Crown for a Lie by Jane Lane. Novel about how James II lost his throne. Out of print, but sometimes available from Alibris.
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http://www.royalty.nu/Europe/England/Stuart/JamesII.html
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Indian removal had been taking place in the United States since the 18th Century as more Americans made the move westward. In the early 19th Century, Andrew Jackson and the majority of white Americans like him, wanted the Indians to move west of the Mississippi, out of the way from white expansion. Popular thought was that the Indians were savages who could not be civilized, and integration with the white culture was not a possibility.
Through the next several years, Indian tribes all over the eastern front were forced to reservations of proportional inequality compared with land once owned. The United States bought the land from the Indians while using its brute power to force unruly tribes west. No matter how much they tried, the Indians were no match for the strength of the United States.
Indians of the Sauk and Fox tribes tried to take back land that was ceded to the United States wrongfully. When they inhabited the vacant land, Americans saw them as a threat to the white settlements close-by. Illinois state militia was sent in to destroy the so-called "invaders." The Indians retreated back and the militia continued to attack until most had been killed.
Were Americans justified in the mass movement of Indian tribes? I would have to say they were not. I cannot see the logic in their assumptions of the Indians. For the most part, little interaction took place with the Indians. Yet, Americans still believed they were uncivilized.
Perhaps the problem was in terms of envy. Indians had been capable of adapting to land and using the land efficiently for years at a time. I think Americans saw how the Indians were able to do this, and became jealous of their superior farming abilities. Land was becoming useless in the east, and Indians had been able to use their land repeatedly. Americans saw this fertile land as rich in potential profit and were willing to go to any length in acquiring it.
Evidence of the two cultures working together in a society was apparent in New Mexico, Texas, and California. If these people were able to survive and live off each other, I would have to assume that had the United States made an effort, they could have resolved this situation in an easier manner. Unless it was jealousy that was driving them to take the Indian land. Something tells me it was exactly that which caused such a debacle. Superior in farming techniques and land use, the Indians efficient ways were the downfall of their land availability.
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http://www.shvoong.com/humanities/history/6283-removal-indians-north-america/
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There are many techniques available to help students get started with a
piece of writing. Getting started can be hard for all levels of writers.
Freewriting is one great technique to build fluency. That was
explored in an earlier lesson plan: http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/adulted/lessons/lesson18.html
This unit offers some other techniques. These techniques may be especially
helpful with students who prefer a style of learning or teaching that could
be described as visual, spatial, or graphic. Sometimes those styles or overlooked
in favor of approaches that are very linguistic or linear. The approaches
here will attend to a broader range of learning styles as they add variety.
- Writing: Writing Process, Pre-Writing, Autobiography, Exposition,
Personal Narrative, Argumentation, Comparison and Contrast, Description.
Students will be able to:
- Write more fluently (writing more with greater ease)
- Generate writing topics
- Select topics that will yield strong pieces of writing
- Connect personal experience, knowledge, and examples to an assigned
- Produce better organized pieces of writing
National Reporting System of Adult Education standards are applicable here.
These are the standards required by the 1998 Workforce Investment Act. See
Pencils, colored pencils, pens, markers, crayons, unlined paper, magazines
and newspapers with pictures inside, glue or paste, and paper. Big paper
or poster board can make the pre-writing exercises more eye-catching,
more of a project, and better for display.
Video and TV:
Prep for Teachers
Make sure you try each of the activities yourself before you ask students
to do them. That will give you a better understanding of the activities
and help you recognize any potential points that may be confusing or difficult.
This also gives you a sample to show the students. Its much easier
to create a diagram if you are shown an example of one.
Here are some Web sites that give background and even more ideas about you
pre-writing, diagrams, graphic organizers, and other ideas to get started
with writing. There is some repetition here. You dont have to read
them all. But check them out and see what you think.
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http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/adulted/lessons/lesson19.html
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No one knows how the first organisms or even the first organic precursors formed on Earth, but one theory is that they didn't. Rather, they were imported from space. Scientists have been finding what looks like biological raw material in meteorites for years, but it's usually been shown to be ground contamination. This year, however, investigators studying a dozen meteorites that landed in Antarctica found traces of adenine and guanine two of the four nucleobases that make DNA. That's not a big surprise, since nucleobases have been found in meteorites before. But these were found in the company of other molecules that were similar in structure but not identical. Those had never been detected in previous meteorite samples and they were also not found on the ground where the space rocks landed. That rules out contamination and rules in space organics. A little adenine and guanine in the company of other mysterious stuff is a long, long way from something living but it's closer than we were before.
Next Star Wars Gets Real
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http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2101344_2101210_2101220,00.html
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Search: Nuclear chemistry, Darmstadtium, Germany
In honour of scientist and astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543), the discovering team around Professor Sigurd Hofmann suggested the name copernicium with the element symbol Cp for the new element 112, discovered at the GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung (Center for Heavy Ion Research) in Darmstadt. It was Copernicus who discovered that the Earth orbits the Sun, thus paving the way for our modern view of the world. Thirteen years ago, element 112 was discovered by an international team of scientists at the GSI accelerator facility. A few weeks ago, the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, IUPAC, officially confirmed their discovery. In around six months, IUPAC will officially endorse the new element's name. This period is set to allow the scientific community to discuss the suggested name copernicium before the IUPAC naming.
"After IUPAC officially recognized our discovery, we – that is all scientists involved in the discovery – agreed on proposing the name copernicium for the new element 112. We would like to honor an outstanding scientist, who changed our view of the world", says Sigurd Hofmann, head of the discovering team.
Copernicus was born 1473 in Torun; he died 1543 in Frombork, Poland. Working in the field of astronomy, he realized that the planets circle the Sun. His discovery refuted the then accepted belief that the Earth was the center of the universe. His finding was pivotal for the discovery of the gravitational force, which is responsible for the motion of the planets. It also led to the conclusion that the stars are incredibly far away and the universe inconceivably large, as the size and position of the stars does not change even though the Earth is moving. Furthermore, the new world view inspired by Copernicus had an impact on the human self-concept in theology and philosophy: humankind could no longer be seen as the center of the world.
With its planets revolving around the Sun on different orbits, the solar system is also a model for other physical systems. The structure of an atom is like a microcosm: its electrons orbit the atomic nucleus like the planets orbit the Sun. Exactly 112 electrons circle the atomic nucleus in an atom of the new element "copernicium".
Element 112 is the heaviest element in the periodic table, 277 times heavier than hydrogen. It is produced by a nuclear fusion, when bombarding zinc ions onto a lead target. As the element already decays after a split second, its existence can only be proved with the help of extremely fast and sensitive analysis methods. Twenty-one scientists from Germany, Finland, Russia and Slovakia have been involved in the experiments that led to the discovery of element 112.
Since 1981, GSI accelerator experiments have yielded the discovery of six chemical elements, which carry the atomic numbers 107 to 112. The discovering teams at GSI already named five of them: element 107 is called bohrium, element 108 hassium, element 109 meitnerium, element 110 darmstadtium, and element 111 is named roentgenium.
The new element 112 discovered by GSI has been officially recognized and will be named by the Darmstadt group in due course. Their suggestion should be made public over this summer.
The element 112, discovered at the GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung (Centre for Heavy Ion Research) in Darmstadt, has been officially recognized as a new element by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC). IUPAC confirmed the recognition of element 112 in an official letter to the head of the discovering team, Professor Sigurd Hofmann. The letter furthermore asks the discoverers to propose a name for the new element. Their suggestion will be submitted within the next weeks. In about 6 months, after the proposed name has been thoroughly assessed by IUPAC, the element will receive its official name. The new element is approximately 277 times heavier than hydrogen, making it the heaviest element in the periodic table.
“We are delighted that now the sixth element – and thus all of the elements discovered at GSI during the past 30 years – has been officially recognized. During the next few weeks, the scientists of the discovering team will deliberate on a name for the new element”, says Sigurd Hofmann. 21 scientists from Germany, Finland, Russia and Slovakia were involved in the experiments around the discovery of the new element 112.
Since 1981, GSI accelerator experiments have yielded the discovery of six chemical elements, which carry the atomic numbers 107 to 112. GSI has already named their officially recognized elements 107 to 111: element 107 is called Bohrium, element 108 Hassium, element 109 Meitnerium, element 110 Darmstadtium, and element 111 is named Roentgenium.
Recommendation for the Naming of Element of Atomic Number 110
Prepared for publication by J. Corish and G. M. Rosenblatt
A joint IUPAC-IUPAP Working Party confirms the discovery of element number 110 and this by the collaboration of Hofmann et al. from the Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung mbH (GSI) in Darmstadt, Germany.
In accord with IUPAC procedures, the discoverers have proposed a name and symbol for the element. The Inorganic Chemistry Division Committee now recommends this proposal for acceptance. The proposed name is darmstadtium with symbol Ds. This proposal lies within the long established tradition of naming an element after the place of its discovery.
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http://www.webelements.com/nexus/search/results/taxonomy%3A20%2C538%2C198.212
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As the years tick by with most of the planet doing little in the way of reducing carbon emissions, researchers are getting increasingly serious about the possibility of carbon sequestration. If it looks like we're going to be burning coal for decades, carbon sequestration offers us the best chance of limiting its impact on climate change and ocean acidification. A paper that will appear in today's PNAS describes a fantastic resource for carbon sequestration that happens to be located right next to many of the US' major urban centers on the East Coast.
Assuming that capturing the carbon dioxide is financially and energetically feasible, the big concern becomes where to put it so that it will stay out of the atmosphere for centuries. There appear to be two main schools of thought here. One is that areas that hold large deposits of natural gas should be able to trap other gasses for the long term. The one concern here is that, unlike natural gas, CO2 readily dissolves in water, and may escape via groundwater that flows through these features. The alternative approach turns that problem into a virtue: dissolved CO2 can react with minerals in rocks called basalts (the product of major volcanic activity), forming insoluble carbonate minerals. This should provide an irreversible chemical sequestration.
The new paper helpfully points out that if we're looking for basalts, the East Coast of the US, home to many of its major urban centers and their associated carbon emissions, has an embarrassment of riches. The rifting that broke up the supercontinent called Pangea and formed the Atlantic Ocean's basin triggered some massive basalt flows at the time, which are now part of the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province, or CAMP. The authors estimate that prior to some erosion, CAMP had the equivalent of the largest basalt flows we're currently aware of, the Siberian and Deccan Traps.
Some of this basalt is on land—anyone in northern Manhattan can look across the Hudson River and see it in the sheer cliffs of the Palisades. But much, much more of it is off the coast under the Atlantic Ocean. The authors provide some evidence in the form of drill cores and seismic readings that indicate there are large basalt deposits in basins offshore of New Jersey and New York, extending up to southern New England.
These areas are now covered with millions of years of sediment, which should provide a largely impermeable barrier that will trap any gas injected into the basalt for many years. The deposits should also have reached equilibrium with the seawater above, which will provide the water necessary for the chemical reactions that precipitate out carbonate minerals.
Using a drill core from an onshore deposit, the authors show that the basalt deposits are also composed of many distinct flows of material. Each of these flows would have undergone rapid cooling on both its upper and lower surface, which fragmented the rock. The core samples show porosity levels between 10 and 20 percent, which should allow any CO2 pumped into the deposits to spread widely.
The authors estimate that New Jersey's Sandy Hook basin, a relatively small deposit, is sufficient to house 40 years' worth of emissions from coal plants that produce 4GW of electricity. And the Sandy Hook basin is dwarfed by one that lies off the Carolinas and Georgia. They estimate that the South Georgia Rift basin covers roughly 40,000 square kilometers.
The authors argue that although laboratory simulations suggest the basic idea of using basalts for carbon sequestration is sound, the actual effectiveness in a given region can depend on local quirks of geology, so pilot tests in the field are absolutely essential for determining whether a given deposit is suitable. So far, only one small-scale test has been performed on any of the CAMP deposits.
Given the area's proximity to significant sources of CO2 and the infrastructure that could be brought into play if full-scale sequestration is attempted, it seems like one of the most promising proposals to date.
PNAS, 2010. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0913721107
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http://arstechnica.com/science/2010/01/pangea-era-rift-makes-east-coast-perfect-for-carbon-storage/
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This section provides primary sources that document how Indian and European men and one English and one Indian woman have described the practice of sati, or the self-immolation of Hindu widows.
Although they are all critical of self-immolation, Francois Bernier, Fanny Parks, Lord William Bentinck, and Rev. England present four different European perspectives on the practice of sati and what it represents about Indian culture in general, and the Hindu religion and Hindu women in particular. They also indicate increasing negativism in European attitudes toward India and the Hindu religion in general. It would be useful to compare the attitudes of Bentinck and England as representing the secular and sacred aspects of British criticism of sati. A comparison of Bentinck’s minute with the subsequent legislation also reveals differences in tone between private and public documents of colonial officials. Finally, a comparison between the Fanny Parks and the three men should raise discussion on whether or not the gender and social status of the writer made any difference in his or her appraisal of the practice of self-immolation.
The three sources by Indian men and one by an Indian woman illustrate the diversity of their attitudes toward sati. The Marathi source illuminates the material concerns of relatives of the Hindu widow who is urged to adopt a son, so as to keep a potentially lucrative office within the extended family. These men are willing to undertake intense and delicate negotiations to secure a suitably related male child who could be adopted. This letter also documents that adoption was a legitimate practice among Hindus, and that Hindu women as well as men could adopt an heir. Ram Mohan Roy’s argument illustrates a rationalist effort to reform Hindu customs with the assistance of British legislation. Roy illustrates one of the many ways in which Indians collaborate with British political power in order to secure change within Indian society. He also enabled the British to counter the arguments of orthodox Hindus about the scriptural basis for the legitimacy of self-immolation of Hindu widows. The petition of the orthodox Hindu community in Calcutta, the capital of the Company’s territories in India, documents an early effort of Indians to keep the British colonial power from legislating on matters pertaining to the private sphere of Indian family life. Finally, Pandita Ramabai reflects the ways in which ancient Hindu scriptures and their interpretation continued to dominate debate. Students should consider how Ramabai’s effort to raise funds for her future work among child widows in India might have influenced her discussion of sati.
Two key issues should be emphasized. First, both Indian supporters and European and Indian opponents of the practice of self-immolation argue their positions on the bodies of Hindu women, and all the men involved appeal to Hindu scriptures to legitimate their support or opposition. Second, the voices of Indian women were filtered through the sieve of Indian and European men and a very few British women until the late 19th century.
- How do the written and visual sources portray the Hindu women who commit self-immolation? Possible aspects range from physical appearance and age, motivation, evidence of physical pain (that even the most devoted woman must suffer while burning to death), to any evidence of the agency or autonomy of the Hindu widow in deciding to commit sati. Are any differences discernible, and if so, do they seem related to gender or nationality of the observer or time period in which they were observed?
- How are the brahman priests who preside at the self-immolation portrayed in Indian and European sources? What might account for any similarities and differences?
- What reasons are used to deter Hindu widows from committing sati? What do these reasons reveal about the nature of family life in India and the relationships between men and women?
- What do the reasons that orthodox Hindus provide to European observers and to Indian reformers reveal about the significance of sati for the practice of the Hindu religion? What do their arguments reveal about orthodox Hindu attitudes toward women and the family?
- How are Hindu scriptures used in various ways in the debates before and after the prohibition of sati?
- What is the tone of the petition from 800 Hindus to their British governor? Whom do they claim to represent? What is their justification for the ritual of self-immolation? What is their attitude toward the Mughal empire whose Muslim rulers had preceded the British? What is their characterization of the petitioners toward those Hindus who support the prohibition on sati? How do the petitioners envision the proper relationship between the state and the practice of religion among its subjects?
- Who or what factors do European observers, British officials, and Indian opponents of sati hold to be responsible for the continuance of the practice of sati?
- What were the reasons that widows gave for committing sati? Were they religious, social or material motives? What is the evidence that the widows were voluntarily committing sati before 1829? What reasons did the opponents of sati give for the decisions of widows to commit self-immolation? What reasons did opponents give for widows who tried to escape from their husbands’ pyres?
- What are the reasons that Lord Bentinck and his Executive Council cite for their decision to declare the practice of sati illegal? Are the arguments similar to or different from his arguments in his minute a month earlier? What do these reasons reveal about British attitudes toward their role or mission in India? Do they use any of the arguments cited by Ram Mohan Roy or Pandita Ramabai?
- What do these sources, both those who oppose sati and those who advocate it, reveal about their attitudes to the Hindu religion in particular and Indian culture in general?
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<urn:uuid:672e69ee-fd10-42dc-8e01-f4fde95914a0>
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http://chnm.gmu.edu/wwh/modules/lesson5/lesson5.php?menu=1&c=strategies&s=0
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The white, mottled area in the right-center of this image from NASA’s Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) is Madrid, the capital of Spain. Located on the Meseta Central, a vast plateau covering about 40 percent of the country, this city of 3 million is very near the exact geographic center of the Iberian Peninsula. The Meseta is rimmed by mountains and slopes gently to the west and to the series of rivers that form the boundary with Portugal. The plateau is mostly covered with dry grasslands, olive groves and forested hills.
Madrid is situated in the middle of the Meseta, and at an elevation of 646 meters (2,119 feet) above sea level is the highest capital city in Europe. To the northwest of Madrid, and visible in the upper left of the image, is the Sistema Central mountain chain that forms the “dorsal spine” of the Meseta and divides it into northern and southern subregions. Rising to about 2,500 meters (8,200 feet), these mountains display some glacial features and are snow-capped for most of the year. Offering almost year-round winter sports, the mountains are also important to the climate of Madrid.
Three visualization methods were combined to produce this image: shading and color coding of topographic height and radar image intensity. The shade image was derived by computing topographic slope in the northwest-southeast direction. North-facing slopes appear bright and south-facing slopes appear dark. Color coding is directly related to topographic height, with green at the lower elevations, rising through yellow and brown to white at the highest elevations. The shade image was combined with the radar intensity image in the flat areas.
Size: 172 by 138 kilometers (107 by 86 miles)
Location: 40.43 degrees North latitude, 3.70 degrees West longitude
Orientation: North toward the top
Image Data: shaded and colored SRTM elevation model, with SRTM radar intensity added
Original Data Resolution: SRTM 1 arcsecond (about 30 meters or 98 feet)
Date Acquired: February 2000
Image Courtesy SRTM Team NASA/JPL/NIMA
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<urn:uuid:e494080f-4b89-4fa9-91cc-95cd733c7b72>
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http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=3045
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A crocodile large enough to swallow humans once lived in East Africa, according to a May 2012 paper in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.
Paper author Christopher Brochu is an associate professor of geoscience at University of Iowa. He said:
It’s the largest known true crocodile. It may have exceeded 27 feet in length. By comparison, the largest recorded Nile crocodile was less than 21 feet, and most are much smaller.
The newly-discovered species lived between two and four million years ago in Kenya. It resembled its living cousin, the Nile crocodile, but was more massive.
Brochu recognized the new species from fossils that he examined three years ago at the National Museum of Kenya in Nairobi. Some were found at sites known for important human fossil discoveries. Brochu said:
It lived alongside our ancestors, and it probably ate them. He explains that although the fossils contain no evidence of human/reptile encounters, crocodiles generally eat whatever they can swallow, and humans of that time period would have stood no more than four feet tall.
We don’t actually have fossil human remains with croc bites, but the crocs were bigger than today’s crocodiles, and we were smaller, so there probably wasn’t much biting involved.
Brochu added that there likely would have been ample opportunity for humans to encounter crocs. That’s because early man, along with other animals, would have had to seek water at rivers and lakes where crocodiles lie in wait.
The crocodile Crocodylus thorbjarnarsoni is named after John Thorbjarnarson, famed crocodile expert and Brochu’s colleague who died of malaria while in the field several years ago.
Brochu says Crocodylus thorbjarnarsoni is not directly related to the present-day Nile crocodile. This suggests that the Nile crocodile is a fairly young species and not an ancient “living fossil,” as many people believe. Borchu said:
We really don’t know where the Nile crocodile came from. But it only appears after some of these prehistoric giants died out.
Bottom line: A paper in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology in May, 2012 reports the discovery of an ancient crocodile large enough to swallow humans that lived two to four million years ago in East Africa.
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http://earthsky.org/earth/biggest-crocodile-that-ever-lived/comment-page-1
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