To celebrate National Engineers week, we're featuring stories about Comcast engineers engineers, their work and the invaluable contributions they make to Comcast and to their broader technology communities. This article features Vikrant Sagar, a lead engineer working on the X1 Voice Remote.
As an engineering Intern in 2013, Vikrant Sagar jumped at the opportunity to work on the development of the X1 Voice Remote, since it was an opportunity to apply his master's studies in machine learning to a real-world technology.
At the time, the Voice Remote was in its infancy, available only as a smartphone app. A small engineering team was still honing the remote's search capability to transform the viewing experience.
One major obstacle was that the app's word recognition was too literal. While the phrase, "Watch Harry Potter," brought up movie titles as you would expect, "Watch please Harry Potter" yielded no results.
It turns out the app's grammar rules were too strict, and Vikrant with the help of Comcast researcher Robert Rubinoff applied machine learning techniques to relax them, so X1 could better understand a customer's intent.
Following a successful internship, Vikrant was hired full-time, and he's been working on the Voice Remote ever since, refining and improving technology that is now used by millions of X1 customers. Today, there are more than 12 million voice remotes in customers' homes.
Even as the technology evolves, there are always new challenges to overcome. Although speech-to-text software has drastically improved, there are limitations with male vs. female voices and accents, sometimes resulting in spelling errors. So, instead of risking no search results at all, Vikrant and the team improved the search system's autocorrect capability.
In other instances, they factor in relevancy to make sure the best results surface. One such example is "Chicago Fire," which is both a TV show and a professional soccer team. Based on a customer's viewing and query history, the TV show might appear. But if the soccer team is playing at the time, the game broadcast shows up.
"It's our responsibility to decrease complexity from the user's perspective," Vikrant says, "even if that means increasing the complexity on our end."


Answering the Child's Why
Answering the Child's Why
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Remember the 50's? No? Neither do we, since our parents were still in diapers back then. But apparently as children, their generation was just as annoying as every generation has been since the start of the human race. Yes, its those adorable children asking questions constantly while annoyance, resentment and bitterness begin to build within all the adults within earshot. This short provides us with a sad look at what was considered progressive social education back then, which can be summed up thusly. "Try answering their questions in a relatable and appropriate way". It also helpfully points out that forcing children to kiss strange relatives they've never met may be emotionally scarring, and that if you crush all the ambition and curiosity out of a child, they may not grow up to be successful. Common sense these days, but apparently these were new and exciting concepts back then. Sort of makes you realize why the hippie movement started a decade later. Anyway, Kam and Dan give this short the sound thrashing it deserves. Please enjoy, "Answering The Child's Why".
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by a single line containing their joined text. The current address is set to the resultant line. (.)klc Marks a line with a lower case letter lc. The line can then be addressed as 'lc (i.e., a single quote followed by lc) in subsequent commands. The mark is not cleared until the line is deleted or otherwise modified. (.,.)l Prints the addressed lines unambiguously. If a single line fills more than one screen (as might be the case when viewing a binary file, for instance), a "--More--" prompt is printed on the last line. ed waits until the RETURN key is pressed before displaying the next screen. The current address is set to the last line printed. (.,.)m(.) Moves lines in the buffer. The addressed lines are moved to after the right-hand destination address, which may be the address 0 (zero). The current address is set to the last line moved. (.,.)n Prints the addressed lines along with their line numbers. The current address is set to the last line printed. (.,.)p Prints the addressed lines. The current address is set to the last line printed. P Toggles the command prompt on and off. Unless a prompt was specified with the command-line option -p string, the command prompt is by default turned off. q Quits ed. Q Quits ed unconditionally. This is similar to the q command, except that unwritten changes are discarded without warning. ($)r file Reads file to after the addressed line. If file is not specified, then the default filename is used. If there was no default filename prior to the command, then the default filename is set to file. Otherwise, the default filename is unchanged. The current address is set to the last line read. ($)r!command Reads to after the addressed line the standard output of!command, (see!command below). The default filename is unchanged. The current address is set to the last line read. (.,.)s/re/replacement/ (.,.)s/re/replacement/g (.,.)s/re/replacement/n Replaces text in the addressed lines matching a regular expression re with replacement. By default, only the first match in each line is replaced. If the g (global) suffix is given, then every match is replaced. The n suffix, where n is a positive number, causes only the nth match to be replaced. It is an error if no substitutions are performed on any of the addressed lines. The current address is set the last line affected. re and replacement may be delimited by any character other than space and newline (see the s command below). If one or two of the last delimiters is omitted, then the last line affected is printed as though the print suffix p were specified. An unescaped '&' in replacement is replaced by the currently matched text. The character sequence \m, where m is a number in the range [1,9], is replaced by the mth backreference expression of the matched text. If replacement consists of a single '%', then replacement from the last substitution is used. Newlines may be embedded in replacement if they are escaped with a backslash ('\'). (.,.)s Repeats the last substitution. This form of the s command accepts a count suffix n, or any combination of the characters r, g, and p. If a count suffix n is given, then only the nth match is replaced. The r suffix causes the regular expression of the last search to be used instead of that of the last substitution. The g suffix toggles the global suffix of the last substitution. The p suffix toggles the print suffix of the last substitution. The current address is set to the last line affected. (.,.)t(.) Copies (i.e., transfers) the addressed lines to after the righthand destination address, which may be the address 0 (zero). The current address is set to the last line copied. u Undoes the last command and restores the current address to what it was before the command. The global commands g, G, v, and V are treated as a single command by undo. u is its own inverse. (1,$)v/re/command-list Applies command-list to each of the addressed lines not matching a regular expression re. This is similar to the g command. (1,$)V/re/ Interactively edits the addressed lines not matching a regular expression re. This is similar to the G command. (1,$)w file Writes the addressed lines to file. Any previous contents of file are lost without warning. If there is no default filename, then the default filename is set to file, otherwise it is unchanged. If no filename is specified, then the default filename is used. The current address is unchanged. (1,$)wq file Writes the addressed lines to file, and then executes a q command. (1,$)w!command Writes the addressed lines to the standard input of!command, (see!command below). The default filename and current address are unchanged. (1,$)W file Appends the addressed lines to the end of file. This is similar to the w command, except that the previous contents of file are not clobbered. The current address is unchanged. x Prompts for an encryption key which is used in subsequent reads and writes. If a newline alone is entered as the key, then encryption is turned off. Otherwise, echoing is disabled while a key is read. Encryption/decryption is done using the bdes(1) algorithm. (.+1)zn Scrolls n lines at a time starting at addressed line. If n is not specified, then the current window size is used. The current address is set to the last line printed. ($)= Prints the line number of the addressed line. (.+1)newline Prints the addressed line, and sets the current address to that line.!command Executes command via sh(1). If the first character of command is '!', then it is replaced by text of the previous!command. ed does not process command for '\' (backslash) escapes. However, an unescaped '%' is replaced by the default filename. When the shell returns from execution, a '!' is printed to the standard output. The current line is unchanged.
/tmp/ed.* buffer file ed.hup where ed attempts to write the buffer if the terminal hangs up
The ed utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs.
When an error occurs, ed prints a '?' and either returns to command mode or exits if its input is from a script. An explanation of the last error can be printed with the h (help) command. Since the g (global) command masks any errors from failed searches and substitutions, it can be used to perform conditional operations in scripts; e.g., g/old/s//new/ replaces any occurrences of "old" with "new". If the u (undo) command occurs in a global command list, then the command list is executed only once. If diagnostics are not disabled, attempting to quit ed or edit another file before writing a modified buffer results in an error. If the command is entered a second time, it succeeds, but any changes to the buffer are lost.
bdes(1), sed(1), sh(1), vi(1), re_format(7) "A Tutorial Introduction to the UNIX Text Editor", /usr/share/doc/usd/09.edtut/. "Advanced Editing on UNIX", /usr/share/doc/usd/10.edadv/. B. W. Kernighan and P. J. Plauger, Software Tools in Pascal, 1981, Addison-Wesley.
The ed utility is compliant with the IEEE Std 1003.1-2008 ("POSIX") specification. The flag [-x] as well as the commands W, x, and z are extensions to that specification.
An ed command appeared in Version 1 AT&T UNIX.
ed processes file arguments for backslash escapes, i.e., in a filename, any characters preceded by a backslash ('\') are interpreted literally. If a text (non-binary) file is not terminated by a newline character, then ed appends one on reading/writing it. In the case of a binary file, ed does not append a newline on reading/writing. MirOS BSD #10-current April 9, 2011 6
Generated on 2013-04-27 00:20:00 by $MirOS: src/scripts/roff2htm,v 1.77 2013/01/01 20:49:09 tg Exp $
These manual pages and other documentation are copyrighted by their respective writers;
their source is available at our CVSweb,
AnonCVS, and other mirrors. The rest is Copyright © 2002‒2013 The MirOS Project, Germany.
This product includes material provided by Thorsten Glaser.
This manual page's HTML representation is supposed to be valid XHTML/1.1; if not, please send a bug report – diffs preferred.

source: HuggingFaceFW/fineweb-edu


For years I've debated the issue of people wearing sagging pants with anyone who cared to listen. I've hesitated to speak publicly for fear people would think I was condoning the style of dress. For the record, I believe style is a matter of personal expression.
Consider it this way: Some Americans grow up in neighborhoods where they are exposed to people who wear sagging pants almost every day. They see it inside of their homes, around their communities, in magazines, on the Internet and on TV. As a result, some would argue, it's a part of their culture.
Fashion and trends come and go, some of which reflect the social consciousness of those who participate in them. As such, young people should be allowed to express themselves and their culture with their style of dress. The mere fact that it is offensive to others does not negate their constitutional rights. The only intervention necessary should come from parents, who instill morals and values in their children, and the government, when the child is in a public school setting. Beyond that, style should be a matter of personal choice and not subjugated to the taste and preferences of others.
What is the real issue with sagging? Is it the fact that underwear or shorts are exposed, or is it something else? I would argue for the latter of the two.
Continue reading UCF Forum or HuffPost Blog


to the United States as a child, and became a naturalized United States citizen. Malisoff obtained a BS in 1916, an MA in 1917 and CE in 1918 degrees from Columbia University and a PhD. from New York University in 1925. Malisoff was an associate professor of biochemistry and lecturer in philosophy at University of Pennsylvania from 1922 to 1934. From 1934 to 1942 he was associate professor of biochemistry at Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute. In _PHONE_ Malisoff was delegated NEC member of University Federation for Democracy and Intellectual Freedom. He owned and operated United Laboratories, Inc, a company principally engaged in research on lubricating processes for chemical products, war industries and biochemistry. From 1936 to 1942 Malisoff was a regular contributor on science and technology to the New York Times Book Review. Malisoff along with Niels Bohr, Bertrand Russell, Ernest Nagel et al sat on the Advisory Committee of the International Encyclopedia of Unified Science. From 1934 to 1944 he was on the editorial board of Philosophy of Science journal. In 1945 Malisoff was connected with the Institute for the Unity of Science for a short time. Chemical researcher Kapok-Milkweed project, United States Navy, 1944; Essex College of Medicine, Newark, New Jersey, _PHONE_; Director of research Longevity Research Foundation, New York, since 1946.
Vasily Mikhailovich Zarubin was a Soviet intelligence officer. In the United States, he used the cover name Vasily Zubilin and served as the chief Soviet intelligence Rezident from 1941 to 1944. Zarubin's wife, Elizabeth Zubilin, served with him.
 2. Robert J. Lamphere, The FBI-KGB War (1986) page 25
 4. Harvey Klehr, "Books: Jerrold and Leona Schecter's Sacred Secrets: How Soviet Intelligence Operations Changed American History," History News Network (George Mason University), August 26, 2002
 5. Schecter, Jerrold and Leona, Sacred Secrets: How Soviet Intelligence Operations Changed American History, Potomac Press, 2002, p. 122
The Cold War International History Project (CWIHP)] has the full text of former KGB agent Alexander Vassiliev's Notebooks containing revelations on Soviet espionage in the United States.


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Everyday Life in Eastern Europe
Rudé Pravo, Housing
Rudé Pravo was the Czechoslovak equivalent of the Soviet newspaper Pravda. Both were the official daily news publications of their respective Communist governments; both depicted the official version of truth about current events and conditions. Rudé Pravo had a daily circulation of over one million, a fact attributable not to its popularity but rather to the reality that it was the official daily newspaper in a system that aimed to control the dissemination of information (it is said that few people really read it).
The following document is a Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) summary of a Rudé Pravo report on the housing situation in Czechoslovakia. FBIS was a non-covert information unit of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency that collected, translated, and disseminated open news from foreign information sources (it still exists and with these functions, but it 2005 it was placed under the Director of National Intelligence). This document provides a view into an important aspect of everyday life for millions of Eastern Europeans.
To see the associated Teaching Module on Everyday Life in Eastern Europe, click here.
"Results of Housing 'Microcensus' Assessed," September 22, 1988, Rudé Pravo, trans. Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS).
Primary Source— Excerpt
[Summary] A survey of household incomes and the standard and cost of housing was carried out in 2 percent of all households in the CSSR last year. The results of this microcensus, which surveyed the situation in 1986, confirm that the standard of housing continues to improve, even though the shortage of apartments lingers on.
Both the average size of apartments and the average number of rooms per apartment have increased since the 1980 census. Whereas in 1970 only 1 in 12 apartments had 4 rooms or more, in 1986 this was true of every sixth apartment. The changes in quality are even more pronounced. Some 83 percent of all apartments had a bathroom or a shower and a lavatory in 1986; only 1 in 15 apartments was either without a bathroom or without a lavatory, and only 1 in 10 apartments had neither. The proportion of poorly-equipped apartments in Slovakia continues to be higher but the disparity is diminishing, in view of the greater volume of new housing construction in Slovakia.
According to the results of the microcensus, each person inhabited an average of 15 square meters of floor space in 1986, and there was an average of 1.15 persons per room. Both figures mark an evident improvement compared with the situation in 1970. In cooperative apartments, floor space per person averaged 13.1 square meters, in rented apartments 13.3 square meters, and in apartments in family homes 17.4 square meters.
Whereas more than 70 percent of apartments in newly built family homes have 4 rooms or more, there are only about 15 percent such apartments in new communal or cooperative housing.
Although the data on the microcensus do not make it possible to quantify the existing shortage of apartments, "the decline in the number and proportion of apartments inhabited by two or more households indicates that the unsatisfied subjective demand for apartments, which in 1980 was estimated at 320,000 apartments, declined by between 10 and 15 percent. However, exact data will be available only following the population and housing census planned for 1990.
How to Cite this Source
"Rudé Pravo, Housing," Making the History of 1989, Item #274, _URL_ (accessed May 20 2013, 6:12 pm).


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One of the mysteries of the English language finally explained.
- 'This is reflected in the name 'naseberry' from the Spanish níspola and in the French nèfle d' Amérique.'
- 'A unique combination of apple, grape and naseberry fruit pulp infuse natural fruit acids into the skin.'
- 'Your tour starts with the fresh beverage of the day, which could be anything from a refreshing blend of pineapple and papaya to naseberry or mango.'
- 'Then a fruit blend including apples and naseberries equivalent to a 20% glycolic acid peel is applied.'
- 'Other fruits such as naseberries, June plums and etioti apples are refreshing on a warm day.'
Late 17th century: from Spanish and Portuguese néspera 'medlar' + berry.
Top tips for CV writingRead more
In this article we explore how to impress employers with a spot-on CV.

source: openbmb/Ultra-FineWeb


Vertiver soil conservation
Soil conservation practices are used to prevent soil degradation and maintain good soil health. It is to prevent soil erosion, soil overuse and water contamination. There are various measures that are used to maintain soil health, and prevent the above harms to soil. These practices include: mulching, contour farming, Agro-forestry, inter-cropping, alley cropping, and vertiver hedgerows. Vertiver Establishment is a Technology on its own. Since 1987, technology has been tested in India, China, Philippines, Indonesia, Nigeria, Madagscar, Brazil and Australia. In Trinidad used to stabilize rock based roadside. In Fiji research was carried out in Waibau, Naitasiri from _PHONE_.
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John Walker Lindh
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John Phillip Walker Lindh (born February 9, 1981) was captured in Afghanistan during the American invasion of 2001, and is often referred to as "the American Taliban."
Lindh was born in Washington, DC, and was baptized and raised Roman Catholic. When he was 10 years old, his family moved to San Anselmo, California. As a child, Lindh suffered from an intestinal disorder. Beginning at age 12 in 1993, after briefly attending several middle schools, his family decided to homeschool him. As a teenager, Spike Lee's film Malcolm X profoundly impressed Lindh, and aroused his curiosity regarding Islam. In 1997, Lindh converted to Islam, attending mosques in Mill Valley and later San Francisco. In 1998, he went to Yemen for about 10 months, to learn Arabic for the purpose of being able to read the Qur'an in its original language. He returned to the United States in 1999, living with his family for about eight months before returning to Yemen in February 2000, then went to Pakistan to study at a madrassa.
John Walker Lindh was captured by Afghan Northern Alliance force on November 25, 2001 near Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan, and was questioned initially by CIA officer Michael Spann and another, unnamed officer at General Dostum's garrison near Mazar-i-Sharif. Later that day, a violent prisoner uprising, wherein Spann was killed along with hundreds of foreign fighters, plus a US airstrike mere yards from where Lindh was interrogated killed 5 US Marines, allowed Lindh and about 300 other prisoners to escape. Lindh was shot in the right upper thigh during the uprising.
Hiding in a basement bunker, he was discovered seven days later, again by Northern Alliance troops. In an interview conducted by CNN reporter Robert Young Pelton, Lindh said that the prison uprising was started by some prisoners who had smuggled grenades into the basement, "This is against what we had agreed upon [with the Northern Alliance], and this is against Islam. It is a major sin to break a contract, especially in military situations."
Upon capture, Lindh was given basic first aid and then questioned for a week at Mazar-i-Sharif, before being taken to Camp Rhino on December 7, 2001, the bullet still within his thigh. When Lindh arrived at Camp Rhino he was stripped and he was restrained to a stretcher, blindfolded and placed in a metal shipping container. While bound to the stretcher his picture was taken by American military personnel. While at Camp Rhino he was heavily medicated.
He was later to complain that as military personnel passed the echoing cargo container around each 24 hour cycle, they hammered on its metal sides and shouted abuse and threats. He remained in severe pain from the bullet that remained in his leg. The photograph of him naked was cropped so as not to show his leg wound. On at least one occasion he was interrogated while naked, drugged and with the bullet still in his leg. On December 8th and 9th he was interviewed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)[1]. He was held at Camp Rhino until he was transferred to USS Peleliu on December 14, 2001[2].
He was interrogated before the operation on December 14. While on the Peleliu, he signed confession documents while he was held by the United States Marine Corps and informed his interrogators that he was not merely Taliban but al-Qaeda, though his father later asserted he was not involved in, and unaware of, al-Qaeda. On December 31, 2001, he was transferred to the USS Bataan, where he was held till January 22, 2002, when he was flown off the Bataan to begin the journey back to the United States to face criminal charges. While on the USS Bataan, Attorney General John Ashcroft, on January 16 2002, announced that Lindh would be tried in the United States.
His attorney claimed to the press that he asked for a lawyer repeatedly before being interviewed but he did not get one, and that "highly coercive" prison conditions forced Lindh to waive his right to remain silent. Although the FBI asked Jesselyn Radack, a Justice Department ethics advisor, whether Lindh could be questioned without a lawyer present, her advice that this should not be done was not followed.[3]
On February 5 2002, Lindh was indicted by a federal grand jury on ten charges:[4]
 - Conspiracy to murder U.S. citizens or U.S. nationals
 - Two counts of providing material support and resources to terrorist organizations
 - One count of supplying services to the Taliban.
 - Conspiracy to contribute services to Al Qaeda
 - Contributing services to Al Qaeda
 - Conspiracy to supply services to the Taliban
 - Using and carrying firearms and destructive devices during crimes of violence
If convicted of these charges, Lindh could have received up to three life sentences and 90 additional years in prison. On February 13 2002, he pleaded not guilty to all 10 charges.[4]
A photo emerged from his captivity of him being held naked and bound, wearing a blindfold.[5] When details of the conditions of his captivity began to emerge, it was discovered that he had initially been wounded and hidden for a week with limited food, water, and minimal sleep before being captured. After being captured and taken to a room with a single, sealed-off window, Lindh reportedly had his clothes cut off him and was duct-taped to a stretcher and placed in a metal shipping container for transportation. Lindh was reportedly not allowed release from the stretcher when he needed to urinate. While being interrogated, Lindh allegedly was repeatedly denied access to a lawyer and was threatened with denial of medical aid if he did not cooperate. Lindh was held for over a week in U.S. custody before his wound was treated and the bullet removed.[6]
The court scheduled an evidence suppression hearing, at which Lindh would have been able to testify about the details of the torture to which he claimed he was subjected. The government faced the problem that a key piece of evidence — Lindh's confession — might be excluded from evidence as having been forced under duress.
To forestall this possibility, Michael Chertoff, then-head of the criminal division of the U.S. Department of Justice, directed the prosecutors to offer Lindh a plea bargain, to wit, Lindh would plead guilty to two charges: — serving in the Taliban army and carrying weapons. He would also have to consent to a gag order that would prevent him from making any public statements on the matter for the duration of his 20-year sentence, and he would have to drop any claims that he had been mistreated or tortured by U.S. military personnel in Afghanistan and aboard two military ships during December 2001 and January 2002. In return, all other charges would be dropped.
Lindh accepted this offer. On July 15 2002, he entered his plea of guilty to the two remaining charges. The judge asked Lindh to say, in his own words, what he was admitting to. Lindh's allocution went as follows: "I plead guilty", he said. "I provided my services as a soldier to the Taliban last year from about August to December. In the course of doing so, I carried a rifle and two grenades. I did so knowingly and willingly knowing that it was illegal." On October 4, 2002, Judge T.S. Ellis, III formally imposed the sentence: 20 years without parole.[7]
As another result of Lindh's plea bargain, a Son of Sam law was invoked. Any and all profits made from book deals or any movies about Lindh's experience will be automatically handed over to the federal government. Lindh, his family, his relatives, his associates and his friends will be unable to profit financially from his crimes and/or experiences.
Lindh's attorney, James Brosnahan, said Lindh would be eligible for release in 17 years, with good behavior. This is because, although there is no parole under federal law, his sentence could be reduced by 15 percent, or three years, for good behavior. In addition, Lindh agreed to cooperate "fully, truthfully and completely" with both military intelligence and law enforcement agencies in the terrorism investigation.[7]
Association with Osama bin Laden
While much emphasis has been placed on John Walker Lindh's association with the Taliban, the extent of his association with al Qaeda is uncertain. According to CNN, when Lindh came to Afghanistan, he couldn't speak the local languages (Afghanistan encompasses many diverse regional and tribal tongues). Lindh spoke only English and Arabic, so he says he joined the 'Arab group.' That group happened to be al Qaeda, led by Osama bin Laden. Lindh describes having met bin Laden at one point, observed that "bin Laden is against Islam," and that Lindh "never understood jihad [Arabic for'struggle'] to mean anti-American or terrorism."
 2. PAUL J. McNULTY UNITED STATES ATTORNEY (April 02, 2002). UNITED STATES OF AMERICA vs JOHN PHILLIP WALKER LINDH - CRIMINAL NO. 02-37-A (PDF). UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT. Retrieved on 2007-08-01. "On December 14, 2001, Lindh was flown from Camp Rhino to the USS Peleliu


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Visitors to Uakari Lodge are always impressed by the amount of dolphins that can be seen at Mamirauá Reserve!
This series would be incomplete if we didn't talk about one of the most iconic animals in the Amazon: the famous pink dolphin! Yes, it is possible (and even frequent 😃 ), to see them during the boat trips from Uakari Lodge, the breath of air announces the presence of these giants: these animals weigh between 150 and 200 kg and on average 2 meters long!
The pink dolphin or red dolphin (Inia geoffrensis) occurs in the Amazon and Orinoco river basins, and is thus found in six countries in South America: Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela. Unfortunately, just like our character from the last post, Inia geoffrensis is yet another 'endangered' species on the IUCN Red List (International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) with accidental capture in fishing nets being the main cause of deaths. The loss of some individuals from a subpopulation can cause an initial and irreparable decline in it, since it is a species of slow reproduction: the females gestate a single calf for 11 months, the pups only feed on milk until the age of three and they will be sexually mature at about five.
Genetic evidence and the very anatomy of these dolphins suggest that the species' ancestor must have come from the Pacific Ocean before the Andes erupted, approximately 20 million years ago, and had been trapped by the Amazon rivers since this event. The porpoises then had a lot of time to adapt to the environment, being very different from the marine dolphins, which are more popularly known.
Inia geoffrensis is the only dolphin that can turn its neck, since the vertebrae that connect the head to the backbone are not fused as in other species. In addition, the pectoral fins are larger and capable of making independent circular movements, which makes it possible for the pink dolphins to swim and hunt in the flooded forest without getting caught in it as they manage to perform maneuvers such as swimming backwards.
The pink color is due to the numerous very thin blood capillaries under the skin and is more prominent in males, probably a way of showing good health to females. In fact, males are very aggressive towards each other when they are trying to attract a female, often hurting each other.
Perhaps these efforts of the males in the dispute for the attention of the females was what generated the reputation of gallant of this animal in the folklore. In the beliefs of traditional peoples, the dolphin is transformed into a handsome and well-dressed man (he is always wearing a hat so that no one sees the breathing hole at the top of his head) that seduces the riverside girls. It is said that if there is a woman expecting a child, but does not know who the father is, then she is pregnant with the dolphin. Working at Uakari Lodge, I heard many stories from my riverside friends, some say that there is both the male dolphin that delights women and the female dolphin that delights men, taking their victims to the bottom of the river, where there is the beautiful enchanted city of the dolphins, with luck the person comes back to tell what he saw and lived.
. Texto e imagens: Cynthia Lebrão


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|Water Strider - Gerris spp.|
Family: Gerridae (Leach, 1815) -- water striders / Genus: Gerris (Fabricius, 1794)
Live adult water striders photographed in the wild on Sawmill Creek at Darien, Illinois, USA.
Insects & Spiders | Bugs Main | Bugs Index | Assassin Bugs | Plant Bugs | Ambush Bugs
Water strider, wingless - about 10mm
Water striders' legs are covered with microsetae, microscopic hairs that trap tiny bubbles of air, allowing them to float on top of the water.
Water striders are predacious and carnivorous. The front legs have become shortened and adapted to catching and holding prey while the bug sucks out internal juices (fig.1). The middle set of legs are used like oars to propel the bug through the water, and the hind legs are used for steering.
Water striders can vary in length from 1.6 mm to 36 mm. Their body shape ranges from slender and elongate to almost completely round. Similar to other bug groups (such as Pyrrhocoridae), the development of wings can vary significantly within the same population. Most of the individuals in a community are wingless, but a few develop fully formed flying wings which are used in moving to distant locations and establishing new breeding populations.
|Helpful: You can hear the pronunciation of many scientific and taxonomic terms at howjsay.com|
Hemiptera was first recognized by Linnaeus in the Systema Naturae of 1758.
True Bugs species number almost 5,000 in North America, and 40,000 worldwide. Bugs have hypodermic needle-like mouthparts that allow them to extract fluids from plants and animals. Hemiptera Index
Suborder Auchenorrhyncha - Cicadas & Planthoppers
Suborder Sternorrhyncha - Aphids, scales, mealybugs, jumping plant lice


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The iconic Fort Hill Tower overlooks Roxbury from the top of historic Highland Park, the location of a strategic fort during the American Revolution. Originally designed in 1869 by Nathaniel Bradlee and called the Cochituate Standpipe, the Gothic Revival style tower stored water from Lake Cochituate in Natick for local residents. Soon obsolete as a water tower when Roxbury was annexed by Boston, the structure and grounds fell into disrepair. Between 1895 and 1916 the firm of Olmsted, Olmsted, and Eliot made improvements to the property, including the addition of an exterior viewing balcony and the reconstruction of the quadrangular shape of the original fort.
In 2013, an extensive restoration effort was undertaken by the City of Boston. Russo Barr Associates, architects, and Building Conservation Associates paid special attention to historically appropriate methods and materials. This included the removal of paint and the restoration of period-appropriate mineral coatings, replacement of window glazing, and repairs to the cast iron staircase, metal roof, and arched wood windows. With exceptional attention to detail, the project team not only restored a unique, irreplaceable historic structure but also preserved a place essential to the collective memory of a Boston neighborhood.
"Today, water towers are typically utilitarian structures with little adornment," said Greg Galer, Executive Director of the Boston Preservation Alliance. "In previous generations, however, communities took a higher level of pride in their infrastructure and believed these measures of societal success should be celebrated. The Alliance is thrilled that the City of Boston brought this piece of historic civic pride into the present by meticulously restoring the often overlooked Fort Hill Tower, an 1869 Gothic-Revival tower built to celebrate the Cochichuate Standpipe, then an integral part of Roxbury's water supply system. The restored tower brings a sense of pride and connectedness to our collective past in this neighborhood."


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Science becomes real for Dallas students
The Grade 5 students gazed upon the charred volcano rock like it was the rarest of gems.
"I'll pass it around," said Don Bouffard, who treated the Dallas elementary students to a science presentation.
Handing the rock to a student, he noted it once gleamed iridescent with "all the colours of the rainbow."
When the rock was passed to one girl, she leaned in to inspect it and, in an awed tone, whispered: "All the colours of the rainbow..."
Another girl asked Bouffard: "Where did you get the pieces from the volcano?"
He replied: "From the big island of Hawaii," and she said, "Oh, I went there."
Bouffard, a retired geologist and volunteer with the Vancouver-based Scientists and Innovators in the Schools, also showed the students 450 million-year-old fossils and models of prehistoric beasts.
"It's cool to see their eyes light up," he said.
He also passed around an asteroid chunk so the students could touch a "piece of outer space."
Ten-year-old Steven Schafthuiz said he wants to be a scientist.
"I was just thinking that maybe I could invent something really cool that could help everyone in the world," he said.
He added: "In millions of years, they say that Mars may be just like Earth."
Marvelling at the asteroid piece, Chase Davidson, 10, also professed a love for science.
"The fascinating thing about science is you can create all these new things to put the world at a different level," he said.
"It's incredible what science can do."


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DISABILITY AS A CAUSE OF POVERTY
Disability contributes to and deepens poverty on an individual, family and community level due to discrimination and institutional and attitudinal barriers. So a person with a disability and their family are less likely to have access to rehabilitation, education, skills training and employment opportunities - opportunities which could otherwise reduce poverty.
DISABILITY AS A CONSEQUENCE OF POVERTY
Extreme poverty causes disability through many causes including lack of access to adequate nutrition, preventative and curative health care, clean water and sanitation, and unsafe working conditions.
This is why it is so important to include people with a disability across all sectors of international development. Empowering people with a disability to receive a worthwhile education, access health and rehabilitation services, gain a livelihood and participate fully in society is essential to End the Cycle of disability and poverty.
Not only is inclusion of people with disabilities essential to End the Cycle of poverty and disability, it is also important to help make international aid more effective. When spending on aid and development includes people with disabilities, it can then reach the poorest and most marginalised people.
Do you want to know even more about the cycle of poverty and disability? Good, because we've got a lot to read. Have a look at some of our more specific resources full of details or learn about our approach to solving the issues at hand.


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What is in this article?:
- Farmers in the Southeast knew going into the 2011 spring planting season that Temik was being taken off the market — gradually up to 2016.
- They didn't count on a lawsuit in West Virginia stopping production and significantly restricting the amount of Temik available for the 2011 cropping season.
- The fallout from shortages in Temik supply has already been significant in determining what crops farmers do and don't plant.
Temik has been widely used in crops in the Southeast since the early 1980s, and though maligned by both farmers and environmental activists because of its safety liabilities, there is no doubt the product has contributed significantly to the growth in agricultural productivity around the world.
Farmers in the Southeast knew going into the 2011 spring planting season that Temik was being taken off the market — gradually up to 2016. They didn't count on a lawsuit in West Virginia stopping production and significantly restricting the amount of Temik available for the 2011 cropping season.
The fallout from shortages in Temik supply has already been significant in determining what crops farmers do and don't plant. However, having been on the market and so widely used for so many years, the use of old, lesser used, chemistry to replace Temik could have some far-reaching affects.
The toughest replacement questions are facing growers who have a cotton and peanut rotation.
Cotton acreage, for example, is expected to be up significantly in 2011. Temik at 5-8 pounds per acre, applied at planting, has been a standard for cotton growers for as long as most Southeast growers have been growing cotton.
The same is even truer for peanuts, another staple crop of the Southeast. Peanut farmers may have fewer options for Temik replacements than cotton growers.
Long-time Virginia Tech Plant Pathologist Pat Phipps says in some areas of the upper Southeast he recommends using existing Temik on peanuts rather than on cotton.
"Especially in Virginia and in some parts of North Carolina, peanut growers just don't have many options, especially in fields with a history of high nematode populations and soil-borne diseases," Phipps says.
North Carolina State Entomologist Jack Bachelor, who has studied the use of Temik for thrips control in cotton for many years, says the options for Temik alternatives are relatively few when it comes to managing both early season insects and nematodes.
"For thrips control and cotton yield, in our replicated tests, Temik 15G at the 5.0 product rate has been a little better from an economic standpoint than any one of the seed treatments (Gaucho Grade, Cruiser, Avicta Complete or Aeris) plus a foliar spray (typically acephate) at the first true leaf stage," he says.
"According to our latest survey of independent consultants, last year Temik alone was used on 54 percent of the consulted acreage; an additional 17.5 percent of this acreage was planted to Temik (most often 5 pounds) plus a seed treatment."
According to North Carolina State University Plant Pathologist, Steve Koenning, Aeris and Avicta Complete, which contain different nematicides (thiodicarb and abemectin) in addition to the thrips-active insecticide, are roughly equivalent to 4-5 pounds of Temik 15G for nematodes. For higher populations of nematodes, growers have routinely used 7 pounds of Temik per acre or inject the soil sterilant Telone II.
Acceleron seed treatment will be offered to cotton growers buying Deltapine seed in 2011. This seed coat should perform comparable to Aeris, Gaucho Grande or Avicta Complete for thrips control because Acceleron shares the same active ingredients and amounts used in Gaucho Grande (thrips only) and in their thrips plus nematode versions similar to Aeris (imidacloprid plus thiodicarb) and another similar to Avicta Complete (thiamethoxam plus abemectin).


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Who was John Hercanus? He was the of Judas Maccabees. When the Jews were released from captivity from Babylonia they found that the Edomites had moved into their land of Judea. John Hercanus led the Israelites to victory over the Edomites. Hercanus unfortunately left the Edomites stay if they would get circumcised and follow Jewish Law. Of course this was for public consumption only.
The Edomites were as evil as ever. King Herod the Great ordered all Jewish males killed who were two years old. That certainly is not the action of a true convert. King Herod was an Edomite as well as his son Herod Antipas. Here are two pieces of evidence to substantiate the previous statements.
1. from then on they [the non-Israelite Edomites] constituted a part of the Jewish people, Herod [King of Judea] being one of their descendants. "EDOM (Idumea), The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia (Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1977) p. 589
2. …they [the Edomites] were hereafter no other than [non-Israelite] Jews. Flavius Josephus, The Antiquities of the Jews (Grand Rapids, MI: Dregel Publications, 1960) Book XIII, Chapter IX, Verse 1, p. 279.
Read more articles by George Charles or search for articles on the same topic or others.


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Is it cool for parents to use their children's slang? What's wrong with the term illegal alien? Grant and Martha discuss possible alternatives. Yehudi refers to the mysterious character who holds up strapless dresses, turns the light on in the fridge, and does lots of other things we can't see. But why Yehudi? Also, terms from the lexicon of anatomy, an idiom puzzle, putzing around, out of pocket, long in the tooth, the ancient roots of the folksy expression even a blind pig can find an acorn, and answers to the question, "What do you call the slobber marks a dog leaves on a window?"
This episode first aired December 3, 2011.
Does your vocabulary mark you as old or outdated? Certain words really indicate generational gaps, like chronological shibboleths. For example, are thongs panties or flip-flops? And what do women carry around — a pocketbook, a purse, or a bag? Your answer likely depends on when you were born.
Parents Using Kids' Slang
At what point is it inappropriate for parents to use the slang of their offspring? Can you call your son dude, or give your kids a beatdown in Scrabble? Living with children makes for a slang-filled home, so it becomes part of your regular speech. So long as your children aren't mortified, go for it.
Yehudi Did It
Who is Yehudi, and what exactly does he do? In the 1930s on Bob Hope's radio show there was a musical guest named Yehudi Menuhin. His name proved so catchy, along with sidekick Jerry Colonna's joking phrase, "Who's Yehudi?" that it entered the common vernacular, coming to refer to anyone, or anything, mysterious. Yehudi is, for example, the little man that turns on the light inside the refrigerator. He holds up strapless dresses. The Navy even had a secret project named Project Yehudi.
Charles Hodgson's Carnal Knowledge: A Navel Gazer's Dictionary of Anatomy is chock-full of great terms. It's best to keep the lipstick within the vermillion border, or that line where the lips meet the skin. And be careful when applying around the wick, or the corner of the mouth.
But Word Quiz
Our Quizmaster John Chaneski has a puzzle based on clues with everything but the but. For example, when likening someone to a house, we say the lights are on, but nobody's home. Or regarding a noisy political contest, it's all over but the shouting.
If someone's being a bit lazy, or just moseying aimlessly, we say they're putzing around. But the word put derives from the Yiddish for penis. Plenty of Yiddish words have made their way into the common vernacular, especially in the Northeast.
A physician wants to know: Is it politically correct to use the phrase illegal alien? The Society of Professional Journalists have decided, collectively, to use illegal immigrant but even words like illegal or undocumented can often be inaccurate. If, for example, doctors are talking about a patient, they want to recognize the patient as an individual person, not a statistic.
Speaking of those generational divides, did you know that Post-It notes haven't always been around? Martha shares a listener's funny email about that.
Even a Blind Pig
If you're having a tough time finding something, remember that even a blind pig can find an acorn once in a while. This encouraging idiom actually comes from ancient Rome, where the concept of a blind animal turning something up lent itself to the Latin saying that a blind dove sometimes finds a pea. An 18th-century Friedrich Schiller play employed the blind-pig-and-acorn version, and the play's translation into English and French may have brought it into modern English speech.
What event in life introduced you to a whole new vocabulary? Going away to college, having a child, renovating a home, or even getting diagnosed with a medical condition often exposes us to huge bundles of new words. If you're renovating a house for example, suddenly a whole slew of new words muscles its way into your vocabulary, such as backsplash, shoe molding, quarter-sawn oak, sconce, grout, and bullnose.
Out of Pocket
What does out of pocket mean? The answer splits down racial lines. Among many African-Americans, if someone's out of pocket, they're out of line or unruly. For most non-African-American speakers, out of pocket is primarily used in business settings, meaning that someone is either unavailable or out of the office, or they're paying for something with personal money, with an expectation of being reimbursed later.
What do you call those slobber marks that dogs leave on the inside of car windows? Some of our favorites are woofmarks, dog schmear, and snot kisses.
Is your name a conversation piece? A listener by the name of H. Christian Blood shares his story growing up with a colorful name. And for those of you with a comment to make, Christian Blood would remind you that he's heard plenty of it over the years, so unless it's really something sharp and original, it's best not to waste your breath. And yes, his name is for real.
Pennsylvania Dutch Saying
What crawled over your liver? This Pennsylvania Dutch idiom means "What's the matter with you?"
Long In The Tooth
If someone's getting long in the tooth, it means they're getting old, or too old for their behavior. The metaphor of long teeth comes from horses. If you look at a horse's teeth and the extent to which their gums have receded, you can tell pretty accurately how old they are. It's the same source as that old advice, "Don't look a gift horse in the mouth," which means "if someone gives you a gift, don't inspect it too closely."
Photo by Carnie Lewis. Used under a Creative Commons license.
Book Mentioned in the Broadcast
|Carnal Knowledge: A Navel Gazer's Dictionary of Anatomy by Charles Hodgson|
Music Used in the Broadcast
|Kohoutek||Father's Children||Who's Gonna Save The World||Numero Group|
|Dirty Red||Funk Inc||Hangin' Out||Prestige|
|Where I'm Coming From||Leon Spencer||Where I'm Coming From||Prestige|
|I Can See Clearly Now||Funk Inc||Hangin' Out||Prestige|
|Kelly's Eye||UK Groove Library||Feeling The Breeze – Music De Wolfe||UK Groove Library|
|Let's Call The Whole Thing Off||Ella Fitzgerald||Ella Fitzgerald Sings The George and Ira Gerswin Songbook||Verve|


As MSF paediatric nurses in Yemen, we seldom feel a sense of excitement in the air. The daily reality in this war-torn country is that civilians, our teams and medical facilities are faced with indiscriminate attacks.
For the Yemeni people, brutal attacks, violent clashes, airstrikes and blockades have made accessing healthcare almost impossible.
20 million of the country's 28 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance. Recent outbreaks of diseases like cholera and diphtheria, as well as the arrival of COVID-19, have exacerbated the already dire humanitarian situation.
20 million people in need of assistance
Warring parties have destroyed much of the country's public infrastructure, including health facilities.
Most people can no longer afford the transport costs to get to them. People are unable to seek timely care, causing easily curable health conditions to become deadly.
Implementing new
Humidified high-flow oxygen therapy (also known simply as high flow)
Provides more respiratory support than the traditional oxygen therapy you receive through a mask or through nasal cannulas. Organising this new treatment was never going to be an easy task.
Our most extensive activities worldwide
The Médecins Sans Frontières / Doctors Without Borders (MSF) activities in Yemen are our most extensive worldwide.
MSF staff are working in 12 hospitals and health centres across the country and providing support to more than 20 hospitals or health facilities, across 11 governorates.
"I have been working in intensive care units for more than 14 years, and what's new to me is the dramatic way in which people are dying here. They enter the emergency room walking, but they are already deeply deprived of oxygen without being aware of it, and they die in a surprisingly short amount of time. That is shocking."
- Dr. Nizar Jahlan, Medical Activity Manager


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Author(s): She C, Zhu LQ, Zhen YF, Wang XD, Dong QR
Elevated hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) causes osteoblast dysfunction and apoptosis, serving as an important contributor to the development of osteonecrosis. Here we aimed to understand the role of AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) in the process. We observed a high level of AMPK activation in surgery isolated patients' osteonecrosis tissues. In cultured osteoblastoma MG63 cells, H2O2 stimulation induced significant AMPK activation, oxidative stress, cell death and apoptosis. Inhibition of AMPK by its inhibitor (compound C) or by shRNA-mediated knockdown dramatically enhanced H2O2-induced MG63 cell apoptosis, while over-expression of AMPK in HEK-293 cells alleviated H2O2-induced cell damage. These results confirmed that H2O2-activated AMPK is pro-cell survival. We observed that H2O2 induced protective autophagy in MG63 cells, and AMPK-dependent Ulk1 activation and mTORC1 (mTOR complex 1) inactivation might involve autophagy activation. Further, AMPK activation inhibited H2O2-induced oxidative stress, probably through inhibiting NADPH (nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate) depletion, since more NADPH depletion and oxidative stress were induced by H2O2 in AMPK deficient MG63 cells. Finally, we observed a significant AMPK activation in H2O2-treated primary cultured and transformed (MC3T3-E1) osteoblasts, and AMPK inhibitor compound C enhanced death by H2O2 in these cells. Based on these results, we concluded that H2O2-induced AMPK activation is pro-survival and anti-apoptosis in osteoblasts. Autophagy induction and NADPH maintenance are involved in AMPK-mediated pro-survival effects. AMPK might represent a novel molecular target for osteonecrosis treatment.


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The Reptiles of Nauru1
By Buden, Donald W
Abstract: Eleven species of reptiles are reported from Nauru in the first systematic treatment of the herpetofauna. Four of the species are marine; the seven others include six lizards (four geckos, two skinks) and one snake. Gehyra mutilata (Wiegman), G. oceanica (Lesson), Pelamis platura (Linnaeus), and Ramphotyphlops braminus (Daudin) are recorded on Nauru for the first time. With the exception of Emoia arnoensis Brown & Marshall, which is endemic to eastern Micronesia, the herpetofauna consists of species that range widely among the west-central Pacific Ocean islands. The only known record of E. arnoensis from Chuuk possibly is based on a misassigned locality, in which case the range of the species would be limited to the Marshall Islands, Nauru, and Kosrae. There is no evidence to suggest that habitat modification on Nauru stemming largely from more than a century of phosphate mining has reduced the number of reptile species. LITTLE IS KNOWN of the fauna of the island republic of Nauru. The island's small size, remote location, and ecological impoverishment all doubtlessly have contributed to the paucity of zoological investigations, leaving a gap in our knowledge of the biodiversity of this area of the Pacific. Information on the reptiles is especially scanty; the herpetofauna has never been reviewed systematically. Waite's (1903) list of reptiles from Nauru included only two species (both skinks): Lygosoma cyanurum [=Emoia cyanura (Lesson)] and L. atrocostatum (=E. arnoensis Brown & Marshall). Much later, Brown (1991) described E. arnoensis nauru based largely on material collected by H. Cogger in 1983. In addition, Bauer and Henle (1994) included Nauru in a list of locality records for the geckos Hemidactylus frenatus Dumeril & Bibron and Lepidodactylus lugubris (Dumeril & Bibron), and Webb (1994) reported on the unusual occurrence of a crocodile. Reports on sea turtles from Nauru consist only of a few passing remarks largely lacking in substantive detail. In this study I include an annotated list of all the species of reptiles recorded on Nauru, and it is based on personal observations, specimens I recently collected, data from museum specimens and catalogs, gleanings from the literature, and information provided by local residents.
Nauru (0[degrees] 30′ S, 166[degrees] 56′ E) is a small (21 km^sup 2^) raised atoll island in the west-central Pacific Ocean (Figure 1). It is approximately 2,100 km northeast of New Guinea; the nearest island is Banaba (=Ocean Island) 300 km to the east. The climate is equatorial; the average monthly temperature ranges from 27 to 29[degrees]C, and the average annual rainfall is 2,098 mm, with the wettest months being December to April. A narrow, coastal belt roughly 100 to 300 m wide abuts a scarp that rises to approximately 30-40 m in most areas to form the edge of a central plateau; the maximum elevation is 72 m at Command Ridge. Approximately 10,000 islanders reside mainly along the coast and in a small settlement centered about a brackish lake (Buada Lagoon) in a low area of the plateau in the southwestern part of the island. The coastal vegetation consists largely of strand, scrub, scattered coconut trees, and a variety of ornamentals and fruit trees. Much of the original vegetation of the central plateau was stripped away during a century of phosphate mining, leaving behind a skeletal landscape of limestone pinnacles about 4-8 m high from around which the topsoil and phosphate deposits were removed. Many areas have since regenerated to a karstic scrubland with small pockets of residual forest dominated by tomano trees, Calophyllum inophyllum L., and strangler fig, Ficus prolixa G. Forst. The most extensive remnant forest areas are on the gentler slopes of the scarp and at its base. In describing the impact of human activities on the environment of Nauru, Thaman (1992:153) stated "long habitation; almost a century of open-cast phosphate mining; continuous bombing, destruction, and displacement of the people during World War II; rapid urbanization; and the abandonment of agriculture and subsistence activities on Nauru have arguably produced one of the most severely modified natural and cultural floras on earth." Further descriptions of the physiognomy and vegetation of Nauru are provided by Manner et al. (1984), Thaman et al. (1994), and Morrison and Manner (2005).
MATERIALS AND METHODS
I visited Nauru during 12-25 December 2006 and 29 March-5 April 2007 to conduct surveys of birds, reptiles, butterflies, and dragonflies; the 81 specimens of reptiles collected (by hand) were fixed in 10% formalin, washed, transferred to 35% isopropanol, and deposited in the Bishop Museum, Honolulu (BPBM); the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University (MCZ); the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution (USNM); and the Natural History Museum, London (NHM). Terms of abundance used to appraise overall status are based largely on my visual surveys: common (at least 30, but often many more, sightings per day under optimum conditions), fairly common (approximately 10-30 encounters per day), uncommon (up to 10 per day, and unrecorded on some days), scarce (usually no more than five per day and may be unrecorded on many days), vagrant (unexpected on geographic grounds and known only from one or two records). Surveys were conducted during different times of the day under a variety of sunny and cloudy conditions but not during rain. Snout-vent length in Emoia arnoensis was measured with a millimeter rule to the nearest whole millimeter. Values in Table 1 are rounded to the nearest tenth resulting in some totals greater than 100%.
Crocodylus cf. porosus Schneider
A "small" and presumably young crocodile first observed by swimmers at a beach on Nauru on 18 September 1994 was captured and brought to the local police station where it was observed by many people (Webb 1994:13); the specimen was not saved. Webb (1994) indicated that the animal was photographed, but no photograph was examined by him nor by any other members of the Crocodile Specialist Group in Australia (C. Manolis, pers. comm.). The nearest population of crocodiles, and the most likely source of the Nauru record, is C. porosus in the Solomon Islands, over 1,000 km to the southwest.
Chelonia mydas Linnaeus and Eretmochelys imbricata Linnaeus
There are no well-documented specimen records of turtles on Nauru. Several reports that mention turtles in passing lack substantive detail, but some refer to at least two species, the green turtle, Chelonia mydas, and the hawksbill turtle, Eretmochelys imbricata. Hambruch (1915:197), for example, included "gru en schildkro te" (green turtle) and "echte schildkro te" (true turtle? =hawksbill?) in a list of animals recorded on Nauru; his accompanying illustrations (Hambruch 1915: figs. 281 and 282) are unidentifiable as to species. Ernest Stephen was marooned on Nauru sometime during the 1870s at the age of 14 and spent most of his life on the island. In his recollections of Naruan customs and beliefs (written around 1902 or 1903: Wedgwood in Stephen 1936), he remarked that "turtles rarely visit the island; [and that] at first the natives would not eat them, for they thought that they were spirits of their departed" (Stephen 1936:57). Thaman and Hassall (1998:24) stated that "both the hawksbill and green turtles... are occasionally present... [and that] some beaches were reportedly once nesting areas although this is no longer the case." In addition, Fiji Customs reported the importation of a small amount of worked tortoiseshell [presumably from E. imbricata] from Nauru in 1978 (Groombridge and Luxmoore 1989). I saw no turtles on Nauru, but several residents told me that turtles occasionally visited the island, and that one had been captured not too long before as it was crossing the circumferential road; the species was unidentified.
Gehyra mutilata (Weigmann)
The stump-toed or mutilating gecko occurs naturally from India and Sri Lanka through Southeast Asia to China, Papua New Guinea, and the Indo-Australian archipelago (Lever 2003). It is widespread in the Pacific (McCoy 1980, Zug 1991). The


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ABSTRACT - DELIVERABLE 196
Report on the restoration success of two lowland streams following re-meandering projects
Lowland streams are characterised by a gentle slope of terrain (zero to five per mill) and sandy soil. They occur in the flat lowland areas of the Western European plain. Lowland streams are fed by rainwater; they often lack a well-defined source. Thus, their discharge shows a smoothed relation with the amount and frequency of precipitation in the various seasons.
Lowland streams occur in the eastern and southern part of the Netherlands. Their current velocity varies from 5-30 cm s-1 in summer and early autumn and from 30-60 cm s-1 in late autumn to spring. Often the rainwater fed upper courses dry up in summer, though sometimes they are fed by a helocrene spring and then show a more constant discharge pattern (Verdonschot, 1990).
After a long period of adapting lowland streams and their catchments to agricultural, domestic, drinking water and industrial needs, awareness of the damages of these alterations has increased. In the Netherlands, only about 4% of the streams still have a natural hydro-morphology. On the last ten years, the ecological importance of streams has become more and more apparent.
Currently, stream restoration is one of the answers to the lowland stream deterioration. In order to make the proper choices in stream restoration; one firstly has to understand the complex spatial and temporal interactions between physical, chemical and biological components. The success of restoration depends on steering the appropriate key factor(s). Whichever factor this is, differs for each stream and each site.
To provide a more detailed idea of the status of the ecological effects of lowland stream restoration projects a pragmatic approach is to analyse current project. This means learning by doing!. The examples analysed examples represent an average overview of stream restoration in The Netherlands. They make clear what can be expected looking more in detail at the positive and negative aspects from an ecological point of view.
Download deliverable report [82 kB]


rituals, which take up most of their activities.[6] Multiple harems and bachelor groups come together to form herds. Plains zebras are unusual among harem-holding species in forming these groups.[25] In addition, pairs of harems may create temporarily stable subgroups within a herd, allowing individuals to interact with those outside their group.[25] Among harem-holding species, this has only been observed in primates like the gelada and the hamadryas baboon.[25]
Stallions form and expand their harems by abducting young mares from their natal harems.[6][26] When a mare reaches sexual maturity, she will exhibit the oestrous posture, which attracts nearby stallions,[26] both bachelors and harem leaders. Her family stallion (likely her father) will chase off or fight stallions attempting to abduct her. Even after a young mare is isolated from her natal harem, the fight over her continues until her estrous cycle is over, and it starts again with the next estrous cycle.[27] It is rare that the mare's original abductor keeps her for long.[27] When the mare finally ovulates, the male that impregnates her keeps her for good. Thus, the mare becomes a permanent member of a new harem.[27][28] The estrous posture of a female becomes less noticeable to outside males as she gets older, hence competition for older females is virtually non-existent.[17]
Two zebras fighting
Mares exist in a hierarchy, with the alpha female being the first to mate with the stallion and being the one to lead the group. When new mares are added to the group, they are met with hostility by the other mares. Thus, the stallion must shield the new mares until the aggression subsides.[6][28] The most recently added females rank lowest. Females that become unfit or weak may drop in their rank, though. The female membership of a harem stays intact even if a new stallion takes over.[17] Zebras strengthen their social bonds with grooming. Members of a harem nip and scrape along the neck, shoulders, and back with their teeth and lips. Mothers and foals groom the most often, followed by siblings. Grooming shows social status and eases aggressive behaviour.[6]
At least six different calls have been documented for the plains zebra. One of which is its distinctive high-pitched contact call (commonly called "barking") heard as "a-ha, a-ha, a-ha" or "kwa-ha, kaw-ha, ha, ha" (video[29]),[17] also transcribed as "kwahaah",[30] or "oug-ga".[31] The species name quagga is derived from the Khoikhoi word for "zebra" and is onomatopoeic for its call.[2] When a predator is sighted, a zebra will make a two-syllable alarm call. A loud snort is made when moving in cover of potential danger. When in contentment, a zebra will make a more drawn-out snort. Males will make a short high-pitched squeal when hurt and foals will emit a drawn out wail when in distress.[17] There are two main facial expressions made by zebras. One is for greeting and involves the ears sticking up and directed forward; the other is threatening and involves the ears down.[17]
Mother zebra nursing her foal
The stallion mates with all his mares. The gestation period lasts for around 360 to 396 days, and a single young is produced which is capable of standing almost immediately and starts to eat grass within a week.[32] Mares may give birth to one foal every twelve months. The birthing peak is during the rainy season. She nurses the foal for up to a year. The foal is weaned at 7 to 11 months and reaches puberty at 16 to 22 months. The stallion is generally intolerant of foals that are not his. It is possible that zebras practice infanticide and feticide; such incidences have been observed in both captive individuals[33] and in nature. In the film "Great Zebra Exodus," a mare was trying to protect her foal from a new stallion as its father was a fallen stallion.[34] Like horses, zebras are able to stand, walk, run from danger, and suckle shortly after they are born. At the moment of birth, a mother zebra keeps any other zebra away from her foal, including the stallion, the other mares, and even the previous offspring. Later, though, they all bond. Within the group, a foal has the same rank as its mother.[17] Plains zebra foals are protected by their mother as well as the head stallion and the other mares in their group. Even with parental protection, up to 50% of zebra foals are taken by predation, disease, and starvation each year.
Young male zebras eventually leave their family groups. This is not because of sexual maturity or being kicked out by their fathers, but because their relationship with their mothers has faded after the birth of a sibling.[10][26] The young stallion then seeks out other young stallions for company.[26] Young females may stay in the harem until they are abducted by another stallion.[10]
Anti-predator behaviour[edit]
Attacked by a nile crocodile
For protection from land predators, the plains zebra retreats into open areas with good visibility at night. When the groups forage or sleep, one zebra will keep watch, and if a predator is spotted, it will bark or snort loudly.[10] When being hunted by hyenas or wild dogs, a zebra harem stays close together and cooperates to protect threatened members,[6] particularly the young. The harem stallion will go on the offensive and attack the dogs or hyenas.[6] Though hyenas may harass the stallion, they usually only concentrate on the herd, and attempt to dodge the stallion's assaults. Unlike stallions, mares typically only react aggressively to hyenas or dogs when their foals are threatened. Unlike wildebeest, zebras rarely take to water when escaping hyenas.[35] With lions, a zebra's best defense is to outpace them, as lions do not have as much endurance as hyenas or wild dogs. Cheetahs and leopards are mostly threats to foals, as an adult zebra is fully capable of driving them away.
Human interactions[edit]
Zebras on the Botswana coat of arms
In culture[edit]
The zebra is revered in some African cultures as a symbol of beauty. In the dances of the Karamojong tribe of Uganda, women would paint themselves in zebra stripes and act like them.[10] The Dube tribe of South Africa features a zebra on its totem. Zebras also appear on the coat of arms of Botswana.
 1. ^ a b c d e f g King, S.R.B. & Moehlman, P.D. (2016). "Equus quagga". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2015.1. International Union for Conservation of Nature. Retrieved 4 December 2016.
 2. ^ a b Skinner, J. D.; Chimimba, C. T. (2005). "Equidae". The Mammals of the Southern African Subregion (3rd ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 537–546. ISBN 0-521-84418-5.
 4. ^
 5. ^ Vilstrup, Julia T.; et al. (2013). "Mitochondrial Phylogenomics of Modern and Ancient Equids". PLoS ONE. 8 (2): e55950. doi:10.1371/journal.pone._PHONE_.
 8. ^ [1] (2011).
 9. ^ [2] (2011).
 10. ^ a b c d e f g h i Kingdon 1988
 11. ^ a b c d e Moehlman 2002
 12. ^ a b c d Prothero 2003
 13. ^ "Mutations". Retrieved 2012-07-03.
 15. ^ a b c d e Apps 2006
 16. ^ How, Martin J.; Zanker, Johannes M. (2014). "Motion camouflage induced by zebra stripes". Zoology. 117: TBA. doi:10.1016/j.zool.2013.10.004.
 17. ^ a b c d e f g Grub 1981
 18. ^ Egri, Ádám; Blahó, Miklós; Kriska, György; Farkas, Róbert; Gyurkovszky, Mónika; Åkesson, Susanne; Horváth, Gábor (2012). "Polarotactic tabanids find striped patterns with brightness and/or polarization modulation least attractive: an advantage of zebra stripes". J Exp Biol. 215: 736–745. doi:10.1242/jeb.065540.
 22. ^ Moehlman


About Large Congenital Melanocytic Nevus (CMN)
There are so many questions to be answered about Large Congenital Melanocytic Nevus (CMN). What is a large nevus? What medical challenges are faced by those with CMN? What about self esteem... how can I deal with people who stare, point or worse? What kind of work is being done to find a cure or prevention for CMN? The list goes on and on.
Nevus Outreach, Inc. has provided these pages to help you find the answers you need. If you have questions that we don't address here, though, we want to hear from you. Please contact us and let us know how we can better serve the nevus community. Download our brochure here.
Learn more
What is a Large/Giant Congenital Melanocytic Nevus?
Large congenital melanocytic nevus... what does that even mean? We break down the individual terms to help you make sense of the medical jargon. Continue Reading »
Frequently Asked Questions about CMN
Here are the answers to the questions we get asked the most about large congenital melanocytic nevi. It is our goal to provide you with the information you need about large/giant congenital melanocytic nevi. Continue Reading »
Medical Challenges Associated with Large CMN
One of the primary medical challenges for people with large CMN is lack of accurate information provided by many professionals. Because it is a rare condition, most doctors have never had experience with large congenital melanocytic nevi (LCMN). Misinformation is often more common than not, and many new parents are given an incorrect and often frightening prognosis, or simply not given information at all. Continue Reading »
Psychological Challenges Associated with CMN
 Having a mole that covers a significant part of your body can be challenging. Visible large moles or birthmarks are both unusual and noticeable. They definitely look "different," and especially draw attention when they're on the face. Other people sometimes react, without considering how they come across to the person with CMN or their parents. Continue Reading »
CMN and Nevus Terms Glossary
 This guide was designed to help you understand the terminology you may encounter with regard to large/giant congenital melanocytic nevi (CMN) and neurocutaneous melanocytosis (NCM). It briefly defines, in layman's terms, the technical terminology used by doctors and medical professionals. Continue Reading »
Treatment Options
Nevus Removal
CMN Classification
Learn about CMN Classifications Continue Reading »
Other Nevus Resources
There are a number of other organizations that share aspects of what we do in common with us. Here is a list of them with links to their web sites… Continue Reading »
Contact Nevus Outreach Join a Support Group Teenage girl with a nevus
Teenage boy with a nevus
Teenage girl at the Nevus Conference


text:
I think the bee on the left is a young one. Quite often, the young ones are much more golden in color. But what about the blackish bee? She was fanning her wings with some of the guard bees at the entrance, perfectly at home, and was fully accepted as belonging to the hive.
Chronic Bee Paralysis Virus (C.B.P.V.)
In my search about the black bee, I came across this article and learned that some black bees can mean a virus.
"Honey bees that appear black, hairless, and shiny may be infected with Chronic Bee Paralysis Virus also known as Hairless Black Syndrome. The symptoms of this virus appear only in adult bees and include the loss of body hair, trembling, and the inability to fly.
Affected bees are often described as "greasy" in appearance and are frequently seen near the hive entrance or clinging to blades of grass in the immediate vicinity of the hive. Their paralyzed wings are often held at an unusual angle that resembles the letter "K."
Because the healthy workers in a colony will quickly get rid of the infected bees, Chronic Bee Paralysis Virus rarely takes out a whole colony and is considered only a "minor" honey bee disease. However, if you find large numbers of such bees, the colony can be fortified by supplementing the population with brood from another colony. Usually, an infected hive will recover on its own.
Because some research has shown that susceptibility to the disease may have a genetic component, re-queening a hive may be necessary to prevent future outbreaks.
In my own experience, I have seen these symptoms only twice. Both times I found three or four distinctly greasy-looking bees walking around on the top bars with their wings splayed out. I removed these individuals and never noticed any further evidence of disease.
Don't panic if you see symptoms of the disease, but stay alert. If the incidence of infected bees seems to increase, consider re-queening. As with most viral diseases, there is no cure for CBPV."


text:
Although the UT System Competitiveness Initiative offers a shared goal of building and enhancing competitiveness in the science, technology, engineering, math, and medical/health fields, the nine academic and six health institutions that make up the UT System have chosen different paths to success.
Below are examples of some of the programs, incentives, and partnerships that UT System institutions are using to help build a stronger future for all of us.
Creating Innovative Programs
- The Collaborative Partnership at UT Arlington is a database that provides information that allows universities, government, and industry to build relationships and collaborate more effectively.
- UTeach at UT Austin is a collaboration between the Colleges of Natural Sciences and Education that works to prepare secondary science, math, and computer science teachers.
- Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation at UT El Paso seeks to increase the number of underrepresented minority students pursuing careers in STEM fields.
Building World-Class Research Infrastructure


text:
In this Skeptics answer, a user provided a rough translation of a Chinese law article — from this source — about vehicles and pedestrians using Google Translate. So I thought, why don't we provide a good translation?
The Chinese article is:
And Google says:
Article 47 of the motor vehicle when passing a crosswalk, shall slow down traffic; when a pedestrian is crossing a crosswalk, shall stop to give.
Not the best translation, certainly. What would be a more appropriate translation?


text:
These pictures were taken at the USS Hornet CVS-12, which has been modified and now serves as a museum. You can find the USS Hornet Museum, 707 W Hornet Ave, Pier 3 Alameda CA 94501, USS-Hornet.org
Hornet was commissioned in November 1943, and after three months of training joined the U.S. forces in the Pacific War. She played a major part in the Pacific battles of World War II, and also took part in Operation Magic Carpet, returning troops back to the U.S. Following World War II, she served in the Korean War, Vietnam War, and also played a part in the Apollo program, recovering astronauts as they returned from the Moon.
This A4 Skyhawk is a special version of the plane, which is normally a one-seater. This particular plane has been used on a training school like Top Gun, where the plane was painted for camouflage and there is a red star on the wings.
Apollo Space Program
Hornet recovered the astronauts from the first moon landing mission, Apollo 11, on 24 July 1969. President Nixon was on board to welcome the returning astronauts back to Earth, where they lived in quarantine aboard Hornet prior to transfer to the Lunar Receiving Laboratory at Houston. The first steps on Earth of returning moonwalkers Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, with Command Module Pilot Michael Collins, are marked on her hangar deck, as part of her Apollo program exhibit.
Hornet once again served in the space program with the recovery of Apollo 12 on 24 November. Returning astronauts Charles Conrad, Jr., Alan L. Bean, and Richard F. Gordon, Jr., were picked up from their splashdown point near American Samoa.


Saturday, 5 December 2009
The ampersand is a punctuation mark (&) used to represent the conjunction 'and'.
Alrhough it is a substitute for the word 'and' in any context it is not generally used outside of signs and titles.
It is a ligature formed from an upper or lowercase e conjoined with t which spells et ("and" in Latin).
(In writing and typography the word ligature means a character consisting of two or more letters combined into one.)
 1. You. Are. Amazing! I would never have thought to question where that came from, or what it was! Excellent!
 2. I knew where it came from (et) but I don't think I ever heard the word "ampersand"


text:
E. Cobham Brewer _PHONE_. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
Os Sacrum. (See LUZ.)
A triangular bone situate at the lower part of the vertebral column, of which it is a continuation. Some say that this bone was so called because it was in the part used in sacrifice, or the sacred part; Dr. Nash says it is so called because it is much bigger than any of the vertebræ; but the Jewish rabbins say the bone is called sacred because it resists decay, and will be the germ of the new body at the resurrection. (Hudibras, part iii. canto 2.)


text:
Step 1 - Wrap teflon strip (PTFE) around thread
Hexagon Hotends tend to be leaky, when they are hot, if you don't take some precautions. So filament will drop outside from top of the thermal block. This happens due to different extension coefficients of the thermal block and the stainless steel thread.
Step 2 - Fit thermal block and filament tube together
Screw the filament tube into the thermal block.
Step 3 - Carefully tighten the connection
Tighten the connection between the filament tube and the thermal block. Be carefully not to overstress the thread!
Step 4 - Assemble heating cardridge
Assemble the heating cardridge into the designated hole of the thermal block and secure with set screw. It's a good idea to add some heat-conductive paste to the cartridge befor inserting into the hole. This will improve thermal flow.
Step 5 - Prepare NTC assembly
Add some heat-conductive paste into the hole for the NTC. This will insure a good thermal coupling between the thermal block and the NTC. You might alternativly glue the NTC into the hole, but you must use glue, which is able to withstand around 300°C (572°F).
Step 6 - Assemble NTC
Insert the NTC glas body into the designated hole.
Step 7 - Retighten connection on heated hotend
Connect the hotend to your printer controller and heat up the hotend to around 260°C (500°F). Then tighten the connection between the filament tube and the thermal block again with care.
Over then shown on the picture you should do this without the silicone rubber protection. The rubber protection is very sensitive and will get cracks when you hold it with a gripper.
Step 8 - Assemble the silicone rubber:
Pull the silicone rubber over the thermal block.
Step 9 - Secure electrical wires
To avoid unintendtional dissconnects of the wires, especially of the NTC, secure the wiring with a wire or something equal.
If NTC looses contact the thermal block, the printer controller will heat up the temperatur until the thermal block will meld!
This will cause extreamly high danger of open fire!
Step 10 - Assemble the hotend with the holding plate
Fit the hotend into the holding plate of the colt end of the extruder.
Step 11 - Align coldend with hotend
Align the filament conductions between cold and hot end by adding a piece of filament through both. Then connect the holting plate to the filament gear.
Step 12 - Fit extruder to the printer
The last step will be to fit the assembled extruder to your printer and connect all wires.


text:
Front Page Authors (by Period) 17th Century Natural Rights Theorists
School of Thought: 17th Century Natural Rights Theorists
The 17th century was an important period in the development of natural law theories. The crises and revolutions of the mid-century prompted many thinkers to see civil and economic relations as being based on natural law and natural rights, independent of the monarch or the church. These thinkers laid the foundation for the further secularization of natural law theories in the Enlightenment of the 18th century and the revolutions which came out of that, namely the American and French Revolutions.
|Hugo Grotius (_PHONE_)
||John Locke (_PHONE_)
||Sir Edward Coke (_PHONE_)
For more information see:
- Brian Tierney, The Idea of Natural Rights (Grand Rapids, Michigan:
William B. Eerdmans, 2001).
- Stephen Buckle, Natural Law and the Theory of Property:
Grotius to Hume (Oxford: Claredon Press, 1991).
- Roscoe Pound, The Ideal Element in Law (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2002).
- Heinrich A. Rommen, The Natural Law: A Study in Legal
and Social History and Philosophy, trans. Thomas R. Hanley. Introduction and Bibliography by Russell Hittinger
(Indianapolis: Liberty Fund 1998).
9 People in this Group:


text:
Dedicated to the Virgin Mary and Saint John the Baptist, this church has a tower dating back to the 13th century. The high walls are 2.5 to 3 m thick, as the huge tower used to form part of the fortress that defended the town.
The church dates back to the 17th century. The transept and the lateral naves were made in 1625 and 1626, the choir in 1653.
The 17th century steeple is also very high, as a smaller steeple would have been out of place in such a big tower. The 49 m high steeple was made from a few age-old oaks taken from the neighbouring forests and the edges turn so as to offer less resistance to the wind. It is called the "spiral steeple".
It became a listed monument on 15 March 1934.
- Facilities/Services :
- People with limited mobility :
- People with limited mobility


What Your Sleeping Position Says About You
How do you sleep?
1. The way you sleep says more about you than you might think.
2. Which position are you?
3. The Fetal Position
The fetal position is the most common position in the world. People who sleep in the fetal position tend towards worry and anxiety. They are often shy and sensitive.
4. The Starfish Position
If you have a starfish sleeper as a best friend, you're in luck. Starfish sleepers are great listeners and a source of comfort to others.
5. The Soldier Position
Soldier sleepers do not like to make a big deal out of things. They're often the strong, silent type.
6. The Yearner Position
Yearner sleepers look like they're grasping for something. They often have a very hard time making decisions, but once they make a choice they stick to it.
7. The Freefaller Position
Freefaller's sleep is often unsteady. They like to be in control of everything around their life. They're outgoing and confident, but extreme situations are a no-no.
8. The Log Position
Log sleepers are very trusting and little naive, but are usually social and easy-going individuals.
Check out more articles on!
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text:
ABOUT EDUCATION AND RESEARCH DEPARTMENT
Education and Research are both pivotal pillars of development. Discovering peer experience as well as communicating this experience to others can trigger, if not ensure, progress and advancement. For Sports in particular, Education and Research can be drivers to increase participation and establish a healthy, active lifestyle. As such, Education and Research can be agents of behavioral change and inspiration for excellence.
AIM AND SCOPE OF WORK
"A HEALTHY MIND RESIDES IN A HEALTHY BODY"
In July 2015, the Fatima Bint Mubarak Ladies Sports Academy established the Education and Research Department, with a view to raise awareness about, and engage in further research on the benefits of sport participation to Emirati society.
In parallel to the famous Latin quote "A healthy mind resides in a healthy body", healthy, sporty citizens comprise a healthy society, and sports are identified as a catalyst for social sustainability. Educating the Women of the UAE through targeted seminars and relevant research and studies, is envisaged to bring about advanced involvement of female local population in sports and sport related activities, and contribute to the health and well-being of current and future generations.
EDUCATION AND SEMINARS
"TELL ME, AND I FORGET; TEACH ME, AND I MAY REMEMBER; INVOLVE ME AND I LEARN"
The Fatima Bint Mubarak Ladies Sports Academy encourages Emirati Women to be active by organizing a variety of activities, ranging between hands-on trainings and educational seminars.
Through its newly launched series of Seminars, the Academy facilitates the continuous exchange of ideas and opens to the Emirati female public a gate to state-of-the-art insights and practices from the realm of sports globally.
Featuring renowned professionals from the sector and athletes, from the GCC and all around the globe, the FBMA Seminars provide a platform for every Emirati woman and women residing in the UAE to advance their thinking, learn from others' experiences and background and obtain valuable perspectives on a wide spectrum of topics, including sports psychology, healthy nutrition, and the importance of sports in securing a robust physical condition.
By involving participants in the process and employing a highly interactive approach, the FBMA Seminars are a learning source open to the every woman who wants to practice the values of a healthy and active lifestyle.
RESEARCH AND STUDIES
With a dedicated function for academic research, the Fatima Bint Mubarak Ladies Sports Academy is emerging as a thought leader for women sports in the UAE.
Gathering and analyzing the latest information and knowledge from the field of Physical Education internationally, the Academy engages in the current global discourse on the social benefits of sports for the empowerment of women as citizens and individuals, and identifies best practices to be employed in the UAE with a view to generating increased sport participation.
To further raise awareness of the physical and social benefits of sports, while positioning the UAE as a leader in women sports in the GCC, the FBMA takes stock of progress noted to date and produces progress reports and case studies, available to the public on the FBMA website.


text:
STEEL WIRE AND NAIL MAKING. The importance of the steel wire and nail in dustry in the United States may be measured by the fact that in 1902 there was produced a total of 1,574,293 tons of wire rods of which nearly 500,000 tons were made into wire nails. In 1909 the production of wire rods was 2,514, 504 tons, valued at $67,440.000. The 1918 out put is estimated as 3,000,000 tons, of the value of $100,000,000. About one-fourth of this goes into nails. Time was when both wire and nails were manufactured entirely from wrought iron, and to secure the toughness and high tensile strength required, great care had to be used in the preparation of the iron, the cost of the prod uct being proportionately high. It was only a question of time before steel, because of its less cost and its high strength, became the standard material in this as in other branches of the iron and steel industry; and today practically the whole of the wire and wire nails used are made from either Bessemer or open-hearth steel, the latter being specified where wire of the special grades with higher physical prop erties is required.
Physical Properties of Steel As showing the great increase in strength of steel over iron wire, it may be mentioned that while good black iron wire will show an ultimate tensile strength of about 25 tons to the square inch, and bright hard-drawn wire a strength of 35 tons to the square inch, Bessemer steel wire will stand a strain of 40 tons and open-hearth steel wire 60 tons to the inch. Of the 'Ispecialp grades of wire a high-carbon open-hearth steel will stand about 80 tons, crucible cast-steel wire about 100 tons, and the best cast steel, or as it is sometimes called, °plow* steel wire, 120 tons to the square inch; while certain qualities of cast-steel wire, made under specifications calling for a particular composition and requiring very elaborate working, have been produced, showing an ultimate breaking strength of from 150 to 170 tons to the square inch; The process of wire-drawing serves greatly to improve the physical qualities, and the smaller the size to which the wire is drawn down the greater is the ultimate breaking strength. The wonderful
qualities of piano wire are proverbial, the average strength of English piano wire as given by the manufacturers ranging from 225 pounds for No. 12 music wire gauge, which is 0.029 inch in diameter, to 650 pounds breaking strength for No. 22, which is 0.052 inch in diameter. Re duced to the square-inch unit, the ultimate ten sile strength per square inch would range from 300,000 pounds to 340,000 pounds. The com position of this remarkable wire is as follows: Carbon, 0.570; silicon, 0.090; sulphur, 0.011; phosphorus, 0.018; manganese, 0.425. An analy sis of another wire of unusual strength known as "plow,o shows 0.828 per cent of carbon, 0.587 per cent of manganese, 0.143 per cent of silicon, 0.009 per cent of sulphur, 0.030 per cent of copper and no phosphorus. The tests of this wire ran from 200,000 pounds per square inch for wire 0.191 inch in diameter to 350,000 pounds for wire 0.093 inch in diameter. Of course, with such high tensile strength the elongation or stretch was very small, ranging from 0.75 to 1.1 per cent only.
Billet bulk of the wire and wire nails of commerce are manufactured from Bes semer billets. Open-hearth billets are worked up into rods for the manufacture of chain, for special grades of wire and for various finished products in which high tensile strength is called for. In each rod mill billet continuous-heating furnaces are continually at work. The billets, which are 4 X 4 inches in section and 36 inches in length, are fed transversely into the furnace, side by side. They are pushed through the fur nace door by a hydraulic charging machine, and by the time they have been heated to the proper temperature for rolling, they are pushed, one after the other, out through the rear door of the furnace and fall upon a conveyor, by which they are carried down into the rod mill.


What is Decertification in HRM? PDF Book
Learn Decertification definition in hrm with explanation to study "What is Decertification". Study decertification explanation with HRM terms to review HRM course for online MBA programs.
Decertification Definition
 - Process whereby a union is removed as the representative of a group of employees.
Decertification Explanation
Decertification alludes to the procedure where the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) enables workers to require a unique decision to dispose of the association as their "selective agent." It is essential to recall that your organization can't help or help you with decertifying an association. You can connect with different associations to help. The goal of a decertification race is to fire the association's entitlement to speak to you and your kindred representatives. This system furnishes you with full help by removing the association's power to go about as your dealing delegate. On the off chance that you are a piece of the representative association that is secured under an aggregate dealing understanding (regardless of whether you are an endorser or not) you can at present sign an appeal and take part in the decision in favor of decertification. When the association is evacuated as your legitimate haggling agent you never again need to join the association or pay duty or charges to it.
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In legitimate wording, a complaining is any formal authoritative report that sets out the certainties and lawful reasons (see: reason...
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Fortification or reinforcement is a term utilized with regards to social investigation and in a particular sort of purposeful conduct...


PCI Compliance
Payment card industry compliance (PCI) brings concern to the technical and operational standards that businesses adhere by to secure and shelter credit card data provided by cardholders and con through card processing transactions.
Why It's Important
PCI compliance is mandatory. There is no option to disregard it or even partially complete it. Any payment utilizing a credit card, will be dealing with data that is governed by these PCI standards and regulations.
There are 12 main requirements in six overarching goals for PCI DSS compliance.
According to the PCI SSC, a vendor must complete the following tasks as part of its PCI compliance checklist:
Goal 1. Build and maintain a secure network.
1. Install and maintain a firewall configuration to protect card holder data (CHD).
2. Not use vendor-supplied defaults for system passwords and other security parameters.
Goal 2: Protect cardholder data.
3. Protect stored cardholder data.
Goal 3: Maintain a vulnerability management program.
5. Use and regularly update antivirus software.
6. Develop and maintain secure systems and applications.
Goal 4: Implement strong access control measures.
9. Restrict physical access to cardholder data.
Goal 5: Regularly monitor and test networks.
11. Regularly test security systems and processes.
Goal 6: Maintain an information security policy.
12. Maintain a policy that addresses information security
What We Offer
Digital Warfare can assist in all areas of PCI Compliance including:
 - Readiness Assessments
 - "Pain Free" Audit Management
 - PCI Compliance Program Management
 - PCI Penetration Testing
 - PCI Risk Assessments
Contact us now to prepare for Digital Warfare.
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