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Washington, DC — Management practices at the Office of Fossil Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) have been recognized by one of the world’s leading professional organizations for chemical engineers.
The American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) has announced it will recognize NETL Director Anthony V. Cugini with its 2011 Management Division Award at its 2011 Spring Meeting. The award recognizes NETL management for "its substantial contribution to the management of engineers involved in the chemical process industries, and to management techniques and procedures utilized in those industries."The award is sponsored by Dow Chemical.
In particular, NETL management was cited for greatly expanding "the scope and extent of worldwide collaboration between NETL, industry and universities" and for championing the advancement of computational modeling in chemical engineering applications.
"The achievements that this award recognizes are the result of long-term projects by many talented people," stated Director Cugini. "Whether we are talking about onsite research by NETL scientists, the work of our dedicated contractors, or collaborations with our many partners, I’m proud of their contributions to these successes. In accepting this award, I represent the work of scientists, engineers, and analysts who seek to answer the nation’s most pressing energy challenges. To see their efforts recognized by a world-class organization like the American Institute of Chemical Engineers is a tribute to their hard work and to our joint successes."
As the research arm of the Office of Fossil Energy, NETL’s mission is to advance energy options to fuel the nation’s economy, strengthen national security, and improve the environment. Recent NETL breakthroughs in energy research and technology development include advances in clean fossil-based systems and less expensive ways to capture carbon dioxide for long-term storage. These advances have the potential to greatly improve the way energy resources are used to power electrical plants and industrial applications. NETL’s products and processes are transferred to industrial applications via a robust technology transfer and patent agreement program.
AIChE’s 2011 Spring Meeting will be held March 13–17 in Chicago, Ill. The institute was established in 1908 with the purpose of establishing chemical engineers as a profession independent from chemists and mechanical engineers. Today it is the world’s leading organization for chemical engineering professionals, with more than 40,000 members from over 90 countries.
The AIChE Management Division promotes management skills for chemical engineers and provides a forum to discuss and present topics of interest to practicing professional engineers and managers at all levels. The chair of the division’s awards committee, Dr. Mukund Karanjikar, said that "the critical contributions of Dr. Cugini and NETL have been well recognized by the chemical process industry" and noted that the committee was impressed by the particularly strong field of 2011 nominees. The division has presented its annual award since 1984. | Washington, DC — Management practices at the Office of Fossil Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) have been recognized by one of the world’s leading professional organizations for chemical engineers.
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Best Practices for Road Weather Management Version 2.0
Anti-icing Study: Controlled Chemical Treatments
Correlations between meteorological parameters and chemical effectiveness can indicate the optimum conditions for a particular anti-icing chemical application. Anti-icing chemical treatments are more efficient when used for adhesion prevention than for removing snow and ice already in place
Michigan Technological University, Prepared for Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP)
Alger, Adams, Beckwith
PDF files can be viewed with the Acrobat® Reader®. | Best Practices for Road Weather Management Version 2.0
Anti-icing Study: Controlled Chemical Treatments
Correlations between meteorological parameters and chemical effectiveness can indicate the optimum conditions for a particular anti-icing chemical application. Anti-icing chemical treatments are more efficient when used for adhesion prevention than for removing snow and ice already in place
Mich | {
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METHODS FOR SAMPLING AND
INORGANIC ANALYSIS OF COAL
U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 1823
Edited by D.W. Golightly and F.O. Simon
Table 10. Interferences in INAA due to neutron-induced fission of 235U (in m g of the elements (apparent) per m g of U)
,g ) Cross
|I (calc.)¦||I (exp.)*|
|*Error estimates are 70
percent confidence limits on the mean of four
t 6 days following irradiation.
¦ Calculation assumes that the cross section for fission of 235U is equal to 580 barns.
[ Contents | Coal Quality CD ]
Created by the EERT WWW Staff.
U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey
Maintained by Publishing Services
Last modified: 14:37:07 Tue 14 Feb 2006
Privacy statement | General disclaimer | Accessibility | METHODS FOR SAMPLING AND
INORGANIC ANALYSIS OF COAL
U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 1823
Edited by D.W. Golightly and F.O. Simon
Table 10. Interferences in INAA due to neutron-induced fission of 235U (in m g of the elements (apparent) per m g of U)
,g ) Cross
|I (calc.)¦||I (exp.)*|
|*Error estimates are 70
percent confidence limits on the mean of four
t 6 days following irradiation.
¦ Calculation | {
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Wireless Miami Beach will provide FREE public access to all residents, visitors, and businesses across the City.
When you first connect to the network, you will be prompted to register for access to the network. You will be asked to create a username and password. Once you've completed registration you will be asked to accept the Terms and Conditions.
Once you have registered and successfully connected to the City of Miami Beach WiFi network, you will be redirected to the City of Miami Beach WiFi Landing page when you attempt to visit a .com website. At that point you can create a username, log in to the network and navigate to your preferred web site.
You don't have to be able to see an outdoor access point to connect to the network. Most current devices with WiFi capability will display the wireless networks that are detected for connection. If you can see the City_of_Miami_Beach_WiFi wireless network, you should be able to connect if the signal strength adequate.
If you have a computer with a AirPort card, you can see a list of available wireless networks, and then connect to one of those networks, no matter where you are. You need to make sure your AirPort Card is enabled. Review the documentation provided with your computer or contact Apple if you need help determining if your AirPort card is operational or activated.
There are no limitations as to which applications you may run. If you use your application with the Internet today, you should be able to use it on the Network.
To scan for available Wi-Fi® networks, complete the following steps:
To save the Wi-Fi network connection as a profile, click Yes in the Save this Wi-Fi Network as a Profile field.
The City of Miami Beach entered into a contract with IBM to install a citywide wireless broadband network, also known as WiFi (wireless fidelity).. The system was built so that at least 95% of the City will have outdoor WiFi coverage and at least 70% of the City will have indoor coverage up through the second floor of a building. It is important to point out that the limit of how high the WiFi signal travels is basically governed by physics and where the WiFi equipment is mounted throughout the City. There may be places where the signal may be received higher than the second floor.
There is, however, a way for high-rise buildings to distribute the City’s WiFi signal up to the higher floors that would be beyond the reach of the City’s WiFi Network. To ensure that everyone has the opportunity to receive a signal, the City negotiated a 25 percent discount on labor and materials for those high-rise buildings including hotels, apartment buildings and condominiums that wish to utilize IBM to bring the WiFi signal to the units above the second floor.
Before making such a decision, the following should be considered:
Even in areas where DSL and Cable Internet access is currently available, it is cost prohibitive for many residents and businesses. In addition, these wired services do not support mobile broadband access, which has become widely used to provide efficient government services, and is increasingly important for residents, businesses, business travelers and visitors to our community.
You can use any device that is wireless-enabled and has a web browser.
Most wireless-enabled devices will be labeled as WiFi Ready or WiFi Compatible. You will need a WiFi enabled device like a
You will want make sure you have the latest device drivers, connection software, and web browser.
The City is providing a separate wireless network that is content filtered to block Internet content that may be inappropriate for children. If you wish to access the content-filtered wireless network, ensure that your computer can only connect to the WiFi network MBKIDS rather than the open, unfiltered City_of_Miami_Beach_WiFi wireless network. If you are a parent, guardian, who wishes to control which wireless network is being used by those persons using your computer, you should ensure each computer user has a unique and separate account and login configured to only provide access to the content filtered SSID.
For users of your computer(s) that must only access the content filtered network, access to only the content filtered wireless network can be restricted via the operating system controls found in Windows, MacOS, and other operating systems. Enabling this control and restricting access to deny wireless connection utilities and controls will permit your computer to connect only to the filtered network. Detailed information regarding establishing user accounts to control access privileges to your computer is available directly from Microsoft, Mac, or the maker of the device you are using.
The City of Miami Beach has installed a firewall to protect the infrastructure and network components that have been installed. This firewall does not protect your computer.
Wireless signals do not penetrate building walls easily, and therefore it is unlikely that the City of Miami Beach network will interfere with an existing home network. 802.11 devices communicate on a variety of channels. Most equipment selects the clearest channel automatically. If you are concerned about interference between your network and City of Miami Beach network, you change the channel of your home access point manually.
For instructions on changing your home wireless network router channel, contact the equipment provider.
The network will be available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. There may be occasional maintenance and updates to the network that may create temporary outages. These will be scheduled to minimize impact to users. Maintenance will be communicated via the City of Miami Beach WiFi web site.
Because wireless networks share radio frequency with other devices, they are susceptible to interference from other devices. Wireless devices such as:
To find the list of Wi-Fi networks,
The network was designed to provide indoor coverage up to the second floor for a large part of the City. It is important to point out that while the network was designed to cover up to the second floor, in fact, the limit of how high the WiFi signal travels is basically governed by physics and where the WiFi equipment is mounted throughout the City. There may be places where the signal may be received higher than the second floor.
You are not granting or denying any specific access to your computer by using the City of Miami Beach Network.
As with any Internet connection, you should take appropriate precautions to protect your computer. You may want to consider installing commercially available utilities like a personal firewall, anti-virus, spyware detection, identity protection, and similar other commercially available solutions. You should also keep your operating system and networking software updated with the latest security patches and fixes.
The City of Miami Beach does not endorse any specific security utility or suite.
The goal of Wireless Miami Beach is to provide basic access to the internet for residents, visitors and businesses and to enhance communications by providing the access in almost all (95%) outdoor areas throughout the City, including our parks and most beach areas.
The WiFi networking card in your computer or other WiFi enabled device connects to an outdoor WiFi device located near you. The device connects to other devices and a gateway to route your signal to the internet.
The network signals will be stronger outdoors than indoors. The signals transmitted by the WiFi network devices don't transmit through walls and other obstructions well. Limiting factors to coverage include your location indoors, how far away you are located from the nearest outdoor WiFi device, the construction of the building you are in, and interference from other electronic devices.
Similar to using your cellphone and moving closer to a window for a better signal, moving your wireless device or computer closer to a window or the outer wall of a building may improve your signal. Moving your wireless device or computer a few feet is the simplest and least cost way to improve your signal. A better signal will provide a faster, more reliable connection.
Access may not be available in the following areas:
No. This is a free network for all residents, visitors and businesses in the City of Miami Beach.
The City of Miami Beach has applied generally recognized and recommended methods and practices to secure the infrastructure supporting the public Wi-Fi network. However, the communications between your Wi-Fi device and the City’s wireless network and the Internet are not encrypted WiFi systems set up for public access are typically not secured.
Encryption of the wireless connection from your computer to the site you are accessing for additional privacy is your responsibility. The most common way to do this is by using Virtual Private Networking (VPN) software or similar access methods. The same types of VPN methods you may already be using at Wi-Fi locations such as coffee shops, hotels, and airports should with the City’s Wi-Fi network.
Contact the organization or service you wish to access (e.g. your employer, financial institution, or other organization that requires secure access). The City of Miami Beach does not provide any particular VPN method, nor is any particular method restricted or blocked.
The Miami Beach WiFi network is expected to deliver a minimum of 1 megabit per second (Mbps) connectivity, both upstream and downstream.
There are no limitations as to which applications you may run. If you use your application with the Internet today, you should be able to use it on the Network. However, streaming video and/or music is likely to work better on a DSL or cable modem wired Internet connection.
Basic support for connecting to the network is available by calling the City of Miami Beach Wifi Network Call Center at 305-722-1917. You will have access to automated instructions for connecting to the network as well as access to an agent, if necessary, to assist you with connecting to the network.
The City of Miami Beach does not provide or support any particular VPN method, nor is any particular method restricted or blocked. The same VPN method you may already be using at Wi-Fi locations such as coffee shops, hotels, and airports should work similarly with the City’s Wi-Fi network.
Severe thunderstorms and high winds can temporarily disrupt the network service.
All you need to access the City of Miami Beach WiFi is a WiFi-enabled device, such as a laptop computer, smart phone or other WiFi enabled device and a web browser such as Microsoft Internet Explorer.
Wireless Miami Beach is an initiative to create a wireless environment citywide that is available for the free use of citizens, visitors and business.
If you have a computer with a wireless networking card, you can see a list of available wireless networks, and then connect to one of those networks, no matter where you are. You need to make sure your wireless networking card is enabled. Review the documentation provided with your computer or contact it's manufacturer if you need help determining if your wireless networking card is operational or activated.
To find the wireless connection on a computer with a Windows Vista operating system:
If you don't see the City_of_Miami_Beach_WiFi network, click Set up a connection or network. A list of options will appear that includes manually searching for and connecting to a network, as well as creating a new network connection.
To find the wireless connection on a computer with a Windows XP operating system: | Wireless Miami Beach will provide FREE public access to all residents, visitors, and businesses across the City.
When you first connect to the network, you will be prompted to register for access to the network. You will be asked to create a username and password. Once you've completed registration you will be asked to accept the Terms and Conditions.
Once you have registered and successfully conn | {
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Australian Bureau of Statistics
2901.0 - Census Dictionary, 2006 (Reissue)
Previous ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 13/07/2007 Reissue
|Page tools: Print Page RSS Search this Product|
Unpaid Domestic Work: Number of Hours
On this page:
Applicable to: Persons aged 15 years and over
1. Nil hours
2. Less than 5 hours
3. 5 to 14 hours
4. 15 to 29 hours
5. 30 hours or more
& Not stated
@ Not applicable
V Overseas visitor
Total number of categories: 8
More Detailed Description
Quality Statement - Unpaid Domestic Work (DOMP)
There are many aspects which can affect the quality of Census data; the following information should be considered when viewing data on Unpaid Domestic Work (DOMP).
This question was new for 2006: the data was captured automatically from check box responses on the form so the risk of processing error is minimal. Sample checks of the data are undertaken to ensure an acceptable level of quality.
The non-response rate was 10.1%. Part of this non-response is attributable to the 4.2% of persons (aged 15 years and over) in dwellings which were occupied on Census Night but did not return a completed form. In these cases persons are imputed into these dwellings together with some demographic characteristics, however the values for Unpaid Domestic Work (DOMP) remain "not stated". Of the remaining 5.9% (946,485 people aged 15 years and over) who did not answer the Unpaid Domestic Work question:
Unpaid Domestic Work was one of four new questions regarding unpaid work or care in the 2006 Census, located sequentially near the end of the questionnaire. The unpaid work questions varied in complexity with regard to reference periods, the amount of text to be read, and the number of response categories offered, but a response to each could be recorded by simply marking the relevant box. Results show, however, that the first two unpaid work questions (including Unpaid Domestic Work) recorded higher non-response rates than the two unpaid work questions following. This finding suggests that some respondents had more difficulty with the concepts or question design for DOMP, or felt that this question was irrelevant to them.
Selected Theme Pages on the ABS Website may also contain links to alternative data sources that may be of relevance to users.
The ABS aims to produce high quality data from the Census. To achieve this, extensive effort is put into Census form design, collection procedures, and processing procedures. More details regarding these efforts can be found in:
All are available from the ABS Website.
This page last updated 20 May 2011
Unless otherwise noted, content on this website is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Australia Licence together with any terms, conditions and exclusions as set out in the website Copyright notice. For permission to do anything beyond the scope of this licence and copyright terms contact us. | Australian Bureau of Statistics
2901.0 - Census Dictionary, 2006 (Reissue)
Previous ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 13/07/2007 Reissue
|Page tools: Print Page RSS Search this Product|
Unpaid Domestic Work: Number of Hours
On this page:
Applicable to: Persons aged 15 years and over
1. Nil hours
2. Less than 5 hours
3. 5 to 14 hours
4. 15 to 29 hours
5. 30 hours or more
& Not stated
@ Not | {
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Australian Bureau of Statistics
1301.0 - Year Book Australia, 2007
Previous ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 24/01/2007
|Page tools: Print Page RSS Search this Product|
INTERNATIONAL VISITOR ARRIVALS
The top source countries for short-term international visitor arrivals to Australia during 2005 were New Zealand (1,098,700 visitor arrivals), followed by United Kingdom (708,300), Japan (685,500) and the United States of America (446,200) (table 21.6).
Between 2004 and 2005 the number of short-term international visitor arrivals from New Zealand increased by 66,000; from Korea by 38,500; from China by 33,700; and from the United Kingdom by 32,100. Arrivals from Japan and Malaysia decreased by 24,900 and 900 respectively.
In 2005 people whose main purpose for their trip was a holiday accounted for the highest share (57%) and employment accounted for the lowest share (2%) of short-term international visitor arrivals to Australia (graph 21.7).
December accounted for the highest number of visitor arrivals (10.9% of total arrivals) in 2005, while May accounted for the lowest (6.4%) (graph 21.8).
International visitor nights refers to the number of nights all international visitors aged 15 years and over spent in Australia.
In 2005, international visitors in Australia spent the most nights in New South Wales (48.7 million or 36.1%), followed by Queensland (30.0 million or 22.3%) and Victoria (20.1 million or 20.1%) (graph 21.9).
Of all international visitors in 2005, nights spent in Australia by those who travelled for holiday purposes accounted for 39% of short-term international visitor nights; 18% of nights were to visit friends and relatives; and 7% were for business purposes (graph 21.10).
This page last updated 16 January 2008
Unless otherwise noted, content on this website is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Australia Licence together with any terms, conditions and exclusions as set out in the website Copyright notice. For permission to do anything beyond the scope of this licence and copyright terms contact us. | Australian Bureau of Statistics
1301.0 - Year Book Australia, 2007
Previous ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 24/01/2007
|Page tools: Print Page RSS Search this Product|
INTERNATIONAL VISITOR ARRIVALS
The top source countries for short-term international visitor arrivals to Australia during 2005 were New Zealand (1,098,700 visitor arrivals), followed by United Kingdom (708,300), Japan (68 | {
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List of Recommendations
Part K—Protection of a Right to Personal Privacy
74. Protecting a Right to Personal Privacy
Recommendation 74–1 Federal legislation should provide for a statutory cause of action for a serious invasion of privacy. The Act should contain a non-exhaustive list of the types of invasion that fall within the cause of action. For example, a serious invasion of privacy may occur where:
(a) there has been an interference with an individual’s home or family life;
(b) an individual has been subjected to unauthorised surveillance;
(c) an individual’s correspondence or private written, oral or electronic communication has been interfered with, misused or disclosed; or
(d) sensitive facts relating to an individual’s private life have been disclosed.
Recommendation 74–2 Federal legislation should provide that, for the purpose of establishing liability under the statutory cause of action for invasion of privacy, a claimant must show that in the circumstances:
(a) there is a reasonable expectation of privacy; and
(b) the act or conduct complained of is highly offensive to a reasonable person of ordinary sensibilities.
In determining whether an individual’s privacy has been invaded for the purpose of establishing the cause of action, the court must take into account whether the public interest in maintaining the claimant’s privacy outweighs other matters of public interest (including the interest of the public to be informed about matters of public concern and the public interest in allowing freedom of expression).
Recommendation 74–3 Federal legislation should provide that an action for a serious invasion of privacy:
(a) may only be brought by natural persons;
(b) is actionable without proof of damage; and
(c) is restricted to intentional or reckless acts on the part of the respondent.
Recommendation 74–4 The range of defences to the statutory cause of action for a serious invasion of privacy provided for in federal legislation should be listed exhaustively. The defences should include that the:
(a) act or conduct was incidental to the exercise of a lawful right of defence of person or property;
(b) act or conduct was required or authorised by or under law; or
(c) publication of the information was, under the law of defamation, privileged.
Recommendation 74–5 To address a serious invasion of privacy, the court should be empowered to choose the remedy that is most appropriate in the circumstances, free from the jurisdictional constraints that may apply to that remedy in the general law. For example, the court should be empowered to grant any one or more of the following:
(a) damages, including aggravated damages, but not exemplary damages;
(b) an account of profits;
(c) an injunction;
(d) an order requiring the respondent to apologise to the claimant;
(e) a correction order;
(f) an order for the delivery up and destruction of material; and
(g) a declaration.
Recommendation 74–6 Federal legislation should provide that any action at common law for invasion of a person’s privacy should be abolished on enactment of these provisions.
Recommendation 74–7 The Office of the Privacy Commissioner should provide information to the public concerning the recommended statutory cause of action for a serious invasion of privacy. | List of Recommendations
Part K—Protection of a Right to Personal Privacy
74. Protecting a Right to Personal Privacy
Recommendation 74–1 Federal legislation should provide for a statutory cause of action for a serious invasion of privacy. The Act should contain a non-exhaustive list of the types of invasion that fall within the cause of action. For example, a serious invasion of privacy may occur w | {
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SACRAMENTO METROPOLITAN AIR QUALITY MANAGEMENT DISTRICT
RULE 401 - RINGELMANN CHART
(Adopted 8-3-77; Amended 4-19-83)
200 DEFINITIONS (NOT INCLUDED)
400 ADMINISTRATIVE REQUIREMENTS (NOT INCLUDED)
500 MONITORING AND RECORDS (NOT INCLUDED)
101 PURPOSE: To limit the discharge of air contaminants into the atmosphere through visible emissions and opacity.
102 EXEMPTIONS: The provisions of this rule shall not apply to:
102.1 Smoke from fires set or permitted by a public officer, if such fire is set by or permission given in the performance of the official duty of such officer and such fire, in the opinion of such officer, is necessary:
a. For the purpose of the prevention of a fire or health hazard which cannot be abated by any other means, or
b. For the instruction of public employees in the methods of fighting fires.
102.2 Smoke from fires set pursuant to permit on property used for industrial purposes for the purpose of instruction of employees in methods of fighting fires;
102.3 Agricultural operations in the growing of crops or raising of fowl or animals:
102.4 The use of an orchard or citrus grove heater which does not produce unconsumed solid carbonaceous matter at a rate in excess of (1) gram per minute;
102.5 The use of other equipment in agricultural operations necessary for the growing of crops or raising of fowl or animals;
102.6 Agricultural burning for which a permit has been granted pursuant to Regulation 5;
102.7 Use of any aircraft to distribute seed, fertilizer, insecticides, or other agricultural aides over lands devoted to the growing of crops or raising of fowl or animals;
102.8 Open outdoor fires used only for cooking of food for human beings or for recreational purposes;
102.9 Devices intended to create smoke for the purpose of training persons in the art of visual opacity determinations.
102.10Diesel pile driving hammers. (This exemption shall remain in effect until December 31, 1986 and as of that date shall be repealed.)
301 LIMITATIONS: A person shall not discharge into the atmosphere from any single source of emission whatsoever any air contaminant, other than uncombined water vapor, for a period or periods aggregating more than three minutes in any one hour which is:
301.1 As dark or darker in shade as that designated No. 1 on the Ringelmann Chart, as published by the United States Bureau of Mines, or
301.2 Of such opacity as to obscure a human observer's view, or a certified calibrated in-stack opacity monitoring system to a degree equal to or greater than does smoke described in Subsection 301.1 of this rule. | SACRAMENTO METROPOLITAN AIR QUALITY MANAGEMENT DISTRICT
RULE 401 - RINGELMANN CHART
(Adopted 8-3-77; Amended 4-19-83)
200 DEFINITIONS (NOT INCLUDED)
400 ADMINISTRATIVE REQUIREMENTS (NOT INCLUDED)
500 MONITORING AND RECORDS (NOT INCLUDED)
101 PURPOSE: To limit the discharge of air contaminants into the atmosphere through visible emissions and opacity.
102 EXEMPTIONS: The provisions of this rule sha | {
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Tuesday 21 May
Waved albatross (Phoebastria irrorata)
What’s the World’s Favourite Species?Find out here.
Waved albatross fact file
- Find out more
- Print factsheet
Waved albatross description
The waved albatross is unique in being the largest bird in the Galapagos Islands, and the only albatross species found entirely within the tropics (3). It has a white head, with a tinge of creamy-yellow on its crown and neck. The body plumage is mostly a chestnut-brown, with a whitish breast and underwing. Its bill is a dull yellow, and its feet are bluish (5). Juveniles differ slightly from adults by having a whiter head and a duller bill (2).
- Diomedea irrorata. Top
BBC Wildlife Finder:
Save the Albatross:
- BirdLife International:
IUCN Red List (September, 2007)
- del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A. and Sargatal, J. (1992) Handbook of the Birds of the World. Vol. 1: Ostrich to Ducks. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona.
Charles Darwin Foundation (April, 2007)
CMS (April, 2007)
Birdlife International (April, 2007)
Save the Albatross (April, 2007)
Birdlife International, Campaigns (April, 2007)
Birdlife International, News (April, 2007)
- Awkerman, J.A., Huyvaert, K.P., Mangel, J., Shigueto, J.A. and Anderson, D.J. (2006) Incidental and intentional catch threatens Galapagos waved albatross. Biological Conservation, 133: 483 - 489.
- view the contents of, and Material on, the website;
Waved albatross biology
This large seabird feeds on fish and squid from the surface of the ocean, and also on crustaceans (2). It is thought to often feed during the night, when squid swim closer to the surface, making for an easier meal. The waved albatross has also been seen stealing food from other birds, such as boobies; a feeding strategy that is called kleptoparasitism (2).
Waved albatross mate for life; a relationship that starts with an elaborate courtship ritual. This routine is a precise sequence of moves, which includes rapidly circling and bowing their bills, clacking their beaks together and raising their bills skyward whilst letting out a “whoo-ooo” call (3). A pair of albatross will lay one egg in a depression on bare ground between April and June, where it is incubated for almost two months (2) (3). The newly hatched chicks have blackish-brown down, and after two weeks they are left in ‘nursery groups’ whilst the parents go fishing and return to feed them pre-digested oily fish liquid (3). About 167 days after hatching they are developed enough to fly (2), and around January the young will leave the colony and spend an astonishing six years at sea, feeding and scavenging. After this time, they will return to the island to find a mate and breed (3). These large birds can live for up to 30 years (6).Top
Waved albatross rangeTop
Waved albatross habitat
This is an open ocean species that comes to land to breed, at which time it can be found on cliffs, rocky shores and shrubland (3).Top
Waved albatross statusTop
Waved albatross threats
Like other albatross species, the greatest threat to the waved albatross is human fishing activities. Many are unintentionally drowned by longline fishing boats; a fishing method that involves a single line up to 130 kilometres long, with thousands of baited hooks attached to it, being pulled behind a boat. Waved albatrosses, scavenging in the ocean, try to eat the bait from the line as it is set behind the boat, but instead swallow the hooks and are dragged under and drowned (7). Currently, waved albatross are only affected by longlining when feeding off the coast of Peru, as industrial longline fishing is prohibited in the Galapagos Marine Reserve. However, there is pressure from the fishing industry to allow longlining within the reserve, which would have an extremely damaging impact on the population of waved albatross (8).
Waved albatross are also threatened by water pollution, such as oil slicks; the ingestion of contaminants, and occasional intentional harvesting for human consumption (3) (9). Additionally, because it breeds on only one, or possibly two, islands, this makes it very vulnerable to any chance events (1). As albatross are long-lived birds, they are exceptionally vulnerable to the effects of any threats, as they can not breed fast enough to replace the numbers being killed (6).Top
Waved albatross conservation
Española is part of the Galápagos National Park and Marine Reserve, and World Heritage Site, which means that this breeding site of the waved albatross is well protected. There are no introduced species on the island, and tourism is well regulated. The other potential breeding site, the Isla de la Plata, is part of Machalilla National Park but does not have the same level of protection as Española, and therefore the albatross could benefit from increased protection of this island (5).
A number of organisations are working together to encourage and train fisherman to use methods that reduce the threat of longlines to albatross. These methods include using devices to scare birds away from the longlines, releasing the line from the boat underwater out of reach of the birds, and using weights so the lines sink more quickly (6). It is hoped that longlining remains prohibited within the Galapagos Marine Reserve.Top
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Waved albatross (Phoebastria irrorata)
What’s the World’s Favourite Species?Find out here.
Waved albatross fact file
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Waved albatross description
The waved albatross is unique in being the largest bird in the Galapagos Islands, and the only albatross species found entirely within the tropics (3). It has a white head, with a tinge of creamy-yellow on | {
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Computer Figures Stored-Grain Insect
Farmers who store their own grain can make better pest
management decisions by using an ARS-developed expert system. Biologist Paul
Flinn shows how the Stored Grain Advisor can reduce insecticide applications
and lessen the chance that grain will become infested while in storage.
Next July, a Kansas farmer stores wheat with a moisture content of 12
percent and a temperature of 90° F in a grain bin.
After entering the storage information into his personal computer, a program
called Stored Grain Advisor (SGA) indicates he will need to be wary of damaging
insect infestations if he plans to store the grain past mid-September.
SGA helps the grain manager select the most appropriate control methods.
According to the scenario, the program recommends sampling for insects 1 month
after harvest and cooling the grain with aeration in September to possibly
avoid a need to fumigate with an insecticide.
"We developed the SGA program as a decision-making aid that should help
grain managers refrain from using pesticides unnecessarily, while maintaining
quality in their product," says Paul W. Flinn, an ARS biologist at the
U.S. Grain Marketing Research Laboratory in Manhattan, Kansas.
The software, available to farmers and grain elevator operators, is designed
to run under Microsoft Windows on an IBM-compatible personal computer.
It will be distributed this summer through extension programs at Kansas
State, Oklahoma State, and Montana State Universities.
SGA uses computer models to predict insect population growth, degradation of
insecticides, and the effects of grain fumigation.
Besides serving as a management tool, SGA is also an educational tool. Grain
managers can get information on how to sample grain for insect pests and how to
identify the insects they find. An insect identification icon allows the user
to view pictures of 16 of the most damaging insects in stored wheat, along with
descriptions of the pests and the damage they inflict.
Another SGA module graphically predicts how different management
choicesfor example, time of fumigationaffect population growth of
Flinn and ARS entomologist David W. Hagstrum confirmed the accuracy of SGA
using data from some 50 different grain bins in Kansas and Oklahoma. In each of
3 years, they sampled grain monthly from June through January for insects,
temperature, moisture, test weight, and insecticide residue. Insect pests they
most frequently saw were rusty grain beetle, lesser grain borer, red flour
beetle, and saw-toothed grain beetle.
The model was correct 80 percent of the time in predicting which bins would
become infested with low, moderate, or high insect densities, and it was not
biased in over- or under-predicting.
Rarely did wheat become infested with insects when it was stored at moisture
levels of less than 10 percent and aerated to less than 68° F early in the
Future enhancements the scientists plan for SGA include addition of other
grains besides wheat and the ability to forecast economic consequences of
different management actions. By Ben Hardin, ARS.
W. Flinn is in the USDA-ARS
Research Unit, U.S. Grain Marketing and Production Research Center, 1515
College Avenue, Manhattan, KS, 66502; phone (785) 776-2707, fax (785) 537-5584.
"Computer Figures Stored-Grain Insect Risk"
was published in the June 1995 issue of
Agricultural Research magazine. | Computer Figures Stored-Grain Insect
Farmers who store their own grain can make better pest
management decisions by using an ARS-developed expert system. Biologist Paul
Flinn shows how the Stored Grain Advisor can reduce insecticide applications
and lessen the chance that grain will become infested while in storage.
Next July, a Kansas farmer stores wheat with a moisture content of 12
percent and | {
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Submitted to: Plant and Animal Genome VX Conference Abstracts
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: January 5, 2000
Publication Date: N/A
One of the most devastating pests of sugarbeet in the U.S. is the root maggot (Tetanops myopaeformis Roder). Losses can be higher than 20% in infested fields and are speculated to increase in the next few years due to the anticipated removal of all chemical pesticides effective against the maggot from EPA approved registrations. Currently no biological control measures are available. Introduction of multiple resistance genes into transgenic plants will most likely prove to be the most effective and perhaps sustained means of controlling diseases and insect infestations. Stable incorporation of beneficial genes into sugarbeet has been hampered by a lack of reproducible transformation methods. We are employing one of two transformation methods developed in this laboratory to introduce beneficial genes for insect control into sugarbeet. Two approaches are being undertaken for management of the sugarbeet root maggot (SBRM). One approach involves the expression in transgenic sugarbeet plants of proteinase inhibitor genes to specifically target the digestive proteases leading to inhibition of catalysis of dietary proteins essential for normal insect growth and development. Another approach being evaluated is the effect of cytokinin-induced insecticidal compounds on the SBRM larvae. Leaf surface extracts of Nicotiana plumbaginifolia plants transformed with a cytokinin biosynthesis gene induced a twitching response and death of more than 90% of first instar larvae as compared to about 25% of the controls at 5 days. Sugarbeet plants transformed with a cytokinin biosynthesis gene have been regenerated for further analysis of the effect of cytokinins on defense responses. | Submitted to: Plant and Animal Genome VX Conference Abstracts
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: January 5, 2000
Publication Date: N/A
One of the most devastating pests of sugarbeet in the U.S. is the root maggot (Tetanops myopaeformis Roder). Losses can be higher than 20% in infested fields and are speculated to increase in the next few years due to the anticipated remov | {
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AERIAL APPLICATION TECHNOLOGY FOR CROP PRODUCTION AND PROTECTION
Location: Areawide Pest Management Research
Title: Evaluation of toxicity of selected insecticides against thrips on cotton in laboratory bioassays
Submitted to: Journal of Cotton Science
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: August 25, 2008
Publication Date: October 2, 2008
Citation: Lopez, J., Fritz, B.K., Latheef, M.A., Lan, Y., Martin, D.E., Hoffmann, W.C. 2008. Evaluation of toxicity of selected insecticides against thrips on cotton in laboratory bioassays. Journal of Cotton Science. 12:188-194.
Interpretive Summary: Western flower thrips are a pest of cotton in the United States that degrades cotton quality and yield and vectors plant diseases. Studies were conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of three classes of insecticides (organophosphates, spinosyn, and neonicotinoids) in controlling both immature and adult Western flower thrips. Adult vial testing showed that all technical insecticides had different lethal dosages with spinosad being the most toxic and imidacloprid being the least toxic. Spray table assessments showed no significant effects of spray droplet size on thrips control. However, increased spray rates provided better control at lower active ingredient rates, indicating that the increased spray rate resulted in better coverage and improved efficacy. Results of these laboratory studies will be used as a basis for selection of insecticides to control Western flower thrips in producer-grown cotton.
Adult vial technique (AVT) and spray table bioassays were conducted to evaluate toxicity of selected insecticides against immature and adult Western flower thrips (WFT), Frankliniella occidentalis (Pergande) (Thysanoptera: Thripidae). In AVT, technical insecticides comprising of organophosphates (dicrotophos and methamidophos), spinosyn (spinosad) and neonicotinoids (thiamethoxam and imidacloprid) were used. The LC50 values for contact with the insecticides were all significantly different, with spinosad being most toxic and imidacloprid being least toxic to F. occidentalis. Spray table tests were conducted using formulated insecticides comprised of dicrotophos, methamidophos and spinosad on thrips-infested greenhouse-grown cotton plants. Multiple application treatments of varying droplet sizes and densities were made at 19 L/ha (2 gpa) and thrips sampled at 1, 3 and 7 days after treatment (DAT). Droplet characteristics (size and density) and DAT did not significantly influence post-treatment thrips densities on cotton plants. Average numbers of thrips/plant on methamidophos- and spinosad-treated cotton plants were significantly fewer than those on dicrotophos-treated and untreated plants. Spray table treatments were also made to examine effects of spray rate [19(2) and 47(5) L/ha(gpa)] on thrips control at 3, 5, 7 and 14 DAT on cotton plants at different active ingredient (a.i.) rates of spinosad. Increased spray rate [47 L/ha (5 gpa)] provided better control regardless of DAT at a lower spinosad a.i. rate indicating that improved coverage increased efficacy at marginal control a.i. concentrations. | AERIAL APPLICATION TECHNOLOGY FOR CROP PRODUCTION AND PROTECTION
Location: Areawide Pest Management Research
Title: Evaluation of toxicity of selected insecticides against thrips on cotton in laboratory bioassays
Submitted to: Journal of Cotton Science
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: August 25, 2008
Publication Date: October 2, 2008
Citation: Lopez, J., Fritz, | {
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Frequently Asked Questions
Last updated November 2007
Q: Now that Proposition 1 (the regional roads and transit measure) has failed, will work on the Bel-Red corridor continue? Does the election result affect the timing of Bel-Red being implemented?
A: Implementation of the steering committee’s vision for the Bel-Red corridor will continue, despite the defeat of Proposition 1. The steering committee’s recommendation for the future for Bel-Red is about creating a new land use vision, a multi-modal transportation system, new parks, and improving the natural environment. The land use pattern in the committee’s vision is based on a “nodal” development concept of concentrating development in a more mixed use, dense fashion that could support, and be supported by, transit. This land use vision will initially be supported by enhanced bus transit and light rail in the longer term, should voters support light rail extensions in a subsequent vote. There are also many other reasons by this type of land use pattern makes sense for the area: more efficient use of land locating houses, jobs, and services in closer proximity to each other, and creating a more walkable, connected area. The plan can be implemented with bus rapid transit supporting redevelopment in the Bel Red area until light rail transit is implemented.
Sound Transit is proceeding with the environmental review of the East Link project, which would connect light rail from downtown Seattle to Mercer Island, Bellevue and Redmond. The East Link project is funded through the release of the draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) and includes conceptual engineering on the EIS alternatives. The draft EIS is anticipated to be released in fall 2008. Ultimately, voters will need to approve funding for the construction of East Link. Having started the environmental and engineering process will allow for a faster implementation once a funding package is approved. Funding to construct this project will be subject to discussions between Sound Transit, the state legislature, and other regional transportation stakeholders. The timing and funding source of East Link is unclear at this point, yet the project continues to be a vital component of the City’s mobility strategy.
Q: What is the steering committee’s vision for the future of the Bel-Red corridor?
A: According to the committee’s vision, the Bel-Red corridor in 2030 will be an area that is unique within the city of Bellevue and the entire Puget Sound region. It will be an area where thriving businesses will be adjacent to, and sometimes mixed with, livable neighborhoods, all served by a multi-modal transportation system that connects the area to the greater city and region. The area will also be distinguished by environmental and community amenities that will serve residents and employees in the area, as well as residents from surrounding neighborhoods and the entire city. The area will transition over time, accommodating a mix of both existing businesses and new forms of development as the area changes.
Q: What is included in the committee’s preferred alternative?
A: The plan includes more intensive, mixed use land use patterns in portions of the corridor that would be linked with light rail transit stations; improvements to the overall transportation infrastructure; parks, and other open space amenities; and improvements to the natural environment, focused on the stream corridors that run through the area. The best way to describe the preferred alternative is by using the land use map: Bel-Red Corridor Preferred Alternative Map.
Q: I’m concerned about transportation impacts. How does the committee’s recommendation address this?
A: The committee’s recommendation includes major transportation system improvements in the preferred alternative (found on: Bel-Red Corridor Preferred Alternative Map). The alternative plans for new arterial and local streets, and trail, pedestrian and bicycle connections to support anticipated development and provide better linkages within the area and to adjoining neighborhoods. The plan also anticipates light rail transit and local bus improvements that would support light rail (as well as provide better transit service before light rail becomes operational). Given that Bel-Red is surrounded by residential neighborhoods, neighborhood traffic calming and strategies to minimize cut-through traffic into neighborhoods is an important component to the transportation strategy.
Q: What happens now that the steering committee has completed its work?
A: The steering committee’s recommendation was transmitted to City Council on September 24. On October 1 the Council directed the city boards and commissions wiith crafting new Comprehensive Plan policies and Land Use Code regulations that implement the preferred alternative. The Planning Commission will lead review of potential Comprehensive Plan and Land Use Code changes, and, following input f rom four other boards and comissions, will likely forward its recommendations to Council in early 2008. The Council will then consider the Planning Commission recommendation, and potentially approve plan and code amendments and an associated financial strategy in spring 2008. Additional implmentation actions will likely be needed that occur after the adoption of the plan and code amendments.
Q: How will this vision be implemented by the city?
A: There is much additional technical work to create the ordinances and tools to implement the committee’s vision. The technical work will include a phasing plan, a financing strategy for public improvements, and design of streets and other facilities. There will also be work undertaken to update the Bel-Red Overlake Transportation Study (BROTS) agreement between Bellevue and Redmond, since Redmond has also been updating their plan for the Overlake area.
Q: What occurs after a new transportation and land use vision is adopted?
A: Once the City Council approves a new subarea plan, the plan would likely be phased in over several years. Given the area’s transportation constraints and the need for other infrastructure to serve new development, the phased approach will coordinate the land use plan with the city’s ability to provide transportation capacity, public services and facilities. | Frequently Asked Questions
Last updated November 2007
Q: Now that Proposition 1 (the regional roads and transit measure) has failed, will work on the Bel-Red corridor continue? Does the election result affect the timing of Bel-Red being implemented?
A: Implementation of the steering committee’s vision for the Bel-Red corridor will continue, despite the defeat of Proposition 1. The steering committ | {
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Introduction to Ceredigion County Council
Ceredigion County Council is a unitary authority created in 1996 as a result of local government re-organisation. It covers an area of 180,500 hectares (696 square miles) and has a population of 78,000.
It has responsibility for environmental health, housing, planning, highways, schools, libraries, recreational facilities, social services, local taxation and benefits, tourism and economic development, amongst other items.
Ceredigion has adopted the Cabinet system of administration, which is led by the Council's Leader and supported by 7 Cabinet Members. The Cabinet normally meets at the Council's offices in Aberaeron on a fortnightly basis, and carries out the Executive functions for the Authority. The Council has a total of 42 elected Members.
Those members that are not members of the Cabinet sit on various Overview and Scrutiny Committees.
The Council's structure comprises a Chief Executive and five Directors and is divided into departments as follows:
- Chief Executive
- Education and Community Services
- Environmental Services and Housing
- Highways, Properties and Works
- Social Services
For further information on aspects of the Council, please see the related links. | Introduction to Ceredigion County Council
Ceredigion County Council is a unitary authority created in 1996 as a result of local government re-organisation. It covers an area of 180,500 hectares (696 square miles) and has a population of 78,000.
It has responsibility for environmental health, housing, planning, highways, schools, libraries, recreational facilities, social services, local taxation a | {
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Under Batas Pambansa Blg. 79, the primary clientele of the Commission on Filipinos Overseas are:
- Filipino permanent migrants or permanent residents abroad
- Filipinos overseas who have become naturalized citizens of other countries or dual citizens
- Filipino spouses and other partners of foreign nationals leaving the country
- Descendants of Filipinos overseas, as defined in Batas Pambansa Blg. 79
- Filipino youth overseas
- Exchange Visitor Program participants
However, the recent passage of RA10022 expanded the definition of the term Overseas Filipinos, to include generally all Filipinos residing and living overseas, whether on the long term or short term. This redefinition also emphasizes the inter-agency nature of the Commission encompassing other cabinet-level line agencies involved in issues of migration. | Under Batas Pambansa Blg. 79, the primary clientele of the Commission on Filipinos Overseas are:
- Filipino permanent migrants or permanent residents abroad
- Filipinos overseas who have become naturalized citizens of other countries or dual citizens
- Filipino spouses and other partners of foreign nationals leaving the country
- Descendants of Filipinos overseas, as defined in Batas Pambansa Blg. | {
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New Drugs in the Treatment of Mood Disorders
This clinical study compares the effectiveness of two anticonvulsants Lamotrigine (Lamictal) Monotherapy and Gabapentin (Neurontin) in patients with treatment resistant affective disorders. We initially have found that the response rate to lamotrigine (51%) exceeded that of gabapentin (28%) or placebo (21%). In this study the placebo phase has been dropped so that we examine possible clinical and biological factors predictors of response. The drugs will be given in a randomized order for six weeks each and you will not know when you are on a given one. There will be a 2-4 week "washout" period between treatments. If you respond well to one of these treatments, a longer open continuation period will be offered at the end of this study. This would involve one or both drugs in combination. A variety of rating scales and brain imaging procedures will also be offered before and during each drug evaluation. Both lamotrigine and gabapentin are generally well tolerated. A serious potentially life threatening rash occurs in about 1/500 patients treated with lamotrigine, however. Common side effects are rash, dizziness, unsteadiness, double vision, blurred vision, nausea, vomiting, insomnia, sedation, and headache. These side effects are usually mild, and resolve with continued time on the drug or a decrease in dosage.
Drug: Lamotrigine (Lamictal® (Registered Trademark)
Drug: Gabapentin (Neurontin® (Registered Trademark))
|Study Design:||Endpoint Classification: Safety/Efficacy Study
Primary Purpose: Treatment
|Official Title:||Evaluation of Lamotrigine (Lamictal® (Registered Trademark)) Monotherapy and Gabapentin (Neurontin® (Registered Trademark)) Monotherapy in the Treatment of Mood Disorders|
|Study Start Date:||May 1995|
|Estimated Study Completion Date:||May 2001|
The anticonvulsants carbamazepine (CBZ) and valproate (VPA) have efficacy in the treatment of mood disorders, suggesting that other anticonvulsants with related mechanisms of action may have similar utility. Additional treatments are sorely needed because many patients with recurrent affective disorder have symptoms refractory to treatment with conventional agents, including lithium, carbamazepine, and valproate. This refractory group is the major focus of our investigative efforts on 3-west in the Section of Psychobiology, NIMH. Moreover, establishing differential clinical and biological predictors of response has become increasingly important both to rapid allocation of appropriate treatment and as they may supply insight into the pathophysiology of the mood disorders and their subtypes.
Lamotrigine, a phenyltriazine use-dependent sodium channel blocker that inhibits release of excitatory amino acids, is a new anticonvulsant with fewer side effects than older agents and was recently approved by the FDA as adjunctive therapy in the treatment of partial seizures. Heretofore, only preliminary open clinical evidence suggested that lamotrigine may have mood stabilizing properties.
Gabapentin is a neutral amino acid and gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) analog which increases brain GABA levels and has fewer side effects than older agents and does not require hematological or hepatic monitoring. Preliminary evidence only from open "add-on" series had suggested that gabapentin therapy might have antidepressant and antianxiety effects, if not mood stabilizing properties.
We wish to evaluate the efficacy of lamotrigine and gabapentin in the refractory mood disorders. We also wish to examine the neurobiology and phenomenology of lamotrigine and gabapentin responders and nonresponders to ascertain potential predictors and concomitants of response to these medications. This study may lead to improvement in the treatment and understanding of mood disorders by providing controlled data on efficacy of these potential new treatments, potential predictors of response, and further insights into the pathophysiology of mood disorders.
|United States, Maryland|
|National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)|
|Bethesda, Maryland, United States, 20892| | New Drugs in the Treatment of Mood Disorders
This clinical study compares the effectiveness of two anticonvulsants Lamotrigine (Lamictal) Monotherapy and Gabapentin (Neurontin) in patients with treatment resistant affective disorders. We initially have found that the response rate to lamotrigine (51%) exceeded that of gabapentin (28%) or placebo (21%). In this study the placebo phase has been drop | {
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Functional Endoscopic Evaluation of Swallowing
The investigators objective is to describe functional endoscopic evaluation of swallowing findings in children with cerebral palsy.
|Study Design:||Time Perspective: Cross-Sectional|
|Official Title:||Achados da avaliação videoendoscópica da deglutição em crianças Com Paralisia Cerebral.|
|Study Start Date:||September 2005|
|Study Completion Date:||November 2005|
|Primary Completion Date:||November 2005 (Final data collection date for primary outcome measure)|
Cerebral palsy (CP) is a predominantly motor disorder and dysphagia is a frequent complaint. Functional endoscopic evaluation of swallowing (FESS) involves anatomic and functional observation of the larynx and pharynx, evaluation of swallowing and maneuvers to improve it, also testing the laryngeal sensitivity. We evaluated nine patients with CP of both sexes, which age varied from 1 to 10 years old, attended at dysphagia multidisciplinary clinic, at NAMI (Integrated Medical Assistance Nucleons).
|Dysphagia multidisciplinary clinic at Integrated Medical Assistance Nucleons|
|Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil|
|Principal Investigator:||Renata Haguette, Mestre||Fortaleza University| | Functional Endoscopic Evaluation of Swallowing
The investigators objective is to describe functional endoscopic evaluation of swallowing findings in children with cerebral palsy.
|Study Design:||Time Perspective: Cross-Sectional|
|Official Title:||Achados da avaliação videoendoscópica da deglutição em crianças Com Paralisia Cerebral.|
|Study Start Date:||September 2005|
|Study Completion Date:||No | {
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Ipilimumab + Temozolomide in Metastatic Melanoma
The goal of this clinical research study is to learn if combining ipilimumab and temozolomide can help to control metastatic melanoma. The safety of this drug combination will be studied. Researchers would also like to study how this therapy affects the levels of certain chemicals in the blood that are related to your immune system.
|Study Design:||Endpoint Classification: Safety/Efficacy Study
Intervention Model: Single Group Assignment
Masking: Open Label
Primary Purpose: Treatment
|Official Title:||Phase II Study of Ipilimumab Plus Temozolomide in Patients With Metastatic Melanoma|
- 6-Month Progression-Free Survival (PFS) Rate [ Time Frame: 6 Months ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
|Study Start Date:||May 2010|
|Estimated Primary Completion Date:||May 2014 (Final data collection date for primary outcome measure)|
Experimental: Ipilimumab + Temozolomide
Induction: Ipilimumab 10 mg/kg IV over 90 minutes Day 1 + Temozolomide 200 mg/m2 PO on Days 1 - 4, every 3 weeks for 4 courses over 3 months.
Induction Phase: 10 mg/kg by vein (IV) over approximately 90 minutes on Day 1 only repeated every 3 weeks until 4 courses of therapy are given over 3 months. For the Maintenance Phase, dose repeated every 12 weeks.
Other Names:Drug: Temozolomide
Induction Phase, 200 mg/m^2 by mouth (PO) on Days 1 to 4, repeated every 3 weeks until 4 courses of therapy are given over 3 months. For the Maintenance Phase, dose delivered on Days 1 to 5, repeated every 4 weeks.
Other Name: Temodar
Show Detailed Description
|United States, Texas|
|UT MD Anderson Cancer Center|
|Houston, Texas, United States, 77030|
|Principal Investigator:||Sapna P. Patel, MD||UT MD Anderson Cancer Center| | Ipilimumab + Temozolomide in Metastatic Melanoma
The goal of this clinical research study is to learn if combining ipilimumab and temozolomide can help to control metastatic melanoma. The safety of this drug combination will be studied. Researchers would also like to study how this therapy affects the levels of certain chemicals in the blood that are related to your immune system.
|Study Design:|| | {
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Energy Impact Illinois is an alliance of CMAP, utility companies, government agencies, and citizen advocacy groups. Together, they are working to create a long-term market for improving the energy efficiency of residential, commercial, and industrial buildings. Visit energyimpactillinois.org for a wealth of resources to help residents, businesses, and contractors save energy and money.
The effort is made possible through a $25 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to create a regional marketplace for improving the energy efficiency of buildings within the seven-county CMAP region, including Rockford. Awarded to CMAP in partnership with the City of Chicago, City of Rockford, and other regional stakeholders, the grant is one of 25 that were announced on April 21, 2010, through the U.S. DOE Better Buildings Neighborhood Program. The primary goal is to build a comprehensive, sustainable energy efficiency retrofit program that aggressively targets commercial, industrial, and residential buildings. Over the initial three-year effort, Energy Impact Illinois looks to:
- Leverage the federal investment with over $125 million in private investments.
- Create more than 2,000 jobs (e.g., construction contractors, installers, energy auditors).
- Retrofit more than 8,000 units, with at least 15-percent energy savings per retrofit.
Energy efficiency retrofits of residential, commercial, and industrial buildings can include installation of high-efficiency heating and cooling systems, installation and lighting, weatherization activities, and window or door replacement.
The GO TO 2040 Regional Vision states that the region should be a leader in green building techniques, the production of green energy, and in providing energy-efficient transportation options. During the "Invent the Future" phase of public engagement for GO TO 2040, participants identified energy reduction as one of the four most important indicators to track progress toward achieving the Regional Vision, along with regional economy, transportation choice, and land consumption. Energy efficiency is also part of many other strategies in GO TO 2040, ranging from the mixed-use reinvestment that is part of promoting livable communities to the provision of a balanced supply of housing and jobs.
While energy efficiency measures generally entail an upfront cost, the stream of avoided costs continues long after the initial investment is repaid. Furthermore, many state and federal programs are available to assist with the initial costs to help encourage energy efficiency by local governments, residents, and businesses. Based on 2005 prices, the region's average household could save $550 per year in natural gas and electricity following a retrofit, while savings for a typical commercial account would be $6,400. A particular energy efficiency measure may not make sense in every case, but in general pays dividends to the user, thus making a clear financial motive for energy efficiency.
Energy efficiency also has a broad economic payoff by directly and indirectly creating "green jobs" while also having a multiplier effect on jobs elsewhere in the economy. In fact, most of the green jobs expected to emerge in the seven-county region over the next decade are linked to energy use and efficiency. While estimates of direct job creation vary, it is projected that for every $1 million invested in energy efficiency, approximately eight to ten full-time jobs are created, primarily in the skilled trades needed to conduct energy audits and install energy efficiency measures.
To learn more about how you can get involved, please visit our user-friendly information system at www.energyimpactillinois.org.
Daniel Olson, Senior Energy Efficiency Planner
Emily Plagman, Senior Energy Planner
Joey-Lin Silberhorn, Energy Efficiency Program Assistant
The Energy Impact Illinois website also offers a Ways to Save widget as a Find Energy-Saving Actions tool, helping users identify ways they can improve their buildings to reduce energy use and bills, including information on available incentives, rebates, and financing.
Simply choose the audience your site focuses on and select "Create Widget" to display the code that needs to be integrated into your website to display the widget. Below is an example of a widget geared to residents:
Access to Finance
Residential Retrofit Program
Rockford Residential Rebates Program
Residential Employer Assisted Housing Retrofits Program
City of Chicago MURIL
Village of Oak Park MURIL
Access to Information
EI2 Information System
Commercial Building Energy Tool
Access to Workforce | Energy Impact Illinois is an alliance of CMAP, utility companies, government agencies, and citizen advocacy groups. Together, they are working to create a long-term market for improving the energy efficiency of residential, commercial, and industrial buildings. Visit energyimpactillinois.org for a wealth of resources to help residents, businesses, and contractors save energy and money.
The effort | {
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Pleuropneumonia in pigs
Photo of a DNA gel. The unique Australian serovar 15 isolates are in lanes 3 and 4 showing the lack of the arrowed band in lane 2. A control sample is in lane 1.
Pleuropneumonia in pigs has emerged as a major disease in the Australian pig industry. The chronic form of the disease has been estimated to cost $64 per sow a year without medication costs. The disease is caused by the bacterium Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae. This organism exists in a number of different types, with serovars 1, 5, 7 and 15 being the most common types in Australian pigs.
The disease can be divided into three forms - peracute, acute and chronic. It can affect all age groups, but most frequently affects pigs between weaning and six months of age. Recent experience has highlighted that increased levels of pleurisy at slaughter checks are often an early warning sign of a pleuropneumonia problem.
In the peracute form, pigs die within 24 hours of being infected. They show a bloodstained frothy discharge from the nose and mouth with obvious breathing difficulties (panting and heaving of the chest and abdomen). Infected pigs are reluctant to move and if forced to move, will collapse. Their body temperature is raised and they are reluctant to eat.
In acute cases, the signs are similar but develop more slowly. Many untreated pigs, and some treated pigs, die in one to four days. Survivors may recover completely or develop into chronic cases with permanent damage to the lungs and pleura.
Chronic cases are survivors of the acute disease. Few of them die due to pleuropneumonia but they cough persistently and grow slowly.
Outbreaks of the disease can be due to the organism entering a herd for the first time. Outbreaks can also occur in herds already carrying a 'silent' infection. In the latter case, there is typically some precipitating factor (overstocking, poor ventilation, entry of some other disease).
Stress conditions such as overcrowding, poor ventilation, a dusty environment and large temperature fluctuations help the disease become established in a piggery.
The condition may be suspected if pigs are dying with symptoms of pneumonia. However, either blood tests or a post-mortem with laboratory examination of samples are necessary to conclusively diagnose pleuropneumonia. Laboratory culture also allows the serovar of the A. pleuropneumoniae to be confirmed, necessary if inactivated vaccines are to be used as part of a control/prevention program.
Our microbiology research group has, with industry funding, developed a range of diagnostic tools including conventional and molecular-based serotyping and DNA fingerprinting.
Breeding stock should only be purchased from herds of a similar or higher health status.
In the face of an acute outbreak, antibiotics may be necessary. The most appropriate antibiotic to use and the details of the treatment program will vary from piggery to piggery so ask your veterinarian.
While water medication is better than in-feed medication for these acute outbreaks, the use of direct injection of pigs is the best option. It is important to review management practices (stocking rate, shed environment, pig movement) to reduce the impact of stress factors.
Control and prevention programs for pleuropneumonia need to be tailored to each farm, as each farm can have a mix of different strains and have pigs with different respiratory problems.
The use of therapeutic levels of antibiotics, either in the water or in the feed, (pulse treatment) at times of high risk can be beneficial.
Vaccines are also available. Autogenous killed vaccines provide protection only against the serovars present in the vaccine. Hence, the serovar of the strain present on a farm should be identified by culture or serology to ensure that the appropriate vaccine is used. Recently the Pork CRC has released the APP-Alive vaccine and vaccination procedure. The vaccine is given in a single dose to piglets before weaning.
A major control mechanism is management. Predisposing factors such as overcrowding and poor ventilation should be identified and corrected. Adoption of such practices as 'all-in all-out' weaner accommodation, segregated early weaning and multi-site production have been shown to be effective in controlling the disease.
Collaboration between our researchers and two laboratories in Europe has shown that an Australian strain of pleuropneumonia in pigs is so distinct that it forms a new serovar - termed serovar 15. The name change from serovar 12 to 15 makes no difference to control and prevention programs - it simply clarifies the nature of the Australian serovar 15 isolates. Recent surveys in a range of countries have shown that serovar 15 is now one of the more important serovars associated with clinical outbreaks of pleuropneumonia.
The work showing the status of Australian pleuropneumonia strains of serovar 12 (now 15) has been reported in a formal scientific paper that has been accepted by the international scientific journal 'Veterinary microbiology'.
The above picture shows a DNA separation gel - the unique Australian serovar 15 isolates are shown in lanes 3 and 4. The controls are in lanes 1 and 2. The absence in lanes 3 and 4 of the band marked in lane 2 was part of the evidence used to confirm the nature of the Australian isolates.
- for information about serotyping and DNA fingerprinting contact Conny Turni (research scientist) at the Animal Research Institute on 07 3362 9527
- contact your local veterinarian
- contact the Customer Service Centre | Pleuropneumonia in pigs
Photo of a DNA gel. The unique Australian serovar 15 isolates are in lanes 3 and 4 showing the lack of the arrowed band in lane 2. A control sample is in lane 1.
Pleuropneumonia in pigs has emerged as a major disease in the Australian pig industry. The chronic form of the disease has been estimated to cost $64 per sow a year without medication costs. The disease is caused b | {
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Personnel Recovery Agency Works to Bring All Americans Home Alive
By Kathleen T. Rhem
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, May 10, 2006 Every day, officials at the Joint Personnel Recovery Agency track the status of efforts to find 20 Americans believed to still be alive but "isolated" outside the United States.
In personnel recovery terminology, isolated personnel are U.S. servicemembers, Defense Department civilians, or contractors separated from their unit who are or may be in a situation where they must survive, evade, resist or escape, a specialist in these "SERE" techniques said here yesterday.
Air Force Tech. Sgt. Shawn E. Cross, a SERE specialist at the Joint Personnel Recovery Agency, Fort Belvoir, Va., described his unit's mission, priorities and challenges to combatant command senior enlisted leaders and service senior enlisted advisors meeting in the Pentagon. These select leaders are meeting here this week at the invitation of Command Sgt. Maj. William J. Gainey, senior enlisted advisor to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Unlike the Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office, which seeks full accounting of servicemembers missing in past wars, the Joint Personnel Recovery Agency monitors activities in cases where individuals are believed still to be alive.
"We track the living, and we try to make sure they come home," Cross said.
The longest-isolated person the agency tracks is in the case of Navy Capt. Michael Scott Speicher. Speicher's F/A-18 Hornet fighter was shot down by enemy fire during the first day of the air war over Iraq, Jan. 17, 1991, during Operation Desert Storm. Four months later, he was listed as killed in action/body not recovered. Conflicting reports and intelligence information since then led the secretary of the Navy in 2001 to change Speicher's status to missing in action and in late 2002 to again change his status to "missing-captured."
In the early days of Operation Iraqi Freedom, officials were hopeful they would find information within Iraq on Speicher's status. None has been forthcoming. But specialists working at the JPRA still think of the missing pilot as a living man out there somewhere needing rescue. "Until we have proof otherwise, we assume he's captured," Cross said.
The most recent case is that of a non-DoD U.S. citizen kidnapped in Iraq in January. Of the 20 active cases the agency tracks, 11 are of DoD personnel and nine are non-DoD civilians. Not all cases the agency tracks are focused on Iraq. Three U.S. contractors are reported captured in Colombia, and several non-DoD civilians are reported kidnapped in Colombia and Panama.
Army Command Sgt. Maj. Michael Balch, senior enlisted leader for U.S. Southern Command, is familiar with the challenges of tracking the status of kidnapped Americans through isolated regions of triple-canopy jungle in Latin America. He said chasing leads in the region is like chasing a needle in a haystack. "Just developing viable leads is very difficult," he said.
Since the beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom, the JPRA has sent 27 people to Iraq to provide personnel recovery support and give guidance in that theater. Personnel recovery specialists work to ensure units are correctly monitoring and tracking all individuals and give commanders advice on how to react if an individual goes missing or is captured.
The agency also provides U.S. military units with tools to help individuals evade and escape if isolated from their units. Some products the agency provides or has developed are:
- Evasion charts, which are maps and charts printed on sturdy non-paper material that include graphic and text information on a specific area. Cross said there were 11 different such charts in the supply system before Sept. 11, 2001. Today there are 49.
- One-way signal-emitter tags that are small, lightweight and attach to the uniform for help in finding isolated individuals.
- "Blood chits," which are written notices in several languages carried by aircrews in combat. If their aircraft is shot down, the notice identifies the Americans, encourages the local population to assist them, and promises a reward for doing so.
- "Pointee-talkees," language aids containing selected phrases in English opposite a translation in a foreign language. They are used by pointing to appropriate phrases. Cross explained that pointee-talkees in use today include phonetic pronunciations of the appropriate phrases in case servicemembers are dealing with people who can't read
These products and skills the agency's specialists help military units develop are designed to help servicemembers who become isolated safely return home. "We're selling an insurance policy that hopefully no one has to cash in," Cross said.
The agency also works to develop reintegration and debriefing protocols for helping people who have been captured reconnect with their lives. Psychologists have developed specific ways to best help people reintegrate and "normalize" their experiences, Cross said. These protocols were most recently used in the case of American reporter Jill Carroll, who was kidnapped in Iraq and held hostage for more than two months before being released unharmed.
Experts are using lessons learned in her case to better help reintegrate servicemembers in future cases, Cross said.
Though "joint" is part of the agency's name because it provides assistance to all services, the Joint Personnel Recovery Agency is predominately staffed by Air Force personnel. Cross explained that the agency is funded by the Air Force, and that the Air Force is the only service with a "survive, evade, resist, escape" military occupational specialty.
He said funding is the biggest challenge the agency faces. Unless more money becomes available through funds dedicated to fighting the global war on terrorism, the agency's two schools -- at Fredericksburg, Va., and Spokane, Wash. -- will be forced to reduce the number of students they can accommodate.
At the conclusion of Cross's briefing, Gainey recounted a recent visit he made to the agency's headquarters and urged his fellow senior enlisted leaders to visit the organization and learn more about what the personnel recovery specialists do. "You'll really see why what they do is so important," he said. | Personnel Recovery Agency Works to Bring All Americans Home Alive
By Kathleen T. Rhem
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, May 10, 2006 Every day, officials at the Joint Personnel Recovery Agency track the status of efforts to find 20 Americans believed to still be alive but "isolated" outside the United States.
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Obama, Shinseki Cite Post-traumatic Stress as Priority
By Donna Miles
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Aug. 5, 2009 Citing the direct correlation between military deployments and post-traumatic stress disorder, President Barack Obama said he’s hopeful that increasing the size of the force will help to reduce incidents of stress.
President Barack Obama and Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric K. Shinseki discuss Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits and health care reform with military journalists at a White House briefing, Aug. 4, 2009. White House photo
(Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available.
Obama joined Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric K. Shinseki yesterday to discuss a broad range of veterans issues, including his commitment to tackling the causes behind PTSD and providing resources to help those experiencing it.
“There is a direct connection between the problems of PTSD and the pace of military operations,” Obama told military reporters during a roundtable interview at the White House.
“As we are phasing down our operations in Iraq, we’re going to see fewer PTSD cases coming out of Iraq,” he said. “As we’re seeing increased velocity of operations in Afghanistan, that’s going to put more strain on the military personnel who are located there.”
Faced with that hard reality -- one he said he takes to heart as he deploys troops in the first place -- Obama said he wants to reduce the incidents of PTSD. And one of the best ways to do that, he said, is “to reduce the amount of time in theater without a break.”
Obama noted steps he’s taken to increase the size of the military, particularly the Army and Marine Corps, which have been most heavily stressed with deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan.
He also gave Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates authority to advance the Army’s growth to end its “stop-loss” policy more quickly. The unpopular policy keeps some soldiers in uniform beyond the terms of their enlistment contracts.
The president also approved Gates’ recommendation to temporarily boost the Army’s active force by 22,000 members, a move expected to begin making an impact in January.
“All those things are going to make a difference in reducing stress, because what you’ve seen is that the incidents of post-traumatic stress disorder increase with each deployment,” the president said.
But Obama called that just the first step in addressing the issue. Identifying people with symptoms of PTSD and getting them help also are key to a comprehensive approach.
“Step No. 2 is making sure that we are doing the screening that’s necessary so that problems don’t fester, and eliminating the stigma that may have historically existed when somebody is showing symptoms of PTSD -- particularly if they’re still in theater, or still on active duty,” he said.
The military has been working hard to change that paradigm, he noted. “I think that you’ve seen steps both within all the armed forces to talk about these issues, encourage people to avail themselves of services while they’re in theater, but also when they get home,” he said.
The president recognized “much more aggressive, systemic screening” VA conducts for every veteran entering its system.
The third step in addressing PTSD is to provide mental health services to those who need them.
Obama said his fiscal 2010 budget, which includes the largest VA funding increase in 30 years, will help to confront PTSD and traumatic brain injuries in a “more robust way.”
“Throwing money at the problem by itself is not enough,” he conceded. But, he added, money does help by funding more counselors, mental health specialists and treatment facilities. “We’re hiring mental health providers,” Shinseki pointed out. “We’re up to 18,000 in the VA today.”
Shinseki also noted the success of VA’s national suicide hotline, staffed by mental health professionals. In the year since it went operational, the hotline -- 1-800-273-TALK (8255) -- has received about 150,000 calls.
But the biggest measure of the hotline’s effectiveness, Shinseki said, are the 3,200 “online interventions” in which mental health professionals were able to help stop suicides “in the process.”
“Because you have a mental health professional recognizing some cues, with an electronic health record -- you have a name, you know a location -- you can begin to vector, whether it’s police or local authorities, to help,” Shinseki said.
Among those 3,200 interventions, one involved a suicide in process in Baghdad, he said. A mother who was online with her troubled son called the hotline. That sparked a chain of events that led to getting notification to the servicemember’s unit commander, who stepped in to help.
More money will fund more research into PTSD to get a better understanding of its causes, Shinseki said. “We know a lot about PTSD, but we don’t know enough,” he said.
Why, for example, are two people who have had the same experience affected differently? “There’s something here that we don’t understand,” Shinseki said. “Is it personal makeup, resilience, how kids were raised, or whatever? But unlocking that door, for both [the Defense Department] and VA, will be important because it will help us understand how we can teach resilience.”
Even with more understanding and treatment options for PTSD, Shinseki acknowledged another challenge: getting people to acknowledge they need help in the first place.
Mandatory screenings will help, he said. In addition, VA is moving its mental health care into the primary care areas of its hospitals. “We’re trying to attack that stigma of, ‘I’m going to mental health,’ as opposed to ‘I’m going to the hospital,’ where it’s not so visible,” Shinseki said.
Another challenge is getting veterans, particularly younger ones who think they can deal with the problem themselves, to reach out for help. “Some of that is having to break through … the invincibility of youth, convincing them that they have an issue [and that] we can help,” he said.
“We know if we get them into treatment, they get better,” he said. “We also know [that] if we don’t get them into treatment, it doesn’t get better, and most often it becomes debilitating.”
Shinseki pointed to 131,000 homeless veterans, many of whom began their downward spiral with undetected and untreated PTSD or other mental health problems.
As VA works with other agencies to address the homeless veteran problem, he said, it wants to resolve issues that can help the newest veterans from facing the same plight in the future.
Obama said he’s seen a change in attitudes about PTSD since the Vietnam era. “And I think both [the Defense Department] and VA take the issue of PTSD very seriously,” he said.
“I’m confident that we’re moving in the right direction,” he said. “We’re putting resources behind it. We’re putting time and energy behind it. I’m focused on it personally. But it’s going to take some time.” | Obama, Shinseki Cite Post-traumatic Stress as Priority
By Donna Miles
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Aug. 5, 2009 Citing the direct correlation between military deployments and post-traumatic stress disorder, President Barack Obama said he’s hopeful that increasing the size of the force will help to reduce incidents of stress.
President Barack Obama and Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric K | {
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The Office of Petroleum Reserves manages programs that provide the United States with strategic and economic protection against disruptions in oil supplies. The programs include:
Strategic Petroleum Reserve
With a capacity of 727-million-barrels, U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve is the largest stockpile of government-owned emergency crude oil in the world. Established in the aftermath of the 1973-74 oil embargo, the SPR provides the President with a powerful response option should a disruption in commercial oil supplies threaten the U.S. economy. It is also the critical component for the United States to meet its International Energy Agency obligation to maintain emergency oil stocks, and it provides a national defense fuel reserve.
At the end of December 2009, when fill to capacity was completed, the SPR held 726.6 million barrels. During July and August 2011, inventory was reduced to 695.9 million barrels after 30.59 million barrels were sold in response to sustained interruptions in global supplies due to civil unrest in Libya. President Obama authorized the sale as part of a larger coordinated release of petroleum by International Energy Agency countries.
Naval Petroleum and Oil Shale Reserves
The Naval Petroleum and Oil Shale Reserve (NPOSR) has a storied history beginning with its inception in 1912 during the Taft Administration, to the 1998 sale of its supergiant Elk Hills oil field (Naval Petroleum Reserve No. 1) to Occidental Petroleum under the Clinton Administration. The infamous Teapot Dome scandal in the 1920s during the Harding Administration may perhaps be the nadir in this storied history, but for the remainder of its almost-100 year history, the Reserves stood well managed to serve the Nation during times of both peace and war.
In response to the 1973 Arab oil embargo, the United States opened the Reserves to full production in 1976. Since that time, petroleum sales produced net revenues of $22 billion to the U.S. Treasury. The sale of the Elk Hills field in 1998 to Occidental Petroleum netted an additional $3.65 billion.
Today, three of the four original Petroleum Reserves (NPR-1, NPR-2, and NPR-4) have been sold or transferred to the Department of the Interior. The only remaining oil reserve managed by the Department of Energy is the Teapot Dome field (NPR-3) in Casper, Wyoming, which is now a stripper field that also serves as an oilfield technology testing center (Rocky Mountain Oilfield Testing Center).
Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve
The Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve was established in 2000 as a two million barrel supply of emergency fuel oil for homes and businesses in the northeastern United States, a region heavily dependent upon the use of heating oil. During 2011, DOE converted the inventory of the heating oil reserve from #2 high sulfur heating oil to cleaner burning ultra low sulfur distillate. DOE also reduced the size of the Reserve to one million barrels. | The Office of Petroleum Reserves manages programs that provide the United States with strategic and economic protection against disruptions in oil supplies. The programs include:
Strategic Petroleum Reserve
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Office of Planning, Environment, & Realty (HEP)
So how do you fit into the transportation planning process? Your role in the process is very important. Without your inputyour ideasstate and local governments cannot have a true understanding of your community's needs.
Although some people may think that transportation officials can get all needed information on their own, that is not the case. You may know information that is more current or detailed than is available to transportation professionals. You may also see things differently than transportation officials. This is why it is so important for you to be involved.
The transportation planning process is ongoing, nonstop, and can take many years, so there are several ways to make transportation planners aware of your needs and concerns, and also help develop transportation solutions. To make sure that you are following the latest developments, you can:
Put your name on a mailing list to receive newsletters, updates and other information from the MPOs and State DOTs.
Attend meetings of local transportation boards.
Provide your input on transportation plans.
Volunteer to serve on a citizen focus group or citizens' advisory committee.
Ask a transportation official to attend your rotary clubs, NAACP, Kiwanis clubs, community organizations, schools, and other civic organizations and explain the process.
Find out what specific public involvement opportunities are available in your area by contacting your MPO, State DOT, transit agency, local government, and federal government.
Remember that vision plans, long-range transportation plans, and transportation improvement programs are the key documents that come from transportation planning. These documents are used to build the foundation for individual transportation projects. They are all part of the big transportation picture and are important to your transportation future. Get involved! | Office of Planning, Environment, & Realty (HEP)
So how do you fit into the transportation planning process? Your role in the process is very important. Without your inputyour ideasstate and local governments cannot have a true understanding of your community's needs.
Although some people may think that transportation officials can get all needed information on their own, that is not the case. You | {
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UNITED STATES BANKRUPTCY COURT MIDDLE DISTRICT OF FLORIDA
Basics (guide) is designed to provide basic information to debtors,
creditors, the media, and the general public on different aspects of the
federal bankruptcy laws. It also provides individuals who maybe considering
bankruptcy with a basic explanation of the different chapters under which
a bankruptcy case may be filed and to answer some common questions about
the bankruptcy process.
A DVD copy of the video may be viewed, without charge, at all of the federal courthouses in the Middle District of Florida.
To play the video, click the link (another browser will appear - press the play button to begin the the video). Due to the length and quality of the video, a high-speed Internet connection such as a cable modem or DSL is necessary.
The U.S. Courts website now offers a series of eight short Bankruptcy
Basics videos streaming online. They include discussions of bankruptcy
chapters, what bankruptcy can and cannot do, the filing process, and how
to seek legal assistance. | UNITED STATES BANKRUPTCY COURT MIDDLE DISTRICT OF FLORIDA
Basics (guide) is designed to provide basic information to debtors,
creditors, the media, and the general public on different aspects of the
federal bankruptcy laws. It also provides individuals who maybe considering
bankruptcy with a basic explanation of the different chapters under which
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Law & Reference Library
The Law & Reference Library is open to the public!
Librarian is available: 8:00 AM - 4:30 PM, Monday - Friday (Eastern)
Closed weekends and Federal Holidays
The Federal Maritime Commission's law/reference library contains a large variety of books, directories, encyclopedias, journals, magazines, reports, microforms, and videos. Its holdings consist of specialized material primarily covering the various segments of the international shipping industry, as well as historical and current regulatory materials covering all phases of shipping in the U.S. foreign trades. It also contains material on several related fields such as engineering, economics, political science and an extensive collection of legal publications. The Library collection includes law encyclopedias, engineering textbooks, legal treatises, Comptroller General Decisions, and selected titles of the National Reporter system. The Library's holdings consist of approximately 8,700 volumes and numerous microfiches, CD-ROMs, and on-line services.
The Library is an information source for Commission staff, government agencies, private organizations, and the public.
Members of the public are welcome to visit the Library and use the materials; however, all collection materials must be used in the Library during Library hours of operation. Library materials will only be released through an interlibrary loan request. The Library accepts requests from other libraries by phone, fax, or through Online Computer Library Center (OCLC). The Library's OCLC symbol is: DFR. If the borrowing library does not use the OCLC interlibrary loan system, a signed American Library Association interlibrary loan form is required. The Library will only loan books, reports, and all but the most current magazines through the interlibrary loan system. Loans are for a two week period, with a one week renewal. | Law & Reference Library
The Law & Reference Library is open to the public!
Librarian is available: 8:00 AM - 4:30 PM, Monday - Friday (Eastern)
Closed weekends and Federal Holidays
The Federal Maritime Commission's law/reference library contains a large variety of books, directories, encyclopedias, journals, magazines, reports, microforms, and videos. Its holdings consist of specialized material p | {
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To show that you can increse your strength with a
One classs period.
Two broom handles
Long piece of rope
How can one person pull 2 strong resisting people together
Tell 2 students to hold broom handles about 2 feet apart.
Tell the class that you want someone to pull the 2 people together. They may only use the length of rope. WARNING they may not lasso each other. Have different people try moving the 2 students together.Share results.
Tie one end of the rope around one handle and then loop it over the other handle and back 5 or 6 times.
One small weak person can easily pull them together.
Have them draw what the poles and rope looked like when the 2
people were moved.
Pulleys decrease the effort needed to do a job.
Go back to Machine Index | To show that you can increse your strength with a
One classs period.
Two broom handles
Long piece of rope
How can one person pull 2 strong resisting people together
Tell 2 students to hold broom handles about 2 feet apart.
Tell the class that you want someone to pull the 2 people together. They may only use the length of rope. WARNING they may not lasso each other. Have different people try moving | {
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On Target: Disability and Health in New York State, Volume 6
- Newsletter also available in PDF format (PDF, 238kb, 6pg. )
Stay Fit for Life!
Healthy Lifestyles for People With Disabilities
Good health. Feeling great. Being independent and having control. Pursuing happiness. These are important ingredients for a healthy life.
A healthy lifestyle is its own reward. But it can be hard work. To achieve it, people must look beyond the barriers in their lives and realize that they CAN create their own opportunities for healthy, happy and active lives.
You may be thinking at this point, "That's sounds good. But how can I do that? At times, it seems impossible."
This issue of On Target contains practical ideas and suggestions for ways in which people with disabilities can improve their physical well-being. The samplings of programs, services and educational materials will serve as a starting point for becoming fit for life. It's always a good idea, too, to consult with your health professional before beginning any physical fitness program.
But, regular physical activity is just one piece of the healthy lifestyles puzzle. The next issue of On Target will explore other ways to lead a healthier life with a look at methods for improving nutritional, emotional and psychological well-being.
Regular physical activity helps you beat the chances of becoming overweight and developing health problems, such as heart disease, cancer and high blood pressure. And, people who are healthier, tend to be happier, live longer and feel they have control over their lives.
The recent U.S. Surgeon General's "Report on Physical Activity and Health" said that everyone - specifically citing people with disabilities - needs physical activity.
Why? The report gives specific examples: "Interventions to promote physical activity...have led to enhanced cardiorespiratory fitness and improved skeletal muscle function in persons with multiple sclerosis...increased walking capacity and reduction in pain for patients with low back pain...and improvements in endurance for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease..."
Studies indicate that many people with disabilities, especially physical ones, don't exercise or pursue well- being activities, such as eating healthy or taking up an enjoyable activity or hobby. Few studies, though, show how the 43 million Americans with disabilities can improve their general well-being. How can people be encouraged to lead healthier lives? Different people have different reasons. For some it may be the exhilaration of achieving a goal, or the improved sense of well-being that comes with physical activity. For others, it could be improved self-esteem, or the camaraderie of team sports. It could be the feeling of independence and control. It may be some or all of the above.
What motivates you? If you have a physical disability and are interested in sharing your thoughts on physical activity, please take a few minutes to contact [email protected]. Your input will be used in creating and promoting messages to be used throughout the state to promote healthy lifestyles for everyone.
Sports for the Blind
Blindsport is a new electronic mailing list dealing with sports for the blind. Topics range from announcements of sports training camps; upcoming tournaments and events, and their results; discussions on how to make sports more accessible to the blind; and other related subjects. To subscribe, contact [email protected] and include name of this list, Blindsport.
Fit For Life Brochure
Physical activity can be a part of everyone's life, regardless of physical limitations. A new State Health Department brochure for people with disabilities explains how to make physical fitness part of your daily routine; suggests sports and leisure activities; and discusses available adaptive equipment. The benefits of exercise for people with disabilities are highlighted. For a free copy of "Fit for Life," write:Publications
NYS Department of Health
Albany, NY 12220.
The N.Y.S. Department of Environmental Conservation brochure, "Opening the Outdoors to People with Disabilities," lists wheelchair accessible state campsites, educational centers, hiking trails, fishing sites, nature viewing areas on land and by water, and personal care stations. For a copy, call the regional DEC office listed in your telephone book.
'Warriors on Wheels' Improves Strength, Independence
Do you wish you had a way to build your strength and endurance? And, ultimately, make performing daily tasks easier?
If you live in the Albany area, you may be interested in a recreational fitness program called Warriors on Wheels. It is designed for people with disabilities, especially those who use wheelchairs, and uses weight training and Nautilus equipment to help develop the stamina and muscles needed for everyday activities.
More than 140 adults and 30 children, with varying disabilities, are currently working out under the direction of Warriors on Wheels founding president, Ned Norton, a former Olympic trainer and body builder. He said dedication to the workout leads to improved independence and a sense of well-being. "The physical benefits are obvious. People have an easier time getting in and out of wheelchairs or opening heavy doors. The psychological benefits are even more significant. There's a feeling of accomplishment, of self-confidence. The program makes people more independent," Norton said.
Tom Morin, who is paralyzed from below the mid-chest and has been a Warrior for nine years, agrees. "I have more energy and endurance. Working out keeps my blood flowing and prevents pressure sores," he said. Morin faithfully follows a three-hour, weight-training and upper body/ cardiovascular work-out each week. "It's good for stress reduction," said Morin who, since joining Warriors, has become active in wheelchair roadracing and wheelchair basketball. He said people at the club and other Warriors are friendly and supportive.
Norton started Warriors on Wheels in 1988 when he was fitness manager of the Colonie Athletic and Sports Club. (The program continues to operate from there, thanks to the health club's generosity.) Membership grew so quickly, via word-of-mouth, the media and medical referrals, that Norton incorporated Warriors on Wheels and now works as its full-time trainer and coach.
Norton said he enjoys working with individuals whose body toning "is a direct line to improving their lives."
Warriors on Wheels has garnered kudos, both locally and internationally. The President's Council on Health and Fitness and Sports recognized the group a few years ago and invited Norton and four Warrior members to the White House to meet the then council chairman, Arnold Schwarzeneggar.
Norton is also proud that his program has inspired similar ones, the most recent in Tokoyo, Japan. This is particularly significant, Norton said, because the traditional Japanese viewpoint is that people with disabilities should be treated as social outcasts and that their disabilities are punishment for individual or family wrongdoing.
Warriors on Wheels is the only New York State weight-training chapter of Disabled Sports USA, the national governing body in the field. Members have also have won prestigious weight lifting competitions, both in able-bodied and physically challenged categories.
Norton has produced a videotype showing how people with disabilities can use regular workout equipment at health clubs, and has written a manual, "Access to Power: A Guide to Weight Training." For more information on materials or membership information and costs, contact Ned Norton at P.O. Box 5427; Albany, NY 12205. Children with spina bifida can join Warriors on Wheels for free.
ASPIRE Inspires Physical Fitness
Three New York chapters of Athletic Sports Program Involving Recreation and Exercise (ASPIRE) help children and adults with amputations and other physical disabilities to enjoy such sports as tennis, basketball, swimming, track and field, golf and skiing. Drawing people from across the state, each chapter designs its own programs based on regional interest.
The oldest chapter is ASPIRE of New York City. It was established 10 years ago, as a result of a research project to increase aerobic capacity of amputees. (Amputees require more oxygen when they walk, run and perform other physical activities.)
ASPIRE of New York City president and Registered Nurse Paddy Rosbach, who is a below-the-knee amputee, said her chapter serves amputees and is best known for its track and field, swimming and ski trips for youngsters. ASPIRE of New York City meets the last Wednesday of each month at 6:15 p.m. at the Hospital for Special Surgery, 70th St., New York City. A support group for parents of children with amputations meets as needed. The chapter makes referrals and has educational materials available.
Amputees with medical referrals can work-out and receive physical therapy at the Joyce Center, located at 50 Maple Place, Manhasset. Offering comprehensive sports medicine, the Joyce Center is sponsored by ASPIRE of New York City, and two area businesses, Advanced Prosthetics and Orthodotics and Partridge Kreuter Belding Physical Therapy. Those interested can contact the center at 516-365-7225, or call Ms. Rosbach at 516-627-3496. Ms. Rosbach said that many ASPIRE projects are made possible by the generous fundraising efforts of the Plainsville-Old Bethpage Roadrunners Club, including its annual, 50-mile relay race that draws up to 130 teams from across the United States.
Best known for its annual wheelchair tennis tournament at Schenectady's Central Park, ASPIRE of the Capital District strives to offer sports and recreational activities to amputees and people with other physical disabilities.
"Rather than concentrating on disabilities, we encourage individuals to center their attention on their ability to participate in an active lifestyle," said executive board member William J. Sampson. Sampson's Prosthetic and Orthotic Lab, Schenectady, has actively supported the club since it was founded in 1991.
ASPIRE of the Capital District sponsors sports clinics, support groups, a loaning library, and publishes a directory of regional athletic opportunities and services, from the usual, like wheelchair basketball and tennis, cycling and track and field, to the more unusual, like sky-diving and orienteering (cross-country racing that requires participants to use compasses and maps to complete the race course). ASPIRE also maintains listings of manufacturers and distributors of various adaptive sports equipment.
ASPIRE of the Capital District also has a basketball team that is open to people of all disabilities. Many players have spina bifida, spinal cord injury and/or amputations. Call Chris White at 518-862-1519 for more information.The chapter's sports clinics, which are held in conjunction with local sports clubs and fitness centers, have included fly fishing, walking, golf and water skiing.
Individuals who have been recently disabled, can be matched, if interested, with a person of similar disability from ASPIRE's amputee and spinal cord injury support groups, to share experiences in a peer-to-peer relationship.
For more information on ASPIRE of the Capital District or for a copy of its brochure and services directory, write: ASPIRE, Inc. (Upstate), P.O. Box 2042, Albany, NY 12220.
The Mid-Hudson ASPIRE is the newest chapter. It is for children and adult amputees and has family-centered sports activities. Adaptive jet ski training and a golf clinic are planned for Spring 1997, and self support groups are available. For more information, write Denise Milazzo, Home Route 1, Box 114, Greenwood Lake, NY 10925, or call her at 914-477-2800. This new chapter is also in the process of designing an ASPIRE information Web page for the Internet.
Stretching, Strengthening With Yoga
Many people don't realize that yoga is a physical activity. In fact, it can be especially beneficial for people with disabilities. Yoga relaxes and connects the mind and body, and is also good for stretching and strengthening, according to Judy Goldberg, a physical fitness professional and competitive swimmer who is walking disabled.
"In yoga, you focus on the mind and body. You use posture, called asanas, to help with body positioning, and we do lots of breathing and relaxation techniques," explained Goldberg, whose daily routine includes yoga.
"Yoga helps you become aware of your body. For people with disabilities that can be difficult because we often disassociate ourselves from our bodies after being touched and manipulated by medical professionals. Yoga helps us find our bodies and minds again."
By using different postures, you can adapt yoga to different disabilities, said Goldberg. "People who don't have use of their legs can do yoga in a sitting position. The postures can be adapted for their upper bodies."
For those interested in yoga and its benefits, Goldberg suggests reading "Yoga Journal," a national publication, and checking its directories and listings for classes nearest you. She also suggests contacting community centers for yoga classes and working with instructors interested in using adapted postures.
Windham Disabled Ski Program
At Windham Mountain, in the Catskill Mountains, the philosophy is that anyone can ski, and the resort makes it happen. Since 1983, the Windham Disabled Ski Program has provided individual skiing lessons for people, ages 5 and older, with varied disabilities, from learning disabilities to severe cerebral palsy.
Programs include alpine skiing, snowboarding, racing, "fun 'n games", as well as consulting services and instructor training and certification.
Assisted by 125 trained and certified skiing volunteers, 375 people last season participated in the Windham program, which is a nationwide model training center for instructors in adaptive skiing in the Eastern United States. The program is funded and governed by the Educational Foundation of the Eastern Professional Ski Instructors Association (EPSIA-EF).
Several other ski resorts currently working with the Educational Foundation to set up adaptive skiing programs, are: Greek Peak at Gore Mountain; Hunter Mountain in Hunter, NY; Kissing Bridge, VT; Holiday Valley, Massenutten, VA; Snow, VT; and Peak 'n Peek, Stowe. Whiteface Mountain, Hole in the Woods Gang (NY), and Little Switzerland, WI have also expressed interest.
For ski lesson information and costs, and more information on the program, call 518-734-5070 after Nov. 1.
HHH's Classic Run
Each spring for 14 years, Helen Hayes Hospital in West Haverstraw has sponsored the Classic Run, a day of races for runners and wheelers of all physical abilities. It is considered the first race of its kind in the country because the main races do not segregate on ability. Up to 1,000 racers participate annually.
Racers with disabilities can also participate in the "Disabled Ambulatory Competitors and Walkers' 10K Start" and the "10K Wheelers Start." For more information, contact Helen Hayes Hospital's public relations department at 914- 947-3000.
On Target is also available on audio cassette. For a copy, contact:Mary Burt, Editor
Bureau of Community Relations
New York State Department of Health
1084 Corning Tower
Albany, NY 12237 | On Target: Disability and Health in New York State, Volume 6
- Newsletter also available in PDF format (PDF, 238kb, 6pg. )
Stay Fit for Life!
Healthy Lifestyles for People With Disabilities
Good health. Feeling great. Being independent and having control. Pursuing happiness. These are important ingredients for a healthy life.
A healthy lifestyle is its own reward. But it can be hard work. To achie | {
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President Lincoln’s youngest children, Willie and Tad, brought a sense of joy to the White House and provided a distraction from the Civil War. The boys played games in the large attic, entertained the White House staff, and relaxed with family. Sadly, both children died young. On February 20, 1862, Willie died of typhoid fever. In 1871, Tad died of heart failure at age eighteen. | President Lincoln’s youngest children, Willie and Tad, brought a sense of joy to the White House and provided a distraction from the Civil War. The boys played games in the large attic, entertained the White House staff, and relaxed with family. Sadly, both children died young. On February 20, 1862, Willie died of typhoid fever. In 1871, Tad died of heart failure at age eighteen. | {
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Thunder/Lightning in a Snowstorm
What is the scientific name for lighning and thunder
during a snowstorm?
I don't believe there is any scientific name for lightning and thunder
during a snowstorm. That does happen occasionally in the wintertime, and
those events usually produce brief bursts of very heavy snow. These storms
are usually caused by a strong surge of warm moist air flowing over a dome
of cold air at the surface. Thunderstorms may develop, but temperatures are
such that the precipitation remains all snow as it falls to the ground.
Wendell Bechtold, Meteorologist
Forecaster, National Weather Service
Weather Forecast Office, St. Louis, MO
Click here to return to the Environmental and Earth Science Archives
Update: June 2012 | Thunder/Lightning in a Snowstorm
What is the scientific name for lighning and thunder
during a snowstorm?
I don't believe there is any scientific name for lightning and thunder
during a snowstorm. That does happen occasionally in the wintertime, and
those events usually produce brief bursts of very heavy snow. These storms
are usually caused by a strong surge of warm moist air flowing over a dome
| {
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Environmental Factor, December 2007, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
Michael Kastan Gives Falk Memorial Lecture
By Robin Arnette
In Rodbell Auditorium on November 8, Michael B. Kastan, M.D., Ph.D., became the twenty-third scientist to give the NIEHS Hans L. Falk Memorial Lecture, an annual seminar that features a researcher who has made significant contributions to environmental health sciences research. With his talk titled "DNA Damage Response Mechanisms: Implications for Human Disease," Kastan joined other notable investigators who have received this honor, such as Nobel Laureates Harold E. Varmus, M.D., J. Michael Bishop, M.D., and Sydney Brenner, M.D. NIEHS Acting Deputy Director William Suk, Ph.D., hosted the event.
Kastan is the director of the Cancer Center at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, but he is best known for his work on the tumor suppressor protein p53. His peer-reviewed journal articles on the involvement of p53 in cellular responses to DNA damage are among the most cited scientific publications of the 1990s. He said that much of that work was funded by NIEHS, and he thanked the institute for that early support. "Dr. Suk put out an RFA [Request for Application] in 1991 that allowed us to ask the question, 'What controls the progression of the cell cycle in mammalian cells when they've been exposed to DNA damaging agents,'" Kastan said. "I'm deeply grateful."
The crux of that research was based on three pieces of evidence. Kastan and colleagues discovered that after a cell was exposed to ionizing radiation, p53 levels increased. In addition, GADD45, a protein implicated in growth arrest and programmed cell death, was identified as a downstream target of p53. Lastly, they saw that cells taken from patients with the cancer-prone disorder ataxia telangiactasia (AT) failed to induce p53 following ionizing radiation. Kastan said, "We had no idea what gene was missing in these patients, but we knew whatever it was, it signaled the p53."
Kastan proposed that these data indicated a signal transduction pathway was involved in the response to damage. After publication of the findings, Kastan said thousands of labs around the world studied downstream targets of p53. However, he was more interested in the upstream signaling pathway and knew that the AT gene was involved. After another lab cloned the AT-mutated (ATM) gene in 1995, Kastan finally had the missing piece to the DNA damage signaling puzzle and spent the next decade tracing its molecular steps.
Kastan's concern for cancer patients, though, led him to search for clinical ramifications resulting from studies of DNA damage signaling pathways. Kastan knew that AT patients were more prone to cancers since the mutations in their ATM gene resulted in an inability to activate a critical damage signaling pathway. He postulated that if loss of these pathways could increase cancer development, then perhaps activating such stress response pathways with drugs or other approaches could help prevent cancer or help cells deal with DNA damage. Kastan's lab recently discovered that chloroquine, a commonly used anti-malarial drug, could activate both ATM and p53 at low levels without inducing any DNA damage. He and his colleagues have subsequently discovered that low-dose, intermittent chloroquine treatment could significantly reduce tumor development in mouse models of Burkitt lymphoma and in mice lacking the ATM gene. They are currently working on strategies to optimize this approach as a potential way to reduce cancer development in certain high-risk patient populations.
Kastan ended his seminar by reminding the audience that each human cell experiences up to 10,000 damage events a day, and although the body has repair and other cellular mechanisms to deal with them, biomedical research provides another potential level of intervention. "We've learned enough about these cellular responses that we can begin to intervene for both better treatment of disease and prevention," Kastan said. | Environmental Factor, December 2007, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
Michael Kastan Gives Falk Memorial Lecture
By Robin Arnette
In Rodbell Auditorium on November 8, Michael B. Kastan, M.D., Ph.D., became the twenty-third scientist to give the NIEHS Hans L. Falk Memorial Lecture, an annual seminar that features a researcher who has made significant contributions to environmenta | {
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Video and Media
The Protection Connection (Video)
Since being online is part of our lives, it’s a good idea to take steps to protect ourselves, our information, and our computers.
One thing you can do to stay safe is to limit your online friends to people you actually know.
By turning on privacy settings and learning about location-based services, you can keep strangers from learning too much about you.
And don’t give certain information out - to anyone. Your Social Security number, family bank accounts, and even your password can cause lots of trouble in the wrong hands.
You can protect yourself and your computer by keeping up-to-date on security software and being cautious about what you click. Emails, P2P downloads, and promises of 'free' stuff can hide viruses and spyware.
Being online is part of your life, So stop and think before you click. | Video and Media
The Protection Connection (Video)
Since being online is part of our lives, it’s a good idea to take steps to protect ourselves, our information, and our computers.
One thing you can do to stay safe is to limit your online friends to people you actually know.
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Health Information and Advice
Maintain high standards of cleanliness. Wash your hands regularly with soap and water or a hand gel. In particular, clean door handles and other hard surfaces on a regular basis with normal cleaning products. Remember: Catch it, Bin it, Kill it.
Ensure that you have good stocks of food and fluids at home so that you won’t have to go shopping if ill. Make sure you order any repeat prescriptions for everyone in your household to ensure that you won’t run out. Keep a supply of tissues and toilet paper at home, along with cleaning products that will help to maintain cleanliness. Check that you have normal flu remedies suitable for each member of the household e.g. correct doses of paracetamol for children, as well as adults.
Now is the time to identify a network of ‘flu friends’. These can be relatives, neighbours or friends, who will collect medicines, food and other supplies for people who get swine flu, so that they don’t have to leave home.
It is recommended that each person identifies up to five flu friends. There is no way of telling who will catch swine flu and it is important to be aware and plan ahead.
The steps to take are:
- Identify your flu friends and check that they are happy to help you.
- Make sure you have your ID to hand, in case your flu friend needs to collect medicines for you (both the patient and the flu friend will need to provide ID such as a passport or driving licence when they collect medication).
- Think about neighbours who may live alone or family members that might need help, and perhaps offer to be their flu friend.
What to do if you get swine flu
If you think you have any of the symptoms of flu, stay at home and phone the flu information line on 0800 1 513 513 or check the NHS website and use the symptom checker.
Do NOT visit your GP surgery, walk-in centre or A&E or any hospital - unless there is a serious emergency or advised to do so by a health professional.
Call the National Pandemic Flu Line for assessment on 0800 1 513 100, or use the online service (under useful links). Anti viral medication will be made available where required.
You should call your GP directly if:
- you have a serious underlying illness
- you are pregnant
- you have a sick child under one year old
- your condition suddenly gets much worse
- your condition is still getting worse after 7 days (or 5 days for a child)
Going on Holiday?
As we are now into the summer holiday season, if you are planning to travel abroad and are concerned about Swine Flu the Association of British Travel Agents can provide further advice and information, or alternatively contact your Travel Agent.
Pig Farmer or owner of a small holding with pigs?
Pig herds in the UK are monitored for any animal disease not normally present in the EU and to identify any change in the prevalence of diseases that do occur. For further information on the impact for UK Pigs from Swine Flu contact the Department for the Environment and Rural Affairs, call the DeFRA helpline 08459 335577 or e-mail [email protected].
Please also see our Flu Advice page for links to other useful websites. Please also see our Avian Influenza Information page. | Health Information and Advice
Maintain high standards of cleanliness. Wash your hands regularly with soap and water or a hand gel. In particular, clean door handles and other hard surfaces on a regular basis with normal cleaning products. Remember: Catch it, Bin it, Kill it.
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We often tend to think of saving water at home, but huge amounts of water can be saved in business and industry.
Water consumption at work is often high as it can be taken for granted, but by saving water you are contributing to a more efficient and sustainable workplace.
Did you know?
- For every Queenslander, 125 litres of treated water are used each day in workplace environments. That amounts to 14 household buckets per person per day or 20% of our total water usage.
- A running tap uses 20 litres per minute.
- A 10-minute shower uses up to 200 litres.
- A leaking tap can waste about 45 litres of water a day.
- A running hose wastes 1,000 litres per hour.
- Sprinklers use 1,500 litres of water per hour.
In most workplaces, a 20% reduction in water use is easily achievable.
Major savings can be made by simply improving water-use practices, and by employers installing a range of water efficient devices and appliances.
This can result in major cost savings including:
- Reduced water charges.
- Reduced on-site wastewater treatment costs.
- Reduced trade waste charges.
- Reduced energy and fuel costs associated with water use.
Where do we use water in the workplace?
Most water is used by business and industry in the following areas:
- Production: Cooling water, process water, and boiler feed.
- Amenities: Toilets, showering, washing, air conditioners and outdoors.
- Outdoors: Landscape irrigation, dust suppression, wash-down areas.
- Indoors: Cleaning, food and drink preparation.
The top five areas where water is wasted
- Inappropriate overuse of water for wash down.
Solution: Use high pressure, low volume sprayers to handle waste materials. Waste should be removed in dry mode first, where possible. Use recycled water where possible.
- Poorly managed irrigation equipment.
Solution: Make sure irrigation equipment delivers water evenly. Install moisture overriders or tap timers on the irrigation system to prevent over-watering.
- Using water for dust suppression.
Solution: Use drought-tolerant plants to bind soil and screen dusty areas. Material such as paper mulch can be used to cover areas susceptible to erosion (the mulch can be easily removed as required).
- Bad seals or faulty valves on taps/pipes/pumps.
Solution: Often this problem cannot be easily seen and will go undetected for a long time. The best option is to conduct regular water audits and track where the water is going.
- Inefficient and poorly maintained methods for cooling.
Solution: Use fogging nozzles to cool products instead of running mains water, and turn these systems off when equipment is not in operation.
Saving water in the workplace
- Audit your workplace to see where water savings can be made.
- Read your water meter(s) weekly to monitor water consumption trends.
- Make water efficiency a part of your workplace practices.
- Ask employees for their ideas on how to reduce water use within the workplace.
- Provide education to your employees about the significance and benefits of saving water.
- Encourage employees to adopt water saving procedures.
- Include information on water conservation plans and development in staff meetings.
- Make sure all employees know where your business is saving water; use charts and graphs to show this and draw attention to areas that need improvement.
- Put posters and stickers around the workplace, to remind staff of ways to save water.
Air-conditioning and water heating
- Cooling towers use large quantities of water. Evaporation, drift and bleed-off account for the water loss in cooling towers. The running time and level of air-conditioning, as well as the amount of bleed-off, are the areas to investigate to reduce water usage. Up to 30% of losses can be conserved through proper monitoring and maintenance of water quality.
- Consider using heat exchange units rather than cooling towers, as they use less water and energy. Ensure that cooling towers bleed off by conductivity rather than with a fixed outlet. Consideration should be given to air-cooled rather than water-cooled air-conditioning systems.
- Piping hot water over long distances results in significant heat loss. Large quantities of water are lost flushing cold water out of the system. Where possible, pipes should be insulated and water heaters installed close to the draw-off points. The opportunity exists to transfer heat from air-conditioning systems to hot water systems such that much, if not all, of the energy required to heat water can be saved.
Kitchens and lunchrooms
- Wait until the dishwasher is full before turning it on. This will save water and energy, plus decrease the amount of detergent entering the sewer system.
- Rinse dishes in a plugged sink, rather than under a running tap. This saves water and is just as simple and effective.
- Try to only wash dishes in the sink once a day.
- Remember that what you put down the drain can cause blockages and pollutes our environment. Clean the lint filter on washing machines and use a sink strainer.
- Replace worn washers or report leaking taps to your maintenance section for repair.
- Taps that use ceramic disks instead of conventional washers can be turned on and off quickly and are not prone to leakage, thus saving water.
- Single-lever taps allow quick temperature control.
- Aerators improve water-stream performance and can be used in conjunction with a flow controller.
- Electronic sensor-activated taps operate when a sensor beam is broken and allow hands free operation.
- Install AAA-rated low flow taps or tap aerators to help save water.
- Water-efficient showerheads can reduce water use by up to 50 percent
- Individual shower cubicles also encourage lower water usage than large or open shower areas where heat is dissipated more quickly.
Toilets and urinals
- Faulty automatic flushing systems in urinals are a common cause of water wastage. Electronic sensor-activated systems programmed to respond differently to light and heavy loads are the best choice in terms of hygiene and water efficiency. Research shows partitions between individual urinals will encourage their use rather than the toilet.
- Install and use water-efficient urinals rather than a toilet. Old style toilets can use up to 12 litres of water per flush compared to 2 litres for an individual urinal. Waterless urinals are also now available. Where toilets are required, the 6/3 litre dual flush toilet is becoming the standard throughout Australia.
Cleaning, sanitation and washdowns
Look for ways to minimise water usage, such as modifying an existing process to use less water.
- Use a broom instead of a hose to sweep down production areas and pathways. Remember putting pollutants into the storm water system is illegal, and penalties and fines apply.
- Use hoses with trigger or shut-off nozzles.
- Install water efficient appliances and fixtures.
- Turn off equipment that uses water when it is not in use.
- Use a bucket to wash and rinse where possible, instead of running the taps or hose.
- Make sure fire hoses are not used for wash down. Using these hoses, if there is no fire, is illegal and carries large on the spot fines. Fire hoses also use large quantities of water.
- Replacing automated spray rinses with immersion rinses can reduce water consumption by as much as 60%.
- Significant amounts of water are used for sterilising and the cleaning of ingredients and containers. Sterilisers that use reticulation as part of the process are now available and eliminate much of the water consumption in these machines.
Rinse water can be recycled by using sequential rinsing provided contaminants are not a problem.
- Recycled water from process flows can be used for the cooling tower make-up water (this water may require treatment).
Pressure and flow reduction
Higher than necessary pressures increases water consumption and can lead to leakage.Pressure-reducing valves can reduce maintenance requirements, enhance the operation of water appliances and conserve water. The flow of water through showers and taps can be reduced using flow control devices.
Outdoors and landscaping
- Install tap timers and water the roots instead of the foliage.
- Use a trigger nozzle on your hose.
- Plant hardy vegetation which does not require large amounts of water.
- Reduce areas of turf.
- Install properly designed irrigation systems.
Recycled non-potable water supplies can be used in:
- Parks, gardens and lawn cemeteries
- Golf courses, racecourses and sporting fields
- Dust settlement
- Ornamental lakes and artificial wetlands
- Industrial waters, particularly cooling towers
- Vehicle washing
- Coal washing
- Cleaning of certain areas (provided health considerations are met)
- The reuse of treated wastewater in industry may be possible in some situations
This will be most economical for industries close to Townsville Water's sewerage treatment plants or treated effluent discharge pipelines.
Tertiary treated wastewater is adequate for cooling tower make-up water, as long as the tower is operated at a low concentration ratio.
For more information, please contact the Customer Service Centre or send an email to Townsville Water. | We often tend to think of saving water at home, but huge amounts of water can be saved in business and industry.
Water consumption at work is often high as it can be taken for granted, but by saving water you are contributing to a more efficient and sustainable workplace.
Did you know?
- For every Queenslander, 125 litres of treated water are used each day in workplace environments. That amounts t | {
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TREASURY INSPECTOR GENERAL FOR TAX ADMINISTRATION
Office of Audit
WEAKNESSES IN BUSINESS RESUMPTION PLANS COULD DELAY RECOVERY FROM A DISASTER
Issued on September 17, 2008
Highlights of Report Number: 2008-20-178 to the Internal Revenue Service Chief, Agency-Wide Shared Services.
IMPACT ON TAXPAYERS
Business resumption plans are designed to help the IRS recover, restore, and resume normal business operations after a disaster or an emergency. However, the IRS business resumption plans TIGTA reviewed were not adequately completed and would not facilitate the efficient recovery of critical processes. An extended disruption could affect key processes such as collecting taxes, processing tax returns and refunds, and responding to taxpayer inquiries. Processing delays could ultimately have a negative impact on the nation’s economy and future taxpayer compliance.
WHY TIGTA DID THE AUDIT
This audit was initiated as part of TIGTA’s statutory requirements to annually review the adequacy and security of IRS technology. The overall objective was to determine whether the IRS business resumption plans are adequate to restore critical business processes after a disaster or an emergency event.
WHAT TIGTA FOUND
The IRS’ ability to recover its critical processes is strengthened by its extensive redundant operations and its experience in recovering from previous disasters and emergency incidents. However, most of the IRS business resumption plans that TIGTA reviewed lacked detailed planning and recovery strategies that would facilitate an efficient recovery of the IRS business processes.
Some business resumption team leaders were cognizant of the recovery details and strategies, but they did not document this information in their plans. Documentation of the details and strategies in the business resumption plans would facilitate recovery and could be crucial if key employees are unavailable after a disaster.
The lack of detail is generally due to control weaknesses and insufficient oversight. Some business functions did not establish a review process or a central repository to ensure the quality and control of the plans. The IRS created two templates to guide business functions on how to prepare the plans. However, because use of the templates was not mandatory, the business functions often used different templates. In addition, the Emergency Management and Preparedness Executive Steering Committee, which is responsible for overseeing the business resumption plans, had met only once since being established in July 2004.
Plans are required to be tested and updated each year. However, the business units had not tested in Calendar Year 2007 54 percent of the plans that TIGTA reviewed. When plans were tested, the scopes were insufficient to identify gaps, omissions, and weaknesses. In addition, 38 percent of the plans TIGTA evaluated had not been updated in Calendar Year 2007. TIGTA attributed these conditions to a lack of emphasis by management.
WHAT TIGTA RECOMMENDED
TIGTA recommended that the Chief, Agency-Wide Shared Services 1) instruct business units with a significant number of sites to establish a business resumption coordinator position to perform a quality review of each plan within the function and to create a central repository to control the plans, 2) mandate use of the standard templates and require all business resumption coordinators to periodically brief the Emergency Management and Preparedness Executive Steering Committee on the completeness and adequacy of the business resumption plans, 3) develop specific testing requirements and procedures for business resumption plans based on risk, and 4) instruct the Emergency Management and Preparedness Executive Steering Committee to require business units to plan and conduct testing, document test results, and update business resumption plans annually, as well as monitor testing activities conducted by the business units.
In their response to the report, IRS officials stated their agreement with the findings and recommendations. The IRS plans to coordinate the establishment of full-time business coordinator positions and to direct the use of standardized continuity templates. The Emergency Management and Preparedness Executive Steering Committee plans to receive periodic briefings from select business coordinators. The IRS plans to develop criteria for a multi-year testing, training, and exercise strategy that will be consistent with Federal Government continuity directives.
READ THE FULL REPORT
To view the report, including the scope, methodology, and full IRS response, go to:
Email Address: [email protected]
Phone Number: 202-622-6500
Web Site: http://www.tigta.gov | TREASURY INSPECTOR GENERAL FOR TAX ADMINISTRATION
Office of Audit
WEAKNESSES IN BUSINESS RESUMPTION PLANS COULD DELAY RECOVERY FROM A DISASTER
Issued on September 17, 2008
Highlights of Report Number: 2008-20-178 to the Internal Revenue Service Chief, Agency-Wide Shared Services.
IMPACT ON TAXPAYERS
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Washington Floristic Quality Assessment
What is a Floristic Quality Assessment?
The Washington Natural Heritage Program (WANHP) received funding from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 10 to update wetland conservation priorities for Washington State. In order to prioritize which wetlands are of conservation significance, rarity and relative ecological integrity of a particular site are considered. One of the tools that can be used to determine ecological integrity is the Floristic Quality Assessment (FQA).
The Floristic Quality Assessment (FQA) method uses the proportion of conservative plant species in a plant community to assess the degree of "naturalness" of an area. Conservative species are defined as being restricted to intact ecosystems where ecological processes, functions, composition, and structure have not been (or minimally so) degraded/modified by human stressors. Non-conservative or generalist species are those which have a broader ecological niche and thus don’t show fidelity to a specific set of environmental parameters. FQA refers to multiple indices many of which share a common variable—the coefficient of conservatism value (C-value) of native species—and are used to assess the quality of a particular habitat or site (see below). C values reflect the relative conservatism of a given species by assigning it a value between 0-10 (10 being the most conservative). WANHP convened a group of experts to assign C-values for all native plant species occurring in western Washington (eastern Washington FQA project is in progress). Since both upland and wetland species are assigned, FQA can be used in all ecosystem types, not just wetlands.
FQA provides a unique approach to ecological monitoring and assessment which moves beyond simple measures of species richness and abundance and provides an estimate of the quality of native plants at a site. FQA-based indices have been rigorously tested in other regions of the United States and have been shown to be very sensitive indicators of ecological condition.
What is FQA used for?
FQA integrates the overall conservatism of a site’s flora into an indicator of ecological integrity that can be utilized for numerous objectives including monitoring, conservation prioritization, and setting restoration benchmarks.
Species lists are compiled for a given area (defined by project objectives) and the C-values associated with those species are then used to calculate an index value. Many different conservatism-based indices have been constructed. The most basic is the average C value of native species occurring in a given area. The Floristic Quality Index (FQI) is another commonly used index that incorporates species richness into the calculation. Numerous variations of both these indices have been employed. Determining which index to use is a function of project objectives and index performance in a given ecosystem type.
Below are some examples of the type of projects that FQA-based indices could be applied toward:
The following report provides a detailed description of FQA as well as the methods and results of assigning coefficients of conservatism for the western and eastern Washington flora.
Floristic Quality Assessment for Washington (Jan. 2013 version)
WANHP has also developed Microsoft Excel-based calculators which include the final FQA databases for western and eastern Washington. The calculator will automatically compute index values for a given dataset. Many different indices are calculated including conservatism-based indices as well as more commonly used metrics such as % non-natives, % annuals, etc. Instructions are included within the calculator and report.
Western Washington Floristic Quality Assessment Index Calculator (Jan. 2013 version)
Because wetland indicator values differ between arid land and mountainous portions of eastern Washington, there are two calculators for eastern Washington:
Eastern Washington Floristic Quality Assessment Index Calculator - Columbia Basin (Mar. 2013 version) - Sites within the Columbia Bain (i.e. arid lands below lower treeline)
Eastern Washington Floristic Quality Assessment Index Calculator - Mountains (Mar. 2013 version) - Sites above lower treeline in the East Cascades, Okanogan Highlands, Northern Rocky Mountains, and Blue Mountains
Note: Please email Joe Rocchio if you find or suspect any errors in the calculator. Also, please check this website regularly for updates to the calculator.
For more information, contact:
Washington Natural Heritage Program - www.dnr.wa.gov/ResearchScience/Topics/NaturalHeritage/Pages/amp_nh.aspx
Washington Dept. of Natural Resources, PO Box 47014, Olympia, WA 98504-7014 | Washington Floristic Quality Assessment
What is a Floristic Quality Assessment?
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09.04.12 - Students worldwide have an opportunity to name an asteroid from which an upcoming NASA mission will return the first samples to Earth.
08.30.12 - NASA's Radiation Belt Storm Probes (RBSP), the first twin-spacecraft mission designed to explore our planet's radiation belts, launched into the predawn skies at 4:05a.m. EDT Thursday from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla.
08.30.12 - NASA's Dawn spacecraft is on track to become the first probe to orbit and study two distant destinations to help scientists answer questions about the formation of our solar system.
08.29.12 - NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer mission has led to a bonanza of newfound supermassive black holes and extreme galaxies called hot DOGs
08.28.12 - For the first time in history, a recorded song has been beamed back to Earth from another planet.
08.27.12 - NASA's Mars Curiosity has debuted the first recorded human voice that traveled from Earth to another planet and back.
08.27.12 - The extent of the sea ice covering the Arctic Ocean has shrunk.
08.29.12 - NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has set off from its landing vicinity on a trek to a science destination about a quarter mile (400 meters) away, where it may begin using its drill.
08.24.12 - PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA will hold a televised news conference at 2 p.m. PDT (5 p.m. EDT), Monday, Aug. 27, at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif., about the activities of its Curiosity rover mission on Mars. The event will feature new images, an update of the rover’s progress, and a special greeting by NASA Administrator Charles Bolden.
08.24.12 - NASA will hold an educational event to share findings about Mars with students and premiere a new song by musician will.i.am that will be broadcast from the surface of the Red Planet via the Curiosity rover. | 09.04.12 - Students worldwide have an opportunity to name an asteroid from which an upcoming NASA mission will return the first samples to Earth.
08.30.12 - NASA's Radiation Belt Storm Probes (RBSP), the first twin-spacecraft mission designed to explore our planet's radiation belts, launched into the predawn skies at 4:05a.m. EDT Thursday from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla.
08.30.12 - NASA | {
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Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum [GT137]
Who will benefit? Governors of infant and primary schools.
What will you learn? The new Early Years Foundation Stage became statutory in September 2012 for all children 5 years and under .This session will look at the statutory requirements related to young children s learning and development and how governors can monitor and evaluate its implementation. It will include a focus on the key characteristics of effective teaching and learning, revised areas of learning and development and the assessment process.
Attendance options? One evening session.
Booking: Booking form (Please note that you will be prompted to sign in with your Governor ID)
|GT137A||Western||23/01/2014||19:00 - 21:30||Winchester Professional Centre ~SO22 5PL|
Shaded courses are fully booked, or have already taken place. Please contact your local office for alternatives. | Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum [GT137]
Who will benefit? Governors of infant and primary schools.
What will you learn? The new Early Years Foundation Stage became statutory in September 2012 for all children 5 years and under .This session will look at the statutory requirements related to young children s learning and development and how governors can monitor and evaluate its implementat | {
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Sima Ghoryani, the founder of Ghoryan District Women Saffron Association, displays saffron produced and marketed through the association.
During a recent visit to Hirat Province, U.S. Ambassador Karl W. Eikenberry enjoyed a brief discussion with Sima Ghoryani, the charismatic founder and head of the Ghoryan District Women’s Saffron Association.
Founded in 2008, the association is comprised of women saffron growers in Ghoryan District, located in western Hirat Province on the Iranian border. In 2009, with a grant from USAID, the association registered with the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, and bought packaging and marketing equipment used by its members to develop their businesses.
The saffron association builds higher productivity skills by facilitating training workshops on cultivating, harvesting, and processing saffron. In addition, the association conducts business capacity-building through training in financial management, human resource management, and strategic planning. With funds received through the Ambassador’s Small Grants Program for Gender Equality, the saffron association organizes literacy classes and beekeeping training to provide women a greater degree of independence by giving them important life skills, as well as an opportunity for a sustainable source of income outside the saffron growing season.
Sima Ghoryani, the founder of Ghoryan District Women Saffron Association, meets with U.S. Ambassador Karl W. Eikenberry during his recent visit to Hirat Province.
The association has already developed a brand for their saffron production and is selling it to both foreign and domestic markets.
Photo & Caption Saffron Blooms Women's Business | Sima Ghoryani, the founder of Ghoryan District Women Saffron Association, displays saffron produced and marketed through the association.
During a recent visit to Hirat Province, U.S. Ambassador Karl W. Eikenberry enjoyed a brief discussion with Sima Ghoryani, the charismatic founder and head of the Ghoryan District Women’s Saffron Association.
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Moderate-sized to large epiphytes or subepiphytes. Rhizome long-creeping bearing roots all over the surface, densely covered with brown, lanceolate, pale-margined, +/- ciliate, non-clathrate, basally attached scales, fleshy to +/- woody, solenostelic, with 2 lateral rows of long leaf-gaps and scattered vascular bundles in the centre, appearing dictyostelic, various strands of sclerenchyma surrounding the stele internally and externally. Fronds long-stipitate, the stipes articulate to short phyllopodia, remote, glabrous, +/- adaxially grooved, the grooves continuous with those of the higher order rachises, stramineus, glabrous, fibrovascular bundles 2, uniting upwards to form 1 of +/- U-shape, the lamina deltoid, 4 - 5-pinnate-pinnatifid, the pinnae and pinnules deltoid, ultiamte segments rhomid-obovate and bluntly toothed, the margin decurrent with the groove margins or wing, the basal acroscopic pinnules nearer to the rachis than the basiscopic pinnules (anadromous), subcoriaceous, glabrous, veins free, once- or twice-forked, terminating in submarginal hydathodes int eh marginal crenations. Sporanagia borne in discrete sori terminal on the veins, the sori submarginal, moderately large, impressed, indusium pale, +/- round, extrorse, attached by the base only or by the base and the lower half of the sides; paraphyses absent, pedicel very long, 3-seriate, annulus longitudinal, interrupted of c. 16 thickened cells. Spores monolete, closely tuberculate, translucent.
Species in Papuasia
|1a.||Indusia attached at the base only||L. immersa|
|Indusia attached at the sides as well as the base, for c. half the length||L. pallida| | Moderate-sized to large epiphytes or subepiphytes. Rhizome long-creeping bearing roots all over the surface, densely covered with brown, lanceolate, pale-margined, +/- ciliate, non-clathrate, basally attached scales, fleshy to +/- woody, solenostelic, with 2 lateral rows of long leaf-gaps and scattered vascular bundles in the centre, appearing dictyostelic, various strands of sclerenchyma surround | {
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(1) Wall thickness.
CMU blocks used for bearing walls must have a minimum nominal thickness of six inches.
(2) Rebar cover.
All rebar must be:
(a) Placed within the openings of the hollow masonry units;
(b) Completely embedded in mortar or grout; and
(c) Have a minimum cover of three-fourth inch including the masonry unit. Where masonry is exposed to weather, one and one-half inches of cover is required. Where masonry is exposed to soil, two inches of cover is required.
(a) Masonry walls must have both vertical and horizontal reinforcement. Spliced rebar must overlap at least twenty inches. Reinforcement must be placed prior to grouting. Bolts must be accurately set and held in place to prevent dislocation during grouting.
(b) Vertical reinforcement must consist of No. 4 rebar placed four feet on center along the full length of walls, on each side of window and door openings, and at corners. Vertical rebar must extend from the top of the foundation to the top of the wall and be grouted in place.
(c) Horizontal reinforcement must consist of bond beams located at four feet above the foundation and repeated at four foot intervals, including one at the top of the wall. Bond beams must be constructed using bond beam masonry units with one continuous No. 4 rebar, grouted in place.
(d) Lintels over door and window openings must be provided and must be sixteen inches deep consisting of bond beam or lintel masonry units extending over the opening and at least twenty inches beyond each side, and with four pieces of No. 4 rebar running the full length of the lintel, grouted in place. The span of lintels over openings must not exceed twelve feet.
(a) The grout space must be clean so that all spaces to be filled with grout do not contain mortar projections greater than one-half inch, mortar droppings or other foreign material. Cleanouts must be provided where necessary to clean and clear the spaces prior to grouting. When cleanouts are needed, they must be sealed before grouting.
(b) Grout must be placed so that all spaces designated to be grouted must be filled with grout and the grout must be confined to those specific spaces.
(c) Where bond beams occur, the grout pour must be stopped a minimum of one-half inch below the top of the masonry.
[Statutory Authority: RCW 70.114A.081. 99-03-065, § 246-359-440, filed 1/18/99, effective 2/18/99.] | (1) Wall thickness.
CMU blocks used for bearing walls must have a minimum nominal thickness of six inches.
(2) Rebar cover.
All rebar must be:
(a) Placed within the openings of the hollow masonry units;
(b) Completely embedded in mortar or grout; and
(c) Have a minimum cover of three-fourth inch including the masonry unit. Where masonry is exposed to weather, one and one-half inches of cover is re | {
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Project Summary: Pulaski County Elementary School, Hawkinsville, GA
This page provides information about solar thermal technology at the Pulaski County Elementary School. View the full list of Commercial Solar Thermal Projects.
USH2O encourages you to enter new projects. A new project will appear in the database after it has been reviewed by a USH2O representative. Begin entering your project.
|Project Name||Pulaski County Elementary School|
|Date Operational||March 2012|
|Building Type||K-12 Education|
|Collector Area||240 ft2|
|Collector Manufacturer||Power Partners Solar|
|Storage System Type||Water|
|Storage Size||240 gallons|
|Auxiliary Fuel||Natural gas|
|System Installation Contractor||Complete Resources|
|Contractor Contact||Tony Purcell|
|Brief Project Description||
This system provides water heating for an elementary school cafeteria for 700 students and staff. The SWH system feeds into an existing 80 gallon fast recovery natural gas water heater. The system offsets 60% of the energy demand for hot water, and is protected from overheating in the summer when school is out of session with a heat dissipator.
|Project Contact||Hugh Coleman| | Project Summary: Pulaski County Elementary School, Hawkinsville, GA
This page provides information about solar thermal technology at the Pulaski County Elementary School. View the full list of Commercial Solar Thermal Projects.
USH2O encourages you to enter new projects. A new project will appear in the database after it has been reviewed by a USH2O representative. Begin entering your project.
|Pr | {
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This information is for reference purposes only. It was current when produced and may now be outdated. Archive material is no longer maintained, and some links may not work. Persons with disabilities having difficulty accessing this information should contact us at: https://info.ahrq.gov. Let us know the nature of the problem, the Web address of what you want, and your contact information.
Please go to www.ahrq.gov for current information.
Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey (MCBS)
The Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey (MCBS) is conducted by the Office of Strategic Planning of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). It is a continuous, multipurpose survey of a nationally representative sample of the Medicare population, providing information on aged and disabled Medicare beneficiaries living in communities and long-term care facilities. The sample is selected from Medicare enrollment files, and sample persons are interviewed three times per year over a 4-year period. Sample data are collected through computer-assisted personal interviews of the beneficiary or a proxy respondent if the sample person is not available for the interview. Survey questionnaires are tailored to the residence of the sample person—community or long-term care facility. If the sample person moves from one setting to the other during the period covered by an interview, a separate interview is administered for the time spent in each setting. Thus, beneficiaries are followed continuously over time regardless of where they live.
The primary goal of the survey is to collect comprehensive information on all medical services used by Medicare beneficiaries, sources of payment, health insurance coverage, and socioeconomic and demographic characteristics of the population. These data are used by the Office of Strategic Planning and the Office of the Actuary to support a host of activities related to the administration of the Medicare program (health insurance for older and disabled people) and the Medicaid program (Federal grants to States for medical assistance programs). CMS also uses the data to evaluate the Medicare and Medicaid programs and to assess the financial impact of programmatic change on beneficiaries and the Medicare trust fund.
Two public use files (PUFs) are created for each calendar year of data collected in the MCBS: Access to Care and Cost and Use. The Access to Care PUFs provide "snapshot" estimates of the characteristics of the Medicare population who were enrolled on January 1 and were still alive and eligible for the survey in the fall of each year. They contain information on access to and satisfaction with care, health status and functioning, and demographic and economic characteristics of the sample population. Access to Care PUFs also contain summarized utilization and program payment data from Medicare claims, but they do not include survey-reported information on health care use and expenditures. By omitting the survey-reported information, these PUFs can be produced quicker than cost and use files, which contain complete information on the cost and use of health care services.
The 2003 Cost and Use file is the 12th in an annual series of files containing comprehensive data on the cost and use of medical services by the Medicare population. It links Medicare claims to survey-reported events and provides complete data on expenditure and source of payment for all health care services, including those not covered by Medicare. Expenditure data were developed through a reconciliation process that combines information from survey respondents and Medicare administrative files. The process produces a comprehensive picture of health services received, amounts paid, and sources of payment. The file can support a broader range of research and policy analyses on the Medicare population than would be possible using either survey data or administrative claims data alone.
The strength of the Cost and Use file stems from the integration of information that can be obtained only from a beneficiary and Medicare claims data on provider services and covered charges. Survey-reported data include information on the use and cost of all types of medical services, as well as information on supplementary health insurance, living arrangements, income, health status, and physical functioning. Medicare claims data include use and cost information on inpatient hospitalizations, outpatient hospital care, physician services, home health care, durable medical equipment, skilled nursing home services, hospice care, and other medical services.
For more information about the 2003 MCBS data, go to "2003 Appendix A: Technical Documentation for The Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey, Health & Health Care of the Medicare Population: 2003," available at http://www.cms.hhs.gov/MCBS.
Files Used for the NHDR
MCBS data for the 2007 National Healthcare Disparities Report (NHDR) are primarily drawn from the Cost and Use file for the data year 2003. The Cost and Use file was chosen over the Access to Care file as the primary source of data on Medicare beneficiaries for three reasons. First, it contains a nationally representative sample of all Medicare beneficiaries rather than just the always enrolled population. Second, it has information on health care expenditures not included in the Access to Care files (e.g., noncovered services such as dental and vision care and prescribed medicines). Third, information on beneficiary income is complete and continuous for each sample person in the Cost and Use file, as opposed to incomplete and categorical in the Access to Care file.
MCBS Table Notes
Tables Used in the 2007 NHDR
The 2007 NHDR tables include five MCBS tables for full-year community residents age 65 and over (H_AGE ≥65 and TYPE = "C").
Medicare beneficiaries age 65 and over who had an eye examination in the past year
Female Medicare beneficiaries age 65 and over who had a mammogram in the past year
Medicare beneficiaries age 65 and over who had an influenza vaccination in the past year
Medicare beneficiaries age 65 and over with delayed care due to cost
Medicare beneficiaries age 65 and over who received dental care
Measure 267 shows the percentage of persons who reported that in the year preceding the interview they delayed seeking care because they were worried about the cost. The source variable "HCDELAY" is from the Access to Care file. Source variables for other measures are from the Cost and Use file. For all five measures, the denominator excludes persons with missing values.
MCBS Sample for NHDR
The sample size and weighted sample size used to generate statistics for the 2007 NHDR are given in the following table. Because the denominator excludes records with missing values, the sample size varies slightly among tables.
||Residents age 65 and older
||65 to 74
|75 to 84
|85 and older
Newly enrolled sample persons from Rounds 37 and 40 are colloquially referred to as "ghosts" because they did not become eligible for Medicare in time to be selected as part of the sample that received all three 2003 interviews. Utilization data for ghosts are included in the 2003 Cost and Use file at the type-of-service and person summary levels, even though they were not interviewed until late 2003 (Round 37) if they were new Medicare enrollees in late 2002, or late 2004 (Round 40) if they were new Medicare enrollees in 2003. While survey data on service use and costs were not available for ghosts, complete profiles of Medicare-covered service use by fee-for-service ghosts were available from administrative bill files. To estimate total service use and costs for the entire sample, ghosts were matched to donor beneficiaries in the 2003 file based on common Medicare use profiles. The donor records were used to impute noncovered services for fee-for-service ghosts and all services for Medicare-risk HMO ghosts. This imputation process provided estimates of missing cost and use data for the ever-enrolled population in the 2003 Cost and Use summary files.
Contrast (Column) Variables
MCBS tables were created with standardized column headings for race, ethnicity, and poverty status. The MCBS race and ethnicity variables are coded from beneficiary responses to the survey questions, and the categories are recorded as interpreted by the respondent. Race categories include American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian or Pacific Islander, Black or African American, White, more than one race, or other race. Ethnicity categories include total non-Hispanic, all races; non-Hispanic White; non-Hispanic Black; and Hispanic. Hispanics include persons of Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Central or South American, or other Spanish culture or origin, regardless of race.
Poverty status categories were created for sample persons in the survey based on their reported or imputed income from all sources. Each person was assigned to a poverty status category by using U.S. Bureau of the Census data on poverty thresholds for 2002, by size of family and number of related children under age 18. The constructed variables are based on the assumption that unmarried beneficiaries were one-person families and married beneficiaries were two-person families.
Other (Row) Variables
Age—Three age categories were developed for the NHDR tables on older community residents: 65 to 74, 75 to 84, and 85 and over.
Gender—Gender is recorded as reported on the Medicare/Social Security administrative record for the sample person.
Insurance coverage—Insurance coverage in the MCBS is based on a combination of Medicare and Medicaid administrative data and survey-reported information on public and private insurance.
The types of insurance identified in the MCBS include Medicare fee-for-service, Medicare managed care, Medicaid, private employer-sponsored, private individually purchased (Medigap), private health maintenance organization (HMO), and other insurance. Summary versions of these variables were used to create four mutually exclusive groups of Medicare beneficiaries by prioritizing insurance coverage as follows:
- Group 1 contains everyone who had Medicaid regardless of other coverage.
- Group 2 contains persons in Medicare managed care plans regardless of other coverage.
- Group 3 contains persons with private insurance (i.e., Medigap, employer-sponsored, or HMO).
- Group 4 contains all remaining beneficiaries (i.e., Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries who did not have Medicaid or private insurance).
Residence location—Sample persons are classified as living in a metropolitan or nonmetropolitan area based on their addresses in the Medicare administrative files.
Perceived health status—Each sample person in the MCBS is asked to compare his or her general health to other persons of the same age. Persons receiving a community interview answer the question themselves. If a sample person is not able to do so, the proxy for that person answers the question. The possible responses to the question include excellent, very good, good, fair, and poor. Persons reporting fair or poor health are shown in the NHDR tables.
Functional limitations—Sample persons are identified as having functional limitations through their responses to six sets of questions about activities of daily living (ADLs) and instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs). Sample persons are asked whether they have a health or physical problem that makes it difficult to perform any of the specified activities. If the response is yes, they are recorded as having a limitation in that particular activity. If the response is "doesn't do," they are asked whether it is because of a health or physical problem. Then, if the response to the followup question is "yes," they are recorded as having a limitation in that particular activity.
The ADLs are activities related to personal care; they include bathing or showering, dressing, eating, getting in or out of bed or a chair, walking, and toileting. The IADLs are activities related to independent living; they include using the telephone, doing light housework, doing heavy housework, preparing meals, shopping for personal items, and managing money. Any limitation reported by a sample person may have been temporary or chronic at the time of the interview.
Computation of Statistics and Standard Errors
The percentages in the tables are weighted, and standard errors are included in the tables in order to assess the impact of sampling variability on the accuracy of the estimates. They were estimated by using a software package (SUDAAN) that accounts for the impact of non-random sampling procedures on the precision of the weighted estimates.
If a cell had fewer than 30 observations or the relative standard error of the estimate was greater than 0.30, the value for that cell was suppressed. This rule was implemented to avoid reporting statistically unreliable estimates of the characteristics of older community residents.
Return to Appendix B: Detailed Methods | This information is for reference purposes only. It was current when produced and may now be outdated. Archive material is no longer maintained, and some links may not work. Persons with disabilities having difficulty accessing this information should contact us at: https://info.ahrq.gov. Let us know the nature of the problem, the Web address of what you want, and your contact information.
Please | {
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In a world too often shrouded from most of America, there’s a renewed perspective and promise of opportunity growing among its people. The Thunder Valley Regenerative Community initiative has inspired the Oglala Lakota Sioux tribe who inhabit the Pine Ridge Reservation ancestral lands in southwest South Dakota to act and plan for important things to come.
The renewal was evident on a recent visit with the Thunder Valley Community Development Corporation’s dynamic young executive director, Nick Tilsen. On this perfect warm autumn day I had an up close glimpse into what the Oyate Omniciye [Circle of Meetings of the People] has created with its 2010 Regional Sustainable Planning grant award from HUD. Wow! The Thunder Valley work is one of the most visionary, inclusive and long term plans completed under this program. It addresses the scarcity of housing, economic development, employment training and, ultimately, job opportunities for Lakota youth and families. Sustainability has been a historic practice of the Lakota people for generations, but the regenerative community plan now provides a current linkage to every Tribal government function.
The 34 acre site lies in the heart of Pine Ridge among low rolling hills adjacent to one of the Reservation’s central road arterials. Thunder Valley has embarked on building four sustainable housing prototypes with architecture and design help from students of the University of Colorado at Boulder, Oglala Lakota College and the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. These four houses will have the same footprint, but use different construction technologies [Straw Bale Infill; Compressed Earth Block; Structural Insulated Panels and Conventionally Framed] to compare cost and energy savings. The energy usage, air quality, durability, and occupancy of each home will be monitored over a 12 month period in order to determine the best construction type performance relationship to the culture and climate of the Pine Ridge Reservation. The preferred construction technology will anchor the projects single family home types as the master plan gets implemented.
HUD and its federal agency partners have awarded over $200 million in sustainability grants nationally since 2010. Only a handful of Native communities have competed for these regional planning dollars. Thunder Valley had the foresight to go after the grant funding as a constructive means to address the long standing housing shortage, high unemployment and youth apathy occurring on the reservation. The grant brought together Elders, Tribal leaders and Lakota youth to meet, talk and reach consensus on what life should look like on Pine Ridge in the future. Through numerous community meetings and outreach, all over the vast reservation, came the birth of the Regenerative Project. The project incorporates everyday governance functions larger cities and towns just take for granted and uniquely maintains Lakota culture in language, health and environmental planning decisions.
Pine Ridge and the Lakota people have embarked on, and experienced a way to promote long term hope for a better future. Regional sustainable planning indeed takes many forms, as demonstrated on Pine Ridge, however, it can motivate local communities and diverse interests to come together to seek agreement on how best to improve and meet the future well prepared to act. This may be one of the best outcomes yet of HUD’s regional sustainable planning grant program. | In a world too often shrouded from most of America, there’s a renewed perspective and promise of opportunity growing among its people. The Thunder Valley Regenerative Community initiative has inspired the Oglala Lakota Sioux tribe who inhabit the Pine Ridge Reservation ancestral lands in southwest South Dakota to act and plan for important things to come.
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In 2009, the American Community Survey collected information on bachelor’s degrees for the first time, including the specific major of each degree attained.
The estimated number of people in the United States over age 25 with a bachelor’s degree or higher was 56.3 million in 2009. Of this group, 20.5 million, or 36.4 percent, held at least one science and engineering degree.
The map below displays the variation in science and engineering degrees by state for 2009.
The percentage of residents with bachelor’s degrees in the science and engineering fields ranged from 26 percent to as high as 51 in the District of Columbia.
The District of Columbia and the five states of California, Maryland, Massachusetts, Virginia, and Washington had a percentage of science and engineering degrees above 40 percent. Nine additional states were also above the national average of 36.4 percent: Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, and Vermont.
The U.S Census Bureau is pleased to announce the release of twelve more reports from the American Community Survey (ACS) Brief series for 2009. These short reports cover a wide range of topics including public transportation usage, population with Haitian ancestry in the United States, rental housing market conditions, and science and engineering degrees. An initial set of seven reports was released on Sept. 28, 2010.
What is the American Community Survey?
The American Community Survey (ACS) is a nationwide survey designed to provide communities with reliable and timely demographic, social, economic, and housing data for the nation, states, congressional districts, counties, places, and other localities every year. It has an annual sample size of about 3 million addresses across the United States and Puerto Rico and includes both housing units and group quarters (e.g., nursing facilities and prisons). The ACS is conducted in every county throughout the nation, and every municipio in Puerto Rico, where it is called the Puerto Rico Community Survey. | In 2009, the American Community Survey collected information on bachelor’s degrees for the first time, including the specific major of each degree attained.
The estimated number of people in the United States over age 25 with a bachelor’s degree or higher was 56.3 million in 2009. Of this group, 20.5 million, or 36.4 percent, held at least one science and engineering degree.
The map below displays | {
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Send Letter to Editor
Walking on water
Natasha Kassulke and Laura Chern
Groundwater in Wisconsin is indeed a treasure. But like all our natural bounties, it is a treasure whose high value must be sustained not by accident but by purpose (1983, "Groundwater: Wisconsin's buried treasure," WNRM).
Catching trout in crisp clear streams, shooting the rapids in a canoe, lazing around the lake in an inner tube, quenching your thirst on a hot summer day – none of these activities would be possible without groundwater. For most of us in Wisconsin, the water we drink, wash with, float on and fish in comes from right below our feet. Groundwater is Wisconsin's invisible resource – our buried treasure.
"Groundwater: Wisconsin's buried treasure" was first published in 1983 to educate citizens about the resource we use every day but can't see. Later versions of the publication highlighted actions state agencies and individuals were taking to safeguard groundwater. In 2006, we look back at the progress made and look forward to new challenges in protecting the groundwater resource. It seems fitting that we go back to the original title for this new version of "Groundwater: Wisconsin's buried treasure."
In 1983, the only option state agencies had for stopping groundwater polluters was litigation under public nuisance laws. The Environmental Protection Agency had set health-based drinking water standards for only 16 harmful substances. State agencies were learning more and more about where and how groundwater occurred and about how vulnerable the resource was. Our state's pioneering "Groundwater Law" was passed in 1984 and laid a plan for state agencies to work together for groundwater protection.
Fast forward to 2006; Wisconsin has limits for over 100 pollutants that threaten groundwater; a new "Water Quantity" law that regulates use; and we have studied groundwater flow in almost every corner of the state. Read on, to learn about Wisconsin's groundwater, how state agencies work together to protect this precious resource and how you can help. | Send Letter to Editor
Walking on water
Natasha Kassulke and Laura Chern
Groundwater in Wisconsin is indeed a treasure. But like all our natural bounties, it is a treasure whose high value must be sustained not by accident but by purpose (1983, "Groundwater: Wisconsin's buried treasure," WNRM).
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1702 St. Paul Street
Baltimore, Maryland 21202
Email: Request for Entry
Center Providing Service to the
Baltimore Community for Over 30 Years
Threshold 2007 Annual Report
Threshold, Inc., founded in 1969, is a private nonprofit organization that provides pre-release services by contract to the Division of Correction for male inmates from Baltimore City. Careful screening procedures help to en-sure the safety of the inmates, the staff and the residents of the surrounding community. All inmates are admitted to this facility with nonviolent offenses as determined by agency staff.
- The criteria for admission are:
- Maximum stay is three years
- Average stay of between six months to one year
- Bed capacity is 30 adult males who are residents of Baltimore City
- Services offered include:
- Employment/work release
- Educational services
- Health awareness and medical services
- Counseling for substance abuse
Education is a key ingredient in the ability of the inmates to succeed once they are released from the facility.
- A “GED Preparation Program” is required for any inmate who does not have a high school diploma or its equivalent. The classes are held two days a week. It is our experience that about two inmates in ten have a high school diploma or equivalent.
- Any inmate who takes the GED test while assigned to Threshold and receives a passing score is entitled to an incentive award that is offered by the Board of Directors
- A library is available for inmate use. The library contains various books, regulations, procedures and several copies of the Qur'an and Holy Bible.
- Inmates engage in structured weekly meetings at the facility for drug and alcohol abuse.
- Surveillance cameras are located throughout the inside and outside of the building. A security alarm system is active in the facility to prevent unauthorized departures by inmates or entries by unknown persons from the community.
- Designated facility counts, daily head counts and tours of the facility by staff. This ensures that the inmates are accounted for at all times while in the facility.
- A body scanner is used to deter the introduction of contraband into the facility. There is also frequent testing of the inmates for drugs and alcohol.
- Distributing food baskets for those in need at Thanksgiving and Christmas and serving Thanksgiving dinner at a local community church.
- Cleaning the streets and alleys around the agency and assisting community residents to remove snow and ice from their cars and walkways.
- Family leaves for inmates to reestablish family relationships.
- Between 9% and 11% of those who were released over the past three years had contact with the criminal justice system.
- An average of 70% of assigned inmates were released to the community on parole, mandatory supervision or home detention over the past three years.
- During the year, 140 persons were served and 120 were employed. The average yearly employment rate for inmates assigned was more than 80%. Over 56 local businesses hired inmates during fiscal 2007.
- During the year, inmates earned combined gross wages of more than $278,000.00 and paid more than $42,000.00 in federal and state taxes.
- During the year, inmates paid over $101,295.00 in work release to the State of Maryland from their earned wages.
- During the year, 64 inmates were released to the community and received over $36,000.00 from their escrow accounts.
Inmates are screened for drug and alcohol use throughout their stay.
Any violations are referred to the Metropolitan Transition Center for hearings.
Threshold’s first priority is the security and safety of the inmates, the staff and the community.
Security and treatment staff are trained at the Police and Correctional Training Commission (PCTC). In addition, the staff receive eighteen (18) hours of annual in-service training at the Metropolitan Transition Center (MTC), in first aid/CPR, security procedures, report writing, etc. Agency training also occurs at the bi-weekly staff meetings.
- Other security measures include:
Threshold is committed to being a good neighbor and a responsible member of the community.
Inmates are encouraged to participate in supervised community out-reach efforts aimed at improving the quality of life in the surrounding neighborhood, such as: | 1702 St. Paul Street
Baltimore, Maryland 21202
Email: Request for Entry
Center Providing Service to the
Baltimore Community for Over 30 Years
Threshold 2007 Annual Report
Threshold, Inc., founded in 1969, is a private nonprofit organization that provides pre-release services by contract to the Division of Correction for male inmates from Baltimore City. Careful screening procedures help to en-sure | {
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Keeping the importance on intelligence test in minds, the researcher decided to standardize an intelligence test to the students on middle level (i.e. Class VI and VII, age group 11+ and 12+).
The objectives of the study was to analyze each item through traditional method in order to determine the validity and reliability of the test and to fix the person-ability and item difficulty by using the latest technique of item analysis i.e. Rasch Model.
For the present study, the students of each sex of class VI and VII in the Government Elementary, Secondary and Higher Secondary Schools of Multan, Bahawalpur, D.G, Khan and Sargodha divisions of Punjab were selected as the population of the study for administering the test.
Stratified random sampling technique was applied by the researcher. 10% schools and 5% students from the Elementary, Secondary , and Higher Secondary schools of Multan, Bahawalpur, D.G Khan and Sargodha divisions were selected.
After pilot study ten test, prepared by researcher and two Australian standardized test, were administered on sample of 12120 boys and girls of Class VI and 9645 boys and girls of Class VII from 335 schools of Bahawalpur, D.G.Khan, Multan and Sargodha divisions.
Thurston‚€™s model of Multiple-factor Theory of intelligence test was used for this study. The researcher developed ten tests(i.e. five for class VI and five for class VII) in Urdu.
The research personally administered the test in different urban and rural schools.
Relevant information‚€™s were collected through answer sheets and results were tabulated with help of computer.
With the help of computer, total score in each test was recorded for item analysis. The data was analyzed to compute facility Index (F%), Discriminatory Index (D) and power of discrimination (Ō†).
Co-efficient of correlation was computed for internal reliability of the test.
The find the reliability of the test, the researcher used the Kudar and Richardson‚€™s formula KR#20 and KR#21 for class VI and VII.
For each class and for each test identical procedure was adopted. After organizing and editing the data matrix (identifying item score and person scores), final item calibration and person measurement estimates were obtained. The values of probability of success of different persons on different items were also calculated.
As a result of research study, it was observed that:
1All tests are reliable for Class VI and VII. 2One item was to be discarded. 3Five items were to be improved. | Keeping the importance on intelligence test in minds, the researcher decided to standardize an intelligence test to the students on middle level (i.e. Class VI and VII, age group 11+ and 12+).
The objectives of the study was to analyze each item through traditional method in order to determine the validity and reliability of the test and to fix the person-ability and item difficulty by using the l | {
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This 50th issue of ICT Update magazine comes at a time of many interesting developments. On 23 July 2009, broadband internet access was brought East Africa thanks to the Seacom undersea cable which now links Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Mozambique and South Africa to high speed networks in Europe and India. By 2010, 21 countries in the East Africa will become connected thanks to the Eastern Africa Submarine Cable System (EASSy). This will have a great impact in a region otherwise dependent on expensive and sometimes unreliable satellite links to the internet. Bandwidth costs will be slashed with cheaper telephony, stimulating businesses and the growth of IT enabled services such as call centres and outsourced industries.
The growth of mobile telephony and related services continues to amaze. Mobile financial services, of the type championed by M-Pesa in Kenya and Wizzit in South Africa, are predicted to be worth US$ 5 billion in 2010. And mobile extension services are starting to enter the mainstream with ventures such as Nokia’s Life Tools and the Grameen Foundation’s AppLab services in Uganda. The fact that rural farmers are now being directly targeted is surely evidence of a sea change in attitudes towards supporting rural communities and of the transformative power of ICTs used for development.
I believe we are currently witnessing ‘technology leapfrogging’ in action where, in spite of a lack of basic infrastructure, the possession of a mobile phone and access to the services it offers are transforming lives. And ICT innovation continues seemingly unchecked, breaking barriers to human knowledge and education, breaking barriers to participation and social inclusion, breaking barriers to economic opportunity by giving the possibility of equitable benefits for all.
The information tsunami unleashed by Google, blogs, wikis, Twitter and a host of other social media have, in a remarkably short time, profoundly changed the way we access and share information. For an increasing proportion of the world’s population, these on-line resources are becoming indispensable to their daily lives.
In the area of participation, web tools and services (especially social media) have led to an increasingly animated public sphere. For civil society organizations, the internet and mobile telephony have offered a new medium of political mobilization and participation. And we only have to think of the key role that social media played in the 2008 US Presidential elections, and the role of Twitter in the recent Iranian elections, to realize that times have indeed changed.
Meanwhile, the development of e-services offers an increasing number of opportunities to improve the economy of rural communities significantly. The unstoppable proliferation of mobile phones has been fundamental to this growth in services. Another other key factor is the favourable technical environment which has led to increased power, diversity, affordability and availability of devices. This, together with the spread of web 2.0 tools and applications, has provided the opportunity for greater efficiency and effectiveness in organizations working for agricultural and rural development throughout the world.
These are indeed exciting times to be working with ICTs for development, with no shortage of devices, applications and tools to use and many possibilities to move seamlessly from an online to an offline world. Given this abundance of riches, it becomes ever more urgent that we work more closely together and share experiences, exploiting ICTs to tackle the pressing issues of the day especially the effects of climate change on food security and agriculture.
A financial analyst in Nairobi, Aly-Khan Satchu, commenting on recent developments was reported as saying ‘with the arrival of the mobile phone and now broadband internet, we are leaping from the medieval age connectivity-wise into the 21st century in a very short period of time. This represents an enormous economic boost and a political game changer given how information is now going to be spread.’ This is indeed a significant economic opportunity which will lead to a flourishing environment in which inevitably there will be many winners as well as losers.
I believe the developments that I have touched on do represent a great opportunity for improving rural livelihoods and greater participation in the social and political sphere. From an ICT for development perspective, it is important that these benefits are shared equitably to avoid digital exclusion and a situation of ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’. New technologies are often seen as disruptive and do alter the status quo (witness the turmoil in the publishing and media industries in coming to terms with the new landscape). However, it is not a blank slate where we have to start from scratch and rewrite the rule book.
Taking a ‘people first’ approach, by concentrating on capacity building and education, ensuring appropriate regulation and ethical practices and dealing with infrastructural issues as they relate to rural communities, the benefits of the new technologies can be available to all. ICT Update contributes to this process. Over the last 50 issues, it has chronicled the development and growth of ICTs in ACP countries and their use and adaptation at the local level when used in agricultural and rural development. While the future might be uncertain, the opportunities are great and ICTs will continue developing at an incredible rate. ICT Update will certainly continue for another 50, 100 or more issues – who knows? We have just to ensure that it is for the benefit of agriculture and the rural poor.
Dr Hansjörg Neun is director of the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation | This 50th issue of ICT Update magazine comes at a time of many interesting developments. On 23 July 2009, broadband internet access was brought East Africa thanks to the Seacom undersea cable which now links Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Mozambique and South Africa to high speed networks in Europe and India. By 2010, 21 countries in the East Africa will become connected thanks to the Eastern Africa Sub | {
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Enlightening Info from the NWS
Our National Weather Service web site is an incredibly rich place for exploring and locating a variety of climate/weather/safety information. Today I found this page, S.E. US, Gulf of Mexico Weather, while looking for information about Hurricane Paula, which has been threatening the SE US for the past few days. Check out all the radio buttons offered over the top edge of the map to see other views of the area, such as water temperatures, the radar loop, etc. And click on any of the yellow icons on the map to open a window showing the weather and wave conditions at the observation site. You can zoom in by clicking on any locality and you can select the “Cities” button, then click on the city you’re interested in to see local conditions. This looks like a great tool for increasing awareness of possible weather-related emergency preparedness needs.
I found this site by selecting “Marine” under “Forecasts” on the main NWS page, then selecting “Portals.” There are also marine maps there for the Great Lakes as well as the other US coastal areas. Thanks, NWS! | Enlightening Info from the NWS
Our National Weather Service web site is an incredibly rich place for exploring and locating a variety of climate/weather/safety information. Today I found this page, S.E. US, Gulf of Mexico Weather, while looking for information about Hurricane Paula, which has been threatening the SE US for the past few days. Check out all the radio buttons offered over the top edg | {
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Open Education Resource (OER)
Science Texts for Grades 7-12
Integrated 7th Grade Science
Integrated 8th Grade Science
Purchase Hard Copies
To purchase hard copies of these texts, please visit the links below.
7th Integrated -https://www.createspace.com/4215253
8th Integrated - https://www.createspace.com/4215270
Earth Science - https://www.createspace.com/4241278
Biology - https://www.createspace.com/4241344
Chemistry - https://www.createspace.com/4241213
Physics - https://www.createspace.com/4241314
The science education community in partnership with BYU's David Wiley and funding from the Hewlett Foundation grant has embarked on a statewide scaling for open education resource development for secondary science. Building upon previous collaborations with educators in Nebo School district reaching back to 2009, this year the project reached out to engage educators from across the state on teams to build state textbooks for secondary science courses including 7th grade integrated science, 8th grade integrated science, Earth Science, Biology, Chemistry, and Physics. Eighteen districts and 4 charter schools had teacher representation in the writing groups that pulled together the textbook from open education resources such as CK12.org. The final textbooks are available in a digital PDF format for free.
The project will continue next year with implementing teachers keeping notes to use in revising the materials for the following year. This will be a continual process that provides a sustainable and cost effective solution to supporting student reference materials that are adaptable to changes in the Utah Core and science content knowledge.
As we continue to refine and improve these documents, we welcome feedback on specific elements. Please use the survey link below to share specific comments in regards to the text to be considered by the annual review committee. | Open Education Resource (OER)
Science Texts for Grades 7-12
Integrated 7th Grade Science
Integrated 8th Grade Science
Purchase Hard Copies
To purchase hard copies of these texts, please visit the links below.
7th Integrated -https://www.createspace.com/4215253
8th Integrated - https://www.createspace.com/4215270
Earth Science - https://www.createspace.com/4241278
Biology - https://www.createspace. | {
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The Central Oregon High Cascade Range
Geologic and Topographic Setting
In the United States, the Cascade Range extends from northern California to northern Washington. In Oregon, south of Mount Hood, the Cascade Range is 50 to 120 km wide, and is composed primarily of upper Eocene to Quaternary volcanic, volcaniclastic, sedimentary, and igneous intrusive rocks. The crest of the Cascade Range is generally at an altitude of 1,500 to 2,000 m, with several of the high volcanoes exceeding 3,000 m (Callaghan and Buddington, 1938; Sherrod, 1986). The high stratovolcanoes and volcano remnants of the central Oregon Cascade Range include Mount Jefferson, Three Fingered Jack, Mount Washington, the three volcanoes of the Three Sisters, Broken Top, Mount Bachelor, Diamond Peak, Mount Thielsen, and Crater Lake Caldera (Mount Mazama). These are all Pleistocene stratovolcanoes of rhyolitic to basaltic composition and are formed mostly of interlayered thin lava flows and pyroclastic deposits overlying cinder cone cores. Of the large stratovolcanoes, there has been Holocene volcanic activity on the summit and flanks of South Sister and at Mount Bachelor as well as the caldera-forming eruptions of Mount Mazama (Taylor, 1981; Taylor and others, 1987; Scott, 1989). The general conical morphology is best preserved on the volcanoes of Middle Sister, South Sister, and Mount Bachelor; the rest have been deeply eroded by Pleistocene glaciation.
Climate and Vegetation
Western Oregon has a temperate maritime climate that is dominated by winter Pacific frontal systems moving eastward across the State. The Cascade Range is a major orographic barrier that intercepts much of the eastward-flowing moisture. Generally warm and dry summers result from northward expansion of the eastern Pacific high pressure system and diversion of the prevailing westerlies to the north. Consequently, precipitation generally occurs during the winter and is greatest at high altitudes. Annual precipitation is about 3,500 to 4,000 mm at the highest elevations within the Three Sisters and Mount Jefferson Wilderness Areas (Taylor, 1993) and falls mostly as snow. At Crater Lake, 90 percent of the 1,620 mm of annual precipitation falls between October 1 and May 31. Annual precipitation decreases eastward across the Oregon Cascade Range, diminishing from more than 2,500 mm on the western slopes to less than 400 mm within 30 km east of the range crest (Taylor, 1993).
The highest peaks of the central Oregon Cascade Range rise above treeline, which is about 2,200 m above sea level on the north side of Mount Jefferson, about 2,300 m on the north side of South Sister, and 2,500 m on the south side of Broken Top. The tallest trees of the subalpine forests and parks near timberline are mountain hemlock (Tsuga mertensiana) and whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis).
The central Oregon Cascade Range peaks that presently sustain glaciers or permanent ice masses are, from north to south, Mount Jefferson, Three Fingered Jack, North Sister, Middle Sister, South Sister, and Broken Top. In addition, Mount Bachelor, Diamond Peak, and Mount Thielsen all had small glaciers that persisted until the end of the Little Ice Age in the early 20th century. The Three Sisters Wilderness Area is the most extensively glacierized region of the central Oregon Cascade Range, with 17 named glaciers that presently cover about 7.5 km2. In the Three Sisters and Mount Jefferson Wilderness Areas, name assignments to some glaciers have varied over the years. In this report, we use the names on the current U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) topographic quadrangles (1988 provisional editions) and informally use the names "Jack Glacier" and "East Bend Glacier" for the unmapped glaciers or perennial ice masses in the northeast-facing cirques of Three Fingered Jack and Broken Top. | The Central Oregon High Cascade Range
Geologic and Topographic Setting
In the United States, the Cascade Range extends from northern California to northern Washington. In Oregon, south of Mount Hood, the Cascade Range is 50 to 120 km wide, and is composed primarily of upper Eocene to Quaternary volcanic, volcaniclastic, sedimentary, and igneous intrusive rocks. The crest of the Cascade Range is ge | {
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Coastal & Marine Geology InfoBank
Our Mapping Systems
The USGS and Science Education
USGS Fact Sheets
ground penetrating radar
Comment: 15:42 - 16:24 (00:42)
Source: Annenberg/CPB Resources - Earth Revealed - 18. Metamorphic Rocks
Keywords: "James Sadd", metamorphism, experiment, composition, temperature, pressure, mineral, "metamorphic rock", atom, geologist
Our transcription: Metamorphism has been compared to cooking.
The dish that you wind up with depends both on your starting ingredients and on the way you cook them.
Likewise laboratory experiments have shown that the composition of rocks changes very little during metamorphism.
But as temperature and pressure increase, the atoms within the rock become mobile and recombine to form new minerals.
These experiments have also shown that the various metamorphic minerals or assemblages of minerals found together, form only within specific ranges of temperature and pressure.
So geologists can use minerals and metamorphic rocks as pressure gauges and thermometers to understand the conditions under which metamorphism took place.
Geology School Keywords | Coastal & Marine Geology InfoBank
Our Mapping Systems
The USGS and Science Education
USGS Fact Sheets
ground penetrating radar
Comment: 15:42 - 16:24 (00:42)
Source: Annenberg/CPB Resources - Earth Revealed - 18. Metamorphic Rocks
Keywords: "James Sadd", metamorphism, experiment, composition, temperature, pressure, mineral, "metamorphic rock", atom, geologist
Our transcription: Metamorphism has be | {
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ARC Guidelines for Asset-Based Development Projects
Identifying the strengths found in Appalachia, and leveraging these strengths into economic opportunity, is one way to increase revenue and create jobs. To focus the attention of the Region's public, private, and nonprofit leaders on asset-based development strategies, and to increase the chances of the success of these activities, ARC will undertake a broad scope of work to identify best practice, forge linkages with institutional partners, provide technical assistance to communities, and finance asset-based development efforts. ARC will support projects that demonstrate potential for generating new revenue streams and creating jobs for Appalachian communities.
ARC's vision for Appalachia, as outlined in the Commission's strategic plan, Moving Appalachia Forward, is for the Region to achieve socioeconomic parity with the nation. To reach this vision, ARC will act as a strategic partner and advocate for sustainable community and economic development in the Region. Through this work, the Commission seeks to achieve four specific goals for the Region:
Asset-based economic development is one of several possible strategies for achieving these goals and for addressing the economic restructuring taking place across the Region. It is a strategy that complements other economic development strategies being employed throughout the Region. Asset-based development can be defined as a strategy that builds on existing resources—natural, cultural, structural, and leadership—to create valued products and services that can be sustained for local benefit. This strategy involves developing the Region's assets and identifying new and creative uses for perceived liabilities in order to generate revenue and create jobs. Communities can inventory cultural, natural, structural, and leadership / community resources and develop strategies that utilize strengths and transform liabilities. The key is to identify the potential within a community and maximize its impact, developing new revenue streams by turning perceived liabilities into strengths, or developing untapped natural and cultural resources into desired products and services. Asset-based development focuses on enhancing the assets in the Region. Successful strategies not only have positive economic impacts, like new jobs and businesses, but strengthen the assets themselves—be they forests, rivers, downtowns, or renovated brownfield facilities—to ensure sustained, long-term impact in a community. Asset-based economic development is not a quick fix or a panacea for the Region. However, it can be part of a comprehensive solution for sustainable community and economic development.
Some examples of successful asset-based development projects include:
Aquaculture. In 1999 the Mingo County Redevelopment Authority built a fish hatchery for the salmon-like arctic char, using water from an abandoned section of the Mingo Logan Coal Mine in a distressed county. The mining companies donated $150,000 of in-kind contributions, matched by funds from the State of West Virginia and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). The hatchery was stocked with 188,000 eggs in 2000, using the market-proven char as inventory. These facilities shipped 300,000 pounds of char in 2003 and increased that to 400,000 pounds in 2004.
Shut-in Natural Gas Wells or Stripper Wells. Gas wells that once produced a significant amount of natural gas frequently lay dormant throughout the Region. These wells don't produce natural gas at a volume sufficient to go through large-scale transmission lines, but do produce enough natural gas to fuel businesses. The Conservation Fund worked to harvest the resources of four such wells in Upshur County in West Virginia as a part of a pilot project. To date, these wells are being utilized to fuel a greenhouse which is now producing vegetables and herbs, and generating revenue year-round with a free energy and water supply.
Gateway Communities. The Blue Ridge Mountains and the Great Smoky Mountain National Park are assets unique to the Appalachian Region. Communities as diverse as Asheville in North Carolina and Etowah in Tennessee have leveraged the beauty of this region, and the public spaces and parks, for their benefit. Annually, more than six million visitors make Asheville their destination of choice. Some come for the highly touted arts and crafts of the region (the oldest craft guild in the nation got its start here in 1898). Some are attracted by the eclectic downtown which boasts fine restaurants, an assortment of shopping opportunities, and Art Deco architecture. Others are attracted by the myriad outdoor activities, such as hiking in the nearby national forests, whitewater rafting, fishing, driving down the Blue Ridge Parkway, or learning about the native Cherokee. Asheville is truly the gateway to the Smokies. And in Etowah, the community has renovated a historic railway depot and abandoned rail line, and now provides tourist excursions deep into the lush mountains. Etowah is also adjacent to the Ocoee River, renown for its whitewater rafting and home to a USDA Forest Service-managed Olympic venue for whitewater racing (which is also open to the public).
Cultural and Heritage Tourism. Berea, Kentucky, has a long-established reputation as the Folk Arts and Crafts Capital of the state. Its tradition began in the late 19th century when Berea College started a crafts production program to help students pay for their education. In 2003, the Kentucky Artisan Center opened to encourage visitors to learn more about the Commonwealth's crafts. The center features local artists through retail displays of their work. Music, books, specialty food products, visual arts and crafts, and other handmade objects by Kentucky artisans are presented. In addition, the Kentucky Artisan Heritage Trails showcase interesting places, exciting events, and wonderful food throughout eastern Kentucky. Over 170 businesses participate in the Trails program, and more then 70 new cultural-heritage businesses have opened in the region. And in August 2004, the winding 200 mile stretch from Galax to Clintwood was dubbed Virginia's Heritage Music Trail. Planners of "The Crooked Road" anticipate that within three years, the trail will be a nationally recognized heritage tourism destination and that within four years, the trail will generate triple the current revenues from tourism.
Brownfields. In Titusville, Pennsylvania, the site of the former Cyclops (Cytemp) Steel Company was gifted to the Titusville Redevelopment Authority when the company closed in 1998. The site has been developed into a world-class industrial park. One element of the redevelopment plan included improvements to a building to house a 100,000 square foot industrial business incubator that provided a common shipping and receiving area with access to cranes, forklift trucks, loading docs with different height bays, and freight-car loading services for rail transport.
Asset-Based Development—Eligible ActivitiesAs we identify the advantages of the Region, four broad opportunities for development become apparent: leveraging our cultural assets, our natural assets, our structural assets, and our leadership/community assets. Each of these assets offers unique avenues for crafting new enterprise and injecting vitality into Appalachian communities. ARC's Asset-Based Development Regional Initiative will support strategies that leverage these assets, including, but not limited to:
Activities Not Supported by the InitiativeAsset-based development does not include filling gaps, addressing deficiencies, or the provision of amenities, which often occur at the expense of leveraging unique assets and community strengths. For example, support for a local symphony, ballet, or swimming pool—things that are not unique to the Region but are based in many mid-sized communities—would not well fit this initiative, while support for indigenous community assets like the Carter Family Fold (in Virginia) and the reclamation of an old industrial site such as the Cytemp Steel Co. facility in Titusville (Pennsylvania) are compelling asset-based activities.
Because ARC projects are funded with federal dollars, careful stewardship of those funds must exist. Therefore, ARC will closely scrutinize asset-based development activities to determine their eligibility for funding as a part of this initiative. State partners are encouraged to interact with POD staff often and early in the project development process to ensure that each project has the optimum opportunity to succeed. Projects will be considered on a case by case basis.
Outcomes: Activities supported by this regional initiative must have economic impact—either by preparing the way for future sustainable growth through asset mapping or strategic planning, or supporting the implementation of projects that result in the direct creation of new jobs or businesses. Projects should demonstrate the potential for generating new revenue streams for Appalachian communities. Successful strategies include those that are proven or those that have a high chance for achieving the designated outcome, those that involve resources indigenous to the Region, and those that have the potential to leverage additional funding from other public and private sources.
A Roadmap for Asset-Based Development in AppalachiaARC is embarking on a comprehensive asset-based development work plan for the Region. ARC and partners—including the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), The Conservation Fund, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Southern Arts Federation, the National Geographic Society, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the USDA Forest Service—are engaged in a broad range of activity to support asset-based development efforts.
ARC suggests communities employ a roadmap to strategically build on their strengths, researching and structuring initiatives to ensure success when implementing these programs. Communities may begin by mapping their assets and engaging in strategic planning to articulate options and clarify directions. Alternately, if a clear direction has been well crafted, priority activities may involve financing or marketing asset-based initiatives. Activities are eligible at any point along this development path. This roadmap for developing asset-based initiatives includes:
A Regional FocusARC anticipates that these activities will catalyze a broad range of asset-based development efforts throughout the Appalachian Region, leveraging state, local, and private-sector investment, helping to shift the strategic planning focus at the state and local levels, and sparking a range of new policy initiatives across the Region. It is anticipated that strategic ARC central-office investments will stimulate significant follow-on investment on the part of ARC state offices, as evidenced by ARC's work in the area of leadership development, export trade, telecommunications, and entrepreneurship. In addition, the introduction of new development strategies is anticipated to shift the strategic planning focus at the local level as well. Local development organizations will begin to think about new directions and opportunities, crafting new strategies to address old problems. And new state policy initiatives (be they formation of equity funds, development of business incubation systems, or the modification of educational curriculum to support youth entrepreneurship programs(as resulted within the field of entrepreneurship) can provide lasting change to a state's development landscape. These regional activities will both support the vision developed by local communities and help ensure the success of community initiatives by creating a broad, sustainable framework for asset-based development efforts.
Links to EntrepreneurshipThese asset-based development activities will build on the work of the Commission's Entrepreneurship Initiative, which has provided over $31 million in support to more than 368 projects, resulting in the creation of over 5,000 jobs and 1,200 new businesses (through FY 2003). The Entrepreneurship Initiative assists homegrown businesses add jobs and increase wealth in the Region. This initiative has strengthened the infrastructure necessary to build an entrepreneurial economy by supporting the development of venture capital and debt funds, the provision of technical assistance (through business incubator facilities and other strategies), and the development of entrepreneurship education and training programs for adults and youth. Asset-based activities will both leverage the success of these new enterprises and continue to support the Region's infrastructure for starting and growing locally owned businesses.
Advisory CommitteeThe Commission has convened an advisory committee to provide strategic direction for future ARC investments in the area of asset-based development. The committee will also be asked to identify opportunities for leveraging additional partnership efforts. Committee members reflect a diverse background in the field of asset-based development, including expertise in natural assets, cultural assets, and community/leadership assets. Committee members include representatives from local nonprofit development organizations, local communities, ARC Local Development Districts, ARC state program managers, national development groups, private-sector representatives, and federal agencies. ARC will staff the committee and reimburse committee members for costs associated with participating in these sessions.
PartnershipsEngaging institutional partners and national best practice organizations will be critical to the success of this initiative. On its own, ARC could provide funding to assist specific communities, but long-term sustainable impact might not be achieved. To increase the likelihood of success, the Commission will invite key institutions to assist in conducting research, sponsoring educational conferences, the joint production of publications, the provision of mentorship and scholarship opportunities, the development of online resources, and the provision of direct financial support. Potential partners may include institutions, foundations, and national organizations.
ARC Asset-Based Development Advisory Committee | ARC Guidelines for Asset-Based Development Projects
Identifying the strengths found in Appalachia, and leveraging these strengths into economic opportunity, is one way to increase revenue and create jobs. To focus the attention of the Region's public, private, and nonprofit leaders on asset-based development strategies, and to increase the chances of the success of these activities, ARC will under | {
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Saturday 25 May
Scaly cricket (Pseudomogoplistes vicentae)
What’s the World’s Favourite Species?Find out here.
Scaly cricket fact file
- Find out more
- Print factsheet
Scaly cricket description
First recorded in Britain in 1949, this species is small, with a chestnut brown to grey body and pale legs, which are covered with minute scales. Wings are absent in both sexes so males cannot stridulate; the female ovipositor is about the same length as the cerci (a pair of appendages at the very end of the abdomen, which often act as sensory organs). The English name derives from the covering of tiny scales.
- Body length (males): 8-11 mm
- Body length (females): 10-13 mm
Scaly cricket biology
Very little is known about this species in Britain. It emerges at night and probably feeds on decaying animal and plant material found on the strandline. Individual specimens may live up to three years and all stages of the life cycle can be found throughout the year.Top
Scaly cricket range
Found in the Mediterranean, southern Portugal, Madeira and the Cherbourg Peninsula in France. In Britain it was for many years known only from Chesil Beach in Dorset. This led to the now refuted notion that the species was introduced to Britain during The Second World War in sand from the Mediterranean region. Following the discovery of a second colony between Branscombe and Beer Head in Devon in 1998, and colonies on the Island of Sark in the Channel Islands and in Pembrokeshire, Wales during 2000, the species is now recognised as a true native of the British Isles.Top
Scaly cricket habitat
The scaly cricket inhabits shingle beaches, and has been found living amongst shingle, under rocks and beach debris. Most individuals inhabit shingle above the high-water mark, and are associated with the seaweed strandline.Top
Scaly cricket status
Classified as Endangered in Great Britain.Top
Scaly cricket threats
There has been no decline of the species in Great Britain, the scaly cricket is now known from four localities. However, colonies are sensitive to human disturbance and marine pollution.Top
Scaly cricket conservation
New sampling techniques used in researching this species have shown that the British populations are relatively large, it therefore seems that the species is not currently endangered in Great Britain. However, these populations are of international significance; the species is recognised as an international rarity.Top
Information supplied and authenticated by Bryan Pinchen (independent ecologist).Top
- Pair of appendages at the posterior end of insect abdomen, which often perform a sensory role.
- Egg-laying organ in female insects consisting of outgrowths of the abdomen (the hind region of the body in insects). The stinging organ and poison sac of worker bees and non-reproductive female wasps is a modified ovipositor.
- Production of sound by rubbing a file across a membrane. In insects, often a file on a wing rubs against the surface of the other wing, or the file is on a leg which is scraped on the wing.
Terms and Conditions of Use of Materials
Visitors to this website (End Users) are entitled to:
- view the contents of, and Material on, the website;
Additional use of flagged material
Green flagged material
Creative commons material
Any other use | Saturday 25 May
Scaly cricket (Pseudomogoplistes vicentae)
What’s the World’s Favourite Species?Find out here.
Scaly cricket fact file
- Find out more
- Print factsheet
Scaly cricket description
First recorded in Britain in 1949, this species is small, with a chestnut brown to grey body and pale legs, which are covered with minute scales. Wings are absent in both sexes so males cannot stridulate; | {
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(Australia Dec 1956– )
182.5 x 243.6cm stretcher
Documentation that came with the painting 'Untitled (Tjiturrulpa)' 2004 states that the work depicts designs associated with the rockhole and soakage water site of Tjiturrulpa, situated in rocky hills, west of Kintore Community. The lines in the painting represent the sandhills surrounding the area, as well as the spears and nulla nullas of a group of men and women who travelled to the site. While at Tjiturrulpa the group gathered jitjara or desert yam, the edible tuber of the shrub Ipomoea costata which grow in profusion hear this site. They also dug for water in one of the soakages at the site.
Elieen Napaltjarri was born at Haasts Bluff in December 1945. Her father, Charlie Tararu Tjungurayi, was one of the founding members of Papunya Tula Artists, and her mother, Tatali Nangala, was also a very successful artist with the company from 1956 until her death in 1999. Napaltjarri grew up in Haasts Bluff and later moved to Kintore with her family when it was first established. The main site Napaltjarri refers to in her painting is Tjiturrulnga, which is slightly west of Kintore and the birthplace of her father. She often sat beside both of her parents as they painted and although doing her first painting in 1996, didn't paint regularly until 1999.
This spectacular painting was the feature work of the exhibition that opened the new premises of Papunya Tula Artists. It is a powerful testament to the presence of Pintupi artists and particularly women artists in Australian art. The artist's parents were both pioneering members of the Papunya Tula cooperative and the artist was witness over any years to the blossoming of the Western Desert art movement. This experience has been borne out in her work since the late 1990s. At this present phase in her career she has fully realised her potential and created a highly accomplished work on a scale not yet attempted by the artist - and reserved for the most distinguished members of the cooperative.
© Australian Art Department, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 2005
Art Gallery of New South Wales Annual Report 2005 2005, 2005, 18, 19 (colour illus.), 64.
'Yiribana: a facelift and a new show', pg. 28-31., Look Jul 2005, Jul 2005, 30 (colour illus.).
'Aboriginal Collection Benefactors (ACB)', by Bambi Blumberg., Foundation Newsletter #6 May 2005, May 2005, (colour illus.). | (Australia Dec 1956– )
182.5 x 243.6cm stretcher
Documentation that came with the painting 'Untitled (Tjiturrulpa)' 2004 states that the work depicts designs associated with the rockhole and soakage water site of Tjiturrulpa, situated in rocky hills, west of Kintore Community. The lines in the painting represent the sandhills surrounding the area, as well as the spears and nulla nullas of a group | {
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The Advanced Technology Program (ATP) is unique among federal funding programs in that it provides support for U.S. companies engaged in the development of highly innovative and technically challenging platform technologies that would otherwise not be developed, or not be developed in a timely manner. ATP partners with industry to provide funding for early stage technologies that are viewed to be too technically risky or too early for private sector funding sources but nonetheless have the potential to enable broad-based national economic benefits.
In 44 competitions that have been held between 1990 and 2004, 768 projects have been selected for cost-shared funding from over 6,000 proposals. Approximately 30% percent of these awards (224 projects) involve direct developments in biotechnology and/or healthcare related technologies. These awards are consistent with ATP’s statute that establishes ATP’s role in providing cost sharing support “for the purpose of assisting United States businesses in creating and applying the generic technology and research results necessary to commercialize significant new scientific discoveries and technologies rapidly.”
This report highlights several ground breaking innovations in biotechnology and healthcare that ATP awardees are now seeking to commercialize.
ATP Funded Novel Technology Leading to a Potential New Treatment for HIV
Sangamo Biosciences of Richmond, CA is expecting to enter clinical trials for revolutionary AIDS treatment using gene modifying technology.
The ability to regulate gene expression has tremendous therapeutic potential. Sangamo Biosciences has developed engineered Zinc Finger Protein Transcription Factors for Therapeutic Gene Regulation. This therapeutic approach is designed to activate or repress specific genes relevant to human disease including cardiovascular diseases, cancer, and HIV/AIDS.1
Currently, over 500,000 U.S. citizens have died from AIDS and an additional 400,000 more have AIDS.2 More than 225,000 have now been diagnosed as HIV positive.3 Sangamo President Edward Lanphier noted, “without ATP funding, Sangamo Biosciences would not exist, nor would our exciting zinc finger technology have the potential to treat AIDS or HIV.” He further added, “It’s an enormous step forward for HIV therapeutics and circumvents or leapfrogs all the conventional approaches.”4
ATP Funded Technology to Provide Treatment for Congestive Heart Failure
Osiris Therapeutics of Baltimore, MD is attempting to regenerate damaged heart muscles by being the first company to take adult stem cell technology into the clinic.
Osiris Therapeutics, Inc. has been working for over a decade to develop and commercialize cellular therapies based on stem cells isolated from readily available adult bone marrow. These stem cells offer the opportunity to provide revolutionary treatments for many disease conditions.
An estimated 4.8 million Americans have congestive heart failure (CHF). Half of the patients diagnosed with CHF will be dead within 5 years.5 Coronary heart disease alone is the single largest killer of Americans. There were 494,382 coronary heart disease deaths in 2002.6
Our commitment in this new frontier of stem cell therapy is first and foremost patient safety, said C. Randal Mills, Ph.D., President and CEO of Osiris Therapeutics. "This is significant for all of our clinical programs since our stem cells products represent a true platform technology."7
ATP Funded New Technology to Treat Cancer
Receptor Logic of Amarillo, TX is developing a new platform which will lead to more sensitive and accurate tools for diagnosing and treating breast cancer.8
Receptor Logic is developing a new class of antibodies that mimic T cell receptors (TCR mimics) and can identify and attack tumor-specific human leukocyte antigen complexes (HLA). HLA are present on virtually all cells and display cancer targets on tumor cell surfaces.
Breast cancer is the most common form of cancer in women and the second leading cause of cancer death for women in the United States. Approximately 186,000 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year. Tragically, every 13 minutes a woman dies of breast cancer. It costs $10,000 - $15,000 to treat breast cancer when detected early compared to $60,000 - $145,000 when it is detected in more advanced stages. Early detection also saves lives. The survival rate for localized breast cancers is 96%, as compared to 21% when the cancer has spread to other areas and organs.9 This ATP funded technology from Receptor Logic has the potential to facilitate earlier breast cancer detection and save lives.
ATP Funded Technology Creates “Golden Bullet” for Cancer Treatment
CytImmune Sciences, Inc., of Rockville, MD, is expecting to enter clinical trials soon for cancer treatment.
The technology funded under the ATP award minimizes drug development risks by targeting smaller doses of drugs that ordinarily can not be used at higher doses for reasons such as high toxicity to the patient. To overcome this problem CytImmune Sciences, Inc. attaches drugs to gold nanoparticles and targets the whole complex to tumors. This type of treatment may cause much less harm to the patient because the drug is delivered directly to the tumor, thereby destroying it. When this technology is proven effective, it may be in the front lines of cancer treatment, making surgery, radiation treatment and chemotherapy with morbidity-causing drugs less necessary.
ATP Funded Technology to “Turn On” Gene Therapy
ATP-funded RheoGene, Inc. of Norristown PA has developed the RheoSwitch® Therapeutic System (RTS) for cell and gene therapy. RTS delivers therapeutic gene products in the patient to the right place, at the right time, and at the right dose.
The power and potential of gene therapy is enormous and RheoGene is dedicated to unlocking the power of cell and gene therapy to provide cures for major unmet medical needs.10
There are no approved gene therapy products on the market today, in part because of the unmet need for efficacy and safety that can only be realized through the use of a targeted, regulated gene expression system. RTS has the potential to be safe and effective for a wide range of clinical indications where the controlled delivery of a therapeutic gene product represents the best opportunity for effective treatment or cure.11
ATP Funded Technology Promises to Significantly Reduce Immunological Effects of Protein Therapeutics
Xencor, Inc. of Monrovia, CA., is creating superior proteins therapeutics through the use of pioneering protein engineering technology and turning natural proteins into powerful therapeutic entities.
Immunogenicity can both reduce the efficacy of a therapeutic and cause severe immune reactions. ImmunoPDA™ technology is the only comprehensive approach to addressing the immunogenicity problem. ImmunoPDA™ technology is a fully integrated protein design and immunogenicity reduction tool for the creation of safer biotherapeutics. With ATP funding, Xencor, is redesigning and re-engineering therapeutic proteins to be less immunogenic by using innovative computational methods to identify and replace antigenic protein regions (epitopes) for improved safety and efficacy.12 This platform may minimize or eliminate the over-reaction of the human immune system to protein-based therapeutics. The market for these protein based products is now greater than $17 billion.
ATP Funded Technology Enables the Next Generation of Biotherapeutics with Superior Pharmaceutical Attributes using a Proprietary Glycan Optimization Technology
Glycofi Inc. of Lebanon, NH has developed a proprietary protein expression technology that allows for the optimization of the exact sugar structure of a given therapeutic protein. This development can dramatically improve the pharmaceutical attributes of a drug and enhance its therapeutic profile.13
Glycofi is validating the use of this platform technology to fast track monoclonal antibody production. By controlling the sugar structures on antibodies they have shown that the antibodies ability to kill cancer cells can be significantly improved and that therapeutic proteins can be optimized by controlling their sugar structures.14
This platform demonstrates that antibodies with human sugar structures (glycosylation) can be produced in glyco-engineered yeast cell lines. It also demonstrates that by controlling the sugar structures of antibodies, their therapeutic potency can be significantly improved.15
Collaborators, including top pharmaceuticals such as Merck, Lilly, and Medimmune, are
validating the technology to determine if the platform can be used to create novel drug
candidates with superior performance.16
Date created: May 12, 2006
website comments: [email protected] / Technical
ATP inquiries: [email protected].
NIST is an agency of the U.S. Commerce Department
No Fear Act Policy / NIST Information Quallity Standards / ExpectMore.gov (performance of federal programs) | The Advanced Technology Program (ATP) is unique among federal funding programs in that it provides support for U.S. companies engaged in the development of highly innovative and technically challenging platform technologies that would otherwise not be developed, or not be developed in a timely manner. ATP partners with industry to provide funding for early stage technologies that are viewed to be | {
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Date: August 1, 2007
CONTACT: Mike Brown, (775) 753-0386
ELKO FIELD OFFICE NO. 2007-98
SUMMER TALK SERIES CONCLUDES
The History in the Park - Stories from the West series ends with a presentation on outlaws and lawmen on Tuesday, August 7, at 7:00 p.m. on the lawn in the City Park immediately behind the Northeastern Nevada Museum in Elko.
“Outlaws and Law Officers of Wells and Elko; A Walk on the Wild West Side – The Rest of the Story” will be given by Gene Kaplan.
“People will hear stories they didn’t hear last summer … or the summer before," said Kaplan. "These stories about outlaws, saloonkeepers, and law officers in Elko and Wells, were generated by the towns famed for showing visitors a good time since 1869.”
Kaplan lives in Wells, where he is the owner of the El Rancho. He holds a Master of Arts, Social Sciences Degree and is a former rural police chief. He is also a retired lieutenant colonel, United States Army Reserve and is a member of the Honorary Order of Kentucky Colonels.
The History in the Park program is a free lecture series reflecting the wealth of history of Nevada and the American West. Several of the talks focus on stories of the California National Historic Trail.
The lecture series is sponsored by the Northeastern Nevada Museum, Nevada Humanities Council, and the Bureau of Land Management Elko Field Office. In the event of inclement weather, the talk will be moved indoors to the Museum Theater. The talk is free and the public is encouraged to attend. Bring a lawn chair or blanket for open seating on the grass.
For more information, call the Northeastern Nevada Museum in Elko, (775) 738-3418. | Date: August 1, 2007
CONTACT: Mike Brown, (775) 753-0386
ELKO FIELD OFFICE NO. 2007-98
SUMMER TALK SERIES CONCLUDES
The History in the Park - Stories from the West series ends with a presentation on outlaws and lawmen on Tuesday, August 7, at 7:00 p.m. on the lawn in the City Park immediately behind the Northeastern Nevada Museum in Elko.
“Outlaws and Law Officers of Wells and Elko; A Walk on the | {
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Chief John D. Corn began his law enforcement career in 1989 as a Yukon Police Officer. Four years later he promoted to the supervisor rank of Master Patrolman, which was the beginning of his management experience. Chief Corn promoted through the ranks before becoming Deputy Chief of Police in 2000. In 2012, Chief Corn was promoted to Chief of Police for the Yukon Police Department where he began operational management over all department sworn and non-sworn employees.
Chief Corn is a graduate of the 187th Session of the FBI National Academy and serves as a member of the Oklahoma Chiefs of Police, International Chiefs of Police, FBI National Academy Association, and the Yukon Community Education Council.
He holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Behavioral Science from Oklahoma City University and an Associates Degree in Criminal Justice from Oklahoma State University. Chief Corn attended and graduated from Yukon High School.
Chief Corn has been certified as a court expert in Collision Investigation and Reconstruction and is an active State of Oklahoma Firearms Instructor.
He has been awarded Yukon Police Officer of the Year and City of Yukon Employee of the Year. A certificate of appreciation was awarded to Chief Corn for his assistance during the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City.
Chief Corn lives in Yukon with his wife Lisa and son Jordan. | Chief John D. Corn began his law enforcement career in 1989 as a Yukon Police Officer. Four years later he promoted to the supervisor rank of Master Patrolman, which was the beginning of his management experience. Chief Corn promoted through the ranks before becoming Deputy Chief of Police in 2000. In 2012, Chief Corn was promoted to Chief of Police for the Yukon Police Department where he began o | {
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Elsewhere on DAFF
Enrolment…accommodation…passport…visa…health insurance…what to pack…???
These are just some of the things you will need to think about when preparing to come to Australia to study—quarantine laws, regulations and requirements are another. You need to be aware of what you cannot bring into Australia with you and therefore what you should not pack.
Either as a traveller to Australia or as a recipient of mail and parcels from friends and family back home, sooner or later you will come into contact with quarantine.
Each year quarantine officers intercept more than 130,000 items at airports, mail handling centres and seaports. AQIS officers are particularly concerned about the number of parcels addressed to overseas students studying in Australia containing banned items, particularly food. These well-intentioned gifts could carry exotic pests and diseases which would put at risk the very things that make Australia so appealing as a destination—our environment, native plants and animals, agricultural industries and our great way of life.
It is therefore important that you are aware of what you cannot bring into Australia when you arrive at the airport. It is also important that your family and friends at home know what they cannot send to you through the mail. We would like to remind you that people who deliberately break Australian quarantine regulations could be fined or taken to court.
And remember, many of the food items you may want to bring into Australia or have sent to you through the mail are readily available in Australian shops.
These brochures are also available in text only versions:
29 Apr 2011 | Elsewhere on DAFF
Enrolment…accommodation…passport…visa…health insurance…what to pack…???
These are just some of the things you will need to think about when preparing to come to Australia to study—quarantine laws, regulations and requirements are another. You need to be aware of what you cannot bring into Australia with you and therefore what you should not pack.
Either as a traveller to Australi | {
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|This information is provided free of charge by the Department of Industrial Relations from its web site at www.dir.ca.gov. These regulations are for the convenience of the user and no representation or warranty is made that the information is current or accurate. See full disclaimer at http://www.dir.ca.gov/od_pub/disclaimer.html.|
| Return to index
(a) The conductive surfaces of cranes and hoists that enter the cell line working zone need not be grounded. The portion of an overhead crane or hoist that contacts an energized electrolytic cell or energized attachments shall be insulated from ground.
(b) Remote crane or hoist controls that may introduce hazardous electrical conditions into the cell line working zone shall employ one or more of the following systems:
(1) Isolated and ungrounded control circuit;
(2) Nonconductive rope operator;
(3) Pendant pushbutton with nonconductive supporting means and with nonconductive surfaces or ungrounded exposed conductive surfaces; or
Note: Authority cited: Section 142.3, Labor Code. Reference: Section 142.3, Labor Code.
1. New section filed 5-5-2008; operative 5-5-2008. Submitted to OAL for printing only pursuant to Labor Code 142.3(a)(3) (Register 2008, No. 19).
Go Back to Article 83 Table of Contents | |This information is provided free of charge by the Department of Industrial Relations from its web site at www.dir.ca.gov. These regulations are for the convenience of the user and no representation or warranty is made that the information is current or accurate. See full disclaimer at http://www.dir.ca.gov/od_pub/disclaimer.html.|
| Return to index
(a) The conductive surfaces of cranes and hoist | {
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Who Certifies Green Products and Services?
Standards and certification programs are useful when you are purchasing
environmentally preferable products (EPP) and writing specifications for
bid documents. Standards establish human health, environmental
and social criteria by which products and services can be evaluated and certified.
Standards organizations typically develop certification programs
(also known as eco-labels) that identify products and services that
have met the standards. This can make preparing bid documents far easier
since the requirements of the standard can be
incorporated in the document in just a few sentences.
To learn more about how standards and certifications apply to specific product categories, see the
How Can I Use Standards and Certifications?
You can use standards and certifications to:
- Identify manufacturers and service providers that are proven environmental
- Incorporate environmental criteria into bid documents by reference
to an existing standard (check procurement guidelines.)
What are the Characteristics of a
Reliable Standards and Certifications Program?
Reliable standards and certification programs are designed to:
- Incorporate product life cycle stages from raw materials to end-of-life.
- Require on-site testing and verification by an independent laboratory
or certifying group.
- Often incorporate performance and safety standards that the product
must meet or exceed.
Reliable standards and certification organizations:
- Are independent of ties to product manufacturers.
- Use a broad-based stakeholder consensus process (typically involving
manufacturers, users, government, non governmental organizations, and academia)
or other rigorous process to develop standards.
- Provide information on their organizational structure, funding
and standards development process.
- Periodically review and update standards to stay current with new technology
and emerging information about human health, environmental, and
social impacts of products.
- Encourage the design of products and services with positive environmental
and human health attributes.
Note: Be aware that some manufacturers, service providers, and
trade associations create “green” labels for their product or service
lines that do not meet these tests of independence and credibility.
Check with neutral and reliable resources to determine if a certification
system is credible.
Back to Top
Standards and Certification Organizations
U.S. & Canada
Learn about standards and certification programs frequently referenced
in bid documents in North America.
- Design for the Environment
Design for the Environment (DFE) is an EPA program that forms voluntary
partnerships with selected industry sectors to:
- Evaluate the human health and environmental impacts of an industry's
manufacturing processes and products.
- Conduct assessments of safer alternatives.
- Reduce the use and release of toxic chemicals through innovation
of cleaner technologies that use safer chemicals.
- Implement pollution prevention, energy efficiency, and other resource
- Design products that can be reused, refurbished, remanufactured,
Through this process, the DFE program creates a model for industry
to follow. DFE generally works through industry leaders, and trade
and technical associations, plus often involves public interest
groups, universities, research institutions, and other government
agencies at the federal, state, and local level.
- Energy Star
Energy Efficient Products
Energy Star is a voluntary labeling program designed to identify
and promote energy-efficient products. The program is funded by
the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department
of Energy. Energy Star certifies products in over 50 categories,
including commercial appliances, food service equipment, heating
and cooling systems, electronics, office equipment, and lighting.
These products deliver the same or better performance as comparable
models while using less energy and saving money.
Through its partnerships with more than 9,000 private and public
sector organizations, Energy Star provides technical information
and tools that agencies can use to choose energy-efficient equipment.
Energy Star is also used by EPA for an energy performance rating
system for top-performing buildings.
- Ecologo Program
The Environmental Choice Program (ECP) has developed 150 environmental
standards in a wide range of product categories and awards the EcoLogo
- Environmentally Preferable Electronics Assessment Tool
The Environmentally Preferable Electronics Assessment Tool (EPEAT)
is a rating system to help purchasers in the public and private
sectors evaluate, compare, and select desktop computers, notebook
computers, and monitors based on their environmental attributes.
EPEAT provides a set of voluntary environmental performance criteria,
which are specified in an Institute of Electrical and Electronics
Engineers (IEEE) standard for environmental assessment of computer
Computer products receive Bronze, Silver or Gold EPEAT rating
depending on how many of the 23 required criteria and 28 optional
criteria are met. EPEAT is operated by the
Green Electronics Council,
an independent non-profit organization.
- Forest Stewardship Council
Forestry and Paper Products
The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) is a global standard-setting
organization focused on forest management. FSC has developed ten
principles and 57 criteria that address legal issues, indigenous
rights, labor rights, and environmental impacts surrounding forest
management. FSC accredits independent third-party certifiers to
assess forest operations worldwide against the standards. Certifiers
also evaluate operations that use or sell FSC certified materials.
FSC has three product labels:
- "FSC pure label": 100 percent FSC certified content
- "FSC mixed label": at least 10 percent FSC certified and 60 percent
- "FSC recycled label": 100 percent post-consumer content.
Green-e is an independent certification and verification program
for renewable energy and for companies that use renewable energy.
Companies selling renewable energy can receive Green-e certification
by meeting the standards and undergoing periodic reviews to ensure
compliance. Businesses using certified renewable energy to manufacture
their products can be identified by the Green-e logo. Green-e is
currently developing the first national standard for the expanding
carbon offset industry.
- GREENGUARD Environmental Institute
Low Emissions Products
The GREENGUARD Environmental Institute (GEI) establishes low emissions
standards for products such as building materials, interior furnishings,
furniture, cleaning and maintenance products, electronic equipment,
and personal care products. GREENGUARD certifies products that have
been tested by an approved testing lab to ensure that their chemical
and particle emissions meet acceptable indoor air quality guidelines
and standards. Since children are more vulnerable to environmental
toxins than adults, GEI also provides a certification program for
low emitting interior building materials, furnishings, and finishes
used in daycare and K-12 environments. The organization was acquired
by UL Environment in 2011.
- Green Seal
Green Seal establishes standards for both institutional and household
products in over 30 product categories. Green Seal certifies products
ranging from alternative fuel vehicles to recycled content latex
paint. Green Seal regularly publishes its Choose Green Reports,
which evaluate the environmental impacts of products and recommend
products that meet its standards.
- Social Accountability International
Sustainable Labor Practices
Social Accountability International (SAI) develops standards for
humane working conditions, primarily through the voluntary SA8000
program. Based on International Labor Organization (ILO) standards
and U.N. Human Rights Conventions, SA8000 is used to audit companies
and contractors in multiple countries and industries. SAI helps
manage verification of facility-level compliance through independent
auditing and public reporting.
Environmental Protection Agency Comprehensive Procurement Guidelines (CPG)
Recycled Content Products
Federal agencies, state agencies, and political subdivisions of
a state using appropriated federal funds for procurement are required
to purchase recycled content products. EPA ‘s Comprehensive Procurement
Guidelines recommend recycled content levels for a wide variety
of products and practices for buying these products. EPA publishes
recycled content level recommendations for construction, landscaping,
office supplies, paper, transportation, automotive, and miscellaneous
- US Green Building Council
Green Building Products
The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) operates the Leadership
in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating
System. LEED is a voluntary, consensus-based national rating system
for developing high-performance, sustainable buildings. Building
performance in five categories - sustainable site development, water
savings, energy efficiency, materials selection, and indoor environmental
quality - is evaluated before awarding LEED credits. Building projects
receive Silver, Gold, or Platinum certification based on the number
of credits earned.
The LEED system addresses all building types including new construction,
major remodels, commercial interiors, homes, neighborhoods, and
specific applications such as retail, campuses, schools, healthcare
facilities, laboratories and lodging.
- Organic Trade Association
As of October 2002, all agricultural products labeled "organic"
must be in compliance with the National Organic Standards, which:
- Prohibit the use of irradiation, sewage sludge, or genetically
modified organisms in organic production.
- Reflect National Organic Standards Board recommendations concerning
allowed synthetic and prohibited natural substances.
- Prohibit antibiotics in organic meat and poultry.
- Require 100% organic feed for organic livestock.
The word "organic" on U. S. products means that the ingredients
and production methods have been verified by an accredited certification
agency as meeting or exceeding USDA standards for organic production.
Back to Top
The following standards and certifications are in use outside of the U.S. and Canada.
- Blue Angel
The Blue Angel is the first and oldest eco-label in the world.
Blue Angel certifies products in 80 categories against its environmental
standards, with about 40 additional standards under development.
Eco-Mark is Japan's leading standards and certifications organization.
- European Union Eco-Label
The European Union (EU) established the European Eco-label in 1992
for the member states of the European Union, plus Norway, Iceland,
and Liechtenstein. The European Eco-label awards its label in 28
product groups. The environmental criteria are defined to allow
up to 30 percent of the products on the market to meet the standard.
- Global Ecolabelling Network
The Global Ecolabeling Network (GEN) is a non-profit association
of third-party, environmental performance labeling organizations.
GEN was founded in 1994 to improve, promote, and develop the eco-labeling
of products and services. GEN facilitates communication and harmonization
among the world's eco-labeling programs.
- Nordic Swan
Nordic Swan develops environmental standards endorsed by Norway,
Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and Iceland. The five countries work together
through the Nordic Ecolabelling Board. The Swan eco-label is awarded
to a wide range of products and is widely accepted in Europe.
Back to Top
Make sure that an environmentally preferable product or service performs
to industry standards.
The following organizations develop technical and performance standards
that can be used to verify that an environmentally preferable product
or service performs at accepted levels.
- American National Standards Institute
The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) coordinates the
development and use of voluntary consensus standards in the United
States and represents U.S. stakeholders in standardization forums
around the globe. ANSI also accredits programs that assess conformance
to standards, including the ISO 9000 quality management systems and
ISO 14000 environmental management systems.
- ASTM International
ASTM International develops standards for the performance of materials,
products, systems, and services. ASTM standards can be used to verify
that environmentally preferable products meet technical and performance
- International Organization for Standardization
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO), a network
of national standards institutes in 157 countries, develops technical
standards for use across the entire manufacturing cycle. ISO stakeholders
develop consensus on specifications and criteria in classification
of materials, manufacture and supply of products, testing and analysis,
terminology, and provision of services. Over 3,000 technical groups
participate in developing and updating ISO standards.
To promote compatibility among global eco-labeling systems, ISO established
an environmental labeling subcommittee within the ISO/TC 207 technical
committee. International Standard 14020 establishes guiding principles
for the development and use of environmental labels to be accurate,
verifiable, and transparent.
- Master Painters Institute
The Master Painters Institute establishes quality standards and quality
assurance in the architectural painting and coating application industries.
- Scientific Certification Systems
Scientific Certification Systems (SCS) provides independent verification
of auditing and testing services, as well as of environmental claims.
Back to Top
The Competitive Advantage: EcoPurchasing, Sandra Cannon, Battelle Press, 2006.
Commission, Environmental Marketing.
Global Ecolabelling Network, "What is Ecolabelling"
For Buy Green technical assistance, contact:
Back to Top | Who Certifies Green Products and Services?
Standards and certification programs are useful when you are purchasing
environmentally preferable products (EPP) and writing specifications for
bid documents. Standards establish human health, environmental
and social criteria by which products and services can be evaluated and certified.
Standards organizations typically develop certification programs
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For waste plastics, iron & steel, copper, aluminium and nickel; precious metals and paper and cardboard, data on waste exports/imports were extracted from Eurostat's international trade statistics database and summed into the material categories. The following product codes were selected: plastics: 39151000, 39152000, 39153000, 39159011, 39159013, 39159018, 39159019, 39159080, 39159090, 39159091, 39159093 and 39159099; Iron and steel: 72041000, 72042100, 72042110, 72042190, 72042900, 72043000, 72044910, 72044990, 72044991 and 72044999; Cu, Al, Ni: 74040010, 74040091, 74040099, 75030010, 75030090, 76020019 and 76020090; Precious metals: 71121000, 71122000, 71123000, 71129000, 71129100, 71129200, 71129900; Paper and cardboard: 47071000, 47072000; 47073010; 47073090; 47079010; 47079090. Exports/imports were calculated from the EU-27 out of the EU27/into the EU (select parnter: EU_extra) . The sum of all the waste types (codes) represents the total amount of exports/imports of the respective waste material. In order to convert the waste export amounts into million tonnes, the sums of the raw values (as extracted from the Eurostat database) is divided by 10000000 for volumes and by 1000000 for values.
EEA standard re-use policy: unless otherwise indicated, re-use of content on the EEA website for commercial or non-commercial purposes is permitted free of charge, provided that the source is acknowledged (http://www.eea.europa.eu/legal/copyright). Copyright holder: Copenhagen Resource Institute (CRI).
When buying a new printer consider one that allows ink cartridges to be refilled with rechargeable kits. It is very cost effective and environmentally friendly. If this is not applicable to your printer remember to recycle your used cartridges by returning them to the shop where you buy the new ones.
More green tips | For waste plastics, iron & steel, copper, aluminium and nickel; precious metals and paper and cardboard, data on waste exports/imports were extracted from Eurostat's international trade statistics database and summed into the material categories. The following product codes were selected: plastics: 39151000, 39152000, 39153000, 39159011, 39159013, 39159018, 39159019, 39159080, 39159090, 39159091, | {
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FaCS Research News is a periodic newsletter that provides an overview of and update on research within FaCS, focusing on key findings and outcomes, updates on new departmental publications and promotion of forthcoming events/conferences.
Stronger Families and Communities Strategy evaluation
The Stronger Families and Communities Strategy (SFCS) supports and provides funding for prevention and early intervention programs for families and communities, with emphasis on those at risk of social, economic and geographic isolation. The three key approaches are prevention, early intervention and capacity building, which aim to help families and communities address issues before they become serious problems, while taking advantage of emerging opportunities. In recognition that communities are often best-placed to identify and respond to their own local issues, project officers from the Australian Government Department of Family and Community Services (FaCS) work with communities to develop projects that are relevant to, and effective in, their local community context. The four community-based initiatives of the SFCS are:
- Stronger Families Fund
- Early Intervention Parenting and Family Relationship Support
- Potential Leaders in Local Communities
- Local Solutions to Local Problems. | FaCS Research News is a periodic newsletter that provides an overview of and update on research within FaCS, focusing on key findings and outcomes, updates on new departmental publications and promotion of forthcoming events/conferences.
Stronger Families and Communities Strategy evaluation
The Stronger Families and Communities Strategy (SFCS) supports and provides funding for prevention and early | {
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U.S. Department of Energy Image Gallery
2002: Researchers Find Genetic Variation Associated with Prostate Cancer
Researchers identified a gene on chromosome 1 associated with a hereditary form of prostate cancer. The work was a collaboration between researchers at the National Human Genome Research Institute, Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, and The Cleveland Clinic. Previously, the researchers had studied families with high risks for prostate cancer and identified regions of chromosomes 1, 17, 20, and X as being associated with the higher risk. The newly identified gene on chromosome 1 is called ribonuclease L or RNASEL. The researchers cautioned that mutations in this gene do not account for most cases of hereditary prostate cancer and also do not account for the majority of cases that arise through spontaneous mutations. Even so, the discovery can lead to a useful diagnostic test and allow men with the mutation to begin earlier treatment for the disease.
Carpten, J. , Nupponen, N., Isaacs, S., Sood, R., et al. Germline mutations in the ribonuclease L gene in hereditary prostate cancer 1 (HPC1) linked families. Nature Genetics, 30: 181-184. 2002. [PubMed]
Last Updated: April 10, 2012 | U.S. Department of Energy Image Gallery
2002: Researchers Find Genetic Variation Associated with Prostate Cancer
Researchers identified a gene on chromosome 1 associated with a hereditary form of prostate cancer. The work was a collaboration between researchers at the National Human Genome Research Institute, Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, and The Cleveland Clinic. Previously, the researchers | {
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“This [executive] order requires that federal agencies ensure that regulations protect our safety, health and environment while promoting economic growth.”
—President Obama, Wall Street Journal op-ed, January 18, 2011
The President’s policies have failed and are making the economy worse. Because the President cannot stand on his record, he has regrettably turned to the politics of envy and division. House Republicans have a Plan for America’s Job Creators—it’s time for the President and Senate Democrats to stop blocking our bipartisan jobs bills.
A recent Washington Post article highlighted the disastrous economic impact of the Obama administration’s war on carbon-based energy. Reporting on the announced closure of 10 power plants stretching across the Midwest, the article acknowledged, via a press release from GenOn Energy, one of the companies shutting down plants, that the closures are happening “because forecasted returns on investments necessary to comply with environmental regulations are insufficient.”
Yes, this means President Obama’s ideologically-driven Environmental Protection Agency will claim another victory as a result of its overly stringent emissions rules finalized last year. (Lest anyone think GenOn has been blatantly operating with disregard for the environment, a recent company performance report noted: “Since 2000, GenOn has invested approximately $2.4 billion in environmental controls…Compared to 1990 emission levels, 2011 [nitrous oxide] emissions were reduced by 78% and [sulfur dioxide] emissions were reduced by 90%.”)
The only downsides to the plant closures, as mentioned in the article, would appear to be possible reliability concerns for the nation’s electric grid and the increased prices that consumers will pay for electricity.
Interestingly, the article made no mention of the number of jobs that would be lost or the broader economic effect on the communities that have been home to the plants for decades. But at least the reporter was balanced enough to note the environmentally-extreme Sierra Club’s satisfaction with the pending plant closures as a “giant leap in our work to move America beyond coal.”
The WaPo article could almost have functioned as a White House press release, in effect saying: “Yes, consumers will pay more and people will lose jobs, but by regulating coal out of economic use our environmental constituencies will be pleased and failed alternative energy investments for companies with political allies, such as Solyndra, will look more acceptable.” | “This [executive] order requires that federal agencies ensure that regulations protect our safety, health and environment while promoting economic growth.”
—President Obama, Wall Street Journal op-ed, January 18, 2011
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6.—(1) In this paragraph “the relevant period” means the period–N.I.
(a)beginning on 1st April 2006; and
(b)ending immediately before the appointed day.
(2) The Board shall–
(a)prepare a statement of accounts for the Authority in respect of the relevant period in such form and containing such information as the Department may direct;
(b)send copies of that statement to the Department and the Comptroller and Auditor General for Northern Ireland within such period after the end of the relevant period as the Department may direct.
(3) The Comptroller and Auditor General shall–
(a)examine, certify and report on the statement of accounts received by him under sub-paragraph (2)(b); and
(b)send a copy of his report to the Department.
(4) The Department shall lay a copy of the statement of accounts and of the Comptroller and Auditor General's report before the Assembly. | 6.—(1) In this paragraph “the relevant period” means the period–N.I.
(a)beginning on 1st April 2006; and
(b)ending immediately before the appointed day.
(2) The Board shall–
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TITLE: The NAACP: Reflections on the First 100 Years
SPEAKER: Patricia Sullivan, Robert L. Zangrando, Kenneth W. Mack
EVENT DATE: 02/26/2010
RUNNING TIME: 142 minutes
In commemoration of 100 years of the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People), the Library of Congress sponsored the symposium "The NAACP: Reflections of the First 100 Years." The symposium explored both the history and future of the NAACP.
Speaker Biography: Patricia Sullivan is associate professor of history and African-American studies at the University of South Carolina. She is the author of "Lift Every Voice: The NAACP and the Making of the Civil Rights Movement" (The New Press, 2009) and is a fellow at the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute at Harvard University.
Speaker Biography: Robert L. Zangrando is professor emeritus of history at the University of Akron. He is the author of "The NAACP Crusade Against Lynching, 1909-1950" (Temple University Press, 1980) and "Civil Rights and African Americans: A Documentary History" (1968; reprint, Northwestern University Press, 1991).
Speaker Biography: Kenneth W. Mack is professor of law at Harvard University. He is the author of "Representing the Race: Creating the Civil Rights Lawyer, 1920-1955" (Harvard University Press, 2010). | TITLE: The NAACP: Reflections on the First 100 Years
SPEAKER: Patricia Sullivan, Robert L. Zangrando, Kenneth W. Mack
EVENT DATE: 02/26/2010
RUNNING TIME: 142 minutes
In commemoration of 100 years of the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People), the Library of Congress sponsored the symposium "The NAACP: Reflections of the First 100 Years." The symposium explored both the | {
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CRIMES, PUNISHMENTS AND PROCEEDINGSIN CRIMINAL CASES (Chapters 263 through 280)
CRIMES AND PUNISHMENTS
CRIMES AGAINST PUBLIC HEALTH
Arrest without warrant for spitting
Section 15. Any person detected in the act of violating the preceding section may, if his name is unknown to the officer, be arrested without a warrant by any officer authorized to serve criminal process in the place where the offence is committed and kept in custody until he can be taken before a court having jurisdiction of such offence. | CRIMES, PUNISHMENTS AND PROCEEDINGSIN CRIMINAL CASES (Chapters 263 through 280)
CRIMES AND PUNISHMENTS
CRIMES AGAINST PUBLIC HEALTH
Arrest without warrant for spitting
Section 15. Any person detected in the act of violating the preceding section may, if his name is unknown to the officer, be arrested without a warrant by any officer authorized to serve criminal process in the place where the offen | {
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Abbotsford Airport was used for road racing and drag racing until the RCAF took the facility over in 1957. The clubs which used the track then are still very much in business and now use the facilities at Mission Raceway Park.
Road racing used a 2.0 mile temporary circuit from 1949 through April 7th, 1957. Drag racing occured from 1952 through 1957, and the airport is claimed to be the site of the first organized drag racing in Canada.
|Alan E. Brown, The History of America's Speedways: Past & Present. Comstock Park, Michigan: Brown, 2003 , ISBN 0931105617 , pp. 778. Order from National Speedway Directory|
Mt Lehman Road
Abbotsford, BC, Canada
For information on how these aerial images work, Click Here.
You may also wish to try using the Yahoo! Search as it may produce current news items.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License. | Abbotsford Airport was used for road racing and drag racing until the RCAF took the facility over in 1957. The clubs which used the track then are still very much in business and now use the facilities at Mission Raceway Park.
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The Moment a Geologist Was Born
Who Are NASA's Earth Explorers?
The elementary school student wondering how El Niño will affect tomorrow's weather. The scientist studying connections between ozone and climate change. And the farmer using satellite pictures to keep track of crops. All of these people are Earth Explorers -- they are all curious about the Earth system. This series will introduce you to NASA Earth Explorers, young and old, with many backgrounds and interests.
Do you know what you want to be when you grow up? Amanda Hintz thought she wanted to be an artist. But a trip to Iceland changed her mind. Now she's a geologist. She studies the land, rocks and volcanoes.
Iceland is a country on a large island in the northern Atlantic Ocean. Amanda went on a field trip there about 10 years ago. Science teachers from her college led the trip. Amanda's grandparents gave her money to go on the trip.
Amanda was amazed by what she saw in Iceland. She says it is a beautiful place with tall mountains and deep valleys. She remembers standing on a mountain range called the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. The Mid-Atlantic Ridge is the longest mountain range in the world. Most of it is underwater in the Atlantic Ocean. Iceland is one of the few places where it rises above the sea.
"Iceland changed my life forever," Amanda said. "I was so struck by what I was seeing. This was what I had been reading about in books. This was real geology."
Amanda had to take a lot of math to become a geologist. Math was a subject she tried to stay away from in high school.
"But everything changed once I decided I was going to be a geologist," Amanda said. "I knew that if I wanted a degree in geology, I was going to have to ... deal with a lot of math."
Now she says kids shouldn't be afraid of math like she was. She says that subjects get easier once you learn how they are used in real life.
What's Amanda's favorite part of geology? She really likes to study volcanoes.
Did you hear about the Icelandic volcano that began erupting in April? Clouds of ash from the volcano made it dangerous for airplanes to fly. People all over the world had to change their travel plans. The airlines lost a lot of money because of the volcano.
Amanda says the Icelandic volcano shows how important her job is. She looks for clues that could help tell how long an eruption might last. A lot of people wondered exactly that when the Icelandic volcano started to erupt.
"There is a demand for the type of work I'm doing," Amanda said.
Meet the Next Earth Explorers
Dan Stillman, Institute for Global Environmental Strategies | The Moment a Geologist Was Born
Who Are NASA's Earth Explorers?
The elementary school student wondering how El Niño will affect tomorrow's weather. The scientist studying connections between ozone and climate change. And the farmer using satellite pictures to keep track of crops. All of these people are Earth Explorers -- they are all curious about the Earth system. This series will introduce you | {
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Dr. Scott Bolton, Juno’s principal investigator from the Southwest Research Institute, and the Juno team had been working toward this milestone for several years. A mission of this length and complexity required careful planning and testing to increase its chances of success. Everyone felt a great sense of accomplishment when, shortly after separating from the Centaur upper stage, the spacecraft deployed its large solar arrays as planned and began its journey to Jupiter.
The second mission in NASA’s New Frontiers Program, Juno experienced an unusually long definition and planning phase—described by Juno’s first project manager, Rick Grammier, in ASK Magazine’s Spring 2008 issue—that gave us several advantages, including “more time to talk.” This proved beneficial for a distributed team that included members from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Lockheed Martin, Goddard Space Flight Center, Southwest Research Institute, the Applied Physics Laboratory, University of Iowa, Malin Space Science Systems, the Italian Space Agency (ASI), and others. We were able to establish strong working relationships and excellent communication by having regular status telecons, workshops, and frequent in-person meetings.
These relationships helped tremendously during our risk-mitigation planning efforts, which included integrating instruments early on; working through issues such as the impact the L’Aquila, Italy, earthquake had on the Ka-band translator development; developing fallback options for Juno’s system-level environmental tests; and using an innovative tool to track our schedule margin.
Early in the implementation phase, the Juno team performed interface tests at the Lockheed Martin facility between the engineering models (early versions of hardware) of each instrument’s electronics and the spacecraft’s flight-like hardware. These early integrations helped find and fix hardware and software bugs in the interfaces, increasing the likelihood that flight-instrument integrations would proceed more smoothly.
Concerned about the possible late deliveries of the avionics and solar arrays, we also prepared a set of fallback options that gave us some flexibility for completing the tests successfully.
The first set of tests in spring 2009 between the instruments’ engineering models and the Data, Telemetry, and Command Interface (DTCI) Engineering Development Unit (EDU) board focused on confirming the compatibility of the commanding, engineering telemetry, low-speed science data, and high-speed science data hardware interfaces. These tests uncovered some issues early—such as the clock polarity coming out of the DTCI being inverted—and gave us confidence to move forward with the spacecraft and instrument flight builds. A side benefit was the establishment of an excellent working relationship between the instrument teams and the Lockheed Martin software, simulation, and instrument-integration team members, which was helpful throughout the implementation phase.
During the first part of 2010, instrument engineering models were sent to the Lockheed Martin facility’s System Test Lab for a second round of tests that focused on confirming higher-level functionality in the flight-software interface. Greg Bollendonk, the flight software lead, accelerated the development of the instrument-interface portions of the spacecraft flight software in order to deliver beta versions for these tests. Another goal was to flow data to each instrument’s ground-support equipment—as would be done during the assembly, test, and launch operations (ATLO) phase—to enable the instrument teams to become familiar with the data formats and ATLO processes. At the time, the spacecraft field-programmable gate arrays that controlled the instrument interfaces were not yet mature, so they benefited from this early testing as well.
More issues were uncovered and corrected, including significant ones in the high-speed data interface that required several months to resolve. One issue in this interface involved the spacecraft’s memory-management software. This spacecraft flight software wasn’t saving the highest-quality data for the ultraviolet spectrograph (UVS) instrument. The flight software team took advantage of the UVS engineering model in the System Test Lab to iterate code changes with remote support from the instrument team (located at Southwest Research Institute) until the problem was resolved. All in all, this risk mitigation program paid off in smoother flight-instrument integrations during ATLO.
New Frontiers Program Office Insight and Participation
By Brian Key
Juno benefited greatly from an extended definition and planning phase that gave the project team “more time to talk." This additional time also allowed the New Frontiers Program office to become more familiar with the mission definition and to independently assess the project's planning activities. Understanding schedule and technical risks prior to confirmation also allowed the program office to develop a representative cost risk that could be carried as an unallocated future expense (UFE) by the Science Mission Directorate (SMD), and could be included in the overall life-cycle cost for the project at confirmation. This cost risk was established not only through understanding risks but also by examining previous mission performance histories to determine the soundness of the mission cost and schedule profiles.
Upon confirmation, NASA established a principal investigator cost cap and an overall project cost cap. Throughout implementation, the principal investigator (PI) and project manager managed to the tighter PI cost cap. allocations from the SMD-held UFE were controlled through a process established by the program office, which required the project to formally request a UFE allocation and provide a rationale for the request. The program office would evaluate this request and provide the Planetary Science Division (PSD) New Frontiers program executive with an assessment and recommendation.
Essential to this process was the well-established communication among the project, program office, and PSD. Open and candid communication and information flow between the project and program office mission manager gave all levels of NASA management a good understanding of the project's status. This communication and information came in many forms, from monthly status meetings to weekly tag-ups to daily test status e-mails, intertwined with frequent, impromptu teleconferences.
As the project developed and implemented early risk mitigations, worked around impacts from natural disasters, and developed and executed alternate test flows and configurations due to component, instrument, or subsystem delays, these developments were communicated effectively and efficiently to the program office mission manager and PSD New Frontiers program executive.
ASI contributed two instruments to Juno’s payload: the Jovian infrared auroral mapper (JIRAM) and the Ka-band translator for the gravity science investigation. These contributions, added during the definition and planning phase, were not part of the original mission proposal. The ASI contribution gave us an alternate supplier for the Ka-band translator in the original proposal while the JIRAM instrument was completely new. One key feature of this arrangement was that neither of these contributions were required in order for Juno to satisfy its mission success criteria.
This decoupling helped when a magnitude 5.8 earthquake in L’Aquila, Italy, in April 2009 severely damaged the Thales Alenia Space plant where the Ka-band translator’s engineering model was being built. This natural disaster threw its development into disarray. Initially, the team had no idea what the impact would be on the model’s delivery, scheduled to happen by June 2009, or on the flight unit’s delivery scheduled for December 2009.
Rick Nybakken, Juno’s deputy project manager and the prime project interface with ASI, led the development of a recovery plan that upgraded the engineering model to a flight quality unit (called the flyable engineering model, or FEM), enabling one unit to meet both delivery requirements. This higher-risk approach was acceptable because full performance from the Ka-band translator was not required for Juno to meet its success criteria. A flight unit would still be built and tested, and if it became available soon enough, we would consider it for flight. The FEM was delivered and installed in April 2010. When the flight unit became available in August 2010, we replaced the FEM with the flight unit due to its higher reliability and because we could still accommodate a swap at that late date.
Working through this difficult situation was helped by the excellent rapport that Scott, Rick, Dorothy Lewis (Ka-band translator cognizant engineer), and the project team had with ASI and Thales Alenia Space. Quarterly meetings helped foster this relationship. Rick had seen this model used successfully on the Cassini mission and set up a rotation of a core set of Juno personnel, both management and technical, that would travel to Italy every three months for management and technical discussions. The ASI/Thales Alenia team traveled to JPL occasionally for the same purpose.
The relationships established proved to be very useful when we worked with ASI and Thales Alenia to recover from the earthquake. The team worked closely with Roberto Formaro, ASI program manager for Juno, to align the project and ASI strategies for revised delivery requirements and tactical interactions with Thales Alenia. All Thales Alenia customers who had been affected by the earthquake were claiming priority in the recovery planning, but Juno’s only option to receive a flyable Ka-band translator in time for launch was to develop and implement a coordinated strategy among Juno, ASI, and Thales Alenia. Establishing a successful path forward might not have been possible without the meetings and resulting relationships established during the early part of development.
The system-level environmental test suite is a major test activity every spacecraft experiences during the ATLO phase. Its purpose is to subject the spacecraft to the environments it will experience during its mission. These environments include the vibration of launch (simulated by an acoustic test), the shock of separation from the launch vehicle, the spacecraft’s electromagnetic self-compatibility at launch and during science-data gathering, and the temperature in the vacuum of deep space that the spacecraft will experience on its trajectory to Jupiter. The Juno team planned a traditional set of tests involving the flight hardware and flight software and presented that baseline at the environmental test readiness review (ETRR).
Concerned about possible late deliveries of the avionics and solar arrays, we also prepared a set of fallback options that gave us some flexibility for completing the tests successfully. These options outlined the minimum set of hardware required for each test, including the required pedigree (flight or non-flight). For example, flight-like engineering models could be used for the self-compatibility tests if the flight avionics were not available, and the solar-array qualification model could be used for the shock test if the solar arrays had not yet been delivered. We also outlined specific vibration-level and thermal-cycle tests that would need to be executed to ensure the complete environmental qualification of the spacecraft if a flight-hardware component had to be reworked post-test. Preparing these fallback options ahead of time helped clarify and align our thinking for these anomalous situations.
These options were also presented at the ETRR and discussed openly with the review board. This up-front review minimized the management coordination the project needed later on when some of the options had to be implemented to complete the environmental tests within schedule.
Tim Halbrook, the Lockheed Martin ATLO manager, used typical schedule tools to track Juno’s progress: a sixteen-month ATLO flow updated monthly, a thirty-day Gantt chart updated weekly, and a seven-day Gantt chart updated daily. To plan and track the use of Juno’s sixty days of ATLO schedule margin, however, Tim also developed a Corridor plot (see figure at top of page). On the Corridor plot, the curve of schedule margin burndown—the rate at which margin is used up—corresponded with the margin days sprinkled strategically throughout the ATLO flow. Tim also included a second curve on the plot that was offset by 20 percent below the nominal curve. Juno’s actual schedule margin use was plotted weekly on the same figure.
If our actual margin burndown remained between these two curves, we did not need to take action. But if it dropped below the 20 percent margin erosion curve, Tim would schedule second shifts and/or weekend shifts to bring the actual burndown back within the corridor. Shortly after ATLO started, unplanned troubleshooting and rework with both the avionics and telecom hardware dropped the schedule margin close to the 20 percent margin erosion curve. We recovered schedule margin by using additional shifts once the issues had been worked through successfully.
This graphic became a handy visual tool for the whole team to monitor the schedule margin and to make decisions regarding resource control. It also enabled Juno managers and external managers to tell at a glance how ATLO was progressing.
Throughout Juno’s implementation phase, management teams at all levels looked for ways to help development proceed more smoothly and with lower risk, and the team as a whole worked through many challenges successfully. This was possible due to our strong working relationships and excellent communication, enhanced by the close communicative style of our project leaders. The result meant completing Juno on time and on budget, and its excellent flight performance so far shows the benefits of our efforts.
Note: This work was carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. © California Institute of Technology. Government sponsorship acknowledged.
Jan Chodas is currently the project manager for the Juno mission in the New Frontiers Program. Prior to this position, she served at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in numerous roles, including manager of the Systems and Software Division, assistant flight system manager for the Mars Exploration Rover project, flight system manager for the Space Interferometry Mission, project element manager for the Cassini attitude and articulation control subsystem, and technical manager for the Galileo attitude and articulation control subsystem. | Dr. Scott Bolton, Juno’s principal investigator from the Southwest Research Institute, and the Juno team had been working toward this milestone for several years. A mission of this length and complexity required careful planning and testing to increase its chances of success. Everyone felt a great sense of accomplishment when, shortly after separating from the Centaur upper stage, the spacecraft d | {
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New pope, new approach to online comments for The New York Times. On Wednesday afternoon, as Catholics celebrated the white smoke, the Times rolled out an experimental approach designed to enhance discussion by adding structured data.
Times readers who went to the paper’s story on the election of Pope Francis were asked them to define themselves three ways: Were they happy with the decision or not? Were they surprised by the choice or not? And are they Catholic or not? (They were not asked to declare alignment as lawful good or chaotic evil.)
Those framing questions shape the kind of responses the Times could expect; instead of cutting readers loose at the tail end of an article, it’s asking for a specific reaction — and limiting them to 100 words rather than the normal 800 characters. The new system was also accompanied by a slight design change that added a little more breathing room to individual responses and increased the size of the text. And the new comment metadata meant readers can filter comments by perspective — not unlike how Amazon product reviews separate “helpful” reviews into positive and negative varieties.
The result is something that reads like an edited selection of pullquotes from a magazine rather than walking into the middle of shouting match on a subway platform. But don’t expect to see this as a regular feature. The Times already limits the number of stories it opens up to discussion, and the approach you see on the pope story will probably be more like Grandma’s fine china: reserved for special occasions.
“It’s definitely a case-by-case basis,” said Sasha Koren, the Times’ deputy editor for interactive news. “It’s something for stories we think will get a significant amount of reaction that we can then build something around.”
“It’s a good thing in that it allows us to hone the conversation and guide the conversation a bit more strategically”
Like many newspapers, the Times has its own set of questions and concerns over online comments. The paper employs a rigorous moderation policy, so it’s not just the usual question of tone or decorum — it’s about improving the user experience. Marc Lavallee, assistant editor for interactive news at the Times, said news sites often get caught up in the decision of whether or not to have comments. That seems like such a binary decision because most media companies use a one-size fits all commenting platform, he said. But why can’t comments strategy be better tailored for a story or event? “What we’ve been doing on the newsroom side in the last year or so is build this collection of tools we can reassemble quickly in response to breaking news,” he said.
One part of that toolbox focuses on encouraging responses around a predefined set of answers. On the 10th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks, for instance, the Times asked readers where they were on 9/11 and received a flood of responses. They filtered the responses through an interactive map that was equal parts sentiment analysis and data visualization; readers were asked to declare themselves angry, fearful, unmoved, secure, or hopeful, and text analysis filtered the comments further by keywords. Last May, after President Obama announced support for gay marriage, the Times asked readers to chart their response on a defined grid and assembled a data visualization of the results. (It did something similar for Osama bin Laden’s death.) And back in 2008, emotions about Obama vs. McCain turned into a hypnotic data visualization.
Koren said comments, much like data packages or multimedia features, can be a means of creating more value around a story. “People are interested in seeing what others have to say,” Lavallee said. The trick is asking simple questions that won’t impede people from commenting. The pope story received more than 3,200 responses — not a small number, though not record breaking, Koren said. “It’s a good thing in that it allows us to hone the conversation and guide the conversation a bit more strategically,” she said.
Giving comments a shorter, structured nature meant moderators could approve responses quicker, Lavallee said. On the back end, the system bundles comments and pushes them to moderators, which also helps improve response time, he said. The majority of commenters didn’t have difficulty with the new system and they approved a high percentage of the comments, Lavallee said.
It’s possible one benefit of guiding comments is that it forces readers to put a little more thought into what they want to say. Asking them whether they’re surprised or if their reaction is positive can serve as a helpful nudge, Lavallee said. “Some people knew what they wanted to say, but others it made them think,” he said. “So maybe they considered it more by the time they checked a box.”
Lavallee said they wanted the design to encourage readers to add their thoughts and dive in to what others are saying. Parsing responses into categories tells readers they won’t have to devote too much time to reading comments: “It’s hard to have a sense of doneness on a comment thread that has a thousand comments,” he said.
This is the second new spin on comments the Times has offered up this week, after unveiling its new article page prototype. In the prototype, comments appear to get lifted from the footer to a tab in the right side of the page. (Martin Belam commented on the shift.) If there’s a message in all of this, it’s that the Times takes comments seriously: Koren said there’s an ongoing discussion at the Times about the role they can play for the paper. Rather than focusing on abandoning or replacing comments wholesale, she said they want to discover new ways to highlight what people are talking about and find the right architecture for reader interaction.
Photo by Catholic Church of England and Wales used under a Creative Commons license. | New pope, new approach to online comments for The New York Times. On Wednesday afternoon, as Catholics celebrated the white smoke, the Times rolled out an experimental approach designed to enhance discussion by adding structured data.
Times readers who went to the paper’s story on the election of Pope Francis were asked them to define themselves three ways: Were they happy with the decision or not | {
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MOVE, that MAFAC adopt the following recommendations to
the Assistant Administrator concerning standards for IQs
which should be developed by NMFS as part of its legislative
proposals for reauthorization of the Magnuson-Stevens Act.
1. The current moratorium on IQ's should be lifted; provided
that national policy regarding the development of such programs
be included in the Act.
2. Maintain the current limitations (Sec. 303(d)(3)) on
IQ's that stipulate they are not a property right, not compensable
and may be revoked.
3. National lQ policy amendments to the Act should include
- lQ programs should be developed regionally by management
councils and other appropriate jurisdictions.
- Fees are not mandatory but should be encouraged in fisheries
where feasible. Fee levels should attempt to recover the
administrative and management cost of the IQ progrant,
should be dedicated for the fishery from which they were
collected and retained in the region.
- Transferability among and within fisheries is allowed
but the level and frequency should be determined by the
councils for each fishery.
- Lintits on consolidation to avoid undue concentration
and ihtpacts on other fisheries. Such limits should be
established by the councils to reflect the nature of the
fishery and region.
- Clear and measurable objectives. Each program shall be
subject to mandatory periodic reviews to evaluate whether
the objectives of the IQ program are being met.
- Measures regulating fish processing, including processing
quotas, may be considered as part of any IQ program.
- No foreign ownership or control of IQs.
- IQ programs shall include an appeals process for initial
allocations and qualifications.
4. Issues that should be addressed by the regional fishery
management councils include:
- Identify candidate fisheries
- Initial qualification and allocation processes
- Clearly identifiable objectives of each IQ program
- Rules for transferability
- Mandatory review time frame for each IQ program
- Ensure fair and balanced treatment between the harvesting
and processing sector Measures regulating fish processing,
including processing quotas, shall be considered as part
of any IQ program. | MOVE, that MAFAC adopt the following recommendations to
the Assistant Administrator concerning standards for IQs
which should be developed by NMFS as part of its legislative
proposals for reauthorization of the Magnuson-Stevens Act.
1. The current moratorium on IQ's should be lifted; provided
that national policy regarding the development of such programs
be included in the Act.
2. Maintain the cu | {
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McCausland praises achievement of young people at National Citizen Service graduation ceremony
Social Development Minister Nelson McCausland has hailed the achievements of young people in the first National Citizen Service programme to take place in Northern Ireland
~ Tuesday, 29 January 2013
The Minister was attending the graduation ceremony and was keen to show his support for the ‘Part to Play’ programme and the young people who participated in the initiative.
Minister McCausland said: “I would like to pay tribute to the young people who have participated in the 2012 programmes and hope that their experience will enable them to play an ongoing role in strengthening the communities they live in.
“The National Citizens’ Programme gives young people the chance to learn new skills and get involved in their communities. Young people’s contribution and ongoing commitment to their local communities is at the heart of the programme, helping them achieve all the benefits as citizens of the United Kingdom.
“The ‘Part to Play’ Programme is entirely complementary to the programmes my Department is delivering under Neighbourhood Renewal and Community Development, and also under my responsibilities for volunteering, where it aligns well with the Department’s Volunteering Strategy.”
The National Citizen Service programme has been delivered by a consortium of youth and community organisations, led by Co-operation Ireland, on behalf of the UK government and endorsed by the Department for Social Development locally in Northern Ireland.
National Citizen Service gives young people from different backgrounds valuable life experiences by putting them into teams away from home and setting them the task of finding solutions to local problems or issues that matter to them. It also enables them to develop important skills that they can take with them into the world of work.
The pilot programme in Northern Ireland has had a strong cross–community focus with 16 groups from the two main religious communities coming from both rural and urban areas across Northern Ireland.
Notes to editors:
- Media enquiries to DSD Information Office on 028 9082 9078. Out of office hours please contact Duty Press Officer via pager number 07699 715440 and your call will be returned.
- Photos of the event will be available on flickr | McCausland praises achievement of young people at National Citizen Service graduation ceremony
Social Development Minister Nelson McCausland has hailed the achievements of young people in the first National Citizen Service programme to take place in Northern Ireland
~ Tuesday, 29 January 2013
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Once in Fluffy Forest in the land of Queen Amelia Alligator there lived a prideful bear named Tennis Shoes.Now,Tennis Shoes(or called Tess) didn't have much to be prideful of because he lived in poverty,but he love dhis nickname.Tess would go around the whole forest everyday and roar,"I HAVE A BETTER NICKNAME THAN YOU MR.FOX.AND RACOON,AND FERRET!YES,I DO!"One day Mr.Fox,Sir Ferret,and Mr.Racoon nicknamed Foe,Ferry,and Rack got tired of the name calling and decided to do something about it.They would shaving cream his purple den.
When the job was finally done, they all decided to go home. "STOP! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!" came a loud roar. They... - CRoyal (20) (readers: 24, score: 1, max length: 2, underlying passages: 2) Genres: Fantasy
Tess cries ... Upon arriving home, Tess saw the entrance to his cave covered with purple shaving cream and he started to cry. Hiding just... - Lucs (10) (readers: 9, score: 0, max length: 1, underlying passages: 1) Genres: Fable
But then they realized that they had no shaving cream.... - zachmilburn (10) (readers: 5, score: 0, max length: 1, underlying passages: 1) Genres: Without Genre
This passage has been read by 80 users and has scored 2 points
Previous passages: 0
Created on: 5/11/10 6:53 PM
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License. | Once in Fluffy Forest in the land of Queen Amelia Alligator there lived a prideful bear named Tennis Shoes.Now,Tennis Shoes(or called Tess) didn't have much to be prideful of because he lived in poverty,but he love dhis nickname.Tess would go around the whole forest everyday and roar,"I HAVE A BETTER NICKNAME THAN YOU MR.FOX.AND RACOON,AND FERRET!YES,I DO!"One day Mr.Fox,Sir Ferret,and Mr.Racoon n | {
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Bears are active in Grand Teton
Black and grizzly bears are roaming throughout the park--near roads, trails and in backcountry areas. Hikers and backcountry users are advised to travel in groups of three or more, make noise and carry bear spray. Visitors must stay 100 yards from bears. More »
Area closure in the area around Baxter's Pinnacle
An area closure is in effect around Baxter's Pinnacle to protect nesting peregrine falcons. This closure precludes any climbs of Baxter's Pinnacle and usage of the walk-off gully. This closure will be in effect through 8-15-2013. More »
Area Closure in effect in the Elk Ranch area
A temporary area closure is in effect in the Elk Ranch Area to protect wildlife during the denning and young-rearing period. Follow the link for a map of the closed area. More »
The Business Resources Division oversees business activities in the park, including concessioner and permitted operations providing facilities and services for park visitors. Included in this portion of the site are contact information for the concessioners, and business information for use by concessioners and permitted businesses who operate in Grand Teton National Park.
Commercial Use Authorizations (CUA): forms and information for current CUA holders.
Grand Teton National Park Hunting Outfitters: annual report forms for current GTNP hunting outfitters.
Concessioner Resources: concession contract information, visitor use stats forms, and other important documents for GTNP concessioners.
Guide Information: guide resources, recommended reading, and current issues in the park.
Policy and Plans: key guidance documents for GTNP concessioners.
Did You Know?
Did you know that Grand Teton National Park is home to the largest bird in North America? The Trumpeter Swan weighs 20-30 pounds and lives in the valley year-round in quiet open water. | Bears are active in Grand Teton
Black and grizzly bears are roaming throughout the park--near roads, trails and in backcountry areas. Hikers and backcountry users are advised to travel in groups of three or more, make noise and carry bear spray. Visitors must stay 100 yards from bears. More »
Area closure in the area around Baxter's Pinnacle
An area closure is in effect around Baxter's Pinnacle to | {
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Press Release 07-052
Scientists Offer New View of Photosynthesis
Early events in photosynthesis happen in millionth of millionth of a second
May 7, 2007
During the remarkable cascade of events in photosynthesis, plants approach the pinnacle of stinginess by scavenging nearly every photon of available light energy to produce food.Yet after many years of careful research into the exact mechanisms, some key questions remain about this fundamental biological process that supports almost all life on Earth.
Now a research team led by Neal Woodbury, a scientist at the Arizona State University (ASU) Biodesign Institute, has come up with a new insight into the mechanism of photosynthesis.
The discovery involves the orchestrated movement of proteins on the timescale of a millionth of a millionth of a second.
"This pioneering research gives us new insights into the basic mechanism of photosynthesis," said Kamal Shukla, program director in the National Science Foundation (NSF) Division of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences. "Understanding such basic biological processes can lead to important societal benefits."
For example, the answer may be good news for the development of organic solar cells, said Shukla, which have been of commercial interest because of their relatively low cost compared to traditional silicon solar cells.
Traditional solar cells use semi-conductor devices (silicon chemistry) to convert solar energy into electricity, whereas organic solar cells are based on biological systems that use the same chemistry as living organisms to harvest the energy of sunlight to drive photosynthesis.
So, inspiration for the design of organic solar cells would be based upon the principle of photosynthesis.
Woodbury's research is focused on understanding the basic principles of photosynthesis and it could be valuable in the design of organic solar cells. The efficiency of energy conversion by photosynthesis is much higher than traditional solar devices.
To get a closer look at what happens during photosynthesis, the research team used a well-studied purple photosynthetic bacterium named Rhodobacter sphaeroides. This organism is likely one of the earliest photosynthetic bacteria to evolve.
The researchers focused their efforts on studying the center stage of photosynthesis, the reaction center, where light energy is funneled into specialized chlorophyll-binding proteins.
Woodbury and his colleagues tried to uncover more of the physical mechanism driving photosynthesis by creating mutants that would tweak the electron transfer relationships between molecules in the reaction center.
The researchers started to inch closer to an answer when Haiyu Wang, a postdoctoral research associate in Woodbury's lab, noticed something in common with all of the different mutants: a similarity in how fast electrons moved in the reaction center. He decided that there must be some sort of underlying physical principle involved.
Few research groups are equipped to measure the early events in photosynthesis because of the extremely short timescale--similar to the amount of time it takes a supercomputer to carry out a single flop.
Wang used ASU's ultrafast laser facility, funded by NSF, which acts like a high-speed motion picture camera that can capture data from these lightning-fast reactions.
The movement of the reaction center proteins during photosynthesis allows a plant or bacteria to harness light energy efficiently, even if conditions aren't optimal.
The findings are described in the journal Science, and were funded by NSF.
The research team includes lead author Haiyu Wang, ASU Biodesign Institute; Su Lin, ASU Biodesign Institute; James Allen, ASU Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry; JoAnn Williams, ASU Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry; Sean Blankert and Christa Laser, ASU Biodesign Institute.
Cheryl Dybas, NSF (703) 292-7734 [email protected]
Joseph Caspermeyer, ASU (480) 727-0369 [email protected]
ASU Biodesign Institute: http://www.biodesign.asu.edu
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent federal agency that supports fundamental research and education across all fields of science and engineering. In fiscal year (FY) 2012, its budget was $7.0 billion. NSF funds reach all 50 states through grants to nearly 2,000 colleges, universities and other institutions. Each year, NSF receives about 50,000 competitive requests for funding, and makes about 11,500 new funding awards. NSF also awards about $593 million in professional and service contracts yearly.
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Awards Searches: http://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/ | Press Release 07-052
Scientists Offer New View of Photosynthesis
Early events in photosynthesis happen in millionth of millionth of a second
May 7, 2007
During the remarkable cascade of events in photosynthesis, plants approach the pinnacle of stinginess by scavenging nearly every photon of available light energy to produce food.Yet after many years of careful research into the exact mechanisms, s | {
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His uncle's will made ample provision for young Peter's education, left him investment property and personal effects, and an equal share of a substantial estate as well. Before long, he joined his father on the river. By the early 1760s, he was identified as a skipper and, in 1773 he was called a "mariner."
He married Albany native Ryckie Van Schaick in July 1762. The couple set up their modest home near the waterfront in the first ward. Four children were baptized in the nearby Dutch church between 1764 and 1779.
During the Seven Years War, he helped his father in the movement of military cargoes. In 1767, his name was on the roster of the Allbany County militia. As a river carrier, he was a part of Sir William Johnson's business network.
By the mid-1770s, he was able to employ family legacies to good advantage. Moving up the hill to the second ward, Peter W. Winne began to focus on his land-based business. With that came the business of public service. From firemaster in 1775, to member of the Committee of Correspondence in 1778, then assistant alderman 1778-83, and finally alderman for the second ward beginning in 1784, he now emerged as a fixture on the Albany city council.
In April 1788, he joined with other Albany antifederalists in publishing a list of their objections to the proposed constitution.
By 1790, he had moved again to a choice location in the third ward. By 1800, the children were gone and Peter and Ryckie were living in the substantial home on Market Street attended by several servants. By 1803, widow Ryckie was alone in the Douw house!
first posted: 1/12/02 | His uncle's will made ample provision for young Peter's education, left him investment property and personal effects, and an equal share of a substantial estate as well. Before long, he joined his father on the river. By the early 1760s, he was identified as a skipper and, in 1773 he was called a "mariner."
He married Albany native Ryckie Van Schaick in July 1762. The couple set up their modest ho | {
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Release Number: 11-1393-NAT
Sept. 22, 2011
Contact: Jesse Lawder Diana Petterson
Phone: 202-693-4659 202-693-1898
Email: [email protected] [email protected]
OSHA issues updated hazard alert on formaldehyde dangers to hair salon
owners, workers after new agency findings and FDA warning letter
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration has issued a revised hazard alert to hair salon owners and workers about potential formaldehyde exposure from working with certain hair smoothing and straightening products. The revised alert was prompted by the results of agency investigations, a warning letter issued by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and factually incorrect information recently sent to salons by a company that manufactures hair products. OSHA's updated alert can be viewed at http://www.osha.gov/SLTC/formaldehyde/hazard_alert.html.
During recent investigations, OSHA's air tests showed formaldehyde at hazardous levels in salons using Brazilian Blowout Acai Professional Smoothing Solution and Brasil Cacau Cadiveu, resulting in citations for multiple violations. OSHA found that workers were exposed to formaldehyde in these salons at levels higher than the agency's protective limits. OSHA also cited two manufacturers and two distributors of hair smoothing products for violations that included failing to list formaldehyde on product labels as well as on accompanying hazard warning sheets, known as material safety data sheets, that are provided to the products' users.
The FDA issued a warning letter on Aug. 22 to the importer and distributer of Brazilian Blowout Acai Professional Smoothing Solution stating that the product is adulterated and misbranded. Although the solution contains methylene glycol, which can release formaldehyde during the normal conditions of use, the product is labeled "formaldehyde free" or "no formaldehyde" and does not list formaldehyde on the material safety data sheet.
Following an Aug. 24 letter sent by Brazilian Blowout to salon owners claiming that all OSHA air tests performed on the company's Brazilian Blowout Professional Acai Smoothing Solution yielded results below OSHA's standard for exposure, the agency sent a letter today to the company refuting that assertion. OSHA's letter can be viewed at http://www.osha.gov/SLTC/formaldehyde/brazilian_blowout_letter.pdf*.
"Misleading or inadequate information on hazardous product labels is unacceptable," said OSHA Assistant Secretary Dr. David Michaels. "Salon owners and workers have the right to know the risks associated with the chemicals with which they work and how to protect themselves."
Formaldehyde can irritate the eyes and nose; cause allergic reactions of the skin, eyes and lungs; and is a cancer hazard. The revised hazard alert notifies salons that if they use products that contain or release formaldehyde, they must follow the requirements in OSHA's formaldehyde standard at 29 Code of Federal Regulations 1910.1048. OSHA further requires manufacturers, importers and distributors of products that contain formaldehyde as a gas or in solution, or that can release formaldehyde during use, to include information about formaldehyde and its hazards on product labels and in the material safety data sheets. The alert also now includes details about the information that is required to be listed on the labels and the material safety data sheets of products that contain or could release formaldehyde. OSHA's formaldehyde standard can be viewed at http://www.osha.gov/pls/oshaweb/owadisp.show_document?p_table=STANDARDS&p_id=10075.
Under the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, employers are responsible for providing safe and healthful workplaces for their employees. OSHA's role is to ensure these conditions for America's working men and women by setting and enforcing standards, and providing training, education and assistance. For more information, visit http://www.osha.gov.
U.S. Department of Labor news materials are accessible at http://www.dol.gov. The information above is available in large print, Braille, audio tape or disc from the COAST office upon request by calling 202-693-7828 or TTY 202-693-7755.
* Accessibility Assistance: Contact OSHA's Office of Communications at 202-693-1999 for assistance accessing PDF materials. | Release Number: 11-1393-NAT
Sept. 22, 2011
Contact: Jesse Lawder Diana Petterson
Phone: 202-693-4659 202-693-1898
Email: [email protected] [email protected]
OSHA issues updated hazard alert on formaldehyde dangers to hair salon
owners, workers after new agency findings and FDA warning letter
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration has | {
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CITY OF PHILADELPHIA PERSONNEL DEPARTMENT
SANITARY ENGINEER 4
( Plant Operations )
(Water Resources )
This is sanitary engineering work, supervising, through subordinate engineering supervisors, the activities of engineering, and some combination of scientific, operational and maintenance personnel. This class is differentiated from others by the responsibility for directing all operations and maintenance of a plant or for directing a water resources program. Provision of services to the public, coordination of activities with other department programs and contact with external governmental agencies is a significant aspect of the work. The employee works under the direction of an administrative engineer.
ALLOCATING FACTORS: (The following conditions must be met for a position to be allocated to this class.)
- Positions must direct all water treatment, biosolids recycling or wastewater plant operations, or a water resources program designed to monitor and control environmental hazards to the water or sewer system, or watersheds.
- Positions must be located in the Water Department.
TYPICAL EXAMPLES OF WORK (ILLUSTRATIVE ONLY)
- Supervises, through subordinate supervisors, the activities of engineering, scientific, maintenance and operational personnel; develops goals and objectives for subordinates; analyzes and revises treatment processes; directs and/or participates in research projects to evaluate new treatment processes; determines the feasibility of implementing new methods; recommends changes and modifications in plant design or processes; directs and/or participates in administrative and financial analysis of department operations; participates in the formation of departmental policy regarding the program; reviews reports prepared by subordinate supervisors on section activities; tours facilities to review subordinates' performance; provides engineering guidance.
- Prepares operating budget requests for program; develops assignments for subordinate personnel; selects subordinate supervisory personnel; reviews personnel selection decisions made by subordinate supervisors; initiates and reviews disciplinary actions.
- Coordinates activities of departmental engineers, consultants and contractors with treatment plant activities during the expansion and renovation of facilities.
- Performs the above in one of the following areas:
PLANT OPERATION SPECIALTY
- Directs all operations and maintenance of a water pollution control, water treatment or biosolids recycling plant.
WATER RESOURCES SPECIALTY
- Directs the monitoring of industrial waste discharged in the sewer systems and the administration of a sewage surcharge program; directs engineering, planning and research activities; directs environmental programs for Office of Watersheds.
- Performs related work as required.
REQUIRED KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND ABILITIES
- sanitary engineering principles and practices in the area of specialization
- water pollution control and water treatment plant operations, processes, design, facilities and equipment
- current federal and state rules, regulations and standards applicable to the area of specialization
- supervisory principles and practices
- physical and natural sciences
- industrial waste control laws, practices and procedures
- sludge management practices and procedures
- engineering research practices and techniques
- water and wastewater conveyance systems
- the principles and practices of budget and personnel administration pertaining to a water utility
- administrative principles and practices
- the principles and practices of labor and employee relations
- conduct and direct engineering research
- direct professional, technical and operational personnel through subordinate supervisors as required by assignment
- prepare comprehensive administrative and operational oral and written reports
- establish and maintain effective working relationships with associates, consultants, government and regulatory agencies and the general public
MINIMUM ACCEPTABLE TRAINING AND EXPERIENCE (The following statement represents the minimum training and experience standards which will be used to admit or reject applicants for tests. Applications submitted by candidates for this class will be reviewed based on training and experience requirements as approved on 1/04.)
PHYSICAL AND MEDICAL REQUIREMENTS
- Completion of a bachelor's degree program at an accredited college or university with major course work in sanitary, civil, chemical, electrical or mechanical engineering.
- Five years of engineering experience, three years of which shall have been in water or wastewater treatment plant operations, industrial waste control, biosolids recycling, watersheds management or water resources planning and research management, one year of which shall have been in sanitary engineering at the supervisory level in the area of specialization.
Any equivalent combination of education and experience determined to be acceptable by the Personnel Department, which has included the completion of a bachelor's degree program at an accredited college or university in an acceptable area of engineering as an educational minimum.
LICENSES, REGISTRATIONS AND/OR CERTIFICATES
- Ability to physically perform the duties and to work in the environmental conditions required of
a position in this class.
- Possession of a valid proper class motor vehicle operator's license as issued by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania prior to appointment and during tenure of employment as a Sanitary Engineer 4 if required by work assignment.
PAY RANGE: EP26
Class Established: 1/53
Latest Spec. Revision:
CSC: 11/03, Ad Board: 1/04
END OF JOB CLASS SPECIFICATION - 3B64 | CITY OF PHILADELPHIA PERSONNEL DEPARTMENT
SANITARY ENGINEER 4
( Plant Operations )
(Water Resources )
This is sanitary engineering work, supervising, through subordinate engineering supervisors, the activities of engineering, and some combination of scientific, operational and maintenance personnel. This class is differentiated from others by the responsibility for directing all operations and mai | {
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The Australian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP) is an independent program supported by motoring clubs and governments in Australia and New Zealand. ANCAP results show the crash protection provided by vehicles in severe crashes.
The program gives car buyers consistent information on the level of occupant protection provided by vehicles in serious front and side crashes. Ratings for pedestrian protection are also available for some cars.
To make things simple for new car buyers, the performance of each car is rated on a five star system for occupant safety – five stars are awarded to the safest vehicles.
New cars are crash-tested in three ways:
- A front-on test where the vehicle hits a barrier at 64 km/h.
- A side impact test at 50 km/h.
- A test to assess likely injuries caused to pedestrians by a vehicle traveling at 40 km/h.
There is also an optional ‘pole’ test where the car moving sideways at 29 km/h hits a pole lined up with the driver’s head.
The cars used for crash testing are the same as those available to the general public to buy and the results are released as important information for car buyers.
How to find crash test results
You can view, download or order multiple copies online of ANCAP crash test results at myResources (select ‘Crash Tests’).
You can search crash test results for new and used cars on www.howsafeisyourcar.com.au (provided by the Transport Accident Commission, Victoria). | The Australian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP) is an independent program supported by motoring clubs and governments in Australia and New Zealand. ANCAP results show the crash protection provided by vehicles in severe crashes.
The program gives car buyers consistent information on the level of occupant protection provided by vehicles in serious front and side crashes. Ratings for pedestrian pro | {
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Collaborative Effort Combats Chronic Homelessness
By Melissa Capers
On January 27, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) joined with the Departments of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and Veterans Affairs (VA) to announce the $35 million Collaborative Initiative To Help End Chronic Homelessness.
"We are keenly aware that serious health, psychiatric, and substance use disorders contribute to the complexities of long-term and repeated homelessness," said HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson. "The expert contributions of health care professionals, combined with the provision of permanent housing [in the Initiative] will help break the cycle of chronic homelessness and put people on the road to recovery and self-sufficiency."
HHS will contribute $10 million to the Initiative-$7 million directed toward substance abuse treatment, mental health and related support services from SAMHSA, and $3 million for primary health care services from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). These funds will be combined with $20 million from HUD to fund permanent housing for chronically homeless persons and $5 million of in-kind support from the VA, to assure the provision of services to homeless veterans.
"Our goal," says Philip Mangano, Executive Director of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, which is coordinating the Initiative, "is to focus on those who are most at risk and to offer a permanent solution."
Of the approximately 2 million people who experience homelessness in the United States each year, approximately 10 percent are considered chronically homeless-they have been continuously homeless for more than a year, or experienced repeated episodes of homelessness over multiple years.
According to SAMHSA Administrator Charles G. Curie, M.A., A.C.S.W., "For many, the most significant reason for chronic homelessness is the existence of serious mental illnesses combined with addictive disorders."
The chronically homeless population uses a disproportionate amount of homeless services, and yet chronically homeless individuals do not have sufficient access to mainstream services for which they qualify, including Medicaid, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, Food Stamps, and mental health or drug/alcohol addiction programs.
"The barriers include fragmented service systems in which services are offered in different locations and have different eligibility criteria. Also, staff may not have experience with the array of needs exhibited by chronically homeless individuals," explains Michael English, J.D., Director of the Division of Service and Systems Improvement within SAMHSA's Center for Mental Health Services.
Applicants for Initiative funding must demonstrate a comprehensive and integrated provision of services designed to meet the housing, mental health, substance abuse, and primary health care needs of chronically homeless personsincluding veterans.
"Rather than make the individual try to integrate a fragmented system of services," explains Mr. English, "the comprehensive plan should do the job of making applications for services easier for the individual client. The housing and stability needs of chronically homeless people must be addressed early on in order for treatment and recovery efforts to take hold."
Applicants for Initiative funding must also address agency specific requirements tied to the four funding streams (HUD, HHS-SAMHSA, HHS-HRSA, VA). SAMHSA funding may be used for a variety of programs and activities, including: street outreach and engagement, intensive case management, and motivational interventions, among others.
"This collaboration assures that there is no wrong door for chronically homeless people seeking services," says Jane Taylor, Ph.D., Chief of the Co-Occurring and Homeless Activities Branch within SAMHSA's Center for Substance Abuse Treatment. "They will be able to enter the system anywhere and have access to all the services they require."
For further information, visit the Web site for the Interagency
Council on Homelessness at www.ich.gov.
For information regarding SAMHSA's role, contact Lawrence Rickards,
Ph.D., SAMHSA, Room 11C-05, 5600 Fishers Lane, Rockville, MD 20857.
Telephone: (301) 443-3707; e-mail: [email protected]. Or contact
Melissa Rael, SAMHSA, Rockwall II, Room 7-213, 5600 Fishers Lane,
Rockville, MD 20857. Telephone: (301) 443-8236; e-mail: [email protected].
Back to Top | Collaborative Effort Combats Chronic Homelessness
By Melissa Capers
On January 27, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) joined with the Departments of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and Veterans Affairs (VA) to announce the $35 million Collaborative Initiative To Help End Chronic Homelessness.
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How your nonprofit can capture the best stories on camera
Target audience: Nonprofits, NGOs, cause organizations, social enterprises, brands, educators, video producers, Web publishers, storytellers, individuals.
This is part 2 of a two-part series on video storytelling. Also see part 1:
• How to find amazing, powerful stories for your nonprofit video
By Lindsay Oberst
Stories are a great tool, which nonprofits too often don’t take advantage of. Whether you’re running a campaign or conveying your organization’s mission by spotlighting the people you help, you should be thinking about how to find stories that move people to action.
Once you uncover those stories, it can be hard to get people to tell them on camera and to get the details needed to make an awesome, powerful story. But by following the suggestions below, you can come away with great visual stories that should resonate with your community. And remember, a photo collage with a voiceover can be just as effective as a traditional video.
The following are tips from people who regularly make videos for social good, including Chris Yates of Huddle Productions, Cara Jones of Storytellers for Good, Tritia Pocci, who has created strategy for marketing media content, and Danielle Bernstein of Clear Films.
1Understand your goal. Think about what you want to accomplish with the video: Enlighten people about a cause? Move them to action? Don’t muddy it up with multiple missions. Have a plan.
2“Research, research, research,” Pocci said. Take the time to be inspired, know your subject and figure out what will work in your video.
— Tritia Pocci
3Keep it really simple. “Start with a simple storyline, get clear about the message you want to communicate and visualize the most concise way to convey this message through an interview beforehand,” Pocci said.
4 Don’t bring notes to the video session. This will help the person on camera feel more at ease and will cut down on distractions. “Subconsciously they’ll think they’re being interviewed and they’ll clam up,” Yates said. So just memorize a few key points that you want to cover. Adds Pocci: “Interviews can take on a life of their own, and sometimes that is where the magic happens.”
5Don’t have the person look directly at the camera if your subject will be sitting down. Place yourself to the left or right and have them look at you. This will help them feel more comfortable as they talk.
6Work with only a two-person crew: a videographer and an interviewer. “I generally start these conversations while the videographer is setting up and just have him or her tap me on the shoulder when the camera is rolling,” Jones said. But remember: You can be your own crew, too, and do a one-on-one interview.
7Use people who want to be on camera. “They are generally the most articulate and comfortable,” Jones said.
8For reluctant storytellers, Jones advises motivating them by providing them with a larger sense of purpose. “They may need to be reminded that by telling their story they can help the nonprofit raise funds or reach out to others in their shoes,” she said.
9Put them at ease — start the interview with a subject they feel comfortable talking about. “Even if it’s totally unrelated to the interview topic, this will help them get used to being on camera,” Jones said.
10Discuss sensitive subjects ahead of time. If you’re dealing with difficult subjects, talk beforehand to the person about what they feel comfortable talking about. “This instills a sense of trust and allows them to be prepared for difficult questions,” Jones said.
11Remind people that you have endless tape. “I always remind people that if they don’t like something they say they can start over again … and again,” Jones said. “If they are getting stuck on something, I find a different way to ask the question to put them more at ease.”
12Shoot some footage of them doing what they love to do. You can shoot them sitting down and talking with you, but you may want to break that up with shots of them doing instead of just talking — say, teaching a workshop, or working in a greenhouse.
13Look for the right chemistry. Sometimes the person with the story is not who you’d expect. Pocci cites the lead singer and lead guitarist from the hair band Poison. One has a sassy, gregarious, carefree personality, the other tends to the pensive, serious side. Which is better suited for your video?
14Spend time with people. Get to know them a bit better before you start in cold on an interview.
15Be confident. Steer the interview in the direction you want it to go. If the discussion meanders, pull it back to achieve what you want to accomplish.
16Show respect for the person telling their story. Be sure to thank them and let them know when it will appear online.
What tips do you have for getting people to tell stories?
• Guide to shooting better online video (Socialbrite)
• 8 tips to help you shoot video like a pro (Socialbrite)
• 4 ways to tell a visual story for your nonprofit (Socialbrite)
• Mash up a visual story for your nonprofit (Socialbrite)
• A quick guide to multimedia software (Socialbrite)
• Complete guide to creating a video project (Socialbrite)
• More resources to help your organization create media (Socialbrite)Lindsay Oberst is a freelance writer who writes about art, culture and topics that relate to social and environmental good. Follow her on Twitter at @LindsayOSocial for social good discussions or at @LindsayOWrite to chat about writing.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported. | How your nonprofit can capture the best stories on camera
Target audience: Nonprofits, NGOs, cause organizations, social enterprises, brands, educators, video producers, Web publishers, storytellers, individuals.
This is part 2 of a two-part series on video storytelling. Also see part 1:
• How to find amazing, powerful stories for your nonprofit video
By Lindsay Oberst
Stories are a great tool, wh | {
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Demonstration projects — Selection — Public involvement.
(1) The secretary or a designee shall solicit proposals from, and negotiate and enter into agreements with, private entities to undertake as appropriate, together with the department and other public entities, all or a portion of the study, planning, design, construction, operation, and maintenance of transportation systems and facilities, using in whole or in part public or private sources of financing.
The public-private initiatives program may develop up to six demonstration projects. Each proposal shall be weighed on its own merits, and each of the six agreements shall be negotiated individually, and as a stand-alone project.
(2) If project proposals selected prior to September 1, 1994, are terminated by the public or private sectors, the department shall not select any new projects, including project proposals submitted to the department prior to September 1, 1994, and designated by the transportation commission as placeholder projects, after June 16, 1995, until June 30, 1997.
The department, in consultation with the legislative transportation committee, shall conduct a program and fiscal audit of the public-private initiatives program for the biennium ending June 30, 1997. The department shall submit a progress report to the legislative transportation committee on the program and fiscal audit by June 30, 1996, with preliminary and final audit reports due December 1, 1996, and June 30, 1997, respectively.
The department shall develop and submit a proposed public involvement plan to the 1997 legislature to identify the process for selecting new potential projects and the associated costs of implementing the plan. The legislature must adopt the public involvement plan before the department may proceed with any activity related to project identification and selection. Following legislative adoption of the public involvement plan, the department is authorized to implement the plan and to identify potential new projects.
The public involvement plan for projects selected after June 30, 1997, shall, at a minimum, identify projects that: (a) Have the potential of achieving overall public support among users of the projects, residents of communities in the vicinity of the projects, and residents of communities impacted by the projects; (b) meet a state transportation need; (c) provide a significant state benefit; and (d) provide competition among proposers and maximum cost benefits to users. Prospective projects may include projects identified by the department or submitted by the private sector.
Projects that meet the minimum criteria established under this section and the requirements of the public involvement plan developed by the department and approved by the legislature shall be submitted to the Washington state transportation commission for its review. Forty-five days after the submission to the commission of the list of eligible projects, the secretary is authorized to solicit proposals for the eligible project.
(3) Prior to entering into agreements with private entities under the requirements of RCW 47.46.040 for any project proposal selected before September 1, 1994, or after June 30, 1997, except as provided for in subsections (11) and (12) of this section, the department shall require an advisory vote as provided under subsections (5) through (9) of this section.
(4) The advisory vote shall apply to project proposals selected prior to September 1, 1994, or after June 30, 1997, that receive public opposition as demonstrated by the submission to the department of original petitions bearing at least five thousand signatures of individuals opposing the project collected and submitted in accordance with the dates established in subsections (11) and (12) of this section. The advisory vote shall be on the preferred alternative identified under the requirements of chapter 43.21C RCW and, if applicable, the national environmental policy act, 42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq. The execution by the department of the advisory vote process established in this section is subject to the prior appropriation of funds by the legislature for the purpose of conducting environmental impact studies, a public involvement program, local involvement committee activities, traffic and economic impact analyses, engineering and technical studies, and the advisory vote.
(5) In preparing for the advisory vote, the department shall conduct a comprehensive analysis of traffic patterns and economic impact to define the geographical boundary of the project area that is affected by the imposition of tolls or user fees authorized under this chapter. The area so defined is referred to in this section as the affected project area. In defining the affected project area, the department shall, at a minimum, undertake: (a) A comparison of the estimated percentage of residents of communities in the vicinity of the project and in other communities impacted by the project who could be subject to tolls or user fees and the estimated percentage of other users and transient traffic that could be subject to tolls or user fees; (b) an analysis of the anticipated traffic diversion patterns; (c) an analysis of the potential economic impact resulting from proposed toll rates or user fee rates imposed on residents, commercial traffic, and commercial entities in communities in the vicinity of and impacted by the project; (d) an analysis of the economic impact of tolls or user fees on the price of goods and services generally; and (e) an analysis of the relationship of the project to state transportation needs and benefits.
(6)(a) After determining the definition of the affected project area, the department shall establish a committee comprised of individuals who represent cities and counties in the affected project area; organizations formed to support or oppose the project; and users of the project. The committee shall be named the public-private local involvement committee, and be known as the local involvement committee.
(b) The members of the local involvement committee shall be: (i) An elected official from each city within the affected project area; (ii) an elected official from each county within the affected project area; (iii) two persons from each county within the affected project area who represent an organization formed in support of the project, if the organization exists; (iv) two persons from each county within the affected project area who represent an organization formed to oppose the project, if the organization exists; and (v) four public members active in a statewide transportation organization. If the committee makeup results in an even number of committee members, there shall be an additional appointment of an elected official from the county in which all, or the greatest portion of the project is located.
(c) City and county elected officials shall be appointed by a majority of the members of the city or county legislative authorities of each city or county within the affected project area, respectively. The county legislative authority of each county within the affected project area shall identify and validate organizations officially formed in support of or in opposition to the project and shall make the appointments required under this section from a list submitted by the chair of the organizations. Public members shall be appointed by the governor. All appointments to the local involvement committee shall be made and submitted to the department of transportation no later than January 1, 1996, for projects selected prior to September 1, 1994, and no later than thirty days after the affected project area is defined for projects selected after June 30, 1997. Vacancies in the membership of the local involvement committee shall be filled by the appointing authority under (b)(i) through (v) of this subsection for each position on the committee.
(d) The local involvement committee shall serve in an advisory capacity to the department on all matters related to the execution of the advisory vote.
(e) Members of the local involvement committee serve without compensation and may not receive subsistence, lodging expenses, or travel expenses.
(7) The department shall conduct a minimum thirty-day public comment period on the definition of the geographical boundary of the project area. The department, in consultation with the local involvement committee, shall make adjustments, if required, to the definition of the geographical boundary of the affected project area, based on comments received from the public. Within fourteen calendar days after the public comment period, the department shall set the boundaries of the affected project area in units no smaller than a precinct as defined in RCW 29A.04.121.
(8) The department, in consultation with the local involvement committee, shall develop a description for selected project proposals. After developing the description of the project proposal, the department shall publish the project proposal description in newspapers of general circulation for seven calendar days in the affected project area. Within fourteen calendar days after the last day of the publication of the project proposal description, the department shall transmit a copy of the map depicting the affected project area and the description of the project proposal to the county auditor of the county in which any portion of the affected project area is located.
(9) Upon receipt of the map and the description of the project proposal, the county auditor shall, within thirty days, verify the precincts that are located within the affected project area. The county auditor shall prepare the text identifying and describing the affected project area and the project proposal using the definition of the geographical boundary of the affected project area and the project description submitted by the department and shall set an election date for the submission of a ballot proposition authorizing the imposition of tolls or user fees to implement the proposed project within the affected project area, which date may be the next succeeding general election to be held in the state, or at a special election, if requested by the department. The text of the project proposal must appear in a voter's pamphlet for the affected project area. The department shall pay the costs of publication and distribution. The special election date must be the next date for a special election provided under RCW 29A.04.330 that is at least sixty days but, if authorized under RCW 29A.04.330, no more than ninety days after the receipt of the final map and project description by the auditor. The department shall pay the cost of an election held under this section.
(10) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the department may contract with a private developer of a selected project proposal to conduct environmental impact studies, a public involvement program, and engineering and technical studies funded by the legislature. For projects subject to this subsection, the department shall not enter into an agreement under RCW 47.46.040 prior to the advisory vote on the preferred alternative.
(11) Subsections (5) through (9) of this section shall not apply to project proposals selected prior to September 1, 1994, that have no organized public opposition as demonstrated by the submission to the department of original petitions bearing at least five thousand signatures of individuals opposing the project, collected and submitted after September 1, 1994, and by thirty calendar days after June 16, 1995.
(12) Subsections (5) through (9) of this section shall not apply to project proposals selected after June 30, 1997, that have no organized public opposition as demonstrated by the submission to the department of original petitions bearing at least five thousand signatures of individuals opposing the project, collected and submitted by ninety calendar days after project selection.
[2005 c 319 § 132; 2002 c 114 § 3; 1996 c 280 § 1; 1995 2nd sp.s. c 19 § 2; 1993 c 370 § 3.]
| Findings -- Intent--Part headings--Effective dates--2005 c 319: See notes following RCW 43.17.020.|
Finding -- Intent -- 2002 c 114: See RCW 47.46.011.
Captions not law -- 2002 c 114: See note following RCW 47.46.011.
Effective date -- 1996 c 280: "This act is necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, or safety, or support of the state government and its existing public institutions, and shall take effect immediately [March 29, 1996]." [1996 c 280 § 2.]
Effective date -- 1995 2nd sp.s. c 19: See note following RCW 47.46.010. | Demonstration projects — Selection — Public involvement.
(1) The secretary or a designee shall solicit proposals from, and negotiate and enter into agreements with, private entities to undertake as appropriate, together with the department and other public entities, all or a portion of the study, planning, design, construction, operation, and maintenance of transportation systems and facilities, u | {
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The K–12 Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts and Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science and Technical Subjects are the result of a collaborative effort between state departments of education, teachers, experts in an array of fields, and professional organizations. The standards establish specific K-12 grade-by-grade standards (and grade spans in high school) in reading, writing, speaking and listening, and language with a steady progression of development leading to college and career readiness by the end of high school.
The standards are grounded in evidence, including the best work of states and high-performing nations, frameworks developed for the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), academic research, curriculum surveys, assessment data on college- and career-ready performance, and input from educators at all levels and from a variety of subjects. High points include:
The standards establish a “staircase” of increasing complexity in what students must be able to read so that all students are ready for the demands of college- and career-level reading no later than the end of high school. The standards also require the progressive development of reading comprehension so that students advancing through the grades are able to gain more from whatever they are reading.
Through reading a diverse array of classic and contemporary literature as well as challenging informational texts in a range of subjects, students are expected to build knowledge, gain insights, explore possibilities, and broaden their perspectives. The standards intentionally do not offer a reading list, leaving this matter to states and/or districts, but they do offer numerous illustrative texts suggestive of the kinds of high-quality, increasingly-complex texts from a wide variety of disciplines that students must encounter each year.
The standards avoid the “content-versus-skills” debate by recognizing that both are essential and neither is sufficient. The standards require certain critical types of texts for all students, including classic myths and stories from around the world, informational and technical texts, foundational U.S. documents, seminal works of American literature and the writings of Shakespeare. The standards appropriately defer the many remaining decisions about what and how to teach to states, districts and schools.
The ability to write logical arguments based on substantive claims, sound reasoning and relevant evidence is a cornerstone of the writing standards, with opinion writing—a basic form of argument—extending down into the earliest grades.
Research – both short, focused projects (such as those commonly required in the workplace) and sustained inquiry – is emphasized throughout the standards, but most prominently in the writing strand, since written analysis and presentation of findings are critical in both college and careers. Annotated samples of student writing accompany the standards and help establish clear performance levels in writing arguments, informational/explanatory texts, and narratives in the various grades.
Speaking and Listening
The standards require that students be able to gain, evaluate and present increasingly complex information, ideas and evidence through listening and speaking, as well as through a wide range of media. An important focus of the speaking and listening standards is purposeful speaking and listening in various academic settings – including one-on-one, small-group and whole-classroom. Formal presentations are one important way such communication occurs, but so are the more informal discussions that take place as students collaborate to answer questions, build understanding and solve problems.
The vocabulary standards require that students be able to determine word meanings, identify the nuances of words and steadily expand their repertoire of words and phrases, particularly those important to academic discourse. The standards expect that students will grow their vocabularies through a mix of conversations, direct instruction and reading.
Standards for conventions (grammar, usage, punctuation, capitalization and spelling) and language choice recognize that students must be able to use formal English in their writing and speaking, but that they also must be able to make informed, skillful choices among the many ways to express themselves in a variety of contexts.
Vocabulary and conventions are treated in their own strand, not because skills in these areas should be handled in isolation, but because their use extends across reading, writing, speaking and listening.
Media and Technology
Rather than be set off in a separate section, skills related to media and technology (both critical analysis and production of media) are integrated throughout the ELA and Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science and Technical Subjects standards.
Literacy Standards in History/Social Studies, Science and Technical Subjects
Starting in grade 6, the reading and writing standards are divided into two sections, one focusing on ELA, and the other focusing on history/social studies, science and technical subjects. This division reflects the role both English teachers and teachers in other content areas play in developing the literacy skills students need for success in college and careers. Individuals in college, workforce training programs and the workplace will be expected to read demanding informational texts and to write informational and explanatory texts with clarity and coherence. These standards outline the literacy skills necessary to prepare students for those future challenges.
English Language Arts Consultant
English Language Arts Consultant | The K–12 Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts and Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science and Technical Subjects are the result of a collaborative effort between state departments of education, teachers, experts in an array of fields, and professional organizations. The standards establish specific K-12 grade-by-grade standards (and grade spans in high school) in reading, writi | {
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We love delicious local, healthy, and safe Thanksgiving meals, so we asked the head of Delaware’s Division of Public Health, Dr.Karyl Rattay, to provide some tips on food safety for the holidays. You might also enjoy our previous post on local, fresh Thanksgiving options.
Guest Post from Dr. Karyl Rattay: I am especially thankful for the time spent with family and friends during the holidays. Like many Delawareans, I often travel with my family to share Thanksgiving dinner with relatives and bring some dishes to pass.
Good nutrition, food safety, and preventing illness are as important during the holidays as the rest of the year. For our meal, I find that fruit salad is a refreshing, healthful dish that travels well. When transporting a dish, it’s important that cold foods stay cold, and hot foods stay hot. I make sure that we have plenty of ice packs in our cooler for the ride.
When cooking at home, I like to use several cutting boards and different knives for bread, fruit and vegetables and meat and poultry. This is a system that helps assure that bacteria from one food do not get passed to another. Glass or plastic cutting boards are a good choice since those surfaces do not absorb liquids from foods, which can spread illness.
We all want our loved ones to stay healthy and happy as we share special times. Unfortunately, health professionals have recognized a link between people gathering for the holidays and an increase in influenza and other respiratory illnesses. That’s why it’s important to get a flu shot and continue practicing preventive measures like hand washing, using hand sanitizer, and covering coughs and sneezes, at home and while visiting.
Our staff at the Division of Public Health’s Food Protection Program offer these additional tips for preparing the holiday turkey.
Plan your menu before the holiday:
- If you plan to buy a fresh turkey, purchase it only 1-2 days prior to cooking and make sure it remains refrigerated until ready to cook.
- Avoid fresh pre-stuffed turkeys because harmful bacteria can grow in the stuffing.
- Be sure you have a roasting pan large enough to hold your turkey and a food thermometer.
How to thaw:
- In the refrigerator: Allow approximately 24 hours per 4 -5 pounds of turkey. A thawed turkey can remain in the refrigerator for 1-2 days.
- Under cold running water (70°F or below): Completely submerge bird under running water in the original wrapper; cook immediately after thawing – do not refreeze.
- In the microwave: Remove outside wrapping and place on a microwave-safe dish. Do not refreeze or refrigerate after thawing in the microwave.
- Use a food thermometer to check the internal temperature of the turkey preferably in the innermost part of the thigh and wing and the thickest part of the breast. A whole turkey is safe when cooked to a minimum internal temperature of 165 °F throughout the bird.
- Do not use the color of the meat to determine if the bird is thoroughly cooked. The meat of smoked turkey is always pink.
- Any turkey, stuffing, or gravy needs refrigeration within two hours of cooking.
- Use separate shallow containers.
- Use leftover turkey and stuffing within seven days or freeze these foods.
- Reheat thoroughly to a temperature of 165 °F or until hot and steaming. | We love delicious local, healthy, and safe Thanksgiving meals, so we asked the head of Delaware’s Division of Public Health, Dr.Karyl Rattay, to provide some tips on food safety for the holidays. You might also enjoy our previous post on local, fresh Thanksgiving options.
Guest Post from Dr. Karyl Rattay: I am especially thankful for the time spent with family and friends during the holidays. Like | {
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Transcript of video presentation by Ann Hoog
Between January 1941 and January 1942, the Library of Congress's
Radio Research Project made documentary recordings of Americans
from around the country describing their experiences, singing their
songs, and telling the stories of their own regions. Project staff
believed that most commercial radio broadcasts of the day were dominated
by programs created in the great urban centers that failed to reflect
regional culture, local talent, and, in particular, the voices of
the people speaking in their own words. Alan Lomax, then head of
the Archive of American Folk Song and folklore consultant for the
Radio Research Project, saw radio as [quote] "a way of letting people
explain themselves and their lives to the entire nation."
On December 7, 1941, Pearl Harbor was bombed. The next day, Lomax
sent a telegram to Radio Project fieldworkers and other folklorists
he knew in ten different localities around the United States, asking
them to collect "man on the street" reactions to the bombing and
the declaration of war by the United States. Following the intention
of the Radio Research Project, Lomax wanted to collect the opinions
of the everyday person rather than those of the politicians and
newsmen that permeated the airways.
Fieldworkers equipped with recording machines collected these opinions
in Washington, D.C.; New York City; Madison, Wisconsin; Burlington,
North Carolina; Dallas, Texas; and Denver, Colorado; among others.
People were asked to give their reactions to the news of the attack,
and whether they thought Hitler and Germany were behind it. They
were asked how they thought the United States should respond and
whether they would be willing to enlist or send their sons off to
war. Responses varied, but most were strongly in favor of entering
the war and most supported President Roosevelt. Many people expressed
eagerness to enlist and others expressed the desire to do all they
could to help with the war effort at home. Here is a clip of an
interview recorded on the streets of Washington, D.C., December
"Well, how did you feel about it when we first heard about the
"Well, I felt, I'll be called into the draft pretty soon. I'm eligible,
I'm in the 1-A classification and it hit me pretty bad. I was expecting
something to happen, but this, even when it did come along, well
it does surprise me. I didn't expect it so soon."
"How do you feel do you about the chances, I mean generally?"
"Well, I believe that the United States will eventually win out."
"What do you think it means in terms of the other Axis powers?"
"Well, I believe that if we do defeat Japan it won't be the end,
but we'll have to finish off the other Axis powers before anything
else be settled. Because the other Axis powers, I believe, will
fight until either Japan is fixed up again or until they're defeated."
Beyond concerns about war overseas, many people spoke about concerns
at home: labor strikes, price increases, and racism. Several African
Americans interviewed primarily in Washington, D.C., and Nashville,
Tennessee, expressed concerns over how they were given unequal treatment
in the armed forces as well as at home, yet the majority expressed
their desire to defend the ideals of the democracy in which they
These man-on-the-street interviews resulted in approximately five
hours of recorded opinions from all around the country. The recordings
were made into a 15-minute radio broadcast that aired in December
1941 on the Mutual Broadcasting System.
Inspired by the material collected in December 1941, a second set
of interviews was conducted in January and February 1942 under the
auspices of the Office of Emergency Management. Many of the same
fieldworkers were joined by others to collect interviews in Middlebury,
Vermont; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Phoenix, Arizona; as well as in
many of the locations of the December interviews. Again, the intention
was to create a radio program built around people expressing their
opinions, only this time interviewees were asked to address their
comments directly to President Roosevelt.
Still recovering from the shock of Pearl Harbor and the nation's
sudden entry into war, Americans in these interviews talked about
many of the same issues they had addressed earlier: the sudden switch
to defense jobs, military service, and social problems. Though the
majority express support for President Roosevelt and for the war,
there are plenty of interviews reflecting the new realities and
fears of wartime, such as the death of friends, spouses, and sons
overseas; the bombing of U.S. towns; and lack of morale among the
American people. The following is an excerpt from a librarian at
the University of Minnesota expressing concern for her fiancé who
was drafted into the army:
"I am a librarian in a large university library engaged to a man
who is in the Engineer Division in the Topographics Section. . .
. He was drafted and I think takes it better than a lot of men who
were drafted, . . . although he doesn't want to go, doesn't like
to go, he hasn't been too complaining about it. If anybody's done
any complaining I suppose I've done the most. He is going to some
Southern camp and will probably go overseas. I hope not. It seems
to me that they could send some of the men who have enlisted rather
than those who were drafted, and in a way forced to go. . . . I
have known few who have wanted to go and who have wanted to go overseas.
. . . The majority that I've heard from are going because they have
to go. And they don't like it . . . they see that it has to be done
and they're going, but it's a shame."
Portions of these recordings were used in a radio program entitled
"Dear Mr. President," which was broadcast in May 1942. From December
8, 1941, to the end of February 1942, a total of approximately twelve
hours of monologues and interviews were recorded around the country.
Taken as a whole, these recordings capture more than just passing
reactions: they are a snapshot of people's attitudes and concerns
as they entered into World War II. Listening to these voices brings
alive the sounds of the streets, dialects, and phrasing--so vividly
that it seems you are seated next to the person telling their story.
There are always new things to discover in this remarkable collection,
feelings and attitudes and experiences that haven't reached the
history books. We often have to rely on people's memories to tell
us of historic events, but these voices have been preserved in time.
Besides recording their own historical moment, the recordings inspired
a similar project started the day after September 11, 2001. Once
again, the intent was to record people's immediate reactions and
opinions for preservation in the Library of Congress. History will
interpret and re-interpret the meanings of both Pearl Harbor and
September 11, but no matter the interpretation, the raw interviews
will always be here to educate us about how people thought and felt
when those events were not yet history. | Transcript of video presentation by Ann Hoog
Between January 1941 and January 1942, the Library of Congress's
Radio Research Project made documentary recordings of Americans
from around the country describing their experiences, singing their
songs, and telling the stories of their own regions. Project staff
believed that most commercial radio broadcasts of the day were dominated
by programs create | {
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Breastfeeding Best for Baby, Best for MomTuesday, July 31, 2012 | 11:13 am
World Breastfeeding Week is Aug. 1-7, 2012
NASHVILLE – A new or expectant mother must make a lot of decisions that affect her health and the health of her baby. Among the most important: Should I breastfeed my baby? Governor Bill Haslam has declared Aug. 1-7 World Breastfeeding Week in Tennessee to demonstrate the state’s ongoing support of this vital practice. As part of the recognition of this health observance, the Tennessee Department of Health is reminding all potential, expectant and new mothers of the importance of breastfeeding for both mothers and babies.
“Breastfeeding is the very foundation of optimal nutrition and health and is superior to formula for the vast majority of women,” said TDH Commissioner John Dreyzehner, MD, MPH. “We fully support all efforts to encourage more mothers to nurse their babies.”
Michael Warren, MD, MPH, FAAP, TDH director of Family Health and Wellness, says while breastfeeding can positively affect the short-term physical and psychological health of mothers and babies, it also has long-term beneficial effects.
“We often think about the benefit to babies, but breastfeeding has distinct benefits for mothers as well. Mothers who breastfeed are at reduced risk for cardiovascular disease, Type 2 diabetes, post-partum depression, breast and ovarian cancer and other debilitating conditions,” Warren said.
“Babies who are breastfed reap multiple health benefits, including fewer respiratory and gastrointestinal infections and fewer ear infections,” said TennCare Medical Director Jeanne James, MD. “Breastfed babies are also less likely to have allergic diseases, celiac disease or inflammatory bowel disease and are less likely to develop obesity or diabetes. They are also less likely to die from sudden infant death syndrome.”
Beyond the physical and psychological benefits, mothers can save money, effort and time by breastfeeding. Employers can also save money by providing breastfeeding accommodations; breastfed babies tend to be healthier, meaning nursing mothers may be away from their jobs less to care for a sick child.
Tennessee lawmakers also support the vital practice of breastfeeding. The Tennessee General Assembly has passed laws protecting a mother’s right to breastfeed in any location, public or private; prohibiting local governments from criminalizing or restricting breastfeeding; and requiring employers in Tennessee to accommodate breastfeeding mothers at work.
“We’re encouraging all TDH staff members to be more proactive in their conversations with expectant parents, providing information and encouragement so more women in Tennessee will adopt the important practice of breastfeeding,” Warren said. “All health departments in Tennessee have a breastfeeding advocate who can help with services and information. We routinely advise parents to talk with their family health providers about breastfeeding, learning more about the process and becoming familiar with its benefits. There are very few women who cannot breastfeed, and most find it to be an emotionally rewarding experience that enriches their life and the life of their baby.”
TDH recently updated a department-wide policy that all facilities provide a private space for breastfeeding employees. The policy now goes a step further, urging all employees to motivate and encourage more Tennessee women to choose breastfeeding for their babies.
“There are health department facilities in all 95 counties in Tennessee, and these work to serve as role models to support and encourage breastfeeding,” Dreyzehner said. “We know breastfeeding is best for most women and babies, offering many health and personal economic benefits. Breastfeeding is not a lifestyle choice; it’s an optimal health choice. In fact, breastfeeding is one of the best examples of primary prevention—something we can do to prevent disease from ever occurring.”
The mission of the Tennessee Department of Health is to protect, promote and improve the health and prosperity of people in Tennessee. For more information about TDH services and programs, visit http://health.state.tn.us/. | Breastfeeding Best for Baby, Best for MomTuesday, July 31, 2012 | 11:13 am
World Breastfeeding Week is Aug. 1-7, 2012
NASHVILLE – A new or expectant mother must make a lot of decisions that affect her health and the health of her baby. Among the most important: Should I breastfeed my baby? Governor Bill Haslam has declared Aug. 1-7 World Breastfeeding Week in Tennessee to demonstrate the state’s o | {
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Program for Ecosystem Research
Research Project Bridging the divide: linking genomics to ecosystem responses to climatic change
Principal investigator: Melinda Smith
Demonstrate that genomic data can be collected from plants under field conditions and directly linked to plant physiological responses underlying climatic change impacts on ecosystem structure and functioning.
Ecosystem being studied
Tallgrass prairie in the Flint Hills region of northeastern Kansas. The study system corresponds to the "bluestem-grama prairie (Andropogon-Bouteloua)" vegetation type of Kuchler (1964). This ecosystem is part of a larger grassland biome in the central United States (see map).
In response to altered rainfall patterns, the prairie grass big bluestem (Andropogon gerardii) has consistently upregulated genes controlling two aspects of photosynthesis (i.e., photochemistry and carbon metabolism) crucial to ecosystem functioning.
Why this is important
The research bridges two divergent disciplines in biology: molecular biology and ecology. It is expected that this combination of disciplines will provide early indicators of biological change driven by altered precipitation and warming that can be used within ecosystem models to produce forecasts for society to consider when weighing climatic change mitigation policies. This research is also relevant to improved understanding of the fundamental controls of grassland productivity upon which livestock management depends, a key land use and economic driver in the Great Plains region.
This project takes advantage of an ongoing climatic change experiment in intact tallgrass prairie located in the Flint Hills region of northeastern Kansas, the Rainfall Manipulation Plots (RaMPs). The RaMPs experiment imposes two environmental changes associated with energy production: (1) increased temperature (1-2 degrees Celsius warming) and (2) more variable precipitation regimes defined as increased time between, and intensity of, rainfall events.
The project is focusing on the two most abundant C4 grasses in the tallgrass prairie ecosystem, Andropogon gerardii and Sorghastrum nutans, which are known from previous studies to respond differently to altered precipitation and to strongly influence community and ecosystem processes. Both are related to maize (Zea mays) for which genomic tools have been developed.
This project is attempting to directly scale responses at the genome level to ecological processes. Specifically, information on the relative changes in gene expression determined with microarray and real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technologies are collected concurrently with a suite of ecophysiological responses to identify genes that are consistently up- or down-regulated in the target species in response to climatic changes. Gene-level changes are scaled to community and ecosystem level responses based on responses of the individual grass species.
Melinda D. Smith, Yale University
Alan K. Knapp, Colorado State University (subaward)
Jianfa Bai, Kansas State University (subaward)
John Blair, Kansas State University (subaward)
Karen Garrett, Kansas State University (subaward)
Scot Hulbert, Kansas State University (subaward)
Jan E. Leach, Kansas State University (subaward)
Steve Travers, Kansas State University (subaward)
Philip A. Fay, University of Minnesota-Duluth (subaward)
Kuchler AW (1964) Manual to Accompany the Map: Potential Natural Vegetation of the Conterminous United States. American Geological Society (Special publication No. 36), New York.
Funding period: August 2004 to present | Program for Ecosystem Research
Research Project Bridging the divide: linking genomics to ecosystem responses to climatic change
Principal investigator: Melinda Smith
Demonstrate that genomic data can be collected from plants under field conditions and directly linked to plant physiological responses underlying climatic change impacts on ecosystem structure and functioning.
Ecosystem being studied
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|This Commission shall: work with the City Council on matters of historic preservation; take the initiative in bringing people together on historic preservation issues; review appeals on proposed alterations to historic properties, historic districts and archeological resources through the Certificate of Appropriateness process; and develop, maintain and from time to time amend a plan and annual work programs for historic preservation activities in the City. This Commission shall further establish and maintain a Phoenix Historic Property Register, survey historic properties including archaeological resources, recommend to the City Council designations for historic preservation districts, and establish guidelines for evaluation of historic properties districts including archaeological resources. The Historic Preservation Commission shall also provide public information and education on preservation, coordinate resources and provide technical assistance, develop criteria and review procedure, promote revitalization of the City through preservation and make recommendation to the City Council and citizens regarding historic preservation.
The Commission may also confer with other city, county regional, state and national historic preservation boards and commission; work with and assist City departments in matters affecting historic preservation; initiate plans for restoration or rehabilitation of City-owned buildings, and advocate and recommend plans for the restoration or rehabilitation of privately owned buildings and the preservation of archaeological resources; discourage and work with City departments to prevent unwanted demolition of historic buildings and structures and the destruction of archaeological resources. This Commission is also responsible for making funding recommendations for Historic Preservation Bond Funds.
Contact Information: Michelle Dodds (602) 262-7468 | |This Commission shall: work with the City Council on matters of historic preservation; take the initiative in bringing people together on historic preservation issues; review appeals on proposed alterations to historic properties, historic districts and archeological resources through the Certificate of Appropriateness process; and develop, maintain and from time to time amend a plan and annual w | {
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Program Design & Evaluation Services (PDES) is currently engaged in two projects that seek to integrate public health, economic development, and the criminal justice system to improve incarcerated women’s employment success, mental and physical health outcomes, and decrease recidivism.
In July 2010, PDES collaborated with Mercy Corps Northwest to secure a 4-year, $500,000 Local Funding Partnerships grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF). RWJF received 181 applications; only 10 projects nationwide were selected.
The current RWJF-funded project builds on ongoing Mercy Corps Northwest work with inmates and ex-offenders, including a 32-week entrepreneurial skills program for women called Lifelong Information for Entrepreneurs (LIFE) at Coffee Creek Correctional Facility in Wilsonville, and programming at the Re-entry Transition Center in NE Portland for individuals recently released from prison.
Despite this comprehensive approach to providing support to women both in and out of prison, an important gap had remained unaddressed. Health conditions—such as depression, anxiety, hepatitis C, poor nutrition and weight gain, and substance abuse—were highly prevalent among this population and were identified as significant barriers to achieving the goals of the LIFE program: getting and keeping a job, running a small business, and reintegrating into the community.
The new RWJF grant allows Multnomah County Health Department and Mercy Corps Northwest to work together to integrate health promotion skills into the entrepreneurial skills program at Coffee Creek and the Re-entry Transition Center.
Additional projects have developed through our work at Coffee Creek. Through discussions with the inmates, we learned that weight gain, food offerings, and body image while incarcertated are leading health concerns. The CCCF menu exceeds 3,000 calories per day. Poor nutrition and being overweight are risk factors for chronic disease, and exacerbate existing physical and mental health issues. Being overweight can create an array of social, emotional, and practical barriers to successful employment and community reintegration.
As a result, the Oregon Health Authority partnered with the Oregon Department of Corrections to secure a Kaiser Healthy Food Access Grant to expand the existing garden at Coffee Creek, integrate fresh produce grown on-site into the menu, and change facility policy to improve healthy food options for inmates.
- Work being conducted through the LIFE Plus grant
- The links between incarceration and public health
- Oregonian article spotlighting CCCF garden and garden coordinator, Debbie Rutt, as part of the Kaiser Healthy Food Access grant project | Program Design & Evaluation Services (PDES) is currently engaged in two projects that seek to integrate public health, economic development, and the criminal justice system to improve incarcerated women’s employment success, mental and physical health outcomes, and decrease recidivism.
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Newton's Three Laws Of Motion
Whether they are sprinting down the ice, smashing into the boards or stopping on a dime, NHL players display an amazing mix of speed and strength. These athletic moves also provide great examples of Newton's Three Laws of Motion.
Provided by the National Science Foundation & NBC Learn
More Science of NHL Hockey videos | Newton's Three Laws Of Motion
Whether they are sprinting down the ice, smashing into the boards or stopping on a dime, NHL players display an amazing mix of speed and strength. These athletic moves also provide great examples of Newton's Three Laws of Motion.
Provided by the National Science Foundation & NBC Learn
More Science of NHL Hockey videos | {
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Resources for Veterans
"The nation which forgets its defenders will be itself forgotten." -Calvin Coolidge, 30th President of the United States
Over the years, the brave men and women of the Armed Forces have fought and defended our freedom and the American way of life. Many of those Veterans reside in Franklin County and are not receiving the benefits they deserve. According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs:
- There are approximately 25 million Veterans currently alive.
- About a quarter of the nation's population - nearly 70 million people - are potentially eligible for VA benefits because they are Veterans, family members, or survivors of Veterans.
- There are nearly 100,000 Veterans in Franklin County, Ohio.
In an effort to make it easier for Veterans and their families to access the information they need to secure benefits and programs that are available, we compiled a brief list of federal, state, and local resources. These include:
Central Ohio Veterans have access to state-of-the-art health care at the Chalmers P. Wylie Outpatient Clinic, which provides "a full range of ambulatory healthcare services." It is located at 543 Taylor Avenue, Columbus, OH, 43203. You can call the Clinic at 614-257-5200.
The Columbus Vet Center #221 (located at 30 Spruce Street) provides counseling and benefits assistance to eligible Veterans and their families. You can call the Vet Center at 614-257-5550.
The Department of Veterans Affairs provides "primary care, specialized care, and related medical and social support services." Their website is: http://www.va.gov/index.htm. To view a fact sheet on "VA Health Care and the Medical Benefits Package," go to: http://www1.va.gov/opa/fact/.
My HealtheVet is the Veterans Health Administration's Health Portal. Via the Internet, it allows Veterans and their families to access "health information, tools and services anywhere in the world." To visit this portal, you can go to: http://www.myhealth.va.gov.
To obtain "A Summary of VA Benefits" from the Department of Veteran's Affairs," go to: http://www.vba.va.gov/bln/21/summaryVAbenefits.pdf. State of Ohio The Governor's Office of Veterans Affairs coordinates with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and oversees the 88 County Veterans Service offices in Ohio. It is also responsible for the Ohio Veterans Plaza and the Ohio Veterans Hall of Fame, and works with many other organizations to provide information and assistance to Veterans. Call 614-644-0898 or visit their website: http://veteransaffairs.ohio.gov
The Veteran's Service Division of the Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services provides information on programs and services for Veterans. Visit their website: http://www.odjfs.state.oh.us/veterans/index.asp or call 1-800-253-4060.
The Franklin County Veterans Services Commission provides advice and help to Veterans, active-duty members of the Armed Forces, and their spouse, surviving spouse, dependent parents, and dependents in obtaining benefits and entitlements from federal, state and local agencies. Call them at 614-525-2500 or visit the website: http://www.franklincountyohio.gov/vets/
Veterans may safeguard their important discharge papers at no cost. Original documents or certified copies of military discharge certificates and DD-214 forms may be presented for filing in the Franklin County Recorder's office. For more information, call 614-525-3930 or visit their website: http://www.franklincountyohio.gov/recorder/ | Resources for Veterans
"The nation which forgets its defenders will be itself forgotten." -Calvin Coolidge, 30th President of the United States
Over the years, the brave men and women of the Armed Forces have fought and defended our freedom and the American way of life. Many of those Veterans reside in Franklin County and are not receiving the benefits they deserve. According to the U.S. Departmen | {
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The Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform (BERR) Renewables web pages provide information about renewable energy including the different renewable energy technologies, UK Government policy, UK planning policy and planning processes, and various financial support programmes including investing in renewables technologies.
Renewable energy is an integral part of the Government's longer-term aim of reducing CO2 emissions by 60% by 2050. In 2000 the Government set a target of 10% of electricity supply from renewable energy by 2010, and in 2006 announced our aspiration to double that level by 2020. The government held a consultation, in summer 2008, seeking views on how to drive up the use of renewable energy in the UK, as part of the overall strategy for tackling climate change and to meet our share of the EU target to source 20% of the EU's energy from renewable sources by 2020. To view the Renewable Energy Strategy consultation, go to the UK Renewable Energy Strategy website.
There is also information and teaching resources on renewable energy sources for schools and an interactive map of UK Renewable Energy projects.
In 2007, 5% of the UK's electricity supply came from renewable sources, with 4.9% from Renewable Obligation (RO) eligible sources¹. | The Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform (BERR) Renewables web pages provide information about renewable energy including the different renewable energy technologies, UK Government policy, UK planning policy and planning processes, and various financial support programmes including investing in renewables technologies.
Renewable energy is an integral part of the Government's lon | {
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|Posted on Dec 07, 2012 02:45:50 PM | William Cooke | 22 Comments ||
This morning at 6:43 AM Central Standard Time, eyewitnesses across Texas and adjacent states saw a very bright fireball streaking across the sky, moving roughly east to west. It was also recorded by a NASA meteor camera in Mayhill, New Mexico some five hundred miles to the West, which is very unusual and testifies to the brightness of the event. This was not the re-entry of Kosmos 2251, which was destroyed in a collision with an Iridium satellite in February 2009; it is a meteor, most likely a fragment from the asteroid belt and not associated with the Geminid meteor shower.
Preliminary results indicate that there are meteorites from this meteor on the ground north of Houston, Texas--analysis is currently underway to refine the impact area. If pieces are recovered, it will be the 13th meteorite fall recorded in the state since 1909, and the first since Ash Creek, which fell in February of 2009.A video (in Windows Media format) of the fireball as recorded by the NASA camera in New Mexico is attached to this message. The Moon is the bright object at lower center; the fireball is on the horizon at left and is surrounded by a white box when the camera detects it. Up is north, and left is east in the video.
Tags : Marshall Space Flight Center, NASA, meteor | |Posted on Dec 07, 2012 02:45:50 PM | William Cooke | 22 Comments ||
This morning at 6:43 AM Central Standard Time, eyewitnesses across Texas and adjacent states saw a very bright fireball streaking across the sky, moving roughly east to west. It was also recorded by a NASA meteor camera in Mayhill, New Mexico some five hundred miles to the West, which is very unusual and testifies to the brightne | {
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Changes to the Australian Radiofrequency Spectrum Plan
Response to submissions
The ACMA’s response to submissions to the discussion paper are set out in the following two attachments:
Submissions to the discussion paper closed on 26 October 2012. The ACMA received ten submissions to the discussion paper. One of these was given as commercial-in-confidence. The other nine are available below.
- Australian Subscription Television and Radio Association (ASTRA)
- Bureau of Meteorology
- Department of Defence
- Free TV Australia
- Global VSAT Forum
- Wireless Institute of Australia (WIA)
The ACMA is updating the Australian Radiofrequency Spectrum Plan.
The spectrum plan is a legislative instrument that divides the spectrum into frequency bands and specifies the general purposes for which the bands may be used. The key part of the spectrum plan is the table of frequency allocations, as well as the Australian and international footnotes.
Following each World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC)—usually held every three to four years—the International Telecommunication Union updates its (treaty level) international table of frequency allocations. The spectrum plan also requires updating at this time to reflect the international changes that Australia has agreed to in principle. Domestic approval of the treaty amendments is anticipated but has not yet occurred.
Along with these international updates, a number of domestic changes have occurred since the 2009 version of the spectrum plan, which must be reflected in the updated document. There are also several new domestic changes being proposed.
This discussion paper sets out the various changes to the spectrum plan that are required or proposed, and seeks comment on the various proposals. The ‘preamble’ to the spectrum plan (Attachment A1, Chapter 1 – General information) has also been updated, and is included for comment—although it should be remembered that this text is not part of the legislative instrument.
The discussion paper and attachments, including the spectrum plan with proposed changes (Attachments A2 to A5), is available below.
|210 kb||525 kb|
Attachment A1, Chapter 1 – General information
|246 kb||341 kb|
Attachment A2, Chapter 2 – Part 1– Introductory
|48 kb||407 kb|
Attachment A3, Chapter 2 – Part 2 – Table of Allocations
|319 kb||438 kb|
Attachment A4, Chapter 2 – Part 3 – Australian footnotes
|30 kb||174 kb|
Attachment A5, Chapter 2 – Part 4 – International footnotes
|203 kb||587 kb|
Attachment B, Table of changes affecting Australia arising from WRC-12
|107 kb||103 kb|
Submissions to this consultation may be made to the ACMA:
By email: [email protected]
Spectrum Transformation and Government Section
Australian Communications and Media Authority
PO Box 78
Belconnen, ACT 2616
The closing date for submissions was Friday 26 October 2012.
The ACMA is working to enhance the effectiveness of its stakeholder consultation processes, which are an important source of evidence for its regulatory development activities. To assist stakeholders in formulating submissions to its formal written consultation processes, it has developed Effective consultation: A guide to making a submission. This guide provides information about the ACMA's formal written public consultation processes and practical guidance on how to make a submission.
Publication of submissions
In general, the ACMA publishes all submissions it receives. The ACMA prefers to receive submissions that are not claimed to be confidential. However, the ACMA accepts that a submitter may sometimes wish to provide information in confidence. In these circumstances, submitters are asked to identify the material over which confidentiality is claimed and provide a written explanation for the claim.
The ACMA will consider each confidentiality claim on a case-by-case basis. If the ACMA accepts a claim, it will not publish the confidential information unless authorised or required by law to do so.
Release of submissions where authorised or required by law
Any submissions provided to the ACMA may be released under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (unless an exemption applies) or shared with other Commonwealth Government agencies under Part 7A of the Australian Communications and Media Authority Act 2005. The ACMA may also be required to release submissions for other reasons including for the purpose of parliamentary processes or where otherwise required by law (for example, under a court subpoena). While the ACMA seeks to consult submitters of confidential information before that information is provided to another party, the ACMA cannot guarantee that confidential information will not be released through these or other legal means. | Changes to the Australian Radiofrequency Spectrum Plan
Response to submissions
The ACMA’s response to submissions to the discussion paper are set out in the following two attachments:
Submissions to the discussion paper closed on 26 October 2012. The ACMA received ten submissions to the discussion paper. One of these was given as commercial-in-confidence. The other nine are available below.
- Aust | {
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CDC Promotes Partnerships in Emergency Response
Published: April 3, 2009
On March 18, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) three business cooperative agreement grantees, the National Business Coalition on Health, the National Business Group on Health, and the National Safety Council visited the agency to present information on their partnerships and how they help to promote health, prevent disease, and reduce injury. Together, these grantees have the potential to impact millions of lives in the workforce, including employers, employees, and their dependents (i.e. children, parents, older adults, at risk populations).
Each year, the public faces potential health threats, from pandemic influenza, to hurricanes, to bioterrorism. CDC's ability to disseminate communication messages during all hazards emergency response may be easier with some new emergency communication tools. The National Center for Health Marketing's (NCHM) Division of Partnerships and Strategic Alliances (DPSA) collaborated with one of CDC's business cooperative agreement grantees, the National Safety Council (NSC), to create the Emergency Alert Network (EAN). EAN is a new e-mail- and voice-based system built on the Send Word Now platform and funded through DPSA's cooperative agreement with NSC.
The Emergency Alert Network
EAN has the capacity to reach more than 17,000 businesses with CDC-cleared information in the event of a public health emergency. Collectively, these businesses have the potential to reach 8 million employees and their dependents. The EAN database contains all critical infrastructure sectors, including agriculture, forestry and fishing, manufacturing, large- and small-retail establishments, schools, healthcare, banking, and insurance.
The NSC database will also be expanding to include coalition representatives of the National Business Coalition on Health (NBCH), another CDC business cooperative agreement grantee, which represents 10,000 employers and 25 million employees and their dependents. During emergencies, businesses are a key component of the partnership strategy and help reach a wide audience, including employees, their dependents, other business partners, and the general public.
"During emergencies, it's important for CDC to partner with a variety of organizations and institutions, such as businesses, to disseminate emergent health information and resources to protect the public's health," said Marsha Vanderford, director of CDC's Emergency Communication System (ECS). By accessing NSC's and NBCH's memberships, CDC can efficiently and effectively provide emergency health information to a broad business base.
EAN Activated for Hurricane Ike
CDC's ECS was activated during Hurricane Ike to lead CDC's communication response activities, including the distribution of health protection information to the public and stakeholders before, during, and after the hurricane. The Partners' Desk within ECS consists of a team of staff whose primary role is to disseminate and coordinate CDC's public health emergency messages between CDC and external private and public partners. The Partners' Desk reached out to NSC to discuss using EAN to disseminate health protection messages to prevent carbon monoxide poisonings in affected areas. These can occur with the incorrect use of fuel burning devices, such as generators or camping stoves, often used in post-hurricane or other power outage situations. Two messages were developed to address this public health concern.
The first message was a test message to all EAN members. Prior to the hurricane, they were informed that EAN would be tested to assess whether the correct processes were in place to disseminate a message and receive responses back from the EAN membership. Exactly 17,993 businesses received the test message, which advised proper generator use to prevent carbon monoxide poisoning.
To contact these 17,993 members, about 34,805 contact points were used (19,551 phone calls and 15,254 e-mail and text messages). EAN's notification technology allowed contacts in the database to prioritize (cascade) the order in which calls were placed; in addition, the cascade feature stopped calling a contact once a call was answered. Out of the 17,993 business members, 96 percent were successfully contacted either by telephone or e-mail. Furthermore, 4,815 members replied with a "1" to confirm receipt of the test message.
After sending the test message, NSC conducted an electronic survey with all EAN participants. The majority of respondents agreed that EAN was a useful communication tool in preparing for and staying informed during public health emergencies, and wanted to remain members of EAN. About 62 percent experienced no problems in receiving the test message.
As part of this overall effort, members of the insurance industry engaged in conversations with CDC and NSC to determine how effective they would be in distributing information. The members were confident that their field representatives would be in an ideal position to distribute information on carbon monoxide poisoning and discuss how to prevent it as they checked customers' homes for damage. Based on this information, a second message was sent out after the test message targeting companies in the insurance industry. The message was sent to 431 insurance companies via e-mail and text message.
Preparing for Future Emergencies
"EAN is an efficient tool that provides timely, relevant, and action-oriented information to a broad base of businesses, and ultimately increases CDC's ability to help reduce injuries, prevent disease, and save lives," said Wendy Heaps, DPSA Business Sector liaison to NSC.
Many lessons were learned during the process of activating EAN for Hurricane Ike, such as the need for pre-event message bundling, segmenting messages to different sectors, understanding the limitations of the communication channels, and ensuring message recipients are educated on the message-response feature. CDC and NSC will continue to develop EAN's capabilities and increase its database to include an even wider base of businesses.
Another emergency communication tool is the Partner Communication Network (PCN). The PCN will allow CDC to disseminate emergent health information to sector-based partners including business, faith-and community-based, education, sports and entertainment, and public health. The PCN will expand the use of CDC's e-mail update system (GovDelivery) and ensure sector-based partners have timely access to emergency communication information. | CDC Promotes Partnerships in Emergency Response
Published: April 3, 2009
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Carvedilol for Prevention of Paroxysmal Atrial Fibrillation
Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common sustained heart rhythm disorder and is associated with significant symptoms and health problems including an increased risk of stroke and death. Current drug therapies are often ineffective and associated with significant side effects. Abnormalities of calcium regulation in cells may lead to triggers for AF. Emerging data suggest that abnormal intracellular calcium regulation mediated through the ryanodine receptor in heart cells may contribute to AF. Recently the investigators have shown that the β-blocker carvedilol which is most commonly used to treat patients with heart failure, modifies calcium regulation mediated through the ryanodine receptor. At present this drug is not frequently used to treat AF. Therefore the investigators will conduct a randomized trial comparing carvedilol to metoprolol for prevention of paroxysmal AF. This may result in improved health and quality of life for people who suffer AF.
|Study Design:||Allocation: Randomized
Endpoint Classification: Efficacy Study
Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: Single Blind (Outcomes Assessor)
Primary Purpose: Treatment
|Official Title:||Carvedilol for Prevention of Paroxysmal Atrial Fibrillation|
- Event-free survival to first detected AF after the one month blanking period for dose titration [ Time Frame: 1 year ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]Time to first AF detected by event recorder transmission will be determined.
- Days in Detected AF [ Time Frame: 1 year ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]The number of days in which AF was detected by event recorder transmisions will be documented
- number of Emergency room visits/hospitalizations for cardiovascular causes [ Time Frame: 1 year ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]Subjects will be questioned via telephone interview or clinic visit every 3 months and appropriate hospital recorders retrieved for confirmation of event.
- Proportion of patients who develop persistent AF [ Time Frame: 1 year ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
- Days in symptomatic AF/Time between successive PAF episodes [ Time Frame: 1 year ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]The days in which patients report symptomatic AF confirmed by event recorder transmission will be determined and the time interval between successive events will be determined.
- AF Severity Scale [ Time Frame: 1 year ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]Measured via University of Toronto AF Severity Scale at baseline and at end of study or study exit
- Adverse effects of assigned therapy [ Time Frame: 1 year ] [ Designated as safety issue: Yes ]Adverse effects thought to be related to drug therapy will be documented as well as number of patients in whom drug is discontined because of adverse events.
- Ventricular rate during AF [ Time Frame: 1 year ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]Ventricular rate during AF will be measured from the event recorder tracings - from 10 sec of recording
- CCS AF Symptom Score [ Time Frame: 1 yr ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
This will be determined from interview at baseline and each follow-up visit. The CCS AF symptom score is a 5 point score from 0 to 4.
CCS-SAF Class Definitions
Class 0 Asymptomatic with respect to AF Class 1 Symptoms attributable to AF have minimal effect on patient's general QOL.
Class 2 Symptoms attributable to AF have a minor effect on patient's general QOL.
Class 3 Symptoms attributable to AF have a moderate effect on patient's general QOL.
Class 4 Symptoms attributable to AF have a severe effect on patient's general QOL.
|Study Start Date:||May 2012|
|Estimated Study Completion Date:||June 2017|
|Estimated Primary Completion Date:||June 2017 (Final data collection date for primary outcome measure)|
|Active Comparator: Metoprolol||
titrated to 50 mg po bid as tolerated over a 1 month period
Other Name: Lopressor
|Active Comparator: Carvedilol||
6.25 po bid titrated to 25 mg bid as tolerated over a 1 month period
Other Name: Coreg
The study population will consist of patients with electrocardiographically documented symptomatic paroxysmal AF (≥ 2 episodes of ≥ 15 min duration within a six month period) while on stable antiarrhythmic drug therapy. Patients will be excluded if they have AF due to a reversible cause, persistent AF, significant heart failure or a life expectancy of less than one year. Eligible patients will be randomized to carvedilol or metoprolol and followed for 13 months. Randomization will be stratified based on the AF management strategy (rate or rhythm control). Carvedilol and metoprolol will be initiated over a one month drug titration period to achieve doses of 25mg bid and 50 mg bid respectively. AF occurrence will be documented using event recorders. The co-primary outcome measures are survival free from AF after one month blanking period for drug titration and the number of days in AF detected during follow-up. Secondary outcomes include event free survival to first symptomatic episode of AF, days in symptomatic AF, time between first and second episodes of AF, proportion of patients who develop persistent AF, AF Severity Scale, CCS-AF symptom score, ventricular rate during AF, proportion of patients with discontinuation of the assigned therapy and number of emergency department visits or hospitalizations for cardiovascular causes. Adverse effects and need to discontinue carvedilol or metoprolol will be documented. This study will determine whether carvedilol is safe and effective for prevention of recurrent paroxysmal AF in a general population with AF. Data will be analyzed on an intention to treat basis. Three hundred patients will be recruited over 4 years. The sample size is based on an estimated 20% reduction in event free survival from AF (power 0.90, α = 0.05). Patients will be recruited from our AF clinic population which averages 50 new referrals per month and over 2500 referrals since it's' inception in 2005.
|University of Calgary|
|Calgary, Alberta, Canada, T2N 4Z6|
|Principal Investigator:||Anne M Gillis, M.D.||Professor of Medicine| | Carvedilol for Prevention of Paroxysmal Atrial Fibrillation
Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common sustained heart rhythm disorder and is associated with significant symptoms and health problems including an increased risk of stroke and death. Current drug therapies are often ineffective and associated with significant side effects. Abnormalities of calcium regulation in cells may lead to tri | {
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WA’s community housing providers are taking on an increasingly significant role in delivering affordable housing, which is a key initiative in the State Government’s Affordable Housing Strategy 2010-2020: Opening Doors to Affordable Housing.
Expanding the role of the sector is also a key reform arising from the National Affordable Housing Agreement, and jurisdictions across Australia have agreed to explore a nationally consistent regulatory system to support the sector’s growth.
This consultation paper proposes a number of options for the ongoing regulation of the sector and provides stakeholders with the opportunity to comment on the implications for them and put forward their preferred regulatory model.
The consultation period will run from 2 July 2012 – 31 August 2012. During this period, the Department will hold a number of information sessions and workshops and will contact affected stakeholders directly to invite them to engage in this process.
Additional text for the National Regulatory System for Community Housing page. To be placed after the existing text.
Draft evidence guidelines, tiers guidelines and enforcement guidelines supporting the operation of the National Regulatory System for the Community Housing Industry in Australia have been released for comment and can be downloaded here
Details of WA workshops to discuss the draft guidelines will soon be posted. | WA’s community housing providers are taking on an increasingly significant role in delivering affordable housing, which is a key initiative in the State Government’s Affordable Housing Strategy 2010-2020: Opening Doors to Affordable Housing.
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Subsets and Splits