There are many kinds of collisions that can take place, but some of the most common are motorcycle crashes caused by drivers pulling into the motorcyclists’ paths. Unfortunately, left-hand turns are a common cause of motorcycle crashes as other vehicles pull out and block the road.
Left turns are more dangerous than right-hand turns because drivers generally have to speed up, must move quickly across a larger area and require more physical and mental effort. Left-hand turns may also be problematic because of the vehicle’s A-pillar. The A-pillar, which is the beam that holds the roof and windshield in place, can obscure the driver’s vision, making a turn dangerous. Right-hand turns don’t usually have this same issue.
Left-hand turns are dangerous for motorcyclists because of two main reasons. First, drivers could fail to see them. When the drivers go to make the turn, they cross into the motorcyclist’s path and cause a collision. Second, drivers may think motorcyclists are traveling more slowly than they are, leading them to pull out when there isn’t time to do so. Though drivers may need to yield to oncoming traffic when making left-handed turns, that doesn’t always happen.
What should drivers do to minimize the risk of left-hand-turn-related collisions?
To minimize the risk of a crash while making a left-handed turn, drivers need to:
- Yield to the right of way of oncoming traffic
- Wait until they have more than enough time to maneuver across traffic lanes
- Wait to turn until there are no pedestrians, motorcyclists, bicyclists or other motorists in the path
With simple preventative techniques, it’s possible to prevent a serious collision. If an accident does happen, however, it’s wise to find out more about your legal right to compensation for your losses.


MONDAY, 7 JUNE 2010
With 2010 being the Year of Biodiversity, the question of how to measure the current state of biodiversity and monitor changes is particularly relevant. To understand how different sources contribute to our understanding of the range and occurrence of a species, a team of 18 researchers undertook a systematic review of the Galliformes, which includes turkeys, chickens, quails, partridges and pheasants. As a group, these birds have an unusually good historical record as they have been hunted for their meat and their feathers are decorative and have cultural importance.
The sources of information on these birds include museums, the published literature, ringing (capture and release), ornithological atlases and trip reports on websites. While museums and literature provide the most detailed information of when and where a species has been recorded, they are not without bias. Both museum and literature data shows clustering in areas that have been studied more intensively and recent literature is biased towards reporting endangered species, which means that changes in the biodiveristy of other species may go unnoticed.
Access to the biodiversity information is also an issue. This is where citizen science projects could come in useful. Initiatives such as the eBird project , allow users to report sightings of birds online making the data easily accessible. There are also attempts to highlight regions with few reports, to alleviate the geographical clustering problem and projects that record less 'charismatic' or popular organisms, such as freshwater sponges and lichens.
In line with their recommendations, the authors have published their study in the open access journal PLoS Biology .It is hoped that with the participation of citizens over the world, we can build up a comprehensive picture of how biodiversity changes over time and act together to tackle and reverse the environmental issues that face humans and other organisms on Earth.
Written by Wing Ying Chow


1979 Yukon Nuggets
The Dawson Flood of ‘79
In the spring of 1979, ice jams in the Yukon, Indian, and Klondike rivers caused the build-up of water to over-flow the make-shift sand-bag dykes on the riverfront in Dawson. Around midnight, in spite of efforts to shore up the dykes, the water poured over the banks, enveloping the town and causing extreme damage.
In the morning, as people paddled around town in canoes and small boats, the real extent of damage became clear. Houses floated off their foundations. The water smelled of diesel and sewage. Parks Canada artifacts bobbed down the streets. Trailers were turned upside down by the silty, ice-choked waters. Propane tanks littered the streets.
The waters subsided later in the day. A hole was cut in the dyke to let the waters return to the Yukon river. Then the cleanup began. Parks Canada had 20 properties in the flood plain. Some emerged intact while others floated off their foundations. Over $ 200,000 dollars in damage was recorded by Parks Canada alone.
A dozen homes were written off. Some priceless artifacts from both public and private collections disappeared forever. The Yukon government created a disaster assistance program, flying in over 20,000 pounds of food and equipment the day after the flood. About 270 damage claims were filed, totalling over 2 million dollars. It took most of the summer to restore the town to some semblance of order. But for Parks Canada, restoration projects lasted for years.
It wasn't the first flood in Dawson City's history. Since 1898, 22 floods were recorded, but the one in the spring of 1979 went down in history as one of the worst.
A CKRW Yukon Nugget by Les McLaughlin.


Hindi Compulsory In The Eight Northeastern States:
The Government of India provided that Hindi would be made compulsory up to Class 10 in the eight northeastern states.
- Hindi is described as “the language of India”.
- However, the move has been met with protests from various organisations in the Northeast.
- Also, several south Indian states have criticised the central government decision.
- Instead, these groups are supportive of three-language policy – English, Hindi and the local language.
- The state is protected by the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution and the Centre would not be able to impose Hindi on the students.
- Centre’s move will provide Hindi-speakers the economic, academic and administrative edge and let them control non-Hindi speaking regions of the country in the long run.
- In India most of the states have been formed on linguistic basis.
- Conflicts over identity, especially over languages tend to be escalated due to limited resources in India.
- The status of language has been a critical issue that has caused division of states in the past.
- Such states as Andhra Pradesh (1st state formed on linguistic basis), Punjab and Gujarat were created due to statehood demand on linguistic basis.
- Three-Language Formula was first proposed by Kothari Commision 1968. Under this scheme:
- First language: It will be the mother tongue or regional language.
- Second language: In Hindi speaking states, it will be other modern Indian languages or English. In non-Hindi speaking states, it will be Hindi or English.
- Third Language: In Hindi speaking states, it will be English or a modern Indian language. In the non-Hindi speaking state, it will be English or a modern Indian language.


Typically, wheat growers will keep back enough of their wheat seed to plant again, but also they may be looking to replace a variety in an effort to reduce seed-borne diseases and to improve genetics for various factors including but not limited to yield and disease prevention.
Each year, many county agents put out wheat variety demonstration plots and conduct field days to view and discuss the strengths and weaknesses of varieties and wheat production issues. Most demonstration plots are also harvested.
For further details of the cultural practices of the plot go to our web site at www.cottonwood.ksu.edu. This demonstration wheat plot should not be used solely for making your variety selection decisions, it is more for showing and talking about the varieties each year at the field day.
Instead, I would highly encourage growers to make your variety selection decisions based on the K-State Agricultural Experiment Stations replicated wheat performance tests. They are randomized replicated trials, meaning each variety is randomly planted in 4 different spots in the field, all seed is either foundation or registered. Replicated field trials will account for or smooth out the variability within a field, and thus are more accurate. These results from the Agricultural Experiment Stations can also be found on our website.
Yield should not be the only consideration in your selection, and multiple years of data should be considered. This plot was not harvested in 2019, therefore there is not a three-year average. Some other important considerations are stripe & leaf rust resistance, drought tolerance, winter hardiness, straw strength, shattering reputation, maturity and test weight. Each grower may differ some in what is most important to them and may add other considerations not mentioned.
A good resource is “Wheat Variety Disease and Insect Ratings” publication that is updated yearly. It will be posted on our website as well, click onto Crops and Livestock, and look under Hot Topics.
Many thanks to Great Bend Co-op, Ed Junior Farm and American Ag Credit; without their support we would not have had a plot this year.
Stacy Campbell is an Agriculture and Natural Resources agent for Cottonwood Extension District. Email him at email@example.com call the Hays office, 785-628-9430.


‘Offline’ Reading at home
Reading can be a great escape from what is happening around you. It’s your chance to explore stories, poetry and different ways to graphically record details you need to remember.
Parent tips for reading at home
- Set aside some time
- Find somewhere quiet without any distractions – turn off the TV/radio/computer.
- Ask your child to choose a book
- Sharing books they have chosen shows you care what they think and that their opinion matters.
- Sit close together
- Encourage your child to hold the book themselves and/or turn the pages.
- Point to the pictures
- If there are illustrations, relate them to something your child knows. Ask them to describe the characters or situation or what will happen next.
- Encourage them to tell you the story by looking at the pictures.
- Encourage your child to talk about the book
- Talking about the characters and their dilemmas helps children understand relationships and is an excellent way for you to get to know each other or discuss difficult issues. Give your child plenty of time to respond. Ask them what will happen next, how a character might be feeling or how the book makes them feel.
- And lastly, above all – make it fun
It doesn’t matter how you read with a child, as long as you both enjoy the time together. Don’t be afraid to use funny voices – children love this!
Links to support reading at home
App – Years 0-4
Completely free app with educational videos and activities for kids aged 2 to 7.
World Book Online
Online – All levels.
A fantastic library of ebooks available free until April 30th.


The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is beating the drum again: We're consuming too much sodium and it's a reason we have such high rates of hypertension and cardiovascular disease.
Not me, you say? Well, chances are, yes, you.
An analysis appearing in this week's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly report reveals that 89 percent of U.S. adults were consuming more than the recommended 2,300 milligrams of sodium a day in the years 2009-2012, according to National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey data, or NHANES.
On average, men between the ages of 19-51 consumed about 4,400 mg a day, while women were getting about 3,100 mg a day, according to the CDC report. The numbers were slightly lower for adults 51 and over. Some 90 percent of U.S. children of all ages also far exceeded the recommended daily amounts for their age groups. For example, boys and girls ages 9-13 consumed about 3,300 mg and 3,000 mg respectively, well above the 2,200 mg a day deemed healthful for them.
Here's what makes this problem so stubborn: Most of this sodium isn't coming from the salt shaker, which is more or less easy to regulate on an individual basis. The vast majority of the sodium we consume comes from processed foods we buy and meals we eat in restaurants. We may not realize, or have any way to find out, how much is really in there.


What is: A mound on Pamunkey Neck, described as the gravesite of Powhatan.
What was: Powhatan, was the leader of many Algonquian tribes and met on several occasions with Captain John Smith in 1607 in the earliest recorded meetings between a Native leader and the English. On one visit in 1609, the English forced Powhatan to bow so they could crown him as a ruler in Virginia.
He died around 1618, and the ceremony for the “taking up” of his bones was a signal for the uprising that initiated the Second Anglo-Powhatan War in 1622. Colonists did not know the details of Powhatan’s death or burial, so the written records do not document the location of his grave.
His bones may have been placed in a mat and kept in the Uttamusak temple complex, rather than interred in the ground. Whether or not Powhatan’s remains ended up on what is today the Pamunkey reservation, no one knows for sure. However, it highlights the association with the paramount chief and father of Pocahontas and gives the Pamunkey tribe special status today.
The railroad tracks running across the Powhatan mound were first laid in 1855, across 22 acres of the Pamunkey reservation, without permission from the Pamunkey and with no compensation to the Pamunkey for this unsolicited and unwanted use of their land.
In 1975 the Pamunkey began a suit against the Southern Railroad Company which in 1979 resulted in reparations of $100,000 being paid to the Pamunkey for the location of these tracks. The terms of their settlement also required that the railroad continue regular rent payments for use of that land in the future, and determined that if the railroad should at any point discontinue use of the tracks, the land will be returned to Pamunkey use.
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Sonification is the representation of any data or information through the sense of sound, as opposed to more conventional methods, such as plots, graphs, visual displays, etc. This particular project deals with the use of sound to represent medical imaging data, with a focus on supplementing existing diagnosis techniques for identifying Alzheimer’s disease.
Medical imaging data is stored in a standardized format called DICOM. The datasets that are handled in this project are three-dimensional scans of human brains that have been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, with varying levels of progression. These datasets are converted into easily readable (by humans and computers) text files utilizing MATLAB’s inbuilt functions to read DICOM files.
The Sonification Tool
The magic happens in the C++ tool that I developed named SoniScan++ (the MATLAB prototype was named SoniScan, and is shown below).
Here the user is presented with the option to “sonify” a dataset in a number of ways. Some of the sonification techniques are voxel(volumetric pixel)-to-note mappings. Here, each datapoint, or voxel, is assigned a note to play on a pre-determined scale, and the various properties of the voxel, namely its position and value, are mapped to different parameters of the note to be played, such as which instrument should play the note, or how long and loud the note should play. The result is musical piece of sorts.
Another sonification technique involves dividing the brain into its lobes, computing the average intensity of each region, and mapping that intensity to the frequency of a simple tone corresponding to that region. The result is a textural drone. The results of this technique seem to be quite promising for the improvement of consistency in diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease.
This research is funded by the Clinical and Translational Science Institute, NYU Langone Medical Center.


“I often wake up with a numb hand. I shake it, and the numbness goes away. Could this be a sign of something harmful?”
It might be. Numbness and tingling in the fingertips and hand at night are classic symptoms of nerve compression, which can occur anywhere from the neck down through the arm to the wrist.
Your sleep position could be putting pressure on your shoulder, arm or hand, which temporarily compresses nerves.
But many conditions, such as carpal tunnel syndrome or bone spurs (bony growths on the edge of a bone) in the neck, arm or hand, can cause nerve compression and result in numbness, tingling and pain.
Poor posture, repetitive hand movements such as typing, or an injury can also put pressure on nerves in the arm and/or hand.
If your numbness hasn’t gone away in a few weeks or seems to be getting worse, you should see your doctor. He/she will perform a physical exam and may give you a nerve conduction test, which uses electrodes to measure nerve functioning.
Depending on the cause, treatments include a splint to wear on your hand…physical therapy…medication to relieve pain and inflammation…and, in serious cases, surgery to relieve pressure on the affected nerve.
In some cases, numbness and tingling in the hands can indicate a more serious condition, such as multiple sclerosis or diabetes. In these instances, however, you are likely to have other symptoms, such as numbness and tingling in the feet.


- The Importance of Project Initiation
- The Purpose of the Project Charter
- The Timing and Importance of the Project Manager Assignment
- The Value of Project-Selection Methods
- Using Expert Judgment for Project Initiation
- Management by Objectives
- The Relationship to Planning Activities
- Project Selection Accounting Concepts
- Exam Prep Questions
- Need to Know More?
The Relationship to Planning Activities
Because many project managers have limited project initiation experience, and because many organizations have differing views on what project initiation entails, it is not always clear how project initiation relates to project planning. When you review the following list of common project management activities performed during the Initiating phase, you can understand why the line between these two major activities is not clear:
Determining business need
Collecting historical info
Determining project objectives and goals
Resolving conflicting high-level goals
Developing product descriptions
Determining process outputs
Identifying performance criteria
Determining resource requirements
Producing formal documentation
Finalizing and gaining approval of the project charter from stakeholders
In fact, there is considerable overlap in the sets of project management activities. The main point to remember is that many of the initiation activities are further refined during project planning, especially estimating, defining assumptions, and determining deliverables.
Generally, any planning activity performed during initiation is "high level" and on the order-of-magnitude scale. In other words, the estimates are often reflected on a power-of-10 scale (10, 100, 1,000, 10,000, and so on).


Dogs, just like humans, need physical activity and mental stimulation in order to be healthy. Sometimes we forget that our dogs want to contribute and feel useful too. It may appear that they are completely content being the couch potato of the house, but that’s simply not the case. Dogs need to be active, and when they’re not, their health can suffer. Take a look at Obie, the obese dachshund, for an extreme example:[highlight align=”left, right, center” style=”default, different”]In this video, Obie weighs in at a whopping 77 lbs! That’s a lot of dachshund if you ask me. Know how he got there? Obviously overeating but also consistent inactivity. And while Obie still might be cute, obesity can have a number of long-term effects on your dog’s health including risk of diabetes, respiratory problems, and arthritis. Obesity isn’t the only problem an inactive dog can face though.[/highlight]
Destructive Behavior[highlight align=”left, right, center” style=”default, different”]How many times have you come home only to find your trash all over the kitchen floor or a pair of your favorite shoes chewed up? This type of destructive behavior may be a sign that your dog is not getting enough exercise. Dogs are naturally investigative. When they don’t get regular opportunities to play and explore they may resort to things like chewing, digging, and scratching.[/highlight]
Hyperactivity[highlight align=”left, right, center” style=”default, different”]Does it seem like your dog is most awake when you are trying to sleep? Dogs need appropriate opportunities to release some of their energy. An overly hyperactive dog may be one that is lacking proper physical activity and mental stimulation.[/highlight]
Other Problems:[highlight align=”left, right, center” style=”default, different”]- Unruliness such as jumping or knocking things over
– Rough play or biting
– Excessive whining or barking[/highlight]
Regular physical and mental activity is crucial to your dog’s overall health. Don’t let your dog become an Obie! Check out our guide for quick and easy activities to keep your dog happy and healthy.


Accidents can happen anywhere. So the knowledge of first aid is necessary. There are two types of accidents, major and minor, and both can happen anywhere to anyone at any time. Accidents do not give prior notification or notice before occurring. One should be prepared to face accidents.
One way to prepare oneself for accidents is by learning first aid. Many classes give first aid training, Fremantle to people of all age groups. Learning first aid becomes crucial when minor accidents happen in the workplace. At home, we have our first aid kits ready at all times, but it is difficult to handle the first aid kit in our workplace.
So, people working in offices should have a working and correct knowledge of first aid. Many appliances and machines can harm the employees in the office, like a coffee machine. Even the simplest things like your chair or the staircase can harm you.
For major injuries, the patient must rush to the hospital. But for minor injuries and bruises, a first aider can help the injured. However, the first aider must have the proper knowledge of the art of giving first aid, which can be learned through first aid training, Fremantle.
A first aider has many duties which he/she has to carry out while giving first aid to the injured. Some of them are:
First aid is important and a piece of crucial knowledge. First aid can increase the chances of the injured’s survival. However, administering the wrong first aid will harm the injured even more.
To ensure that you get the proper first aid training in Perth, visit West Coast First Aid Training. They have years of experience teaching first aid and trained staff to teach you all the necessary and important points to keep in mind while administering first aid. Learn first aid and save a life.


- Are your classes full of children who are desperate to learn?
- Are the children always well organised?
- Can they all ignore distractions?
- Do they all do their best to avoid distracting others?
- Do they all display grit and a desire to learn – a mindset for successful learning?
Succeed at Secondary was written by an experienced teacher to encourage parents to work on learning attitudes. You will do your best to improve learning attitudes and you may become frustrated if you fail to do so. Working closely with parents on learning attitudes will improve learning and make your life easier.
The interaction between learning skills and learning attitudes is the key. Working with parents you can help to shape the ‘inner voice‘ of any child you teach. Influencing a child’s ‘inner voice’ is easier when you CONNECT. When parents and teachers work together, using the same language, children are more likely to listen.
The I.C.E. Approach is not a quick fix. It takes a lot of time and effort to change attitudes. However, you will be surprised at how much difference you can make with a slight change in focus. When home and school are working together on ‘being organised’ ‘going out of your comfort zone’ ‘concentration’ etc., real progress will be made.
Using Succeed at Secondary (book) and Succeed (workshops)
1. We can deliver the Succeed parent workshops in your school.
2. Alternatively you can simply request the FREE guidance material and deliver the workshops yourself.
3. Succeed at Secondary (book) is available to schools at a significant discount when 10+ are purchased.
Training on using the Identify – Connect – Explore (I.C.E.) Approach in school is available. Tutors working with children aged 11-13 can really make an impact on learning attitudes and behaviour using our I.C.E. Approach.
Secondary schools can use our approach to develop independent learning skills. Primary schools can build confidence and focus on learning attitudes before transition to secondary. All our training includes support on classroom management strategies. Please contact us to discuss your needs.


Reuse on water treatment plant outlet
Dunetec offers units for treating secondary water from Waste Water Treatment Plants (WWTP). Thanks to a suitable electro-oxidation process, the outlet water leaving the WWTP is completely neutralized (destruction of viruses, bacteria, spores) in order to be used for irrigation (according to the regulations in force).
As an example, in the situation of a city of 1000 inhabitants producing 80 m 3 of wastewater per day, the electrolysis system requires only a small technical area of 4 m² of floor space and a consumption of approximately 2 kW.
Eperimental multi-technological, connected and collaborative demonstration site placed in the territory of Saint-Jean-de-Cornies (Hérault, 34, south of France), the Rur’eaux project demonstrated the performance of electrolysis for wastewater. The site has been in operation since early 2019.
Measurement campaigns were carried out in the WWTP using planted reeds filters (PRF) from Saint Jean de Cornies. The results show the total efficiency of the electro-oxidation technology:
|NPP/0,1L en Log||Entrée STEP||Sortie FPR||Sortie electro oxydation|
|Escherischia Coli||7.7||4.8||Non décelable|
|Phages ARN-f||2.6||2.3||Non décelable|
To get more information:
You want to know more about the Rur’eaux comparative project: http://rureaux.fr/
You want to benefit from a Dunetec wastewater treatment plant water system, contact the design office at http://www.montpellier-engineering.com/fr/contact-fr/


Starting in the 1950s, the poultry industry has bred broiler chickens to grow bigger and faster. This rapid growth comes with a cost; industrial chickens grow so fast that their bones, heart, and lungs often can’t keep up.
Research from the RSPCA details that fast-growing birds are twice as likely to die due to ill health, four times more likely to suffer from sores to their legs from resting on the ground for too long due to inactivity, and 3.5 times more likely to suffer from moderate to severe lameness. The RSPCA concludes, “Slower growing birds are a better choice – better for the chicken and better for consumers.”
A comprehensive, two-year study conducted by the University of Guelph in partnership with Global Animal Partnership (GAP) confirms the RSPCA’s conclusion on breed; this study details how the breed of chicken is the most critical component for animal welfare.
"Our breed, the Pioneer, is selectively bred from heritage line chickens, growing slower than conventional birds, resulting in a robust chicken with better gut health,” states Matthew Wadiak, Cooks Venture CEO and founder. “This is the culmination of over 12 years of research with heritage lines, to breed a better chicken without the disorders associated with 90% of chicken in America while prioritizing health and flavor...”


does not shed
With a young dog, you can work out the command “Voice!”. This skill is very useful when working out methods of security training (for example, when a stranger is detected in a room or shelter or as a warning signal). Practicing exercises produce as long as the dog will not give voice in a variety of situations.
Representatives of more temperamental breeds who are accustomed to accompanying their actions with barking (for example, German, Scottish and Belgian shepherds, Dobermans, Airedale terriers, etc.), undoubtedly, are easier to train this team than “silent” (such as rottweilers and mastiffs). Continue reading
Performing the “Stand!” Command is necessary when the dog participates in competitions and exhibitions, and also practices during grooming, putting on special “ammunition” and veterinary examination.
The first way. Use two leashes, one of which is fastened to the jerk chain around the dog’s neck, and the other is belted by the dog’s “waist” in front of the hind limbs. Give the command “Near!” And walk along with the dog a few steps. Continue reading
Educational games and initial defense course exercises
If the puppy is contained in a large cage, often let him walk freely in the room. Remember that you can keep it locked up no more than 12 hours a day. Puppies need active movement and play. In the game version, the foundation of the relationship between the dog and the outside world is laid. The game is a way of learning life in the “pack-family.” Such socialization and the beginning of the acquisition of life experience are closely related to attachment. Continue reading


If you can explain what a Rational Number is to your K6 Student, so they can fully understand what it is, you will be arming them with success in many different areas of elementary mathematics.
Rational Number is the mathematical term for fractions. You have to make sure that your child is familiar with this term and that it is represented by the symbol Q.
It doesn't seem so rational that these numbers, also know as fractions would be represented by Q - but it is! The Q stands for Quotients, which stems directly from ratios, which are another form of fraction representation.
There is quite a lot of information your child is expected to know about fractions. This is why I put together an entire course for you to work through with your child.
This course has everything you need starting with what exactly fractions are all the way to converting fractions to decimals.
You will find all the material you need as a parent, including explanations, worked examples, manipulatives and the all important printable fraction worksheets for your child to get the practice in!
Click to start on the Rational Number Course.
Don't forget to explore all that Printable Math Worksheets has to offer.
You can send me a quick message, subscribe to K6Math Fun & Update, or join my Facebook Page - K6Math. Choose all the options so you don't miss any of the new material added to this site.


A study commissioned by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) claims the BP Deepwater Horizon spill on April 20, 2010 caused $17.2 billion in damage to the Gulf Coast’s natural resources.
The study’s results were published in Science Magazine on the seventh anniversary of the disaster.
According to Kevin Boyle, one of the study’s authors, the group surveyed people in order to determine how much they would be willing to pay to prevent a future occurrence of an oil spill; this number would essentially assign a value to the Gulf Coast’s resources.
The study interviewed a large random sample of American adults who were told about (i) the state of the Gulf before the 2010 accident; (ii) what caused the accident; (iii) injuries to Gulf natural resources due to the spill; (iv) a proposed program for preventing a similar accident in the future; and (v) how much their household would pay in extra taxes if the program were implemented.
The average surveyed participant said they would be willing to pay $153 for a prevention program to keep a spill from happening again. The sum total would would equal $17.2 billion, the researchers concluded.
The researchers explained their method was designed to address criticism of way damages are assessed after a disaster.
Although market transactions for privately owned assets provide information about how valuable they are to the people involved, the public services of natural assets are not exchanged on markets; thus, efforts to learn about people’s values involve either untestable assumptions about how other things people do relate to these services or empirical estimates based on responses to stated-preference surveys.
Valuation based on such surveys has been criticized because the respondents are not engaged in real transactions.
The blowout and resulting explosion on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico killed 11 workers and spilled approximately 4.9 million barrels (50,000-70,000 barrels per day) of oil into the Gulf Coast.
The incident is the largest oil spill in US history.
In July 2015, BP settled pollution claims with the federal government and the states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Texas and Florida. The company agreed to pay $18.7 billion in damages caused by the oil spill, the largest environmental penalty in US history.
Transocean, the owner of the rig, paid $1.4 billion to the federal government in 2013 for violations of the Clean Water Act.


Kahoot - Check students understanding and progress in lesson
Link to site: https://getkahoot.com/
As a teacher we are always thinking about different ways to check that our students are understanding what is being covered in class. With more and more students now having there own smart phone with them, this opens up new opportunities for them to use be used in constructive way during the lesson. That is a where Kahoot comes in, it is similar to Quizizz and Quizalize in that learner can respond to multi-choice or single answer quiz questions via their smart phone, to join the quiz all student need to do is to enter a simple code. This site you can simply create, a quiz, a discussion and a survey of a Jumble.using a very easy interface, students can then respond via their tablet or mobile phone by simply entering the a code. Having logged in,click create a quiz, you will them be asked to enter a title, a description, a cover image, an intro video and credit any resources used. You can then start adding in your questions, add question text, set a time limit, an image or video related to the question and either a single answer or multi-choice answers.
A summary of results can them be seen by the tutor. There are also lots of existing public quizzes on a range of subjects that you can search and use.
Here is my video guide on how to use it.


Preparing Your Child For Professional Music Instruction
Posted on: 10 August 2022
If your child has indicated they would like to learn how to play an instrument, and you do not have the knowledge to teach them the fundamentals of music instruction, you have likely thought about signing your offspring up for lessons with a professional.
Here are some preparatory steps to take to ensure your child gets the most from the sessions ahead.
Be Sure About The Instrument To Be Learned
There are several instruments that provide hours of enjoyment musically. Before you sign up your child for lessons, be completely at peace with the instrument that has been selected to learn to play. Many instruments are similar when it comes to the fundamentals learned and the processes needed to make music. Starting with an easier instrument can pave the way toward learning a harder one down the line. For example, if your child wishes to learn to play a brass instrument, it may be better to learn on a trumpet rather than a trombone because of its bulkiness. Instead of opting to learn the organ which has several tiers of keyboards, have your child learn how to play the piano first.
Be Prepared To Be Diligent About Practice Time
When learning to play a new instrument, there is a need for constant practice if your child wishes to be successful with mastering their playtime. Set aside time each day where your child focuses on their instrument and practices the information presented to them at music lessons. If your child does not wish to spend their time with their instrument, they will not learn to play it as well as they could. The lessons provided to them during their classes would need to be reviewed several times rather than allowing your child to advance to the next level of instrumental play.
Visit The Teacher Before Lessons Are To Begin
To aid in having your child feel comfortable with playing an instrument in front of their instructor, it is important that they have a positive connection with this person. If your child has fear or anxiety about playing for a particular person because of their disposition, it will be difficult for them to advance properly. Set up a time to meet with the instructor before sessions begin. This provides your child with a chance to familiarize themselves with the way the instructor talks and helps to give them a sense of calmness about taking lessons from them in the future.
To find out more, contact a company like Cary School of Music.Share


Today (May 5th) is Red Dress Day, a day honouring the lives of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA (Two-spirit, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Questioning, Intersex and Asexual) people.
The REDress Project was created by Jaime Black, a multidisciplinary artist of mixed Anishinaabe and European descent. It is an art installation that draws attention to and creates space for dialogue around violence against Indigenous women and girls.
The dresses act as spectral reminders of both their absence through acts of violence and also the powerful presence of Indigenous women and girls in shaping a way forward for future generations. The dresses call on the public to confront the dangerous reality faced by Indigenous women and girls across the globe and remind us of our collective responsibility to create safe, thriving communities.
As Jamie Black explains, “Through the installation I hope to draw attention to the gendered and racialized nature of violent crimes against Indigenous women and to evoke a presence through the marking of absence.”
Black’s art practice engages in themes of memory, identity, place and resistance and is grounded in an understanding of the body and the land as sources of historical and cultural knowledge.
Learn more about Jaime Black’s REDress project on her website.


Diesel from wasteflows and other alternatives to fossil fuels
1. Renewable diesel, made from biomasses and waste flows, produces up to 90% less greenhouse gas emissions than normal diesel. It is an excellent fuel, and can be used as is in diesel-powered vehicles.
2. Biogas is an alternative to natural gas, both in heat and electricity production and as a fuel for vehicles. Hydrogen, which can be produced from water using renewable energy, could potentially be added to biogas to further improve its properties.
3. Synthetic fuels, such as methanol, could be produced with renewable energy for wide use in maritime transport, renewable energy storage, and road transport. Synthetic fuels may be on the market within ten years.
4. A more environmentally friendly aviation fuel, biokerosene, is already being produced, though it’s more expensive than crude oil-based kerosene. Large-scale production of biokerosene requires more demand ― and consumers will need to get used to higher prices for air travel.
5. Maritime transport is a large source of greenhouse gas emissions. A bio-oil, produced from various raw materials and other materials such as forest industry by-products, is currently under development and, potentially, could be further refined to produce an economical fuel for maritime transport.
Martti Larmi, Professor of Energy Technology
From clean energy to personalized medicine – a book about the power of the university
The Aalto Effect is a tribute to the ambitious and uncompromising work of dozens of researchers.


The harvesting energy with electrostrictive polymers has great potential for remote applications such as invivo sensors, embedded micro-electro- mechanical systems devices, and distributed network instruments. A majority of current research activities in this field refers to classical piezoelectric ceramics, but electrostrictive polymers offer promise of energy harvesting with few moving parts; power can be produced by simply stretching and contracting a relatively low-cost rubbery material. The use of such polymers for energy harvesting is a growing field, which has great potential from an energy density viewpoint. The output power is inversely proportional to the harvesters frequency bandwidth. Consequently, it is much harder to efficiently harvest power from low-frequency sources with a large frequency band response and with a very small system size than from a stabilized high-frequency vibration source. This paper presents a new structure that is able to predict mechanical frequency excitation in order to increase power-harvesting capabilities of electrostrictive polymers. An equivalent structure scheme has been developed by using current and electrical schemes models. With a transverse strain of 0.5% and a bias field of 10 V/μm, such a process rendered it possible to increase the converted power by 80% with a low-frequency mechanical excitation. This study contributes to provide a framework for developing an innovative energy-harvesting technology that collects vibrations from the environment and converts them into electricity to power a variety of sensors.
|Journal||Journal of Applied Physics|
|Publication status||Published - 2012 Sept 1|
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Physics and Astronomy(all)


Thankfully, many parents have gotten the message that fast food fare for kids is often unhealthy – providing far more calories, bad fat, and salt than kids should get, while skimping on the nutrients they need to grow strong, vibrant minds and bodies.
But the kids’ meals at popular sit-down family restaurants are often even worse, according to a study by the Center for Science in the Public Interest published in the March 2004 issue of the Nutrition Action Healthletter.
Senator Tom Harkin from Iowa introduced legislation on February 24, 2004 to require large restaurant chains to list nutrition info on the menu. This is important for children’s menus!
The same item at different restaurants can have a very different impact. For instance, the CSPI study found that macaroni and cheese at Cracker Barrel has almost three times the bad fat of Chili’s macaroni and cheese – but Chili’s chicken fingers have three times the calories of Cracker Barrel’s chicken fingers.
Parents deserve information like this to help their families make wise food choices. And kids deserve tasty, healthy options on their menus. And they deserve healthy side dishes (yogurt, fresh fruit, applesauce) instead of fries, fries, and more fries.


The Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture (PACT) Act expands on a 2010 law protecting animals subjected to “crush videos,” where small animals are seen crushed to death by faceless women in high heels. Animal rights activists criticized the 2010 law for failing to criminalize the acts of animal cruelty depicted in the videos, rather than just the videos themselves.
The PACT Act passed Congress unanimously and President Trump signed it into law on Monday. It goes further than the 2010 law by directly banning animal cruelty, including crushing, drowning, suffocating, sexually exploiting, stabbing, or burning animals. Violators can be punished with fines, felony charges, and up to seven years in prison.
Until now, the treatment of animals has largely been regulated at the state level. Previously, the Animal Welfare Act, passed in 1966, was the only federal law on the books regulating the treatment of animals and it only set a minimum standard.
The PACT Act doesn’t apply to industries long targeted by animal rights activists, including meat production and scientific research. Still, activists have said the act is a victory for animal rights because it increases the likelihood that abuse would be punished by allowing federal law enforcement to get involved.


Founded by the late Imam Khomeini, it is an event that symbolizes the undying spirit to eradicate injustice around the world. In August 1979, the year of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini declared:
“I invite Muslims all over the globe to consecrate the last Friday of the holy month of Ramadan as Al-Quds Day and to proclaim the international solidarity of Muslims in support of the legitimate rights of the Muslim people of Palestine. For many years, I have been notifying the Muslims of the danger posed by the usurper Israel which today has intensified its savage attacks against the Palestinian brothers and sisters, and which, in the south of Lebanon in particular, is continually bombing Palestinian homes in the hope of crushing the Palestinian struggle. I ask all the Muslims of the world and the Muslim governments to join together to sever the hand of this usurper and its supporters. I call on all the Muslims of the world to select as Al-Quds Day the last Friday in the holy month of Ramadan – which is itself a determining period and can also be the determiner of the Palestinian people’s fate – and through a ceremony demonstrating the solidarity of Muslims world-wide, announce their support for the legitimate rights of the Muslim people. I ask God Almighty for the victory of the Muslims over the infidels.”
Following on from this tradition, and as with every year, this Ramadan thousands of people will be marching in London on Saturday 4th September 2010 from Marble Arch to the US Embassy in solidarity with the people of Palestine.
For more information and details please visit Islamic Human Rights Comission website.


The wolverine is a member of the weasel family (Mustelidae), which includes animals such as ermines, mink, ferrets, and marten. The wolverine resembles a small, squat, broad bear with a bushy tail. The mammal is noted for its strength, cunning, fearlessness, and voracity. Its scientific name is Gulo gulo.
The wolverine lives in cold northern areas, especially in timbered places, around the world. Its head and body is generally 26–36 inches (65–90 centimeters) long, with a 5–10-inch (13–26-centimeter) tail. The animal weighs 20–66 pounds (9–30 kilograms). The wolverine has short, somewhat bowed, legs; long, sharp claws; and strong teeth. The fur is coarse, long, and blackish-brown, with a light brown stripe extending from each side of the neck along the body to the base of the tail. The animal has anal glands that secrete an unpleasant-smelling fluid.
Wolverines are solitary night hunters, preying on all types of game and not hesitating to attack sheep, deer, or small bears. Wolverines are also skilled scavengers, and thus a large portion of their diet comes from scavenging the carcasses of elk, caribou, and other animals. Wolverines have no natural predators besides humans. People value the animal’s fur as trimming for parkas because frost and frozen breath can easily be brushed off the smooth hairs. The wolverine has a short courtship in February or March. A litter contains one to five young; the female’s gestation period is about nine months.
Wolverines appear to be dependent on areas of deep snowpack. Scientists studying North American wolverines have observed significant population declines in regions experiencing sharp decreases in snowpack. It is thought that harsh winters with deep snow provide more opportunities for wolverines to obtain food. Carcasses of deer, elk, and other animals with hooves are more plentiful in such conditions. Likewise, rodents—a frequent prey of wolverines found tunneling underneath deep snow—are more abundant than in snow-free conditions.


Ethiopia is experiencing food insecurity and malnutrition, population pressure as well as effects of climate change. All these are indicators of need for new approaches such as production of nutrient rich root and tuber crops for instance potato and orange sweetpotato (OFSP) to avert over reliance on grains. This presentation reports International Potato Center (CIP) project aimed towards improving nutrition and food security among poor and vulnerable Ethiopians through consumption of micronutrient rich SP and potato. Some of the approaches adopted for promotion of OFSP include Institutional capacity building, demand creating, growing OFSP in school gardens for feeding and technology dissemination for products development including market support. Despite the success link to these approaches some constraints to OFSP are also listed such include long dry season, low access to good quality vines among others.
Authors: Haile Tesfay, Haile Tesfay
Contributors: Haile Tesfay, Haile Tesfay
Subjects: dissemination, awareness creation
Publisher: International Potato Center
Publication Date: October 1, 2015
Keywords: Awareness creation, Diet diversifiication, OFSP dissemination, School feeding
HOW TO CITE
Kwikiriza, N., Jogo, W., Okello, J.J., Tesfay, H. and Asfaw, F. 2015. Scaling out sweetpotato and potato-led interventions to improve nutrition and food security in Tigray and SNNPR, Ethiopia. International Potato Center (CIP).


…A key empirical question in the inequality debate is to what extent rich people derive their wealth from “rents”, which is windfall income they did not produce, as opposed to activities creating true economic benefit.
Economists define “rent” as the difference between what people are paid and what they would have to be paid to do the work anyway. The classical example is the farmer who owns particularly fertile land. With the same effort, she can produce more than other farmers working on land of average productivity. The extra income she gets is a rent. Monopolists also get rent by overcharging customers as compared to what they could charge in competitive markets. …
Data limitations do not allow us to compute rents anywhere close to accurately. But if I had to give a single number to settle the debate, it is this: when it comes to the very richest Americans (Forbes’ billionaires), 74% of their wealth is derived from rents.
This finding has important moral, economic, and policy implications. To the extent that it is driven by rents as opposed to productive activities, the extreme concentration of wealth we observe is not fair according to a meritocratic conception of social justice. Moreover, because rents do not compensate productive activities, redistributing them through taxes or regulation does not harm the economy, and could even boost economic growth. As wealth inequality has become so extreme, even modest redistribution could have significant positive impact for the poor and the middle class.
They Don’t Just Hide Their Money. Economist Says Most of Billionaire Wealth is Unearned. – Evonomics
Inequality By Didier Jacobs The concentration of wealth from rent-seeking The 62 richest people in the world own as much wealth as half of humanity. Such extreme wealth conjures images of both fat cats and deserving entrepreneurs. So where did so much money come from?


City of Washburn East Third Street Residential Historic District Now a Reality!
The City of Washburn East Third Street Historic District is now in the National and State Register of Historic Places. The residential neighborhood includes 32 structures that encompass a variety of architectural styles. More importantly, the district captures the unique personality of Washburn. The concentration of single-family homes and duplexes have remained intact since many were built between 1915 through 1920 by the DuPont Corporation to house employees. Known locally as “DuPont Row,” the historic district becomes one of 84 nationally recognized districts in the State of Wisconsin.
The mature neighborhood’s oldest architectural style is Queen Anne. But the mixture of styles, including American Carftsmen, Dutch Colonial Revival, American Foursquare, Bungalow, Prairie School and Colonial Revival, is what gives the new historic district its character. An impressive collection of Bungalow single-family houses and duplexes is the most dominant style of architecture within the district.
The process began in August of 2008, when the City of Washburn’s Historic Preservation Commission undertook a survey of historically and architecturally significant resources. This initial study identified 147 different structures within the City that had potential historic importance. A second, more intensive survey was completed in July of 2009. In addition to creating a comprehensive database of information about Washburn’s historic resources, the survey identified specific buildings that were potentially eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places in America. The East Third Street Historic District was one such location. A grant from the State Historical Society of Wisconsin funded the nomination of the district in October of 2012.
According to the National Trust for Historic Preservation, historic districts bring economic value to a city. Historic districts typically have higher home values and promote a sense of community. They also can attract stable businesses, promote tourism, and bring more tax dollars into a community as well, allowing for greater public investment in infrastructure and services.


Traditional baby monitors are divided into wireless baby monitors and direct-recording baby monitors according to their working principles and applications. Compared with network baby monitors, they are both in terms of working method, use distance and product structure. There are obvious differences.
Wireless baby monitor (wireless baby monitor): usually composed of a control terminal with one or more monitoring terminals, the monitoring terminal sends the captured signal to the control terminal in the form of encrypted wireless electromagnetic waves, and is decrypted and restored by the control terminal. Image and sound. The wireless baby monitor is restricted by radio wave transmission attenuation and interference factors, so the theoretical use distance is about 100-250 meters.
Direct recording baby monitor (recording baby monitor): There is only one host, and the user cannot see and hear the images and sounds captured by the baby monitor during work. The monitor must be connected to the computer and read and monitored by installing software The files recorded inside the device. The direct recording baby monitor is limited by the focal length of the camera, and the theoretical operating distance is 3-5 meters.
IP baby monitor (IP baby monitor): There is only one host. When working, users can observe the images and sounds that are remotely shot and sent by the IP baby monitor through mobile phones or computers at any place that can access the Internet. The working transmission range of the network-type baby monitor is not restricted by distance, but the focal length of the camera must be considered to ensure that the captured images and sounds are clear.


Status and distribution Main range extends from southern Sweden, Denmark and Germany to the Black Sea and east to the Urals. Also breeds widely in Iberia, at scattered sites in western & southern France, Italy and Sicily, the southern Balkans, north Greece and Crete and in Turkey and the Caucasus. Breeding recently confirmed for the first time in Finland.
Mediterranean and Caucasus populations mainly resident, more northerly birds are migratory. Winter range more extensive in southern Iberia and Greece, and also in the Near East. Has declined in some southern parts of range but appears to be expanding in the north.
Vagrants recorded in Britain, Malta (increasingly recorded in winter), Cyprus (may have bred), Canary Is and Morocco. British records (c.150) are increasing since the first in the 1960s. Most often occurs in eastern and southern England in spring or frequently in autumn-winter, sometimes staying for long periods. Many records have involved two or three birds and it is likely that breeding will be attempted in Britain in the near future.
Subspecies Nominate pendulinus occurs over most of European range replaced by caspius in the western Caspian region which has much more extensive chestnut on the head. Race menzbieri from Turkey and Transcaucasia resembles nominate but is generally paler and has reduced chestnut band on forehead. In the far east of the region in southern Kazakstan the race macronyx occurs with all black head and coronatus from Central Asia with whitish head has occurred as a vagrant in Austria. The races macronyx and coronatus belong to two different groups of subspecies which may overlap range of the pendulinus group without interbreeding. If so, the Penduline Tit should perhaps be split into 3 species.
Habitat Reedbeds on fresh or brackish water, often with scrub and other plants intermixed. Also in trees, hedges and bushes close to or overhanging water. May be seen away from water on passage.


National debt a new kind of slavery for poor nations
On Saturday, finance ministers from the seven wealthiest countries, known as the G-7, will meet in London to consider 100 percent debt cancellation for about 40 of the world's poorest countries, the majority of which are in Africa.
Your editorial on Jan. 23 "Hope for the world's poor" was right on target in describing the extreme poverty of so much of the world and suggesting that aid would yield benefits to both "poor and rich nations, because improved living conditions contribute to global stability."
Sudden huge disasters, such as the recent tsunamis, trigger a massive outpouring of sympathy and aid, yet we pay little or no attention to the ongoing misery described by Nicholas Kristof in his op-ed piece on Jan. 9, in which he notes that every month, more people will die of malaria (165,000) and AIDS (240,000) than died in the tsunamis.
Especially in Africa, the massive debt burden is the single biggest obstacle to development and the fight against HIV/AIDS. The All-African Conference of Churches has called this debt "a new form of slavery, as vicious as the slave trade." Most of these debts were contracted by undemocratic, oppressive governments, the funds often siphoned off by corruption, and the principle paid many times over. Now, after many years of pressure by organizations like Jubilee USA, 100 percent debt cancellation for some of these countries is on the agenda at the upcoming G-7 meeting.
Hopefully, the U.S. negotiator, Treasury Secretary John Snow, will act for justice and ensure debt cancellation for 40 countries by the two largest creditors -- the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. As citizens, we can still urge our government to reach such an agreement among the G-7 nations; it is the moral and prudent thing to do.


AVI is a video file format developed by Microsoft. The Video for Windows package, within the framework of which the AVI format appeared, was developed by this company in November 1992. It was intended for the operating system Windows 3.1. Since then, for a quarter of a century, the AVI format has remained the main one for storing video files in all versions of Windows operating systems. The name of the format is an abbreviation of the full name Audio Video Interleave File. The format is used to store video data encrypted using a variety of codecs. AVI files, as a rule, use much less compression in comparison with similar formats.
MPEG is a special standard for compressing audio files and video files into a different format, which is most convenient for downloading or forwarding, say, over a global network. The specified standard was developed by the Moving Picture Experts Group. It was created by the international organization ISO just in order to develop a standard for the compression and transmission of digital video and audio data. The official designation for this group is ISO / IEC JTC1 / SC29 WG11. The first time she met in Ottawa in May 1988. By 2005, up to 350 people became participants in the meetings. MPEG, that is, Moving Picture Experts Group, consists of 3 components: Audio, Video, System (combining and synchronizing the other two). There are different MPEG standards, which are also called phases: MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-3, MPEG-4, MPEG-7. According to the MPEG-1 standard, for example, streams of video and audio data are sent at a speed of 150 kilobytes per second. The speed of a single-speed CD-ROM player is similar. Streams are managed by sampling key video frames and filling in areas that change between frames. This standard ensures the quality of the video image is significantly lower compared to the video that is transmitted on the television standard.


By: Don Drysdale
A project that can trace its history to 18th century Spanish explorers and involved the use of drone technology is unfolding in the southeastern California desert.
The Bureau of Land Management and California Department of Conservation’s Division of Mine Reclamation (DMR) are working to eliminate 65 hazardous legacy mine shafts and openings to ensure public safety while also preserving wildlife habitat. The remediation work includes backfilling shallow shafts and installing metal gates and coverings that allow bats to enter and exit mines while keeping people out. The project should be complete in early April. A drone was used to help document the mine features that needed to be addressed.
The mines are in the Cargo Muchacho Mountains, about a 3-hour drive east of San Diego. Mining has occurred in the area since the Spanish prospected in the 1780s. Large scale mining began in the 1880s and has continued sporadically until recent times.
Although the setting is a bit out of the way, it receives significant seasonal visitation from “snowbirds” (winter RV campers), hikers, recreational miners, and the like. The mines can represent a danger to the public; for example, in 2006 two men were injured when they drove their vehicle into a vertical mine shaft.
DMR’s Abandoned Mine Lands Unit reminds all Californians to “stay out and stay alive!”
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#2018 #Teacher #ScienceTeacher #iteachmiddle #edtech #blendedlearning #schoology #respectagreement
The 2018 calendar year has begun and I will be seeing my rambunctious 7th graders again very soon! For the first day back, I decided to hold off on starting my lesson to have a ‘Welcome Back; Let’s review classroom procedures’ type of day.
First, we will…
My students and I will be creating a respect agreement by submitting words to a poll I set up with http://www.PollEverywhere.com. The poll asks students, “What is a word or short phrase that relates to or defines respect?’
The words are gathered and create a ‘Word Cloud’. My plan is to then use my Cricut to cut out words and put them on a white board for the students to sign (update coming eventually). The point is that, as a class, we are coming together and defining and agreeing on how we will treat each other in class, by showing respect.
Login to Schoology and take a ‘personality quiz’ students answer questions to determine their personality ‘color’. Submit color through Schoology assessment. Knowing about a students personality can help me get to know them better and assist when assigning students to groups.
Students will take a Back to Class Quiz on Schoology. The questions will include things like,
When is the best time to use the restroom?
A. Between classes
B. In the middle of a lesson
C. The first 10 or last 10 minutes of class (10/10 Rule)
What is the best way to get Ms. Bedner’s attention?
A. Saying ‘Ms. Bedner’ repeatedly
B. By creeping up behind her when she’s talking to another student
C. Raising your hand
D. Asking when she’s in the middle of talking to the class
Just a silly quiz to remind my students of my rules and procedures. Can be used to replace/ drop a daily grade.
Random Thought of the Moment: Instead of turning in lesson plans, can my principal just read my blog?


If you travel often, you’ve most likely read about the increased risk of Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT) during air travel. Just what is DVT, and how can you prevent it?
A DVT is clotting of the blood in a deep vein, most often in the calves. Sometimes these clots break free and lodge in the arteries of the lung, causing what is called a Pulmonary Embolism (PE). PE can be life threatening.
You need to see a doctor if you develop signs of DVT. Possible signs of a DVT are pain, tenderness or swelling in the leg, skin warm to the touch and discoloration or visibly large veins. About 50 percent of people will only develop minimal signs of a DVT or show no signs at all.
Signs of a PE include shortness of breath, dizziness or fainting, increased sweating or anxiety, sharp chest pain, rapid pulse and coughing up blood. Any of these signs are cause to seek immediate medical care.
The correlation between air travel and DVT is due to immobility during the flight. Immobility is a risk factor of DVT, as well as injuries, inherited clotting disorders, infections and inflammatory diseases, oral contraceptives, pregnancy, cancer, smoking and obesity. Most persons who get a DVT are older than 60, but it can happen in young travelers, as well.
Here are some tips to help prevent a DVT while traveling: Stay well hydrated, avoiding alcohol and drinking plenty of water. Elevate your feet as much as possible on the plane, and walk a bit before the flight, as well as during it. Wear non-restrictive clothing and perform seat exercises and stretches. For info on exact exercises, check out www.dvt.net.


The research of entomologist, Dr. Doug Tallamy, and his team at the University of Delaware have identified 14% of native plants (the keystones) support 90% of butterfly and moth lepidoptera species. The research of horticulturist Jarrod Fowler has shown that 15% to 60% of North American native bee species are pollen specialists who only eat pollen from 40% of native plants.
The above information is from The National Wildlife Federation (NWF) website. Read the entire article here.
Kalamazoo is in the Eastern Temperate Forests EcoRegion. Here are the best of the Keystone plants for our region:
- Trees: The White Oak and the Black Oak support 436 Caterpillar Species and is the most important host tree for our region.
- Shrubs: The Northern highbrush Blueberry, Black highbrush blueberry and the Hillside blueberry support 217 caterpillar species and 14 Pollen Specialist Bee species.
- Flowering Perennials: The Stiff leaf goldenrod and the Atlantic Goldenrod support 104 caterpillar species and 42 Pollen Specialist Bee species. While the woodland sunflower supports the most Pollen Specialist Bee species at 50.
Click here for the NWF table showing the full list of Keystone Native Plants for our EcoRegion.


|A safe design that facilitates “eyes on the street”|
The level of neighborhood safety can positively or negatively impact the health and social well-being of our neighborhoods. Current research suggests:
- An association between crime or the fear of crime and lower levels of physical activity especially among women, children and the elderly
- A lack of neighborhood safety discourages adults and children from walking or biking to destinations, children from playing outdoors and from using parks and other recreational facilities and, therefore, can negatively impact the health of a community or neighborhood
- Children living in unsafe neighborhoods or those characterized by poor housing had a 30-60% higher likelihood of being obese or overweight than those living in better conditions
Aspects of the physical environment can encourage or discourage street crime. Physical features, layout, circulation patterns, the design of buildings and neighborhoods and amenities such as good lighting, trees, benches and other aesthetic qualities can impact crime prevention, neighborhood deterioration and residents’ fear of crime.
Designing to facilitate “eyes on the street”, buildings that have windows, doors and porches overlooking streets, parks and community open spaces, make for safer neighborhoods. Also, access to effective protective and emergency services encourage more people to frequent an area and can foster a sense of community and neighborhood safety.
In one study people who classified their neighborhood as “not at all safe” were three times more likely to be physically inactive during leisure time than those who considered their neighborhood to be “extremely safe”. The Winston-Salem Police Department Strategic Plan identifies among its priorities improving the quality of life and reducing conditions that foster crime and fear of crime. This includes a focus on parks, schools and other public areas. The Department is also working to improve community trust, interaction, involvement and accountability.
The Center for Community Safety at Winston-Salem State University focuses on the utilization of research to enhance response to community safety issues. It partners with the Winston-Salem Police Department and community groups on a number of projects and initiatives aimed at making the community and its neighborhoods safer such as the Weed and Seed Initiative, Project Safe Neighborhoods and Smart Policing Initiatives.
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Lesson 15 Design Your Own Robot
Let’s use perimeter and area to design robots.
Warm-up What Do You Know About …?
What do you know about area and perimeter?
Activity 1 Create Your Own Robot
Create your own robot with these specifications. Explain or show your work so it is clear your robot meets the required specifications.
Each body part must be a rectangle.
Head: perimeter of 36 units
Neck: perimeter of 8 units
Body: perimeter of 64 units
Each arm: perimeter of 24 units
Each leg: perimeter of 32 units
Include one more rectangular feature of your choice on your robot.
Find the area of each of your robot’s body parts.
Find the total area of your robot.
Gallery Walk: As you visit the robots with your partner, discuss the different areas that can be created with rectangles that have the same perimeter.
The body of your robot has a perimeter of 64 units. What were some different lengths and widths you could choose that fit on the grid?
The head has a perimeter of 36 units. What were some different lengths and widths you could choose for the head that fit on the grid?


The increased demand for transportation (by cars and rails), especially in urban areas, has significant implications in terms of increased vibration, causing:
- structural damage to buildings and cultural heritage;
- increased noises and relative lowering of the quality of life in the living environment.
To address the problem, a group of researchers from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering who developed Phononic Vibes: a new technology able to limit the propagation of vibrations, both elastic and acoustic, generated by traffic, machinery and industrial plants.
“The effectiveness of Phononic Vibes is obtained thanks to specific periodic structures capable of controlling the propagation of waves, guaranteeing a three-dimensional isolation“, says Luca D’Alessandro, one of the inventors of the two patents that protect the technology.
The periodic structures are made of materials commonly used in civil and mechanical engineering fields, such as steel and concrete, and organized in modules that can be placed side by side to create insulating barriers. These structures find an effective application in civil and industrial contexts. Examples of application are the control of vibrations originating from urban and interurban rail traffic, industrial machinery and construction sites.
Alternatively, the module device can be made of other materials (eg. plastic), and in different sizes, to be adapted also in other contexts.
The advantage of Phononic Vibes is both from a technical and an economic point of view: the proposed solution allows a higher reduction of vibrations if compared with the technologies currently available on the market at a lower cost.


Ordinary test equipment using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method takes at least a few hours to detect a specific DNA strain type. The highly-accurate test technique also requires bulky testing equipment because the test specimens repeatedly need to be heated to temperatures between 60 and 95 degrees Celsius (140 and 203 degrees Fahrenheit).
Quick test kits that provide COVID-19 test results in 15 minutes were introduced to South Korea in 2020 when the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic hit the country but the test kits were only about 50 percent accurate when they were used by professional medical personnel, according to a medical survey of 5,792 COVID-19 patients, conducted by South Korea's Joongang University Medical School in 2022.
The Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) said that its research team used a photothermal nanomaterial to reduce the time taken for a PCR test to five minutes. Because the newly-developed technique does not need large thermal plates for heating test samples, the testing device can be made into a portable size. Researchers plan to commercialize the device in 2023.
According to KIST, the photothermal nanomaterial used in the new PCR test device creates heat when shone with light. The researchers used a high-polymer composite to physically hold the nanomaterial together. The technique is capable of detecting multiple microparticles through a single test, meaning that different variants of COVID-19 viruses can be screened.
"Through additional research, we plan to miniaturize the PCR technique and develop devices that can be used anywhere," KIST researcher Kim Sang-kyung said in a statement on January 5. Kim added that the device will be commercialized to be used at small hospitals by general practitioners, pharmacies, and homes.
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CBI has helped promote partnerships between housing agencies and school systems.
Children from low-income families face many barriers to success in school, from limited early reading opportunities to unsafe neighborhoods to eviction. Nearly one million of these children live in publicly supported housing. Along with housing stability, public housing agencies can provide place-based services to students and their families. They can also work with school systems to improve attendance, learning, and graduation rates, and to co-locate housing and schools. Yet across the country, partnerships between housing agencies and school systems are rare. Systematic experiments in cross-system coordination are just beginning.
To promote deeper understanding, and to catalyze the formation of more partnerships in large cities, the Council of Large Public Housing Agencies (CLPHA) and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation convened a series of national summits on Housing and Education. CBI was enlisted to design and facilitate the summits. The summits were designed to maximize opportunities for participants from housing agencies and school districts to learn from existing partnerships; to understand key legal, programmatic, and partnership-building issues; and to lay the groundwork for building successful partnerships in their own cities. CBI’s approach to the two-day summits included:
The summits have more than doubled the number of participating housing and education partners. They have also educated policymakers on supporting partnerships and have created ongoing communities of practice at the national and regional levels. Successful partners are now working with children and families to broaden and deepen their impact, and to share what they learn with others. Across the country, more families are benefiting from effective integration of housing and educational support.


The Marvelous Mastiff
A dog characterized by its oxymoronic combination of sheer mass and gentle demeanor, the Mastiff is often considered one of the oldest breeds in existence. Although modern Mastiffs often prove leisure-loving giants, the breed’s colorful past contains stories of valor, vengeance, and suspense. In this edition of The StickerTalk, we have mustered a handful of the highlights of the Mastiff’s vibrant history.
An Ancient Warrior The molossus, a predecessor of the present-day Mastiff, was bred for the purposes of hunting and combat. The molossus and other mastiff ancestors hunted lions in ancient Babylon, fought wild animals in Roman arenas, and charged into battle alongside Carthaginian and Celtic soldiers.
Famous Cousins Because the Mastiff stands head and shoulders above the majority of other breeds, it may be difficult to believe that other dogs share their lineage with the canine behemoth. Some of the Mastiff’s cousins include the Chow Chow and, surprisingly, the pug!
Protector, Patron… Pilgrim? Although the evidence is not conclusive, many reports claim that a Mastiff accompanied the pilgrims aboard the Mayflower across the Atlantic and into the New World.


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The elements of murder
The poisonous nature of heavy metals such as mercury, arsenic and lead is well known. In this book John Emsley examines how such elements have affected us, looking at their occurence in the environment, the danger they pose in industry and their use as medicines (where they poison the organisms which attack us). As such it is very informative, looking at the history of the elements, the symptoms they produce and their toxicity in organic and inorganic forms. But most of all it is about the use of these elements by murderers. If you enjoy a good murder story then you should certainly try this book.
I was surprised at how long it took to catch some of the murderers and I'm glad that modern procedures are much better at identifying these poisons.
I found that this book takes a bit of getting into - its a long book, and murders which would merit a few pages elsewhere get a whole chapter here. However, once you accept this then you should find it an enjoyable read.
There is also speculation on how some well know people may have been affected by these poisons. Newton probably suffered from mercury poisoning due his alchemical studies. The madness of King George could have been caused by lead in his wine, and the antimony in Mozart's medicines probably killed him.


by Robert Hii for Huff Post Green
It was disheartening to read the headlines from this news report that said Kansas City and elsewhere, zoos brace against the threat of species extinction. It’s as if the orangutans are doomed to an existence merely in zoos located thousands of miles from their natural habitats.
We can’t let this happen. Their population levels have plummeted for sure in the past two decades as timber, palm oil and mining ripped apart their habitats in Malaysia and Indonesia where these animals are found. If the situation in both countries remained in “business-as-usual” mode where forests were removed with zero regard for what lived in them, then yes, the orangutans are doomed but these are different times and we have to take new approaches to ensure their survival outside of zoos…
Of the three subspecies of orangutans on Borneo island the Pongo pygmaeus morio in Sabah state and Pongo pygmaeus wurmbii in Sarawak, Malaysia both survive in a relatively stable environment. The two thousand plus orangutans in Sarawak are reported to be in new safer environs. This is due mostly to the new Chief Minister of the state, Adenan Satem, who has stunned the public in wanting to protect the remaining natural environment in Sarawak. Declaring recently in London, England that the state has enough palm oil and timber plantations, his government played a key role in freezing three hundred and seventy bank accounts belonging to companies suspected as being involved in illegal logging in the state. All of this bodes well for orangutans in Sarawak and I hope the CM will heed the advice of conservation groups that have called for the protection of its remaining forests.
This excerpt from a commentary piece appeared in and is courtesy of Huff Post Green and can be read in its entirety here.


Digital Technologies at Campbell Primary School
Across Campbell Primary School ICT is embedded in many learning areas, where students are given opportunities to use ICT effectively to access, create and communicate information ideas, solve problems and work collaboratively. We recognise that in a digital age, students need to develop skills, attitudes and habits to handle the rapid pace and rate of change of ICT today. We recognise that having access to technology within the classroom allows students greater control over how, where and when they learn.
We are a multi-platform school by having iPads, Mac books and PCs available to all students. In this digital age students need to be able to move seamlessly from one technological device to another. Including, being aware of differing operating systems available. Many of students are using all devices available. All classrooms have Smartboards that are used on a daily basis to engage and motivate learners.
In 2017 we introduced a Bring your own device (BYOD) iPad initiative. Through this program we aim to:
- Cultivate flexible, responsive learners
- Enable authentic learning beyond the traditional school day
- Foster responsible participants in a global community
- Facilitate shared learning through on-line collaboration
To learn more about the BYOD program at Campbell Primary School, please visit the BYOD Page here.
Simple Tips to Managing your Child’s Sleep with Technology


90 percent of the world’s table salt contains microplastics, recent study finds
This month’s Environmental Science and Technology edition has yet again hit us with facts we probably don’t want to know but should!
It is well known that commercial products have always been coming up with more ways to increase the amount of plastic pollution they induce into the environment. A recent study claims that 90 percent of the table salt brands around the world are heavily contaminated with micro plastics. Research that was carried out a few years ago had indicated such a presence but was never given thought.
A National Geographic report has stated that the researchers at South Korea and Greenpeace East Asia have claimed that 36/39 salt brands that were tested contained micro plastics. This is the first study that examines the relationship between the microplastics in table salt and the occurrence of plastic pollution.
RELATED: Recent study has found microplastics in human stool around the world
21 countries were involved in the research to bring together extracted salt samples. The countries covered the span of North and South America, Europe, Asia and Africa. The only three brands that did not display any microplastic presence were refined sea salt from Taiwan, refined rock salt from China and unrefined sea salt produced by solar evaporation in France.
The amount of microplastics found varied country to country but the Asian brands showed the highest levels according to the research, particularly for salt sold in Indonesia. Indonesia is also known to have the second worst level of plastic pollution which just adds to the trouble!
“The findings suggest that human ingestion of microplastics via marine products is strongly related to emissions in a given region,” said Seung-Kyu Kim, a marine science professor at Incheon National University in South Korea.
Sea salt had shown the highest level of microplastic followed by lake and rock salts. A rough global estimate suggests that on an average 2000 microplastics are consumed through food consumption per year. Since we are unable to coordinate all the studies on this particular environmental enemy, it is difficult to put an exact label on how detrimental its effects are. But one way or another, it is definitely playing a key role in pollution and in negatively impacting marine life!
The study was published this month in the journal Environmental Science & Technology.
CONTINUE READING: Coop encourages people to smell food before throwing away with launch of ‘Old Milk’ fragrance
Source: National Geographic via Inhabitat


Unit 5, Lesson3
Lesson 3 - Lab 1- Observing and Drawing Epithelial Tissues
Student Performance Objectives
1. Draw representative fields, from prepared slides, of various types of epithelia utilizing proper
paper, 3H pencil, headings, and neatly drawn labels.
A. Recall the following protocol for drawings: emphasis on neatness and clarity
1. Use of 3H (non-smudging) pencil.
2. Unlined (typing) paper utilized for drawings.
3. Proper heading: name, class, instructor, and date.
4. Titling of each drawing based on a prepared slide's label.
5. Indication of total magnification used to make the drawing.
6. Use of ruler to draw lines from labels to item being labeled.
7. Use of neatly printed lettering for labels.
8. Proper placement of labels on one or both sides of the illustration.
B. Students draw representative fields from the following prepared slides, to be handed in for
1. Simple squamous from endothelial, endocardium, or visceral peritoneum.
2. Keratinized, stratified squamous from skin: epidermis.
3. Non-keratinized, stratified squamous from oral or vaginal mucosa.
4. Simple cuboidal from transverse section of the kidney tubules.
5. Simple, non-ciliated columnar from intestinal epithelium.
6. Pseudostratified columnar from trachea.
7. Transitional epithelium (stratified cuboidal) from inner lining of the urinary bladder.


In a major review of the health benefits of running, a team of scientists from the Iowa State University have concluded that regular runners live longer. The average gain in life expectancy was three years. This doesn’t take into account the frequency of running, except that it has to be more than once a week.
But it’s not the running that’s important; it’s the type of exercise. Running just happens to be the most commonly performed type of recreational intense exercise. Even at a slow jog, running requires a full set of working muscles and joints, plus a degree of determination (not to mention coordination) and, importantly, some pre-existing fitness. So runners are generally fit people in good health. This also applies to all people competing in most sports or doing intense exercise sessions.
It’s aerobic exercise, irrespective of the type, that is the elixir of a longer life.
Professor David Cameron-Smith is a regular Fit Planet contributor. A transplanted Australian living in New Zealand, he obtained a PhD in nutritional biochemistry from Deakin University, and undertook postdoctoral training at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney. His research interests include the importance of nutrition in the maintenance of optimal health in an ageing population, and the impact of nutrition in regulating the function of muscles.


Listed in: French, as FREN-43
Laure A. Katsaros (Section 01)
“Merdre!” This is, famously, the opening word of Alfred Jarry’s play Ubu-Roi. First performed in 1897, Ubu-Roi illuminates in retrospect a key aspect of nineteenth-century French literature. Since the Romantics, French literature had been saying “Merdre!” to its bourgeois readers with remarkable consistency. From the bohemian to the poète maudit, from the dandy to the decadent, the art of provocation reached its peak in nineteenth-century France. In this course, we will explore the various aspects, meanings, and purposes of this strategy. We will examine the various forms of literary, artistic, and theatrical provocation, as well as their historical and critical significance. We will ask how and why the artist and the bourgeois were set up as enemies, and what effect this conflict has had on theories of artistic creation. We will also try to understand why the myths of the artist invented in the nineteenth century (such as the dandy, the bohemian, and the provocateur) still form an essential part of the critical discourse on the arts today. Conducted in French.
Requisite: One of the following- French 07, 08, 11, 12 or equivalent. Fall semester. Professor Katsaros.
Cost: 35.00 ?


Why reading Thai is so important?
For starters, it’s quicker, easier and more efficient to learn to speak, once you can read.
1. By knowing how to read you will know exactly how to pronounce each word accurately and with the correct tone.
The various phonetic transliteration schemes – that try to represent Thai with an English approximation – are inconsistent and mostly just plain wrong.
This means that you will learn to pronounce Thai in a mangled way. Therefore Thais will struggle to understand what you are trying to say.
Worse still, these bad speaking habits become so ingrained that they are difficult to eradicate later on.
Being able to read Thai leads to good diction and listening skills.
|2. Another curious effect of learning to pronounce accurately is that you are able to hear more clearly what people are saying. There seems to be a strong correlation between seeing a word, the muscular action of speaking the word, and being able to hear it.|
3. A crucial advantage of being literate is that you can pick up Thai vocabulary directly from your environment.
Thailand’s street signs, menus and notices become a Living Dictionary.
How long does it take?
Learning to read Thai using the Rapid Method takes about 24 hours, spread over about a month. Or one week if you attend an intensive boot camp.
(Learning to read Thai the regular, old-fashioned way takes about half a year!)
It’s great fun, and satisfying, to learn Thai words by reading them directly from signs and menus.


What is DC (Direct Current)?
Direct Current (DC) is the constant flow of electric charge
from high to low Potential. In the history of electrical science, conventional Current was defined as a flow of positive charge as shown in the right of Fig. 1
. the direction of conventional current in a series dc circuit is such that it leaves the positive terminal of the supply and returns to the negative terminal.
A Direct Electric Current flows only when the electric circuit is closed, but it stops completely when the circuit is open.
Fig. 1: Left: DC Circuit. Right: Conventional Current flow
What is DC circuit?
A Direct Current circuit is a circuit that Electric Current flows through in one direction. DC is commonly found in many low-voltage applications, especially where these are powered by Battery. Most electronic circuits require a DC power supply.
The circuit that deals with direct current or DC, is referred as DC circuit and the circuit that deals with alternating current or AC, is generally referred as AC Circuit. The components of the electrical DC circuit are mainly resistive, where as components of the AC circuit may be reactive as well as resistive.
What are the components of DC Circuit?
Different parts that appear in DC circuits are including power source
, path or wire
, and load
as shown in the right of Fig.no.1. DC power sources include batteries, generators, and piezoelectricity. The dc supply is a two-terminal device with two points to be connected. The path of a circuit is made of a conductor, which has low resistance, but other materials with more resistance, such as insulators
, and resistors
, are often also used in circuits. Switches are used to control current, but many circuits also have safety devices, such as fuses and breakers, to protect the circuit from high current conditions. A Switch is a device for making or breaking an electric circuit
Understanding the purpose of different components is essential for working with DC circuits.
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Indiana’s Employability Skills Benchmarks describe a set of workplace skills recommended for success in today’s competitive workforce. Formerly referred to as "soft skills," these are identified as essential, in-demand skills for all jobseekers regardless of experience or occupation. The term "soft skills" may give the appearance that these skills are of less value, but in fact they are crucial to finding employment and succeeding in the workforce. Indiana’s Employability Skills Benchmarks were vetted statewide by Hoosier employers and establish a common language across all Indiana workforce sectors.
The skills identified by Indiana employers as essential for success in the workplace fall into four categories:
- Learning Strategies
- Social & Emotional Skills
- Work Ethic
Hoosier jobseekers, students, parents and school counselors can review the document below for a complete listing of employability skills definitions in detail.
To request posters, please send an email to firstname.lastname@example.org that contains the quantity and shipping address.
(The poster is meant to be printed on 18 x 24 in. paper piece. Be sure to download the poster first before printing on 8.5 x 11 in. paper.)
In 2018, SB 297 states: It provides that, not later than July 1, 2019, each school within a school corporation shall include interdisciplinary employability skills standards established by the Department of Education (DOE), in conjunction with the DWD and approved by the State Board of Education, in the school's curriculum. (Click here to read the full bill.)
Employability Skills were identified through focus groups with Hoosier employers and utilized a framework founded on:
- American School Counselor Association (ASCA) Mindsets & Behaviors
- National Network of Business and Industry Associations
- US DOE Employability Skills Framework
- ACT’s WIN Career Readiness Program
- Jobs for America’s Graduates (JAG) Competencies
- Center for Employability Outcomes Workplace Essentials
- Adult Education College and Career Readiness Standards


Atrial septal defect (ASD) is a congenital heart defect caused by an opening in the septum that divides the right and left atria. Because of the pressure gradients, blood typically shunts across the interatrial septum from left to right.
Small defects are often asymptomatic and may go undiagnosed for years.
There is a wide and fixed split S2 due increased blood in the right heart, which delays closure of the pulmonic valve. There may also be a systolic ejection murmur at the upper left sternal border due to increased blood flow through the pulmonic valve.
Large defects often present with easy fatigability, frequent respiratory infections and failure to thrive (FTT). Increased blood flow through the pulmonary vessels may result in pulmonary hypertension. The increased pulmonary resistance leads shunt reversal (Eisenmenger syndrome), causing cyanosis and dyspnea.
Some patients may experience symptoms such as easy fatigability, recurrent respiratory infections, FTT and exertional dyspnea.
Chest radiograph findings include cardiac enlargement secondary to dilation of the right atrium and right ventricle along with increased pulmonary vascular markings.
Using an ultrasound, sound waves are used to visualize the structures of the heart. The transthoracic approach usually confirms the diagnosis of ASD, but the transesophageal approach is often necessary for more precise measurements. The electrocardiogram (ECG) often shows normal sinus rhythm, a right axis deviation and incomplete right bundle branch block.
Surgery or percutaneous transcatheter approach are used in closure of an ASD in patients with symptoms or CHF.
Patients with a repaired ASD requiring prosthetic material or device and patients with repaired ASD with a residual defect must receive prophylactic antibiotics for dental procedures or surgery.
Spontaneous closure is most common in young patients who have small defects. There is no surgery indicated in asymptomatic children without significant left to right shunting.
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The purpose of this project is to evaluate the uptake rate of major air pollutants by common tree plants in air-cleaning parks in Taiwan. The target air pollutants include ozone, nitrogen dioxide, hydrogen chloride and dust. In addition to review all the related literature with air-cleaning efficacy of all the common trees, there are seven major tasks included in this one year project: (1) To compare the air cleaning efficacy of common trees among different month or season; (2) To determine the pollutant uptake rates of common trees infested with pest or disease as compared with the healthy ones; (3) To compare the pollutant uptake rates of six evergreen plant species with six deciduous species; (4) To determine the pollutant uptake rates of common trees in lack of nutrition as compared with the normal ones; (5) To determine the hydrogen chloride uptake rates by six shrub species; (6)To conduct an expert consulting meeting for this project; and (7)To estimate the yearly uptake rates of major air pollutants by these common tree plants. Results showed that most tested plant species uptake more air pollutants in spring season. Those infested with pests were not different with healthy ones in pollutant uptake, but the nutrition conditions do affect the pollutant uptake rates. The pollutant uptake rates of most evergreen or deciduous trees were higher when the leaves were young than the older leaves. The hydrogen chloride uptake rate seemed to be higher for those shrubs with darker or thicker leaves. The yearly uptake rates of six trees and three shrubs to ozone and nitrogen dioxide were estimated according to these measured deposition velocities. A preliminary data base was established for the future application. All these results will be applied in tree recommendation for those greening task in governmental sector or the private sectors. We recommend that both governmental and private sectors should select those plants with higher pollutant uptake rates, and adopt the better management strategies to maintain the air-cleaning parks in Taiwan. The results shown in this report are useful especially for Taiwan EPA and other organizations to select the right tree species for growing in polluted areas and neighborhood parks in Taiwan.