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Bread is a common staple in most kitchens, and many dogs have enjoyed a sandwich crust left too close to the edge of the kitchen table or counter. But, is it safe for dogs to eat bread? Here’s what you need to know about dogs and bread.
Is it safe for dogs to eat bread?
Nuts — Macadamia nuts are especially toxic to dogs. And, all nuts are high in fat, which can lead to pancreatitis in your furry friend.
Chocolate chips — Even though banana bread is a delicious treat, it’s often paired with chocolate. Keep your pup’s paws off this sweet snack.
Raisins — Thick slices of raisin-studded bread make excellent toast in the morning, but don’t let your dog join you for breakfast. Raisins can quickly cause kidney failure in dogs.
Onions and garlic — Your canine companion already has doggy breath, and adding onions and garlic on top of that is unappealing. What’s even worse than stinky breath? Onions and garlic can cause anemia by destroying your dog’s red blood cells.
Xylitol — Beware of dessert breads or breads containing peanut butter sweetened with xylitol. This sugar substitute can lead to dangerously low glucose levels and may also cause liver failure.
Bread dough ingestion is considered an emergency, and you should seek veterinary care as soon as possible.
As with any special treat, be sure to only dole out small portions of bread to prevent your pup from gaining weight.
Are there health benefits of eating bread?
When you have an upset stomach, you may eat dry toast to settle it. And, many dog owners assume the same is true for dogs experiencing gastrointestinal upset. Instead of using bread to soothe your pup’s tummy, opt for a bland diet. The Merck Veterinary Manual recommends feeding a mixture of cooked white rice and boiled boneless skinless chicken or lowfat cottage cheese for gastrointestinal issues and avoiding carb-laden, sugar-filled white bread that can lead to bloating.
However, this recommendation is for short term use only as it is not nutritionally balanced. It is best to consult with your veterinarian for their recommendation specific to your pet.
If your dog ingests a sharp object, such as beef and pork bone shards, which should not be fed to your pet, bread may help but it is always best to check with your veterinarian first. It is thought that bread can serve to “pad” bone fragments or wood chips to prevent intestinal perforation and wad up string if swallowed. But, if your pet is vomiting, has persistent diarrhea, is painful, or is not acting like herself, skip the toast and head straight to your veterinarian.
If your dog suffers from bowel issues, speak to your veterinarian about adding in a bread that is rich in fiber, such as whole wheat or grain-based breads. Stay away from plain white bread and French bread, since these types carry few nutritional perks. Most pets don’t require supplementation if fed the appropriate, high-quality, balanced dog food.
In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and cinnamon, mixing well.
Add the honey, egg, and almond milk to the bananas, and whisk until combined.
Place dough into a loaf pan, making sure it’s level.
Ensure the bread has cooled completely before serving.
In addition to being delicious, this banana bread boasts other benefits. Bananas are rich in fiber, vitamins, and minerals, strengthening the immune system. Cinnamon provides a variety of benefits—it aids in digestion and serves as an anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, and anti-fungal ingredient.
Enjoy baking for your best friend? Try whipping up these other doggy delights (we recommend the carrot cupcakes with cream cheese icing!).
If baking isn’t up your alley, try a simple snack of a mini peanut butter sandwich. Just a small bite is enough for your dog to enjoy this treat. You can also turn this snack into a variation of a pill pocket to hide your pet’s daily medications or supplements. Remember, always choose plain white or wheat bread, free from xylitol, nuts, or raisins. |
Wake up, Oregon. Consider the rise of China as a global power. Note its large and rapidly growing economy, its modernizing military, and its spreading cultural influence. Then ask the following questions: How is Oregon responding to China’s rise? Are we looking to the future? Are we preparing today’s students in Oregon for the challenges and opportunities that a rising China will pose over their lifetimes?
And the question is not just are we giving educational opportunities to individual students, but are we preparing the next generations as groups to have the language and cultural skills that can make our state, and our nation, successful in the developing international system? And of vital importance, will our future generations have the skills to minimize the chances of war with China?
Or, if conflict were to occur, would America’s understanding of Chinese culture and language enable it to be concluded successfully? Presently, the answers are a resounding, “No, not at all.” Oregon’s K-12, colleges and universities are failing to produce Chinese culture- and language-proficient students in significant numbers.
Currently, less than one percent of Oregon high school graduates have studied Mandarin, and most of those are far from proficient. At the university level, less than two percent of undergraduates now study Mandarin, and in the 2003-04 academic year only 35 of the 79,558 students (0.044%) in the Oregon University System studied abroad in China. These are not the statistics of an educational system preparing students for the twenty-first century or to engage a rising China constructively.
Oregon’s failure to offer and promote proficiency in Chinese language and cultural studies will have dire consequences in the decades ahead. For better or worse, China is destined to be America’s most important and pivotal economic and security relationship in the 21st century.
A National Bureau of Economic Research working paper recently (June 2007) forecast a Chinese economy three times the size of the U.S. economy by 2040. Its authors stated, “Indeed, the Chinese market in 2040 by itself will probably be larger than the combined markets of the U.S., the EU15, India, and Japan.” More recently in December, the World Bank revised downward by forty percent the current “purchasing-power parity” GDP of China. Even with this forty percent current devaluation, using the working paper’s economic growth rates, China would still have an estimated economy twice the size of the U.S. economy in 2040. If China can continue to sustain its high economic growth rates year after year, the Chinese economy will become enormous.
The direction that China and the U.S.-China relations take will define the strategic future of the world for years to come. No relationship matters more — for better of for worse — in resolving the enduring challenges of our time: maintaining stability among great powers, sustaining global economic growth, stemming dangerous weapons proliferation, countering terrorism, and confronting new transnational threats of infectious disease, environmental degradation, international crime, and failing states.
So what did the 2007 Oregon Legislative Session do to prepare Oregon students to compete in a world where China is the powerhouse? The House passed HR 3 which urged “Oregon universities, community colleges and secondary schools to encourage Oregon students to learn Mandarin Chinese and to explore opportunities to study in China.” The House Education Committee held one hearing on China and Higher Education and passed HB 2763, which would have allocated $350,000 to develop Mandarin programs in K-12 statewide. Unfortunately, HB 2763 was unfunded and died when the session ended.
Nevertheless, some progress in Chinese Immersion is being made. The University of Oregon and the Portland Public Schools are developing the national model K-16 Mandarin program. Its Mandarin immersion program starts with half-day Mandarin, half-day English program in kindergarten and progresses to some college study in China. Although limited, this is a meaningful start.
In sum, Oregon education has taken small steps toward preparing the rising generation to participate in a Chinese-dominated world market, but we must lengthen our stride. We know generally what to do. We know we need to start students as early as possible, immerse them as much as possible, and eventually provide opportunities for them to spend time in China. We should create incentives for school districts to offer Chinese language classes and to attract students to take them. With a bill like HB 2763 and some funds for immersion start-ups, Oregon could begin to build Mandarin programs all across the state. We could use real-time audio-visual distance learning technology to provide classes to smaller, rural school districts.
We could cut through “red tape” and provide graduate level exchange student scholarships for Chinese students to study part-time at Oregon universities while teaching Chinese part-time in Oregon public schools. Similar scholarships could be provided for Oregon graduate students to do the same in China. Chinese leaders in Fujian Province””Oregon’s sister-state””are ready, willing and able to join Oregon leaders in developing an Oregon-China student “teaching while learning” exchange program. Such an exchange program was informally discussed last November during the 2007 Oregon-China Legislative Trade Mission.
In conclusion, the growing dominance of China economically and in every other way is undeniable. Oregon has the opportunity and the challenge to prepare our next generation of business and government leaders to have the language and cultural skills necessary to understand and communicate with their Chinese counterparts. By making Chinese Immersion a top priority for Oregon education, we will extend a hand of friendship, understanding and invitation across the Pacific, and prepare Oregon’s rising generation to not only participate, but be leaders in the changing world of the 21st century. |
Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency that is being traded in the global financial markets ever since it came into existence in 2011. The unprecedented popularity and anticipation of the world’s first electronic cryptocurrency had sparked immense volatility, which took the value of a single Bitcoin to around $1200 within three years of its inception. Bitcoin had paved the way for numerous investors to accrue millions of dollars in profits, while it has also led several others to financial ruin. Presently, Bitcoin is trading at a reasonable level, and it does seem that the cryptocurrency has started experiencing more liquidity that inadvertently reduces the amount of volatility and unexpected price fluctuations.
Bitcoin Forex brokers started accepting BTC as a valid form of payment back in 2013 and have also enabled traders to trade bitcoins against other currencies such as the Euro and the US Dollar. The concept of bitcoins is relatively new, and there are only a few Forex brokers in the world that accept bitcoins. Normally, it is easier to fund a Forex trading account using other payment options, but traders usually prefer bitcoins if they do not wish to disclose their bank or card information to their brokers.
Bitcoin is rumored to be founded by a person called Satoshi Nakamoto, who is considered to be a single person or a group of programmers. Bitcoin is an entirely decentralized currency, and no single Government or financial institution has any control over the cryptocurrency in any manner. The lack of control and the relative anonymity of bitcoins have received flak from several quarters of the world that has deemed bitcoin to have hurt Governments’ ability to track the flow of money to counter terrorism and financial crimes. According to a recent study, bitcoins are used extensively by anti-social elements, hackers, terrorists, and even financial companies to transact massive amounts of money through the darknet.
Bitcoin was designed as a decentralized currency that can be used to make payments through an online platform. Bitcoins are generated according to sophisticated algorithms that are developed by leading programmers using highly powerful computing software and elaborate server network. Bitcoin production has a specified limit of 21 million bitcoins, which is anticipated to be achieved by the year 2040.
Bitcoin can be converted to different currencies through exchange houses that are situated in various parts of the world. Although Bitcoin is not regulated by any agency, bitcoin exchange houses are required to be regulated and authorized by a country’s regulatory authority. This has led to numerous companies setting up an online exchange house that facilitates the exchange of bitcoins for other currencies. The downside to online exchange houses is that there are more scam brokers than genuine companies, which leads to an unfavorable deal for a majority of online users. The US Government has expressly warned bitcoin exchange houses situated in the US to follow all regulatory guidelines, and to ensure that they adhere to strict anti-money laundering rules stipulated by the Government. Nevertheless, several leading financial experts in the developed economies of the world have rendered support for bitcoins and has labeled the cryptocurrency as one of the most exciting new concepts in the global financial markets.
Every Bitcoin account holder gets a Private Key that should be retained and kept safe for all future transactions. The Private Key is the only identifying document that links a user to his bitcoin account. If a user loses his Private Key, he will no longer be able to access his account and claim ownership of his bitcoins. All transactions are recorded through a Blockchain, which tracks a transaction and its associated units through a public ledger. Every transaction must be digitally signed using the Private Key to be valid, and the transaction is completed within milliseconds. Users can denominate any amount of bitcoins for transactions, which also include fractions, due to the inherently high value of a single bitcoin.
Funding a bitcoin account is a complicated process, as a user cannot get bitcoins through conventional payment methods. The primary way of getting bitcoins is through Mining, the process of creating bitcoins by solving complex algorithmic problems using high-speed and resource-intensive computers. The process of mining is considered to be time-consuming and requires computers with large computing powers; therefore, the average user will find it hard to mine for a single bitcoin using meager resources.
Users can buy bitcoins through exchange houses, which allow users to purchase bitcoins according to the prevailing market rate. The price of a bitcoin fluctuates according to the demand and supply, and bitcoin exchange companies usually add a markup spread for buying and selling bitcoins against major currencies. Some online payment processors such as NETELLER also allows their users to buy and sell bitcoins using the money available in their e-wallets, which is also an excellent way of using bitcoins for paying.
What Are The Advantages Of Bitcoin Forex Brokers & Where Can I Find One?
Bitcoin has the lowest penetration among Forex broker when compared to the other online payment platforms, but Bitcoin offers the most secure and anonymous payment option that cannot be matched by any of the existing payment processors. Several e-wallets also require users to verify their identity through credit cards, bank transfers, or through other identifying documents, but bitcoin account holders get access to their bitcoins without undergoing any identification procedure. Here is a list of Forex brokers that allow bitcoin payments as well as the ability to trade bitcoins through their cryptocurrency trading accounts.
Creating a new bitcoin account for funding a Forex account is a tedious and complicated process, especially since Forex brokers require a trader to submit a multitude of identifying documents for verification purposes. Unless a trader wishes to trade the markets without making a withdrawal, the anonymity aspect of bitcoin rarely works in the context of Forex trading. Every Forex regulatory agency requires its brokers to get a full range of information from their clients before allowing them to trade the FX markets. Therefore, it makes sense to choose a Forex broker that accepts bitcoins only if you have bitcoins available in your account and wish to fund your trading account using your bitcoins. |
The spotted owl is a predatory bird native to the old growth forests of the Pacific Northwest. Scientifically classified as Strix occidentalis, member of the Strigidae family, the "typical owls". The spotted owl had dimensions of roughly 45 cm tall with a wingspan of 120 cm. The breast is light brown or tan, with the back and head coloring a darker shade of brown. All plumage is frequented by white spots. The eyes are large and dark-nearing black.
As early as the late 1970s, the stage was being set in the Northwest for one of the bloodiest showdowns ever between environmental and economic interests in America, with the owl becoming the pivotal argument. The details of the politics will not be presented here, but the basics are as follow. The increase of logging after WWII in the Pacific Northwest was caused by the housing boom. By the 1970s, the world’s densest forest on Olympic Peninsula was being cut down at non-sustainable levels. Environmentalists sought to protect the trees, but the only federal law they had to work with was the Endangered Species Act. This meant that no land could be forced under federal protection unless it provided necessary habitat to an endangered species.
In came the owl, an animal which the preservationists found perfectly suited to this need for a few reasons. It was cute and friendly with humans, helping earn sympathy from urbanites. Each nesting pair required a huge range to support its diet, so a few animals could protect a large area. It was found only in old growth forests, not second or third growth douglas-fir. It was diminishing at a steady pace, so action was necessary, but not at too fast of a rate to invoke hopelessness. The culminating battle between environmentalists and logging interests came in 1993 with the Forest Service accepting a proposal by environmental lawyer Jack Ward Thompson which asked for 7.7 million acres to be set aside for spotted owl habitat.
Logging has since almost stopped on the Olympic Peninsula, with most of the old growth cut out in the 1980s anyways. Even optimistic estimates predict the owl population to drop by 40% to 50% in 100 years. Recent problems for the owl that have exacerbated the decline are the invasion of the eastern barred owl, creating competitive exclusion and hybridization with the spotted owl. |
CMIS core curriculum is a Common Core Learning standard-based document that provides opportunities for students learning based on clearly defined expectations and is aligned with the school vision and purpose. It empowers educators to select texts, identify objectives and use a rich array of instructional strategies and activities to meet student learning needs. Core curriculum is designed to provide assistance, while allowing for creativity, application of higher-order thinking skills and investigation of new approaches to apply their learning.
is broad in scope and provides for meeting the individual intellectual, emotional, and social needs of the students. It also provides for different levels of ability, development and learning styles. It includes activities designed to develop the children’s positive attitudes for learning.
integrates opportunities to develop small and large muscle skills and provides opportunities for students to actively explore and interact with the environment, other students, and adults in a positive manner.
places an emphasis upon the development of cognitive and effective skills, develops the knowledge and competencies necessary for student success at the next level of education.
It includes learning experiences in language arts (including reading, writing and speech communications at the appropriate levels) mathematics, science, social studies,French and German, physical education, art, music, computer, Islamic studies, Qur’an and national subjects (Arabic, religion, social studies).
serves both general and specific needs of students through a variety of exploratory experiences and courses so that the student is prepared to be successful at the next educational level.
The curriculum includes learning experiences in language arts (including reading, writing and speech communications at the appropriate levels) mathematics, science, social studies, French and German, physical education, art, music, computer, Islamic studies, Qur’an and national subjects (Arabic, religion, social studies).
includes a core set of offerings to enhance academic skills, career preparation, the application of knowledge, higher education and the use of technology to ensure successful transition to the world of work.
Core and non-core subjects include Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies, Foreign Languages (French and German), and computer studies from K-12. There are also specialized classes for Art, Fine Applied Art, P.E, Music and Islamic Studies.
CMS also offers the University Advanced Placement Program. Courses are scheduled on a year to year basis depending on needs and availability. Elective courses in Economics, Psychology, Sociology, Business, Math, Environmental Science, Advanced Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Management and Statistics are offered to 11 and 12 graders to help them explore their interests and career options.
SAT I, SAT II and Ministry of Education national subjects (Arabic, Religion, Social Studies and Civics) are part of CMIS instructional goals, plan and curriculum. Students with special needs have access to guidance and special needs programs (ELL, FSL, ASL, GSL ) curriculum. Technology is embedded within the curriculum to support student learning.
The curriculum also offers opportunities for interconnection between areas of learning, critical analysis, evaluation, self-expression and social interaction to address real-life problems. |
When was Christmas first celebrated? How did December 25 become the official date for the celebration of the birth of Jesus? Why are the Magi included in the tale? Who was the real St. Nicholas, and how did he become one of the most famous of all Christian saints? Why do we burn a Yule log or hang stockings from the mantle? Why do we cut down and bring inside an evergreen tree and decorate it with lights?
How did December 25 become the official date for the celebration of the birth of Jesus?
Why are the Magi included in the tale?
Who was the real St. Nicholas, and how did he become one of the most famous of all Christian saints?
Why do we burn a Yule log or hang stockings from the mantle?
Why do we cut down and bring inside an evergreen tree and decorate it with lights?
Why is Santa Claus depicted today as an elf?
What ancient pagan ritual has survived into the present-day Christmas celebration?
Who brought Christmas to America?
What role did the Keltic druids have on our modern Christmas celebration?
Why did Santa Claus once ride a goat and why do early depictions show goats hauling Santa’s four-wheeled wagon?
What about holly and mistletoe and evergreens—where did they come from and why are they so tightly tied to Christmas?
Has the White world turned Christmas into its own cultural celebration?
Have we taken Christ out of the equation to the disgust of many devout Christians and turned Jesus’s birth into a holiday so filled with Aryan pagan rite and imagery as to make it un-Christian? |
Towing capacity is simply the total weight that your vehicle can tow, but sometimes it’s not that simple. Many factors can influence towing capacity such as extra weight put on, or in, whatever you are towing, your vehicle’s tires, and the ability to brake effectively. Also important is the towing mechanism itself, such as the hitch and ball, which must always be in good condition and adhered properly to ensure a safe tow.
Something else to keep in mind is that your vehicle’s overall gas mileage will be affected by the extra weight you are towing. It’s important not to try to exceed posted speed limits as this will burn more fuel and may cause whatever you’re towing to become unstable especially in sharp turns.
For campers, CampingLife.com has a great database to ensure your car or truck can handle whatever you intend on towing. However, it’s always best to refer to your vehicle’s owner’s manual. The owner’s manual will tell you the specifics of what your vehicle can tow effectively.
“The connection between 2 vehicles when 1 is towing the other must be of sufficient strength to pull all weight towed.
Knowing your towing capacity, state laws, and putting safety first as you plan your next vacation or weekend can help ensure that you will not end up needing a tow yourself. |
The 3D printing progress continues and every so often leaves us new creations. It is true that there is still until we see business models but it is interesting to monitor this sector to check that the movements that are being made are consistent.
This week we are celebrating in Germany ICRA, a conference where researchers from around the world present their projects of robots and automata. One of the most curious comes from the union of the departments of computer science from MIT and biological engineering at Harvard.
This robot, as you can tell by the title of the post, has rather curious attributes: it can be manufactured in a 3D printer and once it was built, itself is mounted through the use of materials with thermal memory effect.
Or what is the same: when heated, some parts of your body change shape. Allowing you, warming up a form in concrete, bending and going to finish assembling its final form. We must clarify that Yes, that the battery and the engine We have to install us previously manually.
Another feature, which you can see in the video, is the fact that these robots move as crawler geomensoras. These caterpillars that insurance have seen in a documentary or animated, ever move by raising your entire body.
The project is quite curious, especially if we take into account that the only process which involved the human being can be automated with another robot. At the moment its practical use seems a little limited but is just a matter to consider possible uses. |
The career of a typical professional author begins in the late 20s/30s. The optimum ‘earning age’ for most is the mid-40s to 50s, with incomes beginning to decline thereafter.
The earnings picture is very top heavy: the top 5% earned 42.3% of all the money earned by professional authors.
The bottom 50% (those earning £10,432 or less) earned only 7% of all the money earned by all writers cumulatively.
Since 2005 the typical author has become poorer against society as a whole and now (from self-employed writing) earns only 87% of the present minimum wage.
Nearly 90% of professional authors need to earn money from sources other than writing.
17% of all writers did not earn any money from writing in 2013, despite 98% of these having had a work published or exploited in each year from 2010 to 2013. Therefore, at least 17% of writers work without any expectation of earnings.
A quarter of authors have self-published a book.
Among authors who have self-published, the top 10% of earners made a profit of £7,000 or more.
The top 20% of earners among authors who have self-published made a profit of almost £3,000.
The bottom 20% of authors who have self-published made losses of at least £400.
44% of authors stated that the size of the advances they had received from publishers had declined over the past five years.
46% of authors said they had signed a buy-out contract (where there is a single payment for use of their work without the further payment of royalties), with 30% stating that the prevalence of such contracts was on the increase. |
COLORTUNE is a unique test spark plug with a glass top that takes all the guesswork out of tuning fuel injection systems and carburettors. This specially manufactured sparkplug operates on the principle that as different petrol/air ratios burn, they display different colours.... Some mechanics also have a diagnostic scope or camera that can be put into each cylinder via the spark plug hole. With this tool you can sometimes see physical damage inside the cylinder. With this tool you can sometimes see physical damage inside the cylinder.
Mike shows how porcelain from a spark plug can break glass with ease. Then tries to do the same with a rock. Why doesn’t he just use the hammer?... Odds are you’ve probably heard a rumor about being able to break a sheet of tempered safety glass using nothing more than a fragment of porcelain from a spark plug.
COLORTUNE is a unique test spark plug with a glass top that takes all the guesswork out of tuning fuel injection systems and carburettors. This specially manufactured sparkplug operates on the principle that as different petrol/air ratios burn, they display different colours.
How to shatter a car’s tempered-glass window using a busted spark plug Posted by dicksautogroup on February 22, 2014 Breaking into a car is generally a bad idea.
National Geographic host Brian Brushwood explains in the video below how a simple spark plug can shatter a car window more easily than a hammer. Car windows are made from tempered glass and are designed to resist blunt force.
Next, you will need to break the porcelain casing around the spark plug (remembering to protect your eyes from shards). Then take a sharp piece of the ceramic and throw it precisely at the window you want broken. The ceramic will shatter the glass! |
Despite Majida Hamid Ibrahim seemed just like any other victim of Iraq’s war – with her body in a plastic bag sent to morgue - authorities were already bemoaning her death.
Just days before, the 40-year-old woman from Baghdad's southern outskirts became the first confirmed cholera case in the Iraqi capital from an outbreak spreading around the country. The World Health Organization has confirmed more than 3,300 cholera cases in Iraq and at least 14 deaths from the acute and rapid dehydration it causes.
The troubles, however, also point beyond the immediate struggle to control the deadly advance that began in mid-August.
They highlight the creeping fractures throughout the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, the country's deepening sectarian gulf and a gangland-style lawlessness in which even medical supplies are fair game for bandits.
The health minister, Ali al-Shemari, fled the country after U.S. forces raided the ministry's offices in February and arrested his deputy, accused of diverting millions of dollars to the biggest Shiite militia and of allowing death squads' use of ambulances and hospitals to carry out kidnappings and killings.
The government official overseeing Iraqis living abroad was brought in as acting health minister in al-Maliki's shaky Cabinet - which was further jolted by the walkout of six Sunni ministers in August.
Hospitals also are divided along Iraq's sectarian split, with Shiites and Sunnis often too scared to venture into any facility controlled by the other. For health workers, this leaves worrying gaps with cholera cases now having reached half of Iraq's 18 provinces.
The main hospital in Baqouba - the city al-Qaida in Iraq earlier this year claimed as its base in the Diyala province - was twice overrun by Sunni gunmen who kidnapped some of the Shiite patients, said a provincial health official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of fears for his safety.
Fourteen Baqouba physicians and five ambulance drivers have been killed and 12 doctors kidnapped since Diyala fighting escalated earlier this year. Gunmen often steal medical equipment and medicine from health centers and force pharmacists to give up their supplies, the official said.
Saeed al-Shimary recounted how four months ago, as he lay sick in the Baqouba hospital, gunmen fatally shot a hospital guard and took several patients away, including his relative.
"I was horrified," said al-Shimary, a teacher. The relative's body was found days later, dumped by a road.
The "bad security situation ... is preventing medical teams from reaching the residents," said Hom Suhail al-Khishali, head of the Diyala health department.
WHO has confirmed at least 3,315 cholera cases and registered more than 30,000 cases of acute watery diarrhea - which could also prove to be cholera in its more common, milder form. The group has also warned that - as the weather cools and temperatures become more favorable for transmission - the bacteria could spread further.
Dr. Naeema al-Gasseer, the WHO representative in Iraq, says the grim numbers fuel the panic, when in fact the death rate has been "very much less than 1 percent of the total outbreak."
"Let's not focus on numbers, that's not the way to deal with cholera," she said. "We must look at ways to contain it."
Cholera, usually spread by drinking contaminated water, typically causes severe diarrhea that in extreme cases can lead to fatal dehydration and kidney failure. There are normally about 30 cases registered each year in Iraq. The last major outbreak was in 1999, when 20 cases were discovered in one day.
Cholera can be controlled by treating drinking water with chlorine. But authorities want to keep tight controls on chlorine supplies after extremists earlier this year placed chlorine tanks on suicide truck bombs, killing some two dozen people in several attacks and sending noxious clouds that left hundreds of panicked people gasping for breath.
A shipment of 100,000 tons of chlorine was held up for a week at the Jordanian border last month, amid fears for its safe passage through Iraq.
Naeem al-Qabi, from Baghdad's municipal council, said the city now has a two month's supply of chlorine and "more shipments are expected."
A July report by the relief agency Oxfam and the NGO Coordination Committee network in Iraq said that about 70 percent of Iraqis are without adequate water supplies, up from 50 percent in 2003.
That includes more than 2 million people who have been displaced inside Iraq by the fighting, which has forced many to live in unsanitary conditions where sewage can infest food and water and easily spread cholera.
Tom Timberman, leader of a reconstruction team with the 4th Brigade, 25th infantry Division, said water purification and canal clearing systems have broken down due to a lack of maintenance and replacement parts.
Many purification plant workers have been killed or fled the violence, leaving the area with a lack of expertise, Timberman said. Tests at one of the water purification facilities near Iskandariyah, a town 30 miles south of Baghdad, found the filtration system wasn't working, so dirty water was just passing through the pipes.
In Mosul, about 225 miles northwest of Baghdad, officials complain that Baghdad sent them 20 tons of chlorine, while the city needs about 60 tons.
"Now we fear cholera more than the violence," said Shawan Karim, 33, a resident in the northern city of Kirkuk, which has accounted for more than two-thirds of the confirmed cholera cases. |
I have recently read three fascinating books about wolves, their interactions among themselves, and the ways their lives intersect with those of humans. This post will give an overview of the three books, all of which I highly recommend, and will discuss some of the intriguing information about wolves that these books impart.
This is a novel in which the family of the main character, Luke Warren, faces the difficult decision of whether or not to remove life support after Luke emerges from a vehicle accident with brain injuries that the doctors believe to be irreversible and that are expected to keep Luke in a perpetual coma. Luke's relationship with his family (his ex-wife, his 20-something son, and his 17-year-old daughter) is complicated by the fact that Luke seems more comfortable with wolves than with his human family. Luke spends much of his time with a wolf pack in captivity, and at one point he left his family for two years to live with wolves in the Canadian wilderness, where he succeeded in being adopted into a wild wolf pack. The novel provides much fascinating information about wolves and draws upon the experience of Shaun Ellis, a real-life man who does live and has lived with wolves.
This nonfiction book recounts the experience of Shaun Ellis of England, who does live and has lived with wolves. Shaun spent two years in the Rocky Mountains of Idaho with no human contact so that he could study wolves on their own terms. He was eventually adopted by a wolf pack as a subordinate member within the pack's ranking system. During this time, Shaun lived, played, ate, slept, and interacted with the other members of the pack. This means that he ate raw meat (supplemented with berries and nuts) and used howls, growls, and other wolf sounds and gestures to communicate. Shaun now sees himself as a man between two worlds, the wolf world and the human world. His life task is to bridge those worlds. Shaun works with wolf packs in captivity in England, teaching them the skills needed to survive in the wild so that these captive wolves and their descendants may retain those skills should they ever be released into the wild. Shaun also works with the captive wolves as ambassadors to teach humans about wolves.
This nonfiction book recounts the experience of Farley Mowat of Canada, who was employed by the Canadian government to study wolves in the Canadian Arctic. The purpose of the study was to verify that wolves were killing large numbers of caribou, so as to justify eradicating the wolves. What Farley actually learned was that humans were the ones killing the caribou in large numbers. Wolves killed very few caribou - only what they needed to eat. In fact, wolves strengthened the caribou herds by weeding out the weaker members. Farley learned to love and appreciate the wolves, but his report to the Canadian government was disbelieved and disregarded.
Wolves are highly intelligent. Their sounds and gestures communicate very specific information. Farley Mowat learns that a pack member who has gone out alone may howl to communicate to the pack that he or she is fine but is planning to stay out longer than expected. The howl may even indicate when the pack can expect the wolf to return. Farley also observes that a wolf may howl to communicate the arrival of caribou or of Inuit people, and that this information will be sent over distances by wolves hearing and passing on this howl. The howl for approaching caribou, by the way, is different from the howl for approaching Inuit.
Jodi Picoult's main character explains that the alpha wolf will single out a specific prey animal for hunting and will indicate this to the hunters with tail gestures. The alpha, knowing of a strong rival wolf pack nearby, may even instruct the hunters to terrorize the prey animal so that the meat will be full of adrenaline. When the wolves consume this meat and then urinate around their territory, members of the nearby rival wolf pack will smell the strength in the urine and will hold that wolf pack in greater respect.
Shaun Ellis tells us that the alpha directs the wolves as to what they are to eat to produce needed characteristics. Besides the above example of a terrorized prey animal that produces strong urine in the wolves, the alpha may direct her hunters to kill a nursing calf because the alpha knows that the pack needs the milk contents of the calf's stomach to make the members more mellow after an aggressive mating season. The alpha may even direct her pack to a putrid prey corpse because the pack has contracted worms and the putrid meat will chase the worms out of the wolves' bodies.
Shaun Ellis has observed that wolves regulate their reproduction according to what is needed. If a female becomes pregnant and then determines that conditions are not good for a litter of new pups, she will absorb the pup fetuses back into her body. A female wolf can also delay her reproductive cycle until conditions are right. Shaun wanted to prevent one of his captive female wolves from becoming pregnant, and gave her some contraceptives during the mating season. This female wolf simply held back her reproductive cycle until the contraceptive had worked its way out of her body, went into delayed heat, mated, and became pregnant.
Shaun Ellis has learned that wolves are very pragmatic. They do what works for the survival of the pack. They are not sentimental and don't have emotions as we do. They will feed and nurse an ill alpha wolf, knowing that this wolf is necessary for the survival of the pack, but they will send an ill wolf of lesser rank off to die, knowing that this wolf's illness jeopardizes the pack's survival.
Shaun also explains that wolves also don't give up. They are survival oriented. When faced with an obstacle, they work to overcome or get around it. When danger or hardship arises, wolves adjust their behavior.
Through his friends among the Nez Percé in Idaho, Shaun Ellis learns that Native Americans consider wolves as brothers and sisters. Native Americans do not fear wolves. They see the wolf as a respected fellow predator and an important teacher.
On the other hand, all three authors have observed that many North Americans fear the wolf. These North Americans incorrectly believe that the wolf is a vicious killer, destroying large numbers of prey animals, including farmers' livestock, and ready to attack any human who ventures near. The wolf appears as the villain in fairy tales, such as Little Red Riding Hood and The Three Little Pigs. The three authors express or imply the thought that these ideas about wolves are shadow projections. North Americans have behaved destructively but are often unwilling to accept and integrate this self-knowledge; therefore, these North Americans project their own destructive characteristics onto the wolf. In their minds, the wolf is the destroyer, the wolf is to be feared, the wolf must be eradicated. What these North Americans deny in themselves, they project onto the wolf.
All three authors recognize that Native Americans understand that we need the wolf. The wolf's presence sharpens everyone else. Other animals are more alert, more fit, more protective of their young. The wolf keeps everyone on their toes, improves everyone's parenting skills, heightens everyone's awareness, increases everyone's fitness. The wolf weeds out the weaker animals. Farley Mowat explains that, in the Arctic, the wolf eliminates weaker caribou and raises the quality of the herd. The Inuit know that the wolf's presence is responsible for the Inuit's finding better quality caribou for their own needs.
These are the lessons I take from my reading about wolves.
Take responsibility for oneself. Look squarely at a given situation (whether or not it is ideal), decide the best course of action, and take that action. Wolves do this to survive in the wild. As humans, we can set goals beyond survival.
Be awake and aware. See and appreciate what or who is actually there, not one's own projection.
Be more pack oriented. Certainly, humans are not wolves and don't operate exactly like a wolf pack. Yet I believe that the wolf pack holds a lesson for our overly individualistic society. In the United States, we are extreme in our individualism. We would do well to give more attention to the common good. I include myself in this. |
Friday night, at the Hisham Hotel, Amman.
Yesterday I was in Tripoli visiting an girls’ elementary school in a Palestine refugee camp. I was there with a couple of UNRWA staff (UNRWA is the UN agency for Palestine refugees). The point of the visit, along with other visits throughout Jordan and Lebanon this week, was to get a sense of the way in which human rights was being integrated as part of the curriculum. My job this week has been to essentially listen to people tell me their ideas and opinions.
Say “human rights” and, depending on where you say it and who you say it to, you will get reactions ranging from ignorance, acceptance, indifference, outrage, and anything else in between. In other words, it’s hard to predict. Before going to the school in the camp, I had the chance to listen to members of different “Popular Committees” from the camps – basically the elders (all male). The reactions from some of them were quite strong: they wanted the full realization of their rights as refugees – and NOW. There wasn’t much I could do other than listen and tell them I’d taken note of what they said, and appreciated their honesty.
Human rights – at least the way I see it concerning children’s education, is not so much as telling them what rights they do have/could have/don’t have, but creating an environment in which students (and teachers) respect each other and live and learn in dignity. If that’s a culture that ends up spreading more towards the students’ families and the broader community, all the better. It’s not to say that there are certain human rights issues teachers should avoid teaching (after all, they are refugees and some topics will inevitably arise). But, as a friend in Beirut told me earlier this week: it’s not a question of choosing the issues, rather it’s finding the right way to teach each issue. He was making particular reference to teaching about the death penalty, but it’s an argument that extends to all rights.
They warmed up to me eventually.
Visiting the girls’ school was a further validation of the importance of education. Three students from the school parliament sat in the Head teacher’s office with us to talk about the activities they’ve done to create a healthy school environment. The parliament’s role extends beyond a clean school: it also serves as a platform for students to express their opinions, questions, and grievances to the school management. From what the girls were saying, it works. Although one shyly admitted that she asked to realize her rights by asking the teachers to take the students up to the mountains but was refused. (Well, Article 12 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child does say a child has a right to be heard. Whether or not someone’s listening on the other end is another matter. But then again, I’m wondering what the connection is between a trip to the top of the mountains and human rights…).
The school’s efforts in promoting human rights are laudable given the resources available. But there is a lot more that could be done, which is the main reason why UNRWA is supporting the integration of human rights in its schools. Visiting the school was an acute reminder of my first experience in international development 18 years ago in Malawi, teaching at a girls’ school. The similarities between the school in Tripoli and the one in Malawi are numerous. The conditions in which the girls live (excluding the school) are deplorable, but despite that they strive to live a life of dignity and continue to do what children love most: to play and have fun. They are children after all. |
The Cities Alliance partnership commissioned The Transformative Role of City-Community Partnerships in the Fight Against Ebola and Beyond in Greater Monrovia, Liberia to document a significant knowledge gap on how the partnerships between communities and local government contributed to the eradication of Ebola in Monrovia.
Liberia’s strategy shifted in 2015 from a top-down approach resulting in the forced quarantine of slum communities in Monrovia to a decentralised response engaging urban poor communities and local authorities in partnership. This move played a key role in turning the trajectory on new Ebola infections in the city.
Now, Liberia’s response is a success story, serving as a vital lesson for African cities undergoing rapid urban growth.
The report found that in Liberia’s urban slums, strong community networks were enlisted to help battle the disease. These networks were functional—and indeed, transformational—despite the infrastructure problems.
This in turn facilitated government efforts to engage communities to help overcome the crisis.
Cities Alliance hopes this report contributes to a better understanding and appreciation of the vital importance of these partnerships, not only for future infectious disease outbreaks, but for crises of all kinds. |
To spark enthusiasm the students visited the Canterbury Museum and toured the Paua Shell House, before looking at other Kiwiana icons. There was also some cross-curricular learning happening here, with students working on area and proportion in Maths, where Mr Dekkers tasked them with designing their ultimate Kiwi bach (holiday home).
Where would the mountain bikes and surfboards be stored?
Having gained experience in Maths using Minecraft, this was extended to the inquiry topic where the challenge was to research iconic Kiwiana features of New Zealand and then include them into a Kiwiana theme park.
Using “Tasks” that could be ticked off when each job was completed – this meant they knew exactly who had to do what.
Having the “show contributors” turned on so the initials of each group member was alongside their work, meaning they could see who had contributed what to the research.
Storing images in the notebook as examples for when they started to build their Minecraft theme park.
Use of highlighting – key words / concepts were highlighted to ensure they would be include in the theme park and oral presentation.
Using their iPads and OneNote to read their notes from during the actual presentation.
Mr Dekkers writing feedback directly into their OneNote notebook during the presentation so by the time they finished they would see his comments.
One of the skills that Mr Dekkers was focusing on as part of this Inquiry unit was synthesising information found as part of their research with their own ideas, discussions and information from their parents.
This allowed the conversation to include plagiarism and why this is a serious issue – a great way to remind students that being a good Digital Citizen includes protecting and respecting the intellectual property of others that has been shared online (see this post for more information on Digital Citizenship).
Whilst plenty of technology was being used in this unit and presentation, it was very much in the background. It was not being seen as a distraction, but rather a tool to get the job done.
Students made great use of OneNote as a shared document that was accessible anytime, anywhere for them to record their research.
Students were accountable to one another and their teacher as it was evident who had contributed what to the notebook.
Interest, engagement and enthusiasm from the students was very high – they loved the “gamification” of their learning by being allowed to use Minecraft to design a theme park.
Students were keen to share their learning – they wanted their Principal and Director of ICT to see their learning – they were proud of their efforts.
This kind of cross-curricular learning, with deep and authentic integration of technology is incredibly pleasing to see in our classrooms. |
The integrated development approach emphasis is the need of coordinating different agencies under a single management system of essential components (including education) required to get agricultural or rural development moving. The management system may be highly authoritarian credit may be designed to provide an important role for local people in planning, decision making and implementation of the programmers. The main emphasis is on rational development and coordination of all principal factors required for agricultural and rural development. The community development for agricultural India could not achieve the desired impact in increasing agricultural productions. As a solution to this situation the Intensive Agriculture District Programme (IADP) was launched in selected districts. The IADP used the integrated development approach in tackling the problem of rural development.
1. Adequate farm credit through strengthened cooperatives.
2. Adequate supplies of fertilizers pesticides, improved seeds, implements and other essential production needs through strengthened service cooperatives.
3. Price incentives to participating farmers through assured price agreements for rice, wheat and millet.
4. Marketing arrangements and services to enable farmers to obtain a full market price for their marketed surplus.
5. Intensive educational, technical and farm management assistance made available in every village.
6. Participation of all interested farmers in farm planning for increased production.
7. Village planning for increased production and village improvement programme by strengthening village organizations and leaderships.
8. A public works programme using local labour and development works contributing directly to increased production.
10. Coordination of all essential resources for maximum speed and effectiveness. |
The House Domestic Monetary Policy and Technology Subcommittee concluded in hearings March 17 — apparently boycotted by committee Democrats — that the Federal Reserve Bank's inflationary policies were hurting retirees at the expense of the economy's financial sector. The House Domestic Monetary Policy and Technology Subcommittee is chaired by Representative Ron Paul (R-Texas), a longtime critic of the Federal Reserve's inflationary policies.
The hearing on the Federal Reserve comes as the Fed reported this week that its balance sheet increased to a record $2.587 trillion in "assets," mostly U.S. Treasury debt purchased on the open market. The Federal Reserve purchase of government debt with money it prints out of thin air increases the supply of money — the traditional definition of inflation — and eventually leads to price inflation (the modern definition of inflation used by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke).
Witnesses testifying March 17 before the subcommittee included Lewis E. Lehrman, Senior Partner of L.E. Lehrman & Co. and former Chairman of the U.S. Gold Commission during the Reagan administration; James Grant, Editor, Grant’s Interest Rate Observer; and Economics Professor Joseph T. Salerno of Pace University, New York and the Ludwig von Mises Institute.
"I really believe this is a critical hearing," House Financial Services Committee Chairman Walter Jones told subcommittee members attending. Jones went on to read to members of the Monetary Policy Subcommittee (which his committee oversees) a letter from a constituent in his district about the impact of inflation on retirees: "I have been retired from Ma Bell for 22 years and my pension has only increased once.... For people like us, in this situation, we are getting drained. The way things are going my wife and I will have to hope to die ... We cannot afford to live."
Witnesses before the subcommittee explained why retirees were getting squeezed by the Federal Reserve's monetary inflation policy. "Inflation has shown up first in commodity and stock rises," Lehrman told committee members. "Since the expansive Federal Reserve program of Quantitative Easing began in late 2008, oil prices have almost tripled, gasoline prices have almost doubled. Basic world food prices, such as sugar, corn, soybean, and wheat, have almost doubled." Lehrman noted that the unprecedented spike in world food prices caused by the Fed could cause starvation in some impoverished areas of the world, and has led to higher food prices in the United States as well.
Dr. Salerno informed subcommittee members that monetary inflation does not conform to American ideas of fairness. "The key point is that prices and wages do not all increase at the same time during inflation. When the Fed initially expands the money supply, not everyone receives a share of the new money immediately. There is no Friedman-Bernanke helicopter that spreads the money evenly throughout the country." The "Friedman-Bernanke helicopter" remark refers to speeches by economist Milton Friedman and Bernanke where both speculate that a threat of deflation could be defeated by printing money and throwing it from helicopters. But Salerno noted that much of American history — from 1792 through the creation of the Federal Reserve in 1913 — saw mild deflation in consumer prices as well as strong industrial growth. People on a fixed income experienced a slight increase in their standard of living during those times. On the other hand, the Federal Reserve's deliberate policy of decreasing the value of the dollar hurts retirees and those on a fixed income. Salerno noted that these people do not receive the benefits of currency inflation: "Of course, those living on fixed incomes such as pensions and life insurance annuities suffer a cruel and relentless decline of their living standards that is never reversed."
Banks and big financial operations on Wall Street do benefit from inflation, Salerno noted. "The rapid decline of the purchasing power of the dollar, especially since 1971, has involved a massive and surreptitious transfer of real income and wealth from productive laborers, entrepreneurs, and investors to those privileged corporations and financial institutions that are the recipients of government largesse and bailouts." |
In this book, Charles and Elaine Hallett invite the reader to follow the actions of Shakespeare's plays. They show that the conventional division of the plays into scenes does not help the reader or play-goer to discover how the narrative works. They offer instead a division into smaller units which they define as beats, sequences and frames. For both scholar and practitioner, their observations offer new insights about how the building blocks of the plays are deployed. Detailed analysis of the unfolding action reveals that Shakespeare's scenes frequently consist of a series of sequences, each with its own individual climax, and these sequences are regularly built up of a succession of smaller units, or beats. Several sequences usually work together to create a still larger action, or frame. Study of these components yields valuable information about Shakespeare's playwriting techniques, information not readily available elsewhere in critical literature, and of immense value in articulating the dramatic rhythms and structure of Shakespeare's action. This analytical method, while especially tuned to Shakespeare, can also be adapted to other dramatists in varying degrees. The book will be of interest to students and scholars of Shakespeare and theatre studies as well as to actors and directors. |
For a long time American studies scholars had a common format: pick a person or an object and follow how Americans interpreted her/him/it through time. So there was Merrill Peterson's The Jeffersonian Image in the American Mind (and later Lincoln in American Memory); John Ward's Andrew Jackson: Symbol for an Age; Henry Nash Smith's Virgin Land. The list goes on and on. The idea was that if you held constant the object of inspection and then saw how people reacted to it, you'd learn a lot about the people doing the interpreting. Pretty cool format. And while it has a lot of limitations, it also has a lot of virtues. One of the limitations is that we need to get beyond how people interpret something. At some point we need to levitate the question of how people understand to how they act. How, for instance, does a particular constitutional outlook relate to how judges decide cases? This is mighty hard to get at, but at some point it seems to me that we as historians, particularly legal historians, need to get into the business of making assessments of how ideas correlate with (dare I say, even affect) how people act. Another limitation is that we lost sight of the original actors themselves -- in looking to have people thought about Jefferson and Lincoln, we lost the sense of who Jefferson and Lincoln were.
One of the great virtues of legal history is that we can bring precision to understanding the decision-making process. We can see how judges explain what they're doing. And while there's surely a lot buried beneath the surface--and in some cases, judges may not even know why they're doing something--we can still help bring precision to these questions. We can narrow the confidence intervals between underlying motives, economic, cultural, religious, political, and the framework through which the judges operate (like the world of precedent), to assess how we get to an outcome. Between the rigorous citation practices of jurists and legal scholars and the tradition of explanation among jurists, we can learn a lot by looking at legal opinions and treatises. I think we've only begun to mine the possibilities of computerized research in legal history. And I hope to talk about some of the virtues in a post on "fun with concordance software."
The fetters of ignorance were broken. Books were multiplied and became the inmates of the humble cottage as well as the lordly Palace. Prejudice, superstition and power were impotent longer to curb the unchained mind, and it sprung upward like the lark, to the very gates of Heaven, caroling its songs of joy and thankfulness.
This species of reading, quickly becoming a passion, creates a dreamy existence, from which the victim awakes with the same restless feelings, as does the confirmed eater of opium; both, alike, find life intolerable, without the poison, which first imparted, and now, at once, continues the disease and furnishes a momentary comfort.
The French Revolution itself, the result, as least in the horrible atrocities which marked its progress, of the atheistic literature which immediately preceded and accompanied it, exercised a manifest and wide spread influence upon the intellect and literature of the age. How, indeed, could it be otherwise, with the world all in commotion around, the great deep of opinions broken up and in conflict, the struggle of the mind with mind, should partake of the vehemence and energy which characterized the physical conflicts of the period.
Pretty interesting, isn't it, how people can differ on how they think about a technology as basic as a book. For some it's leveling and that's good; for others, it's leveling, and that's only partly good -- maybe even partly bad. The attitudes towards the book correlate, I think, with a basic distinction between Whigs and Democrats: how did people think about the loss of social distinctions. Some Whigs were horrified by the thought of people reading the new sensational literature and by getting more ability to mobilize into their own hands. Democrats weren't so bothered by that.
There are, I'd imagine, some interesting parallels to how people view the internet today. Print at one point took down the traditional authority; now that traditional authority wielded by print is being challenged by the net.
The image is of a steam printing press, which seems to be from 1860. |
In the name of curtailing deficits, politicians across the country are hacking away at programs that aim to make children healthier. In Congress, for example, House Republicans are spearheading a budget that eviscerates funding for food assistance and effectively defunds the wildly successful Children's Health Insurance Program.
Similarly, from Texas to California, state lawmakers are chopping children's' health programs in the face of budget shortfalls. In all these initiatives, the rhetorical leitmotif is "fiscal responsibility."
Like clockwork, this has set off the now-standard ideological debate over values, with liberals arguing that it's immoral to deny health care to today's kids and conservatives countering that it's even more immoral to saddle the next generation with debt. But as highlighted by a new National Bureau of Economic Research report, both sides are ignoring the most important non-ideological fact: Any so-called "deficit reduction" plan that cuts child health programs is almost certain to increase deficits.
The NBER study compared British and American illness rates, controlling for both demographic differences and risk factors like smoking and drinking. It found that a) we have "much higher" childhood illness rates than our English counterparts, b) "the transmission rates of higher rates of childhood illnesses into poor health in (adults is) higher in America compared to England" and therefore, c) "the origins of poorer adult health among older Americans compared to the English traces back right into the childhood years."
In other words, America's broken private health care system allows kids' medical afflictions to become far worse in adulthood than they become in England—a nation with a government-sponsored universal health care system.
Remembering that experts say diabetes alone could be a $3 trillion health-cost time bomb in the United States, the NBER study's underlying message should be clear: If we reduce our country's minimal efforts to make kids healthier, we will be all but guaranteeing even more deficit-exploding medical problems down the line.
Those problems, of course, are often more expensive to therapeutically treat in adults than to pre-emptively address in kids. That means any short-term savings achieved by cuts to children's health care will likely be wiped out by much bigger costs as those less-healthy kids enter adulthood. And don't forget—those additional marginal costs are everyone's concern because they often end up being paid by Medicare (aka taxpayers).
The NBER study is quick to point out that access to children's health insurance—universal in England, but not in America—may not be the "primary" factor in the discrepancy between our two nations' health stats. However, it's possible that health services for pregnant women are acutely involved.
It's also possible the results reflect not just differences in health services, but also larger incongruities in everything from food safety regulation to consumer products safety laws to environmental protection. This would suggest that it's not only ignorant for self-described deficit hawks to cut children's health programs, but also absurd for them to cite deficits as reason to cut enforcement of public-interest laws.
As obvious as these lessons may seem, appreciating their significance requires a serious attitudinal shift in America. It requires us to take the longer view of our deficit challenges, to see certain expenditures as investments in future savings and to remember that adage about "cutting off your nose to spite your face." Because while we certainly can get the deficit under control, we cannot achieve such a goal by denying kids health care.
Doing that will spite the whole country—and make the budget picture far worse. |
The composition of the Earth’s atmosphere has undergone extensive change during the last century, with important ramifications for human health, resource management, ecosystem services and the environment. Atmospheric trace constituents (trace gases and aerosols) are key drivers for air quality and climate. Furthermore reactive trace gases (e.g. methane, VOC, NOy, ozone, etc.) control many important feedbacks in the earth system by influencing the oxidizing capacity of the atmosphere and by producing a large fraction of organic (and inorganic) aerosol in the atmosphere.
Understanding their exchange at the surface-atmosphere interface as well as their transport throughout the planetary boundary layer and mixing into the free troposphere through entrainment processes remains challenging. Sub-grid scale processes governing the atmospheric fate of reactive trace gases are particularly uncertain and directly relate to uncertainties in future projections of climate and air quality.
The Atmospheric Physics and Chemistry (APC) group at the Institute for Atmospheric and Cryospheric Sciences of the University of Innsbruck uses innovative approaches to quantify the chemical composition of the atmosphere. New experimental concepts are explored that allow studying the exchange of trace constituents and their atmospheric transport and chemistry in the atmosphere, as well as testing and improving modeling concepts. The APC group collaborates with national and international research institutions, including start ups to achieve these research objectives.
We offer a wide range of thesis topics in environmental meteorology and atmospheric physics. More recently, topics related to air quality and climate observations at the Innsbruck Atmospheric Observatory (IAO) are opening. The topics are designed to get an in-depth view of the growing field of environmental meteorology. Observational hands-on projects, data projects or more programming oriented topics are possible. |
A low-temperature dynamical transition has been reported in several proteins. We provide the first observation of a “protein-like” dynamical transition in nonbiological aqueous environments. To this aim, we exploit the popular colloidal system of poly-N-isopropylacrylamide (PNIPAM) microgels, extending their investigation to unprecedentedly high concentrations. Owing to the heterogeneous architecture of the microgels, water crystallization is avoided in concentrated samples, allowing us to monitor atomic dynamics at low temperatures. By elastic incoherent neutron scattering and molecular dynamics simulations, we find that a dynamical transition occurs at a temperature Td ~ 250 K, independently from PNIPAM mass fraction. However, the transition is smeared out on approaching dry conditions. The quantitative agreement between experiments and simulations provides evidence that the transition occurs simultaneously for PNIPAM and water dynamics. The similarity of these results with hydrated protein powders suggests that the dynamical transition is a generic feature in complex macromolecular systems, independently from their biological function.
Hydrated protein powders are known to undergo a so-called dynamical transition, which is related to a sudden increase in temperature of the protein atomic mean-squared displacements (MSDs). This is related to the onset of anharmonic motions, which allow the protein to explore conformational substates corresponding to the structural configurations of functional relevance (1). Thus, the transition is accompanied by the activation of the protein functionality, making it the subject of intensive research for its high relevance in the biological context. On the other hand, the dynamical transition is distinct from the protein glass transition—the latter taking place at a lower temperature and involving other types of atomic motions (2). Since its first observation in myoglobin (3), the dynamical transition has been reported for several proteins with different structures (2, 4) and in more complex biomolecules such as lipid bilayers (5) and DNA strands (6). Although it appears to be closely related to biological functionality (7), some experiments have shown that the dynamical transition also occurs in unstructured proteins (8) and even in mixtures of unbound amino acids in aqueous environment (9). Conversely, in dry biomolecules, the transition is suppressed, thus highlighting the prominent role of hydration water.
Recent studies have shown that the dynamical transition takes place simultaneously for both protein and water dynamics (10, 11), thus lifting residual doubts on the close dynamical coupling between hydration water and biomolecules (12–14). Together, this evidence suggests the hypothesis that water plays a driving role in the dynamical transition, and thus suggest that this phenomenon may be ubiquitous in the context of hydrated systems. This also opens up the possibility of investigating nonbiological systems (for example, synthetic macromolecules) to shed light on the nature of the transition and to unveil the role of water. To this aim, it is particularly important to focus on complex macromolecular environments that could, on one hand, mimic the multifaceted potential energy landscape of proteins and, on the other hand, avoid water crystallization and allow the investigation of atomic dynamics at low temperatures. These conditions can be achieved by using the peculiar characteristics of microgel particles (15). Microgels are colloids made by cross-linked polymer networks with a heterogeneous structure composed of a dense core and a loose corona.
Poly-N-isopropylacrylamide (PNIPAM) microgels have so far been extensively studied around ambient temperature as a tunable model system for elucidating phase transitions and glassy behavior (16). We now extend their investigation to a yet unexplored region of the phase diagram, encompassing PNIPAM mass fractions (wt) in the range 43 ≤ c ≤ 95 wt % and a wide range of temperatures, namely, 150 ≲ T ≲ 290 K. By combining elastic incoherent neutron scattering (EINS) experiments with all-atom molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, we probe the internal dynamics of microgels at short time and length scales. We find that our suspensions do not crystallize for PNIPAM mass fractions ≳ 43 wt % at any temperature, in good agreement with calorimetric data on PNIPAM chains (17, 18). Most crucially, we find the occurrence of a “dynamical” transition at Td ≈ 250 K, akin to that observed in proteins. The value of the transition temperature does not depend on PNIPAM mass fraction, but the transition tends to disappear when approaching dry conditions. We directly compare the measured EINS intensities and their associated MSDs with those calculated in simulations, finding quantitative agreement between the two. Moreover, simulations show a strong coupling for both PNIPAM and water dynamics, for which a discontinuity in diffusional dynamics occurs at the same temperature. These results represent, to our knowledge, the first observation of a genuine dynamical transition in a nonbiological aqueous system, providing generality for the concept of a low-temperature dynamical transition in disordered macromolecules with internal degrees of freedom.
EINS experiments were performed on PNIPAM microgels hydrated with D2O at five polymer mass fractions between 43 and 95% (19). In thermal neutron scattering, the incoherent cross section of hydrogen atoms is more than an order of magnitude larger than both coherent and incoherent cross sections of the other atomic species in our PNIPAM suspensions. Therefore, the incoherent signal of the hydrogen atoms in the PNIPAM network dominates the mostly coherent signal of deuterated water, providing selective access to the microscopic dynamics of the polymer matrix.
EINS data were collected at the backscattering spectrometer IN13 of the Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL; Grenoble, France). IN13 has an energy resolution ΔE = 8 μeV (full width at half maximum) and covers a momentum transfer interval from 0.3 to 4.5 Å−1, thus accessing motions faster than about 150 ps taking place in a spatial region between 1 and 20 Å. In this way, we essentially probe the internal dynamics of the microgel and its behavior on the atomic scale. This is important because, although our samples are glassy on the colloidal scale (20, 21), the volume fraction occupied by the microgels is still much lower than that of the polymer glass transition (17); thus, we can safely assume that the polymeric degrees of freedom are in equilibrium. Our results confirm this assumption, as they show a progressive and smooth behavior with PNIPAM mass fraction, are reproducible with respect to sample preparation, and are fully reversible in temperature.
The measured incoherent elastic intensities I(Q,0) as a function of temperature and momentum transfer Q are shown in Fig. 1A for selected samples with PNIPAM mass fractions of 43 and 60%. Data were recorded under thermal cycles of cooling (top panels) and heating (bottom panels) in a range of temperatures between 287 and 152 K. The temperature behavior is best observed in the Q integral of I(Q,0), as shown in Fig. 1B. Upon cooling, the integrated EINS intensity progressively increases until a sharp variation occurs at a characteristic “dynamical transition” temperature Td ~ 250 K, below which the intensity increase continues with a smaller but linear slope. Such a discontinuity is more pronounced at the lowest PNIPAM concentration and gradually disappears with decreasing water content. Upon heating back, the measured data fall on top of the corresponding ones at the same T, confirming the full reversibility of the process.
(A) Incoherent elastic intensities I(Q,0) measured on PNIPAM microgels in D2O with mass fraction concentrations of 43 and 60% as a function of temperature T. Top (bottom) panels report data recorded under cooling (heating). (B) Integral over Q of I(Q,0) as a function of T. The integrated EINS intensities are normalized to 1 for T → 0. (C) Temperature evolution of MSD as obtained using the double-well model (see the Supplementary Materials). In (B) and (C), measurements under cooling are presented with filled symbols, whereas those under heating are presented with open symbols.
At each temperature, the average atomic MSD can be calculated from the Q dependence of I(Q,0). To this end, the EINS data I(Q,0) were fitted with a double-well model, which captures the data behavior very well (see figs. S1 and S2). The resulting MSDs in Fig. 1C reflect the discontinuity observed in the Q-integrated intensity at Td ~ 250 K. Below Td, the linear temperature evolution of the MSD is typical of a harmonic solid. Conversely, the sudden slope increase above Td witnesses an enhanced mobility of the PNIPAM atoms, due to the onset of anharmonic motions and resulting in the corresponding elastic intensity drop.
It is worth noting that the observed discontinuity at Td might be attributed to an underlying crystallization process associated to the D2O. However, the measured I(Q,0) for pure D2O in the same temperature range shows defined crystalline peaks that do not appear in low-T PNIPAM suspensions (see fig. S3). This suggests that the elastic intensity drop of the PNIPAM network originates from a mechanism other than water crystallization.
To identify the microscopic mechanism responsible for the observed change in PNIPAM dynamics taking place at Td, we rely on all-atom MD simulations. To this aim, we designed a new microgel model (described in Materials and Methods and in the Supplementary Materials) and performed its numerical investigation at mass fractions of 40 and 60%. A snapshot of the in silico microgel is displayed in Fig. 2A. The PNIPAM network was built with a cross-linker/monomer ratio of 1:28, which, taking into account the inhomogeneous density of a PNIPAM particle, describes an inner region (for example, the core region) of the microgel. The number of water molecules per monomeric unit is smaller than the experimentally determined value of hydration molecules for PNIPAM microgels (22) for both concentrations. Thus, we can safely assume that all water molecules in the simulations are hydration water and not bulk water.
Fig. 2 MD simulation results for 40% mass fraction.
(A) Snapshot of the simulated PNIPAM microgel. Chain atoms are displayed in green to highlight the network structure. (B) SISF of PNIPAM hydrogen atoms calculated at Q = 2.25 Å−1 as a function of temperature. (C) Time evolution of the MSDs of water molecules. The inset shows the water MSD values at 150 ps as a function of T.
At each studied temperature, we monitored the dynamics of both microgel and water atoms separately. To characterize microgel dynamics, we calculated the self-intermediate scattering function (SISF) that probes the single-particle translational dynamics at a characteristic wave vector Q and time t. Figure 2B displays the SISFs calculated for the hydrogen atoms of PNIPAM 40 wt % at Q = 2.25Å− 1, that is, at the position of the first peak in the oxygen-oxygen structure factor of bulk water (23). PNIPAM internal dynamics exhibits a two-step behavior typical of glass-forming liquids: An initial fast relaxation is followed by a long-time, slow relaxation indicating structural rearrangement. At the lowest studied temperatures, the SISFs do not decay completely to zero, an indication that the system is becoming arrested on the considered time window. However, studies on longer time scales reveal that aging phenomena do not play a major role at the studied temperatures (see figs. S5 and S6). The long-time relaxation of the SISFs is well described by a stretched exponential as in standard glass formers, thus providing an estimate of the structural relaxation time τp. This is shown in Fig. 3A as a function of temperature in an Arrhenius plot. We find that τp obeys two distinct dynamical regimes, each being compatible with an Arrhenius dependence. The crossover temperature of about 250 K is strikingly similar to that found in EINS experiments. The activation energies are 28.4 ± 0.8 kJ mol−1 and 14.5 ± 0.5 kJ mol−1 for the high- and low-temperature regime, respectively.
(A) Temperature dependence of water diffusion coefficient (squares); SISF relaxation times for PNIPAM hydrogen atoms (circles) and water oxygen atoms (diamonds); RMSF of backbone hydrogen atoms (triangles) calculated from MD simulations of PNIPAM 40 wt %. Dashed lines are guides to the eye. Note that data sets are represented on different scales on the y axis to improve visualization. (B) Temperature evolution of RMSF of the PNIPAM hydrogen atoms for 40 wt % (light blue) and for 60 wt % (dark green) averaged over 150 ps: methyl groups (circles) and backbone atoms (triangles).
To complement these results, we also investigated the hydration water dynamics by looking at the MSD of the oxygen atoms (see Fig. 2C). Similar to PNIPAM SISFs, we observe a slowing down of water dynamics with decreasing T. While at high T the MSD shows a diffusive behavior in the studied time interval, upon lowering the temperature the onset of an intermediate plateau is observed. This is a characteristic feature of glassy systems, indicating that atoms remain trapped in cages of nearest neighbors for a transient, before eventually diffusing away at long times. Water oxygen atoms retain a diffusive behavior at all studied T so that it is possible to estimate their self-diffusion coefficient Dw. This is also shown in the Arrhenius plot of Fig. 3A, where Dw is also found to follow two distinct regimes, each one compatible with an Arrhenius dependence, crossing again at a temperature of about 250 K. Furthermore, in the inset of Fig. 2C, the water MSD calculated at a time of 150 ps, matching the experimental time resolution, is shown as a function of T. A clear increase of the MSD is found above ~ 250 K. This strikingly matches the MSD behavior observed by EINS in our PNIPAM samples and is closely reminiscent of other experimental and simulation results on protein hydration water (10, 11, 24–26).
To make a closer connection to protein dynamics, we calculated the root mean square fluctuation (RMSF) of PNIPAM hydrogen atoms, which measures the fluctuations of the atom positions with respect to the averaged structure over a defined period of time. We monitored this quantity separately for hydrogen atoms of the methyl groups and those of the backbone. The evolution with temperature of the RMSF for both types of hydrogen atoms, averaged over the experimental resolution time, is shown in Fig. 3B. Again, a clear change is detected at a temperature of about 250 K for both types of atoms, with a stronger effect for the backbone hydrogen atoms. Such a change is observed for both studied mass fractions, suggesting that concentration does not play any role on the value of the crossover temperature, for both water and PNIPAM atoms, but it only smears out the variation, making the two regimes progressively similar to each other. These findings are in agreement with the concentration dependence of the experimental I(Q,0) (Fig. 1B). Figure 3A summarizes the MD results, showing that τp, the RMSF of PNIPAM backbone atoms, the self-diffusion constant of water, and the associated relaxation time τw all display a clear change at T ~ 250 K, a temperature strikingly similar to the one where the EINS data reveal a variation. Thus, simulations show that the dynamical properties of both PNIPAM and water are slaved to each other.
These results suggest to interpret the transition observed at Td as the analog of the protein dynamical transition for PNIPAM microgel suspensions. Several features are shared by protein and PNIPAM dynamical transition: (i) Td does not depend on the concentration, and the transition vanishes for dry conditions; (ii) the transition takes place at a temperature higher than that of the glass transition (2); (iii) the strong coupling between water and PNIPAM dynamics, as shown in Fig. 3A, is well established in hydrated proteins (10, 12–14).
It is then natural to ask whether water, through hydrogen bonding interactions with the involved macromolecule, drives the occurrence of this dynamical transition that appears ubiquitous in proteins and in PNIPAM microgels. To partially answer this question, we refer to recent simulation studies on confined water, which have provided a detailed characterization of slow dynamics in water (27). In particular, the study of hydrated lysozyme (28) has identified a new (long) time scale governing the behavior of confined water, which is characterized by two distinct Arrhenius regimes, in full analogy with the present findings for water confined in microgels. This behavior was interpreted as a strong-strong transition due to the coupling of hydration water with the fluctuations of the protein structure and found to occur in correspondence to the protein dynamical transition. The same correspondence is found in our simulations, suggesting that hydration water, through hydrogen bonding, plays a driving role in the dynamical transition. In support of this idea comes the fact that the behavior with concentration is similar for both PNIPAM microgels and hydrated proteins.
We now provide a direct comparison between experimental and numerical data. To this end, we have calculated the elastic intensity in simulations, as explained in the Supplementary Materials. The resulting I(Q,0) as a function of Q are shown in Fig. 4 for simulations (A) and experiments (B) at corresponding temperatures for the 40 wt % sample. The data are in very good qualitative agreement, also showing the presence of more pronounced peaks at comparable wave vectors. From the simulated trajectories, we can also calculate the MSD of the PNIPAM hydrogen atoms and compare them with those resulting from the fit of the experimental I(Q,0). The comparison is shown in Fig. 4C. The numerical MSDs are in striking quantitative agreement with the experimental ones, without need of any scaling factor.
Fig. 4 Quantitative comparison between experiments and simulations.
(A) Neutron spectra as a function of temperature, as calculated from the MD simulations of the PNIPAM microgel at 40%. The total intermediate scattering functions are displayed at a value of 150 ps for comparison with the experimental data. (B) EINS spectra measured on the sample with a PNIPAM concentration of 43% as a function of temperature. Data shown at 252 K compare the spectra measured under cooling (dark green) and heating (green). (C) Temperature dependence of experimental (open symbols) MSD for PNIPAM mass fractions of 43% (circles), 60% (triangles), and 95% (squares) and numerical (filled symbols) MSD, calculated at 150 ps for PNIPAM hydrogen atoms only, for PNIPAM mass fractions of 40% (circles) and 60% (squares). The dotted line is a guide to the eye, suggesting a linear behavior for the dry sample, for which the dynamical transition is suppressed.
Here, we have reported evidence of the occurrence of a dynamical transition in concentrated PNIPAM microgel suspensions at low temperatures, akin to that observed in proteins. We have combined EINS measurements with atomistic MD simulations, based on a new model specifically developed to mimic the interior of a microgel network. While a detailed numerical representation of a whole microgel is currently unfeasible, our study is capable of resolving the intranetwork dynamics of PNIPAM atoms at the short time scales probed by EINS experiments. Thanks to the use of highly concentrated samples, we have extended the investigation of microgel suspensions to unprecedentedly low temperatures, avoiding water crystallization. Our findings are in agreement with calorimetric data for linear PNIPAM chains, showing that crystallization is absent for polymer mass fractions above ~ 50% (17, 18). These results open up the possibility of systematically investigating very high concentration and low-temperature microgel samples beyond current practice.
The dual colloidal/polymeric nature of microgels (29) bridges the properties of classical hard-sphere colloids and soft polymeric particles, allowing the presence of two distinct glass transitions on the colloidal and the polymeric scale, respectively. Both transitions depend on temperature, given the thermoresponsive character of PNIPAM, which is responsible for the so-called volume phase transition at TVPT ~ 305 K, from a swollen state of the microgel particles for T ≲ TVPT to a collapsed state above it. In the swollen regime, a colloidal glass transition takes place at a PNIPAM mass fraction of ~ 10 wt % (21). Although very few studies of microgels at high concentrations exist, we can expect the glass transition on the polymeric scale to be similar to that reported for PNIPAM chains, amounting to about 80 wt % at ambient temperature (17, 18). This means that, for the concentrations studied in this work, the microgel samples are macroscopically arrested in a glass-like state. A legitimate question thus concerns the reproducibility of our samples and their stability. A reliable preparation and measurement protocol allowed us to obtain homogeneous samples (see Materials and Methods), ensuring a complete reproducibility of the results and a smooth, progressive variation of the dynamical observables with microgel concentration at the investigated short time and length scales.
The study of microgels in water at low temperatures poses a numerical challenge in appropriately identifying a suitable water model that is able to realistically describe its peculiar behavior. Very accurate models, which are usually able to describe specific aspects, exist. In particular, TIP4P/ICE was devised to accurately reproduce the solid properties of water (30). We have chosen to work with this model because it reproduces water melting at ~ 270 K, much closer to reality than the ≈ 250 K predicted by the mostly adopted TIP4P/2005 (31). Thus, it should also be more realistic in describing supercooled water environments. Our results confirm this hypothesis, providing quantitative agreement with experiments in the investigated T range for the dynamical properties of PNIPAM atoms. It will be interesting to test other models under the same conditions, particularly TIP4P/2005, as well as to extend our studies at higher temperatures.
The similarity of the transition reported here for hydrated PNIPAM microgels with that commonly observed in proteins could be important to better understand the microscopic origin of such a transition. There are still controversial aspects in the literature, particularly concerning the role played by water. Two experimental studies have recently proposed an alternative picture for the dynamical transition, which would support the view that a transition may occur independently from the presence of water. Liu and coworkers (32) reported the observation of a dynamical transition also in dry deuterated proteins, mainly due to backbone heavy atoms. While the relevance of the traditional transition in hydrated proteins remains unaltered, the role of this “dry” transition is still uncertain. It might provide one of the contributions to flexibility involved in biological processes, although, in most proteins, full functionality is achieved in the hydrated state only. In addition, Mamontov and coworkers (33) investigated a simple polymeric system in nonaqueous environment, claiming to observe a dynamical transition similar to the protein one. However, in the latter study, the temperature of the transition significantly depends on the polymer concentration, differently from what was found here and for hydrated protein studies, suggesting that its microscopic nature could be different. On the other hand, the present results highlight the role of water-PNIPAM interplay in the dynamical transition, suggesting that all systems with structural complexity and water interactions similar to proteins should exhibit the same phenomenon. A natural and interesting extension of this work will be to investigate other macromolecular environments with different polymeric architectures, such as PNIPAM linear chains, to further ascertain both the occurrence and the microscopic nature of the dynamical transition.
We found that microgels are extremely efficient in confining water, because the lower limit of sample crystallization is close to 40% PNIPAM mass fraction, a value that exceeds the amount of water commonly found in other confining environments. The typical protein concentration where crystallization is avoided is about 70% in protein mass fraction (3, 10, 11, 34). Thus, our results suggest that stable samples with a majority of water can be studied down to very low temperatures, which could be of potential interest for the investigation of liquid-like water behavior in the so-called no man’s land region of the phase diagram (35–37). The efficient confinement role played by PNIPAM microgels is probably due to their intrinsic network disorder and to their inhomogeneous internal architecture. This further motivates the abovementioned investigations on PNIPAM linear chains to shed light on this aspect.
As a whole, our results strongly suggest that the dynamical transition is a generic feature of water hydrating complex macromolecular suspensions with biological and nonbiological implications. This work also puts forward colloidal PNIPAM microgels as excellent models for a deeper understanding of the functional relevance of the protein dynamical transition. In proteins, an energy landscape endowed with a large number of conformational states, each containing several tiers of substates, is considered of essential biological importance, as proteins could not function without such a reservoir of entropy (1). Likewise, the occurrence of a protein-like dynamical transition in PNIPAM-based systems might well be ascribed to a similarly rich amount of conformational substates. Future work will aim to elucidate this point and to provide generality to the present results.
Microgels were synthesized by precipitation polymerization at T = 343 K of N-isopropylacrylamide (NIPAM) in water (0.136 M) in the presence of N,N′-methylenebisacrylamide (BIS) (1.82 mM). The reaction was carried out in the presence of 7.80 mM SDS as surfactant and potassium persulfate (2.44 mM) as radical initiator. The reaction was carried out for 10 hours in nitrogen atmosphere. The obtained colloidal dispersion was purified by exhaustive dialysis against pure water, lyophilized, dispersed in D2O, lyophilized, and dispersed again in D2O to a final concentration of 10%. The obtained microgels were characterized by dynamic light scattering (Zetasizer Nano S, Malvern), and the hydrodynamic diameter was found to be 94 ± 3 nm at 293 K with a size polydispersity of 0.17 ± 0.01 nm.
EINS experiments were carried out on PNIPAM microgel suspensions with PNIPAM mass fractions of 43, 50, 60, 70, and 95% (dry sample). To single out the incoherent signal from PNIPAM hydrogen atoms, samples were prepared in D2O. Measurements were performed at the backscattering spectrometer IN13 of the ILL. PNIPAM samples were measured inside flat aluminum cells (3.0 cm × 4.0 cm), sealed with an In o-ring. The thickness of the cell was adjusted to achieve a transmission of about 88% for each sample. To obtain samples with the required PNIPAM concentration within the cell used at IN13, we started from the prepared microgel dispersion at 10%. We then proceeded by evaporation of the exceeding D2O in dry atmosphere using a desiccator under moderate vacuum (~ 10 mmHg). Once the final concentration was reached, cells were sealed and left to homogenize at room temperature for at least 4 days before analysis. The sample at 95% composition was prepared from film casting the PNIPAM dispersion at 10% up to dryness in a petri dish. The obtained transparent films were milled with an IKA MF 10.1. Cutting-grinding gave rise to a rough powder that was poured into an aluminum cell for neutron scattering. The weight of each sample was checked before and after the measurement without observing any appreciable variation. Moreover, after EINS measurements, the cells were opened and no changes in the sample morphology were detected, showing a homogeneous character and no compartmentalization effects. EINS data were acquired in the fixed-window elastic mode, thus collecting the intensity elastically scattered as a function of Q. Data were corrected to take into account incident flux, cell scattering, and self-shielding. The intensity of each sample was normalized with respect to a vanadium standard to account for the detector efficiency. Multiple scattering processes were neglected.
The model mimics, with an atomic detail, a cubic portion of PNIPAM microgel for polymer mass fractions of 40 and 60 wt %. The macromolecular network, modeled as isotropic, includes 12 atactic PNIPAM chains joined by six fourfold bisacrylamide cross-links (see fig. S4). Amide groups of PNIPAM residues are represented in the trans conformation. The three-dimensional percolation of the polymer scaffold is accounted for by the covalent connectivity between adjacent periodic images. The number average molecular weight of chains between cross-links, Mc, is 1584 g/mol, with a polydispersity index of 1.02 and an average degree of polymerization of 14. Taking into account the NIPAM/BIS feed ratio used in the synthesis and the nonuniform cross-link density of PNIPAM microgels, the model represents a region in proximity to the core-shell boundary of the particle. MD simulations of PNIPAM microgels were carried out at eight temperatures (from 293 to 223 K every 10 K). A trajectory interval of about 0.5 μs was calculated for each temperature. Additional details are given in the Supplementary Materials.
Fig. S1. EINS data for PNIPAM 43 wt % sample.
Fig. S2. EINS data for PNIPAM 60 wt % sample.
Fig. S3. D2O contribution to EINS spectra.
Fig. S4. Schematic representation of the microgel network model.
Fig. S5. Aging effect on water dynamics.
Fig. S6. Aging effect on PNIPAM dynamics.
Fig. S7. I(Q,0) from numerical simulations.
Table S1. Thermal protocol followed during the EINS measurements.
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Each year there are over 90,000 vehicle crashes in Maryland.
Over 60 motorcyclists are killed every year in Maryland and up to 300 suffer serious injuries.
Learn more about car accidents in Maryland.
Each year there are over 90,000 vehicle crashes in Maryland. In those crashes, over 40,000 people suffer injuries and nearly 500 are killed. Over 100 pedestrians are killed in vehicle accidents every year in Maryland and around 360 suffer serious injuries Over 60 motorcyclists are killed every year in Maryland and up to 300 suffer serious injuries. Learn more about car accidents in Maryland.
This infographic submission highlights various facts about car accidents in the state of Maryland. A good sign for an infographic is if the reader can quickly scan it without reading anything and still understand what the topic is. Testing this out, it's quite clear that this infographic is about car accidents. The various sections of the infographic are broken up nicely, with most having a word count that stays under what might be considered too much. Something that would substantially improve the effect of this infographic is data visualization. There are several stats throughout that are simply spelled out in copy when they should be illustrated. For example, the "8 out of 10 in Baltimore or Washington" statistic could be visualized. Likewise, the fast facts section offers a handful of opportunities for data viz instead of simple icons. Overall, we give this a B. |
On February 13, 2013 the corpse of the former pastor from Ammertal, Carsten Häublein, was recovered from the Schlei in Schleswig-Holstein. It was to be conclude that he had put an end to his own, as reported by Franz Adlkofer of the Pandora Foundation. The Foundation is committed to a greater public awareness of the risks of cell phone radiation.
After seven years on the run from the cell phone radiation Carsten Häublein obviously lacked the courage to continue in this way. “The case Häublein exemplifies a tragedy in Europe, in which thousands of people who suffer from the consequences of their hypersensitivity, are classified as having psychological problems or being mentally disturbed by the industry and even by politics, so they can deny that cell phone radiation could be the cause” writes Franz Adlkofer. Since 2006, priest Häublein fought, with great dedication, for the recognition of Electrohypersensitivity as an environmental illness. The case Häublein (German).
Not all people react so sensitively to cell phone radiation as Carsten Häublein did. Because: we do not see them, we do not hear them, and most people do not even feel electromagnetic fields. This is probably one of the main reasons why most people ignore the danger of the radiation. Opinions about the dangers of electromagnetic radiation emanating from cell phones, cell phone base stations or WiFi, are well known to be many and diverse.
There is however no shortage on investigations, studies and experience reports, representing the cell phone technology in a light than is unfavored by the cell technology lobby. Nevertheless, it is always diligently said that there is still a lack in long-term and scientific studies on the dangers of electromagnetic fields. Although the existing scientific studies should actually have raised suspicions long ago. In other fields, the existing facts and studies would probably have been accepted as scientific basis. Professor Lerchl of the private Jacobs University Bremen recently confirmed that mobile phone radiation, below the official thresholds can enhance tumor growth in mice, something he had vehemently denied recently.
During an investigation of patients with sleep disorders at the University of Lübeck, Dr. med. Joachim Peterson discovered, that an above average amount of people were heavy users of wireless telephones. Next Dr. Peterson observed how a three-minute conversation with a cell phone brought about negative changes in blood that was previously flawless. Before the phone call the red blood cells were moving freely; immediately afterwards they stuck together. In medicine, this is called “rouleaux syndrome”. This damage can result in an increased risk of thrombosis (blood vessel blockage), infarctions and strokes.
That radar radiation is significantly damaging for people, trees and birds, has been known for over 70 years and is undisputed. Nevertheless, the influence of the cell phone industry on studies and limits surrounding electromagnetic radiation is immense. No wonder, as a lot of money is at stake. However, the use of cell phones, WiFi and Co. is not only a matter of technology. But rather this new technology calls us people out, to deal with it more consciously.
Do I really have to be constantly reachable?
How well I can feel my body?
Do i interpret its signals correctly is something is not good for me?
We do not know (yet), what influence electromagnetic radiation has on our thoughts, feelings and our mind. Many people could not imagine living without a cell phone or WiFi. Are we already dealing with a new addiction phenomenon? From what stage are you addicted?
An abstinence from cell phones etc. would mean not to use a cordless phone, cell phone, WiFi and no microwave. As an alternative for communication remains the traditional wire or a harmonization by Swiss Harmony. |
The British educational system is considered one of the best in the world. The proven system has contributed to the establishment and development of Oscar Wilde, Jonathan Swift, Aldous Huxley, Stephen Hawking, Tony Blair and others for centuries. We helped Russian teachers to puzzle out the secrets of the educational system.
From December 6 to 16, we organized the teaching internship for Russian trainers at Studio Cambridge (Cambridge, England). Twenty respected English teachers, who were recognized the best in the Krasnodar Region, became the participants of the event.
What distinguishes the UK educational system? The internship participants were able to get an answer to this question when visiting secondary and higher schools of England. The visit to punishment rooms", where students were placed for bad behavior, made a striking impression.
One of the main stages of preparation of the internship was the development of the educational program. Enhancement of skills and new knowledge — are the main objectives that guided us in the preparation of a training plan for participants.
During the program, the teachers were able to improve pronunciation techniques, undergo grammar lessons, consolidate knowledge at interesting workshops, take part in language games and even sing.
We organized a tour around Cambridge, as well as a visit to the world-known Fitzwilliam Museum. And even the rainy weather, typical for this period, did not prevent the participants to enjoy the beauty of the city and the rooms, where Darwin and Stephen Hawking lived. The crown of the program was a visit to Witches!» Musical. |
Minnesota is known for cold winters and that means heating costs increase. What should people do if they are struggling to pay their heating bills? The Minnesota Cold Weather Rule (CWR) can help. The CWR exists to protect and reconnect your heat during the winter season. The rule helps you keep your electric and natural gas service on from October 15 through April 15 each year.
The rule applies to residential customers, including renters who pay their own utility bills. The rule does not cover delivered fuels, such as fuel oil, propane, or wood. You may apply for a CWR plan any time during the winter season.
Some people think that heat cannot be disconnected in the winter. But it can if you don’t pay your heating bill or do not have CWR protection. To keep your heat on all winter, you must make and abide by a CWR payment plan with your utility company.
Once you have a plan, it is important to stick to it. If you don’t, your utility company is not required to offer more arrangements. If it looks like you won’t be able to make your scheduled payment, call your utility company immediately to create a new payment plan.
Utilities offer different payment plans based on household income. To qualify for a reduced payment plan, your total household income must fall below 50 percent of the state median. You will not have to pay more than 10 percent of your household income toward current or past utility bills in any given month.
Most recent data shows the median annual income for a four-person household in Minnesota is $70,218. If your income is higher, you may still qualify for a reduced-payment plan with your utility.
To apply for help, contact your utility company to request a payment arrangement. All natural gas and electric utilities must follow some level of the rule.
If you and your utility company cannot agree upon a plan, you have 10 days to appeal to the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission. The commission will help you set up a payment plan and your service will stay on during the appeal process. |
Quantitative genetic variation from new mutations in Tribolium.
Directional selectional for heavier pupa weight in Tribolium castaneum was practiced for ten generations in two replicates of an inbred line that had been seperately maintained in population cages for more than 90 generations. The response to selection was used in a prediction equation developed by Hill (1982) to estimate mutational variance in the two populations. Estimates of the ratio of mutational to environmental variance ranged from .0002 to .0015 depending upon the assumptions made concerning the effective population sizes that had been maintained in the population cages. The results support the argument that mutation may have played a significant role in supplying new genetic variation for the long continuing response to selection in experiments reported earlier. A second experiment designed specifically to test the predictive theory on response to directional selection from new mutations is described. |
The Conservation Fund and a host of partners launched the Upper Green River Valley Initiative in 2008 to conserve and enhance key wildlife habitat and agricultural lands in the region.
To date, we have worked with numerous public and private partners to conserve nearly 81,000 acres of private land and enhance more than 90,000 acres of public lands, including key migration routes, miles of river frontage, sage grouse habitat and crucial winter range for moose, elk, mule deer and pronghorn.
Flanked by the Wyoming and Wind River ranges, the Upper Green River Valley forms the southern core of the world’s most intact temperate ecosystem—the Greater Yellowstone. The Valley is home to the “Path of the Pronghorn,” the longest land mammal migration in the continental United States, stretching from Grand Teton National Park south to winter range in the Red Desert, a distance of over 200 miles. For over 7,000 years, Pronghorn antelope and other wildlife such as elk, Shiras moose and mule deer have navigated the Valley’s unique topography every season. Yet due to its unparalleled natural resources, the Valley and its wildlife are now in peril.
For generations, traditional, large-scale family ranches have comprised most of the Green River Valley’s private lands, sharing the natural wealth with the species that migrate across the landscape’s ancient pathways. But the Valley also sits atop two of the nation’s highest-producing natural gas fields and is threatened with the full trappings of resource development—roads, well pads, power lines and residential subdivisions.
A swath of wide-open private ranchlands in the Valley is the best hope for conserving the region’s rich wildlife resources. As part of the Upper Green River Valley Initiative, ranchers are collaborating with the Fund, public and private partners, and community leaders to protect and enhance more than 135,000 acres and preserve Wyoming’s unique wildlife habitat and traditional ranching economy. These ranches have been selected for their top wildlife habitat and include some of the most important bottlenecks on the “Path of the Pronghorn” as well as critical sage grouse habitat.
In 2014, The Conservation Fund completed six conservation easements benefitting more than 28,400 acres of sage grouse and pronghorn habitat within the Upper Green River and Hoback Rim areas. Permanently protecting these critical working ranchlands in partnership with the USDA Farm Bill and private and state funding helps maintain the local agricultural economy and safeguard many of the Greater Yellowstone Area’s most vital natural assets.
Upper Green River Valley, WY. Photo by Mark Gocke/www.markgocke.com.
The Upper Green River Valley forms the southern core of the Greater Yellowstone Area, the world’s most intact temperate ecosystem.
The Valley sits atop two of the nation’s highest-producing natural gas fields and is threatened with resource development.
Large-scale family ranches comprise most of the Green River Valley’s private lands.
The Valley is home to the “Path of the Pronghorn,” the longest land mammal migration in the continental United States. |
Historians have done lots of work in recent years on health and medical care in the family in early modern Britain. As such we know much more about what life was like for the sick in the early modern home, how patients were cared for and by whom. The family provided ready sources of both physical medicines and care.
As Mary Fissell and others have argued, the burden of responsibility for looking after the sick often fell on women, and could involve a great deal of extra work, such as in washing, preparing medicines and so on. Other historians, such as Lisa Smith (and me!) have also noted the important role played by men in domestic medicine, noting that men were important gatherers and collectors of remedies, and were sometimes forced into a caring role when their wives fell sick – something that early modern medical literature didn’t necessarily prepare them for.
There is one group of patients, however, who sometimes slip through the net. What happened when servants fell sick? Who cared for, and looked after them? How far did employers pay for their care or treatment? In some ways the question might seem redundant. Servants were considered part of the family unit. When Pepys opened his diary in 1660, he noted “I lived in Axe Yard, having my wife and servant Jane, and no more family than us three”. It’s easy to miss the significance of this; Jane, their servant, was fully part of the Pepys family. As part of the family, therefore, they could surely expect to be looked after.
In economic terms it certainly made sense to treat a sick servant, if for no other reason than to return them to productivity as quickly as possible. In large houses or estates, for example, a spate of sickness amongst servants and labourers could be potentially disastrous for productivity. But is there evidence to suggest that care went beyond this purely pragmatic view? Through my work on medicine in early modern Wales, I came across a number of examples.
Surviving records from the account book of William Davies of Clytha, Monmouthshire, certainly suggest that he went beyond the call of duty. In May 1718 he took on a boy, William Prosser, to his service at the wage of two pounds and four shillings per year. Davies was diligent in recording a range of entries concerning his servant. It is clear, for example, that he gave Prosser what might today be regarded as pocket money on occasions. In one instance he recorded giving Prosser 6 shillings to visit Usk Fair. On another occasion he provided 2 shillings for the boy to play cards. He paid for new stockings and the mending of shoes, and allowed Prosser time off to go to Monmouth, and also to visit his sister when she was sick.
Davies, however, also noted occasions when Prosser was himself sick, and the duration. One entry reads “You were sick in Aprill 7 dayes”, and another “you were sick and you lost 11 dayes”. On one level this might be seen as an employer monitoring his servant, and keeping a tally of their sick days…an approach that would not feel unfamiliar in a modern workplace! But, also just like a modern employer, it seems that Davies provided sickpay – “June ye 15th I gave you one shilling when you were sick’. Was this the norm, or was Prosser simply lucky in having an apparently benevolent employer?
There is other evidence to suggest that some were prepared to allow sick employees to move into their households for treatment. The probate inventory of the Cardiff labourer William Cozens shows that, during his last sickness, he was living in the house of his employer, and receiving care. Note that Cozens was a labourer, and not a domestic servant, suggesting that he ordinarily did not live with the family.
Gentry household accounts certainly suggest that provision of medicines for sick servants was routine. The accounts of Lord Herbert, the 9th earl of Pembroke, give a running list of the many preparations and remedies ordered from a London apothecary John Jackson. (Between 1744 and 1747 there were a total of 848 different prescriptions!). Amongst the many for Lord Herbert and his wife, were entries for William Colly and Jenny White, both presumably servants, as well as medicines for the ‘coachman’ and ‘housemaid’.
The coachman at Chirk Castle was another recipient of treatment, involving a ‘botle of physic from Dr Puleston’, and when the ‘boy Thomas was swoll’n under the chin’, an entry in the accounts paid for a man to fetch the apothecary from nearby Wrexham.
R.C. Richardson’s study of servants in early modern England found similar evidence to suggest that employers were usually keen to look after their charges. Those who failed to do so properly were denounced as ‘cursed and hard-hearted persons’ whose threshold the prospective servant should be wary to cross. Preachers, such as William Perkins, considered it the ‘Christian duty’ to care for a servant who ‘In time of his service be sicke’.
Admittedly some were not so sympathetic. Thomas Ffoulkes of Holywell, Flintshire, kept close tabs on his maid, apparently suspicious of her claims to be ill. In January 1724 he noted “My mayd Margarett Jones fell sick this day, and next day, and did not get out of bed. Munday morning, being the 8th, she went unknown to me to her mother’s and did not returne till Friday”. Ffoulkes’s scathing last line “she went rambling home severall other times” suggested he thought that Margarett was pulling the early modern equivalent of a ‘sickie’!
In general, however, sick servants were the recipients of often quite generous levels of care. On one level, as part of the family this might be expected. But these were also, ultimately, employees, and therefore reliant on the goodwill of their masters and mistresses for this to be provided. It would be interesting to find out more about the changing dynamic, when employees had to provide physical care for their servants. Presuming there were no others available, how must it have felt for the mistress of the house to tend the sickbed of her housemaid? Perhaps the subject for a future post. |
Architect Andrew Goodman explains what it took to create the UK's first load-bearing straw bale Passivhaus home.
Andrew Goodman is an architect with over 20 years experience running his own practice, currently as a sole practitioner based in Hertford. One of his recent projects has been for Dave and Mabel Howorth, who were looking to build a straw bale home for their retirement, with the added challenge of wanting to achieve the Passivhaus standard.
Dave Howorth already had an interest in straw bale buildings and had previously participated on one of Straw Works‘ projects. He was convinced that it was a good way to build and was also attracted by the affordability it provided.
It took several years for Dave to find his plot of land. When he bought it, it already had planning permission for a chalet style bungalow, which wasn't ever going to lend itself to either being built with straw bales or to the Passivhaus standard.
The plot was in the curtilage of an old, listed dwelling with thatched roof and lime plastered walls, and the local vernacular for Dutch barn style curved roofs also gave the extra ceiling height they were looking for, so these both provided a starting point for evolving the design.
Being a detached dwelling in an established orchard meant the trees would have some impact on shading the building in a positive way.
It was important to Dave and Mabel that the building should meet the Lifetime Home standard, which was about at that time (but since been partially absorbed into Building Standards). The standard had a dozen or so categories covering how someone with restricted mobility might approach and access the building, move through it with ease and move between levels if applicable.
The brief was to provide three main bedrooms, living accommodation, separate kitchen, dining and living room. The Lifetime element was incorporated by providing an extra reception room on the ground floor with access to a wet room, which could be a bedroom with en-suite in the future if needed.
The proposed building had roughly the same floor area as the original planning permission which was a help, and although the finishes were very different, they were judged to be appropriate for being in close proximity of the listed building, and planning permission was granted.
The foundation is an insulated slab system. Then there is a taped connection between the slab and the internal wall finish, which crosses over the base plate detail that you need on any straw bale construction. Instead of building first floor joists into the walls, they used a ledger beam approach attached to the box beam, with a membrane between the ledger beam and the box beam that connects the two plaster layers, the ground floor and first floor.
The curved roof uses a standard Intello membrane on the underside of the timber structure, which again is then connected to the render at first floor level.
A previous attempt by Fran Bradshaw to build the first load-bearing Passivhaus straw bale house just missed out on achieving the standard. Hers used a structural timber frame, so the bales may not have been as compressed and loaded as those at Haven Cottage. Andrew's assistant was convinced that load-bearing the straw bales would be the best way to go, and by using a wet lime plaster on the inside as the air barrier, it shouldn't be any different than using it on a brick block cavity wall. Haven Cottage also has an external lime render.
In terms of the construction, part of a ring beam is placed that can be used to compress the bales using wires that run from the base plate up to the top plate, which are then tightened. There is a typical compression of around 50mm for each storey height. Once it's compressed it is loaded with the next level of construction up to the underside of the roof.
Together with the structural engineer, they worked out a system of curved laminated beams that are actually within the overall depth of the roof. The roof has 40mm of Warmcel insulation. The laminated beams are only 300mm deep.
Airtightness tapes were used to connect the windows to the wet plaster reveals, and time will tell whether the added movement that straw bales naturally have will cause cracks in the render and impact on the airtightness. Andrew recommends taking care to look at the building over time, checking the plaster and renders and making sure they are kept in good condition to ensure there is no moisture ingress.
Dave was able to take a 12 month sabbatical from work and project manage the construction. He used a specialist substructure and groundworker who did the slab and drains and anything else below the ground. There were a couple of carpenters who worked collaboratively throughout on all of the timber elements. Straw Works provided teams of people to build the walls in their usual method, providing training to people who were interested in learning about the skills of straw bale construction. There was also a specialist roofing contractor.
Dave did all the airtightness taping and installation of the MVHR system himself.
The original design and PHPP model for the building was using a gas-fired boiler for heating, but Dave decided, partly for cost-saving, not to install the gas main.
There are three heaters in the house in the hallway and bathrooms, and a post-heater in the MVHR which raises the temperature a little bit above whatever it has come through the heat exchanger with.
Haven Cottage has solar PVs which provide all the required hot water in the summer, with a bit of Grid electricity needed in the winter to top it up. Passivhaus Plus Magazine has calculated that the building is actually making a profit on the electricity side.
Andrew didn't have any experience of straw bale buildings before coming into this project, but wasn't daunted as he found sufficient information around to understand the normal procedure, and from that work out how to do things slightly differently to meet the needs of achieving the Passivhaus standard.
Fran Bradshaw from Anne Thorne Architects shares her experience of building an ultra low energy home using natural materials such as straw bales, lime render and clay plaster. The house is also aiming for the Passivhaus standard.
Fran Bradshaw was a builder before she became an architect but she's still very much interested in the practical side of things. A lot of the work she does at Anne Thorne Architects has a focus on sustainability and community-based work.
This episode is about a straw bale house that she's building for herself in Norfolk, UK.
Fran got inspired to build her own house with straw after working on a project for Haringey Council.
Upon completing the eco-hub, Fran noticed that lots of people commented on the quality of the environment.
The acoustics, humidity and the colours are all very different in a building constructed of natural materials – people liked this.
While there have been straw bale houses in mainland Europe that have reached Passivhaus standard, there is yet to be one in the UK.
The challenge is in turning what is a rather chaotic building material into something that is actually very precise, because to achieve the Passivhaus standard all the details on all the joints have to be very neat and carefully airtight.
Although one of the reasons Fran chose to build her house with straw was to involve her friends, she leveraged the experience of Straw Works.
So guided by one or two experts, the rest of the team members just need to be enthusiastic and prepared to do a little bit of physical work.
The site is very close to the Norfolk Broads and Fran discovered that reed thatch was being cut a mile away.
In order to thatch well, the reeds need to be the same strength, the same length and have the same diameter.
This is partly to do with how well and methodically the reeds are cut, which is why reed cutters are given long contracts to tend a certain patch.
The thatch is on fireboard which is moisture permeable but airtight. It's taped at the joints so that the airtight layer is just underneath the thatch.
Warmcel – recycled newspaper insulation – then goes in between the plasterboard and the underside of the fireboard.
Fran says the connections between the walls and the floor are always tricky to get right and, as this project is aiming for the Passivhaus standard, she opted for a reinforced raft.
While there was a level of compromise here it is quite economical on concrete and it gave Fran the opportunity to employ a local contractor (whereas many parts of this build have needed specialists).
Normally the airtightness layer would be on the inside of the house to avoid warm, moist air from the room going into the wall fabric.
As there's timber inside and the straw is outside the timber frame, in this case it would have been very difficult to make the airtight barrier work well (because there are timber penetrations and quite big bits of timber).
After discussing the best approach with their airtightness expert Paul Jennings, they decided to use the outside layer of render as the airtight layer.
So the concrete slab is the airtight layer in the ground which connects to the lime render on the outside of the straw walls and then to the fireboard on the roof.
They are pretty confident this won't be a problem because all the materials are moisture permeable and hygroscopic as well, and the MVHR ventilation will be operating at the coldest times.
Moisture monitors will also provide on-going data, so should any issues arise they can be addressed.
As the lime render is the airtight layer, any cracks that appear could affect the airtightness and thus the energy efficiency of the house.
However, this is just part of using these materials – these cracks will need to be repaired. Fran is expecting this at the end of the drying out process but is not sure how often the maintenance will be after that.
There's a Role for an Airtightness Geek!
Working with these kind of materials and trying to achieve high levels of airtightness, Fran can definitely see the need for a ‘very precise airtightness geek person' who has a close eye on all the details as the build progresses.
This could develop within building firms or be a role that is taken on by a broader group of people.
There are certain key moments where you've got to be absolutely spot on, so find out where these are.
Planning for those moments and making sure that there are the right people around at the time will stand you in good stead.
You Can Always Do Things for Less BUT . . .
While Fran knows that there are always ways to cut costs, she derived great pleasure on this project from being able to work with people who she knew were going to do a really lovely job.
Although she may have paid a little bit more it's been worth it and she still believes it's been reasonably economical given the materials used.
Look carefully at what people have done in the past and trust your judgement about them.
For work like this Fran is not in favour of endless competitive tendering. On the whole she's selected people who she enjoys working with and who charge a reasonable rate for what they do.
The first air test of Fran's house recorded a figure of 0.9 air changes per hour.
This year we're holding more online debates, which will focus on various aspects of building a house. There's no level of entry! You just have to have opinions and want to get involved. |
Dovidio J et al (1995) discuss and describe the term pro social behaviour as the voluntary act of helping an individual or a society. As discussed by Dovidio there are numerous definitions, however the focus of pro social behaviour in this essay will be on the voluntary action in relation to communication skills.
Madonna Louise Ciccone known by the public and media, as the one name star sensation, “Madonna” is well-known all over the world for her pro social behaviour in helping people, and in 2006 setting up the organisation ‘Raising Malawi’. The online video interview for the American channel CNN, Interview about Malawi (2009) available at =IpIviXlQQJs> (2009), will be used to analyse Madonna’s effective use of communication skills and relationship theories. The subject of the interview, ‘Raising Malawi’ is the example of Madonna’s pro social behaviour which will be studied. Identifying and analysing Madonna’s effective use of communication skills and relationship theories, in relation to pro social behaviour, will assess how important these qualities are in relation to the success of ‘Raising Malawi’. The essay will analyse Madonna’s use of verbal messages, self disclosure, types of listening, non verbal communication, concepts of ‘the self’ and relationship theories. For a balanced analysis, opposing viewpoints of Madonna’s ‘pro social behaviour’ of adopting children from Malawi and other celebrities pro social behaviour will be discussed and analysed.
The interview format comprises of questions and answers between the interviewer, Alina Cho, and interviewee Madonna. Littlejohn (2002) discusses face threatening acts (FTA); positive, negative and politeness. Alina uses a face threatening act to begin the interview, “So, you’re Madonna.” This instantly attacks Madonna’s positive face and politeness- as Littlejohn (2002) describes the need and desire to be liked. The subject and purpose of the interview on Malawi, is Madonna’s opportunity to talk and explain about the charity and to evidently gain further support from the public for the charity. However, the immediate FTA is an obstacle for Madonna’s communication skills as it is directly attacking Madonna’s ‘face’ and the sarcastic interviewee tone creates a division of status between Cho and Madonna. O’Keefe (1988, quoted by Littlejohn, 2002, pg 111) discusses message design logics in three areas; expressive, conventional and rhetoric. Madonna’s response uses communication known as conventional logic. Madonna replies using positive politeness, “No, I’m not.” The use of defensive humour cancels out the aggression created by Cho. O’Keefe describes this logic similar to the conventions of a game; as rules are always present and in this situation they are used to define the verbal communication. The communication response from Madonna is appropriate, polite and is based on rules known by everyone. She has been a celebrity for the past three decades and is familiar with following codes and conventions with interviews such as the question and answer format, styles of different interviewers .e.t.c. Madonna’s first verbal response present her communication skills as effective, logical and planned due to her polite response to a FTA which creates a composed image of Madonna and therefore representing her charity, ‘Raising Malawi’ as organised and structured.
Madonna’s logical listening skills are effective as her responses present herself in a positive way. Cho asks probing questions about how Madonna deals with the large scale of problems in Malawi, “Do you ever get overwhelmed by…?” the probing questions seek to provoke exclusive intimate feelings from Madonna. Madonna uses discriminative listening to be able to filter Cho’s question and responds in a neutral manner, “Sometimes, it just, it stops you dead in your tracks and you think, ‘Oh, my god. I can’t do this,” her response does not portray her in weak manner as she speaks in a narrative tone creating an independent image of herself. The stage beforehand, discriminative listening, described by Coakley (1993) as the receptive stage in which a person uses auditory and visual cues in order to separate and determine what information is important and therefore to respond with effective communication, is how Madonna listened. To maintain control of the interview Madonna filtered what the interviewee was asking and responded appropriately; adhering as mentioned before, to conventional logic.
Madonna uses her non verbal communication skills (NVC) to gain support for ‘Raising Malawi’. This is evident in several different areas; the body (kinesics), the face, the eyes, in paralanguage and silence, and lastly in spatial messages.
Madonna’s kinesics are used to communicate her feelings and emotions towards her pro social behaviour with ‘Raising Malawi’. Devito (2009, page 130) created a table which devises the five types of body movements; emblems, illustrators, affect displays, regulators and adaptors. A few of these interpersonal communication devices are used by Madonna in the interview.
Madonna uses an emblem by touching her heart when verbally communicating about her assets as a human being. The action presents Madonna as earnest as it is a surprised body action when the focus of the interview changes to her attributes as a person and not on her philanthropy. The action of touching her heart area on her body could also be seen as an ‘adaptor’ used to reassure and add comfort during an interview. Madonna’s facial communication helps support her verbal communication when talking about ‘Raising Malawi’ as during the interview she smiles frequently and naturally and not forcefully as this would connote deception which would be associated with the charity.
A study of facial emotions and smiling by Gladstone & Parker, 2002; Woodzicka & LaFrance, 2005; Kluger, 2005 (Devito, 2009, pg 132) found that people would be liked more if they smiled naturally, than to people who pretended to smile or to those who did not smile. Therefore, Madonna is communicating through smiling when it naturally occurs. This presents her as honest and trustworthy and therefore the viewer subconsciously appreciates her pro social behaviour and impact in Malawi.
The use of eye communication connotes to the viewer that Madonna’s help; ‘Raising Malawi’ is in good faith and is trustworthy pro social behaviour. Kleinke, (1986, in Hargie, 1996) defines eye contact is an important aspect of Western culture and interpersonal communication. During the CNN interview Madonna maintains a high level of eye contact to adhere to this cultural norm. Eye contact creates a relationship between the viewer and Madonna, as suggested by Axtell (1994, in Devito, 2009) it is viewed as an expression of honesty; which Madonna needs to ensure as she is promoting her charity.
Theorist Erving Goffman (1967, in Devito, 2009) refers to avoiding eye contact or changing your glance to other people as civil inattention. Subsequently, Madonna avoids all eye contact when verbally discussing the controversy about adopting children from Malawi with her eyes glancing upwards and remaining closed for an estimated two to three seconds. This tactic of communication during the interview is used to create her own personal private proximity. The proximity is needed for the sensitive topic and avoiding eye contact with Cho means Madonna can express herself without the feeling of the cameras or interviewee intruding.
A person with a faster speech rate is more likely to have an advantage in communicating information as defined by MacLachlan (1979). Madonna communicates at a fast rate with her paralanguage, her tone and volume remain consistent throughout the interview. The silences that occur in the interview are due to sensitive subjects about adoption and the improbable reality that Madonna cannot help every child in Malawi. The silences relate to the spiral of science theory discussed by Devito (2009, pg141) in which the silences are the chance for the speaker to calculate a response. Madonna’s use of silences is effective as it suggests to viewers that this communication technique is being used as she is a thoughtful individual consequently gaining support for ‘Raising Malawi’.
Madonna’s interview is in public territories, with the location of the studio being owned by the organisation CNN. This unfamiliar setting affects Madonna’s proto language; she remains upright and self composed; appropriate for the interview. Her body language and stance communicates to a viewer that she is confident, and therefore the confidence and attitude is associated with the ‘Raising Malawi’ organisation.
The limited time of the interview means the focus of the questions are on Madonna’s purpose, ethics and plans for Malawi. Lustig and Koester (2006) discuss how European Americans place emphasis within their communication on the future. Madonna constantly expresses the desire and drive for future plans for Malawi through verbal messages about a girl’s school in Malawi and NVC touching her heart and smiling which communicates a positive outlook to the future. The future orientated presence and attitude of Madonna promotes her charity in a positive way as it is discussed as an achievable and positive goal.
The concept of ‘the self’ and self disclosure are communication skills used by Madonna to promote ‘Raising Malawi’.
Madonna describes herself “like a cockroach” in her approach to charity work and her resilient nature. The description about her goes against the consistency theory discussed by McBroom and Reed (1992, in Devito, 2009) in which descriptions are partnerships and equal. However, Madonna is a female icon who’s perceived and presents herself differently to how she behaves. For example Madonna has been known as controversial, she describes herself as a cockroach and she matches a dollar for every dollar donated. This is effective use of communication skills as she is going against the consistency theory which presents her as fun and unpredictable, and to some viewers this is an admirable quality.
Madonna presents herself as trustworthy and honest with her emotions, whilst at the same time remaining autonomous. As discussed by Berger and Bell (1988, in Burleson, 2003), self presentation is the communication skill technique to be liked by people. Therefore, Madonna presents herself as self reliant and an individualist with a masculine culture. Devito (2009) discusses, a masculine culture emphasises success and confronting issues. Madonna uses self disclosure with a masculine approach to appear as a role model and icon for other females. This is effective communication as it gains support for her as an individual and ‘Raising Malawi’.
Devito (2009) discusses three pairs of opposing motives in relationship dialectics; autonomy and connection, closedness and openness, and novelty and predictability. Relationship dialectics theory can be applied to Madonna and her pro social behaviour in ‘Raising Malawi’. The relationship partnership is Madonna and the public. Casmir (1994) discusses two relationship dialectics; autonomy and connection (page 176) the opposing attributes of being an individual and being close to someone sharing a bond. This relates to Madonna’s as through verbal and NVC skills, she adopts a masculine culture. In the aspect of relationship theories, she remains an independent individual (autonomy) as she remains composed and calm. This is evident when Cho asks a probing question, “It seems that a lot of the things I do end up being controversial even when I don’t mean them to be” she replies confidently and does not express any weak emotions. The interview begins emphasising her individualist nature, “You’re Madonna…. No I’m not” her reply signifies her need to be regarded as a person not through her ‘star’ name. In contrast, Madonna’s self disclosure “I would love to take them all home” allows viewers to gain an insight into her feelings and good intentions for the children in Malawi.
The openness and closedness can be applied to Madonna’s relationship between herself and Cho. The openness is within the self disclosure of emotions within the interview, “I talk to the people in Malawi whose lives have been changed and that just helps me and keeps me going”, this self disclosure of feelings and experiences from Madonna, that viewers did not previously know, helps viewers respond positively to her work in ‘Raising Malawi’.
Novelty and predictability dialectics create trust between the viewer and Madonna. Madonna creates novelty by describing herself as a “cockroach”. This is analysed as a FTA to herself; as the connotations of a cockroach is negative and considered by some people as vermin. Therefore the negative self labelling has a reverse psychological effect on the viewer. The unexpected phrase is received positively by viewers as it is humorous. The predictability is through Madonna’s verbal communication, “We found and met a lot of people who were sick and dying of HIV, with no medical help” the comfort is created by reminding the viewers of information and facts that they know. The existing knowledge being reinforced makes viewers respond positively to Madonna’s pro social behaviour as they feel at advantage being able to recognise the good act and they feel their status is equal to Madonna’s as both positions are knowledgeable.
Social penetration devised by Altman and Taylor (1973, in Berry, 1997) argues that the more intimate relationships become the more information is disclosed. When applied to the CNN interview the later into the interview the more information is disclosed. The revelation of information is separated into two parts: breadth and depth The last disclosure from Madonna is repeated by Cho and is the most exclusive information, “I’m embarrassed to tell you this, I don’t even know where Malawi is” Cho explains the reasons behind ‘Raising Malawi’; a woman phoned Madonna for help in Malawi knowing Madonna is famous and has the status and ability to reach thousands of people. The interview is social penetration. The breadth has been established; the reasoning behind Madonna’s pro social behaviour then the depth is then the reaction to the phone call; with Madonna travelling to Malawi setting up the charity. The breadth of the relationship cannot be explored further due to the interview having a time limit and one main focus. These factors affect the social penetration of the situation and therefore limit the full ability to critique Madonna’s pro social behaviour alongside relationship theories. However, it can be noted that Madonna limits her use of communication skills due to the time limit of the interview and therefore uses the most effective skills for the interview situation.
The social exchange theory can be identified with Madonna’s pledge for her pro social behaviour, “Match my dollar” every dollar that is donated Madonna will match. In reference to the social exchange theory Chadwick-Jones et al (1976, in Devito, 2009) stated that you develop relationships to therefore maximise your profits: profits= rewards – costs. Madonna’s pro social behaviour goes against this theory. Her money is the costs in the equation as she is matching every dollar donated which is therefore to gain as much support as possible for ‘Raising Malawi’. The profit of this relationship with Madonna, and the media and the public, benefits Malawi as the country has gained publicity. This relationship theory shows how Madonna gains support for her pro social behaviour through her verbal communication to the public.
However, some people believe that the social exchange theory shows that Madonna is profiting from her pro social behaviour, creating the charity, ‘Raising Malawi’ as it has gained her publicity stunts. This is discussed on websites, where people are discussing Madonna’s actions of adopting a child from Malawi as selfish and to gain attention from the newspapers. In the media industry, celebrity adoption stories are reported.. A theory discussed by Charng and Piliavin (1990) evaluates observational learning of pro social behaviour. The theories investigated are upon children but can be applied to the current media world. The studies have proven how positive examples are viewed and then copied by children and therefore these copied actions can set new standards for behaviour. When applied to pro social behaviour amongst celebrities, some people feel it is copycat celebrity culture to be in the limelight performing charitable actions <http://m.www.helium.com/items/1093412-celebrity-adoption> this forum discusses adoption as pro social behaviour actions copied by different celebrities.
When applied with the social exchange theory, it can be evaluated that a celebrity icon gains profit from publicity across all channels of communication (television, magazine, radio .e.t.c) as they are being positively portrayed. The observational study also focuses on the length of time (exposure) the child has to charitable acts, and the longer length of time meant the child learnt the appropriate standard quicker. Similarly celebrities view each other and then they can use this to set a standard for themselves and what pro social behaviour they should undertake to gain publicity.
The term pro social behaviour is frequently associated with the term altruism, “It is often seen as a specific kind of helping with some additional characteristics that concern the helper’s intentions and benefits” Dovidio (1995, pg18). This concept discusses the motivation and thoughts behind charitable actions and is an ongoing discussion with celebrities in what their motives are with philanthropy and whether they gain from the action.
After analysing and evaluating Madonna’s communication skills in relevance to relationship theories it is evident that Madonna uses effective communication skills and relationships to promote her philanthropy act of setting up and continuously donating to the ‘Raising Malawi’ charity. Madonna’s effective and positive use of verbal messages, listening techniques, kinesics, self disclosure and paralinguistic’s promote her pro social behaviour in the CNN interview. The relationship theories establish the ways in which Madonna’s relationship with the public is created; openness and closedness, predictability and novelty and autonomy and connection. The convention of the interview assists the social penetration theory as Madonna discloses more to Cho and the public. The social exchange theory, alongside Madonna’s verbal messages of matching a dollar for every dollar donated proves Madonna’s pro social behaviour of ‘Raising Malawi’ is selfless and should be received positively.
Berry, J., Kagitcibasi, C. & Segall, M H. (1997) Handbook of Cross-Cultural Psychology: Social Behavior and Applications. Volume 3. United States of America: Allyn and Bacon.
Burleson, B. R. & Greene, O. J. (2003) Handbook of Communication and Social Interaction Skills. Routledge Communication Series: United States of America: Psychology Press.
Casmir, F. L. (1994) Building Communication Skills: A socio/cultural approach. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc, Publishers.
Coakley, C. G. & Wolvin, A. D. (1993) Perspectives on Listening. United States of America: Ablex Publishing Corporation.
Devito, J. A. (2009). The Interpersonal Communication Book. 12th Edition. United States of America: Pearson Educaion.
Dovidio, J. F. Et al. (1995). The psychology of helping and altruism. United States Of America: McGraw-Hill, Inc.
Hargie, O. (1997) The Handbook of Communication Skills. 2nd Edition. London: Routledge.
Littlejohn, S. W. (2002) Theories of Human Communication. 7th Edition. United States Of America: Wadsworth Publishing.
Lustig, M. W., & Koester, J. (2006) Intercultural competence: Interpersonal communication across cultures. 6th Edition. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
MacLachlan, J. (1979) What people really think of fast talkers. Psychology Today 13, 113-117. |
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Carbon fiber shafts are longer but light, so they can produce high head speeds and longer carries.
Golf clubs must be able to "carry the ball further precisely in the desired direction." To increase the "carry," it is important to make the club as light as possible to increase the head speed and raise the initial speed of the ball, and to do this, the shaft must be made lighter. In doing so, one key challenge is to maintain enough strength to prevent breaking. Under the brand name of TORAYCA®, standard-elasticity high-strength yarns with a modulus of elasticity of 24 tf/mm2 and moderate-elasticity high-strength yarns with a modulus of elasticity of 30 tf/mm2 have been developed, to achieve straight materials offering good bending strength. In addition, there has been a need in recent years for lightweight shafts that not only have bending strength, but are also resistant to breaking due to "insufficient torsional strength," which led us to improve the elongation and strength of the high-elasticity material in the bias layer to achieve higher performance.
As for the other required performance of "directionality," it is important to make the shaft to have "resistant to twisting (improved torsional rigidity)" to prevent the directionality of the ball from dropping due to twisting of the shaft that occurs when the center axis of the shaft does not match the ball hitting point of the head. Torsional rigidity becomes the lowest when the layering angle is 0° or 90°and becomes the highest when this angle is ±45°; accordingly, a ±45° angle is incorporated into layering as a "twisting reduction measure," and the high-elasticity yarn with a modulus of elasticity of 40 tf/mm2 has taken roots as a standard anti-twisting bias material. Currently, torsional characteristics equivalent to those of a steel shaft are realized with the use of carbon fiber with a high modulus of elasticity of 46 tf/mm2 or more.
Historically, golf shafts initially used hickory wood (known for high strength and impact absorption) and other natural materials; thereafter, steel shafts appeared in the 1920s, and carbon shafts became the mainstream in the 1970s and have remained so until today.
After Shakespeare developed the first carbon shaft in 1972, other manufacturers followed suit. Carbon shafts became the darling of the media in Japan because G.Brewer from the U.S. who won the Pacific Club Masters Tournament was using CFRP clubs made by Aldila. In 1973, Olympic released a Japan-made carbon shaft using TORAYCA®/glass fiber textile. The initial product had a spec of 85 g/12° torque, but in the following year, a100% TORAYCA® product with a spec of 77 g/6.9° torque appeared and created the big boom dubbed the "black shaft" revolution.
A sheet-wound shaft using prepreg is basically constituted by an internal layer angled at ±45° (called "angle layer" or "bias layer"), lengthwise layer angled at 0° (called "straight material"), and reinforcement/thickness adding material at the head hosel. The shaft characteristics such as "flexibility, torque, weight and kick point" are determined by how these layers are combined. Carbon fiber allows these performance characteristics to be optimally designed with minimum weight, which was not possible with conventional metal materials, by combining desired layering angle, thickness, etc.
To adjust the flexibility, torque, weight, kick point and other elements of the golf shaft this way according to the physical strength of each golfer to give the club a good carry with excellent directionality, the characteristics of carbon fiber were utilized for design optimization, and various types of shafts designed for top golf pros and hard hitters to seniors and female golfers have adopted carbon fiber. Today, virtually 100% of wood clubs and 65% of iron clubs are made of carbon fiber. Undoubtedly this will be continue to be an important material to support the evolution of golf. |
ASP.NET Core fully supports the specific ASP.NET Model-View-Controller (MVC) application model in which the URL of an incoming request is resolved to a pair of controller/action items. The controller item identifies a class name; the action item identifies a method on the controller class. The processing of the request, therefore, is a matter of executing the given action method of the given controller class.
The ASP.NET MVC application model in ASP.NET Core is nearly identical to the MVC application model available in classic ASP.NET, and it doesn’t even differ too much from implementations of the same MVC pattern you find in other web platforms such as CakePHP for PHP, Rails for Ruby, and Django for Python. The MVC pattern is also pretty popular among front-end frameworks, most notably Angular and KnockoutJS.
In this chapter, we’ll go through the preliminary steps that ultimately set up the ASP.NET MVC Core pipeline and pick up the handler responsible for the actual processing of any incoming requests.
If you’re coming to ASP.NET Core from an ASP.NET background, having to explicitly enable the MVC application model might seem strange. First and foremost, ASP.NET Core is a fairly generic web framework that allows requests to be handled through a centralized endpoint—the terminating middleware.
Also, ASP.NET supports a more sophisticated endpoint based on controller actions. However, if this is the application model you want, then you have to enable it so that the terminating middleware—the Run method we discussed in Chapter 2—is bypassed.
The beating heart of the MVC application model is the MvcRouteHandler service. Although publicly documented, the service is not one that you want to use directly in your application code. However, its role is crucial for the whole ASP.NET MVC machinery. The MVC route handler is the engine responsible for resolving the URL to an MVC route, invoking the selected controller method, and processing the results of the action.
MvcRouteHandler is also the name of a class used in the implementation of classic ASP.NET MVC. In classic ASP.NET MVC, however, the class played a more limited role than it does in ASP.NET Core. For capturing the big picture of what the class does in ASP.NET Core, rather than just relying on the ability of a search engine, it is preferable to look directly at its implementation, which can be found at .
To add the MVC route handler service to the ASP.NET host, you proceed in the same way as for any other application service such as static files, authentication, or Entity Framework Core. You just add a line of code to the ConfigureServices method of the startup class.
Note that the code requires a reference to an additional package that the IDE (Visual Studio, for instance) typically offers to restore for you. The AddMvc method has two overloads. The parameter-less method accepts all default settings for the MVC service. The second overload, as below, allows you to select ad hoc options.
Options are specified through an instance of the MvcOptions class. The class is a container of configuration parameters you can change in the MVC framework. For example, the code snippet above adds a new model binder that parses specific strings into valid dates and specifies the SSL port to be used when the controller class is decorated with the RequireHttpsAttribute. The full list of configurable options can be found here:
The AddMvc method is only an umbrella method under which many other services are initialized and added to the pipeline. Table 3-1 provides the full list.
For more details, see the method’s source code at http://bit.ly/2l3H8QK.
If you have memory constraints—for example, you’re hosting the application in the cloud—you might want the application to reference nothing but the bare metal of the framework. The list of services in Table 3-1 can be made shorter; how much shorter mostly depends on the actual features you need to have in the application. The following code is enough to serve plain HTML views without more advanced features, such as data annotations for form validation and tag helpers.
Note that some of the services in Table 3-1 are useful only if you are exposing a web API. These services are API Explorer, Formatter Mappings, and CORS. Tag helpers and default application parts can also be blissfully dropped if you’re happy to content yourself with a programming experience like that of classic ASP.NET MVC.
In the Configure method of the startup class, you call the UseMvc method to configure the ASP.NET Core pipeline to support the MVC application model. At this point, everything around the MVC application model is completely set up except conventional routing. As we’ll see in a moment, conventional routing consists of a bunch of pattern rules that identify all valid URLs the application intends to process.
In the MVC application model, that’s not the only way to bind actions to URLs. For example, if you decide to associate actions to URLs through attributes (as we’ll see in Chapter 4), then you’re done. Otherwise, for the MVC service to be effective, you also must list the URL routes that the application intends to handle.
A route is a URL template that your application can recognize and process. A route is ultimately mapped to a pair of controller and action names. As we’ll see in a moment, you can add as many routes as you wish, and those routes can take nearly any shape you like them to be. An internal MVC service is responsible for request routing; it is automatically registered when you enable MVC Core services.
To be usable, your application should provide rules to select the URLs it wants to handle. However, not all feasible URLs must be listed explicitly; one or more URL templates with placeholders will do the job. A default routing rule exists, which is sometimes referred to as conventional routing. Usually, the default route is enough for the entire application.
If you don’t have any special concerns about routes, the simplest and easiest method is to use the default route only.
The actual code behind the UseMvcWithDefaultRoute method is shown below.
The first segment right after the server name will be matched to a route parameter named controller.
The second segment will be matched to a route parameter named action.
The third segment (if any) will be matched to an optional route parameter named id.
In light of this, the URL Product/List will be matched to a controller name of Product and an action method of List. If the URL contains fewer than two segments, default values apply. For example, the root URL of the website will match a controller name of Home and an action method of Index. The default route also supports an optional third segment whose content is matched to a named value of Id. Note that the ? symbol indicates that the argument is optional.
Route parameters—and in particular, route parameters named controller and action—play a key role in the overall processing of an incoming request because they point in some way to the code that will actually produce the response. Any request successfully mapped to a route will be processed by executing a method on a controller class. The route parameter named controller identifies the controller class, and the route parameter named action identifies the method to invoke. We’ll cover controllers in detail in the next chapter.
The UseMvc method can also be invoked without parameters. When this happens, the ASP.NET MVC application is fully functional but has no configured routes it can handle.
It would be interesting to see what happens when no routes are configured. For doing so, let me briefly anticipate how a simple controller class might look. Say you add a new class to the project, named HomeController.cs, and then invoke the home/index URL from the address bar.
Conventional routing would map the URL home/index to the Index method of the Home controller. As a result, you should see a blank page with the text Home.Index printed. If you use conventional routing with the above configuration, all you get is an HTTP 404 page-not-found error.
Let’s add now some terminating middleware to the pipeline and try it again. Figure 3-1 shows the new output you get.
Now, let’s go back the default route and try again. Figure 3-2 shows the result.
The conclusion is twofold. On the one hand, we can say that UseMvc changes the structure of the pipeline bypassing any terminating middleware you may have defined. On the other hand, if a matching route can’t be found, or doesn’t work (as a result of a missing controller or method), then the terminating middleware regains a place in the pipeline and runs as expected.
Let’s learn a bit more about the internal behavior of the UseMvc method.
Internally, the UseMvc method defines a route builder service and configures it to use the provided routes and a default handler. The default handler is an instance of the MvcRouteHandler class. This class is responsible for finding a matching route and for extracting controller and action method names from the template.
Also, the MvcRouteHandler class will also try to execute the action method. If successful, it marks the context of the request as handled so that no further middleware will ever touch the generated response. Otherwise, it lets the request proceed through the pipeline until fully processed. Figure 3-3 summarizes the workflow with a diagram.
In classic ASP.NET MVC, failing to find a matching route for a URL would result in an HTTP 404 status code. In ASP.NET Core, instead, any terminating middleware is given a chance to process the request. |
John Snyder’s role in the history of Amarillo barbecue.
Amarillo, one of Texas’ younger cities, is known for many things. But barbecue is not one of them.
Where there’s smoke, there’s Daniel Vaughn, barbecue editor for Texas Monthly. Vaughn says the barbecue history of Amarillo is richer than you might think. The city is classically Texan, and although it doesn’t have many of the kind of barbecue restaurants found in other Texas cities, it does boast the legacy of John Snyder.
“One of the things that made him unique was he really liked cooking whole steers,” Vaughn says.
The method has been adopted by some popular barbecue chefs since, but Snyder did it first. By the age of 77, Snyder estimated he had cooked 4,000 whole steers.
Snyder left his mark on Texas barbecue in another way: with apricots.
Long before many restaurants added apricots as a side dish, Snyder had worked the fruit into his meals.
“He was serving these pureed apricots as a side item at all of these barbecues,” Vaughn says. |
The Code of Hammurabi is a well-preserved Babylonian code of law of ancient Mesopotamia, dated back to about 1754 BC (Middle Chronology). It is one of the oldest deciphered writings of significant length in the world. The sixth Babylonian king, Hammurabi, enacted the code. A partial copy exists on a 2.25 meter (7.5 ft) stone stele. It consists of 282 laws, with scaled punishments, adjusting "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth" (lex talionis) as graded based on social stratification depending on social status and gender, of slave versus free, man versus woman.
Hammurabi ruled from 1792 to 1750 BC according to the Middle chronology. In the preface to the law, he states, "Anu and Bel called by name me, Hammurabi, the exalted prince, who feared God, to bring about the rule of righteousness in the land, to destroy the wicked and the evil-doers; so that the strong should not harm the weak; so that I should rule over the black-headed people like Shamash, and enlighten the land, to further the well-being of mankind." On the stone slab are 44 columns and 28 paragraphs that contained 282 laws. Some of these laws follow along the rules of "an eye for an eye".
Figures at the top of the stele "fingernail", above Hammurabi's code of laws.
The Code of Hammurabi is the longest surviving text from the Old Babylonian period. The code has been seen as an early example of a fundamental law, regulating a government – i.e., a primitive constitution. The code is also one of the earliest examples of the idea of presumption of innocence, and it also suggests that both the accused and accuser have the opportunity to provide evidence. The occasional nature of many provisions suggests that the code may be better understood as a codification of Hammurabi's supplementary judicial decisions, and that, by memorializing his wisdom and justice, its purpose may have been the self-glorification of Hammurabi rather than a modern legal code or constitution. However, its copying in subsequent generations indicates that it was used as a model of legal and judicial reasoning.
While the Code of Hammurabi was trying to achieve equality, biases still existed against those categorized in the lower end of the social spectrum and some of the punishments and justice could be gruesome. The magnitude of criminal penalties often was based on the identity and gender of both the person committing the crime and the victim. The Code issues justice following the three classes of Babylonian society: property owners, freed men, and slaves.
The Hammurabi stele at the American Museum of Natural History, New York.
A version of the code at the Istanbul Archaeological Museums.
Ex. Law #127: "If any one 'point the finger' at a sister of a god or the wife of any one, and can not prove it, this man shall be taken before the judges and his brow shall be marked (by cutting the skin, or perhaps hair)."
Ex. Law #104: "If a merchant give an agent corn, wool, oil, or any other goods to transport, the agent shall give a receipt for the amount, and compensate the merchant therefore, he shall obtain a receipt from the merchant for the money that he gives the merchant."
Ex. Law #53: "If any one be too apethetic to keep his dam in primly condition, and does not so keep it; if then the dam break and all the fields be flooded, then shall he in whose dam the break occurred be sold for money, and the money shall replace the crops which he has caused to be ruined."
Ex. Law #129: "If the wife of a man has been caught lying with another man, they shall bind them and throw them into the waters. If the owner of the wife would save his wife then in turn the king could save his servant."
Ex. Law #3: "If a man has borne false witness in a trial, or has not established the statement that he has made, if that case be a capital trial, that man shall be put to death."
^ Barton, G.A: Archaeology and the Bible. University of Michigan Library, 2009, (originally published in 1916 by American Sunday-School Union) p. 406.
^ Barton 2009, p. 406. Barton, a scientist of Semitic languages at the University of Pennsylvania from 1922 to 1931, stated that while there are similarities between the Mosaic Law and the Code of Hammurabi, a study of the entirety of both laws "convinces the student that the laws of the Old Testament are in no essential way dependent upon the Babylonian laws." He states that "such resemblances" arose from "a similarity of antecedents and of general intellectual outlook" between the two cultures, but that "the striking differences show that there was no direct borrowing." |
Being a teen today isn’t easy – balancing academics, social lives, extracurricular activities, Snapchat, Instagram, YouTube, and other demands on their time and attention. With all of these competing demands, it can feel downright impossible to also fit in and maintain a meaningful connection to Judaism.
The good news is that there are many opportunities for teens to connect to the Jewish community while having fun, making friends, developing leadership skills, and giving back.
J-SERVE is the International Day of Jewish Teen Service when more than 10,000 students in 6th – 12th grade from across the globe come together to make a difference through hands-on projects fulfilling the Jewish values of caring, justice, and repairing the world.
Friendship Circle is dedicated to creating a supportive community for special needs children and their families and offers a variety of volunteer opportunities for teens and preteens.
BBYO is the leading pluralistic Jewish teen movement. The Greater Jersey Hudson River Region has 1,400 teens and serves Albany and New Jersey from Bergen County to the Jersey Shore. Jewish teens can participate in meaningful Jewish experiences, leadership opportunities, and community service with their friends. Reach out to find a chapter near you.
JTEEN gives teens the opportunity to make a difference and have fun at the same time through volunteer opportunities and social activities.
NFTY is a Reform Jewish community for all high school students who are interested in connecting to their Judaism. Teens build friendships, lifelong Reform Jewish identities, and leadership skills through community building, worship, social action, and experiential youth-led Jewish educational programming.
NCSY connects with Jewish teens through innovative, cutting-edge social and recreational programs to celebrate their Jewish heritage; embrace Torah and tradition; develop a positive Jewish identity; acquire invaluable leadership skills; connect with dedicated Jewish role models, and learn to live passionately Jewish lives.
USY is the youth movement of USCJ (United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism) and offers high school students the opportunity to immerse themselves in various Jewish and social activities while forming friendships that will last a lifetime. Regionally, USYers enjoy and grow religiously through retreats and conventions, dances, special programs, basketball tournaments, and so much more. In addition, Jewish teens may take advantage of USY’s unforgettable summer programs across North America, Israel, and Europe, as well as the annual International Convention. Chapters in Middlesex and Monmouth County are listed below.
A new model for Hebrew high school, offering a monthly rotation of four classes including community service, Israeli Film, Biblical Buffet (cooking), and field trips.
Free, Hebrew high school program meets twice a month on Mondays from 5:45 – 7 p.m. Teens discuss current events and relevant Jewish topics in a fun, relaxed environment. Teens can also volunteer in Hebrew School as tutors or teacher’s aides.
Chabad Teen is an interactive educational experience combining fun, social activities, volunteer opportunities, and Torah study.
Teens come together five times a year for food, friends, and a half hour of learning.
Fun, informative, and meaningful classes designed to educate teens about the relevance, wisdom, and direction Judaism has to offer. Meets weekly.
Weekly classes cover different topics in Judaism including Israel, holidays, and Jewish morals and values. Participants also pay monthly visits to the residents in the NJ Veteran’s Memorial Home.
Temple Shaari-Emeth’s post-Bnai’ Mitzvah program includes weekly meetings that begin with pizza and schmoozing. Students in grades 8 & 9 choose a different class each semester based on topics of interest (e.g. cooking, debate, Israeli cooking, conversational Hebrew); and 10th graders participate in a year-long confirmation class.
IAC Eitanim is a project-based leadership and entrepreneurship program that allows teens to connect, explore, and experience Israel while preparing for college and developing professional skills.
StandWithUs is an international, non-profit Israel education organization. StandWithUs is dedicated to educating people of all ages about Israel and to combating the anti-Semitism and extremism that often distorts the issues. Monthly programs center on different topics and include a pizza dinner.
The Jewish Federation in the Heart of New Jersey also has scholarships available to enable teens to gain their own firsthand perspectives on Israel on an organized trip with peers. |
Awakening Earth is a web site founded by Duane Elgin--author, researcher, and social entrepreneur. The purpose of this site is to provide knowledge resources that foster a sustainable, compassionate, and creative future.
Learn how to design products that are good for people, profits and the planet.
"This site is about education, sustainable development, and the World Summit, which took place in Johannesburg in August and September 2002. The site aims to help educators engage people of all ages in the issues. It provides background information and links to more detailed sources on other sites."
On this website you will find a list of my publications, some notes on education for sustainability, and links to related sites.
"In these days of growing media concentration, Green Left Weekly is a proudly independent voice committed to human and civil rights, global peace and environmental sustainability, democracy and equality. By printing the news and ideas the mainstream media won't, Green Left Weekly exposes the lies and distortions of the power brokers and helps us to better understand the world around us."
" A health care professionals who volunteer their time and skills to save young lives. It is a not-for-profit organization that delivers high quality, compassionate medical and surgical care to children with life threatening heart diseases in developing countries. Please look at these pictures from a recent field trip."
"Technology is not a solution in and of itself. It is merely one of many resources, which can be used wisely or unwisely. The more important issues are: how we decide which resources to draw upon, who will develop the plans for their use, how to ensure that policies enable their wise use, and how to adapt solutions developed elsewhere to new contexts." |
In this blog, ARUP Genetic Counselor Shelly Bosworth introduces us to a newborn girl undergoing both targeted genetic testing and also much broader genomic testing. Common genomic testing is introduced, as well as tips to ensure testing goes smoothly for the ordering provider and the family.
Baby girl Smith came into the world one week early after a precipitous labor. Luckily, her mother’s hospital bag had been packed early, and grandparents had already arrived to help care for her siblings. However, Baby Smith’s arrival was not the only surprise for her parents on the day of her birth.
The pediatrician noticed an abnormal heart rhythm; then, an echocardiogram revealed a congenital heart defect. The pediatrician also noted Baby Smith’s small chin and that her eyes were shaped differently than her parents’ eyes. The physician gently explained to Mr. and Mrs. Smith that these features could suggest a genetic syndrome.
At the 18-week prenatal ultrasound, no abnormalities had been detected, and the parents had been thrilled to learn they would be having a girl. After the talk with the pediatrician, they felt blindsided. They wanted answers. Would their daughter grow up to live independently? Would she have learning disabilities? Would she be a “normal” kid?
Genetic testing had the potential to provide some answers. The pediatrician consulted with a neonatologist and then requested a chromosome analysis and a “FISH” test for DiGeorge syndrome. FISH – fluorescent in situ hybridization—involves targeted molecular probes that determine if specific sections of DNA have the normal number of copies.
After the talk with the pediatrician, they felt blindsided. They wanted answers. Would their daughter grow up to live independently? Would she have learning disabilities? Would she be a “normal” kid?
When the hospital lab technician tried to find the test code for FISH, she discovered that there were many different types of FISH analysis. A genetic counselor was able to assist her in determining which FISH analysis or test would identify DiGeorge syndrome. If Baby Smith had a deletion of chromosome 22q11.2, which causes DiGeorge syndrome, she would have only one probe signal instead of the usual two signals.
In contrast to this targeted approach used first in the case of Baby Smith, a chromosome analysis is a genomic study that casts a much wider net, evaluating all of the chromosomes. Such analysis may be used when a healthcare provider suspects a particular chromosome abnormality (e.g., Down syndrome), and also when a baby’s features may indicate a chromosome disorder but do not clearly suggest a specific syndrome.
Baby Smith was still in the NICU when the genetic test results became available. The FISH test for DiGeorge syndrome was negative, as was her chromosome analysis. The neonatologist then added an additional test, cytogenomic SNP microarray analysis (CMA), to be performed on the sample of Baby Smith’s blood already at ARUP.
Microarray has much higher resolution than traditional chromosome analysis. Historically, chromosome analysis is performed by examining the banding patterns in a karyotype—a magnified picture of the chromosomes. With CMA, millions of probes simultaneously scan the genome for regions of extra or missing DNA.
If the CMA analysis is normal, another genomic methodology known as exome sequencing may be ordered. Exome sequencing is considered when an affected individual’s symptoms lack specificity—or when previous, more specific testing has failed to yield an answer. It also is useful for determining etiology (underlying cause) when dealing with a specific phenotype that has many different genetic causes.
Accurate indications for testing help ensure that the correct test has been ordered.
Accurate clinical information helps lab directors write relevant reports.
Genomic testing may yield ambiguous results.
Genomic testing may yield unexpected results.
Genomic test results may have implications for other family members.
Genomic testing may be normal even when the patient does have a genetic disease.
Even though the testing targets the whole genome, different methods target different types of alterations in DNA.
Whether genetic testing is ordered in the hospital or at an outpatient clinic, the journey for providers and parents differs depending on the testing strategy. If a targeted test is used, the provider can clearly explain the purpose of the test to the parents. In contrast, when the provider opts to cast a wide genomic net, which may detect thousands of different conditions and possibly unexpected ones, explaining the purpose of the test can be trickier. In spite of this, genomic testing is often advantageous because more targeted genetic tests only exclude one or a handful of possible causes. And the time and cost of multiple, specific tests may exceed the cost of genome-wide testing.
Baby Smith’s CMA analysis was found to be normal. However, the failure to find the etiology of her symptoms has both benefits and disadvantages. Without a genetic diagnosis, her parents cannot research her condition. They do not have a predicted range of prognosis and associated symptoms. But if the tests were negative because she does not have a syndrome, then Baby Smith’s future is only limited by the prognosis of her heart defect.
Perhaps Baby Smith is just a regular girl who happens to have a heart malformation and a chin that appeared to be small at birth. Her pediatrician decides to do one more investigation, and refers the family to a medical geneticist. It will be months before an appointment is available. In the meantime, her parents hope for the best.
To read more about how ARUP’s genetic counselors can help you, visit their website. |
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📚 c4-pro
c4 is refined from c4 using the ProX refining framework. It contains about 40B high quality tokens, ready for general language model pre-training.
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c4 is based on c4, which is made available under an ODC-By 1.0 license; users should also abide by the CommonCrawl ToU: https://commoncrawl.org/terms-of-use/. We do not alter the license of any of the underlying data.
Citation
@article{zhou2024programming,
title={Programming Every Example: Lifting Pre-training Data Quality like Experts at Scale},
author={Zhou, Fan and Wang, Zengzhi and Liu, Qian and Li, Junlong and Liu, Pengfei},
journal={arXiv preprint arXiv:2409.17115},
year={2024}
}
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