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Water is the source of life for living organisms. Human being needs water to live like other living organisms. Water is the basic necessity for building a civilization. On the other hand, the ancient and medival cities were built in walls. It means that in case of a siege water should have been restored in order to resist the hunger and thirsty.
Since the beginning of building villages and cities, the human being has been looking for solutions to solve this problem. Cistern is one of the solutions. They were built so big that the water storage was a big capacity. For example, it is guessed that there are hunderds of cistern in old Constantinople. Some of them are very big, some of them are small. The purpose was common; to keep water. Roman engineers did a great job to achieve this goal. Even today we admire this technology.
Also we can express those statements for other smaller sites. We can come across cisterns in every ancient site. This construction method contiuned in medival age.
Basically, controlling water is the key of building a civilization. Ones who achieve this can control all life. We still talk about Roman technology and use them at present.
Discover Turkey and travel in history….. |
In 1900, enchanted observers marveled at how light played with color, as it reflected off leaves or the wings of a dragonfly.
However, unlike moths, dragonflies don’t navigate by the light of the moon. Instead, they use sunlight’s energy on their wings to fly. Dragonflies swarm with predatory precision, catching mosquitos with their feet. Indeed, one dragonfly can eat from 30 to hundreds of mosquitoes per day. If they can’t fly, they’ll starve. Lalique knew this and would not transform voracious killer-gangs into angelic creatures. He created swarms.
In this famous tiara, c. 1900, it looks as if the dragonflies are pursuing light, a faceted aquamarine, because they are all going in the same direction. This is not the case. Lalique was trying to show how beams of “sunlight” from the aquamarine shined down on the dragonflies’ wings to give them energy. Look at how the wings change color, and draw diagonal lines from the aquamarine to the plique-a-jour enamel.
Just as the tiara had fittings that allowed it to be worn as a brooch, so this hair comb had a chain fitting so it could be worn as a necklace. Also made c. 1900, it sold at Sotheby’s on 18 May 2018 for $262,269. In this comb, six dragonflies in a swarm go in three different directions instead of just one. The light source: a citrine. Again, look at how the light source changes the color of the wings.
French Art Nouveau was a combination of the Japanese aesthetic, where perspective was executed precisely, and French Symbolism, which elongated things to express a poetic idea. However, in both this tiara and hair comb, the insects are not stretched to make you think differently about them. So where is the French Symbolism? The elongation lies in the beams of light emanating from the jewel.
By seeing what is visible, Lalique is making you see what is invisible. These pieces portray the energy field of light, which gives flight to a dragonfly. To understand them, you must look at them with two different sets of eyes.
The Jewels of Lalique |
Okazaki Collection: Combs and Ornamental Hairpins |
Tao Te Ching, by Lao Tzu | |
Mindfulness and meditation; they’re one in the same, right? Not so fast! These two subjects are similar, but it’s good to be educated about them and know that they are two separate things.
Although they are practiced differently, they are extremely helpful when practiced in conjunction with one another. Both mindfulness and meditation practice can be beneficial to improving your overall well-being.
By digging deeper, you’ll be able to learn all about them, how they are different, and why they are both important. Let’s explore the differences!
If you oversimplify mindfulness, it’s awareness of yourself in the present moment — your thoughts, actions, choices, and things around you. There’s more to mindfulness below the surface, and most of us know that trying to practice mindfulness doesn’t always come naturally.
But through regular practice and with time, you will be able to have a judgment-free state of mind, positive thoughts, and more inner peace. As you change your frame of mind, you can take advantage of mindfulness’s benefits, which will lead to a happier, more fulfilling life.
The goal is to let go of negative thoughts or a negative mindset, which can lead to poor choices or habits and a whole lot of stress. Mindfulness helps you “look on the bright side” without removing the validity of your emotions from your everyday troubles.
If you struggle with mental health, overwhelming negative emotions or thoughts, or a lot of stress in your daily life, changing your mindset through mindfulness may be a good place to start!
How Do I Practice Mindfulness?
Sometimes it’s easier for those who are just starting to change their way of thinking to start by paying more attention to everything around you. Take a minute to feel what you are feeling rather than reacting.
Start being aware of your surroundings and being present in your everyday life. This can be really helpful when you have trouble discerning why you feel the way you feel about something. By taking a step back and letting you feel the emotion without reading too much into it, you can more easily process it. This practice can help you try to find goodness in the mundane things.
For example, there is beauty in a sunset, in the quiet of the early morning when it feels like it’s just you and the birds. Retreating from the rush of everyday life to appreciate and see the positives, no matter how small is a great way to practice mindfulness to see a shift in your mindset. Some people need a helping hand to get started, and that’s okay!
Changing your mindset and habits can take time and work. Using something like a journal or a guided book is an easy way to begin. We have the “Little Book of Mindfulness,” which has quick, easy practices that you can fit into your current schedule and kick-start the way to change.
Meditation is also a great way to practice and maintain mindfulness, but keep reading to get an in-depth look into meditation!
Meditation has been practiced for many years, so it’s reasonable to think that it can benefit those of us in the present day. It’s more than just some deep breathing! There is evidence that meditation can have multiple health benefits, such as lower blood pressure, improved attention span, increased memory, improved sleep, and less chronic pain.
Meditation is a great tool for mental health as well; it can decrease stress, anxiety, and depression. Through regular practice, the hope is that you can clear all the negative thoughts and worries to help your frazzled brain focus. It can help connect you to your body by learning to keep your attention drawn to your surroundings.
For example, let’s say you start your meditation session sitting cross-legged. You start calming your mind, focusing on the hard floor beneath you, the pressure of your feet pressing on your legs, or the quiet sound of a fan in the background.
Some people are only aware of religious meditation, such as Buddhism or Hinduism. Meditation is used in multiple religious practices, but it is not limited to religion. There are different types of meditation, all with similar goals.
Types of Meditation
There are several types of meditation, some even found on meditation apps. Let’s dive into a few options.
This type of meditation would be most associated with a religion or spirituality. The goal is to build a connection to a greater source (dependent on the religion). This can be to seek solace or comfort, find knowledge, or learn more about yourself.
One type of spiritual meditation is called loving-kindness meditation, where you visualize sending love to another human or all humans on the planet. This is also a part of transcendental meditation out of the Buddhist tradition.
Movement meditation is less of a formal meditation practice. Deliberate movement to connect you to your body is the goal of movement meditation.
This can help you focus and connect to yourself. Activities like tai chi, yoga, or martial arts are prime examples of movement meditation.
Focused meditation is to combat the normality of multi-tasking in our everyday life. During this form of meditation, you practice focusing on one task to tackle a wandering mind.
This means you are aware of all the minute things involved with the activity. This helps decrease the urge for your brain to need constant stimulation. Practicing this form of meditation can help with your overall focus.
You may be someone who finds it easier to visualize things such as a beautiful garden or mountainscape. Whether that’s in your mind or in a photo, it doesn’t matter!
This can be used in visualization meditation to calm the mind and try to bring peace to you. When you slowly build an image in your mind while being fully focused, you can reduce your stress levels and escape from the chaos of your day for a little while.
Everyone thinks of this when they think of meditation. The stereotypical “OM” with your legs crossed. However, there is more to chanting or mantra meditation than the media portrays.
This formal practice includes a chant, such as a sound, word, or phrase that is repeated to help the mind focus on the words to bring peace and relaxation to the brain. This is also used in some religious practices as well.
This type of meditation is used when you are trying to become more aware of your own thoughts and feelings. It’s a form of self-reflection that helps you transform persistent worries into passing thoughts.
It can help many people evaluate and process their feelings without judging themselves so harshly. This practice of mindfulness is very beneficial to those with mental health struggles. You can even practice mindful eating as a part of mindfulness meditation.
Just as it sounds, this type of meditation is often led by another person. This can be in person or even an audio recording. The leader will talk you through the practice.
Sometimes this guided meditation includes a body scan meditation, where you move through every inch of your body to check how it feels. If this sounds more appealing, which it often does to beginners, read our blog here to delve deeper into guided meditation.
So Which Should I Practice?
So now you’re probably thinking, do I practice mindfulness or a form of meditation? That answer is easy — both! Practicing mindfulness and meditation is a heavy hitter to start on the path to wellness and self-improvement.
As we touched on in the above information, when you practice mindfulness meditation, you are relearning how to focus your mind and becoming aware of your breathing, your thoughts, and your feelings.
This can be so helpful for those who struggle with racing thoughts, stress, and difficulty interpreting emotions. Often people just react to their thoughts or emotions; by practicing mindfulness meditation, you allow yourself to learn how not to hold on.
You’ll be able to manage those thoughts that would normally cycle constantly or those emotions that feel like a weight on your chest. When you can more readily let go of things that stress you out, you can find peace and beauty in your life and mind.
There is actually a form of therapy called mindfulness-based stress reduction or MBSR. This type of therapy uses a combination of mindfulness exercises, yoga, and meditation over eight weeks to teach people how to decrease stressors in their daily life.
Additionally, there is a therapy called mindfulness-based cognitive therapy(MBCT) that combines MBSR and cognitive behavior therapy(CBT); this can improve the lives of those affected by depression.
Settle the Mind
Most people would love a life with less stress, worry, fatigue, or pain. It’s reasonable to expect these things to happen, but things can feel oppressive when it overtakes your life and is every day.
Incorporating mindfulness, meditation, or mindfulness meditation is a way to combat these everyday things that affect your well-being. Thankfully meditation and mindfulness are easily accessible to everyone, and though it takes practice, it’s easy to add to your routine.
Start practicing to take back some control over your mind and body. |
Statistical Estimation of Effective Earth Radius Factor over Lagos using Radiosonde Data
Pages : 343-346Download PDF
The path followed by tropospheric radio waves between any two points on earth is largely influenced by atmospheric parameters which vary temporally and spatially. The effective earth radius factor (k-factor) is a function of these atmospheric parameters and it plays an important role in the design of wireless communication links operating in the Very High Frequency (VHF) and Ultra High Frequency (UHF) range. It defines a curved earth’s surface without atmosphere, for which propagation pathis rectilinear. This study uses 2012-2014 radiosonde data of Relative humidity, Temperature and Pressure at first kilometer altitude in Oshodi (6o 32’N, 3o 21’E), Lagos, to estimate the effective earth radius factor for Lagos, a coastal region in southwestern Nigeria. An overall average value of 1.60±0.02 was obtained which is greater than the 4/3 recommended by ITU-R for this region.
Keywords: Tropospheric radio waves, Refractivity gradient, k-factor, VHF, UHF, Rectilinear, ITU-R, Radiosonde |
A sealant is a thin, plastic coating applied to the chewing surface of molars, premolars and any deep grooves (called pits and fissures) of teeth. More than 75% of dental decay begins in these deep grooves. Teeth with these conditions are hard to clean and are very susceptible to decay. A sealant protects the tooth by sealing deep grooves, creating a smooth, easy to clean surface.
Sealants can protect teeth from decay for many years, but need to be checked for wear and chipping at regular dental visits.
Reasons for sealants:
What do sealants involve?
Sealants are easily applied by your dentist or dental hygienist and the process takes only a couple of minutes per tooth.
The teeth to be sealed are thoroughly cleaned and then surrounded with cotton to keep the area dry. A special solution is applied to the enamel surface to help the sealant bond to the teeth. The teeth are then rinsed and dried. Sealant material is carefully painted onto the enamel surface to cover the deep grooves or depressions. Depending on the type of sealant used, the material will either harden automatically or with a special curing light.
Proper home care, a balanced diet, and regular dental visits will aid in the life of your new sealants. |
Parents’ understanding of children’s exposure to the risks of STD/AIDS
adolescent, sexually transmitted diseases, parent-chid relationship, health promotion, AIDS.Abstract
A Dialogue between parents and children as a way to advise, prevent and educate them about sex is a great method to reduce the incidence of STD/AIDS. The aim of this descriptive and exploratory research is to investigate parent’s understanding towards the risk their adolescents run of getting a STD/AIDS infection. It took place in a public school in Fortaleza-Ceará-Brazil and the data was collected from the teenagers’ parents through questionnaires. The results showed that the parents knew a little about STD/AIDS; however they didn’t feel comfortable discussing sexual concerns with their children. In conclusion, women are the great responsible for the sexual education of their children and still don’t face STD/AIDS as a problem, what results in lack of dialogue about sex/sexuality between parents and children. |
Characteristics of geological environment damage and restoration measures in coal mining subsidence area: a case study of Tunlan Mine, Shanxi Province
Abstract:Coal mining not only brings economic benefits, but also causes huge damage to the surface, causing the surface of goaf to collapse, subside, destroy the water system, and damage the surface ecology, causing a series of geological disasters.Taking Tunlan Mine in Shanxi Province as the research object, uses on-site research and engineering practice to explore and study the characteristics of the damage to the geological environment caused by mining in Tunlan Mine and the impact of ecological damage derived from geological disasters, and systematically builds a set of restoration techniques for the mining damage area adapted to Tunlan Mine.This paper analyzes the damaged characteristics of geological environment such as collapse pits, subsidence basins, ground cracks and steps in the coal mining subsidence area of Tunlan Mine, and analyzes the characteristics of different types of collapse, subsidence, landslide and fracture development in the subsidence area in combination with the current situation of collapse at the site.The results show that the main forms of mining damage in Tunlan Mine are mainly ground fractures, collapse pits and step damage, accounting for 56.5%, 23.2% and 14.0%, respectively, while landslides and basins are less frequent, accounting for only 6.3%.The severity of the damage caused by the extraction of cracks, cave-ins, terraces and basins, the form of restoration is mainly divided into artificial restoration and mechanical restoration according to the amount of work required for restoration, slope, topographic location and the amount of earth required, and the restoration area is categorized and managed, and a refined restoration technology route is formulated.The integrated restoration technology of mountain, water, forest and field, which combined geomorphological reconstruction, water resource protection and ecological vegetation restoration, is carried out to provide a reliable theoretical and technical basis for China’s mine geological environment management and ecological environment restoration. |
Teeth whitening (or bleaching) is a simple, non-invasive dental treatment used to change the color of natural tooth enamel and is an ideal way to enhance the beauty of your smile.
Because having whiter teeth has now become the number one aesthetic concern of most patients, there are a number of ways to whiten teeth. The most popular method is using a home teeth whitening system that will whiten teeth dramatically. Since teeth whitening only works on natural tooth enamel, it is important to evaluate replacement of any old fillings, crowns, etc. Replacement of any restorations will be done after bleaching so they will match the newly bleached teeth.
Teeth whitening is not permanent. A touch-up may be needed every several years, and more often if you smoke, drink coffee, tea, or wine.
Reasons for teeth whitening:
Fluorosis (excessive fluoridation during tooth development).
Normal wear of outer tooth layer.
Stained teeth due to medications (tetracycline, etc.).
Yellow, brown stained teeth.
What does teeth whitening involve?
This type of teeth whitening usually requires two visits. At the first appointment, impressions (molds) will be made of your teeth to fabricate custom, clear, plastic, trays.
At your second appointment, you will try on the trays for proper fit, and adjustments will be made if necessary. The trays are worn with special whitening solution either twice a day for 30 minutes or overnight for a couple of weeks depending on the degree of staining and desired level of whitening. It is normal to experience tooth sensitivity during the time you are whitening your teeth, but it will subside shortly after you have stopped bleaching.
You will receive care instructions for your teeth and trays, and be encouraged to visit your dentist regularly to help maintain a beautiful, healthy, white smile. |
Male black widow spiders aren’t looking for mates with great personalities or senses of humor. For some, finding the right partner is a way to avoid being eaten alive.
The key for those male black widow spiders is to find well-fed female mates, according to new research by PhD student Luciana Baruffaldi and Professor Maydianne Andrade of University of Toronto Scarborough’s department of biological sciences.
“We knew male black widow spiders seek out well-fed females in nature, but we didn’t know if it was because they were looking for better quality mates or if it was to avoid being eaten,” says Andrade.
To test the theory, Baruffaldi and Andrade compared the response of males to female sex pheromones in two closely related species: the western black widow and the Australian redback.
The two species provide an ideal comparison because they share similar reproductive behaviors—except for some key differences. Even if female redbacks are hungry they will not eat males until after they’ve mated. In fact, male redbacks are complicit and do nothing to avoid being eaten because it does not prevent them from fathering offspring.
This isn’t the case for male black widow spiders, who will avoid hungry females because the females’ need to feed will trump any urge to mate.
“We found that male black widow spiders had a very strong sexual response to pheromones from well-fed females, but basically ignored pheromones from hungry females. On the other hand, redback males reacted strongly to both types of females,” says Baruffaldi.
“This tells us that in a species where there is no risk from sexual cannibalism, males are not choosy.”
The researchers extracted sex pheromones—chemical signals or “perfume” produced by females—located in their silk to test male responses.
They were able to determine pheromones contain information that males could use to tell whether a female has eaten recently or not—but only male black widows, under the threat of cannibalism, make use of this important information.
The research, which was supported by an NSERC Discovery Grant, will be published in the upcoming edition of the journal Animal Behaviour.
Source: University of Toronto |
Susan Wealthy Orvis (1873-1941) was a U.S missionary who witnessed the persecution of Greeks during the Greek Genocide. Orvis traveled to Turkey as early as 1902 under the auspices of the American Board of Commissions for Foreign Missions. In 1920, she served as the Director of the Near East Relief Schools in Talas, a district in Caesarea (today Kayseri), a province in the interior of Turkey.
In November 1922, only weeks after the destruction of Smyrna by Kemalist forces, Orvis was coordinating the evacuation of hundreds of orphans from Kayseri to the seacoast, when she witnessed native Greeks from Smyrna - mainly women and children - being marched to their death. Her eye-witness testimony appears below:
I have never in my whole experience in Near East witnessed such human sorrow, distress, death, as caused by this vast flight, which is depopulating one of Turkey's richest provinces. It was like a march of terror.
I brought out the fifteenth and last caravan of orphans from Caesarea, 250 miles inland. First half of journey made in wagons. I traveled on horseback in order better to watch over column. We set out from Caesarea at five, morning. An hour later were in foothills of Mount Argaeus, thirteen thousand feet high, where snow impeded progress. We were marching through historic gates of Cilicia in Taurus mountains when I saw a sight I shall never forget. It was a long thin column of people coming towards us. As they came closer I saw there were a thousand in the line. Ninety-five percent were women, children; remainder old men. Solitary mounted Turkish soldier rode in middle of column.
In answer to my questions my Turkish guide almost startled me with information that they were from Smyrna and were being deported to Caesarea. 'They are being punished', he said, 'for excesses committed by Greek soldiers against our people.'
I knew from their clothing that they had come from another region than the one we were in. Questions revealed awful truth – they had walked from Smyrna, 500 miles away. They had been on road two months, a column of agony. There were three thousands in column when they started. Groups had at intervals been diverted to other roads and many weaker ones had died by roadside. I now recalled village gossip of wholesale deportations after Smyrna disaster. Here it was in its awful reality. Every face bore deathlike pallor. Women carried babies in arms and were stooped from weight of all their possessions on their backs. Majority were barefooted. All were unutterably miserable but bore themselves with remarkable fortitude.
After they passed on I noticed some garments at roadside. No one throws away clothing in the desolate country. Lifting garments I uncovered two little girls about twelve years old. They were white, staring skeletons, so close to death they could not move. They were left for dead by column of agony. We succeeded in reviving them and obtained permission from authorities to place them in our orphan caravan.
After four and a half days we reached Ouloukishla [Ulukışla] on Baghdad railway, where we paid full fare for our children to ride in six inches of snow in open freight cars to Mersine. My last moments in Ouloukishla were devoted to making strongest representations to authorities for protection against soldiers who tried carry off our oldest girls.
The approximate route taken by Susan Wealthy Orvis (in red) during her evacuation of orphans from Kayseri (Gr: Caesarea) to the seacoast and the approximate deportation route taken by Greeks from Smyrna (in blue).
They Are Being Punished, The New Near East, Feb 1923, p 12.
Remembering Susan Wealthy Orvis, Kamo Mailyan, Wendy Elliott, Armenian Weekly, accessed 2/3/2017. |
According to the World Health Organization, there are more than 350 million people all over the world with depression. It’s a staggering and sobering statistic, which should tell you that there is a strong likelihood that someone you know and love will be suffering from depression.
As psychologists, we understand it is crucial to bring awareness to one of the most devastating aspects of dealing with depression; the stigma and negative criticism that comes from others. Furthermore, people may not even know that their behaviors and comments are being negative or hurtful and sometimes even make the depression feel worse.
To help, we have put together a 10 point checklist of things we can remember when interacting with those that may be having a attle with depression. Any one of these points will not only help with the stigma surrounding depression, but may even help the individual dealing with depression.
1. Don’t tell them to “Pull themselves together” or “Cheer up.”
- Try not to blame the person for being depressed, or tell them to ‘pull themselves together’. They are probably already blaming themselves, and criticism is likely to make them feel even worse. Depression is not something anyone should feel guilty about.
2. Don’t take it personally if they get irritable.
- Someone with depression may get irritable and angry, and be more liable to misunderstand others, or feel misunderstood, than usual; they may need reassurance in some situations, and you may need to be patient with them.
3. They may feel sad for no apparent reason, so just hang in there with them.
- Moods can be volatile and depressive episodes can be unpredictable. If it was something that was easily controlled, it wouldn’t be such a big problem. Your loved ones are trying very, very hard to be happy, pleasant and engaging, and to facilitate this they need you to be there for them, present and accepting.
4. Learn to spot their ‘triggers.’
- Although depression can be unpredictable, if your loved one or relative has repeated episodes of depression you may be able to learn what their triggers are, or spot when an episode might be starting, and encourage them to take action before it gets any worse.
5. They may not have as much energy as they would like to have.
- One of the symptoms of depression is fatigue or lack of energy. One of the most helpful antidepressants that has been proven by research is exercise. It may seem counter-intuitive when you are feeling low on energy, but exercise will increase your energy levels and well-being. The type and duration of exercise can vary, but the minimum that could have an effect is to do fast walking at least three times a week for 30 minutes each time. That is the amount of exercise someone needs in order to feel an anti-depressive effect. So, if the sun is out and the breeze is whispering for you to come out and play, invite your loved one out for a walk or take an exercise class together! The body and mind of your loved one will soon synch up and they will begin to notice the benefits of exercise on their mental health.
6. They are Strong in Character.
In one of our favourite Tedx talks, psychiatrist and philosopher, Dr. Neel Burton explains that depression can represent a deeper search for meaning and significance in life. A person experiencing depression can be seen as working to make sense of life and trying to achieve more, fix more and improve more. Moreover, depression can be a way of preparing a better and even healthier future for ourselves and those around us. Dr. Burton goes on to mention that some of the most influential and inspirational people have dealt with depression. Their search for happiness and peace led their hearts and minds into the pit of depression, but they ended up changing the course of history.
7. They do not want to burden anyone.
- Only a depressed individual understands how hard it is to hide their feelings and thoughts from others to avoid being shamed. One characteristic of a person dealing with depression is that they are keenly aware of themselves, their thoughts, their feelings and the behavior of others towards them. Unfortunately, individuals fighting depression may push to be alone because they do not want to impact anyone negatively. Although this may not always be the case, depressed loved ones desire to manage their depression successfully and not allow it to impact on anyone. This can be a paradoxical situation because being alone can actually exacerbate the symptoms of depression. So it is important to understand how community and social interaction is a form of depession therapy. A person with depression will really appreciate you unexpectedly reaching out to them – it will feel as though if their calls are being answered.
8. Encourage them to seek appropriate treatment.
- Perhaps the most important thing that you can do is to encourage your friend or relative to seek appropriate treatment. You can reassure them that it is possible to do something to improve their situation, but you need to do so in a caring and sympathetic way.
9. Beating depression is a process, not an event.
- Remember that, even after someone has started treatment for depression, it still may be some time before they really start to feel better. Change doesn’t happen over night.
10. Look after yourself.
- Supporting a loved one or relative who is depressed can be hard work and frustrating, at times. Unless you pay attention to your own needs, it can make you feel depressed, too. View the experience as an opportunity to build a closer and more compassionate relationship. Helping someone you love through depression and to a happier place can be incredibly rewarding. It helps you to build up your own emotional resilience, making you feel more empowered in your own life and increasing your own sense of well-being and self esteem. |
Insect biomimicry may lead to a new wave of high-grade, lightweight plastics
A new wave of performance materials for the aerospace and automotive sectors may be round the corner thanks to the discovery of a new biofibre.
Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Polymer Research have developed a range of new rigid and stable biofibres made from silk protein.
The silk protein stems from a family of chysopidae insects; Green Lacewings. The silk protein is used as a stable thread from which the insects hang their eggs on the underside of leaves – safe from the reach of predators.
Researchers found that the super-strong and stable substance was created by the insect secreting a protein substance onto the leaf. The egg is then laid in the deposit and pulled out from the leaf. The resulting silk thread hardens in the air.
The process used by Green Lacewings to safeguard their eggs can be found in a number of other similar insects, however the rigidity and stability of the Lacewing’s silk fibre is unique. Biologists at the Fraunhofer IAP are now in the process of using biomimicy to create a man-made, commercially viable version of this performance material.
At present it has proved difficult to produce the silk protein in sufficient quantities and purities. However, it is hoped that through collaboration with AMSilk and biomaterial researchers at the University of Bayreuth, a practical solution for the manufacture of silk protein can be achieved.
Should a cost effective means of reliably producing silk protein be developed, researchers expect the performance material to be used in a variety of aerospace and automotive applications.
Biomimicry in surface engineering
At Surface Technology we believe that in order to continue advancing surface engineering, great strides can be made through biomimicry; by better understanding how living organisms have evolved to meet their environmental challenges.
Over the course of 2017 we will continue to look at the natural world as a driver for surface engineering innovations and improvements. From fish to amphibians and plants to arachnids, we will put nature under the surface engineering lens in our Biomimicry in Surface Engineering series, published in this blog. You can also make sure you don’t miss an issue by registering below to receive our monthly surface engineering update.
Register below for our monthly email and stay up-to-date with the latest surface engineering white papers, case studies and innovation news. |
Female English Translation
Translation is the process of converting written or spoken language from one language to another. It is a crucial skill that allows people from different cultures and backgrounds to communicate and understand each other. In recent years, the field of translation has seen a significant increase in female translators, who are making a name for themselves in various industries.
Female translators bring a unique perspective to the field of translation, often offering a different approach and style compared to their male counterparts. They are able to bring their own experiences and insights to the work, which can result in more nuanced and accurate translations. In many cases, female translators are able to better understand the emotional nuances of a text and convey them effectively in the target language.
One area where female translators excel is in literary translation. Many talented women have made a name for themselves translating novels, poems, and plays from around the world. Their ability to capture the tone, style, and emotions of the original work is truly remarkable. Female translators have brought the works of international authors to new audiences, allowing readers to experience different cultures and perspectives through literature.
In the world of business, female translators are also making a mark. They play a crucial role in translating important documents, contracts, and communications for companies operating in multiple countries. Their attention to detail and linguistic skills ensure that the translated material is accurate and culturally sensitive. Female translators are often sought after for their ability to handle complex and technical translations with ease.
In the field of diplomacy and international relations, female translators are becoming increasingly important. They are often called upon to translate for high-level government officials, diplomats, and delegations during international meetings and conferences. Their ability to accurately convey the nuances of diplomatic language is crucial for successful communication and negotiation between countries.
Female translators are also making a difference in the field of medical and scientific translation. Their expertise in specialized terminology and knowledge of industry-specific language make them invaluable for translating medical documents, research papers, and technical manuals. Female translators ensure that vital information is accurately translated, helping to improve healthcare and scientific advancements worldwide.
Despite their contributions to the field, female translators still face challenges and obstacles. They are often underrepresented in the industry, with many translation agencies and companies being dominated by male translators. Additionally, female translators may have to work harder to prove themselves and earn recognition for their skills and expertise.
To overcome these challenges, it is important to provide more opportunities and support for female translators. This includes promoting gender equality in the field, providing mentorship and training programs, and highlighting the achievements of female translators. By empowering female translators and recognizing their valuable contributions, we can create a more diverse and inclusive translation industry.
In conclusion, female translators play a vital role in the field of translation, bringing a unique perspective and skill set to the work. Their expertise is valuable in a wide range of industries, from literature to business to diplomacy. By highlighting the achievements of female translators and providing support and opportunities for their growth, we can create a more inclusive and diverse translation industry. |
When you think back on your own education, there’s probably a teacher who stands out as an exceptional source of encouragement and inspiration. Maybe it was a college professor who inspired you to change your career field — or, maybe it was a kindergarten teacher whose simple acts of kindness made a positive difference in your childhood. But no matter what grade you were in or what subject you were studying, chances are your favorite teacher possessed many of the skills and characteristics that are featured on this list, which breaks down the qualities of a good teacher in detail. Read on as we explore the top character traits and teaching skills that educators need in 2032 and beyond. We’ve also included an overview of the credentials, degrees, and qualifications that are required to become a teacher, both in California and out of state. Whether it’s a skill you need to brush up on, a credential you need to earn, or maybe even a character trait you want to work on developing, this guide offers dozens of ideas for areas where you can start improving as an educator — and start improving your resume at the same time. What Makes a Good Teacher? Whether they’re teaching advanced calculus or how to count to 10, effective teachers share certain universal traits in common. For example, all great educators have the ability to listen actively — not only to their students, but also to their colleagues, school administrators, and students’ family members.
We’ll talk more about active listening and why it matters below, along with several other traits that teachers should try
to exemplify. While some are less tangible than others — and potentially, more challenging to cultivate — all of them are equally worthwhile for teachers to actively develop and practice. Read on as we break down more than a dozen of the most important traits for educators, including: The Top 14 Qualities that Make a Good Teacher You don’t need to have a specific personality type to be an inspiring and effective teacher. However, there are some useful traits you should work on developing or strengthening if your goal is to be a more engaging and successful educator. 1. Adaptability Adaptability is a must for teachers, who need to continuously evaluate what’s working for their students — and even more importantly, what isn’t working. Being adaptable and flexible allows you to flow between different theories of learning and modes of teaching — something we’ll discuss momentarily — without becoming immobilized by stress or indecision. 2. Empathy Empathy is the ability to understand what another person is feeling or experiencing — put simply, putting yourself in another person’s shoes. As a teacher, it’s vital to practice empathy instead of making assumptions — for instance, making efforts to understand and address the root issue that’s causing a student to fall behind their peers, perform more poorly than they used to, or lash out in class.Patience is important both to possess and to model for your students — who, as we discussed in our post on theories of learning, may view you as a role model and emulate your behavior. Having a reserve of patience will make it easier for you to work through each student’s unique struggles and challenges, which may be difficult or slow-going to overcome. 4. Engagement Students are perceptive from an extremely young age and can easily tell when teachers are bored by or apathetic toward their own material. If you want to generate engagement and enthusiasm in your class, it’s imperative to exemplify those traits yourself, showing your students an infectious passion for learning — and all the exciting discoveries and hobbies that it can unlock for them! 5. Active Listening Active listening is vital if you want to effectively diagnose and help overcome students’ unique obstacles and challenges. Seek feedback, encourage honesty, provide ways for students to contact you easily, and be attentive whenever you listen, always trying to read between the lines and assess body language while you’re communicating. Learn more about how and why you should improve your active listening skills. 6. Lifelong Learning The best educators aren’t just interested in teaching — they also have a passion for lifelong learning, which is reflected in their enthusiasm and engagement as instructors.
Continued learning and professional development deliver invaluable insight, keeping professionals “sharp” and reminding teachers of the real-world challenges that their students may be facing — creating a pathway for greater empathy. Discover more about the importance of lifelong learning and how different theories of learning could help you teach — or understand — new information. 7. Free of Bias As an educator, you’ll be responsible for teaching an extraordinarily wide range of students. To combat inequality and discrimination and ensure fairness, you need to assess your students’ needs in a way that is free from bias — something that requires you to continuously check in with your own judgments and assumptions about others. 8. Respectful Attitude Even in classrooms of adult learners, there’s still an inherent imbalance of power that exists between students and teachers. It’s imperative for educators to be mindful of this imbalance and ensure that students feel respected and heard for the people they are and what they contribute to the classroom. 9. Creativity Creativity goes hand in hand with adaptability — another key trait we explored on this list. Whether you teach first graders or doctoral students, you’ll need the ability to innovate, think outside the box, and find novel solutions to challenges, which will empower you to meet a wider range of students’ needs. Being creative as an educator will also help you to foster creativity in your students — an essential skill they’ll need for countless career paths.
Collaborative From parent-teacher conferences and department meetings to teaching dozens or hundreds of students every day, education is an intensely collaborative field by nature, involving a constant interplay between students, teachers, administrators, and family members. If your goal is to become an educator or transition into an educational leadership position, you’ll need strong collaborative skills to ensure you can work well with others consistently. 11. Preparation In line with being flexible and adaptable, it’s important to be prepared for a wide range of scenarios and challenges in the classroom. You can increase your overall level of preparedness as an educator by learning about your students’ strengths and challenges, and ensuring that you consider how each of your students could be affected by your lesson plans. 12. Promote a Growth Mindset In 2006, psychologist Carol Dweck introduced the concept of “growth mindsets” vs. “fixed mindsets” in her book Mindset: The Psychology of Success. According to Dweck, individuals with a fixed mindset perceive assets like intelligence as being determined early in life, which can cause obstacles or challenges to seem insurmountable or overwhelming. In contrast to a fixed mindset, individuals who have a growth mindset believe that traits like intelligence and creativity can be developed with practice. 13. Meet Students Where They Are Your students will come to you from different backgrounds, skill sets, and challenges — and you need to be ready to meet them, whichever point they’ve reached in their learning. That means having the ability to accommodate students who learn at different paces, using different styles and methods, within the same classroom or group. This is another area where traits like adaptability, empathy, and patience come into play for educators. 14. Cross-Discipline Teaching Drawing on multiple subjects and disciplines shows students how businesses operate — and how problem-solving works — in the real world, grounding their learning in practical real-life scenarios. Best Teacher Award Rules changes Gujarat 2024
શ્રેષ્ઠ શિક્ષક એવોર્ડ GR (New)
If you don’t possess all of these traits already, don’t panic — just be mindful that there may be some areas where you could benefit from a little practice. Whether your goal is to tune up weak skills, refine strong ones, or develop new abilities, a degree or credential program provides the perfect opportunity to acquire the qualifications and experience you need to go further in your chosen career path.According to the online education resource Teaching-Certificate, “Although the…California Commission on Teacher Credentialing used to require 150 hours of professional growth to renew a clear credential, clear credentials may now be renewed without verifying any professional or continuing education requirements.” However, that doesn’t mean educators should overlook opportunities for continued learning. While no longer a CTC requirement, continuing education has several benefits for teachers and school administrators, like increasing your marketability, providing you with professional networking opportunities, and creating a path to learn and practice new skills — while keeping your old ones up-to-date. |
A radio series consisting of 30 episodes was planned with the purpose of enhancing the participation of women and marginalized communities in politics as informed voters, engaged citizens, and potential candidates for public representation. These programs aimed to change existing gender norms and stereotypes concerning women’s roles in the public and political spheres. The programs were developed around two themes:
1) Political education for women voters.
2) Women’s representation in politics.
However, in an attempt to make the series more informed and relevant, programs were also recorded to discuss in detail the catastrophic floods that occurred in the Southern part of the country and the upheaval they caused in the lives of many, particularly women.
The radio programs highlighted existing gender gaps in electoral and political representation, as well as the exclusion of marginalized groups. They featured the impact of political inequalities on these groups, the wider community, and governance processes. The programs also highlighted remedies to bridge gaps in electoral and political participation, such as how to ensure women’s participation as informed voters, engaged constituents/citizens, and motivated election candidates. Moreover, the programs particularly focused on educating young women from different backgrounds on the electoral process, constitutional rights, and the value of being informed and engaged voters. The barriers to political and civic participation were discussed, as well as the influence of various factors and stakeholders at different levels and their underlying causes. The programs emphasized women voters’ systematic engagement with elected representatives and duty-bearers by sharing approaches and good practices of citizen-state engagement and its benefits.
The 30-program series was broadcasted from all networks of FM 101 Pakistan from November 2022 to February 2023 on a bi-weekly basis. |
std::shared_ptr is a standard smart pointer utility widely used in modern C++. A commonly overlooked property of std::shared_ptr is that while its control block is thread-safe, the shared_ptr itself isn’t. To fix this, C++20 introduced std::atomic<std::shared_ptr>. However, existing implementations are typically not lock-free, rendering std::atomic<std::shared_ptr> useless for low-latency and real-time applications.
What would it take to implement a lock-free atomic shared_ptr? In this talk, we first discuss the motivation and use case, review how std::shared_ptr works and the history of std::atomic<std::shared_ptr>. We then look at existing implementations and different implementation strategies. Finally, we present a new implementation of a lock-free atomic shared_ptr which is portable to multiple platforms. |
Budgeting involves developing a plan for how to spend one’s money. It allows one to establish in advance whether there will be enough money for the activities. An individual is also able to prioritize the spending by concentrating on the most important things. However, most people face budgeting problems and end up spending their money on the things that are not very important. They focus on luxuries and eventually accumulate debts. Saving money should be the top priority for all families to avoid future financial problems. People should know what to do with money, how to save it, and how to consume it well.
People have various wants that manipulate them into bad spending habits. They tend to cling on to expensive lifestyles by purchasing luxuries. Building wealth is important, but one may wonder why most people still find themselves under a mountain of debt or end up retiring broke and unhappy (Vohwinkle, n. d.). It all starts from household items like vacuums, fittings, and other electronics. People focus on less important things, like pets, which are expensive. It would not be a wonder finding such people on vacations where they spend extravagantly. These are among the habits that lead to serious budgeting problems.
Some people spend money on excessive lifestyles just to show off and make sure that they establish a class of their own so that people can envy them. They relish their morning muffins and hot drinks from Starbucks. Their luxury cars provide them comfort and security as they transport them to work, school, or during other activities (Gladwell, n. d.). A big mistake that people make when they have a huge salary is to buy a lavish car. There are many expenses that come along with cars. For instance, one has to pay for insurance services, fuel, and maintenance services as well. It is likely that people with large incomes own expensive homes. The cost of maintaining such households is quite high. They use dry cleaning services adding up to their expenses. The mode of entertainment is also profligate, ranging from elegant beaches to nice parks. Such habits make it very hard to save money, and people are not able to manage their incomes.
Spending on the new market comers is also a major cause of budgeting problems that people face. They justify that they need to have the newest in fashion and decoration. The consumer culture that people live in is frequently blasted with marketing and promotion messages that are wisely designed to make people spend money. They do not care if a person has the money or not. People fear being left behind, and they opt to buy things that make their lives better. In reality, it is probable to get by or survive with something that is not the newest and the best. The fact that most people want to look good should not make them overstretch their budget. They should concentrate on living a comfortable life (Nwokolo, 2014).
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Access to technology has made life much easier. It has also affected meaningfully personal assets and spending habits. Technology has transformed the way people do their shopping. With just a few clicks of the mouse, one can get any product delivered to him or her. It can greatly increase the desire to buy things that one may not be requiring. Devices like smartphones have a great effect on how people spend their money. Smartphones are transportable, and there is the internet access; it is possible to download things like songs or event documents for a fee. It is normal to desire new appliances that have the newest technology. After all, today’s hottest technology is inefficacious if compared to what will come out tomorrow (Mason, n. d.). One should thus take time before making hasty decisions, especially if it has an impact on his or her budget. Food consumed outside also accounts for a great proportion of budgeting problems. These are fast foods, traditional eateries, and mobile food retailers. When it comes to saving money, all practices count, even the small ones. One needs to make choices on purchasing healthy foodstuffs for the household use and also minimize the frequent dinner meals consumed outside (Libing, Xu, & Ruiquan, 2014). Expenses based on food can be hard to control. Some parents also tend to engage their children in upcoming and very expensive hobbies. For instance, car racing and mountain bike racing cost a lot of money to establish. Parents end up using too much money in the bid to please their children. In the end, such habits affect the allocated budget negatively.
Saving money is an important aspect of people’s lives. It is vital to set aside an amount that can be used for a crisis cushion to avoid borrowing money. Also, if one intends to retire someday, it is vital to have savings or investments that will replace the income that one will no longer earn from the job. Therefore, saving is important, since no one can predict the future. There are various ways that can assist in saving. People should practice the habit of buying commodities at the lower price rather than at the high price (Castro, 2015). In the market, there are various items sold at different prices, but their level of satisfaction is the same. Also, it is important for individuals to set financial goals that will enable them to be in charge of their money and life. The goals can be short-term or long-term, but they all need to be attainable, precise, and realistic (Mcdermott, 2015). To accomplish the goals, activities such as opening a saving account and joining saving groups in the workplaces are of great help. Keeping track of how one spends money is crucial. A person should know whether he or she is spending more than the income. Keeping such a record helps an individual spend less on luxuries and impulse buys. The analyzed record of expenditure should assist in drawing up a new budget. Sticking to the budget and keeping track of the level of expenditure are some of the best ways to save money. All members of the family should be responsible to ensure that money is well spent. Sharing such a responsibility helps encourage each other to save a bit more. The set budget should be regularly reviewed, since life is unpredictable (Rabiu, Goni, Alhaji, & Aliyu, 2015). An individual may get a pay rise, which means he or she can save more. Thinking before purchasing something expensive is necessary. The research shows that people tend to make healthier decisions when they have ample time to think about it (Rabiu et al., 2015). People who live with their future aims, investments, and contentment at the forefront of their thoughts are likely to live enhanced lives in comparison with the rest of consumers swamped in material things.
More happiness can be derived from experiences as compared to just saving money. The psychology research has shown that experiences bring people more contentment than possessions do (Oppland, n. d.). Experiences tend to make individuals contented because they are less likely to measure the value of their experiences by comparing them to those of others. Experiences are greater portions of people than physical properties. Solid things remain distinct from a person in contrast to experiences that are the part and parcel of the person. Collective involvements also tend to link people more to other societies than mutual consumption. One may feel more connected to a person he or she took a vacation with than somebody who bought an expensive item. Therefore, spending money on experiences may be useful (Oppland, n. d.).
Spending more on things that enrich people’s life not only makes them happy but also helps amend the businesses that surround them by shedding the needed positive image and light on the world. For instance, education is expensive, but it is the most important investment one can make in life. It is one of the requirements considered for most professional jobs. Advanced education is mandatory for jobs in the rapidly growing fields. It is directly tied to the lifelong earning potentiality of a person. Education also assists in the monetary management for a financially healthy family. The research shows that the moderate income for families headed by a person with a college degree is two times higher than the average income for families headed by a high school graduate (Santos, 2014). Learning new things also increases the quality of life. Education increases happiness levels, decreases stress, and provides a sense of self-fulfillment (Santos, 2014). Charity works are other ways people can spend the money. It is a way of giving back to the society, and it can have a great impact on people’s lives. Charity is an expensive way of spending, but it has a positive outcome.
In conclusion, a spending plan allows one to determine in advance whether there is enough money to do things that are important. Budgeting enables an individual to create a spending strategy for his or her money. It helps one keep off the debts or work for a way out for those in debts. The planned budget should also be regularly monitored to identify wasteful expenditures and quickly adapt when financial situations change. Therefore, it is important for every individual to draw a budget. It helps in long-term financial planning (Rabiu et al., 2015). Realistic assumptions about the annual income and expense and plans for long-term financial goals, like starting a business, can also be made early without interfering with anything. A sense of financial clarity is thus very important for the development of society. |
Massive population growth puts strain on SA clean-water supplies, ability to produce sufficient food for local consumption:
By Adriana Stuijt, Censorbugbear Reports: June 15 2013 - The UN has drastically revised its estimates of the world population upwards by eight percent - to 11 billion people by the year 2100. And this upwards revision is mainly due to the higher than expected fertility rates in eight African countries headed by Nigeria. South Africa's population could reach as high as 92million by 2100 from its current 51-million. The revised 2012 UN report predicts that by far the largest expected increase is in Nigeria, projected to increase by 730million people -- from 184million now to 914million in 2100. The African continent could have as many as 4.2billion people by 2100.
Chart of South Africa's population growth - from 1950 to predicted growth to 2100
Above: South Africa's predicted population could reach as high as 92million by the year 2100, the UN estimates.
Eight of the top ten estimated increases are in Africa, with India in second place. The United States is eighth, with an expected increase of 146million, or 46 percent, from 316million now to 462million in 2100. In fact Nigeria’s population could surpass that of the United States by 2050. "The largest projected decline is in China, expected to decrease by about 300million, from 1.4billion now to 1.1billion in 2100.
The UN's upwardsly revised estimates were announced this week by John Wilmoth, Director of the UN Population Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), who briefed correspondents at the launch of the new United Nations report, World Population Prospects: the 2012 Revision. The report is released every two years using updated data, he explained, adding that the latest edition had used information collected from 233 countries and areas of the world. UN briefing: http://www.un.org/News/briefings/docs//2013/130613_Population.doc.htm
How did India and Indonesia reduce their fertility rates?
Asked how populous countries such as India and Indonesia had been able to reduce their fertility rates, he said "those Governments had been working to provide family planning services, and individuals, when given the choice about their own fertility, tended to respond in ways that reduced population growth."
The UN changed its predictions - particularly for Africa -- due to new statistical methods by a group at the University of Washington headed by Prof. Raftery in collaboration with the UN Population Division.
Raftery confirmed this, writing to Censorbugbear Reports that the UN's 4.2billion estimate is 'merely a best guess' - their model gives a 'confidence interval for the population of Africa by 2100 from 3.2billion to 5.5.billon. He wrote me: "I should also emphasize that there is considerable uncertainty about population projections this far out into the future, for many reasons, including the ones that you mentioned (.. I asked him about factors such as the current very rapid, irreversable water pollution; and the uncontrolled, massive migration patterns into South Africa from the rest of Africa.. )
The UN estimates i.a. 'presume that states will continue to provide family-planning facilities'...
Raftery wrote: " Also, our methods are based on historical experience, and implicitly assume, for example, that states will continue to provide family planning facilities. The fertility decline in Africa has slowed down or stalled to a larger extent than we previously predicted, and as a result the African population will go up,” he wrote. "Currently, the total population of the African continent is around 1.1-billion people. The report predicts that this number may rise to as high as 4.2billion by the year 2100…"
Who can feed them all... and what will this massive population growth to SA's already stressed environment and its water?
Censorbugbear Reports has published many previous reports on the growing stress on the SA environment due to its rapid population growth over the years. This stress is mainly caused by the huge migratory pattern from the rest of southern Africa into South Africa since 1994, with estimates of destitute African migrants settling in South Africa now ranging from 8million to 15million people. The current South African population -- without these foreign migrants -- now is estimated to be 51-million people. Many of these migrants are young, child-bearing age people who migrate from Nigeria, Mozambique, Kenya, Zimbabwe and even from as far afield as Somalia and Ethiopia. They travel to South Africa to obtain better access to jobs, food supplies, better medical care and an education for their children.
- Important key factors in rapid population growth have always been the access to enough local, low-cost food and clean, sufficient water.
These positive growth-factors above (still) remain higher in South Africa than in many other African countries. S.A. still has sufficient local production of affordable food from its commercial farming community - although for the first time - this year the country had to import about half of all its food-needs. About 12,000 commercial farmers in SA still produce the other half - with the country's 1,2million subsistence farmers producing mostly for their own consumption and taking very little to local markets.
Filthy, poisoned, sewerage-polluted irrigation water now only water-resource available for SA farmers:
In March 2012. Business Report warned that the water pollution caused by Mpumnalanga mines threatened to cause a major countrywide food crisis. Louw Steytler of Grain SA said they were 'deeply concerned as Mpumalanga was responsible for a large part of South Africa's food supply. This province is the bread basket of the country.. The government needs to give this problem urgent attention."
Nigel Adams, head of the Water Affairs department's Blue Scorpions, said his department could not solve the issue alone. Water Affairs Minister Edna Molewa said in a written reply to a DA parliamentary question recently that 53 mines were operating in the country without a water licence, of which 18 were in Mpumalanga. Research by the University of the Witwatersrand's Professor Terence McCarthy showed that even if mining companies attempted to rehabilitate previously mined land, harvest yields remained weak. http://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/196/475/72808.html
By 2008 the Transvaal Agricultural Union already started warning: "Filthy, poisoned, sewerage-polluted irrigation water is the only water-resource now available for our farmers' irrigation of their crops.' Its president Ben Marais described the situation as a 'water-pollution time-bomb'. He noted that "while less than one percent of the entire land-surface of South Africa is used for irrigated crop-farming - these few remaining commercial farmers also supply all the produce markets in the country. "
Its NorthWest regional chairman Wilhelm Roché said in 2008 that 'farmers are now forced to pay water-taxes for dangerously-polluted water which is actually destroying their livelihood - they are paying for their own downfall.' The sixty smallfarmers raise peppers, tomatoes, onions and cabbages for the produce markets in the cities -- and are totally reliant on the Lindleyspoort Dam's water supply. They can't irrigate their crops any more - it is just become too dangerous, they warn.
Livestock dying of human-measle infections due to human sewage runoffs from burgeoning squatter camps around all the cities
Elands River water and Lindleyspoort Dam poisoned: Cattle-farmers at Swartruggens, Koster and Derby in 2008 reported that they had to keep their livestock away from the adjacent Elands River water at the Lindleyspoort dam - because they would die if they drank it: it was too poisonous. Some of the livestock were even reportedly infected with human measles because of the raw-sewerage in the Elands River. Independent water-tests by an international expert showed such dangerous levels of human faecal matter and heavy-metals that it was considered totally unsafe for human- and animal consumption. Bird-watchers also confirmed widespread deaths among the birdlife reliant on these water-resources that year.
Loskop Dam, Olifants River:
Mpumalanga provincial chairman Henry Geldenhuys said at the time that " any farmers who solely relied on irrigation water from the Loskop dam - also fed by the Olifants River -- for their survival, were facing serious problems. The water in this dam -- which was built as an irrigation dam only was by then also being tapped for human consumption -- was 'polluted heavily with human waste and industrial poison from local municipal waste-runoffs". And the detected high levels of heavy metals and high-acidity in this water also originated straight from the local coal-mines, he said.
Citrus, grape and maize farmers -- between Marble Hall and Groblersdal -- hardest hit.
"We don't know when the pollution bomb will explode, but it's already good-night for these farmers', Geldenhuys warned three years ago.
Orange River basin: The export-grape farmers along the Orange River basin, which feeds from the heavily-polluted Vaal River -- an area of about 300km -- it was being warned, were also facing collapse. "The raw sewerage runoff in these rivers has now percolated down to the ground-water - and the wells in this region were becoming 'far too dangerous for human and animal consumption. " |
Introduction to Agrawau
Nestled away from the bustling cities and tourist traps lies Agrawau, a hidden gem where sustainable agriculture thrives. This enchanting destination invites visitors to explore its lush landscapes, vibrant farms, and rich community spirit. As you wander through rolling fields and quaint gardens, you’ll discover how Agrawau is redefining what it means to farm responsibly.
Here, farming isn’t just about producing food; it’s about nurturing the land and preserving traditions for future generations. The residents of Agrawau have embraced sustainable practices that not only benefit their crops but also enhance the local ecosystem. From organic growing methods to innovative community initiatives, this small town packs a big punch in the world of eco-friendly agriculture.
Join us as we embark on an adventure through Agrawau’s breathtaking scenery and learn how this charming locale is paving the way for a greener future. Whether you’re an eco-conscious traveler or simply curious about sustainable living, there’s something extraordinary waiting for you in Agrawau.
The History of Sustainable Agriculture in Agrawau
Sustainable agriculture in Agrawau has roots that stretch back decades. Local farmers began experimenting with eco-friendly practices long before the term became popular.
Traditionally, crops were grown using methods that respected the land and its natural cycles. This deep connection to nature laid a strong foundation for modern sustainable practices.
As awareness of environmental issues grew, so did interest in sustainability. Community leaders rallied together to promote techniques like crop rotation and organic farming.
Education played a key role in this evolution. Workshops and local initiatives helped farmers adopt innovative approaches while preserving their heritage.
Today, Agrawau stands as a testament to resilience and adaptation. Its rich agricultural history blends seamlessly with contemporary sustainability efforts, making it an ideal model for others to follow.
The Impact of Sustainable Agriculture on the Environment and Community
Sustainable agriculture in Agrawau is transforming both the environment and local communities. By employing eco-friendly farming practices, farmers are reducing carbon footprints and conserving water resources. This approach minimizes soil degradation while promoting biodiversity.
Community involvement plays a crucial role as well. Farmers collaborate with residents to share knowledge on sustainable techniques, fostering a sense of unity. Local workshops educate everyone about organic farming methods, empowering individuals to make informed choices.
Additionally, these practices enhance food security. With an emphasis on growing diverse crops, families gain access to nutritious options year-round. It also supports the local economy by encouraging the consumption of locally produced goods.
The ripple effect extends beyond farms and gardens; it revitalizes community spirit through shared goals and initiatives aimed at sustainability. In turn, this creates a thriving ecosystem that nurtures both people and nature alike.
How Agrawau is Leading the Way in Sustainable Agriculture Practices
Agrawau is a beacon of innovation in sustainable agriculture. Farmers here embrace techniques that prioritize the health of the soil and ecosystem. Crop rotation, organic fertilizers, and natural pest control are just a few methods gaining traction.
Community involvement plays a vital role. Local farmers collaborate to share knowledge, creating an environment where best practices thrive. Workshops on permaculture attract visitors eager to learn about these eco-friendly approaches.
The emphasis on biodiversity sets Agrawau apart. By cultivating various crops together, farmers enhance resilience against pests and diseases while enriching the land’s nutrients.
Water conservation strategies also shine in this region. Rainwater harvesting systems help reduce reliance on traditional irrigation methods, showcasing how Agrawau adapts to its climate challenges effectively.
This dedication not only fosters sustainability but also strengthens local economies by promoting farm-to-table initiatives throughout the area.
Touring Farms and Gardens in Agrawau
Exploring the farms and gardens of Agrawau is nothing short of enchanting. Each corner reveals lush fields, vibrant crops, and passionate farmers dedicated to sustainable methods.
As you stroll through these verdant landscapes, you’ll see innovative practices in action. From organic vegetable patches to sprawling orchards, every site tells a story. Farmers often share their knowledge with visitors, offering insights into eco-friendly techniques that preserve both land and community.
The sensory experience is delightful; breathe in the fresh earthiness mingled with blooming flowers. Feel the sun on your skin as you wander along winding paths lined with herbs ready for harvest.
Engaging workshops may also be available during your visit. These hands-on sessions provide practical skills while connecting you deeply to the heart of Agrawau’s agricultural ethos. Each tour leaves a lasting impression, crafting memories intertwined with nature’s beauty and human ingenuity.
Experiencing Local Cuisine and Products in Agrawau
Agrawau offers a culinary journey like no other. Here, the flavors of the land shine through every dish. Local farmers and artisans work hand-in-hand to create a vibrant food scene rooted in sustainability.
Try dishes prepared with fresh, organic vegetables harvested just hours before they hit your plate. You’ll find meals that celebrate seasonal ingredients and traditional recipes passed down through generations.
Don’t miss out on artisanal products unique to Agrawau. From honey infused with wildflowers to handcrafted cheeses made from local dairy, each bite tells a story of dedication and craftsmanship.
Markets buzz with energy as locals sell their goods directly to visitors. Engaging with producers adds an authentic touch to your experience.
Sample homemade jams bursting with flavor or indulge in baked goods that use ancient grains cultivated right here in Agrawau’s rich soil. Every morsel is a testament to the community’s commitment to sustainable practices and delicious cuisine.
Conclusion: Why You Should Visit Agrawau for a Sustainable Adventure
Agrawau stands out as a beacon of sustainable agriculture. Its commitment to eco-friendly practices and community involvement creates a unique atmosphere for visitors. The region showcases innovative farming techniques that not only protect the environment but also enrich local culture.
A visit to Agrawau offers more than just an escape into nature; it’s an opportunity to engage with passionate farmers and learn about their sustainable methods firsthand. Touring the vibrant farms and lush gardens, you’ll be inspired by how agriculture can coexist harmoniously with nature.
Don’t miss the chance to savor local cuisine made from fresh, organic ingredients. Each bite tells a story of dedication and sustainability, reflecting Agrawau’s rich agricultural heritage.
For anyone looking for authenticity in travel experiences, this hidden gem is worth exploring. Embrace the beauty of Agrawau’s landscapes while supporting its mission toward sustainable living. Whether you’re an avid gardener or simply someone who appreciates good food, your adventure in Agrawau will leave lasting memories that resonate long after you leave. |
Warren County is a county located in the south central portion of the U.S. state of Kentucky. As of 2020, the population was 134,554, making it the fifth-most populous county in Kentucky. The county seat is Bowling Green. Warren County is now classified as a wet county after voters approved the measure in 2018. The measure became law in January 2019 that allows alcohol to be sold county wide.
Warren County is included in the Bowling Green, KY Metropolitan Statistical Area. It is located in the Pennyroyal Plateau and Western Coal Fields regions.
Warren County was the location of several Native American villages and ancient burial mounds constructed by earlier cultures. The first white men to enter the area were the long hunters in the 1770s. General Elijah Covington was among the first landowners. McFadden's Station, one of the earliest settlements, was established in 1785 by Andrew McFadden/McFadin on the northern bank of the Barren River at the Cumberland Trace.
Warren County became the 23rd county of Kentucky in 1796, from a section of Logan County. It was named after General Joseph Warren of the Revolutionary War. He dispatched William Dawes and Paul Revere on their famous midnight ride to warn residents of the approaching British troops. He was also a hero of the Battle of Bunker Hill.
Through the riverboat trade, Warren County thrived in the agricultural market. In 1859, the Louisville and Nashville Railroad (currently CSX Transportation) was laid through the county.
During the Civil War, most residents are said to have favored the Union. Because of its strategic value Warren County was occupied by Confederate forces in September 1861. It was occupied in turn by the Union Army on February 14, 1862, following the Confederate retreat to Tennessee. During the Confederate withdrawal, they destroyed railroad bridges in Barren County, the Bowling Green train depot and other railroad buildings to hinder Union pursuit.
The completion of Interstate 65 and Green River Parkway, later renamed the William H. Natcher Parkway, (and in 2019 was renamed as the I-165,) in the 1960s and 1970s, brought an industrial boom that transformed the farm-oriented county into a more urban one.
In 1997, Bowling Green became a Tree City USA, sponsored by the National Arbor Day Foundation.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which is land and (1.1%) is water.
The Green River forms the northern boundary of the county, and was a means of transportation for settlers. Tributaries of the Green River that flow through Warren County are the Barren and Gasper rivers, Drake's and Jennings creeks and Bay's Fork. In the north the land is possibly the most rugged, since it lies between the Green and Barren rivers, with very tall ridges near Riverside and Richardsville. The major drainage in Warren county is Barren River, which flows through Bowling Green and is surrounded by steep ridges in some areas. Several sizable hills rise in Bowling Green proper. They were favored for forts and other development: a reservoir, hospital, and Civil War fort were built on one; much of Western Kentucky University's campus on another; Hobson Grove, a historic Italian Renaissance style civil war era plantation estate on another; and a second civil war fort on another. In the east the land is rolling (much like central Kentucky's landscape) near Drakes Creek. The land in the south and southwest of the county is predominantly flat. In the western side of the county, the land is hilly with steep ridges and rocky and cliff-ridden near Gasper River. Shanty Hollow Lake is in the northwest corner of the county.
The flat elevated areas in the west and the flatland in the south and southwest have soil that is fertile and supports tobacco, hay, corn and soybean crop production. The rest of the land is predominantly clay soil; it is rocky and not very suitable for agriculture. Many residents rear livestock and horses, or hunt in these areas.
Butler County - northwest
Edmonson County - northeast
Barren County - east
Allen County - southeast
Simpson County - south
Logan County - southwest
thumb|left|280px|Graph of Warren County population by decade
At the 2000 census, there were 92,522 people, 35,365 households and 23,411 families residing in the county. The population density was . There were 38,350 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the county was 86.98% White, 8.58% Black or African American, 0.24% Native American, 1.35% Asian, 0.08% Pacific Islander, 1.33% from other races, and 1.45% from two or more races. 2.67% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.
There were 35,365 households, of which 31.40% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 51.40% were married couples living together, 11.20% had a female householder with no husband present, and 33.80% were non-families. 26.10% of all households were made up of individuals, and 8.30% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.46 and the average family size was 2.97.
The age distribution was 23.10% under the age of 18, 16.20% from 18 to 24, 29.10% from 25 to 44, 21.10% from 45 to 64, and 10.50% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 32 years. For every 100 females, there were 96.20 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 93.00 males.
The median household income was $36,151, and the median family income was $45,142. Males had a median income of $32,063 versus $22,777 for females. The per capita income for the county was $18,847. About 10.80% of families and 15.40% of the population were below the poverty line, including 17.80% of those under age 18 and 13.80% of those age 65 or over.
Two public school districts operate in the county:
Warren County Public Schools, which serves most of the county, including outerlying parts of Bowling Green
Bowling Green Independent Schools, which serves most of the city of Bowling Green.
High schools include:
; County schools
Light House Academy
South Warren High School
GEO International High School
; Bowling Green ISD
Bowling Green High School
There is also a state-operated public school for gifted students
Carol Martin Gatton Academy of Mathematics and Science in Kentucky
There are also private schools including
Anchored Christian School
Bowling Green Christian Academy
Foundation Christian Academy
St. Joseph School, a private Catholic school of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Owensboro.
Colleges and universities
Southcentral Kentucky Community and Technical College
Western Kentucky University
Public Library System
Warren County Public Library
Beech Bend Park - roller coasters, waterpark, raceway
Chevrolet Corvette and XLR Assembly Plant - daily tours
Eloise B. Houchens Center - Greek Revival-style mansion built in 1904 by a former Bowling Green mayor
Fort Webb Historic Park - preserved Civil War site
Historic Railpark at the L&N Depot - two floor train museum with 6 restored railcars inside a 1925 depot.
Kentucky Museum and Library - exhibits of Kentucky artifacts, located on Western Kentucky University campus
Lost River Cave and Valley - location of the shortest and deepest river in the world, once a hideout for Jesse James and company
National Corvette Museum - exhibits of the models of the Chevrolet Corvette since 1953
Riverview at Hobson Grove - preserved mansion overlooking Barren River built from the late 1850s until 1872 |
Re-publication of an article by Mario A. Rosé on Agronotizie.
There is no doubt that the drought that is tormenting our country is one of the many consequences of climate change. It is not easy to obtain firm evidence on press complaints, but on the other hand, it is also not difficult to believe that bad territorial management involves more than the 30% of losses in water networks.
Unfortunately, we are now used to bad governance. On the other hand, the consumption of water for irrigation it can be drastically reduced with adequate soil management, and if we don't, or if we do it wrong, the fault is ours alone. The water retention capacity, or field capacity, depends on the type of soil (Table 1). Obviously, a farmer cannot change the soil type of his land, but it can improve their field capacity, thus reducing the need for irrigation and, indirectly, also of fertilizers.
Table 1: Field capacity of soils
(Photo Source: University of California, translation and conversion of the units by the author)
(Click on the image to enlarge)
The surplus of water that can store organic matter in any soil depends on many factors, such as the type of tillage, the slope, the depth of the organic layer, etc. One studio critic on sixty publications (1) concludes that, on average, to the values shown in the Table 1 we must add 1,16 millimeters of H2Or for each percentage point of organic carbon each 100 millimeters of organic layer. The relationship between organic matter and organic C is known in the scientific literature as a van Bemmelen factor equal to 1,724, that is, the organic matter of the soil contains the 58% the C. For our calculations we assume 56% (value defined in the Regulations (EC) No 2019/1009, text in Italian).
To example, an arid soil to which a soil improver is added so that i 300 millimeters of surface layer contain the 5% of organic matter, will increase the available water capacity of:
D = 1,16 x 300 mm/100 mm x 5 x 0,56 = 9,74 mm = 9,74 l/m2
It means 1 hectare of this corrected land will be able to retain 97,4 m3 more water available to plants than soil without organic matter. It may seem little, but if we see it on a territorial scale, the potential improvement in water management is significant.
By way of example, the Photo 1 shows the consistency of organic C in Italian soils. It is observed that many areas are now devoid of organic coverage (light grey) and only the soils of the mountain and foothills, together with leopard spots on the plains, have an organic C content > 75 tons / hectare (or > 2%). This implies that the majority of our crops need more irrigation water than would be needed if the soils were richer in organic matter..
Photo 1: C content in Italian soils
(Photo Source: Ispra)
(Click on the image to enlarge)
What has been said so far does not mean that any source of organic C is good for improving soil texture. We have already covered in another item the institutional ravings on the concept of “digestate equated to fertilizers”, concept that, in addition to not being defined in the Decree (it refers to a future decree that perhaps will never arrive), adds confusion to an already complex issue such as the balance of C and nutrients in soils. Recall that the European legislation (Regulation (EC) No 2019/1009, text in Italian) defines seven “functional categories of products” for European fertilizers.
In the context of this article, the organic matter can be classified into three broad categories, but they intersect to a certain extent:
- Organic soil improvers: contain more C in a stable form (humus), smaller amounts of nutrients (N, P, K…) and live microorganisms in populations varying in quantity and composition.
- Organic fertilizers: they contain C in reduced and easily oxidizable quantities, consistent amounts of nutrients (N, P, K…) and live microorganisms in populations varying in quantity and composition.
- Microbial biostimulants: they contain more C in the form of live or latent microbial biomass (mushrooms, protozoa, bacteria and their spores), but they can also contain small proportions of stable C and nutrients.
How they behave therefore the different organic materials when they come into contact with the soil? More or less, the transformation of organic C it undergoes two stages:
- Mineralization. The microorganisms present in the soil – and possibly also in the same organic matter applied to it – they oxidize organic C by emitting CO2. The percentage of C lost in this way (mineralized) in one year it is known in the literature as the Coefficient of Mineralization (MC o k2 depending on the authors). He k2 depends on the type of soil: the more porous (sandy soils with skeleton) or the more intense and frequent the processing, the greater the circulation of air and therefore the higher will be k2. On the contrary, in clayey soils or with minimal tillage, organic matter is less dispersed.
- Humification. A part of the organic C (typically lignocellulosic compounds and more concretely lignin) it is refractory to microbial activity and transforms into complex substances, generically called humic substances. A fraction of these (humic acids) it is slowly oxidized and dispersed as CO2. The most refractory and stable fraction constitutes humus. The percentage of organic C that remains in the soil after one year is called the Humification Coefficient (HC or k1 depending on the authors). The absolute amount of humus that remains in the soil after one year is known as Effective Organic Matter (EOM = Effective Organic Matter) and it is the one that we have to replenish every year because in any case the soil microorganisms degrade it to CO2, albeit at a slower pace.
Calculations of the amount of organic matter to add to a depleted soil to restore its fertility, or the one to be added annually to maintain it, require some tables with coefficients k1 e k2, some additional information on the type of soil and soil conditioner and a little’ of patience (see for example the manual of the Campania Region (2)).
For the convenience of our readers we propose a simple online organic soil improver calculator to be applied according to the type of soil, initial organic matter content and desired fertility goal.
Digestate, compost is bokashi: let's be clear
There is a lot of misinformation about’use of digestate in agriculture. On many blogs of political activists and in social networks, digestate is accused – sometimes with partially founded arguments, but of a manipulative or ideological nature – to be harmful to the soil (see for example: I “committees of the no” and the biogas and biomass handbook, What future for bioenergy in the next legislature, No more glycerol in biogas plants – First part e Second part).
The benefits of the bokashi – a particular type of fermented compost originating in Japan – they are many and undeniable, but they are often exaggerated by ideology “bio at any cost” e “anti-system”.
So let's try to do a little’ of light on the subject, starting with the most controversial fertilizer: the digestate.
The digestate is never used as it comes out of the digester. All plants have a separator, typically screw type, from which two come out “digested” with very different characteristics: solid and liquid. The first tends to be a soil improver: brings to the soil C, P (typically as struvite or hydroxyapatite crystals), and a little’ of live bacteria. The second is more like a liquid fertilizer, it mainly supplies N in ammonia form, K and soluble salts and very little organic C, especially in the form of live bacteria. Paradoxically, the high bioavailability of ammoniacal nitrogen for bacteria means that the reckless application of liquid digestate to the soil suddenly lowers the C ratio:N, making the humification coefficient null or even negative. This fact, told in an exaggerated and incomplete way, is the typical argument of “no biogas” against the agronomic use of digestate – without specifying which fraction – and livestock sewage. The problem is therefore not the use of liquid digestate per se, but the lack of solid digestate (o compost, or straw, or any other source of organic C) in sufficient quantity to maintain a C ratio in the soil:N adequate.
Recall that an organic fertilizer with C:N = 25 it is conducive to the synthesis of stable humic acids, a C:N < 10 facilitates mineralization, a C:N > 30 immobilizes nitrogen, which is consumed by bacteria to break down humic substances, making it unavailable to the roots.
As for the solid fraction of the digestate, its mineralization and humification coefficients depend on the power supply of the digester. A solid digestate from plants fed mainly with vegetable biomass (a sword, agri-food residues, Maybe) it will contain a large fraction of lignin, very refractory substance and direct precursor of humus. A solid digestate from plant fed with sludge or with slaughter residues will have a zero or even negative humification coefficient, therefore it will be more like a fertilizer than a soil improver. The humification coefficient of the solid digestate also depends on the type of separator used (auger or centrifuge) and any post treatments: it is maximum in the case of the solid separated from dried Forsu a 60°C until you have less than 50% humidity (3).
One comparative study (4) on the transformations of carbon in three processes – anaerobic digestion, lactic fermentation and composting – highlighted that the European classification of organic fertilizers is reductive because functional products are not always a mixture of fertilizer, soil conditioner and biostimulator, in variable percentages. The aforementioned study shows that the amount of residual C in the solid digestate is less than that of bokashi or compost, taken for granted because the purpose of anaerobic digestion is precisely to convert most of the biomass into methane. But, the contribution of easily oxidizable organic matter, N and P of the anaerobic amendments of solid digestate and bokashi are practically equivalent. Both also bring their own bacterial flora, favoring the microbial activity of the soil much more than compost. Anaerobic treatments are therefore overall better than composting, which effectively retains a greater fraction of the initial C of the composted material, but it loses more nutrients and does not favor the bacterial activity of the soil so markedly.
Organic fertilization cannot be done on the basis of tables or recipes “flat rate”, in the same way ours online calculator it does not replace the inspection and analysis of a professional. The calculator allows you to make a quick preliminary assessment, after the development of a strategy for restoring the fertility of tired or otherwise impoverished soils and conservation of the same through the annual contribution of organic matter. Such organic matter cannot be of any kind: solid digestate and compost guarantee a C ratio:N more balanced which allows to store more carbon in the soil than organic matter “fresh” (green manure, paglia, stalks) or to materials with zero or negative humification coefficient (sewage, slaughter residues, solid digestate from sludge). The solid digestate from agricultural residues, rich in lignin, it can be considered a soil improver equivalent to compost, but it provides more N and P than the latter and also provides a greater biostimulating effect of the bacterial flora of the soil.
Of course, making solid digestate or commercial compost represents a cost for the farm, that our online calculator makes it easy to estimate. That cost But leads a series of earnings, often not considered in the evaluations of farmers: saving of fertilizers (greater efficiency in the absorption of plants and less washout), saving of water and the corresponding energy for pumping. Ma, mostly, a good organic matter content in the soil reduces the risk of losing the crop due to water stress in the event of drought or torrential rain.
(1) Minasny, B. and McBratney, A.B. (2018), Limited effect of organic matter on soil available water capacity. Eur J Soil Sci, 69: 39-47.
(2) Mauro Mori, Ida Di Mola, et al.; Guide to fertilization – Methods, procedures and tools for a consultancy service; Campania Region – Agriculture Department – Experimentation Sector, Information, Agricultural Research and Consultancy (SESIRCA), 2012. ISBN 978-88-95230-14-6.
(3) Own, C.E., Safeguard, I., control link, I.C. et al. Solid fraction of separated digestate as soil improver: implications for soil fertility and carbon sequestration. J Soils Sediments 21, 678–688 (2021).
(4) Vania Scarlet Chavez-Rico, Paul L.E.. Bodelier, Miriam van Eekert, Valentina Sechi, Adrie Veeken, Cees Buisman, Producing organic amendments: Physicochemical changes in biowaste used in anaerobic digestion, composting, and fermentation, Waste Management, Volume 149, 2022, Pages 177-185, ISSN 0956-053X. |
Angelica Kauffmann was born as the daughter of the painter Joseph Kauffmann in Chur in 1741. Her father accepted during the following years several appointments in Switzerland and Upper Italy. Already at the age of six, Angelica helped him and attracted attention with her talent.
In 1762, father and daughter left for Rome. On their way, they visited galleries in Milan, Bologna, Parma and Florence, where Angelica Kauffmann copied works by Italian masters. In Rome, the artist met with J.J. Winckelmann, who gave her an understanding of the art of the ancient world. Further, Angelica Kauffmann got acquainted with Lady Wentworth and followed her to London in 1966.
The following 15 years, which are spent in London, she celebrated her largest social and artistic successes. She received several orders from the royal court and other nobility and was accepted at the newly founded Royal Academy in 1768. In 1781, Angelica Kauffmann married the Venetian painter Francesco Zucchi and settled in Venice. Soon, they moved to Rome and bought the house of the painter Anton Raphael Mengs. In Rome, a splendid social life developed around Angelica Kauffmann. Several foreign guests, among which were the Duchesses Amalie von Weimar and Luise von Anhalt-Dessau, Emperor Joseph II., crown prince Ludwig von Bayern, Goethe, Herder, Tischbein and the painter Philipp Hacker payed her a visit. Goethe called her in a letter to Weimar "die .... vielleicht kultivierteste Frau Europas" ["the most accomplished woman in Europe"].
After her husbands death in 1795, Angelica Kauffmann barely left her hometown. She died in 1807 in Rome.
Her work consists of several history paintings, altarpieces and portraits. Among her favoured motifs are also motifs from contemporary poetry and rococo-like genre scenes. She gained the friendship of the most famous poets, scientists and artists of her time with her outstanding literacy and her gracefulness and became the most famous female painter of the 18th century. |
The agency insists that even organic almonds be cooked, but doesn’t want consumers to know they aren’t raw or how they are cooked. Action Alert!
The “pasteurization” rule was introduced in 2007 in response to a string of salmonella outbreaks linked to large almond processing plants in 2001 and 2004; thirty-three people became ill, but no one died. (Contrast that to the thousands of deaths caused by prescription drugs each year!) California’s Almond Board colluded with the USDA to propose mandatory “sterilization” across the industry, and the USDA agreed to implement and enforce the new rule.
According to the Almond Board, five methods of “pasteurization” are permitted: oil roasting, dry roasting, blanching, steam processing, and the use of propylene oxide (PPO). A sixth method involved irradiating the almonds, and this was used for a number of years, but now the Almond Board states that “Almond pasteurization does not include irradiation.”
Certainly the first three methods completely cook the nuts, so they are no longer raw. Of the last two, steam causes a marked reduction in nutrient content and partially cooks the nuts, and PPO is, according to the EPA, a “probable human carcinogen.”
PPO is an extremely volatile liquid used in the production of polyurethane plastics. It was once used as a racing fuel, but was banned by both the National Hot Rod and American Motorcycle Racing Associations for being too dangerous—it’s so volatile that it is used in fuel–air bombs.
The material safety data sheet for PPO warns:
Causes gastrointestinal irritation with nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. May cause central nervous system depression, characterized by excitement, followed by headache, dizziness, drowsiness, and nausea. Advanced stages may cause collapse, unconsciousness, coma and possible death due to respiratory failure. Aspiration of material into the lungs may cause chemical pneumonitis, which may be fatal….May cause reproductive and fetal effects. Laboratory experiments have resulted in mutagenic effects. May cause heritable genetic damage.
According to the EPA, acute (short-term) exposure to PPO has caused eye and respiratory tract irritation, and skin irritation and necrosis. It’s also a mild central nervous system depressant and causes inflammatory lesions of the nasal cavity, trachea, and lungs. In animal studies, PPO causes neurological effects and tumors, leading EPA to classify it as a class B2 carcinogen, and California, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, and Massachusetts to list it on their state right-to-know registries as a known carcinogen.
So for raw almonds, your choice is to either cook them or make them potentially toxic. Steam treatments are running up to $2.5 million, whereas PPO starts at $500,000. Which do you think most farmers choose? Over 68% of almonds are treated with PPO.
Raw organic almonds not treated with PPO may be heat pasteurized with steam. But heat may oxidize the omega 3 fatty acids in almonds, potentially turning them rancid and producing free radicals, which are believed to play a role in the development of cancer and other degenerative diseases.
Even worse, there is no labeling requirement to show that almonds have been steamed or treated with PPO, so consumers are misled into thinking they are eating truly natural raw almonds when in fact they are not. Labeling is an absolute necessity for consumers to make an informed choice.
When the rule was instituted, raw and organic almond farmers were outraged and pushed back. They fought the USDA, and in 2010 a federal appeals court ruled they could challenge USDA’s almond regulation.
Now ANH-USA has submitted an Amicus Curiae brief in support of the plaintiffs (an amicus curiae, Latin for “friend of the court,” is an outsider who provides information to assist the court in making its decision). Our brief will allow ANH-USA to raise issues that may not be brought up by the plaintiffs during regular trial proceedings. It will also let us take a stand against the USDA and call attention to the public policy and public health implications of the almond rule.
Besides the aforementioned problems with the “pasteurization” process, there are serious legal concerns about the rule-making process. USDA did not go through the normal, open public hearing and comment process when issuing the almond rule. The agency contacted only 115 select almond growers and handlers—out of a total of over 6,000—to invite them to comment on the proposed rule, and consumers and retailers were almost universally unaware of the proposed rule. Only eighteen public comments were received from the entire country.
ANH-USA sees the almond rule as a slippery slope, because for the first time USDA is establishing minimum “standards” for how farm products are processed, setting a dangerous precedent for the potential sterilization of other organic agricultural products. Will they try to irradiate spinach, or will they realize the process will actually destroy the delicate product? We argue in our brief that the USDA is not a food safety agency and thus such decisions are not within their mandate.
The lack of labeling is arguably a violation of Section 5 of the FTC Act, which declares unfair or deceptive acts or practices to be unlawful. A “deceptive act” includes a “misleading omission.” Labeling steam-heated almonds as raw is intentionally misleading; and we would argue that not disclosing the fact that almonds are being treated with PPO, when the public, if they knew of the practice, would surely refuse to buy them, is extraordinarily deceptive.
Almonds have tremendous health benefits. They are an excellent source of manganese, copper, and vitamin B2 (all of which are important for the body’s energy production). Almonds are rich in magnesium, phosphorus, zinc and vitamin E, and high in health-promoting monounsaturated fatty acids and many other nutrients.
Raw almonds (with no heat applied) are particularly healthy. According to USDA data, raw almonds have more calcium, iron, potassium, fiber, manganese, and vitamin E. By insisting that raw almonds be “sterilized,” USDA is trying to take an extremely healthy food sound scary—something the public needs to be “protected” from, when actually the public may be more at risk from the chemical used to treat the nuts. Raw, organic almonds are not scary. As we point out in our brief, no salmonella outbreaks have been associated with organic almonds because they follow higher-quality processing controls. Therefore, organic raw almonds should not have been subject to the mandate in the first place.
Imported almonds are not subject to the almond rule (how is that for logic?)—so if consumers want real raw almonds, they will have to buy the imported ones. What a tragedy that our public policy is deliberately hurting the domestic market—especially small organic farmers, who need every sale they can get!
Action Alert! Tell USDA to put a hold on the almond rule at least until they open it up to public hearing and comment. Let them know that organic almonds should have been exempt from the almond rule since they already follow superior quality controls and there have been no salmonella outbreaks in connection to organic almonds. And insist that almonds that have been “treated” be labeled as such—particularly when PPO is used. Send your message to USDA today! |
Feline Preventative Care
Cats are like kids–it’s a never-ending job to keep them safe and happy. Routine preventative health care such as vaccinations, viral testing, and internal parasite screenings are very important to minimize certain diseases.
While any medical treatment involves some degree of risk, in the case of vaccinations, the benefits far outweigh any potential side effects. Adverse reactions are rare and usually mild and short-term when they do occur.
Which vaccinations and routine screenings should your cat have?
Recommended Vaccines For Cats
Below are the different types of vaccinations and preventative health screenings that we offer and recommend to our feline patients:
Rabies- Considered a “core” vaccination.
Rabies vaccinations are required by law and meant for the protection of people more so than your pet. Rabies is a fatal disease for which there is no cure and our pets tend to be the “middle man” so to speak between humans and Rabies due to their tendencies to come into contact with other wildlife that may be carrying Rabies. Any pet, who is not properly vaccinated for Rabies, who bites, scratches or otherwise breaks human skin in any fashion may be subject to Rabies observation in accordance with the law. A Rabies vaccination is given as early as 12-16 weeks of age and is good for one year. Subsequent Rabies vaccinations are every 1 to 3 years for cats depending on the type of vaccine used. At Ark Animal Hospital, we prefer to use the safest vaccines possible for our patients so majority of our feline patients will receive the non-adjuvanted PureVax Rabies vaccine which is given annually. We use this vaccination in felines to eliminate the risk of vaccine related sarcomas that cats can develop when using regular adjuvanted vaccines.
FVRCP- Considered a “core” vaccine.
FVRCP stands for Feline Viral Rhinotracheitis, Calicivirus and Panleukopenia. These viruses are life-threatening and highly contagious even in the most inclement environment. It is especially important for all kittens to be properly vaccinated in order to stimulate their immune systems to fight off any exposure to these viruses. Typically, kittens will receive their first FVRCP vaccine at 8 weeks and receive additional boosters at 12 and 16 weeks. The minimum number of boosters for a cat of any age who has never been properly vaccinated for FVRCP is a series of two vaccines, given 1 month apart, followed by an annual booster. At Ark Animal Hospital, we practice a 3-year protocol for FVRCP, so after your pet has received their first annual booster, they will only need a FVRCP booster every 3 years thereafter. We also offer titer testing for clients who wish to determine if their pet’s immune system is still mounting an adequate response to these diseases in lieu of periodic vaccination.
Feline Leukemia Virus (FeLV)- Considered a kitten “core” vaccine and an adult lifestyle vaccine.
Feline Leukemia is a non-curable virus that is contagious to other cats. For indoor-only cats, the risk of contracting FeLV is very low. Outdoor cats and cats in multi-cat households are more at risk, especially if they share water and food dishes and litter boxes. Exposure to infected cats raises your cat’s risk of contracting FeLV, especially for kittens and young adult cats. Older cats are less likely to contract the infection because natural immunity increases with age. In accordance with the recommendations of the American Association of Feline Practitioners, Ark Animal Hospital recommends all kittens be vaccinated against Feline Leukemia, regardless of their lifestyle. The FeLV vaccine series consists of two vaccinations, 1 month apart and boosted 1 year later. After their annual booster, we will re-evaluate your cat’s lifestyle with you to determine if continuing annual vaccination for feline leukemia is necessary. All cats must be tested for Feline Leukemia prior to vaccination. This is a quick 10-minute test that requires only a small blood sample. More information about testing is below.
Recommended Cat Testing
Viral (FeLV) Testing- Preventative care screening.
Feline leukemia (FeLV) is a disease that only affects cats — it cannot be transmitted to people, dogs, or other animals. FeLV is passed from one cat to another through saliva, blood, and to some extent, urine and feces. Kittens can contract the disease in utero or through an infected mother’s milk. The disease is often spread by apparently healthy cats, so even if a cat appears healthy, it may be infected and able to transmit the virus. The virus commonly causes anemia or lymphoma, but because it suppresses the immune system, it can also predispose cats to deadly infections. Yet, exposure to the feline leukemia virus doesn’t have to be a death sentence; about 70% of cats who encounter the virus are able to resist infection or eliminate the virus on their own.
Ark Animal Hospital recommends all kittens be screened for FeLV as well as any adult cats who have not been tested before, regardless of lifestyle.Outdoor cats or any cat at increased risk for these viruses should be tested annually. Knowing your cat’s viral status is very important as it may affect your cat’s ability to fight disease and infection should they ever become sick.
Fecal (Stool Sample) Testing- Annual preventative care testing.
Fecal testing screens your cat for various intestinal parasites such as Roundworms, Hookworms, Whipworms, Tapeworms, Coccidia and Giardia. These parasites are contracted through fecal-oral ingestion by a number of ways including grooming, contaminated soil, and contaminated water. Other ways they can be contracted is ingestion of rodents or fleas. Intestinal parasites can cause diarrhea, vomiting, lethargy, inappetence and weight loss. Kittens are especially sensitive to intestinal parasites and they can make them very sick very quickly. All kittens should have their stool tested for parasites when they first come in to see us along with a second follow up test at some point before completing their kitten vaccination series. Prophylactic deworming for common parasites in kittens is also performed even in the event of a negative fecal test. We recommend all adult cats have their stool tested at least once yearly even for indoor-only cats.
Internal and External Parasite Prevention
Cats are just as susceptible to internal and external parasites as dogs are such as roundworms, hookworms, tapeworms, whipworms, giardia, coccida, fleas, ticks, ear mites, and even heartworm. At Ark Animal Hospital we recommend monthly prevention for all cats, but especially for those cats that routinely go outdoors. |
It looks like flour but it's not. Potato starch is part of the starch family and comes in the form of a very fine white powder. Odourless, gluten-free and very precious in the kitchen, potato starch is used in sweet leavened preparations, such as muffins, sponge cakes, cakes and donuts, but also to thicken sauces and gravies.
As the name suggests, potato starch is obtained from the versatile tuber from which the starch is extracted, dried and crushed until it forms a very fine white powder. Made up mostly of carbohydrates and a small percentage of proteins, potato starch is characterized by a high ability to absorb liquids, thus making it an excellent thickener. However, in the kitchen it is used above all for its ability to give a soft and fluffy consistency to leavened preparations.
Before being brought to Europe at the end of the 15th century, the potato was known, cultivated and widespread in South America, and the tradition of using starch in food preparations also comes from there. Thanks to its properties and neutral flavor which makes it a champion of versatility, starch today has a place of honor among the most used starches in Europe. In particular, potato starch contains amylopectin, a sugar that helps regulate intestinal activity and is also a useful food for facilitating energy recovery after intense competitive activity thanks to the simple sugars of which it is composed. It also offers benefits in skin care, regulating sebum production and performing a soothing action.
As mentioned before, potato starch is mainly used in cooking where it can replace other ingredients. For example, thanks to its thickening capacity it can be used in place of eggs, using a dosage of approximately two tablespoons of starch for each egg, or it can be used in place of wheat flour to accelerate the leavening of sweet and savory dough. Thanks to its characteristics and the neutrality of its flavour, potato starch is therefore a very versatile ingredient in the kitchen, which is well suited to being used in different preparations, from sauces to savory pies through to puddings and custards.
However, potato starch is not only suitable for culinary use, but is also an excellent ally for beauty and personal care. In fact, with the addition of water and almond oil it can be used to prepare a nourishing mask for chapped face and hands, or it can be mixed with powder to make it mattifying and eliminate the annoying shiny effect on the T-zone of the face.
In short, potato starch - in the Ar.pa Lieviti catalog for many years - represents an almost 360° resource not only for giving the right consistency to preparations but also for taking care of your body. |
The Educational Situation of Migrants and Ethnic Minorities in 15 EU Member States in Comparative Perspective
By Mikael Luciak
University of Vienna, Austria
A recent comparative study(1), which the author conducted on behalf of the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC), focused, among other issues, on the following questions: Are there equal chances for all ethnic groups in the EU Member States’ educational institutions or do migrants and ethnic minorities experience inequality and discrimination? What do we know about minorities’ educational achievements and is it feasible to make comparisons between different countries on this issue? The study is based on country reports delivered from so-called National Focal Points that are part of a network called RAXEN (Racism and Xenophobia in Europe), established by the EUMC. It highlights dissimilarities between the Member States regarding their ethnic composition and their different methods of data collection and illustrates that there is a lack of significant current data, which limits the development of objective, reliable, and comparable information on these topics. However, study results also yield meaningful general conclusions and clear mandates for further research.
Issues of Comparability
Problems in comparing the minority populations’ educational situation arise for various reasons. The main difficulties regarding comparability across countries evolve from the fact that in the Member States there are:
- Different types of ethnic minority groups;
- Different terms and categories that are used for collecting data on migrants and ethnic minorities in the field of education;
- Differences regarding the availability of data; Different educational systems.
Types of Ethnic Minority Groups
Minority groups in the Member States vary in ethnicity, size, and status. Circumstances, how majority and minority populations initially came in contact with each other and the treatment of minority groups in the respective countries differ. Some Member States have a substantial ethnic minority population due to their colonial past (e.g. France, UK, the Netherlands). There, many of the minority members have attained citizenship. In other countries the presence of minorities is mostly due to recruitment of so-called «guest-workers» in the second half of last century (e.g. Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Luxembourg, Sweden). These countries have significant populations of non-nationals but also of descendants who have acquired citizenship in their new country of residence. Several countries – some of which used to be countries of emigration – experience more recent immigration (e.g. Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Finland, Ireland).
While the absolute increase of school enrolment of migrants and minorities depends on immigration, some countries with little new immigration still show a relative increase of these groups among the school population, which in part is caused by lower birth rates among the majority populations.
Depending on each country’s specific situation, there are also indigenous groups or different national, autochthonous or linguistic minorities that have lived in the respective countries or specific territories for centuries. Thus, among the different types of ethnic minority groups in the Member States are:
- Indigenous groups (e.g. the SE1mi in Finland and Sweden or the Travellers in Ireland);
- National, autochthonous or linguistic minorities (e.g. Roma, who live in many countries);
- Ethnic minorities from former colonies (e.g. minority groups from North African countries in France or from Asian countries in the UK and the Netherlands);
- Labour migrants and descendants (e.g. from Turkey, and former Yugoslavia);
- Refugees and asylum-seekers (from various countries depending on regional conflicts and political turmoil);
- Repatriated groups or returned migrants (e.g. in Greece or Portugal).
Terms and Categories for Collecting Data
The countries of the European Union use different terms and categories for collecting data on migrants and ethnic minorities in the field of education. These criteria effect how data is collected for educational enrolment or achievement and determine, who receives what kind of services.
Most countries distinguish students according to citizenship or nationality. These countries are Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, and Spain. Collecting data according to these categories has the result that naturalized citizens or members of the second or third generation with a foreign background, who were granted citizenship at birth, no longer are recorded separately from the countries’ majority group. As a consequence, depending on each country’s situation, a smaller or larger group of students with a foreign background «disappears» from the statistics. Furthermore, in all countries, with the exception of Germany, data on university students do not differentiate between foreign students, who came to the country for the sole purpose of studying, and foreign nationals, who permanently live in the country.
If distinctions are not made according to ethnicity, data on the schooling situation of specific ethnic groups (e.g. Roma, Kurds, etc.) is not recorded. However, some countries also collect data on the students’ primary language and thus at times indirectly record data on particular ethnic groups.
There are great variations regarding the size of the student populations with foreign citizenship in the Member States. For example, in primary education there are countries with 2-4% enrolment of students with a foreign citizenship (e.g. Italy, Spain, Finland), others with 10-15% (e.g. Austria, the French Community in Belgium, Germany) or Luxembourg, which has 38%. Great differences also exist in absolute numbers. In recent school years there were more than 350.000 foreign students in primary schools in Germany (four years duration) and in France (five years duration) but less than 15.000 in Luxembourg (six years duration) and in Finland (nine years basic compulsory school).
Some countries use other categories than citizenship, such as immigrants and descendants, bilingual students, students with a foreign background, students with non-native ethnic background, or ethnic minority students.
Education statistics in Denmark distinguish between «immigrants» from different countries and «descendants» A person born outside of Denmark is an immigrant, if both parents are foreign citizens or born outside of Denmark. A person born in Denmark is a descendent if none of the parents living in the country are Danish citizens. These students, regardless of being immigrants or descendants, may or may not be Danish citizens. The term «bilingual students», which is another category used in data collections, is not used strictly according to its definition. Descendants with little knowledge of their parents’ mother tongue are called bilingual students in the same way as newcomers, who do not speak Danish.
In Greece, the term «immigrants» refers to either foreign immigrants with another ethnicity or to ethnic Greek immigrants, who have returned to Greece from other countries. Their citizenship status varies.
The Netherlands collects data on students with «non-Dutch ethnic background», independent of citizenship status. Different terms, such as «ethnic minorities» or «cultural minorities» as well as «allochtonen» are used interchangeably. An ethnic minority student is defined as someone, who was born in one of the target group countries or someone, who has at least one parent born in a target group country, a country from which most emigrants tend to be socially disadvantaged. Since not all countries of origin are regarded as criteria for disadvantage, certain countries have been selected as «target» countries (e.g. Turkey, Morocco, Surinam, Netherlands Antilles, etc.) The definition of target groups is part of the policy on disadvantaged peoples, for whom an extra school budget is made available for overcoming learning lags.
Portugal uses the category «cultural groups and nationalities», to collect data on students of various foreign nationalities, returned emigrants, and Roma.
Sweden collects data on «students with foreign background,» differentiated by countries of origin. This category includes students born to foreign parents in Sweden and students born abroad.
The U.K. distinguishes groups according to «ethnicity». However, the categories used for ethnic data monitoring since 2003 refer to skin colour and geographic origin (i.e. regions or countries) rather than to ethnicity. The main categories used are White, Mixed, Asian or Asian British, Chinese, Black or Black British, and Any Other Ethnic Background. Each main category has subcategories. For example, for the category «White» the subcategories are White British, White Irish, Traveller of Irish heritage, Gypsy/Roma, Greek/Greek Cypriot, Turkish/Turkish Cypriot and White European.
Categorisations of groups according to foreign or ethnic background do not always allow distinction between recent immigrants and members of established ethnic minority groups. It is thus more difficult to analyse certain developments such as educational achievements of groups over time.
Some countries also collect separate data on indigenous or national, autochthonous minorities. There are substantial numbers of Roma students in several countries (e.g. Spain, Portugal, Greece) and other particularly large groups such as the Swedish-speaking minority in Finland, the Finnish minority in Sweden, the Muslim minority in Greece, or Travellers in Ireland.
In view of the different ethnic minority groups in the Member States and of the non-standardized methods of collecting data on these groups, it becomes rather difficult to arrive at meaningful comparisons of aggregate data on migrants and ethnic minorities. Even an assessment of the same ethnic minority or nationality group in different countries is at times complicated, because not all countries make the same differentiations.
Another circumstance that hampers comparability of data is the fact that education systems in the Member States vary considerably. There are countries where schooling starts at age four (e.g. Ireland) and others where it starts at age seven (e.g. Sweden). In some countries, students transfer to different school types after four years of primary school (e.g. Austria), while in others basic comprehensive schooling lasts nine years (e.g. Finland). Some countries have less variation of secondary school types, while in others (e.g. Sweden) students may choose between a great variety of different tracks and specialisations. Depending on each country’s school system, aggregate data on migrants and ethnic minorities exists for a different number of years of consecutive schooling (e.g. four years of primary schooling in Germany or nine years of compulsory schooling in Denmark). All countries collect data on minority student enrolments at different educational levels but only a few (e.g. United Kingdom) also collect data on school completion rates.
Educational provisions for migrants and ethnic minorities vary in the EU Member States. Among these provisions are language programs (native language and second language instruction), culture of origin courses, reception programs for newcomers, and compensatory education. Native language instruction, which has been recognised by many experts as fostering the language development of both, the native language as well as the language of the country of immigration, is not offered to all minorities in all Member States. Programs of second language instruction are not always lead by appropriately educated and well-trained staff. In addition, there are differences regarding the integration of intercultural approaches to teaching. School textbooks and curricula do not always depict the countries’ ethnic diversity appropriately.
Despite the lack of comparability of data across countries, general trends can be derived from the interpretation of data on educational enrolment and achievement, as well as from reports about specific phenomena faced by migrants and ethnic minorities. These include segregation, exclusion, limited access to certain educational institutions, unequal treatment, verbalized prejudice, harassment by teachers and peers, as well as violence.
Inequality, Discrimination, and Racism in the Field of Education
Enrolment and achievement data frequently show an overrepresentation of migrant and ethnic minority groups in educational institutions with lower academic demands, an overrepresentation in special education, as well as disproportional early dropout and expulsion rates. Given the lack of research in this area, it is rather difficult to assess the extent to which educational underachievement of migrants and ethnic minority groups can be traced back to forms of discrimination. Many factors influence their educational attainment, e.g. language competency, socio-economic factors, parents’ educational background, and cultural values. Still, among signs of discriminatory attitudes and practices are that minority students are faced with low teacher expectations, assignment to special education for reasons other than disability, placement in lower than age-appropriate grades, and restricted admittance into more prestigious or private institutions. In addition, disadvantages exist when there is a lack of or low quality of compensatory programs, a lack of effective language programs and of specifically trained language teachers, a lack of intercultural curricula and minority education programs as well as a lack of religious pluralism.
Differentiated data shows that great differences exist in achievements between various migrant and ethnic minority groups. While some ethnic groups achieve significantly above average results or even outperform majority students on some educational levels, others are very much behind. For example, in England, students with Chinese and Indian backgrounds have higher achievements than White majority students, while Black students (the group also most likely to be excluded from school), or students with Pakistani and Bangladeshi backgrounds achieve below average.
Despite overall lower success ratings for educational attainment, there are positive developments reported by some countries regarding the starting performance of students with foreign backgrounds (e.g. in the Netherlands). Second-generation migrants, in many cases, do better than new immigrants. Studies also show that these students often attain higher educational levels than their parents (e.g. in Germany). Across all ethnic groups, female students tend to achieve better than males.
PISA study results of students’ reading, mathematical and scientific literacy skills show that in most countries, native students perform better than students with a foreign background (born in the country or abroad).(2) Results from Ireland, indicating that non-native students surpass the average score of native students, as well as from Denmark and Belgium, indicating that non-native students perform better than native-born students with a foreign background, have to be treated with caution because of small and unreliable study samples. In order to draw better evidence-based conclusions, the collection of more differentiated quantitative data as well as qualitative research on educational achievement of migrants and minorities in the Member States is needed.
Reports on non-migrant ethnic minority groups (national, autochthonous or linguistic minorities) show underachievement in education of several groups, among them Roma (and Sinti) in several countries, Travellers in Ireland and Northern Ireland, or the Muslim minority in Greece. The reasons for the lower academic achievement of these groups vary and are manifold. For some groups, e.g. the SE1mi and the Swedish-speaking Finns in Finland or the SE1mi and the Swedish Finns in Sweden, very little data on achievement was supplied.
Overall, there is a lack of research and data concerning the reasons for the educational underachievement of non-migrant ethnic minority groups. It seems fair to say that in many cases, a history of social exclusion, assimilationist tendencies, and a monocultural orientation in education lead to distrust in the educational system and to low expectations about the benefits of educational attainment. Since a large proportion of the groups’ older generation has not met basic educational standards, it has been problematic to increase the educational attainment of the younger generation. Some consider schooling of their children even as harmful since, in their view, it deprives children of their family and socializes them into different cultural values and norms. The socio-economic differences between many national minorities and the majority of the population in the Member States are still considerable. This creates not only problems relating to education, but also to other aspects such as employment and housing, which also negatively influence the educational situation of these groups.
The EU Member States report various acts of discrimination and racism in the area of education. For example, there are reports about segregation of minorities in special «minority classes» or about exclusion and harassment for cultural reasons (e.g. for wearing a headscarf). However, the reported incidences are not a reliable indicator of their actual frequency of occurrence. Instead, countries with a better functioning reporting system are likely to report more cases than others. Significant differences exist in the EU Member States regarding the existence of legislative measures to combat ethnic discrimination, racism, and inequalities. Some countries have specific anti-discrimination or equal treatment legislation pertaining to the field of education, such as Ireland, the Netherlands, Portugal, the United Kingdom, or Sweden (in higher education). Other countries lack explicit legislation on this matter or are currently proposing to introduce new laws in accordance with Directive 2000/43/EC(3). The same is true for monitoring bodies, which are implemented in some countries to oversee the laws on anti-discrimination and to record incidents of discrimination and racism. Such bodies may be official and state-organised, or unofficial and run by NGOs.
It can be concluded that there is a lack of comprehensive and comparable data on the educational situation of migrants and ethnic minorities in the EU Member States. In order to better understand the situation of minorities in education, the availability, the scope, and the quality of data has to be increased. This pertains to data on educational enrolment and achievement, as well as to the monitoring of acts of discrimination and racism. Also, there is a need for more qualitative (ethnographic) research on the variability in educational performance of minority groups.
In spite of various support programs (e.g. reception programs, native language and second language programs), of efforts to introduce new curricula to suit the needs of a multicultural student body, as well as of integration and anti-discrimination initiatives, inequalities continue to persist to a great extent. On the one hand, one needs to gain a good understanding of the particularities of each education system in order to better understand the relevance of the unequal distribution of migrants and ethnic minorities in the different school types and tracks, their lower educational attainments and earlier dropout rates. On the other hand, further research will be necessary to understand which factors determine the differences in educational achievement between different ethnic groups.
Aside from primary language and cultural differences as well as differences caused by the varying socio-economic conditions for different groups, discriminatory practices and unequal power relationships between the majority populations and minority groups negatively influence the educational attainment of minorities. Lasting experiences of discrimination may result in distrust in the education system by members of these groups. Such negative relations and prejudice may also interfere with communication between teachers and students, teachers and parents, as well as between peers of different ethnicities.
Other factors, which complicate the motivation to achieve and to integrate, may be rooted in uncertainties, such as whether migrants expect to stay in their new country of residence. The motivation to achieve may also be affected by cultural perceptions of what it takes to make it in the receiving society. An important consideration is, whether integration into the majority culture is believed to actually lead to advancement rather than to barriers such as unequal chances in the employment area.
Necessary steps have to be taken, which go beyond the mere introduction of language programs for minorities or multicultural curricula. Minority members not only have to believe that their efforts to attain higher levels of education will actually pay off, but they also must experience that the pledge for equal treatment becomes a reality in all areas of society.
(1) Comparative Study On Education – Measures of Discrimination and Integration of Migrants and Ethnic Minorities in the Field of Education in the 15 Member States of the European Union. Study on behalf of the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC), Vienna, October 2003.
(2) OECD (2001), Knowledge and Skills for Life. First Results from the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2000;
(3) Council Directive 2000/43/EC of June 29, 2000, implementing the principle of equal treatment on grounds of racial and ethnic origin.
© Mikael Luciak (University of Vienna, Austria) |
Over the last few years, self-care has become an important value in our nation. Many people have recognized that it is important to take time to rest their bodies and refresh their minds. Self-care looks different for everyone depending on the season of life they are in. For dental hygienists, there are many unique ways to practice self-care in a way that truly refreshes your mind. By taking a small amount of time daily or weekly to prioritize self-care, you will see huge benefits in your overall well being.
As a dental hygienist, you interface with clients all day long. You are constantly working with your hands and your feet. When you are working in the dental industry, you are constantly taking care of other people. It is necessary that you take time to care for yourself. There are a few factors to consider when determining the best method of self-care for yourself. In this article, we will talk about the important aspects to any self-care ritual.
In the dental industry, day-to-day functions are usually noisy and busy. After a long day of busyness, take some time to rest mentally. There is no formula for proper meditation; just take time to be still. Close your eyes, rest your head. Consider how you feel. When you meditate, bring awareness to your mind and your body. Allow yourself to be present in the moment. Practicing breathing deeply and allowing calmness to sweep over your body. You can practice mediation for five minutes on your lunch break or thirty minutes in the evening!
The dental industry can sometimes take a toll on your physical condition. When working with patients, you spend hours bending over, standing up, squatting, and maintaining all sorts of awkward positions. This motion can cause many aches and pains throughout your body. Having a regular appointment to get a massage could cause your body to remain in better condition. Many dental hygienists believe that massage therapy plays a huge roll in their health and wellness.
Getting a good night of sleep is a crucial component of overall wellbeing. When your body is not getting an adequate amount of sleep, you will suffer both physically and mentally. If you begin to feel burnt out or exhausted, evaluate the average amount of sleep you get each night. If you have been struggling to fall asleep or wake up in the mornings, consider what may be contributing to your discomfort. Are you drinking coffee in the afternoons? Have you been falling asleep looking at your phone? There are many factors that may be contributing to poor sleep.
Exercise is a common form of self-care for many individuals. When participating in regular exercise, many people feel increased mental clarity. Sometimes, exercise allows people to clear their thoughts and release built-up stress and tension within the body. Find a form of exercise that you enjoy! Do you enjoy dancing? Have you considered taking up yoga? If you enjoy being outdoors, a simple walk or job may increase your mental clarity! There are some forms of exercise that are specifically recommended to address some of the issues in the dental industry. The specific exercises recommended are ones that strengthen your body in ways that make it easier to complete your day to day activities.
Time with Friends
In the dental industry, you are spending every day caring for the needs of the people around you. It is important to have times when your needs are cared for. Time with loved ones is important for mental health. When you spend time with loved ones, you will be able to have fun and enjoy yourself. In addition to enjoying yourself, your friends will be able to care for you. In order to pour out your energy into other people all day, you need someone to be pouring care into you.
Maintaining a healthy mental and physical state is crucial to your overall well being. Working in the dental industry can be exhausting. After being on your feet and helping patients all day, it is important to invest in yourself! Whether you enjoy walking and listening to music or getting a massage, figure out a practice that refreshes you. When you rest your body and refresh your mind, you are less likely to suffer from burnout. |
The UK Treasury has reprieved 1p and 2p coins, saying they will continue to be used “for years to come”.
The copper coins were theoretically under threat when Chancellor Philip Hammond consulted on the current mix of coins and banknotes in circulation.
The chancellor has now said he wants people to “have a choice” over how they spend their money.
He has also set up a group to oversee the cash system, ensuring everyone can get hold of their money in cash.
The Treasury has estimated that 2.2 million people in the UK are reliant on cash, particularly the elderly, vulnerable, and those living in rural areas.
An independent review of cash published in March suggested that banknotes and coins were a necessity for eight million people.
Why were these coins under threat?
Cash use has been falling dramatically in recent years. In 2017, debit card use – driven by contactless payments – overtook the number of payments made in cash in the UK for the first time.
However, there were still nearly 241 million 1p coins minted that year and nearly 17 million 2p coins produced.
Surveys have suggested six in 10 of UK 1p and 2p coins are only used once before being put in a jar or discarded, while one in 12 is thrown into a bin. The rising cost of living has also eaten away at their value. In effect, the 1p coin is now worth less than the halfpenny when it was abolished in 1984.
In his Spring Statement in 2018, the chancellor’s call for views on the mix of notes and coins appeared to pave the way for the end of 1p and 2p coins, as well as the future of £50 notes, once described as the “currency of corrupt elites, of crime of all sorts and of tax evasion”.
A swift reverse by the Prime Minister’s official spokesman declared there were no plans to scrap the copper coins. A later announcement of a plastic redesign for the £50 note also confirmed the survival of the Bank of England’s highest value note.
However, the consultation continued, with the government’s final view unknown until now.
Why the reprieve?
Many countries – including Canada, the home of the current Bank of England governor Mark Carney – have ditched their low denomination coins. Australia, Brazil, and Sweden are among many others to do so.
However, the chancellor was accused of being a “penny pincher” by opposition parties when the consultation on the UK’s mix of coins was launched, prompting 10 Downing Street’s intervention.
Mr Hammond said that the decision to leave the current mix of notes and coins unchanged was a matter of public freedom.
“It is clear that many people still rely on cash and I want the public to have a choice over how they spend the money,” he said.
The decision was welcomed by the trade body for small businesses, which has consistently called for the status quo.
“Keeping 1p and 2p coins in circulation is the right call,” said Mike Cherry, national chairman of the Federation for Small Businesses.
“The freedom to use pennies is still important to a lot of small firms. For many, being able to charge prices that end in 99p rather than a round pound figure can be enough to tip intrigue into a sale, particularly where lower-value items are concerned.” |
Understanding how to test humidity in room is crucial for maintaining a healthy and comfortable living environment. Whether youre a homeowner or a real estate developer, managing indoor humidity levels is vital for the well-being of occupants and the longevity of the property. Controlling humidity helps prevent issues such as mold growth, structural damage, and poor indoor air quality.
What is Humidity?
Humidity refers to the amount of moisture present in the air. It is typically measured as a percentage, known as relative humidity (RH). High RH can create a damp atmosphere, while low RH can lead to dryness and discomfort.
Why Testing Humidity is Important
Testing humidity helps in maintaining the optimal levels that ensure comfort and health. Proper humidity control also supports water conservation and enhances building quality.
Excessive humidity promotes mold growth, which can pose serious health risks. Keeping an eye on humidity levels can prevent mold and its associated problems.
High humidity can weaken building materials over time, leading to costly repairs. Regular humidity checks help in identifying potential issues before they escalate.
Methods to Test Humidity
Using a Hygrometer
A hygrometer is a device designed to measure humidity. It provides accurate readings and is a common tool for homeowners. Digital hygrometers are particularly popular due to their ease of use.
Smart Home Devices
Many modern smart home devices, such as thermostats and air quality monitors, include humidity sensors. These devices often connect to your smartphone, allowing you to monitor your home’s humidity remotely.
A psychrometer measures humidity by using a wet-bulb and dry-bulb thermometer. This method is more traditional and requires manual calculation but is still effective.
Factors Affecting Room Humidity
External weather conditions significantly impact indoor humidity. Homes in humid climates generally face higher indoor moisture levels.
Proper ventilation helps control indoor humidity by allowing moisture-laden air to escape and fresh air to enter. Inadequate ventilation can lead to high humidity and related issues.
Common household activities, such as cooking and showering, can increase indoor humidity. Using exhaust fans and venting appliances can mitigate these effects.
Optimal Humidity Levels
The ideal relative humidity for indoor environments generally ranges between 30% and 50%. Maintaining these levels provides comfort, preserves the structure, and promotes a healthy living space.
Humidity Control Tips
- Use dehumidifiers in high-humidity areas.
- Implement proper ventilation techniques.
- Regularly check and clean HVAC systems.
Measuring With Technology
Advancements in technology have made it easier than ever to monitor and control indoor humidity. Devices like smart thermostats and all-in-one air quality monitors provide real-time data and insights.
These devices not only control temperature but also monitor and adjust humidity levels to keep your home comfortable.
Air Quality Monitors
Comprehensive air quality monitors can measure various parameters, including humidity, giving you a complete picture of your indoor environment.
Ice Cube Test
Place a few ice cubes in a glass and wait a few minutes. If condensation forms on the outside of the glass, it indicates high humidity. If not, the air is likely dry.
Sponge and Scale Test
Weigh a dry sponge, then moisten it and weigh again. The weight difference can give you a rough estimate of the air’s humidity.
Improving Indoor Air Quality
Maintaining the right humidity contributes to better indoor air quality. Clean and maintain HVAC systems, use air purifiers, and ensure proper ventilation for a healthier home.
Keep your heating and cooling systems in top shape with regular check-ups and cleaning. This helps in efficient humidity control.
Use of Plants
Houseplants can naturally regulate humidity levels and improve air quality. Consider adding plants like peace lilies or ferns for best results.
Testing and controlling indoor humidity levels is essential for creating a comfortable and healthy home. By understanding the methods and tools available, you can take proactive steps to manage humidity effectively. Investing in modern technology, such as smart thermostats and air quality monitors, can simplify this task, ensuring your home remains a haven of comfort and health.
What is the ideal humidity level for a home?
The ideal relative humidity level for a home is typically between 30% and 50%.
How often should I test the humidity in my home?
It’s advisable to test your home’s humidity levels at least once a season or whenever you notice changes in comfort or indoor air quality.
Can high humidity damage my home?
Yes, high humidity can lead to mold growth, damage to building materials, and poor indoor air quality, which can affect both your health and your home’s structural integrity.
For more insights on managing humidity, visit Indoor Humidity Level.
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The United States Marine Corps is most commonly referred to as the United States Marines or the USMC. It’s a branch of the United States Armed Forces.
The US Marine Corp conduct amphibious operations, in league with the Navy (another US military branch). The Marines, Navy, Army, and the Airforce are the four branches that make up the US Department of Defense.
The original two battalions of the Marine Corp were formed in November of 1775. It happened on the tenth day of the month, which is why the Marine Corps birthday is celebrated on November 10 of each year.
They were formed in Philadelphia, as a needed branch of service that could fight on the shore and at sea. They became an integral part of the Navy June 30, 1834.
Once the Marine Corps Birthday was officially established it was time for something to be done about it. That would mean lots of pomp and circumstance. The military isn’t all about war and guns, it’s about being part of something you can be proud of.
Why the USMC Birthday Is Celebrated
It actually wasn’t until late October in 1921 that a Major suggested the Marine Corp celebrate the day this branch of the military was “born”. Major McClellan created a memorandum addressed to Commandant Lejeune.
Lejeune would then be the person that penned Order 47. This order described the Marines, their history, and would lead to a yearly celebration.
Why wouldn’t any branch of the military want to celebrate the creation of their group’s birthday? It’s a chance to be reminded of why the US Military exists. It’s a chance for Marines to celebrate more than just a war victory or surviving a deployment.
How the Marine Corp Celebrates Their Birthday
This isn’t just a boring party, it’s a birthday celebration. The Marines make November 10 a day of major celebration.
In 1925 the Marines celebrated their birthday with the first of their annual formal balls. Following that initial day of partying and pageantry, the birthday “parties” would be varied. There may be a dance, live music, mock battles like you’d see at a reenactment, and even sporting events.
In 1952 some major changes were made that created a more standard celebration for November 10. The formal ceremony would have a cake cutting. The first piece of the cake would go to the oldest Marine at the party. They would then pass it to the youngest one as a representation of the knowledge they’d pass to the new generation of soldiers.
The original order is read each year. They still often have a banquet and even some dancing. Pageants are also common. In these, current uniforms and historical ones are modeled on display to celebrate the history of the Marine Corp.
When Celebrations Aren’t Jovial
Not all celebrations of the Marine Corps Birthday are about cake cutting and dancing. It is said that Marines celebrate this birthday no matter where they are, which could be in the middle of a war. There isn’t anything happy about war.
Traditions like this may make it easier to get through war though. It offers the soldiers a chance to feel like it’s a normal day.
Another common, sadder, tradition on the USMC Birthday is a visit to Samuel Nicholas’s grave. Nicholas had a part in founding the Marines. Visits to his cemetery plot at the Arch Street Friends Meeting graveyard, which is located in Philadelphia, are scheduled. At dawn, a wreath is placed on his grave.
This day also offers another ideal time to look back at the Marines that have been lost. It’s very likely that celebrations have a moment of silence where men and woman of the USMC can take some time to remember and honor their fallen comrades.
How You Can Celebrate the USMC Birthday
The Marine Corps Birthday isn’t a holiday that the general public celebrates. If someone in your family is or has been a member of the Marines, you may want to celebrate. You could honor them in your own way, whether they’re living or dead.
The general public can take some extra initiative on this day to thank a soldier, Marine or not. It is because of the branches of the military in the US that people have the freedoms they have here. While it shouldn’t take a special day to thank them, why not use it anyway.
If you’re a Marine, this is an important day. Even if you can’t attend one of the formal parties with a cake cutting, take some time to be proud of the work you do. Remember those that have done before you. |
September 9, 2024
Certain heart rate ranges can be considered dangerous and pose significant health risks. Our heart rate, or pulse, can vary significantly based on activity levels, stress, and overall health. While occasional fluctuations are normal, persistent deviations from the norm can indicate underlying issues. In this blog post, we will discuss what is considered a normal heart rate, how to identify when it becomes dangerous, and what you should do if you find yourself outside the safe zone.
The frequency of human heart contraction is the number of times the heart beats every minute (BPM). It is a vital indicator of cardiovascular health and overall fitness, influenced by factors such as age, fitness level, and emotional state.
For most adults, a resting heart rate typically falls between 60 and 100 bpm. This range may be affected by things like:
Stress, exercise, and sleep affect the heart rate normally. After a period of activity, it should gradually return to its resting level.
A heart rate that is persistently too high or too low can signal potential health problems. Here's a closer look at what constitutes dangerous heart rates:
Definition: A tachycardia is characterized by a resting heart rate of more than 100 beats per minute.
Risks: Persistent tachycardia can lead to complications such as heart failure, stroke, or sudden cardiac arrest, especially if it's due to an underlying heart condition.
Definition: Bradycardia is described as a resting heart rate of less than 60 beats per minute.
Risks: Severe bradycardia can result in dizziness, fatigue, and fainting. The condition can lead to sudden cardiac arrest or heart failure in severe cases.
It's important to note that occasional changes in heart rate are usually not a cause for concern. However, if you experience any of the following symptoms alongside abnormal heart rates, it's wise to seek medical advice:
Keeping an eye on your heartbeat can assist in avoiding potential heart issues. Many fitness trackers and smartwatches come equipped with heart rate monitors, making it easier to keep an eye on your numbers. Both high and low heart rates can put immense strain on the cardiovascular system and, if left untreated, significantly increase the risk of heart attack, stroke, and other life-threatening complications. Additionally, knowing how to measure your pulse manually (by checking your wrist or neck) can be useful.
Your heart rate provides valuable insights into your overall health and fitness. While occasional variations are normal, consistently high or low heart rates may indicate a more serious issue. By understanding what constitutes a normal versus a dangerous heart rate, you can better assess your health and seek timely medical intervention if needed. Remember, if you have any concerns about your heart rate or overall cardiovascular health, consulting with a healthcare professional is always the best course of action. |
September 14, 2022
Guide dogs are born to work. They love their jobs and they are capable of doing so many amazing things. Not only do they help their blind and visually impaired partners, but they also touch and change the lives of pretty much everyone they meet.
Their journey begins well before they are born. Many guide dog schools have their own breeding programs; selecting the best of the best for their breeding colony. Guide dog puppies must be healthy, outgoing, adventurous, hard to distract and have the confidence to try new (and sometimes strange or scary) things.
At Guide Dogs for the Blind (GDB), the puppies start their training when they are just a few days old. The puppies are born at GDB’s campus, located in San Rafael, California. In the first few weeks of their life, the puppies have the opportunity to explore and encounter many new and exciting things. They learn how to walk on a leash, climb stairs, travel through tunnels, walk on different surfaces, and become familiar with common objects they will encounter on a daily basis (i.e. vacuums, brooms, and mops).
When the puppies are about six to eight weeks old, they will leave the campus and move into their temporary home with a puppy raiser. Puppy raisers are selfless individuals who care for and nurture a guide dog puppy for the next year of their life. Puppy raisers lead such individual and unique lives, there is no set rule on what type of environment the dog will grow up in. Some puppy raisers may work full-time in an office setting, work in healthcare, be a teacher and some may even be retired and/or not work at all. They can be high school or college students, have kids, not have kids, have pets, have no other pets or any number of scenarios. The lifestyles can vary, but they all have at least one thing in common, they will expose their puppies to many different experiences and obstacles that will help them succeed as future guide dogs.
The puppy raisers work with the puppy on basic obedience, house training, maintaining excellent house manners and how to properly behave in public. When a puppy is wearing its puppy coat (a fabric vest) it signifies that the puppy is working and must remain calm and focused on their training. Puppy raisers help build the puppy’s confidence by exposing them to new situations/experiences on a daily basis.
When the puppies are between 14-17 months old, they will return to the guide dog school to begin their formal training. To many puppy raisers, this is akin to sending your child off to college. It’s a bittersweet moment for everyone to say goodbye to the puppies, but knowing they will go off to do amazing things is a comfort to their puppy raisers.
At Guide Dog College, the pups will learn to obey guide work commands, walk in harness, back up, stop to alert their trainer of obstacles or changes in elevation and so much more. The dogs will also learn how to safely navigate around cars and through traffic. They also learn to disobey a command if it puts them or their handler in danger. This training takes an average of 8-12 weeks. Once the dog is fully trained, they will be matched with someone who is blind or visually impaired.
Some dogs may decide (at any point in their training) that the life of a guide dog is not for them. These dogs may be placed with another service dog organization to assist individuals with other disabilities or illnesses. If a dog is not well-suited for working, they will often return to live (as a pet) with the family that raised them. Many guide dog schools have a long list of people looking to adopt a dog that is no longer interested in or qualified to be a guide dog.
Training is rigorous, but after the dog passes their final exams, they will meet their blind handler. The newly matched pair will train together for two to four weeks and will learn to communicate and develop a good working relationship with each other. They will travel at least two pre-planned routes per day, safely cross busy intersections and locate destinations. The dog is the guide; the handler gives the dog commands and determines which path is best to travel and what direction to go. The training is very individualized, primarily focusing on the student’s lifestyle and daily tasks. Some of the environments may include:
- Residential streets
- Streets without sidewalks
- Busy and crowded cities
- College campuses
- Riding buses and transit trains
- Inside office buildings and stores
Some schools offer a graduation/celebration day at the end of training. On this day, the handler may be able to meet to guide dog’s puppy raiser. After the completion of training, the new team will travel home to resume their normal lifestyle. It may take several months for the team to work out all the kinks and form a strong bond and working relationship.
The current working career of a guide dog is between six and eight years. Thus, a guide dog will typically retire between eight and ten years old. Of course, this is only the average; many dogs can and do work much longer. Some dogs may develop health issues and may need to stop working and a dog may also need to retire early (most commonly due to stress/anxiety).
My first guide, Pascal had to retire at the age of seven due to extreme stress in certain environments. His fears made it impossible for him to safely guide me. He worked almost six years, and he has immensely enjoyed his retirement for the past seven years. He just turned 15 in early September.
Once a dog retires, their handler may decide to keep them as a pet. They may also choose to give the dog to a friend or family member. If that’s not possible, the dog can return to live with their puppy raisers or be adopted out by the school.
We hope that you enjoyed this special guide dog blog and encourage you to follow along all month as we celebrate National Guide Dog Month.
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Fresh Squeeze: Brain Game
Cognitive training brain game
Play "Fresh Squeeze" online and boost your cognitive abilities
Get access to this scientific brain training resource
Challenge your brain
Fresh Squeeze is an online brain training game . In order to advance through the levels of this game, the user will have to locate the indicated number of pipes for the liquid to reach the monster's mouth. As you progress through the levels, you'll be using more parts of your brain and the cognitive challenge will be even greater.
As you advance and help improve your cognitive skills trained in this online brain game, it will advance with you Fresh Squeeze is a scientific resource designed to constantly measure performance and automatically regulate the difficulty to ensure that the user is getting the most out of each training session. The mind game Fresh Squeeze is appropriate for children and adults and can help improve essential cognitive skills.
How can the brain game "Fresh Squeeze" improve your cognitive abilities?
Training with brain games like Fresh Squeeze stimulates specific neural patterns. The repetition of this pattern through consistent training can help improve the creation of new synapses and neural circuits capable of reorganizing and recovering damaged or weakened cognitive functions
This brain game can be played by anyone looking to test and improve their cognitive performance.
Neural Connections CogniFit
Which cognitive skills can you train with the online brain game "Fresh Squeeze"?
The cognitive skills that this game trains are:
- Spatial Perception: In this brain game Fresh Squeeze, the user must position the parts correctly in the precise orientation and at the right point on the plane. By practicing this brain exercise, it is possible to stimulate our spatial perception. Improving this ability can help us perform better in our environment, such as when we have to read a map or organize the dishwasher.
- Planning:This brain game requires us mentally establish the most appropriate route, selecting the right parts at the right time. In doing so, we are stimulating our planning capacity. Improving this cognitive ability helps us to be more efficient in our daily lives. For example, when we have to think about the steps to take to achieve a goal.
- Updating: To advance in this brain game we must build the path that will allow us to reach our goal. In some cases, we will need to correct and adapt our behavior to get from one point to another using the right number of pieces. By practicing this brain game we are training and helping to strengthen the neural connections involved in our updating skill. Improving this cognitive ability is fundamental to our daily lives, as it can help us to detect errors more easily. For example, when we are writing, telling a story, or when we have to assemble a piece of furniture.
Other relevant cognitive skills are:
- Processing Speed:This brain game "Fresh Squeeze" requires us to construct the correct way in a limited amount of time. We need to process all the data to come up with a route and action plan as soon as possible. By practicing this exercise we are stimulating and helping to strengthen the neural connections involved in our processing speed. Improving this cognitive ability can help us be more efficient in performing a mental task. For example, the change we must receive after a purchase.
What happens when you don't train your cognitive abilities?
Our brains are designed to save resources and be as efficient as possible, which is why it erases the connections that aren't being used. This is why if a certain cognitive skill isn't used frequently, the brain doesn't supply it with the resources it needs, and it becomes weaker and weaker. This makes us less able to use the weakened cognitive skill, making us less efficient in activities in our daily lives. |
3.SREE NARAYANA GURU
The Vice President of Indiahas virtually launched “Not Many, But One”,an Englishtranslationof poems of Sree Narayana Gurudev.
- Sree Narayana Guru was born on 22 August, 1856to Madan Asan and hiswife Kuttiyamma in Chempazhanthy, a village near Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala.
- His family belonged to the Ezhava casteand was considered ‘avarna’according to the social mores of the time.
- Right from his childhood he loved solitude and always indulged himself indeep contemplation.He was intensely drawn to worship at the local templesand composed hymns and several devotional songs.
- From an early age, he was drawn towards asceticism. He lived as a hermit ina forest for eight years.
- He learned Vedas, Upanishads, literature, logical rhetoric of Sanskrit, HathaYoga and other philosophies.
Against Caste Injustice:
- He gave the famous slogan “One Caste, One Religion, One God forAll”(OruJathi, OruMatham, OruDaivam, Manushyanu).
- In 1888, he built a temple dedicated to Lord Shiva at Aruvippuramwhich was against the caste-based restrictionsof the time.
- In one temple he consecrated at Kalavancode, he kept mirrors insteadof idols. This symbolised his message that the divine was within eachindividual.
- He taught equality but felt the inequalities should not be exploited to carryout conversions and therefore generate strife in society.
- Narayana Guru organized an All-Region Conference in 1923 at AlwayeAdvaita Ashram, which was reported to be the first such event in India. Thiswas an effort to counter the religious conversions Ezhava community wassusceptible to.
Contribution to National Movement:
- A remarkable social reformer, he was in the forefront of the movement foruniversal temple entryand against the societal ills like the socialdiscrimination of untouchables.
- Narayana Gurudev provided the impetus for Vaikom agitationwhich wasaimed at temple entry in Travancorefor the lower castes.It drewnationwide attention and appreciation from Mahatma Gandhi.
- He captured the essence of Indiannessin his poems which highlighted theunity that lies beneath the world’s apparent diversity.
20 September, 1928. This day is observed as Sree Narayana Guru Samadhi inKerala. |
Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell: Summary and Lessons
“Practice isn’t the thing you do once you’re good. It’s the thing you do that makes you good.”
Table of Contents
Outliers Short Summary
Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell is a book that explores the hidden forces behind successful people. Gladwell shows that as much as talent and hard work are responsible for many of the success stories that we see and hear, there is much more to success than meets the eye. A bit repetitive so you can skim some parts but overall great lessons.
What Are Outliers?
Outliers are people who stand out. They are the top athletes, businessmen, billionaires, innovators, professionals, educators, scientists, and politicians. They are the definition of success. The ones that everyone looks up to.
When stories of outliers are told, there is a tendency to emphasize individual effort. Gladwell argues that there is another side to the story. Individual effort does count for a lot of things but it is just one of the reasons for success.
In other words:
Outliers don’t have a singular story. Luck, birthdays, opportunity, upbringing, and many other factors all play oversized roles too.
Part I: Opportunity
The Matthew Effect
The Matthew Effect: advantages tend to accumulate over time. Those that are given an early push get more advantages as time goes by and those that are put at a disadvantage continue to get limited resources. The Matthew Effect is basically another way of stating the law of cumulative advantage
The story of outliers follows a similar pattern. If you are put at an advantage over your peers and friends from an early age, the advantages will lead to meaningful differences in performance that persist for extended periods.
When looking at the stories of successful individuals, most people downplay the role that the Matthew Effect has on their life outcomes.
The 10,000 Hour Rule
The 10,000 Hour Rule: it takes about 10,000 hours of deliberate practice to become an expert at anything
But while this is true, the convergence of luck and opportunity is needed
- Bill Gates had unlimited exposure to computers at an early age
- Most of the Silicon Valley billionaires were just at the right age (born around 1955) and were in their early 20s when the computer revolution began
- Most elite hockey players are born in the month of January because the cut off for age-class hockey in Canada happens on January 1
Yes, preparation does play an oversized role when it comes to achieving greatness but so does luck and opportunity.
If you discount the role of luck and opportunity when retelling success stories, there are consequences for society including prematurely writing people off as failures.
“Because we so profoundly personalize success, we miss opportunities to lift others onto the top rung. We make rules that frustrate achievement.”
The Trouble With Geniuses
Having high intelligence (IQ) does not automatically mean that you will be successful in life.
Above a certain IQ range, there isn’t much difference in performance.
There is a threshold for achieving in a particular area. Once that threshold is achieved, the influence of grades and IQ scores lessens with time.
“If intelligence matters only up to a point, then past that point, other things—things that have nothing to do with intelligence—must start to matter more. It’s like basketball again: once someone is tall enough, then we start to care about speed and court sense and agility and ball-handling skills and shooting touch.”
The Role of Upbringing
Having a great mind is not enough. Genius has to be nurtured and encouraged.
When looking at the stories of outliers, it is easy to overlook the role that upbringing has on how successful one becomes.
Studies show that background and upbringing have more of an impact on success than IQ scores.
Children from middle and upper-class families are taught to speak up, stand for themselves, and express thought independence. And this explains why they achieve more throughout their lives.
Their parents are also more involved in their lives and interests and this has a great impact on how they approach opportunities and challenges. They grow up believing that their voice and opinions matter even in the face of authority.
“The heavily scheduled middle-class child is exposed to a constantly shifting set of experiences. She learns teamwork and how to cope in highly structured settings. She is taught how to interact comfortably with adults, and to speak up when she needs to. In Lareau’s words, the middle-class children learn a sense of “entitlement.”
On the other hand, children from poor backgrounds don’t receive as much attention from their parents. As a result, they grow to be timid around many situations and develop stifling deference to authority.
The Benefits of Opportunity and Luck
Starting out at a disadvantage can be an opportunity in itself.
For some outliers, disadvantages are often blessings in disguise. Rags-to riches stories focus on the many odds that the hero had to overcome, but they fail to point out that the odds work to empower the hero over future adversities.
Outliers also benefit from “Demographic luck” or being born at the right time.
Those who came to maturity in the 1930s during the height of the great depression had less of a chance to make it than those who matured later when the economy was booming.
At the same time, engaging in meaningful work no matter how humbling gives you the opportunity to learn and grow.
Humble meaningful work can also serve as a pebblestone for the prosperity of future generations.
Part II: Legacy
Cultural legacies play an important role in determining the success of outliers.
These legacies shape how we react to our environments, how hard we work, how we approach opportunities, and our deference to power and authority.
- Some cultures demonstrate a high reverence for power and authority to the extent that it can hinder job performance and personal growth
- Others show greater levels of individuality and this can lead to greater personal independence and a willingness to take risks
- It is easier to count in Asian languages. And because of this math is more intuitive to South East Asians as opposed to westerners
- Most of the cultures in China, Korea, and Japan have rice as their staple food. Cultivating rice is more labor-intensive compared to other forms of agriculture and this translates to different attitudes towards work and life in general
Low-Income vs High-Income Students
The difference in performance between low-income students and high-income students is not down to differences in intelligence. Given the same opportunities, students from the two groups perform at the same level.
Low-income students’ performance drops during the summer vacation. Their reading levels drop and their maths grades go down suggesting that the home environment has an oversized effect on school performance during the period.
The length of the summer vacation also has implications on how well students perform. Students from the Asian countries of Japan and China have longer school days and as a result have better reading and math skills.
With proper instruction guidelines and interventions, it is possible to bridge the gap between low-income and high-income students.
“We are so caught in the myths of the best and the brightest and the self-made that we think outliers spring naturally from the earth. We look at the young Bill Gates and marvel that our world allowed that thirteen year-old to become a fabulously successful entrepreneur. But that’s the wrong lesson.”
What school kids from low-income communities need is a chance. |
Teen suicide is a tragedy, but like many tragedies, it strikes some areas more frequently than others. To find out why, UConn researchers mapped teen suicide attempts across the state. Their results are in press in the Journal of Adolescent Health. They reveal some surprising variation in risk across communities, and may provide insight into suicide prevention tactics that work.
Suicide is the second leading cause of death among people aged 15-24 years, with 12.5 youths per every 100,000 killing themselves in 2013, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Community demographics and socioeconomics play a part in the risk. But some disadvantaged communities have far fewer teen suicides than their demography would predict, and some affluent communities have far more.
“Can we learn from districts that are doing well, and apply those lessons to those that are struggling?” UConn medical sociologist and chair of behavioral sciences and community health Rob Aseltine wondered. First he had to identify communities that were truly doing better than the norm. There was no cookbook way to do it; a small, affluent community might have very few adolescent suicides simply because there are very few teens in the community, or because those that there are have very good access to healthcare, or because the community does a good job at suicide prevention. So he teamed up with UConn statistician Kun Chen to figure out the best approach.
Can we learn from districts that are doing well, and apply those lessons to those that are struggling? — Rob Aseltine
Instead of counting actual suicides, the two researchers decided to focus on the rate of attempted suicide instead. Hospitals record such events in medical claims and electronic health records, and they are much more common than actual suicides. And attempts are major medical events in and of themselves, requiring an average hospital stay of five days.
“People are doing themselves serious damage,” Aseltine says.
The team compiled numbers of suicide attempts of 15-19 year olds in every school district in the state. They then adjusted for 10 community characteristics, such as average household income, racial and ethnic diversity, and number of parents in the home.
They found 10 districts in Connecticut with significantly higher risk for suicidal behavior among adolescents. These communities had rates 154 percent to 241 percent higher than expected. More heartening, they found four districts with significantly lower risk for suicide attempts than anticipated (see map). Two of these communities – Windham and New London – stood out in particular. They are two of the five poorest communities in the state, yet had attempted suicide rates that were approximately half of what would be expected given their community resources.
This is the first time Connecticut has ever looked at this type of data, and Connecticut is one of the more organized states when it comes to preventing teen suicide, Aseltine says. He hopes other states will be able to make good use of the same technique in the future.
“This is a novel and promising approach with implications for our ability to prevent suicide-related outcomes. The study illustrates the potential benefit of establishing public health surveillance systems using administrative data, often an untapped resource, to address these critical public health issues,” says Damion Grasso, a professor of psychiatry at UConn Health who was not involved in the research.
Aseltine and Chen’s work was supported by a grant from the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s Garrett Lee Smith program. The Connecticut Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services has awarded Aseltine and his colleagues additional funding to follow up on the results and figure out why the anomalous communities have lower rates of attempted suicides. Some of it may be suicide prevention programs, but other reasons may be community characteristics that are harder to influence. For example, school district 19, which includes E.O. Smith High School in Storrs, also had fewer attempts than would be statistically predicted. That district, which encompasses the area around UConn’s main campus, has an active community life and higher-than-average levels of education among the local adults, which may help inoculate teens against suicide.
But another message can be garnered from the data as well: the majority of suicide attempts are typically made by individuals already involved in the mental health care system.
“They may be receiving psychiatric care, but their risk of suicide is not recognized,” Aseltine says. More proactive help for teens struggling with depression and other mental health issues is an obvious first step.
Aseltine and his colleagues have recently been notified by the NIH that they will receive a grant as part of the national Zero Suicide initiative to reduce suicides among patients in the health care system. |
Imagine going into the doctor and having a blood clot or cell inside your body moved or manipulated without any incisions. The future may be closer than you think.
The non-invasive procedures of the Star Trek universe — a quick scan and a hypo-spray — is an optimistic wish for the future of medicine. The researchers of today from several universities have developed an acoustic tractor beam that could further minimize the way doctors practice surgery.
It’s possible the surgical practices of today will be looked at by future generations as medieval. I can’t help but think of Star Trek‘s doctor, Leonard “Bones” McCoy, of the starship Enterprise in the movie Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, as he walks through a 20th Century hospital disgusted that humanity ever practiced such brutality.
“Acoustic structures shaped as tweezers, twisters, or bottles emerge as the optimum mechanisms for tractor beams or containerless transportation,” the researchers wrote in their paper, which was published in Nature. “Single-beam levitation could manipulate particles inside our body for applications in targeted drug delivery or acoustically controlled micro-machines that do not interfere with magnetic resonance imaging.”
The researchers were able to accomplish this feat by building a grid comprising 64 loud speakers. The sound they emit is beyond human hearing, and the output can be adjusted to change the type of field created by the sound to hold the object, contain it, or pull it.
In the video below, the researchers demonstrate how objects can be moved around by an invisible hand that holds the object between two fields, like the object is being pinched and moved. In another, researchers showed it could pull an object one way using a twister-like cyclone, much like a tractor beam.
“We have in mind cells and drug-holding micro-capsules,” professor Bruce Drinkwater stated in an email to Discovery. “If we could manipulate these within the body, e.g., to deliver drugs to tumors, this would be hugely important.”
Past tractor beams have demonstrated the possibility of using light to push and pull objects. Bill Nye (the science guy) explains that’s because “light, even though it has no mass, has a tiny, tiny bit of momentum. Just while you’re sitting there in a room with the lights on and when you’re out in the sun, there’s just a tiny, tiny push on you because it’s pure energy.”
For those dreaming of the tractor beams of Star Trek, capturing and moving objects in space, this technology is Earth-bound. However, Arx Pax, the company responsible for the Hendo Hoverboard, is partnering with NASA to create a space-ready tractor beam to help realign satellites.
Natalie has been writing professionally for about 6 years. After graduating from Ithaca College with a degree in Feature Writing, she snagged a job at PCMag.com where she had the opportunity to review all the latest consumer gadgets. Since then she has become a writer for hire, freelancing for various websites. In her spare time, you may find her riding her motorcycle, reading YA novels, hiking, or playing video games. Follow her on Twitter: @nat_schumaker
Photo Credit: DOMINIQUE FAGET / Getty Staff |
Introduction Hydrogen is an energy carrier like electricity. However, it is more versatile. It can be the base for any gas, fuel, or can be transformed into electricity. If made from renewables, hydrogen is carbon-free. Hydrogen offers the potential for full energy autonomy and independence. Rather than using diesel generators, microgrids can integrate hydrogen as a pollution-free alternative. Made from 100% renewable electricity, it allows large amounts of renewables to be stored for later use. Why use hydrogen to live off-grid? Hydrogen can be made via a process called water electrolysis. Electricity is used to split water into its component gases: hydrogen and oxygen. If solar or wind power is used, this energy is carbon-free—with zero emissions. Electrolysis used to be prohibitively expensive, but costs have come down. The Phi Suea House in Chiang Mai, Thailand is Southeast Asia’s first multi-residential project to be fully powered by solar energy paired with a hydrogen storage system. The hybrid hydrogen-battery system maximizes the advantages of both the hydrogen storage system and electrical batteries. The energy of the sun is transformed into electricity via solar panels. Any excess power will be converted and stored as hydrogen. When the sun doesn’t shine, the hydrogen gas stored in tanks generate electricity by using fuel cells. Where else is the technology used? The technology is used in many places. In Reunion Island, the Mafate Circus is accessible only by helicopter or foot. Its hydrogen-backed energy system is fully fossil fuel-free and has provided energy to several houses, a school, a workshop and medical dispensary since 2017. The mini grid runs on 8.7-kilowatt peak (kWp), produces 500 liters of hydrogen per hour and has a 15.6-kilowatt hour (kWh) battery storage installed. In Uganda, a containerized solution provides rural electrification for communities in Kyenjojo. The 20-foot container solution is a complete solar power solution with 4.7kWp installed, and includes a storage system made of hydrogen and a battery. Hydrogen is made from solar energy, and electrolyzers generate 2,000 liters per hour. There are several other hydrogen microgrids like the Stone Edge Farm Microgrid in Sonoma Valley, California and the Orkney Islands microgrid. How do you build a hydrogen microgrid? A hydrogen microgrid setup requires the following: Renewable energy. Solar or wind are both suitable for providing onsite, pollution-free energy for local consumption. Inverters. Either a photovoltaic (PV) or wind inverter paired with a battery inverter are necessary. Batteries are integrated in the system to buffer the main load and build the grid. Electrolyzers use electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. A hydrogen storage tank keeps the gas for later use. Hydrogen can be stored without time or quantity limitations, and at low or high pressure. Fuel cells transform hydrogen back into electricity when needed. A sophisticated Energy Management system makes distributed networks work. It provides secure and reliable interconnection for monitoring and enable remote control. Figure 1: Hydrogen Microgrid System Diagram Source: Enapter Is hydrogen safe? Hydrogen is a flammable gas and like with any other gas, there are safety measures when handling it. Hydrogen devices, such as electrolyzers and fuel cells, are built as intrinsically safe devices. When the electrolyzer is running, sensors detect leaks or pressure changes. In case of an error, the device would shut itself down immediately, and send an alarm or error message. This way, the user steers clear of any risk of combustion. Also, hydrogen’s properties make it safer to handle than commonly used fuels. It is non-toxic, and it is an element lighter than air, so, it will quickly disperse in case of a leak. All it would need is a place to escape. What are the advantages and disadvantages of microgrids? The advantages of a hydrogen mini grid are long-term energy storage and clean backup energy. At the core, it only requires electricity to split water, which can be tap or rainwater. Hydrogen energy does not depreciate; it stores and provides decentralized energy access for weeks. Software is also available for fast integration and remote monitoring and control. The current disadvantage is that not many microgrid developers are familiar with using hydrogen as a storage solution, but building hydrogen microgrids with a modular system can be simple and quick (see Enapter’s electrolyzer setup guide and technical documentation). The special requirements for maintaining a hydrogen microgrid is replacing the electrolyte solution in the electrolyzer every 6 months or checking for dust in the system. Other basic microgrid maintenance principles apply here too. Compared to other energy solutions, a solar-plus-hydrogen set up will have zero direct emissions. A community of 300 inhabitants on the island of Koh Jik, Thailand will use hydrogen for energy storage. The daily energy consumption of the entire island is 265kWh, or 96,725 kWh per year. With diesel generators as backup energy supply, the island’s diesel consumption was reduced to 37,000 liters. Over the system’s lifetime of 20 years, electricity generation from a solar-hydrogen minigrid in Koh Jik can cost between 0.5-0.6 euro/kWh (according to price points as of October 2019). Minigrids that are 100% diesel have generation costs that go beyond 0.6 Euro/kWh, with cost highly influenced by volatile fuel prices. How can microgrids provide electricity to poor communities in rural and remote areas, particularly in Asia and the Pacific? Asia–Pacific countries have abundant sun, and microgrids can electrify remote areas using solar power. These have the potential to supply hydrogen endlessly. All one needs is sun and water. The cost of hydrogen depends on the cost of electricity. The cost of green electricity is low where renewables are abundant, as is the case in the Asia–Pacific region. The cost of hydrogen generation is falling too. Electrolyzer manufacturers are scaling their production and driving down costs. Modular solutions are coming to the market, so system integrators can choose hydrogen as a solution for long-term storage. Green hydrogen helps countries provide a reliable and long-term solution for energy on-demand. For individuals, onsite production of hydrogen creates local sources of income from sunshine, rather than importing diesel. For the environment, in comparison to using diesel generators, an electrolyzer generating 500 liters of hydrogen per hour could prevent about 34 tons of carbon dioxide-equivalent emissions over its lifetime. The potential to stack electrolyzers gives countries the freedom to take ownership of their energy supply and demand. Electrolyzer manufacturer Enapter was at the Dim Sum with Entrepreneurs session of the Asia Clean Energy Forum 2019, which is an annual event organized by the Asian Development Bank in Manila. Resources Enapter. 2019. Quick Start Guide: Hydrogen Microgrids Enapter. 2019. System Setup for Hydrogen Hands-On Seminar Phi Suea House Project. 2015. Video: Phi Suea House Microgrid Explained. Youtube. Y. Zhai. 2019. It’s Clean, Powerful and Available: Are You Ready for Hydrogen Energy? Asian Development Blog. May. Ask the Experts Vaitea Cowan Co-founder and Head of Marketing, Enapter Vaitea Cowan handles the communication for Enapter and finds special projects to deploy its electrolyzer technology. After working on the Phi Suea House project, she co-founded Enapter with Sebastian-Justus Schmidt and Jan-Justus Schmidt. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Commerce degree from Concordia University in Montreal, Canada. Follow Vaitea Cowan on Thomas Chrometzka Former Head of Strategy, Enapter Thomas Chrometzka oversaw market and business development at Enapter. He has been in the solar industry and international development for more than a decade. He is based in Bangkok and knows the region inside out. He co-founded the smart energy start-up support initiative New Energy Nexus Southeast Asia as well the start-up SolarLux. He has a master’s degree in Political Science and International Relations from the University of Münster, Germany. Follow Thomas Chrometzka on Leave your question or comment in the section below: View the discussion thread. |
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in Data Studio
General English High-Quality Corpus
Repository: pritamdeb68/general_english_high_quality_corpus
License: See source datasets (derived from FineWeb-Edu)
Language: English
Task Type: Language Modeling / Pretraining
Domain: General English, Educational, High-Quality Web Text
📌 Dataset Summary
General English High-Quality Corpus is a large-scale, curated English text dataset extracted and filtered from FineWeb-Edu.
It is designed for training and evaluating large language models (LLMs) with an emphasis on clean, educational, and linguistically well-formed text.
The dataset prioritizes text quality over raw volume, making it suitable for language model pretraining, tokenizer training, and controlled research experiments.
It is paired with a custom tokenizer (pritamdeb68/FIREFLY) trained directly on this corpus to ensure optimal tokenizer–data alignment.
📊 Key Statistics
- Total tokens: ~1B tokens (approximate, tokenizer-dependent)
- Language: English
- Vocabulary alignment: Custom tokenizer trained on this dataset
- Average tokens per word: ~1.30 (comparable to GPT-2)
- UNK rate: 0
- Text quality: High (educational + filtered web content)
🧠 Motivation
Most large-scale web datasets contain significant noise, including duplicated text, HTML artifacts, and low-quality or autogenerated content.
This dataset aims to provide a cleaner, higher-signal alternative by leveraging FineWeb-Edu filtering and additional curation.
The goal is to support:
- efficient and stable language model training,
- reproducible research,
- and principled tokenizer and architecture studies.
🔧 Data Construction
Source
- Extracted from FineWeb-Edu, a filtered subset of web data emphasizing educational and high-quality text.
Filtering & Cleaning
- Removal of low-quality and malformed documents
- Exclusion of extremely short or noisy text
- English-only language filtering
Tokenization
- A custom tokenizer (
pritamdeb68/FIREFLY, vocabulary size: 30,257) was trained on this corpus. - This avoids tokenizer–dataset mismatch and improves training efficiency.
- A custom tokenizer (
🚀 Intended Use
This dataset is suitable for:
- Language model pretraining (decoder-only or encoder–decoder)
- Tokenizer training and analysis
- Scaling-law and data-efficiency studies
- Long-context and efficient architecture research
- Academic and educational experimentation
Not recommended for:
- Instruction tuning
- Supervised downstream tasks without additional labeling
🧪 Example Usage
from datasets import load_dataset
dataset = load_dataset(
"pritamdeb68/general_english_high_quality_corpus",
split="train",
streaming=True
)
sample = next(iter(dataset))
print(sample["text"])
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