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Individual differences |
Methods | Statistics | Clinical | Educational | Industrial | Professional items | World psychology |
Ability grouping (also known as tracking, setting or streaming) is an aspect of educational placement and is the practice, in education, of placing students into groups or classes based on their abilities, ability level, Academic aptitude, talents, or previous educational achievement or educational attainment level. For example, an eight-year-old who could do complex mathematics would be placed in a more advanced class than another child of the same age who was struggling with basic mathematical concepts. Such grouping may be very fluid and temporary, such as when elementary reading teachers place children into small reading groups whose members may change several times throughout the school year. Other grouping systems, sometimes known as "tracking," (a more controversial system) can become effectively permanent, freezing students into higher-level and lower-level tracks.
Before assignment into ability groupings some assessment of the ability required for each level must be achieved. This is usually done using aptitude measures or educational assessment tools. Sometimes adaptive testing procedures are used.
The ways by which students are assigned to tracks and the amount of fluidity within the tracking system varies by school. While some schools assign students to a particular track and do not allow for mobility between tracks, other schools allow students to be placed into an advanced class for one subject and a lower-ranking class for another. The types of tracks have also changed over the years. Traditionally, there were academic, general, and vocational tracks, but many schools now base track levels on course difficulty, with tracks such as basic, honors, or college-prep. "School policies determine three structural qualities of the tracking system: extensiveness(the number of subjects tracked and the type of distinct curricula offered); specificity(the number of track levels offered); and flexibility(whether students move from one track to another)" (Oakes and Lipton 194). Although, in theory, track assignment is based on academic ability, other factors often influence placement. Non-academic factors such as schedule conflicts often affect students' track assignments. Secondary schools, in general, tend to assign students to high tracks based on objective criteria, while low-track students are often placed using more-arbitrary measures. In some cases, placement is based entirely on student decision.
Argument: Pros/Cons Edit
Tracking has had positive results, which explains why the system continued to exist. Tracking addresses the needs of individual children, improves the academic achievement of the higher level track, and prepares students for colleges or careers.
Unfortunately, these positive results only affect the already high achieving students. Some students in the lower groups may remain there for an extended period, as mobility in some educational institutions may be low. The correlation between race and ability level must also be considered. Statistics show more minority students in lower ability levels, and a disparining number of white students in higher ability levels, including, at the high school level, Advanced Placement courses and IB programs.
In a heterogeneous class with students of different ability, it is difficult to provide an adequate environment of teaching to everyone. Since students differ in knowledge, skills, developmental stage, and learning rate, one lesson might be easier for some students, and more difficult for the others (Slavin 110). Tracking addresses the needs of individual children whereby all students are allowed to advance at their own pace with students of similar ability. For example, four to eight identified gifted students at a particular grade level or in a specific subject area may be placed in the classroom of a teacher who has expertise in distinguishing curriculum and instruction for them. This practice is in keeping with the need for gifted students to be with their intellectual peers in order to be appropriately challenged and to view their own abilities more realistically (Fiedler, Lange, and Winebrenner 109).
Tracking also improves the academic achievement of the higher level track. Studies have shown that grouping of gifted students in special classes with a differentiated curriculum leads to higher academic achievement and better academic attitudes for the gifted (Fiedler, Lange, and Winebrenner 110). Slavin verified gifted students' mathematical achievement with an overall positive effects (Median Effect Size = +0.34) (118).
Ability grouping serves as an allocation mechanism that sort students into college preparatory or vocational programs. Vocational programs are designed to develop specific occupational skills that lead to direct entry into the labor market. Academic programs are designed to develop the more advanced academic skills and knowledge that are prerequisites for postsecondary schooling prior to labor force entry (Braddock and Dawkins, 329-330). Thus, ability grouping and tracking prepare students for colleges or careers.
Tracking places students on two different academic paths. Tracking limits a student's opportunity to learn by restricting the quantity and quality of course material provided in lower tracks. For example, tracking allocates the most valuable school resources including a high currency curriculum, effective instruction, and positive teacher expectations, to students who already possess the greatest social, academic and economic advantages (Ansalone and Frank, 251). In the lower track, fewer curriculum units are covered, the pace of instruction is slower, fewer demands are made for learning higher order skills, and test and homework requirements are taken less seriously (Braddock and Dawkins, 326). Furthermore, tracking creates a feeling of inferiority among the lower track classes. Numerous cases studies point out that the lower track classes are often stigmatized by a generalized feeling that their students are not capable learners and cannot be expected to master the same kinds of skills that are demanded of other classes (Braddock and Dawkins, 326). Slavin attributed feelings of inferiority and worthlessness as one of the outcome in low achieving groups (Aydin and Tugal, 3).
Proposed Reforms to the Tracking SystemEdit
Maureen Hallinan offers many suggestions for reforming the tracking system and counterbalancing its perceived negative consequences. Although tracking can segregate students by race and socioeconomic status, she says that, by ensuring that students are engaged in integrated settings during the school day, some of the negative effects of the segregation could be avoided. Some studies suggest that low-track students often have slower academic growth than high-track students, but Hallinan says that providing more-engaging lessons in class, altering assumptions about students, and raising requirements for students' performance could help. In order to prevent stigmatization of low-track students, Hallinan suggests that schools challenge low-track students to achieve highly and should offer public rewards for gains in academic achievement.
References & BibliographyEdit
- ↑ Slavin, Robert E. (1990). Achievement Effects of Ability Grouping in Secondary Schools: A Best-Evidence Synthesis. Review of Educational Research 60 (3): 471–499.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Hallinan, Maureen (1994). Tracking: From Theory to Practice. Sociology of Education 67 (2): 79–84.
- Ansalone, George and Frank Biafora. "Elementary school teachers' perceptions and attitudes to the educational structure of tracking." Education 125.2 (Winter 2004): 249-57.
- Aydin, Emin and Ilker Tugal. "On The Influence of Grouping Practices on Classroom Teaching." 2005. University of South Carolina. 26 April 2006 < _URL_
- Braddock, Jomills Henry II and Marvin P. Dawkins. "Ability Grouping, Aspirations, and Attainments: Evidence from the National Educational Longitudinal Study of 1988." Journal of Negro Education 62.3 (Summer, 1993): 324-36.
- Fiedler, Ellen D., Richard E. Lange, and Susan Winebrenner. "In search of reality: unraveling the myths about tracking, ability grouping, and the gifted." Roeper Review 24.3 (Spring 2002): 108-11.
- Slavin, Robert E. "Grouping for Instruction in the elementary School." Educational Psychologist 21.2 (Spring 1987): 109-27.
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Mexican Redknee (Brachypelma smithi)
The Mexican Redknee Tarantula is probably the most popular of all pet tarantulas. Native to the Pacific desert of Mexico, it is known to be one of the longest living tarantula species, with females living up to 30 years in captivity. Whether you're a beginner or an advanced hobbyist, you can't go wrong with a Mexican Redknee Tarantula. Due to this spider's gentle nature, colorful appearance, large body size, and long life, it is easy to see why the Mexican Redknee Tarantula is such a desired animal in the hobby.
Range: Pacific desert scrubland of Mexico
Diet: Spiderlings will eat pinhead crickets, and other small insects. Adults eat crickets, other large insects such as lobster roaches.
Size: 5 to 5.5 inches when fully grown.
Growth: Slow Growth
Temperature: 75° to 80° Fahrenheit
Humidity/Water Requirements: 50 to 60%. All tarantulas that have at least a 3" legspan may drink from a shallow, wide water dish. Spiderlings will require light misting to drink droplets of water.
Temperament: Docile and easy to handle. May flick urticating hairs when disturbed.
Housing: Spiderlings can live in a small clear plastic deli-container with air holes poked with a pin. Use a small amount of substrate such as vermiculite, peat moss or coco fiber. Adults will live in a Large Terrestrial Cage Floor space is more important than height. No decorations are really needed, but you can add a log, or cork bark. Always house tarantulas seperately.

source: HuggingFaceFW/fineweb-edu


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A New Online Resource from the University of Iowa Library
The Atlas of Early Printing is an interactive site designed to be used as a tool for teaching the early history of printing in Europe during the second half of the fifteenth century. While printing in Asia pre-dates European activity by several hundred years, the rapid expansion of the trade following the discovery of printing in Mainz, Germany around the middle of the fifteenth century is a topic of great importance to the history of European civilization. This website uses Flash to depict the spread of European printing in a manner that allows a user to control dates and other variables.
Access Atlas here.


text: goal (identified in your Assessment Plan.They use Exemplars as an assessment tool twice a year at the K.Unit PlanWhen they reflect on Exemplars, a reading sample, or a piece of.Higher Performance on Teacher Work Samples through Focused Mentoring and Annotated Exemplars.Our faculty members need to plan.some language and also worded some of the assessment plan.completion of final Candidate Assessments 10: Teacher Work Sample.with our vision for assessment? 2003-2004 Committee Work Plan.exemplars of quality candidate work to assist them in preparing their own work for our assessment system.The teacher work sample: A tool for scaffolding and.Work Sample.Save.3 Overview of Teacher Work Sample (TWS) Through this performance assessment, teacher.Includes ongoing assessment that fits the lesson plan; relates to the main idea included. Scored TWS Exemplars.on the alignment of teacher work sample.links and rich teacher notes to guide assessment and.and Case Studies of Teacher Work Sample. ETEC. Exemplars:.Another 8% of your grade will be based on a dispositions assessment.The.The Teaching Sample Project is one of four assessment.Candidates know, understand, and use formal and informal assessment strategies to plan.Resource.Найди работу уже сегодня! Быстро! Легко! Здесь серьезные работодатели!Актуальные вакансии от серьезных работодателей! Очень большая база!. performance assessment of teacher candidatesCIRQL-Project: Summative Student Work Sample Analysis.Sample Assessment Material – Level 3 – Unit 2.To view the Rubric for the Teacher Work Sample: https.A Teacher Work Sample is a performance assessment in which a teacher or a teacher.Comprehensive Lesson Plan. materials and teacher guidance for implementation.Level 1 – One-year Delivery Plan. Our use of Teacher Work Samples (TWS's) in teacher.Assessment ; Design for.The Renaissance Teacher Work Sample Model requires teacher candidates to plan.htm. In actuality one of the "average" sample summative assessment papers.Performance Assessment.ITE 391. Kit. who wish to use a work sample to meet the local performance assessment.the TWS scores for Learning Goals, Assessment Plan, and.wku. those scoring and identifying anchor exemplars of student work.Teacher Support Materials; Assessment Materials; Sample Assessment MaterialsProvide Exemplars.Practice Teacher Work Sample (PTWS) S9-K1: PR, CTA: b) is aware of the ethical.generally consistent with the plan using a teacher.and identifying anchor exemplars of student work to.Assessment Plan ; Design for Instruction.meaning and value" (Centennial Priorities Plan. also have good exemplars to share. edu/rtwsc/exemplars.FREE Sample Tasks. Teacher. that I could make adjustments to my lesson plan.The work of pedagogy assessment has.scientific inquiry performance assessment/work sample based.DN: We work.To view the Rubric for the Teacher Work Sample:.htm. Teacher Work Sample (TWS) – University of Northern IowaВсегда актуальные вакансии! Обновление предложений по работе каждый день!Актуальные вакансии от серьезных работодателей! Очень большая база!. assessment committee, assessment plans, member institutions, learning assessment.assessment: Teacher work sample.Portfolio Reflection. Science Exemplars.wku. Compared with Interstate New Teacher Assessment and.Formative.or a student's individual learning plan.In NCATE ACCREDITATIONABSTRACT NCATE's standards and guidelines call for teacher.edu/rtwsc/exemplars.Scored TWS Exemplars Produced by.4% = 12%) and the Teacher Work Sample (30%.edtech. half day work session in June of 2002 to benchmark new TWS exemplars.Website.Selected from a Wide.Teacher Work Sample (30%).8 Assessment Plan TWS Standard: The teacher uses multiple.California Commission for Teacher Credentialing.Всегда актуальные вакансии! Обновление предложений по работе каждый день!Найди себе работу уже сегодня! Большая база работодателей! Быстрый поиск!.The Renaissance Teacher Work Sample (TWS.SPED.Student-directed with teacher support**) Plan a.

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The Psychological Meaning of Words: LIWC and Computerized Text Analysis Methods
We are in the midst of a technological revolution whereby, for the first time, researchers can link daily word use to a broad array of real-world behaviors. This article reviews several computerized text analysis methods and describes how Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) was created and validated. LIWC is a transparent text analysis program that counts words in psychologically meaningful categories. Empirical results using LIWC demonstrate its ability to detect meaning in a wide variety of experimental settings, including to show attentional focus, emotionality, social relationships, thinking styles, and individual differences.


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Google has been known to do some interesting things with the data it collects from users, and here is yet another example of that. The company has found a way to visualize the data collected from Play Music users and display it on a Google Music Timeline. This timeline offers a visual representation on the growth and decline of certain genres of music (via Google Operating System Blog).
The graph displays a colored stripe for each genre of music. The thickness of each stripe represents the popularity of that genre in a given year. The data is collected from the music uploaded to Play Music by users. For instance, the Jazz stripe is thickest in the 1950s because many users have Jazz content released in that time period in their library.
The Music Timeline shows genres of music waxing and waning, based on how many Google Play Music users have an artist or album in their music library, and other data (such as album release dates). Each stripe on the graph represents a genre; the thickness of the stripe tells you roughly the popularity of music released in a given year in that genre. (For example, the "jazz" stripe is thick in the 1950s since many users' libraries contain jazz albums released in the '50s.) Click on the stripes to zoom into more specialized genres.


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Al Falah University seeks to adhere to a set of conditions, precautionary measures and protocol in order to achieve a safe learning environment during the COVID 19 pandemic. The university relied on the document for operating educational facilities during the pandemic - the first edition.
In dealing with the requirements and procedures in various fields related to the educational learning process. This handbook included some key points about the university environment and maintaining a safe and healthy environment. many dimensions related to students, such as signing students to acknowledge the pledge and standards of appropriate behavior in the university, such as wearing face masks, maintaining a safe distance, staying away from gatherings, following up informative panels and awareness programs, contacting the university in case of infection with the virus COVID 19 or contact with a person infected with it. As indicated in this handbook, the role expected of the staff and faculty members.


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How will students develop programming skills while improving core teamwork skills in the classroom?
What does Merge do?
Merge is a flipped classroom learning environment that uses daily collaborative challenge labs to teach students to apply the programming concepts they learned for homework the night before. In addition to cementing their mastery of the curriculum, Merge teaches students to work together towards a common goal in a well-structured development process.
The integration of an AGILE workflow was important to the concept because it gives high-school aged teens the vocabulary and knowledge to contribute to software teams without needing to learn lots of jargon– theoretically, they could contribute to an open source project on Github as soon as they've mastered the concepts of programming, having already learned the software development process.
Each day in class, students complete a coding challenge in teams. This challenge is broken up into discrete phases, which enables students to stay on track and organized throughout each step of the project.
Merge's brand is based on three values: it is rigorous, intuitive, and crafted. The color palette is intentional and simple, and the typography is clean and out-of-the-way. Even the logo is designed to impart Merge's central feature: a collaborative process that makes learning to code easy and fun.
Producing a Video
The final deliverable for the project was a product walkthrough video. This video required its own set of processes and procedures as well, so I've included some of my process work from this phase of the project, including storyboarding and asset creation.


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Eigenmode-Based Solver for PCB Vias
This topic explains the use of an eigenmode-based solver to analyze the return path of a via in a planar structure such as a PCB.
You can model the signal path of a via using a lumped element circuit model, but the return current path usually involves structures that are separated from the via by more than a tenth of a wavelength at the maximum frequency of interest (the usual limit for lumped circuit models). This return current path usually involves Ground Return Vias (GRVs) that connect the top and bottom conducting planes in a given PCB layer and can couple with other via signal paths as well.
To model a return path, use radial transverse electromagnetic (TEM) waves that are eigenmodes of the planar structure. You can model the propagation and reflection of these radial TEM waves very accurately, even over very long distances, using closed form linear equations defined at each of the discontinuities in the wave's propagation path. A matrix solution of these linear equations is used to obtain the return path impedance and signal coupling.
Wave Generation and Propagation
A via cell is a subsection of a via that transitions from one conducting plane, through one or more dielectric layers (possibly containing signal routing) to another conducting plane.
Within a via cell, the signal current flowing along the via barrel is exactly balanced by the return current flowing in the opposite direction across the edge of the antipad.
The return current flowing from the edge of the antipad generates a radial TEM wave centered on that via cell. The radial TEM wave propagates outward from the via cell like ripples in a pond. The radial TEM wave creates magnetic coupling between the top and bottom conducting planes, like a half turn transformer. This is one of the mechanisms through which the return current is transferred between the top and bottom planes.
The other current transfer mechanism is a GRV that shorts the top and bottom planes together at some point outside the via cell. A radial TEM wave that is generated at the via cell antipad propagates to a nearby GRV, and is reflected by the GRV, creating another radial TEM wave flowing outward from the GRV.
Radial TEM waves from both the via cell and the GRV on the left continue to propagate, and eventually both waves strike other GRVs, in this case, the waves strike the GRV on the right hand side in the diagram. The waves continue to propagate and reflect, often creating a complex system of waves propagating between the top and bottom planes.
Combine the return path current conduction with the capacitance and inductance between the via barrel and the antipads to produce a complete circuit model for the via cell.
For version one of the via solver feature, the circuit elements Ctop and Cbottom and L in this schematic are automatically calculated to produce a 50-ohm characteristic impedance. There is no modeling of pad capacitances, entry/exit traces, or routing within a layer.
The impedance ZR in the schematic models the circuit behavior of the entire return path and includes any waves reflected from GRVs or the waves propagated from other via cells (crosstalk).
For each layer in a PCB, the equivalent circuits of the via cells are combined into a Generalized Circuit (ABCD) matrix, and the ABCD matrices are combined in series to produce an ABCD matrix for the complete PCB.
Equations and Solutions
This section presents the derivation of the linear matrix equation that the voltages and currents in a given layer must satisfy. This equation is solved for each frequency of interest to obtain the elements of the layer's ABCD matrix as a function of frequency.
Variables and Functions
|n||Via Cells||Number of via cells in the layer|
|m||Radial TEM Waves||Number of radial TEM waves in the layer, m≥n|
|Voltages and Current|
|J||Return currents||n✕1 vector of via cell return currents|
|Vout||Outgoing voltage||m✕1 vector of outgoing wave voltages, one for each wave, as measured at the antipads of the via cells and the via barrels of the GRVs|
|Vin||Incoming voltage||m✕1 vector of incoming wave voltages, one for each wave, as measured at the antipads of the via cells and the via barrels of the GRVs|
|Vreturn||Total return voltage||m✕1 vector containing the total return path voltages, as measured at the antipads of the via cells and the via barrels of the GRVs|
|B||Generic amplitude||Amplitude coefficient for a zero order outgoing radial TEM wave|
|P||Propagation constants||m✕m matrix of propagation constants between the different via cells and GRVs in the layer|
|Z||Wave output impedances||m✕n matrix of output source impedances for via cell outgoing waves|
|Reflection coefficients||m✕m matrix of reflection coefficients. The reflection coefficients for via cells is zero and the reflection coefficients for GRVs is -1.|
|Zreturn||Return path impedances||m✕n matrix of impedances for the complete return path response, including reflections and crosstalk. The first rows of this matrix are used to populate the ABCD matrix for the layer.|
|I||Identity matrix||The m✕m identity matrix|
|Speeds and Distances|
|k||Propagation constant||is the propagation constant at the frequency of interest.|
|Dielectric impedance||is the impedance of a dielectric|
|rk||Source radius||Radius at which the outgoing wave voltage is defined – antipad radius for via cells and barrel radius for GRVs|
|Rjk||Propagation distance||Center to center distance between the via cells or GRVs|
|d||Dielectric thickness||The total distance between the top and bottom return planes|
|H0(2)||Zero order Hankel function of the second kind||The Hankel function is a combination of Bessel functions for describing the cylindrical geometry of radial TEM waves. A Hankel function of the second kind describes an outgoing wave. A zero order Hankel function describes voltage of a wave that does not vary with azimuth.|
|H1(2)||First order Hankel function of the second kind||The first order Hankel function happens to be the derivative of the zero order Hankel function, and is therefore useful for describing the radial current of a wave that does not vary with azimuth.|
The voltage and current for a zero order radial TEM wave as a function of radius are
The waves from each via cell and GRV propagate to produce incoming waves at the other via cells and GRVs.
In this equation, the propagation constants are approximately
The via solver feature improves the accuracy of this equation by integrating the average around the destination antipad or GRV barrel.
Define the entries in Vout either as being driven by via cell return current or as being the reflection of incoming waves. The general equation is a combination of the two sources.
The mode output impedance Z is the ratio of the TEM wave voltage to current at the edge of the antipad. Each GRV is a nearly perfect short circuit reflector at the edge of its via barrel. If the via cell waves are in rows 1 through n of Vout, then the entries of Z and are
The solution for Vout is
The solution for the complete return path response is
 Steinberger, Telian, Tsuk, Iyer and Yanamadala, "Proper Ground Via Placement for 40+ Gbps Signaling", DesignCon 2022, April 2022.
 Ramo, Whinnery and Van Duzer, Fields and Waves in Communications Electronics, third edition, section 9.3, John Wiley and Sons Inc., copyright 1994


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Reporting farm income and expenses
To educate taxpayers about their filing obligations, this fact sheet, the thirteenth in a series, highlights some income sources and deductible business expenses of farmers. Incorrect reporting of farm income and expenses accounts for part of the estimated $345 billion per year in unpaid taxes, according to IRS estimates.
Farmers may receive income from many sources, but the most common source is the sale of livestock, produce, grains, and other products raised or bought for resale. The entire amount a farmer receives, including money and the fair market value of any property or services, is reported on IRS Schedule F, Profit or Loss From Farming.
Bartering is another income source for farmers. Bartering occurs when farm products are traded for other farm products, property, someone else's labor or personal items. For example, if a farmer helps another farmer build a barn and receives a cow for his work, the recipient of the cow must report its fair market value as ordinary income. If the farmer uses this cow for business purposes, he may be able to claim depreciation over its useful life as well as deduct the expenses incurred for the cow. However, if the cow is for personal use, no depreciation or expenses for the cow would be deductible.
Other income sources include:
Agricultural program payments
Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) loans
Crop insurance proceeds and federal crop disaster payments
Custom hire (machine work) income
The ordinary and necessary costs of operating a farm for profit are deductible business expenses. An ordinary expense is an expense that is common and accepted in the business. A necessary expense is one that is appropriate for the business.
Among the deductible expenses are amounts paid to farm labor. If a farmer pays his child to do farm work and a true employer-employee relationship exists, reasonable wages or other compensation paid to the child is deductible. The wages are included in the child's income, and the child may have to file an income tax return. These wages may also be subject to social security and Medicare taxes if the child is age 18 or older.
Another deductible expense is depreciation. Farmers can depreciate most types of tangible property –– except land –– such as buildings, machinery, equipment, vehicles, certain livestock and furniture. Farmers can also depreciate certain intangible property, such as copyrights, patents, and computer software. To be depreciable, the property must
Be property the farmer owns
Be used in the farmer's business or income-producing activity
Have a determinable life
Have a useful life that extends substantially beyond the year placed in service
Some expenses paid during the tax year may be partly personal and partly business. Examples include gasoline, oil, fuel, water, rent, electricity, telephone, automobile upkeep, repairs, insurance, interest and taxes. Farmers must allocate these expenses between their business and personal parts. Generally, the personal part of these expenses is not deductible.
For example, a farmer paid $1,500 for electricity during the tax year. He used one-third of the electricity for personal purposes and two-thirds for farming. Under these circumstances, two-thirds of the electricity expense, or $1,000, is deductible as a farm business expense. Records must be maintained to document the business portion of the expense.
Information about other deductible expenses and reporting requirements can be found in IRS Publication 225, Farmer's Tax Guide.


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DCS: Combined Arms gives you control of ground forces during the battle. Use the Command Map to move ground forces, set artillery fire missions, and control the ground battle. Assume the role of a Joint Terminal Attack Controller (JTAC) in multiplayer and designate targets for player-controlled close air support aircraft, or directly control armor vehicles or air defense weapons and engage the enemy.
Play DCS: Combined Arms as a real time strategy game, a first person armor warfare game, or direct the ground battle from the cockpit of a DCS aircraft like the A-10C Warthog, Ka-50 Black Shark, or P-51D Mustang.
DCS: Combined Arms supports both single player and multiplayer gameplay. When in multiplayer, different players can take on different roles such as artillery commanders, tank commanders, pilots, JTACS, etc. DCS: Combined Arms allows you full control of the battle. All roles can be changed dynamically during the battle.
Source: Digital Combat Simulator


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Estimation of ordinary differential equations with orthogonal conditions
Nicolas Brunel (February 20, 2012)
Please install the Flash Plugin
Parameter inference of ordinary differential equations from noisy data can be seen as a nonlinear regression problem, within a parametric setting. The use of a classical statistical method such as Nonlinear Least Squares (NLS) gives rise to difficult and heavy optimization problems due to the corresponding badly posed inverse problem. Gradient Matching algorithms use a smooth (nonparametric) estimation of the solution from which is derived a nonparametric estimate of the derivative, and gives rise to a natural criterion easier than NLS to optimize. We introduce here a new class of criteria based on a weak formulation of the ODE. The estimator derived can be viewed as a generalized moment estimators which possesses nice statistical and computational properties. Finally, we consider several examples which illustrate the efficiency and the versatility of the proposed method.


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Technological: Development of an efficient biomass saccharification process
Overcoming lignocellulosic biomass recalcitrance followed by enzymatic hydrolysis of reactive polymeric carbohydrates (i.e., cost-efficient liberation of fermentable sugars from biomass) is perhaps the most challenging technical and economic barrier to biorefinery success. Pretreatment is among the most costly steps in biochemical conversion of biomass, accounting for up to 40% of the total processing cost. Also, it affects the costs of other operations including size reduction prior to pretreatment and enzymatic hydrolysis and fermentation after pretreatment. Pretreatment can also strongly influence downstream costs involving detoxification if inhibitors are generated, enzymatic hydrolysis rate and enzyme loading, mixing power, product concentration, product purification, power generation, waste treatment demands, and other process variables.


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May 4, 2005Scientists say that they've proved that the tall
erect spike grown by the South African plant Babiana ringens
has a single purpose: It is a perch for birds, making it easier for
them to drink nectar from the plant's peculiar ground-level flowers.
The perch allows the malachite sunbird, the plant's main pollinator, to insert its curved beak into the flowers from above. When a bird assumes the upside-down position, its breast is brushed with pollen. The bird then spreads the pollen to other B. ringens (commonly known as rat's tails), thereby cross-pollinating the plant species.
Reporting in tomorrow's issue of the science journal Nature, researchers said that when they removed the perch, it decreased the mating success of the plant because significantly fewer sunbirds came to drink nectar. Male sunbirds were particularly less inclined to visit a plant that did not have a perch, possibly because they have much longer tail feathers, which could interfere with ground landings and takeoffs.
The research was done by Spencer C. H. Barrett of the University of Toronto, Canada, and Bruce Anderson of the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Scottsville, South Africa.
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Philodendron melanoneuron aff
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Philodendron melanoneuron aff is an absolutely stunning aroid from Ecuador and the surrounding area. This Philodendron has deeply ridged, bell / ovate leaves! It grows large but is easily trimmed. This Philodendron grows well in moderate light. This Philodendron adheres well to backgrounds, driftwood, etc, and is a moderate growing species. Moist sphagnum moss is useful for rooting this species.
*green dots are a nutrient deficiency.
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Buildbot no longer supports Python 2.7 on the Buildbot master. GitTag
class buildbot.steps.source.git.GitTag
The GitTag build step create a tag in your local Git repository.
The GitTag step takes the following arguments:
(required) The name of the tag.
(optional) If True, create an annotated tag.
(optional) List of message that will be created with the annotated tag. Must be set only if annotated parameter is True. Correspond to the -m flag of the git tag command.
(optional) If True, forces overwrite of tags on the local repository. Corresponds to the --force flag of the git tag command.


University of Pennsylvania
 - Fifty years of shipwreck excavation opens new windows on history
 By Fabio Esteban Amador - Natgeo Newswatch
 2010 marks the 50th anniversary of George Bass's first-ever submarine mapping and excavation of a complete shipwreck and the dawn of modern underwater archaeology.
 This potential archaeology was inaccessible for a long time and beyond anyone's imagination. However, it was just a matter of time before a unique and inspiring individual came along and began the age of underwater archaeology.
 George Bass, a University of Pennsylvania archaeology graduate student, was asked in 1960 if he would be interested in studying a Late Bronze Age shipwreck off the coast of Turkey. "I had never dived except once in a YMCA swimming pool before leaving for Turkey in 1960," George explains. His desire to explore and document the ocean's floor became the foundation for what now is the field of underwater and maritime archaeology.
 Dating to over 3,000 years old, the first shipwreck studied by George Bass was at the time the oldest ship ever found. His research at Cape Gelidonya would be like none that came before - it would literally change our notions of archaeology and the ocean forever.


Natural gas to olefin PK coal to methanol to olefin coal chemical industry?
wallpapers Industry 2020-12-09
China's PDH producers have signed a series of long-term contracts for LPG procurement with companies such as enterprise and Targa in the United States. At present, both enterprise and Targa are expanding NGL separation units, storage and transportation facilities, terminals and other facilities. By this year, their LPG export capacity will be increased to 7.74 million tons / year and 4.87 million tons / year respectively. A large number of LPG imports, on the one hand, bring competition between PDH and MTO / MTP, and more importantly, impact on domestic propane.
American propane has a price advantage over other propane products in the international market. At the same time, the purity of propane from natural gas separation unit is higher than that from refinery propane, which is more in line with the demand of chemical production. Driven by price and quality, it is not surprising that they choose to import.
are coming: don't be afraid of
. When referring to the energy revolution, Tang tingchuan, director of the development strategy Department of the Policy Research Office of China National Petroleum Corporation, jokingly said that this was the word "revolution" heard again after the "Cultural Revolution". The so-called "revolution" is the process of transforming traditional energy into new energy, and the clean utilization of coal is undoubtedly an important part of the revolution. At present, China's coal chemical industry has to face the competition from import in addition to the domestic public opinion. However, under the background of more coal and less gas in China, the price of gas is difficult to fall and the price of coal is going down, which brings opportunities for coal chemical industry. As Alex Whitworth, a consultant of his in Beijing, said, the market of coal chemical industry is a market full of risks and opportunities, and competition is the inevitable existence of the market and the premise of progress.
Alex Whitworth believes that the long-term and stable development of coal chemical industry requires sustainability, affordability and safety. There is no doubt that under the impact of methanol and propane imported from the United States, China's coal chemical industry will undoubtedly be under pressure in these three aspects. However, it is still uncertain how much of the US export volume will really be implemented in China in the future. Therefore, on the one hand, China's energy security needs to be considered, and at the same time, it is better to integrate the knowledge with the hard competition. In the relatively weak links of technology, foreign capital can be appropriately introduced to seek common development. Don't forget that the faithful hounds around us were domesticated by ancient humans tens of thousands of years ago. "


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When individuals hear the words, social worker, their reaction tends to be positive. People, for the most part, view social workers as generous individuals. On the other hand, mention the word foster care case manager, and the reactions change and lean towards a feeling of distrust, if not outright, a sense of anger. Some individuals perceive foster care case managers as the destroyers of families or as the individuals responsible for removing children from their homes. However, this view could not be more inaccurate.
In the first 30 hours, when a child is reported to be in danger, there is confusion, disbelief, and shock surrounding the circumstances. Children come into foster care for various reasons, neglect, physical or sexual abuse, abandonment, and medical trauma. The professionals who are alerted to the situation, and make the final decision to remove a child, are the police, licensed healthcare professionals, and the Department of Child and Family Services (DCFS) investigators. During the investigation phase, the rules and policies that govern the protection of children are in place to provide a safe space for the child. There is a sense of urgency and rapid movement of people and belongings as decisions are made regarding the child's welfare. Often the situation feels frustrating for biological parents because no one professional individual will have all the answers to their questions. Who has my child? Where are you taking him/her? When can I see him/her again? Why is this happening? The feeling of loss and separation during this time creates trauma for both the family and the child. Whatever sense of normalcy existed for the family is broken. And from the child's perspective, their home environment was safe. So they feel more scared and confused than we can explain.
It is in the midst of this change, hurt, and confusion that the foster case manager is introduced to the family and the child. Hoyleton Youth and Family Services (HYFS) is a private agency, which handles the placement of children within the homes of relatives, extended families, and traditional foster families. Hoyleton operates under the premise that biological, extended, and foster care families are extensions of each other, seeking the best outcomes for building stronger families together. Hoyleton's foster care case managers visit families within 24 to 36 hours after we receive a case. The objective is to stabilize the situation by providing answers and support to a family in crisis. Case managers take the time to answer questions, educate the family, and put into place the necessary assistance to make a family feel supported and whole again. This process does not happen overnight but is built over time by working together to form the bonds of trust and respect with the ultimate goal of putting the family back together in a healthier place.
For a case manager, the ultimate goal is the reunification of the family. Not as it was before, but stronger and more resilient. However, achieving that goal happens with small steps and smaller successes. During each step of the process, the case manager is there cheering for the family. A relationship once based on mistrust and anger evolves into a partnership. Case manager Corrine Fish shared her definition of success, "I have a good relationship with my teenagers because there is a level of respect and trust that has been demonstrated and earned. My kids know I will 'handle' things, and they can openly share their struggles with me. This honest and open interaction shows me that even amid their trauma, they are still developing healthy attachments and coping skills. And more importantly, they do not define themselves by their circumstances. It is these glimpses into the lives of the individuals I help that I count as successes."
Foster care case managers believe emotionally-whole families make for stronger communities. Supporting a family in crisis is not easy, but our case managers work diligently to improve the situation and move forward with one outcome at a time. For more information on how you can partner with families in need, call Foster Care and Placement at _PHONE_.


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This writeup is intended as a continuation of Pteryx's writeup, above.
d20: There are twenty sides on a d20, or an aptly named twenty-sided die. The d20's number pairs (the numbers that are polar opposites on a normally distributed die) always total to 21. Why? Well, the idea was to take the most distant numbers possible on a 20-sided die, 20 and 1, and place them opposite. Then, (20-1) and (1+1) to make the next pair, 19 and 2. The pattern repeats as follows:
After the (11,10) pair, the numbers repeat each other in the inverses (10,11 9,12 etc).
However, this is only accurate for a correctly made die. Often, die companies do not take the time to align the numbers correctly, and they end up completely random. The simplest test to see if a die is correctly made is to check that the opposite numbers total 21 on any 3 random pairs. If the die is not distributed as above, the results the die will output over time are different. Some games specifically set up their dies to produce different numbers to intentionally affect gameplay.
No matter how the numbers are arranged, there are different probabilitiesthat each number will appear are affected by the number itself. On most dice, the numbers are engraved rather deeply, and so certain numbers require the removal of more material on that side than others. The more material that is removed, the lighter the side will be as compared to the others. The lighter the side is, the more probable it will appear on the top of the die. The heavier the side is, the more probable it will land face down. For example, to engrave the number 1 requires cutting away less material than the number 19. Therefore, the 1 will be less likely to appear on the top of the die, because it is heavier. It will land facing the table more than it will land facing upward. In order of weight (from lightest side to heaviest), the numbers will appear in the following manner:
(The 6 and 9 are the same, only flipped, and therefore have the same weight and probability of appearing)
This idea only works when the numbers are engraved; sometimes diemakers do not engrave the numbers, but just print them on. (Yes, it does not change the probability much, but for the gamemakers reading this, this may be an important thing to consider) This only changes the outcome for about 1:21,560 rolls. Out of 10,000 rolls, about 5,160 will be 1-10, and 4,840 will be 10-20. For non-engraved dice, the stats are 4999 for 1-10, 5001 for 10-20.
d20's, along with other dice, can be bought in local gaming store for about 20-70 cents (USD) each. Some dice-casting companies, such as Chessex or Crystal Caste, make and sell dice in sets of a specific color or combination of colors. Each set usually includes: d20, d12, d10, d8, d6 (2 of them), and one d4. Those collections sell for about 5-6 USD each.
Update: I have found that my local gaming stores must be different- I have gotten a few messages from gamers saying the dice sets they get include the following: d20, d12, 2x d10 (One with 1-10, one percentage), d8, d6, and a d4. Depending on where you live/what gaming stores you go to, the sets are different.


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U of S Students Launch Experimental Rockets in Norway
By Lisa Johnson
If it weren't for the rocky, Mars-like arctic landscape in the background, you might mistake video of an experimental rocket being launched at the Andøya Rocket Range in Norway for footage of a spacecraft blasting out of Cape Canaveral.
For the two University of Saskatchewan engineering and physics students who earlier this month travelled to a northern island in Norway to help launch the rocket, it was just as exciting.
"Watching that rocket disappear into the sky made all of our efforts, travelling, and lack of sleep really pay off," recalls Ashton Reimer.
Reimer and Robyn Reist were selected as two of only four Canadian students (out of about 50 applicants) selected to go to Norway for an intensive week-long course that culminated in the building and launching of a special sounding rocket. Sounding rockets are launched to take measurements and perform scientific experiments during the sub-orbital flight.
The rocket launched this month, the CaNoRock 1, was assembled from the propulsion system of an old missile donated by a military company. It was outfitted with sensors to measure magnetic fields, temperature, pressure, and acceleration.
Climbing 9.4 kilometres into the air, the rocket sped up to a supersonic Mach 4—four times faster than the speed of sound—before it fell into the Norwegian Sea.
"To keep it from blowing up when it came back down, we had to give it a parachute," says Reimer.
Reist says the launch happened so fast that she felt a delayed sense of accomplishment. "Now that I think of it, knowing that a circuit that I put together was a part of that rocket—it feels pretty awesome," she said.
The two U of S students were registered in a class offered by the University of Oslo and their registration, travel and accommodation was funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research, the Canadian Space Agency, and the U of S President's office.
Reist and Reimer could not have launched a sounding rocket in Canada since there are no longer any rocket ranges. The main focus of CaNoRock, an exchange program between Norway and Canada, is to give students exposure to space research and the space industry. Cheaper than launching an orbital satellite, sounding rockets are ideal for training students.
"Everything they've been learning about physics and engineering came into play—they needed to know their stuff to be a part of this project," says the students' supervisor Kathryn McWilliams.
"There is an astonishing amount of physics that goes into these things," adds Reimer.
The two not only learned about how sounding rockets work, but also the uses to which they are put. The Andøya Rocket Range is actually part of a hub of facilities specializing in space and atmospheric studies such as the ALOMAR Observatory, a lab that looks at atmospheric phenomena such as the aurora borealis (the northern lights).
As the polar region undergoes ever-increasing economic expansion, projects like these help meet the huge demand for research on climate, weather, and environment of the north. The aurora borealis, for example, interfere with GPS navigation in the arctic.
The trip gave Reimer and Reist the opportunity to meet like-minded people and share ideas. They spent the week attending physics lectures, learning about instrument assembly, and taking tours together with students from all over the world.
They were also able to appreciate Norwegian culture first hand.
"I didn't feel a huge culture shock," Reist recalls, "until it came to breakfast. We ate sardines with tomato spreads."
Reimer took the opportunity to take a quick dip in the frigid arctic water off the Norwegian Coast.
Watch the video of the launch at the U of S physics website: _URL_
Lisa Johnson is a graduate student in English interning with U of S Research Communications.
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The birth of Rose of Sharon's child carries significant symbolic meanings. For Rose of Sharon, the child has represented the possibilities for the future, yet the baby is stillborn. The event has clear parallels to the Joad's journey to California: they faced incredible hardship and pain striving for a better future, yet their sacrifices lead to nothing. The fate of the baby is even a perverse reversal of religious imagery. Uncle John places the dead child in a box and sends it down the river, an obvious allusion to Moses.


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autosp - preprocessor to generate note-spacing commands for MusiXTeX scores
autosp [-v | --version | -h | --help]
autosp [-d | --dotted] [-l | --log] infile[.aspc] [outfile[.tex]]
This program makes it easier to create MusiXTeX scores by converting (non-standard) commands of the form \anotes... \en into one or more conventional note-spacing commands (\notes \Notes \NOtes...), determined by the actual note values, with \sk spacing commands inserted as necessary. The coding for an entire measure can be entered one part at a time, without concern for note-spacing changes within the part or spacing requirements of other parts.
For example, if applied to
 \anotes\qa J\qa K&\ca l\qa m\ca n\en
autosp generates
 \Notes\qa J\sk\qa K\sk&\ca l\qa m\sk\ca n\en
Typically, an \anotes command generates several conventional note-spacing commands.
If the infile argument does not have an.aspc extension, input is taken from infile.aspc if that file exists.
If the outfile argument does not have a.tex extension, output is sent to outfile.tex. If no outfile argument is provided, output will go to infile.tex (or to infile.ltx if a \documentclass declaration is encountered).
For \anotes commands, line breaks and spaces may precede note segments, allowing more flexible source formatting; the line breaks and spaces will be elided from the output.
For example,
is acceptable and generates
If the -l ( --log ) option is used, a very detailed log infile.alog is generated.
If the -d ( --dotted ) option is used, dotted beam notes of the form \qb{n}{.p} are not given extra space; it is assumed that the subsequent note will be shifted by a \roff-like command or a spacing command such as \qsk or \hqsk. Commands of the form \qlp{p}, \qlpp{p},..., \qpb{n}{p} and \qppb{n}{p} are always spaced as indicated.
If there is a single staff, consecutive whole-bar rest bars are merged into a multi-bar rest. Bar-centered rests can be coded using the standard \def\atnextbar notation but the non-standard command \Cpause in a note segment also generates a bar-centered rest.
Spacing commands \sk and \bsk in the source are discarded, but not "small" skips \hsk, \qsk, \tqsk, \hqsk or \qqsk, or the small "backward" skips \hbsk, \bqsk, \btsk, or \bhsk. Moreover, non-standard commands \QQsk, \HQsk \TQsk and \Qsk in the source generate "global" skips; i.e., the effect of \qqsk, \hqsk, \tqsk or \qsk, respectively, in every staff. These ensure that staffs remain synchronized if additional spacing is needed in any staff(s).
Global skips may also be obtained within collective-coding sequences by using up to four successive commas to get the effects of \QQsk, \HQsk, \TQsk or \Qsk, respectively. Global skips \tqsk (or, for double-flats, \qsk) are automatically inserted before accidentals ('^', '_', '=', '<', '>') on collective-coding notes (except when the preceding note is "virtual"; i.e., a skip). If this automatic additional spacing is not wanted in some context, it may be avoided by replacing the accidental in the collective-coding sequence by any of the explicit accidental commands: \sh, \fl, \na, \smallsh, \bigsh, etc. If the automatic spacing is insufficient, the spacing may be increased by adding sufficient commas or using a conventional notes command instead of \anotes.
A note segment can be completely empty, but if a note segment should start with or contain a "space," the note-value of that space must be made explicit with a command of the form \ha{*}, \qa{.*}, \qa{*}, \ca{*}, etc.
From version 2017-06-14, the effects of \TransformNotes calls are implemented by the autosp pre-processor. This enables use of musixlyr in autosp scores; musixlyr.tex is incompatible with the musixtnt.tex implementation of \TransformNotes.
All other conventional MusiXTeX commands are output exactly as given in the input.
autosp determines the spacing for ordinary notes from the note commands themselves; for example,
\qa, \qu, \ql, \qp result in \NOtes;
\ca, \cu, \cl, \ds result in \Notes;
and so on.
The spacing for beamed notes is determined by the beam multiplicity, so that \ib... results in \Notes, \ibb... results in \notes, etc.
Collective coding of note sequences (including accidentals and dots) is handled by expanding the sequence into a sequence of individual note commands.
autosp scales notes by the relevant instrument-size value.
autosp assumes that & and | (rather than \nextinstrument and \nextstaff) are used to separate instruments and staffs.
Appoggiaturas and grace notes are recognized by the use of \tinynotesize; note-spacing of 1.45\elemskip is used. If this isn't suitable and can't be corrected with a small skip, a \vnotes command with any desired spacing can be used.
autosp supports x-tuplets introduced using \xtuplet{x} or \xxtuplet{x:y} and triplets introduced using any of the following commands (regardless of any re-definition of \txt or \tuplettxt):
autosp assumes that an x-tuplet is to be played in (x-1)/x of the apparent x-tuplet duration. So, for example, a triplet in eighths is assumed to be played in the time of one quarter note. If this assumption isn't valid, the x-tuplet must be coded explicitly using a suitable \vnotes command; see the first measure of barsant2.aspc for an example of a non-standard x-tuplet: a 5-tuple of 64th notes with an intended duration of six 64ths.
In some polyrhythmic scores, the \txt numeral may be displaced, even if the notes themselves are correctly spaced. In these cases, it is possible to suppress the normal output of \txt by using the non-standard commands \Triolet (no arguments) or \Xtuplet{k}\ and placing a numeral at the correct location using \zcn (i.e., \zcharnote).
autosp can deal with simultaneous x-tuplets in multiple staffs provided the x values and total note durations are identical.
In some baroque scores, particularly by J.S. Bach, a beamed sixteenth note is vertically aligned with the third note of a triplet of eighth notes in another staff (implying that they should be sounded simultaneously); e.g.,
would be played as if notated
 \uptrio{b}10\ql L\hroff{\cl L}
The following coding will align the beamed sixteenth note with the third note of a triplet in another staff:
and, similarly, for triplets of sixteenth notes:
Generally, user-defined macros are not processed or expanded; however, definitions of the form
 \def\atnextbar{\znotes... \en}
generate definitions that do take account of \TransformNotes.
All staffs are assumed to have the same meter; see kinder2.aspc for an example of how to work around this.
autosp may not be effective for music with more than one voice in a single staff. It might be advisable to use a separate staff for each voice, to avoid \anotes when necessary, or to omit certain voices initially and add them into the resulting TeX file.
See files quod2.aspc, kinder2.aspc, geminiani.aspc and barsant2.aspc for scores suitable for input to autosp. The program tex2aspc can be used to convert "legacy" MusiXTeX scores to.aspc format.
msxlint(1) tex2aspc(1)
This program and manual page were written by Bob Tennent <>.


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Dear France, wrap their bodies in the carcasses of pigs.—
Erick Erickson (_USER_) January 09, 2015
Update from a reader:
Erickson's recommendation is doubly offensive (and doubly dumb) considering that he's actually repurposing a trope of old-timey anti-semitism. As Zaid Jilani points out here, using pork products to taunt those who don't eat them has been a staple of Jew-baiting in Europe for centuries:
In the book Anti-Semitic Stereotypes: A Paradigm of Otherness in English Popular Culture, _PHONE_, the author notes that English schoolboys would taunt Jews with a chant, "Get a bit of pork/Stick it on a fork/And give it to a Jew boy, a Jew." In German culture, there was a popular concept of the "Judensau," depicting Jews suckling from a pig; the bigoted imagery was so common it was even placed on churches to keep Jews away. Pope Leo VII called Jews "pigs," and during the Inquisition, the Spanish Jews were actually called "marrano" referring to a one-year old pig.
I wonder if Erickson realizes just what tradition he's drawing on here. I suspect not.


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|Classification and external resources|
Puerperal fever or childbed fever, is a bacterial infection contracted by women during childbirth or miscarriage. It can develop into puerperal sepsis, which is a serious form of septicaemia. If untreated, it is often fatal.
"The Doctor's Plague"
From the 1600s through the mid to late 1800s, the majority of childbed fever cases were caused by the doctors themselves. With no knowledge of germs, doctors did not believe hand washing was needed. Statements like that of Dr. Charles Meigs, a leading obstetrician and teacher from Philadelphia, were the attitude of the time: "Doctors are gentlemen, and gentlemen's hands are clean." In the 1800s Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis noticed that women giving birth at home had a much lower incidence of childbed fever than those giving birth in the doctor's maternity ward. His investigation discovered that washing hands with an antiseptic solution before a delivery reduced childbed fever fatalities by 90%. Publication of his findings was not well received by the medical fraternity. The idea conflicted with both the existing medical concepts and more importantly, with the image that doctors had of themselves. That intransigence consigned large numbers of mothers to painful, lingering deaths. The scorn and ridicule of doctors was so extreme that Semmelweis moved from Vienna and was eventually committed to a mental asylum where he died.
Dr. Semmelweis was not the only doctor ignored after sounding a warning about this issue: in Treatise on the Epidemic of Puerperal Fever (1795), ex-naval surgeon and Aberdonian accoucheur Dr. Alexander Gordon warned that the disease was transmitted from one case to another by midwives and doctors. Dr. Gordon wrote, "It is a disagreeable declaration for me to mention, that I myself was the means of carrying the infection to a great number of women."
Elizabeth of York, the mother of Henry VIII of England, died of puerperal fever one week after giving birth to a daughter. Other significant victims include author Jean Webster, English queens Jane Seymour and Katherine Parr (both wives of Henry VIII), housekeeping authority Isabella Beeton, and Mary Wollstonecraft, author of Vindication of the Rights of Woman and mother of Frankenstein author Mary Shelley. Suzanne Barnard, mother of philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, contracted childbed fever after giving birth to him, and died nine days later. Her infant son was also in perilous health following the delivery; the adult Rousseau later wrote that "I came into the world with so few signs of life that little hope was entertained of preserving me". He was nursed back to health by an aunt. African-American poet Phillis Wheatley (1753–84) died of puerperal fever.
Modern overview
The most common infection causing puerperal fever is genital tract sepsis caused by contaminated medical equipment or unhygienic medical staff who contaminate the mother's genital tract during the delivery. Other types of infection that can lead to sepsis after childbirth include urinary tract infection, breast infection (mastitis) and respiratory tract infection (more common after anaesthesia due to lesions in the trachea).
Puerperal fever (from the Latin puer, male child (boy)), is no longer favored as a diagnostic category. Instead, contemporary terminology specifies:
- the specific target of infection: endometritis (inflammation of the inner lining of the uterus), metrophlebitis (inflammation of the veins of the uterus), and peritonitis (inflammation of the membrane lining of the abdomen)
- the severity of the infection: less serious infection (contained multiplication of microbes) or possibly life-threatening sepsis (uncontrolled and uncontained multiplication of microbes throughout the blood stream).
Causal organisms
Endometritis is a polymicrobial infection. It frequently includes organisms such as Ureaplasma, Streptococcus, Mycoplasma, and Bacteroides, and may also include organisms such as Gardnerella, Chlamydia, Lactobacillus, Escherichia, and Staphylococcus.
- A temperature rise above 100.4 °F (38 °C) maintained over 24 hours or recurring during the period from the end of the first to the end of the 10th day after childbirth or abortion. (ICD-10)
- Oral temperature of 100.4 °F (38 °C) or more on any two of the first ten days postpartum. (USJCMW)
Hospitals for childbirth became common in the 17th century in many European cities. These "lying-in" hospitals were established at a time when there was no knowledge of antisepsis or epidemiology, and patients were subjected to crowding, frequent vaginal examinations, and the use of contaminated instruments, dressings, and bedding. It was common for a doctor to deliver one baby after another, without washing his hands or changing clothes in between.
The first recorded epidemic of puerperal fever occurred at the Hôtel-Dieu de Paris in 1646. Hospitals throughout Europe and America consistently reported death rates between 20% to 25% of all women giving birth, punctuated by intermittent epidemics with up to 100% fatalities of women giving birth in childbirth wards.
A number of physicians began to suspect contagion and hygiene as causal factors in spreading puerperal fever. In 1795, Alexander Gordon of Aberdeen, Scotland suggested that the fevers were infectious processes, that physicians were the carrier, and that "I myself was the means of carrying the infection to a great number of women." Thomas Watson, Professor of Medicine at King's College Hospital, London, wrote in 1842: "Wherever puerperal fever is rife, or when a practitioner has attended any one instance of it, he should use most diligent ablution." Watson recommended handwashing with chlorine solution and changes of clothing for obstetric attendants "to prevent the practitioner becoming a vehicle of contagion and death between one patient and another."
Prevention via hygienic measures
In 1843, Oliver Wendell Holmes published The Contagiousness of Puerperal Fever and controversially concluded that puerperal fever was frequently carried from patient to patient by physicians and nurses; he suggested that clean clothing and avoidance of autopsies by those aiding birth would prevent the spread of puerperal fever. Holmes quoted Dr. James Blundell as stating, "... in my own family, I had rather that those I esteemed the most should be delivered unaided, in a stable, by the mangerside, than that they should receive the best help, in the fairest apartment, but exposed to the vapors of this pitiless disease."
Holmes' conclusions were ridiculed by many contemporaries, including Charles Delucena Meigs, a well-known obstetrician, who stated, "Doctors are gentlemen, and gentlemen's hands are clean." Richard Gordon states that Holmes' exhortations "outraged obstetricians, particularly in Philadelphia". In those days, "surgeons operated in blood-stiffened frock coats - the stiffer the coat, the prouder the busy surgeon", "pus was as inseparable from surgery as blood", and "Cleanliness was next to prudishness". He quotes Sir Frederick Treves on that era: "There was no object in being clean...Indeed, cleanliness was out of place. It was considered to be finicking and affected. An executioner might as well manicure his nails before chopping off a head".
In 1844, Ignaz Semmelweis was appointed assistant lecturer in the First Obstetric Division of the Vienna General Hospital (Allgemeines Krankenhaus), where medical students received their training. Working without knowledge of Holmes' essay, Semmelweis noticed his ward's 16% mortality rate from fever was substantially higher than the 2% mortality rate in the Second Division, where midwifery students were trained. Semmelweis also noticed that puerperal fever was rare in women who gave birth before arriving at the hospital. Semmelweis noted that doctors in First Division performed autopsies each morning on women who had died the previous day, but the midwives were not required or allowed to perform such autopsies. He made the connection between the autopsies and puerperal fever after a colleague, Jakob Kolletschka, died of septicaemia after accidentally cutting his hand while performing an autopsy.
Semmelweis began experimenting with various cleansing agents and, from May 1847, ordered all doctors and students working in the First Division wash their hands in chlorinated lime solution before starting ward work, and later before each vaginal examination. The mortality rate from puerperal fever in the division fell from 18% in May 1847 to less than 3% in June–November of the same year. While his results were extraordinary, he was treated with skepticism and ridicule (see Response to Semmelweis).
He did the same work in St. Rochus hospital in Pest, Hungary, and published his findings in 1860, but his discovery was again ignored.
Today in the United States, puerperal infection is believed to occur in between one and 8 percent of all deliveries. About three die from puerperal sepsis for every 100,000 deliveries. The single most important risk factor is Caesarean section.
In the United Kingdom _PHONE_, the number of direct deaths associated with genital tract sepsis per


If you've ever tried to send a custom email message and noticed a strange status for it, don't panic! There are a few different options you might see for your email messages under the Status column. Here's what those mean:
When a business sends out a mass email for the first time or to a large recipient list, the email is sent through our spam detection filters. Your message should go out after a short time once it has made it through the filter system. No need to send your message again if your email is pending; it will indeed go out. 👍
This means that your message is in the process of being sent out. You'll see the number of recipients increase as the email is sent out. Again, no need to send out the message again if it is queued, because this will result in your clients receiving multiple emails.
This means that your message has been successfully sent! You can see how many recipients were included, any bad emails, and when it was sent.
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This means that your message has not been sent. This is most likely due to the system catching multiples of the same email and only sending out the first.
If you ever have concerns about the status of your message, click the chat bubble in the lower right corner of your screen or email us at _EMAIL_ and let us know! We'd be more than happy to help. 😃
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Efforts to incorporate Bowmanstown as a borough occurred as early as 1892. The village contained about 300 inhabitants in 1896 but the nearby New Jersey Zinc Company soon added to its growth. Bowmanstown was incorporated as a Borough on November 29, 1913 for the purpose of providing general local government services to residents of the community. Upon incorporation of Bowmanstown as a borough its boundaries encompassed lands measuring 0.75 square mile. The borough's assessed valuation in 1918 was $279,000.00. The population of 834 in 1920 remained relatively constant for decades. The Bowmanstown Borough Municipal Building (Borough Hall) is a converted school building that was constructed in 1903 to serve the youths of the community. In 1958, the Palmerton School District was established and combined several local schools in order to create a regional school thus making the Bowmanstown campus obsolete. In 1964, the Borough acquired the old brick school building and has been using it as offices ever since. The borough kept the building in its original condition.
The Bowmanstown Borough Authority was incorporated August 24, 1997 and was created for the purpose of owning and operating the Bowmanstown Public Water System. On February 11, 2002 the Authority began construction of its water system improvement project which included a new chlorine building, looping numerous water mains, installing new services, erection of a new 250,000 gallon Standpipe and a new liner to the one Reservoir. In 2009, the Authority replaced their two roofs at the Reservoirs with metal roofs. Ongoing water projects will continue to transpire throughout the years.


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The current Aster family comprises two missiles originally designed as anti-missile missiles, capable of defeating all air threats. This family is characterized by a common kill vehicle and a booster (15 or 30) depending on the operational requirement. The ASTER PAAMS (Principal Anti-Air Missile System) is a vertical launch missile system based on ASTER 15 and ASTER 30. This advanced air defence system is able to integrate the following three missions: self-defense, local area defence of nearby vessels, and fleet area defence. It is conceived from the outset as an anti-missile weapon system and integrating the anti-aircraft and anti-missile functions. It is ordered to equip the Royal Navy Type 45 destroyers; the French Horizon frigates; the Italian Orizzonte frigates. The range of the Aster 15 excess 30 km and the range of Aster 30 excess 100 km.
© EADS 2013


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The sleeping car is a railroad car on a train with sleeping facilities. The more luxurious types have real beds and compartments not shared with strangers, while the couchette car with berths is more basic, with compartments for four or six people, where seats convert into doubleor triple-level bunk-beds, respectively.
The Pullman company owned and operated most such cars in the United States, attaching them to passenger trains operated by the railways. All-Pullman trains included the Chief and Super-Chief on the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe railroad and the various Zephyrs operated by other western railroads. Pullman cars were normally a dark Pullman green although some were painted in the host railroad's colors; they were also named, and did not carry visible numbers.
After World War II the American railroads bought out the Pullman company's sleeping car business and operated the cars themselves, though they were still named rather than numbered and carried the word 'Pullman' on them. Pullman, as Pullman-Standard, continued in the manufacture of railroad cars until 1980. With the abandonment of passenger service by American railroads, all remaining passenger operations but a few were transferred to Amtrak which now operates the remaining sleeping car services.
One unanticipated social consequence of the sleeping car was its convenience as a rendezvous for lovers, anonymous, and, by definition, away from the constraints of home. Important scenes in such films as Some Like It Hot and North by Northwest take place in Pullman cars.
Another unanticipated consequence was the effect of the Pullman on civil rights and African American culture. Each Pullman car came to be managed by a uniformed porter. These were almost always African-Americans and, by convention, were all called "George". Although this was servant's work, it was relatively well paid and Pullman porters became leaders in the black communities where they lived, forming a nucleus of the middle class. And, since all other railroad trades were unionized, the porters were unionized as well. Their union became an important source of strength for the burgeoning civil rights movement in the early 20th century, notably under the leadership of A. Philip Randolph.
Because they moved all across the country and stayed in local black communities between shifts, Pullman porters also became an important means of communication for news and cultural information of all kinds. The black newspaper Chicago Defender gained a national circulation in this way. In particular, porters used to sell phonograph records bought in the great metropolitan centers greatly adding to the distribution of jazz and blues and the popularity of the artists.
In Europe the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits, named after the French word for sleeping car, first focused on these, but later operated whole trains, including the Simplon-Orient Express, Nord Express, Train Bleu, Golden Arrow, and the Transsiberien (on the Trans-Siberian railway). Today it restricts itself again to sleeping cars, as well as catering in the train.


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Welcome to our world of fun trivia quizzes and quiz games:
Studies Have Shown...
"What do the results of the latest study really prove? This quiz explores the techniques used to avoid inferring too much from scientific studies and tests."
15 Points Per Correct Answer - No time limit
I'll bet you've noticed the resemblance between the surface of a shelled walnut and the surface of a human brain. Perhaps, then, you won't be surprised to learn that in THREE separate surveys, 100% of HIGHLY SUCCESSFUL FunTrivia quiz takers reported using WALNUTS before taking quizzes!!!
Which of the following could be inferred with certainty from these survey results?
None of these.
Eating walnuts before taking quizzes improved the performance of the participants in my survey.
Eating walnuts before taking quizzes will improve your quiz performance.
The respondents to my survey believed that eating walnuts improved their performance.
During World War I, tin helmets replaced cloth helmets. Contrary to expectation, the number of injuries increased. Which of the following could be inferred with certainty from the facts presented?
The number of injuries increased after tin helmets were introduced.
Soldiers wearing tin helmets were more likely to suffer fatal injury than those wearing cloth helmets.
Tin helmets provided protection that was inferior to cloth helmets.
All of these.
Helmet laws for motorcyclists are controversial. Some years following the repeal of Louisiana's motorcycle helmet law, the journal "Academic Emergency Medicine" (Volume 9, Number 5 418-419, 2002) reported on changes in accident statistics. Which of the following unequivocally indicates an increased risk as a result of not wearing a helmet?
Unhelmeted fatalities increased from 8.4 to 29.0 per year after the law was repealed.
Unhelmeted motorcyclists were found to have a significantly higher incidence per collision of head injury and fatality.
After repeal of the helmet law, helmet use decreased from 79% to 46%, and fatalities in all patients increased from 3.4% to 5.2%.
All of these
I demonstrated that 100% of highly successful FunTrivia quiz-takers consumed walnuts prior to quizzes. Having been criticized for not having a control group, I undertook to make a comparison using historical controls. I analyzed an equal number of quiz-takers afflicted with chronically low quiz performance and could find no evidence that any of them reported eating walnuts prior to taking quizzes. Which of the following would NOT be a valid criticism of my study methods?
I failed to disclose the specifics of my methods for determining walnut use in the study and control groups and could be hiding an ascertainment error/bias.
I failed to specify the number of study participants.
Retrospective studies never prove cause and effect.
My study was retrospective, and retrospective studies never provide statistically valid, useful results.
Randomized, controlled, double-blinded studies are the gold standard for medical investigation. In 2001, a group of neurologists was asked to help investigate the importance of a component of this method during a study of a treatment for multiple sclerosis. These neurologists were asked to evaluate subjects but were told before doing the evaluation whether or not the subjects had received placebo or the proposed intervention. Which aspect of randomized, controlled, double blinded studies was being omitted for these neurologist to allow that particular aspect to be studied?
None of these
According to the coronary risk calculator provided at the NIH website, the risk of a coronary event for a 35 year old non-smoking woman with normal blood pressure, normal HDL cholesterol and a total cholesterol of 300 is 1% for ten years. Assuming that 200 such women were treated for ten years with cholesterol lowering drugs that reduced the risk of coronary events by 50%, how many coronary events would we expect to prevent in a ten year period?
A 35-year-old woman dentist is offered a free cardiac treadmill at a dental convention. Before accepting the offer she calculates her expected coronary risk and finds it to be 1%. Assuming a 20% false positive rate and a 10% false negative rate, what would her risk of coronary artery disease be should she be found to have an abnormal cardiac stress test?
David G. Myers' "Exploring Psychology" states, "There is a highly significant tendency for first-born individuals within a family to have higher average scores (on tests of intelligence) than their later-born siblings." Assuming Dr. Myers is speaking of statistical significance, what can we infer about intelligence test scores of first-born as opposed to later born siblings?
The difference in test scores is highly unlikely to be explained on the basis of chance variation of statistical samples.
The difference in test scores is large in magnitude and highly unlikely to be related to chance.
The difference is large in magnitude.
The difference in test scores results in highly significant differences in school performance.
"Web MD", an Internet medical information provider, ran a report on February 4, 2003 that was headlined "Selenium May Fight Prostate Damage" and "Supplementation May Reduce Prostate Cancer Risk". The study, however, was not performed on humans but on elderly, male beagles. The results of this study can be applied with complete confidence to which of the following groups?
All of these
Elderly male humans
Elderly male beagles
Any age and species of dog
I have decided to make a spring water extract of walnuts that I call "Quizzlenut" available in the United States for improving quiz taking health. (Remember, I have performed three surveys showing that walnuts improve quiz-taking performance!) Will the US Food and Drug Administration analyze either my product to verify its contents or my claims for the product before it is marketed?
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This set of images of Korea was acquired by the American Geographical Society from Shannon McCune (_PHONE_), Professor of Geography and Asian Studies. The pictures were taken between 1938 and 1939 during McCune's stay in Korea when he conducted research for his doctoral dissertation "Climatic Regions of Tyosen (Korea)". In his captions McCune uses Japanese names for Korean places, e.g. Tyosen (Korea), Heizyo (Pyongyang), or Keizyo (Seoul). For more information, please see McCune, Shannon. Climatic Regions of Korea and Their Economy. Geographical Review, Vol. 31, No. 1. (Jan., 1941), pp. 95-99.
Wongaksa Pagoda is a ten-storey marble pagoda constructed in 1467 two years after Wongaksa Temple was founded. It is designated as National Treasure #2 and very similar to the Gyongcheonsa Pagoda, which was formerly made during the Koryo Dynasty (_PHONE_) and designated as National Treasure #86.


ABC's of Railroading
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AEI data tags and readers
Tracking freight cars
By Keith Thompson
Published: May 1, 2006
Beginning in the late 1960's and continuing through the late 1970's, railroads experimented with an optical-based equipment tracking system called Automatic Car Identification, or ACI for short. This system was supposed to allow railroads, car owners, and shippers to track anything that moved by rail. Lineside scanners would read colored bar codes on the sides of the cars and pass the information about a particular car's whereabouts on to a central computer.
The problem? Dirt!
When the ACI tags were clean, everything worked fine. However, keeping something clean on a railroad is next to impossible, and a moving train couldn't stop and repeatedly rescan its cars until they were read, like a supermarket checkout clerk can do with a dirty cereal box label. The ACI system was abandoned in the late 1970's and the tags were removed as equipment went in for shoppings and repainting, although the labels can still be found on many cars.
This left the railroads without an automated way to keep track of equipment, so car tracking once again required eyesight, waybills, and sharp pencils.
Then, in the early 1990s something new came along that allowed railroads to retire their pencils and automate the way they keep tabs on rolling stock. It's called the Automatic Equipment Identification, or AEI, data tag.
The Association of American Railroads (AAR) has required all cars and locomotives to have data tags mounted on their sides since the end of 1994.
How it works
The data tags - essentially computer circuits in plastic boxes measuring roughly 3 by 10 inches in size - are mounted to the left of both sides of rolling stock about 48 inches above the rail. Often they're attached to a piece of metal angle or a bracket to improve their reception and transmitting.
AEI data tags are radio transponders that broadcast a locomotive, freight car, trailer, container, or end-of-train device's information to trackside readers while the train rolls by. Each tag has information formatted for the particular piece of equipment it's attached to, and usually includes the equipment type, owner, and road number.
To virtually eliminate maintenance, there aren't any batteries in the data tags. The trackside readers retrieve data-tag information by using a radio signal to reflect and modulate the information back to the reader. Basically, instead of using the visible light that a checkout scanner uses, the trackside readers use a 90OMHz radio signal.
Data tags can be very visible on railroad equipment if left in their unpainted, gray plastic color. New cars and locomotives might have painted tags, but those are rare; most are left in the color they're molded in.
AEI readers are also easy to spot. Most look like a white plastic box mounted on a triangular stand. Often you'll find the reader used in conjunction with a dragging-equipment detector or a wayside video camera station. There are about 1200 trackside readers throughout North America.
Why they're needed
The information gathered by the readers can be used by the railroad's traffic or customer service department to locate a shipment for a customer at almost any point of its journey. It also helps out in waybill generation by eliminating the information entry errors normally associated with manual reporting.
Data-tag readers are also usually tied into a railroad's car location message (CLM) system. It's up to the railroads to share the information between their CLM systems so customers can track multiple-railroad shipments. The data-tag standard has nothing to do with how the information is used; it just standardizes the reporting method.
Standards for the AEI system were developed with the trucking and maritime industries, so intermodal equipment can be reported as well. Trucking firms J. B. Hunt and Schneider International also have data tags mounted on some of their tractors.
Almost all North American railroad equipment - freight and passenger - now has AEI data tags, and railroads are happy with the results. The AAR says over 1.2 million cars and 22,000 locomotives have been tagged.
The AEI data tag project, like any mass implementation of new technology, has not been without problems. In March 1992, the Santa Fe ran into some problems with its data tags. Cars tagged at Argentine Yard in Kansas City, Kans., were arriving at the railroad's Barstow Yard in California with essentially blank tags - the readers couldn't read them. The culprit was an airport in Texas with a ground radar that was stronger than was expected by the original AEI specifications. The FAA later replaced the airport's antiquated radar with a new, low-power installation. Newer data tags are also supposed to be more resistant to high electro-magnetic pulses and should not experience this problem again.
Several firms manufacture AEI data tags and readers, but Amtech, the company chiefly involved in developing the system, is the largest supplier of data tag equipment.
Amtech also markets data tags that can transmit information about a piece of equipment's well-being. These dynamic data tags are called Automatic Equipment Management, or AEM data tags by Amtech. Externally they look the same as their AEI cousins, but they also have a wire coming out the bottom that hooks up to onboard computers. Dynamic data tags can transmit information to the readers about how much fuel a mechanical refrigeration car unit has left, how a locomotive is running, or if the shock control on a car is functioning properly.
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Card Dispensing Solutions With MUTEK products
Recently, there are many questions raised about our card dispensing solutions. Generally, here is an article that briefly summarizes the difference of card issuing machines and card dispensers. It will also serve as an reference when you are going to deploy your own card dispensing solutions.
What's the difference of a card dispenser and a card issuing machine?
Generally, there is no difference from the mechanism point of view. Both would dispense a card from the hopper pre-loaded with cards. In our internal definition, a card dispenser would have possibility to do auto reading/writing of different card type before dispensing. Or it's also possible to serve as a card reader writer that would accept cards from the card holders from the front bezel.(MTK-F31, MTK-X61).
For a card issuing machine, it may not have space or options to integrate a card reader/writer. While it is still possible to work with an external card reader with handshaking jobs done by the host machine.(MTK-F12).
Certain Types of Card Dispensers:
When mentioning Card dispenser for certain card types, e.g. magnetic, IC or RF, it indicates that the dispenser would have reading and/or writing function for that card type. For example:
 1. Magnetic+RFID+IC Card Dispenser: MTK-X91(Magnetic+IC+RFID R/W) and MTK-X61(Magnetic Read, RFID/IC R/W) are both configurable to do one/two/three types of card reading/writing;
 2. Smart Card Dispenser: MTK-571 and MTK-F31 are optional to R/W either RFID and/or IC cards.
Magnetic Card Dispensing Solutions:
Magnetic Card dispensers are strictly divided into 2 categories: Magnetic R/W dispenser and Magnetic Read Only Dispenser. It's mainly due to the cost and practicability factors. For example, a magnetic swipe reader cost only US$10 while a magnetic swipe reader/writer may need over US$100. So as a matter of fact, a magnetic read card dispenser for kiosks is typically priced below US$1000, while a real self-service terminal magnetic read/write dispenser would cost over US$1500.
MUTEK Magnetic Card Dispenser Products:
 1. MTK-X91 all function card dispenser: The machine have magnetic R/W dispensing function while optional to have IC/RFID read/write modules. We don't suggest this model to be used on self-service kiosks; it's mainly used by card manufacturers for batch initialization and verification.
 2. MTK-X61 hybrid Magnetic Read Dispenser: The machine has magnetic read only dispensing function and optional Smart card Reading/writing modules. This one is possible to be used on kiosks and other unattended self-service terminals.
Smart Card (IC/RFID) Card Dispensing Solutions:
Smart Card dispenser is supposed to have one of or both of the IC and RFID card reading/writing modules integrated. It would generally support the ISO standard contact/contactless card types. Customers may also integrate their own specific card reader/writers for other non-standard card types such as HID or iClass types.
MUTEK Related Smart Card Dispensing products:
MTK-571 and MTK-F31 are smart card dispenser that is compatible with each other, both would support RFID/IC card dispensing with front card reading/writing. MTK-F31 is short inprofile which allows it to be installed in slim chassis. Furthermore, card recycling function is supported by MTK-F31.


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||Cambridge University Press
|Related course codes
This book is about the economy of the Carolingian empire (753–877), which extended from the Pyrenees and the northern shores of the Mediterranean to the North Sea, and from the Atlantic coast to the Elbe and Saale rivers. It is the first comprehensive evaluation of the topic in English in over twenty years. The study of the Carolingian empire as an economic rather than a political entity can be justified both because of the major interference of political authority in the economy, and because of the distinctive economic characteristic of growth; and while some regions within the empire had a much more developed economy than others, the whole period is basically one of economic expansion, in parallel with the cultural upheaval of the 'Carolingian Renaissance'.


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Franco-Scottish alliance against England one of longest in history
12 Aug 2011
A University of Manchester historian has uncovered evidence which shows how a defensive alliance against England between Scotland and France might never have formally ended – potentially making it the longest in history.
In a paper to be published next year, Dr Siobhan Talbott argues the Franco-Scottish Auld Alliance of 1295 survived centuries of enmity and war between Britain and France – even after the Act of Union was signed in 1707. Trade, she says, is a major reason for its longevity.
The prevailing view of historians that Scotland sided with the English, moving away from her friendship with France after 1560, when the country converted to Protestantism, is also disputed by Dr Talbott.
J. Macpherson, published in Scottish Field in 1967, says Dr Talbott, showed that France refused to accept Westminster's abrogation of the Scottish side of the Auld Alliance in 1906, following the Entente Cordiale between Britain and France. By French law, a Scotsman born before 1907 still possesses the full rights and privileges of Franco-Scottish nationality.
The 716-year-old citizenship and trading privileges enjoyed by Scots in France, she suggests, are possibly intact today.
Dr Talbott said: "It's going to be difficult to prove conclusively that Auld Alliance of 1295 is the longest in history - but there is strong evidence to suggest that this could indeed be the case.
"If we accept 1906 as an 'end date', this would make the Auld Alliance 611 years old, compared to 638 years for what many regard as world's oldest alliance between England and Portugal.
"However, when Charles de Gaulle spoke in Edinburgh in June 1942, he stated that the Auld Alliance was 'the oldest alliance in the world'."
Previously, historians have argued the 1560 Treaty of Edinburgh, along with Scotland's conversion to Protestantism, ended the Auld Alliance between Scotland and France.
But not so according to Dr Talbott: some French troops remained in Scotland and there is no reference to ending the Alliance in the text.
Even during the eighteenth century – after the Act of Union was signed – Scotland and France continued to have an active and close relationship, based on the historic Auld Alliance.
Trade flourished between the two countries, even though France was Catholic and Scotland Protestant.
Scottish merchants paid less or no customs at some French ports, whereas some ports would not trade with the English at all.
The Scots exported a range of goods including coal, wool and animal skins to France.
And French exports included salt, wine, luxury cloth, musical instruments, furniture, beds and spectacles.
Despite some difficulties for Protestant Scots, there were well established communities in Bordeaux, Paris and La Rochelle throughout the seventeenth century.
Dr Talbott said: "It has been previously recognised that trade continued to take place between the two countries in the eighteenth century.
"But by examining merchants' records from the period, I can now say that it was much more extensive than realised, and that it continued despite conflict such as war which many historians have maintained prevented it.
She added: "Scots saw their country as an independent entity throughout the eighteenth century, even after the Union of the Scottish and English monarchies in 1603 and the Union of their parliaments in 1707 - and other European nations regarded them like that too.
"This might explain why Scots seem to have more of a notion of independence than the English, who appear to more readily see themselves as 'British' - and it will be interesting to see if the results of the 2011 Census and the proposed 2014 referendum on Scottish Independence reflects this."
Dr Talbott's research has been awarded the prestigious 2011 Pollard Prize by the Institute of Historical Research, University of London, for the best seminar given by a scholar within one year of completing their PhD.
Notes for editors
The paper by Dr Talbott will be published in the journal Historical Research and is entitled: 'If you were hier you could gaine what you please, for there is many English and severall Scots that you might deall with': British Commercial Interests on the French Atlantic Coast, c. _PHONE_'.
It will be published in the IHR's journal, Historical Research next year.
'Beyond 'the antiseptic realm of theoretical economic models': New Perspectives on Franco-Scottish Commerce and the Auld Alliance in the Long Seventeenth Century' is being published later this year in the Journal of Scottish Historical Research, 31:2 (November 2011). It won the Economic and Social History Society of Scotland's Research Essay Prize for 2009.
The research was carried out in national and regional archives of France, USA and UK.
Dr Talbott is available for interview
For media enquires contact:
Faculty of Humanities
The University of Manchester
0161 _PHONE_