text:
As banks continue to explore ways to manage the sensitivity around charging fees while minimizing the impact associated with charging those fees, it's important to focus on the following three areas:
The data from our 2012 U.S. Retail Banking Satisfaction Study shows that fee structure changes not only have a significant impact on customer satisfaction, but they also lead to an increase in problem incidence and intended attrition. The following are some best practices banks should consider when making changes to fee structures:
- When changes are necessary, focus on limiting the number of changes customers are forces to accept. For example, making two or three changes to fee structures per year may be more confusing and less satisfying than making multiple changes at one time.
- When fee changes are necessary, it is critical to communicate the changes well in advance so that customers are not caught by surprise.
- While communication of fees is mandatory, there are some other ways for financial institutions to help ensure customers are aware of changes—e.g., communicating changes more than once and preferably via multiple channels, such as mailed letter and online notification.
Source: J.D. Power and Associates 2012 U.S. Banking Satisfaction Study
The impact of communication on the fee experience goes far beyond simply providing advance notice of any changes to the fee structure. There are other best practices that banks can follow to provide their customers with more information regarding fees or information on other product pricing options available:
Account initiation: Starting with account initiation, it's vital that representatives perform a detailed needs assessment and identify the products that meets customers' needs. Performing a detailed needs assessment during account initiation provides a big lift in fee understanding (22 percentage point difference for "completely" identified needs), while also providing a significant lift in satisfaction.
Online account information: It goes without saying that providing customers with clear and concise access to account information and other pertinent information via the bank's website is crucial. Clarity of account information and Clarity of information provided on the website provide considerable lifts in Fees satisfaction, while also improving fee understanding by 16 percentage points.
Outbound communication: Proactively contacting customers three or four times per year regarding banking products and services enhances satisfaction and understanding of both fees and product offerings, without creating information overload. Study findings show that satisfaction and understanding both begin to decline when customers receive five or more proactive contacts per year. This also includes performing account reviews to ensure customers have the right products. Empowering branch tellers and call center representatives to proactively review customer accounts and make recommendations for alternative products and pricing options provides lifts in Fees satisfaction and understanding and significantly improves the bank's Brand Image rating for being Customer driven.
3. Value-Based Pricing
Despite the current level of price sensitivity related to service charges, such as maintenance fees and minimum balance requirements, there is still an opportunity for banks to generate revenue through maintenance fee charges by creating a clear value proposition aligned with the differing needs of their customer base. It's also important to review the options that banks currently provide their customers with respect to maintenance fee charges.
Many banks have installed a minimum balance requirement so that customers are able to avoid maintenance fee charges, but it has created various levels of dissatisfaction. At the same time, customers indicated that discounts for students, senior citizens, military personnel, or multiple products are not widely offered, which may be related to poor communication of the discounts by the institution and, thereby, low customer awareness. But most importantly, many banks do not clearly communicate the benefits customers will receive in exchange for the maintenance fees they pay, nor are banks providing different pricing options based on channel and product usage.
By understanding the key drivers of high fee/above-average satisfaction across segments, as depicted above, banks should consider the following strategies:
Explain the value proposition—When considering how to roll out a new monthly maintenance fee structure for customers in a particular segment, banks should emphasize the offerings most important to that specific segment. For example, in their explanations to customers in the Affluent segment, banks should promote their mobile banking applications/improvements; their ability to provide proactive advice on accounts; their focus on an efficient and courteous branch experience; and their product offerings, such as debit card with rewards and mortgage discounts.
Develop unique pricing options—By understanding channel preference and usage, banks may potentially create unique pricing strategies. For example, since data shows that customers in the Affluent/Emerging Affluent segment tend to have lower levels of branch usage and preference than do other customers, banks may potentially offer these customers a special rate for low branch usage, such as visiting a branch once every 4 months. From the perspective of customers, they are getting a special deal for something that relates directly to them, and from the bank's perspective, they tend to benefit by minimizing branch traffic and staffing needs.
The Bottom Line:
There are a few banks across the industry that are able to charge customers maintenance fees without jeopardizing satisfaction, including Frost National Bank, Woodforest Bank, Hancock Bank, and S&T Bank. Customers of these institutions are more likely to be charged maintenance fees, compared with industry average, yet Fees satisfaction remains significantly above average.


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Approved Research
Identification of genetic variation associated with Chiari I malformation
Principal Investigator: Dr Gabriel Haller
Approved Research ID: 61106
Approval date: January 25th 2021
Lay summary
Chiari type I malformation (CM1) is one of the most common pediatric neurological conditions, affecting ~3% of individuals undergoing brain imaging. CM1 is characterized by the herniation of the cerebellum through the foramen magnum into the spinal canal, often leading to syringomyelia (SM), a fluid-filled cyst within the spinal canal. The genetic causes of CM1 and SM are poorly understood, but understanding these causes may improve diagnosis and treatment of these disorders, transforming the lives of affected individuals. The goals of this proposal are to 1) Identify common genetic variation associated with CM1/SM risk using GWAS data from the UKBiobank, 2) Identify genes with increased burden of rare genetic variants associated with CM1 risk using exome sequencing data from the UKbiobank and 3) Identify radiological biomarkers that correlate with CM1 using MRI scans from the UKBiobank. This project will have a duration of 3 years with the potential to continue if the UKBiobank dataset continues to expand.


Provider: ingentaconnect Database: ingentaconnect Content: application/x-research-info-systems TY - ABST AU - Prince, J. S AU - Baker, S. TI - Batophora Largoensis New Species (Chlorophyta, Dasycladaceae) from South Florida: Morphological and Ultrastructural Evidence JO - Bulletin of Marine Science PY - 1984-05-01T00:00:00/// VL - 34 IS - 3 SP - 321 EP - 329 N2 - Morphological, reproductive and ultrastructural characteristics are described for a new species of the genus Batophora, B. largoensis sp. nov., found in the exposed waters off Key Largo, Horida. The seasonal height of reproductive individuals, gametangial and cyst size and wall structure, pigmentation, habitat and fertility of B. largoensis are compared with those for Batophora oerstedi J. Agardh, composing a nearby population. The characteristic red pigmentation of B. largoensis appears to be genetically rather than environmentally controlled while the fertility of the new species is approximately 10 times that of B. oerstedi. UR - ER -


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Lotus Root Soba
Buy Online | Nutrition Facts
Eden Lotus Root Soba is hard winter and hard spring wheat, whole buckwheat flour, lotus root powder, and a bit of sea salt. Tanaka family made as they've been doing it since 1906, now with four generations actively involved. It's an easy and delicious way to enjoy the exceptional flavor and benefit of buckwheat and lotus root.
Historical Information
Soba is the Japanese word for buckwheat Fagopyrum esculentum, a nearly forgotten healthy food with rich flavor and many benefits. Buckwheat is a hardy, wild broad leaf plant and not a grass. It belongs to the Polygonaceae or buckwheat family and is not a member of the cereal grain or Gramineae family. The fruit seed of buckwheat has long been valued in both East and West. It originated in the area of Lake Baikal in Siberia, in the Himalayas, and Manchuria. Buckwheat was cultivated and eaten in China before being adopted throughout Asia and Europe. It has long been a staple food in Russia and central Europe where known as 'kasha.'
Lotus root of a water lily, Nelumbo nucifera, is traditionally valued for promoting healthy respiratory function. When lotus root powder is added to traditional soba dough it imparts a creamy smooth texture.
The art of making noodles is believed to have originated among farmers in China. Noodles were adopted in Buddhist temples and were brought to Japan by monks. The first reference to buckwheat in Japan appears in records from the Heian period (794 - 1185 A.D.). Buckwheat noodles or'soba kiri' are mentioned in documents from the early 1600s.
Nutrition Facts
Eden Lotus Root Soba is low fat, and saturated fat and cholesterol free. It is a good source of healthy fiber, protein, and iron. It is easy to digest and traditionally eaten for its strengthening and relaxing qualities.
Commercial pasta is highly refined, chemically treated flour, processed in minutes through teflon dies and ultra high heat or microwave drying, resulting in inferior flavor, diminished nutrition, and dubious value. Eden Lotus Root Soba is a wise choice. Light, delicious and nourishing because it's made with patience, care, the best ingredients, and handling that enhances value.
Eden Lotus Root Soba are delicious, warming and strengthening food enjoy hot or chilled in dashi broth with shoyu, kombu sea vegetable, shiitake mushroom, and mirin, or drizzled with ponzu. Use it like any pasta in soups, stir-fries, and salads. Wrap them in toasted nori to make noodle sushi. Do not add salt to the cooking water. Unlike Eden Organic Soba and Udon these noodles are made with a bit of sea salt.
Traditional Cooking Instructions for Japanese Noodles
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text:
- Category: Showcase
May 2009 Showcase:
Tilbe Göksun (advisor: Kathy Hirsh-Pasek) 4th year PhD student, Department of Psychology, Temple University
Relational terms (e.g., verbs and prepositions) are the cornerstone of language development, bringing together two distinct fields: linguistic theory and infants' event processing. To learn relational terms, infants initially perceive and conceptualize spatial components within events such as path and manner, and then uncover how their ambient language packages these spatial constructs. We propose that infants trade spaces as the language-general nonlinguistic constructs are gradually refined and tuned to the requirements of the particular native language (Göksun, Hirsh-Pasek, & Golinkoff, in press).
Previous research suggests that preverbal infants from different language environments possess a general set of spatial and event components (e.g., containment, support, degree of fit, path, manner, source, goal) that form bases for learning relational terms. Our studies offer a new area of research, exploring infants' processing of figures and grounds in dynamic events.
The figure in an event can follow any path or move from any source. The ground is a stationary setting with respect to a figure's movement. For example, in the sentence "John is walking across the street," John is the figure and the street is the ground. Importantly, languages encode figure and ground relations differently. Japanese ground-path verbs such as wataru "go across" or koeru "go over", incorporate constraints on the physical geometry of the ground along with the direction of motion. For example, wataru "go across" implies that there is both a starting point and a goal and the ground should be a flat extended surface. The typical grounds for wataru "go across" are railroad, road, or bridge. In contrast, when the ground does not contain a barrier between two sides (e.g., a tennis court, grassy field) the verb tooru "go through," rather than wataru "go across" is used (see Figure 1).
Figure 1. The grounds at the top panel (railroad track, street, road, and bridge) are encoded by the verb wataru "to cross" and grounds at the bottom panel (tennis court and grass) are not typically coded by the verb wataru "to cross," but encoded by the verb tooru "go through" in Japanese.
In a series of studies, we examined how English-reared infants differentiate figures (e.g., a man or a woman crossing a railroad) and grounds (e.g., crossing a railroad vs. crossing a tennis court) in dynamic events. Results indicated that infants notice changes in figures and grounds by 11 and 14 months of age, respectively. Notably, the same infants distinguish grounds better when the comparison is between a wataru "go across" (e.g., railroad) ground and a tooru "go through" ground (e.g., tennis court) according to Japanese (Göksun, Hirsh-Pasek, & Golinkoff, 2009). Thus, preverbal infants are sensitive to the subtle distinctions of grounds that are not lexicalized in English. In a control study, we tested a potential confound, the color of the ground, on infants' differentiation of these grounds. One might argue that the "greenness" of the grassy field or tennis court drew infants' attention to prefer looking at those sides at test trial. However, results replicated the original findings with colored scenes suggesting that color of the ground is not a strong perceptual cue for infants' discrimination of grounds.
Our current studies address two lines of inquiry. First, we attempt to tease apart the role of spatial and temporal interaction in these events. Do children process static scenes of the same dynamic events similarly? Relational term learning demands perceiving the spatial-temporal interaction inherent in dynamic events. Verbs, for example, can label a moment in time (as in kiss) or they unfold across time (as in run), or can represent the completion of a particular time frame (as in break). Eliminating the temporal aspect of an event might enhance or reduce children's ability to distinguish different figures and grounds.
Second, to test our hypothesis of trading spaces for figure-ground relations, we investigate how Japanese-reared infants from two age groups (14 and 20 months of age) differentiate grounds in the same nonlinguistic dynamic events. The comparison of these children to their English-reared counterparts will provide crucial information on how language exposure might influence the attention to language-specific distinctions in events.
- ♦ Göksun, T., Hirsh-Pasek, K, & Golinkoff, R. M. (in press). Trading Spaces: Carving up events for learning language. Perspectives on Psychological Science.
- ♦ Göksun, T., Hirsh-Pasek, K, & Golinkoff, R. M. (2009). Processing figures and grounds in dynamic and static events. In J. Chandlee, M. Franchini, S. Lord, & G. Rheiner (Eds.), Proceedings of the 33rd Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development, (pp. 199-210). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.

source: HuggingFaceFW/fineweb-edu


text:
I can sort and read words.
2. tap the to sort each word
3. add or to write the word for each picture at the bottom of the page
4. record yourself reading each word on the page
Students will edit this template:

source: openbmb/Ultra-FineWeb


AdobeStock 79930937 3
The PMCT accreditation process has been designed to obtain information about health service performance of the intern training program against explicit standards and criteria, to achieve the following objectives:
 1. Interns achieve a high standard of general clinical education and training; and
 2. The best possible environment exists for the organisation, supervision, education and training of interns.
 Accreditation is awarded to a health service for:
 1. The overall health service intern training program; and
 2. Individual intern terms
The objective of the accreditation process is to ensure that the training health service complies with the following seven standards:
 1. Health service culture and support for interns
 2. Orientation
 3. Education and training program
 4. Supervision
 5. Feedback and assessment
 6. Program evaluation
 7. Facilities and amenities
The standards have been developed with reference to the following documents:
 - Prevocational Medical Accreditation Framework for the Education and Training of Prevocational Doctors (CPMEC, 2009); National Intern Training Accreditation Framework (AMC 2014); and Registration Standard: Granting registration as a medical practitioner to Australian and New Zealand graduates on completion of intern training (MBA, 2012).
 - The AMC and the Medical Board of Australia have approved on 14 December 2016 revisions to the intern standards and domains and this can be found at
The PMCT Accreditation Guidelines (PDF-395KB) outline the process for intern training programs in Tasmania.


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LEARN ENGLISH COUNTABLE POSSESSIVE NOUNS
Possessive nouns in English show a possession
relation between two nouns. They take the form of (noun +'s + noun)
Peter's car. (correct) (El coche de Peter)
In this example the noun "Peter" possesses a
"car". Spanish speakers find these types of nouns a bit difficult to use at first.
They tend to use the "of" sentence to show
any type of possession relation.
The car of Peter. (incorrect) (El coche de Peter)


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Higher fruit intake is associated with lower risk of all-cause and disease-specific mortality. However, data on individual fruits are limited, and the generalisability of these findings to the elderly remains uncertain. The objective of this study was to examine the association of apple intake with all-cause and disease-specific mortality over 15 years in a cohort of women aged over 70 years. Secondary analyses explored relationships of other fruits with mortality outcomes. Usual fruit intake was assessed in 1456 women using a FFQ. Incidence of all-cause and disease-specific mortality over 15 years was determined through the Western Australian Hospital Morbidity Data system. Cox regression was used to determine the hazard ratios (HR) for mortality. During 15 years of follow-up, 607 (41·7%) women died from any cause. In the multivariable-adjusted analysis, the HR for all-cause mortality was 0·89 (95% CI 0·81, 0·97) per sd (53 g/d) increase in apple intake, HR 0·80 (95% CI 0·65, 0·98) for consumption of 5-100 g/d and HR 0·65 (95% CI 0·48, 0·89) for consumption of >100 g/d (an apple a day), compared with apple intake of <5 g/d (P for trend=0·03). Our analysis also found that higher apple intake was associated with lower risk for cancer mortality, and that higher total fruit and banana intakes were associated lower risk of CVD mortality (P<0·05). Our results support the view that regular apple consumption may contribute to lower risk of mortality.
Keywords: All-cause mortality; Apples; CVD; Cancer; Disease-specific mortality; Fruits; HR hazard ratio; WADLS Western Australian Data Linkage System.


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to the commands that set them. For instance, the two DepthRange parameters are returned in the order n followed by f. Similarly, points for evaluator maps are returned in the order that they appeared when passed to Map1. Map2 returns in the th block of values (see page for i, j, uorder, and ).
Besides providing a means to obtain the values of state variables, the GL also provides a means to save and restore groups of state variables. The PushAttrib, PushClientAttrib, PopAttrib and PopClientAttrib commands are used for this purpose. The commands
void PushAttrib ( bitfield mask ) ;
void PushClientAttrib ( bitfield mask ) ;
take a bitwise OR of symbolic constants indicating which groups of state variables to push onto an attribute stack. PushAttrib uses a server attribute stack while PushClientAttrib uses a client attribute stack. Each constant refers to a group of state variables. The classification of each variable into a group is indicated in the following tables of state variables. The error STACK_OVERFLOW is generated if PushAttrib or PushClientAttrib is executed while the corresponding stack depth is MAX_ATTRIB_STACK_DEPTH or MAX_CLIENT_ATTRIB_STACK_DEPTH respectively. The commands
void PopAttrib ( void ) ;
void PopClientAttrib ( void ) ;
reset the values of those state variables that were saved with the last corresponding PushAttrib or PopClientAttrib. Those not saved remain unchanged. The error STACK_UNDERFLOW is generated if PopAttrib or PopClientAttrib is executed while the respective stack is empty.
Table 6.2 shows the attribute groups with their corresponding symbolic constant names and stacks.
Table 6.2: Attribute groups
When PushAttrib is called with TEXTURE_BIT set, the priorities, border colors, filter modes, and wrap modes of the currently bound texture objects, as well as the current texture bindings and enables, are pushed onto the attribute stack. (Unbound texture objects are not pushed or restored.) When an attribute set that includes texture information is popped, the bindings and enables are first restored to their pushed values, then the bound texture objects' priorities, border colors, filter modes, and wrap modes are restored to their pushed values.
The depth of each attribute stack is implementation dependent but must be at least 16. The state required for each attribute stack is potentially 16 copies of each state variable, 16 masks indicating which groups of variables are stored in each stack entry, and an attribute stack pointer. In the initial state, both attribute stacks are empty.
In the tables that follow, a type is indicated for each variable. Table 6.3 explains these types. The type actually identifies all state associated with the indicated description; in certain cases only a portion of this state is returned. This is the case with all matrices, where only the top entry on the stack is returned; with clip planes, where only the selected clip plane is returned, with parameters describing lights, where only the value pertaining to the selected light is returned; with textures, where only the selected texture or texture parameter is returned; and with evaluator maps, where only the selected map is returned. Finally, a ''--'' in the attribute column indicates that the indicated value is not included in any attribute group (and thus can not be pushed or popped with PushAttrib, PushClientAttrib, PopAttrib, or PopClientAttrib ).
Table 6.3: State variable types
GL Internal begin-end state variables (inaccessible)
Table 6.4: GL Internal begin-end state variables (inaccessible)
Current Values and Associated Data
Table 6.5: Current Values and Associated Data
Vertex Array Data
Table 6.6: Vertex Array Data
Table 6.7: Transformation state
Table 6.8: Coloring
Lighting (see also Table 2.5 for defaults)
Table 6.9: Lighting (see also Table 2.5 for defaults)
Table 6.10: Rasterization
Table 6.11: Texture Objects
Texture Environment and Generation
Table 6.12: Texture Environment and Generation
Table 6.13: Pixel Operations
Table 6.14: Framebuffer Control
Table 6.15: Pixels
Table 6.16: Pixels (cont.)
Evaluators ( GetMap takes a map name)
Table 6.17: Evaluators ( GetMap takes a map name)
Table 6.18: Hints
Implementation Dependent Values
Table 6.19: Implementation Dependent Values
More Implementation Dependent Values
Table 6.20: More Implementation Dependent Values
Implementation Dependent Pixel Depths
Table 6.21: Implementation Dependent Pixel Depths
Table 6.22: Miscellaneous


From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
Ö or ö is not a letter used in English, but is used in some other languages, such as German, Finnish, Estonian, Hungarian and Swedish.
German[change | change source]
Germany and Austria[change | change source]
Ö or ö is one of the 4 extra letters used in German. It can be replaced by using the letters Oe or oe. In English language newspapers it is often written as O or o but this is not correct.
Internet addresses are written as "oe" because the internet address system can only understand ordinary English letters.
Switzerland[change | change source]
German is one of the official languages of Switzerland. It has its own dialect (Swiss-German or Schweizerdeutsch). The Ö or ö is used in the Swiss dialect as well.


Episode 061: The Qilin and the Phoenix
This week we're going to find out some surprising possible inspirations for the qilin, sometimes called the kirin or the Chinese unicorn, and the phoenix! Strap in, kids. We're going to do history!
A qilin:
A giraffe:
My beautiful art of tsaidamotherium, both subspecies, with their weird horns:
A saiga antelope
A takin:
A bird of paradise:
Another bird of paradise:
Further reading:
Dale Drinnon's Frontiers of Zoology about the qilin
An online Bestiary. This is where I got the quotes from Herodotus.
The Book of Beasts, trans. T.H. White
The Lungfish, The Dodo and the Unicorn by Willy Ley
Extraordinary Animals Revisited by Karl P.N. Shuker
Show transcript:
This week we're going to learn about two animals that most people consider mythological—but they might be based on real animals that are as extraordinary as the folktales surrounding them.
The first is the qilin, also called the kirin or some other close variation. These days it's usually depicted with a pair of antlers like a deer, but in older legends and artwork it often only had one horn, so is sometimes called the Chinese unicorn. It can resemble a dragon with cloven hooves, or a bull-like or deer-like animal with scales or a scaly pattern on its body. In Japan it's usually depicted with one horn that curves backwards from its forehead.
The qilin legend is thousands of years old, with the first references dating back to the 5th century BCE. It has traditionally been considered a gentle animal whose appearance foretold the birth or death of a great ruler, or if it appeared to a ruler, it foretold a long, peaceful reign. Supposedly it first appeared to the Emperor Fu Hsi 5000 years ago as he walked along the banks of the Yellow River. A single-horned animal emerged from the water and walked so daintily that its cloven hooves didn't leave prints in the mud. A scroll on its back was miraculously not wet, and when Fu Hsi unrolled the scroll he saw a map of his kingdom and written characters that taught him written language.
In 1414, explorer Zheng He brought a giraffe to China for the first time and presented it to the emperor as a qilin. The emperor wasn't fooled, but it was a good PR move to treat the animal as a qilin. But the qilin was never depicted with a long neck before then, and even after, long-necked qilins were rare in art and sculpture. On the other hand, the Japanese word for giraffe is kirin, so there was some overlap.
The qilin was supposed to be solitary and lived high in the mountains and in deep forests. It ate plants and was described in various ways, as having a deer's body and a lion's head, or a horse's body with a dragon's head, or some other combination. It always had cloven hooves.
In 398 BCE, so more than 2,400 years ago, Greek historian Ctesias wrote a book about India, including the animals found in that land. Ctesias had never actually visited India, although he had traveled to a lot of other countries. This is what he wrote about the animal we now know as the unicorn: "There are in India certain wild asses which are as large as horses, and larger. Their bodies are white, their heads dark red, and their eyes dark blue. They have a horn on the forehead which is about a foot and a half in length." Then he talks about the horn for a few more sentences, especially its supposed ability to cure diseases and neutralize poisons. If you're interested in this aspect of the unicorn legend, I go over it at length in episode five, about the unicorn.
Most researchers think Ctesias was talking about the rhinoceros. But maybe he was referring to another animal, one that possibly contributed to both the unicorn legend and also to the legend of the qilin.
Tsaidamotherium was a bovid that lived during the late Miocene, around half a million years ago. Its fossils have been found in Northwestern China. It was probably most closely related to the musk ox and was adapted for life in cold mountainous regions. It had a high nasal cavity, which would have helped warm air before it reached the lungs. Other bovids found in cold areas tend to have similar structures. The Saiga antelope has a bulbous-looking face due to its large nasal passages, as does the takin, both of which also live in and around the Himalayas. But both the saiga and the takin have a pair of clearly separated horns. The saiga's horns are long and look like typical antelope horns, while the takin's horns resemble those of a musk ox, curving to the sides in a sort of U shape.
The really striking thing about Tsaidamotherium is its horns, and no animal living today has horns even slightly like it. It had a pair, but only the right horn grew large. The left one was much smaller, so that from a distance it looked like it only had one large horn on its head. These are not slender unicorn horns, though. They're not even bull-like cow horns. There are actually two species of Tsaidamotherium that we know of, and they had differently shaped horns. T. hedini had thick horns that grew upward from the head like cones. The other, T. brevirostrum, with fossilized remains only described in 2013, had the same mismatched horns but both were short and squat and probably bent forward. I'll put a couple of drawings in the show notes to give you an idea.
There are hints that Tsaidamotherium may have survived well into the modern era, probably in isolated pockets in the Himalayan Mountains. Until the mid-19th century there were reports of animals matching T. hedini's description in Tibet, although even there it was considered rare to the point of near-legend. The first fossilized remains of Tsaidamotherium weren't discovered until the early 20th century, in 1932. One interesting note is that the larger horn of T. hedini would probably have resembled the conical Yeti skullcaps sometimes found in monasteries in the Himalayas, although that's probably a coincidence.
The Tsaidamotherium as Qilin is a theory put forth by Dale Drinnon, and I'll link to the relevant post in the show notes if you want to read more.
Like the unicorn legend, which in one form or another has spread throughout much of the world, the phoenix has a long and complicated history. The modern story is still very close to what people believed in the middle ages and even before. It's a mythical bird that every so often, usually every 500 years, would burst into flame, burn to ashes, and be reborn from those ashes into a new phoenix. There is only ever one phoenix. It's usually depicted as eagle-like but not an eagle, and is usually red or gold.
Medieval writers loved the phoenix, because its cycle of rebirth from its own dead body practically wrote itself as a strong allegory to the Christian idea of redemption and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. In T.H. White's translation of a 12th century bestiary, The Book of Beasts, the phoenix was supposed to live in Arabia and its big event is described like this:
"When it notices that it is growing old, it builds itself a funeral pyre, after collecting some spice branches, and on this, turning its body toward the rays of the sun and flapping its wings, it sets fire to itself of its own accord until it burns itself up. Then verily, on the ninth day afterward, it rises from its own ashes!"
After drawing the parallel with Christian symbolism, the book repeats itself with more detail, it makes a coffin for itself of frankincense and myrrh and other spices, into which, its life being over, it enters and dies. From the liquid of its body a worm now emerges, and this gradually grows to maturity, until, in the appointed cycle of time, the Phoenix itself assumes the oarage of its wings, and there it is again in its previous species and form!"
Note that the second version of the story doesn't mention fire. Instead of a fire, the phoenix builds itself a coffin from spices and dies inside it. Frankincense and myrrh are both plant resins used to make perfume and incense, by the way.
All this is interesting, but is the phoenix based on a real bird? People have been trying to figure that out for centuries. The problem is that the story is so old, so widespread, and so entrenched in popular culture that it's hard to know what details point to real birds and what details are pure human imagination.
Some researchers even suggest that the phoenix might be based not on a bird at all, but a palm tree. In Greek the word phoenix also means palm tree. There are a lot of phoenix palms, including the kind that produce dates, and dates are delicious, so the tree may have been given a special status by associating it with the phoenix story. In ancient Egypt the symbol for the word benu was a stork-like bird that represented the sun but could also indicate a palm tree.
The word Phoeniceus was once a term for the color purple, so T.H. White thought the


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Taboo in the classroom
Average: 3.9 (24 votes)
In this article I will review the arguments for and against teaching taboo language and using taboo subjects, then look at some practical ideas for teachers who decide to use this area of language.
Taboo in the classroom - methodology article
 - What are taboos?
 - Why deal with taboo subjects?
 - The arguments against
 - Some acceptable approaches
 - Conclusion
What are taboos?
Swear words, gay rights, torture, sex, one-parent families, drug abuse, divorce, political freedom, obscene gestures, incest, cannibalism, religious belief, death, alcohol, nudity, suicide, racial abuse, AIDS, terrorism, pregnancy, abortion, polygamy, depression, rape, democracy…
Taboos can be found in words, gestures, topics, social and cultural behaviour, body language and personal space. The Oxford English Dictionary defines them as 'Prohibition…generally of the use or practice of anything'
and in linguistics as 'A total or partial prohibition of the use of certain words, expressions, topics, etc., esp. in social intercourse'.
Importantly for teachers, taboos vary from culture to culture. For example,the subject of how much you earn is taboo in the UK but not in other cultures, whereas homosexuality is a subject many British people are comfortable with, but a clear taboo in many other countries. Taboos change as societies change, so topics such as divorce and depression and illnesses such as cancer and AIDS may not be as taboo as they used to be (interestingly, almost no universal taboos have ever been identified, but many are shared by almost all cultures - incest, patricide and cannibalism are three examples).
Both the Oxford Dictionary definitions above are relevant for us as teachers, as we can ask two questions based on this idea of taboo language and taboo subjects:
 - Is it right to teach taboo language to learners?
 - Is it right to use taboo topics to teach language?
Neither of these questions have a simple answer, or one that people agree on.
Why deal with taboo subjects?
 - When we teach a language, we must teach the cultures in which it exists. Taboos are a key element of every culture, so we must teach them too.
 - Learners rarely learn a language for purely academic reasons. They learn so they can communicate with others who speak the language. In order to do this well, they have to know what language is appropriate and what is not.
 - Learners who need English to live and work in a country where it is the first language have to understand both taboo language and taboo topics, as they will encounter both. Not understanding taboo areas is dangerous.
 - Learners in the modern world are constantly exposed to taboo language and topics. As teachers we have a responsibility to guide them through this.
 - Using taboo topics to teach language can be highly productive, as they often generate high levels of interest and involvement in learners.
 - When we teach learners about the taboo language and topics of our culture, we share something special and unique, something they do not see in coursebooks.
 - Taboos are a rich area of language. Thinking about taboos means for example thinking about euphemisms, slang, formal and informal language, double meanings, body language and politically correct terminology. Discussing sensitive areas means using skills in negotiation, agreeing, disagreeing, explaining opinion, justifying, etc.
 - Multilingual classes are multicultural classes. Discussing the taboos of learner cultures together means real communication of genuinely motivating topics.
The arguments against
 - Taboos are taboos for a reason. They are areas of language and topics which are prohibited by a society, and when we use them in a classroom we run enormous risks of offending our learners in the most profound ways possible: religious and political belief, sexuality, morality.
 - Taboo language is extremely difficult to use correctly and appropriately. By teaching learners this kind of language we are giving them a loaded gun but not showing them how to use it safely.
 - Our work as teachers is not to provoke extreme emotional responses from our learners, although we may think that a provocative role is the right one. Our work is to teach the systems and skills of English. There are many effective ways of doing this apart from exploiting areas that learners would never discuss, not even in their own language.
 - Taboo topics provoke extreme reactions and in a classroom these kinds of reactions can cause problems, no matter how well we think we can manage the activity. A discussion can turn into a conflict in a moment.
 - There are few classrooms in the world where nothing bad has happened to any of the learners, or the teacher. Many have had experiences of areas we classify as taboo, such as death, issues of political freedom and divorce. Discussing these may be involving, yes, but in the worst way for someone in your class.
 - When you decide to use taboos, you should ask yourself why. Is it because they support your aims for the class better than other material, or just because they are taboos?
Some acceptable approaches
Even if you are against teaching taboos or using them to teach language points, there may be ways of exploiting this area. Below are some ideas:
 - Looking at how taboos are managed in a culture, e.g. euphemism, innuendo, double meaning, formal and informal equivalents.
 - Discussing what is appropriate and what is not, both at a language and content level. For example, is it right to ask questions about taboo topics when you meet someone for the first time? Which ones are okay and which not? Who can ask those kinds of questions? Is this language vulgar and impolite?
 - Thinking about body language / gestures / personal space. What is acceptable in each learner's culture?
 - Looking at modern slang and informal language - rich, challenging and always changing.
 - Looking at politically correct language.
 - Learner-led discussion. Learners who feel free to express themselves will often start a discussion on an apparently sensitive area if it is important to them. Our role is to facilitate discussion, guide and ensure that there is no negative impact on other learners.
 - Talking about your own society's taboos and your own feelings about these (if you are teaching abroad, in another culture). Even if this is not successful, it may offer you some insights into what you should be asking your learners to do.
 - Looking at taboo language in context, e.g. literature readings.
 - Is it right to teach taboo language to learners?
 - Is it right to use taboo topics to teach language?
Before you give an answer to the two questions above, you need to think about your own classes. If you feel your learners' needs are best met by teaching them taboo language, then it is right to look at it. Similarly, if you feel that the best way your learners can achieve the learning aims of a class is by looking at taboo subjects then they can become an important resource. But I feel you should take a long hard look at what you are asking your learners to think about, and respond to, before you make the decision to take taboos into your classroom. It may not be worth the risk.
Further Reading
Wikipedia: Taboo
Taboos and Issues by Leather, ELT Journal 2003
Breaking Taboos by Guy Cook, ETP April 02
Taboos and issues, Richard MacAndrew and Ron Martinez, Language Teaching Publications, 2001.
Discussions A-Z, Wallwork, CUP.
Dangerous English 2000!
Written by Paul Kaye, Teacher, Trainer, Materials writer


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The term preadaptation is applied when a large change in function is accomplished with little change in structure.
As we look at the historical changes in the evolution of an adaptation, it is possible that at every stage the organ served the same function (the evolution of the eye is probably an example - all its stages probably had visual functions), or the earlier stages could possibly have had different functions from the later ones. The classical Darwinian term for the second possibility is preadaptation. The earlier stage is described as a preadaptation for the later stage.
The evolution of tetrapod limbs is an example, illustrated by an animation. A structure which was effective at locomotion in water was also good at locomotion over land with relatively few changes.
Preadaptation does not imply any futuristic or anticipatory faculty in evolution. All that is happening is that sometimes, by chance, an organ that works well in one function turns out to work well in another function after relatively little adjustment.
Image: it has been suggested that bird feathers are an example of a preadaptation: the first feathers were for heat insulation rather than an adaptation for flight.


text: Patellofemoral pain syndrome) PFPS) is one of the most common knee injuries at a young age and is more common in women. Because of pain, muscle weakness and proprioception loss of in knee, these people have a deficit balance. The purpose of this study was Comparison of Land-based physical therapy with Aquatic physical therapy to improvement pain, physical function, static and dynamic balance in patient with PFPS. In this present quasi-experimental study twenty patients with PFPS participated and were divided into two groups: physical therapy on land and water. Subjects in both groups performed three sessions of exercise therapy per week for 8 weeks. In the beginning and at the end of the period, the patients' pain, function, static and dynamic balance respectively was assessed by visual analogue scale, kujala score, sharpend Romberg and star excursion balance test. Data was analyzed using SPSS (version 18) at a significance level of (P ≤ 0.05). In this study, pain, function, static and dynamic balance scores of the both groups significantly improved after the exercise period (P ≤ 0.05). However, there was no significant difference of data between the two groups in pain, function, static and dynamic balance (P ≥ 0.05). The results showed that physical therapy in water and land can be used as a useful and effective method to reduce pain, improve function, static and dynamic balance of PFPS patients. Although the results did not show statistically significant differences between the two groups the difference between two groups in the mean percentage change indicates that the clinical effect of exercise in water is higher than the land. According to these results aquatic physical therapy is recommended as an effective method for the treatment of patients with patellofemoral pain syndrome.


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Consider a simple lazy random walk on an $n$-vertex undirected, connected graph: this is the Markov chain which transitions from $i$ to $j$ with probability $p_{ij}=1/(2d(i))$ where $d(i)$ is the degree of node $i$. Note that $p_{ii}=1/2$ for all $i$. Define $C(i)$ be the expected time until a walk starting from node $i$ visits every vertex and let $C = \max_i C(i)$. Let $I(k,l)$ be the expected time until two random walks, starting at vertices $k$ and $l$, intersect (i.e., until they visit the same vertex at the same time). Let $I = \max_{k,l} I(k,l)$.
My question is: can we bound $I$ in terms of $C$? Specifically, is it true that $$ \frac{I}{C} \leq k \log^l n$$ for some constants $k,l$ independent of $n$ and of the graph?
I asked this question on math.stackexchange a week ago without receiving an answer.
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Interesting question. Can you elaborate on why you think the inequality should hold? And tell us how you attempted to solve the problem and why it failed? – Pascal Maillard May 23 '12 at 8:18
1 Answer 1
up vote 5 down vote accepted
In Proposition 5 of Chapter 14 of the unpublished book on Markov chains by Aldous and Fill, they show that for continuous time reversible Markov chains, \[ I \le \max\{ \mathbb{E}_i T_j, i,j \in V\}, \] where $\mathbb{E}_i T_j$ is the expected time, starting from state i, until state j is visited. The preceding maximum is clearly bounded from above by $C$, so it follows that $I \le C$. This includes the case of continuous time simple random walk on a connected graph $G$, and a similar argument can be used to to establish the bound for lazy simple random walk on $G$ (in fact, the martingale argument used in the proof is originally described in Chapter 3 of the same book for the case of discrete time walks).
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Thank you!$~~~~~$ – user21162 May 23 '12 at 20:02
Your Answer


Hazeez Name Meaning
Hazeez is a Muslim Boy Name. Hazeez name meaning is Strong. It has multiple Islamic meaning. The name is originated from. The lucky number of Hazeez name is 4.
Name Hazeez
Meaning Strong
Gender Boy
Lucky Number 4
Religion Muslim
Lucky Days Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday
Lucky Colors Golden, Orange, Red
Lucky Stones Peridot
Lucky Metals Copper
Hazeez Name Meaning and History
Hazeez is a Muslim Boy name Acording to Numerology Predictions, lucky number for Hazeez is 4. Hazeez name meaning in english are Strong.
People believes to have their Lucky Days according to their names, Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday are Favourable and Lucky Days for name Hazeez and lucky metals are Copper for Hazeez name holders.
Lucky colors for Hazeez are Golden, Orange, Red and Hazeez name is famous in our names dictionary, and has been searched 46537 times, which is Forty-six thousand five hundred thirty-seven times.
Hazeez is listed in the Boys directory of Boys Islamic names meaning section, and can be searched easily online or you can check in alphabetic "H" of the Boys Muslim names area. There are almost 674 baby Boy names which start with alphabet H in our names section. You can also check the Hazeez Name meaning in Urdu in our Muslim Urdu names area.
Q. What does Hazeez name mean?
Hazeez name meaning in Urdu is "مضبوط". In English, Hazeez name meaning is "Strong".
Q. What is the Lucky Number of Hazeez?
The lucky number associated with the name Hazeez is "4".
Q. What is the religion of the name Hazeez?
The religion of the name Hazeez is Muslim.
Q. What is the origin of Hazeez name?
The origin of the name Hazeez is.
Q. What is the auspicious color of the name Hazeez?
For the name Hazeez, the lucky color is Golden, Orange, Red.
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STEM Learning Tools | News
Science Courses Add Online Simulations, Lab Experiments
Online courses in biology and chemistry from Plato Learning, designed both for credit recovery and for students new to the subjects, are receiving an infusion of new content to reflect updates in science instruction, most notably real-world applicability of traditional learning and school STEM initiatives.
The new content includes inquiry activities, lab experiments, and online simulations, all aimed at demonstrating how the concepts, scenarios, and outcomes taught in the syllabus are applied and realized in the natural world. Historically, such resources, which require practical demonstrations of scientific concepts, while easily performed in a laboratory-style classroom, have been quite limited in an online environment. The new course content, though, allows for such limitations and offers experiments conducive to limited resources and workspace. One example is an exercise that has students observe grapes in an air-tight plastic bag to analyze and understand the fermentation process that converts sugar to alcohol.
The courses also aim to support science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) initiatives that allow schools and districts to apply for STEM-related state and federal grants.
The updated biology content is available now, while the chemistry content will be offered beginning in December. Current users of the Plato Learning biology and chemistry courses will have immediate access to the new content at no additional cost. The company also offers rigorous, standards-based online courses for middle and high school students in English, mathematics, social studies, health, art history, and AP subjects including Biology and Calculus. A complete list of course offerings can be found here.
Scott Aronowitz is a freelance writer based in Las Vegas. He has covered the technology, advertising, and entertainment sectors for seven years. He can be reached here.


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This article was published originally on 8/25/2010
Alert readers across Iowa and in neighboring states are asking, "Why are there are so many dragonflies this summer?" I'm not sure what explains this larger-than-normal number of dragonflies but callers are reporting anywhere from "dozens" to "hundreds" of dragonflies flying in swarms during late afternoon to early evening.
Excessive rainfall in this year does not explain the abundance. Dragonflies develop as nymphs in rivers, streams and lakes. Most take at least one year to develop from the egg to the adult stage, and some take 2 or 3 years. So the swarmers you see now are at least one year old and probably two. These are the offspring of last year's adults (if not the adults that were flying back in 2008 or 2009). To me, that means this year's abundance is related to what happened 1 to 3 years ago, and not what happened 1 to 3 months ago. In fact, I predict that dragonfly numbers will be down in the next 1 to 3 years as flooding of 2010 may have been detrimental to nymphs in flooded streams. More water in the stream, and especially flooding, would seem to work against the dragonflies, not for them.
What we do know is that dragonflies are more numerous in high-quality water, so abundance is an indicator of healthy aquatic ecosystems, and that's a good thing.
Dragonflies are often observed long distances from the nearest water. It appears they travel long distances and then congregate ("swarm") in areas where there is a plentiful flying food source such as emerging winged ants, mosquitoes, etc. Yes, dragonflies eat mosquitoes, but it's apparent they are not keeping up with this year's bumper crop.
More information about dragonflies
Dragonfly photographed near Hungry Jack Lake MN. By Richard Minnick.


With pandemic-related border closures causing international travel to slow to a trickle, along with the COVID-19 vaccine rollout progressing around the world, there has been more talk in Japan and around the world of vaccine passports as a method to revive international tourism.
Vaccine passports are a system for recording the COVID-19 vaccinations and tests that an individual has received. Vaccinations and tests are no guarantee that someone hasn't been or won't be infected with the virus. But the argument is that a fully vaccinated and tested individual will be much less likely to pass on the virus or suffer serious symptoms if infected. Therefore, individuals could be permitted more freedom of movement—including the ability to attend events, dine at restaurants, and travel.
What might these passports look like?
At the moment, the form that these passports might take is still being hammered out, but they will likely be digital and tied to your mobile phone. Various organizations are launching vaccine passports for travel, and at this stage it looks as if Japan will piggyback on one of the international passports.
As of this writing, some leading vaccine passports are:
Although not yet tied to international travel, the most thoroughly implemented vaccine passport is Israel's Green Pass, which gives holders access to gyms, hotels, theaters, and concerts.
However, there is considerable pushback to vaccine passports. The World Health Organization, some states in the US, and even Japan's vaccine czar Kono Taro (don't say his name the other way around or he'll get angry) have expressed reservations. The reasons behind opposition to vaccine passports varies, but it ultimately comes down to concerns over privacy and fairness.
Japan seems to be favoring CommonPass. However, the wild west nature of the market and absence of a worldwide consensus means that this could change. The system to be chosen by the European Union has a good chance of becoming the de facto standard due to the high volume of travel within Europe and the likelihood that Europe will be open to American travelers during summer 2021.
How is Japan planning to implement vaccine passports?
Japan has recently expressed interest in introducing vaccine passports for international travel (report from Kyodo). However, if you're outside Japan, it's still too early to get excited. Currently, vaccine passports are being considered to facilitate international business travel by Japanese citizens and residents. To date, there has been no mention of inbound tourists.
airport, flights, travel, narita, haneda
Photo by iStock/winhorse
According to the report from Kyodo, vaccine passports will record negative PCR and antigen tests (it's not clear what happens if you get a positive result!) and will be linked to Japan's Vaccination Record System database. As mentioned, the likely base for the passport will be the CommonPass app.
The Japanese government is known for slowly drip-feeding policy plans to the media. The suggestion that something will happen means there's a 90% certainty that it will be introduced unless the media release triggers an immediate pushback. So far, so good.
Related articles:
Ask our local experts about Tokyo
Get our Tokyo Cheapo Hacks direct to your inbox
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Date of this Version
Two independent studies in the 1990s found that Hawaii had the nation's worst alien pest problem due to gaps in prevention, detection and control programs, which could be addressed through increased communication, cooperation, and public outreach. The Coordinating Group on Alien Pest Species (CGAPS), a government/non-government partnership, formed in 1995 to address these gaps and work on public awareness. Using snakes as an example, a 1996 Hawaii statewide public awareness survey found that 66% of people "had heard of brown treesnakes." CGAPS ran the "Silent Invasion" campaign in 1997, with "shock footage" television commercials and specials about brown treesnakes on Guam. By 2004, awareness of brown treesnakes had risen to 83%, and 91% of Hawaiian residents were "very likely" to report snake sightings, yet less than 5% knew about the Pest Hotline, nobody could recite it, and some balked at having to call an Oahu number to report a snake. CGAPS launched phase two of the campaign in 2006, with television and print media and a new toll-free hotline number. Follow-up surveys confirmed rising awareness about brown treesnakes, but unacceptably low awareness and use of the Pest Hotline. CGAPS is experimenting with ways to promote knowledge and good intentions to different audiences in Hawaii.


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How do dermatologists diagnose acanthosis nigricans?
A dermatologist can diagnose acanthosis nigricans (AN) by looking at your skin. If your dermatologist diagnoses you with AN, you may need a blood test and other medical tests. These tests can help find out if you have another medical condition. AN is more common in people who have diabetes. Sometimes, AN can be a warning sign of pre-diabetes, thyroid disease, and other conditions.
How do dermatologists treat acanthosis nigricans?
Many people see their skin clear when they get treatment for the condition that is causing AN. If you have pre-diabetes, getting that under control often helps to fade the dark patches on your skin. If testing finds a problem with your thyroid or adrenal glands, treating that condition can clear your skin.
Sometimes, a person develops AN but does not have a related medical condition. Sometimes treating the related disease does not completely clear the skin. It is not necessary to treat AN. If a patient wants clearer skin, a dermatologist can treat the skin.
Treatment for AN includes the following:
None of these treatments is specifically designed to treat AN. Dermatologists have found, however, that these can help. Sometimes, AN is difficult to treat.
- Lighten skin color: Prescription creams, ointments, and gels.
- Reduce skin thickness: Laser treatments.
- Decrease odor and discomfort: Antibiotics you apply to the skin and antibacterial soaps.
- Help clear the skin: Retinoids (in pill form).
If you have AN, it is essential to find out whether another disease is causing it. Finding and treating an undiagnosed disease may clear (or partially clear) your skin. If a disease is not causing your AN or you do not see the results you want from treating a related disease, a dermatologist can treat your skin.
Learn more about acanthosis nigricans
Habif TR, Campbell JL, Chapman MS, et al. "Acanthosis nigricans." Dermatology DDxDeck. Mosby. 2006.
Hermanns-Le T, Scheen A, Pierard GE. "Acanthosis Nigricans Associated with Insulin Resistance." Am J Clin Derm. 2004;5(3):199-203.
Kapoor S. "Diagnosis and treatment of acanthosis nigricans." Skinmed. 2010 May-Jun;8(3):161-4; quiz 165.
Sinha S, Schwartz RA. "Juvenile acanthosis nigricans." J Am Acad Dermatol. 2007;57:502-8.
Yosipovitch G, DeVore A, Dawn A. "Obesity and the skin: Skin physiology and skin manifestations of obesity." J Am Acad Dermatol. 2007;56:901-16.


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The French conjugation
Conjugation is the whole forms a verb can take.
|What is conjugation?|
|Auxiliaries and semi-auxiliaries|
|Active and passive forms|
|Le radical et la terminaison|
How to remember tense building?
Depending of verb and its use, accent, dash or spelling change can appear. Here are the main rules to know those changes.
Conjugate the verb
One of the main difficulties in French conjugation is to agree verb. Either auxiliary or suject or verb type can determine it.
|Conjugation with subject|
|Conjugate past participle|
|Auxiliairy avoir and être|
|Past participle followed by infinitive (advanced)|
|Conjugation with pronoun form (advanced)|
|Pronoun on (advanced)|
Use the correct tense
When to use the following tenses?


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- Location: Swansea - South Wales
- Start Date: ASAP
- Duration: ONGOING
- Job Type: Temporary
- Sector: Additional Learning Needs (ALN), Primary Education, Secondary Education
- Category: 1-2-1 Support, School Support, Teaching Assistant
- Job Ref: SWA01KS
- Salary: Competitive Pay Rates
New Directions Education are currently recruiting Learning Support Assistants for Schools in Swansea, which focus on the teaching and learning of young people in Additional Learning Needs Schools.
We fill many vacancies in schools in the Swansea area with candidates who have particular experience in working with children who require extra support in mainstream classes as well as Special Teaching Facilities.
Our ideal candidates would possess the qualifications and skills below or proven ability within this environment:
- Level 3 qualification specific to supporting children and young people.
- Be able to help monitor the pupils progress in daily tasks.
- Provide support for individual students inside and outside the classroom to enable them to fully participate in activities.
- Assist class teachers with maintaining student records.
- Manual Handling.
- Team Teach
- First Aid
- Food Hygiene
These positions are to cover day-to-day supply and longer term ongoing sickness.
The job of a teaching or classroom assistant is a now vital resource for the teacher where the position in heavily relied upon in the classroom. Further evidencing the importance of this role within schools is the rapid growth in numbers employed across the UK. Numbers employed have risen from 61,000 a decade ago 213,900 in 2011.
Teaching Assistant Qualifications
New Directions Education are specialists in recruiting Teaching Assistant (TA) jobs who are qualified to the below:
- NVQ Level 2 Teaching Assistant;
- NVQ Level 3 Teaching Assistant;
- Higher Level Teaching Assistant (HLTA);
- CACHE Level 3 in Childcare & Education;
- BTEC National Certificate in Childhood Studies (Nursery Nursing).
We will also consider experienced learning support assistants (LSAs) who have previously held a job in a primary school or assisted a pupil in the role in a secondary school but do not hold any of the above qualifications.
Jobs in Additional Learning Needs (ALN)
A large number of our jobs are in ALN and we fill many vacancies in schools with candidates who have particular experience in working with children classified as below:
- Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD);
- Multi-Sensory Impairment (MSI);
- Moderate Learning Difficulties (MLD);
- Profound and Moderate Learning Difficulties (PMLD);
- Emotional Behavioural Difficulties (EBD);
- Severe Learning Difficulties.
As well as working with students who have Physical Disabilities (PD).
Duties of a Teaching Assistant
- Assist in the educational and social development of pupils under the direction and guidance of the Head Teacher, ALNCO and Class Teachers;
- Assist in the implementation of Individual Education Programmes (IEP) for students and help monitor their progress;
- Provide support for individual students inside and outside the classroom to enable them to fully participate in activities;
- Assist class teachers with maintaining student records;
- Support students with emotional or behavioural problems and help develop their social skills.
What can you expect from New Directions Education?
- A dedicated account manager;
- Regular and varied teaching supply work;
- Competitive pay rates;
- Potential long-term teaching roles;
- Fully compliant with the Agency Workers Regulation (AWR);
- Network of branches across the UK;
- Preferred supplier to 19 boroughs across the UK;
- Recommend-a-friend scheme;
- Respected reputation throughout the education and recruitment industry.
Please contact New Directions Education for more information on this job vacancy, on 01792 620180, or use our form below to enquire about this job vacancy.
Last modified: 8th November 2018


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United Nations and European Union sanctions targeting Iran's military and missile programs remain in place until 2020 and 2023, respectively. The sanctions target firms and individuals involved in these programs, including entities connected to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp (IRGC). Over 200 entities are listed by the EU and subject to financial restrictions and travel prohibitions (in the case of individuals). A smaller number – less than 100 – remain designated by the United Nations.
See a tally of the entities sanctioned by the United Nations and the European Union.


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Reworking the working coast: Economic change and the geography of opportunity in Southeast Louisiana
Published: Oct 16, 2019
In Southeast Louisiana, the changing nature of economic opportunity will shape the degree to which the Super Region, and communities within it, experience the effects of coastal land loss. Over the long term, underlying economic dynamics can constrain the capacity of coastal communities to invest in protection and adaptation. For example, as residents' access to jobs changes, so may their ability to pay rising property insurance rates. At the same time, local governments may face shrinking tax rolls due to lower property values, constraining government's ability to invest in flood protection. This brief examines the changing distribution and mix of industries and occupations in the Super Region to inform economic development decisions that can boost coastal communities' ability to be resilient in the face of rising seas.
Land loss, the risk of storm surge, and the threat of chronic inundation will be factors in the economy of Southeast Louisiana for the foreseeable future. Environmental risk will have impacts on the regional economy particularly because coastal Louisiana is a "working coast" with important job centers that are economically interconnected with larger job centers in New Orleans and Baton Rouge. The brief sheds light on the feedback loop between economic change and the region's prospects for resilience and adaptation.
The brief finds that front-line coastal areas have provided decent pathways to upward mobility. However, some of the sites of the greatest opportunity in the Super Region are among its most threatened. This brief highlights the fact that the response to coastal challenges hinges on non-environmental factors, such as the fate of key industries like oil and gas, the possibility of further losses of middle-earning occupations, and the availability of jobs in vulnerable coastal areas.


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Rigid-Flexible Virtual Prototyping Study of Planetary Gear Reducer for Shearer Cutting Unit
In this research, three-dimensional simplified model for the planetary gear reducer of a certain large-scale shearer cutting unit is established by the use of UG NX5, and it is imported into ADAMS/View environment through the UG interface with ADAMS. While ANSYS is used to generate the flexible body of key parts such as sun gear, high-speed planet gear and low-speed planet gear, and then in ADAMS the flexible body is used to replace the corresponding parts of planetary reducer rigid body model, which aims to set up virtual rigid-flexible prototype model of planetary reducer. Finally, kinematics simulation was done. The simulation results show that the virtual prototype model of each component motion displays smooth without interference and the transmission ratio meets the design request. Meanwhile, the planetary gear mechanism design is proved to be very correct.
Qingxue Huang, Cunlong Zhou, Zhengyi Jiang, Jianmei Wang, Hailian Gui, Lifeng Ma, Lidong Ma, Yugui Li and Chunjiang Zhao
K. B. Zhang et al., "Rigid-Flexible Virtual Prototyping Study of Planetary Gear Reducer for Shearer Cutting Unit", Advanced Materials Research, Vol. 145, pp. 414-419, 2011


How Should Tourism Businesses Respond To Extreme Weather: A Practical Guide
Skift Take
As extreme weather patterns become more and more common across the globe every year, tourism organizations, both the governments and DMOs, will have to respond and create better resources for tourism businesses. Kudos to VisitEngland for creating this resource for its local stakeholders.
— Rafat Ali
As a large part of the world is enmeshed in extreme weather patterns this winter, a lot of tourism businesses are getting affected. Most of them tend to be small and medium enterprises, and need help in navigating the new landscape, understanding how it affects their business on a day to day basis, how to respond to it, and how to communicate to its current and future customers.
The island of UK has been experiencing extreme weather and flooding in many parts of the country, and that has disrupted normal activities for a lot of destinations and the tourism businesses. VisitEngland, the tourism body responsible for England, has come out with a useful guide on responding to this extreme weather, and we thought it could be useful to businesses beyond the geographic area of England as well, and have extracted below:
Serious events…can also affect the attractiveness of a destination by damaging public realm infrastructure. All of this can impact negatively on visitors' perceptions of personal safety, access, availability of accommodation and the likelihood of disruption to their travel plans.
The nature of media coverage means that perceptions of the scale of the problem can be exaggerated…Sensational images of flooding and storms stick in people's minds far more easily than details of the specific locations that are actually experiencing these problems, resulting in confused consumers, false perceptions and potentially impact on future bookings.
It is important that you are able to establish an accurate assessment of the situation and pass this information on to customers and potential customers on a regular basis.
Having a simple communications plan for your business is one of the steps you can take to help manage the impact. Developing a thought-out response can ensure that you put the issue into perspective, reassure visitors and observers about the measures being taken to address the situation (if there is a problem) and fully explain the true extent of the issue.
Experience has shown that the lack of a planned, coordinated communications effort can significantly delay the time it takes for a business or destination to attract visitors back after events such as this have ended.
The aim of this plan is to provide practical guidance to help businesses affected by the extreme weather and flooding, create both an immediate and longer-term approach to communicating with their customers and signpost operators to further sources of support and advice, to help reduce the impact on their business.
Screen Shot 2014-02-21 at 8.37.33 AM
The full report "Responding to extreme weather A practical guide for tourism businesses – Winter 2014" is embedded below as a PDF
Download (PDF, 912KB)
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GetNodeByPoint — Finds the node-id of a node at a point location.
integer GetNodeByPoint(varchar atopology, geometry apoint, float8 tol1
Retrieves the id of a node at a point location.
The function returns an integer (id-node) given a topology, a POINT and a tolerance. If tolerance = 0 means exact intersection, otherwise retrieves the node from an interval.
apoint doesn't intersect a node, returns 0 (zero).
If use tolerance > 0 and there is more than one node near the point then an exception is thrown.
If tolerance = 0, the function uses ST_Intersects otherwise uses ST_DWithin.
Performed by the GEOS module.
These examples use edges we created in AddEdge
SELECT topology.GetNodeByPoint('ma_topo',geom, 1) As nearnode FROM ST_GeomFromEWKT('SRID=26986;POINT(227591.9 893900.4)') As geom; nearnode ---------- 2
SELECT topology.GetNodeByPoint('ma_topo',geom, 1000) As too_much_tolerance FROM ST_GeomFromEWKT('SRID=26986;POINT(227591.9 893900.4)') As geom; ----get error-- ERROR: Two or more nodes found


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The Faculty participates in the work of the following international organisations:
The Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE)
The CCBE represents the Bars and Law Societies of 32 member states and 13 associate and observer countries. Its objects are:
- to represent the bars and law societies of its members on all matters of mutual interest relating to the exercise of the profession of the lawyer, the development of the law and practice pertaining to the rule of law and administration of justice and substantive developments in the law itself, both at a European and international level;
- to act as a consultative and intermediary body between its members and between the members and the institutions of the European Union and the European Economic Area on all cross border matters of mutual interest as listed above;
- to monitor actively the defence of the rule of law, the protection of the fundamental and human rights and freedoms, including the rights of access to justice and protection of the client and the protection of the democratic values inextricably associated with such rights.
The Faculty participates in the work of the CCBE through its membership of the United Kingdom delegation to the CCBE.
The International Council of Advocates and Barristers (ICAB)
ICAB is an organization to which independent referral bars from around the world belong. ICAB's members are the bars of Australia, England & Wales, Hong Kong, Ireland, New Zealand, Namibia, Northern Ireland, Scotland, South Africa and Zimbabwe.
The International Bar Association
The IBA is an organization of bars and law societies and of individual lawyers from across the globe. Its principal aims and objectives are:
- to promote an exchange of information between legal associations worldwide;
- to support the independence of the judiciary and the right of lawyers to practice their profession without interference; and
- support of human rights for lawyers worldwide through the IBA Human Rights Institute.


Understanding rotomolding
A brief history of rotational moulding…
Rotational moulding is a plastic material transformation technique used to manufacture hollow and multi-walled polymer parts. The rotational moulding process was developed following the introduction of PVCs in the 1940s. The range of polymers expanded and with it the potential applications, resulting in rotational moulded products becoming available to an increasing number of sectors of activity, with products including trays, water recovery tanks, boats, all types of containers, automotive and agricultural fittings and equipment, etc.
The advantages of the rotational moulding process
The simplicity and upgradability of the moulds used
The moulds used for rotational moulding are simple in design since they are not subjected to any pressure, even though in mechanical terms, and where large-volume parts in particular are concerned, they have to withstand the load applied. The process also prevents the formation of any residue, thus ensuring the high quality of the rotational moulded parts produced. A high level of productivity at a competitive price – who could possibly resist?
The complexity of rotational moulded products
The rotational moulding process is perfectly conducive to the design of multilayer parts. The thickness and capacity of the parts are entirely adjustable, but it is also possible to design and develop double-walled parts, fill them with foam, incorporate inserts and even assemble or attach accessories.
Examples of rotational moulded parts:
Examples of rotational moulded parts
The rotational moulding process
The rotational moulding process generally comprises 5 stages:
 1. filling of the mould
 2. rotation stage
 3. fusion of the plastic material
 4. solidification of the plastic material
 5. turning out of the polymer
Filling the mould
Filling the mouldThe metal mould (steel or aluminium, depending on the application) reflects the shape of the part to be produced and is loaded with the polymer powder and colouring. The various parts of the mould are then assembled so as to make them airtight.
The rotation stage
The rotation stageThe mould is slowly rotated around its two perpendicular axes and placed in a kiln. The speed at which the mould is rotated, along with the difference in speed between the two axes, will affect the consistency of the finished part.
Double or triple-layer foaming operations can be performed at this stage. Once the fusion process is complete, the mould is removed.
The polymer fusion stage
The polymer fusion stageThe plastic material will soon cover the entire surface of the mould as a result of the axes rotating. The temperature rises, helping to keep the material consistent and thus eliminating any bubbles within it. Once the maximum temperature has been reached, a number of influential factors need to be monitored, including the speed at which the temperature is increased, the transfer of heat through the polymer, and viscosity, among other things
The solidification stage
The solidification stageThe mould continues to double-rotate as it is placed inside a chiller or crystallisation unit. Pulsed air and a fog of water can accelerate the process. The polymer begins to solidify, at which point the temperature drops less rapidly.
The turning out stage
The turning out stageThe part has now completely solidified and can be turned out of the mould. The tooling is unlocked and the part is removed and ready for finishing.
The cutting, conformation and finishing stages then follow and any accessories or decorative elements required are applied. A unit-by-unit quality control process is implemented in all cases. The cycle can then begin again.
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MagicDraw 18.3 Documentation
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Actions and subactivities can be organized into Swimlanes in the Activity diagrams. Swimlanes are used to organize responsibility for actions and subactivities according to the class. They often correspond to the organizational units in a business model.
Swimlanes limit and provide a view of the behaviors invoked in the activities. They consist of one or more partitions and can be vertical or horizontal.
An Activity diagram can be visually divided into Swimlanes, each separated from the neighboring Swimlanes by vertical or horizontal solid lines on both sides. Each Swimlane represents a responsibility for part of the overall activity, and may eventually be implemented by one or more objects. The relative ordering of the Swimlanes has no semantic significance, but can indicate some affinity. Each action is assigned to one Swimlane. Transitions can cross lanes. The routing of a transition path is non-essential.
Swimlane representation can be customized by changing its symbol property values. Press Alt + Enter to open the appropriate dialog. Each property is described in the description area on this dialog.
To create a Swimlane
 1. On the Activity diagram palette, click the Vertical Swimlanes button Vertical Swimlanesand then click an empty space on the diagram pane.
 2. If the Represent Properties dialog opens, select the properties you want to display as Swimlanes in the diagram (see the following figure) and click OK. Otherwise, a few empty Swimlanes are created.
 The Represent Properties dialog opens, if:
 1. The Activity diagram is owned by a classifier, for example, a Class, Component, Use Case.
 Selecting properties to display as Swimlanes
You can also create a Swimlane by dragging one or more properties, Actors, Classes, or Instance Specifications from the Containment tree to the Activity diagram pane. Partitions for each element are created as well.
To set representative elements, do one of the following
 - Open the Specification window of the Swimlane and click the cell of the Represents property value. Then click and select the element. Click OK when you are done.
 - From the Containment tree, drag the representative element to the partition on the diagram.
To add an additional partition, do one of the following
 - On the diagram, right-click the Swimlane, select Insert Swimlane and then Insert Vertical Swimlane or Insert Horizontal Swimlane.
 - From the Containment tree, drag one or more property, actor, class or instance specification elements to the Swimlane on the diagram.
To draw multidimensional Swimlanes
 1. Draw a vertical Swimlane.
 2. From the Swimlane shortcut menu, select Insert Horizontal Swimlane.
 3. Insert as many horizontal and vertical Swimlanes as you need.
To add model elements to a Swimlane
 - If a Swimlane is already drawn in the Activity diagram, drawing an action (or any other element) highlights the Swimlane in blue. This means that the action shape depends on the Swimlane symbol.
 If the model elements depend on a Swimlane symbol, they are deleted if the Swimlane symbol is deleted.
 Example of multidimensional swimlane
To rearrange Swimlanes, do one of the following
 - Drag any of the Swimlanes to the direction where you want it to be.
 - Click the heading of any Swimlane and use the displayed control arrow to move the Swimlane left, right, up or down.
 Example of 'Move Swimlane Left' Control
To delete a single Swimlane entirely, do one of the following
 - Click the header of the Swimlane, then press Delete.
 - Click the header of the Swimlane, then press Ctrl + D.
 - Right-click the header or any empty space on the Swimlane, then select Delete Swimlane.
To delete all Swimlanes and their contents entirely
 - Click any empty space on the Swimlanes, then press Ctrl + D.
To delete Swimlanes without deleting contained elements, do one of the following
 - Click any empty space on the Swimlanes, then press Delete.
 - Right-click the headers or anywhere on the Swimlanes, then select Delete All Swimlanes, Keep Contents.
Related pages
Related diagrams
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Image: Man with Giant Oarfish
Roger Jansson / AP
In this undated photo released by the House of the Sea Aquarium in the city of Lysekila, Sweden, a 12-foot Giant Oarfish found off Sweden's west coast is displayed and measured.
updated 5/12/2010 4:42:53 PM ET 2010-05-12T20:42:53
First he thought it was a piece of plastic floating near the shoreline. When he got closer, 73-year-old Kurt Ove Eriksson realized the 12-foot serpent-like object was a rare creature from the depths of the ocean.
Marine biologists later determined Eriksson had found a Giant Oarfish — the world's largest bony fish — last seen in Swedish waters about 130 years ago.
Eriksson handed over the dead fish to The House of the Sea, an aquarium in the nearby town of Lysekil, where marine expert Roger Jansson said it's being kept pending a decision on what to do with it.
Jansson said the Giant Oarfish can grow up to 36 feet, and is believed to live in deep waters. He said the last recorded discovery in Sweden was in 1879.
Sightings of the fish are believed to have inspired tales of sea serpents.
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Changes between Version 7 and Version 8 of ExternalCore
Sep 14, 2007 2:45:26 AM (9 years ago)
 - ExternalCore
 v7 v8
 55Once the process is finished, this page will just describe the design.
 7== Format ==
 9The current plan is to use an "extended" version of interface files for External Core, which contains unfoldings for all functions, not just functions GHC has decided to unfold.
 11== Reading in External Core ==
 13The pipeline looks like:
 15file -> GHC parser -> {{{IfaceSyn}}} -> {{{tcRnExtCore}}} -> {{{ModGuts}}} -> (the rest of the compiler)
 17This is a change from the current External Core implementation, where {{{HsSyn}}} is used to represent types from External Core files and {{{IfaceSyn}}} is used for terms. In the new implementation, {{{IfaceSyn}}} is used for both.
 19== Goals and questions ==
 21 * Well-defined external format with stand-alone tools
 22 * External tools will have to be maintained in order to stay in sync with the interface file format
 23 * How external is "external"? There is a tension between re-using code from GHC, and having a truly independent file format that can be processed with completely stand-alone tools.
 24 * It's already possible to use the GHC API to generate Core (though not yet to read it back in), which might be enough for some users. On the other hand, the external format allows for writing tools to manipulate Core in languages other than Haskell.
 25 * External format should be readable by humans (though perhaps only after processing it with a pretty-printing tool)
 26 * Not too redundant (for example, only print out type information that is necessary to reconstruct types)
 27 * Don't export information that's internal to GHC (i.e., {{{IdInfo}}} fields), since external transformations probably won't preserve it anyway
 28 * Corollary -- include only just enough information for external tools to be useful
 29 * Does it still make sense to have a separate External Core datatype?
 30 * Primitives have to be documented properly in order to write an stand-alone Core interpreter (which would eventually be desirable.)
 31 * External toolset: typechecker, interpreter (operational semantics),...
 32 * We want to show that External Core is truly "independent", but on the other hand, maintaining these tools is a challenge.
 33 * How likely are major changes to Core in the future?
 34 * Should the external format look like -ddump-simpl output (as it does now), or should it be an easier-to-parse format like s-expressions (perhaps with a pretty-printer to help with debugging)?
 736== Relevant files ==


Shayirkul Adreshova is part of group of women farmers who supply medicinal herbs to European markets, thanks to WFP/GIZ project. Photo: WFP/Alima Nurgazieva
A WFP Project Empowers Women Farmers In Rural Kyrgyzstan
In a remote Kyrgyz village, Shayirkul Adreshova had the seemingly impossible dream of becoming a successful business woman whose products sell internationally. The dream turned into reality three years after she had joined a WFP food-for-assets project that assists vulnerable rural women. She is now part of a small group of women farmers who provide medicinal herbs to European markets, including valerian that is most often used to treat insomnia.
Kyrgyz Republic, is a landlocked low-income country in Central Asia dominated by the majestic Tian Shan snow-capped mountain range. A former Soviet Republic, the country gained independence in 1991. Although it has since made some economic progress, almost 38 percent of the people remain below the poverty line and an estimated 24 percent are food-insecure. One of the main reasons large parts of the population are locked in a cycle of poverty and hunger is that the country is frequently exposed to natural disasters shocks such as earthquakes, mudslides and floods combined with dilapidated infrastructure and a complex ethnic and political environment.
Подробная информация о деятельности ВПП ООН на русском языке здесь


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Frequently Asked Questions
What is Western Wells?
Funds are derived from a network of people from a varied cross section of society with a base in, but not isolated to, the Old Camberwell Grammarians Amateur Football Club and past students of Camberwell Grammar. All donations are tax deductable and the Western Wells aims to convert the highest possible percentage of donations to the support of young people with an absolute minimum used for administration.
Wherever possible functionality of the fund is supported by like-minded associates of Western Wells who donate their energies free of charge ensuring that the majority of resources raised are used directly to support the education and development of candidates.
Where Does My Money Go?
Finances educational and extracurricular activities that would otherwise be unavailable to students from the targeted population. Funds are only used when no other funds are available and supports students to take part in activities that they would otherwise be excluded from.
Funds may also be used to enhance or further develop current educational activities that would benefit from financial and or mentoring support funded by the Western Wells.


Has GST benefited healthcare sector?
India's healthcare sector has been a focus area during the Narendra Modi government's first three years. There have been several well-intended policies.
India's healthcare sector has been a focus area during the Narendra Modigovernment's first three years. There have been several well-intended policies. For example, the National Health Policy 2017, which has set several goals, including the progressive roll-out of the universal health coverage (UHC) that will bring in a significantly large population under the public healthcare system.
Further, finance minister Arun Jaitley's third Union Budget earlier this year proposed making drugs more affordable by making amendments to the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, and bringing wellness and preventive care to the forefront. The Union Budget also recommended making certain structural changes in medical education. Keeping healthcare costs under control is important. Towards that, the government did take a strong decision to drastically slash prices of medical devices.
Now, with the implementation of the goods and services tax (GST) across the country, the expectation was that healthcare services would overall become affordable for the masses. But has that happened? Well, the healthcare sector has been granted full exemption from GST. So, there are no taxes and hence, theoretically, it should be affordable. But what exactly is the impact of GST on the healthcare sector?
At the outset, "healthcare services" means any service by way of diagnosis or treatment or care for illness, injury, deformity, abnormality or pregnancy in any recognised system of medicines; it also includes services by way of transportation of the patient to and from a clinical establishment. And "clinical establishment" typically means a hospital, nursing home, clinic, sanatorium, etc.
Under the new indirect tax regime, many sectors have benefited from the increased credit due to minimal blockage of credit and enhanced fungibility of credit between goods and services.
However, this is not true for the healthcare sector. The reason is that because complete exemption has been granted to healthcare services, it thereby means that the input tax credits cannot be availed. Consequently, this leads to a lot of input tax cost, which has become a burden on healthcare services.
Therefore, there is an urgent need to grant benefits under GST due to the key reason that affordable medical care and healthcare should be accessible to every individual in India as a matter of right. Further, increase in tax cost for the healthcare sector would mean a basic necessity like healthcare becoming expensive for the common man. Increasing the tax burden would be hugely detrimental to the health of the masses.
In fact, the current stage of development of the healthcare industry in India cannot afford the burden of extra tax cost. The GST regime promotes seamless flow of credit across goods and services, and removes cascading effect of taxes. Considering the exemption on healthcare services (output side), GST paid on procurement (for example, medicines, consumables, etc) by such clinical establishments will be a huge sticking cost, making healthcare services expensive. Since the ultimate burden of GST is passed on to the end-consumers—patients in this case—it is prudent that the GST input tax cost on the healthcare sector be removed. The government should re-look at this area to ensure that the ultimate objective of providing affordable healthcare services to the vast population of India is achieved.
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text: When grouped together, radiocarbon determinations from heat-retainer hearths from western New South Wales decrease in frequency with age. One interpretation for this pattern is that it reflects an increase in the frequency of occupation, and perhaps ultimately an increase in Aboriginal populations in this region during the late Holocene. An alternative explanation is that the increase in frequency reflects the differential preservation of the land surfaces on which the hearths are found. According to this explanation, the pre-servation of ancient surfaces itself decreases with time, with the destruction of ancient records of occupation accounting for the relatively recent skew in the age distribution of heat-retainer hearths. We test these hypotheses by comparing the distribution of hearth radiocarbon ages against the distribution of ages obtained from samples associated with buried human remains from western New South Wales. Samples obtained by excavating buried deposits should not be subject to the same range of erosion processes that have affected surface deposits. Therefore the samples from buried deposits are able to act as a control against which the distribution of hearth ages can be evaluated. Results indicate that age estimates obtained from human burials have a distribution different from those obtained from hearths, supporting the conclusion that the decrease in hearth frequency with age is a product of geomorphic preservation rather than cultural change.


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For the French Fauvist painter and color gourmand Raoul Dufy, blue was the only color with enough strength of character to remain blue "in all its tones." Darkened red looks brown and whitened red turns pink, Dufy said, while yellow blackens with shading and fades away in the light. But blue can be brightened or dimmed, the artist said, and "it will always stay blue."
Scientists, too, have lately been bullish on blue, captivated by its optical purity, complexity and metaphorical fluency. They're exploring the physics and chemistry of blueness in nature, the evolution of blue ornaments and blue come-ons, and the sheer brazenness of being blue when most earthly life forms opt for earthy raiments of beige, ruddy or taupe.
One research team recently reported the structural analysis of a small, dazzlingly blue fruit from the African Pollia condensata plant that may well be the brightest terrestrial object in nature. Another group working in the central Congo basin announced the discovery of a new species of monkey, a rare event in mammalogy. Rarer still is the noteworthiest trait of the monkey, called the lesula: a patch of brilliant blue skin on the male's buttocks and scrotal area that stands out from the surrounding fur like neon underpants.
Still other researchers are tracing the history of blue pigments in human culture, and the role those pigments have played in shaping our notions of virtue, authority, divinity and social class. "Blue pigments played an outstanding role in human development," said Heinz Berke, an emeritus professor of chemistry at the University of Zurich. For some cultures, he said, they were as valuable as gold.


text:
STARTING VORTEX BEHIND A DISK NORMAL TO THE FLOW
A classical example of axisymmetric unsteady flow, this phenomenon precedes the establishment of a permanent regime, and
characterizes a starting movement.
The red streak that covers the front of the disk is emitted exactly at the point from which all streamlines are initiated
(that is, the stagnation point); along the side of the disk it turns green through dilution, and reveals the vortex structure
of the toroidal wake.
Image created by Henri Werlé. Reproduced with permission from his spectacular
collection Courants et Couleurs published in 1974 by ONERA, the French Aerospace Lab.
For further information, see
On the Flow of Fluids Made Visible,
Leonardo, Vol. 8, No. 4. (Autumn, 1975), pp. 329-331.


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Team Blog Page
|Posted by tufolib on August 8, 2015 at 6:55 AM|
Who likes food? In fact, who likes food in space? Well, you'll never know until you try it!
The way I imagined it is that growing plants on Mars would be slightly different to ones grown on Earth. This is because of the difference between their gravities. However, due to time constraints, I haven't investigated the results of growing plants on the Space Station yet. However, while writing this, I did come across a statement about plants in space being unaffected by a lack of gravity! They were said to still grow their roots at the same angles as on Earth, and must be considered different to taking seeds into space, then bringing them back and planting them on Earth many years ago.
What has made me think seriously about this subject is what I have seen and/or photographed on Earth. Ther are lots of examples of new shoots growing across or down, out of stumps - and then turning at right angles or greater to shoot upwards!
I have wondered if the gravity of Mars, being only about 38% of Earth's, would allow plants to grow taller, but I have also thought they could be less dense, making consumption of more plant material necessary to get the same amount of nutrients! Years ago, a supermarket branched out into hydroponics, growing vegetables in at least one shop! However, I heard that the produce was different in some way so it never sold at all well.
Plastic pipes (or guttering) were used, with water containing the nutrients. No solid medium was present in any form like compost, chemicals, sponges etc. For food to be successfully grown on Mars, I imagine that some of the plant material on spaceships will have to be set aside to create compost as the Martian soil doesn't seem to have much value in it.
Without a lot of nitrogen in the atmosphere, I just can't see how plants can be grown outside living areas - unless it is contained in hermetically sealed containers! If there is any life on Mars, it might not be substantial enough to contribute to the greening of that planet. One thing is for sure, the first human baby born there will definitely be an alien! It will actually be a real-life Martian!
Categories: Ray Thomas


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