text:
Why should International Literacy Day matter to people living here in southwest Minnesota?
This is the 50th anniversary of ILD. WeLiteracy is considered a human right. While significant progress has been made worldwide since the first ILD in 1966, it is estimated that 15% of people in the world are illiterate. The majority of these are women, most of them living in sub-Saharan Africa or South Asia. This creates a significant financial burden not only on these women and their children, but also leads to a greater economic burden and health concerns for their region and the world.
According to data from the survey of adult skills, 1 out of 6 adults in the United States reads below a level that is considered to be proficient enough to function well in a 21st century setting. 1 out of 3 adults in the U.S. lacks sufficient numeracy skills, and 1 out of 3 adults cannot problem solve adequately in a technology-rich environment. Such a lack of literacy skills has a real impact on both the workforce and social outcomes, including health and civic engagement.
We are fortunate in Minnesota to have quality schools, but a persistent achievement gap exists for students of color, English learners, and students from lower income families. We also have quality adult education options, but there are barriers to adult participation in such programs. The number one barrier is that adults need to work to support themselves and their families, and it can be difficult to balance work and family obligations in order to attend classes or participate in online learning.
Why should ILD matter? We live in a global economy and in an interconnected world. Literacy levels directly influence income and wages, women's rights, children's academic success, and political stability. When people do not have adequate literacy skills to function fully in 21st century society, the consequences of this have a negative effect on us all. Consider becoming a literacy volunteer and making a difference locally, and please stay informed about literacy issues on a global level. Our steps in August and September 2016 were intended to raise awareness about literacy issues. Thanks go to all our walkers.


text:
Originally, mustard is not a plant but it is considered as a condiment. The mustard is like a savor, vinegar or zing, which is mostly used to provide taste to the food material. Several kind of mustard species are found in the nature. These mustard species are categorized in white mustard, black mustard, brown mustard. The shape of the seeds of the white mustard is round in shape. These mustard seeds are light brown and straw color. Before selling these kinds of mustards, the exterior skin, which is light in color, is removed from the mustard. The white mustard possesses the mild kind of flavor and contains the high level of preserving qualities. That makes the white mustards the first option for pickling.
The next type of the mustard like black mustard is a round shape stiff seed. It possesses the color, which gets varies from gloomy brown to black. As compare to the white mustard, the black mustard is smaller than white mustard. It is more spicy than the white type of mustard.
Both the black and brown variety of mustard is identical in size. The brown mustard possesses the color, which gets varies from glow to murky brown. The spiciness of the brown mustard is stronger than white mustard and it is less pungent than the black mustard. The seeds of the brown mustard do not contain any kind of fragrance. The taste of the brown mustard is spiky and sizzling. The plants that grow-up from their leaves are the member of the mustard family. Such plants include arugula, various kinds of Oriental greens and mustard greens.
The white color seeds of mustard are largely used for pickling zing and it is used in the flavor mixing while cooking the foods like meat and various kinds of seafood. The white mustard is used in Sauerkraut and marinades which adds sharp taste. Mostly in India, these mustard seeds are firstly fried in the ghee until that gets cracking, brown color. Therefore, that fried ness generates a mild type wacky taste to Indian recipes. Therefore, such kind of fried white mustard seeds are useful to embellish and flavor the traditional Indian recipes like pickles of various fruits like mangoes, chills and lime.
For cooking various types of curry powders and pastes, the crushing of brown mustard, seeds are crushed with other flavors. The special material like B. juncea is used for making the mustard oil for generating the spicy oil, which is largely used in the India like ghee. The powder of the mustard plays a role of the emulsifier for making covering of mayonnaise and salad.
The crushed powder of the mustard also plays the significant role for providing taste to the sauces of barbecue. It provides taste to the beans that are baked. We taste the spicy taste of the dishes of meat, eggs, which are deviled, succotash and beets only because of crushed mustard. It is believed that in the ancient history, for removing the oily, nasty smell of meat, the mustard seeds were chewed by the Romans. They chewed these seeds by crushing and mixing them with grape juice.

source: openbmb/Ultra-FineWeb


text: Résumé : Biofouling, the adsorption of organisms to a surface, is a major problem today in many areas of our lives. This includes: (i) health, as biofouling on medical device leads to hospital-acquired infections, (ii) water, since the accumulation of organisms on membranes and pipes in desalination systems harms the function of the system, and (iii) energy, due to the heavy load of the organic layer that accumulates on marine vessels and causes a larger consumption of fuel. This paper presents an effective electrochemical approach for generating antifouling and antimicrobial surfaces. Distinct from previously reported antifouling or antimicrobial electrochemical studies, we demonstrate the formation of a hydrogen gas bubble layer through the application of a low-voltage square-waveform pulses to the conductive surface. This electrochemically generated gas bubble layer serves as a separation barrier between the surroundings and the target surface where the adhesion of bacteria can be deterred. Our results indicate that this barrier could effectively reduce the adsorption of bacteria to the surface by 99.5%. We propose that the antimicrobial mechanism correlates with the fundamental of hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). HER leads to an arid environment that does not allow the existence of live bacteria. In addition, we show that this drought condition kills the preadhered bacteria on the surface due to water stress. This work serves as the basis for the exploration of future self-sustainable antifouling techniques such as incorporating it with photocatalytic and photoelectrochemical reactions.


Question: When Should I Be Worried About Diarrhea In Early Pregnancy?
Does your stomach hurt when your one week pregnant?
Is diarrhea common in early pregnancy?
Although diarrhea isn't a sign of early pregnancy, it's possible that you may experience diarrhea or other digestive issues in your first trimester. Early on in your pregnancy, your body starts going through lots of changes, and these can affect your bowel movements, leading to either hard or loose stools.
When should I be worried about diarrhea during pregnancy?
Hormonal changes, bowel infections, and underlying bowel disorders can all cause diarrhea during pregnancy. If diarrhea lasts for more than 48 hours, speak to a doctor. Seek immediate medical care for symptoms such as fever, dehydration, bloody stools, or frequent vomiting.
How early does your stomach get hard when pregnant?
Is it normal to have diarrhea when pregnant?
Digestive difficulties, such as constipation and diarrhea, may occur frequently during pregnancy. Blame it on shifting hormones, changes in diet, and added stress. The fact is, pregnant women deal with diarrhea quite a lot, and if they aren't cautious, it can cause problems.
What can I take for diarrhea when pregnant?
If you're having bad diarrhea, I recommend taking either a kaolin-and-pectin- (Kaopectate) or loperamide- (Imodium) type medication. Otherwise you could become seriously dehydrated and put your baby at risk.
What does your tummy feel like in early pregnancy?
Can diarrhea cause miscarriage?
However, diarrhea is sometimes indicative of food poisoning like salmonella, toxoplasmosis or listeriosis, all of which are associated with an increased risk of miscarriage. If diarrhea is suspected to relate to food poisoning or an infection, seek medical attention promptly to reduce the risk of miscarriage.
How do you self check your stomach for pregnancy?
How can you tell your pregnant by your pulse?
Is diarrhea a sign of early miscarriage?
But diarrhea isn't a typical cause or symptom of miscarriage. While some women do experience diarrhea around the time of a pregnancy loss, having an episode of diarrhea does not mean that miscarriage is about to happen. 7 Many women get diarrhea while they're pregnant and continue to have a healthy pregnancy.
What are some unusual signs of early pregnancy?
What foods cause diarrhea during pregnancy?
"Simple" high-sugar drinks (apple and grape juice, gelatin, regular colas and other soft drinks), which can draw water into your tummy, making diarrhea last even longer. Fatty and fried foods. Gas-causing fruits and vegetables, such as beans, broccoli, peas, prunes and chickpeas.
What is a silent miscarriage symptoms?
How do miscarriages start?
Is stomach upset a sign of pregnancy?
What do miscarriage clots look like?
What are the signs of a miscarriage at 1 week?
The most common symptoms of early miscarriage are cramping and bleeding….Tips for identificationcramping in your abdomen or lower back (This could start out like period cramps, but the pain typically worsens over time.)nausea.diarrhea.passing fluids, larger-than-normal blood clots, or tissue from your vagina.Feb 25, 2019
What part of your stomach hurts in early pregnancy?


text:
"Inspect this code. Here we're creating a new OrderedCollection, and asking it to add 1, then add 2, then add 3, then finally return yourself"
(OrderedCollection new) add: 1; add: 2; add: 3; yourself.
"This is normally not written on one line, but is written like this:"
Here, we're asking the class (remember, this is a blueprint for creating objects) OrderedCollection to create a new collection. Then we're asking the new collection to add 1 to itself. Then we're asking the same new collection to add 2 to itself, then 3, and then finally we're asking the collection to return itself. You normally don't have to send that last message to an object, as the default return is the object itself (we call this the receiver of the the messages), but the message add: returns the parameter you're passing, so in this case, if we want to see the OrderedCollection that we're creating, we need to ask it to return itself as the last message send. This may be a little confusing; I showed the above snippet as it explicitly creates a new object. You could get the same results by inspecting the below two snippets, that don't explictly create a new object - this is done implicitly from the message sent:
"Here, we're asking the OrderedCollection class to give us a new OrderedCollection object with the values 1, 2, and 3 in it."
OrderedCollection with: 1 with: 2 with: 3
"Here, we're asking the OrderedCollection class to give us a new OrderedCollection object with all of the values 1, 2 and 31"
OrderedCollection withAll: #(1 2 3)
Now, if you print it to the above code, you'll see an ASCII representation of the object: OrderedCollection (1 2 3 ). When you inspect the above code, and click on self you will see:
There are several ways that we could make an ordered collection with a fourth Integer in it, here's a neat way. Say that you have this OrderedCollection with only the first 3 integers in it, and realize 'wups, I actually wanted 4 integers in it.' You don't have to go back to the code you typed in above and redo it, you can just ask the object you're inspecting to add a fourth integer to itself:
Highlight the code entered in the bottom pane, and do it. Here, you're asking the object itself (self) to add 4 to itself. If you have self highlighted, you'll notice that it is updated (if you don't have self highlighted, then click on it to see the updates. You'll see:
This is an illustration of being able to view and
manipulate objects in real time, which is Immensely Powerful.
If you're coding along and something isn't quite working right, you can
stop execution, grab the troublesome object and see exactly what is going
on. If you want to simulate certain conditions, you can just change
the object directly. For example, say you realized that you shouldn't
have the integer 4, but rather the string 'four', you can click on the
fourth element, delete 4, and tye in 'four', then middle click>accept.
fourth element in this collection is now the string 'four'.
clicking on the 3rd element, then back to the fourth element to confirm
this, you'll see:
...and remember, we did all this without the hassle of compiling, linking, and running the compiled program! Ok, now that we have an idea about how to create a collection, we're going to do something with this collection, lets add up the integers in the collection. To do this, you can do it the following snippet:
| anOrderedCollection aSum |
aSum := 0.
anOrderedCollection := OrderedCollection withAll: #(1 2 3).
anOrderedCollection do: [:anElement | aSum := aSum + anElement].
Here, the lines of code mean:
1) declare temporary variables
2) initialize the sum
3) create a new ordered collection, assign it to one of the temporary variables
4) ask the ordered collection to do something for each element. For each element, we're asking the sum to add the element to itself.
5) here, we're asking the sum to open an inspector on itself (yeah, you can do this programatically - cool eh?)
For the folks with programming experience, you'll
note that we didn't have to worry about bounds checking, or the size of
the collection, or declaring temporary variables to index the collection
- this is all handled by the collection. Very nice and it helps to
reduce errors. We very naturally just asked the ordered collection
to do something with each element.
Back to inheritence now, as the name suggests, OrderedCollection is a type of Collection, and inherits methods and instance variables from Collection. To be more precise, it inherits from a class called SequenceableCollection, which in turn inherits from Collection. Now, I could use UML, or any number of other industry software modeling diagrams here, but I want to save time so I'm going to use a textual shorthand for outlining class relationships - I'll denote inheritence by tabbing, so indicating the above inheritence looks like this:
You can think of this as OrderedCollection is
a type of SequenceableCollection, which is a type of Collection.
For example, a creation method we used - withAll: is inherited from
I'll show this class method by:
Both Collection, and SequenceableCollection,
are what we call abstract classes - classes
that would never instantiate an object themselves, but serve as good logical
building points. Here, it doesn't matter if we have an OrderedCollection,
a SortedCollection, or a Bag (an unordered collection),
or whatever - we'd want all of them to know how to respond to withAll:.
the sweet thing: we implement the method that all these classes
should respond to in one spot, and reuse it. So, if you need
to change withAll: for these classes, then there's only one spot to
If you need to have an exception to the rule, say you have have a Heap2 class that needs to implement the withAll: method differently, then you can do what is called overriding the method in Heap. Adding Heap to our outline, and indicating abstract classes in italics gives us:
Note: when we send the withAll: message
to Heap or to OrderedCollection, these two classes have
different implementation of the same message - this is known as polymorphism.
is another one of those esoteric terms that really means something pretty
The corollary of polymorphism is a very powerful one though, it allows you to get out of a decision making frame of mind, and get into a commanding frame of mind. This allows us to get away from a common procedural programming trait - having lot of code that is checking stuff and conditionally doing stuff (if it's an OrderedCollection, do this, if it's a Heap, do this, if it's a Bag, do this, etc), and lets us just do stuff. It doesn't matter what type of collection it is, when we ask it to do withAll:, it will do the right thing!
Finally, if we also add the above mentioned SortedCollection and Bag ( here's where this month's title pun comes from ;-), we get:
It's easy to see how there are lots of opportunities
for reuse here, it's generally a good thing when you can code something
in one spot, and have many objects reuse that one implementation.
That way, when you have to make an udpate, you only update that one spot
and don't have to worry with tracking down many different spots and keeping
the update in synch.
Now we're going to start getting to the question of how we know what objects are where and how to use them. As with other topics in this series, I'm introducing this one a bit at a time as well. A common problem for Smalltalk beginners is that they're overwhelmed with the rich class library as there are thousands of objects you can use. To help reduce this problem, I've extended one of the Smalltalk browsers and made a ScopedBrowser. This is a good example of the reflectiveness we mentioned earlier - I was able to extend or alter the behavior of the IDE to suit my needs. This ScopedBrowser will only show you the classes we need to concentrate on for this article. My intent is to add to the scope that is being browsed over time as more objects are introduced. For this time, I've included all the above mentioned collections objects as well as a couple more collections objects for those interested (a total of 9 classes). To open this browser, you first need to file in the MakingSmalltalk-Article3.st code to your image (see article 2 on how to do this). Then open the browser by doing the snippet:
For the read-along folks, this is what you'll see
after navigating to the withAll: method:
(Note: I set my browser colour to purple - the default colour is green, I'll come back to customization in a future article)
To find the withAll: method, click on the class button, then Collections-Abstract>Collection>instanceCreation>withAll:
This browser has 5 panes and 3 buttons, from left to right and top to bottom:
pane 1: shows categories - these are collections of classes (pun intended

source: HuggingFaceFW/fineweb-edu


Motion capture (Mocap) is a technique used in the film industry to digitally track a human actor's movements and precisely transfer those motions to an animated figure. But it has other applications as well. Digitally tracking a person's motions can be used to analyze medical problems such as degenerative disc disease, chronic lower back pain, and scoliosis in adults and children.
A Vicon Motion Systems (Oxford, UK) Mocap system is being used in a research setting to allow physicians to capture information about a person's spine. People can be observed while they walk freely in a manner that mimics real-world movement conditions, enabling research on human motion and the spine, beyond focusing primarily on gait as measured on a treadmill. In the laboratory, it is used to accurately capture a person's motions and transfer the collected data to computer software where it is analyzed for presentation to a physician. The software generates reports that enable the physician to identify gait cycles and calculate joint angles to explore where the spine is affected.
Surgery is traditionally based on static imaging, but as soon as patients start to move, things change. The motion capture system allows physicians to see precisely how patients enter their gait cycle and it enables analysis of joint angles and movements. When the spine is engaged, the lumbar, neck, thorax, and head can all be affected.
Figure 1. A researcher applies retro-reflective markers to the subject's body. (Photo courtesy of Vicon Motion Systems)
Patients requiring surgical procedures have their walking motion captured prior to their operation (baseline analysis), short-term follow-up, and year post-surgery follow-up. The system allows for objective data to be collected to enable comparisons not only between pre-and-post surgery data, but also to healthy controls.
The system consists of ten Vicon Vantage V16 mocap cameras, set up throughout a 900-square foot lab. Each camera has an 18 mm lens with 16 megapixel resolution custom greyscale sensors. The frame rate at 16 mega-pixels is 120 Hz (120 frames per second), and each camera can go up to 2000 Hz.
The setup features five Vantage cameras in the back and five in the front, alongside two Bonita video cameras. Each mocap camera captures information from forty-one retroreflective markers applied to the full body to capture patients' walking, balance, and lifting tests. The markers are typically made from plastic with a retroreflective coating. This means the light emitted from a strobe on the camera is reflected directly back to the camera — the camera uses this reflection to determine the position of the marker in two-dimensions. Since all of the cameras are calibrated together, the position of the marker can be calculated in three-dimensions (3D). The cameras feature OLED display and status lights, which provide camera identification and system feedback, for example, that the camera is calibrating.
A built-in accelerometer enables several functionalities, such as a tab to select prior to system calibration and a realtime camera position monitor (bump detection). A temperature sensor monitors the thermodynamics of the camera body, which is important because the optical properties of the sensor and lens change with temperature. The user therefore needs to be informed if the temperature of the camera changes between calibration and capture.
The cameras capture grayscale imagery to precisely track reflective data points from markers and ignore everything else, which provides more relevant information and increases motion measurement accuracy. They perform some of the front-end data processing, generating grayscale blobs from the retroreflective markers and using centroid-fitting algorithms to determine accurate centers. The camera data is then sent to Vicon Nexus software for further processing.
The software uses the data to produce submillimeter accurate representations of a patient's movement for future analysis by the medical team. Three-dimensional gait analysis is captured at 300 Hz (300 frames per second) to measure joint kinematics (joint angle ranges e.g. hip flexion and extension) and spatial-temporal parameters (e.g. walking speed and cadence). A spine biome-chanical model that includes nine additional markers is applied to the dataset to calculate the kinematic joint angles. For example, for the balance and lifting test, lumbar swing range is measured.
Figure 2. Balance test. (Photo courtesy of Vicon Motion Systems)
The Bonita video camera is Vicon's HD color reference camera, which has HD resolution of 1280 x 720 (720p) at a frame rate of 120 Hz. The video cameras provide full-color reference video of the trial, which allows for further context of the optical data. Functionality within the software allows for three-dimensional optical data overlay onto video captured data. One Bonita Video Camera (sagittal view) is used to capture the gait profiles of the patient walking along the gait walkway. The other (coronal view) is used for psychological testing to access pain scales that help identify the interaction between pain and motion of the patient. This procedure is critical for the assessment and treatment process. For instance, the camera records facial movements such as eyebrow or lip twitch, which are typical traits for patients experiencing pain. This procedure is also objectively quantified for pain by utilizing surface electromyography (EMG) data, which is integrated into the Nexus software. The EMG data provides physicians with a full picture, including how much muscle energy a patient is expending in the gait cycle, the degree of swing in lumbar balance tests, lifting, and balance details. The pain measurement score can be compared to how the patient is walking in terms of range of motion and walking speed. Since pain inhibits motion, before treatment or surgery, patients tend to take shorter steps, and they adopt a wider stance to accommodate loss of balance.
Figure 3. Computerized gait display is matched to video. (Photo courtesy of Vicon Motion Systems)
Surface Electromyography (EMG)
EMG assesses muscle energy expenditure during the gait. Electrodes are applied to various muscle sites (e.g. gastrocnemius) to measure electric muscle activity. The EMG system connects directly to a Vicon System PC via USB. With a digital third-party EMG plug-in file placed in the software, Nexus can synchronize the channels of the third-party device to the Vicon motion capture System. EMG integration allows the center of mass to be calculated to determine the center of mass displacement during a one-minute test. Dr. Haddas explains that physicians "track the extent of displacement of the center of mass of a scoliosis patient, which averages almost a full meter, while a non-affected person moves only 20 – 25 centimeters." "While there is almost unlimited data from Vicon, it needs to be distilled. We generally provide five to ten highlights for the doctors."
Data Presentation
Figure 4. Using a wand to calibrate the system. (Photo courtesy of Vicon Motion Systems)
Nexus reconstructs the 2D marker data into 3D, which can be presented in a number of ways specific to the user's requirements or preferences. This could be as an ASCII file showing the data for each individual marker for each frame, or it could be a 3D representation of the data, showing the movement of the patient throughout the trial. Vicon also has a reporting tool that enables the user to create clinical reports showing the captured 3D data and the video data.
The provided Vicon Active Wand is used to calibrate the system. It uses LEDs, which are able to be manufactured to tighter tolerances than passive markers, for simultaneous calibration of both the optical (Vantage) and video reference (Bonita) cameras. The integrated Photodiode automatically synchronizes the wand to the optical and video reference cameras. A dynamic calibration is performed by waving the wand within the capture volume in such a manner that it can be seen by all cameras. Since the wand markers are at known distances, details of the two-dimensional position of each camera in three-dimensional space can be obtained. A static calibration is then performed to set the camera origin to determine the global coordinate system of the capture volume. This process allows for accurate three-dimensional data, not only of the optical data, but also for the video cameras, thereby enabling accurate overlay of the 3D optical data to the video footage.
One application for the calibration system, is to perform a correction if the accelerometer determines that the camera has been bumped — moved from its calibrated position. The user is notified by status LEDs and a display on the camera as well as a notification in the software. Selective camera calibration could then be performed by waving the wand to recalibrate the cameras affected by the bump.
Looking to the Future
The use of Mocap for medical research is an excellent example of synergy between technologies developed for completely different purposes. Precise 3D measurement of human movement in order to impart realism to animated figures in movies and video games is being used as a way of analyzing spinal malfunctions. That kind of cross-pollination is what moves technology forward.
Photonics & Imaging Technology Magazine
This article first appeared in the November, 2018 issue of Photonics & Imaging Technology Magazine.
Read more articles from this issue here.
Read more articles from the archives here.


text:
Can someone help me work out the answer to this word problems?
1 - Based on information obtained from a sample of 40, a 95% confidence interval for the average profit level of regional banks is given by $65.83 million to $83.09 million. Determine the sample standard deviation of profit (in $mill correct to 2 decimal places).
2 - The manufacturers of Good-O use two different types of machines to fill their 25 kg packs of dried dog food. On the basis of random samples of size 12 and 14 from output from machines 1 and 2 respectively, the mean and standard deviation of the weight of the packs of dog food produced were found to be 23.623 kg and 0.252 kg for machine 1 and 24.711 kg and 0.382 kg for machine 2. Hence, under the usual assumptions, determine a 98% confidence interval for the difference between the average weight of the output produced by machine 1 and by machine 2. Construct the interval as the average weight of machine 1 less that of machine 2, stating only the lower limit of the interval correct to 3 decimal places.


text:
Bakers and Basques
A Social History of Bread in Mexico
Publication Year: 2012
Mexico City's colorful panaderías (bakeries) have long been vital neighborhood institutions. They were also crucial sites where labor, subsistence, and politics collided. From the 1880s well into the twentieth century, Basque immigrants dominated the bread trade, to the detriment of small Mexican bakers. By taking us inside the panadería, into the heart of bread strikes, and through government halls, Robert Weis reveals why authorities and organized workers supported the so-called Spanish monopoly in ways that countered the promises of law and ideology. He tells the gritty story of how class struggle and the politics of food shaped the state and the market. More than a book about bread, Bakers and Basques places food and labor at the center of the upheavals in Mexican history from independence to the aftermath of the Mexican Revolution.
Published by: University of New Mexico Press
Download PDF (49.1 KB)
Download PDF (33.8 KB)
Download PDF (52.4 KB)
Financial support for the research and writing of this book came from the University of California Institute for Mexico and the United States (UC MEXUS), the Reed Smith Fellowship, the UC Davis History Department, the Jarena D. Wright Scholarship, the UC Davis Hemispheric Institute on the Americas,...
Download PDF (958.8 KB)
A young bakery worker, maybe ten years old, appears in a photograph from 1930. He stands in the passage that divides the retail section of the panadería (bakery) from the workroom in back. Thin and dark, he is dressed in an apron and cloth hairnet and looks at the camera somewhat timidly out of the corner of his eye,...
1: "Zelo y desvelo": The Bread Monopoly and Late Colonial Market Reforms
Download PDF (103.6 KB)
A black slave, owned by Hernán Cortés, allegedly planted Mexico's first wheat after he found three grains at the bottom of a rice sack. A single grain yielded 180; soon, wrote the sixteenth-century chronicler Francisco López de Gómara, "there was infinite wheat." Cortés established the Santo Domingo Mill...
2: "A system that offends the hands of brothers": Small Bakers and the Free Market in Independent Mexico
Download PDF (133.6 KB)
The leaders of independent Mexico explicitly followed the late Bourbon model of free market with limited government oversight. They continued the search for a balance between releasing the supposedly innate dynamism of competition and curbing the equally innate greed of merchants and producers....
3: "An uncle in America": Chain Migration and the Spanish Monopoly
Download PDF (1003.6 KB)
Few Spaniards took part in the "invasion of pastry chefs" of the 1850s. But a decade later, immigrants from northern Spain, particularly the Basque province of Navarre, slowly began to arrive in Mexico City and venture into the bread trade. By the 1890s, they had become owners of most of the city's panaderías....
4: "Dough Kneaded with Blood"
Download PDF (1.1 MB)
Gendarme No. 905 was at his downtown post near the Plazuela Aguilita around 11:30 p.m. when he heard a tremendous crash and a voice calling for help. He ran down the street and entered La Florida, the flour mill that Pedro Albaitero and José Arrache had established the year before....
5: "We have no bread": Hunger, Opportunity, and War
Download PDF (1.0 MB)
At the high point of the revolution's violence, in fall of 1915, Coronel Ignacio C. Enríquez, interim president of Mexico City, ordered his subaltern Pablo des Georges to take the next day's train to San Andrés Chalchicomula, Puebla, where he was to pick up four thousand cargas (around 710 tons)...
6: The Bakers' Revolution
Download PDF (151.5 KB)
The bakers' revolution began in 1915, when the civil war brought the worst misery on the city, five years after the initial outbreak of violence in other parts of the country. It was no accident that bakers formed their union while residents were suffering hunger. Workers, who felt the crisis disproportionately,...
7: Unionists, Tlalchicholes, and Canasteros
Download PDF (938.7 KB)
The Spanish monopoly had proven itself to be an essential partner of the governments that emerged in the revolution and its aftermath. Hunger coincided with the brutal factional battles, and the government's ability to see that people were fed became a crucial sign of political legitimacy....
Download PDF (53.6 KB)
In the mural in the Abelardo L. Rodríguez Market, chubby capitalists count money they have extracted from workers whom artificial scarcities have reduced to walking skeletons. Placed anywhere else, the mural would be a simple denunciation of inequality, an accusation that the rich profited from the hunger of the poor....
Download PDF (216.2 KB)
Download PDF (213.3 KB)
Download PDF (72.9 KB)
Page Count: 232
Illustrations: 5 halftones, 6 tables
Publication Year: 2012


adhere to Agenda 21.
Virginia Tech's Department of Urban Affairs and Planning located in Alexandria has created an Eco-City Charter and Environmental Action Plan of 2030 that is moving the city toward sustainable development.
They plan on turning Alexandria into an eco-city that is naturally built with environmental sustainability so that the city and surrounding areas function as one ecological system. The social, economic and sense of community will be focused on sustainability foremost; to prevent "problems in the future".
All across America, sustainable development "cities" managed and constructed under the policies of Agenda 21 are popping up with the assistance of eco-terrorist groups masquerading as grassroots efforts.
One example are the Ecocity Builders, a non-profit organization which is a collaboration of international networks of associates that influence and actively participate in local city planning projects all across the US. Through training courses, they advocate the ecocity approach as the only way to continue in civilized society.
Living in densely populated areas where transportation is limited; the buldings regulate use of water, energy, and waste; while food production is strictly managed by the city planners is where the global Elite want to place every man, woman and child.
In the next few decades, we will see the transition of our home towns into sustainable prisons. The alterations are happening right now in most cities where urbanized living is most congested.
Ultimately, the lies of the ecocities are that they provide "a practical vision for a sustainable and restorative human presence on this planet and suggests a path towards its achievement through the rebuilding of cities, towns and villages in balance with living systems."


General Buying Information
Vehicle Weight Averages for Certain Models
Bookmark and Share
If weight is a consideration in your new car purchase, then it's important to know the average vehicle weight of different models of vehicles. Here are the figures on what the average weight should be for some of the more common classes of cars:
 - Compact cars (Honda Civic) should weigh between 3,000 to 4,500 pounds.
 - Midsize cars (Ford Taurus) usually weigh between 4,500 pounds to 5,500 pounds.
 - Full size cars (Mercedes S Class) average between 5000 and 6000 pounds.
 - Minivans or Crossovers (Dodge Caravan) mostly fall between 5500 and 6500 pounds.
 - Light trucks and SUV's (Ford Explorer) between 5000 and 7000 pounds.
 - Full size pickups and SUV's (Toyota Tundra) can weigh between 7,500 to 12,000 pounds.
Remember these are just vehicle weights, not gross weight ratings. There is a difference between a vehicle weight and a gross weight rating. The vehicle weight is the car by itself. The gross weight rating is the car's weight plus the weight of whatever is in it: like fuel, passengers and cargo. Your car's weight can be an important thing to consider for one of a few reasons. Some neighborhoods have limited access to heavier vehicles for a variety of reasons, like road wear or the weight capacity of bridges in the area. Heavier vehicles may not be able to pass without damaging the road or causing danger to passengers. For people that access their homes or business using ferry boats, weight is also an important consideration. If your ferry charges vehicles by weight, just a few pounds may save you hundreds or even thousands of dollars a year.
Bookmark and Share


text:
Advanced Operating Systems
Advanced Systems Teaching (ASysT) LabThe ASysT lab is organised around 64-bit computers (''U4600'') based on a 100 MHz MIPS R4700 processor. The U4600 was developed by Kevin Elphinstone (former UNSW PhD student) and Dave Johnson. It is especially designed to allow experimentation with operating systems code. Presently, these machines run the L4 microkernel.
Technical details:The nodes are based on a locally designed and manufactured ATX form factor motherboard. The motherboard features:-
The nodes are hosted on UNIX computers, presently PC's running Solaris. These contain a development environment which allows you to compile code, link it with the L4 microkernel, and download it to the U4600 via ethernet. The hosts also interface to the serial port on the U4600 for console I/O.
How to use:Make sure that ~cs9242/bin is in your PATH, and that the environment ARCH is set to pc.i86.linux. The former is normally achieved by using the newclass command, the latter is set up automatically by the default shell initialisation files. Also make sure that you are using GNU make (this is also ensured by the default initialisation files).
Use the Makefiles supplied with the examples (like the one in ~cs9242/public_html/src/hello_world/). Typing
Note: make must be done locally on the host machine connected to your U4600, or the boot image will end up in the wrong boot directory.
You also need to run a terminal emulator on the host to be able to talk to the U4600. Use the command
Turn on the U4600, you should get another greeting message and a
If you do not get the prompt, some program is actually executing on the U4600. Press the INTERRUPT button (the smaller of the two buttons on the box) for about 1/2 second, and you should get a ''KDBG>'' prompt. Type
If you type
Note that you are running an operating system, which is not expected to terminate. To stop execution, hit the INTERRRUPT key (reset button) on the U4600. This will get you into the L4 kernel debugger, which is unlikely to be of much help for you (but if you want to try, it is documented in Appendix C of the L4 Reference Manual). However, you can then type
Alternatively you can hit Control-D when in the kernel debugger. This will exit the debugger and resume the execution of the interrupted code.
A failed assertion (assert(0)) has the same effect as hitting the interrupt key. Alternatively, you can send a BREAK from the terminal emulator (Misc->Break).
If you INTERRUPT the U4600 but it doesn't get into the kernel debugger, you may have found a bug in our L4 microkernel. Please report it to us.
Last modified: 27 Jul 2005.


text:
European Crisis Strategy
The Russian-Ukraine gas dispute at the beginning of 2009 became a crucial test for the European gas industry. In some countries, in particular Eastern and South Eastern Europe, the interruption in deliveries had severe effects on private households and industry. The German consumers, by contrast, did not feel the crisis at all. They benefited from the good supply system which the energy companies had built up in the years before to safeguard secure supplies of gas, even in times of crisis.
The German government and the Federal Network Agency both praised the crisis management of the gas supply companies. The Federal Ministry of Economics underlined the high competence of the companies, stating that they had been able to react quickly and comprehensively and procure the volumes of gas required to avoid supply bottlenecks. The Federal Network Agency attested that the German gas industry was also well equipped for any possible crises to come.
At European level, the Russian-Ukraine gas conflict led to new political demands for a uniform crisis strategy. Particularly the case of Ukraine has, however, shown that the supply structures in the individual EU countries are too different for that.
A crisis concept which is appropriate for today's supply situation in Europe should therefore build on three central factors:
- Priority for the market
- Strong companies
- Reliable legal framework
Priority for the market
In its Directive on Security of Gas Supply issued in 2004, the EU Commission defined a three-stage approach for managing crises. First of all, each gas company is responsible for providing its market areas with reliable gas supplies. In the event of a supply crisis, the importing companies have agreed to help each other if necessary, also across national borders.
Only in exceptional crises which cannot be managed by the market alone are the individual member states called upon to intervene. Appropriate statutory regulations are then to safeguard the gas supply.
The interruption of gas deliveries over a prolonged period sets stage three of the crisis mechanism into action. Then EU institutions consult on effective remedies - but only when the companies and member states are not able to overcome the supply crisis alone.
An energy policy which relies primarily on the autonomy of the gas supply companies is best suited to the structural differences in the energy industries of the different EU countries. It passed the acid test in the gas crisis at the beginning of 2009.
E.ON has therefore expressly committed itself to open markets governed by competition since only such markets guarantee secure and efficient gas supply.
Safeguarding against future supply risks requires great effort to create a European Gas Transmission Grid. Most of the major supply pipelines in Europe are currently only unidirectional - from the supply source to the particular consumer region. However, it is important to network the different parts of the European infrastructure better with each other so that the gas can also be moved in other directions in the event of a crisis.
Furthermore, the growing globalisation of competition for gas supplies makes high demands on the supply companies. Gas has to be produced under increasingly difficult production conditions and transported over greater and greater distances.
All this causes high costs along the entire value added chain. Only large and high-performance companies have the economic strength to make the high investments required in supply security projects which have to be planned for far in the future.
Size and high-performance do not just refer to the capital resources of the companies. It is also a question of being well networked on the crucial markets. After all, two thirds of the natural gas used today crosses national borders on its way to the consumer. E.ON has a wide European and national network. We have equity interests in many companies in Germany and abroad and therefore have access to the most important key markets.
Reliable legal framework
The gas business is geared to the long term. Companies that sign supply contracts with producers, lay pipelines and arrange for the gas to be transported to the consumers have to plan and be sustainable for decades ahead.
However, that is not possible without political support. Firstly, in foreign and security policy: after all, global gas trading also affects the relations to producer and transit countries, above all where the energy system is still controlled by the state.
Secondly, the gas industry's responsible commitment to greater supply security can only be successful in the long term if the investment climate is right. Supply security cannot be had for free but requires high investment in the future. The supply companies can only maintain their commitment in the long run if they can work under economic conditions.
Uniform conditions for long-term investments are also the prerequisite for the strategic cooperation of strong companies in an integrated European energy market. They form the basis for the search for joint solutions for the future - and therefore also for greater supply security in a crisis.


Enslaved: Odyssey to the West Preview
Posted by: Sarah LeBoeuf
Nearly three years ago, less than twelve months into the PlayStation 3's life, Heavenly Sword was one of the first big exclusives for the console. Often called "God of War with a chick", the Ninja Theory-developed action-adventure game didn't turn out to be the next big franchise that Sony wanted it to be, and plans for a sequel were scrapped in favor of a new, multiplatform project from the developer. Now Ninja Theory's next game, Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, is only a few months away from release, meaning that gamers will finally be able to see what the developer learned from their first experience of this generation.
Enslaved is loosely based on the centuries-old Chinese novel Journey to the West, sometimes known as Monkey in English-speaking countries. However, instead of being set in the sixteenth century, Enslaved takes place about a 150 years in the future. A wide-spanning war has wiped out most of the human race, and robots left over from a more technologically advanced era are still following their orders, which are to essentially destroy all humans. Trying to survive the post-apocalyptic chaos is Monkey, one of the few humans to escape the robotic reign. Against his will, he teams up with Trip, who is knowledgeable with mechanical items but not particularly strong physically. Trip forces Monkey to help her return to her village, and it quickly becomes obvious that they need each other in order to stay alive.
Much like another upcoming Namco-Bandai game, Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom, Enslaved mixes combat with puzzle-solving and exploration while letting the player control two protagonists throughout the adventure. Trip can open doors, shut down large machines, and has useful gadgets that will assist them in their journey, but she needs Monkey to physically fight the never-ending waves of destructive robots. Using a melee weapon, Monkey is able to use physical attacks, and sometimes must distract enemies while Trip performs another task. Trip's role is largely to avoid combat while putting her technological know-how to good use, and with Monkey's help, she is able to sneak by the robots without being noticed.
One of the strongest things about Heavenly Sword was the memorable characters, particularly Nariko and Kai; Ninja Theory proved that their team had a knack for character design, and that continues with Enslaved. Visually, Monkey and Trip are unique, and their personalities are just as distinct. Monkey is strong and silent, a loner until being forced to work with Trip. Trip, on the other hand, is sassy and smart, and the exchanges between them early in the game are full of bickering and tense moments, but in an endearing way. Their relationship was actually reminiscent of Prince and Elika in 2008's Prince of Persia, which sported some great dialogue as the characters' relationship progressed. It appears that Monkey and Trip will probably forge a lasting friendship along the trip, if not something more, and it will be interesting to see how they get there.
The other thing that sets Enslaved apart from every other post-apocalyptic video game is the setting itself. The ruins of civilization are visible everywhere, from the burned-out cars to the crumbling buildings, but there is something really refreshing about the way the world is presented. The game shows a more fantasy-based take on the end of humanity than gamers are used to, with giant mechanical objects scattered throughout fields of green and lush vegetation. The science-fiction elements are strong, too, between the robotic foes and Trip's use of technology to further their journey. There's no doubt about it, Enslaved is visually beautiful, and one can only hope that the impressive presentation holds up throughout the entire game.
With less than three months to go until its release date, Enslaved: Odyssey to the West is already looking superb. However, there's always room for improvement, and it will be interesting to see Ninja Theory's follow-up to Heavenly Sword once the full game is out. The developer has a lot of talent and a lot of potential, and it would be a shame to see another of their titles become quickly forgotten.
Anonymous User


Latest Code Development
In January 2021, Dr Egan worked with the Department of Digital Humanities and the Department of Music in UCC to create a web resource, which required a novel digital visualisation for a text-heavy website navigation. In order to achieve this, the Javascript library D3JS was used by implementing a version of a force layout. The existing D3 force layout uses a uses a "physics based simulator" which essentially means that there is a collision detection and gravitational force for each circle. On load the circles are pulled towards the centre, but on collide they repel each other and then take their place in the resultant gravity-collision negotiation!
A working example is available at the website, or on GitHub:
As a type of navigation menu, this visualisation needed to include a way of letting the visitor know which links they had visited on the site whenever they returned to the homepage. This was achieved by using Local Storage:
function checkStorage(){
var visited_links = JSON.parse(localStorage.getItem('visited_links')) || [];
var links = document.querySelectorAll('a');for (var i = 0; i < links.length; i++) {var that = links[i];var hrefs = that.href.baseVal;var theElement = that;
if (visited_links.indexOf(hrefs)!== -1) {
 d3.selectAll('circle').on('click', datum => {
console.log(datum.links); // the datum for the clicked circle});
Another function that was helpful for representing text within each circle was word-wrapping. In essence, when text becomes too wide for circles, this piece of code adds a new HTML element (tspan) for subsequent words:
function wrap(text, width) {
text.each(function() {
var text =,
words = text.text().split(/\s+/).reverse(),
line = [],
lineNumber = 0,
lineHeight = 1, // ems
y = text.attr("y"),
dy = parseFloat(text.attr("dy")),
tspan = text.text(null).append("tspan").attr("x", 0).attr("y", y).attr("dy", dy + "em");
while (word = words.pop()) {
tspan.text(line.join(" "));
if (tspan.node().getComputedTextLength() > width) {
tspan.text(line.join(" "));
line = [word];
tspan = text.append("tspan").attr("x", 0).attr("y", y).attr("dy", ++lineNumber * lineHeight + dy + "em").text(word);
The resultant visualisation code is available to other developers at:


text:
X and Y can do a piece of work in 20 days and 12 days respectively. X started the work alone and then after 4 days Y joined him till the completion of the work. How long did the work last?
Answer: Option B
Hence, total time taken = (6 + 4) days = 10 days.
A is 30% more efficient than B. How much time will they, working together, take to complete a job which A alone could have done in 23 days?
Ratio of times taken by A and B = 100 : 130 = 10 : 13.
Suppose B takes x days to do the work.
Therefore, A and B together can complete the work in 13 days.
Ravi and Kumar are working on an assignment. Ravi takes 6 hours to type 32 pages on a computer, while Kumar takes 5 hours to type 40 pages. How much time will they take, working together on two different computers to type an assignment of 110 pages?
Answer: Option D
A, B and C can complete a piece of work in 24, 6 and 12 days respectively. Working together, they will complete the same work in:
Sakshi can do a piece of work in 20 days. Tanya is 25% more efficient than Sakshi. The number of days taken by Tanya to do the same piece of work is:
Ratio of times taken by Sakshi and Tanya = 125 : 100 = 5 : 4.
Suppose Tanya takes x days to do the work.
x = 16 days.
Hence, Tanya takes 16 days to complete the work.
< Prev 123456Next >
Contact us: _EMAIL_
Follow us on twitter!


Home / Articles / Bologna Conference: The Benefits of Non-Violent Struggle in Eritrea
Bologna Conference: The Benefits of Non-Violent Struggle in Eritrea
I was recently invited to speak at a conference organised by EYSC (Eritrean Youth Solidarity for Change) in the historic Italian town of Bologna held from 30th August to 1st September 2013. My presentation focussed on the merits of non-violent struggle against the tyrants ruling Eritrea from 1991 to present day.
EYSC is a diaspora based youth movement with a potential for effective contribution to the ongoing non-violent struggle inside and outside Eritrea. The youth group employs many technical skills in pursuit of change in the homeland, including facebook with a following of about 12,000 engaged in lively debates on issues of Eritrean concerns.
The theme of the Bologna conference was: Eritrean Solutions for Eritrean Problems. There were eleven scheduled speakers who presented inspiring messages. I was particularly touched by Dr. Rebka Sebhatu's presentation, which focused on the traditions of Eritrean oral history including the tradition of storytelling. She eloquently related the stories with our cultural values and identities that the ruling regime in Asmara has been trying to destroy.
The EYSC organisers clearly showed high organisational skills in pulling together a conference that was attended by Eritreans from around the world, including participants from as far as Melbourne, Australia and California, USA.
In my presentation, I explained that the method of struggle pursued by a people to achieve democratic change most likely determine the form of change they achieve. Experience has shown that, in general, using violent means to change a dictatorial regime into a democratic system of governance results in counter violence by the opponents. In essence, the message of democracy, justice and peace will be replaced by revenge, hate and unrest. Violence breeds violence, destroys lives and properties, silences dialogue and rationale, and eventually replaces one dictator by another or even leads to breakup of a nation into mini states ruled by several war lords who would act as local dictators.
As the ruling tyrants in Eritrea eventually grow weaker and lose support from within their rank and file, the best option is to reach out to these forces of change within the ruling party, including the army, the intelligence services, the police, civil servants and PFDJ ("ruling party" in Eritrea) members to play a decisive role in removing the tyrant and initiating the process of democratization. The best strategy is always to seek change to come from inside Eritrea and has to be fully operated by Eritreans from beginning to end. External support is greatly appreciated but should not compromise Eritrean sovereignty, unity, and strategic interests.
Non-violent resistance is a strategy that is more engaging and allows the people to participate in their cause and determine its outcome to be consistent with their dreams and hopes for change. Non-violent resistance requires a great deal of courage, sacrifice and dedication to a cause. Its principles are rooted on political defiance based on the power of the masses thereby requiring tremendous amount of patience and endurance of pain. In the Eritrean case, state institutions currently serving the ruling tyrants can be called upon to side with the people, to defend the people, and to help the people remove the tyrant and his cronies from power, and to help stabilize the country during the transition period to democracy and beyond. Targeted violence practiced by the current state institutions against the tyrant may therefore be justifiable provided it is limited in scope and purpose to achieve the end result called for by the masses. What is not justified and dangerous is for opposition groups based outside Eritrea to have violence as a strategic means of struggle, and hence have their own partisan "armed cadres/wings/militia/liberation army" to remove the tyrannical regime and to promote their own partisan politics and programs. In fact having different groups with their own armies is a recipe for failure and chaos.
It can be argued that the Eritrean opposition taken individually or combined does not have the necessary political public support or the means and capacity to wage a successful armed struggle against the current regime for various reasons. Nevertheless, one can observe the early symptoms of individualism and intolerance in their political rhetoric and outright condemnation and criminalization of independent Eritrean opposition activists who promote non-violent struggle. This suggests, if the culture of intolerance is maintained, the opposition camp may impose dictatorial rules by violent means in the future. It is for this reason that the pro-democracy non-violent movement should not shy away from peacefully challenging all adversaries including some leaders in the opposition camp. After all democratic change is not just about removing one party or leader and replacing them by another, but about spreading the culture of democracy both vertically and horizontally.
Non-violent struggle is deep rooted in the Eritrean contemporary political history. In 1940s the Muslim-League led Independence Bloc (an umbrella for pro-independence Eritrean parties) was a non-violent movement. The Bloc succeeded in rallying Eritreans from all walks of life for the cause of independence and in sowing the seeds for liberation from foreign colonialism. In 1958, when the Ethiopian monarch began consolidating its violation of the UN-imposed federal union between Eritrea and Ethiopia (_PHONE_), and decided to lower the Eritrean legitimate flag (blue ground with green olive branch emblem, which, ironically, is still detested by the current tyrants), Eritreans resolved to fight back through a non-violent trade union and political movement. It was at this time that the Eritrean Liberation Movement (ELM – commonly known as cell of 7 ማሕበርሸውዓተin Southern Highlands and as حركة movement in the lowlands) was launched as a non-violent pro-independence democratic patriotic movement. In post 1991, soon after Eritrea's full liberation from Ethiopian occupation, the ELF-RC, and later G13, G15, EPDP and other parties and groups have consciously took the decision to pursue non-violent strategies to challenge and expose the Eritrean regime. In addition to its numerous benefits, the non-violent strategy is therefore well rooted in the Eritrean struggle for justice and independent democratic state.
The following can be listed as summarized advantages of non-violent means of struggle:-
 It deprives violent tyrants of legitimacy and justifications to rule against their people's will
 It gives space for people to own the struggle as well as the outcome of the struggle, whereas in violence scenarios ownership of the means of struggle as well as the outcome often falls in the hands of the conflicting parties. Somalia, CDR (former Zaire) and Libya can be cited as examples of how violence between conflicting parties may lead to state failures
 It draws local and international public sympathy when the conflict is between tyrants and unarmed civilians, instead of tyrants and armed opposition groups
 It paves the way for smooth transition towards democratisation. In the absence of violence people and their legitimate representatives would be able to discuss and agree to manage transition towards democratisation without fear of repercussions from armed groups and war-lords
 It minimises bloodshed, hate and endless conflicts based on people's cultural, regional or religious identities (e.g. Lebanon/Somalia/Syria)
 It promotes mature political discourse, rule of law and justice mobilisation
Non-violence tools available to Diaspora Eritreans:-
1. Diaspora public mobilisation can effectively help deprive the pfdj tyrannical regime of the 2% income tax and other financial resources that they generate from Eritreans. Public awareness raising events such as holding rallies and demonstrations, seminars and conferences such as the Bologna conference to discuss and promote ideas and solutions for our country's problems contribute a great deal to the democratisation efforts. In recent years Eritrean activists have been using creative non-violent means to reach out to our people inside Eritrea through telephone calling campaign known as "Freedom Friday" ( ዓርቢሓርነትجمعة الحرية) where random calls are made to thousands in Eritrea encouraging them to express their rejection of tyranny by staying at home on Friday evenings.
2. Media the role of media is crucial in informing the public and raising awareness as well as exposing and challenging tyrants. Media tools include Radio, TV, CDs, DVDs, Internet, Arts (including drama, poem, music, paintings etc.). Dictators in general and the Eritrean tyrant in particular fear independent media more than any other opposition movement, e.g. PFDJ media avoidance of Arab-Spring news, banning of Aljazeera TV broadcasting in public places after the Forto 21 January 2013 movement can be mentioned as some examples of the regime's paranoia and fear of truth. Also the effective role played by cyber media outlets such as awate.com can not be underestimated in breaking the fear barrier as well as in promoting open political discussions among Eritreans.
The focus should therefore be on building media institutions that can effectively contribute to the struggle for change towards democratisation.
3. Diplomacy:This tool can be used based on two approaches:-
a. Institutional Diplomacy (e.g. lobbying governments, human rights organisations, parties through inter-party friendships


text:
Although she came to the throne on this day in 1952, her coronation took place on June 2, 1953.
Queen Elizabeth II is the male-line great-granddaughter of Edward VII, who inherited the crown from his mother, Queen Victoria. His father, Victoria's consort, was Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.
Queen Elizabeth is a patrilineal descendant of Albert's family, the German House of Wettin. This princely house claims other notables, such as King Albert II of Belgium and former King Simeon II of Bulgaria.
Through Victoria - and several of her great-great-grandparents, Elizabeth is directly descended from many British royals:
House of Stuart: Mary, Queen of Scots, Robert the Bruce, and earlier Scottish royal houses.
- House of Tudor, and earlier English royal houses as far as the 7th century House of Wessex; one member of Wessex was Aethelflaed of Wessex's younger sister, Elfthryth.
As Queen Victoria's great-great-granddaughter, she is related to the heads of most other reigning and former European royal houses. Via her great-grandmother Queen Alexandra, she descends from the Danish royal house of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, of the North German house of Oldenburg, one of the oldest European lines.
Glücksburg also claims Elizabeth's husband, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh; Margrethe II of Denmark, Harald V of Norway, Queen Sofia of Spain and former King Constantine II of Greece. All of them descend from Queen Victoria. Elizabeth has many cousins, including King Juan Carlos I of Spain, Victoria's great-great-grandson.
She's also descended from Johan Willem Friso, Prince of Orange (1687–1711), the most recent common ancestor to all reigning European royal houses.
Her lineage ethnicities include Armenian, Arab, Chinese, Cuman, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Monegasque, Norwegian, Old Prussian, Portuguese, Romanian, Serbian, Spanish, Swedish and Yugoslavian.
The Diamond Jubilee weekend celebration - June 2-5, 2012 - is coordinated by Buckingham Palace, which is also responsible for her program during the entire year.
This year, the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh will visit England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, while other Royal Family members will also travel throughout the UK and overseas.
Click here to see Queen's family tree (screenshot below).


text:
Comparison of adults who stutter with and without social anxiety disorder
- Publication Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal of Fluency Disorders, 2018, 56 pp. 55 - 68
- Issue Date:
Copyright Clearance Process
- Recently Added
- In Progress
- Closed Access
This item is closed access and not available.
© 2018 Purpose: Social anxiety disorder is a debilitating anxiety disorder associated with significant life impairment. The purpose of the present study is to evaluate overall functioning for adults who stutter with and without a diagnosis of social anxiety disorder. Method: Participants were 275 adults who stuttered (18–80 years), including 219 males (79.6%) and 56 females (20.4%), who were enrolled to commence speech treatment for stuttering. Comparisons were made between participants diagnosed with social anxiety disorder (n = 82, 29.8%) and those without that diagnosis (n = 193, 70.2%). Results: Although the socially anxious group was significantly younger than the non-socially anxious group, no other demographic differences were found. When compared to the non-socially anxious group, the socially anxious group did not demonstrate significantly higher self-reported stuttering severity or percentage of syllables stuttered. Yet the socially anxious group reported more speech dissatisfaction and avoidance of speaking situations, significantly more psychological problems, and a greater negative impact of stuttering. Conclusion: Significant differences in speech and psychological variables between groups suggest that, despite not demonstrating more severe stuttering, socially anxious adults who stutter demonstrate more psychological difficulties and have a more negative view of their speech. The present findings suggest that the demographic status of adults who stutter is not worse for those with social anxiety disorder. These findings pertain to a clinical sample, and cannot be generalized to the wider population of adults who stutter from the general community. Further research is needed to understand the longer-term impact of social anxiety disorder for those who stutter.
Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item:


text: Baby will have hours of fun popping the 4 different coloured balls into the cylinder through the electronic hole which recognises the balls as they drop down. Discover animals, colours and counting with the 2 modes of play. Twist the key to activate the lights and spinning of the balls and then watch them drop and roll down the fun slides in different ways as there are various manipulative features on the way down. Includes a tray at the bottom for baby to pick the balls up and play all over again. Features 15 melodies and 6 happy sing-along songs. Electronic ball recognition.Twist the key to activate spinning the balls.Discover animals, numbers and colours!Includes 15 melodies and 6 sing-along songs.


text:
Integrated landscape approaches are regularly touted as a potential means to reconcile local socio-economic and global environmental challenges. The landscape represents an ideal scale at which to implement strategies and evaluate progress of initiatives designed towards more sustainable outcomes for both people and nature. As such, landscape approaches are increasingly acknowledged within global environmental policy discourse and have generated significant discussion and debate within the scientific and practitioner communities.
However, despite this momentum, there remains a lack of consensus on: how to define a landscape approach; how to best apply the approach in practice; and what is the appropriate spatial scale for implementation and analysis. This Talk will highlight key elements of the landscape approach, how it builds on previous initiatives and how we can move forward from theory to practice.


text:
At Ringling College of Art and Design, we prepare our students for a lifetime of amazing possibilities. In fact, we are shattering the myth of the starving artist. Curious about how important of a role that art and design plays in our everyday lives?
Did you know that:
- 3.34 million Americans work in the arts.
- One in 111 jobs is in art and design.
- Creative jobs have grown from 10% to over 30% of the economy.
- 97% of employers say that creativity is of increasing importance, but 85% say they are unable to find the applicants they seek.
- The economic impact of art and design exceeds that of sports worldwide.
- The creative industries are an estimated $30 billion export annually.
- Jobs in design have increased 43% in the past ten years.
- The global art market was worth $60.8 billion in 2011; 70% of all art sales were for contemporary and modern art.
- There are over 532,000 designers working in the U.S.
- More people are employed in the visual arts than in all of the performing arts and sports industries combined.
- 200,000 people are employed in the film industry.
- People spend approximately $55 billion annually on video games.
- The computer animation industry generates $33 billion annually.
- Jobs and employment in many creative industries are growing faster than the labor force as a whole and make up 30% of the work force by some estimates.
- America's nonprofit arts industry generates $134 billion in economic activity every year.
- By 2016, jobs for artists and designers are predicted to increase by 42%.
- Arts-related businesses in the country's largest cities represent 4.3% of all businesses and 2.2% of all jobs in the United States.
- There are 3.34 million people working for over 904,000 arts-centric businesses in the United States.
- Employment growth by arts-centric businesses since 2007 was 12%, more than four times the rise in the total number of U.S. employees.
- Designers are the single largest group of artists, followed by performing artists such as actors, dancers, musicians, and announcers.
- Employment of interior designers is expected to grow 19% from 2006 to 2016.
- Median salaries of: Creative Directors–$90,000, Art Directors–$86,505, Fine Artists–$48,870, Multi-media Artists and Animators–$61,555, Graphic Designers–$46,925, Set and Exhibit Designers–$49,330, Producers and Directors–$86,790, Broadcast Technicians–$40,270, Photographers–$36,090, and Film and Video Editors–$66,715.
- Wage and salary employment in the motion picture and video industries is projected to grow 11% by 2016.
- Animators, film and video editors, and others skilled in digital filming and computer-generated imaging have the best job prospects in future of the motion picture and video industries.
- There are about 94,000 computer artists and animators working in the United States.
- Jobs for photographers have increased 38% in the past four years.
Sources: Americans for the Arts, National Endowment for the Arts, U.S. Department of Labor, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the Entertainment Software Association


text:
As microprocessors get smaller and more powerful, the search for a low-cost, low-power method of keeping them cool intensifies.
Traditional methods of using fans and heat sinks are limited, and next-generation devices might be impossible without improved cooling technology. At Georgia Institute of Technology (_URL_),engineers have developed synthetic jet arrays that produce two to three times the cooling of a fan while using two-thirds less energy.
The jets resemble tiny speakers with electromagnetic or piezoelectric drivers vibrating a diaphragm at 100 to 200 Hz. This sucks air into a cavity and expels it, creating pulsating jets of air that can be precisely directed. Though the jets move 70% less air than fans of comparable size, the airflow contains tiny vortices, which make the flow turbulent. Turbulent air mixes more efficiently with ambient air, breaking up thermal boundary layers and increasing heat transfer. The jets can be scaled to suit applications and turned on and off to meet changing thermal demands.


Hi all,
I am trying to drill deeper into Flash player IOError handling in AS3, in
order to distinguish different types of load failures when loading child
swfs and data into a parent swf. For instance, I need to know, and react
differently to, loads errors where the file is missing altogether vs. loads
where severe network congestion mid-load interrupts a load after a part of
the file has been received.
Can anyone offer some deeper information on exactly what initial
condition(s) triggers an IOError event? Is it time-based (no bytes loaded in
N ms), a reaction to a server response, something else? I've been googling
and reading through Adobe docs all morning and haven't seen anything deeper
than the often repeated, but largely unhelpful Adobe line: "FlashR Player
dispatches an IOErrorEvent object when an error causes a send or load
operation to fail." I'm looking for more depth than that. A definition of
"error" and the criteria used to decide the load was a failure, for
instance, would be a good start.
Any info. or directions to look would be greatly appreciated.
Flashcoders mailing list
Reply via email to


Can Any Good Come From The Pandemic?
From The Sentencing Law & Policy blog.
 What might be the positive changes that come as a result of zoom hearings and the other responses that courts have had to the pandemic? Professor Matt Bender has authored this timely new paper now on SSRN Here is its abstract:A defendant's fundamental right to a public trial, and the press and community's separate right to watch court have been threatened by the shift to virtual hearings. These independent constitutional rights can be in harmony in some cases and clash in others. They cannot be incompatible. Public interest in criminal justice transparency is increasingly crystallized, but courts have often become more opaque, which jeopardizes First and Sixth Amendment rights.This paper addresses the conflict and confronts a key question: how can we be assured that remote and virtual hearings like Zoom arraignments or trials guarantee the same rights as traditional court hearings? Instead of rejecting virtual criminal hearings outright, new proposals are offered for how virtual courtrooms can safeguard constitutional rights. The prevailing belief that criminal defendants should reject virtual trials is questioned. Virtual trials may lead to better outcomes for defendants than traditional trials, specifically during the ongoing pandemic. Beyond preserving rights in a virtual courtroom, the ways technology can improve the criminal justice system are explored.Through an analysis of existing indigent defense and First Amendment scholarship, the myth that traditional court decorum should trump open court and virtual hearings is addressed. Judicial legitimacy and transparency may benefit when criminal cases are accessible on virtual platforms or livestreamed. Transparency can help safeguard defendants's rights and improve indigent clients's representation and outcomes. Instead of disrupting the courtroom — whether a hearing is virtual or traditional — convenient public access helps a community learn more about the criminal justice system and evaluate cases, judges, and attorneys.These proposals have significant implications for courts and clients by providing a framework for virtual litigation, and leveraging technology for a more equitable criminal justice system. Livestreams and virtual, remote hearings can improve the right of representation for indigent defendants by increasing access to quality counsel, reducing costs, creating a more competitive legal market, and expanding a client's choice of attorneys.
Leave a Reply
You are commenting using your account. Log Out / Change )
Google photo
Twitter picture
Facebook photo
Connecting to %s


- Register
 - Login
 - Bookmark this page!
Skip Navigation LinksHome Page > Tests during the pregnancy > Nuchal Edema (Thickened Nape) and/or Cystic Hygroma
Pregnancy links...
Health links...
Genetics links...
Medical links...
Other links...
Nuchal Edema (Thickened Nape) and/or Cystic Hygroma
What is this and what is its significance?
This is edema of the fetus's neck caused by an accumulation of fluid, usually lymph. Usually lymphatic fluid collects at this site and is absorbed into the bloodstream. However, a delay in the development of the system that drains the fluid into the blood can result in an accumulation of superfluous fluid known as edema - this usually resolves with the completion of the development of the lymph drainage system. In cases of very marked edema, it resolves only at a later stage, and may leave a surplus of skin in the fetus's nape. In extreme cases, this surplus skin can be seen at birth by a pediatrician (parents will not notice it because it is not a very prominent sign).
The edema is significant if it covers the back and sides of the neck with more than 3 mm thickness up to week 14 of gestation, and more than 4 - 5 mm later. A thickening of the nape without edema of more than 5 or 6 mm between the 14th and 16th week of gestation is considered to be abnormal.
In some cases this is a transient finding without clinical significance, but in most cases it indicates a significant risk for a fetal disorder. The more marked the edema (or the thicker the nape), the greater the risk for the fetus. The edema itself does not have clinical significance, but it constitutes an indication for an increased risk of fetal problems.
The common causes of nuchal edema are:
 1. A chromosome disorder in the fetus. Many studies have reported a significant correlation between nuchal edema and chromosome disorders, especially Turner syndrome and Down syndrome. Different reports quote risks of 18% if the edema is an isolated finding and 33% if there are additional defects.
 2. Heart defects. In a significant percentage of cases in which there is significant edema, heart defects are diagnosed in fetal echocardiography.
 3. The onset of diffuse fetal edema (hydrops).
 4. Intrauterine infection by a virus or other pathogen. Common viruses such as CMV may cause cervical edema as part of the general picture of infection in the fetus.
Once these conditions have been ruled out, the risk for the presence of other defects and syndromes depends on the severity (the excess over 3 mm) of the edema/thickening. Usually, even when there is a significant degree of edema (see cystic hygroma below), the additional risk is only 3% - 4% higher than the regular risk.
If the edema is of moderate or severe degree, there is an increased risk of other defects or syndromes that cannot all be detected in additional tests. These include very short stature and many other conditions. In the case of translucency/edema in excess of 6 mm, the risk that a syndrome or other defects may be detected later is especially high, even in the absence of a chromosome disorder.
What should be done if this is diagnosed?
Genetic counseling should be offered so that the parents can receive a thorough explanation of its significance and to discuss whether further monitoring and investigation, particularly amniocentesis, is necessary. Counseling is especially important in the presence of additional defects. In such cases it is also important to refer the family for multidisciplinary counseling after ruling out other problems such as chromosome disorders, additional defects and maternal infection. This is because there is still a risk that the fetus might have a genetic syndrome even if the results of all the tests are normal.
Echocardiography should be performed between the 22nd and the 24th week of gestation. This can detect severe defects at a relatively high level of confidence.
A 3rd level ultrasound scan, directed mainly at the heart and nape, should be performed between the 15th and the 16th week and again between the 22nd and the 24th week of gestation. This is in order to look for additional defects and diffuse fetal edema.
The mother's blood should be tested for antibodies against common pathogens that may infect and damage the fetus (TORCH organisms), and also for a virus associated with fetal edema called Parvo-virus. If antibodies are found and the level and type raise concern that there has been a maternal infection, tests should be carried out to identify the virus/bacterium in the amniotic fluid.
What is cystic hygroma?
In more severe cases there may be a significant pooling of fluid in the nape, forming a cyst of lymphatic fluid known as a cystic hygroma. There are two types of cysts with differing clinical significance with regard to severity. One is known as a septated cystic hygroma, and the other is a non-septated cystic hygroma. In the former, the cysts are more structured and prominent, and the risk for chromosome disorders is much higher than it is in the non-septated type. Various studies have reported the presence of chromosome disorders in 50% - 90% of affected fetuses. The wide range is because of unclear definitions of the type of cyst and a lack of separation between cases identified in the first and second trimesters of gestation. When a cyst is identified in the first trimester of pregnancy, the most common chromosome disorder is Turner syndrome (45, XO). In the second trimester such chromosome disorders as Down syndrome and trisomy 18 etc. are more common.
It is important to note that even in cases where the cyst is reabsorbed, a chromosome disorder in the fetus cannot be ruled out because in most cases where a fetus has Down syndrome there are small cysts in the neck, which spontaneously disappear between the 15th and the 16th week of gestation.
In addition to chromosome disorders it is important to look for all the above-mentioned conditions including fetal heart defects and the onset of diffuse edema in the fetus.
As already mentioned, there is an increased risk for fetal defects and genetic syndromes even if the results of all the tests, including amniocentesis, are normal. In typical cystic hygroma, the risk remaining after completing all the tests, even when all the results are normal, is 15% - 30% for syndromes involving developmental delay.
Haven't found what you're looking for? Search for it here:
Comments (0)
Leave a Comment
Email (will not be published)
Website (optional)
Your Comment
Please type the characters you see in the picture:


Quick Answer: Which Gender Is Better At Cooking?
Why is cooking considered feminine?
Because men have physical strength they used to Hunt in earlier days and women were suppose to cook the flesh for them.
Now days nobody cares that who cooked the food as long as it tastes good.
But as women used do to it in the past, that must be the reason it is called Feminine activity..
What does it mean when a woman cooks for a man?
It most likely means that she cares about you on some level. Don't assume too much, though; she may have a romantic interest in you, or she may simply be doing this as an expression of friendship. She probably wouldn't cook for you if she found you completely repulsive, though, so that's something.
Which job is best for female?
What is the most common job for a woman?
Most Common Occupations for Women in the Labor ForceOccupationNumber of WomenRegistered nurses2,092,489Secretaries and administrative assistants2,060,289Elementary and middle school teachers1,933,074Managers, all other1,363,14720 more rows
Is cooking a gender role?
Historically, food preparation and household cooking have been assigned to women, and cooking has been linked to female gender roles and identity. However, with women's increasing participation in the workforce, men have increased their contribution to household work and the gendering of food work is changing.
What gender is cook?
Answer: A cook is a gender-neutral word which describes the person who is an expert in cooking, culinary skills and expertise in culinary arts. The term "cook" is used in tandem with genders not distinguishing masculine from feminine. But both of themmale and female "cook"- are also described using the word "chef".
Is cooking a male dominated industry?
What is a Womens job?
The term "women's work" may indicate a role with children as defined by nature in that only women are biologically capable of performing them: pregnancy, childbirth, and breastfeeding. It may also refer to professions that involve these functions: midwife and wet nurse.
What are traditional female jobs?
Traditional Occupations of Working WomenOccupation2016 Total Women Employed2016 % Women WorkersRegistered Nurses2,791,00090.0%Teachers – Elementary & Middle School2,231,00078.5%Cashiers2,386,00073.2%Retail Salespersons1,603,00048.4%6 more rows•Sep 17, 2017


text:
Directly beneath the toolbar is the Layout Band. Here, you find two fields with different labels and functions, depending on the type of view you are creating:
- For tables, these fields are Columns and Groups.
- For charts, these fields are Columns and Rows.
- For crosstabs, these fields are Columns and Rows.
You can drag and drop fields and measures into these boxes to populate your view.
Did this article help?
Please provide us your feedback below.


text:
How To Name The Compound TiI4?
Wikipedia calls it "Titanium Tetraiodide", but it's a molecular compound, so aren't prefixes not supposed to be used?
- pisgahchemistLv 710 years agoFavorite Answer
The rules in my classroom and most classrooms are these....
1. Metal-nonmetal or metal-polyatomic ion ==> use the Stock system (includes Roman numeral when necessary
2. Nonmetal-nonmetal ==> Greek prefix method.
Trying to use a system based on how covalent or how ionic are the bonds is a fools errand. The only clear-cut demarcation is this... Metal-nonmetal, use the Stock system. Nonmetal-nonmetal, use the Greek prefixes. The stair-step line clearly separates metals from nonmetals.
Titanium is clearly a metal and iodine is clearly a nonmetal. Therefore, the name is titanium(IV) iodide. Period.


Fetching Alexa Ranking...
Show All Similar WebSites
See Web Sites Hosted on Server
Fetching Web Sites Hosted
Keyword Suggestions
A or an
A or an rule
A or an historic
A or an before acronym
( Please select at least 2 keywords )
Domains Actived Recently
Websites Listing
We found at least 10 Websites Listing below when search with a-or-an.com on Search Engine
Email Us - A or An
Email Mailing Address. Mailing Address. A or An P.O. Box 2034 New York, NY 10159 United States of America
'An email' or 'a email' - Google Groups
Apr 01, 2002 · > A e-mail or an e-mail? > > 'A' or 'an' before the noun 'e-mail'? I don't consider "email" to be the word for a single piece of email, any more than "mail" is the word for a single piece of mail. For the matter of whether a word takes "a" or "an" say the word. If it begins with a vowel, it takes "an" Bob
"a email" or "an email"? - UsingEnglish.com
Feb 22, 2009 · email, e-mail Show phonetics noun 1 [U] the system for using computers to send messages over the Internet: You can contact us by email or fax. What's your email address? 2 [C] a message or document sent using this system: I got an email from Danielle last week. email, e-mail Show phonetics verb [T] to send an email to someone: Email me when you
When to use "a" or "an" - Hacker Bits
Question: A email or an email? Answer: An email. The pronunciation of the word email begins with an eee sound. This is a vowel sound. Question: A or an before s-words? Answer: It depends. For a simple word like secure, you should use a secure, since its pronunciation begins with an S consonant sound.
Yahoo Mail
Is it 'an' E-mail or 'a' E-mail? - Quora
The first option is correct on two counts:!. As per grammar rule that states that 'an' is used before a word starting with a vowel e.g. An indefinite article but a definite article. It is both euphemistically and grammatically is elegant. The sec
What Does @ Really Mean? - Gizmodo
It was in 1971 when Ray Tomlinson saw the symbol and thought it could be good to append the mail server host to the name of the person receiving an email: I chose to append an at sign and the host
When to Say "a" or "an" | Pronunciation | EnglishClub
EnglishClub: Learn English: Pronunciation: a/an When to Say a or an. The indefinite article is a or an.But how do we know when to say a and when to say an?. The rule is really very simple. It depends on the SOUND at the start of the following word. (It does not depend on the way we WRITE the following word, it depends on the way we SAY it.)
How do I delete an e-mail account or address?
Nov 30, 2020 · Enter an alternate e-mail address (A) and click Send Verification Email (B). If you are only deleting your Gmail account, this alternative e-mail address becomes your new Google account username. Access your alternate e-mail account (specified in step 7), open the Gmail Removal Confirmation e-mail, and click the verification link contained in it.
How to Choose Professional Email Address: 10 Rules
Feb 14, 2018 · Email lead nurturing (see also: email drip campaigns, marketing email sequences) involves establishing a strong relationship between a brand and its consumers. It occurs at each stage of the sales funnel; email sequences enrich the buying journey for both sides of a transaction.…


text:
Serving Multicultural Populations
The ALA Office for Literacy and Outreach Services website provides information and resources on improving service to traditionally underserved populations. This page includes resources for serving linguistically, ethnically, or nationally diverse populations. Services to Special Populations includes resources for other populations.
The ALA Office of Diversity has developed a list of recommended reading for individuals interested in exploring diversity issues in the delivery of library and information services. This listing is intended to supplement that resource.
The ALA Office for Literacy and Outreach Services has assembled extensive resources on services to people of color.
Multicultural Review, a quarterly journal for teachers at all grade levels, college professors, librarians, administrators, and anyone else who is interested in learning about new developments and trends in the field of cultural diversity.
Myra Michele Brown. "What Works - Kids on Campus." School Library Journal, April 1, 2002
From the Council on Interracial Books for Children is a quick checklist 10 Quick Ways to Analyze Children's Books for Racism and Sexism (PDF)
May, Stephen. Language and Minority Rights: Ethnicity, Nationalism and the Politics of Language. New York: Routledge, 2008.
York, Sherry. Booktalking Authentic Multicultural Literature: Fiction, History and Memoirs for Teens. Columbus, Ohio: Linworth Pub, 2008.
Bilingual Collections and Services
Dale, Doris Cruger. Bilingual Children's Books in English and Spanish: An Annotated Bibliography, 1942 Through 2001 = Los Libros Bilingües Para Los Niños En Inglés Y En Español : Una Bibliografia Con Anotaciones, 1942 a 2001. Jefferson, NC; London: McFarland, 2003.
Paper Tigers blog Reports and musings on multicultural books for children and young adults from a group of writers.
Amy Fisher and Deborah Lee. Native Residential Schools in Canada. This bibliography accompanies the exhibition "Where are the Children? Healing the Legacy of the Residential Schools" produced by the National Archives of Canada, the Aboriginal Healing Foundation and the Aboriginal Healing Charitable Association in collaboration with the National Library of Canada, numerous church and other archives presented at the National Archives of Canada in Ottawa from June 18, 2002 to February 3, 2003.
Alire, Camila A., and Jacqueline Ayala. Serving Latino Communities: A How-to-Do-It Manual for Librarians. New York: Neal-Schuman Publishers, 2007.
Avila, Salvador. Crash Course in Serving Spanish-Speakers. Westport, Conn: Libraries Unlimited, 2008.
Immroth, Barbara Froling, and Kathleen de la Peña McCook. Library Services to Youth of Hispanic Heritage. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2000.
Moller, Sharon Chickering. Library Service to Spanish Speaking Patrons: A Practical Guide. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2001.


We need to have a serious conversation about cat tongues
New research has revealed the real reason why cat tongues are so damn rough.
Have you ever been licked by a cat? If so you'll know the feline tongue feels more like sandpaper than satin.
A cat's tongue is covered in hundreds of sharp, scoop-shaped spines made of keratin that spring into action during grooming. Until now we haven't really known why their tongues are so rough.
But new research, published this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, shows they play a role in helping a cat keep cool.
Cat grooming
Domestic cats spend up to a quarter of their waking time grooming their fur coat to help remove pesky fleas and loose hairs. If they didn't groom, then any excess debris could tangle fur, causing painful tugging of the skin, and even lead to infection.
But the new study reports something else that happens when a cat uses its tongue for grooming.
The scientists used CT scans of cat tongues to work out the structure of the spines, known as papillae. The spines are about 2mm long and have a U-shaped cavity at their tip (more on why later). The researchers also measured the hardness of the papillae, and found it is similar to that of human fingernails.
It got more interesting when the scientists used high-speed videography to work out what happens to the spines when a cat is grooming. Only the spines at the end of the tongue contact the fur during grooming. These are larger and not as closely packed as the spines nearer the bottom of the tongue.
A slice of a cat tongue, displaying papillae embedded in tissue. Image courtesy of Taren Carter (photographer).
As a cat grooms, there are four steps. First the tongue is extended out of the mouth. Then the muscles in the tongue expand the surface, and the spines rotate to become perpendicular to the tongue.
In the final two steps the tongue sweeps through the fur and is taken back into the mouth with a U-shaped curl.
Using some fake fur and a force plate, the scientists calculated that with the amount of compression of the tongue on the fur, the spines can actually contact the skin of the cat.
This is where it gets even more interesting – and also a bit icky, as we need to think about cat saliva.
The saliva action
The U-shaped cavity in the tip of the spines, which we mentioned earlier, acts as a wick in the mouth to take up saliva. This is the same action as when you put the tip of a tissue in water and the water creeps up the tissue.
Because scientists like to work out the detail, they calculated that these cavities would take up around 4μL (microlitres) of saliva across 290 spines. (It would take around 1,200 times this amount of saliva to fill a 5ml metric teaspoon.)
This 4μl is only around 5% of the total saliva on the surface of the cat's tongue. Not much, but it has a really important function as it can deposit saliva right down to a cat's skin.
The scientists used the estimate that cats spend around a quarter of their time awake grooming (about 2.4 hours a day) and lick about once per second.
This means cats can lose around a quarter of the total heat they need to lose per day through the tiny bit of saliva in their tongue spines. (We lose heat through liquid by sweating when we're hot.)
Cool for cats
Many (not all) cats live in hot climates, so this would be really important for their survival. The researchers looked at the tongues of several species of cat, including domestic cat, bobcat, cougar, snow leopard, tiger and lion.
Most cats groom themselves very effectively, helped by enzymes (special chemicals) in their saliva that dissolve blood and other debris.
By working out how far the spines penetrate cat fur, and measuring the length of fur in different breeds, the scientists also worked out the only cats that can't groom themselves effectively are domestic Persians, which are typically long-haired.
This means if you own a Persian you need to take the time to brush them, or else matts form and can damage their skin and lead to infections. But here's where the scientists made another breakthrough.
A new brush
In the final part of this research, the scientists used the knowledge they gained about the spiny form of a cat's tongue, and used 3D printing to develop a better grooming brush to use on cats.
The scientists say the biology-inspired brush should help remove allergens from cat fur, and help with the application of any cleaning lotions and medications on cats' skin.
The brush design may also help inspire news ways to clean other complex hairy surfaces.
So next time you watch a cat grooming, take a moment to marvel at just how much awesome science is involved in the evolutionary design of its tongue.
Please help us by supporting them.


text:
The fertility fee has remained steady however the knowledge reveals that the age when American girls are having infants has modified. The numbers present that fertility charges of ladies ages 20-24 declined by 43%, whereas these of ladies ages 35-39 elevated by 67%.
Evaluation additionally discovered that births in the USA dropped from about 4.1 million to three.7 million from 1990 to 2019. The exception was a mini-baby growth within the early 2000's.
There are a lot of elements that may trigger deviations within the beginning charges. Within the twentieth Century two world wars, financial depressions and recessions, and pandemics led to decrease births throughout these time durations, however financial restoration noticed a rise in births.