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Posted on August 24, 2015 August 25, 2015 by Dig-Press Publishing
Part Four: Well if it didn't happen by Neo-Darwinian means, how did evolution occurr?
Alternative evolutionary series: If it didn't happen by Neo-Darwinian means, how did evolution occur?
Biology's Silent Big Bang
The Cambrian Explosion & Silent Eruption of Life before it
Source: https://massacademy.wordpress.com/2011/02/23/darwin%E2%80%99s-dilemma-solved/
The Cambrian Explosion Reviewed in the Light of the Emerging Evolutionary Alternative
From an article in Discovery Magazine 'Mysteries of the Orient' the following description reveals the nature of the Cambrian explosion:
Thousands of exquisitely preserved fossils …offer a glimpse back to a pivotal event in the history of life. This moment, right at the start of Earth's Cambrian Period, some 550 million years ago, marks the evolutionary explosion that filled the seas with the world's first complex creatures. In a blink of geologic time a planet dominated by simple sponge-like animals gave way to one ruled by a vast variety of sophisticated beasts, animals whose relatives still inhabit the world today. This biological big bang reverberated through all facets of existence, altering not only the shape of animals but also the way they lived together.
– Monastersky (APRIL 1993 issue of Discover magazine)
http://discovermagazine.com/1993/apr/mysteriesoftheor200
Hopefully by now, (assuming that you have followed the previous articles in this alternative evolution series) you are beginning to see a distinctly different scenario of evolution emerging to our current version, that in combination, can begin to give us a very different view of how evolution may have unfolded, or leaped seemingly into rapid existence. For instance, when considering the Cambrian eruption of complexity, bear in mind how it follows the predictable pattern of growth of any complex and organised system, that of a lag phase (the pre-Cambrian period where the groundwork for what comes after has been laid), an exponential phase (the seeming spontaneous eruption of complexity to all the fundamental forms) and a stabilisation phase (I would say the period we have been in for millions of years – where the species have become adapted and fine-tuned to their environments and fulfilled all of their evolutionary potential). See the scaling laws article – the first in this series http://diggingupthefuture.com/2015/08/03/evolution-scaling-laws-something-universal-is-going-on/
Eugene Koonin's summary highlights the particularly rapid and profound nature of biological evolution without seeming transitions or gaps in its complexity, and offers some solutions as to how this may have come about (via horizontal gene transfer, microbial mergers and genome remodelling etc) as seen in his paper on Biology's Big Bang with particular reference to the Cambrian eruption of life. His summary is as follows:
Major transitions in biological evolution show the same pattern of sudden emergence of diverse forms at a new level of complexity… In each of these pivotal nexuses in life's history, the principal "types" seem to appear rapidly and fully equipped with the signature features of the respective new level of biological organization. No intermediate "grades" or intermediate forms between different types are detectable..
http://www.biologydirect.com/content/2/1/21
The specific genetic mechanism is outlined in: 'Hox Genes: Descent with Modification – Developmental' by SF Gilbert – 2000 below and it is interesting that this mechanism itself evolved as seen below:
The number of Hox genes may play a role in permitting the evolution of complex structures. All invertebrates have a single Hox complex per haploid genome. In the most simple invertebrates—such as sponges—there appear to be only one or two Hox genes in this complex … In the more complex invertebrates, such as insects, there are numerous Hox genes in this complex. … By the time the earliest vertebrates (agnathan fishes) evolved, there were at least four Hox complexes…
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK9978/
The Hox gene complexes and their ability to build whole organisms rapidly and in a highly co-ordinated fashion, is only part of the evolutionary conundrum. Although the Hox genes (that work like master switches for all the other genes) presumably evolved as a short-cut means to activate the vast array of novel genetics exchanged amongst many different forms of earlier life – we need to understand how Nature knows what to build? What to switch on or off, or express genetically, when, where and how? This is where epigenetic modification processes via environmentally driven evolution comes into play. It is this epigenetic flexibility for differential expression, of otherwise conserved genes, along with genome remodelling that seemingly have played a major role in sculpting the species into perfectly adapted forms, via epigenetic mechanisms, which ultimately control the Hox genes or complexes.
For example, continuing from where we left off last week, recall the end reference to the Cambrian and the epigenetic explanation as seen in the following quote:
The concept 'that epigenetic mechanisms are the generative agents of body plan and morphological character origination helps to explain findings that are difficult to reconcile with the standard neo-Darwinian model, e.g., the burst of body plans in the early Cambrian, the origins of morphological innovation, homology, and rapid change of form.
Abstract NEWMAN & MÜLLER
https://www.nymc.edu/sanewman/PDFs/Epigenetic%20mechanisms%20MDE.pdf
See previous articles on the great web of life and epigenetic evolution:
http://diggingupthefuture.com/2015/08/10/part-two-if-it-didnt-happen-by-neo-darwinian-means-how-did-evolution-occur/
http://diggingupthefuture.com/2015/08/17/well-if-it-didnt-happen-by-neo-darwinian-means-how-did-evolution-occur-part-three-descent-via-epigenetic-modification/
Epigenetic mechanisms are seemingly, the competent users of this genetic toolkit (the Hox gene complexes) as outlined in the book description from Cabej's epigenetic theory of evolution titled:'Building the Most Complex Structure on Earth' –
This is a novel theory that describes the epigenetic mechanisms of the development and evolution of animals and explains the colossal evolution and diversification of animals from a new post-genetic perspective. Modern biology has demonstrated the existence of a common genetic toolkit in the animal kingdom, but neither the number of genes nor the evolution of new genes is responsible for the development and evolution of animals. The failure to understand how the same genetic toolkit is used to produce millions of widely different animal forms remains a perplexing conundrum in modern biology. The novel theory shows that the development and evolution of the animal kingdom are functions of epigenetic mechanisms, which are the competent users of the genetic toolkit.
http://store.elsevier.com/Building-the-Most-Complex-Structure-on-Earth/Nelson-Cabej/isbn-9780124016675/
Epigenetics processes acting upon the genomes of various organisms, not only begins to account for the dramatic and rapid formation of fundamental 'principal types', epigenetic evolution also appears to be responsible for the great variation of forms of these fundamental themes, as it acts via differential genetic expression of these fundamental forms throughout the life span of a species, albeit in a less dramatic way as the species become more mature and reach their adult form. The continuation and fine-tuning (at a micro-evolutionary level of development) of all this epigenetic variation in gene expression is clearly seen as ongoing, as exemplified within to-day's species. Recall the articles in last week's post on rapid changes in size of some insect species according to the degree of methylation – an epigenetic process, or the change of sex of some fish larva depending upon the surrounding temperature as they were developing; a very clear example of environmentally driven epigenetic evolution in action. Therefore, this epigenetic mechanism, acting upon existing genes and driven by environmental cues, gives a real insight into the means by which the Cambrian eruption of all the fundamental body-forms and their variation thereafter, came to be.
Furthermore, as discussed previously, Nature appears to have given all the different forms of life a means to radically change and adapt rapidly if needs arise and rapid adaption is required, which is again environmentally stimulated/triggered and involves the remodelling of existing genes by so-called jumping genes. I referred to this in previous articles in this series as Natural Correction and also the fact that Nature has given all the species a means to not only survive, but to actually thrive. It is not survival of the fittest, but the thrival of the most adaptable and evolution via epigenetic means, is inheritently adaptable.
We will look at some possible environmental triggers for the rapid and radical eruption of life-forms – the means to adapt – and their subsequent diversity further on. But also bear in mind that seemingly, as the evidence strongly suggests: once an organism becomes more defined as a species, it seems to become much more genomically quiet and begins to refine its form (becoming a specialist species) as it has reached its fundamental level of metabolic complexity and efficiency (see scaling laws and predictable fractal networks of biological forms). Therefore, we can only assume that the younger and more primitive forms were much more susceptable to this type of genome remodelling and epigenetic expression resulting in dramatic and rapid transformations in the past than their adult species forms seen in the fossil record at a much later date.
All of these considerations begin to give us an insight into the means by which rapid speciation in response to environmental shifts erupted within the Cambrian period – which we could call a profound growth spurt corresponding to the exponential phase of the seemingly 'universal' growth and/or evolutionary development pattern represented by a Sigmoidal growth equation.
We are beginning to see mechanisms for rapid and profound evolution that are directed by natural laws of growth and form and actualised via epigenetic mechanisms that operate above the genetic level. This also gives us a means of the species developing from a common ancestral condition – going from the generalist to the specialist as proposed in Von-Baer's laws which date back to the time before Darwin's theory and supported by more recent molecular studies. See summary below:
Von Baer's laws of embryology as applied to evolutionary development are summarised as follows:
General characteristics of the group to which an embryo belongs develop before special characteristics.
General structural relations are likewise formed before the most specific appear.
The form of any given embryo does not converge upon other definite forms but, on the contrary, separates itself from them.
Fundamentally, the embryo of a higher animal form never resembles the adult of another animal form, such as one less evolved, but only its embryo.
http://self.gutenberg.org/articles/Karl_Ernst_von_Baer#Embryolog
The atmosphere evolved & so did everything else –
As discussed above, environment is intrinsic to how species seem to have evolved. It is a type of co-evolutionary process judging by the research carried out on this topic. For instance, below is an article titled: Oxygen and Evolution by Berner et al ( Science 27 April 2007: 557–558). [DOI:10.1126/science.1140273] which summarises the situation as follows:
The rise of atmospheric oxygen (O2) concentration during the Precambrian eon (~4500 to ~550 million years ago) was closely tied to biological evolution. Additional changes in atmospheric O2 concentrations over the past ~550 million years (the Phanerozoic eon) have probably also been intertwined with biological evolution. Here we examine the evidence for changes in O2 concentrations and their biological causes and effects during the Phanerozoic.
http://uahost.uantwerpen.be/funmorph/raoul/fylsyst/Berner2006.pdf
More detail is given in a similar article entitled: 'Ancient Atmospheres and the Evolution of Oxygen Sensing Via the Hypoxia-Inducible Factor in Metazoans' by Taylor and McElwain
(Physiology Published 1 October 2010 Vol. 25 no. 5, 272-279 DOI: 10.1152/physiol.00029.2010)
Although photosynthesis in the oceans likely began ∼3,000 million years ago …, it was not until ∼1,500 million years ago, when photosynthesis-derived oxygen began to accumulate to significant levels in the atmosphere. While atmospheric oxygen levels continued to increase over the following 1,000 million years, the existing life on Earth during this time remained as simple single-cell organisms … However, when atmospheric oxygen levels reached between 15 and 20% between 550 and 600 million years ago, the first animal body plans developed, and the evolution of metazoans started in earnest … During the following ∼550 million years of metazoan evolution, oxygen levels in the atmosphere have been estimated to have fluctuated between lows of ∼15% and highs of >30% … During this period, metazoan evolution progressed from simple aquatic species such as sea sponges and corals to a dramatic array of marine and terrestrial species including Homo sapiens (H. sapiens)…
… How the fluctuating levels of atmospheric oxygen over the last ∼550 million years impacted on evolution of metazoans is an area in need of further investigation … However, existing physiological studies indicate that fluctuations in atmospheric oxygen may have had a significant role to play in helping to shape evolution.
http://physiologyonline.physiology.org/content/25/5/272
Now that we are beginning to understand the critical role that environmentally-driven epigenetic evolution plays in forming and shaping the species from the generalist to the specialist, continually adapting and making use of what is available in the environment, we can begin to see that bacteria was crucial in building the atmosphere for aquatic and eventually land-based life to form in the first place. The transition from soft-bodied embryo-like forms (I like to refer to these as species in the making), not quite sure what they are going to be when they grow up, is also explicable when we consider all these mechanisms together and within the context of the prevailing environmental conditions. Remember evolutionary complexity appears to be fundamentally linked to an organism's innate metabolic potential. If a simpler organism or level of cellular complexity reaches full efficiency, (having a much simpler metabolic system), then, Nature appears to stabalise that system/organism at a macro-level (via genome silencing perhaps?) allowing for continued refinement of all variations on that theme. Therefore, organisms and systems that have much greater evolutionary potential will presumably specialise and become stabalised later than their more primitive counterparts. For instance, bacteria remain as bacteria once they became stabalised and and began specialising as free-living or symbiotic bacteria (as in the bacteria that keeps us alive and lives in our guts). These bacteria have actually co-evolved with other species and got pretty smart by hitching a ride. So in a sense, although they are still bacteria, (and they are not all bad), they have continued to evolve and adapt to many different conditions and environments and modes of existence. Sponge animals and jelly fish are very simple animals and remain as such to-day. However, some soft-bodied animals went on to become molluscs and grow protective shells of every shape, size, colour and hue and patterning, but still remain as molluscs. Obviously, embryonic soft-bodied animals also floating about in the primordial pond had much more hidden evolutionary potential and it could be that they simply hadn't expressed all that they were going to be in the future – as yet. Therefore, we have set the scene for the type of conditions of life in the Pre-Cambrian leading to the Cambrian.
Now that we have an atmosphere and plants and fungi, the time is perhaps right for the silent eruption of complexity and cellular networking to co-evolve more complex animal forms. A new fundamental transfer system of exchange between the atmosphere and organisms begins in the Pre-Cambrian.
The Pre-Cambrian Big Damp Squid?: Which came first the chicken or the embryo?
Remember that just because the embryos or larval forms of species doesn't look anything like its adult self, this species in the making, may not have activated or expressed genetically via environmentally-driven epigenetic processes, all that it had the potential to be when it grew up. Just as a caterpillar looks nothing like its adult form (a butterfly or moth or general flying insect), yet it has the same genes and Hox Gene tool-kit, in evolutionary developmental terms, the same could be implied only on a much longer timescale, but presumably no less dramatic than a caterpillar changing into an entirely different looking adult form, but only when the time is just right of course.
For instance, we could never explain the predecessors of this great explosion of complex life, and indeed, still cannot. However, back in the late 90s, Stephen Gould got very excited and wrote in a paper entitled: Fossils of tiny embryos 570 million years old may well be the greatest palaeontological discovery of our time (1998) http://www.neuroblast.net/team/ze/PDFs/gouldart.htm all about the fossil embryos found in this layer that might just begin to shed light on the next stage. He even went to great lengths to explain what had happened to their mothers in terms of a unique preservation process that happens only to tiny things. Subsequently, in a more recent article entitled: Precambrian fossils, once thought to be embryos, reinterpreted as… something else (2011), CAT scans now show that "they most certainly aren't bacteria…but it's not actually clear what they are." They go on to say that most likely these are "a relative of the first metazoans" http://arstechnica.com/science/2011/12/precambrian-fossils-once-thought-to-be-embryos-reinterpreted-as-somethign-else/
The answer to the Cambrian explosion seemingly from no particular or obvious predecessors may be to go back to Gould's original premise and see these 'relatives of the first metazoans' of animal life as embryos of what they were to eventually become but, without their mothers or their eggs. This brings us of course to the chicken and egg dilemma. Which came first? Well, as I have suggested in the title and other articles, it wasn't really an egg at this early stage of evolution (this is a later developmental strategy – things are much more direct, radical and primitive in these evolutionary times), but an embryo or larval form of undifferentiated species prior to metamorphosis. These metazoan embryo-like or larval forms of life, therefore technically could not have had mothers as their adult forms were not around yet. It may have been a tiny damp-squishy- squid-like blob that got it all going or more to the point a squishy-squid-like shared ancestral CONDITION.
By taking this line of reasoning to its natural origins, or conclusion, we may not be looking at embryo-like or larval forms of organisms requiring an adult to make their existence possible. It doesn't even matter at this stage of evolution or, at this point in the discussion, whether the embryo is packaged in an egg (spawn or otherwise), a pouch or within a womb. As the cells in any organism are at their most essential, organised colonies of well-coordinated networks and metabolic and molecular systems and we know that cells differentiate and become specialist cells epigenetically to form an organism, then once again, we don't need to worry about the egg bit or the chicken for that matter – it is the collection of cells that make up an organism that we are interested in for the purposes of this discussion and it doesn't have to originate with a specific ancestor or even a mother, although budding (a cell becoming a clone and growing up to be a large and epigenetically differentiated single-celled organisms is most certainly how simpler organisms reproduced themselves leading up to the Cambrian period.
The ancestral condition therefore may lie in the concept of embryo-like species being a highly coordinated colony of cellular life is exemplified in the cellular networks discussed previously where: cells that fire together: wire together. This is otherwise known as: Hebb's law which, has been recently been verified via scientific studies. And to put this into perspective, the replay of the co-evolution of colonies of cellular-life such as slime-mould is a case in point. These slime-moulds can form slug-like pulsating cellular colonies working and co-operating together when certain circumstances prevail. In-deed, they approximate slug-like organisms in the making. They can take on all manner of plant-like, fungal-like and blobby simple-looking life-forms, doing hand-stands and twisting and turning according to environmental cues. They come together to co-ordinate their activities as this is a much better way to source fuel and therefore energy and further develop. Basically, they become greater than the sum of their individual parts by acting as one whole body. A great example of the co-ordinated intelligence of these creatures when they work together can be seen in the fact that tests have been done where, in a slime-mould without the use of a brain, eyes, or a nose or mouth and technically without a body, can complete a maze if there is some sugary substance to re-fuel and grow – to go where no slime-mould has gone before.
Then, if we bring all the genetic exchange across all domains of life into the equation, along with the microbial mergers or once independent organisms and horizontal gene transfer, jumping genes between even disparate forms of life and jumping genes operating within and between different species where they have the ability to remodel entire genomes as the record shows, you can perhaps begin to see the almost imperceptible foundations being laid for embryonic-like/larval forms identified in the late Pre-Cambrian and its subsequent leap of developmental speciation in the Cambrian. And as discussed earlier, we know that Hox gene complexes began to evolve (presumably in a quiet way within these blobby slug-like organisms of co-ordinated cellular networks) and provided in the end, a tool-kit – a short-cut means to rapidly express, and to actualise all this stored genetic novelity and epigenetic memory gleaned from the experiences and interactions in the primordial pond thus far, all that it could be – but only when the time was ripe.
By the time of the late Pre-Cambrian when a few sponge animals were floating about and the odd worm-like creature, whom we know existed from their borrowing activities etc, goodness knows what some of these that didn't rapidly become simple worms, had the potential to morph into? And don't forget the abundant and diverse microbial life-forms still with us today. There is no way of knowing what was stored within some of these embryos or larval miniature blobs, which palaeontogists aren't even sure what to call them or what they are exactly. That is a clue in itself. I would suggest that they are species in the making, an embryonic/larval form of their potential adult selves.
Just like modern day larvae and embryonic forms (albeit originating from eggs with mothers and fathers for the most part), if we didn't know any better from seeing this scenario repeated in predictable ways, we would not be able to say what the larvae, metamorphosing or embryonic form would be when it matured into its adult or even juvenile form. Remember, eggs and mothers or much of the species of animals have not actually evolved yet. We might be looking at how the first animals, plants, and their eggs, spawn and seed came into being in the first place, An egg or seed is a more complex cell and a more sophisticated and more efficient way of reproduce oneself via epigenetic modification, compared to spawning, budding or cloning your protege directly (like a literal chip of the old block).
These embryo-like or larval blobs (of the late Pre-Cambrian) may therefore be much more sophisticated free-living, diversified, multi-cellular life (species in the making), poised on the threshold of epigenetic expression, not yet actualised as the particularle environmental conditions to make this explosive leap in complexity may not have been present in the Pre-Cambrian. However, in the Cambrian period the environment changes dramatically, and seemingly, so does life. In other words, there is no point in slug-like algae-munching critters developing wings and flying around the air until there is an atmosphere to fly in and perhaps something to eat outside the primordial pond.
I call the Cambrian eruption of life, a controlled explosion and it was definitely had an environmental triggering mechanism as you will see below, because, it is perfectly timed and orchestrated according to changing environmental opportunities. I believe it is highly controlled and orchestrated because it seems that Nature had already in place, the means (via its Hox complex respective tool-kits) for these embryonic species to evolve later according to their innate (built-in) complexity, and to take full advantage of the environmental changes when they did arrive. As noted earlier, although the genes and epigenetic markers exchanged within a developing cellular collony now contained within a blobby organism can create vast variations of form, it is how these genes and their switches are expressed, when and where and to what degree that can make a huge difference in the end as to what evoltuionary journey a developing embryo-like organism might ultimately take.
For instance, if it only has two Hox gene switches to play with, it will problably only be able to do a basic blobby body-plan and quickly specialise as a jelly fish or something of that nature. On the other hand, if hidden in its genome and epigenome, it has a very complex Hox gene complex tool-kit, well, it will probably have the potential to build a very sophisticated body-plan. But, it might need special materials for the job. The opportunity seemingly did arise for this much more sophisticated body-form and without this opportunity, we would not be here.
This opportunity and the type of Hox gene mechanism an early developing organism was endowed with seemingly could make the difference between remaining as a simple invertebrate animal and forming a clone colony of coral (as soft-bodied animals of this type do to-day), or become a sluggy-type algae-nibbler – insect in the making awaiting long-term metamorphosis to bigger and better things. Or to become the first of the really fancy floating chordates- tadpole-like/worm-like or larval forms – take your pick (basically soft-bodied pooping, filter-feeders with rudimentary notch chord nerves and simple organs) to transform into the first vertebrate water-based animal (a fish and all variations on that theme) or becoming land-walking complex vertebrate tetrapod.
We have now set the scene for a possible scenario of how embryonic-like/ larval forms of pre-Cambrian life may have exploded into all the diversity of fundamental body-plans we see today, if we first explain the environmental trigger – the possible smoking gun for its cause. The clue lies in the following article entitled: 'Evidence for a geologic trigger of the Cambrian explosion' dated to April 18, 2012 by Jill Saka
The oceans teemed with life 600 million years ago, but the simple, soft-bodied creatures would have been hardly recognizable as the ancestors of nearly all animals on Earth today.,,
Then something happened. Over several tens of millions of years — a relative blink of an eye in geologic terms — a burst of evolution led to a flurry of diversification and increasing complexity, including the expansion of multicellular organisms and the appearance of the first shells and skeletons…
The results of this Cambrian explosion are well documented in the fossil record, but its cause — why and when it happened, and perhaps why nothing similar has happened since — has been a mystery… "The Great Unconformity is a very prominent geomorphic surface and there's nothing else like it in the entire rock record," says Shanan Peters, a geoscience professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who led the new work. Occurring worldwide, the Great Unconformity juxtaposes old rocks, formed billions of years ago deep within the Earth's crust, with relatively young Cambrian sedimentary rock formed from deposits left by shallow ancient seas that covered the continents just a half billion years ago… "We're proposing a triggering mechanism for the Cambrian explosion," says Peters. "Our hypothesis is that biomineralization evolved as a biogeochemical response to an increased influx of continental weathering products during the last stages in the formation of the Great Unconformity".
A Cambrian trilobite, with a shell made of calcium carbonate. (Photo: Shanan Peters)
http://www.news.wisc.edu/20576
So what if we do a thought experiment and imagine what a trilobite might look like naked and very tiny; an embryo-type blob perhaps? As it turns out trilobites did turn up naked. Perhaps it wasn't quite its adult self yet. This evidence is presented below:
An un-named "soft-bodied trilobite" from the Flinders site in Australia … also might seem a reasonable Precambrian candidate antecedent to true trilobites …" http://www.trilobites.info/origins.htm
So guess where the more complex invertebrates got their exoskeletons from and all those molluscs built all their nice colourful shells or the fish got their cartilage to build rudimentary skeletons and the more complex vertebrates got their sturdier skeletons with limbs that could support their bodies? Fish are the most primitive vertebrates, so presumably (as the early Cambrian shows) these were the first of this kind. Furthermore, it seems, (again judging by the fossil record) that primitive (generalist) fish emerged first and later more specialist forms with jaws and teeth etc and so on until all variations on the theme of fish filled the seas and waters of our entire planet. But the other embryonic (tadpole-like) chordate still not sure what they were going to be when they grew up, may have taken a little longer deciding what they were going to specialise at. Some may have simply changed their program (genetic expression of all that saved up evolutionary potential) and long after the initial Cambrian explosion, where the basic body-form templates were established and stabilised, some embryo-like organisms or floating tad-pole types (chordate) may have opted to, as the amphibians do to-day, simply walk unto land and breathe air using a primitive mode of development via metamorphosis. It would beat having to gradually develop specialist breathing apparatus, a new form of skin, and whole new skeleton structure along with the limbs and digits required to walk on land. Presumably some major groups of generic tetrapods (four-legged vertebrates) developed and diverged and became highly proficient species of specialist kinds depending upon the level of their metabolic evolutionary potential. Ultimately some of these metabolically complex tetrapods grew up to become upright walkers – like ourselves. I'll discuss the walking fish story in relation to the fossil record and some recent studies in next week's article and hopefully, get to our own evolution in the following week.
Posted in alternative evolution, epigenetic evolutionTagged alternative evolution, calcium in the Cambrian, descent via epigenetic hox genes, environmentally driven evolution, epigenetic evolution, evolution of the atmosphere, Pre-Cambrian fossils, Pre-Cambrian period explained, the Cambrian explosion, trilobites soft body
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So I have a pretty ambitious schedule at NARST this year. NARST is the annual science education research conference. (It used to stand for something, but doesn't anymore.) This year, I am involved in not one or two, but six presentations at the conference. And yes, that is a lot. Two of them are ones where I am first author on the paper and am presenting at the conference and the other four I am one of the co-authors (which is associated with a varying amount of responsibility depending on the paper). And these six papers fall into three very different areas, which makes the whole thing even more onerous.
* I am presenting a subset of the final results of the simulation meta-analysis that I've been working on for the last year and a half (a subset focused on science, obviously).
* I am presenting some findings relating to a large efficacy study of the PBIS curriculum (my part is focused on analysis of the weekly online implementation logs, but I've also been working on analysis of classroom video observations and teacher professional development). This work is largely concerned with teachers' implementation of the new science Framework and NGSS-related ideas (mostly the integration of scientific practices with content). These papers are part of a related paper set (but there's also another one that is in its own session).
* I am helping a colleague put together a presentation on analysis of afterschool science materials that we have been working on.
My "spring conference series" just ended. NARST (the conference formerly known as the National Association of Research on Science Teaching) was in early April (in Puerto Rico!) and AERA (American Educational Research Association) was about a week ago (here in San Francisco). Here are my notes and thoughts from the two conferences.
There were a few presentations about one of the large studies that I am working on, an efficacy study of a middle school science curriculum. These presentations on some of our preliminary findings went well and I am really looking forward to next year's conference when we will have even more results to report on and some awesome graphs to show.
Today marks six months at my new job. If someone had told me a year ago, when I was deep in the academic job hunt madness, that I would have found a job as intellectually fulfilling, interesting, challenging, and enjoyable as the one I currently have I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have believed it. Part of that is probably because I didn't know this kind of job existed. As it turned out for me, everything worked out: the job hunt didn't actually destroy me, I learned a lot about myself and the type of work I really want to do and the manner in which I want to do it, and I found this awesome job at an awesome place in California (and not half way around the world).
I have had the great pleasure to work on a number of really interesting and diverse* projects just in these first six months, many of which would never had been available to me in a more traditional academic setting. Moreover, the people that I have been working with are great in so many ways. There is a true sense of collegiality and cooperation, which I had experienced before, but never thought possible at the scale at which we have it here at SRI. The teamwork and support structure makes our large and complicated projects possible.
One of the projects that I am working on is a huge meta-analysis of research studies surrounding simulations used for learning STEM content, inquiry, and related skills. I am leading a team of researchers in this task (some of whom are at a different institution), and initially tried to figure out the best way to collaborate in reading and coding thousands of article abstracts. I decided to go with Mendeley, mostly because I knew it would be easy to get the citations into it, it's free, it works really well, and I could set up collaborative groups to facilitate our coding process. What I hadn't anticipated would be how difficult it would be to get the citations out of Mendeley and into a spreadsheet (which I was using for analysis of the abstract data and the next steps of our overall project). Specifically, I needed to get the tags in Mendeley out, since we were using the tag field for our coding.
Mendeley, while awesome in many respects, does not have many options for exporting data. You can do BibTeX (.bib), RIS (.ris), or EndNote XML (.xml). Through some sleuthing, I managed to figure out that BibTeX was probably my best bet as the tags were definitely part of that export (they didn't seem to be in the xml file and I didn't really want to deal with RIS if I didn't have to). Now, of course, the new problem is that BibTex isn't a spreadsheet and it's only readable by other citation management software (and there's a good reason why I don't use EndNote anymore). So I still needed to get it into a csv type format. Luckily, through some interwebz searching, I found the program JabRef, which is an open source citation manager and is able to export to csv. Hooray!
However, my problems still weren't quite over, as the default csv export filter didn't include the tags that I wanted. Although free, open source programs are great in a lot of ways, they are usually not so great in the documentation of certain operations. And this was one of those situations.
First, download the src files. This includes the the standard export filter layouts that you can then edit and tweak to your heart's content. They can be found here: http://sourceforge.net/projects/jabref/files/jabref/ Open up the file openoffice-csv.layout (in your text editor of choice) and decide which fields you want to be included in your export to csv. "\mendeley-tags" is the correct way to refer to the Mendeley tags in the BibTeX file. My suggestion is to definitely delete the "\annote" field (especially, if like me, you had a bunch of random crap in the Note field in Mendeley, some of which took up a lot of space). You can of course change the order of these and delete other fields as well. After going through the rest of this process, I would have taken out more fields due to the regular expressions weirdness that came out the other side when there were strange symbols or characters (which happened a lot in the author and abstract fields – more on that later). If you don't need the address, I would suggest deleting that since there were a bunch of formatting issues with it in the csv version.
You can also edit the openoffice-csv.begin.layout file to change the headings for the csv export – and obviously, it's easier later on if you have ensured that the data and the headings match up. :) Make sure to rename your edited files (I called mine custom-csv.layout and custom-csv.begin.layout) and then save them somewhere convenient.
Then go back to JabRef, select Menu Options – Manage custom exports – Add new. Fill in the fields: export name – call it whatever you want; main layout file: navigate to your saved .layout file; file extension: .csv. Click Ok and Close. Then go to Menu – File – Export and your newly defined export filter should be listed there.
Now, this solution is not perfect by any means. There were definitely lots of formatting and regexp hiccups in the transformation and export processes. I'm not sure where these occurred and I'm not skilled enough at regexp to fix them. So, I had to go through my csv file and correct a lot of the issues (the concatenate function in Excel was exceedingly helpful in this regard). But, in the end I got all 2392 of my citations into an xls format and can now manipulate my data with ease.
I have written or helped write a lot of grants (like >10) in the last two years of my academic career. I have also recently gone to NSF and reviewed proposals. And people keep asking me if I have any advice for them when they are writing grants. So I thought I would put together something that might be helpful. Some of this advice is just general writing advice, but I think it is especially important or relevant for grant writing.
This may seem like an easy one, but it's really important. The tone and details of the request/call for proposals can tell you a lot about not just what kinds of projects the program or agency is interested in, but also how you should frame your argument for funding your project. Also, sometimes there are very specific requirements, such as asking you to identity the type and/or size of the proposed project in the first sentence or the title. These types of seemingly minor mistakes sometimes make it difficult for reviewers to properly situate your proposal and can lead people to think you won't be able to pay attention to details.
This is perhaps the most important part of this process. What is the big idea you want to address? What is the big problem you are trying to solve (and how will you solve it)? Once you have figured this out, you need to create a story or an argument for (a) why this is a big idea/problem, (b) why this is the best way to solve/fix the problem, and (c) why you are the team to do it. These three points all need to be addressed early and often in the proposal. You need to convince the reviewers that this is important and innovative work that is achievable.
Two important things to remember: (1) program officers (at least at NSF), as federal employees, are required by law to respond to your emails and phone calls, and (2) program officers want you to submit the best proposal you can because it's better for everyone if they are funding innovative and successful projects. This means that you should not hesitate to contact them about your initial ideas to make sure that your proposal fits within the program boundaries. Program officers are usually good about giving you advice about which program would be a good fit for your project and whether or not it is missing important pieces. Of course, keep in mind that there are limits to the type and amount of guidance they can give you at the proposal stage.
Having a third party read your proposal is essential as well, especially if the proposal is about a topic that you have been immersed in for a while. You have probably developed some shortcuts, slang, or ways of talking about this topic that are not immediately apparent to someone who hasn't been inside your brain recently. A third party, even someone who is familiar with your work, can help bring an outside view or perspective (like someone who might be reviewing your proposal) that should clarify unclear concepts or phrases, help you structure your argument effectively, and ensure that you have properly explained what you're planning on doing, how you will do it, and how your team is well-suited to perform the work.
Things that reviewers are looking for specifically: overall big idea, prior work/results related to this project, intellectual merit, broader impacts, prior NSF support (or the equivalent), team, and workplan. If you write your proposal in such a way that it is difficult for a typical reviewer to find any one of these pieces, it is not going to help your case. A good proposal is clear, as concise as possible, and complete. Note that the prior NSF support section should include not just that you were part of a funded project but also any major findings of that project. Additionally, there is a fun catch-22 with funding. In order to get funding, you (usually) need to have shown that you have already been successfully funded. This means that if you're an early career researcher and applying for your first grants, it is extremely important to find more senior researchers to team up with who have a history with that funding agency. A well-known advisory board also helps in this regard.
There are a LOT of documents and details to keep track of during the proposal writing process. It is extremely important that you stay organized throughout, otherwise the few days before the deadline are going to be hellish (I'm not kidding). Make sure you start the process soon enough to ask for appropriate letters of support from your advisory board and collaborators. Make sure that all of the details, language, and formatting match across the narrative, summary, references, budget, budget justification, letters, subaward information (if relevant), current & pending, biosketches, data management plan, and mentoring plan. Make sure you don't forget any of those pieces. Make sure that you review the final pdf before it gets submitted – especially if you have a lot of figures or diagrams (sometimes certain programs don't render these correctly when converting to pdf).
A lot of young researchers seem unsure about this. But basically, if you have finished your Ph.D., you can review for NSF. They have some advice for how to do this buried on their website somewhere, but the easiest thing to do is to create a short version of your CV (about 2 pages) that highlights the kind of work that you do and your areas of expertise and send it to a program officer in a relevant area, letting him or her know that you are interested in volunteering to be on a review panel. If that specific program officer doesn't need someone with your expertise for their panels, they usually pass along your information to their colleagues to see if someone else does. Being on a review panel was one of the most interesting and valuable experiences I have had in terms of learning how to write grant proposals and discuss research projects. You get to see things from the other side, learn about lots of cutting edge research and ideas, meet people in related fields, and most importantly, see what parts of the proposal are most important during those funding conversations.
In general, the world of academia and research includes a lot of rejection: rejected conference proposals, rejected journal articles, and unfunded research proposals. Research proposals are notoriously hard to get funded. The acceptance rates at NSF are in the single digits in some programs (overall, NSF's acceptance rate is around 28%). All of this rejection requires a thick skin and an optimistic outlook. Whenever you get reviews back from a proposal, try to use the feedback constructively to either make improvements to your funded project or to write an even better proposal next time.
I am pleased to announce that I have accepted a research job with the Center for Technology and Learning at SRI International! I will be starting in mid-July and can't wait to start working on some of the projects there and continue building my research program. I think that SRI will be a great place for me and allow me to take advantage of my unique background and training in order to do really innovative work in the intersection of science education, technology, and measurement. SRI supports research in all sorts of STEM areas, not just education, and there are a ton of resources available.
SRI is located in Menlo Park, a few blocks away from Stanford (the "S" in SRI used to refer to Stanford – although they haven't been affiliated with them since 1970). I am excited to move back to California (but I think my family is even more excited) and it should be interesting living up in the Bay Area instead of SoCal like I'm used to.
I would also like to say that I was lucky enough to have to make a decision about where I wanted to work next, and although my other option was very exciting in a lot of ways (due to its location – in Singapore – and research opportunities), I feel like SRI will be a really good fit for the next chapter of my career.
I just got back from AERA 2012, which was in Vancouver, British Columbia during the past week. It was my fourth AERA, and I hadn't attended last year because I had basically sworn off the conference and decided I wasn't going to go very frequenly anymore. Luckily, I was invited to a session at NCME (the sister conference to AERA that was co-occurring) and decided to go (it also didn't hurt that the conference was in Vancouver). It turned out to be a great conference all around, and I went to a few good sessions and met with lots of old and new friends and colleagues.
The best thing about AERA usually is that everyone goes to AERA. I heard that this year there were over 13,000 people registered. That's a bit crazy. This huge zoo is people is usually one of the reasons that I don't like AERA, but for some reason it didn't seem so bad this time around. Perhaps it was the way the conference center centre and hotels were located/configured, which forced people to walk around and run into people more than in other places. Or maybe it was that many of us chose not to get international cell/data packages and were reliant on congregating in certain places having wifi (and then consequently spreading around the passwords for the wifi). Whatever it was, I ended up running into lots of people that I wanted to talk to and had lots of interesting discussions.
I think also that one difference this time around was that I felt that for the first time I was able to help start connecting other people together, instead of relying on my advisors and professors to connect me to people they knew. That type of thing still happened, of course, and is an essential part of academic networking, but I was taking on that role for other, younger researchers now. And that felt kind of nice.
One particularly interesting set of conversations centered around using games in classrooms, how students might be viewing educational games within the context of a classroom setting, and how that context might (a) change how the student views the game/simulation and/or (b) change the type and amount of learning that is possible in that game (versus an out-of-school, informal, or student-directed session). This could possibly be highly dependent on what educational value the student might attach to the game outside of the classroom in the first place. For example, a commercial game being used in the classroom might have a larger "learning differential" than a game specifically designed to be used for learning (either informally or in a classroom). Definitely something to think some more about.
Vancouver was also a great city to visit. We had wonderful weather almost the entire time, which just highlighted how beautiful the city is. There was lots of great food to be eaten, especially seafood (yum!).
On my last afternoon, I (along with some others) went to the Vancouver Aquarium. It was a really nice facility and I would totally recommend going there if you are visiting and you like awesome things. Here are a couple pictures of the aquarium and Vancouver. More pictures will be posted soon (somewhere).
Part of the Vancouver skyline, from Stanley Park.
Awesome jellyfish at the Vancouver Aquarium.
Part of the sea lion feeding/training non-show.
Totem pole exhibit in Stanley Park.
Watching sea planes land from the Convention Centre.


DigiTickets provides award winning software solutions to the Tourism, Leisure and Events Industries.
We're an ambitious, forward-thinking team offering a relaxed and friendly working atmosphere where every opinion is taken into consideration and discussed, so you will have the opportunity to shape and lead development projects for many well known clients, such as Cadbury, Emirates & Dublin Zoo.
The successful candidate will be a key player within our team delivering cutting edge web-based applications covering, e-commerce, ticketing / booking systems, membership software, content management systems and other solutions across our range of services.
We're a market leader in the UK and we're growing through many recommendations coupled with expansion overseas; we're looking for talented and enthusiastic Software Developers of all levels to join our team and help take our SaaS solutions to the next level.
Due to continued growth, we're looking for multiple front end and back end software developers to join our team and contribute to the ongoing development of our portfolio of products.
We're not a website / digital agency, but a provider of a market leading SaaS product, so you'll have the opportunity to shape, enhance and develop a product used by some of the leading brands in the leisure industry.
We need someone with a strong background in front-end development to take our UX prototypes and bring them to life. Existing software development experience would be desirable, but we are open to those with agency experience who are keen to jump into a software role.
We need PHP Developers with an enthusiasm for OO design using design patterns. You'll be work with PHP and MySQL to build and enhance a market-leading SaaS product.
Ability to demonstrate code that goes well beyond the use of frameworks such as Laravel, Codeigniter or Wordpress.
Ability to demonstrate a good knowledge of packages with composer.
If you're passionate about all things digital and keen to work in a great environment, this is an excellent opportunity to build a career within a fast growing company.
We're not a global company with thousands of staff; our team of 30 work from offices in Exeter, South West England, where you can enjoy challenging, exciting and rewarding work, matched by an exceptional lifestyle opportunities.
We value a 'can do' attitude, and you can expect to find yourself in an environment where you can contribute from day 1, where teamwork is appreciated and recognised and where there's a collaborative team atmosphere.
Your own mug and regular pizza deliveries!
If joining DigiTickets appeals to you, we would love to hear more about you, your experience and what you feel you could bring to our team!


text:
Ghostbusters is een videospel uit 1984, gebaseerd op de gelijknamige film. Het spel werd ontworpen door David Crane en uitgebracht voor onder andere de Atari 2600, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, Sega Master System, NES en MSX.

Gameplay
De speler neemt de rol aan van drie leden van het Ghostbusters team. Ze moeten op een kaart van New York spoken opsporen, en dan een route plannen naar het gebied waar dit spook is. Vervolgens moet de speler zich met de ectomobile naar de locatie haasten, en eenmaal daar het spook in kwestie vangen.

Het spel hanteert zowel een zijaanzicht als bovenaanzicht. De kaart van New York waar de ectomobile zich over voortbeweegt wordt van bovenaf gezien. Eenmaal op een locatie verandert het spel in een zijaanzicht waarin de speler de Ghostbusters zelf bestuurt. Ze moeten de aanwezige spoken verslaan door ze met hun proton packs naar een vooraf geplaatste val te drijven. Elke succesvolle vangst levert de speler geld op waarvoor nieuwe wapens en voertuigen gekocht kunnen worden.

Tijdens het spel wordt de hoeveelheid paranormale activiteit in de stad weergegeven op een meter. Doel is om deze activiteit onder een bepaald niveau te houden. In de climax moet de speler het opnemen tegen de god Gozer.

Achtergrond
De Commodore 64 versie kwam als eerste uit. Deze diende als basis voor alle andere versies.

De Commodore 64-versie werd in acht maanden tijd gemaakt. Deze korte ontwikkelingstijd was mede mogelijk omdat de producers stukken uit het spel Car Wars, dat tegelijk werd ontwikkeld, gebruikten in het spel. Ook werd het spel geproduceerd toen de film die als basis diende nog in productie was.

Er zitten wel wat verschillen tussen de versies. Zo heeft de Sega Master System-versie een schietgalerij, maar geen animaties. De NES versie heeft een ander einde dan de overige spellen.

Ontvangst

Computerspel uit 1984
Computerspel van Activision
Actiespel
Ghostbusters
Commodore 64-spel
MSX-spel
Nintendo Entertainment System-spel
Atari 2600-spel
Sega Master System-spel
ZX Spectrum-spel
Amstrad CPC-spel

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Campbell distance to Chula Vista
How far is Campbell from Chula Vista?
Shortest distance between Campbell and Chula Vista is 422.95 miles (680.67 km).
Flight distance from Campbell, CA to Chula Vista, CA is 422.95 miles. Estimated flight time is 00 hours 57 minutes.
It takes 00 hours 51 minutes to travel from Campbell to Chula Vista with an airplane (average speed of 550 miles).
The driving distance from Campbell, California to Chula Vista, California is: 476 miles (766.04 km) by car.
Driving from Campbell to Chula Vista will take approximately 07 hours 28 minutes.
#1 Campbell
City in Santa Clara County, California, United States
37°17'14"N 121°56'60"W
-121.9499600
#2 Chula Vista
City in California
32°38'24"N 117°5'3"W
Starting point in Campbell: South Winchester Boulevard (-121.949938,37.287166)
Ending point in Chula Vista: F Street (-117.084196,32.640039)
Estimated Travel Time Between Campbell and Chula Vista
The distance between Campbell and Chula Vista is 766 km if you choose to drive by road. You can go 08 hours 30 minutes if you drive your car at an average speed of 90 kilometers / hour. For different choices, please review the avg. speed travel time table on the below.
There is no time difference between Campbell and Chula Vista. The current time is 19:39:30.
A car with a fuel efficiency of 8.3 l/100 km will need 63.58 liters (16.8 gallon) of gas to cover the route between Campbell and Chula Vista.
The estimated cost of gas to go from Campbell to Chula Vista is $68.9 (diesel $81.45).
The place names are translated into coordinates to approximate the distance between Campbell and Chula Vista (latitude and longitude). Cities, states, and countries each have their own regional center. The Haversine formula is used to measure the radius.
Driving distance from Anaheim, CA to Campbell 368.14 miles (592 km)
Driving distance from Bakersfield, CA to Campbell 249.84 miles (402 km)
Driving distance from Fremont, CA to Campbell 21.88 miles (35 km)
Driving distance from Fresno, CA to Campbell 154.04 miles (248 km)
Driving distance from Irvine, CA to Campbell 387.9 miles (624 km)
Laguna, CA
Driving distance from Laguna, CA to Campbell 114.98 miles (185 km)
Driving distance from Long Beach, CA to Campbell 366.29 miles (589 km)
Driving distance from Los Angeles, CA to Campbell 343.62 miles (553 km)
Driving distance from Oakland, CA to Campbell 45.29 miles (73 km)
Driving distance from Riverside, CA to Campbell 397.44 miles (640 km)
Driving distance from Sacramento, CA to Campbell 121.81 miles (196 km)
Driving distance from San Bernardino, CA to Campbell 398.85 miles (642 km)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


When diagnosed 16 years ago, Shirk closed his highly successful advertising agency, but was determined to make the most of his remaining years. IBM victims often die early, usually from pneumonia, as the muscles that support breathing and swallowing grow weaker. Today Mike feels fortunate that he has survived so long, which he attributes to remaining active and productive.
Mike's blog features solutions to everyday living challenges he encounters as the debilitating effects of IBM increase. Mike shares everything from evaluating can and bottle openers to selecting vehicles and scooters. When easy-off, easy-on clothing was difficult to find, Mike bought a sewing machine and soon was making his own pants and even shoes.
Soon after diagnosis, Shirk began serious study of painting in watercolors. Mike thanks his wife, Beth, an accomplished artist, for his inspiration. Within a few years, his paintings had won national awards, been sold to dozens of collectors and he had become president of the prestigious San Diego Watercolor Society. During his term, Shirk relocated the Society to spacious new quarters and personally wrote business software applications to automate membership, paint-outs, calendars, exhibitions, and classes.
Mike also credits Apple products for making his life productive. He owns an iMac, MacBook Pro, an iPad and an iPhone. His new music video was made with Apple applications. Once a 100 WPM typist, Mike's frozen fingers no longer can manipulate keyboards and he now dictates through the iPhone 4's voice recognition software.
I'm too much man for that.
But life's to grand for this.
And lessons to be learned.
And love to be returned.
Music is a growing part of medical therapy. It's working for Mike.
I Won't Stand For That!


text:
dLibra 6 (EN)
English dLibra Documentation
[EN] Documentation
[EN] 05. The Editor and Administrator Application
[EN] 02. Starting up and Logging In
Created by FR AW (admin), last modified by Unknown User (amar@amar-translations.pl) on 05 Jul 2019
Starting up the Editor and Administrator Application
The Editor and Administrator Application can only be started up after the Reader Application has been started up (see the next chapter).
Before starting up, the Editor Application must be installed. It can be installed by the administrator of the dLibra system or by the editor. An appropriate version of the Java virtual machine (in accordance with the technical requirements) is also needed. If the administrator of the dLibra library has installed the dLibra window program and created a shortcut for it, for example, on the desktop, then double-clicking the shortcut will start up the program.
If the shortcut has not been created, then the following steps must be taken to start the dLibra system on one's own:
Open an Internet browser (for example, Firefox, Chrome).
Enter the library address in the address field and add a the "/jnlp" suffix. For example, if the Internet add of the library is www.wbc.poznan.pl, enter the www.wbc.poznan.pl/jnlp address, that is, add the "/jnlp" ending.
Confirm the address by, for example, clicking the "Enter" button.
Wait until the needed files have been downloaded and the program has been started up. If a file is downloaded and the program is not started up, open (start up) the file.
If a safety message is displayed, press the "Always" button.
A login window should be displayed on the screen (see the image below).
Logging into the dLibra System
Before beginning to work with the window applications of the dLibra system, the user should log in. After the dLibra window program has been started up, the login window will be displayed (the image above).
The authentication details (username, password) can be entered directly in the "Identifier" and "Password" fields or be stored in a login profile (the profiles can be accessed by clicking the "Profile" button). The login profile editor (see the figure below) makes it possible to create new profiles and to modify the existing ones.
Login Profile Editor
The default login profile defines the address and port number of the dLibra server which is to be used during the authorization when the username and password are entered directly. For other profiles, the data can be defined separately. If the password in the login profile remains empty, it will have to be entered in the "Password" field of the login window during every login operation. We recommend leaving it empty and entering it every time during login, for security reasons.
NAT settings can also be configured for profiles. The NAT settings should be configured by the administrator of the dLibra server. Should there be any problems, it may be helpful to carry out the procedure described in Supplement B. The Most Frequent Problems with Installing the dLibra System ("Problems Related to the Editor Application Connecting with the dLibra Server Operating in a Network Configuration with NAT").
When the user has logged in to the system, the start window is displayed (as shown in the figure below). It makes it possible to start up the window applications of the dLibra system. The user can select an application by clicking its name:
the Editor Application – the application of the editor of the dLibra library or
Library Management – the application of the administrator of the dLibra library.
When an application has been selected, its elements are loaded. The information about the element currently being loaded is displayed in the lower part of the start window.
DLibra Start Window
{"serverDuration": 73, "requestCorrelationId": "f150dd753337a4b7"}


text:
Throughout most of lawn tennis' history, most rackets were made of laminated wood, with heads of around 65 square inches (420 cm2). A small number of them were made of metal, such as a 1920s racket by Dayton.[15] Some, rarely, also had metal strings. In the late 1960s, Wilson popularized the T-2000 steel racket with wire wound around the frame to make string loops, after having purchased the design from René Lacoste, who produced the racket first in a more limited run. It was popularized by the top American player Jimmy Connors and was also, prior to Connors using it, by Billie Jean King in her early career. Many players said it lacked control but had more power, when compared with wood frames of the period. Connors used the rarer "firm" model that had additional throat welds to increase its stiffness. In 1968 Spalding launched an aluminum racket, called The Smasher. Aluminum, though lighter and more flexible than steel, was sometimes less accurate than wood. The biggest complaint, however, was that metal rackets caused strong cases of tennis elbow, especially the kind that had holes for the strings directly in the frame, rather than using an external wire wrapper, as in the T-2000. Because of that drawback in particular, most of the top players still preferred to use wooden frames.[16]
I reckon the best thing would be for courses like Tennis Xpress to introduce a 'recreational' level for those who want to play on Sundays and may have hit some balls with mates before but who need help correcting technique or gaining more confidence in their game – leaving the very, very rusty or beginners to go slowly without fear of ridicule or frustration.
A set consists of a sequence of games played with service alternating between games, ending when the count of games won meets certain criteria. Typically, a player wins a set by winning at least six games and at least two games more than the opponent. If one player has won six games and the opponent five, an additional game is played. If the leading player wins that game, the player wins the set 7–5. If the trailing player wins the game (tying the set 6–6) a tie-break is played. A tie-break, played under a separate set of rules, allows one player to win one more game and thus the set, to give a final set score of 7–6. A "love" set means that the loser of the set won zero games, colloquially termed a 'jam donut' in the USA.[55] In tournament play, the chair umpire announces the winner of the set and the overall score. The final score in sets is always read with the winning player's score first, e.g. "6–2, 4–6, 6–0, 7–5".
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As rackets have become lighter, stiffer, and larger-headed, the professional game has moved, basically completely, from softer and more flexible string materials to stiff materials. This is, in large part, to tone down the additional power potential of the "modern" rackets. However, it also is related to the tendency for different string materials to move out of place when subjected to heavy topspin strokes. Polyester is the string of choice today because of that resistance, despite its increased stiffness (harsher feel and more aggravating for the joints) and reduced tension-holding ability (versus a string like natural gut, which excels at that). The top professionals of the 1970s and earlier, despite having access to stiffer materials such as nylon, nearly always chose to use the very flexible natural gut instead. String bed stiffness can be increased by using stiffer materials, such as kevlar and polyester, by increasing the density of the string pattern, and by stringing with a higher tension. Racket makers and players have experimented with very dense string patterns and very "open" patterns, beginning with the Snauwaert Hi Ten, which had a pattern with as few as 12 mains and 13 crosses. Doubles great Mark Woodforde used one of them.[14] More recently, Grigor Dimitrov is known for having played with a very open-patterned racket during part of his career. String choice, both in thickness and material, string tension, string pattern, and string pattern density can have a very large effect on how a racket performs.
Currently, the Grand Slam tournaments are the only tour events that have mixed doubles contests. Grand Slam tournaments are held in conjunction with wheelchair tennis tournaments and junior tennis competitions. These tournaments also contain their own idiosyncrasies. For example, players at Wimbledon are required to wear predominantly white. Andre Agassi chose to skip Wimbledon from 1988 through 1990 citing the event's traditionalism, particularly its "predominantly white" dress code.[85] Wimbledon has its own particular methods for disseminating tickets, often leading tennis fans to follow complex procedures to obtain tickets.[86]
Focus on ball trajectory and how cleanly you hit the ball – this will then allow your brain to merge the technical instruction you've been working on with the natural way of movement that creates effortless power – and eventually sound tennis techniques will emerge that simultaneously produce a lot of effortless power and allow easy adjustments to different situations in the game.
From 'No advantage'. Scoring method created by Jimmy Van Alen. The first player or doubles team to win four points wins the game, regardless of whether the player or team is ahead by two points. When the game score reaches three points each, the receiver chooses which side of the court (advantage court or deuce court) the service is to be delivered on the seventh and game-deciding point. Utilized by World Team Tennis professional competition, ATP tours, WTA tours, ITF Pro Doubles and ITF Junior Doubles.[57][58]
By registering, you agree to: (i) provide true, accurate and complete information about yourself as prompted by the registration form; and (ii) maintain and promptly update the Registration Data to keep it true, accurate, current and complete. You acknowledge and agree the USTA shall have no liability associated with or arising from your failure to maintain accurate Registration Data, including but not limited to your failure to receive critical information about the site or any mobile service or your account. You further agree the USTA is authorized to verify such Registration Data through its own records as well as those of third parties. The information we obtain through your use of this site, mobile site or any USTA or US Open app is subject to our Privacy Policy. Every subsequent USTA email mass communication will carry a simple opt-out or unsubscribe link at the bottom of the email. Any suspected abuse of your Registration Data should be reported to the USTA.
A serve (or, more formally, a "service") in tennis is a shot to start a point. The serve is initiated by tossing the ball into the air and hitting it (usually near the apex of its trajectory) into the diagonally opposite service box without touching the net. The serve may be hit under- or overhand although underhand serving remains a rarity.[73] If the ball hits the net on the first serve and bounces over into the correct diagonal box then it is called a "let" and the server gets two more additional serves to get it in. There can also be a let if the server serves the ball and the receiver isn't prepared.[74] If the server misses his or her first serve and gets a let on the second serve, then they get one more try to get the serve in the box.
For right-handed players, the backhand is a stroke that begins on the left side of their body, continues across their body as contact is made with the ball, and ends on the right side of their body. It can be executed with either one hand or with both and is generally considered more difficult to master than the forehand. For most of the 20th century, the backhand was performed with one hand, using either an eastern or a continental grip. The first notable players to use two hands were the 1930s Australians Vivian McGrath and John Bromwich, but they were lonely exceptions. The two-handed grip gained popularity in the 1970s as Björn Borg, Chris Evert, Jimmy Connors, and later Mats Wilander and Marat Safin used it to great effect, and it is now used by a large number of the world's best players, including Rafael Nadal and Serena Williams.[77]
WILSON Pro Staff 97 ULS. Condition is Used 9.5 out of 10. Shipped with USPS Priority Mail. For sale is a lightly used Wilson Pro Staff 97 ULS. Head Size: 97 sq. in. / 625.81 sq. cm. Length: 27in / 68.58cm Strung Weight: 10.8oz / 303.34g Balance: 13.1in / 33.27cm / 3 pts HL Swingweight: 314 Stiffness: 67 Beam Width: 23mm / 23mm / 23mm / Composition: Graphite Power Level: Low-Medium Stroke Style: Medium-Full Swing Speed: Medium-Fast Racquet Colors: Black Grip Type: Wilson Synthetic String Pattern: 18 Mains / 16 Crosses Mains skip: 8T,10T,8H,10H One Piece No Shared Holes String Tension: 50-60 pounds
Easy to play and extremely maneuverable, this Radical racquet is the ideal choice for all beginners and will allow you to climb the ladder. In this version, the Radical benefits from GRAPHENE XT technology.  More power for less effort. Get ready to discover a generation of racquets that will transform your game. From the moment you play with a racquet equipped with the GRAPHENE XT, you'll never want to do without its natural power again.
The standard ProCushion System consists of 1 to 2 coats of Acrylic Resurfacer, 3 coats of CushionMaster™ II, 2 coats of CushionMaster™ I, and 2 coats of CushionMaster™ Neutral Base with ColorPlus™ Pigment Dispersion. SportMaster Color Concentrate or the SportMaster ColorPlus™ System may be substituted for the CushionMaster™ Neutral Base tennis court surfaces. (This is the standard system installation. Custom levels of cushion can also be achieved by adding or removing layers. Contact a SportMaster representative for details.)
Acrylic color coatings are a combination of acrylic latex resins, pigments, and silica sand (for texture). They protect the court from the elements, enhance its appearance, and improve foot traction and consistency in ball bounce. They also make it possible to tailor the speed of play to your preferences by adjusting the amount, type, and size of sand used in the coating. For a standard concrete tennis court, the cost to install an acrylic color coating runs about $6,000, according to Kolkmann. To improve bonding of the coating, the concrete surface should have a broom finish (a lightly textured profile obtained by pushing a broom over freshly placed concrete).
Before hiring a local contractor to build your play court, ask plenty of questions and do your research. Tennis court construction is a highly specialized field, so it's important to find a contractor with extensive experience. Kolkmann recommends using someone who is an active member of ASBA, with at least 15% to 20% of annual business devoted to designing and constructing sport surfaces. (ASBA has a searchable database of certified builder members.)
By registering, you agree to: i) provide true, accurate and complete information about yourself as prompted by the registration form; and (ii) maintain and promptly update the Registration Data to keep it true, accurate, current and complete. You acknowledge and agree the USTA shall have no liability associated with or arising from your failure to maintain accurate Registration Data, including but not limited to your failure to receive critical information about the site or any mobile service or your account. You further agree the USTA is authorized to verify such Registration Data. The information we obtain through your use of this site, mobile site or any USTA or US Open app is subject to our Privacy Policy. Every subsequent USTA email communication will carry a simple opt-out or unsubscribe link at the bottom of the email. Any suspected abuse of your Registration Data should be reported to the USTA.
United States and other countries and international treaties. US Open, USA Tennis, TennisLink and USTA and other marks indicated on the site are registered trademarks of the USTA in the United States. All other trademarks that are not owned by the USTA Family of Companies that appear on this site are the property of their respective owners, which may or may not be affiliated with or connected to the USTA Family of Companies.
Advanced players improve their performance through a number of accoutrements. Vibration dampeners may be interlaced in the proximal part of the string array for improved feel. Racket handles may be customized with absorbent or rubber-like materials to improve the players' grip. Players often use sweat bands on their wrists to keep their hands dry and head bands or bandanas to keep the sweat out of their eyes as well. Finally, although the game can be played in a variety of shoes, specialized tennis shoes have wide, flat soles for stability and a built-up front structure to avoid excess wear.
Another, however informal, tennis format is called Canadian doubles. This involves three players, with one person playing a doubles team. The single player gets to utilize the alleys normally reserved only for a doubles team. Conversely, the doubles team does not use the alleys when executing a shot. The scoring is the same as a regular game. This format is not sanctioned by any official body.
Choosing the right tennis racquet is the best way to ensure optimal performance, aside from practice and matches. This is why we at Midwest Sports stocks such a mammoth collection. We want you to find the best racquet for your game. Select among technical options including head size, weight, and balance. Do you prefer comfort, control or power? You can also browse by price and brand.
You have my dad and brother's name! Yes, I agree that tennis becomes very technical. I have also struggled with being too technique oriented with my kids. Thanks to Tomaz, I have used feel and imitation a lot more. I think many people in the US are plagued with the notion that faster is better. There is this sense that children should grow up faster and that learning more earlier is better. This turns into the mentality of winning now is better than playing as well as you can later. The two-handed backhand is an example of this. A younger player is much more likely to win with a two-handed backhand at a younger age. The one-hander is very difficult to learn and requires strength and very good footwork. But as I told a local pro I think there is also a downside. By using two forehands it allows people to "cheat" on both sides. My son recently switched to a one-hander just before turning thirteen. It's hard but he now realizes how important footwork is and his forehand has gotten better because the steps he uses for his backhand have transferred to his forehand. But he is like an alien. He faces almost no other one-handed backhands in competition. So yes, tennis teaching becomes technical because the adult (pros) forget how to think like kids. They also tend to want success fast. Europeans seem to take a longer view. Maybe because their cultures are much older than the American culture.
Lorde performed "Tennis Court" at the 2014 Billboard Music Awards in May.[81] The following month, she performed a medley of "Tennis Court" and "Team" at the 2014 MuchMusic Video Awards.[82] Lorde also performed the song during several music festivals, including the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio, California,[83] the Laneway Festival in Sydney,[84] Lollapalooza Brazil in Sao Paulo.[85] At the Lollapalooza Festival in Grant Park, Chicago on 1 August 2014, she performed the track among other songs from Pure Heroine. Billboard picked Lorde's performance as the fifth best of the festival.[86] Rolling Stone deemed her set list the highlight of the event, writing that "She danced like she was trying to fling her arms off her body, but just as with her voice, the sense that she was in absolute possession of her abilities never waned. She nailed every stomp and every note — but it was clearly fueled by passion, not perfection".[87]
In most professional play and some amateur competition, there is an officiating head judge or chair umpire (usually referred to as the umpire), who sits in a raised chair to one side of the court. The umpire has absolute authority to make factual determinations. The umpire may be assisted by line judges, who determine whether the ball has landed within the required part of the court and who also call foot faults. There also may be a net judge who determines whether the ball has touched the net during service. The umpire has the right to overrule a line judge or a net judge if the umpire is sure that a clear mistake has been made.[59]
You and your group of friends just started to play tennis just to have a little fun with it. You do not plan to compete or anything. Your main focus is to have fun and have a good time with your friends. You do not care about whether you have the proper technique or the form, you just want the ball to keep in play and have some long and exciting rallies with your group of friends.
Hi I'm Decio Gomes I'm from Brasil leaving here in USA 20years i pmayed tennis competitive until my 25yrs after that I start to coach players in the tour for 10yrs after that I started to teach young players and club tennis I'm usta certified ITF coach certified and I'm master in PE here in Miami I'm coaching high school for 6 years and ladies teams all levels....bottom line I love be at tennis court teaching that's my passion ... View Profile
If you have played the game of tennis long enough you know that the highest wear item on your racquet by far is your grip. Not only is subject to constant wear and tear by changing hand positions and by sliding your hands into position on it, but it also rubs on the court surface on occasion and is exposed to sweat and the elements too. It's no wonder these have to be replaced very often on a tennis racquet.
In doubles, service alternates between the teams. One player serves for an entire service game, with that player's partner serving for the entirety of the team's next service game. Players of the receiving team receive the serve on alternating points, with each player of the receiving team declaring which side of the court (deuce or ad side) they will receive serve on for the duration of the set. Teams alternate service games every game.
Hard courts are made of uniform rigid material, often covered with an acrylic surface layer[7] to offer greater consistency of bounce than other outdoor surfaces.[8] Hard courts can vary in speed, though they are faster than clay but not as fast as grass courts. The quantity of sand added to the paint can greatly affect the rate at which the ball slows down.[9]
It was a thought — being a tennis player — that first came to me five years ago when I was months from my 55th birthday. It wasn't that I imagined I was going to become an athlete. I am a tennis fan, and I turn on ESPN and attend the United States Open each year with the understanding that the men and women I love to watch are, as they were not when I was a boy, a breed apart: selection for size and intense training and competition from early childhood is increasingly creating a sort of warrior class in sports. I wanted to become a very good recreational player. Someday.
Historians believe that the game's ancient origin lay in 12th century northern France, where a ball was struck with the palm of the hand.[2] Louis X of France was a keen player of jeu de paume ("game of the palm"), which evolved into real tennis, and became notable as the first person to construct indoor tennis courts in the modern style. Louis was unhappy with playing tennis outdoors and accordingly had indoor, enclosed courts made in Paris "around the end of the 13th century".[3] In due course this design spread across royal palaces all over Europe.[3] In June 1316 at Vincennes, Val-de-Marne and following a particularly exhausting game, Louis drank a large quantity of cooled wine and subsequently died of either pneumonia or pleurisy, although there was also suspicion of poisoning.[4] Because of the contemporary accounts of his death, Louis X is history's first tennis player known by name.[4] Another of the early enthusiasts of the game was King Charles V of France, who had a court set up at the Louvre Palace.[5]


This position is responsible for leading the CAS modeling team and coordinating development of all digital surfaces in a cross-functional environment.
Candidates must be legally authorized to work in the United States and verification of identity and employment eligibility will be required at the time of hire. Visa sponsorship is not available for this position.


If there's one thing you can say about politics, it certainly brings out the best in people.
As you can see in the above video, a political "debate" went awry when a University of Oregon Professor physically pushed two students subsequent to making "racists remarks" towards them. While the students remained calm, Olmsted's anger seemed to get the best of him after he felt a student was encroaching on his space.
Surprisingly, the kids kept their cool. As for the professor? Not so much.
How do you feel about this situation? Was Olmsted out of line?


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harvest is indeed plentiful, but the laborers are few. Pray therefore to the Lord of the harvest, that he may send out laborers into his harvest."
Luke 9 [61.] Another also said, "I want to follow you, Lord, but first allow me to say good-bye to those who are at my house."
Luke 9 [62.] But Jesus said to him, "No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for God's Kingdom."
Luke 10 [1.] Now after these things, the Lord also appointed seventy others, and sent them two by two ahead of him[a] into every city and place, where he was about to come. Then he said to them, "The harvest is indeed plentiful, but the laborers are few. Pray therefore to the Lord of the harvest, that he may send out laborers into his harvest. Go your ways. Behold, I send you out as lambs among wolves. Carry no purse, nor wallet, nor sandals. Greet no one on the way. Into whatever house you enter, first say, 'Peace be to this house.' If a son of peace is there, your peace will rest on him; but if not, it will return to you. Remain in that same house, eating and drinking the things they give, for the laborer is worthy of his wages. Don't go from house to house. Into whatever city you enter, and they receive you, eat the things that are set before you. Heal the sick who are therein, and tell them, 'God's Kingdom has come near to you.' But into whatever city you enter, and they don't receive you, go out into its streets and say, 'Even the dust from your city that clings to us, we wipe off against you. Nevertheless know this, that God's Kingdom has come near to you.' I tell you, it will be more tolerable in that day for Sodom than for that city.
a. Luke 10:1 literally, "before his face"
ordain - yield


In order to get Yuna's Celestial weapon you will need to head to the Calm Lands - Arena. You will need to use a capture weapon to capture one of each of the fiends that is roaming around the Calm Lands. The chest containing the weapon will appear after you have spoken to the owner.... 6/09/2006 · Which of the celestial weapons was the hardest to power up - Sep 28, 11 Celestial Weapons + Power Ups - May 31, 03 do you really need the celestial weapons for the game?
Near the end game you can buy weapons from Rin which have 4 blank slots. Looking over what I need to do to get Tidas's Celestial Weapon and a Crest for Kimari's I thought that maybe it might be easier to just re-create the weapons by using the Customize command and the weapons brought from Rin. how to get started in fitness modeling 3/04/2008 · Best Answer: Once you have killed Yunalesca go back to where you beat her and look for a chest. Open it for the Sun Crest. Next, get under 0:00 in the chocobo race. Finally go to the monster arena. Get the rusty mirror from the old man. Charge it in Macalania and then power up tidus' weapon.
10/07/2016 · Aren't they needed for trophies? They are pretty decent, but you could potentially make (much) better weapons, though it's a lot of work, more so than just getting the celestial weapons, which you must get anyway. how to find weapons in fortnite Get that celestial mirror from Remiem Temple (Magus Sisters) and get it powered up (i think you did this?). Then you have to do those side quests to get the sigils, crests and weapons.
4/04/2014 · Hey folks, is there any chance to get Tidus' special weapon without finishing the Chocobo race? Because I am deeply sure that (years ago when I played FFX first) I DIDN'T do that training, cause I couldn't dodge birds AND balls, but still could get the sword.
Celestial weapons are the best, like ROTU13 said if you customize BDL it will take forever to get all the dark matter plus you won't do as much damage as you would with a celestial weapon. You're better off just using the weapons you get instead of customizing your own.
Celestial Mirror: To obtain the Cloudy Mirror, go to Remiem which can be accessed from Calm Lands. Once you get there talk to the Chocobo, race and win. After obtaining the Cloudy Mirror, you must go to Macalania Woods. Help the lady find her husband and her son to access the shiny path. Follow the path until you find the big crystal. Use it to refine the Cloudy Mirror into a Celestial Mirror.
In order to get Yuna's Celestial weapon you will need to head to the Calm Lands - Arena. You will need to use a capture weapon to capture one of each of the fiends that is roaming around the Calm Lands. The chest containing the weapon will appear after you have spoken to the owner.


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Officials release video of deadly 50-car pileup on I-35 near Ames
Officials released footage of a major pileup involving 50 cars, buses and semi-trucks that killed one person and injured at least five others.
Officials release video of deadly 50-car pileup on I-35 near Ames Officials released footage of a major pileup involving 50 cars, buses and semi-trucks that killed one person and injured at least five others. Check out this story on desmoinesregister.com: http://dmreg.co/2nRiioW
Luke Nozicka, lnozicka@dmreg.com Published 4:33 p.m. CT Feb. 6, 2018 | Updated 7:23 p.m. CT Feb. 6, 2018
Raw video from Iowa DOT cameras on I-35 show how a deadly pileup unfolded during a heavy snow in Ames. Iowa DOT
Officials work on cleaning up a 70-vehicle pileup on Interstate Highway 35 southbound Monday, Feb. 5, 2018, in Ames.(Photo: Rodney White/The Register)Buy Photo
Officials have released video footage of a major pileup Monday involving 50 to 70 cars, buses and semi-trucks that killed one person and injured at least five others.
The Iowa Department of Transportation released the video that shows dozens of vehicles, including semi-trucks, sliding into the large pileup and off the road.
The crash killed Dana Easter, 53, of Independence, Missouri, authorities said. Easter was driving a bus when five vehicles collided with each other, causing several injuries.
Between five and 10 injured people were rushed to nearby hospitals, though police officials could not provide an exact number of those injured Tuesday afternoon.
Traffic was backed up on the highway so far that Story County Sheriff's Capt. Barry Thomas said he could not see from one end of the pileup to the other.
The crash was one of 185 that State Patrol troopers responded to from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday throughout Iowa. Eight people were killed and at least 10 were injured across the state.
In the Des Moines metro, 246 accidents were reported over the course of 36 hours.
Since 2001, the most people killed on Iowa roads in a single day was 11 on Jan. 13, 2014, according to the Iowa Department of Transportation.
Dozens of cars were involved in a multi-car pileup on I-35 in Ames. Captain Barry Thomas with the Story County Sheriff's Office said he's never seen anything like this. Rodney White/The Register
Read or Share this story: http://dmreg.co/2nRiioW
Couple left with $26K worth of damage after basement wall fell
Toddler dies after being left in hot vehicle
How to prevent hot car deaths after 16-month-old girl dies in Iowa
Polk County pays $3 million to lobbyist since '09
Candidates flock to Iowa for Fourth of July
1 dead, 5 injured after boats on Lake of the Ozarks crash


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Michael has been key in developing a wide range of projects since he joined DSDHA in 2013. From 2014 he has led the commercial Blossom Street development, which has involved working alongside three other London Architecture practices in a sensitive historic context. Michael, known for his attention to detail was the Project Architect for the delivery of DSDHA's mixed use Aperture building in Greenwich, completed in 2017.
Michael has also led a number of successful competitions including the Cundy Street Quarter neighbourhood in central London.
Before joining DSDHA Michael studied architecture at both the University of Bath and the University of Sheffield before qualifying as a registered Architect in London in 2016.
@DSDHA
Cundy Street Quarter
The Hickman, Whitechapel
Blossom Street
Greenwich Housing & Community Building
Wardour Street


A large-scale Danish study strengthens the hypothesis that mood disorders like depression are directly tied to inflammation.
Depression and other mood disorders could be the brain's response to inflammation, according to a new nationwide study from Denmark released Wednesday.
The study, published in the journal JAMA Psychiatry, is the largest of its kind and adds further evidence to the emerging theory that certain mental health conditions could be caused by inflammation.
Researchers found that patients with an autoimmune disease were 45 percent more likely to have a mood disorder, while any history of infection increased the risk of a mood disorder by 62 percent. About one-third of people diagnosed with a mood disorder had been hospitalized in the past for a serious infection.
Inflammation is the body's protective response to an infection, while autoimmune disorders are inflammatory conditions caused by the body's overreaction to naturally occurring substances and tissues.
"The associations found in this study suggest that autoimmune diseases and infections are important...factors in the development of mood disorders in subgroups of the patients possibly because of the effects of inflammatory activity," the researchers wrote.
The new study offers insight into the mechanism of common mood disorders, including depression and bipolar disorder, and may help guide treatment and prevention efforts.
The Danish researchers drew on a nationwide database of more than 3.56 million people born between 1945 and 1996. Of those people, about three percent—91,637 people—were admitted to a free state hospital for mood disorder treatment.
Researchers compared the incidence of infections like sepsis, hepatitis, and urinary tract infections, as well as autoimmune disorders like lupus, anemia, Celiac disease, and Crohn's disease, with the incidence of bipolar disorder, depression, psychotic depression, and other mood disorders.
They found a strong correlation between infection, autoimmune disorders, and mood disorders, strengthening the hypothesis that depression is directly linked to inflammation.
In 2011, a study in the Journal of Neuroinflammation found that high levels of another byproduct of inflammation, quinolinic acid, are associated with chronic depression and suicidal tendencies.
These discoveries may point us toward better treatments for chronic mental health conditions.
"Anti-inflammatory agents have actually been suggested to improve mood symptoms in patients with inflammatory disorders and enhance responsiveness to antidepressants," the latest study reported.
Getting regular cardiovascular exercise, drinking plenty of water, and relieving stress are all proven ways to help reduce inflammation.
A diet rich in omega-3 fatty acids like olive oil and salmon, dark leafy greens, ginger, garlic, and green tea has also been shown to reduce inflammation and improve overall health. For more information, see the links below.


Located in the historic Alton Mill Creative Arts Centre.
The Alton Mill, on the edge of Shaw's Creek, was built in 1880 as a woolen mill. In the 1930's it was converted to a rubber factory and continued operation until 1981. Now meticulously restored to a new use, with many of the historical features intact, the Alton Mill is now considered the hub of the region's arts community.
The Alton Mill has come back to life with over 20 artists working in their individual studios, public galleries with ever changing shows, a jewelry store, pottery, fine glassware, fair trade gifts and the Shaw's Creek Cafe with fresh baked treats and original lunch menu.
Meeting space and party space is available for your private and corporate functions in the Millrace Room next to the historical exhibit in the Turbine Room.
Mark your calendar for a visit to Caledon's premier day trip destination!


The kitchen is the ideal place for more kitchen decor ideas, but sometimes it also becomes a center for family gatherings, so if we can, we should turn it into a cozy and fun place to stay. Normally, we spend a large part of the day in this space. Even on many occasions, more than in the living room itself.
Therefore, now we usually integrate the kitchen themes with the rest of the house without partitions or with glass or decorative partitions. The design and the materials that are used to make a kitchen should be studied and evaluated before doing it. We must take into account the area that we will use for cooking and the space we leave for all the inhabitants of the house to feel comfortable. According to the style, we want to give to the kitchen, it can give a less cozy feeling, although if we use the last two in its proper measure.
We will obtain a touch of modernity and more if we combine it with noble woods, such as oak or avenge. The wood can be used both in modern rectilinear kitchens and more popular kitchen themes. By decorating our kitchen with elements from nature we will get a touch of warmth. As for the furniture, including the appliances, they make the kitchen a complete, cozy and useful space.