Ptosis is a condition in which the upper eyelid(s) droops. The eyelid may droop only slightly or it may droop enough to partially or completely cover the pupil, restricting or obscuring the field of vision. Ptosis should not be confused with extra skin, fat or muscle in the eyelid area. Those issues are typically addressed with cosmetic blepharoplasty surgery. When ptosis can be shown to reduce peripheral vision, its surgical correction may be covered by insurance. If the degree of ptosis is not severe, it may be considered elective surgery and can be corrected as a cosmetic procedure.
The most common type of ptosis is adult onset, caused by a weakening or dehiscence of the attachment between the levator muscle (the muscle that raises the upper lid) and the tarsus near the eyelid margin. This typically occurs as a result of the aging process, after cataract surgery, following contact lens wear, or from an injury. In certain cases of sudden onset of ptosis, there may be other causes that should be evaluated by an oculoplastic specialist.
Ptosis surgery is an outpatient procedure that involves tightening the levator muscle that lifts the lid. The surgical approach taken depends on specific findings and testing performed during the consultation with one of our oculoplastic surgeons. Your surgeon will discuss your treatment options fully and will perform all the proper testing to determine whether your ptosis may be deemed medically necessary by your insurance carrier.


The U.S. Institute of Medicine (IOM) of the National Academies should be congratulated for its thoughtful conclusions concerning the use of chimpanzees in a range of NIH research projects. After a careful and in-depth study of the issue, the IOM last month issued a report entitled “Chimpanzees in Biomedical and Behavioral Research: Assessing the Necessity.”
The IOM stated, “given that chimpanzees are so closely related to humans and share similar behavioral traits, the National Institutes of Health should allow their use as subjects in biomedical research only under stringent conditions including the absence of any other suitable model and inability to ethically perform the research on people … In addition, use of these animals should be permissible only if forgoing their use will prevent or significantly hinder advances necessary to prevent or treat life-threatening or debilitating conditions … Based on these criteria, chimpanzees are not necessary for most biomedical research.”
The IOM goes on to point out that the “NIH also should limit the use of chimpanzees in behavioral research to studies that provide otherwise unattainable insights into normal and abnormal behavior, mental health, emotion, or cognition … NIH should require these studies to be performed only on acquiescent animals using techniques that are minimally invasive and are applied in a manner that minimizes pain and distress. Animals used in either biomedical or behavioral studies must be maintained in appropriate physical and social environments or in natural habitats.”
It’s important to emphasize that the IOM does not call for a complete ban on the use of chimps in research. What it does is lay out a humane roadmap, long overdue in some cases.
As a former graduate biological anthropology student, I have taken courses that explored primate physiology and behavior. Many of my assigned readings focused on chimpanzees and the other great apes. Although I have never met a chimpanzee face-to-face in the wild, I have visited many zoos and wildlife parks over the years where chimpanzees lived in various states of captivity. On a number of occasions for my anthro and animal behavior courses, I assumed the role of observer of chimp activities and wrote reports for my classes. Granted that I was always carrying out my studies in artificial environments, I saw enough to realize that chimpanzees are truly, and significantly, different from most other animals.
Each year we seem to be greeted with a new research report on the intelligence of chimpanzees. Most recently it was revealed that some chimps actually fashion a small branch so that it has a sharp point—in essence, they are making a spear that they then use to hunt and kill small prosimians (for food) living inside trees. These and other types of behaviors have led many primatologists to conclude that chimpanzees are highly intelligent.
Partially based on these and other attributes, the IOM issued its report. The Institute also cited the development of cell-based technologies and other animal models that make the use of chimps unnecessary in specific research projects.
I fully understand that opinions, pro and con, on the use of chimpanzees in biomedical research make for a controversial issue. From my point of view, it would be ideal if one day we no longer need to rely on these unique and magnificent primates as research subjects. But that day probably remains way ahead in the future. For now, I applaud the IOM report.


I do a lesson with tints and shades that requires no drawing skills.
The kids make a large triangular banner using their first or last
initial-usually 24x18 or 24x36 if you have that sized paper.
They make the letter on a piece of 9x12 size paper. They can embellish a
simple block or puffy letter with a few swirls or whatever, but keep it
simple enough to paint in the shape with whatever their color choice is.
Then transfer the letter onto the triangle, near the center of the upper
part of the wide end. I have them tape the letter in place behind the
triangle and trace through on the light box or at the window.
This is a monochromatic painting the way I do it with my 3rd graders. the
choose one color and use it straight from the bottle to paint the letter
shape. This is the only shape with unmixed colors.
Then they divide the background behind the letter into large shapes using
straight or curved lines (nothing too nervous, if you know what I mean. Just
simple lines). I usually limit the number of extra shapes to about 10-12 and
remind the kids that the letter is the star of this show, not the background
Then they start with tints (color plus white) and paint in half the shapes.
Do the same with shades (color plus black) to finish the background area.
when dry, we outline with a wide sharpie marker to neaten up the painted
edges between shapes and around the letter. Sometimes we edge the whole
thing with colored construction paper strips to make the banner a bit more
Concepts used are always mixing from light to dark to avoid needing gallons
of white paint to lighten up a dark blue, for example. Start with the
lightest tint and paint a shape, progressing darker by adding into that bowl
more of the prime color. Same with shades, starting with a drop of black
into the prime color, painting a shape, and progressing with more black til
all the shapes are done. Saves a lot of paint that way!
The kids usually pick a color that will match their bedroom at home . My
third graders love this project and look forward to it each year. If you
need a photo, I can take one and send it tomorrow. I am off Mondays.


Active school travel is not only a great way for kids to get needed physical activity by walking, biking or wheeling but it also helps reduce the number of families driving and improves safety around schools. - HASTe
Date: Tue. May. 29 2012 7:03 AM ET
Canadian kids have once again earned an F for "active play and leisure" on a report card evaluating their physical activity levels.
The 2012 Active Healthy Kids Canada Report Card on Physical Activity for Children and Youth finds that Canadian kids are spending a pitiful amount of time playing, with 46 per cent of kids taking part in three hours of active play every week or less.
Out of the four hours or so of free time that kids typically have after school and during their lunch breaks, kids are getting only 24 minutes of moderate- to vigorous-intensity physical activity.
While active play was once a regular part of a child's day, kids are now spending the majority (63 per cent) of their free time after school and on weekends sedentary.
The report card was released Tuesday by Active Healthy Kids Canada and its partners, ParticipACTION and the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute – Healthy Active Living and Obesity Research Group (HALO).
Dr. Mark Tremblay, the chief scientific officer of Active Healthy Kids Canada and director of HALO, says the amount of time that kids are spending in "unstructured play" is declining with each generation. And that's hurting the health of our children and youth.
"Kids of all ages should have regular opportunities for active play, where they can let loose, explore, run, climb, crawl and play in parks with friends, like their parents once did," he said in a news release.
"Active play is fun, but it is also shown to improve a child's motor function, creativity, decision-making, problem-solving and social skills."
There are a number of reasons kids aren't as active today as they should be, but a big one is parental concerns about safety.
Fifty-eight per cent of Canadian parents say they are very concerned about keeping their children safe and feel they have to be over-protective of them.
Safety concerns, such as crime, traffic, neighbourhood dangers such as bullies, and a lack of supervision, discourage parents from letting their children and youth play outdoors.
So instead of playing outside, many kids are instead spending their time in front of screens.
The report found that Canadian kids are spending seven hours and 48 minutes per day in front of screens -- well above the guideline of no more than two hours per day.
That's despite research that says 92 per cent of Canadian kids would choose playing with friends over watching TV if they had the opportunity.
"We have a responsibility to get out of our children's way and give them the time, space and freedom to run around, direct their own activities and learn from their mistakes," Kelly Murumets, President and CEO, ParticipACTION says all Canadians said in a statement.
"The reward will be increased confidence, a sense of adventure and, perhaps most importantly, a love for being active."
The report urges parents and caregivers to encourage children to choose active play, especially outdoors. To address safety concerns, the report urges parents and caregivers to take turns supervising and playing with children outdoors or encourage kids to play with a buddy.
For the fourth year in a row, the Report Card also assigns an "F" for Screen-Based Sedentary Behaviour, noting that most Canadian children and youth are exceeding the recommended guideline of no more than two hours a day.
And, for the sixth year in a row, the Report Card also assigns an "F" to Physical Activity Levels. That's because only seven per cent of Canadian children and youth meet the Canadian Physical Activity Guidelines of at least 60 minutes of daily moderate-to vigorous-intensity physical activity.
Girls are still trailing the boys in this area: 28 per cent of 10- to 16-year-old boys in Canada reported accumulating at least 60 minutes of moderate-to vigorous-intensity physical activity a day compared to only 17 per cent of girls.


A nocturnal bird of prey.
(AM2: dp. 1,009 (f.); l. 18710; 1 b. 356; dr. 104; s. 14 k.; cpl. 78; a. 2 3; cl. Lapwing)
The first Owl (AM2) was laid down 25 October 1917 by the Todd Shipbuilding Corp., Brooklyn, N.Y.; launched 4 March 1918; sponsored by Miss Ruth R. Dodd; and commissioned 11 July 1918, Lt. (j.g.) Charles B. Babson in command.
Following a New York to Charleston towing assignment, Owl reported to the 5th Naval District at Norfolk, 22 August 1918. Employed as a minesweeper for the remaining months of World War I, she then served as a light ship in the inner approach to Chesapeake Bay until 10 July 1919. From that time until 1936, she was primarily engaged in providing towing services along the eastern seaboard and in the Caribbean. Between June 1936 and January 1941, she operated with units of the Aircraft Division, Base Force, providing planeguard, seaplane tender, and target and mooring buoy planting services from New England to the Caribbean. Then, temporarily attached to Train, Patrol Force at Culebra, P.R., she steamed to Bermuda in May for towing and servicing duties with MinDiv 14. Redesignated AT137, 1 June 1942, she was based at Bermuda until June 1943. During that time, towing and escort duties frequently took her to the east coast, while numerous salvage and rescue missions, including aid to the submarine R1 and torpedoed Argentine tanker Victoria, kept her busy at Bermuda and in nearby convoy lanes.
Detached from Bermudan duty in June, Owl spent the last six months of 1943 with DesRon 30 operating out of Guantanamo Bay. She then steamed back to Norfolk for overhaul, and sailed for Europe. She arrived at Falmouth, U.K., 14 March 1944 to join the Allied forces gathering for the invasion of France. Redesignated ATO137 on 15 May 1944, she arrived off the Normandy coast two days after D-Day. As ground forces pushed inland, she towed port and road construction materials to the French coast, thus aiding the all important flow of men and equipment to the front.
Availability at Falmouth early in the new year, 1945, preceded her return to the United States, 27 February, and midAtlantic coast towing assignments. Transferred to the Pacific Fleet, she sailed from Newport, 5 May, with YNG11 in tow, and arrived at San Diego 23 June, to join ServRon 2. In August she continued on to Pearl Harbor for four months of target towing duty, returning to the west coast 2 January 1946. Owl then provided towing services for the 19th (Reserve) Fleet until beginning inactivation in April. She decommissioned in the 13th Naval District 26 July 1946 and on 27 June 1947 was sold for scrapping to the Pacific Metal and Salvage Co. at Port of Nordland, Wash.
Owl received 1 battle star for World War II service.


Up next in How to Use Microsoft Excel (29 videos)
Get a handle on Microsoft Excel -- the industry standard for spreadsheets -- with the help of computer whiz Shir Moscovitz in these Howcast videos.
Hi, my name is Shir and I'm the founder and CEO of shirconsulting.com where we focus on converting the existing data from your business into massive savings and extraordinary profits. Today we're going to learn the basics of Excel. Let's get started. So now let's talk about moving CELLS around inside of the WORKSHEET. I can do it in a number of ways. I can use the mouse to select the CELLS I want and as soon as I hover over the edge of the selected CELLS, I get four diff, four directional arrows. If I click and drag that - I'm physically moving all of those. I tend to stay away from that. I am just hitting undo to go back which is CTRL+Z. I like to do instead a CTRL+X which is a CUT and then click where I want to move it to and hit CTRL+V to paste. This CUT and PASTE will always work and that's why I recommend using it for all moving needs. You can also INSERT new CELLS in between current data. So if I want to move everything down and move some stuff around that way - I click on the CELL that I want, I right click and then I do INSERT. It then asks me in this little window - do I want to shift the CELLS to the right or down? I want to try shifting them down. I can do this all at once across these five by doing, by selecting all five, right clicking on it, hitting INSERT and shifting the CELLS down. I can do the same thing with vertical CELLS. I select all these, I right click on it, I hit INSERT and I shift them to the right. And now I have new CELLS over here. The best method to move CELLS around is to select what you want, hit CTRL+X to CUT, click where you want to PASTE it, and then hit CTRL+V to PASTE. Another important reason to do that is to maintain the CELL references. We'll go over that later but that's a very important concept. And that's how you move CELLS around in Microsoft EXCEL.


2012 Highlights: UC IPM Annual Report
When honey bees invade
Spring is when bees most often swarm, which can be scary if they are too close to where people live. In May, UC IPM published a new Pest Note about how to get rid of honey bee swarms and hives in and near houses.
In the Pest Note, extension entomologist and author Eric Mussen describes how and why bees swarm, then advises readers how to keep a swarm from establishing itself in a home—or, if it’s too late to prevent establishment, what to do to remove it. Removing a swarm requires a professional, but the capture is much easier than removing bees inside a wall or attic, so prompt action is important. Local beekeepers are often willing to help, and swarming bees can often be removed without killing them. Since UC Cooperative Extension offices receive many calls about swarms, this Pest Note was particularly helpful and timely.
Removing Honey Bee Swarms and Established Hives is available on the home, garden, turf, and landscape pests section of the UC IPM Web site. This section also includes information about hundreds of other home and landscape pests.
> Next article: Resource Roundup


The following are recommended books for parents and educators.
A Guide to Collaboration for IEP Teams
This book contains everything necessary for establishing effective IEP meetings. The former President of the Texas Council of Administrators of Special Education, Chuck Noe, M.A., acknowledges this and says, "Martin's ideas work
" and he recommends this book to "anyone wanting to strengthen the quality of meetings and outcomes." The book targets the needs of administrators, teachers, resource professionals, and parents. It is a skills-based book that will help these groups to design, review, and modify IEPs for children with special education needs.
A Parent's Guide to Special Education
The term 'special education' encompasses dozens of learning challenges: developmental delay, learning and physical disabilities, emotional disturbance, retardation, language impairment, autism, and others. By nature of this diversity, navigating even well-run, well-funded special education programs can be daunting. A Parent's Guide to Special Education offers invaluable information and a positive vision of special education that will help them through a potentially overwhelming process. Filled with practical recommendations, sample forms, and enlightening examples, this is a priceless resource for helping every child learn.
Meeting the Challenge: Special Education Tools That Work for All Kids
This book is intended to serve as a freestanding reference for teachers whose classes include students with academic or behavioral difficulties. The recommended best practices were originally developed for students with disabilities but have been found to be effective with all students. Each chapter provides principles, suggestions and specific tools (such as sample check lists, rubrics, forms, word lists, observation guides, planning guides, and lesson plans).
Negotiating the Special Education Maze
Negotiating the Special Education Maze is one of the best tools available to parents and teachers for developing an effective education program for their child or student. Every step is explained, from eligibility and evaluation to the Individualized Education Program (IEP) and beyond. This edition covers changes in disability laws, including the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). It reviews early intervention services for children from birth to age three, and for those who have young adults with special needs, it also covers transitioning out of school.
The Complete IEP Guide: How to Advocate for Your Special Ed Child
The Individualized Education Program, or IEP, determines the nuts and bolts of your child's special education. This includes the specific classroom set up, curricula, support services, and program and educational goals. Understanding every aspect of the IEP process will help you avoid surprises along the way. The Complete IEP Guide walks you step-by-step through the IEP process. The book provides all the instructions, suggestions, strategies, resources and forms you need to proceed from the beginning, when you first suspect a problem, to the end, when your child completes school.
Wrightslaw: From Emotions to Advocacy
Wrightslaw: From Emotions to Advocacy, second edition will teach you how to plan, prepare, organize and get quality special education services. In this comprehensive, easy-to-read book, you will learn your child's disability and educational needs, how to create a simple method for organizing your child’s file and devising a master plan for your child's special education. You will understand parent-school conflict, how to create paper trails and effective letter writing. This book includes dozens of worksheets, forms and sample letters that you can tailor to your needs
Wrightslaw: Special Education Law
Wrightslaw: Special Education Law, 2nd Edition provides a clear roadmap to the laws and how to get better services for all children with disabilities. This Wrightslaw publication is an invaluable resource for parents, advocates, educators, and attorneys. You will refer to this book again and again.
Proceeds from the sale of books purchased from our recommended books section can help support LD OnLine.


(NaturalNews) According to Finnish researchers, a diet rich in carotenoids such as lycopene and beta-carotene may significantly lower the risk of stroke for men. Higher concentrations of carotenoids in the blood were associated with as much as a 55-59 percent decrease in the likelihood of having a stroke during the 12-year study of over 1,000 Finnish men aged 46-65.
Fruit and vegetable consumption and carotenoid concentration in the blood has gradually been gaining a positive reputation in maintaining cardiovascular health. Lycopene (commonly found in tomatoes and watermelon) and beta-carotene (which can be found in carrots, pumpkin, and spinach) are two of the chief carotenoids believed to help in the prevention of stroke.
The magic of carotenoids
Carotenoids have numerous preventive effects. They have been renowned for their ability to help prevent lung and prostate cancer, and their antioxidant properties may be responsible for preventing the build-up of plaque in the arteries, which is a crucial contributor to heart disease and stroke.
These benefits may arise as much from the general diet and lifestyle that accompany the consumption of large amounts of carotenoid-containing vegetables. Because of this, scientists are unable to draw a causal connection between carotenoids and stroke. The research is promising; however, and researchers and public health advocates alike are eager to point to results of studies like this to encourage a well-rounded, veggie-heavy diet.
The highest concentrations of carotenoids can be found in fruits and vegetables with red, orange, and yellow skins or flesh. Heavy hitters include tomato paste, sweet potatoes, carrot juice, papayas, citrus fruits, and leafy greens. Aim for at least five servings of fruits and vegetables each day, and eat carotenoid-containing foods with a source of fat to help your body absorb the nutrients properly.
Supplements may also be effective, although fewer studies have demonstrated a strong connection between carotenoid pills and improved cardiovascular health. Most physicians recognize the value of these amazing antioxidants but also recommend a varied, nutritious diet and regular physical activity as the best way to promote cardiovascular health.
In addition, although the study did not extend to women or young individuals, researchers expect that a diet high in carotenoids and fruits and vegetables will hold similar preventive effects for the general population.
About the author: Katie BrindAmour is a Certified Health Education Specialist and passionate health and wellness freelance writer. She enjoys cooking, yoga, gardening, searching for the perfect wine and chocolate combination, and spending time with friends. She has a Masters in Biology and is currently pursuing her PhD in Health Services Management and Policy. She also enjoys blogging for Women's Healthcare Topics and Healthline Networks.
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Community inDetail, Part 3
Myths and Realities
Myth 1: Institutions are the best setting for some individuals with severe intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Four groups of people are often cited as the most difficult to serve in the community.
- Medically Fragile: Some institution residents have complex medical conditions such as seizure disorder, aspiration risk, and dysphagia, requiring intensive medical support. If skilled nursing and medical planning are provided, successful community placement of people with complex medical issues can be ensured (Kozma et al., 2003).
- Dual Diagnoses: Half of institution residents have a condition requiring psychiatric attention (Lakin et al., 2009). Often people with dual diagnoses need high levels of services and supports that require integrated interventions from both ID/DD and mental health providers. Often ID/DD providers do not have the capacity to provide treatment for mental health issues, and mental health providers do not have the capacity to provide self-care supports to address ID/DD issues. Joint system planning can be difficult because the two types of services are available through different funding streams (Day, 2009).
- Involved with the Criminal Justice System: Developmental services agencies are expected to serve a public safety function for these individuals. This can be challenging in the context of developing a system designed to promote self-determination and community participation (Bascom, 2009).
- Older People Who Have Spent Many Years in the Institution: Older residents who have spent many years in an institution present several challenges; they (or their parents or guardians) may feel that the institution is their home and they do not want to be uprooted. Many have never had the experience of living in the community.
Some states have developed specific strategies to meet the needs of challenging populations, including those with the most significant challenges. People with co-occurring developmental disabilities and mental illnesses and older adults with developmental disabilities are particularly vulnerable populations. They face barriers to services related to a lack of coordination and collaboration across service systems, as well as gaps in research, clinical expertise, and access to appropriate programs. This lack of coordination has many causes, including separate systems for financing services; a reluctance by mental health and developmental disabilities systems to allocate scarce resources for a high-needs population that could be served in another service system; established provider networks that are not cross-trained; and the evolution of advocacy movements emphasizing different priorities. In many cases, specific barriers to service may be both a cause and a result of the lack of coordination across systems.
In 2002, the Surgeon General addressed the needs of vulnerable populations in A National Blueprint to Improve the Health of Persons with [Mental Retardation].
States and advocates have implemented strategies and programs to address the needs of people with complex medical needs, dual diagnoses, and older adults with development disabilities. For example:
- To facilitate the closure of Agnews Developmental Center, California created 23 licensed homes in the community that provide sophisticated medical support (SB 962 homes). Although they are expensive (an average monthly cost of $15,000 per person), they seem to be meeting the needs of a medically fragile population (California Health and Human Service Agency ,2010).
- In 2008, Tennessee opened a 16-bed ICF/DD with medical services including 24-hour nursing care.
- Missouri advocates founded the Association on Aging with Developmental Disabilities to increase awareness of the importance of providing community-based services and support focusing on older adults with developmental disabilities.
- The Florida Department of Elder Affairs sponsored training for service providers on meeting the needs of aging people with developmental disabilities. (www.adrc-tae.org/tiki-download_file.php?fileId=30426)
- As part of a federal lawsuit settlement, the State of Hawaii is required to take specific steps to identify people with developmental disabilities within the mental health system and ensure that there are smooth discharges from the state psychiatric hospital.
- In 2008, the New Jersey Department of Human Services convened the Dual Diagnosis Task Force to examine and resolve the serious lack of services, unmet service needs, and other significant obstacles to receiving mental health and developmental disability services. The task force made recommendations on a framework for change that would enable the service system to effectively serve the needs of children and adults with developmental disabilities and co-occurring mental health and/or behavior disorders.
- Oregon and several other states use person-centered planning, coupled with individual budgeting, to adequately address complex individual needs.
- Maryland’s Rosewood Center placed 17 of the 30 court-committed individuals in the community and 13 in a secure residential facility to ensure public safety. In the community, the individuals were placed in small residences with a range of supports, including one-to-one supervision and/or awake overnight supervision, or creative monitoring in a small (up to three individuals) residential setting with day, vocational, or supported employment services. Monitoring may include oversight by another agency (regular reporting to a probation officer through the Department of Corrections) or monitoring devices (alarmed windows and doors) (Maryland Developmental Disabilities Administration, 2008).
Myth 2: The quality of care cannot be assured in a community-based residential setting.
Opponents of institutional closure argue that it is easier to monitor the quality of a small number of large institutions rather than a large number of smaller facilities. Proponents of deinstitutionalization admit that “in the early phases of deinstitutionalization, efforts to develop quality assurance strategies suited to community services were sometimes subordinated in the rush to meet court-ordered deadlines” (Bradley and Kimmich, 2003).
Most states have now developed mechanisms to monitor the quality of community-based services. However, no quality assurance mechanism is foolproof, and incidents of abuse, neglect, and even death occur in the community, just as they do in institutions. We have found no studies comparing the rate of adverse incidents in the community with the rate in institutional settings.
Family, friends, and neighbors play important roles in assuring safety and service quality for people in community-based settings. Several researchers found that family presence and participation in the person’s life can be an important safeguard for security and service quality (Lemay, 2009) and should be regarded as the most important and dependable source of quality assurance.
Although there are few specific federal requirements as to how states must assure quality, states must persuade the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) that the state can assure health and welfare. CMS has established a Quality Framework that addresses access, PCP and service delivery, provider capacity, participant safeguards, rights and responsibilities, outcomes and satisfaction, and system performance. Though it is not regulatory, it provides a framework for certain expectations of quality outcomes for HCBS Waiver program services.
In recent years, most states and communities have increased regulation or oversight of community-based services. Most states have multifaceted systems of quality assurance, including the participation of different stakeholders in and outside government and the service system. Systems of quality assurance include the following (from Bascom, 2009):
- Licensure: Group homes and other community residences where three or more unrelated people with disabilities live require licensure.
- Quality Management Reviews: Reviewers assess Medicaid-funded services to ensure compliance with state and federal Medicaid standards. In Vermont, for example, site visits are conducted every two years, with follow-up as appropriate.
- Guardianship: Public guardians who are provided to adults with developmental disabilities play distinct quality assurance functions. They are expected to have regular (in some states at least monthly) face-to-face contact with the people for whom they are guardians and to monitor their welfare and quality of life and advocate for appropriate services.
- Safety and Accessibility Checks: All residences of people with developmental disabilities are inspected for compliance with safety and accessibility standards.
- Consumer and Family Surveys: Annually, about 25 states participate in the National Association of State Directors of Developmental Disability Services and Human Services Research Institute NCI survey, which canvasses consumer and family members to measure the satisfaction of people receiving services and to measure what services people report receiving. (http://www2.hsri.org/nci)
- Critical Incident Reporting Process: Most states have a critical incident reporting process, whereby developmental disability service providers report to the state developmental disability agency when certain incidents take place, such as the death of someone receiving services; use of restrictive procedures; allegations of abuse, neglect, or exploitation; or criminal behavior by or against someone receiving services.
- Grievance and Appeals: The only formal federal requirement for developmental disability service providers is that they provide rights of appeal for eligibility decisions. However, many states require each developmental disability service provider to have written grievance and appeals procedures and to inform applicants and service recipients of that process.
- Abuse Complaints: Any human service provider is legally required to file an immediate report of any suspected abuse, neglect, or exploitation of a vulnerable adult.
- Medicaid Fraud Unit: The Medicaid Fraud Unit is a specially staffed unit within the Office of the Attorney General. It investigates allegations of criminal activity, including abuse, neglect, or exploitation, in any Medicaid-funded facility or involving a person receiving Medicaid-funded supports.
- Service Coordination: The role of service coordinator or case manager often includes the functions of monitoring and advocacy. In some states, the service coordinator is the focal point for individual-based quality assurance at the local level.
- Advocacy: Empowered service users and families are powerful components in the quality assurance chain. Self-advocacy groups work to empower people with disabilities to learn about their rights, step forward, and speak for themselves. In addition, advocacy organizations such as The Arc provide information, support, and advocacy for people with disabilities and their families.
- Other Organizations: Other organizations develop the capacity to monitor specific groups of people. For example, the Guardianship Trust in Vermont provides regular, structured individually based citizen monitoring of residential services provided by the state. Brandon Training School Association is an alliance of parents and other people concerned with the well-being of former residents of Brandon Training School.
Myth 3: Community-based settings do not offer the same level of safety as institutional settings.
All states take measures to make sure that people, whether living in institutions or in the community, are healthy, safe, and protected from harm. However, if the state’s safeguards are not rigorous, closely enforced, and monitored, people with developmental disabilities are not safe, regardless of where they live. Two significant factors increase the risk of abuse and neglect: isolation from family and a system that rewards compliant attitudes among people with developmental disabilities (Valenti-Hein and Schwartz, 1995).
The NCI 2009–2010 survey shows that the majority of people with ID/DD feel safe in their home, in their neighborhood, and their work/day program/daily activity. More than 90 percent of the individuals surveyed reported that they have someone to go to when they feel afraid. Nevertheless, some opponents of deinstitutionalization claim that the safeguards offered in the community are inadequate to ensure the physical safety of a very vulnerable population.
Based on newspaper reports, Protection and Advocacy investigations, and state investigations, it is clear that instances of abuse and neglect occur in community settings, and some of them result in unnecessary deaths. However, the same can be said about institutions. For example, the 2009 “fight club” incident, in which institution workers forced residents to fight one another while employees taped the incidents on their cell phones, made national news. In 2007, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution published an exposé on state mental health hospitals that revealed more than 100 suspicious deaths of patients during the previous five years (Judd, 2010). The 2002 death of Brian Kent in Kiley Center in Waukegan, Illinois, revealed a pattern of neglect caused by unprofessional attitudes, administrative indifference, lack of competence, and caregiver fatigue (Equip for Equality, 2008).
As systems of care become more sophisticated and mature, states are able to move toward increasing their quality assurance efforts to protect health and safety. Missouri, for example, has instituted a Health Identification Planning System, which represents the quality monitoring process for the discovery and remediation of health and safety concerns for individuals in Division of Developmental Disability community residential services. A Health Inventory tool is completed on all people when they enter a community placement and annually, as well as when there are significant health changes. Regional Office registered nurses complete Nursing Reviews on individuals with a defined score on their health inventory. These reviews evaluate the provider’s health supports and services, evaluate the individual’s response to treatment, and identify unmet health care needs.
Missouri also created an Office of Constituent Services to serve as an advocate for people with ID/DD.
Myth 4: Mortality rates are higher in the community for individuals with ID/DD than in Institutions.
Older adults or adults who are medically fragile have a higher mortality rate regardless of where they live (or their geographic location). As a result, mortality comparisons are not straightforward and require complex statistical approaches. For example, a Massachusetts study on deaths showed that the average age at death varied across residential settings. The study indicated generally that the average age of death for each residential setting reflects the relative age and health status of the residents in each of the residential settings. The study also showed that mortality rates are lowest among people living at home or with family. (Center for Developmental Disabilities Evaluation and Research (CDDER), 2010). The study showed that people with developmental disabilities generally died of the same causes as the general population. Heart disease remained the leading cause of death and Alzheimer’s disease the second leading cause.
The Massachusetts Department of Developmental Services (DDS), in collaboration with the CDDER, has focused on the health status of people with developmental disabilities. Examples of projects they have taken on in Massachusetts include the following:
- Identification and customization of a health screening tool for use by direct supportive providers
- Development of Preventive Health Guidelines for Individuals with Mental Retardation
- Root Cause Analysis training and support
- Incident Management protocol development
- Mapping the community-based system of mental health and physical health supports
- Annual mortality reports
- Annual Quality Assurance reports and the development of web-based Quality Briefs
- Implementation of the DDS STOP Falls Pilot to identify patterns and risk factors for falls among people with ID/DD
- Implementation and evaluation of a pilot study of DDS’s new Health Promotion and Coordination initiative
- Support in development of training modules for community providers
- Quantitative analysis of clinical service capacity within the residential provider system
- Analysis of Medicaid pharmacy utilization claims data
An increasing number of states conduct mortality studies, review each death, and have proactively begun programs and initiatives to improve the health status of people with developmental disabilities. However, adults with developmental disabilities are more likely to develop chronic health conditions at younger ages than other adults due to biological factors related to syndromes and associated developmental disabilities, limited access to adequate health care, and lifestyle and environmental issues. They have higher rates of obesity, sedentary behaviors, and poor nutritional habits than the general population (Yamaki, 2005).
Most studies find that the mortality rate is comparable across settings or is favorable in community settings. For example:
- Conroy and Adler (1998) found improved survival for people leaving the Pennhurst Institution for life in the community and no evidence of transfer trauma.
- Lerman, Apgar, and Jordan (2003) found the death ratio of 150 movers who left a New Jersey institution was quite comparable to a matched group of 150 stayers after controlling for critical high risk variables.
- Heller et al. (1998) found that, although transitions from institutions or nursing homes to community settings may result in short-term stress and risks that may affect mortality (transfer trauma), the long-term survival rates improve.
- Hsieh et al. (2009) found that, regardless of residential location, those who had a greater variation in the physical environment and greater involvement in social activities had a lower risk of mortality.
Despite such findings, opponents of deinstitutionalization continue to use the mortality argument. In its advocacy literature, one group continues to cite Strauss, Eyman, and Grossman (1996) and Strauss, Kastner, and Shavelle (1998), who suggest that people with developmental disabilities, particularly those with severe disabilities, have higher mortality rates in the community than in institutions.
Subsequent studies did not reproduce these results. O’Brien and Zaharia (1998) question the accuracy of the database used by Strauss and colleagues, Durkin (1996) critiques Strauss’s methodology, and Lerman et al. (2003) review a number of unsuccessful attempts to reproduce the results.


Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center
Abstract: The expansion of outdoor recreational activities has increased greatly the interaction between the public and waterfowl and waterfowl habitat. The effects of these interactions on waterfowl habitats are more visible and obvious, whereas the effects of interactions which disrupt the normal behavior of waterfowl are more subtle and often overlooked, but perhaps no less of a problem than destruction of habitat. Resource managers and administrators require information on the types, magnitude, and potential effects of disturbances that will affect human use of and access to wildlife resources. This bibliography contains excerpts or annotations from 211 articles that contained information about effects of human disturbances on waterfowl. Indices are provided for subject/keywords, geographic locations, species of waterfowl, and authors used in this bibliography.
Increases in human population, transportation, recreational boating, industrial and residential development, birdwatching, camping, and hiking all create conflicts with waterfowl which must use a dwindling and fragmented habitat base. Managers and administrators require information on the types, magnitude, and potential effects of disturbances that will affect human use of and access to wildlife resources. Managers responsible for waterfowl production should be aware of the problems created by human disturbance to aid them in the design of facilities and developments to increase public appreciation of waterfowl.
This bibliography resulted from concerns about human disturbance to flocks of canvasback ducks (Aythya valisineria) and other waterfowl that stage on navigation pools of the Upper Mississippi River during fall migration. Initially, a field study and subsequent literature search for information to use in a manuscript describing these disturbances (Korschgen et al. 1985) indicated that few specific studies had been conducted on the subject, although there were numerous anecdotal references. Aspects of human disturbance to other groups of wildlife, especially large game mammals (e.g., Bollinger et al. 1973; Ream 1980; Ferguson and Keith 1982) and nesting seabirds and shorebirds (e.g., Hunt 1972; Robert and Ralph 1975; Buckley and Buckley 1976; Manuwal 1979; Rodgers and Burger 1981; Burger 1981; Whitman 1988; Frederick and Collopy 1989; Strauss and Dane 1989; Yalden and Yalden 1990), have received considerable attention because of the increased frequency of human-wildlife interactions in national and state parks, refuges, management areas, and seashores (Foin et al. 1977; Purdy et al. 1987; Pomerantz et al. 1988). Books have been written relating to effects of human disturbance on natural resources (Edington and Edington 1986; Hammitt and Cole 1987). We decided that a consolidated information source on human disturbances to waterfowl would be of value to waterfowl managers and administrators.
We searched Wildlife Abstracts, Wildlife Review, Journal of Wildlife Management, Wildlife Society Bulletin, and Wildlife Monographs for titles and key words related to human disturbance. Unfortunately, few key words used by journals relate to this topic. We also searched a bibliography of waterfowl papers maintained by Kenneth J. Reinecke (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Patuxent Wildlife Research Center) that contains over 5,000 citations. Perhaps our most valuable source of information was the reference sections of publications dealing with human disturbances to waterfowl.
Some of the bibliographic entries are papers that did not directly pertain to waterfowl, but the topics may be important for further research related to waterfowl.
The definition of human disturbance to waterfowl varies among authors. The following definition seems reasonable to us: a direct event, intentionally or unintentionally created by people, leading to a reaction of alertness; fright (obvious or inapparent); interruption of activities; flight, swimming, or other displacements; or death or disablement. The event may have long-term or short-term effects. We have excluded almost all references dealing with death of waterfowl including: hunter harvest or illegal harvest, waterfowl collisions with power lines, deaths from the ingestion of angler's lead sinkers, losses of diving ducks to commercial fish nets and trotlines, and losses of waterfowl to furbearer trapping during spring seasons that are no longer in existence. Sometimes it was so awkward to exclude these subjects that we included them, but our intent was to confine ourselves chiefly to disturbance caused by direct human activity (presence, traffic, flights, fishing, boating, and so forth).
We included several papers relating to waterfowl energetics because disturbances may hinder the acquisition of food (energy) which may affect fitness for migration and breeding. Energetics is a rapidly developing topic that will be important in answering some of the questions about the effects of disturbance that cannot now be answered.
The frequency of topics in the subject index is shown in Table 1. Disturbances created by water users, chiefly boaters, anglers, and hunters, are mentioned most frequently. These disturbances were serious in that they displaced waterfowl from their feeding grounds, created energetic costs associated with flight, and affected nesting or brooding waterfowl, which may have lowered productivity. Interestingly, researcher-caused disturbances also had a high frequency of occurrence. Most biologists are familiar with the desertions of females caused while conducting nesting studies.
We hope this bibliography will stimulate research and focus on those areas most lacking in definitive data. Despite our efforts to include all the pertinent references, this bibliography is incomplete. It provides, however, a starting point for the reader interested in human disturbances to waterfowl.
|Subject||Number of citations|
|Anglers (See fishing)|
|Boating (boats, canoes, sculling, rowing, power, airboats, sailing)||66|
|Development (industrial, petroleum, pollution, urban, construction)||24|
|Energetic costs (flight)||23|
|Lead weights (fishing or angler's)||2|
|Human activity/disturbance, general||58|
|Nest (see Investigator/research-caused)|
|Refuge (restricting trespass, sanctuary--see Abatement)||36|
|Research (see Investigator/research)|
|Roads (also see Development)|
|Shipping (see Barges/shipping)|
|Wariness (tameness, alert, tolerance distance)||43|
This project was begun under the direction of R. F. Berry, Manager of the Upper Mississippi River Refuge Complex. We particularly thank the following persons for their encouragement and aid: D. V. Bell, Senior Research Officer of the Wildfowl Trust, Slimbridge, England; R. B. Kahl, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources; L. A. Batten, Senior Ornithological Advisor and Chief Scientist Directorate, Nature Conservancy Council, Peterborough, England; and L. H. Fredrickson, Director of the Gaylord Memorial Laboratory, University of Missouri. We are indebted to many researchers, both in America and in Europe, who supplied reprints of their work. Most important has been the patient and thorough assistance of A. Zimmerman, librarian at the Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center, who obtained many of the publications and provided editorial comments on the manuscript. J. Sauls and S. H. Thatcher, translated German papers. D. Stroud and J. Magerus, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, translated German and French papers. We are also grateful to A. Prochowicz, L. Ames, B. Toal, C. Eloranta, and H. Sampson who typed and checked the manuscript.
Bollinger, J. G., O. J. Rongstad, A. Soom, and R. G. Eckstein. 1973. Snowmobile noise effects on wildlife, 1972-1973 report. Engineering Experiment Station, University Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 85 pp.
Buckley, P. A., and F. G. Buckley. 1976. Guidelines for the protection and management of colonial nesting waterbirds. U.S. National Park Service, Boston, Mass. 54 pp.
Burger, J. 1981. The effect of human activity on birds at a coastal bay. Biological Conservation 21:231-241.
Edington, J. M., and M. A. Edington. 1986. Ecology, recreation, and tourism. Cambridge University Press, New York. 198 pp.
Ferguson, M. S. D., and L. B. Keith. 1982. Influence of nordic skiing on distribution of moose and elk in Elk Island National Park, Alberta. Canadian Field-Naturalist 96:69-78.
Foin, T. C., E. O. Garton, C. W. Bowen, J. M. Everingham, and R. O. Schultz. 1977. Quantitative studies of visitor impacts on environments of Yosemite National Park, California, and their implications for park management policy. Journal of Environmental Management 5:1-22.
Hammitt, W. E., and D. N. Cole. 1987. Wildland recreation. John Wiley and Sons, Inc., New York. 341 pp.
Hunt, G. L., Jr. 1972. Influence of food distribution and human disturbance on the reproductive success of herring gulls. Ecology 53:1051-1061.
Korschgen, C. E., L. S. George, and W. L. Green. 1985. Disturbance of diving ducks by boaters on a migrational staging area. Wildlife Society Bulletin 13:290-296.
Manuwal, D. A. 1978. Effect of man on marine birds: a review. Pages 140-160 in Wildlife and People. Purdue University Press, West Lafayette, Ind.
Pomerantz, G. A., D. J. Decker, G. R. Goff, and K. G. Purdy. 1988. Assessing impact of recreation on wildlife: a classification scheme. Wildlife Society Bulletin 16:58-62.
Purdy, K. G., G. R. Goff, D. J. Decker, G. A. Pomerantz, and N. A. Connelly. 1987. A guide to managing human activity on National Wildlife Refuges. Human Dimensions Research Unit, Department Natural Resources, Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y. and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Office of Information Transfer, 1025 Pennock Place, Fort Collins, Colo. 57 pp.
Ream, C. H. 1980. Impacts of backcountry recreationists on wildlife: an annotated bibliography. U.S. Forest Service General Technical Report INT-81. 62 pp.
Robert, H. C., and C. J. Ralph. 1975. Effects of human disturbance on the breeding success of gulls. Condor 77:495-499.
Rodgers , J. A., Jr., and J. Burger. 1981. Symposium on human disturbance and colonial waterbirds. Colonial Waterbirds 4:1.
Strauss, E., and B. Dane. 1989. Differential reproductive success in a stressed population of piping plovers in areas of high and low human disturbance. American Zoologist 29:42A.
Whitman, P. L. 1988. Biology and conservation of the endangered interior least tern: a literature review. U.S. Fish Wildlife Service Biological Report 88(3). 22 pp.
Yalden, P. E., and D. W. Yalden. 1990. Recreational disturbance of breeding golden plovers Pluvialis apricarius. Biological Conservation 51:243-262.
This resource is based on the following source (Northern Prairie Publication 0859):
Dahlgren, Robert B., and Carl E. Korschgen. 1992. Human disturbances of waterfowl: an annotated bibliography. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Resource Publication 188. 62pp.
This resource should be cited as:
Dahlgren, Robert B., and Carl E. Korschgen. 1992. Human disturbances of waterfowl: an annotated bibliography. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Resource Publication 188. Jamestown, ND: Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center Online. http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/literatr/disturb/index.htm (Version 16JUL1997).


Fraction interpolation walking a Farey tree
We present an algorithm to find a proper fraction in simplest reduced terms between two reduced proper fractions. A proper fraction is a rational number m/n with m1. A fraction m/n is simpler than p/q if m <= p and n <= q, with at least one inequality strict. The algorithm operates by walking a Farey tree in maximum steps down each branch. Through monte carlo simulation, we find that the present algorithm finds a simpler interpolation of two fractions than using the Euclidean-Convergent [Matula 1980] walk of a Farey tree and terminating at the first fraction satisfying the bound. Analysis shows that the new algorithms, with very high probability, will find an interpolation that is simpler than at least one of the bounds, and thus take less storage space than at least one of the bounds.
- download PDF (150K)
Mosko, M. ; Garcia-Luna-Aceves, J. J. Fraction interpolation walking a Farey tree. Information Processing Letters. 2006 April 15; 98 (1): 19-23.


General Motors Company was started by William Durant in 1908. After the stock market panic of 1907, a lot of companies were in dire straits and Durant chose this opportunity to buy smaller car builders and companies that manufactured car parts. He combined these companies and created the General Motors Company. Due to mismanagement and over extending the companies in 1910 bankers were forced to step in to prevent the financial collapse of the Company. Durant was removed from the company he had founded.
Durant had managed to start another car manufacturing company, called Chevrolet. He used this company to once again take over the reins at General Motors in 1915. This time he was successful in developing a car company that was profitable. During this time the Cadillac was introduced and became luxury car icon. Durant position as head of the company only lasted until 1920 when he was again removed from the company. General Motors went on to become one of the leaders in the auto industry.
General Motors was founded in 1908 but didn’t really start to become a giant in the auto industry until the 1920’s. With a new leader at the helm, Alfred Sloan, auto sales reached the 4.5 million mark and the auto industry now had three giants which were, General Motors, Ford and Chrysler. General Motors were now interested in giving the public more stylish colors, features and comfort became the new motto of the company. General Motors also came up with the option of buying on credit. General Motors had five brands, including Pontiac, Cadillac, Buick, Oldsmobile, and Chevrolet.
There were some rough years for the company after the Wall Street Crash in 1929 but the company kept at it and by 1955 they were the first company to make more than a billion dollars in one year. At one time General Motors was the largest corporation in the US as well as the single largest employer in the world. Currently the company is facing financial woes and will hopefully once again make back to the top of the auto industry.
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What determines how much coverage a climate study gets?
It probably goes without saying that it isn’t strongly related to the quality of the actual science, nor to the clarity of the writing. Appearing in one of the top journals does help (Nature, Science, PNAS and occasionally GRL), though that in itself is no guarantee. Instead, it most often depends on the ‘news’ value of the bottom line. Journalists and editors like stories that surprise, that give something ‘new’ to the subject and are therefore likely to be interesting enough to readers to make them read past the headline. It particularly helps if a new study runs counter to some generally perceived notion (whether that is rooted in fact or not). In such cases, the ‘news peg’ is clear.
And so it was for the Steig et al “Antarctic warming” study that appeared last week. Mainstream media coverage was widespread and generally did a good job of covering the essentials. The most prevalent peg was the fact that the study appeared to reverse the “Antarctic cooling” meme that has been a staple of disinformation efforts for a while now.
It’s worth remembering where that idea actually came from. Back in 2001, Peter Doran and colleagues wrote a paper about the Dry Valleys long term ecosystem responses to climate change, in which they had a section discussing temperature trends over the previous couple of decades (not the 50 years time scale being discussed this week). The “Antarctic cooling” was in their title and (unsurprisingly) dominated the media coverage of their paper as a counterpoint to “global warming”. (By the way, this is a great example to indicate that the biggest bias in the media is towards news, not any particular side of a story). Subsequent work indicated that the polar ozone hole (starting in the early 80s) was having an effect on polar winds and temperature patterns (Thompson and Solomon, 2002; Shindell and Schmidt, 2004), showing clearly that regional climate changes can sometimes be decoupled from the global picture. However, even then both the extent of any cooling and the longer term picture were more difficult to discern due to the sparse nature of the observations in the continental interior. In fact we discussed this way back in one of the first posts on RealClimate back in 2004.
This ambiguity was of course a gift to the propagandists. Thus for years the Doran et al study was trotted out whenever global warming was being questioned. It was of course a classic ‘cherry pick’ – find a region or time period when there is a cooling trend and imply that this contradicts warming trends on global scales over longer time periods. Given a complex dynamic system, such periods and regions will always be found, and so as a tactic it can always be relied on. However, judging from the take-no-prisoners response to the Steig et al paper from the contrarians, this important fact seems to have been forgotten (hey guys, don’t worry you’ll come up with something new soon!).
Actually, some of the pushback has been hilarious. It’s been a great example for showing how incoherent and opportunistic the ‘antis’ really are. Exhibit A is an email (and blog post) sent out by Senator Inhofe’s press staff (i.e. Marc Morano). Within this single email there are misrepresentations, untruths, unashamedly contradictory claims and a couple of absolutely classic quotes. Some highlights:
Dr. John Christy of the University of Alabama in Huntsville slams new Antarctic study for using [the] “best estimate of the continent’s temperature”
Perhaps he’d prefer it if they used the worst estimate? ;)
[Update: It should go without saying that this is simply Morano making up stuff and doesn't reflect Christy's actual quotes or thinking. No-one is safe from Morano's misrepresentations!]
[Further update: They've now clarified it. Sigh....]
Morano has his ear to the ground of course, and in his blog piece dramatically highlights the words “estimated” and “deduced” as if that was some sign of nefarious purpose, rather than a fundamental component of scientific investigation.
Internal contradictions are par for the course. Morano has previously been convinced that “… the vast majority of Antarctica has cooled over the past 50 years.”, yet he now approvingly quotes Kevin Trenberth who says “It is hard to make data where none exist.” (It is indeed, which is why you need to combine as much data as you can find in order to produce a synthesis like this study). So which is it? If you think the data are clear enough to demonstrate strong cooling, you can’t also believe there is no data (on this side of the looking glass anyway).
It’s even more humourous, since even the more limited analysis available before this paper showed pretty much the same amount of Antarctic warming. Compare the IPCC report, with the same values from the new analysis (under various assumptions about the methodology).
(The different versions are the full reconstruction, a version that uses detrended satellite data for the co-variance, a version that uses AWS data instead of satelltes and one that use PCA instead of RegEM. All show positive trends over the last 50 years).
Further contradictions abound: Morano, who clearly wants it to have been cooling, hedges his bets with a “Volcano, Not Global Warming Effects, May be Melting an Antarctic Glacier” Hail Mary pass. Good luck with that!
It always helps if you haven’t actually read the study in question. That way you can just make up conclusions:
Scientist adjusts data — presto, Antarctic cooling disappears
Nope. It’s still there (as anyone reading the paper will see) – it’s just put into a larger scale and longer term context (see figure 3b).
Inappropriate personalisation is always good fodder. Many contrarians seemed disappointed that Mike was only the fourth author (the study would have been much easier to demonise if he’d been the lead). Some pretended he was anyway, and just for good measure accused him of being a ‘modeller’ as well (heaven forbid!).
Others also got in on the fun. A chap called Ross Hays posted a letter to Eric on multiple websites and on many comment threads. On Joe D’Aleo’s site, this letter was accompanied with this little bit of snark:
Icecap Note: Ross shown here with Antarctica’s Mount Erebus volcano in the background was a CNN forecast Meteorologist (a student of mine when I was a professor) who has spent numerous years with boots on the ground working for NASA in Antarctica, not sitting at a computer in an ivory tower in Pennsylvania or Washington State
This is meant as a slur against academics of course, but is particularly ironic, since the authors of the paper have collectively spent over 8 seasons on the ice in Antarctica, 6 seasons in Greenland and one on Baffin Island in support of multiple ice coring and climate measurement projects. Hays’ one or two summers there, his personal anecdotes and misreadings of the temperature record, don’t really cut it.
Neither do rather lame attempts to link these results with the evils of “computer modelling”. According to Booker (for it is he!) because a data analysis uses a computer, it must be a computer model – and probably the same one that the “hockey stick” was based on. Bad computer, bad!
The proprietor of the recently named “Best Science Blog”, also had a couple of choice comments:
In my opinion, this press release and subsequent media interviews were done for media attention.
This remarkable conclusion is followed by some conspiratorial gossip implying that a paper that was submitted over a year ago was deliberately timed to coincide with a speech in Congress from Al Gore that was announced last week. Gosh these scientists are good.
All in all, the critical commentary about this paper has been remarkably weak. Time will tell of course – confirming studies from ice cores and independent analyses are already published, with more rumoured to be on their way. In the meantime, floating ice shelves in the region continue to collapse (the Wilkins will be the tenth in the last decade or so) – each of them with their own unique volcano no doubt – and gravity measurements continue to show net ice loss over the Western part of the ice sheet.
Nonetheless, the loss of the Antarctic cooling meme is clearly bothering the contrarians much more than the loss of 10,000 year old ice. The poor level of their response is not surprising, but it does exemplify the tactics of the whole ‘bury ones head in the sand” movement – they’d much rather make noise than actually work out what is happening. It would be nice if this demonstration of intellectual bankruptcy got some media attention itself.
That’s unlikely though. It’s just not news.


Scientists have long held theories about the importance of proteins called B-type lamins in the process of embryonic stem cells replicating and differentiating into different varieties of cells. New research from a team led by Carnegie's Yixian Zheng indicates that, counter to expectations, these B-type lamins are not necessary for stem cells to renew and develop, but are necessary for proper organ development. Their work is published 24 November by Science Express.
Nuclear lamina is the material that lines the inside of a cell's nucleus. Its major structural component is a family of proteins called lamins, of which B-type lamins are prominent members and thought to be absolutely essential for a cell's survival. Mutations in lamins have been linked to a number of human diseases. Lamins are thought to suppress the expression of certain genes by binding directly to the DNA within the cell's nucleus.
The role of B-type lamins in the differentiation of embryonic stem cells into various types of cells, depending on where in a body they are located, was thought to be crucial. The lamins were thought to use their DNA-binding suppression abilities to tell a cell which type of development pathway to follow.
But the team - including Carnegie's Youngjo Kim, Katie McDole, and Chen-Ming Fan - took a hard look at the functions of B-type lamins in embryonic stem cells and in live mice.
They found that, counter to expectations, lamin-Bs were not essential for embryonic stem cells to survive, nor did their DNA binding directly regulate the genes to which they were attached. However, mice deficient in B-type lamins were born with improperly developed organs - including defects in the lungs, diaphragms and brains - and were unable to breathe.
'Our works seems to indicate that while B-type lamins are not part of the early developmental tissue-building process, while they are important in facilitating the integration of different cell types into the complex architectures of various developing organs,' Kim, the lead author, said. 'We have set the stage to dissect the ways that a cell's nuclear lamina promote tissue organisation process during development.'


Dec. 5, 2012 Engineers at the University of Sheffield have developed a new technique for delivering stem cell therapy to the eye which they hope will help the natural repair of eyes damaged by accident or disease. This could help millions of people across the world retain -- or even regain -- their sight.
In research published in the journal Acta Biomaterialia, the team describe a new method for producing membranes to help in the grafting of stem cells onto the eye, mimicking structural features of the eye itself. The technology has been designed to treat damage to the cornea, the transparent layer on the front of the eye, which is one of the major causes of blindness in the world.
Using a combination of techniques known as microstereolithography and electrospinning, the researchers are able to make a disc of biodegradable material which can be fixed over the cornea. The disc is loaded with stem cells which then multiply, allowing the body to heal the eye naturally.
"The disc has an outer ring containing pockets into which stem cells taken from the patient's healthy eye can be placed," explains EPSRC Fellow, Dr Ílida Ortega Asencio, from Sheffield's Faculty of Engineering. "The material across the centre of the disc is thinner than the ring, so it will biodegrade more quickly allowing the stem cells to proliferate across the surface of the eye to repair the cornea."
A key feature of the disc is that it contains niches or pockets to house and protect the stem cells, mirroring niches found around the rim of a healthy cornea. Standard treatments for corneal blindness are corneal transplants or grafting stem cells onto the eye using donor human amniotic membrane as a temporary carrier to deliver these cells to the eye. For some patients, the treatment can fail after a few years as the repaired eyes do not retain these stem cells, which are required to carry out on-going repair of the cornea. Without this constant repair, thick white scar tissue forms across the cornea causing partial or complete sight loss. The researchers have designed the small pockets they have built into the membrane to help cells to group together and act as a useful reservoir of daughter cells so that a healthy population of stem cells can be retained in the eye.
"Laboratory tests have shown that the membranes will support cell growth, so the next stage is to trial this in patients in India, working with our colleagues in the LV Prasad Eye Institute in Hyderabad," says Professor Sheila MacNeil. "One advantage of our design is that we have made the disc from materials already in use as biodegradable sutures in the eye so we know they won't cause a problem in the body. This means that, subject to the necessary safety studies and approval from Indian Regulatory Authorities, we should be able to move to early stage clinical trials fairly quickly."
Treating corneal blindness is a particularly pressing problem in the developing world, where there are high instances of chemical or accidental damage to the eye but complex treatments such as transplants or amniotic membrane grafts are not available to a large part of the population.
The technique has relevance in more developed countries such as the UK and US as well, according to Dr Frederick Claeyssens. "The current treatments for corneal blindness use donor tissue to deliver the cultured cells which means that you need a tissue bank. But not everyone has access to banked tissues and it is impossible to completely eliminate all risks of disease transmission with living human tissue," he says. "By using a synthetic material, it will eliminate some of the risk to patients and be readily available for all surgeons. We also believe that the overall treatment using these discs will not only be better than current treatments, it will be cheaper as well."
The research is supported by a Wellcome Trust Affordable Healthcare for India Award to the University of Sheffield and the LV Prasad Eye Institute, where the work is led by Associate Director and Head of Clinical Research, Dr Virender Sangwan. The work has also been supported through a Research Fellowship for Dr Ortega from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).
Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:
- Ílida Ortega, Anthony J. Ryan, Pallavi Deshpande, Sheila MacNeil, Frederik Claeyssens. Combined microfabrication and electrospinning to produce 3-D architectures for corneal repair. Acta Biomaterialia, 2012; DOI: 10.1016/j.actbio.2012.10.039
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.


The Long Walk Home
The Black Worker & The Great Migration from Cape Breton
At the turn of the century, a mass migration occurred to Cape Breton Island of hundreds of free, skilled Black workers from Alabama, lured by what they called 'The Promise.' Their emigration back to the US is scarcely known today. In 1911, hundreds of men from the West Indies were again lured by 'The Promise'. Their descendents form the heart of the historic Whitney Pier community. Our correspondent, Paul MacDougall, files reports from Bangor, Maine, and Sydney.
By Paul MacDougall*
Shunpiking Magazine No. 38
Bangor, January 13/1903-About 250 Black people showed up here today at the police station looking for shelter from the fierce winter cold. They were a penniless, destitute bunch, clad mainly in rags, complaining about being hungry, and shivering from the cold. Their spokesmen seemed to be a person by the name of Griggins or Griffin, I couldn't make him out, Walter was his first name so let's stick with that. His wife was with him and she seemed awfully upset at their predicament. Walter said they needed a place for the night and planned to head on up to Bucksport the next day or so by train, then catch the steamer Penobscot to take them to Boston. From there the group planned to head down to the southern states, many back to Alabama, where they originally came from.
I thought that some of these people looked familiar when I saw them mingling around town earlier in the day, and Walter confirmed for me they were in Bangor about two years earlier during their trek north. They had all been guaranteed work in the new steel mill that was being constructed in Sydney, Nova Scotia. The mill was the brainchild of New Englander, Henry Melville Whitney, the same fellow who had organized the Dominion Coal Company in Cape Breton around 1893.
In 1899, Nova Scotia Steel, a steel-producing operation out of New Glasgow, NS turned down Whitney's offer of a merger of their two companies. Whitney knew he could get easy access to coal (he already owned it) and iron ore from Bell Island off Newfoundland, so he gathered some financiers from Toronto and Montreal and formed his own company, The Dominion Iron and Steel Company or DISCO as they called it. They started building a steel plant almost immediately. By 1902 it was in operation.
Walter claimed that he and his companions were recruited to work at DISCO through agents at steel mills they worked in throughout the country. Hundreds of skilled Black furnace men were enticed to come and help build and work in the blast furnaces at the steel plant in Sydney. The blast furnace combines coke made from coal, iron ore and limestone to produce liquid iron, which eventually becomes steel. It's hot and hellish work and DISCO officials insisted on hiring only "first class men in every way," men that they could "rely on at all times."
Numerous men mentioned J.H. Means, the Superintendent of Furnaces, as instrumental in recruiting them to Cape Breton. They thought Means was from Alabama, and he was well connected with Alabama and Pennsylvanian steelmen. He recruited men from these contacts as well as from people he knew in New York and Maryland. By early 1902 many Black American steel workers had taken up residence in Sydney and were working at the steel plant.
Housing was a problem right from the beginning, I was told. They were no fine homes with gardens, the families were housed in shacks that were nothing more than bunkhouses normally only used for single men. Skilled white employees lived in the Ashby area of Sydney or "overtown", while the skilled Blacks and any other unskilled labourers lived in Whitney Pier, many almost adjacent to the plant or its coke ovens. They called this area Cokovia or Cokeville (see 1902 map this page). Most of these living quarters lacked sewer or water hookup, were filthy and had poor ventilation.
The men claimed that even though they had important jobs at the steel plant they were at the bottom rung of the social scale. They had to open their own school in 1902 with the aid of the African Methodist Episcopal church which was formed earlier that same year. Mixing between Blacks and Whites rarely happened socially and the Black person's lot in life was not moving forward. The $2:00 a day wage was really only $1:25 and they didn't see any of this until they had worked over sixty days. Enough was enough.
I left Walter, his wife and the rest of the Black families at the police station and roamed back down the street. A few Blacks were hanging about the restaurant at the corner, and I knew they weren't local; more displaced Cape Breton workers I thought. It was only a couple of years ago that these people were streaming through here at a fast and furious pace. It was as if they couldn't wait to leave the States and settle in Canada. They had some of the happiest looks on their faces that I'd seen on just about anybody. My how things changed. I couldn't help wonder if they'd been hoodwinked by someone in heading all the way to Cape Breton to work.
Filed by your correspondent for the Bangor Daily News
After they left a couple of days later I fired off a letter to a newspaperman I knew in Sydney. He worked for the Sydney Record and got back to me some time later. He said that a steel company official told him Alabama Blacks "were all doing well," earning twice as much as they did before, and they were happy and contented."
Sydney, Nova Scotia, February 2001-From 1901 to 1904 hundreds of Black men and their families tramped back and forth from the steel cities of the United States to a fledgling steel plant city in Cape Breton that had been described in 1902 by the Canadian Manufacturing Association as, "the outstanding feature of our industrial development of the past few years." The steel plant's founder Henry Whitney said, "I cannot control my enthusiasm when I think of the future." Sadly, this future was short and bleak for the skilled migrant Black men who were sold on the dream of a new country to live and raise their families in.
Faced with the obvious sterotypism of the day, poor despicable living conditions, and a molten stream of broken promises, almost every one of these families returned home. Many died along the way. J.H. Means left the plant in early 1903 and it may have been his leaving that influenced many Blacks to leave. He had recruited many of them and his absence may have removed any faint hope of social advancement they may have hoped for. By the end of 1904 this African-American community was all but dead. The school died, the church died, the institutions they so quickly built in Sydney all but disappeared.
By 1911 the plant was expanding at an incredible rate. New workers were needed and the company began to actively recruit Blacks from the British West Indies and especially the island of Barbados. Between 1911 and 1914 hundreds of these immigrants settled in Sydney and worked as mainly unskilled labourers at the steel plant. Some also worked in the mines and settled in Glace Bay and New Waterford. These people are the ancestors of the small African-Canadian community that resides in Cape Breton today.
Communities will always be an evolving place. The Whitney Pier region of Sydney was probably one of the most cosmopolitan areas on the planet during the early years of the last century. If you search back enough you can probably trace back dozens of different ethnic groups to a period of time when their ancestors came to work at the steel plant. But there is always an exception to every rule. The American Blacks played a crucial role in the very beginning of the Sydney steel plant, but never stayed around to reap any benefits. It may be fair to surmise that the development of Sydney over the past 100 years is owed to a few hundred Black men who got the first blast furnace operational. Their expertise cannot be underestimated.
At a time when Sydney Steel is on its deathbed, after 100 years of operation, the contribution of the people who built it, worked there, and raised families around it, must be recognized. The majority of these people stayed, the American Blacks left, but the legacy of steel making in Sydney needs to be remembered in a true light, not as a bargain basement sale or an environmental war zone. The men, women and children that walked from Sydney to Maine and beyond in the dead of winter in 1903 and 1904 for the hopes of a better life, need to be remembered for more than this.
I encourage anyone to read Elizabeth Beaton's paper "An African-American Community in Cape Breton, 1901-1904" published in Acadiensis, XXIV, 2 Spring 1995. Elizabeth teaches history at UCCB and most of the material for this article comes from her research and she should be commended for it. I invented the correspondent from Maine, but stories of the plight of the returning Black workers were reported in the Sydney Record and the Bangor Daily News.
Working in Steel, The Early Years in Canada, 1883-1935 by Craig Heron is an interesting book and the quotes by the CMA and Henry Whitney regarding the future success of DISCO were taken from it.
Community meeting, Melnick Labour Hall, Whitney Pier in Sydney, Cape Breton, mid-1950s. Courtesy the Coward family
A rare though blurred 1901 photograph inside the Sydney steel works of black furnace workers on the DISCO cast house floor. Beaton Institute, photographer unknown.
Black steel workers marshalling blast furnace 'miniature' in coronation parade. Beaton Institute, photographer unknown.
Lillian Coward (centre) was the first wife of Arthur Coward, who emigrated from Barbados in 1911 (and great-grandfather of Justin Coward, see centrefold). Mae Crawford (on right), also from the West Indies, was a well-known community entrepreneur (West Indian dishes).
Throughout Nova Scotia, the Black community always met on a regular basis in similar halls whenever the occasion arose.
Lucus Toussaint emigrated to the Pier in 1911 from Grenada. He is the maternal grandfather of Curtis Coward and great-grandfather of Justin Coward (see centrefold).
Albert Almon Plan of Sydney, 1902. Whitney Pier (Ward V), indicating "Cokeville". Courtesy of the Whitney Pier Historical Society and the Beaton Institute.
*Paul MacDougall, a freelance writer and microbiology technologist, teaches
in the Environmental Health Program at UCCB.
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When the National Wild Turkey Federation (NWTF) was first founded in 1973 there were only 1.5 million wild turkeys across the U.S., Canada and Mexico. Today, it is estimated there are more than 5.6 million wild turkeys.
In Utah, wild turkey restoration efforts continue to be the most aggressive in the nation. Over 2,800 wild turkeys have been relocated to suitable habitat areas in Utah since the winter of 1999. As a result, wild turkey permits have increased 20 percent for the spring 2002 season.
However, this program will not be complete until over 200,000 wild turkeys roam the cottonwood river bottoms, pinyon/juniper, and ponderosa pine forests of the state. Whether you pursue wild turkeys as a hunter, or simply enjoy watching these magnificent birds in their natural surroundings, the time to view wild turkeys in Utah has never been better.
At the forefront of this dramatic return in Utah, has been the Federation's volunteers, working side-by-side with the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources.
Now, with most restoration efforts completed in the East, all eyes have shifted to the West, where the wild turkey continues to redefine it's own idea of suitable habitat. While the release of a wild turkey into western habitat remains one of the federation's most enduring symbols, it is just one brick in a foundation of good works that are impacting people's lives and the environment in many positive ways.
Since 1977, the NWTF has spent over 144 million dollars on over 16,000 projects nationwide. The federation helps fund transplants, research projects, habitat acquisition, education, and the equipment needed to successfully accomplish these tasks. Through the Federation's regional habitat programs, volunteers have helped improve hundreds of thousands of acres by planting trees, crops, winter food sources and grasses that provide food and shelter for not only the wild turkey, but many others species of wildlife as well. Also improved in many areas, particularly in the west, has been water quality. Projects occurring right here in southeastern Utah include a San Rafael Desert guzzler, Knolls Ranch habitat improvement, and numerous other projects on the La Sal Mountains, Blue Mountains and Book Cliffs areas.
This month the Price River chapter of the NWTF will be hosting it's annual Wild Turkey Banquet on January 26. For more information, please call (435) 259-9453.


Tightly wound: A cross-section of a new cable design shows superconducting ribbons wound around a core of copper wires.
Source: “Home Alone: Co-Residency Detection in the Cloud via Side-Channel Analysis”
Yinqian Zhang et al.
Proceedings of the IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy, May 2011
Results: A prototype system allows companies that use cloud computing services to confirm that their data is safe from others using the same service provider. It can detect with 80 percent accuracy the presence of unauthorized processing on the same server; the rate of false positives is 1 percent. The system will notice both attackers and inappropriate data sharing.
Why it matters: Cloud computing makes it possible to access generic processing and storage resources over the Internet. But security concerns have made many companies and organizations hesitant to use these services. Data could be stored on hardware shared with competitors, they fear, or it could even be vulnerable to malicious software actively trying to steal information. Some customers, such as NASA, have demanded that cloud providers physically isolate their data from that of other users. The problem is that until now, it’s been almost impossible to verify that this is being done.
Methods: In the past, researchers have found that attackers can steal data about a virtual machine’s activities—even sensitive information such as passwords—by watching subtle clues such as how it uses shared system resources, including the server’s temporary storage system. The researchers coöpted this principle to make it work for defense. They trained a legitimate virtual machine to watch a server’s cache for telltale signs of hostile virtual machines on the same server. The technique requires no modification to existing cloud technologies and no action from the cloud provider.
Next Steps: The researchers are expanding the prototype to create a complete system that can run on a commercial cloud service, such as Amazon Web Services.
Low-Literacy Web Search
A form of the Web for people who can’t read aims to help poor countries
Source: “Spoken Web: Creation, Navigation and Searching of Voicesites”
Sheetal Agarwal et al.
2011 International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces (IUI), February 13-16, 2011, Palo Alto, California
Results: A search engine developed by IBM researchers makes it possible to find and access information on a spoken version of the World Wide Web. A test of the interface by 40 farmers in the Indian state of Gujarat showed that it was easy to use.
Why it matters: More than one billion people worldwide are illiterate, most of them in poor nations. This poses a more fundamental barrier to Web use than the cost of computers and network access. For four years, a team at IBM Research India has operated a system called the Spoken Web that uses telephone numbers in place of Web addresses so that users can dial in to “upload” or listen to spoken information. Several thousand people worldwide use the service to share information such as local crop prices. However, until now there hasn’t been an efficient way to search and sort through that information.
Methods: IBM’s search engine relies on speech recognition to understand the word a person is searching for—a pesticide name, for example—and to find mentions of that word on the Spoken Web. Like a conventional search engine, it can rapidly generate a list of many results, but a user cannot skim the list to choose the best result, as is possible on the text Web. Instead, the system tells the user how many results it found and suggests ways to filter that list—for example, by the name of the person who recorded a particular piece of information. This step is repeated until there are five or fewer results. That short list is read out to the user, who chooses which result to “browse” to.
Next Steps: The researchers plan to roll out the system to all users of the Spoken Web. They are also working to improve the quality of the speech recognition software involved. Most access to the Spoken Web is in Indian languages that makers of such software have not focused on before.


December 21, 2009
What might our landscape look like in the near future? More specifically, where has urban growth occurred in the last thirty years, and where is it likely to occur over the next twenty years? Researchers at UNC Asheville and UNC Charlotte, as part of an ongoing Renaissance Computing Institute (RENCI) project, are conducting analyses that answer these types of questions, and also developing tools to help policy makers and planners understand and manage rapid urban growth. . Using historical satellite imagery, development trends, population data and population projections, they’ve been able to design an Urban Growth Model that can generate visual representations of what our landscape may look like in the future.
Building upon a similar study of the Greater Charlotte region, released in 2007, researchers are in the process of analyzing land conversion patterns for all of western North Carolina. The initial results of their collaborative research highlight the effect of development on four western North Carolina counties: Madison, Buncombe, Henderson and Transylvania. Those results indicate that between 1976 and 2006, development in the four-county region increased nearly 500 percent, or at an average rate of six acres of green space per day – outpacing population growth by nearly 10-to-one.
Researchers have identified several important predictors of development patterns, including an area’s proximity to nearest road or interstate interchange and proximity to nearest urban center, or major employment center. Topographical slope and “development pressure,” or proximity to previously developed areas, are also key indicators of where urbanization and future development are likely to occur. Development forecasts extend to 2030, utilizing all available county-level population projections for the region.
The Urban Growth Model indicates an additional 47,489 acres of forests and farm lands will be developed in the four-county region by 2030, which is the equivalent of losing almost 75 square miles – or more than six properties the size of the Biltmore Estate – worth of green space. That’s significant for an area that draws visitors from around the globe for its natural and scenic attractions.
The Urban Growth Model results include statistics on the amount and rate of development as well as maps of future development patterns. These are important tools for policy makers, planners and conservationist as they provide valuable information on not only when and how much development is expected, but also where it is likely to occur.
James Fox, the director of RENCI at UNC Asheville and the school’s National Environment Modeling and Analysis Center (NEMAC), has already witnessed local lawmakers' interest in the growth model results. “It’s going to be used by several different groups of decision makers,” he said, adding the study is an important tool that will make it easier for local governments to collaborate with each other when making policy and planning decisions.
“This is another important tool we can incorporate into our work," said Richard Broadwell, a Land Protection Specialist for the Conservation Trust of North Carolina, which is working to preserve the scenic viewsheds along the Blue Ridge Parkway. His organization plans to use the data to help them determine which lands to protect and "how to spend our limited funds."
Most of the anticipated growth is expected to occur in Buncombe and Henderson Counties. These two counties are forecast to contribute 22,101 and 18,381 acres of developed land, respectively, between 2010 and 2030. Henderson County is predicted to experience the greatest change in total developed land relative to county area, with total number of developed acres comprising 13.5% of county area in 2010 and 21.3% of county area by 2030.
“For every acre of land that is converted from a natural state through development, there is a really big impact on the mountains' plants and animals,” said Carl Silverstein, Executive Director for the Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy.
Silverstein is also concerned about development pressure on local farmers, decreased interest from tourists, and the impact urban sprawl could have on the headwaters of rivers, which provide drinking water for millions of North Carolina citizens.
Further, the findings demonstrate that humans require more land per person than they once did. In 1976, developed land equated to 0.06 acres per person in the four-county area. By 2030, researchers forecast per-capita land requirements will increase to over a quarter-acre in the region.
Madison County’s "human footprint" is projected to increase more than the other three counties, by 0.18 acres per person (a 67 percent increase) between 2006 and 2030. In comparison, per-capita land consumption in Buncombe, Henderson and Transylvania Counties is forecast to increase by 28 percent, 13 percent and 18 percent, respectively, in the same period.
Created in 2004, RENCI includes a statewide network of academic institutions working to solve complex problems affecting quality of life and economic competitiveness in North Carolina by tapping into university expertise and through the use of advanced technologies.
The study on the four-county expansion of the Urban Growth Model was conducted by researchers at UNC Charlotte’s Center for Applied Geographic Information Science (CAGIS), which is one of the partners in the RENCI at UNC Charlotte team. RENCI’s UNC Asheville Engagement Center is the lead regional partner for the western North Carolina expansion, with funding from the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation, the City of Asheville, the U.S. Forest Service and RENCI’s home office in Chapel Hill. The study’s findings for the remaining western North Carolina counties are expected to be released in the spring of 2010.
Additional research findings, including animated maps of land conversion rates for the four-county region, are available at (http://renci.uncc.edu/WesternExpansion).
RENCI operates facilities at UNC Asheville, UNC Charlotte, East Carolina University, UNC Chapel Hill, Duke University and NC State University as well as its flagship site off campus in Chapel Hill. http://www.renci.org
RENCI at UNC Charlotte involves faculty and staff from three UNC Charlotte research centers: the Urban Institute, the Center for Applied Geographic Information Science and the Charlotte Visualization Center. www.renci.uncc.edu; www.ui.uncc.edu; www.gis.uncc.edu; www.viscenter.uncc.edu
About UNC Asheville
As the only designated liberal arts institution in the 16-campus University of North Carolina system, UNC Asheville serves students who are prepared for academic challenges by offering an intellectually rigorous education that builds critical thinking and workforce skills. UNC Asheville's 3,400 undergraduate students select from 30 majors. The University gets high marks for educational innovation from U.S. News & World Report and is ranked among the best liberal arts colleges nationally. http://www.unca.edu
About UNC Charlotte
A public research university, UNC Charlotte is the fourth largest campus among the 17 institutions of The University of North Carolina system. It is the largest institution of higher education in the Charlotte region. The University offers 18 doctoral programs, 62 master’s degree programs and 90 programs leading to bachelor’s degrees. Fall 2009 enrollment surpassed 24,000 students, including 5,000 graduate students. http://www.uncc.edu
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