text:
In a recent speech, Bernie Erven emphasized the importance of hiring good workers, especially in the struggling farm industry. A central part of the movement to modern hiring practices focused on a movement away from traditional familial hiring practices. NPR's blog The Salt covered the speech and the potential implications of moving away from hiring from within families. In the article, Jessica Stoller-Conrad noted that the argument to hire in a more "professional" way would likely be a tough sell to most farmers in America.
With non-family farms making up only 2% of the farms in America, the movement away from employing family members would present a drastic demographic shift. While the designation of family farm does not necessarily mean that all employees of the farm would be family members, the shift away from predominately hiring family members could present a dramatic departure from family farm traditions. The USDA defines a family farm as having a substantial amount of labor provided by the family.
Erven spoke directly to the employment of family members, noting that it is essential to still interview family members when hiring them to work on family farms. While interviewing family members prior to hiring may result in more qualified people being hired, a shift away from having a substantial amount of labor be performed by family may result in the farm failing to meet USDA's definition of a family farm. Beyond the legal requirements and implications on farm loan programs, the decreased availability of jobs may end up encouraging young members of rural communities to migrate to urban areas to find jobs.
From a purely economic lens, Erven's argument likely has merit. Hiring skilled farmworkers as opposed to under-qualified family members may appear to economists as the most sound economic choice. While the Farm Bill has been extended for another year, the delay in passing the House of Representatives may indicate an uncertain future for farm subsidies. The introduction of hiring practices that are focused on qualifications instead of familial connections may appeal to those who are focused on the American farm as an economic driver. But can the farms of rural America be reduced to solely economic entities?
A conversation concerning the current or ideal role of farms in American society is perhaps more appropriate in a longer post. However, attempts by the Federal Government around family and agriculture could frame the discussion in interesting ways.
In June of 2011, U.S Fish & Wildlife Services hosted public meetings to discuss the purchasing of conservation easements in California's Central Valley. The project being called the California Foothills Legacy Area and is being marketed as a way for ranching families to stay on their land while protecting the land for wildlife. Many private property rights advocate groups and the California Cattleman's Association came out in opposition of the project. Strong opposition has also been voiced over the past year by private citizens who described the project as the "federal government's greedy hand."
It is interesting to think about the California Foothills Legacy Area's presentation of family as a central reason for the project. The focus on family as an integral aspect of American rangeland echoes the centrality of family in American farmlands. Despite the current centrality of the identity of family in farms and rangeland, shifting demographics and migration is changing the make-up of rural communities. Would a shift away from a central identity of family change the place of farms and ranges in American culture?


text:
April 10, 2003
Nonoxynol-9 (N-9), a detergent ingredient previously thought to have microbicidal properties, is found in sexual lubricants, condoms, gels and other spermicidal products. Scientists have recently stated safety and efficacy concerns about N-9 for human sexual use, supported by studies that found N-9 was not protective against urogenital gonorrhea or chlamydia infection and causes rectal mucosa disruption in humans, which may increase risk for HIV infection during anal intercourse.
CDC, WHO and other agencies have issued several public health statements since 2000 indicating that N-9 is not protective against HIV and STD infection and may enhance transmission when used under certain conditions. The authors of the current study assessed recent rectal use of N-9 by men who have sex with men, awareness that N-9 may not be protective against HIV, intent to use N-9 in the future, and factors associated with intentions to use N-9.
Participants were recruited during Fall 2001 at multiple street locations and through community-based agencies in various sections of San Francisco and Oakland, Calif. Recruited men (n=1,528) were 18 years or older, lived or worked in the San Francisco Bay Area, and reported having sex with a man in the previous 12 months or self-identified as gay or bisexual. Men who were eligible and willing to participate (n=1,037) were scheduled for an interview at the Health Department or various community locations. Fifty-five percent (n=573) of eligible and initially willing participants completed the survey.
Sixty-one percent (n=349) of participants had heard of N-9. Latinos and men of unknown HIV serostatus were less likely to have heard of N-9; men who were HIV-positive or had higher educational attainment were more likely to have heard of N-9. Fifty-five percent of the 349 men aware of N-9 had heard in the previous year that it may not be protective against HIV.
The most commonly reported sources of information that N-9 may not be protective were newspapers (54 percent) and health agencies (50 percent), followed by magazines (37 percent) and friends (35 percent). Relatively few men reported that they received warnings about N-9 from the Internet (19 percent), product labels (17 percent), sexual partners (16 percent) or TV (15 percent).
Of men aware of N-9, 83 percent used it at some point, of which 67 percent knowingly used N-9 during anal intercourse in the previous year. Among men who knowingly used N-9 during anal intercourse in the past year, 41 percent did so without a condom because they believed or hoped it was protective.
"All MSM need to know about the dangers of using N-9 rectally," the authors wrote. "HIV care providers and prevention specialists should actively support public health warnings and disseminate information to reduce rectal use of N-9. Health officials should develop targeted educational campaigns to reduce consumer demand for N-9 products and increase demand for N-9-free lubricants and condoms among MSM. Culturally-sensitive campaigns in Spanish and English are needed. Agencies and communities should work together to remove N-9 from products, venues and websites that predominately serve MSM." In addition, the authors recommended, "Manufacturers should consider providing warning labels specific to rectal use on N-9 products as some have already done. Research is needed to better understand and intervene on unknowing use of N-9. Lastly, enhanced research is needed of other candidate HIV and STD mircobicides, including studies to ensure the safety and efficacy of products used for rectal application."
04.11.03; Vol. 17; No. 6: P. 905-909; Gordon Mansergh; Gary Marks; Melissa Rader; Grant N. Colfax; Susan Buchbinder

source: HuggingFaceFW/fineweb-edu


text:
ZEPHYR / SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY ZEPHYR / SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY
Brain tumour. Coloured magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan of a sagittal section through the head of a 23-year-old patient with a lesion (dark patch, centre-right) in the cerebellum indicative of the presence of a medulloblastoma. Medulloblastoma is a highly malignant (cancerous) primary brain tumor that originates in the cerebellum or posterior fossa regions of the brain. It is invasive and rapidly growing tumours and, unlike most brain tumours, spreads through the cerebrospinal fluid and frequently metastasizes to different locations in the brain and spine.
Model release not required. Property release not available.

source: openbmb/Ultra-FineWeb


text:
From the Book Walk Tall – Affirmations for People of Color by Carleen Brice
No matter how bad things got, our ancestors found something to laugh at. Humor was one of their positive coping skills.
A sense of humor can get us through some pretty tough spots, but sometimes it's hard to find things to laugh at. The bills aren't paid. The house is a mess. We are alone, sick, or tired. We feel like everybody is on our case.
In those times when it's difficult to smile, we can ask for our Higher Power's help. We can let God fill us with enthusiasm so that we can keep going. Think of people who "get happy" in church. The word "enthusiasm" comes from the Greek word entheos, which means "to inspire" and entheos was derived from theos, the Greek word for "God."
We also can look for the twinkle in our mate's eyes or the light in a child's voice. Feeling connected to others helps lift our spirits and reminds us that we're not alone.


TORONTO -- Hurricanes are a common occurrence on Earth, they wreak havoc across oceans seasonally, and now they may cause chaos in the skies too.
Scientists have discovered the first space hurricane in Earth's upper atmosphere. Hurricanes have been spotted in the lower atmosphere of planets, including Mars and Saturn and Jupiter, swirling masses have even been spotted on the sun, but this is the first time scientists have seen a hurricane in the upper atmosphere of a planet.
Satellites captured the images of the space hurricane back in 2014, but scientists only discovered them during a recent retrospective analysis of data taken from satellites and radars.
The analysis, completed by scientists at University of Reading led by Shandong University in China, allowed for a 3D model to be made of the hurricane.
The 3D image shows a 1,000 km-wide hurricane hundreds of kilometres above the North Pole, a press release said. Similar to the hurricanes in the lower atmosphere of Earth, the space hurricane rained, but the rain was electrons, according to the study.
This is the first time an upper atmosphere hurricane has been detected.
"Until now, it was uncertain that space plasma hurricanes even existed, so to prove this with such a striking observation is incredible," Professor Mike Lockwood, space scientist at the University of Reading, said in a statement.
What's more, this is likely not a one-off occurrence.
"Plasma and magnetic fields in the atmosphere of planets exist throughout the universe, so the findings suggest space hurricanes should be a widespread phenomena," Lockwood continued.
According to the press release, the hurricane was observed to be moving in a counter-clockwise direction and lasted nearly eight hours before dissipating.
The researchers believe these space hurricanes could be common occurrences in our solar system as the one documented in the study was observed when geomagnetic activity, variations in the magnetic field around Earth, was low, according to the study. One form of geomagnetic activity is the aurora borealis, or northern lights.


based on an orthogonal basis of 71 CpGs.[28] Levine's clock, known as DNAm PhenoAge, depends on 513 CpGs and surpasses the other age estimators in predicting mortality and lifespan, yet displays bias with non-blood tissues.[29] There are reports of age estimators with the methylation state of only one CpG in the gene ELOVL2.[30] Estimation of age allows for prediction lifespan through expectations of age related conditions that individuals may be subject to based on their 5mC methylation markers.
Notes and References
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 2. Book: Matthews AP. 2012. Physiological Chemistry. Williams & Wilkins Company/. 167. 978-_PHONE_.
 3. Johnson TB, Coghill RD. 1925. The discovery of 5-methyl-cytosine in tuberculinic acid, the nucleic acid of the Tubercle bacillus. J Am Chem Soc. 47. 11. 2838–2844. 10.1021/ja01688a030.
 4. Grosjean H (2009). Nucleic Acids Are Not Boring Long Polymers of Only Four Types of Nucleotides: A Guided Tour. Landes Bioscience.
 5. Vischer E, Zamenhof S, Chargaff E. 1949. Microbial nucleic acids: the desoxypentose nucleic acids of avian tubercle bacilli and yeast. J Biol Chem. 177. 1. 429–438. 10.1016/S0021-9258(18)57100-3. _PHONE_. free.
 6. Hotchkiss RD. 1948. The quantitative separation of purines, pyrimidines and nucleosides by paper chromatography. J Biol Chem. 175. 1. 315–332. 10.1016/S0021-9258(18)57261-6. _PHONE_. free.
 7. Squires JE, Patel HR, Nousch M, Sibbritt T, Humphreys DT, Parker BJ, Suter CM, Preiss T. 2012. Widespread occurrence of 5-methylcytosine in human coding and non-coding RNA. Nucleic Acids Res. 40. 11. 5023–5033. 22344696. 10.1093/nar/gks144. _PHONE_.
 8. Colot V, Rossignol JL. Eukaryotic DNA methylation as an evolutionary device. BioEssays. 21. 5. 402–411. 1999. _PHONE_. 10.1002/(SICI)1521-1878(199905)21:5<402::AID-BIES7>3.0.CO;2-B.
 9. Bird. Adrian P.. May 1986. CpG-rich islands and the function of DNA methylation. Nature. 321. 6067. 209–213. 10.1038/321209a0. _PHONE_. 0028-0836. 1986Natur.321..209B. _PHONE_.
 10. Ehrlich. M.. Wang. R. Y.. 1981-06-19. 5-Methylcytosine in eukaryotic DNA. Science. en. 212. 4501. 1350–1357. 10.1126/science._PHONE_. 0036-8075. _PHONE_. 1981Sci...212.1350E.
 11. Sassa A, Kanemaru Y, Kamoshita N, Honma M, Yasui M. Mutagenic consequences of cytosine alterations site-specifically embedded in the human genome. Genes and Environ.. 38. 1. 17. 2016. 27588157. 10.1186/s41021-_PHONE_-9. _PHONE_.
 12. Chahwan R, Wontakal SN, Roa S. Crosstalk between genetic and epigenetic information through cytosine deamination. Trends in Genetics. 26. 443–448. 2010. 10.1016/j.tig.2010.07.005. 20800313. 10.
 13. Clark SJ, Harrison J, Paul CL, Frommer M. High sensitivity mapping of methylated cytosines. Nucleic Acids Res.. 22. 15. 2990–2997. 1994. _PHONE_. 10.1093/nar/22.15.2990. 310266.
 14. Ponger. Loïc. Li. Wen-Hsiung. 2005-04-01. Evolutionary Diversification of DNA Methyltransferases in Eukaryotic Genomes. Molecular Biology and Evolution. en. 22. 4. 1119–1128. 10.1093/molbev/msi098. _PHONE_. 0737-4038. free.
 15. Lyko. Frank. February 2018. The DNA methyltransferase family: a versatile toolkit for epigenetic regulation. Nature Reviews Genetics. en. 19. 2. 81–92. 10.1038/nrg.2017.80. 29033456. 23370418. _PHONE_.
 16. Robertson. K D. Uzvolgyi. E. Liang. G. Talmadge. C. Sumegi. J. Gonzales. F A. Jones. P A. 1999-06-01. The human DNA methyltransferases (DNMTs) 1, 3a and 3b: coordinate mRNA expression in normal tissues and overexpression in tumors.. Nucleic Acids Research. 27. 11. 2291–2298. 0305-1048. _PHONE_. 148793. 10.1093/nar/27.11.2291.
 17. Jia. Da. Jurkowska. Renata Z.. Zhang. Xing. Jeltsch. Albert. Cheng. Xiaodong. September 2007. Structure of Dnmt3a bound to Dnmt3L suggests a model for de novo DNA methylation. Nature. en. 449. 7159. 248–251. 10.1038/nature06146. _PHONE_. _PHONE_. _PHONE_. 2007Natur.449..248J.
 18. Song. Chun-Xiao. Szulwach. Keith E.. Dai. Qing. Fu. Ye. Mao. Shi-Qing. Lin. Li. Street. Craig. Li. Yujing. Poidevin. Mickael. Wu. Hao. Gao. Juan. 2013-04-25. Genome-wide profiling of 5-formylcytosine reveals its roles in epigenetic priming. Cell. 153. 3. 678–691. 10.1016/j.cell.2013.04.001. _PHONE_. _PHONE_. 23602153.
 19. Ito. Shinsuke. Shen. Li. Dai. Qing. Wu. Susan C.. Collins. Leonard B.. Swenberg. James A.. He. Chuan. Zhang. Yi. 2011-09-02. Tet Proteins Can Convert 5-Methylcytosine to 5-Formylcytosine and 5-Carboxylcytosine. Science. en. 333. 6047. 1300–1303. 10.1126/science._PHONE_. 0036-8075. 21778364. _PHONE_. 2011Sci...333.1300I.
 20. Lu. Xingyu. Zhao. Boxuan Simen. He. Chuan. 2015-02-12. TET Family Proteins: Oxidation Activity, Interacting Molecules, and Functions in Diseases. Chemical Reviews. 115. 6. 2225–2239. 10.1021/cr500470n. 25675246. _PHONE_. 0009-2665.
 21. Xu. Wei. Yang. Hui. Liu. Ying. Yang. Ying. Wang. Ping. Kim. Se-Hee. Ito. Shinsuke. Yang. Chen. Wang. Pu. Xiao. Meng-Tao. Liu. Li-xia. 2011-01-18. Oncometabolite 2-Hydroxyglutarate Is a Competitive Inhib


Scientific Publications
Effector-triggered versus pattern-triggered immunity: how animals sense pathogens.
Publication TypeJournal Article
AuthorsStuart, LM, Paquette N., and Boyer L.
AbstractA fundamental question regarding any immune system is how it can discriminate between pathogens and non-pathogens. Here, we discuss how this discrimination can be mediated by a surveillance system distinct from pattern-recognition receptors that recognize conserved microbial patterns. It can be based instead on the ability of the host to sense perturbations in host cells induced by bacterial toxins or 'effectors' that are encoded by pathogenic microorganisms. Such 'effector-triggered immunity' was previously demonstrated mainly in plants, but recent data confirm that animals can also use this strategy.
Year of Publication2013
JournalNature reviews. Immunology
ISSN Number1474-1733


The Hawks and the Sparrows
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The Hawks and the Sparrows
(Uccellacci e uccellini)
Directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini
Produced by Alfredo Bini
Written by Pier Paolo Pasolini
Starring Totò
Ninetto Davoli
Femi Benussi
Music by Ennio Morricone
Distributed by CIDIF
Release dates
 - 4 May 1966 (1966-05-04)
Running time
88 minutes
Country Italy
Language Italian
The Hawks and the Sparrows (Italian: Uccellacci e uccellini, literally "Ugly Birds and Little Birds") is a 1966 Italian film directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini. It was entered into the 1966 Cannes Film Festival.[1]
The movie is a post-neorealist story about Totò, the beloved stone-faced clown of Italian folk-stories.
Totò and his son Ninetto roam the neighbourhood and the countryside of Rome. During their walk they meet a talking crow, who, as seen on the intertitles, "Per chi avesse dei dubbi o si fosse distratto, ricordiamo che il Corvo è un intellettuale di sinistra – diciamo così – di prima della morte di Palmiro Togliatti" ("For the benefit of those who were not paying attention or are in doubt, we remind that the Crow is a – to so call it – left-wing intellectual of the kind of those living before Palmiro Togliatti's death").
The Crow tells them the tale of Ciccillo and Ninetto (still played by Totò and Ninetto), two Franciscan friars, who were bid by St. Francis to preach to the hawks and the sparrows. After many months, they succeeded in preaching the commandment of love unto the species separately, but were not able to get them to love each other.
After the tale, the journey of Totò and Ninetto carries on, the Crow still following them and continuously speaking in an all-too-intellectually sounding way. They meet many other people in a deeply visionary setting, among which: land-owners who order them out of their land and end up shooting at Totò and Ninetto who wouldn't obey; a family living in a slum that Totò threatens to drive them out of their house; a group of travelling actors who persuade the pair to push the group's Cadillac for them; an event, "1° convegno dei dentisti dantisti" (a wordplay, literally "1st convention of the Danteist (ie, scholar of Dante) dentists"; an engineer who is waiting for Totò to give him the money he owes him. After that, a brief extract of news footage of the funeral of Palmiro Togliatti, the long-time leader of the Italian Communist Party. Then, after having met a prostitute, they end up killing and eating the Crow, whom they found to be unconscionably boring.
Pasolini declared that Uccellacci e uccellini was his favourite film, as it was the only one that did not disappoint his expectations.
Ennio Morricone's opening theme music comically features Domenico Modugno singing the movie's credits in mock-operatic fashion, along with a few illustrative sound effects (i.e. a bird whistle for the title, laughter when Morricone's name is mentioned).
Art historian David Gariff notes that the composition of some of the scenes is visually similar to famous Italian paintings.[2] The beauty of Ninetto Davoli is also shown with similar facial expression and lighting to angelic depictions.[2]
 1. ^ "Festival de Cannes: The Hawks and the Sparrows". Retrieved 2009-03-08.
 2. ^ a b "From Giotto to Pasolini: Narrative in Fresco and Film, Illustrated discussion by David Gariff". National Gallery of Art. 15 Dec 2012, 4pm, East Building Auditorium. Check date values in: |date= (help)
External links[edit]


text:
shI bə leth
shI bə lihth
1. a slogan, phrase, or belief that characterizes or is held devotedly by a group.
example: "No new taxes" is now a shibboleth of the Republican Party.
2. a piece of language or a pronunciation that serves as a test of one's membership in a group.


Stanford University News Service
CONTACT: Stanford University News Service _PHONE_
Method to study other planets could offer new view of EArth
Radio astronomers have constructed detailed profiles of five of the planets in the solar system, mapping temperature, density and pressure at various elevations. None of those five planets is Earth.
Now, a team of Stanford and Lockheed scientists proposes taking one of the techniques they've perfected on Venus and Jupiter and bringing it down to Earth to study the home planet.
The technique is radio occultation - the study of how radio waves, beamed from a spacecraft, travel through a planet's atmosphere, bending and changing speed and in the process revealing details about the atmosphere's composition.
Radio occultation studies of Earth's atmosphere could enhance knowledge of global climate change, provide insight into the problem of ozone depletion and improve the daily weather forecast.
Such studies of Earth are economically feasible for the first time, now that the U.S. military's satellite system, the NAVSTAR Global Positioning System is fully operational, Stanford senior research scientist David Hinson told a session of the American Geophysical Union's winter meeting in San Francisco last month.
Hinson, along with Stanford Prof. Leonard Tyler and senior research associate Ivan Linscott, and colleagues Ken Hardy and Yam Chiu at the Lockheed Palo Alto Research Laboratory, have proposed such a study to the Air Force Office of Scientific Research.
Stanford scientists have spent more than 25 years perfecting radio occultation methods in outer space. Their next challenge may be to explore this planet's unique and highly variable atmosphere.
The first planetary radio occultation discovery was made in 1965, when Stanford electrical engineering Prof. Von Eshleman measured the atmosphere of Mars, finding it to be less than 1 percent the pressure of Earth's atmosphere. Since then, radio astronomers from Stanford and elsewhere have used radio waves transmitted by spacecraft, such as the planetary explorer Voyager 1, to study the atmospheres of Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.
"Occult" is derived from the Latin for "to hide," and that is the idea behind radio occultation. In planetary experiments, a spacecraft transmitting radio waves to Earth flies on a trajectory that carries it into hiding behind the planet under study.
The radio waves from the spacecraft cut a slice through the planet's atmosphere - from its outer edge to the very surface atmosphere - as the spacecraft circles around and disappears behind the planet.
The signal strength and frequency of the radio waves vary as they pass through the planet's atmosphere, according to variations in the atmosphere's density. Scientists interpret these variations, then apply laws of atmospheric physics and thermodynamics to determine the distant atmosphere's density, temperature and pressure as a function of altitude.
The result is a vertical profile of a slice of the atmosphere.
Because radio occultation can measure temperature within a fraction of a degree, it could aid in understanding critical climatic and atmospheric questions confronting Earth.
While meteorologists have the tools to predict shortterm weather changes in the lower atmosphere, there is no sure means so far of determining the rate, causes and consequences of global warming or ozone depletion. Radio occultation could be one of the critical tools for grappling with these questions, because it can be used to gather detailed, comprehensive information about the three-dimensional atmosphere and its behavior.
The technique could provide a vertical series of nearly simultaneous readings at different altitudes, one kilometer apart, on a global scale.
The usual global meteorological tools - radiometers and spectrometers carried by satellites - look down through the atmosphere and cannot distinguish between one layer and the one above it. They show broad aerial views, spanning hundreds of miles in all four compass directions.
Weather balloons provide accurate vertical profiles, but they are few and far between: For example, there are only 10 to 20 balloons covering the air over all the world's oceans. This leaves a virtual data desert for 70 percent of the Earth's atmosphere above the oceans.
While there is general (although not universal) consensus that the surface temperature of the Earth is increasing, there are disagreements over the cause and rate of warming. The differences of opinion are partly due to the many variables that affect surface temperature readings. For instance, many temperature records have been compiled in cities; but since cities can heat up their local environments, those records neither prove a global warming trend nor indicate its cause.
According to meteorologist Ken Hardy, though, if global warming is due to the greenhouse effect, then the warming of the lower atmosphere will be accompanied by a cooling of the upper atmosphere. Radio occultation is uniquely capable of such high altitude temperature readings, reaching up nearly 40 miles. Most standard readings reach no higher than a dozen miles.
Extensive systematic measurements taken over a sustained period, including readings at remote locations and altitudes, could "make a difference between determining trends in five years or 20 years," Hinson said.
Hinson, a specialist in atmospheric waves, said that radio occultation studies of such waves could aid our understanding of ozone depletion. The waves transport man-made chemicals from the lower atmosphere up into the stratosphere. At a certain point, the waves break into random motion, mixing the man-made chemicals with ozone. Some of these chemicals react with ozone, breaking it apart and depleting the Earth's shield against ultraviolet radiation.
These destructive chemical reactions are temperature dependent. Understanding the dynamic mixing caused by atmospheric waves in the stratosphere, as well as temperature changes at these altitudes, may provide insight into the process and causes of ozone depletion.
The measurements provided by radio occultation using the Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite network also could improve weather prediction. Forecasts often rely on computer programs that put together the physical laws for atmospheric behavior with data from satellites and weather balloons. While the program's predictions are initially accurate, they usually break down after a couple of days. With more, and more accurate, data on a global scale, weather prediction would have a longer shelf life.
In order for radio occultation to work, both the signal generator and the receiver must be outside the atmosphere being studied. To study distant planets, this means the receiver can be on Earth. However, to study Earth, the receiver itself also must be in orbit. The need for two satellites is what has made such studies discouragingly expensive. With a GPS satellite as a signal source, 13,000 miles up, half the problem is solved - all that is needed is a receiving satellite.
Hinson, Tyler and their colleagues propose placing a compact, lightweight receiver in a lower, faster orbit around Earth. This receiver could even hitch a ride on an existing communications, weather or defense satellite in low Earth-orbit. Each time the receiving satellite would "rise" or "set," as seen from any one of the GPS satellites, an occultation measurement could be made, profiling Earth's atmosphere from top to bottom in about one minute.
The 16 GPS satellites launched since 1978 provide complete global coverage, each emitting a continuous radio signal 24 hours a day. By 1993, there are plans for 24 GPS satellites in orbit.
The positioning system was conceived of as a military tool. It gave U.S. forces in the Gulf War accuracy within a fraction of an inch. On the ground, receivers the size of a cigar box picked up radio signals from four satellites simultaneously, and used the information to pinpoint location - latitude, longitude and altitude - for ground troops, ships, planes and missiles.
Industry and science have picked up quickly on peaceful applications of the system's potential. Its radio signals have already been used by surveyors, polar explorers, railroad engineers and geologists tracking earthquake activity.
The American Geophysical Union session brought together more than 40 scientists interested in radio occultation studies of Earth. Represented at the session were scientists from France and the former Soviet Union, from Lockheed's Palo Alto Research Laboratory and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
JPL has put forward a similar proposal, which would place a receiver on a NASA Earth Observing System satellite late in the decade. Connections made and information exchanged at the AGU session may aid both efforts, Hinson and Tyler said.
Meanwhile, Stanford researchers have not abandoned their exploration of more distant planets. Tyler and senior research associate Richard Simpson are currently analyzing data from the Magellan spacecraft mapping the surface of Venus.
Tyler also heads the radio science team of NASA's upcoming "Mars Observer" mission. The Mars team, which includes Hinson, will acquire eight to 10 occultation readings a day of the Red Planet, for a two-year period beginning in 1993. These studies will provide in-depth information about Martian seasonal cycles and may provide insights about climate change on Earth.
This is an archived release.


text:
What is Unemployment, How is it Measured, and Why Does the Fed Care?
In this lesson, students read and interpret choropleth maps, which contain unemployment data. They compare verbal descriptions of the labor market from the Federal Reserve's Beige Book with the mapped data. In addition, students compare unemployment data for different years. Students access or observe how to access this data online, using GeoFRED®.


acies. The original LFG theory of long-distance dependencies (Kaplan and Bresnan, 1982) was also based on c-structure epsilons appearing in certain control domains. Kaplan and Zaenen (1989b) criticized the motivation for the c-structure approach to extraction phenomena. They proposed the formal device of functional uncertainty as the basis of a linguistically superior account that is much more compatible with LFG's general functional orientation. This approach deals directly with functional assignments and does not rely on empty nodes or traces as surrogate phrasal coding devices for implicit functional identities. The functional approach thus permits empty nodes to be banished from c-structure trees without losing any linguistic generalizations. In the absence of empty nodes the possible phrase-structure trees for a sentence are much more strongly constrained by the actual words of the string.
XLE implements the modern, functional uncertainty approach to long-distance dependencies (see below), and by default it also maintains a prohibition against empty c-structure nodes. Thus, the regular predicate notation allows you to use optionality or unannotated epsilons (e's) to factor phrasal generalizations in the right sides of rules, and the normal interpretation of the notation might therefore allow a rule to be satisfied by the empty string. XLE disallows that possibility by imposing a special interpretation: any rule of the form M-->p is interpreted by default as the rule M-->[p - e]; that is, any realization of p except for nothing. For example, suppose that a language permits NP's to be realized with or without noun heads as described by the rule NP -> (DET) A* (N) and that sentences are defined by the rule S --> NP VP. XLE would not assign a c-structure to the string Walks the dog, since it treats the rule as requiring that at least one of DET, A, or N be present in the subject NP.
The default interpretation is more subtle when the regular predicate contains an e annotated with functional schemata, as in the rule
S --> {NP:(^ SUBJ)=!| e: (^ SUBJ PRED)='PRO'}
This installs a pronominal subject in the case where an NP is not present in the string. XLE achieves the intended effect of this specification without producing a c-structure containing an empty e node by shifting the schemata to a non-empty node either to the left or right of the e. In essence, XLE treats this rule as the equivalent but more redundant
S --> { NP:(^ SUBJ)=!; VP
 |VP: (^ SUBJ PRED)='PRO'}.
Given the convention of subtracting e's from every right-side predicate, there is always at least one non-empty node to the left or the right of an e that its schemata can be transferred to. Since schemata containing! cannot be associated with e predicates, these schemata can be shifted to non-empty categories without changing their meaning.
XLE also makes it possible to explore alternative theories in which empty nodes play a more explicit role in c-structure representations, even though these are not in good style according to current LFG standards. The default behavior with respect to empty nodes is controlled by two parameters that can be set in the PARAMETERS section of an analysis configuration. Setting the parameter ALLOWEMPTYNODES to TRUE suppresses the default behavior of subtracting the empty string from the right hand side of every rule. If this is done, XLE will interpret the NP rule above as allowing empty NP nodes and the string Walks the dog would be assigned the following c-structure: (S NP (VP (V walks) (NP (DET the)(N dog)))).
The second parameter, PRESERVEEPSILONS, affects the treatment of e's that appear explicitly in rules. If this parameter is set to TRUE, then schemata will not be shifted from e's, e transitions will be preserved in the underlying finite-state automaton, and the resulting c-structures will be displayed with explicit e nodes. Given the S rule above, the string Throw the ball would be assigned the following c-structure: (S e (VP (V throw) (NP (DET the) (N ball)))).
The f-structure corresponding to this c-structure will have a pronominal subject.
Regular abbreviations
There may be several reasons for introducing a category and a c-structure rule that defines the realization of its daughters. Depending on your theoretical stance, the existence of a node in a c-structure tree may be motivated by intonational or coordination evidence that you intend c-structure arrangements to account for, or by a universal theory of category/function correspondences as suggested by Bresnan (1982a). But it may also be the case that a category and c-structure rule is introduced for grammar-internal reasons, as a means of collecting in one place a specification of complex category sequences that would otherwise be replicated in several different rules. The purpose of such a category is to help in expressing generalizations that hold across several different grammatical constructions, but this may have the undesired side-effect of cluttering up the c-structure trees with nodes that have no extrinsic justification. XLE provides separate notational devices, meta-categories and c-structure macros, that permit the factoring of recurring grammatical patterns without forcing an unmotivated elaboration of linguistic representations.
A meta-category permits certain kinds of cross-categorial generalizations to be expressed. In English, for example, the open-complement function XCOMP may be associated with any of the constituents AP, PP, NP, or VP', and we might write the VP rule as
VP --> V
(NP:(^ OBJ)=!)
(NP:(^ OBJ2)=!)
({ AP:(^ XCOMP)=!
|PP:(^ XCOMP)=!
|NP:(^ XCOMP)=!
|VP':(^ XCOMP)=!}).
and expect to see trees such as:
(VP (V consider) (NP John) (NP (Det a) (N leader))).
We could bring out the common functional association by introducing a new ordinary category XP:
VP --> V
(NP:(^ OBJ)=!)
(NP:(^ OBJ2)=!)
(XP: (^ XCOMP)=!).
XP --> {AP|PP|NP|VP'}.
but then the XP would show up as an extra, presumably unwanted and otherwise unmotivated, node in the tree:
(VP (V consider) (NP John) (XP (NP (Det a) (N leader)))).
If instead we specify XP as a meta-category, the abbreviated version of the VP rule would still produce the original tree. A meta-category is distinguished from an ordinary category by a very small change in the rule that defines its regular-predicate expansion: we separate the left and right sides by an equal-sign instead of a rewriting arrow:
XP = {AP|PP|NP|VP'}.
Rules that reference the category symbol XP, such as the VP rule, are not modified when, by virtue of this simple change to its expansion, XP is converted from an ordinary category to a meta-category.
As another meta-category example we might consider the VP category itself. The status of VP as a constituent in all languages has been the subject of much linguistic debate. The arguments for the existence of such a constituent, at least in languages like English, are mostly transformational in nature, having to do with movements, copies, and deletions of common constituent patterns under the assumption that transformational rules only operate on single nodes. The same facts can be accounted for in LFG by letting VP be an ordinary category that appears in the predicates that define several other rules, as in these S and VP' rules:
VP' --> (to) VP.
But the VP does not correspond to a distinct functional unit, and the generalizations about surface constituent patterns can equally well be expressed by defining VP as a meta-category:
VP = V
(NP:(^ OBJ)=!)
(NP:(^ OBJ2)=!)
(XP:(^ XCOMP)=!).
This will give rise to flatter c-structures than the ordinary VP rule would provide, but the surface strings and f-structures will be exactly the same.
In general, a symbol M is defined to be a meta-category by a statement of the form
M = p.
where p is an arbitrary regular predicate. Any other rule that mentions M is interpreted as requiring the appearance of substrings satisyfing p in all positions where a node labeled M would otherwise be required. Unless ALLOWEMPTYNODES is TRUE, the empty string is not included as a substitution for M, even if p provides for it.
A meta-category M does not correspond to a node in the c-structure. By default, a meta-category does not map to an f-structure.
In this case, any schemata attached to occurrences of M (such as (^ XCOMP)=! in the VP rule) are attached instead to every node required by p. Thus, converting a category from ordinary to meta (merely by switching --> to =) does not normally change the sentences recognized by the grammar nor the f-structures assigned to them. However, distributing the schemata across all the nodes may produce unexpected results if the schemata contain! and p contains sequences instead of unit-length terms: the! will denote a different f-structure at every node, and this may lead to unintended inconsistencies. For example, if VP is defined as a meta-category, the term VP:^=!; appearing in the S rule will have the presumably undesired effect of identifying the S f-structure with the OBJ, OBJ2, and XCOMP f-structures.
Alternatively, if the Metacategory-constraints config parameter is set to Relabeled


text:
- About Us
- SW Climate
Published November 23, 2010
Precipitation Outlook(December 2010–May 2010)
Data Source(s): NOAA-Climate Prediction Center (CPC)
The NOAA–Climate Prediction Center (CPC) precipitation outlooks suggest drier-than-average conditions for most of the winter and early spring in all of Arizona and western New Mexico (Figures 10a–d). Probabilities for elevated temperatures are more than 40 percent in the southern halves of Arizona and New Mexico for the December–February period (Figure 10a). Probabilities for increased temperatures exceed 50 percent in southern parts of both states during the January–March and February–April periods (Figures 10b–c). In early spring, elevated temperatures are still expected, but odds decrease slightly in both states (Figure 10d). These outlooks are influenced heavily by the strong La Niña event. Chances that Arizona and New Mexico will receive drier-than-average conditions are highest in the January–March and February–April periods because La Niña events are strongest during these periods and the atmosphere has had time to adjust to cooling sea surface temperatures.
These outlooks predict the likelihood (chance) of above-average, average, and below-average precipitation, but not the magnitude of such variation. The numbers on the maps do not refer to inches of precipitation.
The NOAA-CPC outlooks are a 3-category forecast. As a starting point, the 1971–2000 climate record is divided into 3 categories, each with a 33.3 percent chance of occurring (i.e., equal chances, EC). The forecast indicates the likelihood of one of the extremes—above-average (A) or below-average (B)—with a corresponding adjustment to the other extreme category; the "average" category is preserved at 33.3 likelihood, unless the forecast is very strong.
Thus, using the NOAA-CPC precipitation outlook, areas with light green shading display a 33.3–39.9 percent chance of above-average, a 33.3 percent chance of average, and a 26.7–33.3 percent chance of below-average precipitation. A shade darker green indicates a 40.0–50.0 percent chance of above-average, a 33.3 percent chance of average, and a 16.7–26.6 percent chance of below-average precipitation, and so on.
Equal Chances (EC) indicates areas where no forecast skill has been demonstrated or there is no clear climate signal; areas labeled EC suggest an equal likelihood of above-average, average, and below-average conditions, as a "default option" when forecast skill is poor.
For more information on CPC forecasts, visit:
For IRI forecasts, visit:
Southwest Climate Outlook Staff
- Michael Crimmins, UA Extension Specialist
- Stephanie Doster, Institute of the Environment Editor
- Dan Ferguson, CLIMAS Program Director
- Gregg Garfin, Founding Editor, Institute of the Environment
- Zack Guido, CLIMAS Associate Staff Scientist
- Gigi Owen, CLIMAS Assistant Staff Scientist
- Nancy J. Selover, Arizona State Climatologist
- Jessica Swetish, CLIMAS Publications Assistant
Please direct your Southwest Climate Outlook comments and suggestions to Zack Guido.
The CLIMAS Web site contains official and non-official forecasts, as well as other information. While we make every effort to verify this information, please understand that we do not warrant the accuracy of any of these materials.... Read full disclaimer


text:
Background: To evaluate the safety of thiopurines in patients with inflammatory bowel disease. To identify predictive factors associated with the development of thiopurine-induced adverse events.
Methods: Long-term incidence of adverse events was estimated in patients from a prospectively maintained Spanish nationwide database using Kaplan–Meier analysis. Cox regression analysis was performed to identify potential predictive factors of adverse events.
Results: Three thousand nine hundred and thirty-one patients were included. Ninety-five percent of patients were on azathioprine. The median follow-up with thiopurines was 44 months (range, 0–420). Adverse events occurred at a median of 1 month after starting treatment. The cumulative incidence of adverse events was 26%, with an annual risk of 7% per patient-year of treatment. Most frequent adverse events were nausea (8%), hepatotoxicity (4%), myelotoxicity (4%), and pancreatitis (4%). Four patients had lymphoma. Female and Crohn's disease increased the risk of having nausea. The risk of hepatotoxicity was lower in females and higher in Crohn's disease. The risk of myelotoxicity was significantly higher in patients treated with mercaptopurine and in females. The risk of pancreatitis was higher in Crohn's disease. Overall, 17% of patients discontinued thiopurine treatment due to adverse events. Thirty-seven percent of these patients started thiopurines again and 40% of them had adverse events again.
Conclusions: As many as 1 of 4 patients on thiopurine therapy had adverse events during follow-up. A relatively high proportion of patients (17%) had to discontinue the treatment with thiopurines due to adverse events. However, more than half of patients that restarted thiopurine treatment after its discontinuation due to adverse events tolerated it. Several predictive factors for some adverse events have been identified.


text:
Shakespeare Globe will be running a series of innovative lectures, readings, plays, courses, exhibitions and seminars on the subject of Shakespeare and Islam. Patrick Spottiswoode, Director of Globe Education, shares with us his hopes and aspirations for this season's events.
Globe Education is the education arm of the reconstructed Globe Theatre on Bankside in Southwark. We aim to introduce people of all ages to the plays of Shakespeare and his contemporaries and to explore how the theatre architecture of the Globe influenced the writing of plays and the relationship between actors and audiences. The Globe is an outdoor theatre in the round. Actors walking onto the Globe stage can see over 1,400 people gathering around them, standing and sitting. This creates a charged atmosphere and a sense of a shared community in the theatre.
Globe Education works with about 70,000 people every year in a range of workshops and courses as well as with lectures and staged readings. Every spring and autumn we choose themes for a series of public events and this year our theme is Shakespeare and Islam.
The idea for a season on Shakespeare and Islam may seem at first surprising. We have chosen a variety of themes over the years including 'Shakespeare and Spain' and 'Shakespeare and the Lawyers' but one of my favourites was 'Shakespeare and Shoes'.
The original idea for Shakespeare and Islam was to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's Othello. Othello is a Moor living in Venetian, and therefore a Catholic, society. While Shakespeare does not allude to his faith, it is probable that he was born a Muslim but had to convert to Catholicism. He is then sent to fight the Ottoman Empire. The villain of the play who ends up destroying him is called Iago. Sant Iago is the patron saint of Catholic Spain. Sant Iago is said to have appeared in a vision to the Spanish army on the eve of a battle against an army of Moors. He has thus become known as Sant Iago Matamoros (St James the Moorslayer). Shakespeare's Iago is far from saintly.
It was a conversation with His Excellency the Moroccan Ambassador that encouraged us to explore England's relationship not only with Morocco but also with other Islamic lands at the time of Shakespeare. The Ambassador believes that Othello would have been a Moroccan. Queen Elizabeth Ist was involved in treaty negotiations with Morocco to combine forces against the Spanish. Both Elizabeth and the Moroccan sultan Al-Mansour, died in 1603.
However it is important for us not to 'live in the past'. Theatre is about 'now' and we felt it was important to explore current attitudes to and understanding of Islam in Britain. I therefore met with representatives of the MCB to discuss ways in which the season might build bridges and understanding. I was moved by the nature of the response and have always only met with a positive desire to help.
I am particularly indebted to Dr Bari who introduced me to other members of MCB, all of whom have offered support. Dr Akbar and Dr Sherif have made invaluable recommendations and I had the good fortune to meet Dr Ali of the Khayaal Theatre Company. Most recently I have met with Dr Murshad, Head of the Hermitage School in Tower Hamlets and we will be working on a project with his students. Everyone is offering advice and guidance. I very much need that advice and guidance!
Together we will plan an exciting autumn programme that will build on the spring season. The Association of Muslim Schools has expressed interest, too. This would be a wonderful organisation to work with.
This spring Shakespeare and Islam will explore the complex web of diplomatic, trade and cultural negotiations between England and Islamic lands and include staged readings of some plays by Shakespeare's contemporaries in which Moors and Turks are presented.
Lectures from distinguished scholars will provide a variety of insights and perspectives. Professor Matar will lecture on the Elizabethan Stage Moor while Professor Haleem will give an introduction to The Qur'an and its aural beauty as well as an overview of Shakespeare in Arabic.
Children from Southwark schools will be presenting Othello on the Globe stage and some will be visiting the East London Mosque and St George's Cathedral as part of their research. Primary schools from Tower Hamlets and Westminster will be working on handkerchief designs following a visit to the Art from Islamic Lands exhibition at Somerset House. A handkerchief spotted with strawberries was the gift Othello gave to his wife Desdemona. Children will design their own love token handkerchiefs and some will be embroidered professionally. A web resource on Ottoman handkerchiefs and Othello will be created.
It is difficult to appreciate the soul of a play sitting at a desk in a classroom. School Shakespeare is often difficult especially if you know you are going to be tested on the play. You are encouraged to take your heads into an exam room and not your hearts. Faced with an exam question you often scratch your head while Shakespeare asks you to scratch your heart.
The best place to meet Shakespeare is in a theatre but then not all productions scratch the heart either. The most important thing, I think, is to consider Shakespeare as modern and writing about modern situations. I know his language can be difficult, especially if it is not heard or spoken, but workshops on plays can help to overcome some difficulties and help get Shakespeare into your bloodstream.
I believe that the relationships that Globe Education is developing with the MCB and with various Muslim organisations will continue to develop once the Shakespeare and Islam seasons end. Judging by the conversations I have been having thus far, longer-term projects will follow.
Director of Globe Education
*This is an abridged version of the original interview with Patrick Spottiswoode. To read the complete version please see External links (to the top right of this page).


Solving the epistemic bargaining problem
In the last post, I described an epistemic bargaining problem, and applied Nash's solution to it. That gave me a characterization of a compromise "team credence", as that credence which maximizes a certain function of the team members' epistemic utilities. This post now describes more directly what that team credence will be (for now, I only consider the special case where the team credence concerns a single proposition). Here's the TL;DR: so long as two agents are each sufficiently epistemically motivated to find a compromise, then they will compromise on a team credence that is the linear average of their individual credences iff they are equally motivated to find a compromise. If there is an imbalance of motivation, the compromise will be strictly between the linear average and the starting credence of the agent who is less motivated by finding the team credence.
To recap, we had a set of team members. These team members each assign "expected epistemic utility" to possible credal states (including credal states that concern only attitudes to the single proposition p). Expected epistemic utility is assumed to be the expected accuracy of the target credal state x, and inaccuracy is assumed to be measured by the Brier score (1-x(p))^2 if p is true, (0-x(p))^2 if p is false (to get a measure of accuracy, subtract inaccuracy from 1). For an agent whose own credal state is a, it's a familiar piece of bookwork to show this implies that the epistemic utility of a credal state x(p) is 1-(x(p)-a(p))^2—one minus the square euclidean distance between the agent's own a(p) and the target credence x(p). From now on, I'll drop the indexing to p, since only one proposition will be at issue throughout.
The epistemic decision facing the several agents is this: they can form a team credence in p with a specific value, so long as all cooperate. But if any one dissents, no team credence is formed. The situation where no team credence is formed is assumed to have a certain epistemic utility 1-\delta_A for the epistemic utility for agent A (who has credal state a). So forming the specific team credence x will be worthwhile from A's perspective if and only if the epistemic utility (expected accuracy) of forming that team credence is greater than the default, i.e. iff 1-(x-a)^2> 1- \delta_A. Now, we may be able to find a possible credal state $d_a$ which the agent ranks equally with the default credal state, 1-(d_A-a)^2= 1-\delta_A. You can think of d_A as A's breaking point—the credence at which it's no longer in her epistemic interests to form a team credence, since she's indifferent between that and the default where no team credence is formed. A little rearrangement gets us to: d_A= a\pm\sqrt \delta_A. So really we have both an upper and lower breaking point, and within these bounds, a zone of acceptable compromises, within which a team credence will look good from that agent's perspective.
Possible credences will be, as is standard, within the interval [0,1]. d_A=a\pm\sqrt \delta_A may well be outside that interval. Consider, for example, the case where an agent has credence 1 or 0 in p to start with, or a situation where not forming a team credence is a true epistemic disaster, of disutility >1. It'll be formally convenient to still talking of breaking point credences in these cases, but that'll just be a manner of speaking.
A precondition of having a bargaining problem is that there are some potential team credences x that all team members prefer to have team credence x than the scenario where no team credence is formed. That is, for all y in the group, 1-(x(p)-y(p))^2> 1-\delta_Y. That amounts to insisting that the set of open intervals (y-\sqrt \delta_Y,y+\sqrt\delta_Y) have a non-empty intersection, or equivalently, where y runs over hte team members, \max_y (y-\sqrt \delta_Y)<\min_y (y+\sqrt \delta_Y).
That's a lot of maths, but concretely you can think about it like this: it'll be harder to strike a compromise on p the more distant the team member's credences are from each other. If, however, each feels great urgency to finding a team credence, that will widen the zone of compromise from their perspective. So even if A starts with credence 1 in p, and B starts with credence 0 in p, then they will each view some compromises between the two of them as acceptable if A's lower breaking point is higher than B's upper breaking point. That relates to the utility/disutility of failure: if failure for A is worse than the epistemic cost of having credence 0.5 in p, and similarly for B, then credence 0.5 is a potential compromise for the two of them.
So these are the conditions for there to be a bargaining problem in the first place. If they are met, everyone wants a deal. The question that remains is which among this set they should pick. As described in the last post, if we endorse Nash's four conditions we have an answer: the team credence will be the x that maximizes the following quantity: \Pi_y ((1-(x-y)^2)-( 1-\delta_Y). Simplifying a touch, the latter curve becomes \Pi_y (\delta_Y-(x-y)^2)).
Before moving on, I do want to make one observation that will be important later: that the Nash compromise team credence is somewhere in [a,b]. This is pretty intuitively obvious, but to argue for it formally: suppose that we have N agents with various starting credences, whose span is the interval [a,b]. If the upper endpoint b is not within the intersection of the zones of compromise, then nothing above b is within this intersection either (since those constraints take the form of an intersection of open balls around points no greater than b). On the other hand, suppose that the b is contained within the intersection of all the agents' zones of compromise. Then we can see that the Nash product cannot take its maximum value above b. That's because b will be nearer all the starting credences than anything above b, and so every multiplicand (and hence the product) will be greater at the endpoint than it is at any point above it. The same goes, in reverse, for the other endpoint a.
So what does Nash's maximization condition say about specific cases? One complicating factor is that this is a constrained maximization problem, over the set (\max_y (y-\sqrt \delta_Y),\min_y (y+\sqrt \delta_Y)). So looking at the curve defined by Nash's product alone doesn't contain all the information we need to pick the constrained maximum. I'll come back to this at the end, but for now, I'll ignore the issue and concentrate on finding a local maximum of the Nash curve.
Let's get going with the local maximization problem then, for the two-agent case. We want to find a turning point of the Nash curve ((x-a)^2-\delta_A)((x-b)^2-\delta_B). To see what's going on with this quartic polynomial, consider a special simple case with a at 1 and b at 0, and both offsets at zero. That gives (x-1)^2x^2, which I've sketched for you (as with the other images that follow) using wolframalpha:
This polynomial has roots at 0 and 1—and every candidate team credence of course has to be within this zone. And so you can see immediately that the leading candidate to be the compromise credence will be the local maximum of this curve. To find the value of the maximum, we remember secondary school maths and set the derivative of the curve equal to zero.
Note we can factorize the derivative as 2x(x-1)(2x-1). The cubic has three roots: 0 and 1 (those are the minimum points of the original quartic curve) and 0.5.
This looks promising! Interpreting this in the epistemic bargaining way, we have started with two agents with extremal credences 1 and 0, and found that we have a local maximum for the Nash curve at their linear average. Further, this is representative of a general pattern. If you start from (x-a)^2(x-b)^2, 0


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text:
Qualitative infrared inspection of electrical components is the inspection to locate anomalies or "hotspots" without regard to electrical load. Although the qualitative approach can yield helpful electrical maintenance information, it does not provide the definition possible with a comprehensive quantitative inspection.
Advantages to qualitative approach:
- Less time required for inspection
- Less application and infrared knowledge required by the operator
- Lower investment in IR equipment because temperature measurement is not required.
Limitations of qualitative approach:
- True severity of the anomaly cannot be determined
- Repair priority cannot be established
- Trending is not possible
- Greater chance of misdiagnosis
- Cannot diagnose certain phase-dependent anomalies
- Equipment may fail before the repair is performed
- Repairs may be made to equipment not requiring it
- Cannot be correlated with other inspection techniques
Don't short-circuit the value of your infrared electrical inspection program by overlooking Ohm's Law.
Article from "Advanced Maintenance Technologies – August 1998 By Ron Newport, President of the Academy of Infrared Thermography in Bellingham Washington
Click here for a.PDF copy of this article
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text:
Why Male Barn Swallows Mustn't Let Themselves Go
A male North American barn swallow (Hirundo rustica erythrogaster) displaying his ventral coloration. Image © Marie Read
Once barn swallows have chosen their mates for the season, females may stray if their males don't keep themselves looking sexy, new research shows.
For male North American barn swallows, the color intensity of their feathers is a signal of "quality," perhaps akin to an expensive sportscar or a spiffy suit. Researchers don't know yet exactly what this quality signal represents perhaps social status, good genes, or the ability to raise offspring but it plays a critical role when females decide which males will father their offspring.
Rebecca Safran and colleagues now report in the 30 September 2005 issue of the journal Science that male swallows with experimentally enhanced feathers are less likely to be cuckolded by their mates. By taking genetic samples both before and after they modified the male swallows' plumage using non-toxic inks, the authors showed that female barn swallows constantly assess the quality of their mate relative to other males in the population. DNA tests revealed that males with enhanced plumage sired more of the offspring in their nests.
The authors say this is the first study to reveal just how sensitive females are to very short-term changes in their mate's appearance; a slightly scruffy plumage at the wrong moment in the breeding season can cause an unwitting male to care for many young that are not his own.
30 September 2005


text:
Experimental Performance Evaluation of a Rechargeable Lithium-Air Battery With HyperBranched Polymer Electrolyte
ASME 2018 12th International Conference on Energy Sustainability collocated with the ASME 2018 Power Conference and the ASME 2018 Nuclear Forum
ASME 2018 12th International Conference on Energy Sustainability
Synthesis of hyper branched polymer (HBP) based electrolyte has been examined in this study. A real world lithium-air battery cell was fabricated using the developed HBP electrolyte, oxygen permeable air cathode and lithium metal as anode material. Detailed synthesis procedures of hyper branched polymer electrolyte and the effect of different operation conditions on the real-world lithium-air battery cell were discussed in this paper. The fabricated battery cells were tested under dry air with 0.1mA∼0.2mA discharge current to determine the effect of different operation conditions such as carbon source, electrolyte types and cathode processes. It was found that different processes affect the battery cell performance significantly. We developed optimized battery cell materials upon taking into account the effect of different processes. Several battery cells were fabricated using the same optimized anode, cathode and electrolyte materials in order to determine the battery cells performance and reproducibility. Experimental results showed that the optimized battery cells were able to discharge over 55 hours at over 2.5V. It implies that the optimized battery cell can hold charge for more than two days at over 2.5V. It was also shown that the lithium-air battery cell can be reproduced without loss of performance with the optimized battery cell materials.
Copyright © 2018 by ASME
Das, Susanta K. and Berry, Kingsley Joel, "Experimental Performance Evaluation of a Rechargeable Lithium-Air Battery With HyperBranched Polymer Electrolyte" (2018). Mechanical Engineering Presentations And Conference Materials. 27.


The value of public and private green spaces under water restrictions
Darla Hatton MacDonald, Neville D. Crossman, Parvin Mahmoudi, Laura O. Taylor, David M. Summers, Peter C. Boxall
Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review
34 Citations (Scopus)
Numerous studies have been published that consider the relationship between open spaces and property values. In this study, we examine the potential impact of water restrictions on the value of different types of green space. Restrictions on the use of water on outdoor areas are a popular means for governments or utilities to limit water use in urban areas. In this paper, a hedonic pricing model is used to analyse the effects that increasingly severe water restrictions might have on the perceived value of public and private green spaces in Adelaide, South Australia. A hedonic pricing model is estimated that contains housing characteristics, neighbourhood amenities, fixed effects to control for unobserved neighbourhood characteristics and temporal control variables for inflation. The findings suggest that water restrictions are not having a significant impact of the value of outdoor spaces on private properties. There are indications that substitutions may be occurring with the proximity to playgrounds, which are watered more regularly, becoming significant with increasing severity of water restrictions. However, close proximity to large public parks with trails for walking which remain in a natural state throughout the year (brown and dry in summer) is negatively correlated with the selling price regardless of water restrictions. This suggests that households in this market may be using some public green spaces for recreation in lieu of private areas but not all public open spaces are equal. This has implications for urban and landscape planners, especially given the likelihood of ongoing water restriction under climate change.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)192-200
Number of pages9
JournalLandscape and Urban Planning
Issue number4
Publication statusPublished - Apr 2010
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Per capita income
Per capita income
Per capita income, also known as income per person, is the mean income of the people in an economic unit such as a country or city. It is calculated by taking a measure of all sources of income in the aggregate (such as GDP or Gross national income) and dividing it by the total population.
Per capita income as a measure of prosperity
Per capita income: total resources/total population.
Per capita income is often used as average income, a measure of the wealth of the population of a nation, particularly in comparison to other nations. Per capita income is often used to measure a country's standard of living. It is usually expressed in terms of a commonly used international currency such as the Euro or United States dollar, and is useful because it is widely known, easily calculated from readily-available GDP and population estimates, and produces a useful statistic for comparison of wealth between sovereign territories. This helps the country to know their development status.
Critics claim that per capita income has several weaknesses as an accurate measurement of prosperity:
 - Comparisons of per capita income over time need to take into account changes in prices. Without using measures of income adjusted for inflation, they will tend to overstate the effects of economic growth.
 - International comparisons can be distorted by the differences in the costs of living with each country that are not reflected in exchange rates. Where the objective of the comparison is to look at differences in living standards between countries, using a measure of per capita income adjusted for differences in purchasing power parity more accurately reflects the differences in what people are actually able to buy with their money.
 - As it is a mean value, it does not reflect income distribution. If the distribution of income within a country is skewed, a small wealthy class can increase per capita income far above that of the majority of the population. In this respect Median income is a more useful measure of prosperity than per capita income, because it is less influenced by the outliers.
 - Economic activity that does not result in monetary income, such as services provided within the family, or for barter, is usually not counted. The importance of these services varies widely among different economies.
 - Per capita income does not take into account how income is deployed; whether it is invested in factors likely to improved the development of a country or nation such as medical facilities, educational facilities, transport infrastructure etc.
See also


Appointment Bookings
Displays 3 progress bars to show how much of your schedule availability was utilized in the past or can be utilized in the time remaining.
 - Blue progress shows % of the total schedule that was booked
 - Red progress shows % of the total schedule that has been lost (no appointments scheduled)
 - White progress shows % that is still available to be filled
 - Current month is the center bar with larger text
 - Previous month is shown on top
 - Upcoming month is shown on bottom
 - The "booked" calculation is simply showing the potential revenue to be collected for scheduled work in that particular month.
 - The "available" calculation is taking an average $/hour over a rolling 90 day window based on work you have completed. So if, for example, you have 400 hours available remaining this month and your average $/hour has been calculated to be $75 from historical data, then you would show $30,000 as your potential available revenue.
Note: Your total "available" time is based off of your business hours. To set your business hours properly go to the schedule and then look for the settings along the top of the schedule (gear icon). Once inside the settings, you'll see the business hours on the first page.Frequently Asked Questions
 1. Does the dashboard remove time blocked by activities? Yes, any activity on the schedule will remove that scheduled time from the total available hours.
 2. Are recurring appointment reminders calculated at all? Not at this time. However, once the reminders are committed to work orders, then they will properly add to the equation.
 3. How can I "hide" a route from being involved in this calculation? In release 6.5.1 we added a "Service Route" toggle in every route setting page. Make sure that is checked off if you wish to remove it from the dashboard calculation.
 4. Is the dashboard taking into account my estimated/scheduled hours or the actual time on site if my technicians are checking in/out of appointments? Dashboard pulls from the actual hours on-site, so if you are utilizing the check in/out feature or are manually updating time logs then you are benefiting from those features. If you are not currently doing those actions, then the dashboard will pull from your scheduled hours.
 5. What happens if there are multiple appointments for the same order? The value for the order is only counted once (and only for Work Orders/Invoices, Estimates are not counted) and each appointment blocks the time as expected as long as it is marked as a "service route" (see question #3).


text:
Timetable and preparations
|Six-five months prior to conference||1. Theme|
3. List of keynote speech & invitation letter
4. Call for paper
6. Organizing committee
|May 30 ~ June 1|
|Five months prior to conference||1. Decided subareas and panels|
2. Roughly know how many people will participate
3. Topics of keynote speeches
4. Acceptance letter for those presenters
5. Set up official website
|July 10 ~ July 15|
|Two months prior to conference||1. Deadline of submission of pull paper|
2. Acceptance letter for those presenters
3. Draft agenda
4. Assign moderators, presenters, and discussants in panels.
|One month prior to conference||1. Continuously check the keynote speakers¡¦ name, articles, or ppt slides.|
2. Continuously push those presenters submitting their final paper.
3. Check accommodation, meal, and transportations of those presenters.
4. Check how many people will participate in some official visitations.
5. Post official schedule and agenda on website and email a notification to all participants and members.
|One week prior to conference||1. Email a letter (note) including the accommodation, transportation and other notifications (e.g, registration) to those VIPs and presenters.|
2. Assign staff and arrange how to charge registration fees.
3. Double check the date, flight numbers and arrival time of those participants.
4. Make sure the proceedings are correct and have been sent to be published.


text:
The physical demands faced by high-frequency stock market traders might not be quite the same as those faced by athletes, however there is a strong physical side to the job: For one, "noise" trading requires professional traders to engage in extended periods of concentrated alertness and intense visuomotor scanning. Additionally, traders must react quickly to rapidly changing market conditions and perform under a relatively high level of stress. So while high frequency trading may not be quite the same as competitive sports, it is reasonable to assume that just as there are certain physical attributes that promote athletic success, there may also be a significant biological component to stock market success. At least this is the hypothesis that Aldo Rustichini, John M. Coates, and Mark Gurnell put forward in a recent article published in the PNAS.
The study takes a close look at 49 male financial markets traders, and how their performance correlates with the length-ratio of their second and fourth digits (2D:4D). Although this might sound a little strange to the average social scientist, it needs to be pointed out that the length of your second digit, the index finger, relative to your fourth digit, the ring finger, is often used in biological studies as reliable indicator of prenatal androgen steroid exposure. Studies show that higher levels of this exposure leads to a longer fourth digit in relation to the second digit in men, and this digit ratio has successfully been linked to performance in competitive sports, such as soccer, rugby, basketball, and skiing. Moreover, increased confidence and search persistence, preferences for risky behavior, as well as heightened vigilance, reduce distraction by irrelevant stimuli, stabilized visual attention, and improved visuomotor skills have all been identified as consequences of enhanced androgenic activity.
As the authors point out
"successful trading in the financial markets requires more than correct beliefs about the value of securities. Traders must also possess confidence enough to place their bets, risk preferences high enough to place bets of meaningful size, and the ability to process information quickly enough to keep one step ahead of competitors."
In addition to the physical demands mentioned at the outset, this suggests that 2D:4D might actually be a very useful predictor of stock market success; which indeed it turns out to be:
Using the traders profit and loss (P&L) information, risk limits and income for a 20 month time period, the study finds that
"the lower a trader's 2D:4D ratio, the greater his P&L [...] a trader in the lowest tertile of the 2D:4D range makes 11 times the P&L of a trader in the highest tertile"
One reason for the stark effect of the 2D:4D ratio on trader profitability may be explained by a heightened sensitivity to testosterone levels, which is a biological consequence of prenatal steroid exposure. This explanation is supported by the additional finding that high morning testosterone levels significantly increase profits and losses for a given day.
"This result suggests that prenatal androgen exposure may affect a trader by sensitizing his subsequent trading performance to changes in circulating testosterone."
Traders with lower 2D:4D ratios are also shown to be more successful as stock markets become more volatile; possibly as a result of the increased premium on vigilance and risk taking in the more volatile setting. This latter finding opens up the possibility that the study results may not hold in the same way for traders involved in long-term analytical trading, such as investment bankers.
As an interesting side note on this possibility, the study mentions that
"For example, arbitrage traders at the investment banks and hedge funds are increasingly hired from the math and science departments of universities, and one study, which looked at average digit ratios in university departments found that faculty from math, science, and engineering exhibited higher, more feminine digit ratios"
In conclusion, the study finds
"a roughly even split between the contributions of biology and experience; biology in this case being the organizing effects of prenatal androgens on an individual's body, brain, and behavior."
If at any point then you find yourself interviewing for a position with a stock trading company don't be surprised if your future boss is just as interested in your hands as in your CV.
Coates, J., Gurnell, M., & Rustichini, A. (2009). Second-to-fourth digit ratio predicts success among high-frequency financial traders Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 106 (2), 623-628 DOI: 10.1073/pnas._PHONE_
Republished from: _URL_


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Growing Grapes in Your Backyard
|Topic||What varieties are best for my backyard?|
A large number of grape varieties are available in California. Varieties are divided into table grapes and wine grapes according to their primary use. Some are suitable for multiple uses and may have secondary uses in making juices or jellies. American and American hybrids are typically grown for table grapes, juice, or jelly. Table grape and multiple-use type varieties are the ones most commonly grown by home gardeners. They are usually adapted to a range of local conditions and training systems. Numerous varieties are available, and suitable ones for various climate zones are listed in tables 15.1 and 15.2, linked below.
Wine grape varieties are suitable for many home gardens, but for optimal performance, the wine grape variety chosen should be suited to the climatic region and site. Table 15.3, linked below, provides variety information on wine grapes.
Grape Varieties - UC
Cultural Information for Selected Table Grape Varieties, Table 15.1 (pdf) in California Master Gardener Handbook. UC Buy Publication
Cultural information for selected American and American-European hybrid seedless table grape cultivars, Table 15.2 (pdf) in California Master Gardener Handbook. UC. Buy Publication


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{{Infobox UK Legislation
{{Infobox UK Legislation
|short_title=Sexual Offences Act 1985
|short_title=Sexual Offences Act 1985
Latest revision as of 23:47, 24 December 2010
Sexual Offences Act 1985
United Kingdom Parliament
Long title: An Act to make, as respects England and Wales, provision for penalising in certain circumstances the soliciting of women for sexual purposes by men, and to increase the penalties under the Sexual Offences Act 1956 for certain offences against women.
Statute book chapter: 1956 c. 44
Territorial extent: England and Wales
Royal Assent: 16 July 1985
Commencement: 16 September 1985
Status: Current legislation
Text of statute as originally enacted
The Sexual Offences Act 1985 (c.44) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that created two offences concerning prostitution, and increased the maximum sentence for attempted rape from 7 years to life imprisonment.
The new offences were kerb crawling and persistently soliciting women for the purposes of prostitution. In 1991 the Director of Public Prosecutions and head of the Crown Prosecution Service, Sir Allan Green KCB QC, was arrested for an offence under this Act and had to resign.[1]
The kerb crawling and soliciting offences, and related provisions, are still in force, but the other provisions of the Act were repealed by the Sexual Offences Act 2003.[2]
References and external link
 1. BBC News website
 2. Sexual Offences Act 2003, Schedule 7
See also


text:
I am writing a report that allows my employer to rank employees by productivity and fault rate. Employee ranks are based on productivity (value of 25%), supervisor input(value of 25%) and fault rate(50%). Catching a fault awards you a single point, causing a minor fault takes a point away, causing a major fault takes three points away. Using this number and the amount of hours tracked I want to get a "faults per hour" that is a positive number and use this to sum with the rest of the score in order to get a value with around 100 being the max that I can use to rank employees.
How do I properly calculate the fault rate per hour? The method I am considering is adding the score to a hundred and then weighting it according to time spent at the station, the issue that I'm having is I compare the final score to the average score at the station, how can I keep the average score of that station reasonable for comparison if I'm adding the results to 100?
So I guess I'm doing this
(x-3y - z + 100 / a) * b [x] is the amount of faults they have caught. [y] is the amount of major faults they have created. [z] is the number of minor faults they have created. 100 is to get a positive number. [a] is number hours spent at station. [b] is the number hours spent on this station compared to total time
I'm dividing it by [a] because I need an hourly rate.
Since the period that I'm using as the baseline is 6 weeks and the period that I'm using to compare it is 6 weeks maybe I could just sum it all together and add the number to (100* 4) because it's 4 times the period size? These numbers don't have to be absolutely perfect because they will never be equal. Just looking to compare a 6week sample of a person's performance to a 6month sample of the entire average.


Sometimes things go viral for all the wrong reasons, but in other cases, it's for all the right reasons. A Tennessee couple recently shared two photos that showed their transformation from active meth addiction to recovery. The couple used the hashtag _TAG_, and since then the post has gained hundreds of thousands of likes and has also been shared many times over. The story is a good reminder of both the potential for social media to be a force of good and the reality that recovery is achievable.
Early Drug & Alcohol Use and a History of Addiction
Brent and Ashley Walker both have a history of youth drug use, as they each say they started struggling with substance use when they were around nine years old. Brent said he started smoking cigarettes at nine, and by 12, he was smoking marijuana. By 15, he had started selling drugs and was also doing mushrooms, ecstasy, and acid. When Brett was 20, he started to do drugs like meth, following his brother's fatal car accident.
Ashley said she started drinking when she was nine or ten and smoking marijuana and using morphine by the time she was a teen. By 18 she was doing harder drugs, including meth.
Both Brent and Ashley would come together and get high together. They were frequently having run-ins with the police, dealing with probation violations. Ashley lost custody of her children twice.
From a Nearly Failed Drug Test to Meth Recovery
Brent barely passed a required drug test while he was on probation in 2016. He'd served two years of a 10-year sentence, and he decided it was time for him to make a change. Together, Brent and Ashley went cold turkey and started their life of crystal meth addiction recovery. They got married after a year of sobriety to celebrate.
While they stopped cold turkey, Brent points out that the road to crystal meth addiction recovery wasn't simple or easy. The couple had to cut ties with friends who used drugs, and they relied on church programs and recovery programs to meet other sober people.
The Meth Recovery Process
The meth recovery process is a difficult one because as with other substances, it affects your brain, and it can take time for your brain to recover. Your physical health has to recovery as well. Using techniques such as healthy coping skills can help prevent meth relapse.
With meth, there's not necessarily a period of withdrawal with physiological symptoms as much as with substances like opioids, but there are still many side effects you encounter in the early days of recovery in addition to drug cravings.
Tips for Coping with Addiction
When coping with drug addiction recovery, following the lead of people like Brent and Ashley can help. They emphasized the importance of building a sober support network, refocusing their attention, and also taking it not just day by day but sometimes hour by hour.
Letting Others Know That Meth Addiction Recovery Is Possible
Sometimes, hearing that it is possible and that others have done it can help put someone on the path to meth addiction recovery. Now that Ashley and Brent are several years into their meth addiction recovery, they have a very different life. Both are employed, and Ashley is working on getting custody of her children from a previous relationship. They are also working toward being able to buy a home.
According to Brent, using substances like meth can seem like fun at the time. But eventually, you face the consequences for everything. His advice to people is to start bringing yourself back up, which is a slow process, but well worth it.
His and Ashley's stories about meth before and after recovery, as well as their meth recovery pictures, are inspirational for the people currently going through what the couple did.
What to Do If Someone You Know Is Struggling with Meth Addiction
If someone you love is struggling with meth, it's important to provide support without being an enabler. A good starting point is to find resources that you can show them as far as getting help for meth addiction. A meth addiction treatment program can help someone not only stop using the drug but also deal with the other physical and mental issues leading to and surrounding their substance misuse.
Meth addiction treatment can be personalized to the needs of the individual and can provide them not only with the actual treatment during the program but also with aftercare support and resources for sustainable long-term recovery.
If you would like more information about meth addiction treatment, contact The Recovery Village today.
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text:
history of the mapping of New England in New England begins
with a controversy. In 1677, two editions of William Hubbard's
Narrative of the Troubles with the Indians appeared
in printthe first issued in Boston and another, within
a few months, released in London. Each book included a map,
both entitled A Map of New-England, but varying in
some particulars. Most prominently, in the American printing
the White Hills of New Hampshire are labeled as such; in the
English version, they carry the name "Wine Hills."
Boston release was, apparently, the first map published in
the English colonies of North America and probably the first
map published in the Western Hemisphere. Historians attribute
the piece to John Foster, the printer responsible for the
American edition of Hubbard's Narrative and also, most
likely, the only engraver working in Boston at that time.
The two versions of the map have perplexed bibliographers
for more than a century. Map collectors and historians of
printing continue to puzzle over the exact chronology of the
printing and the question of authorshipspecifically,
whether John Foster engraved both versions.
Massachusetts Historical Society owns copies of the American
and English printings of A Map of New-England. Its
copy of the "White Hills" map is unique in that
it contains a symbol for an unnamed town (at the lower left
corner of the map between "Seaconk" and "Plimouth")
that appears on no other surviving copy of this version.
MHS collections include more than 5,000 historical maps and
charts, 200 early atlases that contain separately printed
maps, and many early printed books illustrated with maps.


Find out when is the ideal time to run for CPL (NS) Muhammad Hafiz bin Ibrahim and other fun facts about him.
1. Who do you look up to in life?
My parents, who have made a lot of sacrifices for our family of five. My mum has prepared all our meals from the time we were schooling till now and my dad always shares good advice and his life experiences with us.
2. What does your training routine look like?
I train during my off-days. I start running before 8am as it gets hot once the sun is up.
3. What would you be doing when you are not training for sports?
I spend time with my family. We all love food so we usually go to some of our favourites places such as Arab Street to eat at a nasi padang joint.
4. How would you describe yourself?
I am a soft-spoken person but I will fight tirelessly for something that I truly believe in.
5. What are the key things that you pursue in life?
Self-awareness is important so I can realise my own strengths and weaknesses. Good health is also important as ill health affects your sleep and immune system.


text:
Because of the occurrence of bats with white nose syndrome (WNS) in Tennessee, caves on state owned lands are closed to the public until further notice. Cave closures are in effect at this and all other state natural areas where caves are located. For more information about white nose syndrome go to: _URL_
7th floor, L&C Annex, 401 Church Street
Nashville, TN 37243
DNA Contact List
The Duck River Complex is a 2,135-acre natural area complex in Maury County that consists of six natural areas within the 12,800-acre Yanahli Wildlife Management Area (WMA). It is managed by the Tennessee Wildlife Resource Agency as a WMA. These natural areas nested within the WMA support federal and state listed species often associated with cedar glades, significant native plant communities, or natural features such as caves, sinkholes, barrens, forests, and streams.
Included are the Columbia Glade (327-acres), Moores Lane Glade (331-acres), and Sowell Mill (306-acres). All of which are cedar glade ecosystems. Rare plants found here include the federally endangered leafy prairie-clover (Dalea foliosa), limestone blue star (Amsonia tabernaemontana var. gattingeri), limestone fame-flower (Talinum calcaricum), Tennessee milk-vetch (Astragalus tennesseensis), and glade cress (Leavenworthia exigua var. exigua). The Howard Bridge Glade (321-acres) is comprised of cedar glade habitat, woodlands, and karst topography. Duck River bladderpod (Lesquerella densipila) occurs here. The Rummage Cave site (50-acres) supports a rare woodrat population and the federally endangered gray bat (Myotis grisescens). It is a short horizontal cave that terminates in five successive oval rooms about 15- feet high and 30 feet wide. Cheeks Bend (800-acres) includes high quality representative cedar glades, scenic bluffs overlooking the Duck River, and extensive cedar and hardwood forests.
The importance of the Duck River Complex is also enhanced because of its association with the Duck River State Scenic River. There are thirteen miles of the 30-mile state scenic river corridor that flows through this 12,800-acre public land. The Duck River is noted for rich faunal diversity particularly the several federal endangered mussel species that occur there. These natural areas were designated to assure that federal and state listed species were protected when TVA transferred the Columbia Dam lands to the State for public use. There is a parking area and a two-mile trail at Cheeks Bend that has bluff vistas and access to a small cave.
Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, PO Box 40747, Nashville, TN 37204, phone _PHONE_; Division of Natural Areas, 401 Church Street, 7th Floor L&C Annex, Nashville, TN 37243 phone _PHONE_.
Public access is allowed and there is a two-mile trail and parking area at Cheeks Bend.
The parking area at Cheeks Bend is on Cheeks Bend Road one mile south of Sowell Mill Pike approximately two miles east of I-65. From I-65 exit to highway 412/99 and head west approximately one mile and turn left on Rock Springs Road and go approximately four miles to Sowell Mill Pike and turn left and go approximately three miles and turn right on Cheeks Bend Road.
|7.5' QUADRANGLE:||Columbia, Glendale, Verona||OWNERSHIP:||State of Tennessee|
to Duck River Complex
Map to Cheeks Bend
Printer friendly version - pdf


text:
So, its finally confirmed by all sources that the threadbare pleated shirt, unearthed in early 1900's, from an ancient tomb, is the oldest dress of the world. It remained overlooked as some filthy rug for many years. In 1977 it was noticed by archaeologists once again and was named the ancient Egyptian "Tarkhan dress".
The Egyptian ripped shirt is very much like some modern haute couture. Its a shirt with V-neckline, full sleeves, skillfully pleated bodice and arms. The ancient piece of clothing must be of floor length, like it used to be in that time. The length of 5k years has confined it to a normal sized shirt.
[Watch here: The Ghost of Egyptian Priest Caught on Camera]
A detailed radiocarbon dating process has cleared it as the oldest dress of the world, as old as 5,500 years i.e around 3482-3102 BC. Researchers suggests that the history of this ancient shabby shirt might go earlier than the First Dynasty of Egypt.This is not the first piece of clothing, uncovered, there were many before but they were in the form of drapes that used to be wrapped around the body. This one is special because its a tailored piece, in fitted and cut style.
Research proves, this tattered shirt belonged to some rich and wealthy person. There are many signs of wear that prove it to be used in life and not an accessory stored in the tomb for using in after life as it was a prevailing concept of that era.


text:
From its preserved braincase, the Brazilian research team reconstructed the brain, which generally weighs 1.5 grams, highlighting several brain regions, including its cerebellum, optic lobe, cerebrum, olfactory bulb, and olfactory tract.
The cognitive capability was also measured, with its intelligence valued at a higher rate than that of sauropods, which are much bigger in size.
"The values obtained are higher than that of the giant sauropods, like Diplodocus and Brachiosaurus, suggesting a decrease in encephalization in the lineage," the co-authors wrote in a press release.
"This is interesting because several other lineages present an increase in the encephalization through time. Nevertheless, the cognitive capability of Buriolestes schultzi is lower than that of theropod dinosaurs, the lineage that includes Tyrannosaurus, Velociraptor, and birds."
The study was conducted by Rodrigo T. Müller, José D. Ferreira, Flávio A. Pretto, Leonardo Kerber, and Mario Bronzati.