For living, the American didactic regularity has been scrutinized, berated, belittled, and criticized when it comes to the learning of Americas offspring. For several families, secretive schools, as classy, are a tuition-guaranteed, well-rounded learning. Charter schools, which are privately operated civic schools formal by the stately departments of civic directive, are an unorthodox as positively. A upward typeface of learning, residence education, is appropriate constantly increasingly prevalent. In studies conducted by the Us. District of Learning, in 2003 present were approximately 1.1 million students who were residence- schooled. According to a prepare in black and white by the Us. District of Learning, the delineation of residence schooled encompassed students whose parents reported them as being schooled at residence as a replacement for of at a civic or secretive train for at smallest amount quantity of their learning and if their part-time staffing in civic or secretive schools did not exceed 25 hours a week. Students who were schooled at residence simply as of a acting illness were not built-in as residence schoolers.
In adding to the figures on the total of students enrolled, the Us. Dept. of Learning besides surveyed folks parents who residence schooled their offspring to hit upon the work out why parents chose this didactic choice. The work out agreed the majority habitually (by 31% of parents surveyed) was that parents were alarmed not far off from the structure of the train populace. A further maximum work out parents chose to residence train their offspring was to offer spiritual or decent directive, which they would not pick up in a civic train. Interestingly an adequate amount, simply 16% of parents were frustrated with the intellectual directive accessible at new schools.
Residence education rations vary from stately to stately. It is vital for a person taking into consideration residence education to do their training Each one stately has reliable official rations in organize for your son to be residence schooled. In North Carolina, for case in point, parents who residence train want to have a least possible of a soaring train certificate or the correspondent the leave of directive has to be inspected by the native flames assemble to manage inevitable it meets the didactic cryptogram rations and the close relative obligation go on particular proceedings. These are just a the minority of the stately rations. Nevada, on the new hand over, requires that a residence education close relative have a ideas pass or official recognition. On the contrary they do not want inspections, nor do they want recordkeeping or the direction of achievement tests. As you container predict, present is a group of variance, so it is important to get in touch with your stately district of civic directive to hit upon on show the rations that operate to your circumstances otherwise you embark on residence education. Your stately district of civic directive motivation besides have a roll of funds groups, sitting room for ordering ideas equipment, and new property to evade you as you look for to offer this exceptional learning for your son.
As residence education has its peculiar set of non-traditional didactic challenges, it container besides be creative, pleasurable, and memorable for your son. Whether your son learns out of fixed civic schools, secretive schools, or residence education, the the majority vital thing to go on in beware is that a childs learning is desperately vital to their hope successes as an adult.
MOU with Panthera launches Guyana's first jaguar conservation framework
New York, NY The jaguars of Guyana gained significant ground yesterday with the establishment of the country's first official jaguar-focused agreement by the government of Guyana and wild cat conservation organization, Panthera.
Gathering in Georgetown, Guyana's Minister of Natural Resources and the Environment, the Honorable Robert M. Persaud, presided over the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Ministry's Permanent Secretary, Mr. Joslyn McKenzie, and Panthera's CEO, Dr. Alan Rabinowitz. Serving as Panthera's fifth jaguar conservation agreement with a Latin American government, this MOU marks an official commitment by both parties to collaboratively undertake research and conservation initiatives that ensure the protection of Guyana's national animal, jaguar conservation education among its people, and mitigation of human-jaguar conflicts in the country.
Launching this agreement provides a framework through which Panthera, in partnership with Guyana's Protected Areas and National Parks Commissions, can strengthen the effectiveness of the country's Protected Areas System for wildlife, and outline the most effective initiatives to conserve the nation's jaguars. Several initial activities to be undertaken through the agreement include mapping of the presence and distribution of jaguars across Guyana, and implementing a human-jaguar conflict response team that helps ranchers in livestock husbandry techniques and assesses conflict hotspots to better focus mitigation efforts and reduce conflict.
At the ceremony, the Honorable Robert M. Persaud stated, "We are proud of our new partnership with Panthera to secure the continuity of our sustainable development efforts while conserving our national symbol, the jaguar."
Panthera's CEO and jaguar expert, Dr. Alan Rabinowitz, continued, "Historically, Guyana has achieved incredible success in sustainably balancing the country's economic development, natural resource management, the livelihoods of its people, and the preservation of its unique wildlife and wild places. The signing of this jaguar conservation agreement demonstrates the government's continued commitment to its legacy of conservation alongside economic progress and diversification."
Unlike most other Latin American and developing nations rich in natural resources, Guyana has maintained an exemplary model of habitat preservation, assisted by sparse human populations in the southern half of the country and a strong ethic for sustainable development, aided by important regulatory frameworks. In recent years, Guyana has implemented a Low Carbon Development Strategy to protect its 16 million hectares of rainforests and adhere to the United Nations Programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries (REDD). Additionally, in 2011, Guyana committed to the establishment of the national Protected Areas Act, providing a framework for the management of the country's preserved landscapes, including those within the Jaguar Corridor.
Such dedication to environmental conservation, along with its unique placement rooted between Venezuela to the north, Brazil to the west and south, and Suriname to the east, has established Guyana's pristine forest and savanna landscape system as a critical connecting block for jaguar populations in northern South America, and through the Jaguar Corridor. Conceptualized by Dr. Rabinowitz, the Jaguar Corridor Initiative is the backbone of Panthera's Jaguar Program, which seeks to connect and protect jaguar populations ranging from Mexico to Argentina to ensure the species' genetic diversity and survival.
Today, Guyana represents one of 18 Latin American countries that is home to the jaguar, and one of 13 countries in which Panthera is conducting jaguar conservation science. In fact, the signing of this MOU comes at the heels of a ten-day exploratory expedition of Guyana's Rewa River by Panthera's jaguar scientists, including Vice President and legendary biologist Dr. George Schaller, Northern South America Jaguar Program Regional Director Dr. Esteban Payan, and grantee, Dr. Evi Paemelaere. Along with assessing the state of biodiversity and threats facing this watershed, Panthera's team made a milestone sighting of the notoriously elusive 'forest jaguar' during the trip, indicating the potentially healthy condition of the riparian forests bordering the Rewa River.
"Being able to have a forest jaguar sighting in 10 days in the river is a testament to the good health of this forest. Sometimes years pass without seeing a jaguar in a perfectly sound forest environment," commented Dr. Payan.
View Panthera's Guyana image gallery.
Since 2011, Dr. Paemelaere has led Panthera's jaguar conservation initiatives in southern Guyana, concentrating on the Karanambu and Dadanawa Ranches of the Rupununi savannas. Traversed by the Rupununi River, these savannas serve as an extraordinary hotspot of biological diversity and an essential element of the Jaguar Corridor, potentially connecting Guyana's jaguars with those of the Amazons.
Panthera's partnership with the Karanambu Trust and Lodge - a former cattle ranch emblematic of historic Guyana turned eco-tourism operation - established the country's first jaguar monitoring site and first mammal-focused biodiversity survey in the country. Often working on horseback, Panthera's jaguar scientists conducted surveys on both Karanambu and Dadanawa ranches using camera traps and interviews to determine jaguar density, and assess the extent of human-jaguar conflict and unique threats facing the species.
"A jaguar density of three to four individuals per 100 km2 for the Rupununi savannas means these habitats are as important as rainforests for the conservation of the jaguar," said Dr. Payan. In partnership with the Karanambu Trust and WWF Guyana, Panthera has also contributed to capacity-building with local Amerindian communities.
In 2013, Panthera is working to assess the state and presence of jaguars inside a logging concession between the Iwokrama Reserve and Central Suriname Nature Reserve, also embedded in the Jaguar Corridor.
###
Download a map of Guyana and watch a video from the field.
About the Jaguar Corridor Initiative
Panthera's Jaguar Corridor Initiative seeks to link core jaguar populations across the jaguar's range within human landscapes, from Mexico to Argentina, to preserve the species' genetic diversity. Through multilateral partnerships, government support, and local buy-in, Panthera is the driving force behind this initiative. Saving jaguars range-wide is a winning strategy for conserving vast landscapes and ecosystem functions, and preserving human health and livelihoods. Visit the Jaguar Corridor Initiative.
About Panthera
Panthera, founded in 2006, is devoted exclusively to the conservation of wild cats and their ecosystems. Utilizing the expertise of the world's premier cat biologists, Panthera develops and implements global conservation strategies for the largest, most imperiled cats tigers, lions, jaguars, and snow leopards. Representing the most comprehensive effort of its kind, Panthera works in partnership with local and international NGOs, scientific institutions, local communities and governments around the globe. Visit www.panthera.org
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Guyana government and Panthera sign historic jaguar conservation agreementPublic release date: 25-Jan-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
MOU with Panthera launches Guyana's first jaguar conservation framework
New York, NY The jaguars of Guyana gained significant ground yesterday with the establishment of the country's first official jaguar-focused agreement by the government of Guyana and wild cat conservation organization, Panthera.
Gathering in Georgetown, Guyana's Minister of Natural Resources and the Environment, the Honorable Robert M. Persaud, presided over the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Ministry's Permanent Secretary, Mr. Joslyn McKenzie, and Panthera's CEO, Dr. Alan Rabinowitz. Serving as Panthera's fifth jaguar conservation agreement with a Latin American government, this MOU marks an official commitment by both parties to collaboratively undertake research and conservation initiatives that ensure the protection of Guyana's national animal, jaguar conservation education among its people, and mitigation of human-jaguar conflicts in the country.
Launching this agreement provides a framework through which Panthera, in partnership with Guyana's Protected Areas and National Parks Commissions, can strengthen the effectiveness of the country's Protected Areas System for wildlife, and outline the most effective initiatives to conserve the nation's jaguars. Several initial activities to be undertaken through the agreement include mapping of the presence and distribution of jaguars across Guyana, and implementing a human-jaguar conflict response team that helps ranchers in livestock husbandry techniques and assesses conflict hotspots to better focus mitigation efforts and reduce conflict.
At the ceremony, the Honorable Robert M. Persaud stated, "We are proud of our new partnership with Panthera to secure the continuity of our sustainable development efforts while conserving our national symbol, the jaguar."
Panthera's CEO and jaguar expert, Dr. Alan Rabinowitz, continued, "Historically, Guyana has achieved incredible success in sustainably balancing the country's economic development, natural resource management, the livelihoods of its people, and the preservation of its unique wildlife and wild places. The signing of this jaguar conservation agreement demonstrates the government's continued commitment to its legacy of conservation alongside economic progress and diversification."
Unlike most other Latin American and developing nations rich in natural resources, Guyana has maintained an exemplary model of habitat preservation, assisted by sparse human populations in the southern half of the country and a strong ethic for sustainable development, aided by important regulatory frameworks. In recent years, Guyana has implemented a Low Carbon Development Strategy to protect its 16 million hectares of rainforests and adhere to the United Nations Programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries (REDD). Additionally, in 2011, Guyana committed to the establishment of the national Protected Areas Act, providing a framework for the management of the country's preserved landscapes, including those within the Jaguar Corridor.
Such dedication to environmental conservation, along with its unique placement rooted between Venezuela to the north, Brazil to the west and south, and Suriname to the east, has established Guyana's pristine forest and savanna landscape system as a critical connecting block for jaguar populations in northern South America, and through the Jaguar Corridor. Conceptualized by Dr. Rabinowitz, the Jaguar Corridor Initiative is the backbone of Panthera's Jaguar Program, which seeks to connect and protect jaguar populations ranging from Mexico to Argentina to ensure the species' genetic diversity and survival.
Today, Guyana represents one of 18 Latin American countries that is home to the jaguar, and one of 13 countries in which Panthera is conducting jaguar conservation science. In fact, the signing of this MOU comes at the heels of a ten-day exploratory expedition of Guyana's Rewa River by Panthera's jaguar scientists, including Vice President and legendary biologist Dr. George Schaller, Northern South America Jaguar Program Regional Director Dr. Esteban Payan, and grantee, Dr. Evi Paemelaere. Along with assessing the state of biodiversity and threats facing this watershed, Panthera's team made a milestone sighting of the notoriously elusive 'forest jaguar' during the trip, indicating the potentially healthy condition of the riparian forests bordering the Rewa River.
"Being able to have a forest jaguar sighting in 10 days in the river is a testament to the good health of this forest. Sometimes years pass without seeing a jaguar in a perfectly sound forest environment," commented Dr. Payan.
View Panthera's Guyana image gallery.
Since 2011, Dr. Paemelaere has led Panthera's jaguar conservation initiatives in southern Guyana, concentrating on the Karanambu and Dadanawa Ranches of the Rupununi savannas. Traversed by the Rupununi River, these savannas serve as an extraordinary hotspot of biological diversity and an essential element of the Jaguar Corridor, potentially connecting Guyana's jaguars with those of the Amazons.
Panthera's partnership with the Karanambu Trust and Lodge - a former cattle ranch emblematic of historic Guyana turned eco-tourism operation - established the country's first jaguar monitoring site and first mammal-focused biodiversity survey in the country. Often working on horseback, Panthera's jaguar scientists conducted surveys on both Karanambu and Dadanawa ranches using camera traps and interviews to determine jaguar density, and assess the extent of human-jaguar conflict and unique threats facing the species.
"A jaguar density of three to four individuals per 100 km2 for the Rupununi savannas means these habitats are as important as rainforests for the conservation of the jaguar," said Dr. Payan. In partnership with the Karanambu Trust and WWF Guyana, Panthera has also contributed to capacity-building with local Amerindian communities.
In 2013, Panthera is working to assess the state and presence of jaguars inside a logging concession between the Iwokrama Reserve and Central Suriname Nature Reserve, also embedded in the Jaguar Corridor.
###
Download a map of Guyana and watch a video from the field.
About the Jaguar Corridor Initiative
Panthera's Jaguar Corridor Initiative seeks to link core jaguar populations across the jaguar's range within human landscapes, from Mexico to Argentina, to preserve the species' genetic diversity. Through multilateral partnerships, government support, and local buy-in, Panthera is the driving force behind this initiative. Saving jaguars range-wide is a winning strategy for conserving vast landscapes and ecosystem functions, and preserving human health and livelihoods. Visit the Jaguar Corridor Initiative.
About Panthera
Panthera, founded in 2006, is devoted exclusively to the conservation of wild cats and their ecosystems. Utilizing the expertise of the world's premier cat biologists, Panthera develops and implements global conservation strategies for the largest, most imperiled cats tigers, lions, jaguars, and snow leopards. Representing the most comprehensive effort of its kind, Panthera works in partnership with local and international NGOs, scientific institutions, local communities and governments around the globe. Visit www.panthera.org
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Jan. 25, 2013 ? Population explosions of pine beetles, which have been decimating North American forests in recent decades, may be prevented by boosting competitor and predator beetle populations, a Dartmouth study suggests.
Bark beetles are the most destructive forest pests worldwide. Management and climate change have resulted in younger, denser forests that are even more susceptible to attack. Though intensively studied for decades, until now an understanding of bark beetle population dynamics -- extreme ups and downs -- has remained elusive.
The Dartmouth-led study, published in the January issue of the journal Population Ecology, confirmed, for the first time, that the abundance of a certain animal species -- in this case the southern pine beetle -- fluctuates innately between extremes, with no middle ground.
"That is different from most species, such as deer, warblers and swallowtail butterflies, whose populations tend to be regular around some average abundance based on food, weather, and other external factors," says Matt Ayres, a professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Dartmouth and senior author on the paper. "They don't appear and disappear in cycles. Rather, they exist in two stable equilibrium states -- one of high abundance and the other of scarcity." Once the population pendulum swings toward the high end, it won't quickly or easily swing back.
The new research by Dartmouth scientists and their forester colleagues could provide the means to limit this seemingly bipolar dynamic, keeping the bark beetles at the lower stable population level.
The studies identify the presence of bark beetle competitors and predators (specifically two other beetles) as the predominant limiting factor that can keep the bark beetles at a low, stable equilibrium. The authors suggest that the presence of these competitors and predators could be encouraged as a control strategy.
"The pine beetles produce pheromones, chemical signals, that attract enough competitors and predators to prevent outbreaks," says Sharon Martinson, a member of the research team and first author on the new paper. "Leaving more dead trees in forests can provide habitat for competitor beetles that rarely kill tree, and for predators that eat both beetle species."
The authors suggest that other pest species with catastrophic impacts may also have natural dynamics that include a tipping point between the bipolar population states. By learning what factors control those tipping points, impacts on ecosystems can be averted through monitoring and occasional intervention strategies.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Dartmouth College, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.
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Journal Reference:
Sharon J. Martinson, Tiina Ylioja, Brian T. Sullivan, Ronald F. Billings, Matthew P. Ayres. Alternate attractors in the population dynamics of a tree-killing bark beetle. Population Ecology, 2012; 55 (1): 95 DOI: 10.1007/s10144-012-0357-y
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. ? Jan. 25, 2013 ? Not surprisingly, a cancer diagnosis creates stress. And patients with prostate cancer show higher levels of anxiety compared to other cancer patients.
A new study by researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center indicates that stress is not just an emotional side effect of the diagnosis; it also can reduce the effectiveness of prostate cancer drugs and accelerate the development of prostate cancer.
The findings are published in the February issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation.
The Wake Forest Baptist team, headed by George Kulik, D.V.M., Ph.D., associate professor of cancer biology, tested the effects of behavioral stress in two different mouse models of prostate cancer.
One model used mice that were implanted with human prostate cancer cells and treated with a drug that is currently in clinical trial for prostate cancer treatment. When the mice were kept calm and free of stress, the drug destroyed prostate cancer cells and inhibited tumor growth. However, when the mice were stressed, the cancer cells didn't die and the drug did not inhibit tumor growth.
In the second model, mice genetically modified to develop prostate cancer were used. When these mice were repeatedly stressed, the size of prostate tumors increased. When the mice were treated with bicalutamide, a drug currently used to treat prostate cancer, their prostate tumors decreased in size. However, if mice were subjected to repeated stress, the prostate tumors didn't respond as well to the drug.
After analyzing the data, the Wake Forest Baptist researchers identified the cell signaling pathway by which epinephrine, a hormone also known as adrenaline, sets off the cellular chain reaction that controls cell death. Considering that prostate cancer diagnosis increases stress and anxiety levels, stress-induced activation of the signaling pathway that turns off the cell death process may lead to a vicious cycle of stress and cancer progression, Kulik said.
Yet in both models in which the mice were given beta-blocker, stress did not promote prostate tumor growth. Beta-blocker is a drug that inhibits the activation of anti-death signaling by epinephrine.
"Providing beta-blockers to prostate cancer patients who had increased epinephrine levels could improve the effectiveness of anti-cancer therapies," Kulik said. "Our findings could be used to indentify prostate cancer patients who will benefit from stress reduction or from pharmacological inhibition of stress-inducing signaling."
The researchers now plan to test the same signaling mechanism that was identified in mice to determine if it also works in the same way in human prostates, Kulik said.
"We are at the very beginning of understanding complex stress-cancer interactions with multifaceted responses to stress that affect cancer cells, tumor microenvironment, and the organism overall," he said. "We hope that components of this signaling pathway could be used as biomarkers to predict whether and how a given tumor will respond to stress and anti-stress therapies."
SEOUL (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics Co turned cautious on spending for the first time since the global financial crisis, keeping its annual investment plan unchanged at 2012 levels, as demand for computer chips wanes and the smartphone market slows.
Samsung, one of the industry's most aggressive spenders, has ramped up capital expenditure every year since 2004 except 2009 to meet soaring demand for its array of consumer electronics and mobile devices. It sold a record 700,000 smartphones a day in the last quarter.
But with the personal computer market shrinking for the first time in 11 years, the global smartphone market growing more slowly, and Apple Inc moving to buy fewer of Samsung's microprocessors used in the iPhone and iPad, the South Korean IT giant is now forced to keep a lid on spending.
"Overall its earnings momentum remains intact, and smartphone shipments will continue to grow even in the traditionally weak first quarter, as Samsung's got a broader product line-up and Apple appears to be struggling in pushing iPhone volumes aggressively," said Lee Se-chul, a Seoul-based analyst at Meritz Securities.
Samsung, which reported a record quarterly and annual profit on Friday, said it would keep 2013 capital expenditure unchanged from 2012.
"The key word for us in investment in 2013 is flexibility. We'll decide as the market demand dictates," Robert Yi, head of Samsung's investor relations, told analysts.
Data from the company shows Samsung started to slow down planned investment in the last quarter.
Samsung said it spent 4.4 trillion won in October-December, pushing its 2012 investment to a record 23 trillion won ($21.5 billion). But the company said in October that it was on course to spend 25 trillion won in 2012.
Analysts had expected a 4-20 percent cut in Samsung's 2013 capital spending.
By contrast, Taiwanese rival TSMC is planning to raise its capital expenditure to $9 billion this year, aimed in part at winning Apple orders away from Samsung.
Shares in Samsung fell 2.1 percent as of 0250 GMT, lagging a 1.1 percent decline in the wider market.
RECORD EARNINGS
Samsung had poured money into factories to boost production of chips and panels used in Apple products and its Galaxy range devices, pushing its operating profit to 8.84 trillion won in the last quarter. The 89 percent increase from a year earlier was in line with its earlier estimate.
Profit at its mobile devices division, which makes phones, tablets and cameras, more than doubled to 5.44 trillion won in the quarter from a year earlier, lifted by a broader offering of smartphones - from the very cheap to the very expensive.
The division accounted for 62 percent of Samsung's overall fourth-quarter profit, up from 55 percent a year earlier.
Samsung is also seeing strong sales of its Note phablet, which analysts expect to help Samsung get through any seasonal weakness better than rivals.
Samsung, which doesn't provide a breakdown of smartphone sales, is estimated to have sold around 63 million smartphones in the last quarter, including 15 million Galaxy S IIIs and 7 million Note IIs.
The company also said 2012 operating profit rose 86 percent to an all-time high of 29 trillion won.
SAMSUNG VS APPLE
Samsung sold 213 million smartphones last year and enlarged its share of the global market to 30.4 percent from around 20 percent in 2011, a report by market research firm Strategy Analytics showed on Friday. The sharp increase reflects Samsung's aggressive marketing of its wide product range.
Apple's share of the market shrank slightly to 19.4 percent from 19.0 percent in 2011, according to the report.
Globally, sales of smartphones surged 42.7 percent last year to 700 million, Strategy Analytics said.
Samsung said on Friday it expects the global smartphone segment to shrink in January-March from the seasonally strong fourth quarter, and that growth of the overall handset market will slow to the mid single-digits this year.
The forecast is in line with industry estimates, with signs of a slowdown having already emerged.
Apple shipped 47.8 million iPhones in the three months ended December, a record that nonetheless disappointed many analysts accustomed to years of outperformance. The Cupertino, California-based company also missed Wall Street's revenue forecast for a third straight quarter as iPhone sales lagged expectations.
Apple shares have dropped by more than a third since mid-September as investors fret that its days of hyper growth are over and its devices are no longer as 'must-have' as they were.
By contrast, shares in Samsung have risen 12 percent in the same period as the company once seen as quick to copy the ideas of others now sets the pace in innovation.
At the world's biggest electronics show in Las Vegas this month, Samsung unveiled a prototype phone with a flexible display that can be folded almost like paper, and a microchip with eight processing cores, creating a buzz that these may be used in the next Galaxy range.
"It's very probable to us that the Exynos 5 Octa (processor) will find its way into the Galaxy S4," UBS analyst Nicolas Gaudois wrote in a recent note.
"It also looked as if the curved display is close enough to finished product. We came away even more convinced that displays will provide significant differentiation to Samsung devices, and application processors will materially grow over time," Gaudois said. ($1 = 1066.2000 Korean won)
In space, dense clouds of cosmic gas and dust are the birthplaces of new stars. In visible light, this dust is dark and obscuring, hiding the stars behind it. So much so that, when astronomer William Herschel observed one such cloud in the constellation of Scorpius in 1774, he thought it was a region empty of stars and is said to have exclaimed, "Truly there is a hole in the sky here!"
In order to better understand star formation, astronomers need telescopes that can observe at longer wavelengths, such as the submillimetre range, in which the dark dust grains shine rather than absorb light. APEX, on the Chajnantor Plateau in the Chilean Andes, is the largest single-dish submillimetre-wavelength telescope operating in the southern hemisphere, and is ideal for astronomers studying the birth of stars in this way.
Located in the constellation of Orion (The Hunter), 1500 light-years away from Earth, the Orion Molecular Cloud Complex is the closest region of massive star formation to Earth, and contains a treasury of bright nebulae, dark clouds and young stars. The new image shows just part of this vast complex in visible light, with the APEX observations overlaid in brilliant orange tones that seem to set the dark clouds on fire. Often, the glowing knots from APEX correspond to darker patches in visible light -- the tell-tale sign of a dense cloud of dust that absorbs visible light, but glows at submillimetre wavelengths, and possibly a site of star formation.
The bright patch below of the centre of the image is the nebula NGC 1999. This region -- when seen in visible light -- is what astronomers call a reflection nebula, where the pale blue glow of background starlight is reflected from clouds of dust. The nebula is mainly illuminated by the energetic radiation from the young star V380 Orionis lurking at its heart. In the centre of the nebula is a dark patch, which can be seen even more clearly in a well-known image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.
Normally, a dark patch such as this would indicate a dense cloud of cosmic dust, obscuring the stars and nebula behind it. However, in this image we can see that the patch remains strikingly dark, even when the APEX observations are included. Thanks to these APEX observations, combined with infrared observations from other telescopes, astronomers believe that the patch is in fact a hole or cavity in the nebula, excavated by material flowing out of the star V380 Orionis. For once, it truly is a hole in the sky!
The region in this image is located about two degrees south of the large and well-known Orion Nebula (Messier 42), which can be seen at the top edge of the wider view in visible light from the Digitized Sky Survey.
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ESO: http://www.eso.org
Thanks to ESO for this article.
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I grew up the daughter of an airline family.? At various points in my life my mother, father, grandfather, uncle, older sister, two aunts and two uncles all worked for an airline in one way or the other-ticket counter, manager, pilot, management, flight attendant, reservations, you name it.? In the airline industry, you put up with a lot of stress in exchange for travel benefits.? So, we traveled.? A lot. I grew up with the expectation that every couple of months you take a long weekend or longer to Arizona, or Hawaii, or Disneyland.? Sometimes even on more adventurous vacations out of the country.? After graduating high school I was terrified of the prospect of losing that lifestyle so I went to work for the airlines myself.? But after a couple of years I realized, as previously mentioned, those benefits come at the price of lots of stress.? And, starting out, I made so little money I rarely could afford to go anywhere anyway, even with the benefits.? Skip forward, for this and many other reasons, I decided to finish the degree I had been slowly, spottily working on.? I figured I could get a degree and be able to afford to travel full fare anyway.? Voila, right?
Ha.? Years and years later and I still have the expectation and itch to go somewhere every couple of months.? I get very antsy if I don?t have some change of scenery.? I think that is also why I have moved so much, or constantly rearrange the furniture.? But it doesn?t work out that often, beyond visiting relatives by car-the most 5 hours away.? If we go anywhere that is truly a vacation, it?s every couple of years, and with my parents who we love to travel with, but makes me still feel like a child sometimes.? It requires carefully saving up money and miles. I know some people rarely go anywhere at all, and maybe this sounds snobbish, but it really is an uncontrollable itch.? Needless to say we, or more importantly, I do not scratch the itch as much as I feel I need to, whether the itch is rational or not.
As a parent, I look back on the experiences traveling I had as a child.? How it shaped me.? My travels stirred compassion, awe, inspiration, tolerance and awareness.? I wouldn?t be the person I am today without witnessing poverty in the streets of Hong Kong; the contrast of overcrowded industrial cities vs. the vastness of the desert or other quiet parts of the world; the colors of the Great Barrier Reef, the rich life hidden below the surface of the water, invisible to the rest of the world. The colors of the world.
I want that sense of inspiration and understanding for my children too, even if we can?t physically go far.? Not too long ago I read ?Paris in Love? by Eloisa James and was telling my children about Paris.? They were particularly impressed when I told them about all the yummy food and the typical meals there.? I had them at ?In the summer, sometimes French children eat ice cream for breakfast,? something I had read on the internet but had no idea if it was really true.? The response was ?Let?s go!?? We wished.? To let them down gently I said ?Let?s pretend to go.?? And so French Day was born.
The question was, how do you extract the essence of a far away place and infuse it into your home, a day in your very different life?? It?s hard to actually pretend like you are standing in front of the Eiffel Tower. ? We could attempt to build a model of the Eiffel Tower.? We could check out books at the library and study the country, learn the facts.? But that all feels so schoolish, and that takes the fun out of it.? This is no homeschooling, this is vacation, a kind of staycation.
We were just going to have to be French, I thought.? And what are the French about?? Fashion and food?? Well, I had little chance of luring the boys into the fashion world, but my boys are like men: the way to their hearts is through their stomach.
We would eat.? And through eating, we would experience.? So, I donned my fanciest scarf and skinny pants, a nod to the fashion part, and headed out the door one recent morning to Sweet Life Patisserie.? If the name has French in it, good enough for us.
If the French indulge in moderation, we would too.? We all chose one item, plus one extra, and shared.? A croissant, a cherry chocolate scone, a French cinnamon breakfast muffin, and the very French pain au chocolate.? The boys had hot chocolate and I had a cafe au lait.
Breakfast
We took our time, really savoring each delicious bite, enjoying the rare treat.? We discussed our opinions on which was the best.
Nothing compares to flaky pastries.
We went about our day, going to the library and even checking out some books on France to look at.? We cut these out and used them as a backdrop on our dining room table.
Paper City Paris
I made a four course lunch of a simple salad, beef stewed in red wine with a baguette, French cheese (mimolette-like a hard sharp cheddar -nothing stinky!) pears, a French red wine (it wasn?t very good so I won?t bother posting the name) and custard eclairs we took home from Sweet Life.? The paper city also provided some discussion prompts over our long, lingering lunch.? We ate for two hours.? But mimicking the French, we ate so slowly and moderately that after lunch I was pleasantly full, instead of stuffed.? It was nice.
We spent the afternoon looking at books and talking about France.? We looked at pictures of the art, read about the architecture, learned about it?s geography and it?s people.? We practiced speaking French with a CD from the library.? I told them stories my French teacher in college told me.? But really, for us it was all about the French art of eating.? The breaks between meals was intermission, with eager anticipation of what was next on the menu.
Supper was simple, simple for the French anyway: roast beef and crudite with French onion dip, a sausage and bean cassoulet with the last of the baguette, and more cheese, fruit and wine.? We took our time and I asked the boys what their favorite part of the day was.? Breakfast at Sweet Life was the star, and I admit for my sweet tooth as well.? I asked if they had learned anything about France.? They came up with nothing.? Which is ok, because for me I learned that this staycation was more than a vacation, more than experiencing a different culture, more than it?s food,? more than it?s language.? For me, the unexpected learning experience was that I learned a different way to be with my children.? I learned to give into indulgences with them, and to be fully present with them.? Our daily operating status, like many families I believe, is the kids are off playing or reading or whatever, while I am cleaning, cooking, or whatever I need to do to maintain our home, the chickens, the garden, the schedule.? As they grow older, I spend less bonding time with them.? French Day, our mini vacation, was not just a vacation into a different world, it was a vacation from how we operate on a daily basis.? We sat together at the table, talking for long periods of time.? We spent time looking at books and delving into our subject.? For a whole day.
Even if we were actually on vacation, if we truly were in France, my methodical and systematic mind would be focused on organizing our sightseeing, that days plan and the next.? I would be focused on the different awareness I adopt when traveling, in retrospect a rather cranky one, that focuses on ensuring I don?t lose my children in a foreign place and keeping them from making too much noise in a hotel room.
What I learned was how to be leisurely with my children.? Which is funny, because part of being French is leisure.
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Public release date: 25-Jan-2013
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