Eyegaze Edge eye tracking technology http://www.eyegaze.com/ Communicate with the world using the power of your eyes
The Eyegaze Edge is an eye-operated communication and control system that empowers people with disabilities to communicate and interact with the world. By looking at control keys or cells displayed on a screen, a user can generate speech either by typing a message or selecting pre-programmed phrases.
Eyegaze Edge Systems are being used to write books, attend school and enhance the quality of life of people with disabilities all over the world.
Virtual Multisensory Room http://www.helpkidzlearn.com/stories/sensory-room Virtual Multisensory Room
Look at the pictures and tell the story in your own words: What can you see in the multisensory room? Do you like the bubble tube or disco lights best? Click a mouse, touch the screen or press a switch to see what happens next.
A fun cause and effect activity - look at the pictures and talk about the story in your own words: What can you see in the multi-sensory room? Do you like the bubble tube or disco lights best? Touch the screen to see what happens next. Switch access for one or two switches is included for users with motor difficulties who need switch input.
Assistive Technology: Resource Roundup http://www.edutopia.org/assistive-technology-resources Assistive Technology: Resource Roundup
Edutopia's guide to assistive technology will help you navigate some of the available websites, resources, and tools related to assistive technology and accessible instructional materials: from getting started, to tips, to finding appropriate technology and need-specific resources.
Finding Assistive Technology | Tips and Tools
| Need-Specific Resources | Universal Design for Learning | Additional Resources on the Web |
5 Powerful Assistive Tech Being Used In Classrooms http://www.edudemic.com/assistive-technologies/ 5 Powerful Assistive Technologies Being Used In Classrooms
Adaptive Mousing | Closed Captioning & Subtitling | Video Magnifiers | Screen Readers | Word Talk |
Henry Evans and Chad Jenkins: Meet the robots for humanity http://bit.ly/1iwZFOs Henry Evans and Chad Jenkins: Meet the robots for humanity
ICT for Inclusion project http://bit.ly/1195khn ICT for Inclusion project
The European Agency for Development in Special Needs Education ICT for Inclusion project activities will run during 2012 and 2013. The aim is to collect information on the use of ICT for Inclusion – that is using ICT to support the learning of learners with disabilities and special educational needs in inclusive settings within compulsory education.
As a framework the project, the focus will be upon five key propositions that can be identified within the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2006) in relation to the use of ICTs in education. These propositions are ...
ICT and SEN – a case study http://www.sec-ed.co.uk/best-practice/ict-and-sen-a-case-study/ ICT and SEN – a case study
ICT has a powerful role to play in supporting the learning of children with SEN. Richard Harrold looks at the technologies that his school is using.
In my school, we use a variety of technological tools, both static and mobile, hardware and software, to engage our SEN students in deeper thinking and increasing engagement within the classroom.
The tools themselves, however, do not guarantee greater quality of learning, it is how the pedagogy changes to reflect new technology where the real difference is seen.
Introduction to Assistive Technology #webinar #SETSIG #ISTE http://setsig.iste.wikispaces.net/Professional+Development Archived Recording : Introduction to Assistive Technology #webinar #SETSIG #ISTE [March 2013]
What is “Assistive Technology”?
This session wass designed for people working in Special Education and new to the field of Assistive Technology.
It will provide a cursory fundamental overview of assistive technology (AT) as well as a snapshot of AT supports for people of different abilities, ages and environments.
Topics to be covered will include: Consideration, Student Assessment, Access Issues, Mobile Learning Devices, Accessible Instructional Materials, Intellectual, Sensory and Physical Impairments and will be highlighted through real-world examples.
A wonderful opportunity to increase your general awareness about assistive technology and have your questions answered.
Presenters : Mike Marotta and Kirk Behnke CLICK to go to the recording
Digital Citizenship for Youth with Autism Spectrum Disorders #sls13 http://admin20.org/page/summit-recordings Digital Citizenship Education for Youth with Autism Spectrum Disorders
A presentation in the 2013 School Leadership Summit #webinar #sls13
This free conference was held online, 28 March 2013, and was a unique chance to participate in a collaborative global conversation on school leadership with presentations by your peers.
Webinar using the Blackboard Collaborate platform.
One switch. One head. The world. http://youtu.be/cSSgndQ5mVs An amazing collection of (ICT & SEN) videos made by Christopher Hills (icdhills) who has cerebral palsy, which means he cannot walk or use his hands.
Camera Mouse http://cameramouse.org/ Camera Mouse is a free program that enables you to control the mouse pointer on your computer screen just by moving your head.
Camera Mouse was invented at Boston College to help people with disabilities use the computer. We make it available for free download, with no gimmicks or advertisements or registration, because we want to help as many people as possible.
MaKey MaKey http://www.makeymakey.com/ MaKey MaKey An Invention Kit for Everyone
We believe that everyone is creative, inventive, and imaginative. We believe that everyone can create the future and change the world. So we have dedicated our lives to making easy-to-use invention kits.
Before we created MaKey MaKey we worked on other creative tools and invention kits such as Drawdio, Singing Fingers, and Scratch.
What Can I Make?
That's up to you! First, load up a computer program or any webpage.
British Assistive Technology Association http://bataonline.org/ British Assistive Technology Association
To campaign for the rights and interests of those needing Assistive Technology.
To provide expert and impartial support and advice to government departments and agencies
Using Technology to Rise Above Disabilities http://bit.ly/PtfaHS The Connected Child: Using Technology to Rise Above Disabilities
The caregivers of a child with a rare genetic disorder use a range of technologies like tablets and smart phones to help her learn, track her care and provide consistent learning experiences.
50 Google+ Circles Teachers Should Know About http://bit.ly/GIgVxd 50 Google+ Circles Teachers Should Know About Special Needs
Special Educational Needs Portal Insight http://www.vital.ac.uk/portal-insight/special-educational-needs Special Educational Needs Portal Insight
The SEN portal will focus on practical help for classroom practitioners through sharing ideas, looking at what works and exploring affordable, often free, tools for supporting children.
We will try and offer something of interest to everyone, and bring ideas and opinions for them to consider and adapt to their needs. News, views, practical ideas!
TEL.A.VISION http://telavision.tv/ TEL.A.VISION is a proven Web 2.0 online curriculum and website that inspires youth, especially Special Education and At Risk youth, to create and share visions of hope and possibility through personal “vision videos.”
TEL.A.VISION personal vision videos will decrease the number of Special Education and At Risk dropouts by giving students a tool to create a new way of thinking positively about their futures, giving them more hope and more social and emotional support. As has been said many times, “Whether students believe they can or they believe they can’t, they’re right.”
inov8 http://www.inov8-ed.com inov8 Educational Consulting works with educators, families and their children with special needs, to integrate highly effective assistive technology tools into their lives at home and school. Assistive technology is software and hardware specifically designed to help bypass the difficulties associated with a disabilit
Verbally : iPad App helping with Speech Impediments http://bit.ly/hmIdad The iPad has earned itself a new useful function with the launch of the free app, Verbally.
Placed in the medical category, Verbally is an assisted speech solution that turns the iPad into a communication aid.
Verbally is listed as a potential communication aid for people with apraxia, ALS, stroke, traumatic brain injury, Parkinson’s, cerebral palsy or muscular dystrophy.
P scales Index (UK) http://www.theingots.org/community/pscales The P Scales are a set of criteria or performance descriptions "...for measuring the progress of pupils for whom the early levels of the National Curriculum are not appropriate."
"The performance descriptions have been written for use with pupils of all ages and with a range of special educational needs. The descriptions are not a full description of all that pupils might achieve. They are intended to provide a framework on to which the progress of pupils, measured using the school's own assessment scheme, can be mapped.
SEN Teacher http://www.senteacher.org/ SEN Teacher
SEN Teacher provides cost-free teaching & learning resources for students with special needs and learning disabilities. Many resources here may also be of use to educators of primary and elementary students.
Mobile Apps for the Disabled http://bit.ly/aVVDWI Mobile Apps for the Disabled
ThinkContacts is a new mobile application being developed by Nokia which would allow a disabled person to select a contact from a list and place a phone call to that person using only their mind.
iPhone Apps for (Special) Education http://bit.ly/cfpAMN iPhone, iPad and iPod touch Apps for (Special) Education
Large Pointers (free) ... give your eyes a break http://bit.ly/g8NKc Large Pointers 1.0
Over 80 additional pointers and cursors for those with visual or perceptual difficulties. Icon styles include animated, coloured, large, I-beams and circles.
The pointers have been designed here at the ACE Centre, so if you have a need or a suggestion for a particular pointer style, please let us know.
y-accessibility http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/y-accessibility/ y-accessibility is a group where users of various Yahoo! services, such as Yahoo! Home Page, Mail, Search, News, Sports, Buzz, Finance, Tech, Weather, etc, can exchange their experiences regarding the accessibility features of these and other Yahoo! products.
This group will offer:
Updates from the Yahoo! Accessibility Team.
Tips and tricks on using various Yahoo! products.
Accessible Twitter http://accessibletwitter.com/ Accessible Twitter is an alternative to the Twitter.com website.
It is designed to be easier to use and is optimized for disabled users.
Google Web Search for the Visually Impaired http://www.google.com/accessibility/ Google Accessible Web Search for the Visually Impaired "We are committed to finding accessibility solutions that make our services work better for all of our users."
Wii Therapy for Special Needs Students http://bit.ly/58Dwai Wii Therapy for Special Needs Students
The popular Wii video gaming system has revolutionized how video games are played, but did you know that it also has a valuable place in special needs classrooms?
100 Useful ICT Tools for Special Needs Students http://bit.ly/V5KLx 100 Useful ICT Tools for Special Needs Students & Educators
With all of the new trends and tools in education technology, there’s no reason for special needs students and their teachers and parents to be left behind.
This list of 100 useful tools can help anyone with a learning disability like ADHD, dyslexia or test anxiety, as well as students with visual or hearing impairments, use the Internet and other technology systems to help them with reading, math, organization, social skills, and more.
The OATS Project Consortium http://www.oatsoft.org/ The OATS Project Consortium
Open Source Assistive Technology Software
OATSoft is dedicated to improving Assistive Technology and computer accessibility through the power of Open Source development techniques. OATSoft makes the best Open Source Assistive Technology Software (OATS) easy to find.
Assistive Technology Software allows people with disabilities to overcome some of the disabling effects of society and technology, including computer and web accessibility.
This iPhone is “Touchier” Than Most http://www.yankodesign.com/2008/12/01/this-iphone-is-touchier-than-most/ This iPhone is “Touchier” Than Most .. for the visually impaired
This Silicon Touch iPhone case works in tandem with an app to allow special accessibility functions like text to speech and moon type tactile feedback. The case is engraved with modified bas-relief buttons each corresponding to a modified home screen on the iPhone. None of the phone’s functions are compromised. Multi-touch and finger flick scrolling are all intact. BRILLIANT!
Assistive Technology Tutorials by Atomic Learning http://movies.atomiclearning.com/uk/assistivetechnology Atomic Learning's Assistive Technology Collection includes short, show-and-tell video tutorials that empower educators to use and apply assistive technology. The foci of these tutorials are:
| Special education software | Assistive technology devices | Software accessibility training tutorials |
Examples of tutorials: Boardmaker 6, Overboard, WordQ, SpeakQ, Co:Writer, Inspiration, Kidspiration, as well as accessibility features in Leopard, Windows XP and Vista.
My Computer My Way http://www.abilitynet.org.uk/myway/ My Computer My Way
Do you need help in making your computer easier to use? Let's look at the many ways you can make your keyboard and mouse, Windows, the internet and your favourite applications suit you and your needs...
Computer Technology in Special Education SEN http://www.closingthegap.com/ Computers are tools that can provide solutions to many problems facing people with disabilities today.
Closing The Gap, Inc. is an organization that focuses on computer technology for people with special needs through its bi-monthly newspaper, annual international conference and extensive web site.
Technologies for K-12 Students With Special Needs USA http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/methods/technlgy/te700.htm Enhancing System Change and Academic Success
Through Assistive Technologies for K-12 Students With Special Needs USA
Assistive technologies are technologies that support students with disabilities, of which a total of 6.5 million were being served through the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) of 1997 in 2002 (Office of Special Education and Rehabilitation Services, 2002). IDEA defines an assistive technology device as "any item, piece of equipment, or product system, whether acquired commercially off the shelf, modified, or customized, that is used to increase, maintain, or improve functional capabilities of a child with a disability" (IDEA, 1997, p. 8).
Overview | Goals | Action Options | Pitfalls | Different Viewpoints | Cases | References
The Oxford ACE Centre http://www.ace-centre.org.uk/acemain.asp The Oxford ACE Centre provides a focus for the use of technology with the communication and educational needs of young people with physical and communication difficulties.
We offer a wide variety of services including in-depth individual assessments, information, and specialist training for parents and professionals.
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 (WCAG 1.0) http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/ W3C published the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 (WCAG 1.0) as a Recommendation in May 1999. This Working Draft for version 2.0 builds on WCAG 1.0. It has the same aim: to explain how to make Web content accessible to people with disabilities and to define target levels of accessibility.
Incorporating feedback on WCAG 1.0, this Working Draft of version 2.0 focuses on checkpoints. It attempts to apply checkpoints to a wider range of technologies and to use wording that may be understood by a more varied audience.
web | accessibility | SEN | ICT | IT | disability | disabilities | guidelines |
A Wearable Aid for Special Kids http://www.wired.com/news/school/0,1383,52148,00.html Jeremy Rossiter was not able to speak when he first entered Lisa Zverloff's class for the multiple-handicapped. The third-grader, who is autistic, communicated by hitting and biting.
But with the help of a wearable computer, Jeremy learned to mimic, then utter, words and small phrases.
Zverloff says the durable, touch-screen portable computers have made her students more independent and confident. Some kids use it all day; others use it for specific activities. Several students are able to fully participate in mainstream classrooms while using the devices.
IT | ICT | SEN | special needs |


Since 1998, the Universal Service Fund’s E-Rate program has funded telecommunications and broadband connections for schools and libraries around the United States. There is bipartisan agreement that the program needs to move towards funding next-generation technologies and focus on giving students access to broadband, but there isn’t a consensus on how to get there. The Senate Commerce Committee held a hearing on E-Rate reform on July 17, 2013. On July 19, the Federal Communications Commission will hold an Open Meeting at which the FCC will introduce a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on E-Rate, the first administrative step towards crafting a new framework for the program.
The FCC should:
- Adjust the E-Rate program so that it no longer funds traditional landline telephone service or other obsolete technologies, and instead focuses on connecting students to the Internet via broadband connections.
- Simplify E-Rate’s complex application process, which increases costs on schools and libraries and skews the distribution of benefits.
- Require E-Rate recipients to publicly report exactly how they are using their funding so taxpayers and the Commission can curb waste, fraud and abuse in the program.
- Ensure that funding goes to the schools and libraries who need it most, instead of those who can afford to game the system.
What is E-Rate?
The Schools and Libraries Program, colloquially known as “E-Rate,” is the portion of the Universal Service Program that funds connecting schools and libraries to telecommunications services and the Internet. The program was enacted as part of the 1996 Telecommunications Act and went into effect in 1998.
- Schools and libraries receive telecommunications and Internet access services, known as Priority One services, at a discounted rate. They also receive discounts for “internal connections,” known as Priority Two services, including the physical wires, modems, firewalls, servers, software and other such components that connect classrooms to the Internet (but not computers themselves).
- When first implemented, E-Rate had an annual funding cap of $2.25 billion. Since 2010, the cap has been adjusted for inflation, to $2.38 billion — just over $40 per student.
- Roughly 90% of the funding goes to schools; 10% to libraries.
- If accepted — after a complicated and expensive process — schools and libraries can receive discounts on communications services of between 20% and 90%, depending on the percentage of students eligible for the National School Lunch Program in the school (or in the school district where the library is located).
- All accepted requests for Priority One services are fulfilled before any Priority Two (connectivity software and hardware) funds are dispersed. Priority Two services are then funded until the annual cap has been exhausted. Typically only about 20% of requests for Priority Two services have been funded, meaning millions of dollars in requests for “internal connections” are denied every year.
- Telecommunications and Internet providers are incentivized to participate in the program because the discounts given to schools and libraries are deducted from their required Universal Service Fund contributions — essentially functioning like a tax credit.
What are the problems with the current E-Rate program?
- Priorities : E-Rate still prioritizes traditional telephone services, even paging, ahead of broadband connectivity for classrooms. The fact that Priority Two services are fulfilled after Priority One funds are dispersed means that 80% of requests for actually bringing broadband into classrooms are denied.
- Complexity : The E-Rate application process is incredibly complicated and difficult to navigate. School districts routinely hire expensive outside consultants to navigate the process or risk having their applications denied. There is a decade-long backlog of appeals for denied applications.
- Red tape: It often takes up to three years for schools and libraries to receive E-Rate funding. Each year, $400 million in allocated funds are never actually dispersed due to delays and administrative missteps.
- Accountability: There is currently no mechanism to monitor how schools and libraries use their funding.
- Uncertainty : E-Rate funding is disbursed on a year-to-year basis, which makes it difficult for administrators to plan for their own school’s needs.
- Perverse incentives : Schools that receive larger discounts have little incentive to spend their dollars efficiently. For example, a school receiving a 90% discount only pays $1 for each $9 it receives from the E-Rate program. This disparity has historically led to schools with a 90% discount requesting about twice as much from E-Rate as schools receiving up to a 79% discount. When schools have little skin in the game, they are prone to request much more than they need and spend it carelessly.
- For example, a service provider in New York billed the program $81,600 for Internet access expansion in a Brooklyn school where students are not even allowed to use the Internet.
What reforms have been proposed?
Republicans and Democrats alike have acknowledged that the E-Rate program needs to be reformed, but disagree on what an E-Rate 2.0 should look like. President Obama has outlined his ConnectED program which creates broad new goals for E-Rate, such as:
- Ensuring 99% of students have broadband access in schools and libraries within five years;
- Upgrading broadband speeds to ensure that all schools and libraries have 100 Mbps connections;
- Training teachers how to incorporate new technology into their lessons; and
- Providing students with next-generation educational devices such as digital textbooks.
FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel has proposed reforms consistent with President Obama’s ConnectED program, which would:
- Increase E-Rate funding to meet increased demand.
- E-Rate funding will be increased through reallocating other Universal Service Fund spending to E-Rate and eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse in the program. No additional government spending will be necessary.
Provide every school with access to 100 Megabits per 1000 students by 2015; by 2020, every school should have access to 1 Gigabit per 1000 students. Encourage and institute new and creative public-private partnerships. Simplify the process for applicants: Because the current E-Rate system might be deterring small and rural schools from applying for funding, Commissioner Rosenworcel suggested multi-year applications as a means of reducing paperwork and administrative expenses for applicants.
Commissioner Ajit Pai has proposed a more substantial restructuring of the program:
- Simplified application process : Applicants would complete only two short forms — a one-page application and a report on how they used the money. A USF employee will perform all the necessary calculations. Consultants will no longer be necessary.
- Responsible funding : The E-Rate budget would be divided on a per-student basis, with more funding allocated per-student in rural or low-income areas. Schools would receive funding based on the number of students who attend, meaning that funds will now follow students, instead of the sliding scale used today (based on the percentage of students eligible for the National School Lunch program). To ensure that all schools have an incentive to use their funding efficiently, they must contribute $1 for every $3 they receive, whereas some schools currently pay only $1 for every $9 in E-Rate funding.
- Next-generation technologies : The distinction between Priority One and Priority Two services would be eliminated. That would allow schools and libraries to use E-Rate funding on communications services and hardware as they see fit, provided they are used for educational purposes. The program would no longer fund stand-alone phone service, because the focus of the E-Rate program should be connecting students to the Internet and not funding phone service for administrators.
- Transparency and accountability : School administrators would certify that all E-Rate funds are being used to help students learn , not running phone lines to garages, providing Internet access for football field houses, or paying teachers’ cell phone bills. The USF administrator would maintain a website where parents, teachers, and the public can examine exactly how each school is using its E-Rate funding.
- Fiscal responsibility : The plan would generate $1 billion for broadband connections without increasing the E-Rate budget by eliminating landline telephones and other obsolete technologies from the program’s eligible services and reducing by 75% the amount of funding left unspent each year due to administrative oversights.
To browse all the links in this document, please visit:
- ConnectED: President Obama’s Plan for Connecting All Schools to the Digital Age (June 6, 2013), http:// tch.fm/18l3UXV
- E-Rate 2.0: Commissioner Rosenworcel’s Plan to Reboot National Education (June 3, 2013), http:// tch.fm/18l45SV
- Remarks of Commissioner Pai on Connecting the American Classroom: A Student-Centered E-Rate Program (July 16, 2013), http://tch.fm/1aqyrEo


Every field, industry or area of focus has its own vocabulary. While some words are the same as in other fields, their meanings in the library context may be specific. We don't, however, give new people to the profession a long list of vocabulary words for them to memorize. Yes, we may give them words related to a specific topic/class, and then hope that through reading and professional engagement that they will learn the rest. However, that combination may not teach a new person enough vocabulary.
I have been in situations where an emerging professional assumes the definition of words/phrases without ever looking them up or trying to discern their correct usage from how others are using the words. Sadly, when someone talks about a topic and uses the wrong vocabulary, it can be a turn-off to those who are listening. If that occurs in a classroom or on an assignment, there is an opportunity to make a correction. When that occurs on a job interview, it will likely lead to an unhappy ending (no job offer). So for no other reason than employment, working to understand a field's vocabulary is important. However, it is also important in the day-to-day work environment because it assures that we're communicating well.
The Internet has provided a way for all of us to discern the correct meanings of words through web sites, dictionaries, trade and peer reviewed articles, and eTextbooks. For those resources to be helpful to us, we each need to take a few steps:
- Keep track of those words you don't understand. Write them somewhere, so you can look them up later. I used to write words I didn't understand in the margin of my notes, so they were easy to find.
- Look of those words you don't understand. You can start with a dictionary, but you may want to check usage by seeing how the word/phrase has been used in an LIS journal. By the way, your assumption will be that the way the word was used you heard/read it originally was correct; however, you might discovery that it had actually been used incorrectly! (And, yes, faculty do sometimes use vocabulary incorrectly.)
- Use the word - correctly - so you learn it. That use might be in a conversation, a paper, or elsewhere. As our K-12 teachers reminded us, when you use a word correctly, you are deepening your learning.
- Understand what the acronyms are in the profession. While it is important to use them, it is also important to use their definitions. For example, not all librarians work with youth and thus recognize the acronym "YA". Show you library intelligence to other LIS professionals by both using the phrase "young adult" and the acronym "YA", when you're talking about this group. You are demonstrating your ability to talk without jargon and your ability to use jargon.By the way, remember to limit your jargon with your library community. They should not have to understand our jargon in order to talk with us.
- Spell library vendor names correctly, which includes capitalization and spacing. For example, it is "LexisNexis," not "Lexis Nexis" or "Lexis-Nexis."
- Recognize if specific words (jargon) are associated with a specific library vendor. For example, while some seem to use the word "libguide" generically, it actually refers to the SpringShare content management system. If you're not using SpringShare, consider what word or phrase you might use instead.
Interested in having Digitization 101 delivered to your inbox? Use the sign-up box on the right side of the blog or use the box in this post.


With persisting drought and high temperatures, forest and county officials are preparing for beetle infestations at a scale that the county has not seen for a century or more.
"These infestations are spreading about as rapidly as is biologically feasible," said Andy Cadenhead, forester with the U.S. Forest Service.
"Many of these areas are going to see lots and lots of dead trees. All the trees aren't going to die, but the big ones are going to die. It's really going to change the appearance of the forest."
Officials are encouraging people with uninfected mature pine and spruce trees to do preventative sprayings and are warning the public of increased danger of wildfires because of the dead trees.
If people living near forests do not create a defensible space around their homes, "it probably will be forced on (them) in a fire situation, and we don't want to do that," said Routt County Emergency Services Director Chuck Vale.
Spruce and mountain pine beetles are native to these forests but stay at low populations until the right mix of conditions, such as old trees and hot, dry weather, allows their populations to explode.
The spruce beetles infestation began in the Routt National Forest after the 1997 Blow Down, in which trees in 13,000 acres were pushed over by an intense windstorm, and perfect conditions for beetle populations to grow were created.
The mountain pine beetle population took off because of the recent hot, dry weather, and they have infested trees mostly on private land in the Stagecoach and North Routt County areas. But officials are expecting the bugs to make their way into public land trees soon.
The Forest Service has plans to aggressively combat the bugs in campgrounds and in the Steamboat Ski Area, in hopes of preserving trees that are important for economic and aesthetic reasons, Cadenhead said. They will continue to thin forests in North Routt County and will start to combat mountain pine beetles on the west side of Gore Pass, where populations quickly are growing.
The Forest Service also is looking to support businesses or individuals who might be able to help combat the beetles, from a couple who drives around with a chainsaw cutting dead trees, to business owners who want to open a new sawmill.
Matt Blecha of Steamboat Lake State Park said the park has a plan to treat 150 acres of infested parkland. The focus is on five high-priority areas, including Sunrise Vista and the Tombstone nature trail, which are important for recreation and campgrounds, he said.
All efforts to address the infestation involve selectively spraying uninfected trees, thinning forests before the bugs arrive and cutting and destroying infected trees.
Officials are not working to stop the epidemic because beetle epidemics are natural to forests and because halting the infestations would be impossible. Rather, the goal is to keep valuable stands of trees alive.
For residents who have been spraying their trees, this is not the year to stop, Routt County Commissioner Doug Monger said. If they do stop, they likely will find the trees they had spent money to protect will quickly succumb to the beetles.
"You've been making the investment," Monger said. "Don't quit now because we're not over the hump."
-- To reach Susan Bacon, call 871-4203
or e-mail firstname.lastname@example.org


This books includes 8 chapters which cover Fundamental concept of Information Communication Technology in Rural Perspective. Chapter 1 includes the concept and importance of Rural development. Chapter 2 Technology in rural Perspective has been discussed. Chapter 3 Basic, Definition and Research based thinks and importance of ICT in development has been discussed. Chapter 4 includes Information communication technology for community and implementation process. Chapter 5 include various project on ICT in india and model frame have been discussed. Digital India Programme are discussed in chapter 6. Chapter 7 various Project and implementation of ICT system in Gujarat state. Chapter 8 includes the Perspective of ICT Model in Rural development based on Research are discussed in details.
Binding: Paperback (Perfect Binding)
Availability: In Stock (Print on Demand)
Incredible Websites for every indian netizen by Spectacular Concepts
EARN MONEY ONLINE by LETIZIA
Siebel Business Analyst ( BA ) Redbook by MD AZIZUDDIN AAMER
Design Patterns by Mainak Biswas


All About Women’s Health
Welcome to a site that is All About Women’s Health. Men are different than women and viva la difference. However, differences in basic biology become medically important in the pathology and treatment of disease. For instance:
- Men and women display different symptoms of heart attack. Chest pain is most common in men while women’s symptoms are more subtle, often being generalized fatique, abdominal pain and nausea.
- Women with irritable bowel syndrome will respond better to a serotonin receptor antagonist than men.
- Ibuprofen, as a pain reliever, is not as effective in women as in men.
- Nicotine replacement therapy is more effective in men than women.
- Women metabolize alcohol more slowly than men because they make less gastric alcohol dehydrogenase. Therefore, less alcohol intake is required in women to reach the same blood alcohol level.
- Some language functions are active in both sides of a woman’s brain but only in one hemisphere in men.
- Women experience depression two to three times more often than men, which may be due, in part, to a much lower rate of serotonin synthesis in women.
- A new herpes virus vaccine is ineffective in men but works in some women.
We have assembled information on topics that are of great interest to women and those who love them.
Information on Managing Menopause
Menopause may be part of a number of adjustments that women experience at midlife. At the same time a woman is beginning to experience signs and symptoms of menopause, she is usually approaching her fifties. Managing menopause can take place amidst changing family roles, looking after aging parents, thinking about retirement and wondering what she will do with the rest of her life.
For some women however, menopause may occur at an earlier age. Early menopause (also known as premature menopause) affects almost 10 per cent of women under the age of forty – with some being diagnosed in their twenties, or even their late teens. Surgical menopause is when the ovaries are removed at surgery prior to natural menopause, (also known as oophorectomy).
Definition of Menopause
- Menopause is a natural event that is said to have occurred when a woman has not menstruated naturally for 12 consecutive months.
- Menopause usually occurs between the ages of 48 and 55.
- Among Australian women, the average age is about 51 to 52 years.
- A few women experience menopause much earlier and others may still be menstruating in their late fifties.
WISDOM: HT beyond menopause
Following confirmatory studies, women have again been advised not to start hormone therapy in their older age, many years beyond menopause. Another large study to report on hormone therapy use in older women, the WISDOM study published 12 July, has confirmed that combined oestrogen and progestin results in a small increase in the risk of heart attacks and blood clots.


One of the main components of NASA’s vision for the future of space exploration will actually have a keen eye for the past. The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), scheduled to launch in 2018, will have spectacular sight—after it reaches orbit, one of its main goals is to observe the first galaxies that formed in the early universe.
“JWST offers new capabilities in the infrared well beyond what we can see from current telescopes, either on the ground or in space. It will let us explore the early universe, extrasolar planets, and really, all branches of astrophysics,” says Lee Feinberg, optical telescope element manager for the JWST at Goddard Space Flight Center.
Building such a keen space telescope is an astronomic task. Because JWST will gaze over such incredible distances, it requires very large mirrors. In fact, the primary mirror will be more than two stories in diameter and consists of 18 separate segments. Each segment must be perfectly smooth, flat, and scratch-free in order to deliver a view 13 billion light years away.
Construction of the 18 mirror segments involved measuring, grinding, polishing, and testing—and more measuring, grinding, polishing, and testing—and more measuring, grinding, polishing, and testing (you get the idea). One of the most time consuming steps of the mirror development process—the grinding phase— can take years.
To polish the JWST’s mirror segments, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center contracted with Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems and Ball Aerospace, which contracted with L3 Communications’ Tinsley Facility in Richmond, California. A subcontractor to L3 at the time, WaveFront Sciences of Albuquerque, NM, worked at the facility to assist with polishing by developing a system for metrology (measurement) testing of the large JWST mirrors after grinding. (See Figure 1) Called the infrared Scanning Shack Hartmann System, the technology enabled testing of the mirror’s surface immediately after grinding and completely eliminated one of the polishing steps in the process.
“It was a key advantage,” says Dan Neal, cofounder of WaveFront Sciences. “They could take the mirror off grinding and in one day, get a test back with a detailed map on how to do the next step of the grinding.”
Neal explains how the new metrology testing stations measured just a small part of the mirror to create an image of the entire surface. “We didn’t have to build giant reference mirrors. Traditionally, the reference mirror has to be as big as the mirror you are going to test. It was very innovative,” he says.
For NASA, the system reduced the time it took to construct the high-quality primary mirror segments and also reduced the cost. “By measuring earlier, in the grinding phase, it allowed us to speed up the process and ensure the performance was what we wanted when we got to the final stages,” Feinberg says.
Now the innovation is enabling faster, more precise measurements of complex surfaces for researchers and doctors who measure a different kind of lens—the human eye.
“The testing systems developed for the JWST mirrors have allowed improvements in the machines for testing human eyes for LASIK surgery,” says Neal. “We were trying to solve one problem for JWST, and the tool we developed turned out to have many applications.”
The work performed on the JWST spun off into one of WaveFront Science’s products called the Complete Ophthalmic Analysis System, or COAS™. By incorporating the algorithms developed for JWST, COAS performed 21 times faster.
Designed for diagnosing eye conditions and providing a detailed map of the eye, COAS supports research in cataracts, keratoconus (an eye condition that causes reduced vision), and eye movement. “There are a number of researchers around the United States and the world using the product for vision research,” says Neal.
In 2007, Advanced Medical Optics acquired WaveFront Sciences—and with it, the improved COAS technology. Two years later, Advanced Medical Optics was acquired by Abbott Laboratories and renamed Abbott Medical Optics. Today, Abbott Medical Optics is a leading company of vision correction technology based in Santa Ana, California. The company recently released a new product in Europe, based in part on COAS, called the iDesign Advanced WaveScan Studio. The technology is a main component of Abbott’s iLASIK laser vision correction solution.
A doctor uses the iDesign Advanced WaveScan Studio to measure a patient’s eye and then create a map of the LASIK treatment that is needed for correction. (See Figure 2) The map is transferred to a laser, which performs the custom treatment. “It’s a stand-alone piece of equipment, but works in conjunction with a laser. The software transfers directly to the laser,” says Neal, who is now a research fellow at Abbott Medical Optics.
According to the company, the technology is quick and accurate. It works within 3 seconds to obtain four different measurements, and provides accuracy in measuring distorted surfaces—for conditions like nearsightedness, farsightedness, astigmatism, and others. “The techniques for JWST needed to be able to measure a wide variation of shapes, and those are the same techniques we’ve used in designing instruments to measure the eye,” says Neal.
JWST also prepared Abbott Medical Optics for the large-format cameras that are now available in the industry, says Neal. “We are using them in our new products. When an eye doctor makes a measurement on his machine, he doesn’t want to wait two minutes for it to be complete. He wants to see it instantly. That’s taking advantage of those faster and better algorithms,” he says.
“Often, the government has the ability to fund big vision things and along the way, some of the technology pieces turn out to be important across the board in many different ways.”
This article was written by Lisa Rademakers, Senior Writer, NASA Spinoff. For more information on Abbott Medical Optics Inc., Abbott Park, IL, visit http://info.hotims.com/45607-171 .


Over the past 35 years, researchers have established significant correlations between animal cruelty and other family violence, including child abuse, domestic violence, and elder abuse. This research on “The Link” confirms what professionals in a variety of human services and animal welfare disciplines have witnessed for decades – animal cruelty does not occur in a vacuum.
The mistreatment of animals is therefore no longer seen as an isolated incident that can be ignored. Instead, it is often an indicator of family violence (a “red flag” that other family members in the household may not be safe) or a predictor of future violent behavior by the perpetrator (research has shown that many serial killers and school shooters committed their first acts of violence against animals).
It is important for all responders and advocates in multiple disciplines to recognize abuse and understand the importance of cross-reporting suspected abuse.
THLN, in association with Heath Mobile Veterinary Services, a member of the North Texas LINK Coalition, has compiled cross-reporting information for human services and animal welfare professionals. For information about how to recognize and report abuse, please visit these links:
In addition, THLN can provide written resources and speakers for Texas agencies and organizations wanting to know more about the Link. THLN is a Founding Member of the North Texas LINK Coalition, along with the SPCA of Texas, the Dallas County District Attorney's Office, Mazie's Mission, and several local human and social services agencies. The National Link Coalition's mission is to facilitate the North Texas area's recognition and understanding of the dynamic connection between animal abuse and the cycle of family and societal violence. The North Texas LINK Coalition provides online resources, training, and networking events across the DFW area. Please contact firstname.lastname@example.org for more information.
More about the Link
The National Link Coalition is a multi-disciplinary, collaborative initiative to increase awareness and address public policy, programs and research. The Coalition’s goal is to stop the cycle of violence that often affects multiple family members. To achieve this critical goal, the Coalition provides information and resources through its website and lists upcoming trainings and conferences about The Link. It also collects information about federal, state, and local legislative efforts to address The Link, such as bills aiming to include pets in domestic violence protective orders, increasing penalties for perpetrators of animal cruelty, and allowing or mandating cross-reporting for human services and animal welfare professionals. The monthly National Link Coalition newsletter often reveals the life-saving importance of Cross-Reporting.
One example, a Florida woman brought her dog to a veterinary hospital. She quietly slipped a note to a staff member, asking her to call the police because her boyfriend had been beating and threatening her. The boyfriend was arrested and charged with domestic violence based on the report made by the veterinary hospital.


When it comes to nutrition it's important that we consider our portion size.
Having a healthy balanced diet requires consideration about consuming the right type of foods and drinks in the right amounts. As individuals we all have different needs, therefore the amount of food we require to function optimally varies from person to person.
The British Nutrition Foundation has published 2 booklets that are free to download with information to help you find the right balance that will work for you.
FULL PORTION SIZE BOOKLET – a list of portion sizes with measures, grams, and calories for a selection of foods from the main food groups.
PUTTING IT INTO PRACTICE BOOKLET – with examples of how to put the portion sizes together in a balanced diet and use them in recipes.
Follow this 🔗 to British Nutrition Foundation to download your free booklets.


The Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is the systematic rules for managing the transfer of different kinds of files such as text, images, music, videos and other multimedia files used by the world wide web. It explains how files are formatted and transmitted between the server and the browser.
Internet protocols like HTTP are a collection of protocols which serves as an application layer performing various functions such as fetching the URLs in your browser, which sends an HTTP command to the web server controlling the transmission of the requested web pages. The application layers sits on top of many “other” layers which are abstractions dealing with core network functionality.
HTTP/1.1: Where It All Started
HTTP was developed by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and World Wide Consortium back in 1999 leading in the publication of a series of Requests for Comments ( RFCs ) with its first version as HTTP/1.1 prior to the HTTP/0.9 which is a one-line protocol to bootstrap the web in an informational standard.
HTTP/1.1 existed for several years, however its age has begun to appear. Loading a webpage is more intensive than ever since HTTP practically enables only one request per TCP connection. Being a generic, stateless, protocol which can be used for many tasks, the browsers in the old times have used multiple TCP connections to issue parallel requests. However, TCP congestion control is efficiently refuted, leading to congestion events that hurt performance and the network.
The large number of requests sent a lot of duplicated data “on the wire.” This means that HTTP/1.1 requests have a lot of overhead associated with them and can’t function well when fetching large amount of resources to load a modern website that hurts the performance.
This had pushed the industry to find ways to hack the web by spiriting, data in-lining and domain sharing which are indications of fundamental problems in the protocol itself, and had cause a plenty of problems in the connection when used.
People “developing a website” don’t much care about HTTP beyond being thankful that it exists but it is important to understand this in a web developer’s perspective.
SPDY (pronounced speedy ) is an open networking experimental protocol, developed at Google which was announced in mid-2009, whose main goal was to try to reduce web page load latency and improving web security by addressing some of the well-known performance limitations of HTTP/1.1.
Some of the specific goals of Google’s SPDY is:
- Reduce deployment complexity by avoiding changes in network arrangement
- Reduction of page load time (PLT) by 50 percent, making more efficient use of the underlying TCP connection
- Avoid the need for any changes to content by website authors
- Keep the protocol in partnership with the open-source community
- Collect and validate experimental protocol data efficiency
After the initial announcement, Google’s software engineers shared the result on the experiment protocol which had a positive feedback with the improvement in performance—pages loaded up to 55 percent faster.
In 2012, the experimental protocol was initiated in Chrome, Firefox and Opera, and a growing number of sites started deploying SPDY within their organization. With this line of technology the HTTP Working Group ( HTTP-WG ) pushed a new trend of technology to take the protocol system from SPDY, develop and enhance them, and deliver an official “HTTP/2” standard. This is the point time when SPDY and HTTP/2 would continue to mature in parallel.
Fast-forward to 2015 when the Internet Engineering Steering Group ( IESG) reviewed and accepted the new HTTP/2 standard for publication. Just right after the approval, the Google Chrome team announced their schedule to deprecate SPDY and NPN extension for TLS.
From there the HTTP/2 standard has been one of the best and most broadly tested standards with tons of tested and production-ready client and server executions made.
Say Hello to HTTP/2
HTTP/2is in the spotlight. As the standard and approved “ on the wire ” protocol, all popular browsers have committed to support it, or have already supported it for their users, and many popular sites such as Google, Facebook and Twitter are already taking advantage of HTTP/2 to deliver better performance. In a short amount of time a few the HTTP/2 and HPACK standards were approved in early 2015, their usage on the web has already surpassed that of SPDY.
HTTP/2 does not alter the application semantics of HTTP in any approach. The core concepts, such as HTTP methods, status codes and header fields, remains identical. However, HTTP/2 will make applications more robust with its unusual combination by letting users to undo some of the HTTP/1.1.
HTTP/2 is concerned with enhancing the quantity over the older versions of the protocol and they do this by replacing a request-response model with which anticipates what the users are going to need, sending it to them before the request is made in different request-response lanes or also known as multiplexing. As a result it’s a lot faster as it is sending back not just the response to the request, but the responses to requests you haven’t made yet, but will soon need to make.
HTTP/2 not HTTP/1.2?
The specification of the new HTTP describes an optimized expression of the semantics of the Hypertext Transfer Protocol referred to as HTTP version 2 (HTTP/2) and not HTTP/1.2. This is because HTTP/2 offers a new binary framing layer that is not regressively compatible with the version HTTP/1.1 servers and clients. Though there might be some similarities from the older version, you won’t really appreciate the differences until you work with raw TCP sockets.
So, what’s new in HTTP/2, and why or how will it help you and your application or website?
Let’s take a look at the new protocol, its features, and new capabilities it has at its disposal to further enhance applications.
New Binary Framing Layer
HTTP/2 uses new binary framing layer that is not regressively compatible with the version HTTP/1.1 which determines how the HTTP messages are formatted and transferred between the client and server. This is a new updated encrypting mechanism between the socket and the higher HTTP API.
As mentioned above, HTTP/1.1 uses multiple TCP connections for multiple parallel requests to improve connection speed. However, HTTP/1.1 requests have a lot of excessive data associated with them and can’t function well when fetching large amount of resources that hurts the performance.
The new binary framing layer took off these limitations and allows full request and response multiplexing enabling both client and server to split the HTTP message into different frames. This has improved the speed of connection and the loading of data across the web.
Stream prioritization enables users to have more control over the playback of content by allowing users to prioritize order from multiple streams to be multiplexed. HTTP/2 allows each stream to have an associated weight and dependency. As a result, the server can use this data to prioritize stream processing by managing the allocation of memory and once the response data is available, it will deliver the right bandwidth to guarantee the best delivery of high-priority responses to the client.
One Connection Per Origin
Using the new binary framing layer, HTTP/2 does not use multiple TCP connections to multiplex bin parallel. This means that each stream is split into many frames that can be ordered at times and only one connection per origin is required. This gives a lot of advantage in the speed of connection and performance.
Headers defines the type of resources transferred across the World Wide Web and HTTP/1.1 send this via plain text with a reasonable amount bytes or kilobytes which leads to data overhead. HTTP/2 reduces the request and response header metadata using the HPACK compression format using a single GZIP context in each direction. However, this was removed after some time due to major attacks on the application. Trying to find a better solution HTTP/2 develop a new, header-specific compression scheme which is a safe and much effective compression.
One of the best new feature of HTTP/2 is the capabilities to send multiple responses from servers for a single client request. This means that servers can push extra resources to the client without forcing the client to request for each of them. This reduces the extra latency by letting the server push the related resources onward.
Difference between HTTP/1.1 and HTTP/2
There are some major significant differences between the two versions of HTTP. This might not obvious for a while but once users work with raw TCP sockets the incredible differences will be obvious especially when it comes to performance.
Below are some of the noticeable differences between the two versions.
- HTTP/2 leaves most of HTTP 1.1’s high level syntax
- HTTP/2 is binary, instead of textual
- HTTP/2 is fully multiplexed, instead of ordered and blocking
- HTTP/2 allows servers to “ push ” responses into client caches
- HTTP/2 uses header compression to reduce overhead
- HTTP/2 can use one connection per origin for parallelism
HTTP/2 is Better
The main goal for HTTP/2 is to reduce latency by enabling full request and response multiplexing, it has actually reached the goal as it loads webpages much faster.
Here’s a real time published demo created by the Akamai team, which displays the impact on your download of many small tiles making up the Akamai Spinning Globe. As you can see for the old version of HTTP, latency is 271ms and the load time is 20.80s. While HTTP/2 has a latency of 0ms and 6.67s load time. How awesome it is!
Testing the HTTP Upgrade to Switch to HTTP/2
Using the HTTP Upgrade, you can establish an HTTP/2 connection with non-encrypted network but may depend on the browser. If the server does not support HTTP/2, then it can switch with HTTP/1.1 response. To enable this the client must use HTTP Upgrade to deal with the protocol. Remember that this might work but the connection may fail and the client will might fall back to a TLS tunnel.
Consider these standard HTTP request below:
GET /page HTTP/1.1
Connection: Upgrade, HTTP2-Settings
HTTP2-Settings: (SETTINGS payload)
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
(… HTTP/1.1 response …)
HTTP/1.1 101 Switching Protocols
(… HTTP/2 response …)
Switching to HTTP/2
Although HTTP/2 is really promising and many companies might already be using it unknowingly, there is not really an exact start date for it and won’t be possible to do in an instant. This means that HTTP/1.1 will still be in in used for some more years. There are millions of servers that must be taken care off and switching to new binary framing will also include updating each network, libraries and browsers which might take both money and time.
According to Wikipedia’s HTTP/2 development milestone IESG submitted the approval of HTTP/2 to publish as Proposed Standard on February 17, 2015, and there is the Publish HTTP/2 as RFC 7540 on May 14, 2015 but no official release regarding the standard switching.
All we know now is that HTTP/2 works on all modern browsers and they’ve committed to support it while supporting HTTP/1.1 at the same time with minimal arbitration for a large amount of existing users.
转载本站任何文章请注明：转载至神刀安全网，谢谢神刀安全网 » Move to HTTP/2: On the Wire for High Speed Connection Performance


Editor’s Note: This is the first of a three part series: (1) Risks and warning factors of teen suicide; (2) Stories of youth and families affected by suicide; and (3) How to talk to youth about suicide ideation and getting treatment.
BY DEBBIE PAGE
At the Suicide Prevention Town Hall on Tuesday night at South Iredell High School, community members learned about teen depression and suicide risks and how to identify warning signs and risk factors for suicide in teens. They also gained understanding of their role in reducing those risks and learned how to approach youths when they suspect suicidal ideations.
Keynote speaker Susan Tolle, a former field advocate for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, was thankful for the event’s attention on children in crisis. Though suicides overall have decreased, Tolle said additional progress in reducing stigma is essential to preventing more suicides.
Though suicide numbers have dropped since 2018, the numbers are still staggering. In 2019, the U.S. reported 47,511 suicide deaths, or 13.93 suicides per 100,000 population (age adjusted).
Among youth ages 10 to 24, 6,488 deaths were attributed to suicide, or about 13.66 percent of American suicides. Suicide is the leading cause of death for this age group at 10.22 suicides per 100,000 youths.
Young males are much more likely to complete suicide because of their greater access to more lethal means and the cultural expectations for males to suppress emotions to avoid looking weak.
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recently reported that during 2020, the proportion of mental health–related emergency department (ED) visits for suspected suicide attempts among adolescents ages 12 to 17 increased 31 percent compared to 2019.
In May 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, ED visits for suspected suicide attempts began to increase among adolescents ages 12 to 17, and especially among girls.
Also, from February 21 through March 20 of this year, suspected suicide attempt ED visits were 50.6 percent higher among girls ages 12 to 17 than during the same period in 2019; among boys ages 12 to 17 years, suspected suicide attempt ED visits increased 3.7 percent.
Evening more frightening, for every completed youth suicide, experts estimate that there are 100 to 200 attempts. In 2019, about 2.5 percent of high school aged youth reported making a suicide attempt that required medical treatment.
RISK FACTORS VS. WARNING SIGNS
Suicide ideation is life-threatening and must be taken seriously each time it is expressed, warned Tolle, who further explained health (mental and physical), historical, and environmental suicide risk factors. She defined suicide risk factors as influences that endure over a period of time, while suicide warning signs indicate a crisis situation with an imminent suicide risk that must be addressed quickly.
Teen suicide risk is often clearly linked to mental health conditions, with both often occurring together. These conditions include major depressive disorder, conduct disorders, substance use, eating disorders, anxiety disorders, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder.
Physical illnesses such as tinnitus (ringing sound), traumatic brain injury, rheumatoid arthritis, and chronic pain disorders also increase suicide risk.
Historical factors include a family history of completed suicide or suicide attempts, alcoholism or substance use disorder, family trauma, witnessing or being a victim of abuse, or family mental health history, such as multiple relatives with depression or anxiety.
Environmental risk factors include bullying, relationship problems such as a break-up or divorce, witnessing or being a victim of violence, experiencing the loss of a loved one, or being a victim of sexual violence.
Warning signs require immediate intervention. These indications include conversations about killing themselves (joking or not), having no reason to live, being a burden to others, feeling trapped, or being in unbearable emotional or physical pain.
Certain behaviors also suggest enhanced suicide ideation signals, especially when relating to a painful event, loss, or change. These behaviors include increasing use of drugs or alcohol, researching methods or means to end their lives, acting recklessly, withdrawing from activities, isolating from family and friends, sleeping too much or too little, visiting or calling people to say goodbye, giving away prized possessions, or displaying increasingly aggressive behavior
Unusual moods may also portend a threat of suicidal ideation. Depression, loss of interest in previously enjoyed activities, unusual rage, increased irritability, displaying feelings of humiliation, and exhibiting increasing anxiety can indicate suicidal thoughts.
Oddly, sudden, unexplained happiness after the preceding type of moods or behaviors can also be a sign that a suicide attempt is imminent. Once the decision is made to end their painful mental state, they see the end to the “tunnel” and relief from the swirl of crisis thinking in which they are trapped, according to Tolle.
The Suicide Prevention Town Hall was presented by Iredell-Statesville Schools, Partners Health Management, United Way of Iredell, and the Children’s Hope Alliance.


View Larger Image
Lake Titicaca, Bolivia; terraces are visible on the hillside above the shoreline. Lake Titicaca, on the border of Bolivia and Peru, is a high altitude lake (3812 m above sea level) that is the largest lake by volume in South America. Photo from old ASLO slide collection taken by M. Brenner; scanned by K.L. Schulz.


Once the renewable energy facility begins commercial operation in May, it will be the first waste-to-energy project at an Estre landfill, one of the largest municipal solid waste operations in Latin America.
Under the scope of the project, GE will provide three 1.4 MW J420 Jenbacher gas engines for an estimated total output of 4.2 MW, with the potential to be expanded to 10 MW in the next five years. The current configuration may produce enough energy to support about 13,000 average Brazilian homes.
GE’s fuel-flexible gas engines are powered by landfill gas, which is created from solid waste decompositiong and then recovered as a valuable renewable fuel.
GE’s Jenbacher landfill gas engines use the gas — consisting of methane, carbon dioxide and nitrogen — created during the decomposition of organic substances in a landfill. Methane has a global warming factor 21 times greater than carbon dioxide, the most widely recognized greenhouse gas affecting climate change.
The new Estre Ambiental landfill project supports the initiatives of the Brazilian government to increase the production of electricity from renewable sources and may reduce the country’s greenhouse gas emissions by between 36.1 and 38.9 percent from projected amounts in 2020.


Effect of homeopathic medicines during the initial stage and vegetative development of cucumber plants (Cucumis sativus L.)
The application of bioactive substances in a minimum dose is an alternative to reduce the application of harmful agrochemicals in agriculture, particularly vegetables. The objective of this research was to evaluate the effect of four homeopathic medicines during germination, emergence, and vegetative development of cucumber plants (Cucumis sativus L.). The experimental design included two centesimal homeopathic dynamizations (7CH and 13CH) of Silicea terra (SiT), Natrum muriaticum (NaM), Magnesia phosphorica (MaP), and Arsenicum album (ArA) and a control (water) treatment. A completely randomized 2 × 4 + 1 block design was used in three repetitions. The variables evaluated were rate and percentages of germination and emergence, stem and radicle length, and fresh and dry weight of the aerial part and radicle. Additionally, during the vegetative development the diameter of the stem and the number of leaves and flowers were evaluated. With ArA-13CH, significant differences in germination were observed (53.33%) and with NaM-13CH longer stem length (107.07 cm) during vegetative development, compared to the control group (78.63 cm). Radicle length showed significant differences with the application of SiT-7CH (49.59 cm) compared to the control group (28.6 cm). During germination the best result in the radicle fresh and dry weight was recorded when applying ArA-13CH. In emergence, the greatest fresh radicle weight was obtained with MaP-13CH, and the largest stem diameter, number of leaves and number of flowers were obtained with NaM. The results obtained confirmed that the evaluated homeopathic medicines positively affected the initial stage and vegetative development of cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) under controlled conditions. This research represents an advance in agricultural homeopathy for the sustainable management of vegetable cultivation.


Atmospheric aerosol particles affect the Earth's radiative balance both directly through the upward scatter of solar radiation and indirectly as cloud condensation nuclei (CCN). The natural aerosol derived from biogenic sulfur emissions has been substantially perturbed by anthropogenic aerosols, particularly sulfates from SO2 emissions and organic condensates and soot from biomass and fossil fuel combustion. The global mean radiative forcing due to the direct effect of anthropogenic sulfate aerosol particles is calculated to be of comparable magnitude (approximately -0.3 to -1.1 watt m-2) but opposite in sign to the forcing due to anthropogenic CO2 and the other greenhouse gases (Charlson et al., 1991, 1992; Kiehl and Briegleb, 1993; Penner et al., 1994). More uncertain is the radiative forcing due to the indirect cloud-mediated effects of aerosol particles (Boucher and Lohmann, 1995). Although aerosol particles have a potential climatic importance over and down wind of industrial regions that is equal to that of anthropogenic greenhouse gases, they are still poorly characterized in global climate models. This is a result of a lack of both globally distributed data and a clear understanding of the processes linking gaseous precursor emissions, atmospheric aerosol properties, and the spectra of aerosol optical depth and cloud reflectivity. At this time, tropospheric aerosols pose one of the largest uncertainties in model calculations of the climate forcing due to anthropogenic changes in the composition of the atmosphere. Clearly, considerable attention must be focused on quantifying the processes controlling the natural and anthropogenic aerosol and on defining and minimizing the uncertainties in the calculated climate forcings.
Reducing the uncertainties in estimates of aerosol forcing of climate will require a combination of laboratory experiments, long-term continuous and short-term intensive field studies, satellite observations and modelling analyses (Penner et al., 1994). Although much of this work can be accomplished by single laboratory groups, intensive process studies that seek to obtain closure (internal consistency) between various measured and modeled aerosol properties often require a large number of research platforms and investigators. The IGAC Project provides the international cooperation and leadership needed for these large process studies. The Aerosol Characterization Experiments (ACE) are envisioned as a series of international field studies aimed at quantifying the role of the chemical and physical processes that control the evolution and properties of the atmospheric aerosol that are relevant to radiative forcing and climate. The ultimate goal of this series of process studies is to provide the necessary data to incorporate aerosols into global climate models and to reduce the overall uncertainty in the calculation of climate forcing by aerosols. The strategy to achieve this goal mandates improved understanding of the multiphase atmospheric chemical system including gas and aerosol exchange at the ocean surface. ACE-1, the first experiment, is aimed at the minimally polluted marine troposphere (Figure 1). ACE-2 will focus on the polluted marine atmosphere.
Figure 1. ACE-1 Study area. The ACE-1 operations center and aircraft base will be located in Hobart. Ground-based measurements will be made at Cape Grim, Macquarie Island and Baring Head (!). Aircraft and ship operations will take place in the region between 38-58°S and 130-170°E. Upper air soundings will be made from Cape Grim, the R/V Discoverer, the R/V Southern Surveyor and the regional meteorological stations (þ).


Let’s face it, playing around with electrical items can be fun. Finding out how they work, what makes them special and even how to turn them on and off can be a very valuable learning experience. The problem with this is that it may lead to an insatiable curiosity that you just can’t stop, but staying safe really is important and you’d be surprised at how easy it is to take the extra precaution.
Avoid Water at All Times
It’s super important that you avoid water at all times when you are working with electricity. You need to avoid touching anything just after you have washed your hands as well. The main reason for this is because water increases the conductivity of an electrical current by a significant amount and it can also make the tech much more dangerous for you to work with.
When you are taking something apart, it can be very easy for you to lose track of everything and it can also be very easy for you to misplace screws and bolts as well. If you assemble something wrong when you are putting it back together then this can make it even harder for you to keep the device safe and in line with the regulations that are present, so it’s super important that you stay on top of this and that you put everything back in the exact same order it was disassembled in.
Using Insulated Tools
Electrical hazards happen when you have energized tools that are unguarded. Equipment like this will probably come with a warning sign such as “shock risk”. You need to make sure that you are following any safety rules and the electrical codes of the item as well. After all, some items may be wired in a certain way and if you don’t have the appropriate tools to deal with this then you may run into more problems at a later date.
If you are designing your own microchip or if you are interested in PCB then you need to make sure that you are wearing insulated gloves and goggles when you are working with branching circuits and even other electrical circuits as well.
It’s really important that you test equipment by checking for de-energisation first. When you use an electric tester, you can then touch this onto a hot or live wire. If the wire does have a current then the bulb inside will light up. You’ll need to check all of the wires when you do this and you will also want to check on the metallic covering as well. if you have wires that are hanging out then touch these with the tester as well so you know exactly what you are working with.
Of course, when dealing with electricity you really do have to make sure that you stay as safe as possible at all times. It’s more than possible for you to do this when you are aware of what you are working with and it is also easy for you to avoid any nasty electric shocks as well.


This column first appeared in The Tablet in April, 2009.
Last week [April 2009], NASA’s Kepler space telescope sent back its first images of a star field in the constellation Cygnus. Launched in March , Kepler has been slowly positioning itself far from Earth’s bright clouds; unlike most spacecraft, it’s not a man-made moon orbiting the Earth, but a man-mad asteroid following the Earth around the Sun, with a “year” a few weeks longer than Earth’s. Now, from the darkness of its orbit, it has aimed its telescopes at the Milky Way to look for traces of Earth-like planets.
The plan is simple. For the next three years (six years, if all goes well) it will be watching the same star-filled region of the Milky Way, carefully measuring the brightness of every star in its field of view – some 100,000 of them – looking to see if any one of them periodically dims by a hundredth of a percent or less. Such a small, regular change would be just what one would expect if a small planet were crossing the face of that star. In this way planets as small as Earth might be detected.
Notice that we won’t actually be able to see those planets. We will only know they are there by the shadows they cast… a shadow extending hundreds of light years, from the star and planet to our telescope. And, of course, we will only find those systems that by chance are lined up just right so that the planets cross between us and their stars. But by tracing their shadows, we will know that such planets are there; and we’ll learn which of those 100,000 stars will then be worthy of further study.
While the Kepler mission is getting underway, a team of us at the Vatican’s telescope in Arizona this week [again, April 2009!] are looking for a similar sort of shadow: the trace of a tiny moonlet crossing the face of the dwarf planet Haumea. In this case, we already know the moonlet exists. It has been seen in telescopes more powerful than ours. What we are trying to learn is the nature of the dwarf planet it is orbiting.
Haumea is only slightly smaller than Pluto, one of a half-dozen known dwarf planets, smaller than planets but bigger than asteroids or comets. But unlike Pluto, Haumea appears to have a very odd shape. Its brightness varies strongly and rapidly, as if the light we see were being reflected off a pinwheeling Rugby ball, two thousand kilometers long and a thousand kilometers wide. But even with the largest telescopes we can’t actually see the shape of Haumea directly.
Instead, we’ll use its moon’s shadow to help us trace out its shape. Observers all over the world are carefully timing the slight dip in Haumea’s brightness seen as the moonlet crosses the dwarf. Each telescope, at slightly different locations on Earth, sees the moonlet from a slightly different angle, and so each observation traces a slightly different path across Haumea. How long the dip lasts, tells us how wide Haumea is along that particular path. Combining all the different timings should allow us to map out the overall shape of Haumea.
Using shadows to detect unseeable things hearkens back, in one way, to the “Allegory of the Cave” in Plato’s Republic, which suggested that what we see of reality is a mere shadow of the Truth. But I see a different analogy, to a different cave. It is in the absence of light from the star that we learn of the presence of the planet. It is in the absence of light from the dwarf planet that we learn its true size and shape. And it is in the absence in the Tomb that we learn of the Presence that fills all shapes, and enlightens all shadows.
Of course, the success of the Kepler mission is well known, with several thousand planets discovered so far. Alas, our attempts to see shadows on Haumea were less successful. It happens...
Across the Universe
- Across the Universe: Genre and Truth
- Across the Universe: False Economies
- Across the Universe: Reflections on a Mirror
- Across the Universe: Japan
- From the Tablet: Why is Easter So Early This Year?
- Across the Universe: Oops!
- Across the Universe: Dramatic Science
- Across the Universe: Me and My Shadows
- Across the Universe: Touch the Sky
- Across the Universe: The Eye of the Lynx
- Across the Universe: Treasure from Heaven
- Across the Universe: Gift of Tongues
- Across the Universe: Maverick Genius
- Across the Universe: Awareness
- Across the Universe: Friends in high places


SDG 11 - UN
FOR OUR CHILDREN - The UN sustainability development goals are designed to build a better world for next generations to come. Mankind has come a long way in a very short time. We are only just becoming self-aware in relation to the harm we are causing and the lack of safety nets for our future. The SDGs are international aims that are designed to repair planet earth to make it fit for purpose in supporting all life in a way that ensures the continued survival of species. These goals address the global challenges we face, including those related to poverty, inequality, climate, environmental degradation, prosperity, peace and injustice. The Goals interconnect and in order to leave no one behind, it is important that we do our utmost to achieve each Goal and target by 2030.
UN SUSTAINABILITY DEVELOPMENT GOAL 11: SUSTAINABLE CITIES, COMMUNITIES
Cities are hubs for ideas, commerce, culture, science, productivity, social development and much more. At their best,
cities have enabled people to advance socially and economically. With the number of people living within
cities projected to rise to
5 billion people by 2030, itís important that efficient urban planning and management practices are in place to deal with the challenges brought by urbanization.
LINKS & REFERENCE
ONE WORLD ONE OCEAN - In the role of guardians of your geographical regions, there is also a responsibility to develop the blue economy for the international circular economies that a sustainable society requires if we are not to burn planet earth out. We are concerned about the state of the ocean and deteriorating trends, and recognise that the ocean economy is a last chance to reconfigure extraction, production and consumption to ensure that social and economic development respects the planetary boundaries, the integrity of ecosystems to maintain their productivity, and the principles of sustainable development as expressed in the UN Sustainable Development Goals, notably SDG14.
This website is provided on a free basis as a public information service. Copyright © Cleaner Oceans Foundation Ltd (COFL) (Company No: 4674774) 2018. Solar Studios, BN271RF, United Kingdom. COFL is a charity without share capital.


The 16-page Kids' Wings unit for Linda Sue Park's Project Mulberry, will set the stage for cooperation and innovation in your science projects this year. Engaging students in prereading through an anticipation guide and a readers' theater script, the unit is prepares students for reading and interacting with this story.
Activities in the unit include:
- predict/confirm chapter questions,
- map study,
- the Ballad of Project Mulberry summarizing activity,
- Creating a Play,
- crossword puzzle,
- Choosing the best summary,
- Matching Science and the Process Skills,
- Multiple Choice Comprehenson,
- Mealworm Metamorphosis,
- The Process Skills Song,
- Wiggle Math,
- logic puzzle,
- Vocabulary Pairs, and
- writing/discussion prompts.
You won't find a better unit for integreating skills necessary to creating excellent cooperative science fair projects, problem solving, and high level thinking! We know you and your students will love the cross-curriculum skills that are essential to science fair!


In this chapter, “Classification of Business” we will cover the following main topics of 0450 Business Studies for IGCSE and 7115 O-Level Business Studies in detail. You can get IGCSE Revision Notes, Activities, Worksheets, Past Papers, Topical, Exam Style Questions from Sir Afzal Shad.
- 3 Sectors of Business
- Primary Sector of Business
- Secondary Sector of Business
- Tertiary Sector of Business
- Relative Importance of Sectors
Topics to be covered for Chapter 2 – Classification of Business
Step 1: Watch Lecture of Chapter 2 Business Studies
Step 2: Solve Chapter 2 Business Studies Worksheet
Once you have watched the complete video of Chapter 2 Business Studies, have a look at the questions below and try to solve them:
You can Download the Worksheet of Chapter 2 – Classification of Business
Step 3: Classification of Business Revision Notes
Chapter 1 Business Studies Revision Notes for IGCSE & O-Levels are written by Sir Afzal Shad. If you want to buy notes Online, please contact us
Why Business Studies Revision Notes by Sir Afzal Shad?
- 13 Years of Teaching Experience to IGCSE/O-Level Students
- To the Point and Cambridge Endorsed Definitions & Explanations
- Sample Questions from the Past Papers
- Activities / Case Studies included for Practice
Want to Ask Question about Classification of Business?
If you still have any confusion in any part of the lecture, feel free to visit our Questions & Answers Section to find answers. If you are unable to find the exact question, ask your question and we will respond to your question online.
Needs, Wants, Difference b/w needs and wants, Economic Problem, 4 Factors of Production, Land, Labor, Capital, Enterprise, Activity of Factors of Production, Scarcity of Resources, Opportunity Cost.


Summary and Keywords
Listening is recognized as a multidimensional construct that consists of complex (a) affective processes, such as being motivated to attend to others; (b) behavioral processes, such as responding with verbal and nonverbal feedback; and (c) cognitive processes, such as attending to, understanding, receiving, and interpreting content and relational messages. Research in the communication studies discipline has focused most heavily on the cognitive processes of listening with the least attention afforded to behavioral components. Although several models of listening have been put forward, scholars still struggle with basic notions of how best to define listening for research purposes and how to incorporate listening into mainstream theoretical frameworks. Contemporary scholarship explores intersections between listening and cultural studies research as communication scholars come to participate in larger discussions of the auditory environment. At the start of the 21st century, listening research is just one of the many sites where communication studies is making a contribution to interdisciplinary research across the humanities and social sciences.
Keywords: information processing, communication competence, social skills, comprehension, auding, language proficiency, interaction involvement, conversational skills, memory, spoken language abilities
Access to the complete content on Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Communication requires a subscription or purchase. Public users are able to search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter without a subscription.
If you have purchased a print title that contains an access token, please see the token for information about how to register your code.


Regulated Medical Waste: 5 Things That Are Surprisingly Not Regulated
The "better safe than sorry" approach shouldn't apply to certain things - like disposing of something as Regulated Medical Waste (RMW) when it may not be RMW. In this blog, explore some common errors that clinicians can make that result in errantly mixed waste streams.
You might be surprised to find a number of things that you think are regulated medical waste, but they’re not.
A number of online resources describe different waste categories, as well as terminology, definitions, and descriptions proposed by federal regulations and state and local guidelines. Different states use different terms that are often confusing, such as the difference (or similarity) between regulated medical waste (RMW), hazardous, biohazard waste, infectious waste, and other waste streams. The same holds true when it comes to regulated and non-regulated waste.
It gets confusing when states use different terms to describe the same thing. For example, did you know that regulated medical waste is also known as infectious waste and/or biohazardous waste? Overall, the basic definition of regulated medical waste is “the portion of a waste stream that may be contaminated by blood, body fluids, or other potentially infectious materials, thus posing a significant risk of transmitting infection.”
- A semi- liquid blood or other potentially infectious material (OPIM);
- Items that have been contaminated with blood or OPIM that would release these substances in a liquid or semi liquid state if compressed;
- Items that are caked with dried blood OPIM capable of releasing these materials during handling;
- Pathological and microbiological wastes containing blood or OPIM
Add to that confusion in terminology to the guidelines recommended by state governments including Departments of Health, environmental resources, and local or town ordinances. Most states follow regulations for medical waste based on Environmental Protection Agency and OSHA standards, although the standards for medical waste management differ greatly.
In the majority of states, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is the entity responsible for the development and enforcement of medical waste management and disposal regulations, although some states are under the control of the Department of Health.
Okay, now that that’s settled, what commong items are not to be regulated medical waste?
Five things are surprisingly not regulated medical waste
Healthcare waste segregation and management relies on the education and knowledge of healthcare professionals. Your employees must be able to identify different waste stream categories and separate all medical waste in an appropriate manner to maintain compliance with federal and state guidelines.
A number of items that healthcare professionals and facility employees may deem regulated medical waste (based on definitions categorizing such waste) but are not, include:
01 / Urine or feces
02 / Vomit
03 / Nasal discharge or mucus (sputum)
04 / Saliva – (unless exposed during dental procedures)
05 / Sweat
These are not deemed regulated unless they contain blood or other infectious bodily fluids – and that implies blood that can be ‘squeezed’ or blood that drips or flakes after it’s dried. A number of examples of RMW include but is not limited to bandages and dressings, personal protective equipment, suction canisters, surgical gloves, IV equipment and tubing, and cultures, stocks, and swabs used to inoculate cultures.
Another common error are clinicians disposing of urine sample cups in RMW waste - again this is not RMW. This is often done with the good intent to destroy patient information that may be on the cup, but your facility has better processes to do that. When waste is put put in RMW bins that doesn't belong it endangers compliance, efficiency, sustainability, and costs!
Sharps waste, defined as any object that is capable of penetrating or cutting skin, can include anything from scalpels to suture needles, syringes with needles, butterflies, razor blades, and trocars, among others. Yes, there always has been, and likely always will be, some confusion regarding definitions when it comes to regulated medical waste and what is and what isn’t unless healthcare providers are well-versed in the regulations and guidelines.
Important note to remember: Not all bodily fluid wastes are regulated medical waste. You may think that anything that has come into contact with blood is regulated medical waste, but it isn’t. Again, it all comes down to wording; for example, the word “saturated”. If it’s not “saturated” ask yourself these questions: Does the object contain liquid or semi-liquid blood? Does the “blood-soaked” item release blood if it’s squeezed? If the answer is no, it’s not ‘saturated’.
Vomit, feces, and urine as well as non-liquid or solidified blood are not typically considered regulated waste based on state or federal waste guidelines. If an item is “caked” with blood, according to OSHA regulations, it can be defined as a regulated medical waste, but only if it’s capable of “releasing” caked, dried blood or OPIM during handling. The same is applicable to items contaminated with blood or OPIM, which would release infectious or biohazardous substances “in a liquid or semi liquid state if compressed”, again based on OSHA standards.
State regulations define RMW categories
State regulations differ slightly in wording, but typically used – and general definitions - for regulated medical waste include:
- Pathological waste
- Human blood and blood products
- Cultures and stocks of infectious agents (a.k.a. microbiological waste)
- Contaminated sharps
- Isolation waste
If in doubt, refer to state and federal guidelines regarding the difference between regulated medical waste and infectious waste, anatomical waste, pathological waste, or surgical waste. Waste segregation and identification of waste stream categories is essential in properly identifying and separating different types of medical waste.
Of course, it’s always recommended that healthcare professionals take adequate precautions when cleaning up bodily fluids, whether it’s, vomit or items saturated with saliva. Be aware that a number of bodily fluids such as vaginal secretions, semen, synovial fluid, cerebrospinal fluid, among others, are not generally considered biohazard waste unless it’s been contaminated with blood.
Some OPIMs within the medical industry can be potentially infectious, but again, based on terminology and definitions, are not listed under the category of RMW. Be cautious, protect yourself, and dispose of healthcare waste properly.
Daniel Health knows the difference
Daniels Health provides resources, education, and products that take the guesswork out of medical waste segregation. Healthcare waste stream identification is essential to maintaining the safety of healthcare providers. Proper healthcare waste management ensures that you and your facility maintain compliance to federal, state and local guidelines when it comes to medical waste disposal. For more information on how Daniels Health can provide support, products, and solutions for your medical waste management challenges, call us today.


Repeatedly, the Tüttensee ejecta layer has served for the Weekly Images, which can be tracked in the Archives of this website. Now, we present several especially beautiful individual components after having released them from the clayey matrix of this polymictic breccia. As for the term “breccia”, we note that according to current
classification a breccia is a clastic sedimentary rock composed of angular clasts in a cementing matrix. The rounded clasts encountered in the Bunte breccia seem to contradict this definition, the case, however, is to be comprehended as follows: Upon impact in the area of the today’s Tüttensee, a conglomeratic rock composed of Alpine lithologies was shattered whereby components of the fragmentation could survive as rounded cobbles to become incorporated in the breccia. Correspondingly, well-rounded clasts can be found within the Bunte breccia ejecta of the Nördlinger Ries impact structure (e.g., the so-called Buchberg cobbles).
Image 1. Chiemgau impact ejecta: Strong corrosion of a limestone boulder.
The here presented cobbles and boulders from the Tüttensee Bunte breccia stand out to have still more experienced. We explain the deep-reaching corrosion and rock dissolution right up to skeletal formation by the action of high temperatures or/and the action of strong acid dissolution.
The voluminous boulder in Image 1 is a limestone that because of its peculiar sculpture can impossibly have come from the Alps as is (note, e.g., the roughly central fine pin). Obviously, a noticeable part of the rock has been removed, and that did not happen by fracture. Instead, we suggest high temperatures in the impact process being able to melt a limestone or, like in lime works, to decarbonize it. We also consider a dissolution by nitric acid that may be produced in the impact explosion cloud, as previously discussed here on our website. Both processes heat and acid need not be mutually exclusive.
Image 2. Chiemgau-impact ejecta: strong corrosion of a sandstone cobble.
Image 2 shows a sandstone component from the Bunte breccia already, joking, called a saurian embryo. For the formation of this “sculpture” we can refer to the same processes of destruction. If the quartz grains of the sandstone are carbonate-cemented then on action of temperature and/or acid a deep-reaching corrosion starts. On decreasing temperature and acidity rock skeletons as shown may remain.
The same carbonate disintegration applies to the boulders shown in Images 3 and 4. The pervasively corroded limestone and dolostone, resp., exhibit sharp-edged sculptured ridges representing quartz dikelets that need significantly higher melting temperatures and are by far more acid resistant
Image 3. Chiemgau impact ejecta – strongly corroded limestone/dolostone from the Tüttensee excavation.
Image 4. Corroded limestone boulder from the Tüttensee ejecta.
We would like to once more point out that the drastic rock modifications shown here are observed with clasts that are constituent part of a rock, namely the Bunte breccia. Recently, geologists of the Bavarian Geological Survey (now Landesamt für Umwelt) have explained the deep-reaching skeletal corrosion of clasts from the impact layer by sour soils, which we don’t want to comment any further.
The clast shown in Image 5 also originates from the Tüttensee impact layer. It was encountered at some 1.5 m depth at the base of the Bunte breccia pushed-in in the fossil soil horizon underneath. The boulder is a hard, dense quartzite and exhibits distinct abrasions all around. Not any striations can be observed on the surface of the rock, and the imprints cannot possibly have originated from glacial abrasion – in order to preclude respective objections by deniers of the Chiemgau impact. The directional imprints are smooth suggesting a plastic, if only short, behavior (like a pulp) of the quartzite material. Within the frame of our model that defines the Bunte breccia to be ejecta from the Tüttensee crater, the boulder underwent the excavation of the growing crater initiated by extreme shock pressures following the impact into the target of Alpine material. During this high-pressure phase, the boulder became plastically deformed by neighboring clasts was ejected and landed on the (at present fossil) soil at the base of the developing Bunte breccia ejecta horizon.