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of air in the updraft into a more vertical alignment. Rain’s Influence on Tornado Production Needless to say, thunderstorms typically produce very heavy rain, and rain-cooled air is much heavier than the warm air of the updraft, so the rain-cooled air, produces a compensating downdraft (what comes up, must come down). This downdraft pushes the part of the rotating air
that was forced in its direction by the stronger wind aloft downward, and the result is a horizontal column of rotating air. That’s Not a Tornado! I know what you’re thinking that you’ve seen enough TLC or Discovery Channel shows to know that a horizontal column of air is NOT a tornado; you need a vertical column of air. This
Can Be a Tornado You’re right, but remember the updraft that is driving the thunderstorm is still working, and it’s able to pull the horizontal, spinning column of air into the thunderstorm, resulting in a vertical column of spinning air. (NOAA image showing vertical column of air in a supercell thunderstorm) The result is a rotating thunderstorm capable of producing
Reversal of fortune To unlock the vast, untapped potential of the world’s drylands, we must learn from the people who live in them, says Dr Jonathan Davies. Drylands are a major global biome, home to a great diversity of species
and some of our most treasured natural heritage. They are also home to over 2 billion people and in the developing world in particular they are associated with poverty and social inequity. Global development and environment goals are not being
met in the drylands: by 2015 many dryland regions are set to fail to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, whilst progress towards the goals and objectives of the UN environmental conventions (the Convention to Combat Desertification and the Convention on
Biological Diversity in particular) is generally poor. Recent experiences in the drylands of emerging countries, such as China and India, illustrate that economic development in drylands can outpace that in areas that are usually considered “high potential”. Although development is
often associated with degradation, experiences in Sub Saharan Africa illustrate that economic development can be greatly enhanced through protection of biodiversity as a source of income. By taking an even broader, global view of drylands and examining industrialised dryland countries,
it becomes clear that for every seemingly-insurmountable challenge we are able to find evidence of a viable solution somewhere in the world. To address the challenges of the drylands, we need to understand their unique features and how these have
to be managed. Perhaps the most important of these is climate unpredictability: the amount of precipitation varies enormously between areas, between seasons and between years. The sheer magnitude of this uncertainty is hard to grasp, but in many drylands the
normal range of rainfall, drought-years aside, can be plus or minus 50% of the average. Yet development in many water-deficit areas continues to favour agricultural practices that expose farmers to huge risks whilst simultaneously degrading the natural resource base on
which they depend. Climate change is a cause for concern in dryland areas, but also an opportunity for new approaches and new learning that illustrate the value of dryland areas. Dryland ecosystems and people are highly adaptable and can survive
in their uncertain climate.. Whether drylands become wetter or drier as a result of climate change, they will almost invariably become more unpredictable and their adaptive capacity will be vital to their future. Drylands more than any other ecosystem have
the capacity to deal with that unpredictability and we have a great deal to learn from them. Contrary to popular perception, drylands are not necessarily poverty traps. Dryland ecosystems and their goods and services already contribute significantly to national and
international economies. The vibrant tourism sector in Eastern and Southern Africa relies heavily on the biodiversity of drylands. Globally-important dryland commodities include grain, meat and milk and dryland goods like Gum Arabic, Henna, Aloe, and Frankincense. Recent years have seen
the commercial development of natural medicines from drylands, and untold numbers of medicinal plants remain un-researched, known only to the dryland inhabitants who have used and conserved them for centuries. Local knowledge of the drylands is rich and is a
powerful resource to be harnessed. There has been a tendency to dismiss this knowledge, because local dryland practices have been portrayed as backward or inappropriate and in need of replacing. The current emergency in the Horn of Africa graphically illustrates
the outcome of this attitude: populations are exposed to insupportable risk as a result of losing their traditional strategies and being pushed into new ways of life that simply don’t work. Where people are driven towards catastrophe it is almost
guaranteed that the environment will face similar consequences. Customs and cultures that are intimately connected to biodiversity become contorted into a system of pure survival where respect for the environment becomes an unaffordable luxury. The scientific explanation of the rationale
behind traditional strategies has been known for long enough to develop innovative new approaches to sustainable drylands management. Development support has to enable management of the extreme climatic uncertainty of drylands and needs to be built on understanding of the
drivers of continuous change in dryland ecosystems. These are dynamic ecosystems in which adaptation and flexibility are pre-requisites for survival. We need to learn from past failures and successes and ensure that development and humanitarian interventions recognize dryland characteristics and
build on local knowledge and capacity to turn the existing opportunities into equitable and sustainable wealth creation. In particular we need to generate greater awareness of the tremendous opportunities for strengthening biodiversity-based livelihoods to diversify dryland economies and strengthen resilience.
IUCN’s vision 2020 emphasizes the need to strengthen the Union’s work on conserving the diversity of life while also connecting nature conservation to wider societal objectives such as security and poverty reduction. This vision cannot be reached if we fail
to understand and address the unique challenges of the drylands. IUCN, with its great diversity of members and commission members, has a vital role to play in securing effective global action to address dryland issues and in enabling dryland communities
\|Retinal Pigment Epithelium (RPE) Detachment Signs and Symptoms In most instances, serous detachment of the RPE occurs asymptomatically. Only in those cases in which the macula is affected will patients report blurred vision, metamorphopsia, micropsia, or positive scotomas. Other associated
clinical findings may include induced hyperopia and delayed retinal recovery time on the photostress test. Most individuals with RPE detachment are male, between the ages of 20 and 60 years. The history often reveals predisposing or concurrent ocular conditions such
as macular degeneration, idiopathic central serous chorioretinopathy (ICSC), angioid streaks, presumed ocular histoplasmosis syndrome (POHS), or hereditary choroidal degeneration. In other cases, the condition occurs idiopathically. RPE detachment appears ophthalmoscopically as single or multiple, well-circumscribed round or oval lesions within
the posterior fundus. The lesions are typically dome-shaped with slight elevation and appear yellow to orange in color. A reddish "halo" is often seen around the base of the detachment, and overlying pigment defects such as clumping or mottling are
commonplace. Lesions may vary in size from one-fifth to over 5 disc diameters (DD), but most are less than 1 DD. Fluorescein and indocyanine green (ICG) angiography show early hyperfluorescence of the entire RPE detachment, which persists throughout the angiogram
demonstrating late pooling. Leakage into the sensory retina occurs only in cases of concurrent serous retinal detachment. RPE detachment is a non-specific anatomical alteration that may result from any number of choroidal disorders that disrupt the normal junction between the
basement membrane of the RPE and the inner collagenous layer of Bruchs membrane. This disruption permits serous fluid from the underlying choriocapillaris to gain access into the sub-RPE space. Age-related macular degeneration, choroidal neovascular membranes, high myopia, angioid streaks, hereditary
choroidal degeneration, POHS, and tumors of the choroid have all been identified as precipitating conditions in the development of RPE detachment. Idiopathic cases are sometimes associated with ICSC; some believe these two conditions to represent a continuum of a similar
underlying pathology. Uncomplicated idiopathic serous detachments of the RPE often resolve spontaneously, however, those associated with more generalized damage to the choriocapillaris may be complicated by hemorrhage, choroidal neovascular membrane formation, and disciform scarring. Most patients under the age of
55 who present with small serous RPE detachments without evidence of other retinal or choroidal disease enjoy an excellent prognosis without intervention. This is particularly true if the lesion is outside of the fovea and there is no associated subretinal
fluid. Older patients who manifest RPE detachment without angiographic evidence of a choroidal neovascular membrane have a 25-30 percent chance of developing such membranes during their lifetime, and therefore warrant careful observation as well as weekly home monitoring with an
Amsler grid. Those patients over the age of 55 who present with associated choroidal neovascular membranes and/or hemorrhagic RPE detachments have an exceedingly poor visual prognosis. Focal laser photocoagulation is indicated for these patients. Approximately 90 percent of cases of
RPE detachment have or will manifest concurrent serous retinal detachment over the natural history of the disorder. In cases of idiopathic RPE detachment, a striking similarity with ICSC is seen in the predisposed patient population; i.e. male, average age of
44 years, and a moderate to severe emotional stress level. The presentation of RPE detachment is quite characteristic. Nonetheless, one must be sure to rule out other conditions that may appear similar from an ophthalmoscopic perspective. These include: ICSC, malignant
melanoma, metastatic carcinoma, choroidal hemangioma, and Bests disease (vitelliform dystrophy). History and angiography are the most helpful factors in making this RPE detachment in patients over 55 years of age should be considered secondary to choroidal neovascular membrane, rather than
First - you might want to redefine you search. Are you looking for happiness or rather positive affect? Happiness is fairly ambigious term, and it's much more associated with positive psychology studies on well-being. If you are interested in more global definition of happiness, check the work of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. On the other hand, there is a large number of
studies on physiological measurements of positive affect. One such physiological measurement is Electromyography (EMG) - recording the electrical activity produced by skeletal muscles. EMG will detect very brief smiles or higher activity in cheek muscles (zygomaticus major) which are correlated with positive affect. There is quite classic (but very quoted) paper on that: Cacioppo JT, Petty RE, Losch ME, Kim
HS. (1986) Electromyographic Activity Over Facial Muscle Regions Can Differentiate the Valence and Intensity of Affective Reactions. J Pers Soc Psychol., 50(2):260-8. download Another simple physiological assesment is heart rate measured by the interbeat interval (IBI). For example, study by Brosschot & Thayer (2003) shows that heart rate response is longer after negative emotions than after positive emotions. Brosschot JF,
Thayer JF. (2003) Heart rate response is longer after negative emotions than after positive emotions. Int J Psychophysiol., In fact, the full spectrum of somatic measurements have been used along heart rate including pulse transmission time to the finger, skin conductance level or pupil dilation (Partala, 2003). All those are a bit less reliable methods and usually they detect arousal
rather then indicate physiological differences between positive and negative affect. Partala T.; Surakka V. (2003) Pupil size variation as an indication of affective processing. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, Finally, I would advise browsing literature on measurements of negative affect. You are likely to find some interesting methods there, like in this paper on the psychophysiology of crying (Gross et
Is this bone a Neanderthal flute? Cave Bear femur fragment from Slovenia, 43+kya DOUBTS AIRED OVER NEANDERTHAL BONE 'FLUTE' (AND REPLY BY MUSICOLOGIST BOB FINK) Science News 153 (April 4, 1998): 215. By B. Bower Amid much media fanfare, a research team in 1996 trumpeted an ancient, hollowed out bear bone pierced on one side with four complete or partial holes as the earliest
known musical instrument. The perforated bone, found in an Eastern European cave, represents a flute made and played by Neandertals at least 43,000 ye us ago, the scientists contended. Now it's time to stop the music, say two archaeologists who examined the purported flute last spring. On closer inspection, the bone appears to have been punctured and gnawed by the teeth of an animal
-- perhaps a wolf -- as it stripped the limb of meat and marrow report, April Nowell and Philip G. Chase, both of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. "The bone was heavily chewed by one or more carnivores, creating holes that became more rounded due to natural processes after burial," Nowell says. "It provides very weak evidence for the origins of [Stone Age]
music." Nowell presented the new analysis at the annual meeting of the Paleoanthropology Society in Seattle last week. Nowell and Chase examined the bone with the permission of its discoverer, Ivan Turk of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences in Ljubljana (S.N.: 11/23/96, p. 328). Turk knows of their conclusion but still views the specimen as a flute. Both open ends of the thighbone contain
clear signs of gnawing by carnivores, Nowell asserts. Wolves and other animals typically bite off nutrient-rich tissue at the ends of limb bones and extract available marrow. If Neandertals had hollowed out the bone and fashioned holes in it, animals would not have bothered to gnaw it, she says. Complete and partial holes on the bone's shaft were also made by carnivores, says Nowell.
Carnivores typically break open bones with their scissor like cheek teeth. Uneven bone thickness and signs of wear along the borders of the holes, products of extended burial in the soil, indicate that openings made by cheek teeth were at first less rounded and slightly smaller, the researchers hold. Moreover, the simultaneous pressure of an upper and lower tooth produced a set of opposing
holes, one partial and one complete, they maintain. Prehistoric, carnivore-chewed bear bones in two Spanish caves display circular punctures aligned in much the same way as those on the Slovenian find. In the March Antiquity, Francesco d'Errico of the Institute of Quaternary Prehistory and Geology in Talence, France, and his colleagues describe the Spanish bones. In a different twist, Bob Fink, an independent musicologist
the find's 5.7-inch length is less than half that needed to cover the diatonic spectrum. The recent meeting presentation is "a most convincing analysis," comments J. Desmond Clark of the University of California, Berkeley, although it's possible that Neandertals blew single notes through carnivore-chewed holes in the bone. "We can't exclude that possibility," Nowell responds. "But it's a big leap of faith to conclude
that this was an intentionally constructed flute." TO THE EDITOR, SCIENCE NEWS (REPLY BY BOB FINK, May 1998) (See an update of this discussion on Bob Fink's web site, November 2000) The doubts raised by Nowell and Chase (April 4th, DOUBTS AIRED OVER NEANDERTHAL BONE 'FLUTE') saying the Neanderthal Bone is not a flute have these weaknesses: The alignment of the holes -- all
in a row, and all of equivalent diameter, appear to be contrary to most teeth marks, unless some holes were made independently by several animals. The latter case boggles the odds for the holes ending up being in line. It also would be strange that animals homed in on this one bone in a cave full of bones, where no reports of similarly chewed
do, re, mi (diatonic) scale included the possibility that the bone was extended with another bone "mouthpiece" sufficiently long to make the notes sound fairly in tune. While Nowell says "it's a big leap of faith to conclude that this was an intentionally constructed flute," it's a bigger leap of faith to accept the immense coincidence that animals blindly created a hole-spacing pattern with
holes all in line (in what clearly looks like so many other known bone flutes which are made to play notes in a step-wise scale) and blindly create a pattern that also could play a known acoustic scale if the bone was extended. That's too much coincidence for me to accept. It is more likely that it is an intentionally made flute, although admittedly
with only the barest of clues regarding its original condition. The 5.7 inch figure your article quoted appears erroneous, as the centimeter scale provided by its discoverer, Ivan Turk, indicates the artifact is about 4.3 inches long. However, the unbroken femur would originally have been about 8.5 inches, and the possibility of an additional hole or two exists, to complete a full scale, perhaps
aided by the possible thumbhole. However, the full diatonic spectrum is not required as indicated by Nowell and Chase: It could also have been a simpler (but still diatonic) 4 or 5 note scale. Such short-scale flutes are plentiful in homo sapiens history. Finally, a worn-out or broken flute bone can serve as a scoop for manipulation of food, explaining why animals might chew
on its ends later. It is also well-known that dogs chase and maul even sticks, despite their non-nutritional nature. What appears "weak" is not the case for a flute, but the case against it by Nowell and Chase. Letter to the Editor: Antiquity Journal: "A Bone to Pick" By Bob Fink I have a bone to pick with Francesco d'Errico's viewpoint in the March
issue of Antiquity (article too long to reproduce here) regarding the Neanderthal flute found in Slovenia by Ivan Turk. D'Errico argues the bone artifact is not a flute. D'Errico omits dealing with the best evidence that this bone find is a flute. Regarding the most important evidence, that of the holes being lined up, neither d'Errico nor Turk make mention of this. This line-up
is remarkable especially if they were made by more than one carnivore, which apparently they'd have to be, based on Turk's analysis of the center-spans of the holes precluding their being made by a single carnivore or bite (Turk,* pp.171-175). To account for this possible difficulty, some doubters do mention "one or more" carnivores (Chase & Nowell, Science News 4/4/98). My arguments over the
past year pointed out the mathematical odds of the lining up of the holes occurring by chance-chewing are too difficult to believe. The Appendix in my essay ("Neanderthal Flute --A Musicological Analysis") proves that the number of ways a set of 4 random holes could be differently spaced (to produce an audibly different set of tones) are 680 ways. The chances a random set
would match the existing fragment's spacing [which also could produce a match to four diatonic notes of the scale] are therefore only one in hundreds. If, in calculating the odds, you also allowed the holes to be out of line, or to be less than 4 holes as well, then the chance of a line-up match is only one from many tens of thousands.
And yet randomness and animal bites still are acceptable to account for holes being in line that could also play some notes of the scale? This is too much coincidence for me to believe occurred by chance. D'Errico mentions my essay in his article and what he thought it was about, but he overstates my case into being a less believable one. My case
simply was that if the bone was long enough (or a shorter bone extended by a mouthpiece insert) then the 4 holes would be consistent and in tune with the sounds of Do, Re, Mi, Fa (or flat Mi, Fa, Sol, and flat La in a minor scale). In the 5 points I list below, extracted from Turk's monograph in support of this being
a flute, d'Errico omits dealing with much of the first, and all of the second, fourth and sixth points. Turk & Co's monograph shows the presence on site of boring tools, and includes experiments made by Turk's colleague Guiliano Bastiani who successfully produced similar holes in fresh bone using tools of the type found at the site (pp. 176-78 Turk). They also wrote (pp.
171-75) that: 1. The center-to-center distances of the holes in the artifact are smaller than that of the tooth spans of most carnivores. The smallest tooth spans they found were 45mm, and the holes on the bone are 35mm (or less) apart; 2. Holes bitten are usually at the ends of bones rather than in the center of them; 3. There is an absence
of dents, scratches and other signs of gnawing and counter-bites on the artifact; 4. The center-to-center distances do not correspond to the spans of carnivores which could pierce the bone; 5. The diameters of the holes are greater than that producible by a wolf exerting the greatest jaw pressure it had available -- it's doubtful that a wolf's jaws would be strong enough (like
a hyena's) to have made the holes, especially in the thickest part of the wall of the artifact. 6. If you accept one or more carnivores, then why did they over-target one bone, when there were so many other bones in the cave site? Only about 4.5% of the juvenile bones were chewed or had holes, according to Turk (p. 117). * Turk, Ivan
The plant collections of the Smithsonian Institution began with the acquisition of specimens collected by the United States Exploring Expedition (1838-1842). These formed the foundation of a national herbarium which today numbers 4.8 million historical plant records, placing it among
the world's largest and most important. Nearly 800,000 specimen records (including over 90,000 type specimens with images) are currently available in this online catalog. Select a tab on this page to search by Keyword or Selected Fields. If you don't
know what you want to see, you may want to look at the sample records in the Quick Browse section below. Searches are limited to 2000 records and the results are sorted by taxonomic group. If you need to retrieve
a larger record set, contact the Department of Botany's Data Manager. See the Help tab to learn more about searching and then exploring your returned results (sorting, exporting, etc.). \|\|Sample Records from the DC Flora Collection \|\|2205692 2197595 2191752 2175968
Wilkes Expedition \|\|2524597 2705372 2705371 2743367 2699717 2741233 2741229 2733613 2741227 2680776 2741226 2741217 2741216 2687168 2702446 2684992 2680753 2680752 2741176 2741175 2693758 2680751 2678261 Enter your keywords separated by spaces and click Search. Records that match your search terms
will be returned. - Using parentheses to clarify the logic, you can create complex queries with OR and NOT (here capital letters are required, otherwise they will be treated as keyword terms). - You can also use double-quotes to specify
terms that should be treated as one. - Lastly, you can include the terms image(s) or type(s) to find records that have images or that are type specimens. Note that searching for common (vernacular) names may not yield the expected
results. Associating common names with specimen records is a work in progress. Keyword search example: marantaceae ("new guinea" OR australia) images Use the By Field search to find specimen data that match values in specific database fields. Enter a value
or choose one from the dropdown lists. - Click the Search button to initiate a search. Clear resets all fields. - Some lists are linked, so for example, choosing a Country narrows the choices for Province/State/Territory, and District/County. Dropdown choices
also narrow as you type, for example, typing zing in the Family field might narrow the choice to Zingiberaceae. - Note that the Province/State dropdown is populated only after you have chosen a Country. You can type a Province/State without
selecting a Country. - Check Only Records with Images if you want to restrict the search to records with multimedia content. - You will receive a warning when you enter invalid information in the text fields. For example, Catalog Numbers
are composed strictly of letters and numbers; other characters will raise a warning. The results of your searches can be displayed in Grid (a sortable, customizable table) or Gallery View (best for reviewing images). Use the Switch button to cycle
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for information on downloading results to, for example, Excel or Google Earth. Open the full collection record by clicking the expansion button () in Grid View, on the scientific name in Sheet View, or anywhere within the image frame in
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by choosing Sort from the column's dropdown menu). - Sort on multiple columns by consecutively sorting columns in reverse order. For example, to view results sorted by Country and Province/State, first sort by Province/State and then sort again by Country.
- For any column you can choose to sort in Ascending or Descending order. Export all or selected results by clicking the Export Results as CSV button in the bottom toolbar in Grid, or Gallery View. - Select individual records
for Export by checking the export selection box (along the left edge of the Grid View grid). - Clear all selections with the Clear Selections button in the bottom toolbar. - Results are exported as comma-separated-values, one record per line,
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as KML button. This button is grayed when all or selected results lack latitude/longitude values. To create a link to specific records at NMNH provide the appropriate unit and querystring to: where UNIT is: - anth, birds, botany, ento, fishes,
herps, iz, mammals, ms, or paleo and QUERYSTRING is (use a plus-sign to separate words): - One or more CATALOG NUMBERS, e.g. - One or more BARCODES, e.g. - The NAME of a TYPE specimen, e.g.: - The NAME of
a specimen or object, e.g.: - The NAME (qn) and/or TYPE STATUS (qt) of a specimen, and/or its COLLECTOR (co), and/or the COLLECTION (cn) it is part of, e.g.: (Holotypes whose name includes Torre and Bartsch collected by Webb and
part of the Henderson Collection) - To open the Collections Search to a specific search tab, e.g. Tabs are numbered left to right, beginning with zero. - iz/?ti=1 (Invertebrate Zoology Keywords Search) - mammals/?ti=3 (Mammals Whale Collection Search) There are
ways to speed up your queries (or slow them down!) and to find specific information. - The more specific you make your queries the faster they will execute. Using more, rather than fewer, terms will very likely speed up your
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