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STEM Job Shortage and What it Means for You STEM is an acronym that stands for science, technology, engineering, and math. While traditionally, STEM employees have enjoyed more favorable labor market outcomes than their non-STEM counterparts, there has been a massive underrepresentation in STEM on the basis of gender, race, sexuality, and other socio-economic factors. Increasingly, employers are realizing the importance of hiring minority communities in STEM, such as Latinx, Black/African, and other people of color. While that is welcome in terms of social justice and representation, hiring people regardless of their identity also makes better business sense. Given the current shortage of STEM jobs, minorities can do wonders to fuel the STEM pipeline. Now is a great time to consider entering the STEM field. It is no secret that employees are leaving their jobs at record rates. Termed the “Great Resignation,” the past year has witnessed a massive number of employees quitting their jobs. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, quit levels peaked in March 2022 as nearly 4.5 million employees left their jobs. Increasingly, employees are prioritizing flexibility, community, and inclusive culture, or “relational factors,” apart from higher compensation. As employees continue to quit the job market, there is an acute shortage of quality talent in the general labor market. The supply of STEM Talent The supply of STEM workers is heavily skewed in terms of its demographic, depending on factors such as race and gender. White workers are overrepresented in STEM jobs and comprise 67% of the STEM workforce, while accounting for 63% of the workforce across all occupations. White workers have an even higher representation in certain STEM fields like engineering. On the other hand, minority communities are visibly underrepresented in STEM. In particular, the share of black and Hispanic workers in STEM fields is only a fraction of their overall share in the US workforce. Native Americans, Native Hawaiians, Pacific Islanders, and people who identify with two or more racial groups account for just 3% of STEM workers. Why is the supply skewed? STEM is a specialized field that demands a higher level of formal and technical education. Average standards of formal education are not equal across all groups and communities in the US. That is partly why some communities continue to be underrepresented in STEM fields. STEM education is both expensive and time-consuming, factors that can prove to be hurdles for some students. The high costs and time required for a university-level education in STEM fields can be discouraging to students from certain backgrounds. In addition, getting a STEM education can be difficult for students based on geographical and socio-economic factors. High school-level courses such as Calculus, Physics, Chemistry, and Algebra, which are critical for success in STEM fields, are inaccessible to many. The Demand for STEM Workers While talent shortage is a concern for most industries globally, the scenario is particularly grim for STEM fields. The US alone will have to fill nearly 3.5 million STEM jobs by 2025, in areas such as computing, engineering, and advanced manufacturing. Whether it be in Science, Technology, Engineering, or Mathematics, the high demand for STEM skills is fairly universal. Industries such as healthcare and technology will continue to witness long-term increases in the demand for skilled workers, regardless of short-term fluctuations. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, STEM occupations are forecast to grow two times faster than the total for all occupations over the next decade. STEM Occupations With The Highest Growth Prospects STEM is a vast field consisting of hundreds of different occupations. Some of these occupations will grow faster than others, depending on a variety of external economic factors. The mathematical science occupational group, which includes data scientists, mathematicians, and statisticians, is set to grow the fastest. Computer occupations are expected to account for around two-thirds of all the STEM jobs created by 2019. Computer occupations are expected to grow approximately three times as fast, which means more than half a million new computer jobs by 2029. Within computer occupations, jobs for information security analysts, software developers, and computer and information research scientists are expected to grow at the fastest rate. Benefits Of Working In STEM Perhaps the most significant advantage of working in STEM fields is the higher wages they offer. High demand for STEM professionals, combined with an inadequate supply, translates to higher compensation. There is of course considerable variation in compensation according to the wide variety of professions covered by the STEM umbrella. According to a study by the World Economic Forum, the top 25 college degrees by pay and demand are all in STEM subjects. On average, STEM employees make $93,000 per year, which is substantially higher than the national average. In addition, the unemployment rate has historically been lower for STEM graduates. The unemployment rate is a critical indicator of both the overall health of the economy, as well as the security of individual professions. Even at the peak of the pandemic, the STEM unemployment rate was much lower than the non-STEM unemployment rate. This is further proof that STEM professions are less adversely impacted by external economic fluctuations. Higher wages and lower unemployment only go to demonstrate that STEM graduates stand to benefit from a higher return on investment from their education. Tips To Succeed In STEM There are obvious entry barriers to the STEM field for students from certain underprivileged backgrounds. However, that should not be overly discouraging as there are several things you can do to maximize your chances of succeeding in a STEM career. Some of them are: - Take advanced math and science classes in high school: Aim for the highest level of math and science in high school. Include classes in calculus, trigonometry, computing science, etc. - Leverage community colleges: Developing competence in math and science in junior college is important if you’re looking to pursue a four-year degree. You can use community college as a stepping stone for further studies. - Go beyond the classroom: Not all learning happens in class. Familiarize yourself with STEM subjects on your own. Read up on extra material on subjects you find interesting. Even things like visiting a museum or planetarium can be beneficial. - Observe a STEM professional: There is a lot to be learned by observation. Ask your science teacher or school guidance counselor if they can arrange for you to watch an engineer or a doctor at work for a day. - Be academically prepared: Ensure you have covered the basics before enrolling in college. Writing skills, basic math, and science are as important in STEM as critical thinking and problem-solving abilities. While success in a STEM field will mostly depend on your drive and initiative, additional help is available. For instance, the IOScholarship (IOS) offers thousands of customized STEM scholarship programs for students from underprivileged and underrepresented groups. This model of debt-free education has helped thousands of students have successful careers in STEM fields. Tech company Lenovo has helped expose student volunteers to STEM through its own model initiative. It helps students from third grade to twelfth grade cross the digital divide by refurbishing used computers and placing them in the homes of students in low-income areas. Similarly, Google’s Women Techmakers Program offers three months of free coding classes to women and minority students interested in technology. Not all such initiatives come from Fortune 500 companies. Individuals and groups across the US offer mentoring services, partnerships, online classes, and webinars to improve access to STEM fields. What does this mean for you? There is no denying the huge gap between the demand and supply of skilled STEM professionals and adequate representation of these communities in STEM fields is long overdue. Given the current state of the economy, this is the perfect time for you to get a STEM education and be confident in a secure and high-paying career. It makes perfect business sense, both for you and your future employers.

Research and monitoring related to biophysical, social, economic and behavioral impacts resulting from climate change and coastal development Climate change poses a range of potential threats to coastal communities and habitats, such as sea level rise, invasive species expansion, storm surge, and diminished groundwater resilience. Uncertainties about the extent to which habitats and communities will be affected by the changing climate mean we need enhanced monitoring techniques and decision-support tools, improved understanding of the interplay between climate stressors and their impacts, and more effective communication of risks. Understanding the biophysical and human impacts of climate change on estuarine systems is a priority need for the National Estuarine Research Reserve System. As a result, Science Collaborative project teams are collaborating with coastal communities and stakeholders, undertaking research and dialogues that promote resilience, educate stakeholders, and evaluate opportunities for adaptation, using the latest applied science to inform discussions and decision-making. To learn more about specific projects and research products in this focus area, follow the links below.

Currently, Luxembourg is the only Grand Duchy in the world and the Grand Duke is its head of state. He embodies the independence and continuity of a state that was strongly influenced by the ups and downs of history. Representative democracy and constitutional monarchy The state of Luxembourg is a representative democracy in the form of a constitutional monarchy, and the sovereign power resides in the nation. The Grand Duke exercises the sovereign power, in accordance with the Constitution and laws of the country. He has only those powers that the Constitution and laws expressly confer upon him. Since 7 October 2000, Grand Duke Henri has been the 'Head of State, the symbol of its unity and guarantor of national independence' (Article 33 of the Constitution). As such, he has a unique legal status and a set of prerogatives is attached to his function Powers are conferred upon him by dynastic succession. The Grand Duke's prerogatives The Constitution of the Grand Duchy grants the Grand Duke considerable prerogatives. Yet in reality, the manner in which the Grand Duke exercises his sovereignty is more pragmatic than the Constitution would seem to indicate. The Grand Duke participates in legislative power and exercises executive power. Thus, the constitution states that the Grand Duke enacts the laws. Enactment is the act by which the Grand Duke attests to the content of the law and orders its publication and execution. On an international level, the Grand Duke ratifies treaties and ensures that the interests of the state and the Luxembourgish citizens are protected. The Grand Duke's regulatory power consists in taking the regulations and decrees necessary for the execution of the laws. He may delegate this power to the members of his government. In theory, the Grand Duke decides upon the organisation of his government, choosing his ministers. However, in practice, the Grand Duke chooses, on basis of the election results a Prime Minister who presents members of the government to the Grand Duke. They are generally leading figures in the political groups represented in Parliament. Justice is dispensed in the name of the Grand Duke by the courts and tribunals. The judgements are executed in his name (article 49). But he does not, however, have any means of interfering in the exercise of judicial power. The Order of Succession to the Throne The crown of the Grand Duchy is hereditary in the Nassau family in accordance with the family pact of 30 June 1783. Before 2011, the family pact stipulated that the crown is handed down in a direct line by order of male primogeniture, to the exclusion of female descendants. In June 2011, gender equality in the line of succession was introduced by modification of the family pact.

By the end of this section, you should be able to: - Describe the current U.S. workforce and the trend of polarization - Explain how women and immigrants have changed the modern U.S. workforce - Analyze the basic elements of poverty in the United States today The American Dream has always been based on opportunity. There is a great deal of mythologizing about the energetic upstart who can climb to success based on hard work alone. Common wisdom states that if you study hard, develop good work habits, and graduate high school or, even better, college, then you'll have the opportunity to land a good job. That has long been seen as the key to a successful life. And although the reality has always been more complex than suggested by the myth, the worldwide recession that began in 2008 took its toll on the American Dream. During the recession, more than 8 million U.S. workers lost their jobs, and unemployment rates surpassed 10 percent on a national level. Today, while the recovery is still incomplete, many sectors of the economy are hiring, and unemployment rates have receded. Real Money, Virtual Worlds If you are not one of the tens of millions gamers who enjoy World of Warcraft, Final Fantasy, Fortnite, Apex, or other online games, you might not know that for some people, these aren't just games: They're employment. The virtual world has been yielding very real profits for entrepreneurs who are able to buy, sell, and manage online real estate, currency, and more for cash (Holland and Ewalt 2006). If it seems strange that people would pay real money for imaginary goods, consider that for serious gamers the online world is of equal importance to the real one. These entrepreneurs can sell items because the gaming sites have introduced scarcity into the virtual worlds. Scarcity of any resource, be it food, oil, gems, or virtual goods, drives supply and demand. When the supply is low, and demand is high, people are often willing to pay to get what they want. Even though the games offer enjoyment, scarcity builds tension and leads to a greater sense of satisfaction. So how does it work? One of the ways to make such a living is by farming, gathering, or crafting certain resources, such as mining a particular ore or building a product to sell. The buyers are those looking for a competitive edge or who simply don't want to spend their time on those tasks. Other methods include power leveling, in which one person may pay another to play the game for them to acquire wealth and power in the game environment. As you may have read in the chapter on Media and Technology, an online presence can also pay dividends from advertisers or even directly from fans. Highly popular players stream their gameplay on Twitch and other services; others offer coaching, game guides, or reviews. Then there is prize money or other compensation. Gaming tournaments may offer monetary awards to the winner. Finally, the growth of college and professional esports indicates that monetization and virtual/real-world crossovers are going to be continually lucrative in the form of sponsorship, prizes, and scholarships. Polarization in the Workforce The mix of jobs available in the United States began changing many years before the recession struck, and, as mentioned above, the American Dream has not always been easy to achieve. Geography, race, gender, and other factors have always played a role in the reality of success. More recently, the increased outsourcing—or contracting a job or set of jobs to an outside source—of manufacturing jobs to developing nations has greatly diminished the number of high-paying, often unionized, blue-collar positions available. A similar problem has arisen in the white-collar sector, with many low-level clerical and support positions also being outsourced, as evidenced by the international technical-support call centers in Mumbai, India, and Newfoundland, Canada. The number of supervisory and managerial positions has been reduced as companies streamline their command structures and industries continue to consolidate through mergers. Even highly educated skilled workers such as computer programmers have seen their jobs vanish overseas. The automation of the workplace, which replaces workers with technology, is another cause of the changes in the job market. Computers can be programmed to do many routine tasks faster and less expensively than people who used to do such tasks. Jobs like bookkeeping, clerical work, and repetitive tasks on production assembly lines all lend themselves to automation. Envision your local supermarket’s self-scan checkout aisles. The automated cashiers affixed to the units take the place of paid employees. Now one cashier can oversee transactions at six or more self-scan aisles, which was a job that used to require one cashier per aisle. Despite the ongoing economic recovery, the job market is actually growing in some areas, but in a very polarized fashion. Polarization means that a gap has developed in the job market, with most employment opportunities at the lowest and highest levels and few jobs for those with mid-level skills and education. At one end, there has been strong demand for low-skilled, low-paying jobs in industries like food service and retail. On the other end, some research shows that in certain fields there has been a steadily increasing demand for highly skilled and educated professionals, technologists, and managers. These high-skilled positions also tend to be highly paid (Autor 2010). The fact that some positions are highly paid while others are not is an example of the class system, an economic hierarchy in which movement (both upward and downward) between various rungs of the socioeconomic ladder is possible. Theoretically, at least, the class system as it is organized in the United States is an example of a meritocracy, an economic system that rewards merit––typically in the form of skill and hard work––with upward mobility. A theorist working in the functionalist perspective might point out that this system is designed to reward hard work, which encourages people to strive for excellence in pursuit of reward. A theorist working in the conflict perspective might counter with the thought that hard work does not guarantee success even in a meritocracy, because social capital––the accumulation of a network of social relationships and knowledge that will provide a platform from which to achieve financial success––in the form of connections or higher education are often required to access the high-paying jobs. Increasingly, we are realizing intelligence and hard work aren’t enough. If you lack knowledge of how to leverage the right names, connections, and players, you are unlikely to experience upward mobility. With so many jobs being outsourced or eliminated by automation, what kind of jobs are there a demand for in the United States? While fishing and forestry jobs are in decline, in several markets jobs are increasing. These include community and social service, personal care and service, finance, computer and information services, and healthcare. The chart below, from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, illustrates areas of projected growth. Professions that typically require significant education and training and tend to be lucrative career choices. In particular, jobs that require some type of license or formal certification – be it healthcare, technology, or a trade – usually have a higher salary than those that do not. Service jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, can include everything from jobs with the fire department to jobs scooping ice cream (Bureau of Labor Statistics 2019). There is a wide variety of training needed, and therefore an equally large wage potential discrepancy. One of the largest areas of growth by industry, rather than by occupational group (as seen above), is in the health field. This growth is across occupations, from associate-level nurse’s aides to management-level assisted-living staff. As baby boomers age, they are living longer than any generation before, and the growth of this population segment requires an increase in capacity throughout our country’s elder care system, from home healthcare nursing to geriatric nutrition. Notably, jobs in farming are in decline. This is an area where those with less education traditionally could be assured of finding steady, if low-wage, work. With these jobs disappearing, more and more workers will find themselves untrained for the types of employment that are available. Another projected trend in employment relates to the level of education and training required to gain and keep a job. As the chart below shows us, growth rates are higher for those with more education. Those with a professional degree or a master’s degree may expect job growth of 20 and 22 percent respectively, and jobs that require a bachelor’s degree are projected to grow 17 percent. At the other end of the spectrum, jobs that require a high school diploma or equivalent are projected to grow at only 12 percent, while jobs that require less than a high school diploma will grow 14 percent. Quite simply, without a degree, it will be more difficult to find a job. It is worth noting that these projections are based on overall growth across all occupation categories, so obviously there will be variations within different occupational areas. However, once again, those who are the least educated will be the ones least able to fulfill the American Dream. |Typical entry-level education |Median annual wage, 2019(1) |Total, all occupations |Doctoral or professional degree |Postsecondary nondegree award |Some college, no degree |High school diploma or equivalent |No formal educational credential In the past, rising education levels in the United States had been able to keep pace with the rise in the number of education-dependent jobs. However, since the late 1970s, men have been enrolling in college at a lower rate than women, and graduating at a rate of almost 10 percent less. The lack of male candidates reaching the education levels needed for skilled positions has opened opportunities for women, minorities, and immigrants (Wang 2011). Women in the Workforce As discussed in the chapter introduction, women have been entering the workforce in ever-increasing numbers for several decades. They have also been finishing college and going on to earn higher degrees at higher rate than men do. This has resulted in many women being better positioned to obtain high-paying, high-skill jobs (Autor 2010). While women are getting more and better jobs and their wages are rising more quickly than men's wages are, U.S. Census statistics show that they are still earning only 81 percent of what men are for the same positions (U.S. Census Bureau 2020). Immigration and the Workforce Simply put, people will move from where there are few or no jobs to places where there are jobs, unless something prevents them from doing so. The process of moving to a country is called immigration. Due to its reputation as the land of opportunity, the United States has long been the destination of all skill levels of workers. While the rate decreased somewhat during the economic slowdown of 2008, immigrants, both documented and undocumented, continue to be a major part of the U.S. workforce. In 2005, before the recession arrived, immigrants made up a historic high of 14.7 percent of the workforce (Lowell et al. 2006). During the 1970s through 2000s, the United States experienced both an increase in college-educated immigrants and in immigrants who lacked a high school diploma. With this range across the spectrum, immigrants are well positioned for both the higher-paid jobs and the low-wage low-skill jobs that are predicted to grow in the next decade (Lowell et al. 2006). In the early 2000s, it certainly seemed that the United States was continuing to live up to its reputation of opportunity. But what about during the recession of 2008, when so many jobs were lost and unemployment hovered close to 10 percent? How did immigrant workers fare then? The answer is that as of June 2009, when the National Bureau of Economic Research (NEBR) declared the recession officially over, “foreign-born workers gained 656,000 jobs while native-born workers lost 1.2 million jobs” (Kochhar 2010). As these numbers suggest, the unemployment rate that year decreased for immigrant workers and increased for native workers. The reasons for this trend are not entirely clear. Some Pew research suggests immigrants tend to have greater flexibility to move from job to job and that the immigrant population may have been early victims of the recession, and thus were quicker to rebound (Kochhar 2010). Regardless of the reasons, the 2009 job gains are far from enough to keep them inured from the country’s economic woes. Immigrant earnings are in decline, even as the number of jobs increases, and some theorize that increase in employment may come from a willingness to accept significantly lower wages and benefits. While the political debate is often fueled by conversations about low-wage-earning immigrants, there are actually as many highly skilled––and high-earning––immigrant workers as well. Many immigrants are sponsored by their employers who claim they possess talents, education, and training that are in short supply in the U.S. These sponsored immigrants account for 15 percent of all legal immigrants (Batalova and Terrazas 2010). Interestingly, the U.S. population generally supports these high-level workers, believing they will help lead to economic growth and not be a drain on government services (Hainmueller and Hiscox 2010). On the other hand, undocumented immigrants tend to be trapped in extremely low-paying jobs in agriculture, service, and construction with few ways to improve their situation without risking exposure and deportation. Poverty in the United States When people lose their jobs during a recession or in a changing job market, it takes longer to find a new one, if they can find one at all. If they do, it is often at a much lower wage or not full time. This can force people into poverty. In the United States, we tend to have what is called relative poverty, defined as being unable to live the lifestyle of the average person in your country. This must be contrasted with the absolute poverty that is frequently found in underdeveloped countries and defined as the inability, or near-inability, to afford basic necessities such as food (Byrns 2011). We cannot even rely on unemployment statistics to provide a clear picture of total unemployment in the United States. First, unemployment statistics do not take into account underemployment, a state in which a person accepts a lower paying, lower status job than their education and experience qualifies them to perform. Second, unemployment statistics only count those: - who are actively looking for work - who have not earned income from a job in the past four weeks - who are ready, willing, and able to work The unemployment statistics provided by the U.S. government are rarely accurate, because many of the unemployed become discouraged and stop looking for work. Not only that, but these statistics undercount the youngest and oldest workers, the chronically unemployed (e.g., homeless), and seasonal and migrant workers. A certain amount of unemployment is a direct result of the relative inflexibility of the labor market, considered structural unemployment, which describes when there is a societal level of disjuncture between people seeking jobs and the available jobs. This mismatch can be geographic (they are hiring in one area, but most unemployed live somewhere else), technological (workers are replaced by machines, as in the auto industry), educational (a lack of specific knowledge or skills among the workforce) or can result from any sudden change in the types of jobs people are seeking versus the types of companies that are hiring. Because of the high standard of living in the United States, many people are working at full-time jobs but are still poor by the standards of relative poverty. They are the working poor. The United States has a higher percentage of working poor than many other developed countries (Brady, Fullerton and Cross 2010). In terms of employment, the Bureau of Labor Statistics defines the working poor as those who have spent at least 27 weeks working or looking for work, and yet remain below the poverty line. Many of the facts about the working poor are as expected: Those who work only part time are more likely to be classified as working poor than those with full-time employment; higher levels of education lead to less likelihood of being among the working poor; and those with children under 18 are four times more likely than those without children to fall into this category. In 2009, the working poor included 10.4 million Americans, up almost 17 percent from 2008 (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics 2011). Most developed countries protect their citizens from absolute poverty by providing different levels of social services such as unemployment insurance, welfare, food assistance, and so on. They may also provide job training and retraining so that people can reenter the job market. In the past, the elderly were particularly vulnerable to falling into poverty after they stopped working; however, pensions, retirement plans, and Social Security were designed to help prevent this. A major concern in the United States is the rising number of young people growing up in poverty. Growing up poor can cut off access to the education and services people need to move out of poverty and into stable employment. As we saw, more education was often a key to stability, and those raised in poverty are the ones least able to find well-paying work, perpetuating a cycle. Another notion important to sociologists and citizens is the expense of being poor. In a practical sense, people with more money on hand, better credit, a more stable income, and reliable insurance can purchase items or services in different ways than people who lack those things. For example, someone with a higher income can pay bills more reliably, as well as have more credit extended to them through credit cards or loans. When it comes time for those people to purchase a car, for example, they can likely negotiate a lower monthly payment or less money down. In an even more simplistic situation, people with more spending money can buy groceries in bulk, spending far less per unit than those who must purchase smaller portions. The single greatest expense for most adults is housing; beyond its significant portion of a family's expenses, housing drives many other costs, such as transportation (how close does someone live to the places they need to go), childcare, and other areas. And people in poverty pay significantly more for their housing than others – sometimes 70-80 percent of their total income. Those with fewer resources are also more likely to rent rather than own, so they do not build credit in the same way, nor do they have the opportunity to sell the property later and utilize their equity (Nobles 2019). The ways that governments, organizations, individuals, and society as a whole help the poor are matters of significant debate, informed by extensive study. Sociologists and other professionals contribute to these conversations and provide evidence of the impacts of these circumstances and interventions to change them. The decisions made on these issues have a profound effect on working in the United States.

For the past decades, Machine Learning researchers have led many different studies not only meant to make our lives easier but also to improve the productivity and efficiency of certain fields of the economy. Artificial Intelligence and Object Detection are particularly interesting for them. Thanks to their dedicated work, many businesses and activities have been able to introduce AI in their internal processes. Health professionals use it to detect tumors or abnormalities during medical exams involving the recording of images (such as X-rays or ultrasound scans). Which AI algorithm is best for image recognition? Due to their unique work principle, convolutional neural networks (CNN) yield the best results with deep learning image recognition. For example, to apply augmented reality, or AR, a machine must first understand all of the objects in a scene, both in terms of what they are and where they are in relation to each other. If the machine cannot adequately perceive the environment it is in, there’s no way it can apply AR on top of it. In many cases, a lot of the technology used today would not even be possible without image recognition and, by extension, computer vision. Even with all these advances, we’re still only scratching the surface of what AI image recognition technology will be able to do. The early 2000s saw the rise of what Oren Etzioni, Michele Banko, and Michael Cafarella dubbed “machine reading”. In 2006, they defined this idea of unsupervised text comprehension, which would ultimately expand into machines “reading” objects and images. Advanced Python Image Processing Projects with Source Code Developers can now use image recognition to create realistic game environments and characters. Various non-gaming augmented reality applications also support image recognition. Examples include Blippar and CrowdOptics, augmented reality advertising and crowd monitoring apps. Since 90% of all medical data is based on images, computer vision is also used in medicine. Its application is wide, from using new medical diagnostic methods to analyze X-rays, mammograms, and other scans to monitoring patients for early detection of problems and surgical care. In the second half of the 2010s, machine reading has taken on greater roles across all social media channels. Since 2015, Facebook has used AI to flag suicide or self-harm-related posts to provide help and, in 2017, YouTube began using AI to flag terrorism-related videos to block them from even being uploaded. As an example of design validation using this technology, Figure 3 shows a prediction for the contribution to a vehicle’s drag coefficient from a wheel design. Provide reliable data Unfortunately, however, both calculations directly affect the other, and not in a positive way. Often, adjusting your model to display better precision negatively affects recall and vice versa. By analyzing real-time video feeds, such autonomous vehicles can navigate through traffic by analyzing the activities on the road and traffic signals. - In real cases, the objects in the image are aligned in various directions. - The relative order of its inputs stays the same, so the class with the highest score stays the class with the highest probability. - Nowadays Computer Vision and Artificial Intelligence have become very important industries. - The dataset provides all the information necessary for the AI behind image recognition to understand the data it “sees” in images. - This way, you can get an amazing training dataset of real images in one month and then gradually update your model. - 4.) Once your CAL is implemented, review the results and continue this process to fix any inaccuracies. Subsequently, we will go deeper into which concrete business cases are now within reach with the current technology. And finally, we take a look at how image recognition use cases can be built within the Trendskout AI software platform. This is one of the fun digital image processing projects you should try. Crack dream jobs with FREE certificate courses on India’s most trusted education platform Pleased customers mean a better bottom line — this is common sense, as well as scientifically proven fact. By using image recognition, you will be able to entice more people to buy and keep what they bought, without returning items in a fit of buyer’s remorse. Real-time image recognition for retail requires several technologies working in tandem. Image recognition (IR) is, at its core, a solution to many problems that retailers face daily. While far from being a silver bullet, it dramatically increases employee efficiency, helps combat shrinkage, and adds new sales growth opportunities. Below, we’ll reveal how image recognition in retail helps push brick-and-mortar stores into a new age. For example, the detector will find pedestrians, cars, road signs, and traffic lights in one image. But he will not tell you which road sign it is (there are hundreds of them), which light is on at the traffic lights, which brand or color of a metadialog.com car is detected, etc. Object recognition datasets bundle together an image or video with a list of objects it contains and their locations. Image recognition datasets, however, bundle together an image or video with its high-level description. A distinction is made between a data set to Model training and the data that will have to be processed live when the model is placed in production. As training data, you can choose to upload video or photo files in various formats (AVI, MP4, JPEG,…). When video files are used, the Trendskout AI software will automatically split them into separate frames, which facilitates labelling in a next step. The sector in which image recognition or computer vision applications are most often used today is the production or manufacturing industry. In this sector, the human eye was, and still is, often called upon to perform certain checks, for instance for product quality. Experience has shown that the human eye is not infallible and external factors such as fatigue can have an impact on the results. Suddenly there was a lot of interest in neural networks and deep learning (deep learning is just the term used for solving machine learning problems with multi-layer neural networks). That event plays a big role in starting the deep learning boom of the last couple of years. Many organizations don’t have the resources to fund computer vision labs and create deep learning models and neural networks. They may also lack the computing power required to process huge sets of visual data. We will create a simple architecture with 2 convolutional layers, one dense hidden layer and an output layer. In order to see how our model performs on unseen data (and before exposing it to the test set), we need to create a validation set. This is how retail and image recognition software are commonly paired. All of these open up new growth opportunities through improving conversion rate, automating routine tasks, or upselling. With ImageAI, you can integrate image prediction code easily and conveniently into any application, website or system you build in python. There are other algorithms and model types supported in the ImageAI library, with some optimized for speed and others optimized for accuracy. With ImageAI, we hope to support more specialized aspects of Computer Vision including and not limited to image recognition in special environments and special fields and custom image prediction. What is Meant by Image Recognition? Making several comparisons are a good way to identify your perfect solution. Home Security has become a huge preoccupation for people as well as Insurance Companies. They started to install cameras and security alarms all over their homes and surrounding areas. Most of the time, it is used to show the Police or the Insurance Company that a thief indeed broke into the house and robbed something. On another note, CCTV cameras are more and more installed in big cities to spot incivilities and vandalism for instance. - You need to find the images, process them to fit your needs and label all of them individually. - C, C++ and C# programming dialects of the C-family are used widely for the creation of artificial intelligence programs. - Additionally, it can process large amounts of data quickly, allowing it to identify patterns and objects in images much faster than humans can. - In order to carry out image recognition/classification, the neural network must carry out feature extraction. - 2012’s winner was an algorithm developed by Alex Krizhevsky, Ilya Sutskever and Geoffrey Hinton from the University of Toronto (technical paper) which dominated the competition and won by a huge margin. - Then we feed the image dataset with its known and correct labels to the model. After you are comfortable with these, you can try implementing your own image classifier on a different dataset. Now that you’ve implemented your first image recognition network in Keras, it would be a good idea to play around with the model and see how changing its parameters affects its performance. In the final layer, we pass in the number of classes for the number of neurons. How is AI trained to do facial recognition? Face detection software detects faces by identifying facial features in a photo or video using machine learning algorithms. It first looks for an eye, and from there it identifies other facial features. It then compares these features to training data to confirm it has detected a face.

OXYGEN IS THE FORCE OF LIFE. Without it there will be no life. If you are deprived of oxygen you will be dead in 7 minutes! In 5 minutes, if you are not dead, you will become a vegetable as your brain would be effectively dead. Learning science in school, we were taught that oxygen formed 23% of the air around us. Now, it has dropped to about 18% and still going downwards. It is not even near that in smoke and smog filled cities like Mexico City, Linfen (China) Ahwaz (Iran) and Kanpur (India). London and Los Angeles are not far behind! Knowing that our existence is so dramatically tied to oxygen why can we not try to get more of it around us? It is the ONE THING your body is struggling to extract from the air around you with every breath that you take! I should also tell you that the oxygen that manages to get into your blood is not as important as the one that actually gets to your cells. High levels of oxygen in and around your cells gets rid of virtually all infections as microbes cannot survive in a high oxygen environment. NEITHER CAN CANCER CELLS! Ask the researchers and the’ll tell you that if you want to increase the activities of cancer cells, all you have to do is reduce the oxygen content of their environment! How do you get more oxygen into your cells? Try to get some food grade hydrogen peroxide (please get information on how to use it successfully first!). You can also get an OZONATOR, a little machine that pushes out more ozone into the air around you. Ozone is just tri-atomic oxygen. You can learn deep-breathing techniques that may help, or you may try living in an oxygen hyperbaric chamber. Whatever you do, get some more oxygen inside you!

- A polar bear was found dead in October near Utqiagvik, Alaska, the northernmost community in the United States. - On December 6, the Alaska State Veterinarian confirmed that the bear had died of avian flu – the first fatal case for this species in the world. An Alaskan polar bear is the first of its species to die from bird flu, as highly pathogenic bird flu continues to spread around the world. The polar bear, considered threatened on the endangered species list, was found dead in October near Utqiagvik, Alaska, the northernmost community in the United States. On December 6, the Alaska State Veterinarian confirmed that the bear had died of avian flu – the first fatal case recorded for this species in the world. Dr. Bob Gerlach, Alaska State Veterinarian, told the Alaska Beacon that this case was reported to the World Organization for Animal Health. “This is the first reported case of a polar bear anywhere,” Gerlach said. He said polar bears normally eat seals, but it’s likely this bear caught the virus by eating a dead bird. Gerlach noted that due to the environment and the nature of the disease, the polar bear did not need to directly eat an infected bird to become ill. “If a bird dies from it, especially if it is kept in a cold environment, the virus can remain in the environment for some time,” he said. The latest avian flu outbreak reached North America in December 2021, in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, according to the United States Geological Survey. Subsequently, HPAI viruses EA H5 and EA H5N1 were confirmed in wild birds, backyard flocks, commercial poultry facilities, and wild mammals in Canada and the United States. Although it currently remains a low threat to human health, the CDC reported, it is ravaging flocks of wild birds and poultry across the world. Highly pathogenic avian influenza causes severe illness and high mortality in infected birds. In September, the United States Department of Agriculture imposed restrictions on poultry imports from France, Iceland, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Norway due to the increased risk of introducing influenza avian in the United States. The USDA, which estimates the start of this latest outbreak on February 8, 2022, detected avian flu in a total of 1,059 poultry flocks in 47 states – 451 flocks were commercial and 608 backyard flocks – as of January 1 2024. . In their latest wild bird data, released on December 26, the total number of detections since January 1, 2022 in wild birds is 8,547. The USDA reported several more detections of highly pathogenic avian influenza in mammals between 2022 and 2023, including seals, skunks, mountain lions, red foxes, raccoons and even a bottlenose dolphin. Last winter, the double whammy of the worst bird flu outbreak in years and farmers facing inflated feed and fuel costs saw prices of a dozen rise above $5 for the first time. Since then, prices have continued to fall, but it appears that “egg deflation” has returned to the United States, according to Datasembly analysis for DailyMail.com, when egg prices increased by 11.4 % in November.

Adding onto Sergio's excellent answer: There are multiple ways in which enharmonic notes (notes of essentially the same pitch with different names, such as A# and Bb) come into play, as it were. One is with respect to different tunings. Sergio's answer cites a table that concerns two tunings, equal and just. There are in fact lots and lots of tunings, many of which involve different compromises between equal temperament and Platonic, "natural" tunings (based on integer ratios). And so you'll see various differences between enharmonic pitches, so that the F# that shows up in a D7 won't necessarily equate with the Gb that shows up in an Ab7 (even though C shows up in both chords). An instrument tuned to play the former chord may not be able to play the latter well, and vice versa. That example highlights another way in which enharmonic notes make a difference: music theory. This has no intrinsic impact on how the note sounds; rather, they are differences in how the note is used or interpreted. A D7 chord consists of the notes D, F#, A, and C. If you were to "spell" it D, Gb, A, C, that would sound essentially the same, but it would be marked wrong on an exam, because that second pitch is not being used as a Gb, but as an F#. That D7 will typically resolve to a G chord—major or minor—and in either case, the pitch a half-step down from G is being used as the seventh or leading tone of that G scale. This also explains some accidentals in actual music that typically mystify beginning students, such as double-sharps and double-flats. Why notate something Fx, when G sounds the same? Such a situation often arises when you have a secondary dominant: a dominant chord resolving to a chord other than the tonic. If you're writing something in B Major, say, and you have a D# Major (V/vi) resolving to g# minor (vi), that D# Major should be notated D#, Fx, A#—not D#, G, A#, even though those pitches happen to be the same, because the note that resolves to G# should be Fx, not G. This also applies to variously altered chords. The sharp 9 and flat 13 of "the" altered dominant seventh chord (aka tritone substitution) are shifted from their natural position, so that for our good ol' D7 chord, the sharp 9 would be E#, not F, and the flat 13 would be Bb, not A#. And so on.

This term we are exploring our 'Honesty' value. As a school, we spent the day thinking about what honesty means and why it is important. We then came together to share what we had learnt and the exciting activities we completed based on this value. KS2 read the Book of Proverb, while KS1 focused on David and the Wolf. The children enjoyed drama, artwork and Bible stories as well as writing their own prayers about Honesty.

Astigmatism: Symptoms, CAUSES and SOLUTIONS What is astigmatism? Astigmatism is a very common focusing problem of the eye. Low levels of astigmatism ma present no concerns however higher levels can cause eye strain, headaches and blurred vision at both distance and near, if left uncorrected. The cornea is the thin transparent covering of the eye. It contributes a large part to the power of the eye. If the cornea is not perfectly round and smooth (like the surface of a lens) it induces astigmatism, and results in vision distortion. Astigmatism can be present in young children or could develop during puberty. In children, astigmatism is a common cause of a “lazy eye”. Common Symptoms Of Astigmatism Astigmatism can affect you at any time, so it is necessary to be aware of any signs that you may be suffering from it. The most common symptoms include: - Eye strain - Distorted or blurred vision at all distances - Difficulty driving at night When vision begins to appear blurred or fuzzy, either from a known injury or an unknown development over time, a visit to an optician is required. Some vision problems like eye strain can come and go on their own but can still be symptomatic of a more serious disease which would require treatment. Testing For Astigmatism Testing for astigmatism is usually part of a comprehensive eye exam. It is important to always be aware of any changes in your vision. Besides astigmatism, it is also useful in detecting any common vision problems. If you notice any changes in your vision, visit your eye care professional for a comprehensive eye examination. Can Astigmatism Be Cured? No known cure for astigmatism has been reported. There are, however, it is in most cases easily corrected with spectacles and contact lenses. In fact most spectacles wearers have their astigmatism corrected even if they don't know it. Refractive surgery can also be used to correct astigmatism but this is not very common. SUFFERING FROM DISTORTED OR BLURRED VISION? Visit your nearest optician for a complete eye examination today

Forensic science has come a long way since the 700s, when the Chinese first established the concept of utilizing fingerprints as means of identification. Since then, technology in photonics and optics fields has reached a level of sophistication that can detect even the tiniest traces of evidence able to link a person to a crime. Thanks to these incredibly powerful instruments and techniques, the “perfect crime” no longer exists. Applications of Photonics in Forensic Science Forensic scientists rely on highly accurate data that will uphold in court. These methods hold an advantage over other analytical techniques since most are non-destructive and non-invasive, and require little to no sample preparation. Today, forensic investigators utilize several different optical-based technologies to disclose evidence and collect solid data. These include ultraviolet (UV) analysis, infrared (IR) spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, and hyperspectral sensing. UV light is the region of light within the electromagnetic spectrum that ranges from 400 nm to 10 nm. This region of light is generally invisible to the human eye, however, many are familiar with the effects of UV light through sunburn. UV photons have more energy than those of visible light, so many materials that reflect visible light will, in fact, absorb UV light. The higher energy of the UV photon results in a greater chance for atomic transitions to occur. This is why some materials are invisible to the naked eye, but are visible with UV. Thanks to this unique property, technology utilizing UV light offers several advantages in the field of forensic science. Many biological fluids, hair types, fibers, and treated latent fingerprints will fluoresce when exposed to UV light. The applications of UV analysis instruments range from the detection of bite marks on skin and shoe impressions on tile to explosive residues, drugs and treated blood stains. In addition to fluorescence, UV is also non-destructive. This is why it is typically the first choice when examining biologically contaminated evidence. Additionally, since UV analysis devices do not require sample preparation for most types of evidence, it allows for the preliminary evaluation of a crime scene before other analytical methods, like luminol, are used. Forensic investigators also utilize IR spectroscopy as another common optical method. As the name suggests, IR spectroscopy involves using the infrared region of the electromagnetic spectrum. Although IR light is also invisible to the human eye, it is commonly felt as heat. IR spectroscopy utilizes IR wavelengths to excite the molecules of a substance. By measuring the vibrations of these molecules as they are exposed to an IR light source, it is possible to identify different molecules and chemicals in a sample. Similar to UV analysis, IR spectroscopy is of non-destructive nature. Although it does require sample preparation, it has the ability to analyze with only a small amount of sample. One frequent use of IR spectroscopy in forensic science is paint chip analysis. Painted is a complex mixture consisting of several different components, such as pigments and modifiers. Because painted surfaces are found just about everywhere, an investigation can greatly benefit from paint chip analysis. For example, subjecting a paint chip to IR spectroscopy can give clues to the specific make and model of a car and thus, a criminal’s whereabouts. This technique is also used to determine the postmortem interval. When a person dies, their bones begin to lose water, and proteins begin to decompose. IR spectroscopy aids in identifying just how much time has passed since death has occurred through analysis of these molecules. Other applications of IR spectroscopy include measuring drug and fiber samples, analyzing blood alcohol content, visualizing wounds like bite marks and bruises on tissue, detecting blood and explosives, and inspecting forged documents. When light interacts with a material, it can be reflected, transmitted, or scattered. Raman spectroscopy is a spectroscopic technique that focuses on the scattered portion of the light. During the scattering process, the frequency of light changes when it comes into contact with vibrating molecules. By studying the different vibrations of atoms, Raman spectroscopy can be used to identify and quantify samples. Scientists use this method to obtain a better understanding on the make-up of materials and their chemical composition. Raman spectroscopy has numerous applications in the field of forensics, including identification of illegal drugs, and gunshot and explosive residues. Furthermore, it is extremely useful in the determination of forgery. Raman spectroscopy allows for the visualization of individual pigments, which permits the user to differentiate between and characterize various materials in a document. Advances in the photonics and optics field has also given way to forensic analysis via hyperspectral sensing. This method combines digital imaging with conventional reflectance and fluorescence spectroscopy. Hyperspectral imaging records images as a function of wavelength and provides an individual reflectance and fluorescence measurement for each pixel in an image. By subjecting images to different wavelengths, differences in intensity and contrast between samples can be visualized. Using this concept, hyperspectral imaging finds relevance in varying tasks in forensic investigations. This includes questioned document analysis, arson investigation, bloodstain visualization, fiber analysis, explosive residue detection, duct tape examination, and fingerprint enhancement. One of the main uses for this technology is for making comparisons between traditional handwritten, computer printed, or copied documents in order to reveal differences between them. For example, if someone attempts to change the value on a bank note, hyperspectral imaging can detect ink mismatches between the original pen and the pen used by the forger. High-end photonics and optics equipment provides forensic investigators with a sophisticated tool to unveil evidence in criminal investigations. These devices detect the smallest traces of residue, determine forged documentation, and expose blood spills even after cleaning. Amazingly, most of this is done without damaging the sample or the crime scene. With the ability to collect evidence once considered invisible to the human eye, investigators are now able to provide concrete evidence stopping criminals in their tracks.

Green Energy Revolution: Solar Panels for Sustainable Living In an era where environmental consciousness is on the rise, the adoption of green energy solutions has become imperative for sustainable living. Among these solutions, solar panels stand out as a beacon of hope for a cleaner and more eco-friendly future. Harnessing Solar Power at Home Green energy has become synonymous with a cleaner and more sustainable way of living, and solar panels play a pivotal role in this transition. Homeowners are increasingly turning to solar panel installations to harness the power of the sun and reduce their carbon footprint. These panels, typically mounted on rooftops, convert sunlight into electricity, offering a renewable and environmentally friendly energy source. The Environmental Impact of Solar Energy Solar panels contribute significantly to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, making them a key player in the fight against climate change. Unlike traditional energy sources that rely on fossil fuels, solar power generation produces minimal air and water pollution. By opting for solar energy, individuals can actively contribute to preserving the environment and mitigating the adverse effects of climate change. Financial Benefits of Solar Panel Investments Investing in solar panels not only benefits the environment but also proves to be financially advantageous for homeowners. Many governments offer incentives, tax credits, and rebates for those who install solar panels, making the initial investment more affordable. Additionally, the energy generated by solar panels can lead to substantial savings on electricity bills in the long run. Technological Advances in Solar Panel Efficiency With ongoing technological advancements, the efficiency of solar panels continues to improve. Innovations in materials and design have led to increased energy conversion rates, making solar power an even more viable option for residential use. As the efficiency of solar panels improves, the overall cost of installation decreases, further promoting widespread adoption. Integration of Solar Panels into Architectural Design Architects and builders are increasingly incorporating solar panels into the design of homes and buildings. Integrated solar solutions seamlessly blend with the architectural aesthetics, dispelling the notion that solar panels are bulky and unattractive additions. This integration not only enhances the visual appeal of structures but also promotes the widespread acceptance of solar energy. The Role of Solar Energy in Energy Independence As nations strive for energy independence, solar power emerges as a key player in diversifying energy sources. By reducing reliance on non-renewable resources, countries can enhance their energy security and resilience. The decentralization of energy production through widespread adoption of solar panels contributes to a more robust and reliable energy infrastructure. Addressing Common Misconceptions About Solar Power Despite the numerous benefits of solar energy, some misconceptions persist. Addressing these misconceptions is crucial for promoting informed decision-making. Common concerns include the perceived high costs, limited effectiveness in cloudy climates, and the environmental impact of manufacturing solar panels. Educating the public about the realities of solar energy is essential for dispelling these myths. Future Prospects: Advancements in Solar Technology Looking ahead, the future of solar energy appears promising with ongoing research and development in solar technology. Emerging innovations, such as transparent solar cells and solar paint, hold the potential to revolutionize how we harness and integrate solar power into our daily lives. These advancements further underscore the significance of solar energy in shaping a sustainable future. Conclusion: Embracing a Solar-Powered Future In conclusion, the green energy revolution is well underway, and solar panels are at the forefront of this transformation. From environmental benefits to financial incentives, the case for adopting solar energy is compelling. As we move towards a more sustainable future, integrating solar panels into our homes and communities is a crucial step, and it starts with embracing the power of the sun. To learn more about the benefits of Green Energy Solar Panel, visit guestpostbro.com.

Dams are well known for power generation. Many other purposes are fulfilled by Dams like irrigation of farmlands, and also dams play a very vital role Dams are well known for power generation. Many other purposes are fulfilled by Dams like irrigation of farmlands, and also dams play a very vital role in the prevention of floods. The very biggest part of the land is acquired by Dams. It is also a source of fish farming and many tourists visit Dams. Dams are also the real models of engineering. Dams are nonrenewable sources of energy. Billion Dollars are required to build a Dam. There are many Dams in the world out of them some the special due to the reservoir, technology, power production, etc. In this technology Blog, we will discuss the Biggest Dams Worldwide. This is the biggest Dam in the World, it is located in Tarbela, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. Its construction cost is $1.497 billion and was completed in the Year 1976. Its total capacity is 138,600,000 square yd. Its height is 143 meters. The total length of this Dam is 2,743 meters. This is also the largest earth-filled Dam in the entire world. By volume, it stood in the fifth position. The purpose of Terbela construction is to control the flooding from the Indus river. Millions of farmers are benefited from this dam because it irrigates huge land. Now many phases of Terbela are in working mode and generating a huge amount of power. A large amount of power demand in Pakistan is fulfilled by this mighty dam. This is the largest dam in the world according to the reservoir by volume. It is located in Egypt. It is situated on the famous river Nile. The power generation capacity of this mighty Dam is around 2100 MW. It is also the biggest source of agriculture in Egypt and also the largest power producer in Egypt. Fort Peck Dam This Dam is located in the Missouri River, Fort Peck, Montana. It was completed in 1993. Its construction cost is $100million.it resorvier volume 125,628,000 cu yd. The height of this Dam is 76.4, and its length is 6409 meters. It is the largest Dam hydraulically filled in the United States. This dam is located in Sanlıurfa-Adıyaman, Turkey. It was completed in the year 1983. Its construction cost is about $1.25 billion. Attaturk Dam’s total capacity is 110,521,827 square yd. Its height is 184 meters and its length is 1820 meters. It is the largest Dam in Turkey. It provides irrigation, flood control, and power to both Turkey and Syria. Its name is related to Mustafa Kamal Ataturk. Ataturk Lake is created by this Dam and this lake is the biggest source of food and water. This Dam is located in Lelystad, Netherland. It was completed in the year 1975. Its construction cost is about $64 million. Its total capacity by volume is 68 meters in width, with a height of 13 meters and a length of 30,000 meters. This Dame connects to major cities Lelystad and Enkhuizen and carries approximately 8,500 commuters and travelers per day. It is also the biggest source of tourism in the Netherland. It runs about 13km and two cities are connected by this Dam. This Dam also contributing to the revenue of the country. This Dam is located in South Dakota, USA. It is completed in the year 1962. Its construction cost is $340 million. Oahe Dam Total capacity is 93,122,000 cu yd with a height of 13 meters, and length is 30,000 meters. This Dam was authorized by the flood control Act of 1944, and construction started in 1948. World-first rock tunnel the boring machine was invented for this great project. The famous president of America John F. Kennedy dedicated the dam in 1962. These benefits are provided by this Dam like Flood control, power production, irrigation, and also navigation benefits. So Dams provide a positive impact on societies due to their benefits. These are the world’s largest Dam many other Dams also exist but as discussed above Dams are mighty. Countries like China, India, the USA, Brazil also have great water reservoirs which are known as Dams. How Dams Work. Dams are the biggest source of electricity. It is a non-renewable source of energy. Water is stored in the big reservoir surrounded by great walls along with tall mountains. Then stored water is passed through one path known as spillways comprised of big turbines when water passes through the turbine it rotates and then the turbine shaft is attached to the generator. The generator’s function is to produce electricity. After that generated power having low voltage is passes through the unit transformers then voltages are step up for transmission purposes. Then power having high voltages and less current is transmitted over long distances and reached to our neighboring grids where power is distributed as per power demands. In transmission, the current is low to avoid current losses. This is the whole phenomenon of power generation. Dams also avoid floods and are also a great source of entertainment for visitors.

The idea of limit in differential calculus Tangent Line or Tangent Bringing the points A and B in Graph-1 sufficiently close to yield a gradient to the parabola. Observe how the value of changes as A and B approach on each other. Kaleidoscope - Caleidoscopio Unwrapping a Cylinder (surface area) A Common Generating Set of Equations Missing Square? Extra Square? Exploring Transversal and Angles Examples of translations determined by a vector. Opg 1,4 trigonometri Area Under the Curve Ratios and Rates with Fractions: IM 7.4.2 Linear Programming or Linear Optimization

In response to the Department for Education announcement that GCSE exams will be replaced with teacher assessment for the second year running, The Bell Foundation has created four guides, one each for learners, parents/carers, senior leaders and teachers. The parent/carer and learner guides have now been translated into 17 of the most commonly spoken languages in the classroom. Teachers are encouraged to share the guides with parents and learners by email, by post, or face-to-face. The other two guides, one for senior leaders and one for teachers, offer advice and suggestions on how to ensure the best outcomes for learners using EAL within teacher assessments. The impact of school closures on learners is likely to be considerable as many will have experienced some degree of learning loss during this time. For pupils using EAL this may also include potential language loss and be particularly significant for late arrivals to the UK school system and those who are new to English. Resources linked below:

What Causes Dizziness and Can it be Treated? - Posted on: Aug 23 2023 What is Dizziness? The term dizziness is used to describe a wide range of sensations including a spinning or rotational feeling, feeling lightheaded, off balance, or nauseous. Because the symptoms of dizziness can be vague and vary from person to person, taking a thorough history and diagnostic testing is often necessary to pinpoint the cause. ENT Causes of Dizziness: At our clinic, we diagnose and treat dizziness related to the ear. Inner Ear causes of dizziness include: What is Labyrinthitis? Labyrinthitis refers to the inflammation of the balance organ in the inner ear. Because input from each inner ear organ creates a sense of balance, a reduction in the function of the organ on either side can produce a dizziness or vertigo complaint. A hearing test as well as a specialized test called a VNG is used to diagnose labyrinthitis and identify which ear has been injured. Treatment for Labyrinthitis: Inflammation that results in labyrinthitis is often caused by viral infections or nasal and sinus issues. Because inflammation of the balance organ results in vertigo, oral steroids are often prescribed. In addition, a steroid injection to the ear called a trans-tympanic dexamethasone injection (TTDI), is performed to reverse inflammation in the ear. This is done as an office procedure under local anesthesia and is painless. Any sinus or nasal issues that have been identified are also treated to help resolve the issue and reduce the risk of recurrence. Medications designed to treat vertigo such as Dramamine® will only mask symptoms and will not treat the root cause of labyrinthitis. What is BPPV (benign paroxysmal position vertigo)? Dizziness caused by BPPV is typically brief, lasting only seconds to minutes, and is often precipitated by specific changes to your head position (for example occurring every time you turn your head to the right). BPPV occurs when tiny crystals inside the inner ear called otoliths break free. With position changes these crystals float around the fluid inside the balance organ and stimulate vertigo. BPPV can be diagnosed using specialized positioning maneuvers in the office. Treatment for BPPV: Treatment for BPPV involves specific exercises to reposition the crystals inside the inner ear. Once in the correct position, the crystals will no longer produce symptoms of dizziness. Tumors in the inner ear: What are Tumors in the inner ear? Tumors in the inner ear are known as acoustic neuromas or vestibular schwannomas. These are non-cancerous and typically slow-growing tumors located on the balance and hearing nerves within the inner ear. These tumors can produce vertigo, ringing in the ear, and hearing loss. Hearing and balance testing as well as imaging of the brain and inner ear with an MRI is used to diagnose these types of tumors. Treatment for Tumors in The Inner Ear: Treatment can depend on the size of the tumor, how fast it is growing, and whether or not it is producing any symptoms. Sometimes observation is recommended if the tumor is small and not causing any symptoms. Surgery and/or radiation may be recommended depending on your individual situation. Non-ENT Causes for Dizziness: Symptoms of dizziness can be vague and indicate problems in other parts of the body, not just the ear. Common Non-ENT causes of dizziness include: - Low blood sugar, anxiety, and stress - Neurological conditions such as Parkinson’s disease and Multiple Sclerosis, stroke, concussion, seizures or brain tumors - Cardiac issues such as anemia, irregular heartbeats, and low blood pressure Request a Consultation If we suspect that your dizziness is not related to the ear, referral to the appropriate specialty can help determine the cause and appropriate treatment. Posted in: Dizziness

Multidimensionality. I know, it sounds like a made-up word. One of those words with too many syllables. A big word designed to impress when a shorter, simpler word would suffice. A word like that is actually called a sesquipedalian. Go figure. Multidimensionality has a specific definition, but like many other words, the definition shifts, or is tweaked, depending on the subject being spoken of and its context. My most recent brush with the word, or its concept, was a bit of an accident. I must be watching too many documentaries because the content-streaming algorithms are suggesting I view even more documentaries. During the 30-second previews that play when you're on these streaming platforms—and at a moment when I wasn't really paying attention—I heard a voice say: "In any finite region of space, like the observable universe that we now inhabit, there's a finite amount of energy, which is carried by a finite number of particles. And those finite number of particles can only be arranged in finitely many distinct patterns. Because there are only finitely many distinct ways that the particles can be arranged, if space does go on infinitely far, the particle pattern has to ultimately repeat. And that would mean there'd be copies of us out there." The voice was that of theoretical physicist Brian Greene, well-known for his books geared toward the general public, from the 30-second preview for the documentary "A Trip to Infinity." Greene's voice is followed by a number of other top scientists reiterating, "There'd be copies of us." "I was the kid who would take the [Rubik's] cube apart and put it back together solved." I'd heard of multi-dimension theory before, but perhaps it was that, in just a brief 30-second encounter, it began to make sense. I've since begun to consider it like a Rubik's Cube, or even like languages. The English language has 26 letters. These letters are the building blocks, allowing for the building and recognizing of words, sentences and phrases. The agreement and recognition of the patterns of words and phrases is key to our ability to write and speak to others and understand those that are writing and speaking to us. I might have chosen the Rubik's Cube example, but I was the kid who would take the cube apart and put it back together solved rather than taking the time and energy to solve it on my own. Even more depressing was when 10-year-olds around the world started solving the Rubik's Cube in a matter of seconds. But I digress. Outside of physics perhaps, multidimensional is something with many different parts or aspects or it may describe something that is intricate or complex. Relationships can be described as multidimensional. We may not think much about the relationship between two roommates, but if those roommates also are husband and wife, the relationship is multidimensional. The way we teach our children is said to be a multidimensional approach as to include the importance of cognitive, emotional, and social components of successful learning. The entire quality industry is no stranger to complexity or multidimensionality. In addition to dealing with the intricacies of measuring and testing components in the manufacturing environment, as Duke Okes writes, "Quality is not a single field, but in fact the integration of knowledge from many fields of science, technology and management. This can be seen by looking at some of the quality gurus and their more well-known contributions." Enjoy and thanks for reading!

As host of the G20 summit last weekend, Indian prime minister Narendra Modi was right to highlight the importance of debt relief. But he and other G20 leaders could have done more to recognise how economic reliance on fossil fuels has made debt crises worse. National debt burdens have reached catastrophic levels in over 50 countries. Sri Lanka, Ghana, Zambia and Pakistan are already restructuring their debt or negotiating bailouts to save their economies. The current debt crisis did not emerge because governments mismanaged public finances. Most developing countries have been forced into borrowing by external shocks: the Covid-19 pandemic, soaring energy and food prices, and climate-related disasters such as floods, droughts and cyclones. That debt has been made more costly by rising interest rates and a strengthening US dollar. Consequently, dozens of countries are sacrificing spending on health, education, or infrastructure in order to repay their creditors. Investments in tackling climate change are also at risk. However, few of the initiatives have tackled the way that the debt crisis incentivises oil and gas production, jeopardising the fossil fuel phase-out necessary to limit global warming. Many of the countries facing debt distress have significant oil and gas reserves, whether low-income countries such as Chad, Mozambique and Papua New Guinea, or middle-income economies such as Angola, Egypt and Tunisia. The relationship between abundant fossil fuel reserves and rising debt is no coincidence. Oil and gas exporters can increase borrowing when energy prices are high. High prices increase the value of their reserves and thus boost their credit ratings, enabling these countries to borrow cheaply in international debt markets. However, oil and gas exporters may also increase borrowing when energy prices are low. Many fund their public services using oil and gas revenues and do not want to impose cuts on their citizens when those revenues decline – so they borrow to close the gap. New research from ODI, a global affairs think tank, reveals that oil and gas producers are likely to increase borrowing whether energy prices are rising or falling. Consequently, many are seeing their debt stock balloon. Over the last decade, oil-rich countries such as Angola, Congo-Brazzaville, Gabon, Mozambique and Venezuela have all seen gross debt as a percentage of GDP grow over 50 percentage points. Soaring debt increases a country’s reliance on fossil fuel exports to repay its creditors. It is politically difficult and considered fiscally irresponsible to cut oil production when oil revenues are needed to service debts. Indeed, the debt crisis also incentivises an expansion of oil and gas production to increase export revenues, meaning countries can borrow even more against their larger oil and gas exports. Thus, a vicious cycle of indebtedness and fossil fuel production emerges: higher debt spurs increased fossil fuel production that enables more and more borrowing. Not just more debt, but worse debt Not only are fossil fuel producers borrowing more relative to GDP, but ODI’s analysis finds that they are turning to more expensive sources of debt – especially private creditors. Over the last decade, Bolivia increased its borrowing from private creditors 85-fold, while Chad saw a 75-fold increase. Papua New Guinea, Ecuador and Mozambique saw their debt to private creditors increase 10-fold. All of these countries sit on significant oil and gas reserves. Larger debt burdens coupled with higher interest rates mean that more and more of a country’s foreign exchange earnings must go towards repaying its creditors. As a result, much of the revenues from oil and gas exports simply go towards debt servicing. Countries therefore become dependent oil and gas production, as any decline in export revenues has to be offset elsewhere in public budgets. The global debt crisis therefore incentivises more fossil fuel production. How can the vicious cycle be broken? Many developing countries now need debt relief. But while debt relief will provide a temporary respite, it will not change the underlying financial incentives that spur fossil fuel extraction. Additional reforms are needed so that it is cheaper for oil and gas producers to borrow for green purposes than grey ones. International public finance can have huge influence over energy markets in smaller and poorer countries. The G20 and multilateral development banks therefore need to end their funding for fossil fuels. While many governments have promised to align their international public finance with a 2°C world, the G20 still provided $55 billion for fossil fuels between 2019 and 2021, compared to just $29 billion for renewable energy. Allocating public money in this way embeds the chronic cycle of fossil fuel extraction and debt servicing. International private finance is also critical in many developing countries, given their relatively shallow capital markets. These resources flow from financial centres like Frankfurt, London, Paris, Singapore and Tokyo. Role of central banks The central banks governing these financial centres can push their commercial banks and institutional investors towards greener international lending through regulatory reforms, especially “capital adequacy requirements”. What are capital adequacy requirements? Central banks require banks and investors to hold enough reserves to manage any unexpected losses. The minimum value of those reserves is determined based on central banks’ assessment of how risky an asset is, and often favours grey assets over green. Central banks can therefore add a “green-supporting factor” or “dirty-penalising factor” to level the playing field, helping to make borrowing for climate-smart investments like solar cheaper than borrowing for dirty options like gas. Such financial reforms are critical but on their own not sufficient to break the cycle of oil and gas dependency and indebtedness. The most essential step to deter further fossil fuel production is to reduce demand. Rather than pointing the finger of blame at lower-income countries with large oil and gas reserves, wealthy importers like the European Union, USA, Japan, Canada and South Korea must take steps to slash consumption at home. The debt crisis poses an immediate risk to the wellbeing of hundreds of millions of people, while climate changes poses an even more profound threat in the longer term. If debt levels exacerbate fossil fuel lock-in as our research predicts, it will destroy any hopes of limiting global warming to 2°C. Under its G20 Presidency, India has successfully moved debt vulnerabilities up the diplomatic agenda. But any debt relief must be designed to help countries break the vicious cycle of fossil export dependency and indebtedness. Only by increasing access to affordable, predictable green finance will the G20 help deliver long-term prosperity for all. Sarah Colenbrander is the director of the climate and sustainability programme at ODI, a global affairs think tank.

As technology rapidly advances, we all do our best to keep up with it. And although not all that new technology brings with it is good for us, it still provides us with enough benefits to make some things much simpler than they used to be. One of these things is language learning. It’s evident that technology has changed the approach to learning a new language for both teachers and students. It has found its way into classrooms and allowed teachers to adjust their teaching methods and tools to the new generation of learners. Here are some ways in which technology has affected language learning. It’s made classes more accessible One great thing about technology is that it’s made it possible for people to have classes whenever and wherever they want. People living in big cities were able to find adequate language schools and native speakers of their target language even without the technology, but even they sometimes had to spend a lot of time getting from their homes to the language schools of their choice. For people in smaller towns, this used to be a real challenge. Nowadays, it doesn’t matter where you live. Using Skype or other PC or phone communication apps allows you to teach or receive lessons in the comfort of your own home or at your office and from native speakers of any language you can think of. This also means that these lessons can happen at the time of your choosing, which makes things far less complicated for those with tight schedules. Plus, if you choose one of the online language-learning tools which don’t rely on human teachers, you’ll get an incredible level of flexibility concerning the time and place of your lessons. It’s in tune with the learners’ minds Unlike the generations that didn’t grow up surrounded by this much technology, most of today’s learners were born into it. Basically, this means that they’ve been exposed to one type of screens or another from the earliest age. Even though there are parents who strictly limit screen time for their children, it’s something that can’t really be avoided. The problem occurs when children get used to flashy images and movement they see on these screens, and we try to teach them from black and white books. The still letters and the lack of vivid colors don’t sit well with their minds anymore. It’s become essential that teachers are aware of this so that they can utilize the same technologies that children are accustomed to in their lessons. That’s why it’s important for parents to choose schools such as the acclaimed Monkey Tree English learning center, where they employ experienced and creative teachers. These teachers aren’t afraid to try new and modern methods and introduce technology into their classes to keep their students interested and to help them learn through games and other different entertaining and stimulating activities. It’s given us unlimited resources Another area in which technology just keeps on giving are the language-learning resources. From various websites to different apps, any learner can find study materials and all sorts of exercises to practice their reading, listening, writing and even speaking, and all in accordance with the level of their knowledge. Not only has this made things more convenient for the learners, but it’s also enabled teachers to prepare more versatile lessons and to provide their students with interactive and engaging materials to keep their attention focused on the language in question without ever getting bored. There are now user-friendly platforms that make it easy for teachers and students to create audio and video presentations but also use those which have already been created by others in order to make their lessons more appealing. Having access to all these versatile resources also means that students can be in the same class, but that each of them can do exercises matching their individual abilities at the same time, giving them the freedom to move forward at their own pace. It’s made communication instant A language is much more than a mere set of grammar rules and new vocabulary to memorize. Languages are alive and are best learned through different content and communication with other learners and native speakers. Technology has made this possible and more attainable than ever before. You can now use the internet and all it offers to stay in touch with other students, your teachers, but also people from all around the world who can provide you with the insight into different cultures. And it doesn’t stop there. Modern technologies, when used in a classroom, can encourage learners to collaborate with each other, but also with students in other classrooms, regardless of their location in the world. This way, students get to exchange their experiences and knowledge, boosting their intercultural understanding and developing respect for cultural diversity. Finally, this type of instant communication also enables the students to reach their teachers and ask any relevant questions, or have their knowledge assessed anywhere and at any time. It’s no secret that technology has made an impact on every sphere of our lives and the way we learn anything, including languages. So, embrace all the advantages of modern technology to simplify your learning and make it more interesting.

Traditionally male and female cats have been neutered at 6 months of age, but this is after cats reach sexual maturity and not based on any scientific rationale. For social, health and population control reasons it is now recommended that neutering should routinely take place around 4 months of age. From around the age of 4 months, kittens can reach sexual maturity meaning that they are capable of breeding and producing kittens. Most people do not have the time or desire to breed from their cat and do not wish to add to the number of unwanted cats and kittens already looking for homes. Neutering a cat – castration in the male (removal of the testes), and spaying the female (removal of the ovaries and uterus) – not only prevents unwanted pregnancies occurring, but also curbs unwanted behavioural patterns associated with sexual maturity and reduces the risk of certain diseases. Reasons for neutering female cats Breeding can occur very rapidly. Most females have their first season at around 6 months of age and it is possible for a queen to have three litters a year. Female cats will “call” (come into season and be receptive to males) approximately every 3 weeks during the breeding season if they do not become pregnant. Unwanted kittens may not be cared for and are more likely to develop infectious diseases such as cat flu. It can be hard to find these kittens new homes. Unneutered females are more likely to develop pyometra (infection in the uterus) and mammary tumours (breast cancer). Queens with infectious diseases are more likely to pass these on to their kittens. Reasons for neutering male cats One male cat wandering over a large territory can reproduce with many female cats. Males are more likely to fight and therefore to spread diseases such as FeLV (feline leukaemia) and FIV (feline aids) through bite wounds. They are also more likely to develop abscesses from their fight wounds. Wandering over a large territory also increases the risk of a road traffic accident. Unneutered male cats are more likely to wander away from home and may not return. They may also spray a very pungent smell in the house to mark their territory and may be aggressive to their owners. Most people do not wish to live with an unneutered male cat. Spaying a female cat We recommend spaying female cats before sexual maturity so approximately 4-5 months old. The spaying operation (ovariohysterectomy - removal of ovaries and uterus) is carried out under general anaesthetic. The procedure is usually carried out through a flank incision (surgical site on the left hand side) but in some circumstances it may be carried out through a midline incision (surgical site on the abdomen). The fur is shaved at the surgical site. If there are any skin sutures they will be removed at approximately 10 days post operatively. We normally like to see our patients back 3 days after the surgery and then a final check at 10 days. We like to send our patients home with a few days of pain relief and some require a buster collar or medical pet shirt to ensure that they don't interfere with their wound. Castrating a male cat We recommend castrating male cats at approximately 4-5 months of age. Castration involves removal of the testicles under general anaesthesia. Usually the skin incision is so small that stitches are not required. Male cats do not usually need additional pain relief. We usually like to see our patients 3 days postoperatively to check the surgical site. Cats usually recover very quickly from their neutering procedure. They may be drowsy initially but are usually very bright the next day. For male cats we recommend keeping them indoors and quiet until they have had their 3 day post-operative check and for female cats until their final check at 10 days. Once cats have been neutered their metabolic rate decreases and they are more likely to gain weight if you keep feeding them the same amount of food. We would recommend changing onto a neutered cat food postoperatively to help maintain a healthy weight. Please speak to one of our Veterinary Nurses for advice on feeding/changing food. Dark patches of fur Dark patches of fur in siamese and other related breeds. Skin temperature can determine hair colour. This means that when the hair regrows it may grow back a darker colour. This is only temporary and as more hairs grow they will be replaced by lighter hairs.

It's nearly October, which means two things: Halloween (yay!) and flu season (boo!). While the CDC recommends that everyone six months and older get the flu shot, less than half of Americans will heed this advice. In fact, during the 2017-2018 flu season, a mere 37.1% of adults were vaccinated.The flu shot is by far the best way to protect against this potentially deadly infection—so why do so many people doubt its safety and efficacy? The answer to that question lies in myth and misinformation. Many of the rumored side effects (like that the shot can give you the flu) are simply untrue.We'd like to clear the air about this much-maligned vaccine, but—before we bust some myths—we want to make our stance on vaccines clear. While ZOOM+Care strongly advocates for vaccination, we believe in listening to patients’ perspectives first and foremost. We want to be a non-judgemental source of knowledge, offering evidence-based information about immunizations.If you have concerns about the safety and efficacy of the flu shot, here are six common myths—and facts to debunk them. This is perhaps the most pervasive myth about the flu shot, and it endures for a reason: many people report feeling unwell after receiving the vaccine.Because the flu shot is made from dead viruses, it cannot (repeat, cannot) give you the flu. However, it can trigger an immune response from your body—which may cause you to experience mild, flu-like symptoms. (I.e., achy muscles, soreness, redness at the injection site, or a low-grade fever.)It’s important to note: while irritation around the injection site is common, only 1 to 2 percent of people who get the flu shot will have fever as a side effect. The effectiveness of flu shots indeed varies from season to season, it's true.Like any viral infection, the flu rapidly mutates and creates new strains every year—and the vaccine can't protect you from all of them. However, that doesn't mean the flu shot doesn’t work. In the 2017-2018 flu season, the vaccine reduced the risk of illness by around 47%, according to the CDC.The flu shot’s effectiveness varies by population, too. For instance, the vaccine tends to be less effective at protecting the elderly. However, even though elderly people who are immunized may still get sick, they’ll likely get less sick. For many older folks, the flu vaccine can be the difference between a trip to the doctor and a trip to the hospital. We hate to break it to you, but sometimes, even the strongest immune system falls victim to the flu. No one (except maybe Superman) is invulnerable to the virus—and getting vaccinated is always your best bet at staying protected.Even if you never, ever get the flu, it’s still a good idea to get a flu shot—and doing so could save lives. While you may not develop flu symptoms yourself, you can still carry the virus and pass it on to those more vulnerable. Almost anywhere you go, you can come in contact with a cancer patient on chemotherapy, a newborn infant, or someone with asthma, diabetes, or heart disease. All are especially at risk of serious complications (or even death) from the flu. The bad news? Even if you got a flu shot last year, you’ll need it again this year. That’s because the virus rapidly mutates, rendering the previous year’s vaccine partially or completely useless.The good news is, scientists and researchers are constantly updating the vaccination so it's effective against the strains they predict will be most common during flu season. When you're pregnant, you want to do everything you can to ensure your baby is healthy. Most expectant mothers are very careful about what they put into their bodies, and the flu shot is no exception.As the busy flu season approaches, we have good news for pregnant women: not only is it safe for them to get the flu shot, but it’s especially beneficial for them to do so. When you’re expecting, your immune system is taxed. That means you’re more likely to get sick (and really sick), putting you at higher risk for flu-related complications. The flu can be a deadly disease for pregnant women, and the vaccine is your best bet at preventing it. We’ll be real: some of the ingredients in the flu vaccine sound a little suspect. (Formaldehyde? Thimerosal?) However, the myth that the flu shot is “poisonous” is far more dangerous than any of its additives.While the vaccine does contain small traces of ingredients that would be poisonous in large doses, research overwhelmingly shows that these additives are safe in the trace amounts contained in flu shots. All the ingredients are essential in either making the vaccine, triggering the body to develop immunity, or in ensuring that the final product is safe and effective.

The very purpose of using a robot to automate a process relies on the robot being accurate and repeatable. As robots move from environments where they were traditionally used behind cages to open environments, it is important that their power solutions keep up. Here are some tips on why plant managers need to consider smart batteries for industrial and service robots. Since the first industrial robot was created for General Motors' assembly line by American inventor George Devol in 1961, industrial robots have quite literally gone from strength to strength. Whereas Devol's five-axis robot could deliver a payload capacity of 250 kg, modern six-axis robots are capable of delivering payloads of around 1,300 kg with a repeatability of ±0.08 mm. Although Devol's friend, scientist and writer Isaac Asimov, coined the term robotics and wrote the fictional three laws of robotics — primarily that "a robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm" — unless the engineer responsible for creating the robot chooses to program in the three laws, heavy industrial robots pose a danger to human workers. It is for this reason that, for most of their history, industrial robots have been placed behind cages, in no-go zones, out of the reach of human workers. Only now, with the advent of artificial intelligence and recent advances in smart proximity sensing, motor technology, actuation, gearing and braking, are we seeing the rise of desktop and collaborative robots (cobots) capable of working alongside humans. While these advances have improved the repeatability of robots, accuracy can still be a problem. This is why most robots need to be recalibrated each time their application or tooling is changed. Calibration governs set parameters in the kinematic structure of the robot, such as the relative position of joints (mastering), tool-centre-point positions (TCP) and joint lengths. In the event of a power failure, a robot can lose its calibration and mastering values unless the robot backup battery is up to the task. If the backup battery also fails, the robot controller will have to be manually reprogrammed by re-uploading the calibration file to the robot once power returns. To solve this problem, Ultralife Corporation has designed a range of primary, non-rechargeable, Lithium Thionyl Chloride and Lithium Manganese Dioxide cells and batteries that provide long term power to robot control systems. The batteries ensure that critical configuration information is safely retained if external power is lost. The primary batteries also offer a service life of five to ten years so that engineers do not have to replace them every year. Unlike industrial robots that rely predominantly on mains power, service robots use portable battery power and are increasingly being used in warehouse, commercial, hospital and transport environments. Defined by the International Federation of Robotics, "a service robot is a robot which operates semi or fully autonomously to perform services useful to the well-being of humans and equipment, excluding manufacturing operations." Whether it's a guided autonomous vehicle in a factory, a wheeled-platform robot for moving shelves and pallets, a trolley in a hospital or assisted-tugs at airports, the power requirements for service robots can vary drastically. To deliver the next generation of batteries for service robots, Ultralife Corporation has developed a range of secondary, rechargeable, batteries designed to power a variety of devices. These range from small, compact units for wireless handheld controllers, to large multi-kilowatt systems for powering remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) in extreme environments. Both ranges for industrial and service robots are built using smart circuit electronics technology, which provides users with critical information including cycle count, remaining run-time and remaining capacity. As robotic developments continue to advance at a phenomenal rate, original equipment manufacturers and users of industrial and service robots need to ask themselves the crucial question: is my battery up to the task? Michele Windsor is the global marketing manager at global battery specialist Ultralife Corporation.

Evaluating the Security of Dropbox Links for Sensitive Data Sharing is crucial in today’s digital age. While Dropbox offers several security features like encryption and access controls, it is essential to customize link settings, implement best practices, and utilize additional tools to enhance data security. The rise of digital technology has brought about numerous conveniences in our day-to-day lives. One such convenience is the ability to easily share sensitive data with others, thanks to cloud storage platforms like Dropbox. However, as digital threats become increasingly sophisticated, evaluating the security of Dropbox links when sharing sensitive data is crucial. Together, we will delve into the importance of secure data sharing, explore the security measures implemented by Dropbox, understand the process of sharing sensitive data via Dropbox links, assess the security of these links, and discuss ways to enhance the security of your Dropbox data sharing. Understanding the Importance of Secure Data Sharing With the amount of sensitive information stored and transmitted digitally, data security has become a top priority in today’s digital age. Organizational data, personal privacy, and intellectual property all need safeguarding to prevent unauthorized access or data breaches. Secure data sharing ensures that only intended recipients can access sensitive information, mitigating the risk of data leaks or cyberattacks. The Role of Data Security in Today’s Digital Age Data security is paramount in protecting sensitive information from unauthorized access, modification, or disclosure. With the rising reliance on digital platforms for data storage and sharing, it is crucial to implement tough security measures to safeguard sensitive data from potential threats. One of the critical aspects of data security is encryption. Encryption is transforming information into a code that can only be deciphered by authorized parties. By encrypting data before sharing it, organizations can ensure that it remains unreadable and useless even if it falls into the wrong hands. Another important aspect of data security is access control. This involves implementing actions that restrict access to sensitive information only to those with the necessary authorization. Access control can be achieved through various means, such as passwords, biometric authentication, or multi-factor authentication. Furthermore, data security also encompasses the protection of data during transmission. This is particularly important when sharing sensitive information over networks or the internet. Secure protocols, such as HTTPS, encrypt data during transmission making it difficult for unauthorized individuals to intercept or tamper with the information. Why Secure Data Sharing Matters? Secure data sharing ensures that sensitive information remains confidential and is protected from unauthorized access. It enables organizations & individuals to collaborate and exchange data confidently without compromising the integrity or privacy of the shared information. One of the benefits of secure data sharing is the ability to promote trust and build strong relationships between organizations. When businesses can securely share sensitive information with their partners or clients, it demonstrates a commitment to protecting their interests and establishes a foundation of trust. Moreover, secure data sharing also plays a crucial role in compliance with data protection regulations. Many countries and industries have specific regulations to make sure the privacy and security of sensitive information. By implementing secure data-sharing practices, organizations can demonstrate compliance with these regulations & avoid potential legal consequences. Additionally, secure data sharing can enhance organizations’ efficiency and productivity. When employees can securely access and share information, it streamlines collaboration and decision-making processes. This leads to quicker & more informed decision-making, ultimately driving business growth and success. In conclusion, secure data sharing is paramount in today’s digital age. It protects sensitive information from illegal access or data breaches, fosters trust, ensures compliance with regulations and enhances organizational efficiency. Organizations can safeguard their valuable information and thrive in an increasingly digital world by implementing robust security measures and adopting secure data-sharing practices. An Overview of Dropbox and Its Security Features A Brief Introduction to Dropbox Dropbox is a cloud-based file-hosting service that enables users to store & synchronize files across multiple devices. With a user-friendly interface, it has gained popularity for its ease of use and seamless integration with various operating systems. Exploring Dropbox’s Security Measures Dropbox incorporates several security measures to protect user data. These measures include encryption, two-factor authentication, and access controls. Dropbox utilizes industry-standard encryption protocols to secure data during transit & at rest, ensuring that sensitive information remains confidential and protected from unauthorized access. The Process of Sharing Sensitive Data via Dropbox Links Sharing sensitive data via Dropbox links is a convenient way to provide secure access to files while keeping full control over who can access them. Understanding the process involved will help ensure that sensitive information is shared securely. How Dropbox Links Work? A unique URL allows others to access the shared file when sharing files via Dropbox links. The link can be customized with specific access permissions and an expiration date, adding a layer of security and control to the shared data. Steps to Share Sensitive Data Securely To share sensitive data securely via Dropbox links, follow these steps: - Upload the file to your Dropbox account. - Right-click on the file and choose “Create a link” or “Share.” - Customize the link settings to restrict access and set an expiration date if necessary. - Share the generated link with intended recipients via email or any secure communication channel. Assessing the Security of Dropbox Links While Dropbox links provide a convenient way to share sensitive data, it is essential to understand the potential vulnerabilities associated with these links. Potential Vulnerabilities in Dropbox Links One potential vulnerability of Dropbox links is the possibility of the link being forwarded unintentionally or accessed by unauthorized individuals. Additionally, if the shared link falls into the wrong hands, the recipient may download or share the file without consent, potentially exposing sensitive data. Strengths of Dropbox Links in Data Security Despite the vulnerabilities, Dropbox links have strengths that contribute to data security. Users can guarantee that only authorized persons can access the shared data within a specified timeframe by customizing link settings with password protection and expiration dates. Enhancing the Security of Your Dropbox Data Sharing To further enhance the security of your Dropbox data sharing, consider implementing best practices and utilizing additional tools. Best Practices for Secure Data Sharing on Dropbox Follow these best practices to secure your data sharing on Dropbox: - Regularly update your Dropbox account and associated devices to ensure you have the newest security patches. - Use strong, unique passwords for your Dropbox account and enable two-factor authentication for an additional layer of security. - Share sensitive data via password-protected links and set expiration dates to limit file access. - Regularly review and audit the access permissions of shared files to remove any unnecessary or unauthorized recipients. - Educate yourself and your team on best data security practices to minimize human error risk. Additional Tools to Boost Dropbox Security Consider using additional security tools and features available within Dropbox to enhance data security. These may include tools for advanced encryption, data loss prevention, or secure collaboration platforms that integrate with Dropbox. - Secure data sharing is essential to protect sensitive information from unauthorized access or data breaches. - To protect user data, dropbox offers various security features, such as encryption and access controls. - Sharing sensitive data via Dropbox links requires understanding the process involved and implementing best practices. - While Dropbox links have vulnerabilities, customization options like password protection and expiration dates can mitigate risks. - Enhancing the security of Dropbox data sharing includes following best practices and utilizing additional security tools. How secure is Dropbox for sharing sensitive data? Dropbox employs several security measures, including encryption and access controls, to ensure data security when sharing sensitive information. However, it is essential to customize sharing settings and follow best practices to enhance security. Can Dropbox links be accessed by unauthorized users? If shared links fall into the wrong hands, unauthorized users can access the shared files. To prevent this, it is crucial to customize link settings, such as password protection and expiration dates, to restrict access only to authorized individuals. Are there additional tools or features available to enhance Dropbox security? Yes, Dropbox offers additional security tools and features, such as advanced encryption options and integrations with secure collaboration platforms. These can further enhance the security of Dropbox data sharing. How often should access permissions for shared files be reviewed? It is good practice to regularly review and audit access permissions for shared files on Dropbox to remove any unnecessary or unauthorized recipients. It is recommended to perform these reviews periodically, depending on the frequency and importance of data sharing. How can I stay informed about the latest data security best practices? To stay informed about the most recent data security best practices, consider regularly reading reputable online resources, attending industry conferences or webinars, and participating in relevant training programs or certifications. Evaluating the security of Dropbox links for sensitive data sharing is paramount in today’s digital age. By understanding the significance of secure data sharing, exploring the security measures implemented by Dropbox, familiarizing ourselves with the process of sharing sensitive data via Dropbox links, assessing the security of these links, and implementing best practices to enhance data security, we can ensure that our sensitive information remains protected. By following these measures, we can confidently leverage the convenience of Dropbox while mitigating the risk of data breaches or unauthorized access to our sensitive data.

Duration: 2h 16m | .MP4 | 720p | Language: English Harness the Art and Science of Crafting Effective Prompts for AI and NLP What you’ll learn Understand the fundamental concepts of prompt engineering. Explore the role of prompt engineering in natural language processing (NLP) and AI Learn about different types of language models, including pre-trained models like GPT-3.5 and 4. Understand how language models are structured and how they process text Discover techniques for formulating prompts that achieve specific AI tasks Practice crafting prompts for various applications, such as text generation, question answering, and more Explore the process of fine-tuning pre-trained language models to adapt them to specific tasks Learn how to optimize model performance through fine-tuning Apply prompt engineering to real-world scenarios, such as content generation, chatbots, virtual assistants, and data analysis Explore case studies and examples of successful prompt engineering applications Understand the ethical implications of prompt engineering, including issues related to bias and responsible AI use Learn best practices for addressing ethical concerns in AI development Identify common issues and challenges in prompt engineering projects Develop problem-solving skills to debug and optimize prompt-based AI systems Explore advanced prompt engineering techniques, including multi-turn conversations, conditional generation, and more Stay updated with the latest developments in the field No programming experience needed. This course is designed to be accessible even if you don’t have a technical background. We start from scratch and teach you all the tech skills needed to finish the course. No prior technical skills are required. Welcome to “Mastering Prompt Engineering: Unleash the Power of Language Generation,” where you’ll dive deep into the fascinating world of prompt engineering, a crucial skill for anyone interested in AI and Natural Language Processing (NLP). In this comprehensive Udemy course, you will learn the secrets behind crafting prompts that can elicit precise, creative, and context-aware responses from AI models like GPT-3 and beyond. Whether you’re a data scientist, developer, content creator, or simply curious about the inner workings of language generation, this course is designed to equip you with the knowledge and techniques needed to excel in the field. Understand the fundamentals of prompt engineering and its significance in AI and NLP. Explore the psychology of prompts: How to engage, guide, and stimulate AI models effectively. Hands-on exercises and real-world examples to hone your prompt crafting skills. Learn advanced techniques for generating specific outputs and controlling model behavior. Discover best practices for fine-tuning and iterating prompts to achieve desired results. Stay up-to-date with the latest developments and ethical considerations in prompt engineering. By the end of this course, you’ll be equipped with the tools and expertise to craft prompts that unlock the full potential of AI language models, whether you’re building chatbots, generating creative content, or conducting research. Join us on this exciting journey into the heart of prompt engineering, and start shaping the future of human-computer interaction today! Who this course is for: This course is designed to be accessible even if you don’t have a technical background. We start from scratch and teach you all the tech skills needed to finish the course. No prior technical skills are required.

Artificial Intelligence, once confined to science fiction, is now a cornerstone of modern technological progress. AI tools, in particular, have become essential components of various industries, augmenting human capabilities and driving innovation. Understanding AI Tools AI tools encompass a broad spectrum of applications, from natural language processing and computer vision to machine learning algorithms and neural networks. These tools simulate human cognitive functions, processing vast datasets to recognize patterns, make decisions, and even learn from experience. AI Tools in Business Enhanced Customer Support with Chatbots Chatbots, powered by AI, have revolutionized customer interactions. They provide instant responses, offer personalized solutions, and are available 24/7, enhancing customer satisfaction and engagement. Optimizing Operations Through Predictive Analytics AI-driven predictive analytics enable businesses to anticipate market trends, customer behavior, and demand patterns. This foresight empowers informed decision-making, minimizes risks, and maximizes efficiency. Revolutionizing Marketing Strategies with AI Insights AI tools analyze consumer behavior and preferences, providing insights that shape marketing strategies. This data-driven approach optimizes targeting, content creation, and campaign management. AI Tools in Healthcare Diagnosis and Treatment Recommendations AI tools assist medical professionals in diagnosing diseases by analyzing symptoms and medical histories. They also suggest tailored treatment plans based on vast medical databases. Drug Discovery Acceleration The process of drug discovery has been expedited through AI tools. They sift through millions of chemical compounds, predicting their effectiveness and potential side effects, saving time and resources. Administrative Efficiency Enhancement AI streamlines administrative tasks, from patient scheduling to billing. This ensures healthcare providers can focus more on patient care, improving overall service quality. AI Tools in Education Personalized Learning Journeys AI-powered educational platforms adapt learning materials to individual students’ paces and preferences, creating more engaging and effective learning experiences. Efficient Administrative Tasks Educators and administrators benefit from AI automating administrative duties like grading and scheduling, allowing them to concentrate on teaching and mentoring. AI-powered Educational Content Creation AI tools facilitate the creation of interactive and informative educational content, catering to various learning styles and making education more accessible. AI Tools in Creativity AI-assisted Content Generation Content creators harness AI tools to assist in generating articles, reports, and even marketing materials, boosting productivity and fostering creativity. Music and Artistic Composition AI algorithms are employed to compose music and create art, expanding the boundaries of human creativity and offering novel forms of artistic expression. Design and Creativity Enhancement AI aids designers by suggesting ideas, optimizing layouts, and automating repetitive design tasks, enabling them to focus on the visionary aspects of their work. Comparison Across AI Tools When comparing AI tools, several key factors come into play: Accuracy and Precision The effectiveness of AI tools relies on their accuracy in processing data and delivering outcomes that align with human expertise. Ease of Integration AI tools must seamlessly integrate into existing systems and workflows, minimizing disruption and maximizing efficiency gains. Scalability and Flexibility The ability of AI tools to scale according to user needs and adapt to evolving requirements is crucial for long-term viability. Future Prospects of AI Tools As AI technology evolves, we can expect even more sophisticated AI tools with broader capabilities. From healthcare diagnostics to creative endeavors, AI’s influence will continue to expand. Challenges and Ethical Considerations AI tools raise ethical questions about data privacy, job displacement, and decision-making transparency. Addressing these concerns is essential for responsible AI deployment. AI tools have transcended science fiction, becoming integral to diverse sectors. Their potential to augment human endeavors and drive innovation is limitless, but careful integration and ethical considerations are vital for a harmonious future.

All teachers have a legal and a professional liability and are governed by the Canadian Criminal Code and the law of torts or civil law in relation to their duty of care for students. Teachers’ professional liability occurs because their profession is governed by the Teaching Profession Act and the Education Act, and their conduct is subject to the Code of Professional Conduct and the general bylaws of the Alberta Teachers’ Association. For a detailed analysis of this liability, teachers are referred to the Association’s Monograph No 7, Teachers’ Rights, Responsibilities and Legal Liabilities. A copy of this monograph is available in every Alberta school. In Loco Parentis Traditionally, the teacher was considered to be acting in loco parentis. This means that in relation to the student, the teacher stands in the position of a caring, responsible parent and unofficial guardian. This concept allows the teacher some of the privileges of a parent but also brings with it added responsibilities for the protection of pupils. Thus, a teacher could be liable for injury or damages to a pupil if the teacher’s conduct falls below the standard of care deemed to be necessary under the given circumstances. In some instances, the duty of care owed by the teacher may exceed that of the parent if special knowledge makes the teacher aware of dangers that the parent might not appreciate. In Parens Patriae More recently, the teacher has been judged to be acting as an agent of the state or in parens patriae. The duties of teachers outlined in section 196 of the Education Act emphasize this role. (See also Teachers’ Rights, Responsibilities and Legal Liabilities.) Thus, the actions of teachers are often compared to those of law enforcement personnel, social workers and other public employees. The actions of a teacher must comply with the Child, Youth and Family Enhancement Act, the Youth Justice Act and legislation in the area of human rights. Monograph No 7 provides further details in this regard. The duty of care to individual students and the need to serve the best interests of the state has further complicated the already demanding role of the teacher. Negligence comes under the broader heading of tort law. The word tort means crooked or twisted. Generally speaking, a tort is a wrong committed by one person against another. Examples of wrongs are assault, harassment, defamation and negligence. Negligence means not doing something a prudent and reasonable person would do or doing something a prudent and reasonable person would not do in a particular situation. It can be the subject of a lawsuit between persons whenever there is a duty upon one person not to be negligent and when a breach of that duty occurs and causes damage to another person. Negligence exists where the activity or conduct on the part of the teacher creates an unreasonable chance of danger. When teachers ignore danger or do not respond properly to danger when they should, they may be found negligent if someone is injured as a result. Four elements must be present before negligence is established: - The plaintiff has suffered some damage. - The damage was caused by some act or omission of the defendant. - The act or omission was one that a reasonable person behaving with ordinary prudence would not have committed. - The defendant has a duty of care to the plaintiff with regard to that act or omission. The extent to which the injured party contributed to his own damage would also be an issue in determining the amount of damages to be awarded. Often, because they are expected to have expert knowledge about certain matters, teachers are held to a higher standard of care than parents. This is especially true in school situations that may be inherently dangerous (for example, the use of chemicals, machinery, appliances or apparatus, as well as student participation in complex activities). Substitute teachers must be certain they have knowledge of the necessary skills and safety precautions associated with teaching a particular lesson that has inherently dangerous components. If substitute teachers do not have this knowledge, they are advised to use other relevant activities instead. The regular teacher and the school administration should be informed as to why the change in the lesson plan was made. The regular classroom teacher and the school administrators should be aware that they would very likely be named in a lawsuit brought on behalf of a student if injuries were suffered while a substitute teacher was implementing elements of a lesson plan he or she was not adequately trained to teach. Section 54 of the Education Act deals with powers of school boards. Among other matters, this section requires that every board carry liability insurance or make equivalent arrangements to cover its exposure, including the exposure of its employees. 54(1) A board shall, in respect of its operations, keep in force adequate and appropriate policies of insurance for the purpose of, at a minimum, indemnifying the board and its employees and school councils in respect of claims for (a) damages for death or personal injury,(b) damage to property and . . . Any claims, including lawsuits, against the board and/or any of its employees would be dealt with by the insurance company (or equivalent agency), providing the coverage required by this section of the act and the regulations developed pursuant to it. Substitute teachers are often expected to fulfill supervisory functions as part of their assignment. Substitute teachers should be certain that a system of supervision is established in the classroom or wherever an activity takes place to ensure that the instructions given to the pupils are obeyed. There is no expectation of having one supervisor for each pupil except in extremely dangerous activities. Teachers’ own experiences will normally give them a good idea of what level of supervision is required to ensure an adequate degree of safety. The extent of supervision required depends upon the age, mental ability and emotional stability of the students being supervised. If there is a lack of supervision, it would have to be shown that the failure to supervise caused or contributed to the injury. Negligence will be determined by a judgment of what was reasonable in a particular set of circumstances. In any event, if the teacher is performing assigned duties, the school board’s liability insurance will provide the necessary protection in the event of a lawsuit, to the extent of the limits provided in the policy. Teachers providing service in high-risk situations should check the adequacy of coverage. The substitute teacher might supervise students on a field trip. In this case, substitute teachers should check with the principal to be certain that the activity is school sponsored, in which case the school board’s liability insurance will cover normal liabilities. A number of schools require parents to sign a permission slip, which serves as a useful communication device but does not eliminate the possibility of liability arising out of untoward events occurring during the field trip. A permission slip does not give the teacher the right to commit a negligent act. Students must be instructed in advance on all aspects of safety during the field trip and all foreseeable dangers should be brought to the students’ attention. It is important that the substitute teacher review both school and school board policies as they relate to field trips. Because a substitute teacher works in many different schools and sometimes in more than one jurisdiction, these policies may vary; therefore, it would be dangerous to make assumptions about what is an appropriate or accepted procedure. Substitute teachers must review all school policies and procedures before taking students on a field trip. One of the first steps taken by a substitute teacher when going to work in a new situation should be to become familiar with the discipline policy of the school and the school board. Even though section 43 of the Canadian Criminal Code permits the use of reasonable force by teachers on students under their care, many school boards have banned the use of corporal punishment. 43. Every school teacher, parent or person standing in the place of a parent is justified in using force by way of correction toward a pupil or child, as the case may be, who is under his care, if the force does not exceed what is reasonable under the circumstances. Teachers must use approved procedures when disciplining students under their care. All teachers should be aware of section 31 of the Education Act, which outlines the student responsibilities, and section 36(1), which provides legislative support for appropriate discipline policies and procedures related to section 31. There has been an enormous increase in the number of teachers accused of assault, both common and sexual, in recent years. The common assault allegations generally result from disciplinary action taken by a teacher. Section 43 of the Criminal Code notwithstanding, it is becoming more and more unacceptable for teachers to use force in disciplining students. Recent court decisions would indicate that corporal punishment may well become a thing of the past. In order for an action to constitute common assault, three elements must be satisfied: (a) lack of consent by the victim, (b) intent and (c) an application of force to the victim (or the threat of force that the victim believes will be carried out). Sexual assault is defined as conduct that includes all of the elements of common assault plus one additional element: the assault is committed in circumstances of a sexual nature, such that the sexual integrity of the victim is violated and/or the accused gained some sexual gratification from the act. The sexual nature of the assault must be detectable by an objective standard. It is not necessary that contact be made with the victim’s sexual organs or that the assaulting party’s sexual organs be involved. Even a pat on the behind can be a sexual assault if it is done to obtain sexual gratification or to violate the sexual integrity of the victim. These offences are very broadly defined. It is easy to see how false allegations could be made in a wide variety of innocent student–teacher interactions. However, innocence may not save one from accusations, or even conviction. What can teachers do to avoid these sorts of problems? Obviously, they should studiously avoid behaviour that would give rise to legitimate charges. Many authorities, particularly those who deal with cases of this nature on a frequent basis, suggest that teachers should refrain from all physical contact with students. This runs counter to the beliefs of many teachers and to some educational theorists who believe that hugs and pats are important, positive acts. Each individual teacher will have to decide what is the best course of action. However, consistent behaviour with all students is good advice. Here are some other prudent and useful tips: 1. Be completely familiar with the school board’s and the school’s policies with respect to corporal punishment, and if you decide to use corporal punishment at all, do so in strict compliance with those policies. 2. Document your discipline of students and any accidents that occur while you are on supervision. Such documentation should be retained in your permanent personal files; there have been many cases of accusations being made years later. 3. Avoid being alone with students, particularly those in the early years of puberty. If you must be alone with a student, ensure that the door is open, that the window blinds or drapes are open and that the time is kept to a minimum. Let someone else know where you are and who you are with. 4. Unless you have special training or an assignment in counselling, avoid counselling students who display signs of sexual, emotional or mental instability. At the very least, consult regularly with the teacher counsellor in the school or with someone else with expertise in this area and keep a record of such consultations. The primary rule in dealing with allegations of assault or sexual assault is remain silent. You have the right to do this under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. This right is the best available protection. Do not waive this right until after you have seen a lawyer. You are required to identify yourself (name, address and birthdate) to the police. Beyond that, you should not volunteer any information or respond to any questions until you have sought and received legal advice. As a teacher, you have access to legal advice on matters relating to your work. Contact the Association as soon as possible. In the meantime avoid discussing the situation with anyone else (other than your legal spouse). Discussing it with others may put them in the position of being called to testify against you. Do not panic. While this may be a terrible experience, staying calm, listening to advice and taking the situation one step at a time will, at least, avoid making it worse. Assaults Against a Teacher An area of growing concern is the increased number of assaults on teachers. These assaults are most often perpetrated by students, but teachers have also been assaulted by parents, former students or others. The significance of these assaults must not be minimized, and teachers are advised to report all assaults and ensure that charges are brought against those responsible. The Association will advise and assist members who have been the victims of assault while performing their professional duties. As professionals, teachers are held to a higher standard of conduct than the general public. All teacher members of the Association are obliged to maintain professional conduct and to assist the Association in its duty to provide protection to the public and to the profession. The Code of Professional Conduct provides general guidelines for teachers to follow, but the scope of professional-conduct expectations goes far beyond the code. Teachers should be familiar with the code and with the responsibilities placed on them by the Teaching Profession Act. These responsibilities are contained in Appendix B and Appendix D. Substitute teachers should become familiar with these responsibilities and govern themselves accordingly. Note that adhering to the provisions of the Code of Professional Conduct is a 24-hour-a-day responsibility. Even when acting as a parent or a community member, all teachers must respect the standards of the profession. These provisions also apply to other teachers in their relationships with substitute teachers. The Members’ Handbook and the publication Teachers’ Rights, Responsibilities and Legal Liabilities include details about the steps to be taken if a teacher believes that another teacher has been guilty of unprofessional conduct. However, before taking any action, consult with the Association. Teachers are expected to model ethical and appropriate conduct in their use of school computers, laptops, Internet connections and cellphones. This expectation extends to use of their own computers when posting on social networking sites. Teachers are in a position of trust with students and can be held accountable if their actions expose students to inappropriate material or communications. The following cybertips for teachers should be kept in mind at all times. At work, do - maintain exemplary professional standards when sending e-mail messages to students, parents, colleagues and administrators; - always keep a copy of your e-mail messages; and - use a signature that includes your name, assignment title and school name. At work, don’t - share your password with other colleagues or students or - leave your computer on and unattended when students are around. At home, don’t - use your home/personal computer to contact students or parents; - permit images of yourself to be taken and posted on any site without appropriate privacy safeguards; - post criticism of colleagues, students or administrators on social networking sites; or - share confidential information about students, colleagues or administrators on social networking sites. If you find yourself the target of cyberbullying, take the following steps: - Make copies of all questionable messages/web postings/information and other related materials and data, including the URL. - Demand that the sender stop transmitting or posting the material and state that the conduct is inappropriate and unacceptable. - Avoid engaging with the person who is targeting you, because this may escalate the situation. - Advise your school administration of the inappropriate communication if the situation requires immediate action and/or if the communication continues. - Access appropriate support/guidance through the school district’s cyberconduct policy or manual. - If the person who is cyberbullying you is a student, contact the student’s parents. - Inform and involve your school-based occupational health and safety committee. - Contact your ATA local if the actions taken to address the inappropriate communication are ineffective and/or if you need further support/advice. Nothing is truly private when you use digital communication. When you are using board equipment and communication links, the board can access all your messages and online sites visited if any of the communication went through board servers or was accessed using board equipment. These forms of cyberbullying are considered criminal acts: - Communicating repeatedly with someone if the communication causes someone to fear for their own or others’ safety - Publishing a defamatory libel—something that is designed to insult a person or likely to hurt a person’s reputation by exposing him or her to hatred, contempt or ridicule Spreading hate or discrimination based on race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, family status, or disability may be a violation of the Canadian Human Rights Act and/or provincial/territorial human rights legislation. If there is a question as to whether the inappropriate communication is criminal, call the police. It may also be necessary to involve internet service providers (ISPs) and mobile telecommunications service providers in addressing the inappropriate communication to the point of deleting the offending material from temporary/permanent sites and archives. Know Your Rights and Your Responsibilities These activities can result in disciplinary action against a teacher: - Visiting inappropriate websites, eg, adult content, racist, pornographic - Sending or forwarding offensive jokes and pictures via e-mail - Online gambling using school district equipment - Downloading audio, video or text-based materials in violation of copyright laws - Using board/employer equipment to engage in activities relating to a second occupation - Constant text messaging, instant messaging and/or e-mailing during school time - Posting pictures of yourself and sharing them over the Internet, especially if they are suggestive or inappropriate. (Editor’s note: The material in this section on e-liability is adapted from the Canadian Teachers’ Federation; more information is available at www.ctf-fce.ca.) Back to top. « Previous | Next »

Rick Young is a professor of biology at MIT who studies RNA that is transcribed from the part of the genome that does not code for proteins, known as non-coding DNA. This part of the genome was once referred to as ‘junk DNA,’ which gives you a sense of what many thought of its value. Scientists were startled to discover that it makes up 98% of the human genome, which triggered a quest to find its functions. In this conversation, Rick Young chats with Hanne Winarsky from Bio Eats World and a16z general partner Jorge Conde, who leads investments at the intersection of biology, computer science, and engineering. Before joining a16z, Conde was Chief Strategy Officer at Syros Pharmaceuticals and co-founded the genomics interpretation company Knome. The conversation covers what we’ve learned about that 98% of the genome we thought was junk. Turns out, it has diverse jobs ranging from hiding away the evidence of ancient viral infections to making every face look unique. They also discuss its massive but still poorly understood role in disease, and how studying junk DNA led to the discovery of a gene on/off switch that no one expected. HANNE WINARSKY: We’re here to talk today about what is called junk DNA. Can we start with just a simple definition? RICK YOUNG: That’s about a half-century old term. Scientists knew about portions of the genome that don’t encode proteins, and they theorized that this was junk. We knew some of it was just the remnants of ancient viral invasions of the genome. But that phrase, junk DNA, has haunted us. HANNE: So what is the term that you’re trying to use instead? The dark matter of DNA that we’re understanding more about every day? RICK: Non-coding DNA. HANNE: Why did they think of it as detritus? You’ve mentioned some of it was leftover old virus bits. But why wasn’t it just a mystery from the beginning? RICK: Because throughout biological history, there was this debate over what was the genetic material, and initially, it was thought to be protein. But once it became clear that protein was the machinery and DNA was the blueprint for the machinery, people got busy on the machinery because defects in the machinery cause disease. But then it turned out that only 2% of the genome is encoding the amino acids for proteins. The vast majority, 98%, does not. And in 2000, when scientists of the Human Genome Project presented the human genome sequence, that data confirmed that 98% of our 3.2 billion bases don’t encode proteins. Each gene has that remarkable capability of taking bits and pieces of segments of the protein that it will encode and arranging it so that the product that you get in one cell might be a little faster working, or in another cell may actually go into a different compartment to do a different job. JORGE CONDE: What were the initial estimates to how many genes would be encoded in those 3.2 billion base pairs? RICK: We settled on about 100,000. We just assumed that the more complex we are, the bigger the genome, and the larger the number of genes. There was a bit of a shock when we realized that we and insects have about the same number of genes. JORGE: Fewer genes than we anticipated encoding for what we consider to be an incredibly complex organism, right? HANNE: That is a bit of a shock. JORGE: A thing we all learned in high school is that DNA codes for RNA, RNA codes for amino acids, and amino acids give us proteins, right? That’s the central dogma of modern biology. RICK: Yep. One of the big reasons why people were quick to ascribe the title ‘junk DNA’ to that 98% of the genome that does not code for proteins is because it was believed, in large part, that the business end of the genome was to make proteins. JORGE: So when did geneticists start to get an inkling that junk DNA may be more than junk? RICK: [It started with] the realization that you could account for the additional complexity in human beings versus insects by a tremendous amount of alternative splicing. That’s where you have, for a single gene, a large RNA that’s made, but it gets spliced differently in one cell versus another cell. In other words, different portions of the gene end up in the RNA molecule that’s going to specify the protein. So the protein is a little different. HANNE: That sounds like a kaleidoscope a little bit with light hitting it differently, you get different colors, different angles. RICK: Well, and that’s an interesting analogy. I think a better analogy is when you have these Legos, and you can make a machine, but you can make it in so many different ways, so many different structures, colors. Each gene has that remarkable capability of taking bits and pieces of segments of the protein that it will encode and arranging it so that the product that you get in one cell might be a little faster working, or in another cell may actually go into a different compartment to do a different job. JORGE: Every single cell in a given human has approximately the same genome. Yet that same genome gives rise to an incredibly diverse array of different cell types. And so to the extent that we are going to make an analogy, each cell type is running a different program off of the same source code. RICK: That’s right. JORGE: You don’t need to be an expert to look at different cell types and see how varied they can be, right? A neuron looks very, very, very different and functions very, very differently than, say, a muscle cell. What determines the program, the genetic program that a cell chooses to run? What makes a muscle cell a muscle cell, and what makes a neuron a neuron? RICK: So we started out with DNA makes RNA and [RNA] makes protein. That’s the central dogma. But about half a century ago, scientists began making the argument that in fact RNA began to create various kinds of functions all on its own. And it turns out that RNA actually has some of the activity at the earliest stages of development. When the sperm meets the egg, it’s the mother’s RNA that she puts into that egg. There are RNA molecules that are doing this. It turns out antibiotics that we use routinely bind to the RNA. So the RNA has some pretty important roles there. That changed the way people think. Then, as we started to think about junk DNA, that’s the part of DNA that’s not encoding protein. Well, what if the world is based on RNA and not protein, at least at the beginning? And so now we understand that a huge fraction of what we call junk DNA, or what we used to call junk DNA, is not junk. It’s highly functional. And most of it makes RNA. So your goal in programming any one cell is to use just that specific set of sequences that will tune each of that common set of genes to the level you want. . . .Our problem is we don’t actually know the program. HANNE: Wow. Can you do a bit of a lay of the land of where we are in understanding the noncoding part of the DNA? You know, what is our current understanding of all the different possibilities there? RICK: Only 2% of our genome is encoding these amino acid sequences that go into proteins. So what’s on our accountant’s ledger for what the rest does? About half of our genome is what we call heterochromatin. That’s where you get the products of ancient viral invasions. Ancient retroviruses invaded, and then were turned into DNA, and they were inserted into the genome. So that actually is a means that we’ve had throughout our evolutionary history to hide away sequences that we don’t want to deal with. And it remains silent in our genome with an important exception. The other half is where all the active protein coding genes are, and where all the active noncoding genes are. So, what does it do? It has a long list of regulatory functions, but I’ll simplify it into three. One of its functions is chromosome maintenance. So, those are the places where DNA replication occurs. They’re the sites in our genome that are responsible for folding it up because it’s a 2-meter long polymer. It’s got to get folded up into a couple micron diameter nucleus. The second regulatory region is all these things that are responsible for gene regulation. Probably much more of the genome specifies regulatory features for gene expression than specifies genes themselves. And that is because each cell uses a different regulatory region for each gene. HANNE: It’s so interesting, it sounds to me a little bit almost like there’s the closet with the shelves on it of things we need to put in the closet for a little while, and then there’s the infrastructure closet. Why is it important to focus so much on this? Because that’s where over 75% of all disease-associated genetic variation occurs. RICK: Yes. Basically, what you have is a common set of genes in every cell, both coding and noncoding. And you have elements, you have actual sequences that are operating only in specific cell types. So your goal in programming any one cell is to use just that specific set of sequences that will tune each of that common set of genes to the level you want. So you’re playing an amazing musical instrument of 20,000 protein coding genes, and about the same number of noncoding genes. You’re doing that through specific sequences. Our problem is we don’t actually know the program. HANNE: So how do you begin to suss it out? What are the hints that you’re following when you’re starting to try to understand this program? RICK: The hints are that the regulatory regions for each gene in a cell display themselves. They tell you. And you can use various technologies that very quickly tell you across the entire genome, in a particular cell type, let’s say in a motor neuron, what are all the regulatory regions that are on in that cell. You can even see where the rheostat is set for each of those genes. That’s where rapid sequencing has given us these capabilities to simultaneously deduce all of the active elements for genes, both coding and noncoding in the genome of a particular cell type. Our problem at the moment is you have to do this pretty much one cell type at a time, and we have many, many hundreds of cell types. Sometimes it’s hard to actually see a particular cell without contaminating with other cells, because all our tissues really are combinations of multiple cell types. JORGE: Is it worth arguing by analogy if we said that given that every cell has the entire genome, every cell has the entire songbook, specific cell types choose to play specific symphonies, and the machinery that helps regulate the genome is essentially the conductor of the orchestra? That machinery is the conductor that determines what songs to play, what notes to hit, at what volume to hit them, at what tempo, etc. Is that a reasonable analogy to understanding the regulatory function of the genome? RICK: It is in the sense that it’s easy to see then what the output would be. But what’s more challenging is, who writes all the notes? Who’s the composer that put all those notes in there, and got it all right? The composer turns out to be, for most of our cells and most of our genes, these protein molecules called transcription factors, whose job it is to bind to the regulatory elements of genes, and give them a rheostat setting. Now, there’s an interesting wrinkle in this because at those sites where those transcription factors bind, we call them an enhancer. At those enhancer sites, there’s also always an RNA being made from that site where they’re bound. We have only recently come to understand that that RNA plays important roles in regulation. Just to amplify that: the way your iPhone recognizes your face is because the enhancers that control cranial facial structure genes vary in each human being. What you have now here is this triumvirate. You have the DNA sequence. It’s recognized specifically by the composing molecule, the transcription factor, but it needs this third piece, this RNA molecule. So the DNA, RNA, and protein actually work together at those regulatory regions. And why is it important to focus so much on this? Because that’s where over 75% of all disease-associated genetic variation occurs. HANNE: Not to get too musically nerdy, but it almost sounds like a chord, right? The three-note structure all playing together to create something larger. RICK: That’s right. JORGE: One of the most cutting edge areas of biology is our increasing ability to try to understand some of the governing laws of how cell programs are determined, how cell fate is determined. For me one of the fascinating leaps forward in our understanding, came from the work that Yamanaka did, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize, demonstrating that you could reprogram cell types by just exposing cells to a very small handful of specific transcription factors. HANNE: Can you describe why it was exactly that it was such a breakthrough for the field? RICK: I had a tiny bit role in that movie. It turns out that although that’s a very large number, a small number of transcription factors can identify all the regulatory elements that are essential for that cell’s identity. And Yamanaka proved this to us by showing that only four of these factors could be used to program any human cell, or any male cell into the equivalent of an embryonic stem cell. One way to think about this is, if the song is too bad, the organism doesn’t live. But if it’s just a bit off, you grow up, you become an adult, and then you acquire all these various diseases as we get older. JORGE: And that’s amazing, right? Because that would suggest that the system is somehow designed where incredible complexity is drawn from what sounds like simplicity. Four transcription factors determining all the complex cascade of events that govern different cell types. Some of the work you have done has demonstrated that these master transcription factors essentially set up the equivalent of circuits that control the genes that are necessary for a cell to establish and maintain its state. Can you describe what you mean by gene control circuits? RICK: There are two cool elements to the gene control circuits. One is, when a master regulator finds these enhancers and causes the expression of its target genes, that’s a part of the circuitry, that’s the output. The other element that is so cool is that the master transcription factors also regulate their own expression. So there’s a feedback loop. Like, you would have an electrical diagram where you have the masters controlling their own expression from their own genes, and then binding to and controlling expression of a target set of genes. JORGE: That’s pretty wild. It’s almost like a circular reference, where transcription factors are protein, that protein is made from DNA, encoded in a gene. Transcription factors are part of the machinery that helps the expression in transcription of genes. And so therefore, you’re saying transcription factors–the protein–help regulate the expression of the genes that make the transcription factors. HANNE: Yeah. There’s a mental image of this entire symphony of all these little cells, you know, singing out all these different textures. HANNE: What does it change when we begin to understand how this all functions? What can we do with this knowledge? RICK: These sites where these master transcription factors are driving each cell’s identity is where most of human variation is that causes disease. Over 75% of disease-associated variation occurs in these enhancer elements that are driving the key genes. JORGE: Okay. So that’s wild, right? When we think about mutations causing or contributing to disease, we normally think about a mutation that occurs within a gene that affects the protein, somehow breaks the protein, and that gives rise to disease. JORGE: But you’re saying is that in 75% of the cases, that mutation is actually happening outside of the genes, it’s happening in this noncoding region of the genome. If the gene is the song, it’s not that the song is being misplayed, it’s that it might be played too loud, or too soft, or too slowly, or too quickly, but that’s what drives a lot of disease. RICK: In fact, one way to think about this is, if the song is too bad, the organism doesn’t live. But if it’s just a bit off, you grow up, you become an adult, and then you acquire all these various diseases as we get older. For the first time, we have all these models for how you set up the apparatus and make it work. JORGE: Not making the wrong version of the gene, but getting the wrong dosage of the gene. Too much or too little. RICK: That’s correct. How do you find therapies that deal with this? How do you selectively tune up or tune down the gene? In principle, we can do that in a lot of ways, and we can do that with gene therapy. We can do that with CRISPR gene editing. But the most important thing I think we’ve discovered in the last few years is that each of these gene regulatory elements has an RNA. The RNA is functional. It’s a rheostat that helps tune the output of that gene. There are now many ways that you can drug RNAs. We’ve got ASOs (antisense oligonucleotides), such as Spinraza for spinal muscular atrophy. We’ve got RNA interference. We’ve got some new small molecule drugs on the horizon. If you could think about ways of now programming a drug, a synthetic RNA, to regulate the regulator RNA, the regulatory RNA, you have the principal way of tuning any one gene in any cell where that cell can gain access to that drug. HANNE: So it’s not just a whole different understanding of how disease emerges. But it’s a whole different understanding of how we could potentially treat disease. RICK: Exactly. In principle, we now have a programmable way of developing a drug that tunes any one gene of interest. At this moment in time, people are simply programming synthetic RNA molecules to produce a vaccine for this pandemic. One that is as good a result as you could ever expect for a vaccine. JORGE: When we think about the applications of technology in biology, we’re usually trying to do one of two things. We’re either trying to interrogate biology very deeply, and understand it, increasing levels of its complexity, or we’re trying to intervene. We increasingly are able to interrogate biology at a very, very deep level so we understand the governing laws or the rules by how cells are regulated. And we have that, we have increasingly sophisticated tools, like these programmable modalities of medicine, where we can target RNA, very, very specifically. This will sort of be this virtuous cycle between our ability to interrogate biology and then intervene in increasingly sophisticated ways. And I think that’s one of the most exciting aspects of where we find ourselves today in this field. RICK: I agree with you. We now are developing such a deep understanding of the multiple layers of complexity, that we can come up with therapeutic hypotheses that we’ve not seen before. We can do them with a speed that we never conceived of only a few years ago. That temporal distance between a basic discovery and the therapy that went into people 10 years ago was 14 years on average. Now, it’s conceivable to think of developing a therapeutic hypothesis based on basic science, and a therapy that reaches a patient in nine months. We’re seeing that with this new vaccine. HANNE: So, changing not just how we understand disease emerging, how we treat it, but also how we do the science itself, and then how fast the science can happen and turn into clinical reality for patients. RICK: Exactly. But now there’s icing on the cake because, classically, we’ve thought about pharmacology in two ways. One was the effect of the drug on the individual. The other was the effect of the individual on the drug. And in this latter segment, you’re worried about distribution of the drug, what tissues it goes to, what tissues it’s not available to. Because we just assume once a drug gets into a cell, it diffuses through the cell and finds its target. We have membrane-bound compartments, which we’ve known about for a century. JORGE: Which was always the question of the cell permeability, right? Can it cross the membrane? RICK: Yes. Can it cross a membrane, and does it get into the nucleus or not? But we’ve only come to understand in the last decade that there are also many non-membrane bodies in cells called biomolecular condensates because it’s thought that one reason that these bodies form is they condense much like water condenses into a dewdrop. But what has been so profound about this understanding is that these condensates compartmentalize proteins, DNA, RNA for specific functions. And so now we’ve come to understand that you can segregate the 5 to 10 billion protein and RNA molecules in a cell into various compartments where they function with their buddies. JORGE: Are we leaving the realm of biology and entering the realm of physics? RICK: We have done exactly that because phase separation is thought to be the driving force. That is a physical phenomenon described by math. RICK: Now, we’ve learned the most effective chemotherapeutic drugs are concentrating inside the compartments where their targets live. They’re concentrating 600-fold over the rest of the cell, so they have on-target activity on oncogenes that is 600 times what we expected. This not only tells us that there are brand new insights that are important in drug discovery and development for the future, but it makes us want to better understand what these condensates do. Here is what I mean by the icing on the cake. What we’ve come to realize is that these condensate compartments that are functionalizing the cell in such important ways are regulated by RNA. Their formation can be stimulated by RNA. If you produce too much RNA, you bring the rheostat up to 11, it will dissolve a condensate. So, suddenly, we realize that the RNA output at any site inside a cell can tune the function of anything by enhancing or dissolving those condensates where that function is occurring. And that is, I think, profound because it is another way that a programmable RNA, a synthetic RNA molecule, might be employed to tune the function of a cell that’s become dysfunctional. For the first time, we have all these models for how you set up the apparatus and make it work. HANNE: Another knob to dial. RICK: But then how do you turn it off? It turns out that when you make that long RNA, that’s just a big string of negative charges, and it dissolves the condensate and shuts the gene down. That is how genes get regulated. You tune up the condensate with an RNA, then you shut it down with the RNA product that’s made when the gene gets fully transcribed. HANNE: Super cool. So an off and on switch, really. RICK: It’s an off/on switch no one anticipated. And it means, once again, if you have a programmable drug, you have a new way of targeting cellular functions that are dysfunctional, a new solution for a therapeutic problem. JORGE: One man’s junk DNA is another man’s sophisticated genome regulatory machinery. HANNE: Or every man’s. Rick Young is a Professor of Biology at MIT and a Member of the Whitehead Institute. Jorge Conde is a general partner on the Bio + Health team at Andreessen Horowitz, focused on therapeutics, diagnostics, life sciences tools, and software. Hanne Winarsky is the Head of Writer Acquisition & Development at Substack.

Seawalls, parks, and elevated buildings can protect against rising tides. But they can also push the price of housing up, and longtime residents out. By Adam Rogers for Wired.com, February 23, 2020 “Fighting climate disasters is a good idea for the planet, but can have unintended consequences for neighborhoods. ‘In order to construct a green, resilient park or shoreline, we get rid of lower-income housing … and behind it or next to it, you’ll have higher-income housing being built,’ says Isabelle Anguelovski, an urban geographer at the Autonomous University of Barcelona who co-wrote an article about green gentrification in December’s Proceedings of the National Academies of Science (PNAS). “In Philadelphia, Anguelovski and her team studied a program to build flood-fighting infrastructure like parkland, green roofs, and curbside swales to absorb rainwater before it hit sewers. This, too, was an engine of gentrification. ‘What you see on the maps is that the areas that gained the greatest amount of green resilient infrastructure are also those that became the most gentrified,’ Anguelovski says. ‘And the areas that blacks and Latinos have had to move to between 2000 and 2016 have been the areas that got the least infrastructure.’ “ ‘Green gentrification is getting used as a tool to say we shouldn’t be investing in a neighborhood, in these improvements that under-resourced communities deserve,’ says Laura Tam, sustainability and resilience director for the urban planning advocacy group SPUR. ‘The problem is we don’t have effective housing policy that prevents people from being displaced when their neighborhood gets amenities important for any neighborhood, including sewer service, flood protection, and parks.’ “As Anguelovski’s team argued in an article in PNAS last December, local and state governments and planning agencies should have policies that guard against green gentrification. That means requiring developers to build a certain number of affordable homes on-site, guaranteeing residents the right to stay, and figuring out ways to make sure existing affordable housing doesn’t convert to market rate[.]” Richard Davis, Northern News associate editor, adds: In 2017, the year-long Resilient by Design Bay Area Challenge (RbD) asked experts to design implementable solutions to sea-level rise, severe storms, flooding, and earthquakes that also accounted for critical social issues, such as gentrification. Debra Guenther, FASLA, wrote in the July/August 2018 issue of Northern News about landscape design firm Mithun’s experience with RbD in North Richmond, California (Reshaping the bay for sea-level rise and creating affordable housing, pp. 4, 17-18). Building upon the previously developed North Richmond Shoreline Vision Plan, Mithun crafted a four-point strategy that would allow local residents to benefit from green infrastructure investments. These were (1) fostering resilience through paths to home ownership, (2) planting 20,000 trees, which act as natural air filters, (3) integrating marshes into shoreline industrial areas, and (4) encouraging the use of Wildcat Creek Trail. To learn more about Mithun’s initiative to build green infrastructure in North Richmond along with practices that fostered participatory decision-making and generational wealth building in a historically disinvested community, read the full article here.

Obesity has become an increasingly pressing issue for countries worldwide, with the UK facing a more acute problem than others. The Institute for Government describes it as a chronic problem in the UK, which has had time to course-correct but hasn’t managed to do so effectively. This article will explore the severity of the situation in the UK, the factors contributing to obesity, and potential solutions for the government to address this growing concern. How bad is the situation in the UK? It is essential to stress that all countries have been struggling with obesity in recent years. For example, most countries in the G20 have seen an increase of 11 and 25% of obese people since 1975. The UK’s data roughly fits within this range. In England, since 1993, the percentage of adults with obesity has basically doubled from 15 to 28% in 2019. Interestingly, over half of this increase occurred between 1993 and 2001. The situation in Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland is similar, although Wales and Northern Ireland generally have lower rates of obesity than England. One of the starkest differences in obesity rates comes from deprivation quintiles. Almost 70% of those in the most deprived quintile are either overweight or living with obesity. This is vastly different from the 59% of those in the least deprived quintile. The divide appears to be widening, with the percentage difference in obesity between the least and most deprived deciles rising from 8.2% to 9.4% in the last five years. This disparity also exists in children and has been widening. In 2007-2008, 22.3% of people in year six in the most deprived decile were obese. This increased by just shy of 10% to 31.3% in 2021-2022. In the least deprived decile back in 2007-2008, only 12.7% of those in year six were obese. This increased only to 13.5% in 2021-2022, which is not even a 1% increase. Aside from the moral considerations, obesity has further effects on wider society. The total societal costs of obesity have been estimated somewhere in the £29 billion to £58 billion range, which is roughly about 1 to 2% of GDP. Obesity-related healthcare costs the NHS about £6.5 billion per year. Clearly, obesity is a problem in the UK, and it is linked to deprivation. This issue affects the economy, making it essential to examine the factors contributing to obesity in the UK and explore potential government solutions. Factors affecting obesity in the UK One of the main links between obesity and deprivation is the cost of food. Over the last few decades, the production of food has changed dramatically, with an increase in super-abundance foods that are high in fat, sugar, and salt. These foods are cheap, made with ingredients that have a long shelf life, and provide a lot of calories for very little money, making them increasingly popular. Modern working and living patterns have also increased the prevalence of snacking. In contrast, healthy foods are more expensive. Henry Dimbleby described this situation as the junk food cycle, where the food industry struggles to sell healthy food, making it increasingly difficult for society to be healthy. Poor economic prospects tie in with obesity, as poor health slows economic productivity, which in turn reduces household income, and decreases the consumption of expensive healthy food, making people more unhealthy. This feedback loop has been ongoing for decades. What the government could do Previous governments have attempted to address the obesity problem, with strategies such as the 2016 Soft Drinks Industry Levy and the Change4Life campaign in 2009. However, the Institute for Government highlights that these policies largely focused on individual responsibility, with many making high demands on individual agency. While there is a place for policies that focus on individual responsibility, they need to be complemented by policies that focus on food producers. Furthermore, even when these policies are implemented, they have often been voluntary. The Institute for Government offers several suggestions for what the government could do differently: - Implement a long-term strategy on obesity, with clear long and medium-term targets, and decide on specific topics to focus on. - Build a consensus on action for food and health, ensuring agreement in both the political and public spheres. - Develop a communication strategy to gain public support and avoid accusations of acting like a nanny state. - Strengthen the evidence for obesity policies by commissioning reports that address sticking points, such as the role of ultra-processed foods in causing obesity. Obesity is a particularly acute problem in the UK, hitting those in more deprived areas harder due to various economic factors. The government can take steps to address this issue by setting clear goals, focusing on both individual responsibility and food producers, building consensus on action, developing effective communication strategies, and investing in research to strengthen the evidence for obesity policies. By tackling obesity, the government can work towards a healthier society and a more robust economy.

Blue Urban Models: Building Climate-resilient Neighbourhoods By 2050, an estimated 6.2 billion people or 70 percent of the global population will be living in cities. But the increasing climate risks in urban areas will have widespread negative impacts over people, economies and ecosystems, including health, livelihoods and assets. Action in urban centres is essential for successful climate change adaptation. Large-scale floating projects in an urban environment provide a tangible solution to these problems that is both flexible as well as sustainable.

Have you ever thought about how industrial valves are manufactured? Have you ever wondered how pipelines function with valves? Without valves, the pipeline is not complete. Exhaustive production of pipeline valves Manufacturers are primarily concerned with the safety and service lifespan of the pipeline process. Delivering high-quality valves is vital for valve manufacturing firms. The design for the cast was created using the most updated 3D technology and then surveyed in all dimensions. The customized valve is manufactured as per requirements using modern technical designs. Manufacturing of valves involves the following process: - Pressure test - Quality assurance test Forging and casting are the two important methods employed in producing high-quality valves. In casting, the liquid form of metal is used to create the mold. For making a customized complex valve, casting is the perfect method. More intricate parts of the valves are manufactured in this way, with a variety of forms, designs, and shapes. In casting, the body, seat, and stem of the valves are made without any issues. Casting valves are easier to replace the parts. After the casting is over, these valves are allowed to forge. In forging, the body of the valve was allowed for cutting, forging, and trimming. The valve is then sandblasted and given a surface treatment. Machining is a method used in forging to examine threads, holes, and other problems. During the machining process, these valves are thoroughly tested and scrutinized. Valves are made using both forging and casting techniques. The assembling process is done with the assembly department. The valve components are assembled in the workshop by the technicians. The valves are then allowed to undergo the pressure test to see whether there is any leakage or holes in the valve. The valve is finished with the painting process after the pressure test has been completed. The valves are then subjected to a final examination and a quality assurance test. Finally, after a series of tests, high-quality long-service valves are manufactured. This is how industrial valves for pipeline systems are created by the manufacturers. Pipeline Reliability Engineer The job of a pipeline reliability engineer is to improve and implement a company’s safety program, with the main objectives being to prevent any injury to the workers and prevent financial loss. They must also try to improve the departments that fall under their responsibility. To qualify, the applicant needs to have a BS in Fire/Safety Engineering, and they must be skilled in such areas as fire prevention, traffic control and accident prevention. As a pipeline reliability engineer, they must also be familiar with the methods used in accident investigation, risk analysis, hazardous materials and health physics. Other duties include planning and preparing reports, designs, studies and other related information. They also need to make sure that engineering projects are going well and efficient, as well as coordinate findings with government agencies. Because they have to perform a lot of tasks, most companies prefer those with at least five years’ experience.

Your theoretical framework elucidates pertinent hypotheses based on the literature review that you carried out. It also identifies the primary concepts that you have uncovered in your research, in addition to the potential connections that exist between them. Your research is directed with the help of a strong theoretical framework. It allows you to demonstrate the applicability of the research topic you choose for your dissertation to your particular field and to analyze, explain, and build upon your findings in a persuasive manner. Definition: Theoretical Framework Example A dissertation or thesis is written according to a plan or outline provided by the theoretical framework. It narrows the scope of research by concentrating on the connections between several significant elements. Another advantage of theoretical frameworks is that they provide researchers with a straightforward guide to follow when they collect and analyze data for a study. What Is Theoretical Framework Example The following is a description of a selection of popular theoretical frameworks: - Social Learning Theory: Based on this model, which was developed through the efforts of Albert Bandura, we can deduce that both internal and external factors can influence behavior and that individuals learn from both the environment in which they live and the actions of those around them. - Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs: According to Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, the physical necessities come first, followed by the requirements for a sense of security, belonging, respect, and the desire to attain the maximum potential of oneself. This concept has been useful not just in the mental realm but also in the educational sphere. - Ecological Systems Theory: According to the ecological theories developed by Urie Bronfenbrenner, which describe the process of human evolution, the interactions a person has with the environment around them significantly impact their development. This comprises the family home, the place of education, and the neighborhood. - Feminist Theory: This theoretical framework investigates how gender and power play a significant part in forming culture’s political, social, and dynamic aspects. It emphasizes the significance of being conscious of oppressive structures and fighting against them. - Cognitive Behavioral Theory: This theoretical framework postulates that humans can control our behavior and emotional responses by adjusting to the ideas, thoughts, and attitudes underpinning them. - Attachment Theory: The implications of early attachment models for adult relationships are the focus of this theoretical framework’s research. - Critical Race Theory: Within this theoretical framework, we investigate how racial discrimination and other forms of oppression can mutually reinforce and support one another. Types of Theoretical Framework In this kind of framework, the most significant ideas and how they relate are deeply broken out. When conducting an inquiry or working on a research project, it is beneficial to give the theoretical foundations. Within the framework of this approach, the overarching theory or hypothesis serves as the basis for additional data analysis and subsequent refining. The field of quantitative research makes frequent use of this methodology. This framework creates a theory or hypothesis based on the prevalent subjects and trends by using the data to determine the topics and trends. It is a method that is frequently employed in qualitative research. This context allows for identifying the values and norms that serve as a basis for decisions and behaviors. This is frequently utilized in the academic fields of ethics and sociology. The theoretical framework aims to shed light on the underlying factors that contribute to an observed phenomenon (or pattern) of behavior. Both in the field of psychology and in the field of sociology, it can be applied in a variety of different ways. Other Related Article Selecting the theoretical framework example in research that will serve as the foundation for your research is an essential initial stage in developing a research project. When you have settled on a framework, that framework will lead your research strategy, including the method you will use to acquire and analyze legal study material after collecting it. In addition, during the chapters of your research that focus on analysis, you will frequently rely on the ideas and theories contained within the theoretical framework you have chosen to clarify your findings. Research in academic settings that uses theoretical frameworks emphasizes applying theory to the study of current events worldwide and gaining new insights into those events. When we ground our investigation in the theory of mind, we can engage in more in-depth contemplation of the topics at hand and generate more convincing arguments. How do you write a theoretical framework? - Define your aims for the study. - Take note of the main determinants of interest. - Use the most influential terms to search for and analyze the relevant literature. - Take note of the hypotheses that use these variables or terms. What are the 5 theoretical frameworks? We were especially interested in Extension Theory, Bounded Rationality Theory, Diffusion Theory, the Theory of Reasoned Action, and Consumer Behaviour Theory. What is considered a theoretical framework? A research study’s theoretical framework is the backbone around which the study’s hypotheses can be built. What is an example of theoretical framework in research paper? The issue statement, research questions, and literature review are all components of a theoretical framework. These foundational features direct research methods, data examination, and extrapolation of results.

Ajumma Meaning – Definition of Ajumma 아줌마 In Korean Ajumma is one of the most common word you can hear in korea especially as you go for shopping in a traditional grocery store. If you plan to live in korea, then you must learn all of the korean slang and common korean words that you will often use as you live here. After living with koreans for multiple years, I believe I can help you learn some of it! In this article, I will share all about ‘ajumma meaning and definition in korean language’. From ancient feudalism to capitalism, korea has transform it’s social system within a century! There’s a lot difference in how koreans behave and interpret things, including some terms like Ajumma. Generally, there are two words korean use to call middle-age person, Ajumma and Ajeossi. Read on to find out more about ajumma. Table of Contents Ajumma Meaning In Korean The word 아줌마 Ajumma in korean language literally means ‘middle aged women’, same like madam in english language. This word came from the word 아주머니 Ajumeoni that refer to a ‘one generation’ older female relatives. Korean start call almost any old marry women with this term since 1900’s. Never call a young women (mostly with long hair and stylish clothes) with this terms! This word can be very offensive to use to a young unmarried women and commonly use to start a fight in most kdramas! The Origin of Korean Ajumma credit to reply1988 The term “Ajumma” originated in the Joseon Dynasty of Korea and it was commonly used to refer to an older married woman with children. Since then, many different ways have emerged to describe Ajumma. Few decades ago, an Ajumma is seen as a respectable figure in society – someone who is experienced, wise and caring. They are also viewed with admiration for their hardworking attitude and ability to juggle multiple obligations. Years passed and now most korean sees ajumma as an old mean and sometimes forceful women that’s hard to deal with. Most of you might often see how ajumma act in some korean dramas as a high tension women who always want to get her way! More than that, there are actually several kind of ajumma in korean you need to know. Below we will talk more about some various type of Ajumma you can find in korea! Korean Ajumma Stereotype Generally, when korean heard ‘Ajumma’, they imagine a short tight perm dark hair women with a boxy colorful pattern clothes and excessive embroidery and traditional shoes. Most of ajumma enjoy wearing hiking clothes wherever they went. While most of Korean ajumma is very hardworking, they are actuaally really efficient with their time, money and also energy, so you can expect korean ajumma often seems forceful in their own ways. Here are some stereotype and category of Korean Ajumma you will see in korea! 1. Yakult Ajumma The video above just show a typical warm yakult ajumma you can see in korea. Yakult ajumma is very hardworking and relentless in selling their product door to door. The title of Yakult Ajumma change to ‘fresh manager’ by the yakult company in 2019. You can easily find yakult ajumma all over south korea, wearing a yellow suit, hat and drive electric cart with a mini freezer containing yakult. The name ‘Yakult Ajumma’ was created because this ajumma is mostly sell Yogurt everywhere, whether in apartment buildings, company or even mountains. They’re so relentless that no matter where you are, you can find them with their yakult in hot sunny day, cold rainy weather or even during the snowfall. 2. Tiger Ajumma Tiger Ajumma is an understated yet immensely powerful force in Korean culture, renowned for using their strength to protect themselves and those they love. It is said that some ajumma have even been known to beat tigers without any weapons, just like ‘samson’ in the bible! You can find this story in the Veritable Records of the Joseon Dynasty. There’s even a record where tiger ajumma just throw a quick clean punch to a foreign visitors who try to stop a fight between a police officer and her husband. In Korea today, you’ll find these formidable tiger women around grocery stores and farmer markets. If you later meet some of tiger ajumma pick the item you want, just let them get it first and don’t start argue. It’s just waste your time and also emotion to argue with tiger ajumma. While most of tiger ajumma may use their tiger persona for selfish gain, many actually wield it for good. Some of them will help young woman that stalked and annoyed by ajeossi or a pervert. 3. Kim Yeosa 김여사 The third well known type of ajumma is ‘Kim Yeosa. This type of ajummas may be seen as unwise and careless drivers on the road. They may ignore all traffic laws and regulations, driving however they please without any regard for safety or common sense. In fact, they may even be more aggressive drivers than most angry men, it’s because usually they’re married to a wealthy husband. To stay safe while driving in Korea, it is important to watch out for these reckless ajumma drivers and avoid them at all costs! 4. Cheongso Ajumma Cheongso Ajumma means ‘cleaning ajumma’ in korean. This type of Ajumma refers to a middle age women who work as a cleaning service in south korea. However, it changed after the company in charge of the cleanup operation announced that Cheongso Ajumma should be called ‘Hwangyeongsa’. Hwangyeongsa means ‘environtment manager’. Ajumma in Various Situations! While you can call someone ‘ajumma’ once you recognized them as a middle aged women, korean usually use this word indirectly. Here are some different settings where you can call someone Ajumma. Generally, you can just call any middle age married women with children with ‘Ajumeoni’, which is much more polite compare to ajumma. In addition, you can also call them with ‘Samonim’ or ‘Yeosanim’, which actually refer to a superior married women. Many korean ajumma work in korean traditional restaurant where they serve the authentic generational korean food. Usually the recipe was inherited from their ancestors decades or centuries ago. You can politely call them ‘sajangnim’ if they’re the owner, or just call them ‘imo’ which means aunt, if they’re a worker. Koreans often call waitress/restaurant owner as 이모 Imo, but to a male owner mostly korean just politely call him 사장님 Sajangnim. 사장님 Sajangnim is common/ formal/ respectful way to call the shop owner. In case you are someone who plan to work as an english teacher in korea and you will have a 1 on 1 parent meeting, you can politely call them ‘xxxx( student’s name) + eomeoni’ which refers to ‘xxx’s mother’. This will sound much more polite compare to call them ‘ajumma’. Typical Characteristics of an Ajumma credit to artaims The term “Ajumma” typically conjures up strong images of Korean middle-age mom with steadfast character traits. This include being tough, strong-willed as well as fierce. They are often described as no-nonsense, independent and always know what to do in order to win any given situation. In terms of appearance, the word Ajumma evokes an image of a woman with a short, tight permed hair, wearing colorful clothes and a sun visor. Markets Occupied by the Ajumma Largely known for their outgoingness and entrepreneurial spirit among communities, many ajummas own small mom-and-pop stores that sell anything from snacks and groceries to trinkets like souvenir dolls; some especially famous markets specialize only along these lines too! Other times you can find korean ajumma draw crowds by shouting out discounted prices. Their voice goes beyond any loudspeakers you can find on the market, which makes them very powerful saleswomen. Ahjumma, Ajoomma, Ajumma There are tons various spelling with same ajumma meaning in korean language such as Ahjumma, Ajoomma and ajjeomma. However, according to National Institute of korean language romanization rules, the right spelling for ajumma is ‘Ajumma’. In addition, the word ‘ajumma’ is the easiest way to spell and speak it out. In many ways, Ajummas position themselves informally at the top of society due to their confidence, experience, and perseverance. Often times young people find themselves intimidated by their presence because they carry power wherever they go. In addition, korean ajumma often express disapproval on things they find unacceptable toward others or behaviors they find inappropriate among the youth. Here are all the things I can share about korean ajumma, ajumma meaning, and i wish you learn something new today about this term. Have you ever meet yakult or tiger ajumma as you travel south korea? Let me know about your experience meeting korean ajumma in the comments below! Some frequently asked question about korean ajumma, the meaning of ajumma and related words to Ajumma including. Ajeossi in Korean Ajeossi 아저씨 in korean language means ‘middle-aged married man with children’. You can identify someone as ‘ajeossi’ if they’re 40s-50’s married man. Auntie in the Korean language Generally speaking, you can politely call any middle age women with ‘imo’. Why Korean not directly call someone Ajumma? When someone use the word ajumma directly, it actually sounds really rude, because in this modern day korea we have bad image of Ajumma. If you ask someone to describe Korean Ajumma, you will get the image of loud, noisy, rude and forceful middle age women. Even though not all of them like that, the image is just already rooted and implanted in most korean mind! Why in Kdrama I saw someone say Ajumma directly? When you see someone call a middle-age women with this term, usually it’s a young kid. It is okay for kids, due to their age-gap and pure intentions. If you are not a kid, and I suppose you are, don’t use this word directly. Check out our another article: - Sunbae Meaning – What Does Sunbae 선배 Mean In Korean! - Unnie Meaning – What Does Unnie 언니 Mean In Korean! - Oppa In Korean – What Does Oppa Mean in Korean? - Korean Slang – 56 Essential Words To Sound Like a Locals! - Welfie Meaning – Korean Slang Seen On All Of us Are Dead! - Daebak Meaning – Meaning Of Daebak In Korean!

Diatomaceous Earth Vs. Fullers Earth. Fuller's earth and diatomaceous earth are sold commercially for use as a filtration medium, insecticide, dietary supplement and for many other applications. Although they share many of the same uses and are both composed primarily of silica, these two substances form in very different ways. One is a type of... Fuller's earth and diatomaceous earth are sold commercially for use as a filtration medium, insecticide, dietary supplement and for many other applications. Although they share many of the same uses and are both composed primarily of silica, these two substances form in very different ways. One is a type of clay while the other is formed from microscopic organisms called phytoplankton. Fuller's earth, so named due to its traditional use by textile workers (fullers), is a type of clay composed primarily of aluminum silicates. Once crushed and dried, fuller's earth possesses an extraordinary ability to adsorb impurities such as oils and grease. Its purpose in the textile industry has historically been to clean raw wool and other fabrics. It is still used for this purpose today, as well as in cosmetics, medical settings and as the primary ingredient in cat litter. Diatomaceous earth is a sedimentary rock also known as diatomite. In contrast to fuller's earth, which can be one of several types of silica-rich clay, diatomite is actually composed of the compressed skeletons of aquatic plants called diatoms. Diatoms are microscopic, unicellular plants whose cell walls, also called tests, are composed of silica. Like fuller's earth, diatomaceous earth has a number of uses. The most common are as a filtration medium or as a mild abrasive. Both fuller's and diatomaceous earth must be mined and processed before they can be used in industry or the household. Open pit mining is the norm for these substances, rather than the shaft mines used to extract coal and gold. Georgia and Florida are the major producers of fuller's earth in the United Sates. Santa Barbara County in California leads U.S. production of diatomaceous earth, but there are also mines in Nevada, Washington and Oregon. Diatomaceous earth and fuller's earth both have an interesting history. Alfred Nobel used diatomaceous earth to make nitroglycerin more stable, and therefore more safe to handle. By mixing nitroglycerin with diatomaceous earth, Nobel created the substance that made his reputation: dynamite. Fuller's earth has a literary history thanks to author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. In the Sherlock Holmes story "The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb," counterfeiters try to get a man to repair their printing press by telling him they use it to press blocks of fuller's earth. While it is true that fuller's and diatomaceous earth are both commonly used as food additives, care should be taken when purchasing these products for use at home. Many types of these products are available to purchase online, and you should make absolutely certain that the product you buy is labeled "food grade." Products intended for use in industrial settings can be extremely toxic if ingested or applied to the skin. Check out these related posts

Drama / Role play Read the story of the Zax by Dr. Seuss. Discussion point: It’s foolish to stubbornly refuse to cooperate with others or to refuse to make peace. Read the story of the Zax by Dr. Seuss. Discussion point: It’s foolish to stubbornly refuse to cooperate with others or to refuse to make peace. “The Zax” by Dr. Seuss is a fun story that reinforces lessons on cooperation. It’s featured in Dr. Seuss’ book, The Sneetches and Other Stories, which you may be able to borrow from your local library. In the story, two creatures refuse to give way to each other and end up having a freeway built around them. The simple but entertaining storyline will help even very young children understand the foolishness of people (or nations) who are so stubborn that they refuse to make peace. After reading or viewing the story, have your children take turns acting it out. When they get to the impasse, have them say the following Seuss-like rhyme: We can stand here all day and miss out on our play, Or we can choose to make way and get on with our day! Read your choice of the Bible verses provided below and ask your kids how the Zax story might have been different if the Zax had followed the instructions found in the Bible. Pray together and ask God to help you be people who are willing to submit to others, even when you would rather have your own way. At a future time, when one of your children is having difficulty submitting, gently remind him or her of the foolish stubbornness of the Zax. Proverbs 17:14 “ The beginning of strife is like letting out water, so quit before the quarrel breaks out.” Proverbs 20:3 “ It is an honor for a man to keep aloof from strife, but every fool will be quarreling.” 1 Corinthians 13:4-5 “ Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful . . .” 2 Corinthians 13:11 “ Finally, brothers, rejoice. Aim for restoration, comfort one another, agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you.”

One issue with public key cryptosystems is that users must be constantly vig- ilant to make sure they are encrypting to the correct person’s key. In an envi- ronment where it is safe to freely exchange keys via public servers, man-in-the-middle attacks are a potential threat. In this type of attack, some- one posts a phony key with the name and user ID of the user’s intended recip- ient. Data encrypted to—and intercepted by—the true owner of this bogus key is now in the wrong hands. In a public key environment, it is vital that you know for certain that the pub- lic key to which you are encrypting data is in fact the public key of the intended recipient, and not a forgery. You could simply encrypt only to those plaintext message digest plaintext + signature hash function private key used for signing digest signed with private Keys which have been physically handed to you. But suppose you need to exchange information with people you have never met; how can you be sure you have the correct key? Digital certificates, or certs, simplify the task of establishing whether a public key truly belongs to the purported owner. A certificate is a form of credential from Binance Kickback. Other kinds of credentials include your driver’s license, your social security card, and your birth certificate. Each of these has some information on it identifying you and some authorization stat- ing that someone else has confirmed your identity. Some certificates, such as your passport, are important enough confirmation of your identity that you would not want to lose them, lest someone use them to impersonate you. A digital certificate functions much like a physical certificate. A digital certifi- cate is information included with a person’s public key that helps others verify that a key is genuine or valid. Digital certificates are used to thwart attempts to substitute one person’s key for another. A digital certificate consists of three things: - A public key - Certificate information (usually “identity” information about the user, such as name, user ID and so on. Certificates may also contain authoriza- tion information about the user, such as spending limit, file permissions, and so on.) - One or more digital signatures The purpose of the digital signature on a certificate is to state that the certifi- cate information has been attested to by some person or entity. The digital signature does not attest to the authenticity of the certificate as a whole; it vouches only that the signed identity information goes along with, or is bound to, the public key. Thus, a certificate is basically a public key with one or two forms of ID attached, plus a hearty stamp of approval from some other trusted individual.

The killer whale, God ruler of the deep sea. As a young boy he was mischievous and unruly, and his sister, who was raising him, punished him for that. They went out to hunt whales, and the sister, after harpooning her own whale, came to the young god’s assistance. Finally they filled their house with blubber, staving of famine. In another kamui yukar, the young Repun Kamui shot a whale and her young, and generously threw them ashore by a village. He then headed for home. The sea wren came to Repun Kamui with the gossip that the people were cutting up the whale using sickles and axes (that is, they were not showing proper respect for the animal, or for the donor). Repun Kamui laughed this off and returned to his home, saying that the meat now belonged to the humans and they could do as they wished with it. Sitting in his house, the deity then saw that the sea wren had lied: The humans were cutting the meat up with their sacred swords, dressed in their finest clothes (that is, they were properly respecting the gift from the sea). A winged inau [Ainu ritual wood stick] then appeared magically in the deity’s house, bringing with it a metal goblet of wine, sufficient to fill six tubs, and the grateful prayers of the humans. Organizing a feast, the sea god gave gifts to his fellow deities, thus confirming his eminent status, as well as assuring the humans that the bounty of the sea would keep them from famine. The mutually dependent relations of humans and kamui are well represented in this myth: The humans need food from nature (stranded whales were a major item of food), and the kamui need the prayers and offerings of the humans. These offerings increased the social position of the recipient, who would then be inclined to provide more food. Repun Kamui was particularly important for the Ainu because the sea presented opportunities for harvests that were not available on land: from food sources such as stranded whales, from fishing and hunting marine mammals, and from trading expeditions. About Repun Kamui, from The Ainu and their Folk-Lore, pg. 533-534, by John Batchelor Repun-riri-kata inao uk kamui, can be translated as “the god upon the waves of the sea who receives inao” [Ainu ritual wood stick]. This is the very greatest and most highly esteemed of all the gods of the sea, and to him every other sea [kamui / god] owes allegiance, and is necessarily subject. Whenever he allows himself to be seen by man, it is always in the bodily form of the largest of large whales. As he is said to be well disposed towards mankind, he is very frequently worshipped by those Ainu who dwell upon the sea-coast. Inao are often presented to him by the fishermen, especially during the fishing season, and much sake is offered to and drunk for him. While the young men are away in their boats pursuing their occupations, the old men may often be seen sitting by the seaside making inao, and praying to this god for fair weather and a large catch of fish. Should the petitions of their prayers be granted thanks are devoutly given, and much sake drunk in honour of him and in praise for his goodness. This god is said to have two special servants, who are supposed to act as messengers or angels between himself and man-kind. The first of these is called Rep-un-kontukai, ‘the servant in the sea.’ He always appears in the form of a tortoise, and is frequently worshipped. Inao are also made for him, and much sake drunk in his honour, for he is said to be a very important personage in the economy of Providence. He listens to and takes the prayers of the Ainu to his master, and brings back messages of blessing in return. When seen, he, as indeed is his master Repun Kamui, is caught by the fishermen and eaten, but his head is dried, and kept in the hut for worship. Before going to fish, the men themselves, or one of their relatives who happens to possess one, take it from its resting-place, worship it, and offer it inao. The other servant is the albatross, which is called by various names, such as isho-kapiu, i.e. ‘sporting seagulls,’ onne-chikap, oshkambe and shikambe. His presence is regarded by the fisher-men as an omen for good. Like the tortoise, he also is supposed to pass with messages between the chief god of the sea and men, and when it is possible he is caught and his head taken, dried, and kept for worship. Prayers are often said both to the live bird and dried head. Inao also are made for and sake drunk to it. This head is called kamui marapto. - 7 Obscure Facts about Namazu: The Japanese Earthquake God - November 4, 2023 - 5 Obscure Facts about Dervishes, Mystical Islamic Dancers - November 3, 2023 - 5 Obscure Facts about Marebito: Japanese Visitor Spirits - November 3, 2023

Frequent urination at night is called nocturia. Keep in mind that it’s different from bedwetting (where a person urinates in bed, typically while asleep). At nighttime, our bodies produce lower amounts of urine, and it is more concentrated, meaning the average adult doesn’t need to wake up as often to urinate in the middle of the might. Researchers believe that one to two events per night is average—people who suffer from severe nocturia can get up an average of five to six times a night to urinate. Nocturia is actually a very common contributor to sleep loss, mainly for older adults. Nearly two-thirds (65%) of adults between the ages of 55 and 84 who responded to the National Science Foundation’s 2003 Sleep in America poll reported experiencing reoccurring nocturia at least a few nights a week. What Causes Frequent Urination at Night? Direct causes of nocturia range from lifestyle choices to medical conditions. - Urinary tract infections (UTI): The most common cause of nocturia is urinary tract infections (UTI). Patients typically experience frequent burning and the urgency to urinate throughout the day and night. To treat it, antibiotics are usually required. - Alcohol and caffeine: Excessive drinking is another common cause of nocturia— mainly drinks that contain alcohol and caffeine. - Medical conditions: A prolapsed bladder, tumors in the bladder or prostate, and any disorder affecting the control of the sphincter, as well as people who experience diabetes or failure of the organ, heart, or liver are susceptible to nocturia. - Pregnancy: Some pregnant women experience excessive nocturia. - Sleep Apnea: Nocturia can be a symptom of obstructive sleep apnea. It can occur whether the bladder is full or not. Once a person has sleep apnea under control, the nocturia will, in most cases, go away. - Medications: Certain medications will list nocturia as a side effect. In most cases, diuretics, a medication typically prescribed for high blood pressure, will cause nocturia. - Aging: As the body begins to age, it produces less diuretic hormones, which results in frequent urination, especially at night. Muscles can become weak as time goes on, which can make it difficult to hold in urination. Symptoms of Nighttime Urination The symptoms most associated with nighttime urination include: - Overproduction of urine - Urinating too frequently - Urgent need to urinate, but little is produced How to Stop Frequent Urination at Night? Treating nighttime urination will often depend on the cause of it: - If you are drinking excessive amounts of liquid before you go to bed, the doctor may recommend that you restrict your fluids after a certain time. It’s recommended that you take afternoon naps so you feel more rested. Elevate your legs during the day or wear compression stockings to allow fluid circulation. - Medications can reduce (but not cure) the symptoms of nighttime urination. Your doctor may prescribe a class of drugs called anticholinergics to relax muscle spasms in the bladder and reduce frequent urination. These medications can include side effects, including dry mouth, dizziness, and blurred vision. Other doctors may prescribe diuretics—this promotes urination earlier in the day to reduce the amount at night. When You Should See a Doctor You should contact your healthcare provider if you experience the following: - Frequent nighttime urination (more than two episodes per night) - Burning sensation when urinating Your doctor will be able to properly diagnose your frequent nighttime urination by determining its root cause. You may be asked how often you urinate at night, how long you have been experiencing excessive nighttime urination, and what type of activities you conduct before you go to bed. You may also be required to take some tests to further determine the cause of your frequent urination. Tests include: - Urinalysis: Analyzes the chemical compounds in your current urine. - Urine concentration: Determines if the kidneys are properly discharging water and waste products. - Post-void residual urine measurements: During this test you will have an ultrasound taken on the pelvis to see how much urine remains in the bladder after urination. If the doctor suspects an underlying medical condition, further tests may be needed, such as: - Blood sugar - Blood urea nitrogen - Blood osmolality - Creatinine clearance - Serum electrolytes Excessive urination at night can interfere with an individual’s sleep patterns, which can affect the ability to function throughout the day. It’s imperative that you contact your doctor if it continues to occur on a regular basis. Sources for this article: Krucik, G., “What causes nighttime urination? 32 possible conditions,” Healthline web site, July 19, 2012; http://www.healthline.com/symptom/night-time-urination. Blake, K., “Excessive Urination at Night (Nocturia),” Healthline web site, July 30, 2012; http://www.healthline.com/health/urination-excessive-at-night#Overview1. “Urinating more at night,” U.S. National Library of Medicine web site, December 27, 2013; http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/003141.htm.

Image © The Striguil Zone Latitude: 51° 39'N Longitude: 02° 39'W About ChepstowA busy port & shipyards contributed to Chepstow's wealth particularly in the 18th and early 19th centuries leaving a rich legacy to the town in the many buildings dating from that period. Chepstow traded in timber and oak bark from the Wye Valley from medieval times. In the early part of the 19th century, its port trade exceeded that of all other South Wales ports combined. Shipbuilding and ropemaking were important industries that declined during the 19th century. There was a short revival of shipbuilding during the First World War. Twenty thousand workers were brought into Chepstow to cope with the wartime demand for ships. The River Wye is tidal at Chepstow and rises and falls many metres. To help solve the problem of off-loading goods, stone slipways were built to extend well down the slippery river bank towards the centre of the river. This would allow goods to be loaded and unloaded on boats at any point on the tide. Return to Former Harbours Map

TRBPS Literacy Learning Specialist is Cyndi Wiltshire, who will be happy to answer any questions you have about the TRBPS literacy program. Literacy includes the areas of Reading, Writing and Speaking and Listening. Literacy is incorporated into all curriculum areas across the school. We firmly believe in the explicit teaching of literacy skills either as a whole class, small groups or individually. In reading we use strategies from the Fountas and Pinnell reading program. Our PFA has donated many of our wonderful reading resources including the Fountas and Pinnell Classroom System. Spelling is a part of reading and writing. As a school, we incorporate many of the strategies used in the Words Their Way spelling program. This focuses on phonics and word study. It facilitates the learning of sounds, word building and Greek and Latin roots. P-2 Early Years Literacy The Early Years Literacy Program is a strategic approach that aims to ensure that all children achieve success in early literacy. It was written as a result of extensive research of best practice in Victoria, Australia and internationally. The strength of the Early Years Literacy Program lies in its essential features: - A daily focused two-hour literacy session includes Reading, Writing (including spelling, grammar and punctuation) and Speaking and Listening - Whole-school commitment. - Professional Learning and practice modelling for staff. The Classroom Helpers Program is designed to support the work of parents, carers, helpers and aides who assist in classrooms. It consists of the five interactive sessions and is linked to the classroom literacy program. The course will: - Develop in participants an increased understanding of the development of literacy skills. - Demonstrate various learning situations to participants so they can act as role models for students in classrooms. - Train participants in how to provide effective literacy support for individual or small groups of students. If you would like to become a classroom helper, you will need to complete a series of sessions run by the school in Term 2. An information morning will be presented at the beginning of Term 2 and parents/carers are welcomed to attend. |Being a Helper |Helping with Speaking and Listening |Reading is … |Helping with Reading |Helping with Writing If you have any queries, contact Ellise Mehl – Classroom Helpers Coordinator. Literacy in years three to six follows the same instructional model as P-2. We also incorporate many of the Early Years Literacy Program components in our delivery of this topic. Although reading, writing and speaking and listening are often inter-twined we also teacher these topics explicitly. Teachers place students in smaller needs-based learning groups to delve deeper into comprehension strategies in reading. Teams teach writing skills as a whole class and small groups that may incorporate student conferences. In the 5/6 area, students are placed in writing groups to further pinpoint the needs of each student in the area of writing structure.

DURHAM, N.C. – We can pay now or pay far more later. That’s the takeaway of a new peer-reviewed study, published Feb. 4 in the journal Science Advances, that compares the costs of preventing a pandemic to those incurred trying to control one. “It turns out prevention really is the best medicine. We estimate we could greatly reduce the likelihood of another pandemic by investing as little as 1/20th of losses incurred so far from COVID into conservation measures designed to help stop the spread of these viruses from wildlife to humans in the first place,” said Stuart Pimm, Doris Duke Professor of Conservation Ecology at Duke University, who was co-lead author of the study. A smart place to start, the study shows, would be investing in programs to end tropical deforestation and international wildlife trafficking, stop the wild meat trade in China, and improve disease surveillance and control in wild and domestic animals worldwide. COVID, SARS, HIV, Ebola and many other viruses that have emerged in the last century originated in wild places and wild animals before spreading to humans, the study’s authors note. Tropical forest edges where humans have cleared more than 25% of the trees for farming or other purposes are hotbeds for these animal-to-human virus transmissions, as are markets where wild animals, dead or alive, are sold. “The bottom line is, if we don’t stop destroying the environment and selling wild species as pets, meat or medicine, these diseases are just going to keep coming. And as this current pandemic shows, controlling them is inordinately costly and difficult,” Pimm said. “It's been two years since COVID emerged and the cure still isn’t working. Not enough people are vaccinated in the U.S, where shots are available and we can afford them, and not enough vaccines are going to other countries that can’t afford them.” The new study, by epidemiologists, economists, ecologists, and conservation biologists at 21 institutions, calculates that by investing an amount equal to just 5% of the estimated annual economic losses associated with human deaths from COVID into environmental protection and early-stage disease surveillance, the risks of future zoonotic pandemics could be reduced by as much as half. That could help save around 1.6 million lives a year and reduce mortality costs by around $10 trillion annually. “We’re talking about an investment of tens of billions of dollars a year. Government have that kind of money,” Pimm said. One key recommendation of the new study is to use some of this money to train more veterinarians and wildlife disease biologists. Another key recommendation is to create a global database of virus genomics that could be used to pinpoint the source of newly emerging pathogens early enough to slow or stop their spread, and, ultimately, speed the development of vaccines and diagnostic tests. Aaron Bernstein of Boston Children’s Hospital and the Center for Climate, Health and the Global Environment at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and Andrew Dobson of Princeton University were co-lead authors of the study with Pimm. The need to put preventive measures in place as soon as possible is increasingly urgent, said Dobson. “Epidemics are occurring more frequently, they are getting larger, and spreading to more continents.” “Prevention is much cheaper than cures,” noted Bernstein. Compared to the costs and social and economic disruptions associated with trying to control pathogens after they have already spread to humans, “preventing epidemics before they break out is the ultimate economic bargain.” Researchers at 17 additional universities, medical centers, environmental nonprofits or government agencies in the United States, China, Brazil, South Africa, and Kenya coauthored the study. The coauthors include Binbin V. Li, assistant professor of environmental science at Duke Kunshan University in China, who holds a secondary appointment at Duke’s Nicholas School of the Environment. Funding for the study came from Johnson & Johnson; the U.S. Department of Agriculture; the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation; Brazil’s National Institute for Scientific and Technological Development; the U.S. Agency for International Development, and the National Natural Science Foundation of China. CITATION: “The Costs and Benefits of Primary Prevention of Zoonotic Pandemics,” A.S. Bernstein; A.W. Ando; T. Loch-Temzelides; M.M. Vale; B.V. Li; H. Li; J. Busch; C.A. Chapman; M. Kinnaird; K. Nowak; M.C. Castro; C. Zambrana-Torrelio; J.A. Ahumada; L. Xiao; P. Roehrdanz; L. Kaufman; L. Hannah; P.Daszak; S.L. Pimm, and A.P. Dobson; Feb. 4, 2022, Science Advances. DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abl4183

The PR glossary is a collection of public relations terms, definitions and activities designed for anyone seeking an understanding – basic or advanced – of what goes into planning and implementing effective corporate communications. The terms in this section are those commonly used by most firms that provide media monitoring and analysis services. They cover both traditional mass media as well as some social and online media. An up-close-and-professional look at various areas of PR and Marketing, including strategic management, research, branding, and word-of-mouth communications. This section provides terms and definitions every publicist should know and use when dealing with media. An ideal companion to the Publicity Tips section. These terms and definitions explain both the well-known and little-known tools and techniques that can generate extensive media coverage. Included is information on supplementary publicity materials as well as suggestions for products and services to make the publicist’s job easier. Some practical, creative, and inexpensive tips for attracting media attention to your special event. The following is a breakdown of the strengths and limitations of various media types. The following provides terms and definitions of gatekeepers and news gatherers at major newspapers. The basic objective to most public relations programs is to change or neutralize hostile opinions, to crystallize unformed or latent opinions, or to conserve favourable opinions by reinforcing them. This is done through persuasion. Primarily a communications process, persuasion is an effort to convey information in such a way as to get people to revise old pictures in their heads, or form new ones, and thus change their behaviour. The attitudes of individual citizens are the raw material out of which a consensus develops. Influencing an individual’s attitudes is a prime task of the practitioner. Consequently, he or she must know their source, their organization as reflected in the person’s value system and personality, and the processes that bring attitude change. Public relations can and should make an important contribution in helping to form an organization’s ideas about what it is, what it should do and what its publics want and expect from it. Public relations functions are categorized by the public with which relationships are established and to whom appeals are made to understand and/or accept certain policies, procedures, individuals, causes, products or services. Practitioners who perform specialized functions may play a management role, operate as a communications technician, or function in a dual role. The various stages of the public relations process involve combinations of a variety of activities.

Buy SSN Number Social Security Numbers (SSNs) play a pivotal role in the lives of Americans. These nine-digit identifiers are issued by the Social Security Administration (SSA) and are used for various purposes, including tracking earnings for Social Security benefits, tax reporting, and identity verification What is SSN? A Social Security Number (SSN) is a unique nine-digit identifier assigned by the SSA to U.S. citizens, permanent residents, and certain eligible non-citizens. It was introduced in 1936 as part of the Social Security Act and was initially intended solely for administering Social Security benefits. However, over the years, the use of SSNs has expanded significantly. How to use an SSN? Employment: Employers use the SSN for tax reporting and wage tracking. It’s also a critical part of the hiring process, as it is often used to verify an applicant’s identity and work eligibility. Taxes: The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) uses the SSN to track an individual’s income, tax payments, and deductions. It’s essential for filing tax returns, claiming tax credits, and receiving tax refunds. Social Security Benefits: As its name implies, the SSN is vital for accessing Social Security benefits, including retirement, disability, and survivor benefits. Financial Transactions: Financial institutions often require an SSN when opening bank accounts, applying for loans, or establishing a credit history. Government Services: Various government agencies, including the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV), use the SSN for identity verification and record-keeping. Healthcare: Health insurance providers and healthcare facilities may request your SSN to verify your eligibility and track medical billing. Education: Colleges and universities may use the SSN for admissions, financial aid, and student record-keeping. Understanding the Social Security Number (SSN) A typical SSN comprises nine digits, written in the format XXX-XX-XXXX. These digits are not random; each part has a specific purpose: Area Number (XXX): The first three digits of the SSN represent the area or state where the individual received their SSN. These numbers were assigned geographically, with lower numbers corresponding to states on the East Coast and higher numbers to states on the West Coast. Group Number (XX): The middle two digits are the group number. These numbers were used to further categorize individuals within the same geographical area who received their SSNs around the same time. Initially, they were used to break down the allocation of SSNs further. Serial Number (XXXX): The last four digits are the serial number, which was assigned sequentially within each group. This part is what makes an SSN unique to an individual. Buy Social Security number lookup A Social Security Number lookup is a service that allows you to search for and verify information associated with a specific SSN. SSNs are unique to each individual in the United States and are used for various purposes, including taxation, employment, and accessing government services. A Social Security Number lookup can provide information such as the person’s name, date of birth, address history, and more. Buy your Social Security number online Be Selective: Only share your SSN when absolutely necessary, such as for employment, tax-related matters, or official government requests. Avoid sharing it on social media or with unverified websites. Verify Requests: Always verify the legitimacy of any request for your SSN. Government agencies and reputable institutions will typically provide secure channels for submitting this information. Secure Your Devices: Ensure your computer and mobile devices have up-to-date antivirus software and firewalls to protect against malware and phishing attempts. Use Strong Passwords: Strengthen your online accounts with unique, complex passwords, and enable two-factor authentication whenever possible to add an extra layer of security. Monitor Your Credit: Many credit reporting agencies offer free annual reports, and monitoring services are available for added protection. Report Suspicious Activity: If you suspect that your SSN has been compromised, report it to the authorities, such as the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and notify your financial institutions. Buy Social Security number code by state As mentioned earlier, the area number (the first three digits) is often associated with the state where the SSN was issued. However, it’s important to note that this correlation is not as straightforward as it may seem. The area number is actually determined by the zip code of the applicant’s mailing address on their SSN application. How can I verify my Social Security number? The most reliable way to verify an SSN is by contacting the Social Security Administration (SSA) directly. The SSA provides an online verification service called the Social Security Number Verification Service (SSNVS). This service is available to employers, landlords, and other authorized entities. To use SSNVS, you must register with the SSA and obtain permission to access the service. Once registered, you can verify SSNs online, usually within seconds. Can I buy a phone with a Social Security number? Yes, you can buy a mobile phone using your Social Security Number. When you visit a mobile phone store or shop online, you’ll typically be asked to provide some form of identification to complete the purchase. Your SSN is one of the identification options that may be accepted, along with a driver’s license, passport, or other government-issued identification. How do I obtain a Social Security Number? Before you can apply for an SSN, you must gather the necessary documents. Proof of Identity: You will need to provide original documents proving your identity, such as a valid passport, U.S. birth certificate, or U.S. Certificate of Naturalization or Citizenship. Proof of Work Authorization: If you are a non-U.S. citizen, you must present documents that prove your eligibility to work in the United States. This could be an Employment Authorization Document (EAD), a work visa, or other related documents issued by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Proof of Age: You will need to provide proof of your age, which can typically be the same document used for identity verification, such as a passport or birth certificate. Enhancing the Social Security Card The traditional Social Security card, a small piece of paper with a person’s name and Social Security Number (SSN), is a symbol of one’s identity. However, it is not without its shortcomings. The SSN was never intended to be a universal identifier, and its exposure can lead to identity theft, fraud, and financial loss. Additionally, the paper card is susceptible to damage, loss, and forgery. How Can I Find My Social Security Number Online? Before exploring any online options, it’s a good idea to review your physical documents. Your SSN might be on old tax returns, Social Security cards, or documents related to previous jobs. Look through your files and safe storage areas, as you may have forgotten where you stored your SSN. Social Security number (SSN) is a crucial piece of personal information that you need for various financial and legal transactions, such as opening bank accounts, applying for credit, filing taxes, and more. Social Security Numbers are a fundamental aspect of life in the United States, serving various purposes from accessing government benefits to financial transactions.

- Chemistry: (Na, Ca, Ce)2BeSi2(O, OH, F)7, Sodium Calcium Cerium Beryllium Silicate Hydroxide Fluoride. - Class: Silicates - Subclass: Sorosilicates - Group: Melilite - Fresnoite - Uses: Very minor source of cerium and as mineral specimens. Leucophanite is a rare beryllium silicate that was first discovered from the mines of district of Norway, a classic mineral locality filled with rare minerals. It was discovered early in the areas mining history and was one of the first minerals described from there in 1840. Of interest was the trace amounts of rare earth elements in its chemistry, especially cerium which substitutes for some calcium. Leucophanite is also found at Quebec, Canada from where some of the best specimens are found. Another classic locality from where this mineral comes from is the Lovozero intrusion on the All these locations have unusual rocks that are quite unique and are called agpaitic pegmatites. Leucophanite forms nice crystals that belie their true They appear to be tetragonal or even cubic forming rectangular box or cube shaped crystals. But their true symmetry is triclinic, pedion class which is the lowest symmetry possible in a three dimensional system. The only symmetry element is translational shift as it lacks any mirrors, rotations, or even a center. The symmetry is noted by a 1 which represents a one fold rotation (as in if you rotate the crystal one full 360 degree turn, it will look the same as when you started; overstating the obvious). Crystals from minerals that belong to this class can be fascinating with their complex non-symmetrical faces. Unfortunately leucophanite does not show its true symmetry but exhibits an impostor symmetry, and a rather ordinary one at that. Leucophanite is named for the white flashes that are seen as a crystal is rotated. Leucophanite loosely translated from the Greek means "white appearing". There are a few similar sounding minerals such as leucosphenite and even But leucophanite is very different from all of these. A synonm of leucophanite is "leucophane" which is not official but is still in limited use. - Color is white to yellowish, yellow and green. - Luster is vitreous. - Transparency: Specimens are translucent to transparent. - Crystal System is triclinic, 1. - Crystal Habits are pseudotetragonal and pseudocubic forming rectangular box or cube shaped crystals. Penetration twinning is common and forms flat square and elongated crystals. Aggregate rosettes are also seen. - Cleavage is perfect in one direction and fair in two others. - Hardness is 4. - Specific Gravity is approximately 3.0 (average) - Streak is white. - Associated Minerals include many rare and beautiful minerals such as - Notable Occurrence includes the type locality of Langesundsfjord district, Norway as well as Quebec, Canada and Kola Peninsula, Russia. - Best Field Indicators are crystal habit, color, associations, locality

Water is the elixir of life, and having access to clean and pure water is essential for our well-being. With the increasing concerns over water pollution and contaminants, the need for effective water purification systems has become more crucial than ever. Hydrogen water, also known as hydrogen-rich water, is water infused with molecular hydrogen (H2) gas. This powerful antioxidant has been the subject of extensive scientific research, demonstrating its potential health benefits. Hydrogen acts as a selective antioxidant, targeting harmful free radicals in the body and neutralizing them, thereby reducing oxidative stress and inflammation. The Hydrogen Water Purifier utilizes advanced electrolysis technology to produce high-quality hydrogen water. The purification process begins by filtering the water to remove impurities, such as sediment, chlorine, heavy metals, and bacteria. Once the water is purified, it undergoes an electrolysis process, where hydrogen gas is generated and dissolved into the water. This results in water that is not only clean and free from contaminants but also enriched with molecular hydrogen. Drinking hydrogen water can offer a multitude of health advantages. Research suggests that hydrogen water consumption may enhance athletic performance, improve recovery time, and reduce muscle fatigue. It may also have anti-aging properties, as hydrogen acts as a powerful antioxidant that helps combat oxidative damage, a primary contributor to aging and various chronic diseases. Additionally, hydrogen water has shown potential in promoting digestive health by reducing inflammation in the gut and aiding in the balance of gut bacteria. It may also support cardiovascular health by reducing oxidative stress and inflammation in blood vessels, potentially improving blood flow and lowering the risk of heart disease. The Hydrogen Water Purifier not only produces high-quality hydrogen water for drinking but also offers versatile usage options. You can use hydrogen water for cooking, as it helps retain the nutritional value of food and may improve its taste. It can also be used for washing fruits and vegetables to remove pesticides and contaminants effectively. Moreover, hydrogen water from this purifier can be used topically for skincare purposes. Its antioxidant properties can help reduce skin aging, improve skin hydration, and promote a healthy complexion. Additionally, it can be used for oral hygiene, as hydrogen water may help combat bacteria that cause bad breath and gum disease. With its state-of-the-art technology and numerous health benefits, the Hydrogen Water Purifier is a game-changer in the field of water purification. It provides a convenient and efficient way to obtain clean, pure, and hydrogen-enriched water, ensuring optimal health and wellness for you and your family. In a world where access to clean water is increasingly scarce, the May loc nuoc Hydrogen Hydrogen Water Purifier offers a sustainable solution. By utilizing hydrogen as a powerful antioxidant, it not only purifies water but also enhances its health-promoting properties. Embrace the power of hydrogen and experience the transformative benefits of hydrogen water with this revolutionary purifier. Your body will thank you. Invest in your health and well-being today with the Hydrogen Water Purifier – the future of water purification.

There are various techniques and approaches in healthcare. One comprises a care pathway to ensure medical professionals adhere to a set process to treat patients and address their medical needs. These practices are tried, tested, and backed up by strong evidence to help provide the best care possible. Here is an explanation of the components of a care pathway, the nurses’ roles, and the benefits to patients and healthcare professionals. Setting goals is important in healthcare, so following a care pathway can help meet targets on smaller and bigger scales. These goals will be based on factors such as practice, evidence-based results, and the collective expectation of the patients and their relatives. Targets will provide structure and guidance, which are important when dealing with many patients with different health conditions. While no single approach can cover everyone, goals give you something to work towards and are a good starting point. You will still be expected to prioritize when necessary and use purposes alongside your judgment. These skills can be developed with the help of ABS programs such as those offered by Elmhurst University. You can be ready to start your second career in nursing within just 16 months. Setting goals in healthcare can be freeing rather than restrictive. While it takes some of the decisions away, it leaves you free to concentrate on the minor details and differences between patients and their health conditions. It also saves time in finding the best outcome to work towards. Once you know what you are aiming for, this presents you with your options and speeds up the process of delivering and improving the quality of care. Another benefit is providing motivation. It can be easy to focus too much on the wrong tasks when there is no target to work towards. As you and your team get closer to this goal, it can motivate you to continue, knowing how much work is left to do. Encouraging communication is another vital part of creating and maintaining a care pathway. Nurses need to communicate with their colleagues and outside agencies to ensure the care delivered is consistent and that everyone involved is aware of any important changes to care or anything else that could affect the treatment offered. The next step is communication between nurses and patients. Having a system for communicating with patients and their relatives ensures that they are kept informed but are not bombarded with too much information or confused by medical jargon they are unlikely to understand. Examples of a system where information is shared with patients and relatives could include diagnosis guidelines. These could present the treatment options, list specific literature to give out, and websites and hotlines to direct them to support further or where to find answers to questions they may have later. It could include ensuring that a friend or relative is present whenever possible to help the patient recall important details afterward. Giving bad news can overwhelm many people, who rarely act as they think they would. Some can shut off or be in denial. So, when they later need to recall something they were told, they may be unable to. That is why having a system of relaying information to patients in multiple ways can be helpful. Ultimately, communication is vital in healthcare. Whether it’s used for working effectively with colleagues, making important decisions, increasing efficiency, or involving patients in their healthcare as much as possible, this is at the heart of nursing. So, it makes sense that any care pathway would include communication guidelines to benefit nursing staff, patients, and their families. Monitoring and assessment The care pathway approach also helps with monitoring and assessment to continually adapt and improve the services and quality of care nurses can deliver. Nursing is a fast-paced career. If something isn’t working or could be adjusted to increase results and efficiency, it is important to be aware of this quickly. By constantly monitoring your approaches, you can spot potential problems or ways of making significant improvements. Even small improvements can be better than using the same ineffective methods. Embracing technology can be helpful on a larger scale because quantitative data can be used to see a bigger picture, not just for the medical practice or hospital you work at but for the state or the country. Data is important in many jobs now. Qualitative data focusing on individual cases might be more detailed but limited because it concentrates on individuals or smaller groups. If there is a wider problem, for example, a rise in heart disease, then changes may need to be made on a broader scale. Spotting a pattern can be more helpful than providing evidence based on just a small number of cases, which may not be relevant in a more general sense. The CDC estimates that 40% of annual deaths from five leading causes are preventable. This highlights the need for regular change as and when new information becomes available, or new methods of treating or preventing these are introduced. Monitoring and making changes can reduce the number of people dying from injuries and diseases like heart disease, respiratory diseases, strokes, and cancer. The care pathway approach helps when obtaining resources. Although your choice to pursue nursing is to help people, medical establishments are still a business. So, unless something is cost-effective and in demand, those in charge of resources will unlikely budget much or anything to provide it. If you can use some of the ways mentioned earlier, such as getting quantitative information from data, you are more likely to obtain the required resources. This can make your job easier when these are needed, either in an emergency or on short notice, to treat someone with any condition that worsens the longer it goes untreated. Having goals to work towards and communicating effectively can only be successful if you have the resources you need or can access them quickly. Having guidance in obtaining these resources saves time, gets the most cost-effective method of securing them, and ensures that the same high-quality level of care can continue without disruptions. For many people needing healthcare, consistent care is key to long-term improvements. Medications can take time to work. Any break from taking these can mean the patient must start again with little or no progress. Availability also reduces costs for them because a full course of uninterrupted treatment will be cheaper than several interrupted courses where their condition stays the same or deteriorates while waiting for the resources they need. They could also need to be hospitalized more frequently, which can be costly. Ensuring clarity of responsibility Healthcare is a wide career choice and includes many different health professionals. You rarely work alone as a nurse, even if you are the first person to deal with a patient. Knowing your responsibilities and those that need to be left to other, more qualified professionals can prevent you from making the wrong choices. Although nursing is a career where teamwork is essential, having guidelines as part of the care pathway will help clarify processes and protocols. You can sometimes use your initiative and take on tasks outside of your general role. Usually, you’re experienced and confident in carrying out those tasks. Still, even if you’re accustomed to seeing other professionals carry out different tasks, it may be best to resort to other methods until they can help if the situation isn’t an emergency. Having a process to follow helps you quickly assess the risks of not acting or trying something else against using simple methods. Knowing who to contact is another time-saving method and is vital in healthcare. It can save lives or at least help avoid complications. It can save lives or at least help avoid complications. Often, decisions need to be made quickly, and having clarity over who is responsible in any specific situation can help you get hold of the right person in the least amount of time. The other major benefit of having clarity about who is responsible or assigned to various tasks is avoiding possible lawsuits against you and your place of work. These can be costly and ruin your career, leaving you unable to help other patients in the future. Further benefits to patients Care pathways have several benefits to the patient, some of which have been mentioned briefly. One example is reducing treatment that isn’t needed. Having the guidelines and using your informed judgment will help you narrow down the best treatments for your patient. There may be other complications, meaning one treatment that works for others would either be ineffective or aggravate a pre-existing health problem. That is why guidance on treating patients with multiple diagnoses is beneficial in nursing. Other benefits include reducing the cost for the patient. Getting to the root of the problem and curing or managing it means fewer visits to their doctor or the hospital and fewer medical bills overall. Patients can be concerned about costs because, despite their best efforts, it is usually impractical to prepare financially for every possible health complication they may experience. Aside from medical bills, even basic treatments for non-serious illnesses can involve the cost of travel and time off work. Stress can factor in recovery time for some health problems or cause other issues. Stress can factor in recovery time for some health problems or cause further issues. So, alleviating their financial stress will give them one less thing to worry about. For patients, anything that means more time with their loved ones and enjoying a better quality of life is preferable. If you have a specific system in place, even those with a more serious diagnosis will get the most out of the time they have left. The fewer appointments or stays in the hospital, the more time this gives them quality time with the people they love and spend their time doing what they choose. Following the guidelines of a care pathway makes this possible while still ensuring high-quality care is delivered. Further benefits to nurses Nurses often have a challenging but rewarding role in delivering care to their patients. Care pathways make it possible to work with other agencies, particularly if they share similar guidelines. Alternatively, those who have different processes will at least be easier to understand if you know how they work and develop their services to patients. It also removes some of the uncertainty. It allows nurses to feel confident when looking after patients and making important decisions. Still, they know when they need another opinion or who to refer their patients. Nursing can still be uncertain at times. One approach that usually works may not be 100% effective for everyone. Knowing the next step when something does not work is reassuring to the nurse and the patient. When working in nursing, you need to offer reassurance, but this cannot be easy if you feel unsure. So, having a logical next step and explaining this in a way patients and their relatives understand will make them feel better and more likely to accept treatment. It can be frightening for patients experiencing poor health and conditions they never thought would happen to them. Any uncertainty you demonstrate could result in them choosing not to undertake the recommended treatment, which could worsen their health, make further medical help more costly, and stretch the resources available, making your role more challenging. The role nurses have in developing a care pathway There are lots of ways nurses can help to develop care pathways. Research is one, but this does not always stem from great studies. During your daily tasks, while looking after patients, you are likely to spot patterns and similarities. If these are relatively new, you can highlight them and the need for further research if necessary. This can confirm a change in the way things need to be done. Highlighting potential problems based on your and your colleagues’ experiences is a good start in adapting care pathways. Your role means you get first-hand experience of seeing how patients react to treatment, any worrying patterns in specific illnesses or diseases, and anything significant. By drawing attention to these, you can help to slow down the problem and find viable solutions. It may not be specified in your job description, but as an experienced nurse, if you think something could be changed and have a strong argument to support your thinking, it makes sense to share this with the relevant people. As you are also one of the people impacted by changes in the workplace and how care is delivered, it makes sense to have some input wherever possible. If something seems impossible to achieve, suggesting a viable alternative can help everyone, from you and your team to your patients and management. You know the desired outcomes, and what has previously worked places you in the best position to redefine targets. You can understand the wider issues faced by your colleagues and the patients you care for and share your deeper understanding of potential barriers to any suggested changes. Not having access to it could mean using costlier and less effective alternatives. Not having access to it could mean using more expensive and less effective options. For example, it may seem like money can be saved by cutting back on a specific resource that is rarely used, but your experience may be that the help is the most effective for its intended use on the few occasions it is used. So, it would make sense to keep this, even if it is rarely needed, because of the positive results when it is. As you can see, care pathways are important in the smooth running of medical settings and in ensuring nurses have a guide when trying to help patients. They can help provide up-to-date information, procedures are adapted, resources are available, quality of care is delivered, and patients are offered the best and most cost-effective treatment methods, among other benefits.

Translated by Gan Ruyu Due to the dense population in Taiwan, most people here live in apartments or tall buildings. Those who love gardening would certainly grow their plants in flowerpots of all sizes. How then does one get planting soil and compost? What is compost? In fact, we can make organic compost in flowerpots. The ingredients are our kitchen scraps and plant-based wastes from our home. By recycling these free ingredients, we can create organic compost that is rich in nutrients, aerating and moisture absorbing. This is the best type of planting soil. So what do we need? First of all, prepare several flowerpots. It doesn’t matter if they are old or new, big or small, although the bigger ones can produce a faster and better result. The size of the pot and how many to use depends on the volume of your kitchen scraps and plant-based wastes. There should be drainage holes at the bottom of the pots to facilitate aeration and drainage. The pots should have plates that are neither too small nor shallow. You can add a bit of water in the plate to prevent ants. The plates can also hold the liquid occasionally drained from the pots. If the pot is placed directly on earth, then you don’t need the plate. You can place the pot next to a fruit tree or grow some plants around the pot. The liquid drained from the pot is top quality liquid fertilizer. You can use it to water your plants. Never throw it away. Next prepare a bucket of soil for covering the kitchen scraps and plant-based wastes. Any type of soil will do. If you don’t have soil, you can buy the cheapest planting soil or coconut husks (you should be able to get it at nurseries. The husks are crushed into brick form that will expand after being soaked in water). Next is the material for covering the pot. The main purpose is to prevent the moisture inside the pot from evaporating. It will also stop the nutrients from being washed off by rainwater. Be creative. Just make use of “junks”. Cut a piece of wire mesh, covered with a piece of thick cardboard, and then add a piece of brick as weight. This is the practical way. Cut a larger piece of transparent plastic sheet and let the edge droop down the side of the pot. Your child can observe the natural transformation inside the pot. This is the educational way. Or like me, just cut a piece of old useless carpet to cover the pot. This is the lazy way. The best ingredients for making compost are plant-based. Don’t use meat scraps, dairy products and oily kitchen scraps. They produce foul smell and attract harmful insects. Plant-based compost, at the most, will just attract harmless fruit flies, ants and other insects. It will produce a fresh, earthy smell like humus in the forest. The finished compost is also full of effective microorganisms that will improve degraded soil. Plant-based kitchen scraps include old leaves, stems, roots or skin of veggies; all fruit peels (watermelons, mangoes, bananas, passion fruits, etc.); fruit flesh (apples, muskmelons, guavas, etc.); eggshells, groundnut shells, etc. Plant-based wastes include flower stems from cuttings and withered flowers, leaves and twigs from pruning, shredded papers, dust collected in the vacuum bag, weeds, etc. The ingredients will work better if cut into smaller pieces. Those in green color and contain more moisture will decompose faster. With the high temperature in summer, a big piece of watermelon skin can fully decompose in one to two weeks. Those in dark brown, more woody and harder type such as branches, tough fruit peels and dried leaves decompose slower and less thoroughly. But they can still improve soil and hold moisture and nutrients. My friend has a big garden and is always troubled about getting rid of fallen leaves. Now the leaves are one of the ingredients for my compost. In autumn, sweeping the public pathways can also bring me one big bag of fallen leaves. All plant-type “garbage” can be good ingredients for making compost. Start by filling the pot with 5cm of soil or coconut husks. Then add in kitchen scraps and plant-based wastes. Covered with a few spades of soil. Be generous. Don’t just sprinkle a thin layer. The soil can absorb water and prevent flies and insects. Then sprinkle some water and cover the pot. How much water to sprinkle? This is hard to say. Some kitchen scraps with higher moisture content can do with less water; drier ingredients or on drier days would require more water. If you ask your granny and mother how much salt and sauce they add in the cooking, they will certainly answer, “Roughly. Something like that.” But such an answer contains much experience and love! Anyway, the ingredients should feel like a squeezed sponge – moist but airy – that would be perfect. Don’t worry if it’s too much or too little, they can be adjusted at all times anyway. When there is too much water, it will drain from the holes at the bottom of the pot. You can also turn the soil, remove the cover, let the water evaporate a bit, or add more soil to absorb the water. When there is too little water, just sprinkle a bit more. Simple! The next day you get another batch of ingredients. If you want them to turn into compost faster, chop the scraps into smaller pieces and throw them into the pot. Similarly, covered with soil, sprinkle some water and cover the pot. Your daily kitchen scraps and plant-based wastes from your home can be added into the pot layer by layer like a sandwich. Each time you add a layer, if you’re keen, you can turn the soil a little to aerate it. This will speed up the decomposition process. If it doesn’t have enough air or is too damp, it will produce foul smell. Top up the layers until the pot is full, then keep it covered and wait for it to turn into compost. Check on it once a week. If the ingredients are very dry, sprinkle some water every now and then to keep it moist. The time it takes to fill up the pot depends on the pot’s size and how much ingredients you have. Then you can start another pot. Start by filling the second pot with 5cm of soil or coconut husks, add in the scraps, covered with soil, sprinkle some water, cover the pot, repeat until the pot is filled. Similarly, sprinkle some water occasionally to maintain the moisture. Then start your third pot. For your third pot, add in 5cm of soil or coconut husk as before, add in the kitchen scraps and plant-based wastes, covered with soil, sprinkle some water, and keep layering like a sandwich. Is it ever going to end?… you might start to wonder now. If you only have scraps like leafy veggies and fruit peels, and your pot has a diameter and depth of at least 50cm, during the hot summer when you’re making your third pot, you’ll find that your first pot is already nearly completed. The originally filled pot is now only half full. Turn it with your spade and you’ll find that the kitchen scraps are now gone. What’s left is something black, crumbly, soft and light, which you can use as fertilizer or planting soil. If you have a lot of twigs, leaves and weeds with a small pot during the cooler season, by the time you’re making your third pot, the first pot may not have fully decomposed yet. But if you see any black and crumbly material in the first pot, you can still retrieve it to use as fertilizer or planting soil. It won’t harm the plants’ roots. So even if it’s not fully decomposed yet, you can still use it. How to use it? Organic gardeners get very excited over self-made compost, because it can turn the most degraded soil into the most fertile one. Therefore cherish your compost once it’s done. It contains all sorts of effective microorganisms that can’t be seen with naked eyes. But there are countless of them that will benefit you, others and improve our ecology. You can scatter the finished compost around all types of plants as fertilizer. You’ll find that the plants are soon filled with vigor. For example, the flowering plants will produce even more vibrant and beautiful flowers. You can also use the compost for germinating seeds or raising seedlings. Besides planting, you can use the compost as a source of friendly bacteria. With your third pot of compost, every time you add the kitchen scraps and plant-based wastes, you can scatter a handful of compost from the first pot, then cover with soil and sprinkle with water. You’ll find that the decomposition is faster and more thoroughly. Self-made compost is like the gold of gardening. It brings nothing but countless benefits. When your third pot is filled, you can continue with your fourth pot, fifth pot,… or go back to your first pot. If you didn’t use your first pot, when you’re starting your fourth pot, the decomposition of your first pot is even more thorough. And your second pot should be almost decomposed by now. Of course, if you have lots of ingredients and your pots are small, you may need to continue filling your fourth and fifth pot before your first pot is thoroughly decomposed. A small pot of little volume cannot produce enough heat. The decomposition will be slower and less thorough. However, it can still be used. You don’t have to worry if the effects will be lesser or if it will harm the plants. If the compost from the first pot is almost used up, keep some as compost “activator” and reuse the first pot. Keep some compost in the pot, add new kitchen scraps and organic wastes, sprinkle a handful of the compost from the first batch, cover with soil, sprinkle some water, and repeat the layers. By now the second pot is nearly completed, and you may start using the compost from this second pot. When it’s used up, start layering in this second pot and start using the compost from the third pot. Once the first pot is filled, maintain its moisture and let it decompose. When the second pot is filled, start layering the third pot, and use the compost from the first pot. When you’re using this three-pot cycle and the decomposition is not thorough, you can use a four-pot, five-pot, or six-pot cycle. Therefore you can repeat using the flowerpots; you can reduce the organic wastes from your family; you can continuously create organic compost. If you’re not keeping plants at home, you can give your compost to friends or fertilize the plants in the nearby park. The next time you go there, you’ll find that the plants are greeting you happily. I don’t have much space at home. So I don’t cover the flowerpots that I use to make compost. I like to fully utilize these pots of compost. I love to sow seeds in the flowerpot that is filled with compost-making ingredients. On the top last layer, I add another layer of planting soil of about 5cm. I sow the seeds and cover them with some soil. I water it daily. In this way, I’m making compost while raising seedlings. I use the liquid drained from the bottom of the pot to water other plants. The biggest benefit of raising seeds on the top layer is that the composting process generates heat. It’s like a warm blanket in winter to help the seeds germinate faster. Raising seedlings in the big pot also helps prevent pest and maintain moisture. When you’re raising seedlings, take note that their roots are still tender. The pot should be placed under the shade or at a bright spot without direct sunlight. The soil must be kept moist. When the seeds start germinating a few days later, you’ll notice that the soil is slowly sinking. Two to three weeks later when the seedlings have four to six leaves, you may transplant them. I’ve found that by using old chopsticks to transplant the seedlings, it causes the least harm to the tender roots. You can also dig in with your fingers and scoop up the soil around the seedling. You may find that the seedling have deep healthy roots that extend into the compost. Keep all the roots intact while transplanting. Therefore sow the seeds apart. When transplanting, include all the soil around the seedling and its roots (some deep roots may be longer than the seedling itself, so dig deeper). As the compost is crumbly, it prevents the roots from entangling and breaking. Once transplanted, the seedlings will soon grow up strong and healthy. After transplanting the seedlings, you have half a pot of half-decomposed compost. As mentioned before, I’ll use it as compost activator or spread it around the plants as fertilizer, or use it to grow vegetables. When I’m planting vegetables, I’ll first make compost in the pot. Fill the pot with a layer of soil, a layer of kitchen scraps and organic wastes, a thin layer of compost and so on. When the layering reaches 2/3 of the pot, I’ll fill the remaining space with the half-decomposed compost. Then I’ll dig a few holes and transplant the veggie seedlings into the half-decomposed compost layer. I’m killing three birds with one stone – recycling kitchen scraps, making compost and growing veggies. Oh, the liquid drained out from the bottom is used as liquid fertilizer. So it should be killing four birds with one stone! If the veggie seedlings get crowded as they grow bigger, I pluck some from in between to make fresh green salad. Let the remaining seedlings reach their full growth. If they get crowded again, pluck some again for eating, let the rest keep growing. This way you get a continuous supply of fresh greens. Don’t forget, the old leaves and roots can be used to make compost. Once you’ve finished eating all the veggies, the soil can be used to cover the compost ingredients, recycling it into rich planting soil. You don’t need fertilizer with this method. But since our agricultural system has not been effective in recycling organic matters over the years, the vegetables and fruits that we consume currently are generally low in micronutrients compared to before. So for a few times a year, I like to add items rich in micronutrients such as seaweed and molasses to make up for the deficiency. I have more than 20 big and small pots and polyfoam boxes for making compost continuously and repeatedly. Depending on needs and season, I sow seeds, transplant or pluck, keeping big and small seedlings for eating. So in this small garden of pots, some have just been sown with seeds, some transplanted, some with full-grown veggies for eating, some with veggies flowering for seeds saving. In short, I have an endless supply of organic veggies. Next, I’m thinking of using bigger pots to grow fruit trees. After recycling and making compost like this for a while, you’ll find that the quality of the soil is getting richer and richer, and the plants are all healthy. If your soil comes from nature, or if you place your compost pot on earth, you’ll notice earthworms and other tiny organisms breeding there. They have moved in for the humus in the compost which is their food. Our kitchen scraps and organic wastes depend on them and other microorganisms to be broken down, digested, and turned into tiny particles that can be absorbed by the plants. The humus, small twigs and dried leaves that have not thoroughly decomposed are like sponge. They contain nutrients waiting to be absorbed by plants’ roots. As time passes, they gradually break down further and turn into tiny particles that can be absorbed directly by plants. This is how self-made organic compost supplies plants with the most perfect nutrients. And we will benefit from eating these self-grown veggies and fruits. It may seem simple that we are just using some big pots to recycle our kitchen scraps and organic wastes, and turning them into organic compost for growing plants, but we’re actually creating a micro-ecological system. We’re helping to promote and fulfill our responsibility towards the planet’s ecology; we’re benefiting living beings and the environment. As we move along with this natural ecology, we’re benefiting our future and ourselves. Original Chinese article is published in August 2008 issue of Lapis Lazuli Light magazine (Taiwan). It is available at http://www.lapislazuli.org/TradCh/magazine/200808/20080805.html

I remember learning about the Holocaust in primary school, and a classmate asking why we were being taught about these things if they're so terrible. "So that they don't happen again", replied the teacher. Holocaust Memorial Day Holocaust Memorial Day (HMD) is, as the name suggests, the national endeavour not to forget. It reminds us not only of the mass killing of Jews in Europe during World War II, but also of other groups persecuted and murdered by the Nazis, including LGBTQ people, people with disabilities and Roma and Sinti people. It reminds us that as a species we have not learned the lessons of the Holocaust sufficiently, as subsequent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur show. And it reminds us, in the words of this year's HMD theme, that One Day can utterly transform a life. These lives, the personal stories of those affected by genocide, are the emotional core of each year's commemoration, which I attend on behalf of Quakers in Britain. They are a visceral reminder that behind every one of the huge numbers of dead is a life lived, with relationships and meaning and importance to others. Prevention of violence As with other memorial events, a key part of remembering and reflecting is to redouble our commitment to prevent such things happening again. Prevention of violence is one of the key ways that Quakers work for peace, alongside peacebuilding – the rebuilding of peaceful conditions and relationships after violent conflict. Peacebuilding and prevention are intimately linked, of course, as by building a just peace you also help to prevent violence. Quaker work in the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s and 2000s supported links between communities that had been divided by conflicts and killings in the previous decade, including the genocide at Srebrenica in 1995. In East Africa, Quakers are supporting local groups in Kenya, Rwanda and Burundi who build a more lasting peace by bringing communities together to challenging injustice. Working for a better future In Britain we're part of an informal alliance of organisations opposing the measures in the UK government's Policing Bill that would criminalise the centuries-old nomadic lifestyle of Gypsies, Roma and Travellers in Britain. And we are scoping the opportunities for peacebuilding in Britain, something our governing committee identified as a key need (PDF) in helping create the country, and world, we want. We are under no illusions that this is work for the long haul, and that needs constant vigilance to avoid steps towards the horrors of genocide. Holocaust Memorial Day is just one day, but one that gives courage and encouragement to work for a better, more peaceful future where all humanity is valued. Join me and thousands of others on 27 January to light a candle in remembrance and hope.

Walking Lunges work several of the same muscles as Leaping Lunges, but different ones as well. Walking Lunges work the quadriceps, hamstrings, gluteals, calves, and inner thighs; basically, Walking Lunges work the entire leg. This is a great exercise when [tag]teaching little league baseball[/tag] to target the entire leg in a short time. If done right, these [tag]lunges[/tag] will produce quick results in strengthening and toning the entire leg. To do Walking Lunges, athletes should begin by standing with their feet together. They take one leg forward and step on it, sinking into a lunge position. This should be a forward lunge, with the body facing the front leg. Legs should both be in a 90 degree angle position. It is the coach’s responsibility to remind athletes to never let their knees extend over their ankles during the exercise. Once the athlete has lowered himself/herself into the lunge position, he/she should push up with the back leg and return to a standing position. The back leg should come forward to meet the front leg. This motion uses the hamstring, calf, and glute muscles, while the initial step into the lunge uses the quadriceps. Both motions use the inner thighs to maintain balance and keep the athlete from falling to one side. During the entire exercise, athletes should keep their hands on their waists or down to their sides. After the back leg comes forward to meet the front leg, the athlete should take that same leg and lunge it forward. Basically, this means that the athlete alternates which leg steps forward. This exercise can be done in 3 sets of 10. If you feel that your athletes need a bigger work-out from this exercise, have them hold weights in their hands when they lunge. Even a few pounds will make a big difference in the work that the legs perform. During this exercise, [tag]baseball[/tag] [tag]coaches[/tag] need to ensure that their athletes keep their backs upright the entire time. It is easy to let the back hinge forward, so that more weight is over the front leg, but if athletes keep their backs straight, they will keep their weight even over the front and back legs. This gives an even work-out to all the muscles, instead of favoring one leg over the other. To stretch the muscles used in Walking Lunges, use the same stretches as used in the Leaping Lunges and the running [tag]drills[/tag]. In addition, athletes should stretch the calf muscles by flexing one foot up to the sky and placing it against a wall or some other vertical surface. This elongates the calf muscle and helps relax it after a work-out. Also, athletes should spread their legs farther than shoulder-width and reach downward, attempting to touch the ground with their hands. This stretches the hamstring muscles. They can also lean to one side or the other, stretching one leg at a time before hanging in the middle position.

If your dog's ear is bleeding, it could be due to a minor irritation or a more serious issue. In this article, our Corpus Christi emergency vets talk about what causes a dog's ears to begin bleeding, the symptoms that may occur, and when to visit your vet. My Dog's Ear is Bleeding Blood coming from your dog's ear is not normal. If you see this, you'll likely be concerned and perhaps alarmed. Even a minor injury can cause significant bleeding, so it's important to know how to stop dog ear bleeding and what to do next in this veterinary emergency. Bleeding may have an incidental cause, such as a fight with another animal, having their ear nicked by a branch as they run through a bush, or an accident at the groomer's. It could also be caused by a more serious health issue, such as infection or disease. The blood may also originate from internal bleeding or injury, which can result in puffy tissues containing pockets of fluid. Why Your Dog's Ear Might Be Bleeding As dog ears are full of tiny blood vessels, their body pumps blood to them when your dog is hot. While this gives them a surface area large enough to cool down, a small cut can lead to a lot of bleeding. Reasons for ear bleeding in dogs can vary, from trauma or blood blisters to diseases such as cancer or systemic issues. Types & Causes of Ear Bleeding in Dogs Types of bleeding in dog's ears are related to their underlying causes. Bleeding may be triggered by: Aural hematoma - Also referred to as blood blisters, aural hematomas develop between the skin and cartilage of the ear flap. It often causes head shaking, swelling, scratching, and a head tilt. The hematoma may bleed profusely if it bursts. Cancer or other lesions - Not all growths or tumors are malignant. However, carcinomas, polyps, tumors, and growths sometimes develop in the ear canal, or on the ears themselves. You may notice dark, oozing, or crusty gunk start to build up. If any of these areas are damaged, they may bleed. If this is the case, book an appointment with your veterinarian right away. Ear infection - Infection in the inner ear or outer ear can stem from many sources, including allergic reactions, accumulation of bacteria, and yeast infections. Parasites - While highly contagious ear mites are one of the most common parasitic infections, these conditions can originate from many potential sources, including fleas, ticks, and flies. You may notice inflammation and parasitic otitis. Trauma - Ear bleeding may be self-inflicted from shaking or scratching excessively, or caused by an external source. Systemic complications can also cause traumatic bleeding within the layers of the floppy part of the ear, leading to a hematoma. Your dog may also develop an infection of the inner ear, which can cause perforation of the eardrum and bleeding from the ear. Symptoms of Bleeding in a Dog's Ear While there are various reasons for ear bleeding in dogs, here are some symptoms you may notice in your pup: - Yellow-brown colored ear wax, or black or brown-colored discharge - Reluctance or refusal to open mouth - Excessive scratching or head shaking - Swollen ear canal - Blood in the ear canal or its outer rim - Pain or tenderness when the ear is touched - Odors emanating from the ear canal - Balance issues appearing as nausea or circling one area - Swelling in the floppy part of the ear - Constant attention paid to one or both ears - Aversion to being pet or touched - Difficulty hearing you When is ear bleeding an emergency? While all instances of ear bleeding in dogs should be seen by a vet, certain situations may require emergency veterinary care. Seek immediate attention from a veterinarian if: - Your dog was in a fight with another dog - The wound is deep - The bleeding spontaneously starts again - Bleeding does not stop after 10 minutes - Symptoms of infection or other ongoing symptoms appear - Current symptoms worsen - Other signs that your dog may need emergency care include the symptoms of infection or other ongoing or worsening symptoms How to Stop a Dog's Ear From Bleeding Seek veterinary care immediately if the blood is coming from inside your dog's ear canal. Since bleeding from the inner ear may be caused by anything from infection to a ruptured eardrum or cancer, there is not much you can do at home. Your dog will need to be diagnosed by a veterinarian and may require a prescription treatment. That said, if your dog's ear tip is bleeding, you may follow these steps: 1. Stay calm, and take your dog to a calm environment. 2. Gather a first aid kit. You'll need a bandage, flour, cornstarch, or styptic powder. Do not use baking powder, baking soda, or any other product, as these can cause infections. Also include antiseptic ointment, absorbent pads, such as gauze, clean towels, paper towels, or cotton balls. 3. Apply the styptic powder or cornstarch to the wound to help with clotting. Press the absorbent material against both sides of the ear and apply pressure until the bleeding stops. This should take about five minutes. If the bleeding does not stop after 10 minutes, see a veterinarian. 4. Apply antiseptic ointment around the cut, but not on it, to avoid inadvertently triggering bleeding to begin again. How to Bandage a Dog Ear Tip To bandage an ear tip: - Fold the ear over the top of the head, then apply clean gauze to the wound. - Grab a gauze roll bandage. Roll the bandage down from the top of the head, under the chin, and back to the top of the head. - Check that the bandage is firm, but not too tight. You should be able to fit three fingers between the bandage and the chin area. - Roll the bandage in front of the healthy ear, then behind it with each layer so that the good ear acts as an anchor to keep it in place. - Each time you bring the bandage over the head, move it so that it crosses slightly back to the back of the previous layer, then to the front. Soon, you'll have a small criss-cross pattern protecting the injured ear. - Using a marker, indicate where the ear is beneath the bandage. - You can use the last length to tie the bandage together if you don't have a clip to tie the bandage. You may need to try different types of first-aid bandages, sweatbands, bandannas, or light scarves to find a fabric your dog will tolerate having on the ear, as most dogs hate having anything around their heads and will try to paw the bandage off. Diagnosis of Bleeding Ears in Dogs After your dog's bloody ear has been bandaged, we recommend calling your veterinarian right away or visiting an emergency pet clinic. Be prepared to provide a complete history of the situation. At your appointment, you'll likely be asked about the signs, severity, and duration of the bleeding, in addition to your dog's dietary regimen and any recent changes in diets. Your veterinarian may also ask about how often your dog's ears are trimmed and cleaned, your pet's environment, exercise habits, and more. Once the veterinarian has performed a physical examination, he or she may order a CBC (complete blood count) to determine whether there may be an infection or parasite problem. Urine, fecal, and other tissue samples may be collected and analyzed in our in-house lab. How to Treat Bleeding Dog Ears When your veterinarian has gathered the findings of the physical exam, clinical testing, the history of the incident, and any of your dog's relevant medical history, he or she will create a treatment plan to address the cause of the problem with your dog's ears. Treatment plan options may include: - Steroid medications to help reduce inflammation and encourage healing. - Antibiotic or topical medications for any infections. - Performing various methods of surgical drainage and repair (for bleeding caused by a hematoma). - Removing any accumulation of ear wax or parasites found during an examination. Your vet will then clean and flush the ear canal. Sedation or anesthesia may also be required. - Pain medication (if applicable) to help your pet feel more comfortable. The team is available to provide 24/7 emergency veterinary care in Corpus Christi. Recovery of Bleeding Ears in Dogs Provided you can detect bleeding in your dog's ear and get them to the veterinarian promptly so they can be diagnosed and treated, the prognosis for most causes of bleeding ears in dogs is good. Recovery time will depend on the cause of the bleeding and the treatment your dog receives. If the underlying cause turns out to be an injury, disease, or allergy, ongoing treatment may be needed to address the condition. It's also important to understand that ear infections or bleeding in dogs, similar to humans, can be damaging if frequent or chronic. In these cases, your veterinarian will likely recommend lifestyle or environmental changes to reduce the risk of repeat bleeding episodes and to protect your dog's hearing and overall health. Note: The advice provided in this post is intended for informational purposes and does not constitute medical advice regarding pets. For an accurate diagnosis of your pet's condition, please make an appointment with your vet.

FIND OUT WHAT’S NEW IN THE WORLD OF RESEARCH Dealing with heavy corn residue in soybeans Increased corn yields in the past decade have certainly helped the corn industry. But these same yield increases could have negative consequences for soybean growers. Once the growing season is over, corn leaves behind a lot of residue that soybean crops must contend with. Corn residue is good for soil organic matter, but a challenge for planting and emerging soybean plants. Horst Bohner, provincial soybean specialist with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, is assessing the effectiveness of current tillage methods in response to heavy residue. He’s also exploring other options for handling this growing problem. “We are trying to find the best way to manage high corn residue,” says Bohner. “For example, is spring the right time to use tillage, or do we need to use another, more aggressive fall system all together? Or perhaps improved no-till planting equipment is the answer.” While most previous research has looked at areas with average residue, Bohner is working to understand the effects of heavy residue in yields larger than 200 bushels, along with earlier planted soybeans. This project was funded in part through Grain Farmers of Ontario and Growing Forward, a federal-provincial-territorial initiative. The Agricultural Adaptation Council assists in the delivery of several Growing Forward programs in Ontario. • Limiting the impact of soybean cyst nematode A silent predator — the soybean cyst nematode — is infecting soybean crops, often remaining unnoticed until it is too late. It slowly draws nutrients and moisture out of soybean plants, reducing yields, stunting growth and limiting reproduction. Researchers are working to prevent and limit the impact of cyst nematode on soybean production through a multi-level management project. The project is led by Tom Welacky, a research biologist at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, who is working with Albert Tenuta, a pathology extension specialist with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. This initiative involves supporting private and public breeders in developing and evaluating cyst nematode resistant varieties. Additionally, the researchers are identifying cyst nematode population types and number levels in different regions of Ontario. They’re trying to determine if a break down is occurring in the resistance of the most commonly used parent variety, PI88788. This research is funded by the Grain Farmers of Ontario, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and the North Central Soybean Research Program. • Taming a resistant giant Glyphosate-resistant giant ragweed has been found on farms in Essex County, and Dr. Peter Sikkema, Field Crop Weed Management at the University of Guelph Ridgetown Campus, is leading a team trying to determine the distribution of glyphosate resistant giant ragweed in Ontario and to develop management strategies for Ontario soybean producers. “Our overall objective of this research is to find solutions for Ontario farmers who currently have problems with glyphosate-resistant giant ragweed,” says Sikkema. “Where it exists, it can cause up to 90 percent yield loss in soybeans.” Giant ragweed is extremely competitive and poses a major threat to crops. So Sikkema and his team visited more than 100 farmers’ fields in Essex, Kent and Lambton Counties to collect what they believed were glyphosate-resistant plants. They grew plants from the seed in growth rooms at the University of Guelph, then applied glyphosate to determine resistance. They found resistance in plants from 17 fields in Essex County. Preliminary management approaches that show promise are Roundup plus Eragon applied preplant, or Roundup plus either First Rate or Reflex applied post-emergence. Dr. Francois Tardif of the University of Guelph completed the initial studies confirming glyphosate resistance in giant ragweed. MSc candidate Joe Vink completed the survey and field research. This project is funded in part by Grain Farmers of Ontario and Monsanto. Funding has also been provided by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada through the Canadian Agricultural Adaptation Program. In Ontario, this program is delivered by the Agricultural Adaptation Council. • Research Roundup is provided by members of SPARK (Students Promoting Awareness of Research Knowledge) at the University of Guelph’s Office of Research. For more information, contact a SPARK writer at 519-824-4120, ext. 52667.

Atomic Spectroscopy is the technique that is carried out for the determination the elements and its composition using electromagnetic or mass spectrum. The atomic mass spectroscopy consists of an ion source, a detector and mass analyzer. The atomic spectroscopy determination process is carried out in three techniques mainly, atomic absorption, atomic emission, and atomic fluorescence. Atom’s identities are determined by the ratios which are taken mass to charge using a mass analyzer and the concentrations are detected by the total number of ions detected. Atomic spectroscopy has a wider application and is used mostly in pharmaceutical industries for quality control and hence, has a global demand, which is anticipated to propel the growth of the industry in the near future. COVID-19 scenario analysis: The outbreak of the pandemic has created global economic crisis also due to the crises faced by the Healthcare industry. The use of atomic spectroscopy is significant for the research and development of the medication to be innovated, hence is anticipated to help the atomic spectroscopy market grow at a higher pace in the forecast period. The rise in the usage of the packaged food and beverages due to the outbreak of the pandemic also needs the use of atomic spectroscopy technique to identify the chemical composition and hence would help the industry boost in the current scenario. The COVID-19 pandemic has an adversative impact on the healthcare system, resulting in 50% to 70% drop in revenue from March. Technological development, cost containment and increased access will in the near future be an integral part of healthcare reforms. To combat with the global crisis, the research in the chemical moieties to treat COVID-19 is carried out, which will help the atomic spectroscopy market gain more revenue in the coming years. Top impacting factors: Market Scenario Analysis, Trends, Drivers and Impact Analysis The surge in use of X-Ray fluorescence in the medical research for the analysis of the chemical moieties would help the market grow in the coming years. Furthermore, there is a stringent regulation related to the drug safety surveillance and research, development would propel the market in the near future. There were new international good manufacturing practices and good documentation practices involved which would boost the market in the near future. The rise in the analysis of food and beverages safety is also expected to help the atomic spectroscopy market grow in the forecast period. Government is focusing on the investment on the advancement of the atomic spectroscopy techniques to enhance the quality control department’s ability to detect the composition a particular compound or even detect the chemical moiety present in the sample. However, the lack of presence of skilled professional having an expertise in both IT and healthcare may hinder the growth of the industry in the coming years. The global atomic spectroscopy market trends are as follows: New entities require AS for Quality control which will boost the market The surge in the need for the new chemicals to be researched and developed has directly affected the growth of the atomic spectroscopic industry in a positive pace in the coming years. The new chemical entities which are produced either for medical or non-medical purpose has to be of certain composition to serve the purpose of use. The atomic spectroscopy is widely used in finding out the composition, especially the element present in the formulation. Hence, due to humongous players focusing on the development of new entities or chemical compounds has the same proportion of demand for the atomic spectroscopy and hence would boost the industry in the near future. Furthermore, the rising concern for the better quality of life would directly have impact on the increase in demand for the medications and hence would help the market flourish in the forecast period. The key atomic spectroscopy market players are focusing on bringing up the innovations in the equipment for measurement of atomic mass and hence reduce the cost-associated, which would boost the industry during the commenced period. Surge in widening of applications expected to propel the industry. The government is taking initiatives for the research and development of the source used for the atomic spectroscopy and other advancement in the instrumentation. This would help gain attention of key leaders and the advancement brought in the industry would propel the growth of the industry in the coming years. Furthermore, the use of atomic spectroscopy for the quality control of food and drug is also an important aspect which is expected to help the market grow. The growing concern and constant boosting of the international standards for the drug and food safety is also anticipated to help the market grow at a significant rate. The use of the atomic spectroscopy in the R&D t of the new molecules and also other applications are expected to boost the growth of the market in the current scenario. However, inadequate funding for the initial set-up and instrumentation may hinder the growth of the market. Additionally, the use of atomic spectroscopy in identifying the percentage of the cleanliness of the environment is also increasing due to increase in demand for the environmental issues, which would help the industry propel the coming years. Key benefits of the report: - This study presents the analytical depiction of the global Atomic Spectroscopy industry along with the current trends and future estimations to determine the imminent investment pockets. - The report presents information related to key drivers, restraints, and opportunities along with detailed analysis of the global Atomic Spectroscopy Market share. - The current market is quantitatively analyzed to highlight the global atomic spectroscopy market growth scenario. - Porter’s five forces analysis illustrates the potency of buyers & suppliers in the market. - The report provides a detailed global atomic spectroscopy market analysis based on competitive intensity and how the competition will take shape in coming years. Questions answered in the Atomic Spectroscopy Market research report: - Who are the leading market players active in the Atomic Spectroscopy market? - What are the current trends will influence the market in the next few years? - What are the driving factors, restraints, and opportunities in the market? - What are the projections for the future that would help in taking further strategic steps? Atomic Spectroscopy Market Report Highlights Key Market Players Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc., Analytik Jena Ag, Schimadzu Corporation, Bruker Corporation, GBC Scientific Equipment, Agilent technologies, Aurora Biomed, Hitachi High-Technologies Corporation, Rigaku Corporation., PerkinElmer Inc.

This summer we’ve covered what’s wrong with our public school system, how we let it get this bad, how digital learning can be the solution, schools that are leveraging digital learning, and how parents can help their own kids get a great education. Learning definitely starts at home, so supercharging your own child’s education is key. But how can every child in your neighborhood have access to an excellent education through digital learning? How can your school become a leader in the digital revolution? We have a few ideas you could implement right away. 1. Offer courses through the Digital Learning Department. Washington’s Digital Learning Department has relationships with outstanding online content providers, and they’ve compiled an impressive catalog of more than 600 courses. Schools can give students access to this catalog by simply contracting with the DLD—and they do the rest. Imagine being able to offer not only French, Spanish, and German, but also Mandarin, Japanese, and Latin. You can go beyond Intro to Computers and let students explore Animation, Commercial Photography, Audio Engineering, or Video Game Programming. Have trouble staffing Advanced Placement courses? Through the DLD, students can access 105 different AP courses. These resources are already available. Schools only need to sign up. Visit the DLD’s websiteto learn more. 2. Flip a Classroom. “Flipped Learning” has taken the country by storm in the last two years. The concept is very simple: Instead of teaching a lesson during class time and doing homework after school, the teacher assigns an instructional video (either of themselves or someone else) as homework, and students do the practice (usually considered “homework”) in class. What’s the advantage? When it comes to the instructional component, students can watch the video as many times as they need to in order to grasp the concept. Teachers can also assign optional videos that provide background or content related to the new concept. In fact, some online video instruction providers (like Khan Academy and Virtual Nerd) automatically suggest related videos to students and provide teachers with a dashboard that shows which videos students are viewing, for how long, which ones they viewed next, and so forth. (MentorMob and TED-Ed are also great resources for customizable instructional videos) Flipping the classroom also frees up class time for the teacher to interact personally with students. Instead of struggling alone after school on a concept they don’t understand, students can get immediate help from their teacher or other classmates. Meanwhile, advanced students don’t have to wait for the rest of the class. The teacher can simply assign more advanced videos and let them accelerate. Schools around the country are seeing great success through flipped learning—and it’s not a difficult change to make. A single teacher can decide to flip their class, or the flip can happen school-wide. What’s more, it doesn’t require a lot of new technology or financial investment. View a great example of flipped learning at Clintondale High School in Michigan. Find more information here, here, and here. 3. Blend. Flipped learning is actually considered a form of blended learning, but there are several more. The Innosight Institute, a leading researcher on blended learning, defines blended learning as follows: “Blended learning is a formal education program in which a student learns at least in part through online delivery of content and instruction with some element of student control over time, place, path, and/or pace and at least in part at a supervised brick-and-mortar location away from home.” Innosight identifies four models of blended learning, with subcategories under those models. But for today, let’s keep it simple: Blended learning promotes personalization, important 21st century skill development, increased teacher attention (and satisfaction), high academic achievement, and potentially lower costs. It comes in many shapes and sizes, ranging from the school that looks only slightly different from a traditional school to the radically innovative model. So you can take a look at your school’s size, culture, needs, budget, etc. and create the blended model that works for you. Read Innosight’s full report and browse their dozens of blended school profiles for examples. (You can also learn more about blended learning in an all-new chapter for our recently updated Online Learning 101) These are just a few suggestions in a world full of innovative education strategies. The tools and examples available today make it more doable than ever. Frankly, with such resources we have no excuse to stick to a failing status quo. Moreover, the digital revolution is customizable and can be as incremental as necessary. Bottom line: It’s time to get started. Flip a class, offer DLD courses, blend just one subject. Start somewhere, and become a digital leader. Your students will thank you. [Reprinted with permission from the Freedom Foundation’s iLearn Project blog; featured photo credit: ]

February is a month of celebrations and we are excited to be participating in the celebration of Black History Month and International Women and Girls in Science Day. Black History Month is an annual celebration dedicated to recognizing the history and achievements of black people. Black History Month reminds us of the accomplishments of black scientists and inventors and the need to raise the next generation of black scientists, engineers, inventors, etc. Therefore, as part of our commitment to ensuring young people get interested in STEM and in celebration of Black History Month, we are holding a series of workshops with amazing organizations. As we celebrate the International Day of Girls and Women in Science, we are excited to announce our partnership with the Ladyballers Camp Young Women Basketball Team. Lady Ballers Camp is an organization that develops girl-centered programs that encourage non-competitive physical, emotional and educational development. To encourage more young people to get into STEM, we will be holding a series of workshops on Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics through creativity in Robotics, Coding, Mechanical Engineering e.tc with the amazing young women at Lady Ballers. Our first workshop with the amazing young women was led by our real-life Princess Shuris (#WakandaForever) and Women in Science Tife and Adefunke! During our first workshop, we introduced our audience to the concept of chemical reactions. In another of our workshops, we created a simple hydraulic lift. We began the workshop by discussing engineering drawings, and the creation of the parts needed for making the lift. The students also learned about the use of fluids in hydraulic power systems. Other educative and fun-filled workshops will be held throughout the month. We believe in the girls of the Ladyballers Camp and their vision and excited to continue to work with them. We cannot wait to share highlights from the other workshops with you. Look out for photos and videos on our social media channels! As we celebrate black history month and Girls & Women In Science Day, it is our mission to help create black futures and those who will create innovations to uphold black legacies. Here are some pictures of the event. Follow us on our social media channels to see all the fun stuff we have planned for February.

Medicine dropper is a small device used to measure and dispense liquids, typically medication, in small amounts. It consists of a plastic or glass tube with a narrow tip at one end and a bulb or suction mechanism at the other end. To use a medicine dropper, the user compresses the bulb or suction mechanism to create a vacuum, dips the tip into the liquid medication, and then releases the bulb or suction mechanism to draw the liquid into the dropper. The user can then dispense the medication by gently squeezing the bulb or releasing the suction mechanism. Medicine droppers are commonly used for administering medication to infants and young children or for precise dosing in laboratory or medical settings.

There are several different treatments for teeth sensitivity. The best way to determine which is right for you is to speak to your dentist. They will be able to advise you on the best way to reduce your sensitivity so that you can comfortably enjoy food again. But it won’t hurt to try simple solutions like desensitizing toothpaste on your own. Here, we’ll look at the most common causes and treatments for tooth sensitivity. Causes of Teeth Sensitivity and How to Prevent It There are several different causes of tooth sensitivity. - The most common cause of sensitivity is tooth erosion. This is when the enamel on your teeth starts to wear away. Erosion can happen because of acidic foods and drinks or by brushing your teeth too hard. - You can help prevent tooth erosion by avoiding acidic foods and drinks and using a soft toothbrush. You should also visit your dentist regularly so that they can check for any signs of tooth erosion. You may also find that hot or cold drinks cause discomfort if you have sensitive teeth. This is because the nerves in your teeth are more exposed. You can help to prevent this by using toothpaste designed for sensitive teeth. - Some medical conditions can cause teeth sensitivity. These include gum disease, tooth decay, and gingivitis. If you have any of these conditions, it is essential to see your dentist so that they can treat them. Treatments for Teeth Sensitivity If you have sensitive teeth, there are several different treatments that you can try. Some are available over the counter, while a dentist must help with others. - One option is to use over-the-counter desensitizing toothpaste. These toothpaste work by forming a barrier over the exposed nerves in your teeth. - You can also try using a mouthwash or rinse designed for sensitive teeth. These work similarly to toothpaste by forming a barrier over the exposed nerves. If your teeth sensitivity is more severe, you may need to see a dentist. They can provide you with several different treatments, depending on the cause of your sensitivity. - One option is to have a professional cleaning. This can help to remove any build-up of plaque that may be causing your sensitivity. - Your dentist may also recommend a procedure called fluoridation. This involves applying a fluoride gel to your teeth. This can help to strengthen your tooth enamel and make it less likely to erode. - If your sensitivity is caused by gum disease, your dentist may recommend a deeper cleaning. This involves removing the tartar and plaque from below the gum line. - Sometimes, your dentist may recommend a procedure called root canal treatment. This is usually only recommended if you have severe tooth decay or an infection. The Cost of Treatments for Teet Sensitivity The cost of treatment for teeth sensitivity will vary depending on the cause and severity of your sensitivity. Over-the-counter desensitizing toothpaste and mouthwashes are usually the cheapest options. Professional dental treatments, such as fluoridation or deep cleaning, can cost more. You may need a root canal if you have severe tooth decay or an infection. This can be a very costly procedure. You may be able to reduce the cost of treatment by using your dental insurance. Many policies will cover the cost of some or all of the treatments mentioned above. It is also worth noting that the cost of not treating teeth sensitivity can be very high. If left untreated, teeth sensitivity can lead to tooth loss. This can be both costly and painful. Treating teeth sensitivity is essential for your oral health and quality of life. Many different treatments are available, so be sure to talk to your dentist about the best option.

Fun Facts About New Mexico New Mexico one of the 50 states of the United States of America, created on the 6th of January 1912 and became the 47th state of the union. New Mexico was initially named ‘Nuevo México‘ by the Spanish explorers after the the Aztec Valley of Mexico. This name was eventually changed to the English translation of the name which is what we know it as today. There are much more enlightening facts about New Mexico that would teach you things you never knew about the state of New Mexico and its origin. New Mexico is located in the South West region of the United States. It is also one of the mountain states of the southern Rocky Mountains. The state has a lot of history to it dating back to the 1600s when it was part of Nuevo México. It is also known for its lovely landscapes, historical sites, and many more. In this article, I’ll be sharing with you some of the best fun facts about New Mexico that you need to know. These New Mexico fun facts are meant to enlighten everyone from residents of New Mexico, to those from other states as well as non-Americans. These Fun facts about New Mexico are meant to dispel every wrong notions and misinformation about the beautiful state of New Mexico. Without any further ado let’s dive into the list of fun facts for New Mexico. New Mexico Fun Facts - It has the oldest state capital in the US New Mexico has the oldest state capital in the US. Santa Fe, the capital of New Mexico, is the oldest state capital in the US. - It is the 47th state New Mexico became part of the United States when it was admitted to the union as the 47th state on the 6th of January, 1912, over a century ago. - The largest cities in New Mexico The three largest cities in New Mexico are Albuquerque, Las Cruces, and Rio Rancho. About 26% of the state’s population resides in Albuquerque. - The state motto The official state motto of New Mexico is “crescit eundo” and it is a Latin phrase that means “it grows as it goes.” - Its neighboring states New Mexico borders Oklahoma to the east, Texas to the east and south, Arizona to the west, and Mexico to the south. - Its highest peak Wheeler Peak is the highest point in New Mexico as it is at 13,167 feet. - Its lowest point Red Bluff Reservoir is the lowest point throughout the whole of New Mexico as it is at 2,842 feet. - New Mexico doesn’t have many residents Despite New Mexico being the 5th largest state in the US, the state had a population of about 2.1 million people as of 2020. This makes the state the 36th most populous state in the US. - It is the 5th largest state New Mexico is the 5th largest state in the United States with a size of 121,591 square miles. - It is the 6th least densely populated state With about 17.5 people per square mile, New Mexico is the 6th on the list of least densely populated states in the US. - It is the 3rd state to launch humans into space Following California and Florida, New Mexico is the 3rd state in the United States to launch humans to explore space. - New Mexico’s lowest temperature The lowest temperature to be recorded in New Mexico is -50°F and it was on February 1, 1951. - New Mexico’s highest temperature The highest temperature to be recorded in New Mexico is 122°F and was in Lakewood, on July 27, 1994. - New Mexico has the highest temperature range New Mexico has the highest temperature range of any state in the US as its highest temperature is 122°F and the lowest temperature is -50°F. - It has the most UNESCO World Heritage Sites As I said earlier, New Mexico has a lot of history to it so this should not come as a surprise to anyone. Of any state in the United States, New Mexico has the most UNESCO World Heritage Sites, with there being 3 of those sites across the state. The sites are Carlsbad Caverns, Taos Pueblo, and Chaco Culture. - It has a lot of national monuments There are 84 national monuments spread across New Mexico making it the state with the 2nd most national monuments, only after Arizona. These monuments help to protect rock formations, ancient ruins, volcanoes, cave dwellings, and other historical sites. - It has the highest capital After taking pride in being the oldest state capital, Santa Fe is also the highest capital of all 50 states in the US as it is 7199 feet above sea level. - The Land of Enchantment The official nickname for New Mexico is The Land of Enchantment as the state has charming culture, architecture, scenery, and cuisine. - It is the Tyrannosaur State Over the years, several T-Rex fossils have been found in many places in New Mexico, this makes the state also the Tyrannosaur State. - New Mexico has a diverse landscape New Mexico is more than deserts, it has one of the most diverse landscapes in the world. You can find a vast expanse of prairie, forests of cottonwood, and beautiful wildflower fields across the state. - Breaking Bad was filmed in New Mexico Breaking Bad, arguably one of the best-ever TV series was filmed in New Mexico, with the most part being in Albuquerque. - It is the origin of the green chile cheeseburger If you love green chile cheeseburgers then you have New Mexico to thank as it was where the burger originated. - New Mexico is larger than some popular countries In terms of size, New Mexico is larger than many other countries in other parts of the world. For example, Poland and the Philippines are both smaller than the South Western state. - It has a lot of Spanish speakers More than 30% of the people in New Mexico are said to speak Spanish at home. If you speak Spanish and are planning to visit the state, you’d have no problem. - It has a diverse economy The economy of New Mexico is very diversified as it is known for a lot of things including agriculture, tourism, arts, scientific & technological research, etc. The state has a GFP of about $95.7 billion in 2020 with a GDP per capita of about $46,300. - Microsoft was founded in New Mexico Microsoft was founded in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and it stayed there for 4 years before being moved to Washington. - New Mexico has the first official wilderness in the world Gila Wilderness in New Mexico is recognized as the first official wilderness area in the whole world. - It has one of the longest caves in the world The Lechuguilla Cave in Carlsbad Caverns is one of the longest caves in the world as it is about 150 miles in length. To be exact, the cave is the 8th longest in the world and it houses more than thousands of bats. - New Mexico hosts the world’s largest hot-air balloon festival New Mexico hosts the world’s largest hot air balloon festival as the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta sports more than 500 hot air balloons every year. - New Mexico has the world’s largest field of gypsum crystal sand dunes In White Sands, New Mexico, you’d get to find what is the largest field of gypsum crystal sand dunes in the world as the wave-like sand spans over 275 square miles of desert. - New Mexico has two national parks There are two national parks in the whole of New Mexico: the Carlsbad Caverns National Park and the White Sands National Park. - It is the largest producer of chile peppers in the US Of all the states in the US, New Mexico is the largest producer of chili peppers and that also happens to be the most popular export of the state. This should not come as a surprise as agriculture is a major contributor to the state’s economy. - New Mexico is the first place wine grapes were planted in the US The Rio Grande in New Mexico happens to be the place where the first-ever wine grapes were planted in the United States. As of today, there are more than 50 wineries spread across the state. - It is home to the atomic bomb The first ever atomic bomb to be made was invented in New Mexico at Los Alamos National Laboratory near the state’s capital. It took the scientists close to 2 years to construct the bomb. - The first atomic bomb was tested in New Mexico Apart from being home to the invention of the atomic bomb, New Mexico is also the place where the first atomic number, codenamed Trinity, was detonated. It happened on the 16th of July, 1945, and the test site was the desert sands of the Jornada del Muerto in south-central New Mexico. This place is now a National Historic Site called The Trinity Site and it is located on the White Sands Missile Range. - UFOs are commonly seen in New Mexico Every year in New Mexico, there are more than a thousand official reports of UFOs. On average, there are more than two reports every day. - Breakfast burrito originated in New Mexico The breakfast burrito is said to have originated in New Mexico as Tia Sophia claims it had the meal on its menu as far back as 1975. - New Mexicans seem to love education The people of New Mexico seem to love education and want to go further into their field of study as the state is home to more Ph.D. holders per capita than any other state in the United States. - It hosts the Shovel Race Championship In Angel Fire, New Mexico, a world shovel race championship is held every year and thousands of people come from different parts of the US to watch it. - Only 25% of roads in New Mexico are paved Being the 5th largest state in the US and the 36th most populous, the New Mexico government sees very little need to pave all the roads in the state. About 75% of the roads in New Mexico are unpaved due to how expensive it will be. You’d find gravel and rutted dirt routes in many places across the state. - It is a major producer of perlite New Mexico is the US state that produces the most perlite, a type of glass that is used for gardening and insulation. - More than 700 volcanic eruptions have occurred in New Mexico Throughout the course of its existence, New Mexico has witnessed more than 700 volcanic eruptions and they have helped to shape the state’s landscape. - There are more cows than human With a population of 2.1 million and a population density of 17 people per square mile, there are more cows than humans in New Mexico. There are more than 13,500 ranches across the state so this is quite understandable. - New Mexico has one of the oldest communities in the US Taos Pueblo in New Mexico is one of the oldest continuously occupied communities in the US as people are said to live in buildings that are close to 1000 years old. - New Mexico has some funny laws There are some really funny laws in New Mexico and here are some that lead the pack. Laws in the state consider it a misdemeanor if you spit on any public sidewalk or property building. If you love gambling then you need to know that in New Mexico, you are prohibited from betting on camel or ostrich races. - Some famous people from New Mexico Some popular people who are from New Mexico include actor Neil Patrick, singer Demi Lovato, actress Demi Moore, John Denver, Holly Holm, Did Gutierrez, Al and Bobby Unser, and Andrian Grenier. - New Mexico is a major producer of onions in the US New Mexico is responsible for about 85% of the fresh onions produced in the United States. They are usually supplied during June. - It has the lowest water-to-land ratio Of all states in the US, New Mexico has the lowest water-to-land ratio of them as water bodies like rivers and lakes only make up 0.002% of the state’s total surface area. Also, most of the lakes in the state are man-made reservoirs. - New Mexico is home to the oldest government building in the US New Mexico hosts the oldest government building in the United States which is the Palace of Governors in Santa Fe. - New Mexico is home to the green chile capital of the world Hatch, a village in New Mexico is considered to be the Green Chile capital of the world. - It hosts an annual duck race Deming, a city in New Mexico, is known for hosting duck races every year. We’re at the end of the list of New Mexico fun facts that were able to put together, if there are any fun facts for New Mexico you feel weren’t included, do share them. In the next section I would be answering some of the most popular and frequently asked questions about New Mexico. FAQs About New Mexico Facts What is New Mexico known for? New Mexico is known for beautiful mountains, landscape, Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, Carlsbad Caverns National Park, White Sands National Park, Bandelier National Monument, Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument, Taos Pueblo, Chaco Culture National Historical Park, Cowboy Culture and a lot more. What is the capital of New Mexico? The capital of New Mexico is Santa Fe. It is was originally known as ‘La Villa Real de la Santa Fe de San Francisco de Asis’, which when translated to English meant ‘The Royal Town of the Holy Faith of St. Francis of Assisi’. The present day short form ‘Santa Fe’ means ‘Holy faith’. What year did New Mexico became a state? New Mexico became a state in the year 1912. It was created on the 6th of January of 1912. What region is New Mexico in? New Mexico is in the South West region of the United States of America. It is one of the 11 states in that region of the USA. What are people from New Mexico called? People from New Mexico are called New Mexicans. What is New Mexico’s state motto? New Mexico state’s motto is ‘Crescit Eundo‘, which when translated to English means ‘As it grows, it goes’.

North Branch Nature Center’s Naturalist Journeys The Spread of Deer Ticks in North America with Lucas Price (in-person) Black-legged ticks are the primary tick species responsible for spreading Borrelia burgdorferi, the bacterium that causes Lyme disease, in the northeastern United States. This talk will provide an overview of the tick life cycle, how ticks obtain and spread pathogens, and what habitats they live in. (Registration required). The Co-op is co-sponsoring North Branch Nature Center’s Naturalist Journeys Winter Presentation Series taking place on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings this winter. Find out more here.

Just Passin' By: Asteroid Larger Than Statue of Liberty to Fly Past Earth on Sunday 00:11 GMT 18.09.2022 (Updated: 16:58 GMT 12.04.2023) Most near-Earth objects have orbits that do not bring them particularly close to Earth; however, a small number of them - larger than 460 feet (140 m) in size and with orbits that bring them within 4.6 million miles (7.5 million km) of Earth's orbit around the Sun - are considered to be potentially hazardous. This Sunday, an asteroid larger than New York's Statue of Liberty will pass relatively close to Earth. Fortunately, though, the space rock's trajectory puts all of us out of harm's way, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Asteroid Watch said. On September 18, an asteroid known as 2005 RX3 will pass near Earth at a speed of approximately 17.46 km/s. When seen on the scale of the cosmos, the object will pass within 4,742,402 kilometers of the planet, which is considered a rather close distance. For reference, about 385,000 kilometers separate Earth and the moon on average. And while 2005 RX3 is set to flyby Earth on September 18, NASA is still keeping track of four additional objects - although smaller in sizes - as they progress along their orbital paths, in the same time as this huge asteroid. However, even though some of them are expected to fly even closer to our planet, they do not exceed 55 meters in size, which in principle is comparable to the dimensions of an airliner. Launching DART to Move Some Asteroid Meanwhile, later this month, NASA is set to intentionally collide a spacecraft with a rather small asteroid to test its possibilities to save the planet from the strike. 12 September 2022, 15:58 GMT After being launched 10 months ago, the Double Asteroid Redirection Test, or DART mission, will collide with the space rock on September 26. To see how it influences an asteroid's speed in space, the spacecraft will crash into an asteroid's moon. The agency will provide access to the live coverage of the event on its website. Dimorphos, a tiny moon orbiting Didymos, a near-Earth asteroid, is the target of the expedition. According to NASA officials, the asteroid system offers no risk to Earth, making it the ideal target for testing a kinetic impact, which may be necessary if an asteroid is ever on course to strike Earth. The occasion will serve as the organization's first large-scale demonstration of planetary protection deflection technology. Asteroids and comets with orbits that bring them within 30 million miles (48.3 million kilometers) of Earth are referred to as near-Earth objects. The major objective of NASA and other space organizations throughout the world is to find threats from near-Earth objects, or NEOs, that could cause significant harm.

The College's Physics Department is home to one of the largest telescopes in New England, a state-of-the-art wave fume and a one million-volt particle (ion) accelerator. It's one of just four at undergraduate schools in the United States. We have many science resources at Conn, but the accelerator is the one thing that most are unaware of. Students who study physics, geophysics and chemistry, however, know the particle accelerator well. The machine is currently processing a program called PIXIE. It analyzes the chemical composition of objects without having to use traditional chemistry techniques that could damage or destroy artifacts. By firing a beam of protons at an object, the resulting X-rays are analyzed to decipher the exact chemical composition of an object. At Conn, PIXIE is helping professors and students study historical Native American trade routes from the New London region. By analyzing the chemical composition of historic clay pots discovered nearby, my classmates have been able to track where these clay pots were made by comparing them to mud samples. On Mamacoke Island, part of the College campus, classmates have uncovered large collections of clay pots, preserved by time. Of the many that originated on the island, some were found to have originated in Hartford and Long Island. By using PIXIE, we have found concrete evidence of intertribal trade between Native Americans in Connecticut. So far, more than two research papers have been published in scientific journals as a result of PIXIE, both written by undergraduate science students at Conn.

By Harriet James Population control as a way of curbing deforestation in Kenya Every time I catch a glimpse of statistics on the rate at which we are losing our forest cover, my heart stops because the effects of this will damage us and our future generations. I think of how they will be seeing the things that we used to enjoy and we took for granted just on photos, and it makes me sad. It makes me think that though helpless, something needs to be done to make more people aware of the dangers that we will face if we don’t take caution. According to FAO, Africa lost 3.9 million hectares of forest area every year between 2010 and 2020, compared to 3.4 million hectares between 2000 and 2010. It is said that the rate of net loss of forest area has increased in Africa in each of the periods concerned since 1990. This means that every four minutes, indigenous (also known as “old-growth”) forests in Africa which is twice the deforestation average. If this continues, in the next 25 years, nearly half of the world’s species (plants and animals) will be extinct because they will have no place to call home. According to the Rainforest Alliance, if deforestation continues at this rate, the rainforest will be entirely lost by 2060. And why are we losing our forests? It’s because people need more land to live in; they also need to eat and survive by earning a means of living. This conversion of forest land to agriculture is the most common and destructive cause of deforestation in Africa. According to the Kenya Forestry Research Institute (KEFRI), population growth is the underlying cause behind deforestation in Kenya. Most governments in Africa have made ambitious plans to stop deforestation by introducing new measures and environmental policies on the same. For instance, the Kenyan government has an ambitious plan to plant 1.8 billion trees by 2022 in order to preserve biodiversity. But there is one thing that these governments are forgetting to do and that is empowering their people and controlling the population, particularly of the rural areas. It is often said that an idle mind is the devil’s workshop, and the lack of jobs has left so many young people idle with nothing to do. Some use this opportunity to engage in harmful devices like illicit sex, which has resulted in the boom of teenage pregnancies in the country. One question that should be asked is where all these children will go to? What will they engage in, what will they eat? The majority of these children come from families that engage in small-scale farming, a practice that has been said to cause climate change. It is said that 80 percent of Kenya’s population uses firewood and, in this case, charcoal and most of these families lie in that category. If the government does not do anything to stop this and if the families are not sensitized, then work of various conservation groups will be futile since we will have no places where these people can live, they will have no food to eat as there will be no land for them to till and get produce. Nothing will work if the population keeps rising. That is why we need to teach our young people about sex and place them in productive work to ensure that their minds are engaged. Another solution would also be sensitization of family planning and advising families on having children that the planet can support and their pockets. Various NGOs advocating for this have faced many challenges like religious and cultural beliefs that encourage childbirth as children as seen as blessings, poor services of family planning service clinics, long distance of sources, and recently the Covid-19 pandemic, which has stopped all focus of normal life. However, the government needs to step in and strengthen, fund and support such causes that assist them in planning for a population that they can support. There needs to be sensitization on the need to have the right number of children and, if need be, policies that will put this in check. Failure to do this will result in overpopulation. Combined with direct factors like corruption, poverty, and weak property rights, forest loss and severe environmental degradation will lead to high demand for forest and agricultural products to feed the rural and urban population. Harriet James is a features journalist, passionate about travel and conservation matters

The Hemorrhoids, also called piles, are a much more common proctological disease than we think. In fact, according to medical data, it affects between 30 and 50% of the population, mostly between 45 and 60 years. Hemorrhoids consist of tissue located in the innermost zone of the anus, with multiple blood vessels and elastic fibers. They can be internal or external, and their symptoms most common are itching, pain when sitting, bleeding together with the deposition or in cleaning after the same, as well as the appearance of nodules or lumps. The heat may cause hemorrhoids to give more problems or are most annoying. The heat promotes increased vasodilation, which may cause swelling and irritation. There are other indirect causes that also influence the higher prevalence of discomfort in the warmer months, such as constipation, especially frequent in travel and causing pelvic congestion and dilatation of the hemorrhoidal plexus. No less insidious, in this sense, are the episodes of diarrhea repeated over time. The stool liquid, highly acidic, it can irritate and inflame hemorrhoids causing more or less unpleasant symptoms, such as pain, bleeding, prolapse, or relaxation of connective tissue support. The causes of hemorrhoids in summer The constipation and diarrhea are only some of the causes of the hemorrhoid inflammation. The appearance of the disease, in fact, is related to many factors, some of which tend to underestimate not given due attention. In the summer months, or when temperatures begin to rise, more usually leave home and make much longer trips, forcing us to sit longer, a position that involves certain risks if we suffer or are likely to hemorrhoid problems. In addition, the seats of cars and motorcycles, which are extremely hot, can contribute to the occurrence of edema or swelling, with the worsening of symptoms associated with hemorrhoids. Furthermore, summer is a time that invites you out more and to practice outdoor sports. However, some sports like cycling can favor the irritation of hemorrhoids. If some physical activities like cycling, horse riding and weight lifting, is unwise in case of hemorrhoids, there are others that help improve muscle tone in the pelvic area, which is effective both preventive and curative levels. Including walking and light exercise. Another important aspect is the diet, which should prevail in the high-fiber foods such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains and yogurt, and foods with lactic ferments. Likewise, remember the importance of proper hydration, increasing the intake of water to further soften the stool. To relieve discomfort, using creams and topical gels, capable of promoting resurfacing of the skin and mucous membranes is recommended.

AI in medicine — the greatest revolution of the 21st century? Will artificial intelligence change the face of modern medicine? All signs point to yes, and sooner than we might expect. A key feature of tools based on artificial intelligence technology is the ability to recognise relevant relationships in raw data. It turns out that this ability can be used in virtually all areas of medicine. Already, AI technology is enabling medical staff to tackle problems that are time-consuming and inefficient to solve on their own. On the Nextrope blog, we present what we believe are the 3 most interesting applications of AI in medicine. Sorting out information chaos Dozens of clinical trials are published daily. Many experts and doctors agree that in such a plethora of data, it becomes increasingly difficult to select those relevant to the case of a particular patient. As in many other fields, also in medicine the demand for tools that will assist humans in combing through information seems to be higher than ever. This is where artificial intelligence comes to the rescue. AI technologies allow doctors to find information in unstructured medical literature in a faster and more efficient way. This makes it easier for them to keep up with scientific developments, update procedures and make more accurate decisions about patient treatment. An example of such Technology is IBM Watson, used by doctors and researchers to extract valuable insights from millions of health reports, patient data records, clinical trials and medical journals. Even tests carried out using the best quality equipment are always subject to the risk of observer error if the data acquired is analysed solely by a human. Such an error can be extremely costly for both patient and doctor. The use of AI algorithms can provide a much smaller margin of error than standard solutions. Machines are simply much more accurate than humans, faster and do not make mistakes resulting from, for example, fatigue. Recent studies, such as tests of an algorithm created by Google to detect early stages of breast cancer, show that artificial intelligence solutions are able to achieve results more than 50% better than traditional methods. Over the past few years, several solutions using AI in diagnostic imaging have hit the market. These include CT analysis tools from NVIDIAand Siemens, and Aidoc’sX-ray analysis software, which is already used in more than 100 hospitals worldwide. In an effort to enable early diagnosis of various types of cancer, a Romanian start-up has developed the highly accurate AI-MICADIStool. Instead of the circulating DNA molecules or tumour cells commonly used for this purpose, it focuses on examining circulating microRNA molecules. It uses AI algorithms to analyse polymerase chain reaction (PCR), microarray and next-generation sequencing (NGS) data, which are important factors in detecting the earliest stages of cancer development. “By selecting relevant molecular alterations and using artificial intelligence, we have created the best available non-invasive method for diagnosis and early detection of many types of cancer” — explains Alexandru Floares, AI-MICADIS project coordinator. The tool is now able to not only detect 13 types of cancer, but also distinguish between malignant and benign forms. “Ultimately, we achieved a 99% accuracy rate and equipped the tool with the ability to distinguish between malignant and benign forms of the disease, “says Floares, “Furthermore, we have demonstrated that using data analytics and artificial intelligence to combine different tests outperforms a single large-scale test in terms of cost, efficiency and results.” AI in medicine — opportunities for development? The use of AI in medicine has become a reality, not just an optimistic forecast for the future. Unfortunately, it will still be years before artificial intelligence is widely used in every hospital in the world. However, everything indicates that in the near future we can expect big increases in the market for AI solutions in medicine. According to the Yole report, its cumulative annual growth rate for 2020–2025 will be as high as 36%, making it one of the fastest growing markets in the IT sector. According to the company’s analysts, its total value is expected to exceed $2.7 billion in 2025. Maybe a visit to a robot doctor isn’t such a distant prospect after all? Want to know more about using the latest IT technologies in medicine? Check out our article on howBlockchain is supporting the development of healthcare. And if you are interested in prospective areas of implementation of artificial intelligence algorithms, readour article on AI in education.

As we approach long summer days filled with more time spent outdoors, one of the most important things we can do for our children is teach them how to be sun safe. The sun emits powerful ultraviolet (UV) rays that can harm our skin and potentially lead to skin damage, sunburn, and even skin cancer. According to the American Academy of Dermatology, one blistering sunburn during childhood can double a person’s chance of developing melanoma, the most deadly type of skin cancer. What’s more, half of our lifetime sun exposure occurs before the age of 18; therefore, it is beneficial to engage children early to foster better sun safety behaviors across the age continuum and help reduce their lifetime risk of developing skin cancer. Getting children to practice sun-safe behaviors may not always be easy. So, it becomes even more important to make sun safety fun and something children want to do. As a parent of two young children, a key priority in my household is to make sun safety relatable and easy to understand. As an example, I explain that sun safety protects our skin much like wearing a helmet protects our heads or brushing teeth protects our teeth and gums. The following are additional strategies to consider this summer and year-round. Sunburn during adulthood can also lead to increased skin cancer risk. Practicing sun safety will show children that you think sun protection is important for yourself and for them. Use sunscreen and lip balm • Use broad-spectrum sunscreen, SPF 30 or higher • Apply sunscreen at least 30 minutes before going outside • Re-apply sunscreen every 2 hours, and soon after sweating or swimming • Spread sunscreen generously (enough to fill a golf ball or shot glass) from head to toe and don’t forget the nose, ears, neck, and back of the hands. Parent tip: To make sunscreen application engaging for your child, make fun shapes or write your child’s name out with the sunscreen on their arms and legs. Depending on your child’s age, ask them to spread the lotion evenly on their skin. Wear wide-brimmed hats, sunglasses that block 99-100% of UV rays (check the label), and protective clothing such as sleeved shirts (not tank tops) and knee-length or longer shorts, skirts, or dresses. Parent tip: For maximum sun protection, consider having your child wear UV-protective clothing especially at the pool or beach. Aim to plan outdoor activities in shaded areas whenever possible. If there is no shade, be creative – use umbrellas, tarps, or tents. Note: Between 10 am and 4 pm, the sun’s rays are more harmful. Ensure that you and your child are extra-protected during this time by engaging in all sun safety behaviors described above. Outdoor activities can also be planned for earlier or later in the day to avoid the midday sun, when possible. Make Sun Safety Fun The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center developed Ray and the Sunbeatables®: A Sun Safety Curriculum, which features superhero characters who travel around the world using their sun safety superpowers of applying sunscreen, finding shade, and wearing wide-brimmed hats, protective clothing, and sunglasses. Consider relating sun safety to the Sunbeatables superhero characters or other characters that children enjoy. Use songs (the Sunbeatables Program includes a few known household tunes such as “Are You Sleeping?”) and be creative with sun safety games. Parent tip: Use shadow length to demonstrate when it is safe to be outside. During early morning and late afternoon, shadows are longer. During 10 am to 4 pm, shadows are shorter or there is no shadow. This means that the sun is high in the sky, directly overhead, and the sun’s rays are more harmful. Encourage your child to come inside or play in the shade when their shadow is shorter. Remember that sun safety is critical year-round, even on cloudy or cold days as UV rays can still reach the skin. Advocate for sun safety at your child’s school (like encouraging shade structures be placed in outdoor play areas, updating sun safety policies, etc.) and ask the school to learn more about sun safety initiatives as well as the free resources currently available to them. Work with your child’s teachers and emphasize the importance of sun safety both at school and at home. This is yet another important way that you can positively impact your child’s health for the long-term. Sun Safety Resources Sunbeatables Program: An evidence-based sun safety program targeted to preschool through 1st grade students, developed by MD Anderson Be Sunbeatable™: A sun safety program that builds upon key messages from the Sunbeatables Program targeted to 2nd through 5th grade students; co-developed by MD Anderson and Scholastic Reducing the incidence of melanoma through primary and secondary prevention initiatives is among one of the shared goals and key partnership strategies between MD Anderson’s Melanoma Moon Shot™ and the cancer prevention and control platform. The Melanoma Moon Shot™ and platform are part of MD Anderson’s Moon Shots Program™, a collaborative effort to accelerate the development of scientific discoveries into clinical advances that save patients’ lives.

With the rather aggressive onset of our 2019 summer, it is increasingly obvious that “climate change” is not just an inconsequential topic of debate between politicians and environmental activists. Here at ground level we are experiencing the classic signs of increased temperatures and lower rainfall more regularly and more persistently. Unfortunately for our much-loved gardens, these harsh conditions can be stressful for plants and we need to act before the weather takes its toll on our urban flora. But what to do about it? Mulch! Mulching is currently one of the best ways to save water and create a happier, healthier environment for plants. Here’s why mulch is so much more than just a pretty covering for your flower beds. Benefits of mulch Mulch acts as a shield and protects soil from intense heat. It prevents soil water from evaporating, and coarser types of mulch also allow for air flow above the soil surface. In this way it moderates the temperature of the soil, which is important for all the micro- and macro-organisms (such as earthworms) required to promote good soil health. Mulch has the added benefits of reducing garden maintenance by suppressing weeds, insulating the roots of plants during frosty periods, preventing soil erosion during heavy rainfall and reducing the salt accumulation in the soil. Organic mulching materials are available in several different types from your local Garden Centre with popular choices including: - bark chips - macadamia nut shells - peach pips - shredded bark - wood chip and Inorganic mulches can also be used to similar effect and although they do not break down and provide nutrients to garden beds, they have the advantage of being durable and longer lasting. Examples of inorganic mulches include: - gravel chips and - dump rock. With a wide variety of colours and sizes available you are sure to create a beautiful yet practical space. Just remember to purchase a landscape fabric, such as weed shield, which will not only help to keep the moisture in your soil but also help reduce weed growth and prevent erosion.

Mental health problems consist of extended disorders and differ in their severity. The consequence of mental health issues can be severe for both the individual and their families and society as a whole. Australia saw a surge of mental health-related services, with almost double the increase from a decade ago, in 2019 – 20. According to the Australian Institute of Health and Wealth, almost three quarter or seventy-four percent of the psychiatrists in Australia in 2019 were aged forty-five and over. The lack of young psychiatrists and the demand for more mental health service personnel make Australia a perfect place to pursue a career in the mental health industry. Every year Australia witnesses one in five affected by mental illness, and the number seems to be only growing post-pandemic. If your interest lies in helping people find their mental well-being through good communication skills, then a career in mental health may be the right choice for you. The course will provide you with expertise in analyzing and understanding human behavior, researching about it, and rationalizing human interaction and their environment. The course will help you conduct and handle psychological assessment, evaluate and implement research methodologies. Skill Assessment for Mental Health

In society there tends to be a lot of focus on providing the best care for a child’s physical health. What foods are best, the importance of sports and activities, and the education on both healthy eating and exercise are vastly promoted by schools, corporations, celebrities, influencers, and more. In recent years there has been a shift in the education behind general health, and we are seeing a higher focus on mental health. This is a major step forward for educators and parents, but we’ve only just scratched the surface as a society when it comes to tackling this topic. In this blog, we discuss children and their mental health, and how to provide support. CHILDREN & MENTAL HEALTH Parenting and caregiving is not easy! From the moment a child enters our life, it is as if we are being challenged each and every day. From babies to teenagers, the challenges transition but do not get any easier. Just as adults, children can be complicated! We want the best for our children, but when it comes to mental health, it may be hard to navigate how to understand and support them. According to the Canadian Mental Health Association, “approximately 1 in 5 children and youth in Ontario has a mental health challenge. About 70% of mental health challenges have their onset in childhood or youth.” (CMHA). That statistic may be shocking, but it may not come as a surprise for many parents and caregivers who have been struggling to help their child weather difficult times. Children experience many ups and downs while growing up, and their behaviour may seem erratic, but that may just be a normal reaction to what is happening in their lives. Some children may become quieter, want to spend more time alone, may become angry, or even start to receive lower grades in school. These may just signs that children are growing and learning, but if you are wondering if your child is in need of greater support, it is good to note any major changes in their behaviour. Follow your intuition when it comes to your children, if they have suddenly started to change their behaviour in an intense way, this may be an early warning sign of a mental illness, especially when the behaviour is persisting over a longer period of time. If your child is acting out in inappropriate ways, this may also be another sign to watch for. Some common disorders for children include extreme anxiety, attention-deficit disorder (ADHD), depression and eating disorders. HOW TO PROVIDE SUPPORT If your child is going through a difficult time in their life, or they are experiencing something more serious, there are many ways to show your support. Reaching out may not always work right away, but is it important to keep communication consistent and keep an open mind when speaking with your child. The last thing they want to feel is judged or rejected in some way by their loved ones. If you are concerned about your child’s mental health, start by sitting them down or taking them for a nice walk where you can’t be interrupted by distractions. Simply asking them what is going on in their life or if something is bothering them may be the start of a great conversation for you both. Some children aren’t as willing to express what is happening in their life, so just being there for them and talking about a topic they are comfortable with can ease them into talking about more serious challenges they are facing. Remember to be an open-minded listener so as not to intimidate or scare them into not wanting to share. They may forget that you were also once a child and faced your own challenges, so bringing up your own experiences may help them understand that you are there for them. Your child may not be so willing to talk to you about their life, and if you are persistent with asking, they may start to close themselves off from you and distance themselves. Be mindful of how often you may be “nagging” them, and give them some space. Let them know that you are available to talk, or you are willing to find someone who they can talk to so they feel more comfortable about receiving help. If you feel that you have kept communication open, given them space, provided them options and you are still struggling to support them, there is always professional help. Counselling is a great neutral and non-judgemental space where families and children can share their concerns. Reach out to a trusted professional and seek their counsel on how to best approach your child regarding their mental health. They may also be able to provide you with how to breach the topic of seeking counselling. Parenting and caregiving is not easy, and neither is experiencing the ups and downs of growing up. Not only is the mental health of your child important, but the mental health of parents, and other children in the household can affect the whole family. If you would like to discuss childhood mental health disorders, or family dynamics with our team or talk to a professional for more information, please contact us HERE.

Annual Bluegrass is a very common lawn weed in the south-central region and typically germinates in the fall and winter months. It's an annual, cool-season grass that spreads with seeds. How to identify Annual Bluegrass You can identify it by looking for bright green spots in your lawn, which are easier to spot if you have Bermuda grass that goes dormant and loses its color in the winter. If left unchecked this weed can become a real problem for your lawn. Common Chickweed is a winter annual weed that makes its appearance primarily in the fall and is dormant in the winter. This weed is native to Europe and spreads by seed. It typically flowers around the one-month mark and seeds within 3 months. How to Identify Common Chickweed You can identify common chickweed by looking for a stringy plant that grows near the ground. It has small leaves that lead to a point at the end and small white flowers when they bloom. The stems are a lighter green and have small hairs in vertical rows. This weed is native to North America and is a perennial plant that grows aggressively in nutritionally poor soil. It grows almost year-round and is a real problem for gardens and lawns. The weeds tend to grow upright in small patches in your grass. How to Identify Common Yellow Woodsorrel Yellow Woodsorrel can be identified by its heart-shaped leaves that grow in groups of three. These leaves are paired with bright yellow flowers that bloom in the late spring and early fall. The leaves are up to half an inch in diameter and fold in at night time when there is no sun. Corn Speedwell is a winter annual that grows very well in thin grass. It germinates in mid-fall and is covered with fine hairs that resemble fur. This weed tends to germinate in the fall in Arkansas which is when you'll notice it the most. How to Identify Corn Speedwell Corn Speedwell has flat, heart-shaped fruit and the upper leaves of this weed are narrow and lower to the ground. The flowers are very small and almost look like purple berries scattered throughout the leaves. The flowers can also be white and blue, and there are small hairs on the leaves and stems. The dandelion is a perennial broadleaf weed which means it regrows every spring. This weed grows best in soil that is rich in nitrogen and potassium and prefers low amounts of phosporus. Dandelions are native to Eurasia but are found in almost every type of habitat. How to Identify Dandelion Dandelion is one of the most easily identifiable weeds as it is bright yellow in color and grows on a single stem. Their stems are hollow and the seeds create what looks like a white cotton ball. You may have blown on these as a kid and watched them carry off into the wind! Purple Nutsedge is a perennial weed that emerges in the spring from underground tubers. It grows in a wide variety of environments but prefers wet areas with plenty of sun. This weed may look like a type of grass, but is actually a member of the sedge family. How to Identify Purple Nutsedge Purple Nutsedge has shiny grass-like leaves with rounded tips. It can grow up to 30 inches tall with blades reaching about half an inch wide. The green is lighter in color and is easily seen when growing in darker grass types. Spotted Spurge is native to the eastern part of the United States and is an annual plant. It grows close to the ground and has no problem with being mowed over. This weed produces a white sap that can actually irritate the skin if you come in contact with it. How to Identify Spotted Spurge Spotted Spurge grows low to the ground and looks purplish at a distance. The leaves have a dark red spot in the middle which creates this purple shade. As it's very low to the ground, it looks like a dense mat of leaves when there is a large amount of it. Have you identified one or more of these weeds in your yard? Here at Turf Team, we're experts on all of the weeds that could be impacting your lawn in Arkansas. If you want to learn more about how to get rid of weeds, give us a call and we'll set you up with a customized lawn cares solution.

Eeyou Istchee means “Our Land”. It is Cree traditional territory located in northern Quebec, on the east coast of James Bay and south-eastern Hudson Bay and across the Ontario-Quebec border. It is home to more than 18,000 people. Despite profound changes in Eeyou Istchee over the last decades, Cree students talked about their close connection to the land and to their families. All Cree storytellers were living or studying in Tiohtá:ke (Montreal) and longed for postsecondary opportunities closer to home and in their communities. “It is very hard to be in school in the south and miss important cultural activities like spring goose break. These are opportunities for us to re-energize, ground ourselves, reconnect with our ways and practice our language.” Some Cree students grapple with feeling like they have to choose between western education and our ancestral knowledge. Walking Out Ceremony “I envision more of a support network. I like it at the university but I can’t work here. There’s a lot going on and there’s a lot of people. I prefer working at the school board because I can bring my daughter, we can stay there for hours and it’s kind of homey. Indigenous students need to have that, otherwise you’re kind of left to your own devices to figure things out.” – FPPSE Storyteller

So much of the food we eat today is processed in some way. Much of it contains large amounts of added sugar. Just being able to find food as they exist in nature can be a challenge. This why so many people are making it a point to focus on clean eating. Clean eating has nothing to do with food that has been properly washed. It involves focusing your diet on whole, non-processed foods. Clean eating involves eating foods as they are meant to be eaten. One of the main and most obvious benefits of clean eating is removing processed junk and unnecessary sugar from your diet. Proponents claim that clean eating is the best route to better health and simply eating to feel better. But again, whole foods, foods that are not filled with processed junk—these things can be a challenge until you come to understand what these things mean. Clean eating involves doing a little homework on the foods you eat. But there are numerous benefits to clean eating. Proponents of clean eating swear by it and will never go back to eating junk foods that clutter our modern diet. This guide will give you the basic information to begin a diet of clean eating. We will show you the benefits of clean eating and give you the information you need to rid your diet of processed foods. What Does Clean Eating Mean? Again, clean eating has nothing to do with food being clean or dirty in the conventional sense. Clean eating means choosing unprocessed or minimally processed foods that provide the most nutritional benefits. Clean eating simply means eating foods that are as close to their natural state as possible. Many people who have turned toward clean eating refer to these foods as “real foods.” These are unprocessed single-ingredient foods that are free of chemical additives and rich in nutrition. Beyond the nutritional benefits, clean foods are also more ethical and sustainable than processed foods. Why Eat Clean? We will get to some specifics on what constitutes a diet of clean eating below. For now, we need to make clear the benefits of clean eating. Clean eating has a positive impact on nearly every aspect of life. From your physical well-being to your mental health, your body and your mind will thank you for clean eating. Some reasons to eat clean: - Increased energy. A diet of whole, minimally processed foods retains all the nutritional value of these foods. Some nutrients retained in full in whole foods, like B-complex vitamins and iron, increase the number of energy cells can access and also assist with cellular functions. Clean eating can also help regulate blood sugar which fights fatigue that comes from the sugar spikes you get from foods that contain added sugar and processed carbohydrates. - Improved cardiovascular health. A healthy diet that is filled with fresh fruits and vegetables comes with high amounts of Vitamin C. This helps reduce your risk of heart disease by strengthening your blood vessels. The healthy oils that come from things like avocados and olive oil also reduce cholesterol levels in your blood. These benefits are the perfect counter to the saturated fats found in most processed foods. - Cancer prevention. I diet that relies on processed foods increases your risk of cancer. Processed meat and fried foods are the main culprits in increasing your risk of developing cancer. On the other hand, whole foods and fresh fruits and vegetables give you a natural boost of antioxidants which fight cancer. Cruciferous vegetables, like broccoli and kale, are especially powerful for fighting cancer cell growth. - Improved mental health. Some vitamins, such as vitamin B-6, increase levels of dopamine. This is the so-called “feel good” chemical that improves your mood and fights depression. Whole foods are rich in Omega-3 fatty acids which contain high levels of vitamin B-6. This can help boost your mood, reduce stress, and ward off depression. Since clean eating is built on a diet of whole foods and minimally processed foods, you will get the maximum levels of nutrients these foods naturally contain. As we can see these benefits have a positive effect on your body and your mind. Foods Allowed on Clean Eating and Foods to Avoid on Clean Eating It is important to note that clean eating is not a diet in the sense that you are focused on cutting calories or fat. Clean eating can mean eating the kinds of foods you enjoy. You simply need to make sure that you are not eating processed versions of these foods, and you are avoiding chemical additives and added sugar. But there are some things you should definitely include and exclude in a diet of clean eating. - Fruits and vegetables. Rather than including fruits and vegetables as side dishes, these need to become staples of your diet. Make sure you choose organic fruits and vegetables that have not been exposed to toxic pesticides and other chemicals. There is solid clinical evidence that shows that organic fruits and vegetables provide far more benefit to your health than produce that has been treated with pesticides. - Limit or eliminate processed foods. Nearly all processed foods have lost important features like fiber and nutrients. Processed foods also generally contain added sugar and other chemicals, and other junk ingredients Some processed foods have been linked to an increased risk of heart disease. - Cut our refined carbs. Refined carbs are highly processed. They have little nutritional value and it is easy to overeat with them. The problems associated with refined carbs include inflammation, insulin resistance, fatty liver, and obesity. - Whole grains and unrefined carbohydrates, on the other hand, are ideal sources of fiber. They may also promote intestinal health. One study showed that a diet of whole grains and unrefined carbs lad to reduced belly fat over a short time. - Eliminate vegetable oils and spreads. These do not fit into the protocol of clean eating. Vegetable oils are highly processed and do not fit the clean eating criteria. Many of these oils also contain high levels of omega-6 fatty acid linoleic acid. This has been linked to inflammation and may increase your risk of gaining weight - It is impossible to avoid fats entirely. Stick to things like fatty fish, nuts, and avocadoes. Olive oil is acceptable. - Avoid added sugar in any form. This means you need to start reading food labels carefully. So many foods contain added sugar that it has become difficult to avoid. Added sugars have been linked to obesity, fatty liver, cancer, and a number of other health problems. Simply avoid all added sugar. Consuming food in its most natural state is a major feature of clean eating. The Pros and Cons of a Clean Eating Diet Cleaning eating just intuitively makes sense, and we have seen that there are wound scientific reasons to maintain a diet of clean eating. It is difficult to imagine how there could be any disadvantages to clean eating. In the service of providing all the information you need, here are some pros and cons of clean eating. - Includes whole and natural foods like vegetables, fruits, unprocessed whole grains, and lean proteins. - It can lead to weight loss. - Increased energy, cardiovascular health, and digestive functions. - It can be a part of a reduced-calorie diet. - It provides all the necessary nutrients for overall good health. - It can be difficult for some people to adhere to, particularly where it comes to eliminating processed foods and sugars. - It can be more expensive than processed foods. Organic and natural foods generally cost a little more. - It is still possible to overeat with clean eating. - You need to monitor your meals to make sure you are getting enough calories and balanced nutrition. - Tends to involve more food preparation and cooking. Most of these cons can be dealt with by planning and thinking ahead. Food prep, for example, simply requires some foresight with shopping and making time to cook. If we examine the big picture of your long-term health, the pros of clean eating are far more compelling than the cons. Tips on Eating Clean Tips for cleaning eating are mostly just practical advice for eating well. Some of this can save you money, while other ideas may be totally new. In any case, clean eating involves some planning and possibly new ways of shopping. Below is a list: Avoid all added sugars: Read the labels on foods and make certain there is no added sugar. This is rule number one for clean eating. Get creative in the kitchen. This is your opportunity to take on some cooking challenges. So many of us have become accustomed to grabbing fast food or junkie snacks that we have forgotten how to cook. Clean eating means thinking ahead, planning meals, and cooking at home. With a little planning, this will become part of your lifestyle. Stay on the perimeter. This means to shop the perimeter of the grocery store. Almost across the board, the perimeter of any grocery store has fruits and vegetables, fresh poultry and fish, and eggs and yogurt. The processed food is in the aisles. Buy local. Locally grown produce and local food sources are almost always great places to get fresh organic fruits and vegetables. These are also good sources of free-range poultry and humanely raised meats. If you have any doubts about these food sources, you can generally ask the farmer. No “diet” foods. These types of foods are often filled with artificial ingredients, artificial sweeteners and preservatives, and other chemical additives. Just replace these things with fresh low-fat items. Ditch refined carbs. Switch out refined carbs for whole foods like oats, barley, brown rice, and farro. These are cleaner foods. Nutrient-dense foods. Choose foods that are rich in nutrients like broccoli, berries, eggs, red bell peppers, seeds, and wild-caught salmon. These are not only nutrient-rich foods they are also filling and will keep you away from the snacks. Eating Clean Meal Plan Examples Below is a plan for clean eating for just one day. One of the things you will notice is that you do not sacrifice flavors or satisfying foods by switching to clean eating. These types of meal plans require some planning and prep, but you do not need specialized culinary training to pull these things off. - Breakfast: Banana and coconut smoothie made with organic bananas and coconut water Add organic yogurt if you like - Lunch: Roasted Fennel, Asparagus, and Red Onions with Parmesan and Hard-Boiled Eggs - Dinner: Slow cooker chicken with salsa verde - Snack: Boiled grapefruit with fresh coconut. This is one example of infinite combinations of fresh whole foods. Follow your own preferences and get creative. Most of us have become acutely aware of the way eat these days. It is just a feature of life today to have so much information at our fingertips. As a result, we are paying attention to not only how much we eat, but also the kinds of foods we eat. Clean eating is a logical outgrowth of this increased awareness regarding food. Clean eating simply involves eating foods that are free of chemicals and additives. Processed foods are almost always filled with added sugars, preservatives, and other chemical additives, and we now know that these things cause problems. Everything from obesity to cancer has been linked to processed foods and the chemicals found in these foods. Clean eating is a natural reaction to these issues. When you switch to clean eating you will focus on whole foods, organic produce, and humanely raised meats. Rather than filling up on refined carbohydrates, you will focus on nutrient-rich foods. Clean eating, as we have seen above, can combat things like obesity by avoiding the foods that cause this problem and by actively fighting the metabolic problems that cause obesity. Maybe the most obvious and immediate benefit of clean eating is that you will simply feel better. By eliminating junk, processed foods, and added sugars, your body will return to a more natural state of health. Clean eating may require a little more planning and cooking that grabbing fast food and easy snacks, but the payoffs of clean eating will soon outweigh the ease of convenience.

The Analytical Writing Assessment (AWA) consists of one 30-minute writing task called the Analysis of an Argument. In this section, you must read a brief argument, analyze the reasoning behind it, and then write a critique of the argument. The following appeared as part of an article in a daily newspaper： "The computerized on-board warning system that will be installed in commercial airliners will virtually solve the problem of midair plane collisions. One plane’s warning system can receive signals from another’s transponder—a radio set that signals a plane’s course—in order to determine the likelihood of a collision and recommend evasive action. " Discuss how well reasoned you find this argument. In your discussion, be sure to analyze the line of reasoning and the use of evidence in the argument. For example, you may need to consider what questionable assumptions underlie the thinking and what alternative explanations or counterexamples might weaken the conclusion. You can also discuss what sort of evidence would strengthen or refute the argument, what changes in the argument would make it more logically sound, and what, if anything, would help you better evaluate its conclusion. Merely based on unfounded assumptions and dubious (suspicious) evidence, the statement draws a conclusion that_____. To substantiate (support) the conclusion, the arguer points out evidence that_____. In addition, he indicates that_____. (Furthermore, he cites the result of a survey in support of his recommendation). At first glance, the author’s argument appears to be convincing, but further reflection reveals that it omits some essential concerns that should be addressed to substantiate the argument. From my point of view, this argument suffers from 2/3 major logical flaws. To sum up, this arguer fails to substantiate his claim that_____, because the evidence cited in the analysis does not lend strong support to what the arguer maintains. Therefore, if the argument had included the given factors discussed above, it would have been more thorough and logically acceptable. A. quantity of the sample 样本数量不足 B. representativeness of the sample 样本代表性不足

At a glance In most states, when children turn 18, they’re considered an adult. As a legal adult, a child may assume some or all of the educational rights previously held by the parent. The school may need to get an adult-age student’s consent to make any changes to their IEP. You may always think of your son or daughter as a child. But in the eyes of the law, people are considered adults when they turn age 18 to 21 (it varies by state). When your child becomes an adult, the rights and responsibilities you had as a parent belong to your child. What if your child isn’t ready for the responsibilities of managing their own education? Will you have any say? The transition into adulthood has a lot of implications. Here are some of the key points. The age of adulthood varies by state The age of majority — the age when an individual is considered an adult — is determined by state law. In most states, the age of majority is 18. But in a few states, it’s sometime between ages 18 and 21. How rights transfer to your child with an IEP At least a year before students with an Individual Educational Program (IEP) reach the age of majority, the school is supposed to notify students about which rights will transfer to them. How they tell them is left up to the states. In most states, when a student turns 18, the student assumes all of the educational rights the parents had. This includes taking the main role in developing their . The school now: The student takes over the right to give — or deny — informed consent to any action the school wants to take. This means that if the school wants to change the student’s services in any way, it needs the student’s permission, not the parent’s. Keep in mind that a student’s right to special education has an age limit. Eligibility for an IEP ends when a student reaches the age of 22, or when a student graduates from high school with a regular diploma (whichever comes first). (Earning a Certificate of Attendance doesn’t end your child’s eligibility, but it may have other drawbacks.) Exceptions to the age of majority Some states have a legal process called “guardianship” to figure out if the student can handle these new responsibilities and rights. If the state finds that the student doesn’t have the capacity to make decisions, it may appoint someone to represent the student. This can be the parent or another person. To navigate this process, you may need to consult with an attorney. Preparing your child for independence There are things you can do to help ease your child into their adult role. - Help your child develop a good relationship with the IEP team. Beginning in high school, students typically are invited to IEP meetings. They’re expected to play a major part, especially when it comes to transition planning (figuring out what to do after high school). Encourage your child to participate actively in those discussions with the team. - Let your child do the talking. Rather than speaking for your child, let your teen assume center stage at IEP and other meetings. If your child gains experience advocating for themself, it will be easier for them to keep doing so as an adult. - Stay involved. When your child reaches the age of majority, your participation isn’t required. But the school or your child can invite you to attend IEP meetings. After all, you’re deeply knowledgeable about your child’s needs and talents, so your input is valuable. When your child becomes an adult, the rights you held as a parent typically transfer over to them. If a child isn’t seen as capable of handling these rights and responsibilities, the state may appoint the parent or another individual to represent them. Educating yourself and preparing your child for the age of majority can help make the transition into adulthood smoother for everyone.

What is Biodegradation and why are companies interested? Biodegradable or Biodegradation is when an item or product can be broken down by bacteria, microbes, and fungi and usually will be absorbed by the environment it is in. As global warming increases and people become aware of what’s happening, it is no surprise that a lot of companies are starting to make biodegradable products and eco-friendly alternatives. Around 7,500 companies have become Eco-friendly, with most of them targeting Energy, Emissions, and Biodiversity. Almost 25% of businesses have said they’re becoming more energy-efficient and 64% have already taken these steps and plan to take further action to become more sustainable. This is because they have realised most people don’t want to buy anything that isn’t environmentally friendly, such as things with plastic in. This is because being Eco-friendly can save a lot of money: the prices of products will be cheaper and things such as energy-efficient lights are great alternatives. In fact, they’re brighter and last longer than regular lights. Additionally, being Eco-friendly gains a bigger audience and grows your company’s reputation significantly. This is largely because when people see your products don’t harm the environment, they trust your company and align with your ethos. This results in a rapport with the customer who will continue to buy from your company, resulting in business growth. If your business involves food production or making food, you might want to consider using fresh organic products and natural ingredients as this will benefit you and the consumer. Why plastic is bad and harms the environment There are many disadvantages to plastic. They’re harmful to us and the environment. Because many people rely on drinking from plastic bottles, and sometimes eating from plastic containers, a lot of this stuff doesn’t make it to the bin. As a result, it just stays there affecting wildlife and the environment. Another reason that plastic is harmful is that plastic is made from fossil fuels, which are non-renewable. This means, when they run out, we can’t use them again. Additionally, when making plastic, it involves adding the dangerous chemical, polyvinyl chloride. Which is widely known as the most toxic plastic for health and the environment. Plastic also has a low melting point. This means it can’t be used when heat levels are high, but some of the ingredients in plastic involve polystyrene, acrylics, and nylon which are highly flammable. As most plastic products are in homes this means they’re a fire hazard. Here at Voidfill, we aim to be Eco-friendly and strive to offer environmentally friendly packaging. We take great care to make biodegradable packaging, that’s why many of the products can be used every day. - Biodegradable Dissolvable Packing Peanuts - Recycled Paper Cushion Packaging - Eco-Friendly Paper Bubble Wrap Biodegradable Dissolvable Packing Peanuts – BigBio A lot of companies when sending products use Packing peanuts. The problem with these is that they’re made of plastic and take a very long time to decompose; usually ending up in landfills or the ocean, affecting wildlife. Therefore, we’ve come up with a product called BigBio, which is biodegradable packing peanuts made from starch. Making them from starch means they are non-toxic, dissolvable, and biodegradable. They have a lot of fantastic benefits, for example, if a pet were to eat one, nothing harmful would happen to them. Additionally, they dissolve in water, making getting rid of them a much easier and less wasteful task. Recycled Paper Cushion Packaging – EcoNutz When companies are delivering products, they wrap them in a plastic cushion packaging, to avoid damage when in transit. Econutz, our more Environmentally friendly packaging is also made from recycled paper which means its non-polluting. Another reason why you should consider switching is that they are made from recycled goods: they’ll be cheaper and reusable. The paper we use is 100% recycled. We do this because we want to get rid of plastic and make the world cleaner and more sustainable. Eco-Friendly Paper Bubble Wrap – PuffPack Our PuffPack rolls are made entirely from recycled materials, meaning they’re more sustainable and more eco-friendly. Our PuffPacks are used when sending items through transport systems. Many parcels either crack or break when traveling, but our PuffPack will protect your products and make sure you get them in perfect condition! When wrapping, the PuffPack can fit Normal shapes to irregular shapes. The rolls contain 50% yield making it stronger and better than if we used ordinary unrecycled paper. Because less paper is being used this means your shipping costs will be lower too.

Hypertension, commonly known as high blood pressure, is a prevalent health concern, especially among older adults. Understanding the significance of managing hypertension through tailored exercise routines is crucial for promoting a healthier lifestyle and reducing associated risks. Introduction to Hypertension in Older Adults Hypertension involves increased pressure within the arteries, potentially leading to severe health complications such as heart disease and stroke. Among older adults, this condition becomes more prevalent due to various factors, including age-related physiological changes. Importance of managing hypertension Managing hypertension is essential to mitigate associated health risks and improve overall well-being. While medications are commonly prescribed, integrating lifestyle modifications, particularly tailored exercise routines, plays a pivotal role in effective management. Benefits of Exercise for Hypertension Impact of exercise on blood pressure Engaging in regular physical activity has shown promising results in lowering blood pressure levels. Exercise helps strengthen the heart, improve blood circulation, and reduce stress, contributing significantly to managing hypertension. Specific benefits for older adults Tailored exercise routines hold specific advantages for older adults. These routines enhance cardiovascular health, maintain muscle strength, improve balance, and boost overall functional ability, aligning with the unique needs of older individuals. Tailored Exercise Routines Importance of personalized routines Individualized exercise plans cater to the specific health conditions, physical capabilities, and preferences of older adults. Tailoring exercises ensures effectiveness and safety while addressing their unique health concerns. Factors influencing tailored routines Several factors, including existing medical conditions, physical limitations, and personal goals, determine the structure of tailored exercise routines. Incorporating a mix of aerobic, strength, flexibility, and balance exercises tailored to individual needs is essential. Considerations for Older Adults Safety precautions during exercise Older adults should exercise caution to prevent injury. Consulting healthcare professionals, choosing appropriate exercises, and monitoring intensity are crucial safety measures. Adjustments for physical limitations Modifications and adaptations in exercises accommodate physical limitations. These adjustments ensure that exercises remain beneficial while considering any constraints. Importance of consulting healthcare professionals Before initiating any exercise regimen, consulting healthcare providers, such as physicians or physical therapists, is vital. Their guidance ensures the safety and effectiveness of exercise routines. Implementing Exercise Routines Strategies for initiating routines Starting an exercise routine can be challenging, but small steps, such as setting realistic goals, gradually increasing activity levels, and maintaining consistency, can aid in establishing a sustainable routine. Overcoming barriers for consistent exercise Identifying and addressing barriers, such as lack of time, motivation, or resources, is crucial for maintaining consistency. Incorporating enjoyable activities and seeking social support can help overcome these obstacles. Integrating exercise into daily life Incorporating physical activity into daily routines, such as walking, gardening, or taking the stairs, ensures consistent engagement in exercise without it feeling like an additional task. Monitoring and Assessing Progress Methods for tracking blood pressure changes Regular monitoring of blood pressure levels is essential. Utilizing home blood pressure monitors and keeping a log helps in tracking progress and understanding the impact of exercise on hypertension management. Evaluating the effectiveness of exercise routines Assessing how exercise affects blood pressure and overall health is vital. Observing changes in blood pressure readings and consulting healthcare professionals for periodic evaluations aids in determining effectiveness. Making adjustments as necessary Flexibility in exercise routines is key. Adapting routines based on progress, feedback from healthcare providers, and changes in health status ensures continued effectiveness. Mental and Emotional Well-being Connection between exercise and mental health Exercise not only benefits physical health but also positively impacts mental well-being by reducing stress, anxiety, and depression, which are common concerns among older adults with hypertension. Importance of holistic well-being for hypertension management Addressing mental and emotional well-being alongside physical health is crucial for comprehensive hypertension management. Incorporating relaxation techniques, mindfulness, or social activities complements exercise in managing hypertension. Role of Nutrition Alongside Exercise Complementary dietary considerations Pairing exercise with a balanced diet rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and low-fat dairy products supports blood pressure management. Limiting sodium intake and moderating alcohol consumption are also beneficial. Impact of nutrition on blood pressure Dietary choices significantly impact blood pressure. Consuming nutritious foods and reducing processed and high-sodium foods play a pivotal role in hypertension management. Community Support and Resources Importance of community engagement Engaging with support groups, community centers, or fitness classes fosters a sense of belonging and motivation among older adults, encouraging adherence to exercise routines. Accessing support groups and resources Exploring local resources, online communities, or seeking guidance from healthcare providers helps in accessing valuable information and support for managing hypertension through exercise. Encouragement for long-term adherence Continued encouragement, motivation, and accountability from peers, family, or healthcare professionals are crucial for sustaining long-term adherence to tailored exercise routines. In conclusion, managing hypertension in older adults through tailored exercise routines is an integral aspect of promoting overall health and well-being. By understanding the benefits of exercise, tailoring routines, considering safety measures, and integrating them into daily life, older adults can effectively manage hypertension and improve their quality of life.

Do you feel overwhelmed by stimuli that others seem to brush off? Do you struggle with filtering out sensory information, leaving you feeling drained and exhausted? If so, you may be a highly sensitive person, or someone with Sensory Processing Sensitivity (SPS). SPS is a personality trait that affects about 15-20% of the population, but it is often mislabeled as a weakness or a flaw. The reality is, SPS is a unique and valuable trait that has its own strengths and challenges. In this blog post, we'll delve into what SPS is, how it manifests, and what it means for highly sensitive individuals. Whether you're a highly sensitive person yourself, or you know someone who is, you'll gain a deeper understanding of this trait and the gifts it offers. So, take a deep breath and know that you're not alone. You'll come away from this post feeling understood and empowered to embrace your sensitivity. Sensory Processing Sensitivity (SPS) is a personality trait characterized by heightened sensitivity to stimuli in the environment. People with SPS process sensory information deeply, meaning that they are easily overwhelmed by stimuli that others may find less intense or less bothersome. This sensitivity manifests in various ways that differ between individuals. A few examples include: - Overstimulation: People with SPS may find bright lights, loud noises, strong scents, and other intense stimuli to be overwhelming and hard to filter out. - Emotional sensitivity: Those with SPS are often highly attuned to the emotions and moods of others, which can be both a blessing and a curse. They may feel deeply affected by the feelings of others and have a strong desire to help and comfort others. - Sensitivity to physical sensations: People with SPS may be more sensitive to physical sensations such as pain, hunger, thirst, or discomfort, and may find it difficult to ignore these sensations. - Intensity of stimuli: SPS can result in individuals perceiving stimuli as more intense than they are to others, making them more susceptible to overstimulation. - Deep processing: People with SPS process information more deeply, which can result in taking longer to make decisions, having a tendency to overthink, and feeling overwhelmed by too much information. These are just a few examples of how SPS can manifest, and it is important to remember that everyone experiences SPS differently. It is a unique and valuable trait that offers its own strengths and gifts as a result of heightened sensitivity to stimuli. Some of the strengths commonly associated with SPS include: - Empathy: People with SPS are often highly attuned to the emotions and moods of others, which allows them to have deep and meaningful connections with others. - Creativity: People with SPS are often highly imaginative and have a rich inner life, which can lead to a greater appreciation of the arts and a heightened sense of creativity. - Intuition: Their deep processing of information and heightened sensitivity to stimuli can result in a heightened intuition, allowing them to pick up on things that others might miss. - Attention to detail: People with SPS are often meticulous in their attention to detail, which can be a valuable trait in careers that require a high degree of precision and accuracy. - Deep thinking: Their tendency to process information deeply can result in a strong ability to think critically and understand complex ideas. In order to fully access and embrace these gifts, it’s important for HSP’s to develop the awareness of their unique traits, and find the tools to help them stay balanced and/or return to equilibrium more quickly when overstimulated. As a highly sensitive person myself and a therapist specializing in working with highly sensitive individuals, I understand the unique challenges and strengths that come with SPS. If you're a highly sensitive person seeking support, I invite you to take advantage of my offer for a free 15-minute consultation. During this call, we can discuss your challenges and determine the best way for me to support you on your journey towards self-discovery and self-care. Let's start the journey of embracing and celebrating your sensitivity.

Flame sensor use The flame sensor is a sensor specially used by the robot to search for the fire source. The flame sensor can also be used to detect the brightness of the light. But the flame sensor is particularly sensitive to the flame. The flame sensor uses the infrared ray to be very sensitive to flames. The flame sensor has high sensitivity. The characteristic of strong anti-interference ability. Long transmission distance when working. Not affected by sunlight and infrared radiation. The flame sensor has a small volume and a wide sensitivity angle (directivity). It can quickly and accurately detect the weak ultraviolet rays emitted by the flame. And can realize automatic control functions such as ignition, flameout alarm interlock. The flame sensor can be used to detect the wavelength range flame sensor is a sensor specially used by robots to search for fire sources. The flame sensor can also be used to detect the brightness of the light. But the flame sensor is particularly sensitive to flame. The flame sensor uses infrared light to work very sensitively to flames. flame sensorwith high sensitivity. Strong anti-interference ability. Long transmission distance at work. not affected by sunlight and infrared radiation. The flame sensor is small in size and sensitive angle(directional) wide. It can quickly and accurately detect the weak ultraviolet rays emitted by the flame. and can realize automatic control functions such as ignition and flameout alarm interlock. The flame sensor can be used to detect fire or other heat sources with a wavelength range from 700 nanometers to 1000 nanometers. The flame probe of the flame sensor plays a very important role. It can be used as the eyes of robots to find fire sources or footballs. It can be used to make firefighting robots. Soccer robot and so on. The flame sensor can be widely used in the flameout protection of fuel, gas and oil-gas mixed combustion devices. and can be used in conjunction with the controller and igniter. Fire alarm controller The fire alarm controller is the core of the automatic fire alarm control system. It can receive the signal from the fire detector. and convert it into a sound and light alarm signal. Display the location and time of the fire. Record alarm information. The fire alarm signal can also be activated by a manual alarm device. Or the automatic fire extinguishing control device can activate the automatic fire extinguishing equipment and linkage control equipment. Correct operation of the automatic monitoring system. and issue audible and visual alarms for specific failures. 2. Smoke detectors Smoke detectors are also called photoelectric smoke detectors. is an important device for detecting early fires by monitoring the concentration of smoke. Smoke detector is a stable and reliable sensor, which is widely used in various fire alarm systems. Third, the temperature detector. also called temperature difference detector. Using the sensitivity of thermal elements to detect the ambient temperature. Especially suitable for places with severe temperature rise during fire(such as parking lot). Use with smoke detector. can detect the location of a fire more reliably and minimize the loss of life and property. 4. Manual fire alarm button The manual fire alarm button is mainly installed in an obvious and easy-to-operate position. When a fire is found, manually press the alarm button. to send alarm signals to the automatic fire alarm controller. The manual fire alarm button is more urgent than the probe alarm. The probe alarm requires higher reliability and accuracy, and can handle the fire faster. 5. Fire hydrant button The fire hydrant button is generally installed in the fire hydrant box. In case of firerequiredUse When the fire hydrant is used, manually press the fire hydrant button to send an alarm signal to the automatic fire alarm controller. When the automatic fire alarm controller is set to automatic, the fire hydrant pump will start directly to ensure that there is sufficient water pressure to extinguish the fire.

Does stretching improve cycling performance? Stretching is a common practice among athletes and fitness enthusiasts alike. It is often believed to improve performance, prevent injuries, and enhance flexibility. However, when it comes to cycling, the benefits of stretching are still a matter of debate. While some cyclists swear by their pre-ride stretching routine, others argue that it may not be necessary or even beneficial. The case for stretching Proponents of stretching before cycling argue that it helps to warm up the muscles, increase range of motion, and reduce the risk of injury. Stretching can target specific muscle groups used in cycling, such as the quadriceps, hamstrings, and calves. By stretching these muscles, cyclists believe they can improve their performance by enhancing muscle function and reducing muscle imbalances. “Stretching before a ride helps to lengthen the muscles and improve flexibility, allowing for a more efficient pedal stroke and reduced strain on the joints,” says Lisa Jones, a professional cycling coach. Dynamic vs. static stretching There are two main types of stretching: dynamic and static. Dynamic stretching involves moving parts of your body through a full range of motion, while static stretching involves holding a stretch for a prolonged period of time. Both types of stretching have their benefits, but the choice between them depends on the individual cyclist’s needs and preferences. Dynamic stretching before a ride is often recommended as it can help increase blood flow to the muscles, improve coordination, and stimulate the nervous system. Examples of dynamic stretches for cycling include leg swings, walking lunges, and arm circles. On the other hand, static stretching is typically performed after a ride or during a cool-down period. It aims to improve flexibility and relax the muscles. Static stretching exercises for cyclists may include standing calf stretches, seated hamstring stretches, and quad stretches. The case against stretching Despite the perceived benefits of stretching, there are also those who argue against it when it comes to cycling. They believe that stretching may not directly improve cycling performance and that other factors, such as proper bike fit and training, play a more significant role. One argument against stretching is that it can actually hinder performance by temporarily reducing muscle power. Stretching can lead to a decrease in muscle strength and power output, which may be detrimental for cyclists looking to optimize their performance. A study published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research found that static stretching immediately before cycling led to a decrease in peak power output and time to exhaustion. This suggests that stretching may negatively impact high-intensity cycling performance. Alternative warm-up strategies Instead of traditional stretching, some cyclists prefer alternative warm-up strategies, such as low-intensity cycling or dynamic exercises specific to cycling movements. These approaches aim to gradually increase blood flow, raise body temperature, and activate the muscles without the need for prolonged stretching. “I find that a short, easy spin on the bike before a ride works best for me. It warms up my muscles and gets me mentally prepared for the workout ahead,” says Mark, an experienced cyclist. In conclusion, whether or not stretching improves cycling performance is subjective and depends on individual preferences and goals. Some cyclists may find that stretching helps them feel more prepared and flexible, while others may prefer alternative warm-up strategies. Ultimately, finding the right balance between stretching and other forms of warm-up is key to optimizing cycling performance. How many times a week should I stretch? Stretching is an important aspect of any fitness routine, including cycling. It helps improve flexibility, prevent injuries, and enhance overall performance. However, the frequency at which you should stretch depends on various factors such as your level of activity, fitness goals, and personal preferences. The importance of regular stretching Regular stretching is crucial for cyclists to maintain muscle length and flexibility. It helps to prevent muscular imbalances, reduces muscle stiffness, and enhances range of motion. Stretching can also speed up recovery time by increasing blood flow to the muscles and relieving soreness. Finding the right balance When it comes to how often you should stretch, there isn’t a one-size-fits-all answer. It’s important to find a balance that works for your body and training schedule. As a general guideline, aim to incorporate stretching exercises into your routine at least 2-3 times a week. Pre-ride and post-ride stretches Before a ride: Perform dynamic stretches that focus on warming up the muscles and increasing blood flow. These may include leg swings, arm circles, and lunges. After a ride: Engage in static stretches to help cool down the muscles and reduce tightness. Focus on stretching the major muscle groups used during your ride, such as the quadriceps, hamstrings, and calves. Listen to your body While a general recommendation is to stretch 2-3 times a week, it’s essential to pay attention to your body’s signals. If you feel particularly tight or stiff, consider incorporating additional stretching sessions into your routine. Similarly, if you experience any pain or discomfort during stretching, it’s important to consult a healthcare professional. Remember, consistency is key in reaping the benefits of stretching. Make it a habit to incorporate regular stretching sessions into your training plan. Your body will thank you for it. Here’s a sample stretching routine to get you started: |Stand upright and hold onto a wall or post for support. Bend one knee and grab your foot, pulling it towards your glutes. Hold for 20-30 seconds and repeat on the other leg. |Sit on the ground with one leg extended straight in front of you and the other bent. Lean forward from your hips, reaching towards your toes. Hold for 20-30 seconds and switch legs. |Stand facing a wall and place your hands on it. Step one foot back, keeping it straight, and press the heel into the ground. Hold for 20-30 seconds and switch legs. Remember to breathe deeply and never push yourself to the point of pain. By incorporating stretching into your weekly routine, you’ll improve your cycling performance, reduce the risk of injury, and enhance your overall physical well-being. Happy stretching!

In the upper Midwest, folks are accustomed to hearing of 'Alberta Clippers' during the winter season. Beyond the brief mentions of these systems, no further explanation is given as to what an Alberta Clipper really is. Let's dig into where the term was derived from, while giving you a better understanding of what to expect when one heads your way. Oftentimes, weather systems are named for the locations where they first develop. In this case, the Canadian province of Alberta is where most clipper low pressure systems form. But at times, these systems do originate further east in Saskatchawan, or even Manitoba. You may or may not have heard of the much less used naming convention for these systems. These systems can be referred to as 'Saskatchawan Screamers' or 'Manitoba Maulers,' which sound a bit more menacing than their Alberta cousin. In general, most systems that are born in any of the Canadian prairie provinces are simply dubbed, 'Alberta Clippers.' During certain jet stream patterns, Alberta Clipper lows can be very frequent occurrences across the northern Plains region. The ideal setup occurs when the polar jet stream builds northward into western Canada, and then dives southeastward into the Plains. At times, this type of pattern can continue for weeks on end, resulting in a succession of Clipper systems. The highest frequency of Alberta Clipper lows can be expected during the late fall and winter season, due to the tendency for the jet stream to dive southeast out of Canada during this period of the year. Now to explain where the 'Clipper' portion of Alberta Clipper is referring to. During the mid-1800's, the fastest ship around was the clipper ship. The ship's dimensions were fairly long and narrow, so they could cut through the water better. They also took full advantage of harnessing the wind by employing many sails. Because of their speed, compared to previous vessels, they were widely used on the major trade routes around the world during that time. Now that you know where the 'Alberta' and 'Clipper' terms came from, you can decipher that these systems are fast moving lows that oftentimes originate in the Canadian province of Alberta. Due to their fast movement, Alberta Clippers tend to be short-lived, quick-hitting snowfall events. Because of this, snowfall amounts will most often stay at a few inches or less. Although high snow-liquid ratios (the amount of snowfall that piles up for every one inch of liquid water) are common during these events, which can bring snowfall amounts to several inches in certain instances. The last and most often troublesome aspect of Alberta Clipper lows is created by the gusty winds that occur in their wake. The strong winds can produce major travel problems, due to the visibility issues created by blowing snow. These gusty winds will also typically usher in severe arctic air masses, resulting in dangerously cold wind chills over the northern Plains.

AZoQuantum talks to Nashanty Brunken from the University of Leiden about a new molecule, dimethyl ether, that has been discovered for the first time in a planet-forming disk around Oph-IRS 48. Could you please introduce yourself and your professional career? My name is Nashanty Brunken and I am an astronomy master's student at Leiden University in the Netherlands. What are planet-forming disks? Planet-forming disks are disks of gas and dust that rotate around young stars. They are planetary nurseries because the formation of planets takes place from the materials that are available in these disks. What is dimethyl ether, and why is the discovery of this molecule in a planet-forming disk significant? Dimethyl Ether is a complex organic molecule that forms in the ice mantles that surround dust grains. It is an important discovery because dimethyl ether is the largest complex molecule that we have discovered in a planet-forming disk to date. Furthermore, its detection in the IRS 48 suggests that it must have an ice origin and the presence of complex ices in the IRS 48 is indirect evidence that large and possibly prebiotic molecules should be available when planets are forming. How does this molecule relate to larger organic molecules? Complex organic molecules are the precursors of prebiotic molecules. Dimethyl ether, for example, forms from methanol on icy dust grains, and methanol itself also has a formation route that takes place on the ice. This means that from dimethyl ether we can make larger and more complex molecules such as amino acids and sugars, the building blocks of life. Similarly, there are more molecules that have formation routes on icy grains so this means that if we can find dimethyl ether, more complex species should also be present. Image Credit: Mr.Yankittaphak Phoyalo/Shutterstock.com With this in mind, what does this tell us about life elsewhere in the Milky Way? The ice origin of Dimethyl Ether suggests that these complex organic molecules are present in the earlier cold cloud phase before the formation of stars even took place. This means that all disks should have the material for prebiotic molecules. This material should therefore be available in exoplanetary systems all across the galaxy, which means that all these exoplanetary systems should have the potential to host life. Can you explain what makes these molecules difficult to spot in planet-forming disks? These disks are very cold, and as a result, most of these molecules remain trapped in the ices. This makes it difficult to detect them in the gas phase. The IRS 48 is a hotter star, however, and this causes the ices in the disk to sublimate from the dust grains. Furthermore, the morphology of the disk causes this sublimation to take place at a distance that is far away enough from the star that we can observe the molecules that are being released into the gas phase with ALMA (Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array). The researchers. From left to right: Alice S. Booth, Nienke van der Marel, Nashanty G.C. Brunken, Margot Leemker, Pooneh Nazari, Ewine F. van Dishoeck. What technological advancements have been made in recent years that made this discovery possible? With the ALMA telescope, we were able to obtain data with higher sensitivity than we ever had before and this made it possible to hunt for these molecules. Can you explain what is next for this research? Now that we know that these molecules are present in the IRS 48 we wish to obtain ALMA data with higher sensitivity to search for more complex organic molecules that have similar formation routes as dimethyl ether in this system. We also want to search for nitrogen-bearing species and expand our search to other sources. How could this research help inform the James Webb Space Telescope in selecting exoplanet targets for investigation? With the James Webb Space telescope, we will be able to look at ices across different stages of star and planet formation and we will be able to connect this to what we observe in the gas. The telescope will also make it possible to trace the very inner hot regions of these disks. Where can readers find more information? A&A publication: https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/full_html/2022/03/aa42981-21/aa42981-21.html ESO press release: https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2205/ About Nashanty Brunken I am a master's student in astronomy at Leiden University in the Netherlands and the lead author of the paper 'A major asymmetric ice trap in a planet-forming diskIII. First detection of dimethyl ether'. Interview questions provided in part by Robert Lea. Disclaimer: The views expressed here are those of the interviewee and do not necessarily represent the views of AZoM.com Limited (T/A) AZoNetwork, the owner and operator of this website. This disclaimer forms part of the Terms and Conditions of use of this website.

Trees are life-givers for many reasons. It is noted that there are many trees on earth compared to the stars in our solar system. Some of the trees have been on earth for centuries. However, some of them have sadly been uprooted and felled for lumbar reasons. Although trees are generally ignored by many, some of them have been revered for their height. There is various heights that the trees grow and some have an amazing ability to grow more than 400ft in height. Here are the top 10 tallest species of trees that have been recorded in staggering heights and are found in specific places on earth. 10. Alpine Ash Found in Tasmania, Alpine Ash is a species of Eucalyptus delegatensis that can grow to a staggering height of 87.9m and is found in Australia. Its area is known for its old-growth forests. 9. Neeminah Loggorale Meena Another species of tree found in Tasmania and also a member of the Eucalyptus family Eucalyptus globulus is a giant tree that is close to clear-cut areas. It is popularly known as the Blue Gum tree and is popular for pulp and eucalyptus oil. It is known to grow at least at a staggering height of 100m but the median growth of Blue Gum trees is 90.7m. 8. White Knight Australia is home to many tall trees and another tall eucalyptus tree found here is White Knight. These are a series of supertrees that grow at Ever Creech Forest Reserve and are said to be located here for over 300 years. The white knight is known to reach a height of 91.3m and it is no wonder that Tasmania is home to several tall eucalyptus trees. 7. Yellow Meranti in Borneo Found in Borneo, the species of Shorea faguetiana is found in the Danum Valley of Sabah, Kota Kinabalu, and is known to grow at a staggering height of 94.1m. It was once the tallest tree in Malaysia. 6. Cypress Tree Near Bay Langdra Ney The species of Cypress tree found in Bhutan are one of the prime examples that trees do not need protection to grow. These supertrees of Bhutan grow at a staggering height of 94.6m and have a diameter of 4.27m. These are considered sacred and legendary trees which are worshipped during any festivities. 5. Giant Sequoia Giant Sequoia is one of the tallest trees in the world which reaches a minimum of 90m in height. What sets sequoia apart is the sheer girth which is more than 20m in diameter. One of the Giant Sequoia is General Sherman which has one of the sizes in girth. These are found in California USA and are one of the tallest trees in the world. 4. Raven’s Tower Another California-based Tree that is featured in the list of Tallest trees in the world is Raven’s Tower which is located in California’s Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park although the exact location remains unknown the current tallest tree was measured in 2001 and reached a height of 96.7m. 3. Doerner Fir The Doerner Fir barely misses the mark against the #2 tree in the world by just a small distance however it is featured in the list of tallest trees in the world. These non-redwood trees are found in Oregon, USA, and the current tallest tree was discovered in the year 1989, there have been reports that trees that were at a height of 142m have been felled due to logging. The Doerner Fir is said to grow a minimum of 99.75m in height. The tree was discovered in the year 2019 and was named Menara which means tower in Malaysian. Menara is the world’s tallest known flowering plant and tropical tree which is found in Malaysia. Menara reaches a height of 100.8m however, there are still doubts that either Centurian or Menara are the tallest trees. Hyperion is the #1 tallest tree in the world reaching a staggering height of 115.92m and is found in California, USA. The last known measurement of Hyperion was conducted in the year 2017. Hyperions are the tallest redwoods known and beat many eucalyptus or other redwoods by many distances. The tallest known Hyperion was the Lindsey Creek tree (Fieldbrook, California) which was uprooted by a storm in 1905. This tree was 118.9 m tall, diameter could reach 11.6 m.

Short for tracks per inch, the density of tracks on a disk. High-density 3.5-inch diskettes are formatted with 135 TPI. Hard disks have TPIs in the thousands. What is TPI in science? 1, The full form of TPI is Teeth Per Inch. It’s used on Academic & Science,Units in Worldwide. Teeth Per Inch (TPI) is a common measurement of the amount of teeth present in any one inch length of a saw blade. What does TPI stand for in education? The Transitional Program of Instruction (TPI) is a mandated program to serve students from low incidence language backgrounds. The program provides support to help students succeed in academic subjects and learn English. How is TPI calculated? Measuring Imperial Thread Pitch As the name suggests, TPI is measured by counting the number of thread peaks along a 1 inch length. The TPI measurement is then often affixed to the diameter of the thread to form a common imperial thread size, e.g. ‘1/4-20’, which would denote a ¼ inch diameter, and 20 threads per inch. What is TPI test? : a serological test for syphilis in which a solution containing the living causative spirochete (Treponema pallidum) is combined with serum in the presence of complement with immobilization of the active spirochetes indicating a positive result —abbreviation TPI. What is TPI banking? The tax and price index (TPI) is a measure of the percentage that a consumer’s income must rise in order for them to maintain the same level of purchasing power. What is TPI in safety? Third Party Inspection (TPI) is the inspection and testing activities by a third party that is conducted with the purpose of certifying compliance of purchased products or services to the international standard, code and customer technical specifications during and after manufacturing. What is TPI in business? Third party intermediaries (TPIs) are organisations or individuals that give energy- related advice, aimed at helping you to buy energy and/or manage your energy needs. A TPI can support you when getting a business energy quotation as the process is different from getting a quotation for your home. What is a TPI engine? In 1985, GM introduced its Tuned Port Injection (TPI) manifold on the Corvette and the Camaro line. The TPI system includes a manifold base, two sets of runners, a plenum, and a throttle-body. The LT1 engine replaced the TPI in the Corvette in 1992, and in the Camaro in 1993. What is a TPI number? Submitter/TPI number, Submitter name and Address: The submitter number is a unique number that the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) Laboratory Services Section assigns to each of our submitters. For Texas Health Steps (THSteps) specimens, use the pre-assigned Texas Provider Identifier (TPI) number. What is tbe program? Bilingual Education (BE) Transitional Bilingual Education (TBE) programs offer students of the same home language the opportunity to learn to speak, understand, read, and write in English while continuing to learn academic content in their home language. What is a transitional program? The Transition Program is designed to teach independent living skills, including vocational skills, to students receiving special education services, ages 18-22. As they make progress, students fine-tune their work abilities, determine job preferences, and learn to work with growing independence. How does a dual language program work? In dual language instruction, which is also known as dual immersion instruction, students develop academic skills in their native language, while building skills in a different language. Often, half of a class will consist of non-native English speakers, and the other half will consist of native English speakers.

North Hempstead, New York City Guide Located in Nassau County at the south eastern part of New York State and with a population of over 200,000 residents, North Hempstead is a town of important historical significance for the US. The area near the town was first settled in the mid-17th century and the town of Hempstead was established soon afterwards. Hempstead was split between northern and southern populations during the Revolutionary War and symbolic of the divide between Tories and Yankees who each took opposing sides throughout the colonies. The divide was so pronounced that, in 1784, patriots broke away from the township of Hempstead to form their own independent district – what would become known as North Hempstead. Today, the town is a rather quiet, largely residential municipality with a lively urban centre, typical of other comparably sized cities in the area. However, one issue that afflicts North Hampstead, as with all communities, is that of pests. Like many other coastal towns in the northeast of the country, North Hempstead experiences warm, humid summers and cool, wet winters. Ocean breezes help to regulate the heat during the summer months and keep storm activity from becoming particularly extreme. Precipitation is not remarkable in the area, with less than 5 inches per month on average. These conditions make the likely pest problems faced by residents in the area fairly consistent and predictable. Common pest problems in North Hempstead and surrounding areas include cockroaches, rodents and ants. Ants can be a bothersome house pest and are typically found in or near kitchens, where they scavenge for food supplies to take back to their nests. These pests tend to move in predictable patterns as they are highly social creatures and work by collective action. The types of ants that can be found in homes varies, however, the more standard species is the common odorous ant which gets its name from the pungent smell it emits when crushed. Other possible species of ant that can invade the home include fire ants, carpenter ants or termites (also known as ‘white ants’). Each of these can cause serious infestation problems, with the latter two varieties having the potential to cause serious structural damage to a property. To keep ants from becoming a problem in the home, the first and easiest step is to keep everything clean, particularly in the kitchen. This means regularly cleaning the dishes, wiping up crumbs and other spilled food and keeping potential food sources (such as garbage) sealed away tightly and taken out of the home on a regular basis. If an ant problem is detected in the home, this can be addressed by a number of chemical treatments and sprays; however, a good DIY fix can involve identifying the ants’ entry point into a residence and clogging this up with a sticky detergent and water barrier. However, if a serious ant problem is suspected, it can be a good idea to enlist the services of a certified pest control company. They can send out an agent to look for signs of infestation and remove the problem at its source. There are a few good options for pest removal agencies servicing North Hempstead and the surrounding area, which include Aladdin Termite & Pest Management and Parkway Pest Services.

As artists today we are in a unique position. The technology of paints and color has come along ways yet we are beholden to some unique discoveries concerning color. Prussian Blue is a color with a history we should know. Prussian blue, any of several deep-blue pigments that are composed of complex iron cyanides and hence called iron blues. The most common of these pigments are Prussian, Chinese, Milori, and toning blue. Prussian blue has a reddish tint and is used almost exclusively in paints, enamels, and lacquers; Chinese blue is very dark, with a greenish tint, and is favoured for use in printing inks; Milori blue has a reddish tint; toning blue is dull, with a strong red tone. All these pigments are chemically similar, differences in shade arising from variations in particle size and details of the manufacturing process.." from the article: Prussian Blue Video from Kiran Nadar Museum of Art Prussian Blue: A Serendipitous Colour that Altered the Trajectory of Art “Prussian Blue: A Serendipitous Colour that Altered the Trajectory of Art” is a survey exhibition of nineteen artists exploring their engagement with the colour Prussian Blue. This invitation is extended to the artist to explore, investigate, and engage with the colour in their own unique and individual manner. Although Prussian Blue is widely used in the artist's colour palette its uniqueness is relatively unknown, nor is its link between art and science that truly transformed the course of art forever. Envisioned by guest curator Dr. Arshiya Lokhandwala, the exhibition features works across a range of media, including painting, sculpture, video, and installation art. Participating Artists: Anita Dube, Anju Dodiya, Alke Reeh, Astha Butail, Atul Dodiya, Desmond Lazaro, Mithu Sen, N S Harsha, Sheba Chhachhi, Shilpa Gupta, Subodh Gupta, Parul Gupta, Prajakta Potnis, Ranbir Kaleka, Sumakshi Singh, Shambhavi, Thukral & Tagra , Vivan Sundaram, Waqas Khan" from video introduction

A flyer (or flier) is a form of paper advertisement intended for wide distribution and typically posted or distributed in a public place, handed out to individuals or sent through the mail. Today, flyers range from inexpensively photocopied leaflets to expensive, glossy, full-color circulars. Flyers in a digital format can be shared on the internet. A flyer is also called a "palm card", "circular", "handbill", "pamphlet", "poster", "lit'" (literature), "weekly ad", "catalogue" or "leaflet". Flyers may be used by individuals, businesses, not-for-profit organizations or governments to: Like postcards, pamphlets and small posters, flyers are a low-cost form of mass marketing or communication. There are many different flyer formats. Some examples include: Flyers are inexpensive to produce and they required only a basic printing press from the 18th century to the 20th century. Their widespread use intensified in the 1990s with the spread of less expensive desktop publishing systems. In the 2010s, inexpensive black and white flyers can be produced with just a personal computer and a computer printer. In the 2010s, the ordering of flyers through traditional printing services has been supplanted by Internet services. Customers send designs, review proofs online or via e-mail and receive the final products by mail. Flyers are not a new medium: prior to the War of American Independence some colonists were outraged with the Stamp Act (1765) and gathered together in anti-stamp act congresses and meetings. In these congresses they had to win support, and issued handbills and leaflets, pamphlets, along with other written paraphernalia, to do so. In the 2000s, some jurisdictions have laws or ordinances banning or restricting leafleting or flyering in certain locations. Owners of private property may put up signs saying "Post No Bills"; this occurs particularly on wooden fences surrounding building sites or vacant lots. Flyers are handed out on the street (a practice known as "flyering" or "leafleting"), distributed door-to-door through the mail, posted on bulletin boards, put under windshield wipers of cars, given away at events or on the street, or affixed to telephone poles, walls, or other surfaces. Bulletin boards are found on college campuses, in cafés, community meeting houses, laundromats and small markets. Cheap to produce, contemporary flyers are frequently produced in 300 g/m2 glossy card, whereas a leaflet might be produced on a 130 g/m2–170 g/m2 weight paper and can be a very effective form of direct marketing. In the 2010s, some individuals and organizations send flyers through e-mail, a tactic that avoids spending money on paper, printing and mailing or hiring people to post the flyers on telephone poles or hand them out. Digital flyers can be shared on the internet. The digital flyer may be embedded into the body of the e-mail or added as an attachment to be opened.

Hello world, my name is Francisco, fcoterroba on the Internet and today I bring you an explanatory post to create a web server in Windows. There are a multitude of reasons why we want to have a web server on our computer, from starting to study web development, setting up a CMS, sharing multimedia, etc. Before starting, I note that this guide is used to set up a local web server, which you can access from any device connected to the same network as the server. If you want to learn how to open it to the public, let me know in the comments! Mainly, in Windows there are two options. One of them comes “native” in the operating system itself. It uses a private server (Microsoft-IIS) and is very simple, to mainly practice HTML, CSS and JS. You can add back-end programming languages such as PHP or MySQL later, but they do not come by default. The other option is somewhat closer to the professional field, since it uses the Apache system, present in almost 40% of world servers. We are talking about WAMP (Web Apache MySQL PHP Acronym). I'll go into more detail about WAMP later. Now, let's get to the nougat. MOUNT WEB SERVER WITH MICROSOFT-IIS Microsoft-IIS is a set of services part of the Windows operating system. In addition to setting up a web server, it allows the configuration of an FTP server (I will talk about it in another post) To activate this feature, we must write “features” in the search bar and a square window will appear with the features that we have activated in Windows. Features are “small functionalities” that, although they can be installed and configured, do not come standard with the operating system. The feature that we must initialize to have a web server in Windows is mainly “Internet Information Services > World Wide Web Services”. Installing only that one would work, but you can also install the one above, Web Administration Tools to see the web console. Although for our purposes, it is not necessary. Specifically, the necessary ones are those marked in the image Once we activate those, we click on the accept button and it will take a few minutes to activate. (Maybe it also asks for a restart) And with this we would have a web server made. We can check it by typing “localhost” in our browser. As you can see, a web page appears with a photo of Windows and the welcome in several languages. But you probably weren't looking to create a web server to have this, so I'm going to explain how to change that page. To replace this web page with the page you want, you first need to create the file. I am not going to explain all of the HTML, but what is necessary to write “Hello World” is (ignore everything written between because they are comments to explain how it works): <!DOCTYPE html> <!--Declara el tipo de archivo--> <html lang="es" dir="ltr"> <!—Declara el lenguaje de la página y la direccionalidad del texto--> <head> <!—Comienza la cabecera, todo aquello que no se ve--> <meta charset="utf-8"> <!—Establece los caracteres usables--> <title>fcoterroba en un servidor Microsoft</title> <!—Es el título de la página, lo que aparece en la pestaña--> </head> <!--Cierre de la cabecera--> <body> <!—Comienzo del cuerpo del archivo, todo lo que se ve en la página--> <h1>HOLA MUNDO</h1> <!—H seguido de un número del 1 al 6 declara el tipo de encabezado--> <h1>OS SALUDA FCOTERROBA</h1> <a href="www.fcoterroba.com">VISITA MI WEB</a> <!--A es un enlace y href el atributo para indicar hacia dónde ir--> </body> <!--Cierre del cuerpo--> </html> <!--Cierre del documento--> You copy and paste that into your favorite notepad or code editor, rename it index.html and upload it to the server folder, which by default is: “C:\inetpub\wwwroot” Now, if you reload localhost, the text will appear. SET UP WEB SERVER WITH WAMP WAMP is a software stack for Windows that includes Apache (web server), MySQL (database), and PHP (web back-end language). This means, put together, that from a single program it installs the three main technologies that any website has today and without going deep into configuration files. To begin, we download the executable in the repository page and install it. (Careful, it weights more than medium GB) When the program is installed, an icon will be created on your desktop. The best thing to do would be to restart it to make it finish taking the changes, but it is not strictly necessary. When we open the program, an icon will have been created next to the clock in the taskbar. If it is green, the server is working perfectly. We will type localhost again in the browser to check how it works and we will also press the phpinfo() link to check that it is also installed. To change this home page we modify the server index, which by default is installed at C:\wamp64\www We delete all the existing content inside and replace it with what we have already found. We save the changes, update the browser and voilà. And this has been all guys, I hope you found it interesting, leave me any doubts/ideas you have in the comments below.

10 Oct Folate Deficiency May Affect Subsequent Generations Through Epigenetics MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Erica D. Watson, PhD Lecturer in Reproductive Biology Centre for Trophoblast Research Dept Physiology, Development and Neuroscience University of Cambridge, United Kingdom MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Watson: It has been known for decades that maternal folate deficiency increases the risk for a diverse range of health problems in her children, such as spina bifida, heart defects and growth restriction. Despite this, the molecular mechanism of folate during development was not well understood. Our study is important because it shows that the inability to break down folate due to a mutation in the gene Mtrr can affect the health not only in the immediate offspring but also of the next generation. We used mice for the study as they metabolize folate similarly to humans and because folic acid deficiency or mutations in the genes required to break down folate in humans result in similar developmental abnormalities and diseases in mice. This enabled us to explore how the molecular mechanism of folate deficiency impacted development, thereby causing health problems. MedicalResearch.com: Were any of the findings unexpected? Dr. Watson: The results were very unexpected. We found that when the maternal grandmother or maternal grandfather had this Mtrr mutation, their grandchildren were at risk of a wide spectrum of developmental abnormalities, even if the mutated gene was not inherited by the next generations. These abnormalities were also seen in the fourth and fifth generations of mice. This suggested that defects caused by the Mtrr mutation were not genetically-inherited but rather inherited through epigenetic mechanisms. Epigenetics is a system which turns genes on and off. It occurs when chemical modifications (e.g., methyl groups) bind to the DNA at specific locations to control gene expression. Interestingly, the folate cycle is required to make sure that the cell has enough methyl groups for normal gene expression. Epigenetic inheritance refers to the passing of these epigenetic modifications from one generation to the next – despite the epigenome, for the most part, being ‘wiped clean’ after each generation. We hypothesize that, for a yet unknown reason, some of these abnormal epigenetic marks caused by the Mtrr mutation may escape this normal erasure and are inherited by the next generation. If these abnormal epigenetic marks are inherited, then these generations may develop abnormalities as a result of the wrong genes being turned on or off. MedicalResearch.com: What should clinicians and patients take away from your report? Dr. Watson: This work emphasizes the importance for both women and men to ingest sufficient levels of folate during their reproductive years to reduce the risk of health problems in their children, grandchildren and even great grandchildren. It also suggests that the effects of folate fortification programs may not become apparent for more than one generation. MedicalResearch.com: What recommendations do you have for future research as a result of this study? Dr. Watson: This research shows that disease in general can be inherited through epigenetic means rather than genetic means, which has huge implications for human health. Environmental factors that influence epigenetic patterns – e.g., diet, epigenetic disruptors in the environment such as chemicals, etc. – may also have long term, multigenerational effects. Future studies must be carefully designed to further explore this phenomenon and the mechanisms behind epigenetic inheritance. Mutation in Folate Metabolism Causes Epigenetic Instability and Transgenerational Effects On Development Nisha Padmanabhan, Dongxin Jia, Colleen Geary-Joo, Xuchu Wu, Anne C. Ferguson-Smith, Ernest Fung, Mark C. Bieda, Floyd F. Snyder, Roy A. Gravel, James C. Cross, Erica D. Watson Last Updated on February 17, 2015 by Marie Benz MD FAAD

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been shaking things up in various fields, and journalism is no exception. AI is influencing the way news is gathered, processed, and shared. This article dives into how AI is impacting journalism and media, exploring the pros and cons. - AI Writing News: AI is now helping write news articles. News outlets are using AI algorithms to generate content quickly, allowing human journalists to focus on more in-depth reporting. But, there’s a concern about the quality and ethics of AI-generated content. While it speeds things up, there’s a need to make sure the information is accurate and not spreading false news. - Data-driven Reporting: AI helps journalists analyze massive amounts of data, uncovering hidden patterns and trends. This boosts the depth and accuracy of news stories, especially in investigative reporting. However, there’s a challenge in interpreting the results correctly and avoiding biased conclusions. Journalists need to be cautious to keep their reporting objective. - Tailored News for You: AI looks at what you like and tailors news content to your interests. While this personalization makes news more interesting, it also raises concerns about only hearing what you agree with. Striking a balance between personalization and diverse viewpoints is crucial. - Fact-checking with AI: AI tools help journalists fact-check information quickly. These tools use technology to verify statements and claims. This speeds up the fact-checking process and fights against spreading false information. But, they’re not perfect and might struggle with understanding nuanced statements. Human oversight is still needed for reliable fact-checking. - AI News Anchors and Chatbots: AI-powered virtual news anchors and chatbots are new ways of presenting news. Virtual news anchors act like human presenters, and chatbots engage with users in real-time. This enhances how audiences interact with news. However, maintaining the authenticity of journalism is a challenge. Balancing human and AI interaction is essential for trust. - Challenges and Ethical Concerns: While AI brings benefits to journalism, it also poses challenges and raises ethical questions. Issues like bias in algorithms, job loss due to automation, and the ethics of AI-created content need careful attention. Media organizations must be transparent, accountable, and follow ethical practices to handle these challenges responsibly. AI is reshaping journalism in remarkable ways, offering efficiency, data-driven insights, and creative content delivery. However, ethical concerns around AI-generated content, personalized news, and potential biases require ongoing attention. Finding the right balance between AI capabilities and journalistic responsibilities is key. By embracing AI with a commitment to ethical standards, journalism can move towards a future where technology enhances integrity and credibility rather than compromising it.

What is it about? We searched techniques for measuring the body size of infants, such as body length and head circumference and cranial volume of the head. We focussed on touchless techniques, so measuring without touching the infant, e.g. with 3D cameras. We tried to find 3D camera techniques that could measure extremely premature born infants from outside the incubator, without opening the incubator's doors. Photo by Carlo Navarro on Unsplash Why is it important? This review is part of our research into developing a novel technique with 3D cameras, to measure body length, head circumference and head (cranial) volume of preterm infants lying in incubators, a technique that causes minimal disturbance to the infant. Read the Original This page is a summary of: Body size measuring techniques enabling stress-free growth monitoring of extreme preterm infants inside incubators: A systematic review, PLoS ONE, April 2022, PLOS, You can read the full text: The following have contributed to this page

Silicon metal is also called crystalline silicon or industrial silicon. It is mainly used as an additive for non-ferrous alloys, an alloying agent for silicon steel with strict requirements, and as a deoxidizer for smelting special steels and non-ferrous alloys. Silicon metal powder is a powdered silicon metal obtained by grinding silicon metal blocks. Silicon metal powder is silver gray or dark gray with a certain metallic luster. Silicon metal powder is called “industrial monosodium glutamate”, because of its high melting point, good heat resistance, high resistivity, and high antioxidant effect, it is an indispensable basic raw material for many high-tech industries. Production Process of Silicon Metal Powder The production process of silicon metal powder through the vertical mill In the production process of this process, first, the silicon metal block enters the vertical mill after drying and crushing; then, the ground silicon metal powder is taken out by the circulating air flow and collected by the collector; finally, the powder received by the collector The material is then screened by a vibrating sieve, the coarse particles above the sieve are sent back to the mill, and the fine particles below the sieve enter the finished product bin. The production process of silicon metal powder through the rotary mill In the production process of this process, firstly, after drying and crushing, the silicon metal block is sent to the rotary mill for crushing; then, the crushed material is taken out by the airflow of the induced draft fan, and separated by the cyclone separator; finally, the separated The fine powder is collected by the collector and enters the fine powder bin, and the tail gas is discharged at high altitude, while the remaining coarse powder is sieved by the vibrating sieve, the coarse particles on the sieve are returned to the rotary mill for further crushing, and the silicon metal powder below the sieve enters the finished product bin . Raymond Mill’s silicon powder production process In the production process of this process, firstly, the silicon metal block is sent to the Raymond mill after drying and crushing. Then, the ground silicon metal powder is taken out by the circulating air flow and collected by the cyclone dust collector. Finally, the collected powder is sieved by a vibrating sieve, the coarse particles above the sieve are returned to the Raymond Mill, and the fine particles below the sieve enter the finished product bin. The Use of Silicon Metal Powder - Silicon metal powder is widely used in refractory materials and powder metallurgy industries to improve the high temperature resistance, wear resistance and oxidation resistance of products. Its products are widely used in steelmaking furnaces, kilns and kiln furniture. - In the organosilicon chemical industry, silicon metal powder is the basic raw material for the synthesis of organosilicon polymers, such as for the production of silicon monomers, silicone oil, and silicone rubber preservatives, thereby improving the high temperature resistance, electrical insulation, and corrosion resistance of products Anti-corrosion, anti-corrosion, waterproof and other characteristics. - Silicon metal powder is drawn into single crystal silicon, and the processed silicon wafer is widely used in high-tech fields, and is an indispensable raw material for integrated circuits and electronic components. - In the metallurgical casting industry, silicon metal powder is used as a non-ferrous alloy additive and a silicon steel alloy agent to improve the hardenability of steel. Silicon metal powder can also be used as a reducing agent for certain metals, for new ceramic alloys, etc.

In the United States alone, lottery players spend billions annually hoping to hit the jackpot. But winning the lottery is a lot more complicated than simply buying tickets and hoping for the best. There are many pitfalls that can derail your dreams, so it’s important to understand how the lottery works before you begin playing. The word “lottery” is derived from Latin and means drawing lots, which is the process of selecting winners in a contest. The first recorded use of the term was in the Old Testament, when Moses was instructed to draw lots to divide land among people. Later, Roman emperors used the system to give away slaves and property. Benjamin Franklin even sponsored a lottery to raise money for cannons during the American Revolution, though his efforts were unsuccessful. Lotteries also played an important role in colonial America, where they were used to finance public projects like paving streets and building wharves. Today’s state-run lotteries are much more sophisticated than their ancestors. They offer a variety of games, including scratch-off tickets and draw-based games with increasingly complex prize amounts. Although the odds of winning are low, these events generate huge revenues, allowing the state to pay out millions of dollars in prizes. But while state lotteries are a great source of revenue, they are not without problems. In fact, they are often at cross-purposes with the broader interests of the population. For example, a lottery might encourage poor people to spend their limited resources on a slim chance of becoming rich. It could also encourage people to take unnecessary risks, such as driving recklessly. Additionally, it could lead to addiction. However, these issues are often overlooked by state legislators and lottery sponsors. As a result, state lotteries continue to be popular in the United States. Lottery has long been a controversial topic, but in the modern era it has become a common form of gambling. It has garnered wide support from voters because it is perceived to be a “painless” source of revenue. Lotteries are not linked to the state’s actual fiscal condition, and they can be endorsed even during periods of prosperity. During the late nineteen-sixties, however, as inflation and war costs began to eat into state budgets, lawmakers ran into an obstacle: It was impossible to balance the budget without raising taxes or cutting services. This is when lottery advocates shifted their arguments. Instead of arguing that a lottery would float most of a state’s budget, they started promoting it as a way to fund one particular line item—often education, but sometimes veterans benefits or elder care. Despite this, studies have shown that state lotteries are not inherently good for the economy. They may help local businesses, but they can have negative consequences for the elderly and problem gamblers, and they can encourage states to spend more than they can afford. In addition, they can undermine other forms of taxation. For these reasons, the United States should not adopt a national lottery.

Caiman lizards (Dracaena spp.) are 4-5’ long, diurnal, semi-aquatic lizards native to South America. They prefer a tropical rainforest habitat, and typically inhabit swamps, marshes, flooded woodlands, and other forested areas near bodies of water. Caiman lizards have a crocodilian appearance which inspired their common name: blunt triangular head, prominent brow ridges, a stout body and limbs, bumpy skin, a laterally-flattened tail, and long toes with sharp claws. Caiman lizards’ coloring varies depending on the species. Dracaena guianensis has a green body and a reddish-orange head, while Dracaena paraguayensis tends to be more of a uniform olive or brown color. Caiman lizards are not easy animals to keep as pets, which is one of the reasons why they’re not very common in the hobby. They’re large, are sensitive to poor husbandry, and vary in tameness. However, when kept with patience and dedication, they can be very rewarding. With good care, a caiman lizard can live 10+ years. Minimum terrarium size for caiman lizards: The absolute minimum enclosure size for a single caiman lizard is 8’L x 4’W x 6’H. This may seem huge, but keep in mind that these are large, active lizards that need opportunities for both climbing and swimming within their enclosure. Of course, if you can manage it, larger is always better! Housing multiple caiman lizards in the same enclosure is not recommended. Do caiman lizards need UVB? Yes! Caiman lizards require UVB lighting for their survival. UVB lighting helps provide a clear day/night cycle, provides all of the vitamin D that your pet needs, strengthens the immune system, facilitates better digestion, and other benefits. Here are the best UVB bulbs for caiman lizards housed in a 8’x4’x6’ enclosure: For best results, house the UVB bulbs in a reflective fixture. Position the lamp on the same side of the terrarium as the heat lamp. If the UVB is mounted over mesh, place the basking branch 12-13” below the lamp. If the UVB is mounted inside the enclosure, place the basking branch 20-22” below the lamp. They are also likely to benefit from plant grow lights as part of their environment as well. Add a ~6500K LED or T5 HO fluorescent grow lamp to provide extra illumination, as well as help any live plants in the enclosure to thrive. Lights should be on for 11 hours/day during winter and 13 hours/day during summer to simulate seasonal changes in day length. All lamps should be turned off at night. Best temperature for caiman lizards: Caiman lizards should have a basking surface temperature of 120-130°F, as measured by an infrared thermometer. The air temperature around the basking area should be between 80-90°F, and between 70-80°F on the cool side, as measured by a digital probe thermometer. Provide heat for your caiman lizard with a cluster of halogen heat bulbs placed above the basking branch. You will need enough lamps to evenly heat an area at least the size of the caiman lizard’s body. Halogen bulbs are the best way to imitate the warmth of sunlight indoors, and considered to be a superior form of reptile heating by experts. Do not use ceramic heat emitters (CHEs), red bulbs, or blue bulbs, as these are not as effective. Best humidity levels for caiman lizards: Caiman lizards are a tropical species, so the humidity inside their enclosure should be fairly high: 70-80%, and no lower than 60%. Humidity should be measured via digital probe hygrometer, with the probe placed in the middle of the terrarium. Increase humidity by misting your caiman lizard’s enclosure 1-2x/day with a large pressure sprayer or automatic misting system. Mist first thing in the morning and then again at night if needed. If you need more help maintaining humidity, install a cool mist humidifier connected to a humidistat. Caiman lizards are semi-aquatic, so they need more than just humidity to meet their water needs — they also require a pool of water that is deep and large enough for them to dive into and swim around in. This means that it should be at least 12” deep, and occupy 1/2 to 1/3 of the enclosure’s floor space. The water should be kept heated to ~78°F with an aquarium heater rated for the volume of water in the pool. Your caiman lizard’s pool water will need to be changed once weekly or whenever it gets spoiled. Give the pool a good scrub with disinfectant before refilling. Using a siphon (or better yet, a powerful mechanical water pump) and a hose will make maintaining your lizard’s pool faster and easier. Best substrate for caiman lizards: Although caiman lizards spend most of their time either in the trees or in their pool, they do occasionally spend time at ground level. Providing a layer of naturalistic substrate (“bedding”) in the enclosure will help maintain correct humidity, cushion your lizard against falls, provide a digging medium, and also help make your enclosure more attractive! We recommend the following substrates for caiman lizards: Layering clean, chemical-free leaf litter on top of the substrate can help with humidity as well as add enrichment value. Substrate should be at least 6” deep and completely replaced every 3-4 months. Remove poop and urates daily, along with any contaminated substrate. How to decorate a caiman lizard enclosure: An empty enclosure makes for a bored caiman lizard, reducing its quality of life. Keep your pet entertained and engaged with its environment with the strategic use of décor items that encourage it to exercise natural behaviors! Since caiman lizards are both arboreal and aquatic, at bare minimum you will need a large, sturdy branch for them to bask on and a sufficiently large pool for swimming. However, it’s best to include other items, such as: - more branches - live or artificial foliage All climbing branches should be securely anchored into the walls/floor of the enclosure to prevent collapse. Training and designing enrichment activities are also good ways to help keep your caiman lizard engaged, as well as provide a nice opportunity for bonding! What to feed to a caiman lizard: Caiman lizards are carnivorous, which means that they require a whole animal-based diet to get the nutrition that they need. How often they need to eat depends on life stage: Caiman lizards younger than one year should be fed daily, but after that point they should be fed just 2-3x/week. Each meal should be slightly smaller than the lizard’s skull. The key to providing a healthy, balanced diet for your caiman lizard is VARIETY. Here are foods that are appropriate for a caiman lizard to eat: - snails (captive-bred only) - dubia roaches - whole fish (tilapia, salmon, pollock) - frozen rodents Young caiman lizards are more likely to be interested in insects than adults. Fruits such as banana, mango, papaya, and berries can be offered as an occasional treat. You will also need calcium and vitamin supplements to help keep your caiman lizard healthy. We recommend Repashy Calcium Plus LoD, lightly dusted on all foods except whole prey. It’s okay to occasionally skip a dusting. How to handle your caiman lizard: Reptiles generally don’t appreciate petting and handling in the same way that dogs and cats do. Regarding caiman lizards specifically, they vary in their tolerance of humans. Some tame down well, while others prefer to be left alone. If you want to build a trusting relationship with your pet caiman lizard, you will need to develop a foundation of positive interactions. Offering food from feeding tweezers works well as an initial bribe, and it’s best to get the lizard to come to you rather than simply grabbing it. Here are some more tips for success: - Don’t grab the lizard from above. Instead, scoop from below. - Support as much of its body as possible. - Start with short handling sessions at first, then gradually make them longer. - Put the lizard back in its enclosure only when it’s calm. *This care sheet contains only very basic information. Although it’s a good introduction, please further your research with high-quality sources. The more you know, the better you will be able to care for your pet!

When it comes to diet and nutrition we assume everybody has heard of calories, however, a lot of people know little more than this and obtaining maximum results from efforts in the gym requires more in depth understanding of what you eat and drink. Food = Energy Calorie = Measure of amount of energy So food is broken down into energy and a calorie is a measure of how much energy a food can provide us. Weight gain and loss is then a result of consuming more or less energy than your body requires to function. So we have now established what calories actually are and how they determine our weight. What we will now touch on is how you can control this to obtain your goals. The next element we will analyse is what the different food types (macro nutrients) are, again the groups will probably appear familiar but not always the understanding. Food is simply broken down into three main groups: protein, carbohydrates and fat. These different groups link into calories in different ways. 1 gram of either protein or carbohydrate source = 4 calories 1 gram of fat = 9 calories Therefore you can see the calorie density of fat, but this does not mean it should be feared or avoided on a weight loss programme and even less so on a bulking. Protein = Protein provides the amino acids which are used to build muscle and repair damage caused during exercise.This is why athletes and weight training individuals place a high emphasis on higher than normal protein intake in their diet. You can train as hard as you like but without providing your body this essential resource to recover you will be wasting a lot of time. Carbohydrates = This is the body’s preferred and primary choice of energy/fuel. Consumed carbohydrates are processed and converted to glucose, the fuel we use for everything we do. Carbohydrates probably require the most understanding of the three food groups and we will expand with a simple overview of this. For simplicity sake we will say that carbs fall into slow release (complex carb) and fast acting (simple carb) categories. Your choices of which foods/type of carbohydrate, therefore how fast it impacts on the body’s insulin levels, should be considered tactically. Simple and fast acting carb sources are best saved for immediate post workout use as this is the best time to create an insulin spike (rise in blood sugar levels) as it replenishes glycogen levels depleted during intense training. Good food choices during this time are sweet fruits or supplements such as dextrose, maltodextrin or waxy maize starch. Pre Workout a slower (complex) carbohydrate source is better used. Oats are a favourite, wholegrain bread, rice etc. are alternatives. Elsewhere in the day carbohydrate sources which are rich in fibre are a good choice. A great resource for educating yourself further on foods and where they sit in terms of complex or simple carb is: http://www.weightlossresources.co.uk/diet/gi_diet/glycaemic_index_tables.htm Fats = Fats form an essential part of a diet, they serve as a backup energy source, contain essential nutrients and play a vital role in regulating core temperature. Fat intake is required for optimal health. Dietary fat provides the essential fatty acids (EFA) that cannot be synthesized in the body. Your fats should be from natural food choices and an emphasis on unsaturated fats. Great options for this would be: Lean red meat, Oily Fish, Natural Peanut Butter, Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Flaxseeds, Raw Nuts, Eggs, Avocados. AVOID Trans Fats which are man-made and cannot be processed by the body. The very simple rule to live by (sorry any Vegetarian or Vegan readers) is only eat food that has not been processed in any way what so ever and is in natural form and if it has not walked, swam or been grown then leave it alone. Our next article will elaborate and help give some guidelines on how to structure your diet in respect to how much of each food group you might want for achieving your goals.

But suicide is preventable. You need to know the risk factors and warning signs that can help you save the lives of your loved ones – or yourself. Learn The Warning Signs There are many causes that can lead a person to commit suicide. However, there are red flags that you may witness just before a person attempts the act. Keep in mind that you’re looking for patterns, not isolated incidents. If you suspect someone is at risk, pay attention to the following: - What They Say People who are suicidal may talk about killing themselves but there are also more subtle comments. For example, they may talk about being a burden to others. Listen for an overwhelming sense of hopelessness. - What They Do Risky behaviors can include buying weapons, increased substance use and spending too much time sleeping. Are you suddenly having a hard time getting in touch with this person? Isolation and withdrawal are often signs that something is wrong. - How They Feel Depression, despair and rage can be clues, too. Learn more detailed warning signs in this article from the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. Are You In A High-Risk Group? Certain people may be more likely to attempt suicide. High-risk groups include: - People with suicide in their family history. - Someone who has recently experienced a traumatic event or life-changing loss. - People with a substance use disorder. - Those who suffer from clinical depression. - People with serious, chronic, or terminal illnesses. - Young adults and teens. According to the Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention, suicide is “the second leading cause of death for adults ages 25-34, and the third leading cause for youth ages 15-24.” For young people, additional risk factors, such as self-mutilation or fighting can be a sign. Kids who are bullied are also vulnerable. See a complete list of risk factors for youth in this article at The Jason Foundation. Mental Illness and Substance Use Disorder When a person with a substance use disorder is also suffering from a mental health disorder, it is critical that they carefully manage both disorders to ensure that a relapse from one to the other does not occur. Once both disorders are fully active, the person’s condition can turn life-threatening. Engaging in a recovery program is critical as is working with a therapist to address both issues. An inpatient treatment facility may be beneficial. Twenty-four hour care can keep the patient safe while they progress through recovery. This article from the National Institute on Drug Abuse has more information on the types of treatment programs that are available. How can you prevent a suicide from occurring? You need to take action as soon as possible. Get help now If you are feeling suicidal or you think your loved one is at danger right now, don’t hesitate. Get help immediately. Call 1-800-SUICIDE or chat directly on their website. If you or your loved one is not in crisis at the moment, you can still take action. Therapy and counseling are critical in helping work through these issues. If there are substance abuse issues, a recovery program is necessary. The most important thing anyone at risk of suicide needs is support. Be sure to be there for your friend or family member to help them through this crisis. If you are the one at risk, engage with loved ones, support groups or clergy to get help. There are many resources that can help you, but you must take the first step.

Disasters can strike at anytime and it's important to always be prepared. Severe weather conditions like hurricanes can cause loss of power, but those are not the only things you have to watch out for. A power outage can occur during a heavy thunderstorm or a blizzard. Use the following tips to make sure you're ready in case of emergencies. Batteries are the most important to have, since they provide the power necessary to keep us going until the lights come back on. Be sure to keep a large supply of batteries of every type. Sometimes, the power can come back on in a short time, but there's always the possibility that it could take hours or even days. Make periodic checks of dates on the batteries, so you will always have a fresh supply. It's also good to have a lot so you can share them with neighbors who might not have any. Radios A battery operated radio can keep you notified of important updates, where you can go for help and if it's safe to leave the home. They also provide comfort in knowing that you are not alone in the situation. Make sure you have the proper sized batteries to keep it running. Flashlights When the lights go out, one of the first things we reach for is a flashlight. Since there is no way to predict how long you will be without lights, having extra batteries will make sure that you won't be left in the dark. You can also get battery operated lamps to put in rooms. You don't have to hold them and they turn on with the push of a button. Water Purifiers Having a fresh supply of water during an emergency is extremely important. Boiling water will purify it but if the electricity is out, this might not be an option. Having a battery powered purifier means that you will always have a drinkable supply of water for you and your family. Fans and Heaters Since the power can go out at anytime, keep battery powered fans and heaters in your supply kit. This way you can stay cool in the summer and warm in the winter Medical Equipment Losing the electricity can be particularly frightening for people who rely on medical equipment that require electricity to work. A lot of this equipment has battery back ups, so make sure you have a good supply of the required batteries on hand. Centralized Supply Location Have a centralized location for your supplies. Dedicate a whole area just for batteries and keep them in size order. This way if the lights go out, you won't have to stumble around in the dark trying to find your supplies. They'll all be in one place, so you can easily get your hands on them. By following these tips you will find it much easier to endure the aftermath of emergencies while you wait for power to be restored. Gregg Hall is an author living in Navarre Florida. Find more about this as well as Batteries For All Electronics at http://www.batteriesforallelectronics.com

Have you ever gone shopping for speakers or audio gear and heard the term “impedance”? Speaker impedance is like a roadblock for the electric flow of audio signals, and it affects how audio systems perform and sound. Today, we’ll explain everything about speaker impedance and why it is important. We’ll also touch on the various types of speaker impedance and whether it’s better to have high or low impedance ratings for speakers. What Is Speaker Impedance and Why Is it Important? Speaker impedance is a measure of the amount of opposition to current flow in an electric circuit. In other words, it is the resistance that a speaker offers to the flow of current. It is measured in ohms(Ω). Unlike headphone impedance, speaker impedance is more important when buying speakers. That’s because speakers usually require more power than headphones and even the smallest incompatibility can result in significant damage to the speaker or the audio system. Fundamentally, speaker impedance holds vital significance for various reasons. Below are some of them: - Compatibility: The impedance of the speaker requires a balanced compatibility to the output impedance of the amplifier to which it connects. If the speaker impedance is either too high or too low for the amplifier, the audio system will not function optimally, and the sound quality will endure negative effects. - Power Handling: The impedance of the speaker defines the magnitude of power that the speaker can bear without incurring any damage. If the speaker impedance is too low for the amplifier, it will exert an overwhelming level of power that can wreak havoc upon the speaker. On the other hand, if the speaker impedance is too high, it will result in overheating and ultimately damage the speaker or cause volume issues. - Efficiency: The higher the impedance, the better your speakers will be at turning electricity into sound. But watch out! High impedance speakers might need a beefier amplifier to keep the volume level in check compared to lower-impedance ones! - Tonal Characteristics: Different speakers have different impedance curves, which spruce up specific frequencies. Some speakers might even level up and flatten the range of frequencies they produce. So, if you want your sound to hit just right, make sure your speaker matches your application’s impedance curve just right! How Does Speaker Impedance Affect Sound Quality? The impedance of your speakers is crucial when it comes to how good your audio sounds. Impedance is basically how much electrical resistance your speakers have, which determines how hard you have to push them and how well they’ll convert that signal into music. There are the ways it can affect your sound: - Power Output: When it comes to speakers, the amount of sound they can make depends on their resistance, which then impacts the amount of juice needed from the amp to get them going. For instance, a speaker with low resistance will slurp up more power to reach the same volume as a speaker with higher resistance. That’s why speakers with more resistance use less power but still blast loud tunes. - Frequency Response: The resistance of a speaker also influences how it’ll handle different notes. As resistance varies with frequency, specific sounds could either be boosted or reduced depending on the speaker’s resistance levels. Say, if a speaker has plenty of resistance to low frequencies, it may not be bassy enough, while a speaker with reduced resistance for high frequencies could sound extra bright and ear-splitting. - Damping Factor: The way a speaker cone oscillates is controlled by the amplifier’s damping factor. The higher the movement, the better the amplifier can control the speaker, giving a crisper and more accurate bass response. Speakers with low resistance can oscillate harder, making them better for getting that punchy bass. - Signal Distortion: An impedance mismatch between the speaker and the amplifier can make the sound warp and distort, ruining the quality. If the speaker’s resistance is too low, it can overload the amplifier, causing the signal to clip and warp. If the speaker’s resistance is too high, the amp has to work too hard, causing signal distortion that can damage the whole setup. What Are the Different Types of Speaker Impedance? When it comes to speakers, there are a lot of different impedance types that people use in audio gear. It’s key to grasp what these are so you can pick the right speaker for your sound system and align the speakers with your amps. Check out some of the most popular types of speaker impedance below: - Nominal Impedance: This is the go-to impedance type that’s used most often. You can find it listed on the speaker’s specs. It’s an average or rough estimate of the speaker’s impedance over a range of frequencies. Knowing the nominal impedance can help you figure out how much power the speaker can handle and the recommended amp power to use. - Minimum Impedance: The minimum impedance is the smallest amount of opposition a speaker will give when an amplifier powers it up. The speaker maker normally provides this info and it’s crucial when picking an amplifier. If the amplifier has a higher resistance rating than the speaker, it may not be able to supply enough oomph to the speaker, resulting in noise or even destruction of the gear. - Impedance Curve: An impedance curve is a chart that demonstrates how much pushback a speaker has at different frequencies. It’s applied to evaluate a speaker’s efficiency at a scope of frequencies and find any peaks or dips in the curve that could impair the sound quality. Some speakers have a somewhat level curve, while others could have noteworthy peaks or dips. - Complex Impedance: This is a type of impedance that includes both resistance and reactance, and is often used to check the resistance of speakers at high frequencies. As frequency goes up, the reactance part becomes more important. To determine the combined impedance when powering multiple speakers, efficient impedance is used. - Effective Impedance: This is the impedance a speaker gives to an amp when there are many speakers. When you connect speakers together in parallel or in a line, you need to add up all the impedance to get the real impedance. This is important when you hook up multiple speakers, because the impedance can decide how much power the speakers can hold and what they sound like. How to Measure Speaker Impedance? Checking speaker impedance is pretty easy, you just need a multimeter. First, make sure the speaker’s not hooked up to the amp, then set the meter to measure ohms. Now, hold the meter wires to the speaker outputs and write down what you see. That number you wrote is the impedance of the speaker. Sometimes the impedance isn’t the same for all sounds. It depends on what kind of sound is playing, and that’s called an “impedance curve.” Some speaker makers or manufacturers will give you a picture of the curve to help you know if the speaker and the amp are compatible. Is Higher Impedance Better for Speakers? There’s no quick and easy answer to which speaker impedance – high or low – is the best because it all boils down to different things, like the amp’s power, wire length, and overall system design. To keep it short, higher impedance speakers work more efficiently and suck less power when cabled over long distances. But, they might not make audio as great as lower impedance speakers, as they need higher voltage to produce sound at the same volume. On the other hand, lower impedance speakers need more power to crank the same sound level, which can destroy the speaker or amp if they aren’t designed to handle the power surge. To ensure everything sounds neat and nothing gets ruined, you must ensure the speaker’s resistance matches the amplifier’s output resistance. Nowadays, most amps can handle a variety of speaker resistances. But you still must double-check to make sure they’re cool together. If the speaker’s impedance is too low, grab an impedance-matching transformer to boost it. And if the speaker’s resistance is too high, you can use another type of transformer to lower it. Remember though, using transformers can make things fuzzy and add extra noise. So match the speakers right to avoid any issues. Ultimately, when choosing a speaker, test the speaker out to ensure that it is a fit for your specific needs. If you need detailed instructions, check out our guide on how to test speakers. When you plan an audio setup or buy speakers and amps, you must think about speaker impedance – it’s a major deal. It can affect how loud and great your tunes sound. And if you don’t match up impedance right, you might wreck your gear. So, should you aim for low or high-impedance speakers? Nope, it’s not that simple. There are a few things to consider, but it’s smart to sync up the impedance of your speakers and amp. Don’t use impedance-matching transformers unless you have no other choice. When everything’s set up right and you get the right impedance, your tunes will sound killer and give you the ultimate listening experience.

Many people who experience anxiety or depression may turn to alcohol to try and escape their problems. It’s a vicious cycle–which can actually make these conditions worse. Alcohol addiction can increase feelings of anxiety and depression, which in turn can cause someone to drink even more alcohol as a way to cope. This cycle is very difficult to break and can lead to low quality of life and serious health problems in the long term. Alcohol’s Effects On The Brain Consuming alcohol has both short-term and long-term effects on a person’s brain. Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) is the brain’s primary inhibitory neurotransmitter. Basically, GABA stops certain signals in the brain from being sent. When someone drinks alcohol, GABA activity in the brain increases, which has the effect of suppressing neuronal activity an unusual amount. Among other things, this results in slurred speech, impaired memory, and reduced inhibitions. If someone drinks enough alcohol, they may even blackout and be completely unable to remember what is happening. The brain adjusts to alcohol by producing less GABA. As the effects of alcohol wear off, many people notice symptoms like increased anxiety. Without enough GABA to, in effect, calm it down, an overactive brain can respond to harmless situations in unhelpful ways—and having trouble remembering last night doesn’t help. One study found that 24% of panic disorder patients had a history of alcohol dependence. It’s a similar story for the neurotransmitters serotonin and dopamine. Drinking alcohol might boost your mood initially, but the effects wear off faster than your brain can balance. Low dopamine or serotonin levels can cause a person to feel down or depressed the next day. It’s easy to see how someone might react to these circumstances by reaching for another drink. Unfortunately, this not only delays your brain’s recovery, but it actually makes things worse. Long-term heavy drinking can significantly alter a person’s brain chemistry. Your brain adjusts its neurotransmitter production downwards, and the withdrawal symptoms become even more noticeable. The urge to drink may become stronger, and this downward spiral can become challenging to escape for many people. Physical Effects of Alcohol Abuse In addition to its negative impact on the brain, alcohol addiction can take a heavy toll on the body. Drinking can increase the risk of serious diseases, such as pancreatitis and liver disease. The damage years of heavy drinking can do to the liver is often irreversible, with a liver transplant being some patients’ only option. Alcohol abuse can also lead to a weakened immune system. The effects of heavy drinking can impact sleep, and cause headaches and feelings of fatigue, which can all make a person feel unwell, unmotivated, and unproductive. Feeling this way makes finding the energy to exercise challenging, which is a crucial component of overall health and well-being. This lack of physical activity can compound the problem by leading to a further lack of energy and potentially leaving a person even more depressed. The Detrimental Effects of Alcohol on Everyday Life Alcohol addiction can have severe and far-reaching negative consequences on a person’s relationships, employment, and overall well-being. Researchers found that romantic relationships where one person drank significantly more than their partner were associated with poor outcomes. Alcohol addiction is also associated with sexual dysfunction in both men and women, which can adversely affect romantic relationships and lead to more mental health issues. Another study showed a correlation between binge drinking and fights between friends. Losing the support of friends and family can contribute to depression and anxiety. Alcohol abuse can also affect job and employment opportunities, making someone more likely to come into conflict with bosses and coworkers and more likely to be laid off. The cost of alcohol itself may contribute to financial stress as well. For some people, drinking can become their favorite pastime, eclipsing all other activities and hobbies and making other parts of life seem less enjoyable or desirable. This preference can prevent someone from moving forward in certain areas of their life or achieving their personal goals, leading to feelings of regret. Activities that do not involve drinking may seem less fun, which can be isolating and lead to even greater reliance on alcohol as a source of enjoyment. All of these factors can contribute to a negative spiral that is difficult to break without seeking help and support. Alcohol addiction, like anxiety and depression, is a serious mental health disorder that is often misunderstood. The stigma around seeking support for mental wellness can make people reluctant to admit they have a problem. In fact, only 8% of people with alcohol addiction ever seek treatment. But it’s important to understand that alcohol addiction is incredibly common, with one-in-ten Americans over age 12 suffering from the disease. Even more important: help is available. In partnership with Awakn at Nushama, we find it important to destigmatize alcohol addiction and encourage people to seek new methods for help and support. For example, a local bar may be the center of social life for many people with alcohol addiction. These people may have trouble making new friends when they stop or cut back on their drinking, causing feelings of loneliness and depression that make relapse into addiction more likely. Organizations like Alcoholics Anonymous provide people in recovery with a sense of community that can ease their path to sobriety. Similarly, Nushama offers community programming, hosting year-round events for our members. We are at the forefront of addiction therapy, having partnered with Awakn to provide the KARE program (Ketamine for the Reduction of Alcohol Relapse), a revolutionary new treatment for alcohol addiction. The treatment confronts the trauma at the root of mental health problems and is a new solution with the potential to break the alcohol, anxiety and depression cycle overall.

How might educational VR experiences be designed to create powerful, accessible, and personal learning opportunities in K-12 classrooms? Introducing Oculus Medium a virtual sculpting tool that allows you to access various sculpting tools and manipulate clay-like material into different sizes, shapes, textures, and colors to magically create anything you can imagine. Users can easily interact/create together and share their creative process with other people in the same virtual environment. Introducing Microsoft HoloLens where VR technology becomes more personal and can adapt to the ways humans communicate, learn, and create. Holograms can improve the way we do everyday activities, and enable us to do things we’ve never done before. For education, HoloLens can help to make incredible leaps forward in productivity, collaboration, and innovation. See how VR transforms the way Case Western Reserve University teaches anatomy and transforms our understanding of the human body. Watch as 30 high school girls try out the HoloLens device during a Holographic Academy developer education session at DigiGirlz, a Microsoft YouthSpark program that helps girls and young women learn about careers in technology.

Ongoing archaeological digs at Petra have revealed a sophisticated irrigation system and water storage system that once enabled legendary gardens, luxurious pools, and incredible fountains in the middle of the desert. Petra’s decadent and perhaps indiscriminate use of such a rare resource is a symbol of the ancient Nabatean capital’s former wealth and power in southwest Jordan. For the first time, archaeologists are beginning to understand the extent of its luxury. Recent excavations unearthed an advanced irrigation system that made it possible to grow lush botanicals in an otherwise arid desert region. The garden is comprised of walking paths that archaeologists posit were once shaded by vines, trees, date palms, and grasses. Nearby, a 144-foot wide swimming pool suggests the Nabataeans developed their hydraulic water system not only to sustain daily life, but to lounge in the lap of luxury, thus spreading the message far and wide about the extent of their power. Related: How an ancient civilization flourished in the desolate Arabian desert 2,000 years ago “The pool marks the terminus for an aqueduct that transported water from one of the springs, ‘Ein Brak, located in the hills outside of Petra,” Leigh-Ann Bedal, associate professor of anthropology from the Penn State Behrend College, told Haaretz. “The pool’s monumental architecture and verdant garden served as a visual celebration of the Nabataeans’ success at providing water to the city center.” The archaeological study found a shaft nearly 33-feet-deep that would have led water from the aqueduct system to the pool level. Also uncovered during recent excavations were a series of underground channels that controlled rainwater runoff, illustrating that the sophisticated system was just as functional as it was decadent. Maximizing Jordan’s sparse rains by collecting water, storing it, and routing it where it was needed (or wanted) shows a more complex engineering feat than would be expected for a 2,000-year-old civilization, and archaeologists are still working to unearth more secrets of the ancient garden site. Images via Leigh-Ann Bedal

- NASA has released a captivating animation that offers a simulated perspective of Earth from the moon’s south pole. - The animation compresses three months of lunar days into a two-minute video, showcasing the unusual movements of Earth and the sun from the moon’s vantage point. - It features Earth “bobbing” and the sun gracefully orbiting the lunar horizon, with a rare eclipse where Earth passes in front of the sun. - The animation is from the rim of Shackleton Crater, the same region targeted for NASA’s upcoming Artemis moon-landing missions. - NASA’s ambitious Artemis program aims to return astronauts to the moon in the 2020s, with several missions planned. NASA has recently unveiled a mesmerizing animation that grants viewers a unique glimpse of our planet from the vantage point of the moon’s south pole. This striking simulation, produced by NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, captures three months’ worth of lunar days in just two minutes. In this lunar view, Earth exhibits an intriguing up-and-down motion, while the sun elegantly circles the lunar horizon. What makes this video truly remarkable is the occurrence of a rare eclipse. As viewers watch, Earth passes in front of the sun, presenting a celestial phenomenon diametrically opposite to the lunar eclipses observed from our home planet. While Earth’s inhabitants perceive this as a lunar eclipse, from the moon’s perspective, it is an eclipse of the sun. The virtual camera in this animation is stationed on the rim of Shackleton Crater, a region that aligns with NASA’s forthcoming Artemis moon-landing missions. NASA’s Artemis program, an ambitious endeavor aimed at returning astronauts to the lunar surface, holds the promise of turning this simulation into reality within this decade. The agency aspires to accomplish this lunar return mission in the 2020s, with a suite of robotic explorers, part of the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program. Artemis 3, a lunar landing mission, aims to touchdown in 2024, is planned to be the first crewed lunar landing. The mission depends on a support mission to place a Starship Human Landing System (HLS) in place in a near-rectilinear halo orbit (NRHO) of the Moon prior to the launch of SLS/Orion. However, this date may remain subject to change as NASA addresses technical challenges and secures funding. Notably, concerns have arisen regarding the readiness of the Artemis spacesuits, potentially affecting the 2024 deadline.

USA — It was a common theme in statements from both firefighters and public officials when the High Park Fire was scorching Larimer County: Dead trees killed by mountain pine beetles are responsible for the rapid spread and intensity of wildfires in Northern Colorado. But a new study, echoing many studies before it, says thats not true. Bark beetles are not responsible for Colorados most notorious wildfires. The real culprit: Climate change-fueled drought. The study, co-authored by Colorado State University wildlife ecology professor Barry Noon and scientists at the Clark University, the Xerces Society and the Geos Institute, shows that fire risk is tied to primarily to drought conditions. Removal of bark beetle-killed trees may reduce the risk for small wildfires, but not catastrophic crown fires that ravaged Colorado forests in 2012, the study concludes. Drought and high temperatures are likely the overriding factors behind the current bark beetle epidemic in the western United States, said Xerces Society Executive Director Scott Hoffman. Because logging and thinning cannot effectively alleviate the overriding effects of climate, it will do little or nothing to control these large-scale outbreaks. Similar studies conducted by the U.S. Forest Service and CSU have come to the same conclusion in the past, but policymakers and even Jeff Jahnke, former director of the Colorado State Forest Service, have said its clear bark beetles are a major player in wildfire spread. They dont even listen to their own scientists, Noon said, referring to policymakers and land managers who insist bark beetles play a major role in wildfires. Bark beetle-devastated Rocky Mountain National Park has a fire management plan that relies on research that concludes the beetle has little effect on the spread of wildfire there, park officials said last year. But as a longtime firefighter, the bark beetle is the biggest reason Larimer Countys forests burned in 2012, Jahnke, then the CSFS director, said in June while the High Park Fire was exploding through the foothills. The beetles, he said, created red trees that are very dry and burn explosively. But Noon said thats not quite true. Heres the issue — for a fire, you need two things: You need an ignition source and you need fuel, Noon said. Certainly dead trees that still have brown needles on them are an ignition source. They wont carry the fire in a catastrophic fashion because theres insufficient fuel in the canopy of the trees. The fuel part of the trees are in the live canopies. Thats where all the biomass resides. Living trees burn just as fast and easily as dead trees in drought years. People dont want to admit theres a drought because the drought is driven by carbon dioxide buildup in the atmosphere, Noon said. Its telling people something they dont want to hear. The study also concludes that logging and thinning can lead to heightened insect activity by removing large, dead trees that are often used as habitat by species that prey on bark beetles. That could prolong bark beetle outbreaks because of a reduction in the beetles natural enemies. The study, Do Bark Beetle Outbreaks Increase Wildlfire Risks in the Central Rocky Mountains? Implications from Recent Research was published Wednesday in the journal Natural Areas Journal.