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Armpit pain and its causes are the topic of this transcription. If you are suffering from pain under your armpit, here's information will help you deal with it. But let's know a little about armpit's inflammatory pain.
Known as axilla, oxther and underarm, the armpit is a most sensitive part of human body to be influenced easily of all kinds of impact, be it mild or harsh; internal or external. It is armpit's natural sensitivity that provides immense pleasure of libido when licked or played with beloved's finger. How sensitive the armpits are can be fathomed with thermometer to be placed under it to measure our body temperature in fever. Smell of some edibles like raw onion, meat and spices also comes out from sweated armpit. There is no any other part of human body where the smell of freshly consumed food items must be coming from, as naturally. But being susceptible to both external and internal effects, the armpit sustains injuries as well, to be caused due either to uprooting of its hair, or infection.
Causes of Pain in Armpit or Axilla
Following are a few common conditions causing pain in the armpits.
- Uprooting of armpit hair – Uprooting of armpit hairs is one of the major conditions of underarm pain which a maximum numbers of the people do encounter in their life. The underarm hairs in the teenagers is a legitimization of theirs becoming physically capable of performing everything a young adult is supposed to do. It is imperishable significance of libidinousness, highlighted in the erotic poems, which makes the male-arms impregnable habitat for a girl. But the hairs of armpits, if not cleaned or shaven periodically may become a cause of underarm pain. Underarm hair if uprooted causes injuries and infection affecting the respective person with armpit pain.
- Excessive sweating – It is one of the common axillary intertrigo, affecting the people with a kind burning sensation in their armpits, just akin to a pain. As sweat is caused due either to physical labor or hot environment, the armpit suffers from a friction, heat and moisture which torment the affected person with irritation, wrongly depicted as pain in their armpits. [Read more on how to get rid of armpit sweat.]
- Itching in underarm – Itching in the armpits caused due to hot climatic condition if scratched with finger-nails for respite causes inflammation under the axilla.
- Infection in the armpits – Infection in the armpits also causes pain. There may be several conditions causing infection within the armpits, such as uprooting of armpit hair, wearing of sweated bush-shirt, working under scorching heat perspiring for long. As the armpit happens to be sensitive to the temperature, moisture and friction, it gets easily affected of infection, causing thereby pain. Bacterial infection, yeast infection, and fungal infection also are the causes of this condition.
- Swelling of lymphatic glands – It is one of the major conditions tormenting the people with tremendous pain in their armpits. It may affect someone due either to exertion within the armpits or cancer. Travelling in a train or car hanging one arm out of window and shifting entire load under the armpit causes lymphatic glands to swell extensively and torment the person with pain in armpit. The pain in the armpit caused due lymphatic swelling should vanish within a few days. If it doesn't, you should consult with the doctor as it is a vivid sign of cancer as well.
- Pectoral muscles – It is the chest-muscle which also causes pain in the armpit if stretched extensively. Situated just over the ribs, it happens to be susceptible to injurious impact, during the workouts if someone doesn't prepare his body for exercise by warming it up and starts abruptly the workout. This is a condition causing pain in the armpits.
- Cysts or spherical swelling – It is a critical health condition associated with swelling in the lymphnodes in arms. Recognized as the lumps under armpits, the cysts' emergence is supposed to be a serious health condition, needed to be brought into doctor's notice. Monitoring the lumps or cysts through biopsy-test the doctor easily determines which type of treatment to administer to the affected person.
- Deodorant – Market is flooded with variety of deodorants which for the skin of your armpits may not be compatible anymore. Regular usage of such type of deodorants may cause an allergic reaction and thus may affect your armpits with itching, burning sensation or pain as well.
- Close shaving – Using electric shaving machine or shaving the armpit hair too closely by moving razor in opposite direction causes the bruise in axilla which triggers inflammation and pain in the armpits.
- Synthetic attire – It is the allergic reaction due to synthetic garments that also causes pain on your armpit. The individuals, allergic to clothing, experience inflammation under their armpits due to friction of cloth on skin. In order keep all the chances of pain in the axilla or armpits you should wear the hypoallergenic attire.
- Tight clothing – In modern era the youths prefer to wear skin-tight garments like tight top and jeans. And it is the tightness of their tight T-shirt which affects blood flow under their armpits following which a pain is emerged in their armpits.
- Randomize physical activities – Randomized sporty activities stretch the muscles and causes in this way pain within the armpits. Badminton, volleyball and kite-flying also are the games causing the pain under armpit.
- Blood cancer – It is a malignant disease, affecting a maximum numbers of the people in the world with unwanted growth of skin under their arms which torments them with inflammation and pain in their armpits.
- Shingles – It is a viral disease, affecting the skin armpit with inflammatory pain. Such condition may affect the people with pain in their armpits. The chicken pox virus contributes in such condition causing small blisters over the skin of armpit which torments the people with armpit pain.


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conflict parties and intermediaries, who typically meet in confidential settings. Unlike mediation sessions, mediative social processes are open to diverse participants who can move in and out freely and interact to build relationships in open public settings. In many of these sustained mediative processes, there is no fixed time frame regarding when the processes formally start or end. Examples of mediative processes introduced in conflict-affected societies include the hosting of interfaith and intercommunal peace festivals, intercommunal schools and intercommunal clinics – all focusing on basic human needs that transcend the politicised causes of division. In the context of Nigeria's intercommunal tension, the activities of the Muslim-Christian Dialogue Forum in Kaduna – an interfaith peacemaking organisation established in 1995 by two former enemies, Pastor James Wuye and Imam Muhammed Ashafa – cogently illustrate effective mediative processes.6 Noteworthy achievements in the two leaders' efforts to develop mediative initiatives include the consensus built among some 20 senior religious leaders in Kaduna State to adopt the Kaduna Peace Declaration on 22 August 2003. This declaration was significant, because it established a sustained platform of Christian-Muslim partnership aimed at preventing religiously inspired violence and promoting intercommunal peace. Consistent with what the interfaith initiatives in Kaduna demonstrated, findings from the field research in north-eastern Nigeria suggest that the devastated communities to which the IDPs in Maiduguri, Yola and their neighbouring towns hope to return will need mediative processes more than conventional mediation. The use of mediation, like traditional arbitration, should not be excluded, however, and it must be kept intact as a reliable means of problem-solving. Conceptually, a mediative process offers an overarching framework of thinking and practice that can support and incorporate functional coexistence and practical reconciliation.
Collective reparation: Reparation refers to compensation for a loss, injury and/or harm. Developed by civil society initiatives in such contexts as post-genocide Rwanda, collective reparation refers to an integrated process of mutual help, livelihood support and collective healing through which perpetrators work with willing others – including victims and bystanders of mass violence – to pool their personal resources. The collective resources are then given to the most vulnerable victims in the community through a well-institutionalised participatory system of decision-making.7 In some Rwandan communities, reparation is offered in the form of labour as much as in financial and material form to accommodate what is practical and mutually acceptable to the communities. While the Rwanda example is relatively modest, it nevertheless suggests a useful model of community-based reparation, livelihood support and reconciliation that north-eastern Nigeria's IDP communities can choose to implement upon repatriation. The indication of "collective" in this context, however, should not be taken to downplay the centrality of a more formal state-led reparation process, which would most likely need to build on a Nigerian adaptation of a truth and reconciliation process.
The four examples of community-based practice described – practical reconciliation, functional coexistence, mediative processes and collective reparation – suggest practical ways in which social conditions conducive to IDPs' peaceful repatriation can be developed. These activities also seek to enable the IDPs to rebuild relationships and livelihoods, either in their home communities or in new communities in which they may choose to settle. Either way, to make their transition peaceful and successfully prevent intercommunal violence, effective coordination between the IDPs, their host and home communities, law enforcement and security forces, civilian government institutions, humanitarian agencies and other stakeholders involved, is essential.
Based on the field research conducted in north-eastern Nigeria, this article explored concrete steps to expand the capacity of IDPs and conflict-affected communities to prevent and resolve conflicts. It also explored practical means by which to enable IDPs to return home peacefully and fulfil their basic needs for livelihood, security and reconciliation. The overarching theme of the article was conflict sensitivity – a form of humanitarian and development practice that utilises conflict assessment to minimise harm and maximise positive impact on the social context of intervention.
An essential requirement for conflict-sensitive repatriation and development that the interviewees in this study highlighted is the communities' trust in the provincial and federal governments' commitment to providing security and resource support. The widespread perception and discontent among the IDPs and conflict-affected communities about the authorities' illicit activities in diverting food and other humanitarian supplies from IDP camps are severely undermining the authorities' capacity to facilitate repatriation. To overcome this long-standing challenge, ethical and visionary political leadership is urgently needed. Immediate practical steps for government authorities to regain public confidence include making a firm public commitment to upholding humanitarian principles to serve conflict-affected communities in dire need of assistance.
The term "mediative" is adopted from: Lederach, John Paul (2005) The Moral Imagination. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 94–97.
The Imam and the Pastor, a YouTube video featuring Pastor James Wuye and Imam Muhammad Ashafa, is available at: Another useful source is: Wuye, James Movel and Ashafa, Muhammad Nurayn (1999) The Pastor and the Imam: Responding to Conflict. Lagos: Ibrash Publications.

source: openbmb/Ultra-FineWeb


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When voyageurs and early Illinois settlers ventured into the wild, they probably carried a small bag designed to hold "everything possible." The bag would hold flint and steel for starting a fire or lead balls for a musket.
Use the interactive activities on this site to explore Illinois history with late elementary students. You'll find lesson plans, activities, photos, posters and correlations to Illinois Learning Standards.
Illinois' furbearers were valuable to early settlers and they are valuable today.
Wild Illinois History is presented by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources.
The activities on this site are correlated to Illinois Learning Standards. Learn more.


(A Detailed Explanation of) Ruby's Symbol#to_proc
Must people love a new feature in Ruby called Symbol#to_proc, but there are not many good explanations of it. The concept is actually fairly straightforward, but the Ruby implementation is fairly complex. The following is an explanation that assumes no knowledge of Ruby.
To sum the numbers from 1 until 100 in Ruby, you would write:
inject is a left fold or a reduceit applies the function {|acc, n| acc + n} to each element in a list where acc is an accumulator that contains the result of the last function application.
For such a simple function, all we need is the knowledge that we are adding, which is contained in the symbol +, representing the addition method. Ideally we would like to write:
(1..100).inject( :+ )
The semicolon is how you tell ruby you are using a symbol, which in this case is the name of a method. Of course, you can write a simple sum function if you want. However, this code is more flexible in a very powerful waywe can use other functions then inject and add.
Method calling in Ruby is actually message passing. So instead of calling
 1.+( 2 ) # => 3
You can say
1.send( :+, 2 ) # => 3
So we are not trying to convert a symbol to a proc. What we are trying to do is continually send the message :+ to inject's built in accumulator, with every member of the list as an argument.
In ruby, the brackets represent a function (actually a closure) that rubyists call a block. A Proc object can be converted to a proc with &. You can convert a different class to a proc (if it supports it) by calling the to_proc method. If you use & on an object that is not a proc, Ruby will try to coerce that object into a block by calling the to_proc method. So we can hack this syntactic shortcut to create
(1..100).inject &:+
So by defining how to coerce the Symbol class to a proc, we can use & to generate a block of code out of a symbol. The to_proc method we define must deal with any arguments yielded to the block. In this case, every value from (2..100) is yielded to the Proc. (1 will be the starting value of the accumulator.) There are minor variation on defining to_proc, but it basically looks like this:
class Symbol
 def to_proc
 proc { |obj, *args| obj.send(self, *args) }
proc is a function that creates a new Proc object. obj is the object to be yielded to the Proc, which in the inject example is the inject's accumulator. The use of *args twice will receive any additional optionally yielded arguments and pass them along in the send method. In our inject example, *args is passing along the n parameter. Finally, obj.send(self) sends a message to obj containing self, the symbol being used (in our example :+). Now we have accomplished the original code with our more succinct version, that we know expands to:
(1..100).inject( &(proc{ |obj, *args| obj.send(:+, *args) }) )
That wasn't so hard, was it? Actually, it was pretty complex for just trying to pass one function to another, something which is dead simple in functional languages. You can accomplish a lot of things with a closure, including this hack. But to me this shows that ruby was not designed as a functional programming language, and how by using Ruby's dangerous flexibility you can manage to warp it towards your needs.
Personally, I have not used Symbol#to_proc because of performance concerns. But it appears that Rails now implements a more efficient version which is only a 20% performance hit for methods which yield only one argument. The way to both speed things up for methods that yield multiple arguments, and to avoid using the & syntax is to redefine the Enumerable methods to allow them to take a symbol as an argument. This is a method-by-method effort. Here is how it would be done for inject.
alias_method :__original_inject__, :inject
def inject meth_or_acc=nil, &block
 if not block_given? and meth_or_acc
 inject {|acc, n| acc.send meth_or_acc, n }
 __original_inject__ meth_or_acc, &block
After learning more languages, Ruby is starting to become pretty ugly to me. Functional languages put it to shame for examples like this. But somehow people keep managing to ignore all its faults, make little hacks, build declaritive frameworks, and be very productive with it.
© Greg Weber. All original code snippets are placed in the public domain.
Written on Mon Feb 25 18:04:26 2008.
Tagged as linux, ruby, script.
Send author an email.


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(629am) Copper Based Plasmonic Catalyst for Efficient and Selective Epoxidation of Propene
Propylene oxide (PO) is a valuable commodity chemical to produce important products such as paints, cosmetics and adhesives, etc. It is commercially produced using liquid phase chlorohydrin or hydroperoxide routes. Each of these routes has inherent limitations owing to the undesired byproducts and high operating cost. Because of these limitations in the existing processes, the direct epoxidation of propylene to PO using a heterogeneous catalyst is the most desirable in view of environmental friendliness and operating costs, and it has been one of the most challenging tasks in catalysis. Additionally, the increasing energy demand in near future will force us to design chemical synthesis processes using renewable energy resources. Developing catalysts that can make use of renewable energy resources like solar energy to make desired valuable chemicals is of critical importance to meet this requirement.
In this contribution, we demonstrate that copper based catalyst exhibit high selectivity in epoxidation of propylene to form PO. We also demonstrate that copper nanostructure, characterized by strong plasmon resonance peak in the visible region, can be used to efficiently harvest visible light (with intensity on the order of solar intensity) and utilize it to drive propylene epoxidation at significantly lower temperature than the epoxidation under pure thermal conditions. Our current results show that copper can be used as highly selective and energy efficient catalyst for the direct epoxidation of propylene. These results gives an insight to design energy efficient catalytic processes with a significant fraction of energy input provided in the form of sunlight.


Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Birding Ethics Debate: To Call or Not to Call
With all the new technology like iPhones, iPods and Zune players and all the cool applications that come with them like BirdJam and digital field guides like iBird we have all kinds of new ethical dilemmas. Scientists have long used bird-call playbacks on cassette for their studies, but now potentially every birder out there can play bird calls and songs with ease. Luring the birds in with portable speakers and an MP3 player does indeed reveal that more birds are in a given area than you might otherwise see. I never knew that so many Spotted Towhees were in the willow dominated riparian draws where I live until I played their call and they seemed to be everywhere. But is it right?
Does playing bird calls stress out or endanger the bird or their offspring still in the nest? Does it mess up their mating and migration patterns? Does it confuse or disorient them? Does anyone really have answers for these questions?
The BirdJam website has a page dedicated to the birding ethics related to using their product. I generally agree with what they have to say. The science is still out...I haven't seen a study that says attracting birds with their own sounds has negative effects. Common sense does tell me not to play the sound over and over and over and not to play it around nesting birds or other birders not in my group (unless you want to play really mean, but fun-spirited practical jokes by playing rare bird sounds).
I find that some people are overly-sensitive to these disputatious issues. Disturbance to the birds by mankind in this regard I suspect is very minimal and would not affect for long their daily habits, no more than a passing coyote or bird of prey. Feeding wild birds probably has more of an impact, positive or negative, than a few seconds of hearing another bird of their same species. I am open to anecdotal and scientific evidence to the contrary.
Now I don't play my BirdJam in the field as much as I did when I first got it. I use the Stokes bird songs on my computer while in my home when I prepare to go after a target bird to learn its calls and songs. I admit that a handful of my life birds are the direct result of BirdJam and I have a clear conscience knowing that my employment of such a device was done reasonably and responsibly.
Do the benefits of better understanding bird distribution by knowing elusive birds are there outweigh the disturbance?
I have been keeping a list of which birds react to the playbacks and how they react. I'll post or publish my findings at some future date when I have collected more data. Hopefully others out there are doing the same and we can pull our results together and come to some better conclusions about the effectiveness and bird safety of this now more prolific technology. This topic would make for a great doctoral thesis for some aspiring ornithologist out there!
How do you feel about this issue? Do you have any experience for good or bad in this arena?
 1. Without going into detail I would say that responsible use of call backs is benign in most cases. Many birders use "spishing" and/or small owl imitations to attract land birds and there is no evidence this has any negative effect and is generally considered to be acceptable. In very popular birding locations call backs might be problematic (for various reasons) but that is a fairly rare situation - especially in a state like Idaho.
 2. Maybe if ABA Rules prohibited adding a bird to a Life List if a recorded call was played (under the "captive birds don't count" rule), that would keep the use of such devices to a minimum. There are degrees of "sporting" in hunting, and the same goes for birding. If a person can successfully attract a bird with pishing there is a direct communication between birder and bird that strikes me as unique and special. Pishing communicates to the birds a transient danger (person or owl or whatever) is nearby, so birds flock to the site of the danger and scold. By this act, the danger will be mitigated and calm will soon return to the region.
 The use of audio playback during a season where territory is being claimed by birds would seem to me to be risking displacing the real bird. I've thought about getting a device but have resisted the temptation. While birding, I always feel disappointed in my ability if the bird ceases natural behaviour and consider myself to have erred if the bird flies away. Consider ducks, for example... I consider it successful if they just continue to swim and feed, less successful if they dive or swim slowly away, and a "poor performance" on my part if they take flight.
 If the recording attracts the bird, we see it and are pleased... but what if the recording has actually caused the bird to flee? We would never see the bird and not know. Is there any study which can alleviate my concern?
 Throwing a big rock into a bush (called a "Dickey Bird" by a professional birder I knew as a child) can cause a hidden bird to come into view, but I don't do it.
 3. Thanks Charles and Jonathan. There is indeed something "less-sporting" about playing callbacks. I have noticed that I don't feel as satisfied seeing a life bird using this method.


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In order to help me to take decisions about which class to take every semester I did a web scrapping from the graduate and undergraduate bulletin. For every class I could get classe name, prerequisites, credits, teacher, program, description, etc, in a formated tabular document.
Using Python CSV library I could read the tables and parse the data to other formats. One format very useful to handle graph structures is the DOT language script (included in the Graphviz project), in which you can describe both the graph structure and the elements of the graph layout.
The final result (click to view in full size):
Limitations and comments:
- Prerequisites are only displayed using AND logic. It's not showing other logics as OR (equivalent classes).
- Errors may exists due to the scrapping process, conversions, or in the errors in the original source.


Navigation path
Steering economic recovery - 08/06/2011
Men fixing euro jigsaw puzzle © iStock/lonely snail design
Recommendations for each of the 27 EU countries offer guidance on 2011-2012 domestic budgets and economic policies.
The Commission has recommended measures each EU country should take to stimulate economic growth, create more jobs and keep public finances under control.
The recommendations are a response to plans each government submitted earlier this year on how they intend to achieve common EU economic goals.
Overall, the national plans reflect the priorities agreed by the 27 governments. If they are followed, the EU will be on track to achieve its targets for greenhouse gas emissions, renewable energy and keeping children in education.
However, some strategies will fall short of the targets and need to be more ambitious. Others do not provide sufficient details on how they intend to achieve the common goals.
Achieving targets
Among the recommendations are calls to:
 - step up efforts to reach EU targets on employment, research and development, energy efficiency, higher education and reducing poverty
 - work harder at reducing debt and narrow the gap between spending and tax revenue to bring national budgets into line with EU targets
 - keep more people in work by raising the retirement age, cutting early retirement schemes and improving access to childcare
 - combat structural unemployment and integrate vulnerable groups such as women and older workers into the job market
 - reduce youth unemployment and numbers of pupils leaving school early by reforming labour contracts where necessary and closely linking education and employment
The recommendations form part of the first 'European semester', a six-month process conducted every year during which EU governments consult each other intensively as they formulate their budgets and economic policies.
As part of the semester process, the Commission also issued general recommendations for the euro area.
Completing the semester
The European Council will meet on 23-24 June to discuss the recommendations, and again in July to formally approve them. Then it will be up to each country to incorporate them in their national budgets for 2011-12.
The Commission and other EU countries will then monitor how each country implements these measures as part of the peer review.
More on the European semester
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Granular Streams as Sensitive Probes of Interparticle Forces
Speaker: Heinrich Jaeger, The University of Chicago
Series: CBE Departmental Seminars
Location: Elgin Room (E-Quad A224)
Date/Time: Wednesday, April 10, 2013, 4:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Particle beams are important tools for probing atomic and molecular interactions. In this talk I demonstrate that particle "beams" also offer a unique opportunity to investigate interactions in granular media, a situation where the particles are much more macroscopic. Motivated by recent experiments on streams and jets of particles that exhibit liquid-like breakup into droplets, we developed an experimental set-up in which we can investigate the evolution of a dense stream of spheres freely falling out of an opening at the bottom of a reservoir inside a vacuum system. Tracking individual particles with a high-speed camera that freefalls with the stream we can study interparticle forces typically masked by weight, such as van der Waals forces, capillary interactions due to absorbed molecular layers on the particle surfaces, and electrostatic forces. In contrast to static methods, such as atomic force microscopy, this approach provides direct insights into the dynamic processes leading to particle clustering. If time permits, I will discuss how the same method, when used with dilute granular streams, can be applied to obtain detailed information about the dependence of the net particle charge on particle material as well as size and thereby enables stringent tests of recent models put forward to explain same-material tribocharging.


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This article describes the New York University Child Study Center Summer Program for Kids (SPK) Booster Program, a follow up program designed to reinforce social skills learned in the NYU Summer Program for Kids. The SPK is an intensive, therapeutic summer experience, for children ages 7-11 diagnosed with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and related disorders. The SPK, which is conducted 5 days per week, 8 hours per day, for seven weeks, focuses on skills building in the areas of social, academic and sports behaviors. One of the common denominators of children enrolled in the SPK is a deficit in social functioning. In addition, the program helps parents improve their ability to manage their children's behavior. The SPK model is based on the empirically validated summer program designed by William Pelham, Ph.D. However, there is no research to date that has systematically studied the generalization of the improved skills once the seven week program has ended. Parents report that much of the gains their children made during the summer have indeed continued well after the program ended. Specifically, they report that their children have improved self-esteem, improved social skills/relatedness, a more positive school experience entering in the fall, and a more positive parent/child relationship. The SPK Booster Program was designed to establish whether periodic intervention would sustain the gains from the SPK and whether the improved behaviors would generalize outside the therapeutic structure of the SPK to their natural settings (school, home, social, recreational activities).
Key elements of the SPK
In order to best understand the Booster Program, an understanding of the SPK is necessary. The SPK is a reward-based program which emphasizes achievement and success. It includes a variety of set activities that facilitate peer/group participation through which behavioral principles are applied. While the children are engaged in various activities (team sport, arts projects, swimming, etc.), their behavior is shaped through a point system. Children earn points for appropriate pro-social behavior and lose points for maladaptive behavior. One of the methods used to teach social skills is to focus on a "social skill of the day" such as "problem-solving". The selected social skill is taught, then practiced and reinforced throughout the day. New social skills are introduced after the previous ones are mastered; thus a repertoire of skills is acquired. Progress is systematically monitored and recorded via the point system and a Daily Report Card, and tracked continuously throughout the day and throughout the summer. Progress is rewarded in both the camp and home settings. Weekly field trips are used as the major incentive for children who mastered their individualized goals. Field trips are "off-site" so that the skills learned in the program can be practiced in more natural settings.
Moreover, in the SPK, there is predictability and immediate feedback; the daily schedule does not change, and individual goals are established and reviewed with the children daily, so children know how they are progressing towards rewards. Not only is there consistency within the camp environment (counselors receive 3-4 weeks of intensive pre-program training, daily supervision with a licensed clinical psychologist, reliability and fidelity checks throughout the eight weeks to ensure treatment integrity), but the consistency extends into the home environment via weekly parent training sessions and a home behavior plan that mimics the individualized behavior plans set up for each child at camp.
Basics of the SPK Booster Program
As with the SPK, one of the goals of this program was to reinforce and help generalize the skills to the children's natural environment. The Booster Program was held on alternating Sundays for two hours over a period of four months. The time and day remained consistent across the sessions. A high staff-to-child ratio was maintained. The key components of the SPK used in the Booster Program included; a social skill of the day, a behavioral point system, a home-based reward, practice and reinforcement system, close clinical supervision, and monitoring through use of a Daily Report Card.
Based on the Field Trip model of the SPK, 8 "field trips" were selected to maximize the opportunity for children to engage with peers (i.e. bowling, museum, dining at a restaurant) and used to reinforce and generalize skills. Field trip leaders were experienced/trained counselors who previously worked in the SPK. Counselors met with a clinical supervisor for regular supervision. As in the SPK, parents were given ongoing feedback and a home behavior plan was put in place. The integrity of the point system was maintained and children earned points, within both the program and home settings, for progress on their individualized goals. A "social skill of the day" was utilized in the Booster Program as in the Summer Program, but was specifically geared towards the social demands of the particular field trip. For example, when the children went to the zoo, the "social skill of the day" was problem-solving; that is, children had to use the social skill throughout the field trip to decide which exhibit/animals to visit.
The social skills, which include Problem Solving, Tone of Voice, Compromising, Cooperation, Being a Team Player, Turn-Taking, Personal Space, were monitored continuously for their use and application Feedback of their performance was provided to the children 6 times in 15 minute intervals throughout the Booster Program Session. During the two weeks between Booster Sessions, parents were instructed to prompt, reinforce and monitor on a daily basis the social skill that had been addressed during the field trip. Booster Program session data revealed that children were able to learn and demonstrate the social skill taught, and Home Data revealed that the social skill was maintained in between Field Trip sessions.
Similar to the SPK, individual target behaviors, (e.g. expressing feelings verbally) which may or may not necessarily be related to the social skill of the day, were established for each child and incorporated into the Daily Report Card used in the Booster Given that the goal of the Booster Program was to help maintain and to facilitate greater generalization of these behaviors to the natural setting, behaviors targeted were similar, if not identical to those behaviors targeted in the SPK. The behaviors were prompted, reinforced and monitored. The data collected revealed that gains persisted throughout the four month course of the booster program.
The SPK Booster Program began in October 2002 and ran through February 2003. All parents of children enrolled in the SPK were given an opportunity to have their child participate in the Booster Program. A large number of parents wanted to participate in this program; however, practical considerations such as the day of the week when the program was held, location of the field trips (i.e. NYC), families' prior commitments, made the Booster Program prohibitive to some families. The participants consisted of 6 children (4 boys, 2 girls) 9 -l0 years old, diagnosed with ADHD, 2 also had an anxiety disorder, and 1 had a learning disability. Prior to the start of the program baseline measures, including the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) Parent Conner's, Social Skills Scale were collected from parents. At the end of the 8- session Booster Program, the same measures were re-administered and completed by parents.
To illustrate sample behaviors targeted and their progress over time, below is a description of a targeted behavior for each of two children and their progression in relation to this behavior over the course of the 8 sessions. (To protect the confidentiality of the children, the names have been changed).
Ten -year-old Mitchell often had problems staying on topic when conversation began. He had difficulty focusing on what was being talked about and often made comments that were irrelevant and interfered with the flow of the conversation. Thus, a targeted behavior for Mitchell was to "engage in activity related conversation," and he earned points for verbal contributions he made that were related to the topic being discussed. Mitchell achieved 100% success on his Daily Report Card for this behavior throughout the course of the Booster Program, with the exception of the second week, when he experienced a "dip" in his percentage total.
Seth is a youngster who often had difficulty expressing his feelings verbally, and was prone to oppositional and defiant behavior when he was upset. One of Seth's targeted behaviors was to "express feelings appropriately when upset", and points were awarded for this behavior. Seth too, experienced consistent success with exhibiting the targeted behavior and earned percentage totals of 85 - 100% until the last session. During the last session, despite the considerable difficulty he was clearly having with termination, he nevertheless still achieved a 50% performance score, indicating that he was still able to express his feelings half the time during this emotional session. Seth, who historically would typically "leave the area and tantrum" to express his feelings was able to stay with the group and verbalize his upset more than he was able to in the past. Seth and Mitchell serve as examples of how the gains from the SPK carried over into the Booster Program, the typical trends of performance for the children, and the kind of clinical gains such as social functioning that the children made over time.
The Booster Program aimed to establish generalization of the social skills focused upon in an intensive summer program for children with ADHD. Indeed, the clinical data collected clearly demonstrated that specific social skills learned through the SPK were being utilized outside the program. Although counselor and parent reports indicated that the skills taught to the children generalized outside the program setting, it is still unclear how closely related to the normative population their social behavior truly is. Therefore, valid measures would need to be administered in order to compare the children who complete the SPK and Booster Program to peers who are not identified as having social difficulties. Moreover, teacher measures to assess social functioning in the school setting would be useful in further determining generalization. While a review of the clinical data shows benefits of this program with regard to ecological validity, further and more stringent

source: HuggingFaceFW/fineweb-edu


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Session Detail: Classroom 1 Day
This one-day, instructor-led course is designed for all end-users who are interested in learning how to use the new features and functionality that are available in the Windows 8 Operating System. It is designed for an audience at all levels of technical expertise, from casual users to administrators of previous Windows versions. The goal of this class is to instruct students on the capabilities available to end-users as a part of the Windows 8 Operating System and to enable students to become comfortable using the Windows 8 interface.
In this course, students will learn how to log onto Windows 8, explore the new components of the interface, customize the Start Page and desktop, manage files and folders, and browse the internet.
Previous experience using a Windows desktop operating system
Who Can Benefit
This course is intended for anyone who is interested in learning the new interface of Windows 8.
Module 1: Getting Started with Windows 8
- Lesson 1: New Features of Windows 8
- Lesson 2: Consistent User Experience
- Lesson 3: Exploring the Windows 8 User Interface
- Lesson 4: Microsoft Accounts
Module 2: Navigating and Personalizing Windows 8
- Lesson 1: Presenting the Modern UI
- Lesson 2: Using Tiles
- Lesson 3: Working with the Task Bar
- Lesson 4: Working with Charms
Module 3: Applications in Windows 8
- Lesson 1: Windows 8 Apps Overview
- Lesson 2: Basic Windows 8 Apps
- Lesson 3: Internet Explorer 10
Module 4: Managing Files and Folders
- Lesson 1: Browsing and Organizing Files
- Lesson 2: HomeGroup
- Lesson 3: Connecting Windows 8 Devices
Need to train your team?
All of our sessions can be customized to meet your team's specific needs. Build the perfect program by picking and choosing topics from any of the courses in our catalog. A personalized private session gives you the ultimate flexibility and helps maximize your team's valuable time!


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Teach STEAM with ease!
- Build time 10 minutes
- Suitable for grades 7+
- Requires basic soldering knowledge
The Solar Cockroach is a little bug that uses the solar energy to power a vibrating motor. The vibrations from the motor travel down the legs, causing the bug to scoot around. These little vibrating bugs are essential tools for teaching beginning soldering lessons to students and adults of all ages. This project also offers a lesson in solar energy, motion, and vibration. Simply place the completed Solar Cockroach in the sun and watch it vibrate and scoot around!
Ordering information: Parts include 2V Solar Cell, Vibrating Motor, Resistor, 2 Paperclips, Magnet Wire, and Googly Eyes.


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8 Quality of life and markers of asthma control
Traditional measures of disease impact, such as prevalence, mortality and hospitalisation rates, are important but are of limited use in understanding the extent of the effect of a disease on an individual. Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is a term often used to describe an individual's perception of how a disease or condition affects their physical, psychological and social wellbeing. It is often used to measure the impact of a disease, such as asthma, on a person's health and everyday functioning (ACAM 2004). HRQoL measures can be used to describe and predict health outcomes, guide and assess clinical management, and direct clinical policy and the allocation of health resources. The effect that a health condition has on physical, psychological and social wellbeing depends upon the features of the condition and also on individual factors such as perception of health and the relative importance of each domain, which is based on their beliefs, experiences and expectations.
Measures of HRQoL may focus on impacts that are relevant to a specific disease (disease-specific) or, alternatively, on impacts that are relevant to a broad range of health conditions (generic). Both generic and disease-specific measures have a role in the assessment of HRQoL. Measures that are generic are most frequently used in health surveys to assess the overall impact of a person's health status on their quality life. Measures of HRQoL can be both brief and broadly focused, such as asking someone to rate their overall health status. Alternatively, they can be more complex and precise, such as a HRQoL profile, which measures impacts on physical, psychological and social wellbeing using a series of specifically targeted questions. The broadest measures endeavour to summarise the domains of HRQoL globally in a single question (global measures). A widely used example is the question 'In general, would you say your health is excellent, very good, good, fair or poor?' This question, which is the first question of the 36-item Medical Outcomes Study Short-Form (SF-36), is often referred to as the SF-1. It measures global HRQoL with less precision than the entire SF-36. However, the single question is more feasible than the 36-item question for use in large, multi-purpose surveys.
The SF-36 is an example of a HRQoL profile that has been widely used (McHorney et al. 1993, 1994). It measures eight dimensions of physical and psychological health referred to as: physical functioning, role physical, bodily pain, vitality, general health, social functioning, role emotional, and mental health. The questions can be summarised into a physical component summary score (PCS) and mental component summary score (MCS). Information from generic measures can be used to assess the quality of life of subgroups, such as those with asthma, relative to members of the general population or relative to reference values. The limitation of these generic questionnaires is that they may not adequately focus on those aspects of HRQOL that are particularly relevant to the people with specific diseases, such as asthma. Disease-specific measures, on the other hand, focus on the impacts that are relevant to a specific disease. These measures are designed for specific diagnostic or population groups, such as people diagnosed with asthma. The rationale for these questionnaires is that they will be more relevant and more sensitive to the differences between population subgroups with the disease and responsive to changes over time (Patrick & Deyo 1989).
Among people with asthma, disease severity, the level of disease control and the impact of the disease on HRQoL are interrelated. People with inherently severe asthma can be expected, on average, to have worse outcomes and, hence, worse HRQoL than people with less severe disease. The extent to which asthma severity is modified by environmental factors and treatment reflects asthma control. During periods of poor asthma control, people with asthma report poorer HRQoL (Vollmer et al. 1999). Markers of asthma control such as increasing frequency and severity of asthma symptoms, increased used of 'relievers' and being woken up frequently at night due to asthma can, therefore, be used as predictors of asthma outcomes.
A number of aspects of the physical impact of disease and its effect on social functioning or role performance can be considered markers of disease control. These include reduced activity days, restricted physical activity, reduced functioning ability, and days lost from work or school. This chapter presents information on HRQoL and markers of control for asthma using data from the ABS National Health Survey and state health surveys.
8.1 Impact of asthma on self-assessed health [back to top]
The presence of asthma is associated with a worse self-assessed health status. In the 2001 National Health Survey, respondents with asthma rated their health significantly worse than respondents without asthma (p trend <0.001). Although the definitions of asthma varied, in all surveys listed in Table 8.1, the distribution of responses on self-assessed health status was shifted towards a more adverse health status among people with asthma.
This disparity was evident in all age groups but it was greatest in the oldest age group, in both males and females, and least among young males (Figure 8.1).
8.2 Impact of asthma on the domains of HRQoL [back to top]
Health-related quality of life measures are commonly described in terms of dimensions that fall into the physical, psychological and social domains. Available evidence suggests that in most dimensions, the HRQoL of people with asthma is worse than that observed in people without the disease. In a survey conducted in South Australia in 1998 (Wilson et al. 2002), people with asthma had lower (worse) scores than people without asthma for all eight dimensions of the SF-36 (Figure 8.2).
The tables in the following sections summarise the available data on the three core domains of HRQoL (physical, psychological and social) measured in people with asthma. Where available, comparative data from the same survey in people without asthma are also provided.
Physical domain of HRQoL
In the South Australian survey (Wilson et al. 2002), adults with asthma had lower (worse) scores in the three physical components of the SF-36 health questionnaire (physical functioning, role: physical, and bodily pain) than people without asthma (Figure 8.2). Two other population surveys found that adults with asthma had lower physical component summary scores from the SF-12 (an abbreviated version of the SF-36) than those without asthma (Table 8.2).
Psychological domain of HRQoLPeople with asthma report worse psychological health than people without asthma. When general measures of psychological health are used, such as those in the SF-12 (Table 8.3) and SF-36 (Figure 8.2), these differences are small but statistically significant. Specific measures of anxiety and depression levels have identified greater differences between people with and without asthma. A recent study from South Australia reported a higher prevalence of depression among people with asthma compared to people without asthma (Goldney et al. 2003). Furthermore, this study found that people with more severe symptoms of asthma (shortness of breath, waking at night with asthma symptoms or morning symptoms) were more likely to suffer from major depression than those without severe symptoms.
Social domain of HRQoL
The social domain of HRQoL refers to the ability to perform roles and activities. This has most commonly been measured as time away from work or other usual activities.
Asthma accounts for a large proportion of days lost from work or study (Table 8.4). In the 2001 ABS National Health Survey, the proportion of people with current asthma who had taken time off work or study in the previous 2 weeks because of any illness (11.4%) was higher than the proportion of people without asthma who had taken time off for any illness (7.9%, p<0.001). The proportion of people with asthma who actually attributed days off work or study to asthma was 2.6%. Among children aged 2 to 12 years with asthma, 58% were limited in their normal activity in the last year, resulting in an average of 9.3 days of reduced activity in 2001.
Among participants in the 2001 National Health Survey who had current asthma, more males than females had taken days off work or study because of asthma in the previous 2 weeks (p=0.02) (Figure 8.3). There was no difference in the proportion of males and females who had other days of reduced activity due to their asthma (p=0.39).
More people with asthma (17.5%) than people without asthma (10%) reported having reduced activity days, other than those related to work or study, in the previous 2 weeks (Figure 8.4) (p<0.001). Only 3.2% of people with asthma attributed these reduced activity days to asthma. These observations imply either that people with asthma underestimate the impact of asthma on their ability to undertake activities, or that people with asthma are more likely to have other illnesses that interfere with these activities.
8.3 Markers of asthma control [back to top]
There is a clear relationship between asthma severity and asthma control. The underlying severity of asthma in an individual may be modified by changes in the environment (e.g. reduction in exposure to known triggers of asthma such as dust mites). It may also be influenced by treatment for asthma. Ultimately, the changes in these environmental and treatment factors will impact on the individual's symptoms and their ability to function. This outcome is


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Scrabble word: ASTERN
In which Scrabble dictionary does ASTERN exist?
Definitions of ASTERN in dictionaries:
- adv - stern foremost or backward
- adv - at or near or toward the stern of a ship or tail of an airplane
- adv - (of a ship or an airplane) behind
- Behind a vessel.
- At or to the stern of a vessel.
- With or having the stern foremost; backward.
- adv - at or toward the rear of a ship
There are 6 letters in ASTERN: A E N R S T
Scrabble words that can be created with an extra letter added to ASTERN
All anagrams that could be made from letters of word ASTERN plus a wildcard: ASTERN?
Scrabble words that can be created with letters from word ASTERN
6 letter words
5 letter words
4 letter words
3 letter words
2 letter words
Images for ASTERN
SCRABBLE is the registered trademark of Hasbro and J.W. Spear & Sons Limited. Our scrabble word finder and scrabble cheat word builder is not associated with the Scrabble brand - we merely provide help for players of the official Scrabble game. All intellectual property rights to the game are owned by respective owners in the U.S.A and Canada and the rest of the world. Anagrammer.com is not affiliated with Scrabble. This site is an educational tool and resource for Scrabble & Words With Friends players.


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Mechanism Digital Makes Big Splash for MSNBC's Why Planes Crash
Press Release from Mechanism Digital
New York, NY -- On July 12, MSNBC aired a one-hour special containing explanations and reenactments of well-known and some lesser-known water ditchings forced by unfortunate mid-air events like fuel exhaustion and bird strikes. Mechanism Digital, a New York visual effects and animation studio, was commissioned by producer Caroline Sommers to build and animate 31 shots for the special. "With real footage and CGI of real ocean ditchings -- it is so terrifying to watch that I may never board a plane again," states Linda Stasi of the NEW YORK POST in her review entitled 'Crash' Course. "Not for the lily-livered, or even for anyone else who thinks they're brave, but tremendously watchable nonetheless."
Not that Mechanism is out to scare anybody, but it goes to show that their work is effective and their images impact viewers the way they're intended. Besides technical mastery of the software and hardware used to create the shots, a major factor in the success of the animations is the research by Mechanism producers and artists conducted for each shot. The reason is, as Mechanism producer Ted Keenan explains, "We were hired by a news station, with the objective to educate viewers of real and serious occurrences and we wouldn't change the facts just to make it look pretty. We strive to make it accurate first."
Because Mechanism Digital produces so much graphic programming content, research has become an integral part of the structured process they incorporate into every job. Because WHY PLANES CRASH required a high level of realism, there were a number of details that needed to be accounted for, including lights, control surfaces and paint schemes. The presence of these elements is the reason the imagery is as seamless as it is.
The artists applied this information in Autodesk's 3D software, Maya. When the 3D models were built, they inserted several physics models which "broke" the digital plane apart until they found the right relationships between velocity, gravity and mass, recreating exactly how the aircraft broke apart on the ocean, and how the water was displaced.
Mechanism also provided a few simple but very effective solutions for some of the shots such as advising the producer to shoot helicopter footage from a high angle and perspective that mimicked following the US Airways Flight 1549 Airbus down the Hudson. Mechanism also simply took a still photograph from Pier 64 to be composited behind the descending Airbus as it crashes into the Hudson (POV -- swimming in the Hudson).
By lucky coincidence, Executive Producer/Visual Effect Supervisor, Lucien Harriot, happens to be a pilot and consulted on shots accordingly. Mechanism is also located 1/4 mile south of where US Airways 1549 went down in the Hudson; just a couple of more factors that made Mechanism the optimal resource for graphics on WHY PLANES CRASH.


Wink Wink! Why Do We Blink?
3 min read
why do we blink
Blinking is one of our body's functions that we have the least control over and neither do we give any thought to it. But if you think about it, do you not want to know why we blink or how many times do we blink? Have you wondered that excessive blinking could signify any health problem that you may be suffering from and don't know of?
Let's discuss all these questions and doubts related to why do we blink?
Why do we blink?
Blinking is a function that is a constant closing and opening of our eyelids in a semi-automatic manner. It is a continuous process where we may don't even notice it, although its main function is to protect the eyes from drying up and uniformly spreading the water other than this, blinking also helps in keeping away any kind of object that may irritate our eyes.
What will happen if we stop blinking?
If we discontinue blinking or force our eyes to not close, they will get dry and irritated and start watering to fulfil the eye's need to stay hydrated.
Our eyelid does the job of spreading the moisture from the tear ducts to the whole eye and to cover our eye in case of any harmful irritant trying to get inside.
What do you do in a sandstorm? You shut your eyes.
When you are afraid of something? You close your eyes.
When you are surprised? You stretch your eyes wide.
According to some studies, there can be many causes for blinking less often. Blinking may vary for different age groups.
An infant blinks less often. They may only blink twice or thrice in a minute, which could be for several reasons like smaller eye size and their tear ducts develop after a few months; numerous other reasons that are still to be known. According to some research, an average individual could blink up to 20 times in a minute and almost 28,000 times in a day.
why do we blink
Whoops! That's a lot of blinking.
There is a further distinction in this rate of blinking when it comes to gender. It is found that women tend to blink twice as much as men. The rate that we blink at is further determined by the activities we are doing; we tend to blink less when we are trying to concentrate on the task. This is the reason why people start feeling sleepy when they are studying.
Why blinking frequently could be a problem?
Although blinking is an automatic process, excessive blinking other than the usual. So, it is important to look into the causes of blinking more frequently
Most of the times blinking excessively could be for the following reasons
These are minor issues that can go away by taking proper rest or simple medication. Sometimes the reason behind it could be more severe and could indicate disease
Wilson's disease is caused by the deficiency of copper in our body and is a result of various neurological problems.
Blepharospasm is the proper term for the condition of excessive blinking due to a neurologic condition.
Tourette syndrome is another neurological condition that leads to engaging in various involuntary actions or movements of our body parts.
There are other serious conditions that you need to look out for when you find that you or anyone around you are Blinking more than normal.
How to check?
If you want to check it is advised to visit an Ophthalmologist regularly and not only when you think your eyesight is weakening. We need to take care of ourselves. In the current scenario, when we are working from home and constantly sitting in front of our laptops or mobile phones, we mustn't ignore our eyes.
To check for yourself you can see if
 - your eyes are getting irritated frequently
 - constantly watering
 - people around you notice anything different
How to avoid this situation?
After looking at all the problems related to your blinking frequency you would want to know how to avoid it. We should keep this in mind that excessive eye blinking is not always a serious issue, nor you should worry if this happens to you. Several reasons can be behind this and all you need to do is keep a check to do the things which give your eyes proper break
 - Get your eyes examined: It should be the first thing you should do when you have an eye problem. An eye specialist would be able to best explain the issue to you or suggest you be more careful.
 - Use Eye Drops if necessary: There are lots of eyes drops available in the market that you can use frequently or on days you feel your eyes are strained. Always consult a doctor before buying one for your eyes.
 - Wear your prescription glasses: If you have prescription glasses, remember to wear them all the time and especially when you are working in front of a screen. If you do not have prescription glasses but feel that your eyes get tired while you work on a computer you should get them checked.
 - Follow proper hygienic routine if you wear contact lenses: If you wear contact lenses, it is very important to follow a hygienic and proper routine for them and store them properly as that can get bacterias to your eyes.
 - Avoid smoke and pollution: When traveling or outside make sure to cover your eyes or wear sunglasses to protect your eyes from pollution damage. When you get home remember to wash your eyes with water.
 - Take frequent breaks when working on a computer: If you work on a computer for longer durations you should take timely breaks to give some time. This is a healthy practice to follow, even if you use your phone for long periods.
 - Engage in activities that reduce stress: Sometimes stress can be a reason your eyes get irritated and tired. Try to get yourself into activities that reduce stress such as Putin cucumber slices on them or massaging your eyes can help to reduce stress.
There are so many other things that we know are good for our eyes that we tend to avoid or feel lazy to do. You should keep in mind that eyes are important and if we overlook them it won't be good. So, it is better to take precautions when we have time than to regret it later.
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Mars One
What's the historic success rate of Missions to Mars?
You can find information on historic missions to Mars on this NASA website
Sending a spacecraft to Mars is obviously extremely complex. For this reason, the first mission that Mars One will send to the surface of Mars, will be a full demonstration mission, using a controlled lander. Assuming this mission succeeds, more cargo missions will follow. Also see the Mars One roadmap.
Each of these relatively low-risk cargo missions will teach us more about the end-to-end process. Meticulous analysis of mission data from each mission will provide invaluable knowledge that can be used to ensure that future missions run as smoothly as possible, and that all possible safeguards and system redundancies have been properly implemented. In this way, all risks to payloads and transport vehicles can be absolutely minimized.
Only after all cargo has successfully landed, and the mission process has been perfected as far as is humanly possible, will our first crew depart, using an identical system.
Back to the FAQ overview


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By Library and Archives Canada | Monday, March 29, 2004
Prince Edward Island was the last of the British North American colonies to adopt a decimal system of currency. 'Going decimal' in 1871, the island chose a dollar equal in value to the United States one-dollar gold piece, in line with the decimal currency system introduced earlier in the Provinces of Canada and New Brunswick and adopted by the Dominion of Canada in 1867. The only decimal coin struck for P.E.I. prior to its entry in Confederation in 1873 was a one-cent piece in 1871. This attractive coin was designed and engraved by Leonard C. Wyon, who for some forty years was the principal engraver for the Royal Mint in London
The obverse of the coin depicts a diademed head of the queen, a design that was already being used for the Jamaica halfpenny. The reverse was adapted from thc official seal for the island. The central design shows a large oak tree (representing the United Kingdom) sheltering three smaller ones (the three countries of the island) with the Latin phrase PARVA SUB INGENTI ('The small beneath the great') below. Because of heavy pressure of work on other coinage, the Royal Mint was forced to contract with the Heaton Mint in Birmingham (a private firm) to produce the Prince Edward Island cents. The specimen illustrated is part of the Bank of Canada's Currency Collection.
Prince Edward Island: Bronze Half Cent, 1861
This article represents a portion of the the article titled Currency Museum of the Bank of Canada
Source : Library and Archives Canada


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Prior information about the average dielectric properties of breast tissue can be implemented in microwave breast imaging techniques to improve the results. Rapidly providing this information relies on acquiring a limited number of measurements and processing these measurement with efficient algorithms. Previously, systems were developed to measure the transmission of microwave signals through breast tissue, and simplifications were applied to estimate the average properties. These methods provided reasonable estimates, but they were sensitive to multipath. In this paper, a new technique to analyze the average properties of breast tissues while addressing multipath is presented. Three steps are used to process transmission measurements. First, the effects of multipath were removed. In cases where multipath is present, multiple peaks were observed in the time domain. A Tukey window was used to time-gate a single peak and, therefore, select a single path through the breast. Second, the antenna response was deconvolved from the transmission coefficient to isolate the response from the tissue in the breast interior. The antenna response was determined through simulations. Finally, the complex permittivity was estimated using an iterative approach. This technique was validated using simulated and physical homogeneous breast models and tested with results taken from a recent patient study.
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License
which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited


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slate in place as it is moved down a page for brailling.
Interpoint slates allow a user to write on both sides of the paper to create two-sided braille. Since braille consists of raised dots, this requires placing the cells on either side so that they do not cancel out dots on the other side. The advantage of two-sided braille is that it requires less paper.
Figure 12: The Can-Do Interpoint Page Slate from Independent Living Aids is
used to emboss two-sided Interpoint braille.
Jumbo slates are designed to produce braille with larger dots and increased spacing between dots, cells, and lines for users with reduced tactile sensitivity, such as people with diabetic neuropathy. Jumbo slates can be used with a jumbo stylus, which produces larger dots, or with a regular stylus, which results in sharp dots like those of standard braille, but with the increased spacing typical of jumbo braille.
Postcard slates are small slates (19 cells by 6 lines) used to take notes on index cards or small pieces of paper.
Open-back slates have backs that can be opened without dislodging the paper. Slates of this type include the Brown Slate from the American Printing House for the Blind (APH) and the E-Z Read series by Howe Press. When the back is opened, the paper remains held in place by pins, allowing the user to read what has been written so far. This feature is useful if the writer is interrupted while writing and doesnt quite recall where he or she left off. It also allows the writer to proofread and make corrections while in the middle of brailling a sheet of paper.
In contrast to the Brown Slate and E-Z Read Slate, which are designed for correcting braille while it is being written, correcting slates (also called correction slates) are designed for correcting a finished page that has already been removed from its original slate. The distinctive feature of correcting slates is that they either have no pins at all to hold the paper, or they have up pins, that is, pins on the back or bottom plate, not the front or top plate. Since the pins that hold paper in place make their own holes, putting a piece of paper that has already been brailled into a new slate can add unwanted holes, especially if the original slate was a different size. On an up-pin slate, the user can avoid new holes by carefully placing the paper so that its existing holes fit over the pins. A pinless slate serves the same purpose.
Labeling slates. Some slates have additional slots for embossing Dymo tape, ½-inch wide clear plastic or aluminum tape used for labeling tasks. One line slates are also sold for this purpose. Other specialty labeling slates include playing card slates for marking standard-sized playing cards, and a slate for brailling cassette labels, both sold by Howe Press.
In addition, some of the features described above can be combined. For example, APH manufactures an interpoint version of the postcard slate, and Howe Press makes a postcard slate in the EZ Read style.
Braille Erasers are used to flatten errant dots. Freestanding erasers made of wood or plastic are available, and styluses, like pencils, can come with or without erasers attached to them.
Figure 13: Braille Erasers from Howe Press.
Braille Paper is similar to ordinary inkprint paper, but heavier since it must be sturdy enough to retain raised dots as many readers move their fingers over them. Braille paper comes in heavy and lightweight grades, but even the lightweight grade is relatively heavy. The heavier grade of paper is recommended for use with a braille writer.
Braille paper comes in various sizes, including the 8½ by 11 inch size that is standard for use in braille printers and braille writers, and an 11 x 11½ inch size that is common for pages in braille books. Either size can be brailled with a wide slate. For use with a pocket slate, note-size braille paper is available in pads or looseleaf form. Standard index cards can also be used for this purpose and may serve just as well.
Colors include white, manila, and Kraft brown. Both full-size and note-size paper is available with holes pre-punched so the paper can be put into binders, including 3-ring and 6-ring binders and 19-hole spiral binders.
In addition to regular braille paper, there is also a brand of plastic paper called "Brailon," which is used with the copiers manufactured by American Thermoform Corporation. For more on Brailon, see the ABLEDATA Fact Sheet on Braille Writers, Printers, and Software.
Besides written documents, another popular use for braille is labeling. A variety of labeling materials and devices are available.
Adhesive labeling tape and sheets. As described in an earlier section of this Fact Sheet, some braille labeling slates are designed to emboss braille on ½inch wide adhesive labeling tape. Adhesive labeling tape is available in several different materials, including transparent vinyl, Teflon, and aluminum, and in other widths, such as 5/8 inch. Teflon labels can be sewn onto clothing to provide information about colors, and these labels will survive washing. In addition to labeling tape, there are also sheets of adhesive plastic that can be brailled using non-specialized slates and then cut into labels of the desired size.
Specialized labeling slates. Slates designed for labeling specific items such as playing cards and cassette labels were mentioned in the above section on braille slates.
Specialized non-slate braillers. A number of specialized non-slate braillers are available. An example is the Click Pocket Brailler sold by Maxi-Aids, which fits on a keychain and which is designed for marking paper money with braille numbers. It has two metal plates embossed with the braille numbers 1, 5, 10, 20, 50, and 100. The appropriate number is embossed onto a bill by placing its edge between the plates and squeezing. No stylus is involved, so technically this brailler is not a braille slate.
Handheld braille labelers. The 3M Corporation makes a braille labeler that embosses braille on vinyl adhesive tape or magnetic tape. It is similar to the handheld devices used by sighted persons to emboss raised letters on labeling tape. It has a wheel that is turned to select the letters to be embossed, including the entire braille alphabet plus contractions. The wheel shows letters in both print and braille, so this labeler can be used by sighted persons who do not know braille but who want to create braille labels.
Figure 14: The 3M Braille Labeler is a handheld device used to emboss braille
on adhesive plastic tape.
Magnetic labeling tape and metal labelers. Magnetic labeling tape is used for metal surfaces. As indicated above, it can be brailled using the 3M Braille Labeler, or it can be brailled with the Braille Metal Labeler sold by Maxi-Aids.
Desktop braille labeler for sighted use. Except for the 3M Braille Labeler, the braille labeling devices mentioned so far require knowledge of braille. The KGS Braille Labeler is a desktop labeler that can also be used by persons with no braille experience. It makes transparent single-line adhesive labels, which can be used to label hotel keys, signs, simple maps, cassettes, CD cases, vending machines, telephones, and other items. To make a label, the user selects grade 1 (the default) or grade 2 braille, then chooses individual letters, numbers, and punctuation marks from a small visual screen. Text can be edited and stored in the unit's memory. When the user has finished entering the text to be embossed, the unit indicates which of three available label sizes (fitting 7, 15, or 25 braille characters) should be used.
Figure 15: The KGS Braille Labeler is an electronic labeler that is operated
through a keypad.
Dot inverter. The Swail dot inverter, sold by the American Printing House for the Blind, is a special braille stylus used to add braille to charts, diagrams, graphs, and maps. A sighted person adding braille to a map needs to see where the braille label should be located, but ordinary brailling is done from the back. The dot inverter allows brailling to be done from the front. Unlike a regular stylus that is pushed into the paper to form a raised dot on the other side, the dot inverter works by puncturing the paper on the down stroke and then pulling the paper upward on the up stroke to form a raised dot. A 12 by 12-inch, rubber pad is included with the dot inverter for protecting the table surface as the dot inverter is used.
Choosing Manual Braille Writing Aids and Labelers
Choosing Manual Braille Writing Tools.
The following are some considerations on choosing manual braille writing tools:
- Those who want to take notes on the go should try a pocket slate and note-size paper or index cards.
- Those who want to take notes in class or at business meetings may also want to consider a desk slate or other full size slate with 8.5 by 11-inch paper.
- Those with diabetic neuropathy should consider a jumbo slate, with or without a jumbo stylus, depending on whether they prefer reading


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Data & Products
Missions & Sensors
The Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment (GOME) was launched on April 21st 1995 on board the second European Remote Sensing Satellite (ERS-2). This instrument can measure a range of atmospheric trace constituents, with the emphasis on global ozone distributions.
GOME is a nadir-viewing spectrometer that measures the solar radiation scattered by the atmosphere in the ultraviolet and visible spectral region (240 to 790 nm). The sensor has a high spectral resolution of 0.2 to 0.4 nm sensed by four individual linear detector arrays each with 1024 detector pixels. The field of view may be varied in size from 320 km x 40 km to 960 km x 80 km. For further information and the mission objectives see the sensor information sheet.
GOME level-1 (radiances / reflectances) and level-2 (trace
gas amounts) products are computed from level-0 (raw) data using the GOME
Data Processor (GDP) system which was designed and developed by the German
Remote Sensing Data Center (DFD) of DLR in cooperation with the Institute of
Remote Sensing (University of Bremen/Germany), the Smithonian Astrophysical
Observatory (Harvard, Cambridge/MD, USA), the University of Heidelberg (Germany),
the Koninklijk Nederlands Meteorologisch Instituut (KNMI, The Netherlands),
and other institutions involved in the GOME Science Advisory Group.
On December 15, 2004 GOME Level 2 data have been released with GDP version 4.0.
New Data Release: Version 4 - Reaching the Accuracy of Ground-Based Measurements with GDP 4.0
A short overview on how to access GOME can be found here
GOME DLR Near-Real-Time Service: Ozone, Nitrogen Dioxide, Clouds, Radiances and GOME Trajectory
If you would like to have more information about the GOME 2 data, please contact _EMAIL_.


Airframe structure
Cessna Anglais
The Wings
The wings of an aircraft can be attached to the fuselage at the top, mid-fuselage, or at the bottom. They may extend perpendicular to the horizontal plain of the fuselage or can angle up or down slightly. This angle is known as the wing dihedral.
Wooden structure wing
The ribs are they are strengthened in some wings by tapes that are woven above and below rib sections to prevent sidewise bending of the ribs. Drag and anti-drag wires may also be found in a wing.
Aile bois Anglais
Wing rib
Wood ribs are usually manufactured from spruce. The three most common types of wooden ribs are the plywood web, the lightened plywood web, and the truss types.
Nervures Goussets
Metal structure wing
Often, the skin on a wing is designed to carry part of the flight and ground loads in combination with the spars and ribs. This is known as a stressed-skin design. The all-metal, full cantilever wing section illustrated below shows the structure of one such design.
Aile metal Anglais
The fuselage forms the main body of the aircraft to which the wings, tail plane, vertical fin, and engine (in the case of a single-engine aircraft) are attached. In some aircraft designs, the engines and landing gear also attach directly to the fuselage structure.
Truss type fuselage
The truss type fuselage frame is usually constructed of steel tubing welded together in such a manner that all members of the truss can carry both tension and compression loads.
Fuselage Tubulaire Anglais
Monocoque Type
The true monocoque construction uses formers, frame assemblies, and bulkheads to give shape to the fuselage. The heaviest of these structural members are located at intervals to carry concentrated loads and at points where fittings are used to attach other units such as wings, powerplants, and stabilizers.
FuseMonocoque Anglais
Semimonocoque Type
Il se compose également d'assemblages de cadres, de cloisons et de coffrages utilisés dans la monocoque. Mais, de plus, la peau est renforcée par des membres longitudinaux appelés longerons. Les longerons s'étendent généralement sur plusieurs membrures et aident la peau à supporter les charges de flexion primaires
FuseSemicoque Anglais
Empennage or Tail
The stabilizing surfaces of most aircraft are located at the tail and are known as the empennage. Typically they comprise the horizontal surfaces of stabilizer (tailplane) and elevator, for longitudinal stability and control, and the vertical surfaces of fin and rudder for directional stability and control.
Empennage Complet Anglais
Image Suite


text:
The Hydroclenz (Aquanella) Unit provides constant protection against infestations of pathogenic bacteria in water treatment systems. Immersed in water, the complex integral electrolytic activity of the ceramic media produces constant oxidising, while the noble metal in the form of a fine matrix format produces ionisation. The ionisation of the noble metal is enhanced by the activity of the ceramic media and the combined effect is to act as a powerful disinfectant producing exceptional kill rates against pathogenic bacteria.
The additional benefit is the electrolytic activity of the ceramic media produces a chemical re-action that balances the pH of the water. This results in additional benefits in the form of Scale Inhibition and Corrosion Prevention.


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Cardiac Arrest Registry to Enhance Survival
Communities Working Together to Save Lives
Every minute counts during an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA). When an OHCA occurs, emergency medical services (EMS) providers usually are the first to respond. To help EMS providers improve their performance in these situations and save more lives, CDC created the Cardiac Arrest Registry to Enhance Survival (CARES) in collaboration with Emory University and the American Heart Association.
How It Works
CARES helps EMS providers measure how well they respond to OHCA calls. An essential part of the emergency process is called the "chain of survival." Implementing the chain quickly can help save lives—but how can EMS providers determine whether they're fast enough?
To help EMS providers evaluate their performance, CARES provides agencies with a confidential, Web-based program to gather quickly and easily local information such as 9-1-1 response times and locations. The software creates graphs, charts, and maps for EMS providers to compare their performance with other participating communities in the United States. These reports can help guide decisions that will improve survival outcomes from OHCA.
The CARES program seeks to
- Save more lives from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.
- Strengthen collaboration between 9-1-1 centers, first responders, EMS agencies, and hospitals.
- Provide a simple, confidential, HIPPA-compliant process to assess patient outcomes.
- Offer technical assistance to help community leaders identify and prioritize opportunities to improve EMS performance.
CARES Across the Country
Current CARES Sites
In 2005, CARES began in the metropolitan Atlanta area. The following year, the program expanded to include 6 more cities. In 2011, 40 communities in 25 states and the District of Columbia were participating. CDC plans to expand the program to more areas as interest in CARES grows. In 2010, CARES began an expansion to statewide surveillance in Arizona, Hawaii, Minnesota, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Washington.
For More Information
These resources can help you learn more about cardiac arrest and the CARES program—
- McNally B, Robb R, Mehta M, Vellano K, Valderrama AL, Yoon PW, Sasson C, Crouch A, Perez AB, Merritt R, Kellermann A; Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia. Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest Surveillance—Cardiac Arrest Registry to Enhance Survival (CARES), United States, October 1, 2005—December 31, 2010. MMWR Surveill Summ. 2011 Jul 29;60(8):1-19.
- Govindarajan P, Lin L, Landman A, McMullan JT, McNally BF, Crouch AJ, Sasson C. Practice variability among the EMS systems participating in Cardiac Arrest Registry to Enhance Survival (CARES). Resuscitation. 2011 Jun 30.
- McNally B, Crouch A, Perez A, Mehta M, Robb R, Vellano K, Kellermann A, Sasson C. CARES: The Cardiac Arrest Registry to Enhance Survival. System Attributes of an Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest Surveillance Registry. An article in the 2011 Joint Commission monograph: Sudden Cardiac Arrest: Meeting the Challenge.
- Sasson, C, Keirns, C. Smith, D, Sayre, M, Macy, M, Meurer, W. McNally, B, Kellermann, A, Iwashyna, T. The Contextual Effects of Neighborhood on Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest Survival Resuscitation. 2011 Jun; 82(6):674-9. Epub 2011 Mar 31.
- Sasson C, Keirns CC, Smith D, Sayre M, Macy M, Meurer W, McNally BF, Kellermann AL, Iwashyna TJ; Small area variations in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest: does the neighborhood matter? CARES (Cardiac Arrest Registry to Enhance Survival) Study Group. Ann Intern Med. 2010 Jul 6;153(1):19-22. Epub 2010 Jun 1.
- McNally B, Stokes A, Crouch A, Kellermann AL; CARES: Cardiac Arrest Registry to Enhance Survival. CARES Surveillance Group. Ann Emerg Med. 2009 Nov;54(5):674-683.e2. Epub 2009 Apr 25.
- Sasson C, Kellermann AL, McNally BF. Termination of cardiopulmonary resuscitation for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. JAMA. 2009 Feb 18;301(7):722; author reply 722-3. No abstract available. PMID: _PHONE_
- Sasson C, Hegg AJ, Macy M, Park A, Kellermann A, McNally B; Prehospital termination of resuscitation in cases of refractory out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. CARES Surveillance Group. JAMA. 2008 Sep 24;300(12):1432-8.


Mark Alliegro
Senior Scientist, Marine Biological Laboratory
Dr. Mark Alliegro is a cell biologist with a background in biochemistry and molecular biology. He is interested in the genesis of the cell division center (the centrosome in animal cells and its functional equivalents in others), both in the living cell and from an evolutionary standpoint.
Biogenesis of the cell division center is of clear biomedical importance because it regulates the timing of the cell cycle as well as progression through the steps of normal chromosome segregation. At the same time, understanding the composition and dynamics of the centrosome will help us to understand evolutionary relationships between the prokaryotic and eukaryotic worlds. Dr. Alliegro's laboratory is credited with demonstrating the presence of nucleic acids in centrosomes, a longand hotly-debated issue.
To study the physiology and evolution of the centrosome, the Alliegro lab has developed a unique set of probes and approaches concentrating on the role of ribonucleoprotein complexes. These tools have already shown us that elements of the centrosome are derived from an enigmatic nuclear compartment known as the nucleolinus. High-throughput sequencing and analysis of unique libraries of centrosomeand nucleolinar-associated RNAs will enable the lab to evaluate the biological function and evolutionary relationships of these molecules.


and stroke frequency were used to calculate technical skill indices, specifically stroke index, and arm propelling efficiency. Relationships between variables were assessed using linear mixed models, identifying fixed, and random effect estimates. Results: Curvilinear trends best described significant longitudinal relationships between maturity status with horizontal velocity (F = 10.33 [1, 233.77]; P = .002) and stroke index (F = 5.55 [1, 217.9]; P = .02) during 200-m Front-crawl trials. Maturity status was not significantly related to arm propelling efficiency (P = .08). However, arm propelling efficiency was an independent predictor of Front-crawl velocity (F = 55.89 [1, 210.45]; P < .001). Conclusions: Maturity status predicted assessment of swimmer technical skill (stroke index) and swimming performance. However, technical skill accessed via arm propelling efficiency was independent of maturation and was predictive of performance. Maturity status influences performance evaluation based on technical skill and velocity. Findings highlight the need to account for maturation and technical skill in age-group swimmers to better inform swimmer evaluation.
Restricted access
Peter A. Hastie
This paper presents a summary of the research on teacher (and preservice teacher) content knowledge within physical education teaching and teacher education. It is organized around the key terms that are predominant in the literature of this field, namely, content knowledge, common content knowledge, and specialized content knowledge. Each of the studies and their key findings are presented within tables. The result is a document that serves as a primer, allowing readers a good understanding of the vocabulary of the field, as well as knowledge of the topics that have been researched to date.
Restricted access
Jaime Fernandez-Fernandez, Alejandro Lopez-Valenciano, Jose Vicente Garcia-Tormo, David Cabello-Manrique, and Juan García-López
Purpose: To analyze the influence of playing 2 consecutive prolonged badminton matches on the shoulder strength and range of motion (ROM) of young players. Methods: Sixteen elite junior badminton players (12 males and 4 females; mean (SD): age 16.2 [0.8] years, body mass 63.5 [6.6] kg, height 173.2 [6.3] cm) participated in a cross-sectional study. Shoulder internal (IR)/external rotation (ER) ROM and IR/ER strength measures were conducted before and after 2 consecutive prolonged (ie, 35 min) matches and 12 hours after the second match. Results: After consecutive matches, IR strength of the dominant side and ER strength of the dominant and nondominant sides (effect size [ES] = 0.20–0.57) were reduced. Shoulder total ROM of the dominant side was decreased (ES = 0.80), while on the nondominant side, IR (ES = 0.66) was also decreased. After 12 hours, results showed decreased values in the IR/ER strength of the dominant side (ES = 0.36–1.00), as well as ER of both dominant and nondominant sides (ES = 0.30–0.59). IR ROM of the nondominant side (ES = 0.69) was also decreased. Conclusion: Present results showed that 2 consecutive matches on the same day with brief rest periods led to significant impairments in shoulder strength and ROM levels. These data can potentially elucidate the need for shoulder-specific training and recovery strategies prior to or during competitions.
Open access


JavaScript debugging made easy with source maps
| 4 min. (744 words)
JavaScript debugging with source maps sounds complicated – but it definitely doesn't need to be. Source maps are a useful tool for debugging JavaScript and fixing minified JavaScript code without the hassle of determining where in the original code an error occurred. They provide a way to translate between minified code, designed to decrease webpage load times to the source code the developer writes.
This post gives an overview of setting up and using source mapping in your browser as well as within Raygun.
If you're unfamiliar with source maps it's probably best to see how they work within the browser. You can read about how to generate source maps here.
Source maps are natively supported by both Google Chrome and Firefox as well as IE11, this means that any minified JavaScript files with a source map comment at the bottom will automatically link to its sources so long as the mapping and source files are in the correct locations.
This allows errors to be mapped onto the original source code instead of reporting errors on only the minified script.
For instance if a minified file example.min.js has the following comment at the end of the file:
The browser will load the mapping file in the same directory as the minified file. Any source files specified by mapping file will then be loaded into the Sources window in the browser console.
In addition to showing the source files in the sources window, any errors which happen within the minified file will automatically be mapped into the source files allowing for easy debugging.
Now that you have an idea about how source maps can be used to review code and debug locally, here is an overview of how JavaScript debugging with source maps is easier with Raygun Crash Reporting. Debugging script errors reported from client's browsers becomes a bit faster.
When an error occurs in the JavaScript of a website using Raygun an error report including stacktrace is sent to Raygun.
Contained within the stacktrace are the URLs of the scripts in which the error occurred.
Given these URLs Raygun can download each script file and check for a source map comment. If the comment exists it tries to map the line of the stacktrace onto source code. This is done by downloading the map file specified.
If a map file is available Raygun can then perform the mapping which converts the lines numbers of the stacktrace on the minified code into line numbers on the source files, it also resolves the source files and symbol names.
Given the source file URL we can additional requests for the source files. If we can retrieve these we insert a snippet of the source code into the stacktrace to give more context to the error:
javascript debugging with source maps - a detailed diagram
All of this can be done across the public internet if the files are hosted at the correct URLs and are publicly available.
For many businesses hosting JavaScript files publicly is not in their best interests. For this reason Raygun provides a source map center, this is a private store of JavaScript files to be used in the source mapping process. It allows source mapping to work without hosting anything publicly. JavaScript debugging with source maps makes the whole process much easier, especially when you use a crash and error reporting software like Raygun.
If a file is uploaded into the source map center it will be used instead of requesting a file from the internet. All that is required is that the file be labeled with the URL it would be accessed from if it were to be publicly hosted. In most cases this is easy to figure out. For minified files it's simply the address your minified files are served from. Determining the address of the map and source files may be a bit harder but can be determined by looking at the relative URLs in the generated sourceMappingURL comment in the minified files as well as the sources section of the map files and figuring out the absolute URL based on the address of the hosted minified files.
Hopefully this quick guide to JavaScript debugging with source maps has given an overview of how Raygun can be used to produce powerful error reporting for minified JavaScript code in production environments.
Getting started with JavaScript source maps and Raygun
What are JavaScript source maps? A detailed guide
Ebook: The Ultimate Guide To JavaScript Error Monitoring