Fractal. Figure 1a.
The Mandelbrot set illustrates self-similarity. As the image is enlarged, the same pattern re-appears so that it is virtually impossible to determine the scale being examined. Figure 1b. The same fractal magnified six times. Figure 1c. Emergence. In philosophy, systems theory, science, and art, emergence is a process whereby larger entities, patterns, and regularities arise through interactions among smaller or simpler entities that themselves do not exhibit such properties.
Emergence is central in theories of integrative levels and of complex systems. For instance, the phenomenon life as studied in biology is commonly perceived as an emergent property of interacting molecules as studied in chemistry, whose phenomena reflect interactions among elementary particles, modeled in particle physics, that at such higher mass—via substantial conglomeration—exhibit motion as modeled in gravitational physics. Intelligent Complex Adaptive Systems. I don’t believe in the existence of a complex systems theory as such and, so far, I’m still referring to complex systems science (CSS) in order to describe my research endeavours.
In my view, the latter is constituted, up until now, by a bundle of loosely connected methods and theories aiming to observe— from contrasted standpoints—these fascinating objects of research called complex adaptive systems. Nearly 40 years after Von Bertalanffy’s General System Theory (1968) and Jacques Monod’s Chance and Necessity (1971), it is fair to look back and to try to assess how much remains to be said about these complex adaptive systems. After all, Prigogine’s Order out of Chaos (1984) already demonstrated that future wasn’t entirely predictable in a history- contingent world. The universe is a massive system of systems -- for example, ecological systems, social systems, commodity and stock markets.
The human microbiome: Me, myself, us. WHAT’S a man?
Or, indeed, a woman? Biologically, the answer might seem obvious. A human being is an individual who has grown from a fertilised egg which contained genes from both father and mother. A growing band of biologists, however, think this definition incomplete. They see people not just as individuals, but also as ecosystems. The Human Genome Is Far More Complex Than Scientists Thought. 100 Very Cool Facts About The Human Body. The Brain The human brain is the most complex and least understood part of the human anatomy.
There may be a lot we don’t know, but here are a few interesting facts that we’ve got covered. Nerve impulses to and from the brain travel as fast as 170 miles per hour. Ever wonder how you can react so fast to things around you or why that stubbed toe hurts right away?
Complexity: It’s Not That Simple. Complexity theory has been around for a generation now, but most people don’t understand it.
I often read or listen to consultants, ‘experts’ and media people who proffer ludicrously simplistic ‘solutions’ to complex predicaments. Since it seems most people would prefer things to be simple, these ‘experts’ always seem to have an uncritical audience. Simplexity. Simplexity is an emerging theory that proposes a possible complementary relationship between complexity and simplicity.
The term draws from General Systems Theory, Dialectics (philosophy) and Design. Jeffrey Kluger wrote a book about this phenomenon that describes how house plants can be more complicated than industrial plants, how a truck driver's job can be as difficult as a CEO's and why 90% of the money donated to help cure diseases are given only to the research of 10% of them (and vice versa). The term has been adopted in advertising, marketing and the manufacture of left-handed screwdrivers. Design aspects Complexity tends to rise as system elements specialize and diversify to solve specific challenges.Simple interfaces tend to improve the usability of complex systems. ParadigmOfComplexity. The last few decades have seen the emergence of a growing body of literature devoted to a critique of the so-called “old” or “Cartesian-Newtonian” paradigm which, in the wake of the prodigious successes of modern natural science, came to dominate the full range of authoritative intellectual discourse and its associated worldviews.
Often coupled with a materialistic, and indeed atomistic, metaphysics, this paradigm has been guided by the methodological principle of reductionism. The critics of reductionism have tended to promote various forms of holism, a term which, perhaps more than any other, has served as the rallying cry for those who see themselves as creators of a “new paradigm.” Why we hate Complexity. Natural and social systems are complex — that is, not entirely knowable, unpredictable, resistant to cause-and-effect analysis, in a word, mysterious.
For our first three million years on Earth we humans, like every other species on the planet, accepted that mystery. We adapted rather than trying to change our environment. We evolved by learning to accommodate ourselves to our environment. Morphological analysis (problem-solving) Morphological Analysis or General Morphological Analysis is a method developed by Fritz Zwicky (1967, 1969) for exploring all the possible solutions to a multi-dimensional, non-quantified complex problem. General Morphology was developed by Fritz Zwicky, the Bulgarian-born, Swiss-national astrophysicist based at the California Institute of Technology.
Among others, Zwicky applied Morphological Analysis (MA) to astronomical studies and the development of jet and rocket propulsion systems. As a problem-structuring and problem-solving technique, MA was designed for multi-dimensional, non-quantifiable problems where causal modeling and simulation do not function well, or at all. Consider a complex, real-world problem, like those of marketing or making policies for a nation, where there are many governing factors, and most of them cannot be expressed as numerical time series data, as one would like to have for building mathematical models.
The Art of Complex Problem Solving. Six degrees of separation. Six degrees of separation. Early conceptions Shrinking world Theories on optimal design of cities, city traffic flows, neighborhoods and demographics were in vogue after World War I. Complex systems made simple. Albert-László Barabási and Yang-Yu Liu, together with their collaborator Jean-Jacques Slotine at M.I.T., have developed a method for observing large, complex systems.
In the image above, red dots represent sensor nodes, which are required to reconstruct the entire internal state of one such system. Image by Mauro Martino. Just as the name implies, complex systems are difficult to tease apart. An organism’s genome, a biochemical reaction, or even a social network all contain many interdependent components—and changing any one of them can have pervasive effects on all the others. In the case of a very large system, like the human genome, which contains 20,000 interconnected genes, it’s impossible to monitor the whole system at once. But that may not matter anymore. The approach takes advantage of the interdependent nature of complexity to devise a method for observing systems that are otherwise beyond quantitative scrutiny. Observability of complex systems. Author Affiliations.
Complex Adaptive Systems. Chardin & The NooSphere. Unification of Science and Spirit: Chapter 6 - MIND AS A COMPLEX SYSETM. Chapter 6 Among my many memories of early childhood, a few stand out with particular vigor. First and foremost, there is Neil Armstrong walking on the moon -- this was around the time of my second birthday, but I remember it as well as anything I've watched on TV since. I understood where the moon was -- way up in the sky -- and that this man, dressed in a funny suit, was walking on it, having just flown there in something faster than an airplane. Nonlinear Dynamics and Chaos - Steven Strogatz, Cornell University. This course of 25 lectures, filmed at Cornell University in Spring 2014, is intended for newcomers to nonlinear dynamics and chaos.
It closely follows Prof. The Discovery of Complex Organic Matter in the Universe.
Network Science. Manuel Lima on the Power of Knowledge Networks in the Age of Infinite Connectivity. Wikipedia_as_a_complex_system.pdf. [1303.3891] Quantum Google in a Complex Network. CS edu & refs... Global Dynamics Processes: the Pattern which Connects from KaliYuga to Tao. Complexity and the philosophy of becoming.
Unification of Science and Spirit: Chapter 5 - THE COMPLEX, CHAOTIC WORLD. Chapter 5. CS publications. Think Complexity. By Allen B. Downey Buy this book from Amazon.com. Download this book in PDF. Think Complexity. Ecologyfj. Complexity. ComplexSystems. COMPLEXITY GRAPHICS. Links - ISC CNR. How the Downs-Thomson Paradox will ruin your commute. Eric Berlow: How complexity leads to simplicity. George Whitesides: Toward a science of simplicity.


Australian Agribusiness Review - Vol. 8 - 2000
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22 June 2000
Stroppiana and Paul Riethmuller
Japan consists of four large islands - Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu - and roughly 7 000 smaller islands and islets. In terms of natural terrain and climatic conditions Japan is a diverse country. There are also differences in the history, life styles and dietary habits of people living in different parts of Japan. This paper investigates the relationship between the consumption of beef and income, prices, and selected socio-economic factors in nine Japanese regions. The analysis found that consumption of beef at the regional level is influenced to differing degrees by income and by the prices of substitutes. In the heavily populated Kanto region, for example, containing the metropolises of Tokyo and Yokohama, the demand for beef was found to be not very responsive to changes in income, compared to the predominantly rural region of Hokkaido. This suggests that changes in income will have a relatively small impact on beef consumption in the Kanto region, compared to its effect on beef consumption in Hokkaido. A more general conclusion that can be drawn from the results is that programs designed to increase beef consumption in one part of Japan may need to be modified for other parts of the country if this same objective is to be achieved.
Keywords: beef consumption, elasticities, region, Japan.
The purpose of this paper is to determine whether there are differences in the way economic and socio-economic factors influence beef consumption in different parts of Japan. Beef was chosen for investigation because Japans beef consumption in aggregate is large. In 1994, for example, total demand was 1 450 000 t. while preliminary data for 1998 indicated that demand had grown to about 1 500 000 t. (ALIC 2000, p.2). On a per person basis, consumption is not particularly high, certainly when compared to Australia or the United States. In 1997, it was about 8 kg, compared with 6.1 kg in 1990.
Australia and the United States supplied 646 876 t. of beef to Japan in fiscal year 1998, or about 54 per cent of demand. Yet despite its importance as a market, analysts have not had great success in predicting the course of Japanese demand for beef. The Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics (1994), for example, estimated in late 1994 that Japanese imports of beef in calendar year 1998 would be 989 000 t. The actual level of imports for 1998 was 677 288 t. (ALIC 2000). A number of factors no one could reasonably have expected at the time that the Bureau made its forecast could be used to explain the lower than expected imports. These include the slowing of the Japanese economy and a series of health scares involving beef in Britain, Europe and the United States that made Japanese consumers hesitant to buy beef.
The regional approach used in this study should add to the level of understanding of the Japanese market and help those involved in monitoring future developments in this market. A further reason for undertaking this study is to add to earlier analyses which have used regional data to investigate Japanese milk consumption (Stroppiana, Kobayashi and Riethmuller, 1998) and variations in the growth rates of different food items in Japanese diets (Riethmuller and Stroppiana, 1996).
2. Regions: Definitions and Differences
The Japanese Government makes use of nine broad regions covering Japans 47 prefectures in its statistical reporting of developments in the economy. The prefectures making up these regions are analogous in broad terms to the states of the United States and Australia and Canadas provinces. The most northern of the nine regions, Hokkaido, consists of a single prefecture. All of the other regions are made up of several prefectures. As can be seen from the data in Table 1, the regions vary in area, population density and industry mix.
Table 1 Definition and Characteristics of Japans Regions
Throughout Japan, the core of the diet is of rice, fish and vegetables. Ingredients used in dishes and the methods of preparing and cooking food vary across Japan, resulting in often quite distinctive regional cuisines. These differences reflect such factors as variations in climate and topography; history and culture; government policies; regional economic performance; and the availability of agricultural land. The following are examples of regional differences in food:
Compared to other high-income countries, Japanese people are not large consumers of meat in general and beef in particular. For much of its documented history, the Buddist code of non-violence towards four-legged animals maintained a ban on the consumption of meat from cows, horses and monkeys. However, meat was still eaten despite this ban. For example, boar and deer were eaten as medicinal preparation to ensure long life. Deer were known as yama kujira (mountain whale). Richie (1992, p.49) points out that "since the whale was thought to be a fish and since Buddist prophets said little about consuming them, one might safely consume these creatures".
Figure 1 contains data on the consumption of beef for each of the regions in 1974 and 1994. It is apparent from this figure that in 1974, there were large differences in per person beef consumption amongst the nine regions. For example, average daily consumption of beef in Tohoku and Kinki were 3.5 and 27.7 grams respectively. By 1994, per person beef consumption in Tohoku had increased by almost 15 grams to 18.4 grams per day, while in Kinki average daily consumption had increased less than 1 gram to 28.6 grams.
3. Data, Model and Method
It can be shown that under certain assumptions, the demand for a commodity depends upon income, the price of the commodity and the prices of substitutes and complements (Intriligator, 1971). In empirical work, other factors such as expenditure on advertising, government intervention and socio-economic change are often included in demand models since these are thought to bring about shifts in demand.
Knowledge about the extent to which socio-economic characteristics affect food consumption is important because if the decline in the consumption of a particular food has primarily resulted from the effect of prices, then producers of that food should focus on reducing production and marketing costs to maintain or expand its market. However, if the shifts in consumption are the result of changes related to health concerns and lifestyle, then the product may need to be altered to take account of this.
A number of studies of Japanese food consumption have investigated the role of socio-economic characteristics in influencing food consumption. For example, Morishima, Aita and Nakagawa (1992) suggest that age is the most important socio-economic factor affecting food consumption in Japan. Saski (1993) found that the average number of people in the household in Japan was an important variable in his analysis of a range of food items.
Other researchers, for example Tokoyama and Egaitsu (1994) and Tokoyama (1995), attribute a significant proportion of the changes in consumption of a large number of food items that they studied, to factors such as convenience and health concerns. Riethmuller, Smith Morison, Nagano, Kobayashi, Koizumi, Jussaume (1995) present survey data highlighting the importance of food safety as a factor in influencing meat purchasing decisions, while the importance of social and religious factors is discussed by Longworth (1983) and by Field (1986).
Most of what has been written on changes in food consumption in Japan has made use of national level data (see, for example, Higuchi 1991 and Kamiya 1997). Relatively little analysis has been carried out at the regional level. A question that is worth considering is whether the demand for a food such as beef, responds to economic and socio-economic factors the same way in different parts of Japan. To help resolve this, per person consumption of beef was examined with the same set of explanatory variables for each of the nine regions listed in Table 1.
3.1 Factors Included in the Analysis and Data Sources
The data on beef consumption used in this study as the dependent variable came from Kokumin Eiyo Chosa, the National Nutrition Survey. This is a cross sectional survey conducted annually by the Ministry of Health and Welfare (1994). The survey involves approximately 6000 households in all parts of Japan, and covers all food and beverages taken in three "normal" days in November. The sample period is 1974 to 1994.
Per person expenditure in each region - used as a proxy for income - was taken from the Annual Report on the Family Income and Expenditure Survey (Statistical Bureau, 1996) and then deflated by the CPI (1990=100). The new variable was used as a measure of per person real income in each of the nine regions. Per person real income in Japan increased over the period 1974 to 1992. From 1992 to 1994, however, growth tapered off, almost becoming zero in the recession of the early 1990s. There was some variation in the growth rate and real income amongst the regions. For example, throughout the study period, people living in Kanto - Japans manufacturing and commercial centre - had noticeably higher average real incomes. However, amongst the remaining eight regions, there was little variation in per person average real income. Fujita and Tabuchi (1997) provide a detailed review of post-war regional growth in Japan. They found there were substantial interregional differences in income until 1970. Since then, differences have decreased due to factor migration within Japan, the relocation of industries off shore, and changes in Japans industry mix towards technology and service intensive industries. Income in each of the regions was expected to be positively associated with consumption since beef is unlikely to be an inferior good.
Annual retail price data for beef in each of the nine regions were taken from the Statistics Bureau (1999). These data are based on a retail price survey conducted in 177 cities, towns and villages in Japan. Prices are normal retail prices, excluding sale prices. Each retail price series was deflated by the CPI to obtain real prices. Due to the limited degrees of freedom, only one substitute was selected to include in the analysis. Some judgment was needed in choosing a close substitute. Whilst pork and chicken are generally considered to be substitutes for beef, previous research has found relatively low cross-price elasticities of demand for beef with respect to these foods in Japan. Therefore, the real retail price of fish was used as the substitute for beef. Over the period of the study, beef and fish prices steadily increased along with the general price level. However, the rate of increase slowed in the latter half of the study period. There was substantial variation in the real retail prices of beef and fish amongst the regions between 1974 and 1994. It was not obvious why these differences might have arisen. A negative relationship between the consumption of beef and the price of beef was expected while a positive relationship between consumption of beef and the price of fish would tend to support the argument that beef and fish are substitutes.
Since the mid-1950s, there has been a decrease in the average number of people living in Japanese households. There are a number of reasons for this. These include an increase in the number of single person households; a growth in the number of single parent households; a decrease in the average number of children per family; and a decline in the incidence (except in rural areas) of elderly parents living with their children and grandchildren. In 1995, about 11 million of Japans 40 million households were single person households (Asahi Shimbun, 1998, p.58). The increase in the number of single person households has been very high amongst the 18 to 25 years old age group.
This is probably because many in this age group are university students who leave their home town to attend university. It is common practice for these students to live by themselves in single room apartments. In addition, the growth in the number of single person households partly reflects the common practice of Japanese salarymen living in another city alone, while other family members remains in the family home.
The growth in the number of single person households is one of the main factors behind the shift towards the consumption of convenience and highly processed foods. Although a substantial portion of beef (about 50 per cent in recent years) is consumed outside the home, a substantial quantity is still cooked in the home. Since beef takes time to prepare, single person households are unlikely to go to the trouble of preparing a beef meal for themselves. This could result is a positive relationship between beef consumption and household size.
On the other hand, households with many members may not be able to afford beef (eaten in the home or in restaurants) and this could result in a negative relationship between consumption and household size. Data on the average number of people in the household in each of the nine regions over the period 1974 to 1994 were taken from the Statistical Bureau (1996) 1. As just explained, the relation between beef consumption and household size is unclear.
Japans population density of around 339 people per square kilometre places it amongst the most densely populated countries in the world. Population density within Japan varies widely from the crowded metropolises that comprise Kanto and Kinki to the agricultural areas of Hokkaido and Kyushu. Regions with a low population density are likely to be more agriculturally oriented and it might be argued - are likely to have greater per person consumption of traditional foods than the more densely populated regions. If this is true, then a positive relationship between population density and consumption of beef (a non-traditional food) may be found. Population density per square kilometre for each region over the period 1974 to 1994 was calculated using population and land area data taken from the Statistics Bureau (1999). In this study, it is used as a measure of the agricultural orientation of a region. 2
The final variable included in the analysis was a time trend. This was intended to capture the effect of other factors that have been increasing with time, but which are difficult to measure quantitatively. These include overseas travel and westernisation. It was measured the same way for all regions. A positive relationship between time and consumption of beef in each of the regions is expected.
3.2 The Model and Method
In the analysis, a single equation approach was taken since developing a system of equations was outside the scope of the study. Moreover, since the purpose of this research was to investigate whether there were differences in the way beef consumption in the nine regions of Japan responded to the economic and social factors outlined in the previous section, a single equation approach was considered able to meet this objective.
Economic theory provides some guidance as to which variables should be included in any analysis of food consumption. However, it does not provide guidance as to which is the most appropriate functional form for the estimating equation. Since there was no a priori reason to favour one functional form over another, the Box-Cox transformation was used to allow the data to choose the most appropriate form of the model. To test the null hypothesis that a specific functional form is not significantly different from that of the maximum likelihood functional form, the likelihood ratio test was used. For most of the estimated equations, the double-log specification provided a reasonably close approximation to the best fitting non-linear model. Therefore, the results from the double-log model will be the ones discussed. The double-log functional form has an added advantage in that the estimated regression coefficients can be interpreted directly as elasticities.
to denote the natural logarithm, the general model estimated was as follows:
ln Qjt = a0j + a1j ln
Yjt + a2j
ln Pjt + a3j
+ a4j ln Hjt + a5j
ln Djt + a6jTt +ejt
= per person consumption of beef in
region j in year t
= real per person expenditure in
region j in year t
real retail price of beef in region j in year t
= real retail price of fish in region j
in year t
= average number of people per household in region j
in year t
= population density in region j
in year t
= time in year t
= year, 1974 to 1994
parameters to be estimated, for i = 1 to 6
ejt = error term
In estimating this model, the homogeneity condition - this restricts the sum of the price and income elasticities to zero - was imposed and tested at the 5 per cent level of significance using an F test. A high degree of multicollinearity among the explanatory variables was found in all the estimated equations. In a number of instances the pair-wise correlation coefficients between any two regressors was in excess of 0.8. Therefore, ridge regression was used in order to obtain "improved estimates" of the coefficients on the explanatory variables. Ridge regression involves adding a constant k (0<k<1) to the variances of the explanatory variables.
Unlike OLS, the estimated coefficients from ridge regression are biased but generally have a lower variance. By accepting some bias in the estimators, using ridge regression reduces the variance and an overall reduction in the mean square error (MSE) when the degree of multicollinearity is high. A difficulty with using ridge regression is deciding on the value of k. The larger the value of k, the larger the bias but the smaller the variance. 3
Thus, there is a trade off between bias and variance. Since it is undesirable to introduce too much bias, the smallest possible value of k should therefore be selected. The value of k for each model was chosen using a ridge trace. 4 The guidelines suggested by Hoerl and Kennard (1970) were used in order to select the "best" minimum value of k. Simply stated these guidelines are when: the system stabilises and has the general character of an orthogonal system; the coefficients have reasonable absolute values; the coefficients change to the proper signs; and the residual sum of squares (RSS) is not inflated to an "unreasonable" value.
Each equation was tested for first-order autocorrelation. This was done by the calculation of the Durbin-Watson statistic as well as examining the residual plot of each estimated equation to determine the size and pattern of the residuals. Because of the limited number of observations the estimated equations were not tested for higher order autocorrelation.
4. The Results
The regression results presented in Table 2 reveal that all of the estimated equations for Japan had relatively high R statistics. This indicates that the variables included in each of the estimated equations explain a large proportion of the variation in per person consumption of beef in the regions. As can be seen in Table 2, the Durbin-Watson statistics for each of the estimated equations were close to two. Therefore, no corrections for first-order autocorrelation was made.
Notes: Three, two and one asterisks indicate significance of estimated coefficients using a two tailed test at the 0.1 per cent; 1 per cent; and 5 per cent level of significance, respectively.
All the income coefficients were significant at the 5 per cent level or better, positive and less than one - an indication that beef is a normal good. However, the estimated elasticities varied widely among the nine regions, from 0.70 in Hokkaido to 0.17 in Kanto. Interestingly, the regions in the northern part of Japan, Hokkaido and Tohoku, have the largest values for the income elasticities. This suggests that consumption in these regions is more vulnerable to the effect of economic downturn than other parts of Japan (and vice versa). On the other hand, Kanto and Chugoku had low values for the income elasticity, indicating that the quantity of beef consumed is relatively immune to change in income in these regions. Therefore, it may be that people living in these regions will demand better quality beef rather than greater quantities of beef in the future. ABARE (1994) estimated that a 1 per cent change in consumer expenditure (a proxy for income) would change aggregate beef demand in Japan by 0.28 per cent.
The coefficients on the price of beef were significant in only five regions and were negative and less than one, indicating that beef is relatively price inelastic. The price inelasticity of beef indicates that further reductions in consumer prices, due for example to reduced border restrictions or an appreciation of the yen, may have little effect on consumption. There was, however, some variation in the elasticities obtained, implying that Japanese consumers living in different regions react differently to changes in the price of beef. The lack of statistical significance of the coefficient on beef price in Hokkaido, Tohoku, Chugoku and Shikoku indicates that the beef price plays little part in influencing consumption. It might be that health concerns and product safety may be the important factors for consumers in these regions rather than price.
The real retail price of fish was included as a substitute for beef because they are both sources of animal protein and because fish has traditionally been an important part of the Japanese diet. However, the coefficients were only significant in four regions and in one case - Shikoku - the coefficient had a negative sign indicating, somewhat implausibly, that beef and fish are complements. Negative coefficients were also obtained for Hokuriku and Chugoku, but in these cases, the coefficient was not statistically different from zero. These results lend support to the view that the cooking methods and the way fish and beef are eaten is sufficiently different that they are not to be regarded as substitutes (Kodansha, 1998, pp.716-728). Given the dominance of seafood in the dietary culture, it is hardly surprising therefore that the econometric results reported here show fish price to be not overly important in influencing beef consumption.
The coefficients for household size for each region were found to be negative and to vary widely among the nine regions, from -2.26 in Tohoku to -0.71 in Kyushu. In all regions but Kanto, the coefficients were significant. The negative coefficients suggest that as household size increases, per person consumption of beef falls. One possibility is that smaller households have higher levels of discretionary income, due to smaller fixed costs such as education and housing. This higher level of discretionary income would enable households with fewer members to buy more beef. In addition, young single people, who represent many of the single person households, would perhaps be more likely than families to eat hamburgers or to dine in Japanese fast food restaurants.
The coefficients for population density were highly significant in six of the nine regions. In the less densely populated regions - Hokkaido, Tohoku and Kyushu, which all happen to be major beef producing regions - the coefficients were not significant. A possible explanation for these results is that people in the heavily populated regions are less likely to have contact with Japanese farmers than people in rural areas, and hence would be more likely to eat non-traditional products such as beef. These results may also be picking up an income effect, since incomes in the more heavily populated areas tend to be higher than incomes in agricultural regions.
The time trend was significant in all regions with its positive value indicating that per person consumption of beef has increased with time. Technology, government policy, overseas travel, changes in the number and types of restaurants and westernisation of tastes are factors that have changed over time, and so they are likely to be some of the influences being picked up by the time variable.
5. Concluding Comments
The purpose of this paper has been to investigate the consumption of beef across different regions of Japan. To do this, regional beef consumption data were examined over the period 1974 to 1994. Since income and price elasticities of demand for beef appear to be different across regions, Japans beef market should not be treated as a homogenous market by foreign beef suppliers.
The relatively low income elasticity estimates in a number of regions suggest that these regions are mature markets and that beef consumption levels may be nearing saturation levels. The different price elasticity estimates show that different pricing strategies could be used in different parts of Japan, although arbitrage would limit the size of any price difference. The lack of responsiveness of consumption to beef prices in four of the regions indicates that factors other than beef price drives demand. Food safety and health are factors that spring to mind. The finding that consumption of beef in Japan at the regional level is associated with household size and population density is important, not just because these variables have been shown to be significant, but because it illustrates that specific regional factors need to be understood in any marketing program for beef.
It should be noted that the analysis presented in this paper could be extended. For example, no account was taken of differences in beef quality. Whether the beef consumed in different regions is primarily the better quality Wagyu or lower quality dairy is just as important for an understanding of developments in the Japanese diet, as changes in the quantity of beef being consumed. There are many other differences between regions that could influence beef consumption, but were not included. Distribution systems differ between prefectures. In 1994, for example, 26 per cent of the 48 405 convenience stores in Japan were in just four prefectures - Saitama, Chiba, Tokyo and Kanagawa.
There were also differences in the number of large scale stores per 100 000 people. In Tokyo in 1991, there were almost 11, but in Nagasaki (in Kyushu), there were only 5.6. The percentage of households with members 65 years and older also is another factor where there are differences. In Tokyo, the percentage of households with a member 65 years and older was 22.4 per cent, but in Yamagata (in Tohoku), it was 47 per cent in 1995 (Statistics Bureau, 1998). This factor is potentially of importance because older people are more likely than young people to want to maintain the traditional Japanese fish and rice based diet.
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Riethmuller, P. and Stroppiana, R. (1996) Regional Variations in Diets in Japan. Pacific Economic Papers. 257, Australia Japan Research Centre, ANU, Canberra.
Sasaki, K. (1993) The Structure of Food Demand in Japan: An Application of the Rotterdam System. Agribusiness. 9(5) :425-439.
Statistical Bureau (1996) Annual Report on the Family Income and Expenditure Survey. Management and Coordination Agency, Tokyo (Including Previous Years).
Statistics Bureau (1998) Social Indicators by Prefecture. Management and Coordination Agency, Tokyo
Stroppiana, R., Kobayashi, K. and Riethmuller, P. (1998) Regional Differences in the Japanese Diet: The Case of Drinking Milk. Economic Analysis and Policy. 28(1), 85-102.
Teklu, T.; Hassan, Z.; Johnson, S. and Stonehouse, P. (1992) "Empirical Demand Systems", in S. Johnson; P. Stonehouse and Z. Hassan (Eds.) Market Demand for Dairy Products. Ames: Iowa State University Press, pp.46-64.
Tokoyama, H. (1995) The Relationship Between Trends and Income Elasticities in Food Consumption Structure: An Attempt to Quantify Define Maturity in Food Consumption. Japanese Journal of Rural Economics. 67(1) (In Japanese).
Tokoyama, H. and Egaitsu, F. (1994) Major Categories of Changes in Food Consumption Patterns in Japan 1963-91. Oxford Agrarian Studies. 22(2), 191-202.
1 - Other studies modelling food consumption in Japan have included a variable for the number of people in the household as a proxy for convenience. For example, see: Sasaki (1993).
2 - David and Huang (1996) used population density as a proxy for comparative advantage in rice production in their study of government intervention in the rice industry.
3 - If k = 0 the ridge estimators reduce to OLS estimates.
4 - The ridge trace is a two-dimensional plot of values of ridge coefficients for a number of values of k.


Albrecht Dürer ~ Biography & Gallery (1471 - 1528)
Header Photo: Self-Portrait at 28, 1500 (Detail)
Complete picture here
© Estate of Albrecht Dürer
Albrecht Dürer Links: Durer canvas prints @ ebay.com (direct link to his canvas prints) - more canvas prints than anywhere else combined and vastly superior in quality to a mere print or poster - Advertise here - Albrecht Dürer Books available @ amazon.com - Search Site For other Artists
Albrecht Dürer ~ Biography I (1471 - 1521)
Known as: German Renaissance painter, wood carver, engraver, mathematician
Born: May 21, 1471, Nuremberg, Germany
Date of death: April 6, 1528, Nuremberg
Buried: St. John’s churchyard, Nuremberg
Albrecht Dürer was the son of a well-off goldsmith Albrecht Dürer the Elder and Barbara Holper. From the ages of 15 through to 18, he was apprenticed in the workshop of Nuremberg artist Michael Wolgemut where he was trained in drawing, woodcutting and printing.
He soon gained a reputation for the quality of his engravings. When he had completed his apprenticeship, he travelled across Europe, visiting the Netherlands and taking two prolonged stays in Italy. Perhaps the most important part of his time in Italy was his stay in Venice and his love of the work of the then elderly Giovanni Bellini.It was during his second visit to Italy that he turned his hand to painting.
In 1494, he married Agnes Frey, the daughter of a local merchant. It is not known hwhat kind of relationship he had with her, but soon after the marriage he travelled to Italy without her.
In 1495, he started his own workshop in Nuremberg. It was successful with his engravings much in demand from wealthy German patrons. Not only that but he was frequently commissioned for portraits and to paint several altarpieces. He also painted numerous self-portraits (has there been an artist who has painted so many self-portraits?) of him at different ages that the frequency of them has almost made one thing that he painted them not at different ages but at different hours! On a purely superficial level, he was a good-looking guy though.
By 1513 he was 42 and created his greatest three engravings: Knight, Death and the Devil (1513), St. Jerome in His Study (1514) and Melencolia I (1514). Such was his fame by then that the Emperor Maximilian commissioned him to create the largest woodcut print ever made before or since: The Triumphal Arch, a piece Emperor Maximilian saw as a celebration of, er, himself and his achievements. So pleased was Maximilian with the result that he granted Dürer a pension which lasted until his death in 1519. Thereafter, Dürer had to travel with his wife to the Netherlands and the court of the Emperor Charles V to have the pension confirmed. He also looked out for new patrons. It was during this trip that he not only met Erasmus but on the return trip caught the mysery illness that would afflict his last seven years.
He became an enthusiastic follower to the strict and austere doctines of Martin Luther. He also wrote theoretical works. By 1520, such was his fame that Raphael wa honoured to exchange drawings with him.
Albrecht Dürer ~ Biography II (1471 - 1528)
Graphic artist, painter and theoretician who formed an important link between Northern and Southern European art and who is regarded as the founder of German High Renaissance.
Young Venetian Woman
As the son of a Nuremberg goldsmith, Dürer had mastered all manner of art and craft techniques at an early age. When he was fifteen, he started a four year apprenticeship with the painter and graphic artist Michael Wolgemut who, at that time, had quite a reputation. He worked in Wolgemut’s atelier on altar paintings, designs for stained-glass artists and woodcuts for illustrations in books.
In 1490, as was tradition, the young artist set out on a long journey. He stayed in Basel for a long time and carried out book illustration assignments and mastered the sophisticated techniques of copper engraving and etching. Four years later he returned home and married Agnes Fey. The marriage, which his father had arranged, was a childless one. He soon left, this time to avoid the plague, and headed for Italy. There he learned to compose, discovered the wonders of perspective and the use of colours by the thriving Italian Renaissance painters. He became a personal friend of the Bellini brothers.
Upon his return to the town of his birth he set up his own atelier and started selling his own engravings and etchings. Entirely in keeping with the Renaissance he was a keen student of science in his capacity of ‘homo universalis’ and wrote theoretical essays on the arts. He moved in circles of progressive humanist scholars and was a leading citizen in the influential free imperial city of Nuremberg. Holy Roman Emperor Maximiliaan enlisted Dürer into his service and paid him a substantial annual allowance.
His last major trip took him to the Netherlands. Upon his return to Nuremberg he painted his most influential portraits and wrote theoretical works on the science of measurement, perspective and proportion. His death in 1528 marked the end of a very productive life during which he was acknowledged as the greatest German artist of his time. Indeed he is now regarded as not only the greatest of all German artists of all time but one of the greatest ever seen ...top of page
Albrecht Dürer ~ Dates of Important Works
Albrecht Dürer ~ Parastone Sculptures Notes
First things first: there are no better artist sculptures/figures than these Parastone figures anywhere. The attention to detail & the 3d effect breathes new life in the work of the masters.
Parastone was originally part of the famous Borzo art dealership which was founded in 1880 and it primarily specialised in restoring religious art. When, alongside the latter activity, an increasing number of sculptures were produced after own designs, it was decided – in 1963 – to found Parastone as an independent company.
For over 50 years now, Parastone has successfully designed decorative sculptures, partly of timeless classic beauty, partly aligned with current trends. The museum images entitled Mouseion constitute an important part of the collection. Alongside exact copies of important works of art, Mouseion also consists of three-dimensional interpretations of paintings and sketches by many artists ranging from Jheronimus Bosch to Salvador Dali.
Parastone is located in ’s-Hertogenbosch, a historic city in the Netherlands and the birthplace of famous Medieval painter Jheronimus Bosch.
Wow, the works coming from where Bosch was from. Where Bosch breathed the same air - knew the same countryside.
Bosch and Parastone: what a magical combination.
Albrecht Dürer ~ Parastone Sculptures
Superb. Adaptation of Durer's famous drawing Praying Hands.
Medium: Collectible quality resin with hand-painted color details, matte and glossy finish
Dimensions: 6 1/4 in. High x 5 1/4 in. Wide x 3 in. Deep
Condition: New in box
Date of Creation: 1990-Now
Manufactured by: Parastone Mouseion
Included: Full color card with image of original artwork. Description card about artist and artwork. Both cards are in four languages.
Beautifully rendered and constructed of fine collectible quality resin.
In 1507, Dürer was commissioned by the wealthy merchant, Jacob Heller, to paint a triptych for the altar of the Dominican church in Frankfurt, based on the theme of the ascension of Mary. The ‘Heller altar’ was soon so famous that Elector Maximilian of Bavaria had the central panel added to his own art collection. The panel was lost in a fire in 1729, but well over twenty preliminary sketches have been preserved. Of these, the praying hands of an apostle is the most famous (see original picture)
As of 2014, I found that amazon now stock the Durer Parastone sculpture. As it is impossible to compete with their buying power you will find the sculptures far cheaper than I can do. I have put links to both their US and UK sites below which will take you to their Boccioni sculpture pages.
If I can ever compete with their prices then I will stock them again as I do love these sculptures and they deserve to be owned by as many people as possible. I also miss those conversations with fellow Durer/Parastone admirers who are adding a sculpture or starting a collection. For now it's enough to present them as beautiful as I possibly can.
The Durer sculptures are getting increasingly harder to find even on amazon.
Try: amazon.com (us)
Albrecht Dürer ~ Canvas Prints
Cotton Canvas Print
Head of a Walrus
Cotton Canvas Print
Cotton Canvas Print
Albrecht Dürer ~ Prints
Albrecht Dürer ~ Links
Albrecht Dürer Links: Durer canvas prints @ ebay.com (direct link to his canvas prints) - more canvas prints than anywhere else combined and vastly superior in quality to a mere print or poster - Advertise here - Albrecht Dürer Books available @ amazon.com


An Australian view of Venus
Over a hundred years after Captain James Cook mapped Australia's shores, our pioneer scientists joined the race to solve "the noblest problem in astronomy". Nick Lomb tells their story.
"Never perhaps in the world's history, did morning dawn on so many waiting astronomers as it did on the 9th of December, 1874."
Henry Chamberlain Russell, the director of Sydney Observatory, was writing about the eagerly anticipated transit of Venus on that date, an event that had not occurred for over 100 years.
There certainly were many astronomers preparing to observe this rare event in Australia. As well as having telescopes ready at Sydney Observatory, Russell organised observing stations in New South Wales at Goulburn in the Southern Tablelands, at Eden on the South Coast and at Woodford in the Blue Mountains as insurance in case of clouds obscuring the view from Sydney.
Russell's Melbourne counterpart, Robert LJ Ellery, similarly set up Victorian observing stations at Mornington near Melbourne, at Glenrowan, a small town destined to become famous or infamous a few years later in connection with the outlaw Ned Kelly, and at Sandhurst now Bendigo, in addition to preparing to observe from Melbourne Observatory.
The last of the triumvirate dominating Australian astronomy during the second half of the 19th century was Charles Todd, who fresh from his triumph in supervising the construction of the Overland Telegraph across the continent, was going to observe from Adelaide Observatory.
There were other observers as well. In NSW the famous amateur astronomer John Tebbutt was to observe from his property in the small town of Windsor just outside Sydney. In Tasmania there were no less than two teams of observers. One team led by Professor William Harkness of the US Naval Observatory set up in Hobart Town, as Hobart was then known, while the other team led by Captain Charles Raymond went to Campbell Town near Launceston.
Astronomical event of the century
To astronomers it was the greatest astronomical event of the century, not just because of its rarity, but because it provided an opportunity to measure the distance from the Earth to the Sun and so provide the key distance in estimating the size of the Universe as was known at the time.
The method of measurement was to time when Venus crossed the edge of the Sun as it was entering and/or when it was leaving the disc. The distance was to be obtained through calculations based on comparing times at places long way apart on the globe.
The previous transit of Venus occurred in June 1769 when Lieutenant James Cook was put in charge of the HM Bark Endeavour and sent to the newly discovered island of Tahiti. There Cook and Charles Green, the astronomer on the voyage, made very careful observations of the transit. Although their observations were excellent, Cook and Green were disturbed by a number of optical effects that made it difficult to ascertain the times to the required accuracy. They were despondent about these problems and the feared inaccuracy of their results for they had no way of knowing that astronomers elsewhere suffered from the same problems.
But Cook's voyage to Tahiti had a huge impact on the history of Australia. After observing the transit, Cook sailed south-west to chart New Zealand and prove that it was not part of an unknown southern continent. From New Zealand, Cook sailed west and eventually reached the east coast of Australia. He followed the coast up towards its northern extremity, carefully mapping it and claiming it for the British Crown.
At the suggestion of Sir Joseph Banks, president of the Royal Society, who had been on board the Endeavour with Cook, the newly claimed land was deemed suitable for a new convict colony and the First Fleet reached Botany Bay in 1788.
Born in 1836, Henry Chamberlain Russell was to become the first Australian-born astronomer. A decade earlier, his father, Bourn Russell, arrived in the colony of New South Wales as captain of the ship Lady Rowena with 100 female convicts aboard.
Russell made successful timings of the transit and he observed an arc of light on the part of Venus not on the Sun, both as it was entering and leaving the solar disc. As Venus was moving off the Sun Russell noted that the arc of light, which was due to sunlight bent by the planet's atmosphere, became irregular with light concentrated near the planet's north pole.
Then and now
This last observation by Russell went unexplained for over a century. Spacecraft observations of the 2004 transit of Venus showed the same effect with the light from the arc of light concentrating near the pole of the planet.
The scientists who made the observation referred back to Russell and explained the observation using recent knowledge of the structure of the atmosphere of Venus. They say that surrounding each pole of the planet there is a doughnut of cold air that depresses the height of the Venusian clouds below and so let more sunlight come through the polar regions.
Russell made even more elaborate plans for the following transit in 1882, but clouds prevented viewing from any of the NSW stations. His Melbourne counterpart Robert Ellery was more successful with a team of his observers making good observations from Hobart. Charles Todd from Adelaide Observatory made the fortuitous decision to observe from the NSW town of Wentworth where he found a suitable observing site near the gaol while his colleagues at home saw nothing due to cloud.
The first of the 21st pair of transits came and went in 2004 and we are waiting for the second, the 2012 transit of Venus on 6 June. As a link to the past, Sydney Observatory, now part of the Powerhouse Museum, is planning to observe the transit with the same telescope that Russell used to see how well his 1874 observations can be reproduced.
There are plans to do the same at Melbourne Observatory, now part of the Royal Botanical Gardens, with the telescope used by Ellery. If clouds permit, these observations will allow us a much better understanding of the achievements of these pioneers of Australian astronomy and science.
Dr Nick Lomb spent over 30 years at Sydney Observatory, mainly as curator of astronomy for both the Observatory and the Powerhouse Museum. Nick tried to retire from the Observatory in 2009 by moving to Melbourne, but is still working part-time as curator. He is the author of a number of books on astronomy including 'Transit of Venus: 1631 to the present', published by NewSouth Publishing and Powerhouse Publishing.
Published 28 May 2012


These milestones are some of the core areas of martial arts content every martial artist works on improving. We are all on the same martial arts learning curve; the same loop of success and frustration. These aren't improved on a straight line, but a never-ending circle. Focusing on these basic milestones of martial arts will take your training far better than belts, ranks, or titles.
Milestone One: Shape(s)
Circles! Triangles! Squares! Oh Myyyyyyyyyyyyy!
Are you able to create a cohesive and stable structure out of your body's various parts, unting your arms and legs with your center (hara)? Can your body recognize the core shapes present in Aikido - the square, circle, and triangle? Can you place your body, mind, and energy (ki) into these structures?
Milestone Two: Motion
Just keep moving ... Just keep moving!
In responding to attack, are you able to keep your structure and shape intact throughout movement? Are you able to change your shape to meet the needs of your situation? Are you able to change your attacker's shape? These are some of the elements in this milestone.
Milestone Three: Energy
What goes around, ALWAYS comes around
Do you demonstrate aware, sincere, and controlled attacks? As you practice ukemi (tumbling, falling, rolling, receiving attacks), are you aware of your shape and your movements? Is your ukemi soft and fluid? Is your ukemi appropriate for the martial arts technique applied to you? Do you resist techniques with force, or connect to them to learn what your opponent is doing?
Milestone Four: Connection
When you attack, are you soft and fluid, or rigid and quick? When defending, are you able to move slowly and calmly with freedom, or do you move quickly and suddenly? Are you able to connect to yourself and then to your attackers? Are you able to keep and control the connection throughout the exchange?
Milestone 5: Centered
There is no spoon (?)
In all things, are you in complete control of your body, mind, and energy? Are you able to move independently of attackers or defenders? Are you able to attack or defend at will, flow between techniques, find reversal moments, or defend without techniques?


Gifted & Talented
What are Gifted and Talented Services?
Gifted and Talented Services (GT) provide academic enrichment services for identified students demonstrating superior intellectual giftedness through standardized aptitude and achievement tests, as well as GT characteristics scales, classroom Planned Experiences, and classroom work. GT Services are designed to develop critical and creative thinking skills, problem solving skills, and reference skills for students demonstrating gifted abilities.
Texas Administrative Code 29.121: A gifted and talented student is a child who performs at or shows the potential for performing at a remarkably high level of accomplishment when compared to others of the same age, experience, or environment and who exhibits high performance capability in an intellectual, creative, or artistic area; possesses an unusual capacity for leadership; or excels in a specific academic field. The process for identifying such students include a needs assessment for the purpose of placing students into educational programs designed to develop their potential (Reichert, 1997).


The Top English Grammar Tips From A–Z
Ver definición en Español de yarda
1(measure)(0,91m) yarda femeninoit's 100 yards down the road — está a unos 100 metros de aquí
- yard of ale
- On the half hour mark Brian Pendergast let fly with a right foot shot from twenty yards.
- How many inches equal a yard is not something subject to daily fluctuations on the free or any other market.
- I headed the ball back inside and eventually the ball ended up at my feet 20 yards from goal and I just hit it.
- With fox hunting you have hoards of people following across country on foot, one way or another, for yards or miles.
- One meter is equivalent to 1.09 yards and one inch is equivalent to 2.54 centimeters.
- He could tell us the speed of the train and how many miles / yards / feet we had until the next state line or anywhere else.
- Vivian Foley crossed to Ger Foley and his twenty yards shot hit the crossbar but fell to the feet of Gary Doyle who scored the opening goal.
- The next three runnings were over one mile six furlongs and 12 yards.
- Start thinking in pounds, quarts, gallons, inches, yards and miles.
- I read with interest recently about plans to develop a golf course in Wales that will eventually measure over 8000 yards.
- The course measures 5,293 yards and was designed by Eddie Hackett.
- Many are anthropomorphic - the foot, the yard, the cubit, the span - and arise from the dimensions of parts of the human body.
- He set world records for the 800 metres and 880 yards in the same race at Christchurch and the mile at Cooks Garden, Wanganui.
- An anti-metric activist yesterday appeared in court charged with stealing road signs which gave distances in metres rather than yards.
- I still talk about acres, yards, feet and inches; not forgetting gallons and pints and also hundredweights pounds and ounces.
- His second, nine minutes later, was a rasping left foot drive from twenty five yards which hit the stanchion as the Castleton keeper stood mesmerised.
- Thirteen under par may have paled in comparison with the exploits of Tiger Woods and a number of others but it is still a decent score on a golf course measuring 7,246 yards.
- In the imperial system, 36 inches are 1 yard and 1760 yards are 1 mile.
- It has a 7,653 yard range and its warhead consists of a tandem-shaped charge to penetrate reactive armour.
- Weeks of learning 12 inches to one foot, three feet to a yard, 22 yards to a chain and however many chains to a mile - with rods, poles and perches somewhere in between.
- The Captain motioned with his eyes and his head to the main mast top yard.
- The argument is that a three-masted ship had three yards on each mast for the square sails, making nine in all.
- They could see Bowles and they waited, bracing themselves against the yard should the two ships collide.
- The ship also carried standing skysail pales and yards, a half poop, and had as her figurehead a toothy dragon's head.
- To have the ship's company clearly visible on deck, or in the days of sail, aloft on the yards, meant that the guns were not manned.
- Masts and yards continued to be installed for decades, becoming increasingly vestigial, but the die was cast.
- Her captain was at the top yard of the main mast, glass to eye.
- About 170 lines control the sails and yards, so every member of the crew must be familiar with these operations and functions.
- They stood in the foot ropes of the main mast topsail yard.
- He moves one of the sails so that the yard catches Will and swings him out over the sea. Now, as long as you're just hanging there, pay attention.
1.1(of school, prison)patio masculino
- Five or six trips to the dump yard on the far lands and I stopped for something to eat.
- These traders require access to their stores and yards to run their businesses.
- My father has a little family business, a scrap-metal business with a yard and lorry.
- I went by a yacht yard beside the highway every day and one day stopped in and began admiring a Compac yacht.
- That option is likely to suit businesses such as Benchmark which require large storage yards.
- You'd ride over a rise and into a storage yard full of pipe and conduit.
- It is understood that a considerable amount of waste material lies under the yard at the site, pictured above.
- Just north of the Metrorail transfer station we passed Amtrak's yards and Miami area station on the left.
- Young arsonists were today blamed for a blaze which ripped through a caravan, nearly destroying a storage yard.
- It's a suburb choked with car yards and petrol stations, but everything was either closed or cap-less.
- Their recreation area is a yard, measuring 45 feet by 20, with a steel mesh covering on top.
- The area which used to be the service yard for Tesco would be transformed into a riverside arena, resembling an amphitheatre.
- Sister ship HMS Enterprise is currently undergoing construction at the same yard, and is due to enter service next year.
- The gang loaded the bikes which all had keys in the ignition on to a trailer belonging to garage owner Rhett Fisher, who leases part of his yard to the business.
- There have been six major fires at fridge storage yards in the region - the latest in October at the yard in Stock Lane, Chadderton.
- Sixty new buildings and skyscrapers costing over $700 million shot up on former rail yards and warehouse areas.
- Provision of adequate storage yards at metro stations.
- You can substitute materials lying around your yard.
- Montague says they are doing everything they can do to control the beetles, and that includes implementing preventative measures at the mill yard.
- Prosecuting counsel Amy Nicholson told the court that on January 23 the police searched the yard of a business run by Murphy and Sanderson.
- As well, Greenpeace and the ITF are jointly campaigning against the pollution and exploitation at the world's ship wrecking yards.
- Twenty interns in six unions worked on campaigns including in call centres, furniture factories, transport yards, hospitals and hotels.
- But, unknown to her owner, for the past three weeks Tiny has been wandering into the yard at Clacton police station looking for food and attention.
- He had previously used the yard for the purposes of an ambulance business which had ceased to trade in about 1995.
1.2(of house)patio masculino Britanico(garden) jardín masculino EEUU
- You may even find some that prove more useful in the yard and garden than in your kitchen.
- So, you have decided to plant rose bushes in your yard or on your patio, porch or balcony.
- You'd get to know them, and pretty soon we were just like anybody else hanging out in the yard.
- Since it's my tree, can I trim the branches even though they hang over onto his yard?
- Our neighbors had a guava tree with branches that hung over into our yard.
- She scuttled over the window and ran out the yard sailing over the chain link fence and jumping into the car as it drove away.
- Most of us consider our yards and gardens an extension of our homes, and we look for sanctuary and privacy there.
- I thought I wouldn't care so much, but I'd like to garden and have a yard just to stand in the grass.
- If you've got a problem with mosquitoes, you can also place a few citronella candles around the yard or patio.
- I used a large tree in my yard as the main brace, and worked around that.
- Or brick can form a subtle, natural path through your yard, linking patio and gardens.
- Everyone else was going to take down the giant sunflowers and dead tomato plants in my garden and get the yard ready for winter.
- We have the occasional sighting of a bluejay or a cardinal, but that doesn't make up for the lower class of birds who hang out in my yard.
- A malnourished kitten has been hanging around my yard and alley lately.
- Well, you see, though Thomas needed the money and was willing to work for it, his work in her yard and gardens were terrible.
- Kim and her family moved to this house in 1991, and Kim immediately began to renovate the neglected yard.
- I want to start a vinyard, and an organic garden in my yard, because I've got a couple of acres…
- While most of us are preparing our yards and gardens for the cooler weather, many in the warmer regions are still enjoying the fruits of their labor.
- These signs grace the three nearest places I can get food, as well as the nearest computer store, and the yards of three of my nearby neighbors.
- Maybe it's the neighbor to the south who has the beautiful yard with the beautiful garden with the perfect fountain and the elegant rock formation.
- His house was large, though not overly so, and beautiful, the lawn perfectly manicured and flowers growing in perfect little gardens in the yard.
2(workplace)almacén masculinodepósito masculinoboatyard — astillero
- goods yard, freight yard — almacén
- shipyard — astillero
- goods yard, freight yard — almacén
3the Yard — Scotland Yard
Learning English? Read More About The Language Here!


Mike Pickup is product manager at HESCO Bastion Ltd. During his 18 years of service in the British Army Royal Engineers, he deployed to Iraq, Afghanistan, Poland, Germany, Gibraltar, Falkland Islands, Northern Ireland, Cyprus, and the United States. He is a chartered mechanical engineer with extensive experience in force protection engineering, and recently took the time to answer a few questions for Defense about his firm’s ubiquitous gabion baskets, which have changed the construction of military fortifications worldwide.
Defense: Were military uses originally foreseen for the bastions, or were they seen solely as devices for flood control and to combat erosion?
Mike Pickup: The initial products were principally aimed at flood prevention and erosion control, but over time gradually became acknowledged as the leading product in providing a rapid method of providing ballistic and blast protection.
How did it come about that they began to be used by the military? Did HESCO market them or was HESCO approached about military uses?
HESCO Bastion Ltd. was approached by the military following a published article demonstrating how effective the gabion baskets were in combating coastal erosion.
What is it about the product that makes it so well suited for military use?
The product is particularly well-suited for military use as it has outstanding blast and ballistic protection properties. The product is simple in nature and readily accepted by soldiers due to its performance and ease and speed of construction. The numerous variations of the product allow for a variety of problems to be addressed by altering the concertainer configurations and being able to rapidly respond to a change to the perceived threat level.
Can you give some idea of the depth and breadth of use of HESCO Bastion products by militaries?
HESCO Bastion products are used by militaries worldwide, principally providing perimeter and containment walls and protected accommodation and storage facilities. Due to their ease of construction, HESCO Bastion products have proved to be extremely versatile and are used for a variety of purposes, such as chicanes, weapon and gun emplacements, reinforcement of existing structures, bollards, etc.
What about other uses? Although we see the military uses every day in this industry, I understand that HESCO gabions were used to reinforce the levees in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, for example.
The uses for HESCO Bastion products are numerous; they have been supplied to the United Nations for humanitarian purposes and are also used in the construction industry for creating structures such as earth embankments and retaining walls, erosion control, and flood protection and prevention.
What sort of development has gone on with the products? How wide a range of products does HESCO Bastion produce today?
All HESCO Bastion products undergo a rigorous development process to ensure the user gets a robust and fault-free product. HESCO Bastion produces a comprehensive array of products, ranging from small gabion baskets of 0.61 meters high to baskets in excess of 2 meters high. HESCO Bastion also manufactures the HESCO Accommodation Bunker for up to eight personnel, which can be converted into a medical facility, and also the larger Extended Overhead Protection System [EOPS], which provides a much larger protected working area. HESCO has also recently introduced recoverable units, which allows the product to be reused and/or easily removed.
Can you describe the RAID system and its advantages?
RAID is a system developed by HESCO Bastion to allow the rapid deployment of a number of units which can then be filled to provide a substantial level of force protection in a very short period of time. The advantage over conventional HESCO Bastion gabions is in the nature of its deployment from an ISO container.
What can you tell us about the two types of HESCO Accommodation Bunker? What are the advantages of these structures?
The HESCO Accommodation Bunker provides a rapidly constructed method of providing secure accommodation for up to eight personnel. The bunker provides protection against indirect fire up to and including 122 mm rockets.
This interview was first published in Defense: Winter 2012 Review Edition.


Climate courses for capacity building
Wageningen Climate Solutions
BY Annemieke Groenenboom - September 2019
From parched agricultural land to massive floods and landslides – the consequences of climate change are enormous. How can society continue to function under such changing circumstances? According to Wageningen University & Research experts Ingrid Gevers and Arend Jan van Bodegom, who train over 120 climate professionals from around the world every year, resilience will be the key to success.
“While many countries have a strategy for climate adaptation and risk management, they mainly look for technological solutions, such as seeds for climate-proof crops. Human adaptability is just as important, however, as it is ultimately farmers themselves who will have to change their farming systems. And that requires resilience – the ability to process setbacks and bounce back after major change. We believe that climate experts must pay greater attention to this factor,” says Arend Jan van Bodegom, senior advisor on climate change adaptation at Wageningen Centre for Development Innovation.
Capacity building: how to influence mindsets
Building resilience requires new knowledge, according to Van Bodegom’s colleague Ingrid Gevers, senior advisor on climate change. “But above all it means knowing how to use this knowledge, when to act and how to influence people's mindsets so that they change their ways. We call this ‘capacity building’ and it’s what our climate courses are all about. No matter how much our students know and can do, they also have to be able to mobilize their stakeholders.”
People in Tanzania go in search of water. Photo: Shutterstock
Switch to drought-resistant crops
“Imagine a farmer whose crops fail due to extreme drought. To sustain his livelihood, he could switch to drought-resistant crops. That requires knowing which crops are most suitable – knowledge – and how to grow them – skills. But knowing what to grow and how to grow it will not make him change his practice. The key is having the will to change and to take the risk – and that’s why the right mindset is such a vital part of capacity building,” explains Gevers.
I’VE LEARNED TO MAKE PLANS TOGETHER WITH THE LOCAL COMMUNITIES INSTEAD OF BEHIND MY DESK
Students become teachers
Wageningen Centre for Development Innovation, part of WUR, has been giving climate courses at strategic global hubs since 2009. Gevers coordinates ‘Managing risk in the face of climate change’ in Thailand and Van Bodegom is in charge of ‘Climate-change adaptation in food security and natural resource management’ in Uganda. Climate professionals from governments, NGOs and universities around the world attend these courses, often with a grant from Nuffic, a Dutch NGO for internationalization in education. They come to broaden their knowledge about climate change and learn how to prepare their practitioners to deal with its consequences. Questions answered in the courses include: How do experts from other countries do this? How do you share knowledge and activate stakeholders?
Long lasting droughts result in dead plants and cracked earth. Photo: Shutterstock
No solution without understanding the context
Learning to look at problems within their local context while at the same time recognizing how they are intertwined and connected to the landscape is the key lesson, according to Gevers. “Our students often underestimate the importance of this. But you have to fully understand the entire picture before you can come up with solutions. What is the current situation? How did we get here? And where are we heading? If the average temperature is projected to rise by two degrees, you need to anticipate and take action now. Ask the right questions, such as: What does this mean for people, plants and animals? Will there be crop failures and more heat waves? Is food security impacted? Who has the power to decide how to respond?”
Such an analysis forms the basis of the course. The course itself starts with theory so everyone has a basic understanding of the most important concepts. For instance, what’s the difference between climate and weather? What is resilience? Next, participants divide into teams to work on a practical case. This can be an example from the country where the course is taking place or from somewhere else. They select a hotspot to map: an area inhabited by many – often poor – people vulnerable to the effects of climate change. The result is a visual representation with symbols highlighting natural resources, buildings, farmland and other elements that are at risk. Based on this, participants go into the field to talk with stakeholders and develop a climate action plan. The course leaders supervise and coach this process.
NO MATTER HOW MUCH OUR STUDENTS KNOW AND CAN DO, THEY ALSO HAVE TO BE ABLE TO MOBILIZE THEIR STAKEHOLDERS
Students develop a climate outlook for hotspots. Photo: Ingrid Gevers
Presentation of a case study and its climate impacts. Photo: Ingrid Gevers
Ugandan course coordinator Florence Kyazze uses a game to explain the challenges small farmers face in becoming more climate resilient. Photo: Arend-Jan van Bodegom
No more overly simple solutions
Hotspot mapping seems like simple logic, but students often find it an eye-opener. Gevers: “It helps them to better understand the complexity of the system, the key factors and how they are related. That is important if you are to come up with appropriate solutions. For example, I know a country where the government built a concrete wall off the coast to protect the community from flooding. Sure enough, the wall kept the water out – but also blocked access for fish and nutrients to the mangrove forest behind it, meaning a smaller catch for fishermen and destruction of the natural coastal defence system. We see too many of these types of solutions that do more harm than good in the end.”
THE RIGHT MINDSET IS SUCH A VITAL PART OF CAPACITY BUILDING
Together with local communities
Bernadetta Kabonesa, Senior Research Technician at the National Forestry Resources Institute (NaFORRI) in Uganda, was one of Gevers' students. “If I’ve learned one thing from this, it’s to make plans together with the local communities instead of behind my desk. They know the area like no other. We’re now also jointly taking measures like planting trees in places where residents can be affected by floods or landslides in the mountains. The community accepts democratically agreed measures much better than decisions imposed from above by the government.”
Flooded streets in Bangladesh. Photo: Sk Hasan Ali / Shutterstock
Role-playing games for insight into interests
The second lesson Gevers mentions is the translation of knowledge into a clear message. It is important to know who to talk to, and how, in order to get a story out there and mobilize people. “This requires personal skills, such as presentation techniques. I often let the students do presentations and I encourage formats that are more creative than PowerPoint, such as illustrations or working with artists. This helps the message sink in better.”
In Wageningen there is a unique Master’s programme called . It’s the first Master’s in the Netherlands to bundle expertise from the Earth, Life and Social Sciences. The programme is aimed specifically at students who wish to focus on the scientific knowledge about climate change and the interactions with society and the economy.
Climate Studies alumni go on to work as researchers at international research institutes and universities or as experts at environmental organizations or other NGOs. Local and national governments and the EU also need climate change specialists.
There are currently about 100 students on this two-year programme. Since the start of the programme in 2002, almost 200 students have graduated. Most students are Dutch, but there are also some from other countries. The MSc programme wants to attract more international students because people from different parts of the world experience and perceive climate change impact, mitigation and adaptation differently, which brings a wealth of experiences and perspectives to the classroom.
The damage from a tsunami and earthquake in Indonesia. Photo: Capture63 / Shutterstock
Lobbying and advocacy
Van Bodegom adds, “And last, but not least, the students learn: How do we ensure proper cooperation and awareness about the need to take action? How do we facilitate it and with what tools? We use the ‘lobby & advocacy’ game for this. Students take on the role of companies and the government to discuss the importance of climate change. This gives an insight into conflicting interests so they can better influence the mindset of stakeholders and build support for their plans, increasing resilience among partners.”
Learning by doing work in the field
Mustafa Hasani, lecturer in Natural Resources at Kabul University, took Van Bodegom's course. In addition to the three learning points, he was particularly impressed by the teaching method. The crucial thing for students is to get to work and go out into the field – they learn most from learning by doing. Hasani is an example of a professional who is now passing on his knowledge and even adopting the teaching approach. Besides teaching in class, he has integrated new methods for in-depth learning, like inviting stakeholders’ representatives, visiting fields, talking to communities and role-playing. “This makes students more motivated to get started and come up with better solutions,” Hasani says. “And it makes my lectures more effective, which is vital as I am teaching the next generation of climate professionals.”
A new climate change adaptation course will be offered in French later this year. And to cover all aspects of climate change, the institute is developing a course on access to climate finance, tackling questions like: Where can I find financing? What are the conditions? And how can I formulate a 'bankable' project? Gevers will give the first refresher course on 'Climate finance and migration' in Senegal this coming October.
Are you interested in a short course on climate change? Wageningen Centre for Development Innovation offers six different climate courses.
Do you wish to build capacities for climate change?


By Chris Keefer, Field Technical Manager, Syngenta Professional Pest Management
The house fly is a “cosmopolitan” pest that can be found in habitats around the world, and in close proximity of humans. This pest can also be known to transmit viruses, bacteria and fungi. As a Pest Management Professional (PMP), it is imperative to be able to distinguish between the many flies that can be commonly found in residential and commercial settings before identifying a treatment plan.
- The house fly adult:
- Has four black longitudinal stripes on dorsal side of thorax
- Varies in length from 1/8 to 1/4 inch
- Can lay 100-150 eggs in organic material
- Completes metamorphosis in seven to 21 days
- Lives 14 to 21 days
As with any pest infestation, developing an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) plan for house fly control is recommended. A thorough, sustainable IPM plan should include these basic guidelines:
- Be certain that you have correctly identified the fly species first, as many different species look alike
- Determine how severe the fly infestation is and identify all areas of property that are infested
- Identify and eliminate house fly requisites for life, like food, water and harborages
- Determine who is responsible for each part of an IPM plan (the PMP or the customer) and effectively communicate the customer’s part of the plan to them
Sanitation, exclusion, mechanical and chemical control should all be kept in mind through the entire IPM planning process. If house flies are discovered and chemical control is necessary, Zyrox® Fly granular bait from Syngenta provides effective fly control with a novel active ingredient and a highly attractive formulation. With the active ingredient cyantraniliprole, Zyrox has a different mode of action than other fly baits on the market and can help combat fly resistance. It can be utilized outdoors as a scatter bait or used in a bait station indoors.
By following a plan and being knowledgeable about the target pest, you can ensure your customers aren’t bothered by the nuisance of house flies. For more information about house fly control, contact your local Syngenta territory manager.
Bennett, G. W., J. M. Owens, and R. M. Corrigan. 1997. Truman’s Scientific Guide to Pest Control Operations. Advanstar Communications Inc., Cleveland, OH.
Ebelling, Walter. 1975. Urban Entomology. University of California Division of Agricultural Sciences. Los Angeles, CA.
Mallis, A. 1990. Handbook of Pest Control. Franzak and Foster Co., Cleveland, OH.
©2017 Syngenta. Important: Always read and follow label instructions. Some products may not be registered for sale or use in all states or counties and/or may have state-specific use requirements. Please check with your local extension service to ensure registration and proper use. For Life Uninterrupted™, Zyrox® and the Syngenta logo are trademarks of a Syngenta Group Company. Syngenta Customer Center: 1-866-SYNGENT(A) (796-4368).


Inside the mouths of cats everywhere, teeth are disappearing. It’s not the odd tooth lost to trauma or periodontal disease; instead, it’s teeth that are essentially disintegrating. In fact, you might lift your cat’s lip and find only gum tissue where there once was a tooth.
Why is this happening? As part of Pet Dental Health Month, we’re sharing insights into this common, and often painful, cat dental condition: tooth resorption.
Although tooth resorption can occur in dogs, it’s much more common in cats, affecting between 20 percent to 70 percent of felines. It tends to occur in adult and older cats, generally sparing those under two years of age. Purebred breeds, such as Persians, Abyssinians, Siamese, Russian blues, Scottish folds, and Oriental shorthairs are more commonly affected than mixed breed cats.
What is feline tooth resorption?
It’s a syndrome in which specialized cells called odontoclasts destroy a permanent tooth from within, often progressing to every part of the tooth. The resorptive process often irreparably destroys the dentin — the dense, bony tissue that makes up the bulk of the tooth — until there’s very little or nothing left of it.
What causes this condition?
Although affected teeth may have the “moth-eaten” appearance of a human cavity on X-ray, experts don’t believe these lesions are actually cavities, which are typically caused by bacterial plaque and periodontal disease. Brushing your cat’s teeth is not likely to prevent this condition (but it can help prevent periodontal disease). In fact, the exact cause for these lesions is still unknown.
The process has been likened to the erosion that happens to the teeth of people with bulimia, from exposure to acidic stomach contents. Some have proposed that hacking up hairballs may lead to a more acidic environment in feline mouths, but this has not been proven.
Is it painful?
Cats with the condition rarely show signs of pain, especially when the resorptive lesions are below the gumline. But once the lesions spread above the gum, exposure to bacteria can lead to inflammation. And if the process has eaten into the tooth pulp cavity, which contains a nerve, we can guess that this is painful.
It’s common to see resorptive lesions where the tooth meets the gumline. On close inspection, it may appear as a bright-red indentation in the tooth. When the veterinarian touches this lesion with a probe, cats often “chatter” their jaws in reaction.
What are the signs?
Because cats are generally a stoic sort, the signs of tooth resorption are often subtle. You may notice that your cat swallows kibble without chewing or tilts his or her head to chomp exclusively on one side. Your cat may drop food out of its mouth when eating or have difficulty picking up food in the first place. When the pain becomes more severe, your cat might drool, shake its head, sneeze, rub at its face or refuse to eat.
How are resorptive lesions diagnosed and treated?
If you suspect that your cat may have oral pain, it’s best to schedule a veterinary dental exam under anesthesia with X-rays. That will enable the doctor to thoroughly examine your cat’s teeth both above and below the gumline.
If your veterinarian finds any tooth resorption, extraction may be required to relieve pain, prevent the progression of resorption and help your cat keep eating comfortably.
The information in this blog has been developed with our veterinarian and is designed to help educate pet parents. If you have questions or concerns about your pet's health or nutrition, please talk with your veterinarian.


FRIDAY, June 14, 2013 — Levi Strauss was greeted with little controversy or fanfare when he decided to patent his jeans — Levi’s. The same cannot be said for Myriad Genetics and its desire to patent human genes, specifically the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes. On Thursday the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that human genes cannot be patented.
However, just as there are other pants with patents, there are genes other than the BRCA1 and BRCA2 that have been patented. These gene patents have allowed companies to exclusively create and market diagnostic tests for many diseases.
With the lift on these gene patents could come a new wave of genetic testing, and the options for patients and doctors could increase dramatically.
"The issue is that some people who are uninsured or underinsured, who would benefit from a BRCA test, would not be able to get it because of the price, but now they will have access to it," said Susan Klugman, MD, director of reproductive genetics at Montefiore Medical Center in New York City. "People were afraid to do research on some of these genes because of a fear of being sued."
Quest Diagnostics and DNATraits are two companies that have already said they will create genetic tests based on genes previously patented by other companies.
Here are some genes, other than BRCA1 and BRCA2, that had been restricted under patents but should now be open for further research:
- miR-34, patented by Merck: miR-34 is a genetic biomarker believed to be associated with the development of some cancers, such as chronic lymphocytic leukemia. The location and quantity of the gene in the brain has also been linked to Alzheimer’s disease.
- APC, patented by Imperial Chemical Industries: Inactivation of the APC gene is considered the most common mutation for colon cancer. Currently, protein truncation testing (PTT) is available to detect the APC gene variant linked to higher colon cancer risks. Interactions between the gene and neurons have also been linked to schizophrenia, Alzheimer’s disease, and some forms of epilepsy.
- Huntingtin, patented by Alynlam Pharmaceuticals: Huntington’s disease is a rare genetic disorder that weakens the brain and causes problems with muscle coordination, mental abilities, and emotions. If a parent has the condition, their children have a 50 percent chance of getting the disease. There is a genetic test from Alynlam for the mutated gene and the disease.
- AFP, patented by Constab Pharmaceutical: Serum screening for levels of AFP in pregnant women can detect Down syndrome in an unborn fetus. The test can also detect Edwards syndrome – a disorder that can cause kidney malformations, heart defects, and numerous developmental problems.
- HFE, patented by Progentior: Mutations to the HFE gene is linked to the disorder hereditary hemochromatosis (HHC). The condition causes the body to absorb too much iron, which can lead to cirrhosis of the liver, diabetes, and arthritis. A genetic blood test can be used to diagnose the inherited disorder.
Last Updated: 6/14/2013


A painted lady and cabbage white butterfly fly through the pergola. There are lots of butterflies around, and bees too, in the remaining flowering plants: hollyhocks, globe thistles, gazanias, and lychnis. But it is also the time of year for blackberries and there are quite a few by the side of the pond, but difficult to get at as they are surrounded by stinging nettles. Aren’t bramble thorns enough?
There are more blackberries at the back of the container, poking over the hedge. These are difficult to get at too, but that’s because of all the junk we have shoved back there. I am surprised the birds haven’t got them all.
Botanically, blackberries are not berries at all. The common definition of a berry is small soft fruit without a stone but having small pips instead. Examples are strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, redcurrants and blackcurrants. Soft fruit is the horticultural term for such fruits. And blackberries make the team.
But berry has a different botanical meaning. A true berry is fleshy fruit, formed from the ovary of a single flower, with seeds embedded in the flesh. Examples are tomatoes, grapes, kiwi fruits, bananas and cucumbers. This definition does not include blackberries (or raspberries and strawberries).
It is an interesting example of how botany and common names diverge. Scientific definitions need to be precise. Not that any of us are going to call a blackberry anything other than a blackberry, though strictly it is an aggregate of drupelets. Each drupelet contains a seed. Blackdrupelets? I don’t think that will catch on.
Blackberries are in the family Rosaceae of which some members are drupes full and proper, like plums and peaches. A drupelet is just a small drupe, and makes me wonder just how something like the blackberry developed. I am reminded of the family of flowers called compositae where lots of flowers form one flowerhead in plants like the dandelion and the daisy. Nature does this sort of thing, just to confuse us amateurs.
I take a seat and quietly watch one of the bird feeders. I see a group of sparrow fledgelings, small and quite scrawny, feeding. They have recently left the nest, and in just a few months have to cope on their own. It’s a tough life being a bird, the chances of getting to adulthood are not great, though better than a tadpole’s, which is why frogs lay so many eggs and birds a lot less.


In simple detail, young readers can read about a favorite topic: astronauts. Here they will learn some of the basic vocabulary of space travel and the many tasks astronauts have to do.
The natural world comes alive for young readers with Rookie Read-About Science! With striking, full-color photos and just the right amount of text, this series immediately involves young readers as they discover intriguing facts about the fascinating world around them.
• Simplifies complex science concepts
• Clear linkage between text and photos
• "Words You Know" clarify and define key concepts
• Index makes navigating subject matter easy
- 6, 7, 5
- Interest Level
- Grades K - 2
- Grade Level Equivalent
- Lexile Measure
- Guided Reading
- Children's Press (CT)
- Number of Pages


By CHRIS STANTON
From self-help gurus to television personalities, many people have an opinion on how to find happiness. Prof. Shimon Edelman, psychology, has been exploring a more scientific approach to the subject — and says he believes people can only attain lasting happiness through “self-knowledge.”
In a book published last year, The Happiness of Pursuit: What Neuroscience Can Teach Us About the Good Life, Edelman applied the idea that the brain operates like a computer — a concept termed “cognition is computation” — to study how people find fulfillment in their daily lives.
“The book is very much about self-knowledge, which is a prerequisite for anything you want to plan for yourself in life,” Edelman said. “We all drive cars without knowing very much about what’s going on under the hood. But, if you want the car to run better, you need to tune the motor and understand how it works.”
Edelman joins some of his fellow psychologists in advocating the idea that both the universe and individual minds operate like complex computers. He said he incorporates that line of logic in all areas of his research, including his studies on what comprises happiness.
“The universe is a giant computer computing its state from moment to moment, and that’s what makes the world go round,” Edelman said. “Cognition is computation which is done in particular ways that involve representing some part of the world by another part of it. It computes visual-auditory variables we are unconscious of.”
Happiness as a field of study has come to the forefront in the last two decades, according to Prof. James Cutting, psychology, chair of the psychology department. The growing popularity of research on happiness has helped spark growth in the self-help industry, Cutting said. But he and Edelman agreed that many publications pertaining to the topic do not have psychological grounds.
“Much of it is snake oil,” Edelman said. “And snake oil salesman have historically always done very well for themselves. Only some of it is grounded in psychological findings.”
Edelman — a Russian emigrant who completed his undergraduate, master’s and Ph.D. in Israel — has spent the majority of his long career researching other areas of study not pertaining to happiness. He has published dozens of essays in the field of psychology pertaining to topics ranging from vision to consciousness.
“Even though this is not my main area of research, I wrote the book because I thought I could offer a concise overview of claims about self-knowledge,” Edelman said.
With a book that stands at just more than 100 pages in length, Edelman has drawn attention from a variety of sources for his happiness research, having been featured in a Huffington Post article and in Cornell’s summer lecture series.
“It’s always good when professors in the department get this kind of attention for their research,” Cutting said. “There’s a lot more coverage now with new forms of media, and one of those things getting more coverage is psychology.”
Though Edelman has explored different areas of research since the publication of his book, he continues to stress the importance of studying happiness.
“We are getting to the truth of the matter,” Edelman said in a lecture given July 31 at Cornell’s summer sessions. “But the truth of the matter will not be simple. Minds are not simple.”
In the lecture, Edelman discussed the overlap between his research and theories laid out in the classics, citing figures from Aristotle to ancient Indian thinkers.


Pasture to Plate is a healthy eating and cookery/recipe competition aimed at promoting healthy eating and seasonal cooking as part of a healthy balanced diet.
By empowering students with knowledge of where their food comes from, the initiative allows students to make healthy choices into the future and encourages a heightened knowledge of local Irish produce, following completion of the competition.
For more information please contact firstname.lastname@example.org
- Create and submit one (or more) Irish inspired recipes.
- This could be a twist on a local Irish dish or an entirely new recipe altogether.
- Teachers and students are encouraged to use as much local, Irish produce as possible in their recipe.
- Gain an understanding of the importance of locality and Irish grown produce as well as the “farm to fork” journey.
- Enhance generational change, ensuring participating students become informed consumers when making purchasing decisions as young adults.
Other Primary School Programmes you may be interested in!