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Aug. 7, 2012 Compared with open farmland, wooded "shade" plantations that produce coffee and chocolate promote greater bird diversity, although a new University of Utah study says forests remain the best habitat for tropical birds.
The findings suggest that as open farmland replaces forests and "agroforests" -- where crops are grown under trees -- reduced number of bird species and shifts in the populations of various types of birds may hurt "ecosystem services" that birds provide to people, such as eating insect pests, spreading seeds and pollinating crops.
"We found that agroforests are better overall for bird biodiversity in the tropics than open farms," says study author Çağan H. Şekercioğlu (pronounced Cha-awn Shay-care-gee-oh-loo), an assistant professor of biology at the University of Utah.
"This doesn't mean people should farm in intact forests," the ornithologist adds. "But if you have the option of having agroforest versus open farmland, that is better for biodiversity, with shade coffee and shade cacao [the source of cocoa and chocolate] being the prime examples."
Şekercioğlu's new study, funded by the University of Utah, is being published this month in the Journal of Ornithology. He will present the findings on Aug. 9, at the Ecological Society of America's annual meeting in Portland, Ore.
If consumers wish to support bird diversity and agroforests, "a good way is by choosing certified, bird-friendly, shade coffee or shade chocolate," he says. While such coffee or chocolate often cost more because they are more labor-intensive to produce, the certification "is usually better for the farmers' income as well."
He adds: "There are trustworthy environmental organizations that certify shade coffee," including the Smithsonian Institution, the Rainforest Alliance and the Rainforest Action Network.
Other crops grown in shade include cardamom, which is a spice, and yerba mate, which is steeped in hot water to make a beverage popular in South America.
Study Focuses on Birds of Forests, Farms or Both
An agroforest "is a type of farm where the crops are grown under trees at a reasonable density," Şekercioğlu says. "Often, it's not like forest-forest -- it feels more like a open park," although in Ethiopia "commercial coffee is grown under full-on forests in its original native habitat."
Şekercioğlu conducted the study in two steps. First, "I used my world bird database that has information on all the 10,000-plus bird species of the world," he says. "I sorted birds based on habitat choices and compared species that prefer forests to those that prefer agricultural areas and others that prefer both forests and agricultural areas."
Next, he reviewed about 40 previously published studies that examined bird communities in forests, agroforests and open agricultural areas.
"The global analysis of all the birds species mostly agrees with the findings of detailed local bird studies," Şekercioğlu says.
The study focused 6,093 tropical bird species, including migratory birds, in which their top three habitat choices (out of 14 possible habitats) included forests, farms or both, with the latter described as agroforest birds. So the study found 4,574 bird species that include forest but not farms in their top three habitats, 303 species that include farms but not forests in their top three habitat choices, and 1,216 agroforest species tha include both forests and farms among their top three habitats.
The findings suggest, but don't prove, that conversion of forest to farmland may reduce ecosystem services, which are services birds provide to people.
"As you go to more and more open agriculture, you lose some bird groups that provide important ecosystem services like insect control [insect eaters], seed dispersal [fruit eaters] and pollination [nectar eaters], while you get higher numbers of granivores [seed and grain eaters] that actually can be crop pests," Şekercioğlu says. Specifically:
-- Insectivores or insect-eating birds do best in forests -- especially those that live near the ground in the understory, the layer of plants below the tree canopy and above the ground cover. But small and medium insect-eating birds, especially migrant and canopy species, do well in agroforests. The number of insect-eating species declines on open farms, where they help control pests.
-- Frugivores or fruit-eating birds, especially larger ones, "do best in forest because they have more habitat and more food, and the large ones often are hunted outside forests in agricultural settings. Overall, frugivores -- especially smaller ones -- do OK in agroforests, but the number of fruit-eating species decline significantly on open farms." Frugivores help spread the seeds of the fruits they eat.
-- Nectarivores or nectar-eating birds help pollinate many plants. They "tend to increase in agroforests compared with forests. A lot of nectar-eating birds obviously like flowers, and many plants flower when there's some light. When you have extensive forest its often pretty shady so not many things are in flower at any given time." The nectar eaters are less common on open farms.
-- Omnivores, which are birds that eat many things, "tend to do better in agroforests and especially on open farms" than in forests, because their diet is so generalized instead of specialized in certain foods.
- Granivores, or grainand seed-eating birds are "the only group that significantly increases in open agricultural areas. A lot of the seeds they eat are grass seeds, but also from crops. Some of these seed-eating bird species are major agricultural pests, and that's another reason for encouraging agroforests. In completely open agricultural systems, you have more seed-eating birds that can cause significant crop losses."
While the study found fewer species on farms than in agroforests, and fewer on agroforests than in forests, Şekercioğlu says it doesn't answer a key question: "Does the decline in the number species translate into a decline in individuals providing a given ecosystem service?" If so, farms and agroforests have lost birds that provide important insect-control, pollination and seed-dispersal services.
"It is possible you may lose a lot of species, but some of the remaining species increase in number and compensate and for the decline in ecosystem services by the lost species," he adds. "It's one of the biggest questions in ecology."
The Trend toward Sun Coffee
Noting that the study found forests have more tropical bird species than agroforests, which in turn have more bird species that open farms, Şekercioğlu says: "A lot of threatened species globally are found only in forests, and most of them disappear from agroforests and open agricultural areas."
He says many migratory birds that breed in the United States are in decline -- even though the nation has a law to protect them -- and not just because of U.S. environmental problems, "but due to problems in their wintering grounds in Latin America, such as loss of habitat and intensification of agriculture."
"Coffee was originally a midto high-elevation African forest understory plant," he adds. "For centuries in Ethiopia and parts of Central and South America, coffee has been grown as an understory plant with shade traditionally provided by native trees."
But fungi can be a problem in humid shade coffee plantations, and growers have come up with varieties that grow well in the sun with less fungus and bigger yields, so in recent decades, there has been a trend toward converting Central and South American shade-coffee forests to open farms, Şekercioğlu says.
"As tropical forest is converted to increasingly open types of agriculture, hundreds of endangered bird species are being lost," he says. "Tropical forest is the only refuge for thousands of bird species and hundreds of endangered bird species. Although agroforest is better than open farmland, at the end of the day intact tropical forest is the only suitable habitat for thousands of bird species."
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Design, Synthesis and Characterization of Nanostructured Thermoelectric Materials
Time: Fri 2021-10-15 10.00
Location: BioX Library _URL_ Albanova Universitetscentrum, Roslagstullsbacken 21, Stockholm och via zoom, Stockholm (English)
Subject area: Material and Nano Physics Physics
Doctoral student: PhD Bejan Hamawandi, Biomedicinsk fysik och röntgenfysik, Nanochemistry
Opponent: Professor MARISOL Martin Gonzalez, Instituto de Micro y Nanotechnologica, IMN CSI, Spanien
Supervisor: Professor Muhammet Toprak, Materialoch nanofysik
The demand for energy is rapidly increasing, triggering more carbon emission and global warming. Alternative green energy sources are essential to secure the future generation from the effect of pollution and global warming. During the last few decades, thermoelectric (TE) materials gained interest, due to their capability of directly interconverting between heat and power, which can be used to convert waste heat to electricity. One of the strategic TE adaptation approaches is to develop high efficiency TE materials from earth-abundant and non-toxic components. Not only the TE materials' composition, but also the synthesis method, has to be environment friendly in order to create a green transition, with minimum adverse environmental impacts. Bottom-up microwave (MW) assisted synthesis routes, using water and polyalcohol as green solvents were demonstrated feasible to generate binary and ternary compositions of Bi2-xSbxTe3, which were effective in room temperature. A more earth abundant and environment friendly material composition, copper selenide (Cu2-XSe), effective at intermediate temperature regime (200-600 °C), was synthesized by MW-assisted thermolysis. The synthesized materials were characterized in terms of structure, microstructure, surface chemistry and TE transport properties, and showed significant improvement of TE performance compared to materials synthesized using conventional methods - mainly attributed to the preservation of nanostructure. Significant results have been achieved with improved material characteristics, while the time and the energy investment were substantially reduced. The developed processes with reduced time and carbon footprint offer excellent sustainable synthesis routes for large-scale synthesis of high-performance nanostructured TE materials as strategic energy materials.

source: openbmb/Ultra-FineWeb


text: 'BETI - Female Selective Abortion in India' is a graphic narrative based in India, that represents sex discrimination and gender bias through a cultural narrative with supplemental information on topics such as, science, laws and statistics. The book mainly focuses in the most extreme form of sex discrimination, female selective abortion, which is; is the termination of pregnancy based on the fetus being female. This occurs in select groups in India that sex discriminates due to cultural prejudice against females regardless of availability of resources and economy. The graphic narrative is to educate females on sex discrimination (female selective abortion) and why this leads to gender bias for women and gender imbalance in society in the future. This book fills the gap of information between the science relating to reproduction and sex and what the cultural misconceptions of sex (ie. gender) and reproduction are. Understanding these topics will within a narrative of a story with the right scientific infomration will enable them to make connections about gender based on a different context, through science as opposed purely through cultural perception.

source: HuggingFaceFW/fineweb-edu


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Photo Gallery | Baby Colobus Monkey At The Saint Louis Zoo
A black and white colobus monkey was born at the Saint Louis Zoo's Primate House on June 30.
Naming will await determination of the monkey's gender. The infant is the sibling of "Mosi", now 13 months old and the first colobus to be born at the Zoo in 11 years.
Colobus infants are born with all white hair and a pink face. In contrast, adults are primarily black, with white hair encircling their face and half of their tail. They have a distinctive mantle of long white hair extending from their shoulders around the edge of their back. Infants will change color gradually until they reach adult coloration at about six months.
The 24-year-old mother "Roberta" came to the Saint Louis Zoo in 2010 after attempts to introduce her to the colobus group at Binder Park Zoo in Michigan were unsuccessful. After the move to St. Louis, Roberta was easily integrated with the Zoo's 13-year-old female "Cecelia," and both the new baby's and Mosi's father, six-year-old "Kima." The family of five is now on exhibit. Visitors can see the infant poking its head out to look at its new world.
"It was believed that Roberta, who is an experienced mother, was likely post-reproductive when she arrived here," says Ingrid Porton, curator of primates at Saint Louis Zoo. "Happily she proved this to be quite incorrect."
Colobus monkeys are found throughout the forests of central Africa. The birth is part of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums' Colobus Species Survival Plan (SSP), a program to manage a genetically healthy population of black and white colobus monkeys in North American zoos.
"Roberta is an attentive and protective mother. Mosi is very curious about the new infant and mom allows him to sniff the infant, but when he tries to touch, she has pushed him away," says Porton. "We are looking forward to the time when his sibling will be old enough to be Mosi's play partner."


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can also group the tools to create a tool GigaStream. You can apply egress filters in tool ports. Refer to the Egress Filters section for more details.
- Sources: Displays the configured ports. You can edit the ports and create port groups from sources. Do not use fan out port as source port in policy.
- Filters: Displays the available filters. You can create a new template from the Filters option. Starting in software version 5.9, you can use advanced filters for creating the filter rules.
- Packet Transformations: Displays the supported packet transformation options. You can also create a template with the required Packet Transformation option.
- Visualize: You can select multiple policies and click Visualize to compare the policies.
Note: You can create policies by navigating to Actions > Create Policy from all of the tabs listed above. You can view the health status of the ports, tools and policies when creating the policy.
You must have the following licenses:
|GigaSMART Packet Slicing
|GigaSMART Header Addition
|GigaSMART Header Stripping
Refer to the Rules and Notes for Orchestrated Configurations section before creating the policy.
To create orchestrated policies:
- On the left navigation pane, click on and under Physical > Orchestrated Flows> Out-of-Band Flows.
- Click Create Policy. The Create Policy wizard is displayed. You can specify a name for the policy.
- Select Sources to select the available source ports or port groups.
- Click Select Tools to select the required tool ports (port type: tool port or hybrid). You cannot select a port that is already used. You can also associate a new tool using the Create New Tool option.
- Create the policy with the required rules. You can define the required filters and criterion in the rule.
- If you have configured multiple filters in a rule, then the traffic will be filtered only if all the filter rules are true.
- If you have configured multiple criterion in a rule, then the traffic will be filtered even if one of the criteria is true.
- Select the required packet transformation option. You can combine multiple packet transformation options with in a single rule. The GigaSMART packet transformation operations are performed in parallel.
- Click on the edit option next to the Processing Engine option to select the required GigaSMART engine ports for your rule. If you do not select the engine ports, then they will be automatically selected.
- For policies created based on multicluster topology, you must manually select the engine ports, as automatic allocation is not supported.
- For policies created based on single cluster topology, automatic allocation of engine ports is supported. However, only engine ports that have not been already used will be allocated.
- Enable the Prioritize Rules check box to create priority-based policy.
- Click the Tags option to associate the policy to tags. Refer to Tagging and RBAC Support section for more details.
- Click Validate to validate the policy. You can either:
- Click Save to save the policy. You can deploy the saved policies later.
- Click Deploy to deploy the policy.
Note: You can configure the sources, tools and policies in any sequence you want.
Note: If a port (port type: network or hybrid) is already used as a source port in any of the following standard GigaVUE‑FM configurations, then those ports will not be listed in the drop-down:
|5G CUPS solution
However, you can view all the ports in the Ports page.
Note: You can select Drop to drop the packets without selecting the tools. Refer to the Drop Rules section for details related to drop rules.
Note: You can create a policy with multiple rules. With in each rule, you can configure multiple criteria and multiple filters and use them together with the packet transformation options.
Note: Engine ports that have not been used in standard GigaSMART operations will only be available for selection. You cannot edit or delete an engine once a policy is deployed. However, you can remove the packet transformation and add the packet transformation option with a different engine.
Note: Use the Everything Else option to configure the shared collector. Refer to the GigaVUE Fabric Management Guide for details on Shared Collector.
The policy thus created is listed together with the list of policies. You can edit, delete, deploy and undeploy a policy, as required.
Tagging and RBAC Support
Role Based Access Control (RBAC) in GigaVUE-FM controls the access privileges of users and restricts users from either modifying or viewing unauthorized data. In Orchestrated Configurations, RBAC controls the accessibility of the users to the policies based on the tags. Tags can be either RBAC tags or aggregation tags. Multiple tags can be assigned to policies and rules.
Note: RBAC tags are supported only at the policy level. The orchestration wizard allows RBAC tags to be applied at the rule level as well, though it is not supported in this release.
To associate policies to tags:
- Click the Tags option at the policy level. You can associate tags either at the time of creating a policy or edit an existing policy.
- Select the required tag keys and tag values.
- Click Save.
Note: The tag key and the associated tag values must be created in advance in GigaVUEFM. Refer to the "Tags" and "Role Based Access Control" sections in the GigaVUE Administration Guide for more details
Once you associate the policy to a tag, only users with fm_super_admin role or users with read/write access to the Traffic Control Management category can access the policies.
You can use the Drop option in the 'Create Policy' wizard as the destination to drop a packet. For a drop rule to pass a packet, it must be used together with a pass rule or with the 'Everything Else' rule, such that the packets that do not match the drop criteria will be forwarded to the tools.
In orchestrated configurations, there are no rule priorities for pass rules. However, the following is the order of priority for prioritized and unprioritized drop rules together with the pass rules:
- Prioritized drop rules
- Pass rules
- Unprioritized drop rules
- Default collector
A drop rule, by default, has lower priority than the pass rule and higher priority than 'Everything else'. Therefore, a drop rule will drop the traffic before the traffic gets passed to the destination of the 'Everything Else' rule. However, a prioritized drop rule has the highest priority amongst all the rules in a policy and will drop matching traffic before any other policy rule can process that traffic.
Consider a scenario in which the intent is to drop packets with VLAN 101 and pass packets with IP version 4. Based on the default settings, if there is only IPv4 traffic on the source side, packets with VLAN Id 101 will not be dropped because pass rule has higher priority than the drop rule. To choose 'Drop' as high priority within the policy, you must prioritize the drop rule by checking the 'Prioritize Rule' option.
Note: To prioritize the drop rules in deployed policies, you must first undeploy the policy.
Starting in software version 5.11.00, you can import and export an orchestrated policy in YAML format. This allows you to bulk deploy the policies.
The following are the advantages of importing and exporting policies:
- Retrieve a policy that was deleted unintentionally.
- Deploy the policy in another device.
- Re-deploy a policy in the device after GigaVUE-FM is upgraded to a new version (in case of issues in the existing solution).
The YAML file contains the following information:
- Packet Transformation
The below is the Import and Export Policy sample template of a YAML file. You can use the following sample template as a reference while building a policy in YAML format.
- :
-
- ruleName:
- type: ipSrc
-
-
- type: portSrc
- type: ipVer
- type: dedup
# it is practical to have all the tool bindings separate from the policy body in order to leave the policy body as an abstract policy template
- toolName: Tool1
# in the future we may have also metadata receivers
- type: port
# possibly more tool bindings...
- sourceName: ChicagoServers
# in the future we will have various types including types that reflect tunnelling arrangements
- type: port
- criteriaName: CriteriaWithBinding
- type: ipDest
-
-
- type: port
Rules and Notes
Refer to the following rules and notes:
- You can export policies that either deployed or undeployed. However, when you import a policy, it will be in undeployed status. You must manually deploy the imported policy.
- You cannot import or export the egress port filters in a policy. You must manually apply them.
- When you export a policy that has GigaStream, port groups and other such groups, you must ensure that those groupings exist when you import the same policy. This also applies to tools that were created through the tool wizard.
- Port types involved in a policy that is exported must not be changed when trying to import the same policy.
- If templates were used to create a policy that was exported, then those templates must remain when importing a policy.
- You can import and export several policies in one operation.
Import and Export Orchestrated Configuration
To export a policy:
- In the Policies page, select the policy that must be exported.
- Select Actions and click Export Policy. The policy is downloaded as an YAML file.
- Save the


text:
First, see the CAP Theorem. It's similar to the old aphorism of "Fast, Good, Cheap: Pick 2."
In theoretical computer science, the CAP theorem, also known as Brewer's theorem, states that it is impossible for a distributed computer system to simultaneously provide all three of the following guarantees:
- Consistency (all nodes see the same data at the same time)
- Availability (a guarantee that every request receives a response about whether it succeeded or failed)
- Partition tolerance (the system continues to operate despite arbitrary partitioning due to network failures)
Maintaining a serialized number requires consistency... one place that is the keeper of numbers. In large systems this can become a bottleneck, a single point of failure, or both. In distributed systems, it is common to start relaxing this constraint (Consistency) in favor of the other two.
There are strategies to maintain serialized numeric identities in distributed systems, like the HI-LO algorithm or its derivatives, but it is still very possible to skip large swaths of numbers in case of node failures.
Another common method is to use a UUID, a randomly generated identifer (which is twice the size of Int64), which has a pretty high (but not 100%) chance of being unique from any other generated UUID. It's basically just a very large random number. This is nice for client operations, because the client can generate it with a pretty good chance of uniqueness, and subsequently use it to identify or track things. But collisions (same ID being generated) are possible (especially if the client has a terrible RNG) and still must be dealt with.
My suspicion is that the youtube identifers are some shorter variation of a uuid which is then converted to a variation of base64 without punctuation. Because punctuation kills the ability to be used in links. Hence, it's a very large number (either random or serialized) that has been converted to text so that it is shorter.
One identifier format that is fairly popular is "entity-#" or "system-entity-#" if you have a number of inter-operating systems. The # is generated either consistently by the owning system (still distributed in the sense that there are multiple systems, microservices, whatever) or with a HI-LO variation. And for display purposes, it's fairly trivial to strip off the prefix and just use the number portion.
The above is obviously not a complete list, and in the end they are all just binary numbers on disk. The reasons to use one or the other are the architectural trade-offs that are most favorable to your system. UUIDs have the most convenient architectural properties for distributed systems, but are bad with the human factor (user can remember and type 102875, but not B9FE6378-E76C-40D5-883B-72FE376952A4, a UUID I just made).
If there is any ambiguity in what is being identified, neither UUIDs or numbers are particularly useful but strings are great there. At least serialized numbers can give you an idea of scale which can hint at what is being referenced.
There are, of course, security concerns with a string identifier like I mentioned, because it can give would-be attackers insight into your system.
I have even seen a blog post shunning numeric identifiers because of the impression it gives when a user is given low numbered resources (e.g. Account #5)... Not that I think this has merit. After all, you can always start your number sequence at 6-digits if user-confidence is a valid business concern. Edit: Trend analysis could be a security issue with incrementing IDs.


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Password :
Design patterns
Static diagram :
Static diagram
Description :
Type : Be (Behavioral)
Applicability : Use the Command pattern when you want to :
- parameterize objects by an action to perform. You can express such parameterization in a procedural language with a callback function, that is, a function that's registered somewhere to be called at a later point. Commands are an object-oriented replacement for callbacks.
- specify, queue, and execute requests at different times. A Command object can have a lifetime independent of the original request. If the receiver of a request can be represented in an address space-independent way, then you can transfer a command object for the request to a different process and fulfill the request there.
- support undo. The Command's Execute operation can store state for reversing its effects in the command itself. The Command interface must have an added Unexecute operation that reverses the effects of a previous call to Execute. Executed commands are stored in a history list. Unlimited-level undo and redo is achieved by traversing this list backwards and forwards calling Unexecute and Execute, respectively.
- support logging changes so that they can be reapplied in case of a system crash. By augmenting the Command interface with load and store operations, you can keep a persistent log of changes. Recovering from a crash involves reloading logged commands from disk and reexecuting them with the Execute operation.
- structure a system around high-level operations built on primitives operations. Such a structure is common in information systems that support transactions. A transaction encapsulates a set of changes to data. The Command pattern offers a way to model transactions. Commands have a common interface, letting you invoke all transactions the same way. The pattern also makes it easy to extend the system with new transactions.
Strong points :
 1. 1. Extensibility
 1. 1.1 Addition or removal of a command does not need code modification
 2. 1.2 Commands' protocol factorization
 2. 2. Uniform protocol
 1. 2.1 Unique access point for the command execution
 3. 3. Recording facilities
 1. 3.1 Facilities in command recording
Pattern's participants :
Spoiled patterns :
 1. 1. Partially reification of command
Problems :
 1. 1. Action encapsulation
Les têtes de mule


text:
As it stands, the green economy in New Hampshire is growing, but still lackluster.
According to a Brookings Institution study released in July of 2011, from 2003 to 2010, New Hampshire's green jobs industry grew at an average of 3.5 percent a year, outpacing the rest of New England. But the result of that growth was lackluster. Only two percent of the state's workforce holds down a green job, which places New Hampshire square in the middle of the national average.
Solar power is one of NH's growing green industries.
There's a lot of disagreement about what, exactly, a "green job" is. The Brookings report notes this lack of consensus is one of the reasons it's difficult to measure national and regional growth. But there is broad agreement that the green economy encompasses renewable energy and technology, environmentally-friendly products manufacturing, and other activities that either benefit the environment, or at least don't harm it.
Some of the most promising sectors developing in New Hampshire focus on developing and manufacturing
technology for alternative energy and energy efficiency. Southern New Hampshire dominates this growing economy, with Merrimack, Hillsborough
, and Rockingham
counties holding down 80 percent of the state's green jobs. Meanwhile, using the North Country's
forests to establish a large-scale biofuels industry has proven difficult.
At this point, the state government isn't pumping a lot of money into growing the green economy, preferring instead to allow private entities to invest where they see fit. But recently, federal stimulus funds passing through the NH Office of Energy and Planning established the Green Launching Pad. The GLP is a green business incubator at the University of New Hampshire. It will receive stimulus funding through April, 2012.


How will a centralized budget improve equity? Ask the HISD Board for a substantive public workshop
On Monday, the HISD Board will be voting whether or not to have a public workshop comparing centralized and decentralized models.
Ask the HISD Board to vote yes to a public workshop on Monday
A public workshop will help our school-based officials and constituents understand more clearly how the proposed budget will improve equitable funding in our highest need schools.
What are the options on the table, and how will they affect each campus? What are the goals of an FTE (centralized) model vs. the current (PUA) model vs. a hybrid of the two? How does each model affect equity?
Here are some questions and comments to ask your board members.
 1. Will a centralized model increase weights (beyond state minimums) for groups like the homeless, the economically disadvantaged and at risk students so there are safeguards to ensure that students in high need schools maintain reasonable class size? Right now the weight for homeless students is only 5% while the GT weight is much higher at 12%. Whether the district implements a PUA (decentralized), FTE (centralized) or hybrid model, we need funding weights for the highest need students -homeless, Sp Ed, economically disadvantaged, and at risk studentsto be increased.
 2. What does it mean when HISD says that their new budget cuts are "after FTE changes"? Given the limited publicly available information, this language is confusing and ambiguous. On Thursday, Feb. 22, HISD CFO announced that the district's budget cuts have been reapportioned across the system, and school-based cuts have been reduced and "department" budget cuts have been increased. Classroom cuts were $98 million (almost half) in the administration's original proposal and are now 45 million to schools (22%) and 163.8 million (78%) to HISD Central Office Departments.
 3. Children are living under the burden of so many previous cuts. No child should have to experience further cuts to their schools. But our schools and children who have the highest need, whose PTOs are not able to supplement school funding, require the most protection. Has HISD completed a thorough analysis of the impact of centralized vs decentralized funding on our highest need students? If so, HISD should share this information in a public workshop. If not, then do so at the public workshop. Vote yes for a substantive public workshop.�
 4. We demand that the HISD Admin and Board continue to look for all ways that we put dollars back into our classrooms and schools. Our children need supplies, wraparound services, and small class size and less SSOs and district chiefs.
 5. Ask the HISD Board to vote for a temporary one year tax increase to help our kids. This year, due to Harvey, the HISD Board is authorized by state law to vote for a temporary tax increase to help our schools without the expense of putting the vote on a ballot. Our children need better funded schools now.
A public workshop will give all stakeholders-community members, HISD personnel, HISD Board members a chance to weigh in and share useful insights to increase equitable funding for our highest need students.
Ask the HISD Board to vote yes to a public workshop when they meet on Monday.
Email the HISD Board and the Superintendent today! There is a vote on Monday.
By E-mail
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District I
Elizabeth Santos
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Rhonda Skillern-Jones
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District III
Sergio Lira
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District IV
Jolanda Jones
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District V
Susan Deigaard
[email protected]
District VI
Holly Maria Flynn Vilaseca
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District VII
Anne Sung
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District VIII
Diana Davila
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Wanda Adams
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text:
Cysts, in general, do not normally affect a great deal of horses. There are many different types of cysts, depending on their origin and where they are located on the horse's body. Some cysts can be opened and drained, but for a chance at complete recovery, cysts require surgery to remove. Other cysts, due to their location, are not good candidates for surgical removal and the owner may elect to leave them alone as long as they are not causing the horse pain.
Symptoms and Types
- Swelling at the surface of the skin (usually small and hard)
- Swelling at the bottom of the ear (dentigerous cysts)
- Swelling in the false nostril (atheromas)
- Lesions/cysts filled with keratinaceous (protein material found in hair, outer layer of epidermis) debris (keratomas)
- Congenital defects
- Abnormalities in the upper layers of the skin
Your veterinarian will conduct a thorough examination of your horse's skin. In addition to examining the skin, he or she will be able to discern if the lesions are cysts by palpating the area. Depending on the location of the cyst, more extensive diagnostics may be warranted to make a diagnosis.
If the cyst is on the surface of the skin and does not extend deeply into the tissues, it can be removed surgically. Draining the cyst may reduce its size and perhaps reduce pain as pressure within the cyst is released, however, draining the cyst will not cure it. This is because all cysts are contained in a shell and this shell stimulates the production of the contents of the cyst. Unless the entire shell of the cyst is removed, it will not go away. Additionally, if the cyst is not drained in a clean manner, this action may lead to infection of the cyst.
Living and Management
After the cyst has been surgically removed by your veterinarian, your horse should be allowed some time to rest. If your veterinarian prescribes any medication, be sure to administer it in exactly the way your veterinarian has advised in order to promote full healing and prevent infection.
There is no prevention against the development of cysts in horses as they are either present at birth (congenital) or arise from a biological process within the body.
The outside layer of the skin


What is a mobile security patrol?
The main function of mobile patrols is to mitigate the risk and the probability of robbery, damage, vandalism, and unlawful action on commercial premises. If you strive to protect your business, this type of security service is a highly effective solution. The support of a proficient and skillful team of mobile security professionals can be really advantageous in many ways, allowing you to gain peace of mind and be sure that your assets, facilities, and business property are monitored and regular checks are held to deter theft and illegal activity.
What are the types of security patrol?
Anyone who wants to prevent harmful incidents from happening can opt for mobile security patrol services and choose among the following categories of patrolling:
 - Foot patrol. The group of patrol officers investigates the territory by walking to assure the safety of your business/construction site/commercial building, keeping the surroundings crime-free by enforcing laws.
 - Vehicle security patrol. Efficient loss and crime prevention and enhancing the safety of specified locations are possible only by ensuring regular visits. Rapid response to emergency events at your facility can be conducted by a competent vehicle and mobile security patrol.
 - Use of CCTV systems. Using CCTV systems, it is possible to continuously monitor the situation and promptly react to abnormal activity.
 - Alarm systems. A monitored alarm system with the response of a mobile patrol officer is a sound strategy to get excellent security support.
 - Observation posts. A static group of guards is responsible for patrolling a particular area and providing early warning.
How much does a security patrol cost?
The costs of hiring a patrol that will maintain security depend on many factors. It can be an increased level of risk, location of the premises that must be inspected regularly, or reputation and expertise of the company. Generally, the average cost is approximately $40-50 an hour.
What does a mobile patrol officer do?
The main duties of experts are to monitor surveillance equipment, prevent losses, promote a safe environment, detect dangerous situations, and respond to emergencies. If you are in search of a solid way to keep your business safe, consider choosing the services of the mobile security team.


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Objectives.Personality traits predict numerous health outcomes, but previous studies have rarely used personality change to predict health.Methods.The current investigation utilized a large national sample of 3,990 participants from the Midlife in the U.S. study (MIDUS) to examine if both personality trait level and personality change longitudinally predict 3 different health outcomes (i.e., self-rated physical health, self-reported blood pressure, and number of days limited at work or home due to physical health reasons) over a 10-year span.Results.Each of the Big Five traits, except openness, predicted self-rated health. Change in agreeableness, conscientiousness, and extraversion also predicted self-rated health. Trait levels of conscientiousness and neuroticism level predicted self-reported blood pressure. All trait levels except agreeableness predicted number of work days limited. Only change in conscientiousness predicted the number of work days limited.Discussion.Findings demonstrate that a full understanding of the link between personality and health requires consideration of trait change as well as trait level.
- Longitudinal change


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In Roman times, gold, silver, copper and glass were used to make jewellery. Metals were mixed to make alloys such as bronze, a mixture of copper and tin. Roman bronze sometimes had zinc in it that gave it a gold colour. The Romans often used stones and gems in their jewellery. Sapphires, rubies, garnets and amber were often worn in rings. The Romans were probably the first to use rings as a symbol of engagement
This Emperor Gem Ring is made from 22ct gold plated lead-free pewter and is supplied in a clear plastic blister. The information card is full colour on the front and has historical information on the reverse.


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Coal-bearing Jurassic sediments (Gresten Formation; Lower Quartzarenite Member) are discussed as source rocks for gas and minor oil in the basement of the Alpine–Carpathian frontal zone (e.g. Höflein gas/condensate field). Core material has therefore been analysed to characterize depositional environment and source potential of the Lower Quartzarenite Member (LQM). Geochemical data from the Höflein condensate are used to establish a source–condensate correlation.
The LQM was deposited in a flood basin with transitions to a delta-plain environment. Coal originated in frequently flooded mires and evolved within an oxygenated and acidic environment. It is inferred from geochemical data that organic matter from aquatic macrophytes and gymnosperms contributed to coal formation. Wildfires were abundant and oxidation of plant remains occurred frequently. This resulted in the formation of dull coal with very high inertinite contents. Bituminous shales were formed in deeper waters under dysoxic conditions. Apart from abundant algae and micro-organisms, it is concluded that there was an increased contribution of higher land plants relative to macrophytes to the biomass of the shales.
Despite high inertinite contents, coal within the LQM has a significant oil potential. Bituminous shales contain a Type III–II kerogen. According to pyrolysis–gas chromatography data, coal and shale generate a high wax paraffinic oil. The organic matter is immature to marginal mature (0.55% Rr). Bituminous shales are considered a potential source for the Höflein condensate. Coal may be the source for gas and minor oil in the Klement Field, but is not the source for the condensate. The equivalent vitrinite reflectance of the condensate is 0.8%, suggesting condensate generation at 4–4.5 km depth. The Gresten Formation reaches this depth near its depocentres, implying southward-directed migration of the Höflein condensate.


Michigan University study recommends banning use of facial recognition tools in schools
University of Michigan study finds the use of facial recognition technology in schools invades privacy, promotes racial discrimination; recommends a total ban
Many schools use facial recognition technology for keeping an eye on students as well as preventing outsiders from entering the school premises. However, a new study by the University of Michigan researchers finds that using facial recognition technology schools is bad.
The research team led by Shobita Parthasarathy found that the security aspect of the facial recognition technology is flawed and presents many other problems. The study found that the facial recognition technology actually invades the students' privacy and promotes racial discrimination. The report adds that the tech also normalizes surveillance while institutionalizing inaccuracy and marginalizing non-conforming students.
The study was conducted at the behest of the University of Michigan's Ford School of Public Policy and comes in a time when there is a general anti-facial recognition tech feeling among Americans. There are growing instances of states banning the use of facial recognition tech by law enforcement agencies. Tech companies like Amazon, Microsoft, etc. have already announced that they will not deliver facial recognition tech to the U.S. law enforcement agencies until there is a regulation in place. IBM has gone further and said that it will never venture into the facial recognition technology business.
The study which is titled, "Cameras in the Classroom," states that facial recognition tech is not accurate and should be banned from schools. "We have focused on facial recognition in schools because it is not yet widespread and because it will impact particularly vulnerable populations. The research shows that prematurely deploying the technology without understanding its implications would be unethical and dangerous," said Parthasarathy.
You can read the research paper titled Cameras in the Classroom here.
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If it came from NASA, it most likely is either Kodak or Agfa film. Let's assume Kodak. It could be either aerial film (very likely for 70mm) or cine film or ordinary still film. Since it came with that back and is unperforated, it is unlikely to be cine film. It could be either negative or positive. Many Kodak negative aerial films did not have an integral orange mask, but they were compatible with C-41 processing. My guess is that it is aerial film.


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Become An Instructional Coach
For the 2022 summer session, Breakthrough seeks professional educators to serve as Instructional Coaches for Breakthrough's young teachers, AmeriCorps Teaching Fellows (ages 17 – 23). Instructional Coaches set the standards of classroom teaching in our program, by playing a vital role in training and supporting our faculty, refining and developing the summer curriculum, and shaping Breakthrough's learning environment.
Click below to learn more about being an Instructional Coach.
For more information, contact Leslie Tucker at _EMAIL_.


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5 ppm, clearly indicating to me the need for the NOx scrubber. I have repeated these tests in other houses with the Bacharach combustion analyzer, and have had similar results.
In my case, neither of the original readings posed a problem, but in other circumstances these variations could cause the appliance to be out of tolerance. At 26 ppm, for example, the BPI Building Analyst Standard states, "Recommend that the CO problem be fixed." This might mean calling a service technician to service a problem that doesn't exist, resulting in an unnecessary cost to the homeowner. The low additional cost of adding a NOx scrubber makes it prudent to do so.
The UEI C75 combustion analyzer measures O2, CO, and flue temperature and uses that information to calculate CO2, steady-state combustion efficiency, CO air free, and the amount of excess air. The temperature sensor and the flue gas probe plug into sockets in the bottom of the analyzer. On the face of the unit, there are a two-line display, four buttons, and a selector dial. The buttons allow the operator to turn the unit on and off, toggle the backlight, use the optional printer, turn the internal pump on and off, and hold the readings.
The analyzer in its protective covering is relatively heavy, and the pump is also somewhat noisy, but the pump can be shut off with the push of a button, although it won't be taking readings when the pump is off. With the pump off, the C75 beeps occasionally to let you know that it is not able to do its job. Although this analyzer could be used to take ambient CO readings without its hose, it is a bit much to lug around. It does have strong magnets on the back of the covering that allow it to be attached to the side of most combustion appliances. An optional infrared printer is available.
The selector dial allows the operator to read any of the parameters that the C75 can measure. In the case of basic energy audits, the dial can be set to O2/CO and the O2 and ambient CO or COAF can be clearly read. So charge up the batteries (or install four AAs), hook up the hose, check the particle filter and the water trap, turn the C75 on in ambient fresh air, select O2/CO on the dial, and take your readings. There are 20 memory slots in the software where the data can be stored. (Or you can just write it down!) Even though the information is not necessary for just measuring the CO level, it's good practice to enter the type of fuel the appliance uses, so if the analyzer is being used for complete combustion analysis, it will be set up properly.
Although the temperature sensor plug is polarized, it can easily be plugged in backward, which provides strange readings. Like the Bacharach units, the C75 could be fitted with a NOx scrubber to reduce elevated CO readings.
As with any of these devices, it's a good idea to become familiar with all the functions and controls and read the manuals before you get into a real testing situation. Standing in front of a roaring boiler and fumbling to turn the backlight on or off or storing the reading in one of the memory slots can be frustrating.
The Testo 327 is a comprehensive combustion analyzer with a bundle of capabilities that must be understood to be appreciated. It will allow you to gather all the information necessary to perform diagnostic analysis on a combustion system. It's an investment. It can measure draft pressure as well as CO. It can also provide stack temperature, percent CO2, percent efficiency, percent excess air, percent O2, ambient temperature, and delta temperature.
The 327 is a solid-feeling device with strong magnets on the back of the case that allow it to be mounted on the side of most combustion appliances. The probes attach to connectors on the bottom of the analyzer. Along with the connectors there is a temperature sensor permanently mounted in a "cage," and there are sockets for the flue gas probe, gas outlet, pressure input, and AC power input. The ON/OFF switch is on the top of the housing, and eight push buttons are located on the face. Three orange buttons have variable functions, with their functions displayed on different screens of the display. The ▲ (Up) and ▼ (Down) buttons scroll the display. There is a button to toggle the backlight on and off, a MENU button, and an ESC button to cancel an operation.
With the analyzer fully charged, the probe needs to be connected before the 327 is switched on. The manual says, "Any connected probe must be in the open air during the zeroing phase! [emphasis theirs]" The zeroing or start-up process takes 30 seconds. Pushing the MENU button allows one to scroll through Measuring, Adjust, Setup, Mode, Fuel Select, and Diagnostic menus. Pushing the middle orange button under OK when Measuring is displayed moves to the next menu level, cycling through Flue Gas, Draft, CO-AirFree, Smoke/Oil, diff prs, Delta Temp, and Ambient CO. To measure the COAF, select Flue Gas and read the ppm CO-AF line. Here you can also choose the type of fuel; choices are Oil #2, Nat Gas, Bioheat5, Propane, Oil #5, Oil #6, Kerosene, or Wood. If you are only interested in COAF, you can use any of these fuels, because the CO level will be the same for any of them. The beauty of this is that if you are testing in a combustion appliance zone (CAZ) with a gas water heater and an oil-fired boiler, there is no need to change the settings.
You can set up the display screen on the 327 so that the displays are in the sequence you want. For example, I have mine reading ºF T stac (stack temperature) first, then ppm CO, Pa draft, ppm CO-AF, %EFF, and then a bunch of other stuff.
Performing a typical home energy assessment requires testing for CO in the ambient air and in the exhaust products of combustion.
CO ambient is the CO that is present in the air that is not contained in the combustion equipment. It is the CO that the occupants are likely to be breathing.
CO air free or CO-AF or COAF is a mathematical calculation of the amount of CO in a sample of air with the percent of oxygen removed. It is equal to
CO ppm x ([20.9]/[20.9 – O2])
The combustion analyzers make that calculation after the operator takes a "clean-air" sample (generally outside). The COAF is the value that most combustion safety programs (including BPI) are looking for (along with the CO ambient value).
An interesting feature of the 327 is the draft measurement process. A bar graph is displayed on the screen indicating the highest flue gas temperature corresponding to the highest draft rate. Moving the probe moves the line on the bar graph. The physical opening in the probe should be oriented across the flow to allow for maximum airflow across the sensor. All of this information can be printed out on the optional, infrared connected printer.
The basic 327 comes with the analyzer, flue gas probe, and charger. Options include a hard case, IR printer, smoke pump, digital smoke spot meter, adapter for pressure readings, air temperature probe, flexible flue gas probe, and 9-foot hose extension.
The Testo 327 is capable of providing a lot more information than just COAF. The instructions are based on German documents and don't always clearly translate into English, but there is good information on the web, including instructional webinars from tool suppliers like TruTech Tools that specifically teach how to use the Testo 327.
Testing for CO may be one of the most complicated tasks the building analyst faces. The four analyzers described in this article have been developed to do more complex things, like combustion analysis and system diagnostics and repair. The Monoxor III and the Fyrite Tech60 could also be used for ambient CO monitoring, but they don't have alarms. The UEI C75 and the Testo 327 can also measure draft, supplementing the need for a second manometer. All of these devices work well and reliably (once you add the NOx scrubber to the ones that don't have them). Just make sure that you understand the information they provide and how to use the equipment before you're faced with a homeowner and a complicated combustion situation. Even the smartest equipment can provide useless information.
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of Heaven -- an Imperial Sacrificial Altar in Beijing
Beijing, 116° 26' E, 39° 50' N
|Inscribed :1998 Criteria: C (i) (ii) (iii)
Justification for Inscription:
Criterion i: The Temple of Heaven is a masterpiece of architecture
and landscape design which simply and graphically illustrates a cosmogony
of great importance for the evolution of one of the world's great civilizations.
Criterion ii: The symbolic layout and design of the Temple of
Heaven had a profound influence on architecture and planning in the Far
East over many centuries.
Criterion iii: For more than two thousand years China was ruled
by a series of feudal dynasties, the legitimacy of which is symbolized
by the design and layout of the Temple of Heaven.
of the 22nd Session of the Committee
The Temple of Heaven, founded in the first half of the 15th century,
is a dignified complex of fine cult buildings set in gardens and surrounded
by historic pine woods. In its overall layout and in that of its individual
buildings, it symbolizes the relationship between earth and heaven which
stands at the heart of Chinese cosmogony, and also the special role played
by the emperors within that relationship.
with Partner Institutions:
of Heaven (Beijing Xinglihang Science & Technology, Inc.)
WHC Web: _URL_


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Government allows RBI to print Rs 10 plastic notes
The Union Finance Ministry has given permission to Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to conduct field trials of plastic (polymer-based) currency notes of Rs 10 denominations.
It was announced by Union Minister of State (MoS) for Finance Arjun Ram Meghwal in a written reply in the Lok Sabha.
- These notes will be first introduced in five cities (not yet declared) across the country with diverse geographical and climatic conditions.
- The Finance Ministry has asked the RBI to go ahead with the procurement of the requisite plastic substrate material and approved the printing of plastic Rs. 10 notes.
- The plastic notes are considered to be cleaner than paper (cotton substrate-based) currency notes. They will last longer (average life span of about 5 years) and are difficult to counterfeit.
Under the previous UPA Government, Parliament was told in February 2014 about a plan to print one billion plastic notes of Rs. 10 denomination for a field trial in five cities viz. Kochi, Mysuru, Jaipur, Shimla and Bhubaneswar.
Note: Plastic currency notes were first adopted by Australia in 1988 and are now used in more than 20 countries. These notes are smaller and stronger than cotton-based paper notes. They also have more security features that make them harder to counterfeit.
Categories: India Current Affairs 2017


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Invisible Guardians: Women manage livestock diversity
Women are main guardians of crucial livestock diversity
New study argues that to succeed, breed conservation efforts must empower women
Women livestock keepers worldwide must be recognized as the major actors in efforts to arrest the decline of indigenous breeds, crucial for rural food security and animal genetics, a new FAO study argues.
Yet women's contribution to indigenous livestock breeding and conservation is poorly documented and undervalued, the study Invisible Guardians: Women manage livestock diversity says.
Of the 600 million poor livestock keepers in the world, around two-thirds are women, whose men often have migrated to the cities. Women stay at home with the children and live by cultivating crops and keeping indigenous smallstock such as chickens or goats, and perhaps a cow.
Indigenous breeds are adapted to often harsh local conditions, are disease resistent, thrive on easy to obtain local fodder or forage and generally take care of themselves. Such breeds may not produce a lot of meat, milk or eggs but they are low maintenance for run-off-their-feet poor rural women.
Such breeds are also a repository of irreplaceable genetic material. They often have traits such as disease-resistance that can be important for breeding programmes. And in a world threatened by climate change, breeds that are resistant to drought, extreme heat or tropical diseases are of major potential importance.
Problems may arise when projects or national authorities try to introduce exotic breeds or cross-breeds to try to increase production of meat, milk and eggs to meet booming worldwide food demand. These animals need special and often expensive feed, wait to be fed rather than foraging on their own, need expensive veterinary care and cannot survive prolonged drought or other extreme weather.
Poor rural livestock keepers, and women in particular, are often unable to obtain the inputs or spare the time needed to raise these animals successfully. In case such breed introductions and production intensification are successful and livestock becomes an important source of cash income, women often lose their role as livestock keepers.
Need to document women's role
The advantages of indigenous breeds have been long known. But the FAO study asserts that the role of women in safeguarding and defending indigenous breeds and improving their genetics through careful breeding has not been appreciated.
Women are the guardians of livestock diversity, says study author Ilse Köhler-Rollefson.
Meanwhile, according to the latest figures, about 22 percent of the world's livestock breeds are still classified as being at risk of extinction, although breed population figures are often unreported or out of date, making the true state of livestock diversity difficult to estimate.
Countries are beginning to put programmes into place to reverse the alarming decline in the numbers of indigenous livestock breeds. The new study suggests that these initiatives will not be successful if women's role as keepers of indigenous livestock is not taken into account. Women have to be the central players in such conservation campaigns, the study says, and to ensure that they are, more groundwork needs to be done.
The report recommends that gender issues are made central to projects, programmes and policies that focus on animal genetic resource management.
The following actions among others should be taken at the project level:
- Collect genderand age-disaggregated data and investigate the rights, needs, roles and responsibilities of women during surveys and before embarking on any project related to animal genetic resources.
- Design extension, training and the introduction of new technologies so that they are accessible to women.
- Investigate family structures and how they affect the ability of women to act and interact.
- Investigate specific problems that women have in accessing markets for their animal products.
If governments really want their conservation programmes to bear fruit, they can:
- Conduct economic studies of keeping locally adapted vs improved breeds.
- Ensure that poor herders have sufficient access to common property like grazing lands.
- Inform banks about the importance of providing credit to rural women and about the benefits of indigenous breeds; banks currently tend to lend to male farmers and people who want to stock improved breeds.
- Support value-chain development for products from indigenous breeds as a means of creating income opportunities for rural women and reviving local economies.
International agencies can back up national efforts to empower women livestock keepers by collecting and disseminating gender-disaggregated data and putting the issue on the global agenda in appropriate forums.


10 Principles
Based on our curriculum in our Masters and Professional programs at UC Berkeley, there are 10 unique principles that I believe can increase the effectiveness of engineering leaders. I've authored the following evolving list as a guide for engineering leaders interested in innovation, effective operations, and leadership:
10 Principles of Engineering Leadership
Ikhlaq Sidhu, Chief Scientist,
Fung Institute for Engineering Leadership
UC Berkeley
Revised March 2, 2012
1. Business Model Innovation is a rich source of opportunity for new business and effective operations. New business creation is actually the search for a new business model, while effective operations depend on measuring the efficiency of a working business model.
3. The primary work of an innovator is the development and coordination of an ecosystem that will support an innovation. The product, service, or lab result is only one component of the innovation. Another critical skill for an innovator is to learn how to gather and test information earlier in the creation process and in an inexpensive manner.
4. Opportunities for products and services should be considered with respect to market spaces, not product features. Perspective is gained by comparing the entrepreneurial view of observable needs, solutions, competition of today (bottom up) and the strategic view that predicts the technology, industry, and societal landscape of the future (top down).
5. Corporate strategy, including a firm's dominant business model and synergies between its businesses, should be considered for all engineering driven projects and technology acquisitions. Three questions to ask are:
 - Question 1: Is the sum greater than the parts for a proposed new project or acquisition due to synergy? Financially, is (i.e., Value [Biz A+B] > Value [Biz A] + Value [Biz B].
 - Question 2: What feedback loop makes the model and strategy reinforcing?
 - Question 3: Where would you reinvest to build competitive advantage?
6. Engineering leaders understand that build and buy decisions are correlated with changing objectives in a firms evolution: mind share (early stage), market share (growth stage), wallet share (incumbent). [HBS, Rangan]
 7. Engineering leaders understand the tradeoffs in product management process models: platforms, products, train schedules, risk reductions, commitments for decisions, and the costs of those commitments. [Product Management Best Practices]
8. Leadership comes from your own character, background, experiences, courage, relationships, and ethics; not from a title. Consider the following:
 - For every action, decision, or proposal, consider how much of the intention is to serve yourself (as the individual), your organization (above, below, peers, and self), an industry ecosystem (opportunity for the industry as a whole), or society (the broadest stakeholder). Keep a healthy balance. However, a leader must not allow real or perceived conflicts of interest, which will undermine the leader's effectiveness.
 - Lead by letting go, coaching, allowing healthy conflict, modeling ethics, and having the courage to have honest and difficult conversations from the heart.
9. The challenges and solutions that will both make life better and create opportunity for industry exist within an intersecting area bounded by 1) market reality, 2) technology capability, and 3) societal impact.
10. Engineering leaders focus on their own contributions, yet appreciate the perspectives and challenges of other functional leaders; particularly finance, sales, marketing, operations, and even political leaders.


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Also found in: Dictionary, Thesaurus, Legal, Encyclopedia.
1. To penetrate, absorb, or soak in (to something). It takes a few hours for the mixture to sink in. If the water sinks in, it could cause your floorboards to warp or even rot.
2. By extension, to become understood; to make a lasting impression or memory. The gravity of what happened in this field 200 years ago didn't sink in until we saw actors recreating the war as it would have been fought. No matter how many times I go over it, this equation just isn't sinking in.
sink something in (to) someone or somethingand sink something in
1. Lit. to drive or push something into someone or something. The brave hero sank the wooden stake into the vampire. The hero sank in the stake.
2. Fig. to invest time or money in someone or something. (Sometimes implying that it was wasted.) You would not believe how much money I've sunk into that company! She sank in a lot of money, but it was all wasted.
1. Lit. to sink, submerge, or descend into something. How long will it take the water to sink in? It might take days for the oil to sink in, so you have time to clean it up.
2. Fig. [for knowledge] to be understood. I heard what you said, but it took a while for it to sink in. I pay careful attention to everything I hear in calculus class, but it usually doesn't sink in.
Penetrate the mind, be absorbed, as in The news of the crash didn't sink in right away. [Late 1300s]
1. To seep or soak; penetrate: When the floodwaters sink in, the ground will become soft.
2. To make an impression; become felt or understood: The meaning of the poem finally sank in after I had thought about it for a while.


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Skip to navigation
The Environmental and Occupational Health Surveillance (EOHS) Program is committed to understanding the public health impact of human exposure to hazardous substances in the environment and in the workplace, providing information to the public, and preventing disease and injury by the reduction or elimination of exposures and hazards. The activities of the EOHS Program encompass the following areas:
- Environmental Health Hazard Assessment: Staff in this project conducts health assessments in communities where New Jersey residents may have been exposed to hazardous chemicals in their environment. They also study the possible health impacts that Superfund and other hazardous waste sites could have on nearby residents.
- Occupational Health Surveillance: Staff in this Unit uses multiple data sources to track workplace injuries and illnesses. They use this information to develop intervention strategies and provide employers with practical solutions to reduce hazards in New Jersey workplaces.
- Environmental Public Health Tracking (EPHT): The New Jersey Department of Health and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection collect data on health, human exposures, and environmental hazards. The New Jersey EPHT Network seeks to bring this information together. Tracking data can be used to help understand patterns and trends in environmental hazards, levels of human exposure, and patterns and time trends in diseases.
- Cancer Surveillance: This Unit provides up-to-date statistics on cancer incidence and mortality from the New Jersey State Cancer Registry, addresses cancer cluster inquiries, and monitors cancer patterns and trends.
- ALS Surveillance: The Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) public health surveillance project has the following objectives: a) to obtain reliable and timely information on the incidence and prevalence of ALS in New Jersey; b) to better describe the demographic characteristics of ALS cases; and c) to assist the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) in evaluating the completeness of the National ALS Registry.


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<+ from-bus.voltage x admittance / turns-ratio net-current-flow <= ( from-bus.voltage - to-bus.voltage ) x admittance / turns-ratio
All derived classes must update the appropriate properties of the link and node classes. The following derivations are recommended/anticipated:
The transformer class is derived from the link class, with the value of turns_ratio being non-unitary.
The switch class is derived from the link class, with the value of the admittance being zero when the switch is open. Attention should be given the possibility that operating a switch can lead to islands, which would require additional SWING busses.
The generator class is derived from the node class where the real power is positive. If the reactive power is fixed, the node type should be PQ and if the reactive power is variable, it should be PV
The load class is derived from the node class where the real power is negative. The node type should be PQ.
Consideration should be given to implementing the following
- capacitor banks
- phase shifters
- high-voltage DC lines
- metering devices and phasor measurement units
Model check procedure
The network model check procedure requires the following properties be verified.
-. Each link must be connected to a bus on both ends (from and to);
-. Each link must have a non-zero admittance (i.e., is must not be normally open);
-. Each node must have at least one incident link;
-. Each flow area must have a SWING bus;
-. Each no must be connected to a SWING bus or to a node that recursively connects to a SWING bus
If each of these can be confirmed for the entire model, then the check is successful. A warning may be emitted if a flow area has more than one SWING bus.
The CDF import routine reads an IEEE CDF file and loads the model into GridLAB-D.
The IEEE CDF file format is documented at _URL_ Additional information and sample data files are also available at _URL_ For more information on IEEE CDF files, see _URL_
Gauss CF. 1809. Theoria motus corporum coelestium in sectionibus conicis solem ambientium. Perthes et Besser, Hamburg, Germany.
Kundur, P. 1993. Power System Stability and Control. McGraw Hill, New York.
Von Seidel, P.L. 1874. Über ein Verfahren, die Gleichungen, auf welche die Methode der kleinsten Quadrate führt, sowie lineare Gleichungen überhaupt, durch successive Annäherung aufzulösen. Abh. bayer Akad. Wiss, Germany.


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Quincy, California
Quincy is the county seat of Plumas County, California. As of the 2000 census, the town had a total population of 1,879.
\nQuincy is located at 39°56'11" North, 120°56'53" West (39.936279, -120.947921)
\nAs of the
census of 2000, there are 1,879 people, 858 households, and 479 families residing in the town. The population density is 171.1/km² (443.4/mi²). There are 899 housing units at an average density of 81.9/km² (212.2/mi²). The racial makeup of the town is 90.90% White, 1.54% African American, 2.24% Native American, 0.75% Asian, 0.11% Pacific Islander, 1.49% from other races, and 2.98% from two or more races. 4.79% of the population are Hispanic or Latino of any race. There are 858 households out of which 27.3% have children under the age of 18 living with them, 40.2% are married couples living together, 12.7% have a female householder with no husband present, and 44.1% are non-families. 38.7% of all households are made up of individuals and 13.8% have someone living alone who is 65 years of age or older. The average household size is 2.13 and the average family size is 2.79. In the town the population is spread out with 23.9% under the age of 18, 8.6% from 18 to 24, 24.3% from 25 to 44, 25.8% from 45 to 64, and 17.4% who are 65 years of age or older. The median age is 41 years. For every 100 females there are 89.2 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there are 87.2 males. The median income for a household in the town is $30,508, and the median income for a family is $40,536. Males have a median income of $38,438 versus $27,411 for females. The per capita income for the town is $19,944. 11.1% of the population and 5.1% of families are below the poverty line. Out of the total people living in poverty, 11.3% are under the age of 18 and 2.8% are 65 or older.


Quick Answer: Do Atomic Bombs Vaporize People?
Is Hiroshima still radioactive?
Following a nuclear explosion, there are two forms of residual radioactivity.
In fact, nearly all the induced radioactivity decayed within a few days of the explosions..
What does vaporized mean?
transitive verb. 1 : to convert (as by the application of heat or by spraying) into vapor. 2 : to cause to become dissipated. 3 : to destroy by or as if by converting into vapor a tank vaporized by a shell.
Why was Hiroshima chosen?
Hiroshima was chosen because it had not been targeted during the US Air Force's conventional bombing raids on Japan, and was therefore regarded as being a suitable place to test the effects of an atomic bomb. It was also an important military base.
Would a nuclear bomb vaporize you?
TL;DR: The nuclear detonation sets off an immense amount of radiation (light), which will heat up all surrounding objects. The ropes holding the device in place was vaporized in less than 1ms. So a person would be vaporized: He'd heat up so hot, that the whole body will become a gas.
What does an explosion do to the human body?
The main direct, primary effect to humans from an explosion is the sudden increase in pressure that occurs as a blast wave passes. It can cause injury to pressuresensitive human organs, such as ears and lungs.
What do you do after a nuclear bomb?
GET INSIDEGet inside the nearest building to avoid radiation. … Remove contaminated clothing and wipe off or wash unprotected skin if you were outside after the fallout arrived. … Go to the basement or middle of the building. … Stay inside for 24 hours unless local authorities provide other instructions.More items…
What does atomic bomb do to humans?
Whole body doses cause damage to epithelial cells lining the gastrointestinal tract and this combined with the bone marrow damage is fatal. All symptoms become increasingly severe, causing exhaustion and emaciation in a few days and death within 7–14 days from loss of water and electrolytes.
How far away from a nuclear bomb is safe?
Which is worse an atomic bomb or a nuclear bomb?
But a hydrogen bomb has the potential to be 1,000 times more powerful than an atomic bomb, according to several nuclear experts. … "A regular atomic bomb would still be devastating, but it would not do nearly as much damage as an H-bomb." Hiroshima in ruins following the atomic bomb blast.
What is the most powerful nuke?
How many people were vaporized by the atomic bomb?
Seventy-four years ago this week, the United States dropped two atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing up to 226,000 people and leaving thousands more horribly disfigured by burns and radiation sickness.
Can radiation vaporize you?
While radiation could severely inflame and ulcerate the skin, complete vaporization of the body is impossible.
Can a human get vaporized?
Did anyone survive the atomic bomb?
Some 260,000 people survived the atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II, but Japanese engineer Tsutomu Yamaguchi was one of the very few who endured the horror of both blasts and lived to the tell the tale.
What happens if a nuke blows up in space?
If a nuclear weapon is exploded in a vacuum-i. e., in space-the complexion of weapon effects changes drastically: First, in the absence of an atmosphere, blast disappears completely. … There is no longer any air for the blast wave to heat and much higher frequency radiation is emitted from the weapon itself.


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- Coming Soon.
master naturalist for teachers
The Teacher's Master Naturalist program incorporates best practices for systemic school reform - it requires that the school's principal initiate the partnership, and that each school send a team of lead teachers who are responsible for implementing their school's science and math programs. LCI adapted its Master Naturalist curriculum to provide a program that teaches teachers how to use experiential learning most effectively to improve their school's science and math programs. Participants engage in research and educational experiences designed to empower them to teach from a first person perspective, sharing their personal adventures with their classes.
During workshops, teachers set and check traps for fish, reptiles, and amphibians, conduct flora and fauna surveys, and collect and identify marine invertebrates and other organisms. As teams of teachers graduate from the course they continue to receive support for school-based projects from LCI staff and the local Master Naturalist association. The program began in 2007-2008 with two pilot schools, and has expanded to eight schools during the 2009-2010 school year. Teachers receive Master Naturalist certification and continuing education credit after completing the year-long program.
learning expeditions schools
The goal of the Learning Expeditions Schools program is to use environmental science as a theme to integrate learning about science, social studies, math, and language arts. The program is a partnership between the LowCountry Institute, Clemson University's Youth Learning Institute, and Beaufort County Schools. The interdisciplinary lessons include field trips, virtual field trips using video and PowerPoint programs, and hands-on activities in the classroom. These lessons use science standards to teach students how geography and climate determine plant communities present which, in turn, influence the economy and the history of the region. Math is integrated into all lessons through science and history-based word problems.
Pilot schools for this program are Shell Point Elementary, Shanklin Elementary, and Robert Smalls Middle School. During the 2012-2013 school year, the program will be made available to other district schools that wish to participate.
- Grants: Several schools have been recipients of grants from LCI to create outdoor classrooms and natural areas using native plants to teach students about pollination, plant lifecycles, and native habitats.
- Hands-on programs: LCI staff and volunteers conduct programs at schools to teach students about the plants and animals native to the Port Royal Sound System.
- School field trips: LCI is able to invite a limited number of schools each year to participate in field trips on Spring Island where students learn about habitats and animals of the lowcountry.
click image to see photos of our school programs


Saturday, October 02, 2010
Why do corporations (firms) exist?
Economists used to wonder, from a theoretical perspective, why "firms" including companies, and especially large corporations, exist (aka theory of the firm). In 1937 Coase thought that while corporations didn't allocate labor and capitol as well as the market, this was offset by lower transaction costs.
Of course transactions costs in the net era are far less than in Coase's time, so this doesn't explain why corporations remain so entrenched.
This still seems like a valid question. Does knowledge work, in particular, scale all that well? Movies seem to be put together by loose coalitions of small to medium sized companies, why aren't more things done like that?
I suspect most people familiar with large corporations would agree that often the company seems much less than the sum of its parts. In particular, the absence of internal markets can make intra-company collaboration less efficient than market based collaboration. Corporations, on the inside, operate like the command economies of the Soviet Empire (or, for that matter, like today's China -- which is doing well for the moment).
I'm trying to put together a list of things that large corporations can do uniquely well. I wasn't at all impressed with the conventional "theory of the firm" list. Here's mine...
 1. Act without the restraints of antitrust law. A large corporation can do many things that would require collusion to be done by smaller entities.
 2. Change laws, particularly accounting standards and tax laws, to favor large corporations and lower their cost of capitol. This creates a positive feedback loop where tax laws and accounting rules favor large corporations, which in turn influence laws and rules that favor large corporations and so on.
 3. Corporations can buy senators and lesser politicians, again without collusion.
 4. Corporations can engage in financial warfare, cutting off suppliers to smaller competitors, blocking access to capitol, and so on.
 5. Corporations can capture regulators.
 6. Corporations may be able to create and institute processes that allow them to do knowledge work with "average" knowledge workers instead of temperamental and expensive "stars". (I don't think this actually works, but a lot of effort is spent on this.)
 7. Corporations can buy A and above ratings from (corrupt) rating agencies.
 8. Once a corporation exists, it has an unusual ability to sustain itself even when its mission ends (like the inquisition)
Taking these items as a whole, it's apparent that once corporations are established, they are large and powerful enough to change their ecosystem to suit them. Rather like some primates.
I'll update my list as I get more ideas. Any suggestions?
See also:
My stuff
Other people's
Update 2/25/11: In a Krugman article I learn that Williamson won the Nobel in 2009 for work in the 70s on the theory of the firm. So Williamson extended Coase...
Williamson argues that the firm is best regarded as a "governance structure," a means of organizing a set of contractual relations among individual agents. The firm, then, consists of an entrepreneur-owner, the tangible assets he owns, and a set of employment relationships...
Personally I wasn't that impressed with the descriptions I read of Williamson's work, but Krugman likes it (emphases mine)...
Oliver Williamson shared the 2009 Nobel mainly because of his work on a question that may seem obvious, but is much less so once you think about it: why are there so many big companies? Why not just rely on markets to coordinate activity among individuals or small firms? Why, in effect, do we have a lot of fairly large command-and-control economies embedded in our market system?
Williamson answered this in terms of the difficulties of writing complete contracts; when the tasks that need to be done are complex, so that you can't fully specify what people should do in advance, there can be a lot of slippage and strategic behavior if you rely on market incentives; in such cases it can be better to do these things in-house, so that you can simply tell people to do something a particular way or to change their behavior.
... there are times when it's better to rely on central planning than to leave things up to the market...
Krugman's "Central planning" comment sent the usual suspects frothing mad. They've obviously never lived in a large corporation. I have. Krugman is spot on.
Anonymous said...
Large corporations can have global resource sharing. This is true for advertising and marketing (opening a new McDonalds is more likely to succeed than Joe's Hamburger Hut), but also in terms of financial and physical resources. It is ok if the new branch takes a few years to become profitable because the rest of the company is making money and 'opening X new branches' looks good on the annual report.
This actually comes down to hedging as well I think. Walmart has branches everywhere in the U.S. so to some degree they are better able to weather local downturns in Mississippi or Michigan. There is no way a purely local business can hedge like that.
Some of these advantages are also conferred by franchising, but not all.
Of course, the reverse holds true as well. It may be that my local Circuit City was profitable, but it still went out of business when the whole company toppled.
This whole topic is interesting, and I also think you should look at it from a labor market point of view. Corporations seem to be able to compete exceptionally well in the labor market, not just in goods or services markets.
Augustine Hope said...
I would ad:
8. Grow their business (including IP) by buying smaller competitors.


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Critics have long complained about the environmental costs of bottled water. Those costs are a concern when the bottled water come to the U.S. from the Pacific islands of Fiji. But now the bottler of "Fiji Water" has an environmental plan to make "Fiji Water" carbon-negative.
"The World's" Julia Kumari Drapkin tested whether people can taste the difference between carbon negative water from Fiji and water fresh from the faucet:
Tom Moony of Fiji water says drinking his product can be good for the planet, regardless of how far the bottles travel across it. Fiji water is "CARBON NEGATIVE."
Carbon negative meaning the trees we're planting take at least 120% of the carbon out of the atmosphere that we put in.
So for every bottle of Fiji water consumed, the company is planting trees in Fiji's rainforests. And eventually those trees - in about thirty years or so - might offset the carbon footprint of all those bottles plus 20%. And voila - carbon negative water.
So Mooney says, by drinking carbon negative water:
"You are doing something positive for the environment - there isn't another product out there -- in our industry -- that gives you the opportunity to take the carbon out of the atmosphere by choosing that product."
So the message in a water bottle from Fiji is that it's good for the environment?
Sounds too good to be true, right? Well actually some experts in the field say Fiji may be on to something.
If Fiji Water is truly transparent about its carbon emissions and if it manages its trees properly then Fiji Water can be carbon negative.


What to Do If Convicted of Theft
What to Do If Convicted of Theft
Being charged with a theft crime could lead to a number of different penalties depending on the circumstances of the case. For example, petit theft and grand theft are two different categories of crime that will result in either lower or higher fines; grand theft usually indicates stealing more than $300 in property and can lead to a prison sentence of 30 years. If you've been convicted of theft and are facing high fines and years in prison, your next step is to appeal the court's decision.
Appeals involve taking your case to a higher court, which will look at the previous evidence and testimony presented, evaluate the validity of the court's decisions, and render a verdict on whether or not the smaller court was in error. In order to make an appeal, you must be able to show that evidence introduced at trial was insufficient to support a guilty verdict, the trial court made an incorrect ruling on a pretrial issue, the trial court erroneously failed to excuse a particular jury member who clearly demonstrated prejudice against you, the trial court erred in the jury instructions that were given to the jury. Likewise, if your sentence exceeded the maximum punishment allowed, this would also be grounds for an appeal.
Appellate court rulings can also result in one of a few scenarios. The appeals court will uphold the conviction, modify the judgment, remand to the trial court, or reverse the judgment of the trial court. In the last case, it is entirely possible the court will discharge your case completely, depending on the circumstances.
The appeals process can be complicated and challenging, especially in a shorter time frame. It's best to pursue an appeal with the assistance of an experienced Miami criminal defense attorney. The founder of the Law Office of Michael Mirer, P.A., Michael Mirer, is a skilled and highly rated criminal defense lawyer who has dedicated his practice to defending his clients' rights and freedoms. Let him see what he can do for your situation. As a former prosecutor, Attorney Mirer is knowledgeable about how the opposition thinks. Whether you are facing a state or federal sentence, he can help.
Contact us by phone or fill out our online form to schedule your free case evaluation today.


text:
"Eau Canada" brings together 28 of Canada's top water experts to debate Canada's most critical water issues, and to map out solutions.The diverse range of contributors – geographers, environmental lawyers, former government officials, aquatic scientists, economists, and political scientists – reflects the broad range of issues involved in water management debates. Contributors argue that weak governance is at the heart of Canada's water problems. The first three sections of the book provide background on Canadian water uses (and abuses), identify key weaknesses in Canadian water governance, and explore controversial debates over jurisdiction, transboundary waters, water exports, and water privatization. Solutions for more sustainable water management are mapped out in the final sections of the book, including a cross-Canada consensus on water policy, water conservation and pricing, and an engagement with the implications of new legal frameworks on Indigenous People's water rights.
The book is targeted at a broad audience with the objective of promoting informed debate about some of the most controversial and pressing water issues facing Canadians. It will be of relevance to academics and students of geography, politics, economics, environmental studies, engineering, and Canadian studies. It will also be of particular interest to water supply managers, environmental and water policy analysts, government officials, community groups, and politicians from across Canada.


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Modeling CO2 Storage Pipeline Routes in the United States
Carbon capture technology offers the potential for the United States to continue the widespread use of coal to generate electricity in a carbon constrained economy. This study examines potential configurations of a nationwide carbon capture and storage network by integrating work on the capture, transportation, and storage aspects of such a network. Modeling conducted with the Department of Energy's National Energy Modeling System (NEMS) model provided data on which plants will retrofit or be built with carbon capture technology in the future. A cost surface and several models were developed using geographic information system (GIS) software to site new plants and connect all carbon capture plants to geologic storage basins throughout the United States.
Several network scenarios with different levels of foresight and government pipeline construction assistance are examined. Building a trunkline increases the overall length of the pipeline network. Assuming all pipelines are the same diameter, initial cost estimates indicate that building a trunkline network is more expensive than allowing plants to connect to storage sites on their own. More detailed information on pipeline diameter is needed to develop accurate cost estimates of different pipeline network configurations to further inform decision makers.
School Location:USA - North Carolina
Source Type:Master's Thesis
Keywords:co2 pipeline routing storage pipelines
Date of Publication:04/24/2009