Have you ever wondered what all principles go behind the working of televisions or radios or computers? The Internet has only become more widely used by the public in the early nineties, although it was first invented in the 1950s. Since the nineties, technology has advanced at an amazing speed. Better Internet connectivity, faster Internet, wireless and mobile devices, including smart phones and tablets, have made Internet access easier and more convenient today. ArtzGirl thanks for your interest and comment. As far of who is behind using or abusing of this technology, anybody could be. TI’s are misguided, so they speculate depending on what they “heard”. More important question is who is supposed to protect you and give you right information. Radio spectrum monitoring is duty of government. In US this is EPA. In Canada Industry Canada. In every country different is costly and difficult task. Also if some kind of human generated radiation making harm to the people that is something to be examined by medical and environmental authorities. So demands on investigation should be directed to them, and lobbying the media to do same demands and aware the public of what technology and its abusing is happening in the wild. I have impression that this evil technology is already out of control. A lot have been done to curb the activities of hackers online and to a very high extent it has proved very effective. Employ the services of Virus protection Software and you can be sure you are secured online. There is also online Parental control and monitoring Software to guard against wards transcending their bound. Of course, if you need to run software that only runs on a particular operating system (usually Windows or macOS), then you’re somewhat limited, though there are ways around those obstacles with multi-boot setups and virtualization software For example, you can run Windows on a Mac inside a virtual machine (VM) or dual-boot using Boot Camp. You can also create a Linux partition on a Windows PC and boot to that when the need arises. Iron and other minerals, such as calcium and manganese, are not hazardous to human health, but they can cause drinking water to taste metallic or just unpleasant. Iron or manganese can cause clothing stains on when wash water contains these elements, and they can even discolor porcelain and other dishes washed in the mineral-rich water. These minerals can build up in water pipes, gradually clogging them and reducing water pressure, possibly causing plumbing problems. This virtual server is becoming more popular. Why? Because Microsoft now offers it as a free tool. Why did it do that? Because the competition from VMWare was killing it’s market share. By making it free and offering support, Microsoft guaranteed it’s product a market share. But it is far behind VMWare and shows no signs of catching up.
Electrical engineering has many subdisciplines, the most common of which are listed below. Although there are electrical engineers who focus exclusively on one of these subdisciplines, many deal with a combination of them. Sometimes certain fields, such as electronic engineering and computer engineering , are considered separate disciplines in their own right. Decisions Concerning Technology Specifications Many types of IC technology were developed in the 1970s. The members of the TAC discussed the technologies available and then decided to obtain low power, high-density technology that would provide sub-micron development potential. The complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) was thus selected as the technology to be developed. This decision successfully led Taiwan to the sub-micron technology level in 1992. The key point of their idea was to introduce China-made consumer electronic products into Australia. This idea was rather unbelievable to almost everyone in the early 1990s. China was then known as a country where the development of consumer electronics manufacturing, including the production of televisions, had just started and not many families had many electronic products. At that time, people in China were believed to favour imported electronic products, rather than China-made products. As skilled adventurers, however, the Pebble founders did not follow many pessimistic hearsay accounts of China and post-1989 Chinese politics, which consumed the precious time of many new Chinese migrants, but gave their attention to electronic industries and markets in both China and Australia. They soon identified the gap that existed between what was happening in Australia and what was happening in China’s electronic industry. Internet simply put, is a cloud based medium that enable dissemination of information internationally among millions of users through a network connecting computers and other compatible gadgets. The information could be accessed in a written form through electronic mail, videos, instant messaging, video chat, audio message, pictorially etc. Before I show you the macOS-inspired Linux distributions, I’d like to mention Pear OS. Both programs provide a serious focus on the safety principles behind working with electricity and electrical equipment. These principles cover situations both in terms of personal protection and best practices for installation. The design of electrical systems is just as important as proper installation when it comes to preventing fires or electrical accidents.
You can also use the site to create your own social media platform. Share your article, blogs, photos, etc. to thousands of people. Newcomers to the field of electrical work are often confused about the difference in degrees and career paths associated with electrical engineering and electrical technology (sometimes called electrical systems technology). A second factor is that Microsoft itself will drive users to Linux. For this reason, I wouldn’t recommend that you use it. Additionally, I didn’t even find it that close to macOS in looks. Maybe back in 2012 it might have looked like macOS , but not anymore. The predictive model under development in DETECT might someday help public health officials spot coronavirus hotspots early. It also may encourage people who are potentially infected to immediately seek diagnostic testing and, if necessary, quarantine themselves to avoid spreading the virus. The app basically lets users send each other instant messages, make video and voices calls, and send free text messages among other features. It does have a payment option which, at the moment, is limited to India alone. This is the WhatsApp Pay feature. All the transactions are processed by the Unified Payments Interface. Unfortunately, market conditions don’t favor Linux games, either-and at least two companies that used to port Windows games to the open source platform have closed shop. Realme, Vivo and Xiaomi, Huawei are already in the queue of launching their mobile phones before the launch of the technology. That shows, how the companies are confident over the consumer power demand for the next-generation technology. IEEE C37.20.6 is the standard for 4.76 kilovolt to 38 kilovolt rated ground devices as well as test devices used in enclosures. IEEE 57.13.3 describes the recommended practices for grounding instrument transformer secondary circuits. 2.) Opera Unite: Opera has launched a new technology that can turn your PC into a personal web server running inside Opera web browser. That server can be used to share everything from files to music with other computers on the web without the need of 3rd party applications. Named Opera Unite, the technology has just been released and promises to make your computer more that just a dumb terminal. Closing our list of the top mobile messaging apps is this free mobile instant messaging application for smartphones. With a pretty small user base of just about 49.7 million10, this app is mainly limited to South Korea and much of Asia. It does have a bright future though as more and more people are anticipated to download it in the future.
I see all sorts of articles around the web that tell you how to use a voltmeter to test an electrical outlet. They usually make sure to warn you how dangerous electricity can be and will caution you about which voltmeter probe to stick where and being very sure not to touch bare metal and all that. Configure your storage settings. Since this is a test machine, and we don’t need to use a lot of space, 8 GB should be sufficient to play around and install some applications. I prefer to store the virtual disk as a single larger file, since I generally won’t be moving it. Click Next. On the whole – for humans, life is definitely better where technology thrives. I do worry about the increased need for specialization. Some 300 years or more ago -not sure exactly, but probably around the time of Leibniz, it may have been possible for a single mind to know just about everything. Since we can imagine and for records we do have, technology has increased exponentially. You never know – we may some day not too far from now biologically integrate with the web. While environmental concerns are driving some food trends for 2019, convenience continues to dictate many of the choices consumers are making when it comes to what’s on their plates. According to the Mintel report, food and drink convenience will get an upgrade in 2019 as manufacturers respond to rising healthy-eating priorities, quests for foodie-inspired flavors, and interests in personalization and competition from speedy delivery services. XENEnterprise is not free. I don’t know the price yet. But, presumably, it will be competitive with the competition. The key to this product is the ability to deploy it in any infrastructure and use it to host ‘any’ operating system. This is called “Appropriate Virtual Deployment” (well, that’s my invention but you have to admit it sounds pretty cool), and will please users and customers. Why? Because it short-circuits the Wintel folk’s fears, and objections to Linux. Given that the majority of servers deployed in enterprise infrastructures are Windows based, this will enable those enterprises to take advantage of Linux attributes, such as security, stability, high availability and so forth, and still have that good-‘ole Win’95 desktop shining from every rack. One of the biggest advantages will be around the lowering of licenses when the hardware is multi-core CPUs. But that’s another article. 4, Epoxy laminated plastic has a wide range in the electronic and electrical field. Particularly epoxy laminate with rapid development has become one of the basic materials of electronic industry.


Saturday, August 04, 2012
The Perfect Milk Machine: How Big Data Transformed the Dairy Industry
Alexis Madrigal in The Atlantic (article is a few months old but interesting):
While there are more than 8 million Holstein dairy cows in the United States, there is exactly one bull that has been scientifically calculated to be the very best in the land. He goes by the name of Badger-Bluff Fanny Freddie.
Already, Badger-Bluff Fanny Freddie has 346 daughters who are on the books and thousands more that will be added to his progeny count when they start producing milk. This is quite a career for a young animal: He was only born in 2004.
There is a reason, of course, that the semen that Badger-Bluff Fanny Freddie produces has become such a hot commodity in what one artificial-insemination company calls "today's fast paced cattle semen market." In January of 2009, before he had a single daughter producing milk, the United States Department of Agriculture took a look at his lineage and more than 50,000 markers on his genome and declared him the best bull in the land. And, three years and 346 milk- and data-providing daughters later, it turns out that they were right.
"When Freddie [as he is known] had no daughter records our equations predicted from his DNA that he would be the best bull," USDA research geneticist Paul VanRaden emailed me with a detectable hint of pride. "Now he is the best progeny tested bull (as predicted)."
Data-driven predictions are responsible for a massive transformation of America's dairy cows. While other industries are just catching on to this whole "big data" thing, the animal sciences -- and dairy breeding in particular -- have been using large amounts of data since long before VanRaden was calculating the outsized genetic impact of the most sought-after bulls with a pencil and paper in the 1980s.
Posted by S. Abbas Raza at 11:09 AM | Permalink


T. S. Eliot, alongside Ezra Pound, is perhaps the most influential poet of the Modernism. The two paved the way for the Imagist movement in poetry that was prominent in the early 20th century. Much like Lawrence, he did not consider Hamlet a success. Eliot said Shakespeare tried to tackle a problem “which proved too much for him”.
Eliot Considered Hamlet a Failure but Loved Shakespeare’s Other Works
Eliot considered Hamlet a failure. But, he praised the two Roman tragedies Coriolanus and Antony and Cleopatra. Strange, because most of the focus of Shakespearean criticism revolves around his ‘major’ works.
There are no major or minor works of Shakespeare. All of them are extraordinary pieces of literature. It’s just that some of his works have been exploited more than others. And critics reviewed what was popular, Eliot included.
Eliot Referenced Shakespeare in His Works
Eliot references Shakespeare’s works in his own. For example, we have two references to Shakespeare’s plays in two of Eliot’s greatest poems. One is in “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” – a clear reference to Hamlet. The other is in The Waste Land, which contains references to Antony and Cleopatra and Hamlet. To reference someone’s work into your own is the biggest acknowledgment.
T. S. Eliot on Shakespeare’s Borrowing
“Some can absorb knowledge, the more tardy must sweat for it. Shakespeare acquired more essential history from Plutarch than most men could from the whole British Museum” (Eliot, 1920). All Shakespeare’s works, except for The Tempest, are based on previous works.
It is a historical fact that playwrights borrowed ideas from others. The truth is there was no copyright law in the Elizabethan age. This was the common practice of the Elizabethan playwrights.
Shakespeare embraced this idea of borrowing. He was so well-read that we can see the influence in his works from almost every major work written up until his time. Starting from Ancient Greece, up to contemporary Elizabethan drama/poetry, he appropriated everything. As Eliot points out, Shakespeare was a living encyclopedia of history. This is a feat that few people of his time achieved.
Shakespeare Used Everyday Language
Playwrights in Elizabethan times often used common elements in their plays. You can see them in English Renaissance drama, not only in the works of Shakespeare. “We think of Shakespeare perhaps as the dramatist who concentrates everything into a sentence, ‘Pray you undo this button,’ or ‘Honest honest lago’; we forget that there is a rhetoric proper to Shakespeare at his best period which is quite free from the genuine Shakespearean vices either of the early period or the late” (Eliot, 1920).
Shakespeare did include some everyday phrases from Elizabethan times in his works. Playwriting was a craft after all. So, like any craft, it required catering to the customer to make more money. And the customers were both literate and illiterate.
Everyone Understood Shakespeare’s Plays
Shakespeare’s plays catered to everyone. Both the illiterate groundlings (who paid the least to watch the play) and the nobility understood them. The simplest-minded people laughed at what we today think is complex.
Shakespeare Wrote for His Time
Shakespeare included elements from each layer of society in his plays. So, you need to know the political, religious, and everyday life in the Elizabethan era to read his works. These elements without a deep understanding of life in Shakespeare’s time are weird. Which is why you should read my Reading Shakespeare series.
T. S. Eliot on the Soliloquy
The soliloquy is the greatest weapon of Shakespeare and Elizabethan drama. Some of the greatest instances of wordings in literature are Shakespeare’s soliloquies. Eliot accepts this fact. “The really fine rhetoric of Shakespeare occurs in situations where a character in the play sees himself in a dramatic light” (Eliot, 1920).
A lot of people may not have read Hamlet. But they do know the lines of the greatest soliloquy in all of drama: “To be, or not to be, that’s the question.”
It’s a simple, yet profound example of how memorable these soliloquies are.
But, Shakespeare is far more than just the “To be’” soliloquy. There’s Richard’s “Now is the winter of our discontent”. Followed by Macbeth’s “be-all and end-all”. And Prospero’s epilogue, Shylock’s speech on equality – the list goes on.
The Soliloquy Offers a Peak in a Character’s Thoughts
Each of Shakespeare’s soliloquies gives us insight into the character’s thoughts. Through them, the audience understands the character in a way that the other characters of the plays can’t. If spoken directly to the audience, the soliloquy is an “aside”.
The Aside Soliloquy
The “aside” soliloquy is like a secret that the character entrusts with the reader. And, they become accomplices in the way the character acts. They know a secret of theirs no one else knows.
The soliloquy is an ingenious method of the Elizabethan drama playwrights. And Shakespeare was the solemn ruler over the rest. He crafted the most memorable and profound soliloquies.
T. S. Eliot on Shakespeare’s Universality
What makes Shakespeare stand out from other playwrights are his timeless plays.
We can take any and give it a modern spin without it losing its meaning. Eliot understands this universality of Shakespeare. “Shakespeare is ‘universal’ (if you like) because he has more of these tones than anyone else” (Eliot, 1920). Eliot, again, refers to the ‘borrowing’ that happened in Elizabethan times. After all, it’s no secret that Shakespeare borrowed from Surrey, Marlowe, and Kyd.
Everyone had a specific tone of writing. But, Shakespeare has them all, hence Eliot calling him ‘universal’. Shakespeare managed to perfect everything that he borrowed. This includes the blank verse, the sonnet, the tragedy, and the comedy.
The genius of the Bard is because he didn’t limit himself to a specific tone of writing. Which is what his contemporaries did. Instead, he wrote everything to perfection.
The Sacred Wood: “Hamlet and His Problems”
To view Hamlet as a villain rather than a tragic hero is a repeating topic. It’s like this: He is walking the plank if you will. He sometimes leans to the good side, sometimes to the bad side, but he never falls over in the water.
“FEW critics have even admitted that Hamlet the play is the primary problem, and Hamlet the character only secondary’ (Eliot, 1920). Eliot considers Hamlet one of the major problems of the play.
He argues against the exaggerated modern view on Hamlet. The studies of human psychology happening in Eliot’s lifetime are why he gave this argument.
Sadly, he makes the same mistake that he argues against: Not viewing the play as it should be. Hamlet requires a timeless perspective not burdened by psychological analyses. Nor burdened by religion (as is the case with D.H. Lawrence). Instead, Eliot views it from the prism of the psychological.
Sure, Hamlet does have his problems. But, to reduce him to a mere mentally deranged character is just horrible. Eliot states that “Shakespeare tackled a problem which proved too much for him”. But that is the whole point of the greatness of Hamlet! If he were to be so shallow and understandable by anyone, he wouldn’t have been so great. He would’ve been mediocre.
”Hamlet Is the Mona Lisa of Literature”
Critics often concentrate their arguments around Shakespeare’s most famous works. But, Eliot expands his critical horizon further. “Coriolanus may be not as ‘interesting’ as Hamlet, but it is, with Antony and Cleopatra, Shakespeare’s most assured artistic success. And probably more people have thought Hamlet a work of art because they found it interesting, than have found it interesting because it is a work of art. It is the Mona Lisa of literature” (Eliot, 1920).
A bold statement. But, it proves my notion that sometimes literary geniuses limit themselves. In the case of Eliot, he views something as great as Hamlet through the confines of the psychological.
Comparing a static object, no matter how great or how alive it might seem, to the actual living and breathing Hamlet… Hamlet is everyman! You can’t! He’s burdened by problems like you and I. He tries to resolve them by making mistakes and trying to rectify and learn from each. Like you and I. He has traits shared by all of us and this is why he’s so appealing. Hamlet is not a great tragic character – he is you and I. He is us.
And Hamlet’s like this for a reason. People identify with him and his suffering. And, they leave the performance with a better version of their former selves, which you might know as catharsis.
Eliot over-analyzes Hamlet from a psychological view. He tries to derail the reader from the fact that Shakespeare perfected everything he appropriated. He tries to make you think the Bard was a mediocre writer that was not at all original. And he degrades Hamlet to a lunatic and mocks the cliché lines in the plays.
He even went as far as saying people appreciate the play Hamlet only because they see others do it.
But, in the end, his analysis is lacking. He can’t see the greatness of how Shakespeare’s elements in his plays work. How the bard created his characters in the plays as real people. And this is why although he’s a great poet, he’s a mediocre critic.


Special Report: Women Offenders
Women now represent a significant proportion of all offenders under criminal justice supervision. Numbering more than 1 million, female offenders make up 17 percent of all offenders, or one in every six offenders, under some form of correctional sanction. The vast majorities (85 percent) are under community supervision and are typically on probation. The total number of women under correctional control increased 81 percent from 1990 to 2000, while the number of men increased 45 percent.
The increase in the number of women under correctional supervision has called attention to the status of women in the criminal justice system and to the particular circumstances they encounter. The first step in understanding women offenders in the criminal justice system is to understand gender-based characteristics. In addition to offense and demographic characteristics, the specific life factors that shape women’s patterns of offending should be looked at when dealing with women offenders.


A recent study that looked into seven national surveys covering the health of Chinese teenagers for two decades has revealed that there has been a significant decrease in fitness among the youth in China despite better nutrition.
The findings, which are derived from surveyed data between 1985 to 2014, found that the Chinese youth has been getting fatter, weaker and lazier over the years.
“In 1989, male students would ‘fail’ physical exams if they took more than three minutes and 55 seconds to run 1,000 meters. That standard was lowered to four minutes and 32 seconds in 2014,” Nanjing University of Science and Technology motor development specialist Wang Zongping was quoted as saying.
While the research also discovered that Chinese students have generally grown taller and bigger, they are now more overweight and have poorer eyesight, which researchers believe is mainly due to lack of exercise.
“Our survey found that more than half of male students with junior middle school education and above can’t complete a single pullup,” Wang said.
The lazy lifestyle is continued beyond their adolescent years as they enter college, as more than 84% of college students are found to exercise less than one hour a day. The majority are found to spend most of their time either playing games online or studying.
Researchers noted that in the 1980s, students spent a significant amount of time engaging in physical activities such as athletic and gymnastic activities. Unfortunately, much of the fitness equipment has been removed from campuses due to parents’ complaints in the 1990s.
“If a student gets injured in class, the school is blamed,” PE teacher Shi Fei told China Daily.
With most families having only one child, the parents had the tendency to have their children pampered and over-protected.
Parents would want to ensure that their only child is protected from injuries, but as Wang pointed out, “such are normal during exercise, and are helpful for a person to better understand their own bodies.”
“We care too much about developing children’s IQ, and too little about their motor skills, team spirit and resilience. These ‘invisible’ capabilities can only be obtained through outdoor activities,” Wang said.
Earlier this year, a study published by the Lancet Medical Journal stated that China has already replaced the U.S. as the country with the greatest number of obese people in the world, rising from its number-two ranking in 2014. According to the report, the country is home to 43,200,000 obese men and 46,400,000 obese women, which accounts for 16.3% and 12.4%, respectively, of the global obese population.
The government’s “Healthy China 2030” program seeks to address this. Launched in October, the plan is to put in place better sports facilities in schools to promote healthier kids, increasing the total “exercise space” to at least 2.3 square meters per capita by 2030. Currently, the country’s facilities are only 1.5 square meters per capita.
If implemented as planned, more gymnasiums, school fields and tracks will be built across the country. All students will also be required to complete at least one hour of strenuous physical activity three times a week.
“Healthy China should begin with Sporting China,” Wang said. “Schools should encourage students to step out of the classroom and onto the playing field. We should restore the health and happiness of our young people.”


Always Give Babies Room to Breathe!
Hundreds of Texas babies die in their sleep each year - suddenly, unexpectedly, and without a clear explanation or due to accidental suffocation or strangulation. That's why it is so important to always give babies "Room to Breathe."
The ABC's of Infant sleep:
- A - Sleep Alone:
- Put babies to sleep alone with no other adult or child sharing the sleep surface
- B - On their Backs with no blankets or bedding
- Babies should sleep on their backs in a crib or on another firm surface. The surface should be clear of all objects except for a mattress, tight-fitting bottom sheet, and the baby. If the baby leaves an impression on the mattress, the surface is too soft.
- C - In a Crib and cool (70 degrees)
- Dress your baby lightly and keep the room cool.
- S - In a Smoke free environment
- Keep babies away from second hand smoke. It's bad for everyone and especially babies. Never smoke in a house with a baby and ask anyone who cares for your baby not to smoke around them.
Things to Avoid
- Don't put anything in the crib!
- Adding bumper pads, blankets, pillows, and stuffed animals to your baby's sleep surface can greatly increase the risk of suffocation or strangulation.
- Additional mattresses or cushions in a crib or play yard (i.e. Pack 'n Play) are risky too. Some surfaces may feel hard or thin, but they are made to keep your baby safe while they sleep. Your baby will be comfortable.
- Keep blankets or covers away from baby's face.
- Don't let a baby sleep or nap with adults or other children.
- Don't ever sleep with a baby if you have been drinking or are taking medications or illegal drugs.
- If you get sleepy, put the baby down in a crib or another firm surface before you take a nap. This is especially important if you are sitting on a chair, sofa or other comfortable surface where you might roll over on your baby and suffocate him or her.
- Don't leave your baby sleeping in a car seat or bouncers or similar device. Small babies can't hold their heads up and may suffocate if they fall asleep in a sitting position.


PD32 - Non-immediate type beta-lactam allergy in childhood
Clinical and Translational Allergy volume 4, Article number: P32 (2014)
Even though non-immediate type allergic reactions with beta-lactam antibiotics occur more frequently than immediate reactions little is known about the actual prevalence of non-immediate beta-lactam allergy in childhood.
To determine the rate and risk factors for non-immediate type beta-lactam allergy in children with a history of allergic reaction occurring at least 1 hour after the drug intake.
Material and method
A prospective study was performed using ENDA questionnaire in 103 children [4.8 (2.7-7.9) years, 60% male] with 124 non-immediate type hypersensitivity reactions. Prick and intradermal skin testing with major/minor determinant mixture, penicilin G, ampicillin, amoxicillin-clavulanate and the culprit drug were done. In patients with negative skin tests, patch and intradermal tests with late readings were done with the culprit drug. Drug provocation was performed in case of negative interventional tests.
Fifteen children (14.6%) with 16 non-immediate reactions (12.9%) was diagnosed as beta-lactam allergic. The drugs responsible for non-immediate type beta-lactam allergy were amoxicillin-clavulanate (75%), sulbactam-ampicillin (6.3%), penicillin (6.3%), ceftriaxone (6.3%), cefaclor (6.3%).
The diagnosis of non-immediate type beta-lactam allergy was determined by provocation tests (n=11) prick/epidermal tests (n=3), patch tests (n=2). Only angioedema was found to increase the risk for diagnosis of non-immediate type beta-lactam allergy (OR:3.8, 95%CI:1.2-11.4, p=0.009).
Diagnosis of drug allergy is also common in children with a history of nonimmediate reactions to beta-lactams. Classification due to timing of the reaction might not be appropriate to define the underlying pathogenesis of beta-lactam hypersensitivity since three patients had a positive skin test indicating IgE mediated beta-lactam allergy.Intradermal tests with late readings might not be practical in the diagnosis of non-immediate type beta-lactam allergy.
About this article
Cite this article
Cavkaytar, O., Uysal Soyer, O., Buyuktiryaki, B. et al. PD32 - Non-immediate type beta-lactam allergy in childhood. Clin Transl Allergy 4 (Suppl 1), P32 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1186/2045-7022-4-S1-P32
- Skin Test
- Positive Skin Test


January 2017 - in video, chunks of ice floating down the Danube river in Budapest.*
Serbia - the ice on the Danube reached four meters in thickness, and two Hungarian icebreakers were sent to join forces with the Serbian ones in a bid to reopen the navigation on Danube.
Hungary and Bulgaria banned shipping on the Danube, as the floating ice and shallow water made the river traffic too dangerous.
Romania - 80 vessels blocked by ice on Danube, 2 cargo transport barges hold up in the same place for two weeks, and each day counted thousands of Euros financial losses.
The people in Sfantu Gheorghe, the main village on one of the Danube’s branch towards Black Sea, were isolated for more than a month, due to ice blockage on Sfantu Gheorghe channel.**
River Danube icebound is a common phenomena, as winters with very low temperatures is specific to the climate in this part of the Europe.
Historically, the Danube and some of its tributaries have formed important trade routes across Europe, and navigation is critical in the economies of the riverside countries.
87% of the total river length is navigable, and ships can call in at 78 harbours located along the Danube, up to the Black Sea. However, winter navigation can rise significant business related issues and real life challenges for people depending on the Danube river routes.
The level of shipping and offshore activities could benefit if weather-related information used in the fluvial navigation mirror the advanced possibilities offered by today’s Earth Observation technologies.
Ice-prone waters like the Danube river is a natural phenomena that cannot be avoided, but mitigated.
The Danube river basin and the Black Sea information services are among the topics addressed by the Pathfinder Exploitation Platform, and ice coverage monitoring is one of the use cases developed.


According to recent reports by the World Bank, the North accounted for 87 per cent of all the poor people in Nigeria in 2016.
The report titled ‘Advancing social protection in a dynamic Nigeria’, released on January 28, 2020, was described as a ‘detailed analysis of the social protection sector’ in the country.
The report noted that social protection measures implemented by the government in Nigeria had not been able to address the high level of poverty, as well as the negative impact of conflicts and natural disasters.
The World Bank also highlighted in this report that although Nigeria was a richly endowed country, it had a larger proportion of the world’s extreme poor than any other nation.
The report further noted that most of the poor in Nigeria were found in the Northern part of the country.
The North-West, specifically, was described as home to almost half of all the poor in the country.
“Poverty in the northern regions of the country has been increasing, especially in the North-West zone.
“Almost half of all the poor lived in the North-West and the North accounts for 87 per cent of all the poor in the country in 2016.”
“Poverty rates in the southern zones were around 12 per cent with little variation across zones. The South-South zone saw the most significant drop in poverty from 2011-2016.
“Poverty was significantly higher in rural areas of the country in 2016. An estimated 64 per cent of all poor lived in rural areas and 52 per cent of the rural population lived below the poverty line in 2016. In contrast, the poverty rate in urban areas remained stable at 16 per cent between 2011 and 2016.”


One of the biggest proponents of NLP and its applications in our lives is its use in search engine algorithms. Google uses natural language processing (NLP) to understand common spelling mistakes and give relevant search results, even if the spellings are wrong.
Through this blog, we will help you understand the basics of NLP with the help of some real-world NLP application examples.
What is natural language processing?
Natural language processing is an AI technology that enables computers to understand human language and its delicate ways of communicating information.
Natural language processing is more than a fancy technology. It is a way of modern life, something that all of us use, knowingly or unknowingly.
Has the following ever happened to you?
You mistype a word in a Google search, but it gives you the right search results anyway.
If yes, then you have already seen NLP in action.
If this hasn't happened, go ahead and search for something on Google, but only misspell one word in your search.
Let’s search for “lawn mower,” but spell it “lan mowr.”
As you can see, Google recognized our spelling mistake in “lan mowr” and gave us a SERP for lawn mower.
It’s not just correcting our spelling mistakes; search engines and voice assistants like Google’s “Ok Google,” Apple’s “Siri,” and “Alexa” from Amazon use NLP algorithms. They enable people to search in their natural language and still find the most relevant results.
To know more about NLP and the rise of natural language searches, check out this detailed Scalenut blog, ‘What Is Natural Language Searches And How Does It Work.’
As marketers, you can use NLP tools to enhance the quality of your content. By identifying NLP terms that searchers use, marketers can rank better on NLP-powered search engines and reach their target audience.
With NLP-based chatbots on your website, you can better understand what your visitors are saying and adapt your website to address their pain points. Furthermore, if you conduct consumer surveys, you can gain decision-making insights on products, services, and marketing budgets.
Natural language processing examples every business should know
Now that you have a fair understanding of NLP and how marketers can use it to enhance the effectiveness of their efforts, let’s look at some NLP examples to inspire you.
- Search Engine Results
If you go to your favorite search engine and start typing, almost instantly, you will see a drop-down list of suggestions.
This is what Google shows when we type “FIFA World Cup.”
This is what Bing shows when we type “FIFA World Cup.”
Now, chances are very high that if you were trying to search for “FIFA World Cup,” you were going to look for upcoming matches.
This amazing ability of search engines to offer suggestions and save us the effort of typing in the entire thing or term on our mind is because of NLP.
Now, if you were to just search for “FIFA World Cup” on Google, it would show you something like this:
Okay, let’s change it up a bit.
Let’s search for “how to build a treehouse.”
As you can see, Google tries to directly answer our searches with relevant information right on the SERPs.
Whether you search for “FIFA World Cup” or “how to build a treehouse,” Google gives you the most relevant information, i.e., “FIFA world cup schedule” and “steps to build a treehouse.”
Isn’t it amazing how it almost always understands what we want even though we do not type the entire search query?
This is because of NLP.
It is through NLP’s computational linguistics methods like text classification and user intent analysis that search engines like Google produce “freakishly” relevant results.
- Predictive text and autocorrect
NLP does not just help search engines. It is also used by various applications for predictive text analysis and autocorrect. If you have used Microsoft Word or Google Docs, you have seen how autocorrect instantly changes the spelling of words.
Similar to spelling autocorrect, Gmail uses predictive text NLP algorithms to autocomplete the words you want to type.
As you can see, Gmail predicted the word “works” automatically. Such features are the result of NLP algorithms working in the background.
And it’s not just predictive text or auto-correcting spelling mistakes; today, NLP-powered AI writers like Scalenut can produce entire paragraphs of meaningful text. Users simply have to give a topic and some context about the kind of content they want, and Scalenut creates high-quality content in a few seconds.
- Email filters
Email filters are a major use-case of NLP. At first, it was just analyzing inboxes and filtering malicious or spam emails. But this feature has come a long way and evolved into categorizing emails based on the type of content they carry inside.
Today, Gmail automatically categorizes the emails in your inbox as social emails, update emails, forums, promotions, and spam with filters. It is able to do this with the help of NLP algorithms that help analyze the content of emails.
- Text analytics
As internet users, we share and connect with people and organizations online. We produce a lot of data—a social media post here, an interaction with a website chatbot there.
Wouldn’t it be great if, as an organization, you could analyze all of this data and gain useful insights about your products and services?
NLP-based text analysis can help you leverage every “bit” of data your organization collects and derive insights and information as and when required.
For instance, through optical character recognition (OCR), you can convert all the different types of files, such as images, PDFs, and PPTs, into editable and searchable data. It can help you sort all the unstructured data into an accessible, structured format.
Another use of NLP in text analysis is linguistic computation. If your website has a chatbot, you can use NLP algorithms to record all the customer interactions and answer questions such as “What does a visitor ask the most?” “Is it product- or service-related?” and “What can we do to address this and improve the customer experience?”
As much as 80% of an organization's data is unstructured, and NLP gives decision-makers an option to convert that into structured data that gives actionable insights.
Organizations in any field, such as SaaS or eCommerce, can use NLP to find consumer insights from data.
- Language translation
One of the most helpful applications of NLP is language translation. You can see this for yourself. Just visit the Google Translate website and select your language and the language you want to translate your sentences into.
As you start typing, Google will start translating every word you say into the selected language. Above, you can see how it translated our English sentence into Persian.
The amazing thing is that it is not limited to typing text; you can also use Google Voice Translator. Again, it is NLP working in the background to match English words with Persian synonyms and check for Persian grammar while translating.
- Text summarization
Another useful application of NLP is text summarization. With the help of NLP, computers can easily understand human language, analyze content, and make summaries of your data without losing the primary meaning of the longer version.
For instance, in the “tree-house” example above, Google tries to sort through all the “tree-house” related content on the internet and produce a relevant answer right there on the search results page. This is NLP-powered text summarization in action.
And it’s not just search engines. Marketers use AI writers that employ NLP text summarization techniques to generate competitive, insightful, and engaging content on topics.
Whether it's built-in software or a popular tool like Scalenut, users can choose topics, and NLP algorithms will look at the information available on that topic and generate text that is relevant to that topic.
Let’s ask Scalenut, “How did David beat Goliath?”
As you can see, our AI writer knows how David defeated Goliath. David used what he knew and made detailed plans to win the epic battle. This is similar to how marketers compete with industry giants through content marketing strategies.
The point here is that by using NLP text summarization techniques, marketers can create and publish content that matches the NLP search intent that search engines detect while providing search results.
If you are using most of the NLP terms that search engines look for while serving a list of the most relevant web pages for users, your website is bound to be featured on the search engine right beside the industry giants.
- Sentiment analysis for brand building
Sentiment analysis is a big step forward in artificial intelligence and the main reason why NLP has become so popular. By analyzing data, NLP algorithms can predict the general sentiment expressed toward a brand.
As you can see in the above example, sentiment analysis of the given text data results in an overall entity sentiment score of +3.2, which can be translated into layman’s terms as "moderately positive" for the brand in question.
NLP is used in consumer sentiment research to help companies improve their products and services or create new ones so that their customers are as happy as possible. There are many social listening tools like “Answer The Public” that provide competitive marketing intelligence.
NLP sentiment analysis helps marketers understand the most popular topics around their products and services and create effective strategies.
- Smart assistants
All of us have used smart assistants like Google, Alexa, or Siri. Whether it is to play our favorite song or search for the latest facts, these smart assistants are powered by NLP code to help them understand spoken language.
Using speech-to-text translation and natural language understanding (NLU), they understand what we are saying. Then, using text-to-speech translations with natural language generation (NLG) algorithms, they reply with the most relevant information.
If you want to know more about the relationship between NLP, NLU, and NLG, here is a Scalenut blog on NLP vs. NLU vs. NLG: What’s the difference?
- AI powered chatbots and virtual assistants
The central purpose of customer service is to solve problems. If users are unable to do something, the goal is to help them do it. This usually involves a specific set of steps to be followed. AI-powered chatbots can help customers with such problems.
Customer chatbots work on real-life customer interactions without human intervention after being trained with a predefined set of instructions and specific solutions to common problems.
And it’s not just customer-facing interactions; large-scale organizations can use NLP chatbots for other purposes, such as an internal wiki for procedures or an HR chatbot for onboarding employees.
For example, the Loreal Group used an AI chatbot called Mya to increase the efficiency of its recruitment process.
They use this chatbot to screen more than 1 million applications every year. The chatbot asks candidates for basic information, like their professional qualifications and work experience, and then connects those who meet the requirements with the recruiters in their area.
AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants are increasing the efficiency of professionals across departments. Chatbots and virtual assistants are made possible by advanced NLP algorithms. They give customers, employees, and business partners a new way to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of processes.
- Automating customer support tasks
NLP-based chatbots are also efficient enough to automate certain tasks for better customer support. For example, banks use chatbots to help customers with common tasks like blocking or ordering a new debit or credit card.
All you have to do is type or speak about the issue you are facing, and these NLP chatbots will generate reports, request an address change, or request doorstep services on your behalf.
NLP is eliminating manual customer support procedures and automating the entire process. It enables customers to solve basic problems without the need for a customer support executive.
With NLP-powered customer support chatbots, organizations have more bandwidth to focus on future product development.
- Insider threat detection and cybersecurity
In today’s age, information is everything, and organizations are leveraging NLP to protect the information they have. Internal data breaches account for over 75% of all security breach incidents.
As organizations grow, they are more vulnerable to security breaches. With more and more consumer data being collected for market research, it is more important than ever for businesses to keep their data safe.
It could be sensitive financial information about customers or your company's intellectual property. Internal security breaches can cause heavy damage to the reputation of your business. The average cost of an internal security breach in 2018 was $8.6 million. This number would have only gone up in 2022.
But not to worry. NLP has the solution.
Businesses can avoid losses and damage to their reputation that is hard to fix if they have a comprehensive threat detection system. NLP algorithms can provide a 360-degree view of organizational data in real-time.
Enterprise communication channels and data storage solutions that use natural language processing (NLP) help keep a real-time scan of all the information for malware and high-risk employee behavior.
For example, suppose an employee tries to copy confidential information somewhere outside the company. In that case, these systems will not allow the device to make a copy and will alert the administrator to stop this security breach.
In addition to monitoring, an NLP data system can automatically classify new documents and set up user access based on systems that have already been set up for user access and document classification.
- Content analysis and grading
One of the most interesting applications of NLP is in the field of content marketing. AI-powered content marketing and SEO platforms like Scalenut help marketers create high-quality content on the back of NLP techniques like named entity recognition, semantics, syntax, and big-data analysis.
The way this works is that NLP algorithms analyze the top-ranking pages on the internet for a given keyword and a target location. They help marketers find important NLP terms that search engines using NLP, like Google, consider very relevant to the keyword.
Also, tools like Scalenut help content creators judge the quality of their work with a proprietary content grade that checks for NLP terms and helps during the content creation process. They allow you to put your best foot forward and publish the most engaging content for your blogs, landing pages, emails, and customer questions.
There are numerous ways NLP influences search engine optimization; learn about them all in this in-depth Scalenut blog, ‘NLP SEO: What Is It And How To Use It For Content Optimization.’
Explore NLP for content marketing with Scalenut
Scalenut is an NLP-based content marketing and SEO tool that helps marketers from every industry create attractive, engaging, and delightful content for their customers.
Discover how AI technologies like NLP can help you scale your online business with the right choice of words and adopt NLP applications in real life.
Sign up for a free trial today.


To control the moths, you can purchase pesticide-free “moth traps” which have a pheromone that lures the moths in. But because each moth can lay 400 eggs into birdseed or our own cereals, pasta, and other food made from grain, it’s important to keep both our birdseed and our own food carefully sealed.
In winter in cold climates, keeping birdseed of all kinds stored in an unheated garage or back porch will keep any larvae from being active, and cold enough temperatures will kill most of them. But even in the garage, it’s important to keep birdseed well sealed in chew-proof containers to prevent other pests from gaining access. Metal garbage cans with tight covers can be ideal for keeping squirrels, raccoons, mice, rats, and other mammals out.
In warm climates or where you must store your seed indoors, make sure to keep it well sealed. Even if you don’t feed birds, noticing small moths is a good idea—they sometimes get into human food supplies before they even reach our homes. If you do notice small gray moths flying about, seal all your food, your pets’ food, and any birdseed in airtight containers and set out a moth trap or two.


Mass Effect 2 & Mass Effect 3
- Surface Temperature: -30 Celsius (5 at the equator)
In 354 CE, Garvug was considered a "bargain world," given to the krogan because no one else wanted to live on such a frozen rock. Technically a life-bearing world, Garvug had a small farm belt around its equator and well-insulated marine life in its seas.
By the turn of the century, the krogan had completely adapted, breeding hundreds of younglings per family in vast underground bunkers. By the turn of the next century, Garvug's narrow strips of coral reef had been destroyed by overfishing and pollutants, and excess krogan took to the stars to find another planet to consume. Garvug was treated as a object lesson by the Citadel Council -- the krogan could not be trusted to check their own numbers.
Today, Garvug is a frozen wasteland, home to corporate ecoengineering efforts trying to implement sustainable agri- and aqua-culture practices. Krogan and vorcha packs are a constant threat, and the corporations pay mercenaries well to keep their operations safe.
Mass Effect 3
- Note: This planet can be scanned for Prothean Data Drives.


As of 2015, there are 306 verified cases of women in the United States being executed by hanging. Eight of these cases occurred in the 20th century, between 1900 and 1937, after which hanging was gradually replaced by other methods of execution.
The earliest woman to be executed by hanging in the United States was Jane Champion, who was hanged in 1632 in Virginia for an unknown offense. The last woman executed by hanging was Mary Homes in 1937 in Mississippi for the robbery of her employer. The vast majority of women who were hanged were convicted of murder, though 26 were convicted of witchcraft and seven of arson.


500,000 BC Paleolithic to Romano British
This Chronicle begins with the Paleolithic or Stone Age. We can look at evidence of ancient sites around to give us clues about the beginning of farming in the area of Grovehill and its history.
A flint axe was found in Gaddesden Row.
Some of the farms lower down obtained their water from shallow wells, or springs, but those higher up had to depend on ponds dug in the clay and lined with 'puddled' clay right up until piped water reached them. Cox's Pond was one of these ponds and was only recently filled in.
These upland clays have been settled since at least Neolithic times.
Hunter-Gatherers used bows and arrows to kill their prey.
Trees were felled, fences erected to enclose cattle, houses were built and the clearance of the woodland and the struggle to grow crops was started. It is suggested that by now the land was mostly cleared of woodland except for areas like Howe Grove, Dunster Copse and High Wood which were preserved areas for timber.
Loyalty to the local tribe, Free men
A nearby Iron Age settlement, Aubreys, beside the road on the way to St Albans, its preservation so important that the M1 had to curve round it.
Briden's Camp appears on many maps
Another Iron Age settlement, Verlamion which means 'settlement above the marsh' was a little further along the same road. Hemel Hempstead probably started as a settlement above the marsh. The 'marsh' at Verulamium was around the Ver. Hemel Hempstead probably started as a settlement above the marsh by the Gade.
The people lived in large family groups, with houses grouped together in settlements surrounded by earth banks and ditches.
Loyalty to a stronger greater tribe, the Catuvellauni, free men
About 15BC Verlamion became the centre of a powerful tribe of warriors called the Catuvellauni and possibly local men joined them in the defence of their tribe and land.
An aristocracy emerged, including the Druids who were responsible for religion, law and learning, but it was the farmers on the chalk valleys and in the clearings who were creating the wealth.
The people lived in large family groups, with houses grouped together in settlements in round houses surrounded by earth banks and ditches.
The Catuvellauni tried to defend Britain against the early Roman invasions but were defeated by a superior army.
Loyalty to the local tribe, some slaves, most freemen
Loyalty to a greater tribe, some slaves most freemen
Druids written about


April 19, 2021
Professor Christopher Petkov
While we have focused on updates on Covid-19 vaccines and their reliance on research with non-human animals, including primates (as an example, see here), two more Developments focused on treatments for AIDS and Zika fever have caught our attention.
These fall under the theme #MPAR, made possible by animal research.
Permanently stop the HIV virus
the Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) is caused by the The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and its variants. If a person is infected with this blood-borne virus, the virus causes severe impairment of the immune system which could be fatal. AIDS makes a person vulnerable to diseases which, moreover, are well controlled by the immune system.
Current treatments for AIDS include antiviral drugs that must be taken throughout a person’s life to control the virus. Taking antivirals for such a long time can have side effects. However, antivirals can be very effective in keeping the virus at bay, reducing both the likelihood of the disease occurring and the virus being passed on to others.
Other treatments involve vaccines that help protect the person against HIV or are therapeutic in people with HIV to reduce their dependence on antiviral drugs. The problem is that HIV viruses, like all viruses, change or mutate regularly. These changes by the virus can sometimes give it the ability to evade an otherwise effective vaccine against other variants. Thus, scientists must remain vigilant and regularly obtain scientific information on how vaccines could be updated to help the body fight viruses.
There is also a need to better understand how to stimulate the body’s responses to fight the virus, thereby making vaccines more effective. For example, there is still hope that a highly effective HIV vaccine that helps immune cells, such as T lymphocytes to destroy cells in the body infected with the virus, could potentially eliminate the virus entirely from an infected person.
This ongoing process of vaccine development and refinement relies on #animal research and, as such, can be labeled #MPAR.
Animal research can also provide information about the safety and likely side effects of potential vaccines, as well as information that cannot be obtained in humans about the impact of the disease on the cells of the body or on the human body. how vaccines work.
Animal research, however, needs to be closely related to human variants of the disease (HIV), which can be done through tests comparing the effects on both non-human animals and humans. For example, monkeys are affected by the monkey variants of the virus known as Simian immunodeficiency virus (IF V). However, the variants of the virus are not identical, which necessitates the additional step of performing the direct comparison with the variants of human HIV. Rather than assuming that because the vaccine is effective in monkeys it will also work in humans, this hypothesis needs to be scientifically tested. There are also several types of human variants of HIV, which may require different vaccines for each human variant.
This permanent scientific effort emphasizes the need for efficient animal models and research may continue even years after the first series of vaccines have been developed. It also highlights the need for scientists to explore different vaccine options, including better understanding how vaccines work and how safe they are, whereby research with relatively few animals can have a significant positive impact on human medicine and health.
Breakthrough in HIV vaccination efforts
Researchers from Oregon Health Sciences University recently published several scientific papers to report on potential improved treatment for SIV and link to human HIV. Their approach is based on a cytomegalovirus (a modified beneficial version of a herpes virus). By understanding how the vaccine works and how it can be modified to be more effective against SIV in monkeys, scientists have obtained evidence to suggest that it is likely to be highly effective against HIV, also establishing the scientific bridge with humans along the way by modifying the vaccine. the means necessary to be effective against HIV.
This exciting news is a direct result of research on non-human primates for a disease that, since its inception, has claimed more than 34 million lives.
This promising improved vaccine can now enter clinical trials to be evaluated for its effectiveness. Even if the vaccine being tested does not work as well as expected in clinical trials, the established animal research foundation will help accelerate future modifications and improvements to the vaccine.
Thus, #animalresearch will continue to be an important part of the scientific foundation that both supports current potential treatment and leads to future ones, even if not all scientific studies with research animals lead directly to a clinical trial in the man.
Zika virus vaccine goes to preclinical testing
the Zika The virus is spread by mosquitoes and causes mild or no symptoms, but it can cause serious birth defects in the baby of an infected pregnant woman. This is not to say that there is little impact on the infected person, as some people infected with the Zika virus may suffer from disorders like Guillain Barre syndrome, where the immune system attacks the peripheral nervous system affecting a person’s ability to move and feel. Currently, a number of potential Zika virus vaccines are in clinical trials.
The University of Connecticut recently reported on a Zika vaccine in preclinical studies. Scientists used the genetic sequence of the virus to create virus-like particles. Introducing these particles into the body as a vaccine can stimulate the immune response against the virus and thus protect the individual against Zika infection.
The use of viral-like particles makes the vaccine safer as the particles themselves are biologically designed not to cause infection. This strategy is similar to some of the Covid-19 vaccines which have been developed to introduce a prickly protein from the Covid-19 virus to induce the immune system to fight viral infection, but which in itself will not harm the body. .
the Scientists at the University of Connecticut tested the effectiveness of the Zika vaccine in mice. The results of their preclinical studies with mice were promising and now have the potential to lead to clinical trials in humans to assess their efficacy in humans.
At a time when, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, we are finally starting to see the number of lives lost to the disease drop dramatically thanks to prevention and vaccination efforts, these new developments give us confidence in scientists who work for global benefit.
The scientific benefits of animal research will be a relief not only for Covid-19 containment efforts, but also for the many other diseases that affect millions of people, such as those caused by the HIV and Zika viruses.


If you’re the parent of an adolescent, you know the joy: moodiness, defiance, confusion and reckless behaviors interspersed with the sweet child you used to know. It can be frustrating, tiring and nerve-wrecking, but it’s just nature at work. More specifically it’s your child’s brain at work, creating a swirling tsunami of electrical pathways—with a surge of changing hormones added in just for fun.
Adolescence stretches over several years. It can start as early as 10 and continues until around age 25. That’s a long time for parents to watch (and attempt to handle) their teens’ emotional turmoil, questionable antics and clouded judgment. It oftentimes leaves parents to think they’re doing something wrong. But understanding what’s happening inside the brain can not only help you endure; it can also help inform your parenting decisions.
During adolescence, the brain is under construction; developing physically from back to front. That means the brain’s CEO, the prefrontal cortex, responsible for decision-making, planning, problem-solving and impulse control doesn’t fully develop until adulthood. In the meantime, there is still a lot going on up in their unpredictable heads. Let’s take a look.
Phase 1 – Blossoming.
During this phase, the brain is exploding with new electrical pathways. These pathways, called dendrites, create abundant connections in the brain. The overproduction allows for extensive growth and learning during this period, but it also leads to fuzzy thinking, difficulty planning and slowed decision-making. Think of a road map with a thousand different routes to choose from. That’s what it’s like trying to make decisions for your adolescent child.
Phase 2 – Pruning.
Once all those dendrites have exploded in the brain, it’s time to prune them back, as the brain begins stripping away the unused dendrites in a “use it or lose it” fashion. Pruning is a crucial stage because it presents a window of opportunity where positive patterns of behavior and thinking can be reinforced. Conversely, it’s also a time when negative patterns, such as poor self-esteem or aggression can be locked in. Once these patterns are locked, they follow us into adulthood and become very difficult to change. It’s an important time to engage your adolescents in prosocial activities such as sports, music and other hobbies.
Phase 3 – Myelination.
Each time a connection is used it becomes coated or insulated with a protective myelin sheath. This causes the connection to become stronger and faster but also seals the connection, making it harder to undo or change. So if you start an unhealthy habit during adolescence—like smoking cigarettes, cutting or self-medicating—it’s harder to quit during adulthood because that behavior was set during the myelination process. The upside is that it also seals in the good stuff too, like being able to play a musical instrument or speaking a foreign language. The earlier you are able to help a child or teen learn to manage their emotions, the better off they will be moving into adulthood because those positive coping skills will be reinforced and locked in during this process.
Understanding these phases helps make sense of what’s going- but it’s only one part of the puzzle. A sea of raging hormones are also at play, creating utter chaos in your child’s brain and body.
Boys and Testosterone
During adolescence, boys experience testosterone surges up to 1,000 times the concentration experienced during childhood or adulthood. These surges stimulate the brain’s emotional center, the amygdala, causing increases in behaviors like impulsivity and aggression. Additionally, levels of the feel-good hormone dopamine drop significantly so boys are more likely to engage in risk-taking behaviors in an effort to replace that diminished pleasure. Boys also experience mild levels of depression during adolescence due to decreases in serotonin levels.
Girls and Myriad Hormones
Girls have their own set of hormonal changes to balance. For them, increases in estrogen and progesterone destabilize the amygdala (again, responsible for emotions) creating significant shifts in mood and amplified emotions (imagine a girl screaming when she sees her favorite pop star). Girls also experience a significant reduction in serotonin levels, making them more susceptible to moderate to high levels of depression.
Three Tips for Parents
Adolescents tend to think more concretely so it’s important to be very black and white. Ask specifically what you want from them. Don’t assume they know what you want (same goes for spouses here!). For example, if you want your child to take the garbage out before dinner, state specifically “Please take the garbage out before you sit down for dinner” rather than just “make sure to take the garbage out” which can be left open to interpretation.
It’s also important to try to pick and choose your battles. This can be difficult, but remember, your child is in a phase where they are seeking independence—fights and arguments are their way of figuring things out. Don’t engage in these battles if you can help it. Use assertive communication instead of arguing back, or state politely that you would be happy to talk things through once they have calmed down. Avoid words such as “need” or “should” to bypass the dreaded “I don’t NEED to do anything!” argument.
Finally, the most important thing you can do is to try and model the behaviors you want to see from them. If you want your child to show follow-through and accountability, then you need to model this behavior for them. If you want your child to calm down in moments of frustration, you can help by modeling calm behavior yourself. Try deep breathing or taking a “time out” to cool off. It’s OK if sometimes you lose your cool; you’re human, after all. If you don’t respond the way you wish you would have, just apologize. It’s an amazing opportunity for you to model accountability and helps repair the relationship after an argument.
Article by Caryn Brakenridge, MA, LPCC. Originally appeared in Coulee Parenting Connection. Reprinted with permission.


Since the advent of aircraft, warplanners have sought effective means of downing these threats through both air-based and ground-based means. Early-generation solutions centered on airborne interceptors and ground-based fire and these were eventually succeeded by missiles due largely to developments of the Cold War period (1947-1991). The "Javelin" was developed by the British concern of Thales Air Defence along these lines - existing as a short-ranged man-portable unit or dedicated airspace denial weapon system. Succeeding the "Blowpipe" weapon system, it was eventually taken into service by the forces of Botswana, Canada, Malaysia, Peru, South Korea, and the British Army and Marine services. It is known to have seen action in the Soviet-Afghan War (1979-1989), the Falklands War (1982) (achieving rather poor results), and the Persian Gulf War (1991).
Requiring a minimum crew of just one operator, the Javelin weighs in at 54lb for the system component and an additional 24lb for the missile - totaling nearly 80lb when made ready-to-fire. It has an overall length measuring 4.6 feet and the launch tube has a diameter of 76mm. The man-portable version of the Javelin can carry and fire just one missile while three missiles are used in the heavier, static configuration ("Javelin LML") for repeat-fire as well as enhanced downing capabilities against low-flying aircraft. The LML model can also be fitted to vehicles for mobility.
The missile carries a High-Explosive (HE) warhead weighing 6lb and detonation can occur through either impact force / direct contact or proximity fuze means. Propulsion is by way of a solid-fuel rocket motor, allowing the missile to reach speeds of Mach 1.7 when chasing down targets. Guidance is by way of a Semi-Automatic Command Line-of-Sight (SACLOS) arrangement via radio frequency - the operator sights the weapon through a T.V. camera / magnification (6x) optics set. Accuracy is dampened somewhat when attempting to target enemies behind smoke.
In British military service, the Javelin has been superseded (on paper) by the "Starburst" system. This, in turn, has been taken over by the "Starstreak" system.


If the state of New Jersey isn’t the first “Jersey,” then where is the original? Let’s take a look at the origins of our favorite state’s name.
As it turns out — and the people rolling their eyes and saying “duh” already know — we had a bit of help naming the state, courtesy of our friends across the pond.
History of the area
Before we get into “Jersey,” it might help to get a bit of perspective on this land mass and its original inhabitants.
History shows that the Native Americans were the first people to live on this land some 10,000 years ago. Although the Native Americans generally lived in smaller communities, the Lenni-Lenape were a predominant group. They referred to the area as Scheyichbi, which may have meant “land of the shell money.” When the Europeans arrived, they referred to these natives as the Delaware Indians.
In 1524, Giovanni da Verrazzano was the first European to explore the state, anchoring off Sandy Hook. Then, in 1609, Henry Hudson sailed through Newark Bay and, despite being British, claimed the land for the Dutch.
The area was coined “New Netherlands.” Trading colonies near Hoboken and Jersey city would appear. Traders from the Netherlands, Sweden and Finland became the first Europeans to permanently settle in New Jersey.
The township of Bergen was founded in 1660 and became the first permanent European settlement in the Garden State. However, the name “New Netherlands” would later drop off as the Dutch lost the land to the British, who added it to their colonies in 1664.
Why the name “Jersey?”
A British Crown Dependency, the Island of Jersey is located off the northwest coast of France and is the largest of the Channel Islands. Jersey, formally known as the Bailiwick of Jersey, remained loyal to the British Crown during the English Civil War in the 1600s.
In the 1640s, Charles II of England, the Prince of Wales, was granted sanctuary on the Island of Jersey during the war. Following his father’s death, Charles II was publicly proclaimed King of England while on the island in 1649.
As king, Charles divided the lands of North America, and the region between New England and Maryland was given to his brother, the Duke of York (who later became King James II). That land would then be divided between two men considered the utmost loyal to the crown during the English Civil War: Sir George Carteret and Lord John Berkeley of Stratton.
Of course, if you didn’t know, Sir Carteret had been governor of the Island of Jersey. Thus, the land was named the Province of New Jersey. Sound familiar?
Where did the nickname “Garden State” come from?
Have you ever thought it was strange that New Jersey, home to the Turnpike and the densest of populations in America, has the word “Garden” in its nickname?
As it turns out, the nickname is credited to Abraham Browning, an attorney, politician and farmer who first uttered the phrase on New Jersey Day at the 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia.
He noted that the Garden State is a massive barrel that’s filled with good things to eat (true) and open at both ends (true?), with Pennsylvania grabbing from one end and New York at the other. Others believe one of our founding fathers, Benjamin Franklin, made a similar analogy.
In the 1950s, the New Jersey state legislature passed a bill to put “The Garden State” on license plates, but former Gov. Robert Meyner found no official recognition of the nickname in reference to New Jersey. He would veto the bill, but the decision was later overrode by the legislature, and the slogan was added to the license plates.
There you have it: New Jersey is Jersey and Jersey is the Garden State. As far as we’re concerned, the only Jersey. No offense, other Jersey.
Connor Iapoce is a freelance features writer for Jersey’s Best. He frequently writes about travel, entertainment and family, in addition to human-interest subjects.
I found this article regarding my Home State to be remarkably educational. I really enjoyed reading it. Thank you for the History. I was born and raised in Hoboken always knew the Hudson River docks in Hoboken was at one time had alot of import and export.
I was taken in the same way—born and raised in Perth Amboy—never new (or forgot) the why of a lot of names. Jersey-isle of Jersey. Carteret- his bailiwick. Garden State-the abundance that feeds New York and Pennsylvania. First inhabitants about 10000 years ago.
The real jersey, not New Jersey.
Jersey channel island is a beautiful place to live!
Please send information to marcriedler 72walraven dr teaneck nj 07666 apt 1a
Maybe the “only Jersey” to you, but you should be proud to be linked to what we refer to in the company of American as the “original Jersey”. It never ceases to amaze me that the origin of the name “New Jersey” is little known to the residents, so it was a pleasure to read your accurate article. It’s a truly beautiful island – come and see for yourself!


The hydrogeologic framework at Camp Lejeune consists of the surficial, Castle Hayne, Beaufort, and Peedee aquifers and intervening confining units. The Castle Hayne aquifer furnishes about 7 million gallons of water per day to Camp Lejeune, but the surficial, Beaufort, and Peedee aquifers, which contain freshwater in places, are not used for supply.
The Castle Hayne aquifer is composed of 60 to 90 percent sand and limestone with clay and silt beds, and ranges from 156 to 400 feet thick. Hydraulic conductivity of the aquifer ranges from 14 to 91 feet per day.
The Castle Hayne confining unit, which overlies the Castle Hayne aquifer, is composed of silt and sandy clay and averages 9 feet thick where present. This confining unit is incised by the New River and its tributaries, as well as some paleochannels.
The effects of pumping from the Castle Hayne aquifer have not significantly affected natural head gradients in the aquifer. However, the potential exists for lateral migration of saltwater where wells are located near streams or paleochannels that have incised the confining unit.
Except for one measurement of 960 milligrams per liter chloride in a water sample from the bottom of the Castle Hayne aquifer, dissolved-chloride concentrations in water samples from the Castle Hayne aquifer were less than 120 milligrams per liter. It is not known whether this occurrence of saltwater in the Castle Hayne aquifer is widespread or localized, but its presence indicates a potential for upward movement of saltwater beneath pumped wells.
Additional Publication Details
USGS Numbered Series
Hydrogeologic framework of U.S. Marine Corps Base at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina
Water-Resources Investigations Report
U.S. Geological Survey ;Books and Open-File Reports [distributor],


Maryland is a state in the Southern United States with a population of 6,003,435 and land area of 9,707 square miles. It ranks as the 19th largest state by population and the 9th smallest state by area.
Race and Ethnicity
According to the most recent estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau, 51.40% of state residents identify as white, 29.30% as Black or African American, 0.20% as American Indian or Alaska Native, 6.20% as Asian, 0.00% as Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander, 9.80% as Hispanic or Latino, and 3.10% as some other race or combination of races.
Nationally, some 61.1% of Americans identify as white, 12.3% as Black or African American, 0.7% as American Indian or Alaska Native, 5.4% as Asian, 0.2% as Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander, 17.8% as Hispanic or Latino, and 2.6% as some other race or combination of races.
Census respondents are also asked to report ancestry. Some of the most commonly reported ancestries in Maryland include German, Irish, English, Italian, and American. Measured by location quotient -- comparing the state share to the national share -- some of the most highly concentrated ancestries in Maryland are Sierra Leonean, Ugandan, and Nigerian.
Native and foreign-born population
An estimated 84.90% of Maryland residents are native-born, meaning they were born in the United States, Puerto Rico, a U.S. Island Area, or abroad to a U.S. citizen.
Of the 15.10% of the population that is foreign-born, 51.20% have become naturalized U.S. citizens. Nationwide, 86.5% of Americans are native-born. And of the 13.5% of Americans who are foreign-born, 48.8% have become naturalized U.S. citizens.
The population of Maryland is about as old as the United States as a whole. The median age in the state is 38.6 years old, 0.7 years more than the national median age of 37.9 years. An estimated 14.60% of the population is 65 years and over, compared to 15.2% of the U.S. population.
Family and household composition
Family and household composition also varies heavily across the United States. In Maryland, 48.10% of households are occupied by married-couple families, compared to the 48.3% national figure. Some 4.80% of households are occupied by single male householders, 14.00% by single female householders, and 33.10% by non-family occupants. Nationwide, 4.9% of households are occupied by single male householders, 12.6% by single female householders, and 34.3% by non-family occupants. An estimated 66.80% of heads of household own their homes, compared to the national homeownership rate of 63.8%.
As is the case across the United States, English is the most commonly spoken language in Maryland. Of the 5,637,300 people aged 5 and up living in Maryland, 93.2% speak English exclusively, or, if they are multilingual, speak English very well. English usage is about as common in the state as it is nationwide where an average of 91.5% of the 5 and older population only speaks English, or speak it very well.
Spanish is the second most commonly spoken language in the United States. In Maryland, 8% of the population aged 5 and older speaks Spanish, the 17th largest share among all states. Nationwide, 13.3% of all Americans in the same age group speak Spanish.
Residents of Maryland are about as likely to be married than the typical American. Of the 4.9 million Maryland residents aged 15 and older, 47.3% are currently married, compared to 48.1% of Americans nationwide in the same age group. Divorceis also about as common in the state as it is nationwide. In Maryland, 10% of the 15 and older population is divorced, compared to the 10.8% share of the same age group across the U.S. as a whole.
An estimated 35% of Maryland residents 15 and older have never married, compared to one-third of Americans in the same age group.
In Maryland, 8% of the 18 and over population are veterans -- above the 7.5% of adult civilians who have served in the military nationwide. Compared to other states, Maryland is home to the 19th smallest share of military veterans.
As is the case nationwide, the largest share of veterans living in the state served in the Vietnam era. Of Maryland’s 372,500 resident veterans, 3.8% served in World War II, 31.2% served in the Vietnam War, 25.9% served in the period between the beginning of the Gulf War and 2001, and 23.5% served since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. An additional 27,000 men and women served during the Korean War.
In Maryland, adults are more likely to have a high school education than the typical American adult, and are also more likely to have a four-year college education. Among Maryland residents 25 and older, 90% have a high school diploma or equivalent, and 39.6% have a bachelor’s degree or higher, compared to 87.7% and 31.5% of adults nationwide, respectively.
Though it is not always the case, incomes tend to rise with educational attainment rates across broad populations -- and Maryland is no exception. With a higher than average bachelor’s degree attainment rate, the state also has a higher than average median income. The typical household in Maryland earns $81,868 a year, about $21,600 more than the national median household income of $60,293.
Additionally, Maryland has a higher than average concentration of wealthy residents. An estimated 11.7% of households in the state earn $200,000 or more annually, compared to 7.0% of households nationwide.
With the higher than average median household income, serious financial hardship is less common in the state than it is nationwide. The poverty rate in Maryland stands at 9.4%, while the national poverty rate is 14.1%.
Read More About Population and Demographics
24/7 Wall St. has published population and demographic data for all 50 states and over 29,000 cities across the country. Search for a city or state to view here:See a list of all available cities in Maryland by clicking here.
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We give students grades for two reasons. First, they fulfill our professional responsibility to certify mastery of material. That is, they measure how much and how well students have learned. But we also use grades to promote learning. Writing a paper or taking an exam forces students to confront content and in the process they learn the material, to varying degrees, of course. That benefit accrues before the work is graded.
But what about when the graded work is returned? Does the feedback that accompanies grades positively impact subsequent learning? Faculty think so—69 percent of faculty surveyed in the study referenced below said that it frequently motivated learning. Stand that percentage against the 25 percent of the students surveyed who said that grading never motivated learning. (Most of the students said that it did sometimes.)
A couple of other questions about grades and feedback are equally revealing. Does the feedback faculty provide prompt students to discuss their work with the teacher? Sixty-three percent of the faculty said that it did so frequently; 50 percent of the students said that it never did. Does the feedback provided improve learning? About half the faculty said that it did so frequently; only 15 percent of the students agreed that it did so frequently.
Wow! Those are some pretty significant perceptual differences! It might take some courage, but how about asking students about the feedback provided in your courses? Questions like these: How useful do you find the feedback provided on your work in this class? How useful is the feedback in developing your skills and understanding of course content? How often do you refer to the feedback provided when preparing a subsequent assignment? How often do you feel like discussing the feedback on papers, projects and exams with the teacher of this course? Rate the extent to which the feedback provided in this course motivates you to work harder. These questions can be asked as open-ended queries or simple scales (not at all useful, somewhat useful, useful most of the time, always useful) can be attached.
Why are students’ perceptions of grades and feedback important? Because nothing motivates students quite as powerfully as grades and teachers are in control of grading processes.
Reference: Maclellan, E. (2001). Assessment for learning: The differing perceptions of tutors and students. Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education, 26 (4), 307-318.


In our exploration of the components on the Buddha’s Noble Eightfold Path, we have examined the wisdom of Right View and Right Thought and the moral implications of Right Speech, Right Action and Right Livelihood. Last week we discussed Right Effort, and tonight we’ll look at Right Concentration.
Concentration means focusing on an object with undivided attention.
Every spiritual tradition has techniques to promote concentration, such as centering the attention on prayers, chants, mantras, mudras, prostrations, mandalas, or candlelight.
In Vipassana meditation practice, we use the sensation of breath as the main object of our attention.
Concentration brings stability and tranquility to the practice, allowing the mind to stay focused and still.
In our culture, we tend to move rapidly through noisy environments and to fill up our lives with activities.
Our minds can become dispersed and overwhelmed with stimuli.
Concentration helps us to pause and slow down.
Meditation teacher Arinna Weisman likens the untrained mind to a dispersed herd of sheep with no sheepdog to guide them.
The benefits of concentration motivate us to make an effort to round up stray thoughts and impulses.
We’ve all enjoyed moments when we are so focused on a particular activity that we lose track of time. When I’m absorbed in reading a good book, I feel content in the present moment, and I forget about any physical discomfort.
My teacher Jack Kornfield says that to concentrate the mind means to collect it, to have it become steady, like a candle flame in a windless place, where it barely flickers.
Over the past weeks, we’ve discussed how living simply and cleanly support conditions for peace of mind, which is essential for developing concentration.
I can focus more easily when my desk is clear, and my environment is organized, and when I am free of remorse about unskillful words or actions.
When we begin to practice meditation, the mind may jump around or seem dull and drowsy.
Each time we guide our attention back to the anchor of the breath, we are strengthening the mental muscles of concentration.
Gradually, we learn to bring a more seamless attentiveness to our experience, without so many random thoughts fragmenting our perception.
Sometimes the mind is quiet in a dreamy, hazy, undefined way, which is not concentrated.
A skillful remedy is to use Right Effort to raise enough energy to focus the attention and to infuse the calm state with the alertness of Right Concentration.
At other times the mind is overly active and restless.
One technique for steadying attention is to count breaths from one to ten.
You can try noting “1” after a cycle of inhaling and exhaling, “2” after the next cycle, and so on… If your mind wanders, gently bring the attention back to the breath, and start again with number “1.” The point is not to reach “10,” but to use the numbers to notice whether or not you are still concentrating on the sensation of breathing.
Another way to establish a steady focus note is to note “in” each time you inhale and “out” each time you exhale.
Or you can note “in-out-space,” paying attention to the spaces in between each breath, instead of ignoring them or filling them up with thinking.
If the mind wanders during those spaces, you can practice noting touch points in the body: where the lips touch together, the hands touch the legs, or the feet touch the floor. Noting “in-out, touching, in-out, touching” may help the attention become continuous.
Paradoxically, one of the greatest aids to concentration is relaxing.
Concentration doesn’t entail forcing your mind to stay with the breath.
Instead, with a sense of opening, softening, and receiving, concentration allows the mind to settle on the breath.
In this process, we learn how to let go of trying to control so much.
By letting go, we see that the world has a natural order that runs itself.
A young spiritual seeker hiked into mountains in India, where yogi hermits had spent decades meditating in caves. He asked one adept, “What techniques do you use?” The yogi responded, “Techniques?” The seeker continued, “Yes. Do you use a mantra or do you follow your breath?” The hermit laughed and said, “The breath, it breathes itself.”
I’ll paraphrase some of Jack Kornfield’s insights about the vital connection between breathing and Right Concentration:
We live in a sea of air, composed of gases: mostly nitrogen and oxygen, with a dash of carbon dioxide. Six to twelve times a minute we breathe this mixture into our lungs and exhale carbon dioxide to cleanse our system. We are so immersed in this ocean of air that we’re like fish in water; we don’t notice it, and most of the time we forget that we breathe it. Yet it’s essential to our physical life — connecting with it is a way to open up to our spiritual life very practically and directly.
My own experiences of connecting with the breath may remind you of similar instances in your life: After I had surgery to repair broken bones from a bike accident, I emerged from anesthesia and realized with gratitude that I was breathing on my own again. To strengthen my lungs, I had to blow hard enough into a plastic tube-like device to lift three little balls from the bottom to the top. I was aware of how much effort it takes to breathe fully. I could no longer take spontaneous breathing for granted.
Soon afterwards, I accompanied Dolma, a Tibetan friend, to the hospital room where she delivered her firstborn son. When the baby was born, there were some complications, and a midwife intervened to make sure he could breathe. While a nurse was tending to Dolma, the midwife wrapped the baby in a blanket and placed him in my arms until his mother was ready to hold him. As I watched his tiny face, he took a breath and opened his eyes with a blurry stare at me. I sensed the miracle of witnessing one of the very first breaths of this newborn child.
When my friend Andy was dying of bone cancer, his lungs filled with fluid, and he had to wait for extended periods, not knowing if the next breath would come. His longtime practice of meditation helped him stay quite calm during the last week of his life, as his breath grew slower and fainter and finally faded away. Andy inspired me and his circle of loved ones by the way he stayed connected to the breath until the very end of his life.
As Jack says, our breath is a mirror of how we are in any moment.
We seldom look in this mirror, which reflects our changing degrees of energy and openness.
Concentrating on the breath helps us understand what’s happening inside.
We learn that when we’re afraid, the breath is shallow and rapid.
With close attention, we can notice how the breath becomes coarse and intense when angry feelings arise, and how it slows down and lengthens when we calm down.
If we are feeling openhearted and connected to people around us, our breath tends to be expansive and smooth.
When the heart is closed and we feel isolated, the breath is usually constricted and superficial.
It’s unrealistic to expect the heart or the breath to be soft and open all the time.
With Right Concentration, we can observe these natural ebbs and flows in our breathing without adding unnecessary judgments.
Tuning into the breath is a practical tool for daily living.
We can concentrate on the breath to connect with movements in yoga, sports, or martial arts.
During boring or difficult meetings, paying attention to the breath can help us literally “take a breather.”
Concentrating on the breath is fertile ground for learning how to concentrate the mind.
When the mind is scattered and filled with thoughts, all we see is ordinary reality.
When it is centered and collected, the mind becomes like a steady, powerful and penetrative lens.
Like a microscope, it can investigate tiny details. And like a telescope, it can expand to perceive other levels of consciousness.
Concentration is the main path in almost every yogic and spiritual tradition for expanding our perspective about consciousness and for becoming more present with each moment.
In Vipassana meditation, when we practice in a continuous and focused way, we activate five mental factors known as jhanas. They are directed attention, sustained attention, rapture, peaceful happiness, and one-pointed concentration.
These factors counteract five classic hindrances or impediments to meditation: sleepiness, doubt, ill will, restlessness, and desire.
The effort to direct our attention towards one object counteracts drowsiness.
Sustained attention anchors the mind on one object and overcomes doubt.
Rapture suffuses the body and mind with joy and blocks ill will.
Peaceful happiness leaves no room for restlessness and worry.
One-pointed concentration blocks craving.
We can achieve such single-pointed attention by returning again and again to a fixed, relatively unchanging object like the breath.
In the Buddha’s discourses, he explains that Right Concentration involves not only focusing awareness on a single object, but also allowing the object to fill our whole awareness. Simultaneously our awareness expands to suffuse the entire object.
The mutual pervasion of awareness and object in a state of expansion is called “absorption.”
A meditator who has Right Concentration is often sensitive to the entire body while breathing in and out.
The pleasure of concentration enables the mind to stay comfortably in the present moment, stabilizing it enough to gain insights.
Because this pleasurable alertness and equanimity is more exquisite than sensory pleasures, and because it exists independently of the five senses, it can help the mind become less attached to material desire.
Even as beginners, we can take pleasure in brief periods of Right Concentration.
I’ll end with the opening lines of the Desiderata, dated 1692, and found in Baltimore’s Old Saint Paul’s Church:
“Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence.”
Are there any comments of questions about Right Concentration?